NYT: ON MEXICO HANDLING CENTRAL AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS

Interesting article on the brutal treatment and crackdowns on Central American immigrants entering Mexico's southern borders. Pretty ironic.

Tip Of The Hat to

LATIN AMERICA: LA INDIA MUESTRA EL CAMINO?

En el continente Americano los tres chiflados de Chavez, Morales y Correa predicen el fin del"neoliberalismo", alaban abiertamente al socialismo, y estan o planean estatizar sus economias.

Conviene ver el ejemplo de la India. Despues de su independencia Nehru adopto una economia planificada basada en el modelo Sovietico que es visto como un fracaso. Despues de la caida del muro de Berlin, la India se lanzo en un ambicioso programa que en Latinoamerica seria tildado de "neoliberal". El ministro de Planeación de la India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, explica que implicaba:

''liderar un alejamiento de un sistema de excesivo control estatal y movernos hacia un sistema que les da más juego a las fuerzas del mercado y al sector privado'',

Esos comentarios citados por Andres Oppenheimer fueron dados casi simultaneamente con los de Chavez en la conferencia de Mercosur insto a sus colegas sudamericanos a ''recuperar la propiedad nacional", citando su reciente movida de re-nacionalizar las telecomunicaciones.

Mientras Chavez expropria los telefonos y luz electrica de Venezuela, es interesante ver que hizo la India en los 90's. Se redujeron impuestos a actividades comerciales, empresas del estado fueron abiertas a competencia externa, se quitaron restriciones al capital externo, y regulaciones redundantes fueron eliminadas. A corto plazo India fue de un 3 a un 7 por ciento de crecimiento del 91 al 94. A largo plazo el pais se esta convirtiendo en un poder economico mundial.

Andres Oppenheimer explora la ciudad de Bangalore en su columna del Miami Herald.

CUBA: CASTRO DEATH WATCH PART XXXIVVV

Tip Of The Hat to

BOLIVIA, NYT: Evo Scares The Beejezus Out Of The Mennonites

Relics of by-gone societies square off against each other in the tropics.

MANITOBA, Bolivia, Dec. 19 — With its horse-drawn buggies, farmhouses with manicured lawns and fields planted to the horizon with soybeans and sorghum, this Mennonite settlement in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands feels like a tropical version of rural Ohio or Pennsylvania.



That placid impression lasts until farmers here start talking about their fears of President Evo Morales’s plans for land reform.

One year into an administration that intends to reverse centuries of subjugation of Bolivia’s indigenous majority, Mr. Morales has plans to redistribute as many as 48 million acres of land, considered idle or ill gotten through opaque purchase agreements, to hundreds of thousands of peasants.

Ha Ha

Back after a refreshing little vacation. Well not quite, tend not to blog during election season -- politics overload.

Well finally, the bottom fell out of the Republicans. While South Florida Reps had their own meltdown, the national party imploded quite spectacularly.

Its not only the sheer incompetence and arrogance of the Bush White House's mess in Iraq, it was the downfall of the political machinery that had become quite greedy and corrupt.

Thank God.

Music: Los Abandoned Get Major Media Props

Los Abandoned (Es Muy Nice) By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
LA WEEKLY
****************************************************

Pop-punk is so L.A. BUZZ BANDS
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Light Blogging This Week

Been extremely busy and had guests....back nxt week

Weekend At Boli's: 70's Power Rock

Whatever Happened to the 2,3, 4 minute catchy guitar-rock tune?  The one that sounds great played in a small club, huge arena, or on your car radio (or Ipod)?  Well some oldies but goodies... 

Buzzcocks - What Do I Get  The buzzcocks!!!  dude they rock!!!
.. >..>

The Clash - Clash City Rockers..Enough Said...... 
.. >..>

Cheap Trick 1970's TV.... Rockford Illinois favorite sons at the height of their powers on a rare live TV appearance doing "Ain't That A Shame"
.. >..>

Cheap Trick...  Want You To Want Me... This is a really good sounding, really old,  live clip, very close to the "Live In Budokan" version released as the single...
.. >

The Cars - Just What I Needed From the Cars Debut Album..."Just What I Needed".The late Ben Orr singing lead instead of Mr. Porizkova.
.. >..>
..
Ramones-Pinhead GABBA GABBA HEY..The chant of circus freaks..... Classic Ramones.... Pinhead..
.. >..>
The Clash - Tommy Gun More Clash Damnit...One of my favorite clash songs of all times
.. >..>

The Police Classic Police.Early video.."I Can't Stand Losing You."
.. >..>


The Police - So Lonely (Beat Club 1978) The Police Live, from their first album..
..>..>


Van Halen live '79 Dance The Night Away Definitively "not Van Hagar!" 'David Lee and the boys crank out their hit  fromVH II
.. >..>

USA: RANT, Are We Becoming A Nation Of Idiots??

Check this item Current events dwarfed by pop culture... from Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.

According to the poll by Zogby International, commissioned by the makers of a new online game on pop culture called "Gold Rush," 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister,Tony Blair

The pollsters spoke to 1,213 people across the United States. The results had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

Just over 60 percent of respondents were able to name Bart as Homer's son on the television show "The Simpsons," while only 20.5 percent were able to name one of the ancient Greek poet Homer's epic poems, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."

Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 percent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 percent knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative. Seventy-four percent identified the former, 42 percent the latter.
Twice as many people (23 percent) were able to identify the most recent winner of the television talent show "American Idol," Taylor Hicks, as were able to name the Supreme Court Justice confirmed in January 2006, Samuel Alito

MY TAKE:

I saw the scariest thing on CNN the other day, a biographer of Bin Laden talked about the terror leaders 1998 fatwa (a pronouncement) declaring it a duty of his followers to kill any American, - including civilians. In his evil mind since we freely elect our leaders, we the people of the United States are responsible for anything our government does abroad.

It doesn't matter what your politics are, most of us can agree that who we vote for can be a life and death issue. So then how the hell can we elect decent leaders if most of us don't even have a damn clue? Besides not knowing about what goes on in the world, we don't know how our government is run, who runs it, and our own countries history.

There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of stupidity. I have lived in country's where people are ignorant because they don't have enough to eat, and kids are forced to go to work instead of going to school. Here in the US of A we are so rich our poor people are overweight, and everyone finishes high school.

Americans get awfully political, and pretty informed as soon as there is a crisis, a national disaster, or something hits close to home. Then its time to get elected representatives to act quickly, while we moan and whine about how horrible and crooked politicians are. In the end its the people to blame are the voters and not the politicians. Basically we get what we deserve for being uninformed.

We need to learn this stuff people! The basics have to be taught in school. And even us adults can benefit from leafing through a high school civics or history textbook. To keep up with current events, all you need is to pick up a damn newspaper and spend five to ten minutes leafing through the news section, or at least watch real news like the BBC. And parents should make sure their kids read the papers and follow the news here. To paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, several generations of imbeciles are enough; no more Dopey's here.

US, Middle East: Triumph Of Unrealism, George Will Call Out Dubya

Starting in Lebanon
Will first of all is dismissive of anything the U.N. might do to enforce the peace in Lebanon after decades of silliness.

Regarding force now, the U.N. merely "expresses its intention to consider in a later resolution further enhancements" of the U.N. force that for 28 years has been loitering without serious intent in south Lebanon.

Which Brings Us To The Rest Of The Region

The "new Middle East," the "birth pangs" of which we supposedly are witnessing, reflects the region's oldest tradition, the tribalism that preceded nations.The faux and disintegrating nation of Iraq, from which the middle class, the hope of stability, is fleeing, has experienced in these five weeks many more violent deaths than have occurred in Lebanon and Israel

OUCH!!!

Law Enforcement Vs. Invading 3rd Countries And Regime Change

The theme is that better law enforcement, which probably could have prevented Sept. 11, is central to combating terrorism. F-16s are not useful tools against terrorism that issues from places such as Hamburg (where Mohamed Atta lived before dying in the North Tower of the World Trade Center) and High Wycombe, England.

George Gets Tough on George
While John Kerry brought this point up in the 04 campaign, Republican figures around the administration make a point of being dismissive. Will quotes one such figure who said "[Democrats] do not have the understanding or the commitment to take on these forces. It's like John Kerry. The law enforcement approach doesn't work." Will then goes off on it:

This farrago of caricature and non sequitur makes the administration seem eager to repel all but the delusional. But perhaps such rhetoric reflects the intellectual contortions required to sustain the illusion that the war in Iraq is central to the war on terrorism, and that the war, unlike "the law enforcement approach," does "work."

The official is correct that it is wrong "to think that somehow we are responsible -- that the actions of the jihadists are justified by U.S. policies." But few outside the fog of paranoia that is the blogosphere think like that. It is more dismaying that someone at the center of government considers it clever to talk like that. It is the language of foreign policy -- and domestic politics -- unrealism.

Foreign policy "realists" considered Middle East stability the goal. The realists' critics, who regard realism as reprehensibly unambitious, considered stability the problem. That problem has been solved.

Harsh, but pretty much on point.

BOLIVIA, EVO WATCH: Evo Sings Happy Birthday To Castro, Wants Casro-Like Constitution For Bolivia.

Evo Sings While Bolivia Boils
While the bedridden Cuban tyrant, was subjected to the horrors coming from Hugo Chavez mouth,
El Herald reports that Evo Morales belted out his own rendition of Feliz Cumpleanos (Happy Birthday) dedicated to the octogenarian Communist dictator. Evo's backup chorus: about a thousand coca growers gathered at the inaguration of hospital.
Meanwhile just about everything else in the Evo-Government seems to be going to hell:
Fear Of An Aymara Planet?
A draft of the proposed Evo-Constitution has been leaked, the full text is here. The inspiration of Chavez and the ailing fossil he was babysitting in Havana are all over it. Arguably it even goes beyond Chavismo, its stupidity is simply astounding.

The preamble openly states the aim of establishing "communal and socialist" rights, and declares its opposition to "imperialism" and "colonialism." It eliminates the executive, legislative and executive, replacing it with five "popular" powers, vaguely including native peoples - who are already granted self-rule under municipal law. Further, in rather Orwellian terms the Evo Constitution, "recognizes" freedom of expression so long as it "conforms to the ends of a socialist and communitarian society." It seems to allow for expropriation of any real or personal property, under any circumstance the government sees fit - subject to "due indemnization."

While this neo-totalitarian project was being cooked up by whatever dinasours and idiots who drafted it, the Evo-Government was playing dirty trying to change rules. Under their proposed scheme any substantive item in the constituent assembly needed only a bare majority to be approved. That on top of the Evo government attempting to give the Constituent assembly all-encompassing powers, to the point where he was asked if he would give up the government.

This government lied, its campaign literature did not go so far. Fortunately their incompetence is catching up with them, and this project might not go too far.

CUBA, CASTRO CORPSE WATCH: Comeback Corpse poses with Chavez

It Lives....
Granma now published other pictures of Castro with Raul and Chavez, titling it "An Afternoon Among Brothers." according to AFP. The B.B.C. further quotes the Granma article, saying the meeting was termed "Three Hours of Emotional Exchange" the "photos show gifts being exchanged and the two leaders eating what Granma called a "frugal snack".

Simon Bolivar Slept Here.
Included in the gifts that Chavez brought Fidel are valuable pieces belonging to Simon Bolivar. One wonders if this was done with full consent of the Venezuelan government. Think of Bush giving away one-of-a-kind articles once owned by George Washington.

Cuba's Fidel Castro turns 80 unseen, but still making waves

The New York Times story, reprinted in the Detroit News here, pretty much says that the system does not necesarilly hang on "one man." And it seems that Castro is gone from power:

Castro made no vows to return to office. Julia Sweig, an expert on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan organization, predicted he would not. But rather than making an abrupt departure from power, she said, Castro has begun a drawn-out campaign aimed at keeping the country stable while aides quietly work out the details of the nation's first transition in recent history.

Raul Finally Appears
Also noteworthy according to AFP was Raul Castro finally making his appearance.

Original Appearance
Basically the messageas set out Sun-Sentinel
HAVANA--On his 80th birthday, Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans on Sunday that he faced a long recovery from surgery and advised them to prepare for ``adverse news,'' as the Communist Youth newspaper published the first photographs of the leader since his illness.
Text of Fidel Castro's message from the Newspaper Rebel Youth, as translated by The Miami Herald.

Miami: Vamos A Cuba, Goes International - More Shame On City As The Economist Weighs In

The Economist, that very English model of sober analysis and dry wit, has taken a look at the absurd drama with Vamos A Cuba here in Miami. Cuban-Americans, Let's ban a book on Cuba Gotta love the Brits for cutting to the chase and pretty much showing how stupid this whole thing is:

THE book looks as jolly and innocuous as any other children's travel guide, and its 32 pages offer no obvious horrors. “People in Cuba eat, work, and go to school like you do,” reads one. Cubans enjoy eating chicken with rice. Cuba's beaches “are good for swimming and boating.” The cover shows laughing children against a rich blue sky. Only a second look reveals that they are all wearing the neck-scarves of Fidel Castro's Young Pioneers.

And that is quite enough. In Miami, a city that this week celebrated the news of Mr Castro's frailty and temporary handover with fireworks and wild dancing, “Vamos a Cuba” (“A Visit to Cuba”) is poison to some. Not only does it paint too rosy a picture of Cuba—suggesting that chicken is a staple, rather than a luxury, and implying that Cuba's best beaches are for Cubans, rather than for dollar-bearing foreigners—but it also sows alarming seeds of tolerance in the minds of the young. Although it has sat on library shelves for several years, a cry has gone up to get rid of it.

OUCH!!

And Franky B. gets his nod:

Critics of the ban say it can be neatly linked to the upcoming election season, and a nasty fight that is brewing between two Republicans. One of the figures at the heart of the controversy is an aspiring Republican state legislator, Frank Bolaños, who is running against a fellow Cuban-American to represent Miami-Dade in Tallahassee. Mr Bolaños also sits on the school board. Three other board members who voted against the book are running for re-election to the board. “It was only when the politicians got involved that the books were removed,” says JoNel Newman, the ACLU's lawyer.

Our own, "alternative" weekly, the Miami New Times weighs in on the controversy Commie Book Ban, Vamos a Cuba has become an unlikely political lightning rod by Rob Jordan. Actually it is somewhat milder in tone, and a somewhat even-handed, -if not sympathetic-, portrait of some of the characters involved. The original father who raised the complaint, spent years in Castro's dungeons, some of the exiles involved in the campaign come across as far more complex characters than the intolerant loudmouth stereotype. But, there is enough intolerance hinted at, as when an unfortunate high school student finds himself the target of angry exiles for daring to question the decision to remove the book.

And the article, does cut down on just how silly this whole thing is, by pointing out some very basic facts everyone here seems to forget:

Their oppressor is a 32-page book from the Vamos series, which had been in Miami-Dade public school libraries for five years before anyone complained. During that time, no one had questioned why Vamos a Colombia fails to mention decades of kidnappings by leftist guerrillas or why Vamos a China omits any mention of the millions who starved during Mao's Great Leap Forward.

Ding, ding, we have a winner!!!! Normally sensible people in this city have been making some of the stupidest arguments to justify censoring what ends up being a silly book.

How is this for irony?

(On April 4, the day Amador filed his complaint, Miami's national book-reading campaign, the Big Read, opened; the book chosen for mass consumption was Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, the story of a future totalitarian state where books are banned and burned by the government.)

Of course, the perenially indignant will not get it, and find another excuse to ban the damn book.

Exile politics comes up real quick. Particularly nasty were the loudmouths on local talk radio, who trashed one Nicaraguan-born council woman for not getting in line:

Ana Rivas-Logan voted to allow a review process instead of an immediate ban, she found herself targeted by Radio Mambí, a popular station among hard-line exiles. Rivas-Logan, who was born in Nicaragua after her family fled Cuba in 1960, paraphrased one commentator's advice to listeners: "Let's not forget, when it comes to election time, that Ms. Rivas-Logan is Nicaraguan." Other board members who voted to review rather than ban the book were labeled Communist and anti-Cuban.

Talk about an authoritarian streak!!! These idiots should shut their yaps if they are going to talk about censorship in Cuba, because they are hardly paragons of libertarianism.

Frank Bolaños of course gets prominent mention. Our man Frank, is described as being somewhat "innocuous" looking at first site and is accorded the status of a political novice, but "not one to shy away from the limelight." Lurking closely behind Mr. B., according to the article, is political consultant Michael Caputo, an experienced operator with ample experience in big campaigns. Seems like some heavyweights are throwing Franky B. some major support, specially if they bring in an old pro like Caputo. Caputo of course, shamelessly pimps this loser issue, but as a political consultant he knows it is political gold. All that brinkmanship involved in making the whole process as public and confrontational as possible is probably Caputo strategy and Bolaños acting the shameless pandering part to a T.

So much for the dominant political part, that in of itself, should make this a moot issue. Hey people, you are being manipulated by politicians! But it cuts beyond that. As The Economist points out delicately, this whole thing is going on at the same time as Castro's succession becomes a real issue. Does no one in this damn town have a fucking clue how HYPOCRITICAL it is to CENSOR -and make all sorts of inane arguments in favor of - CENSORING a child's book, all in the name of fighting a regime that CENSORS???? You can not claim to be fighting for soomeone else's freedom when you would gladly restrict freedom here. Its that damn simple. QUIT BEING STUPID!!!

Lebanon, Israel, US Policy: Random Thoughts On A Middle Eastern Disaster

Random thoughts


Israel finally figured out they needed to go clear out the caves and bunkers... Great, nice try. An American Muslim panelist on a Fox Show said it perfectly: U.S. Marines didn't rely on bombing in Fallujah, they went in and took the damn town.

So the Israeli's took the high ground all the way to the Litani River. Hello? You are three weeks too late.

The Generals and politicians are yelling at each-other in Israel. Sounds like some Generals were giving spotty advice. Bombing does not work on well dug-in ground troops. See Okinawa, Cu-Chi, Iwo-Jima, and the Atlantic Wall.

However much Nasrallah talks, his people still got the hell knocked out of them for a month. They have two U.N. declarations calling for their disarmament hanging on them. Don't automatically chalk this one up in the "W" column, despite any political gains.

Israel operates on a military job timetable that ends: till they get the job done or till they kill enough civilians revolting the rest of the world, to the point where even the U.S. has to call em out. Kind of a sick equation if you think about it

In the end for the U.S. the equation should have been: was endangering Lebanese democracy and destroying its infraestructure worth giving Israel a month to try to destroy Hizbullah and weakening Iranian proxies on the border?

Talk about double standards! The Arab "street" suffers from massive denial and a kind of moral blindness when dealing with Israel and the U.S.. The same folks who embrace suicide bombers get all bent out of shape when Israeli rockets hits civilian homes. At this point, I am so cynical about it I call it the "Arab-Islamic standard of aggrievement" = take any real atrocity multiply it by hate-Israel-and-the-West factor of three, put it through an eggshell-thin sensitivity, multiply it by a factor of 10 for an excagerated sense of personal and communal honor, add in a high degree of insecurity, and voila Truth is, its not going to change anytime soon. No matter how silly or hypocritical this vision is, it is a reality - a fact any policymaker has to take into account.

How did the Lebanese government and its military have six years to disarm Hizbullah? Doing the math it seems that they were partly-occupied by the nasty Syrians for five of those years. Unsurprisingly militias the Syrians did not care for, got disarmed. Any time the Lebanese tried doing anything independent of the Syrians, Lebanese politicians would get blown up. In the past year the Lebanese finally managed to chase out the Syrians after a huge struggle, and tried consolidating their fragile democracy. Not much energy and time left to disarm the fanatics in the South.

The U.S. needs to see this vague cease-fire resolution as a canvas in which to craft long term solutions, using the carrot and stick approach. Israel doesn't want rockets pointed at them and an armed to the teeth Hizbullah on their borders. The trick is to first of all get them out of there without their weapons. Or simply get them out of the border area. Time to engage Syria and even the loony mullahs in Iran - but always with a stick in your hand ready to beat them back. When it all comes down to it, we have more nukes than they do.

Whats up with some idiots calling for Condi Rice's replacement? Why? Because she thought it might be wise to quit cutting Israel that much slack? Bush should call his dad, he knew how to handle the Israeli's. Actually most of her Republican predecessors understood the basic fact that the U.S. has strategic interests outside of that country.

And whats up with the Neo-Cons. Back when the US Right's was hostage to the Curtis Le May/Bircher school of knee-jerk anti-communism and the Democrats were stuck in post-Vietnam McGovernite defeatism, Neo-Cons were the only ones who made the strategic and moral case of why the Cold War had to be won. Now they seem just too eager to prove Pat Buchanan's nasty remarks during Gulf War v 1.0 were on target. Neo-Wilsonian schemes and uncritical support of Israel get you only so far.

How come the British Pakistani's bomb stuff and ours don't??? There are literally millions of Pakistani-Americans in the U.S. and they mostly go about their business (truth be told so do a majority of Pakistani-Brits). It probably has more to do with MTV and Suburbia than anything really deep.

Egyptian exchange students do not go to Montana for summer school and wander off elsewhere in the U.S. much to Fox News' chagrin. Had these been American students going to summer school in Helsinki, Finland, would you blame them if they went to Rome, Paris, or even Stockholm?

WEEKEND AT BOLI'S: Friday Drinking Songs!!!

3 GENRES, TWO LANGUAGES....SAME SPIRIT.....GETTIN BUZZED..actually because a woman made you miserable in the first two, and worried about the buzzed woman in the last one LOL......
This summers big hit...
Pasame la botella, voy a beber a nombre de ella...
MACH & DADDY, PASAME LA BOTELLA, (Pass Me The Bottle)


A True (Tequila-fueled) Anthem
ven y sacame de este bar....
MANA, CLAVADO EN UN BAR (Stuck In A Bar) Awesome Live Version Here

Getting A Little Country
I know what happens when she drinks Patron....
JOE NICHOLS, TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF...(Tequila Hace Que Se Caiga Su Ropa)..

Weekend At Boli's: Some Old School Spanish Hip Hop

Vidz for u kidz,  remember who came first.  ...
              
Before Yankee and anyone else, you had El General...
El General, Juana
.. >..>


Clasico....Kid Frost, La Raza
..>..>

When you see the Nike commercial, remember where the song came from
Delinquent Habits, Return of the Tres
.. >..>


First Real Bi-Lingual Rap to hit big, Mellow Man Ace, Mentirosa -



Llegaron los meros, meros,
Cypress Hill, Insane in The Brain,
.. >..>

Hand on the Pump
.. >..>

A real legend, the much missed  Big Punisher ....
Big Pun, Still Not a Player...
.. >..>

CUBA: Elian Writes Fidel Castro A Get Well Letter

Hahahahahahaahhahahaha.
Artwork By Sean Gleeson, Original Post Below, and in title.

CUBA: Castro Death Watch Extends Into Wednsday

Splits within the Castro family as Reuters points out, the agency also says that Cubans adjust to life without Fidel in charge

The Communist Party newspaper Granma said Vice President Carlos Lage was meeting in Bogota with heads of state attending the inauguration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to update them on Castro's "positive recovery" from surgery for intestinal bleeding

The return to normal was not quite complete because the government kept police and security forces, including military reservists, on alert.

Along the coast, authorities urged residents to watch for an invasion force from Castro's arch enemy, the United States.

Situation in Santiago, according to the Miami Herald is more tense than in Havana

Many believe that Raúl Castro is more brutal than his brother, he said. Raúl, who ordered scores of executions in this region after Castro-led guerrillas toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, also has not appeared in public since last week.

''He should talk to the people,'' said a musician also named Raúl. But he added, ``He knows they will not accept him. The people do not want him. The politicians don't want him. He's Fidel's brother, but he's not Fidel.''

CBS News Reports: Producer Portia Siegelbaum On What It's Like Reporting From Inside Cuba:

The three major American networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, are here under a wink and a nod from island officials. I’m not allowed to hang a sign reading “CBS News” on the door to my office and there’s no desk for a permanent correspondent.

So Portia, where is Raul?
None of the officials—and I can count them on one hand—who have spoken to us on the ground have personally seen or spoken to the ailing president. And acting President Raul Castro has not been seen publicly since his older brother stepped aside. So it’s very hard to get a handle on just what the situation is.

But while there’s a hermetic silence in Castro’s inner circle, it’s relatively easy to interview ordinary Cubans. As a people they’re warm and friendly and easy to form friendships with. And while everyone is not willing to go on camera almost everyone will speak on background..

We’ve also have what to some might be considered surprising access to the anti-Castro dissidents. We have not been prevented from speaking to them either in person or by phone. However, as a rule, such interviews are hand-carried out of Cuba. Why? For the simple reason that the Cuban State totally controls all the technology normally used for transmitting information out of here.

The good life in Havana: Cuba's green revolution Cuba's Military is High On The Hog, according to the UK's Independent.,
Cuba's military men loyal to Raul Castro says the AP.<

Hugo Chavez Is Faithful to Fidel, says Alexandra Star in Salon

Maria Elena Salinas, Says that Citizens will be key to post-Castro Cuba

Israel, Lebanon: In The P.R. Wars Arabs Lose to Israel In The US

After watching hours of coverage from the Lebanon crisis on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CBS and ABC, I am hardly surprised that polls show the US public overwhelmingly supports Israel.

It is because the Israelis are a hell of a lot better at selling themselves to the U.S. public.

All I see are telegenic I.D.F. spokespeople hitting the right buzzwords, in perfect -even US accented- English. They put their own spin or potentially harmful items, like non-combatant deaths in Lebanon, using much of the same language that U.S. military briefers use. It goes without saying that the upper echelons of Israel's government and their top brass are pretty confortable parrying Anderson Cooper's or O'Reilly's softball questions on live television.

On the other side, just about every Lebanese, Syrian, or even the odd Hizbullah types come on with heavy accents and stiff manerisms. They might speak French well and seem suave to some Europeans, but Americans expect clever soundbites. And some of these guys come across almost as cartoon villians, particularly when they launch into textbook denunciations of Israel and the US. Does not help, that the few women who do appear, are usually wearing scarves, which makes a stunning contrast with Israeli female spokespeople who radiate authority and competence.

In today's highly globalized world where Americans receive their news in short bursts this kind of perception matters. What can you say when your best p.r. people are Pat Buchanan and Queen Noor? There is little excuse that countries like Lebanon or Syria, can not emulate the Gulf States, in having people who can make their case to the American public in today's media. One side is not stating its case to the public, and the complains about anti-Arabic or anti-Islamic attitudes. Countries like these should know better, they are not unsophisticated and have many US-educated professionals. Ultimately, if they complain so much about the American government's policies, they might have figured out they should go to the source of these policies, the Israeli's beat them a long time ago at it.

CUBA, CASTRO CORPSE WATCH: From Beyond The Grave Reinaldo Arenas "Elegy To Fidel Castro"

The Dead On The Not Yet Dead
Reinaldo Arenas, who died in New York in 1990 was the Cuban writer, poet and playwright who was imprisoned and exiled by the Castro regime. His book Before Night Falls, was made into the movie starring Javier Bardem - not the one where is paralyzed. Giles Tremlett in
The lost, last diatribe of Reinaldo Arenas printed in The Guardian, reports that Spanish diary El Pais recovered a scathing and sarcastic "elegy" that Arenas wrote before he died, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Here is most of the text:

Fidel Castro has been criticised for refusing to accept any kind of change, or anything that smells of perestroika or democracy...

I, on the other hand, perhaps because of my contrary spirit, will not criticise the 'Maximum Leader' but will, instead, enumerate his virtues.


"Intelligent economist. Thirty years of rationing has prevented inflation, given that there is hardly anything to buy anyway.

Famous farmer. He managed to get a cow called White Udder to produce more than 100 litres of milk a day. The poor cow exploded. Milk remains rationed.

Expert sexologist. He has prepared a magnificent army of youths to work as tourist guides and translators while kindly attending to [the desires of] invitees, be they men or women.

Profound philosopher. He has made his subjects understand that material existence is meaningless, to the point that, in Cuba, no material goods exist and the suicide rate is the highest in Latin America.

Hard-working pupil. He has followed Stalin's example, getting rid of anyone who could overshadow his glory, such as Huber Matos, Carlos Franqui, Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto "Che" Guevara ... Fidel publicly backed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the (Soviet) invasion of Afghanistan and the massacre of students in Tiananmen Square.

Wise statesman. Castro knows full well that a dictator should never call a plebiscite, unless he wants to be thrown out. This explains his angry reaction against all those intellectuals, (including six Nobel prize winners) who have asked him, in a civilised fashion, to call elections."