Caroline Kennedy Endorses Obama

Fresh on the heels of his massive win in South Carolina, Barack Obama can add Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement.

Writing in the New York Times Kennedy said Obama has the measure of her own father, John F. Kennedy:

“All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

I’m not sure this isn’t a bigger win for Obama than South Carolina itself.

 

Expert Disputes Bush Shooting Report

An expert witness has slammed the findings of RCMP complains commissioner Paul Kennedy exonerating Constable Paul Koester in the shooting death of Ian Bush.

Blood stain expert, Edmonton Constable Joseph Slemko, says Kennedy got it wrong on the evidence and in the way he dismissed Slemko’s conclusions. Kennedy said Slemko’s evidence was undermined because he did not agree that there had been a significant struggle between Bush and Constable Koester that preceded the shooting. That’s nonsense, says Slemko:

“I have never disputed that there was a physical altercation between Bush and Koester,” said Const. Slemko yesterday. “My opinons were directed at the point in time when the blood-letting injury was generated. That is what bloodstain pattern analysis is based upon – blood evidence.”

It sounds as though Commissioner Kennedy was grasping at straws, any straw, to get out from under Slemko’s expert evidence. It was essential for him to discredit Slemko’s evidence in order to uphold Koester’s account of how he came to shoot Bush in the back of the head.

Just what did this internationally-recognized blood expert find? He concluded that Koester was probably either at the side of Bush or behind the young man when he fired.

“Unlike the RCMP, I actually conducted a reconstruction with actual human models to try and prove or disprove Const. Koester’s version of the positioning in the context of the observed blood stain evidence. I was not able to prove his version and I am still waiting for someone to show me otherwise,” Const. Slemko said.

The blood pattern expert testified at the coroner’s inquest that there was no blood transfer evidence consistent with Const. Koester escaping out from Mr. Bush after he was shot. Kennedy concluded that Koester could have extracted himself from under the dead man’s body without getting even a trace of blood on him.

I don’t think Kennedy’s report is worth the paper it’s printed on. He has done backflips to get around critical evidence that doesn’t support his finding of justifiable homicide, a self-defence shooting.