Jesse Helms has died.

LibertyLover @ 1:

Jesse Helms has died.

Not to be disrespectful or anything but if someone had asked me if he was still alive I would have answered no. I thought for sure he had been dead for a couple of years.

pissed off patricia @ 3:

LibertyLover @ 1:

Jesse Helms has died.

Not to be disrespectful or anything but if someone had asked me if he was still alive I would have answered no. I thought for sure he had been dead for a couple of years.

I knew that he had retired and was glad of that, but I thought that he had been hanging out lobbying or something... like so many of them do.

LibertyLover @ 1:

Jesse Helms has died.

Faux is wanking off to Jesse, making him out to be some sort of hero

The original was great, but we need to stand up now.
http://myfightfordemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-declaration-of-indep...

Jesse Helms dead http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Obit-Helms.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Praying on the steps of the Saudi Embassy in DC?
gone bonkers.

Mickxotic @ 12:

As for the state of journalism in the USA, good journalism is found on the internets. That stuff on the idiot box and newspapers is one big right wing infomercial. Jesse Helms dead? How could they tell?

I would say that in many cases, it's not the reporters, it's the editors. Then, when subscriptions drop off, they lay off more workers instead of printing real news.

bush administration knew that hunt oil was signing a deal in the kurd region of iraq last yr. undercutting iraqi gov.
it never ends
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/middleeast/03kurdistan.html?_r=1...

I knew there was a payoff somewhere regarding the Columbian hostages. That operation, along with McCain coincidental arrival was just to smooth. No rival nation or group is just going to hand over its bargaining chips for nothing and now we see what that payoff to FARC was. In fact, I bet McCain was the man who gave the rebels the money:

FARC leaders were paid millions to free hostages: Swiss radio

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'.

The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million.

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/04/afx5184293.html

"Emptywheel: I don’t think “accountability” means what Obama thinks it does."

Emptywheel better be careful, or they'll have Left & Left calling them racist.

As for Jesse Helms, I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead either, although that's probably a custom going back to the days when people were afraid of being haunted.

However, Helms alone held up 300 of Bubba Clinton's judiciary appointments, that have been recently filled by boosh, except for a couple. The repigs claim that's outrageous.

rest in peace dawg
How did someone so mean-spirited end up in a position to act on his divisive politics? For the most part, Helms wins political battles by keeping the spotlight on the morality plays he stages. To hear conservatives tell it, Helms is a personal friend of Jesus Christ, a populist defender of the little guy, and a bitter opponent of big government.

just the opposite........he could fool most of the people
most of the time

He's finally dead. His body finally caught up to his brain, which has been dead for decades...
{Edited, SiteMonitor}

karl @ 26:

Samson- @ 24:

karl @ 22:

"Looking at the record, people ought to understand that Helms is not representing them on the great majority of issues," says Rep. Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat. "They perceive that he stands up for the little guy, but he really stands up for rich people rather than poor and working-class people."

the GOP defined

helms was a bitter, hateful and angry man. i hope his death brings him peace, it sure does me.

enigma....happy to be hated.........

paradox... comfort in discomfort

Samson- @ 24:

karl @ 22:

"Looking at the record, people ought to understand that Helms is not representing them on the great majority of issues," says Rep. Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat. "They perceive that he stands up for the little guy, but he really stands up for rich people rather than poor and working-class people."

the GOP defined

helms was a bitter, hateful and angry man. i hope his death brings him peace, it sure does me.

Coincidentally he died on Independence Day. Blacks and gays just gained a little more independence today.

LibertyLover @ 1:

Jesse Helms has died.

I would say something nice about him if i knew of anything nice about him.

Joe O. @ 19:

Damn! I was going to post that!

So the US has directly sponsored terrorism? And then pumps out a heroic rescue mission story à la Jessica Lynch?

General_Rennenkampf @ 30:

Joe O. @ 19:

I knew there was a payoff somewhere regarding the Columbian hostages. That operation, along with McCain coincidental arrival was just to smooth. No rival nation or group is just going to hand over its bargaining chips for nothing and now we see what that payoff to FARC was. In fact, I bet McCain was the man who gave the rebels the money:

FARC leaders were paid millions to free hostages: Swiss radio

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'.

The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million.

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/04/afx5184293.html

Heh, so we don't negotiate with terrorists...except when we do.

(shakes head.) How anybody could fall for the idea that Communist terrorists would just up and allow hostages to be freed when being Communist after the USSR collapse means you're more hard-core than Al Qaeda could ever be, is beyond me.

$20 million for advertising like that? What a deal!

No wonder the press was primed to pump up McCain. Someone in the Treasury Department decided that if we were going to spend that kind of money we had better make good use of it.

xoites defends Constitution @ 35:

General_Rennenkampf @ 30:

Joe O. @ 19:

I knew there was a payoff somewhere regarding the Columbian hostages. That operation, along with McCain coincidental arrival was just to smooth. No rival nation or group is just going to hand over its bargaining chips for nothing and now we see what that payoff to FARC was. In fact, I bet McCain was the man who gave the rebels the money:

FARC leaders were paid millions to free hostages: Swiss radio

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'.

The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million.

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/04/afx5184293.html

Heh, so we don't negotiate with terrorists...except when we do.

(shakes head.) How anybody could fall for the idea that Communist terrorists would just up and allow hostages to be freed when being Communist after the USSR collapse means you're more hard-core than Al Qaeda could ever be, is beyond me.

$20 million for advertising like that? What a deal!

No wonder the press was primed to pump up McCain. Someone in the Treasury Department decided that if we were going to spend that kind of money we had better make good use of it.

This is the sort of stunt one would expect of a Renaissance Italian monarchy, though, not a civilized modern state.

General_Rennenkampf @ 37:

xoites defends Constitution @ 35:

General_Rennenkampf @ 30:

Joe O. @ 19:

Heh, so we don't negotiate with terrorists...except when we do.

(shakes head.) How anybody could fall for the idea that Communist terrorists would just up and allow hostages to be freed when being Communist after the USSR collapse means you're more hard-core than Al Qaeda could ever be, is beyond me.

$20 million for advertising like that? What a deal!

No wonder the press was primed to pump up McCain. Someone in the Treasury Department decided that if we were going to spend that kind of money we had better make good use of it.

This is the sort of stunt one would expect of a Renaissance Italian monarchy, though, not a civilized modern state.

LOL

Yglesias is right on this one.

Breaking: Reports are Emerging that Bush White House Broke With Pledge Not to Deal With Terrorists and Paid $20 Million Ransom for U.S. Hostages in Colombia. "Neither the US nor Colombia immediately responded to the suggestions that they had paid to secure the hostages’ release." Developing...

But while she was still in the air, the Swiss radio station RSR broadcast a report questioning the official version of the operation to free Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages – saying that money, not cunning, had clinched their freedom.

According to Bogota, the hostages were freed in an elaborate ruse by Colombian intelligence agents who had infiltrated the Marxist Farc rebels holding them.

But RSR said that the 15 hostages “were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up". Citing a source "close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years", it said that the United States – which had three citizens among those freed – was behind the deal and put the price at $20 million.

US soldiers bow their head in prayer during a mass re-enlistment ceremony in Baghdad on Friday. More than 1,200 soldiers took part in the event as part of an American Independence Day celebration (Erik de Castro/Reuters)

Ruthless People @ 29:

Samson- @ 24:

karl @ 22:

"Looking at the record, people ought to understand that Helms is not representing them on the great majority of issues," says Rep. Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat. "They perceive that he stands up for the little guy, but he really stands up for rich people rather than poor and working-class people."

the GOP defined

helms was a bitter, hateful and angry man. i hope his death brings him peace, it sure does me.

Coincidentally he died on Independence Day. Blacks and gays just gained a little more independence today.

the timing of his death was staged to connect it to the history books and to make it newsworthy. he's probably been rotting for a month.

CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Democratic Party Victory Over SCLM and DIEBOLD! @ 47:

Ruthless People @ 29:

Samson- @ 24:

karl @ 22:

the GOP defined

helms was a bitter, hateful and angry man. i hope his death brings him peace, it sure does me.

Coincidentally he died on Independence Day. Blacks and gays just gained a little more independence today.

the timing of his death was staged to connect it to the history books and to make it newsworthy. he's probably been rotting for a month.

I wouldn't doubt it. Everything with these people is a fabricated sham.

xoites defends Constitution @ 34:

earl @ 32:

nothing wrong with Corporate media ...why right now the top developing story on cnn.com is:

"Play-by-play of hotdog eating contest.
Watch Now: Live on CNN.com »"

War? nah .... Jeez Luiz we are so screwed ....

Too bad they can't do the eating contest at the scene of an 18 car pile up. Their ratings would soar!

Missing blond cheerleaders eating hot-dogs ---that'd be GOLD!

MAJeff @ 50:

the timing of his death was staged to connect it to the history books and to make it newsworthy. he’s probably been rotting for a month.

He's been rotting for decades.

He was rotten to begin with.

ysbaddaden @ 54:

I'm not going to gloat over Jesse Helm's death.

I'm totally against his positions

I hated his preachy holier than thou attitude.

But I didn't know the guy.

Therefore how much was political theatre and how much was him, I do not know

Nor can gauge whether he was a true-believer or a hyprocrite.

But if he would gloat over another's death

Why should I reduce myself thus?

And if he would not gloat

Wouldn't that make him my better?

You didn't know the guy? So I guess it's possible he wasn't actually an unrepentant bigot, merely pretending to be one for decades, causing harm to millions of people he didn't know, either.