Ted Kennedy doesn't know who wrote "The Communist Manifesto"

The Boston Globe ^ | 12/22/2005 | Ted Kennedy

[rlmorel]

...I hope the president doesn't continue to hide behind such transparent and irrelevant justifications. Congress has amended the 1978 FISA law over time, most recently with the passage of the PATRIOT Act -- and there is no reason to think we wouldn't do so again -- if we knew what the administration is doing. If the president needs more powers to lawfully protect the American people from terrorism, then he should come to Congress to seek modification of current laws. The president has failed to provide a sufficient legal basis for his actions; instead he and his Cabinet spent the week refusing to negotiate with Congress and opposing bipartisan efforts to extend the PATRIOT Act for three more months.

Just this past week there were public reports that a college student in Massachusetts had two government agents show up at his house because he had gone to the library and asked for the official Chinese version of Mao Tse-tung's Communist Manifesto. Following his professor's instructions to use original source material, this young man discovered that he, too, was on the government's watch list.

Think of the chilling effect on free speech and academic freedom when a government agent shows up at your home -- after you request a book from the library.

Incredibly, we are now in an era where reading a controversial book may be evidence of a link to terrorists...

[motzman]

but that a Kennedy's staff member nevertheless insisted that "although the story itself is not true, it demonstrates the real nature of the Bush administration" - now that's stupid....

Yet again,

Fake, but accurate

[SALChamps03]

it just goes to show that the Left is so intent on anything that will help them portray the president in a bad light that they either don't check facts or don't care. I suspect it's the latter.

[Dr Snide]

Wow, I for one am shocked. If there is one thing I would expect Ted Kennedy and the Boston Globe editorial page to know it would be their communist literature. Nothing worse than an ignorant communist. Okay, ignorant and communist go hand in hand but you get my point.

[rlmorel]

I thought so, but js1138 thinks I am raking the fat senator over the coals unjustly.

Kennedy wrote: "...and asked for the official Chinese version of Mao Tse-tung's Communist Manifesto..."

Perhaps I could be wrong. Did Chairman Mao write a Communist Manifesto? If I wrote one, would it be "Bob's Manifesto"? I had not heard this particular saving grace for Fat Teddy, so I could be ignorant of the usage.

But I have not heard of a "Communist Manifesto" written by Mao. js1138, can you expand on that for me?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Looks like Dungheap has come up in the world. I'm sure he doesn't clean his own septic tank in the Bahamas.

[samtheman]

Not to mention that the story of agents going to a student's home in search of a book is (of course) false:

Internet war over Mao book

[samtheman]

Did Chairman Mao write a Communist Manifesto?

No. He didn't. And that's not the book that was cited in the original (falsified) story of FBI agents going to a student's home. It was the standard Quotations of Chairman Mao.

[samtheman]

one thing I would expect Ted Kennedy and the Boston Globe editorial page to know it would be their communist literature

That's the whole thing about American leftists. They are busy building a Socialist Paradise without having the slightest idea of the origin, history, or workings of such things.

They have a vision of Leftist Paradise in their mind and they don't take the time to check the facts regarding previous attempts to build such Paradises on earth. All of which have ended in every case in huge piles of dead human bodies.

They don't want to think about that stuff. So they don't read anything at all. Except great thinkers like Maureen Dowd and Helen Thomas.

[HereInTheHeartland]

"Everyone knows Tom Harkin wrote it."

Bahama Tom isn't nearly smart enough to have written it, he just help edit one of the later versions.
I think that Harkin was the who added the section called "Marx's wisdom for the brave combat fighter pilot in Vietnam"

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Sounds likely.

[rlmorel]

Freeper js1138 at post number 48 is suggesting the big senator's use of the term is not out of line.

I am taking the stance that I might indeed be ignorant of some forms of usage of the term "communist manifesto", and that it might be possible I am mistaken and the senator is right. Given that the Boston Globe did not flag it or call the senator to have it changed, that is a possible explanation I had not considered.

I know that Marx and Engels wrote "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848, and that Mao was known for "The Little Red Book", can anyone else look at the usage by the senior balloon from Massachusetts and verify what the poster js1138 said in his post at #48 about the usage of the term?

[rlmorel]

"...They don't want to think about that stuff. So they don't read anything at all. Except great thinkers like Maureen Dowd and Helen Thomas..."

A most disturbing thought, but true. Of course, liberals say the same thing about conservatives and Ann Coulter, but she has the virtue of being right, her biting sarcasm aside.

[don-o]

The Swimmer is #3 on Bernie Goldberg's "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America"

[chiefqc]

Perhaps "Drunk still",

[samtheman]

There is no "Communist Manifesto" by Mao TseTung. Doesn't exist. The extremely fat Senator Stupid simply screwed up and the Boston Pravda gave him a pass. This is not a complicated question.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"All your chains are belong to us...."

[Vision]

Of course he knows. I'm sure he's spent many nights(and mornings, afternoons) curled up like a manatee with a pint glass of Chivas Regal and the Manifesto

[river rat]

"The little creep should be outed for one and all to recognize him as a liar."

Actually, a lie of this magnitude and impact warrants a severe ass thrashing...

But then - I'm one of those radical right wing miscreants that believe nasty actions deserve nasty consequences.

Semper Fi

[Palladin]

Apparently the liar has suffered no consequences at all for perpetrating this hoax:


A spokesman for UMass-Dartmouth, John Hoey, told the Globe earlier this week that the student would not be disciplined as a result of his deception. That statement has sparked protest from another professor at the school, Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis, who said the student should be suspended and forced to make a public apology for deceiving the public. He also called on the faculty members who relayed the student’s tale to issue public apologies, as well.

“The reality is this could have been prevented at many points along the way and it wasn’t. This was a conscious and deliberate attempt to perpetrate a hoax,” Barrow said.

Barrow said that the faculty members should not have told the press about the student’s story before verifying it, and he said that their behavior demonstrated an ideological bent in addition to poor judgment.

This incident, Barrow said, was another example of “a faculty culture that seems…continually on the edge of hysteria, constantly predisposed to embrace these kinds of incidents at face value.”

But Williams said that he and Pontbriand both have moderate views and only wanted to find out the truth about the student’s story.

The media coverage of the student’s tale began when Williams mentioned what he had heard about the incident as a side note to a reporter who was interviewing him about President Bush’s authorization of domestic wiretapping, Williams said. The story then became the reporter’s lead, he said.

Williams said he was opposed to any discipline for the student. “It wasn’t something that would have given this kid the help he needed,” he said.

[river rat]

"Williams said he was opposed to any discipline for the student. “It wasn’t something that would have given this kid the help he needed,” he said."

Williams, unfortunately - represents the majority opinion in our "elitist academia"....

The result, is a society full of over educated but characterless and spineless punks..

These smart ass kids NEVER learned the concept of responsibility or consequences for their actions...
In my position prior to retirement from a VERY large High Tech Corporation -- it fell to me to fire a number of these bright and highly paid little darlings for severe lapses of "character and/or morality"...

The shock on their faces upon learning that this wasn't going to be another "mulligan" was pitiful.
The often repeated refrain was, "How can you do this to me - to my career - to my family"?

My only response was "It was YOUR actions that "did it" to your career and family..... Your actions demanded my response".

Semper Fi