Fidel Throws Up Flags to Protest Blinky Sign

Old Fidel hasn’t been this worked up since his last baseball team defected. You see, the United States Interests Office, located on the 5th floor of the embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba, has been running a blinky light scrolling marquee sign with quotes from Abe Lincoln, Martin Luter King jr, and Anti-Commie Polish Prez Lech Walesa. Such information about freedom cannot be tolerated, so Fidel ordered all of his peasants to march in front of the mission (some reports say a million people took place in the march, but I doubt this claim since Cuba lacks the ability to move that many people). I wrote about this here.

Since this display of Fidel’s ability to make his peasants march failed to stifle the blinky sign, Fidel threw another tantrum and decided to work 24 hours a day to erect a series of tightly packed tall flagpoles that he hopes will shield the poor commie peasants from the injurious impact of the sweet, blinky words of freedom.

ABC News has part of the story here–

Cuban President Fidel Castro, after marching more than a million people by the building earlier this week, has ordered construction workers to extend an open-air stage in front of the mission right up to within yards of the gate. He plans to mount huge flags on the stage to block the ticker from view, a construction ministry source said.

The stage is called the anti-imperialist tribunal and was built during the tug of war between the United States and Cuba to have shipwreck victim Elian Gonzalez returned to his father from Miami. The venue is currently used for political and cultural events.

Cuba plans for the flags to fly by Saturday, the birthday of the country’s founding father, Jose Marti, leader of the Caribbean island’s independence war against Spain.

“We have five days to do this job, working 24 hours a day,” a construction worker said on Tuesday when Cuban flag-sporting bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment began ripping up half of the U.S. diplomatic mission’s parking lot.

Castro has waxed furious over the electronic sign, which he charges is a gross provocation aimed at torpedoing already fragile bilateral relations.

“It is clear when they decided to do this outrageous act and they could not have had in mind anything but a provocation to destroy fragile relations,” Castro said Wednesday while visiting the construction site.

Castro charged the Bush administration had turned the Interests Section into a command post to “organize and direct the counterrevolution” and funnel money and supplies to his opponents.

The Chicago Tribune has more about the quotes here:

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent,” the quote by Lincoln read.

Also passing slowly on the 5-foot high ticker, which is on the building’s fifth floor and is illuminated only at night, is a quote by French philosopher Voltaire that reads, “Man is free in the moment he wishes to be free.”

And what do the Cuban’s think? Well, whatever they think, they refuse to say, much less give their name for fear of being identified as a counter-revolutionary- Again, from the Tribune,

Few Cubans say they have seen the ticker because island officials have blocked off traffic around the U.S. Interests Section building in recent days.

Even before that, Cuban officials prohibited vehicles from stopping in front of the Interests Section, a modernist building on the Malecon, Havana’s sweeping seaside boulevard.

“You have to drive fast on the Malecon, and it was impossible to read,” said Llanes, a Havana taxi driver who refused to give her last name out of fear of being identified.

And not everyone thinks this is a good idea for the US Mission to do this. Who opposes it? Why a Jimmy Carter-era Democrat, of course! Again from the Trib-

But Wayne Smith, the former top U.S. diplomat in Cuba during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, said the sign would only further aggravate relations between Cuba and the United States.

“Instead of tackling real issues they are doing this,” said Smith. “It’s theater of the absurd.”

Theater of the absurd? I like it. Castro is terrified by the red blinky lights. And the folks running the US Mission are COOL.

“Thanks for the info” goes to Michelle Malkin and the Babalu Blog.