A photo of Rep. Patrick Kennedy's car

[Kadie]

This just came up on Yahoo Photos! Haven't seen a pic of the car posted yet.


A green mustang reportedly belonging to Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I. is seen on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 5, 2006 The car was apparently involved in an early morning crash Thursday. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

[JDPriestly]

1. An early morning crash.

Was anyone injured? If not, these things happen.
He may simply have been very tired -- or not feeling well.

[radwriter0555]

45. I think we need a prayer thread for the car AND the man. How anyone lived

through that is a MIRACLE.

[radwriter0555]

46. What's that I see? The VIRGIN MARY in the dent? Look, to the right

and down a little...

[Liberal In Texas]

49. Man, that car is TOTALED!

:rofl:

[radwriter0555]

50. Bodies and wreckage EVERYWHERE.

My gawd, the horror of it all.

[Liberal In Texas]

52. There isn't enough left to load on a flat bed truck! Another Pic:

I'll bet they'll just sweep up the debris with a broom and put it in plastic bags!



Just look at it!

[Hubert Flottz]

2. Mein Gott!

How DID, he survive?

[malaise]

31. A perfect response

Who did he kill, injure, whatever? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[babylonsister]

3. What a travesty! I wonder if his insurance will cover all

that damage? Thank God he walked away! :eyes:

[kenny blankenship]

4. OMYGOD, he must have driven that off a bridge!

It's so hopelessly mangled, you can't tell which is the hood and which is the trunk! Clearly a case of driving while Kennedy.
(most of the cars in my town have that kind of damage from being bumped in supermarket parking lots)

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Do you live in a town full of alcoholics?

Or maybe of elderly people who really SHOULDN'T be driving?

(It seems to me that if 'most' of the cars anywhere have that kind of damage, even from low-speed collisions, there are a lot of people there who just can't fucking drive for one reason or another.)

[CatWoman]

7. backing. slowly. out. of. this. thread.

[berni_mccoy]

47. *SNARF* LOL!!!

:spray:

[kenny blankenship]

19. It's worse--much worse!

I live in Atlanta. It's not that they can't drive, it's just that they'd rather kill each other than live and drive in a safe, orderly fashion.

[pansypoo53219]

36. ooh yeah.

backing up and not checking. doing crazy things. but hey, a quick way to go and no nursing homes. IF it kills you. driving with a death wish i call it. pissy part they don't seem to care about the other driver.

[Kutjara]

21. I worked for a year in Naples, Italy, and...

...just about every car was damaged nearly as badly as that. It became a game for my colleagues to be the first one to spot a car that didn't have crumpled bumpers or bashed-in doors. A Neapolitan friend told me that having a dinged-up car was a badge of honor. It means you don't take any crap and people better get out of the way. Perhaps Kennedy is trying to cultivate a 'hard man' image. Or win the Italian vote.

[Maraya1969]

43. Come on down to SW Florida. They have a crash report everyday

and it is no big deal at all. They help you take different routes. If the crashes were bad and people routinely killed it would not be funny. But most of them make the cars look just like this one.

[eppur_se_muova]

57. Hell, most of the places I've lived recently were FULL of cars with worse.

Evidently no one bothers to repair them, as long as they're working. Why bother? The bills are huge, and if your insurance pays it, your rates go up.

When I lived in Maine, I once parked in a parking lot with TWO other cars in it. I came back out and found one other car left -- and a huge dent in my bumper. Not actual structural damage, mostly cosmentic, but still over $200 to repair, IIRC.

[Jim Warren]

13. Driving while Kennedy...........LOL

Too funny. And yeah, most of the cars in MY town look that way after they leave the shop.

[JDPriestly]

6. 2:45 a.m. -- No wonder!

Don't be so quick to judge. He may suffer from insomnia. It's a terrible affliction. We live such stressful lives. Apparently no one was hurt. Unless the facts turn out to be quite different from what he has said, he hasn't done anything wrong. Unless facts show otherwise, I'll bet stress is the problem here, not something illegal.

[JDPriestly]

9. OK! The truth and nothing but the truth.

I bumped my front fender into a poll yesterday. It was after work. I was extremely tired after a frustrating day. I was turning around in a filling station and barely moving, but still . . . . These things happen in the big city when you are doing all those things all day long that you really don't want to do and you never have a moment to just relax. This is no big deal.

[OzarkDem]

15. Did you take a breathalyzer test?

:evilgrin:

[JDPriestly]

61. I don't drink....period. I can't stand the stuff.

But I do get tired. And that is probably what happened to Kennedy. The drugs he took probably had little to do with what happened. He was probably tired. Being tired can have a terrible effect on your ability to drive.

[OzarkDem]

14. Agree, GOP leaders hold Dem members hostage, deprive them of sleep

Its a technique they probably learned from Ohio GOP - coerce and confuse Dem members during budget debates through a combination of parliamentary dirty tricks and sleep deprivation. They were negotiating the Defense Budget Bill in the House this week.

Seriously, the GOP asshats have learned to keep members in session for long hours, days at a time while they load budget bills with zillions of amendments, earmarks and pork, forcing sleep deprived Dems to vote on stuff they haven't even had a chance to read.

I recall two Dem legislator friends of mine talking about serving on the Conference Committee for Ohio's budget one year. They described being kept awake for long hours over weeks, with the final negotiation going non-stop for a week with each averaging about 3 hours of sleep a night. They never even had time to leave, but slept in their offices. At the end, the GOP brought in the final budget bill to the Dems at 3 am. The stack of paper was nearly two feet high. They said, "we split it (the stack of papers) in half and started reading. We didn't know everything that was in the bill until weeks later, after the Legislative Service Commission went through it."

[Botany]

8. But Fox News said this is what it looked like.

[babylonsister]

18. - - -

:spray: :rofl:

[Child_Of_Isis]

27. So did CNN. eom.

[slackmaster]

10. That'll buff right out

:dunce:

[Beausoir]

11. Gloria Borger said he SMASHED into a gate!

The humanity!

[Cha]

33. gloria borger needs to

have her head examined.

[originalpckelly]

12. MY GOD! THAT WAS AN AWFUL ACCIDENT! SURPRISED HE MADE IT!

This is what we're talking about? OMG! Dude, where's the damage? <-Meant to be said like Ashton Kutcher.


I am very angry with the police because they probably were thinking: OMG its Ted Kennedy's son, must be the same situation, lets protect him and not give him a sobriety test. Had they done it, if he was drunk he would have been thrown in jail like anyone else who is irresponsible enough to go out and get drunk, and if he wasn't he would have been completely exonerated.

No one deserves special privileges and there are reasons why it is bad to give them; in this case any way you look at it, special privileges were given and it hurt America, the Democratic Party as whole, and it hurt Representative Kennedy in the long run as well.

[Cooley Hurd]

16. What's amazing to me is that he drives a MUSTANG?

If I had some of that Kennedy loot, I'd be Porsche-ing it:


But, I'd probably do this to it:


;)

[kenny blankenship]

20. Yeah that was a little surprising

and that color...

[OzarkDem]

24. Made in the USA

Most Dem elected officials I know drive cars from US automakers, to satisfy their organized labor constituencies.

[RufusEarl]

17. Thats it? hell that could have happened in a parking lot!

The repugs are really grasping for anything to divert attention away from their screw ups, and the name Kennedy and booze will usually get TV coverage. What a bunch of schmucks, that would try to make this into a big deal.

[seabeyond]

40. this is what i was saying in another thread. wait for the info. if this

is it..... the people yelling for kennedy to admit drunk driving to save our reputation may wnat all the facts. we were led to believe it was a little bigger than this. i pulled out of a parking space to hit a pole, in an odd place in parking lot, blind side, .... if not preoccupied i i may have noticed it getting into car and remembered when pulling out. about that amount of damage.

i was going about two miles an hour.

are we really gonna rake kennedy over the coals without knowing the facts, in order to be " fair" to both sides. so "fair" we are unfair to kennedy.

and this is not knowing if he ahd been drinking or not. but what IF he really hadnt been drinking and us listening to a capitol hill police who wasnt there influenced what we demand of kennedy

[kma3346]

22. Sounds like prescription drugs were involved

"In a statement, Kennedy, D-R.I., said the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach and intestines."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_on_go_co/patrick_kennedy

My dad was on Phenergan while he was in the hospital a couple years ago and it really did a number on him. It knocked him out, affected his breathing, and it made him totally confused. He was even having conversations with people that weren't there! I made the doctor take him off of it (even though she assured me that it was perfectly safe). That is one nasty drug (at least it was for him).

That seems like a very strong drug for the "attending physician for Congress" to be prescribing......

[OzarkDem]

25. Thanks for the info

Docs treating Congress members probably are eager to please their patients and offer the newest, most potent drugs.

[vickitulsa]

56. My brother is a pharmacist, and I've taken Phenergan by prescription

in the past. Phenergan is actually an antihistamine, often given along with codeine or other opiate prescriptions to alleviate nausea caused by those (and some other) drugs.

Phenergan is also prescribed for a number of other ailments, including what's described in your post for Kennedy's health condition. However, Phenergan is not considered to be a "strong" medication and has been prescribed in huge numbers for many years with no adverse effects in most patients. Think of it as a lot like Sudafed, or suphedrine, or ephedrine. The active ingredient in Phenergan has also been sold OTC (over the counter) for many years. These common OTC meds can make some people VERY sleepy and cause drunk-like behavior, whereas many others take them with no unpleasant or unwanted side effects at all.

I had another experience altogether with Phenergan, like your father's, though. Since I am a pain patient who has had some difficulty with nausea from my pain meds, my doctor prescribed Phenergan a few years ago hoping to relieve me of that horrible nausea so I could take my pain meds without adding to my misery.

BAD reaction! Within hours, I began to hyperventilate, sweat buckets, and felt not only nauseated from the Phenergan but nearly pushed into a panic attack because I felt I couldn't get my breath! I was also so dizzy I staggered when I walked, just like a wiped-out drunk. It literally made me feel drunk. And that also occurred when I took ONLY the Phenergan and not my pain meds, checking to see if it was a combination of the two types of meds or the Phenergan alone that was causing the adverse reaction.

I discontinued it after two days, called my doc and reported my reaction, and he said Phenergan DOES indeed affect some patients that way and I was not to take any more of it. I had called my pharmacist brother before reporting to my doc, too, and he advised me my reaction to the Phenergan was not uncommon.

I heard one report this morning in the overblown coverage the news is giving to this story, which said Kennedy suffered from depression and had been prescribed anti-depressant medication, which can also in some people cause drowsy responses. Combine the Phenergan with an SSDI anti-D med, and you can easily get the sort of behavior some have described Kennedy as having the night of his car accident.

I don't favor special treatment for ANY government officials, but it happens, and we all know it. For a really minor incident where no one was hurt, however, it is shameful beyond belief that the so-called "NEWS" media are making such a big deal of this incident.

As some have said here, they're trying to use it to distract our population from the GOP's nightmare scandals that keep unfolding one after the other. Pretty pathetic when the only thing the Repugs and Bu$h&Co can do to try to get back some of their own base is to demonstrate that "Dems do bad things too!"

[blogslut]

23. how did you find that?

I've been using all kinds of keyword terms on yahoo photos and I can't get that pic. I mean, I know it's an AP photo cause of the link, I'm just wondering why I can't get that particular pic in a search...

[Kadie]

32. It is in the Top Stories slideshow...

It just came up when I posted it.

[blogslut]

35. got a link?

You know, with the pic and the caption?

[blogslut]

37. nevermind

I found it. I blogged about it and I like to have super-fancy linkage. ;)

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/705/im:/060505/480/83037f1fdcf54bf488ab57173321bac3;_ylt=AppID1CEknMPaJKO.QMX1_diWscF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-

[Kadie]

38. Sorry, I forgot to put the link in for you.

I was running late this morning. LOL Just got home.

[Grateful for Hope]

26. OMG!

Oh the damage!

:sarcasm:

[goclark]

28. That is a dent in my book

I thought it was a CRASH!

I did the same thing as this picture when I hit a poll leaving the Dentist Office last year.

[ananda]

44. I've had that kind of accident, too.

One time I was just driving in traffic, really slow, and just hit the brake a tad too late and ran into the back of a truck. The damage to my car was a small dent and a scratch, to the truck nothing.

Biggybiggydealdeal.

[wordpix]

29. LOL, no wonder repukes think this "bad accident" will save their asses

What a terrible accident! :sarcasm:

[central scrutinizer]

54. this is MUCH worse than the Abramoff and Cunningham scandals

[AtomicKitten]

30. this was described as massive damage by the media

the ever-compliant, GOP butt-smooching media.

[Judi Lynn]

34. Gee, I am so reminded of Republican Bill Janklow's accident

Of course Bill Janklow wasn't discussed NEARLY as much, apparently, as Patrick Kennedy! Funny how that works.



Fortunately, Republican Congressman Bill Janklow wasn't hurt. He, like Patrick Kennedy, pulled out in front of someone with the right of way. Different result.

Some DU'ers may remember that the police in South Dakota had been looking the other way, and not going after him for YEARS before this happened, when he started speeding wildly, recklessly, as per witnesses, as an every day habit while being the Governor of South Dakota.

[katinmn]

39. Why doesn't someone do a story on all congressional car accidents?

Nah, that would be boring. :eyes:

[Joanne98]

41. STOP THE PRESSES!

[Maraya1969]

42. I've done that kind of damage just pulling into my garage!

Much ado about nothin I'd say.

[jackstraw45]

48. Corporate Media STRIKES AGAIN!!!

They make me want to PUKE.

Duke Lacrosse team...Halloway...Kennedy bumper damage "major accident..."

Terri Schiavo...Kobe....Michael Jackson....

When does it END?

F*ck the corporate media.

[robbedvoter]

51. Oh, the humanity!

Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home.

[Beelzebud]

53. I did more damage than that to a car of mine by kicking it one time.

Now, I admit, It wasn't one of my most smart moments, but in a fit of rage, I kicked my car one time and did more damage than this....

What a bunch of BS for them to focus on this non-issue as much as they have.

They didn't cover Cunningham going to jail as hard as they've covered this. Can you imagine if they demanded asnwers from Dick "shoot em in the face" Cheney, after his little "accident"?

[ComerPerro]

55. I've had people do worse to me in parking lots

I've come back from class to find my car looking worse than that...

[hexola]

58. Let's give him some points for not driving an SUV...(nt)

[notadmblnd]

59. OMG.. it's a wonder he walked away f rom it

I can clearly see now why this story has been so important all day.:sarcasm:

[BrightKnight]

60. 3" dent and a scratched bumper (like many cars)

It looks better than 1/3rd of the cars in the grocery store parking lot.