Obama Idiocy--Feeding The Sharks

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Sep 06, 2009 at 10:15


As noted in a couple of quick hits, Van Jones has resigned from the Obama Administration:

White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism
Updated 12:53 a.m.
By Garance Franke-Ruta and Anne E. Kornblut

White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned Saturday after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

He continued: "I have 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."

Jones issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition that questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war" and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) called on Jones to resign Friday, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."

Mike Pence?  Friday's "Worst Person in the World" for thanking a constituent who compared health care reform advocates to Hitler?

Paul Rosenberg :: Obama Idiocy--Feeding The Sharks
As noted at Blue Indiana:

Of course, this comes just after Pence, holding another meeting in another church, laughed off a question from a woman wondering whose insurance Jesus would deny.

GOP values, as epitomized by Mike Pence: laughing at religious values while embracing Hitler comparisons.

More broadly, it's almost impossible to find a GOP member of Congress who will state unequivocally that Obama was born in the US, and there's an uproar because Jones signed a petition  stating that "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen"?

Well, of course I don't believe that BushCo deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen.  But they sure as Hell allowed it to happen, despite repeatedly being warned about it.

And who, exactly, resigned from the BushCo Administration for allowing 9/11?

Condi Rice?  No, I don't think so.  She eventually got promoted to Secretary of State as I recall.

CIA Director George "Slam Dunk" Tenet?  No, he got a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In fact, the answer is: No one.  No one resigned from the BushCo Adminstration for allowing 9/11 to happen.

But Van Jones is resigning from the Obama Administration because he signed a petition long ago that was a bit over the edge in speculating about why that was allowed to happen?

Look, it's great that Van Jones says, "I came here to fight for others, not for myself."  But Obama can't--and won't fight for anyone if he won't fight for his own top staffers who have done nothing wrong of any real consequence.

Politics 101: You do not fight sharks by feeding them.

This is just monumental political incompetence  

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Obama Idiocy--Feeding The Sharks | 17 comments
As an activist working to strengthen the green jobs vision (4.00 / 3)
I find this extremely disheartening.

While I thought Van Jones' talents were better utilized as a force outside the government with the legitimacy to pressure for change, the degree to which the Obama administration is willing to allow radical right-wing ideology to chart its course makes me very worried for the prospects of the next few years.

Van Jones has consistently been one of my favorite activists.  Having read up on his history and intellectual journey I think he's got one of the best senses for how to cultivate really constructive coalitions- and there are few coalitions more urgently needed than one around green jobs.

That Obama could let him go so easily (while keeping truly destructive counselors) is a testament to the fact that he has dangerously misdiagnosed the political terrain.  I don't know what he thought he was about to lose by keeping Van, but it's way less than the mutinous feeling this and similar choices will instill in the people who want desperately to support him- but are finding it harder every day.

Figuring out how to be a progressive college graduate transplant to Ohio:  http://citizenobie.wordpress.com/

He came to MI to talk about green jobs. (4.00 / 3)
I was at the conference.  He did a very good job.  He was truly enthusiastic about the subject and the goals.    

The Obama administration doesn't seem to be able to do anything but talk a good game.  The minute they have to put up, they apologize, shut up, and flip-flop.  I haven't seen a Democrat tell the wingers where to put it yet, except for Barney Frank - and he apologized too.    

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

The calming effect of chum in the water (4.00 / 3)
It is well known by many unnamed sources in the Beltway Establishment that the best way to calm a bunch of sharks in the water is to pour lots of blood and fish bits in the water since they know they'll get food.  We're told it works very well.
LOMG! I'll NEVER Fit in with diaper shitting Dems (4.00 / 1)
cuz I call the leadership of the republican party lying, stealing, cheating FUCKING FASCISTS.

no wonder obama hasn't called! woe is me!!

For the future - HOPE fully my comments will live FOREVER -
The current leadership of the Republican Party are either lying, stealing, cheating fascists, clueless dupes, or synchophants to fascists.

WE the peee-ons lose to these fascist bastards for a lot of reasons, one of the worst is that the pathetic sacks of shit in charge of the Democratic Party are pathetic sacks of shit, on their best day.

robert murphy
seattle.


It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way

"a bit over the edge" petition? (0.00 / 0)
That group believed - and I think still believe - that 9/11 was an inside job!

I agree with you that Bushies were never held to account for the national security failure that was 9/11, but jeebus man - minimizing the crackpot petition and Van Jones signature on it is crazy.

I am fine with czars but they should be vetted as if they were Senate confirmable. Jones would have never gotten a second interview. Lesson learned. I hope.

How Many Internet Petittions Has He Signed, Anyways? (4.00 / 1)
The "9/11 Truthers" are a plague, to be sure.  But there have been all sorts of variants of petitions, some pure lunacy, some merely suggesting that the possibility should be looked into.

It would be one thing if Jones were a dyed-in-the-wool
"9/11 Truther" and were working in a field related to that.  But he's 0-for-2 on that metric.  So it's really nothing but one big red herring.

Heck, I've even heard that he used to groove on the Bay City Rollers, but I'm not holding that against him.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Most of Beck's viewership (4.00 / 1)
subscribe to the "Inside Job" theory. Which makes the irony that much more delicious.

Van Jones should go into the belly of the beast and spread his progressive vision to the Alex Jones types.

Cognitive dissonance is a potent weapon.

[ Parent ]
this is all so fucking ridiculous (0.00 / 0)
Obama can kiss us disillusioned Gen X & Yers goodbye.

Lesson learned, just focus on local politics because the rest is one big bullshit fest for corrupt assholes, scared senior citizens, and slimy media tools.

For a second there I thought my cynicism might not justified.  I was wrong.    

I Have A Diary Later Today (0.00 / 0)
that talks about what to do in response to frustration and disgust with the Democratic Party.

I have three suggestions that have to do primarily with what could be organized, nationwide efforts to establish strong, local democratic structures, so that folks like you would have places to plug into that would ensure that your individual efforts were part of a more coherent larger whole.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
I look forward to reading (4.00 / 1)
Because I am very frustrated and disgusted right now.  Where's my Left-Wing Noise Machine?
[ Parent ]
If you view this as a one-front war (4.00 / 1)
you will be soundly routed.

It is a two-front war, we fight a holding action in the "Establishment" while we devastate the enemy amongst the populace by building an infrastructure of progressive communities.

I'm for the Democrats to the hilt as part of that holding action.

[ Parent ]
Take a break, lick your wounds, (4.00 / 5)
re-engage when you're ready. This is a fight we will be in for the rest of lives so we're gonna have to pace ourselves.

Personally, I'm feeling more hopeful than I have in a long time. My biggest fear was not that Obama would be a sell-out and/or in over his head, because I kind of saw that coming. My biggest fear was that no one on our side would recognize or acknowledge it.

But that's not what's happening. Instead we've got a viable movement to pass real healthcare reform (i.e. with a public option) over, through, or around Obama if necessary. And we're less than one year into his first term. God bless Chris Bowers and Jane Hamsher.

Montani semper liberi

[ Parent ]
good point n/t (4.00 / 1)

[ Parent ]
if using a crude term (4.00 / 1)
to describe republicans is a reason to resign from a political position then we wouldn't have many repugs left in congress if that was the criteria, unless of course this only applies to the dems since the gopers are so sensitive and proper when voicing their opinion toward the opposition.

ps - jones should have been applauded not condemned for his actions, of course in a wh that has no courage and less fight this is a predictable response. fall on your sword for obama while obama would not fall on his for anyone or anything.  

Incompetence seems way too small a word... (4.00 / 1)
I'm expecting the rest of the progressives in the WH to be similarly purged as well. The double standards at work here are just too silly to even entertain in a serious manner.

Consider that tax evasion was no impediment to success for Turbo Timmee. Consider that Larry Summer's CV relating to his hedge fund connections while he was president of Hahvad, reads like a rap sheet... still no impediment to success within this administration. Oh, Daschle. It would have been okay if so many Dems hadn't cried foul at the time. I don't need to mention all the Bushist USAs still causing trouble, do I?

And yet here we have a firing offense for signing an on-line petition and having been in the same room with some (gasp) Marxists? OMFG!

This isn't merely incompetent... This is laughable! This is satire that writes itself!

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

-- Frederic Bastiat, "The Law", 1850

Well, He Looked Funny When He Signed It! (0.00 / 0)
Scrunched up his face, so it looked like an image of the devil on a pancake slopped with Aunt Jemima syrup.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3
[ Parent ]
On the contrary, Aunt Augusta (0.00 / 0)
Rather than try to display signs of bipartisanship, Obama must now realize, for the first time in his life, the importance of being an asshole.
Obama Idiocy--Feeding The Sharks | 17 comments
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