Free Republic

The State of the Union address this year falls one day after the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. So it's quite fitting that Speaker John Boehner have as his honored guest a black human-rights activist. But alas, said human-rights activist is also a Cuban dissident, a former political prisoner of the Castro regime and a critic of resident Obama's push to normalize relations with Cuba without any concomitant political and economic reforms on the island to empower the impoverished, oppressed people there. We will watch to see what mention, if any, is given by network journalists tonight to Jorge...

Hurricane Dennis stalked Cuba's southern coast before making landfall Friday as it aimed to slice across the Caribbean's largest island, packing 145 mph (235 kph) winds capable of catastrophic damage that sent thousands fleeing the Florida Keys and raised fears of more disruption to U.S. oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Winds and heaving surf tossed a lifeguard tower into the sea and roared over a razor-wire fence at the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, on the island's eastern end. An evacuation order was in effect in the Florida Keys, where officials feared Dennis would...