Jesse Helm died, rejoyce everyone!

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican who became an icon to conservatives, died today at the age of 86, a senior congressional source told CNN. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, announced on its Web site that he died at 1:18 a.m. after having been ill in recent years.

Helms was particularly vitriolic when speaking of gays and lesbians, blaming them for "the proliferation of AIDS," and stating that he disliked using the word "gay" to refer to them since, "...there's nothing gay about them."

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983 on grounds that King had two associates with communist ties, Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell; as well, he voiced disapproval of King's alleged philandering.

Helms' referred to the University of North Carolina (UNC) as the "University of Negroes and Communists." (Charleston Gazette, 9/15/95)

Helms once deeply offended a black colleague, Democratic Senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, by singing part of "Dixie" on a Capitol elevator.

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).

At this time, his press secretary was Claude Allen, an African American. James Meredith, who earned fame as the first African American student admitted to the University of Mississippi, also served on Helms' staff.

While working on the 1950 campaign of Republican Willis Smith against Democrat 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." Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (FAIR 9/1/01, The News and Observer 8/26/01)

Helms was an ardent supporter of the late Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet.

When Roberta Achtenberg was appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, Helms attempted to block her confirmation, stating that he refused to vote for "that damned lesbian".

After a protest during his 1986 visit to Mexico, Helms opined: "All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction."

In 1994 Helms spoke out against metal industrial singer Marilyn Manson. Manson responded by painting an anti-gay slur on his chest during a show in Winston-Salem, in a sarcastic and critical display against Helms's social viewpoints.

Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker noted in his memoirs that Helms had "the 'humorous habit'" of calling all black people "Fred".

Helms used race issues in many elections; for instance, in 1990, he ran the famous "Hands" television ad in a tough re-election race. The ad has become legendary in Southern political circles as the most direct appeal to white backlash in modern American politics. The ad played upon white voters' ideas that affirmative action might lead to a job going to a less-qualified candidate ("Gantt supports Ted Kennedy's racial quota law, that makes the color of your skin more important than your qualifications.")

Helms opposed an amendment offering War reparations#Japan to Japanese-Americans who had been interned during World War II; he proposed an amendment stipulating that no reparations would be made unless the Japanese government compensated the families of Americans killed at Pearl Harbor.

In 1994, Helms created a sensation when, on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, he told broadcasters Rowland Evans, Jr., and Robert Novak that Clinton was "not up" to the tasks of being commander-in-chief and suggested that Clinton had "better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard."

Helms was a strong supporter of drug prohibition, and opposed former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld's nomination as Ambassador to Mexico because Weld supported medical marijuana.Helms proposed several bills as part of the war on drugs.

Helms once claimed that "The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian."

"Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior."

"Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches."

:sunglasses:

 

[Dannichu]

While I can't say I liked the guy or anything he stood for or belived in, I still don't think it's right to celebrate anyone's death.

I find this line, however, very funny:

homosexual or lesbian

It's one or the other, you hear me!

 

[Altmer]

lol random moron died

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

I know, I'm just bitter and I celebrate the deaths of people I don't like e.g. that one fat fuck whose name I can't remember but who died pretty recently. Also who here will not throw an all night rave when Fred Phelps kicks the bucket.

Homosexuals are gay.

More morons should die imo

 

[Altmer]

i'll celebrate when filip dewinter, geert wilders and mohammed bouyeri die in a christian government conspiracy which gets rouvoet brutally murdered by an assassin who claims to be doing god's will and then the whole world implodes on itself

the death of one moron makes no difference when there's 100 others that'll stand up for the same shitty convictions brought up by the same shitty people in the same shitty neighbourhoods. the fact that this human is well-known and has more power makes the death slightly more significant, but for him a thousand others.

i'm gonna rejoice when all stupid idiots die or see the error of their ways. until then, count your blessings that you're not stupid.

 

[camerupt]

I know it isn't right to celebrate someone's death... but he seemed like a pretty mean person... ugh. Well, I'm not sad that he's dead, I will say that.

 

[Crazy Weavile]

And these types of people make everyone who isn't a Democrat look bad. Glad he's not spewing crap any more, even if he did die. I'm not celebrating the death; I'm celebrating the silence.

 

[Hawkfish]

I don't rejoice in people's deaths. And I don't celebrate in silence either. And I find it interesting a 'Republican' would sing Dixie. When the South was actually Democrats in the Civil War. And the North was Republicans.That's when the Republican party started. God it's amazing what happens in a hundred years. But, even though I don't agree with him politically. I won't celebrate. He didn't kill anybody or rape so...

Edit: And I'm not a Democrat. I never was. I think he was on drugs himself. He sounded like a crazed old annal man. He made his own party look bad. Also I feel sorry for those who had to suffer through him. I don't know what party I'm in...

 

[Timmy]

Fuck yeah
Best news I heard all day.

 

[#1 bro]

He does sound terrible, but like people have said, it is wrong to party over someone you hate's death.

Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker noted in his memoirs that Helms had "the 'humorous habit'" of calling all black people "Fred".

wtf

 

[Altmer]

how "humorous" to call all black people Fred

I'm gonna be humorous now and call all white people "Jonathan"

LOL LOOK IM FUNNY

though this guy does sound like a complete and utter cunt

 

[Icalasari]

Normally, I would say that this is sickening. But, considering that this guy was a moron, even when compared to OTHER morons, then I will make an exception and break out the champagne :D

 

[Mirry]

I'm sure it's not very nice to celebrate somebody's death, but... god, what an ass. XD I can't help but feel that the world must be a little better of a place without this guy in it.

 

[Blaziking the God General]

I agree, not nice to celebrate one's death, but he does seem a bit...hmm...prejudice? Evil? Maniacal? Destructive?

 

[#1 bro]

how "humorous" to call all black people Fred

It is humorous, in a bizarre "wtf is this guy on" way.

 

[Not Meowth]

"Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior."

Yes, that's what they've been teaching us in Cannibalism-Wife-Swapping-And-Murder-Of-The-Infants-And-Elderly-Are-Acceptable-Behaviour Classes...

 

[Music Dragon]

Okay, since when it is wrong to celebrate someone's death? Let's throw a party, whoo whoo!

 

[Dannichu]

...cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are
acceptable behavior.

Okay, so "wife-swapping" is presumeably divorce (after all, only men can get remarried :/), "murder of infants" is abortion, "murder of the elderly" is... euthanasia?
But where on earth did cannibalism come from? I can't think of anything that vagely resembles cannibalism (except, ironically, the eucharist in the RC church). o.o

 

[Eevee]

this is not worth celebrating until the people who voted him in also all die

Okay, so "wife-swapping" is presumeably divorce

wife-swapping is an actual sexual practice which is exactly what it sounds like

 

[Lupine Volt]

While he does sound like a crackpot that the world is much better off without, it's not right to find pleasure in the death of anyone. Granted, I'm not going to take a moment of silence for him, because I don't give people that sort of respect unless they've earned it.