Paxety Pages

The inimitable Mark Steyn has a final word on John Kerry. With Steyn, the overall theme of the article is great, but the wonderfulness of his writing is in the little bits.

A vain thin-skinned condescending blueblood with no sense of his own ridiculousness, Senator Nuancy Boy is secure in little else except his belief in his indispensability.

...what he said fits what too many upscale Dems believe: that America's soldiers are only there because they're too poor and too ill-educated to know any better. That's what they mean when they say "we support our troops." They support them as victims, as children, as potential welfare recipients, but they don't support them as warriors and they don't support the mission.

Mora, writing at Babalu, has news on Red-Ken Livingstone's latest cavorting with our favorite Mico Putumayo, hugo chavez.

Jose at Cubanology writes about Individuality and Freedom - something worth a serious ponder on this election day.

Individuality is very special, for one who chooses to comfortably cover them self with its large amount of honorable status will understand how important it is to them and their fellow man but most importantly, to freedom.

The Conductor at Cuban American Pundits writes about what today's vote may mean for your pocketbook.

As a fiscal conservative, I'm very upset with the spending spree this Congress has engaged in and how the President has gone along with it but if you think the Democrats are going to be any better in this respect, you are going to be very disappointed.

And CB at Killcastroblog has an analysis of the state of fidel's health.

Kasstro’s being used as a decoy by raul and the other members of the governing junta to distract us from what’s really happening.

Read them all.

And finally, I have to say something about Jimmy Carter, but I don't know the words to express my thoughts.  Here's the photo if you haven't seen it. That's right, it's our feckless former president yucking it up with Daniel Ortega - who has just been reelected president of Nicaragua.  Carter, or course, allowed this communist thug to take control of the country in the 70s.  Could the man we called Goober when he was governor of Georgia hope to be making a presidential comeback, too?

Carter helped monitor the Nicaraguan elections. It's his fourth time there, and he gave an interview to NPR touting himself and excusing the Sandinistas:

JC: Well, of course the dominant factor in Nicaragua has been the rise and fall and then the rise and now the contention of the Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega. And, as you know, the United States government has done all it could in recent years to prevent Ortega from being elected, and they have expressed a strong preference for other candidates who opposed him. This has been equaled I would say on the other hand by the fact that the leaders from Venezuela have seemed to prefer the election of Daniel Ortega.

DE: In fact, President Chavez has actually offered cut-rate gas and fertilizer to Sandinista officials there.

JC: That's correct. They have authorized the distribution of some oil through the government itself headed by President Bolaños, and also fertilizer at a low reduced price to some of the farmers, and, in that case, the Sandinistas distributed the fertilizer. At the same time, the U.S. government through its ambassador and through other representatives have publicly condemned Ortega and endorsed other candidates.

So, Jimmy recognizes that El Mico Putumayo was bribing his way into Nicaraguan politics, but finds moral equivalence in the US publicly condemning Ortega. Typical Carter-think. Then there's this foolishness:

DE: Should the U.S. be concerned about the prospect of an Ortega presidency?

JC: Well, I'm not sure. This is our 67th election around the world. We have experience in many different kinds of elections. And I don't think there's any doubt that Ortega has attempted to change his reputation. In the past, for instance, the election, say in 1990, his colors were red and black, his symbol was a fighting rooster, and his words were very harsh. This time his campaign manager is his wife Rosario, and now the major colors on his billboards are pastels, and his major appeal is to peace and reconciliation. He endorses a principle of free enterprise instead of socialism. So he's tried to change his attitude in the public's mind, and whether he'll succeed we won't know until the votes are counted.

DE: I've read where he's using John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" as his campaign theme song.

JC: Yes, that's true. And of course, as you know, in many countries around the world -- my wife and I have visited about 125 countries -- you hear John Lennon's song “Imagine” used almost equally with national anthems. So John Lennon has had a major impact on some of the countries that are developing in the world.

This is one of the best examples of symbolism over substance I've ever seen.  Changing the colors and symbol and song of a campaign is indicative of a change in a proven brutal dictator?

As I said, I don't have words for this.