Odds and ends

• In the Financial Times, Bay of Pigs Veteran and Brothers to the Rescue chief Jose Basulto on U.S. sanctions: “The current type of tightening hurts the individual victims more than it damages the government...It has done more damage to the cause than anyone else. Revenge hurts the people of Cuba more than the government.”

• Rep. Diaz Balart, thinking of new legislation about Cuba.

• Also thinking about legislation, but not thinking too hard at all, is the Honorable Eddy Gonzalez, a Florida State Representative from Hialeah. He wants a new state law to prohibit any U.S. citizen or resident who traveled to Cuba to receive medical education from serving a residency, receiving a license, or practicing in Florida. Read his announcement at Babalu, here. Read the comments too, where you get the feeling that some readers think (I’m guessing here) that their intelligence is being insulted. This would apply to perhaps a handful of Florida residents, if any exist at all, who received free medical training at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), and who would have to undergo additional coursework and testing before receiving a Florida medical license. Meanwhile, Cubans who grew up there, became doctors, and immigrate to Florida will still be free to become American doctors if they clear the licensing hurdles. There’s a difference, I know. And maybe with this, Eddy will bring down the regime.