UPDATE 2: I'm Not Shocked - Are You?

Update 2: Multiple calls for Van Jones to resign are going out based on his participation in the 9/11 'truther' movement, including signing the '9/11 Truth Statement' and participating in a rally based on that statement to demand a new investigation of the CIA and Bush Administration.


Update 1: Van Jones kind of, sort of, apologizes, while delivering a back-handed compliment.

HuffPo thinks it humorous that Fox News acted shocked over this. Personally, I'm not in the least shocked. It's right in line with the behavior I would expect from the man who seems to have deliberately radicalized himself in a very short period of time, and in part, because it's what all the cool people were doing:

'Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."'

I have no issues with the 'green jobs not jail' mantra of the Ella Baker Center, but Van Jones is simply an activist who went looking for a cause. His statement toward the end of the clip, that he too can be an ass, is probably correct, but what really strikes me in the video is not his language, but rather his total lack of thought. Van Jones fails to attempt to answer the, rather pathetic, question put to him. He either does not know, or does not care to think through, why Republicans able to successfully enact multiple programs and legislation that he himself does not support. Neither the questioner nor Van Jones seems able to move beyond the simplistic explanation of 'Republicans are a-holes.' The language is unworthy of someone appointed by the President of the United States to lead a large program. The simplistic thinking is unworthy of the anyone who aspires to lead.

Mr. Smooth Goes to Washington

I know a group of well-educated, generally likable, middle-aged women who are voting for Obama based on his 'smooth-appeal.' These are women I care about, so I won't mention any names, but suffice it to say that I've known them all of my life, know what their voting records are like, and have heard their opinions over the course of many elections. Twenty or thirty years ago these women leaned to the middle of American political thinking, but upon reaching middle age, all of them dumped their husbands, discovered their inner liberals, and took a hard turn to the left. The funny thing is, they can never articulate why (they took the turn that is, not why they divorced). One of them, having been an ardent supporter of Oliver North just a few years previously, told me that she had always really been a radical. When I asked her when she discovered that, she told me she didn't know. When I asked her why, she said 'because it feels right.' OK, then. So, this country is about to elect a man about whom we know nothing, who feels justified in covering up anything, who won't answer questions, who suppresses dissent, and whose policies are a joke, 'because it just feels right.' Dennis Byrne's excellent article (click the title link to see the entire article on RCP), sums up the political thinking of these ladies. He makes them feel good. Heck, he probably makes them feel just a little in love. There have been times when one of them says things that make me think they look on him as a sex object. I don't want to go there, it'll give me nightmares, but this really seems to be the sum total of their decision-making. When I press the subject, I often hear a defense that sounds like, 'Obama cares more for the poor and middle-class, and the Republicans just want to help the wealthy.' If I ask for data to back that up, they'll say 'everyone knows this.' Like Mr. Byrne, I'm not sure if there's any argument that can overcome willful ignorance, but I think we have to at least try to counter Mr. Smooth.

Character part 2

Interesting and disturbing videos. Socialism is one thing, despicable, but not necessarily evil. Violent hatred and revolution, however, are evil. Many thanks to Christmas Ghost for making them available.