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United States Warns Russia Over Nuclear Bombers in Cuba
Russian Federation renews projection of nuclear bombersRussia is pissed off about the United States missile defense plans for Eastern Europe and have made statements about basing nuclear bombers in Cuba.Russia would cross “a red line for the United States of America” if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday.
“If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America,” said General Norton Schwartz, nominated to be the air force’s chief of staff.
He was referring to a Russian news report that said the military is thinking of flying long-range bombers to Cuba on a regular basis.
It was unclear from the report whether that would involve permanent basing of nuclear bombers in Cuba, or just use of the island as a refueling stop.
Cuba is a non-starter for Russian-American relations and violates the mutual agreement reached after the Cuban Missile crisis. They lost the “COLD WAR” and with renewed financial vigor based on their oil they wish to SABER RATTLE.
More importantly Russia has been supplying Iran with S-300 aircraft missile defense systems and fissonable material for their nuclear reactors. Socialist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has been weapon shopping in Russia recently.
Russia should NO LONGER be treated as a friend but an adversary – a NEW COLD WAR?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, Russia, Missile Defense
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Elian Gonzales Becoming A Good Cuban Communist
Remember when President Bill Clinton sent the Feds to “rescue” Elian Gonzales and return him to Cuba?
Now, comes this news story that Elian is joining Cuba’s Communist Youth League.Eight years after a headline making international custody fight which ended with his return to his father in Cuba, Elian Gonzalez has joined Cuba’s Young Communist Union.
In an article in Cuba’s communist youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, the 14-year old Gonzalez said he would never let ex-President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro down. He joined more than 18-thousand others who joined the group on Saturday.
In 2000, Gonzalez’ mother was killed when a boat carrying them to the U.S. capsized in the Florida Straits. Elian, who was 6 years old at the time, and two other refugees were found clinging to an inner tube for survival. After his rescue the boy stayed with relatives in South Florida until a long tug of war over custody end with armed federal agents seizing him from his great uncle’s Miami home. Elian then returned to Cuba with his father.
The REDS should be SO proud.
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Fidel Castro Bashes Obama Cuba Policy
Michael Ramirez on Fidel Castro
Former Cuban President Dictator Fidel Castro has criticized Senator and presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s Cuba policy. Note, Castro is 81 years old and has not been seen publicly since July 2006 because of illness.
In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was “the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race,” but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba.
“Obama’s speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country,” Castro wrote, referring to Obama’s remarks last week to the influential Cuban American National Foundation in Miami.
Obama said he would maintain the nearly fifty-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba as leverage to push for democratic change on the island. But he also vowed to ease restrictions on Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba and sending money to relatives.
He repeated his willingness to meet with Raul Castro, who in February succeeded his elder brother Fidel to become the nation’s first new leader in 49 years.
Castro said Obama’s proposals for letting well-off Cuban Americans help poorer relatives on the island amounted to “propaganda for consumerism and a way of life that is unsustainable.”
He complained that Obama’s description of Cuba as “undemocratic” and “lacking in respect for liberty and human rights” was the same argument previous U.S. administrations “have used to justify their crimes against our homeland.”
Obama’s Cuban policy is nothing but a PANDER BEAR anyway, attempting to siphon off Cuban American votes in Florida. McCain will own Florida and voters will NOT hear anymore of the mild appeasement towards Cuban families. But, Obama and the Democrats have tried to WEASEL their way to Florida Cuban votes albeit unsuccessfully.
The Cuban dictatorial government is teetering on complete failure. A few more years of the embargo, the Cuban people will throw out Raul Castro and Cuba will become free.
The government has had to crack down on dissidents even today.
A free Cuba is a matter of time.
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Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro is OUT
Cuba’s President Fidel Castro is seen sitting in Havana October 28, 2006. Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said in its Wednesday edition.
Castro today resigned his Cuban
Presidencydictatorship and has retired.An ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he was retiring and will not accept a new term when the new parliament meets Sunday.
“I will not aspire to nor accept – I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept – the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief,” read a letter signed by Castro published early Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The announcement effectively ends the rule of the 81-year-old Castro after almost 50 years, positioning his 76-year-old brother Raul for permanent succession to the presidency. Fidel Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery.
When does the revolution for democracy begin?
Previous:
Michael Ramirez on Castro’s Socialized Medicine
Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Decided to Avoid Colostomy?
Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Gravely Ill – Is He Done?
Cuba Watch: Cuba Awaits Verdict on Castro’s Health
Cuba Watch: Is Fidel Castro Dead?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, FidelCastro
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Cuba Watch: SICKO Highlights its Humanism
Filmmaker Michael Moore marches with nurses from the California Nurses Association (CNA) to a special screening of his new documentary ‘SiCKO’ at the State Capitol in Sacramento June 12, 2007. Cuba’s Communist government joined the debate surrounding Moore’s documentary on Friday, saying the film will allow the world to get a glimpse of the humaneness of its health system.
Cuba says Moore’s “SiCKO” highlights its humanism
Cuba’s Communist government joined the debate surrounding Michael Moore’s new documentary “SiCKO” on Friday, saying the film will allow the world to get a glimpse of the humaneness of its health system.
The film, due to open in the United States on June 29, indicts the U.S. health-care system as putting the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies ahead of public health concerns.
To make his point, Moore traveled to Cuba in March with three volunteers who worked in the ruins of New York’s World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks. He said the three are now suffering health problems tied to that work and are struggling to get appropriate treatment in the United States.In Cuba, the film says, they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost.
Yeah, right.
Let’s examine the Cuban health care system:
Universal health care has long given the Cuban regime bragging rights, though there is growing concern about the future. In the decades that Cuba drew financial and military support from the Soviet Union, Mr. Castro poured resources into medical education, creating the largest medical school in Latin America and turning out thousands of doctors to practice around the world.
But that changed after the collapse of the Soviets, according to Cuban defectors like Dr. Leonel Cordova. By the time Dr. Cordova started practicing in 1992, equipment and drugs were already becoming scarce. He said he was assigned to a four-block neighborhood in Havana Province where he was supposed to care for about 600 people.
“But even if I diagnosed something simple like bronchitis,†he said, “I couldn’t write a prescription for antibiotics, because there were none.â€
He defected in 2000 while on a medical mission in Zimbabwe and made his way to the United States. He is now an urgent-care physician at Baptist Hospital in Miami.
Having practiced medicine in both Cuba and the United States, Dr. Cordova has an unusual perspective for comparison.
“Actually there are three systems,†Dr. Cordova said, because Cuba has two: one is for party officials and foreigners like those Mr. Moore brought to Havana. “It is as good as this one here, with all the resources, the best doctors, the best medicines, and nobody pays a cent,†he said.
But for the 11 million ordinary Cubans, hospitals are often ill equipped and patients “have to bring their own food, soap, sheets — they have to bring everything.†And up to 20,000 Cuban doctors may be working in Venezuela, creating a shortage in Cuba.
A little different story, no?
Michael Moore is creating BUZZ for his movie that he hopes makes him a few more $ millions.
Does anyone REALLY think Moore gives a shit about the American health care system?
More on Cuba’s healthcare system here and here.
Previous:
Michael Ramirez on Michael Moore’s SICKO
Technorati Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko
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Michael Ramirez on Castro’s Socialized Medicine
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Decided to Avoid Colostomy?
Cuban leader Fidel Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said in its Wednesday edition.
The shortcut involved sewing the colon to the rectum but did not heal properly and broke apart, releasing gastric fluid with feces that caused serious infection, El Pais said on its Web site.
The newspaper reported a day earlier that Castro’s prognosis was “very serious†and that he is being fed intravenously after three failed operations for diverticulitis, or pouch-like bulges in the large intestine that get infected.
El Pais cited medical sources at the same Madrid hospital where a surgeon who examined Castro in late December works.
And ask the Canadians who travel to the United States to see a doctor or get a test since their universal care (socialized) system imposes rationing of care.
NOTE WELL:
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support government run universal single payor health care.
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Technorati Tags: MichaelRamirez, Cuba, FidelCastro
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Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Decided to Avoid Colostomy?
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Cuba’s President Fidel Castro is seen sitting in Havana October 28, 2006. Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said in its Wednesday edition.
Reuters: Castro decided to avoid colostomy: newspaper
Cuban leader Fidel Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said in its Wednesday edition.
The shortcut involved sewing the colon to the rectum but did not heal properly and broke apart, releasing gastric fluid with feces that caused serious infection, El Pais said on its Web site.
The newspaper reported a day earlier that Castro’s prognosis was “very serious” and that he is being fed intravenously after three failed operations for diverticulitis, or pouch-like bulges in the large intestine that get infected.
El Pais cited medical sources at the same Madrid hospital where a surgeon who examined Castro in late December works.
Spin Spin Spin………
Cuba government transition plans are in the works.
Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro meeting with international leaders in recent months mainly from Latin America have raised speculations that he may moving towards a transition of power in a bid to protect his four-decade old government.
US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte while reviewing global threats last week said that Castro and his brother Raul, who has taken over as Cuba’s interim leader, are trying to create a “soft landing” leading to a transfer of power.
“From the point of the United States policy, we don’t want to see that happen,” Negroponte said. “We want to see the prospects for freedom in that country enhanced as a result of the transition” from Fidel Castro. Negroponte also said Castro’s days “seem to be numbered.”
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s President Fidel Castro in a September 15, 2006 television grab. Castro’s recovery from surgery is slow and has risks, his close ally Chavez said on Tuesday, but he denied reports Castro’s condition was serious.
Castro is 80 years old. He is not coming back to the presidency.
PUT A FORK IN FIDEL – HE’S DONE!
Stay tuned…….
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Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Gravely Ill – Is He Done?
Cuba Watch: Cuba Awaits Verdict on Castro’s Health
Cuba Watch: Is Fidel Castro Dead?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, FidelCastro
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Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Gravely Ill – Is He Done?
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Cuban President Fidel Castro holds a Cuban flag at the beginning of his speech in this Saturday July 26, 2003 file photo in Santiago de Cuba, eastern Cuba. Castro is in ‘very grave’ condition after three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection, a Spanish newspaper said Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007.
AP: Castro reportedly in grave condition
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in “very grave” condition after three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection, a Spanish newspaper said Tuesday.
The newspaper El Pais cited two unnamed sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The facility employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba in December to treat the 80-year-old Castro.
In a report published on its Web site, El Pais said: “A grave infection in the large intestine, at least three failed operations and various complications have left the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, laid up with a very grave prognosis.”Flap thinks the 80 year old dictator is done…….
Stay tuned…….
A woman holding a sign in Spanish that translates to ‘Liberty for Cuba,’ joins revelers as they cruise the streets of Hialeah, Fla., in this Aug. 1, 2006, file photo, after hearing the news about Fidel Castro’s health.
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Cuba Watch: Cuba Awaits Verdict on Castro’s Health
Cuba Watch: Is Fidel Castro Dead?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, FidelCastro
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Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Ignores Appeal From Cuba’s Political Dissident’s Wives
U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan stands before a banner demanding the closure of the Guantanamo U.S. naval base in Havana January 9, 2007. Sheehan and a group of other peace activists plan to march to the gates of the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba on January 11 to protest against abuses at the prison camp for terrorism suspects.
New York Sun: Sheehan Dismisses Appeal From Cuban Dissidents’ Wives
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is ignoring an appeal by wives and mothers of imprisoned Cuban political dissidents for her to visit Cuban prisons during her trip this week to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay.
The Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, who march silently through the streets of Havana every Sunday in protest at the incarceration of political prisoners of the Castro regime, wrote a letter to Ms. Sheehan inviting her to visit Cuban prisons.
The Damas drew Ms. Sheehan’s attention to the poor state of Cuban prisons, which they say lack clean drinking water and adequate food and where their relatives are imprisoned solely for speaking out against Fidel Castro’s government.
The leader of Ms. Sheehan’s trip, Medea Benjamin, said the American activists had not seen the letter and that they would be focusing solely on Guantanamo.
Cindy Sheehan could care LESS about Cuban political prisoners and the squalor in which THEY live. Sheehan and Code Pinko cohort, Medea Benjamin rather focus on those poor Al Qaeda bastards, like Omar Deghayes in Guantanamo.
U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan (L) hugs Zohra Zewahi, mother of the Guantanamo detainee Omar Deghayes, during a news conference in Havana January 9, 2007.
“It just so happens that this is where the [ Guantanamo] prisoners are,” Ms. Benjamin said. That the group is visiting Cuba, where prisons define daily life for many, is “very incidental,” she added.
The Sheehan trip has angered some who believe she should also address Cuba’s imprisonment of political dissidents during her visit, not just those held in the American military prison.
“The fact that there’s so many Cubans in prison simply for expressing their political beliefs — nobody seems to pay attention to that,” the director of government relations at the anti-Castro Cuban-American National Foundation, Camila Ruiz Gallardo, said.
Cindy is running with the Socialist Worker/radical Islam crowd and would no more anger Fidel Castro’s government than kiss President Bush.
But, she would kiss Socialist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
The Socialists Workers probably paid Sheehan’s expenses or did she use more of her son’s life insurance money?
Stay tuned…..
Others blogging:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (L) greets U.S activist Cindy Sheehan as he arrives at the meeting with World Social Forum Organizations in Caracas, Venezuela January 27, 2006.
Previous:Cindy Sheehan Watch: “De-Escalate, Investigate, Troops Home Nowâ€
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Arrested AGAIN – This Time in Crawford
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Convicted of Trespassing
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Arrested in Washington AGAIN
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize?
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan and Entourage Disrupt Karl Rove At GOP Reception
Cindy Sheehan Watch: She’s BACK
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Hospitalized in Waco – To Be Released Later Today
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Anti-Israel Demonstrators Join Sheehan at Sacramento Street Protest
Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sheehan Heads to the Middle East for Peace Talks?
Technorati Tags: CindySheehan
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Cuba Watch: Cuba Awaits Verdict on Castro’s Health
A woman walks near a photograph of Cuba’s President Fidel Castro in Havana in this file picture. A renowned Spanish surgeon has been rushed to Cuba to try to stop a steady deterioration in Fidel Castro’s health, a Spanish newspaper reported on Sunday.
AFP: Cuba awaits Spanish doc’s verdict on Castro’s health
Cuba was on tenterhooks over Fidel Castro’s fragile health, as residents of the Communist island awaited a visiting Spanish doctor’s diagnosis on whether additional surgery is needed.
Officials in Madrid confirmed Monday that a Spanish surgeon had been dispatched to Cuba to treat Castro, 80, who has not been seen in public for five months. Few medical updates have been made public since his reported intestinal surgery.
“The Cuban government decided to ask one of our top professionals to care for its president,” Manuel Lamela, health councilor for Madrid’s regional government, told reporters.
“When a government asks for help or collaboration, health officials respond,” Lamedo added, appearing to confirm a Spanish newspaper report, which identified the physician as Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital.
Separately, Spain’s Cadena Ser radio described Garcia as a well-known specialist in digestive problems.
Castro’s brother, interim leader Raul Castro, has said the Cuban leader’s recovery continues apace, but his continued absence from the public eye has fueled widespread speculation that he may be seriously ill and perhaps even near death.
US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told the newspaper The Washington Post earlier this month that Castro was likely to survive “months, not years.”
Obviously, Castro and his government are grasping at life and the last straws for Castro’s government. United States national security officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met last thursday to discuss Cuba and the aftermath of a Castro death.
President George W. Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley chaired the 90-minute meeting on Thursday that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials, National Security Council press secretary Gordon Johndroe said on Saturday.
“We’re engaged in an interagency process that is focused on a successful transition to democracy for the people of Cuba,” Johndroe said.
Stay tuned for likely another surgery or the announcement of hospice care.
Two workers lean on a poster depicting Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on 19 December 2006. Cuba was on tenterhooks over Castro’s fragile health, as residents of the Communist island awaited a visiting Spanish doctor’s diagnosis on whether additional surgery is needed.
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Previous:Cuba Watch: Is Fidel Castro Dead?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, FidelCastro