On this day in 1994: Cessna crashes in White House front yard

Start:	Sep 12, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

Ominous?

One Less "Communist" In Obama's Ear...

Comrade Van Jones Resigns...

In a letter released just after midnight Saturday, Van Jones, President Obama's Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality resigned.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones wrote. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Jones said that he had "been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to "stay and fight. But I came here to fight for others, not for myself.  I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past.  We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."

A best-selling author who has been heralded as an innovative thinker in the "green jobs" movement, Jones had come under fire from conservative media and lawmakers for past statements for which he apologized Thursday. 

The tipping point for the White House appeared to be Jones' admission earlier this week that he had signed a petition in 2004 calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into "evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur."

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of "the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

But after that admission, asked if Jones enjoyed the confidence of the president, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would only say on Fridat that Jones "continues to work in this administration."

A former civil rights activist in the San Francisco area, Jones told the East Bay Express in 2005 that the acquittal of Rodney King's assailants in 1992 in that infamous police brutality case changed him significantly.

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."

Jones and other young activists in 1994 formed a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, rooted in Marxism and Leninsm. Two years later, Jones launched the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland, Calif., based "strategy and action center" which states that it tries to "promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration."

It was many of the associations formed around this time that served as fodder for conservative critics. In a New Yorker profile of Jones from earlier this year, Jones described his modus operandi as “traditional activism, the politics of confrontation and outrage. I was proud to be hated by the city fathers on both sides of the Bay.”

Over time, Jones focused instead as environmental jobs as a way to lift struggling communities out of poverty, work for which he's been praised as an innovator. Former Vice President Gore told the New Yorker: “I love Van Jones. I love his work. I love his heart and his commitment and his intellect. I love his mission. He has wisely picked a part of this set of interwoven challenges that should have been addressed much more forcefully by me and others long ago.”

But even as Jones lowered his profile in his new position as President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar," critics questioned comments he'd made in his previous incarnation as an activist and advocate for poor and minority communities. What seemed to hurt Jones the most politically, however, was the discovery of his name on the 9/11 "Truther" petition, which suggested President Bush or those in his administration at the very least allowed 9/11 to happen so as to launch wars for oil.

Having expended much time and energy discrediting conservative conspiracy theorists alleging (despite all evidence) that the President was not born in the U.S., and the non-existent "death panels," White House officials found it difficult to justify a top adviser who had associated with similarly fringe sentiments from the Left.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference, said on Friday that given "recent revelations concerning the associations and statements of the president's green jobs czar, Van Jones should resign his position and if he is unwilling to do so, the president should demand his resignation. His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this Administration or the public debate."

Republicans made it clear that they intended to use Jones as Exhibit A in a political prosecution that the Obama Administration has too many "czars" -- unconfirmed by the Senate, with too much power.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., ranking Republican on the Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, called for a hearing probing Jones' fitness for the job. 

Jones, Bond said, "is responsible for directing administration policy and spending on tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding regarding environmental policy and green jobs programs.  However, since the White House appointed him as a 'czar,' Mr. Jones was able to avoid any oversight or confirmation by the U.S. Senate."

Bond said he was alarmed by Jones' name on the 9/11 "Truther" petition. "Jones in hindsight is embarrassed by the public disclosure of his participation in the petition drive and now asserts he did not read the fine print of the petition," the senator said. "But can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?”

White House Reveals Obama is Bipolar, Has Entered Depressive Phase

The Onion News Network has a story that might put today's somewhat contradictory financial news (the reappointment of Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman and the announcement of a projected 2-trillion dollar increase to the 10-year deficit) into perspective: President Obama is bipolar and has entered his depressive phase.

"After a three-year period of extreme productivity and positivity, (the president) has now entered a deep depression," said a White House spokesman.

When asked a press conference about the recent deficit projections, a despondent Obama reportedly gripped his forehead and said, "Why would you ask that?"



White House Reveals Obama Is Bipolar, Has Entered Depressive Phase

Obama Considering Nuclear Option!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration is looking hard at pushing through a health care reform bill without Republican backing, top Democrats close to the White House told CNN.

Democrats say Republicans, particularly Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, aren't serious about striking a deal.

The Democratic majority in the Senate has been stymied in the health care debate by Republicans and conservative Democrats, leaving them short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof margin needed to pass the bill.

Democratic success could depend on an obscure tactic called reconciliation, a type of budget maneuver that requires only a simple majority -- 51 votes -- to pass.

Congressional Democrats authorized the maneuver specifically for health care reform legislation during the debate over the 2010 budget, which passed in April.

One top Senate Republican warned at the time that using reconciliation to pass such a measure would be "like a declaration of war."

Going it alone could be risky for Democrats, not because they couldn't raise the votes, but because Republicans could cast it as a power play, accusing them of failing to win bipartisan support. A Quinnipiac University survey released two weeks ago showed that 59 percent of registered voters nationwide oppose passage of health care legislation if the bill fails to win bipartisan support.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted Wednesday that President Obama has not yet given up hope for a bipartisan plan.

"The president has said countless times he will work with anybody and everybody who wants to work constructively on health care reform," Gibbs said. "We continue to be hopeful that we can get bipartisan support, and we'll continue to work with those that are interested in doing that."

But moving ahead on a more partisan basis might ultimately be a strategy Democrats are willing to employ.

"If we have to push it through this way, no one is going to remember how messy it was," a top White House adviser told CNN. "At the end of the day, they'll remember we got health care reform done. A win is a win."

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White House officials are beginning to lay the groundwork for such a move, telling CNN that they'll have to take drastic measures if there's no movement.

Sources from the administration and the Democratic side of Capitol Hill have told CNN that they're becoming increasingly convinced that Republicans -- particularly Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley -- involved in the negotiating process aren't serious about striking a deal.

Grassley is one of six members of the Senate Finance Committee -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- negotiating the only bipartisan health care legislation so far.

The six negotiators are not considering a government-funded public health insurance option favored by Obama and Democratic leaders but are looking at nonprofit cooperatives that would negotiate collective polices for members.

Grassley warned at a weekend town hall meeting that the months of negotiations may fail to produce a bill he can support.

"I've said all year that something as big and important as health care legislation should have broad-based support," Grassley said Wednesday. "So far, no one has developed that kind of support, either in Congress or at the White House. That doesn't mean we should quit. It means we should keep working until we can put something together that gets that widespread support."

Gibbs said there are "Republicans on the Finance Committee and others that we believe are working in a constructive way to get reform through the Senate and ultimately to (the president's) desk."

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, also insisted in a statement Wednesday that "bipartisan progress continues. The (committee) is on track to reach a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive health care reform that can pass the Senate."

If Democrats choose to go it alone, the public health insurance option is likely to be back on the table because there would be no need to win the votes of Republicans or conservative Democrats. But it would be a change in tactics after the White House appeared to shift its stance on the issue over the weekend.

On Saturday, Obama said the "public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform."

Then on Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said a public option is "not an essential element" of overhauling the health care system.

Their comments were interpreted in media reports as a softening of the administration's support for the public insurance option.

However, Sebelius denied Tuesday that anything had changed in Obama's policy.

"Here's the bottom line: Absolutely nothing has changed," she said at a Medicare conference. "We continue to support the public option. That will help lower costs, give American consumers more choice and keep private insurers honest. If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals, we'll look at those, too. But the public option is a very good way to do this."

Gibbs said Obama and Sebelius have consistently called for making health insurance affordable to all in a competitive market, and that they think a public option is the best way to do so, but were open to other ideas.

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Now, will conservative Democrats get on board is the REAL question.