House passes bill easing Cuba travel restrictions

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wednesday, 02.25.09
House passes bill easing Cuba travel restrictions

BY FRANCES ROBLES
[e-mail]

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a huge spending bill Wednesday that tweaked U.S-Cuba policy, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to get away with illegally traveling to the communist country. The bill -- which faces a rocky path in the Senate -- discontinues funding for enforcement of violations of the rules that limit how often Cubans living here can visit home.

The 2009 budget also contains several revisions to Cuba policy that signal a trend toward further engagement with Cuba and momentum that could lead to the end of more sanctions, Cuba-watchers said. The budget bill passed the House days after the Senate Foreign Relations committee and a senior Republican on the panel issued a strongly worded report which said the embargo's isolation of Cuba wasn't working.

Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar recommended increased engagement in drug trafficking and migration, but fell short of advocating a wholesale lifting of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. A group of well-known diplomats and academics at The Brookings Institute think tank is expected to issue a report Thursday that also calls for more dialogue with Cuba.

On Wednesday night, a group of African-American leaders was scheduled to meet with Cuban diplomats in Washington to discuss the state of U.S-Cuba relations.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/921540.html

[FrenchieCat]

1. We are obviously living in a Brand New World!

[dipsydoodle]

2. One step at a time

which hopefully will soon increase to a trot.

[Judi Lynn]

5. No doubt you're right. It took decades to develope that hate industry in Miami!

There's a vast number of U.S. citizens' dollars being dumped by the boatload into Miami annually to feed the two propaganda stations, TV and Radio Marti (under the idiotic claim they wouldn't get any news from the outside world without them) which have never been needed, since Cubans have always been able to get both radio and tv stations from the U.S., anyway, as well as from other islands, and from Latin America.

That doesn't begin to include the boatloads of money being heaved into the various projects in South Florida universities annually created to plan, plot how to take over and run Cuba once the U.S. and Cuban Americans find a way to seize control.

Then there's the horrendous load of money which gets siphoned off to Miami to various Cuban-American-operated NGO's which forward funding to paid "dissidents" on the island, as well as buying them equipment and supplies for their offices, cell phones, computers, living expenses, even odd gifts, as it was discovered in 2006:

GAO Audit Finds Waste In Cuban Aid Program
USAID Is Criticized for Lack of Oversight

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006; Page A12

Nearly all of the $74 million a federal agency has spent on contracts to promote democracy in Cuba over the past decade has been distributed without competitive bidding or oversight in a program that opened the door to waste and fraud, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

In one of the more extreme cases of apparent abuse, the GAO said a Miami-based group used government money to purchase "a gas chainsaw, computer gaming equipment and software (including Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations), a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat, and Godiva chocolates."

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501631.html?nav=rss_politics

[DUlover2909]

3. I want a job in one of those "think tanks."

It seems pretty easy. Just sit there and think about whatever with the mind probes attached to my skull. How much does it pay and what are the hours?

[dipsydoodle]

4. Other bits......

The bill would allow Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year instead of once every three years.

>

President Obama has said that the trade embargo against Cuba should stay in place as it increases pressure for democratic reforms. <edit to add whatever the f*ck that means>

However, under the bill, Cuban Americans should be able to spend $170 a day on the island, more than three times the current daily limit of $50.

It also creates a general travel licence for Americans who sell food and medical supplies to Cuba.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7910134.stm

[liberal N proud]

6. The reasons travel was banned to Cuba are no longer valid

Why do we punish Cuba when we allow travel to other communist countries?

[groundloop]

7. Agreed

Lift all sanctions. Stop spending taxpayer money on useless propaganda. Let me vacation in Cuba.