FYI - Fidel May Wonder "Where's the Beef?"

[InkAddict]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/business/6910949.htm


Wright plans to ship 250 head of beef cattle - including 80 brangus heifers from Strickland Ranch in Parrish - to Cuba in the first quarter of 2004. The cattle will be shipped from an unspecified Florida port, the company said in a news release.

"We are setting the foundation for the resupply of cattle from Florida to Cuba," John Parke Wright, the company's president and chief executive, said in the release.

In August, the company sent dairy cows through ports in Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville in the first shipment of Florida cattle to Cuba since the embargo's start in 1960.

http://www.billingsnews.com/story?storyid=7209&issue=173

But the Cubans had other ideas.

“We were caught off guard,” he said. “They were ready to deal.”

The Montana delegation returned home with a memorandum of understanding in hand that outlined a tentative agreement for selling Montana ag products to Cuba. Cuba expressed an interest in purchasing spring wheat, malting barley for beer, dry beans, yearling heifers and some cuts of beef.

The Montana delegation now faces the challenging task of figuring how to provide Cuba with the products they want. “We came back and we’re putting the details together,” Mr. Kelsey said. “It takes more logistic-wise to move live cattle than grain.”

As a side note, Mr. Kelsey pointed out that beef cattle are a protected species in Cuba. “They can’t kill a cow there without a permit from the state,” he said. “You have to receive permission to be able to slaughter a cow or face stiff penalties...”

[Osolomia]

1. Why would he wonder that?

It's the USA's Democratic* leaders who don't seem to have an iota of a clue about what's going on here and have painted themselves into the wrong corner leaving many to wonder how a Dem prez is going to pull off an immediate about face without losing it.