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"...someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered [in Cuba]."

O Rly?
Granma seems to be covering Egypt fairly extensively. Mind you, Granma's only the official state newspaper - it's not like it has any official status or anything...

"...someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered [in Cuba]."

O Rly?
Granma seems to be covering Egypt fairly extensively. Mind you, Granma's only the official state newspaper - it's not like it has any official status or anything...

"...someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered [in Cuba]."

O Rly?
Granma seems to be covering Egypt fairly extensively. Mind you, Granma's only the official state newspaper - it's not like it has any official status or anything...

"...someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered [in Cuba]."

O Rly?
Granma seems to be covering Egypt fairly extensively. Mind you, Granma's only the official state newspaper - it's not like it has any official status or anything...

"...someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered [in Cuba]."

O Rly?
Granma seems to be covering Egypt fairly extensively. Mind you, Granma's only the official state newspaper - it's not like it has any official status or anything...

Egypt isn't mentioned at all in the official Cuban website

Read Castro's writings before you mod this comment down... Much of his ramblings sound like run of the mill Prison Planet paranoia.

Oh yeah, jackpot, and it's golden. From the personal blog of Fidel Castro (here it is in the original Spanish). Not only is he talking about the Bilderbergs, he's explaining that The Beatles were a Bilderberg plot, used for social control. In fact, all of rock and roll is a plot for social control. It all started with the Nazis. No, I am not joking, he brings up the Nazis.

It's not surprising that Castro believes this stuff, because it's stuff he would do if he were capable. And in fact does do.

Oh yeah, jackpot, and it's golden. From the personal blog of Fidel Castro (here it is in the original Spanish). Not only is he talking about the Bilderbergs, he's explaining that The Beatles were a Bilderberg plot, used for social control. In fact, all of rock and roll is a plot for social control. It all started with the Nazis. No, I am not joking, he brings up the Nazis.

It's not surprising that Castro believes this stuff, because it's stuff he would do if he were capable. And in fact does do.

Yeah right, I'll bet you anything he's like the stereotypical Fox News viewer, who only looks at and agrees with what he wants to see (and in the name of political impartiality, if you are one of those Fox idiots, yes, there are counterparts to your idiocy on the left). I'll bet he is reading Communist Times Online or other periodicals that reveal the "ugly truths of capitalism" with their investigative journalism. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear old Castro ranting one of these days about the Bilderbergs, or the Illuminati....the secret capitalist organizations that rule the world. Or maybe how AIDS is the fault of the US: I've heard that one from a latino-communist. Oh, look, Fidel has a blog, I'll look through it and report back if I find any treasures.

He kind of mocks the New York Times for their 'investigative reporting' but really investigative reporting is when the New York Times really shines. There are lots of things to not like about that paper, and it is really going down hill, but it's investigative reporting is top notch when they do it.

Here and here. Cuba is going to be connected to Venezuela in 2009. So apparently Cuba does want to be connected, despite the political risks involved in a 1000 fold increase in Internet traffic. The major problem for Cuba, I can imagine, is the US telecomms blockade, and the Helms-Burton act, which penalizes foreign companies doing business in the US for doing business with Cuba. European and Asian engineering companies are not going to defy the US over one minor cable to Cuba from a nearby island, and the Cuban government obviously doesn't have the equipment and cannot financially justify acquiring it.

Fidel Castro has a big problem with biofuels. Not to long ago he estimated that 3 Billion people would die as a result of using corn and other food-stuffs for fuel. I wonder, with the development of sugar-based fuels if he will change his tune. After all, Cuba can grow sugar.

Indeed! Here's my own anecdote on that: I recently tried editing an article on a certain Posada Carriles, a man whom the Cuban government and Wikipedia call a "terrorist".

I was browsing the Cuban government site Granma where they had a list of what they called evidence against Posada. One item was an AK-47 rifle, another item was a box of 5.56mm ammo for that rifle. It doesn't take much of gun expertise to know that NATO ammo doesn't go into an AK-47, and I tried to put that in a paragraph criticizing the accusations against Posada. I don't know the guy, for all I know he could really be a terrorist, but you aren't going to convict anyone in a civilized court of law with that kind of "evidence".

I was thoroughly flamed by someone about that. It seems that Cuban government sympathizers are carefully patrolling any critical statements about the dictatorship. If Wikipedia had a reputation system, the commies would mod me down for presenting a balanced view in their rant against Posada, but I would recover my karma through my other contributions. OTOH, fanatics would find it too troublesome to fake an interest in subjects other than their favorite and their karma would suffer from that.

Who are you talking about? Last time I checked their official news agency used Windows Server 2003

English version of the commentary by Castro is here:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/marzo/juev29/14re flex.html

For approximately the last 15 years, the United States has been engaged in the largest imprisonment program ever attempted by a democratic society.

That was back in the early 90's when the US prison population was around 900,000. In the time since then, the prison population has more than doubled again to nearly 2.2 Million prisoners. To put that into perspective, there is currently only about 1.4 million people on active duty in the US military.

We condemn China for their practices involving prison slave labor, yet we conduct those same practices ourselves... Slavery is back in America, and it's mostly for the poor black people again. Meanwhile, every time we have an article discussing incarceration on Slashdot, we get a bazillion prison bitch jokes that fly in the face of the 8th amendment of the US Constitution. You people KNOW their rights are being violated and you don't care.

"Oh dear they're annoying me with spam. Fuck the 1st Amendment, send them to the salt mines!!" Land of the Free indeed...

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemoller

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

BY VICKY PELAEZ (Taken from El Diario-La Prensa, New York)

HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane
exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working
for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a
pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers
are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an
hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison
Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has
locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the
U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From
less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago
there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000
inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

Hmm, what is this a picture of?

Are these pictures real?

Official Cuban newspaper

cu works, try http://www.granma.cu/

dig iq suggests something may be there or coming

dig kp is not optimistic, it just returns A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.

(now if I could just get /. to issue me a password .... )

The problem with the pencil and paper is that it is expensive. You can only hire so many people to count, and if you hire them at too low of a salary they could conceivably be susceptible to election fraud.

Furthermore, a simple vote procedure should be backed up by a strong computerized system, in order to ensure the rapid tabulation of results. Or would you have us go back to the time when it took weeks to figure out the election, every election?

Furthermore, electronic voting, if it can be perfected, is a good way to extend the direct initiative and referendum on more issues to citizens. Technologies like the internet enable us to expand the realm of direct democracy and shrink the role of government.

As an european and leftist in my opinions - though working in very capitalistic business - I would never like to live or raise my children in America. The freedom offered in the US isn't the same freedom which I'd like to have. The freedom in US - and ok, in growing number of places - is mostly freedom to run your business and get rich. Those who succeed in this game have their freedom, the rest of the people are much more limited in their freedom. What do you do with the freedom of expression when you can't make yourself heard? Or when you can't express yourself because of education that your parents didn't afford? With freedom of movement without no way to move? With freedom of opinion when your opinions are fed to you by multi-millionaire-owned TV networks?

Fidel Castro, one of the last surviving voices which speak against US imperialism (ok, now I'm being too dramatic) makes some very interesting points in his interview in Granma Internacional. Maybe it is worth checking out, just to get some perspective for things.

As an european and leftist in my opinions - though working in very capitalistic business - I would never like to live or raise my children in America. The freedom offered in the US isn't the same freedom which I'd like to have. The freedom in US - and ok, in growing number of places - is mostly freedom to run your business and get rich. Those who succeed in this game have their freedom, the rest of the people are much more limited in their freedom. What do you do with the freedom of expression when you can't make yourself heard? Or when you can't express yourself because of education that your parents didn't afford? With freedom of movement without no way to move? With freedom of opinion when your opinions are fed to you by multi-millionaire-owned TV networks?

Fidel Castro, one of the last surviving voices which speak against US imperialism (ok, now I'm being too dramatic) makes some very interesting points in his interview in Granma Internacional. Maybe it is worth checking out, just to get some perspective for things.