New York City's Triborough Bridge Renamed to Honor Robert F. Kennedy By Jamie Colby - FOXNews.com

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Forty years after his assassination, Robert F. Kennedy is being honored in New York for his life of service — even as a prophecy he made in the months before his death comes true.

The Triborough Bridge, which connects the New York boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, was renamed during a ceremony Wednesday after the New York senator, who was gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel pantry on the night he won the 1968 California Democratic primary. The bridge was completed in 1936, when Kennedy was 10 years old.

Dignitaries, politicians and family members gathered by the newly christened RFK Bridge to celebrate his life and his contribution to the civil rights movement.

"I was just another college kid who got to watch Robert Kennedy work in the Senate and feel his passion and emotion," said former President Bill Clinton, who attended the ceremony.

RFK, who served as U.S. attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, would have turned 83 Thursday. But the timing was significant for another reason, said his daughter, Kerry Kennedy.

"In 1968, he said in 40 years we could have an African-American president. And sure enough, exactly 40 years later, we do, and that is why this bridge really bridges 1968 to 2008," she said.

The ceremony touched an emotional nerve with many present, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. David Paterson and RFK's widow, Ethel Kennedy.

"I am over the moon," she said. "I am walking on air."

Bobby Kennedy was born in Massachusetts — where his younger brother, Ted Kennedy, is still a senator — but he was raised in New York. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and was running for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was killed in 1968.

Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, remains imprisoned in California.

Triborough Bridge Renamed After Bobby Kennedy - Howard Beach Times by Nathan Duke - YourNabe.com>

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Astoria's Triborough Bridge has been renamed to honor former U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Photo by Christina Santucci

Gov. David Paterson signed a bill into law last week that renamed the Triborough Bridge, which connects Astoria to the Bronx and Manhattan, after the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), a spokeswoman for the governor said.

The governor signed the bill, sponsored by state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), on Aug. 5 following recent approval by the state Legislature, the governor's spokeswoman said.

The bridge's new name went into effect immediately, Gianaris said.

The assemblyman said Kennedy had long been an advocate for minority groups, so the renaming of the bridge was geographically significant.

"Bobby Kennedy was not only a great New Yorker, but also a great American," Gianaris said. "As our U.S. senator for a number of years, he had a platform from which he fought the struggle for equality and civil rights. It's appropriate that a bridge that unites diverse communities bears his name. Those of us who represent those neighborhoods that are served by the bridge will be proud to have his name on it."

Kennedy represented New York in the U.S. Senate from 1965-68. He was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign after winning the California primary.

Kennedy's family had long requested that the bridge be renamed in his honor and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed the name change in January, Gianaris said.

The bridge, which can be reached from Hoyt Avenue North in Astoria, is now known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The structure opened in 1936.

Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.

Letter to the Editor - Tapping Out Wire Taps by David M. Quintana - Queens Ledger

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Queens Gazette - Obama Backtracks...

The Wave - Troubling Election Season...

Tapping Out Wire Taps

Dear Editor:

For months all we were told by those in the media was how Senator Obama was a new type of candidate, that he was a non-political politician, that he was above the fray, and that he was running to change politics as we have known it within the Washington beltway. Obama portrays himself as transcending traditional divides

You all must have heard thousands of times how he was a new type of politician. Senator Obama was billed as a reformer cast from the same mold as was Robert F. Kennedy. He was certainly said to be from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

I never bought into this theory, I never saw or heard how his campaign rhetoric really explained how he planned to do anything of substance nor did I hear any semblance of what he had already accomplished, all I heard was flowery vacuous speeches in front of mostly young enthusiastic crowds, ala a rock star.

Now within weeks of virtually securing the Democratic Party nomination, he has thrown the progressive principles he was supposed to stand for out the window.

For starters, he has decided to break his promises to run his campaign outside of the federal campaign finance limitations. Barack Obama s decision not to take public funds for the general election was a total reversal of his previous positions, as the huckster/wizard in “The Wizard of Oz says, “in the vernacular of the peasantry,” it’s nothing short of a flip-flop, a sheer calculation designed for political expediency. Obama’s decision in this matter reflects a Washington “business as usual” attitude toward politics. All of a sudden, Obama, after agreeing for 2 years with the public financing of presidential campaigns, now says that “the system is broken”.

And secondly and most importantly, he has decided to vote in favor of the Bush/Cheney cabal corporate mindset and has chosen to trample upon the US Constitution by supporting the FISA bill which can be summed up as the Telecom Immunity Act.

There is absolutely no need for a new FISA bill, the facts are that the current law allows the President to engage in secret wiretapping, even to the extent of waiting three days after beginning a wiretap to ask permission from a secret court. There is no imminent security threat nor any loophole that demanded additional action, as far as I can ascertain.

To be clear, this act totally eviscerates the Fourth Amendment to our sacred Constitution and allows the telecom industry to operate outside the law and helps the federal government spy on each and everyone of us.

This is in my mind, it is a total capitulation to a lame duck president who is at historic lows in popularity with the American people. Senator Obama has embraced and is pandering to the extreme right wing zealots. It is surely a prime example of him helping to inch our nation closer towards Fascism -- the merged efforts of government and corporations that answer to no government. Senator Obama has chosen to “retroactively immunize corporate criminals,” instead of standing up for our Constitution and the common man .

I can’t say strongly enough how I feel the Senator has cowered to the ultra right wing Republican thugs and I believe these actions display a demonstrated weakness and a monumental lack of strength.

In closing, if Senator Obama cannot show courage now and stand up to those who would harm our basic American freedoms, as our forefathers clearly articulated in the Constitution, how can we trust him to stand up for the American people in this violent and ever stringent world of terrorists and enemies throughout the world.

Sincerely,
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park

Triborough Bridge Named After Late Robert F. Kennedy by Nathan Duke - YourNabe.com - Howard Beach Times

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The state Assembly has voted to rename the Triborough Bridge, which connects Astoria to the Bronx and Manhattan, after former U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy and Gov. David Paterson is expected to sign the bill into law, said state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), who sponsored the legislation.

The bridge, which can be reached from Hoyt Avenue North in Astoria, opened in 1936, connecting the borough to Manhattan and the Bronx. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed to change the bridge's name in honor of Kennedy, the late U.S. senator for New York, in January and the Assembly voted last week to rename the structure.

The state Senate approved the measure in April.

Gianaris said Kennedy's family had long requested that the bridge be renamed to honor President John F. Kennedy's young brother, who was assassinated in 1968 after winning the California primary for the Democratic presidential nomination. He said the structure's new name would honor RFK's legacy on the 40th anniversary of his death.

"The bridge connects diverse minority and immigrant communities, and RFK's life's work was to give those types of people a leg up and help them channel their energy into a more successful life," he said. "I think it's appropriate for the bridge to be renamed after him."

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said the renaming would be symbolic to his work with minority groups.

"Common throughout Kennedy's many works was an effort to bridge gaps among persons of diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds," he said.

He said the bridge's signs would likely be changed from the "Triborough" to the "Robert F. Kennedy Bridge" shortly after Paterson signs the bill into law.

Gianaris said he did not expect much opposition to the new name because the Triborough would be completely renamed, rather than memorialized as is Manhattan's Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, which is also known as the "East River Drive."

"Things get confusing when you memorialize because [the structure] maintains both names," he said. "We renamed the 'Interboro Parkway' as the 'Jackie Robinson Parkway' and everyone seems happy with it."