Jesse Helms - Dead
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- canuck0
too bad it wasn't bono. JUST KIDDING !!!
- dog_opus0
Rest in peace.
- paraselene0
good riddance.
- babaganush0
Wasn't he in Hannibal?
- ukit0
Racist
- ukit0
Unlike many of his Republican counterparts, Helms has changed little over the past 50 years. Long before Rush Limbaugh, Helms pioneered the use of television to rally public sentiment. While Ronald Reagan was losing primaries to Gerald Ford, Helms mobilized the religious right and built one of the most profitable political fundraising machines ever. And long after die-hard segregationists like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond began courting black voters, Helms fueled white fears by opposing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whistling "Dixie" while standing next to Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, and supporting apartheid in South Africa.
"His racial politics are deeply held convictions, not simply politics of convenience," says Christopher Scott. "He has a view of a fundamentalist Christian society in which everyone is not welcome. If you could pick up the South Africa of 20 years ago and transplant it to America, that's what he would do."
Helms has long been a staunch ally of right-wing military rulers like Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Raoul Cedras in Haiti, and Roberto D'Aubuisson in El Salvador. Confronted with evidence that D'Aubuisson directed death squads to murder civilians, Helms made it clear that some things are more important than human life. "All I know," he replied, "is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."
- utopian10
Good riddance you racist neocon bastard!
- grunttt0
Happy 4th Of July From North Carolina!
- robotron3k0
we are losing all the old, decrepid, senators who came into office in the 70s and started making lot's of money in the 80s and decided to camp out in Washington cesspool of corruption because they were making so much money, nailing young chicks and going to all-night cocaine parties... the old guard really isn't leaving fast enough.
- oh yeah, his claim to fame... fought AGAINST civil rights in the 60srobotron3k