Senator Edward Kennedy was the epitome of everything that is amiss with American politics. Without fail he put party interests before those of the nation and the American people.

Although his personal life was a sham and he was a moral reprobate, he still could not stop himself from condescending to others at every opportunity. Not particularly bright, not particularly articulate, without his family name and fortune he would have sunken into alcoholic anonymity years ago.

Yet there was seemingly never a time when he wasn’t willing to grandstand and he took every opportunity to monopolize the limelight. His skillful self-aggrandizing was amazing to behold.

His guiding doctrine seemed to be that Teddy (and his prestigious senate seat) came first, the Kennedy clan second, cronies, sycophants and suck-ups third, and the scraps were left over for the nation that he so proudly “served.”

He showed throughout his career, but particularly in the case of the senate confirmation hearings for Robert Bork, a willingness to stoop to any level of personal attack, spitefulness, and pettiness. He was willing to attack below the belt on a whim. Although personally a proven and reprehensible coward, the “Kennedy Machine” systematically bullied their way through any opposition with Teddy at the helm.

Perhaps the only thing truly interesting about the man was the dichotomy in his character that allowed him serve equally well as a dictatorial taskmaster or, if and when that position was unavailable, his willingness to be a servile lapdog lackey for those in higher positions.

His hypocrisy knew no bounds. Despite his crocodile tears for the poor and displaced he continued to the end to live a life of conspicuous consumption and excess. Bloated and red-faced, he never missed an opportunity to strut along the corridors of D.C. or to be seen at the helm of one of his many yachts sailing off Hyannis Port. (Although the perennial liberal do-gooder he still bridled viscously at the very idea of having wind turbines generating “clean” electricity for the masses anywhere near where he liked to sail…)

In failing health, even though he had known for a long while that his prognoses was poor, that he was old, ineffectual, and unable to complete his sworn duty, he still refused to relinquish the reins of power and selfishly held on till the bitter end without regard for what was best for his state and his country. Astonishingly, even in the final days of his existence, this nasty old man played politics, trying to reverse a state law which is was originally championed by him, in order to make sure that Massachusetts had a democrat in line to replace him.

“Ted the Toad” was the embodiment of the old cliché that, “Only the good die young.”

Those of us who are sickened at the media’s sycophantic adulation of this pitiful excuse for a “statesman” can take solace in knowing this: He is finally dead and America is better for it.

HEADLINE:

“The U.S. government is prepared to provide up to $10 billion in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil‘s coast, a Brazilian official said Wednesday…”

WHATEVER I THOUGHT OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION BEFORE…this is simply amazing.

This morning on CNN business news there was a report that the new administration is negotiating with a firm, Petrobras (and others) which is one of the largest companies on earth, to do the following:

We will LOAN this top-ten company TEN BILLION DOLLARS to hire AMERICAN drilling companies to drill for oil OFFSHORE in BRAZIL so that the Brazilian government can SELL the oil produced to US (U.S.) and to China!

In other words, while Florida and California hold the rest of the nation hostage, and their governments and the “left” believe that to harvest energy off of our own coasts is environmentally dangerous, it is however perfectly all right to use American money to HIRE an outside intermediary to CONTRACT American companies to do offshore drilling for another nation to SELL us oil.

Please think about the logic—or lack thereof—in such a deal. Now, in fairness, part of their rational is that Brazil is “friendly” with us. Of course, so was most of the Middle East until they realized that, with our dependence on their oil, that they held the winning hand and for that matter so were our good amigos in Venezuela till Señor Chavez decided to nationalize the industry.

Stupid is as stupid does. I’ve been trying to be fair and to give them a break, but good lord, if this is the way they are going to run the BUSINESS of government, god save America. This is stupid x 100.

For some fascinating reading on what can only be described as some of the most convoluted thinking I have ever encountered and a fine example of a presidential organization talking out of both sides of it’s collective mouth you can start here:

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=79003

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090821070839AAr2TEr

I didn’t vote for Obama. I didn’t vote for McCain either. Still, I will admit to a certain giddiness at seeing history being made as America voted it’s first black (well almost black) president. I hoped, in my heart of hearts, that Barack was sincere about “change,” though, frankly, I’ve heard the rhetoric before.

I hoped he was sincere but he wasn’t. He isn’t.

Now, after some time has passed I realize that he’s basically “business as usual” and, yes, he is a socialist. I don’t consider that to be just my opinion and it isn’t meant as some sort of slur. I mean it as a literal fact. I’ve read socialist authors from Marx & Mao on down and apparently so has Obama.

In the 60’s I actually thought most of that tripe was cool. Apparently Barack still does.

He was supposed to be articulate and urbane. He’s neither.

Without his prompter he hums and haws and stammers in a most infuriating way, generally forcing me to turn off whatever it is he’s trying so hard to say. I read about it later with all the “uhs” and “ums” and interminable pauses excised.

He has surrounded himself with bent-nosed holdovers from the Chicago political machine, known worldwide as being bullying, self-serving ideologues born and bred knee-deep in corruption.

Now were embroiled in an argument about something that doesn’t even exist, a so-called national health plan. The president, however, doesn’t have a plan. He’s letting congress come up with one. Yikes.

Let’s make this easy: My representatives have an excellent health plan for themselves and their families. I want that, too.

Like the so-called stimulus bill which ran into hundreds and hundreds of pages which, as we all know, less than a handful of our elected representatives bothered to read, the health bill seems to be written in sand. A work in progress, depending on which way the wind blows.

(Tell me please how it is that anyone elected to serve their constituents, be they Republican or Democrat, how is it that they can vote with good conscience on any piece of legislation, either yea or nay, without reading it? Doesn’t that sound like the punch line to an old joke?)

Now, back when I was in high school, I wrote book reports on books I’d never read. I was so good at it I finally achieved the ultimate by writing a report on a book that had never been written. I made up the title, the author, and the plotline. Yes, I got away with it. And I was rewarded with a very high grade.

Congress gets away with passing what, for all they know, is fictitious writing. Instead of getting a good grade, they then simply vote themselves a self-congratulatory raise.

It is time for a reality check and for us to all admit what we know is the truth: No bill should be 1000 pages long.

No bill should be 800 pages long, or 600 pages long. No bill should be even 50 pages long.

Ten pages. Tops. Moses’ Decalogue, which daily affects the lives of millions of Christians, & Jews (and which is not discounted by countless Muslims) was written in ten lines. It has served us well for several thousand years.

Perhaps we’ve passed enough bills into law already. After all, there is an industry of lawyers and legal assistants in the nation’s capital who do nothing more than research to find out if new bills under consideration are in conflict with prior legislation or already exist in a previously passed law.

When you have so many laws that it takes a highly-paid team to make sure we’re not collectively stepping on our own legal toes, perhaps it is indeed time for a change. Maybe for the next two or three terms the house and the senate should start cleaning out our nation’s legal closet and start having late night sessions repealing laws.

Let’s get things back to basics.

Starting with term limits.

And if our representatives will not limit terms themselves, we the people should make very, very sure to do it for them.