Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio isn’t taking charges leveled in a recent Washington Post article lightly. The Post suggested that Rubio “embellished” details about his parents being Cuban exiles, something he says is untrue. (more)
A top State Department official today confirmed that the Obama administration has been discussing a “spy swap” with the Cuban government, and recently sent officials to meet with Cuban officials to offer concessions on U.S. sanctions against the Castro regime. (more)
With little fanfare, President Obama has renewed his authority under the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act to extend the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, according to a statement from the White House press office. “I hereby determine that the continuation for 1 year of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba is in the national interest of the United States,” Obama declared in a memorandum to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury. In a post last year, The Havana Note explained that Cuba is the only country whose trade with the U.S. is restricted under the act (North Korea escaped its fetters in 2008) and that “for close to 3 decades now, the embargo remains in place because of a yearly presidential determination that it ought to.” (more)
The Republican chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said she would not be surprised if reports that Hezbollah has established a base in Cuba are true. (more)
White House officials are urging Cuba’s socialist government to release American Alan Gross, only a few hours after his 15-year sentence was confirmed by island’s top court. (more)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government postponed next week’s summit of Latin American leaders Wednesday, citing President Hugo Chavez’s health as he recovers from surgery in Cuba. (more)
What would it mean for Venezuela and Cuba if Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez died or was too incapacitated to govern? (more)
One of Fidel Castro’s first acts upon taking power was to get rid of Cuba’s golf courses, seeking to stamp out a sport he and other socialist revolutionaries saw as the epitome of bourgeois excess. (more)
Cuban strong man Fidel Castro has resigned from the Communist Party’s central committee, formalizing a gradual retreat from spotlight that started in 2006. (more)
Proof that you don’t have to live in New York or Hollywood to be a left-wing knothead was the decision by a Chicago high school to boycott a basketball tournament in Arizona because someone — the principal perhaps — opposed Arizona’s immigration policy. A policy, as we all know, that is the mirror image of federal law. Then, having shown the world what they think of those racists in Arizona, they went off to play an exhibition game in a country that serves as a role model for freedom-loving people everywhere . . . China! (more)
Often compared to President Kennedy, President Obama may well find that Libya has become his Bay of Pigs. (more)
Cuba Kaboom: Big explosion at a military munitions dump outside Havana on the very day a Cuban court completes the trial of American Alan Gross for “Actions Against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State” [distributing satellite phone equipment that enables Internet access]. Hmm. … Also about a month after a similar explosion in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Double hmm. … [via alert Facebook Friend M.S.] (more)
Both the left and right have been struggling to deal with the philosophical consequences of Hosni Mubarak’s fall from power in Egypt. Much of the right’s discussion has focused on the role the Muslim Brotherhood is playing in the day-to-day events of the Middle East. (more)
Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen delivered the Republicans’ response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union in Spanish, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday. (more)
This was National Hug-a-Commie Week in Washington, D.C., a festive seven days of celebrating human rights abuses and political repression. (more)
This article is part of a three-part series. To read an opposing view, “Christianity is not conservative,” click here. To read “Christianity is neither conservative nor socialist,” click here. (more)
— “It is unlikely that House Republicans will take the vote to repeal the health care law, shrug their shoulders when it doesn’t reach the Senate, and move on,” writes The Daily Caller’s Chris Moody. “We aren’t going to just check the box off and say that we had one vote and we’re going to move on to other topics,” Rep. Michele Bachmann said Tuesday. Rep. Steve King echoed Bachmann’s sentiments, saying, “This is going to be a debate that goes on not just today and tomorrow and next week. It’s going to go on for the next year or two. It’s probably going to go on until we elect a president that will sign a final repeal of Obamacare. So this is an ongoing debate.” The GOP will fight, just like the Spartans fought at Thermopylae, until they are all dead of old age/exasperation, or until Americans return both the legislative branch and the executive branch to the second worst party in the country. In the meantime, House Republicans will build their own health care bill, starting with the key accomplishment of Obamacare: “A measure to restrict insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions.” (more)
President Obama’s executive order loosening restrictions on travel and sending money to Cuba has unleashed a multitude of different responses on Capitol Hill – with politicians on both sides of the aisle both praising and condemning the move. (more)
Fifty-two years ago January 9th, Fidel Castro’s rebel army marched into Havana. As Castro addressed thousands of his countrymen outside, an act symbolic of Cuba’s fate played out. (more)
Hugo Chavez, the yanqui-hating dictator of Venezuela, will not accept Washington’s proposed emissary and has dared the United States to break diplomatic relations. It seems Ambassador-select Larry Palmer’s sin is that he did not applaud Chavez when he used his rubber-stamp parliament to perpetuate his dictatorial regime. The State Department’s limp-wristed response was to cancel the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador. That, and silence from the White House, told the megalomaniac in Caracas exactly what the United States will do when Iran finishes building a nuclear missile base in Venezuela — absolutely nothing. (more)
