(Reuters) - A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday:-)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...e=politicsNews
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I always get such a genuine kick out of these futile attempts.

I honestly believe if we were ever to be remotely close to ending this ban, Cuba would be in an uproar and protest it. After all, who would they then blame for their woes?:-)
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Thanks for posting this, I'll be calling my representatives to voice my support. Besides the obvious benefit of being able to legally purchase CC's (and rum!!), there's another side to the coin. It's obvious the embargo has not achieved it's desired outcome - instead it has simply made the situation for the Cuban people worse. Over the years there have been many authoritarian regimes and all have ended, except the one we put up an embargo against...Cubans are not our enemies.
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Good Point, the best thing we can all do is call/write our Senators/Congressmen-women and express our interest but not to "buy cigars" but rather enjoy the vacation benefits and help the poor people of Cuba..... maybe we could even put together a form letter and post to use.
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http://www.congress.org/ Enter your zip code on the right hand side to easily contact all of your elected officials.
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I found this on your site: The work is all done just fill out your name, etc and send!

Urge Your Representative to Open Travel to Cuba
House Agriculture Committee to Vote on H.R. 4645 This Week

Get-R-Done Brothers!!!!!

http://capwiz.com/nafsa/issues/alert/?alertid=15191696
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Help the people of Cuba by visiting?
Do any of you guys know the people of Cuba are not even allowed to enjoy any of the joys of any of the resorts? They can only work there and that is it. Without human rights and freedoms, how will they be helped by tourism?
Do most know that Cuba is a haven right now for vacationing Canadians, Spaniards, British, and on and on? So it is OUR tourism that will make them better? Serious?

I am all for ending it but for different reasons than most.
I don't give a hoot about buying cigars or traveling there, as much as I would like to see where I was born without having to go with a Cuban Passport.
I say end it because the very same folks that say it hasn't worked are the same that say it is what keeps them down. Can't have it both ways.
I say end it and let them scramble to find another better reason than the US as their excuse/argument. I truly think their system will crumble and they (Cuban Government) will oppose such change more than you can imagine.
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The actual bill and more information from the Library of Congress...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...p?n=BSS;c=111|
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Update:

House panel backs ending travel ban on Cuba:-)

By Doug Palmer Doug Palmer – 1 hr 29 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A congressional panel voted on Wednesday to lift a decades-old ban on travel to Cuba and remove other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100630/...usa_cuba_trade
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No, Castro made things worse for the people of Cuba. Not our embargo. They get travel dollars and sales from all over the world and have been for decades, yet most of the people of the country still live in poverty because of their totalitarian government.

Really? ALL of them? When did that happen?
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Not in support of the Castro government in the least and I'm not trying to blame the embargo for all their problems but the embargo has not solved anything nor made anything better. I'm a through and through Libertarian and would love to see the people of Cuba free but us not trading with Cuba has not helped. It has simply made it more difficult for the people.

As for the ending of the authoritarian regimes, I meant to include the qualifier that the South American regimes have all ended and did not need the aid of a US embargo. Obviously Iran, N Korea, Bhutan, etc are still around...
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I doubt allowing American tourism will make the average Cuban citizen's life any better now either. :-)
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I don't see free trade with Cuba benefiting anyone except us so long as their government continues to operate in a manner similar to how it has for the last few decades and then some. The general populace has not yet benefited from foreign money yet, how are they going to benefit from the US dollar?

Correlation does not equal causation. Because these countrie's governments changed without a full on embargo (note though that many have had trade sanctions leveled against them) does not mean that 1) that we had any major part in the occurrence 2) it would have worked in Cuba.
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Adam,
It's an argument I have been posing for years.
Cuba is well visited as a vacation destination by many, many countries.
It is incredible to believe a few more tourists from the US will make a whole lot of difference.
Again, the Embargo has not worked but it is because of the Embargo that the Cuban people have not prospered.:-):-):-) (that one truly deserved at least three rolleyes)
Seems clear as mud to me.:-)
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In general, I agree that allowing American tourists would not affect the economy of Cuba much, if at all. But I have to ask a couple questions about what "could" happen...

#1) If it is allowed to happen, what about cruise lines? I would imagine that there would be an immediate influx of cruises that would make Cuba a stop in the Carribean. Do any stop there right now?

#2) With the proximity to the Keys, would it take some of those vacationers away? Do we have a true idea of the number of US citizens who would choose to go to Cuba to spend a vacation? I know it's a place I'd love to go see some day. :-)

If we had an idea of the sheer numbers that would travel there, we would have a better idea of how much or little ending the travel ban would do for their economy. Nothing will change for the people, until there is a regime change, IMO.
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It was never my intention to turn this into a political debate about the government and or citizens of Cuba but some seem to have read that into it. My belief (or incorrect belief) was that there were a large number of others here that like myself would love to be able to take a legal cigar vacation to the Island, buy legal CC's for our personal consumption, and just see what the place was like having heard about it for most of our lives but not able to see it in person and would thus be glad to put forth a bit of effort in contacting our representatives (without regard to political party, etc...) to support the current legislation for legal travel to Cuba.

I suggest this Thread be Closed with my appologies as it seems to be headed in the political direction.
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Dave,
With all due respect, I am sure your intentions were good but you cannot consider a thread about the Embargo with Cuba that you mention "help the people of Cuba", without political tones of some type arising.
The Embargo with Cuba IS political to beging with.
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Looks like they have the votes... Link
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I have been holding out having to give Castro $400 a piece for my passport and that of my wife.
Looks like holding out will have paid off and put $800 in my pocket and not theirs as I will be able to go with my US Passport.

Now if they could get Cuba to not take 20% of every dollar we take, life will certainly be good.
Yeah, for those of you that are planning on going and don't know that, get ready. If you take $1,000 as an example, $200 goes immediately as a charge to the Cuban government and you are now left with $800. Hopefully they will do away with that in return for ending the Embargo. Time will tell.
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My bags are packed. Where we stayin' Carlos? :-)
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