What would happen if one of the members in Bush's administration outted a undercover CIA operative?

Then, of course, we have the LA Times' thousand-word exculpation of Castro's Cuba.

According to Trumbull, who conducted field research in Cuba, prostitution boomed in the Caribbean nation after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, providing an important source of currency for the Cuban economy. Castro, who outlawed prostitution when he took power in 1959, initially had few resources to combat it. But beginning around 1996, Cuban authorities began to crack down on the practice.

Although prostitution still exists, Trumbull said, it is far less visible, and it would be inaccurate to say the government promotes it.

Even when Castro made the remarks, Trumbull said, he was not boasting about Cuba's prostitutes as sex workers.

"Castro was merely trying to emphasize some of the successes of the revolution by saying 'even our prostitutes our educated,' " Trumbull said. "Castro was trying to defend his revolution against negative publicity. He was in no way bragging about the opportunities for sex tourism on the island."

Never forget that Cuba is the left's baby. They point to it as evidence that leftist politics and policies work, while ignoring the debilitating poverty and oppressive totalitarian state.

"See? If everybody just gives up on the antiquated and outdated 'liberty' idea, we can live in a socialist utopia!"

Now, to be fair, including the line in a Presidential speech was a pretty dumb idea. It was funny, but it clouded the message. The message was that human trafficking is an atrocity. Instead, everybody's talking about whether it's good for whores to have book-learnin'.

Y'all wanna get back to the point, maybe?

The president, citing a Johns Hopkins University study, said the easing of travel restrictions to the island in the 1990s created "an influx of American and Canadian tourists," who "contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution in Cuba."

"We have put a strategy in place to hasten the day when no Cuban child is exploited to finance a failed revolution and every Cuban citizen will live in freedom," said Mr. Bush.

Ben -

What would happen if one of the members in Bush's administration outted a undercover CIA operative?

Last I checked, a holy ruckus was made over the matter. Of course, the fact that Ms. Plame put her face in vanity Fair and her husband has been subsequently discredited and outed as a liar haven't played out in quite the same way ...

Also, we don't even know the source of the leak yet, so it's difficult to asign blame.

Next?

Jeff -

The quote was indeed out-of-context, but equally out of context was Mr. pell's joke that made a strange weave out of the policy speech and the RNC. Thanks for the link.

Besides reading about the prostitutes in Cuba, I've talked to foreigners who live in DC and vacation there ... it's sort of a sex trade paradise, the Thailand of the western hemisphere. In the most innocuous form, it's almost become socially acceptable for women to become "girlfriends" of seasonal tourists that send them a little something-something throughout the year, and get laid when they drop in on the island.

In the more disturbing forms, little kids are easy targets for predators that can pay families more money for time with their kids than they can possibly earn in a year.

The systemic nature of it is a consequence of Cuba's socialist paradise, of course.

Leftists would say that our embargo creates the conditions, but I have a big problem with this line of reasoning (of course); since when should a country's economy soley be dependent on trade with the United States? We're maligned for pursuing business interests in every corner of the globe, yet maligned for embargoing Cuba - by the same people.

About number five on the quiz. I thought Patrick Belton was going for Oxblog?

No one ever accused the LA times of accuracy.

Castro, did, in fact, state what was quoted by President Bush. If I recall correctly the question of prostitution was posed and he used that particular statement, charmingly as usual, to change the subject.

Prositution was and is so prvalent in Cuba that it even impacted the language. The term "jinetera" was born from the prevalence of protitution in Cuba. Derived from the word "jinete" which means "saddle".