So much for Fidel's Today Show appearance

Someone better tell Penguin to cancel Fidel Castro's author tour.

The memoirs of the brutal communist dictator, based on interviews with "journalist" Ignacio Ramonet, were set to be published next March. But the Washington Post reports that U.S. intelligence believes the tyrant is close to death:

"Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years," [Director of National Intelligence John ] Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters.

Personally, I hope Fidel lingers for a while. Not only does he deserve a slow, painful death, but why give Penguin the publicity by having him kick the bucket just as this screed hits bookstores?