Lucid Links (090809, Morning)

From the Cry Me a River Dept. at the San Fran Chronicle comes a noteworthy assertion (bold is mine):

The middle-of-the-night resignation Sunday of longtime Bay Area activist Van Jones as a White House environmental adviser left many progressives angry at the Obama administration for buckling to conservative criticism of Jones’ controversial past comments and actions.

…. Supporters say the administration surely knew his background when they appointed Jones, the first African American to write a best-selling environmental book, as special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In fact, agents interviewed at least one of his former supervisors in San Francisco – Eva Paterson – when the FBI vetted his appointment.

…. “He was swift-boated,” said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink and a San Franciscan who has known Jones for 15 years. She spoke to him recently and said he was “very conflicted” about whether to resign.

Of course, “the administration” knew. Valerie Jarrett knew. Michelle Obama and Joe Biden knew (“Jones’ selection also was propelled by powerful patrons, who included the first lady and the vice president”; HT RipClawe at Narbosa.com). The presumption has to be that Barack Obama knew.

Oh, and here’s a memo to Old Medea Benjamin, who along with the Old Media Establishment couldn’t prevent the American military victory in Iraq under George W. Bush: Thanks for demonstrating once again that the real definition of “swift-boating” is “telling the truth about liberals and far-leftists.”

And in case you missed it over the weekend, Van Jones said that we deserved the 9/11 attacks (“It’s the bombs that the government has been dropping around the world that are now blowing up inside the U.S. borders.”) — on 9/12/2001.

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Oh, do you remember that 7-page, 63-item questionnaire all Obama appointees were supposed to have completed as part of the vetting process? Van Jones didn’t do one. Note that the FBI interviewed at least one person in connection with vetting Jones. This would indicate that the FBI did their normal investigative thing with Jones.

One of the purposes of such an investigation is to ensure that people, even in entry-level jobs, as noted here, are “reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and of complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States.”

As if even needed, this is more evidence that Valerie Jarrett, Joe Biden, and Michelle Obama knew. The presumption has to be that Barack Obama knew about Van Jones, and from all appearances was, and still is, okey-dokey with him. The only reason he had to go is that he was getting in the way.

Yes, I’m repeating the following sentence …. In case you missed it over the weekend, Van Jones said that we deserved the 9/11 attacks (“The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City”) – on 9/12/2001.

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Michelle Malkin has done a review of the latest czar model, Ron Bloom.

Bloom has “no actual, specialized experience in manufacturing,” but does have experience “running struggling companies into the ground and exploiting their workers.”

Tom Maguire has much more — He wonders whether “Mr. Bloom is interested in promoting manufacturing jobs, or unionized manufacturing jobs.” I don’t.

We’re in the very best of hands (/sarc).

What’s also weird about all of this is that Bloom appointment was known two weeks ago, yet the Cincinnati Enquirer treated Obama’s announcement of the appointment at a Labor Day labor union picnic on Friday as if it were some kind of noteworthy “breaking” news.

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Can’t believe it, and can’t make it up — “Read the bill? It might not help.” Money quote: “But reading actual legislative text is often the least productive way to learn what’s actually in a bill.”

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Meanwhile, in the Fannie Mae debacle …. (brace yourself) …. taxpayers are paying the legal bills of looting executives like Frank Raines.