In the last few weeks Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump has faced no shortage of GOP criticism over his vitriol against Mexican immigrants. And on Saturday, he proved that his political detractors wouldn't be left wanting for Trump's own brand of criticism.

Several GOP contenders vying for the White House have denounced their fellow candidate for his remarks, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose wife Columba is Mexican, has said that there should be "no tolerance" for the views of the reality television star.

Trump, whose most recent poll numbers show him in a close race with Bush, knocked the GOP establishment frontrunner, saying "I don't see [Bush] as a factor."

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"How can I be tied with Jeb Bush?" Trumpsaid at a rally at the Phoenix, Arizona convention center. "He's terrible. He's weak on immigration. Sanctuary cities. Did you know that he had five of them in Florida when he was governor?"

"We have incompetent politicians -- not only the president," Trump told the crowd, which, according to his campaign, numbered in the thousands. "I mean, right here in your own state you have John McCain. I just hate to see when people don't have common sense, don't have an understanding of what's going on. ... Some people don't get it and I don't think they'll be in office much longer."

Trump made headlines recently when he categorized Mexican immigrants as criminals and "rapists" during his presidential announcement speech. It only fueled the Trump fire -- and the poll


numbers -- when business after business severed their corporate relationships over his inflammatory remarks.

The political backlash has been fierce. When the 2016 contender announced his event in Phoenix, it drew wide-ranging criticism, including from long-time GOP legislators like McCain and Jeff Flake, Arizona's other senator. Even Republican National Committee Chair Reince Preibus reportedly told Trump to tone down his rhetoric.

Several immigration protesters interrupted Trump's speech just as he finished his criticisms over the television station Univision, which recently cut ties with him. Trump addressed the hecklers, saying "I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over.

"Mexico is taking our jobs, manufacturing, taking everything and killing us on the border," Trump said. "Don't worry, we'll take our country back very soon." The crowd eventually drowned out the protesters withand other terrorist groups.

"We are really hammering the terrorists at last," Peters said, explaining that the Obama administration - and the Bush administration to a degree - placed so many restrictions and restraints upon U.S. military forces that it inhibited their ability to defeat terrorists.

"Don't expect an end but we have definitely turned the tide. The terrorists are on the defensive and and in the Middle East, the caliphate is done," he said.

As for Trump's statement that he didn't "specifically" order the military mission in Niger, Peters said that's standard.

"The president gives the strategic direction, the Pentagon allocates the assets, in-theater commanders design the operations and at the pointy end of the spear, the soldiers carry out the tactical operations," he said. "The White House doesn't need to


Hits, by Johnny Mathis, by several years. Add in a later run on that chart and another 759 weeks on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, and Pink Floyd now has over 1,500 weeks on the charts. A pretty good feat since when it on March 17, 1973, it entered the chart at No. 95, the top debut that week.

With an estimated 50 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide. It still routinely moves 8,000-9,000 copies on a slow week. In fact, the album still often outpaces the low end of The Billboard 200, and every song on the more than 30-year-old record still gets radio play, with some among the most-played songs at classic rock stationsmonitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.

In addition to its commercial success, The Dark Side of the Moon is one of Pink Floyd’s most popular albums among fans and critics, and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. On March 22, 2013, the album was preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, calling it “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant, and/or reflect life in the United States.”

The band members spent three minutes deciding on the front cover. “When Storm showed us all the ideas, with that one, there was no doubt,” guitarist David Gilmour told Rolling Stone in 2003. “It was, ‘That is it.’ It’s a brilliant cover. One can look at it after that first moment of brilliance and think,


A couple days ago, Marvel announced that, as part of the All New, All Different era of their books launching in a few weeks, there will be a unique set of variant covers for the opening issues to most of the titles. The unique variant covers being that of cosplayers dressed as a particular character of the book.incumbent for the Democratic nomination in a Boston-area congressional district. A now all-but-certain November victory will send her to Washington as the first African American to represent Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives. She will carry forward an epic tradition of service to communities that sent a young John Kennedy to Congress and later elected House speaker Tip O’Neill. Ad Policy

By any measure, these are notable accomplishments.

Yet what makes Pressley’s 59-41 victory so truly historic has as much to do with the future direction of the national Democratic Party—and perhaps of American politics—as it does with the local politics of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and the rest of the seventh district in Massachusetts. Like New York Congressman Joe Crowley, who was defeated in June by 28-year-old democratic socialist


partisan competition between Democrats and Republicans, but in the battle to define a new direction for the Democratic Party. She welcomed endorsements from groups that seek to move the party toward more boldly progressive stances on the issues and toward clearer alliances with grassroots movements, including Justice Democrats, Progressive Massachusetts and Democracy for America. Late Tuesday evening, DFA chair Jim Dean declared that: “Ayanna Pressley’s remarkable victory tonight is testament to the strength of the grassroots movement she built, and an important reflection of the generational, multiracial inclusive populist transformation that’s happening in the Democratic Party right now all across the country.”

Pressley embraced this new politics from the start of a campaign in which she told voters that: “I am running for Congress because we desperately need inclusive,about the president she will oppose with a passion rooted in the resistance movements of the moment.

In a pointed argument for her candidacy, which referenced her own working-class roots and explained her determination to take up the struggles of neglected voters and communities, Pressley wrote:

Today, when you board the MBTA’s number 1 bus in Cambridge, it’s less than three miles to Dudley Station in Roxbury, but by the time you’ve made the 30-minute trip, the median household income in the neighborhoods around you have dropped by nearly $50,000 a year. As the bus rolls through Back Bay, the average person around you might expect to live until he or she is 92 years old, but when it arrives in Roxbury, the average life expectancy has fallen by as


GETTY Anderson Talisca has not agreed a move to Manchester United, claims his agent

Anderson Talisca was reported to have agreed terms with Manchester United this week following his comments about dreaming of a move to Old Trafford. The Benfica midfielder claimed United boss Jose Mourinho was a big admirer of his and he spoke fondly of playing in the Premier League. However, Talisca's agent Jesse Carvalho has denied the reports linking his client with a move to the Red Devils. "I have no idea where that came from," Carvalho told Portuguese newspaper Record.

GETTY Anderson Talisca hs one year left on his loan deal with Besiktas

Talisca spent last season on loan with Turkish side Besiktas after agreeing a two-year loan deal from Benfica. However, his agent did admit thiscould be subject to change and is something he will look to address in the coming weeks. "It's a situation we have to see - to be consulted," Carvalho added. Talisca is under contract with Benfica until June 2019 and has made 78 appearances in his three years at the club.

Most valuable Manchester United players revealed Mon, June 19, 2017 Click to reveal the most valuable Manchester United players according to CIES Football Observatory data Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 8 4. David de Gea - £39.7m (€45.3m)


President Trump will spend his first full workday at the White House signing executive orders — which will include the formal withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, trade deal — as well as meeting business executives, union leaders, workers and top members of Congress.

“Busy week planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security. Top executives coming in at 9:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in America,” Trump said in a Monday morning tweet.

According to the White House, Trump will sign executive orders at 10:30 a.m., receive the presidential daily briefing at 11 a.m., host Vice President Mike Pence for lunch at noon, meet with union leaders and American workers at 3 p.m., meet with congressional leaders at 5 p.m. and end the day with aNHS Grampian whistleblower cleared over bullying claims By Fiona Walker

BBC Scotland Published duration 27 October 2015

image caption Malcolm Loudon described the bullying allegations as a vindictive attempt to destroy him

An NHS whistleblower who was accused of bullying after he spoke out about patient safety has been cleared of all allegations by the General Medical Council (GMC).

Surgeon Malcolm Loudon wrote to health secretary Alex Neil before leaving his job at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

His claims sparked a review which was critical of NHS Grampian but also brought bullying allegations against him.

The GMC has dismissed the claims.

It also questioned the standard of evidence put forward in the internal investigation.

NHS Grampian has accepted all the recommendations of the reports into Mr Loudon's claims and apologised to patients.

It said it "strongly refuted any


Eviction court: Where tenants, landlords, and the law converge

A little before 10 one hot morning last summer, a few men with clipboards made their way around the crowded lobby at the nonprofit Crisis Assistance Ministry. Men, women and children awaited a turn to tell their stories to agency counselors who – they hoped – could give them enough money to keep the power on or avert eviction for not paying the rent.

In April scholar Matthew Desmond debuted a national database of eviction data, 83 million court records dating to 2000. His data ranked North Charleston, S.C., atop a list of 100 U.S. cities in the rate of eviction judgments. Greensboro, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. were also in the top 10. Charlotte was 21st.

A few minutes later, in aeffects on households. Families already struggling to pay rent can face late fees, eviction court costs, new apartment fees, utility deposits and moving costs, as well as loss of pay – or even a job – for missing work to find and move to a new home. Children’s lives lack stability when they must change schools or spend time in shelters. Tenants with an eviction complaint on their record, even if they avert eviction, can be blacklisted from finding another landlord willing to rent to them.

The best-selling 2016 book by sociologist Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, brought new attention to evictions. Desmond’s lecture in Charlotte last September, sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and six other community partners, sold out. At the


same time, the interwoven problems of poverty and instability have drawn major attention in Charlotte after news in 2013 that the city ranked 50th of 50 large city regions in a Harvard University/UC Berkeley study examining upward economic mobility among children in low-income families. Charlotte’s nonprofit, government and business leaders convened a wide-ranging initiative that studied the problem and recommended action.

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, with funding from Mecklenburg County Community Support Services, has issued three reports looking at different facets of eviction. The most recent – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Evictions Part 3: One-month snapshot of eviction court records – was released May 23. Researchers for the first time analyzed local eviction data from Mecklenburg County court records, combing through a one-month snapshot of court eviction papers from July 2016.

Despiteof the most powerful curbs on landlord abuses throughout the state started at a small brick house on Cosby Place in east Charlotte’s Merry Oaks neighborhood.

As the court documents tell it, in December 1974 Ada and Jeffrey Love rented it and moved in. Two weeks later they had a spat, and he left, taking his things and telling the landlord’s agent they were moving out. Three days later the couple came back for her things. Their possessions were gone, including, Fillette recalls, irreplaceable baby photos. Although the landlord, Robert Pressley, had not gone to court for an eviction, his workers had cleaned out Ada Love’s things.

The Loves, with Fillette as one of their lawyers, sued and won. But what changed landlord-tenant dealings in the state was that Mecklenburg


his modest house in a 10-year-old subdivision in northwest Charlotte. The house sat empty, grass needing mowing. No for-sale sign was up.

The postal worker from the second case and his mother had worked it out with the landlord after court and had signed a new lease for higher rent – from $995 to $1,250 – for their house in another 10-year-old subdivision in northwest Charlotte.

In the third case, involving a yet another house in a similar 10-year-old northwest Charlotte subdivision, the tenants had worked it out with the landlord and not been forced to leave. But they bought a house and in September were moving out.

The small brick house on Cosby Place – at issue in that landmark 1977 tenants’ rights case – was sold in 1993 toSaturday, December 20, 2008

“Having a single commissioner in effect puts the transportation department in a legislative conservatorship.”

TxDOT could see changes in 2009

12/20/08

By ASHLEY TOMPKINS, Managing EditorThe Sealy NewsCopyright 2008

In a 7-5 vote this week, members of the Sunset Advisory Commission voted to recommend replacing the five-member appointed Texas Transportation Commission with a single commissioner.

State Sen. Glenn Hegar, who serves as vice-chair of the advisory commission, and member State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, were two of the seven who voted in favor of the change, which still has to win approval by both the Senate and House during the 81st session.

Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said the recommended change is a way to restore the public’s trust in the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

“I believe that the Texas Department of Transportation has gone


to free bandwidth for other applications."

However, the organisation raised concerns about an election law passed in the state of South Australia in January 2010.

Under the law, any individual posting a political comment in the run-up to local elections would be required to do so with their real name and address.

"The law applied to blogs and online news sites and non-compliance would draw a fine of up to $AUD1,250 ($US1,230)," the report said. "Following a public outcry, the state’s attorney general and premier agreed to repeal the law.

"This compulsory data retention policy, if enacted, could become a great threat to online freedom in Australia. The document is not official policy in Australia nor has it evolved into a concrete proposal or bill."

As of December 2010, it was "unclear" whethersuch a policy would be realised in Australia stated the report.

Freedom House also drew attention to the proposed mandatory filtering system run through ISPs.

"Draft legislation was proposed under the Labor government led by Kevin Rudd, but was then put aside in the run-up to elections held in August 2010," the documents said.

"Under the previously proposed draft, the list of sites to be blocked would initially focus on images of child abuse, particularly child pornography.

"The Australia Communications Media Authority (ACMA) would have the responsibility of maintaining the blacklist, but the criteria for blocking sites remained nebulous.

"Under the latest proposal, the ACMA would blacklist any content classified as restricted, and its early trials of internet filters used an initial list of over 1,300 sites."

Freedom House praised the move to roll


out the National Broadband Network (NBN) as it would remove obstacles to access, particularly for indigenous people.

Approximately 50 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in indigenous communities (not major cities) have access to the internet, with 36 per cent having access in the home.

"Wireless systems can reach 99 per cent of the population, while satellite capabilities are able to reach 100 percent," the report said.

"The phasing out of dialup continues, with nearly 90 per cent of internet connections now provided through other means.

"Once implemented, the NBN will eliminate the need for any remaining dial-up connections and make high-speed broadband available to Australians in remote and rural areas."

Got a security tip-off? Contact Hamish Barwick at hamish_barwick at idg.com.au

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia onmemory they will live forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for the Elders:

Almighty God, full of Compassion, remember the plight of the Elders, the Sages and Rabbis of Israel, who instead of teaching people how to live in peace, had to teach them how to die with dignity.

Ruler of the Universe, fill our hearts with compassion toward the Elders, the infirm and the sick of today. By helping them to live in peace and die with dignity, we shall honor the memory of those who perished. Amen.

Prayer for the Unknown Heroes:

Almighty God full of Wisdom, remember all the forgotten and unrecognized heroes of Israel, who knowingly and willingly sacrificed their lives, for the sake of others. In our hearts they will live forever and ever. Amen.

Ruler of the Universe, open


our hearts to the plight of the displaced and discarded members of our society, victims of the downsizing and reorganizations. People, who in silence bear the crushing burden, fear and despair of their collapsed world. By helping them, we will honor the memory of the unknown heroes of the Holocaust. Amen.

Prayer for the Fighters:

Almighty God, remember the Fighters of the Ghettos, the Jewish Partisans and members of the Resistance. They fought without weapons, without ammunition and without hope. Their heroism paved the way for the rebirth of our people. Without the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Six Day War would have been impossible.

Ruler of the Universe, open the hearts of the religious fanatics who kill in Thy Name, for the lust of power. Let them understand that there cannotSix polymorphisms on estrogen receptor 1 gene in Japanese, American and German populations.
Estrogen receptor 1 ( ESR1) plays an important role in various estrogen-related diseases, the incidences of which are significantly lower in the Japanese population than in Western populations. We hypothesize that polymorphisms in exon 1 of the ESR1 gene are associated with a lower incidence of estrogen-related diseases in the Japanese population. The genetic distributions of six different ESR1 gene polymorphisms were investigated among 200 Japanese, 200 Americans and 112 Germans using a novel sequence-specific polymerase chain reaction (SSP) technique and direct DNA sequencing. The frequencies of variant genotypes on codons 10 and 87 located on exon 1 were significantly lower in the Japanese population than other populations. The polymorphism on codon 87 was not detected


Kim Basinger plays a sad married mom in New Mexico who screws around — until her dreams go up in smoke. Charlize Theron plays a sad single woman in Oregon who smokes and screws around. The two ladies are linked, but to find out how, you must wade through The Burning Plain‘s intentionally disorienting narrative shuffles — the signature storytelling tic of Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams, Babel), here making his unsteady directorial debut. The scenery (prettily captured by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit) is littered with heavy symbolism (fire! rain! dead birds!); the performances are merely heavy. (Also available on cable via on demand) D+As she crossed the finish line, Desiree "Desi" Linden became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in more than three decades.

Linden, 34, ran the more than 26 miles in the historic race Monday – through icy winds and rain – finishing with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 53 seconds. She is the first American to win the women's division since 1985.

Before she won the marathon, Linden garnered praise online for appearing to slow down to wait for fellow American Shalane Flanagan as she pulled off the course for a pit stop.

Here’s a look at three things to know about Linden.

She’s a two-time Olympian

She is a two-time Olympian, finishing in 7th place in the 2016 Games.

She did not finish in the 2012


kayaking in Michigan, she told Runner’s World magazine. She said her husband and coach were both supportive of her needing the time and space away from the sport.

It was October 2017 when she began to run every day again, according to Runner’s World, even doing a cross-country race in Boston at the end of the month.

She also participated in some short distance runs, including the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut and the USA Track & Field 5K in New York City.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.to the King of Great Britain, who came into the United States subsequent to the treaty of peace, and who died before the signature of the treaty of 1794, and whose title, therefore, is not protected by either of those treaties.
The Court having left the fact to the jury, their verdict has found that James Dunlap died previous to the signature of the treaty of 1794, and the question is, whether the Court erred in determining that this case was not either within the treaty of peace, or the treaty of 1794.
It has been decided that British subjects, though born before the revolution, are equally incapable with those born subsequent to that event, of inheriting or transmitting the inheritance of lands in this country. Consequently, the sole inquiry


in this case respects the effect of the treaties between the United States and Great Britain.
The treaty of peace has always been considered as providing only for titles existing at the time; and as the title of James Dunlap was afterwards acquired, it can derive no aid from that treaty.
James Dunlap, therefore, if he continued to be an alien, continued liable to all the disabilities of alienage, one of which is an incapacity to transmit lands to heirs. Consequently, when he died, the next of kin could take nothing by descent. The treaty of 1794, *545 like that of 1783, provides only for existing rights. It does not give title. Had James conveyed, or devised the property to John, the title would have vested in him, subject tothe right of the government to seize the land; and the treaty would have confirmed that title, so if the law would have vested the estate in him by descent. But as the fact is he had no title, nothing on which the treaty could operate. It has been said that this Court has never supposed actual possession to be necessary to entitle a party to the benefit of the treaty. This is true. But the existence of title, at the time, has always been supposed necessary.
The plaintiffs also insisted that under the circumstances of this case, the jury might presume James Dunlap was a citizen.
The circumstances are the length of time which has intervened since his arrival in this country, and since his first acquisition of real


estate, during which there have been no proceedings instituted under the laws of escheat and forfeiture.
The weight which might be allowed to this argument, had the property continued in the peaceable occupation of the heirs of James Dunlap, and had this presumption been required to sustain the title clothed with that possession, is, we think, diminished by the circumstance that the land was, soon after his death, claimed and occupied by a citizen of Kentucky as a purchaser. In such a state of things it is not surprising that no inquiries should be made into his citizenship, and that no person should feel disposed to intermeddle with the affair.
*546 The alienage of James Dunlap being fully proved, and the laws of Virginia requiring, as indispensable to his citizenship,the lessee is, in fact, the title of the lessor. He comes in by virtue of it, holds by virtue of it, and rests upon it to maintain and justify his possession. He professes to have no independent right in himself, and it is a part of the very essence of the contract under which he claims that the paramount ownership of the lessor shall be acknowledged during the continuance of the lease, and that possession shall be surrendered at its expiration. He cannot be allowed to controvert the title of the lessor, without disparaging his own, and he cannot set up the title of another, without violating that contract by which he obtained and holds possession; and breaking that faith which he has pledged, and the obligation


he has no continuing interest in the maintenance of his title, unless he should be called upon in consequence of some covenant or warranty in his deed. The property having become, by the sale, the property of the vendee, he has a right to fortify that title by the purchase of any other which may protect him in the quiet enjoyment of the premises. No principle of morality restrains him from doing this; nor is either the letter or spirit of the contract violated by it. The only controversy which ought to arise between him and the vendor, respects the payment of the purchase money. How far he may be bound to this by law, or by the obligations of good faith, is a question depending on allQ:

Identify a catastrophic sci fi story written before 1980: ruptured spleen, alien moon base, time and space travel, antimatter tool

I read a sci fi short story sometime between 1974-1980 but it may have been written long before that.  I believe it was in a paper back anthology of sci fi stories, but I'm not certain.
I think the protagonist is facing the final climactic conflict when we meet him.  Most of the story is memories and flashbacks.
The first flashback is to his childhood.  He and his younger brother are sled riding.  His brother crashes, ruptures his spleen and dies.  He feels responsible and is wracked with guilt.
Much later, as an adult, he is exploring a long-deserted alien base on the moon.  There are


unfamiliar artifacts on the base, including a time-travel device/vehicle, and a tool with an anti-matter tip.  It carves neat holes and eliminates matter simply by moving it through matter.  He accidentally drops the tool, which plummets unimpeded to the center of the moon.  He realizes that over time, it will consume and destroy the moon, which will be catastrophic for Earth.
He uses the time-travel device to travel to the moon at an earlier time so that he can prevent himself from dropping the tool.
He makes bigger problems for himself, forcing him to travel back further and further in time.
He travels so far back that he encounters the original alien inhabitants of the base.  Now we are at the present time in the story. This is his final conflict, he has to escape, travel forward in time and resolve all of the problems he created.  Unfortunately, the alien inhabitants capture him, and the story ends.
Can anyone identify the story and author?

A:

I read a sci fi short story sometime between 1974-1980 but it may have been written long before that. I believe it was in a paper back anthology of sci fi stories, but I'm not certain.
"Wrong-Way Street", a short story by Larry Niven, first published in Galaxy Magazine, April 1965, which is available at the Internet Archive (click here for download options). Any of these covers look familiar?
The first flashback is to his childhood. He and his younger brother are sled riding. His brother crashes, ruptures his spleen and dies. He


feels responsible and is wracked with guilt.

Young Tony had been riding a Flexy, a kind of bobsled on wheels, down the hill road above Venice Boulevard. At the bottom of the hill he had turned hard right onto Venice. The Flexy had flipped over on its back, and its blunt rubber handle had poked hard into Tony's stomach.
One of the first things the doctor did was to take Tony's blood pressure. It was low, which meant shock. It started to fall almost as soon as the blood pressure cuff was removed, but the doctor didn't know that until it was too late. Tony's spleen was ruptured.
Mike had loved his younger brother. He sat in his room most of the time, unable to get used to his loss, andnot really trying. After four weeks of it his father neglected his own grief long enough to take Mike to a child psychologist.

Much later, as an adult, he is exploring a long-deserted alien base on the moon.

By the time Mike Capoferri graduated from high school he had become intensely interested in space travel. His first year at Cal Tech was the year Walnikov landed on Mars. Mike was determined to follow.
In a way he traveled farther than Walnikov. He never got to Mars, but he did make it to the Moon. And unlike Mars, the Moon once had intelligent visitors.
Mike was one of many. Thirty men and women had come to the alien base, determined to probe all its secrets. By this time Mike was thirty-one years old


Mike had solved that problem in his second year, but had never been able to turn it off. The alien rec room had to be kept in vacuo, with a separate airlock, because air disappeared into the little ball of nothing at the end of the sculpting tool.

He accidentally drops the tool, which plummets unimpeded to the center of the moon.

What should he write? "The world is my ash tray," he decided, and slammed his toe into a ledge. He threw both hands out to break his fall, and changed his mind too late. Horrified, he watched the sculpting pencil vanish into the floor. It left a neat cylindrical hole.

He realizes that over time, it will consume and destroy the moon, which will be catastrophic for Earth.
He realizesthat after he returns to the "present" and sees the damage to the Moon and Earth. (At the time the story was written, there was a theory that the Moon was responsible for keeping the Earth from growing a big thick atmosphere and turning into another Venus.)

At first glance it looked like a walnut shell, but not quite, for the shape was wrong and the convolutions were too deep. What it really resembled was a deflated beach ball which somebody had crushed between his hands.
The Moon had had a long time to push itself through a sphere an inch and a half in diameter. Probably it had not taken more than a few millennia. Afterward there had been nothing but this crumpled ball of waste, too light and


rigid for gravity to compress it further. For three billion years the Earth had been moonless.

He uses the time-travel device to travel to the moon at an earlier time so that he can prevent himself from dropping the tool.

The door opened and he jumped toward the control board. Already he was planning. He had to go back some time before his first arrival. Then—remove the sculpting tool from the rec room, or somehow scramble the controls of the base airlock, or leave a message for "himself" on the outer door. Anything to restore the past.

He makes bigger problems for himself, forcing him to travel back further and further in time.
Nothing that complicated, just one trip back . . .
He travels so far back that he encounters the originalalien inhabitants of the base.

To his right, the Earth was a vast, incredible crescent—and the plain was full of ships. They were of many different sizes, but they all had the same lump cylindrical shape. Tiny figures moved among them.
Stuart was right, he thought idiotically. You go the wrong way on a one-way street, you've got to have accidents. He turned and ran.

Unfortunately, the alien inhabitants capture him, and the story ends.

Behind him the lock swung open. Two ten-foot tripods turned on each other and gestured rapidly, like nests of striking snakes. Then one of them hopped after him and picked him up.


Mortality in Portugal associated with the heat wave of August 2003: Early estimation of effect, using a rapid method.
During the first two weeks of August 2003, Portugal was affected by a severe heat wave. Following the identification in Portugal of the influence of heat waves on mortality in 1981 and 1991 (estimated excess of about 1900 and 1000 deaths respectively), the Observatório Nacional de Saúde (ONSA) - Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge, together with the Vigilância Previsão e Informação - Instituto de Meteorologia, created a surveillance system called ÍCARO, which has been in operation since 1999. ÍCARO identifies heat waves with potential influence on mortality [1]. Before the end of the 2003 heat wave, ONSA had produced a preliminary estimate of its effect on mortality. Theresults based on daily number of deaths from 1 June to 12 August 2003 were presented within 4 working days. Data was gathered from 31 National Civil registrars, covering the district capitals of all 18 districts of mainland Portugal, and representing approximately 40% of the mainland's mortality. The number of deaths registered in the period 30 July to 12 August was compared with the ones registered during 3 comparison periods: (in July): 1-14 July, 1-28 July, and 15-28 July). 15-28 July, the period best resembling the heat wave in time and characteristics, produced an estimation of 37.7% higher mortality rate then the value expected under normal temperature conditions. From this value, an estimate of 1316 death excess was obtained for mainland Portugal. The main purpose of this article


are Tony Kaye and Jonathan Glazer. Tony in the early years and Jonathan in the later years. Outside of advertising: Tarkovsky, Wim Wenders, Cocteau, Lynch, the Coen Brothers, and many more." Where he gets his ideas: "Music helps me to imagine the scenes, and simply gives me the space to think."

Michael Patrick Jann

Production company: HKM. Notable spots: Pets.com, `Delivery.' Kellogg's Snack'Ums, `Diver.' Varsitybooks.com, `Balance.' Favorite thing about advertising: "The part where the viewer at home gets the satisfaction of purchasing and using a finely drafted consumer item that he or she might have been just fine without." Hates advertising because: "Long hours, stringent government regulations, never being able to get the smell of fish out of my clothes." What he's influenced by: "In the advertising world, Rodney AllenLascaux 4 International Center for Cave Art; © Boegly + Grazia photographers

Snøhetta + Casson Mann: Lascaux 4 – International Center for Cave Art, Montignac, France

Introduction

Discovered by chance in 1940, the archaeological site of Lascaux, near the town of Montignac in south-western France, is an exceptional ensemble of caves decorated with over 600 parietal paintings dating to some 18,000 years ago.

Also known as “The Sistine Chapel of prehistory”, the cave was closed to the public 23 years after its discovery due to the extensive damage caused to the fragile paintings by visitors, artificial lighting, and exposure to exterior elements. The cave is still in danger today, mainly due to the spread of fungal and mold infestation, and cannot be visited other than by an extremely restricted number of people.

Therefore,


a partial replica of the cave and its paintings, called Lascaux 2, was built in 1983; a second facsimile, known as Lascaux 3, was thereafter created in 2008 for a traveling exhibition.

Yet, a real museum and interpretation center, adequate to one of the world’s most important archaeological sites, was much needed; in 2012, after an international architectural competition, a team led by Norway’s firm Snøhetta was selected to design the new center, named Lascaux 4.

A holistic museum

Though clearly characterized by Snøhetta’s vision, the museum’s design was a collaborative effort by architects, scenographers, archaeologists, lighting designers, and digital media specialists aimed to create an experience based on a “holistic approach that considers the landscape, the architecture, the interior, and the scenography as a whole” (from the project description byof a portable augmented-reality device called Digital Companion (intentionally, the museum doesn’t use text panels), the visitors go through an array of exhibition spaces which Casson Mann grouped into various thematic zones.

Atelier de Lascaux presents replicas of eight large fragments of the cave, either suspended from the ceiling or rising from the stone floor, accompanied by interactive explanations and video-projections.

In the Cinema, a 3D film projected on two giant, immersive screens takes visitors on a digital voyage through painted caves around the world, from Australia to Spain, from Mongolia to Canada.

The Imagination Gallery is a large interactive digital installation, curated by philosopher John Paul Jouary, which depicts the influence of prehistoric cave art on modern and contemporary artists.

Finally, for its full length, the building is traversed by a


to Dallas for future considerations on July 9, 1998)
Doug Brown (traded to Detroit for Petr Sykora, a pick in the 1999 draft, and future considerations on July 14, 1998)
Mike Richter (signed by the New York Rangers on July 15, 1998)
Frederic Chabot (claimed off waivers by Montreal on July 20, 1998)
Mikhail Shtalenkov (traded along with Jim Dowd to Edmonton for Eric Fichaud, Drake Berehowsky and Greg de Vries on October 1, 1998)
Al Iafrate (retired before the season began)

See also
1998 NHL Entry Draft
1998–99 NHL season

References
1998 NHL expansion draft list of eligible players
Here are your Nashville Predators (hockeynut.com)
Usenet post explaining draft rules
Usenet post discussing deals (see post 42 in thread)

External links
 1998 NHL Expansion Draft player stats at The Internet Hockey Database

Expansion Draft
Category:Nashville Predators
Category:National Hockey League expansion draftsLeague,” he continued, suggesting that he would share the role with his understudy Wojciech Szczesny at the Club World Cup.“At that point, to try to win the Club World Cup, maybe Szczesny could play one game and me another,” suggested Buffon, who has played 633 times for Juventus and 173 matches for Italy.“But I think with a goalkeeper like him behind it is normal that next year I’ll stand aside.”Juventus, European champions in 1985 and 1996, have finished runners-up in the Champions League twice in the past three years.


The Team Icon Progressive needs one team to be able to start the 1985 Draft. The team is the Phillies and their roster is below. The basic premise is that you can only draft players that played for your team at some point in their career. If players played their entire career with your team (Mike Schmidt with the Phillies for example) then you get them automatically. The same with players who played with only your team and any team that is not in the league (Mariners, Blue Jays, Brewers, Twins, Padres or Expos.) The Phillies have the #2 pick in the draft and have quite a few solid rookies to pick from. The list of available players from the 1985 Rookie Class is posted below as well.following facts are taken from the parties' statement of disputed and undisputed material facts and the accompanying affidavits, depositions, and other evidentiary material. The Plaintiff worked at USPS from March 24, 1972 to June 17, 1999, a period of more than 27 years. In January 1987, Rainone was promoted to the position of Material Management Specialist. In February 1993, due to a nationwide reduction in force and reorganization, the Plaintiff's was required to re-apply for his position and was subsequently not selected to be a Material Management Specialist by Alfred Fassler ("Fassler"), his supervisor at the time.
On June 1, 1993, Rainone filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") claiming that Fassler had denied his re-application because of discrimination against him on the basis of gender.


have changed their addresses. In May 1999, Rainone applied for the position of Manager of Computerized Mail Forwarding Operations ("CMFO"), a newly created position. The Manager of CMFO was to oversee all CMFO operations in the Long Island District, which would include managing supervisors, overseeing productivity, and maintaining good relationships among those who worked at the CMFO and between the CMFO and entities that interacted with it. John Lunghi, Sr. ("Lunghi"), the Manager for Operations Programs Support for the Long Island District, was the selecting official for the position. As part of his job, one of Lunghi's duties was to oversee the CMFO and other postal operations.
Rainone was interviewed for the position along with two other applicants, Diane D'Orazio ("D'Orazio") and Richard Parker ("Parker"), who were both supervisorsin making the selection, namely, Fassler who was retaliating against Rainone, and Linda Balestrieri ("Balestrieri"), a women who had at times supervised Rainone in some capacity. Fassler was a District Manager that worked with Lunghi. The Plaintiff claims that Fassler had an intense hatred *253 of him dating back to his EEOC activity. In a deposition of Kathy Bolan, a co-worker of the Plaintiff, it is alleged that Fassler once stated to his secretary, Kathy Fazzari, "he'll never get that [Manager] position." Plt. Ex 13 at 39. The Plaintiff claims that Lunghi was a close ally of Fassler and that he persuaded him not to select Rainone as a Manager.
Linda Balestrieri was a Manager that worked under Lunghi and had ties to D'Orazio and Parker. Part of Balestrieri's


Two U.S. warships have sailed through the Taiwan Strait in an apparent show of support for the government of the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own.

Taiwan's defense ministry said in a statement the ships passed through from south to north on Wednesday without incident, adding they were free to sail in the Taiwan Strait.

China, which last month complained about a French ship's passage through the strait, said it had expressed concerns to the U.S. side.

"According to information learnt from the relevant department, China followed closely the passage of the U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait, and we are fully aware of the whole process," ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a news conference.

"We urge the U.S. to ... properly deal with Taiwan-related issues with caution soas to avoid further negative impacts to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," Lu said.

China maintains a more ambiguous sea boundary than defined by international treaty and has asserted a claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, which is contiguous with the Taiwan Strait and where several governments have competing claims.

In a statement, spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet Joseph Keiley said the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Preble and the oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl conducted "a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Tuesday-Wednesday in accordance with international law."

"The ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," Keiley said.

Also on Wednesday, Taiwan's


navy held a major live-fire exercise off the island's east coast in an area increasingly threatened by Chinese ships and planes.

Navy craft fired cannons and missiles and released depth charges, while fighter jets launched munitions and anti-submarine warfare aircraft released buoys.

Submarines, along with a vast array of ballistic missiles, are considered among China's most potent weapons against Taiwan, which split from the mainland during a civil war in 1949.

China has boosted its military threat against Taiwan, with President Xi Jinping saying this year that Beijing would not rule out using force.

That comes on top of growing Chinese pressure to isolate Taiwan internationally and inflict economic pain to force independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen to agree to Beijing's contention that Taiwan is a part of China.Lanka to host Commonwealth regional human rights seminar tomorrow

Colombo : The Parliament of Sri Lanka has decided to host a three day Commonwealth regional seminar from tomorrow to improve the abilities of parliamentarians to promote and protect human rights in Asia.

The seminar reportedly will take place from February 1 to 3 in Colombo.

Members of parliament, ministers, and human rights experts from Sri Lanka and other Commonwealth Asia countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Maldives will attend the seminar.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will deliver the keynote address during the opening of the seminar, reports the LankaPage.

The Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), in collaboration with the CPA Sri Lanka Branch, are jointly convening the seminar for Asia, India and South-East Asia Legislatures and will focus


on ‘strengthening the role of Parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of human rights’.

The Parliamentarians in these three days will consider their relationship with the international human rights system including the work of the Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review mechanism.

The Asia regional seminar in Sri Lanka will be the fourth in the series and seeks commitment to a practical set of actions as well as support for the establishment of a regional network of parliamentarians dedicated to implementing the declaration. (ANI)union workers who work on films. Creative Future , the astroturf group set up by Hollywood to push for stronger copyright laws and to attack innovative services that threaten its obsolete business model, likes to trot out the "little guys" who work on movies, and highlights that it's a partnership between the studios and the unions. Yet, in the interview Chartier repeats his attacks on union works in Hollywood and points out that he films outside of the country to avoid paying them:Yup, this is all about the rich getting richer, and Chartier apparently has no problem admitting that he'd screw over the everyday workers on films when he can. The fight over these things has never been about the everyday worker. They get paid their standard rate


movie. But now I won't. Unlike most of the people who downloaded who never would have paid. It's like Chartier doesn't even understand what battle he's really fighting.He should be looking for ways to get more people to see movies. Instead, he's fighting ghosts: people who would never pay. It's not too different from his fight against the everyday people who work on his movies. He's pushing to keep down how much they pay while happily paying stars many millions. While he may have a knack for picking good movies, he doesn't seem to have much business sense, always fighting the wrong fight.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright troll, dallas buyers club, hurt locker, movies, nicolas chartier, piracy, unions

Companies: voltage pictureshim by debtors in the above-styled case to Frank and Vevelyn Pearson and send proof of same to the court and the trustee.
2. Richard Stanton is enjoined from practicing law before this United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida until such time as he files a certificate with the court certifying that he has completed nine hours of Florida Bar approved Continuing Legal Education in the area of Bankruptcy and three hours of Continuing Legal Education in the area of Legal Ethics.
DONE and ORDERED.


February 29, 2008

The Scavengers

All the coverage of recent events in Cuba has not only been political. Money magazine focuses on how to profit from the embargo lifting they see as more likely now, remarking on the recent rise of stocks which may profit from the political nonchange. They discuss the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund (CUBA) which is set to benefit from ancillary businesses if trade commences. Some of the purported beneficiaries of the speculation: possibly Starwood Hotels which is owed about $50.7 million by the Cuban government, the reprehensible Office Max which as Boise Cascade owned the electric company, and Imperial Tobacco which through Altadis controls many of the Cuban cigar brands. Read it here.

Cuba Held Hostage – Day 17,955

United States' economic embargo and hostility to Cuba's governmentthose tax costs to the consumer.

The Twelfth Man on the Field

You hear that term every Sunday during football season: "the twelfth man in the field." Despite that the game is played with only elleven men, sometimes it's that twelfth man that's given the kudos for a team's victory. That twelfth man is, of course, the crowd. The fans that are there not just to take in a game, but to support their team. To that team on the field, fighting and scratching for every inch, the twelfth man is inspiring. Whether it's a first and ten or a third and twenty, when that team hears the roar of the crowd, that twelfth man, they get fired up. That team gets just that much more courageous, just that much


but the Cuban government should acknowledge the debt and attempt to settle it like any debtor would. That's what China and Vietnam did under similar circumstances BEFORE the U.S. began wide-open trade with those countries.

El Estatus Quo

I was interviewed last week for local publication City Link Magazine on raul castro's "ascension" to power:

But here in South Florida, the mood was more pessimistic. There were no sudden street celebrations and Castro death-watch parties like those that had greeted the news of Raul's then-temporary takeover in 2006. Val Prieto, founder and editor of popular anti-Castro blog Babalú (Babalublog.com), voiced a typical reaction to the news. "Those that say Raul is a reformer don't know the man. He was trained by the KGB and the Stasi. He's even more brutal thanattached to his side?

Of course the succession was uneventful. Who was going to stop it? The international community, those hypocritical douchebags? Pulease? The Cuban people? Double puhlease. They don't call it a totalitarian regime for nothing. This is the caliber of person teaching in our colleges.

The rest of the piece is just as idiotic. A mindless congratulatory fellatio of castro for having the foresight to realize that he was in fact human and would eventually die.

More cartoons

Telling it like it is: The Same Old Cuba

By Alvaro Vargas Llosa, excerpted from The Independent Institute:

WASHINGTON—Raul Castro has killed all hope that a transition to the rule of law and a market economy will start anytime soon in Cuba. The appointments he has made as well as his first speech as


the story: Try as they might to build che’s new man, to mass produce a bunch of “fidel’s children”-obedient, mind numb automotons, all they accomplish is to continue to produce Cubans. The Children of Marti.

Cuba was a paradise...

Baseball players rarely involve themselves in politics (Curt Schilling being an exception), but when Fidel stepped down from his rule last week, Cuban baseball players and coaches found themselves involved in politics. Virtually every Cuban-born baseball player in MLB was asked to give their thoughts on the news. Most were fairly apathetic.

Juan Cardenal, of the Washington Nationals, says he doesn't get involved in politics, was indifferent to the news and even said that "Castro doesn't really bother" him... I guess he hasn't been keeping up with Cuban affairs since he leftin 1961.

Regardless, he does say this, which goes hand in hand with the photos Claudia posted a few days ago:

"I remember how Cuba used to be," he said. "We used to have everything we wanted to in our country and then we were free and the whole thing. It was paradise in Cuba. ... That's what I remember the most about Cuba."

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

The bond Cubans share on and off the island through the generations has been in the fore the past few days. The entrepreneurial bent evident in those who fled to the United States is so characteristic of the Cuban spirit that the assumption Raul is going to convert to one currency has led to an outbreak of money exchanges on the island.


talking about the dictatorial regime that has for the past half-century beaten, jailed, and murdered hundreds of thousands of Cubans. The good Cardinal instead was referring to the US and its embargo against Cuba's oligarchical dictatorship. As a matter of fact, I have not heard Cardinal Bertone say much, if anything, about the lack of freedom in Cuba.

Thank you so much for your concern for the Cuban people, Cardinal Bertone, but really, you shouldn't have.

Cuba's chief executioner

Heralding raul castro as a reformer is not just dishonest, it is an obscenity. raul castro is an assassin, a cold-blooded killer who has shown no remorse for the five decades spent as fidel castro's executioner.

In 1956 when Fidel Castro's motley band of 82 guerrillas were training in Mexico for their "invasion"and "liberation" of Cuba from Batista, a trainee named Calixto Morales, suffering from a recent injury, was forced to briefly hobble away from one particularly strenuous training session.

He was trussed up, dragged in front of what a guerrilla leader called a "court martial," and quickly sentenced to death by firing squad.

Fortunately the "maximum" guerrilla commander showed up in time and ordered his brother to rescind his hasty death sentence. Morales, after all, had the proper "revolutionary" attitude and had merely suffered an unfortunate accident.

Two years later the anti-Batista "guerrilla war" (occasional shootouts and skirmishes that the Cripps and Bloods would shrug off as a slow week) was chiefly centered in Cuba's eastern province of Oriente and consisted of two "fronts." One was commanded by Fidel in the Sierra


Maestra mountains, the other was commanded by Raul in the Sierra Cristal mountains slightly north of Fidel's group.

One day a teen-aged rebel soldier named Dariel Alarcon overheard Fidel sputtering complaints to his assistant Celia Sanchez about the northern front. Raul's zeal for firing squad executions of "informers," "spies," counter-
revolutionaries" etc., where he often applied the coup 'd grace himself, was hampering progress on what Fidel had always treated as the "war's" primary front.

This primary front, of course, was the media front: the almost effortless bamboozling of the swarms of gaping reporters who queued up to interview him. Thanks to these "gallant crusaders for the truth" (as Columbia school of journalism hails its students) the stirring tale of Cuba's Thomas Jefferson/Robin Hood/Richard the Lion Hearted/Saint Thomas Aquinas — allin one heroic package, sporting a beard and combat fatigues — was thrilling audiences from New York to Paris.

The New York Times ignited the process in February of 1957 with Fidel Castro on it's front page. Soon a conflagration raged, in both print and video. CBS soon ran "The Story of Cuba's Jungle Fighters," a breathtaking news-drama that ran on prime time. Look Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Boys Life (honest, even they braved the horrendous battlefield perils for a Castro interview) all added to the blizzard of BS.

The stories leaking out regarding the "Revolutionary justice" practiced in Raul's front, though completely ignored by the foreign media throng, were causing a bit of grumbling in the Cuban press. So would Raul please cut down on the firing squad bloodbath,


requested Fidel. It could hurt the image Fidel was so expertly crafting, with the eager help of media dupes and acolytes, of their "humanistic rebellion."

Raul's response is what caused Fidel's sputtering to his assistant. "Got your message and will take immediate corrective measures," Raul responded to his brother. "No more bloodbath. From now on we'll start hanging the counter- revolutionaries."

Cuban-American scholar Dr. Armando Lago who, with Maria Werlau, runs the Cuba Archive Project that meticulously attempts to document the tally of Castro regime murders have documented 278 executions in Oriente province on Raul's orders within the very first week of the Revolutionary triumph on Jan. 1, 1959. Potential contras lurked from one end of Cuba to the other.

So Raul rolled up his sleeves, spit on his hands andcells," recalls former political prisoner and freedom-fighter Roberto Martin Perez. Most of these were junior officers accused of being disloyal to the regime.

Much more highly publicized was the Stalinist show trial, confession and execution in 1989 of Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa and the attendant purge of any military man even rumored as his friend or supporter.

Arnaldo Ochoa was the Cuban general widely credited with Cuba's victories in both the Angolan Civil War and in Ethiopia's early crushing of the Eritrean rebellion. "Every officer in the Cuban armed forces admired Ochoa, " according to Cuban defector Gen. Rafael Del Pino, who was close to Ochoa both personally and professionally.
Ochoa was on especially close and friendly terms with Raul Castro, whom the general always affectionately called "jefe."

In the dawn hours of


July 13, 1989 Gen. Arnaldo T. Ochoa was executed by a firing squad on Raul's orders. A sickening "trial" and "confession" had preceded his execution, all of it on camera. Cuban defector Rafael Del Pino who once headed Cuba's air force explains that "Ochoa was a pragmatic man who was flexible enough to recognize the sense behind Gorbachev's reforms of the time. Even worse, Ochoa, like many other Cuban military officers, was trained in the Soviet Union and had close ties to the Soviet leaders then involved in the reforms with whom they had served in Africa."

That Glasnost and Perestroika stuff could be contagious, in other words. Yet media and scholarly wizards keep telling us it's Raul himself who will inspire "an opening" in Cuba.

Hearts and minds

Next timephotos because of what he was not taught in school. No one ever talked about all the progress that was made in the country during the time of Batista. He never knew that hotels, buildings, streets, highways, sidewalks and parks were built during that time. He didn't know that blacks and whites worked side by side, gainfully employed in the development of his country. It simply was not a part of the new, re-written history taught in school. These pictures prove otherwise. When you view the slide show, notice the way people are dressed, the integration of races, the abundance of stores and the shoppers and of course, the cars and busses.

That is not to say that Batista did not committ terrible crimes and that the government was


77.

Ignacio Lopez

Curiously, the most anti-Americans countries in Latin America are those who never had a intervention by the USA. However the Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua and Cuba that did, are traditionally less anti-American that Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay. The Cuban people (contrary to what many believe in this forum) are not and have never been anti-American. Quite the contrary. Despite 50 years of Castro today they are less anti-Yankee than ever. The rest is a fabrication.

Marcos Salas

It's a shame that because of the the anti-Americanism in the world, the Castros still have sympathizers and are not seen for what they really are: murderers, tyrants, dinosaurs that have destroyed the economy and the hope of a country that emigrates in droves. This "new" nomenclature (all military) over 77 years ofCatholic church’s official interpreter of the word of God, the Vatican is charged with – among other things – fostering the development of respect, brotherhood and love of humanity. The philosophy of Jesus Christ was one of love and compassion – not one of hate and political oppression.

Of course, there have been periods in the history of the church when the Vatican strayed from Christian ideals. Pope John XII was killed by the husband of his lover in 964. Pope Alexander VI was said to have enjoyed an illicit relationship with his own daughter, Lucrezia. In more recent years, the Vatican elected Eugenio Pacelli as pontiff. As Pope Pius XII, Pacelli would remain mum during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, even refusing calls for help from the Jewish


the nation’s ills. Bertone did raise the issue of the church’s concern regarding prisoners during his meeting with Raul Castro, but failed to confront the dictatorship head-on. In short, Bertone chose to ignore the Cuban people in hopes of not raising the hackles of government officials. This, my friends, is a very weak man.

Cardinal Bertone and the Vatican hierarchy have betrayed the teachings of Christ by choosing politeness over the livelihood of over 11-million lost souls on the imprisoned island of Cuba. During his visit to the Pearl of the Antilles, our brothers and sisters saw no condemnation of the Stalinist regime that has brutally murdered thousands. They heard no calls for an end to the dictatorship in hopes of a democratic transition. Our families saw only politeshould take this into account.

Those crackpot "Intransigentes!"--vindicated yet again.

Friends, Frontpage Magazine, besides being a superb publication, is a steadfast and trustworthy friend of our cause, and one of the precious few outlets for our side of the story. The intro to this article strikes me as overblown, but these editors are dear friends of mine and I forgive them.

Gay bashing

Julián Armando Soto, a gay rights activist in Havana, reports that Cuban police Saturday rounded up 34 homosexuals for "putting in danger" security for a Mass being said by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. At the time of the arrests, the detainees were either gathered in a park or in front of a movie theater.

"We were on Prado street, and the Mass was at Cathedral Plaza, which


how the dictatorship treats all Cubans who dare deviate from the official party line.

But the recent gay bashing — which was not out of the unusual, considering that more than 4,000 homosexuals were fined or jailed last year in Havana alone — also illustrates the hypocrisy that lies in the rot of a so-called revolution.

The castros have cast themselves as champions for the little guy, and in a macho culture like Cuba's, perhaps no one is smaller than the homosexual. Well, in Cuba — even with the new dictator's daughter talking a good game — the homosexual is not immune from the worst the revolution has to offer.

You don't have to be gay or even accepting of the gay lifestyle to see that as long as gays are& Evaluation at the Department of Commerce, sent me this press release info today about US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez's meeting with Czech Republic Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in Washington to discuss bilateral trade. Secretary Gutierrez (who was born in Cuba) today also addressed the plight of the political prisoners in Cuba. The Czech Republic stands in solidarity with them, having been under an oppressive communist regime of their own. He gave a CAMBIO bracelet to Topolanek, which I am proud to say came from me!
Secretary Gutierrez's remarks:

."...I especially want to thank the Prime Minister, and really the Czech Republic and the president for their leadership in their stance for human rights and for freedom, and very importantly what they have done to shine a spotlight on the


per capita of Cuba is now only five percent of the one enjoyed in 1958, according to calculations by Salazar-Carrillo.

In 1957, Cuba’s real income per capita (national income divided by population) was $378, or fourth, in Latin America, according to Eric Baklanoff, a research professor emeritus of economics, finance and legal studies at The University of Alabama. (See Cuba Before Fidel). Even Spain ($324) and Portugal ($212), failed to reach Cuba’s level, he points out. Meanwhile, real wages in Cuba were higher than any country in the Western Hemisphere, excepting the United States and Canada, Baklanoff points out

On the castro-Care Myth:

And contrary to the widespread assumptions today, Cuba also fared well in education and health before the revolution, according to a groundbreaking overview by Norman Luxenburg, a professorsemeriti at the University of Iowa. "Pre-Castro Cuba was defintely not a Third World nation in the commonly accepted sense," he wrote in an article in Encounter magazine 24 years ago. "By whatevermeasure used, whether it is the number of students in higher and secondary education, the number of physicians per capita, the infant-mortality rate, the gross national product in relation to population, or number of telephones, television sets, or cars, the Cuba of the late 1950's was far ahead of any other nation in the Caribbean and the Third World."

According to Luxenburg's investigation:
• In 1958, Cuba's 6.6 million inhabitants had more than twice as many physicians as the 19 million residents of teh other Caribbean nations combined.

• The number of medical doctors in Cuba had grown from


3,100 in 1948 to 6,400 in 1958. The ratio in the ten-year period had gone from one doctor for evry 1,650 persons to one per 1,021. But between 1960 and 1976, the number of doctors relative to population declined slightly, while increasing very greatly in the other Caribbean nations.

• The pre-Castro rate of 32 infant deaths per 1,000 births was far not only better than any other Latin American nation, but also better than that of Germany, Italy, Spain and a host od developed countries. The rate worsened during the first decade of Castro, before improving. Yet, countries like Spain, germany and Italy now have lower rates.

• Cuba had a life expectancy of 61.8 years before the revolution. That compares with 43 and less for some Latin Americanthe Cold War, his regime more the creation of external pressures than of any internal ideology.

Knowing what I was getting myself into, I read on:

To anybody unfamiliar with the political history of the past half-century, it might have seemed bizarre that an internal handover of power - from the president to his brother - on a tiny Caribbean island should have caused such a global storm of comment. It clearly can have nothing to do with the real importance of Cuba in the world. Rather, it confirms that Castro’s elevated status has always been symbolic - as a symbol of communist evil for his enemies, especially within the USA, and as a symbol of liberationist hope for his admirers in the West and the developing world.

First of all


I have a big problem with the characterization of Cuba as tiny. The author tries to minimize Cuba's importance based on size, but where does he get his definition of tiny? Has he looked at a map? For the record, Cuba is a larger country than South Korea, Portugal, Austria, The Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Belgium to name a few. None of these countries are known for their "tinyness".

Perhaps the author was referring to the fact that Cuba has a small population? But that can't be it. I mean Cuba has a greater population than: Greece, Sweden, Norway and the aforementioned Portugal, Austria, The Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, and Belgium. Cuba ranks 73 out of 224 in population.

So Cuba is not atiny country, either in landmass or population. So what gives? Why is the author trying to minimize the importance of Cuba?

Even as a symbol, however, Castro had long since ceased to stand for anything much. He may only just have resigned, yet as a creature of the Cold War he effectively left the world stage in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union on which he depended. That his resignation could still cause such a global media furore revealed the depth of some lasting misconceptions.

Try telling those 11 million Cubans that live under fidel and his infernal policies that he's a figment of their imagination.

Much of the recent discussion of Castro among both his Euro-groupies and his conservative critics has taken his claims to have


led a 50-year socialist revolution at face value. Yet in reality he never set out to do any such thing, and he did not end up where many have assumed. Castro’s regime and reputation has been far more a product of the peculiar political pressures of the times than of any personal drive or ideology.

In particular, Castro was a by-product of US foreign policy. It has become fashionable these days for idiot anti-Americans to blame Washington for anything that they see going wrong in the world, from the Middle East to global warming. But one thing for which the USA was definitely responsible was the creation and perpetuation of Castro’s Cuba.

Idiot anti-Americans, so far this guy is describing himself to a tee. It sounds like this guy isgoing to completely ignore history and replace it with his own convenient version. Not only that where this guy is heading is a complete absolution of fidel and his policies and his murderous ways because after all it was the United States' fault.

From 1899, when the US invasion of the island and expulsion of the Spanish colonialists marked the birth of American imperialism, Cuba was considered part of Uncle Sam’s backyard. By the 1950s, Cuba under the corrupt regime of General Batista was like a cross between a metal mine, sugar plantation, casino and whorehouse for American capitalism.

Ugh. Repeating the worst of the calumnies that those idiot anti-Americans learn in college.

Fidel Castro’s 26th July Movement of young Cubans was a nationalist revolt against a foreign-backed dictatorship, of a


sort seen in many other parts of the Third World. It was avowedly non-communist. Castro succeeded, not by mobilising the mass of Cubans, but because the conscript army of the decrepit dictatorship crumbled before his small guerrilla army. Batista fled Havana on 1 January 1959, the rebel forces rolled in, and Castro was soon installed in power.

What was it that this guy said about taking castro's claims about the revolution at face value? Looks like he bought the whole darned fairy tale hook, line and sinker.

If America’s propping up of Batista had helped to create the circumstances for the Cuban revolution, US opposition to Castro drove the new regime into the Soviet camp. Rebuffing Castro’s early charm offensive, US presidents Dwight D Eisenhower (until January 1961) and JohnF Kennedy set out to put the Cuban upstart in his place and show that Washington was not to be defied on its doorstep. As a result Castro built closer links with the Soviet Union. It was only after the Eisenhower administration took increasingly aggressive economic and diplomatic steps to punish Cuba that Castro moved to expropriate some $850million of US assets in the summer of 1960.

I am never going to defend Batista, but it's a gross oversimplification to say that Batista was "propped up" by the U.S. government. Batista was a Cuban creation. Did the U.S. support/recognize Batista? Yes. Batista was generally friendly to the U.S. and despite his previous links to the Cuban Communist Party (when he had been previously Cuba's constitutional president) was decidedly anti-communist


in how he governed in the 1950s.

But this joker completely glosses over the fact that U.S. withdrawal of support (though it was unofficial) by stopping the sale of arms to Batista was probably the decisive factor in ending Batista's rule and allowing castro to fill the vacuum. This was a miscalculation on the part of the U.S. state department that had become enamored of castro and exactly those promises that he was a young a democrat.

To somehow claim that fidel was "pushed" into the Soviet orbit and into Marxist ideology is not only obviously false but ridiculously so. Any in depth study of castro's history shows a very determined young man who was obsessed with power. He was a manipulator and a deceiver. It's hard to believe thatimpoverished and under pressure from the US embargo, there would have been inevitable limits on what Castro could achieve in terms of economic and social development. But in the event he achieved considerably less than that. His nationalistion of foreign-owned industries was the sort of defensive economic measure common in the developing world in the post-colonial era. The imposition of state monopolies did not signify the transfer of control to the Cuban people. His refusal to share real political power outside of his clique - a measure he justified, along with the repression of opponents, as a necessary response to America’s undeclared war on Cuba - ensured that the Cuban masses were denied anything approaching ‘people power’.

Yet most Cubans who recalled the grim pre-revolutionary era of US influence


on the island stood by Castro against the Yanqui Imperialists. Their resilience in the face of such adversity has long deserved our solidarity and respect. For some of us that solidarity with ordinary Cubans did not ever mean supporting Castro or his politics. But others on the Western left never seemed quite able to make that distinction.

Ah yes, the Cuban people stood by castro as they took the front doors of their houses along with anything else that could float and decided to take their chances with the Florida Straits and the sharks rather than remain in Cuba. If Cuba's people stand by fidel and his system against the Yanqui Imperialists then why is that Cuba makes it illegal for its citizens to leave the country without permission?

Ifthere's one redeeming thing in the whole piece, it's how the guy concludes it.

Since the end of the Cold War and his slide into impotence, it has become safe for celebrity lefties to lionise Castro once again, since he is no longer a threat to anybody. He has become a sort of Celebrity Communist himself, mixing with Hollywood directors and other high-profile figures. In the past few years, as Cuba has begun to open up and change has become inevitable, it has even become fashionable in some Western circles to suggest that ‘one must visit Cuba before Fidel goes’ - as if the passing of such an isolated and distorted society, trapped in time with its 1950s American cars, will be something to mourn.

It is a sign of


of things that "civilized" people are. In this case, it's minimizing castro into some sort of pawn who was moved by forces outside of himself. Thus the Cuban people have been victimized not by castro but by the United States and to a lesser extent the Soviet Union.

Fontova on Prager's Show

February 25, 2008

Raul is a "Warm and Jocular" Man

From the DAME UN "FRENO" files...

Yes, you read right. Anita Snow actually called raúl castro a "warm and jocular man" in an AP article about his "Raulistas." Now, I wonder, is he warm and jocular when he orders the CDR to beat up a dissident's family? How about when he was overseeing the executions with che guevara? Wait, I know, when he sends the police to arrest the independent librarians.be in a hurry to do anything for the regime.

Secondly, the bitterness is not between the government or people of the U.S. and the people of Cuba. The bitterness is between the people of Cuba (on the island and in exile) and the illegal, corrupt and murderous government of Cuba.

Lastly with regards to Cuba's economy, the United States can't move Cuba to do anything. If Cuba hasn't embraced a Chinese model of free market capitalism it's because Cuba's leaders haven't wanted to move it there despite the speculation among some in the U.S. that they will.

In fact, I could argue that most of the reasons to keep the embargo would be gone if Cuba would move toward the Chinese model. Then trade with Cuba would actually help the


people, just the corrupt, inefficient and greedy Communist government.

The Revolution Takes a Mulligan

There were three world class golf courses in Cuba prior to the revolution. They were usurped by the castro regime and turned into "worker's resorts" and "schools." The revolution, with its perfection, surely didnt need bourgeoise sports venues for the rich, capitalist imperialists.

But that was then, and this is now. That was before the world and the castro regime had the empirical proof of the revolution's absolute and abject failure.

Quack — Quack

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, you can safely assume it is a duck. Unless, of course, you are a member of the mainstream media and that pato happens to be a Cuban dictator.

Perusing the headlinesfree Cuba by educating ourselves, embracing debate, and reaching out to our counterparts on the island.

Since its founding in 2003, Raices has sponsored academic forums at Harvard, Georgetown, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Drawing on a network of more than 44 university groups and over 1,000 alumni, Raices' conferences encourage students and young professionals to explore Cuba's complex past, present, and future by interacting with distinguished academics, scholars, activists, and world leaders.
Raices de Esperanza is a 100% volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan organization that does not receive any federal funding.

Look What's Fit to Print

In a sense, who holds the office of president hardly matters, experts on Cuban politics say. Fidel and Raúl Castro remain firmly in control of the Communist party, the ultimate authority on the island. They could


major decisions in the future. The National Assembly unanimously agreed.

In his inaugural speech, (r)aúl (c)astro paid homage to his brother's rule, saying he could never be replaced -- ''fidel is fidel,'' he said -- and repeated his previous argument that the Communist Party remains Cuba's leading force.

Ooh! That Kiss!

Silvio Rodríguez, "arguably one of the greatest musicians of recent times in the Spanish-speaking world," according to the Guardian, gave an interview in which he reminsces about the kiss he gave Fidel and states that fidel "makes the world tremble." (No explanation offered about whether kissing fidel made Silvio tremble.) The musical propagandist for castro, Inc. speculated that castro's health has been a secret because it would prompt the enermies of Cuba to plot against him.

The Nueva Trova founder ofparlor to pay their respects to abuelo or abuela. The refrain is often one of regret: Fidel Castro outlived their loved one.

For those Cubans left behind facing their own mortality, the yearning for change on the island continues, and so does the toll of 49 years of waiting for closure.

Now, Florida International University professor Eugenio Rothe has identified a name for the unique psychological condition of so many South Florida exiles: ``unresolved mourning.''

It's a term first coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud who used it to describe someone who cannot come to grips with the death of a loved one.

Rothe, who has spent years studying the exile psyche, makes the case that unresolved mourning is precisely the malaise faced by exiles who live in a city where any news


about Castro brings a flurry of hope that he will die -- and they will regain a lost life.

Last week's bombshell about Castro's retirement was just the kind of news Rothe suggests reopens wounds so many Cubans fight to bury.

Many members of what is now called ''the historic exile'' -- those forced to leave in the 1960s as adults -- felt a wave of melancholy, as they were reminded all over again of their loss and heartaches. It's all part of the emotional bungee cord that snaps exiles throughout South Florida at the hint of news about Castro and Cuba.

''For those older exiles, Cuba is like a dead person who somehow remains half alive, like a zombie, because they have never completed their mourning process of disconnecting andfour local fliers. No one has been brought to justice, though U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart have called for a federal government indictment of Raúl Castro, who as defense minister authorized the shooting.

In 2000, there was the bitter and drawn out battle between exiles and Castro to keep Elián González with his Miami relatives. The boy, whose mother drowned at sea attempting to escape Cuba, eventually was returned to his father in Cuba.

And most recently, in June 2006, the announcement that an ailing Castro was temporarily handing power to his brother Raúl, who Sunday is expected to be named Cuba's next leader by the National Assembly.

All these events, Rothe said, have impacted the historic exiles' recovery from the loss they experienced decades ago.

Rothe said


Emilio Ochoa -- until last year the last remaining signer of Cuba's historic 1940 constitution -- says during days like these, her father, who lived to be 99, is often on her mind. ''He wanted to go back until the last minute of his life,'' she said.

``He would tell me that he knew he was too old to hold a political post, but that he would like to offer advice to others.''

Near the end of his life, Sosa said: ``He hated that he would not live to see the changes.''

For Raúl Martinez, the former mayor of Hialeah who is running for the congressional seat now held by Lincoln Diaz-Balart, news of Castro's resignation was bittersweet.

He immediately thought of his father, Chin, a staunch anti-Castro fighter who died ahear or read during coverage of the "election" Sunday of the nation's new dictator. But as long as the castro gulag holds him, and others like him — imprisoned because of their belief in freedom and opposition to tyranny — nothing has changed.

A little MSM experiment

Speaking of media bias, it's not always what's said that's biased but there's also bias by omission.

For the hell of it I did an archive search at the New York Times for Nelson Mandela between January of 1981 and January of 1989 (Mandela was in prison during those years) and came away with 619 results.

I did a similar search for Oscar Biscet from January of 1999 (the year he was first arrested by the castro regime) to date and found 8 results.

Out of


-- Like a modern Mussolini, Chile's former military ruler Gen. Augusto Pinochet has defenders, here and abroad, who excuse his brutal governing style since it brought increased efficiency to a bloated and underproductive economy.

The above passage is very telling. It starts by informing the reader that Chile's former dictator had defenders who "excused his brutal governing style". Excusing something bad is not generally seen as a good thing, so those people who do the excusing must be wrong. Also notice how the parallel is drawn to an infamous dictator that most readers not acquainted with Latin America and Pinochet would instantly recognize: Mussolini. Mussolini was a dictator so bad that America had to fight against him in world war.

Now let's look at a passage about fidel castro fromthe CNN memo.

Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.

This quote looks very similar to the previous one from the Herald article about Pinochet but is really almost the exact inverse. It begins with the premise of the "good" that castro has done and seems to only begrudgingly acknowledge that "some people" criticize the regime for oppression.

Why can't a journalist look at these two dictatorships and come to an objective conclusion that they were very different and that one was certainly worse than the other?

Let's take a look. Pinochet came to power in 1974 and left power in 1990. fidel took power in


Barack Obama on his stance with regards to Cuba, McCain is certainly going to raise the hackles of the news media. You see Cuba is a sacred cow for the them. There are probably few issues that the mainstream media are as unanimous about as the embargo and U.S./Cuba relations. McCain should batten down the hatches now that he's taken a position contrary to his erstwhile buddies in the media.

Here's what McCain's campaign had to say about Obama's positions on Cuba:

Not so along go Senator Obama favored complete normalization of relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba. Last night, he said that as president he'd meet with the imprisoned island's new leader 'without preconditions.' So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such aevery Sunday, dressed all in white, to bring attention to the terrible fate of husbands, sons and brothers languishing in Castro's jails for up to 20 years for voicing "anti-revolutionary" opinions.

The Ladies in White, a number of whom are in their eighties, were told initially that without invitations they could not attend. Then they were allowed in under protest, but had to stand at the back throughout the two-hour service, although there were empty seats near the altar.

TheVatican has never shied away from courting power, but the church's naked embrace of the anti-clerical power elite had an Animal Farm-like quality to it that left some in the congregation slack jawed. Some of Fidel Castro's oldest cronies made it to Mass. They included the president of the National Assembly


Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba's hard-line foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, and Juan Contino Aslan, the mayor of Havana.

All might have passed peacefully if the Ladies in White had been treated with some dignity and seated among the congregation as they had been promised. Instead, mid-way through the service, while Cardinal Bertone made a vacuous plea for reconciliation among all Cubans he was rudely interrupted, as the Ladies in White burst spontaneously into a religious song, crying out "Viva el Christo! Viva el Christo! Viva el Christo!"

Burly, plainclothed security men rushed in their direction and the cameras of the media wheeled around to film the moment of protest. Even the cardinal was thrown off track and had to pause. However, so tin-eared is the Vatican's top diplomat that he gavewell. Again, do with it what you will.

Run that by me again

From the LA Times' travel blog comes this insightful and informative post about traveling to Cuba as a tourist. You know, the "silver bullet" that will end all of Cuba's human rights woes and usher in democracy once the archaic and ineffective US embargo is lifted and American tourists flood the island with their magic dollars and their subversive talk of freedom and democracy.

The post quotes Christopher P. Baker, author of several tourist guidebooks to Cuba. Mr. Baker shows us how much improvement over the past few years has been seen on the island after the arrival of millions of tourists from other free and democratic countries and their subsequent spending of billions of Euros, Pound Notes,


work is now on display in Norfolk, VA. Her artwork depicts families embracing and weeping because of the separation and pain caused by the castro regime. Garcia Wagner, a Peter Pan, lived in a foster home for four years after her parents sent her to the United States at age seven, telling her she was going on vacation. Her work is inspirational and she is remarkable. If you live in the Norfolk, VA area, you can see her exhibit through next month at ArtGallery on 21st Street. If you don't, you can see the pictures and the video here.

Triangulating Cuba

Since fidel made his LBJ-like announcement that he would not seek or accept Cuba’s presidency, perhaps hoping for a negative public outcry that never materialized, Cuba has been aof Cuba’s economic problems on the US embargo, that argument is countered by the argument that Cuba trades openly with almost every other country in the world including western industrialized democracies like Canada, the UK, France, and Spain and that the bulk of Cuba’s economic problems are due to CASTRO's failed MARXIST economic polices. While some analysts say the US embargo was a benefit to Castro politically, something to blame problems on, most serious observers recognize that it is a weak excuse for Castro's own failures. Note that despite the embargo, the United States is currently Cuba's largest food supplier.

* While he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially by leftists in Latin America for standing up to the United States, Castro has been one of the deadliest


dictators on a per capita basis in modern history. In addition to abuses at home, the regime has also backed, with arms and troops, various revolutionary movements conducting civil wars in Latin America and Africa that have resulted in tens of thousands of deaths; has been linked to drug trafficking; and has harbored international fugitives including terrorists and cop killers. It should be noted that Castro has not seemed to "mellow with age" for example during the 1990s the regime was responsible for the shoot down of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace resulting in the death of three American citizens and one resident alien as well as the sinking of a tugboat full of Cubans trying to flee the island (see point 2 above) resulting inthe death of at least 30 persons including women and children and infants. In September of 2001 the United States arrested a Cuban spy that was working as top Latin American analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) where she formulate many of the country's intelligence assessments about Cuba.

*It should be noted that unlike some despots such as Hitler and his Nazi party, Fidel Castro never won an elected office in a legitimate democratic multiparty election. Castro took power after an armed insurgency during which he promised a return to democracy and free elections within one year, instead, it should be noted that, he was responsible for an immediate reign of terror in which hundreds of Cubans were summarily tried and executed despite the fact that Cuba's 1940


to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc, regards Castro's political police as "one of Communism’s most criminal institutions." Coming from a man who learned the ropes of his profession from Stalin's henchmen and who served as Nikolai Ceaucescu's chief spy, this is saying something. "I saw nothing in him (Raul) suggesting he might ever want to democratize Cuba, "continues Pacepa.

Nowadays Raul and his crony generals are all in their mid-seventies and beyond. These men lived into their young adulthood under a robustly capitalist Cuba, where Cuban laborers earned the 8th highest wages on earth, where Cuba had a higher per-captia income than Austria and Japan, a larger middle class then Switzerland, and where Cuba was swamped with European immigrants.

Under these circumstances, Cuba's current robber barons (and theirole boy from Hollywood suppossed to decide?

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision to quit the Beijing Olympics over the Darfur crisis is drawing condemnation by China's state-controlled media and a groundswell of criticism from the Chinese public.

Last week, the American director withdrew from his role as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games, accusing China of not doing enough to press for peace in the troubled Sudanese region.

Officially, the Chinese government has not directly criticized Spielberg by name, expressing only "regret" over his decision. But the state-run media and the public have been far less restrained.

In newspaper commentaries and lively Internet forums, they have expressed outrage, scorn and bewilderment that China's Olympics have come under international criticism from Spielberg and others.

A biting front-page


editorial Wednesday in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, blasted Spielberg for his decision.

"A certain Western director was very naive and made an unreasonable move toward the issue of the Beijing Olympics. This is perhaps because of his unique Hollywood characteristics," it said.

5 more political prisoners you should know

Here are 10 heroes of Cuban freedom you must know, and never forget, especially as the dictatorship prepares to complete its "transition," and the talk heats up about need for change in U.S. policy towards the island:

Molinet, a dissident labor leader, was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His wife this week warned that her husband is suffering from a variety of ailments, including hepatitis,(646) 652-4506. Or you can send an email to me or that other guy.

You also LISTEN TO THE PODCAST by clicking that button after the show ends.

Cuban Response: Nothing New Under the Stun

Word of Cuban response to the announcement of castro's resignation is starting to filter in from the island via independent journalists and communiqués from various organizations posted on Misceláneas de Cuba.

In his free flowing dispatch, allusively titled "Nothing New Under the Sun," independent journalist, Oswaldo Yáñez who lately prefaces his reports by dating them "in the year of the imminent freedom of all Cubans" remarks that the hullabaloo surrounding the announcement in the world media was in marked contrast to the silence of Cubans themselves. He points out that the evictions in Holguin did not cease,


the preparations for the kangaroo court to try a dissident continued, the CDR's maintained their close vigilance, and the prisoners continued languishing in castroite jails. In essence nothing changed.

The same lack of reaction is highlighted by Kallan Poe from La Agencia de Prensa Avileña in a report about response in Morón. Despite mixed reactions to the news, other than a noon time dash to the radio to hear once again the news, the only other response was in the bars at night, where the consensus was "Esto tiene que cambiar" or "This has to change."

The desire for change is a common thread running through the communications. In an editorial, La Agencia de Prensa Avileña sees it as a moment for pondering, although it calls for a true republiclike that envisioned by Marti. Dr. Darsi Ferrer condemns the succession and once more eloquently describes the conditions of ordinary Cubans. Again he calls for anti-regime elements to speak with one voice. He reiterates the need for a united opposition here. Hector Palacios' rhetoric is a bit more conciliatory, but he demands that those in power should work immediately to reform the law to include free speech, free association, and free elections, as well as liberate political prisoners

In sum, most viewed the abdication as a species of farce. Its lack of significance was a common thread running through the communications, as was a cacophony of cries for freedom and surprisingly the open call for democracy.

Note: All linked entries other than Palacios' are in Spanish. No, that's not a


that I will solve all Cuba's problems without spilling a drop of blood." As the jubilant crowd erupted with joy, Castro continued. "Cuban mothers let me assure you that because of me you will never have to cry."

The following day, just below San Juan Hill in eastern Cuba, a bulldozer rumbled to a start, clanked into position, and started pushing dirt into a huge pit with blood pooling at the bottom from the still -twitching bodies of more than a hundred men and boys who'd been machine-gunned without trial on the Castro brothers' orders. Their wives and mothers wept hysterically from a nearby road.

On that very day, the U.K. Observer ran the following headline: "Mr Castro's bearded, youthful figure has become a symbol of Latin America's rejection ofNancy Pelosi: “The resignation of Fidel Castro is a reason to hope that freedom is closer than it was when he was the public face of an oppressive regime, but is not a guarantee of a democratic future for the people of Cuba.
“As Cubans at home and those living abroad continue their efforts to create a true democracy in their nation, all of us in the international community should continue to encourage the aspiration of the Cuban people for liberty – the fulfillment of which is long overdue.”

However, not everyone rose to the occasion, and Babalu readers will not be surprised to read that two frequent flyers to Havana have kept their bargain with the devil dictator.

"The United States' embargo on Cuba is one of the most backward


the New York Times yesterday morning.

Here's a bullet point from the CNN email:

* Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.

And here's a paragraph from the NYT piece that was first posted in the early A.M. hours of the 19th:

His record has been a mix of great social achievements, but a dismal economic performance that has mired most Cubans in poverty.

He succeeded in establishing universal health care, providing free education through college and largely rooting out racism.

Former CBS journalist, Bernard Goldberg, explains in his book Bias that the T.V. News generally takes most of its cues from the New York Times and Thehe will not be around much longer neither.

Freedom's heroes

In Cuba, locked away in a gulag of fidel castro's creation, are hundreds, if not thousands of political prisoners, jailed because of their passion for human rights and freedom, and their unwillingness to surrender to tyranny.

A leader of the Varela Project, an unsuccessful petition campaign for change in Cuba, Díaz has remained steadfast in his opposition to the dictatorship while in prison. Like other prisoners of conscience, he has gone on hunger strikes to demand respect and better treatment by his jailers.

An organizer for the Varela Project, Ferrer was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 28 years in prison — the longest prison sentence handed down during the crackdown.

Sometimes it is difficult to track exactly