Damn.
Van Jones.
I like Van Jones. He’s smart, funny, and I like his politics.
(He’s also — and I hesitate to say this but it’s my blog so what the hell — amazingly good-looking. Normally I don’t focus on politicians’ physical attributes, much less write blog posts on the subject. But Van Jones is so strikingly handsome that every time I see a picture of the guy, it brings me up short. That is one gorgeous man.)
At any rate, Van Jones is the kind of person we need more of in Washington. I wish Obama’s White House was full of radical leftists and former Marxists and hardcore environmentalists. And feminists. Those videos and quotes that the wingnuts haul out as evidence that Jones is Satan? I think they’re great. They make me like the guy even more. This, for instance, is hilarious:
It’s also true.
Did Van Jones occasionally go overboard with some things, like the truther business? Maybe; I don’t know the details. But I’d rather have somebody err in a leftward direction than the other way. Personally, I’m offended that the chief economic adviser in this country is a sexist asshat who abused his position to promote junk voodoo-science about women’s intellectual limitations. It’s infuriating that a misogynist like that is in charge of anything more complex than cleaning toilets at Reagan National. If Obama is going to start purging his administration of kooks, let’s start with Larry Summers.
But of course that won’t happen. We’re talking about Obama: corporatist enabler, right-wing appeaser, and professional milquetoast. No wonder Van Jones had to go.
Jane Hamsher is calling this “a moment of truth” for the liberal establishment:
If these groups, if these liberal leaders, let Jones just hang there while Glenn Beck pounds his chest and celebrates the scalp, we have no liberal institutions. What we have are a bunch of neoliberal enablers who have found a nice comfortable place in the DC establishment that they don’t want to jeopardize, and place on the new K-Street gravy train that they don’t want to lose. Dropping Van Jones from their rolodex is a small price to pay.
Okay, Jane? Train, station.
37 Responses to “Damn.”
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Gayle says:
“Did Van Jones occasionally go overboard with some things, like the truther business?”
I’m pretty sure if someone scoured that petition, they’d find my name on it. It requested an investigation to find out if any government official had any prior information about the attack.
It’s not like we’ve never had any precedent in his country. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin?
We’re talking about Dick Cheney’s gang here. Could they have known something was about to happen and, maybe, let it happen to advance their own war plan? Hell yes, it’s possible. 9/11 made all their war dreams come true.
The petition didn’t insist anyone did know anything, btw. It just requested a real independent investigation, not that ridiculous show we had with Bush appointed pols. Maybe a real investigation would have come up with nothing at all, we’ll never know for sure.
I still think it’s appalling we never had one.
Jones was defeated by Glenn Beck, for christsake! Glenn Beck, who is now vindicated. He’s already compiling his list of who to go after next. Nice work defending your people Obama Administration! Why don’t you just invite Beck into the White House so he can start firing people personally.
And people still think Obama is going to fight for them? They’re delusional.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pm EST -
bluelyon says:
Jane’s post jogged my memory. I’ve actually seen Van Jones speak in person. Here’s the transcript. Yep, we need more like him.
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Violet says:
Yeah, if all he did was sign this petition, then so what? Lots of people did. Very prominent people.
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bluelyon says:
46. Van Jones, executive director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
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SHV says:
Ummmm…Were was Jane during the primary when her opinion would have mattered??? Pushing her way to the front of the line with her knee pads on and then crying because she didn’t see any money after the election.
Obama and his Obots did a good job of covering up Obama’s record but there was enough information for a person with research skills, like Jane Hampsher, to know that he was a fraud.
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Little Isis says:
Sing it, Violet. You always tell it like it is.
Um, and by the way, I also think Van Jones is totally hawt. I would never be able to stop myself from saying that either.
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Violet says:
I’m looking at the coverage of this thing on Memeorandum, and it’s mind-boggling. The wingnuts are saying Van Jones is a racist. A racist! Apparently objecting to the racism of white people makes one a racist. Because it’s unfair to white racists I guess. I mean, right. We wouldn’t want to impute racism to white racists because that would be…racist. Jesus.
I guess the Sotomayor thing was a trial run, and now this is going to be SOP.
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Carolyn says:
I just read Hamsher’s post and I guess the only comment I have about this is that if anyone in the MSM has even covered this whole issue of czar’s being put in place that were not being vetted, then it might not have been such a big shock to find out that there might be stuff in their past that disqualifies them from being in a “cabinet” type position. This whole thing of appointing czars has been done precisely to avoid the confirmation process, and it raises some serious questions about who is running this government.
Since no one was vetting them, or even covering the story when Beck was looking into their background, it must come as a total shock to those on the left that there is even a problem. I would love to know if they were subjected to FBI background checks and if they have security clearances, and how their positions are funded.
Where does the money for their salaries come from? We have a whole layer of advisors who have direct and significant influence of the president of the united states that we know nothing about. Obama has set up almost a shadow government, and the american people have a right to be concerned about it.
To blaim Glen Beck for bringing this information to the attention of the people is kind of off the mark in my opinion. Maybe those upset with this outcome should direct their outrage towards the NYTimes or WAPO of, god forbid, MSNBC for not doing their jobs. Why should people have to go to fox news to learn about the people surrounding the president? You wouldn’t expect our president, with his questionable associations in the past to deviate dramatically in his choice of compadres today would you?
The surprise should be that no one thought these czars should have to be vetted…and to act outraged and surprised now at what is out there is really ridiculous. Obama and friends knew all this stuff about him already, and it is more than just calling repubs a naughty word, or that he may have been a communist as a child. They also counted on a subservient press not to inform the people.
Hamsher has a right to be pissed that the man got no support from the left, but she also needs to realize that the deception occurred much earlier. What looks like wimpiness now is just an “oops, we got caught”…
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Violet says:
To blaim Glen Beck for bringing this information to the attention of the people is kind of off the mark in my opinion. Maybe those upset with this outcome should direct their outrage towards the NYTimes or WAPO of, god forbid, MSNBC for not doing their jobs. Why should people have to go to fox news to learn about the people surrounding the president?
But there’s nothing wrong with Van Jones. He’s a good guy, and a strong leftist. The Obamas know all about him. He has nothing to be ashamed of.
Glenn Beck hasn’t done a public service. He’s organized a lynch mob by spreading crazy distorted rumors and smears. He’s a fucking menace.
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july4cat says:
“Jones was defeated by Glenn Beck”
Unbelievable, isn’t it? But this has been the theme of American politics for the last two decades. For some reason, it seems that the so-called ‘progressives’ living in our present day culture are genetically incapable of learning to fight. They run off whenever the other side launches an attack, and then find great pleasure in their shrinking territory by mocking the few who actually stand up and fight. Now they are complaining about being marginalized? Well, too bad. You cannot win a fight unless you are willing to fight it. An inconvenient truth.
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sister of ye says:
It seems odd to me that someone of Jones’ caliber got into the Obama administration in the first place. Perhaps Obama figured that Jones was an Ayers kind of radical - playing at being a revolutionary while young, then going back to his privileged status, pushing condescending “solutions” on poor people that he (not so) secretly disdains.
I have my own qualms about the whole “czar” concept, and had them when Republicans did it. I mean, it’s not like Obama couldn’t get his picks thru this Congress.
But standing up for accountability wasn’t Beck’s intent - it was shooting down one of the few people in the Obama admin intent on doing something useful for working and middle class Americans.
Just because a stopped clock is right twice a day doesn’t mean it isn’t broken, and ugly to boot.
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Carolyn says:
Jones was defeated by his own words. If this administration had wanted to win this fight, they would have been out in front of this story and have built a narrative that explained the man’s background, beliefs and any controversial information that would come to light if anyone took the time to do basic research, and not act surprised at the you tubes now floating around.
The only explanation I have read that makes sense is that nothing he has said or done seems controversial to friends of O. I guess they really didn’t think anyone would check the czar’s out, or they thought that they would not be controversial. I guess that’s why they were appointed to positions that were confirmation free…no scrutiny required, they hoped.
Whether Beck has done a public service is not the issue. He has put information in front of the people that no other news organization was willing to report, and it is information that the american people have a right to know about the people advising the president. Period.
Too bad Keith Olbermann didn’t feel it worthy of comment…or Arianna…as I am sure they could have done it oh so delicately, just like they told us all we needed to know about this president, prior to the election, but for them to act outraged that it is being reported at all is ridiculous. The press works for us, not the president. In theory…
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Violet says:
Jones was defeated by his own words.
What words?
Saying that Republicans in Congress have acted like assholes? For heaven’s sake, that’s hardly even worth a blip on the radar. When Dick Cheney is telling people to fuck themselves on Capitol Hill, and Rahm Emmaneul is routinely calling people “fucking stupid,” I think “asshole” is about as incendiary as a Dennis the Menace cartoon.
Jokingly referring to Bush II as a crackhead addicted to oil? Not exactly earth-shattering, since Bush himself referred to our “oil addiction” and the New York Times called President Bush the “addict in chief.”
Recounting the history of the environmentalist movement, which at one stage saw lily-white environmentalists and polluters effectively channeling pollution to poor black areas and the global south? That’s just history (decades-old history, in fact), which anyone with even passing knowledge of the environmental movement knows about.
Referring to the differences between youthful black and youthful white violence — the one routine and frequent, the other infrequent but explosive — and exploring compassionately the way young suburban white men are ignored and frustrated until they erupt like volcanoes? What is even the problem there?
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sister of ye says:
Oh, pooh! Beck gets no kudos for “bringing information forward.” Why didn’t he push the info about tax cheat Timothy Geithner? The misogyny of Larry Summers? Hell, why didn’t Beck bring forward that these two assholes (and others in the Obama admin) helped engineer the financial crisis that now they’re supposedly fixing?
The fact is that the rob-from-the-poor-to-give-to-the-rich economy suits Beck and his media cronies just fine. They only conveniently do their jobs to bring down someone who might shake up the status quo. That’s why Eliot Spitzer was driven from office for patronizing prostitutes, while that “family values” hypocrite Sanford is allowed to hang on.
Obama didn’t defend Jones because he doesn’t actually want anyone around who might threaten the interests who backed him.
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myiq2xu says:
We live in a world where “liberal” is a dirty word and radical leftists are treated as kooks and criminals.
The Republicans cater to their base while the Democrats shun theirs. We’re just an election year booty call.
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paper doll says:
This scalp collecting will continue until the Dems fight the Repugs, and not only their own base. I ain’t holding my breathe
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JeanLouise says:
Spitzer committed a crime. Sanford committed adultery. There is a difference.
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yttik says:
It is the left that is handing Beck his power. There’s no such thing as bad press and ever since people tried to silence Beck and pull his advertisers, he’s gained legitimacy and viewers. They are creating a martyr whose following and power has now grown.
Hillary would have known this and she would have actually led, steered people away from Beck and onto universal single payer health care. She also would not have been so stupid as to give a speech to public schools the day before the big speech on health care. She would have known that “indoctrinating” kids at “liberal” public schools is another right wing button you don’t want to pointlessly push simply for the gratification of your own ego. Especially on the eve of your big bipartisan, kumbaya, just trust me speech.
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quixote says:
Asking Republicans uncomfortable questions? Firing offense.
Trashing women? . . . What are these things, these “women,” whereof you speak?
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Swannie says:
here we are talking about this MAN
http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....2605.story
Reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Nairobi, Kenya - A Sudanese woman was convicted today of public indecency for wearing pants at an outdoor cafe and jailed for one month when she refused to pay a fine.
The case has stirred international outrage and spawned protests in Sudan over the Islamic-dominated government’s treatment of women.
Lubna Hussein, a journalist and former U.N. staffer based in Khartoum, the capital, could have received 40 lashes with a plastic whip under Sudan’s criminal code, which is based largely on Islamic Sharia law.
Instead, a judge ordered Hussein — who stood before the court in the same pair of pants that she wore when arrested — to pay a $200 fine. Hussein said she would refuse to pay, and was taken to a women’s prison to serve a one-month sentence.
I would have paid one of the fines for on of the other ten women who WERE flogged ….
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propertius says:
Violet asks: “What words?”
That’s a good question - personally, I think it’s a given that the last Administration was negligent in the run-up to 9/11. I think it’s also pretty obvious that they exploited the attack for political purposes. Suggesting they were somehow complicit in the attacks is patently absurd - those clowns (no offense, Myiq) couldn’t plan their way out of a wet paper bag, much less coordinate a false-flag terrorist operation - but a lot of people said and thought some pretty absurd things in the aftermath of 9/11. Some, for example, even thought President Cheney could be trusted not to abuse the Patriot Act.
Having said that, anyone with any sense at all should have realized that even the slightest flirtation with Marxism is the utter kiss of death for anyone on the Left in the United States. Spending a decade as a self-professed “revolutionary communist”, only to experience a sudden conversion to “eco-capitalism” four years ago ought to have raised at least a couple of eyebrows during any pre-appointment vetting process. Mr. Jones is obviously a very bright and accomplished man, and it’s a damned shame that political realities prevent him from applying his talents to government service. Am I sorry to see a blowhard like Beck win one? Of course, but it was Obama who gave him the ammunition to do it. I can’t believe Axelrod and Emmanuel let it slip by in the first place.
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Nina M. says:
I didn’t exactly scour the internet, but in the small amount of time I allotted to this task I didn’t find the text of the petition Jones signed. I would like to see the wording, though it wouldn’t change my opinion of the man (which is, if Violet likes him, I’d probably like him too).
My gut feeling is that he signed it for any one of the following reasons - (1) the text demanded a full investigation into security lapses etc leading to 9/11 (any partisan would support this as a way to distract and weaken the administration); (2) the text led with that ask, and the global conspiracy stuff was tacked on less conspicuously (bit of a bait and switch); (3) the text called for both, but Jones didn’t care because he was signing anything and everything anti-Bush at the time; or (4) he doesn’t read everything he signs (I can easily imagine some eager young person with a clipboard approaching him outside the Whole Foods, saying “sign a petition to investigate the Bush administration?” and then they cock their heads, puppy-style, looking at you with those I’ll-stand-in-the-sun-outside-of-Whole-Foods-all-day-if-i-have-to-because-i-CARE- about-this-so-much eyes, and before you know it, you’re signing the damn petition just to keep the kid from getting jaded too soon about the people-who-live-around-here-who-don’t-CARE-about-anything-important-they-just-want-to-shop-at-the-Whole Foods). And next thing you know, Glenn Beck is screaming in horror and rage, so much so that he alone could carry the sequel to the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and you know there’s going to be one, eventually), playing any - or all - of the lead roles.
Obama sure dumped this guy like a nuclear potato. I mean, who *cares* about a petition from 2006 - Jones could have just made a statement like “the person told me it said x, not y, I didn’t read it, and I made a mistake, this is not what i believe, end of discussion.” It almost feels like the petition thing is an excuse to get rid of him. Like, as if someone from the WH leaked this tidbit as a way to set up dumping him.
I heard somebody say (or, possibly, I dreamed) that Obama dumping Jones is meant to send a warning to the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party(TM), by axing one of their own. Or perhaps he construes it as a punishment for the PWDP getting too fussy over health care. Everyone with an admin job is there as a ‘favor’ to someone — or rather, there are individuals and groups behind every appointee who claim that they themselves are the reason that person was appointed — so perhaps Obama was taking back the favor from a specific group, symbolically icing them out. I wonder what constituency claims Jones.
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Nina M. says:
@ sister of ye
That’s why Eliot Spitzer was driven from office for patronizing prostitutes, while that “family values” hypocrite Sanford is allowed to hang on.
Eliot Spitzer was driven from office by Eliot Spitzer. He is the reason he had to resign, because he couldn’t behave like a responsible adult. I don’t know what the process would be to remove him, but he was at least astute enough to know he should get out of the spotlight, if only to hasten his comeback bid.
Gov. Sanford is the reason he should be driven from office. He hasn’t been, for a variety of reasons, all of them bad. Gov. Sanford is much more like Gov. Blago, in that he’s completely lost the thread. Any normal person would get out of dodge, but Sanford just stays there, thinking it will all go away. He’s living in his private fantasy world - or maybe just disassociating. Either way, the man is one mutton short of a chop, if you know what I mean.
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Adrienne in CA says:
Obama didn’t defend Jones because he doesn’t actually want anyone around who might threaten the interests who backed him.
Precisely. Jones is no leftist poseur. He actually wants “an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.” Can you imagine anything farther removed from Obama’s plans? Abandoning Jones sends the clear message to Big Energy that they can count on the same white glove treatment that Insurance/Pharma are getting. Way to play hard to get, BO(bend over)-in-Chief.
*****A
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Violet says:
Nina, click the link in my comment #3 above. That takes you to the petition and the list of signatories. A lot of people signed it, including historians and politicians and public figures.
Having said that, anyone with any sense at all should have realized that even the slightest flirtation with Marxism is the utter kiss of death for anyone on the Left in the United States. Spending a decade as a self-professed “revolutionary communist”, only to experience a sudden conversion to “eco-capitalism” four years ago ought to have raised at least a couple of eyebrows during any pre-appointment vetting process.
I used to be married to a Marxist who later became an attorney. It happens. Jones just decided to work more within the system.
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madaha says:
“We’re just an election year booty call.”
that’s how I feel exactly! Used and cast aside. devalued, disrespected. “I’ll call you”, he said. “But I thought we had a connection!”, we said when he didn’t call.
How pathetic this has turned out to be. Well, as The Who said, we won’t get fooled again. I’m not voting again unless there’s a viable third party. I wanted to vote Green, but nothing materialized. Never again will I vote reluctantly.
and Violet, yes, that picture is very gorgeous.
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propertius says:
“I used to be married to a Marxist who later became an attorney. It happens. Jones just decided to work more within the system.”
But was your ex a high-level Democratic political appointee? Ex-Marxists have been political poison to Democrats since Alger Hiss. It’s naive (or arrogant) to make an appointment like that and assume that you won’t be unleashing the Republican attack machine. Either that, or it’s a deliberate attempt to shuffle off the blame for gutting the small-p progressive agenda in order to appease the Corporate Powers That Be.
Sell out the poor dumb bastards who voted for you, and then point to Beck & Co. as the reason you didn’t accomplish anything (in spite of majorities in both houses of Congress).
I can hear it now:
“I’d love to have reregulated the financial system, but you *saw* what Glenn Beck did to Van Jones.”
“I really wanted single-payer, but you *saw* what Glenn Beck did to Van Jones.”
“Of course I want to close Guantanamo and end torture, but you *saw* what Glenn Beck did to Van Jones.”
“I know I promised to create Green jobs, but…”
etc., etc., etc.
It’ll be the all-purpose excuse from now until 2016 (and no, I don’t think we’ll be rid of the Weasel-in-Chief until then).
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Violet says:
It’s naive (or arrogant) to make an appointment like that and assume that you won’t be unleashing the Republican attack machine. Either that, or it’s a deliberate attempt to shuffle off the blame for gutting the small-p progressive agenda in order to appease the Corporate Powers That Be.
I agree, and I think it’s an interesting question.
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gxm17 says:
Holy crap. That’s what this whole brouhaha is about? (I dropped off the face of the earth for a few days and I’m just catching up.) Jones signed a freakin’ “truther” petition… Hence he’s a loose cannon? I dunno, my idea of a loose cannon is not a petition signer, it’s someone who starts a war based on a “rumor” that a country has (ultimately proved non-existent) WMDs. Geez, someone needs to call these right wingers out for the looney tune, babel-rousing destroyers of democracy that they are.
And I am beyond stunned that Obama, day by day, proves to be worse than I ever imagined. Hell, he’s worse than Bush. He doesn’t even pretend to give a shit about the people who put him into office. What a complete disaster!
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orlando says:
I think propertius may be onto something. Was Jones put in place as a likely sacrificial lamb? When I think about what it took before we saw the back of Rumsfeld, this all looks like a farce.
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madaha says:
Violet, as to the question, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say O knows EXACTLY what he’s doing.
He’s a corporate shill. Occam’s razor.
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gxm17 says:
That is a great point, propertius. Consistently Obama tries to use Republicans as cover for his own corporatist agenda. I’m hopeful that most people (fingers crossed) can see right through it.
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yttik says:
“Was Jones put in place as a likely sacrificial lamb?”
I suspect so, but my conspiracy theory goes a bit farther. Ironically one of the complaints against Jones was that he was racist, but the reality was that his distorted quote was actually speaking out in support of young white guys, talking about how they are oppressed and in pain.
If people in this country ever united and let go of the labels that divide us, black, white, Republicans, Dems, all hell would break loose. Nothing scares the government more than a united citizenry. Jones was speaking about poverty issues much like MLK did before he was killed. The powers that be don’t like that, people coming together and realizing their government is robbing them blind and keeping them all trapped in poverty.
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sister of ye says:
Suggesting they were somehow complicit in the attacks is patently absurd - those clowns (no offense, Myiq) couldn’t plan their way out of a wet paper bag, much less coordinate a false-flag terrorist operation
This attitude is precisely why George W. Bush was one of the most successful presidents in this country’s history.
Oh, not successful in bettering America or the world. But that was never his intent. He was smashingly successful in bettering himself and his cronies by looting the U.S. treasury. He managed to mow down the political opposition on everything but gutting Social Security.
I wish I’d made a full list of things the Bush admin did that bloggers or fellow posters dismissed with either “Oh, Bush is too dumb to pull that off” or “Not even Bush would do something so un-American.” Yet time after time - illegal wars, warrentless wiretapping, torture - the facts came out sooner or later.
BTW, I’m not excusing Spitzer’s behavior, just pointing out the selective barking of the media. The Mann Act has a notorious history of being used for political prosecutions. And adultery and fornication are illegal in South Carolina (http://www.scstatehouse.gov/CODE/t16c015.htm, sorry, it’s Labor Day and I’m too lazy to figure out how to link).
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myiq2xu says:
Suggesting they were somehow complicit in the attacks is patently absurd
Complicit - no
But I can believe them being aware of a plot (without knowing the details) and allowing it to proceed, not expecting how bad it turned out to be.
I’m not saying they were aware, just that I could believe that they were. These guys launched a war knowing that Iraq did not have WMD’s.
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emmag says:
gotta say, violet, you are usually spot on, and your humor is truly contagious, but your superb taste in men is what really gets my attention!
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Swannie says:
oops I have ve a comment in moderation ..
