Odds and ends

• From the Village Voice, Miami reporter Kirk Nielsen delivers a detailed report on how the Cuba issue plays in the contest for the Democratic presidential primary. With persistence, he interviewed Bill Clinton, who is not exactly in agreement with candidate Clinton’s Cuba stance.

• “And I will work with leading exiles like Armando Perez-Roura, whose life and whose continued commitment to Cuban freedom is nothing short of inspiring.” – Governor Mitt Romney, in a March 9, 2007 speech in Miami-Dade

• Re-reading the 1996 Helms-Burton act, I ran across the declaration that U.S. foreign policy is, among other things, to “bring democratic institutions to Cuba through the pressure of a general economic embargo at a time when the Castro regime has proven to be vulnerable to international economic pressure.” Give it time.