But none of us here are advisors to the US Government. If you are an advisor to the US Government, then you must know that your past record will be scrutinised. Obama didn't ahve to accept his resignation - the fact that he did shows that he thought Jones's position was vulnerable. He's also an appointee and not an elected representative. If you stand for election, call people assholes, and get elected, fair enough.

I accept your points and I have no idea if Van Jones was worth protesting for, just that the Obama administration, and therefore the planet, will be a sorrier place without him in his office. I don't mean to vindicate any particular US politico, just that shit like this does have a big effect on everyones life.

I think it is okay to call US Republicans 'assholes'
I think it is okay to have signed a 911 investigation petition.
I think it supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal is a good thing, not a sackable offence.

The real story though is how a talentless nobody like Rupert Murdoch can effectively assassinate politicians he doesn't agree with. We saw that in the UK when Blair used to be summoned to visit Murdoch, we see where Blairs subservience has left us. The US of A is the heart of the empire that our 'freely elected' politicians kowtow to. I've not said this for a while but it is worth repeating. One US protestor has one hundred times the effect of any British protestor, one British protestor is worth a hundred thousand Afghan protestors. Sad, but true, it is the nature of empires. Should we pay attention to the comings and goings in the imperial court? Maybe.

'I think ...' 'I think ...' - doesn't matter what you think. It's what the public in America think. Personally, I think that anyone who signed a Truther document in 2004 is stupid enough to have disqualified himself from public office. But what I think doesn't matter either.

Rupert Murdoch a talentless nobody? No and no. Certainly not a nobody - I think rather more people have heard about him than have heard of you or I. Talentless? To have built up a media empire like that? I don't think so. But the idea that he goes around saying to a particular network - 'Get Van Jones!' is silly. If he could run his media empire and micromanage to that extent, then he wouldn' be talentless, he would be the most capable man on the planet.

As for Beck - well, men like him get the jobs they do because they have the ability to sense the public mood and touch the public nerve - and thus they achieve the ratings they do. If they didn't have that ability, they wouldn't get the ratings, and they'd be fired. But all Beck can do is shout. If no one's interested in what he's shouting about, he's ignored. In this case he wasn't ignored., so perhaps people were interested.

More interestingly, I think Obama is good at picking people who might be useful, but throwing them to the wolves if they prove controversial. You work for a man like that at your peril.

> I think it is okay to call US Republicans 'assholes'
>I think it is okay to have signed a 911 investigation petition.
>I think it supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal is a good thing, not a sackable offence.

That's all well and good but only a tiny minority of US voters, including Democrats, share those views, in particular the support for the Truthers and a cop-killer.

Most Americans would find such views abhorrent, which is why they elect Democrats or Republicans and not the Revolutionary Communist Party USA or anarchist Truthers.