“Cuba” on The Daily Caller

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)

The founding of the website EcuRed — Cuba’s newest propaganda tool — reaffirms one long-standing principle of comparative international politics. Communists suck at naming things. (more)

1.) Incoming congress knows that water wears down the rock not by force, but with constant falling — “To prevent deficit reduction from being used as an excuse for tax hikes, Republicans are getting rid of the ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ rule and replacing it with a ‘Cut-As-You-Go’ rule,” reports The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward. “The rule will require that any legislation that seeks to increase mandatory spending (which is spending that once added to the federal budget recurs year after year and is thus permanent) cuts spending by a similar amount.” If successful, this would change the entire economy of the House. “As [Blunt] put it, ‘Let’s turn the activists for big government on each other, instead of letting them gang up on the taxpayer,’” said Majority Leader John Boehner. “Through this public discussion, we might end up finding out that neither program has a whole lot of merit in the first place.” Instead of trading horses, people will start shooting them. This means fewer horses to feed. (more)

Last week, Cuba launched EcuRed, it’s own version of Wikipedia. It was an intriguing move for a country whose population has very minimal Internet access. But the Cuban regime produces a large amount of propaganda targeted at the outside world, and EcuRed fits neatly into that framework. (more)

In the private sector, the capstone of your career is marked with a laudatory going-away party, perhaps a gold watch or other recognition of your years of service, and your retirement — it’s a clean break. The company goes on with its business and you go on with your life. (more)

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban-American exiles in Florida may be eagerly awaiting the death of Fidel Castro, but U.S. diplomats in Havana don’t expect the revolutionary icon’s passing to generate any immediate unrest on the communist-run island, or even an upsurge in Cubans seeking to leave, according to a newly released diplomatic cable. (more)

On Tuesday, Cuba launched its own version of Wikipedia, called EcuRed, an online encyclopedia with user contributions. According to the homepage, the site “was born of the desire to create and disseminate knowledge of everyone for everyone; from Cuba and with the world.” (more)

As predicted, because it is by now absurdly ritual, early the day after the scheduled conclusion of this year’s talks to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, negotiators emerged hailing a breakthrough agreement on “global warming.” The Washington Post offers its take which, although it provides no word whether I won the CEI office pool on the number of European diplomats crying (the “over/under” was five), nonetheless opens risibly: (more)

In a recent address before the National Press Club in Washington, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the United States is in clear danger of losing the “energy race” to China. (more)

HAVANA (AP) — A newly released confidential U.S. diplomatic cable predicted Cuba’s economic situation could become “fatal” within two to three years, and detailed concerns from other countries’ diplomats — including China — that the communist-run country has been slow to adopt reforms. (more)

Congress on Wednesday signaled it won’t close the prison at Guantanamo Bay or allow any of its suspected terrorist detainees to be transferred to the U.S., dealing what is likely the final blow to President Obama’s campaign pledge to shutter the facility in Cuba. (more)

Since taking office, President Obama has shown little interest in supporting freedom around the world. (more)

There was a time when, under the Cuban constitution, citizens were allowed to petition the National Assembly for formation of new political parties. In 1981, Andres J. Solares took advantage of his constitutional rights and began gathering signatures for formation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. (more)

The U.S. strides the globe as a colossus, stronger than any other state and more dominant than any empire at any time in human history. The entire militaries of “rogue” states have less total firepower than one American carrier group while terrorist groups create more popular angst than extreme danger. The U.S. faces no existential threat like it did during World War II and the Cold War. (more)

The United States has long stood for democracy and freedom, but in Cuba, a dissident who opposes Fidel and Raul Castro’s communist regime tells The Daily Caller that he and his compatriots are feeling an icy breeze from the Obama administration. Democracy advocates say the lack of support can be attributed to the Obama administration’s strategy of “aggressive niceness” toward the communist country. (more)