By stepping down, Van Jones has legitimized a Faux News hack who had recently become marginalized by a sponsor boycott. Glenn Beck, a racist, psychotic nut-case, with a grandiose (white) superiority complex, was on the way to becoming nothing but a mere nuisance, a joke, until yesterday.
Glenn Beck, a self-proclaimed "alcoholic rodeo clown", has a running bit on his radio program called "People I'd like to kill with a shovel". If I were as insane as him, he'd be number one on my list of people I'd like to kill with a shovel. He and other talking heads on Faux News attempt to shape and create "news" stories. They are succeeding. They are literally hijacking the actual News. They spout their nonsense, and it gets carried over to MSNBC and CNN. When they start by saying "Some say..." what they're really saying is "Glenn Beck" said, or "Bill O'Reilly" said.
Glenn Beck would like you to believe that the Obama Administration has a hidden socialist agenda, and that Obama is a racist. Based on that last assertion, a group called colorofchange.org called for a boycott of advertisers of Beck's show. The boycott has been very successful, over 30 sponsors pulled their ads from his show, effectively putting him in his place. Advertising costs for his show were lowered, so now viewers of his show (and I admit I am one, it's like a car crash...I gotta look) can enjoy mini-infomercials and ads for male enhancement pills. There were rumors that Beck was suspended...or simply on vacation. Either way, I think Fox got the message.
I'm sure it only took Beck a few minutes to zero in on his new target. If you visit colorofchange.org "about" page, you will notice at the bottom of the page a section on Van Jones, cofounder of the non-profit group born of Hurricane Katrina.
Van Jones (Co-founder, inactive)
While Van hasn't been active in the work of ColorOfChange in recent years, we are proud of where his work has led him. After helping ColorOfChange get started in 2005, Van moved on to other pursuits. In 2007, he founded and served as the executive director of Green For All, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for low-income communities connected to the greater effort of addressing climate change. Van now serves as Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
He jumped all over Van Jones like white on rice. Van called Republicans "Ass-holes"...who hasn't? Mr. Jones signed a 9/11 Truth petition...so did I. Thousands of people did. Thousands of people think that the Bush administration was somehow complicit. This is not news. Faux news called us the fringe lefties, the wing-nuts. But ask yourself: Why was nothing done when Bush received the August pdb about Bin Laden? Why did Bush sit in a classroom for 7 minutes after being told the U.S. was under attack? Anyway, I digress. Beck held a public lynching of Van Jones, and they gave in.
Let the gloat-fest begin.
Glenn Beck said Sunday that Jones is only the first of many radicals in the administration who should be facing questions.
"The American people stood up and demanded answers," Beck wrote in a statement. "Instead of providing them, the Administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future." Link
This guy thinks he's God.
Here's a sick sidenote:
The mayor of Mount Vernon has made it official. Mayor Bud Norris says he will give the key to his city to conservative talk show host Glenn Beck on Sept. 26.Link
Why? Write to Mr. Norris and let him know what a travesty this will be: mvmayor@ci.mount-vernon.wa.us
The chairman of the House Republican Conference, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana (who's not sure he believes in evolution), had called for Jones to resign or be fired.
"I think Van Jones did the right thing," Pence said Sunday about the resignation. "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration.Link "
George W. Bush appointed many czars during his time in office, one in particular comes to mind. Randall L. Tobias Bush's AIDS Czar, resigned after being linked to a prostitution investigation. Was the right up in arms about this unethical czar?
Did Beck or Pence preach about the unconstitutionality of the Torture-loving Vice President Dick Cheney? Did they disapprove of Cheney's coarse rhetoric on the floor of Congress when he told Patrick Leahy to "go f**k himself"?
The answer is no. They towed the line, they carried the water (Limbaugh still does, even though he said he'd never do it again) because they were complicit. They now are so pissed that their party has been neutered, that they will do anything to damage Obama and the Democratic party.
"I’m suggesting that the administration should suspend immediately any future czar appointments while both the constitutionality of this practice is examined and while the background and qualifications of individuals who’ve been appointed as czars is carefully examined," Pence said.Link
Glenn Beck and his ilk are playing to the fringe of the fringe...the far right extremists that Janet Napolitano warned us about. These people; the tea-baggers, the town-hall nut-jobs, the morons who won't allow their children to listen to the President of the United States' speech tomorrow, are dangerous. The Glenn Becks and Limbaughs are inciting the hatred inside them all. The people who want to secede, the people who carry guns to Presidential town halls...the one thing they have in common is racism. With this small victory, they become emboldened. I fear what comes next. And so, in the end...The Beck wins. Instead of the Aucadity of Hope, we live with the audacity of fear.