The New face of the Moral Majority!

I rarely watch over-hyped television events, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Teddy Kennedy's wonderful Irish wake last night.

Since I grew up and still live in a largely Irish Catholic cohort, I don't know much about how other cultures usually deal with death. But I can tell you about the Irish side of my heritage: We do like to spit in the eye of death - with prayer, with jokes, with song. (And a side of sarcasm, please.)

And much like my own father's funeral, I got a much bigger picture of Ted Kennedy as reflected in the eyes of those who loved him.

But it wouldn't be a real Irish wake without this, one of my favorite Irish poems:

May those who love us, love us.

And those who don’t love us,

may God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,

may He turn their ankles

so we’ll know them by their limping.

In Teddy's honor, we won't ever stop pointing to those limpers.

The Daily Beast:

Friday night's event commemorated both past and future, again beginning with the site. It was held at the John F. Kennedy Library, in an auditorium where Senator Kennedy used to hold dinners—shadow state dinners, really—to honor foreign leaders such as Czech President Vaclav Havel, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and a variety of Irish politicians including Mary Robinson and John Hume. But the library is next door to a plot of land where the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate will rise. Boston's mayor Thomas Menino said it would provide "another lasting legacy of the Kennedys in Boston." Contributions to the project, budgeted at $100 million, have picked up since the senator's death, said its CEO, Peter Meade, and the public has been invited to contribute instead of sending flowers.

The night's speeches — a total of three-and-a-half hours that left the audience scrambling for cars in a downpour that is a foretaste of Tropical Storm Danny's promises for today -- alternated between solemn assessments of Kennedy's merits and accounts of his misadventures. The most entertaining of the latter came from John Culver, a former senator from Iowa and a college chum of Kennedy's. He told of being assured by Kennedy that "there's nothing to it" when he enlisted for a sailing race, and then being seasick, rain-soaked, and chilled for 24 hours while Kennedy shouted orders. "We were being bounced all over," said Culver, "and it's all my fault?" And Dodd told of a phone call from Kennedy earlier this month, when he was in a recovery room after prostate surgery. He said Kennedy told him, "Between undergoing prostate surgery and holding town meetings, you made the right choice."

Dodd turned serious then, listing some of the laws Kennedy sponsored in education, health and other areas, and compared him with his brothers: "John Fitzgerald Kennedy inspired America. Robert F. Kennedy challenged America. Our Teddy changed America."

Vice President Joe Biden told of how Kennedy "took on the role of being my elder brother" when he was in despair after his wife and daughter were killed and his sons gravely injured in a car crash just after he was first elected to the Senate. Kennedy urged him, again and again, to give the Senate a chance. He got him committee assignments, encouraged him to get involved, and then, when Biden suffered from brain aneurisms in 1988, took over his committee for him for months until arriving unexpectedly in Delaware to tell Biden he was needed and it was time to return.

Then Biden turned to the dozens of young Kennedys in the hall and said pundits were making a mistake when they said the era of Kennedy was over. "Because of you," he said, "the dream still lives."

The evening's final speaker made the same point. His niece, Caroline Kennedy, said, "We are the ones who have to do all the things he would have done, for ourselves and for our country."

Then the audience stood and all sang a favorite song of Kennedy's: "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."

Ain't life grand? Jamison Foser:

Last week, Politico reported that John McCain has an "unorthodox strategy" to capture the presidency -- he "will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree to get out his message."

Interesting word, "rely" -- the American Heritage Dictionary defines it not only as "to be dependent for support, help, or supply," but also as "to place or have faith or confidence....read on

The Heritage Foundation provides a forum where Rush Limbaugh can kiss "24" actresses.

Boiling Point Blog: "How exactly does one qualify to be a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, anyway? Because my deranged electric-cord chewing cat could really use a job."

OMB Watch: "One wonders what kind of pharmaceuticals the Heritage Foundation is into these days..."

Open Thread below.... And don't forget we've got that fabulous CNN/Myrtle Beach Debate open thread going at the same time....

The Orstrahyun: Not making this up...The Australian government proposes allowing the gambling industry to build elder "care" facilities adjacent to casinos. Win-win for everyone but the elderly. Next up: poker machines that take Social Security checks.

Politits: But don't CEO's deserve 400 times the average workers' pay? They're worth it, right?

CJSD: Why was Bush greeted so enthusiastically by the Albanians?

YouTube of the day: What the hell are neocon groups like Project for the New American Century and The Heritage Foundation doing funding something called "Institute for Religion and Democracy"? Hint: it has to do with reversing any dividend from churches doing peace stuff. More here.

Smith Magazine: Amazing online webcomic of Katrina and its aftermath.

Guest round-up by Blue Gal.

Paul Weyrich, father of the right-wing movement and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority and various other groups tells his flock that he doesn't want people to vote. That's why the GOP is obsessed with voter fraud---only they want to disenfranchise voters because as Weyrich said back in the '80's...the more voters there are---the less of a chance the wingers have in any election.

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Weyrich: "Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome -- good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Need I say more?

It may seem a little wonky, but the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is a pretty important government report. As Dean Baker explained a while back, it’s the “only major longitudinal survey that tracks the same families over time…. [It is] especially useful for examining the impact of TANF, Medicaid, and other anti-poverty programs.”

With poverty rising, more families declaring bankruptcy, and political fights over domestic spending on the way, the SIPP is the kind of report that can offer valuable information about the nation’s economic well-being.

Naturally, therefore, the administration wants less information. (via Steve M.)

[P]roposed Bush administration budget cuts to the Survey on Income and Program Participation, known as SIPP, will significantly reduce the amount of information it generates for the next four years.

“We’ll have the statistical equivalent of a Katrina on our hands if the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] refuses to request funding for the SIPP,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “We need the SIPP to determine which government programs are working and how to best make use of taxpayer dollars in tight fiscal times.”

How bad is it? Even the Heritage Foundation believes this is a mistake.

Once again, the administration would rather stick its head in the sand than deal with a problem.

Mike asked the question to Allen. He denied it. Why not just say that you were young and said some pretty dumb things. Who hasn't? I grew up in NY, and racial slurs were associated with all sorts of juvenile behavior, but when you're a kid you tend to say stupid stuff. If he hadn't draped himself around the Confederate flag, lied about his Jewish heritage and embraced the " Macaca"...

I'd probably give him a pass. Not anymore...

Bruce was on CNN's American Morning and talked about a few things including the throaty one.

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Charles Pierce: "If you missed Bruce Springsteen's little gavotte with Soledad O'Brien this morning on CNN, you missed his making the point to Sunshine that no network on which Ann Coulter ever has appeared can credibly ask musicians about being qualified to speak out on politics. Seriously, do you think Coulter -- or for that matter, Ken Mehlman -- knows more than Springsteen does about any pressing issue of the day? Mehlman's an automaton, and Coulter's from the Planet Of The UltraVixens. Yes, Soledad, better we leave the serious stuff to you guys and to those deep thinkers at places like the Heritage Foundation who...read on"

Duncan: ...But, for a long time punditry has consisted of people who don't necessarily know what the hell they're talking about posing as experts in just about everything. That's not necessarily as bad as it sounds, but it's made better if we strip away the pretense that everyone invited to talk about stuff on the TeeVee is actually an expert....read on"

His new work "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions"

Missing The Point On Mexican Flags

georgia10 has a huge round up post on how the Michelle Malkin's are using the Mexican and American flag against the immigration debate:

"Conservative radio and blogs have been on fire over the presence of Mexican flags at immigration protests. In describing the protests Michelle Malkin (who is leading the crusade against the flags online) remarked "Mexican flags and signs advocating ethnic separatism and supremacy filled the landscape."

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"Malkin doesn't let up as refuses to recognize flag-waving or signs of heritage as anything but part of some vast conspiracy to reclaim the southwest. When Mexican-Americans hold signs that say they are indigenous, Malkin decries it as radical ethnic separatism which undermines America. I wonder how Malkin will react to the following. The video includes a clip of President Bush from 1998... smiling and waving the Mexican flag. A reconquistador, Malkin? Or someone who recognizes that the word "culture" isn't equivalent to "anti-Americanism"?...read on

The fantasy that Malkin is pursuing is another attempt for her to sink the debate of political discourse to its lowest form once again.