They're Not Going to Have Fidel Castro To Kick Around Any More

At the age of 81, and looking not so good of late, Fidel Castro, the President of Cuba, is retiring. There is hope for [enter the name of your discipline] departments everywhere.

It must have been getting so boring to vote for Fidel over and over again for nearly fifty years (you think our election cycle in the United States has become endless!) The transition to a new dictatorship seems to have been accomplished smoothly nineteen months ago, as the sprightly 77 year-old Raul Castro has been running the government since his big brother had a debilitating operation in the summer of 2006. Dubbed "the practical Castro" by Time magazine in August 2006, Raul (above, on the right), who was put in charge of executing all sorts of folks who needed executing after the Cuban Revolution, is thought by some to be the leader that could bring Cuba in from the cold.

And turn it into another Club Med perhaps. The Bushies are not announcing plans to end the embargo any time soon, but when they do, my guess is that it will be Goodbye Guantanamo, Hello Carnival Cruises. Wouldn't it be a hoot if George W. Bush were able to claim the fall of Communism in Cuba as the "lasting achievement" of his administration? Tremble, Democrats. Life could get even stranger than it is already.

Hat tip.