CNN Debate on Van Jones: Obama Sells Us Out to Political Terrorist Glenn Beck & His Lynch Mob
Per my post and announcement last night, here's the clip of my CNN debate with David Frum about the Van Jones affair this morning. Notice that Frum has no answer for the obvious double standards. Somehow, nobody gets fired for lying us into Iraq, Tim Geithner keeps his job after tax evasion and gift scandals, Republican Congresspeople remain credible while championing the "birther" lunacy -- but Van Jones must be fired for carelessly signing a petition years ago, which he later apologized for.
As I said on CNN, the hypocrisy uncovers the real truth of this whole affair: Van Jones was targeted by the political terrorist known as Glenn Beck -- the man who leads a 21st century lynch mob looking to hunt down anyone (and especially anyone black) who has ever been a part of progressive movement politics. I don't use that term "political terrorist" lightly. According to the dictionary, a terrorist is "a person who terrorizes or frightens others" -- and usually does so with an ideological objective. There are, of course, many different kinds of terrorists, and I'd say Beck -- with his fearmongering, paranoia and hate -- fits the letter and spirit of the dictionary definition of a political terrorist quite well. Indeed, just listen to this clip or look at this not-so-veiled threat and then try to claim with a straight face that Beck isn't explicitly using the mass media to scare and terrorize people.
In placating the demands of this terrorist and his lynch mob, the Obama administration has simultaneously empowered that terrorist and that lynch mob, while abandoning its own progressive base. (And yes, yes -- I know saying that makes the sycophants upset. I know it means I'll get a lot of irritating email saying, "I guess you wanted McCain!" or "You're going to get us President Romney in 2012!" - as if the progressive movement exists solely to worship at the feet of politicians with a "D" behind their name. That's fine -- that kind of cultism is everywhere in the American Idiocracy, and I've got my "delete" key fired up and ready to go).
I am at once loathe to help fuel this media-manufactured controversy and eager to use this as a kind of "teachable moment" that Obama talks about, but rarely delivers on. If we as a movement cannot stand up for a genuine progressive hero like Van Jones -- a guy with a towering record of real-world accomplishment on behalf of issues and grassroots communities -- then we will not be able to stand up for anything, much less major legislative initiatives.
The multi-million-dollar Washington-based "progressive" organizations that previously used Van Jones to stress their environmental and racial progressivism haven't strongly spoken out about Jones and about the White House's failure to back him. Indeed, most of those organizations have issued mealy-mouthed statements praising Jones but giving their friends in the White House a pass. This is par for the course, unfortunately. As I wrote in my newspaper column this week, and as Jane Hamsher has so effectively shown, these institutions are still too concerned with their White House access than in building a real movement.
So if I can do my own little part to take up the slack through the media, I will -- even if it means I will inevitably be targeted by that same right-wing lynch mob.
Of course, perhaps the Jones affair is the canary in the coal mine. Maybe the White House's refusal to stand by Jones and willingness to accept the demands of right-wing political terrorists is a symptom of the bigger disease whereby the Obama is already selling out progressives on every major priority. Perhaps, in short, Jones isn't the issue -- and what his firing represents is.
I fear that is the case -- certainly the Obama administration's behavior on everything from health care to climate change to war suggests that's what's going on. And if that's true, then we've got a huge problem on our hands.
Gene Karpinski: Labor Day 2009: Protect the American Worker with a Clean Energy Economy
Only one-sixth of the world's top renewable energy manufacturers are based in the United States, which means we are losing out on millions of new jobs.
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Me thinks Frum Protests too much.
I find if interesting that Glenn Beck simply brings forward information available to all through the internet discrediting Jones and now he is a terrorist. Rather than call people names why weren't the CNN, MSNBC< ABC NBC
Sorry but this got cut off for some reason:
I find if interesting that Glenn Beck simply brings forward information available to all through the internet discrediting Jones and now he is a terrorist. Rather than call people names why weren't the CNN, MSNBC< ABC NBC, CBS and others out seeking the facts to debunk Beck. Had they done that there would not have been this issue, unless there was no information to refute him.
I can not imagine that there was not something out there that would have prevented this from happening. Jones was portrayed as a totally different person than Beck apparently presented.
Rather than resort to name calling lets find the facts to put him out of business, if you can. His next target will be Cass Sunstein what can be used to stop that?
Van Jones "carelessly" signed the 9/11 truther petition?! Seriously?! Such an astoundingly shocking petition and he signed it "carelessly"?! This is like Michele Malkin defending Cheney that the poor fella simply responded to faulty intelligence!
The causes for Jones' departure included the fact that he signed a 2004 petition supporting the so-called "9/11 truther" movement; that he was a self-professed communist during much of the 1990s; that he supported the cop-killer Mumia abu-Jamal; that in 2008 he accused "white polluters" of "steering poison into the people of color communities"; and that earlier this year, speaking to a friendly crowd in Berkeley, Calif., he called Republicans "a--holes.
OK calling Republicans "A-Holes" is like calling those little creatures in a river, Fish! They are what they are ... anyhoo Jones was no Progressive, he was and is a radical. The right wing has its share of loonies and so does the left fringe. The irony is that both these fringes think they are right and the other is wrong while they point fingers at each other in a holier-than-thou fashion!
Americans for Prosperity and other Astroturf groups work in collusion with Beck et. al to achieve the objectives of Big Business and if not beck, then who, if not now, then when.....basically the people who really run the usa have no fear of a concilliatory black prez, but a radical like jones who represents real change is most definitely a real threat, beck is a pawn in this battle, just as obama is to the biz elite
How Van Jones Happened and What We Need to Do Next
http://tiny.cc/sgLNk
I have never followed this group but having seen this article from your link I must admit I am not a fan of the Cap and Trade bill. I fear it will end up hurting too many middle and lower income families with higher bills and taxes.
The right wing is targeting a good man after giving us Halliburton as president for 8 years??? Is this real? If mistakes are all it takes to oust someone from the white house, how did W stay there so long? Glenn Beck is an insult to the human race but Obama is selling out everyone who voted for him. He and the Democrats have until 2010 to grow a pair and stand up for what they believe in the way the right stood up for the corporatocracy THEY believe in for eight very long years. Fact is, they won't because the very same corporations and fat cats that fed the republicans are now feeding the democrats. Money talks, bs walks. Go ahead. Write your representatives. See where it gets you. Plus, it's not all that far-fetched to believe that Cheney knew about 9/11 and suppressed the information. Bush isn't smart enough for that, plus, I truly believe he is a good man who was badly used by Cheney and Rumsfeld, resulting in an awful presidency. Cheney and Rumsfeld are anti-American traitors who should be tried, convicted and hanged for what they did to this country.
it makes your mind want to explode, huh? Mine too.
Sirota = Hammer
This posting = nail
Excellent!
President Obama, please continue choosing your fights and flicking aside the media distractions designed only to throw you off track. And don't worry too much about the whining liberals, they are basically harmless.
The author of this blog is practicing the time honored technique of hyperbole.
Let me see if I have this straight...Van Jones makes numerous incendiary comments over the last 24 months and sounds more racist than David Duke, and yet in some way this is because of right-wing terrorists? Did they make him say his crazy thoughts? Was Van Jones controlled by the vast right wing in an attempt to undermine this WH?
Van Jones is out (as is all this silly 'progressive' talk) because 97% of the American public find his current views repugnant, let alone what he said or signed 5 years ago...the other 3% is now talking like this was a betrayal of near Judas proportions; which shows a somewhat tenuous grasp of reality.
The bigger question remains how he became Czar of anything...does the WH not vet anyone?
Is Glenn Beck hoping someone will "act out" with violence against Barack Obama? When he uses words like "socialist", "communist", and "nazi" to describe our president, this is hate speech designed to dehumanize and encourage someone to do something criminal.
When Beck says that Barack Obama "hates white people and the white culture" doesn't he sound like someone who is trying to incite violence?
Has the Secret Service paid a visit to Glenn Beck? They should.
How will Fox "News" feel if something horrific were to happen due to Beck's words of incitement?
They will of course deny that they had anything to do with, then they will use it as proof of how angry people are with Obama and his policies.
Same formula they used for the tea parties, the birthers, the deathers...
Oh Chavez your so great. Stop the enemy and the media and stop any criticism with visits by the police.
Obama caves on this issue and Van resigns...the next day Orly Taitz shows up again with a new Kenyan birth certificate.
Maybe Obama is employing the "Rocky" strategy...get the ever-lovin' crap beat out of you for 95% of the fight and then get the big win at the last moment. (I guess the progressive movement is Adrienne, sitting in the corner, trying not to watch her guy get beat up.)
I find it ironic that Frum can compare the so-called truthers to Holocaust deniers. There was a time when you'd be roundly lambasted for any such comparisons. The terrorists on that day eight years hence apparently achieved a slight wind change.
The fact that Shoah has vast amounts of undisputed empirical data and countless witnesses backing up its reality is what makes the denier a liar. The fact that nine-eleven has its name should be enough to make one wary.
The former administration not being able to come fully clean regarding their dismal failure regarding that day and their obfuscation of the investigation is reason enough for Mr. Jones, or anyone else, to have signed the petition. The real wackos are the ones deifying the event, because in doing so they canonize the previous government and their lame excuses (when they've bothered to give any).
Frum is the one in this broadcast who reiterated the "big lie", as he put it. And he did so again and again. That Sirota doesn't dare refute that big lie is telling: Stick to your own talking point, don't ruin your career.
Like it or not, even though Sirota is right, he loses the argument here because Frum uses the talking point of sacrosanctness. That Jones had apologized is also telling: Bow to the sanctity of the event.
The politicized holier-than-thou use of that tragic day in September is the true victory of the terrorists. They couldn't've hoped for more.
Excellent points, well said. Fanned.
There is a "bend over and take it like a man" quality to this presidency that is disappointing, scary, and frankly bizarre. The previous administration spent 8 years basically telling the country to suck on it while they lied, broke the law, politicized the entire government, and generally ran the country over a cliff. I am nothing short of amazed by how little has changed following massive voter turnout and a crushing election sweep. It would appear that the national government is a failed state no matter who's in office. It cannot fix any national problem: banking regulation, investment fraud, insurance fraud, illegal immigration, national security, healthcare, balance of trade, gay rights, climate change, deficit spending, failing schools, unfunded mandates...none of it. All of this mess has fallen into the lap of state governments to deal with as best they can, which is usually "poorly." I believe the past election was probably the very last chance this country had to stop the inexorable slide into environmental disaster, crumbling infrastructure, social responsibility, runaway national debt, job hemorrhage and real national security. The Democratic Party is feckless, irresponsible and corrupt. The Republican Party is a textbook of mental illness. The eventual prospects of failure upon failure in country where civilians are armed to the teeth and many are spouting nonsense is terrifying. Someone, somewhere needs to wake up.
Hey texter, while i'm a libertarian I've long wondered how progressives could live with the views of the Dems. Libs like Progressives don't have much good to say about the political parties. But if they do serve any purpose, we who disagree, agree in their uselessness.
As for the author: he is right, there is a problem: He ain't the One.
I truly don't understand the Progressive lynch mob these days. It's almost as bad as the right. what proof do yo uhave that President Obama didn't stand up for Van Jones. Last I checked he held a confrence where he said thathe was resigning, not because he was told to but by his own choice. Why is that so hard to understand for libs and progressives and what was the President suppose to do hold a press confrence to talk about this issue instead of health care, Aphganistan[sic], the economy...
f you wanted a knee jerk politician then you should have voted for one.
Now Obama is trying to be THE most patriotic right-wing politician in the country. Many people believed then and/or believe now that 1) the guys who hijacked the airplanes either had help from some political leaders IN the country or 2) the Bush administration acted completely irresponsibly in tracking and bringing down the airplanes with a very slow-motion response to the first plane's hijacking. The 9/11 commission absolved the administration; however, most of their arguments failed to convince many, many people, myself included.
David I admire your tenacious stand for progressive ideals, but you undercut your argument when you claim that Obama "Fired" Van Jones under pressure from Glen Beck.
This seems to be intentionally inaccurate to make it appear that our president is caving-in to the lunatic fringe element of the republican party, he is not and he did not fire Van Jones, he resigned.
I could support your outrage against the president and democrats if it were true that Obama fired Van Jones, but that statement is a major distortion of the facts and completely changes crux of your argument.
The blame for this outrageous witch hunt must fall directly to those who incited the lynch mob and perpetuated the lies about a good and honorable human rights advocate, our president is the victim of this smear campaign, just as Clinton and Kerry were the victims of the lies promoted by the swiftboaters.
This is one progressive liberal who is not having any buyers remorse and continues to wholeheartedly support our president, I cannot think of anyone in the country that could be doing a better job, especially when he is being bombarded with crazy conspiracy theorists about the legitimacy of his citizenship etc.
This is no time to abandon the leader we elected in the midst of an important skirmish, sorry David but your frustrations should be directed at the insanity coming from the right and not against our egalitarian president, who I feel confident will ultimately succeed.
Throughout recorded history when conditions deteriorate to unrecoverable depths, when the leaders of government or the reigning dictators, Kings and or Queens refuse to listen to the people, things happen. Mobs begin to form. They get larger and more aggressive by the hour. The pain and frustration with unresponsive, unfair and corrupt ruling entities eventually leads to anger and actions previously deemed extreme and unthinkable. As with any thinking animal when cornered, repressed and repeatedly antagonized with no end in sight, the time will come when the only alternative to unacceptable survivability is to strike out in revolt. Even violently if that is the only way to escape the injustice and harm being inflicted. Not to my knowledge, when things reach this point, is there any turning around. Not unless the victims have chosen to return to tyrannical oppression or worse. Or, ideally the oppressors come to their senses and adhere to just, fair and equitable rule. The latter has never occurred. The rulers have always chosen to believe they are invulnerable and not subject to change. That's when heads begin to roll. Eventually, when the dust clears, the penalized oppressors have been taken away. Decency, fair justice and civility make triumphant returns to their rightful place. Calm is restored.
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