I've been getting a lot of email messages from advocates who have been expressing their sadness over the passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy. I thought I’d share some of them with you.
We reported today about his mixed reputation in the South. Liberals loved him for championing education, health care and civil rights. Conservatives saw him as the definition of liberalism, big government and an advocate for entitlement programs.
Among immigrant rights’ groups, he was a national hero.
Here are excerpts from what they had to say:
If your American family began its journey in this country with the arrival in the last four decades of a single refugee or immigrant striving for a better life, you owe a special debt of gratitude to Senator Kennedy. The way to give back is to personally commit yourself to fighting for the justice, civil rights, and basic American decency that Senator Kennedy fought for throughout his life.
- Rich Stolz, Campaign Manager for the Reform Immigration for America campaign.
The great-grandson of eight immigrants to America, the brother of two of America's most visionary leaders on fighting for a fair and just immigration system, Senator Kennedy was in his own right the architect of the modern struggle to honor America's legacy as nation built by, populated by, and defined by immigrants from around the world.
--Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan, non-profit pro-immigrant advocacy organization in Washington.
Senator Kennedy worked tirelessly for the past five decades to make the U.S. immigration system one that is color-blind, more just, and a safe haven for people fleeing persecution and upheaval around the world. In so doing, Senator Kennedy helped change the character of the immigration system, and indeed the country, bringing the United States a step closer to its founding ideals of fairness and opportunity for all.
-- Doris Meissner, who heads Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program and served as INS Commissioner during the Clinton administration.
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33 comments:
Ted Kennedy's poverty importation schemes (AKA mass immigration) in conjunction with his assistance in expanding the welfare state are two of the primary reasons that our country's balance sheet is so sick. Quite simply mass immigration and the welfare state are a toxic brew for fiscal responsbility. But, I have to admit it is a great brew for the Democratic party as it has created millions more dependants that will unequivocably vote for more entitlements and welfare generously handed out by Kennedy's party.
The funny things is that this era of unprecedented immigration (legal and otherwise) has done more to depress the wages of the so-called common man that he supposedly cared about than any other factor.
Kennedy's legacy is the Balkanization of our country and the expansion of the welfare state and dependancy. Thanks Teddy!
Hey Sammy,
Leave your ignorance and hatred at the door for just a little bit. While you and I would probably disagree on most issues, try to show some respect to the passing of somebody who has done considerable more good in this world than you are ever likely to.
In terms of your arguments, the oft-repeated myths that immigration, legal or otherwise, depresses wages, creates a welfare state or otherwise encourages balkanization have long been debunked by scores of studies. Immigration is the backbone of this country. Without that unique blend of cultures, races and beliefs that make up America, this country would enjoy neither prosperity nor strength of arms.
So please keep your quasi-racist, uninformed, uneducated rants to yourself. As an immigrant who came to this country thirty years ago, I've worked hard to get a Master's degree and earn a six-figure job in spite of people like you.
The death of the Last Kennedy brothers is a sad loss for all people that have a Hope for Kindness and Humanity for the Poor, the Black, the Hispanic, the Native American Indian, the Immigrant, etc ...
Ted worked very hard for the election of Barack Obama, like Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F Kennedy.
We will never forget the Kennedys, their Great Heart, and their rejection of Sadism and Brutality. Their fights for Civil Rights.
With People like Obama and his Wife Michelle, with Ted and John Kerry ( What a Gentleman ! ) with Hillary and Bill, we can believe in a Beautiful Future for the USA.
When I look at the actions of past and present Republican Incumbents, I get depressed .... and I almost think that the US is down the slope, not of a hill, but of the Himalayas ....
I almost believed in Professor Chalmers Johnson of the University of California : The US Global Empire - The Last Days of the American Empire
But I hope that Mr Obama ( Great Intelligence ) does not fall in the same foolish trap of Mr Bush, that believed that you can export Liberty and Freedom by killing poor illiterate peasants in Pajamas that are at the point of starving.
All those peasants are human beings and deserve respect, they only defend their land from the invaders.
This is my homage to Ted Kennedy - He wasn't a Jingo or Racist, he didn't enjoy raw power to kill and maim - He was a man of Humanity and Kindness.
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
"Without that unique blend of cultures, races and beliefs that make up America, this country would enjoy neither prosperity nor strength of arms."
And that is total B.S. Anyone with eyes to see knows that "diversity" weakens a nation. I don't see any "blending of cultures", I see different cultures, one more backward than the next, competing with what's left of American culture, and watering it down.
Yeah, right, Vicente. I'll give you a dollar for every resident of "color" or who speaks with a Spanish accent within 10 miles of the "Kennedy Compound". I doubt you'll have enough money for the train ride home.
Oh well, at least Robert Kennedy Jr. is sincere, fighting for the environment and all. Oh wait, didn't he block the construction of wind mills off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, because they would ruin his view?
Yeah, where would this country be without the Kennedy's?
"This is my homage to Ted Kennedy - He wasn't a Jingo or Racist, he didn't enjoy raw power to kill and maim - He was a man of Humanity and Kindness."
Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
From 1951, when he was kicked out of Harvard for cheating, to rape trial of his nephew in the early 90's where his sordid lifestyle was put on display for the whole world... he was a real giant.
Responder to Sammy on August 27, 2009 4:58 PM:
Your imflammatory language is both hollow and shows your fear of the truth. Nowhere in Sammy's post did he express hate or racism, yet that is the first thing you accuse.
Congratualations on your Master degree. You have added to our nation. However unchecked mass illegal immigration from third-world countries adversley affects the United States more than it benefits.
Sammy's statements on the economy can be backed up with fact. Wages are significantly depressed in certain sectors and most immigrants who come are in poverty and require government assistance.
Next time read the post closer before you respond with your accusations.
There is a difference between immigration and illegal entry to this country. The elimination of quotas with legislation promoted by Ted Kennedy will be seen in the future as a major cause of the end of the American dream....
The Cato Institute is in favor of Immigration and of Legalization of those "Illegal Aliens" already present in America
Policy Studies about Immigration in America - Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform
by Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer
Peter Dixon is the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and Maureen Rimmer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia. Their USAGE model of the U.S. economy has been used by the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Homeland Security, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.
August 13, 2009
Restriction or Legalization? - Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform
http://www.freetrade.org/files/pubs/pas/tpa-040.pdf
Some excerps :
Policy Studies
By the latest estimates, 8.3 million workersin the United States are illegal immigrants.
Proposed policy responses range from more restrictive border and workplace enforcement to legalization of workers who are already here and the admission of new
workers through a temporary visa program.
Policy choices made by Congress and the president could have a major economic impact on the welfare of U.S. households.
This study uses the U.S. Applied General Equilibrium model that has been developed for the U.S. International Trade Commission and other U.S. government agencies to estimate the welfare impact of seven different scenarios, which include increased enforcement at the border and in the workplace, and several different legalization options, including a visa program that allows more low-skilled workers to enter the U.S. workforce legally.
For each scenario, the USAGE model weighs the impact on such factors as public revenues and expenditures, the occupational mix and total employment of U.S. workers, the amount of capital owned by U.S. households, and price levels for imports and exports.
This study finds that increased enforcement and reduced low-skilled immigration have a significant negative impact on the income of U.S. households. Modest savings in public expenditures would be more than offset by losses in economic output and job opportunities for more-skilled American workers. A policy that reduces the number of low-skilled immigrant workers by 28.6 percent compared to projected levels would reduce U.S. household welfare by about 0.5 percent, or $80 billion.
In contrast, legalization of low-skilled immigrant workers would yield significant income gains for American workers and households. Legalization would eliminate smugglers’ fees and other costs faced by illegal immigrants. It would also allow immigrants to have higher productivity and create more openings for Americans in higher skilled occupations. The positive impact for U.S. households of legalization under an optimal visa tax would be 1.27 percent of GDP or $180 billion.
Restriction or Legalization?
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
To all of you that believe that Kennedy was a good man, the best politician ever blah blah blah. The man was an egotistical elitist that thought he was above the law. When you literally get away with murder as he did you do not believe that the laws of this country are for people like him, they are for the commoner. Need further proof? Just before he died he proved what a hypocritical typical lib he was by trying to reverse the very law he orchestrated a few years back by stripping the power away from the governor to appoint someone to fill a vacant seat for the simple fact that the governor at the time was a Republican. Now on his death bed he expects to overturn this law so that he can nominate his replacement. Teddy's legacy for many will be that of an over privileged drunk who got away with murder.
How is mass-immigration and 'diversity' working out over there in California?
Oh yeah...the state is flat broke, its schools are some of the worst in the nation, its roads are massively overcrowded, it is increasingly short of water and sewage capacity, and overall community/social trust is very low. Also, the English language (one of the only things which holds the USA together) is being replaced by Spanish, Korean, Chinese, etc.
Check out the work of Harvard professor Robert Putnam - he scientifically verified that as the racial/ethnic diversity of a city, town, community, or region increases, the social cohesion and levels of general community trust plummets big time. In other words, racial/ethnic diversity is BAD for everyone.
Racial/ethnic diversity and 'multiculturalism' is a massive fraud that deserves to be thrown on the garbage heap of history. It hasn't worked yet, and it never will work.
It's also very funny how so many White liberals in the USA and elsewhere talk wonders about how great diversity and multiculturalism is, yet at the end of the day they always return home to their lily-white suburbs and/or apartment complexes in all-White urban neighborhoods and often sent their kids to nearly all-White schools. Funny how that works, huh?
What Anonymous August 27, 2009 6:04 PM said.
The Ted Kennedy obituary you didn't read... but should
By David Galland in Casey's Daily Dispatch
It is said that one should not speak poorly of the dead. But it is also said that one should not discuss politics or religion in polite company, and we regularly violate that dictum. Thus, committing another faux pas gives us no real pause.
I am, of course, warming up to say a few unkind words about the just deceased Sen. Kennedy.
In reviewing his life, his fans will hold him up as a flawed but still shining beacon for the common man. Quoting one mostly favorable article today…
“Kennedy entered Harvard College in 1950, but was suspended the following year for allowing another student to take a Spanish test for him.”
And people claim there is such a thing as media bias! Pshaw!
I’m sure that the student Kennedy so kindly “allowed” to take his Spanish test – no doubt because the poor fellow needed to hone his test-taking skills – virtually begged Ted to let him stand in.
But his cheating ways, which extended to drunkenly chasing the girlfriends of younger clan members around family compounds, are not the source of my gripe about the all-too-human Kennedy.
My issue emanates from a stop some years ago by the side of the road in Martha’s Vineyard. On the island for a vacation, I took the short detour to see the site of Kennedy’s infamous accident at the bridge to Chappaquiddick. Getting out of the car, I vividly remember my first impression.
“This is it? That’s where Kennedy’s car went in?”
The thing is that the canal is narrow and shallow. I’ll give Kennedy the benefit of the doubt that he was disoriented – massive quantities of alcohol will do that to a guy – but I won’t give him anything toward his contention that he couldn’t have taken more active measures to save Mary Jo Kopechne’s life.
Any reasonably strong swimmer – which I assume he was, having grown up on the water – could have made the shallow dive necessary to get her out. But even if he was too drunk or scared to pull that off, he could have quickly found the help needed to get her out before the air bubble in the car was exhausted and she drowned. Instead, walking by a fire station and a private house, stopping at neither to request help, he trod a circuitous path to his hotel, where, after changing into dry clothes and lamely trying to establish an alibi by visiting the front desk to complain of a loud party, he turned in.
It was only nine hours after driving off the bridge, and after a local fisherman had discovered the car, that Kennedy finally reported the accident.
This is, of course, all part of the historical record – an interesting part of which you can read by following the link below to the FBI files on the accident, made available thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request.
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/chappaquiddick.htm
But I will never forget my visceral reaction to the sight of that small and shallow channel, the certain knowledge that Ted Kennedy was a sociopath, a coward, and a cretin, who made every possible move to rescue his political career and almost none to save the life of a young woman.
That he wasn’t properly prosecuted but received a slap on the wrist with a two-month suspended sentence speaks volumes about the nature of political power and our justice system.
And that he subsequently went on to become a political icon, idolized as a champion of the downtrodden, says everything there is to say about human gullibility.
Ted Kennedy, R.I.H.
Once the USA becomes a majority non-White mongrelized nation it will decline BIG TIME. Note that Whites ar esupposed to dip below 50% of America's population in less than 50 years.
All racially/ethnically mixed nations decline and are not capable of being advanced 1st world nations. Look at India, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, etc as what the future of the USA will be like - overpopulated, high crime, low economic development, high corruption, and so on. If you think income inequality is bad now, once the USA becomes majority non-White it will be even worse, just like in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and so on.
"The future holds before us either a white America, with its concomitant progress, or a mongrel America, with its decay of culture." - http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/cox/wa-15.html
The only good Kennedy is a dead Kennedy.
Yes, I remember Ted Kennedy's immigration reform. When the big green card lottery was held a few years ago he stacked the deck to ensure that thousands of illegal aliens from Ireland living in Massachusetts got a big chunk of the immigration pie.
I hope that the minute Teddy Boy entered the spirit world Mary Jo Kopechne slapped his fat face.
I entered the US legally and became a permanent resident legally. Now I would like to become a naturalized citizen. Too bad Kennedy never stopped the escalation of filing fees. It would cost my family of 3 over $2000 to become citizens. We have all been working and paying taxes and have never used free medical or any other services.
The first thing I thought of was, hope Teddy Boy runs into Mary Jo (no pun intended). The great catholic has to stand infront of the chief judge-God, and tell of his sins of murder, sloth (drinking), adultery (cheating on his wife), lying to the multitudes during campaigns, dishonoring the mother of his children (honor thy mother...) with his cheating and the list goes on. Teddy's halo is badly tarnished by himself and now he will get what he deserves, there is no one in heaven -or hell-he can pay off now.
Just thought I'd add this article I found. I knew Kennedy was immoral but never knew he was a traitor.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/book_teddy_kennedy_plotted_with_soviets_to_oust_reagan/
and we all know that when our boy Franco says "immigrants" it is code for "illegal alien" ... right?
I put up the 3rd post here that was taken down by the admin. Thanks to all of you who have since made it impossible for him to silence us! Kennedy was a pig. The entire clan are wealthy because of the bootlegging criminal activities of its patriarch, Joe Kennedy. Funny how this is acceptable, and has been for decades.
Anyway, thanks for saying what I was censored for saying!
Kennedy, just like every hypocritical liberal. "Let's let all of these illegals in because I am so compassionate. Just make sure they can't make it to my compound. Unless of course we need the pool cleaned." Of course, liberals don't see things that way because it isn't the outcome that is important, it is the "feelings" behind the actions.
Ted Kennedy, the Father of Illegal Immigration.
Thanks for helping to destroy the country Ted.
Vicente Duque,
I'll take Milton Friedman over the CATO institute study anytime. He basically stated that mass immigration and the welfare state were not compatible. Is it really that hard to grasp that in our modern day welfare state where activist judges have mandated a buffet of "free" goodies to the "poor" and "downtrodden" regardless of immigration status it might not be such a good idea to import (legally or illegally) a lot of people that automaticlly qualify for all of these programs.
It's not that these immigrants aren't good well meaning people willing to work hard, just that they don't make a good fit for our post industrialized welfare state society. Quite simply their net costs are exceeded by their net benefits. Why would we continue with any policy that costs us more than it benefits us?
And why do we need more people anyway -- particularly with an economic recession? Why do we have to have population growth and demographics to match the 3rd World? Why is this the vision that we want for our country?
For every study that you want to paste on this forum supporting your point of view I could find at least one to counteract its conclusion. Let's just think about it on a more basic level. What good does it bring our country to import large masses of undereducated, lesser-skilled, English-challenged, culturally disparate people into our social welfare state where most automatically qualify for expensive tax-payer provided subsidies? This isn't 1910 when the welfare state didn't exist and there was a greater need for manual unskilled labor.
Wow, what a sad display of vitriol. What sort of prayer is available from minds so productive of hate?
Now we now who to thank for the immigration mess we are in today. Once quotas were lifted it became a free for all....and made it easier for illegals to overrun the system.
Something needs to be done soon to deport those who break the laws and tax our healthcare system, among other services.
Dear "Anonymous August 27, 2009 4:58 PM"
You berate "Sammy" for speaking the truth about Ted's legacy by calling him "racist","ignorant" and the usual ad hominem smears that come from Leftists who cannot defend their failed positions any other way.
You should be reminded that Kennedy assured the American people that the demographics in this country would not change with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965.
He lied.
Whites in America have been put on notice that they will become the minority in our own nation before 2042.
Do you think that's an "enriching" situation? Then kindly move from your gated, guarded community and take up residence around north Charlotte and "bask in the vibrant diversity" such policies have enabled.
I hope it's pretty toasty where Ted is right now and Mary Jo can deny him ice water!
My Homage to Ted Kennedy
Here is a pathetic video of Health Care Reform protesters - A Town Hall Meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKBa9K_vAm8
I feel a lot of sadnes and compassion for these people. It is very clear that they are suffering a lot, they are in a state of fear and anguish, their world is shrinking.
One Woman says in the video : "I was very ignorant and I was educated by Sean Hannity and Michael Savage" ....
These people are their worst enemies. How sad !!
How can someone be happy or contented in life with such fear of the "Other" and the "Otherness" ???
It is Okey for children to be afraid of shadows in the night, but grownup people ??
Very sadly, these people may be beyond the "point of no return", a military concept, but also applicable to people of a certain age and milieu, their neurons were connected according to certain ideas and can not be biologically reconnected because of fossilization.
It is also amazing that a cute little Black Girl appears in the video and says that she is finding out what is the fuzz all about.
The cute Black Girl will remember and tell her grandchildren how things were in year 2009, when there was a New Spring for America, a New Morning better than the morning of Ronald Reagan and that she saw the last kicks of the drawning man.
Well unfortunately ... I am too optimistic ... I am going to take my pesimistic pills right now.
Raciality.com
Vicente Duque
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