Patterico's Pontifications

9/7/2009

How Does the Obama Administration Screen Appointees? They Don’t

Filed under: Government,Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 7:12 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Earlier today I asked “How Does the Obama Administration Screen Appointees?

This evening Fox News’ Major Garrett gives us the answer — The Administration doesn’t vet the Czars:

“Van Jones, the Obama green jobs czar who resigned shortly after midnight Sunday, did not fill out the exhaustive questionnaire White House officials required of every Cabinet-level secretary and deputy-secretary position.

An administration official said special advisers to the president, or czars, are not required to fill out the questionnaire that runs 7 pages and contains 63 questions.

The entire questionnaire, the official said, is reserved for appointees who must win Senate confirmation.”

At least Brownie was confirmed by the Senate.

The article also quotes a 911Truth.org official who confirms Jones intended to sign their petition, and concludes with this juicy tidbit:

“An administration official said Jones never hid his controversial associations or remarks from the White House.

“It wouldn’t be fair to characterize him as being dishonest or hiding his comments or his positions,” the official said. “It’s just fair to say that he didn’t go through the most rigorous vetting process.”

So the Obama Administration knew about Jones’ beliefs but didn’t care? Or even agreed with him? That’s good to know.

— DRJ

Muslims Convicted in UK Terror Plot

Filed under: International,Terrorism — DRJ @ 5:19 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A London jury has found 3 British Muslims guilty in a retrial involving a terror plot designed to kill 10,000 innocent civilians:

“The al-Qaeda cell plotted to cause mass murder by detonating home-made liquid explosives on board at least seven passenger flights bound for the US and Canada. The plot had the potential to be three times as deadly as the 9/11 attacks of 2001.”

Apparently this plot is what led to the ban on liquids on aircraft, a ban that is still in place. The plot also involved simultaneous flights reminiscent of 9/11:

“When the men were arrested, one of the plotters, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, had a computer memory stick in his pocket which highlighted seven flights from London to six cities in the US and Canada, each carrying between 241 and 286 passengers and crew.

The flights all departed within 2 hours and 35 minutes of each other, to Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington and New York and police believed there would have been no chance of stopping the attacks once all the aircraft were in the air.”

The British believe the plot was within days of being implemented. This case also illustrates how dangerous terrorism can be in the West because many of those involved were home-grown:

“Six of the eight men, most of whom were British-born and university educated and three of whom were converts, had recorded fiery videos that blamed the West for the slaughter of Muslims and promised floods of martyr operations in return.

Security sources have called the investigation the most significant since the Second World War.

Ali, from Walthamstow, east London, was described in court as the leader who was able to identify in other Muslims a kindred spirit or vulnerability while Sarwar, from High Wycombe, Bucks, was the bomb-maker and Hussain the quartermaster, helped to prepare the bombs.

The others were described as foot soldiers ready to respond when the time was right.”

It’s fortunate that Britain disrupted this attack if all it takes is a few men to recruit and lead several disaffected men.

— DRJ

L.A. Times Did Not Report Van Jones’s Trutherism Until He Resigned

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Obama — Patterico @ 12:56 pm



Mickey Kaus notes that the New York Times reported the Van Jones controversy for the first time in an article about Van Jones’s resignation — leaving readers wondering: where did that come from?

The L.A. Times did the same thing.

Jones had all kinds of issues, but what ultimately did him in was his signature on a Truther petition. As Mickey says:

He signed a Truther petition. Bye.

Like readers of the New York Times, readers of the Los Angeles Times were blindsided by the revelations about Jones, including his signing a Truther petititon, which they learned about for the first time in the story reporting his resignation.

A search of the paper’s archives since August 1 reveals exactly one story mentioning Van Jones before his resignation: an August 25 story titled Glenn Beck blasts boycott group’s co-founder. The article focuses on Beck and the boycott and portrays Beck’s criticism as defensive lashing out; the only facts reported about Jones are these:

Beck said Jones was twice arrested for political protests and has described himself as a “rowdy black nationalist.”

That’s it. Readers were told nothing else. As the paper told us in reporting the resignation, until Jones resigned, the firestorm had “raged almost entirely on conservative talk shows and websites.” The revelation about Jones’s Truther leanings came out in the L.A. Times only when he resigned.

Many legitimate news stories are relegated exclusively to conservative media. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t legitimate stories. It just means that you can’t learn everything you need to know by reading traditional Big Media. You have to read conservative media too. You have to read conservative blogs, or you won’t have any idea what’s going on.

You guys know this, but it’s still worth a reminder.

UPDATE: Foo Bar notes that the L.A. Times noted Jones’s problems online, in a Top of the Ticket post here.

Print readers? They were out of luck.

Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame Presenter

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 12:16 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Michael Jordan, the icon of North Carolina basketball, has picked former North Carolina State basketball player David Thompson as his presenter for Friday’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame:

“[Jordan] chose David Thompson. The former NBA high-flyer who had starred at North Carolina … State.

“I got a call from the Hall of Fame and they asked me if I was willing to be a presenter for someone,” Thompson recently told Yahoo! Sports. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know who it was. … They said Michael Jordan. I was like, ‘Wow.’ He told them that he was a big fan of mine and I was the one that really inspired him. Being that there was so many North Carolina people he could’ve chose, I was honored.”

Thompson, nicknamed Skywalker, has been described as “Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan” because of his 48-inch vertical leap and acrobatic dunks.

— DRJ

How Does the Obama Administration Screen Appointees?

Filed under: Government,Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 10:52 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Jim Hoft of GatewayPundit was among the first to raise questions about former Obama Administration Green Jobs Czar Van Jones and he was instrumental in exposing Jones’ inflammatory history. Now he wonders about the Obama Administration’s vetting process:

“If the Obama Administration had actually used [its] template to screen Van Jones his [sic] controversial speeches, his past arrest, and his musical collaborations with cop-killers should have raised a red flag or two with the administration.

Either Team Obama ignored Van Jones’ past– accepted and agreed with his past– or completely misrepresented their vetting process to the American public.

Just how exactly did such a radical hater like Van Jones make it through such an extensive and invasive screening process?”

That’s a good question, not only regarding Van Jones but also regarding all the Obama Administration appointees.

— DRJ

Text of Obama’s Speech to Students

Filed under: Education,Obama — DRJ @ 10:16 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

President Obama has posted the text of tomorrow’s speech to students. His speech is inspirational and has a worthwhile message. I’m sure he will deliver the speech well and I hope the students listen to his message.

I wish President Obama had mentioned the teachers’ responsibility to thoroughly understand and teach their subjects rather than simply saying their job is to inspire students to learn, but admittedly this is a speech about students and not teachers. (Although Ed Morrissey points out you could call it a speech about Obama given how many times he mentions himself.)

I’m sure some liberals will view this as vindication that conservatives were wrong to object to President Obama’s speech. I’m sure some conservatives will view this as proof that public pressure helped stop controversial statements from being included in Obama’s speech. We’ll never know for sure, but hopefully we can agree it’s a good message to tell students they need to work hard and get a good education.

— DRJ

Dumbass Federal Judges Push Release of Criminals Who Are Bunked ALMOST As Tight As Sailors in a Submarine

Filed under: Court Decisions,Crime,General,Morons — Patterico @ 1:45 am



[Editor’s note: if you’re mortally offended by profanity, you might want to skip this post. However, those who are shocked to see the f-word on a blog should be even more shocked to see 40,000 state prisoners unleashed on our state. Consider being shocked by that which is truly shocking. — P]

My wife, God bless her, just had us watch the saddest movie I have ever seen. Tears were streaming down my face and I wasn’t ashamed.

The movie is called “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.” I don’t want to give away anything about the movie, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and a reminder that government has an obligation to protect its citizens from violence, and to remove violent people from the streets. Enough said about that; I don’t want to spoil it for you.

And hey! what do you know? It just so happens that I see this movie when this comes across my computer screen:

A panel of federal judges, accusing California officials of obstruction, on Thursday denied the state’s request to delay an order to produce a plan for reducing its prison population by 40,000 inmates.

I have a message for this panel of federal judges — which the L.A. Times doesn’t say and will never, ever say are all Democrat appointees:

Honorable Lawrence Karlton: fuck you.

Honorable Thelton Henderson: fuck you.

And you, the right Honorable Stephen Reinhardt: fuck you.

People are going to die because of this decision you have made. Don’t pretend they won’t, because they will. Lily Burk died at the hand of a petty thief, you know. I’m told he did something bad a long, long time ago — but he’s just a petty thief now. He’s non-violent. Just like the 40,000 non-violent people you assholes are about to release.

And why are you doing this? Because convicted felons in California aren’t entitled to luxury five-star accommodations. Why, they’re crammed into their cells in conditions almost as cramped as this:

Submarine Bunks 01

and this:

Submarine Bunks 1

and this:

Submarine Bunks

It’s a wonder submarine sailors didn’t kill each other during WWII. You can tell from the grim looks on their faces that they’re about to engage in a bloody race riot.

I’m sorry I’m just a little profane here. But somehow, typing a couple of four-letter words in a blog post doesn’t seem as extreme as writing an order that is going to kill people. So fuck you, dumbass judges. When the first person dies at the hand of one of these criminals you released, I’m going to be here to shove it right up your ass.

And if you’re wondering why I’m angry, go watch the movie I just finished watching, why don’t you, and learn about the real-life consequences of stupid fucking decisions made by stupid liberal judges.

P.S. Once you’ve seen the movie, the phrase “Keystone Cops” will take on a whole new meaning.

UPDATE 9-7-09 11:50 a.m.: A reply to some reactions in the comments.

One commenter says I am threatening the judges. Yes: I am “threatening” to remind the public, after someone dies, that it is these judges’ fault. It should be obvious from the context that I’m not physically threatening them — although it should be obvious that their decision is physically threatening the citizenry of California.

To the commenters who say that the judges are really just doing their job, and that it’s really the legislature’s fault: again, look at the photos of the sailors. Those are the sorts of conditions these judges have declared unconstitutional. The decision by these three liberal hacks was not compelled by the law. It was activism, pure and simple, and it’s going to result in people dying. It’s about time someone got passionate about that — and so, while it’s a little out of character for me to curse, maybe doing so will get people’s attention because it’s out of character.

Finally, one commenter says: “Patrick: As a member of the bar, you should not be cursing judges.” Hey, if they want to bring me up on disciplinary charges for cursing them and their lousy decision, I say: bring it on. That would be a great way to focus a spotlight on what is about to happen to this state. And I would win eventually, because guess what? we still have a First Amendment in this country.

So fuck them.

It’s Monday — Time for a New Obama Czar

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 12:00 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Today’s contestant is Ron Bloom, Manufacturing Czar:

“In Cincinnati tomorrow, President Obama will announce that he’s appointing Ron Bloom his Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy, White House sources tell ABC News.

Bloom is currently Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner as a member of the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, named to that position in February. He will remain in that position even while he takes on his new task.”

Thirty-three weeks. Thirty-three Czars.

— DRJ


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