Meg Whitman strides the California political landscape like a colossus. Her estimated $100 million dollar investment in trying to win the state's highest office has given her star-wattage name recognition. Whitman's TV and radio spots, in English and Spanish, are ubiquitous.

Nothing happens in Cuba unless preceded by careful calculation by the regime. A small group of prisoners of conscience in Cuba, mostly ill, will be “liberated” by giving them the following options: “Go into forced exile, or remain in prison”. To some this piece of news is “a sign of improvement” in the human rights situation. But this looks like just another calculated move.

Desperate dictators will do anything to distract their captive populations from their flailing regimes.

As a small child living in Connecticut, recently arrived from Uruguay at a time when Latinos were still rare outside of the major metropolis, I was quickly labeled “Spic”.

From the ludicrous characterization of constitutional “coup d'état” in the malicious writings of "journalist" Wilda Rodriguez in the Orlando Sentinel to the postings by Puerto Rican class hate ideologue Ramos Perea (his articles are published in Cuba where Cuban dissidents are not published) you would think that Puerto Rico is under a state of siege, or as Ms. Rodriguez called it “martial law” by Pinochet or Raúl Castro.