I am truly fascinated with this story. Caroline Kennedy has always been such an enigma to the world, always very private, reserved, and dedicated to her father’s memory and ideology in an unassuming manner. Her desire to seek public office comes as a pleasant surprise! I believe she would make a great senator.
Caroline Kennedy to Seek Appointment to N.Y. Senate Seat
UPDATE, 9:00 p.m.: Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Caroline Kennedy confirmed to the Fix this evening she is seeking the Senate appointment. Kennedy made a round of calls today to influential New York Democrats, added Friedman. She spoke to, among others, Rep. Louise Slaughter who offered an endorsement this evening, as well as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
I’m for it because she represents the past and the future in one continuum. I like that she was inspired to “ask not what your country can do for you,” not by her father who first said those words, but by Barack Obama. There are millions of Americans who responded the same way to his candidacy, and became more involved as a result.
So she not only is the princess from Camelot, but also represents millions of everyday Americans who are now invested in our democratic process. I really relate to Caroline for this reason. I like how she was not entirely comfortable in the spotlight, but climbed up on the stage anyway because she felt it was her duty to her country.
I have a problem with someone who has no experience at all jumping into a senate seat. Are there no dues one has to pay? Cronyism at its best? I am glad I don’t live in NY.
She is a Kennedy, she will be a quick study. Btw, I am not against her, I am just shaking my head.
I’m somewhat opposed to her appointment although I don’t know much about Caroline Kennedy. I disapprove because I don’t like the cult of hero worship that has grown up around the Kennedy family and that is now growing up around Barack Obama. I don’t believe in human messiahs. And dynasties, in the political world, smacks too much of royalty. The name of the legacy, Camelot, reeks of the notion of royalty. We spilled a lot of blood proving that royalty doesn’t exist. We should not toy with the idea.
This propensity for turning everything over to messiahs is very troubling because, if it goes far enough, we could see a backlash. Obama’s plans to implement mandatory service in a Civil Defense Force by everyone between 18-25 years old is absolutely un-American to the bone. It’s an end run around the Posse Comitatus act that won’t fool anybody.
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=e4qG6UIr8z
Has anyone noticed the skyrocketing sales of firearms? Why would people be buying those arms if they’re not afraid of something?
With a Democratic House, Senate, and Presidency, our new messiah and his lieutenants, Clinton and Rahm, may actually go for it and give birth to this monstrosity called the CDF. Should we ever have another terrorist attack, or a massive financial meltdown with riots, or a natural disaster. That’s all the excuse these centrists will need to declare the martial law they’re itching to declare, and unleash their CDF goons. For sure there will be conflicts in the streets that will be like political dynamite.
All it will take, is one state, perhaps Montana, to declare secession from the union and start a chain reaction of other states declaring secession.
I believe Obama is talking about an optional program where the government pays for college tuition if you commit to civil service of some kind, sort of like expanding the G.I. Bill to civilians. I seriously doubt it would be mandatory. It is a protected right to be a slacker. (=
Why do we, as Americans, see this need for political dynasties? Is it because we have a long, lost yearning for the monarchy? Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons… Are there not *any* qualified candidates to replace Hillary Clinton amongst the millions of New Yorkers who aren’t Kennedys? How about Carolyn Maloney (current Congresswomen who represents Queens and Manhatten who has been endorsed by NOW for the position)? Or Andrew Cuomo? Or Kristin Gillibrand (who is a Congresswoman from upstate New York)?
I don’t think a Senator should have to “pay her dues,” but one does have to wonder at the wisdom of picking someone who has kept so low a profile up until this last election cycle (when she endorsed Obama).
If she really has been inspired by Obama, then start where the rest of us would start. Run for School Board. Run for town council. Run for state assembly. Run for Congress. Run for Senate. Asking to be appointed to the Senate because you’ve recently been inspired smacks of elitism and cronyism. Would she be given a have second of consideration if she weren’t a Kennedy?
NGL,
Nice try but his exact words are much more disturbing than how you present them.
He said he wanted a ‘Civilian National Security Force, that’s just as powerful, just as well-funded, just as strong as the military’. He said this CNSF would be used for ‘National Security’.
There is no option for this ‘optional program’ in the constitution. It isn’t there for a good reason.
This is the Democrats, collectivists, and the federalists recognizing that militia rosters across the nation are rising exponentially. The goal here is to create a competing institution at the federal level that is unencumbered by the Posse Comitatus act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdF5TQIv1fU&feature=related
Here’s some commentary about the philosophy of Stephen Flynn which is shaping Obama’s plans to impose a CNSF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLebkCbs790
Well to me the only difference between Hilary Clinton’s ‘experience’ to be Senator and Caroline Kennedy’s ‘experience’ is that Ms. Kennedy is a tad less self-serving.
I can say that being brought up with a public service philosphy makes a huge difference in how a person thinks. That alone gives her an edge many don’t have – particularly sons and daughters of industry giants!
FYI: Off topic, but noticed that VRE has information on how to order special tickets
to ride the train on inauguration day posted on their web site – first come, first
served.
I wonder, since when did having to “pay your dues” become a part of what made a good politician? Were the original founding patriots a part of formal government? I think not, but what they were was smart, brave, and willing to get involved. I agree that her name gives her an advantage, but it isn’t as though she has stayed “silent” within our democracy. Why is her wanting to be senator so different than those who had high hopes for her brother running for public office? The true test will be if she is appointed and then runs in 2010, a real election, she will have had to prove herself in order to be duly elected.
“Kennedy is an attorney, editor, writer and member of the New York and Washington, D.C. bar associations. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually since 1990 to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.[4]
For 22 months from 2002 through 2004, Kennedy worked as director of strategic partnerships for the the New York City Department of Education. The three-day-a week job paid her a salary of $1 and had the goal of raising private money the New York City public schools.[5] In her capacity, she helped raise more than $65 million for the city’s public schools, according to her biography at the Kennedy Library.[3] She currently serves as the Vice Chair of The Fund for Public Schools, a public-private partnership founded in 2002 to attract private funding for public schools in New York City. [6]
In addition, Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,[3] a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.”
Elena – Agree.
I agree also, but I have to say, I wondered about Bush II, seeing that he was obviously underqualified but became the GOP standard bearer anyway. I thought for sure it was because his father had been a decent President, which was no good reason to me.
Turned out I liked the father a lot more than I ever got to like the son.
Perhaps I need to explain ‘pay your dues.’ By that, I meant serving at lesser offices than senate. As TPWB suggested, run for school board, supervisor, hell, how about House of Representatives?
The Kennedys have waltzed into various political positions for years. The more I have learned about them, the less enchanted I have become. I don’t dislike Caroline Kennedy. But I think she needs to work her way up the ranks if she wants to hold public office. Charities and foundations are not the same thing.
Check out the history channel shows on how the Kennedy boys really achieved their first offices. UFB. Bought dynasties.
The one consistent thread running through the Kennedy family is naked ambition. And the will to do anything to achieve it.
Except perhaps for John F. Kennedy Jr. And that’s probably because he was his mother’s son. But he’s dead.
I agree with you moon-howler. Most people like the Kennedys bought their way into politics, and the general public swallowed it because it was wrapped in a “glamor” package a lot like the way a Royal family is wrapped in a “glamor” package to the general public in countries that still have monarchies.
The process is very similar to the way the Medici family took over Venice, Italy and then the Vatican, basically with corrupt political purchases, corrupt behind the scenes political deals, and glamor on the front to convince the people they were good and glamorous patrons of the arts. In reality they where the most ruthless and criminal political family of the entire Renaissance period.
I think it is revealing to compare the political history of how John McCain became a Senator without “paying” his dues in lower political offices too, and the quality of what you get as a result of “skipping” political qualifiers and “gates” to superior leadership.
Contrast that to how FDR or Abraham Lincoln, or Thomas Jefferson, or Teddy Roosevelt became president.
Sorry, Florence, not Venice. I’ve got the sinking of Venice on my brain today.
I too do not dislike Caroline, but doubt her skill and experience for the office of Senate. We have enough financially motivated, politically biased people in the Senate today without adding the long-term political bias of the Kennedy family into it again. I can’t wait until Ted is the last. They have caused much political destruction over the years, especially Teddy.
Reminds me of the struggles to get decent “ethical” and “intellectually superior” Senators into Rome. Buying a Roman senate seat, ultimately led to the demise of the senate, via corruption and greed. The US senate if it keeps its present course will suffer the same fate and ultimate corruption as the Roman Senate did.
I think the closer you look at the BIOs of the majority of people we vote into office, the more disgusted you will become at the “facade” they present to you, while under the radar of the press, they are often the most corrupt politically ambitious criminals, ever to purchase loyalty and “unethical” behavior as a means to political and financial power you will ever find in the average “citizen”. Most are just a short distance away from lawlessness and actual criminal behavior, through a general lack of ethics and altruism.
The only way the “people” can prevent this “criminalization of the political infrastructure” is to insist on very open disclosure of their careers, their BIOs (before we vote), their personal and business financial activities, and the type of people they call, communicate with and hang out with on a daily basis.
I didn’t like Hillary either for the same reason, I saw her BIO. I saw McCan’s BIO. I saw Obama’s Bio.
Of ALL of them, OBAMA was the most personally ethical (though he hung around a lot less ethical people), and the smartest of all of them.
That’s why he got my vote, not because of the “glamor” and personal “favors” Caroline Kennedy is calling in to achieve an easy path to political office. I pity New York for having 4 years of very poor, often un-ethical, personally ambitious, “crony-based” Senate leadership and in Caroline, will likely get 4 more.
It is my opinion Obama put Hillary into a Machiavellian position where she can do the least harm, can be politically controlled and “fired” if she screws up. As a Senator she was politically dangerous to a LOT of people’s opinions and personal “ideologies”, appearing to so many to lack the necessary ethics and character to be a good leader, except to the “gender-preference” activist population who overwhelmingly supported her gender-preference ideas and “gender preference ideology”.
I don’t know Caroline’s BIO yet but I will look it up, to see if she has the same “gender-preference” ideology as Hillary. If true, she would not be a good senate candidate, as Senators need to represent the interests of all people the same without bias to gender, race, religion or ethnicity, so prevelant in politicians and political groups today.
7 posts in a row?
Mackie,
“7 posts in a row?”
VS. one big one? 🙂 LOL, He listens to what people are saying and is trying to meet them half way 🙂
Now check this out…this scared me and I KNOW to take it with a grain of salt BUT still!!! What if it is true? (lol-with a quiver-just kidding) IF it’s true, it’s scary! If it’s not, the people that believe it’s true is scary….I am on the fence 🙂
Here is the link ( I am aware that is alt news) check out comment 63
http://www.infowars.com/?p=6580&cp=all#comments
Who knows what to believe anymore 🙂
Man charged with raping disabled woman
The accused, who knew the victim, coerced her to go with him and then raped her. An illegal immigrant from Honduras, Fuentes has a scheduled court date of Feb. 10.
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/crime/article/man_charged_with_raping_disabled_woman/26343/
Red Dawn,
Yes, it seems like everything is slowly unraveling. It’s hard to know what to believe anymore.
The more and more I think about it, the more and more I hope some state finally decides to secede from this sinking ship. So that there’d be a place to start over. And this time we’d rewrite the constitution so there was no chance of our rights being infringed.
Black man arrested for…
for…
FOR…
…(drumroll please)…
…WALKING!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a68_1189074961
Re. 7 in a row.
I used to complainer in chief about Michael’s long posts. But he has grown on me of late. I have to admire his passion and his writing ability, even if I don’t often agree. He is an important part of the “Auntie BVBL Family,” and he wouldn’t be Michael if he were brief.
Mackie,
Either the article got to me as far as who to trust or it’s the WHITE guilt that I am numb to 🙂 that I have to ask this question:
Why would we REwrite the Constitution so that OUR rights are not being infringed upon? Why are we NOT protecting it? 🙂
“I used to complainer in chief about Michael’s long posts. But he has grown on me of late”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-P9FjArlxs
🙂
Red Dawn,
The Constitution is a fine document but it’s also a collection of compromises of different political ideas. Some of these compromises have left weaknesses that are easy to exploit. For example, George Bush should have been impeached a long time ago. Perhaps a new constitution will make this process much easier. Another example, the next constitution would make the right to keep and bear arms unequivocally untouchable. And any violation of our rights would result in personal fines and/or jail time for the officials who committed the violation. Just some examples.
I have watched too much history channel. Old man Kennedy was a womanizer and guy who got his own way through his money. He was not much better than the Irish mafia. He bought positions for his kids. He lobotomized his daughter. There is something about this dynasty that makes my spider sense tingle. I don’t know why any of them want to have a public life.
People knew back in the day that these people ran by their own rules. There was talk about the men grabbing and groping flight attendants, cheating scandals, and about the first couple having their private lives. (ahem)
I believe that both of the Kennedy children had a lot more class then the generation before them. I still believe Caroline needs to work her way up. She might be a great. But she should go through the process, not just sky dive into the arena.
michael, 16. December 2008, 18:42
“I think the closer you look at the BIOs of the majority of people we vote into office, the more disgusted you will become at the “facade” they present to you, while under the radar of the press, they are often the most corrupt politically ambitious criminals, ever to purchase loyalty and “unethical” behavior as a means to political and financial power you will ever find in the average “citizen”. Most are just a short distance away from lawlessness and actual criminal behavior, through a general lack of ethics and altruism.”
Michael,
There are others who are truly good hearted souls who just want to make a positive difference in people’s lives and the world.
I have no reason to believe that Caroline Kennedy is anything other than the latter. But whether she has what it takes to be a Senator, I have no idea.
Politics being what they are, Caroline may very well be appointed. If that is the case, then she will have the chance to sink or swim. Much has changed since the generation before her had their positions bought for them.
I just start rolling my eyes when the younger generations get stars in their eyes over the Kennedys. It isn’t all a pretty picture.
MH,
I know my parents still remember, with great fondness, the hope and veracity of that time period and then the utter devastation with the subsequent assisinations of the Kennedy’s and King. Shriver is really the force to be reckoned with when you study that time period. The peace corp was his “baby” and he was determined to make it work. Kennedy was too wrapped up in the communist fight. Can you imagine, the goal of irradicating poverty by helping to rise up those less fortunate, not by simple hand outs, but by personal empowerment? Had it not been for the vietman war, there actually may have been real forward strides made to combat poverty. Recently, a documentary was done on Shriver, he is a sorely missed figure in social justice.
MH,
My mom always votes democrat. I rarely hear her curse. But she cursed over the prospect of Caroline Kennedy’s appointment. It’s the same gripe most people have, that she is being handed such a powerful position mostly because of her last name.
Firedancer, I agree, but you tend to find most of those people in local government, the process is much more “corruptable” the higher you go.
I don’t think Caroline is easily “corrupted”, based on the material I have researched, but she may as Moonhowler suspects, not be “qualified” for the job, if she gets it based on her personal circle of “cronies”. I think politicians should come up from the bottom, and only the most ethical and altruistic be allowed to continue, based on very close media scrutiny and open public knowledge of their personal and business lives.
Mackie, that’s cute that she cursed over the Kennedys. People seem to love them or hate them. I always liked the 2 kids, mainly because they kept a low profile. I am just glad I am not a NYer. I think Hillary slid in there also. She wasn’t from there. She was somewhat more qualified, just by 8 years in the white house.
The Romans promoted their “centurians” on this principle, and they were some of the most qualified leaders ever to lead armies to victory. The Roman Senate, was not like that however, and became very corrupt and decayed with the Roman society “criminal” infrastructure.
Elena, you have made such an excellant point. Poverty is eridicated not by handouts, but by personal empowerment.
I have always felt that poverty is eliminated when people are paid by their employers “living wages” and are given opportunity to use their personal talent to achieve the highest education they can, based on the IQ and DNA gifts they were born with. The key is to also improve the environment they live in, not by handouts, or gifts or advantages over others based on race, gender, religion or ethnicity, but by allowing and encouraging people and community to take personal and “accountable” control of their communities, with everyone competing fairly for wages based on level of education and talent (obtained by fair and equitable grants given out to the smartest and most committed, not the laziest and most racially demanding).
If a community lets itself decay, by allowing crime to rise (an it will if poverty is high), and does not clean itself up, repair homes and businesses, and general landscaping beauty, because they do not care, then it will become a slum, no matter how much federal money you poor into it (the lesson of new housing rapid decline into slums).
A community rises from a slum because people care about it, fix it themselves, and want it to look better, be safer, and bring in more wealth. To bring in more wealth, you have to create skills that business needs, and you have to maintain a population that has less people with the necessary skill, than there are jobs to fill. If there are more people with declining skills in a community, the wages will drop, the companies will move out, and poverty will increase, then crime.
If you ignore crime and lawlessness, you empower crime, and fail to empower people to protect themselves, their financial worth, growth and ability to reduce poverty in their neighborhoods.
Not everyone can be smart and live in “wealthy” neighborhoods created by “smart people”, but everyone can live in a safe and happy neighborhood, regardless of how poor they are, based on how they treat others and hold their neighbors accountable for lawlessness.
How do I know this? I grew up in a small town, with lots of poverty, but almost NO CRIME. People held their nieghbors accountable to good behavior and properly cared for homes and landscapes. This happens REGARDLESS of RACE, GENDER, RELIGION or ETHNICITY because small towns enforce law on each other, care about each other, know each other, and although poor, help each other to achieve the highest education possible to break a cycle of town poverty. POVERTY in large cities, leads to CRIME because the people in large city communities and large urban developments, don’t hold each other accountable to the law, don’t know each other, and don’t care as much about each other as they would in a small town. I think the solution is to eliminate all high rise developments, tract homes and industry near people, require ALL city homes to be built on 1 acre lots, and put village centers and industry centers (for growth and wealth) between small “villages”. Then I think poverty and crime as a result of poverty will drastically decline, as people take care of their neighborhoods. A high rise does not feel like personal property, not does a rental development, and it decays. I think to prevent poverty and crime, you have to ban these city development concepts and go back to a wide landscape of trees, streams, small shops and villages, with recreational and industrial centers contained in small areas, and spread out over the entire city.
I wish a city council would be “empowered” to realize they need to lead communties and resort villages, not developments and strip malls (which decay rapidly).
Michael, I agree that you find decent people at the local government level, and therefore I tend to agree with you that:
“I think politicians should come up from the bottom, and only the most ethical and altruistic be allowed to continue, based on very close media scrutiny and open public knowledge of their personal and business lives.”
Ethics and good character are something you live every day. If you are an elected official, or a teacher, you have a responsibility to demonstrate that at every opportunity because people look up to you as an example. I think Blagojevich (sp?) must be mentally off his rocker.
Has anybody seen Caroline Kennedy’s schlosberg? She and everybody else seems to have misplaced it?
Funny TBD! However, she never legallly changed her name, I can empathize. I use my hubbie’s last name with a hyphen, but I never actually legally changed it.
“Kennedy and Schlossberg were married on July 19, 1986[13] at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. Kennedy’s matron of honor was her cousin Maria Shriver. She was walked down the aisle by her Uncle Ted. Although she is often incorrectly referred to as “Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg,” she did not change her name when she married.[1][2]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kennedy