CHAPPAQUIDDICK

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THERE. WE SAID IT. ANYBODY GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY?



THE LAST OF THE 1960's KENNEDY BROTHERS IS DEAD. LET THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION BEGIN!


YOUTUBE: ANOTHER KENNEDY FUNERAL
"Robert Kennedy Funeral- Eulogy delivered by Senator Edward Kennedy"
"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'



"Teddy Was A Murderer. Teddy Was Fat. Teddy Was A Drunk. Teddy Divorced His Wife."

Worst of all, Teddy Kennedy was a liberal. And a damned effective one, too; a rarity in our conservatively-gridlocked government. Out of sheer Irish stubbornness, Teddy persevered. He never wanted to be a politician. He was never quite ready to go all the way. But he could not let the murder of his two older brothers stand. He could not let the assassins win. He may have been reluctant to pick up the banner and lead the charge, but he did pick it up and he did fight on. And for that we all owe him and his entire family our gratitude.

In our corporate medieval State, only the rich may hold high office. Those who are not extremely wealthy, or in their employ, are not even entitled to an opinion. We technoserfs do have the enhanced ability to communicate and express our opinions to each other, but no one in power will ever hear us: Except those who choose to take up our cause, out of enlightened self-interest, a guilty conscience, noblesse oblige, actual concern or whatever: It hardly matters why. There are so damned few millionaires and billionaires who are even aware much less concerned about the problems of the peasantry that we peasants can not afford to be too critical of them when they do work for us, the plebian majority, and not for their own ilk, the aristocratic minority.

So, even if all the worst things that the corporate technobility and their lackeys can say about such rare champions of the commoners should turn out to be true, all that really matters is that they fought for our side. They were among the very few who were willing to give us peons even a small voice in our own affairs. Without these few knights errant, we would have absolutely no say, and no stake in the grand illusion once known as the American Dream. And now that Teddy Kennedy is dead, we all have that much less influence on our own "democratic" government. So, yes, we have reason to mourn. Our healthcare may have just died with him.

As to the peccadilloes, real or imagined, we suspect that they are no worse than the high crimes and misdemeanors which mark every phase of the careers of our leading opponents on the corporatist side. And if Teddy Kennedy did commit any offenses, they were not offenses against us, the people. The worst offenses of all liberals and progressives combined would never rise to the level of perfidy and harm to the interests of average Americans as did conservative and crypto-Fascist crimes such as the Great Depression of Herbert Hoover; the military-industrial complex of Dwight Eisenhower; COINTELPRO, the Phoenix Program and the Watergate Break-In of Richard Nixon; the pardon of Nixon by Gerald Ford; the trashing of our standard of living and the Iran-Contra Affair of Ronald Reagan; the betrayal of our troops and the sell-out to the oil companies in the First Gulf War of George HW Bush; or the looting of our economy and the high treason of allowing or perpetrating 9/11 by George "Dubya" Bush and Dick Cheney. No amount of private personal wrong-doing by Democrats, real or imagined, will ever equate with the actual documented public official crimes against all Americans committed by Republican after Republican after Republican after Republican.

As to the events of 7/18/69, we have heard it said, in Teddy Kennedy's defense, that his brakes were tampered with, or that the bridge at Chappaquiddick was. We have seen accounts claiming that the Kennedy's realized this and that their slow response to that tragic accident was due to uncertainty as to whether to make an accusation that they could not immediately prove as to deliberate sabotage in that incident. They may have realized that, whether the "accident" was in fact an attempt at assassinating Teddy Kennedy, or merely an attempt at character assassination, all they could do was try to limit the damage, and soldier on in the cause of the common man.

If this was a cold political calculation, there are no warm ones. Nor were there many soldiers left standing to fight for us average Joe's & Josie's. The dark days of Nixon were upon us, JFK, RFK & MLK were dead, and Teddy and a handful of others in Congress were all we had. We are glad that they did soldier on in our cause, which otherwise might have been lost along with Mary Jo Kopechne's life. May she rest in peace, and may we some day know whether she was the victim of an assassination attempt gone wrong or not. (Unlikely as that may seem, more unlikely things have happened.)

What went right is that Teddy Kennedy became a senior member of our national legislature, able to use his power and influence on our behalf, which he did for almost another forty years. That is the real reason he was targeted, if not for assassination then for character assassination, every day of his life. He withstood that and, in doing so, justified the faith that working people everywhere had in him and his family. In poor and working class homes, black, white, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American, in all fifty States and various Territories, there are pictures hanging of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, icons of courage and sacrifice, symbols of justice and solidarity, reminders of our values and our aspirations. The late Democratic Massachusetts senior Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's portrait belongs in every household beside those other champions of social and economic justice.

The power of these images, the strength we derive from them, may be the reason why, until recently, the Right stopped even talking about making everlasting martyrs out of our liberal & progressive champions. It proved easier and more effective to simply slander them out of public life and end their political effectiveness: Thomas Eagleton, Edmund Muskie, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, et al, fell victim to the corporate conservatives' "politics of personal destruction." A public used to suckling at the toxic glass teat with the perspicacity of newborns was easily led into voting against their own interests by the tame corporate media moo-cows. We can only hope that they are weaning themselves off that poisoned boob, and are coming to recognize their own interests and their own enemies.

Despite all the snide asides we will witness on the boob tube in the next days and weeks, let us all always remember, Teddy Kennedy was on our side. You can tell by the kind of people who will take one last opportunity to kick him, now that he is down for good. At least Teddy, often alone among the one hundred millionaires in the United States Senate, stood up for us. You done good, Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, and may you rest in peace.
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THE SECRET WAR

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US "ADVISORS" "TRAINING" PAKISTANI TROOPS

US "ADVISORS" "TRAINED" SOUTH VIETNAMESE TROOPS, IN THE BEGINNING

YOUTUBE: CBS: THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR [1968]
"Pete Seeger: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"
Pete tried to warn us.


Before You Knew It, We Were Ass-Deep In The Big Muddy. And The Big Fool Said To Push On.

Certain terms will stick in the mind, intended though they are to avoid our attention altogether, or confuse it. "Terminate with extreme prejudice" turned out to mean "kill," in plain English. "Extraordinary rendition," is kidnapping on an international scale. "Advisors" are combat troops we don't want to acknowledge sending into situations where they don't belong.

The United States had "advisors" in Vietnam in the 1950's. Evidently, their advice wasn't very good. In 1965, we sent the whole First Marine Division in to "advise" the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army out of existance. Nine years later, we got our asses kicked out of there, with 58,000 dead, 300,000 wounded, and untold thousands of mentally disabled and drug-addicted Americans, some of whom are still homeless today, to show for our "advice." The war put us into a decade-long recession, and sidetracked progressive programs for forty years. Vietnam was left a bloody mess, from which they are only just starting to recover. They lost millions of souls, men and women, children and old people, civilian and military. Their country was destroyed. We dropped more bombs on them than on Germany & Japan combined in WWII. That was Nixon's "secret plan for peace": Bomb them back to the Stone Age, as the Air Force gleefully put it. It didn't work.

No one knows what the secret plan is now. It's a secret. One wonders if our new President has been fully informed. Once they get rolling, our military seems to just keep rollin' along, no matter who is the putative CIC, or what new policies are put in place. Obama did promise to move the "War on Terror" to Afghanistan, and to pursue Al Qaida into Pakistan "if necessary." So, maybe he did order these "advisors" in. Maybe he is the one planning a major long-term commitment in South-West Asia, or maybe he's just going along with his generals, like LBJ did in Vietnam. But we don't know, do we? It's a secret. From us, the taxpaying voters of the United States.

Maybe we should ask. Yeah, we'd like to crush Al Qaida and capture Bin Laden. Yeah, we have to straighten out the messes we made in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we voted to end the war, not to extend or expand it. We don't want to start another mess in Pakistan. After all, they have nukes, and missiles to deliver them. And they're chronically corrupt and unstable, with the constant threat of war with India, and terrorism from within. They make their other neighbors, like Iran and China, very nervous too. It might not be such a good idea to start another Vietnam in Pakistan, from which we might have to run away with our tail between our legs because it just ain't do-able, no way, no how, any more than Vietnam ever was. Except we'd be leaving behind a nuclear-missile-armed potential Islamic fundamentalist State that would have very good reason, as Iran does, to be hostile to the West. Especially toward us, the tax-paying voters of the United States.

So, hey, advisors. Let's think about this. Before we get ourselves ass-deep in another Big Muddy. A radioactive one.


ABC NEWS WWSB TV7 SARASOTA, FL
"US advisers training Pakistani troops"
They're admitting to 30, multiply by a Military Bull Sh*t Factor of ten, so that's at least 300. And now it's escalating.

' A U.S. effort to train Pakistani troops in their fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban is larger than previously acknowledged. The New York Times reports the task force of about 70 advisers is helping the Pakistanis with intelligence and advises them on combat tactics. But it isn't taking part in any fighting. The Times report cites U.S. military officials. Most of the advisers are Army Special Forces soldiers. They include combat medics and communications specialists. Last year, Pakistani army officers said about 30 American advisers were training troops in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border. '

NY TIMES
"Secret U.S. Unit Trains Commandos in Pakistan "
Not so secret any more. Let's see, official Army body count of 60, divided by an MBS Factor of ten, so we got six guys. Oh, and we're running Pakistani Air Force operations out of the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. Spooky.

' They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command. It started last summer, with the support of Pakistan’s government and military, in an effort to root out Qaeda and Taliban operations that threaten American troops in Afghanistan and are increasingly destabilizing Pakistan. It is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged. Pakistani officials have vigorously protested American missile strikes in the tribal areas as a violation of sovereignty and have resisted efforts by Washington to put more troops on Pakistani soil. President Asif Ali Zardari, who leads a weak civilian government, is trying to cope with soaring anti-Americanism among Pakistanis and a belief that he is too close to Washington. Despite the political hazards for Islamabad, the American effort is beginning to pay dividends. A new Pakistani commando unit within the Frontier Corps paramilitary force has used information from the Central Intelligence Agency and other sources to kill or capture as many as 60 militants in the past seven months, including at least five high-ranking commanders, a senior Pakistani military official said. In addition, a small team of Pakistani air defense controllers working in the United States Embassy in Islamabad ensures that Pakistani F-16 fighter-bombers conducting missions against militants in the tribal areas do not mistakenly hit remotely piloted American aircraft flying in the same area or a small number of C.I.A. operatives on the ground, a second senior Pakistani officer said. '

OLIVE DRAB.COM
"Vietnam: U.S. Advisors 1955-1965"
A little parallel history: Advisors on the march.

' The U.S. military advisory effort in Vietnam had a modest beginning in September 1950, when the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, was established in Saigon. Its mission was to supervise the issuance and employment of $10 million of military equipment to support French legionnaires in their effort to combat Viet Minh forces. By 1953 the amount of U.S. military aid had jumped to over $350 million and was used to replace the badly worn World War II vintage equipment that France, still suffering economically from the devastation of that war, was still using.
. . .
By 1961 the steady progress of the insurgency was near crisis levels. The new Kennedy administration increased American support for the Diem regime to prevent a collapse. By December of 1961, 3,200 U.S. military personnel were in Vietnam as advisors, supported by $65 million in military equipment and $136 million in economic aid. Military assistance was reorganized as the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), formed under the command of General Paul D. Harkins in February 1962. MACV was there to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to defend the country. MACV included Army Special Forces (Green Beret) instructors and CIA personnel organizing the Montagnards in the mountains.
. . .
South Vietnam was going to fall to the Communists unless the U.S. intervened, but Pres. Johnson hesitated to increase the commitment of troops, trying to balance his interest in big domestic programs against the mounting crisis in Southeast Asia. Then came an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, 2 August 1964. '

DIGITAL HISTORY
"Learn About the Vietnam War"
A majority of the Vietnamese people just didn't want us there. But their corrupt, incompetent, hated US puppet government couldn't live without us.

' To support the South’s government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisers, a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963 South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Vietcong. In 1965, Johnson escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces, which numbered 536,000 in 1968. '

GLOBAL SECURITY.ORG
"‘Big Red One’ Takes on Iraq Military Advisor Training Mission"
Advisor = Advance Man. Iraqi Security Forces = ARVN. "War On Terror" = Vietnam.

' An entire Army combat division has been given the mission of training U.S. military advisors for duty within Iraqi army and police units, a senior U.S. military officer in Baghdad said yesterday. The U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kan., is now responsible for training U.S. advisors for service in Iraq, Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Advisory Group, told reporters at a news conference in the Iraqi capital city. The change represents “a huge investment,” Pittard said, noting two brigade combat teams based at Riley also are committed to training advisors. Pittard said he works in tandem with Army Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff, commander of the Coalition Military Assistance and Training Team. Pittard and Wolff, who also attended the press briefing, have oversight over military advisors that support the Iraqi army, the national police, as well as the Department of Border Enforcement. “We really cover two different areas, but have very, very similar goals, and that is to support the Iraqi security forces,” Pittard said. '

YAHOO NEWS
"US, Iraqi forces launch anti-al-Qaida offensive"
"Support" only. So, nobody is at risk? MBSF is off the charts!

' The offensive comes more than a year after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised a "decisive" battle in Mosul against al-Qaida in Iraq. But Iraq's third-largest city has continued to face violence, particularly against Iraqi security forces. Al-Jubouri said American troops were only providing support, if needed. '

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
"Sunni lawmaker wanted in connection for Green Zone attacks"
And this guy is IN the government. He shoulda heard about the Surge by now. This is not going well.

' A Sunni Arab lawmaker is wanted in connection for a string of retaliation attacks and mortar strikes on the fortress-like Green Zone compound after a pair of his senior bodyguards stepped forward with incriminating confessions, a military official said Sunday. The two ex-bodyguards said Sunni parliament member Mohammed al Dayni ordered them to carry out a 2007 attack on a Green Zone cafeteria in which a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest. One lawmakers died and 22 others were wounded. '

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Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

SENATOR MEOW!!!

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CATFIGHT IN THE BIG APPLE

BILLARY SAYS CAROLINE KENNEDY "UNQUALIFIED":
"SHE'S JUST A RESUME WITH FAMILY CONNECTIONS"



And Hillary's Not Talking About Herself, For A Change

It seems like only yesterday that some catty New Yorkers were saying that Hillary Clinton was nothing but a resume, an empty pants-suit, trying to play on the big heart of the Big Apple with her sad connection to her disgraced husband, ex-POTUS & world-class poon-hound Slick Willie Clinton, in grabbing the Bobby Kennedy seat in the U.S. Senate. In fact, it was just yesterday that people all over the world were saying this about Hill's nomination to the post of U.S. Secretary of State. Other than ducking imaginary fire in Bosnia, and serving tea to other First Ladies in the Rose Garden, what the Hell does Hillary Rodham Clinton know about foreign affairs?

As to diplomacy, it's hard to imagine a candidate less qualified by temperament or style. When tasked with straightening out our national health care mess, an issue almost everyone thought needed attention, Hillary's imperious and secretive ways, her abrasive and dismissive personality, and her husband's philandering pretty much set the cause back twenty years. Just THINK what she could do in the cause of whirled peas, or international security! Oh, well, she knows where Israel is, or the AIPAC office, anyway. You can see it from her office. That's all that really matters.

That's pretty much all that really matters in being Senator from New York, also; besides shipping jobs out of State and overseas. From Jacob Javits to Charley Rangel, New York's congressfolk have established a tradition of not serving their constituencies, unless you count foreign countries. So, who needs experience? It hasn't hurt, or helped Hillary, her lack of it. Who even notices who fills that seat in the Millionaires Club?

I guess the Clintons do. They seem to think they own that seat now, though many NYers still contest their right to have ever even occupied it in the first place. Maybe it's Hillary's Illinois origins. You think she'd be more sensitive about that, in the midst of the Blagojevitch scandal. But, no, Billary wants what Billary wants, regardless of whom it hurts, or whom it doesn't help.

They don't care any more about the people of New York than they did about the people of the whole country during the recent election, when both Hill' and Billy stooped to unheard-of lows in attacking Obama violently and racially, even hinting that, as a black man, he could be assassinated. They seemed to be calling for Obama's killing, in many people's eyes. Despite this, Obama has given them an olive branch, a lot of them, a whole freakin' olive tree in Cabinet & staff picks. It just ain't enough. They want it all. They're the ultimate power-junkie couple. They just can't manage power once they get it. They haven't a clue, or an ideology, or principles, or any respect for Democratic traditions and institutions.

"F*ck Ted Kennedy," as fellow Southron Governor and failed President Jimmy Carter once said. Teddy's dying, but so what? The Kennedy legacy, so central to Democratic iconography and popular mythology, is not good for the crackerocracy of the DINO's. After all, Jack and Bobby split with the Dixiecrats over civil rights, and they may have killed the brothers for it. No bad blood there, hunh? The few blue dog Democrats (In Name Only) who remained with or returned to the Party after the Civil Rights Era are really Republicans, based on their opposition to everything Democratic except the voting trends in their own jurisdictions.

Some Southerners never could bring themselves to vote for the Party of Lincoln, their vanquisher in the Civil War. They may have voted Democrat, but they continually dragged the Party into the conservative swamps. Thanks to them even more than the Republicans, who used to be in the minority much of the time, the progressive agenda was never achieved. National health, federal funding for education, housing, transportation, the environment, etc, and the cause of peace on Earth got held off and put back and shot down every year for the last hundred years. In fact, the DINO's helped get conservative Republicans elected, and even pushed their arch-conservative, anti-progressive agenda. Zell Miller, anyone?

Still, we're supposed to work with these people, a minority within a minority. Why? Because they're armed & dangerous, with a history of political violence? Isn't that negotiating with terrorists? Shouldn't we be fighting these *ssholes, tooth & nail? The recent Presidential and Congressional elections show that the sixty per cent who rarely vote are in fact progressives, not conservatives. Even in the South, record turnouts turned out for a perceived progressive for President and many other offices. The fact that Obama is now squandering that historic victory, that sea-change in American politics, is a victory for the minority DINO's, and a major betrayal of his own vast but diminishing base.

Are the DINO's happy with that? Nope. They gotta have that NY Senatorial spot, too; just to show who's boss, once and for all. They're pissing a line in the sand on this one. How it turns out will show which way Obama is ultimately headed: Toward the right-of-center, or toward the left-of-center. (There is nothing further left than left-of-center in this country, outside of the graveyards.) Will Obama be able to govern the Clintonians, much less the country? The only hope is that all his moves so far have been part of a grand design to give the Clintonista's a chance to discredit themselves with their usual squabbling and bungling, and kick them out of the Party altogether. Of course, then they'll just come back as Republicans In Name Only, still furthering their principle-free, power-for its-own sake agenda. Clinton-Palin 2016, anyone?

No. I didn't think so.


CBS NEWS 2 NYC
"Caroline Kennedy Ready To Emerge From The Shadows"
Female, mom, has worked for children's issues, education, health care, smart, tough, dedicated, politically inclined, well-connected. Hum. Sounds just like Hillary, with better baggage. Much better. Oh, wait, she's gracious and well-spoken, genuine, natural, unpretentious and has a sense of humor. No, she's nothing like Hillary.

' It is a Senate seat that has long been held by political celebrities who had not held prior elective office. First Lady Hillary Clinton grabbed the seat in 2000. Robert F. Kennedy got it in 1965. Now, Caroline Kennedy wants Gov. Paterson to give it to her. Caroline Kennedy is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Law. She has also written seven books, helped Barack Obama select a vice presidential running mate, and in New York City has raised millions for public education. Friends told CBS 2 HD she wants to concentrate on education and health care in the Senate. '

USA TODAY
"Kennedy would follow Clinton as late-bloomer senator "
So, Clintonians hate Caroline, Kennedyites love her. Some news.

' If Caroline Kennedy becomes a senator, she'd be New York's second female celebrity senator to take an unconventional route to Congress. Kennedy is a lawyer who has written about constitutional issues and raised money for the New York City school system. She expressed interest in the job Monday, according to several officials in the state, including the man who will make the choice, Gov. David Paterson. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, named by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of State in his administration, was the nation's first lady for eight years before moving to New York in 2000 to run for the Senate seat. Despite her family's political legacy, Kennedy has largely stayed out of politics. New York critics have zeroed in on that lack of public record. "She's not demonstrated the qualifications or the experience for the position," Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton adviser and fundraiser, told the New York Post. Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist and speechwriter who has worked for the Kennedys, said that "like Hillary Clinton, the minute she got there, she would have influence." '

NY POST
"KENNEDY FOR THE SENATE"
Oh, yeah, she is an actual NEW YORKER, born & raised a City girl, a North-Easterner and an East-Coaster, unlike Hill-Billary...

' Her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, held the very same seat from 1965 until his assassination three years later. But the arguments for her selection go far beyond mere symbolism. Consider her unusually high profile: As the only surviving child of President John Kennedy, she'd enter the Senate with considerably more political clout than the average freshman. While she hasn't been especially involved in New York's political wars, she's hardly unaware of the issues. A city resident since shortly after her father's assassination, she played a critical role in advancing the reform agenda spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. '

NY TIMES
"Résumé Long on Politics, but Short on Public Office "
It's clear where the headline-writer stands. But read the article.

' But friends and associates say that Ms. Kennedy, 51, is no dilettante, and that her career is replete with examples of the kind of hands-on policy work and behind-the-scenes maneuvering that could serve her well. “She’s not shy about pushing people in a direction, and very good at doing it in a way that people don’t even realize they’re being pushed,” said Heather Campion, one board member. “She’s good in the room, but she’s also good at getting people to focus and come together quickly,” Mr. Klein said. Ms. Kennedy is now vice chairwoman of the schools’ nonprofit fund-raising arm, but she continues to visit schools across the city, with no entourage or press aide. Yet Ms. Kennedy spent about six weeks barnstorming battleground states for Barack Obama and took to it with gusto: An aide recalled her strolling into a Republican headquarters near Ocala, Fla., and peppering voters with questions at every turn. “Eric was the quiet one, and she was the one that, really, when I said something, asked, ‘Who? Why? How come?’ ” said Representative Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who met with them to analyze the contenders. “She did most of the talking.” Ms. Kennedy also took it upon herself to write a lengthy memo for Mr. Obama, a senior campaign adviser said. “I think she sized up the field in a way that was thoughtful and sophisticated and right,” he said. “And I think it weighed heavily with him.” Ms. Kennedy has said that it was her children who got her to give Mr. Obama a look last year. Elaine Jones, a retired head of the NAACP fund, speculated that Ms. Kennedy’s children — her two daughters are in college and her son is in high school — were also the reasons she had not entered public life sooner. “A fishbowl can adversely affect a child,” Ms. Jones said. “Her mother found a way to keep her children real. Caroline, I think, wanted that for her children. So I think, without knowing it, subconsciously, she was trying to get her kids to this point.” '

NY DAILY NEWS
"Caroline Kennedy's fine, but a senator? Andrew Cuomo not so sure"
Rival, kicked out of Kennedy family by her cousin, Cuomo disses Caroline. Like HE made it on his own! HAH! Real objective journalism, Daily News!

' Attorney General Andrew Cuomo praised Caroline Kennedy yesterday - but wouldn't say if he thinks she's qualified to be a U.S. senator. "I've known Caroline for years, I have a high opinion of her, but that's going to be up to the governor," Cuomo said. "I wouldn't second-guess his judgment." Kennedy is the cousin of Cuomo's ex-wife, Kerry. After 13 years of marriage, he and Kerry Kennedy went through an acrimonious divorce, with the Kennedys believing that Cuomo fed dirt to the media on his wife's extramarital affair. Cuomo sidestepped questions on whether he wants to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton when she becomes secretary of state. While insisting he's happy as attorney general, he did not deny interest in the Senate seat. He and Kennedy are front-runners. "I think it's a little presumptuous for someone to say 'I'm not interested,'" Cuomo said. '

BOSTON HERALD
"We Hear: Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy and more..."
CATFIGHT!!!

' That Secretary of State-in-waiting Hillary Clinton is lobbying hard to prevent Caroline Kennedy from taking her Senate seat when she steps down. Clinton, who will resign once she is confirmed as Barack Obama’s new top diplomat, is more than a little peeved that Caro - and her uncle Ted - threw their weight behind Obama in the presidential race. '

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
"The Not-Kennedy Campaign"
Billary's Talking Points Memo widely circulated, but secret, and deniable. How Republican!

' Suddenly, weeks after Caroline Kennedy's name first emerged as a candidate to fill the Senate seat that will be opened when Hillary Clinton joins the Obama administration in January, the establishment is very, very concerned—publicly—that she might not have what it takes. But at least one member of the New York House delegation—albeit one outside of the downstate echo chamber—has noticed that the Kennedy critics seem to be reading off the same page. "About two days ago one of my colleagues said that he thought she was too retiring, too private," said upstate Representative Louise Slaughter, who said that similar remarks made publicly by Ackerman suggested that "talking points are out there." For her part, Slaughter said she though Kennedy would be a fine choice to take Clinton's place. "The person who gets that seat has to be someone who has great stature," she said. '

NY DAILY NEWS
"Clintonites Against Kennedy"
And here's where those talking points come from.

' The storyline of pushback by Hillary Clinton supporters against Caroline Kennedy being tapped by Gov. David Paterson to succeed the junior senator whom Kennedy dissed in the Democratic primary is gaining steam. On the heels of questions raised about Kennedy's experience, or lack thereof, by Reps. Anthony Weiner and Gary Ackerman, both loyal Clinton supporters who were also her designated superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention, comes a statement from Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union head Stuart Appelbaum, who says Kennedy is "fascinating and engaging" but "a blank slate on New York issues." RWDSU was an early supporter of Clinton in the Democratic primary and Appelbaum campaigned with her in a number of early primary/caucus states, including Iowa. '

WIKIPEDIA: HILLARY CLINTON
"Hillary Rodham Clinton"
Ah, Memory! Ah, History!

' Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York and President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of State. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.A native of Suburban Chicago, Hillary Rodham first attracted national attention in 1969 for her remarks as the first student to deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College. She embarked on a career in law after graduating from Yale Law School in 1973. Following a stint as a Congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas in 1974 and married Bill Clinton in 1975. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979, and was twice listed as one of the one hundred most influential lawyers in America. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 and was active in a number of organizations concerned with child welfare, as well as sitting on the boards of Wal-Mart and several other corporations.When she was First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval from the U.S. Congress in 1994. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the several other investigations during her husband's administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Senate election of 2000
The long-serving United States Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, announced his retirement in November 1998. Several prominent Democratic figures, including Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, urged Clinton to run for Moynihan's open seat in the United States Senate election of 2000.[188] When she decided to run, Clinton and her husband purchased a home in Chappaqua, New York, north of New York City in September 1999.[189] She became the first First Lady of the United States to be a candidate for elected office.[190] At first, Clinton was expected to face Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City, as her Republican opponent in the election. However, Giuliani withdrew from the race in May 2000 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and having developments in his personal life become very public, and Clinton instead faced Rick Lazio, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing New York's 2nd congressional district. Throughout the campaign, Clinton was accused of carpetbagging by her opponents, as she had never resided in New York nor participated in the state's politics prior to this race. Clinton began her campaign by visiting every county in the state, in a "listening tour" of small-group settings.[191] During the campaign, she devoted considerable time in traditionally Republican Upstate New York regions.[192] Clinton vowed to improve the economic situation in those areas, promising to deliver 200,000 jobs to the state over her term. Her plan included specific tax credits to reward job creation and encourage business investment, especially in the high-tech sector. She called for personal tax cuts for college tuition and long-term care.[192]
The contest drew national attention. Lazio blundered during a September debate by seeming to invade Clinton's personal space trying to get her to sign a fundraising agreement.[193] The campaigns of Clinton and Lazio, along with Giuliani's initial effort, spent a record combined $90 million.[194] Clinton won the election on November 7, 2000, with 55 percent of the vote to Lazio's 43 percent.[193] She was sworn in as United States Senator on January 3, 2001.
After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton is also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was reelected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but after a long campaign, she narrowly lost to Senator Barack Obama, who became the party's presumptive nominee in June 2008, and Clinton endorsed and campaigned for him. She is the first First Lady to be subsequently appointed to the Cabinet in any Presidential administration. '

WIKIPEDIA: CAROLINE KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG
"Caroline Kennedy"
Just the facts, Ma'am.

' Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author and attorney. She is the daughter and only surviving child of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Kennedy was born in New York City and is named after her maternal aunt Caroline Lee Radziwill and a maternal great-grandmother. An older sister was stillborn in 1956. Her brother John Jr. was born in November 1960 and died in a plane crash along with his wife and sister-in-law in July 1999. Another brother, Patrick, died two days after his birth of a lung ailment in August of 1963. She lived in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown until a few months after her third birthday, when her family moved into the White House after her father's inauguration as President of the United States in 1961. Following her father's assassination in November 1963, she moved back to Georgetown with her mother and brother. However, their home soon became a popular tourist attraction in Washington, and they moved to New York City in mid-1964 where they lived in a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School, after attending the Brearley School and Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan, and Concord Academy in Massachusetts.
Personal life
Kennedy spoke during the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on August 25, 2008. during an introduction of her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
After interning with her uncle, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and at The New York Daily News, Caroline Kennedy began work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980, where she met her future husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg.[2]
Kennedy and Schlossberg were married on July 19, 1986[3] at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. Kennedy's matron of honor was her cousin Maria Shriver. She was walked down the aisle by her Uncle Ted. Although she is often incorrectly referred to as "Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg", she did not change her name when she married.
Professional life
Kennedy is an attorney, editor, writer and member of the New York and Washington, D.C. bar associations. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually since 1990 to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.[4]
For 22 months from 2002 through 2004, Kennedy worked as director of strategic partnerships for the the New York City Department of Education. The three-day-a week job paid her a salary of $1 and had the goal of raising private money the New York City public schools.[5] In her capacity, she helped raise more than $65 million for the city’s public schools, according to her biography at the Kennedy Library.[3] She currently serves as the Vice Chair of The Fund for Public Schools, a public-private partnership founded in 2002 to attract private funding for public schools in New York City. [6]
In addition, Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,[3] a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.
Kennedy has represented her family at the funeral services of former Presidents Ronald Reagan in 2004 and Gerald Ford in 2007, and at the funeral service of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in 2007. She also represented her family at the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas in November 2004.
2008 United States presidential election
Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail.
On Sunday, January 27, 2008, Kennedy announced in a New York Times op-ed piece entitled, "A President Like My Father," that she would endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.[7] Her concluding lines were: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans." This was the first time she had endorsed a presidential candidate other than when she endorsed her uncle, Ted Kennedy, in 1980.[8][9]
Federal Election Commission records show that Kennedy contributed $2300 to the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign committee on June 29, 2007. She had previously contributed a total of $5000 to Clinton's senatorial campaign in 2006. On September 18, 2007, she contributed $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign committee.[10] '

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FORTY-FIVES FROM 45 YEARS AGO

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SUNDAY ROCK'N'ROLL, POP & FOLK MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST PARTY

22 NOV 63: THE DAY THE EARTH MADE A WRONG TURN

May We Get Back On Track Soon


YOUTUBE: SKEETER DAVIS
"Skeeter Davis - The end of the world"



YOUTUBE: ANDY WILLIAMS
"Andy Williams - "Can't get used to losing you""



YOUTUBE: RUBY & THE ROMANTICS
"Ruby & The Romantics - Our Day Will Come"



YOUTUBE: PETER, PAUL & MARY
"Blowing The Wind - Peter, Paul and Mary"



YOUTUBE: TRINI LOPEZ
"Trini Lopez- If I Had A Hammer"



YOUTUBE: THE VILLAGE STOMPERS
"Washington Square- The Village Stompers- 1963"



[Cross-posted at CoffeeHouseStudio by cosanostradamus.]
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TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!