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   From: pos@barackobama.com   
      
   He plans to staff it with fags.  Dicksuckers, the new American   
   face to the world.   
      
   President Obama formally announced on Wednesday that the United   
   States and Cuba have both agreed to open embassies in each   
   other’s capitals following more than a half-century of   
   hostilities between the two nations.   
      
   "This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize   
   relations with the Cuban government and people and begin a new   
   chapter with our neighbors in the Americas,” Obama said.   
      
   The U.S. Embassy in Havana is scheduled to open on July 20, the   
   Cuban Foreign Ministry said.   
      
   The U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the re-establishment of   
   embassies following a surprise announcement in December that   
   secret talks between the global foes had led to a landmark   
   agreement.   
      
   “As part of that effort, President Raul Castro and I directed   
   our teams to negotiate the reestablishment of embassies,” Obama   
   said. “Since then our State Department has worked hard with our   
   Cuban counterparts to achieve that goal and later this summer   
   Secretary (John) Kerry will travel to Havana formally to proudly   
   raise the American flag over our embassy once more.”   
      
   Not everyone is on board with the U.S.-Cuba thaw.   
      
   Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has vowed to oppose the confirmation   
   of an ambassador unless “substantive progress is made” on human   
   rights issues that have dogged Cuba for decades.   
      
   “Establishing diplomatic relations with the Castro regime   
   without verified improvements in the [human rights] situation   
   faced by the Cuban people would not be consistent with our   
   values as a nation and the intent of the U.S. Congress, as   
   codified in law,” Rubio wrote in a letter to Secretary of State   
   John Kerry.   
      
   While the president has power over establishing embassies,   
   nominations for ambassador must go through a Senate confirmation   
   vote.   
      
   That would not stop the reopening of the embassies, which would,   
   in such a case, be headed by a "mission chief" instead of   
   "ambassador." The duties, however, would be largely similar,   
   William LeoGrande, a professor of government at the American   
   University School of Public Affairs and a former staff member of   
   the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee, told Fox News   
   Latino.   
      
   LeoGrande, author of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History   
   of Negotiations between Washington and Havana,” also called the   
   announcement a “major step” toward normalizing relations between   
   the two long-time adversaries.   
      
   The U.S. had imposed sanctions and then broke off diplomatic   
   relations entirely with Fidel Castro’s communist regime in the   
   early 1960s.   
      
   In the decades that followed, the U.S. actively tried to either   
   overthrow the Cuban government or isolate the island altogether   
   through tough economic sanctions first put in place by President   
   Dwight D. Eisenhower.   
      
   President George W. Bush’s administration increased travel   
   restrictions and tightened the embargo with Cuba, but when Obama   
   took office in 2009 he loosened them. Obama took it even further   
   in 2011 when he undid even more Bush-era restrictions, which led   
   to Americans being able to communicate more freely with friends   
   and loved ones in Cuba as well as travel there for educational   
   and religious purposes.   
      
   Obama has long argued that freezing out Cuba, a communist island   
   90 miles off the coast of Florida, has been ineffective.   
      
   Since the 1970s, the U.S. and Cuba have operated diplomatic   
   missions -- called interest sections -- in each other’s   
   capitals. The missions are technically under the protection of   
   Switzerland but don’t enjoy the same status as embassies.   
      
   Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said that opening a U.S.   
   Embassy in Cuba misses the mark and “will do nothing to help the   
   Cuban people and is just another trivial attempt for President   
   Obama to go legacy shopping.”   
      
   The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen.   
   Ben Cardin of Maryland,  said even though opening the embassies   
   was part of a “common sense approach to Cuba,” that the U.S.   
   must be cautious about the move. He called on Cuba to admit to   
   being out of step with the international community on human   
   rights.  He also said Cuba must stop its “arrests and detention   
   of dissidents” and said “genuine political pluralism is long   
   overdue.”   
      
   The Associated Press and Fox News Latino contributed to this   
   report.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/01/obama-announces-   
   opening-embassy-in-cuba/   
      
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