Posted on 04/03/2009 2:40:25 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama Set to Lift Ban on Travel to Cuba
By LAURA MECKLER
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to lift a longstanding U.S. ban on family travel and remittances to Cuba, a senior administration official said Friday, in what could be an opening gesture toward more openness with the Castro regime.
The move will fulfill a campaign promise and follows more modest action in Congress this year to loosen travel rules.
The president has authority to loosen these rules on his own, and the move is likely meant as a signal of a new attitude toward both Cuba and other Latin American countries that have pressed the U.S. to alter its policy.
The president does not intend to call for lifting of the trade embargo against Cuba, which would require congressional action, nor is any specific diplomatic outreach contemplated, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Do we have any canals left to give away too!
This is a good idea. The travel ban on Cuba is absurd.
I’m just wondering which lucky American will be the first held for ransom in Cuba.
A new JFK, eh?
Wonder how all those Cubans in Florida will feel about this?
Yeah, I kinda agree, but I don’t like supporting a communist state either.
I have to say that I don’t see how it is that we can:
Travel to Iran.
Travel to Syria
Travel to North Korea
but Cuba is right out.
I don’t know if lifting the ban makes sense or not, but a little consistency would be a welcome thing.
If you live in the North: You fly to Toronto, fly directly to Havana, stick $10 (US) in your passport for them not to stamp it and you have no problems.
OR
If you live in the South: Fly to Cancun, they have several ships going to and from Havana every day. Again $10 in the passport is required.
Obama endorses Cuba as a vacation Mecca!
Oh, you are supportin’ one, baby, you are supporting one.
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Che flag sends 'disturbing' message about Obama
Candidate attracts 'people who think mass murderers are romantic revolutionaries'
February 13, 2008
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
The Fox TV affiliate in Houston has captured images of a volunteer in a campaign office for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama working in front of a flag featuring the image of Che Guevara, the South American revolutionary who became Fidel Castro's executioner after the communist takeover in Cuba.
And while the Obama campaign has issued a statement placing a modest distance between the campaign and its "volunteers," the issue of such an image on display in an office operating on behalf of a man hoping to be commander in chief of the world's last remaining superpower is raising alarms.
Even Obama supporters have been forced into corners because of the issue, with one likening the Texas state Republican Party to Guevara, to whom have been attributed hundreds of executions of anti-Castro leaders.
Under the heading "Barack Guevara," Investor's Business Daily raised some of the more pointed questions, to which the campaign responded only with a statement: "The office featured in this video is funded by volunteers of the Barack Obama Campaign and is not an official headquarters for his campaign. ..."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56293
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"This is a guy [Bill Ayers] who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."
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The Cuban embargo hasn’t overthrown the Cuban government despite being almost fifty years old. I suspect that it might be time to try something new. Let’s end the embargo and give our neighbors a taste of the riches of capitalism. In short order, then, I suspect we’ll be hearing “Adios, Fidel! Adios, Ramon!”
Where have you been Sub?
Under the ice caps since before the start of the campaigns for TOTUS '08?
I see where you’re coming from. In some respects, the travel ban is a little dated.
I think if the Cuban people start seeing American tourists wandering around, they’re gonna start saying “Hey, why the hell can’t we have what they have?!”
Obviously, there are many Cubans who know that life is better across the Straitsof Florida. That’s why so many have tried that dangerous crossing. But it may be different now that the Cuban people will start being exposed to American money and goods.
Of course, there’s always the definite possibility that Castro (or his sucessor) will try to keep the majority of Cubans from seeing how well we have it. US tourists may be restricted to Cancun-style resorts where there’s no intereaction with real Cuban people. The Cuban govt makes all the money and their people end up - as usual - with nothing.
Free tickets funded by the government.
Reds helping Reds.
Good, it was a farce anyway. Every hollywood actor that wished to flew down and hobnobbed with Castro, lifting the ban means nothing.
The media has been abuzz today at the prospect of Russian nuclear bombers being stationed in Cuba if the US goes ahead with plans for missile defense bases in Eastern Europe.
The story has riled the US enough that a US general has been wheeled out to tell the worlds press that any Russian attempt to build another nuclear base in Cuba would cross US red line.
The story broke earlier this week, when Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted an un-named source from within the Russian military. He told the Russian daily:
While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba.
The quote hasnt been independently confirmed, but the Russian Defense Ministry added fuel to the fire when they refused to comment on the story.
The prospect of Russian nuclear forces being stationed in Cuba - which is, after all, only 90 miles from the US coast - would bring back some rather unpleasant memories for the US of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, where the Soviet Union under Nikita Kruschev launched an audacious and foolhardy bid to station nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island.
http://www.siberianlight.net/2008/07/23/russian-nuclear-bombers-cuba/
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Russia's Medvedev hails "comrade" Obama
Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko
Posted on Friday, April 03, 2009 8:10:15 AM EDT by ETL:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221410/posts
Gee, what a wonderful “progressive” Obama is. After all those years of Americans clamoring to go to Castro’s Cuba.
The only people who went there are Castro sympathizers.
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