Enjoy Your Labor Day Comrade Jones

Green jobs czar Van Jones steps down and out.  From his statement:

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation statement. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Jones said he has been "inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight."

But he said he cannot in good conscience ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.

"Lies and distortion to distract and divide"?  We just wanted the truth about Jones' involvement with these wild  9/11 conspiracy groups, sort of the way Jones just wanted the truth about the BushCo complicity in bringing down the World Trade Center.  Sort of.

As to the notion that Jones has been ""inundated with calls from across the political spectrum" urging him to stay and and continue to embarrass team Obama, well, sure, I can believe that.

COMEDY CLASSIC:  The NY Times' first story about Van Jones covers his resignation, leading to some potentially awkward moments:

In a victory for Republicans and the Obama administration’s conservative critics, Van Jones resigned as the White House’s environmental jobs “czar” on Saturday.

Controversy over Mr. Jones’s past comments and affiliations has slowly escalated over several weeks, erupting on Friday with calls for his resignation.

The controversy has escalated for weeks, and his resignation finally forced the Times to cover it.  Folks living in the Times bubble are possibly becoming accustomed to these moments of whiplash - the Times' first coverage of the Eason Jordan resignation at CNN also came with his resignation.

Here is more probing, in-depth Times reporting:

Mr. Jones’s involvement in the 1990s with a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement prompted recent accusations by conservative critics that he associated with Communists. The group, according to a post-mortem written by some of its founders, was an anti-capitalist, antiwar organization committed to achieving “solidarity among all oppressed peoples” with “direct militant action.”

Those whacky conservative critics!  Also prompting the accusation was the statement by Van Jones in a 2005 interview that he was radicalized following the 1992 Rodney King verdicts in Los Angeles and "By August, I was a communist."  On Law and Order that would be known as a "clue" - maybe the Times should get one.

BASHING LIKE IT OUGHTA BE:  Mickey Kaus thumps the Times.

SUDDENLY I'M WRITING COUNTRY AND WESTERN:  Isn't there some pop song out there with a lyric something like "We said good-bye the day we met"?  There should be!  Or maybe I'm reading from the Times reporter handbook. 

Comments

[centralcal]

Time for a look at the "czars?"

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

How does the NYTs explain to its readers why he wouldn't stay and fight? They haven't even mentioned the controversy.

[centralcal]

oops - should be all the "czars?"

[Jim Ryan]

How much will Jones collect on the speakers circuit as the "bad boy" of lefty envirocrap? Maybe 10K/speech? More?

[centralcal]

Tweet from Jake Tapper: I can certainly understand why liberals are upset - they think a conservative demagogue, followed by GOP lawmakers + MSM, chased good man...

I am so glad he can certainly understand.

I know who the conservative demagogue is and the GOP lawmakers, but pray tell who in the MSM chased this good man?

[PeterUK]

Next!

[You want some fun, check out the Tiljander proxy.]

Heh, CC, that would be Mickey Kaus.
======================

[Pofarmer]

"They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Ah, yes, using his own words against him.

"""inundated with calls from across the political spectrum""

Ah, yes, from communists, to fascists, to far left progressives.

[clarice]

CC--I agree. I think I'll blog something on that point.

[PeterUK]

CC.

"I know who the conservative demagogue is and the GOP lawmakers, but pray tell who in the MSM chased this good man?"

It would pay to go along with this line. The vicious jackals of the media pulling down a good man. Correcting this would be a mistake. Feed the paranoia.

[centralcal]

Good one, PUK!

[Captain Hate]

How much will Jones collect on the speakers circuit as the "bad boy" of lefty envirocrap? Maybe 10K/speech? More?

So what; the fools would spend their money on other garbage anyway.

btw, on FNS Howard Dean, looking like he's coming off a major bender, called this "a major loss for the country". Also the meme per Juan Williams is to say that Van the troofer was some unimportant, lower level functionary with no real power. Um ok Juan; like having a $30 billion budget doesn't count for much (or maybe it doesn't in the new Trillion order that's been imposed on us). Also bothersome is that the rest of the panel were bothered more about the Truther allegations than the admission of being a communist. W.T.F.

[No one you know]

Wasn't Van Jones the guy whose organization led the boycott against Glen Beck? If so, I guess bit off more than he could chew. Too funny...

Upside for Van, there is always race baiting. Good money to be made in that racket.

[DebinNC]

WaPo: Jones, a towering figure in the environmental movement..

WaPo has outdone Jones's supporters in hyperbole. So far, Sunday shows are trying in vain to get Republican guests to gloat. Let's hope that continues. The talking point is definitely that he was brought down by the vwrc, not himself.

[centralcal]

One of my optimistic moments last week came from reading reporting from all over the US about the numbers of calls coming in to school districts regarding the Dear Leader speech planned for students.

This news got out via the internet well before it hit the MSM. I think with computers, cell phones, etc. - the media itself is being thrown under the bus.

[Ranger]

Next!

Posted by: PeterUK | September 06, 2009 at 10:02 AM

Valerie Jarrett

She openly admitted to be familure with his work in Oakland. She knew exactly what kind of left wing wack job this guy was, and that is exactly why they wanted him working in the White House.

JARRETT:. You guys know Van Jones? [Applause. Moderator injects: "This is his house apparently."]

JARRETT: Oooh. Van Jones, alright! So, Van Jones. We were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House. We were watching him, uh, really, he’s not that old, for as long as he’s been active out in Oakland. And all the creative ideas he has. And so now, we have captured that. And we have all that energy in the White House.

She's also a perfect example of how the corrupt system in Chicago works, where people like her and Obama talk about helping the poor, but just seem to keep getting richer and richer by stuffing tax payer money in their own pockets without doing any that really helps the poor.

[No one you know]

Also, I'm sure the likes of NYT thought the truther stuff was not a big deal. Didn't former DNC chairman Dean believe as much?

Lastly, if this was an episode of Law and Order, I'm sure the white person would be found guilty of something.

[centralcal]

Yes, DebinNC - a towering figure. A few minutes ago Chris Wallace did a "...but, but, but he wrote this book..." about the green movement. snort.

It is so easy to impress lefties. Just write a book. Worked for Dear Leader.

[Original MikeS]

...were bothered more about the Truther allegations than the admission of being a communist. W.T.F.

What bothered me most was that:

He had an actual 'Trojan Horse' plan to turn this country into a socialist state.

It is a realistic plan that sounds like it might work.

It was NOT a secret plan, but one that he was proud to talk about and was undoubtedly known to those who vetted him for the green czar job.

The President hasn't disavowed the 'Trojan Horse' plan to turn this country into a socialist state. (no one has asked him about it at all)

[PeterUK]

Ranger,
The Obama administration seems to be made up of revolutionaries and mercenaries,so i is probably best to peel of the revolutionaries first,you can buy the mercenaries.
Two of the most dangerous demagogues are Sunstein and Dr Emanuel. Their somewhat psychopathic view on human life leaves them as creatures unworthy of sympathy,vulnerable to public outcry.

[justonebullet]

British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211495/No-10-turns-Obama-Clinton-criticising-decision-release-Lockerbie-bomber.html).

[Jim Ryan]

How many New Yorkers get hacked off when they notice their morning paper hides stuff from them?

[PeterUK]

The link above. A snake fight!

[Ranger]

PUK,

A good point, but I think the key here is to follow up on success. Jerrett is the next in the line of fire based on what she said and the excitement she showed about having Jones on board. To save her, they will have to find someone else to sacrifice. The point to make now is that this is not only about Jones, but how a man with his views could be appointed to such a powerful position in the first place.

[jorod]

This administration certainly has some unique job titles like Office of the President Elect Chief of Staff. ARe there any others? How about Office of Zany Vice Presidents?

[Jim Ryan]

PUK, what a link!

This administration is a JOKE. Carter was a garden-variety bad administration. This is a JOKE.

What do you get when you hire a 47-year-old man who has never accomplished anything in his life and put him in the CEO position?

Gee, I can't think... Oh! I know! You get a JOKE.

[PeterUK]

Ranger,
But is is Jarrett expendable? Are you just taking down pawns?

[PeterUK]

Jim,
Our communist government are just as poisonous as your communist government. It should be interesting.

[Jim Ryan]

PUK, I'm popping plenty of popcorn. I love jokes. Too bad the joke is on the next generation.

[Ranger]

PUK,

Institutionally, Jarrett is not that important. She's in charge of congressional liaison. But, on a personal level, she is at the heart of the Obama administration. She's known both of them since Barry got to Chicago after law school. Making her hurt will make Barry hurt (if he is capable of feeling anything for anyone other than himself that is). Going by Alinsky's rules: attack people, not institutions, people hurt faster.

[PeterUK]

Ranger,
Take her down and Cass Sunstein gets his Fairness Doctrine for the Internet that bit faster. You have to be undermining some of the ideologues.

[DebinNC]

If possible, the next appointee target should be white. Beck is introducing America to the radical goals of Mark Lloyd (black), but also Holdren and Sunstein (white). I wish he'd now showcase the incompetence of Ortzag (white) and Roehmer (white), who've been demonstrably, ruinously wrong. Going after Valerie Jarrett now would be a terrible mistake imo, especially as she seems to be helping us more than she is hurting. The race card will be played, but we shouldn't give those playing it any grounds for doing so.

[ben]

"How many New Yorkers get hacked off when they notice their morning paper hides stuff from them?"

How many notice?

Remember, some of these people think "Mary Jo might have thought it was worth it considering all of Teddy's accomplishments".

Maybe its worth being lied to if it advances the cause.

[Jim Ryan]

Goldberg contrasts this joke of an adminstration to Clinton's. Also points out just how moronic a joke Tom Friedman is today.

[ben]

"Our communist government are just as poisonous as your communist government"

I don't know, PUK, your communists are more pragmatic than our communists...and our George Galloways are actually in the executive branch, they are Czars...

[Jane]

Glen Beck is the guy who gets a plus in his column for Jones. He started it, and everyone else (well bloggers) ran with the ball. And yes Jones was the guy who started the Beck boycott. So I guess the message is: Don't mess with Glen.

[Jim Ryan]

Jane, I gather Gateway Pundit uncovered the trutherism of Jones which is really what sunk him. If so, at least half the credit goes to GP.

[DebinNC]

Goldberg: "One of Friedman's key take-aways from this whole affair is that too many people will self-censor themselves so they can get government jobs. What a tragedy that fewer people will support cop-killers and anti-American conspiracy groups because of poor Van Jones chilling effect on the culture."

I think part of the MSM self-censoring that is going on (blackout of anything that even potentially reflects badly on Obama) is tied to job security...and hopes of RIF'd journos of landing a spot in the only growth industry in America - government. They dare not bite the only hand that might feed them.

[clarice]

Yeah--Friedman is a terrible joke today..Nasty old internet.

I think they are covering for Obama because they think on the big things he stads for what they do ---and because he's black and coool and they like to think of themselves as cutting edge and oh so nuanced and brilliant.

[Gmax]

too many people will self-censor themselves so they can get government jobs.

Whats new? That has been the Democrat Party election plan since one George McGovern did his Wiley Coyote impersonation.

[clarice]

TM--your country and western reference made me laugh out loud. You are my REAL favorite but don't tell the others.

[glasater]

What I don't understand is Meg Whitman thinking Van Jones is terrific!
Is she not running as an R for governor of CA? Where is her vetting process?

[pagar]

SUDDENLY I'M WRITING COUNTRY AND WESTERN:

You're probably thinking of that old classic --"Thank God and Greyhound she's/he's Gone"---

Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the most extreme members of Congress and an apologist for Fidel Castro, played a key role in the Jones appointment.

But behind Lee and Jones is an influential network of communists known as the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). Lee was a secret member of the group, a spin-off of the Communist Party USA, while Jones was the keynote speaker at a 2006 CCDS fundraiser.

Is this next quote why we know so little about Obama?

However, exposure of Lee’s role in the controversial pro-communist group led one of the members to propose a “non-public” status for those wishing to be active behind-the-scenes.

My guess is every communist site is being scrubbed as we watch this day go by.

I've spent the morning reading different sources about Van Jones. Probably at least, 30 different articles. Almost all of them have new revelations about the background of Van Jones. He appears to be one of the most active far far leftists in America.

[btw]

The US President has Marxist and Islamic interests and sympathies. He is therefore unfit to be the President. Who hired Van Jones? Hussein Obama and his radical, hate filled wife, Michelle. That's who.

He must be forced to resign. He is unfit.

A race based, poverty pimping lawyer, who is an economic illiterate, driving our nation off the edge economically. There will be no economic recovery without economic growth. He is against growth - he is for windmills.

He is a man with contempt for our country. He never worked a job in HIS LIFE. He's a professional speechmaker; that's all.

Time to remove him from office - peacefully and politically. He is unfit.

[daveinboca]

Nicholas II's Revenge on the Commies, or Brobambi can be rolled. Look out Cass Sunstein, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Czar[ina] of Administrative tweaking....

[DebinNC]

Friedman in his recent book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: "We have a target. We want to avoid the doubling of CO2 by mid-century and to do it we need to avoid the emission of 200 billion tons of carbon as we grow between now and then."

Thomas Friedman's home

[pagar]

LUN for my 12:37 post.

Van Jones Mystery Solved?

Scroll to the bottom of the article and they have a lot more on the subject of Van Jones. They are all worth reading.

[peter]

I was just reading the Week in
Review. They have an article about advice to college freshmen. Here's a little tidbit from Yale Prof. Harold Bloom, after recommending the classics:
"whatever our current travails, we now have a literate president capable of coherent discourse, but too many other politicians are devoid of syntax and appear to have read nothing. Aggressive ignorance in aspirants to high office is another dismal consequence of the waning of authentic education."

What can you say? The academy and the paper of record are in deep denial about the obvious.

[matt]

With Ron Dellums as Mayor, what do you expect from Oakland/Berkeley? Jerry Brown was the last mayor...There is a tradition of crazy ass hard leftism there that outshines even the Marin - San Francisco axis. It pollutes all of Northern California.

Now, do we get to take Jones out to Ekaterinberg since he was a czar and all?

[clarice]

glasater--I expect it is like Delay's comments about Thurmond--just polite pap for political operatives without reference to their backgrounds at all. In Whitman's case a nod to a powerful figure in Berkeley politics who sounded good when there was no good examination of his background (good looking black guy with a Yale law degree who had a lot os support in the ghetto) and in DeLay's just a sop to an old fart on his way out of town--at last.

[DebinNC]

My goodness, dave, I think if you threatened to sic your cat on him, Sunstein might skedattle. That's one impressive feline.

[bishop]

She 'chose poorly' like the line from "Last Crusade" had she gone to Juneau instead, in the summer, she wouldn't have had that problem.

[Paul Krugman]

I shocked, simply shocked!

[Mo, the crazy lady]

it's all Bush's fault, and I need a man!

[glasater]

Clarice--I know you're right in saying nice things about a power broker.
I can understand Meg Whitman--if she is really serious about running for governor of CA--might be tempted to saying something positive about a so-called power broker in the Bay Area.

But tuned in Ignatz had never heard of the guy.

Van Jones has/had a very narrow audience. Although I am concerned that given the rukus over his appointment and now resignation he will have gained a larger national profile and considerably more power in totally undesirable circles.

[Gmax]

Ignatz was not in the habit of attending World Cant Wait and other CPUSA functions, Black Panther meeting either. Ignatz probably would have crossed the street to avoid a confrontation with a ragtag smelly group of truthers too.

So as has been showed, Ignatz was just fishing in different fishing holes. He does not like sewer trout so he does not fish there. The far left, find it a delicacy.

[centralcal]

I think Clarice has it exactly right about Meg Whitman.

[DebinNC]

More from Clarice

[clarice]

You know. I'd forgotten or I'd have added it to the blog--that Mueller apparently was not informed about Clinton and Obama's contacts with the Brits--That's something--he sent a letter to the Brits opposing the transfer and he surely wouldn't have done that had he known.

Maybe he'll resign in outrage.
Surely this is the next big scandal with Sunstein et al being appetizers and entre' acte yummies.

[bishop]

Van Jones operated behind the scenes, much like all of Soros's projects, like the KGB's
astroturf efforts in the nuclear freeze movement, he helped spread the "Bush doesn't care. . ." meme, throught the Ella
Baker center, he furthered the Mumia scam,
was part of the illusion of the broad dissent against the Iraq War, nothing was as it seems. Alinsky was proven right again, focus on the person, not the institution, although it was really one and
the same

[Janet]

A repost from the other thread -

Off topic, but JOM tea party related -
If anyone is in town this coming week for the festivities, I'd like to invite you to our monthly packing night for the Troops. Tuesday, Sept.8th at 7pm at Mclean Bible Church (8925 Leesburg Pike - directions LUN)

We have all the "stuff", but welcome all to help set up, write letters,and pack. We usually send out 60-100 big boxes. lots of nice people. Come early to help set up. The ministry is called operation kindness.

[DebinNC]

Mueller condemns release of terrorist Clarice is right; this could be huge. Would Mueller have sent such a letter without clearing it first? Was he speaking as the one who prosecuted the case or as the FBI head? Very strange.

[clarice]

Thank you. I think he HAS TO resign ..His letter called the release an insult to the grieving families and an incitement to further terrorism PLUS this was something he should have been informed about.

And when he resigns this will be a scandal even the NYT can't avoid.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The President hasn't disavowed the 'Trojan Horse' plan to turn this country into a socialist state.

You know, I was thinking about this this morning. I'm not quite sure what to do about it, but I think — in the name of intellectual honesty, as well as for argumentative purposes — we need to think a little more deeply on this term. "Socialist" and "Leninist" aren't the same thing, and while I doubt you could get them to say it in so many words, I suspect it's most accurate to say that Obama and his minions are European-style social democrats.

Now, I don't think a European social democrat would be a lot more popular in the US than an outright Leninist or Chavista, but it's a lot easier for the Juan Williamses of the world to make fun of the notion of Obama being a new Lenin than if we could make it clear somehow we're talking about mere paralytic European social democracy.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Are you just taking down pawns?

For a second I thought we were talking about District 9.

[DebinNC]

I think he HAS TO resign

On his own because of conviction/integrity or because an enraged Obama forces him out?

[bishop]

From the end of the LUN:

Mueller, who was the top U.S. Justice Department official who oversaw the investigation of the bombing, said in the letter MacAskill's action was "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice."

The problem he's one of the few good guys still left in the natl security establishment, can you imagine his replacement

[Charlie (Colorado)]

What I don't understand is Meg Whitman thinking Van Jones is terrific!

She said the next day after that that she'd just met him during one of those issue cruises, that he said some good things about new jobs in California, and she didn't run a complete background check on him after dinner.

Let's try to keep our self-respect intellectually, shall we?

[clarice]

Can you imagine how the msm could possibly ignore his resigning over the Obama-Clinton conduct (including their keeping him uninformed of this stupid decision?)

Obama won't force him out out of pique,Deb. If he has any honor he'll hace to resign.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

He must be forced to resign.

While you're at it, I want a unicorn, a jetpack, and $20 million with which to endow a japanese tradition Buddhist monastery in Boulder.

[PeterUK]

Charlie,
There is no such animal in power in Europe,the EU doesn't do democracy. What exists is soft fascism.

[PeterUK]

Mueller can always say he is leaving to spend more time with Van Jones.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

"Aggressive ignorance in aspirants to high office is another dismal consequence of the waning of authentic education."

The hell of it is that I agree with him. (It's never too safe to disagree with Bloom.)

The problem is that Bloom fell for the conventional wisdom that Yale and Harvard professional-school grad Bush was "aggressively ignorant" and unschooled, while Columbia and Harvard professional-school grad Obama is both educated and wise. (It's also never safe to agree with Bloom.)

[DebinNC]

Mueller may have mistakenly believed Obama's public reaction to the release was truthful.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

There is no such animal in power in Europe,the EU doesn't do democracy. What exists is soft fascism.

Yeah, that's what I said. "Social Democrat."

[PeterUK]

It is also never safe to underestimate a lefty smooching a derriere.

[PeterUK]

"Yeah, that's what I said. "Social Democrat."

Nope! The era of representative democracy is over here. Voting changes nothing,not even the government.

[Snarky]

Van go. First, went Churchill's bust back to England. Now, Barry hangs Van go over his desk. Or, is it just a report of another one going under the bus?

[glasater]

Let's try to keep our self-respect intellectually, shall we?

You're being a blowhard Chaco!

I wasn't asking for Meg Whitman's ideological purity--just questioning a little how/where she gets her information.

[clarice]

I want a unicorn, a jetpack, and $200 million with which to hire a great plastic surgeon, buy a yacht, hire a crew and go shopping in Milan for a new wardrobe.

[glasater]

Amen Clarice--very good article at AT and thanks.

[PeterUK]

I'll settle for the unicorn.With one of those, you can get the rest. Besides,it will save cutting the grass.

[bad s##t]

TM, how about, "You lost me at hello."

[Jim Ryan]

Gateway Pundit has a Gateway Pudit roundup in re Jones.

Does the record show that it was GP's nailing Jones's Trutherism that got Jones ousted and not Beck's bemoaning Jones's communism? If so, the blogosphere has two trophy heads now: Rather and Jones.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Chaco:

I like Steve Diamond's description:

So what is the evidence of the influence of Ayers’ world view on Obama and his presidential candidacy?

First, what is the Ayers’ world view? Ayers is what political scientists call a “neo-stalinist.” Neo-stalinism is an authoritarian form of politics which attempts to control and build social institutions to impose state control of the economy, politics and culture on the general population. It has similarities to the original Stalinism found in the former Soviet Union but it arose in other countries and used slightly different forms and in some instances created regimes that were at odds for various reasons with the Russian regime.

Classic examples of neo-stalinist regimes - regimes that Ayers and people in his political camp respect and support - are the Chavez regime in Venezuela, the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, the Castro regime in Cuba, and the maoist regime in China.

How could such a world view have anything to do with Obama? Well, the route that Ayers and his camp have followed to promote his form of authoritarian politics is a critical policy area: education.

Ayers advocates what he calls a “social justice” approach to education. What that means is the promotion of his authoritarian politics through our public school system. Four key tactics that Ayers supports in order to help implement his world view are:

* the creation of “local school councils” (LSCs) like those that Ayers has promoted in Chicago for the last 20 years;

* “small schools” which Ayers has also promoted since the early 1990s in Chicago and elsewhere;

* the advocacy of what Ayers and others call “social justice” teaching; and

* the payment of reparations through education spending to correct what he has seen for 40 years as the fundamentally racist nature of American society.

Local school councils and small schools, I should hasten to point out, have nothing to do with improving student test scores and outcomes. That is not their purpose and, in fact, the Ayers camp is actually opposed to objective standards like test scores as a measure of the effectiveness of our schools. The purpose of these entities is to create a political base for Ayers and his band of fellow traveling authoritarians to push their wider political agenda.

Once inside the schools Ayers, who now heads the curriculum division of the leading education professional association, attempts to alter the teaching content of classrooms to include a “politically correct” “social justice” curriculum.

And more Diamond:

Of course, one strong sign of the political impotence of the American CP [Communist Party] as Obama was growing to political maturity was the emergence of new activists in the 1960s who specifically opposed the CP and its politics. A battle cry of this milieu was opposition to both US and USSR foreign policy, for example. Thus many thousands of young activists (including me) opposed both the US invasion of Vietnam as well as the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

But within that movement, another strand emerged as well. That strand gave birth to a new authoritarian form of politics on the left. This strand took the view that the U.S. was the main problem on the global scene and drifted into an outlook that said that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

[...]

One leader of this new movement was Che Guevara. Some have argued that he and Castro had broken politically with each other over the close ties between Cuba and Russia. Guevara left to start revolutions elsewhere, with disastrous results, of course. But the fact that Che became a hero to new authoritarian movements like the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and to many in the United States as well is evidence of the perverse attractiveness of this development.

In the United States the emergence of the Weather Underground was an example of the rise of an authoritarian (stalinist but non-Communist) left in the United States. This movement had to develop its own raison d’etre and for the Weather people, it was the race based notion of “white skin privilege” and “white supremacy” and the crazy tactics that followed - for example, the role that the WU played in the 1981 bank robbery led by the Black Liberation Army in which three people were killed and led to the jailing of WU leader Kathy Boudin for 22 years and her partner David Gilbert for life. These are the kinds of events that Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were also involved in (well, murderous bombings not murderous robberies it appears).

Closely linked to their racialist views, the WU types adopted an idea that the third world was the vanguard of the global revolution together with the black American community. The targets of this revolution were not only US “imperialism” but white workers inside the “belly of the beast.” They argued that white workers, and their politically compromised labor unions, fed off the
backs of third world workers and black Americans (while never explaining why black workers are such strong backers of even white-controlled unions).

Historian Sean Wilentz has recognized the impact of these kinds of views on the Obama campaign. As he recently wrote on the
Huffington Post:

“Having attempted, with the aid of a complicit news media, to brand Hillary Clinton as a racist—by flinging charges that, as the historian Michael Lind has shown, belong ‘in black helicopter/grassy knoll territory,’ Obama’s supporters now fiercely claim that Clinton’s white working class following is also essentially racist. Favoring the buzzword language of the academic left, tinged by persistent, discredited New Left and black nationalist theories about working-class ‘white skin privilege,’ a vote against Obama has become, according to his fervent followers, ‘a vote for whiteness.’”

Wilentz also notes the hostility of the Obama camp to white American workers:

“Culturally as well as politically, Obama’s dismissal of white working people represents a sea-change in the Democrats’ basic identity as the workingman’s party - one that has been coming since the late 1960s, when large portions of the Left began regarding white workers as hopeless and hateful reactionaries.”

From the longer article:

Who is the Real Barack Obama - Oct 2008

[Gmax]

If you two are not careful you are going to bid the number up right into stimulus money range. Some lawmaker may hear you and file the legislation, and damned if I am paying for unicorns.

[bgates]

I suspect it's most accurate to say that Obama and his minions are European-style social democrats.

Except Obama et al are quite a bit more hostile to the United States than the Europeans are. Of course, the Euros haven't been subjected to the slavemaster's lash the way the Obamas, Van Jones, Valerie Jarett, and assorted other millionaires have been in this country.

[bishop]

No, he's more of a African colonial mindset, described by Ikenga in the series on American Thinker. But this isn't colonial Africa, or Latin America (even in Miami)or Czarist Russia. That kind of misunderstanding is called 'category error'

[Jim Ryan]

Mr. Jones:

Please email me regarding your future employment. I have a proposal that may be quite attractive to you.

Most of the yardwork is quite light. I will need a tree taken out, though. Having a problem growing the back lawn. Hourly, $8. (In cash!) About five hours/week. Seasonal.

[Gmax]

In Cash

Too bad Geithner has a steady gig, otherwise he might be up for that. No questions asked, of course.

[Rick Ballard]

Is Sopists R Us running a contest to find the most "acceptablel" descriptors for commie bastards today? Is first prize tea with Juan Williams or cocktails with Tom Friedman?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Van Jones deserves 10K per speech when he can land a real job that actually contributes to capital growth.

He appears to be one of the most active far far leftists in America.

Meh. Van is small potatoes. What you really want to spoil is not the soil where they grow but their source for water *cough*Tides*cough*Ford*cough*Rockefeller*cough*Soros.

Van gets picked, chopped up, consumed, and spit out. The water supply remains for the next seed to blossom.

And you can't do anything about the soil. Oakland is radical central. It would take a huge cultural shift to change that. I thought the Sandlers were doing that by moving those that wanted to depart the radical culture 2 hours west so they could own homes. But then the Sandlers um, ran into, oh what is it? Budgetary issues.

[clarice]

My thoughts exactly.Rick. I say call them statists and the hell with it.(Black Shirts, brown shirts, ref scarves--all the same to me--UGH)

[clarice]

***reD scarves****

[glenda]

verryyy interesting get on Mueller, clarice
if he is what he writes, he'll resign. Good decent people must not be bought by the likes of Mohammar Khadafi-imagine the outrage the families must feel on top of the anger they already had. To know their government was complicit in that scam!!

DebNC--that pic of Friedman's house should be background on Beck or O'Reilly as his cowardly remarks on MTP are played! I am so tired of hypocrits making money off the backs of "Mom & Pop America". We labor, they take the $$ and sneer at the peons, while worshipping Fidel and Saul.

[bishop]

Our old friend, Deborah Solomon (sarc) is at it again, asking Norman Podhoretz, the
rhetorical equivalent of 'when did you stop
beating your wife' in the LUN

[Janet]

Look at the ages of all these old fools - Rangel 78, Stark 77, Levin 77, ...LUN

Writing the tax laws that we have to obey & they don't.

[Andrew_M_Garland]

To President Obama,

Van Jones has resigned, or possibly you have fired him.

Please tell me, what is new to you about this recent information about Van Jones? If you already knew about these aspects of his history, then why should you allow him to resign? If you already knew, then you should fight to oppose the misinformation or extremism directed against him and keep him in your administration.

If you want him out, based on recent information that is new to you, then what's new, and why is it unacceptable to you? Please explain.

Van Jones: What's New?

[pagar]

Gateway Pundit got a lot on Van Jones out in the internet public eye, but imo, the real digging was done by RBO.

RBO has been following the Van Jones story since April 6, 2009, when Trevor Loudon first outed Jones’ radical past.

If one is really interested in the Communist goings on in the Obama Administration, check the Real Barack Obama blog (LUN)first. Trevor Loudon from the New Zeal blog in New Zealand covers Communists like no one else and he feeds the reports into the RBO blog.

[Jim Ryan]

bishop, Goldberg has some good points on that at 12:54 in the Corner today. (Permalink doesn't work.)

Once a conservative buys into the leftist term "right" or "right wing," he's almost sure to end up sewing confusion. The commies labeled Hitler "right wing" and any conservative who accepts the label is being played. Podhoretz got played.

Whenever someone labels me "right wing", I say "I don't know what you're talking about. The right is occupied by fascists and other socialist totalitarians. I'm a conservative." Don't let leftists lay out the spectrum of political positions. If you do the only choices are which totalitarian position to ally yourself with: theirs or their competitors. Podhoretz should have known this.