Robert Kennedy: Obama “indentured servant” to coal industry
posted at 6:08 pm on April 21, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Robert Kennedy Jr has made a career out of saying stupid things, such as his argument earlier this year that hog producers posed a greater threat to this nation than Osama bin Laden. However, his latest attack of foot-in-mouth disease will probably cost him a lot more dearly, or at least it would, if the Left had any sense of consistency. Kennedy called Barack Obama an “indentured servant” to the coal industry:
“Clean coal is a dirty lie,” says environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who calls President Barack Obama and other politicians who commit taxpayer money to develop it “indentured servants” of the coal industry.
Despite a series of expensive false starts and failures, President Obama proposed $3.4 billion in stimulus legislation to fund continued research on “clean coal” projects.
“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes, it does not exist,” says former Vice President Al Gore.
“Indentured servant” means “slave”, for those who may be unfamiliar with the term. Had a Republican called Obama an “indentured servant” to unions, the environmental lobby, the abortion industry, or the anti-globalist whackos at the G-20 summit, the Left would have gone into full meltdown. Keith Olbermann would have added an extra hour to give minute-by-minute coverage of the crisis. Janeane Garofalo would appear on every talk show to proclaim the vindication of her opinion of conservatives as motivated by nothing more than race. Roland Martin would demand time to lecture America on the evils of analogies.
Will any of that happen with Robert Kennedy, Jr? I wouldn’t hold my breath. Instead, we’ll continue to get lectured on how criticizing Barack Obama’s massive expansion of federal government is inherently racist, while a Democratic goofball calling him a slave is not.
Update: A couple of people quibble with my definition of “indentured servant” being equivalent to slave, noting that, originally, such servants only worked for a few years before paying off their debt. Does anyone believe that RFK Jr meant that Obama would only work for Big Coal a couple of years to pay off some debt he owes them, or that he was their lackey?
Update II: Tommy Christopher says the HuffPo has debunked this — that RFK Jr never specifically mentioned Obama — but that HuffPo continues to headline the story.
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Someone’s upset that he’s not head of the EPA.
Mark1971 on April 21, 2009 at 6:11 PM
He’s a Kennedy with a D behind his name this will be a no harm no foul pass given to him, but I must say clean coal does work I know because I’ve studied up on this since my husband makes a living mining the stuff.
tee866 on April 21, 2009 at 6:13 PM
And ticked that cousin Caroline didn’t get to be senator.
Wethal on April 21, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Oh noes!!
Conservative_SAHM on April 21, 2009 at 6:13 PM
This is one of the few people I have trouble not hating. He’s talked about jailing global warming “deniers”, when in fact the science is on our side. His side is perpetuating a myth that threatens our freedoms, and has already impacted our wallets to the tune of hundreds of billions, if not trillions (depending on how directly you look at it). HE, and Gore and all the lying “scientists” on their bandwagon are the ones who ought to be jailed.
RightWinged on April 21, 2009 at 6:13 PM
The question is whether the media will bother to give him a slap on the wrist for calling out their golden boy. I mean what’s good for a Limbaugh should be good enough for a Kennedy no?
Defector01 on April 21, 2009 at 6:13 PM
I love the Kennedy family.
America’s Royal Family – just as dimwitted and degenerate as any one of Europe’s.
Ares on April 21, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Under the Bus!
Firebird on April 21, 2009 at 6:16 PM
Heroin. It’s a hell of a drug…
Realist on April 21, 2009 at 6:16 PM
Actually, I think he chose “indentured servant” deliberately since they were people who were bound to work for a certain term. Poor people got passage to the American colonies by getting someone to pay the fare in turn for working for them for a term of years.
If Hillary had been chosen, he’d have said “slave.”
Wethal on April 21, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Katharine Hepburn called, she want’s her voice back.
fogw on April 21, 2009 at 6:18 PM
Racist!
Punchenko on April 21, 2009 at 6:18 PM
This guy never fails.
blatantblue on April 21, 2009 at 6:18 PM
So, Bobby, what about those proposed windfarms off Martha’s Vineyard? Nice, clean source of energy?
Wethal on April 21, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Obama would not have to be a “slave” if he would let America develop it’s nuclear resources.
izoneguy on April 21, 2009 at 6:20 PM
So we have a Kennedy going to rehab, but not for the usual reasons….
rw on April 21, 2009 at 6:20 PM
This guy is certifiable! Coal is one of the cleanest forms of energy out there. Probably the only thing cleaner is natural gas – which Pelosi has banned exploration of, along with any other oil source.
Rush Limbaugh did a whole show today about how wealthy countries are cleaner countries and how it’s the poor countries that are the polluters. So this canard of “green” policies is a nothing more than a lie to impoversh this country – to level the ecconomic playing field. They can’t bring those countries up, so they need to bring us down.
So, much like the Middle Ages, we will all be poor and live in a filthy world.
vapig on April 21, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Gee, that no wind power off Hyannisport expiration date sure does creep up on a body.
Christien on April 21, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Ed, I hate to quibble (because RFK Jr. is a loathsome tool) but “indentured servant: is not the same as “slave”. Indentured servants worked in near slave-like conditions, yes, but they did it to pay off debts or other things, such as to pay for a trip to start over in the New World. Typically an indentured servant would work the land for his master for about 20 years, but then they were free to move anywhere (typically, the frontier). Slaves could do no such thing. Also, slaves were black, and indentured servants were typically Scots-Irish or poor English.
RFK Jr. is very careful with his words here. He knows darn well to not call The One a “slave”, because let’s face it, that’s quite an incendiary thing to do. “Indentured servant” doesn’t carry the racial baggage.
Let’s attack RFK Jr. because he’s a full-blown asshat, but not because of his use of “indentured servant”. It allows the Left to distract everyone from the sheer idiocy of his views.
Badger in KC on April 21, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Robert Kennedy is an “indentured servant” to trying ever more narcissisticly and ever more vainly to try to get out of the shadows of his father and uncle.
MB4 on April 21, 2009 at 6:24 PM
I still think the worst thing he ever said was Mississippi deserved Katrina because they had a Republican governor. He wrote that at HuffPo just as the storm passed, he was in such a hurry to politicize it.
He is vile.
juliesa on April 21, 2009 at 6:25 PM
I know you were being ironic because of their refusal to allow the farms, but as someone who used to work for one, let me tell you they don’t work. You have to deface tens of thousands of acres just to partially power a small township.
Windmills are old technology – think Holland. lets use 21st century technology, shall we? Or at the very least, 20th century technology – say, like nuclear?
vapig on April 21, 2009 at 6:25 PM
When that punk uses less energy than I do then maybe he can lecture on conservation. Until then he can go bugger off.
MB4 on April 21, 2009 at 6:27 PM
stupid is as stupid does.
upinak on April 21, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Can you imagine the fun we might have if the MSM was even one tenth non-partisan?
anniekc on April 21, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Branch Rickey on April 21, 2009 at 6:29 PM
“Indentured servant” huh? Guess he doesn’t have the balls to say slave.
LtE126 on April 21, 2009 at 6:30 PM
the left devour their own, good bye Kennedy, for now because these people never leave!
rob verdi on April 21, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Maybe he was talking about the “white” half…..?
vapig on April 21, 2009 at 6:30 PM
What a maroon. Shows why a dynastic political class is a bad idea.
I always have a chuckle at the term “indentured servitude” though. An ancestor of mine lost everything coming to the new world in the 1700s and his contract was purchased by his future father in law. Said father in law had seven daughters who were described as being rather “hirsute”, and all of their husbands were gained in that manner.
coyoterex on April 21, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Please, an indentured servent is not a slave, it was a contractual agreement to complete three or more years to pay off a debt, or in colonial days, pay for land. All you have to do is open a dictionary or even Google it.
What is as sad as calling Obama an indentured servent is intentionally falsifying the definition of indentured servent.
Rode Werk on April 21, 2009 at 6:31 PM
If not coal , how about Venezuelan oil…
the_nile on April 21, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Perhaps Kennedy needs to take meds. Obama is more like the master in his ancestry. I think he relishes being a tyrant.
As for the comment on clean coal. Technically, Kennedy is correct. The technology isn’t there. Perhaps one day it will be, but Kennedy needs to understand. We have to keep running on coal, and fossil fuels until we have better in place. We can’t shut down the country, and wait for the technology. That’s a no brainer, and it seems to me, those on the left, just don’t want to allow that much oxygen to their brains, to figure that out for themselves.
capejasmine on April 21, 2009 at 6:32 PM
Corrction to my comment above: Kennedy that Mississippi deserved Katrina because Governor Barbour was against the Kyoto treaty.
juliesa on April 21, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Another drunk kennedy what a novelty.
Rehab in 5 4 3 2 1…….
William Amos on April 21, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Hey Unipak!
I responded to you late yesterday and then the thread went away-
Please continue to try and get your mom’s POA; It is so much easier to deal with these things when her health is stabalized. It’s completely overwhelming to do everything when you’re in crisis mode. Hopefully you won’t need it for a very long time, but trust me- being prepared and knowing what your options are, (re: long term care, assisted living, medicare, etc, etc) are invaluable when you are forced to make a quick decision.
Again, good luck to you- you’re a smart guy- you can handle it!
anniekc on April 21, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Kennedy is a hysteric of impossible proportions.
He makes Sullivan sound sober and reasonable.
Vaccines, mercury, carbon emissions, you name it.
SteveMG on April 21, 2009 at 6:36 PM
Kennedy always sounds like he’s gonna burst into tears.
Kini on April 21, 2009 at 6:37 PM
They wouldn’t have to legalize pot, we’d be laughing all day long anyway.
kirkill on April 21, 2009 at 6:37 PM
i’ll wait to comment until i hear what meghan mccain thinks of this.
Ghoul aid on April 21, 2009 at 6:39 PM
Is it just me, or does the Kennedy gene pool seem shallow?
TXMomof3 on April 21, 2009 at 6:39 PM
the real lie here is “glow ball warming”
kirkill on April 21, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Wow, 29 minutes since this posted and getalife hasn’t given us a display of stupidity yet. Is she still alive?
RobertInLexington on April 21, 2009 at 6:40 PM
“Slave” is for life. Indentured service was not, but for a specified duration of time, usually 7 years. Indentured service is how Europeans maintained their former class castes when The Enlightenment began cultivating the cultural economy and reciprocal improvements for the class of workers belonging in service to a Lord and master to develop the subsequent middle class (until given permission to leave the man’s service, the servant had no choice but to do as commanded–note W.A.Mozart begging the Archduke of Salzburg’s permission to leave for Vienna). The serfs were slaves in Russia, more Asian in approach to its inhabitants than European until the communists propagandized revolution that only switched who sat in power, Czar or Dictator). But servants in Western Europe were gradually granted rights and privileges, particularly following our American Revolution from England.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:40 PM
That’s enough to make even Teddy wince.
hepcat on April 21, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Robert Kennedy, Jr. is the crown prince of hypocrisy. Put the damned windmills on your own property, dammit.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:44 PM
They obviously ran out of brains and tact with Teddy. Didn’t anybody on RK staff see his speech?
hepcat on April 21, 2009 at 6:44 PM
They have Teddy wired. He blinks on trigger. His signature is robo-automated, as are his vocal chords.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:46 PM
Here’s the perfect windmill for Robert Kennedy, Jr.
hepcat on April 21, 2009 at 6:46 PM
The oil they pump out of the ground in Venezuela is very dirty.
mchristian on April 21, 2009 at 6:48 PM
If this buffoon had not been pleasure below his daddy’s belt, he would be homeless under a bridge. He and Caroline have the Kennedy name and nothing else. They are basically harmless unless you take them seriously.
volsense on April 21, 2009 at 6:48 PM
Touché! You’re on point with Kennedy.
Ed can be proud that his readers are literate; no need to doubt.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:51 PM
The folks wanting to nitpick Ed here might want to consider that the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended slavery and involuntary servitude, both of which considered people to be personal property. RFK Jr ought to be expected to know how the two were entined here historically.
Karl on April 21, 2009 at 6:52 PM
TexasJew explained the nuances of oil from around the world to the HotAir crew once before, the variety of colors and aromas.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:53 PM
“Norman, the loons are back!”
Del Dolemonte on April 21, 2009 at 6:55 PM
But laws do not apply to the Kennedy Klan.
And servitude in particular would be a matter that these hypocritical neo-aristocrats would abuse. Check out their domestic “staff” and mistresses with a particular eye out for this family’s worst crime, sex abuse.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:57 PM
Didn’t this idiot claim that the anti-US troop Democrat who ran for President in 2004 really won in Ohio?
Del Dolemonte on April 21, 2009 at 6:57 PM
LOLOL!
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:57 PM
I can’t believe Glenn Beck isn’t using that one! You’ve GOT to submit it.
anniekc on April 21, 2009 at 6:59 PM
The only good Kennedy is a —-well… a sleepy one..
unless he talks in his sleep
hawkman on April 21, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Yes, some exit polls had Kerry ahead, so obviously the actual ballot counts had to be wrong.
Wethal on April 21, 2009 at 7:15 PM
The oil they pump out of the ground in Venezuela is very dirty.
mchristian on April 21, 2009 at 6:48 PM
TexasJew explained the nuances of oil from around the world to the HotAir crew once before, the variety of colors and aromas.
maverick muse on April 21, 2009 at 6:53 PM
Oil is not “dirty”. The gradations of oil is due to the type of hydrocarbons in it, the relative complexity of the molecular structures, etc. There are sometimes minor amounts of sulfur as well and minor elements, such as Vanadium. Sulfurous coal is far more problematic than oil.
The methodology of scrubbing out the “skunk juice” as it was known, in sulfurous Indiana oil was perfected by Standard Oil way back in the 1880′s, thanks to John D. you-know-who. Variations of that same technique are used today.
We actually have to import low-sulfur coal these days, since much of our coal has sulfur, but the scrubbing removes the vast majority of it.
TexasJew on April 21, 2009 at 7:16 PM
OK, older brother Joe is shilling for Chavez and his sulphuric crude, and that’s better than clean coal?
Wethal on April 21, 2009 at 7:20 PM
My G.Grandfather was an indentured servant.
Johan Klaus on April 21, 2009 at 7:26 PM
All the indications of in-breeding…
right2bright on April 21, 2009 at 7:28 PM
What’s nice is that more and more people are finally getting tired of the Kennedy’s. They’ve had more than their 15 minutes.
GarandFan on April 21, 2009 at 7:29 PM
Does this mean we can start calling him the “Indentured Servant in Chief”?
JohnGalt23 on April 21, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Back on point here.
Actually the technique of “burying” the CO2 is idiotic in the extreme, as well as ultimately tripling our electricity costs.
Many of my geology and petroleum engineering buddies were involved in that FutureGen fiasco, where they planned to bury CO2 in two locations in Texas: beneath Dayton, Texas and outside of Odessa.
The Norwegians have already tried CO2 sequestration in the Ekofisk field in the North Sea, and the dirty little secret is that the CO2 breaches the seals, reacts as a weak carbonic acid explosively reacting with the calcic shales, and the pressures required to “shove” this gas down into the fluid-filled pores, produces vertical fracture planes that coomunicate and go all over the damn place. Eventually, it is feared , the entire salt water and oil-filled highly pressured gaseous monster will breach up into the soft clays beneath the North Sea platforms and cause a veritable volcano of CO2 gas, shales, salt water and oil streaming up into the sea, and this enlarging crater may even collapse the huge platform above.
Sounds like a winner to me!
TexasJew on April 21, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Still maintain that the donks are in one big game of “Say the Most Outrageous Thing.”
jukin on April 21, 2009 at 7:38 PM
Then maybe we should find a Republican to do it.
petefrt on April 21, 2009 at 7:38 PM
Is there a bigger jackass in the United States than Robert Kennedy?
No, there is not.
Once every reputable scientist finally admits that there is no evidence that CO2 causes global warming (if indeed, the globe is warming), will he apologize or even act just a bit contrite?
No, he will not.
JudetheFossil on April 21, 2009 at 7:44 PM
Ok, I’ll come in off the bench and try to fill in:
“The adults, who are usually now in charge, are off to a party. They have left me, an adult-in-training, to fill in.
So, I heart Robert. He is HOT. Coal is not. You cons rot.”
getalife…
/gag
Yoop on April 21, 2009 at 7:50 PM
Put down the crack pipe Robby.
Go have a drink with Uncle Teddy and go for a drive.
omnipotent on April 21, 2009 at 7:52 PM
+5
Dusty on April 21, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Just another example of Joe Kennedy’s poor gene pool.
Limerick on April 21, 2009 at 8:31 PM
The boy has a serious monkey on his back. He’s been Chasing the Dragon for along time. He surley won’t be around as long as Uncle Teddy thanks God.
sonnyspats1 on April 21, 2009 at 8:33 PM
It is more than a quibble. A lot of people early in our country were indentured. Franklin was indentured because he was apprenticed to his brother. He broke the law by running away and moving to another state.
burt on April 21, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Obama may be an “indentured servant” to coal, but RFK Jr., is an “indentured heir” to the industry.
Pam on April 21, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Robert Kennedy is an indentured servant to prescription drugs, trust funds donated by his thieving, murdering, pro-Nazi grampa and to idiot voters.
The Kennedy family has been a scourge on this country ever since their gin soaked canoe floated over from Ireland.
NoDonkey on April 21, 2009 at 9:30 PM
Obviously Bobby Jr and others with his disability are deserving of our compassion. I think it is particularly heart warming that the rest of the clan are encouraging and let him play elected representative like all of the Kennedy kids.
moxie_neanderthal on April 21, 2009 at 9:38 PM
For most of history, this has been the working definition of a slave. Get over it, people. Slavery was not a means of racial subjugation, but a means of settling a debt. That doesn’t make it right, it makes it what it is. A post-industrial economy made it obsolete. The Civil War… didn’t.
manwithblackhat on April 21, 2009 at 10:18 PM
Better if Robert is unheard. Unseen. Robert smells bad. Turn off Robert’s power. Robert doesn’t take enough showers.
Griz on April 21, 2009 at 11:01 PM
I guess all we can do is keep pointing out the hypocrisy of leftists like this on the issue of race and hope that some day most Americans will become offended and insulted that it is used as a legitimate point in what seems like every argument they make.
Dollayo on April 22, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Why is so much of the American Left made up of trust fund babies?
29Victor on April 22, 2009 at 12:19 AM
My problem with “your definition” is you are doing the same thing most of us deplore the lefty sites for doing: misguiding and using inflammatory language when it’s incorrect, indentured servitude is not the same as slavery, nor involuntary servitude.
I deplore Robert Kennedy for being an elitest, a hypocrit, and a lackey, same as any semi-comatose, rational person.
In answer to your question, actually I do believe his words were carefully chosen for him just so he could call President Obama a servent without calling him a slave.
Rode Werk on April 22, 2009 at 1:09 AM
Awesome!
Mallard T. Drake on April 22, 2009 at 1:16 AM
RFK is a moron. I watched him in the interview and realized he would be nothing without those genes. He would be a total failure at life. Even Ted can say he isn’t a total failure, he helped destroy the greatest nation on the planet.
Tim Burton on April 22, 2009 at 3:13 AM
rfk jr. is indeed a mo-ron.
we need the coal, clean or unclean (and I don’t know anything about coal) to produce electricity. i want electricity. period.
kelley in virginia on April 22, 2009 at 8:47 AM
R E H A B.
Not just another four-letter word.
:-P
hillbillyjim on April 22, 2009 at 10:05 AM
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