Mother Jones:

To gin up support for off-shore drilling, the Right has an ace up its rhetorical sleeve: the Chinese in Cuba. Here's Vice President Cheney.

"[O]il is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government... Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply. Yet Congress has said... no to drilling off Florida.''

"Even the communists" is a nice flourish. Mix the red scare with the yellow scare and get Uncle Dick's own Orange Scare. Guaranteed to freak out Americans concerned about their energy security. Here's House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), piling on:

"Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores; thanks to Fidel Castro, they've been given a permit to drill for oil 45 miles from the Florida Keys."

Adds House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), "Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country."
Problem is, that's all false. Like, completely false. China is not currently drilling off the shores of Cuba; in fact, it doesn't even have a off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land. "China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period,'' Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy, told the Miami Herald. In fact, it is not yet drilling on Cuban land, either.

BBC:

Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not return to the presidency, in a letter published by official Communist Party paper, Granma.

"I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," he wrote in the letter.

Mr Castro handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raul, in July 2006 when he underwent intestinal surgery.

The 81-year-old has ruled Cuba since leading a communist revolution in 1959.

In December, Mr Castro indicated that he might possibly step down in favour of younger leaders, saying "my primary duty is not to cling to any position".

Soon afterwards, Raul Castro appeared to suggest that his older brother still had an important political role to play, saying the president still had full use of his mental faculties and was being consulted on all important policy issues.

Given his health these last couple of years, this should surprise no one. It will be interesting to note if the US-Cuba relations should manifestly change without Castro and how supportive the fairly influential Cuban-American community in Florida will be of making even a movement towards diplomatic relations with Cuba. Steve Clemons at The Washington Note looks at how the presidential candidates are likely to react.

Raw Story: (h/t DLBB)

Rep. Hinchey: New bill would break up media monopolies and restore fairness doctrine

Warns media reform critical to prevent 'end of democratic republic'

Concerns about monopolies and fears of a possible "fascist" takeover of the US media have prompted a Democratic congressman to push to restore the Fairness Doctrine, RAW STORY has learned.

"If Rush shoots his mouth off, he must give equal access to our side," Hinchey said. "The American public will begin to get both sides or all sides of an issue. That is basic - fundamental to a democracy."

Taylor Marsh wants you to know that when it comes to the Fairness Doctrine, Alan Colmes is a punk, and I gotta say, I agree with her. Hey, Taylor, know who is a much bigger punk? David Limbaugh:

What do the paternalistic proponents of the regulations mean by the representation of "all sides?" Would the terrorist viewpoint deserve equal time? Don't laugh, many believe that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and liberals routinely sympathize with tyrannical dictators like Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I'm just sayin'...

We've all seen the wall to wall coverage of the man taking over the Miami Herald office with a fake gun. What's being under reported as far as I've seen is this little nugget.

Also, in a taped telephone interview with WJAN-CA 41 television newsman Juan Manuel Cao, Varela referred to a recent controversy involving a Miami Herald report on Radio and TV Martí, U.S. government broadcasters that aim to end the communist regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The Miami Herald story reported that several journalists, including El Nuevo staffers, had taken pay from the broadcasters .

It sparked an outcry in the Cuban exile community -- and dominated discussion on Miami's Spanish-language radio talk shows. Fiedler referred to radio critics of the report as ''Chihuahuas'' nipping at the newspaper's heels. He later apologized for the remark.

Exactly what pushed Varela over the edge Friday was unclear.

More paid propaganda hitting our airwaves. It's just getting worse. And---what's up with such a low bail to get him released?

The Bush administration, once again demonstrating its respect for a free and independent press, has been caught paying reporters in Miami.

The Bush administration’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting paid 10 journalists here to provide commentary on Radio and TV Martí, which transmit to Cuba government broadcasts critical of Fidel Castro, a spokesman for the office said Friday.

The group included three journalists at El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister newspaper of The Miami Herald, which fired them Thursday after learning of the relationship. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba for El Nuevo Herald, received the largest payment, almost $175,000 since 2001.

The Bush gang paying journalists with public funds? That hardly ever happens, right? Oh wait....

– Guest post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report

Here's an article from the Guardian called Two fingers to America

(hat tip to MTA): "He's a friend of Fidel Castro, a fierce critic of the war in Iraq, and wants to spread revolutionary fervour throughout South America. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, has long been a thorn in the side of the US - a fact highlighted this week when televangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Richard Gott on a man at war with the White House...read on"

Anti-Castro Majority Leader Tom DeLay enjoys a fine Cuban cigar

via Eschaton

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes, according to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a cigar is an economic prop to a brutal totalitarian regime. Arguing against loosening sanctions against Cuba last year, DeLay warned that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands.... American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor."

I like this part of the story: Asked about the Majority Leader's consumption of a Cuban cigar, his spokesman Dan Allen replied there has been "no change in our Cuban policy."

The right wingers will probably start saying stuff like:

Powerline : " We still haven't been able to verify that the cigar in question is actually a Cuban cigar at all. Assrocket says that they counterfeit Cuban's all the time. I have been calling TIME magazine, and right now they aren't returning my calls which smells fishy to me.

Powerline Update: We have just been emailed from an anonymous source that reveals the the cigar in question actually came from Harry Reid's office.

Powerline Update II: The cigar came from one of Mel Martinez's aids. Tom didn't realize that it was a Cuban cigar so he smoked it. That aid has since been fired."