The (Non)Feeding Frenzy

in the media over Van Jones. As someone notes in comments over there, imagine if George Bush had appointed a Klansman who spouted conspiracy theories about the Clintons and called Democrats anal orifices, and put him in charge of thirty billion dollars worth of federal activity, with no confirmation hearings.

[Late afternoon update]

Mickey thinks that the bus is revving its engine. It makes sense for him to be gone on a Friday before a holiday weekend. That will help bury the news.

[Update a few minutes later]

Does Barack Obama understand the odiousness of Trutherism? I’m not sure that he does, or that Democrats do in general. After all, Howard Dean called it “an interesting theory.” And it wasn’t that long ago (and may still be true today) that a majority of Democrats either believed that George Bush knew about the attacks ahead of time, or aren’t sure. Why would he think that a belief that is mainstream in his own party was particularly odious? In fact, I’m sure, given the “progressive” bubble in which he’s spent his entire life, he’s a little perplexed what the big deal is about Van Jones. None of this is news to him, any more than Reverend Wright’s views were. The only thing that shocks him is that anyone else would object.

[Late evening update]

Mark Steyn has some useful thoughts on Truther chique:

Is Van Jones a real Truther or a faux Truther? The White House position is that he’s the latter – hey, he just glanced at it, saw it was some routine impeach-Bush-for-killing-thousands-of-his-fellow-Americans thing, and signed it without reading it; we’ve all been there, right?

Van Jones Trutherism, like Van Jones Communism and Van Jones Eco-Racism Theory, is a kind of decadence: If you really believed 9/11 was an inside job, you’d be in fear of your life. Instead, for a cutting-edge poseur like Jones, it’s a marketing niche, one that gives you a certain cachet with the right kind of people – like, apparently, Barack Obama.

Indeed.

25 thoughts on “The (Non)Feeding Frenzy”

  1. …imagine if George Bush had appointed a Klansman who spouted conspiracy theories about the Clintons and called Democrats anal orifices, and put him in charge of thirty billion dollars worth of federal activity, with no confirmation hearings.

    [sarc]And your point being?[/sarc]

  2. You know, many primitive tribes, riven with emotionalism and not very sound on the nature of reality, tend to worship the insane. They think they’re on to something.

  3. Been following presidential politics, elections, and news coverage since 1956…never seen bias like this.

    ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, CNN…are all covering for the administration.

    There’s no other way to see it.

  4. It must be noted always that: The reportage is that the truthers assert that ex-Pres. Bush allowed or had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. The truthers actually (per their website) assert that the felled buildings were subjected to interior planned detonations to shear the steel structures and cause collapse. This is what seeds all the talk about fire can’t melt steel, etc. In short they say that the airliners and fuel themselves could not have caused collapse of WTC I and WTC II in that the fires could not have generated sufficient heat. They have engineers’ reports to back up these arguments, which by the way, claim that the science is on their side. This is far more egregious than asserting omission. They are asserting overt, complex, premeditated acts – namely the setting of timed charges to collapse those buildings that collapsed. See, for example, http://www.ae911truth.org/. Mr. Steyn’s point of course is a good one. These guys should have run if they really believed what they say. Mr. Jones should nonetheless be held responsible for his gratuitous grievance mongering. Regards.

  5. We have the birth certificate, Clem! Don’t be stupid like the liberals. All evidence indicates Obama was born in Hawaii. Birtherism is the new Trofferism.

  6. I was about to say something similar, Uh, Clem: that the next Republican president should try appointing a czar who was prominent among the Birthers, just to see what would happen.

    But it would be like checking to see if water still flows downhill.

  7. It is covered on ABC this morn, Saturday, amongst the Ninja Turtles… Hey, be of good cheer on this front. Tyrell has been saying for years that Lib MSM bias on net actually HURTS the Dem/Left by keeping them ignorant and only now do I see that is true. That is why Team Barry looks like the Special Olympics out there (no offense to real Retarded-Americans and those who love them). They are earplugged and bliindfolded. They do not percieve the landscape about them. They suffer a perpetual state of stupefecation. Van Jones is, as is said, a centrist among Dems, merely SUSPECTING CIA/Bush/Bilderberg collusion in 911 and a modest pose of Bolshevism. He lacks the fervent antagonism for Israel and the domestic scalps on his belt of someone like Bill Ayers who, with his milquetoast indictments of society is not quite out on the extremes with the New Black Panther Party; Dem urban stalwarts that they are. How about Ayers for Sec Ed? Al Sharpton for HUD? Medea Benjamin for Sec Def? If not, why not?

  8. All evidence indicates Obama was born in Hawaii.

    The issue isn’t whether or not he was born in Hawaii (at least to me). The issue is (as with his transcripts) what he’s spending so much on legal fees to hide.

  9. Want to see black racists in key federal government jobs? Wait until you see the ACORNers start taking up the health rationing panels. Think of a basically unemployable, single mother of 3 or 4 who will get a significant end of year bonus if she does not spend all of what she is responsible for distributing. Then realize that she can qualify for than bonus be simply withholding payments on suburban seniors. That’s when there’ll be lots of other black racists in key positions.

  10. Dems today are more inclined to sort of believe “it’s an interesting theory” because they have been primed for it by our educational system, which teaches that Roosevelt maybe knew about Pearl Harbor in advance, that Jefferson fathered slaves, etc. Then the kids get to college and read Howard Zinn!

  11. “…called Democrats anal orifices…” On this one we know exactly how they would react. Remember Cheney being caught by the mic calling Adam Clymer an a-hole. They never forgot it. No apology would have been accepted. But Van Jones is a Liberal, so it doesn’t matter, because his heart is in the right place.

  12. I agree that “trutherism” and other Leftist malignacies are indeed faux grievance — a form of Hatred Theater. Leftist when called out always demand that the “context” must be understood. This is a way to expiate a priori any enormity committed for “the cause”. This faux Hatred Theater provides the magical “frame” (which Van Johnston and his comrades speak of) to lend their seething hatreds legitimacy and to cloak their venom in pious righteousness. After all, if the paranoid constructs such as “trutherism” were really geniune, then how could leftists, who exhibit such psychotic mistrust of evil omnipotent government under one regime, then exhibit religious zeal and unquestioning faith in another regime? Through this we discover that every time a Leftist uses his “frame” or his “context to explain anything, he is really cloaking his radical agenda of perversion, hatred, chaos and destruction within a cleansing pretext. To me this indicates that, on some level at least, the Leftist is aware of his perverseness and the fundamental malignancy of his feelings/beliefs. Otherwise, what possible need could there be for the elaborate concealment and theatrics of the anger and hatred at the core of it all?

  13. Illegitimate birth. Stanley Ann Dunham got knocked up in November 1960. Women in those days “skipped town” when they got pregnant, and didn’t have a husband. Obama’s birth wasn’t legitimized for 4 more years. When, in 1964, Dunham married the non-American, LOLO SOETORO. Barry was adopted. And, America’s adoption rules favor “cleaning up the record” for adopted children. So that LOLO got written in as the real dad. And, Barry’s first birth certificate was replaced, legally, with this new paperwork.

    Alas, when Barry turned 19, his “mom and dad” divorced. Unfortunately, you can’t “divorce” a parent registered, legally, on your birth certificate.

    So far? Barry Soetoro is the REAL NAME. Yet, Chief Justice Roberts did not use it when he had Barry swear the oath. Now we also know there’s other missing paperwork. School transcripts. Etc. Lying propaganda artists. THIS REQUIRES MORE COWBELL.

  14. mds123 says:

    van will not be fired

    I can assure you that he will be gone (soon). Whether he gets fired or resigns is immaterial. Quite a few of the people Obama rewarded with positions like this one are also going to be leaving over the next six months or so.

  15. People are finding new stuff on this guy every day. The #3 network in all of cable will have material for weeks. I say leave him in his phony, no-oversight office until Obama’s approval rating is lower than Pelosi’s.

  16. Where are the Republicans? Isn’t it possible that they could put forward a motion to have him testify before some kind of Congressional committee under oath, have it defeated in a party line vote by the Democrats, and then stand back and say they actually tried to do something? Too much trouble I guess. They’re just hoping they can come back to power without having to have any policy positions to support that might actually get the press engaged.

  17. Perhaps the media doesn’t cover Van Jones’ belief in a 9/11 conspiracy theory because they themselves believe a 9/11 conspiracy theory.

    It’s the only explanation that makes sense. Every newsroom but Fox is packed with crazy Truthers, making Van Jones’ Trutherism a non-story.

    It’s also final proof, if any were needed, that Fox News, flawed as it is, is the only source of news on the air.

  18. Remember Cheney being caught by the mic calling Adam Clymer an a-hole.

    That was Bush, actually. Cheney’s response was, “Oh, yeah. Big time.”

    No, Cheney’s “hate speech” moment was when he told Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor to go f*** himself.

    Which, I have no problem with saying that to Leahy or any other Senator. Better they do that to themselves than to the rest of us.

  19. The issue is (as with his transcripts) what he’s spending so much on legal fees to hide.

    I think it’s the fact that his real full first name is “Bartholomew.”

  20. – That was Bush, actually. Cheney’s response was, “Oh, yeah. Big time.”

    Right on. I remembered both of those as being Cheney for some reason. Thanks for the correction.

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