Raaaacism!

Barack and Michelle tell their stories of oppression to People Magazine:

The protective bubble that comes with the presidency – the armored limo, the Secret Service detail, the White House – shields Barack and Michelle Obama from a lot of unpleasantness. But their encounters with racial prejudice aren't as far in the past as one might expect. And they obviously still sting. 

The First Whinger leads off:

"I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn't see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn't anything new." 

Micro-aggression! Actually, this might be a nano-aggression, or even a non-agression. Two pictures are worth two thousand words:

Michelle at Target (Trigger alert! Possibly NSFL):

 

And Target retail employees:

 

Anyone who mistook Michelle's outfit for that of a Target employee is, well, alternatively enabled and should be treated with a bit more sympathy. #FloralPrintIsNotTheNewRed.

A different explanation is that somebody mistook Michelle for someone who was tall, athletic, and happy to help. And hey, two out of three ain't bad. I throw out that theory, bizarre as it may seem to some, because from time to time women ask me to help them get something down from a tall shelf in a store. Hmm, maybe I look Irish and they think there is a railroad track I ought to be putting down somewhere? Well, then, the next senior citizen to look to me for help will be getting a lecture on American history!

I try to find a fresh perspective each day.

LATE UPDATE! Actually, we have more details from Michelle, regaling David Letterman with a feel-good story about oppressive racism, or something (my emphasis):

"That’s my Target run. I went to Target," she said. "I thought I was undercover. I have to tell you something about this trip though. No one knew that was me because a woman actually walked up to me, right? I was in the detergent aisle, and she said — I kid you not — she said, ‘Excuse me, I just have to ask you something,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, cover’s blown.’ She said, ‘Can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent?’  I kid you not.”  

As the audience laughed, she went on, “And the only thing she said — I reached up, ’cause she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down — she said, ‘Well, you didn’t have to make it look so easy.’ That was my interaction. I felt so good. ... She had no idea who I was. I thought, as soon as she walked up — I was with my assistant, and I said, ‘This is it, it’s over. We’re going to have to leave.’ She just needed the detergent.”

It was only later she realized she had been the target of a micro-aggression. PTSD can do that to people.

PILING ON: Susan Goldberg beat me to this and countered Michelle with a horrifying tale of anti-Semitism on the mean streets of... well, it's mean retail check-out lines actually, so let's get to it:

The other day I walked into the Hallmark store to buy some cards. As the cashier rung me up, she analyzed my coupon and informed me I’d have to buy a Christmas ornament if I wanted to use the coupon. “I don’t need an ornament,” I explained, “I’m Jewish.” She gave me a quizzical look, as if totally unable to comprehend the idea of a Jew shopping in Hallmark during the holidays. While I didn’t feel the need to make a racial incident out of it at the time, I now know my story is worth big bucks… perhaps it’s time to give People a call.

AllahP checks in:

What’s especially weird about this is that she and O obviously gave this interview to People mag to do damage control after the Michael Brown and Eric Garner grand jury decisions. Obama’s been knocked by black voters for not taking more of a stand so now he’s handing a lengthy chat on racism to a general interest publication, to try to reach beyond the political class and connect with the wider electorate. If you’re going to do that, though, logically you’d want to come to People armed with your most harrowing experiences of racism. Somehow, “she asked me to get detergent off the shelf” made the cut. Um, why? 

Not all questions have answers, but "she is a knucklehead and a whinger" springs to mind. Or maybe Valerie Jarrett was not in the meeting to stifle her?

THE ACE OPENS UP:

This is an odd thing. I actually live in fear of asking someone for help at Target who doesn't work at Target. I have a phobia about asking someone where the vitamins are, only to have him turn angrily on me and announce, "Just because I'm wearing a jazzy red polo shirt and loose-fit khakis, does that mean you own me??!"

So I kind of don't ask people, unless I see someone else asking them. Or I see them stocking stuff.

But you can get into trouble that way, too. Because if you ask the guy stocking the Coke where the bacon is, he might go, "I don't work here, I work for the Coca-Cola distributing company. And go fuck yourself for that insult, Sirrah!"

Social horror.

Anyway, not making this up, I really do have a phobia about this.

He has overcome this, or learned to manage it, but there are no spoilers here.

Memeorandum is alight.

FROM A DIFFERENT MULTIVERSE: Jimmyk in the comments reports from an Alternative Reality:

"So there I was in Target, a 5'11" lady, and there was a white lady around 5' tall, struggling to get something off a high shelf. And she wouldn't even ask me for help, as if she didn't want my black skin touching her merchandise!"

 

Comments

[steve]

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like racism, I mean a nail....

[PDinDetroit]

I get asked by people in stores for help all the time, maybe because I look like I have a clue!

[jimmyk]

I swear I did not see the new thread before posting my 10:10 on the previous thread.

[peter]

I would not have asked her for help because she looks just like the kind of bitch who would be offended.

[Iggy]

Perhaps it's the vibe of "if you come within arm's reach expect a punch or at the very least an aggrieved bitching" that keeps people away.

[James D.]

I'd say that there's simply no way that Zero and Mooch could possibly be more classless and repulsive than they are in this interview, but I imagine they'll somehow find a way.

[Jane]

So according to Michelle being asked for help is racist? If she wasn't a complete asshole she would have offered to help before being asked.

[Jane]

Narc,

What's your take on the "normalization of relations with Cuba"?

And can Obama do that legally (not that he gives a shit) without Congressional approval?

[clarice]

She's tall. As a short person I often need to ask for help from fellow shoppers. Gee--she really has a twisted mind.

[jimmyk]

From that same article, quoth Barry:

"There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," said the president, adding that, yes, it had happened to him.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he's lying. Just as when he claimed his parents were inspired to have him in 1961 by the March on Selma in 1965.

[Marlene]

One time in the grocery store,minding my own business,a disheveled,elderly lady asked me where to find the liquor aisle. I wasn't offended,although I should have asked her if she was driving. :)

[Captain Hate]

As I said in the prior thread, is she upset that nobody talked with her or that the one person asked the lurching goof to help?

[jimmyk]

everything looks like racism

"So there I was in Target, a 5'11" lady, and there was a white lady around 5' tall, struggling to get something off a high shelf. And she wouldn't even ask me for help, as if she didn't want my black skin touching her merchandise!"

[Sandy--I Stand with Walker 2016--Daze ن]

Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat close to Obama, said in a statement the president would announce the normalization of trade and travel relations with the island nation.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-announce-shift-u-cuba-142211703.html

[Captain Hate]

said the president, adding that, yes, it had happened to him.

So if it happens to Zippy then it automatically happens to every black professional male? I'm calling obvious hot steaming pile on that.

[Iggy]

Self-evident assholes always think there is some other reason people treat them like assholes other than their being self evident assholes.

[jimmyk]

CH, I'm sure it's that she was asked to help. Just like the phony Barry store about being asked to get someone's car.

[NKtesting]

Mooch is a racialist, so her mind and soul are poisoned.

[exdemocrat]

Rich, Clarice, Ig, TK, Jane, and anyone else who's interested: here's a proper analysis of the (in)constitutionality of Obama's EA's:http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/blogs/brandywine-to-broad/item/76293?linktype=hp_blogs

The Admin/DOJ's talking points notwithstanding.

[Extraneus]

These people need to be able to brag that they've been dissed by racists, and if they have to make up a story to do it, then that's what they'll do.

Just like the rape hoaxes.

[jimmyk]

Except they weren't even being treated as assholes, and they still took offense.

[narciso]

well his pastor, was a guest of the DGI for a whole host of years, so shocker,

it probably is illegal under the Torricelli bill, but 'what difference does that make,'

[Iggy]

CH,
I believe she is griping that Target employees didn't fall all over themselves helping the giant, hostile looking broad with the shades.

I walked through WalMart and K Mart yesterday without a single person trying to help me. Nobody even asked me to get something off the shelf for them.
Must be all that black face I put on before I go out.

[Captain Hate]

Following the lead from Mooch, when I was flying out of San Francisco on a red eye a couple weeks ago, there was an Asian woman who was so short that she was standing on her seat to place her carry-on in the overhead bin. When I noticed that I quickly stood up and said "let me do that" and placed her not very heavy bag in the compartment for which she thanked me.

I hereby denounce myself for racism, sexism and every other offense that the grievance class can pin on me. I wouldn't have mentioned it except for Mooch.

[narciso]

as I described in the last thread, trades like this, are not out of the question, abel for powers, a real kgb for daniloff,
but the conclusions drawn from it, are something else again,

[Jeff Dobbs]

Let's assume Michelle is not making this story up.

There's a real person out there who knows she saw Michelle in Target and asked her for help. Since that time she's probably told all her friends about it, posted the story on Facebook, let the whole world know that she met the First Lady and asked her to help get something of the shelf. It's a fun story.

Er, it was a fun story.

Now all those people have been informed by Michelle that this woman is racist.

#AllLivesMatter

[Old Lurker]

"Let's assume Michelle is not making this story up"

Sorry Hit, I stopped reading at that qualification.

I am racist I guess.

[narciso]

was he relating that apocryphal story that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern put in Game Change, re the razorback Borgia?

[Iggy]

--There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys...--

Look at that sentence. It's so poorly constructed with three negatives that you can't actually tell if he's bitching that somebody mistook him for a valet or valets routinely ignore black guys.
Assuming it's the former, may I be the first to say the world would be a lot better off had Barry not employed the Peter Principle to rise above his natural level of talent (on his best day) as a valet?

[jimmyk]

Well, maybe it's the combination of the two: "the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf."

[Bori]

CH,

When I first read your story of the short Asian women, I thought you said that you placed "her" in the overhead bin!!

[Captain Hate]

Iggy, whenever 404 goes off prompter a grammar book goes up in flames.

[RickB]

"Just like the rape hoaxes."

Is the very limited repertoire of affirmative action parrots more or less annoying than the equally limited repertoire of vulvarian parrots? The fairy tales of both are equidistant from reality and the goal of meritless advancement is the same, as is the amorphous villain.

[clarice]

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/17/flashback-valerie-jarrett-mistakes-4-star-general-for-waiter/

[Iggy]

– I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised--

She seems to be suggesting that people knew she was the First Lady and still wouldn't help her because she's black. Otherwise, she's complaining people didn't recognize her after she puts on a disguise? WTH?
According to this story she wasn't recognized by anyone except the cashier who checked her out and she was shopping with an assistant.
How bout you do what everyone else does if you want some help, dumbass; ask for it.

[Captain Hate]

No wonder Rove News Channel fawns all over this twit:

news.newsmax.com/?SKIvXtwm73WRcxyPIaIR74J7vXrnNlR1S&http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/budget-bill-tea-party-republicans-shutdown/2014/12/16/id/613248/?ns_mail_uid=32944113&ns_mail_job=1599777_12162014&s=al&dkt_nbr=akuheqjc

[jimmyk]

And I'll add, when I first saw the MO quote, I actually didn't understand what she was trying to say, and thought that she was relating a positive (albeit self-aggrandizing) story about the fact that she is so down-to-earth that someone felt comfortable coming up to her and asking her for help. Well, excu-u-use me!

[narciso]

I was noting last night, that Gregg Herken book, about the GeorgeTown clique, that was arrayed along the Alsops, Kennan and the other so called wisemen, they were much like the clique of the present, who were
rather myopic about the nature of the threat then, as now,

[Jeff Dobbs]

.

[Threadkiller]

http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/08/mistake-non-white-people-for-service.html?m=1

[Threadkiller]

http://pocho.com/standing-while-brown-a-white-lady-tried-to-get-me-to-valet-her-car/

[Jeff Dobbs]

OL:
Sorry Hit, I stopped reading at that qualification.

I am racist I guess.

You are not a bad person because the Obamas think you are a racist.

You are not a bad person for failing to read my entire comment.

You are a bad person for breaking the JOM style guide by apologizing.

A very bad person.

[Tom Maguire]

...maybe because I look like I have a clue!

No doubt, but what explains asking Michelle?

Self-evident assholes always think there is some other reason people treat them like assholes...

That triggers a recycling of the great Raylan Givens observation:

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." -Raylan Givens, Justified

[Old Lurker]

George Will? My wife is becoming annoyed with me during cocktail hour when we usually have Bret Baeir on. She was accustomed to my use of the channel skip button which I used to use to jump to the Chasing Classic Cars show whenever the camera goes to Juan, but now I tend to use it on Juan, Will, Mara, anybody in the center seat, and even sometimes on Charles. Steve Haywood keeps my attention, though. So if I watch 20 minutes of that show, about 50% of that is on the car channel.

[Extraneus]

I'll bet the problem is that Cruz doesn't kiss Will's and Krauthammer's butts, like some of his colleagues do.

[Iggy]

That link was to an Asian dude, exdem, so we have to discount his testimony due to yellow privilege. I mean they're not even eligible for AA most of the time so they're not authentic minorities and we can safely dismiss his arguments, not least because he is almost certainly not even aware of his microaggressing yellow privilege.

And besides he's Asian so he's probably short and might ask Michelle for help with a top shelf item which apparently is a racist act.

[Old Lurker]

No I think Will is lost. Last week his paean to MyFriends revealed exactly who he has over for drinks at his house. Screw him.

[Extraneus]

Assholes? I *must* repost Jimmy's link from last night.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/911-truther-vows-not-to-rest-until-everyone-knows,35319/

[Janet S.]

These people need to be able to brag that they've been dissed by racists, and if they have to make up a story to do it, then that's what they'll do.

Just like the rape hoaxes.

Extraneus is exactly right.

[narciso]

ah can't wait for justified to come back on the air,

of course they have to prefer this action, with the 'failed bay of pigs invasion' leaving out how it was fusterclucked from the get go, as opposed to the great triumph over the Cuban missile crisis,

[Beasts of England]

It would have been racist if the person had asked her to retrieve the Chewbacca action figure from the top shelf...

[Threadkiller]

Putting his clothes back on, he meets up with Marcus back in the casino. Marcus's yellow sports coat gets him mistaken for a hotel employee, even earning him a tip when a customer mistakes him for a bathroom attendant. This eventually works to his advantage, though, when another hotel guest assumes Marcus is a parking valet and hands him the keys to his Ferrari. Simon and Marcus jump at this golden opportunity to take the red Ferrari for a spin, winding up at the Crazy Horse strip club. En route, Simon discovers a 9 mm pistol in the glove compartment, which he pockets for himself.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0139239/synopsis

[RickB]

exdemocrat,

Thanks for the link to the Senate testimony. The outcome of the renewed suit by the ICE agents should be interesting.

[boris]

"is she upset that nobody talked with her or that the one person asked the lurching goof to help?"

All three.

[AliceH]

Every General has no doubt experienced being mistaken for a waiter.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/valerie-jarrett-mistakes-general-for-waiter/

[jimmyk]

Iowahawk linked this 30-second commercial in response to Michelle's Target whine, very funny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXW7ie4LeI

[matt]

And then there was the time that Barry was handed the keys to a Porsche and begged not to carjack the guy. These people make shit up every day and it just gets deeper and deeper.

Now he wants to regularize relations with Cuba without any discussion. Several weeks before the election I posited that Barry would jump hard left and this seems to be exactly what he is doing.

Next will be Cuban doctors and nurses and oil subsidies.

[narciso]

he and Krauthammer were easy marks for Zaphod five years ago, while the Huntress saw right through him

[Captain Hate]

Welp it's come to this:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/atticus-finch-american-literatures-most-celebrated-rape-apologist/article/2557457

[clarice]

The Cuban government released Gross in exchange for three Cubans jailed in the United States, administration officials confirmed. The Cuban prisoners were convicted of conspiracy after being sent to the United States as spies by former Cuban President Fidel Castrowashington Examiner.

[narciso]

ah that was Doug Liman, right off his first effort 'Swingers' before he got all pretentious with the Bourne series,

[narciso]

hey beasts how have you been?

[FTL]

Never wear an orange shirt to Home Depot.

[Beasts of England]

Sick in bed, narciso. I've never been a proponent of flu shots until now. Bad stuff.

[Jane]

"Otherwise, she's complaining people didn't recognize her after she puts on a disguise?"

Maybe she is complaining that "they all look alike".

OL every time I see Mara on Special Report she coughs like she is dying thru the entire panel.

[narciso]

they were accessories in the death of at least Cuban national and one Cuban American citizen, in the Brothers to the Rescue operation,

it's a sucker's bet, to volunteer to work for our side, either someone like Philby gives them up to the Sigurimi, that was 10 years before the bay of pigs, or they plain let you rot in jail, for a year, like my late compadre,

[AliceH]

Back in the 80's A homeless guy mistook me for a homeless person once and offered to buy me coffee. I assumed it was because it was 10 below and I was wearing most everything I owned for the 1/2 mile walk from the cheap parking lot, but now I see it was misogynistic and patronizing microaggression. Like a dope, I actually thanked him sincerely before declining the offer.

[narciso]

Hope you're feeling better, I was recommending a roman a clef, about the whole fustercluck in North Africa, written a year before the events that transpired there 'because of a video' but fair warning
even you might have trouble with it's Harold Robbins/Jacqueline Susann scenes in part,

[Iggy]

Conclusions;
1. They can't even express themselves well enough for people to reach a consensus on what they're bitching about.
2. What they're bitching about, whatever it is, is so minimally burdensome that the almost universal reaction outside the race-hustler-industrial-complex will be ridicule.
3. Narcissists can never not [using my Barry syntax] be part of the conversation so they make embarrassingly stupid shit up to refocus attention where it belongs; on them, even if the attention is people pointing and laughing.

[jimmyk]

I've never been a proponent of flu shots until now. Bad stuff.

Good to have you back, get better fast. If it's any consolation, I read that this year's flu shot is the wrong variety of the virus and only of limited help.

[Old Lurker]

Alice "Every General has no doubt experienced being mistaken for a waiter."

I have a funny true story about attending some dinner in DC where the featured speaker was the Commandant of the Marine Corps (might even have been Chairman of Joint Chiefs at the time??). After the dinner we were all descending the escalator to the lobby and I happened to get between the big guy and his two star assistant. Halfway down the Commandant reached behind me to hand the car keys to the two star and told him to bring the car around...

[Old Lurker]

Beasts, I was afraid you were hiding because WSJ last week reported somebody had agreed to lease an entire floor of the Pierre for $500K per week, and you were afraid to tell us it was your Ex and daughters.

:-)

[NKtesting]

OL-- Heh. as the JOM military commenters can further educate us, in the D ring of the Pentagon, '2 stars' isn't REALLY 2 stars.

[Beasts of England]

lol - I saw that, OL! Holy income inequality!!

[narciso]

this administration gave a visa to the official in the DGI that blocked Gross's relief, if they were merely incompetent,...

[narciso]

what is that lieutenant or major general?

[AliceH]

FWIW, Here's a NYT story on this year's vaccine not matching this year's flu virus: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/health/cdc-warns-that-flu-season-may-be-more-deadly-than-usual.html
********

LOL, OL. ;)

[Iggy]

This deserves its own thread; Did you break immigration laws and get yourself banned from entering the US?
No problemo.
Just make large contributions to Barry's Victory Fund and Hillary will change the rules just for you so you can come on in and do more fundraising.
Immigate?

[PDinDetroit]

Posted by: jimmyk | December 17, 2014 at 11:13 AM

That is great!

[Threadkiller]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nvWhmGlSi7U

[Old Lurker]

Narc I think two stars = major gen...

[NKtesting]

USMC 2 stars = Major Gen I believe;

[NKtesting]

BoE-- I posted a comment yesterday about Alabama football hero Bruce Bolton... friend of yours?

[Threadkiller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeaWJHpPfoM

[henry]

CNBC claims the Pope made the Cuba thing happen. Another useless commie.

[Janet S.]

Boy...our State Dept. is corrupt. That's a place that could use a good cleaning.

[PDinDetroit]

Obama on Cuba: I will violate the laws yet again. The end.

[Comanche Voter]

At 6 feet 5 inches tall I long ago lost count of the number of times I've been asked to reach for something high on a store shelf--or sometimes simply to reach into a grocery store freezer to get something buried deep on the shelf.

It comes with life, black, white, or yellow--if you're tall you'll get asked to help the vertically challenged.

[Old Lurker]

Janet I remain of a mind that we should just fire every public employee and start over from scratch.

[Ben]

Have a Cuba Libre and relax.

[GMax]

Gosh Mooch, I wonder if perhaps all those Secret Service agents who accompany you wherever you go, dark suits and dark sunglasses and stern looks abounding, might have had some effect on anyone employee or otherwise approaching you?

Cuz you know once I went to a fundraiser at the home of a supporter of GHWB when the President was in attendance, and despite me being on the guest list and no doubt having been thoroughly vetted, I had to pass through a gauntlet of agents and a metal detectors, and while there I kept seeing guys with earpieces in circulating through the crowd.

No matter what Mooch, your experience is not that of Joe and Jill Sixpack whether of color or not...

[GMax]

Army two star is Major General. 3 star is Lieutenant General.

[Pagar]

http://babalublog.com/2014/12/17/breaking-alan-gross-released-from-prison/

Babalu blog explains it a little different.

"So the Obama administration traded 3 spies implicated in the murder of US citizens for a humanitarian worker and an "unknown" intelligence source. Because bowing to communists and terrorists is what Obama and his cohorts do best.

This is a major setback for the opposition and dissident movements in Cuba. The Obama administration, by making this "deal", has confirmed that they are OK with the repression, brutality, incarceration, and murder the castro regime foists upon the opposition. "

Betrayal of America, Again!

[Ben]

Brent Crude still going south.

“We can, of course, stick to our guns and insist that “sanctions are having an effect”. But what will we gain if the only effect is to destroy the Russian economy? Perhaps the hope is to destabilise the country so much that Putin is overthrown. (I detect much schadenfreude among observers, who desperately hope a collapse of the Russian economy will bring about Putin’s fall.) If so, it is a highly dangerous game of chance. Pouring fuel on Kremlin clan wars that we barely understand would be the height of folly. We have no idea what the outcome might be – and it could be much worse than what we have at present.

Or perhaps the hope is that the Russian people, ground down into poverty and despair, will rise up against the Kremlin and install a government of the west’s choosing. Dream on!”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/16/russia-economy-west-vladimir-putin

As we have been insisting, sanctions against Putin won’t reach Putin. How many Russian kids will we force-feed paint-chips to? Or maybe it would be more compassionate to 'rectally' feed and hydrate the kids.

[Iggy]

Even if you posit the dubious notion that US-Cuban relations needed to change, it should not have been the most left wing president in history who did it.

Does Barry have the power via EO to grant Guantanamo back to Cuba? Of course he does.
Perhaps he'll let Castro close it for him.

[Davod]

"I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target,..."

Did they really publicice the trip before she went, or after she left.

[Ben]

Racism and Russophobia...it's a two-fer.

[Davod]

That should read publicize.

[Iggy]

--Gosh Mooch, I wonder if perhaps all those Secret Service agents who accompany you wherever you go, dark suits and dark sunglasses and stern looks abounding, might have had some effect on anyone employee or otherwise approaching you?--

That was my thought too but in that story I linked from 2011 when it happened it said the SS guys dressed casually and appeared a half hour early so apparently no one knew they were there.

[GMax]

Red Army versus the White Army?

Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is slamming President Obama over his prisoner swap to release an American held in Cuba.

“President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government," Menendez, known for his tough stance on Cuba, said in a statement.

"There is no equivalence between an international aid worker and convicted spies who were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage against our nation."