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Alice O’Keefe has written a great article about the current mood in Cuba for the New Statesman (by the way, you can listen to all their articles). The article was written shortly before Fidel’s brother Raúl Castro made his first public statement, warning that Cuba was ready for any armed attack from US forces. In sum, the situation seems to be public calm and official caution, but overall acceptance (and fear) that it could change very quickly.

Ah, the Iranian president’s new blog. No tales of drunken adventures here. And only one post so far. But it’s about 2000 words long and tells his life story.

According to the BBC, he is ready to respond to questions and is even polling readers about whether they think “the great Satan, USA” is trying to start a new world war. Iranian blog-hero Hossein is not impressed with the publicity stunt. Let’s wait and see whether it turns out to be a ‘real’ blog, he says.

Tony Blair had a blog once, which was so ridiculously not-written by himself that he should still be embarassed. This would be an example of mistake number one politicians commit when getting hip with the kids. The kids don’t like being lied to.

German chancellorette Angela Merkel had her own brush with technology recently when she agreed to do a ‘real’ spontaneous video blog the other day as opposed to this picture perfect videocast.

Check this out (link sometimes does not work), for a painfully embarassing example of mistake number two politicians commit. Be yourself, sure. But don’t tell the world you don’t know how to find the Democratic Republic of Congo on the map when your troops are there.

And finally, if you want bloggers to like you and link to you (and maybe some day vote for you). Don’t help uphold a regime that gets them arrested for writing that you suck. Especially if you really do.

Here’s a mean-spirited and sick new federal law that criminalizes family and friends who help young women seek abortions outside their home state to escape parental consent laws imposed in 26 states.

Do not be fooled by Bush and friends, who insist they are “protecting” young women. If this were really about the rights of teenage girls, you wouldn’t have 51 Republican and 14 Democratic Senators (mainly male) or her parents determining what a young woman should or shouldn’t be able to do with her own life and body, as if she were some kind of property of the state.

The details of the legislation are amazingly backward. Anyone driving a pregnant teen to a doctor in another state risks upto one year in prison. The right to chose abortion is still protected in the US constitution, but in many states, it’s made practically impossible – sometimes even requiring the approval of a judge first.

Paul Rogers describes the violence unfolding in Lebanon as part of a broader conflict:

Whatever the full motivations of Hamas, and whether Syria and Iran are indirectly involved, the reality is that what is happening in Lebanon is beginning to evolve into a proxy war between the United States and Iran. That, at least, is how it is seen from Washington, whose explicit message is that Iran is the real problem, and that it is appropriate for Israel to cripple or even destroy its surrogate, Hizbollah, across the border in Lebanon.

Here are some blogs from Beirut: Beirut Live, Lebanese Blogger Forum
Global Voices on the Israeli blogosphere, and Mr Behi in Iran.

According to the Economist: When the president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Congo wants to make sure he is reelected, he does two things. First, he takes control of the state media and security services. Second, he hires the same Washington public relations firm that helped George W. Bush win two elections.

Yes, Stevens-Schriefer have taken a break from helping Republicans get elected in order to service Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila. Why on earth did the troubled African country get listed under “Corporate and Organizational Clients”? And is this website their work of art? Check out the videos.

Despite their address on K Street in DC, Stevens-Schriefer have also worked on campaigns in the Czech Republic, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Should one ask accountability questions when the admen have such close ties to the US government?

Take a look at this website’s impressive collection of Soviet music and communist posters. Most of the songs, are in Russian, but the slogans on the posters have been translated to English. I love the ones with the flags on them, like these: (A) and (B). Interesting reminders of a former world order.

1) No to vodka!
2) Thank you, dear Stalin, for our happy childhood
3) Sniper, do so: one bullet – one German!
4) Women! Fight obsolete traditions, build new socialist life!

It’s hard not to get just a little involved in the soccer mania during the World Cup. Sadly, neither Denmark nor Puerto Rico have qualified, which leaves someone relatively indifferent like me with little choice but to get a little scientific about which team to support. Colonial history and geographical proximity (of course) have been important factors, but now the World Development Movement has made it even easier to choose. Have a look at their online Team Chooser. What’s the life expectancy rate of the team you support?

Those 12 million dastardly, illegal immigrants in America, are actually hardworking and conscientious taxpayers according to the NY Times. You’ve got to admire a system that lets people pay to be exploited.

It amazes me that the content of this article hasn’t had any major political consequences (or even news coverage). Robert Kennedy Jr. writes in Rolling Stone a detailed account of how the 2004 election was stolen. There’s a polite question mark in the headline, but he really doesn’t seem to harbour any doubts. If even half this stuff is true, Bush would have been unseated: in Finland. In America, being a lying, cheating, theif seems to be part and parcel of politics. It’s like everyone feels safer and happier upholding the lie that everything is OK. Here, Mark Crispin Miller defends Kennedy from an attack from Salon, and comments on how Markos Moulitsas, Hillary Clinton and others have implied talking about election fraud is bad, because it will disencourage people from voting. What guts. This is exactly the weak fluff that currently passes for Democratic politics. By refusing to even touch the issue seriously, the media have also failed us.

Here is an article I helped write.