Obama Intends to Lift Several Restrictions Against Cuba on His Own
** get ready for head explosions as Obama moves forward leaving Rubio in a puddle of his own making 
WASHINGTON — President Obama will move as soon as next month to defang the 54-year-old American trade embargo against Cuba, administration officials said Thursday, using broad executive power to defy critics in Congress and lift restrictions on travel, commerce and financial activities.
The moves are only the beginning of what White House officials and foreign policy experts describe as a sweeping set of changes that Mr. Obama can make on his own to re-establish commercial and diplomatic ties with Cuba even in the face of angry congressional opposition.
“The embargo is a container — it’s been that way since President Eisenhower — that’s had regulations and laws put into it and taken out of it and mixed about,” said John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “President Obama is saying, ‘I’m going to leave a shell, but it’s going to be a proverbial Easter egg — it’s going to be hollow.’ ”
The Treasury Department will issue a series of regulations to ease agricultural exports and establish banking relations, administration officials said, and the Commerce Department will move to allow United States companies to export construction and telecommunications equipment, among other things, for sale in Cuba.
The Treasury Department will issue a series of regulations to ease agricultural exports and establish banking relations, administration officials said, and the Commerce Department will move to allow United States companies to export construction and telecommunications equipment, among other things, for sale in Cuba.
Taken together, the actions will render the embargo “a lot more holes than cheese,” said Robert L. Muse, a Washington-based lawyer who specializes in American laws relating to Cuba. “The president went big on this, and that produces a momentum of its own, so I expect that we’ll see these things go further and faster than anybody would have anticipated.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/us/politics/obama-intends-to-lift-several-restrictions-against-cuba-on-his-own.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141218&nlid=1811197&tntemail0=y&_r=0&referrer=
THIS IS A GREAT STATEMENT:
“The embargo is a container — it’s been that way since President Eisenhower — that’s had regulations and laws put into it and taken out of it and mixed about,” said John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “President Obama is saying, ‘I’m going to leave a shell, but it’s going to be a proverbial Easter egg — it’s going to be hollow.’ ”
= new reply since forum marked as read
Many are having a fiesta today because of Obama's surprise yesterday! yo tambien 
"It is not clear when Mr. Obama might nominate an ambassador, a move that would set the stage for contentious confirmation hearings. “We would anticipate that we will have an embassy before we would make a nomination,” said Roberta S. Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs."
The gop defunded the Embassy in Benghazi but this time Cuban Americans will be watching.
Here's the SS Maine monument in Havana, the eagle was knocked off maybe it will be replaced! (It's at the US representatives's home in Havana, the building that used to be the US Embassy).
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Málaga Hoy, Spain #Cuba
3:31 AM - 18 Dec 2014
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/12/18/early-bird-chat-and-rise-and-shine-2/
I really didn't think he cared or knew that much about Cuba. Word is he was very impressed when the US and Britain asked for Ebola doctors and most countries were coughing up a couple and Cuba offered 480. But I guess he was already decided and the wheels were in motion a long time ago.
It's couragegous as Carter and Maduro of Venezuela both said today.
Oh and along the way maybe pushed Jeb Bush into a corner 
I gotta go...
