The one in Charlotte a few months back had a FreeBSD booth - showcasing FreeBSD, PC-BSD and pFsense

Use it w/ an email client, like Thunderbird, and you'll do just fine

If one has been using Yahoo! email for a while, why would one just stop? Given the effort it takes to migrate people they've been working with? Yeah, they may open up other accounts, but it makes sense to keep what one has

They don't have to - the current regime in Baghdad is Shiite dominated, and a good number of them, like Moqtada al Sadr, take their marching orders from Teheran

Iran was NEVER a democracy. It was always a dictatorial monarchy under the various dynasties ending w/ the Pahlavis, then it became a Shiite theocracy under the Ayatollahs. Since it's Islamic, it's not likely to ever remain a democracy even if it has an odd election here or there.

Funny thing is that the Castros - both of them - have even survived Hugo Chavez. Maybe they'll survive Daniel Ortega as well

Well, Raul Castro was close chums w/ Che Guevara, and very much a part of Fidel's repressive regime. He's now 83, so it's an open question of how long he'll last, and whether Cuba will become more democratic once the Castros are dead

Voters had the option of rejecting them in both the GOP primaries, as well as the general elections. No such choices for the North Koreans or Syrians w/ Kim or Bashar al Assad. And had Saddam not been toppled, Qusay would have succeeded him, and similarly, Qadaffi would have been succeeded by Saif ul Islam

China yeah, but I do believe the Kanucks are saints who only wanna do good to Cuba

But Russia's recent wars & bullying have been against groups or countries far weaker than them - Chechens, Georgia and now Ukraine. They've not fought wars against China or Kazakhstan. Going by what you said, those 2 would theoretically be Russia's greatest threats. However, China is an ally of Russia, and their only border with them is on the Manchurian side. Kazakhistan is still more or less a client state of Russia, and hardly a threat to it. In fact, before Putin came to power, when Yeltsin was running things, there were times when Moscow had a really weak hold on things, but that didn't encourage China or the stans to act up and try bullying Russia. The only group that tried it was the Chechens.

The mistake in Iraq was to try and rebuild that country after toppling Saddam. Invading them and toppling Saddam was justified, given that he was housing terrorists like Abu Nidal, and rewarding Hamas suicide bombers in Israel. But once he was overthrown, the campaign should have been over, while allowing the UN to search for the WMDs. When Bush stood on that ship the first time w/ the 'Mission Accomplished' sign, he happened to be correct! The US debacle in Iraq started after the scope of the mission became 'bringing democracy to Iraq'.

No Arab country had ever been a democracy, and translated to Arab ground realities, it just meant mob rule. In Iraq, the Shiites, being the majority, came to power, and suddenly, the persecution of Chaldeans & Assyrians started, w/ most fleeing to Syria and then Lebanon. In the meantime, in Baghdad, Iraq became a new client state of Iran, who must have been laughing themselves silly @ the Great Satan (TM) installing their puppet in Iraq, and making the formation of a Shiite Crescent easier.

In the meantime, the US wasted billions in reconstructing a country that never had any major infrastructure in the first place, aside from anything that would make waging war easier. All the while battling Iraqis of all ethnic backgrounds who hated it (except the Kurds and Assyrians). Instead, withdrawing from Iraq after Saddam's overthrow and letting Moqtada al Sadr battle it out with Zarqawi and not take any Arab refugees into the US would have been the right move.

Russian economic support to Cuba ended after the Soviet Union came apart. Question is how much longer would Raul Castro last, and whether Cuba would see another Gorby after him?

And Raul Castro can keep out American workers on boats sailing to Cuba in search of jobs /facetious

Yeah, he got succeeded by his brother. Wonder what is it about Commie countries nowadays? They started off by overthrowing monarchies wherever they could find them - Russia, Egypt, Libya, and so on. Nowadays, every surviving Communist country has de facto dynasties - North Korea, Cuba, Syria. If only the Romanovs had known and maneuvered to take over the Communist party, they may have saved themselves from getting massacred.

Maybe the interrogation/treatment of enemy combatants should be outsourced to Cuba. For a while, some were outsourced to Syria, but that's too far away, and then too, they are enemies and might like & release some of the combatants. Instead, the US could have Cuba take over all the interrogation of enemy combatants and treat them however they like, and pay Cuba a mutually agreed commission on every combatant who is executed.