(Cross-posted to Daily Kos.)

U.S. Citizens can travel to any country in the world except one. It's not the one that the U.S. fought a bloody war with 40 years ago. It's not the one that seized the U.S. embassy 30 years ago. No, we cannot travel to the country which 50 years ago overthrew a military dictator who had taken power in a coup d'état. None of these countries are democracies, but only one is subject to a travel ban.

With the announcement of the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act", a bipartisan initiative introduced by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Reps. Bill Delahunt (D, MA-10) and Jeff Flake (R, AZ-6) in March, it seems as if we may at last be approaching a sane policy on travel to Cuba. But first, we need to overcome the obstructionism of the gang who thinks that 50 years of failed policy isn't enough.

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Three and a half months ago, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released a pair of "preemptive" press releases trying to put "distance between herself and President Bush." Of course, as Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog wrote at the time, "if you have to say you're not a `rubber stamp,' it's too late."

Joe was right - Ros-Lehtinen, my opponent for Congress in FL-18 (downtown Miami, Miami Beach, City of Miami, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and all of the Florida Keys), is a Bush Rubberstamp. She's voted with her President more than 85% of the time, marching with him lockstep for the war in Iraq, against SCHIP expansion, and in favor of privatizing Social Security.

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Bumped -- Annette will be liveblogging here at MyDD for the next half hour or so. Ask her some questions, give her your thoughts, and have at it.

Thank you to the Netroots community. My campaign to bring a new beginning to South Florida (FL-18: South Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and the Florida Keys) has been endorsed by the Orange to Blue program that is working to elect more - and better - Democrats across the country.

Todd at MyDD wrote a great piece about my time at Netroots Nation. I have been endorsed by AMERICAblog,  Blue America and right now, we are number one on ActBlue!

Yup, we are on a roll and none of this would be possible without YOU!

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We were last here on April 29 with the House's Iran Freedom Support Act (HR 282) being passed as a suspension (read: 'uncontroversial bill') 397-21.

It was pretty ugly: the sponsor of the bill (Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) was also the cheerleader for an Iranian group (the MEK) who are on the State Department terror group list.

And the numbers show there wasn't exactly stiff Dem resistance! (Guess which side Pelosi took?)

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Over at Kos House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (as opposed to Nancy Pelosi of Pelosi's Perfect Pizzas, of course) had one of her gofers deliver a message to the unwashed which - to the dismay of some commenters - failed to mention Iran, and, in particular, to articulate a Dem policy thereon.

I don't pretend to follow the ins and out of the nuke business, and so generally keep mum on the subject.

The Iran Freedom Support Act (HR 282) comes directly into the Congressional arena, so piqued my interest.

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