Cuba's failures have nothing to do with Cuba seizing and redistributing the property of its people.

The property which was seized was mostly owned by foreign countries, and benefited the existing dictatorship of Bautista -- who was a brutal bastard, but friendly to the US so America was fine with it. America only objects to dictators who dislike them.

When Baustista was in power, the average Cuban worker was pretty much a serf, and all of the economy benefited only a few.

I'm glad you are keeping up with the DNC memo's and talking points.

You're a drooling idiot.

I'm not an American, and I have no idea of what the DNCs talking points are on this. But your childish little hamster brain apparently needs to make this a Republican v Democrat issue, so you're only capable of seeing thatg.

I've been to Cuba a bunch of times. I've read books my Castro and Che, as well as the history of how the Platt Amendment came to be foisted on Cuba despite their not wanting it. I've also read about the history from non-Cuban sources so try to see the whole picture.

The vast majority of Americans really have no clue about Cuban history. They boil it down to about a 10 year period, and then haven't bothered to learn anything which happened before or since. Cuba and Casto are just the bogeymen to get yourselves worked up about.

So, it's tragic you're so ill informed and are tied to whatever idiotic talking points you're repeating.

Because clearly don't know a damned thing about it you haven't been spoon fed.

Yes. Dropping bombs on a sovereign nation is considered an Act of War under any definition of the phrase. Bonus points for not being bothered to get Congressional approval for the measure.

There are a multitude of different "real" unemployment rates that one can quote; I've never heard of one that includes people who willingly decline to participate in the workforce (i.e., students and homemakers) The traditional definition includes people who desire work but whom have abandoned all hope of finding it. In any case, if you actually believe the <8% number I have a bridge in the Sahara that you might be interested in...

Just so you know, I'm not one of "them." I had very high hopes for BHO, voted for him in 2008 (primary and general), and even campaigned for him against HRC in the primaries. It would require thousands of words to tell you all the reasons why I'm disappointed with him; rather than subject you to that I'll just say that my biggest takeaway from BHO was the loss of all optimism towards politics with resulting massive increase in my cynicism level.

I made no comments about tax policy. As a point in fact I do believe that we need to do something about wealth inequality but that has fuck all to do with the fact that the real unemployment rate is considerably higher than the <8% number being touted by BHO supporters.

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win."

-- Ghandi

Frankly I don't know enough about Cuba to give you an informed opinion on the quality or lack thereof of their healthcare. There are two things I'm sure of though:

1) Fidel Castro leaving the country for treatment actually happened, which is very obviously an option not available to the vast majority of Cubans, hence my quote from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
2) They could have the best healthcare system in the World and I still wouldn't want to live there. Nor would most people who value freedom and liberty...

So what your saying is that if we took all the illegal -- uh "undocumented" immigrants from third-world countries that Obama lets in and dump them into the socialist paradise of Cuba that America's healthcare statistics will look massively better than Cuba's.

No, America would probably still rank lower than most third world countries on that front.

In the U.S. they bend over backwards to save babies but since they aren't always successful, the statistics get skewed.

Yes, they bend over backwards to ensure they don't get aborted, and then they decide that the raising of them is someone else's problem. As soon as it's born, doing anything to take care of it would be socialism.

'Cuz that works well in the long run. Mostly it lets the church ladies moralize, and then they can move on to ignoring poverty and crime and focusing on prisons for all the poor people.

What do you mean? The country was then conquered within months by us. Saddam Hussein himself was then captured, tried publicly, and executed deservingly.

My god, are you that delusional?

You toppled a government, but you sure as hell didn't "conquer" them.

You barely got out of there with your asses intact, and every single justification for going in there in the first place was provably false before anybody got sent in. Oh, and your inept fumbling about led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians -- far far more than were killed in 9/11.

The entire reason for being in Iraq the second time was a colossal lie perpetuated by a chimpanzee of a president trying to finish what daddy started.

You were in the wrong fucking country, because Iraq had nothing at all to do with 9/11. And now you've left a giant power vacuum which has destabilized the entire region.

Being in Iraq was such an epic failure that only people who can call it a success were the private companies who made huge profits, and the lying bastards who got you in there in the first place.

If you think that's a template for how to fix the worlds problems ... the world doesn't want any more of your "help".

While starting completely new ones. Hooray!

*cough* bullshit *cough*

Hooray though, we added 300,000 jobs in the last quarter. The economy did that in most years of the 1960s, when the population of the United States was significantly less than today. Success!

Here's a list of countries with even better infant mortality rates that don't control the media or oppress free speech:

Japan: 2.17 / 1000
Sweden: 2.73
Iceland: 3.17
Italy: 3.33
France: 3.34
Finland: 3.38
Norway: 3.47
Germany: 3.48

Why the heck not, exactly? The evil needs to be destroyed â" both to end it, and to discourage future evil.

I'm sorry, but increasingly it's hard not to see the US as evil.

Because they've decided it's their right to spy on everyone else on the planet, bomb civilians as collateral damage, and engage in some pretty nasty crap. America has become the enemy of the freedom and rights of everyone else on the planet, but you keep acting like you're the fucking saviors of man kind, and the Champions of Liberty and Justice. That's completely delusional.

This moronic "Yarg, teh communists are teh evil and god said we must kill them" is getting tired.

Are you seriously saying "hey, let's destroy the lives of all Cubans so we can get regime change"? because if that's the case, suddenly I think America needs a regime change

The hysteria of the 60s is 5 decades behind you. Why don't you learn a little about the facts instead of just spouting gibberish?

C) None of the above.

No, it's the Platt Amendment (the one which allows Guantanamo) and the American embargo which has made Cuba a failed state.

You seem to know nothing at all about Cuba.

America has been fucking with Cuba for over 100 years, and seldom to the benefit of the Cubans.

Cuban cigars are desired because they're good.

I used to smoke cigars, and I live in a country where you can readily buy Cuban ones. They're not illegal for me, but they were damned fine cigars ... much much better than some of the other countries.

And, real Cuban rum ... also tasty stuff, and something they're quite good at making. In Cuba, it's affectionately called "Vitamin R".

Maybe to Americans they're better because they're illegal. But to the rest of the world they're better because they're better.

Cuba has pretty much an awesome climate for growing both tobacco and sugar cane.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

By telling theaters that they're free not to screen the movie? Several hundred of which have taken them up on the offer? How does that drum up support for the movie?

The tinfoil hat is strong with this one....