Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Can you provide us a cite on Helm's Klan membership? (and for the record I don't and never did like him). In lieu of a cite, I will accept a photoshopped pic of Jesse in Klan regalia as conclusive proof.

As for Byrd, look at this quote from when he was a Senator at the age of 48.

"There will never be a Negro on the US Supreme Court, I can guarantee you that. Mr. Marshall holds views with our dangerous to this nation and our posterity. I know a group of Senators, who, like myself...will hold up his confirmation vote for months if we have to."
--Senator Robert C. Byrd, June 1967

Yes, a major mistake. SOOOOOORrry. Mea culpa indeed Sidd.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

I thought West Virginia was on our side during the civil war.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Depends, which side was California on?

I understand there is a Spanky thread here
 

BUt I dont want to read the political bs tofind it. Coudlnt someone direct me to it?

justice delayed and justice denied?
 

Yeah, it's not like segregation hurt anyone.

justice delayed and justice denied?
 

You didn't read the same article -- the article I read did not have any of that.

Like I said, not the greatest apology I've ever read -- but Helms still believes his position was right. To me, that seems different.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Once again, as I said -- not the greatest apology. But I was referring to an autobiography that was just published, not what he said in 1967.

justice delayed and justice denied?
 

Would you rather be black and subject to oppressive segregation (with the hope of eventual equal rights) or dead? Personally, I would take the former. Even if I choose the latter out desperation and misery from my oppression, I would prefer to choose the means of my demise, and it would be not lynching by a bunch of white guys in sheets.

I would probably just petition to the State to remove my feeding tube.

justice delayed and justice denied?
 

What difference does that make. Assuming the credibility of the source, if he said them, the words speak for themselves, regardless of whether they were cited in one certain article. The point that is being made is that his racism and participation in the Klan is more than just the youthful indiscretion that he can waive away with a couple of ghost written sentences.


Judging by the quotes and actions over a period of over 25 years, I am not so sure of the sincerity of the apology. If his behaviour was limited to a brief exposure in 42 followed by a lifetime of contrite acts, that is one thing but this is a guy who supposedly repudiated his "limited" participation in the Klan and then followed it up with at least 25 years of measurable racist words and acts, including as a US Senator.

How does he explain that?

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Here is what he currently said, according to your quote:

"joining the KKK was "an extraordinarily foolish mistake[emph added, and note: mistake, singular]" that "has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake[emph added and note, one, singular] can do to one's life, career, and reputation."

So he apologizes for his membership in the Klan but what do the Klan-like acts and words of at least the next 25 years do to that apology? Its like Hitler apologizing for the one major mistake of Kristallnacht as a means for absolution for the Holocaust.

The Conscience of the Senate. Indeed.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

From the US Senate website

• At 9:51 on the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert C. Byrd completed an address that he had begun fourteen hours and thirteen minutes earlier. The subject was the pending Civil Rights Act of 1964, a measure that occupied the Senate for fifty-seven working days, including six Saturdays. A day earlier, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey, the bill's manager, concluded he had the sixty-seven votes required at that time to end the debate.

At least we can see where the Dems get their filibuster chops from.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Sidd,

when is he going to apologize for his attempt to deny black americans their civil rights? I'm betting that it will be one day after the day that Reno and Clinton find the collective integrity to apologize to Elian for stripping him of his human rights to liberty and sentencing him to a life of exile and oppression in Communist redCuba.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Good job, fellas. I think those bones are just about dry, though. Byrd will probably only survive so many more elections, you know. After all, he's no Thurmond.

Hey -- here's some fresh new meat! Dick Durbin. Dumbass Democratic Senator from Illinois, who marred an uncomfortable critique about Gitmo with a wonderfully inapt Soviet gulag analogy. Go get em, guys! Bonus points if you can work in a persecution-of-Christians angle. And, if it's vicious enough, we might get Hello to contribute to the site!

Love and kisses,
Brother Rove

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

He had the decency to apologize today.

The DEMs are using a very dangerous tactic. They are using Gitmo to criticize the president, but that implicitly criticizes the troops that are there. So they are being careful to say that it is not an indictment of the troops because they can't possibly be to blame. Instead they are blaming the administration and using phrases like "chain of command." It seems to me that they are trying to have it both ways, but I guaranty that our troops don't see it that way. The backlash from this might be huge.

Farm subsidies and the KKK
 

Yeah, no Democrats care about abuse and torture at places like Gitmo. They're pretending to care, just so they can criticize the president.

I don't know what Durbin apologized for. Andrew Sullivan got it exactly right. A lot of Republicans who pretend to give a shit about the abuse would much rather jump all over the rhetoric of people talking about it.