Sports McCarthyism, 2012 America

POP QUIZ: For which statement was current Florida Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen suspended by his team, with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's support:

1. Calling Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a “fag.” Ozzie later apologized to the gay community, but not to Mariotti who, he said, “is not a man.”
2. “I respect Fidel Castro,” Time reported Guillen as saying. “You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that mother f----r is still here.”

Of course, everyone knows by now that Ozzie was suspended for five games by the Marlins for the Castro statement. Anti-gay slur ... meh, happens every day, right? Whatever happened to free POLITICAL speech?! In the past, Ozzie has expressed support for his presidente, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro, I'm guessing as much because Fidel had major league baseball skills, as anything else. Isn't it ironic that hardline anti-Castro Cubans bitch about the absence of free speech in Cuba, but when it comes to silencing Ozzie, perhaps even ending his career for a backhanded compliment to Fidel, they're OK with it. Right wing hypocrites.

Setting aside unreconstructed right wing Cuban-Americans, it should also be noted that Fidel is hugely popular in Latin and South America precisely for what Ozzie said — and didn't say: For 60 years Fidel Castro has thumbed his nose at the United States, despite multiple CIA plots to kill and depose him, and a really stupid U.S. economic embargo imposed on the “Survivor” island-state.

Here ya go, Selig, more forbidden speech from Ozzie Guillen: “Viva Chavez!”

Quotable, Chuckles Toddy: “I'm surprised it's just a 5-game suspension, because the financial ramifications of angering the Cuban-American community is like no other.” OH MY. Um, not only is this a very arguable 'ramifications' statement, but now we know where Chuckles gets his progressive chops.