O-bum-a and Van Jones

[Birdieman]

Admitted communist, racist, and generally not a good guy. Van Jones' appointment only helps solidify the feeling of incompetence I have for this President. One bad appointment after the next. Is this the change you all were hoping for??


'Green Jobs' Adviser's Past Could Stir Trouble for White House at Critical Time - Political News - FOXNews.com

[RanchHQ]

Political Punch

Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper

White House Declines to Say Van Jones Enjoys "the Confidence of the President" *

September 04, 2009 12:06 PM

Asked if controversial White House official Van Jones continues to enjoy the confidence of President Obama given recent revelations about his involvement with those who suggest the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks and allowed them to happen in order to justify a war for oil, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Friday morning would only say "he continues to work in this administration."

Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, last night issued a statement apologizing for past controversial remarks and said a petition which he signed suggesting that President Bush "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen" perhaps to justify war in Afghanistan or Iraq, "does not reflect my views now or ever."

An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

This morning information surfaced that seemed to suggest that Jones was on the organizing committee of a 2002 march making similar insinuations and allegations, though a Jones ally suggests that it may be that Jones was not on the organizing committee of the march but rather of a newspaper called WAR TIMES -- "A New, Biweekly, Tabloid Newspaper Opposing the "War on Terrorism" with no connection to the march.

The WAR TIMES document asserts that the "world's most powerful nation has mercilessly bombed Afghanistan and is installing a neo-colonial government of its own choosing, although that country has never attacked the U.S. Millions of Afghans have been displaced and face starvation this winter. The administration has also green-lighted massive Israeli assaults on Palestine, and it threatens to attack Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and other countries. The agenda seems clear: to remake the world in the rightwing image with little regard for human consequences."
Whether the announcements are separate or in conjunction is unclear. The White House did not respond to many requests for comment.

Either way, Gibbs said that that the "9/11 Truther" sentiments are "not something that the president agrees with."

LINK: White House Declines to Say Van Jones Enjoys "the Confidence of the President" * - Political Punch

[RanchHQ]

The Obama "Green Jobs Czar" does an impersonation of President George Bush.

Editor's note: This clip comes from remarks Van Jones gave in 2008 to the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

YouTube - joke george

YouTube - joke george

LINK: Breitbart.tv Van Jones Uses ‘Ebonics’ to Do Lively Imitation of George Bush on Crack

[RanchHQ]

Imagine a Van Jones in a Republican Administration [Peter Kirsanow]



Imagine it's September 2013 and President Palin is preparing to present her massive tax cut proposal to a joint session of congress. She's momentarily distracted by an MSNBC report that her Second Amendment czar, Sig Sauer, has a peculiar history: He was once (and perhaps still is) a Bircher who argued for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. He's also appeared on numerous radio and TV shows calling for the oppressive United States government to be transformed into a monarchy.

Shortly before his appointment he was captured on YouTube calling Democrats "a**holes." Another YouTube video shows him ranting about "black gun-control advocates" who confiscate guns from law-abiding white communities. Back in 2009 he signed a petition published in the New York Post calling for the impeachment of Barack Obama on the grounds that he wasn't born in the United States. Sauer has even been arrested twice for participating in riots outside the U.N. and G-8 Summit.

Imagine that during a press briefing, a reporter asks White House press secretary Chuck Krauthammer how a radical right-wing racialist with an arrest record like Sauer could've possibly been appointed to a prominent White House position. Didn't President Palin know? Chuck dismisses the query, saying it's old news since Sauer has issued an apology contending that none of the forgoing actions reflect his actual views.

Imagine that the members of the press corps nod their heads collectively and move on to the more relevant issue of what President Palin will be wearing to the joint session.

Imagine. It's easy if you try.

[Birdieman]

Typical liberal stance, it's always somone elses fault. Let's blame the Republicans instead of blaming himself. This guy was an idiot, good riddens.


Controversy over fiery remarks fells Obama adviser - Yahoo! News

[RanchHQ]

'twas them "fiery remarks", was it?

[RanchHQ]

[RanchHQ]

Van Jones resigns

posted at 11:01 am on September 6, 2009 by Allahpundit

How I like to imagine Obama broke the news: “Let me be clear: Pack your sh*t.”

In a letter released just after midnight Saturday, Van Jones, President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality resigned.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones wrote. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”

Jones said that he had “been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to “stay and fight. But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”

In this case, the “vicious smear campaign” consisted of (a) accurately quoting Jones and (b) citing documents he signed. But no matter. He’s headed for left-wing martyrdom, Trutherism notwithstanding and replete with lies about how Beck supposedly attacked him only after the Color of Change boycott began (wrong) and how the Truther petition itself was credibly challenged by other signatories (wrong twice over). Howard Dean’s already pushing the latter point, in fact, and calls Jones’s resignation “a loss for the country,” which is fitting insofar as Dean-o himself was once a bit warmer to Truther theories than even some lefty commentators could bear.

Ed Driscoll’s got a worthy reaction round-up so I’ll send you there from here. Three meta-points to take away from this, though. One: We were told during the campaign that Wright and Ayers were non-issues because they wouldn’t be part of the administration, but has Wright, for instance, said anything vastly worse than Jones has? If he’s persona non grata on Team Barry, why wasn’t Van the man? Two: As noted by Driscoll and Mickey Kaus and doubtless dozens of others, so astonishing was the press blackout on this story that millions of people will wake up today, see the headline, and wonder, “Who the hell is Van Jones?” This isn’t as sexy a media-bias scandal as Rathergate or the silence on Edwards during the primary, but it’s significant. And three: To keep beating a dead horse, this never would have happened had Jones been forced to sit for a Senate confirmation because the White House never would have nominated him. They knew he was toxic and they knew Republicans would force the press to cover that fact at a hearing. That’s the whole point of having “czars” — to install people in positions of cabinet-level power without having to deal with the Senate’s pesky check-and-balance. It needs to change. Soon.

LINK: Hot Air Blog Archive Van Jones resigns

[RanchHQ]

Two of my favorite people, Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-CA) and Mayor Gavin Newsom(D-SF) are all wee-wee'd up on Van Jones:

YouTube - Flashback: What Does Nancy Pelosi Think of Van Jones

YouTube - Flashback: What Does Nancy Pelosi Think of Van Jones

[Maximus]

Good grief. When the mayor of SF speaks glowingly of him, you know something is wrong. Good luck Van.

And good riddance.