Jesse Helms, dead at 86

The death of BOZO the clown is far sadder. Helms' death on July 4th shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as that of independence & freedom fighters, Thomas Jefferson & John Adams, because of the legacy of pain & suffering he caused so many people while serving in Congress.

May he rot in Hell. It'll be the one place, he can't say 'no', to.

His views were so far to the right that he thought the aids quilt was the reason for global warming....

What pain and suffering did Jesse Helms cause?

One less racist in the world is a good thing.

The only thing history will remember about this douche bag is that he was a racist. A blatant, uncompromising, full blown racist.

Good riddance!!

Helmes never got what he deserved, maybe someone can publish the location of his grave so honours due can be given. Bozo the Clown is indeed going to be missed.

Have a nice time in hell you racist bigot. What a scumbag!

As evidence for Helms' racism you offer . . . what? His opposition to affirmative action? What if I told you that there are a great many people who believe that your support for affirmative action makes you a racist . . . or in the very least, an adherent to a policy that harms the people it purports to help?

Good riddance to the hateful bastard!

finally .

Actually, I find it quite appropriate that Helms died on Independence Day.

Free at last, free at last!
Senator Jesse Helms has passed!

Helms was staunchly anti-communist, fought to honor Alexander Solzhenitsyn and fought for smaller government. I don't discount that he was a product of the sometimes shameful past of the South, but I don't think he should be remembered for that alone. It certainly is your right to do so, but I think it reflects poorly to dishonor the dead in such a way. I make no apologies for the way that my mama raised me.

he called chapel hill a zoo...WHILE he represented us. can't say I'm sorry to see him done.

Allow time to march on, and then determine the wisdom of his advice. As far as the racist South is concerned, every prediction of the "Bilbo's and Wallace's" has proven to be true. Crime, drug addiction, bastardization, murder, theft, and rape is rampant in black and white society. Helms, spoke the truth, " crime rates among African Americans, is a fact that must be faced,"1981". It was true then and it is true now. Yet the "leaders", of Afro-American Youth refuse to acknowledge the facts. Their clay footed leaders employ rhetoric, empty promises, falsehoods, to enslave their own children, while lining their pockets. Of course it is not their fault, it is the fault of the white man. Thank God, that we have them to blame!

Good riddance.

World can't wait for the day Jesse Helm's racist views are dead along with the hater who denied his own half-black daughter for decades.

Was he a racist? I always assumed that "racists", changed facts to fit their agenda. Is there any proof that he altered facts to mis-represent his viewpoint? He stated cold hard facts, if his opinion is not supported by facts, then his enemies should present their opinion. Otherwise, step back and acknowledge that, more study is required! The problem is,that the facts support that there is more crime, single mothers, isolated fathers, and
Gov'T, sponsored welfare, among young Afro-Americans, compared to all other citizens. It is the responsibility of the the, Mothers and Fathers to address this issue, not the Gov't. or other taxpayers!

from america blog news;
As an aide to the 1950 Senate campaign of North Carolina Republican candidate Willis Smith, Helms reportedly helped create attack ads against Smith's opponent, including one which read: "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (The News and Observer, 8/26/01; The New Republic, 6/19/95; The Observer, 5/5/96; Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, by Ernest B. Furgurson, Norton, 1986)

The University of North Carolina was "the University of Negroes and Communists." (Capital Times, 11/22/94) Black civil rights activists were "Communists and sex perverts." (Copley News Service, 8/23/01)

Of civil rights protests Helms wrote, "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." (WRAL-TV commentary, 1963) He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced." (New York Times, 2/8/81)
Helms on "degenerate, weak, sick homosexuals":
Over the years Helms has declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches." (Newsweek, 12/5/94) In a tirade highlighting his routine opposition to AIDS research funding, Helms lashed out at the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988: "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." (States News Service, 5/17/88)
Helms being a racist:
And the man ABC News now describes as a "conservative icon" (8/22/01) in 1993 sang "Dixie" in an elevator to Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, bragging, "I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries." (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/5/93)
Helms filibusters making Martin Luther King day a national holiday:
A year before the election, when public polls showed Helms trailing by 20 points, he launched a Senate filibuster against the bill making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. (David Broder, Washington Post, Aug, 29, 2001)
On cutting AIDS funding:
Sen. Jesse Helms says the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct," The New York Times reported Wednesday....

"We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts," Helms told the Times.
And before anyone says that Helms came around on AIDS in his later years. No he didn't. He came around on AIDS in Africa. Still didn't want to help Americans with AIDS because, you know, they were homersexuals.

what a guy!

Jesse Helms was a racist.

The man denied his own daughter for decades because she was half Black.

a bigot or a racist is a person who dislikes or hates someone because of the group they belong to or a characteristic they share, like religion, skin color, etc.... not because of deeds that the people, as individuals, have done, which might deserve hatred or disrespect.

He was a bigoted racist.

today i accomplished one of my life goals. i outlived that bastard.

http://www.plusaf.com/soapbox/rotinhell.htm

good riddance .....I guess the devil came to collect today...perhars it is a good 4th of July

He stood against liberalism, communism and was the anthesis of the likes of anti Americans such as J. William Fulbright.

We need more Helms and less Fulbrights. He will be missed.

@Paratus, one can be against liberalism and communism and against a bunch of other things without being a bigot and racist. i've listened to him for 3-4 decades and if he softened in his old age, it did nothing to reverse the damage he and his kind did from the 50s and on through today.

sorry... i dance on his grave.

Gross. I think when people feel the need to state they are glad someone is dead need to step back and see how human they actually are not for stating that. No better than the reasons they dislike the person.

Someone is always suffering when someone dies, no matter who it is and what they have done.

J Jammer do you know what this man did in the state that I live in what he did to civil rights?? What he did to blacks in the south ?? How he supported Apartheid in South Africa, Pinochet, dictators and fascists around the world?? I dont care if he is dead and I am not afraid to say it! He did everything he could to make sure people like me died!!!

More recently I remember , when a caller to CNN's Larry King Live show praised guest Jesse Helms for "everything you've done to help keep down the nig*gers," Helms' response was to salute the camera and say, "Well, thank you, I think." (Wilmington Star-News, 9/16/95)

A year before the election, when public polls showed Helms trailing by 20 points, he launched a Senate filibuster against the bill to make the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. Thurmond and the Senate majority were on the other side, but the next poll showed Helms had halved his deficit.

All year in 1990, Helms campaign literature sounded a drumbeat of warnings about black voter-registration drives. . . . On election eve, he accused Hunt of being supported by 'homosexuals, the labor union bosses and the crooks' and said he feared a large 'bloc vote.' What did he mean? 'The black vote,' Helms said." He won, 52 percent to 48 percent.

In 1990, locked in a tight race with an African American Democrat, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, Helms aired a final-week TV ad that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter, while an announcer said, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota." Once again, he pulled through.

He left the Democrats (his former party to fight against Civil Rights and form the southern strategy to use white racism to keep minorities down!!!...Yes I don't give a damn about his death and I don't feel ashamed about it! I lived in the state when that bastard set up road blacks so we could not get to the polls to vote for Harvey Gant who I campaigned for!!!Would you be glad if OJ, Fidel or Farakhan died?? Spare me the self righteous crap!

Were people suffering when Hitler, Moussalini or DeclercK died ?? Give me a break I am always impressed at the sympathy for a hardline racist against blacks and minorities you should be ashamed!

I bet you werent thinking this when people were celebrating when Fidel was thought dead in Miami and they were celebrating not one word of class from Miami Cubans so excuse me if I pop a bottle of champagne! I dont give a damn about him, Strom Thurman, Rush Limbaugh, or any other racist prick.

He also denied his half Black daughter for years ...yeah he hates us but can always screw the same race he hates. GOOOOD RIDDANCE!

As one can see being angry and his death surely has not made you a better person.

Who is angry I thought I was celebrating his death which is why you said gross?? JAJA I am actually quite happy..Seems you are angry....also surprised someone watches your past posts carefully.

Fake happy.

superdude do you sleep?

superdude or supercoservativo you write like a vulcan and are very far right memmykoko is right!

No.

I mean so you crave the human side of Adolf Hitler give me a break. Jesse is a fruit from the same tree..follow the Pinochet money train or the apartheid support team...Jesse wasn't far behind the money trail. He preyed on the lowest of society to ensure he got his plush seat in thee senate.

Get some sleep

I wonder if anyone is too young to remember how that poor gay kid was killed by being beaten to death and Jesse Helms laughed at it on the senate floor...Sick!

Perhaps what troubles me most is the suggestion by some in this thread that this shameful excuse for a public servant deserves anything but the vitriol that is so appropriately directed at him. I am left to wonder about the experiences (or chilling lack thereof) of those who are UNable to see the hard-core racism that informed Helms' miserable life and his hateful work; the aggressive homophobia that he promoted with glee; and the arrogance with which he vilified people of color. That anyone could even think of defending this denizen of hate tells me that we, as a nation, are woefully less evolved as human beings than I had thought, and that's quite sad. And to be clear: this is NOT about chilling dialogue, nor is it about withholding respect for opposing views. It is about history and facts and, I fear, the future.

Dharleston, thank you for your post. I read everyone's post on here and I think you had the best one. I believe people such as dharleston will be the future and people like J Jammer will become the past. I pray I am right.

As much as Ioathe this guy, and his stances, I am not happy with glee with his death, sorry I cant celebrate when anyone dies. By the way why do people think affirmative action only helps minorities? Affirmative action also helps females a lot too!

For those dancing on Helms grave.
It is so easy to label someone as "racist". Does this mean the Dems who voted against civil rights acts in the 60's are "racist" or does this only apply to the other side of the aisle. Lincoln was a racist yet many lionize him. You may want to reexamine the ease with which you characterize people and receive pleasure from their death.