The Garden City Telegram
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What they're saying
Published 7/3/2009 in Commentary : Editorial
San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, on readmitting Cuba to the Organization of American States:
The United States has no argument with the people of Cuba. It's the government of Cuba that five decades of American leaders from both parties have opposed. And the reason for that opposition is the Cuban government's treatment of its own citizens — denying them the ability to select their leaders in a democratic process and consistently violating their basic human rights.
If the goal is to succor the people of Cuba, then there's a wide range of policies the United States can promote. Lifting restrictions on travel and the amount of aid Cuban Americans can send to family members, as the Obama administration has proposed, fits neatly with that objective.
Nothing, however, should be done to strengthen or legitimize the dictatorial rule of the Castro regime.
Unfortunately, that's what the Organization of American States ... seems to be doing by agreeing to readmit Cuba to the Western Hemispheric grouping.
The OAS expelled Cuba in 1962 because of the incompatibility of its ruling ideology with the organization's democratic standards...
What has changed in Cuba since 1962? Not much. ...
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, on Bernard Madoff's sentence:
Bernard Madoff got what he deserved. The 71-year-old financial swindler will never see another day as a free man after being sentenced Monday to 150 years in federal prison. While a 25-year sentence would have surely accomplished the same result, meting out the maximum sentence was a symbolic nod to the scope of Madoff's investment fraud and the number of lives he ruined.
In the end, no one stood up for Madoff. Madoff is abjectly alone. He exploited his personal relationships to enrich himself and keep his $65 billion Ponzi scheme humming.
But Madoff's sentencing is not the end of things. Investigators need to unearth the entire web of Madoff's fraud, and prosecutors need to charge those who helped perpetuate it. And the Securities and Exchange Commission needs to learn from its mistakes. ... So far only Madoff's auditor has been criminally charged. ...
Madoff's victims deserve a thorough criminal investigation and a fair distribution of whatever assets remain. But they also deserve an honest appraisal of what went wrong at the SEC. ...
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