Breaking. Ted Kennedy has passed away.

Final Jeopardy!

The question: “What is the largest web page on the planet Earth, Alex?”

Blogging wingnuts will spend Wednesday furiously typing GOD HATES KENNEDYS HE’LL BURN IN HELL GLAD HE’S DEAD HAHAHAHAHA WE WON! in Fred Phelps font, whilst expressing dismay, disappointment, and probably rage at every Republican who has the gall to mourn Ted Kennedy’s passing.

Because they’re classy and compassionate.

In spite of his failings, such a loss… But at least now the democrats can blame his passing for their inability to pass meaningful health care reform (”we’d love to have done this right, but with Senator Kennedy gone we had no option but to bend over and let Sen. Grassley have his way with us. Hopefully our HMO will cover the stretch marks…”).

I wonder if Barry is now regretting that he spent the weekend sucking up to golfing with his bank-buddy from UBS instead of, you know, paying his final respects to (and maybe learning something from) a man who had an actual vision about health care.

Although, for the moment, the Conservative bloggers are putting on a respectful front for Kennedy, their commenters are another matter. Quite a lot of venom out there for a man, who for all his failings, spent a life in public service, and tried to do the right thing for ALL the people.

And getting in a chat with McTwaddle would be like trying to rationally discuss something with DLoerke.

I think a much easier (and dramatically shorter) listing would be “facts she does know.” Comprising exactly nothing.

Doing good for others and making the world a better place for everyone is clearly an ineffable evil.

Not true! Betcha she knows her her china pattern. And where she’s registered. Also. Not for nothing did she go to the Universities of Pennsylvnaia and Chicago. You betcha.

Well, that would be a blog post the length of Atlas Shrugged, assuming Megan could grasp what is and isn’t a ‘fact’.

You know what? That’s not even fair. Obama has the right to take a vacation, and goddamn it, he is not beholden to follow your time-table. I am not an Obama apologist, but I am getting pretty damn sick and tired of people casting aspersions on him in every freaking thread.

As for Megan the Brainless, I am done with her. I can’t even muster up the proper amount of indignation at her WaPo chat. Whatever. It’s what the people want, apparently.

Senator Kennedy, journey safely to the other side.

Senators from both sides will wear doleful expressions and speak of Kennedy in sonorous tones. Then they’ll pass a health care bill that craps all over everything that he stood for.

Sadly, No!

Sorry you feel that way, but really: Kennedy was one of the foremost proponents of real health care reform. He went out of his way to set the current round of reform talks in motion. According to Obama, health care reform is important enough that he’s willing to stake his presidency on it.

I’m just saying that, at a time where we’re all watching what he does for clues as to *what* his idea of reform really is, it would have been very cool to see him meet with Senator Kennedy — even if he’s on vacation. Watching him go golfing with one of the guys who helped bring our economy to its knees? Not so much.

But hey, you’re right: it’s his timetable, not mine. We’ve suffered with this crappy for-profit system for decades — what’s another year or two or ten? Besides, Obama’s good ol’ friend, Joe Lieberman, just pointed out that the uninsured can wait ’til hell freezes over as far he’s concerned. For at least 6 months we’re now going to be one democratic senator short of passing real reform — by then, the inept handling of this by the Democrats (and Obama) may render the whole thing a wash anyway.

Now, watch this drive…

Left this earlier on another thread:

Just so, so odd. Is there ever a thread here about any topic anymore that isn’t used as an opportunity to complain about President Barack Hussein Obama?

People are talking about about the Kennedy legacy, but perhaps some context would be useful as we move ahead in trying to get more legislation passed.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was a friend of the Kennedy family: Joseph Kennedy, Sr. was a leading McCarthy supporter; Robert F. Kennedy worked for McCarthy’s subcommittee, and McCarthy dated Patricia Kennedy.

JFK did a lot of kabuki to help out McCarthy.

Vietnam.

Responding to allegations that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a communist, the Kennedy’s administration agreed to let the Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretap private individuals, including Martin Luther King, Jr

-

In 1963, the Kennedy administration backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General Abdel Karim Kassem, who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The CIA helped the new Baath Party government led by Abdul Salam Arif in ridding the country of suspected leftists and Communists. In a Baathist bloodbath, the government used lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the CIA, to systematically murder untold numbers of Iraq’s educated elite — killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated.

And so on…similar things be found about RFK and Teddy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy

Point is…I think the Kennedys have been extremely positive for America as a whole and for Liberalism in general. I’m glad they’ve had such an influence on American policy and on the public discourse. If the current dominant attitudes and functions of the Liberal blogs existed back in 1960, I’m not sure there would even be a Kennedy Legacy. Most here would be having a field day with the imperfect Kennedys.

Perhaps some of this history can inform some around here about what’s the best use of our time and energy. Seems like Teddy was quite happy with what’s been happening this year, and very hopeful for the opportunities we now have before us. Are you?

Jaybrida-

Just read your words about 911 downstream a couple posts. Beautiful.

As we remember Senator Kennedy’s passing and what he and his family stand for, sentiments like yours are particularly important: remembering that service to something greater than yourself and leaving the world a better place for all people is all that matters, really.

No, Kennedy and his brothers were not perfect…but they were good men. They stood for something greater than themselves and the belief that our world could be better.

As I think most Americans people (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Black, White, left, right, whatever) also do, even if its only for our own children or bassett hounds.

I wonder if Senator Kennedy was even conscious when the Obamas went on vacation. If he was, I wonder if the family wanted him to have visitors.

And McMegan is off to the races, in a firestorm of blazing bullshit.

Somehow places with 25% uninsured have more access than one with 2.6%.

Thanks puravida,

The thing is I feel so embarrassed by it. It’s so obvious and so trite. It’s my self-righteous little trump card I can play because, I, like several million others were in New York at the time.

At the same time, and I think most New Yorkers (in my case, “ex-New Yorker”) share this sentiment, we didn’t and don’t need or want to be martyrs for warmongers. Don’t fucking bomb Iraq in our name, assholes. Don’t torture some ignorant (or innocent) slob halfway around the world to overcompensate for prior criminal neglect of national security. Don’t pretend you suddenly give a shit about that “island off the coast of America”, or Brooklyn either.

For 8 long years we were forced to endure the bloody shirt and the juvenile posturing and the cynical opportunism (It’s a tight race between Rudy and Cheney to who gained more) — and now, as Obama tries to begin to shovel us out of the tonnage of bullshit and bad decisions made since then, we get infantile, bloodthirsty lectures from people who haven’t gotten along with their lives about what is proper and whom we should hate.

I suspect the douchebag-in-question is a spoof, but it’s not like Peter King wouldn’t say the same thing — or, even worse somehow, some shut-in from Wichita who harbors fantasies of heroic resistance against the Mongol Hordes or whatever it is he imagines that Al Queda would do to turn him into a drone of their brand of theocratic insanity, all while also resenting the idea that life can be humane, enriching and even meaningful without perpetual war and fearful warnings.

We all die. I just wish the piss-soaked fear fuckers would just get on with living and leave the rest of us alone.

Back on topic: McArdle is an idiot.

PPS: Teddy Kennedy was a vote on my first ballot ever. He has already been missed. And I frankly don’t give a shit what the fuckers say about him — they’ve been saying it for the past 40 years. Why stop now?

Bing! We have a new phrase to use when caught making stuff up:

It wasn’t a statistic–it was a hypothetical.

I’ll add my thanks to those of others for your input on this. There is no reason for you to feel embarrassment. Current and former NYers like you and Julia are in a position to comment knowledgeably on this topic, unlike most of the rest of us.

The unfortunate reality of your 9/11 experience is something you had no choice about, but it leaves you in a good position to knock down some of the bloodthirsty rhetoric of these keyboard haters. It sucks that you and others have to provide that service, but we need to deal with the fellow citizens we have, not the fellow citizens we wish we had.

Well, I just came back from the aforementioned “live chat”. All I can say is: Sarah Palin would not be impressed with just how much McArdle managed to dishonour the American soldier.

She did provide one reasonably authoritative answer…about her impending nuptials. Other than that, she articulated a well thought out argument against health care reform…and by “articulated” I mean “extracted from her colon” and by “well thought out argument” I mean a bunch of, and I’m quoting her, “hypotheticals”.

Nice work if you can get it.

We always knew she was just making stuff up, but it’s nice to have a confirmation.

Ezra did not do the interview, thank synchronicity. Also I saw a picture of Megan.