Obama arrives in Cuba for historic trip

[mountaineer]

Cuba arrests dozens of human rights protesters before Obama's arrival, from USA Today.

[mountaineer]

Obama and those other dorks standing in front of Che looks like a hostage photo to me.

From twitter:

Benny Verified account
‏@bennyjohnson

NOTE: Che Guevara wanted to nuke the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis & commit mass murder in NYC on Thanksgiving

Sounds like some of the plans of Obama's pal Bill Ayers. What a coinkydink.

[rangerrebew]

DC Takes Havana: Kerry Meets Colombian Marxists, Obama Greets Cuban Communists

Posted By JP Carroll On 9:46 PM 03/21/2016 In | No Comments

Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with with Colombian Marxist rebels and Colombian government officials in Havana Monday before the two groups end their peace negotiations March 23.

Kerry joined President Barack Obama on his trip to meet Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana. It is unclear if Kerry will meet with Colombian FARC — Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — rebel negotiators and their Colombian government counterparts at the same time or separately, according to Colombia Reports. Obama stated during his press conference with Castro that he was “optimistic” that Colombians could “achieve a lasting peace.”

Colombian rebels and government officials are negotiating in Cuba as it is trusted by both sides as a neutral territory that can be an honest broker for peace talks. The two groups have been in Havana since November 2012.

During the trip to Cuba, FARC rebels and Colombian government negotiators will also reportedly watch a baseball game Tuesday between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays. As the March 23 negotiating deadline approaches, there are doubts on both sides that a deal will be reached. There are talks of extending negotiations.

If a peace deal is reached, it would bring an end to an over 51-year conflict between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel movement. The conflict is the longest-lasting in the Western Hemisphere.

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URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/21/john-kerry-meets-colombian-rebels-having-peace/

[rangerrebew]

Obama: US Can Learn About Human Rights from Cuba

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262239/obama-us-can-learn-about-human-rights-cuba-daniel-greenfield

March 21, 2016
Daniel Greenfield
 

Does Cuba have something to teach us about human rights? Considering Obama and Castro's attitude toward the rights protected by our Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press and the Right to Bear Arms, not to mention the Right to Compulsory Insurance, you can see why Obama would find the Communist dictatorship inspiring.

    “President Castro, I think, has pointed out that it, in his view making sure that everybody is getting a decent education or health care, has basic security in old age, that those things are human rights as well.”

    “The goal of the human rights dialogue is not for the United States to dictate to Cuba how to govern themselves,” Obama continued. “Hopefully, we can learn from each other.”

Cuban health care is quite impressive. And by "impressive", I mean that it's a good way to die. It also depends on a population of plantation doctors who are leased as slave labor to other countries.

    Then there is the real Cuban system, the one that ordinary people must use — and it is wretched. Testimony and documentation on the subject are vast. Hospitals and clinics are crumbling. Conditions are so unsanitary, patients may be better off at home, whatever home is. If they do have to go to the hospital, they must bring their own bedsheets, soap, towels, food, light bulbs — even toilet paper. And basic medications are scarce. In Sicko, even sophisticated medications are plentiful and cheap. In the real Cuba, finding an aspirin can be a chore. And an antibiotic will fetch a fortune on the black market.

    A nurse spoke to Isabel Vincent of Canada’s National Post. “We have nothing,” said the nurse. “I haven’t seen aspirin in a Cuban store here for more than a year. If you have any pills in your purse, I’ll take them. Even if they have passed their expiry date.”

    The equipment that doctors have to work with is either antiquated or nonexistent. Doctors have been known to reuse latex gloves — there is no choice. When they travel to the island, on errands of mercy, American doctors make sure to take as much equipment and as many supplies as they can carry.

    And doctors are not necessarily privileged citizens in Cuba. A doctor in exile told the Miami Herald that, in 2003, he earned what most doctors did: 575 pesos a month, or about 25 dollars. He had to sell pork out of his home to get by. And the chief of medical services for the whole of the Cuban military had to rent out his car as a taxi on weekends. “Everyone tries to survive,” he explained.

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. As long as he's willing to sell pork out of his home to make ends meet.

And of course there are Castro's progressive education policies.

    "I say it is one of the achievements of the revolution that even our prostitutes are university educated," Fidel Castro said.

And that's true. Their university education however is worthless.

    With food rations being cut to malnutrition levels, the average family can live only if it somehow obtains dollars. This makes prostitution all the more appealing for women who are trying to support themselves or their families. Though prostitution does not appear to be an option for men, they are also abandoning their professional positions and choosing to work in the tourism industry as bar tenders, parking valets, bellhops and waiters in hopes of making dollars. Dollars are the means of survival in Cuba, where one in eleven people holds a university degree and there are more doctors and teachers per capita than almost any where else in the world.

We're headed this way too with the education bubble. Some are already there.

But Obama is pushing the leftist FDR line of positive entitlements as rights over negative rights that are freedoms. Give up your freedom, get free stuff. Look how well it worked out in Cuba.

[rangerrebew]

ABC, NBC Ignore Obama Photo Op with Che Guevara Mural; CBS Hails ‘Last Mission of the Cold War’
By Curtis Houck | March 22, 2016 | 12:22 AM EDT
 

On Monday night amidst the voluminous amount of Cuba coverage, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News made sure to not inform their viewers of an ominous and disturbing backdrop hours earlier when President Obama and a portion of the U.S. delegation stood in Havana’s Revolution Square with a mural of the brutal leftist leader Che Cuevara behind them.

While the CBS Evening News stepped up and made sure to show this visual, the broadcast started off on a pro-Cuban note when anchor Scott Pelley proclaimed that this week (and not 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union) was when the “Cold War with Russia” ended as “Air Force One flew the last mission.”

Pelley also gushed that the President “arrived in a country still waiting to exhale” over half a century after “the world held its breath over Cuba.”

The tone of the network’s Cuba coverage changed seconds later when State Department correspondent Margaret Brennan began her report by taking note of the President posing in front of a mural in Havana depicting the face of the murderous Guevera:

    It was a striking image, President Obama in Havana's revolution Square with a giant outline of communist icon Che Guevera looking down, a gesture to a troubled past on a day President Obama focused on the future....Since arriving yesterday, the President has delighted the Cuban people by touring Old Havana and reviewing Cuban troops, but after their meeting today, Mr. Obama said he had a frank discussion with Raul Castro about Cuba's human rights record.

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell lamented that the issue of human rights had “overshadowed” this trip by illustrating what transpired at the press conference featuring Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, but Brennan took a different line:

    Castro got taste of America's freedom of the press when he was asked about Cuban political prisoners. Clearly frustrated, he denied there were any. “What political prisoners,” he said. But just yesterday, the regime arrested more than two dozen protestors.

Brennan also featured anti-Castro activist Antonio Rodiles, but she was shown letting him speak (as opposed to Mitchell being shown lecturing him): “You allow them to do all these violations and at the same time, you are giving more economic possibilities, then for sure they are getting the signal, they understand that they can this whatever they want.”

In one other significant observation concerning the Monday network evening newscasts, CBS was the lone network to actually mention that Cuba has been a communist regime for nearly 60 years.

Back when the Obama administration first announced the policy change on December 17, 2014, the communist influence of the Castro government fetched only one mention when CBS Evening News fill-in anchor Norah O’Donnell described Cuba as being ruled by a “communist dictatorship.”

The transcript of the lead segment from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on March 21 can be found below.

    CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
    March 21, 2016
    6:31 p.m. Eastern

    SCOTT PELLEY: Few Americans thought they would live to see this day. An American President meeting with a Communist president named Castro in Havana. 55 years after eight U.S. aircraft bombed the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow the Castro dictatorship, Air Force One flew the last mission of the Cold war with Russia. Once the world held its breath over Cuba, President Obama arrived in a country still waiting to exhale. Margaret Brennan is in Havana.

    MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a striking image, President Obama in Havana's revolution Square with a giant outline of communist icon Che Guevera looking down, a gesture to a troubled past on a day President Obama focused on the future.

    OBAMA: This is a new day.

    BRENNAN: Since arriving yesterday, the President has delighted the Cuban people by touring Old Havana and reviewing Cuban troops, but after their meeting today, Mr. Obama said he had a frank discussion with Raul Castro about Cuba's human rights record.

    OBAMA: To the extent that we can have a good conversation about that and to actually make progress, that I think will allow us to see the full flowering of a relationship that is possible. In the absence of that, I think it will continue to be a very powerful irritant.

    BRENNAN: Castro got taste of America's freedom of the press when he was asked about Cuban political prisoners. Clearly frustrated, he denied there were any. “What political prisoners,” he said. But just yesterday, the regime arrested more than two dozen protestors. Activist Antonio Rodiles was among them.

    ANTONIO RODILES: You allow them to do all these violations and at the same time, you are giving more economic possibilities, then for sure they are getting the signal, they understand that they can this whatever they want.

    BRENNAN: The Obama administration argues that the best way to improve human rights is to invest in Cuba's future by strengthening economic ties.

    HORACE CLEMONS: You will merely mush down with the heel to go backwards.

    BRENNAN: Horace Clemons and his Cuban-born business partner Saul Berenthal will open the first American-owned factory in Havana since the communist revolution. They'll sell this tractor to Cuban farmers still relying on cattle to plow their fields. Berenthal fled Cuba as a child.

    SAUL BERENTHAL: I have made peace with the past. I have been able to not only understand what happened and even figure out that the best way to heal is exactly to do what we're doing.

    BRENNAN: American executives are also here as part of the President's delegation. Starwood Hotels just inked a deal to be first American hotel operator in Havana in nearly 60 years and, Scott, Google is in talks to increase internet access on the island.

    PELLEY: Margaret Brennan, our woman in Havana tonight. Margaret, thank you very much.

Source URL: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2016/03/22/abc-nbc-ignore-obama-photo-op-che-guevara-mural-cbs-hails-last

[rangerrebew]

The mural looks like Che has a halo surrounding his head.  How appropriate is that?

[Bigun]

Cuba arrests dozens of human rights protesters before Obama's arrival, from USA Today.

You aren't supposed to notice things like that!

In Cuba, Obama Will Legitimize the Corrupt and Ignore the Oppressed

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/obama-cuba-visit-ted-cruz-213749

[mountaineer]

   
Mooney says Obama’s visit to Cuba won’t help the oppressed
By Jeff Jenkins in News | March 21, 2016 at 2:34PM
WV Metro News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia Second District Congressman Alex Mooney has as unique perspective on President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba.

Mooney’s mother grew up there and escaped when she was 21. Mooney said Monday on MetroNews ‘Talkline’ President Obama’s decision to visit there is a bad idea.

“I think it’s a mistake. I think by him going and treating the Castro brother dictators as legitimate leaders of the country is legitimizing them and the oppressed there aren’t getting anything from this visit,” Mooney said.

The visit undermines bringing freedom to the Communist nation, according to Mooney.

“I think it undercuts their efforts because those efforts would be emboldened by a President and an America who is standing with them and not the person oppressing them,” he said.

Mooney’s mother spent her 21st birthday in a prison cell in Cuba and later fled the country where she was raised. Her family members also were able to escape. She waited 28 years to return to the country, Mooney said. Since then, she’s participated in approximately eight humanitarian missions.

Forty members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, joined President Obama on his visit.

In a speech Monday afternoon, Obama said the effort to normalize relations is about “advancing the mutual interests of our two countries and improving the lives of both Cubans and Americans. That’s why I’m here,” Obama said.

President Obama has continually called on Congress to lift the trade embargo with Cuba.

[Wingnut]

The mural looks like Che has a halo surrounding his head.  How appropriate is that?

[mountaineer]

Whew! Cuba was just exhausting, all that eating, smoking cigars, watching beisbol, acknowledging the USA's many human rights violations...
Now it's on to Argentina, baby!

Mark Knoller ‏@markknoller 3m3 minutes ago

Pres Obama doesn't arrive in Argentina until after midnight. His schedule Wednesday in Buenos Aires:

[Lando Lincoln]

Town hall with young people. Of course.

[mountaineer]

In Buenos Aires, Obama aims to boost Argentina's new leader
[Associated Press]
JOSH LEDERMAN
March 23, 2016

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — After years of anti-American posturing by its leader, Argentina has a new president whose outstretched hand has been eagerly accepted by the United States. President Barack Obama on Wednesday rewarded the South American nation with a state visit aimed at keeping that promising trajectory on track.

Obama has made no secret of his preference for Argentine President Mauricio Macri over his left-leaning predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, whose meandering missives were a source of frequent frustration and eye-rolling in the White House. So Obama was all too glad to see her replaced in December by Macri, who has affably accepted U.S. help with his mission to modernize Argentina's struggling economy.

"President Macri recognizes that we're in a new era, and we have to look forward," Obama said before the visit.

After arriving in Buenos Aires in the wee hours Wednesday, Obama opened his two-day visit at Casa Rosada, the Argentine president's pink-hued offices, where an honor guard donned white gloves and swords to welcome him. Seated side by side in front of U.S. and Argentine flags, Obama and Macri made no comments to reporters at the start of their meeting

The two planned to hold a joint news conference later Wednesday before Obama lays a wreath at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.

Obama planned to hear from young Argentinians at a town hall meeting, in what's become a hallmark of his trips abroad. Joined by first lady Michelle Obama, the president was to be feted by Macri at a state dinner in the evening, marking the first such visit by a U.S. president in nearly two decades.

Despite best efforts to keep the focus on the future, Obama's visit has been clouded by a renewed look at painful chapters in Argentina's past, returned to the forefront by the 40th anniversary this week of Argentina's 1976 coup. Questions about America's role in the military dictatorship that followed are a reminder of what many see as a shameful U.S. history of backing repressive Latin American regimes.

It was unclear whether Obama would use his visit to apologize or acknowledge decades-old U.S. mistakes. But as controversy about the timing of his visit grew last week, Obama's administration announced plans to declassify secret intelligence and military documents from the period, potentially shedding more light on a story left partially untold until now.

"He will be more than willing to speak to what took place 40 years ago, to the suffering that took place after the coup," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

In another gesture directed toward the victims of Argentina's "Dirty War," Obama planned to visit Remembrance Park in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Argentina's government estimates some 13,000 people were killed or disappeared under force during the crackdown on leftist dissidents, though activists say the number is as high as 30,000.

Obama's visit to Argentina, like his visit this week to Cuba, aims to bolster his efforts to keep the U.S. focused on economically important regions like Latin America and Asia, even while dealing with pressing security concerns in the Middle East and elsewhere. Overshadowing his trip were terror attacks Tuesday in Brussels that killed more than 30 people and triggered fresh panic in Europe about the spread of violent extremism.

Those distractions notwithstanding, Obama is hoping his final year as president will be one of critical progress for the U.S. and Latin America.

Even as Obama continues to struggle with refugees fleeing insecurity and instability in Central America, his administration is working toward a historic truce between Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The U.S. was heartened by the opposition's success in Venezuela's recent legislative elections.

No nation has become a more potent symbol of Obama's efforts to turn a page in Latin American than Cuba. The president flew to Argentina from Havana, where he made history as the first U.S. chief executive to visit in nearly 90 years, a significant boost for his efforts to normalize ties with the longtime U.S. foe.

To show that the U.S. and Argentina are on a better path, Obama and Macri planned to announce new joint efforts on climate change, energy, and fighting drugs and crime, the White House said.

The last U.S. president to set foot in Argentina was George W. Bush, who attended a regional summit here in 2005 but didn't conduct a formal state visit. Bill Clinton came to meet with his Argentinian counterpart in 1997.

Before returning to Washington, Obama, his wife and daughters planned a leisurely daytrip to Bariloche, a picturesque city in southern Argentina.

[Wingnut]

Reminds me of a joke

How does an Argentinian commit suicide?
He Jumps off his ego.

Must be why Obama relates well with Mercury Macri.

[mountaineer]

... I thought you’d like to know: It looks like Lady M isn’t the only White House lady on Barry and Raul’s Excellent Vacation Tour who has taken advantage of our skilled cosmetic surgeons on staff at Walter Reed.

No, not Fancy Nancy – although she looks like she’s due for her annual re-grooming as well – butt check out Val-Jar! Does she look stunning or what!?

It never hurts to get a little touchup, you know in case you’re tapped as a pinch hitter. In the event that something untoward happens to your party’s leading presidential candidate. Unexpectedly. Like an indictment, or something. ...

More at Michelle Obama's Mirror

[mountaineer]

Obama's tango ripped on 'Morning Joe'
By Nick Gass
03/24/16 06:43 AM EDT

On Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama danced the tango at a state dinner in Argentina. By the next morning, a bipartisan chorus of disapproval of the optics was bursting out on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Obama should not have canceled his trip to Argentina after the attacks in Brussels, said Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, but his recent photo op at a baseball game in Cuba and his tango left much to be desired.

“Argentina is actually one of the very rare good news stories in the world,” Haass said, referring to the government’s transition from former President Cristina Kirchner. “You have a new democratic government. They’re doing the right things economically, they’re doing the right things politically. It’s a good story.”

“However, the advance person who let him do the tango, that person ought to be looking for work on somebody’s — in somebody’s campaign very, very far away,” Haass remarked. “That was a tremendous mistake. It’s fine to go to Argentina, you want to do the work, but you’ve got to be careful of these little photo ops and optics. Baseball games and tangos, that’s inconsistent with the seriousness of the day.”

Obama attended the first few innings of a baseball game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays in Havana on Tuesday, sporting sunglasses and participating in an on-air interview with ESPN on the same day that more than 30 people were killed and hundreds injured in Brussels, Belgium. Co-host Mika Brzezinski pronounced the look “really strange to me” despite Obama’s stated goal of showing that terrorists couldn’t disrupt his schedule.

For Nicolle Wallace, the former communications director for George W. Bush, Obama’s tango and baseball game amounted to a “communications crime.”

Referring to former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, who on Wednesday said Obama’s actions reflect a lack of concern about terrorism, Wallace called it the president’s “policy choice.”

“His policy choice was to proceed with everything on his schedule and not to react to the threat of terrorism and that is his prerogative,m but it puts him vastly … out of step with the entire American public, not just Republicans,” she said. “You heard Democrats yesterday increasingly uncomfortable with the choices he makes at a moment of crisis. There were mothers laying dead while their, you know, family members were at the crime scene yesterday and to look like the priority is to go on a foreign trip instead of pausing for a minute and explaining that to America is a communications crime.”

Even Steve Rattner, a financier and Hillary Clinton bundler, said the tango and interview with ESPN could have been handled differently. He disagreed with Wallace that Obama should have returned to Washington.

“I think he could have handled some of that differently. I agree certainly about the tango,” Rattner said. “But the idea that some people are throwing out that he should have, like, turned the plane around and rushed back to Washington. To do what?”

 http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/obama-tango-argentina-criticism-221186#ixzz43p689kIJ

[mountaineer]

I wonder if Obama is thinking, "Ewww, touching a woman! Ewww! Cooties!"

[mountaineer]

Obama’s Glorious Argentine Excursion
Posted on March 24, 2016, 6:26 pm by Keith Koffler
White House Dossier

President Obama was criticized Tuesday for taking in a  Cuban baseball game while Belgium was still reeling from a terrorist attack that killed more than 30 and wounded dozens. Turns out the sports break was just beginning.

Obama, his wife, children and mother in law — who are now in Argentina — Thursday embarked a two-thousand-mile round trip journey from Buenos Aires to the exquisite city of Bariloche to enjoy its many wonders.

It’s supposed to be official U.S. government travel, but what the heck. The day trip for Obama and family takes about four and a half hours of Air Force One flying time at a cost of close to a million dollars, just for flying the plane. The other logistical expenses no doubt add millions more.

The White House announced that, while in the city, “the First Family will visit cultural landmarks,” which are code words for SIGHTSEEING. “The First Family will travel to Bariloche and Patagonia for a visit to one of the truly spectacular cultural sites within Argentina.” the White House said, as if nothing else were happening in the world.

Will there be more assaults in Europe? Who knows? Have any of the European attackers been coordinated with terror cells in America that may be waiting to strike? No matter. For seven hours today between flights to and from Buenos Aires, the president is confirming for himself that, “It’s good to be the king.”

According to Frommer’s, the Obamas have chosen wisely: “With stunning natural scenery and fine cuisine, it’s a winter and summer playground for vacationing Argentines … With the rugged plains of the Patagonian Steppe to the east, the towering snowy peaks of the Andes to the west, and the glistening and grand Nahuel Huapi Lake in front, opportunities for adventure are abundant. Even if you’re not much of an adventurer, you’ll still find plenty of pleasant sightseeing tours, boat trips, boutiques, driving excursions, and fine dining to keep you busy.”

The trip in was fabulous, according to the pool report:

“AF1 touched down in Bariloche at 14:21 after a flight that offered great views of the snow capped Andes and crystalline mountain lakes. The first family came out of the plane a short time later, all wearing hiking gear.”

After hiking, “We are told by the White House that POTUS, FLOTUS and Malia are going on a boat ride on a vessel named the Modesta Victoria.”

The Obamas are scheduled to fly back to Washington Thursday evening from Buenos Aires, relaxed and ready to deal with terrorists. Let’s hope ISIS leaders didn’t go on vacation, or they’ll be all rested up and prepared to do battle too!

[mountaineer]

This makes it all so worth while.

Fidel Castro to Obama: We don't need your 'presents'
Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press
 2 minutes 19 seconds ago



HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that "we don't need the empire to give us any presents."

The 1,500-word letter in state media titled "Brother Obama" was Castro's first response to the president's three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries' history of Cold War hostility. Obama did not meet with the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.

Obama's visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of U.S. attempts to overthrow the Communist government had ended, allowing Cuban to reform its economy and political system without the threat of U.S. interference.

Fidel Castro writes of Obama: "My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn't try to develop theories about Cuban politics."

Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in 2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His letter reflects that style, presenting a sharp contrast with Obama's tightly focused speech in Havana. Castro's letter opens with descriptions of environmental abuse under the Spaniards and reviews the historical roles of Cuban independence heroes Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez.

Castro then goes over crucial sections of Obama's speech line by line, engaging in an ex-post-facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama's failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro's prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959.

Quoting Obama's declaration that "it is time, now, for us to leave the past behind," the man who shaped Cuba during the second half of the 20th century writes that "I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the President of the United States."

Castro then returns to a review of a half-century of U.S. aggression against Cuba. Those events include the decades-long U.S. trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner backed by exiles who took refuge in the U.S.

He ends with a dig at the Obama administration's drive to increase business ties with Cuba. The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the U.S. will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled to escape from over-dependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard currency.

The focus on U.S-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled Castro, who nationalized U.S. companies after coming to power in 1959 and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now introducing gradual market-based reforms.

"No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights," Fidel Castro wrote. "We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with work and intelligence of our people."

[flowers]

[mountaineer]

Obama goes to Cuba, slobbers over the Castro brothers and Che, and he's still mocked for the loser he is. What an embarrassment.

[flowers]

Obama goes to Cuba, slobbers over the Castro brothers and Che, and he's still mocked for the loser he is. What an embarrassment.

For obama that photo-op of him with Che is all he cares about. You know that photo is all over the place in the WH now. I bet he even has one for his wallet so he can look at it all the time.