Castro Rails on Bush Address

President Bush’s latest State of the Union address was his worst yet, according to Fidel Castro, full of “demagoguery, lies, and a total lack of ethics.” Castro hasn’t shown himself since 2006 emergency surgery, but a scathing essay was published in his name in today’s Cuban papers, ripping Bush for everything from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US' bulging deficit.

“For a population that knows how to read, write, and think, nobody can offer a more elegant criticism of the empire than Bush himself,” Castro wrote, saying Bush’s “external expressions” during Monday's speech spoke volumes more than “the words written by his advisers.” The 81-year-old Castro stepped aside as president after the surgery, but still heads Cuba’s supreme governing body. (More Cuba stories.)