It's nice to see that Obama's found a trading partner he feels comfortable embracing. Not capitalist pro-American Colombia of course, because screw them. They're not nearly abusive enough or intransigent enough to get attention from this administration. Obama's apparently looking for something a little more Marxist:

The White House announced on Monday that it is abandoning longstanding restrictions on family travel, remittances and gifts to Cuba, and is also taking steps to open up telecommunications with the island, a significant shift in policy that fulfills a promise President Obama made during his election campaign. The long-awaited announcement is meant "to reach out to the Cuban people," the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said at a news briefing.

Many of the Cuban people, of course, can't reach back out because they've been declared politically unsavory and banished to prisons and mental institutions. But whatever. This "reach out to the people" line was getting a little tired anyway, having been repeatedly trotted out to justify why Obama's cozying up to thugs. At least it's not vapid!

Allah Pundit wants to know why the travel ban should be upheld given that we don't slap China with similar restrictions. Castro's policy of specifically targeting Jews for human rights abuses might be one place to start, though the Chinese have been known to get their kicks going after Christians. His early and ongoing incubation of global terrorism is probably another salient difference, though why should he be punished when Syria and Iran are getting Foggy Bottom candygrams?

I guess really it's just a matter of - given the choice between giving a dictator a solid or doing nothing, why go out of your way to hand Castro a symbolic victory? There are quite literally an infinite number of things that Presidents don't do every day. Why is this what Obama needed to do today?