RFK Jr: "Uncle Jack's speech in Dallas was to have been an explosive broadside against right wing"

[kpete]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
Posted: January 11, 2011 07:57 PM

Tucson: Time for Another Examination of Conscience

.................

Uncle Jack's speech in Dallas was to have been an explosive broadside against the right wing. He found Dallas' streets packed five deep with Kennedy Democrats, but among them were the familiar ornaments of presidential hatred; high-flying confederate flags and hundreds of posters adorning the walls and streets of Dallas showing Jack's picture inscribed with "Wanted for Treason." One man held a posterboard saying, "you a traitor ." Other placards accused him of being a communist. When public school P.A. systems announced Jack's assassination, Dallas school children as young as the fourth grade applauded. A Birmingham radio caller declared that "any white man who did what he did for niggers should be shot." As my siblings and I visited the White House to console my cousins John and Caroline, a picket paraded out front with a sign, "God punished JFK."

Jack had received myriad warnings against visiting the right-wing Texas city. Indeed, there had been a sense of foreboding even within our family as he and Aunt Jackie prepared for the trip. Jack made an unscheduled trip to Cape Cod to say goodbye to my ailing grandfather. The night before the trip, Mummy found Jack distant and brooding at a dinner for the Supreme Court Justices. He was very fond of Mummy, but for the first time ever, he looked right through her.

Jack's death forced a national bout of self-examination. In 1964, Americans repudiated the forces of right-wing hatred and violence with an historic landslide in the presidential election between LBJ and Goldwater. For a while, the advocates of right-wing extremism receded from the public forum. Now they have returned with a vengeance -- to the broadcast media and to prominent positions in political landscape.

Gabrielle Giffords lies in a hospital room fighting for her life, and a precious nine-year-old girl is dead along with five others. Let's pray for them and for our country and hope this tragedy prompts another round of examination of conscience.

more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/post_1548_b_807713.html

[northoftheborder]

1. I wonder if......

I wonder if a copy of that speech exists anywhere. At the Kennedy Library maybe?

[Volaris]

2. try this link...=)

http://smu.edu/smunews/jfk/speechtext.asp

[Joe the Revelator]

7. Reading that, its eerie what similar times we live in...

But today other voices are heard in the land -- voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality, wholly unsuited to the sixties, doctrines which apparently assume that words will suffice without weapons, that vituperation is as good as victory and that peace is a sign of weakness. At a time when the national debt is steadily being reduced in terms of its burden on our economy, they see that debt as the greatest single threat to our security. At a time when we are steadily reducing the number of Federal employees serving every thousand citizens, they fear those supposed hordes of civil servants far more than the actual hordes of opposing armies.

We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will "talk sense to the American people." But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.

[valerief]

49. Hate never evolves. nt

[madokie]

53. You got that right

[freshwest]

8. Thanks...

[freshwest]

3. I posted on my memory of the atmosphere on another thread. Good to see more proof.

The picture of the wanted poster that goes along with this is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=163310&mesg_id=163337

And I made several posts from my own memory, one of which I was able to back up with a link to part of what I said.

Glad to see Huffpo showing this same pattern from almost half a century ago, for us to understand that the same dangers to those who speak for change are still there. And very real, instead of the ridiule we are recieving from the rightwingers.

[gateley]

48. That poster is chilling. I don't know why I wasn't aware that there was that

level of hatred against Kennedy, with much of the same rhetoric we hear today. Was it primarily concentrated in the South/Texas? The difference today may be that this crap is going on all over the country.

[freshwest]

88. Dallas is in north Texas, but the entire South was in turmoil at that time.

The level of hatred was high and open among those who primarily suffered from the mental diseases of racism and McCarthyism. It was vey oppressive but young people where I lived had public schools that taught us about American history, labor history and civil rights battles that had been won. We rebelled and felt the Constitution backed our struggle against bigotry.

There were similar hellholes of hatred in many places in the USA at that time, but their voices had been quieted by the backlash to RW violence in the sixties; not that it hadn't been going for much longer, and it never really ended in some places. For most Americans, those days were shameful. Now we have a new generation who seem to have no teacher besides the poisoned media. It's horrifying to see these things dredged up from the dung heap of history and sold again to youngsters, who know little else.

[Kurovski]

4. Not to get all goofy, but...

does George H W Bush remember where he was on the day of the JFK assassination. Has his memory been jogged yet?

[jwirr]

17. Bingo.

[stevedeshazer]

20. Bang. Pow.

:thumbsup:

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

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

[TroglodyteScholar]

41. You must know a lot of people who don't remember where they were that day.

I, personally, have never encountered a single soul fitting that description.

[SDuderstadt]

42. I'd love to see anyone provide some concrete evidence that...

G.H.W. Bush has ever stated he can't recall where he was that day, otherwise, it's bullshit.

There are a lot of valid reasons to despise the Bush family; we don't have to invent shit that never happened.

[leveymg]

59. GHW claims he was with friends about 70 miles outside Dallas.

He even placed a call to the FBI from that location about an hour after the assassination to report that he had recently overheard an acquaintance, a member of the Young Americans for Freedom, threatening to kill the President.

Bush was noted in the FBI records as "with the CIA."

Not really an ironclad alibi, if indeed that's what it was.

[Kurovski]

66. Kennedy's speech sounds like conspiracy theory ...

bullshit.


But what the fuck ya gonna do?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

85. So GHWB didn't in fact say he didn't remember?

[SDuderstadt]

86. If he did, I'd love to see...

someone produce it.

[nightgaunt]

90. GHWBush is sure he was no where near Dallas

Whether he was there or not. Not that it matters now. You will find that the same bunch got involved in other shady things as time went on from Iran-Contra to Koreagate. They just have that habit.

[DeSwiss]

5. K&R

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dctr_MoQ2cA&feature=related">The Speech That That Got JFK Killed

- The N.W.O.

[leveymg]

36. He was referring to Soviet Communism, but could have been describing the enemy we became.

Cold War Mirror images - the US and USSR doppelgangers. The di-pole that took control of most of the world's resources and monopolized it, until one side collapsed a few years before the other.

A Lose-Lose system of world domination.

[DeSwiss]

43. I don't believe that he.....

...was ONLY referring to the Soviets.

[leveymg]

50. If we put that speech together with his reported "shred the CIA into a thousand pieces" rant

after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, you might well be right. But, JFK was a committed Cold Warrior. Not sure about this one - I don't think any one speech sealed his fate.

[DeSwiss]

52. His interview.....

...with Walter Cronkite saying that he intended to pull our troops from Vietnam was probably the clincher. You don't mess with the MIC's cash cows. I think his intentions to pull troops from Vietnam, along with this speech were the proverbial straws that broke the camel's back.

- He was talking about the same group of people......

[leveymg]

55. Is there a link to that interview with Cronkite?

I have my own notions about who and why, but have to acknowledge that none of us will ever really know the whole story. There seem to have been several cover stories within cover stories for various audiences.

The only thing we'll know for certain is that the version given in the Warren Report wasn't complete or accurate. We know that because several of the members of the Commission came out and said so - even Johnson acknowledged that.

[leveymg]

57. I found the Cronkite interview video (09/03/63). JFK said two things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM3uaXp8DAk It's up to the people of South Vietnam to win or lose the war (and the Diem regime was losing because of its corruption and repression, and he wanted Diem to hear that message), but JFK's last line is that the U.S. should not withdraw.

[DeSwiss]

63. You're right about one thing for certain.....

...JFK didn't want to withdraw completely from Vietnam because he believed in Dwight Eisenhower's old "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory">Domino Theory" of communist aggression. But he also thought that without popular support and less corruption in the Vietnamese government, that the war would only escalate. Something the MIC (AKA N.W.O.) was planning on. Because all those Huey helicopters, the F-111's, the napalm and the Agency Orange weren't going to manufacture themselves if there's not a war that's hot enough to justify them, now are they?

So the MIC didn't want him then (nor do they tolerate it now in Afghanistan/Iraq) downplaying the US role there nor casting aspersions upon their hand-picked puppet, Ngo Dinh Diem. That's for them to decide, not mere Presidents. And as with the Shah of Iran, the MIC decides who can play and who can't. Until they can't when others take the decision out of their hands (like the Ayatollah Khomeini did). That's why http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2011/01/cnn-poll-63-of-americans-want-out-of-afghanistan/">63% of Americans can say they want us out of Afghanistan and our government ignores the shit out of us.

- The MIC will decide this like they do everything else in this country. And they'll oppose anyone who gets in their way.

[defendandprotect]

76. JFK was removing troops from Vietnam ... he had given the instructions ....

Don't know that JFK bought into the "domino theory" or that that theory was actually Ike's???

In fact, Ike evidently had a powerful peace agenda which he spoke about even publickly, but

which was betrayed by the military/intelligence -- that's according to Fletcher Prouty -- and

Gary Power's U-2 flight over Russia being just one example -- an example which halted the

Paris Peace talks.

Same for JFK who was also betrayed by our MIC - CIA. Or more precisely, the elites who

actually controlled our military and intelligence.

Think JFK also well understood that the corruption was put in place by those with

imperialistic ideas -- having commented to one of his aides that he had looked at Vietnam

to see what all the interest was -- and that "it was a nice piece of real estate."

Obviously, a nation endowed with "location"/Golden Triangle, as well as natural resources.

- The MIC will decide this like they do everything else in this country. And they'll oppose anyone who gets in their way.

Therefore, when we all wonder for so long why there is no peace in the world, that seems to

be the answer!

[RufusTFirefly]

62. JFK had been a committed Cold Warrior, but after the Cuban Missile Crisis...

... and the death of his infant son in August of 1963, he appeared to have a change of heart.

His June 10, 1963, speech at American University calling for a nuclear test ban treaty inflamed many in the military and the Right who felt he was caving in to the Communists.

Much earlier, his failure to take the bait in the Bay of Pigs had already angered many in both intelligence and the military who had hoped the small-scale Bay of Pigs invasion would force Kennedy to escalate to a full-scale military invasion of Cuba.

[leveymg]

67. No doubt, there were those who thought they had cause for "executive action"

It's just unclear as to exactly which one(s) carried it out. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

[defendandprotect]

78. Some say, the names of those who did it were being spoken at gatherings

in DC the night of the assassination -- I think many knew --

Landsdale, primary. Lemitzer -- etal.

Dulles, Hoover -- CIA --

Btw, there's a fantastic movie called "Executive Action" which came out, I think

in the early 70's -- Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan -- it was pretty much the whole story

even then.

[RufusTFirefly]

80. Saw that movie. Came out 10 years before Stone's "JFK"

A courageous thing for Lancaster and Ryan to do at the time, especially given the "conventional wisdom." Also has Will "Grandpa Walton" Geer in it.

[defendandprotect]

81. "Executive Action" was made in 1973 -- 10 years after the coup on JFK ....

Oliver Stone's "JFK" was made in 1991 --

Agree it was a highly courageous thing for that group to do -- but it also points

to how much was really immediately known about how it was done and who was involved.

http://turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com/product.asp?sku=D53352

[RufusTFirefly]

84. Sorry. You're right. I knew there was a "10 years" in there somewhere n/t

[defendandprotect]

77. As we can hear on the tapes, JFK wasn't easily bullied by the corrupt Joint Chiefs...

but some say that when he came to see the actual number of our missiles vs

Russia's, he understood the lie of it all --

Evidently, by then he was also discovering many other truths of our corrupted

government --

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. K&R for RFK Jr. speaking on this topic at this time and drawing the link

between the two.

Thanks for posting it, kpete.

[AC_Mem]

9. God Bless and Protect President Obama

tomorrow and through the coming months. This issue is either going to get better or much worse.

[upi402]

10. The reason why

I fight the corporate assholes taking over this party, disenfranchising us.

I remember...

[defendandprotect]

79. +1000%

[lovemydog]

11. thank you for sharing this piece

The forces of hatred are ignorant and disgusting. Light must be shone on them.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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

[jwirr]

18. And JFK was only the beginning. And we wonder why booosh &

chaney have never been punished for their crimes.

[Enthusiast]

31. It is no coincidence. nt

[defendandprotect]

12. Didn't see a link to the actual speech -- but worth reading .....

Very worth reading -- !!!

Also interesting how such a "Christian" nation as America is alleged to be

tolerates so much hate filled speech and such violent speech -- and doesn't

even question how Palin, the mother or a number of children would introduce

such concepts as "cross hair targeting" of her opponents into her political

speech!

As Thom Hartmann pointed out today, Koch Bros/oil industry played a large role

in creating the John Birch Society and now his sons have created the T-baggers --

in both case, let's make clear -- BUYING THEM!!

There is only one way the right win can rise and that's thru political violence --

Well ... also wealth, buying support, buying our free press, stolen elections, lies.

But mainly by political violence -- without it, they wouldn't exist!

[Politics_Guy25]

13. This is all so very sad-n/t

[Kurovski]

91. The bible is quite clear about violently destroying enemies.

It does not shy away from killing. It brags about about what's to come for those who dare to naysay.

Palin is right on the bible track.

[jwirr]

14. I am glad that Robert has spoken out. These are things that were

not know by most of us at the time. All we saw were all the people and none of the hate. I will admit that when I heard it racists were the people I blamed first. Everyone else was talking Castro but I blamed Texas bigots.

[rbrnmw]

30. I met Ethel once you could the pain in her eyes even though she was smiling

She lost her husband, her soulmate, the father to her 11 children, so sad and so senseless, yet I feel we are heading down this same path. Please if any republicans are reading this, please take a step back and demand the leaders of your party do the same. We need to come together as a nation, it's not a game of semantics anymore it's a game that kills.

[Kurovski]

92. Words will never change most. It is a religious quest.

Your plea for stepping "back" would brand you a "confuser", Satan's serpent-tongued emissary.

Paranoia has a huge part in the bible.

[paparush]

16. Did our 2nd Civil War start on Nov 22, 1963?

I'm beginning to think so.

[Major Hogwash]

27. Yeah, I think so. During the Centennial celebrations each year, the mood grew darker.

Especially in the South, when by 1965, 100 hundred years after the Civil War had ended, they realized "the South will rise again" was an empty slogan.

Until 1968, when Nixon used his infamous "Southern Strategy" of racism to take the White House.

[Art_from_Ark]

87. Nixon won very few Southern states in '68

Back then, the region was still mostly Democratic-- "The Solid South", they called it. For the most part, Southern voters still would not vote en masse for a Republican, so 5 Southern states went for George Wallace, a Dixiecrat, instead. Nixon saw from Wallace's success that he could win Southern votes if he came across as a Republican Wallace, so he used the Southern Strategy in the next election, 1972.

[defendandprotect]

44. The war on democracy began immediately with Bill of Rights ....elites had time, hwoever ....

Gradually they have subsituted wealth for power -- buying our government --

Elites, of course, don't want to engage in bus-i-ness for profit --

They want full control of our government, its wealth and natural resources, its

labor -- its military -- its power to tax.

[TBF]

19. Although I now live in TX I didn't grow up here -

and was born a few years after JFK's death. I have never really heard the extent of the hatred for him before - I wonder how many others who are younger have no idea as well. I thought this horrible behavior was mainly based on Obama's race (and I'm sure much is right now), but I don't think I fully realized that the hate-mongers on the right have been at it for the past 50 years.

[defendandprotect]

45. Right wing has been at it since time began... but came into open on 11/22/63 ....

as elites laid claim to our government and destroyed our "people's" government and

the struggle for democracy.

There is only one way the right wing can rise anywhere -- and that's via political violence.

Long before JFK we had it -- McCarthy Era was an attack on the ideals of democracy and

purged liberals from government. Dag Hammarskjold at UN -- assassinated. Some think Adlai

Stevenson, as well.

After shootings -- they used planes and cancer.

Long history of outrageous violence against labor trying to unionize --

and the Reagan destruction of unions, sometimes using Mafia to infilatrate and to attack.

Long, long history of all of this --

[Warren Stupidity]

21. I only regret that I have but one rec to give to this op.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

47. :)

We need the voice and leadership of the Kennedys... I do anyway. God bless 'em.

[Ken Burch]

22. Thanks to RFK Jr. for reminding us of all this, and drawing the connections that need to be drawn

I wonder if things like this put the whole Kennedy family through PTSD. Sad as Teddy's passing was, I'm glad he didn't live to see what happened to Congresswoman Giffords.

Pray for the Giffords.

Pray for the Kennedys.

And pray for the rest of us.

[H2O Man]

23. Recommended.

Thank you.

[MilesColtrane]

24. "When public school P.A. systems announced Jack's assassination, Dallas school children as young...

as the fourth grade applauded."

Sorry, but that oft-repeated tale just isn't true. The students referred to were not told why class had been dismissed.

Dan Rather "embellished" a story that the news director of KRLD radio, Eddie Barker, told him.

http://www.eddiebarkeronline.com/

The CBS correspondent in Dallas was a Texas journalist by the name of Dan Rather, who himself has claimed credit for being the first to announce that Kennedy was dead — although privately he has conceded that Barker actually was the one.

Barker and Rather have had an off-and-on relationship over the years, dating back to an incident a couple of days after the assassination. A 40-man CBS crew, headed by Rather, set up operations in the KRLD newsroom where Barker was the news director.

Barker mentioned in the newsroom that at the school his children attended, students cheered the announcement that classes would be dismissed.

CBS reported that students at a Dallas elementary school cheered when they learned the president had been assassinated.

Barker was furious.

“The kids were first graders, cheering because school was being let out, not because the president was dead, but that's not the way it came out.”

Barker threw Rather and the entire CBS crew out of his newsroom.

"Out! Get out of my newsroom, right now!” Barker ordered.

[ctaylors6]

37. thank you for posting this. it is an oft-repeated false story

[sam kane]

54. never heard this.nt.

nt.

[defendandprotect]

82. Never heard this story, either -- thank you!

[bertman]

61. Here's a TRUE STORY from that awful day. I was in typing class in high school

in North Carolina in a very conservative, anti-Kennedy town when the announcement came over our school intercom that the President had been shot.

For a moment there was stunned silence in a room full of 16- to 18-year olds.

Then there was a loud cheer from one of my classmates who began applauding. The teacher and a number of students expressed their anger that he did what he did and he stopped, but he was going on about how glad he was that somebody had killed Kennedy. Later, in the halls after school there were a lot of other students expressing their feelings that it was a good thing that somebody had killed Kennedy ranging from 'he's a Catholic', to 'he's a nigger lover', to 'he's a communist'.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there were schoolkids cheering in Dallas and many other southern cities when Kennedy was shot. Many white southerners HATED him with a red-hot passion.

If you weren't living during that time you can't imagine how hateful the rhetoric was when America's first Catholic President was elected. The rich white man with the Boston accent stirred a primal anger in many who considered themselves god-fearing protestant whites. I know because, sad to say, many in my family and many of my friends hated the man and everything he stood for.

[defendandprotect]

83. In the end, however, don't you have to come back to ....

"You have to be taught to hate and fear -- you have to be

carefully taught!" -- ???

After all, slavery couldn't have existed in the South without

the spreading of myths of African "inferiority" and the instilling

of hatred among whites for the African. And for the final authority

of these claims -- all based on Bibical teachings!

Without the teaching of racism, elites would have no whites to fight their Civil

War for them!

And, like many other landmines elites set within our societies and nations to

keep citizens divided, racism is just one more tool which enables them to exploit

and profit.

[socialist_n_TN]

72. Well, I don't know about TX schools, but..........

in Alabama there WAS cheering when it was announced that JFK had been killed. And we weren't let out of school. So the sentiment was there. There was a LOT of hatred for the Kennedys in the South at that time.

[me b zola]

25. Many thanks to Robert for speaking out

And reminding us all of the hate that killed his uncle is so similar to the hate that exists today. For "noted" journalists to question the fact that the atmosphere is toxic--and that it is, in fact, coming from the rw--is only contributing fertile ground for the hate to grow.

[midnight]

26. K&R....Washinton needs to buckel down, and end this violence in America and over in other countries.

[Horse with no Name]

28. K&R. n/t

[burning rain]

29. The weird thing about that is, JFK did nothing on civil rights,

He never even tried. He sold out to the South when it came to jury trials on the civil rights act of 1957, and courted the support of racist Southern Democrats on that basis. He was a genius for PR, though. He invited black entertainers to the White House when he got elected. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson, who got the work done, gets no credit. Oh... but John Kennedy was more handsome. The John Edwards of his time.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. +1 for Truth

JFK dragged his feet on Civil Rights BECAUSE of the Southern Democrats and despite the pleas of MLK. He sent in Federal Troops to the University of Alabama not for Civil Rights but as a show of strength as the Federal Government's (and Kennedy's) authority was being challenged by then Governor Wallace. Johnson could be an asshole but he was Speaker long enough to know how to gladhand the right people in order to push through his agenda. I wish Obama would read more FDR and LBJ history and less Reagan history.

[socialist_n_TN]

73. Sort of like Obama to my mind..........

Obama is NOT a socialist (trust me I KNOW socialist when I hear one) and I don't even think he's a liberal in his thinking, but this is what he's still demonized as by the RW. But just like JFK, the RW needs an enemy. If they don't have one in reality, they make one up.

[valerief]

51. Right! nt

[Poboy]

32. Recommend

[highplainsdem]

33. K&R

[drm604]

35. Like a time warp.

One man held a posterboard saying, "you a traitor ."

They couldn't spell back then either.

[TxVietVet]

38. These reichwing nutjobs are called conservanazis.

They are even creating their own terrorist organization, the teabaggers.
I remember all about that day in Dallas. I grew up in Texas. I remember, especially the baptist neighbors I had, complain the the Pope would be telling Kennedy on how to run the country. I didn't realize at the time that it was propaganda by the reich wingnuts that had lots of people stirred up.

The hatred for others in this country has really grown with the advent of hate radio with the conservnazi leadership preaching it's bu$hit every day. It's even on the 'christian' radio/tv. How f*cking sad is that.

Until there is a silencing of this rhetoric of hatred, it will happen again. I firmly believe that people, who believe the conservanazi bu$hit, knew that something like this would happen. I'm willing to be that idiots like palin, druggie limpballs, beckkk, hannity and a few of conservanazi idiots were smiling when they heard the news of Gifford's shooting. Probably hoping that more will follow.

Bring back the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. That will silence some of the conservanazis' bu$hit. :grr:

[CrispyQ]

40. This country is past due for an "examination of conscience."

k&r

[AspenRose]

46. This has been going on for a very long time. K&R

[mistertrickster]

56. Just finished a fantastic book--JFK and the Unspeakable

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-stone/jfk-and-the-unspeakable_b_243924.html

Tells a lot of what the Warren Commission "left out" like the assassination plot uncovered in Chicago (JFK canceled the trip at the last minute) just weeks before.

Makes a pretty convincing case that Oswald was working for the CIA, that the CIA tried to link Oswald to Russia and Cuba, so that when it all went down, the US could ratchet up hatred to benefit War, Inc.

Like so many other CIA plots, it had the opposite effect . . . although Johnson escalated Vietnam and cut off JFK's back channels to Khrushchev and Castro.

It took the hardline anti-communists 20 years (Reagan) to return to talk of a "winnable" nuclear war with the Evil Empire.

[indimuse]

58. yes! and the MIC! WAR TIME ALL THE TIME= THE REICHWING!

.........................................DON'T YOU REMEMBER ALL THE SCIENTIST,ETC, BROUGHT HERE FROM HITLER'S GANG...ANYONE?? GO DO YOUR HOME WORK! WE ARE IN TROUBLE!!

[indimuse]

60. WHO IZ NASA??

GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK!1

[Name removed]

64. Deleted message

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

[onethatcares]

65. the hate never stops from the rightwing.

they always need a country to takeover, a liberal to kill, and more money for war. It's been that way for a long time now, I'm beginning to believe we'll never stop the wars or the invasions by our country.

[WillyT]

68. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[catzies]

69. I had no idea. Will read up on this. Thanks for the link from HuffPo. n/t

[myrna minx]

70. K&R n/t

[newtothegame]

71. Article's a bit misleading. Implies JFK was a bleeding heart liberal, a 1960's Michael Moore...

constantly railing against the hard right in complete disregard of his personal reputation. He was nothing of the sort. I've read an awful lot of JFK biographies (only a few were worth the time) and I'd hesitate to even try to guess what political party he'd be in these days, because I truly don't know.

[defendandprotect]

74. Here's a link to the speech JFK would have given that day of his death .....

And, no better time to read it than today!

http://smu.edu/jfk/speechtext.asp

[BrightKnight]

75. The hate speech in the Texas media was excessive before the JFK assassination.

I am glad that others are making the connections. Right wing hate speech and assassination baiting are nothing new.

[eridani]

89. Dallas was THE Mecca for winger whackjobbery back then

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/4577-examination-of-conscience

Neither Beck, Hannity nor Savage nor the hate merchants at Fox News and talk radio can claim to have invented their genre. Toxic right-wing vitriol so dominated the public airwaves from the McCarthy era until 1963 that President Kennedy, that year, launched a citizen's campaign to enforce the Fairness Doctrine, which required accuracy and balance in the broadcast media. Students, civic and religious groups filed more than 500 complaints against right-wing extremists and hate-mongering commentators before the FCC.

The Dallas, Texas, airwaves were particularly radioactive; preachers and political leaders and local businessmen spewed extremist vitriol on the city's radio and TV stations, inflaming the passions of the city's legions of unhinged fanatics. There was something about the city - a rage or craziness, that, whether sensible or not, seemed to have set the stage for Jack's murder. The Voice of America, half an hour after the assassination, described Dallas as "the center of extreme right wing." The Texas town was such a seething cauldron of right-wing depravity that historian William Manchester portrayed it as recalling the final days of the Weimar Republic. "Mad things happened," reported Manchester. "Huge billboards screamed 'Impeach Earl Warren.'" Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas. Fanatical young matrons swayed in public to the chant "Stevenson's going to die - his heart will stop stop stop and he will burn burn burn!" The mercantile elite that ruled the city carefully cultivated the seeds of hate. Radical-right broadsides were distributed in public schools; the Kennedy name was booed in classrooms; junior executives who refused to attend radical seminars were blackballed and fired. Manchester continued:

Dallas had become the mecca for medicine show evangelists of the National Independence Convention, the Christian Crusades, the Minutemen, the John Birch Society and Patrick Henry Societies and the headquarters of right wing oil man H.L. Hunt and his dubious activities ... The city's mayor, Earl Carroll, a right wing co-founder of the John Birch Society, was known as 'the socialist mayor of Dallas' because he maintained his affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Dallas's oil and gas barons who routinely denounced JFK as a "comsymp" had unbottled the genie of populist rage and harnessed it to the cause of radical ideology, anti-government fervor and corporate dominion.