Yeah he was total garbage.
Good riddance.

For anyone in the area with a hankerin' to piss on the devil's carcass
a viewing for former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms will be held from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, July 7, at Hayes-Barton Baptist Church, 1800 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, N.C.

"The Republican cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to invade sovereign nations, kill dark skinned peoples, and destroy civil rights."

This note was handed to a puzzled Jesse Helms as he crossed the threshold of The Gates of Hell. Once inside, his official guide, Richard M. Nixon, wearing a dirty wife beater, a pair of threadbare shorts and flip flops, told him to disrobe completely. Helms did this quickly and uncomplainingly as he thought he was in Heaven and was about to be given his white garments, wings and halo. He kept asking Nixon what it was like here; were there any Negroes or Jews or faggots? Were there lots of compliant and nubile young girls he could "frolic" with. That was the word he used: frolic. Now standing fat, naked and sallow skinned, Nixon told Helms to get on his knees. Helms also did this quickly as he thought he and the former president were going to pray together. "Get on your HANDS and knees, Jesse", Nixon told him. Helms thought this a bit odd but once again complied. Suddenly he felt paralyzed, absolutely incapable of moving. He felt an overwhelming sense of shame and embarrassment, down on the ground like a dog, naked and unable to move. He was disturbed by the dirt under Nixon's toenails and began feeling a bit frightened. Striding toward him from the hazy distance came a figure whom Helms eventually recognized as Warren Harding, carrying a stick of dynamite in his left hand. Helms asked Nixon, "What's going on?" Nixon made no reply. The 29th president gave the 37th president the stick of dynamite and he inserted it carefully up Helms' backside. From the pocket of his threadbare shorts, Nixon produced a short fuse, attached it to the dynamite and lit it. Nixon put the note Helms had been given directly beneath his face and then he and Harding walked off. Helms is like that even now, reading the note over and over again, hearing the short fuse still burning and waiting for the explosion.

Helms was a bigot, no doubt about it. But the author of this piece, in her second paragraph, calls him a "big fat bigot."

I am not defending Helms or trying to nitpick, but the guy's being fat has nothing to do with anything. Ms. Duggan, surely there are better more effective ways to castigate Helms than to call on American's prejudice against fat people.

Sheesh.

5'8" 165# here...this is not a personal axe I'm grinding, just frustration with the so called left's blindness to it's own bigotry.

He may be gone but the irrational hate that kept him in office lives on. He was never elected by more than a thin margin but his continued reelection convicted North Carolina of coming down finally, over and over, on the side of fear, arrogance, ignorance, xenophobia, etc.

You could never get his supporters to admit being bigots, at least not in so many words, but they did admit being ugly, mean, and nostalgic for Jim Crow: Their continual refrain was "You know where Jesse stands."

Hell yes, everybody knew where he stood, just like everybody knows where the devil stands. "You know where Jesse stands" they would say. They thought they were being subtle in giving in to the worst in themselves.

There was nothing subtle about Jesse or his apologists. I have never believed in pure evil as a force in the universe. I very well could be wrong.

baruch
Methinks you're being a bit oversensitive. "big fat" can be taken the same as in "big fat lie", as in "very big".

hamster, not oversensitive, just noticing...

Rest in piss Jesse Helms.

Helms, Limbaugh, and other vocal fascists serve(d) the important function of showing us the right's true colors. It's the sneaky closet fascists that worry me.

Ding dong, the racist's dead, which old racist, the wicked racist, Ding dong the wicked racist's dead. And so they sang…

Another death that evokes the Moms Mabley joke:

"My momma taught me to only speak good of the dead.
My husband is dead.
Good!"

Good riddance to a truly despicable piece of human crud. May Strom Thurmond and him spend eternity in bewilderment as they discover that Heaven is not an exclusively wealthy male WASP enclave, and has denied him entrance. A just fate for those who believe rewards for their conduct in life would have Helms slaving away on a plantation in Hell with a black overseer whipping him.

I got an email from my brother Frank (whose chosen profession is coaching local populations on how to undermine construction of private prisons in their localities - a real trouble maker with an attitude) that framed a promotion to this worthless fascist to rot in hell. My immediate, knee jerk thought regarding the note was, "ease up Frank". But then I thought otherwise.

There is this strange cultural meme in the US that requires all to treat death and the dead with respect and reverence, which expects the spokespeople of our society to view unkindly the action of anyone who might piss on the grave of an evil and thankfully departed product of nature that is the likes of the recently departed Jesse Alexander Helms. I am in total concurrence with the author of this article. Piss away my friends. RIP in hell - JAH.

Pore Jesse's daid,
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid,
All gather 'round his coffin now and cry
And cry!

He had a heart of brass
And a G-O-P pol's ass
And that's why such a feller had to die.

Pore Jesse's daid
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid,
He's lookin' oh so peaceful and serene
And serene!

He's all laid out to rest
With his hands acrost his chest
His robe and hood have never been so clean!

Pore Jesse's daid
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid
His racist friends'll weep for miles around
Miles around!

The daisies in the dell
Will give out a different smell
When Jesse Helms is underneath the ground.

Pore Jesse's daid
A candle lights his haid
He's layin' in a coffin made of wood
Made of wood!

And some folks are feelin' glad
Cause he used to treat 'em bad
But now they know old Jesse's gone for good.

Pore Jesse's daid
A candle lights his haid!
He's lookin' oh so purty and so nice.
Oh so nice!

He looks like he's asleep,
But we're glad that he won't keep
Cause it's summer and they're running out of ice.

Pore Jesse's daid . . .

With apologies to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

baruch -- And what exactly is wrong with calling people fat? Not that in this case, as hamster pointed out, it referred to his physical attribute; but what if it did? Are we now so politically correct that we are not allowed to name the elephnat in the room?

Given what we now know of obesity and its harmful effect on health, and the nember of Merkins (and other nationals) who are hideously so, maybe we should stop being so faux polite.

Grossly fat people are obscene. OK, if you want to be fat, go right ahead, but to my knowledge most fatties are not happy about it which, to my mind, in that regard makes them stupid. Shape up lardies.

PShaw July 6th, 2008 5:26 pm
baruch — And what exactly is wrong with calling people fat?

OK, if you want to be fat, go right ahead, but to my knowledge most fatties are not happy about it which, to my mind, in that regard makes them stupid. Shape up lardies.
*************************************************************

Okey Dokey. Then using you're illogical logic, you're a fucking miserable rude hateful thing. That's okay since you don't want to be politically correct, yes, I can't use your silly username, agent from Freedoms Watch.

Too bad he's dead.
It completely eliminates the dream Presidential ticket. Louis Farakhan and Jesse Helms.

Problem is, I have never been able to figure out which should run for President and who should be VP.

Oh well, it is now never to be....
Farewell Jesse, I hope that front row seat in Hell is very hot.

Helms 86'd to
hell on his gay national
holiday -- hooray!

Turce -- how do say that? -- Turkey?

I did not understand your last sentence, but I am glad to see I have upset someone at least. My work is done here for today.

Bozo the clown died just a day earlier. I can't help thinking there's a joke in there somewhere.

Merwan:

To paraphrase a poster from another site:

Two bozos have died this week. Only one of them will be missed.

I have here a letter to the alumni magazine at my alma mater. It was not printed. I post it now as it seems the moment has finally arrived. Again, apologies to all for my vanity.

July 14, 2005

Carolina Alumni Review
P.O. Box 660
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Re: Letters to the Editor

I am writing to dissent preemptively from any praises that may be heaped on Jesse Helms at his passing. I had thought of writing at his retirement
from the federal senate but was dissuaded by the certain knowledge that Mr. Helms' loving family deserves no offense from me. I am also conscious
that many wonderful North Carolinians will condemn this comment as ignorant. I am moved now to write nonetheless by the struggle over John Bolton's
nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. I consider without the warp worked by Jesse Helms on our national conception of the world body,
Bolton could not have been suggested for that post and that Helms' horrible mindset hangs on. I therefore preface this outburst with sincere apologies
to those who will prefer I had remained silent.

I first heard of Jesse Helms in the Fall of 1964, upon arrival at Chapel Hill as a junior transfer. During the previous summer, a student publication
(perhaps the Lullabulero) had printed a piece that contained the f word. Then a popular locutor on Raleigh AM radio, Mr. Helms harangued the state
Legislature to hold back funding for the University. Sounding an endless nasty invective that came ultimately to characterize him in my mind, Mr. Helms
made appropriating a budget for the University's annual operations into a sin; every integration and peace event on campus gave new outrage to his rhetoric.
The situation continued to the end of the 64-65 academic year. The University had to liquidate reserves and pay interest on loans. My initial impression of
Mr. Helms is thus of his demagogic campaign against my soul mother, our country's oldest, greatest public university.
My worst complaint against Mr. Helms is the low esteem to which he bullied our national view of the United Nations. As a youngster growing up in
Albuquerque I read the Weekly Reader with my schoolmates. Frequent articles portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt, Dag Hammarskjold or Bertrand Russell and a
United Nations bringing the world together in peace. This is the future we grew up expecting to fulfill. To the contrary, as the ranking minority member or chair
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Helms undertook to hammer the UN as a corrupt international conspiracy bent on subverting U.S. sovereignty.
With shame I acknowledge Mr. Helms' success in blocking payment of U.S. annual dues to the UN for nearly a decade. His demonization made it possible
for the current President to defame and disregard the UN weapons inspectors who found no WMD in Iraq. It facilitated the invasion of Iraq without authorization
from the world body and in the teeth of world opinion. I hold Mr. Helms more than indirectly responsible for the continuing unprecedented squander of lives and
treasure there. Without Mr. Helms' venal incitement, we might see the United Nations as a worthy undertaking, the last best hope of mankind. Instead, he
disrespects it as a selfish mafia of foreign bureaucrats. So I say fie on the public career of Jesse Helms. His destructive efforts injured the university, the state,
the nation and the world. He persecuted the innocent, exploited race, championed our worst instincts and opposed enlightenment for over forty years. His vision
and example are false. They discourage unity and impede understanding. Our prospects are improved with Mr. Helms out of office, but we must rethink and
shake off his influence still.

As Matt Rothschild likes to say, the good die young--no matter what their chronological age. Condolences to his loved ones and maybe this is the passing of the last unreconstructed Southern racist politician--if so that would be a welcome development.

Rude and grossly intolerant people are usually rude and grossly intolerant.

NATE W: Sounds about right, karmic-score-wise.

i never could figure out the bs about respecting the dead. helms surely didnt respect too many of the living. i'm sure he's in the place where people like him belong....

A collection of quotes from Jesse Helms:

"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."

On his support for Clinton's continued bombing of a starving Iraqi population:
We kept bombing them through the 90s, "to teach the Iraqi people another lesson on who is boss."

"The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."

He was from a tobacco state:
"I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That's the kind of customers we need!"

A quote that earned him a visit from the Secret Service:
"Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard."

When citizens of Mexico protested his visit:
"All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction."

"To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing."

gsloan. A fine letter and, as those who regularly write "letters" to the Albuquerque Journal which are usually rejected because they point to the unwelcomed truth, it's not surprising that they refused to print it. May Helms rot in hell and I'm tempted to say that sentiment goes for all those who think well of him and his ilk.

"Jesse Helms was an important bigot."

Maybe in the past, but Jesse Helms is no longer important. US Senators are no longer important. The US government is no longer important. The US dollar is no longer important. The English language is no longer important. The "American Way" is no longer important. US ideas, methods, and products are no longer important. The US is no longer important. Jesse Helms is no longer important.

Jessie Helms! Ha! What a piece of sh&* joke!

Good freakin riddance.....

Coffeelover,,,,,,

Thanks Fanny666, Nobody else could have judged Jesse as harshly as he himself in his own words