Van Jones, is President Obama's Special Advisor for Green Jobs. He's the co-founder of Color of Change, an organization that seeks to strengthen the black voice in politics. Color of Change is working hard to get advertisers to dump the Glenn Beck show for being so critical of President Obama, specifically his opinion that he thought Obama was anti-white!
So let me make sure I've got this right. The organization that is working to destroy the career of Glenn Beck, who is on Fox News, was co-founded by the president's Green Job Advisor!
Somehow, that doesn't seem quite right, does it?
Color of Change states on their about page Jones has been inactive there in "recent years". However, the last archived page taken November 11, 2007 shows he was listed as active. Their "recent years" statement could be a stretch. It would be helpful to have the archived pages for 2008, but they are not available, at the moment. Then there is an article from SFGate.com dated May 27, 2008 which referred to Jones as co-founder of Color of Change. No mention was made he was no longer involved with the group. That was just last year.
Over at Little Green Footballs, a once conservative blog that has gone anti-right in recent months, Charles Johnson wrote on Tuesday that more advertisers drop Beck and labeled it with the following tags; Glenn Beck, Kooks, Far Right, Extremism, Fox News, Advertising, Boycott. Kooks? Extremism? On Monday, he wrote Glenn Beck's Continuing Problem with Idiocy. Idiocy? Does Beck act silly sometimes, even goofy? I would say, yes, but have you actually researched what he is telling you? I'm not talking about his opinions here which are subjective and don't really matter. Is he inaccurate on what he tells you about his research? That's the real issue here. So, I say to those of you who want to demonize him and destroy his career - prove him wrong. Start a website, then list all the proof sources that back up each and every falsehoods told by Glenn Beck. Show us your facts so we can make up our own minds, thank you. Prior to LFG recent rants against Beck since, I guess, he joined Fox News, he wrote an article in 2006 about Beck titled Glenn Beck: The Extremist Agenda where he said his show was worthwhile to watch. He was on CNN Headline News then.
Johnson didn't mentioned that Van Jones was once a self-described black nationalist and a communist, according to an East Bay Express article and cover story written by Eliza Strickland on November 2, 2005 titled "The New Face of Environmentalism" (update 9/1/09 the original article didn't open but I do have a saved copy). East Bay Express, also reposted it here and then blasted Glenn Beck (they call him a "Fox News Whack Job") for informing viewers what Jones said! Talk about dishonesty. Nowhere can I find that Jones' renounced communism so this is hanging out there, big time.
And since when did it become wrong to look into the backgrounds of people who were hand-picked by President Obama or his staff?
Excerpts from The New Face of Environmentalism:
Picture: Van Jones as a radical activist (source: East Bay Express)
"...Jones came from rural Tennessee, by way of Yale Law School. The self-described former "rowdy black nationalist" is best known as founder of the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland-based nonprofit group with roots firmly grounded in criminal-justice issues that affect low-income people of color....He arrived at Yale Law School wearing combat boots and carrying a Black Panther bookbag, an angry black separatist among a sea of clean-cut students dreaming of Supreme Court clerkships."
...Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "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.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "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." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."
..."One of my big heroes is Malcolm X, not because I agree with Malcolm, but because he wasn't afraid to change in public," he said. (z: What is that suppose to mean? It's real clear what X was all about)..."
Is this article accurate? Did you notice they quoted the man? His reference to jail had to do with his arrest following the Rodney King verdict but later he won a settlement for being arrested wrongly, as I understand it.
The Apollo Alliance, mentioned above, is a project of the Tides Center, whose parent is the Tides Foundation, funded mostly by wealthy left progressives.
Jones also was the founder or was involved with a neo-Marxist group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, according to Wikipedia (see Origins; update 9/1/09 Wikipeida removed the statement Jones was the founder). The East Bay article above discussed Jones involvement with STORM and its Marxist ideology which was started in 1994 when he was 26. STORM's 2004 summation report put together after they disbanded lists the pages where their Marxist ideology is laid out (page 4) but when you go to the pages where this ideology should be we find "Romantic Relationships between Revolutionaries" instead (Download STORMSummation which I obtained from leftspot.com (here's an archived copy from this website should it not work). Their "Points of Unity" are listed on page 31 and 32, which include marxism, communism, the defeat of capitalism and global white supremacy. Their response to 9/11 leveled anger at the U.S. government and rely on global justice because U.S. Imperialism is the problem (page 28 and 29). It quoted Amilcar Cabral, a Black African Revolutionary and Marxist, on page 3. In an article titled I'm Bad, I'm Slick dated April 2008 we read Jones named his son Cabral (see below). What a coincidence! But, it's unclear if Van Jones took part in STORM's summation report.
Jones, was interviewed for The Witness in 2002 in an article titled Addiction to Punishment: Challenging America's Incarceration Industry. Jones talked about getting burned-out after being "involved in all sorts of politics of confrontation and outrage". He spent two weeks at a retreat called Windcall that supports progressive social justice leaders (didn't know there was such a thing, did you?). Jones said he just cried and tried to get his head together there. He also went to church more and sought counseling following his stay. Common Counsel Foundationis Windcall's fiscal sponsor. Notice that ACORN is involved on the board of this organization that uses philanthropic resources for progressive social movements. So progressive activists have a retreat provided to them free of charge when they get burned out? How thoughtful.
It's quite possible Jones was a communist and is not one now. But, he spoke ill of capitalism as late as February of 2009 (video) and how green jobs are just the tip of the iceberg to a new social order. The White House is just ignoring this hoping it will blow over. I don't know how long they can stay silent with continued public and elected officials outcry. It seems to me, the left response is very weak calling Beck and others whacko, nutjobs, rightwingers and so on for brining Jones background to the public eye. This includes turncoat Charles Johnson.
Update 9/2/09: Van Jones called Republicans A** Ho***! (notice his dig about capitalism near the end of the video)
Update 9/3/09: Is President Obama's green job czar, Van Jones, a 9/11 Truther?
Update 9/4/09: Senator seeks congressional hearings on Van Jones
Update 9/5/09:
Van Jones at Media Reform convention in 2007: You don't have to call somebody the n-word if you can call them a felon." Private prisons are "this new Jim Crow." Van Jones
Is Van Jones is part of a global effort against America and Israel? Warning this audio/video may be disturbing to some.
Emergency Action Against Racism and War (Oakland): "...A recurring theme of the speakers was the brutal violence committed by or supported by the United States government on a daily basis. "The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City," said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. "The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad." (9/13/01)
UPDATE 9/6/09: Controversial Green Job Czar, Van Jones, resigns
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Also see:
As boycott continues, Glenn Beck's audience swells: Color of Change, an African American political advocacy group, organized the boycott last month to protest Beck's comment that he believes President Obama ...Glenn Beck goes after Color of Change co-founder Van Jones -
Instead, he spent a large share of his program suggesting that Jones, who co-founded Color of Change in 2005, is a radical. Jones now serves as a special ...
1/13/09: zTruth : Does Obama's Climate Czar, Carol M. Browner, have ...
8/25/09: What is going on at Little Green Football?
8/13/09: Speaking Power to "Truth" Melissa Bradley Chair of the Board, Tides HuffingtonPost.com: As Congress debates Health Care Reform, the stimulus package starts showing signs of positive impact, and the war on Afghanistan intensifies...
..."In the 1800s, it was the enslavement of African people. In the 1900s, it was Jim Crow and segregation. And in the new century, it's the incarceration industry which created these slave ships on dry land called prisons. That's the new Jim Crow." Van Jones.
Apollo Alliance | Project Directory | Tides Center: Tides Center is a nonprofit fiscal sponsor to forward-thinking activists and organizations.
The Weapon of Theory by Amilcar Cabral: Amilcar Cabral 1966. The Weapon of Theory. Address delivered to the first Tricontinental Conference of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America held in ... (Marxist.org)
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