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Behold, the superior negotiating powers of President Barack Obama: State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki repeatedly refused to answer questions this afternoon about the 53 political detainees Cuba promised to release as part of a deal with President Obama to normalize relations with the United States.When asked about a lack of transparency in the prisoner exchange process, Psaki said, “Well, we know who’s on there. And the Cuban government knows who’s on there.” …After Psaki stated that she had no updates to provide, a befuddled Matt Lee asked, “Hold on — hold on a second. Can we — I mean,...

Rubio says Jeb is a true conservative. Maybe it is time for more huddles and cuddles with Boehner over amnesty. What about Rand Paul. Rand endorsed Yoho but Rand likes to kiss the ring. Of course they won't be voting on the issue but Yoho is from Rubio's state and Rand endorsed Yoho.

State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki repeatedly refused to answer questions this afternoon about the 53 political detainees Cuba promised to release as part of a deal with President Obama to normalize relations with the United States. When asked about a lack of transparency in the prisoner exchange process, Psaki said, “Well, we know who’s on there. And the Cuban government knows who’s on there.” The Cuban government hasn’t exactly been a model for transparency the last half century. Included in his deal with Cuba, Obama announced two weeks ago that the U.S. government had released three Cuban spies. The lack...

Driven by fear that their window is closing, the number of Cuban migrants attempting to reach the U.S. illegally in rafts has surged since the two countries announced they would restore diplomatic relations after 50 years, Coast Guard officials said Monday. U.S. authorities have captured, intercepted or chased away 421 Cubans since Dec. 17, mostly in the Florida Straits, said Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma, spokesman for the Coast Guard's 7th District in Miami. In all of December 2013, the total number of Cuban migrants who encountered U.S. law enforcement while trying to reach the U.S was nearly half that -...

No, apparently this is not a spoof, the scion of the man who was responsible for the Cuban blockade is full of awe for the Cuban dictatorship. Sure, it’s a dictatorship, but other than that, it’s just ducky, apparently. Writing in the South American news agency MercoPress, Robert F. Kennedy avers, after admitting the dictatorship and lack of a free press: Despite its poverty, Cuba has managed some impressive accomplishments. Cuba’s government boasts the highest literacy rates for its population of any nation in the hemisphere. Cuba claims its citizens enjoy universal access to health care and more doctors per...

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

It is not a news flash that Congress is corrupt. Their 9% approval rating is symbolic of how this criminal enterprise body is perceived by the American people. Can you actually believe that Representative John Boehner admits that bribery of members of Congress is standard operational procedure. Further, Boehner admits that this is a long-standing practice. “When the House minority leader was questioned about taking bribes from tobacco lobbyists in June of 1995 in exchange for taxpayer subsidies, and then redistributing them to other congressional members on the House floor, Boehner said, “They [the lobbyists] asked me to give out...

In early December, President Barack Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of a misguided policy which my uncle, John F. Kennedy, and my father, Robert F. Kennedy, had been responsible for enforcing after the U.S. embargo against the country was first implemented in October 1960 by the Eisenhower administration. The move has raised hopes in many quarters – not only in the United States but around the world – that the embargo itself is now destined to disappear. This does not detract from the fact that Cuba is still a dictatorship. The...

No wonder Cuba wallows in poverty. Last week, the New York Times reported that the Castro brothers opened a special business zone where foreign companies "would be given greater control over setting wages at factories. ... (P)roposals would be approved or rejected within 60 days." What? If I want to give someone a raise, I have to wait up to two months for government approval! That's absurd. Yet the Times said that the zone offers "big incentives for investors." How clueless can their writers be? Their own article acknowledges, "A year later, the Cuban government has yet to announce a...

As a direct result of Obama's intervention in Cuba, "a large group of prominent Havana dissidents -- activists, civil society advocates and independent journalists -- were arrested as they headed for a pro-free speech... event."..... In an open letter to Obama, Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo, a member of the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement, writes "that there is nothing new in treating as 'normal' the illegitimate government in Havana, which has never been elected by its citizens and has been practicing state murder with impunity. That strategy already has been done by all the other governments without positive consequences for democracy...

President Barack Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba has Kentucky’s lone Democratic representative at the federal level both “excited and pleased” with his actions — even if some of his GOP counterparts don’t share his enthusiasm. ... “It’s not accomplished anything. It’s hurt the Cuban people,” Yarmuth said. While it would take full Congressional approval to lift the embargo Yarmuth said the old policy put in place in the 1960’s. “Our policy makes absolutely no sense. We’re the only ones in the world treating them like this,” Yarmuth said. “If you’re in Cuba you understand that countries from all...

The CIA should be abolished. After a trial run of 67 years, the agency has proven a sorcerer’s apprentice. The director and his subordinates have became insufferably arrogant Platonic Guardians hiding behind secrecy in the belief that the rest of us are too stupid or naive to judge what risks to accept to preserve liberty and the rule of law. The CIA has made Americans less safe. Its incorrigible anti-democratic ethos was epitomized by legendary chief of counterintelligence James J. Angleton. He voiced contempt for the Church Committee’s investigation of chronic agency abuses, i.e., the “Family Jewels.” As reported in...

Most of you quickly figured out how Obama’s new amnesty plan creates more Democratic voters. Did you know his new Cuba policy does too? To wit:First off, Obama did not “lift the Cuba embargo.” Instead he further loop holed it with executive orders, a process that started when he first took office. The Helms-Burton Act of 1996, you see, codified some of the vital economic sanctions against Cuba into U.S. law so a full and genuine “lifting of the embargo” requires a Congressional vote. But the required votes to lift them are not there. Every year for the past 20 or...

With the latest crackdown in Cuba showing just how Havana has ‘read’ Obama’s policy shift towards the Castro dictatorship, this new Foreign Affairs article by Victor Gaetan giving some background to the Vatican’s involvement in the deal that was eventually struck makes timely reading. Here’s an extract (my emphasis added): In Cuba, in other words, the church is still strong. Havana’s Cardinal Archbishop Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino has followed a strategy of reconciliation on the island, avoiding confrontation with the state while winning more independence to carry out the Church’s religious mission. Under Ortega’s 35-year leadership, the Catholic Church,...

Falling world oil prices will hurt countries across the Middle East unless Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, takes action to reverse the slump, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Reuters. Hossein Amir Abdollahian described Saudi Arabia’s inaction in the face of a six-month slide in oil prices as a strategic mistake and said he still hoped the kingdom, Tehran’s main rival in the Gulf, would respond. Oil prices closed on Wednesday at a 5½ year low, registering their second-biggest ever annual decline after OPEC oil exporters, led by Saudi Arabia, chose to maintain oil output despite a global glut...

PARIS (AP) — It was supposed to force millionaires to pay tax rates of up to 75 percent: "Cuba without the sun," as described by a critic from the banking industry. Socialist President Francois Hollande's super tax was rejected by a court, rewritten and ultimately netted just a sliver of its projected proceeds. It ends on Wednesday and will not be renewed. And that critic of the tax? He's now Hollande's economy minister, trying mightily to undo the damage to France's image in international business circles. The tax of 75 percent on income earned above one million euros ($1.22 million)...

I will let each one of you reach your own conclusions regarding the Cuban pact and the role played by the Catholic church in this dark chapter of history There are a few topics or subjects in life which you just don’t care to discuss as, invariably you will always tap unto someone else’s wrong chord whenever you do; probably awakening, if you will, all kinds of passionate responses - at times outright anger. Needless to say, I refer to religion as one of those subjects if not [the] subject, habitually known for stirring more controversies than any other. To...

(English-language translation) President Obama's measures are for the government, not for Cuba. He is mistaken if he thinks restoring relations is going to favor the island's people. There will be changes here when human rights are respected and the Castros no longer exist. These measures will allow the Cuban government to strengthen, equip their repressive machine against the Cuban people, against civil society. We know that achieving freedom depends on us Cubans, but we want to count on moral support from governments. We feel unprotected at this time, but with or without support, what is important is to maintain our...

US President Barack Obama acknowledges that Iran would become a “very successful regional power” if a long-term nuclear agreement is reached. “They have got a chance to get right with the world,” Obama said in an interview with NPR News, which was taped at the White House on Dec. 18 and aired on Monday. More than a year ago, Iran agreed to an interim agreement to suspend 20-percent uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions pending on a long-term deal. Despite progress in the talks, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council...

Cuban police have detained at least three leading dissidents ahead of a planned free-speech demonstration in the Plaza de la Revolución. The arrests of Antonio Rodiles, Eliezer Avila and Reinaldo Escobar look set to be the biggest test yet of diplomatic relations with the US since they were restored earlier this month after 53 years of tension. The crackdown came around lunchtime on Tuesday, just hours before local performance artist Tania Bruguera was due to stage an open-microphone event in Havana’s most politically sensitive square. Police had denied Bruguera a permit for the “Yo tambien exijo,” [I also demand]” demonstration...