CUBA....3 y YANKEES....0 | HUSSEIN DOES IT AGAIN

U.S. President Barack Obama negotiated with Cuba to restore diplomatic relations “behind everyone’s back,” lawmakers charged Wednesday night after he announced the restoration of full diplomatic ties with the island nation.

News agencies in the United States buzzed on Thursday with the details of how Obama accomplished that task in a personal 45-minute telephone call on Tuesday with President Raul Castro. The call followed 18 months of secret talks between the White House and Cuban officials that also involved the highest levels of the Vatican – and Pope Francis himself.  As part of the deal, USAID worker Alan Gross returned from Cuba on a U.S. government 757 aircraft after five years in custody, along with a U.S. intelligence agent who had spent the last 20 years of a life term in prison.

The move, which was carried out without any knowledge of Congressional lawmakers on either side of the aisle, inflamed already hot tempers about Obama’s penchant for doing things on his own. Media commentators and some legislators on Thursday referred to the president as “King Obama.”  Democratic lawmakers also expressed shock and disappointment that the president had spent 18 months negotiating with an “enemy, Communist regime” without even consulting with any other legislator from his own party.

Members of the Cuban immigrant community were incensed that Obama had cut through more than half a century of sanctions and provided a “shot in the arm” to the repressive regime they fled for its brutality.

Castro said the 52-year embargo had caused enormous human and economic damage. He added there was still disagreement on many issues, including that of foreign policy.

Following the announcement, however, the Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped, possibly in response. Media commentators began discussing what the economic implications would be if Congress could not control corporate financial and production flow in and out of Cuba.


MY PS.-
A LAS ESPALDAS DE TODO EL MUNDO, EL QUE-SE-CREE-CZAR PRES. HUSSEIN OBAMA HA LLAMADO A LOS CASTRO PARA HACERSE AMIGUITO DE ELLOS.  COMO ES QUE EL PRESIDENTE-ELECTO-DEMOCRATICAMENTE DE LOS EEUU VA A NEGOCIAR CON USURPADORES DE PODER, COMUNISTAS QUE HASTA AYER LE PEDIAN LA CABEZA AL "IMPERIALISMO YANKEE."

LOS CASTROS SE HAN SALIDO CON LA SUYA Y HAN TRAPEADO CON LOS EEUU LOS PISOS SUCIOS DE SUS PALACIOS EN CUBA. HAN PUESTO A LOS EEUU EN LAS SUELAS DE SUS ZAPATOS, COMO UN CHICLET INOPORTUNO...HAN UTILIZADO A LOS EEUU DE PAPEL DE BAñO...DE KLEENEX PARA SOPLARSE LA NARIZ.

A LO MEJOR OBAMA VA A LA HABANA....Y DE AHI A VENEZUELA A VER A MADURO Y TAL VEZ OTRO VIAJECITO A TEHERAN A VER A SUS MENTORES RELIGIOSOS, LOS AYATOLLAH.  Y PORQUE NO A KOREA DEL NORTE...ASI ACABARA SUS DIAS EN LA CASA BLANCA TERMINANDO DE HACER DE ESTE, EN OTRORA UN GRAN PAIS, EL HAZME-REIR DE TODOS LOS SERES HUMANOS QUE AMAMOS LA LIBERTAD Y LA DEMOCRACIA.

NUESTROS MARTIRES, HOY SE REVUELVEN EN SUS TUMBAS.  TANTOS Y TANTOS MUERTOS, SUFRIMIENTOS, SANGRE-SUDOR-LAGRIMAS...COMO DIRIA UNA AMIGA: "TANTO NADAR, PARA MORIR EN LA ORILLA."

PERO A MI QUE NO ME DIGAN NADA...YO SIEMPRE VOTO REPUBLICANO...Y TODAVIA CONSERVO EN MIS BUMPERS, LOS STICKERS DE McCAIN Y ROMNEY...YO NO SOY RESPONSABLE POR ESTA VERGUENZA DE PRESIDENTE QUE CON SU MENTALIDAD DE EX-ESCLAVO-UNCLE-TOM TIENE QUE HACERNOS PASAR VENGUENZA A PESAR DE LA MARAVILLA DE NACION QUE SE GASTABA...PERO QUE AHORA, CON EL, VA EN FRANCO DETRIMENTO...

Establishing ties with Cuba has been on President Obama’s bucket list for some time. Health care -- done. Amnesty for illegal immigrants -- done. Cuba -- next. This last one also has the added bonus point that it puts him right with the international left, which lionizes Castro.  And the president will go on picking off the next items on the bucket list for the next two years of his term unless Congress decides to stop him. Should they work up the gumption, lawmakers will find they can do many things to stand up for the prerogatives of the legislative branch.

Obviously, the release of the 65-year-old American hostage Alan Gross should be welcome. His “crime” was to bring computers to Jews on the island. For the last five years, he has been a victim of Cuba’s state terrorism, just as 11 million Cubans have been held hostage by their government for the past five decades.

Not only does President Obama’s action fail to advance freedom in Cuba, it throws a lifeline to Cuba’s dictators.

Exchanging three hardened Cuban spies for Gross, however, establishes an insulting moral and legal equivalency. The spies actions led to the death of an American in the 1990s, and they were duly convicted. Their release in exchange for Gross creates an incentive for rogue regimes and individual actors to kidnap Americans all over the world.  Not only does President Obama’s action fail to advance freedom in Cuba, it throws a lifeline to Cuba’s dictators, whose current supplier of funds, Venezuela, is on the ropes because of plunging oil prices. It surrenders to the demands for normalization that the Castros have been making for decades. 

So what can Congress do?

Right off the bat, Congress must make it crystal clear to President Obama that he lacks the authority to lift the embargo on Cuba, allow trade to take place between the two nations, let tourists to go to Cuba to bail out the regime or give Cuba have access to capital markets. U.S. law—the Helms-Burton Act of 1996—gives the Congress power to override any action taken by the executive to lift the embargo.  In order to lift the embargo, the Cuban government would have to give the Cuban people a number of rights—of association, speech, political activity, etc.—that President Obama obviously failed to secure in his 45-minute conversation with Cuban dictator Raul Castro Tuesday. 

Congress can also make clear to the president that there are statutory criteria that must be met before his administration can take Cuba off the State Department list of terrorism sponsors. The president must inform Congress that there has been a change of leadership and policies of the Cuban government and that Castro has given assurances that it will no longer support terrorist acts. Can President Obama do any of that?

Senators should also make clear that they will put a hold on any ambassador that Mr. Obama nominates to serve in Cuba unless he can guarantee that the Cuban government is no longer a threat to the United States and has decided to grant freedom to people in Cuba. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already said he plans to do that.  Additionally, Congress can look into the possibility of using policy riders in the upcoming DHS appropriations debate in February and the Fiscal Year 2016 appropriations process to deny the president funds for setting up relations.

Congress must act because President Obama has been completely feckless in his entire approach to Cuba. He received nothing in exchange for many substantial concessions made to the Communist regime. After five years of “negotiations” President Obama ended exactly where  Raul Castro’s demands began five years ago. As Senator Marco Rubio said, President “Obama is the worst negotiator since Carter.”

Mr. Obama's statement was filled with Havana’s communist talking points, such as affirming that Cubans are poor and unfree because of the embargo, or that Cuba was a U.S. colony. None of that is true, and yet Mr. Obama said it.

Congress must act to limit the damage inherent in this Havana Giveaway. Left unchecked, Obama will simply move on to the next misguided item on his bucket list.

A native of Cuba, Mike Gonzalez escaped the Castro regime at age 12.  He is a senior fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for International Studies and the author of “A Race for the Future” How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans.”

MY PS.-

BO AND SUNNY ARE STILL THE ONLY ONES I LIKE IN THE WHITE HOUSE...I THINK THAT PRES. HUSSEIN OBAMA SHOULD GO TO CUBA AND HUG AND KISS OLD FIDEL AND ASK HIM FORGIVENESS FOR ALL THE BAD THINGS THE USA HAD DONE TO CUBA...KISS FIDEL'S HAND LIKE HE [OBAMA] DID IN SAUDI ARABIA AND ALSO KISS RAUL'S HAND AND ASK ALSO HIS FORGIVENESS FOR ALL THE BAD DEEDS THE US DID IN CUBA...SO WHAT...IT IS THE THIRD TIME THAT WE ARE BETRAYED BY THE USA LEADERSHIP...

1) THE BAY OF PIGS'FIASCO, IN WHICH DUE TO BAD PLANNING AND BAD LEADERSHIP BY JFK CAUSED THE INVASION TO GO BAD.

2) THE OCTOBER MISSILE CRISIS, WHEN RAUL CASTRO GOT THE RUSSIANS TO INSTALL MISSILES IN CUBA AND JFK (AGAIN) TRADED CUBA FOR BERLIN AND THE MISSILES IN CUBA FOR THE MISSILES IN TURKEY.  NIKITA DID THE USA IN WITH A BEAUTIFUL STRATEGY...

3) THE "ACERCAMIENTO" RECENTLY BETWEEN HUSSEIN OBAMA AND RAULITO CASTRO...BROKERED BY THE "CHE" PAPA FRANCISQUITO...WOW!!! WHAT A TRIO...THAT IS THE THIRD ONE...

NEXT HUSSEIN OBAMA WILL TRAVEL TO HAVANA, THERE WILL BE ALL KINDS OF CELEBRATIONS...BUT DURING ALL OF THESE EVENTS, THE PEOPLE OF CUBA IS STILL OPPRESSED, STEPPED-ON BY CASTRO'S HOODS, HUNGRY, THIRSTY, POORLY CLOTHED, POORLY FED...AND ALL BECAUSE OF THE STUPID BLOCKADE...GUILTY OF BAD THINGS...KISSING OBAMA AND THE CASTROS...WHAT A SIGHT TO SEE...STRAIGHT TO MY TOILET TO VOMIT!!!!!

EL NEGRO SI NO TE LA HACE A LA ENTRADA...TE LA HACE A LA SALIDA...I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT MOTTO BEFORE AND ALWAYS CONSIDERED RACIST...BUT TODAY...I CHANGED MY MIND AND, AT LEAST IN OBAMA'S CASE...I STILL PREFER BO AND SUNNY...

LA TERCERA TRAICION...CUBA 3 vs YANKEES 0

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced plans to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba and ease economic restrictions on the nation, an historic shift he called the end of an "outdated approach" to U.S.-Cuban relations.  Obama said he's instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations, and that the U.S. will re-open an embassy in Havana. The administration will also allow some travel and trade that had been banned under a decades-long embargo instated during the Kennedy administration.  "Neither the American nor Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that's rooted in events that took place before most of us were born," Obama said.  He later added: "I believe we can do more to support the Cuban people, and promote our values, through engagements. After all, these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. It's time for a new approach."

Speaking at the same time as Obama from his own country, Cuban President Raul Castro lauded the move.  "This expression by President Barack Obama deserves the respect and recognition by all the people and I want to thank and recognize support from the Vatican and especially from Pope Francis for the improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States," he said.

Obama's announcement comes as both nations have released political prisoners in a show of goodwill, with American Alan Gross headed home on "humanitarian" grounds from Cuba early Wednesday morning. In a separate swap, a U.S. intelligence source held for 20 years was released in exchange for three jailed Cuban spies.  Obama said he and Castro spoke Tuesday in a phone call that lasted about an hour and reflected the first communication at the presidential level with Cuba since the Cuban revolution.

But some Republicans are warning the move will only strengthen the Castro regime in Cuba, which has long been accused of human rights abuses and is listed by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism.  Obama said Wednesday he has instructed Kerry, however, to review Cuba's place on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Wednesday's announcement that the U.S. will move toward restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba will also make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba and do business with the Cuban people by extending general licenses, officials said. While the more liberal travel restrictions won't allow for tourism, they will permit greater American travel to the island.  While only Congress can formally overturn the five decades-long embargo, the White House has some authorities to liberalize trade and travel to the island. And Obama said he plans to "engage Congress in an honest and serious conversation" on lifting it.

In an effort to boost the nascent Cuban private sector, the President will also allow expanded commercial sales and exports of goods and services to Cuba, particularly building materials for entrepreneurs and private residences, and allow greater business training, as well as permit greater communications hardware and services to go to the island.  Other announced changes permit U.S. and Cuban banks to build relationships and travelers to use credit and debit cards. U.S. travelers will be allowed to import up to $400 worth of goods from Cuba, including $100 in alcohol and tobacco -- even Cuban cigars. Remittances by Americans to their families back in Cuba will also be increased to approximately $2,000 per quarter.  Senior administration officials and Cuba observers have said recent reforms on the island and changing attitudes in the United States have created an opening for improved relations. U.S. and Cuban officials say Washington and Havana in recent months have increased official technical-level contacts on a variety of issues.

While the release of Gross drew widespread bipartisan praise, Republican lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the overall move to thaw relations as ill-advised.  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would do everything in his power to block any potential U.S. ambassador to Cuba even receive a vote.  He also called the easing of economic restrictions "inexplicable" in a statement.  "Appeasing the Castro brothers will only cause other tyrants from Caracas to Tehran to Pyongyang to see that they can take advantage of President Obama's naiveté during his final two years in office. As a result, America will be less safe as a result of the President's change in policy," he said.

Rubio promised that as incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee he'll "make every effort to block this dangerous and desperate attempt by the President to burnish his legacy at the Cuban people's [sic] expense."  Both Obama and Castro in their Wednesday remarks acknowledged the nations' differences remain.  "I do not expect the changes I am announcing today to bring about a transformation of Cuban society overnight," Obama said.

But he argued that "through a policy of engagement, we can more effectively stand up for our values, and help the Cuban people help themselves as they move into the 21st century."  Castro said that even as the two nations "recognize having profound differences — especially in national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign relations policies — we reaffirm our willingness to dialogue in all of these area."

To that end, Cuba has agreed to release 53 political prisoners from a list of names provided by the United States. At least one of the prisoners has already been released. Havana has also agreed to permit significant access by its citizens to the Internet and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations human rights officials back on the island for the first time in years.  Talks between the U.S. and Cuba have been ongoing since June of 2013 and were facilitated by the Canadians and the Vatican in brokering the deal. Pope Francis — the first pope from Latin America — encouraged Obama in a letter and in their meeting this year to renew talks with Cuba on pursuing a closer relationship.

Gross' release was seen as one of the first clear benefits of those talks.  Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Gross' Maryland congressman, left 4 a.m. Wednesday from Washington for Cuba, and returned with Gross and his wife, Judy, according to government officials.  Gross, speaking at a press conference Wednesday, said he's "very happy" with Obama's moves, and heaped praise on the people of Cuba, "or at least most of them."  "It pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments' mutually belligerent policies," he said. "Five-and-a-half decades of history shows us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment. Two wrongs don't make a right."

Gross was arrested after traveling under a program under the U.S. Agency for International Development to deliver satellite phones and other communications equipment to the island's small Jewish population.

Cuban officials charged he was trying to foment a "Cuban Spring." In 2011, he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to set up an Internet network for Cuban dissidents "to promote destabilizing activities and subvert constitutional order."  Gross' lawyer, Scott Gilbert, told CNN last month the years of confinement have taken their toll on his client. Gross has lost more than 100 pounds and is losing his teeth. His hips are so weak that he can barely walk and he has lost vision in one eye. He has also undertaken hunger strikes and threatened to take his own life.

With Gross' health in decline, a bipartisan group of 66 senators wrote Obama a letter in November 2013 urging him to "act expeditiously to take whatever steps are in the national interest to obtain [Gross's] release."  The three Cubans released as a part of the deal belonged the so-called Cuban Five, a quintet of Cuban intelligence officers convicted in 2001 for espionage. They were part of what was called the Wasp Network, which collected intelligence on prominent Cuban-American exile leaders and U.S. military bases.  The leader of the five, Gerardo Hernandez, was linked to the February 1996 downing of the two civilian planes operated by the U.S.-based dissident group Brothers to the Rescue, in which four men died. He is serving a two life sentences. Luis Medina, also known as Ramon Labanino; and Antonio Guerrero have just a few years left on their sentences.  The remaining two — Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez — were released after serving most of their 15-year sentences and have already returned to Cuba, where they were hailed as heroes.

CUBA "TRES" Y YANKEES "O"

ESTA ROSA Y ESTA VELITA SON A LA MEMORIA DE TODOS LOS MUERTOS POR LA LIBERTAD DE CUBA!!!

CUBA - 3(*) / YANKEES - 0

(*) 

CUBA - 3

1)DERROTA INVASION A BAHIA DE COCHINOS - ALZAMIENTOS ESCAMBRAY

2) LA CRISIS DE LOS MISILES

3) LA INICIATIVA DE HUSSEIN OBAMA PARA CON LOS CASTROS

The Savage Lands of Islam

The Savage Lands of Islam



AS USUAL MR. DANIEL GREENFIELD HITS IT ON THE SPOT...IT IS WORTH READING AND HEEDING YOUR ATTENTION TO IT....AMEN

EL EXILIO VIEJO...recuerdos del Parque de las Palomas

Ahora que está de moda criticar a los viejos cubanos, vale la pena abrir el álbum familiar. Ahí están bajando del avión, en los años 60, con sus ropas de domingo y una sonrisa nerviosa, todavía mojada por las lágrimas de la partida. A muchos, sobre todo a los 'recien llegados', les cuesta entender que en la década de 1950, incluso con la dictadura batistiana, Cuba era un mejor lugar para vivir que Estados Unidos. En lo social. En lo económico.  En lo humano. 

Acostumbrados a una cultura mediterránea en todo su esplendor y tolerancia, con una creciente permeabilidad entre clases, razas y credos, no es difícil imaginar el desgarramiento, el temor y la amargura de aquellos exiliados que al buscar apartamento tropezaban con un letrero de ‘No Cubans’.  “ No pets. “ La más pujante clase media de América Latina recogiendo tomates y aguacates en Kendall y Homestead.  Miami, que hoy es un campo de contradicciones, era un campo a secas.

Lo que cero debió constituir una descomunal prueba para un pueblo que ya casi tenía en sus manos un porvenir envidiable.  Basta mirar las ruinas para comprobar lo que estaba en pie. Pasamos la página del álbum y vemos a nuestros héroes con carro del año, casa propia y los hijos a punto de entrar a la universidad.  La bonanza de un lento sacrificio.  Y las arrugas prematuras.  Y la consternación de las ilusiones que se fueron en sobrevivir con dos trabajos.  En morderse la lengua en inglés y español.  En poner las dos mejillas muchas veces.  Ya perdida la esperanza de volver a un suelo natal libre.  Es natural, pues, que odien a Fidel y al comunismo con saña inmisericorde y fanática.  Y que ese odio con frecuencia paralice su razón.  Porque la razón que les piden que comprendan es salvajemente injusta y miope. 

Sobre esos hombros encorvados se levanta una callada y preservadora lección.  Del pastel de guayaba a la devoción constitucional, del taburete a la guayabera, esas canas coronan una larga batalla por nuestra identidad y por la prosperidad en un suelo que les acogio cuando la tirania les llamó 'gusanos' y 'escoria.' 

Académicos, campesinos, comerciantes, artistas, médicos, pícaros y mártires, soñadores y pragmáticos, ricos y pobres, restituyeron a la nación el patrimonio dilapidado por Fidel.  A ratos, el país de sus sueños es más concreto que el país real.  Ellos guardaron la receta y recordaron la canción.  

En la última página del álbum, con el cuello almidonado y el pelo fragante a agua de colonia, tienen el candor de las piedras lavadas por la tormenta.  Los viejos cubanos: clave y aliento.  Ellos horadaron en la roca, con uñas y dientes, abriendo las puertas que los que vinieron despues ya encontraron abiertas. Ellos protagonizaron a noventa millas toda una real epopeya de reafirmación nacional.  Déjalos quejarse. Si analizas verás que tienen razón. 

Déjalos refugiarse en sus pesares.  La taza de café se les enfría en las manos mientras leen las noticias de la isla . Y vuelven a oler los jazmines de sus patios en Cuba. Y en el frío cristal de la tarde vuelven a tocar el rostro de sus muertos.  Los viejos cubanos, curtidos a la intemperie. Sin ellos nada de lo que hay hubiera sido posible.  

Déjalos que sean como son.  ¡Porque son la sal de nuestra tierra!

MALALA AND KAILASH WIN A WELL-DESERVE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

                   9 months after being shot in the head by Taliban                   terrorists, Malala Yousafzai, speaks at the UN

In a reversal from the previous two years, individuals, and not international bodies, have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The young girl who was savagely shot aboard a school bus by Islamist fanatics for promoting education for girls, Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, was one recipient of the Peace Prize. The other recipient is an Indian man, Kailash Satyarthi, who also helped promote universal schooling and protecting children from abuse and exploitation.

The announcement was made this morning in Oslo, Sweden, by the Nobel committee chair, Thorbjorn Jagland.

The world was captured by the brutality of the attack on the girl referred to universally as “Malala.” The Taliban thugs boarded her school bus on Oct. 9, 2012, specifically to murder her. They shot her in the head and left her to die because she championed the cause of education for girls. But she didn’t die, instead she became an enduring symbol of her cause. Last year, a little over a year after her attempted murder, Malala spoke at the United Nations. She spoke on July 12, her 16th birthday.

“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens,” Yousafzai said to her audience at the U.N. “The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.” The day of her speech was declared Malala Day by the U.N  But Malala said it was “not my day,” but a day for every woman, boy and girl struggling for their rights.

“Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists and millions have been injured,” she said. “I am just one of them. So here I stand, one girl among many.”

“I speak not for myself but for those without voice … those who have fought for their rights — their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated.” And from just over the border in India comes

the other recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Kailash Satyarthi has been in the human rights world for longer than Malala has been alive. He has been crusading against child slavery and also for the right to education. Because of his many successful efforts to free enslaved children, Satyarthi has also been the victim of assassination attempts.  In 2011, Satyarthi was attacked while rescuing child slaves from clothing sweatshops in Delhi. In 2004 he and his colleagues were attacked while rescuing children from a local circus mafia in India. It is estimated that Satyarthi has freed over 75,000 bonded and child slaves in India, and developed a model for educating and rehabilitating the children following their emancipation. A CREDIT TO HIS NATION'S LEGACY OF MOHANDAS K. GHANDI!!!

MY PS.-  SHE REMINDS ME OF ANOTHER YOUNG AND COURAGEOUS GIRL...ALSO ABUSED BY TERRORISTS...HER NAME WAS (YOU GUESSED IT!) ANNE FRANK...AND AS THE SONG GOES:  "OH, WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN!!!"

MY PS.-  WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW YEARS MAKE...I STILL REMEMBER (WITH SHAME FOR ALBERT NOBEL) HOW OUR BELOVED GOLFER-IN-CHIEF "WON" HIS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE...