Also a must read – from Jack and Jill:

When Will This White House Learn You Cannot Negotiate With Terrorists

Thanks Siun, Sent the following small note to the WH. Will call in the morning.

Dear Mr. President,

Two quick points:

I am not a fan of the “czar” positions as a rule, however, I am disappointed in the administrations acceptance of Mr. Van Jones resignation. I sincerely hope you will bring him back asap.

I expect a strong public option in your health care bill, or no bill at all. Please, I need help, I want to pay what I can and buy into a good medicare package, and I want my fellow citizens to be able to as well.

Please give us a sign that you are ready to stand up for people and causes worth fighting for.

Thank you and God speed.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Thanks Eureka … we really have to let them know that we demand more.

I sent an email and will also call tomorrow. Thanks Siun.

As I typed earlier, I’ll bet O couldn’t wait to get rid of Van Jones, a bone he threw to the progressives. Now I’m just waiting for O to jettison Dawn Johnson, the only other bone.

Having an idiot like Beck screaming about him wasn’t really the problem and calling for his reinstatement is more harmful and fanciful than anything else.

It is so sad to watch hope deflate like this. Especially since what Jones supposedly said is way closer to the truth than the Beck’s excretions. Repugs do act like assholes and W did know in advance about the 9/11 attacks and chose to ignore the warning.

The appropriate response is “elections have consequences. kthxbai.”

I’ll be emailing anon.

What was the problem then?

I wrote:
I’m ashamed of how easily Van Jones was let go by your administration today, all because of the likes of Glenn Beck, the racist bigot on Fox.
He (van jones) should be reinstated immediately and given an apology to boot.

Siun, thanks so much for writing this post! This has gotten me fired up again when I was just about to give in to despair.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:
I will call tomorrow. I’ve emailed. I joined ColorforChange.org and donated and let them know that I was doing so in honor of Van Jones. I also replied to a fundraising request from BarackObama.com today letting them know that no, I will not donate to their cause since the theme was “Standing Together” and it had no resonance with me since Van Jones had been thrown under the bus. I’ve added requests to comments sections at several of my favorite blogs urging others to show support as well.

I work with poor minority children and Mr. Jones is exactly the kind of inspirational leader that these children look up to and emulate. They are inspired and encouraged by his message and see that a strong man who works hard can speak out and make a difference. Today they also learned that he will get smacked down and his peers in politics will run and hide.

I will support Van Jones and I urge others to do the same.

JANE I am afraid you are right about Obama,but that should not deter all of us from working together to change the dynamic for the short term and the long term over all. We mean that we must adopt a new stragety which is walk softly and carry a big stick. By having the means to defeat some DEMS and REP period. I hope you will call on all progressive from FDL and others in a call to arms to defeat those who are against change including Obama. What he claims to be is not what he is so we must stay on his case.It seems as though we have been fooled again,but we are going to have the last laugh. We must start to pick the next Presidential candidate now and it should be Howard DEAN or AL GORE In addtion new House and Senate seats also.

Not gonna happen. At any rate, there’s plenty Van can do outside the administration.

Why, if Bush knew that three thousand Americans were going to be killed and was perfectly happy to let it happen for his own selfish purposes, there’s no problem at all that can’t be fixed by proving that.
Please go right ahead and do so because truth is a real fine defense as a reason for signing that petition.

Brilliant – thank you!

You and Siun are indeed an inspiration. I just got back from seeing the movie District 9 and am feeling pretty ashamed and despairing of my species (not just because of the movie, but it did focus on a lot of our more grim behaviors). I’ll get over it. And be spurred to action.

I await Rahm Emanuel’s ($&^@# resignation for his &$^%%# angry &$^#% vocabulary, which he aims at $&%^@= – %&$&^#%^ Republicans, and for which he ought to &$^%@#() apologize.

My guess is that anything progressive that happens will be OUTSIDE the O admin, since NOTHING progressive will happen in it. Will be watching Jones to see if he does something productive we can glom onto.

Sometimes when people resign for reasons you suspect are, well, questionable, there is often something more…something the person resigning would rather be left unspoken.

Don’t know if this is true in this case, but everyone might want to take a breath and have some faith in the leadership and wish the young man well.

It still, while approaching age 70, bothers me when politicians and their colleagues say one thing and do another and when they throw people under the bus who don’t deserve it, and when their campaign rhetoric is conveniently forgotten.

I think these abominable unprincipled practices are more common the higher up one looks in the political hierarchy no matter which political party. Makes sense because that’s often how you GET higher, and because that’s where the stakes are greater as well. And I think it’s more common in politics than in the private sector, which is counter-intuitive; it should be less common in the public sector because of elections, but when both sides are roughly comparable in terms of how “principled” they are, and because elections are more and more wired to favor incumbents and those who have big bankrollers, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.

On one hand I am encouraged by sites like this one, where there seems to be some determination to shake up the status quo. On the other hand, I wish more people would join me in recognizing that it almost doesn’t matter whom you vote for anymore. The political system is what’s fouled up. Oh, sure, there are some politicians who rise above it, but they are rare and getting rarer.

Some years ago, I stopped caring very much about who wins and loses elections. That’s not to say I don’t on occasion find a “favorite” who always loses in primaries or general elections without fail. But among the “real candidates” I think the contents in the can are about 80% artificial filler and 20% “authentic ingredients” (if that).

For as long as I can, financially and emotionally, I will belong to the Common Cause “party”. I wish more people would simply walk away from the political charade and get serious about remaking the system.

It’s probably too late for that kind of conversion to happen in one sense, and too early in another sense. Too late that the two parties are so entrenched. Too early in that most are not yet sufficiently motivated to turn their backs on ALL the hacks and pretenders and self-centered jerks who are putting the train in the ditch. You sometimes don’t recognize that many of these are ones you have aligned with, even when you admit they are flawed; then you make excuses and/or say: “well he/she is still better than the other guy(s), no matter what.

You will be motivated enough one day when the entire country goes on the rocks in a very ugly way. I don’t suppose I will be around to see that day, but I might. Most of you probably will.

I think many here are ready to jettison the Ds. Don’t exactly know what to do after that though.

First of all I’ve been (and am) a fan of Van Jones and his work.

Once I saw he signed something saying the govt. was involved with letting 9/11 happen, I knew it was just a matter of time before he was done.

I mean, this POTUS can’t even give a speech to school children without the nuts coming out of the woodwork — how could he survive a 9/11 conspiracy theorist in his midst?

Once the organization he used to run went after Beck (and deservedly so) he had to know the witch hunt through his past was on.

Certainly he doesn’t deserve to go, but politically it’s not possible to keep him around; you think the Gates thing was a distraction, this would’ve been 10 times worse with neocons and nutjobs wrapping themselves in the flag at every opportunity.

All these nutjob reactions are only possible and effective if Obama and we allow them to be.

And why should we have “faith” in the “leadership?” What leadership? Faith is a religious turn of phrase. I prefer evidence for reasons we should trust O. Please provide such evidence in defense of your exhortation to faith.

I sent an email. I do not usually do that and usually, since I live outside the USA, just content myself with giving money to candidates I like. Hanging Jones out to dry really distressed me and I think it is important to try to get them to hold their ground on the next victim to whom the thugs will now turn within a matter of days I would assume. It will be someone in the administration who is not a white male (not that I think there is anything wrong with white males, being one myself — it is just what the paid thugs are now quite clearly assigned to do as job one: stir up racial hatred to go with the fear).

I wonder how many progressive ideas it will take to get trashed and how many progressives get dumped by this Administration before we progressives realize that we need to break with Obama. Obama is being just the President he wants to be. He is doing exactly what he wants how he wants. There is no hidden, 11-dimensional chess going on. He is not going to change his mind. He is not going to modify his course. What we are seeing is Obama. We need to stop spinning his lines. We need to stop making justifications. We need to stop reading our hopes on to him. Whether MoveOn decides to or not, we need to move on.

We keep saying that Obama is crazy to keep trying to work with the Republicans because he gives away so much to them and gets nothing but scorn and contempt back from them. Well aren’t we doing the same thing with Obama with exactly the same result? Maybe instead of waiting around for him to do it to us, we should Sista Souljah him.

Recently Jane Hamsher posed that we look at what ever Health Bill is passed to see how close to John McCain’s plan was during the campaign. I started wondering about what you have just said. If Obama won the election and now let’s something like McCain’s plan get voted in, does it matter who won the election? I know that Health Care is not the only issue on our plate, but, I’ve started wondering about what you have proposed. We all know that when Bush was the Pres., he wasn’t the one pulling the strings. Just saying that I understand your point. I think.

Ba-da-bing.

I sent snarky emails to W for my own amusement. Think it’s time to start with O.

I think it’s now clear that the rethugs will only abide a one party quasi-autocracy. Their own leaders can call openly for everything from to secession to sedition to assassination with impunity while they refuse to acknowledge that a sitting president has the right to address the nation’s children, make political appointments or even to legitimately hold his office. It’s clear that neither the party, nor Congress, nor the WH is equipped to deal with this type of insurrection. The great rethug horde of orcs has crossed the Rubicon and are massed the gates.. and we’re still busy tinkering with adverbs. This isn’t just about Obama’s seeming inability to lead with decisiveness.. it’s a sickness permeating our whole system.

And, how different is O on the wars in AfPakIr than McCain would have been?

Thanks, Siun. My anger at Obama just won’t subside. It’s really disgusting to me to think what his actions are doing to the next generation who worked so hard to elect him. So many people will turn away from engaging in elections now. I don’t see how this can be anything other than a deliberate plan. There’s your 11 dimensional chess. He is not on our side.

You? Snarky emails?
Hi eCAHN. You tell them!

I think it is wrong to respond to the neocons and nutjobs constantly by giving them what they demand. Al Franken is the only one I have seen give an effective response. He didn’t play back their message to them to respond to it; instead he clearly and cogently walked them through his own rationale.

As has been said about a zillion times here and elsewhere, the Obama administration needs to get out in front of this and communicate their programs. It is impossible to predict what the crazies will come up with next, but the Ds always get caught flatfooted.

And the nutjobs keep getting positive reinforcement in the way of TradMed publicizing whatever they say uncritically—so why would they stop? It’s working for them.

Amen, Siun!

And I can’t resist throwing the administration’s own words back in their faces on this one: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

When all we are allowed to have are perfect people with pristine pasts then we truly have crossed the Rubicon and ceased being a representative democracy of actual human beings, imperfect as we ALL are. Ceding the humanity of government workers to the howler monkeys on the right is akin to abject surrender in my book. I like my representatives and advisors and politicians to be real people with real life experiences and firsthand knowledge of how to learn from life’s lessons, both the mistakes and the successes. To hell with politics!

Puppets? Shadows? Who the hell is really in charge?

Haven’t figured out the one-liner yet. W was a lot easier than the earnest O. For example, one of my emails to W had nucular in the subject line. Hard to find a single word to characterize the Van Jones situation.

O’s in charge. He’s a war mongering corporatist. Pretty simple. Plenty of evidence.

I don’t know anyone with a perfect past. Whatever Van has done that is a skeleton in the closet, if there is something, should stay there or be forgiven in light of the good he has done. Don’t make me mention Ted, okay?

“According to Seattle’s KOMO News Radio, the mayor of Mount Vernon, Washington, Bud Norris (mvmayor@ci.mount-vernon.wa.us), will “give the key to his city to conservative talk show host Glenn Beck on September 26.”

You read that right. A key to the city for a man who, among other things, asked his listeners this week to pray to stave off Satan-like “perversion” of the country. A man who suggested this week that the Obama administration would use the bombings of a Canadian pipeline to justify a takeover of oil companies. This week, he also warned “regular Democrat[s]” that the “über-left” is about to smother you with a pillow.” Then, of course, there are his infamous comments from late July that Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people” and that “this guy is, I believe, a racist.”

If Glenn Beck is going to get a key to anything, it should be his own small, private room with white padded walls. I suppose we’d need to get the key back, though.”

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200909040044

The orcs are. And we have no real weapons with which to oppose them. There’s nothing in Obama’s capabilities or, actually, in our entire political structure that’s equipped to deal with the type of behavior we’re seeing from the rethugs… the type of attacks they’re mounting. To the best of my knowledge, this type of thing, as we saw with their attacks on Van, and their other recent acts of thuggishness, hasn’t happened in the US since the early Republic if ever. Not even with Nixon, or William Jennings Bryant.

Why, if Bush knew that three thousand Americans were going to be killed and was perfectly happy to let it happen for his own selfish purposes, there’s no problem at all

The petition doesn’t claim Bush knew anything. It refers to “high-level government officials” and “people within the current administration” and the petition doesn’t say they knew.

The petition calls for “immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”

This is perfect! I just saw a re-tweet from TexasBetsy suggesting we all buy and send a set of neuticles to the White House.

Exactly. For those who don’t know much about Van Jones, here is the link to his Wiki bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jones

The man is a powerhouse! He is educated, forthright, experienced, a true leader, and an inspiration. And now he’s out of the administration. Ticks me off more than a little bit. . . .

I sent the mayor an e-mail. I’m sure he doesn’t care what I think but I just wanted him to know that I thought his city must be a very undesirable place to live and that I hoped he got a lot of publicity about the key to the city business.

I caught his presentation at last year’s Netroots Nation. He was the last speaker and many had already left. It’s a shame he didn’t have a bigger audience. Those of us who stayed enjoyed him immensely. Shaking his hand afterward was a pleasure I won’t ever forget.

I fundamentally agree with you, but as someone said recently about politics “This ain’t beanbag!”

He had to know when they came at Beck, a Roto-Rootering of his past was forthcoming, and calling Republicans “assholes” on tape (no matter how justified) and signing onto 9/11 conspiracy theories made him a heavy load for the White House.

I’m sorry, you just can’t avoid the political realities of that.

How can they have “deliberately let it happen” unless they knew?

Um, well, if you valued Jones’s input, you could have fought back. A minor desgretion, if you review the last couple of decades of history, is fatal only for the Ds, because the Ds are spineless jerks.

My thought, as idealistic as it is, would be to cause a groundswell for a “party” united by governance principles; i.e., organized around things like:
– public funding of elections,
– no “signing statements”,
– no use of arcane rules to derail legislation,
– no “secrecy” except on matters related to national security,
– no “czars” that are appointed to layer more and more power to the executive branch and no creation of “shadow departments” such as those Bush seemed to like,
– no passage of legislation without a clear conceptual framework of how we will pay for it,
– some kind of “zero based budgeting” process such as Clinton/Gore scratched the surface of,
– no lawmaking predicated on so-called “moral” grounds,
– a more defensible and mathematically driven method of drawing boundaries for congressional districts,
– lots of electronic communication with the general public and ongoing forums to discuss and guide the highest priority issues “out in the open”,
– truly effective policing of lobbying
– compelling and controlling statements about the use of military force,
– and on and on and on.

We could fill pages of statements about “government as we (the people) want to see it”, and including the governance principles and practics that we deserve, considering the massive amounts of money we pour into government coffers.

Notice that I am not identifying this so-called party (a movement really) as either progressive or conservative, and to make it viable I think it would have to be very inclusive in terms of policy ideology. For what is wrong with the US has little to do with policy, in my opinion; there are lots of ways to solve problems and improve the lot of Americans but what is missing is the process to get there in ways that are responsive to our needs and preferences. We’ve lost the entire concept that these people work for us, and that we should be the only thing on their minds 24/7. It seems, instead, that we are a an irritant and a collection of special interests that exist to be manipulated and/or put on the shelf when not needed.

Sorry for the sermonizing. And for coming across in my Don Quixote costume. I’ll step off the soap box and turn it back to more practical folks.

So let me get it straight: Failing to pay taxes, okay. Ditching principles campaigned on, okay. Talking like Rahm Emmanuel, not okay.

Sigh. Back to District 9 and being weary of my species.

Ah, so we adopt Beck’s spin of Van’s statements to justify Obama’s refusal to stand for Van … interesting.

Yep, Don Quxiote are you. I’m a behavioralist, in the sense of looking for how things might happen rather than what needs to happen to make the U.S. a better place. From my POV, don’t think there is much to how for in our lifetimes (I’m only 5 years behind you). I think things need to get a lot worse before another party gets formed. And if things get a lot worse, all bets are off as to whether the U.S. survives as a place where you or I would want to live. For which I give great thanks for my advancing age.

Well, I just emailed the White House with this:

The shrug and the “It was his decision” response to the resignation of Van Jones was both disappointing and thoroughly unconvincing.

This was a surrender to the rantings of the rabid right and no amount of “Not our doing” mush can change that.

If the Obama administration wants to reassure – or at least take seriously – its base of supporters, it should not, must not, treat Van Jones as “Who?” Instead, the official, announced position should be that “We are disappointed that Van Jones resigned. We would like him to come back. The seat is still open and we are keeping the lights on in his office.”

If it really wants to reassure its base, that statement would add “We will not be intimidated by the frothings of ignorant buffoons.”

I doubt it will help; the Obama crowd seems as wimpy in the face of right-wing blowhards as the Clinton crowd did. The real hope is that when something like this comes up again – and you can be damn sure it will – they will realize that there is not only one consideration (appeasing the right) involved.

My email was

Subject line: Congrats on Van Jones

Body of email: I’ll bet you’re really glad to get rid of him. Can’t wait to see how soon you jettison Dawn Johnson.

Great message to WH – thanks!

you could have fought back

Fought back how?

Say he didn’t mean to call them assholes?

Or that he doesn’t really believe the govt. was complicit in the 9/11 attacks?

This would be the focus of every Gibbs briefing until he resigned.

I’m not defending TradMed behavior; it’s shallow and stupid.

But so was Swift Boad ads, and as ridiculous as that was, it worked.

While we’re working to get where we want to be, we need to be realistic about where we are.

Your e-mail was much nicer than mine. I asked if there was even one single spine in this administration. I also said that the Republicans were still in charge and would probably remain so.

You really think Barack Obama can publicly stand with someone who signed something implying the US government was complicit in the attacks on 9/11?

Now that’s interesting.

Do you think Congresspeople who question Obama’s citizenship should be allowed to hold their seats? Does this only go one way?

Politically it was not a smart thing to say but Obama has let the Rs dictate too much. He should just have ignored them instead of giving Beck something to crow about.

Yeah, I know eCAHNomics. It’s just so discouraging to think about all the “hidden (and no-so-hidden) agendas” we are working against and trying to maneuver around. I was successful in life not by being good at game-playing or personal politics, but rather because I kind of ignored the game-playing by others put my blinders on, stayed honest and open, and just went ahead straight into whatever I was up against. So, in other words, I’m ill-equipped to prescribe in terms of how to deal with the BS found in the political environment. And to think I was considering the law as a profession. Goodness gracious, what was I thinking?

So that leaves me over here in this corner, wondering why I even pay attention any more.

In terms of “going on the rocks” (my term earlier), it is beyond my ability to imagine how this country will endure financially and economically given the course we are on. I think it leads logically to what Friedman has called “loss of sovereignty”, which is something akin to globalization run amok. I hope someday soon we will hear something that makes sense in terms of how we cope with deficits and borrowing and printing money and inflation and all the rest. It scares the dickens out of me, thinking of my childen, grandchildren, and (so far) one great grandchild. It’s a chilling scenario that suggests taking a position of “so what” on a lot of other things until we see there can be light at the end of that particular tunnel. And until we get our educational system back on track, for that matter.

Considering your moniker, maybe you can calm my fears about economics, eCAHNomics?

Oh, twiddle twaddle. O could do anything he wants. Which is exactly what he is doing. Telling progressives to STFU.

Oh, I think the U.S. econ future is pretty dismal. It might take somewhat longer to become evident that the U.S. consumer (i.e. worker) is shit out of means. But within a couple of years that will become apparent.

Do you think Congresspeople who question Obama’s citizenship should be allowed to hold their seats?

That’s just stupid talk, but there is an apple vs. oranges quality to your question since you’re comparing an appointment vs. an elected representative.

Hell, I’ve got a list as long as my arm why Michelle Bachmann shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Congress, but her constituents obviously think otherwise.

Turning in. Be good all.

Well, that will certainly bring us the Limbaugh/Beck co-presidency with Hannity as VP and Ron Paul as Sec of the Treasury. Unless we get that new “Common Sense Populist” party up and running in the meantime. And on that cheery note, I think it’s time to hang it up for the night — after a couple of shots of scotch.

Once again, I’ve reached a point here where we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Not apples and oranges at all. Right wingers called for Jones to resign. He was appointed by a very popularly elected president. Liberals have been calling for the batshit crazy politicians like Bachmann to resign for the good of the country. Why should their rantings be brushed off as “just crazy talk” when they are fueling the rage of people who bring automatic weapons to an appearance by the president?

If you get elected while crazy, who’s going to get you to resign?
Being appointed as an aide to the president is somewhat different. When you cease to have much political upside, it’s best to step aside.

If you want to read the actual 911 Truth Statement, signed by 100 prominent people and 40 family members of the victims of the tragedy, the link is here:

http://www.911truth.org/articl…..6093059633

I am no conspiracy theorist but I was a resident of NYC on 9/11/01 and I had coworkers and students who lost family members that day. I don’t find the questions in the 2004 petition beyond the pale. I don’t see them as reason to disqualify someone from being a presidential advisor. It’s unfortunate that questioning the Bush administration’s botched handling of that day and asking for answers to ignored questions is now being defended by some progressives as a legitimate dis-qualifier for Van Jones. It’s about as relevant as is calling Republicans assholes in this context:

From Wikipedia:
“Responding to a question on why Democrats are having trouble moving their initiatives through Congress while Republicans seemed to be more successful when they were in control, Jones replied,
The answer to that is: They’re assholes. That’s a technical political science term. And Barack Obama’s not an asshole. I will say this, I can be an asshole. And some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are gonna have to start getting a little bit uppity.”

I agree with Mr. Jones 100%.

oh I don’t know. With the country coming apart and a disloyal opposition, you might very well want a president who isn’t afraid to use signing statements.

Why should their rantings be brushed off as “just crazy talk” when they are fueling the rage of people who bring automatic weapons to an appearance by the president?

So who should force Bachmann to resign, since we agree she’s batshit crazy?

Unlike Van Jones’ situation, there is no such singular person.

I’m sick of the waste in potential too. We could have done so much… but now, we can try again. Keep fighting! The Millenials are coming, and we are very, very progressive- we’ll be a bigger factor every year, so every year, are chances of getting real reform go up and up. Viva la Millenials!

Let me be clear — I don’t personally find questions about 9/11 beyond the pale at all, either.

I was trying to address the political ramifications behind his signature on the document.

As for your wiki quote, I agree with him 100% as well.

It’s asking if they knew and were complicit, it’s is not asserting they were, which is not at all like child rape, you’re completely outrageous metaphor. I think you should be banned from FDL for such egregious speech.

Neil, serving in the executive branch of the government of the United States and meriting allegations that you “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext to war.” is probably at least as bad as allegations of child rape.
If you’re offended at my making comparisons it’s not that I wished for that, but I wanted to find something as truly odious as the allegation in that petition.

If there’s truth to the charge, I fervently hope to see it brought forth. Absent proof, it’s slimy.

If my metaphor is completely outrageous (and sorry if you think so), I’ll probably find myself precluded from high office.

Without proof it’s slimy???

You mean like the constant cries that Obama wanted to pull the plug on grandma, kill veterans, and start a FEMA concentration camp that came from Republican politicians, in positions of important responsibility. In fact, some who made these claims, without any proof, are privy to very important national security information, and vote on every important national security issue.

Wonder where the proof was for all that sliminess?

Oh, and by the way, exactly how many of them had to leave these positions of great importance and responsibility?

NONE.

Yeah, without proof it’s slimy, as are all the things you mentioned and there also isn’t going to be any proof for them because they’re also bullshit.

And therefore, what? If you want to say that some people get away with it, where does that lead? If you can get away with it, is it less slimy?

And therefore, what?

And therefore, Van Jones can tender his resignation, and have it be effective on the same day all of those politicians’ resignations are effective for also uttering complete bullshit with no proof.

Well, OldFatGuy, that would be just fine with me, but it seems that most of the slimeballs manage to get voted into office, and that’s just not the same thing as holding appointed office.

Not talking about how they got there, talking about being held responsible for your actions while in the position, whether voted in or appointed.

Then, those Republicans can decide the day they want Van Jones out. Plus, they can decide whether both sides are going to from this forward be held accountable for saying outrageous shit, or whether both sides can get away with it.

If they choose to resign, and Jones resigns, then both sides have a clear indication of how it’s supposed to be in the future, and maybe this country can start talking to one another again instead of at each other. Or they can decide fuck it, they’d rather it be anything goes for both sides.

Oh yeah, and the fact is he signed that petition and uttered those words while a private citizen, while those Republican politicians claiming death panels and other outrageous bullshit were on the public’s dollar at the time.

Or they can decide fuck it, they’d rather it be anything goes for both sides.

It’s been pretty clear to me that the GOPers have been undermining the president with specious bullshit and fear-mongering since Bill Clinton. They’ve just gotten better at it since then and privatized and outsourced it to FOXNews with Beck, Hannity and O’Reilly. And it doesn’t hurt their cause when the country elects a black president and the GOPers can play the fear and race card. Scary black man taking your freedom away. Communists are scary too. Beck said Van Jones was a self-avowed communist. True, that?

The tactic worked pretty well when Andrew Jackson was president.

Reminds me of Bill Clinton throwing under the bus nominees (Lani Guinier, Kimba Wood) and Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders (for the horrible crime of saying of masturbation, “I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught.”, for Christ’s sake) who’d done or said something that offended the right wing. Obama needs to grow a frigging spine, but it doesn’t look that’s going to happen.

Communists, socialists, and bigoted blacks are lamenting the resignation of Van Jones. Look at his past and his associations.
He complains about the white man spraying chemicals on people of color. Have you read the Hazardous Waste warning on the Environmental Friendly Light Bulbs. These bulbs will put maintenance workers, custodians, and the general public at risk for mercury poisoning. Home Depots around the country have installed hazardous waste bins for the disposal of the “energy efficient Toxic light bulbs.”
I have not seen any of these broken when stacked on the shelf at stores but I am going to ask how a store manages clean up, since there is a prescription on the side of the box how not to cause mercury contamination.

The President said that he should be judged by the people around him. Are we then to judge him as a communist sympathizer and a person who believes that our government was involved in 9-11?

TexasReader, those Fox/Beck/Limbaugh trigger words, “communists,” “socialist,” and “bigoted blacks,” that seem to get you so riled up have absolutely no effect here. Do you even know what they mean?

Communism calls for a classless, stateless society where all are equal. Why is that idea so scary to you? It will never happen in the USA. Too many greedy pigs who would never embrace the Christian ideal of everyone being totally equal.

Socialism simply means that the people own the means of production and share the output equally. Again, why is that such a scary notion? Jesus and the early Christian church advocated for the exact same thing. It also will never happen in the USA, where the top 1% of the population controls about a third of all the wealth.

As to the racist charge, I love how when a black man points out obvious government and corporate racism he is called a racist himself. A classic conservative move: I know you are but what am I? Go to Mississippi and see the effects of the petroleum plant waste on the poor black communities in their shadow that don’t even have running water or sewers. And white conservatives were absolutely thrilled to see the poor blacks of New Orleans drowning and floating, bloated in the water. There are thousands of hideous statements from white conservatives about how Katrina “cleaned up” the city.

Come to Florida and I’ll take you to a community where a fertilizer plant poisoned the ground water knowingly for years and the black neighbors of the plant are all dying of cancer. There are thousands of sites like this around the country.

You can call Van Jones a racist for pointing out that these white-owned companies are responsible for killing their black neighbors but it just makes you look small and petty and racist yourself. Try going cold turkey from Rush and Beck and Hannity for a day and doing a little research about some of these things before you make up you mind. It will change your life!

We need to move on? You were never with Obama. You’ve been trashing him from day 1.

get real. you never liked the guy and never will.

Hey, I usually just read but I went ahead and registered so I could say something about this.

We were duped!!! Obama and his backers had no intention of fullfilling his campain promises. We should not been so stupid as to believe what politicians say in the first place.

If their mouth is moving…you know they are lieing.

This hope has remained just a hope with no possibility of the change that Obama and his crooked backers and handlers promised to us.

Obama is following so many of the bastardbush’s policys and ideas that he should change is name from Barry to Bush.

It’s time for a real change, but who can we believe anymore?

Am I understanding you right. You approve of Communism and Socialism?

Is that what you really want for America.

If so, Go down and volenteer to serve Chavez or maybe even Castro. See how you like it for a few years.

Then ask if you can come back to the U.S. and we might let you back in if you beg and grovel enough.

Don’t bring up racism, that has been worn out by the Obama administration and by ourselves. It has a negative effect on the user now. So lay off of it entirely.

Van Jones had to go, he was a bigot and racist..and anyone with those views shouldn’t control 30 billion of our tax dollars..Now VJ will just have to stand in line like the rest and collect his unemployment…wait that’s right he quit….

Maybe you can send Van Jones some $$, looks like he might need it…

He is nothing more than an activist bigot racist pushing is sorry ass agenda on the american people..if you haven’t noticed it yet we don’t go for that progressive shit so keep it in San Fran or NY..You guys will cost Obama his presidency…

Only thing Van Jones is gonna get is an application for a new job..see ya

I would love to see Van Jones as part of a new progressive political party. The time is right, Mr. Jones has the experience and the skills, and his message resonants with the majority of Americans: equality for all, an end to government-sanctioned corporate evil, sustainable jobs and environmentally conscious growth. He’s a winner in every way. And he’ll drive the racist nut jobs completely around the bend. Unlike Obama, he’s not afraid to be an angry black man who speaks the truth.

As counterpoint to the Jones debacle, look at Mark Sanford and Larry Craig, David Vitter, etc. They hang in there, take the heat, and wait for the storm to blow over. Ever see a Dem do that? At the first breath of criticism, great handwringing, gnashing of teeth, then an ignominious retreat. When are we going to learn.

That’s silly. See Clinton, W J.

If you want to see a new progressive political party you might need to move to another country…Van Jones doesn’t resonant with most americans..He himself is a racist nut job…look at his videos…thus is why is no longer unemployed.

If being a racist nut job was a bar to employment, who would be forming your opinions for you?