Assault on the military

[rdean]

The CIA does not arrest people.

The Taliban were the ruling government of Afghanistan, and were the reason that al Qaeda was able to attack us.

Iraq was in violation of the 1991 Cease Fire Agreement, thus the original state of hostilities existed.

Far from being innocent.



All this tells me as that your knowledge of military strategy is nil.

And we bomb everybody who is in violation of a forced agreement. Right?

Muslim etiquette demands that once hospitality is given, it's given as long as it's not violated. The Taliban couldn't have given up Bin Laden. However, they could have been negotiated into asking him to leave the country. Bush thought Shiites and Sunnis were working together because he didn't know the difference between the two. Understanding another culture is the key to success.

Republicans are bullies. They are NOT interested in "understanding", not when bombs and threats and saber rattling work so well. The problem, that's only an "illusion". In the long run, you moved two steps forward and twenty back. The two forward seemed to work so well, they can't see the twenty back. Not, "can't see, "refuse" to see.

You are the kind of Fool that Insurgents depend on every time they are in a jam. Jack Ass is too good a term for you. Join the other side please. You will do less harm in the end.

Name calling, finger pointing, screeching. These are the things the uneducated do when they don't understand something. They become frustrated and scared. They lash out and attack. Their limited intelligence, lack of comprehension and inability to problem solve becomes apparent. For eight years, Republicans were in power and what did they do? Bombs and threats and saber rattling and torture. Tens of thousands of American dead. Our enemies stronger. Our country less safe. Our economy shattered.

And what do they do now? They want the president to "fail".

Eight years of failure and they believe they have the answer. "Just do what we did under Bush."

 

[Intense]

And we bomb everybody who is in violation of a forced agreement. Right?

Muslim etiquette demands that once hospitality is given, it's given as long as it's not violated. The Taliban couldn't have given up Bin Laden. However, they could have been negotiated into asking him to leave the country. Bush thought Shiites and Sunnis were working together because he didn't know the difference between the two. Understanding another culture is the key to success.

Republicans are bullies. They are NOT interested in "understanding", not when bombs and threats and saber rattling work so well. The problem, that's only an "illusion". In the long run, you moved two steps forward and twenty back. The two forward seemed to work so well, they can't see the twenty back. Not, "can't see, "refuse" to see.

You are the kind of Fool that Insurgents depend on every time they are in a jam. Jack Ass is too good a term for you. Join the other side please. You will do less harm in the end.

Name calling, finger pointing, screeching. These are the things the uneducated do when they don't understands something. They become frustrated and scared. They lash out and attack. Their limited intelligence, lack of comprehension and inability to problem solve becomes apparent. For eight years, Republicans were in power and what did they do? Bombs and threats and saber rattling and torture. Tens of thousands of American dead. Our enemies stronger. Our country less safe. Our economy shattered.

And what do they do now? They want the president to "fail".

Eight years of failure and they believe they have the answer. "Just do what we did under Bush."

Your argument is so off base that it warrants no respect dean.

 

[Intense]

India Terrorism By the Numbers: Statistics from UM's Global Terrorism Database
COLLEGE PARK, MD. - A long history of terrorism in India precedes the recent coordinated attacks in Mumbai. The Global Terrorism Database (GTD), maintained at the University of Maryland by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) counts more than 4,100 terrorist attacks in India since 1970. Fatalities number in the thousands. This information is freely available online.

The GTD is the most comprehensive and detailed open-source terrorism database available. Funding comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Here's a statistical summary on terrorism in India from the GTD:


4,108 terrorist incidents occurring in India between the years 1970 and 2004. During this period, India ranked sixth among all countries in terms of terrorist incidents (behind Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and Spain).

12,539 terrorist-related fatalities in India between 1970 and 2004 - an average of almost 360 fatalities per year from terrorism in India. These fatalities peaked in 1991 and 1992, when 1,184 and 1,132 individuals (respectively) were killed in such incidents.

Terrorists in India have employed a variety of attack types over time: 38.7% of terrorist events were facility attacks, 29.7% percent were bombings (in which the intent was to destroy a specific facility), and 25.5% were assassinations. The recent events in Mumbai would be classified as a series of coordinated facility attacks.

Detailed information on terrorist incidents in India between 1970 and 2004 can be accessed via the GTD online interface. The interface includes an Advanced Search function, allowing users to specify which types of incidents they want to explore.

START's Terrorist Organization Profiles (TOPs) collection includes information on 56 groups known to have engaged in terrorism in India. Included among these groups is Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), known to have undertaken attacks in Mumbai in recent years.

Information on the origins, history, and activities of the 56 groups known to have engaged in terrorism in India in the past can be accessed, as well as groups that have been active in neighboring countries, via the TOPs online interface.

India Terrorism By the Numbers: Statistics from UM's Global Terrorism Database :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

 

[Intense]

It is not possible to be brief when it comes to terrorism in Asia. It is a complex issue and it encompasses numerous countries that have histories of thousands of year. In an attempt to be relatively brief, I will discuss terrorism in the context of South Asia, particularly India.

The Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 allowed the world to see that terrorism transcends boundaries, and indeed it has known South Asia for quite some time. Despite the increased news attention towards India and Pakistan more recently, terrorism has existed within the subcontinent well over the past half-century. India is the largest democracy in the world and has been attacked primarily by perpetrators who disagree with India's fundamental stances and policies. These perpetrators are not exclusive to Islamic extremism or Pakistan. The primary regions effected by terrorism within India are: Jammu & Kashmir, Eastern Indian seven sister states, Central India, Mumbai and Delhi, with numerous other cities effected at some point in the past decade.

The below list organizes the terrorist groups by region and discusses their history and goals.

Naxalites: The Naxalites are an insurgent communist group considered terrorists by the government of India. The foundation of the group is to overthrow the government and the upper classes who they believe are responsible for their low standards of living. They are particularly active in rural central and east India. The group likely began in the late 1960s and grew in size and violence particularly in the late 1990's. Currently around 6000 have died as a result of the insurgency and are considered by India's Prime Minister to be the greatest threat to Indian security.

North-East Insurgent Groups- The seven sister states of North-East India are somewhat geographically isolated from the rest of the subcontinent (Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland) and have a history of militancy. Probably the most significant and troublesome banned terrorist classifed group is: ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) which has connections to the Naxalites. Most significant in the demands of ULFA is independence from India and creation of a socialist government. Other indepence seeking insurgent groups in the 7 states includeeople's Liberation Army in Manipur, Mizo National Front in Mizoram and National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah of Nagaland.
A brief history of terrorism in Asia - by Andrea Malji - Helium

 

[Bfgrn]

Taxpayers money funding memorials to the politicians who fleeced them while they lived and again when they died.

It wold be funny if it wasn't so outrageous.

Could have used that spare cash in the Defense funding to do something more worthwhile..... like helping our Vets - ya know, people who have actually done something for the country.

Gawd, politicians suck!

LIST the fleece...

Guessing you're not a taxpayer, right?

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

 

[Toome]

Defense spending is always a very tricky proposition. Bottom line upfront: there's always a degree of wasteful spending or other forms of fraud and abuse.

However (and a big however at that), it's not always easy to pick apart the defense dollars when it comes to which money is being re-routed. And, to complicate things even more, there is a redundancy built into the system so that funds for equipment parts and maintenance may actually fall under two separate funding codes. What this means is that if Congress appears to have pulled funds earmarked for parts and maintenance, it may be because there were other funds that accomplished the same thing. Not that I blindly give Congress credit for having such insights and efficiencies; just saying that I am aware that funding sometimes overlap.

To me, personally, what it comes down to is this: if an American troop is unable to defend himself/herself because the weapon system broke down and there were no funds for maintenance, resupply or repair, then this is a dumb move, even at the expense of killing innocent brown people.

Or to put it another way: if you're so damned concern about the deaths of these people, then pick up a rifle and defend them. Otherwise, it's just hot air.

rltw

 

[AdlerianThinker]

Better the money spent here than overseas bombing brown people.

Yes. We must allow those brown people the freedom to kill innocents.

What WERE we thinking?

The people we're bombing didn't plan to kill anybody, nor would they if we weren't occupying their country. We are the one's murdering innocents.

We are the new Rome.

Really? All the ones we've bombed have been innocent?

I welcome any evidence you have that we are targeting innocents.

 

[AdlerianThinker]

And we bomb everybody who is in violation of a forced agreement. Right?

Stop trying to move the goal posts. We got into with them because they were a threat. They violated the terms of the cease fire agreement they signed, making them a threat again. They got their assess kicked, and you are sorry for them. That's great!

Muslim etiquette demands that once hospitality is given, it's given as long as it's not violated. The Taliban couldn't have given up Bin Laden. However, they could have been negotiated into asking him to leave the country. Bush thought Shiites and Sunnis were working together because he didn't know the difference between the two. Understanding another culture is the key to success.

We tried, the Taliban told us to pound sand. So we did. Boo hoo.

Republicans are bullies. They are NOT interested in "understanding", not when bombs and threats and saber rattling work so well. The problem, that's only an "illusion". In the long run, you moved two steps forward and twenty back. The two forward seemed to work so well, they can't see the twenty back. Not, "can't see, "refuse" to see.

Liberals are weenies. They couldn't punch there way out of a wet paper sack.

Feel better?

 

[Intense]

LIST the fleece...

Guessing you're not a taxpayer, right?

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Lets start with everything related to ACORN. The Kennedy Crime family played a role in that. Education Bill and the role of the Teachers Unions.

Lets Get all of the Unions out of Government!!!!!!!!

Chappaquiddick The Story behind the Story.
[edit] The party
On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha's Vineyard. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, including Kopechne, known as the "boiler-room girls",[1] who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin; Paul Markham, a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys;[2] Charles Tretter, an attorney; Raymond La Rosa; and John Crimmins, Ted Kennedy's part-time driver. Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, a sailing competition which was taking place over several days.

According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne's death, Kennedy left the party at "approximately 11:15 p.m." He said that when he announced that he was about to leave, Kopechne told him "that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel." Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other guests "were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn't appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown".[3] Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.[4]

[edit] After the party
Christopher "Huck" Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club's launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.[5] Look recalled that the car's license plate began with an "L" and contained the number "7" twice, both details true of Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.


The Dike Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, pictured here in 2008 with guardrail.According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at "approximately twenty miles an hour", took "no particular notice" of this fact, and did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.[6] Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside-down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for around fifteen minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his journey back to Lawrence Cottage.[7]


"Dike House" along Dike Road.In addition to the working telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, according to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[8] The first of those houses, referred to as "Dike House", was 150 yards away from the bridge, and was occupied by Sylvia Malm and her family at the time of the incident. Malm later stated that she had left a light on at the residence when she retired for that evening.[9]

According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the waterway with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy testified, Gargan and Markham drove with Kennedy to the ferry landing, both insisting multiple times that the accident had to be reported to the authorities.[10] According to Markham's testimony Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of breaking down.[11] Kennedy went on to testify that " had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water".[10] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them".[12] Gargan and Markam would testify that they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown and returned to his hotel room, where he removed his clothes and collapsed on his bed.[12] Hearing noises, he later put on dry clothes and asked someone what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m., the senator recalled. He testified that, as the night went on, "I almost tossed and turned and walked around that room ... I had not given up hope all night long that, by some miracle, Mary Jo would have escaped from the car."[13]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation." According to Kennedy's testimony, the two men asked why he had not reported the accident. Kennedy responded by telling them "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive".[13] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing. The phone calls were to his friends for advice and again, he did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

[edit] The body and Kennedy's statement
Earlier that morning, two amateur fishermen had seen the submerged car in the water and notified the inhabitants of the cottage nearest to the scene, who called the authorities at around 8:20 am.[14] A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body at around 8:45 am.[15] The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived in the air bubble after the accident, and concluded that

Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[8]

Farrar believed that Kopechne "lived for at least two hours down there."[16]

Police checked the car's license plate and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[1] When Kennedy, still at the pay phone by the ferry crossing, saw that the body had been discovered, he crossed back to Edgartown and went to the police station; Gargan simultaneously went to the hotel where the Boiler Room Girls were staying to inform them about the incident.[2]

At 10 am Kennedy entered the police station in Edgartown, made a couple of phone calls, then dictated a statement to his aide Paul Markham, which was then given to the police. The statement ran as follows:

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne],[17] a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.[18]

[edit] Legal proceedings
On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. Kennedy's attorneys suggested that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed to this, citing Kennedy's age, character and prior reputation.[19] Judge James Boyle sentenced Kennedy to two months' incarceration, the statutory minimum for the offense, which he suspended. In announcing the sentence, Boyle referred to Kennedy's "unblemished record" and said that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose".[20]

[edit] Kennedy's televised statement
At 7:30 pm that evening Kennedy made a lengthy prepared statement about the incident which was broadcast live by the television networks. Among other things, he said that:[21]

"only reasons of health" had prevented his wife from accompanying him to the regatta.
there was "no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" regarding Kennedy's and Kopechne's behavior that evening.
he "was not driving under the influence of liquor".
his conduct for the hours immediately following the accident "made no sense to [him] at all".
his doctors had informed him that he had suffered cerebral concussion and shock, but he did not seek to use his medical condition to escape responsibility for his actions.
he "regard[ed] as indefensible that fact that [he] did not report the accident to the police immediately."
instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy "requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne".
"[a]ll kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area," "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", "whether there was some justifiable reason for [him] to doubt what had happened and to delay [his] report", and "whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from [his] shoulders".
he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions—grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock".
having instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", Kennedy returned to the ferry with the two men, and then "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to [his] hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in [his] room".
Kennedy went on to ask the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:

“If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator’s character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.”[22]

He concluded by quoting a passage from his brother John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.[23]

[edit] Discovery of Kopechne's body
John Farrar, the diver who recovered Kopechne's body and captain of the Martha's Vineyard Edgarton Fire Rescue unit, asserted that Kopechne did not die from the vehicle overturn or from drowning, but rather from suffocation, based upon the posture in which he found the body and its position relative to the area of an ultimate air pocket in the overturned vehicle. Farrar also asserted that Kopechne would likely have survived had a more timely attempt at rescue been conducted.[24] Farrar located Kopechne's body in the well of the backseat of the overturned submerged car. Rigor mortis had set in and her hands were clasping the backseat and her face was turned upward.[25] Farrar testified at the Inquest:

It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. ... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call.

— diver John Farrar, Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Edgartown District Court. New York: EVR Productions, 1970.
[edit] Autopsy
The medical examiner, Dr Donald Mills, was satisfied that the cause of death was accidental drowning. He signed a death certificate to that effect and released Kopechne's body to her family without ordering an autopsy.[26] Later, on September 18, District Attorney Dinis attempted to secure an exhumation of Kopechne's body in order to perform a belated autopsy,[27] citing blood found on Kopechne's skirt and in her mouth and nose "which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning".[28] The reported discovery of the blood was made when her clothes were turned over to authorities by the funeral director.[29]

A Pennsylvania court under Judge Bernard Brominski held a hearing on the request on October 20–21.[27] The request was opposed by Kopechne's parents.[27] Eventually Judge Brominski ruled against the exhumation on December 10, saying that there was "no evidence" that "anything other than drowning had caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne".[30]

[edit] Inquest
The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret.[31][32] The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later.[32] Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest. Among Judge Boyle's conclusions in his inquest report were the following:[33]

the accident occurred "between 11:30 p.m. on July 18 and 1:00 a.m. on July 19".
"Kopechne and Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road had been intentional".
"A speed of twenty miles per hour as Kennedy testified to operating the car as large as his Oldsmobile would be at least negligent and possibly reckless."
"For some reason not apparent from [Kennedy]'s testimony, he failed to exercise due care as he approached the bridge."
"There is probable cause to believe that Edward M. Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."
Under Massachusetts law Boyle, having found "probable cause" that Kennedy had committed a crime, could have issued a warrant for his arrest, but he did not do so.[34] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.

The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[35] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."[35]

[edit] Grand jury
On April 6, 1970, Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to consider Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only those matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their own personal knowledge.[36] Citing the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Paquet told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Judge Boyle's report from the inquest (which at that time were still impounded).[36] District Attorney Dinis, who had attended the inquest and seen Judge Boyle's report, told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Senator Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury or driving to endanger.[36] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest: they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.[36]

[edit] Fatal accident hearing
On July 23, 1969, the Registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Senator Kennedy that his license would be suspended until a statutory hearing could be held on the accident.[37] This suspension was required by Massachusetts law in any fatal motor accident where there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held on May 18, 1970. It found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions" in the accident. On May 27 the Registrar informed Sen. Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part", and that as a result, his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[38]

[edit] Miscarriage
Sen. Kennedy's wife Joan Bennett Kennedy was pregnant at the time of the incident. Though confined to bed in the wake of two previous miscarriages, she attended the funeral of Kopechne and stood beside her husband in court three days later.[39] She suffered a third miscarriage shortly thereafter[40] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[41]

[edit] Alternative theory
A BBC 'Inside Story' programme, 'Chappaquiddick', broadcast on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne advanced a theory that Kennedy and Kopechne had gone out from the party in Kennedy's car, but that when Kennedy saw an off-duty policeman in his patrol car, he got out fearing the political consequences of being discovered by the police late at night with an attractive girl. According to the theory, Kennedy then returned to the party while Kopechne, unfamiliar both with the large car and the local area, drove the wrong way and crashed off the bridge. The programme argued this explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the following morning (because he was unaware of the crash) and for forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[42] A similar theory was advanced by Australian writer Bob Ellis.[43]

Chappaquiddick incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[PatekPhilippe]

See, this is how you do it. If Obama had been president on 9/11, we wouldn't be in this hole we are in now.

You're right....we would have had the satisfaction of killing another herd of goats with 100 million dollars in cruise missiles and sitting in the hole where the WTC was, whining and bitching about how sorry we were and that the 3000 people killed deserved it.

Some advice rdean...

 

[Bfgrn]

Guessing you're not a taxpayer, right?

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Lets start with everything related to ACORN. The Kennedy Crime family played a role in that. Education Bill and the role of the Teachers Unions.

Lets Get all of the Unions out of Government!!!!!!!!

Chappaquiddick The Story behind the Story.
[edit] The party
On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha's Vineyard. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, including Kopechne, known as the "boiler-room girls",[1] who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin; Paul Markham, a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys;[2] Charles Tretter, an attorney; Raymond La Rosa; and John Crimmins, Ted Kennedy's part-time driver. Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, a sailing competition which was taking place over several days.

According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne's death, Kennedy left the party at "approximately 11:15 p.m." He said that when he announced that he was about to leave, Kopechne told him "that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel." Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other guests "were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn't appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown".[3] Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.[4]

[edit] After the party
Christopher "Huck" Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club's launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.[5] Look recalled that the car's license plate began with an "L" and contained the number "7" twice, both details true of Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.


The Dike Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, pictured here in 2008 with guardrail.According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at "approximately twenty miles an hour", took "no particular notice" of this fact, and did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.[6] Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside-down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for around fifteen minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his journey back to Lawrence Cottage.[7]


"Dike House" along Dike Road.In addition to the working telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, according to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[8] The first of those houses, referred to as "Dike House", was 150 yards away from the bridge, and was occupied by Sylvia Malm and her family at the time of the incident. Malm later stated that she had left a light on at the residence when she retired for that evening.[9]

According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the waterway with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy testified, Gargan and Markham drove with Kennedy to the ferry landing, both insisting multiple times that the accident had to be reported to the authorities.[10] According to Markham's testimony Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of breaking down.[11] Kennedy went on to testify that " had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water".[10] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them".[12] Gargan and Markam would testify that they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown and returned to his hotel room, where he removed his clothes and collapsed on his bed.[12] Hearing noises, he later put on dry clothes and asked someone what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m., the senator recalled. He testified that, as the night went on, "I almost tossed and turned and walked around that room ... I had not given up hope all night long that, by some miracle, Mary Jo would have escaped from the car."[13]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation." According to Kennedy's testimony, the two men asked why he had not reported the accident. Kennedy responded by telling them "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive".[13] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing. The phone calls were to his friends for advice and again, he did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

[edit] The body and Kennedy's statement
Earlier that morning, two amateur fishermen had seen the submerged car in the water and notified the inhabitants of the cottage nearest to the scene, who called the authorities at around 8:20 am.[14] A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body at around 8:45 am.[15] The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived in the air bubble after the accident, and concluded that

Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[8]

Farrar believed that Kopechne "lived for at least two hours down there."[16]

Police checked the car's license plate and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[1] When Kennedy, still at the pay phone by the ferry crossing, saw that the body had been discovered, he crossed back to Edgartown and went to the police station; Gargan simultaneously went to the hotel where the Boiler Room Girls were staying to inform them about the incident.[2]

At 10 am Kennedy entered the police station in Edgartown, made a couple of phone calls, then dictated a statement to his aide Paul Markham, which was then given to the police. The statement ran as follows:

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne],[17] a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.[18]

[edit] Legal proceedings
On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. Kennedy's attorneys suggested that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed to this, citing Kennedy's age, character and prior reputation.[19] Judge James Boyle sentenced Kennedy to two months' incarceration, the statutory minimum for the offense, which he suspended. In announcing the sentence, Boyle referred to Kennedy's "unblemished record" and said that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose".[20]

[edit] Kennedy's televised statement
At 7:30 pm that evening Kennedy made a lengthy prepared statement about the incident which was broadcast live by the television networks. Among other things, he said that:[21]

"only reasons of health" had prevented his wife from accompanying him to the regatta.
there was "no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" regarding Kennedy's and Kopechne's behavior that evening.
he "was not driving under the influence of liquor".
his conduct for the hours immediately following the accident "made no sense to [him] at all".
his doctors had informed him that he had suffered cerebral concussion and shock, but he did not seek to use his medical condition to escape responsibility for his actions.
he "regard[ed] as indefensible that fact that [he] did not report the accident to the police immediately."
instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy "requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne".
"[a]ll kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area," "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", "whether there was some justifiable reason for [him] to doubt what had happened and to delay [his] report", and "whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from [his] shoulders".
he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions—grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock".
having instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", Kennedy returned to the ferry with the two men, and then "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to [his] hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in [his] room".
Kennedy went on to ask the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:

“If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator’s character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.”[22]

He concluded by quoting a passage from his brother John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.[23]

[edit] Discovery of Kopechne's body
John Farrar, the diver who recovered Kopechne's body and captain of the Martha's Vineyard Edgarton Fire Rescue unit, asserted that Kopechne did not die from the vehicle overturn or from drowning, but rather from suffocation, based upon the posture in which he found the body and its position relative to the area of an ultimate air pocket in the overturned vehicle. Farrar also asserted that Kopechne would likely have survived had a more timely attempt at rescue been conducted.[24] Farrar located Kopechne's body in the well of the backseat of the overturned submerged car. Rigor mortis had set in and her hands were clasping the backseat and her face was turned upward.[25] Farrar testified at the Inquest:

It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. ... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call.

— diver John Farrar, Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Edgartown District Court. New York: EVR Productions, 1970.
[edit] Autopsy
The medical examiner, Dr Donald Mills, was satisfied that the cause of death was accidental drowning. He signed a death certificate to that effect and released Kopechne's body to her family without ordering an autopsy.[26] Later, on September 18, District Attorney Dinis attempted to secure an exhumation of Kopechne's body in order to perform a belated autopsy,[27] citing blood found on Kopechne's skirt and in her mouth and nose "which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning".[28] The reported discovery of the blood was made when her clothes were turned over to authorities by the funeral director.[29]

A Pennsylvania court under Judge Bernard Brominski held a hearing on the request on October 20–21.[27] The request was opposed by Kopechne's parents.[27] Eventually Judge Brominski ruled against the exhumation on December 10, saying that there was "no evidence" that "anything other than drowning had caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne".[30]

[edit] Inquest
The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret.[31][32] The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later.[32] Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest. Among Judge Boyle's conclusions in his inquest report were the following:[33]

the accident occurred "between 11:30 p.m. on July 18 and 1:00 a.m. on July 19".
"Kopechne and Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road had been intentional".
"A speed of twenty miles per hour as Kennedy testified to operating the car as large as his Oldsmobile would be at least negligent and possibly reckless."
"For some reason not apparent from [Kennedy]'s testimony, he failed to exercise due care as he approached the bridge."
"There is probable cause to believe that Edward M. Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."
Under Massachusetts law Boyle, having found "probable cause" that Kennedy had committed a crime, could have issued a warrant for his arrest, but he did not do so.[34] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.

The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[35] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."[35]

[edit] Grand jury
On April 6, 1970, Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to consider Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only those matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their own personal knowledge.[36] Citing the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Paquet told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Judge Boyle's report from the inquest (which at that time were still impounded).[36] District Attorney Dinis, who had attended the inquest and seen Judge Boyle's report, told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Senator Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury or driving to endanger.[36] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest: they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.[36]

[edit] Fatal accident hearing
On July 23, 1969, the Registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Senator Kennedy that his license would be suspended until a statutory hearing could be held on the accident.[37] This suspension was required by Massachusetts law in any fatal motor accident where there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held on May 18, 1970. It found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions" in the accident. On May 27 the Registrar informed Sen. Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part", and that as a result, his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[38]

[edit] Miscarriage
Sen. Kennedy's wife Joan Bennett Kennedy was pregnant at the time of the incident. Though confined to bed in the wake of two previous miscarriages, she attended the funeral of Kopechne and stood beside her husband in court three days later.[39] She suffered a third miscarriage shortly thereafter[40] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[41]

[edit] Alternative theory
A BBC 'Inside Story' programme, 'Chappaquiddick', broadcast on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne advanced a theory that Kennedy and Kopechne had gone out from the party in Kennedy's car, but that when Kennedy saw an off-duty policeman in his patrol car, he got out fearing the political consequences of being discovered by the police late at night with an attractive girl. According to the theory, Kennedy then returned to the party while Kopechne, unfamiliar both with the large car and the local area, drove the wrong way and crashed off the bridge. The programme argued this explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the following morning (because he was unaware of the crash) and for forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[42] A similar theory was advanced by Australian writer Bob Ellis.[43]

Chappaquiddick incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ACORN attacks are the biggest straw man argument in history...there were absolutely NO votes cast illegally...NONE...ACORN has helped a lot of people find jobs and housing... AND ironically, ACORN was way ahead of the curve on the foreclosure crisis...IF people had LISTENED to ACORN, the foreclosure crisis could have been avoided...ACORN was warning people all along about predatory lenders and advising buyers to go with traditional mortgages...

The ONLY reason ACORN is under attack is because they register voters that were mostly from low income areas. Republicans can't win that vote, so the un-American GOP will do anything to deny that segment of the population their Constitutional right to vote...

Kennedy and Bush worked together to pass No Child Left Behind, but Bush reneged on his word and promise to Kennedy on critical funding which undermined that program...

Strong and vibrant Unions are the heart and soul of a strong and vibrant middle class... The socialist Ronald Reagan started the attack on unions and working class people and redistributed the wealth to the top 1% and gutted the middle class...now we find ourselves in the new gilded age and controlled by the modern day Robber Barons...

If you right wing pea brains HAD a brain, you'd stop the Monica impersonation. You "I am not worthy" morons suck the dick of these robber barons and insurance cartels that are stealing YOUR money...

Kennedy's accident in 1969 was a PERSONAL tragedy that has NOTHING to do with his legislative record or his public service...

Hey, Laura Bush killed a guy in a traffic ACCIDENT and she couldn't hold a candle to Ted Kennedy's accomplishments...go after HER ...

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru

 

[California Girl]

LIST the fleece...

Guessing you're not a taxpayer, right?

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Currently, I pay taxes in the UK. Ouch! And the US still try and grab a piece of my hard earned! Swines!

Look, if you want a memorial to Teddy, fine - have one, just not from the Military budget. That money is required to ensure our troops are provided for and since they risk their lives I think it's justified.

Teddy did some good things and he was a complete SOB who left some girl to drown and saved his own ass..... granted he was young, selfish and a coward but that doesn't change what he did.

It's not about Ted, it's about military funding being used to build some fucking building to memorialize a man. If the Kennedy's want a memorial, let them pay for it. Or fund raise for it. Just don't take money that will help our troops to build a stupid building for the vanity of Kennedy.

 

[Bfgrn]

Guessing you're not a taxpayer, right?

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Currently, I pay taxes in the UK. Ouch! And the US still try and grab a piece of my hard earned! Swines!

Look, if you want a memorial to Teddy, fine - have one, just not from the Military budget. That money is required to ensure our troops are provided for and since they risk their lives I think it's justified.

Teddy did some good things and he was a complete SOB who left some girl to drown and saved his own ass..... granted he was young, selfish and a coward but that doesn't change what he did.

It's not about Ted, it's about military funding being used to build some fucking building to memorialize a man. If the Kennedy's want a memorial, let them pay for it. Or fund raise for it. Just don't take money that will help our troops to build a stupid building for the vanity of Kennedy.

SOME good things??? WOW... his nephew hit the nail on the head!

"Eighty percent of Republicans are just Democrats that don't know what's going on"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.


Helping Military Families
Senator Kennedy was always a champion of military families and children. In 1985, Kennedy introduced legislation to improve the lives of military families. The bill included provisions that would make it easier for military wives to get government jobs, required the military to pay attention to the children who moved with their parents, and reduced the costs that servicemen had to pay when they were transferred from one base to another. In addition, Kennedy was a successful voice for bumping up the date of a three-percent military pay raise, arguing that military pay lagged more than 10 percent behind civilian pay for comparable jobs.

In 1989, Kennedy won passage of the National Military Child Care Act. This important legislation established the DOD child-care system that is still viewed as one of the best in the country today. Military families make difficult decisions and numerous sacrifices to defend our freedom, and the Military Child Care Act is just one way we can begin to compensate them for this.

Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that families who have loved ones deployed overseas get access to the best care and services possible. In April of 2008, Kennedy introduced the National Month of the Military Child, which honors and recognizes the achievements of children of service members. Senator Kennedy deeply understands and cares about the effects that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan have on military children.

Protecting our Troops and Modernizing our Armed Forces
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Kennedy worked to guarantee effective vehicle armor and body armor for our troops to protect them from improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths.

In 2003, Senator Kennedy met Brian and Alma Hart at the burial of their son John at Arlington National Cemetery. On October, 18, 2003, the Bedford, Massachusetts resident was killed in Taza, Iraq when enemy forces attacked his patrol using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Before his death, John asked his parents to do something to improve the availability of armored humvees to American troops in combat. After hearing this story and John's plea, Senator Kennedy invited the Harts to testify before Congress and later secured over $1 billion in funding for armored vehicles for our troops.

Said Mr. Hart in 2008, "Senator Kennedy taught me that government can function for the common man."

In 2005, the Senate Armed Services Committee continued to provide additional protective gear to our troops. The committee, with Senator Kennedy's support added nearly $835 million for Army and Marine Corps armored vehicles.

In 2007, Senator Kennedy offered an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, calling for additional funding to the Joint IED Defeat Organization's (JIEDDO) budget to explore ways to mitigate the effects of Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs).

Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths. He has been a consistent champion of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle or MRAP. The services were slow to recognize that these heavily armored vehicles could protect our troops better than up-armored humvees. Senator Kennedy has pressed for a full and fair investigation into why the Marine Corps disregarded a universal, urgent needs statement calling for MRAPs in 2002 because he feels that quicker and more complete fielding of MRAPs could have saved soldier's lives. He continues to press for streamlining for the urgent needs process to insure that our soldiers receive the best equipment possible as rapidly as possible.

Senator Kennedy led the fight to preserve the Air Force's newest, most capable airlift platform, the C-17, a unique aircraft that facilitates the delivery of necessary materials to our troops all over the world. Senator Kennedy was a strong proponent of a reasonable and affordable mix of strategic airlift. He authored language requiring the testing of C-5A and C-5B aircraft undergoing the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP) before any aircraft can be retired. Only after understanding the outcome of these two programs to modernize our C-5 fleet can the Congress and the Air Force make responsible decisions on the proper mix of the two platforms.

Protecting Equal Opportunity for Women in Combat
In 1991, Kennedy strongly supported legislation to repeal the ban on women serving as combat aviators. The bill made it possible for women to play a full and complete role in our national defense by discontinuing an archaic law preventing women from combat aviation. By repealing these outdated statutes, Sen. Kennedy helped to achieve equal opportunity for women in the military.

Caring for our Wounded Warriors
In 2008, Senator Kennedy was a champion of Wounded Warrior legislation contained in the FY08 Defense Authorization bill. In response to alarming statistics of increased suicides in the Army and the lack of adequate mental health care, he introduced National Guard and Reserve Mental Health Access Act of 2008 to improve access to mental health care for our returning Guard and Reserve men and women by requiring the prompt implementation of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program, a pilot program for tele-mental health, create mental health Directors in each state and territory, and provide for an anti-stigma campaign.

Banning Torture
Senator Kennedy introduced legislation in 2007 to prohibit all agencies and instrumentalities of the United States government from using any interrogation technique not authorized by the Army Field Manual. The Field Manual recognizes that torture is not an effective method of obtaining information and instead only authorizes interrogation techniques that comply with domestic and international law as well as the most basic human rights values.

Senator Kennedy's interrogation language, included in the Intelligence Authorization bill, drew a veto from President Bush in January 2008. His language was included in the FY08 Emergency Supplemental bill passed by the House of Representatives.

http://www.tedkennedy.org/service/item/defense

 

[California Girl]

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Currently, I pay taxes in the UK. Ouch! And the US still try and grab a piece of my hard earned! Swines!

Look, if you want a memorial to Teddy, fine - have one, just not from the Military budget. That money is required to ensure our troops are provided for and since they risk their lives I think it's justified.

Teddy did some good things and he was a complete SOB who left some girl to drown and saved his own ass..... granted he was young, selfish and a coward but that doesn't change what he did.

It's not about Ted, it's about military funding being used to build some fucking building to memorialize a man. If the Kennedy's want a memorial, let them pay for it. Or fund raise for it. Just don't take money that will help our troops to build a stupid building for the vanity of Kennedy.

SOME good things??? WOW... his nephew hit the nail on the head!

"Eighty percent of Republicans are just Democrats that don't know what's going on"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.


Helping Military Families
Senator Kennedy was always a champion of military families and children. In 1985, Kennedy introduced legislation to improve the lives of military families. The bill included provisions that would make it easier for military wives to get government jobs, required the military to pay attention to the children who moved with their parents, and reduced the costs that servicemen had to pay when they were transferred from one base to another. In addition, Kennedy was a successful voice for bumping up the date of a three-percent military pay raise, arguing that military pay lagged more than 10 percent behind civilian pay for comparable jobs.

In 1989, Kennedy won passage of the National Military Child Care Act. This important legislation established the DOD child-care system that is still viewed as one of the best in the country today. Military families make difficult decisions and numerous sacrifices to defend our freedom, and the Military Child Care Act is just one way we can begin to compensate them for this.

Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that families who have loved ones deployed overseas get access to the best care and services possible. In April of 2008, Kennedy introduced the National Month of the Military Child, which honors and recognizes the achievements of children of service members. Senator Kennedy deeply understands and cares about the effects that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan have on military children.

Protecting our Troops and Modernizing our Armed Forces
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Kennedy worked to guarantee effective vehicle armor and body armor for our troops to protect them from improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths.

In 2003, Senator Kennedy met Brian and Alma Hart at the burial of their son John at Arlington National Cemetery. On October, 18, 2003, the Bedford, Massachusetts resident was killed in Taza, Iraq when enemy forces attacked his patrol using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Before his death, John asked his parents to do something to improve the availability of armored humvees to American troops in combat. After hearing this story and John's plea, Senator Kennedy invited the Harts to testify before Congress and later secured over $1 billion in funding for armored vehicles for our troops.

Said Mr. Hart in 2008, "Senator Kennedy taught me that government can function for the common man."

In 2005, the Senate Armed Services Committee continued to provide additional protective gear to our troops. The committee, with Senator Kennedy's support added nearly $835 million for Army and Marine Corps armored vehicles.

In 2007, Senator Kennedy offered an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, calling for additional funding to the Joint IED Defeat Organization's (JIEDDO) budget to explore ways to mitigate the effects of Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs).

Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths. He has been a consistent champion of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle or MRAP. The services were slow to recognize that these heavily armored vehicles could protect our troops better than up-armored humvees. Senator Kennedy has pressed for a full and fair investigation into why the Marine Corps disregarded a universal, urgent needs statement calling for MRAPs in 2002 because he feels that quicker and more complete fielding of MRAPs could have saved soldier's lives. He continues to press for streamlining for the urgent needs process to insure that our soldiers receive the best equipment possible as rapidly as possible.

Senator Kennedy led the fight to preserve the Air Force's newest, most capable airlift platform, the C-17, a unique aircraft that facilitates the delivery of necessary materials to our troops all over the world. Senator Kennedy was a strong proponent of a reasonable and affordable mix of strategic airlift. He authored language requiring the testing of C-5A and C-5B aircraft undergoing the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP) before any aircraft can be retired. Only after understanding the outcome of these two programs to modernize our C-5 fleet can the Congress and the Air Force make responsible decisions on the proper mix of the two platforms.

Protecting Equal Opportunity for Women in Combat
In 1991, Kennedy strongly supported legislation to repeal the ban on women serving as combat aviators. The bill made it possible for women to play a full and complete role in our national defense by discontinuing an archaic law preventing women from combat aviation. By repealing these outdated statutes, Sen. Kennedy helped to achieve equal opportunity for women in the military.

Caring for our Wounded Warriors
In 2008, Senator Kennedy was a champion of Wounded Warrior legislation contained in the FY08 Defense Authorization bill. In response to alarming statistics of increased suicides in the Army and the lack of adequate mental health care, he introduced National Guard and Reserve Mental Health Access Act of 2008 to improve access to mental health care for our returning Guard and Reserve men and women by requiring the prompt implementation of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program, a pilot program for tele-mental health, create mental health Directors in each state and territory, and provide for an anti-stigma campaign.

Banning Torture
Senator Kennedy introduced legislation in 2007 to prohibit all agencies and instrumentalities of the United States government from using any interrogation technique not authorized by the Army Field Manual. The Field Manual recognizes that torture is not an effective method of obtaining information and instead only authorizes interrogation techniques that comply with domestic and international law as well as the most basic human rights values.

Senator Kennedy's interrogation language, included in the Intelligence Authorization bill, drew a veto from President Bush in January 2008. His language was included in the FY08 Emergency Supplemental bill passed by the House of Representatives.

http://www.tedkennedy.org/service/item/defense

I already know all this. There is no need to plead his case to me. As far as I am concerned he was a reasonably decent man. He did some good things, he did some stuff that sucked.

My argument is not about Kennedy (although I personally view him as the epitome of 'the good die young.' It is about the money which is better spent keeping our troops safe, providing them with what they need rather than some stupid damned building.... and I would bet that, if he were alive, Teddy would want the same thing. What better way to truly memorialize the man than to keep our troops safe. Each an every one will be a living memorial to him.

 

[Bfgrn]

Currently, I pay taxes in the UK. Ouch! And the US still try and grab a piece of my hard earned! Swines!

Look, if you want a memorial to Teddy, fine - have one, just not from the Military budget. That money is required to ensure our troops are provided for and since they risk their lives I think it's justified.

Teddy did some good things and he was a complete SOB who left some girl to drown and saved his own ass..... granted he was young, selfish and a coward but that doesn't change what he did.

It's not about Ted, it's about military funding being used to build some fucking building to memorialize a man. If the Kennedy's want a memorial, let them pay for it. Or fund raise for it. Just don't take money that will help our troops to build a stupid building for the vanity of Kennedy.

SOME good things??? WOW... his nephew hit the nail on the head!

"Eighty percent of Republicans are just Democrats that don't know what's going on"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.


Helping Military Families
Senator Kennedy was always a champion of military families and children. In 1985, Kennedy introduced legislation to improve the lives of military families. The bill included provisions that would make it easier for military wives to get government jobs, required the military to pay attention to the children who moved with their parents, and reduced the costs that servicemen had to pay when they were transferred from one base to another. In addition, Kennedy was a successful voice for bumping up the date of a three-percent military pay raise, arguing that military pay lagged more than 10 percent behind civilian pay for comparable jobs.

In 1989, Kennedy won passage of the National Military Child Care Act. This important legislation established the DOD child-care system that is still viewed as one of the best in the country today. Military families make difficult decisions and numerous sacrifices to defend our freedom, and the Military Child Care Act is just one way we can begin to compensate them for this.

Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that families who have loved ones deployed overseas get access to the best care and services possible. In April of 2008, Kennedy introduced the National Month of the Military Child, which honors and recognizes the achievements of children of service members. Senator Kennedy deeply understands and cares about the effects that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan have on military children.

Protecting our Troops and Modernizing our Armed Forces
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Kennedy worked to guarantee effective vehicle armor and body armor for our troops to protect them from improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths.

In 2003, Senator Kennedy met Brian and Alma Hart at the burial of their son John at Arlington National Cemetery. On October, 18, 2003, the Bedford, Massachusetts resident was killed in Taza, Iraq when enemy forces attacked his patrol using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Before his death, John asked his parents to do something to improve the availability of armored humvees to American troops in combat. After hearing this story and John's plea, Senator Kennedy invited the Harts to testify before Congress and later secured over $1 billion in funding for armored vehicles for our troops.

Said Mr. Hart in 2008, "Senator Kennedy taught me that government can function for the common man."

In 2005, the Senate Armed Services Committee continued to provide additional protective gear to our troops. The committee, with Senator Kennedy's support added nearly $835 million for Army and Marine Corps armored vehicles.

In 2007, Senator Kennedy offered an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, calling for additional funding to the Joint IED Defeat Organization's (JIEDDO) budget to explore ways to mitigate the effects of Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs).

Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths. He has been a consistent champion of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle or MRAP. The services were slow to recognize that these heavily armored vehicles could protect our troops better than up-armored humvees. Senator Kennedy has pressed for a full and fair investigation into why the Marine Corps disregarded a universal, urgent needs statement calling for MRAPs in 2002 because he feels that quicker and more complete fielding of MRAPs could have saved soldier's lives. He continues to press for streamlining for the urgent needs process to insure that our soldiers receive the best equipment possible as rapidly as possible.

Senator Kennedy led the fight to preserve the Air Force's newest, most capable airlift platform, the C-17, a unique aircraft that facilitates the delivery of necessary materials to our troops all over the world. Senator Kennedy was a strong proponent of a reasonable and affordable mix of strategic airlift. He authored language requiring the testing of C-5A and C-5B aircraft undergoing the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP) before any aircraft can be retired. Only after understanding the outcome of these two programs to modernize our C-5 fleet can the Congress and the Air Force make responsible decisions on the proper mix of the two platforms.

Protecting Equal Opportunity for Women in Combat
In 1991, Kennedy strongly supported legislation to repeal the ban on women serving as combat aviators. The bill made it possible for women to play a full and complete role in our national defense by discontinuing an archaic law preventing women from combat aviation. By repealing these outdated statutes, Sen. Kennedy helped to achieve equal opportunity for women in the military.

Caring for our Wounded Warriors
In 2008, Senator Kennedy was a champion of Wounded Warrior legislation contained in the FY08 Defense Authorization bill. In response to alarming statistics of increased suicides in the Army and the lack of adequate mental health care, he introduced National Guard and Reserve Mental Health Access Act of 2008 to improve access to mental health care for our returning Guard and Reserve men and women by requiring the prompt implementation of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program, a pilot program for tele-mental health, create mental health Directors in each state and territory, and provide for an anti-stigma campaign.

Banning Torture
Senator Kennedy introduced legislation in 2007 to prohibit all agencies and instrumentalities of the United States government from using any interrogation technique not authorized by the Army Field Manual. The Field Manual recognizes that torture is not an effective method of obtaining information and instead only authorizes interrogation techniques that comply with domestic and international law as well as the most basic human rights values.

Senator Kennedy's interrogation language, included in the Intelligence Authorization bill, drew a veto from President Bush in January 2008. His language was included in the FY08 Emergency Supplemental bill passed by the House of Representatives.

http://www.tedkennedy.org/service/item/defense

I already know all this. There is no need to plead his case to me. As far as I am concerned he was a reasonably decent man. He did some good things, he did some stuff that sucked.

My argument is not about Kennedy (although I personally view him as the epitome of 'the good die young.' It is about the money which is better spent keeping our troops safe, providing them with what they need rather than some stupid damned building.... and I would bet that, if he were alive, Teddy would want the same thing. What better way to truly memorialize the man than to keep our troops safe. Each an every one will be a living memorial to him.

I'm sure Ted would prefer the money go to protect our troops...

BUT, if you REALLY want to protect our troops, then we should have listened to Ted Kennedy and never started an immoral and useless war in Iraq...

 

[Intense]

See, this is how you do it. If Obama had been president on 9/11, we wouldn't be in this hole we are in now.

You're right....we would have had the satisfaction of killing another herd of goats with 100 million dollars in cruise missiles and sitting in the hole where the WTC was, whining and bitching about how sorry we were and that the 3000 people killed deserved it.

Some advice rdean...

I think you are confusing Obama with Clinton. No Doubt Clinton would have launched cruise missiles, then called ahead, before impact, so they could evacuate the coordinated target. Obama would have had A 2 Hour news conference saying nothing 50 different ways, then he would have turned it around on us and apologized.

 

[California Girl]

Yes, I've been a taxpayer for 40 years...YOU???

Please list the bills and policies Ted Kennedy wrote or supported that fleeced the people?

Kennedy voted AGAINST the war in Iraq, so give him a trillion dollars in his kitty...

Lets start with everything related to ACORN. The Kennedy Crime family played a role in that. Education Bill and the role of the Teachers Unions.

Lets Get all of the Unions out of Government!!!!!!!!

Chappaquiddick The Story behind the Story.
[edit] The party
On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha's Vineyard. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, including Kopechne, known as the "boiler-room girls",[1] who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin; Paul Markham, a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys;[2] Charles Tretter, an attorney; Raymond La Rosa; and John Crimmins, Ted Kennedy's part-time driver. Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, a sailing competition which was taking place over several days.

According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne's death, Kennedy left the party at "approximately 11:15 p.m." He said that when he announced that he was about to leave, Kopechne told him "that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel." Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other guests "were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn't appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown".[3] Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.[4]

[edit] After the party
Christopher "Huck" Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club's launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.[5] Look recalled that the car's license plate began with an "L" and contained the number "7" twice, both details true of Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.


The Dike Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, pictured here in 2008 with guardrail.According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at "approximately twenty miles an hour", took "no particular notice" of this fact, and did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.[6] Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside-down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for around fifteen minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his journey back to Lawrence Cottage.[7]


"Dike House" along Dike Road.In addition to the working telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, according to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[8] The first of those houses, referred to as "Dike House", was 150 yards away from the bridge, and was occupied by Sylvia Malm and her family at the time of the incident. Malm later stated that she had left a light on at the residence when she retired for that evening.[9]

According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the waterway with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy testified, Gargan and Markham drove with Kennedy to the ferry landing, both insisting multiple times that the accident had to be reported to the authorities.[10] According to Markham's testimony Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of breaking down.[11] Kennedy went on to testify that " had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water".[10] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them".[12] Gargan and Markam would testify that they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown and returned to his hotel room, where he removed his clothes and collapsed on his bed.[12] Hearing noises, he later put on dry clothes and asked someone what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m., the senator recalled. He testified that, as the night went on, "I almost tossed and turned and walked around that room ... I had not given up hope all night long that, by some miracle, Mary Jo would have escaped from the car."[13]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation." According to Kennedy's testimony, the two men asked why he had not reported the accident. Kennedy responded by telling them "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive".[13] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing. The phone calls were to his friends for advice and again, he did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

[edit] The body and Kennedy's statement
Earlier that morning, two amateur fishermen had seen the submerged car in the water and notified the inhabitants of the cottage nearest to the scene, who called the authorities at around 8:20 am.[14] A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body at around 8:45 am.[15] The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived in the air bubble after the accident, and concluded that

Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[8]

Farrar believed that Kopechne "lived for at least two hours down there."[16]

Police checked the car's license plate and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[1] When Kennedy, still at the pay phone by the ferry crossing, saw that the body had been discovered, he crossed back to Edgartown and went to the police station; Gargan simultaneously went to the hotel where the Boiler Room Girls were staying to inform them about the incident.[2]

At 10 am Kennedy entered the police station in Edgartown, made a couple of phone calls, then dictated a statement to his aide Paul Markham, which was then given to the police. The statement ran as follows:

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne],[17] a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.[18]

[edit] Legal proceedings
On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. Kennedy's attorneys suggested that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed to this, citing Kennedy's age, character and prior reputation.[19] Judge James Boyle sentenced Kennedy to two months' incarceration, the statutory minimum for the offense, which he suspended. In announcing the sentence, Boyle referred to Kennedy's "unblemished record" and said that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose".[20]

[edit] Kennedy's televised statement
At 7:30 pm that evening Kennedy made a lengthy prepared statement about the incident which was broadcast live by the television networks. Among other things, he said that:[21]

"only reasons of health" had prevented his wife from accompanying him to the regatta.
there was "no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" regarding Kennedy's and Kopechne's behavior that evening.
he "was not driving under the influence of liquor".
his conduct for the hours immediately following the accident "made no sense to [him] at all".
his doctors had informed him that he had suffered cerebral concussion and shock, but he did not seek to use his medical condition to escape responsibility for his actions.
he "regard[ed] as indefensible that fact that [he] did not report the accident to the police immediately."
instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy "requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne".
"[a]ll kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area," "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", "whether there was some justifiable reason for [him] to doubt what had happened and to delay [his] report", and "whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from [his] shoulders".
he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions—grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock".
having instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", Kennedy returned to the ferry with the two men, and then "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to [his] hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in [his] room".
Kennedy went on to ask the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:

“If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator’s character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.”[22]

He concluded by quoting a passage from his brother John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.[23]

[edit] Discovery of Kopechne's body
John Farrar, the diver who recovered Kopechne's body and captain of the Martha's Vineyard Edgarton Fire Rescue unit, asserted that Kopechne did not die from the vehicle overturn or from drowning, but rather from suffocation, based upon the posture in which he found the body and its position relative to the area of an ultimate air pocket in the overturned vehicle. Farrar also asserted that Kopechne would likely have survived had a more timely attempt at rescue been conducted.[24] Farrar located Kopechne's body in the well of the backseat of the overturned submerged car. Rigor mortis had set in and her hands were clasping the backseat and her face was turned upward.[25] Farrar testified at the Inquest:

It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. ... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call.

— diver John Farrar, Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Edgartown District Court. New York: EVR Productions, 1970.
[edit] Autopsy
The medical examiner, Dr Donald Mills, was satisfied that the cause of death was accidental drowning. He signed a death certificate to that effect and released Kopechne's body to her family without ordering an autopsy.[26] Later, on September 18, District Attorney Dinis attempted to secure an exhumation of Kopechne's body in order to perform a belated autopsy,[27] citing blood found on Kopechne's skirt and in her mouth and nose "which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning".[28] The reported discovery of the blood was made when her clothes were turned over to authorities by the funeral director.[29]

A Pennsylvania court under Judge Bernard Brominski held a hearing on the request on October 20–21.[27] The request was opposed by Kopechne's parents.[27] Eventually Judge Brominski ruled against the exhumation on December 10, saying that there was "no evidence" that "anything other than drowning had caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne".[30]

[edit] Inquest
The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret.[31][32] The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later.[32] Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest. Among Judge Boyle's conclusions in his inquest report were the following:[33]

the accident occurred "between 11:30 p.m. on July 18 and 1:00 a.m. on July 19".
"Kopechne and Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road had been intentional".
"A speed of twenty miles per hour as Kennedy testified to operating the car as large as his Oldsmobile would be at least negligent and possibly reckless."
"For some reason not apparent from [Kennedy]'s testimony, he failed to exercise due care as he approached the bridge."
"There is probable cause to believe that Edward M. Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."
Under Massachusetts law Boyle, having found "probable cause" that Kennedy had committed a crime, could have issued a warrant for his arrest, but he did not do so.[34] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.

The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[35] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."[35]

[edit] Grand jury
On April 6, 1970, Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to consider Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only those matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their own personal knowledge.[36] Citing the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Paquet told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Judge Boyle's report from the inquest (which at that time were still impounded).[36] District Attorney Dinis, who had attended the inquest and seen Judge Boyle's report, told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Senator Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury or driving to endanger.[36] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest: they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.[36]

[edit] Fatal accident hearing
On July 23, 1969, the Registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Senator Kennedy that his license would be suspended until a statutory hearing could be held on the accident.[37] This suspension was required by Massachusetts law in any fatal motor accident where there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held on May 18, 1970. It found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions" in the accident. On May 27 the Registrar informed Sen. Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part", and that as a result, his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[38]

[edit] Miscarriage
Sen. Kennedy's wife Joan Bennett Kennedy was pregnant at the time of the incident. Though confined to bed in the wake of two previous miscarriages, she attended the funeral of Kopechne and stood beside her husband in court three days later.[39] She suffered a third miscarriage shortly thereafter[40] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[41]

[edit] Alternative theory
A BBC 'Inside Story' programme, 'Chappaquiddick', broadcast on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne advanced a theory that Kennedy and Kopechne had gone out from the party in Kennedy's car, but that when Kennedy saw an off-duty policeman in his patrol car, he got out fearing the political consequences of being discovered by the police late at night with an attractive girl. According to the theory, Kennedy then returned to the party while Kopechne, unfamiliar both with the large car and the local area, drove the wrong way and crashed off the bridge. The programme argued this explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the following morning (because he was unaware of the crash) and for forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[42] A similar theory was advanced by Australian writer Bob Ellis.[43]

Chappaquiddick incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ACORN attacks are the biggest straw man argument in history...there were absolutely NO votes cast illegally...NONE...ACORN has helped a lot of people find jobs and housing... AND ironically, ACORN was way ahead of the curve on the foreclosure crisis...IF people had LISTENED to ACORN, the foreclosure crisis could have been avoided...ACORN was warning people all along about predatory lenders and advising buyers to go with traditional mortgages...

The ONLY reason ACORN is under attack is because they register voters that were mostly from low income areas. Republicans can't win that vote, so the un-American GOP will do anything to deny that segment of the population their Constitutional right to vote...

Kennedy and Bush worked together to pass No Child Left Behind, but Bush reneged on his word and promise to Kennedy on critical funding which undermined that program...

Strong and vibrant Unions are the heart and soul of a strong and vibrant middle class... The socialist Ronald Reagan started the attack on unions and working class people and redistributed the wealth to the top 1% and gutted the middle class...now we find ourselves in the new gilded age and controlled by the modern day Robber Barons...

If you right wing pea brains HAD a brain, you'd stop the Monica impersonation. You "I am not worthy" morons suck the dick of these robber barons and insurance cartels that are stealing YOUR money...

Kennedy's accident in 1969 was a PERSONAL tragedy that has NOTHING to do with his legislative record or his public service...

Hey, Laura Bush killed a guy in a traffic ACCIDENT and she couldn't hold a candle to Ted Kennedy's accomplishments...go after HER ...

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru

Source for your claim that ACORN warned of the foreclosure crisis please. And can we have a legitimate source, providing actual evidence, and not some half assed oped piece published by a partisan source. Thanks.

 

[Intense]

Lets start with everything related to ACORN. The Kennedy Crime family played a role in that. Education Bill and the role of the Teachers Unions.

Lets Get all of the Unions out of Government!!!!!!!!

Chappaquiddick The Story behind the Story.
[edit] The party
On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha's Vineyard. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, including Kopechne, known as the "boiler-room girls",[1] who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin; Paul Markham, a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys;[2] Charles Tretter, an attorney; Raymond La Rosa; and John Crimmins, Ted Kennedy's part-time driver. Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, a sailing competition which was taking place over several days.

According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne's death, Kennedy left the party at "approximately 11:15 p.m." He said that when he announced that he was about to leave, Kopechne told him "that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel." Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other guests "were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn't appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown".[3] Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.[4]

[edit] After the party
Christopher "Huck" Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club's launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.[5] Look recalled that the car's license plate began with an "L" and contained the number "7" twice, both details true of Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.


The Dike Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, pictured here in 2008 with guardrail.According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at "approximately twenty miles an hour", took "no particular notice" of this fact, and did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.[6] Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside-down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for around fifteen minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his journey back to Lawrence Cottage.[7]


"Dike House" along Dike Road.In addition to the working telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, according to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[8] The first of those houses, referred to as "Dike House", was 150 yards away from the bridge, and was occupied by Sylvia Malm and her family at the time of the incident. Malm later stated that she had left a light on at the residence when she retired for that evening.[9]

According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the waterway with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy testified, Gargan and Markham drove with Kennedy to the ferry landing, both insisting multiple times that the accident had to be reported to the authorities.[10] According to Markham's testimony Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of breaking down.[11] Kennedy went on to testify that " had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water".[10] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them".[12] Gargan and Markam would testify that they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown and returned to his hotel room, where he removed his clothes and collapsed on his bed.[12] Hearing noises, he later put on dry clothes and asked someone what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m., the senator recalled. He testified that, as the night went on, "I almost tossed and turned and walked around that room ... I had not given up hope all night long that, by some miracle, Mary Jo would have escaped from the car."[13]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation." According to Kennedy's testimony, the two men asked why he had not reported the accident. Kennedy responded by telling them "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive".[13] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing. The phone calls were to his friends for advice and again, he did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

[edit] The body and Kennedy's statement
Earlier that morning, two amateur fishermen had seen the submerged car in the water and notified the inhabitants of the cottage nearest to the scene, who called the authorities at around 8:20 am.[14] A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body at around 8:45 am.[15] The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived in the air bubble after the accident, and concluded that

Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[8]

Farrar believed that Kopechne "lived for at least two hours down there."[16]

Police checked the car's license plate and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[1] When Kennedy, still at the pay phone by the ferry crossing, saw that the body had been discovered, he crossed back to Edgartown and went to the police station; Gargan simultaneously went to the hotel where the Boiler Room Girls were staying to inform them about the incident.[2]

At 10 am Kennedy entered the police station in Edgartown, made a couple of phone calls, then dictated a statement to his aide Paul Markham, which was then given to the police. The statement ran as follows:

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne],[17] a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.[18]

[edit] Legal proceedings
On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. Kennedy's attorneys suggested that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed to this, citing Kennedy's age, character and prior reputation.[19] Judge James Boyle sentenced Kennedy to two months' incarceration, the statutory minimum for the offense, which he suspended. In announcing the sentence, Boyle referred to Kennedy's "unblemished record" and said that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose".[20]

[edit] Kennedy's televised statement
At 7:30 pm that evening Kennedy made a lengthy prepared statement about the incident which was broadcast live by the television networks. Among other things, he said that:[21]

"only reasons of health" had prevented his wife from accompanying him to the regatta.
there was "no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" regarding Kennedy's and Kopechne's behavior that evening.
he "was not driving under the influence of liquor".
his conduct for the hours immediately following the accident "made no sense to [him] at all".
his doctors had informed him that he had suffered cerebral concussion and shock, but he did not seek to use his medical condition to escape responsibility for his actions.
he "regard[ed] as indefensible that fact that [he] did not report the accident to the police immediately."
instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy "requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne".
"[a]ll kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area," "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", "whether there was some justifiable reason for [him] to doubt what had happened and to delay [his] report", and "whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from [his] shoulders".
he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions—grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock".
having instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", Kennedy returned to the ferry with the two men, and then "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to [his] hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in [his] room".
Kennedy went on to ask the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:

“If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator’s character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.”[22]

He concluded by quoting a passage from his brother John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.[23]

[edit] Discovery of Kopechne's body
John Farrar, the diver who recovered Kopechne's body and captain of the Martha's Vineyard Edgarton Fire Rescue unit, asserted that Kopechne did not die from the vehicle overturn or from drowning, but rather from suffocation, based upon the posture in which he found the body and its position relative to the area of an ultimate air pocket in the overturned vehicle. Farrar also asserted that Kopechne would likely have survived had a more timely attempt at rescue been conducted.[24] Farrar located Kopechne's body in the well of the backseat of the overturned submerged car. Rigor mortis had set in and her hands were clasping the backseat and her face was turned upward.[25] Farrar testified at the Inquest:

It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. ... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call.

— diver John Farrar, Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Edgartown District Court. New York: EVR Productions, 1970.
[edit] Autopsy
The medical examiner, Dr Donald Mills, was satisfied that the cause of death was accidental drowning. He signed a death certificate to that effect and released Kopechne's body to her family without ordering an autopsy.[26] Later, on September 18, District Attorney Dinis attempted to secure an exhumation of Kopechne's body in order to perform a belated autopsy,[27] citing blood found on Kopechne's skirt and in her mouth and nose "which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning".[28] The reported discovery of the blood was made when her clothes were turned over to authorities by the funeral director.[29]

A Pennsylvania court under Judge Bernard Brominski held a hearing on the request on October 20–21.[27] The request was opposed by Kopechne's parents.[27] Eventually Judge Brominski ruled against the exhumation on December 10, saying that there was "no evidence" that "anything other than drowning had caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne".[30]

[edit] Inquest
The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret.[31][32] The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later.[32] Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest. Among Judge Boyle's conclusions in his inquest report were the following:[33]

the accident occurred "between 11:30 p.m. on July 18 and 1:00 a.m. on July 19".
"Kopechne and Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road had been intentional".
"A speed of twenty miles per hour as Kennedy testified to operating the car as large as his Oldsmobile would be at least negligent and possibly reckless."
"For some reason not apparent from [Kennedy]'s testimony, he failed to exercise due care as he approached the bridge."
"There is probable cause to believe that Edward M. Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."
Under Massachusetts law Boyle, having found "probable cause" that Kennedy had committed a crime, could have issued a warrant for his arrest, but he did not do so.[34] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.

The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[35] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."[35]

[edit] Grand jury
On April 6, 1970, Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to consider Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only those matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their own personal knowledge.[36] Citing the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Paquet told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Judge Boyle's report from the inquest (which at that time were still impounded).[36] District Attorney Dinis, who had attended the inquest and seen Judge Boyle's report, told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Senator Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury or driving to endanger.[36] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest: they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.[36]

[edit] Fatal accident hearing
On July 23, 1969, the Registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Senator Kennedy that his license would be suspended until a statutory hearing could be held on the accident.[37] This suspension was required by Massachusetts law in any fatal motor accident where there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held on May 18, 1970. It found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions" in the accident. On May 27 the Registrar informed Sen. Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part", and that as a result, his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[38]

[edit] Miscarriage
Sen. Kennedy's wife Joan Bennett Kennedy was pregnant at the time of the incident. Though confined to bed in the wake of two previous miscarriages, she attended the funeral of Kopechne and stood beside her husband in court three days later.[39] She suffered a third miscarriage shortly thereafter[40] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[41]

[edit] Alternative theory
A BBC 'Inside Story' programme, 'Chappaquiddick', broadcast on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne advanced a theory that Kennedy and Kopechne had gone out from the party in Kennedy's car, but that when Kennedy saw an off-duty policeman in his patrol car, he got out fearing the political consequences of being discovered by the police late at night with an attractive girl. According to the theory, Kennedy then returned to the party while Kopechne, unfamiliar both with the large car and the local area, drove the wrong way and crashed off the bridge. The programme argued this explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the following morning (because he was unaware of the crash) and for forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[42] A similar theory was advanced by Australian writer Bob Ellis.[43]

Chappaquiddick incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ACORN attacks are the biggest straw man argument in history...there were absolutely NO votes cast illegally...NONE...ACORN has helped a lot of people find jobs and housing... AND ironically, ACORN was way ahead of the curve on the foreclosure crisis...IF people had LISTENED to ACORN, the foreclosure crisis could have been avoided...ACORN was warning people all along about predatory lenders and advising buyers to go with traditional mortgages...

The ONLY reason ACORN is under attack is because they register voters that were mostly from low income areas. Republicans can't win that vote, so the un-American GOP will do anything to deny that segment of the population their Constitutional right to vote...

Kennedy and Bush worked together to pass No Child Left Behind, but Bush reneged on his word and promise to Kennedy on critical funding which undermined that program...

Strong and vibrant Unions are the heart and soul of a strong and vibrant middle class... The socialist Ronald Reagan started the attack on unions and working class people and redistributed the wealth to the top 1% and gutted the middle class...now we find ourselves in the new gilded age and controlled by the modern day Robber Barons...

If you right wing pea brains HAD a brain, you'd stop the Monica impersonation. You "I am not worthy" morons suck the dick of these robber barons and insurance cartels that are stealing YOUR money...

Kennedy's accident in 1969 was a PERSONAL tragedy that has NOTHING to do with his legislative record or his public service...

Hey, Laura Bush killed a guy in a traffic ACCIDENT and she couldn't hold a candle to Ted Kennedy's accomplishments...go after HER ...

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru

Source for your claim that ACORN warned of the foreclosure crisis please. And can we have a legitimate source, providing actual evidence, and not some half assed oped piece published by a partisan source. Thanks.

You missed my point. ACORN did not warn of the foreclosure crisis in any way, they obstructed the warnings. Fannie, Freddie, ACORN. Crime Family.

 

[California Girl]

SOME good things??? WOW... his nephew hit the nail on the head!

"Eighty percent of Republicans are just Democrats that don't know what's going on"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.


Helping Military Families
Senator Kennedy was always a champion of military families and children. In 1985, Kennedy introduced legislation to improve the lives of military families. The bill included provisions that would make it easier for military wives to get government jobs, required the military to pay attention to the children who moved with their parents, and reduced the costs that servicemen had to pay when they were transferred from one base to another. In addition, Kennedy was a successful voice for bumping up the date of a three-percent military pay raise, arguing that military pay lagged more than 10 percent behind civilian pay for comparable jobs.

In 1989, Kennedy won passage of the National Military Child Care Act. This important legislation established the DOD child-care system that is still viewed as one of the best in the country today. Military families make difficult decisions and numerous sacrifices to defend our freedom, and the Military Child Care Act is just one way we can begin to compensate them for this.

Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that families who have loved ones deployed overseas get access to the best care and services possible. In April of 2008, Kennedy introduced the National Month of the Military Child, which honors and recognizes the achievements of children of service members. Senator Kennedy deeply understands and cares about the effects that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan have on military children.

Protecting our Troops and Modernizing our Armed Forces
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Kennedy worked to guarantee effective vehicle armor and body armor for our troops to protect them from improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths.

In 2003, Senator Kennedy met Brian and Alma Hart at the burial of their son John at Arlington National Cemetery. On October, 18, 2003, the Bedford, Massachusetts resident was killed in Taza, Iraq when enemy forces attacked his patrol using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Before his death, John asked his parents to do something to improve the availability of armored humvees to American troops in combat. After hearing this story and John's plea, Senator Kennedy invited the Harts to testify before Congress and later secured over $1 billion in funding for armored vehicles for our troops.

Said Mr. Hart in 2008, "Senator Kennedy taught me that government can function for the common man."

In 2005, the Senate Armed Services Committee continued to provide additional protective gear to our troops. The committee, with Senator Kennedy's support added nearly $835 million for Army and Marine Corps armored vehicles.

In 2007, Senator Kennedy offered an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, calling for additional funding to the Joint IED Defeat Organization's (JIEDDO) budget to explore ways to mitigate the effects of Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs).

Again and again, Pentagon procurement has fallen short, and troops have suffered needless casualties and deaths. He has been a consistent champion of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle or MRAP. The services were slow to recognize that these heavily armored vehicles could protect our troops better than up-armored humvees. Senator Kennedy has pressed for a full and fair investigation into why the Marine Corps disregarded a universal, urgent needs statement calling for MRAPs in 2002 because he feels that quicker and more complete fielding of MRAPs could have saved soldier's lives. He continues to press for streamlining for the urgent needs process to insure that our soldiers receive the best equipment possible as rapidly as possible.

Senator Kennedy led the fight to preserve the Air Force's newest, most capable airlift platform, the C-17, a unique aircraft that facilitates the delivery of necessary materials to our troops all over the world. Senator Kennedy was a strong proponent of a reasonable and affordable mix of strategic airlift. He authored language requiring the testing of C-5A and C-5B aircraft undergoing the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP) before any aircraft can be retired. Only after understanding the outcome of these two programs to modernize our C-5 fleet can the Congress and the Air Force make responsible decisions on the proper mix of the two platforms.

Protecting Equal Opportunity for Women in Combat
In 1991, Kennedy strongly supported legislation to repeal the ban on women serving as combat aviators. The bill made it possible for women to play a full and complete role in our national defense by discontinuing an archaic law preventing women from combat aviation. By repealing these outdated statutes, Sen. Kennedy helped to achieve equal opportunity for women in the military.

Caring for our Wounded Warriors
In 2008, Senator Kennedy was a champion of Wounded Warrior legislation contained in the FY08 Defense Authorization bill. In response to alarming statistics of increased suicides in the Army and the lack of adequate mental health care, he introduced National Guard and Reserve Mental Health Access Act of 2008 to improve access to mental health care for our returning Guard and Reserve men and women by requiring the prompt implementation of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program, a pilot program for tele-mental health, create mental health Directors in each state and territory, and provide for an anti-stigma campaign.

Banning Torture
Senator Kennedy introduced legislation in 2007 to prohibit all agencies and instrumentalities of the United States government from using any interrogation technique not authorized by the Army Field Manual. The Field Manual recognizes that torture is not an effective method of obtaining information and instead only authorizes interrogation techniques that comply with domestic and international law as well as the most basic human rights values.

Senator Kennedy's interrogation language, included in the Intelligence Authorization bill, drew a veto from President Bush in January 2008. His language was included in the FY08 Emergency Supplemental bill passed by the House of Representatives.

http://www.tedkennedy.org/service/item/defense

I already know all this. There is no need to plead his case to me. As far as I am concerned he was a reasonably decent man. He did some good things, he did some stuff that sucked.

My argument is not about Kennedy (although I personally view him as the epitome of 'the good die young.' It is about the money which is better spent keeping our troops safe, providing them with what they need rather than some stupid damned building.... and I would bet that, if he were alive, Teddy would want the same thing. What better way to truly memorialize the man than to keep our troops safe. Each an every one will be a living memorial to him.

I'm sure Ted would prefer the money go to protect our troops...

BUT, if you REALLY want to protect our troops, then we should have listened to Ted Kennedy and never started an immoral and useless war in Iraq...

Do you know how stupd that statement is. Can we live with the cards we've been dealt instead of whining about the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war. Few are less supportive of protecting the troops than I am - considering that my family are among them. Please don't make vast assumptions about me and whether or not I supported the war. What I do support - what I will always support - is providing the finances to our military to allow them to do whatever stupid fucking war our government sends them to.

I'm not interested now in what we SHOULD HAVE done, only what we should - morally - do now. And that, my friend, is to ensure that we keep them as safe as we can and not fund some fucking building to some fucking politician.

 

[Bfgrn]

Source for your claim that ACORN warned of the foreclosure crisis please. And can we have a legitimate source, providing actual evidence, and not some half assed oped piece published by a partisan source. Thanks.

ACORN
Separate and Unequal 2002
Predatory Lending in America
Introduction