As provided by Mark Halperin of Time Magazine:

“I’m not an economist, but I do believe that we’re growing… It’s not growing the way it should, and I’m sorry people are paying as high gas prices as they are.”

Says government should not bail out private firms, and denied the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac support package is a bailout, just “temporary assistance.”

Jokes: “I’m 62, I’m having trouble remembering things.”

“The president doesn’t have a magic wand. I can’t just say, ‘low gas.’”

And my personal faves:

Wants to let the first economic stimulus package “runs its course” before considering a second.

Declines to ask Americans to conserve energy, says it would be “presumptuous” to tell people what decisions to make.

Good fucking riddance.

Conservatives admired him for his opposition to abortion and what he called “indecent art,” while liberals accused him of using race as a wedge issue to defeat black opponents.

Helms opposed civil rights and a holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of a small number of senators who opposed extending the Voting Rights Act in 1982, eventually giving up a filibuster when then-Majority Leader Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, said the Senate would not take up any other business until it acted on the extension.

Helms also opposed letting niggers vote or queers breathe, which is what really endeared him to conservatives. He represented the basest and meanest instincts in American politics, which made him a perfect embodiment of Republican politics that last couple of decades. There was a time when having voted against the Voting Rights Act would have branded a politician as a dangerous kook; now, however, he’s a venerated conservative:

“Today we lost a senator whose stature in Congress had few equals,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate’s Republican leader. “Sen. Jesse Helms was a leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in.”

No, we lost a hateful bigot and demagogue who was committed to preserving racial divides and inequality. And a conservative icon.

MORE: Reactions to Helms’s long overdue demise.

Patterico is upset about insufficient respect being paid to a racist, homophobic hate-monger, to the point of mental incontinence — claiming TBogg hearts terrorists. Only a truly vapid asshole could connect those two thoughts.

American Power is similarly upset — because “common decency” demands we pretend that Helms wasn’t a vile specimen of humanity. Perhaps if Helms had exhibited a bit of common decency towards those targeted by his prejudices, he’d have a point.

And last (and possibly least) President 23% mis-remembers Jesse (”The University of Negroes and Communists” . . . “They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro” . . . “The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian.” . . . “Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches.”) Helms as: “a kind, decent and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called ‘the Miracle of America” [ed: unless you happened to be a nigger or a queer] and a “great patriot.”

He will be missed.

Alex: Nice one, Doughy, but I’m not falling for it. That obviously is Bruce Jenner, not Edward G.

A little younger, and not wearing as much make up, but still obviously the same surgeon person.

lethal: um, you’re both wrong.

This is just so wrong, on so many levels:

James Michael Tait, 54, of Enumclaw, was accused of entering a barn without the owner’s permission. Tait admitted to officers that he entered a neighboring barn last July with friend Kenneth Pinyan to have sex with a horse, charging papers said. Tait was videotaping the episode when Pinyan suffered internal injuries that led to his death.

Tait pleaded guilty Tuesday and was given a one-year suspended sentence, a $300 fine, and ordered to perform eight hours of community service and have no contact with the neighbors.

A man breaks into your barn to film his buddy raping your horse, and all he gets is a suspended sentence an 8 hours of community service? What kind of laws does Washington have?

Update: I apparently interpreted the above story the wrong way. I thought the man “mounted” the horse, which then kicked him leading to internal injuries. Not so. According to reports, Pinyan suffered a perforated colon and died from his injury. Tait was literally videotaping his friend getting fucked to death by a horse. Ewwwwwwww.