~ happy birthday to jimmy carter, georgia state senator, founder of the carter center, and author of ‘The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer’. you can break off a greeting to him at his website [w].

~ y’all know how non-partisan we are here at the angry red planet and how much contempt we have for the contrivances of electoral campaigns such as the highly orchestrated presidential debates, but how tight was the line about the cuban missle crisis and current u.s. credibility?

…We can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle.

And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, “Here, let me show you the photos.”

And DeGaulle waved them off and said, “No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.”

How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we’ve done, in that way?
–john kerry

that is the broad view of the nation as something more than a playing field for political teams which we appreciate more – though only slightly – than localized swipes such as Kerry’s “…today, there are four to seven nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea. That happened on this president’s watch.”

admittedly, it was nice to hear kerry acknowledge that he visits the angry red planet, as evidenced by his mention of our najaf policy.

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