I've read them all before, if they were such smoking guns the media would have been all over them decades ago.

3/19/2008 1:02:21 PM

Almost everyone I know considers Helms a racist. Various media sources have openly called him one. For example:

http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm

3/19/2008 1:16:05 PM

Anecdotes are not proof of anything. Lots of people still think that the moon landing was staged, so just because somebody believes something doesn't make it so.

Again, there isn't a shred of proof of racism in your linked article. Blacks did vote against Helms in a bloc vote, but guess what, that can be said about any Republican. He used the white hands ad to attack affirmative action, which is nothing more thant the government saying that blacks do not have to be held to the same standards as anybody else when it comes to qualifcations for a job or higher education.

The Democrats have always used accusations as if it proves something, when in fact it does a lot more to discredit what they're saying once their rhetoric cannot be backed up with factual evidence. Such is the legacy of Senator Helms.

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 1:32 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2008 1:32:22 PM

I wouldn't say that Wright and Helms are similar "opposite" examples of racists...I'd say Wright and Strom Thurmond

3/19/2008 1:43:11 PM

Holy crap... a preacher trashes Obama.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=khuu-RhOBDU


Wow. These preachers need to quit with the political commentary.

That man is hateful...

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 1:55 PM. Reason : .]

3/19/2008 1:54:54 PM

wow thats fucking nuts

3/19/2008 2:06:04 PM

Quote :

"Anecdotes are not proof of anything."

With Helms, the weight of the evidence at least strongly suggests racism. As far I know, he hasn't even apologized for supporting segregation.

3/19/2008 3:20:08 PM

You can read however you want to because its really nothing more than sour grapes. Most liberals hated Helms because he was Conservative, unbeatable and was unapologetic about his core values and beliefs.

3/19/2008 4:20:18 PM

Quote :

""Soon after the Senate vote on the Confederate flag insignia, Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) ran into Mosely-Braun in a Capitol elevator. Helms turned to his friend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries." He then proceeded to sing the song about the good life during slavery to Mosely-Braun (Gannett News Service, 9/2/93; Time, 8/16/93).[5] " "

FUCK Jesse Helms - I hope he died a painful death, and is burning in a lake of fire for eternity.

for more:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1871

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 4:28 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2008 4:26:39 PM

Aww he sang Dixie, boo freakin' hoo. So now it's perfectly fine to restrain what a whitey says while your heroes can spout hatred from the pulpit with your blind support?

Welcome to black fascist America, terpball style!

3/19/2008 4:38:43 PM

It's clear you're in over your head here - just shut the fuck up

3/19/2008 4:41:07 PM

Oh so it's perfectly fine to condemn a man to hell because he sings a song but at the same time overt racism in the pulpit is defended as a divine right?

If anyone is in over their head, it's you. So take your own advice and STFU.

3/19/2008 4:49:53 PM

Do you really think that you are making sound arguments here? Do you think twisting my words, just making other shit up, and still not forming an even close-to-coherent argument would be worth me making a serious response to?

"SO TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE AND STFU"

lol

3/19/2008 4:56:24 PM

What am I making up? You got your panties in a wad when I called you out for wanting to elect Obama because he's black, for buying into those nutty 9/11 conspiracies, and now for selectively defending racism when it happens to apparently be something you agree with.

3/19/2008 4:58:59 PM

No, you never called me out for shit. You are an IDIOT - also, you're following me around the internet like some kind of little obsessed faggot. I don't even know who the fuck you are, and this will be the last time I respond to any of your posts.

3/19/2008 5:01:43 PM

It isn't any fun when somebody wants you to be held accountable for your moronic comments, is it? So take your ball elsewhere and stick to something you're good at, pissing off people in chit chat.

3/19/2008 5:02:57 PM

Quote :

"You can read however you want to because its really nothing more than sour grapes."

Well, the idea that he wasn't racist back in segregation days is rather amazing to begin with. No, he magically supported that institution without considering blacks inferior. Other pro-segregation politicians have at least admitted they were wrong and apologized. Helms tried to defend his race record to the end.

Remember, he opposed the civil rights movement and school busing. He support the apartheid regime in South Africa. And so on. Combined with the many dubious statements he's supposedly made over years, I think it's quite reasonable to conclude the man is a racist. (He's not dead yet, though he's significantly impaired at the moment.)

3/19/2008 5:11:25 PM

^ Damn, I thought he died already. Og well, hopefully he's in pain.

3/19/2008 5:14:42 PM

^ Some Christian you are.

Look at his civil rights comments. They focus in on the protestors, not what they were protesting. Many were burning, looting, and otherwise breaking the law in the name of civil rights. Many hippies were as he described, far left wingers using civil rights as an excuse for breaking the law.

I'm not saying he was perfect, but I do not see how you can say he was ever a segregationist based on his comments alone. He wasn't even in office when the civil rights legislation was passed.

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 5:16 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2008 5:16:16 PM

^he's so stupid it's fucking ridiculous

3/19/2008 5:25:32 PM

Is that all you've got Farrakhan?

3/19/2008 5:30:54 PM

i thought he already died too

3/19/2008 5:35:04 PM

Quote :

"I'm not saying he was perfect, but I do not see how you can say he was ever a segregationist based on his comments alone. He wasn't even in office when the civil rights legislation was passed."

As I understand it, he specifically opposed integration, even in his own church. According to his later statements, he at least opposed agitation for integration. He apparently wanted change to come quietly. I don't know if he said this type of thing at the time. I have a feeling it's a rationalization.

3/19/2008 5:37:59 PM

I did a quick google search about Helms and Hayes Barton Baptist but didn't find anything of the sort, other than the fact he was a one time deacon and Sunday school teacher there.

Lots of Republican help passed civil rights legislation, which largely goes unrecognized.

However, there were those who felt that the government should simply enforce the laws on the books instead of creating new ones. Talk to people who lived during the '60s and saw these protests 1st hand. Parts of Raleigh were set afire, along with many other cities. And for what? It isn't any different in my mind from those who burned and looted after the Rodney King trial. I'm sure many could sympathize with the injustices, but to compound one wrong with another doesn't exactly persuade others to join the fight.

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 5:47 PM. Reason : more]

3/19/2008 5:41:51 PM

WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??

3/19/2008 6:32:31 PM

Quote :

"I did a quick google search about Helms and Hayes Barton Baptist but didn't find anything of the sort, other than the fact he was a one time deacon and Sunday school teacher there."

I can't find the article again, so I'll concede the point. He definitely support segregation in general. He worked for various pro-segregation candidates.

Quote :

"Lots of Republican help passed civil rights legislation, which largely goes unrecognized."

Not Jesse Helms. He didn't even become a Republican until 1970. And he voted against the 1982 Voting Rights Act, something even Strom Thurmond supported.

3/19/2008 6:55:10 PM

Quote :

" Long before Rush Limbaugh, Helms was on the airwaves dismissing the University of North Carolina (UNC) as the "University of Negroes and Communists." This is one of the disturbing legacies of Jesse Helms. Though you won't see it mentioned in the media coverage of his retirement, Helms was in fact an avowed and unapologetic segregationist. As a campaign worker, he helped elect segregation candidates before his own run in 1972. Unlike neoconservatives who espouse state's rights on principle, despite any unwanted outcomes on racial issues, Helms backed state's rights specifically because he wanted states to have the right to segregate. "

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-mgraham082301.shtml

Quote :

"Born October 18, 1921, in the small segregated town of Monroe, North Carolina, Helms was named for his formidable father. Jesse Helms, Sr., was the town's police and fire chief, and he exacted obedience from Monroe and his two sons alike. "My father was a six-foot, two-hundred pound gorilla," Helms affectionately said. "When he said, ‘Smile,' I smiled." His mother, Ethel Mae Helms, marshaled her family off to the First Baptist Church twice a week. In Helms's childhood, Monroe still romantically celebrated Confederate Memorial Day, and patriotism, regional pride, religion, and racial separation were formative influences on the boy. ... ... Helms's attacks on desegregation were reprinted in newspapers under titles such as "Nation Needs to Know of Red Involvement in Race Agitation!" The liberal media were to blame, Helms reasoned, and if they would stop distorting the truth, then "there would be millions around the world who would change their minds about race relations in the South." Despite his own biases, Helms and WRAL survived repeated complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. ... Supporting right-wing governments—even those associated with abuses of human rights, such as Turkey, or with all-white rule, such as Rhodesia and South Africa—made more sense to him [than supporting the left wing]. ... In a combative 1990 reelection campaign, Helms nearly lost to African American Harvey Gantt. The former Democratic mayor of Charlotte was ahead of Helms until the last weeks of the campaign, when Helms' forces mailed 125,000 postcards to voters warning them that they could be prosecuted for fraud if they voted improperly. ... Almost immediately, he blasted the president as unfit to conduct foreign policy and warned that Clinton "better have a bodyguard" if he planned to visit North Carolina military bases. Politicians from both parties denounced the remark, which came on the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Helms called his statement a "mistake" but refused to apologize.[this one's not racist but shows what a dickbag Helms is]"

http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms

Quote :

" [from above link] His reporting in the vicious, racially divided 1950 Democratic primary race for the Senate led to accusations that he had doctored a photo of the wife of the loser, Frank Graham, so that she appeared to be dancing with a black man—a fatal blow to the candidate's chances in the segregated state... ... After three Supreme Court decisions furthering desegregation inflamed racial fears, Jesse Helms encouraged WRAL radio listeners to go to Smith’s home to urge him to call for a runoff. Smith agreed, and the runoff election turned on the fears generated by the race issue.Willis Smith defeated Frank Graham by a narrow margin. Shortly thereafter, Smith appointed Helms to the top job on his Washington Senate staff. "

http://www.unctv.org/senatorno/peopleevents/people.html


[Edited on March 20, 2008 at 7:15 PM. Reason : ]

3/20/2008 7:13:49 PM

Apparently guilt by association is still in fashion after all these years.

3/20/2008 8:49:24 PM