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Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike inflicted misery on millions of Cubans. But when the Castro dictatorship looks at the devastation, it sees opportunity. Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over as head of state in February, for years have been calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which they say is starving Cuba. But Cuba can already buy from U.S. producers all the food and medicine it can pay cash for. What the totalitarian tag-team really wants is an end to the ban on private-sector credit to the Cuban government. Their demand has gone nowhere in Washington,...

Florida Republican Accuses Obama Debate Prepper, Gregory Craig, of Teaming Up with Fidel Castro in Elian Gonzalez Case. Here's the article from the Miami Herald.

We are all now very familiar with the aptly-named triple threat posed by Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. But there's another gathering storm closer to home and the media only feigns interest. Cuba's old news. And Venezuela's rants against colonialism and America have reached the level of parody. But recently Bolivia has stepped up and is trying to play with the big boys.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has slept with 35,000 women in his 82 years of life, according to an upcoming documentary.

Cuba: Fidel Castro rejected two U.S. aid offers following major hurricanes. After lecturing us about "dignity," he then revealed his real game: to extract U.S. policy concessions and cash by using suffering as a wedge.nstead of accepting $5 million in no-strings U.S. aid as the island reels from terrible hurricanes, Castro used the disasters as an opportunity to demand a suspension of the U.S. trade embargo, while doing nothing to lighten his dictatorship. Pretty nervy. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, on a visit to IBD this week, called the two hurricanes that blew through earlier this month "Cuba's Katrina" and described...

HAVANA – Cuba has turned down U.S. storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said Thursday. "Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYEiwR2KklM Devastating.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence. On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress................

Drinkers the world round know the name Bacardi means rum, but few non-Cubans know that this global enterprise was founded -- and is still owned -- by a Cuban family that played an important role in the island's social, political and economic history. Emilio Bacardi was a prominent activist in Cuba's fight for independence from Spain, suffering lengthy periods of imprisonment for the cause. Other members of the clan, based in Cuba's eastern city of Santiago, also stepped forward to oppose the sad parade of corrupt and dictatorial rulers that the island has since known. Longtime NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten...

Armando Valladares Twenty-Two Years in Castro's GulagBy MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY August 16, 2008; Miami In late December 1959, nearly a year after Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had been run out the country by a movement that had a goal of restoring the 1940 Cuban constitution, Fidel Castro was tightening his grip. At the time, Armando Valladares was a 22-year-old government bureaucrat at the Post Office Savings Bank. One day a group from the Communist Party showed up in his office and put a sign on his desk that read "If Fidel is a communist, put me on the list. He's...

Fidel Castro says corrupt judges are to blame for Cuba's sub-par showing at the Beijing Olympics. Castro alleges that judges blatantly stole semifinal fights from two Cuban boxers, and that a judge must have been bribed in the case of Angel Matos, who kicked a referee in the face after he was disqualified in a bronze-medal taekwondo match.

The presumptive Democratic candidate aspires to end U.S. foreign policy “unilateralism:” Democrat Barack Obama represents a “new type of leader” who hopes to use multilateralism, dialogue and the cooperation on the international scene, his campaign advisors said today. “The new element that Obama brings in working with the rest of the world is that… he will listen and will work with our allies, and thus move away from the unilateralism” that has been the mark of the government of Republican President George W. Bush, declared Greg Craig, one of Obama’s main foreign policy advisers, at a press conference. Craig described...

"How the Mob Owned Cuba, and Lost it to the Revolution," is the bestselling book's title. T.J. English is the author. Several facts get in the way of the books title and thesis. To wit: Cuba's Gross Domestic product in 1957 was $2.7 billion. Cuba's foreign receipts in 1957 were about $750 million--of which tourism made up only $60 million. Gambling was a small fraction of this $60 million. How could the beneficiaries of that tiny fraction of Cuba's income "own" the entire country, and "infiltrate its levers of power from top to bottom," as the book asserts? Well, we...

Residents of the Castro are watching with growing concern as their neighborhood becomes a regular attraction on the sightseeing tour of the city. In the last three months, large tour buses have begun to park in the area on Thursday and Sunday afternoons, opening their doors and sending hundreds of tourists out to gawk and snap photos of the exotic sight of two men holding hands. For gay and lesbian residents, who are doing nothing more remarkable than, say, walking over to Cliff's Hardware Store, the idea that as many as six tour buses could turn up at once seems...

Posted at http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=22916 hipelayne Presidential Member = >1000 Posts Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,358 Poster Rank: #59 A powerful message from someone who's "been there!" I just got this from the Confluence. Does this sound familiar This will be considered off-topic — but it isn’t. I thought I’d share this letter which was sent to the Editor of the Times-Dispatch by a gentlemen who escaped Cuba in the 1960’s. His words come from the experience of believing in someone, without taking the time to know who they really are, and the consequences that followed: Subject: Celebration From...

Some of the country's top military brass, angry over the United States' plans to install a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, suggested last month that Russia could send nuclear-capable bombers to refuel and idle in Cuba in retaliation.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The era of Fidel Castro appeared to be ending July 30, 2006, when the ailing leader handed over power to his brother Raul Castro. But two years later, he remains a force to be reckoned with in Cuba and to some degree on the international scene. Although he no longer rules the Caribbean island as he did for almost 50 years, the 81-year-old still has his brother's ear and is using a newfound career as a newspaper columnist to make his views known. Diplomatic cocktail gossip in Havana centers on whether he is using his clout to...

Cuba Not Improved Under New CastroBy the News-Register POSTED: July 28, 2008 New Cuban President Raul Castro answered a question posed several months ago when he took the reins of power from his infirm brother, Fidel. At the time, some observers wondered whether the new Castro would liberalize Cuban policies. No, Raul Castro said on Saturday. Cubans can expect only the same-old, same-old communism. In a speech delivered on Revolution Day, Castro pledged that the military will continue to be a priority for Cuba's resources. That was the case under Fidel Castro, because the wily old dictator understood the need...

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence. On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress. I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and...

International answer in conjuntion with other left wing america hating marxist groups are holding a festival on July 26th to celebrate the Cuban revolution and the 55 years of totalitarian oppresion by the Communist government of fidel castro in Cuba. Below is an article discussing it. It can also be read at http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANSWERLA July 26 "Noche Cubana" Party & Fundraiser Celebrate 55 Years Of Cuba's Revolutionary Struggle A Night of Music, Food, Film, Dancing & Solidarity with Cuba July 26th is celebrated around the world as the beginning of the Cuban revolutionary struggle. On July 26 1953, over 130 young...

On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches. At the Versailles Restaurant, the community newspapers preaching no compromise with Castro are all that are on offer. For almost four decades, the Versailles has been an obligatory stop for Washington politicians courting the Cuban-American community, visits that, as photographs in the restaurant attest, have often involved putting on a white guayabera, the four-pocket dress shirt that...

Hugo Chavez visiting Tehran celebrated his alliance with Akmadinejad. Che Guevara's son Camillo visited Tehran last year. Fidel Castro was there and told his hosts that "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees." It's not just Latin American leftists who see potential in Islamism. There is Ken Livingstone, the Trotskyist mayor of London. Dennis Kucinich, during his first presidential campaign in 2004, quoted the Koran and roused a Muslim audience to chant Allahu akbar ("God is great") and he even announced, "I keep a copy of the Koran in my office." And there...

TJ English joined Covert Radio this week to discuss his new book Havana Nocture.TJ received unprecedented access to the island of Cuba and its records of Mafia control from the 1920s to the 1950s. TJ's book covers a very dark period in the history of the island of Cuba but it is a period that still sets the tempo today. The fact of the matter is the Mafia controlling Cuba is what set the revolution in motion and that revolution being set in motion is what has created the political realities of today’s world. Fully 60 years after the Mafia’s...

Hugo Chavez faces political crisis as allies desert him By David Blair in Caracas Last Updated: 9:24PM BST 29/06/2008 President Hugo Chavez, the "socialist revolutionary" leading a global campaign against America's "empire", is facing a political crisis in Venezuela where crucial elections are approaching and old allies have turned against him. Mr Chavez has given Caracas's slum-dwellers free health care for the first time Mr Chavez, a devoted admirer of Fidel Castro, has forged an anti-American front with leaders ranging from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. At home, however, Mr Chavez is in trouble....

While Sen. Obama worked a warm audience at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami last weekend, protesting Bush and McCain's "tax cuts for the wealthy" and promising billions in federal handouts, a small group of Cuban-Americans stood outside the Intercontinental Hotel protesting Obama himself. More specifically, they protested some of Obama's top advisers: Gregory Craig, who serves as Obama's chief adviser on Latin America, and Eric Holder, who heads Obama's vice-presidential selection team. Both of these gentlemen had key roles in "legally" perfuming the shanghaiing of Elian Gonzalez. At the time, Craig served as lawyer for Elain's father (i.e.,...

It’s nearly unanimous; terrorist groups and cruel dictators have made a clear choice in the US presidential election: OneFreeKorea - Obama Gets Another Unwanted Endorsement. The Chosun Sinbo, the mouthpiece of North Korea’s Japanese front organization Chongryon and often for the North Korean regime itself, has announced its preference for Obama over McCain, whom it calls “a variant of Bush” and “nothing better than a scarecrow of neoconservatives,” which is a bit odd considering that the Bush Administration’s giveaway diplomacy is better for Kim Jong Il than even Clinton’s awful performance. It’s worth pausing to consider the disturbing rhetorical similarity...

Cuban television is showing images of Fidel Castro chatting in a garden with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the first images of the ailing revolutionary broadcast in six months. The 81-year-old Castro looks thinner, and his hair and beard are much whiter in the video images, which did not include any audio. But he nevertheless looks vigorous and animated as he talks with his younger brother, President Raul Castro, and Chavez. He is dressed in a white running jacket with red and blue trim in the images broadcast Tuesday.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had an "animated and warm" meeting with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro during a visit to Havana, state-run media said on Tuesday, but no photos or videos of the left-wing allies were made public. Chavez, upon arrival on Monday for a two-day visit, told reporters he would meet with top Cuban officials including the ailing, 81-year-old Castro and Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, who took over as president in February. "Now we have our team, it's the same team," he said, referring to the close ties he has forged between oil-rich Venezuela and...

Slowly, the yoke of communism is being lifted in Cuba. Since taking over from brother Fidel, President Raul Castro has made it easier for people to own homes and has overhauled the collectivist agriculture bureaucracy to make farms more productive and profitable. He also is allowing people to own cell phones, rent cars, stay in luxury hotels, and buy computers and other electronics, which is something of a cruel joke because though most Cubans get a lot of "free" stuff and government subsidies, their average monthly pay is 408 pesos — $19.50. But Cuba's latest retreat from Stalinism is more...

HAVANA (CBS4) ― Eight years after a headline making international custody fight which ended with his return to his father in Cuba, Elian Gonzalez has joined Cuba's Young Communist Union. In an article in Cuba's communist youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, the 14-year old Gonzalez said he would never let ex-President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro down. He joined more than 18-thousand others who joined the group on Saturday. In 2000, Gonzalez' mother was killed when a boat carrying them to the U.S. capsized in the Florida Straits. Elian, who was 6 years old at the time..........."

Most polls show Barack Obama and John McCain running about even, but one new survey is an extreme outlier. It gives Obama a 37-point margin. This, however, is a function of the sample. It is well known that Republicans tend to do better in polls of likely voters than in polls of registered voters, and Democrats do best in surveys that include habitual electoral abstainers. Which explains this result. For the sample of this poll consists entirely of nonvoters, as London's Telegraph explains: Senator Barack Obama emerged as Europe's favourite candidate for America's presidency today when a poll conducted for...

Not long ago, Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer pledged that the party and its allies will refrain from injecting race into the presidential contest in the state. "There will be no one connected with the Republican Party of Florida who will utilize any issue related to race, because it's not relevant," Greer told reporters gathered in his Tallahassee office. But that is exactly what a Democratic congressional candidate says the party did last week when it fired out an e-mail press release bearing a doctored photo purportedly showing Fidel Castro endorsing Barack Obama.

For nearly five decades, the United States has pursued a policy toward Cuba that could be described as incredibly stupid. It could also be called childish and counterproductive -- and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, even insane. Absent the threat of communist expansionism, the refusal by successive American presidents to engage with Cuba has not even a fig leaf's worth of rationale to cover its naked illogic. Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help whip up nationalist fervor on the island -- and prolong his rule -- the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions...

Much of the Religious Left has abandoned its old infatuation with Marxism, having long since moved on to radical environmentalism or performing apologetics for radical Islam. But quaintly, some relics still hang on to the old causes, chief of which is the 50 year love affair with Fidel Castro and his Cuban despotism.

In a presidential race in which unwanted, damaging endorsements seem far more plentiful than endorsements that actually could help, Barack Obama has had the unfortunate distinction of being a magnet for such well-wishers. The latest unsought praise for the Democratic front-runner came from Fidel Castro, who wrote in a column for Cuba’s Granma newspaper Monday that Obama is “the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency.” Never mind that the column was used to criticize Obama for wanting to uphold the U.S. trade embargo. The Florida GOP seized on it, posting an article about it on their Web site and...

Election 2008: What is it about Barack Obama that makes our enemies like him? The latest anti-American icon to express eagerness for an Obama presidency is none other than Fidel Castro.Presidential candidates usually collect the endorsements of governors, senators and aldermen. But Obama is getting the backing of thug after thug on the international scene. Castro became the latest when, in an article in the Cuban government organ Granma, he gave the Democratic front-runner the closest thing to an endorsement the communist despot has ever bestowed. Castro called Obama, "this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points...

Senator Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials took a further blow on Tuesday after his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination won the backing of Fidel Castro. The former Cuban president gave a qualified endorsement to Mr Obama whom he described as "the most-advanced candidate" in the race for the White House. The unwelcome support of the ailing revolutionary icon is likely to give Senator John McCain further opportunity to question Mr Obama's foreign policy credentials. The Republican nominee has consistently tried to exploit the support offered for Mr Obama by Hamas, which is listed by the US state department as...

HAVANA (AP) — Former President Fidel Castro says Sen. Barack Obama's plan to maintain Washington's trade embargo against Cuba will cause hunger and suffering on the island. In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race," but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Former President Fidel Castro says Sen. Barack Obama's plan to maintain Washington's trade embargo against Cuba will cause hunger and suffering on the island. In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race," but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba. "Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," Castro wrote, referring to Obama's remarks last week to the influential Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. Obama said he would maintain the nearly fifty-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba...

Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday for his criticism of the Cuban government this week, saying McCain had shown why he finished near the bottom of his class at West Point. In his latest newspaper column, Castro also attacked President George W. Bush for his speech on Wednesday announcing that U.S. citizens would be allowed to send cell phones to Cuba. "A deluge of speeches and lies they directed at Cuba," Castro said in a column published in Communist Party newspaper Granma. "How far they are from knowing Cuba and its people." McCain, speaking...

Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday for his criticism of the Cuban government this week, saying McCain had shown why he finished near the bottom of his class at West Point. In his latest newspaper column, Castro also attacked President George W. Bush for his speech on Wednesday announcing that U.S. citizens would be allowed to send cell phones to Cuba. "A deluge of speeches and lies they directed at Cuba," Castro said in a column published in Communist Party newspaper Granma. "How far they are from knowing Cuba and its people."

Jeremiah Wright's Cuban Friends By Humberto Fontova Was it remotely conceivable that someone with Jeremiah's Wright's worldview and connections had somehow avoided a pilgrimage to the world capitol of Yankee-hatred, to worship and commiserate with its high priests? Not a chance. Reverend Wright was part of Revered Jesse Jackson's 300 person entourage to Havana in 1984. “Viva Fidel!” bellowed Reverend Jackson while concluding his speech at the University of Havana. “Viva Che Guevara!..Long Live our cry of Freedom!” “He (Jesse Jackson)is a great personality,” reciprocated a beaming Fidel Castro, “a brilliant man with a great talent, capable of communicating with...

Cuban emigres living out rags-to-riches fairytale with colt Gayego Dr. Jose Prieto, left, and Carlos Juelle pose with Gayego shortly after they purchased him at the 2006 Keeneland September yearling sale. Carlos A. Juelle Mike Brunker Horse racing editor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Few, if any, have traveled a more improbable and circuitous route to the Kentucky Derby than Carlos Juelle and Jose Prieto. The Cuban émigrés journey to the owners’ suite at Churchill Downs traces back nearly four decades to hard-labor camps and a maximum security prison run by Fidel Castro’s communist regime. Juelle, a 68-year-old semi-retired business executive...

The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access. This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks. Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look. The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month. But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.

HAVANA - Only a month has passed since ordinary Cubans won the right to own computers, and the government still keeps a rigid grip on Internet access. But that hasn't stopped thousands from finding their way into cyberspace. And a daring few post candid blogs about life in the communist-run country that have garnered international audiences Yoani Sanchez writes the "Generacion Y" blog and gets more than a million hits a month, mostly from abroad — though she has begun to strike a chord in Cuba. On her site and others, anonymous Cubans offer stinging criticisms of their government. But...

Body of South American Youth Mutilated Near Guantanamo! By Humberto Fontova Thursday, April 24, 2008 Body of South American Youth Mutilated Near Guantanamo! U.S. Officials Rebuff Inquiries! Bereaved Family of Young Idealist Demand Answers! Havana is 500 miles from Guantanamo so “near” is a relative term. And U.S. officials haven't been grilled on the matter. But everything in the above headline is true. Nonetheless, allow me to apologize to the Bolivian family of the victim for my flim-flammery as an intro. If I 'd started this column with what this family strongly suspects: that the mutilation and possible death of...

By Marc Frank April 23, 2008 HAVANA (Reuters) - An ailing Fidel Castro took partial credit on Wednesday for firing Cuba's long-serving education minister this week, indicating that he would remain influential behind the scenes as long as he is able. Castro, who was succeeded by his younger brother Raul Castro as president this year after almost half a century at the helm, blasted former minister Luis Ignacio Gomez for being "burnt out" and "losing revolutionary consciousness." In a newspaper column, Castro laid into Gomez for travelling abroad too much and taking personal credit for advances in Cuba's education system.

In an apparent lack of confidence in the leadership of Raul Castro, the number of Cubans leaving the island illegally by sea has been rising, according to U.S. officials. The number of people attempting the perilous voyage across of the Florida Straits has risen 21 percent compared to the same period last year. The number intercepted by the Coast Guard increased 65 percent. Since the beginning of October 2007, some 2,891 Cubans have attempted the journey across the straits. While 1,697 successfully reached the United States, 1,194 were intercepted at sea and returned to Cuba. Nearly ten times the number...

Cuba's Useful Idiot By Humberto Fontova FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/16/2008 Last month Dan Rather’s new gig as host of HDNET's “Dan Rather Reports” found him, as so often during his CBS days, “reporting” from Cuba. From Dan we heard of “dramatic changes” down there, of a “remarkable transformation.” “The door (to the U.S.) is open, “explained Dan. “The best time to talk is now.” Dan was chanting a familiar tune, one we've heard almost nonstop from the MSM's pet “Cuba Experts'” for the past 21 months. As usual when dealing with Cuban matters, a sober look behind the carefully constructed and...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that his close friend Fidel Castro predicted the fall of the U.S. dollar. Chavez said Cuba's 81-year-old former president mentioned the prediction some time ago before signs of a weakening dollar had begun to appear. "Fidel told me one day, 'Chavez, it won't be long before the crisis of the dollar occurs,'" the Venezuelan leader said in a televised speech. Chavez said Castro handed him a document he had written during one of their meetings in Havana that said "the United States has bought half the world with paper bills that...