Ted Kennedy has brain tumor

 

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) – U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, doctors treating him at Massachusetts General Hospital said Tuesday.

Kennedy, 76, was hospitalized Saturday morning after suffering a seizure at his family’s compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

“Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe,” according to a statement from the doctors treating the senator.

Family members reported Saturday that Kennedy was well enough later in the morning to call to say he would not be able to join them for lunch.

Kennedy had surgery in October to clear his carotid artery in hopes of preventing a stroke. Colleagues said he had recovered quickly and was working energetically recently. Watch

He suffers chronic back pain from injuries suffered in a plane crash in 1964.

Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 1962. He is one of only six senators in U.S. history to serve more than 40 years. He is known as a liberal champion of social issues such as health care, family leave and the minimum wage.

The usual course of treatment for Kennedy’s type of tumor includes radiation and chemotherapy,” the Boston doctors said.

“Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Senator Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis,” the doctors continued.

Read at CNNpolitics.com

McCain campaign issues lobbying challenge to Obama

 

by Mosheh Oinounou

SAVANNAH, GA — Facing repeated questions Monday about campaign transparency and adviser ties to lobbyists, the usually free-wheeling John McCain showed almost machine-like message discipline.

Below is a taste from the press conference this afternoon in Savannah:

Question: What was the impetus for the new lobbying policy?

McCain: “We have enacted the most comprehensive and most transparent policy concerning lobbyist activities and I challenge Senator Obama to adopt a similar policy.”

Question: Is this an inside-the-beltway issue? Do the American people care?

McCain: “It’s not so much that as we wanted to make sure there was an effective and comprehensive and transparent policy towards lobbyist, the most comprehensive and transparent of any presidential campaign in history, and I challenge Senator Obama to adopt the same policy.”

Question: Why did this policy take so long and are you confident we will see no more departures from your campaign?

McCain: “We have enacted the most comprehensive and transparent policy of any presidential campaign in history and I challenge Senator Obama to adopt the same policy.”

All told, by the end of the media availability McCain had described his new lobbyist policy as “comprehensive” seven times, “transparent” five times and challenged Obama to adopt his policy three times. The campaign is currently vetting all staff or lobbying ties after adopting a new policy last week that:

-no staffer can be a registered lobbyist or receive compensation from a lobbying firm.
-part-time volunteers must disclose ties to lobbyists
-no staffer can participate in a 527 or other independent group
-campaign staffers promise not to lobby a future McCain administration.

More to read..

Obama and the Jews

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama once said there has to be “an end” to the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank “that began in 1967.” Yikes!

Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama said that not only must Israel be secure, but that any peace agreement “must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people.” Yikes!

Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama once said “the establishment of the state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it.” Yikes! Yikes! Yikes!

Those are the kind of rumors one can hear circulating among American Jews these days about whether Barack Obama harbors secret pro-Palestinian leanings. I confess: All of the above phrases are accurate. I did not make them up.

There’s just one thing: None of them were uttered by Barack Obama. They are all direct quotes from President George W. Bush in the last two years. Mr. Bush, long hailed as a true friend of Israel, said all those things.

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