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Sen. Edward Kennedy 1932 - 2009

Ted Kennedy died this week from a brain tumor.  His funeral is today.  The press is having a field day praising St. Teddy.  He was a lion in the Senate; a senior statesman, etc. Well, at least I won't have to hear about Michael Jackson for a few minutes.   

To me, Ted showed his true colors one night in July 1969.  He left a woman to drown because he was afraid of what it would do to his political career.  As it turns out, not much.  The people of Massachusetts absolved him of all his sins, and he was re-elected over and over.  I just wrote a post last month on the 40th anniversary of Mary Jo Kopechne's death. 

Many feel that he paid his penance in his service in the Senate, being a champion for the poor and impoverished.  Oh, cry me a river.  I would feel like maybe he paid his penance if he volunteered with a water rescue unit or the Coast Guard for a few years.  The man has never done an honest day's work in his life.  Instead, he sucked from the Government teat for 47 years.  Of course, he was a champion of the Welfare State; he was living off of it.  Ted was the poster boy for term limits. 

There was a recent disgusting article that suggested that maybe Mary Jo's death may have been worth all the good that Sen. Ted later produced.  I much prefer the GQ article from 1990, describing the old drunken frat boy that the press liked to overlook.   

I do feel sorry for one person though: the person who cleans the Senate chamber.  They are gonna have to use some industrial-strength Lysol to get the smell out of Ted's Senate seat.  His fat, sweaty ass has been parked there a long, long time. 

I can only hope that Ted spends eternity trapped in a submerged Oldsmobile gasping for air. 

Rot in Hell, Teddy!!!

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Best Ted Kennedy salute this week: 

"Another Kennedy goes to his reward with a fatal foreign object in his skull."

h/t to GrumpyUnk  

Chappaquiddick

It was forty years ago today that Ted Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off the ferry bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.  Kennedy left the scene of the accident and didn't report it to the police until morning.  His passenger in the car, Mary Jo Kopechne (pictured), drowned as a result.  Kennedy was found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two month suspended sentence.

How this man continues to get re-elected to the Senate is beyond me.  He should have been road out of Washington on a rail after this incident.  Kennedy ran for President in 1980 and quickly found out that people's memories were not all that short.  They may not have been able to spell Chappaquiddick, but they could pronounce it.  Since then, Ted Kennedy has been portrayed as a Senior Statesman from Massachusetts and caring for the working man.  To me, he will always be the poster child for "term limits."  No one should be allowed to be a career politician.

I leave you with a classic National Lampoon ad from the early 1980s:

Redistribution of Wealth

Inauguration Day

To tell the truth, I missed the whole thing.  I've been working down in Houston these past two weeks.  A bunch of people headed down to the cafeteria to watch the inauguration on the large overhead televisions.  Me?  I was trying to print W-2s, unsuccessfully.  I did go down to the cafeteria for a quick bite and caught a bit of the luncheon at the Capitol.  Most of the diners there were glued to the televisions. 

A few hours later, I was strolling through the cafeteria to get to the print room.  I noticed all the television sets were turned off (they are usually on all day).  Maybe management was sensing a lack of productivity today?

I hope to get the W-2s printed this week and drive back to Indiana this weekend.

Two More Mice

This morning I found two dead mice in my garage.  Ironically, it was right after I got done feeding my barn cat.  I threw the dead mice out on the sidewalk for my cat to dispose of.  Twenty minutes later, I saw the two dead mice were still lying there with my cat prowling around a few yards away.  I called the cat, but it wouldn't come to me.  So I went to the cat, scratched its belly, then picked it up and put the cat down right in front of the mice.  It then grabbed one of the mice in its mouth and ran off with it.  Duh.  Like I want the mouse back.  A few minutes later, both mice were gone.

This is not how I imagined having a farm cat would work out.  I'm hunting the mice and handing them over to my cat.  All I wanted was a few good mouse-hunters.  Instead, I've got just one cat who turns out to be a Democrat. 

Election Analysis

This is so clever, I just had to share.  Here's Iowahawk's take on the election.  

Link. 

In a Blue State

Indiana voted for Obama 50% over McCain 49%.  I never thought I'd see the day when Indiana would become a blue state.  It has always been staunchly Republican.  Many of the local races had a Republican candidate running unopposed.  My county (Boone), which borders Indianapolis, voted for McCain 2 to 1, as did most of the rural counties.  Obama carried only 15 of 92 counties in Indiana...the most populated cities, suburbs, and college towns.  Placed on a map, it looks like Obama lost Indiana.  But the acres of corn stalks in the fields don't vote, people do. 

There's a line in the movie Hoosiers that always resonated with me.  Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey) reflects on what she missed about Indiana when she lived away:

     "I missed knowing that nothing ever changes....people never change.  It makes you feel real solid."

But then again, Hoosiers is a nostalgic story of a small country school that went on to win the one-class basketball state tournament.  One-class basketball became history in 1997...another Indiana tradition gone.  It's kinda like watching prime farm land being sold off to build another Vinyl Village.  It's just sad.

The lunatics have taken control of the asylum.  I just hope I'm living in a redder state in four years. 

Election Day 2008

I voted before 7am this morning.  Got to see some of my neighbors while standing in line.  The church added on a new gymnasium since I last voted there.  It's good to get out in the township once in a while.

I've done my part.  I held my nose and pulled the lever.  It's all over with.  Except for the cries of voter irregularities, disenfranchised voters, and rioting.  I think I'll hibernate until January...with the television off.

Craig Ferguson Commentary

This is some of the best commentary I've seen lately about all the political maneuverings by both parties.  It comes from Craig Ferguson, manic host of the Late Late Show.  A Scottish comic, who recently became a U.S. citizen.  He gets it.  Why don't the rest of us? 

Please watch.  It's a bit long, but well worth it: 

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

 

I've thought at the time that Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's VP, that she resembled Tina Fey.  There's no denying it now.  Although I missed seeing it live on Saturday, I have watched this Saturday Night Live clip several times. Tina nailed it.  Regardless of your political views, this is funny. 

Note:  I tried to embed the video, but NBC's website seems to be jammed.  So instead here's a link to the video:  link