USA To Open Up Cuba??

Nothing like having a policy preventing ex-Cubans going home to visit family. Has really worked pretty good for the last 50 years, hasn't it?

A police officer walks past a double-decker tourist bus in Havana
WASHINGTON -- Buoyed by a new administration, U.S. advocates for trade with Cuba introduced a bill Tuesday that would lift travel restrictions to the island, allowing Americans to visit there freely.
The bipartisan group of senators, who have long pushed for increased trade with Cuba, say they believe momentum is now on their side, noting that President Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to change U.S. policy toward Cuba.
Current U.S. policy ''has done nothing to weaken the Castro regime,'' ``It's long past the time to change this ill-advised policy.''
''We should be siding with the oppressed, not with the oppressors,'' said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican and the first Cuban-born U.S. senator. He suggested the Senate was getting ahead of Obama.
PROS AND CONS
Supporters of the legislation argue that U.S. policy is a Cold War relic that should be scrapped. Dorgan was joined by Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, who argued that current U.S. policy ''has neither weakened the Cuban government'' -...
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., suggested that lawmakers don't have the votes to repeal the economic embargo against Cuba. But he said travel strikes a chord: Cuba is the only country to which U.S. residents can't travel freely.
Identical legislation will be introduced in the House on Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports the bill, but a Democratic aide said its passage is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has opposed changes to U.S.-Cuba policy, but said Tuesday he expects a vote on the measure.

SKEPTICISM ABOUNDS
Mauricio Claver-Carone, a Washington lobbyist who opposes change to U.S. policy, said he is skeptical that proponents have the votes to succeed.

It would be a step in the right direction to allow US citizens to travel there. Cuba could make money on health-care related tourism. Imagine that? Folks who had been brainwashed all these years could see for themselves that their own healthcare system is not all that great after all!

This should of been done decades ago.

eh...no big news here.

As far as miz_point's point...I'll disagree.
I know very few people who think America's healthcare system is so "great". Most of them believe it's overpriced and lacks in proper service.

The brain-washing of Cuba being "off-limits" means nothing either. Those who REALLY want to travel to Cuba still could...they'd just have to do it via Mexico or Canada.

The initial embargo was designed to hurt Cuba...in the hopes that their economy would be hurt so much by the lack of US involvement that the people would overthrow the tyrant. It didn't work.

Whether policy will change, or the embargo will lift really means nothing. About the only thing it will do, is reduce the price of "contraband" cuban cigars since they'd be more readily available.

For Americans to be traveling in Cuba though...at least in the short-term...would only make them "targets" for revenge or ransom. So tourism would not be a real reason for lifting the ban anyway.

keep the ban please!

Last vacationing place to go without out loud obnoxious americans...

AGEsAces wrote:eh...no big news here.

As far as miz_point's point...I'll disagree.
I know very few people who think America's healthcare system is so "great"....For Americans to be traveling in Cuba though...at least in the short-term...would only make them "targets" for revenge or ransom. So tourism would not be a real reason for lifting the ban anyway.

|Ok I will address the first part of the quote....according to idiots like FAt|Limbaugh, o"REilly, |Hannity and that ilk America and all things in America are great and to disagree makes one decidedly unamerican.....

\on the second part.....why would americans become targets|? \I have met americans who have snuck over to Cuba and they were well-treated. Cuba is not Columbia nor mexico City....as to american citizens sneaking over to Cuba via Canada or \Mexico that has not been recommended in years due to flight manifest access by American authorities....nothing is private in teh modern world....

btw excuse my keyboard....it is really playing games

The downside to allowing Americans to visit Cuba is there will no longer be a tropical vacation spot free of annoying American tourists.

I hope Ages ain't feeli :rpg: ng too persecuted here...

I think if Cuba agreed to repay the Mafia for their loss of the casinos, everything would be forgiven!
I think the main reason USA don't want their citizens their is that they may catch "communism". That is why USA citizens cannot visit China!

Obama Calls for Thaw in U.S. Relations With Cuba Pool photo by Mariamma Kambon


President Obama and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Friday.

('President Obama’s overture to Cuba at a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders in Trinidad capped a dizzying series of diplomatic developments this week.');

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  PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — President Obama, seeking to thaw long-frozen relations with Cuba, told a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday that “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” and that he was willing to have his administration engage the Castro government on a wide array of issues.
  
  
  News Analysis: Clinton Scores Points by Admitting Past U.S. [/url]Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
  
  
  President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Raúl Castro of Cuba at a meeting of leftist governments in Venezuela on Thursday.
  
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Mr. Obama’s remarks, during the opening ceremony at the Summit of the Americas, are the clearest signal in decades that the United States is willing to change direction in its dealings with Cuba. They capped a dizzying series of developments this week, including surprisingly warm words between Raúl Castro, Cuba’s leader, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Other leaders here said that in watching Mr. Obama extend his hand to Cuba, they felt they were witnessing a historic shift. And in another twist, Cuba’s strongest ally at the summit, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, no fan of the United States, was photographed at the meeting giving Mr. Obama a hearty handclasp and a broad smile.
Cuba is not on the official agenda here; indeed, Cuba, which has been barred from the [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/organization_of_american_states/index.html?inline=nyt-org]Organization of American States[/url] since 1962, is not even on the guest list. But leaders in the hemisphere have spent months planning to make Cuba an issue here.
The White House was well aware that if Mr. Obama did not address it head on, the issue would overwhelm the rest of the summit gathering. This week, the president opened the door to the discussions by abandoning longstanding restrictions on the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel freely to the island and send money to relatives there. I came here to deal with the future.”
He said the United States needed to acknowledge long-held suspicions that it has interfered in the affairs of other countries.
But he also did not say that he was willing to support Cuba’s membership in the Organization of American States, or lift the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, as some hemisphere leaders here want him to do.
And his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, pointed out that Cuba needed to take concrete action to “bring greater freedom to the Cuban people.”
But I do believe we can move U.S.-Cuban relations in a new direction.”
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. Mr. Ortega, who said he felt ashamed that he was participating in the summit meeting without the presence of Cuba, evoked images of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, saying, “I am convinced that wall will collapse, will come down.”
Mr. Obama’s speech on Friday night was only the latest in a string of overtures between the countries. On Thursday, Raúl Castro, Cuba’s president, used unusually conciliatory language in describing the Obama administration’s decision to lift restrictions on family travel and remittances.
“We are willing to discuss everything, human rights, freedom of press, political prisoners, everything, everything, everything they want to talk about, but as equals, without the smallest shadow cast on our sovereignty, and without the slightest violation of the Cuban people’s right to self-determination,” Mr. Castro said.
On Friday, Mrs. Clinton responded, saying, “We welcome his comments, the overture that they represent, and we’re taking a very serious look at how we intend to respond.”
On Friday, the secretary general of the O.A.S., José Miguel Insulza, said he would call for Cuba to be readmitted. And Mr. Chávez recently said he would refuse to sign the official declaration produced at the summit meeting because Cuba was not invited.
Indeed, Mr. Obama made the first move, officials said, striding across the room to introduce himself to Mr. Chávez as the leaders were lining up to parade into the opening ceremony. As he extended his hand, the Venezuelan government reported, Mr. Chávez told Mr. Obama: “I greeted Bush with this hand eight years ago. I want to be your friend.”

Obama's World Apology Tour isn't doing anybody any good imho.

It probably isn't worse than Bush's world insult tour!

I wouldn't bet on it.

JTF wrote:Obama's World Apology Tour isn't doing anybody any good imho.

Bombing another country would send the right message. Net&Yahoo!, the PM of Israel, is gearing up to bomb Iran. Perhaps the US could at least help out there.

Heh heh heh...well...no.

Bartron wrote:It probably isn't worse than Bush's world insult tour!

I'm just waiting for the "other" shoe to drop (or get thrown ).

If Israel bombs Iran to stop the nuclear threat, you can bet that the U.S. has signed off on it! They probably will give Israel some information, and some bombs to accomplish the deed. Of course they won't admit to it!