U.S. administration says would veto end to Cuba ban

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. administration says would veto end to Cuba ban



WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 — The Bush administration on Monday repeated a threat to veto any repeal of the restrictions on travel to Cuba, saying that tourism would not help get rid of President Fidel Castro.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on an amendment that would deny the Bush administration the funds it needs to enforce the travel restrictions.

''Sunbathers are not going to liberate Cuba nor is upgrading the brunch at Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels,'' Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told an event at the Center of Strategic and International Studies.

The U.S. government requires licenses to visit Cuba but does not give them to tourists, arguing that tourism dollars strengthen the government without benefiting the people. (snip/...)

~~~~ link ~~~~

The House is believed to have a veto-proof majority. What happens in the Senate will determine the outcome, most likely.

[tsipple]

1. What about China?

It's OK to have a policy of "constructive engagement" with China, allowing tourists and all manner of trade with that despotic regime, to promote "American values." Not to mention our robust (oil) trade with Saudi Arabia.

Lack of U.S. sunbathers certainly hasn't dislodged Castro after well over 40 years. (Canadians and Mexicans can go.) So maybe we should try thousands of bikini-clad tourists, hmmm? Or are we going for the full half century of failed U.S. foreign policy and poor economic conditions for the people of Cuba?

Castro is going to die eventually, so it's long past time to loosen up for a gentle transition. Otherwise the whole island is going to blow up in our faces as the Miami Cubans try to wage a civil war there. Much better if Patsy from Peoria can sunbathe there right now.

[NekoChris]

4. Hold up

Canadians can go? So...in theroy...you could go into Canada, and catch a plane into Cuba? Or conversely, take a stroll into Mexico, and catch a boat to Cuba?

I wonder what it's like there.

The travel ban just makes it 'Spooky Mysterious!'

'Come Visit Cuba! The U.S. doesn't want you to come, cause our hotties are HOT HOT HOT!'

or

'Come visit Mysterious Cuba! See the sights that they don't want you to see!'

[Noon_Blue_Apples]

6. Its nice

amazing beaches

Some nice hotels in Havana, all inclusive resorts on the beach, mostly Canadians

B

[loudnclear]

2. Can Castro be worse than Bush?

I don't think so. How many people has Bush rendered homeless and killed in the past six months compared to Castro?

When and to whom was Castro ever a threat?

So we will do as we did in Iraq, starve and the innocent and prevent needed infrastructure improvements in a country that never attacked us but a country that we attacked!

[Rose Siding]

3. The US administration

"can bite me, if they want their 87 billion", I hear the Congress saying. I'm thinking they'll do whatever they dang well please about just any old thing, now.

[Osolomia]

5. “Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels”? WTF is Noriega talking about?

Only an illiterate, travel banned American would believe this bullshit for a second in this day and internet age!

One of the things Cuba is notorious for the world over and that has made it the #1 destination in the Caribbean for several years now is because the hotelierss and the people there are extremely friendly and bend over backwards to meet you and show you around and introduce you to others and learn about the country.

There is now over 10 years worth of eyewitness accounts of Cuba all over the travel guide section of amazon.com eg, and there’s been thousands of articles written about it in the US media, and zillions of reports and photos and websites on the World Wide Web, and dozens of films made and music and cigars galore.

Can anyone find any evidence anywhere of “Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels”?

I happened to arrive at one of them in 1995 just a few days after its official opening by Fidel Castro and it was still full of high level VIP guests from Canada and Europe dressed to the hilt for their grand finale dinner during which they gave a long and hearty standing ovation to the local high school choir. Many told me that they were quite struck by the reaction of the local Cubans to Fidel’s presence: they not only wanted to be there but wanted to touch him. The locals told me the resort brought good jobs and other benefits to the remote fishing and farming community in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra.

If you want to isolate yourself when in Cuba then lock yourself in your room otherwise you’re in for the experience of a lifetime, just leave your misconceptions at home and go with the flow, if you ever do get to go.

Castro's Cuba
Our island neighbor seems lost in the 1950s, with dictator Fidel Castro's influence everywhere. But it also boasts great beaches, food and music.

Sunday September 07, 2003
By Joshua Clark
The Times-Picayune

HAVANA -- The air was so thick and blue I wanted to swim in it. Mango juice rolled off my palm as I savored the last bit of pulp before tossing the pit into the misty valley below.

Diego, our driver, handed me a brown cloth to wipe my hands. While driving the rented Fiat, he had eaten a whole mango without spilling a drop, peeling it from the top with his teeth. A man with a cloth sack walked by, nodded, then disappeared around a bend in the cracked mountain road. Che Guevara stared at us from a billboard.

"La tierra de los dios," said Diego, the land of the gods. He had fought alongside Che in these very mountains. We had hired Diego three days earlier to drive us from Havana to Santiago on the opposite side of Cuba, paying him by buying food and bed.

More…

http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1062912331293300.xml

Yup, one look at the real Cuba blows a lot of America's lies and bullshit and fantasies right out the window.

[Judi Lynn]

8. WTF is Noriega talking about? S.O.S. from the Bush administration

Do you remember when Minnesota's Governor Jesse Ventura was planning to go to Cuba, to help represent his state, with a bunch of Minnesota farmers and other agricultural business representatives to attend their Agricultural Trade Fair?

Bush's secretary of Latin American Affairs, ex-Cuban Otto Reich advised him not to go to Cuba for the purposes of "sexual adventurism."

I just saw the transcription of last year's House session on this subject (I think you probably provided it, now that I think about it!) and read one of the Cuban representatives insulting Jeff Flake, the sponsor of the amendment to drop the travel ban, by implying all Republican Rep. Jeff Flake had on his mind was wallowing around on the beach, slurping down mass quantities of mojitos! Jeff Flake took the time to tell him he's a Mormon and doesn't drink. No apology, OF COURSE!

They ALL insist that the only reason anyone (who is not a Cuban-American who gets to go ANY TIME AT ALL) would ever thing of going to Cuba would be totally self-indulgent, lazy, and probably immoral. Lord love'em.

This attempted intimidation of people who support their @$$#$ with our own taxes, paying for all their stupid "exile"-only pork projects over the decades is truly what it seems: the "thank-you" coming back to us for letting them jerk us around, bribe our politicians, corrupt Florida politics, conduct decades of terrorism against the citizens of Cuba with our total protection, including an administrative pardon for a mass-murdering bomber, killer of 73 people on a Cubana airliner (including teenagers), Orlando Bosch by George H. W. Bush, at the behest of his own son Jeb Bush, a Cuban "exile" politician, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and a Cuban "exile" ambassador to Venezuela, Otto Reich.


Miami citizen yelling about Elian

[Osolomia]

7. One veto proof bipartisan majority vote, going once

and still no bids by the Dems. Go figure!

[Mika]

9. A veto proof bipartisan majority vote..

.. would work in a democracy. But..

[Osolomia]

11. Instead we get The Bush Dynasty and the Cuban Criminals

and a bunch of 2004 Dem presidential candidates in bed with them. Go figure!

The Bush Dynasty and the Cuban Criminals
New book reveals links of two presidents and the governor of Florida with exiled hardliners.
By Guardian Newspapers, 12/2/2002
http://www.buzzle.co.uk/editorials/text12-2-2002-31411.asp

[Judi Lynn]

12. Great article. Can't keep this snippet to myself!

From your article:

(snip) Jeb Bush sealed his popularity with the Cuban exile community by acting as campaign manager for another prominent Cuban-American, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, when she ran successfully for Congress.

George Bush Sr famously appeared with her during her campaign in Miami declaring: "I am certain in my heart I will be the first American president to step foot on the soil of a free and independent Cuba." (snip/...)

Amazing. :eyes:

Thanks, Osolomia.

[lumpy]

10. Those Florida ex-Cubans

who mess with our government are a menace to democracy. Do they pledge allegience to the US of A ? Hell no, they gobble up the freebies handed them and pledge allegiance to the wicked Ghosts of Cuba Past.