Nearly 6,500 Tamilians dead in Sri Lanka in the last 3 months

It's dumb to guarantee everyone a college education when you don't have an economy to support it.
The US has the most educated people in the world. On average, maybe not, but at the highest level, I'm sure of it.

We have smartest and the dumbest people because, at one extreme, we have the best system of universities by far, and at the other extreme our economy is so good that you can be a dipshit and still get by, and most people are fine with just getting by.

No, you're so wrong that you didn't even use amirite right.
You're going by data collected from the Cuban government, correct? The Cuban government, which means Castro, has control over everything in Cuba. No freedom of press, no right to assembly, no right to do anything really but praise Castro. I don't trust any data that comes from Cuba because it's all controlled by one person. Remember, Saddam got like 100% of the vote in his free elections.

People aren't risking their lives on homemade rafts to get into Cuba. It's the other way around. And the ones who made it here and became citizens are the ones, as much or more than anyone, who are putting the pressure on US politicians to maintain harsh foreign policies towards Cuba.

I don't know why you're trying to defend Cuba's antiquated view of the world. Communist dictatorships are the way of the past. They have been proven to be wrong. The US wants Cuba to open their eyes to this as Vietnam and China has(or at least they're starting to by giving the market more freedom).

When Cuba does that and joins the 21st century there won't be a problem. Both countries will be better off. Right now there's just a stubborn old, self-important man holding back progress.

 

Actually, that may not be the case with Cuba. The congressional black caucus just returned from a fact finding mission with Cuba where they gave Mr. Castro high marks and chastised their own government for the backward looking trade embargo. Our president himself has always had somewhat of a romantic view of Cuba, going so far as to have a picture of Che Guevara on the wall of the campaign office. Furthermore, it seems our president and the Congressional Black Caucus are on the same page of letting bygones be bygones with Cuba and accepting them as they are. He just signed into law a removal of the ban on US citizens sending money to Cuba and US telcos doing business with Cuba. The removal of the ban on money transfers, coupled with Cuba's 20% tax on every US dollar entering the country, will fund Castro's regime to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars with no reciprocation or concessions coming from Cuba. Furthermore, the president promised while campaigning to end the embargo on Cuba, so I suspect that is not too far down the road. It makes me proud to be alive in a period of such tremendous change.

 

Come on man. There was a flag on the wall of A campaign office in Houston. Not THE campaign office. It was behind the desk of a low-level staffer. You word it in such a way that conjures an image of Obama and David Axlerod having a conversation in front of the flag about how best to dismantle capitalism. We know there's socialists in the democratic party and we know there's KKK members in the republican party. Let's try not to (mis)represent things as to skew the proportion of any particular subset of supporters.

Obama campaigned on opening up and being a listener more than someone who's going to try to boss people around. The American people liked that and voted for him. It's one of the reasons I voted for him. When you really are a badass like we are, you don't have to act like you are so much.

I think we have to give something up if we want progress. And even if progress isn't made, we can still legitimately claim the high ground by being able to say that we did try to improve relations in a real substantive way.

Also, Obama is extremely popular in Latin America. So making concessions that are seen as sincere attempt to further the relationship may give us more leverage not only now but in the future, since the Castro brothers aren't going to be around forever. Being seen as the good guy by the Cuban people(the ones who are brainwashed or scared to think otherwise) could pay dividends in the future.

I might think differently if I thought Cuba was a real strategic threat to us like they once were.

 

First off, I'll assume you weren't trying to compare socialism to racism with the remark about KKK members that are registered Republicans. Socialism is an ideology favored by nearly 40% in this country with another group that cant decide whether it is or is not better than capitalism putting us at a 46% overall approval rating with the American public. If it was the image of Che that you found more comparable with racism, perhaps that is fair, although if the Republican KKK members actually work in any campaign office, I doubt they have the sack to put up an image of Hitler.

Secondly, I think you need to do a bit more homework before you dismiss our socialist movement in America out of hand. Here are some quotes from Congressional Black Caucus members, lead by CBC chairwoman Barbara Lee (D - Oakland CA), after their recent visit with the Castro brothers in Cuba.

"It was quite a moment to behold!"
"Fidel Castro was very engaging and very energetic."
"He's one of the most amazing human beings I've ever met!"
“In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor,”
"He looked right into my eyes and he said, 'How can we help? How can we help President Obama?'
"Raul Castro was a very engaging, down-to-earth and kind man," according to Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) "someone who I would favor as a neighbor. It was almost like visiting an old friend,"


To provide these quotes the proper context(which they already seem to have), you probably need some background information on the folks that went to see Castro.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45321

You need to understand that the ties that bind in this relationship are those of ideology more so than anything else. It certainly isn't a track record on racism, as the island of Cuba is 90% black and has less than 9% representation by blacks in its government.

To further my point, you pointed out:

I'm not sure how much you know about Latin American politics, but Nicaragua and El Salvador just elected leftist(communist) presidents, while Costa Rica and most of the rest of central America is Socialist. What is it all of them get, that you are missing?

I wasn't making any point about Cuba being strategic, or the security of America being threatened by helping to fund communists, so unless it is something you are concerned about, I'm good. Also, I didn't vote for Obama because I thought he would listen to our enemies. I voted for him because I think that some countries should not be our enemies.

Just by way of asking, since you are a Ron Paul guy (Libertarian if we are to be honest about Ron Paul), did you know Obama would 4x the deficit to fund government social programs before you voted for him? Even if he didn't raise the deficit one red cent, I thought Libertarians were against big government. With as much of a suck hole McCain was, I do believe smaller government was one of his campaign promises. It seems like an odd choice.

 

It is shocking to see the media not covering the Tamil starvation in Sri Lanka. They just keep debating who's right and who's wrong and let the poor people die. Just like they did in Gaza.