Opening Thought Salvo for Tuesday, July 21

I saw Old Glory waving proudly this morning in the breeze from a wonderful round of thunderstorms that moved through during the night hours. Wonderful in most respects, except that lightning set off one or more of the tornado alert sirens about 4 a.m. and, for at least five minutes, there was some concern that we were in a real event. When it didn't cycle down, I unilaterally declared the "all clear" for my family and tried to go back to sleep for awhile.

As is usual when sleep is interrupted and its rainy and cool, I nearly overslept.

But at least the flag is still there. How long, I wonder, will that be true?

There is word today that legislation on Capitol Hill would "elevate" the inspectors general to presidential level appointments. These are men and women who are supposed to act as checks against reckless or unlawful spending and actions by executive branch agencies. They are appointed by Congress. After several unfortunate run-ins with inspectors general who are pointing out irregularities, the Obama Administration is pushing to have control of the watchers.

Why not just have them eliminated, you might ask? Oh, but that wouldn't have the appearance of propriety. We must pretend that we are ethical and moral, while stealing the public blind.

Did you know that one of the Czars of the Obama administration is a Marxist environmentalist who learned to love collectivism while in prison? Yeah, I know, it sounds like one of those wacky urban legends, but this story happens to be true. Van Jones, a 41-year-old Yale educated lawyer, specialized in black nationalism, got caught up in the Rodney King riots, and then adopted his own communist manifesto while in jail in that aftermath. He said:

I was a rowdy [black] nationalist on April 28th [1992], and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist. (...)

I met all these young radical people of color – I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' 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."

He became the founder of California's Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, "a non-profit agency for justice, opportunities and peace." It in turn was affiliated with an outfit called STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement), a "multi-racial activist collective with Marxist influences.

At some point Jones figured that environmentalism was the vehicle in which to drive his agenda, so he became active in the "green" movement. And that's where we find him today, an unelected, unconfirmed Czar in the Obama White House. Unrepentant and unleashed at the national level.

Would you like to know more? Try this National Review Online post.

There are more insults to the American Republic in the news this morning, but I figured this would be enough to get your heart rate up if your coffee is taking too long.