Jesse Helms Dead at 86

[Lief 🗽]

Trash like Helms shouldn't get to die on the 4th of July.

[Lief 🗽]

It's a shame he didn't get to live long enough to see Barack Obama inaugurated.

[Lief 🗽]

Sorry, but standing up for what you believe in, when it is racism, bigotry and irrational hatred of your fellow man, and then making a career out of that, is not worthy of respect or admiration.

[Lief 🗽]

Interesting article.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/helms/story/1135443.html

He quit rather than lower flag for Helms

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.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Eason said in an interview Tuesday that he did not typically lower the flag himself, but that, as head of the lab, he supervised the technician who did. He also trained new employees on proper flag etiquette, including a one-person folding technique he learned in Boy Scouts.

When the lab opened Monday morning, the flags were not out at all. An employee called Eason's boss, Stephen Benjamin, who worked in another building in Raleigh. About 10:45 a.m., Benjamin told one of Eason's co-workers to put the flags at half-staff.

Another of Eason's superiors later drove by the lab to make sure the flags were up properly.

No one in the Governor's Office was aware of any time in recent memory when a state employee refused to lower a flag. Brian Long, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department, said Eason's refusal was unexpected.

"We've never had any conversations like that," he said.

An ultimatum

In a string of e-mail messages with his superiors, Eason was told he could either lower the flags or retire effective immediately.

Though he's only 51, Eason chose to retire, although he pleaded several times to be allowed to stay at the lab. Eason, who had worked for the Agriculture Department since graduating from college, was paid $65,235 a year as the laboratory manager.

Several people, including his wife, argued to Eason that the flags belonged to the state, as did the lab. But Eason said he felt a strong sense of ownership.

Eason and a previous boss had sketched out the building's rough design on a napkin at the Atlanta airport in 1984 after attending a national conference on weights and measures.

He then worked to get funding for it in the state budget, and he recently helped snag state money to study building another lab.

"I designed and built that lab," he said. "Even though technically the bricks and mortar belong to the state of North Carolina, I feel very strongly that everything that comes out of there is my responsibility."

It was not the first time Eason felt uneasy about lowering the flag.

A registered Democrat who frequently votes a split ticket, he said he had no problems lowering the flag for former Sen. Terry Sanford or President Reagan. But he remembers wondering whether he would be willing to lower the flag after President Nixon's death.

He never had to make that decision, since it rained both days.

Monday was sunny. And Eason was out of a job.

FF.

[Lief 🗽]

Jesse Helms was a piece of shit racist hatemonger who did nothing but damage this country and inflame decades old hatred for political gain. He was an awful human being and the world is better off with him burning in hell. No apologies.

[Lief 🗽]

Jesse Helms was a piece of shit racist hatemonger who did nothing but damage this country and inflame decades old hatred for political gain. He was an awful human being and the world is better off with him burning in hell. No apologies.

Ted Kennedy did nothing except spew socalist ideals in hopes stealing from those who had earned it.  he was also a murderer, a coward, a spoiled blue-blood, and set out on a mission of destructive policies that would set America back decades.  He was an awful being and the world is better off with him burning in hell.  No apoligies

It must be nice to be a sheltered, oblivious rich kid, huh?

[Lief 🗽]

Jesse Helms was a piece of shit racist hatemonger who did nothing but damage this country and inflame decades old hatred for political gain. He was an awful human being and the world is better off with him burning in hell. No apologies.

Ted Kennedy did nothing except spew socalist ideals in hopes stealing from those who had earned it.  he was also a murderer, a coward, a spoiled blue-blood, and set out on a mission of destructive policies that would set America back decades.  He was an awful being and the world is better off with him burning in hell.  No apoligies

It must be nice to be a sheltered, oblivious rich kid, huh?

Its nice to be so much of an idiot that can't see that all I did was take what you said and apply it to Ted Kennedy.  Your blinders are on that much that you can't see why people think Ted Kennedy is a scumbag and his policies are awful?

I didn't say a single thing about Jesse Helms policies; he was a hateful, racist individual who played off people's hatreds to win elections. Ted Kennedy was an awful person because he supported left-wing policies? Don't be a dumb.

[Lief 🗽]

I didn't say a single thing about Jesse Helms policies; he was a hateful, racist individual who played off people's hatreds to win elections. Ted Kennedy was an awful person because he supported left-wing policies? Don't be a dumb.

And Ted Kennedy was a spoiled blue-blood who used his name to advance his career and get away with murder and other issues

Get away with murder? No.

If he were a spoiled blue-blood, he would have spent his life living off his family's money and partying (you have experience with this, I am told). Instead, he dedicated his life to public service, passing laws not to help his rich buddies but to help ordinary working people, minorities, the old and sick, women and immigrants.

[Lief 🗽]

Get away with murder? No.

If he were a spoiled blue-blood, he would have spent his life living off his family's money and partying (you have experience with this, I am told). Instead, he dedicated his life to public service, passing laws not to help his rich buddies but to help ordinary working people, minorities, the old and sick, women and immigrants.

Well I guess we'll have to disagree as to whether he used his name to get away with murder, but beyond that..Kennedy dedicated his life to public service and promoting goals which he thought would benefit people.  The fact is, Jesse Helms did exactly the same thing.  Which one had more noble goals is a matter of opinion, not fact

Okay then, so, for me, noble means helping the poor and downtrodden and minorities and to you, noble means restricting the rights of those same people. Good to know!

[Lief 🗽]

Also, for those unaware, Matthew Shepard was a young man who was abducted, tortured and murdered because he was gay. DWDL is now attacking him.

[Lief 🗽]

Okay then, so, for me, noble means helping the poor and downtrodden and minorities and to you, noble means restricting the rights of those same people. Good to know!

Or that I value personal responsibities and you value gov't handouts.  Either one.

It's hard to exercise personal responsibility when you're a second class citizen, bro.

[Lief 🗽]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/07/04/jesse-helms-is-dead.aspx

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Not racist my ass.

[Lief 🗽]

I promised hell when this moron died (Kennedy) if liberals didn't respect conservatives and the double standard has driven me to the point where this is necessary

Do you have parents? Because evidently no one ever taught you that two wrongs don't make a right.