U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a story of America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeAFb5p2qX8

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, nice job on sugar-coating this one. “Dalliance with the KKK…”??? The loon spent 10 years in the “organization” on went on record numerous times speaking of ill-will towards other races.

• Link
• Report this comment

“An end of an era” is correct. Not necessarily a good era, but is now a part of our American history. What will we lwarn from this? One thing I will give to Senator Byrd, he was good at bringing home the bacon. He never forgot what it was like to be poor, and for good or bad, he was a product of his environment and era.

• Link
• Report this comment

The last sentence says it best.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Jay, nice job on sugar-coating this one.”

“Last week, Byrd said: “I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times . . . and I don’t mind apologizing over and over again. I can’t erase what happened.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_3.html

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,
What I admired most about Senator Byrd, and there is much to admire, was overcomming his personal bigotry and overcomming his ignorance about racism and intolerance. That is a powerful example and lesson for all of us.

• Link
• Report this comment

As to how when Byrd’s seat will be replaced by someone who’s won an election (as opposed to being appointed by the WV Governor) there seems to be a little confusion out there about exactly when that’s to happen…

My money would be on the election being held sooner rather than later.

• Link
• Report this comment

crud, sorry, forgot to close the tag @ 8.00

here’s the link.

• Link
• Report this comment

When we see a Republican apologize for something, anything, we’ll see how that works out…

• Link
• Report this comment

“Strom was a (R); the wonderful Byrd was a (D).”

D vs R…thats the difference right there. These lib-tards wanna give their fellow democratic klan members a pass but no such luck for the republican klan members.

Ah yes…hypocrisy is a democractic party cornerstone.

• Link
• Report this comment

“These lib-tards wanna give their fellow democratic klan members a pass but no such luck for the republican klan members.”

Strom Thrumond was a KKK member? That news to me. I suspect it would be news to him, too…if he was still alive.

• Link
• Report this comment

The KKK will miss their former Grand Wizard, as will the ignorant slobs in the WVa mountains who elected this fool to have him serve the longest in Senate history.

At least he didn’t leave some poor girl to drown a horrible death in his car…..

• Link
• Report this comment

MiltonMan – given that Strom never showed any regret for his racist past – even to the point of denying the existence of a mixed-race daughter – the differences go WAY beyond (R) and (D).

but, nice try.

• Link
• Report this comment

On another note…who all saw the Sat Night VH1 documentary on RUSH?!!

Pretty tasty morsel if I must say so. Alex Lifeson one of the most underrated, overlooked guitarist of all time.

Hemispheres…one of their best.
2112…Gooooood Cracker!

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone/GA

June 28th, 2010
8:09 am

I never said Strum was. Reading is fundamental.

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK – have had the priveledge of seeing them live about 4 times – even now, they put on one helluva show.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I never said Strum was. Reading is fundamental.”

It certainly is. Might I suggest you go back a read YOUR OWN post? Here, I’ll make it easy for you:

You quoted this: “Strom was a (R); the wonderful Byrd was a (D).”

And then you replied: “These lib-tards wanna give their fellow democratic klan members a pass but no such luck for the republican klan members.”

Want to try again to convince those of us who CAN read that you didn’t call Thurmond a clan memeber?

• Link
• Report this comment

MiltonMan
June 28th, 2010
8:03 am

Until I fill in the gaps of my knowledge of Byrd’s earlier years to learn more about what distinguishes the two distinguished Senators, I’m afraid MM, and even Outhouse may have a point.

(I think I’ll shoot Eva Galambos an email to tell her pigs are flying.)

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK – let’s see … saw Moving Pictures … Signals … Presto and one other one in 2005 (don’t remember the name of the album – all covers) … unfortunately, the one in 2005 was at an outdoor venue that had accoustics so bad that, if I wasn’t able to pick up the tell-tale riff, I wouldn’t have had the foggiest what song they were playing.

was surrounded by guys playing air guitar – to a person, they reminded me of my friends from high school …

• Link
• Report this comment

50 YEARS!!??!!

…and we wonder what’s wrong UP THERE on THE HILL!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Stop it Doggone, just stop it. How dare you try to hold one of the local teatards accountable for thier own words.”

But it’s so much fun watching them try to say their own words DON’T say what they DO say!

• Link
• Report this comment

“was surrounded by guys playing air guitar”

LOL…oh gosh…I think we all did such at one time or the other. Looking back…how embarrassing and insulting to guitarists everywhere.

I recall an hilarious/pitiful video from the forgetable “Journey” doing one of their songs with the entire band going “air”. It was just sad.

• Link
• Report this comment

“If one sought atonement and the other did not, that helps me draw a distinction”

I would say that Byrd not only sought atonement, that he MADE it as well.

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK – go to You Tube.

Look up “wind it up”

then laugh.

• Link
• Report this comment

I was 10 years old when Robert C. Byrd came seeking votes during his initial Congressional campaign at the little (100 members) Baptist church in the 300-resident community where I grew up. He was like the rest of us–educationally deprived, poverty-stricken, and poisoned almost at birth by the virulent racism that pervaded the area. To many in that region, voting against Robert C. Byrd would have been like voting against a member of your immediate family.

And Jay is right. It’s difficult to drive even 20 miles in that state without seeing a sign for the Robert C. Byrd this or the Robert C. Byrd that. He even used his power to force a move of the Bureau of Public Debt, the arm of government that handles government securities, including savings bonds, to the state. The state is poor enough as it is; it’s hard to imagine what it would be like without the power of Robert C. Byrd.

Say what you will about him. Bring up his early one-year membership in the Klan—a move he’s regretted for decades, and he said it would be in his obituary (it is this morning.) Bring up his opposition to the Civil Rights Act and his opposition to forced busing to achieve desegration. He was a child of his times.

But Robert C. Byrd will be remembered for achievements long after some of you take your petty hatreds to a soon-forgotten grave. Many of his achievements came without the benefit of extensive formal education and powerful sponsorships. He didn’t start earning his law degree and later a bachelor’s degree until he was well into his Congressional service. Like many in his state at the time, he couldn’t afford college at the time he graduated high school. I’m willing to let his maker be his judge.

The sad part is that the legacy of racism and resentment remains in his native state. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a Republican elected as his permanent replacement.

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK, damn, man. I would have like to have seen that. And yes, that trio is one of the very most talented in the entire genre. I remember when that debut album came out. For a lot of people they really did become the new standard bearers of intelligent, sophisticated rock…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q56YLK0D38I&feature=related

stands, thanks for that link. A clear and compelling indictment of the Bush Crusades and the deadly madness of Ready, Fire, Aim.

Byrd was a throwback in more ways than one. He clearly was exceptionally bright, well read and adaptable – characteristics not much favored in some quarters these days.

The worst of today’s unread Republican reactionaries that hijacked a Once Grand Old Party, prefer imperialism through war, permanent mule headedness and McCarthy-like, misguided 1950s intolerance. Yes, they cloak their demagoguery in flowery language like “American exceptionalism”, and countelss other inane bumper sticker talking points.

But most people see through the nonsense and know all it means is that we faux conservatives do not apologize. EVER. Nor do we even acknowledge our innumerable missteps, mistakes and misinformation.

It is the rhetoric of small men…

• Link
• Report this comment

I remember while in school in south Georgia in the very early ’60s,
that during the monthly 4-H Club meeting in the school gym, a Klan member would give a speech extoling the virtues of the KKK and try to recruit us young’ns. It was a great time to take a nap…

• Link
• Report this comment

Normal –

don’t.

just don’t.

England’s performance was cringe-worthy (the commentators described it as “shambolic”) … they should be made to walk home.

However, there was one bright spot during the weekend – Biggin Hill had its annual air show – we could see some of it from my mother-in-laws, so saw a number of jets and the Red Arrows (England’s version of the Blue Angels) … no Spitfires or Lancasters, though

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay – doesn’t matter. just as it doesn’t matter that Jane Fonda has done the same.

they would rather hate, regardless of the regret and apologies they have given, it just saves time.

• Link
• Report this comment

Normal…there’s more to it than just a no vote. I will always be proud that I came to the same conclusion in MY opposition that a MOST distinguished constitutional scholar did: “Congress had shown a willingness to “hand over, for the foreseeable future, its constitutional power to declare war,” he wrote in “Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency” (Norton, 2004). “

• Link
• Report this comment

Avet…cruise the channel listings for VH1. My guess is it will be on again sometime this week during the evening hour. I ve got Hemispheres in my Auto CD player now and have Fly By Night on CD – Anthem, goood cracker – thinking about purchasing “RUSH”, “Caress of Steel” and “2112″ on cd…wanna round out the collection so to speak.

“madness of Ready, Fire, Aim.” LOL!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Did someone say a Republican admitted to making a mistake… to being wrong about something! Where! When! I don’t believe it.

• Link
• Report this comment

by God I think I’ve got it now. Thanks Jay.

Be a former member of the KKK=victim of the environment
Don’t want former klansman’s past sugarcoated=racist.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Did someone say a Republican admitted to making a mistake”

That republican must have been mistaken.

• Link
• Report this comment

“a prodigal son.

oh brother…

• Link
• Report this comment

As one who was there, I say that Jane Fonda has been screwed, blued and tattooed over that for long enough. She was just a part of the general attitude of the war by our young people. She said she was sorry and I forgave her. It’s time to get over it.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,
so how long did you “think” before using the word “dalliance”?

• Link
• Report this comment

Steve

June 28th, 2010
8:50 am

I’m not sure how old you are, but that was the way it was back then. Jim Crow in full force. Times change and people change. He too, said he was sorry and I forgave him, why can’t you?

• Link
• Report this comment

“so how long did you “think” before using the word “dalliance”?”

I do not think that word means what you think it means. Since “wasting time” is one of the definitions of the it’s root word “dally” – it’s not inappropriate.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone – you forget – the GOP believes that the language is VERY flexible … so much so, that you can have a “youthful indescretion” in your 40s.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/special/starr/starr064.htm

• Link
• Report this comment

doggone – I do, however, understand their point in that “dalliance” connotes a brief interest rather than a 10-year activity.

• Link
• Report this comment

ty – you should have used “I didn’t have sex with that woman” … would have been a better example.

• Link
• Report this comment

GAAAA! I have a blood test tomorrow that I have to fast for and my doctor just imformed me that it was set back three hours. I won’t be able to eat until after one. Crap, crap, crap!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Byrd’s story was an American story, from his dalliance with the KKK to his early endorsement of Barack Obama as president”

Sorry Jay, being an “Exalted Cyclops” of the Klan is more than a “dalliance”.

How typical of Jay to whitewash a true racist as long as he has a D in front of his name. Jay’s “morals” are simple excuses to attack people who don’t share his silly and rigid ideology.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, i fell off my chair…………..me and OGK has something in common.

Been a fan of RUSH since the Hemispheres album, which I still have on vinyl.
I will be there in Alpharetta in September to see them in concert.

And when their documentary comes out tommorrow, Best Buy has a special of a t-shirt and the
documentary for $19.99.

Ill try to get back in my chair now.

• Link
• Report this comment

At the end of a week in which he dismissed his top commander in Afghanistan, Obama defended his war strategy and said the United States would assist the Afghans “for a long time to come.”

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” the president said when asked about a five-year Afghanistan exit strategy endorsed Saturday by the Group of Eight major industrial democracies.

“I think that right now the debate surrounding Afghanistan is presented as either we get up and leave immediately because there’s no chance at a positive outcome, or we stay basically indefinitely and do quote unquote whatever it takes for as long as it takes.”

Obama’s policy falls somewhere in the middle, thereby pleasing few. He reiterated that a July 2011 date to begin withdrawing troops does not mean the U.S. will “suddenly turn off the lights and let the door close behind us.” Under Obama’s policy, the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will first climb to 98,000.

[snip]

Obama said shying away from the harsh facts about North Korea’s behavior is “a bad habit we need to break.”–Huffington

‘YA THINK?????

I was reading some of the comments about the G20’s calls for austerity measures. Somebody at Huffington, posted that if Obama attempts to cut “much needed” programs, when people are hurting, then it’s time to take to the streets like “the people” in Greece.

Wuh Oh!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Rush in Alpharetta – Sept! Where are the tickets avail…website?

Went to Rush website…bobble head dolls for sale had to order a set…lol. Both Geddy and Lifeson dolls have them with their double neck guitars. They also have a Rush leather jacket for $499.99..think I will pass.

• Link
• Report this comment

No politician should be allowed to hold the same job for 50 years. TERM LIMITS NOW!

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, David Duke had his “dalliance with the KKK”, but you libs chased him out of the country.

…what’s that, oh he didn’t vote Democrat, my bad

• Link
• Report this comment

I think of Senator Byrd like i think of George Wallace. Although he was in the KKK back in the 30’s , he still voted against the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He has apologized for his former alliances and he did bring home the bacon back to his residents of West Virginia. I agree with an earlier poster that if it wasnt for Sen. Byrd , West Virginia would be in a lot worst shape .

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m glad to see so many people talking out against such a worthless and utterly despicable organization as the kkk. I also commend Byrd (and anyone else) for his efforts to try and make amends for his past involvement with those trash.

• Link
• Report this comment

“David Duke had his “dalliance with the KKK”, but you libs chased him out of the country”

dude. he lost his elections – a number of them, if memory serves – heck, people wanted Eddie Edwards instead of him … and, to my knowledge, he’s never expressed regret for his participation … and, in fact, has founded another white-rights organization called “European-American Unity and Rights Organization” …

so, you may want to back away from that comparison.

• Link
• Report this comment

Scout – 9:29 – term limits = democracy for the too effing lazy to vote …

• Link
• Report this comment

Let’s see…

King of Pork…. porked close to 3B in “state stimulus funds” to his constituents over his reign. Probably contributed, in great part, to his popularity.

Filibuster King…. gave a 14hr filibuster opposing the civil rights bill in 1963.

KKK Grand Wizard…. served in this capacity as long as 10 years. Sort of like Reverend Wright. Wonder how many people were lynched during his tenure and how many blacks were intimidated, whipped and threatened during that time? Can you spell Jim Crow? One of his most famous quotes, ” I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds”.

An outspoken opponent of busing to integrate public schools in the 1960″s. George Wallace would have been proud.
As his age progressed be became more and more senile, stepping down from his chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee because of his age. This old fossil wasn’t capable of serving but he hung on, just like any other narcissist in a political power base would do.

And Granny calls him a prodigal son. But, oh, I forget….. he was a Democrat and we all know that all Democrats with this kind of rap sheet are prodigal sons if they just see the light. Hurry, I must get to the bathroom and find my Phenergan suppositories before the nausea gets too bad.

• Link
• Report this comment

75 year old ceiling, that’s just too old to be in congress.

• Link
• Report this comment

Robert Byrd=David Duke

I’d say there is regret if he started another organization.

oy

• Link
• Report this comment

Will Rev. Wright be giving his eulogy?

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK…………go to the RUSH website……click tour, scroll down to the Sept. 29 date and click on tickemasters website. I think you go from there.

• Link
• Report this comment

He’s gone to his reward.

I’m amused at all y’all from klucker families. Well, I’m NOT. Confederates, yes, kluckers no.

And BTW, Ole Strum was quite present in his daughter’s life. Ask her. She said so.

• Link
• Report this comment

ty larry

Darn Mick…Rush 1975 you hit that one right on target!

• Link
• Report this comment

“I’d say there is regret if he started another organization”

another white supremist organization??? oh, yeah. that’s regret.

• Link
• Report this comment

Good morning Mike,

I need to ask. Is being a racist like being an alcoholic or drug addict to you? You know, once an addict or alcoholic, always one. You are only recovering. Is a racist always a racist or can you at least say he was a recovering racist…I’d really like to know.

• Link
• Report this comment

USinUK:

Exactly ……….. which is why we have Congressional Royalty ………. they all think they are princes or princesses (Barney Frank).

• Link
• Report this comment

what’s the NAACP, SCLC?

a black supremacist organization?

• Link
• Report this comment

USinUK,

One Senator, Christopher Dodd, and one Congressman, Bwarney Fwank were the prime movers in the mortgage crisis that has crippled this country. Think that just one or two cannot make a difference? And what makes you think that “royalty” isn’t the prime mover in political careers such Kennedy, Inouye, Byrd, Thurmond, Dingell and others? Political careers like these have become royalty.

• Link
• Report this comment

ogk

This co-worker just moved down from michigan and kept telling us about this band rush that was as good as zep. So when they came around and we checked them out, I was blown away, one of the few ticket stubs that I don’t have and wish I did.

• Link
• Report this comment

This thread is racist.

Yeah, I played the race card on this thread.

• Link
• Report this comment

USinUK:

If you had been around those people as I was for most of my career you would know better ………………….. they’re royalty ……… we’re commoners ………….

• Link
• Report this comment

Scout – what makes you think I haven’t worked around congress critters or state legislators?

• Link
• Report this comment

TM @ 9:46

You are absolutely correct. The answer? m-o-n-e-y

• Link
• Report this comment

Somewhere up in the hills of West Virginia, a cross is burning for one of their own.

No room for any more crosses in that state. You can hardly drive 100 yards without looking up and observing that the weirdo preacher and his helpers have planted three metal crosses on a hilltop.

• Link
• Report this comment

Gimme a break about Byrd’s Klan history. It was almost eight decades ago in a different time and Byrd repeatedly apologized for his membership. Limbaugh and his clones (Hannity) always carted the Byrd Klan Card out at their convenience. Then Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Again, another time and place. Senator Byrd changed as well as much of West Virginia (not all of course). Indeed, the filibuster was inexcusable, but again, Byrd changed his ways well before his death today. Governor Wallace didn’t apologize for his racist views until he was in his death bed.

The fact is that Senator Byrd saved that incredibly poor state from being wiped off the map. You don’t know poor until you visit rural West Virginia. One man’s pork is another man’s treasure and that couldn’t be more true than in this state where scores of jobs where created under Byrd’s initiatives.

If Georgia even elects a senator like Byrd, this state could be brought into the current century and might be competitive as it would get: modern transportation, education, a water plan and perhaps a first-rate biotech sector. Instead, we have elected flat-earth theorists who wish to push pie-in-the-sky ideas like the FAIR Tax and turn away the bio-tech industry — completely out of religious fear. Georgia is now a state that is falling into the hands of paranoid, right-wing secessionists who wish to bring the state back into the 1800s.

Once again, Byrd

• Link
• Report this comment

Should we have a retirement age for Congress and the Senate ? Should we have an age that a person cannot run for president? Say a person should be between the ages of 35-75 ?

• Link
• Report this comment

Gotta run !

• Link
• Report this comment

Prodigal son….. I just can’t get over that. It’s somewhere between pathetic and laughable.

• Link
• Report this comment

off to a meeting … later taters!

• Link
• Report this comment

Funny, I know it’s a language thing, but when Arianna Huffington asks her people to focus, she pronounces it as “fockus”.

Don’t see the point in discussing a dead man, so I’ll take my leave until a more lively topic comes up.

Auf Wiedersehen, Senator Byrd.

• Link
• Report this comment

I noticed that Jay did not mention that Byrd also opposed the surge in Afghanistan that Jay supported.

Jay is a very selective biographer. Anyone surprised by that?

• Link
• Report this comment

Here is one of his speeches against the Iraq occupation:

http://firedoglake.com/2010/06/28/early-morning-swim-260/

He fought for coal and the pork for his state.

They love this guy.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Right. We are the racists…”

And the truth shall set you free, one trick pony.

No matter how much you hide behind the D and R charade, that you fancy as somehow relevant.

Those bigots – that became Republicans – were to a man were non liberals. And they all became good little conservatives when it became popular to do so under Ronnie and the Neo-cons..

And had you read one tenth as much as Byrd, you would acknowledge not just that fact, but you’d know a thing or two about history…

• Link
• Report this comment

you ain’t kidding a story of America. born poor, but scratched and clawed his way to the point where he could buy sell influence and engage in that most American of businesses, corruption. also, “American” is the habit of venerating him in death, and looking the other way because 7 years ago, at the end of his political career (can you say, irrelevant lame duck?), he had the fortitude and integrity to vote against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. after he was responsHE spent “hundreds of billions of dollars” on pork earmarkes for his native West Virginia. I have an idea, why doesn’t the USPS issue a $1,000.000.00 postage stamp with his face on it? he may have been a nice guy, he may have been a closet racist, he may have regretted his affiliation with the KKK, or me may have embraced it; I don’t care. he was a politician who traded in influence pedaling and cronyism. you want to eulogize him, grab a plane ticket, fly to WV or DC and speak at his memorial service.

• Link
• Report this comment

An important part of the job fraud is to make the people feel like the loss of jobs is due to the recession, not off-shoring. Long before the recession, South Carolina lost its textile industry; North Carolina lost its furniture industry; Detroit its automobile industry, and California its computer industry, etc. President Obama wants to increase exports, but we have nothing to export. Today, the United States has the export profile of an eighteenth century colony, with the only value-added products exported being chemicals, agriculture and airplanes. Last week, the Wall Street Journal announced that the largest chemical producer in the United States was off-shoring. Most of the job loss is from off-shoring, not the recession. But Washington acts as if nothing can be done to limit the off-shoring and protect our economy.

Globalization has developed into a trade war with production looking for the cheapest country to produce, with fierce competition for industry and jobs. Necessarily, every country has developed an industrial policy in this competition to protect its economy.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Explain to us why the president can only serve twice?”

Because the politicians don’t trust the voters

• Link
• Report this comment

“No matter how much you hide behind the D and R charade, that you fancy as somehow relevant.”

LOL. Right, but you hide behind the charade that anyone with an R in front of his name is a racist. Do you not see how juvenile and flat out stupid that is?

• Link
• Report this comment

The topic should be how they sold your jobs to other countries and they are not coming back.

The corrupt government and corporate media have Americans distracted and divided over silly partisan bs.

Krugman is talking about another depression because the world has decided to go Hoover.

I guess they will get this depression thingie right this time.

• Link
• Report this comment

Mike sure is anti-Jay this morning…go figure…

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone/GA:

…………. and neither do I (for Congress or the president).

That’s exactly why we are in the mess we are in today.

• Link
• Report this comment

The only logical conclusion is that international trade agreements are not designed to benefit the United States, its people, its workers, or its future. They are designed to benefit the poorest countries, at the expense of the American people, leveling the “playing field”, lowering the American standard of living down to the “sustainable” level of third-world status. In other words, unemployment in America, the loss of our jobs, the shrinking of the American way of life, the eradication of our freedom to travel, the elimination of the middle class is socially and environmentally “sustainable.” The wealth of the American people is to be redistributed to the poorest nations, in accordance with chapter 3 of Agenda 21. Our consumption patterns have to be changed in accordance with chapter 4 of Agenda 21. We’ve been sold out by globalist scum, and nothing is ever going to change unless the people understand that this is a part of a deliberate agenda. It isn’t incompetence on the part of our “elected” officials. It isn’t a recession. It isn’t a bad economic downturn. It’s the effects of globalism. Period! We are reaping the natural results of policies that are designed to bankrupt our country.

• Link
• Report this comment

“and neither do I (for Congress or the president). ”

And that statement makes it seem like you would be all in favor of a dictatorship, as long as YOU could be the dictator.

Me? I’d eliminate ALL term limits of any kind, for any elected position…including President.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay unfortunately missed that Iraq has become a more stable democracy since the Bush lead surge. Byrd was certainly wrong about this except for the fact it did cost billions. The stimulus wasted even more without anything in return didn’t it Jay?

The so called main stream media hardly mentions Iraq anymore thanks to George Bush of course. Should we beg Bush to come back and stabilize Afghanistan since Obama has totally let it become a quagmire?????

• Link
• Report this comment

“Jay unfortunately missed that Iraq has become a more stable democracy since the Bush lead surge. Byrd was certainly wrong about this except for the fact it did cost billions”

Let’s invade Somalia!

• Link
• Report this comment

Josef,
I will concede to the 10:15, but dislike/hatred sure does make one narrow minded, don’t you think? By the way, enjoying sleeping in?

• Link
• Report this comment

AmVet

The dreaded question that you don’t have the stones to answer:

Name a single Dixiecrat legislator who became a republican other than Strom Thurmond.

Better be sure to ignore this one Einstein.

• Link
• Report this comment

mike,

Let the man rest in peace.

The kkk joined the tea party and that witch in Arizona is their leader.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Mike sure is anti-Jay this morning…go figure…”

You talking about me again? Hmmm. If you are going to take the time to comment, I would think that you would comment on my point. Unless of course you know I am right.

“I will concede to the 10:15, but dislike/hatred sure does make one narrow minded, don’t you think?”

Bah. If you want to see real hate, check out a comment thread about Cheney going to the hospital:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/26/AR2010062604438_Comments.html

• Link
• Report this comment

“The kkk joined the tea party and that witch in Arizona is their leader.”

Thanks for that silly comment. Can you back up your claim about the Tea Party? Or is this another example of liberal “debate”. You know ignorant comments, claims of racism and grade-school name calling.

Come on. Back up what you say. Just this one time.

• Link
• Report this comment

I appreciate the fact that Byrd denounced his racist past and did not just act like it did not happen or blame the whole thing on the ‘lamestream media.’

However, his career as a representative of a state that is (and was) poor, uneducated and dominated by a single industry that, in the long term, destroys the environment and relegates its workers to enduring small pay for large health risks is hard to forgive.

It is hard to reconcile someone that prided himself as an arbiter of the Senate decorum and a champion of the Constitution (always kept a copy in his pocket), with someone that made being a member of Congress a lifelong career.

The pride taken in not only being a champion of pork for his state combined with the ego that either demanded or allowed his name to be applied to the results of the pork he brought home is an example of the some of the worst abuses of our government and an example of what needs to be fixed.

May he rest in peace, but, all in all, I would consider Byrd to part of the problem not part of the solution.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef –

That is why I love you as much as a straight man can.

• Link
• Report this comment

OT post #1

I see the “Legal precedent? Schmegal precedent!” SCROTUS went ahead and gave GOPers some raw meat for November.

(In other news: Sun Rises in East.)

• Link
• Report this comment

On another note the Supreme Court ruled against the “haters” of the US Constitution regarding right to bear arms.

This ruling is great for Georgia’s economy. As the No. 1 seller of guns used in crimes in other states, Georgia ought to see a big rise in gun sales.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I see you’ve returned to your old original bitter-as-hell self, that wants to make it all personal.”

I see that you are still lack any notion of self-awareness.

• Link
• Report this comment

getalife, I hope you’re joking about the RIP stuff. why should we “let him rest in peace”? people die every day. and most of the people dying every day did not suckle at the teat of government for 2/3 of their lives.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The witch said all immigrants are running drugs.”

Uh did I ask you anything about her?

“Go to a tea party rally and the only thing missing are the white sheets and hoods.”

That is your evidence? Have you ever been to a Tea Party rally? What are they doing there that has led you to smear them as racist?

• Link
• Report this comment

the tea partiers would cease to be racist if they only brought billions of dollars of pork to WV or spoke out against the iraq war some 9 years ago.

• Link
• Report this comment

Seen the USA Today poll about the right to bear arms? 97% of Americans polled stated that they felt that private citizens should have the right to be armed. That sort of leaves Eric Holder, the Chicago political machine and those DC idiots among the 3%, wouldn’t you say?

• Link
• Report this comment

Did anybody here go to the IHOP tea party yesterday? The Woodstock Tea Party Patriots had a meeting there. I think only a few showed up. I did with my “I think, therefore I am Liberal” tee shirt on. All I saw were “Pleasently Plump” people scarfing down the hot cakes and sausages.
Onec or twice you’d here, “Down with Socisalism, pass the syrup.” but that was about it…disappointing…

• Link
• Report this comment

Ultimately, the Dixiecrat movement paved the way for the rise of the modern Republican Party in the South. Many former Dixiecrat supporters eventually became Republicans, as was highlighted by Strom Thurmond’s conversion in the 1960s.

• Link
• Report this comment

Josef,
I don’t understand narrow mindedness, but then I took a lot of acid in the ’70s…

• Link
• Report this comment

the gun ban in Chicago is definitely not working.

Given how the murder rate there has been skyrocketing the last coupla decades I tells ya, skyrocketing…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago

oh wait.

• Link
• Report this comment

mike
Thanks (I think!) for the vote…

normal…
I don’t quite understand narrowmindedness either.,,but, then, I spent a lot of time in the discos during the 70s…

• Link
• Report this comment

I wish the tea partiers would think of a different name for themselves. My daughter asked me if i wanted to go to a tea party. I said ” Oh good lord Nooooooooooo ” . It made her mad and she went and told my wife.

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep laughing about the Tea Party influence on American politics. The movement has already proven that it has teeth and when Sharron Angle trounces Prince Harry in November, we will all see how stupid, vile and misleading your comments really were. The Senate Majority Leader beaten by by a mere member of the Nevada State Assembly. Polls are 50/39% in favor of this Tea Party backed candidate who obviously won’t win due to the endorsement of a bunch of overweight, radical, pinky fingered, coffee drinking, sausage eating seniors. Would you like your crow fried or grilled?

• Link
• Report this comment

JAY………..you are so…so….so predictable…….te very boring..

• Link
• Report this comment

It is higher this year.

How do you figure? If they’d had 113 homicides as of the end of April, that puts them at a pace for a total of around 452 for the year. Which would be about the total for 2009.

(setting aside the issue of whether bringing in Guard troops is a good idea; I’ve no clue as to how advisable that’d be.)

• Link
• Report this comment

But wait a minute, didn’t Kurt Walheim say…and wasn’t he persona non grata in the US…that’s right, your’re apologetic racists bad, our apologetic racists, good…

• Link
• Report this comment

“As the No. 1 seller of guns used in crimes in other states”

LOL!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Not quite true…..the 22nd Amendment covers that….passed in 1951 because the Republicans did not want another FDR to occupy the White House for four terms”

that’s essentially the same thing that I said: the politicians didn’t trust the voters

• Link
• Report this comment

Polls are 50/39% in favor of this Tea Party backed candidate

The kook’s already slipping…

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/nevada/election_2010_nevada_senate

Given that you have to subtract a few points for the Rassy house effect, and factor in the MoE on a sample size of 500, 48/41 is essentially a dead heat.

This returns the contest to where it’s been in surveys for months where Angle, a Christian conservative, ran weakest of the three Republicans seeking their party’s Senate nomination in match-ups with Reid.

• Link
• Report this comment

“As the No. 1 seller of guns used in crimes in other states”

At least we’re number one in something…

• Link
• Report this comment

Whites help found the NAACP. So how can it be a black supremacist group?

it’s, like, colored-peopley and stuff.

• Link
• Report this comment

Why does it seem like the people who shout “personal responsibility!” and “we don’t need no nanny state!” and “I work hard, so I don’t wanna pay for people who don’t!” in any and every political discussion actually despise those who worked their way up from nothing to a position of power and respect? Hmmm…. These are the same people who stood solidly behind Preznit “born on third base and pretended he hit a triple” even though he trashed every business his Daddy (and friends) arranged for him, including the United States of America, and has never known what it feels like to be hungry or not know how he is going to pay the mortgage, light bill AND insurance premiums all in the same month. Irony or straight-up hypocrisy?

• Link
• Report this comment

“You should really know something before trying to disparage it.”

History? They don’t need no stinkin’ history. If they knew history they might have to rethink their hatred…heaven forbid!

• Link
• Report this comment

Southern Comfort June 28th, 2010
11:16 am

Thanks for reminding people to review their history……..too many people wish to revise history to suit their inane purposes….rather than to remember history and learn from its mistakes. For as may times as we restate history…..too many wish to revise it….but history can’t be changed!!

• Link
• Report this comment

BTW, along with his racist rhetoric, Byrd was first elected Grand Kleagle then Exaulted Cyclops of the KKK. I am sure that these two respected positions in the Klan looked pretty good on his resume when he ran for Congress, especially the Cyclops part.

• Link
• Report this comment

Disgusted

June 28th, 2010
10:39 am
Yeah, I know your kind–band guns and legalize drugs. Dont prosecute child molesters and racists who are voting democrat.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hated that he died, but glad to see him out of the Senate. Let’s face it, Byrd has been senile for at least 10 years, probably close to 20.

• Link
• Report this comment

What will West Virginia do now? Their pork is all cooked up! We can see layoffs very soon in that state. I guess venison will be the Thanksgiving turkey.

• Link
• Report this comment

you all are funny as hell this morning!!!!

I only hope that anything that any of you hav done in your lives that may need to be atoned does not bring down any good you’ve done once you die. There’s probably enough people commenting here about Byrd’s or anyone else’s racist past that could be counted on one hand. No man is perfect, and it is our imperfections and the ability to live with those imperfections that makes us human. The way some of y’all act, you’d think all elected offices had to be held by pious people only. Just let the man rest in peace whether he did good or bad while here, he’s the one who will have to answer to it with G*d.

• Link
• Report this comment

*Just let the man rest in peace. Whether he did good or bad while here, he’s the one who will have to answer to it with G*d.

Sorry about the run-on.

• Link
• Report this comment

williebkind June 28th, 2010
11:25 am

I don’t think that ANYONE wants to eliminate the Constitutional right to bear arms….but I think that certain levels of control ARE required so that the proper USE of firearms are protected. Felons should not have access to firearms (although that has yet to be fully addressed!); firearms SHOULD be licensed (if we have to license our CARS…why not guns!); all users should be licensed…and trained!!

I also think that certain drugs SHOULD be legalized….that would decrease the prison population, dcecrease crime…and POSSIBLY decrease the problems on the border……

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone/GA June 28th, 2010
11:28 am

The PARTY determines the PLATFORM on which the POLITICIAN runs on…or against…and the PARTY is the declared HOME of the POLITICIAN….so, to a point, it DOES matter the political party/persuasion of the politician…..

IMHO…..

• Link
• Report this comment

I think it’s HI-fricking-LARIOUS that the hard core righties think those they label as “liberal” are not armed. Hahaha! Especially in the South and out West. Right, cuz no “liberal” has ever served in the military, owned a business, traveled alone at night, hunted, or had a need to protect himself or herself.

• Link
• Report this comment

*Just let the man rest in peace. Whether he did good or bad while here, he’s the one who will have to answer to it with G*d.”

I absolutely agree with that sentiment. I am confident that Byrd had a true change of heart and that should be recognized.

My gripe is with Jay and the other liberal hypocrites who are so quick to smear folks as racist, yet are very forgiving to anyone with a D in front of their name. It demonstrates the cynical nature of their accusations.

• Link
• Report this comment

Matti –

Who is making that argument? Have you ever heard of a straw man argument? You just made one.

• Link
• Report this comment

USinUK, I don’t know about there, but here, Forrest Gump plays on televsion an average of six times a week. I wonder if that explains the tie-dye daisy fetish among people who apparently don’t leave the house very often. Those darned hippies!

• Link
• Report this comment

What will West Virginia do now?

Well, would you believe that Governor Joe Manchin, a Democrat, might appoint his old friend Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican Congresswoman and the daughter of a former Republican governor, to replace Byrd on an interim basis? That’s the speculation up there. History takes strange turns. If it happens, Manchin’s uncle, my old 8th grade phys. ed. teacher and former secretary of state, might turn over in his grave, causing a grand eruption of the mountains (A. James Manchin was on the large side.)

• Link
• Report this comment

HDB

June 28th, 2010
11:41 am
Please do not compare FOX with those that shape the news. Or better with those like CNN who want to change what a family and marrigage means. Liberals have not included American history in the years they have been selecting books for school. Liberals want to rewrite history. I am not believing a word your are writing.

• Link
• Report this comment

Southern Comfort

June 28th, 2010
11:35 am

SoCo,
This proves to me what I have always thought…you are a much better man than I. I would give up a million dollars for the right to pi$$
on “W”s grave. I felt the same way (and still do) about Lyndon Johnson.

The unnecessary deaths of so many young American lives is the one thing I cannot and will not forgive.

• Link
• Report this comment

matti – 11:44 – well, it’s gotta be Forrest Gump … somehow, I don’t see a lot of these folks getting their hippie image from going to see Hair on Broadway …

• Link
• Report this comment

mike

June 28th, 2010
11:37 am

Never said they were stupid…just easily sidetracked by pancakes…

• Link
• Report this comment

willie
Liberals do want to rewrite history when they can. Conservatives want to rewrite history when they can. It just depends on who’s got the upper hand at the time.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The unnecessary deaths of so many young American lives is the one thing I cannot and will not forgive.”

So do you feel the same way about pi$$ing on Obama’s grave as well?

• Link
• Report this comment

In Byrd’s KKK defense, the federal government was trying to disarm all the Southerners. Gee, things haven’t really changed all that much, have they?

• Link
• Report this comment

Peadawg,
If President Obama authorizes another “surge” without removing the ROE’s then, yes I would.

• Link
• Report this comment

goin upstairs..gun control!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Never said they were stupid…just easily sidetracked by pancakes…”

Apparently, this “intellectual” was at the pancake bar herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWaBkJSPXtk

• Link
• Report this comment

HDB, I agree with you. I was just giving Normal a hard time for being such an a$$ hole.

• Link
• Report this comment

The protesters at the G20 were not Teaparty people. They were Van Jones friends. Van Jones is a friend of Obama.

• Link
• Report this comment

HDB: Did you compare the 2nd amendment individual right to own and possess firearms to owning a car?

ken: Yes I saw the news report on the violence and destruction of the radical left at the G20 summit. Some already have posted about the Tea Party but it was a slur about eating. Liberals provoke violence and blame the conservatives. The G20 is just one more of the violence the progressive liberals have imposed on citizens. They will not stop until we stop them.

• Link
• Report this comment

Exalted Cyclops is the leader of Klavern or chapter. He was voted on and elected the leader of his chapter of the Klan. Saying that he was flirting with the Klan is like saying the Bill Campbell flirted with the City of Atlanta. He was an elected leader.

Byrd was the epitome of what is wrong in Washington. Decades of buying votes, including the votes of many people that he said things like this about “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side… Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

What a great guy!

• Link
• Report this comment

who cares if he flirted with or married the KKK? who cares if he was a cyclops, kleagle or klavern-keeper? do other dead former Klansmen get this much ink? he was a pork broker and nothing more. he was, as has been posted by many, a screaming example of the need for term limits and a screaming example as to why there will never be term limits – the professional politician (pimp) class is not going un-write the law which enables them to remain in power. enough about Byrd. let’s move on the 2nd Amendment/SCOTUS

• Link
• Report this comment

Dalliance ? Flirtation ? Jay is saddened by the passing of Byrd and is in denial.

• Link
• Report this comment

williebkind June 28th, 2010
12:29 pm

There are radicals on BOTH sides of the political spectrum…….the radical right wants armed insurrection and sedition…..note what Sharron Angle stated in Nevada!!! Would you disown them as much as I would disown the radical left??

• Link
• Report this comment

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Exalted+Cyclops

• Link
• Report this comment

Never fear, Jay. There is a long line of equally reprehensible characters in the Democratic party Congressional ranks ready to pick up the mantle for Byrd. Byrd’s legacy is alive and well; tax-and-spend big-government, political shakedown, and elitist demagoguery is thriving unabated.

• Link
• Report this comment

Do leopards change spots, do zebras change stripes? So all you wonderful liberals really like the Byrd bigot? Then you should ALL demand that Trent Lott be reinstated.

• Link
• Report this comment

…and for those who keep bringing up Sen. Byrd’s voting record on Civil Rights….

Washington Post:

In the Senate, Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.), became Mr. Byrd’s mentor, rewarding the freshman with a seat on the Appropriations Committee. In the House, Mr. Byrd had voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first significant effort to guarantee voting rights since Reconstruction. He also voted, at Johnson’s behest, for the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which established federal inspection of local voter registration rolls. Eisenhower signed the bill into law.

His detractors labeled him a racist hillbilly, but quietly over the years he worked to shed that image. When he arrived in the Senate in 1959, he had hired one of the Capitol’s first black congressional aides. When a vote on making King’s birthday a federal holiday came up on the floor of the Senate in 1983, Mr. Byrd told an aide, “I’m the only one who must vote for this bill.” In 2008, Mr. Byrd endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”)

• Link
• Report this comment

As much as I hate to agree with the clearly unprincipled Bookman, the truth is that the Supreme Court had never ruled that the 2nd amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms until 2008. Until then, it was considered a collective right. Now it being a collective right doesn’t mean a right only of the government, such as the liberals who dishonestly claim that “well-regulated militia” means stuff like the army, police, national guard and reserve etc. While citizen militias are controversial now thanks to the media offensive against them in the 1990s, they were once common, and the Constitution guaranteed the ability to own firearms, BUT ONLY TO MEMBERS OF MILITIAS. So, you don’t have to be in the national guard to own a firearm because it can be a private citizen militia, but you do have to be in a private citizen militia in order to have your right to own a gun guaranteed. So, while the 2nd amendment does guarantee private ownership of firearms, it does not guarantee INDIVIDUAL ownership of firearms. Claiming that it does is a logical and legal leap that the text and context of the 2nd amendment does not support.

Now both the left and the right claim that since private militias are obsolete, that gives them the right to make precisely that leap. The left claims that since these militias are now obsolete (and should be illegal), then the right to private ownership of arms disappears. Conservatives claims that the disappearance of militias should cause that collective but still private (or should I say private but still collective) right to being an individual right. But each side is guilty of the same thing: picking an unsupported interpretation that supports their original position. If you support individual ownership of firearms, you pick one position, if you oppose firearms (or simply private property and support government regulation of everything but abortion) then you pick the other.

The more legally honest position would be to declare the NRA and similar groups like GOA to be private citizen militias, and claim that their members have the constitutional right to bear arms. And then the debate can shift to precisely what “well-regulated” means, and whether a city (or an apartment complex or housing subdivision) can bar an NRA member from residing there.

• Link
• Report this comment

Fix-It June 28th, 2010
1:38 pm

Note my 1:19 and 1:50 for repudiation…..

• Link
• Report this comment