Is there live streaming for Obama's 12:30 Cuban American Rally? Nothing on CNN

coverage right now, but Obama hasn't begun speaking yet.

when he arrives. They are showing a live shot of the podium.

to someone speak from Cuban American group -

the last speaker was a Puerto Rican who supports the Bush Cuba policies. In otherwords, he was trying as hard as possible to speak the opposite of whatever Obama will be saying.

Obama appears to enjoy challenges.

Good way to start!

Good way to start!

That's excellent.

of today's Obama speech during the 7:00 p.m. hour, but I can't remember if its C-Span or C-Span2.

Thanks!

and a bright future.

Gimme gimme gimme gimme!

I am especially interested in this speech -- in the past, Obama has disappointed me with some of his talk (dissing Carter over Hamas, doing the "Chaves is a dictator" crap) but also made me hopeful with he willingness to talk with everyone.

I very much want to hear his take on Cuba.

Obama didn't start talking yet...

The guy's introducing former prisoners, asking Obama to give them a seat at the table to make change for Cuba's future.

Carter. I very much want a normalized relationship with Cuba. Castro should do as Chavez as done and empower his citizens to function democratically and, if this happens, I am virtually certain that Castro will be gone quickly. Chavez received a huge percentage of votes when he ran for office but his quest to extend his term in office failed -- that is democracy. I'd love to see Che's daughter given a chance at the helm.

it wasn't Ronald Raygun who took down the Soviet Union, it was the Big Mac.

Once Gorby opened up the SU to the West, it was all over -- for better or worse --but the crying.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results, and that is the perfect definition of our relationship with Cuba.

political situation in Latin and South America -- in the sense of recognizing the interconnectedness of their economies and futures -- a very disappointing note: he is criticizing Chavez and his "checkbook" diplomacy. Obama won't stand for the injustice of prisoners locked away in Cuban jails -- which is right and good. Now, how about all of the prisoners locked away in jail cells and asylums of the U.S. supported rightwing juntas throughout the region? If he going to slam Chavez's checkbook diplomacy - how about praising what Chavez has done for the impoverished in many nations. :(

We lived in Miami, and my husband a journalist. The Cuban community would not allow any fair discussion, or artists from Cuba to perform. That was the 70s.

Obama has a very smart policy to ease the emotional dialogue and resentments that have prevented change here and there.

I have friends who have traveled there and feel a great experiemnt there has succeeded, but it's a small test. It's still run by authoritarian power. Transferred to someone who will embrace that control with more zeal.

Obama is being smart. Like with all his policies which many progressives wish were more extreme. We are coming at many of these problems from different places and need to find common ground to move forward.

as much as I see and sense that Obama is working for deep change that will allow what we would like to see - real grassroots democracy - it is hard not to feel cynicism when hearing "the same old" anti-Chavez and anti-Castro rhetoric from Obama.

Do you think - given the changes you describe as having happened since the 1970's - that there are now elements of the expat community who are more likely to now support "true democracy" in Cuba as compared with the "true free market capitalism" that they have supported over the past decades?

I wish he would get on with it. I am tired of hearing his laundry list of things he wants..

create an energized participatory democracy, but I am leary of Cuban expatriots in the U.S. and what they say should be done in Cuba.

any leader talking to Raoul, what is the damage done by speaking to him.

most of those expats are, you can see why they would want us to make no concessions to a communist/socialist leader -- they were the elite of Cuba at the time, monied families who owned the land and were very happy with the two-tiered (uber rich and uber poor) economic system they lived in. Communism/socialism is anathema to what they want for their new Cuba - they want the old way, with the old order -- and I don't modern Cubans or their leaders will go for that.

He will continue the embargo. :(

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

In Venezuala, Chavez' was democratically elected, but his actions only serve his own power. Hell's bells - at least he admitted Chavez was democratically elected.

for wealthy Cuban expatriots to gain control of any nascent democratic groups in Cuba?

People in Latin America are suffering a security-deficit -- it doesn't matter whether their security is threatened by drug militias or right-wing paramilitaries or corrupt local police. We have to support labor rights and human rights. We must support the rule of law from the bottom up -- prevention of drug use/dealing, fair judicial system... I will direct my DOJ to sit down with counterparts in other nations and we will work together to stop the drugs moving north and the guns moving south.

Right now the expats resist and polarize. Worse in the 70s when we lived in Miami. We couldn't speak fairly or middle-ground-at all. We couldn't welcome Cuban musicians. My husband would get besieged by calls at the paper he worked for.

Baby steps and travel. Perfect.

Adding the generational shift is more willing to exchange. Real opportunity now, but we still have to work with the power in Miami and bring them on board.

only last week sending money to dissents inside Cuba -- via our own State Dept. people. So, it's not only even "them" -- it's been our own government AND them.

understands foreign issues. To me America's entire foreign policy is wrapped around the middle east. It is this vacuum that Obama understands cannot exist.

are living in the 80's,. I have been hearing the same thing for year after year after year on all foreign policy.

Against Cafta, he knows exactly what is going on in Columbia

strength of NA and SA can minimize OPEC.

cognizant of global affairs.

and using benchmarks to help decrease poverty throughout Latin America.

against enemies from the left and the right.

Florida, Texas, Cali, NM

Or, did he say that to pacify the gusanos who still hate Castro?

For too many people in our hemisphere, security is absent from their daily lives. And for far too long, Washington has been trapped in a conventional thinking about Latin America and the Caribbean. From the right, we hear about violent insurgents. From the left, we hear about paramilitaries. This is the predictable debate that seems frozen in time from the 1980s. You’re either soft on Communism or soft on death squads. And it has more to do with the politics of Washington than beating back the perils that so many people face in the Americas.

The person living in fear of violence doesn’t care if they’re threatened by a right-wing paramilitary or a left-wing terrorist; they don’t care if they’re being threatened by a drug cartel or a corrupt police force. They just care that they’re being threatened, and that their families can’t live and work in peace. That is why there will never be true security unless we focus our efforts on targeting every source of fear in the Americas. That’s what I’ll do as President of the United States.

The problem I have with this is violence has consistently come from the right and from a US - backed right. (No violent leftist "insurgents" are a problem in Latin America for working people.) It concerns me that he's speaking as if there's problem on both sides -- essentially, the Fox maneuver, to treat both sides as if there is an equivalence when there isn't in fact. And as even today the US is funding rightwing paramilitaries in places like Colombia, this discussion isn't frozen in the 80s. It's reality today for many people.

And, there is no Communist threat that I know of in Latin America at the moment. That's a right wing talking point. Their democracies have tracked Socialist when left to themselves -- but so do many of our European friends. :shrug:

Maybe he really is trying to bring right wing Cubans into his camp but, he's doing it at the cost of political and social reality on the ground.

TIA!

They often post the text of addresses "as written for delivery"...

http://www.barackobama.com

I wrote to the Obama campaign a while ago about some of his Latin America positions and by now am curious as to how his thinking has evolved. :hi:

Go here and look for the link to the PDF for the entire speech.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGCMCY