Friday Night Music 9-25-2009

Ted Kennedy and Massachusetts

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Here in the Bay State aka Massachusetts there has been one hell of a GOP stink over Governor Deval Patrick filling Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat. Most of it a joke in a state that boasts on being one of the bluest of blue states and the home of the Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy. Being a Republican in Massachusetts is a rarity in government but not unheard of when you consider we elected Bill Weld to the Governor’s office twice, and Mitt Romney to the launching pad for his presidential campaign as a one term Governor. Where’s Waldo replaced on Beacon Hill with where the hell is Mitt?

Life in politics here is simple and the differences between a Massachusetts Republican and say for instance a Wyoming Republican are night and day. And in that difference is the strong belief that our state must have a torch bearer for Ted Kennedy’s seat in our nations capitol. Over at the Boston Herald they have a somewhat forever right leaning spin on Paul Kirk’s appointment by Governor Patrick…

By Laura Crimaldi

Sen. Paul G. Kirk Jr., D-Mass., was sworn in as the state’s interim senator this afternoon by Vice President Joe Biden in Washington D.C., after a Suffolk Superior Court judge in Boston denied an emergency request by state Republicans to stop Gov. Deval Patrick from appointing a U.S. Senate replacement for the late Edward M. Kennedy.

The four-page ruling by Judge Thomas E. Connolly cleared for Kirk’s formal swearing in. Kirk is due to serve until a new senator is picked to serve out the rest of Kennedy’s term in a special election Jan. 19.

In his decision, Connolly also allowed a motion from the state’s lawyers to dismiss the GOP lawsuit against Patrick. - Boston Herald

Paul Kirk will continue the life long mission of Senator Kennedy till January of next year when a special election will select his permanent successor. I have no doubts about that at all. Governor Patrick could have picked the Pope to replace Kennedy and that still would have suffered a GOP law suit. Vickie Kennedy and Edward Kennedy Jr. would not have endorsed the Governors choice if Senator Kirk was not willing to walk in his close friends footsteps. In selecting Paul Kirk, Governor Patrick restored the spirit of our Liberal Lion back to Massachusetts.

Papamoka

Do You Value Life

My father was a decorated veteran of WWII and Korea. He raised seven kids and loved them all to no end. Dad died from Alzheimer’s disease and the only one that cared for him for the last eight or nine years of his life was me. The only person that knew of his last wishes was me. All of the burden from seven children was on me to sign a DNR which is a Do Not Resuscitate should he go into a medical condition that could end in his death. I spent the last night with him holding his hand and he had no clue as to who I was. And yet I knew who he was. That was all that mattered.

There is a ton of controversy over the current health care legislation in Washington and there should be. I don’t want a blanket Gestapo health care plan but we all know that the system is broken. Nobody in America would drive by an accident with people, children, babies, bleeding and dying on the side of the road and yet that is what the current system does. Our health care system only cares for the people that can afford it and if you don’t have a job, you have an emergency room health care system. The costliest system there is. That means it is broken. Our health care system sucks! It’s one of the worst health care systems in all of the industrialized nations of the world.

I have Parkinson’s or some form of it according to doctors and the director of Neurology at UMASS Medical hospital in Worcester. I haven’t had insurance to treat it for a year and a half. I lost my job. I don’t bitch about it, I deal with it. I don’t have medication for it, I don’t bitch about it either. I do however have a living will.

I don’t want my children visiting a vegetable in a hospital or nursing home for a decade. I don’t want machines keeping me alive for one more second than God intended. That is my right and my decision to decide. I have made my peace with my God and I am not afraid. My path is not easy but my words for now are the truth. I am one of the people lost in the health care system that is broken beyond belief. I have my faith in God but I would like a few more years with my children. Could a health care system for all do that?

Nobody is proposing to kill the elderly. That would be idiotic just as it sounds. Matter of fact, the person putting in that addendum to the health care plan is a Republican doctor in the Congress. All he is asking for is a living will for all. I don't have a problem with that but I do have a problem with his political party selling it as a fear factor even though it came from their own political party as an addendum!

Thought for the process of the discussion for you to think about. Don’t you think you have a right in the discussion as to how you want to be treated in the end of your days? I know for a fact that I sure as hell do! Whatever organs I have that are of use, take em, use them, do whatever you want with them. My time in this vessel is or will be done. Anyone mocking this life changing legislation has never read the current wording by Senators Dodd and Kennedy. What has been added to it is not of their ownership.

Life is what it is, love it while you have it to enjoy! Go out of your way to make someone smile while you can.

Papamoka

An Indecisive American People

In America today there is a strong and growing movement of people that once thought their voices did not count when it came to the policies of our government. There is some truth to the message that if you do not vote then you do not count but it is not the entire truth. Being an American does not mean that you have to vote, it simply helps the process of putting like minds in the offices you vote for.

Even if you do not vote, your government is still your government as a citizen. Your voice is still very important. Your life and your opinions matter. You are in fact a very important person in the ongoing experiment that is the United States of America. There is only one downfall to our form of government and that is when people believe that our government is not about them. That is the beginning of the end to our democratically elected servants to our republic. Or dare I say the beginning of an elitist government and society led by the needs of the few at the cost of the many.

As Richard Nixon tore down the respect of the political office of the Presidency, so has George W. Bush. Past lessons have been forgotten and the future of being respected as an American President will be up to future office holders to defend. Deciding what laws apply to the President alone when signing laws into effect is wrong and elitist at best. No American is above the law and never should be. We are a land of laws and rules that apply to all. Without them, we have anarchy and that is not a part of the American experiment.

In my mind, the office of President is not just about the power that comes with it. Being the President is about all of the people and sometimes it is about what the people want that is not to your personal liking. Yet it is the people that own the office and not the individual sitting behind the desk. If that was not the case then the descendants of George Washington would be a living and ruling Monarchy today. Am I wrong?

Get off the damn cell phone, computer, email or whatever seems more important and write or email your Representative in Congress on issues you care about. Tell them how you feel about any given issue. Be heard and wash, rinse and repeat.

Not doing that, then yes, special interest will walk away with our nation of laws that only apply to you. They get a waiver and walk away clean as a new born baby.

As an American you need to decide what you want from your leaders and more importantly what you do not want.

Papamoka