In a report yesterday from Cuba, Anita Snow of the Associated Press, with the help of the headline writers at ABC, seemed intent on telling any Yanqui imperialists or hard-liners in Miami's Little Havana who might have any ideas of doing something rash during the transition of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul to forget about trying anything (HT Rush Limbaugh; story #4 at link; link will be available until next Monday):
Later in the article, Snow enumerated some of the island's Communist wonders that will also apparently remain "unshaken," or virtually so (bolds are mine):
Raul Castro indicated at least one change is being contemplated: the revaluation of the Cuban peso, the national currency most people use to pay for government services such as utilities, public transportation and the small amount charged for their monthly food ration.
Cubans complain that government salaries averaging a little more than $19 a month do not cover basic necessities something Raul Castro acknowledged in a major speech last year. But he said any change would have to be gradual to "prevent traumatic and incongruent effects."
..... a 51-year-old man hefting a wide metal tray of homemade guava and coconut pies through the streets near Havana's train station said "this country, it's like jail."
"They close the doors and say 'The president is Peter or the president is Paul' and everyone responds 'Good, it's Peter or Paul.' There's no openness," said the man named Isidro, who like many Cubans declined to give his last name to a foreign journalist when criticizing the government.
I can't imagine why anyone would want to "shake up" something as marvelous as Fidel's, and now Raul's, Workers' Paradise. It's so wonderful that anyone who complains about it fears for his or her safety.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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But if Russia and
February 25, 2008 - 23:23 ET by MidAmericaBut if Russia and China's experience is any indication the opening of Cuba is not too far away. When the old guard finally gets too old the 'revolution' will die. After all, there is no such thing as a 'communist' state. All so-called communist states have only been military dictatorships propagandized with romantic imagery that appeals to the elitist intelligentsia of the West.
As I said elsewhere today, Raul will not last a year.
February 25, 2008 - 23:46 ET by R D HelmAnd it is a good thing for Raul and the other corrupt slave masters on that pitiful island that I am not currently POTUS, because if I were, I would shake things up but good. Cuba would be the 51st state by the end of the week, and Fidel, Raul, and the rest of the oppressive, murderous vermin who have enslaved that island for the last five decades would be facing something rather unpleasant.
Cuba should have been invaded as soon as it became apparent that Fidel had turned. If not, then as soon as it became known that the USSR was in the process of installing ICBM's there. I'm sorry, but JFK dropped the ball here in a big way. And don't give me any BS about the USSR going to war over it, either. No way that would have happened.
I am beyond sick to death of the freedom-hating liberal MSM using that murdering pissant Fidel Castro as a club to pound this country with. They have been doing it for over fifty years now. For some reason, every president from JFK on has lacked the resolve to do anything about it. This insignificant runt of a country rests a mere 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Cuba's people have been murdered, tortured, enslaved, abused, drowned attempting to escape, and God only knows what else.
We "freedom-loving" Americans should be ashamed that Fidel ruled over that country for more than five minutes, much less five decades.
Proud member of the "Rough Republican Attack Machine."
Cool!!!!
February 25, 2008 - 23:50 ET by owlpelletsWow RD....Sometime let us know how you REALLY feel!! You are the best!
I always wanted to get into politics, but I was never light enough to make the team.
I just wish RD wasn't so
February 25, 2008 - 23:54 ET by Free StinkerI just wish RD wasn't so soft on the Brothers Casto. ;-)
They've been deserving a can of whoopxss for nearly 50 years now.
Pledge to not support RINOs ever again!
owl & Free,
February 26, 2008 - 00:24 ET by R D HelmNot fifteen years before Fidel came to power, this country ran the Japanese out of the South Pacific, as well as chased the Germans out of North Africa, Italy, France, as well as other places they did not belong.
It just really frosts me that, for whatever reason, we couldn't bring ourselves to rid this world of a third-rate commie scum dictator located 90 miles from our coast.
Damned embarrassing, if you ask me.
Proud member of the "Rough Republican Attack Machine."
RD
February 26, 2008 - 00:31 ET by Free StinkerI agree.
We should have run Fidel off of cuba.
Pledge to not support RINOs ever again!
Cuba
February 25, 2008 - 23:55 ET by Ozonecharlieozonecharlie
In ten years there will be a Major League baseball team in Havana.
"Buenas Noches"
It's been nearly 50 years
February 26, 2008 - 01:01 ET by ConservativeRexIt's been nearly 50 years since we lost Cuba, because sometime between winning the Great world war and JFK, we lost our nerve. Most politicians have not found it yet. I do not expect them to, ever.
Futhermore, the majority of Americans are not willing to do the hard work that it takes to keep us free. Khrushchev and Castro both knew it. Ahmadinejad knows it now. We are supposedly at war with terrorism. Our military is at war for sure, and they are doing a magnificent job, that anyone would know about. But what kind of sacrifices have we had to make on the home front? Long lines at airport check in counters? Americans can not be bothered with any inconviences.
We have a media that in almost every quarter is working against the best interest of our country, the very country these ingrates make their living in. We have politicians who don't even care for our Military, and you Democrats know who you are. Don't believe me? Ask your former rapist in chief how much he loathed the military.
Now we have a Manchurian candidate that very well may end up as POTUS. He will not have our military on his side, he has got to know that. Well, we'll see what develops on that front, but when it comes to supporting politicians anywhere, or our military, I will always support the military, in any action it deems necessary.
CR, I agree. This country lost it's nerve. It lost it in Korea.
February 26, 2008 - 01:53 ET by R D HelmAnd like you, I do not believe we will ever regain it.
My father participated in the Korean War as a Marine. We fought that war to a stalemate, but nothing more. For the first time since we became a "world power" we showed weakness. Technically, we are still at war with North Korea. Can you imagine still being (technically) at war with Germany and/or Japan?
We essentially up and quit in Vietnam, showing even more weakness.
When Iran took some of our citizens hostage in the last years of the Carter administration, holding them for 444 days, we yet again showed weakness.
We perked up a little during the '80s, but not by much.
The only military triumph we have witnessed since was in the first Gulf War. While we did manage to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait, like Korea, we didn't actually finish the job, hence why we are in Iraq today. Once again, we demonstrated weakness.
Now we are in a conflict not just for our own survival, which is a situation we haven't really faced since the Revolution, but the very survival of civilization as we know it. Once again, we are showing weakness.
What is worse, we are showing weakness to an enemy that has been perfecting the art of exploiting weakness to its benefit for 14 centuries, 1200 years before this country was founded. I fear most of our population is rather ignorant of this.
It appears to me we are swiftly running out of chances.
Proud member of the "Rough Republican Attack Machine."
New Sheriff in Havana ward B
February 26, 2008 - 02:25 ET by Lame CherryIf people have not noticed, there is a new sheriff guiding Barak Obama, Zig Brzenski. Zig works for the Rockefellers and is in league with the Rothschilds.........think of him as George Soros with nuclear bombs.
No matter if Obama gets in or not, all the candidates will have one mandate. Contain Russia, cripple China.......and confiscate resources.
China is drilling oil off Cuba. The new American African military stationed now in Africa is designed to do one thing and that is to push China out of Africa for it's resources.
Cuba is not going to be allowed any longer to just be a money laundering operation for the cartel. The days of Castro Inc are about over.
There is just too much at stake now for Zig and Soros as operatives for the cartel. They mean to start a war in Eurasia to consume it and little piss pots like Cuba and Venezuela are not going to be allowed on the CanAmMex doorstep to be staging areas.
The Catholic Church might be instumental in this as the Castros have allowed them to start operations there.
The liberals might like to spread stories to warn Freedom loving Cuban Patriots from toppling that regime just so Soros and Zig can keep it all.........but the days of Castro are ended. He knows it and so does Raul........they are just trying to negotiate their hides to be saved now.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
The MSM supports communist
February 26, 2008 - 02:54 ET by rbosqueThe MSM supports communist dictatorships. Nothing new. I'm just fed up with ABC calling itself American. They are anything but.
RB
February 26, 2008 - 03:25 ET by well99Al-Queda Broadcast Corp calls itself American?That is a surprise.As far as them being communist it may be true but it isnt nice to say it.
Snow: Another leftist groupie with a mission
February 26, 2008 - 06:09 ET by PlaceboSnow is, simply, another Castro, now Raul, leftist groupie: the mass-media is awash with this perfidious and ignoramus ilk. One thing about Snow, she isn’t a closet-Commie – frankly, she should practice what she preaches; pack-up and emigrate to Cuba!
Agree
February 26, 2008 - 06:49 ET by well99Along with all the Hollywood groupies.I sure they would have a fun time living on 19 dollars a month.
Circling the wagons
February 26, 2008 - 11:43 ET by needleYep, It looks as if the Communists are circling the wagons, that would include the AP, of course.
Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.
Even Jefferson understood how bad big government could be ...
February 26, 2008 - 07:20 ET by Crash... why can't idiot American leftists understand this?
These commie rat-bags are horrific reprobates. Anyone who gives them a good word is clueless. My wife's family escaped Cuba in 1967. Over the years we have been able to get other members out, onto US soil. Unlike so many immigrants Cuban's are the most industrious I have ever met. My wife's family of four came to the country with enough change to make a phone call (to family members already here) and two suitcases, one with a change of clothes for the children, the other with family photo graphs. Their jewelry was stolen by customs as they left Cuba. Thirty years later they own a few businesses and are worth millions; all without a dime of help from government handouts. America is truly the last best hope on earth.
Leftists and Jefferson
February 26, 2008 - 12:03 ET by needleCrash, I am sorry to say this, but you need to wake up. Leftist have essentially nothing in common with Jefferson, and they DO understand this, though they deceitfully use him occasionally when it suits their purposes and they can get away with it. Leftists are elitist pure and simple. They almost always like big government because they see themselves as the governing class, and part of the government, the bigger and more pervasive and domineering the better. Communist governments are the BEST! All of their concern and empathy for the depressed and down-trodden is pure [lying] claptrap; anyone who thinks such garbage is for any other purpose than to secure their hold on the government is deceived and being manipulated. BTW, the MSM is a leftist institution. I hope this help you in making sense of things.
Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.
People who view
February 26, 2008 - 09:50 ET by MidAmericaPeople who view 'communist' countries as some sort of utopian refuge from the evils of greed are people who are easily fooled. It's like going to a ballet performance of Swan Lake and thinking you are seeing real swans onstage.