Elian Gonzalez is For Sale!

So the INS and Justice Department decided, rightly, that Elian Gonazalez should live with his father and two sets of grandparents. And this despite nearly every media outlet in the U.S. pushing, wittingly or not, right-wing Cuban propaganda by equating "father and two sets of grandparents" with "great uncle and second cousin" by calling both groups "Elian's family." Perhaps we can explain this away by pointing to the media's general cluelessness?

But if the INS and Justice have made a decision, why is the little tyke still here?

Apparently because some moron asked for a subpoena, and some judge, even more moronic, granted it. But now we learn that the judge had a financial connection to one of the distant relatives that's trying to keep Elian here. And who, one wonders, asked for the subpoena to begin with? Dan Burton, he of the Helms-Burton Act.

I didn't understand this at first: why does Burton, a House Republican from Indiana, give a damn about where one little Cuban boy lives? All becomes clear when you realize that more than 80% of Dan Burton's '96 campaign contributions originated outside Indiana, with about 25% coming from Cubans in and around Miami.

So not only have right-wingers basically kidnapped this little boy by refusing to let him live with his father and two sets of grandparents, but now they've put him up for sale.

Maybe we should help Elian's grandparents and father raise enough money to get Dan Burton's attention? Hey, Dan Burton, you parasite, how much would it cost us to get you to drop your "principled" objection to Elian living with his father? We know you're scummy; now we can only hope that you're cheap too!