Van Jones Resigns; Who Will They Go After Next?

The right wing got its man. Green czar Van Jones has resigned from the Obama administration.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”

He continued: “I have been inundated with calls — from across the political spectrum — urging me to ‘stay and fight.’ But I came here to …

Tim Rutten: We’re Teaching Kids Paranoia By Boycotting Pres Speech

Tim Rutten in the LA Times (right), explains how the calls to boycott President Obama’s education speech teaches our kids a disturbing lesson.

According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Obama will “challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.”

... Read more »

 …

Wheelchair-Bound Woman, Shouted Down At Health Meeting, Speaks

Marianne Hoynes is the woman who was shouted down during a health care town hall in Red Bank, New Jersey conducted by Congressman Frank Pallone.  Here she tells David Shuster and Alex Witt what that event was like for her. (via Crooks and Liars)

Hoynes: There was a large group of people who showed up that night for the purpose of making sure that questions couldn’t be asked, and we couldn’t hear information. I don’t know how to describe it any other way.

… You know, you could tell that they were very organized. They came in …

The Friday Night Free-For-All

…

On Friday’s Radio Show…

• Alan asks Oklahoma State Sen. Steve Russell why he believes that Obama’s speech to schoolchildren is “something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.”

• More Americans are overweight than ever before, so why does anti-fat rhetoric seem nastier than ever? Alan discusses this weighty issue with National Action Against Obesity founder MeMe Roth.

• It’s the Friday Night Free-For-All!…

Alberto Gonzales Backs Off Implication He Endorses Torture Investigation

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served in the Bush 43 administration, showed support in a Washington Times interview for current Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate torture.  Gonzales gave a second interview to the Washington Times to “clarify” what he said during the first interview. In the first encounter, he said it was “legitimate to question and examine” charges of CIA abuses.

“Contrary to press reporting and based on the information that’s available to me,” Mr. Gonzales said during an interview Thursday with The Washington Times, “I don’t support the investigation by the department because this is a …

Florida GOP Chair: “Pied Piper Obama” In Classroom “Usurp[s] Our rights”

Ellis Henican reminds me that the most insane reaction to President Obama’s upcoming speech to schoolchildren came courtesy of Florida GOP Chair Jim Greer. Greer put out a press release in advance of the talk that might encourage some parents to lock the doors and spend the opening day of school in a basement fallout shelter.

“As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology. The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run …

Ted Kennedy: No Affair With Mary Jo, But Actions “Inexcusable”

It’s a shame that Ted Kennedy is gone, for all the obvious reasons. In addition, I’d love to know what he’d say about revelations in his soon-to-released memoir.  For one thing, he says he never had an affair with Mary Jo Kopechne, and that he never got over the despair he felt about her 1969 death.

He acknowledged that he enjoyed women and drink – sometimes too much so – but said reports of wild Kennedy excesses were exaggerated. He said he always has accepted the conclusion that a lone assassin killed his brother John and that Kennedy …

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

• “Indoctrinating”?!? Alan responds to right-wing hysteria over President Obama’s upcoming speech to students.

• Can you have a life without fear? Author Max Lucado explains how in a discussion about his latest book, Fearless.

• Madness! Alan examines the latest insanity in the battle over health care reform.…

OMG! Obama Is Going To Talk To Our Kids!

Conservatives are going nuts with fear that Obama is going to indoctrinate young children when he speaks next week about the importance of education and staying in school.  Family Research Council President Tony Perkins falsely claims that Obama has done nothing on education.   Michelle Malkin alarms with,  “the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda.” And my beloved sister-in-law, Monica Crowley, said last night on O’Reilly’s show (guest-hosted by Laura Ingraham) that “just when you think this administration can’t get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they …

Curt Schilling’s Crediential To Run For Senate: “No Baggage”

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says he’s weighing a run for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Schlling was a supporter of George W. Bush and John McCain, so my crystal ball tells me he’d run as a Republican.  Schilling was asked on radio just what his qualifications are.

Said Schilling: “It’s a legitimate question, and a question everyone would ask. My credentials are that I have no baggage. I have no special interests and I have no ties.”

It’s almost as if he’s baiting political reporters like Gary Hart did when he asked them to “follow me around.”…