Liberal Icon Calls Obama Stupid

As that deep thinker Janeane Garofalo would say, this is pure racism, straight up. Granted, he's just saying what all the lefties think but are too afraid to say in public.

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro denounced President Obama's suggestion that U.S.-Cuba relations could improve if the communist nation were willing to become more democratic, calling Obama's suggestions "stupid."

"Many things will change in Cuba, but they will change by our own effort and in spite of the United States. Maybe before that empire falls," Castro wrote in a state newspaper.

Obama had said on Wednesday that America would consider lifting economic sanctions on the island nation if Cuba adopted democratic elections and a freer society.

"If we see positive movement then we will respond in a positive way," Obama said.

Castro sarcastically derided the gesture.

"How nice! How intelligent!," Castro said. "So much kindness has not permitted him still to understand that 50 years of blockade and of crimes against our homeland have not been able to break our people."

Damn, that dude is snarky. Really, Fidel, is this how you treat your comrades?

Castro also blasted Obama for the treatment of five Cuban agents convicted of spying in the United States. Cuba has maintained they have been held unjustly, and strongly objected to the United States' insistence that one of the men, scheduled for release from prison within a year, be forced to serve his probation period of three additional years in the country. Castro said the ruling was unjust but expected.

"Otherwise, the empire would cease to be the empire and Obama would cease to be stupid," Castro wrote.

Raaaaacist! Castro Calls Obama's UN Speech 'Gibberish'

How bad are things going for this failed president? He's being openly ridiculed by Communist psychopath Fidel Castro. Michael Moore must be very confused today.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused President Barack Obama of speaking "gibberish" in his recent address to the United Nations and called NATO's actions in Libya a "monstrous crime" on Monday in his first opinion column since early July.

Castro, 85, has been mostly out of sight the past few months, which combined with the absence of his usual steady flow of columns, had prompted rumors his health was worsening.

He wrote he was involved in work that occupied all his time and therefore he had not been writing what he calls his "reflections." But he said he wanted to comment on the U.N. General Assembly in New York and in particular Obama's speech last week.

The reflection was published on Cuban government website www.cubadebate.cu.

Castro was his vintage self in his latest piece, blasting Obama and the United States, his ideological foes and favorite rhetorical targets, for what he views as bellicose and hypocritical behavior. He called Obama the "yankee president."

Castro, who led Cuba for 49 years before health and age forced him to cede power to younger brother Raul Castro in 2008, quoted extensively from Obama's General Assembly speech, inserting paragraphs of his opinions of the U.S. leader's words.

"In spite of the shameful monopoly of the mass information media and the fascist methods of the United States and its allies to confuse and deceive world opinion, the resistance of the people grows, and that can be appreciated in the debates being produced in the United Nations," he wrote.

Castro called into question many points in Obama's speech, accusing him of misrepresenting the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. policy on Israel and Palestine and the uprisings this year in several Arab nations.

"Who understands this gibberish of the President of the United States in front of the General Assembly?" he asked.

If he thinks that speech was gibberish, he should see the gaffe-tastic idiocy of Obama on display at his lavish fundraisers.

Castro Calls Obama the 'Best Snake Charmer' Who Has Ever Existed

Is he really the best? Considering his anemic approval ratings I have to believe even snakes are down on Obama.

NATO is a "military mafia," the war in Afghanistan is "genocidal" and US President Barack Obama deserves the prize for the "best snake charmer" who ever lived, Cuba's Fidel Castro said Monday.

In an article published in response to the Western alliance's weekend summit in Portugal, the former Cuban leader called NATO an "aggressive institution" that ignored "billions of persons suffering from poverty, underdevelopment, shortages of food, housing, health, education and jobs."

Castro, 84, communism's most visible living figure, led Cuba from the 1959 Revolution until he stepped down for health reasons in 2006, handing over the presidency to his brother Raul.

Castro called NATO "a bird of prey sitting in the lap of the Yankee empire," that was used by the United States to wage "the genocidal Afghanistan war."

He's reportedly also upset over the recent results of Dancing With the Stars.

"Obama already admitted that his promise to withdraw US soldiers from Afghanistan may be postponed ... After the Nobel Prize, we would have to award him with the prize for 'the best snake charmer' that has ever existed."

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.

Comrade Fidel, Web Junkie

Can it be long until he's blogging at the HuffPost?

Fidel Castro is back from the dead (his words) and has been reincarnated as an Internet junkie. Not only is he a prolific blogger on Cuba's online Granma newspaper but, it turns out, the 84-year-old greybeard consumes 200 to 300 news items a day on the Web and is fascinated by the WikiLeaks site, with its trove of 90,000 formerly secret U.S. documents on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The "resuscitated" revolutionary is smaller and shakier than he was before the intestinal illness that prompted him to hand power to his younger brother in 2006, but no less verbose. He spoke with the editor of the Mexican newspaper La Jornada for five hours, during which he raved about the profound impact of the Web. "Do you know what this means, comrade?" he asked, like some sort of Rip Van Winkle waking up in the 21st century. The Internet, he said, "has put an end to secrets.... We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world."

Not only is the hero of the left blogging it up, hundreds of other "bloggers" are also in business.

Besides Fidel Castro, Cuba has about 300 bloggers, about 100 of them unauthorized, including several who are highly critical of the government. They have a terrible time communicating with the world and have to resort to all sorts of tricks to circumvent government barriers, including phoning the information to friends abroad for posting on servers outside Cuba. The most famous blog is Yoani Sanchez's Generation Y, which nets more than 1 million hits a month and is available just about everywhere but in Cuba, which may explain why she hasn't been muzzled; another reason may be that she is equally critical of the U.S. and its trade embargo. (She was, however, beaten and her blogger husband was attacked by a mob.) Sanchez helped Jose Luis Pardo and others establish Voces Cubanas, an independent site with about 30 bloggers who chronicle the trials, deprivations and beauty of Cuban daily life in words and pictures.

The rest of this mashnote posing as journalism blames the U.S. for lack of Internet access, of course, rather than blogger Fidel Castro.

I wonder if the approved government bloggers have their own Journolist?

Left-wing Darling Castro Starting to Sound Like Nutroots Blogger

This decrepit tool really needs to stop reading Daily Kos and Think Progress.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent.

The country's former president has said that the world's most wanted terrorist always popped up when former US President George W Bush needed to scare the world, and argued that recently published documents on the internet prove it.

Castro told state media: 'Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do.

'Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.'

Castro said documents posted on the controversial WikiLeaks website 'effectively proved he (Bin Laden) was a CIA agent.' He did not elaborate further on the claims.

The comments were published today in the Communist party's daily newspaper, Granma.

They were the latest in a series of bold and provocative statements by Castro, who has emerged from exile to warn the planet is on the brink of a nuclear war.

Bizarrely, Castro even predicted that global conflict would mean cancellation of the final rounds of the World Cup in South Africa. He later apologised.

And last week, the 84-year-old began highlighting the work of Lithuanian investigative journalist Daniel Estulin, who he was meeting with when the Bin Laden comments came to light.

During the meeting, Estulin told Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks.

He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a 'bad actor.'

Mr Estulin, is a well-known conspiracy theorist and wrote a trilogy of books highlighting the Bilderberg Club, whose prominent members meet once a year behind closed doors.

Decrepit Democrat Hero Spotted in Public

Sadly, it appears he's still breathing.

He's alive!

Fidel Castro, who hasn't been photographed in public in four years, made a rare cameo Saturday when he showed up in a white tracksuit at a Havana think tank, the Associated Press reported.

Castro, 83, has not been spotted out and about since falling seriously ill in 2006.

Though Cuba has released a few official photos of the former leader sporadically since then, those images have only pictured him in private meetings - most recently in February when he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva.

Saturday's photos were said to be taken during a visit to the National Center for Scientific Investigation in Havana, and were first published on the blogs of two Cuban reporters.

The first four photos that emerged from Castro's visit were said to be taken by a worker at the Center on his cell phone, the AP reported.

"He is thin but he looks good, and according to our director, he is very good mentally," the worker wrote in a comment accompanying the photos.

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.

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.

'A Post-American Speech By Our First Post-American President'

Let's hear it for The 'Stache.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama’s address to the U.N. was “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests.”

“It was a very naïve, Wilsonian speech, and very revealing of Obama’s foreign policy,” says Bolton. “Overall, it was so apologetic for the actions of prior administrations, in an effort to distance Obama from them, that it became yet another symbol of American weakness in the wake of the president’s decision to abandon missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and his recent manifest hesitation over what to do in Afghanistan.”

“The most significant point of the speech was how the president put Israel on the chopping block in a variety of references, from calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegitimate to talking about ending ‘the occupation that began in 1967.’ That implies that he supports going back to 1967 borders,” says Bolton. “Obama has a very tough road ahead. He is frequently taking the side of the Palestinians, who don’t have a competent leader who can make hard decisions and compromises in the future.”

Hey John, don't sugarcoat it.

Bolton’s conclusion: “It was all extremely naïve. The president did everything he could to say: ‘Can’t we all just get along?’”

Ouch.

But hey, one of Obama's heroes enjoyed the speech: The corspe from Havana.

Barack Obama's call for action on climate change and his admission that rich nations have a particular responsibility to lead has received strong praise from an unusual source — U.S. nemesis Fidel Castro.

The former Cuban leader on Wednesday called the American president's speech at the United Nations "brave" and said no other American head of state would have had the courage to make similar remarks.

Of course they wouldn't. Previous presidents actually liked this country.

Fidel Castro, New MSNBC Host?

You have to figure if MSNBC put Fidel Castro on the air he couldn't do any worse in the ratings than their abysmal lineup of wacko leftists. Considering he's parroting their talking points, not to mention seemingly every NY Times columnist, he may to be a natural fit.

President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday.

In an unusually conciliatory column in the state-run media, Castro said Obama had inherited many problems from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and was trying to resolve them. But the "powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way."

Obama does not want to change the U.S. political and economic system, but "in spite of that, the extreme right hates him for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country," Castro wrote.

"I don't have the slightest doubt that the racist right will do everything possible to wear him down, blocking his program to get him out of the game one way or another, at the least political cost," he said.

Castro, who writes regular commentaries for Cuba's state-run media, has criticized Obama, complimented him occasionally and said that he is watching him closely to see if he means what he says about changing U.S. policy toward Cuba.

His latest column comes during a visit to Cuba by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson that has stirred speculation that he may try to push U.S.-Cuba relations forward.

Of course if Guillermo Richardson had any testosterone he'd condemn Castro for this nonsense, but the problem is he probably agrees with him.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

'We Were All Appalled By the Bush Years'

Such indignation must have made that treason a whole lot easier.

He was a courtly State Department intelligence analyst from a prominent family who loved to sail and peruse the London Review of Books. Occasionally, he would voice frustration with U.S. policies, but to his liberal neighbors in Northwest D.C. it was nothing out of the ordinary. "We were all appalled by the Bush years," one said.

What Walter Kendall Myers kept hidden, according to documents unsealed in court Friday, was a deep and long-standing anger toward his country, an anger that allegedly made him willing to spy for Cuba for three decades.

"I have become so bitter these past few months. Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience," he wrote in his diary in 1978, referring to what he described as greedy U.S. oil companies, inadequate health care and "the utter complacency of the oppressed" in America. On a trip to Cuba, federal law enforcement officials said in legal filings, Myers found a new inspiration: the communist revolution.

Who was president in 1978? Who controlled Congress and the Senate in 1978?

Did the Democrats make him do it? What, they weren't liberal enough?

While Democrats remain silent on the arrest, Democrat icon Fidel Castro gleefully chimed in.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in an article published yesterday on the CubaDebate Web site that, if news reports about the Myerses were true, "I can't help but admire their disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba."

This lowlife sounds like Sean Penn in his gushing admiration for the homicidal maniac.

"Everything I hear about Fidel suggests that he is a brilliant and charismatic leader," Myers wrote, according to the documents.

Meanwhile, Myers' cohort in treason interestingly enough used to work for a Senate Democrat.

The following year, Myers moved to South Dakota, apparently to teach, friends said. He lived with a woman who would soon become his second wife, Gwendolyn Trebilcock, a legislative aide for then-Sen. John Abourezk (D) in her home town of Aberdeen.

Abourezk said in an interview yesterday that he liked both of them. "She is a very good woman," he said. "And I always thought he was a decent human being."

An official from the Cuban mission visited the couple in South Dakota and recruited them, officials say. He asked Myers to join the State Department or the CIA, authorities said. Gwendolyn Myers would later tell an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Cuban operative, that her husband chose State because he was not "a very good liar." The CIA required regular polygraph tests, Myers said.

Comrade Hugo Worried He and Castro Are to the Right of Obama

When a Communist thug dictator is saying you're further to the left than he is, trust what he's saying.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.

During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.

Comrade Fidel Celebrates May Day, Trashes Obama

Chalk up another victory for smart diplomacy as Fidel Castro unclenches his fist and slaps Barack Obama upside the head.

Fidel Castro blasted US President Barack Obama Friday in provocative May Day remarks, saying the United States only wanted Cuba to return "to the fold, like slaves."

Castro, 82, who led Cuba for almost 50 years and remains head of the Cuban Communist Party, was not in outreach mode, though Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, 77, have made remarks aimed at easing Cold War-era tensions.

"Today, they stand ready to forgive us -- as if we would resign ourselves to returning to the fold like slaves, who after tasting freedom, go back to the yoke and whip," Fidel Castro said in a defiant address published in Cuban state media to mark May Day.

Obama has said the United States wants to see progress on human rights and political freedom from Cuba. That runs counter to Cuba's main interest in maintaining and projecting the Americas' only communist regime into the future.

Castro, who for decades referred to the United States as the enemy, warned: "The (US) adversary must never delude itself into thinking that Cuba will surrender."

I guess Fidel isn't too enchanted with Obama.

Elsewhere, open borders advocates and other sundry Communist groups today will also mark May Day with rallies nationwide. With the swine flu outbreak emanating from Mexico, I do say they have impeccable timing.

Immigrant rights advocates planning marches around the Bay Area and across the country today are optimistic that they have support in Washington, D.C., for immigration reform, but the fact that the rallies take place during a week of panic over Mexico's swine flu outbreak is further complicating a complex issue.

Aw, isn't that a shame. A possible pandemic may hurt their cause. Sigh.

Groups that favor a crackdown on illegal immigration have seized on the flu epidemic to call for closing the border with Mexico. The World Health Organization recommends not closing borders, and medical experts say overblown fear can lead to discrimination against Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans.

"There's real potential for harm to vulnerable groups like immigrants," said Jay Battacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University. "It doesn't reduce the spread of the disease."

Nonsense.

Naturally they take a swipe at those who argue for reducing the number of illegals in the United States.

And conservative commentators on blogs and talk radio, including Michael Savage and Michelle Malkin, were blaming illegal immigrants for spreading swine flu to the United States.

Seems to me what Michelle Malkin has to say makes plenty of sense, and I'm sure the majority would agree.

I’ve blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration. We’ve heard for years from reckless open-borders ideologues who continue to insist there’s nothing to worry about. And we’ve heard for years that calling any attention to the dangers of allowing untold numbers of people to pass across our borders and through our other ports of entry without proper medical screening — as required of every legal visitor/immigrant to this country — is RAAAACIST.

It appears The San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tyche Hendricks is getting his talking points from the fever swamps of the AlterNet, which, conveniently enough, gets its information from (where else?) Democrat front group Media Matters, the vicious slander outfit bought and paid for by sugar daddy George Soros.

How convenient a group purportedly "monitoring" media is basically handing them their slanted talking points disguised as news.

No wonder the Chronicle's readership is down over 15% the past year.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Almost Lifelike Dictator Fears He Won't Be Lucid In Four Years

I hate to break it to Fidel, but he hasn't been making much sense for a few decades at least. Naturally, he's also swept up in Hopenchange, yet fears our neophyte president will be crushed by the evil American system.

Fidel Castro suggested Thursday that his health is failing, saying that four years from now he doesn't expect to be following current events. In an online column titled "Reflections of Comrade Fidel," the 82-year-old Cuban leader appeared to be pondering his own mortality, saying Cuban officials "shouldn't feel bound by my occasional Reflections, my state of health or my death."

"I have had the rare privilege of observing events over such a long time. I receive information and meditate calmly on those events," he wrote. "I expect I won't enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term has ended."

He didn't elaborate, but suggested he was stepping out of government affairs, writing: "I have reduced the Reflections as I had planned this year, so I won't interfere or get in the way of the (Communist) Party or government comrades in the constant decisions they must make."

The bulk of the column was devoted to praising Obama, in part for his decision to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, recalling his thoughts Tuesday as he watched Obama assume the "leadership of the empire."

"The intelligent and noble face of the first black president of the United States ... had transformed itself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King into a living symbol of the American dream," he wrote.

However, Castro suggested Obama would soon fall victim to the U.S. system: "What will he do soon, when the immense power that he has taken in his hands is absolutely useless to overcome the unsolvable, antagonistic contradictions of the (American) system?"

Heartbreak: No More Public Appearances for Liberal Icon

I'm struggling to keep it together here. This is just so touching. Here I was hoping for a few more Weekend at Bernie's type photo ops, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday it is unlikely that ailing former Cuban leader Fidel Castro will ever appear in public again.

"That Fidel in his uniform who walked the streets and towns late at night, hugging the people, won't return," Chavez said during his Sunday television and radio program. "That will remain in memories."

He did not discuss the 82-year-old Castro's current medical condition or say why he thought Castro would not return to the public stage.

Chavez has continued to meet occasionally with his friend Castro in private since the former Cuban leader underwent emergency intestinal surgery about 2 1/2 years ago. Castro was last seen in public on July 26, 2006, at a celebration in eastern Cuba.

Since then, Cuban authorities have periodically released photos and videos of Castro meeting with Chavez and other foreign leaders.

Fidel has ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro, but continues to write essays published in official Cuban media.

Chavez, who says he is steering Venezuela toward socialism, fondly recalled the last time he and Castro appeared in public together during a trip to Argentina in July 2006.

"He walked to the door of the plane and we hugged. My God. I didn't think it would be the last time."

Aww. Sniff, sniff.

Communist Slavemaster Decries 'Profound Racism' in the U.S.

Someone claiming to be a lifelike Fidel Castro offers up some pearls of wisdom on the current state of political affairs in the United States.

Fidel Castro says a "profound racism" in the United States will stop millions from voting for Barack Obama in next month's presidential election.

The ailing, 82-year-old former Cuban president says it is "a miracle that the Democratic candidate hasn't suffered the same luck as (assassinated leaders) Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who harbored dreams of equality and justice."

Castro's written comments were published by state media Saturday. In them, he insists a "profound racism" exists in the U.S. and that millions of whites "cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that a black person ... could occupy the White House, which is called just that: white."

But enough about those angry Clinton supporters.

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.

Red on Red: Castro Bashes Obama

I don't see what Fidel is complaining about. Given a little time, the Obamessiah will change his mind and go along with what Cuba wants.

Former President Fidel Castro says Sen. Barack Obama's plan to maintain Washington's trade embargo against Cuba will cause hunger and suffering on the island.

In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race," but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba.

"Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," Castro wrote, referring to Obama's remarks last week to the influential Cuban American National Foundation in Miami.

Obama said he would maintain the nearly fifty-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba as leverage to push for democratic change on the island. But he also vowed to ease restrictions on Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba and sending money to relatives.

He repeated his willingness to meet with Raul Castro, who in February succeeded his elder brother Fidel to become the nation's first new leader in 49 years.

Castro said Obama's proposals for letting well-off Cuban Americans help poorer relatives on the island amounted to "propaganda for consumerism and a way of life that is unsustainable."

He complained that Obama's description of Cuba as "undemocratic" and "lacking in respect for liberty and human rights" was the same argument previous U.S. administrations "have used to justify their crimes against our homeland."

Maybe Obama can send his buddy William Ayers down to meet with the Castros.

They'd Get More Letters, But Nobody Can Afford Paper

Reuters is doing their best to prop up the calamitous situation in Cuba.

They actually devote a report to a novel concept washing over the island prison: Letters to the editor.

Let's forget for a moment it's rather unlikely they would ever print anything critical of the brutal Communist regime. But they try and pretend there's a stimulating public debate going on in a country that hasn't tasted freedom in nearly 50 years.

Cubans have a new vehicle to express their opinions: letters to the editor of the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Letters for and against reforms under consideration by Cuba's new President Raul Castro were published by Granma on Friday.

One writer called for the elimination of the dual currency system, a major source of complaint among Cubans, who are paid in Cuban pesos but must buy many consumer goods in Cuba's hard currency Convertible pesos worth 24 times more.

Publication of the letter was a novelty in a country where the press is controlled by a one-party state that allows no independent media and has a record of suppressing dissent.

Indeed. Ironic how alleged advocates of free speech love to tell us how wonderful Cuba is.

It follows a new trend of stimulating public debate started by Raul Castro since he took over running the government when his brother Fidel Castro fell ill in mid-2006.

For all the talk of debate and freedom of opinion, the irony of this seems to escape these Reuters nitwits.

"The idea is to show the public what people think. It is the people that will write the letter," said a journalist at the newspaper, who asked not to be named.