Castros daughter Alina said that:

“When people tell me he’s a dictator, I tell them that’s not the right word,” she told the Miami Herald.

“Strictly speaking, Fidel is a tyrant.”

But watch all the useful idiots fawn all over a dead tyrant.   Hated by Cubans in and out of Cuba.

She might know just an itsy bitsy teeny weeny bit more about who he was, and what he was, than the combined population of the Useless Idiots of the World. 

Just a tiny bit!


Oh, and I forgot, his sister also said basically the same thing, although she said that she was sad he had passed.

Hugo: Preparing for Hell, packing lite.

Hugo Chavez weeps and calls on God to spare his life

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wept and asked God to spare his life during a pre-Easter Mass on Thursday after returning from his latest session of cancer treatment in Cuba.

9:47AM BST 06 Apr 2012

Very little is known about the 57-year-old socialist leader's condition, including even what type of cancer he has. Chavez has undergone three operations in less than a year, and received two sessions of radiation treatment.

He says the latest surgery was successful, that he is recovering well and will be fit to win a new six-year term at an election in October. Yet big questions remain about his future, and on Thursday the strain appeared to show.

In a televised speech to the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas, Chavez cried and his voice broke as he eulogised Jesus, revolutionary fighter Ernesto "Che" Guevara and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

"Never forget that we are the children of giants ... I could not avoid some tears," the former soldier said, his parents and other relatives looking on from the church rows.

"Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do for this country and these people. Do not take me yet," Chavez added, standing below an image of Jesus with the Crucifix.

[To read more, click on the link above]


Hugo, sorry old chap, He is not inclined to give you anything.  Not the crown, not the thorns, and he certainly will not listen to anyone who invokes political bullshit with his egocentric tirade about being saved so he can continue the revolution.

You can save some money on  your campaign - you will not be around in October to be elected by the few who stuff the ballots and chase away those who would vote contrary to your wishes.

Good luck in Hell and enjoy your time with Che and Saddam, Osama, and Adolph, along with the other dictators of history.

Cuba's Economy in Shambles and Nears Collapse

Cuba eyes more self-employment as massive layoffs loom


Aug 1, 2010
AFP
 
 
President Raul Castro expanded self-employment fields on Sunday, ahead of looming government plans to slash as many as one million jobs -- 20 percent of communist Cuba's work force -- from state payrolls.


The economy, 95 percent of which is currently in state hands, does not have the ability to absorb such vast numbers of jobless. Castro's move aims to try to reduce the socioeconomic fallout, but it will be an uphill battle.

The Council of Ministers "agreed to expand the range of self-employment jobs, and their use as another alternative for workers who lose their jobs," Castro said as he gave a closing address at one of two annual sessions of the National Assembly.

After the crash of the former Soviet bloc, Cuba's cash-strapped government in the 1990s approved a wide range of self-employment. Positions such as beauticians, dog groomers, small restaurant owners and even lighter refillers were legalized as long as workers got licenses and paid taxes.

But social resentment emerged as an issue when some workers, particularly in small private restaurants, achieved dramatic levels of success.

The government began increasing taxation and regulation, and decreasing license-granting, until the self-employed sector was largely rendered paralyzed, like the rest of the economy.

Cuba has no regular access to international funding; it depends heavily on the cut-rate oil it gets from Venezuela in order to keep its fragile economy afloat. Tourism earnings and remittances from emigres also are key pillars of the Cuban economy.

Inefficiency is rampant and wages are woefully low.

Cubans' hopes had been running high that some change was coming to allow some economic opening in the Americas' only one-party communist regime.

By 2009, there were just 148,000 people out of a work force of five million who were legally self-employed.

Raul Castro, 79, said he would launch new wage and salary practices early next year. He did not give details.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
silly castros

Cuba and Minority Report

Perhaps Michael Moore and any number of naive Democratic Congressmen and women who claim Cuba as a paradise and that castro has done wonderful things in Cuba ... should sit down and shut up.  Feeding them to hungry sharks would not be unconscionable but for the indigestion the shark would get.

The following article from the BBC is about Obama and a blogger - not important.  It is the last bit at the end.



Thursday, 19 November 2009


President Obama replies to Cuba's dissident blogger


US President Barack Obama has engaged in an unprecedented written exchange with a blogger in Cuba who is openly critical of its communist government.

His comments came after prize-winning blogger Yoani Sanchez sent questions chiefly about US-Cuba relations.

Mr Obama said in one of the responses he wanted better ties, but indicated it was up to Cuba to act.

Ms Sanchez, 34, has also sent questions to Cuban President Raul Castro, but has not received a reply so far.

The White House confirmed the US president had written to Ms Sanchez.

Asked if he was prepared to hold direct talks with Cuba, the US president said he was not interested in "talking for the sake of talking".

He said he wanted "direct diplomacy" with Cuba.

"The United States has no intention of using military force in Cuba... Only the Cuban people can bring about positive change in Cuba and it is our hope that they will soon be able to exercise their full potential."

'Repressive system'

Ms Sanchez's Generation Y blog on the trials and tribulations of everyday Cuban life has won several major international journalism awards.

But the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says that recently, her postings appear to have become more political.

Last week she claimed she had been briefly detained and beaten by members of the state security forces, which prompted a letter of concern from the US state department.

In a report released this week, Human Rights Watch accused President Raul Castro of perpetuating the repressive system of his brother Fidel.

The report said the authorities relied on a law which allows the state to jail people even before they commit a crime.


It documented more than 40 cases where individuals had been jailed for "dangerousness" for such activities as staging peaceful protests or organising independent trade unions.










Cuba

Summit of the Americas - Obama has no opinion

Obama Endures Ortega Diatribe
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega lashes out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America.


By Major Garrett
FOXNews.com
Saturday, April 18, 2009


PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago -- President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba's Communist government.

Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here.

Later, at a photo opportunity with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama held his tongue when asked what he thought about Ortega's speech.

"It was 50 minutes long. That's what I thought."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored two questions about Ortega's speech, instead offering lengthy praise of a cultural performance of dance and song opening the summit.

"I thought the cultural performance was fascinating," Clinton said. Asked again about the Ortega speech, Clinton said: "To have those first class Caribbean entertainers on all on one stage and to see how much was done in such a small amount of space, I was overwhelmed."

[Amazing - no opinion at all. Did she not hear the person asking the question? Or was she so fascinated by space and its usage. Amazing. Even when she and Obama are not bowing or pushing reset buttons, they manage to create fodder for further attacks on the US and a weakening of opposition to the tyrants of Central and South America. And of note - before I made the preceding statement, I studied all the intelligence on the matter and considered all options before choosing the words.]


A senior administration official declined to criticize Ortega, saying the president wanted to focus on the future.

"His expectation is that these debates of the past can remain that, debates of the past and that the leaders can take advantage of this opportunity to focus on what they can do in the future to advance the interests of all the people of the hemisphere."

Ortega, meanwhile, droned on about the offenses of the past, dredging up U.S. support of the Somoza regime and the "illegal" war against the Sandinista regime he once led by U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s. Ortega was a member of the revolutionary junta that drove Anastasio Somoza from power in 1979 and was elected president in 1985. He was defeated in 1990 by Violeta Chamorro and ran unsuccessfully twice for the presidency before winning in 2006.

Of the 19th and 20th centuries, Ortega said: "Nicaragua central America, we haven't been shaken since the past century by what have been the expansionist policies, war policies, that even led us in the 1850s, 1855, 1856 to bring Central American people together. We united, with Costa Ricans, with people from Honduras, the people from Guatemala, El Salvador. We all got together, united so we could defeat the expansionist policy of the United States. And after that, after interventions that extended since 1912, all the way up to 1932 and that left, as a result the imposition of that tyranny of the Samoas. Armed, funded, defended by the American leaders."

Ortega denounced the U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's new Communist government in Cuba in 1961, a history of US racism and what he called suffocating U.S. economic policies in the region.

In his 17-minute address to the summit, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega.

"To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We've all heard these arguments before."

Actually, the president misspoke [He tends to do that when he doesn't have a teleprompter] on the sequence of events in Cuba. The invasion of CIA-trained rebels at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba occurred in April 1961. Obama was born August 4, 1961.

Ortega's speech, indulgent even by regional standards, also mocked the very summit he was attending and helping to open.

"This summit and I simply refuse to call it summit of the Americas. Yes, we are gathered here, we have a large majority of presidents, heads of state of Latin America and the Caribbean," Ortega said, lamenting the lack of Cuban participation in the summit due to it exclusion since 1962 from the Organization of American States. "They're absent from this meeting. One is Cuba, whose crime has been that of fighting for independence, fighting for sovereignty of the peoples. I don't feel comfortable attending this summit. I cannot feel comfortable by being here. I feel ashamed of the fact that I'm participating at this summit with the absence of Cuba."









Obama

Obamessiah Orgy - Smooth Operator

Beware Charismatic Men Who Preach 'Change'


Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.

On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba and a few months later I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.

I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.

When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said "Praise the Lord." And when the young leader said, "I will be for change and I'll bring you change," everyone yelled, "Viva Fidel!"

But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner's guns went silent the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.

Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America?

Would we?

Manuel Alvarez Jr.
Sandy Hook.











Cuba



Obama

Cuba

A re-evaluation of US policy is needed, and, if after re-evaluating, they find it reasonable to continue sanctions - fine. Otherwise, let's review the last nearly 50 years and develop a new policy.


After Bush: A new Cuba policy?

John McCain supports a tight US embargo. Barack Obama says he'll loosen it.

By Matthew Clark
from the July 23, 2008 edition

What changes might a new US administration make to its Cuba policy?

Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona supports keeping the tight travel restrictions and limits on remittances that President Bush added to the US trade embargo with Cuba. He said in May that to soften the restrictions "would send the worst possible signal to Cuba's dictators." His stance resonates with the traditionally conservative positions of the Cuban-American community in and around Miami – a key voting bloc in an important swing state that usually votes Republican.

But Cuban-American attorney and embargo law expert Pedro Freyre says that a younger generation of Cuban-Americans is far less dogmatic than their elders. This generation doesn't remember fleeing their homeland during Castro's revolution.

Mr. Freyre points out that Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D) of Illinois got a standing ovation at the Cuban-American National Foundation when he proposed lifting sanctions on Cuban family remittances and visits to the island. "Obama is making significant inroads," he says. "The dynamics are changing very rapidly."






Castro





Cuba

Obama says his Cuba policy is based on 'Libertad'

MIAMI - Sen. Barack Obama, who once said he would meet Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions, added Friday that he would do so "only when we have an opportunity to advance the interests of the United States and to advance the cause of freedom for the Cuban people."

Any meeting would occur "at a time and place of my choosing," the likely Democratic presidential nominee told an audience of Cuban-Americans that applauded his remarks.

**************************************

Do you understand that the difference between - no preconditions and what he presented as his new policy of libertad - not a thing.

Imagine the following:

Obama: Hello Raul, I would like to meet with you, no preconditions - let's just sit down and negotiate. I'd like to promote the interests of the American people and would hope you would be receptive to greater freedom in Cuba, but let's talk. Talk is important.

The imaginery conversation satisfied the - no preconditions yet also included the obligatory position Obama must feel - end the sanctions and embrace Cuba, it is 30 years late, even if I must lie to the Cubans in Florida to get their vote, and he knows he is lying when he says he will present the interests of the Cuban people.

Silly rabbits, he's lying through his teeth, or he is just naive.