Do You Hear Someone Talking?

As Bush becomes increasingly irrelevant, he conjures up more disdain for us throughout the world.

President Bush said Wednesday that Cuba's post-Fidel Castro leadership has made only "empty gestures at reform" and rejected calls for easing of U.S. restrictions on the communist island.

"Until there is a change of heart and a change of compassion and a change of how the Cuban government treats its people, there's no change at all," Bush said at the State Department to the Council of Americas, a business group that advocates for democracy and open markets in the Western Hemisphere. "Cuba will not be a land of liberty so long as free expression is punished and free speech can take place only in hushed whispers and silent prayers. And Cuba will not become a place of prosperity just by easing restrictions on the sale of products that the average Cuban cannot afford."

The White House also said Wednesday that the president spoke by videoconference this week with democratic activists in Cuba, an unprecedented move that may enrage the Castro government.