ForeignPolicy.com

Chap is cautiously optimistic about Foreign Policy's new online strategy:

Foreign Policy’s new blog makeover includes significant contributions from some heavy hitters in its lineup: Tom Ricks (check his quote of the day, Jim), John Nagl, Dan Drezner, and so forth. I’m a bit of a contrarian, not that y’all care–I don’t like the Economist or FP’s print version all that much. However, if the online version includes a partnership with the Small Wars Journal and articles like this one, which includes an interview with General Petraeus, then I’m bookmarking it.

Chapomatic: Blog Relaunch at Foreign Policy (6 January 2009)

I believe FP's new online direction to be a direct result of the Washington Post Company's purchase of Foreign Policy last fall--FP is now officially part of The Slate Group of online publications.

Say what you will about WaPo; they "get" the Web.

Related: The New ForeignPolicy.com Launches (Reuters, 5 January 2009)

Close, still no cigars

In the name of helping Cubans, the US administration is calling for "multibillions" of taxpayer dollars in foreign aid and subsidies for internet access, education and business development for Cubans under the condition that the Cuban government demonstrates certain changes. In the same breath, they claim lifting the embargo would only help the dictatorship. This is exactly backwards. Free trade is the best thing for people in both Cuba and the US. Government subsidies would enrich those in power in Cuba at the expense of already overtaxed Americans!

The irony of supposed Capitalist, free-marketeers inducing Communists to freedom with government hand-outs should not be missed. We call for a free and private press in Cuba while our attempts to propagandize Cubans through the US government run Radio/TV Marti has wasted $600 million in American taxpayer dollars.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX): Struggling for relevance in Cuba: Close, still no cigars