Thread: Just Announced: Sen. Ted Kennedy Dead

• In 1966, Kennedy helped establish the community health center model in the United States. Community health centers are now serving 20 million low-income Americans around the country.
• In 1985, Kennedy led the fight to enact COBRA, giving workers the ability to purchase health care through their employer after they have been let go from their job.
• In 1996, Kennedy co-sponsored HIPPAA, which now ensures access to health care coverage for an estimated 25 million Americans who move from one job to another, are self-employed or have pre-existing medical conditions.
• In 1997, Kennedy was instrumental in passing the CHIP program that gives health care to millions of children.

I suppose you'd put 'Chappa' as his low point, but Ted Kennedy went on to become one of the acknowledged senior statesman in US politics. His closest to the heart concerns were mainly social- you might say liberal- but his ability to get agreements done and legislation passed across political lines was unparralleled. RIP.

Both very different of course, but between the Bush and Kennedy families you have two fairly remarkable political dynasties in US politics. As BBC said, Ted's passing is the end of an era.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

However, he was biggest enemy of the Constitution that has ever been elected.

Did you sleep through 2000 - 2008? Patriot Act? Domestic spying? Intentional misleading of the public to propagate a war?

Any of this ring a bell?

He was just going along with the popular crowd, Ant. Every one of those goons went along...

Originally Posted by Muadib

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Nothing special nor exceptional nor extraordinary about those Kennedys. Drones...

The Kennedy's were really good at making money from bootlegging...

Yeah. And, in part, helping to underwrite an early Nazi Germany.

Originally Posted by chitown

I am waiting for calls from the left to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.

Hmmmmm....interesting!!

In Kennedy's death, some see hope on health care - Yahoo! News
In Kennedy's death, some see hope on health care



Securing universal health care coverage for Americans was a decades-long quest that eluded Sen. Edward Kennedy . In the wake of his death, however, several key Democrats on Wednesday saw a chance to break what's become this year's stalemate by invoking his legacy and last wishes. "In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform, which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," Sen. Robert Byrd , D- W.Va. , said in a statement.
"The passion of his life was health care reform," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey , D- Wis. , said. "Above all else he would want us to redouble our efforts to achieve it."
However, it was also likely that without Kennedy, a deal would be even harder to get.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio , the House Republican leader, who worked closely with Kennedy on education legislation in 2001, said last month that "the thing I got to learn about Ted Kennedy is that he's a legislator. . . . He wants to sit down and work out the details."
Boehner said there was "no question" Kennedy's absence had affected the health care debate in Congress . "He would have been a big help, I think, to the president."
Sen. Orrin Hatch , R- Utah , who worked with Kennedy to expand children's health coverage and who's broken with his own party on stem-cell research issues, similarly recalled recently how he thought Kennedy would've handled the health care impasse.
"The first thing he would have done would have been to call me and say, 'Let's work this out, and we would work it out so that the best of both worlds would work," Hatch said.
The biggest impact of Kennedy's death, however, could be on his fellow Democrats who are divided over whether to create a public option to compete with private insurance, expand regional health insurance cooperatives, resist both because of concerns about spending and the impact on the private sector or hold out for a single-payer system that Obama himself doesn't support.
"The message will be we're doing it for the American people, which is why he wanted to get this done," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen , D- Md. , the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "In my view, he would not want this to be about him, it never was. It was about getting it done for the American people."
There was no universal agreement that a healthy Kennedy could've brought about a health-care compromise where the gulf between rival positions is enormous.
" Ted Kennedy over the years was never able to dominate that difficult issue," said Steven Schier , a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Schier recalled that Kennedy had failed in his push for President Bill Clinton's health care overhaul in 1993 and 1994.
President Barack Obama , in the immediate hours after Kennedy's death, chose not to speak publicly about the political next steps. White House aides declined to discuss any of the strategizing now going on within the president's inner circle or the Democratic Party .
Congressional Democrats said it wasn't yet clear whether there'd be a coordinated effort to invoke Kennedy or what, if any, role the Kennedy family would play in calling for unity and action on health care. However, a senior House aide, who wasn't authorized to discuss strategy and spoke anonymously, predicted that Kennedy would be a big part of efforts to win approval of some kind of health care legislation.
"You'll hear his name invoked quite a bit," the aide said.
It's no secret that health care had been a priority for Kennedy during his nearly five decades in the Senate . One of Kennedy's last public appearances was at a March town hall meeting Obama held on the topic, and Obama had consulted with Kennedy as recently as June on legislation.
Kennedy was open about his regrets that he defeated rather than found a way to work with President Richard Nixon's efforts to expand health coverage in the early 1970s.
At the time, Kennedy accused Nixon of partnering with insurance companies more than with doctors, patching a broken system rather than establishing a better one, and perpetuating a two-tiered system of the care, one for the poor and the other for the rich.
This time around, however, Kennedy's staff has engaged a working group that's included representatives from consumer groups, business, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and insurance industry officials.
Sen. Christopher Dodd , D- Conn. , a close Kennedy friend who took over the leadership responsibilities of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee when Kennedy was too ill to fulfill his chairman's duties, said he wanted others to heed a key Kennedy legislative lesson: Remember that you were elected to get things done, not simply offer your point of view.
Kennedy, Dodd recalled, had a history of working out compromises with Republicans — with Sen. Nancy Kassebaum , R- Kan. , on legislation to make health insurance more portable, and with President George W. Bush on the No Child Left Behind education plan.
One of those lessons, Dodd said, was don't give up.
"One lesson in health care was 'stay,' he would say," Dodd recalled. "Do it. Don't stop. Be polite; let everyone have their say, but stay with it."

"No matter where you watch television today – even if you turn on FOX – you are going to get the syrupy - everything they say is going to be predictable: let's put aside our differences for today and respect the great work and achievements of Sen. Kennedy. I am going to vomit and puke all over everyone with this analysis today."

The ever reliable Rush Limbaugh

"In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform, which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," Sen. Robert Byrd , D- W.Va. , said in a statement.

Originally Posted by sabang

"No matter where you watch television today – even if you turn on FOX – you are going to get the syrupy - everything they say is going to be predictable: let's put aside our differences for today and respect the great work and achievements of Sen. Kennedy. I am going to vomit and puke all over everyone with this analysis today."

Originally Posted by sabang

The ever reliable Rush Limbaugh

Hell with that man,………..listen to this asshole and what he said today. Lowlife filthy scumbag drug addict hypocrite

Rush Limbaugh didn't miss an opportunity to take a cheap -- and misguided -- shot at Senator Kennedy and health care today:

Link: http://www.americablog.com/2009/08/rush-limbaugh-proves-again-that-he-has.html

Originally Posted by Dean

. Say Chi, have you ever heard of Senator Joseph McCarthy?

The same McCarthy that Ted's brother, RFK, used as a political stepping stone when loyally lapping as a protege to Senator McCarthy and his later which hunts of the mid to late 50's? How progressive of the young Kennedy.

Just as the GOP has changed over the years, so have the Dem's. [Which is why I have no political party affiliation, and never will again.] The Dem's were not always the 'Progressive' party, in fact far from it. If anything, the southern Democrats were more bitterly opposed to desegregation and the Civil Rights movement than the then Republicans. And of course, politicians have always cynically played the 'Patriot' card for their own electoral benefit- nothing new there. RFK no exception.

It is probably true to say that the Dem's shift to more 'Progressive' politics occurred during the JFK & LBJ admin's. The GOP's shift further Right occurred under Reagan, and progressed from there. In response the Dem's also shifted Right to occupy the middle ground as well as the more progressive (but moderate) Left- in most respects they are a political alliance now, rather than a political platform.

Democrat Senator Robert Byrd is the senior ranking Senator. Nowadays, he is better known for his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, and opposition to the Neo-con clowns. But perhaps you don't know that he was a prominent, and public, member of the KKK. Check this out:-

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944

He of course changed over the years, as did the Political scene. But you don't think he benefited from his early political stance to get elected to Congress in the first place? He worked as a gas-station attendant, grocery-store clerk, shipyard welder during World War II, and butcher, before he won a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946.

Thats politics for you- a cynical business amidst a moving playing field.

Robert Byrd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by jandajoy

I have a personal story about Ed K. He might have been a waste of space and a murderer but on the one occasion I had anything to do with him he was excellent.

R.I.P.

I'm sure we would all like to hear it as a personal story is always more welcome than the ignorant bile and cynicism from people who only knew him from the headlines. Seems like America would have been a poorer place without the Kennedy brothers.

Did he ever shag Marilyn ?

Originally Posted by Nawty

Did he ever shag Marilyn ?

Didn't everyone?

Originally Posted by sabang

If anything, the southern Democrats were more bitterly opposed to desegregation and the Civil Rights movement than the then Republicans.

Don't know much about US politics, but was it not Johnson a southern democrat president who was largely responsible for getting the civil right act passed?

^ Johnson was Texan, and by the standards of the day, Progressive.
Southern & texan are not the same (cept maybe east TX), but the states is one helluva big place.

(glad I'm) Not A Kennedy
Shona Laing - Lyrics


Living on through politics

Body-guarded, heart in bits

A blue-eyed honesty

Indigo injury

The family tree is felled

Bereavement worn so well

Giving up on certainty

Wilderness society



Wearing the fame like a loaded gun

Tied up with a rosary

I'm glad I'm not a Kennedy



Imagine being a Kennedy

Rule without remedy

To watch your family die

The world loves a sacrifice

Prophets longing for the three

Honouring the tragedy

They hunger for the crime

The privilege to take a life



Wearing the fame like a loaded gun

Tied up with a rosary

Ooh, I'm glad I'm not a Kennedy



...and is not peace basically

A matter of human rights?

The right to live out our lives

Without fear of devastation?

The right to breathe air

As nature provided it?

The right of future generations

To a healthy existence?

Let us if we can step back from

The shadows of war and seek out

The way of peace...



I love the look in your eyes

I can see your soul sometimes and we laugh

When we try too hard we stop and start

Oh imagine being a Kennedy

I'm glad I'm not a Kennedy



Wearing the fame like a loaded gun

Tied up with a rosary

I'm glad I'm not a Kennedy



Imagine being a Kennedy

Ooh I'm glad I'm not a Kennedy



...the cost of freedom is always high,

Yet one path we shall never choose

- that is the path of surrender or submission.

When a man's way please the lord,

The scriptures tell us,

‘He maketh even his enemies

To be at peace with him'.

We will not prematurely or unnecessarily

Risk the course of worldwide nuclear war

In which even the fruits of victory

Would be ashes in our mouths

Ashes in our mouths...

Ashes in our mouths...

Ashes in our mouths...

(Extracts from John F Kennedy speeches, 1962)

getalyric.com

Originally Posted by Mid

(glad I'm) Not A Kennedy
Shona Laing - Lyrics

What a hideous performer, she can't sing and looks like an angry young lesbian social worker-yuk.

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by chitown

I feel bad for Mary Jo Kopechne

bullshit. you don't give a damn about her, and you know it.

you're simply trying (lamely, i might add) to score cheap political points.

Originally Posted by chitown

However, he was biggest enemy of the Constitution that has ever been elected.

as i posted previously, sometimes it's cute when you try to post on these political threads. but everyone reading this thread knows quite well that you don't know the first thing about kennedy's politcal history or the constitution.

but hey, go ahead and back it up, einstein....how was ted kennedy an enemy of the consitution?



let's eat!

OH! I want to see this one! Lets just see more right bullshit lies. The sad thing is that the people that vote for them are the ones most likely to benefit from the Senators life work. They are so brainwashed by guns and religion in their day to day lives that they can not dig or see beyond those two issues. Sad..

Originally Posted by chitown

I feel bad for Mary Jo Kopechne as he left her to die and never paid for the crime.

And I am sure you feel equally as bad for
this guy

Originally Posted by bsnub

OH! I want to see this one!

seems you'll have to wait.....he's watching FIX Noise to find out what to think.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

The ever reliable Rush Limbaugh
Hell with that man,………..listen to this asshole and what he said today. Lowlife filthy scumbag drug addict hypocrite

You have just shown everyone how uncouth, rabid libbies make retorts. Lots of profanity and personal insults. Disgusting, but typical.
Laura Bush killed a man when she didn't stop for a stop sign. Was she drunk? Did she run away and put off going to the police until the next morning? Oh, that's why Teddy didn't go to the cops when it happened, coz he was inebriated.