Fidel Castro Resigns

Smordnys s'regrepsA writes "Fidel Castro, the leader of the island nation of Cuba has declined the possibility of keeping his seat as President, after the February 24th National Assembly election. "I neither will aspire to nor will I accept — I repeat — I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote almost 19 months after a severe illness caused him to hand power temporarily to his brother Raul."

Comments

Re:I couldn't help but post this amazing quote.

[Cornwallis]

"I think the United States needs a few of these free and fair elections unlike the ones we've had for the last 8 years." Get over it loser. The system worked properly.

Re:Ironic statement

[shma]

Or worse, they might try another invasion:

US President George W Bush said the news should mark the beginning of a transition towards democracy for Cuba.

"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for a democracy, and eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections," he told reporters in Rwanda.

"And we're going to help. The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."

How did it go last time they tried to make a country realize the blessings of liberty?

Re:Yawn...

[wall0159]

"Free the political prisoners. Free the press. Allow criticism of the state. Allow the existance of other political parties. Hold free elections. Until these acts happen,"

funnily enough, I read this much of your post without knowing which country you were talking about...

Re:Yawn...

[pipatron]

Free the political prisoners. Free the press. Allow criticism of the state. Allow the existance of other political parties. Hold free elections. Until these acts happen, Cuba is just another repressive government we don't want to read about on slashdot.

Let's see:

• Free the political prisoners: I assume you mean the political prisoners sitting in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, operated in Cuba by the United States of America.
• Free the press: This one is quite important. Having most of the news in one country owned by one corporation/person (News Corp/Rupert Murdoch) is never good.
• Allow criticism of the state: I completely agree here. It's very important that you don't let the government add regulations to force bloggers to register, etc.
• Allow the existance of other political parties: Yes. Two more or less identical parties is much better than one.
• Hold free elections: Indeed. A democracy that doesn't let for example women, black people, or prisoners vote, is just a joke.

Slashdot nerds have a soft spot for dictators

[smitth1276]

So long as the dictators are sufficiently leftist, slashdotters are all about the totalitarian dictators. Half of them want to make out with Hugo Chavez, for example.

"Flamebait" huh?

[smitth1276]

I guess the truth hurts sometimes. The point is bare even arguable, but go ahead and label it flamebait.

Re:Thank God

[ScentCone]

So did Venezuela

Yeah, that Hugo Chavez... he's just misunderstood. Did he mention to you that he's also trying to annex the oil-rich part of a neighboring country right now? You know, the ol' "the maps were drawn wrong - it's always been mine" method.

Hell, we killed Ghaddafi's daughter with a cruise missile and now we're toasting his health. What gives?

He saw the light, unlike Castro. Libya has given up on its nuclear weapons programs, has stopped writing checks to terrorists, and so on.

We milked Libya for $2 Billion and made them grovel in order get back on the party invite list

We didn't "make" them. They wanted back into the world of commerce. The price they had to pay was to stop attacking it, or paying other people to do so.

dirty little socialist tendencies

Like, say, killing the people that try to escape it? Oh, it's just a little socialism! Who cares about gunning down people who don't want a part of it - the health care is free! And there are so many opportunities to own cars made in the 1940s.

Re:Super-free haven?

[Capitalist1]

You're making the mistake of buying into the idea that America's "left" wants Cuba to become more free. In reality, America's "left" wants the US to become more like Cuba.

Re:Property

[Arthur B.]

Democratic governments are supported by taxation--the theft of income from the individual to support the state. Democratic states are thieves.

Correct, to a greater extent when they have socialist policies.

Capitalism implies mandatory work

Nope. Physical laws implies that you have to work to get things, that's hardly slavery. Mandatory means someone forces you to do something.

I can do it too!

Well you tried, but you failed

This statement seems to rest on the unstated assumption that there is a natural right to property ownership , and it exists only insofar as it is enforced by the state, or lacking the state, by individual force.

Whether a right exists or not is independent of its enforcement, I am talking about de jure right, not de facto. There is indeed a natural right to property arising from our nature as rational being. Property is the extension of justice defining the legitimate party in conflicts arising on limited resources. If there is a just order then it must define a set of property rights, thereby the existence of private property is equivalent to the existence of justice. Besides, your argument would make a defense of communism, not socialism which the parent was advocating over communism.