Former Sen. Jesse Helms Dies At 86 »
Posted by: TechnologyExpert 1 month, 3 weeks ago329 Comments Report this Story
Jesse Helms, the five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, has died, CBS News has confirmed. He was 86.
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HanymanComment removed: User banned.83 Replies
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Poulenc1 month, 3 weeks ago
A demagogue, a force of reaction, virulent homophobe who fought tooth-and-nail against Federal aid for AIDS research...
....racist par excellence, of course (recall his campaign ad launched during his 1990 reelection bid against black opponent Harvey Grant, in which white hands belonging to a job-seeker crumpled a rejection slip as the voice-over explained that the position had gone to an "unqualified member of a minority")....
One almost hopes that hell exists just so Mr. Helms can be housed there--for a very, very long time....
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splitrch1 month, 3 weeks ago
If Jesse Helms knew of this, supported it or just turned a blind eye, he should roast in hell.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/prof...
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vor1 month, 3 weeks ago
I knew Jesse growing up. He sometimes attended our church and his daughter taught my sister's 1st grade class. Every night, ironically before Walter Cronkite came on, we would see Jesse's editorial on WRAL in Raleigh. I knew then that I felt a certain distaste for his views. He was arrogant and condescending. Not physical imposing but more like a Southern Baptist fire and brimstone preacher shouting out his condemnation. A bully without the brawn. Hard to relate that to the quiet little man who would sometimes bring us candy at school.
But I knew, even back then, that these would not become my views. He would rant and rave in favor of Nixon and the war and it all seemed quite backward to me. He was no compromise, like Bush and Cheney with his black/white view of the world. And he sure didn't like the black. I remember him as the first political fear monger I recall.
I wont overly condemn him today. I don't mess with the dead (don't like the karmic implications).
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UnusualSuspect1 month, 3 weeks ago
Unlike VOR, I didn't know Jesse Helms. I grew up hearing about him; on TV, on radio, and in print.
The one thing I remember most about him was his seemly strong intolerance of blacks and other minorities.
Then I discovered this 20 mins. ago, taken from Wikipedia, regarding Helms support of a man running for office:
" 'In 1950, Helms became an unofficial researcher for United States Senate candidate Willis Smith. Smith was a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. While working on the primary campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that 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.' "
How much of the ad did he create? We don't know, but that's the man I will remember...one who instilled fear, only because others around him had a different color skin.
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Poulenc1 month, 3 weeks ago
You feel, libs, that one should be...more equivocal about the character and career of Helms?
You feel that people should be more TEMPERATE in their assessment of the man?
Mention his "good" points. Not neglect to note his "virtues?"
So much so that you neg comments of those who refuse to follow the kind of evenhandedness of which you yourself set such a famous example?
How bad does a person have to be before you come off your partisan perch and agree to see clearly for the sake of truth?
Or is scoring points against the dreaded opposition ALWAYS more important to you than being moral and...CLEAR?
It's YOU, libs, who are consumed by hate.
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