"Marcos".. which one ?? the main one was probably one of the biggest tools ever. Kinda like a Jim Baker and the 700 club but in control of an island nation.

Back on topic, I don't "hate " these things. I just think its a crack up. " Free Tibet !!!" " Mean People suck !!" " Nuke gay whales for Jesus".

" Che Riviara !!! rules " " Do you know who he was ??" " Yea, he is Castros right hand man !!"

Well kid, his name is Che Guevara,, and he has been dead for over 30 years, but whats in a detail anyway. It would seem if they wabt to use him as the face of whatever it is they are using him for, they should know at least a few things about him, RECON ??

we knew we could expect to hear from krusty the batista... what parts of the batista government would you like to see cuba go back to krusty? sardonicus? bueller? bueller? bueller?

"marcos" is one of the leaders of the EZLN in chiapas mexico.... an indigenous mayan protection movement..... quite an interesting fellow.....this marcos is a taco bender, not a shoe hoarder

i know what ya mean though b-run....and i too get upset at people who dont know what they are talking about that make me look bad for supporting the same thing but for good cause.....

id rather talk any day with someone who is smart but disagrees with me than someone who agrees with me but has no clue why....

How about just the part where they would let anyone go there, visit, check it out, maybe go fishing and have an excellent cigar and some kick ass rum, then go home ?? That would be cool.

Thinking of Bueller.. why did he marry that ugly ass Sara Jessica Parker.. Chick looks like witchy poo.

everyone can do that now except americans cuz bush changed the law to make it a $7000 fine......i have friends who have taken skidoos from key west to havanna and partied for the weekend and gone home the same way.....

most cubans that i meet had gone to school in europe or all over the place and had been to many countries to work as doctors or whatever.....it is a total lie that cubans are not allowed to leave. i snuck a 25 cigar box of cohiba esplendidos back with me(fidels favorite cigar) but i dont smoke anything that doesnt get me high so i gave em to a cigar loving friend of mine- $25 bucks there, worth about $800 here i guess....he was happy

I think my wife would draw the line on driving a jet ski to Cuba. I get away with a lot of things and go about everywhere, but she would not support that venture. But, thats the same girl who thought my pot growing idea way back when was stupid, and looking back, I don't regrete having not done it.

Hey Lupo,

When did I say anything in regards to Batista?

I just think it's amazing and kinda sad really that anyone could be so woefully ignorant that they would actually suggest it would be preferable for our country (America) to be run by a communist dicatar (Castro) rather than goverened by a duly elected President of a representative republic (Bush 43) whose Constitution only allows for a finite number of years in office.


BTW--Happy Belated May-Day Comrade!

Hey 'rhoid, how many expatriates? 20? a hundred? 500? I wonder how many of them have warrants pending on their return to the States.

Lupo, did those Cubans you met that had European educations say where they matriculated? Probably in Munich or Berlin with the Bader-Meinhof bunch of terrorists.

You know what's really scary is the fact that you two can say such inane things and act like you believe it. I know that the personna you assume when you hit the keyboard is probably far from reality, but still, it's pretty weird that you think the way you claim.
Poor Maximillian. He liked Mexico and look what it got him. He didn't have a clue that Boney would desert him. You guys don't have a clue as to how lucky you are to be here cutting up on line.

aunty- you right that it is not acceptable to
be openly critical of the revolution. it doesnt mean that you would automatically go to jail but it would make things hard on yourself for sure.

if you visit the country, it will be nothing like you imagine. its not paradise, and its not a hell hole. but its nothing like you think. its just run totally different than here and they have different ideas of what rights are most important.... it is opressive in ways and it is liberating in ways...

it may seem oppressive that it is an actual law that any goverment vehicle that passes up a hitchhiker, that has room to take them, can be pulled over and ticketed.... but it may also seem liberating to the poor peasant farmer that needs the ride to get to town for something.

i had the opportunity to go to different many different towns and meet many famillys, some loved it and others didnt. it is opening into a market system slowly...and it only makes it harder for them to do so with the bloquade.... they can start resteraunts or other small businesses but they are heavilly taxed.

but it is a very happy population that has alot of fun in the streets, and the kids go to night clubs and concerts just like everywhere else. i even hung out for a while with the fishermen along the malecon (boaardwalk) in havanna where you see the waves crashing over the wall.... they get some big fish right in the waterway that goes from the ocean right pass the prison where the "prisoners of concience" are held. i didnt see anything big caught though.

i did leave alot of fishing gear with the familly that i stayed with the longest.... some spools and point wilson darts and spoons and they were loving the new gear....
while i was there the big thing on tv was a boxing match between the top two cuban boxers and it was controversial because one was gay. fidel didnt want him to fight but everyone else did and everyone was glued to the tv's for the fight.
also saw the buena vista social club in concert my last night there

its a nice place, id rather live here... buts its not at all a dictatorship in the terms that people think of one

still all that said......fidel has improved the country alot under very hard circumstances and with an international bloquade against his country. they have a higher literacy rate than we do and lower birth mortality than we do. homelessness is unheard of and they have more doctors per capita than any other country

george bush took over a country that was doing great with huge financial surpluses and is destroying the place in no time...
the surpluses are gone and the country is damn near bankrupt in very real terms, got the country mired down in foreign wars and trying desparately to pick more fights.....all the while totally ignoring the social problems of the country

if given the chance- i still think that fidel could have done a way better job leading america than bush

What he said.

some would say that without food and shelter-you have nothing......

the truth is that the cubans enjoy a higher standard of living than any other latino country with a capitalist system....

they do have freedom of expression...... just like here, they do not have freedom to talk about overthrowing the government...most of the people in jail were implicated in terrorist activities or trying to overthrow the govt..

they elect new leaders all the time and fidel has nowhere near the power to appoint people to positions that our president does.....

dont expect a capitalist revolution when fidel dies, he is not the president of the country, he is a figure head, and the cuban people never want to return to american and mafia control of their country. they never want 5% of the country to control 90% of the country like here in america........

the country has problems, but if you go and visit, you will understand the difference between reality and american propaganda

there really isnt much to disagree on because im not saying that there are not human rights problems there.....

actually if you look into it....you will find that many will say the same thing tha im saying....the country has its problems and has repression (like no internet) but that it is nothing like what we hear in the USA and that the country also has huge benefits to its system.

the places with the worst human rights problems in latino countries are the countries that have had the most american involvement like el salvador, guatemala, honduras...... our military has trained tens of thousands of soldiers who have killed millions and millions of people in central and south america......cuba is paradise compared to these countries. our country has been involved in a thousand times the human rights abuses as cuba in central america and south america.....we helped overthrow almost every single democracy down there and replaced them with dictators who we protected and armed

very true, both systems have their benefits.... here we may have gone to far to protect the rich and excesses (40% of home sales are second homes in america) and down there they may have gone too far to protect the poor.....

i cant wait to go back..... i want to go to the hemmingway fishing tournament (one year fidel even won.....no it wast fixed)...... cubans are in love with hemmingway, there are paintings of him everywhere and streets named after him....he is basically a hero down there.....i have some great fotos from down there but id need to get them re-sized before i can post them

the cars are incredible too.... about half the cars on the road are 58' or earlier..... now adays many people go to europe or south america to work for a while and bring back mercedes and other nice cars so there is more of a mix now so you might see a donkey cart drive by then a 58' something then a 2005 mercedes....... if anyone loves old cars, i can email them some cool car fotos from down there

Uncle Ernie was a great writer and an avid fisherman. I'll give him credit for opting to not wait for paresis to finish him off. A true Kevorkian fan he'd be, if he was still around. Lotta bad bugs floating around the Caribbean.