Rumors circulating over Castro's death

[Maddy McCall]

Source: local10.com

MIAMI -- Rumors circulating from Miami to North Carolina and calls coming in to Local 10 said an announcement would be coming from Cuba by the end of Friday that Fidel Castro is dead.

Read more: http://www.local10.com/news/13969598/detail.html

---

Will update as soon as we know for sure.

[Maddy McCall]

1. From a celeb gossip site:

Update: An official announcement is still expected today. We are hearing that law enforcement wants to wait until rush hour traffic is over in Miami.

—————————————————————————————

The announcement of Fidel Castro’s death will be made at approximately 4:00 P.M. Eastern, PerezHilton.com has just been updated exclusively.

To everyone in Miami, please be mindful of each other and keep your safety in mind.

http://perezhilton.com/?p=4401

[ronnykmarshall]

19. Perez is a pig.

But he might have family in Miami and Cuba. So ol' Porky might have some info.

[Drunken Irishman]

29. He also reported this last week.

[ronnykmarshall]

30. Now I'm sure he's full of shit

This is total bullshit. I googled and the majority of the articles are linked to that asshole.

Move on. Ol' Fidel's still warm.

[Drunken Irishman]

33. We'll find out in a couple of hours, I guess.

I really don't give a rats ass if he's alive or dead, anyway.

[mountainvue]

45. He may just be trying to boost the number of

hits on his site.

[ronnykmarshall]

46. Which have been dropping.

I wish he'd drop off the face of the earth.

[dickbearton]

49. I would like to report Jesse Helms is still dead.

[SteppingRazor]

2. A source on the island reports no unusual police or military activity:

http://stuckonthepalmetto.blogspot.com/

[Scurrilous]

3. I don't hear any celebratory gunfire...

...not dead yet. :thumbsup:


From perezhilton:

Update: An official announcement is still expected today. We are hearing that law enforcement wants to wait until rush hour traffic is over in Miami.

http://perezhilton.com/


LOL

[Maddy McCall]

4. Wonkette's take on it

Good news, America! Our long half-century war with Cuban sensation Fidel Castro may finally be over, because he’s dead. Maybe. Our blogging comrade Perez Hilton (who is Cuban, and from Florida) is reporting exclusively that he heard a rumor that U.S. officials will soon announce Castro’s death. Another exclusive report is here, making it all the more exclusive.

We sort of thought Cuba would announce it first, but who knows. Maybe the USA can sort of feel like it “won” by rushing the announcement. Oh, and the riot cops are all ready to go in Miami, which is home to tens of thousands of really old people who are still worked up about Castro. They might have strokes or something, so you can’t be too careful.

Fidel Castro has outlived the following ten U.S. presidents who always tried to kill him: Dwight “I like Ike” Eisenhower, John “JFK” Kennedy, Lyndon “LBJ” Johnson, Richard “Dick” M. Nixon, Gerald “Jerry” Ford, Jimmy “James Earl Jones” Carter, Ronald “Nancy” Reagan, George “Wimp Factor” Bush, Bill “Monica” Clinton and George “Junior” Cheney-Bush.

http://wonkette.com/politics/dept'-of-fond-farewells/omg-breaking-castro-is-maybe-dead-again-293301.php

[Joanie Baloney]

14. Hmmm...

Castro has "outlived" Carter, Bush the Old, Clinton and Bush the Retarded? Maybe she meant his dictatorship has outlived theirs. Just weird phrasing.

:)

[0007]

48. Add Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, and Ford

[dflprincess]

52. I wondered about that as well

but I loved the "Ronald “Nancy” Reagan"

[EFerrari]

54. I like Wonkette but damn, her sentences bring out my inner

grammar Nazi.

Best wishes for the Cuban people during all this.

[David__77]

5. Oh jeez...

Even if this were true, it's not too relevant at this point. Raul Castro is already running the show and has decided on the "China strategy" for Cuba - ie, lots of private foreign investment combined with a nominally Marxist-Leninist state. The economy has been rapidly expanding, albeit it has a long way to go before there's any real comfort for most. The conditions do not exist for "regime change," unlike, say, in the early 1990's.

Many exiles think this will change everything, but it will not.

[THUNDER HANDS]

6. but is Francisco Franco still dead?

[newscott]

7. Generalissimo Franco is stil....

Whoops, wrong thread.

[Bjornsdotter]

8. This guy sure dies a lot n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

Actually, rumors of his ACTUAL death have been sparse...

...Usually, rumors about his IMPENDING death are prevalent. There's something ominous about this report, tho...

[Cooley Hurd]

9. Post-Castro: What happens to Cuba and the Cuban people?

Do the mobsters descend on Havana? :shrug:

[SteppingRazor]

11. Course not.

Power has already passed to Raul Castro. When he dies in a few years, it'll pass to some other apparatchik, just like in any other totalitarian state. The Soviet Union outlived both Lenin and Stalin, after all.

[tridim]

13. Either the mobsters or the American fascist/corporatists.

Cuba would be wise to tell America to go Cheney itself before we turn the whole country into a giant sweatshop for Walmart.

[harun]

24. Nothing (n/t)

[LiberalFighter]

10. So when will the Miami Cubans return to Cuba and lead it into the future?

That is the future they want for Cuba.

Come on Cubans what are you waiting for?

[Cooley Hurd]

12. Good riddance, repug enablers...

...and take the drama queen with you.

[ronnykmarshall]

21. Is that Elian's cousin?

She IS a drama queen.

[Cooley Hurd]

22. Yup...

"...but, WHAT ABOUT THE BOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYY???"

[ronnykmarshall]

26. God she makes sick.

Talk about a camera hog. I still think she and "the fisherman" were banging.

[Cooley Hurd]

31. Here's an even better pic (my apologies to your dinner):

"Look how SAD the BOOOYY is!!"

[ronnykmarshall]

36. Look what I found!

:rofl: :spray: :rofl: :spray: :rofl: :spray: :rofl: :spray:

[LiberalFighter]

27. The cousin should go to Cuba to be an actress... she sure as hell

can't make it in Hollywood.

[bluestateguy]

15. Hopefully we can lift the Dambargo now

If this is all true.

I've always been puzzled by conservatives who scream and yell, justifiably, about the tyranny of Castro and insist that we not trade with him, but then turn a deaf ear to the tyranny of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China.

[Xithras]

23. The embargo cannot be lifted until Helms-Burton is overturned.

If Castro had died before 1996 that might have been possible since the previous sanctions were aimed at him personally. The 'Thugs passed Helms-Burton in 1996 and changed the nature of the embargo. That law specifically prohibited the U.S. from recognizing any Cuban government, elected or not, that includes Fidel or any of his relatives. It also imposed specific sanctions requiring that Cuba pay back over $6 billion in "reparations" to United Fruit and ITT before the embargo can be lifted. Helms-Burton even removed the President's power to lift the embargo...even though it was a presidential executive order that put it into place originally.

The only way to lift the embargo at this point is by a full congressional vote. That isn't going to happen until Bush is out of office. Even Democrats aren't going to lift the embargo while Castro lives, so lifting it requires 1) Castro's death 2) A continued Democratic majority in both houses 3) A real liberal president willing to push it through.

[peacetalksforall]

25. Try to get it through their heads that Cuba no and China yes is

absurd? Its's impossible.

[bluestateguy]

37. Don't get me wrong

Castro is an asshole and a dictator, but to ban all travel and trade with Cuba makes no sense. The policy is a relic of the Cold War.

[fightindonkey]

16. 2Pac

Need I say more?

[Poiuyt]

20. Yes

[fightindonkey]

53. I Need To Say More?

2Pac is making as many videos as bin Laden even after death. Now you have Weekend at Castros.

[Contrary1]

17. There may be something to it...

A poster at another board got a call from a friend in Florida who's husband is a fireman and he told her that all off-duty police officers in Miami have been called to report for duty. :shrug:

[ronnykmarshall]

18. What about Franco?

Is he still dead?

[peacetalksforall]

28. So someone is saying that the U.S. is controlling the timing of the

news because they don't want rush hour in Miami to go wild? Typical of this administration. Hard to believe.

What does the Guardian say - the Singapore Times or the (international) Herald?
Radio?
TV?

If the U.S. is controlling the news - is Reuters, AP, UP and all of them going along with it? For Miami traffic control and/or safety?

[ronnykmarshall]

38. That "someone" is full of shit.

He's a self centered gossip bloger. I can't stand his ass.

He's a lying sack of shit.

[bemildred]

32. Frankly, Cheney would be a lot more exciting. nt

[Cooley Hurd]

35. Every time a "breaking news" banner pops up...

;)

Hi Agent Mike!:blush:

[Vogon_Glory]

34. One of These Days The Rumors WILL Prove True...

One of these days the rumors of Fidel Castro's death WILL prove true, but until there's an official announcement of his passing by the Cuban government, I'd take the rumor-mongering as a rude practical joke played on the exiles by the Havana regime. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the fact that the Fidel Castro health watch is starting to look like the frequent shuffling of ailing senior CPSU septugenarians on the Kremlin wall during the 1980's.

:silly:

[IDemo]

39. When this really happens, we'll see Condi and her husband

dancing on the White House lawn.

[dipsydoodle]

41. Carrying boxes of tissues

to help cope with orgasms no doubt.

[dipsydoodle]

40. If it was true

a number of people on holiday there from the UK would've contacted the BBC amongst others. Just a rumour to keep us occupied here on a Friday...lol.

[Scurrilous]

42. Castro rumors circulating -- again -- Friday

<snip>

"On Friday, the rumors heated up again for the third week in a row: Fidel Castro's death would be announced, first at 2 p.m., then at 4, then at 5.

For the past year, since the Cuban government announced that Fidel had ceded power to brother Raúl following intestinal surgery, rumors that he's on the brink of meeting his maker keep boiling over and dying down, creating a roller coaster of emotion for exiles and islanders.

This Friday, teary callers told Ninoska Pérez of Radio Mambí they were sure this was it, and Pérez, as usual, reminded, ``The moment will come, but this is not the moment.''

At Aaction Home Health in Hialeah, office workers were abuzz because somebody from Cuba called a colleague to say folks in Havana were starting to take to the streets in anticipation of the news. At the University of Miami, media relations officers worked the phones in search of confirmation.

But once again, none of the rumors seemed to be panning out."

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/214415.html

[ngant17]

47. Mark Twain: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

It is not credible to believe in the sudden death of Fidel Castro. When he dies naturally, it won't be a surprise and it might be part of the slower process related to aging.

Probably Castro is preferring to remain less of a public figure and more introverted these days. So he spends more time by himself, collected his own thoughts and recording them for posterity. After his death, I predict there will be a number of post-humous writings and collected works which will keep his ideas alive in Cuba into the next century and beyond. People like him don't really die, his memory will always be respected and cherished, because he has produced a future for Cuba that is promising and sustainable for future generations on the island. It's not often that humanity produces men or women of such extraordinary calibre.

[struggle4progress]

55. Rumors of Castro's death are greatly exaggerated (McClatchy)

By Lydia Martin, McClatchy Newspapers
Last update: August 24, 2007 – 6:00 PM
<summary: miami cubans have heart attacks of joy as rumors spread>
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1381672.html

[onehandle]

43. If true, Rove will make This the defining event for Bush's finale.

Yes I said Rove.

They will milk and milk and milk and milk and milk and milk and milk and milk this until Bush is out.

Take credit for it? Yessireebob!

[bluestateguy]

44. Uh huh, all while Raul Castro seamlessly assumes power and nothing changes in Cuba

Thats really something to take credit for.

[ronnykmarshall]

50. Well it's 5:48 in west coast ...

and Castro is still not dead.

Figures that "Perez" stuck his ass out again.

[bluestateguy]

58. Oh, you didn't know.

The announcement will come in 24 BUSINESS hours.

[Spinzonner]

51. Have they started planning

the spontaneous celebrations in Miami yet ?

[lapfog_1]

56. Well, Castro IS dead...

Castro, war vets’ leader, dies; 83...

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=84124

but its a different "Castro".

[killbotfactory]

57. Not again!?

Quit dieing, Fidel. It's annoying.