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Obama Extends Cuba Embargo One Year

The embargo has been in place for nearly 50 years (with the exception of a couple years in the 1970s)...yet the Castros are still there. Even if you believe that Cuba's government is the embodiment of evil, and the righteous United States needs to do everything in its power to bring it down, you're still faced with the practical argument: the embargo obviously hasn't worked.
Just as “The Song Remains the Same”, “The question remains the same.”

Namely: What Embargo?

Webster's defines "embargo" as "a government order imposing a trade barrier." As a verb it's defined as, "to prevent commerce."
Yet according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. transacted $730 million with Cuba in 2008
 
Ron Paul is right again. Just end the embargo.

For ****'s sake, not smoking Cuban Cigars never brought them democracy.
 
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Just as “The Song Remains the Same”, “The question remains the same.”

Namely: What Embargo?

Webster's defines "embargo" as "a government order imposing a trade barrier." As a verb it's defined as, "to prevent commerce."
Yet according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. transacted $730 million with Cuba in 2008

Cuba's GDP is $114 billion, so that means we're essentially doing no trade with them at all despite the fact that it's 90 miles from our shores and the US should naturally be Cuba's largest trading partner. You'll have to forgive me if I doubt that our failure to squeeze that last $730 million is the reason the Castros have endured for 50 years. :roll:
 
So you are quite certain that all the alcohol you have ever drank in your life was domestically produced? That must have taken a lot of effort. And I'm sorry that you haven't opened your palate to tastes from around the world. There's a plethora of good beer and hard liquor produced outside of Murka that you might enjoy.

I wouldn't say I'm totally certain that ALL of it has been domestically produced, but considering that I drink very little alcohol at all, I'd suggest that a very high percentage of it has been. I've probably had less alcohol in my lifetime than most adult males in America drink in a single year. I find that I generally don't like the taste of most alcohol, period. It's generally bitter or sour or something along that scale whereas I tend to prefer things that are sweet, which is not a common flavoring in alcohol.
 
End this ridiculous embargo already. Allow Americans to visit Ernest Hemingway's former apartment. Allow Carnival Cruise Lines to add Cuban ports to their itineraries. Let Americans legally buy Cuban ones. Cuba's not a shining example of democracy. Neither is Mexico or Jamaica, but we're allowed to vacation in those Caribbean nations.
 
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The embargo serves no practical purpose today. Increased trade almost always brings increased freedom and democracy, eventually. Sixty years of embargo have failed. Let's flood them with capitalism and see how long Castro's façade can remain standing.
 
Lifting today’s nominal embargo is a good idea that almost all Cuban agree with. The Castros’ tyranny continues to talk about the embargo (call by them blockade) to create the impression in the public opinion that it is the principal cause of the failure of its dysfunctional economic system. It is the old tactic used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi regime minister of propaganda whose very famous quote says, “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.”

The only effective embargo that today affects the Cuban people is the internal embargo that the Castros’ tyranny maintains on them.
 
US sales to Cuba in 2008 reach $801 million. Import totaled $14.25 billion. The United States government’s embargo has had little effect on the Cuban economy, since this only represents 5.62% of the regime commerce with the rest of the world. Without the embargo the debt with the US could be similar to the debt of 31 billion with the EU countries.

From December 2001 up to August 2009, the Castro’s regime had paid $4.4 billion to American companies for the purchases of their products according to the state run company Alimport. Cuba's National Statistics Office (Oficina Nacional de Estadsticas. Cuba) placed the United States as Cuba’s fifth business partner at $801 million in 2008.

How is possible that the fifth business partner and biggest food supplier keep a blockade of Cuba? The lies of Castro’s agents mimic Joseph Goebbels propaganda technique, “A lied repeated a thousand times eventually becomes truth” or this other one “The bigger the lie, the more people will be believe it”.

Cuban economy’s bankruptcy is the sole responsibility of Castro’s regime. It is due to the corruption and ineffectiveness of a military dictatorship that is against private property and free enterprise. Under this system the economy will continuous deteriorate without any hope of improvement. These and no others are the real reasons of the problems.
 
Perhaps I'm just too cynical here, but there's no friggin' way he's going to open up Cuba during an election year. He'll have every Florida Cuban voting against him... prolly not a good idea.
 
There is a chance for Obama to do a good thing he might be remembered for in a good way by ending the now meaningless embargo but he;s not smart enough to see that he could be a hero to all Cubans everywhere.

I would love to ne in a position to reunite all the Cubans who fled Fidel with those who have suffered, all these years.

Cuba is no threat to us any more.

I can't believe it... I completely agree with you. Except for the part about Obama being stupid, anyway.
 
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ALL FOREIGNERS are a potential threat to the United States.

Aww... you're not serious, are you? Even Canadians? Like Justin Bieber or Celine Dion? Come to think of it, maybe you're right.
 
Aww... you're not serious, are you? Even Canadians? Like Justin Bieber or Celine Dion? Come to think of it, maybe you're right.

This country hasn't been the same since the Beetles invaded.
 
Perhaps I'm just too cynical here, but there's no friggin' way he's going to open up Cuba during an election year. He'll have every Florida Cuban voting against him... prolly not a good idea.
That is my feeling too. He is in campaign mood, he already “change” gears.

Can the Castros’ regime be defined as a military dictatorship? The Castroit regimen has been in power for 52 years without democratic institutions nor opposition parties, in control of all the media outlets in the island, with control over the social, economic and political life of the population. Fidel was in power for 47 years without any limits to his authority regulating all aspects of public and private life. The definition is a shoo-in.

Castro I, after health problems, appointed his brother Raúl as his successor to the throne. Who will be next in line, one of Fidel sons or Raúl? The regime isn’t only tyrannical but a tyrannical monarchy.
 
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Cuban regime's refusal to entertain the Obama administration's overtures to improve relations reveals that the Castro dictatorship is "an intransigent, entrenched regime," with no interest in political reform.

"It is my personal belief," Secretary Clinton said, "that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years." Amen to that.
 
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Cuban regime's refusal to entertain the Obama administration's overtures to improve relations reveals that the Castro dictatorship is "an intransigent, entrenched regime," with no interest in political reform.

"It is my personal belief," Secretary Clinton said, "that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years." Amen to that.
Probably correct.

Ok, so why is the Cuban community in Florida against normalization? Serious question. I don't know the answer.
 
There is a chance for Obama to do a good thing he might be remembered for in a good way by ending the now meaningless embargo but he;s not smart enough to see that he could be a hero to all Cubans everywhere.

I would love to ne in a position to reunite all the Cubans who fled Fidel with those who have suffered, all these years.

Cuba is no threat to us any more.

Yep, this whole thing with Cuba is a big waste of time (and money). Its political pettiness, at this point.

I was recently flipping through the Air Canada vacation guide on a Chicago-Calgary flight and noted all the resorts in Cuba. Its a beautiful place. Our Canadian friends list it as one of their favorite destinations. They are not supporting us in the one country hissy-fit we continue to carry on with Havana. Time to end this silliness. Besides, Nothing will bring down the government of Havana faster than a couple of Trump casinos and Westin resorts on the Cuban shores.
 
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Cuban regime's refusal to entertain the Obama administration's overtures to improve relations reveals that the Castro dictatorship is "an intransigent, entrenched regime," with no interest in political reform.

"It is my personal belief," Secretary Clinton said, "that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years." Amen to that.
Maybe the Castro regime being against ending the embargo is reason enough to end it.
 
Maybe the Castro regime being against ending the embargo is reason enough to end it.

That makes sense. If Castro is using us as an excuse for his poor economy, let's start normal relations, and take his excuse away.

The Castro brothers are about ready for the rest home anyway. How much longer will there be a Castro Cuba I wonder? What comes next? It's not like Cuba ever had a tradition of liberty and democracy.
 
Maybe the Castro regime being against ending the embargo is reason enough to end it.

Castro is not against ending the embargo.
BERNAMA - Cuba Confident Of UN Members' Support Against US-imposed Embargo
Nations condemn Cuba blockade
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=849&dir=2011/October/Thursday20

This will be the twentieth year the General Assembly has considered a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo. In every previous year, the resolution has been adopted in a rout.

In 2010, a resolution that called upon the U.S. to repeal the embargo was approved by 187-2. Only Israel voted with us. Our nation was condemned by our adversaries and abandoned by our other allies with the exception of three Pacific island nations -- Palau, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia --and they abstained. The policy was totally repudiated.

Next week it will happen again. But even if we suffer a defeat of similar magnitude, the vote is likely to attract scant attention.

The press has grown bored with a story it has covered nineteen times before. Embargo defenders will dismiss the outcome because they simply scorn the U.N. as aligned against America. The Obama administration -- which should hang its head in shame for enforcing a policy it inherited with such vigor -- will simply move along as if nothing much has happened.
Sarah Stephens: The U.N., the U.S. Embargo, and the 20-Year Rout
 
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You are wrong Fidel Castro is in favor of the embargo. I give you Fidel Castro’s reasons to “keep it around”:

“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population.” - Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988.
Here you have it from the “Horse” mouth.

Let find out what is the meaning of “blockade”:

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary this is the definition: “Blockade: the isolation by a warring nation of an enemy area (as a harbor) by troops or warships to prevent passage of persons or supplies.”

Examples:

The United States placed a naval blockade around Cuba, ordered by President Kennedy, during the Cuba missile crisis in 1962, to prevent Soviets medium-range missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, to reach Cuba .

North Vietnamese ports were mined and blockaded by the United States in 1972 during the Vietnam War, to prevent Soviets from delivering supplies to Vietnam.

A blockade historically took place at sea, with the blockading power seeking to cut off all maritime transport from and to the blockaded country.

"Embargo: A legal prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation (trade embargo)."

Blockades should not be confused with embargos, which are legal barriers to trade
 
Obama 'Open to a New Relationship With Cuba’
Obama ‘Open to a New Relationship With Cuba’ - ABC News

ABC NEWS BLOGS
Sep 28, 2011 4:40pm

President Obama said today that his administration is “open to a new relationship with Cuba if the Cuban government starts taking the proper steps to open up its own country.”

“As long as I’m president, I will always be prepared to change our Cuba policy if and when we start seeing a serious intention on the part of the Cuban government to provide liberty for its people,” the president said in a roundtable discussion on Hispanic issues.

Obama cited the steps his administration has taken to “send a signal that we’re prepared to show flexibility and not be stuck in a Cold War mentality dating back to when I was born,” including changes to remittance laws and laws that relate to educational travel.

“What we haven’t seen is the kind of genuine spirit of transformation inside of Cuba that would justify us eliminating the embargo,” he said.
When the Castros’ regime returns all the US property they confiscated, would be the time to talk about lifting the embargo. In the meantime the US administration should state put.
 
When the Castros’ regime returns all the US property they confiscated, would be the time to talk about lifting the embargo. In the meantime the US administration should state put.

Maybe they could pay us back in classic cars.
 
The necessary steps required to be taken by the Castros’ military dictatorship to lift the embargo shall be:

a) Opposition parties should have the freedom to organize, assemble, and speak, with equal access to all airwaves. All political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate.

b) Human rights organizations should be free to visit Cuba to ensure that the conditions for free elections are being created.

Without major steps by the regime to open up its political system and its economic system, trade with the regime will not help the Cuban people.
 
What will bring "Change" to Cuba are free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy.

The true change will come the day that Cuba is truly a free democratic society. A society where it's citizens have a representative government, made up of multiple parties and are ruled by a constitution that follow the inalienable rights of all human beings. The ability, for all the citizens of Cuba, to be able to live free and seek their dreams with dignity and respect, and feel accomplished in their lives. It is only then that there will be a change in Cuba, anything else is “mental masturbation.”
 
We should lift the embargo. The only thing that will take down the Castro regime is free market capitalism. Witness China and Vietnam. Even if it doesn't take down Castro it would be beneficial for the Cuban people.
 
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