Ted Kennedy Death Threat File Now Public: FBI Conceals Kennedy Name: Remember Mary Jo One More Time

No surprise that Ted Kennedy's life was under continual threat of assassination. Apparently the file released by the FBI is huge. I found a couple of interesting items - about Mary Jo Kopechne, of course.

Ted Kennedy's car in waters off of Chappaquiddick Island

The FBI file, some 2,352 pages of it, shows that the Boston office of the FBI was notified of the "accident" immediately, but kept his identity secret as long as they could.

John Dean, in Richard Nixon's administration, asked the FBI to discreetly determine if Mary Jo had been in Greece in August 1968, about eleven months before she died. Dean supplied Kopechne's passport number. This report blacks out whatever answer was found. This give the impression that Ted Kennedy was in Greece in August 1968. So far, I haven't found any reports putting him there, but I'm sure if Ted Kennedy did not want to be found, he could make that happen.

Here's a reminder of Chappaquiddick that I found at Boston.com - many years after Mary Joe Kopechne died. This article published by the leading paper in Ted Kennedy's hometown makes you feel as though you were in the car with Kennedy and Kopechne. Portions of the following is from my own article. Those portions have not been indented.

Mary Jo Kopechne

Her death occurred on July 20th, 1969 [she would have been 70 in 2010]. She was 28 at the time. Two days later her funeral was held in Pennsylvania and she was buried there. Ms. Kophecne's body was whisked off the island and out of Massachusetts for a very quick burial.

There was no defense for Ms. Kopechne against the Kennedy clan. There was no autopsy.

Kennedy pleaded "guilty," and then:

Ted Kennedy

His lawyer asked that his sentence be suspended. Judge James Boyle consented. 

"It is my understanding that he has already been, and will continue to be, punished far beyond anything this court can impose," said Boyle. 

The hearing lasted less than 10 minutes. Afterward, the police chief told reporters his investigation was closed. 

In January [1970], the Chappaquiddick inquest was held on Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy's lawyers had prevailed, and the four days of testimony were closed to the public and press, the transcript locked away until a later date. 

Within days of its decision, Judge Boyle released the 764-page inquest transcript — including his own stunning conclusion that Kennedy's negligence had contributed to Kopechne's death. 

Based on testimony at the inquest, Boyle concluded that Kennedy had lied; he "did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road was intentional."

Ted Kennedy's book, True Compass, was released just before his death. One thousand leather-bound copies sold for $1,000 each. Maybe Kennedy found his True Compass before he died. He certainly didn't have it the night he did not rescue Mary Jo Kopechne from the cold waters off of Chappaquiddick Island. I guess it is time I let his memory rest in peace.

Chuck Schumer Scott Brown Far Right Teabagger: Foul-Mouthed Senator Schumer

Classy: Schumer Calls Scott Brown a "Far Right Teabagger
by Lonely Conservative

Chuck Schumer is an embarrassment to the State of New York. In his latest fund raising email he sunk to a whole new low.

Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy’s term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican.

It would be bad enough to lose his seat — and Democrats’ sixtieth vote in the Senate — right before the final health care reform vote. But it would be even worse for the decisive “no” vote to come from Ted Kennedy’s old seat.

This is some brave new world we have here.

The best way to shut the Chuck up is to help Scott Brown win this election.

Via Hot Air

Chappaquiddick Joke on Ted Kennedy

ChicagoRay found this video. Ed Klein tells the story of Chappaquiddick being one of Ted Kennedy's favorite jokes. Klein is a former Editor of The New York Times Magazine and currently the foreign editor of Newsweek. He is releasing a new book on Ted Kennedy, and the question is, who isn't? If this is true, the joke is really on Ted Kennedy. He may be lionized today, but surely those hearing the "Chappaquiddick" jokes, had to wonder what kind of a sick joke Ted Kennedy was.

As he has been memorialized today, it is obvious that he was beloved by his family, that he stepped up for all the nieces and nephews who were fatherless, that his own children loved him dearly, and that he knew how to get done what he wanted to get done in the halls of the U.S. Senate.

What I remember about Ted Kennedy is the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Bill - one of the most devastating Bills to ever hit Capitol Hill. I won't forgive Kennedy or McCain for that one. I won't forget what he did to Judge Robert Bork. It was cruel and contemptible and it all lies. For those who want to see as his pompous tirade about the Judge as merely political rhetoric, your political world is much different than mine. I didn't know much about Robert Bork at the time, as most Americans didn't, but Kennedy's comments were uncalled for and only a black heart could stand in the Senate and rip a good man in this way:

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, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy… President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.

This was not acceptable for the U.S. Senate, and he should have been excoriated by his peers, but he he was not - it's just politics. And may we all be reminded that Ted Kennedy wanted no part of windmills or oil rigs off his Hyannis Port shoreline, but he didn't mind if they were in your backyard.

I have no way to know whether Ted Kennedy had real remorse for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but I feel he did. Who would not, but you can read what some of the locals had to say, as well as some astonishing, odd and unusual details of what really happened here. Ted Kennedy's real legacy is proof that we should make it unlawful to be a career Senator or U.S. Representative.





 Chappaquiddick Joke on Ted Kennedy

To Fairness Doctrine Naysayers: Support from RINOs

Graphic courtesy of CityPages
 

We now have the first Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, showing support for a Fairness Doctrine. Will Senators Olympia Snow, Chuck Hagel, and Susan Collins follow suit, and abandon any semblance of Conservatism? If ever there was an issue to be defended by Congress, Republican or Democrat, free speech is it. We have one thing to remember and to fight for: a Fairness Doctrine is diametrically opposed to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It's that simple:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment (enactment, endowment, formation, setting-up) of religion, or prohibiting (forbidding, preventing, suppressing) the the free exercise (pursuit) thereof; or abridging (abbreviating, compressing, curtailing, decreasing, lessening, omitting) the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition (ask, call upon, request, seek, urge) the government for a redress (adjustment, amendment, rectification, reformation) of grievances (damages, injustices)

Senator Dennis Kucinich is on record saying that a Fairness Doctrine will aid in:

...achieving a free exchange and a multiplicity of ideas," and finally, with a new law, we will be able to determine "if there is a balanced and fair representation"

The First Amendment does not guarantee "balanced and fair representation." "Fair and balanced" has nothing to do with the First Amendment. If Congress actually respects the First Amendment and makes "no law," but relies on the Federal Communications Commission to, again, institute a Fairness Doctrine - which would also abridge the First Amendment - is not law, but is a "regulation," what can we do about it? Take the FCC to court? For my activist readers, let's attempt to find out where Snowe, Collins and Hagel stand on this issue.

If you are a constituent of one of the three and get a statement, please leave it here in comments or blog about it and send a link.

Email Senator Lugar: (R-IN) Phone: 202-224-4814, Fax: 202-228-0360 (R-ME) Phone: 202-224-2523, Fax: 202-224--2693

Email Senator Snowe (R-ME) Phone: 202-224-5344 and 800-432-1599, Fax: 202-224-1946

Email Senator Hagel (R-NE) 202-224-4224, Fax: 202-224-5213

Visit VoteSmart for all the pertinent information and background about you Congressman Please read the following excellent report from Martin at Blogbat who was sitting at the table with Senator Richard Lugar:

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Senator Lugar Hints at Support for "Fairness Doctrine" by Martin at Blogbat.com Last week I [and] other World Affairs Council members had the chance to meet with Indiana Senator Richard Lugar at the Capitol.

During our visit with the Indiana Republican on 7 November, he seemed to offer his support for a revived “Fairness Doctrine” tailored to target only one viewpoint – that of the comparatively modest talk radio industry. On the topic of such legislation, Lugar seemed sympathetic to the significant hostility among the left towards what he called “irresponsible” “right wing” radio, using catch-phrases right out of the Idiots Guide to Liberalism, intimating that talk radio was somehow a rogue entity that merely stirred up the common people to the consternation of all-knowing legislators. (Never mind the rogue entity on Capitol Hill that is attempting to usurp the Constitution.) Senator Lugar first greeted each of us and was extremely friendly and cordial, before taking his usual seat (now that the Democrats are in power) in the Senate Foreign Relations committee room, as we each grabbed a chair – I wound up with the honor of holding down the chair of genuine conservative Louisiana Senator David Vitter.

Senator Lugar then gave us a quick run-down of things like the international financial crisis, his own biography, and the in-coming administration before taking questions. During much of this, much that was said was nothing notable or new. The senator is indeed truly likable man and I must say I can see why, politics aside, he has been as successful in the Senate as he has been. However, unfortunately, beyond personality and congeniality, the Senator and millions of Americans part ways – and do so on numerous issues.

However, Lugar, who voted in favor of an amendment in the 2007 Defense Authorization bill sponsored by Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman that would have killed such a censorship doctrine’s revival, is also known, as a Rockefeller Republican for among other things most recently ganging up with Ted Kennedy against the American people during the Amnesty war of 2006. Now that it seems safe for him to do so, he appears to be reversing his position on the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” as well. Lugar’s language was strong and even harsh as he laid out the argument in favor of conservative radio censorship, as if he were a schoolmaster educating his children about the danger of alligators and why we need to trap them. As he sat in his seat sipping water from a glass with an emblem that read, “United States Senate”, Senator Lugar seemed to offer what was hardly a fair and balanced assessment of the state of media bias of his own. Instead, he seemed to ape the utterly false meme that talk radio was some giant politically unified monster for which there was no real counterweight. Read more from Martin at Blogbat.us

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Related:
The Fairness Doctrine: What You May Not Know

Background: What the FCC and the Media Has in Mind for You and TheFairness Doctrine: A Chilling Effect, and then a brush-up on the The Fairness Doctrine, The First Amendment and all that.