Good for Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, for continuing his fight to reform the outdated U.S. trade policies with Cuba, and especially to free up agricultural and food exports tightened under the Bush administration. In a letter sent last week to President-elect Barack Obama, Moran wrote: “Reform of U.S. trade policy with Cuba can facilitate new markets for U.S. goods and provide a means for our country’s democratic principles to reach Cuban citizens. Development of more practical trade rules will also deter Cuban purchases from other more oppressive governments like Venezuela or China. This is especially the case with nonluxury items like food and medicine.”
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Jerry probably doesn’t know that Cuba is one of the main producers of pharmaceuticals in the world. This is the kind of ignorance which leads to unintended consequences.
Not to mention that labor costs in Cuba are low and would be a lot cheaper then importing goods from China. “Mr. Faust this is Mr. Beelzebub, he is my brother.” said Mr. Lucifer Lee.
Still, I am for removing the trade barriers. That is, if we also begin treating immigrants from Cuba like all others.
Ease trade with Cuba? We need to normalize our relationship with Cuba. Castro is on his last legs. Now is the time for us to start exerting influence. With a little luck, Cuba could be the 51st state. The Cuban exiles would raise hell, but they’re just a bunch of troublemakers anyway. If we normalize relations, maybe about half of them would go back to Cuba.
As an added benefit, if half of the Cuban exiles went home, crime rates in southern Florida would drop dramatically. .
. . . and nothing says Cuba better than cigars and rum. And nothing would make the Republicans happier than being able to legally buy both.
Fines for an American citizen having Cuban cigars both here and abroad: Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 515, (Revised September 30, 2004) are administered and enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Criminal penalties for violation of the Regulations can go as high as $1 million for corporations, and $250,000 for individuals plus up to 10 years in prison. In addition, civil penalties of up to $65,000 per violation can be imposed by OFAC.
Is that ridiculous or what? Now THAT’S a government imposed tobacco tax. Makes the $0.75 tax seem a bargain.
WHY such singular treatment (embargo) on Cuba when we are allowing China to practically buy America?
When Castro came to power and wanted to Nationalize, he negoiated a fair market value of the assets involved and compensated accordingly other nations. Maybe Kennedy balked because most(a dare I say all?) American assets were controlled by the mob. Those other nations have re-invested in tourism and mineral exploration getting a fair ROI, Spain primarily, but Mexico, South America, western Europe and Canada maintained commercial/cultural/diplomatic relations all this time and not of them one seems to be in the throws of invasion or corruption by those darn commies.
One interesting development in Cuba is that President Raul Castro attended a Catholic mass yesterday. Maybe it’s not quite as atheist as a communist government is supposed to be. Or maybe not as communist.
Through one of our internet viewers, a Cuban emigre who owns a hotel and a newspaper in Acapulco, I’ve had the opportunity to make a number of friends in Cuba.
The two I still keep in touch with are a couple who are both teachers.
Guess what they want to talk about. Politics? Nah.
Sports? Not after they realized most Americans were rooting for the Cubans to beat the pants off the Orioles when they were nothing but a bunch of overpaid dunderheads.
Nope. They keep wanting to hear my story about the Grateful Dead concert I attended 20 years ago. Their proudest posession is a Wake of the Flood 8-track I dug up and sent them.
Okay, 20 plus years ago :)
Hey Mr. C, maybe Cuba will invite you to set a two coat hanger power TV station down there.
I think we need to do away with the trade barriers, too…why the heck not?
I’ll bet the scuba diving in Cuba is fastastic…I’ll be the first one there to check it out!
Way past time to lift the embargo. Hell, I enjoy a good cuban cigar now and then. Hate smuggling them from Canada when we go, but it’s the living on the edge I enjoy more than the smoke.
JFK died long ago. Most of his generation is in adult care now. Let’s move on.
You want to see democracy happen in Cuba? Lift the trade barriers and allow American’s to tour. You want to stop the flow of boat people or illegals from Cuba? End the embargo.
You want to see the Russians leave quickly? Again lift the stupid embargo.
You want cheaper sugar prices in the USA (and all the products from same)? Lift the trade embargo and STOP subsidizing US grown sugar.
We have much to gain and nothing to loose.
Of course Obama will normalize relations with Cuba.
Obama and Castro are ON THE SAME SIDE!
Actually, I have never kept company with the standard American hatred of the Cuban communists.
I believe what really pissed the USA off in 1958/1959 was that a local bumpkin ruined Cuba for the American mafia types who wanted to build the Las Vegas in Cuba. All that racketeering money, union money needed a place to laundry it off shore.
THAT’s what ticked us off.
That and a few who feel Lee Harvey Oswald was working for Fidel in a little pay back role.
So quaranteed the island – and made it a playground for the REST of the world.
Stupid. Lost money.
Oh, and don’t forget JFK’s Bay of Pigs invasion defeat.
What an embarrasing fiasco that was. That was another reason for the embargo.
Heck, we haven’t stopped trade with China, so I guess we might as well get some Cuban cigars here.
We all know the direction of money flow though. US dollars will be flowing to Cuba. There’s not a dang thing they will be buying from the US.
Jimbo,
“There’s not a dang thing they will be buying from the US.”
If you have a working carburator for a ‘56 Chevy and can find a way to get it there, I understand they’re worth a small fortune in Cuba.
The Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred in April, 1961. It was in the planning stages at least a year (and, most likely, since Castro took power.
In fact, in “Six Crises,” Nixon wrote about how disturbing it was for JFK to hint at something like the BoP. It was supposed to be Top Secret and obviously the plans surrounding it had been leaked.
Nixon wrote at length about the dilemma he faced. Did he reveal the BoP planning and trump Kennedy, or did he keep quiet about what was supposed to be — but obviously was no longer — a last foreign policy action by the retiring Eisenhower Administration?
Although JFK had taken office on January 20, 1961, the BoP was most definitely a Republican enterprise, the last legacy in some respects to the policies of Ike’s Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
To his lasting credit, Kennedy didn’t try to blame the previous administration although he had every right to. Just as Janet Reno bucked up and took the blame for Waco a mere two weeks after she was confirmed as Attorney General.
Compare that with the past eight years of Shrub’s screw-ups and CONs braying “It’s all Clinton’s fault!”
Yes, after the Bay of Pigs, JFK freed up enough time to have 54,000 Americans killed in Vietnam, 200,000 maimed, and over a million innocent Vietnamese murdered by Americans.
JFK a democrat.
Although JFK had taken office on January 20, 1961, the BoP was most definitely a Republican enterprise, the last legacy in some respects to the policies of Ike’s Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
Criminee. Is there no limit to the bullshit????? “A Republican enterprise?” Who made the call to go? Hmmm, gosh, it must have been that dastardly Repub – uh, well, no, it was JFK. But don’t let facts get in the way of your posturing, MH.
Of course it was in the planning stages. It’s called contingency planning, and it’s done for nearly every scenario you can imagine, some quite far-fetched. But it’s what the military/intelligence folks do to keep from being caught with their pants down.
Criminee. Idiot.
That said, it’s long past time to end the embargo and normalize relations. It’s good for us, it’s good for Cuba. There is no downside, aside from the political hit someone will take from Cuban-Americans in the crucial state of Florida; were it not for that, we’d have normalized relations long ago.
We’ll see if Obama really is a “different kind of politician.” I’m not holding my breath . . . .