July 4th Gift: Jessie Helms is dead

[Thunder]

aww...too bad. another dead racist.

[Krash]

Are the ardent supporters going to tout this as some great heroic honor to expire on America's birthday?

[President Bush]

Why does a Bozo cross the street? Because there's a Bozo on the other side (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=117639)

[madurobob]

As a lifelong North Carolinian my feelings about Helms are somewhat mixed. He brought a LOT of money to NC and he was amazingly responsive when you called his office with a concern. I know three people who all had rather stupid (on their part) individual disputes with the VA that were all fixed overnight after a call to Helm's office.

On the other hand, he was a master of sleazy campaigning, cynical manipulation of his constituency, and, yes, he was racist. For a good portion of my life I had to apologize for Helms in business meetings when people found out where I lived.

I despised much of what he stood for while in office. But, he was very good at being a senator and serving his constituency. I'm ashamed of his four re-elections, but I wish either of our current senators would be as responsive to the needs of individuals who call with a problem.

[Drudgewire]

But he was Bono's buddy.

[ravdin]

Smell ya later, Jesse Helms.

The only thing I'm sorry about is that he died on Independence Day. I really wish the media could resist the urge to compare him to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

[Cain]

I think of the sleazy "white hands" ad when people mention Jesse Helms. Good riddance to that guy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KIyewCdXMzk

[BenBurch]

Bealzebub has been quoted by a United Press International story as saying;

Mr Helms is a welcome new resident of our part of eternity, and has already been making improvements. Why, he wasn't here five minutes before he set to work to convince me to kick out all of the blacks and gays and jews. Well, I was reticent at first, but he has a gift for rhetoric and soon won me over and we sent them all packing for "that other place" about an hour ago.

[corplinx]

I am no fan of senator helms, but maybe this is one of those things where you should show some class and go with "if you can't say anything good about someone" versus dancing on his grave.

[President Bush]

I am no fan of senator helms, but maybe this is one of those things where you should show some class and go with "if you can't say anything good about someone" versus dancing on his grave.


corplinx is right. I recall how handsome Senator Helms was. He looked great with my penis in his mouth.

[DoubtingStephen]

I am no fan of senator helms, but maybe this is one of those things where you should show some class and go with "if you can't say anything good about someone" versus dancing on his grave.

I guess if I were going to dance on his grave and urinate on his grave it might be a good idea to do the dancing first.

I can say something good about him: he's dead! I think it is the best thing the misogynistic, racist, homophobe for Jesus ever did.

[Texas]

aww...too bad. another dead racist.


Yep all that is left is Robert Byrd.

[SophieHirschfeld]

Has anyone told MC Hawking yet?

[fuelair]

:Dcorplinx is right. I recall how handsome Senator Helms was. He looked great with my penis in his mouth.:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:jaw-dropp

[Texas]

corplinx is right. I recall how handsome Senator Helms was. He looked great with my penis in his mouth.
Did you ask him to marry you?

[President Bush]

Did you ask him to marry you?


No. But I don't think he liked it when I yelled: "Touchdown, Cowboys!"

[Puppycow]

McCain's campaign advisor Charlie Black worked for Helms (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/).

1984: Black Advised Helms On Senate Re-Election Bid And Bragged About Victory. The Washington Post reported, “‘It’s a tremendous victory for conservatives,’ Helms’ strategist Charles Black said. ‘It enhances his clout and influence in the Senate in the eyes of the press and his colleagues. He’ll be even more effective than he has been.’” [Washington Post, 11/8/84, emphasis added]

Black And Helms Used “Racist Appeals” To Win. Politics reporter Bill Peterson wrote in the Washington Post, “Lesson: A vicious new electronic form of negative politics has evolved and matured. And it is frightening. It is a politics of distortion, half truths and character assassination. Ends are used to justify means. Truth often takes a back seat. … Helms and the National Congressional Club, a political action committee run by his allies, had used negative advertising long before the Senate race began. … Racial epithets and standing in school doors is no longer fashionable, but 1984 proved that the ugly politics of race are alive and well. Helms is their master. A case in point was the pivotal event of the campaign: Helms’ filibuster against a bill making the birthday of the late Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. … Helms campaign literature sounded a drumbeat of warnings about black voter-registration drives. His campaign newspaper featured photographs of Hunt [his opponent] with Jesse L. Jackson and headlines like ‘Black Voter Registration Rises Sharply’ and ‘Hunt Urges More Minority Registration.’ Helms shamelessly mined the race issue.” [Peterson, Washington Post, 11/18/84, emphasis added]

[Texas]

No. But I don't think he liked it when I yelled: "Touchdown, Cowboys!"
I think you have taken role playing to new heights.

[UnrepentantSinner]

I am no fan of senator helms, but maybe this is one of those things where you should show some class and go with "if you can't say anything good about someone" versus dancing on his grave.

x2

[Cain]

No. But I don't think he liked it when I yelled: "Touchdown, Cowboys!"

Four more years.

I think you have taken role playing to new heights.

God, I love President Bush.

[Elind]

aww...too bad. another dead racist.

You have no idea just how crass that type of comment sounds, do you?

[Allen773]

You have no idea just how crass that type of comment sounds, do you?
What makes you think that he gives a **** about your PC anxiousness to respect a dead bigot whom, might I add, was one of the greatest impediments to progress and of the sleaziest politicians this country has ever seen?

[Elind]

What makes you think that he gives a **** about your PC anxiousness to respect a dead bigot whom, might I add, was one of the greatest impediments to progress and of the sleaziest politicians this country has ever seen?

That makes two of you dancing on a grave. Doesn't matter what he was, but you sound like you are of the same ilk that you describe.

[mr rosewater]

might I add, was one of the greatest impediments to progress and of the sleaziest politicians this country has ever seen?

Somehow I doubt this.

[Almo]

I am no fan of senator helms, but maybe this is one of those things where you should show some class and go with "if you can't say anything good about someone" versus dancing on his grave.

Agreed.

[GreyICE]

Lets all have a moment of silence to commemorate the passing of the opportunity for a good thing to be said to fill this moment of silence.

[Darth Rotor]

God, I love President Bush.
Preserved for posterity. :cool:

[Drudgewire]

But he was Bono's buddy.

In case anyone thought I was kidding. (http://thehill.com/under-the-dome/jesse-helms-bonos-my-buddy-2005-08-17.html)

[maxpower1227]

So, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with this guy, and I utterly reject the "hands" commercial as being "racist" in any way, so... what exactly did this guy do to deserve such vitriol on his passing?

[GreyICE]

So, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with this guy, and I utterly reject the "hands" commercial as being "racist" in any way, so... what exactly did this guy do to deserve such vitriol on his passing?

Lets just quote Wiki:
Helms commented on the 1963 Civil Rights protests, "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."[8][9] He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced".

Meanwhile, Democrats retired the ailing Senator B. Everett Jordan, who lost his primary to Congressman Nick Galifianakis, a Greek American, from Durham, North Carolina. Helms played upon Galifianakis' ethnicity during the campaign using the campaign slogan "Vote for Helms — He's One of Us!"

Helms was an advocate of the tobacco industry since much of North Carolina's rural economy relies on tobacco. (Hubert Humphrey once said that, "I'll trade Jesse Helms his tobacco vote for my wheat support any day.") Tobacco companies such as R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris have supported him, both directly and through donations to the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University. Helms became chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in the 1980s.

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983 on grounds that King had two associates with communist ties, Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell. [14] Helms led the Senatorial opposition to the bill and voiced disapproval of King's alleged philandering.

Helms had close ties with and was considered a main sponsor of the right-wing Salvadoran Nationalist Republican Alliance and it's leader and death squad founder Roberto D'Aubuisson.




In 1987 Helms added the "Helms Amendment" to the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which directed the president to use executive authority to add HIV infection to the list of excludable diseases which prevent both travel and immigration to the United States.[22] The ban passed over objections from international public health officials and organizations who noted that this policy runs counter to established World Health Organization and International Red Cross policies. The action was also opposed by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Helms was "bitterly opposed to federal financing of AIDS research and treatment".[25] Opposing the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988, Helms stated, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Helms

[madurobob]

So, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with this guy, and I utterly reject the "hands" commercial as being "racist" in any way, so... what exactly did this guy do to deserve such vitriol on his passing?

Well, perhaps the fact that he was a racist - or at least fought for racists ideas - is what makes the commercial so distasteful. He railed against segregation before and during his tenure in the senate. He was famous in NC for his bigoted editorials as station manager at WRAL and as editor of a NC political journal.

So, with that well-known background, his ad depicts a white man's hands crumpling a job rejection letter with a voice-over saying ".. they had to give it to a minority" then followed immediately by the face of Harvey Gant (his black opponent). The intent to motivate voters based on race was obvious. The sad thing is, it worked. I remember the Helms campaign saying after the election that they attributed a 5 point gain in the polls to that ad. It came out a day or two before the election and Helms and Gant we're in a dead heat at the time.

[maxpower1227]

He railed against segregation before and during his tenure in the senate.

Uhh...? I guess that's backwards?

And I still fail to see how opposing racial quotas makes one a "racist", any more than voting against a black candidate makes someone racist.

[GreyICE]

Uhh...? I guess that's backwards?

And I still fail to see how opposing racial quotas makes one a "racist", any more than voting against a black candidate makes someone racist.

I provided an entire lovely list. Care to read anything on it and defend that horrible human being?

[madurobob]

Uhh...? I guess that's backwards?

And I still fail to see how opposing racial quotas makes one a "racist", any more than voting against a black candidate makes someone racist.

Um, yeah, backwards. I left the "de-" off of "segregation".

The "hands" ad in a vacuum is not terribly racist. But, NC at the time was certainly not an information vacuum. Helms was a racist candidate running in a race against a black man who would have been the first black senator from NC (post-reconstruction). Race was a polarizing issue and the Helms' campaign was responsible for much of that. This was a page right out of the "Southern Strategy" playbook for which Ken Mehlman apologized for not too long ago.

So, while YOU may fail to see the overt racism in the ad, it was not lost on the people of NC nor on the wider national audience at the time.

[KoihimeNakamura]

Helms worked for WRAL? Huh, didn't know that. (I watched WRAL when I lived there)

[madurobob]

Helms worked for WRAL? Huh, didn't know that. (I watched WRAL when I lived there)

Might have been before your time. He became EVP of WRAL in 1960 and became (im)famous for his weekly editorials throughout the 60's. I was a kid at the time, but I remember thinking even then that this guy was a mean-spirited butthead.

OTOH hand, in his private life he did things like adopt (in '62) a boy with cerebral palsy in order to help ensure he got top-notch care. So, I find it hard to completely demonize the guy.

[Allen773]

That makes two of you dancing on a grave. Doesn't matter what he was, but you sound like you are of the same ilk that you describe.

I'm not dancing on his grave. I'm being honest about who he was as a politician (I don't care about his personal life, maybe he was a great husband, father, and/or friend) and how I feel about him.

I'll admit that I exaggerated in my previous post. But my basic feelings remain the same. Jesse Helms is dead. The dead deserve the truth, not respect, and from what I knew of him Mr. Helms was not a man who deserved respect based on his actions and words throughout his long life.

[Allen773]

OK,from reading what others posted it seems that Helms could be a very warm and generous man to others personally. But still, his beliefs, words, and politics make me unable to feel any grief over his passing.