Bush
We have lost the respect of other nations in the world. Where do we go to get our respect back? How do we re-establish the working relationships we need with other countries to win the war on terrorism and advance the ideals we share? How can we possibly expect President Bush to do that? He's the problem, not the solution. Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam, and this country needs a new President. Senator Edward M. Kennedy Source:Brookings Institution, April 5, 2004Bork
"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, school children could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens of whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are at the heart of our democracy." Edward Kennedy Source:http://washingtontimes.com/books/20041009-103404-2341r.htmConstitution
"The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree." Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) Source:http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/kennedysigs.htmlDemocracy
Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins. Senator Edward M. Kennedy Source:Brookings Institution, April 5, 2004Downing Street Memo
“The contents of the Downing Street Minutes confirm that the Bush Administration was determined to go to war in Iraq, regardless of whether there was any credible justification for doing so. The Administration distorted and misrepresented the intelligence in its attempt to link Saddam Hussein with the terrorists of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, and with weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not have. "In addition, the Downing Street Minutes also confirm what has long been obvious – that the timing of the war was linked to the 2002 Congressional elections, and that the Administration’s planning for post-war Iraq was incompetent in all its aspects. The current continuing crisis is a direct result of that incompetence. Many of you have worked hard for the American people, the media and those in government to speak out about the Downing Street Minutes and the Iraq war. You can join me in speaking out as well. "The policy of “shoot first, ask questions later” took us into an unjustified war, and without a clear concept of what “winning the war” actually means. "President Bush constantly talks about the “progress” that is being made in Iraq against the insurgency, but he’s looking for good news with a microscope. All anyone can see is “Mission Mis-accomplished” and the continuing losses of American lives, the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis, the torture scandal, and the ominous decline in our nation’s moral authority in the world community. We know the Administration had been planning to invade Iraq for many months before the invasion actually began. We know the Administration twisted the intelligence to make the facts fit their plan. We know that the Administration never really intended to give the U.N. weapons inspectors a reasonable chance to succeed. The Downing Street Minutes demonstrate that the Administration knew their case for war was paper thin, and that in order to go into war with the support of our allies, we had to demonstrate some willingness to go along with the UN inspection process. But the Administration continued to misuse its intelligence, distort the facts and pay only lip-service to the UN’s role in disarming Iraq. "We never should have gone to war for ideological reasons driven by politics and based on manipulated intelligence. The Downing Street Minutes provide even more proof that this is exactly what happened on Iraq. The Administration’s dishonesty, lack of candor, and lack of planning have brought us to where we are today, with American soldiers dying, Iraqi civilians living in constant fear, and with no clearer picture of our strategy for victory in Iraq than when we started.” Edward Kennedy Source:http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Kennedy_speaks_out_on_ Downing_Street_Memo_Twisted_intelligence_Distorted_f_ 0607.htmlDream
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.wisdomquotes.com/000850.html
Fear
Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush. Edward Kennedy Source:http://acornsfromanokie.typepad.com/acorns_from_an_okie/2004/07/to_quote_ ted_ke.htmlFirst Amendment
"If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person's exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?" Senator Edward M. Kennedy, constituent letter 1997 Source:http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/kennedysigs.htmlIntelligence Failure
Any failure in intelligence is dwarfed by the administration's manipulation ...in making the case for war" Senator Kennedy Source:http://www.senate.gov/~kennedy/index_high.htmlIraq
The president's handling of the war has been a toxic mix of ignorance, arrogance, and stubborn ideology. No amount of Presidential rhetoric or preposterous campaign spin can conceal the facts about the steady downward spiral in our national security since President Bush made the decision to go to war in Iraq. If this election is decided on the question of whether America is safer because of President George Bush, John Kerry will win in a landslide. The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely. Edward Kennedy Source:Salon.com Sept. 27, 2004 ''There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud. Edward Kennedy Source:http://clanforum.cyaccess.com/YaBB.pl?board=cl_war; action=display;num=1063969074 ''No one questioned whether we were going to have a successful military policy. What everyone questioned was whether we had a peace policy, and we have none. It's being made up every single day and American service men are paying for it and this is directly the responsibility of this administration and no one is being held accountable.'' Edward Kennedy Source:http://clanforum.cyaccess.com/YaBB.pl?board=cl_war; action=display;num=1063969074
IRAQI PRISONER ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
The torture and other sadistic abuses of prisoners in Iraq have done immense damage already to America's reputation in the world, and the worst may be yet to come. Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management U.S. management. These incidents have stained our military and stained our country. America is being vilified throughout the Middle East and in other parts of the world. We cannot get answers quickly enough. Edward Kennedy Source:http://kennedy.senate.gov/~kennedy/statements/04/05/2004511B42.html
Moral Majority
Thus, the controversy about the Moral Majority arises not only from its views, but from its name -- which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right. Similarly, people are and should be perplexed when the religious lobbying group Christian Voice publishes a morality index of congressional voting records, which judges the morality of senators by their attitude toward Zimbabwe and Taiwan. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htmMorality
There is no morality in the mushroom cloud. The black rain of nuclear ashes will fall alike on the just and the unjust. And then it will be too late to wish that we had done the real work of this atomic age -- which is to seek a world that is neither red nor dead. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htmPresident
Frankly, I don't mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.great-quotes.com/cgi-bin/db.cgi?db=db&uid=default& Author_First_Name=Edward&Author_Last_Name=Kennedy&mh= 10&sb=---&so=ASC&ww=on&view_records=View+RecordsPreventive Military Action
By contrast, "preventive" military action refers to strikes that target a country before it has developed a capability that could someday become threatening. Preventive attacks have generally been condemned. For example, the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was regarded as a preventive strike by Japan, because the Japanese were seeking to block a planned military buildup by the United States in the Pacific. The document openly contemplates preventive attacks against groups or states, even absent the threat of imminent attack. It legitimizes this kind of first strike option, and it elevates it to the status of a core security doctrine. Disregarding norms of international behavior, the Bush Strategy asserts that the United States should be exempt from the rules we expect other nations to obey. It is impossible to justify any such double standard under international law. Might does not make right. America cannot write its own rules for the modern world. To attempt to do so would be unilateralism run amok. It would antagonize our closest allies, whose support we need to fight terrorism, prevent global warming, and deal with many other dangers that affect all nations and require international cooperation. It would deprive America of the moral legitimacy necessary to promote our values abroad. And it would give other nations—from Russia to India to Pakistan—an excuse to violate fundamental principles of civilized international behavior. Edward Kennedy, 10-7-02 Source:http://themoderntribune.com/speech_senator_edward_kennedy_ -_bush__doctine_of_peremptive_war_preventative_war_bush.htmSeparation of Church & State
Separation of church and state cannot mean an absolute separation between moral principles and political power. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htmSupreme Court
I don't understand, looking at your record, how one can conclude that you don't have an agenda. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/11/ma_564_01.htmlTribute to Senator Robert F. Kennedy
My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ekennedytributetorfk.htmlTed Kennedy's 'A DEMOCRATIC BLUEPRINT FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE'
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