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U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd obtained secret FBI documents about the civil rights movement that were leaked by the CIA and triggered an angry confrontation between the two agencies in the 1960s, according to newly released FBI records. Byrd, who died in June 2010 at age 92, had sought the FBI intelligence while suspecting that communists and subversives were guiding the civil rights cause, the records show.

TODAY is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. Since 2005, by Congressional mandate, all educational institutions receiving federal funds — from preschools to universities, whether public or private — are required to provide relevant educational programming to observe the occasion. Boston College, where I teach, generally hosts a symposium; the local middle school offers skits about the First Amendment. The Constitution Day mandate was a brainchild of the late Senator Robert C. Byrd, who believed it was necessary to address the nation’s lack of appreciation for our founding document.

In episode 4 on how gun control and socialized medicine leads to genocide, we see in America how medical scince under the influence of liberals was used to promote racism slavery and apartheid here and in South Africa. One of universal healthcare's biggest supporters wasthe Ku Klux Klan which has always been Democratic and Socialistic. Among its more violent and fanatical supporters was former senator and grand cyclops the late Robert Byrd who worked tirelessly to advance universal healthcare in the united states, ushering in a new dark era of socialism.

HARRY REID: "I’m glad I had the opportunity to know Ted Kennedy. Whether you agreed with him or not, what a life he lead with his two brothers being assassinated, his other brother being killed in World War II. And Robert Byrd who just died. What a– he was in the Congress of the United States for more than 25 percent of the time that we have been a country. That’s fairly remarkable."

West Virginia Republican John Raese is gaining much more ground than expected in his US Senate race and has just come out with a hard hitting ad about his Democratic opponent's long record of supporting President Barack Obama's liberal agenda. But rather than try to defend himself on the issues, Governor Joe Manchin contacted the daughter of the late Senator Robert Byrd to tell her that a photo used in the ad was taken at her father's memorial service.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the talk show host who recently apologized for saying the N-word 11 times to a caller on the air, said Tuesday she plans to give up her radio show when her contract is up at the end of this year. The conservative advice maven made the announcement on CNN's "Larry King Live," saying she wants to "regain her First Amendment rights." Schlessinger said she's not retiring or quitting. Instead, she said, she feels stronger and freer to say what she believes needs to be said. "I want to be able to say what's on my mind and...

Appearing today on The View, President Obama referred to African-Americans as mongrels: “We are sort of a mongrel people.” Barack Obama, 2010 Not only was he using a term commonly used to describe dogs, Obama was agreed with the assessment of a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan (and fellow Democrat), Senator Robert Byrd: “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side. Rather, I should die a thousand times, 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...

Mark Murray writes: The Charleston Daily Mail (WV) reports that GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito won't run in the special election for Robert Byrd's Senate seat, side-stepping what would have been a competitive contest against Gov. Joe Manchin (D), who is running for the seat.

West Virginia's state legislature has approved a plan to hold a special election to fill the seat of the late US Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia). Governor Joe Manchin (D), who is likely to be one of the candidates in that special election, signed the measure after a compromise was worked out by state lawmakers. The primary election will be held on August 28 and the vote for Senator Byrd's successor will take place as part of the congressional mid-term elections on November 2.

Gov. Joe Manchin is tapping his former chief counsel and a member of a prominent West Virginia family, Carte Goodwin, to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Democratic officials told The Associated Press on Friday. Three officials familiar with the governor's pick spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment ahead of an official announcement. ...The 36-year-old Goodwin, a Charleston lawyer, would hold the seat until November. That's when the governor wants general election voters to decide who will serve the final two years of Byrd's term. The Legislature has...

Break with the Past: Changing a dorm name makes a good Step towards healing UT's troubled racial history After several months of discussion within the University of Texas community in Austin, UT President William Powers Jr. will ask the school's board of regents today to consider renaming a dorm that now honors a former law professor, William Stewart Simkins, along with a neighboring park dedicated to his brother Eldred, a judge and UT regent. The reason? Simkins was not only a legal educator at UT from 1899-1929. He and his brother were members of the Ku Klux Klan during a...

Governor Joe Manchin oozes charm and a touchy-feely warmth with constituents. Many eat this up, especially after living through the more distant occupants of the Governor's Mansion in recent years. Plus, the Governor and his attractive wife, Gayle, must appeal to many middle-aged West Virginians, who find in the First Couple fit representatives of their generation.   But as the Governor prepares to abandon ship and cut his second term as the state's Chief Executive short for a run for U.S. Senate, a retrospective look at his tenure in office is on order. For starters, after his impressive bipartisan effort...

'His heart belonged to you," President Obama told the hundreds of West Virginians who attended Robert Byrd's funeral last week. "Making life better here was his only agenda." Maybe so. But despite the $4 billion in pork that Byrd served his constituents over the past 19 years alone—not to mention the untold billions before observers started keeping tabs—West Virginia remains the third poorest state in the country. Government spending does not prosperity make. When Byrd became senator in 1959, West Virginia ranked No. 39 in median family income, and No. 42 in per capita income. Today, it's No. 48 in...

Remembering Byrd's Racism June 29th, 2010 by Alex Knepper Yesterday, the media was pushing hagiographic narratives about the redemptive story of Robert Byrd’s past on race relations. The moral of the story is that you can always make up for being a racist son-of-a-bitch. But the real subtext of the story is: being a Democrat means that you can promote segregation, join the KKK, vote against both black Supreme Court nominees, and use the word “nigger” on national television — and still be remembered as a promoter of black interests. Robert Byrd’s KKK membership is dismissed by his worshipers as...

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) is calling on Gov. Joe Manchin (D) and the state Legislature to decide in a special session whether West Virginia law allows for the special election to succeed the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D) to take place earlier than November 2012. Tennant announced in a video message that while she personally supports holding a special election earlier than 2012, no election can take place before then unless the state Legislature or the Supreme Court acts. "I personally would support any attempt by the Legislature to change the current law," Tennant said. "If...

From the steps of the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, Bill Clinton downplayed the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s days in the KKK, chalking it up as a misguided mistake that was not representative of him as a person. “There are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for Senator Byrd in the newspapers saying, and I’ve read a bunch of them, they mention he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan and what does that mean? ” I’ll tell you what that means. That means he was a country boy from the hills and hollow...

He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd. "And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians," he added.

As politicians and columnists across the country debate the life and legacy of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginian’s membership in the Ku Klux Klan has been a sticking point for many. Today’s KKK, though, says Byrd did nothing to warrant such ire. “He wasn’t a Klansman long enough to get his sheet broke in,” said Travis Pierce, national membership director for the Ku Klux Klan, LLC, one of several groups that uses the KKK name. “It’s much ado about nothing.” It’s unknown how long Byrd held membership in the Klan. According to the Washington Post, the future...

Because the media will be so kind to him...Click on them to see a larger version. The Looking Spoon is a conservative humor/satire/art/commentary blog, visit www.thelookingspoon.com to see more posts and art

R.I.P.: The passing of the longest-serving senator gives mainstream media another chance to rewrite history. Will he be touted as a constitutional scholar or a free-spending former Klansman who fought civil rights? That Robert Byrd left his mark would be an understatement. Our prayers are with his family and the people of West Virginia. He was both the dean of the Senate and the prince of pork. He knew the history of his chamber better than anybody, having authored a four-volume history of the upper chamber, and the Constitution better than most. He also, quite shamelessly, brought home so much...