JFK was inaugurated 50 years ago today. 1/20/61
The torch has been passed, the prelude to Cuba, and ask not what your country can do for you, are all included. Listening this morning, I was reminded just how much this family has given. They could have never lifted a finger. Yet some of them gave all.
I sincerely hope everyone will take the time to listen. I had not heard the entire speech as an adult. Isn’t hindsight wonderful?
That speech is history. Kennedy was prophetic in many ways.
A nice commentary on the speech in WaPo today “JFK’s Words: The Torch Still Burns”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011906959.html
I also recall his “New Frontier” speech when he accepted his party nomination – immortalized in that great Kingston Trio song of the same name.
New Frontier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZCEcmSh4s
Thanks Raymond. I hadn’t heard that song in more years than I am willing to admit in public.
jfk was the only decent kennedy in the bunch, the rest were mostly coat-tail hangers-on, rascals and scoundrels. i heard that kennedy senior during wwII refused to facilitate some desperate refugees an exit from nazi germany, and as a result was given a curse that his male progeny would meet an early fate. take it for what it’s worth
Moon, I have the LP from the Shane-Reynolds-Stewart years
@Raymond, holy cow. Are all of them dead now?
@e, that’s a horrible thing to say. Let’s think of a few exceptions to your statement. Eunice Kennedy Shriver dedicated most of her adult life to Special Olympics. She could have had a life of leisure but chose to work like a dog. Her husband, Sargant Shriver, had a lifetime of service which included foreign service, the Peace Corp, etc. Bobby Kennedy lost his life because some nut cake named Sirhan Sirhan decided he was too pro-Israel. Joe Kennedy lost his young life defending this country.
Rosemary was handicapped and Kathleen was killed as a young woman. Its sort of hard to blame them for anything.
Those kinds of blanket statements tend to be unproductive.
@e
I don’t agree at all. I think that Robert was even more decent.
According to some old FBI sources, the mob saw Robert’s crusade against organized crime as a betrayal, since the mob had worked with his father.
My mother, who worked with New Orleans DA Garrison, during his investigation of the assassination, always thought that the hit was a combined Mob/Cuban hit, using Oswald as a patsy. And I mean non-communist Cubans that felt betrayed by the Bay of Pigs disaster.
Let us also include Joe Kennedy II who founded Citizens Energy – providing oil & natural gas to the low income; plus while a Congressman, led much of the efforts to get laws for affordable housing and reforming public housing. Jean Ann Kennedy Smith founded a nonprofit for the disabled to be engaged in the Arts. Dr. William Kennedy Smith works to eliminate use of landmines and cares for those injured by them. Robert F. Kennedy does enviromental law especially as related to water…big project of his was the Chessie Bay cleanup.
oopps…that should be RFK Jr. who does the enviro law.
Moon, as for the Kingston Trio (the three I mentioned), Bob Shane is still around keeping the KT alive with two newer members (the ones in the video you posted). Bob is in his late seventies if I remember right. Both Nick Reynolds and John Stuart died in 2008 – six months apart.
Squid: I totally agree that Oswald was absolutely a patsy, however, I believe that the hit was ordered by Johnson, along with the CIA who hated Kennedy because of his refusal to go for the bait during the crisis. See, we can agree on some things!
Robert F and Joe were especially beloved by those of us in MA.
There always will be conspiracy theories abouut the JFK shooting. We will never know what really happened because Oswald was killed.
My theory has always been that the instigator of the shooting was killed. Oswald hit the wrong person. Kennedy wanted Jackie dead because she was threatening divorce/ kept him on a tight leash/ would get him a huge sympathy credit……
Oops.
Of course, this theory has always been hidden. But I KNOW! They can’t stop me! I’ll hide behind this tin foil……they’ll never get me…..
What? Too much?
I am sure most of us have seen many documentaries, some reputable, some sensationalist, but I think the use of the term” conspiracy theories” has been much maligned.There are many conspiracies that have been proven correct. All it takes is two people to enact a cover up. That is the definition. Frankly, there are many conspiracies that have yet to be given the day of light. As a philosophy major and a critical thinker who is always questioning premises, I am absolutely convinced that some nobody ( Oswald) didn’t get “lucky”. And without getting into the facts of the case, I feel that there are many situations that many of us are naive about and simply feel safer believing the story fed to us, re: The Warren
Commission. It doesn’t make me “loony” it just makes me more thoughtful.
similar to the conspiracy of how we entered the Iraq war unfortunately. All the evidence for where the terrorism was coming from was Pakistan, which interestingly, we never heard about in the national media, but which can be found out about on 911 timeline, written by a well know and respected NY times reporter along with the help of the 911 families. You can see this complete documentary on LINKTV which you can find on your cable channel for free. Heres the link to both: http://www.911timeline.net/directaction.htm http://www.linktv.org/
Gee I hear crickets chirping. I guess I’m too crazy for even my friends on the right.Oh well, boo hoo
ACtually I looked at the lilnk and assumed it would come up. It is too confusing. You’ll have to do your own searches. Here is just one small snippet from the timeline info: (go to this link and this is on page 9)[Wpost020216] and [TOI0208] report on Pakistani conduits for Al Qaeda funding. The “smoking-gun” accusation in the 9/11 investigation, however, is a cell-phone call allegedly from Pakistan ISI Chief, Lt. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed to terrorist Omar Shaikh Saeed, who then transferred $100,000 from a UAE bank to Mohammed Atta in Germany before the 9/11 attacks. The call was caught by Indian RAW agents monitoring Ahmed’s (or Saeed’s) cell phone, and shadowing Saeed in a bookstore in Karachi. [Mir020711] gives the transfer date in summer 2000, which fits later American / German reports [CNN020710] of the terrorists’ banking records, citing a $110K deposit as the earliest transaction – in 2000. On 9/10/2001, Atta and one of the other hijackers are reported to have wired the remainder of the money to the UAE (Atta reported to have wired $15,600), where Omar Shaikh is said to have collected it and returned to Pakistan immediately. From the American side of the transactions [LaTimes0110]: “The money trail to the Emirates just before the Sept. 11 attacks consisted of wire transfers to a man identified as Mustafa Ahmad, thought to be a financial officer in Al Qaeda. Al-Shehhi wired $5,400 to Ahmad, (Shaykh Saiid) shortly before noon on Sept. 10 from a Western Union office at the Greyhound bus terminal in Boston,…Separately, suspected hijacker Waleed M. Alshehri sent $5,215 to Ahmad from a currency booth at Boston’s Logan Airport on the evening of Sept. 9. .. Atta wired money to Ahmad on Sept. 8 and 9. The document is unclear on the amounts, but Al Suweidi said it was like the others, about $5,000. Ahmad picked up the transfers on Sept. 11 from the Al Ansari exchange in Sharjah… The same day, Ahmad used a Saudi Arabian passport to fly from Dubai to Pakistan, Emirates officials have said.” “Ahmad” was apparently identified with photos of Omar Shaikh Saeed by staff at the Ansari exchange. The source of these funds poses further interesting questions discussed below, but the accusation against Mehmood resulted in swift action to remove and protect him. Immediately following the publication of these reports, Mehmood Ahmed was moved out of the ISI chief post, but only to another post in the inner Corps Commanders’ Council which helps Musharraf rule Pakistan. [TOI011009] reported that the US sought his removal after confirming the wiring of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by “Ahmed Umar Sheikh” at his instance. FOr the entire story see the link: http://www.jezail.org/03_archive/01_pak_role_in_teror.pdf
Always be skeptical when someone makes a serious accusation of perfidy and follows it up with a line like: “And without getting into the facts of the case…”
Wolverine, you are a better person than I am. My eyes glaze over real fast. That’s always been a problem for me.
Soooo. in a nutshell, the above said that there are bad guys in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other points east…..
Ok, then.
Frankly, I am disinterested in having to rehash the whole Kennedy thing again. That is the only reason I said “without getting into the facts of the case”. I didn’t bring it up in the first place. In any event since it is clear my comments bore some people here, I will make it real simple for those that don’t care to read the long posts or investigate: The head of the Pakistani CIA (ISI) had meetings with staff members of the Bush white house many times and on Sept 10,2001. There were documented wires of $ from the head ISI official to Mohammad Attah, the well known hijacker who flew the plane from Boston into the first trade center building. The wire on sept 10,2011 was for $100,000. When Condaleeza Rice was confronted with these facts by a foreign reporter in the White House press room, she denied knowing anything about it, and denied any knowledge that the General was at the White House.. She immediately looked away and pointed to another reporter to take another question quickly. Musharaffs ISI General was assassinated a short time later. The point to all of this, is that it is not “that there are bad people over there” it is that we invaded Iraq because of a self serving lie, and then invaded Afghanistan for the same reason. The real terrorists are in Pakistan, where we have been sending ungodly amounts of financial support to Musharraf and not demanding he crack down on terrorrism. Additionally, our OWN Military officials ,ON TV admitted that during Tora Bora, our military LET Osama Bin Laden and his entire caravan flee on the only road we hadn’t closed ( our guys said they could not understand why we closed 3 escape routes and not all four unless it was intentional) This is all supported by some of our top generals and this is part of why there was a demand for an investigation by the 911 families. It is in a documentary on LINKTV. We never got the real answers according to the NY times reporter who did the well know time line and the families. In any event, I am done here, and I am sorry for glazing anyones eyes over or boring anyone. Frankly, I can spend my time much more fruitfully. I think I will just go read some of the federalist papers now. Goodnight and goodbye
In short, the accuser in the JFK assasination has a theory but no evidence to back it up. Case dismissed.
@hs4265
That is a better summary. Thank you. As for the “self-serving lie,” that’s your interpretation. It may even be true.
Are our enemies in Pakistan. Yes. Saudi Arabia? Yes. Elsewhere? Yes. Al Quada has international support.
Personally, I don’t mind investigations. Let’s have them. But, and its a big but, lets have REAL ONES, not the political witch hunts that they end up being. And since it would have been impossible for the Pelosi Congress to impartially investigate, how do we fix situations like that? I’m not a big fan of any “investigations” that Congressman Issa wants. Its too much like a witch hunt.
Perhaps, instead of Congress, the Judiciary needs to do any investigating.