All Americans should be allowed travel to Cuba, says new poll

Could this finally be the death knell for the hard core Cubans, soon to be taken over by the new generation? I mean, the embargo has worked so well for the past 30+ years...

A new poll of Cuban Americans shows a strong majority favor allowing all Americans to travel to the island, a major shift from a 2002 survey that showed only a minority supporting the change, the Bendixen & Associates polling firm reported Tuesday.

Executive Vice President Fernand Amandi said he was surprised by the magnitude of the swing in just seven years -- from 46 percent in favor in 2002 to 59 percent in the Sept. 24-26 survey. Only 29 percent were opposed in the new survey, compared to 47 percent in 2002.

(snip)

A campaign to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba has become a key Washington battle ground this year for those who favor and oppose easing U.S. sanctions on the island. Permitting such travel would allow U.S. tourists to visit Cuba. Only Cuban Americans are now allowed virtually unrestricted travel to the island.

At least three bills lifting all restrictions on travel are now before Congress -- two in the House and one in the Senate. While most analysts believe the House may well approve some version of the measure, they say it will have little chance of gaining Senate approval because of opposition from Sen. Bob Menendez, a powerful Democrat.

Amandi noted that the results of the September poll should disarm the argument that the travel restrictions on Americans cannot be eased because of the political power of Cuban Americans who oppose it. ``This removes the final fig leaf for why the time has not come to change policy -- that Cuban Americans were opposed,'' he said.

Obama picks Cuban American first Hispanic ambassador to Vatican

Very nice move, meaningful for the Cuban American community. My sis said yesterday that the Miami CA's were grumbling about Sotomayor, so this will help.

The Roman Catholic theologian from Minnesota nominated as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican is a "gifted bridge-builder" whose ability "to bring people together for spirited discussions and honest interchanges" would serve him well in the highly sensitive role, a colleague said Wednesday night.

Miguel H. Diaz, 45, a Cuban-born professor of theology at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville who was an adviser to President Obama's campaign, would be the first Hispanic to serve as envoy to the Vatican since it established diplomatic ties to the United States in 1984.

Miami got ugly today

By GottaLaff

Rushing, because I have to leave for work, so a copy and paste:

[W]e witnessed a near-street riot involving the exiting McCain crowd and two Cuban-American Obama supporters. Tony Garcia, 63, and Raul Sorando, 31, were suddenly surrounded by an angry mob. There is a moment in a crowd when something goes from mere yelling to a feeling of danger, and that's what we witnessed. As photographers and police raced to the scene, the crowd elevated from stable to fast-moving scrum, and the two men were surrounded on all sides as we raced to the circle.

The event maybe lasted a minute, two at the most, before police competently managed to hustle the two away from the scene and out of the danger zone. Only FiveThirtyEight tracked the two men down for comment, a quarter mile down the street.

"People were screaming 'Terrorist!' 'Communist!' 'Socialist!'" Sorando said when we caught up with him. "I had a guy tell me he was gonna kill me."

Asked what had precipitated the event, "We were just chanting 'Obama!' and holding our signs. That was it. And the crowd suddenly got crazy."

Garcia told us that the man who originally had warned the two it was his property when they had first tried to attend the rally with Obama T-shirts was one of the agitators. Coming up just before the scene started getting out of hand, the man whispered in Garcia's ear, "I'm gonna beat you up the next time I see you." Garcia described him for us: "a big stocky man wearing a tweed jacket." He used hand motions to emphasize this was a large guy. We went back to look for the gentleman twenty minutes after the incident but didn't find him.

The two Obama supporters had attempted to attend the event with tickets printed from the McCain website. Both were clad in Obama T-shirts, Sorando in a blue "Obama '08" shirt, and Garcia in a white "Obama-Biden" shirt. They were told that the event was being held on private property and that wearing the shirts or carrying the signs they would be asked to either remove the shirts or not attend.

[...]When the rally ended and the crowd spilled out, the disturbance began.

Garcia had a message for his stocky, tweed-clad threatener. "You tell that guy he can find Tony Garcia down at the West Dade library every day from 7 to 7 helping people early vote. I'll be there from 1 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday. You tell him if he wants to kick my ass that's where he can find me. Come beat me up."

Not thirty seconds later, John McCain drove by in his SUV and waved at Garcia on the sidewalk, who was happily waving his Obama sign.