September 6, 2001

11:37 AM

Shudder...At least Helms tries to pretend he's offended... Warning: Quicktime file, may put you off your feed.
posted by GriffX (15 comments total)

Thank god he's finally getiing out . . .

What's more troubling, however, is the revisionism that inevitably takes place when a long standing member of government finally takes leave of the political process. Recall how Nixon was revered for his "excellence in the arena of foreign policy".

Helms is already being cast as an honorable American who stuck to his beliefs, and did what was he thought was genuinely right for the country. This despite the fact that he fought vigorously against civil rights legislation and other progressive policies.

Let this video serve as a reminder of the values that Helms truly represented.
posted by aladfar at 12:04 PM on September 6, 2001

Helms was delighted! I love the way he says, all proudly avuncular, "oops, that was the bad word!", while obviously relishing the fact that "keeping down the niggers" continues to be a popular activity among the Nobel-peace-loving trailer-park aristocracy.

The senator would undoubtedly have phrased it differently( nowadays!): perhaps "containing the excessive demands of afro-americans"would better express his wont. But I'm sure the sentiment strays not a jot from that of the caller.

I'm glad you posted this, GriffX, as the liberal US press, one or two exceptions notwithstanding, has grown all mushy and orphan-like about the old coot's retirement.
Plus: only two days left for those geniuses at National Lampoon to get back from their Hamptons beach shacks!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:05 PM on September 6, 2001

not to stray completely off-topic, but if you download the new activex version of the quicktime plugin, you can view the movies in ie6.

i just watched that one, and it was pretty funny, but that's about it. can we forego another round of patting ourselves on the back for being open-minded liberals? I mean, the video didn't even show helms's reaction, other than the 2 seconds of shock before he could think of something meaningful to say.
posted by chrisege at 12:35 PM on September 6, 2001

Mine works. I went to apple's quicktime page and I think I remember getting an ActiveX plugin or something.
posted by jragon at 12:35 PM on September 6, 2001

First Strom Thurmond, then Jesse Helms, and now Phil Gramm have all announced they will not be running for re-election to their Senate seats. Three old-schoolers who will not be missed by those of us anxious to see the U.S. move into modern times. All three also defected from the Democratic Party to become Republicans, by the way. I wonder if these changes will help moderates take control of the GOP?

For the update-impaired: QuickTime ActiveX control.
posted by barkingmoose at 1:00 PM on September 6, 2001

Thx for the QT ActiveX info- wasn't aware apple'd come out with that. Ah, That's My Metafilter!
posted by hincandenza at 1:07 PM on September 6, 2001

damn! and i wanted to be the first to enlighten the mefi board and tell you that quicktime does in fact run in IE6! foiled again!

that video was, without negating the not-so-funny underlying issues, hysterical. the look on his face was almost as good as that of bill showing the xp disks.
posted by adampsyche at 1:19 PM on September 6, 2001

That was a good laugh. The best part was when I paused it and took bets on whether the guy was going to go off on the "homosexual agenda" or the "blacks". The whole call-in thing is a scam, either the caller spends 5 minutes praising the guest or goes off on some personal tangent.
posted by geoff. at 2:08 PM on September 6, 2001

This was of course a staged video; the guy at MediaAttack.com does this...

Thanks for the MediaAttack link, hincandenza. Lots of great clips there!

As for the Helms bit, I don't think it matters that the caller was a prank. I'm actually glad it wasn't a "real" caller. Helms' delighted reaction, however, was all too real...
posted by spilon at 2:19 PM on September 6, 2001

Helms is already being cast as an honorable American who stuck to his beliefs, and did what was he thought was genuinely right for the country.

Anybody see Robert Novak's apologia? "In truth, anybody who really knows Jesse Helms should acknowledge him as an amiable Southern gentlemen totally uninterested in racial politics."

If anyone needs reminding of the extent of Helms' racism, there's an excellent letter in the WSJ laying out the facts.
posted by crabwalk at 2:40 PM on September 6, 2001

I wish there was a link to the Daily Show's send off of Helms. They just read off some of the more interesting quotes from his career. Very funny.
posted by skallas at 5:22 PM on September 6, 2001

"But what I'll mainly remember is the laughter...."
posted by lotsofno at 5:43 PM on September 6, 2001

Is there a way to grab this Quicktime movie from the page and save it?
posted by suprfli at 9:54 PM on September 6, 2001

i just put a copy up on filepile. if you're too lazy, right-click and save on the following link: jacking fools
posted by lotsofno at 10:12 PM on September 6, 2001