is that a joke?

8/28/2009 12:04:09 AM

Quote :

"Next time I want to murder someone, I am going to wait until they ask for a ride in front of witnesses, drive to a populated area, and flip the car into a lake with both of us still in it."

You forgot the part about leaving the other person in the car and not telling any one for several hours, long after the other person could have been saved. That's what makes it murder. It takes a conscious decision to do nothing.

8/28/2009 11:15:11 AM

not if you're drunk it doesn't

8/28/2009 11:19:35 AM

Even a drunk person would do something in that instance. Unless they want the person dead

8/28/2009 11:25:27 AM

What should he have done in the 10 minutes between the crash and her drowning to death? Call 911 on his 1969 cell phone?

8/28/2009 11:33:58 AM

Quote :

"Even a drunk person would do something in that instance. Unless they want the person dead"

So by your definition all hit-and-run drivers clearly wanted to kill their target. That's why they left the scene? Not because they are drunk, or not thinking clearly, or could go to jail for DUI/Manslaughter, or could pay enormous medical bills, or think they could just get away with it?

8/28/2009 11:37:10 AM

I think it is really tacky to speak ill of the dead. Some of you people need my momma to come smack you in the mouth for that kind of trash talk.

8/28/2009 3:57:02 PM

No, come on now, they've almost settled this.

8/28/2009 4:02:03 PM

what could he have done in the 10 minutes? For one, it's been shown that there was probably enough air in the car for her to have survived for more than that. For another, maybe he could have gone to a nearby house and called 911?

btw, are some of you really defending his inaction by pointing to the fact that he was drunk? REALLY?

8/28/2009 4:18:16 PM

Quote :

"Not because they are drunk, or not thinking clearly, or could go to jail for DUI/Manslaughter, or could pay enormous medical bills, or think they could just get away with it?"

It may be for one of those reasons. And if it is, then I am still fully justified in calling that person a murderer when someone dies in that accident.

Drunk drivers that kill people are murderers. People who kill others through gross and extreme negligence are murderers. Did they commit murder, technically? No, but they are of the same class and character. If there were a word for "manslaughterer" or "negligent homicidist" I would use that.

Until those words exist, however, "murderer" fits the bill quite well. And Ted Kennedy was a murderer.

8/28/2009 4:19:30 PM

He wasn't drunk. He was in shock and suffering from a concussion.

8/28/2009 4:36:05 PM

oh. so now a concussion makes you immediately forget everything for several hours, including the fact that there was someone else with you? did he go to the hospital? Did he walk around the city for several hours? No, he went back to his hotel and crashed on the bed. At the hotel he could have called the police or EMS... OR SOMEONE. But he didn't

8/28/2009 4:50:02 PM

It's a reasonable doubt.

I mean there was an investigation into the death after he plead guilty to leaving the scene. A grand jury was convened later - no indictment. The electorate wanted him to stay in office and the voters didn't give a shit, obviously. What do you want?

[Edited on August 28, 2009 at 4:57 PM. Reason : .]

8/28/2009 4:53:43 PM

IS IT? It's reasonable that, even with a concussion, he was able to make it back to his hotel, yet he couldn't fucking remember that he had a car crash and someone else was inside? Come on...

And, it's been pretty widely accepted that the investigation was bullshit. The grand jury gave no indictment because they were sick of dealing with the DA.

What do I want? I want people to stop making fucking excuses for a MURDERER and call a spade a spade.

8/28/2009 4:57:41 PM

And do you expect you'll be changing any minds, or is it just important that you're on record and that everybody understands the way you feel?

8/28/2009 5:11:05 PM

I think its unreasonable that he was able to plea it down to guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and getting a 2 month suspended sentence.

It is what it is. He's dead now.

I do wonder if an historical marker will be erected.

Quote :

"Next time I want to murder someone, I am going to wait until they ask for a ride in front of witnesses, drive to a populated area, and flip the car into a lake with both of us still in it."

If you go back in time to 1969, you may actually get away with it. I don't recommend it now.

[Edited on August 28, 2009 at 5:18 PM. Reason : ]

8/28/2009 5:16:34 PM

^^ I just wonder why you are making excuses for a slimeball murderer

8/28/2009 5:16:46 PM

Because I'd only consider somebody a murderer if he/she were convicted of that crime, and as it is, I like personal affairs of politicians to have as little to do with politics as possible.

8/28/2009 5:44:52 PM

the biggest drunken sissy richboy with connections and a murder on his record in the senate: good night sweet prince

8/28/2009 5:44:55 PM

so, you don't consider OJ Simpson a murderer? What a fucking cop-out. The DA did everything he could do to keep it from going to trial, but you won't consider him a murderer because "he wasn't convicted."

8/28/2009 7:48:00 PM

yeah. fuck our system of laws and justice. fuck juries of your peers. fuck innocence until proven guilty. fuck all that. bunch of bullshit.

8/28/2009 10:30:14 PM

i have statistical evidence that shows ted kennedy is responsible for 10 million people being alive today

8/28/2009 11:48:58 PM

he got around then, didn't he?

8/28/2009 11:59:25 PM

so, jwb, you don't consider OJ Simpson a murderer?

Or, will you just retreat behind a shitty argument? Just because someone was convicted doesn't mean they actually did it. It only means the government says they did it. Understand that difference. or do you really think the LA police didn't really beat Rodney King? Do you really think the guys in the Emmett Till case didn't murder him?

No, for some people it is much more convenient to maintain their partisan douchebaggery and give up all pretense of intellectual honesty in order to keep their precious mind from being challenged. Others will just up and call a spade a spade. It's clear which camp you and the aptly-named Fail Boat are in.

8/29/2009 1:41:13 AM

Quote :

"it's been shown that there was probably enough air in the car for her to have survived for more than that."

So she was just chillin' down there, waiting to be rescued for an hour or so?

Here's a thought-- he was guilty of a number of very bad crimes that night, but not murder. You don't have to resort to ridiculous arguments in order to make Kennedy look like a bad guy (since that appears to be your ultimate goal, anyhow).


[Edited on August 29, 2009 at 8:38 AM. Reason : ]

8/29/2009 8:25:05 AM

even that wouldn't make him a murderer. it would make him negligent, unless he actually did that for the purpose of letting her die.

[Edited on August 29, 2009 at 10:28 AM. Reason : ^ exactly]

8/29/2009 8:37:02 AM

if anyone one of us did what he did on that night, we'd be in prison for quite some time

there would have been an autopsy, there would have been a thorough investigation, and we would be interrogated to the fullest. all of which kennedy some how dodged and got off with out any punishment

what a crock of shit

8/29/2009 9:57:04 AM

but that still doesn't make him a murderer.

8/29/2009 10:15:33 AM

Quote :

"so, jwb, you don't consider OJ Simpson a murderer?"

no, i do.

BUT, ted kennedy and OJ's crimes are in no way comparable, so it doesn't really fucking matter. i'm with Duke on this one

[Edited on August 29, 2009 at 10:21 AM. Reason : .]

8/29/2009 10:18:26 AM

Least he gets to hang out with JFK in hell.

8/29/2009 11:05:52 AM

8/29/2009 11:09:17 AM

8/29/2009 2:25:41 PM

RIP

8/29/2009 3:28:17 PM

what kennedy did was fucked up, but it was in no way murder.

8/29/2009 6:26:35 PM

All the people upset about the rich Kennedys getting special treatment are the same people who will argue fervently against the estate tax.

i'm lovin it

8/29/2009 8:16:54 PM

I don't see what the inconsistancy is there.

[Edited on August 29, 2009 at 10:55 PM. Reason : and ^^, exactly]

8/29/2009 10:55:19 PM

to be fair, his story is the only one we have to go on, correct?

so its not murdur according to him right?

8/29/2009 11:08:21 PM

Quote :

"All the people upset about the rich Kennedys getting special treatment are the same people who will argue fervently against the estate tax. "

you can inherit wealth without being able to systematically abuse our court system. It takes a hell of a lot more than money to get away with the events that transpired with Mary Jo Kopechne.

8/29/2009 11:24:58 PM

yea and his story is filled with proven lies and inaccurate info

8/29/2009 11:30:24 PM

Quote :

"what kennedy did was fucked up, but it was in no way murder."

Hmmm, he drove a woman in to a river. then let her drown. And did nothing to try to save her. Sounds like murder to me...

8/30/2009 12:54:13 AM

Concussion:

Quote :

"Cognitive symptoms include confusion, disorientation, and difficulty focusing attention. Loss of consciousness may occur but is not necessarily correlated with the severity of the concussion if it is brief.[15] Post-traumatic amnesia, in which the person cannot remember events leading up to the injury or after it, or both, is a hallmark of concussion.[18] Confusion, another concussion hallmark, may be present immediately or may develop over several minutes.[18] A patient may, for example, repeatedly ask the same questions,[34] be slow to respond to questions or directions, have a vacant stare, or have slurred[18] or incoherent speech.[35] Other MTBI symptoms include changes in sleeping patterns[11] and difficulty with reasoning,[31] concentrating, and performing everyday activities.[18]"

Acute Stress Reaction (Shock)

Quote :

"a psychological condition arising in response to a terrifying event. It should not be confused with the unrelated circulatory condition of shock. The symptoms show great variation but typically they include an initial state of "daze", with some constriction of the field of consciousness and narrowing of attention, inability to comprehend stimuli, and disorientation. This state may be followed either by further withdrawal from the surrounding situation (to the extent of a dissociative stupor), or by agitation and overeactivity. Autonomic signs of panic anxiety (tachycardia, sweating, flushing) are commonly present. The symptoms usually appear within minutes of the impact of the stressful stimulus or event, and disappear within 2-3 days (often within hours). Partial or complete amnesia for the episode may be present. "

8/30/2009 1:17:40 AM

and yet he had the presence of mind to find his way back to his hotel room.

8/30/2009 1:33:55 AM

^have you ever been in a car accident? just wondering.

i have, and i sure as hell had the "presence of mind" to tell the driver to get the fuck out of the person's front yard ASAP even though the car was totaled and completely undriveable. i had hit my head against the window during the crash and had no idea how fucked up things really were.

just sayin'. one man's anecdotal evidence. what teddy did is definitely not completely inconceivable.

8/30/2009 2:23:03 AM

you can't have it both ways, though. You can't have a guy that is so out of it that he can't remember that he just had a crash, yet he still can remember where his hotel is and navigate there in the middle of the night. It just doesn't compute.

Or, if we take Teddy's account, you can't have a guy that recognizes that there is someone in the car so he "makes 7 or 8 attempts" to dive down and save her, but then forgets to call the police about the accident until ten hours later. The two simply don't make sense together. No, he knew he "had a crash," and he knew she was still there. He just didn't give a fuck. Thus, he is a fucking murderer

8/30/2009 1:06:44 PM

You say that Ted Kennedy’s “most enduring legacy is that he kept reminding us of how great we could be if we chose compassion over complacency” (”Ted Kennedy, America’s conscience,” August 30).

Words are cheap. Anyone can preach compassion, and even be free and generous with other people’s money. The late Sen. Kennedy mastered these talents. But surely what really matters is how generous Mr. Kennedy was with his own money. Sadly, the answer is “not very.”

While he almost always kept his income-tax returns secret, Mr. Kennedy was obliged to release them during his run for the presidency in 1980. These records reveal that Sen. Compassion – worth $8 million at the time (nearly $20 million in today’s dollars) and earning an annual income of close to $500,000 (almost $1.3 million in today’s dollars) – contributed a whopping one percent of his income to charity. This percentage figure is a paltry one-fourth the size of the charitable contributions, made at the same time, of the less-wealthy Ronald Reagan.

My point, to be clear, is not that Reagan was a saint; he certainly was not. Rather, my point is that Ted Kennedy certainly was not a saint — not even close. Ted Kennedy, like 999 out of every 999.0001 politicians, was a fraud.


Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

8/30/2009 9:29:11 PM

fuck

3 down

many more to go.

8/31/2009 11:33:06 PM

three down?

three what?

8/31/2009 11:36:29 PM

jfk, rfk, ted

let's get the rest of them now.

8/31/2009 11:37:29 PM

oh, ok. that's what i thought you meant.

you're clearly an idiot.

8/31/2009 11:38:45 PM

clearly

an adulterer, an asshole, and a murderer

viva la kennedy

8/31/2009 11:41:02 PM