Not much is uglier than people vacationing in a Potemkin village while ignoring  human rights atrocities  right under their noses.   However, I think Congressmen Jeff Flake and Charles Rangel naming a bill allowing  just that the "Export Freedom to Cuba Act," is an affront to all those in Cuba struggling for freedom.  Ugly Americans indeed.
From The Hill: 

Inspired by Cuba's [...]

Thanks to the inimitable Paquito D'Rivera for shedding light on this phenomenon, because I've been unable to understand how it is beneficial for Americans to spend their hard-earned, and increasingly hard to acquire dollars on propaganda shows produced by tyrannical dictators who enslave their people and hate us. While it's easy to understand why the [...]

Blog Boing Boing says the U.S. State Department has plans for some new procedures for U.S. citizens looking to apply for a U.S. Passport ... I have a feeling Obama might have a slight problem getting one:
Olga sez, "The U.S. Dept of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for passport applicants: proposed new [...]

What a waste ...
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A U.S. housing company is blaming Cuba for the loss of a barge loaded with supplies to build shelters for displaced earthquake survivors in Haiti.
Executives with Harbor Homes LLC said late Saturday that the Cuban government denied the U.S. Coast Guard permission to enter its waters to reclaim [...]

Via our friends at Religión en Revolución:

 
For Immediate Release
16 February 2011
A respected Baptist pastor in Cuba has published an open letter denouncing government persecution targeting him and his church. Pastor Homero Carbonell, long-time leader of La Trinidad First Baptist Church in Santa Clara, and a high-level denominational leader, says he has been forced to retire due [...]

(In this Dec. 16, 2010 photo, Wilfredo Martinez Jr. of Miami writes the word 'Fragile' on a television set he is taking on his flight to Cuba at Miami ... More photos @ AP including worship at the Shrine of Saint Lazarus 2010)

Cuban-Americans visiting Cuba are hauling in the mother lode of goods ...
HAVANA [...]

Thinking about how to best explain to Americans why they should not travel to Cuba, I remembered an article the wonderful Carlos Eire wrote for a Cuban Internet group a few years ago.  I contacted him for permission to share the article here at Babalu, and he very graciously not only gave his permission, but [...]

Capitol Hill Cubans straighten out Senator Kerry's twisted thinking:
How can Senator Kerry boldly state that U.S policy has "manifestly failed" for nearly 50 years, then qualify the Clinton Administration's travel and engagement initiatives as "successful"?

Wasn't Bill Clinton's presidency within the last 50 years?

Wasn't Jimmy Carter's presidency -- when tourism and all other travel transactions between [...]

Now that Bush is gone, and we have the Peace Messiah occupying the White House, Albor Ruiz' breathless anticipation of the lifting of all travel restrictions to Cuba is palpable.  He envisions a Cuba swarming with American tourists, never mind the recalcitrant anti-casto lobby.
Sadly, he doesn't mention the millions of Cubans held captive on the island gulag [...]

Read it here.
And he ain't a right wing intransigent .... so what's wrong with the rest of the hard left?  Too much time on the bong?
Well what do you expect from a bunch of wankers who seem to be more interested in the President's new dog.

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After seeing this photograph, those of us still in favor of travel restrictions to Cuba must reconsider our position. How can we--in good conscience--deny the septuagenarian men of America the same chance to receive love from a young, black Cuban woman?
I'm afraid we have been wrong all these years. We cannot stand in the [...]

Senator Menendez said he would continue to use every available tool to preserve U.S. sanctions until political conditions change in Cuba, although he attributed much of his earlier ire to the fact that the provision had been inserted with no notice into an unrelated bill.
"If you want to change Cuba policy, fine, let's duke it [...]

Reading all the lies disseminated by the MSM, politicians, and Castro apologists in regards to Cuba's reality day-in and day-out can be frustrating. That we, those intransigent "hardliners," have been able to hold on to the truth and our integrity after 50 years of propaganda is amazing. And when I come across an editorial like [...]

"Lift the travel restrictions," that's what all the opponents of the embargo and the hard-line against the murderous castro brothers say. Oh we'll be able to spawn change in Cuba if only we had more "people to people contacts" some say. Flood the island with tourists, blue jeans and rock and roll music, [...]