Completely Unnecessary

To review: Cuba = tiny country with, as much as I love it with all my heart, essentially no global significance aside from its continuing ability to stand up to the US embargo.

Apparently John McCain - looking to the general - has this to say to Miami Cubans today:

“Just a few years ago, Senator Obama had a very clear view on Cuba,” McCain will say, according to prepared excerpts, then quoting Obama saying that normalization of relations would improve conditions for the Cuban people.

“Now Senator Obama has shifted positions and says he only favors easing the embargo, not lifting it. He also wants to sit down unconditionally for a presidential meeting with Raul Castro. These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba’s dictators - there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in US policy.”

I can’t represent in words my ‘absurdity snort,’ but that’s exactly what I’ve done every time I’ve read these words.

If anything, McCain should be criticizing Obama for changing his views on Cuba - especially now that Raul Castro seems to be liberalizing the country!

For godsake, Cuba has 11.3 million people living on a tiny, beautiful, wonderful island. Their economy relies on tourism and sugar cane. The US has over 300 million. Their economy relies on… well, we’re not exactly sure anymore, but there’s a bunch of money coming in that’s being funneled to China.

Point being that since the fall of the USSR - which, to put in context, my 20 -year-old students can’t even remember - Cuba has posed exactly zero threat to the United States. The embargo and the entirety of US policy towards the island nation is based upon outdated ideas about Communist threat, pandering to the Miami block and pride.

What pisses me off the most about this story is learning that Obama doesn’t think we should lift the blockade anymore!

That being said, the embargo is probably the only thing holding us back from the horror of a McDonalds with a Malecon address, so Viva la Revolution!

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The Bush Administration would like you to know that having premarital sex renders you unable to succeed.

And here I thought it just sent you to Hell.

So, I’m back on the virginity bandwagon, people - three cheers for my third virginity!

Something tells me this one will be a success.

h/t SLOG

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The lefty blogs are all up in arms about Rush Limbaugh’s ‘phony soldiers’ comment, just as the right was all a-dither at Moveon’s ‘General Betray-us’ ad. So now there’s a sister Democratic Senate resolution to condemn Limbaugh, just as there was one to criticize Moveon.

Oh my god.

How come the Democratic-controlled Senate can manage 72 votes for an anti-Moveon resolution, but can’t seem to do ANYTHING else? How come, after saying ‘no more money for the war!’, did they pass another $9 billion in a 99-1 vote (with Feingold as the only dissent) just yesterday?

Moveon’s ad was stupid. ‘Betray us’? That’s just dumb, and bad punnery to boot.

Rush Limbaugh is also stupid. He’s paid to be an asshole to the left.

Is there maybe a fois gras ban Congress could pass or something? Because the Chicago City Council is actually starting to look more productive than the Hill.

Not to mention that this tit-for-tat nonsense has a net effect of eroding free speech, as Congress seeks to delineate what we can and cannot say about this person or that group. If Democrats are going to allow the Republicans to play them at this game, it’s not going to be long until we’re not allowed to condemn religious hate mongers like Phelps, anti-abortion groups, etc.

How many more will die in Iraq, Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), Zimbabwe and America (to name a few) while they ‘debate’ this idiotic, retaliatory posturing?

Democrats are scared that they look weak because they can’t get any of the Iraq stuff passed like they said they would. So instead of hammering until they get the votes in place (I still say they should just let the Republicans filibuster the same Iraq bills every single day), they’re going to participate in this utter nonsense, hoping that the cheap thrills of political ‘gotcha’ will appease the base.

It’s just so utterly lame and disappointing that this is what is considered gunslinging in American politics. I’m not above a ‘nail the bastards’ mentality. It’s part - though shouldn’t be all - of what makes politics fun. But, come on, nail them with something real - not Moveon’s bad puns and Limbaugh’s latest dickery.

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