The Kennedy Legacy: Brought To You By the U.S. Taxpayer
Over one in five earmark dollars for Massachusetts from the budget bill goes to enhance the mystique of America's royal family.
In the Obama omnibus plan to spend America out of this ugly recession, many highly important projects are getting a chunk of American pie. Georgia will receive $209,000 to study ways to improve blueberry production, however this particular earmark has caused controversy among critics claiming it is discriminatory against blackberries. Senator Tom Harkin has asked for two million bucks for swine odor and manure management. Perhaps this project could best be used by encasing Congress in charcoal filters. Besides, Capitol Hill is where the stench of swine is coming from. Thank goodness Obama has led us into a new era of responsibility and accountability and is implementing his promise of change and reform.
Massachusetts has its priorities straight and focused on recovering the economy. They are putting close to $22.5 million into the extremely important cause of preserving the Kennedy legacy.
More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from the $410 billion omnibus federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.
The bill includes $5.8 million for the planning and design of a building to house a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate. The funding may also help support an endowment for the institute.
The bill also includes $22 million to expand facilities at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and $5 million more for a new gateway to the Boston Harbor Islands on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a park system in downtown Boston named after Kennedy’s mother and built on land opened up by the Big Dig highway project.
Rush Limbaugh joked that Congress should put aside some of the money for a Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill.” The Violence Worker suggested just renaming the state in his honor, calling it Edward M. Kennedy Memorial Commonwealth. Doug Powers created a list of suggested initiatives, including the ceremonial bronzing of silver spoons for all family members holding rank of second cousin or higher.
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John Stephenson blogs at Stop the ACLU.
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26 Comments
1. Mark Gibbons:I have lived in Mass. 14 years and have never seen so many sheeple in one state. These nitwits think the Kennedy’s are the greatest of all time.
Mar 22, 2009 - 3:40 am 2. Craig:Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
Mar 22, 2009 - 5:10 am 3. Larry Miller:The disconnect between what Obama said in the never-ending presidential campaign and his current actions, and frankly, even his current rhetoric and actions, are only one reason the American people are already losing faith in him. Although some Americans might still believe in “Change” they don’t believe his policies are the right prescriptions for America. And It is beyond me how the Kennedy’s can hold such a grasp on so many Americans even when fed a line of bs by the so-called MSM that ol’ Teddy is the “lion of the Senate” yada yada yada …. from getting caught cheating at Harvard to his prison-worthy behavior at Chappaquiddick, this man is an embarrassment to the people of Mass. Obama is paying back campaign endorsements and favors with taxpayers monies, mine actually, and I think he and his fellow Dems need to be voted out of office.
Mar 22, 2009 - 5:23 am 4. LeighB:What a shame this money was not available sooner and they might have earmarked some for the Kennedy Institute for Public Speaking. The curriculum could include:
- How to speak without a teleprompter
- How to recover when a teleprompter stops working (or how not to keep reading)
- How to break the “you know”, “uh” and “um” habit
- How to present a gift to a visiting dignitary, and
- Shriver Seminar on the value of the Special Olympics
And I sure hope there is enough change left over to offer scholarships to family and close friends.
Mar 22, 2009 - 6:03 am 5. DaveinPhoenix:Thank God I’m out of that state. After moving back there in 2005, it took 6 months to get my drivers licence. 12 forms of identification (they wouldn’t accept a birth certificate). And 2 more months to get the car through emissions – finally gave up on that one because although it had passed on the first try in my previous state of residence, no dice in Mass. Finally found one of the many inspection garages which cater to those in my unfortunate position: paid ‘em $100 and they slapped an inspection sticker on the car faster than you can say “corruption”.
Mar 22, 2009 - 8:06 am 6. Terry:As an American with Irish heritage that grew up in democratic Chicago, I was surrounded by family members that absolutely adored anything Kennedy. I found it irritating. As a nine year old, something about Jack just didn’t sit right with me. Now fifty-five and having watched so much of the country ignore the failings and celebrate the legend of Jack, Bobby and Ted (not to mention their criminal father), I’m no longer astounded. BHO was legitimized by Caroline (nee)Kennedy and her illustrious uncle Ted when they embraced a ‘new Camelot.’ With so many Americans uncomfortable with the lack of American royalty, with BHO having been ‘crowned’ as Kennedy successor, why the surprise that we’ll use millions of Fed created dollars to celebrate socialism, criminality and idiocy? Maybe Karl Marx can get a wing . . .
Mar 22, 2009 - 8:21 am 7. trojan2:Maybe Mass.should re-name one of its prisons after Ted.After all, if his name wasn`t Kennedy that`s where he might still be after the Mary Jo Kopechne killing.
Mar 22, 2009 - 8:50 am 8. Saltherring:Perhaps some of the earmark pork should be used to recreate the infamous pond into Chappaquiddick Memorial Skating Rink, as a memorial to a family that has skated American justice for 100 years.
Mar 22, 2009 - 9:07 am 9. Bilgeman:#6 Terry:
“Now fifty-five and having watched so much of the country ignore the failings and celebrate the legend of Jack, Bobby and Ted (not to mention their criminal father), I’m no longer astounded.”
Ole Bootlegger Joe…he was a smart one.
Apocryphal Kennedy legend:
Joe took his rum-running profits, (which still exist today in the guise of Seagram’s distilled spirits, btw), and during the Depression bought up troubled mortgages throughout the Boston area, keeping the working-class Irish-American community there in their homes.
Took the rest of his money and invested it out in Hollywood, getting in on the ground floor of what would become the Mainstream Media.
Not to take anything away from JFK’s wartime service, but getting your PT boat run over by a Jap destroyer is very much akin to getting your Porsche creamed by a municipal garbage truck…had JFK NOT been the son of the US Ambassador to the UK, I think he might have been court-martialed…or at the least been dressed down in a Naval board of inquiry, rather than have been decorated.
So…come the late 1940’s, when Joe is looking to manufacture the Kennedy Legacy, all the pieces are in place…the war hero son, the fawning media, and back to the Southies in the old neigborhoods, whose mortgages he still holds:
“Say, Seamus…you wouldn’t MIND if I erected a ‘Kennedy for Senate’ sign in your front yard, would ya?”.
Like I said, Joe was one clever lad.
Mar 22, 2009 - 9:09 am 10. Squirmn:2. Craig wrote-
“Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.”
Agreed.
Mar 22, 2009 - 9:52 am 11. Marc Malone:The Kennedy Memorial BJ Bridge….
Mar 22, 2009 - 10:12 am 12. usmcret:Teddy Kennedy The “Lyin’ of the Senate” is a physical and moral coward, in addition to being a hypocrite and a drunk. How the people of Massachusetts keep reelecting says something about the intelligence level of that electorate. He’s a big fat disgrace,nothing less.
Mar 22, 2009 - 11:54 am 13. zanne:The Kennedy clan was really the first episode of American Idol. Does anyone understand why we keep electing them?
Mar 22, 2009 - 12:02 pm 14. Войска ПВО:..perhaps, like the AIG executives forgoing their bonuses, perhaps Ted Kennedy could give something up in return for this legacy enhancement like, say, the marketing rights to his line of snorkels.
Mar 22, 2009 - 12:26 pm 15. Old Soldier:I grew up in Massachusetts and left there, never to return as a resident, at age 25. The Kennedy’s always disgusted me.
Like all aristocrats, they do not expect to live with the rules they have imposed on the peasantry. When Rose Kennedy passed away, we were all surprised to discover she was a Florida resident and not subject to MA’s draconian inheritance taxes and rules (the rules we are still dealing with for my distinctly middle class late in-laws).
A quick internet search will also reveal that much of the Kennedy trust money has made its way offshore and will not be a source of revenue for his edifices.
Mar 22, 2009 - 2:17 pm 16. Will:Lot’s of truth here folks.
Mar 22, 2009 - 2:59 pm 17. whyyeseyec:To this day I still can`t figure out the mystique of the `Kennedy presidency`. What was the big deal? He didn`t move heaven and earth. Didn`t solve any problems but he did sleep around alot and p*ssed off somebody enough that they killed him.
Do you realize JFK was only President 5 months longer than Gerald Ford? It`s true. Look it up.
Not much of a presidential legacy…….
Mar 22, 2009 - 3:16 pm 18. Mass Born and Bred:Growing up, ‘Kennedy’ was a swear word in my house.
Hypocrites personified.
Mar 22, 2009 - 4:56 pm 19. The Historian:MARK TWAIN HAD IT RIGHT ABOUT DIAPERS
There is no value in career politicians.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/politicians-are-to-often-like-diapers.html
Mar 22, 2009 - 5:06 pm 20. deguello:Slogan on a T-Shirt:YOUR MOTHER DATES KENNEDYS! This is a great way to insult liberals!
Mar 23, 2009 - 7:09 am 21. deguello:Is “kennedy”Gaelic for “syphillis”?
Mar 23, 2009 - 7:10 am 22. Lawler Nicoteri:You can put lace curtains on a shanty but its occupants will still be Kennedys.
Mar 23, 2009 - 8:58 am 23. Navas de Tolosa:I would like to think that in 2010 (if we make it that far) we can derail the Democrat/Marxist express train. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Obama has already shown his hand, when he (unconstitutionally) took responsibility for the census into the White House. Now that the Obamatrons control all the power cables, it’s going to be very difficult for civilization to stage a comeback.
Unless … maybe … a large number of cemetary residents vote Republican.
Mar 23, 2009 - 11:20 am 24. JD:There’s a wonderful statue in Brownhills in the UK that I’m sure could provide inspiration for the Kennedy memorials:
http://trackacrat.com/category/ted-kennedy/
Mar 24, 2009 - 5:39 am 25. William:I was nine years old when JFK was assassinated. School was let out early, teachers were crying, my mother balled for days, while crying out “those sons of bitchin republicans,” and “this is that god damn Goldwater’s fault.” I didn’t get it then, and I don’t get it now. Not the assissination itself, as killing is immoral, but the whole “Kennedy experience” was and is beyond me.
Both my parents were romanced by FDR, the Kennedy’s, Johnson… every liberal “progressive” whose intent is to destroy free enterprise,and keep democrats in power. To this day, my father (age 86) is still a democrat, even though his new wife is a republican. Based on my father’s life, I am still to this day perplexed by how he could be duped by left-wing extremists. His kids, my sisters and me are either conservatives,republicans or libertarian. We understand the value of liberty. We know the history of Marxism, economically and culturally, yet this man who always preached personal responibility is still on board with government being “the solution.” Perhaps my parents affinity for the democrat machine is akin to Jews who side with Arab nations, and Jews who subscribe to socialism/communism. Both have been great mysteries throughout my life, without sound reasoning as to why.
Mar 24, 2009 - 5:22 pm 26. deguello:#24 JD: I take your point,but I wonder if this could effectively memorialize this demagoguic scoundrel. At least that socialist realist montrosity represents an actual worker,whereas Kennedy has never done a day’s work in his life;OK:he’s provided lots of jobs in VD clinics and distilleries,but that’s hardly a conventional definition of work.Maybe a car submerged in a pool and the statue of the drowned Mary Jo Kopechne inside,would better represent the true nature of the Kennedy legacy. Regards!
Mar 26, 2009 - 10:29 am