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kevbo's avatar

What do you make of the controversy surrounding Van Jones, Obama's Green Jobs Czar?

Asked by kevbo (25672points) September 6th, 2009 from iPhone

You’ll have to bring your own reading to the table. Sorry.

So Van Jones resigned/was fired this weekend more or less because his statements/sentiment threatened to derail the health care reform agenda by way of providing conservatives with an opportunity for a media sideshow. Specifically, he went on record calling Republicans “assholes,” and it has surfaced that during Bush he signed a “truther” petition stating that the Bush admin was directly responsible for 9/11 and should be investigated. He has since retracted/denied this sentiment.

So there’s a bit more that has shaken out that’s interesting:

Reader comments on Wonkette regarding this story were unusually apoplectic. This is a site where sacred cows are shot for sport and skewering poiticians is an art form. (It’s also fairly left leaning.) Instead, these people were practically crying into their keyboards, most obviously because Obama appeared to be caving to pressure from the right. But, does this also represent a deeper shift, loss or disappointment on the part of Obama supporters? Is this some kind of back breaking straw?

Secondly, it has come out that Van Jones is a fellow of the Institute for Noetic Sciences, which investigates parapsychological phenomena (spoonbending and reincarnation, colloquially). The institute, by the way, was founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell. So how does this factor in to the drift of the Obama admin in general and the Green Jobs initiative in particular?

FYI, I happen to believe “noetic science” is a legit pursuit and that the gov’t has been looking into this stuff for decades, but imagine it’s beyond the limits of credibility for most voters.

Finally, what’s your take on the truther aspect of this story?
From his wiki page his work seems very impressive, and it seems like a real loss to have someone of his ilk fall to a political skirmish.

bold added for readibility, not courtroom dramatics

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9 Answers

filmfann's avatar

I hadn’t heard of Van Jones till he resigned (I don’t watch Glen Beck).
His truther position is rediculas, if it is the way it’s described.
As an Obama supporter, I will say that I have been disappointed with some aspects of this presidency. We went from W’s full retard to Obama, hoping for an elegant and masterful handling of the office. Instead, we got the usual mistakes.
It’s still way better than W.

dpworkin's avatar

Yet another idealistic person who, when younger was affiliated with impatient groups fighting for change is sacrificed to the bleating right-wing trolls because the price for standing up for your own men has become too high in these days of Cable News, and a kind of unquestioning credulousness among a portion of the electorate.

Glen Beck is a lower form of life, and Van Jones was impolitic in his early associations, so is now forbidden to do a useful job for which he was inarguably well suited, and which was ameliorative in terms both of the economy, and the environment.

Obama has become rather a disappointment, and needs to grow a pair.

galileogirl's avatar

If every American who has used the term ‘asshole’ is automatically ineligible to be a candidate for a government position, the only people left will be assholes like Glenn Beck,

kevbo's avatar

Yeah, I didn’t know about the Glenn Beck angle until after I posted. Looks like Jones was instrumental in getting Beck’s advertising pulled via colorofchange.org, which is probably why Beck is going great guns on Jones, but also crosses a line of White House admins attacking media that don’t agree with them. Now, apparently, Olbermann is gunning for Beck and co in a similar vein. So lots of bullshit drama.

Garebo's avatar

I am glad he’s gone, this country doesn’t need an Ernst Rome like “czar”, or in my opinion, street thug running Obama’s Green Shirts. Besides don’t we have enough czars already.

galileogirl's avatar

@kevbo Admins have been attacking the media since Nixon turned Spiro ‘Pitbull’ Agnew and the entire dog pound loose.

dpworkin's avatar

@Garebo I am assuming you meant the Ernst Rhoem that Hitler had killed. That gives you this thread’s first Godwin’s Law award. Treasure it. I’m sure it will be hours or days before you get another.

Garebo's avatar

Thanks I will treasure it, and you are right. I definitely was premature, I should have at least waited. I just could not restrain myself.

cwilbur's avatar

I think from a realpolitik point of view, this is probably a very smart move on Obama’s part—the cost of smacking Glenn Beck down was basically Van Jones’s job.

This is the political landscape: you have two camps that snipe at each other, and nobody can survive in the middle ground. Obama has to play that game, because if he doesn’t, nothing will get done.

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