What is Digg?424 Comments
- Gir9000, on 10/10/2007, -20/+186Guantanamo is offshore because they don't want to give those people any rights and in the end that's wrong. It goes against what this country was made of. We also need to stop pretending Cuba does not exist and lift the trade embargo's. Cuba has been treated like a kid grounded and sent to its room, and is gone on long enough that people down there are now suffering on our behalf. End this insanity!
- Albionshores, on 10/10/2007, -8/+149Has anybody else noticed everyone seems to be ganging up at the moment. Brazil and India are arguing over US subsidy, Putin is upto all sorts of Cold War Jiggerypokery and China is twisting the Dollar reserve knife, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran. I know they've never been exactly what you'd call allies but they all seem to have woken up at once.
- tehbored, on 10/10/2007, -19/+146And whose fault is that? EVERYONE hates Bush, not just Americans. It kind of sucks that this is happening, but who can blame them?
- clark24, on 10/10/2007, -7/+111With our foreign policy what do you expect?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -10/+82We will give him Guantanamo Bay if he takes back half of the Miami population.
- ValencianWind, on 10/10/2007, -32/+89Castro is completely right.
- xtraa, on 10/10/2007, -11/+66If Castro would build a Cuban militairy base in the center of Florida without paying for it, I bet the U.S. would be pissed, too.
- Rukaribe, on 10/10/2007, -19/+70Dude, you American's are funny. The whole world has dissliked you guys for a long time. Honestly watch some media from outside your country.
- fkr3, on 10/10/2007, -7/+48You really are too susceptible to propaganda if you think people are "jealous" of the USA. The quality of life in the USA is not the greatest, neither is the education, health, transport infrastructure, economy or anything else really. And on top of that you've got a government that's just plain scary. Please enlighten us all as to why we should be "jealous" of your situation?
- captainpugwash, on 10/10/2007, -11/+50well if I had a score to settle with America , now would seem like an opportune time.
- Xtopherous, on 10/10/2007, -5/+42Whether or not I agree with the political schema of Castro's Cuba, I disagree more with everything about GitMo. On top of that, the feds have a freaking time share there, yet I have to settle for substandard cigars? (No, I don't, actually. Thank you, middle-man countries.)
- CyberBeast, on 10/10/2007, -27/+58"These prisoners have been jailed under inhumane conditions..." - coming from Iranian agency, it is the best joke of the year.
- Albionshores, on 10/10/2007, -8/+39If they're the forces of evil; evil doesn't seem that bad. Drinks Vodka, smokes cigars, plays soccer on the beach, runs call centres/makes curry, buys US debt and sells plastic toys. Has been known to not invade foreign countries.
- Crim, on 10/10/2007, -4/+34Maybe America should start with a gesture of friendship and throw out Bush. What? Not willing to topple your government to appease another country. Yeah, that's right.
- annonimality, on 10/10/2007, -3/+32"The Middle-East is finally starting to organize" - The way Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other in Southern Iraq, Syrian-backed gurillas are killing Christians in Lebenon, Hamas and Fatah are killing each other in the Palestinian territories, and Al-Qaeda is killing the Kurds in Norther Iraq that's just not going to happen.
- allysongraves, on 10/10/2007, -15/+43You know, the man is right about that one. We need to close down our suspended habeas corpus, torture camp with free medical care dumping hole. Doing a run-a-round on the courts to battle this "new threat" is such fascist *****. Common, as if terrorism is a 21st century problem. Please, our founding fathers, as in Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, etc., thought in their wisdom that HABEAS CORPUS was a GOOD THING, even for the WORST of the WORST to protect the rest of us from abuse of our government. George Bush Junior... with a degree in alcohol and partying, thought our founding fathers have no idea what they were talking about. And now we have Gitmo were we can keep anyone George Bush Junior THINKS is a terrorist. That's frankly incredible that he thinks of himself highly. AND, we got 45 million Americans that can't afford medical coverage that we provide to these so called terrorists. WTF is all that nonsense about?
If you're a republican and you vote this comming election...might want to think a little more about the type of people you've helped put in power. - aresef, on 10/10/2007, -1/+29It's kind of scary that our government can take people, even an American citizen off American soil (Jose Padilla, anyone?) and send them to this place offshore with ambiguous legal standing, hold them indefinitely, deny them access to basic legal rights, all under the guise of enemy combatants.
- xtraa, on 10/10/2007, -5/+32Yup... even Europe is about to come up with hard entry restrictions for U.S. citizen now because they feel pissed about the new paranoid U.S. restrictions. Very expensive for the U.S., caused by their own fault... especially because all the container imports into the U.S. are planned to be checked, too. this is just crazy, and it's your tax money. :(
- consonance, on 10/10/2007, -1/+25Does anyone here actually know why the United States still gets the use of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, even though Bush and Castro hate each other? Cuba cannot force the United States ff the land, and that's not solely because of America's military might; Cuba legally cannot make the Americans leave. It all stretches back to a perpetual lease the United States and Cuba signed all the way back in 1903. This was after the United States had forced Spain off Cuba and gave the country to the Cubans. The first president of Cuba, Tomas Estrada Palma, offered the aforementioned lease to Roosevelt, and the lease was granted. Under the terms of the lease, the lease will be perpetually renewed until both countries agree to break it. Castro has naturally tried to break the lease, as he is staunchly anti-America, but his hands are tied unless Bush or the next president decides to abandon the base.
- Myonosken, on 10/10/2007, -2/+23What are you talking about? He was criticising that *****.
Learn to read. - iTorrey, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Actually EatingPie, if Ron Paul or someone with similar foreign policy ideas were elected I think the world would hate us a lot less. Cuba, Russia, China etc. don't hate us because we are free, they don't hate us because we are quasi capitalists, they hate us for things like vertinox said. We finance coups against them and many other dastardly thing throughout the years. They hate us because we are constantly ***** with them.
Just think of it this way... I'm sure you've seen your neighbors out and about walking their dogs or playing with their kids, you probably haven't really talked to them or gotten to know them but your life goes on as usual. One day your neighbor comes down and breaks your front window and puts a sign in your yard that says "MOVE ***** OR YOUR WIFE IS DEAD!". Now what do you think of that neighbor? Probably a hate which consumes you and drives you to retaliate in any way possible.
When we get a president that gets our troops the ***** out of all these other countries and brings them HOME and starts talking with these other countries instead of bombing them we'll have a much better time and eventually these other countries will stop hating us if we just stop ***** with them. - BESTenemy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21We're mismanaging our funds, driving economy and the dollar into the ground and along with it, impacting foreign currency reserves of those couturiers that chose the USD to be their primary backup. USD used to be the only legal tender of the oil trade. The deal was: We give Saudis weapons to defend their land and assets against other Middle Eastern countries. In exchange, they sell oil in dollars. We don't even have to import or export anything, or get them to pay for the weapons, as long as those that need oil (everyone) is forced to buy dollars from us, to purchase that one thing they really need. Since they're in desperate need of oil dollars, we can use the situation to our advantage. We can buy goods dirt cheap from China, for instance.
The mechanism is very simple. Want to develop and prosper? You'll need energy. Want energy? The cheapest and most efficient form you might consider is oil. Want oil? You'll need dollars. Want dollars? There's this country that prints them out of thin air, but it'll only give them to you in exchange for whatever it is you're producing, mining, refining or whatever, and since you're the one so desperately in need of energy, be prepared to get screwed over time after time after time.
Some countries have been getting fed up, especially through increasing instability in the Middle East. US has been stepping on too many toes, playing in too many backyards, so the countries that used to value intervention for the sake of stability are now uniting in order to undermine US economic power. They see us being unable to maintain the grip on the oil market, they see OPEC opening up to under the table type deals (in Yen and Euro), and they are slowly adjusting.
They hold USD reserves for buying oil. They work their fingers to the bone to earn those greens and our government, through its unbalanced foreign policy is ruining the value of those reserves and the buying power of the currency. So, they can buy even less oil. At the same time, Euro is doing quite well and many are thinking of forming new alliances. If all the buyers say they're ok with Euro, then OPEC, that's is leveraged only through US subsidies, might also dump the USD deal. Saddam was one of the exporters that took such path. We taught him a lesson. Sort of... now we're on our last breath and the rest of the world see that. If we can't deal with one country, what faith can they have in our ability to maintain the dollar? Little. So they dump the USD and arrange new alliances that will make their economies immune from our collapse. It's all natural and to the point was always inevitable. - HappyScrappy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21That's because they noticed we are overextended and can't even handle ourselves in the two countries we're already in. They realize we're unable to exert our presence anywhere else right now, so they cause trouble, knowing we won't be coming after them.
Just another way Bush's pinhead policies have put us in huge danger. - Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20im sure they will.
as much as you seem to enjoy your extremist christian overlords - diggumjonez, on 10/10/2007, -3/+22yeah! And all them terr'ists hate us for our freedom.
- Detritus, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Hmmm... judging from his Digg history he wasn't being sarcastic; he's being primitive.
The world is far too complex for simple brush strokes of "good" and "evil". - swordedge, on 10/10/2007, -4/+23The world doesn't give a ***** who the president is. We have been viewed as evil for many years simply because we interferer with the internal workings of countries and invade them when we don't like their government enough.
We need to get out of the worlds business and worry about our own. - wendelgee2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18jesus christ, that was 40 years ago, and now China (communist) is one of our biggest trade partners, as is vietnam (still communist) though on a smaller scale. just get over it already and let people have the kind of gov't they prefer. and if they don't prefer it, then they should revolt
- falstaff, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20Wiki: "A 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in U.S. gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 in U.S. dollars, and **made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it** or the U.S. abandoned the base property." (emphasis added)
Only the US has the right to unilaterally void the treaty (by abandoning the base). Cuba made what now appears to be a bad deal, but that doesn't make it illegal. - vertinox, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18One word... Blowback
- mikedmoon, on 10/10/2007, -5/+21The US does offer to pay for it as per the permanent lease agreement made between Cuba and the US in 1934. If Castro doesn't want to cash them that's his problem.
- Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -5/+21yes, I am so jealous of your excellent legal system that is in no way swayed by big business. you electorial system that is in no way swayed by big business, your education system, your health system, your thriving economy and your governments awesome respect for human rights.
I shall immediatley inform our Australian government to turn down all the financial US aid we receive. Oh wait, we dont get any, odd because you seem to think that the US funds the entire world. - Crim, on 10/10/2007, -7/+23Sorry Quintios, the United States of America is not better than anyone else. I agree with fkr3, if your citizens actually watched any news from a non-american source you would quickly see that the rest of the first world looks down upon you.
America has one of the worst education systems, worst healthcare systems, worst welfare systems, and one of the least representative democracies. Check out some actual statistics sometime and see where your country ranks against others, you will be suprised.
In fact, try leaving your country one day and visiting some other places. Drive to Canada and see how they are better, fly to Sweden or Netherlands and see a truly well off people.
You are only the best in your own minds. - whiteninja, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Costing us thousands* of lives and billions of dollars.
- DrawingTheSun, on 10/10/2007, -3/+18We don't need America for support, your a very naive American Quintios
- allysongraves, on 10/10/2007, -12/+27Boy, you have it so wrong, gguaglia. Bush has largely ignored south America, and the results are obvious... Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil for starters. Iran and North Vietnam have both turned up the pressure on us knowing we're over extended. We've lost a lot of credibility regarding human rights, war on terrorist, iraq, etc. around the world and THAT has helped our enemies galvanize their extremes and marginalize their centers. That's exactly what has happened in Iran, with the Palestinians, and Syrians, and yes, Russia too. WE GAVE THEM THE EXCUSE TO BECOME MORE FASCISTS with this false propaganda about new terrorism. And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Look at China, their human rights record is abysmal. We USE to be able to push them on that topic. We have long since lost our cards regarding that, since gitmo..and the ONLY thing that's containing China, is this stupid Olympics! They are afraid of what the world will think of them as the Olympics approaches and they have been struggling to reform themselves into something more civilized. In contrast, there has been ZERO from our policy these past few years, that has made China anything less than totalitarian as far as it goes with humans rights. If anything we have encouraged them as we started create a more fascist society around us. - control7, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17Thank you for demonstrating WHY many don't like us.
- kazamx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Yea I agree once an enemy ALWAYS and enemy. You don't see the US trading with Germany, Vietnam or Russia do you? oh wait.....
- vertinox, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Maybe they wouldn't hate the United States if we stopped trying to assassinate him, finance coups, and embarging the country. Ever think of that?
- xenixninja, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Just stop invading countries and stop calling it helping.
- tyaron, on 10/10/2007, -13/+27I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope Castro does close down Gitmo. It's just wrong to have it open in the first place.
- annonimality, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14How do we know if they are angels or not? Considering we haven't given them due process.
- miriclaire, on 10/10/2007, -4/+18So you don't like the messenger, and kill the message? Don't be a ***** fool. Ya think its a cakewalk in there? These people have not been tried or charged or proven guilty of anything. MANY will be proven innocent when this madness stops.
- threemagic, on 10/10/2007, -4/+17You can't handle the truth..
- allysongraves, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12That's actually incorrect. America's embargo stipulates that other country's ships porting in Cuba, are not allowed to port in U.S. ports.
"The 1963 U.S. embargo was reinforced in October 1992 by the Cuban Democracy Act (the "Torricelli Law") and in 1996 by the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act (known as the Helms-Burton Act) which penalizes foreign companies that do business in Cuba by preventing them from doing business in the US. The justification provided for these restrictions was that these companies were trafficking in stolen U.S. properties, and should, thus, be excluded from the United States."
- even wikipedia has this right. - Myonosken, on 10/10/2007, -7/+19What, you mean the policy forced on him by the US trade embargo?
- aresef, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Regardless, Padilla is an American citizen entitled to the same legal protections as you or I, no matter what he did. Stripping him of those rights by calling him an illegal enemy combatant was blatantly unconstitutional.
- KAZVorpal, on 10/10/2007, -5/+17The US has no more right to occupy Cuban land against that country's will, just because we don't like their politics and find it strategically useful, than someone who didn't like American politics would have the right to occupy American territory.
It is both hypocritical and evil for supposedly free and fair America to do something to another country that it would not tolerate being done to itself.
And it's the very definition of "bully", that the response to pointing this out is often "but nobody COULD do it to us". If the American government does evil things simply because nobody else could do them back, that's penultimate cowardice.
All of this, of course, is aside from the evils the Bush administration has, by its own implicit admission, committed there. They keep people in that prison camp specifically because they want to do things the Founding Fathers considered abhorrent, that violate the "inalienable" rights with which ALL human beings "are endowed by the Creator". These rights are NOT granted temporarily by the Constitution; only acknowledged as being what any good government would always protect. - Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -2/+14Hey, we won Cuba fair and square when we stole it from Spain!
- DonSlice, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Can I see your sources on the "hundreds of thousands" part?
And what the hell is the US doing in Cuba anyway? I don't understand why we have a prison base in the country of an enemy. That makes no sense. -
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