More of President Obama's Most Partisan Appointments and Czars

In March of this year, Fox News.com published an article about President Obama's eighth czar appointment, stating in effect "eight is enough." Boy, did Fox have another thing coming. Since taking office, President Obama has appointed approximately 34 czars, far outnumbering those appointed by Reagan, Clinton or either President Bush.

But there are plenty of articles about President Obama's czars here at Associated Content. So consider this article more a question of why the President wants to keep adding characters with shady, questionable or very partisan pasts to his stable of czars and other appointees (see my previous two-part article on Obama's most partisan nominations and appointments here and here).

The eighth czar Fox News spoke of wasn't a newly created position, but the appointment of a new Drug czar (we've had them since 1982). Obama's new drug czar is former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske, who did go through Senate approval. However, Kerlikowske is a strong gun control advocate. This thrilled those who favor taking guns away from law-abiding citizens, while making criminals who will still get guns anyway very happy.

The addition of President Obama's choices below has raised even more eyebrows among his detractors for their dubious pasts:

President Obama's new Green Jobs czar, also appointed in March, is Van Jones. Jones has a sparkling environmental record-according to environmentalists. He founded an environmental group called "Green For All," aiming at bringing green jobs to disadvantaged citizens, and wrote a book called "The Green Collar Economy" among many other related accomplishments.

But Jones' past is not so far distant. According to many publications including The East Bay Express, Jones admitted becoming very radical after being arrested during the Rodney King uprising. He says that by 1992 he had met many radical young people...communists and anarchists...and felt like "this is what I need to be a part of..." "...by August of 1992, I was a communist..." "...I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary...". Jones joined an organization called STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement), a group that regularly studied the precepts of Marx and Lenin theories of revolution.

Ten years takes us up to 2002, a mere seven years ago, which can't be as easily ignored as Obama's association with William Ayers, whom leftists claim "hasn't been a revolutionary since the 70's." In March 2000, Jones campaigned against California's Proposition 21, an initiative that increased the penalties for some violent crimes and required more juveniles to be tried as adults.

Somehow, Jones has miraculously renounced his background of extreme learning (as have all of Obama's shady associates). Jones told the East Bay Express in 2005 that it was his former romanticized view of being a revolutionary, but now, "I'm willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends."

Other Obama appointments that blatantly invite questioning:
Although not a "czar" position, President Obama appointed Mark Lloyd as the Federal Communications Commission's Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer. Lloyd is an outspoken proponent of The Fairness Doctrine, a discontinued law that the far left keeps trying to resurrect because they don't think it's fair that conservative talk radio dominates the airwaves.

While he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Lloyd co-wrote a study entitled The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio. In essence, the paper reports that conservative talk unfairly dominates, that equal balance must be forced upon radio stations, and if they don't comply they will be fined. Most liberal talk radio programming has failed for lack of advertisers and listeners, not because of the proliferation of conservative stations. The FCC has so far denied that the Fairness Doctrine would be put back in place. But with someone like Lloyd involved, it's unsure.

Also appointed is Kevin Jennings as Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. "Safe schools" is the label given to schools that will have zero tolerance for bullying. Jennings is a founder of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), an organization that claims its mission as assuring value and respect to all members of school communities. They have played a big part in getting education about homosexuality into the school system. Jennings' activism in the gay community is not objectionable to me...everyone's gotta stand up for what they've gotta stand up for. However, many conservative and moderate organizations have hammered at this appointment as a huge clash of interest when it comes to being objective on behalf of all students...

GLSEN helped create an annual "Day of Silence" in all public schools - silence out of respect for gay students - and offered no comparable day for other students to voice disagreement with the philosophy behind "Day of Silence," whether for religious reasons or simply being against the stripping of their free speech. Although students are not required to participate in "Day of Silence," a look at Liberty Counsel's court cases shows that students who opt out are often intimidated by school personnel and forced to make some kind of amends if they don't participate. GLSEN does not step forward to defend these students.

In Jones, Lloyd and Jennings, will we really see the liberal mantra prove itself - that one's personal life does not matter when it comes to objectivity in their public career? Unless, of course, they're pro-life. Then they're the devil.

Sources:
-Seattle Chief named Drug Czar:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/11/seattle-cop-named-drug-war-chief-adding-largest-team-czars/.
-History of U.S. Drug czars since 1982: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_National_Drug_Control_Policy.

-Van Jones: USNews.com - http://www.usnews.com/blogs/fresh-greens/2009/03/10/obama-drafts-van-jones-as-green-jobs-adviser.html; and East Bay Express - http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/PrintFriendly?oid=290098.

-Mark Lloyd's document: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/talk_radio.html.
-Liberty Counsel "Day of Silence" cases: http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14102&AlertID=825.