Senator Ted Kennedy 1932 - 2009

Edward Kennedy via last.fm

Senator Edward Kennedy died after a long bout with cancer late Tuesday night. He was 77. For many people he was the last of the Kennedy brothers & bearer of the torch. To me, he was my senator for most of my life & that is the way I will remember him.


Growing up in Western Massachusetts, the name Kennedy was the only name you ever heard. In fact, when I was younger, I used to hate the Kennedys. Teddy at the time was seen as a buffoon; a lying, drunk, womanizing, bloated rich kid. Mitt Romney almost defeated him in 1994 until Kennedy staged a late election surge. One of the Boston radio stations, WAAF, had a morning radio guy, Greg Hill, who used to have a Kennedy impersonator as one of his cast of characters. The guy would come on the radio with a thick low “Bah-stan” accent, say things like “eer-up”, then crack open a beer & go into drunken slurred speech. High comedy back in the 70s & 80s in the state.

It wasn’t until I got older that I realized just what Ted Kennedy accomplished. I grew to like, then love, him for what he had done for Massachusetts & the country as a whole. For the state, what he did will never be equaled. He sent so much money for construction projects, schools, homeless shelters, & the like. He authored a lot of legislation; so much so, that he is now known as the most effective legislator in the history of the U.S. Senate. Many laws & programs are enjoyed by all Americans because of Kennedy; from COBRA to Meals on Wheels to the Americans with Disabilities Act to health insurance for poor kids. He did it by reaching across the aisle to republicans & compromising. He didn’t bash people over the head, although he was known as someone you’d never really want to cross in a battle, but he always got the job done. Today’s Congress would be wise to learn from how Kennedy got legislation passed. Unfortunately, they also could learn about civility when someone passes. The conservatives have had a field day today trashing Sen. Kennedy. One, Michelle Malkin, has taken the word bitch to a whole other level with a post on you tube. Very shamefull. If even Mitt Romney can say something nice about Ted, why can't she or at least, shut the f*** up.

There’s already been a lot of talk today about how health care reform will not pass now because Sen. Kennedy is not there to get the legislation through. Maybe now because of his untimely passing, senators will double their efforts & pass health care reform in honor of him; much like civil rights legislation was passed in honor of his brother John after his assassination.

HBO ran a special Teddy: In His Own Words last month. I hope they run it again. If you get the chance, watch it. It’s a great history on what the man went through; from his family’s tragedies to his plane & car crashes to his many triumphs. His was a life well lived. We should all be so lucky. God speed, Teddy. May you finally rest in peace.

Mitt Romney's Health Care

Mitt Romney wrote an op ed piece in USA Today http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/mr-president-whats-the-rush.html?poe=HFMostPopular about the health care system & Massachusetts's solutions in dealing with it. The piece is entitled "Mr. President, What's the Rush". Romney's two points in the piece is that health care reform doesn't have to happen now & that republicans are not the enemy.
Mitt Romney is wrong on at least one of those points. Time is of the essense. There's a reason why it's taken 50 years to get this far with reform. It's because the people who are against it are well funded & entrenched. Every president has started to attempt reform & have been driven back, leaving it to the next person. In the meantime, people die from a broken system that helps the very few get richer & richer.
As far as the republicans go, there are some who want to see the system change, while the vast majority want to see the president fail. They want to try to score a victory against President Obama. They could care less about the American people & trying to fix the system. To them, this is a game. Well, the American people need to tell them that this is not a fucking game!!! There are people dying because they either can't afford to get the proper care or they've been turned away due to a cruel system. This has to stop. What better time than now to stop it? The time is now to fix it. There should be no more delays & stall strategies. Peoples lives depend on it.

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Iran & Obama

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It seems the drumbeats for President Obama to be more forceful with Iran are growing louder. Both Mitt Romney & John McCain have come out in favor of an aggressive stance concerning our relationship with the Iranian dictator. Even I on Sunday was practically screaming at the computer, wondering why Obama wasn’t saying much about the Iranian election. What I now realize is that much like Romney, McCain, & other Republicans, I would be wrong.
The fact of the matter is that Obama can’t be too forceful at this moment for a few reasons. For starters, there is an extremely good chance that despite the election being rigged, the group that runs Iran now will be the same group that’s running it a year from now. Since they’re developing nuclear weapons, we’ll more than likely have to negotiate with them. Best not to get them more riled up than they already are at the moment.
The second & more important reason is that if Obama says that he stands with the reformers, he’ll look like he’s meddling in Iranian politics & handing President Ahmadihijad a rather large propaganda tool to use against the reformers. The Iranian people may not like their leaders but they like America less. If we pick sides, at least at the moment, we will help to defeat the reform movement. As much as it pains me, it’s best to let the Iranians work it out for themselves right now & step in if things don’t go the way we want them to. It looks like so far, the tepid response is working. The supreme leader of Iran has switched positions & has now called for an investigation into the election. Also, we found out today that the State Department asked Twitter to postpone its maintenance shutdown so that the Iranian protesters could keep twittering so the US is helping the reformers, just behind the scenes.
As far as why the Republicans want a tougher response to the crisis right now, it makes perfect sense. They’re not in power so talking tough has no political downside for them. It also makes Obama look weak in the eyes of Americans like me who would like a tougher response. I don’t envy the president right now.