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Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77

ScottD said:
Did you vote before you were 21? You can thank Ted Kennedy for that. I also know he did many things on the Civil Rights front, I just can't name any specifics off of the top of my head.
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Really Scott? Ted was responsible for the 26th Amendment?

I can honestly state that the very first time I voted I was about 22. I registered as a Democrat. I was in Germany before that and was too busy working, traveling and having a hell of a good time to care about politics in the good ole USA. I was even fortunate enough to have been out of country for the whole Nixon debacle.

I am sure there are many more pieces of legislation that one could point to that Ted sponsored, this can't be that hard can it? After all, the man was in office for 40 years! :cool:
 
My guess is Kennedy's name will be attached to the bill and Democrats will have momentum.

The health reform debate is far from over. Kennedy's death breathed new life into it.

The longer it drags on, the better for the democrats.
 
The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty

As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.

1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark.. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally
Intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's' keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered
To give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several Houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later
Testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of- state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued . There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... A "token of friendship"?

8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for Liberalism". In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries..

9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to
mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous ass!

10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blonde in every pond" is his motto. Let's not allow the spin doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.
A LOT of the younger people don't have a clue about all of this, and us older ones tend to forget things that happened so many years ago. Although I HAVEN'T!
 
jujuman13 said:
The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty

As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.

1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark.. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally
Intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's' keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered
To give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several Houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later
Testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of- state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued . There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... A "token of friendship"?

8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for Liberalism". In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries..

9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to
mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous ass!

10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blonde in every pond" is his motto. Let's not allow the spin doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.
A LOT of the younger people don't have a clue about all of this, and us older ones tend to forget things that happened so many years ago. Although I HAVEN'T!
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Hear! Hear! lets view this man in his entirety......
 
Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for Liberalism". In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries..
Click to expand...

I'm confused as to how these accomplishments "seem scant".
 
40 years should have resulted in a ****load more, just maybe, you think
 
DeeJayH said:
40 years should have resulted in a ****load more, just maybe, you think
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It sounds like a description of a respectable if not distinguished career to me.
I don't know that any other senator would be able to claim to have accomplished "a ****load more".
 
jujuman13 said:
The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty

As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.

1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark.. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally
Intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's' keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered
To give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several Houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later
Testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of- state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued . There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... A "token of friendship"?

8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for Liberalism". In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries..

9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to
mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous ass!

10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blonde in every pond" is his motto. Let's not allow the spin doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.
A LOT of the younger people don't have a clue about all of this, and us older ones tend to forget things that happened so many years ago. Although I HAVEN'T!
Click to expand...


Here we go. First off, I bet you didn't write this... am I correct? Well if you're going to copy and paste writings that don't belong to you, then say so. I have no doubt this is a talking point memo. :roll:

Let me address point #5. Why is this such a big deal? Are you claiming he was the pilot, or was he simply a passenger?
 
He was one of the passengers. The pilot of the plane and one of Kennedy's aids, Edward Moss, were killed in the plane crash.
 
It is often the case that people on the opposing side wish to point out the flaws of a person's life after they die. Often times, these flaws have little to do with policy making and more to do with other issues.

He sounds like a man who had lost his way during his college years. I'm curious, do you all think that people don't mature and grow up?

Now, his alcoholism is an issue in terms of reputation. That is a serious illness and he needed help. I wish he could have overcome that issue. If there is no proof that he was drunk during the bridge accident nor that he wasn't in shock though, I seem to remember that we consider people innocent until proven guilty in this country. Sounds like the family of the young lady saw him as forthright in the end.

His record is exemplary and I will not go on to argue why. It's evident.

If his comments about women are deserving of disdain, and I think they are, I would hope that you think the same about McCain. I'm a feminist and both sides should keep their anti-women garbage to themselves or get educated and learn something about women. It urks me when this happens.

All of that said, his policy history is great and exemplary. He should be remembered for it.
 
My detestation for Ted Kennedy is mostly on policy.

He was nothing more than a "good intentioned" leftist who made a political career by using Government force to take from a productive section of society and give to another unproductive section under the rubric of being compassionate or a crusader for economic or social justice. He sought to break up the cultural and ethnic identity of this country by pushing a multiculturalist ideology in hopes that the new third-world immigrants he sought to bring here would become a large voting constituency for his political party - they have. He "fought" to increase the minimum wage of this country, which conveniently brought more money into coffers of Big Labor as Union contractual raises and wage negotiations are tied to the minimum wage.

As a person, he was a total hypocrite who posited him & his family as being for the "little guy" all the while enjoying a lavish lifestyle that most people in this country wouldn't even dream of...
 
So after one of the biggest Liberals who made a career of sucking off the Government teat, caustically bashing his political opponents in the arena of public opinion, backstabbing those who worked with him on legislation, falsely attacking and slandering Supreme Court Nominees and expecting everyone else to pay for his anti-poverty programs let's review what his Socialist agenda has done shall we?

Has his minimum wage programs made life better for the poor? Nope, the poor are still poor and now more dependent than ever on Government support.

Did the public housing program make life better for the poor and minorities? Nope, they created drug and rat infested habitats which after several decades were blown up because most were either vacant, in complete disrepair or filled with rats and druggies.

Did welfare make things better for the poor? Nope, all it did was to create a vast dependent class of citizens in this country.

The list is long folks; but the bottom line to Kennedy's Socialist endeavors is this; after spending $40 TRILLION on the fight to end poverty, the results are in and they suggest that the efforts to end poverty by confiscating great amounts of the nations wealth has resulted in ZERO.

I am always amused when Liberals, who's only solution to every problem appears to be larger Liberal run Government bureaucracies and confiscating MORE of our hard earned wealth. Results never mean anything to putzes like Kennedy; it is merely that you “publicly” CARED forget the results.

Forget teaching self esteem and personal responsibility, it's not your fault you chose to be an uneducated loser or pumping babies out like you are a factory. Forget teaching about self reliance, its not your fault you don't want that FREE education and perform the hard work to make something of yourself. Forget teaching about being a productive member of society, we can get OTHERS to provide FOR you.

Meanwhile, with Liberals infesting the halls of power in this Government we have seen a spending spree the likes we have never seen in decades with NO end in sight and without a single honest debate about how they are going to pay for all of this, and what do we get from these Democrat retards; its all Bush's fault.

Here's the Kennedy I remember:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0hdhLG0g6A&feature=related"]YouTube - Ted Kennedy Chappequiddick Lie[/nomedia]

Kennedy as a LIAR

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJtGj4GmtI&feature=related"]YouTube - Ted Kennedy on Surge in Iraq[/ame]
Kennedy being WRONG again.

Carry on. :2wave:
 
In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally
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hard to give a source
when i googled the above I got 2700 results LOL
 
The silenced majority said:
As a person, he was a total hypocrite who posited him & his family as being for the "little guy" all the while enjoying a lavish lifestyle that most people in this country wouldn't even dream of...
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with this statement; I don't think one is a hypocrite fighting for the little guy even though they may live a lavish lifestyle.

This is class envy, something I find abhorent. He was a hypocrite, but not for the reason cited above in my opinion.

:2wave:
 
Truth Detector said:
I have to disagree with this statement; I don't think one is a hypocrite fighting for the little guy even though they may live a lavish lifestyle.

This is class envy, something I find abhorent. He was a hypocrite, but not for the reason cited above in my opinion.

:2wave:
Click to expand...
he could have used his wealth to help others, while living a modest lifestyle
 
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