Obama Take Steps to Free Cuba

Thank you President Obama for having the audacity to fulfill a campaign promise once more. Isn’t it a bit refreshing to have a politician actually do what they promised for your vote? It’s almost as if he kept a record of everything he said, promised, would look into, or might consider during the brutal campaign for President. Who’d of thought he actually might act on them?

One thing that I follow is the promises President Obama made to the Cuban descent people in America, he was going to end the madness of the embargo on Cuba that should have ended twenty or more years ago. Today he made the first step towards freeing the Cuban people and I’m as happy as a pig in $H!?. Over at the White House they have this to say on the loosening of trade and relations with Cubans here in America and rebuilding relationships of people in America with Cubans and commerce back in their homeland…

Today, the Obama administration announced a series of changes in U.S. policy to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future. In taking these steps to help bridge the gap among divided Cuban families and promote the freer flow of information and humanitarian items to the Cuban people, President Obama is working to fulfill the goals he identified both during his presidential campaign and since taking office.

All who embrace core democratic values long for a Cuba that respects basic human, political and economic rights of all its citizens. President Obama believes these measures will help make that goal a reality.

Lift all restrictions on transactions related to the travel of family members to Cuba.
Remove restrictions on remittances to family members in Cuba.
Authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.
License U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into roaming service agreements with Cuba’s telecommunications service providers.
License U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in Cuba.
License persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba.
Authorize the donation of certain consumer telecommunication devices without a license.
Add certain humanitarian items to the list of items eligible for export through licensing exceptions.

- The White House

I’m Irish American but I still have contact with family back in Southern Ireland and I can not imagine a blackout of contact or even a denial by my country to visit them if I so choose for forty plus years. If I work, and work hard to earn a paycheck, then I have the right to spend my hard earned money any damn way I please. Who’s business is it if I mail a check to my daughter here in my home state to help her out with my grandchild or if I mail it to Ireland? Same goes for Cuban Americans. Its called taking care of your own. If that is wrong then I’m going to hell in a hand basket pronto! Wrap me up, I’m good to go.

Republicans are on a kick ass gripe over this issue because Communism might just be paid for by citizens in the United States just 90 miles from our shores off of Florida. Fact check for them, the Soviet Union collapsed under Communism. The Soviet Union cut Cuba off financially during the Gorbachev administration or is that fact to clear for them? The government of Cuba is collapsing now. The Castro regime can not sell the collective power to the people anymore as gospel simply because the people are not stupid. Piracy of the internet for lack of a better term is rampant in the island nation and the people can see that they have been sold a bag of goods that was rotten, mold filled, and just not worth keeping.

We won the cold war and it has been a long time since the walls in Berlin have been taken down. Thank you President Reagan for that great speech. Cuba too can be free but they can’t do it alone. It takes commerce, it takes cooperation, it takes a helping hand up out of the ditch of the 1950’s. The cold war is over, the up and coming generation of Cubans are fed up with living like paupers and they deserve better.

Besides all the gloom and doom over an Americanized Cuba, classic car collectors will spend a fortune to buy all those old Chevy and Fords still in mint working order. How the Cuban people kept them running for fifty years is something Detroit could take a lesson from.

Mark my words, Cuba will be the 51st state in the Union simply because her people desire and want the American dream. Ten years maybe fifteen but the stepping stones have just been placed in the water off of Florida and President Obama is the one that placed the first stone.

Papamoka

Will Obama Liberate Cuba?

During the campaign for President, Barack Obama made it clear that he intends on talking with the leaders of Cuba and renewing a relationship that is long overdue. It will be interesting to see how the Cuban people look at the new President Elect and if he can put his money where his mouth is. If you lived in Cuba, isolated from what most people still consider the economic engine of the world, how would you perceive the possibility of renewed relations with the United States?

It is almost fair to say that the embargo on Cuba has run its course. Even the former Soviet Union has bailed on the island nation ninety miles from our coast. Over at MSNBC they have this from the Associated Press on it…

Obama vows change in U.S. policy on Cuba
President-elect has indicated he's open to talks with Raul Castro

ANALYSIS
updated 6:59 p.m. ET, Sat., Nov. 8, 2008

HAVANA - Cuba's communist leadership has long cast itself as David standing up to the U.S. Goliath and the crippling force of America's punitive trade and travel embargo.

Now they have a problem: If Barack Obama follows through on campaign promises to ease restrictions on the island, he could chip away at the Castro brothers' best case for staying in power.

And if a new Democrat-dominated Congress takes Obama's moves even further, Cuban leaders may have a hard time maintaining their tight control over Cuban society. - MSNBC

If the United States can work with the current government of Cuba then the possibilities are endless. This is not a one sided conversation and the government of Cuba has to work diplomatically with the United States as well. My first concern is that President Elect Obama not offer direct aid to what is still a communist run government, but the simple fact that Americans and Cubans could interact freely and openly is more than enough to plant the seed for a democracy eventually in Cuba again. Democracy is almost like a weed once people experience it and try and weed it out of the government restricted garden, the little suckers keep popping up over and over till people realize that it isn’t really a weed but a natural pesticide.

Many President’s have tried to diplomatically deal with Cuba before and all have failed. Now that the Castro dynasty is coming to its natural life end there is the distinct possibility that Cuba will no longer be just a resort location for the CIA and a terrorist hotel called Guantanamo Bay. Now is the time to end the embargo that has imprisoned an entire nation less than one hundred miles from our nations shore. We can work out all the other idiosyncrasies after we all agree that we can agree to disagree but still keep talking.

Video Link

If President Elect Obama can open up Cuba then that would be the last piece of the Berlin wall to fall. It is within reach for Cuba and its people to be free once more. It would be refreshing if this can be done without one single military engagement would it not?

Papamoka

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