Stay classy DU

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

What you say here about the demise of Ted Stevens may be seen by members of his family.

The words travel through a series of tubes up to Alaska.

[chrisa]

1. I haven't seen people even speaking poorly of him on here today, but maybe I just didn't notice.

[KansasVoter]

2. LOL........classic!

[TheWraith]

5. Excuse me?

Would you like to amplify on that?

[KansasVoter]

10. Series of tubes!

[TheWraith]

21. Oh. I thought everyone had pretty much laughed that one to death, at least everyone here.

I thought you might have been mocking the idea of exercising restraint, hence my skeptical tone.

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. I could care less if the words never traveled outside of registered members here

It's still disgusting.

[GodlessBiker]

9. Why?

[AlabamaLibrul]

14. Because I don't run around grave-dancing on everyone I dislike.

I can think of some choice words for Stevens, mostly in relation to his bribery/gift scandal, but there are a very, very small handful of people who I would not reserve the courtesy of resting in peace.

And even that small handful, I don't see any point celebrating or making this or that comment related to one's death. Death just is, and it comes to all of us, whether you feel they are the greatest person alive or a complete flaming asshole. I find that when someone evil dies, as time goes on, I grow more and more ambivalent about death itself. They're dead. There's no point piling on once they're dead. Their life is over.

Criticize someone all you want during their life, and even for their actions in life after they pass, but it's simply distasteful to grave-dance (and if you look around, some are REALLY grave-dancing) just because you don't like someone.

[rbrnmw]

25. I agree nm

[R. P. McMurphy]

34. well said n/t

[GodlessBiker]

37. I disagree. There are some people for whom it is proper to grave dance, because of the...

horrific actions they took when they were alive. Yes, they are dead, but there are others out there who might, just might, think twice about their actions because of the treatment their memory might receive should they follow in the deceased's footsteps. Some people actually care how history treats them.

It certainly can be argued whether Stevens was one of these people, but throughout human history there were those upon whose death grave dancing was completely moral and legitimate.

[shireen]

39. +1

My condolences to Sen. Stevens' family and friends.

[jobycom]

17. Because it reflects a non-liberal way of viewing humanity.

Mocking people who are suffering is a very non-liberal way of responding to the world.

[TheWraith]

4. Kicked and recommended.

No matter how much you hated the man, he can't hear what you have to say anymore--and his family never did anything to you.

[Ernesto]

15. Same pretty much goes for Hitchens................ nt

[Javaman]

6. If you can't say something nice...

don't say anything at all.

Words to live by.

[Warpy]

7. I'm always classy until they're planted

and then the floodgates open.

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. I hear you.

A moratorium is appropriate.

However I'm still free to speculate on what he may have known that the Killah from Wasilla might not want spread around.

I don't know why ANY politician would ever get on a small plane.

[Warpy]

23. That's the only way to get to a lot of places in Alaska

until the rivers freeze and snowmobile or sled dog travel become possible.

[happy_liberal]

30. How can anyone not speculate when a politician dies in a small plane crash

and contrary to what people keep saying, you can live in the middle of nowhere and still have a car and drive in Alaska. There are alot of roads. He did not need to fly in a small plane to meet some NASA guy turned military industrial complex higherup. Ted Stevens has lots of inside info, but he is 'one of them' so he did not fear flying in small planes. But...he got caught for his corruption and Don Young just got away with his(feds said they would not prosecute last week- even though everyone KNOWs he was dirty)...maybe Ted was pissed and going to say something?

Ted Stevens is a very important man, longest serving Senator, he knows a lot of people and a lot of information...how can anyone not speculate?

I have no idea why someone would do this, but I think everyone should be wondering. I mean C'mon people!

Don Young has been in office ever since a small plane crash took out his rival and sitting Congressman Nick Begich.

"In 1970, Begich was elected to Alaska's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Republican banker Frank Murkowski (later a U.S. Senator and eventually Governor of Alaska). In 1972, he faced the Republican state senator Don Young.

Posthumously, Begich won the 1972 election with 56% to Don Young's 44%. However, after Begich's declared death, a special election was called which was won by Young.

On October 16, 1972, he was aboard a twin engine Cessna 310 along with Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana when the plane disappeared during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau"

Congressman Hale Boggs wanted to reopen the investigation into JFK...and this is interesting...

"Cokie Roberts is the daughter of the late Rep. Hale Boggs. Hale Boggs expressed doubts about the Warren Commission findings regarding the assassination of JFK, but daughter Cokie, an apparent journalist, has no big problem with the Warren Report.



I guess I am just a conspiracy theorist but seriously...no one is questioning this...

[happy_liberal]

31. this is interesting from the ADN

"O'Keefe left NASA in 2005 to become chancellor of Louisiana State University. He is now the CEO of defense contractor EADS North America and oversees the bid for the hotly contested Air Force refueling jet contract.

The company said O'Keefe was a passenger on the plane. The company said it had no further information about O'Keefe's status.

The contract competition, which pits EADS against rival plane maker Boeing Co., is for a piece of what could eventually be $100 billion worth of work replacing the military's fleet of aging tankers."

[derby378]

8. Yeah, I saw it, too, and I'm rather disgusted

The only Americans I can think of whose death could be announced with that type of scorn are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Otherwise, tone it the hell down.

[Parker CA]

11. K&R.

[30rock]

12. Although I'm a liberal and I can't stand Stevens, I don't wish death upon him

I recommended this thread.

[disillusioned73]

13. Don't worry..

I think most people are saving their venom for a certain former VP that recently had heart surgury...

[Submariner]

19. More than just a VP

That will be a certain former cowardly war-profiteering traitor of a VP. He was only in office due to an election steal, and in comparison to any 20th century VP, that giant piece of cockroach shit out did them all when it came to incompetence coupled with corruption. Yes, he will be vilified, and rightfully so.

Ted Stevens was just a local Alaska crook. Chump change compared to Cheney.

[disillusioned73]

28. Agreed

:toast:

[LiberalFighter]

16. Especially when Stevens created all those tubes up in Alaska.

[Winterblues]

18. I will mourn for him

He went down hill over the last decade but he will always be Uncle Ted to the great majority of Alaskans. He really was one of the good guys for a very long time.. He fell prey to the same sickness that has engulfed the entire Republican Party and I know he regretted that. He did a lot for Alaska, brought home the bacon, exactly what we wanted him to do..

[Gold Metal Flake]

22. Death does not clean up a scoundrel.

If his family wanted my kindness on the day of his death, they should have required him to be kind to me during his life. His family benefited from his being a political tool of the giant conservative corporate and media machine that have attacked and plundered my and my children's future. They have worked tirelessly to destroy my country and take away my freedoms. He and his kind have stolen trillions of dollars of wealth from the middle class for their own profit. He was my enemy. He was the enemy of the United States of America. I will not mourn his passing.

[MineralMan]

24. I don't actually see the relevance of his death to anyone here.

He's no longer in office. He is dead. Seems barely like news, except that every plane crash is news. Others are dead in this crash, as well. Everyone's family will be saddened. For me, it's all irrelevant.

[damntexdem]

26. He had become politically irrelevant and his death is a personal matter.

It is of importance to his family. I see no need to comment upon it further.

[apocalypsehow]

27. K & R. n/t.

[JVS]

29. You know two groups who are bigger assholes than people who talk trash on the internet?

a) People who are bereaved and decide to console themselves somehow by reading webpages dedicated to promotion of political ideals that were opposed to those that the person they mourn spent his career supporting.

b) People who would take it upon themselves to relay comments from DU to the bereaved in the belief that such comments would be helpful or necessary for them at this time.

[grantcart]

32. An economist and a dreamer, what a deadly combination.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Better Today]

36. I say screw that, Ted Stevens has voted in way s that actually hurt families in

real-life ways. So don't mind me if I don't give a crap that his family back in AK might get their delicate sensibilities hurt a little. I will always grave dance on RWingers graves because they grave dance on our lives.

[gaspee]

38. I have a song stuck in my head

It goes something like this...

"Only the good die young... only the good die young!"

Thanks Billy Joel!

[northofdenali]

40. I'll answer without reading any of the replies -

and probably live to regret it............

Sen. Ted Stevens did more (especially that great pork) for the state of Alaska than any other representative we've ever had. I first met "Uncle Ted" in 1972, the year I graduated from a small Alaska high school. He personally congratulated me on my grades, my test scores and extracurricular activities, the sports I'd been in, and called Mom & Dad by name. And yes, he meant it. I later received a letter of congratulations from him when I'd been accepted to college. It was, in 1972 now, on recycled paper.

His politics were not mine, but until Big Oil took over this state, he was very much an Eisenhauer Republican. He bent, he compromised, he voted with the opposition on many, many occasions. In short, he was a statesman. I don't think he did badly for the nation, either; he was opposed to the Viet Nam war and very cautious about entering any others.

He never, ever pushed the extreme RW agenda or played Tea Partier. He was a good man, and now he's gone, and dammit, I'll miss him.

So take that, ideologues. There's good in everyone - and in Sen. Ted Stevens, there was a lot more of it than in many who denounce him.

[nosmokes]

41. What? You think Ted's family didn't know he was an assshole? n/t

[Chulanowa]

42. I'm saving it for the Murkowskis

Stevens was a dick, but what the hell.

Bitch-Poodle and Daddy Dearest though actually caused harm to my family while they ruled Alaska, thugh. I'm saving my dancing shoes for them. I think it'll be a tango. Maybe the chicken dance.

[Raster]

43. I've seen little-to-no negative commentary about Senator Stevens.

While he was a lousy Senator for the country, he worked awfully damned hard for his state. No grave dancing here.