Posted on 06/29/2010 3:27:52 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
(Reuters) - A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.
"This bill has been needed for a long time," House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said in a statement ahead of committee action on Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Just when the Castro Brothers have their backs against the wall, we bail them out.
Just when the Castro Brothers have their backs against the wall, we bail them out.
"Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, who said that the first letter could be “a game changer” in convincing members of Congress to vote for the letter, said in an e-mail June 17 that, “Obviously, we believe that ending the travel ban and increasing food sales to Cuba is in America’s interests, and it’s significant that 74 of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents, those who confront Cuba’s reality every day, agree that this is also the right thing to do for the Cuban people.”The e-mail goes on: “What [Rep. Diaz-Balart] and the other defenders of the status quo can’t deny is that our policy has not produced any progress toward democracy or human rights, and it is now time to move things forward by changing the policy, ending the travel ban, selling Cuba more food, and sending more American visitors to Cuba’s streets to meet the hunger of average Cubans for more information and contact.”"
Sarah must think that because sanctions are working with Iran & North Korea, perhaps it's time we trade freely with those two countries as well. Clearly, if she thinks it will help in Cuba, why not Iran?
President Polk should have invaded the island from Spain and made it into a U.S. territory. Ever notice that ex-Spanish colonies have all the problems now and ex-English colonies do not?
They want to keep them in the fold for the next few months. If the left gets mad and doesn't turn out to vote the Dems get absolutely slaughtered in Nov.
And the French. It's not like Haiti is a model nation.
The U.S. could care less if it sells anything to anyone, but you involve a communist dictatorship, and by God we’ll do anything to conduct business with them.
This is the old Vietnam two-step, minus the MIA issue.
I’ll bet John McCain is frustrated as hell, not being able to piss off MIA families and veterans while he games this one to his advantage.
Just think folks, we won’t have to send our jobs all the way to China any longer. Oh the opportunities...
If our people want jobs, perhaps they’ll just have to move down to paradise under Fidel’s kin.
Other than Fidel’s impending death what has their back against the wall? I thought Raul was taking over and it was business as usual.
In my opinion, it was the British (and to some extent the Roman) idea that the Law was more important than men, even the King. The US combined this with increased individual liberty and saw great prosperity. Canada, Australia, and even India became very livable places because the law was clear and generally applied impartially. It is much easier to prosper in a world where you know the rules. Sadly it seems that Britain and all it’s former possessions have forgotten this.
Is there any Communist dictator to which this regime will not suck up?
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A WSJ column a few days ago listed poor harvests, massive housing destruction because of hurricanes, and no real way to earn hard currency except barter deals with Hugo Chavez.
Cubans now can’t even get their meat and eggs entitlement from their ration cards because agricultural production has been left to wither.
Fewer European and Canadian tourists are visiting because their economy is down too.
China is a much worse dictatorship than Cuba and yet we don’t have a travel ban with China.
China didn't seize the assets of US citizens, at least not yet. I'm sure if China decided to seize and nationalize all the investments that have been made in China in the last 30 years, we'd institute a travel ban there.
People (usually who are under the age of 45), forget the outrageous crimes Fidel Castro perpetrated against American citizens when he came to power. Hotels, restaurants, cash, bank safe-deposit boxes, homes and other businesses of US nationals living in Cuba were all seized in the coup. It is impossible (or should be) to normalize relations with Cuba until such a time that restitution is made to the families of those whose fortunes were confiscated, at least.
With the exception of Myanmar (Burma), I believe he's covered them all. I imagine on his trip to Indonesia, he'll find someway to kiss the ass of the Myanmar junta.
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