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Title: Thank You, Glenn Beck!
Source:
Huffington Post
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 8, 2009
Author: Arianna Huffington
Post Date: 2009-09-08 14:40:33 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1046
Comments: 15
Thank you, Glenn Beck. By helping force the resignation of Van Jones, you have done a great service to your country. But in the exact opposite way than what you intended. Your vile and vicious smear campaign has helped reverse one of the worst examples of miscasting since John Wayne took on the role of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. Don't get me wrong: Van Jones was the best person for the job he just gave up. But the job was not the best use of Van Jones. Contrary to the media caricature, the real Van Jones is a thoughtful leader who knows how to use words to move people to action. To stick him behind a desk, working out the details of tax credits for green jobs -- incredibly important though the job is -- was never the best use of his unique and abundant skills. This is not an attempt to put a positive spin on an ugly episode. I've actually been feeling this way ever since Van told me he was taking this job. Now, thanks to Glenn Beck, we've got that voice back. No longer tied to his desk with a sock in his mouth, Van is now freed to do what he does best: inspire and energize groups around the country. Student groups and labor groups and small business groups and middle class Americans everywhere who are losing jobs and losing homes and losing hope. He's free to push with all his might and insight for the vision tens of millions of Americans tirelessly worked for during the presidential campaign -- the vision they voted for in November -- but which is now in danger of being drowned in the fetid political swamps of Washington. If Glenn Beck had any sense at all, he would have done everything in his power to keep Van Jones right where he was. But he didn't. And for this we should all be grateful. Full disclosure: Van and I have been good friends for many years. We've worked together on a number of projects, I've written about his efforts to fight abuses in the criminal justice system, he's blogged on HuffPost since soon after we launched, and I've watched him hold an audience spellbound at a wide range of events -- from progressive gatherings to the World Economic Forum. And I've never failed to be impressed by Van. He is a remarkable man. One of the things I've always found so impressive about him -- and something completely lost in the partisan mudslinging -- is his ability to build coalitions and create unlikely alliances. In pursuit of a clean energy future for America, Van has successfully brought together urban youth with clean-tech entrepreneurs, labor leaders with business leaders, civil rights activists with environmentalists. His skill in this area is exceptional, and much needed in America today. Yes, he might believe that the foundation of the GOP's legislative prowess can be found below the belt and to the rear, but that never stopped him from looking for ways to reach out and bridge the political, economic, racial, and social chasms that continue to divide us. Back in 2002, I wrote about how the staid and anything-but-radical heads of the World Economic Forum had invited him to their conference and honored him as a "Global Leader for Tomorrow." Jones had been protesting the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. But that didn't keep him from exchanging ideas with the rich and powerful at the Forum, or from keeping an open mind. "The people I've met here," Van told me at the time, "are much more thoughtful, complex, and concerned about social issues than either the left or the media portray them to be." That's a sound bite you're not likely to see being endlessly replayed on Fox News. But that's the real Van Jones, not the caricature the Fox echo chamber has been pummeling for the last few weeks. The real Van Jones has been lauded by the likes of Meg Whitman (she was very much for him before she decided she needed to be against him) and the editors of Time who named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world and one of the nation's "Heroes of the Environment." Or Fast Company magazine, which placed him on its list of the "12 Most Creative Minds." The real Van Jones is the speaker who told a crowd at last month's National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas: "We're asking questions progressives like but we're giving answers that conservatives should like" (another sound bite you won't see looped to death on Fox). He went on to stress the importance of enterprise, innovation and entrepreneurship in solving our economic and environmental problems. More full disclosure: I despise 9/11 "truther" conspiracies. Indeed, one of the guidelines for bloggers on HuffPost is a ban on posts putting forth those kinds of theories. And it was stupid of Van to put his name on a very stupid "9/11 Truth Statement." I've spoken to Van. He doesn't believe that the Bush administration orchestrated the 9/11 attacks or allowed the attacks to happen in a cold-hearted attempt to gin up support. The 9/11 "Truthers" are fringe-dwellers and Van was completely wrong to allow himself to be associated with them. But that mistake should not define him. Indeed this episode, besides putting Van back in the right role, will provoke a conversation about how people's past should impact what they are able to do in the present. If the sliming of Van Jones is an indication of how things are going to be, a lot of 20-somethings posting to their Facebook pages as we speak better start worrying about the digital crumbs they are leaving behind for the future Glenn Becks of the world. Isn't it time we acknowledge that no human being with any passion and deeply held beliefs ever emerged flawless into the world? And that if every mistake, misstep, boneheaded decision, or error in judgment becomes an automatic disqualifier for public service, then we're going to be left with a political landscape filled with nothing but wrinkle-free, foible-free, passionless automatons who have never made a mistake because they never took the risk of having an original thought. Van Jones is not foible-free. He's human. And ardent in his desire to effect change. In fact, his journey from radical activist to someone who came to see that the solutions we need in this country are ones not easily categorized as right or left is what has made him such an effective leader. If we continue to obsessively see things through that right/left prism -- and use those differences as weapons with which we attack our perceived enemies -- it is going to be infinitely harder to move the country to where it needs to be. Glenn Beck has taken Van out of his in-the-shadows position and thrust him into the spotlight. I told Van after his resignation that I hope he will take the extra attention and energy Beck created for him and, like a jujitsu black belt, turn the blow into an opening, an opportunity to transform the negative attack into something positive for himself and for the country.
I remember going to the White House this spring for a briefing of journalists by David Axelrod. Before the meeting, Van and I met for a quick coffee and I was hit with the same overwhelming thought: how much we were going to miss his voice on the outside.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Couple of things. Beck is not a neocon. He's a libertarian (big difference). He did not run a smear campaign, and he did not state anything that was not a fact, nor that was not stated directly by Van Jones himself. Van Jones is not the kind of person that should ever be trusted with power. Beck did good.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
Must not be many photo ops in Appalachia.
Anti-racism is code for white genocide. The call of "equality," is a siren song that can only mean the destruction of all that we cherish as being human. -- Murray Rothbard It is perfectly legitimate to assume that the races are different in their cognitive abilities and in their willpower and accordingly are unequally suited for the task of setting up societies, and that the better races are characterized in particular by their special ability to strengthen social bonds. -- Ludwig von Mises Glenn Dreck is about as much of a libetarian as Ted Kennedy was. He is a pro-war, Bush sycophant, and zionist pig.
"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't. ~ Anatole France
GOA alert - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Just when you thought the news about the Obama administration couldn't get any worse, gun owners find themselves needing to rally the troops once again. This time it's the proposed "Regulatory Czar" who will be coming to a vote this week in the U.S. Senate. His name is Cass Sunstein, and he holds some of the kookiest views you will ever hear. For starters, Sunstein believes in regulating hunting out of existence. He told a Harvard audience in 2007 that "we ought to ban hunting." And in The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer (2002), he said: I think we should go further ... the law should impose further regulation on hunting, scientific experiments, entertainment, and (above all) farming to ensure against unnecessary animal suffering. It is easy to imagine a set of initiatives that would do a great deal here, and indeed European nations have moved in just this direction. There are many possibilities. (Italics are his emphasis.) If that's all Sunstein believed, he would be dangerous and extreme, but not necessarily kooky. Unfortunately, when you look at WHY he wants to restrict hunting, this is where he goes beyond extreme. In Sunstein's world, animals should have just as many rights as people ... and they should be able to sue humans in court! "We could even grant animals a right to bring suit without insisting that animals are persons, or that they are not property," Sunstein said on page 11 of Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2004). Well, that's a relief ... he is at least willing to concede that animals are not persons! But he would still have animals suing humans, apparently, with more enlightened humans representing the cuddly critters. Imagine returning from a successful hunting trip ... only to find out that you've been subpoenaed for killing your prize. Who knows, maybe Sunstein would have the family of the dead animal serving as witnesses in court! By the way, if you're wondering what he thinks about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, you won't be surprised to know that Sunstein is a huge supporter of gun control. In Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts are Wrong for America (2005), Sunstein says: Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine.... [O]n the Constitution's text, fundamentalists [that is, gun rights supporters] should not be so confident in their enthusiasm for invalidating gun control legislation. Hmm, what part of "shall not be infringed" does Sunstein not understand? Imagine the power that Sunstein could have as the Regulatory Czar -- the nickname for the person heading the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the White House. As the Regulatory Czar, he could bring about changes in the regulations that affect hunting, gun control and farming. In short, he could make your life hell. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) objected to his nomination several weeks ago, preventing him from being unanimously confirmed. That means that the Senate will now need to garner 60 votes to confirm this radical, kooky choice to the OIRA. No doubt, many of the people our President wants to associate with are radical kooks. First, there was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright ... then there was the self-avowed communist (Van Jones) who was nominated for the Green Jobs Czar ... now, there's an extreme animal rights activist who wants to take away our guns and get Bambi to sue us in court. It's time to take a STRONG STAND against this radical administration. ACTION: Please contact your Senators right away and urge them to vote AGAINST the Cass Sunstein nomination.
You clearly have not listened to him the last year. He seems to be recanting just about every association with Bush he can, renouncing the GOP and openly endorsing libertarian ideas, ideals and policy suggestions. In any event, if Beck is why Van Jones is gone, then he performed a man's job and should be congratulated.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
hahahahahaha Jones is a Marxists and Beck used his own words to sink him Good for Beck, and do it again, and again, and again....
Window dressing - his ability to sow disinformation is dependent upon his "credibility". So, of course he has "seen the light" now that Duhbya is gone is gone and unpopular of course as a good disinformationist he changes his tune - his credibility depends upon it. If he continued defending the Chimperor he would be toast. So, to rebuild his credibility he "finds religion". Most people now recognize and understand, even a lot of the Kool-Aid drinkers at Freeptardia, that Bush lied from day one. Of course that was obvious to anyone who paid attention to the available information, and Dreck had daily access from a plethora of sources, and who had 3 functioning brain cells. So, Dreck is either stupid or a liar. In either case his opinions, reportage, and program are of no worth, no merit, and are unworthy of trust.
"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't. ~ Anatole France
Whatever reasonable person or tactic that stops these communists right now, is a welcome thing. If we require philosophical purity, assuming we could agree amongst ourselves on a set of "pure" values, then we're handing the world over to the statists. Whether Beck is sincere or not, he's turning a bunch of otherwise apathetic people onto the ideas of libertarianism. So it's a net good. Add in getting Van Jones nailed, and it's another point. Holding a grudge right now benefits nobody. Wait till after the smoke clears and Obeyme is out of office.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
I agree. Beck would absolutely despise me and my politics, but I could care less. The trash that Obama has surrounded himself with has to be brought down. So again, whoever can punch holes in this bag of crap deserves kudos.
Sunstein, huh? Sounds like another one of them Muzzies that hates us for our freeedums.
Ah.. the RINO bitch with a funny accent.
"America without her freedoms, is like a body without a soul" - Adam Kokesh
He is a pro-war, Bush sycophant, and zionist pig. How could you be so right about certain issues, then not even be on the same planet - as in the case of Glen Beck? Not only couldn't you be more wrong about Beck, he alone is methodically tearing the 0bama Administration and his Marxist subversives a new @sshole. DAY AFTER DAY. Do you watch him at all??
Except that Arianna is NOT a "RINO" - she's a flaming radical Leftist.
He is a pro-war, Bush sycophant, and zionist pig. 100%
"Satan / Cheney in "08" In that case, she needs good "America without her freedoms, is like a body without a soul" - Adam Kokesh
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
Van has successfully brought together urban youth with clean-tech entrepreneurs
#3. To: SonOfLiberty (#1)
#4. To: Prefrontal Vortex. all (#2)
I hope that Beck, Hannity, et al get all over the proposed new Regulatory Czar nominee - this guy makes Jones look like Fredrick Douglass -
#5. To: Original_Intent (#3)
#6. To: All (#0)
Your vile and vicious smear campaign has helped reverse one of the worst examples of miscasting since John Wayne took on the role of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.
#7. To: SonOfLiberty (#5)
You clearly have not listened to him the last year. He seems to be recanting just about every association with Bush he can, renouncing the GOP and openly endorsing libertarian ideas, ideals and policy suggestions.
#8. To: Original_Intent (#7)
#9. To: SonOfLiberty (#8)
Whether Beck is sincere or not, he's turning a bunch of otherwise apathetic people onto the ideas of libertarianism. So it's a net good.
#10. To: Lod (#4)
His name is Cass Sunstein, and he holds some of the kookiest views you will ever hear.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#11. To: Brian S (#0)
Arianna Huffington
#12. To: Original_Intent (#3)
Glenn Dreck is about as much of a libetarian as Ted Kennedy was.
#13. To: Flintlock (#11)
Ah.. the RINO bitch [Arianna) with a funny accent.
#14. To: Original_Intent (#3)
Glenn Dreck is about as much of a libetarian as Ted Kennedy was.
#15. To: F16Fighter (#13)
Arianna is NOT a "RINO" - she's a flaming radical Leftist.
spanking beating
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