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Thursday, August 27, 2009
August 27 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Senator Edward M. Kennedy - Tempering The Paeans Of Praise
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now." August 27 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Tempering The Paeans Of Praise - Teddy Kennedy, Let Us Return Now To Those Terrible Days Of YesteryearPrefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [192kbps VBR 11:27 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] Twitter This Commentary |
There are 700,000 new cars on the road thanks to the cash-for-clunkers program and the program also caused some jobs to be re-instated in the US auto industry as well as the federal bureaucracy. Some say it helped the imports more than Detroit.
The Veterans Administration finally decides to treat 'Gulf War Syndrome' as a real disease instead of denying and rationalizing it's multitude of symptoms as non-service related. The VA is also cancelling a five-year research contract worth $75 million with Texas Southwestern Medical Center after just 2 of the 5 years due to 'persistent non-compliance' and 'performance deficiencies'.
A U.S. helicopter has been fired on while observing a pirate "Mother Ship" (Per AFP, "aboard a captured vessel") near the coast of Somalia.
A 51 second video of the incident (silent):
The Space Shuttle Discovery MIGHT get off the ground tonight with a 17 ton payload including the Stephen Colbert Memorial Treadmill (video @ RedOrbit).
July was the worst month of our eight year war on Afghanistan, it's culture, and people... But this month is shaping up to be a killer too with August figures rising to 44, last month's record, with five days to go. Meanwhile the TimeOnline UK thinks if we were winning, no body count is too high: "Success in Afghanistan could overcome qualms about the body count"
In the commentary this morning Travus describes an important part of modern US history, and some say the falling out between Kennedy and then president Carter was responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan, and what came afer... inclusive of the outlaw Bush 'administration'.
I have 'boilerplated' some entries from Wikipedia about Senator Kennedy, former president Jimmy Carter, and the 1980 presidential campaign that illustrate the rift, for your perusal and further research.
But first, some praise, from the Economist, UK:
At his best, Mr Kennedy was a fine orator. Less than an hour after President Reagan nominated Robert Bork, a fierce conservative, to the Supreme Court, he was skewering him on the Senate floor. “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution…and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens,” he thundered. “There was not a line in that speech that was accurate,” wailed Judge Bork afterwards.Wikipedia's pertinent comments about Senator Edward Kennedy:
[In Full]
The Carter administration years were Kennedy's least successful as a politician.[70] He had been the most important Democrat in Washington ever since his brother Robert's death, but now Carter was, and Kennedy at first did not have a committee chairmanship with which to wield influence.[70] Despite generally similar ideologies, their priorities were different, and Carter did not push Kennedy's top issue of national health insurance.[70]
Kennedy and his wife Joan separated in 1977, although they still staged joint appearances at some public events.[71] Kennedy visited China on a goodwill mission in late December 1977, meeting with leader Deng Xiaoping and eventually gaining permission for a number of Chinese to leave the country; in 1978, he also visited the Soviet Union and Brezhnev and dissidents there again.[72]
Kennedy did become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1978, by which time he had amassed a wide-ranging senate staff of a hundred.[73]
Carter and Kennedy had another falling out on national health care during 1978, capped by Carter's concern about the proposed $60 billion cost and Kennedy's speech at the Democratic mid-term convention saying "Sometimes a party must sail against the wind."[74][75][76]
1980 presidential campaign
Kennedy finally threw his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination in the 1980 presidential election by launching an unusual, insurgent campaign against the incumbent Carter...
[In Full, with more linkage, at Wikipedia]
More details in the Wikipedia entry about Jimmy Carter:
As president, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II). Carter sought to put a stronger emphasis on human rights; he negotiated a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. His return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama was seen as a major concession of US influence in Latin America, and Carter came under heavy criticism for it. The final year of his presidential tenure was marked by several major crises, including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran and holding of hostages by Iranian students, an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. By 1980, Carter's disapproval ratings were significantly higher than his approval, and he was challenged by Ted Kennedy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 election. Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination, but lost the election to Republican Ronald Reagan...
[In Full, with more linkage, at Wikipedia]
The Wikipedia entry for the 1980 Democratic Convention:
The 1980 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party nominated President Jimmy Carter for President and Vice President Walter Mondale for Vice President. The convention was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City from August 11 to August 14, 1980.
The 1980 convention was notable as it was the last time in the 20th century, for either major party, that a candidate tried to get delegates released from their voting commitments. This was done by Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Carter's chief rival for the nomination in the Democratic primaries, who sought the votes of delegates held by Carter... [In Full @ Wikipedia]
Finally, for perspective, the 1980 Demcratic Primary, and a backgrounder, from the Democratic Underground:
"One of the issues that has been raised since Senator Edward Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama is the 1980 democratic primary, when Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter. There are people who have an agenda which includes using that to discredit Kennedy, by blaming him for Carter’s eventual loss to Ronald Reagan. The implication is, of course, that Senator Kennedy is again taking an underhanded action that harms the legitimate democratic candidate, and is selfishly putting our nation at risk of another republican victory.
Kennedy’s challenge of Carter is an interesting and important episode in the democratic party’s history. A real discussion of the events that led to Ted Kennedy entering the primary should be encouraged. It is important, however, to consider the event in a larger context, rather than in the simple semi-mythical story that intends only to arouse emotions.
A couple of issues that were important include events surrounding Iran, and the domestic economic problems that the Carter administration seemed incapable of dealing with. I’m going to attempt to put some of this in a context that might help people who are either too young to remember, or who perhaps have forgotten some of this, to understand not only "how" it happened – but more importantly, "why."
In 1972, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were attempting to deal with changes in the Middle East. They traveled to Teheran, where Nixon asked the Shah of Iran to act as the protector of US interests in the region. (I am assuming that DUers have an understanding of the US history with the Shah.)
The Shah agreed to help Nixon, in return to an almost unlimited supply of sophisticated military weapons. Nixon, of course, would soon be removed from the picture; Kissinger continued to play a role in US policy, and the support to the Shah would continue without limit during the Ford years. We will return to this topic soon.
One of the democrats that Richard Nixon was most concerned with was Senator Ted Kennedy..." [IN FULL]
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