I went on a drug bust Tuesday. I got ride along with local police as they stormed a suspected drug house and executed a search warrant. It was pretty cool, and the neighbors were digging it. It meant a lot to those residents who lived near the house and wanted it gone, and that the police were cracking down aggressively on this sort of activity I think is a positive message to send.
I was the only reporter there. Another media outlet, who shall go unnamed, was also invited, but they couldn’t spare anyone. Why? Because so many of their people were on the Vineyard covering Obama’s vacation.
Seriously.
This is why community newspapers (especially those not owned by a corporation) are holding their own while large papers and the corporate products are suffering: community newspapers aren’t wasting their resources on stories that, to state it bluntly, don’t matter. Honestly, what would you rather read about: an effort to clean up a suspected drug house — that, for all you know may be the house right next door — or what Obama is reading and who he’s playing golf with?
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As we say farewell to US Senator Ted Kennedy, let’s have a very brief second of mourning for all those people who will no longer be able to argue against anything the man said or did by dredging up the memories of Chappaquiddick.
KENNEDY: I want to reform the health care system.
PUTZ: You know who would have liked health care? Mary Jo Kopechne!
KENNEDY: I want to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
PUTZ: You haven’t had very good luck with bridges in your life, Ted!
KENNEDY: I support Barack Obama for President.
PUTZ: How about you, um, support…uh…err…CHAPPAQUIDDICK!
So pity these poor wags who will no longer be able to efficiently and completely devalue someone’s thoughts, feelings, and achievements by invoking a person’s worst mistake. They may have to put some actual thought into their rebuttals from now on.
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On another Kennedy-related note: I’m still not convinced that we need to grant the governor the authority to appoint an interim senator until we can hold a special election in January. Kennedy said Massachusetts needed a continuity of representation (particularly since a vote on health care reform could come up before January), but we’ve had two recent periods when we were effectively absent one Senator: during the past six months or so, when Kennedy missed almost all the Senate votes because of his health issues; and during US Senator John Kerry’s Presidential campaign.
We changed the rules on how to fill a Senate vacancy once before — during Kerry’s Presidential run — to accommodate the situation at hand. Now our Legislature is asking us to do it again. It needs to stop. Kennedy himself once said that you don’t change the rules halfway through the game.
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Speaking of health care: one of the most well-stated (in somewhat over-simplified) arguments for single-payer health care I’ve ever heard is right here.
By the way, everyone who is railing against the health care proposal currently being so violently opposed by some voters: go to Factcheck.org to see how many of those claims are complete crap (hint: 10 out of 26 claims come up as at least partly true, and all that stuff about “death panels”? Complete lies. What a shock).
Tags: health care debate, US Senator Ted Kennedy
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
Good stuff, Mike.
There is a huge hole without Kennedy, IMHO. It’s disheartening to hear all the hateful talk, particularly around health insurance reform. I agree with you on the flip flopping of changing the laws.
You do good work. I just hope to never be on the receiving end of it. ;)