This is just outstanding. I know when I began to write about Cuba a little more than a year ago, there were only a couple of sites doing so. Now there are so many, I have to set aside time to read them all.

We're coming for you fidel.

what a great idea!!!! while they're at it, they should install a huge screen TV and play all those videos of barbatruco with a table full of food and expensive wine bottles- that would cool-

be - sorry :)

be

Its great to see all these new blogs!!!

castro is between a rock and a hrad place. How long does everyone think it will be before he expels US diplomats? If he sends them out then he looks bad, if he lets them stay he looks bad.

I was referring to his response to the new sign on the previous post.

I think the next step will be to flood the area with policias and anybody that dares to look up and read will be beaten and taken to jail- sounds like Cuba, right?

They will cordon off the area and or build something to obstruct the ticker. But...I gotta hand it to our new guy in Havana, brilliant.

Call me a pessimist, but it seems that the Administration has done nothing more than given us Cuban-Americans another pacifier with the sign in the same spirit of the Radio Marti blimp and C-130, the transition plan, etc. The only thing they have accomplished is keeping the Cuban-American vote. Substance is necessary not style.
fidel is still in power and those of us who long to be in Cuba again are still in the U.S. I wonder what will come next, exploding cigars for fidel? Oh I forgot they used that one already. It seems more like Wylie Coyote going after the Road Runner with Acme gadgets that foreign policy.

er I mean "Than" foreign policy

OK, pototo, Ill bite.

What do you want the US to do?

Val,
Thats the million dollar question being asked to my nickel mind but I'll try anyway. The answer would be some type of military action or support for those who choose to make a change. The U.S. also could wield some political clout with other countries to put "real" pressure on Cuba. We have done it in the past. If we can justify Iraq we can no less justify Cuba.If indeed there are human rights violations happening in Cuba (and we all know there are) what other excuse do we need for military action. Cuba poses a strong strategic risk for stability in the hemisphere. If this doesn't justify "real" action nothing does. While I have the desire I do not have the strategic mind to have the answers. But one thing is clear, blimps, signs, and radios aren't the answer. Perhaps others could comment as well as to possible solutions are. I will not buy the "its better than nothing" because in my opinion it is just that "nothing". Pardon my passion pero deseo una Cuba libre! AHORA MISMO!

BTW I'm not the enemy, just passionate about my patria.

"....blimps, signs, and radios aren't the answer."

Tell that to the folks tuning in. The blimps aren't for you, or to make you feel better, they're to allow information behind the lines. Military action would turn an aging failure into a martyr of resistance to imperialism. Let him die a natural death.

You wanna do something to hasten change? Close Camp X-ray, build one hundred factories, one hundred hotels and dozens of banks and thousands of apartments at Guantanomo Bay, call it Marti City, Free Cuba, the Hong Kong of the Caribbean. Drop the fake embargo and compete. Offer an alternative to crossing the Florida straits. They'd come by the thousands and we'd have a Berlin-like moment.

There are non-violent alternatives to the status quo.

--s

I sort of agree with Pototo, that ticker running news is basically just "style" not "substance", nevertheless, I can't help, but to get a rise just thinking of the hissy fit that it must be giving that repulsive thing known as Fidel Castro!

One of the articles on the ticker quoted a Cuban as saying, "you don't have to be close to see it." Imagine if you're a Habañero reading the forbidden Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the first time. That sign's a bright light, symbols are important.

Barnard,
Are you serious? Do people really think that Radio Marti is the way that Cubans are learning of democracy? My many friends and what few relatives I have left in Cuba aren't ignorant uninformed people who don't know better unless they hear it on the radio. I'm not bashing Radio Marti, but thats not the answer. They know that what they have there is wicked and horrible. They know they want more. The issue is that they don't have the necessary means to revolt. The tools necessary for freedom won't just appear when the local McDonalds opens. I am assuming your are attempting to be humerous with your "peaceful transition" and your "Marti City". Ever try to cross a minefield to climb the wall? Do you think Fidel will clear the mines so Cubans can get up close and personal with "Marti City"? Non-violence doens't work when the other guy only uses violence.Freedom is not an economic issue, its a human rights issue. You can be free and poor much to the chagrin of the MSM. Cuba's economic woes will take care of themselves once they are free. I only agree with you on one point and that is your reference to the "fake embargo". As long as the U.S. goes around the Trading with the Enemy Act and sells to Cuba it will never do any good. Not that it will do any good anyway, but to remove it will only be a moral victory for castro.
As for an alternative to crossing the Florida Straits that will happen when they are free not fed. One of the reasons Europe is migrating back to Communism is that some wanted to dump Communism for the wrong reasons. Whether a rich communist or poor Communist they are still Communist. The issue of freedom is a human right.

I think that something is better than nothing-

I also think that the fastest way for Cuba to be free is for all the cubans en la isla to "acomplejarse" with their situation and do something about it... and is our duty to help as much as we can from here-