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  2. Jesse Helms is Dead

Jesse Helms is Dead

By gregladen on July 4, 2008.

Ding dong.

The mo'fkr died on the Fourth of July. Probably on purpose.

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Early on, his habit of blocking nominations and legislation won him a nickname of "Senator No." He delighted in forcing roll-call votes that required Democrats to take politically difficult votes on federal funding for art he deemed pornographic, school busing, flag-burning and other cultural issues.

In 1993, when then-President Clinton sought confirmation for an openly homosexual assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Helms registered his disgust. "I'm not going to put a lesbian in a position like that," he said in a newspaper interview at the time. "If you want to call me a bigot, fine."
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Fine.

(Coturnix has a personal Jesse Helms story ... sort of)

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Politics

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Jesse Helms has died

There is no need to say anything at this moment because it is not nice to say ugly stuff about the dead.

What was going on last night?

My drive home last night was a bit weird — there were fireworks going off everywhere, and being a bit disconnected from the calendar with all my recent travel I was puzzled by it all. Was Minnesota celebrating my return?

Another bigot down. A better 4th of July than I was thinking we'd have. If we had lost the revolutionary war we'd all have healthcare right now and a trendy accent.

Well, David, from that point of view, maybe the colonies did lose the Revolutionary War.

I'm not going to pretend to mourn Jesse Helm; another religious leader who showed no concern for life after birth. He fought abortion rights but supported murderers in South America. He said he wasn't a racist, but used race to win elections.

However, I am waiting to see if even he met Fred Phelps' standards for going to heaven.

I mourn Jesse Helms' death about as little as Jerry Falwell's, and for about the same reasons. I'm sure he'll be missed, but not by me.

This should interest you

From the Raleigh News and Observer:

RALEIGH - L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half-staff.

Mr. Eason is my new hero. That's standing up for what's right.