PrintApril 12, 2013
Hey Jay-Z - Obama didn't know about Fast and Furious either
The Jay-Z story took another silly turn yesterday.
First, Jay-Z decided to release a song about his trip to Cuba. The lyrics are incredibly stupid but no one ever said that Jay-Z had a Masters in English or an ounce of common sense:
""I done turned Havana into Atlanta," he rapped. "Boy from the hood, but got White House clearance."
He continued: "Politicians never did s--- for me except lie to me, distort history, wanna give me jail time and a fine. Fine, let me commit a real crime. ... Obama said, 'Chill you gonna get me impeached.' You don't need this s--- anyway, chill with me on the beach.'" (Fox)
Second, The White House is claiming that they didn't know anything about the couple's "special considerations" to travel to Cuba. Even Jay Carney got into it with a reporter.
Maybe President Obama did not know that Mr and Mrs Carter were traveling to Cuba to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary. However, are we supposed to believe that anyone can walk into the Treasury Dept and get special consideration to travel to Cuba?
I think that we are learning again that "hope and change" has "tourist" and "first class" seats. Just check out all of those high rent Democrats who got government loan guarantees for Solyndra, et al.
"Yes we can" is a lot easier when there is cash in the envelope!
The point is that travel to Cuba is hard. This is why many Americans fly to Mexico or Jamaica and hop over without having their passports marked by the Cuban authorities.
A couple of years ago, a friend in Dallas went to Cuba to take some bibles on a purely humanitarian mission. He told me that Treasury put him through "hoops" to prove that it was not a pleasure trip and purely "educational".
The Jay-Z affair is not "Fast & Furious" or "Benghazi" but it is amazing how the Obama administration plays the dumb card and gets away with it!
My guess is that most Americans find this whole episode somewhere between hilarious and stupid. However, we Cuban-Americans are not laughing at all, especially those of us who had a family member in a political prison for 14 years without a trial (my dad's cousin Ignacio). I won't tell you how the families of executed political prisoners feel about seeing some ignorant clown walking on the streets of Havana with a Che T-shirt!
It is offensive, to say the least. It is also ignorant given what Che said about black people! Read the quotes and tell me if you don't think that Jay-Z checked his intelligence at the airport hangar when he went to Cuba.
Perhaps Jay-Z should release another song and call for artistic freedom and the release of Allan Gross, the US citizen in a Cuban prison for no reason at all. It will be deeply appreciated by the Gross family and the musical community on the island.
