Just Don't Call Him A Czar

Quite a Labor Day weekend - lose a czar, gain a czar:

President Obama to Appoint Ron Bloom Manufacturing Czar

In Cincinnati tomorrow, President Obama will announce that he's appointing Ron Bloom his Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy, White House sources tell ABC News.

Bloom is currently Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner as a member of the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, named to that position in February.  He will remain in that position even while he takes on his new task.

That headline is from Jake Tapper of ABC News, who was being naughty - the NY Times stays on message by avoiding the dreaded "Czar" word.

The WSJ and TIME profiled Mr. Bloom when he joined the Administration this winter.  Wesleyan, Harvard B-School, ten years as an investment banker and then Special Assistant to the United Steelworker President from 1996 on - dare we wonder whether Mr. Bloom is interested in promoting manufacturing jobs, or unionized manufacturing jobs?

Comments

[Thomas Collins]

Forgive the OT, but I wanted to highlight a comment my youngest child made on her blog on her summer in Alaska. She was listing people who had helped her during the summer and included a favorite of all JOMers:

"JOMdaddy for going far and above the “father’s blog buddy” call of duty with that incredible package and insightful, fascinating blog comments. I would love to hear more about your piloting adventures, especially since that’s always been an elusive dream of mine."

I hope TM and all JOMers will forgive me for temporarily hijacking this thread to thank daddy for his kindness toward Nicole this summer.

[bishop]

That was the one statement, that the White House offered, as rebuttal, to Glenn Beck, don't call them czars

[Porchlight]

Bloom is currently Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner as a member of the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry

Seriously? This guy advised Geithner on the auto bailout and now he's going to advise the President on manufacturing? Well, the auto bailout was so very popular - how smart of Barry to remind us all about that just as people were starting to forget.

He will remain in that position even while he takes on his new task.

Must be a tough "new task" if one can keep one's previous Very Important Advisory Position while doing it.

[clarice]

And I thought the Carter WH was full of dingbats!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I suppose calling him "Führer" is right out.

[matt]

the drumbeat of incompetence just keeps on rolling.

Not someone who actually understands manufacturing and its importance to getting the economy started again, but someone who comes from the same big business, big union matrix that got us into the mess in the first place. A pox on them all.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Now, we've had assurances all weekend that the position of czar was a low-level, unimportant, powerless sinecure.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Wikipedia: "Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries."

[pagar]

I look forward to the day when we can call every single one of them Ex czars.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

If the press travels to Steubenville, Ohio they could ask the laid off union workers what they think of Ron Bloom's acumen for "saving union jobs".

Bloom orchestrated the sale of Wheeling-Pitt to Esmark Inc.(shell holding company). Esmark was acquired by OAO Severstal(Russian Oligarchs) soon thereafter.

Ron Bloom is 10 times worse than Van Jones. Van never really created any jobs, but he never really gave any away either. Ron Bloom explicitly sold out union laborers under the guise he was saving more jobs than would have been lost of Wheeling-Pitt was acquired by its initial courter, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional(commonly known as Brazil CSN or the only steelmaker in Brazil).

Bloom could accurately be described as the Andy Stern of old school organized labor jobs. Not these unionized home health care workers that Stern pads his SEIU rolls with, but actual unionized laborers in manufacturing.

The elected heads of the Steelworkers back Ron Bloom. They have a personal relationship with him. But if you go to the laid off steelworkers they'll tell you what is really going on.

PS: Stimulus funds for infrastructure had "buy american" clauses in them that were retracted. In their place was "buy north american" clauses. Union laborers have already found steel from Russia being used on projects funded by the Stimulus.

Short short history of organized labor in the United States. The Unione Siciliane was controlled by La Cosa Nostra as a hedge against Moscow and their Communist apparatchiks. It's post WWII Cold War gamesmanship. The Communists from Eastern Europe have always been anarchist agitators deliberately attempting to slow industrialization in the West. This is why you'll always find stories of G-Men going down for playing a fast and loose game with their made men informants.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Obama initially named Ron Bloom as the deputy automobile czar. He assisted Steven Rattner.

[pagar]

Gabriel, is there a link for the Wheeling-Pitt story?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

http://is.gd/303N1

http://is.gd/303Q7

http://is.gd/303Tz

http://is.gd/303Wd

The summary details are in the Wall Street Journal archives. Use your local library connections or your WSJ account if you have one. Keywords: Ron Bloom, United Steelworkers, Esmark, Wheeling-Pitt, OAO Severstal, CSN

[Jack is Back!]

Doesn't this "all advisers/advisers all" gambit only prove to all the doubting Thomas' in the press corp and the media that right thinking peoples concern of Obama's complete inexperience and economics naivete was spot on?

I am waiting for the Good Food czar - you know the one who tells us what foods to eat and the quantity also. Then don't we need a Dental czar to remind us to brush our teeth and floss? What about the Smoking czar to get the remaining 30% of American's who smoke to give it up? There is so much to organize and control and so little real life experience out there to form into a czar like position.

In the good old days after the Bolshevik Revolution, during the days of Stalin and Beria, et.al. they were called "commissars" - shouldn't that be the correct term for these impediments to freedom and liberty?

[Old Dad]

One might expect that the "Manufacturing Czar" at some point in his carreer might actually have done some, you know, manufacturing.

[Captain Hate]

I am waiting for the Good Food czar - you know the one who tells us what foods to eat and the quantity also.

David Kessler's all over that.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Here is a current story on the laid off steel workers in Steubenville, Ohio.

http://is.gd/304re

[Pofarmer]

One might expect that the "Manufacturing Czar" at some point in his carreer might actually have done some, you know, manufacturing.

I wouldn't go down that road if you desire to stay sane.

[Fresh Air]

One might expect that the "Manufacturing Czar" at some point in his carreer might actually have done some, you know, manufacturing.

Appointing a union leader to head manufacturing is like appointing an undertaker to run healthcare. Hey, come to think of it...

[Fresh Air]

And another thing...what possible good could some union schlub do for the manufacturing sector. Thanks to the high cost of labor, it's already at all-time low in terms of percentage of Americans employed. Thanks to the feral Mediacrats and Watermelons, we already have asinine environmental laws that make new plants difficult to open and expensive to keep open. Thanks to radicals and unionists, we have ridiculously expensive workplace safety laws that do very little for safety but cost a great deal. In fact, the only good news I can think of for manufacturers is that the dollar is in the toilet.

[Dave Elliott]

We need a 'Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy'? With a salary? Paid by us?

[Old Dad]

Po,

Good advice. Rationality has nothing to do with it.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

One might expect that the "Manufacturing Czar" at some point in his carreer might actually have done some, you know, manufacturing.

Tell me about it. I'm not even a big union supporter, but I do put emphasis on your word is your bond. A lot of these laborers are being sold out by their leadership who lie to them about what they can secure in concessions.

Not only does their leadership look the other way when they observe skimming during the good years, but they also look the other way when they observe skimming in the bad years.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

OT, but Keith Hennessey has yet another must read post on health care up.

If (when) the public option is removed from the bill, other provisions would still turn health insurance into a public utility. Even without a public option, government employees or people appointed by the government would define standard benefit packages and cost-sharing for all health insurance. The government would regulate relative premiums and redistribute premium revenues among insurers, and have authority to place limits on insurers’ profits. A government-appointed board would define guidelines for quality care and for health care delivery models. Government guidelines labeled “advisory”have a tendency to become de facto standards over time, whether or not they are legally mandated.

Even without a public option, the pending bills would make provision of health insurance largely a governmental function, although run by for-profit firms.

[willem]

We're prone to assuming the object of the exercise is to restore the economy and return our government and society to a logical expression of its traditional beta.

But where is the evidence that supports such an assumption given the way Obama is staffing and governing?

When those in power govern as if there's no tomorrow they're also governing as if there's no longer a yesterday worth preserving.

We should therefore not carelessly dismiss the possibility of a deliberate intent to deconstruct our society -- however insane the motive or result might seem to the rest of us.

We forget we are dealing with ideologues, europhiles, sycophants and True Believers. Such people are more concerned with preserving the magical thinking of their world view and the confiscated monies that fund it than the future of you, me or our families.

This brings to mind an old T. Boone Pickens saying: "There comes a time in every relationship when one party reveals to the other their true character. My advice: Believe it."

It's hard for reasonable people to look at what's going on and contemplate the indifference and irrationality being displayed.

The most troubling dynamic of the Van Jones debacle runs to the dominance of Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett, the two unelected mother figures who dominate the White House and its policies; persons of great authority and influence who found Van Jones not just acceptable but desirable and a positive example for nation.

What kind of Utopia do they intend for the rest of us?

[Original MikeS]

What kind of Utopia do they intend for the rest of us?
I heard Obama is considering Sheryl Crow for appointment as The President's Special Counselor on Wood Pulp Conservation.

[Ignatz]

One might expect that the "Manufacturing Czar" President at some point in his carreer might actually have done some, you know, manufacturing presiding.

[bishop]

Don't even joke about that, there's this professor, Marion Nussle, who's angling for
that slot, of food czar

[Ranger]

"Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries."

Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | September 07, 2009 at 11:19 AM

Yes, exactly. This is an effort to impose a new feudal system in which those in power get weathy by looting the public treasury, and their helpers get wealthy through the payment of trubute. Card Check is nothing short of establishing a system where everyone in the country has to pay the union bosses for the privlidge of earning money to feed themselves and their families in the same way that serfs had to pay their lords for the pridlidge of working the fields.

[PD]

This brings to mind an old T. Boone Pickens saying: "There comes a time in every relationship when one party reveals to the other their true character. My advice: Believe it."

Very similar to the Israeli outlook that goes like this: When the Jihadis tell us that they want to kill us, we think it's best to believe them rather than to believe they're just kidding.

[bishop]

This is the character, I was referring to, mispelled the name,

[Snoozey]

So do K-6th graders need this kind of pressure:
FROM OBAMAS SCHOOL SPEECH:

"What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country," Obama says.
"What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."

The president also warned students that if they quit on school, "you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."

Oh great, now every quiz will decide the fate of the country. As I suspected Obama couldn't just say do your best, he had to tie the individuals performance to the COLLECTIVE achievement. Ahh, just like the old Soviet Union, individuals were to work hard because the state was counting on them.

It is our kids first day back, they have a half day and will end up spend 1 out of the 3 hours hearing about Obama. They were supposed to spend the 3 hours learning about each other and about their new teacher. Its so nice to have the feds interrupt.

Now of course we have the politics rearing its ugly head with Democrat Governors urging schools require watching Obama, while local Republicans districts want freedom to choose while a local black principal is forcing all classrooms to watch the speech.

[Gregory Koster]

No, no gang. Charlie(Colorado) and Ranger have it backward. These "czar" sinecures are not principally about shoving dough down dear ol' Van's gullet, though Van and The Once doubtless think this is a nice double. Czars are about creating a paid political staff. How much time do you think Van spent during March-August actually trying to "create" green jobs? No, Van was doing what the YouTube "assholes" video shows (though, in fairness, that endless harangue by the endless harangoutang happened before Van got his sinecure): firing up the troops, trying to make the "permanent campaign" a literal truth. Fortunately, the general witlessness of The Once's organization is harming this goal. It's dismaying to realize that this witlessness, epitomized by Michelle, who thinks the five chips she has on each shoulder are the stars of a general and an admiral in The Army and Navy of Social Justice, is the best defense against The Once's idiotic ruinous schemes. Willem's 1:32 PM comment has it about right, I think.

Worst of all, is the foreign situation. However bad The Once's domestic schemes are, they don't compare to mushroom clouds over Tel Aviv---or Tehran. It's horrifying to realize that American security now depends on Netanyahu's fortitude and ability to withstand The Once's imbecility. Netanyahu knows what the release of the Lockerbie bomber means for Israel.

Off topic: Clarice, I left some notions of mine on Van Jones's book deal way the heck and gone down the "Happy Labor Day Van Jones" thread. They may be hooey, but you might be interested in them

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

[bgates]

So Obama gets 45 minutes to give a speech to the children.

How much time do the children get for rebuttal?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

45 minutes? Arne Duncan just said it 18 minutes.

[daddy]

Just woke up and see that ">http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/07/van-jones-did-not-fill-out-wh-questionnaire/"> this FOX News Story by Major Garrett reveals that Van Jone's never filled out the questionnaire required for White House Employment, which would have "alerted" the Administration to all these troubling things in Van Jone's background.

So, seeing that it was Glenn Beck and FOX News that brought these hateful, Anti-American Van Jone's revelations to light, isn't it now time for The President and the MSM and the Left to publicly stand up and thank Glenn Beck and FOX News?

The answer to that question has to be "Yes." The only alternative is that they did know about his despicable background, and thats the exact reason they hired him in the first place.

If ignorance is their excuse, they have to thank Glenn.
If ignorance is not their excuse, they have no excuse.

[pagar]

Thanks for the links, Gabriel. They were most helpful.

[bgates]

Gabe - I'm expecting teachers to budget in 27 minutes at the end for applause.

[bgates]

isn't it now time for The President and the MSM and the Left to publicly stand up and thank Glenn Beck and FOX News?

I think the gracious thing for Beck to do would be to announce that the President is very welcome to his help in this matter. Pre-emptively, you might say.

[Captain Hate]

I think the gracious thing for Beck to do would be to announce that the President is very welcome to his help in this matter. Pre-emptively, you might say.

Would MessNBC immediately vanish at the moment that happened? Not that anybody would notice....

[daddy]

OT

Thanks TC for that kind word from our favorite Deadhorser. I enjoyed her blog thru-out the summer, and the opportunity of not even having to pretend to keep on topic when writing to a captive audience is always big fun. Give her our best in school this year and hopefully we'll hear from her again.

If she gets another wild hair up next summer, might I suggest ">http://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Babes-Beijing-Behind-Scenes/dp/0393328597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252351697&sr=8-1"> this nutty travelogue as a starting point, but I'd recommend Shanghai over Beijing for the summer, as I think it's a much funner town. Plus when she continues to terrify momma by hitch-hiking, the truckers won't be calling her "dumplin." Over there they'll call her "Dim Sum.":)

[Barbara]

A 45 minute speech to school children? Any teacher worth her/is salt would know how ridiculous that is. The kids will be squirming after 5 minutes, fidgeting after 6, and either dozing through the rest of the speech or throwing spit balls at the TV.

I suppose the people in Obamaland think that these young people will sit there quietly, hanging on his every word. It only goes to prove the depth of Obama and his handlers' disconnect from reality.

[Thomas Collins]

LOL, daddy! I'll pass the link along to Nicole.

[American woman]

Wow.. An organized labor union President advising our President on manufacturing.
Get ready for manufacturing productivity to plummet to the lowest levels in history!

As the wife of a union worker (not a leader, a worker, who actually breaks a sweat everyday) I can tell you that organized labor in the workplace means that a small percentage of strong-work-ethic minded people work hard to earn their money, while the rest of the union workers slack off and file greivances repeatedly when told to do the job that they are paid well to do. It infuriates my husband, as he is part of the small percentage that busts his tail every day, only to see the losers milk the clock and not do the work required.

[Thomas Collins]

Now that Joe Kennedy has announced he is not running for the US Senate (see LUN), I wonder if Obama would consider him for the Green Czar gig.

[bgates]

I wonder if Obama would consider him for the Green Czar gig.

I wonder if there's time for Van Jones to establish Massachusetts residency.

[Snoozey]

Obama speech to kids: ""I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.""

My kid to Obama: I want to talk to you about the Presidency and the Constitution and what your bosses out here expect of you in the coming year.

Fix Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Budget, the Deficit, the War on Terror and the Post Office before you try to ad any new subjects to your portfolio. Once you've done that, will talk about adding some electives.

[JM Hanes]

American woman:

"Wow.. An organized labor union President advising our President on manufacturing."

He's got a former union big wig heading up the New York Fed now, too. I don't think there's much to wonder about here. So many Union leaders have built their own empires on the backs of people like your husband.

[daddy]

Just saw this bit from the speech that Obama is going to foist upon our school-kids tomorrow:

"When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster.""

Let me be the first to call complete and total and absolute BULLSHIT.

No mother on the planet wakes their kid up at 4:15 am so that they can be doing lessons at 4:30 am for any reason whatever, least of all economic. Bullshit.

If such as that is true, which it isn't, then his mom's the poster child for child abuse, plus the poster child for squandering energy, because at 4:30 am in Indonesia in the 1960's you'd be having to use electricity or candles, but definitely not good old sunlight.

Seriously, think about it, which of you responsible parents, besides knowing how hard it is to get up at 4:15 am, would then drag your kid out of bed at 4: 30 for home-schooling? I'd love to see any school district or MSM'er who buys this crock to go home and try it themselves for a week. Wake up Susie or Barry or "Buster" at 4:25, and start hitting the books under candlelight at 4:30, and see how receptive your kid is to hypoteneuses and diagramming sentences by 4:31 am. A total, total, crock.

FWIW, I know about being up at 4:30 am as a kid. I delivered the WaPo in Arlington Va when I was 11, back in 67-69. Got up at 4:15, rode the bike 3 blocks to the curbside drop-off, rubber-banded the papers, and tried to have them all delivered and back in bed by 6 am. I was a good student, but there is no way, none, that I would have been receptive to classwork during that same period. BS.

Sorry for the bad language. I just had to get that out of my system. Just read portions of that speech to my 2 middle-schoolers, and having brought up the 4:30 am school lessons even they realize it's Bullshit. The youngest related it to some similar stupid BS story from a Betty and Veronica comic-book. Yippee! There's hope!

[lurker9876]

Garbage out, Garbage in.

[daddy]

"Now that Joe Kennedy has announced he is not running for the US Senate..."

Excellent. Now we'll be spared some doofette from the Huff Post writing a story about how the girl that the young drunken driving, drugged out Kennedy paralyzed years back in that car accident, doesn't think "it was probably worth being paralyzed so Joe could commit himself selflessly to making everybody's life better."

Man, for some reason I'm angry this morning.

[Dave in OC]

Sorry for the OT but does anyone know the answer to this?

Just a question that I've been mulling over for a while: Are these "lawyers" really lawyers or did they just graduate from law school? The current idiot mayor of LA was supposed to have graduated law school but IIRC he failed the bar 3 times before giving it up. (Just Wikied it and he flunked 4 times and his birth name is VILLAR. Oh and his "law school" is unaccredited) I can't find where Van Jones passed the bar, just that he went to Yale Law School "because they don't grade." It may sound like I shouldn't say this but is he yet another affirmative action AA who can't pass s*it but just gets good grades based on his pigment? Sound like a couple of other people currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

[clarice]

I find it interesting that when Michelle left Sidley she didn't go to inactive status which would permit her to practice law at some future date if she changed her mind--she let her license lapse altogether.

[patch]

So is President Obama the Czar of Czars?

[lurker9876]

I say...from now on, let's ask the candidates to put together a resume for us. If their resume says, degree in Law, vote against them.

[Dave in OC]

Great call Daddy. I did the same in Long Beach when I was a 12 YO and you are right on, especially the going back to bed for an hour at 6 AM. You are right - I did it for the money, never would have done it to study!

Way off topic but the scariest thing I had happen to me was once when I was 15 delivering on my bicycle. As you know the "corners" were in well lit places and there were 3 or 4 of us every morning. A guy drove up in a Caddy and asked to look at a paper. Instead of giving me a quarter for it (I think it was 5 cents then, mid 60s) he handed it back and drove off.

About 15 minutes later I was delivering on a dark street and he drove up again and said he wanted to buy a paper. When I went to hand it to him I could see he was unzipped and let's say in a turgid state with one hand occupied. I took off on my bike (!) and went back under a 2nd story porch and through a short narrow walkway into an alley.

I rode like the wind (corny but true) through alleys back to my corner and luckily the substitute district manager was there, don't know why maybe someone was out sick. He didn't believe me but took me around for the rest of my route. I soon turned 15-1/2 and was able to get a CA motorcycle rider's permit so all was better. I'd probably be a statistic if it wasn't for that short narrow isle...

[Rob Crawford]

We need a 'Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy'? With a salary? Paid by us?

No, but we have one anyway.

It's all part of Obama's five three-and-a-half year plan!

[bad s##t]

I find it interesting that when Michelle left Sidley she didn't go to inactive status which would permit her to practice law at some future date if she changed her mind--she let her license lapse altogether.

That has intrigued me as well. In Texas, if you aren't paying your student loans, you cannot renew your professional licence.

[daddy]

Too bad it's too late to reschedule this "Speech" to the school kids at the same time as when Obama used to study with his Mom. If 4:30 AM school-lessons with Momma was wonderful for making him the Won, then lets let America's school-kids experience that exact same wonderfulness and show up in class at 4:30 to see how rapt and attentive they are to absorb all that wisdom. That'd be the greatest destruction of Obama's image as anything but a Bullshit artist I can imagine. Every kid in America would instantly know he was lying to them about his nocturnal studies and he'd be a campus joke till 2012. Man, I'd love my School District to announce they'll show the speech, but in honor of Obama and the Obamamamma, it'll only be shown at 4:30 AM.

[Porchlight]

I agree with daddy, there's no way in hell Stanley and Barack were up at 4:30 M-F doing lessons. No way.

Besides, didn't we learn that he did attend a school in Indonesia with some other American kids?

[Janet]

How about this for another banner above my tea party poster...

I GOT UP AT 4:30am TO MAKE THIS DAMN POSTER

[Jane]

I wonder if there's time for Van Jones to establish Massachusetts residency.

Bite your tongue!

[Porchlight]

OT,

Bloomberg: Barak Approves Construction of 455 West Bank Homes

Barak defies Barack.

[bgates]

I can believe him being up at 4:30 in the morning. Wouldn't he have been up by 4:45 anyway for morning prayers?

On account of him being a Muslim, I mean.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

You only have to hold a bar license to practice law in that district. You can still have a JD and just freelance as a private citizen with a JD.

He's got a former union big wig heading up the New York Fed now, too.

POTUS only nominates the seven members of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System. He also nominates the Federal Reserve Chairman. POTUS does not have any say in who gets elected as Chairman of the NY Fed.

The people are left to trust the member banks to appoint Class B members. The New York Fed has 3 Class B members. They are supposed to represent the public. The one that is in place is Jeffrey Immelt. The other two officer positions are vacant.

No, I am not making this up. Here's the present NY Fed Board.

[Original MikeS]

We need a 'Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy'? With a salary? Paid by us?

Of course, but I think you got his title wrong it's Senior Commissar of Manufacturing Policy for the Presidium of the Central Committee of the President.

[Janet]

...or it would be better if my kids were still young, and I made THEM carry a sign that said...

MY MOM MADE ME GET UP AT 4:30am TO MAKE THIS POSTER

I'd leave out the "damn" if kids were involved cause I'm not a leftie!

[Captain Hate]

Since the Once is making a speech on the importance of education for the future of the tykes he's addressing, wouldn't it only be fair if he asks for a commitment from the teachers to not strike during the time period when the children are students? For the good of the children, of course; putting politics completely aside...

[bad s##t]

I'd leave out the "damn" if kids were involved cause I'm not a leftie!

You're a better person than I, Janet. We have a framed, embroidered sampler in the kitchen that says, "HOUSEWORK SUCKS. We hung it when our children were very young.

Occasionally, some lovely child turns to his or her parent and asks, "what does "sucks" mean?"

I pretend to be ashamed....

[clarice]

Dave, in most jurisdictions if you ar not licensed to practice law there, you must be careful about holding yourself out as a lawyer. In D.C. we have three jurisdictions, side by side and many lawyers confine their practices to federal work only, and on the mastheads people are very clear to specify if they are admitted in another jurisdiction but not the one the office is located in.

[Ignatz]

--wouldn't it only be fair if he asks for a commitment from the teachers to not strike during the time period when the children are students? For the good of the children, of course; putting politics completely aside...--

CH,

I'm not sure it wouldn't be for the good of the children if about two thirds of their teachers went on strike at about K and didn't come back til about 12.

[PeterUK]

"I agree with daddy, there's no way in hell Stanley and Barack were up at 4:30 M-F doing lessons"

Obama didn't mean 4:30AM in Indonesia,just that it was 4:30AM somewhere in the world.
Come On! You know the drill?

[Dave in OC]

Thanks Clarice, I was just speculating that perhaps some of these so-called "lawyers" have not been admitted anywhere. I have a great deal of respect for most real lawyers (plaintiffs attorneys excepted, long story) but IMO some folks like Tony Villar use the claim of having a JD as conferring a mantle of a lawyer. As far as I am concerned if you graduated law school but have never passed a bar exam you are ipso facto a failure. It's a sorry example of how screwed we are that that idiot was Speaker of the California Assembly for 12 years! Failed the bar 4 times, for heaven's sake.

[Extraneus]

I agree with Porchlight that this is a walk-back, 2nd-version of the speech. It makes no sense that the lesson plan included having the sudents write something about how they could help Obama, based on the current text. He doesn't say anything that would require their help.

[Porchlight]

Obama didn't mean 4:30AM in Indonesia,just that it was 4:30AM somewhere in the world.

Ah yes, that one always works.

And now that I think about it - interesting that the story wasn't also in Dreams From My Father.

[Dave in OC]

Hey PUK,

I was thinking of buying an EDL long sleeve t-shirt but they have been taken down from Ebay. Political? I thought it would be fun here is sunny SoCal. My former employee and friend is a black Englishman with Jamaican roots so perhaps he would know the connection. (He's conservative also, thinks the WON is a loser...)

[Thomas Collins]

Maybe Obama wants the kids to send him alarm clocks so that he can rise at 4:30 am even when he is not awakened by the 3:30 am call.

[Dave in OC]

While I am on a rant about Villar, in California when we were teens (he's 3 years younger than me) if you had I think a C+ GPA in high school you were AUTOMATICALLY pre-approved for a state college. Not a UC but at least a good 4 year state college. That maroon went to a city college first which meant that you were a complete dolt as tuition at Cal-State Long Beach and the others was about $400 per semester. Even a paper boy could afford that.

[PeterUK]

Dave in OC
Zazzle still sells them.

[Gregory Koster]

Daddy, daddy, you'll never make the grade at the New York TIMES at the rate you are commenting...

Data point: Van Jones is admitted to practice law in California. The trick is, he uses his real name "Anthony" as of 2 February 99. There is one interesting feature in this link: VJ's chronology goes this way:

7/29/2008: Active
7/12/2008: Not eligible to practice law
2/2/1999: Admitted to the State Bar of California.

The lapse on 12 July 08 came because the old boy didn't cough up the dough to remain part of the protection racket i.e. the California Bar. Wonder what else he's forgotten to pay down the years?

No public record of disciplinary actions.

I've asked a hundred TIMES reporters, but they just got irritated and asked me what the hell I was bothering them with this for, go ask the commenters at JOM if you want to know something. All right, gang, here are my questions:

1. I find it mildly unusual he would wait 6 years to try to pass the bar. He'd need a cramming school to do so, though it's true many fresh law school grads take a cram course as well. Why would VJ wait six years?

2. How unusual is it for attys to forget to pay bar fees? I suppose more often with relatively inactive lawyers, e.g those who have muscled in on a racket more to their liking e.g. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Van Jones's Wallet

3. What would vetters have made of this lapse? Shucks, if I could find out about this, they must have known. I should think this would be a medium size black eye, even with all his other idiocies.

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

[clarice]

I'd bet most of Congress fits a similar pattern,Dave..at least in the sense that they got law degrees but barely if ever practiced.

[Janet]

Ha bad s##t! "Housework sucks" isn't cursing anyway, it's embroidered truth.

[daddy]

Good point Bgates, maybe it was a chapter of Jane Austen before hitting the 4:45 Prayer Rug.

Porch, that's a good point. If it was such an important part of his life (and 4:30 AM school lessons with Momma fit the bill) then I suppose it would have to be in his pair of better than Shakespeare autobiographies. Now I personally haven't read either book, but if anyone has, I'd be interested to know if this fundamental life lesson was in it. Anybody out there know?

[Dave in OC]

GK,

Leave daddy out of this, that was me and thanks for the update. I have no solid information but I agree that if you are now in the confidence game (emphasis on CON) you may not care if your law license lapses. In a much smaller way I let my RE license lapse as I knew I never wanted to do that again...

[PD]

Now I personally haven't read either book, but if anyone has, I'd be interested to know if this fundamental life lesson was in it. Anybody out there know?

It's in Dreams, pp47-48. I'll type in the few paras if anyone wants the text.

[Porchlight]

Barack Obama reading Jane Austen, what a dreadful thought. I can only take comfort in the hope that if he ever did read it, he probably didn't like it.

But actually it turns out I'm wrong about it being in Dreams From My Father:

4:30 am lessons

[Dave in OC]

PUK,

Clever but I was addressing the English Defence League not some SoCal heavy metal band. But considering my youth perhaps I might like them also. When I was at Camp Lejeune in '69 some "soul brothers" stole my stereo and my Jimmy Hendrix tapes. He wasn't "black" enough..." Wow, does history repeat itself or what?

[Porchlight]

Oops, typed too slow. Thanks PD for the reference.

[daddy]

Sorry Greg, Strong coffee this morning, and guilt at not yet having dug up that "Highly questionable" BBC video so that I can try a blog entry at AT per Clarice. I'm a bad boy. Need to go bike-riding.

[Janet]

((in his pair of better than Shakespeare autobiographies.))

Too funny! You guys are the best.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

So, seeing that it was Glenn Beck and FOX News that brought these hateful, Anti-American Van Jone's revelations to light, isn't it now time for The President and the MSM and the Left to publicly stand up and thank Glenn Beck and FOX News?

Clearly not on the 12 hour rule right now....

[Janet]

Actually the Barack Obama/Jane Austen connection might be valid. I believe the Mary character in Pride and Prejudice was his favorite.

"Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how."....and he liked the title.

[LTC John]

Posted by: Jack is Back! | September 07, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Sir, please let me know if you see a "Good Whisky" Czar in the offing. I will really worry at that point!

[daddy]

He hee Janet,

" Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.".....

Thanks Porch/PD for the Dreams of My Father input. I still think it's BS, but at least it's consistent BS. And maybe that's why he never remembered any sermons of Reverend Wright. He was still snoring from his 4:30 AM study halls.

[Captain Hate]

But actually it turns out I'm wrong about it being in Dreams From My Father

I remember him using that anecdote about his mother badgering and calling him "buster" during the campaign (I realize that doesn't narrow it down too much because there's very little that he's ever done that couldn't be considered a "campaign" for something or other; but it happened last Fall I believe). I remember it because him using the phrase "buster", even though it's something a mother would say (even a strange one like Stanley), just struck me as an unusual term for him to be using.

[PD]

Thanks Porch/PD for the Dreams of My Father input. I still think it's BS, but at least it's consistent BS. And maybe that's why he never remembered any sermons of Reverend Wright. He was still snoring from his 4:30 AM study halls.

He remembers one of those sermons at least, because he recounts it in detail in Dreams. And it contains some of the anti-white rhetoric he claims not to have heard.

[clarice]

Gregory--when was Van's conviction? It may be that he had to wait some years afterwards under Calif law to be eligible to take the bar exam.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

7/29/2008: Active
7/12/2008: Not eligible to practice law

Jeez, folks, I'm having a little trouble making a whole helluva lot out of Jones's law license having lapsed for 17 days when he wasn't in practice.

Similarly, I'm not finding 4:30AM all that tough to imagine; a lot of people in the tropics get up early because it's the only cool time of he day.

[PeterUK]

The extraordinary thing about Obama is, he brags about getting up at 4:30AM for home schooling,but he refuses to make public the end results of that schooling.
So,is getting up at 4:30AM worth it,does home schooling work?
You should be told.

[Obama Mama, tell me more.]

I suspect some real evil here will be unnecessarily shortened sleep, at least short term, among the true believer children. He should delete that anecdote, double quick.

Furthermore, it's bringing up his past. Big, big mistake. You watch.
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