Democrats led us to places previously considered impossible.

It happened in December, 1968, over five years after JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

The funny thing... If Apollo 8 had landed on the moon, there would not have been an Earthrise. The moon is tidally locked to the Earth. That's why we see only one side of the moon. If you stand on the moon on the Earth side, the Earth would be forever in the same spot in the sky. There would never, ever be an Earthrise. The only way to see an Earthrise from the moon is if one was orbiting the moon.

A great, and inspirational photograph. I wish the Apollo 8 astronauts hadn't messed it all up by quoting Genesis in the Bible. They should have quoted Newton, or Galileo, or my favorite, fucking Archimedes (? BCE - 212 BCE): "Give me a place to stand and I will raise the world." Now that quote would inspire well beyond Iron Age legend.

Nevertheless, I remember that day like it was today.

I'm pretty sure Poppy Bush was responsible for that murder. And Oswald was just what he claimed to be - a patsy.

Family Of Secrets by Russ Baker

1960: To the Moon in a decade!

2014: Who needs bombing now? Russia? Syria? Let's bomb them all! The ones "we" can't bomb, "we" overthrow

It's *incredibly* sad and depressing, Just as soon as I can get a job in another country (or can afford it) I'm probably done with the US. It's a different country now. America was an Idea, not a place and the once great country can be rebuilt, if not here, maybe somewhere else.

1961: Kennedy sends US troops to Vietnam.
1964: Johnson escalates US involvement in Vietnam.

We aren't much different now than we were then. But it's easy to view the past with rose-tinted glasses.

The FBI informant was friends with George de Mohrenschildt, Oswald's Handler.

That was the last time that the big aerospace companies allowed that to happen.

Guess why we haven't been back?

Around 1980, I was hearing from people working for Rockwell International in Tulsa, that, we could go to the moon again, but: "It would take twice as long and cost twice as much!"

but it is so different

Remarks Intended for Delivery to the Texas Democratic State Committee in the Municipal Auditorium in Austin, November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy
November 22, 1963

One hundred and eighteen years ago last March, President John Tyler signed the Joint Resolution of Congress providing statehood for Texas. And 118 years ago this month, President James Polk declared that Texas was a part of the Union. Both Tyler and Polk were Democratic Presidents. And from that day to this, Texas and the Democratic Party have been linked in an indestructible alliance--an alliance for the promotion of prosperity, growth, and greatness for Texas and for America.

Next year that alliance will sweep this State and Nation.

The historic bonds which link Texas and the Democratic Party are no temporary union of convenience. They are deeply embedded in the history and purpose of this State and party. For the Democratic Party is not a collection of diverse interests brought together only to win elections. We are united instead by a common history and heritage--by a respect for the deeds of the past and a recognition of the needs of the future. Never satisfied with today, we have always staked our fortunes on tomorrow. That is the kind of State which Texas has always been--that is the kind of vision and vitality which Texans have always possessed--and that is the reason why Texas will always be basically Democratic.

For 118 years, Texas and the Democratic Party have contributed to each other's success. This State's rise to prosperity and wealth came primarily from the policies and programs of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. Those policies were shaped and enacted with the help of such men as the late Sam Rayburn and a host of other key Congressmen--by the former Texas Congressman and Senator who serves now as my strong right arm, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson--by your present United States Senator, Ralph Yarborough--and by an overwhelming proportion of Democratic leadership at the State and county level, led by your distinguished Governor, John Connally.

It was the policies and programs of the Democratic Party which helped bring income to your farmers, industries to your cities, employment to your workers, and the promotion and preservation of your natural resources. No one who remembers the days of 5-cent cotton and 30-cent oil will forget the ties between the success of this State and the success of our party.

Three years ago this fall I toured this State with Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, and Ralph Yarborough as your party's candidate for President. We pledged to increase America's strength against its enemies, its prestige among its friends, and the opportunities it offered to its citizens. Those pledges have been fulfilled. The words spoken in Texas have been transformed into action in Washington, and we have America moving again.

Here in Austin, I pledged in 1960 to restore world confidence in the vitality and energy of American society. That pledge has been fulfilled. We have won the respect of allies and adversaries alike through our determined stand on behalf of freedom around the world, from West Berlin to Southeast Asia--through our resistance to Communist intervention in the Congo and Communist missiles in Cuba--and through our initiative in obtaining the nuclear test ban treaty which can stop the pollution of our atmosphere and start us on the path to peace. In San José and Mexico City, in Bonn and West Berlin, in Rome and County Cork, I saw and heard and felt a new appreciation for an America on the move--an America which has shown that it cares about the needy of its own and other lands, an America which has shown that freedom is the way to the future, an America which is known to be first in the effort for peace as well as preparedness.

In Amarillo, I pledged in 1960 that the businessmen of this State and Nation--particularly the small businessman who is the backbone of our economy--would move ahead as our economy moved ahead. That pledge has been fulfilled. Business profits--having risen 43 percent in 2 years--now stand at a record high; and businessmen all over America are grateful for liberalized depreciation for the investment tax credit, and for our programs to increase their markets at home as well as abroad. We have proposed a massive tax reduction, with particular benefits for small business. We have stepped up the activities of the Small Business Administration, making available in the last 3 years almost $50 million to more than 1,000 Texas firms, and doubling their opportunity to share in Federal procurement contracts. Our party believes that what's good for the American people is good for American business, and the last 3 years have proven the validity of that proposition.

In Grand Prairie, I pledged in 1960 that this country would no longer tolerate the lowest rate of economic growth of any major industrialized nation in the world. That pledge has been and is being fulfilled. In less than 3 years our national output will shortly have risen by a record $100 billion--industrial production is Up 22 percent, personal income is up 16 percent. And the Wall Street Journal pointed out a short time ago that the United States now leads most of Western Europe in the rate of business expansion and the margin of corporate profits. Here in Texas--where 3 years ago at the very time I was speaking, real per capita personal income was actually declining as the industrial recession spread to this State--more than 200,000 new jobs have been created, unemployment has declined, and personal income rose last year to an all time high. This growth must go on. Those not sharing in this prosperity must be helped. And that is why we have an accelerated public works program, an area redevelopment program, and a manpower training program, to keep this and other States moving ahead. And that is why we need a tax cut of $11 billion, as an assurance of future growth and insurance against an early recession. No period of economic recovery in the peacetime history of this Nation has been characterized by both the length and strength of our present expansion--and we intend to keep it going.

In Dallas, I pledged in 1960 to step up the development of both our natural and our human resources. That pledge has been fulfilled. The policy of "no new starts" has been reversed. The Canadian River project will provide water for 11 Texas cities. The San Angelo project will irrigate some 10,000 acres. We have launched 10 new watershed projects in Texas, completed 7 others, and laid plans for 6 more. A new national park, a new wildlife preserve, and other navigation, reclamation, and natural resource projects are all under way in this State. At the same time we have sought to develop the human resources of Texas and all the Nation, granting loans to 17,500 Texas college students, making more than $17 million available to 249 school districts, and expanding or providing rural library service to 600,000 Texas readers. And if this Congress passes, as now seems likely, pending bills to build college classrooms, increase student loans, build medical schools, provide more community libraries, and assist in the creation of graduate centers, then this Congress will have done more for the cause of education than has been done by any Congress in modern history. Civilization, it was once said, is a race between education and catastrophe--and we intend to win that race for education.

In Wichita Falls, I pledged in 1960 to increase farm income and reduce the burden of farm surpluses. That pledge has been fulfilled. Net farm income today is almost a billion dollars higher than in 1960. In Texas, net income per farm consistently averaged below the $4,000 mark under the Benson regime; it is now well above it. And we have raised this income while reducing grain surpluses by one billion bushels. We have, at the same time, tackled the problem of the entire rural economy, extending more than twice as much credit to Texas farmers under the Farmers Home Administration, and making more than 100 million dollars in REA loans. We have not solved all the problems of American agriculture, but we have offered hope and a helping hand in place of Mr. Benson's indifference.

In San Antonio, I pledged in 1960 that a new administration would strive to secure for every American his full constitutional rights. That pledge has been and is being fulfilled. We have not yet secured the objectives desired or the legislation required. But we have, in the last 3 years, by working through voluntary leadership as well as legal action, opened more new doors to members of minority groups--doors to transportation, voting, education, employment, and places of public accommodation--than had been opened in any 3-year or 30-year period in this century. There is no noncontroversial way to fulfill our constitutional pledge to establish justice and promote domestic tranquillity, but we intend to fulfill those obligations because they are right.

In Houston, I pledged in 1960 that we would set before the American people the unfinished business of our society. That pledge has been fulfilled. We have undertaken the first full-scale revision of our tax laws in 10 years. We have launched a bold new attack on mental illness, emphasizing treatment in the patient's own home community instead of some vast custodial institution. We have initiated a full-scale attack on mental retardation, emphasizing prevention instead of abandonment. We have revised our public welfare programs, emphasizing family rehabilitation instead of humiliation. And we have proposed a comprehensive realignment of our national transportation policy, emphasizing equal competition instead of regulation. Our agenda is still long, but this country is moving again.

In El Paso, I pledged in 1960 that we would give the highest and earliest priority to the reestablishment of good relations with the people of Latin America. We are working to fulfill that pledge. An area long neglected has not solved all its problems. The Communist foothold which had already been established has not yet been eliminated. But the trend of Communist expansion has been reversed. The name of Fidel Castro is no longer feared or cheered by substantial numbers in every country. And contrary to the prevailing predictions of 3 years ago, not another inch of Latin American territory has fallen prey to Communist control. Meanwhile, the work of reform and reconciliation goes on. I can testify from my trips to Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa Rica that American officials are no longer booed and spat upon south of the border. Historic fences and friendships are being maintained. Latin America, once the forgotten stepchild of our aid programs, now receives more economic assistance per capita than any other area of the world. In short, the United States is once more identified with the needs and aspirations of the people to the south, and we intend to meet those needs and aspirations.

In Texarkana, I pledged in 1960 that our country would no longer engage in a lagging space effort. That pledge has been fulfilled. We are not yet first in every field of space endeavor, but we have regained worldwide respect for our scientists, our industry, our education, and our free initiative.

In the last 3 years, we have increased our annual space effort to a greater level than the combined total of all space activities undertaken in the 1950's. We have launched into earth orbit more than 4 times as many space vehicles as had been launched in the previous 3 years. We have focused our wide-ranging efforts around a landing on the moon in this decade. We have put valuable weather and communications satellites into actual operation. We will fire this December the most powerful rocket ever developed anywhere in the world. And we have made it clear to all that the United States of America has no intention of finishing second in outer space. Texas will play a major role in this effort. The Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston will be the cornerstone of our lunar landing project, with a billion dollars already allocated to that center this year. Even though space is an infant industry, more than 3,000 people are already employed in space activities here in Texas, more than $100 million of space contracts are now being worked on in this State, and more than 50 space-related firms have announced the opening of Texas offices. This is still a daring and dangerous frontier; and there are those who would prefer to turn back or to take a more timid stance. But Texans have stood their ground on embattled frontiers before, and I know you will help us see this battle through.

In Fort Worth, I pledged in 1960 to build a national defense which was second to none--a position I said, which is not "first, but," not "first, if," not "first, when," but first--period. That pledge has been fulfilled. In the past 3 years we have increased our defense budget by over 20 percent; increased the program for acquisition of Polaris submarines from 24 to 41; increased our Minuteman missile purchase program by more than 75 percent; doubled the number of strategic bombers and missiles on alert; doubled the number of nuclear weapons available in the strategic alert forces; increased the tactical nuclear forces deployed in Western Europe by 60 percent; added 5 combat ready divisions and 5 tactical fighter wings to our Armed Forces; increased our strategic airlift capabilities by 75 percent; and increased our special counter-insurgency forces by 600 percent. We can truly say today, with pride in our voices and peace in our hearts, that the defensive forces of the United States are, without a doubt, the most powerful and resourceful forces anywhere in the world.

Finally, I said in Lubbock in 1960, as I said in every other speech in this State, that if Lyndon Johnson and I were elected, we would get this country moving again. That pledge has been fulfilled. In nearly every field of national activity, this country is moving again--and Texas is moving with it. From public works to public health, wherever Government programs operate, the past 3 years have seen a new burst of action and progress--in Texas and all over America. We have stepped up the fight against crime and slums and poverty in our cities, against the pollution of our streams, against unemployment in our industry, and against waste in the Federal Government. We have built hospitals and clinics and nursing homes. We have launched a broad new attack on mental illness and mental retardation. We have initiated the training of more physicians and dentists. We have provided 4 times as much housing for our elderly citizens, and we have increased benefits for those on social security.

Almost everywhere we look, the story is the same. In Latin America, in Africa, in Asia, in the councils of the world and in the jungles of far-off nations, there is now renewed confidence in our country and our convictions.

For this country is moving and it must not stop. It cannot stop. For this is a time for courage and a time for challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the Nation, and, indeed., to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom.

So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake. Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause--united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future--and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.

SOURCE: JFK Presidential Library

We who remember know how different this world could be if JFK and his successors were able to continue using the powers of government -- from public education to public works -- to build a more prosperous nation for ALL. Because we knew that kind of nation is why we continue to try to make this a better one. It's the Good Fight.

It just doesn't make sense considering all that Sam did for the area, the state, and the country.

Thank you so much for inserting this intended speech by JFK on the last day of his life.

I remember. I was a young teenager at that time. A pall fell over our HS after the announcement was made over the intercom, basketball game was canceled, and we all ran home from school to watch Walter Cronkite. The nation wept for days.

Octafish is irreplaceable. I have learned so much from him.

Hifiguy, you're pretty special yourself.

The Day the Music Died, dubbed so by a lyric in the Don McLean song "American Pie", is a reference to the deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959. Pilot Roger Peterson was also killed.(wikipedia{)

the lines "And the three men I admired most\The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost\They all caught the last train\For the coast" is a reference to JFK, MLK, Jr. and RFK.

That allegorical ambiguity is one reason why McLean's song still has such power, along with the assonance in "Bye" and "Pie". Just a thought from an erstwhile amateur poet and pro-am songwriter

On Nov. 22, 1963, the national security state demonstrated who runs the nation and it isn't "We the People." Realpolitik (Might Makes Right) beat out Idealism (New Frontier), leading to the present day's "Money Trumps Peace" mentality.

Because President Kennedy was working to keep the peace by going around the warmongers -- at the Bay of Pigs, in refusing to launch World War III, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in Vietnam and Southeast Asia -- key figures in the national security state evidently found the President himself to represent threat to national security. Therefore, to protect America, they did what they saw as the "patriotic" thing.

It's clear from the attempts on JFK's life in the weeks leading up to Dallas -- in Chicago and Miami -- that the FBI and Secret Service were not doing what they should to protect the President's life. Some in CIA and the Pentagon all they could to tie Lee Harvey Oswald to the communists, even fabricating evidence the guy was Castro and Krushchev's stooge, a story repeated to the present day.

James Douglass detailed the above in "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters." Interestingly, all of the above also can be found in the DU, DU2 and DU3 archives, as well, posted by DUers who give a damn.

It seems to me that today's Wall Street on the Potomac Set, having no real global enemies or domestic challengers, would act murderously to protect their privileged positions and bank accounts from a clear and present danger. Otherwise, they wouldn't talk about wars without end, let alone defunding public education, with a straight face.

During the Berlin Crisis and later during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The military never forgave him for that.

I have read that there have been forces in the Pentagon and MIC that have advocated for, at least a first strike capability, since the invention of the atomic bomb. In this historical context, both the MIRVed ICBMs and the Strategic Defense Initiative at least look like attempts to built a first strike capability.

Those who remember are wearing out physically. Give us another few years, another generation, and too much is forgotten.

"He who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past"

The right wing is in control of the present...to a large degree, and they will seek complete control.
Then that generation will learn that Reagan was a saint and Ayn Rand a profit...and JFK was killed by a communist.

From the motorcade that day it's clear presidential security wasn't paramount.



This was in Dallas on the way to Dealey Plaza. The people I've shown these photos to were surprised they had not seen them before.



If not us Democrats telling this story, it will be left to Hannity, O'Reilly and Limbaugh and their paymasters to tell it.

Thank you for grokking, Lars39.

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

-President Eisenhower, January 17, 1961

How War Made the Bush Family Rich

I know most people think there's no way America could put another Bush in the WH. But look at MSM. They're working overtime to try to paint that PNAC warmonger as a "moderate." It could happen; we need to work overtime to stop it.

Drunk? High? Or just high on their ill-gotten and undeserved power and wealth?

I'd give his message more credence if he had said it at the beginning of his 8 years in office and done something about it instead of waiting until his last speech.

He had an opportunity in the wake of that trashing of democracy to rein them in. Instead we saw the same damn thing happen to Arbenz in Guatemala the following year.

With Ike, it was just words. But with JFK, NSAM 55 and 57 are the proof he really was trying before they murdered him.

If things had gone according to plan, Nixon would've been president during the Bay of Pigs and would've sent in the Marines, along with the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, making Allen Dulles and Meyer Lansky and all their rich and corrupt friends very, very happy.

Details on the actual sit-down:



Yet, the Mighty Wurlitzer plays the false tune that Kennedy was the guy who wanted Castro dead.



Which to an amateur detective interested in justice would seem like a lead worth pursuing.

There have been many changes since I was 14 - and some have actually been good changes, it must be said. Civil rights, women's rights, LGBT rights - not finished, not won once and for all, but certainly moved a good distance forward from where they were in 1963.

Yes, I remember how the world was back then, and have done my best to pass on my memories to my children. That's how memories are passed on, from one generation to the next.

and the announcement of the Kennedy shooting popped up. I was amazed that the tears started rolling from the familiar sounds of that period of time. The long days and nights glued to the TV for further news...those days when the world stood still and we all were so devastated.

I was truly surprised that after all these years, I couldn't stop the tears. What a profound and horrible event.

Using the crook's own White House tapes made clear that evil men now run the show. If you get the chance, please give the documentary a viewing. It is absolutely chilling to hear Nixon say he's OK with murder.

http://www.hbo.com/#/schedule/detail/Nixon+By+Nixon:+In+His+Own+Words/556679

For those new to the subject, background:

Nixon approved hiring a Secret Service man who said he'd 'kill on command' to guard Ted Kennedy. You can hear Nixon and Haldeman discuss it, about 40 minutes into the HBO documentary "Nixon by Nixon." While I had read the part of the transcript available years ago, and wrote about it on DU, almost no one I know has heard anything about it.

Why does that news from Dallas affect us so, 51 years later, Frustratedlady? We who remember those days know how different the present age would be.

I believe: For one, money would not trump peace. For two, justice and prosperity would be for all, not just the well-off. For three, We the People would be know what our government is doing, not the other way around.

You ARE the JEWEL of DU.

Thank you for all of your posts.

PLEASE, please, please...keep on posting.

I was dumbfounded to see someone on this board make posts where they tried to pass off Tricky Dicky as a liberal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfrigging believeable!

I too, remember those times, and continue to abhor all that has come after.

Those of us who DO remember what we were trying to accomplish back then need to keep on speaking out.

My deepest kudos and respect to you, Octafish.

I won't be alive to hear it, but it will come out. Maybe after Poppa is gone? I have never believed any of the reports/theories and never will.

Too many people have been too protected for too long.

nt

nt

reflecting on when Progressives provided opportunity for people to stay out from under the heels of the many bastards around them. Today we have more people in poverty than there were in 1960, over 10 million added during this administration alone, families with children who will likely live the rest of their lives in poverty. And that accomplishment is hardly even mentioned, as if they are invisible.

Some of us look back to when governing was for the benefit of the people, not something run by neo-liberals and traitors to the country for the benefit of the banksters and corporations that donate to their political parties.

Clue.

Which people?

And comparing Obama in a negative light to past Democratic Presidents (who lest we forget, were all white men, and in the 20th century, all of whom more or less consistently had strong Democratic Congresses to pass their agendas-except, of course, for Bill Clinton, but he's hardly considered a liberal hero) is just stupid at best, reactionary at worst.

Actually, look up "reactionary" in the dictionary.



http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reactionary

in poverty by these policies are?

Feel free to look up - you seem to think that's important - Stress Test by Timothy McVei.. I mean Geithner (I get my killers mixed up) - ex treasury secretary. Read the plan we are currently under, how they decided to make the banks wealthy on the backs of these hungry kids.

And while you are looking things up , look up his interview with Jon Stewart,. Stewart said "The perception is that you went to hell and back for the banks, but not for the people". So "Killer" tried to start spinning, whereupon the voters in the audience laughed in his deserving face for the spin he tried to place on this tragedy.

If you believe I am reactionary for what I said - GOOD.

The people who make excuses for today are nothing but the old white men - and women - from prior days who profited on the backs of others.

You won't have anything else I want to read.

I was 20 years old in 1963 and in the military stationed in Texas...I know what went on.

And things have drastically changed sense then...some for the better but as a whole this is a much meaner and narcissistic society we live in now...and full of violence that would have shocked people way back then.

You being young have no idea because this is all you know, and history is just a few, very few facts in a book.

thanks for saying that...I remember.

jtuck004 is no 'reactionary' as you have defined it, although he may well be nostalgic.

there are ways to improve on what we have and lessons on what can go wrong.

The mysteries regarding JFK's death is one of those things we do not understand. Who did it is to search for our enemies that may still be with us now but we do not have the proof.

Where do you come up with ideas to fix this mess? Have you forgotten that we have been in situations like this before? The Great Depression? I am a FDR Democrat and I thoroughly believe that we can and should believe learn for that era.

Dwell on the past - no we study the present as much as we do the past. They cannot be separated.

The problems of the past create the present.
The problems of the present create the future.
In order to improve your future you must fix the problems from the past.
For the problems from the past become the future.
If the problems from the past are reflected upon in the present and repaired
The future will change for the better.

It is remembering, so we can fix our present and our future.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

More Santayana

"Injustice in this world is not something comparative; the wrong is deep, clear, and absolute in each private fate."

"Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit."

"The Bible is literature, not dogma."

"Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge."

"My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests."

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."

Ha! I couldn't resist. Here have a song from the er... past;

lessons of history.mp3

But not all that surprising, since it's been a long time since the Dem Party lost its way and lurched to the Right on so many very important issues.

Why would any Dem not WANT to be reminded of what the party used to be about, Civil Rights, Social Safety nets for all Americans, a future envisioned where the country didn't spend all its resources on WARS and where the Environment MATTERED?

People are NOT 'obsessing' over the PAST, they are focusing on what has not been ACCOMPLISHED all these years later.

Tell you what, when the Democratic/Progressive/Liberal checklist has even half the list checked off, then it will be time to move to the rest of the list.

But going backwards, where Corporations rule the parties, see what FDR had to say about that eg, we clearly have a whole lot of UNFINISHED work to do.

Btw, are you in the habit of 'moving forward' from personal projects that were interrupted for whatever reason, projects that seriously affect you future, just because you set those goals a few years ago?

I'm for sticking to goals until they are accomplished. I'm definitely against taking one step forward and two backwards, because that is a recipe for failure.

Sarajevo, June 28, 1914


Prague, May 29, 1942


Dallas, November 22,1963

People who know the history are better able to recognize such connections that do so much to change the course of, uh, progress.

It was great if you were a white man---otherwise, it really sucked. We've made progress, but not nearly enough.

Secret Service didn't like African Americans in 1963. So, President Kennedy, personally, integrated the White House detail.

Former U.S. Secret Service Agent Abraham BOLDEN was the first African American Secret Service agent to serve in the White House, personally appointed and literally hand-picked by President John F. Kennedy to the White House detail. Agent Abraham Bolden reported overt racism by his fellow agents and outright hostility toward the "n------loving president," quoting fellow Secret Service agents on the JFK detail.

In addition to enduring all manner of personal indignities, he was concerned at the lack of professionalism in those assigned to protect the president and reported his concerns. He was told, "OK. Thanks" by his superiors. When the problems weren't addressed, Bolden requested transfer back to the Secret Service office in Chicago.



Abraham Bolden speaks at JFK Lancer.



The story of a man who told the truth:



After the assassination, he went to Washington on his own dime and reported what he saw to the Warren Commission. For his trouble -- and despite an exemplary record as a Brinks detective, Illinois State Trooper, and Secret Service agent -- Bolden was framed by the government using a paid informant's admitted perjury and spent a long time in prison. The government also drugged him and put him into psychiatric hospitals.His real crime was telling the truth.

Americans know the Truth: the country hasn't been the same since Nov. 22, 1963. President Kennedy kept the nation out of Vietnam and started toward the moon. Imagine what the New Frontier could have become for us today? Certainly would not be a time where "money trumps peace."

A couple of generations now don't know we once had free or affordable college education, minimum wage you could actually live on, overtime for more than 40 hours work a week, no homeless because the disabled and mentally ill had access to help and so much more.

... the day the future died.

when the announcement was made. I remember the horror on everyone's faces.

My father hated the Kennedys with a passion.

I'm so glad I turned out to be a Kennedy loving liberal!

Seems to me these fond memories are at least partially the result of rose colored glasses from what understanding I do have of American history.

try to assassinate Castro, even after the catastrophe of the Bay of Pigs.

And, speaking of assassinations, there is that tiny little matter of the freres Diem of Vietnam, the senior of whom was deposed in a U.S.-sponsored coup and then extra-judicially executed some three weeks before that fateful November day in Dallas.

I've often wondered whether one of these two men might have had motive to retaliate. I think the word for it is 'blowback.' (In Diem's case, he would have learned of American desires to see him deposed from his brother's intelligence networks. Those American efforts had been going on throughout the summer of 1963.)

They also forget that Kennedy would be considered a Cold War Hawk by today's standards.

right in 1960 with all the B.S. about a 'missile gap' to the U.S.' disadvantage). But I believe he grew and grew mightily once in office. Having the spooks and war pigs lie to him about Cuban popular support for the overthrow of Castro helped to take the scales off his eyes. And then, having to do secret back-channel negotiations with Khrushchev during the Missile Crisis because those same spooks and war pigs wanted to trigger World War III by attacking Cuba 'per-emptively' probably helped move JFK's evolution along even further.

Had he turned into a Beatnik? No. Did he show signs of moving towards enlightenment? Hell to the yes.

We shall never know what 1964 and a second term might have brought, more's the pity. And that's part of what makes it all so fucking sad.

Eisenhower was president when Dulles hired the Mafia to kill Castro -- 1960. If things had gone according to plan, Nixon would've been president during the Bay of Pigs and would've sent in the Marines, along with the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, making Allen Dulles and Meyer Lansky and all their rich and corrupt friends very, very happy.

Details on the actual sit-down:



Yet, the Mighty Wurlitzer plays the false tune that Kennedy was the guy who wanted Castro dead.



Which to an amateur detective interested in justice would seem like a lead worth pursuing.

Kennedy ordered a rapproachment with Castro. Others in government worked against him.



The National Security Archive at George Washington University has the story:



This is a story I don't see mentioned very often online, rarely in print, and never on television. I believe it's a good thing for Democrats to know, as well as all people who are interested in making peace and building a better world.

There was Before and After.

What you perceive as rose colored glasses are really a mist of tears in the hearts of those of us who were young then, with a young president. He made us believe in the possibilities of our future, from civil rights to outer space to the Peace Corps. He was a human being with human flaws, like the ones murdered after him -- they were not some collection of plaster saints, but men who strove toward a mighty dream and made mistakes along the way. Heroes are not saints.

Like 9-11, the murders of our heroes (JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, and others) were a wound in our national generational psyche. Unlike 9-11, we didn't throw away our Constitutional rights with both hands in the name of some illusory security, but got up and continued the fight for Civil Rights, women's rights, pro-peace, anti-Bush-Cheney, and all the rest, right up until the struggle to get the first African-American elected President.

On this day, we who were young then look back and remember being young, with our hopes and dreams before us and a dashing young president pointing the way, and we grieve for what was lost.

Yet our work is not done and never will be; though at some point we will tire and die, and by the gods your generation is going to have to do the job. Are you up to it?

"Not to know what took place before you were born is to remain forever a child."

and lived in Washington... I will never forget that weekend or the world and world of possibilities at that time.

Over my lifetime, I have collected books, magazines, news clippings, CDs, etc on JFK; and last year was a bonanza as I bought all the memorabilia of the man and the time on the 50th anniversary. I point this out because my grown son (one of those who never knew that era) has asked why I am so fixated on JFK. I have explained to him that those 1,000 days of the JFK presidency represented a special time in history. Everything changed after he was killed... sadly, the warmongers and imperialists won. I also tell him that when my generation passes on, the living history of JFK and that special time will be relegated to dry history texts. And they are not the same...

more than other years for some reason.

I think I remember coming home from kindergarten and my mother was talking about it.Anybody younger than that is too young to remember. 56 years. Wow.

Nothing has been the same since, and it's been all downhill since.

really that big of a loss. Sure JFK was likable and gave great speeches but actually changed very little. It's sad he got killed like he did but there's nothing stopping us from achieving now.

"Sure JFK was likable and gave great speeches" -- sounds like a RW talking point about Obama, as I am sure you are aware.

He didn't seem to care about the poor or expanding government to help people. Kennedy was all about fighting the Cold War.

He was young and handsome, but you are right about his fighting the Cold War. He contributed to our involvement in Vietnam, and his VP choice made the situation far worse.

He appeared to be another self entitled elitists that declare for themselves the right to tell people on the other side of the world how they should live their lives.

A lot of dreamers have fabricated his life, and also his death.

I'm sure you at least know that much. The USSR was extremely aggressive -- there's a reason Putin raises my hackles.

JFK instituted the Peace Corps, which was not trivial. Started the space program. Encouraged rigorous exercise in schools (healthy body, healthy mind). Used competition with the USSR as a foil to get our public schools up to snuff, in all subject areas but especially in math and science -- there's good reason why people my age are absolutely stunned at the destruction of our public school system.

JFK had only 3 years in office, less than one term. He had a personality that engaged and inspired, but he had less than one term. Whatever he might have been, might have accomplished, we will never truly know. But his two younger brothers lived long enough to give us some idea, though RFK's life was also cut short in the wave of political assassinations that plagued us.

Being dismissive of what he was able to accomplish in that short time is a pose to cover ignorance of the times he lived in, among other things.

For FDR, I think his own paralysis and the growing hardship of the Depression had a profound effect on his worldview.

For JFK, the death of his newborn son and the fact that with the Cuban Missile Crisis we came close to incinerating millions of innocent children snapped him out of a suicidal Cold War mentality.

Sure he had peace corps and thought up medicaid but he didn't cut the deals necessary to get it done. That's why when it comes to domestic policy I prefer LBJ who we as a party still treat as a pariah over Vietnam.

The Gulf of Tonkin "incident" led to the introduction of combat troops a few weeks later, something JFK said he would never do -- send draftees in to fight another nation's civil war.

John M. Newman, in ''JFK and Vietnam,'' documented and chronicles the story. The Pentagon and CIA gave LBJ, as veep, a more accurate picture of what was happening in Vietnam than they provided JFK, as president.

Why? JFK said he would not get into a land war in Southeast Asia and he certainly was not going to place US draftees in the middle of Vietnam's civil war; Johnson did.

Funny in a police state sort of way how little of this gets mentioned in Corporate McPravda or LACKademia.

There was no stable government after that and the situation only got worse.

On his deathbed, E Howard Hunt blamed LBJ and called himself a "benchwarmer," on-call only if needed. What Hunt did not bring up:

While working for President Nixon, Hunt worked to blame the assassination of South Vietnamese president Diem on Kennedy by planting phony State Department cables in a White House safe when Nixon was president.



Hunt was a professional disinformationist.

Here may be what Hunt and CIA don't want brought up:

'Arrogant' CIA Disobeys Orders in Viet Nam



A bit of history from the last weeks of President Kennedy's life,
courtesy of The Education Forum by DUer John Simkin :

ADDENDUM from Education Forum writer:



Kennedy's approach to the problems of Vietnam and southeast Asia was very different from Eisenhower, as well as from Johnson and Nixon. His successors had no problem pulling the trigger, bringing in the ground troups to fight, and getting the nation into a war without knowing how or when to get out. Sounds familiar.



So, to prevent war...



Which didn't stop some circles from trying to kindle a conflagration...



And, as you wrote, craigmatic, there was no stable government after that in Vietnam. The place was ripe for looting.

I've heard people claim to be a Kennedy Democrat. And this week I read Jon Stewart describe Bill O'Reilly as one. Can't figure it out...

I was confused, too, so I looked it up:

Thanks for digging that up.

It's excerpted from an interview in Rolling Stone that I read here:

"But not all Fox News commentators are equal in Stewart’s eyes.  He considers O’Reilly to be more like a “Kennedy Democrat” who comes by his views honestly.  Not so with Hannity, whom Stewart describes as “probably the most loathsome dude over there.” He describes Hannity as espousing “pure cynicism”: “Everything is presented in as devious a manner as it could possibly be presented.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/18/fox_news_misleads_about_jon_stewart_sean_hannity_bill_oreilly_and_the_insane_new_partisanship/

I still don't know what a "Kennedy Democrat" is. And I don't like thinking BOR is one regardless.

You know, Democracy.

Maybe a blue dog?

JFK Conference: James DiEugenio made clear how Foreign Policy changed after November 22, 1963

As a Democrat, a DUer and as a citizen of the United States, I was proud to attend the 2013 Passing the Torch: An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy at Duquesne University. One of the many important things discussed there was what author, historian and teacher, James DiEugenio reported on the important change in foreign policy JFK represented from his predecessor and his successors, immediate and otherwise.



DiEugenio said President John F. Kennedy did not undergo a change of heart from Cold War hawk to liberal dove Democrat only after the hair-raising nuclear crises he experienced in office. "John F. Kennedy was never a Cold Warrior," DiEugenio said. Throughout his 16-year career in the House and Senate, President Kennedy sided with the People, Justice and Democracy -- across the United States and around the world. This is a world view radically different from Eisenhower, and his foreign policy makers, principally the Dulles Brothers and their allies, including young Dick Nixon.

The JFK Administration may have represented a break in the action, H20 Man's Father explained to him and I agree. It was a special interlude, indeed. In only 1,037 days, we launched the nation toward the moon, creating a new type of economy; maintained the peace when several times the heads of the military and the secret organs of the national security state counseled all-out war; and started the nation on a path where all men are equal under the law, no matter race, color, or creed, and justice extended to economics and health, as under FDR and the New Deal.

DiEugenio’s research shows President Kennedy was working to defend the interests of democracy over those of colonialism, not only in Europe, as evinced in divided Berlin, but in Africa, Asia, South America and around the world. During less than three years in office, Kennedy turned official U.S. support from that of Eisenhower and the Dulles Brothers for supporting US commercial and colonial interests over democracy, such as in Guatemala and Iran, to respect for the nations and their democratically elected leaders, like Lumumba and Sukarno. In matters of war and peace, JFK always sided with peace, making overtures to North Vietnam. The Dulles Brothers and Nixon sided with France and the colonial powers, even drawing up plans to nuke the North Vietnamese Army at Dien Bien Phu, Operation VULTURE.

The record shows JFK's Foreign Policy of democracy over colonialism was immediately reversed by Lyndon B. Johnson, who reversed course in Vietnam and supported the pro-colonialist forces in Congo, Vietnam, Brazil, Dominican Republic and elsewhere around the world. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and most who followed continued the Business-As-Usual, advancing the interests of Big Money, Big Oil and Big Wars for Profit.

One of the things I am most proud of is how Democratic Underground covered many of these salient points on its boards, from DU1 through the present day. At the Duquesne conference, I was listening and nodding, knowing that many times we had discussed this on DU. In looking back to one particularly important post through GOOGLE, I found we sourced this information back to DiEugenio. That's what the Internet can do: Spread Truth.

Why it matters.

Democracy depends on Truth. The Republic depends on Justice. That is, the reality that ours is a nation under law.

Once a criminal is, or criminals are, allowed to go free, Justice has been denied. We find ourselves operating under a falsehood, we are living a Big Lie.

We as a Nation have been on the criminal path since November 22, 1963.

DUers know you don’t need to read a history book or watch a tee vee special to know: It shows. Since 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin, it’s been a series of wars without end for profit. And in the process, the rich became super-rich -- the richest and most powerful people in history.

Keep spreading the Truth, nikto! The next 51 years can be different -- they can be decades of peace and prosperity for ALL: They can be Democratic.

We had just moved to California a few years earlier. We lived in a modest but nice house, my parents were good parents and much was right within my world.

But I also remember the Viet Nam war brewing. I remember parents that beat their children and men that beat their wives without it being challenged. I remember the KKK was far more prominent. I remember black people couldn't buy houses in certain neighborhoods and couldn't hold certain jobs. I remember women could only hold certain jobs and choose a few certain career paths. I could go on, but in short, there were good and bad things then, as there are now. They were just different things.

We changed in a HUGE way. Vietnam, followed by Civil Rights, followed closely by Women's Lib.

What I recall affecting me personally was Mary Tyler Moore showing up to work in a pants suit. It was a watershed moment. "Mary Richards" was a perfect blend of traditional and liberated. I kinda idolized her.

and everyone thereafter". That is what my Grandma said to me on my 15th Birthday. Very, very true, 50+ years later.

She said they made the announcement and everyone was just shocked.

this country/empire has been on a steady decline culturally, socially, racially, economically(for most citizens), culminating, so far, with the vote of Nov 4, 2014.

On that day I was in Escondido California. A woman crying and screaming ran up to me and thru her arms around me. I will always remember her words. They have killed the president.

The good ol' days!

Rare recording of MLK talking about JFK

(CNN) -- A previously unheard recording of Martin Luther King Jr. discussing John F. Kennedy will be played Monday in the place where the civil rights leader was assassinated.

King's comments are on a 53-year-old reel-to-reel tape discovered in a Tennessee attic several years ago. But the last several minutes are only now being made public.

The civil rights leader is heard discussing Kennedy's role in securing his release from a Georgia prison after he was sentenced to four months of hard labor for a traffic violation two weeks before the election that sent Kennedy to the White House.

Then-Sen. Kennedy placed a call to Coretta Scott King against the advice of close advisers, expressing his concern to King's wife. His brother, Robert Kennedy also called the Georgia judge who had sentenced King to the chain gang and denied him bond. King was freed the next day.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/us/mlk-kennedy-recording/

If there had been Twitter and FB that day. Imagine the theories that would have spread in minutes.

the vocal and visible activism of the 1960s I love the documentary "Berkeley in the 1960s" (1990). In the first 20 minutes it shows how the chest thumping anti-communist zeal of the 1950s created the idealism of the 1960s. It is as if all the talk of living in the greatest and freest country on earth made kids believe that it SHOULD BE.

A generation grew up believing in possibilities and believing that the freedoms of the Constitution are there for all and must be used or they will be squandered. Their disillusionment fueled the rage of the 1960s as they demanded that we should live up to our ideals. Recommended viewing for those who are interested: