Latest addition to SNL? Raul Castro

I love this NPR story on Raul Castro's latest speech to the Cuban people. All it would take to change the story into a Saturday Night Live parody skit would be selecting the right actors. You wouldn't even need to come up with new dialogue.

"The land is there! The Cubans are here!" Raul shouted, pounding the podium. "Let's see if we can work better or not, if we can produce or not, if we keep our word or not! It's not a question of crying, 'Motherland or death! Down with imperialism!' The U.S. embargo pummels us and yet the land is there waiting for our efforts."

Like most of the people questioned after the speech, Jose Luis Hidalgo praised Raul Castro.

Hidalgo was selling peanuts in small white cones of paper with his wife, Daisy. He predicted that the president's effort to pump life into Cuba's stagnant farms will be a success. "When the people make the effort, any thing is possible," he said.

Daisy Hidalgo says there are always some Cubans who complain. She says they don't see the positive side of things.

"We are free," she says. "If we get sick at any time, we can go to the hospital without worrying about getting assaulted on the way there. Our kids are safe at school."

Imagine that last line delivered by an actress with a vacant stare.