SwiftVets.com

[SangRun Hunter]

What will Commies do? Hehe

Sounds liek a man who is getting frail, I bet Cubans cannot wait!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1856&u=/cpress/castro_fall&printer=1

HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) fell leaving the stage after a televised speech Wednesday night, hurting his knee and arm but quickly recovering his composure to tell Cubans he was otherwise "all in one piece."


Castro, 78, was shown on live television after his tumble, sitting in a chair at the live outdoor event in the central city of Santa Clara, a three-hour drive east of Havana. Holding a microphone, he said that "maybe I broke my knee, and maybe an arm . . . but I am all in one piece." Castro's condition was not immediately known.


People watching television could not see what happened after Castro wrapped up the speech at a graduation ceremony for arts instructors and left the stage. Television viewers only saw several of his security men running, evidently to assist him.


An Associated Press photographer at the scene said Castro tripped on a concrete step after he finished walking down the wooden stairs from the stage, then fell onto the ground on his right side, first hitting his knee and hip, and then his elbow and arm.


He was immediately surrounded by scores of security agents and others who rushed to help him up.


As he has grown older, Castro's knees have seemed to bother him more and his step has seemed less steady.


Dressed in his typical olive green uniform, Castro was sweating profusely when he appeared on camera less than a minute after the fall. He asked Cubans to forgive him for "any suffering this may have caused."


"I will do what is possible to recover as fast as possible, but as you can see I can still talk," he said. "Even if they put me in a cast, I can continue in my work."


Castro noted the presence of international photographers and television camera crews at the event.


"The international press has captured it and surely tomorrow it will be on the front pages of the newspapers," said Castro. He then encouraged those at the event to continue with their musical program, which they did.


Castro had made it clear he did not want to leave the area in an ambulance and was later seen speeding away in his black Mercedes-Benz.


The incident did not appear nearly as serious as a fall in June 2001, when Castro apparently fainted before a crowd of thousands during a speech in the scorching sun.


At that time, Castro joked that it was only a rehearsal to see what kind of burial he would get.


The earlier incident provoked intense speculation about Castro's health, and what will happen in Cuba after he dies.


The health of Castro, who has been in power for 45 years, has long been closely watched - particularly by his political enemies in Miami, home to a large Cuban exile community.
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Mad as Hell!

[Rdtf]

you spelling - Castor - made me giggle.

[SangRun Hunter]

DOH!!! I fixed it, but that is funny.

I should have said what's his name in Cuba or another allie of John Kerry's falls ill
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Mad as Hell!

[Rdtf]

I was thinking
castor oil

[truthserum]

Fox showed this. It's just too funny.
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Sister to a Marine vet who served in Vietnam and proud of it.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

[blue9t3]

I wish the step was 4 foot higher.
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MOPAR-BUYER

[Anker-Klanker]

Wonder how many Hollywood liberals will catch the first flight to Cuba to attend at his bed side? They really love him, you know (really!).

[coolhand]

Who do Marxists pray for when they ar on their death bed or do they just accept their soulless fate as worm food.

[Armybrat/Armymom]

On the Yahoo News Singapore it says "...Castro urged the Caribbean
country's population of 11 million to stay calm a government statement said." I think "jubilant " is probably a more accurate description.

[Stee]

The mason who laid the step twenty years ago was found and shot for indangering the life of the PRESIDENTE'

[CTW]

If you thought the 1980 Mariel Refugee Lift was horrible just wait until Castro dies. Florida will not survive it. The Cuban people have lived under communism for a generation now and do not know of democracy. We saw that in 1980. They will all leave and all the Cubans in S. Florida will take boats down there and bring them here. Each boat will be overfillled. There will not be instant housing, sanitary facilities, police capability to control it. When tens of thousands land on the beaches again, all at once, it will be all over. There isn't any successor and the people will want to leave, no official will want the prisoners and mentally ill to stay so they will again push them onto the S. Fl boats. Another problem for another day. I can't handle it all at this time. President Bush is my only hope for many reasons. CTW

Never Ever Kerry

[reconflyer]

Once Castro takes the dirt nap, the nightmare will be over. Still, there is not a Cuban under 40 who understands what life is like without the Revolution.

There will be some serious de-programming that will need to take place.

I say let them slug it out on their own.

The spectre of Marxism will fade away as a failed policy in a failed economy and culture.

Cuba could be so much more.

reconflyer
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Active duty AF 1986-Present
Enlisted Aircrew 1990-Present

[Rdtf]

[Tex]

[msindependent]

I'm sure Barbara Walters has sent him a get well card.