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President Obama's decision this week to ease some parts of the embargo against Cuba is being hailed as a first step toward altering a U.S. policy that has prevailed for a half-century without unseating Fidel Castro. We don't object, though it'd be nice if Mr. Obama also began speaking up against the Castro dictatorship. Mr. Obama's changes are partly a humanitarian response to Cuban hardship. They might even expose the regime's phony claim that the Yankee "bloqueo," or embargo, is the cause of Cuba's misery. But let's not expect too much. Embargo or not, Cuba will remain an island prison...

IN another outreach to rogu ish regimes, the Obama ad ministration on Monday an nounced the easing of some restrictions on Cuba. Team Bam hopes that a new face in the White House will heal old wounds. Fat chance. Sure, it's fine to allow separated families to see each other more than once every three years -- even though Cubanos aren't allowed to visit America. And permitting gifts to Cuban relatives could ease unnecessary poverty -- even though the regime will siphon off an estimated 20 percent of the money sent there. In the end, though, it's still Fidel Castro...

The Castro regime is one of the most brutal, ruthless and amoral regimes of our time. While little mention of it is offered by the world media, due to their soft spot for murderers and thugs everywhere, the cruelty it embodies is no less true. After all, the only time the media sees fit to heap scorn on anyone is when conservatives enact policies that defend innocents against terror or brutality. If the Castro regime were still in its glory days, lifting any part of the embargo would still be ill advised and an act of acquiescence to evil. But...

The U.S. policy of shunning communist Cuba by imposing a strict trade embargo has failed to prod the island nation toward democracy and should be re-evaluated, according to the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests," wrote Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in a report dated Monday. President Barack Obama has promised a fresh look at the U.S. policy. He says he would be open to meeting with Castro, who took over as Cuba's president for his ailing...

HAVANA, September 17 —In less than 24 hours more than 1,000 intellectuals from Latin America, the United States, Europe and Africa have signed an appeal circulated by their Cuban colleagues, expressing solidarity and demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The message, which is circulating on the Internet, notes that Cuba was dramatically impacted by two powerful hurricanes recently, and that its people are demanding an immediate halt to the odious blockade that has been maintained against Cuba by successive U.S. administrations for almost 50 years. The appeal to the world from a large group of Cuban artists...

Help please! I belong to a forum devoted to gems and gemology. Members there, 99% ultra-liberal, are going into a tizzy because Bush signed a bill that outlaws certain gem imports from Burma. It's silly feel-good legislation that accomplishes nothing toward toppling the junta but makes it appear our Congress-critters are "doing something." It's named the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008. Forum members there are trying to rewrite history by saying Bush and Cheney are responsible instead of the Democrats who wrote it and pushed it through Congress. They're really incensed because the bill blocks certain gem...

ON June 4, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented her annual report on human trafficking for 2008, in which, for the sixth consecutive year, the United States government included Cuba among the countries it accuses of not making significant efforts to confront the alleged trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and described our country as a sexual tourism destination, among other serious and unfounded accusations. For the first time, the imperial power also decided to include in this report several recommendations to the Cuban government as to how to confront the phenomenon. At the...

US tracking 'suspicious ship' from N Korea Oct. 20, 2006 WASHINGTON — The United States is tracking a suspicious vessel that left a North Korean port, a US official said yesterday, adding it was uncertain what it was carrying. . The CBS news network reported that US intelligence suspects that the vessel is carrying military equipment banned under an embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council in response to North Korea's nuclear test on Oct 9. The resolution calls on North Korea to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme and imposes a range of financial, trade and military...

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...

Barack Obama: "I think its time for us to end the embargo of Cuba..." Barack Obama, speaking at the University of Southern Illinois, 1/20/2004 "I am no fan of the Cuban embargo, but removing it now - or announcing a presidential trip to meet with Raul Castro - would indicate that America views this familial transfer of power as real change, rather than what it is: a maneuver meant to leave the brutal Castro legacy intact." Benny Avni, Op-Ed, "Obama Vs. Bad Guys: To Talk Or Not To Talk?" The New York Sun, 2/25/08 "I believe that normalization of relations...

** EXCERPT ** With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam. Five days after the March 4, 1993, dinner at the Excelsior Hotel, Mr. Riady took the embargo question directly to President Clinton, saying in a four-page letter that its demise would bring political reforms in that communist country. By that time,...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has decided to impose an official embargo of the Arabic Al Jazeera satellite TV network due to the Foreign Ministry's assessment that the station function as a propaganda arm in the Arab war against the Jewish state. "After discussions on the issue, the Foreign Ministry has decided to embargo the station," Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio Wednesday. "[Al Jazeera’s] reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us. They incite people to terrorist activities." The Foreign Ministry intends to demand that Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, investigate specific allegations regarding coverage of recent events in Gaza...

On Dec. 29, 1962, 11 months before he was murdered by an advocate for Fidel Castro’s regime (Lee Harvey Oswald had distributed propaganda on a New Orleans street for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee), President John Kennedy, speaking in Miami’s Orange Bowl to veterans of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, received from them a Cuban flag and vowed, “I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana.” In Cuba, too, regime change has turned out to be more problematic than American policymakers imagined.

Are we seeing the first indications that a Raul Castro-led Cuba will want warmer relations with the US? Yesterday, Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Raul thanked Hugo Chavez for assisting Cuba, but thinks that US-friendly Brazil makes a better dance partner for the future (via Brian Faughnan): The newspaper reports that during the January Brazilian presidential visit to Havana, Raul Castro praised Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for having helped Cuba “in a particularly tough moment of the ongoing confrontation with the United States George W Bush administration”. Nevertheless Fidel Castro brother is quoted saying that Brazil “is a...

Update 10:18am. State Dept “has indicated” the trade embargo with Cuba will remain in place. ***Don’t ask me why I’m up, but I am. And the AP has just put out a news alert that many have been awaiting for years: Fidel Castro has announced he will be resigning. Just a single line so far: “HAVANA (AP) — Official media quotes Fidel Castro saying he will not seek new presidential term.”Time to reinstitute the Fidel Castro Death Watch?Stand by for more…Val Prieto at Babalu Blog posted the Castro zombie doll yesterday as the “perfect symbol of The Revolution.” Behold the...

TEHERAN, 19/02/08 - Iran has suggested that it will boycott Dutch products if MP Geert Wilders shows his Koran film in March as planned. The Iranian parliament yesterday urged "the Dutch and Danish governments not to let the Zionism materialize its satanic objectives in the name of honourable nations of Holland and Denmark," according to Iranian press agency IRNA. This apparently was a reference to republication of controversial cartoons b a Danish newspaper and to Wilders' film plans. "We, the representatives of parliament, condemn the satanic act, and call on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to show strong reaction to such sacrilege...

For four years, a list of alleged Republican positions -- "What You Have To Believe To Be a Republican Today" -- has been circulating on the Internet and forwarded in countless e-mails. In this presidential election year, it is important to respond to these charges. If people want to vote for a Democratic president, they should not do so based on falsehoods about Republicans. Given space limitations, I cannot respond to all of them. I have decided to respond to the 13 most significant. "What you have to believe to be a Republican today": 1. "Saddam was a good guy...

"United States policy must continue to stand with the Cuban people and against those who have oppressed, terrorized, and murdered so many Cubans over the past half-century. This was my position when I served in the Senate; it is my position today; it will be my position as President. Fidel and Raul Castro are unaccountable dictators who can serve no role in Cuba’s future. We must continue supporting the growing internal opposition in Cuba while also denying the regime any source of funding that could prop up this cruel, illegitimate government. This means keeping current sanctions in place, and increasing...

(snip) But the Fred Thompson campaign just sent out a reminder to reporters about Mike Huckabee’s more lenient attitude toward Fidel Castro. (snip) Huckabee: Mr. President, Lift the Cuban Embargo Summary: In 2002, Governor Huckabee strongly advocated lifting the embargo against Cuba saying it “harm[s] our own agricultural and business interests,” “has not helped the people of Cuba” and has “provided Castro with a convenient excuse for his own failed system of government.” (snip) “‘The United States’ policy of unilateral embargo against Cuba continues to harm our own agricultural and business interests here at home and has certainly not helped...

"Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where, Nor a drop to drink." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ----------------------------------------------------- Iran isn’t an energy-independent country. I’m well aware that Iran produces more than 4 million barrels of oil per day, the fourth-highest production in the world. And with the near-constant reporting about Iranian crude reserves during the past six months, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could be unaware that Iran has 132 billion barrels in proven reserves--or, at least, they claim to. But what’s often ignored is that...