Breaking just moments ago: Obama's controversial "green jobs" czar Van Jones has resigned.

Click here to see our archive of stories on the media's coverage (or lack thereof) of the Jones controversy.

Feel free to use this as an open comment thread on the aftermath. Will conservatives be able to get more mileage out of this controversy by drawing attention to Obama's heavy use of so-called policy czars? Or is this just a short-term setback for the Obama administration?

The Charlie Rose show on PBS was a natural place to get the warmest, most exaggerated praise for Ted Kennedy on the night after his death was announced, on August 26. Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of the networks’ favorite pundits, declared he was "an unparalleled giant in history." Rose said his record was a "towering, towering achievement, far beyond many presidents." Newsweek editor Jon Meacham was placing him in a tiny Senate Hall of Fame: "Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Ted Kennedy." After that, he said, a huge dropoff in talent.

Al Hunt was the strangest, but at least he began to realize his exaggeration was too implausible to continue: "He didn't demonize people at all. He demonized positions, but not people. Bob Bork might have been a rare exception of that."

Here are a few snippets of the conversation:

(image found at townnews.com)

Yesterday's Employment Situation Report from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics had lots of dismal news.

One of the bigger disappointments, but sadly not one of the bigger surprises, is that the teenage unemployment rate reached an all-time seasonally adjusted high of 25.5%.

People who know even a little bit about economics should understand why, but an oddly titled New York Times blog post by Catherine Rampall took a pass on realistically trying to explain it:

Oh What a Time to Be Young!

Pity the unemployed, but especially pity the teenage unemployed.

Anima at The Daily Kos is furious at the idea that the insurance lobbyists (or the "murder-by-spreadsheet industry") will get a "public option" stripped from the health bill. But the metaphors are a bit distasteful:  

How unbelievably infuriating it will be if we get a watered-down, junk bill and then have to listen to Rahm tell us how it's a "victory." Yes, let's give the American people a nice, big glass of urine on the rocks and call it the most delicious lemonade they done ever tasted!...

Ana Marie Cox, until the end of last year the Washington editor for Time magazine's Web site, concluded her Friday night (September 4) fill-in gig as host of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show -- where she was hardly shy about conveying her liberal views as she spent much of the hour ridiculing conservatives -- by pulling open her jacket to display how underneath she was wearing a vintage “I'm Ready for Teddy Kennedy '76” T-shirt. (For the historically-challenged, Kennedy did not run in 1976.)

Now a weekend host for the left-wing Air America radio network, Cox explained: “It's a tribute, of sorts, to the fallen liberal lion.” A blogger for The Daily Beast, where the title for her last post was “God Loves Obama,” she quickly added that Kennedy was not her first apparel choice: “I actually was looking for a Wellstone shirt. If anyone can find a Wellstone shirt, very interested in it, classic.”

I was stunned to read on Life Site News that a new movie is being planned about Our Lady of Guadalupe, so-named for an appearance of the Virgin Mary near Mexico City in 1531 that’s credited with converting nine million indigenous Mexicans to Christianity. The film, still untitled, will be produced by Mpower Pictures, the company that was launched with the pro-life movie "Bella" in 2006 and founded by "The Passion of the Christ" producer Steve McEveety.

That a movie would be made about Our Lady of Guadalupe is amazing, but that wasn’t half the surprise. The movie is being written by Joe Eszterhas. Yes, the same Joe Eszterhas responsible for screenwriting filthy movies like "Basic Instinct" and most infamously, "Showgirls," a movie so pornographic even the late Jack Valenti condemned it.

What I didn’t know until now is the story of the conversion of Joe Eszterhas in 2001, powerfully captured in his 2008 memoir entitled "Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith."

The contrast between the virtual silence of major news outlets on Green Jobs Czar Van Jones’s belief in the Bush Administration’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks and the hubbub made about those who believe the President is not an American citizen casts light on the politicized attitudes of the mainstream media.

NewsBusters has noted how the story has been ignored by the television media. Byron York in the Washington Examiner Friday noted that a Nexis news search for the Van Jones ‘truther’ controversy turns up exactly zero results from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and transcripts from ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News (though that newscast aired a full story Friday night).

So, as York noted, anyone who gets his or her news from one of these sources, or all five, is unaware that the President’s Green Jobs Czar is not only a self-avowed communist but also a supporter of the truther movement, which means he believes that the Bush Administration was complicit in—even orchestrated—the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

With the college football season in full-swing today, as well as the U.S. Open -- not to mention baseball season winding down before the playoffs begin!!! -- it seems like a good time to bring back the sports open thread.

So, what games do you like today?

Can anybody beat Roger?

Can anybody beat the damn Yankees?

Who's looking to go all the way to the Super Bowl this year?

Did I forget anything?

"Obama has been accused during the campaign of associating with people who were radical, whether it be Bill Ayers or Reverend Wright. He has to do with Jones what he did with Wright, which is to cut his relationship off."

So said liberal Fox News contributor Bob Beckel about the growing controversy surrounding President Obama's "green jobs czar" Van Jones.

In this segment aired Friday evening during "Special Report," Beckel said a resignation is imminent (video embedded below the fold with full transcript):

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Pence calls for Van Jones to resign!

Rep. Mike Pence, the no. 3 Republican in the House, is calling on Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to resign..."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," Pence said. "The Constitution of the United States vests Congress with the responsibility to advise and consent in the appointment of high ranking officials by the president. To date, President Obama has appointed more than thirty individuals to ‘czar’ positions within his Administration without permitting the Congress or the American people to properly examine their backgrounds or public records."

Will he resign, or will Obama stand by his Van?

As noted by John Stephenson of NewsBusters, much of the media has been ignoring the enormous Van Jones controversy. However, Joe Garofoli, the politics writer and blogger for Jones' hometown newspaper, the liberal San Francisco Chronicle, has just written about the toxic effect of Van Jones and who is standing by their Van and who isn't in his Politics blog:

The Bay Area's Van Jones -- the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- just finished apologizing for calling Republicans "a-holes" when he got something else to start explaining: How his signature got on a 2004 petition asking for an immediate "inquiry into evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur." Van said he didn't carefully review the petition before signing it "certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

Every four years, the inauguration of the President sets the tone for the direction in which those in the highest executive office hope to steer the nation.  Since that is the case, the American people should be very concerned about the lunacy put on display at the swearing in of Barack Obama from beginning to end.

With the gays going into the theatrical hysterics those of that proclivity are renowned for over the invocation delivered by Rick Warren, one would have hoped for something more theologically profound.  However, many have no doubt heard sounder sentiments emanating from four year olds saying grace over crackers and juice.

Billy Graham in his heyday Warren is not.  From Warren’s words, one could have easily come away assuming God did not know Obama was Black.  Warren said, “...we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of the first African American president of the United States...We know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.”

These things didn’t even need to be mentioned.  For decades now, we have been repeatedly told that it is not the color of skin but rather the content of character that counts.

On Friday’s edition of "Democracy Now" on (taxpayer-funded) radical Pacifica Radio, leftist writer Max Blumenthal promoted his new book "Republican Gomorrah," complete with the bizarre theory that the Grand Old Party is a movement based on sadomasochism, that James Dobson’s book "Dare to Discipline" was essential: "By creating a belt-wielding army of milllions, Dobson created the next generation of Republican shock troops, who are more radical than before."

Under this theory, Dobson found in Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay men who were viciously abused boys who were ready for his message: "Dobson has been able to get close to and work with in the Republican Congress and in American culture who have been viciously abused as children. And he understood that by advocating violence against children, deliberate violence, he was creating this sensibility, which would produce a radical generation of political followers."

Blumenthal was interviewed by Pacifica co-host Juan Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News.

A new high-tech Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Racism.  And parents too dumb to raise their children.  

That was how NBC sought to explain away opposition to Pres. Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren.

Andrea Mitchell narrated a segment on this morning's Today on the subject.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Other presidents have faced opposition.  But experts say it's now more organized, from cable television to blogs, to Twitter. It's gone viral.

RON BROWNSTEIN: There are mechanisms for conservatives to reach other conservatives and to keep them in a state of agitation.  And that is much more developed than it was even when Bill Clinton was president.

Coming out of the Contra Costa Times is an article titled "Researchers: Gun shows selling weapons illegally". It begins

"From pocket-size assault weapons and sniper rifles that can kill a man a mile-and-a-half away to incendiary armor-piercing bullets, you can find what you're looking for at gun shows across the United States."

Aren't journalists the ones that accuse gun owners of "fear-mongering"? Here are the facts, the only true "pocket-size assault weapon" I've seen at a gun show is the Magpul FMG9 and it's not for sale to civilians. Then again, since journalists define "assault weapons" as any gun that looks frightening, they could be talking about anything. Also, the longest sniper kill ever made was 1.51 miles using a rifle I've never seen at a gun show and a ballistics calculator that no newspaper  journalist I've ever met would understand.

And Mexican drug cartels buy most of their guns in the United States, because it's easier than buying in Mexico

Arianna Huffington's liberal gossip site the Huffington Post has been vigorously defending green jobs czar and 9/11 "truther" Van Jones.

It turns out that Jones was Huffington's grassroots political director when she ran for governor in the 2003 recall election. In fact, Jones, a self-described "communist," thought Huffington was so wonderful he was part of the effort to draft her to run for office.

A San Francisco Chronicle article from Sept. 5, 2003 described Jones as Huffington's "grassroots director."