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At least 12 people were killed and 31 others were wounded in a mass shooting incident Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, military officials said. The shooter was shot to death, they said. More shots were reported later in the afternoon, reported NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco, which said no further details were immediately available. A senior administration official told NBC News analyst Roger Cressey that the suspect who was in custody was an Army major with an Arabic-sounding name.snip Milly Land, who works at the base fitness center, said she was headed for the graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. at...

Richmond, California, is a town with a lot of questions and no immediate answers following the brutal gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl at her homecoming dance — an attack watched by at least ten other people. Richmond — located in the East Bay area of California, about 15 miles north of San Francisco — is a poverty-stricken industrial town that few outside of Northern California heard of until this week. It has been shoved into the spotlight, and the residents are angry over the public discussion of the incident. But somebody has to be at fault, starting...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new charge has been issued against a man police describe as a suspected serial rapist. Mauricio Morales is already in jail and charged with raping two Nashville women in separate cases. Metro police believe Morales is the man behind the rape of a 10-year-old girl in her own South Nashville home near Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike. The alleged incident happened back in April. Crime Scene investigators collected evidence from her room and the TBI crime lab determined the DNA matched Mauricio Morales. A Grand Jury indicted him Friday on the new charges. Morales had...

In a draft chapter that failed to make the final editor’s cut, the late Senator Ted Kennedy boasted that he had slept with more than 1,000 women during his life. The Senator also recounted that he was quite pleased that it only cost him a total of $10 million in hush money. “In a way, the drowning of Mary Jo helped keep down the costs,” Kennedy wrote. “My ability to skate on that convinced many of my subsequent conquests to be reasonable in their demands lest a similar fate befall them.” The chapter also expressed some regret over the Kopechne...

Ol'd Ted is gone but not forgotten.

In a chapter of his autobiography, the late Senator Ted Kennedy confessed to having slept with over 1,000 women and spending more than $10 million in hush money to keep his womanizing ways a secret. If you crack open the book, however, you won't find a mention of this in there anywhere. That is because horrified family members and advisers cut it out before the book was published. A close source also revealed to the National Enquirer that before he died of brain cancer at age 77 on August 25, Kennedy also revealed that he had planned to seduce Mary...

Ted Kennedy slept with more than a thousand women - and spent at least $10 million in hush money over the years to keep his skirt-chasing a secret! The late senator made those sensational confessions in a chapter of his autobiography, but horrified family members and advisers cut them out. Before he died of brain cancer at age 77 on Aug. 25, the womanizing politician also revealed that he planned to seduce Mary Jo Kopechne on the night she drowned, said a close source. "While dictating his memoirs into a tape recorder, Ted decided to tell the whole truth about...

Ave atque vale I was overseas when Senator Edward Kennedy died, and a European reporter asked me what my “most vivid memory” of the great man. I didn’t like to say, because it didn’t seem quite the appropriate occasion. But my only close encounter with the Lion of the Senate was many years ago at Logan Airport late one night. A handful of us, tired and bedraggled, were standing on the water shuttle waiting to be ferried across the harbor to downtown Boston. A sixth gentleman hopped aboard, wearing the dark-suited garb of the advance man, and had a word...

Arnold is going to "PUMP Obama UP"

Former DNC Chairman Appointed To Replace Liberal Lion A relic of the U.S. Senate for 47 years, former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s greatest impact on U.S. policy may have come from beyond the grave. Recent approval by Massachusetts lawmakers have changed the Bay State’s election law as to permit Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim lawmaker until the state’s Jan. 19 special election. The change in the law, which was motivated by partisan interests, repealed a law once supported by Mr. Kennedy that called for the seat to remain vacant until a special election was held. The result? Mr....

Teddymandering is the practice of changing a law to benefit your political party, then reversing the change when your political party will benefit from the original rules to which you objected. Named for former Massachusetts Senator Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy. Senator Kennedy influenced the Massachusetts state legislature to change the Senatorial succession law during the 2004 election. His reasons were strictly because Senator John Kerry, if elected President, would be replaced by an appointee of (then) Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. At the time, Kennedy was against any interim appointment until a special election could be held. In 2009, as...

The Massachusetts Republican Party has filed an injunction in a Boston court seeking to block former Democratic Party chairman Paul Kirk from becoming the interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Lawmakers this week passed legislation giving Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim replacement, but laws approved in Massachusetts usually take 90 days to go into effect. Patrick signed an emergency letter that he says allows the law to become effective immediately. Republicans allege in their court filing that Patrick did not have the constitutional authority to do that. But State Secretary William Galvin said today...

<p>The tug-of-war over Ted Kennedy's soul seems to be eternal.</p> <p>"It is not possible to be a practicing Catholic and to conduct oneself in this manner," said Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, whom the pope transferred to Rome in 2008 after Burke's often-stormy tenure as archbishop of St. Louis.</p>

The city of Boston spent $431,000 on overtime costs to deploy 629 police officers, 48 firefighters, and a raft of other workers for the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, according to information released to the Globe yesterday under a public records request. City officials said a federal grant for “urban areas security’’ would cover $400,000 of the cost. According to the city’s tabulation, Boston spent $359,714 on 629 police officers, $36,748 on 48 firefighters, $29,572 on 55 public health and emergency medical workers, $4,350 on 27 transportation workers, and $1,293 on six public works employees. The city workers were...

The city of Boston spent $431,000 on overtime costs to deploy 629 police officers, 48 firefighters, and a raft of other workers for the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, according to information released to the Globe yesterday under a public records request. City officials said a federal grant for “urban areas security’’ would cover $400,000 of the cost. According to the city’s tabulation, Boston spent $359,714 on 629 police officers, $36,748 on 48 firefighters, $29,572 on 55 public health and emergency medical workers, $4,350 on 27 transportation workers, and $1,293 on six public works employees.

The Massachusetts House and Senate have given final approval to a bill that would allow Democratic Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim US senator to take the seat left vacant by the death of the legendary liberal Edward M. Kennedy. The bill now heads to the desk of the governor, who plans to sign it and could name an appointee as early as Thursday or Friday. The bill was enacted by the House, 95-59, and by the Senate, 24-16, after only brief speeches by lawmakers. Lawmakers did not pass, however, an emergency preamble to the law, meaning that the...

Paul Kirk will be named to fill the vacant Massachusetts Senate seat. Announcement likely tomorrow.

Massachusetts Democrats changed the law to prevent then Republican Governor Mitt Romney from naming a Senate successor in the event John Kerry was elected President. Now, the hypocrites have granted Ted Kennedy his dying dishonorable wish to change the law back so the now Democratic Governor can name a Democrat to replace him. Ted Kennedy showed a complete lack of honor when he ,reportedly, left Mary Jo Kopechne to die at the bottom of channel off of a small bridge on Chappaquiddick island on July 18, 1969 and failed to report the accident for 8 hours. Faced with this kind...

BOSTON — Republicans in the Massachusetts State Senate on Friday temporarily blocked the chamber from taking up legislation that would allow Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim successor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The House of Representatives approved the measure Thursday night in a 95-58 vote. The Republicans delayed the vote in the Senate through procedural maneuvers, and can continue to do so into next week. Proponents of the bill have predicted that it will win passage in the Senate, but with a smaller margin of victory. But Representative Cory Atkins, a Democrat, said Massachusetts could not afford to...

Expectations among book retailers are high as Glenn Beck's newest book, Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government is expected to hit book shelves on Tuesday. The pre-release sales of Beck's newest endevour has remained within the top 50 best sellers on amazon.com for the past three weeks and just prior to release is the 3rd ranked book on Amazon and is currently ranked #7 in company sales by Barnes & Noble. Beck's Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government is released on the heels of...

In a strange sequel to one of the most dramatic confrontations in modern political journalism, Sen. Edward Kennedy accuses former CBS newsman Roger Mudd of blindsiding him during the famous 1979 television special that featured the Massachusetts senator stammering on camera just days before launching his ill-fated presidential campaign. Kennedy said he agreed to be interviewed by Mudd as a personal favor to help him in the competition to succeed Walter Cronkite. He accuses Mudd of misrepresenting what he was going to ask him and blindsiding him with personal questions. Mudd told POLITICO that Kennedy’s description of the circumstances surrounding...

Even though one doesn't want to run. A poll shows Joe Kennedy remains the favorite for his uncle's Senate seat despite his decision to remain at Citizens Energy. Republican prospects look predictably bleak.

CHICAGO, Illinois, September 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A publisher associated with the Archdiocese of Chicago has revoked and apologized for a prayer they distributed that praised the late pro-abortion senator Edward Kennedy as one who promoted "values of peace, justice, equality, and liberty." The prayer has been replaced with another one, urging prayer for the soul of Kennedy, but excising the words of praise. Liturgy Training Publications issued the original prayer as a suggested Prayer for the Faithful for use at Sunday Masses after the prominent Catholic senator's death on August 25. The text of the prayer, available in the...

Here is video of Ted Kennedy's sons talking with Larry King about their Dad's memoir, "True Compass." King asked the two about a "no crying edict" Ted Kennedy wrote he issued in the home. The two said despite the edict, "Kennedys do cry." The video below is from the same interview, when Larry King asked the two sons about the so-called "Kennedy Curse" . . . (VIDEO)

The passing of Senator Edward Kennedy was truly the end of an era. He had been extolled as the "lion of the Senate." Understandably, given the impact of his life, the news media were filled with stories about Kennedy, his family, his trials and tribulations and his contributions. I was most surprised to read that a month before his death Senator Kennedy had written a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, which was delivered to him by President Obama. As a practicing Catholic, I took great interest in Kennedy's thoughts about his Catholicism at the end of his life.

Reflecting on the funeral of Senator Edward Kennedy, Terry Mattingly recalls-- and brings to greater public attention-- the 2004 letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, then Archbishop of Washington, on Holy Communion and pro-abortion politicians. In the summer of 2004, the Vatican sent a letter to the United States addressing one of the hottest issues facing the church here — whether politicians who back abortion rights should receive Holy Communion.The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent the guidelines to the leader of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. However, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick...

2:32 PM 9/8/2009 — It’s been a week since the Dead Kennedy Show aired on TV; and, since Father Venditti has already dealt with the canonical and spiritual aspects of the whole thing, your PP would like to reflect a little on what it might mean in the whole spectrum of the development of Catholicism in the United States. As distastefull and scandalous as we all know the Dead Kennedy Show was, it has, inadvertently, betrayed some rather encouraging signs. As little as thirty years ago, the outrage that exploded among ordinary Catholics in the wake of the Show would...

US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden will not run for Edward M. Kennedy's vacant Senate seat. Markey told the Globe he feels he can be more effective in his leadership role in the House. To read more, visit

Former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card will address members of the state GOP at a committee meeting tonight in Newton, potentially signaling his intention to run for the Senate seat vacated by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Herald has learned. Card, 62, a Holbrook native, will attend the meeting at the Newton Marriott, according to a Republican source with knowledge of the logistics. Card’s appearance follows an announcement by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Christy Mihos this morning that he will not quit his quest to unseat Gov. Deval Patrick and make a bid for the Senate. Mihos...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) late Tuesday told reporters on his first day back in the Senate that the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) last month will affect him and the Senate deeply. The 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, who attended Kennedy's funeral in Boston on his Aug. 29 birthday, "I miss him every day," McCain said."We had a very, very congenial and enjoyable relationship. He had a great sense of humor. Obviously there's no one else like him."

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is the longest serving senator in U.S. history. No senator has served in more leadership positions; as president pro tempore, he is third in the line of succession. But he will be 92 in November and is in failing health. No man lives forever, so the question arises: When Sen. Byrd dies, should Connecticut lower its U.S. flags to honor his memory? The U.S. Flag Code permits half-staff honors "upon the death of principal figures" in the U.S. government. Sen. Byrd has been a prominent senator, but he is only 1 of 100 in his chamber...

Shortly after the announcement of Ted Kennedy's death, I had already received several interview requests. I declined them, not wanting to be uncharitable to the man upon his death. Since then, I've seen the need to step up and provide some clarification. The issue is a remarkable 1983 KGB document on Kennedy, which I published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (HarperCollins). The document is a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, the odious Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification. It concerns a...

Luke 16:24 (King James Version) 24And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Renegade state Sen. Scott P. Brown, a Republican from Wrentham, told the Herald this morning he is “testing the waters” for a run at the seat of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Although he won’t formally declare his candidacy yet, Brown said he plans to spend the next week raising a small amount of money, as federal election laws permit for those who are exploring a run for U.S. Senate.

Fr. Tom Rosica, the CEO of Salt + Light TV, has posted a scathing, malicious, and bizarre attack on the pro-life community in the Catholic Church on his blog, wildly accusing critics of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s public funeral of “division, destruction, hatred, vitriol, judgment and violence…destroying and killing others“. ...

BOSTON, Mass. (CNN) - She was called "the littlest refusenik," one of the many Soviet Jews denied permission to leave the Soviet Union because her father had been exposed to government secrets. But the case of Jessica Katz was special because she was a baby born with a nutritional deficiency that stopped her from growing. She was a tiny baby dying in a Moscow hospital, getting weaker by the day. It was U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy who, her parents say, eventually saved her life. Jessica was born in Moscow in 1977 with malabsorption syndrome, which prevented her from digesting food...

(snip) Listening to Sen. McCain's elegy, however, I found myself increasingly bothered. "We disagreed on most issues," McCain said at one point, "but I admired his passion for his convictions ... ." Really? Kennedy was the farthest-left liberal during nearly five decades in the U.S. Senate. McCain, just one year ago, campaigned for president, proclaiming his conservative convictions. And without doubt, Kennedy's wholehearted support of Barack Obama helped to torpedo McCain's campaign. Perhaps one moment disturbed me most: "When we worked together on the immigration issue," McCain recalled, "we had a daily morning meeting with other interested senators. He and...

Here is a CNN video report on the soon-to-be published memoir of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and a few quotes from it. In the memoir, Kennedy reportedly says he "always accepted official findings of JFK's assassination," meaning the Warren Commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin, and that he acted alone. He also reportedly admitted that his actions at Chappaquiddick were "inexcusable." The memoir is to be released on September 14. . . . (Watch Video)

Daily Newser Dave Saltonstall gets an advance copy of Ted Kennedy's posthumously-released memoir "True Compass" -- in which the Massachusetts senator used the platform to defend his inexplicable decision to abandon Mary Jo Kopechne after his car plunged off the bridge. Among the other revelations: A nine-year-old Teddy hid under the bunk at a private school in the Bronx because he was afraid of being sexually abused by the dorm master -- and the senator claims he was cajoled into cheating on a Spanish test at Harvard by a buddy and didn't hatch the scheme that resulted in his expulsion....

WASHINGTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in a new book that he was not romantically involved with young Mary Jo Kopechne and that he never escaped the despair he felt after she died in the 1969 car crash that has been seared into the national consciousness as "Chappaquiddick." He acknowledged that he enjoyed women and drink — sometimes too much so — but said reports of wild Kennedy excesses were exaggerated. Yet it was the specter of Chappaquiddick that Edward Kennedy, the youngest brother, never could shake. "That night on Chappaquiddick Island ended in a horrible tragedy that haunts...

BOSTON (AP) - Sen. John Kerry is positioning himself as the political heir to Edward Kennedy, pledging to thousands of people attending his town hall meeting in Massachusetts that he would fight for the health care overhaul championed by his colleague. More than 2,000 people turned up Wednesday night for Kerry's first public meeting since Kennedy's Aug. 25 death from brain cancer.

AP) BOSTON — Massachusetts officials are considering adding Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's name to public buildings and landmarks just a week after his death.

Reflections on the Kennedy Funeral Mass Written by Luiz Sergio Solimeo    Wednesday, September 2, 2009 The Mass celebrated on August 29 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Roxbury, Mass. in memory of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy is rightly causing scandal among Catholics, who see it as a posthumous glorification of the deceased Massachusetts politician, as well as a resounding approval of his pro-abortion and pro-homosexual endeavors. Leaving aside the tumultuous life of the deceased, to pay homage to someone whose political action consistently opposed Catholic morals is a grave scandal, made even graver by the use...

BOSTON — Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has "some interest" in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Schilling, a registered independent and longtime Republican supporter, wrote on his blog that while his family and video gaming company, 38 Studios, are high priorities, "I do have some interest in the possibility." "That being said, to get to there, from where I am today, many, many things would have to align...

BOSTON -- Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has "some interest" in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Curt Schilling, best known for his bloody-sock pitching heroics, may step up to the plate and run for U.S. Senate. The retired Red Sox [team stats] ace said today in a telephone interview with NECN that even though his “plate is full,” he’s been contacted to consider a run for the open seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy. A Jan. 19 special election has been set by the governor to fill the post.

In case you missed it, Mark Steyn delivered a brilliant monologue at the beginning of the second hour of the Rush Limbaugh Show today (he was subbing while Rush is on vacation). The essence of which was that the leftist (and mainstream media) arguments that Teddy Kennedy's sins should be forgiven because he did so much for the common man was, essentially, a monarchical argument with no place in American society. (more)

Adding former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s name to Logan Airport is a dumb idea. In a June 19, 1964 plane crash, the senator almost lost his life. The senator’s nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard. Rep. Lori Ehrlich, a Marblehead Democrat, filed legislation today that would rename the airport Logan-Kennedy International Airport. Everybody needs to slow down and take a breath. The Senate Institute at UMass might be nice, then a school here or there and maybe a hospital wing or cancer center, but let’s not overdo it and let’s be smart. Ted's...

Your head will explode when you read this. From NewsBusters: The Huffington Post explains that "Melissa Lafsky is the deputy web editor at Discover magazine, where she writes the Reality Base blog. She was previously the editor of the New York Times's Freakonomics blog, and is a former associate editor at HuffPo's Eat The Press." So she's a major-media-certified pundit when she wrote about Chappaquiddick drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne on Arianna's pages today:Mary Jo wasn't a right-wing talking point or a negative campaign slogan. She was a dedicated civil rights activist and political talent with a bright future....We don't...