Cuban censorship

The Cuban government has told three foreign correspondents that they must stop "inconvenient" reporting. AP Wire 02/23/2007 Cuba declines to renew credentials for 3 Havana correspondents

So long to a noble profession

Pam Constable writes in the Washington Post about the decline in the number of American foreign correspondents. She calls it a dying breed. She makes some good points. When we left Mexico City in 1979 the numbers had already started to decline. There were about 35 full time American foreign correspondents based in Mexico City in 1970. That had dropped to 15 by 1979. I have no idea how many are there now but I am sure they are few. Big name capitals in Europe -- especially Paris, London and Rome -- had more.

This is a big loss for followers of American print and broadcast news at a time when it is more important than ever before to know what is happening around the world.

Missed us

The really bad weather missed us. We got a little ice and a dusting of snow but nothing else except cold. Down into the teens. Had a warming trend this morning, up to 27 degrees when we left for our Saturday HazMat class. Interesting stuff rolling up and down the Interstates. What we call ethylmethylbadstuff. You can see a video of one such incident.

Found a blogger inside Cuba. Read about him. The BBC led me to him.

Click on the name El Cubano de la Isla for a direct link to the blog, if you read Spanish. Another gutsy Cuban, unless he is a government plant. I am real goosey about that after it turned out that one of the most prominent independent journalists in Cuba was really a government spy.

This Just In...

The magazine "Progressive Farmer" has picked Polk County -- our county -- as one of the top 10 Best Places to Live in Rural America. Gillespie County in the Hill County of Texas was No. 4 but we prefer the mountains. Read all about it here.

Ice and Snow

We have a light dusting of snow and now we're getting sleet. The emergency radio is full of calls on "1050s" -- auto accidents in Polk County emergency talk. Our job at the volunteer fire department usually defaults to traffic control on these calls unless there is a fire involved. We are not certified as a rescue unit yet so we have no extraction tools. I am sure there will be more calls as the day progresses because the forecast is for nasty weather until Friday morning.

I found this interesting story about one of the wars I covered.
Former Salvadoran Foes Share Doubts on War - washingtonpost.com

Sen Joe Biden used his mouth to shoot himself in the foot with some comments about the other Democratic presidential candidates. He said Sen. Barak Obama is "the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."