More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from a $410 billion federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.
The bill includes $5.8 million for the planning and design of a building to house a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate. The funding may also help support an endowment for the institute.
The bill also includes $22 million to expand facilities at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and $5 million more for a new gateway to the Boston Harbor Islands on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a park system in downtown Boston named after Kennedy’s mother and built on land opened up by the Big Dig highway project.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/…
Sponsored by John Kerry, I would call this “helping out your best buddy down the street spending”.
It’s not that I don’t believe these are wonderful projects that have merit for funding someday, but the timing couldn’t be worse. I guess John Kerry doesn’t read Massachusetts newspapers or something. Hasn’t he heard that our state is in near crisis over lack of funds for some really important projects and schools budgets are so underfunded that we must once again vote on Prop 2 1/2.
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p>Heeellllooooooo. We are here! We are here! We are here!!!!!
Can you see us down here Senator Kerry?!!!!
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p>I would have so much more respect for you if you submitted requests for new textbooks for our left behind students in our left behind schools. This would create jobs too, and do double duty as well by helping to fund our schools, which will help to support our students and their teachers.
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p>This is similar to going out and buying a new television with the money you should have used to pay your electric bill. Now you have a great new TV, but no electicity to run it on. Where is the common sense? Thanks Buddy. You are just so smart I can’t stand it.
I can’t find one.
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p>But if I understand your point (other that to regurgitate dozens or right wing blog posts about this without any additional thought) is that out of 410 billion spending bill about 1% (if I divide the money across states equally) of money being spent within Mass has been defined for projects that have the name Kennedy associated.
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p>Well, guess F’n what? We live in Massachusetts, a lot of things are named after Kennedy. So 99% percent of the money being spent in MA doesn’t have the name Kennedy associated… Woo hoo, so what, who gives a crap. What the hell is your point? Please let me know.
80% of the money from the pork-laden bill is going to money without the Kennedy name attached to it.
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p>I just thought the story was interesting, so I posted it. No need to get your panties in a twist.
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p>But I tend to agree with livenadletlive, above. It’s “possible” to create jobs, etc., without having to get down on your knees before the almighty Kennedy. Let’s face it, as much as liberals pay lip service around here to egalitarianism, it’s a bunch of bravo sierra. Liberals really love the oligarchy.
. . . “projects” without the Kennedy name . . .
listen, your point and parsing of what is really going on is interesting. But what is real is that we have a bill that is worth 410 billion. Out of that money, Senators have earmarked dollars for specific projects. Yes, I agree that I would rather have the departments determine where that money is going. Which could very well be some of the same items earmarked.
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p>But the dollar value is the dollar value. It’s not like it was a 200 billion bill and now it’s a 410 billion bill. The amount is the amount. So if you want to play the game fine, enjoy yourself. Out of this money, there is a subset of this money, so out of that money, there is money that has projects with the name Kennedy and of all places Massachusetts. OMG!!! Can you believe it!!!!
I appreciate and value Senator Kennedy’s strong voice for Democratic values over the years. He is a true leader when it comes to supporting the less fortunate and striving for equality among all people. The whole Kennedy family has spoke to these values throughout their lives.
Do not put words into my mouth. The Democratic Party as whole does not pay lip service to social, economic, and political equality. I would call that a Republican trait, as a matter of fact, watching George Bush stand before our country and falsely claim he had the countries best interest at heart makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. Mitt Romney is another truly fake person, who claims to care about each individual’s well being.
There are a few Democratic souls in our government who lack the ability to understand the meaning of “the common good”, and one of those would be John Kerry. But your generalization that “liberals” pay lip service to equality and socioeconomic fairness is so far off the mark, you might as well take it right over the edge and fall with it.
Cape Wind.
NIMBYism.
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p>In fact, there’s even a term for it: limousine liberals.
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p>C’mon. One of the ways you improve is by recognizing your faults, dealing with them, bettering them, and moving on.
Parkway or parks had a different name? Other than the funding for EMK’s Institute, these are infrastructure projects – where people will get jobs creating them. Lumping these altogether makes little sense.