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Caribbean-Latin America
Fidel Castro announces retirement
2008-02-19
Die already. Che awaits you in hell.
Cuba's ailing leader, Fidel Castro has announced he will not return to the presidency in a letter published by official Communist Party paper, Granma. "I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the Council of state and commander in chief," he wrote in the letter.
Corpse beginning to stink too much to keep propped up?
Mr Castro handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raul, in July 2006 when he underwent intestinal surgery. The 81-year-old has ruled Cuba since leading a communist revolution in 1959. In December, Mr Castro indicated that he could possibly step down in favour of a younger generation.
Imagine the celebrations in Little Havana when he does kick off, as well as the maudlin, tearful tributes from the media. The latter will have an adverse effect on media allies, including the Democrats, but this is their hero of heroes and they will just not be able to help themselves.
Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy

#25  Hasn't Raul Castro been his brother's enforcer for the past 50+ years? Why would we expect things to go easier for the imprisoned natives now?
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-02-19 22:05  

#24  Andrei Codrescu had some fascinating observations on Castro today. For once NPR had something worth listening to.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19174591
Posted by: mom    2008-02-19 21:41  

#23  Steve

All stupid slaves of the media elite are effin' morons but not all effin' morons are slaves of the media elite. We must avoid over-generalization.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-02-19 18:31  

#22  Isn't it odd how everyone who thinks that Cuba is The Paradise don't live there?

Anyway checkout (at Michelle Malkin's site):

Castro Zombie Doll


The perfect gift for the socialists oops... progressives in your life.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-02-19 18:15  

#21  Brit Nutter:

It is Castro who has stuck only to winnable wars (ie the media war) since his disastrous interventions in Africa in the 70s and 80s. He should have learned his lesson after Bolivian soldiers and peasants tracked down and liquidated his psychopathic henchman, Che Guevara, in 1968.

Something that makes me laugh out loud: America-bashing Euros have no clue that they are merely tools of the American media-industrial complex (see the Casto-loving quotes in #7). The devils who run Hollywood and Madison Avenue are laughing at your gullible obeisance.

The smug, superior, nuanced peasantry of Europistan are as backward in my eyes as a tribe of cannibals in a cave somewhere. It will take you 50 years to wake up to how you are exploited by a demonic cultural elite, if you survive that long (which is very doubtful).
The elites don't care if they destroy you in the process, they will take their loot and flee to California or Vermont before the final collapse.

If you had guns you could deal with it but, given the phenomenol rate of ordinary violence and assault in the UK, you are probably too stupid to be trusted with them. In the city where I live, there are a quarter of a million guns and perhaps a dozen homicides a year. The UK authorities are cowards and liars but they are not fools: Let British yobs have guns and there would be thousands of shootings a day.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-02-19 18:04  

#20  You are a stupid slave of the media elite.

I thought he was just an 'effing moron. It wasn't even that good a snark.
Posted by: SteveS   2008-02-19 17:52  

#19  US_Gun_Owning_Nutter_Student

Yes, Castro turned Cuba into the largest country in the world, its government is in Caracas, its graveyards are in Africa, and its people in Miami.
If Castro is so wonderful, and this country so violent and horrible, why don't we see thousands fleeing to the worker's paradise? It is no farther from Miami than LeHavre is from London. Instead, our Coast Guard picks up people every day, EVERY DAY, who have risked their lives to flee to the dark shores of Florida.

You are a stupid slave of the media elite.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-02-19 17:43  

#18  See also TAMPABAY.com > ST.PETERSBURG TIMES - FIFTY YEARS OF FIDEL AND MY FAMILY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-02-19 17:13  

#17  Was expecting this last week.

FOX NEWS + PRAVDA/FREEREPUBLIC [BreitBart] > reports that its unclear at this time whether FIDEL will give up control of the army to RAUL or CARLOS LAGE. DOING A PUTIN???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-02-19 17:00  

#16  First thought is that Miami will empty as Cubans return to Cuba.
Second thought is they will go, and immediatly return to Miami once they see what Cuba has become.

We shall see. Huge celebrations either way, I forsee a yearly celebration like Mardi Gras, to celebrate castro's Death. Call it El Morte.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-02-19 15:33  

#15  I suppose the island could regain some of it's former glory once Castro's gone, but his brother will have to go as well.
It's the ideas, not the people that's the problem.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-02-19 15:25  

#14  And, right on cue...

EU 'to thaw ties with Cuba' as Castro steps down after nearly 50 years
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-19 14:49  

#13  US_Gun_Owning_Nutter_Student

Hit's a Brit! Nobody but Brits use nutter. Not Americans, not Canadians, not even Australians. Probably never got past his O levels, either, poor dear
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-02-19 14:15  

#12  I understand the number of well educated hot Cuban prostitutes available for foreigners has grown exponentially so is it any wonder his rich foreign visitors like the place?
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-02-19 13:45  

#11  Hehe, he's been giving the US the finger quite succesfully for nearly 50 years.

Yeah, he sure showed Uncle Sam. Too bad he had to sacrifice the Cuban people and their economy to do it. Pity that the fUSSR ran out of money to support his commie ass.

/me wonders why you never see people on makeshift rafts fleeing *to* Cuba, island paradise that it is.
Posted by: SteveS   2008-02-19 13:43  

#10  And what's it gotten him?

Absolute power over his serfs, lots and lots of money stolen from them and from being propped up by drug and foreign countries,... and more generally, the good, luxury life of being a tyran and a bloodthirty, brutal dictator... all the while applauded and supported by the useful idiots, sheltered far away of his commie paradize in their own comfortable capitalistic, well-off bubble, in the name of Progress and Good.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2008-02-19 13:40  

#9  Hehe, he's been giving the US the finger quite succesfully for nearly 50 years

And what's it gotten him? 30 years of being a Soviet buttboy, 10 years of hanging on for dear life, and now a right fine sucking up to a Commie dilletante with oil who he probably thinks couldn't hold his jock.
Maybe he will move to Florida...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-19 13:24  

#8  Ah, Mr. G_O_N_S from (or at least via an anonymizing server in) the UK ... it must be hard to see one's heroes fading from the world stage.

Don't lose hope, tho - the EU promises to be a sufficient c0ck-up itself, whether or not it goes full caliphate soon.
Posted by: lotp   2008-02-19 13:11  

#7  Â“Very selfless and moral. One of the worldÂ’s wisest men.” –Oliver Stone.

“Cuba’s Elvis.” –Dan Rather.

“Castro is at the same time the island, the men, the cattle, and the earth. He is the whole island.” –Jean Paul-Sartre.

“A dream come true!” –Naomi Campbell.

“If you believe in freedom, if you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, you have no choice but to support Fidel Castro!” –Harry Belafonte.

“A genius.” –Jack Nicholson.

“Fidel, I love you. We both have beards. We both have power and want to use it for good purposes.” –Francis Ford Coppola.

“The first and greatest hero to appear in the world since the Second World War.” –Norman Mailer.

“Socialism works. I think Cuba might prove that.” –Chevy Chase.

“Castro is an extraordinary man. He is warm and understanding and seems extremely humane.” –Gina Lollobrigida.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2008-02-19 13:03  

#6  Lol, I don't even want to think about the despair of the Faithful™ and True Believers™ when the dealer maximo is finally going to croak, soon enough most probably, eaten from the inside out by cancer, a fitting end for his kind... so sad! Let's empathize!


You'll want one :
Batteries Colostomy bag not included
Posted by: anonymous5089   2008-02-19 12:51  

#5  Clean up on isle #4
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2008-02-19 12:35  

#4  Hehe, he's been giving the US the finger quite succesfully for nearly 50 years.

Fortunately the US has now learned to stick to winnable wars, like Vietnam, Iraqi, Afghanistan.
Posted by: US_Gun_Owning_Nutter_Student   2008-02-19 12:31  

#3  Maybe he'll move to Florida...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-19 10:55  

#2  Faster, please.

(Dying, that is.)
Posted by: Mike   2008-02-19 07:53  

#1  This means to me he sees his death within the year or probably less.

Posted by: BrerRabbit   2008-02-19 06:14  

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