If we're lucky, he took some of his bitter bigotry with him.

Jesse Helms, an unrepentant supporter of unnatural causes throughout his life, died of natural causes this morning at the age of 86.

The only sign of moderation ever shown by the longtime North Carolina senator was his decision to stop saying the word "nigger" when he was likely to be quoted in public settings.

The death of Helms is just about the best birthday present the United States could wish for on July 4. Free at last — of Jesse Helms.

While the networks and most of the press will soft-pedal his virulent racism and reckless disregard for the First Amendment in his hounding of artists, foreigners and many others, Helms stayed his divisive course until the bitter end — at least until the end of his public career.

After building a reputation as a frankly speaking bigot, Helms ended his public life as a liar who whitewashed those previously bold stands.

In a 2005 review of a Helms autobiography and a Strom Thurmond biography, Michael Lind noted in the Washington Post:

Even though America has undergone many changes since the days when the word "nigger" was freely used, it's vital for us to not ban the word. We need it, in context, to accurately record our history. Black man Randall Kennedy, author of the book Nigger, has argued that point recently in "A Note on the Word 'Nigger' ":

Jesse Helms was such a radical that he was able to fan the embers of prejudice even when he spewed the milder N-word with malice aforethought.

In "Dr. Jim Crow," a 2003 article in the Journal of African American History about the post-World War II desegregation of Southern medical education in North Carolina, Karen Kruse Thomas noted:

The death of Helms, particularly on Independence Day, helps.

And it's fitting that he should die during a presidential race that features young black man Barack Obama.

Whether or not Obama wins, the death of Helms and the ascendancy of people like Obama represent at least some sign of progress in America.

From the Voice's Bush Beat

The press is oblivious to the real link between Alaska refuge drilling and corporate taxes.

The money pumped out of our staggering economy by tax breaks for the corporate rich during the Bush Era dwarfs the tax revenues we would wind up extracting from wrecking the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

And the amount of oil we could squeeze out from new drilling in Alaska is a stain on your driveway compared with world oil output.

An unpublicized Congressional Research Service (CRS) report reveals that the tax-revenue scheme at the heart of the mania for more drilling into Alaska is far from certain to work.

And it would produce small change compared with the corporate tax breaks that, even more than the high cost of fuel, are crippling the economy.

Further drilling in Alaska — already a major campaign issue separating John McCain and Barack Obama — would be mainly of propaganda value as a way of convincing the public that our gas-pump prices would drop.

read on at the Bush Beat ...

Desperately needed funds for new levees in U.S. Midwest have been diverted to flood control in Iraq.

How many more floods of Biblical proportions will it take for Americans to realize what the government is not doing?

The Bush regime and Congress have refused to spend money on upgrading levees in the U.S. while spending hundreds of millions of dollars on levees and dams in Iraq.

The first disaster was Hurricane Katrina. Now we have the Iowa floods, which will have even more impact worldwide because of their impact on food prices.

I thought Bush was a big Bible reader. So why is he ignoring prophecy about floods? The AP's Jim Salter reported on May 12 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't even know how many levees there were in the country, let alone the sad shape of them. Salter wrote:

New report on talk video spells doom for talk radio's influence.

Video's killing the rock-ribbed-conservative stars, if a new survey on the Internet and politics is true.

YouTube, in other words, is sending Rush Limbaugh down the tubes.

Right-wingers dominated the air waves for decades and were the early users of the Internet, compared with lefties, as I noted nearly a decade ago in the Voice in "Left Behind".

Now the left has overtaken the right. Also endangered are the establishment's talking-head TV shows, like the one Tim Russert hosted.

Click here for the Bush Beat post and read on . . .

From Bush Beat:

U.S. banks may be in trouble, but they're not too busy bailing red ink out of their yachts to stop foreclosing on your home — and yours and yours and yours and yours . . .

Hot off the server, Bob Ivry of Bloomberg News reports:

Good news!

The U.S. Army has run out of money and won't be able to run the Vietraq War past mid-June.

Bad news!

It's just a piece of budget trickery by the DOD. Taxpayer.net calls it "the Pentagon's latest sob story," explaining:

Good news!More >>

"Fill it up" still refers to oil companies' coffers.

Even if you have to walk to the store because you can't afford gas, buy some of those dangerous tomatoes.

Don't eat them — throw them at the Republican senators who today stymied a windfall profits tax aimed at oil companies.

Read more of this Bush Beat item . . .

Are we entering an era of ubuntu?

Barry Obama's apparent victory over Hillary Clinton helps loosen a painful 16-year headlock on Americans.

Practically all that's standing in his way is John McCain. At least McCain is wiser than George W. Bush. But then, who isn't? McCain, however, is a supporter of contining the disastrous Iraq War. But then, who is?

Eight years of the Clintons (horndog/closet conservative Bill and schnorrer/closet conservative Hillary), followed by eight years of momzers (Bush-Cheney). Oy friggin' gevalt!

"Enough already!," the New York Jew part of me says. "Git your goldurn hands offa my neck!," the Oklahoma born-and-raised part of me says.More >>

Not just for kids: a parody of the self-parody administration

Fight off your recession and read this requiem for a lightweight: Goodnight Bush, a parody to end all self-parody presidencies.

It's almost time to say "good night" to George W. Bush, and Erich Origen and Gan Golan pronounce the laugh rites over the administration.

Bush's favorite kiddie book in times of crisis may be The Pet Goat, but mine is now Origen and Golan's Goodnight Bush, which sends the regime up to the moon in the same way that Ralph Kramden was always threatening to do to wife Alice.More >>