“Scott Brown knows that you don’t create jobs by making government bigger, letting spending get out of control and increasing taxes,” said Healey, in a statement. “Scott has been a leader in the never-ending battle to restrain state spending, and that is exactly the kind of leadership we need in Washington right now.”

Healey also said that she worked closely with Brown when she was lieutenant governor under Mitt Romney: “The Massachusetts taxpayer has a great friend in Scott Brown and he was a solid ally in our efforts to balance the budget and create new jobs.”

“I am proud to have the support of Kerry Healey, who is a strong fiscal conservative with a record of opposing taxes and higher spending,” said Brown, responding, in a statement.

Brown (Wrentham) is in his third term as a State Senator.

The speech, delivered at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, praised the school’s faculty members and students for their commitment to energy research and achieving new advancements in clean energy technologies. He spoke about his excitement after touring the school’s Energy Initiative program laboratories and the benefits that these new technologies can bring to the world.

“Windows that generate electricity by directing light to solar cells; lightweight high-power batteries that aren’t built but are grown. That was neat stuff. Engineering viruses to create batteries; more efficient lighting systems that rely on nanotechnology; innovative engineering that will make it possible for offshore wind power plants to deliver electricity even when the air is still,” said Obama.

He pointed out that every country has recognized that the world’s energy supplies are growing scarcer and “that’s why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy,” he said. “I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation. It’s that simple.”

Obama also promoted Ricovery Act Investments that are creating advancements in wind energy as well as creating jobs. He said the Act includes $80 billion to create thousands of jobs for Americans developing new battery technologies for hybrid vehicles, modernizing the electric grid and doubling the country’s capacity to generate renewable electricity.

Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, said that having Obama speak about renewable energy at the university can motivate more students in getting involved in new energy technology and policy development.

“It’s enormously energizing. The Energy Initiative has become a real centerpiece at activities here at MIT. And having the president here to make a major statement about energy really confirms and amplifies the work that’s already been done on campus,” said Hockfield.

MIT’s Energy Initiative program director Ernest Moniz said that energy research conducted around the country has helped the US be a frontrunner for leading the global economy in clean energy. However, he said there’s still much work to be done.

“United States still has, in my view, the world’s foremost science, technology and innovative system. In the other hand, we cannot be complacent. We can compete as long as we have the resources sustained and commitment from the highest levels, which the president demonstrated today,” explained Moniz.

Obama has been the second president to visit MIT but was the only one who met with faculty members and received a tour of school laboratories. The previous presidential visit was made by Bill Clinton who delivered a Commencement address in 1998.

Video report by Melissa Unger

Berwin’s uncle owned two restaurants and a shop there. They were seized along with his World War I veteran’s pension.

“It seemed hopeless,” Berwin said in a statement Monday. “I thought the odds were insurmountable. You have to be clever to outsmart people who want to hold onto money they stole.”

Attorney Dan Holloran, a New York City Council candidate said he didn’t think the situation was so hopeless. Halloran , a partner at the law firm Palmieri and Castiglione, LLP, was determined to help.

“I wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Halloran said. “Glenn has a right to this property. The Nazis never did.”

Halloran is pursuing a legal case to recover money taken from Berwin’s relatives who were killed or imprisoned by the Nazis. He used a federal court decision that accessed the record of World War I pensions.

“If we find specific names and time periods, we can get their pension records,” Halloran said. “Courts have been throwing these cases out. I hope this will open the door for others with these kind of claims.”

Berwin, a retired supermarket employee who lives in Whitestone, Queens said he was friends with Halloran from the neighborhood.

“I knew him from karaoke on Bell Boulevard in the early ‘90s,” Berwin said, laughing. “He’s a great singer.”

According to a statement released by Holloran, Berwin’s father spent two months in Dachau in 1939 before he was granted immigration to the United States. He hopped on the “last boat leaving Holland.” His father was the only survivor on that side of the family. More than 20 members of Berwin’s family were killed in the Holocaust.

“Jewish people should know that they are entitled to pursue their legacy,” said Berwin. “The legacy of my people should be with my family and not with the sons of people who commited crimes against them.”

“My Democratic opponents Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano are having an ongoing debate over who’s more liberal,” Brown says in the video. “Each one is trying to be softer on crime than the other. Unlike both of them, I support the death penalty. Anyone who reads the newspaper or watches the nightly news knows there are some crimes that are so horrific that they shock our conscience.”

Brown sites acts of terrorism, murders with torture, and the killing of law enforcement officials as the types of crimes he feels deserve the death penalty.

“I believe a well-crafted death penalty law that relies on advances in DNA evidence and other forensic science to conclusively prove a defendant’s guilt will deliver the justice that the public demands,” Brown says, “and innocent victims deserve.”

Massachusetts is a non-death penalty state.

As part of the Massachusetts Freedom to Vote Act, the proposed measure would allow a 16 1/2-year-old to pre-register to vote when they apply for a driving permit at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, so that when they turn 18, their registration will automatically kick in.

“This is an easy, no cost, common sense bill,” said State Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst), at a press conference before the hearing this week.

Story, who is lead sponsor for the bill, said she has had this proposal on her desk for a couple of years, and believes this is the right time to get it passed.

“The legislature is looking for things to do between now and Nov. 18, when we recess, that are good government bills and that don’t cost money,” Story said after her testimony to the Committee. “This doesn’t cost anything.”

Story said a person under the age of 18 should have the opportunity to pre-register, because young people at that age are starting to form their own opinions, and she said voting at a young age would lead to a lifetime of responsible voters.

“Voting is addictive,” said Story, who said the bill did not make it far last year but has heard no opposition from anyone. “If you start voting, you will never stop.”

In a study by Common Cause, the government watchdog found that only 50 percent of 18-year-olds are registered to vote in the US, and in the 2008 elections only 59 percent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 were registered to vote.

The bill has already been implemented in 10 states around the country, including Connecticut and Maine.

The new bill would not change the voting age to 16, since 18 is the legal age to vote as stated in the US Constitution, but the bill might make it easier for 18-year-olds to vote.

“I’m a junior, and if I could just register to vote now it would make things that much easier because things are going to be hectic with college,” said said Donovan Birch, a junior at Boston Preparatory Charter Public School, who testified to the committee. “The first half of my year will be applying to college, then getting ready for it, then I have to fulfill all my requirement for my senior year.”

Birch, a member of Young Civic Leaders, a program sponsored by MassVote, a voters’ rights organization, designed to build leaders in the community, said this new bill would make it easier because senior year of high school can be a very busy time.

“Even though I’ll be 18, registering to vote isn’t going to be the first thing on my mind.”

Rep. Michael J. Moran, chair of the Election Laws Committee, was impressed by Birch’s testimony.

“We need more kids like you getting active,” said Moran, who jokingly told the group of 10 to 15 high school students that he tried to get them a half-day of school. “I know it can be very boring, but very important stuff goes on in here, and I appreciate you all coming.”

Avi Green, executive director of MassVote, said it was important for the high school students to voice their opinion to the Committee.

“It’s critical,” said Green, who, along with MassVote, sponsored the press conference before the hearing. “Everyone’s always saying ‘This is good for high school students or that is good for high school students or this is good for youth’ but I think youth can speak for themselves.

“I think Donovan was just as impressive as the adults that I heard, and I really hope that bill passes.”

Green is also an advocate for the other major proposed bills in The Mass Freedom to Vote Act. Including, Election Day registration, which would allow voters to register on the day of elections providing they have proof of residence and ID, and early voting, which would give voters a week in advance to vote in case they were not available on Election Day.

No vote was made on the bill, and Green said he hoped the Committee to act sooner rather than later.

We talked to Barracuda Networks, a California-based company best known for its spam and virus firewalls. The company also offers storage, backup and e-mail archiving solutions.

The controversy originated from a Boston Globe request to review e-mails from advisers to Mayor Thomas M. Menino. But city hall could only account for 18 e-mails sent or received in a six month period from Michael J. Kineavy, Menino’s Cabinet chief of policy and planning and one of his closest advisers. City hall acknowledged that Kineavy deletes his e-mails on a daily basis, which circumvents the city’s nightly backup process. The city has said Kineavy’s actions exploited a glitch in the backup process because he both deleted his messages from his inbox and cleared his deleted items folder.

Government officials’ e-mails are a matter of public record.

Kineavy has since taken an unpaid leave of absence. But could this all have been prevented?

After talking with Barracuda and doing some of our own research, it is clear that City Hall addressed the issue of preserving its e-mail messages incorrectly. Boston’s backup process is a poor solution for archiving e-mails, and it runs contrary to accepted best practices.

“Relying on users to save e-mails (i.e. ‘do the right thing’) and not delete e-mails is prone to failure as people can mistakes,” said Barracuda spokeswoman Kylie Heintz.

Having faith in traditional backup systems is not the right answer. Even without the “glitch” that allowed e-mails to be permanently deleted, the City of Boston’s approach to ensuring all e-mails are saved by backing up the e-mail system was not ideal.

–

There is a functional difference between “archiving” and “backing up.”

Archiving is like storing e-mails in a filing cabinet in your office or an alphabetized library card catalog. Backup is like locking them all in a safe deposit box in the bank, behind a time-lock and a password that only the bank manager knows.

Backup systems typically compress all the files and messages into a single file — similar to “zipping” your photos so they take up less room on your hard drive. This creates another problem, because it’s more difficult to search inside these compressed files.

Even if Kineavy hadn’t deleted his e-mails, it still may have been difficult for the city to find, isolate and release his messages.

A backup process is routine, predictable and easy for an end-user to avoid. These processes rely on the end-user’s system. Products like the Barracuda Message Archiver and many of its competitors completely take the end-user out of the equation. An archiver is ideal in these situations, because these products save messages at the server level. Whenever an e-mail is sent or received by the server, the archiver takes it, copies it, saves it and makes a search-able index so that messages can be found later on.

Since public officials’ e-mails need to be saved, it is expected that they will need to be searched through at some point in time — like if a journalist requests copies of them. Backup systems are not designed with archiving in mind. The only way to access e-mails from backup systems is to restore the backup file and then manually search through the results. This is very time consuming, error prone and expensive.

Several cities in Massachusetts use hardware archiving solutions, and Heintz confirmed that some used Barracuda’s Message Archiver. None of the cities would go on the record for Blast, however, given the controversy surrounding e-mail

Boston’s backup script was a good solution for a disaster or system failure, but not necessarily the best solution for a public records request. Archiving is a superior method for public records requests.

“Organizations have needs for both,” according to Aseem Asthana, Message Archiver Product Manager at Barracuda Networks. Backup is vital to organizations. If something happens to an e-mail server, or a natural disaster wipes the server out, a backup can be used to restore all the data present at the time of the backup. But pulling individual files is more difficult. Often, an information technology professional is required to restore individual files from a backup.

An archiver, as opposed to a backup, allows e-mails to be accessed readily and seamlessly.

Menino’s office did not respond to a request to comment on this story.

We acknowledge that Barracuda is a for-profit company. Its Message Archiver starts at $1,999, but it would cost about 10 times that for a model amped up to serve a major city like Boston.

But it would also have saved a few headaches and maybe prevented Boston’s E-mailgate scandal.

John M. Guilfoil of the Blast staff contributed to this report.

Clarification: We changed the sentence “A backup process is routine, predictable and avoidable.” to “A backup process is routine, predictable and easy for an end-user to avoid.”

LA JOLLA, Calif. — We’re very happy to have Dr. John F. Asmus, noted professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) with us for this story. Asmus brings to The Power Behind Closed Doors staff an exceptional technical and political background as an Internationally known expert in the dark and mysterious world of Laser Technology.

After a diverse career between working for the government and various businesses, Asmus invented the technology to use lasers to restore art and is one of the few people in the world allowed to touch the Mona Lisa. We have known Dr. Asmus for a long time and acknowledge one of his government recognized abilities a s a “Keen Observer of Events.” Asmus is constantly traveling to other countries technical laser conferences which he attends as an active participant. UCSD has always appreciated his abilities as an international representative of UCSD.

Recently Asmus told us that he had received an invitation to deliver the keynote address at the international conference, “Il Reunion International: Optica, Vida y Patrimonio” at the Capitolio Nacional in Havana, Cuba. American travel to Cuba, a one party communist state, has been restricted, and travel there has been almost nonexistent. This conference appeared to be an excellent opportunity for Asmus to see, firsthand, what Cuba is like and how the average Cuban is doing under the current political system.

Asmus’ first observation, before he started his adventure, was to realize the strong and somewhat emotional feeling in unison among his wife, family, friends, and associates. They all pleaded with him to ignore the invitation. Everyone believed that if he went it would be the last time anyone would see him.

In terms of the conference Asmus said that the invitation was completely unexpected . Not only on the fact that he, an American, was invited to give the Key Note Speech at a Cuban Conference but the fact that Cuba itself would be hosting an international conference on laser technologies for the conservation, restoration, analysis, and presentation of the artistic and cultural heritage of the countries comprising the Western Hemisphere.

Asmus said that he had been completely surprise the previous year when he discovered Argentinean and Greek art conservators employing Cuban-manufactured lasers in their work. “For years following my 1980s work in Xi’an it had been his expectation that economical Chinese lasers would become the world standard in conservation studios,” he said, reminiscing about his restoration of the Emperor Qin Terracotta Army. Initially, Asmus said that he was bemused by the idea of economical Cuban lasers competing in the world’s high-tech commercial market, although this thought seemed to be purely based off the ongoing Political Embargo the United States has had on Cuba. Eventually, Asmus discerned that the Cuban success in the commercial laser field was due to a spin-off of Fidel Castro’s medical treatment initiatives of the 1960s and 70s.

Upon arriving at the Capitolio National for the laser conference, Asmus had an opportunity to scan the conference program. There was at least one paper by a Cuban author on almost every current topic that is featured at the laser-society conferences held in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Asmus said that, “Later that week, it turned out that Cuban presentations were of the highest caliber although like all conferences, others were superficial and elementary,” he said.

The second startling feature of the program was the geographical representation. Latin Americans were to be expected. However, almost every European country was represented, as well as a scattering of representatives from other countries. Asmus was the only American who attended the conference.

Asums’ third revelation was the degree of Russian influence, both direct and indirect, which was prevalent at the conference’s technical and social activities. This is in spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world economic recession, the termination of massive Soviet assistance to Cuba, and the travel distance between the two countries.

As for the conference, a feeling of deja vu swept over Asmus as the program revealed familiar names such as Vadim, Parfenov, Kaloshin, Shevchenko, Irina, Shikunova, Vladimir, Kurlov, Volkov, Viktor, Loschenov, Galina, and Nemova. Chatting with these authors at coffee breaks led to many new revelations. Mentors, collaborators, past publications and scientific issues as well as mutual friends of a bygone era were recalled. Although Asmus had never met these people, he discovered that their resumes bore eerie similarities. Asmus was well aware that that fifty-five years ago this world had been the focus of his professional career.

At one level the Havana laser conference resembled the end of a spy movie or novel where the opposing operatives meet and reminisce about their respective roles and tactics in playing the game. Some sort of bond can develop between contentious old “Cold Warriors” in reliving the moves and counter moves; in recognizing the implementation of similar strategies. Nevertheless, one significant difference in outcome bubbled up. Several of the Soviet Cold War scientists whose research Asmus had tracked during his Washington years had immigrated to countries such as Australia, Canada, Finland, and Brazil. Toward the end of the conference Asmus found himself chatting with Professor Maxim Tomilin of St. Petersburg State University. It appeared that they had attended all of the same meetings on the merits of neutral particle beams, charged particle beams, excimer lasers, blue-green lasers, etc., only on opposite sides of the world.

Since its inception in Venice 37 years ago, laser-implemented art conservation has been spreading across much of the globe. A major factor has been academic and professional exchanges involving Western European, Chinese, and American conservation scientists. While this was taking place many failed to notice that the Soviet Union was filling a void that opened upon the departure of the US from Cuba. While we in America were focused on cigars and missiles in Cuba, Cuba’s best and brightest were going to the Soviet Union for advanced studies. The Cuban laser accomplishment is one fruit of that protracted academic exchange. The successful laser-implemented restoration of the H.M.S. Swift by Dr. Alberto Orsetti, and the ongoing laser restoration of the fascist interrogation cells in Argentina (as historical memorials) by Professor Gabriel Bilmes are examples of their reducing the science into practice.

Asmus commented that during a coffee break during the conference, “both Dr. Tomilin and I agreed that the new blood in the field was discovering possibilities far beyond our imaginations.” This can be seen in the joint Mexican-Cuban initiative that has developed an automated laser system that selectively blasts thorns from the agave plant, thereby improving both the efficiency and quality of Tequila production. Better tequila, now who can complain about that?

Blast, based in Boston, has a bureau in San Diego with entertainment and political reporting.

The first occurs during the Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954, when Joseph Welch, an attorney for the for the U.S. Army asks Senator Joseph McCarthy to provide evidence to the attorney general of his accusations that there are communists working in U.S. defense plants. Instead, McCarthy names someone from Welch’s law office in Boston. The exchange leads to Welch’s now-famous retort to McCarthy:

“Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator…. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

Now shift to 55 years later. The President of the United States is delivering a speech on healthcare reform to a joint session of Congress. At one point in his speech, President Obama refutes recent reports that healthcare bill proposals would include so-called “death panels” that will decide the fate of elderly citizens. “It’s a lie, plain and simple,” he says. As the president continues in his speech he says that there are no provisions to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants in any of the bills. South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson shouts out:

“You lie.”

Both Welch and Wilson called people out on what they viewed to be misrepresentations. Welch is widely heralded for being among the first to help bring down a Senator intent on a communist witch hunt. Wilson, however, is castigated by members of his own party.

Senator John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent in the presidential election, calls Wilson’s outburst “totally disrespectful.”

The reaction to Wilson’s outburst begs the question of why it was so wrong for him to shout out what he believed to be “truth to power” when it was OK for Obama to sweepingly call out liars in his speech and admirable for Welch to confront McCarthy while the whole world was watching. (Well, maybe not the whole world, but certainly a good chunk of U.S. citizens watching the televised hearings.)

Welch’s act came after McCarthy raised a colleague’s name in an effort to divert attention from the request made to support his allegations. By confronting McCarthy, Welch effectively disarmed McCarthy and continued to focus on the issues at hand in the hearings. Welch and McCarthy were engaged in a hearing where each had the right to express their views, however abhorrent Welch may have found McCarthy’s comments.

Obama shone light on what he viewed to be the lie, rather than call out specific liars. Granted, his comments may still have irked those who had been talking about death panels, but he never singled out, say, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as being a liar for continuing to talk about death panels. “You, Governor Palin are a liar,” rings far differently from “It’s a lie, plain and simple.”

Where Wilson stepped over the line was in the method and forum in which he chose to deliver his message. He and Obama were not engaged in a hearing. His was a direct assault on the character of the person speaking not the issue he raised.

The reason why some members of his own party joined in the criticism of his behavior was that Wilson breached the agreed-upon norms of how members of Congress should act. By doing this his actions were not only uncivil but struck many as unethical.

“Ethics is how we behave when we decide we belong together,” write Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner Rogers, who wrote in A Simpler Way (Berrett-Koehler, 1999).

Wilson fell short of behaving in a way that he and his colleagues deemed appropriate when they work together on important issues facing the country.

I commend the president for strong leadership on health care. This President is clearly prepared to seize the best chance we have had in generations to deliver security and stability for those Americans who have health insurance and affordable choices for those Americans who don’t.

Massachusetts has the most successful experiment in health care reform in the country right now, with nearly 98 percent of our residents with the peace of mind of adequate, reliable coverage. We accomplished this because people reached across all kinds of differences and recognized that our choices were not limited to the usual two: a perfect solution or no solution at all. The President has challenged the Congress to do the same, and to do so quickly. The best health and economic interests of the American people are at stake.

It is more than a little disappointing to see the House minority leader announce that Republicans will not vote for health care reform whatever the final bill contains — even though many of the ideas incorporated in the President’s plan come from Republican leaders. Tonight some Republicans even showed by their lack of decorum that they are more committed to a campaign of distortion than to facing up to one of the greatest challenges before the American people.

The people of America are ready for change. The president is leading the way. It’s time for the Congress to close the deal.

As a Republican working and living among the bluest of blues in Boston, I understand how frustrating it can be to listen to bleeding-heart liberals talk about their plans to save the world. But I also understand the importance of political give-and-take, and the first “give” has got to be respect. Publicly, in front of a joint session of Congress and a national television audience, calling anyone a liar, never mind the President of the United States, knocks Wilson, as well as the GOP as a whole, down a few notches in the give-and-take game.

It is not like Wilson does not have enough outlets to voice his disagreement with the president’s health care plan – his Congressional website, Fox News, Facebook, a Twitter account he last updated on Labor Day, with no mention of the President’s health care plan. I support public disagreement with the President in the appropriate forums, but as a conservative (and also a political science major with a keen interest in the American Presidency), I believe the Presidential office should be sacred – a symbol of America, like the flag. If you disagree with a national policy, you would not turn your flag upside down. Likewise, I don’t believe you should mock the president. Belittling him belittles everything we stand for as Americans, as he was freely elected by our fellow citizens.

Wilson’s childish outburst also undermined his party’s cause. The media is not asking Republican politicians what they think of the President’s health care plan; they are asking what they thought of Representative Wilson’s outburst. Was it justified? The potential for a deep and insightful national conversation about healthcare has been lost to some political name-calling. Media outlets like CNN are also noting the number of conservatives who are defending Wilson on Twitter. Health care was not the number one trending Twitter topic last night, Joe Wilson was.

Wilson’s public disagreement may be protected by the First Amendment, but is a diluted representation of the kind of disagreement that should be protected. Wilson should back up his position that he made so public with an intelligent op-ed in a major newspaper, citing reasons for his outburst. Maybe then he can protect the GOP from being mislabeled as a party of immature extremism, but rather as one of true ideas that are simply different from those being place on the table by the President.

The digital world came alive, and Wilson was quickly one of the most “trended topics” on Twitter.

Then Wilson’s website, http://www.joewilson.house.gov/ went down with a placeholder page that said: “This site is down for maintenance. Please check back soon.”

Then he became one of the most Googled terms of the day.

Some people even fired back. According to CNN, some new Twitter accounts were created, with their first and only Tweets being in support of Wilson.

But even other members of Congress went public and digital with their condemnation of Wilson: “Biggest disappointment of evening, the total lack of respect show by one member for the president,” Tweeted Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. “Never acceptable to behave like a jerk.”

According to CNN, South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler capitalized: “Once again a South Carolina Republican has embarrassed our state,” Fowler’s office said, referring to S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital, international affair. “Never has any member of Congress shown such disrespect for the president during a speech. … Joe Wilson is a poor example of a statesman and an American.”

Wilson currently faces Democratic challenger Rob Miller in the mid-term election in 2010.

Canton selectman Bob Burr, 43, is the first Republican to stand up and say he's running for Senate.

The day after former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey decided not to run for the US Senate seat vacated with death of Ted Kennedy, we thought State Senator Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) might announce his candidacy, but it was an obscure town selectman who became the first Republican to officially announce he is running for Senate.

Bob Burr, a three-term selectman from Canton, a town 20 minutes south of Boston, announced his candidacy Monday.

Burr, 43, gets press coverage for being first. He makes up in balls what he lacks in statewide or national experience.

“This election represents a great opportunity for the people of Massachusetts to shape the future for a stronger America,” Burr said in a statement. “By electing a Republican to the United States Senate, the people of Massachusetts can ensure that there will be debate on the issues affecting healthcare, taxes, and deficit spending. If the Senate were to remain at a 60 member, filibuster proof, Democratic majority, I fear that opportunity will be lost in the coming months. And that loss could put America on a trajectory that is not necessarily in concert with desires of the American people.”

Burr is a 1989 graduate of Boston College with a degree in business.

My name is Ted Kennedy Jr., a name I share with my son, a name I share with my father. Although it hasn’t been easy at times to live with this name, I’ve never been more proud of it than I am today.

Your eminence, thank you for being here. You grace us with your presence.

To all the musicians who’ve come here, my father loved the arts and he would be so pleased for your performances today.

My heart is filled — and I first want to say thank you — my heart is filled with appreciation and gratitude. To the people of Massachusetts, my father’s loyal staff — in many ways, my dad’s loss is just as great for them as it is for those of us in our family.

And to all of my father’s family and friends who have come to pay their respects, listening to people speak about how my father impacted their lives and the deep personal connection that people felt with my dad has been an overwhelming emotional experience.

My dad had the greatest friends in the world. All of you here are also my friends, and his greatest gift to me. I love you just as much as he did.

Sara Brown, the Taoiseach, President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, President Bush, President Carter, you honor my family with your presence here today.

I remember how my dad would tell audiences years ago, “I don’t mind not being President, I just mind that someone else is.”

There is much to say, and much will be said, about Ted Kennedy the statesman, the master of the legislative process and bipartisan compromise, workhorse of the Senate, beacon of social justice and protector of the people.

There is also much to say and much will be said about my father the man. The storyteller, the lover of costume parties, a practical joker, the accomplished painter. He was a lover of everything French: cheese, wine, and women. He was a mountain climber, navigator, skipper, tactician, airplane pilot, rodeo rider, ski jumper, dog lover, and all around adventurer. Our family vacations left us all injured and exhausted.

He was a dinner table debater and devil’s advocate. He was an Irishman and a proud member of the Democratic Party.

Here’s one you may not know: Out of Harvard he was a Green Bay Packers recruit but decided to go to law school instead.

He was a devout Catholic whose faith helped him survive unbearable losses and whose teachings taught him that he had a moral obligation to help others in need.

He was not perfect, far from it. But my father believed in redemption and he never surrendered. Never stopped trying to right wrongs, be they the results of his own failings or of ours.

But today I’m simply compelled to remember Ted Kennedy as my father and my best friend. When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with bone cancer and a few months after I lost my leg, there was a heavy snowfall over my childhood home outside of Washington D.C. My father went to the garage to get the old Flexible Flyer and asked me if I wanted to go sledding down the steep driveway. And I was trying to get used to my new artificial leg and the hill was covered with ice and snow and it wasn’t easy for me to walk. And the hill was very slick and as I struggled to walk, I slipped and I fell on the ice and I started to cry and I said “I can’t do this.” I said, “I’ll never be able to climb that hill.” And he lifted me in his strong, gentle arms and said something I’ll never forget. He said “I know you’ll do it, there is nothing you can’t do. We’re going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day.”

Sure enough, he held me around my waist and we slowly made it to the top, and, you know, at age 12 losing a leg pretty much seems like the end of the world, but as I climbed onto his back and we flew down the hill that day I knew he was right. I knew I was going to be OK. You see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father’s greatest lessons. He taught me that nothing is impossible.

During the summer months when I was growing up, my father would arrive late in the afternoon from Washington on Fridays and as soon as he got to Cape Cod, he would want to go straight out and practice sailing maneuvers . . . in anticipation of that weekend’s races.

And we’d be out late, and the sun would be setting, and family dinner would be getting cold, and we’d still be out there practicing our jibes and spinnaker sets long after everyone else had gone ashore. Well one night, not another boat in sight on the summer sea, I asked him, “Why are we always the last ones on the water?” Teddy, he said, “Well, you see, most of the other sailors we race against are smarter and more talented than we are. But the reason why we are going to win is that we are going to work harder than them and we will be better prepared.”

And he just wasn’t talking about boating. My father admired perseverance. My father believed that to do a job effectively required a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Dad instilled in me also the importance of history and biography. He loved Boston and the amazing writers, and philosophers, and politicians from Massachusetts. He took me and my cousins to the Old North Church, and to Walden Pond, and to the homes of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in the Berkshires. He thought that Massachusetts was the greatest place on earth. And he had letters from many of its former senators like Daniel Webster and John Quincy Adams hanging on his walls, inspired by things heroic.

He was a civil war buff. When we were growing up he would pack us all into his car or rented camper and we would travel around to all the great battlefields. I remember he would frequently meet with his friend Shelby Foot at a particular site on the anniversary of a historic battle, just so he could appreciate better what the soldiers must have experienced on that day.

He believed that in order to know what to do in the future, you had to understand the past. My father loved other old things. He loved his classic wooden schooner, the Mya, He loved lighthouses and his 1973 Pontiac convertible.

My father taught me to treat everyone I meet, no matter what station in life, with the same dignity and respect. He could be discussing arm control with the president at 3 p.m. and meeting with a union carpenter on fair wage legislation or a New Bedford fisherman on fisheries policy at 4:30.

I once told him that he accidentally left some money, I remember this when I was a little kid, on the sink in our hotel room. And he replied “Teddy, let me tell you something. Making beds all day is back breaking work. The woman who has to clean up after us today has a family to feed.”

And that’s just the kind of guy he was.

He answered Uncle Joe’s call to patriotism, Uncle Jack’s call to public service, and Bobby’s determination to seek a newer world. Unlike them, he lived to be a grandfather, and knowing what my cousins have been through I feel grateful that I have had my father as long as I did.

He even taught me some of life’s harder lessons, such as how to like Republicans. He once told me, he said, “Teddy, Republicans love this country just as much as I do.” I think that he felt like he had something in common with his Republican counterparts: the vagaries of public opinion, the constant scrutiny of the press, the endless campaigning for the next election, but most of all, the incredible shared sacrifice that being in public life demands. He understood the hardship that politics has on a family and the hard work and commitment that it requires.

He often brought his republican colleagues home for dinner and he believed in developing personal relationships and honoring differences. And one of the wonderful experiences that I will remember today is how many of his republican colleges are sitting here, right before him. That’s a true testament to the man. And he always told me that, “Always be ready to compromise but never compromise on your principles.” He was an idealist and a pragmatist. He was restless but patient.

When he learned that a survey of Republican senators named him the Democratic legislator that they most wanted to work with and that John McCain called him the single most effective member of the U.S. Senate, he was so proud because he considered the combination of accolades from your supporters and respect from your sometime political adversaries as one of the ultimate goals of a successful political life.

At the end of his life, my dad returned home. He died at the place he loved more than any other, Cape Cod. The last months of my dad’s life were not sad or terrifying, but filled with profound experiences, a series of moments more precious than I could have imagined. He taught me more about humility, vulnerability, and courage than he had taught me in my whole life.

Although he lived a full and complete life by any measure, the fact was he wasn’t done. He still had work to do. He was so proud of where we had recently come as a nation, and although I do grieve for might have been, for what he might have helped us accomplish, I pray today that we can set aside this sadness and instead celebrate all that he was, and did, and stood for. I will try to live up to the high standard that my father set for all of us when he said “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

I love you dad and I always will. I miss you already.

List of famous attendees at Ted Kennedy’s funeral:

Cabinet
Hon. Kathleen Sebelius
Hon. Hilda Solis
Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Massachusetts
Mayor Tom Menino
Rob Consalvo
Hon. Paul Cellucci
Hon. Bill Bulger
Larry Lucchino
Senate President Therese Murray
Gov. and Mrs. Michael Dukakis
Dr. Drew Faust
Gov. and Mrs. Deval Patrick

Dignitaries
Honorable Gerry Adams
The Honorable James Blanchard
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
VP Al Gore
VP Dan Quayle
Martin McGuiness
Honorable Stephen Breyer
Sarah Brown
President George W. Bush
President Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn
President Bill Clinton
Mayor Richard Daley
Hon. Chet Culver
Amb. Michael Collins
Gov. Jon Corzine

Congressional

Sen. and Mrs. John Kerry
Sen. Akaka
Sen. Barrosso
Sen. Maria Cantwell
Honorable Michael Capuano
Sen. Ben Cardin
Hon. William Delahunt
Hon. Rosa DeLauro
Hon. Christopher Dodd
Sen. Byron Dorgan
Rep. Jane Harmon
Sen. Orrin Hatch
Hon. Wyche Fowler
Hon. Barney Frank
Sen. Dan Inouye
Rep. John Tierney
Rep. Niki Tsongas
Sen. Mark Udall
Sen. Tom Udall
Sen. Mark Warner
Rep. Henry Waxman
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
Sen. Herb Kohl
Sen. Mary Landrieu
Rep. Jim Langevin
Sen. Pat Leahy
Rep. Barbara Lee
Rep. John Lewis
Rep. Ed Markey
Sen. Mitch McConnell
Hon. Nancy Pelosi
Sen. Arlen Specter
Rep. Richie Neal
Sen. Bill Nelson
Rep. David Obey
Hon. Anna Eshoo
Sen. Jack Reed

Former Members

Sen. John Warner
Sen. John Tunney
Sen. John Culver
Sen. Pete Domenici (wife, Nancy)
Sen. Birch Bayh
Sen. Tom Daschle
Sen. Don Riegle
Sen. Paul Sarbanes

Media

Tom Brokaw
Al Hunt and Judy Woodruff
David Gregory
David McCullough
Maureen Orth and Luke Russert

Entertainers/Athletes

Yo-Yo Ma
Lauren Bacall
Tony Bennett
Placido Domingo
Jack Nicholson
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Bill Russell

Misc.

Michael Bechloss
Mr. Ken Feinberg
Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Martin Luther King, III
Mrs. Claiborne Pell
Ted Sorenson
John Sweeney, President AFL-CIO

Source: White House Press Office

Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the United States Senate — a man who graces nearly 1,000 laws, and who penned more than 300 laws himself.

But those of us who loved him, and ache with his passing, know Ted Kennedy by the other titles he held: Father. Brother. Husband. Grandfather. Uncle Teddy, or as he was often known to his younger nieces and nephews, “The Grand Fromage,” or “The Big Cheese.” I, like so many others in the city where he worked for nearly half a century, knew him as a colleague, a mentor, and above all, as a friend.

Ted Kennedy was the baby of the family who became its patriarch; the restless dreamer who became its rock. He was the sunny, joyful child who bore the brunt of his brothers’ teasing, but learned quickly how to brush it off. When they tossed him off a boat because he didn’t know what a jib was, six-year-old Teddy got back in and learned to sail. When a photographer asked the newly elected Bobby to step back at a press conference because he was casting a shadow on his younger brother, Teddy quipped, “It’ll be the same in Washington.”

That spirit of resilience and good humor would see Teddy through more pain and tragedy than most of us will ever know. He lost two siblings by the age of 16. He saw two more taken violently from a country that loved them. He said goodbye to his beloved sister, Eunice, in the final days of his life. He narrowly survived a plane crash, watched two children struggle with cancer, buried three nephews, and experienced personal failings and setbacks in the most public way possible.

It’s a string of events that would have broken a lesser man. And it would have been easy for Ted to let himself become bitter and hardened; to surrender to self-pity and regret; to retreat from public life and live out his years in peaceful quiet. No one would have blamed him for that.

But that was not Ted Kennedy. As he told us, “…[I]ndividual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in — and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.” Indeed, Ted was the “Happy Warrior” that the poet Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:

As tempted more; more able to endure,

As more exposed to suffering and distress;

Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and the suffering of others — the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed — the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children’s health insurance, the Family and Medical Leave Act — all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy’s life work was not to champion the causes of those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.

We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers’ rights or civil rights. And yet, as has been noted, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did. While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that’s not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw Ted Kennedy. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and platform and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect — a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.

And that’s how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, yes, but also by seeking compromise and common cause — not through deal-making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor. There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch for support of the Children’s Health Insurance Program by having his chief of staff serenade the senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas committee chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the chairman that it was filled with the Texan’s favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the chairman. (Laughter.) When they weren’t, he’d pull it back. (Laughter.) Before long, the deal was done. (Laughter.)

It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support of a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave my pledge, but I expressed skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes that it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how had he done it. He just patted me on the back and said, “Luck of the Irish.” (Laughter.)

Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy’s legislative success; he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, “What did Webster do?” (Laughter.)

But though it is Teddy’s historic body of achievements that we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss. It was the friend and the colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, “I’m sorry for your loss,” or “I hope you feel better,” or “What can I do to help?” It was the boss so adored by his staff that over 500, spanning five decades, showed up for his 75th birthday party. It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank-you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. senator of such stature would take the time to think about somebody like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study off the Oval Office — a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who had just arrived in Washington and happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office. That, by the way, is my second gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories — the ones that often start with “You wouldn’t believe who called me today.”

Ted Kennedy was the father who looked not only after his own three children, but John’s and Bobby’s as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him. Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, “On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to been spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love.”

Not only did the Kennedy family make it because of Ted’s love — he made it because of theirs, especially because the love and the life he found in Vicki. After so much loss and so much sorrow, it could not have been easy for Ted to risk his heart again. And that he did is a testament to how deeply he loved this remarkable woman from Louisiana. And she didn’t just love him back. As Ted would often acknowledge, Vicki saved him. She gave him strength and purpose; joy and friendship; and stood by him always, especially in those last, hardest days.

We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know what God’s plan is for us.

What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and with love, and with joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of others.

This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy. He once said, as has already been mentioned, of his brother Bobby that he need not be idealized or enlarged in death because what he was in life — and I imagine he would say the same about himself. The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy’s shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became. We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy — not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country that he loved.

In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn’t stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:

“As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved ones would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us.”

We carry on.

Ted Kennedy has gone home now, guided by his faith and by the light of those that he has loved and lost. At last he is with them once more, leaving those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good that he did, the dream he kept alive, and a single, enduring image — the image of a man on a boat, white mane tousled, smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for whatever storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May God bless Ted Kennedy, and may he rest in eternal peace.

Edward Moore Kennedy was born in St. Margaret’s Hospital in Dorchester on February 22, 1932, preceded by eight brothers and sisters, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, both from well-connected Irish-American families. As a result of several moves, to New York, Florida, and London, Kennedy attended many schools and was a mediocre student at most of them. He spent his high school years at Milton Academy where he maintained average grades and excelled on the football team.

Tragedy marked his life early on, and by age 16 he had suffered the deaths of three of his siblings: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in World War II, Rosemary Kennedy to a failed lobotomy, and Kathleen Agnes Kennedy in a plane crash.

After completing high school, Kennedy enrolled in Harvard University, where his grades once again took a back seat to his football career. He had a friend take his Spanish exam in hopes of maintaining high enough grades to continue his sports career. When caught, both were expelled, leading to a stint in the United States Army for Kennedy in 1951.

Thanks to his father’s political connections, he was never assigned to combat in the ongoing Korean War and instead served as an honor guard in Paris after completing basic training and Military Police school.

Shortly after he was discharged as a private first class in March 1953, Kennedy returned to Harvard to finish his studies and, after his sophomore year academic probation ended, his football career as a second string end, working his way up to starting end by senior year. Despite not receiving a varsity letter he was contacted by a Green Bay Packers recruiter with an offer to play professionally, which he turned down to go to law school and “go into another contact sport: politics.”

While attending the University of Virginia School of Law between 1956 and 1959, Kennedy studied abroad at the Hague Academy of International Law and managed his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 1958 Senate re-election campaign, helping to achieve a record-setting landslide victory. He also received charges of reckless driving and operating without a license, the first of his vehicle-related incidents.

He graduated from law school and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1959, after marrying Virginia Joan Bennett on November 29, 1958, at St. Joseph’s Church in Bronxville, New York. They had three children together: Kara Anne, Edward Jr., and Patrick. Due to his womanizing and her growing alcoholism, the marriage was soon troubled.

In 1960, Ted’s brother John ran for president, and Ted managed his campaign in the Western States, helping John win the first battleground state of Wisconsin in the Democratic primary. After the general election, Ted wanted to remain out West and not run for office immediately, and he was not eligible for John’s vacated Massachusetts Senate seat until his 30th birthday on February 22. Instead, John asked Governor Foster Furcolo to name Benjamin A. Smith II to the seat, which would hold it so Ted could later run in a special election.

Rehashing his brother’s campaign slogan from 10 years prior, Ted Kennedy went against Massachusetts Attorney General Edward J. McCormack Jr., who said that Ted would be “one Kennedy too many.” He faced his first public scandal when McCormack revealed his Harvard expulsion publically, but Kennedy rose above this, aided by McCormack’s overbearing nature in a debate, in which he said “the office of United States Senator should be merited, not inherited,” and called Kennedy’s campaign a joke. Kennedy went on to crush McCormack in the primary by a two-to-one margin and Republican candidate George Cabot Lodge II in the November special election.

Ted Kennedy spent his early Senate career avoiding the spotlight and trying to avoid making enemies of the older, more established Senators, and instead focused on his committee work. Not long after his career started, while presiding over the Senate, he was informed of his brother John’s assassination on November 22, 1963. Seven months later, Ted suffered severe injuries in a plane crash in Southampton, Mass., including a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding, and a back injury that persisted throughout the remainder of his life. The pilot and one of his aides died in the crash.

For a review of some of Ted Kennedy’s major political accomplishments, read Dan Kennedy’s piece for Blast on the Lion’s legacy.

In 1968, after securing the California primary against President Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, the family member Ted was closest with, was assassinated, devastating the young Senator. He delivered a eulogy at his speech, which included one of his most famous quotes:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: ‘Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.’

Seen by many as the natural successor to his brother, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and others encouraged Kennedy to make himself available for a draft to take the nomination, though he declined as he felt unprepared and did not want to be seen as a filler now that his brothers were gone.

With his brothers dead, Ted took on the role of paternal figure to their 13 children, and rumors persist that he coordinated the marriage of Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

Despite the trauma and hardships he had recently suffered, Kennedy threw himself into his work and became the youngest ever Senate Majority Whip in 1969, a move that seemed to further position him for the presidency, which he still felt conflicted about.

A few months later, Kennedy was involved in what is now known as the “Chappaquiddick incident.” After leaving a party for the Boiler Room Girls, a group of women who had helped in Robert’s presidential campaign, Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off the Dike Bridge and into the Poucha Pond inlet. He quickly swam to safety, but his passenger, Boiler Room Girl Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy did not report the incident to police until her body was found the next day.

Kennedy received a suspended sentence after a guilty plea to leaving the scene of an accident a week later, and gave a nationally-broadcasted speech in which he avoided admitting guilt to driving under the influence of alcohol or improper relations with the 28-year old Kopechne, but expressed his decision to leave the scene as “indefensible.” Despite the scandal, Kennedy received a positive response to stay in office from the Massachusetts electorate.

Doubts have clouded the reports of the events of that night, and to this day many question Kennedy’s story, which a secret inquest by Judge James A. Boyle found to be inconsistent. A grand jury on Martha’s Vineyard also conducted an inquest which was inconclusive. Kennedy condemned Boyle’s inquest, which was made public after the local inquest’s report, as “not justified.”

Kennedy overcame the allegations and easily won re-election the year following the incident, 1970, but lost his position as Majority Whip to Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which he confided to Byrd was a blessing as it allowed him to focus on his committee work.

Kennedy spent much of the 1970s focused on real political work, pushing through legislation such as the National Cancer Act of 1971 and working tirelessly on issues such as the conflict in Northern Ireland, health insurance reform and campaign finance reform. He repeatedly entertained thoughts of running for president, but family problems and the ongoing coverage of the Chappaquiddick incident kept him from committing, despite polling suggesting he could easily win the primary and the lack of other viable Democratic candidates.

In 1973, Kennedy’s son Edward Jr. was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, resulting in a leg amputation. His other son, Patrick, was suffering from severe asthma attacks, and Ted’s wife Joan sunk deeper into her alcoholism, resulting in several stints in instutitions and an accident due to drunk driving leading to her arrest.

In the late mid to late 70s, Kennedy was at his lowest point politically, as he found himself without a chairmanship and Carter taking the reins as the ranking Democrat. Carter’s differing priorities put a strain on Kennedy’s efforts to improve health care, and he instead focused on international good will, visiting China and the Soviet Union in 1977 and 1978. He rose to take the mantle of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, but suffered another blow when Carter refused to back the $60 billion price tag of his proposed national health care plan.

In an unusual bid to unseat Carter, a member of his own party, Kennedy eventually ran for president in the 1980 election, and was the favored candidate due to Carter’s unpopularity and weak stances on many issues, but he ultimately lost, in part due to negative press regarding his answer to the Chappaquiddick incident question and the electorate’s sudden support of the president during the Iranian hostage situation and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When Carter badly bruised Kennedy in the Iowa caucuses, many of Kennedy’s key fundraisers bailed, and it was a downward slope from there. Kennedy, however, clung to his fearless nature, no doubt earned on the grid iron in high school and at Harvard, and pushed his campaign all the way to the Democratic National Convention despite almost impossible odds, but conceded the nomination when his measure to free delegates from their voting commitments was defeated on the first night of the convention. Ultimately, Carter’s inability to win over Kennedy supporters aided in his defeat to Ronald Reagan in the general election.

In 1981, Kennedy faced unique challenges, including being a minority member of the Senate for the first time, and announcing his divorce from Joan Kennedy, settling for $4 million in 1982 after a relatively benign proceeding. Kennedy, meanwhile, tirelessly fought against policies of the Reagan administration, once again turned down calls for a 1984 presidential run, and embarked on a landmark trip to South Africa, staying at the home of Bishop Desmond Tutu, which could easily have cost him his life in the tumultuous apartheid atmosphere of the time. He later went on to be a key member of arms control talks with Mikhail Gorbachev under the Reagan administration; despite political differences, he and the president respected each other and maintained amicable relations.

After his divorce, drinking and womanizing became more of a public burden for Kennedy, and he was involved in drunken incidents with fellow Senator Chris Dodd in Washington, including allegedly unwanted physical contact with a waitress in a D.C. restaurant. These factors played a big role in his cutting short any plans of running in the 1988 presidential election.

Following the 1986 Congressional elections, the Democratic Party regained control of the Senate. As a result of his good working relationship with many prominent Republicans, Kennedy was once again one of the most powerful men in Washington, and used his position to effectively defeat Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, which he saw as a threat to the civil rights he had fought so hard for. Kennedy used caustic tactics, including a speech which painted a picture of Bork’s America as a land of back alley abortions and segregation, which many saw as slanderous, but which was ultimately effective.

The 1990s saw Kennedy’s flaws magnified, through rape charges against his nephew following a night of drinking with the elder Kennedy, which Kennedy suppressed with a negative press campaign, as well as many articles and jokes about his conduct with women and his persistent drunken antics. This image put him in a position of ineffectiveness against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, which he opposed due to Thomas’ refusal to comment on Roe v. Wade. His silence on the issue hurt Democrats chances of blocking the nomination, but to speak out would have been regarded as highly hypocritical.

The acquittal of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, and his serious relationship with Victoria Anne Reggie, which led to their marriage in 1992, improved his image, and Victoria is credited with stabilizing his personal life, which let him focus on the larger challenges ahead, including his fight against Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America legislation which earned his title of Lion of the Senate, alater challenge from Republican Mitt Romney for his Senate seat, and his defense of President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. More recently, Kennedy served as a voice against the Iraq War from the start, though he supported the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

By far his most passionate endeavour was the reform of health care in America, “the cause of his life,” he said, but which he died unable to attain. After a seizure in May of 2008, doctors announced Kennedy suffered from a malignant glioma, a brain tumor. After a risky operation to remove the tumor, which was considered a success, Kennedy underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. His condition declined quickly over the next year, and he died at his home in Hyannis Port, MA on August 25, 2009.

Frederick Rincon contributed research for this story.

Health care reform was one of Kennedy’s flagship issues and a cornerstone of his policy throughout his decades in the Senate. By naming the bill after him, many hope that he will accomplish in death what he was not able to in life, another in a long line of personal and publicized tragedies in his expansive career.

Byrd’s full statement:

I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come. My heart and soul weeps at the lost of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy and I both witnessed too many wars in our lives, and believed too strongly in the Constitution of the United States to allow us to go blindly into war. That is why we stood side by side in the Senate against the war in Iraq.

Neither years of age nor years of political combat, nor his illness, diminished the idealism and energy of this talented, imaginative, and intelligent man. And that is the kind of Senator Ted Kennedy was. Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy believed in a simple premise: that our society’s greatness lies in its ability and willingness to provide for its less fortunate members. Whether striving to increase the minimum wage, ensuring that all children have medical insurance, or securing better access to higher education, Senator Kennedy always showed that he cares deeply for those whose needs exceed their political clout. Unbowed by personal setbacks or by the terrible sorrows that have fallen upon his family, his spirit continued to soar, and he continued to work as hard as ever to make his dreams a reality.

In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American.

God bless his wife Vicki, his family, and the institution that he served so ably, which will never be the same without his voice of eloquence and reason. And God bless you Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly.

In my autobiography I wrote that during a visit to West Virginia in 1968 to help dedicate the “Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center” in Morgantown, “Senator Kennedy’s voice quivered with emotion as he talked of his late brothers and their love for West Virginia. ‘These hills, these people, and this state have had a very special meaning for my family. Our lives have been tightly intertwined with yours.’

I am sure the people of the great state of West Virginia join me in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the Kennedy family at this moment of deep sorrow.

But what did Kennedy actually do? The answer: More than I can possibly detail here. He was the author of more than 2,500 bills and the driving force behind many of the most important liberal initiatives of the past 50 years. His biographer Adam Clymer wrote in 1999 that Kennedy “deserves recognition not just as the leading senator of his time, but as one of the greats in its history.”

If you’re a student dependent on federal loans to attend college, Ted Kennedy was there for you.

If you use a wheelchair and are worried that an employer might discriminate against you, the Americans with Disabilities Act — another Kennedy legacy — will protect you.

If you’re barely scraping by at a minimum-wage job, your wages would be even lower were it not for Kennedy’s tireless efforts on behalf of the working poor.

And though Kennedy never succeeded in his decades-long quest for universal health care, he managed — by working with Republican senators such as his unlikely friend Orrin Hatch of Utah — to extend coverage to poor children who had previously fallen through the cracks.

As Boston Globe reporter Susan Milligan writes, Kennedy’s name also appears on hundreds of bills that don’t necessarily fit with his liberal image, but that helped shape American society in profound ways — from deregulation of the airline industry to helping the second President Bush pass his No Child Left Behind legislation — an action Kennedy came to regret after Bush refused to fund it fully.

And when Bush broke the law by ordering secret, warrantless wiretaps as part of his anti-terrorism efforts, it was a law — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — that Kennedy had helped write some three decades earlier.

Ted Kennedy was a deeply flawed human being whose many years of boozing and womanizing had, by the early ’90s, made him a symbol of excess. A night of drinking in Palm Beach, Fla., leading to rape charges against his nephew William Kennedy Smith (who was acquitted), nearly ended his career — a career that may well have culminated in the presidency were it not for an earlier scandal over his role in the death of a young campaign aide named Mary Jo Kopechne.

By 1994, Kennedy was on the ropes and vulnerable to a challenge. The Republican candidate that year was Mitt Romney, a telegenic Republican businessman whose crisp soundbites, wholesome lifestyle, and vague if generally liberal agenda seemed more than a match for the aging incumbent.

Yet Kennedy, newly remarried and with his self-acknowledged alcohol problem apparently under control, rose to the occasion, besting Romney in a nationally televised debate at Faneuil Hall in which he brilliantly (if unfairly) invoked the memory of his dead brothers in response to one of Romney’s attacks. (Romney later served as governor of Massachusetts, and ran for president in 2008.)

Kennedy was not above petty politics. I recall following him around Burlington one day in the late 1980s, when I was a reporter for the Daily Times Chronicle of Woburn. Kennedy had just sneaked an amendment into a bill to deny Rupert Murdoch the regulatory waiver he was seeking that would allow him to own both the Boston Herald and WFXT-TV (Channel 25), which Murdoch had just purchased. At every stop, Herald reporter Wayne Woodlief would ask him, “Senator, why are you trying to kill the Herald?”

If Kennedy’s ploy had been aimed at shutting down the Herald, as many suspected, it didn’t work: Murdoch kept the paper and sold the TV station. (Several years later, he sold the Herald to his longtime prot�©g�© Pat Purcell and repurchased Channel 25.) The episode led Kennedy’s most caustic critic at the Herald, columnist Howie Carr, to write a particularly memorable lede: “Was it something I said, Fat Boy?”

In a few days, the focus will turn to the question of who will be Kennedy’s successor in the U.S. Senate. The special election that will be held five months from now is likely to be the most wide-open we have seen in Massachusetts since 1984, when Sen. Paul Tsongas retired and was succeeded by John Kerry.

But the next senator from Massachusetts will not match Ted Kennedy’s influence or power. What’s especially sad about his death is that, at his vigorous best, he could have made the difference in President Obama’s push for universal health care, a push that, at the moment, seems to be going nowhere.

Perhaps Democrats and Republicans alike will honor Kennedy’s legacy by coming to an agreement on a bill that will bear his name.

White House officials did not confirm if the first daughters, Sasha and Malia, joined their parents for the visit. It’s unclear if the couple plans to stay for dinner at Jarrett’s oceanfront home on East Chop Drive.

Black Chevy Suburbans in the presidential motorcade lined the road. Neighbors and onlookers gathered at the top of the street, peering down toward the home, but the press was not permitted within viewing distance.

Some neighbors and guests were seen coming and going from a nearby house believed to be owned by John Payton, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The ride from the farm to the Oak Bluffs neighborhood took about 30 minutes, winding through Edgartown and East Chop. A small number of viewers gathered along the road, waving and cheering as the motorcade passed. Traffic backed up as many as 20 cars as state police blocked off crossroads.

Having left the Jarrett’s house around 7:10, the president and the first lady arrived at The Sweet Life Caf�© on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs, across from the town’s gingerbread cottages.

Hundreds of people filled the streets looking for a glimpse of the first couple. They waved to the crowds and quickly ducked into the restaurant, onlookers said.

President Obama closed out his day shortly after 9:30 p.m., waving to cheering crowds after finishing dinner. Hundreds of appreciative onlookers bid goodnight to the president and first lady after their dinner with shouts of “We love you,” and “Thank you for everything.”

White House officials did not confirm what the couple had for dinner but both looked happy and well-fed as they waved to crowds and got into their black Chevy Suburban. The presidential motorcade then led the couple under the cover of dark back to their vacation home for the night.

The first couple got back to the farm at 10 p.m.

– Jake Berry (Press Pool Report)

Chinese president Hu Jintao went to Russia during the week of June 15 to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. The two countries have had an allied relationship for 60 years, although it has grown stronger over the past thirteen years. China has now become Russia’s top trading country, signing energy bills that have a value of $100 billion dollars

No surprise here that top Washington Analysts say Jintao’s visit to Russia was a strong indication of the continued steadfast support between Russia and China on key issues of national sovereignty, national security, and trade issues. The main topic of the visit were the issues of the financial and trade support between China and Russia. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting China promised $10 billion dollars to Central Asian countries and Russia to help during this current economic turmoil. The leaders of Afghanistan, Iran, India, and Pakistan were also at the table of the SCO meeting.

In terms of history the SCO was founded in 1996 and has annual meetings. The organizations charter says that it “is not an alliance directed against other states and regions and it adheres to the principles of openness.” It is interesting to note that SCO’s goal is to pursue “joint security, energy and development goals, including enhanced cooperation against terrorism, Islamist extremism and separatism” in the Sino-Russian geographical arena. Most interestingly then, the agreement does have teeth in relation to power and can take independent action without waiting for American or UN approval.

Many intelligence analysts believe that SCO was created to counteract NATO and especially the international strength of the United States. This view is strongly reinforced by the fact that in 2005 the United States applied for Observer status in SCO and was rejected. It should be noted though that the SCO has no strict rule for admittance into the organization, expect that the main consideration for entrance into the organization is the shared border consideration. The fact that, technically, the United States and Russia share the Alaskan border via the Pacific Ocean puts questions to why the United States was rejected Observer status. It does seem to hint at strong political reasons are truly behind the rejection.

It has become clear that China and Russia have also agreed to a closer merging of economies trading directly through the Ruble and Yuan, bypassing the US dollar completely from any transaction. Recently both China and Russia have expressed anxiety about the strength of the US dollar and the effect the current recession in the US is having on world markets. China already directly passes over the dollar when trading with Brazil and Argentina. Although these are only minor markets, the decision to trade in common currencies between Russia and China is a major step forward for Russia and China and a major step backwards for the US. Overall though, this trend supports the idea of either a One World Currency or replacement of the US dollar entirely.

A very good academic question can be stated, “But why does it matter and why do we care if Russia and China pass over the dollar in their $100 million dollar energy trade?” American citizens including the large number of college graduates must understand that the US dollar will continue loosing strength and the US economy will continue to loose its influence and control in the international economic and political markets. This means, among other things, it is getting harder for Americans to find job and pay back loans. Students are the ones most at-risk for receiving this one-two punch for years, if not decades to come.

America’s control of international markets can be related to the saying “I have Good News and Bad News.” The Good News has always been the euphoria relating to America’s control of world markets. The Bad News is that American now becomes a Target for what is called “International Trade” in Washington, which is the new silent war against America and its ability to use the dollar as the basis of international trade, which China and Russia have already started to target.

In the future world, America will have a difficult time surviving as the dominant international economy if its economy continues to drag, and other countries continue to trade in bilateral currencies instead of going through the dollar. The dollar will then loose its tradability as a strong and controlling currency.

The current international financial crisis makes it easy for China and Russia to jointly replace the United States as a World Super Power. What America must face is the fact that China is a major exporter and both China and Russia have an extreme strong-hold on natural resources. Thus Russia and China have the ability when working in cooperation to move their interests forward without the United States, and without taking any US interest into consideration. That is bad for us.

Since 1941, Russia and United States have never been cozy bed partners. The last time Russia made it on to the US Media regularly was during the Cold War. The international question being discussed in the high circles of government power now though is, “What will happen when Russia enters the international political scene as a Super Power supported by one of the largest exporters in the world, China?” What will that mean for the United States and the “Quality of Life in America.”

Personally none of us have any desire to see what will happen within the United States if we loose our status as a superpower or even have to compete for it even more with Russia and China. We agree with Top Washington Analysts when they say that the SCO and especially Russia and China need to be watched carefully not only in economic terms but also nuclear weapons including the fact that they have targeted, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Canada, as confirmed by a Washington Analyst.

Malden, who also spent a career on television in a series called, “The Streets of San Francisco,” served as the president of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (read: The Academy Awards) between the years 1989-1992.

We’re working up our obituary.

But this isn’t about that. The 447 story has flooded the media so much the last two days that a lot of people are forgetting about a major event happening this week; President Obama’s speech to Islam on Thursday. He will orate from the University of Cairo in Egypt.

The speech is being billed as, potentially, one of his most important as President. That’s true so far, but no one knows what the future holds.

Obama has said he wants to repair, rightfully so, the relationship between America and the Muslim community. He’s definitely the best candidate for that job as someone who can use his wealth of popularity around the world to influence both parties.

He’s a celebrity with the younger generation, a generation that doesn’t see religion as an inhibiting characteristic. His speech should, and probably will be, directed towards the next generation of policy makers and leaders who will essentially define the relationship between the U.S. and Islam for another 50 or so years.

The speech will also be focused on current leaders and influential beings in both communities. A key thing he should stress, I think, is friendship and tolerance.

The way in which Islam is portrayed in western media is not its true form. Extremists have soiled the foundation of the world’s second largest religion. A lot of people have an innate prejudice towards anyone who looks remotely Muslim or even just dark and suspicious.

I’m not Muslim and I’ve experienced that on subways and buses in Toronto.

Obama will also repeat a point that has been stressed in the past, that the U.S. is not at war with Islam. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not a direct attack on Islam, he’ll say. Many believe they are, however, the battles bear no reflection on religion or the American view of Islam, he’ll say.

“There are misapprehensions about the West on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West,” said Obama in an interview with BBC.

That is true. Many of the misunderstandings take place on home soil, both American and Islamic.

The speech won’t focus directly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conflict that drew media attention yet again after Obama told Israel to stop building settlements in Gaza. That request was denied by Israel.

The speech will however talk about the Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole. Obama will reference, perhaps, a two-state solution and stress peace in the Middle East (yeah, yeah). A peace that can only be achieved by reaching some fair solution, which will no doubt be tough since neither side wants to give up more than necessary but will have to negotiate and sacrifice to create an amicable resolution.

People in the Muslim world love Obama. “Everybody is looking for him as the magical man,” said Ibrahim El Moallem, an influential cultural figure in Egypt, according to CNN.

“We think if he can handle the problem of the Arab-Israeli conflict not in a biased, not in a double-standard way, and if he can really begin to reach an overall, comprehensive, just peace, this will immediately win the heart and mind of the Arab and the Muslim,” he added.

He’s got legions of fans and backers on both ends of both conflict. Arabs trust his judgment, Israelis view him as a reasonable, albeit ambitious, seeker of peace. And Americans, well, just check his approval ratings and compare them to the last guy.

There hasn’t been this much hope surrounding Mid-East peace in some time. But only a few times in history has there been more need.

As both the President of the United States and as someone who has lived in Muslim countries and has Muslim family, Obama has an automatic respect from both sides. He is a representative of both, while being a representative of one.

To Americans he’s Barack Obama, to Muslims he’s Barack Hussein Obama.

The proposed budget cuts only account for about 0.5 per cent of the total 2010 approved spending, but Obama stressed that while this is true, this particular $17 billion can be put to much better use than it has been in Washington.

“There is a lot of money being spent inefficiently, ineffectively, and — in some cases — in ways that are actually pretty stunning,” Obama said, according to CNN Money. “To put this in perspective, this is more than enough savings to pay for a $2,500 tuition tax credit for millions of students as well as a larger Pell Grant — with enough money left over to pay for everything we do to protect the National Parks.”

Well, if you put it that way.

For those who don’t know, the Federal Pell Grant program provides low-income undergraduate and eligible postbaccalaureate students with grants to promote post-secondary education.

About $11.5 billion of the budget cut would come from programs that don’t receive automatic funding, and half of the total savings would come from non-defense related programs, CNN Money reports.

A senior official stressed that many of the proposed cuts are from duplicate programs or programs whose performance doesn’t justify the funding, like the early education program Even Start which would be cut if the plans are approved.

The biggest o cuts on the budget reform fall under the defense umbrella, with $6.24 billion cut from recruiting and retention programs and nearly $6 billion cut from the development of manned ground and air vehicles, like the F-22 Raptor.

Routinely, defense spending accounts for 20% of the yearly budget.

The president promised many more budget cuts to come, CNN Money reports.

We’ll see tonight. But we know one thing, the kid is feeling some pressure. It’s a big speech that will outline what Americans and the world can expect over the next few months and perhaps even years.

He may talk about what the administration refers to as “AFPAK” – the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I refer to it as a double-edged sword that has the potential to maim the collective world.

Obama said he’s going to send nearly 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour outlines in a report, “[he] seems to be pulling back from a promise to help rebuild Afghanistan and promote democracy there.”

The economy will for sure come up, and the kid is going to have to outline a plan to cut spending, something he said is absolutely necessary. The U.S. spends so much money on foreign missions, and right now we can’t afford to help everyone in the world without first helping ourselves. We should be priority number one. Too many people are out of work, that’s just a fact.

Obama will hopefully come through on a lot of his campaign promises tonight, especially those to do with foreign policy and the economy (one of the main reasons he was elected was because his economic plan kicked McCain’s ass). 

In classic Obama fashion, everything he says will sound great, just because of his oration skills. But how much substance there will be beneath the kid’s words will be open for debate following his speech.

“This has never been done in 45 years, but he really impressed me,” said Larry Gutkin, Lava Lite’s chief executive officer. “Originally we both have Chicago roots and he is really a Chicago politician. I thought it was attribute to him and a fun product to offer, without making fun of him. When it was all together the product came out beautifully, we are very happy with the outcome.”

The custom designed resin base and cap of the lamp feature three dimensional stars, stripes and bunting in a patriotic red, white and blue color scheme. A color photograph of a smiling President Obama is set against a blue and red background and framed in a star rimmed medallion in the center of the Lava Lamp base.

Topping the base is the distinctive Lava Lamp globe, containing a proprietary formula of blue liquid and white wax. Finally, the commemorative package, a colorful red and blue cylinder, complements the Special Edition Obama Lava Lamp perfectly.

Retailing at $39.99, the limited-edition lamp is currently available online and select retailers nationwide will soon sell it.

“This is really a collectors edition so I think a lot of people are picking this one up thinking that in years it will be a very valuable collectors item and I think they may be right,” added Gutkin.

But the lamp may not just serve as a collector’s item. Gutkin tells Blast that as a businessman who travels continuously, the past eight years have been a little hard. Being told that his country’s leader was making foolish mistakes became a common experience. Now, he said it feels good to be proud of our commander-in-chief. He hopes the country understands a process is needed to better the nation and effective change will come slowly rather than from one day to the next.

In the meantime, Gutkin is working on getting a lamp to Sasha and Malia, the first daughters, after already getting one to Vice President Biden.

“It’s a little tough to send to send something to the President. I’ve tried, but we’ll try to get one to his daughters,” said Gutkin. “We’ll get one to them and hopefully the President will see one and think its pretty cool. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t!”

Thankfully you don’t have to wait to get your own Obama Lava Lamp. Enter to win a limited edition lamp by February 28 now!

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

On behalf of the 1,800 members of the Online News Association, I thank you for your quick and decisive action in issuing your Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, Presidential Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act and Executive Order on Presidential Records. Your stated commitment to a free press and transparency and accountability in government displays ideals we hope will presage a new era of credibility in government.

As the fastest growing membership organization for digital journalists worldwide, representing major and independent news media, bloggers, technologists and academics across all platforms, we especially applaud your directive to agencies to use technology to make information available to the public.

We were encouraged in April, when you demonstrated your support of a free press and open government with your endorsement of the Free Flow of Information Act. The memoranda and Executive Order issued January 21 are further steps in the right direction, honoring the public’s right to know.

We look forward to working with you on the new and complex issues arising from the growth of digital media, and watching your administration’s progress on opening up government to public scrutiny.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Dube
President
Online News Association
jdube@journalists.org

Blast Magazine is a member of the Online News Association. ]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/politics/2009/01/online-news-association-commends-president-obama-for-timely-support-of-transparent-government/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/politics/2009/01/senator-collapses-during-inaugural-luncheon/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/politics/2009/01/senator-collapses-during-inaugural-luncheon/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:45:59 +0000 John M. Guilfoil http://blastmagazine.com/?p=7616 Blast has learned that Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has collapsed during President Barack Obama’s celebratory luncheon.