This reminds me of a "House" episode.

Y'all know which one I'm talkin' about...

I predict not much will change. His brother is just as nutso and has been his sidekick since the beginning. It will be interesting to see how the presidential candidates react to this.

But their literacy rate is so high! And they have free healthcare on top of that!

It will be interesting to see how the presidential candidates react to this.

I bet Obama will talk about hope and change for the Cuban people. Yes They Can!

Had we traded with Cuba instead of kissing the South Florida exiles butts we could have affected change there like we did with Russia.
Jessie Helms was always wrong in this.
Fidel was able to hold his rule and make the US look like a bully.
You would have thought the party of free enterprize would have been able to figure this out 10's of years ago.

You would have thought the party of free enterprise would have been able to figure this out 10's of years ago.

Beats leaving a bunch of Cubans at the Bay of Pigs.

Would agree with peregrine and just add that Castro would have been out years ago as well if the petty embargo had been dropped.
Petty is the word for it given that Castro has lived through U.S. governments of all persuasions supporting far more murderous and totalitarian regimes than his - Saddam and Pol Pot are two that spring to mind immediately. The cold war gave some excuse for the embargo but appeasing a shower of top donating tossers in Florida seemed to be the only reason after the collapse of Communism.
The people who ultimately suffered the most were the Cuban people. I don't think that the fuckers in Florida ever really gave a toss about them when blinded by their hatred for Castro.

Those fuckers in Florida actually have family members in Cuba affected by the policies they promote...as opposed to you and Peregrine who don't.

Also, did I miss when the Democratic presidents wanted to resume trade with Cuba?

I don't like our embargo with Cuba only because I like some semblence of consistency, and I don't think we should trade with China if we don't with Cuba.

Of course, if we were to trade with Cuba and had the island running around in Disney shirts listening to Britney Spears, I'm confident Urbane and Peregrine would find reason to complain then too. America, never right.

...and not just Disney t-shirts and Britney Spears records.

They could also watch American T.V. like "House".

I wasn't making a party political point.

"America never right" Oh cmon, is that the best you can do? If in doubt imply anti Americanism.

And I know that some of those in Florida have families there. The embargo seems to have been a pretty strange and not very good way to help them.
The whole beef about the Cold War was not just about the military side but also an attempt to get the USSR to open up. We all know the effect that some openess had in the end. The embargo on the other hand was an attempt to suffocate a small island over their unelected government.

"America never right"

That would be Republicans "Rarely" right
America will get right when either a woman or a Black man become the next President and send the "Shrub" and his henchman Cheney packing.

The fact is Kennedy inherited both the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam from Eisenhower. He stupidly went forward with the Bay of Pigs fiasco and was murdered before changing policy in Vietnam.

Oh, and Carter tried to open relations with Cuba and Helms pilloried him for it.
Helms was a real asset to your party. NOT!!

So now that Fidel is gone, we can expect the Miami gang to go back?

Didn't think so. Even those that think they will be calling the shots in the new Cuba since they will find quickly they have no cred there. And I won't be holding my breath on the new Cuba anytime soon.

I'm sorry, I don't buy the whole JFK was going to change things in Vietnam. I know a lot of the Camelot hagiographers (Schlesinger, William Manchester and, yes, RFK himself) say that but if that was the case why did JFK and Lodge ok the coup against Diem? I do think that JFK got Bay of Pigs from Ike (and A. Dulles was still at CIA at Bay of Pigs). But Goldwater, Rocky, Lodge...whoever the GOP put up against JFK would have pounded him as soft on communism. Look at how Bobby Kennedy and Ken Keating went toe to toe in NY in 64 on who was tough on communism. I think JFK would have done the same thing.

I don't understand why people blame the embargo for Cuba's economic woes. Every other country in the world has regular trade relations with Cuba. Yet Cubans are still suffering.

I wasn't making a party political point.

You said you agreed with Peregrine, who was making the party point and continues making it despite it making no sense.

The USSR didn't collapse because of perestroika you ignorant piece of Eurotrash scum.

It was destroyed because of an unyielding policy of containment. It collapsed because we forced it spend blood and treasure across the globe-in guerilla and conventional conflicts from Afghanistan to Grenada.

It fell because the idea that it could indefinitely suppress the national ambitions of Chechens, Ukrainians, Latvians, and sundry other ethnicities and nationalities yoked to the Soviet state was foolhardy.

Because our government forced it to observe international norms of human rights through the Helsinki Accords and the Jackson-Varnik Amendment.

Because dissidents like Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and movements like the Samizdat and the refuseniks dulled the internal instruments of Soviet oppression, and labor movements across Eastern Europe-like Solidarnosc-and political opposition, both official and unofficial, destroyed the corresponding tyrannical intelligence and military agencies outside of the USSR.

And finally because of Pope John Paul II's visionary leadership and Mikhail Gorbachev's supreme ineptitude.

That's why there's no longer a USSR.

It had nothing to do with how much grain we shipped to Russia, or how many commodities it was able to import from the U.S.

Every hipster doofus in a Che shirt promotes his murderous, totalitarian legacy.

How?

on the "America, never right..." comment.

Good call Karol.

I wonder where Michael Moore will go for health care now?!?!?

Probably the same place where he got his personal trainer/weight loss specialist, i.e. capitalist pig-dogs from AmeriKKKa.

"The USSR didn't collapse because of perestroika you ignorant piece of Eurotrash scum."

Christ almighty. You love to flaunt your boorish and rude ignorance as if it were a virtue to be proud of.
I must read your blog later just to get a handle on the type of person that abuses complete strangers on the internet for little reason.

I didn't say that perestroika was the sole the reason for the collapse of communism. I even made reference to the military side of things.

Still, if you feel better after your little bit of abuse that's fine by me.

"You said you agreed with Peregrine, who was making the party point and continues making it despite it making no sense."

Ok, you have me on a point of pedantry.

My, my. Aren't we the wilting flower?

Wow! Aren't you the big man!

Did Gerard and Urbane just create a really good Haiku with their last two comments?

Urbane Meercat wrote;

"The embargo on the other hand was an attempt to suffocate a small island over their unelected government."
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You mean, you think we have a problem with Castro merely because he's 'unelected' ?