I don’t know what to say.  Van Jones has been picked off … and Glenn Beck is maniacally happy, wherever he is.  He is probably thinking that this indicates that he’s in some way right.  He ain’t – but nothing would convince him of that anyway.  So, we move on, I guess.

Reading about Van Jones this morning, I find that I agree with him on many things … but then, government probably isn’t the place for that kind of thinking.

It’s discouraging – it all is.  I need to get dressed and go for a run … slough off the discouragement and start the day!

Before I head out, here’s the text of a letter to the editor that I just submitted to the Concord Monitor.  It’s about the Obama school speech flap … and comments made by a local asshole … which I was pleased to see (via Boltgirl) sound creepily like comments made by a tea bagger in Arizona.  Damn – why do the assholes get so much press?

Here’s the text of the letter:

I have the feeling that I am in an echo chamber. Last week you quoted Tom Keane of Bow sharing his views (not that I asked) about President Obama’s planned speech to the nations kids – encouraging them to work hard, stay in school, etc.

For some reason, Mr. Keane found this idea “creepy,” among other things. “The whole approach strikes me as Orwellian and creepy,” Keane wrote. “The thought of any president being beamed into a kindergarten classroom to speak directly to students without parents involved is at best troubling.”

In a piece published the same day in the Arizona Daily Star we read the comments of Trent Humphries who’s described as … “a 36-year-old computer consultant who counts himself among the Tea Party members …”

“If he were going to a school to speak, that would be a different issue, but to speak to all children in America without their parents present, I don’t know,” he said, describing it as “creepy” and saying parents should be included in conversations about staying in school.”

Kinda sounds like these dudes are reading off the same script, doesn’t it? I am particularly irked that Tom, as a selectman and school board member, would take air time to apparently couch right wing talking points as his own. I actually find it kinda creepy, Tom.

And please, Monitor staff, could we have a little less coverage of this divisive, destructive, fear-mongering, flap-creating drivel? It’s a tempest in a tea pot – nothing more.

In other news … Phillies (77-56) and Red Sox (78-57) both lost.  Some day when I have enough time, I am going to plot out their respective seasons and see how often they are having parallel outcomes.

And on the pitch … root for England today as they go up against Netherlands for a chance to play in the final!