Finally: Raul Castro Calls for Term Limits

Wonderful idea, pal. Maybe you should have tried this back in the 1960s.

Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday proposed setting term limits for public office in a country where two brothers have ruled for more than 50 years.

"We have arrived at the conclusion that it is advisable to limit the fundamental political and state offices to a maximum period of two consecutive periods of five years," Castro said at the inauguration of a critical Communist Party meeting.

After his 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro was in power until 2006, when illness forced him to hand the reins over to his younger brother Raul Castro.

Raul Castro was officially elected in 2008.

CNN actually reports he was "officially elected," as if running unopposed with no other allowed to run makes an actual election.

But he also said Cuba's leadership had failed to prepare a younger generation to take over, leaving them without "a reserve of substitutes who were adequately prepared."

Yes, well they're all either dead or in prison.

I'm sure there are plenty of possible candidates living in South Florida.

Maybe Castro can pass along this novel idea of term limits to their buddy Hugo Chavez.

Smart Diplomacy: Hillary Demands Release of American Contractor, Cuba Sentences Him to 15 Years

Seriously, I'm already nostalgic to the halcyon days of Jimmy Carter. This current foreign policy feels more like a halcion daze. Can we possibly look more inept on the world stage? The other day Hillary Clinton issues a strongly worded demand for the Cubans to release a USAID worker. Their response? A 15-year jail sentence. Lovely.

State-run media say a Cuban court has found U.S. contractor Alan Gross guilty of crimes against the state and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The court found that the 61-year-old Gross was working on a "subversive" program, paid for by the United States. The report was read out on the afternoon news. The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while working on a USAID backed project that aims to build democracy on the communist-run island.

We have a decrepit regime on its last legs in Havana, Obama has eased sanctions on them and opened more travel there, and this is the thanks we get.

I hope someone informs Obama while he plays the back nine.

Update: I was just joking about that back nine comment. Yet sure enough, Obama's out golfing.

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima's nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

Don't strain yourself, champ, I'm sure you've got plenty of hoops to watch tonight.

What a Shame: Cuba Upset With New 'Call of Duty' Video Game

I can't see why they'd be upset. How many Cubans would actually even have the opportunity to buy this product? Kind of ironic to see a bloodthirsty regime whine about assassination attempts on a fictional video game considering the countless deaths and murderous repression on their own hands.

A U.S.-developed video game that lets players try to kill Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro sparked an angry reaction from Cuba on Wednesday, the latest charge in the long history of bitter U.S.-Cuba ties.

"What the United States government did not achieve in more than 50 years, it now tries to do virtually," said a story on government-run website www.cubadebate.cu.

It said the game -- "Call of Duty: Black Ops" by California-based Activision Blizzard Inc -- glorified actual U.S. attempts to kill Castro and "stimulates sociopathic attitudes" among American youth.

The game, some of which is set during the Cold War, sends players fighting their way through Russia, Vietnam and Cuba. While battling in the streets of Havana, they fire away at enemy combatants while in pursuit of Castro.

The game reflects reality, according to Cuban officials, because of what they say have been more than 600 attempts by the United States to kill Castro since he took power in a 1959 revolution and turned Cuba into a communist state.

The island is just 90 miles south of Florida.

Despite the complaints, the latest game in the popular "Call of Duty" series by Activision is expected to be a big seller after its launch on Tuesday.

Scenes From Cuba Michael Moore Doesn't Want You To See

Our local Fox affiliate accompanied the governor and some business and agriculture representatives to Cuba this week, and the reporter has done a bang up job on giving us the story and images of what Cuba is really like. When you have the time go visit the site and read and watch all of his reports. In the meantime here is another video showing you the utopia that is communist Cuba and the epitome of what the Hollywood crowd and liberals in this country wish America could be.

The Communist Utopia That Is Cuba

What will $3 buy you? That is the average daily wage in Cuba and for that you can buy a can of beans.

The governor of Georgia is in Cuba with a trade delegation for a couple of days. The Cuban markets are open for agriculture items based on humanitarian concerns and the governor is hoping to expand this trade with Cuba. A local reporter is accompanying the governor on this trip and he is getting his eyes opened to what life is like under the wonderful communist regime.

While all these snobby Hollywood elites like to walk around telling you what a grand utopia Cuba is, the reality is life in the island is hard scrabble struggle for existence. The footage, some of which you get a little bit of in this video, is the reality. Dirty streets, people wearing whatever they can find, and the basic necessities of life have become a commodity more valuable then gold. This is the world that the far left progressives envision for America. This is their idealized version of the perfect life. While listening to the report look at the images.


But at least they have federal government "free" healthcare. Just like you do now.

This is what is at the end of the Democrats rainbow.

Hmmm: Which Democrats Are Illegally Visiting Cuba?

Granted, this is a blind item from Page Six, so take it with a grain of salt.

WHICH members of Congress make regular, secret visits to Cuba as guests of Fidel Castro, flying in from nearby islands? Their passports aren't stamped, so no one's the wiser.

From nearby islands, huh?

Well, if I were a betting man, Carribean kingpin Charlie "The Red" Rangel would certainly be atop the board. He sure is down that way enough. A certain friend of Hugo Chavez also could be a suspect. It's not unlikely Delahunt's good buddy Hugo could arrange for a side trip so they could visit Comrade Fidel.

Another hard left suspect also comes to mind.

Waters has also made international headlines for her frequent trips to communist Cuba to visit her convicted cop-assassin friend, Joanne Chesimard, who is also known by her Black Panther name of Assata Shakur. Chesimard was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury of the 1979 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. With the help of fellow cult members, she escaped from jail and fled to Cuba.

Outraged U.S. lawmakers insisted she be extradited but Waters always stood by her side, likening the cop-assassin to civil rights leader Martin Luther King. In fact, she wrote Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro a letter to ensure that she was not part of the group of U.S. legislators who voted for a resolution to extradite the cop murderer. Waters told Castro that she opposed extradition because Chesimard was “politically persecuted” in the U.S. and simply seeking political asylum in Havana, where she still lives.

Whoever's leaking this information should names names.

Whatever the case, I'll simply use the mainstream media's standard of assigning guilt without evidence until we have further evidence.

Cuban Doctors Sue Over 'Modern Form of Slavery'

Just imagine the thousands of lawsuits to come from American doctors after they're forced into slavery under ObamaCare.

Seven Cuban doctors and a nurse say their government conspired with Venezuela and its state-owned oil company to hold them in a "modern form of slavery," as Cuba barters their services for cheap Venezuelan oil. The doctors and nurse say they were put into "servitude for debt," with their work used to "to discount ... the commercial debt ... of the subsidized oil supplies provided by Venezuela to Cuba."

The doctors say that faced with precarious conditions and material needs in Cuba, they were deceived and threatened by Cuban authorities and taken by force to work in violent places in Venezuela, including the jungle rainforest and the frontier with Colombia.

The plaintiffs are a part of a mission called "Barrio Adentro." They say they are held in captivity in crowded lodgings or in houses with families affiliated with the Venezuelan regime. They say they are under strict control, surveillance, and threats by "slave hunters": Venezuelan security officials.

The plaintiffs say they work under an agreement between the two governments, through Petroleos de Venezuela.

The "Convenio Integral de Cooperacion" allows forced labor by doctors in exchange for 100,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the complaint.

No healthcare for oil!

The plaintiffs say they are "living illegally as prisoners" and work without licenses to practice in Venezuela. If they protest, they are returned to Cuba and suffer severe and permanent consequences, they say.

The plaintiffs say they "escaped their bondage n Venezuela, survived a harrowing adventure, and made their way to the United States," and live in Florida. They say they cannot get justice in Cuba or Venezuela, so they sued in Miami.

They demand punitive damages for RICO conspiracy, negligence, false imprisonment and emotional distress.

Champion of Cuban healthcare Michael Moore was unavailable for comment.

Castro's Sister Worked for CIA

Well, there's at least one sane member of the Castro family.

THE younger sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, Juanita Castro, collaborated with the US Central Intelligence Agency against her brothers' rule in Cuba before going into exile in Miami in 1964, she said today.

Juanita Castro, 76, who has not spoken to either of her brothers for more than four decades, made the revelation to the Spanish-language TV channel Univision-Noticias 23 on the eve of the publication of her memoirs about Fidel and Raul Castro.

The book in Spanish entitled Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History, co-written with Mexican journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, is being published tomorrow.

After initially supporting Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, Juanita Castro said she became disillusioned by the way her elder brother was executing opponents and moving the island toward communism.

"I began to become disenchanted when I saw so much injustice," she said in an interview with Collins broadcast by Univision-Noticias 23.

Juanita Castro said that from her house in Havana, she had worked to shelter and help those who were being persecuted by Fidel Castro's Government. "My situation in Cuba became delicate because of my activity against the regime," she said.

She told Collins said that one day a person close to both her and Fidel Castro brought her an invitation from the CIA asking her to collaborate with the US spy agency.

"They wanted to talk to me because they had interesting things to tell me, and interesting things to ask me, such as if I was willing to take the risk, if I was ready to listen to them - I was rather shocked, but anyway I said yes," Juanita Castro told Collins.

Maybe the folks at the Kennedy Center can give her a Profiles in Courage Award. Yes, I know in recent years those are for people who show the courage to raise taxes, but it would be a nod to JFK, a Democrat who actually disliked Communists.

Speaking of the Communist murderer, look who's going to interview the monster.

Oscar-winning actor and political activist Sean Penn flew to Cuba hoping to interview its revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, entertainment news website TMZ reported Sunday.

"Sean (Penn) is going to the land of Fidel as a journalist, writing a story for Vanity Fair (magazine) about how the (Barack) Obama administration has affected Cuba," TMZ reported.

Penn was traveling with Diana Jenkins: "Actually ... it's her plane ... she's married to the head honcho at Barclays bank," TMZ added, noting the pair set out from Las Vegas on Saturday.

"Barclays sources say Sean and Diana are going to meet (Fidel) Castro -- presumably because that's what Diana told them," the website reported. Penn's representative also told TMZ a meeting was possible.

Via Gateway Pundit.

Castro's sister had the decency to see the evil. Idiotic American actors don't have a problem with the mass murderer, however.

Two Years In Jail For Complaining of Hunger

I hope the food in Cuban jails is better then what the regular citizens seem to be getting, but hey they got free health care.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos, known as "Panfilo", became famous after interrupting the filming of a documentary about Cuban music to complain that he was hungry.

"What we need here is a little bit of ’jama,’” he shouted, using a Cuban slang word for food and waving his arms around during a 90-second tirade. “We need food, we’re hungry here. Listen to what Panfilo tells you from Cuba: food."

The Hollywood crowd loves Castro and Cuba, and they want to make America just like it. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling doesn't it?

This may the fallout from Michael Moore spending so much time down there.

Heartbreak: Cuba Running Out of Toilet Paper

Maybe Castro admirer Michael Moore can send a day's worth of his supply down for his buds. That'll cover them for a month.

Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said on Friday.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.

Cuba's financial reserves have been depleted by increased spending for imports and reduced export income, which has forced the communist-led government to take extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat.

"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate Cimex said on state-run Radio Rebelde.

See how so many on the left point to the joys of Cuba's health-care system, can it be long until we're urged to ration our own supply of toilet paper?

Sheryl Crow was unavailable for comment.

'I Have No Remorse Whatsoever'

Nothing more amusing than to see this Communist SOB get scammed.

Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president, isn't the only member of his family who likes to express himself online. The BBC is reporting that a Cuban exile blogger from Miami says he used a female Internet alter ego to gain access to Antonio, the 40-year-old son of Castro.

Luis Dominguez said he used the character to begin an online relationship with Antonio. Capitalizing on the younger Castro's purported interest in young women and sports, Dominguez says he snared Antonio Castro by posing as a 27-year-old female Colombian sports journalist named Claudia.

Dominguez refused to apologize for the deception, saying he wanted to show the "opulent lifestyles" of the Castros.

"I'm a Cuban and I'm a Cuban American and I have not been able to go back to my country since 1971 when I left.

"I use whatever tools I have to be able to get back at these people. In Cuba people are put in prison for no reason at all. Their rights are violated ... So, why can't I do the same thing to them? I have no remorse whatsoever," he told the BBC.

More here.

Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, a 42-year-old orthopedic surgeon and the Cuban national baseball team's doctor, broke security protocol in boastful e-mails to what he thought was a 26-year-old Colombian named Claudia whom he'd met on a dating Web site. Using his Yahoo account, he gave away his home address, phone, travel plans -- and even the times he moved unprotected by bodyguards.

But Claudia was really Luis Dominguez, a Cuban-born security consultant -- and he revealed the hoax on the Miami Spanish-language TV program "A Mano Limpia."

The broadcast revealed that Antonio Castro hasn't quite embraced communist asceticism, as he bragged of designer clothes, world travel, and weekends at the beach.

At one point, he wrote Claudia of his desire to "kiss you, love you and make love to you."

Former State Department Official and Wife Charged With Spying For Cuba

Execution would suffice. Oh, OK, that's too harsh. If found guilty, then execute them.

A former U.S. State Department official and his wife have been arrested for spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Walter Myers, 72, and his wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and with communicating classified information to the Cuban government, the Justice Department said.

More here.

The indictment handed down by the attorney general's office in Washington says Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have been clandestine agents for Cuba for 30 years.

The indictment says the pair met with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1995, traveling through Mexico under false names. They allegedly made several other trips to Latin America and the Caribbean to meet with Cuban agents.

Kendall Myers worked at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute, where he specialized in European matters, before retiring in 2007. The indictment says in his last year of employment, Kendall Myers viewed more than 200 intelligence reports related to Cuba.

More details.

According to this site, Myers began at State in 1977. Another fine Jimmy Carter legacy.

Update: It should come as no surprise this scumbag Myers is a Communist sympathizer.

Myers apparently sympathized with the Cuban ideology and revolution that put Castro into power. Court documents say he wrote in a personal journal in 1978: "I can see nothing of value that has been lost by the revolution. ... The revolution has released enormous potential and liberated the Cuban spirit."

He praised Castro as a "brilliant and charismatic leader" who is "one of the great political leaders of our time." And he called the United States "exploiters" who regularly murdered Cuban revolutionary leaders.

Must be a big fan of leftwing blogs who no doubt will remain silent about this story. Look for the media to bury this as quickly as possible.

Fidel Castro: Comrade Obama Lied!

How bad are things going when an almost-lifelike dictator starts calling you out as a liar?

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said President Obama misinterpreted remarks by his brother and successor, Raul, and bristled at the suggestion that the island should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from abroad as a goodwill gesture to the U.S.

Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations. The speculation began when the Cuban president said leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss everything, including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners on the island.

Obama responded at the Summit of the Americas by saying Washington seeks a new beginning with Cuba, but he also said Sunday that Cuba should release some political prisoners and reduce official taxes on remittances sent to the island from the U.S.

That appeared to enrage Fidel Castro, 82, who wrote in an essay posted on a government website that Obama "without a doubt misinterpreted Raul's declarations."

The former president appeared to be throwing cold water on expectations for improved bilateral relations -- suggesting that Obama had no right to urge Cuba to make even small concessions. He also seemed to suggest too much was being made of Raul's comments about discussing everything with U.S. authorities.

Obama's Hugs for Thugs

Ralph Peters brings the hammer down on the very misguided Barack Obama.

Until Latin American states accept responsibility for what generations of corrupt, oppressive leaders did to their own countries, they won't progress beyond their self-destructive cultures of blame.

It's easy to chant, "Yanquis, go home!" Well, the Yankees went home. And only such countries as Chile, Colombia and, increasingly, Brazil, which have taken responsibility for their own futures, are making progress.

Obama was exactly right on one point: Our relations with Latin America must be a partnership in which all are treated as equals, based upon mutual respect.

But how do the lurid, screwball attacks on us by the likes of Chavez, Ortega or Bolivia's Evo Morales -- a racist demagogue -- count as examples of mutual respect? Doesn't our country deserve some slight defense from our president?

Obama needs to get up off his knees. Foreign leaders have already pegged him as the wimpiest metrosexual this side of the men's grooming-products counter at Barney's.

Ouch. Read the whole piece.

Meanwhile, since Obama is all for a Cuban stimulus plan (American money going there, no freedom in return), New York Republican Peter King is calling for the extradition of certain fugutives, who just happen to be left-wing terrorists.

Amid signs of a potential thaw in US-Cuba relations, Rep. Peter King wants to force the extradition of criminals who have been hiding out in Havana with the blessing of the Castro regime -- saying the cases should be a precondition for any talks.

At the top of the list is William Morales, the former bomb-maker for the FALN, which carried out several bombings in New York in the 1970s.

Morales lost nine of his fingers during an explosion, escaped from Bellevue Hospital in 1978, then made his way to Mexico and later Cuba.

Also living freely in Havana is Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey trooper in 1977. There is still a $1 million bounty for her return.

"It's disgraceful that they have their sanctuary in Cuba," King told The Post.

If Cuba is serious about thawing relations, then hand them over. Somehow I doubt Obama has any interest in bringing them back.

Obama Announces Cuban Stimulus Package

Fidel Castro would be so proud if he were still alive to see the glorious era of Hopenchange.

The Obama administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money back to their families on the communist island nation, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.

Of course there's no guarantee they'll be allowed to leave once they get to the island prison.

President Barack Obama plans to announce the policy change before the Summit of the Americas April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

Although some restrictions have been eased temporarily in legislation Obama signed last month, lifting the bans would meet a pledge he made during the presidential campaign and could signal a new openness with Cuba.

"The intent is to try to test the waters and see if we can get Cuba to move in another direction," one official said. "One way of getting the regime to open up may be to let people travel, increase exchanges and get money flowing to the island."

Now why the heck would Cuba move in another direction while we're the ones busy moving in theirs?

This naivete is just astonishing. Ooh, we'll be nice to the murderous thugs and if we bribe them enough they'll be nice to everyone!

These idiots just never learn.

Cuba Puts Punk Rocker on Trial

Denounce communists and face prosecution. Sounds like an omen of things to come in an Obama administration.

Cuba is to charge a punk rocker today with "social dangerousness" because his songs denounce and deride the communist government.

Gorki Aguila, lead singer of Porno para Ricardo, faces up to four years in prison for openly defying the revolution and scorning Fidel and Raul Castro as "geriatrics".

The 39-year-old has been in police custody since Monday and was due to appear at the Playa municipal court in western Havana to be charged with subverting "communist morality".

The case has triggered protests from artists and human rights groups. Supporters were due yesterday to assemble at Havana's Malecón promenade to protest. "We invite everyone to gather and shout Gorki," said the band's website.

Police arrested Aguila at his home where he was completing a new album provisionally called Geriatric Central Committee, a reference to the ageing leadership.

Formed 10 years ago as part of an underground music movement, Porno para Ricardo is banned from official airwaves.

Funny, but I haven't heard a peep from Democrats about this all week during their Denver lovefest. Probably because they're busy trying to silence critics under threat of prosecution.

"These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail."

More on Gorki at Babalu.

After 50 Years of Misery, Castro Warns of Tough Times Ahead

Naturally, the New York Times lackey reports this with a straight face, failing to note what misery has overrun the island prison since 1959.

Like a true leftwing wacko, Raul Castro spouts the usual bilge about climate change and reminds us Cuba is prepared for the inevitable American invasion that never arrives.

President Raúl Castro used a speech Saturday on the 55th anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban revolution not to unveil any new changes but to call on everyday Cubans to prepare for tough times in the days ahead.

Citing the global economic downturn and the rising cost of oil, Mr. Castro said Cuba and other countries in the developing world face severe challenges that would require belt-tightening and patience.

“We must bear in mind that we are living in the midst of a true world crisis which is not only economic but also related with climate change, the irrational use of energy and a great number of other problems,” he said.

There was speculation that Mr. Castro, who officially took over the presidency in February from Fidel Castro, his older brother, would use Cuba’s important July 26th holiday — which commemorates a failed raid on a military barracks here — to extend the rash of modest changes he had announced in recent months. But he seemed eager to dampen expectations.

“We are aware of the great number of problems waiting to be solved, most of which weigh heavily and directly on the population,” he said, adding later, “Regardless of our great wishes to solve every problem, we cannot spend in excess of what we have.”

Citing one bright spot, he said that tourism had grown 14.8 percent in the first half of this year compared with last year, with nearly 1.3 million people visiting the island.

And the president, a former defense minister, said the country was as prepared as ever for any invasion that might be planned by the United States.

“We shall continue paying special attention to defense, regardless of the results of the next presidential elections in the United States,” he said.

No word who he's endorsing in November, but I have a sneaking suspicion who he prefers.

To show you how bad the reportage from the Times is, even NPR is more honest about what problem Cubans face.

Cuba, which used to be the world's largest sugar exporter, is facing a crisis in agriculture. It is now heavily dependent on U.S. food imports, which have been exempted from Washington's long-standing embargo.

Cuba's infrastructure is crumbling. Raul Castro said the government has plans to rebuild roads, pipelines, houses and railways. But he didn't address whether Cubans might be allowed to freely leave the country or whether they can buy and sell houses. He avoided mentioning the dilemma of Cuba's dual-currency which often forces people to buy necessities in a currency they're not allowed to earn.

Such joy. Now there may be tough times ahead.

More Joy On The Island Prison: Cuba Approves Free Sex Changes

The news made Michael Moore so happy he decided to celebrate by having an extra dozen double cheeseburgers.

HAVANA - Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free for qualifying citizens, an official said Friday. The move is the latest in a series of changes implemented by President Raul Castro since he succeeded his elder brother, Fidel, in February. Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, heads Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, which strongly backs the new policy.

Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer signed a resolution approving sex-change surgery, said an official at the center who spoke on condition of anonymity because the measure has not been formally published. The resolution will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, the official said.

The procedure would be available to Cubans for free as part of their country's health-care system.

'This the Development of the World'

One day it's cellphones, the next it's computers.

One of these days, perhaps they'll even enjoy freedom.

The future arrived at Pedro Fresnedo's home on Friday, and it gave him goosebumps.

He held out his arm to show visitors the bumps rising from his skin after his 13-year-old daughter Amanda turned on the computer they had just purchased on the first day Cubans could buy them.

"This is the world for the young," the smiling Fresnedo said. "This the development of the world."

Cuba began selling computers to private citizens on Friday as part of reforms by new leader Raul Castro since he was elected president by the National Assembly in February, replacing his ailing elder brother Fidel Castro.

Last month, Cubans lined up outside stores to buy cell phones and DVD players that were finally available in the communist nation.

Although the computer is some cheap Chinese piece of shit that's probably toxic, there aren't many people who can afford them.

At more than $700, the Chinese-made Q-Tech computers put on sale on Friday were out of reach financially for most Cubans, so there were no long lines at Havana stores.

Naturally, Reuters happily works in some propaganda talking points, as if this poor sap would be allowed to mouth anything else.

Fresnedo applauded the changes under Raul Castro, but praised Fidel Castro as well, saying the man who ran Cuba for nearly five decades had brought "many good things" to the country, including universal health care and education.

"Everything is getting better," he said.

Alas, even the joy of having a computer has limited benefits. They can't get to enjoy the wonderful world of blogs and online porn.

She will not be using the computer to surf the Internet, which is still not available for most Cubans.

"We don't have Internet. We don't have a telephone," Fresnedo said.

But you've got your universal fucking healthcare, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

BBC Slobbers Over Raul Castro

The BBC cheers the Cuban Communist government as they decide to raise some pensions. I mention the Cuban government is Communist for informational purposes only as the BBC editors somehow forgot to mention that in their article.

Cuban president Raul Castro has said he will raise state pensions by up to 20% and increase wages for court employees.

Raul Castro said the increases, which will come into effect next month, were "fair recognition" of workers' effort.

The BBC then break out the pom-poms for the new Communist leader in Cuba

Since taking over the presidency from his brother Fidel in February, Raul Castro has introduced a series of liberalising economic measures.

They include an easing of restrictions on the ownership of mobile phones, lifting a ban on Cubans staying at major hotels, and allowing private farmers more involvement in how they use their land.

So, how much is this wonderful bounty in the workers paradise?

Under the scheme, according to the newspaper, more than 2.1m pensioners will receive increases of about $2 (£1) a month, raising minimum monthly pensions to $9.50 (£4.70).

Two dollars a month, raising the minimum monthly pension to $9.50 ... wow. That works out to a total income of $114 a year.

I invite all American leftwing wackos such as Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins and Rev. Jeremiah Wright to move to Cuba if they hate America so much and try living on $114 a year.