So long, it's been good to know you

Here's a picture of Teddy Kennedy no one has seen before:

Pam's dad took it in Superior, Wisconsin in 1961 when Teddy was on the stump for his brother's Presidential campaign. On the back is written:

April 1961

Ted Kennedy with Ed Gagnon & family

taken by Jim Corcoran

From wikipedia:

His seven weeks spent in Wisconsin helped his brother win the first contested primary of the season there, and similar time spent in Wyoming was rewarded when a unanimous vote from that state's delegates put his brother over the top at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

Teddy was flawed, as the right-wingers keep pointing out. But I'm pretty sure he really cared about people. Why else would he work as a Senator when he had family money, and why else would he fight for things like universal health care, instead of enriching corporations and giving his family tax cuts.

So long, Teddy.

Update and corrections:

Clearly, in '61, Jack Kennedy was no longer campaigning because he had already won. Thus, Teddy wasn't stumping anymore.

And the picture was taken (as Pam corrected me) after her family had already moved to Riverside, CA. Ed Gagnon was a part-time employee of her dad.

So the whole Wisconsin quote above is barely interesting and not at all relevant. Still, it's a cool personal picture of Teddy Kennedy.

He was a friend of mine

Teddy Kennedy sent a letter to Pope Benedict "Joey Ratz" XVI recently. It went something like this:

Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand-deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me, and I am so deeply grateful to him.

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I pray that you have all of God's blessings as you lead our church and inspire our world during these challenging times. I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life.

I have been blessed to be part of a wonderful family. And both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the center of our lives. That gift of faith has sustained and nurtured and provided solace to me in the darkest hours. I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.

I want you to know, Your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office, I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I have worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I have opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a United States senator.

I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I'm committed to doing everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith. I continue to pray for God's blessings on you and on our church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.

The Pope, being the Christian symbol & example that he is, went all out and sent a reply through, well, someone:

The Holy Father has read the letter which you entrusted to President Obama, who kindly presented it to him during their recent meeting. He was saddened to know of your illness, and asked me to assure you of his concern and his spirtual closeness. He is particularly grateful for your promise of prayers for him and for the needs of our universal church.

His Holiness prays that in the days ahead you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God, our merciful father. He invokes upon you the consolation and peace promised by the risen savior to all who share in his sufferings and trust in his promise of eternal life.

Commending you and the members of your family to the loving intervention of the blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic blessing as a pledge of wisdom, comfort and strength in the Lord.

Nice. Class act from a guy who wants us to forget that he was HitlerJügend.

Craig Crawford from MSNBC sums it up well in his Twitter updates this afternoon:

1. Bear says "Were Sen. Kennedy a disgraced priest who needed shelter from police he would have gotten direct response"..http://bit.ly/1cRjdNabout 7 hours ago from web
2. Humble letter hand delivered to the Pope by Prez gets a 3d person response? Ted did more for real people than Benedict.. http://bit.ly/aBGvZabout 8 hours ago from web
3. My guess is that in 50 years more people will visit Ted Kennedy's grave than Pope Benedict's, and for good reason. The Vatican just blew it.about 8 hours ago from web
4. How could the Pope not personally respond to Ted's amazing letter? What a jerk! Ted wins the moment. He's the one in God's hands now.about 8 hours ago from web
5. Vatican dissed Ted all along, a ltr underling doesn't help.He 's a better man than the Pope. @KristiIA .I'm glad the priest read the ltrsabout 8 hours ago from web
6. Ted Kennedy turned out to be a bigger man than the Pope.about 9 hours ago from web
7. So, at the last minute the Vatican figured they had better treat Ted well, but the Pope himself couldn't be bothered.about 9 hours ago from web

Indeed.

Mommy don't worry now teddy boys here

We've lost the one sure vote for health care reform in the Senate:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77 .

Teddy wasn't perfect, clearly no one is. Yet he chose to leverage his family's wealth and position into a career of public service. And while he had many flaws and missteps, he had found his stride in recent years, being a champion of health care reform in the truest sense, so that the 46 million or more Americans with no access to health care might join in the American dream.

As usual, the far right Free Republic loves them some Liberal death:

Ted Kennedy is dead
____________________
The bar is open!
Drinks on the house!
Its PARTAY time


This damn traitor lived far to long.


Mary Jo: “Hey Teddy. See this button? It has only one direction: DOWN! Step right in!”


It appears that as long as a murderer of millions of people is an American, he is “great.” The glowing tribute from George H.W. Bush is stomach-turning.

The death of Ted Kennedy is no more an occasion for mourning and tributes than the death of Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao.

There is no indication of repentance for his career of lies, murder, theft, and oppression.

His funeral will almost certainly take place at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Boston, from where Rose Kennedy was buried, unless for some reason the family desires a “state” funeral in Washington. In any case, the orgy will be broadcast, hundreds of pro-abortion Catholics will slither forward to receive Communion on camera. Archbishop Sean O’Malley will crouch in a linen closet for a week, until the funeral is over.

You get the idea. this is why bipartisan debate is impossible. As usual, the signal-to-noise ratio for the right-wing drops below intelligible levels.

Bastards.

Addendum by The Sailor:>"the signal-to-noise ratio for the right-wing drops below intelligible levels."

Interesting, but understandable, you would phrase it that way.

My current work is in processing noisy images acquired thru translucent membranes in the retina via slightly fluorescing parts of the retina. Each image is dark. But when I align them, register them, and average them, I can clearly see the pathology. It takes time and many samples.

I've applied the same algorithms to the republican reaction to Ted Kennedy's death.

Each image is dark, but after processing them the hate shines thru. Oddly enough I thought it was just noise too, turns out the signal is loud and clear.

Noise always cancels out over time, the same frequency just amplifies.

BTW, their 'facts' are always wrong, Kennedy's service won't be at St. Stephen’s, it will be at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. That's where he went to pray when his daughter, Kara, was undergoing treatment for lung cancer at Dana-Farber Hospital.