Here is a look inside Boston’s Mission Church, known officially as Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, where tomorrow’s funeral service for Senator Ted Kennedy will be held.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE KENNEDY EULOGIES: OBAMA, BIDEN, KERRY, MCCAIN.
** AMERICA’S DEADLIEST MONTH IN AFGHANISTAN. To no one’s surprise, given the increased operational tempo, August has become the deadliest month for American troops in Afghanistan.
An American service member died Friday when his vehicle struck a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, making August the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly eight-year war.
The grim milestone comes as the top U.S. commander prepares to submit his assessment of the conflict — a report expected to trigger intense debate on the Obama administration’s strategy in an increasingly unpopular war. The latest death was reported as Afghan officials announced an 80 percent increase in the number of major fraud allegations submitted after last week’s disputed presidential election — a sign of the deep challenges facing the U.S. and its allies in shoring up a legitimate Afghan government capable of withstanding the Taliban insurgency, corruption and drug trafficking.
Major offensives were required to hold August 20th’s national elections. Had they not been held, the election would only have worked in the north, where Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s former foreign minister and a hero of the Northern Alliance in the fighting against both the Soviets and the Taliban, is the clear choice.
Results have been delayed a few times now in the voting to see if President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun whose base is in the Taliban-infested south, is re-elected. His finance minister said on Monday that Karzai had won re-election with 68% of the vote, then was quickly shut up.
American casualties have been rising steadily following President Barack Obama’s decision to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taliban and train Afghan security forces to assume a greater role in battling the insurgents. Obama’s decision was part of a strategic shift in the U.S. war against international Islamic extremism — moving resources from Iraq, which had been center stage since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but where violence has declined sharply from levels of two years ago.
A record 62,000 U.S. troops are now in the country, with 4,000 more due before year’s end. That compares with about 130,000 in Iraq, most due to leave next year. Since the fresh troops began arriving in Afghanistan last spring, U.S. deaths have climbed steadily — from 12 in May to more than 40 for the past two months as American forces have taken the fight to the Taliban in areas of the country which have long been under insurgent control.
At least 732 U.S. service members have died in the Afghan war since the U.S.-led invasion of late 2001. Nearly 60 percent of those deaths occurred since the Taliban insurgency began to rebound in 2007.
** GAVIN NEWSOM MEETS WILLIE HORTON. The far right Flash Report, inadvertently performing a probably unnecessary service for the California Democratic Party, explains why San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a most unfortunate problem with regard to an illegal immigrant felon who then went on to apparently murder three people with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Unfortunately, Newsom’s primary opponent, Attorney General Jerry Brown, will probably use these kinds of extreme and dangerous (to the public) positions and actions of Newsom to clean his clock before Republicans ever get that chance.
Check out this video:
As I told Newsom’s now chief strategist, Garry South, early this year, he is in the unusual position (for him) of working for the weakest on crime candidate in the race. At $25,000 per month, more than super-rich former state Controller Steve Westly paid him, well, ever, in his 2006 Democratic primary race against the hapless (against Arnold Schwarzenegger) Phil Angelides. At this stage of the game, Westly was paying South $15,000 per month.
Thousands of mourners are lining up for a second day to visit the late Senator Ted Kennedy, lying in repose at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. 6000 people were still in line when the Kennedy Library closed its doors at midnight last night.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama, along with First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, is in Martha’s Vineyard this week on vacation.
Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
Obama has no scheduled public events today.
He is preparing to deliver the eulogy for Senator Ted Kennedy on Saturday morning in Boston. Also in attendance will be former President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Jimmy Carter.
The late senator is lying in repose at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Tens of thousands of mourners made a last visit to him yesterday, after his last motorcade made its way from Hyannis Port and then past key Boston locales in his life.
Obama, who is not having much of a vacation, as it turns out, on Martha’s Vineyard, will deliver the principal eulogy for Kennedy tomorrow at the Mission Church in Boston. The official name of that church, which became Kennedy’s favorite when he prayed there throughout his daughter Kara’s successful battle with cancer, is Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica.
Saturday’s funeral mass, featuring Obama’s eulogy, will be from 7:30 AM Pacific to 9:30 AM Pacific. Following the funeral mass, the late senator will be flown from Hanscom Air Force Base outside Boston to Andrews Air Force Base. From there, he will proceed by motorcade to the U.S. Capitol. There the motorcade will stop for a prayer at the Senate Chamber steps allowing for a last farewell from Senate staffers and others in the Capitol community. The Kennedy motorcade will then proceed to Arlington National Cemetery, where a private burial service will be held at 2:30 PM Pacific.
Today back in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden is preparing for his appearance tonight in Boston.
Biden will speak tonight at a public wake for Ted Kennedy at the Kennedy Library, as will 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Other speakers include former Congressman Joe Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.
The event will take place from 4 PM Pacific to 6 PM Pacific. Though I suspect it will go longer.
It will be Biden’s only scheduled public event of the day.
In other action, results are again delayed in August 20th’s Afghanistan presidential election. US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, according to the BBC, held an “explosive” meeting with President Hamid Karzai about the conduct of the election and its counting.
The latest results appear to show Karzai headed to an October run-off against Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former Afghan foreign minister and close associate of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance leader who was the most feared opponent of the Soviet Union in the 1980s war, assassinated by Al Qaeda two days before 9/11.
Senator Ted Kennedy made his final trip from Hyannis Port to Boston yesterday.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has one public event in Sacramento this morning before flying back to Boston for tonight’s wake for Senator Ted Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library.
At 9 AM, Schwarzenegger will tour the Great California Garage Sale, held at the Department of General Services’ Surplus Properties Warehouse. Thousands of Californians are expected to shop for surplus state property, as well as unclaimed and confiscated property.
Schwarzenegger is personally autographing some of the property.
Meanwhile, a very watered-down version of his prison reform proposal will finally be brought up for a vote in the state Assembly on Monday. After passage on a party-line vote in the state Senate, liberal Democrats in the Assembly balked at proposals they have actually advocated for years.
** CAMELOT ENDS, AGAIN: THE PASSING OF SENATOR TED KENNEDY. Camelot has ended. Again.
The death late last night in Massachusetts of Ted Kennedy, one of the historic lions of the United States Senate, followed swiftly on the heels of his sister, the Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who passed away on August 11th. With the passing of these two very public personalities, only one of the siblings of JFK and RFK, the much more private former Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, remains.
Camelot has ended again. Which means that it has ended before. And probably will again. For it is a legend, and legend seldom dies for long, if at all.
Camelot was the nickname for John F. Kennedy’s thousand day administration of the early 1960s, chosen because of the young president’s fondness for the hit Broadway musical about the legendary court of King Arthur.
But it was really about much more than a single presidential administration, or the immediate promise of another under a President Robert F. Kennedy, or the long lingering promise of yet another under a President Edward M. Kennedy, or even the transferred promise of another under a President Barack Obama.
It’s about a spirit, a spirit which to many seemed to have been captured like lightning in a bottle in the early 1960s, an exciting time of promise and peril, which accounts for that era’s powerful hold on the American popular imagination.
Ted Kennedy himself captured the spirit of the thing in his great eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral on June 8th, 1968 when he quoted from his second slain brother’s speech to the youth of South Africa on their Day of Affirmation a few years earlier.
“The answer is to rely on youth. Not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.” …
** MAD MEN REVIEW: “LOVE AMONG THE RUINS.” … From my August 24th column.
** OBAMA AND THE AFGHAN ELECTION: WHAT IT MEANS, WHAT IT DOESN’T. The Obama Administration should be sighing with a sense of relief after the presidential election in Afghanistan. However, for those with nascent/encroaching nation-building fantasies, what happened with the Afghan election should be thoroughly disabusing.
The Taliban failed in their threat to halt the election, and were unable to pull off any of the promised spectacular attacks demonstrating a strong military capability. But that’s to be expected, as some 300,000 US, NATO, and Afghan troops were fanned out across the county to prevent just that. Better to keep our eyes on the real world goals in Afghanistan: Denying it as a base to Al Qaeda, and moving on in the mission of dampening Islamic opposition to America.
While we slid by in this election, it would be a huge mistake to imagine that we are any closer to realizing persistent nation-building fantasies in Afghanistan. It’s nowhere near a 20th century democracy, much less a 21st century democracy. Perhaps a 19th century democracy. But for the powerful forces ever insistent on dragging it back into the Dark Ages. … From my August 20th column.
** MAD MEN: “OUT OF TOWN” … SEASON 3 OPENER SATISFYING NOT SCINTILLATING. … From my August 18th column.
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ‘60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT. The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a perpetually depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss. … From my August 14th essay.
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM. … From my August 13th column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON. … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED? … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER. … From my July 21st essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
You can listen to my recent video webchat with Schwarzenegger here.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $73 per barrel.
This is up about $39 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (42) |
That’s a lot of love for Ted Kennedy there in Boston today.
The last motorcade was a great idea.
I hope Ted Kennedy fans are checking out this “lost” speech from Sitka, AK a few days after MLK’s death. It’s about as full-throated an exhortation in the cause of mid-century liberalism as one could find.
In 1968, liberalism was still the leading American political philosophy and method of governing but was under siege, with extreme pressure coming from both left and right (Read Nixonland to remember that feeling). Kennedy’s speech spells out the need for individuals to be law-abiding and to act for the common good and government’s obligation to create equal opportunity for all and to help those who can’t help themselves. It’s an important historical document.
I am happy to see Senator McCain playing this role in Senator Kennedy’s memorial.
Better a late return to form than never a return to form.
It’s all so sad.
Jonas Blane says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:16 am
The last motorcade was a great idea.
I’m not surprised.
Jonas Blane says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:10 am
That’s a lot of love for Ted Kennedy there in Boston today.
Thank you. It’s not short, but I’m going to watch that this morning.
Clutch J says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:34 am
I hope Ted Kennedy fans are checking out this “lost” speech from Sitka, AK a few days after MLK’s death. It’s about as full-throated an exhortation in the cause of mid-century liberalism as one could find.
In 1968, liberalism was still the leading American political philosophy and method of governing but was under siege, with extreme pressure coming from both left and right (Read Nixonland to remember that feeling). Kennedy’s speech spells out the need for individuals to be law-abiding and to act for the common good and government’s obligation to create equal opportunity for all and to help those who can’t help themselves. It’s an important historical document.
Thanks. We’re told the speech really kicks in around the 5:20 mark.
He’s the most Irish Catholic of the Kennedy brothers, and Honey Fitz was the mayor of Boston …
> Capitol Boy says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:47 am (Edit)
I’m not surprised.
Jonas Blane says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:10 am
That’s a lot of love for Ted Kennedy there in Boston today.
John McCain is a mensch.
> Jonathan Hemlock says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:41 am (Edit)
I am happy to see Senator McCain playing this role in Senator Kennedy’s memorial.
Better a late return to form than never a return to form.
This looks quite fascinating.
Thank you very much for bringing it here.
I’m going to watch it and probably put it on the front page.
> Clutch J says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:34 am (Edit)
I hope Ted Kennedy fans are checking out this “lost” speech from Sitka, AK a few days after MLK’s death. It’s about as full-throated an exhortation in the cause of mid-century liberalism as one could find.
In 1968, liberalism was still the leading American political philosophy and method of governing but was under siege, with extreme pressure coming from both left and right (Read Nixonland to remember that feeling). Kennedy’s speech spells out the need for individuals to be law-abiding and to act for the common good and government’s obligation to create equal opportunity for all and to help those who can’t help themselves. It’s an important historical document.
It was, following a picturesque and historic route through some of the most historically American of places.
> Jonas Blane says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:16 am (Edit)
The last motorcade was a great idea.
“… liberal Democrats in the Assembly balked at proposals they have actually advocated for years.”
Which sums up the dysfunctional nature of governance in this state. UGH!
The Kennedy wake will be a big blow-out.
Well, part of me hardly knows what to say about Teddy Kennedy at this point.
And hey! That showed up right away.
Yes, it will, one of the greatest.
The Irish are honorary Mexicans.
Len says:
August 28, 2009 at 10:35 am
The Kennedy wake will be a big blow-out.
This looks like the thing to watch..
Clutch J says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:34 am
I hope Ted Kennedy fans are checking out this “lost” speech from Sitka, AK a few days after MLK’s death. It’s about as full-throated an exhortation in the cause of mid-century liberalism as one could find.
In 1968, liberalism was still the leading American political philosophy and method of governing but was under siege, with extreme pressure coming from both left and right (Read Nixonland to remember that feeling). Kennedy’s speech spells out the need for individuals to be law-abiding and to act for the common good and government’s obligation to create equal opportunity for all and to help those who can’t help themselves. It’s an important historical document.
Garry South is a mercenary joke.
** GAVIN NEWSOM MEETS WILLIE HORTON. The Flash Report, inadvertently performing a probably unnecessary service for the California Democratic Party, explains why San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a most unfortunate problem with regard to an illegal immigrant felon who then went on to apparently murder three people with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Unfortunately, Newsom’s primary opponent, Attorney General Jerry Brown, will probably use these kinds of extreme and dangerous (to the public) positions and actions of Newsom to clean his clock before Republicans ever get that chance.
Check out this video:
As I told Newsom’s now chief strategist, Garry South, late last year, he is in the unusual position (for him) of working for the weakest on crime candidate in the race. At $25,000 per month, more than super-rich former state Controller Steve Westly paid him, well, ever, in his 2006 Democratic primary race against the hapless (against Arnold Schwarzenegger) Phil Angelides. At this stage of the game, Westly was paying South $15,000 per month.
Gavin Newsom is a clown.
I can’t believe that Democrats even tolerate this fool as a candidate for their Governor.
** GAVIN NEWSOM MEETS WILLIE HORTON. The Flash Report, inadvertently performing a probably unnecessary service for the California Democratic Party, explains why San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a most unfortunate problem with regard to an illegal immigrant felon who then went on to apparently murder three people with an AK-47 assault rifle.
More video today?
“GAVIN NEWSOM MEETS WILLIE HORTON.”
Get the steak sauce — Newsom is done, WELL DONE.
BTW, this isn’t the only Willie Horton that can be tied to the sanctuary city policy.
$25,000 per month? I could give bad campaign advice for that kind of scratch. Heck, I’ll give Newsom a break and only charge $15,000 a month for my advice. That way he’ll save some cash and whiole end up with the same result he’ll get with the pricey Mr. South — get his clock cleaned by Jerry Brown.
Gavin, give me a call!
This could be the start of the Mr. Dana “slated to lose but have money to burn doing so” political consulting set-up. Our slogan: fleecing the well heeled deluded who run for office since 2009. Write big checks, fall flat on your face. I like it!
“Get the steak sauce — Newsom is done, WELL DONE.”
Hmmm! Steak…
Kennedy’s favorite church looks very special.
That is one lovely, meaningful church.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s service and celebration of a a life.
That game show host guy is still running? Really?
Brasky says:
August 28, 2009 at 1:51 pm
“GAVIN NEWSOM MEETS WILLIE HORTON.”
Get the steak sauce — Newsom is done, WELL DONE.
BTW, this isn’t the only Willie Horton that can be tied to the sanctuary city policy.
The Kennedy wake has started. On time.
I guess they weren’t waiting on Schwarzeneger.
lol
This is a wonderful wake …
I’m loving this wake!
Orrin Hatch was surprisingly good.
Thanks for this: “The answer is to rely on youth. Not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”
I’m proud to say that I had the privilege of voting for Ted Kennedy in 2000 when I lived in MA, even though I was an active Green Party member and a long time third party activist and voter. Ted Kennedy was one Democrat I could support; I saw how loved he was by his constituents, especially seniors, and felt I owed him a vote of thanks. Of course he defeated his opponents with 72 percent of the vote (the Libertarian almost got more votes than the hapless Republican).
What really impressed me though was his very touching response to a letter my son wrote to him as a 2nd grader asking how he felt having an office in the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston.
And I’m glad I got to hear Ted Kennedy speak at a rally for Barack Obama here in Oakland in Feb. 2008 with Barbara Lee. Kennedy praised Lee and asserted that his vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq was the most important vote he ever cast in the US Senate.
ted kennedy presente!
Paul,
Very nice. Very, very, nice. Thanks for taking the time to pen it.
Ted Kennedy was truly unique. I fear we will not see his like again.
What new video today?
Obama’s weekend address, McCain’s remarks at the Kennedy wake.
Quite likely.
> marcus waldron says:
August 28, 2009 at 10:41 pm (Edit)
Ted Kennedy was truly unique. I fear we will not see his like again.
You’re very welcome, Paul.
> Paul Burton says:
August 28, 2009 at 7:01 pm (Edit)
Thanks for this: “The answer is to rely on youth. Not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”
I’m proud to say that I had the privilege of voting for Ted Kennedy in 2000 when I lived in MA, even though I was an active Green Party member and a long time third party activist and voter. Ted Kennedy was one Democrat I could support; I saw how loved he was by his constituents, especially seniors, and felt I owed him a vote of thanks. Of course he defeated his opponents with 72 percent of the vote (the Libertarian almost got more votes than the hapless Republican).
What really impressed me though was his very touching response to a letter my son wrote to him as a 2nd grader asking how he felt having an office in the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston.
And I’m glad I got to hear Ted Kennedy speak at a rally for Barack Obama here in Oakland in Feb. 2008 with Barbara Lee. Kennedy praised Lee and asserted that his vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq was the most important vote he ever cast in the US Senate.
ted kennedy presente!
It’s quite a speech.
> marcos leon says:
August 28, 2009 at 12:14 pm (Edit)
This looks like the thing to watch..
Clutch J says:
August 28, 2009 at 9:34 am
I hope Ted Kennedy fans are checking out this “lost” speech from Sitka, AK a few days after MLK’s death. It’s about as full-throated an exhortation in the cause of mid-century liberalism as one could find.
In 1968, liberalism was still the leading American political philosophy and method of governing but was under siege, with extreme pressure coming from both left and right (Read Nixonland to remember that feeling). Kennedy’s speech spells out the need for individuals to be law-abiding and to act for the common good and government’s obligation to create equal opportunity for all and to help those who can’t help themselves. It’s an important historical document.
Yes, it’s very exciting …
> Dana says:
August 28, 2009 at 10:08 am (Edit)
“… liberal Democrats in the Assembly balked at proposals they have actually advocated for years.”
Which sums up the dysfunctional nature of governance in this state. UGH!
I am glad I had a chance to read your post, if you have more information on positions let me know or post it here.
Mike
yesssss, band of brothers….lookin fwd to it!!!!!!! My summer entertainment
. Can’t wait!!!