In Defense of Van Jones (Sort of)
You know, if I were Van Jones, I’d be pretty upset right about now, but for different reasons than the ones he is citing.
Don’t get me wrong. Jones had to go, for reasons somewhat known and others hardly known. At this point the somewhat-knowns are his consistent communism, his documented 9/11 “truther” beliefs (with a totally unconvincing “I never read it” denial), and his inability or perhaps unwillingness to specifically define what a “green job” is.
Okay, Jones tried to define a “green job” for the Washington Post, saying that “a green job and especially a green-collar job is a blue-collar job that has been upgraded and up-skilled to better respect the environment.” Under that definition, it seems that if a guy or gal on the assembly line in the most stinking, rotten, polluting factory in America starts putting empty pop cans into the recycle container instead of the general trash, their job might count as “green.” Actually, I think Jones and other enviros touting “green jobs” are reluctant to define the term because “the green” involved relates to something, or I should say $omething, that has little to do with the environment.
The most important hardly known item in Jones’ resume is his truly disturbing “deserver” statement roughly 40 hours after the 9/11 attacks. At a gathering on the night of September 12, 2001, at Oakland’s Snow Park, Jones said, “It’s the bombs that the government has been dropping around the world that are now blowing up inside the U.S. borders.” So we deserved 9/11. Move over, Jeremiah Wright. I’d say that if you’re looking for a reason why Jones resigned so suddenly in the dead of night Sunday morning, you need look no further than the fact that a link to a similar statement Jones allegedly made at the same event was posted at Powerline early Saturday evening.
All of that said, the fact remains that Van Jones has from all appearances not recently committed a crime, has apparently paid his societal penance for his past crimes, and has not committed an error of commission or omission during his brief tenure that would have justified a forced “resignation.” Shoot, if you look around at others in the administration like John Holdren, Zeke the Bleak Emanuel, Carol Browner, Eric Holder, and others, you could probably make a good argument that Jones’ beliefs are in the mainstream of Obama administration and Democratic congressional political thought.
So why is Jones gone, while the likes of Tim Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, and Charlie Rangel, to name just a few, are still footloose, fancy-free, and federally employed?
Mr Jones u are RIGHT on the WHITE Enviromentalist RACISM thing u were jiggabooing about,(BIG BABY) too funny:)
Sir:
Van Jones was neither elected by the citizens nor subject to confirmation proceedings. That is about all you can say as to why he has no protection at the moment. Obama has surrounded himself with people who are radical. That is a fact. They will need to unmasked one by one if necessary. He of course will remain ABOVE the fray.
Tommy Gunn
Good article. I just have one observation to make. Rangel and Pelosi are elected officials and the others you named are not. World of difference. Unfortunately their districts see fit to re-elect them over and over again which says a whole bunch about the mindset of the majority of voters in those districts. Of course Rangel and Pelosi aren’t the only ones that are “ethically challenged” in either the House or the Senate. Suffice it to say that PJ O’Rourke calls them “the malevolent trolls under the Capitol Dome”.
Bullshit. Not only does he not deserve a place in the Wizards administration, it is questionable whether or not he deserves a US passport.
Mr. Blumer,
I don’t think that your defense of Mr. Jones is effective at all. I do agree with you that Mr. Jones had to go, mainly because he fit in too well in the Obama administration. However, the defense that you are using is somewhat like Charles Manson asking for an appeal on the basis that at least he didn’t eat his victims like Jeffrey Daumer did.
If that defense were valid, there would be a lot of empty prisons, as most criminals could use it to get out of prison. Sorry, nice try.
No need to “defend” the likes of Jones from the hood. No one with his background belongs within spitting distance of the WH.
So spend you time going after the other “rascals” that need to be nailed. Follow the example of Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin. Your liberal “moral relativism” is sickening!
You must be joking.
“Unfortunately their districts see fit to re-elect them over and over again…”
Very good point. Van Jones can be instantly fired by the Obama administration. The same is not true of elected officials. The scandals cited by Tom Blumer are not being ignored. There is only so much time in any given day. We are already seeing, however, that likely voters significantly prefer Republican candidates over their Democratic Party opponents. Rasmussen currently shows the GOP with a solid seven point lead. The Democrats are well advised to throw Tim Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, and Charlie Rangel under the bus—but that ain’t gonna happen! They are therefore royally screwed.
I don’t see getting rid of radical “czars” like Van Jones and corrupt politicians (e.g. Rangel) as an “either/or” proposition. We should do both.
The other posts make telling points.
. He approved him anyway. What does that say? He approved all the other czars, what does that tell you? The appointment of a czar and the election of corrupt officials are mutually exclusive. The former is deliberate knowledge-based action. The latter is pure stupidity on the part of people who think have been brainwashed into thinking there no one has to pay for the “free lunch”. The price is OPM (other peoples’ money) and the reason for believing it is free is OPW (other peoples’ words. So sorry, you can neither exonerate Jones nor mitigate his record by comparing him with our elected oxymorons.
You mentioned his communist leanings. Was he vetted? Not by the Democrats (we know they are incompetent at this procedure by default), but by the Secret Service? Wasn’t Obama told the results
Tom, the reason for Van Jones’ being dumped so quickly and unceremoniously lies in the fact that Jones was just a self-important New Age flake warming a chair there, while Geithner or other people you compasre him with to, have indeed some professional weight.
Jones was added to the administration as a convenience fill in – praises from Jarret notwithstanding (Jones’ phenomenal ability to buid coallitions, my!), I don’t think they ever thought him as anything but a disposable “green-gay-New-Age-Arianne-cohort” wallpaper. (Gosh, “sensitive liason” term comes to my mind).
Washington is a brutal town and a New-Age buffoon like Jones quickly becomes road-kill -
If “he did it too” is all you’ve got to say, save my time. Anyone who would use this excuse is worthy of scorn.
It is “shame on America” that we have someone in office, Obama, that would hire someone like Jones, or even be friends with him. Remember Valarie said they had been watching Jones for some time…. The WH, the press, Dems, Repubs all knew who this man was. Was it a concerted effort to hide from US??
The President, elected officials in general, and the mass media have no integrity.
We keep sending people like Pelosi, Rangel, Reid, FRANKS etc to Washington to make our laws and represent us….It’s our own fault.
Somewhere along the way we have lost who we are.
Okay, Jones tried to define a “green job” for the Washington Post, saying that “a green job and especially a green-collar job is a blue-collar job that has been upgraded and up-skilled to better respect the environment.” Under that definition, it seems that if a guy or gal on the assembly line in the most stinking, rotten, polluting factory in America starts putting empty pop cans into the recycle container instead of the general trash, their job might count as “green.”
You’re only salvation is that your audience is a thousand times dumber than you are. Jones said “the job” has been “upgraded”. Not the worker’s behavior. You don’t understand English, or simple logic. What would you do if you were Van Jones? The entire idea is laughable. You could never have had a position like the one Jones had, even if Ronald Reagan came back and lowered the bar as low as a Republican appointment could stand. You’re just too stupid.
Poor Van….um,NO!
For all my life the whole black race has been under the bus from the Dems.
“Cauz sumtimes evan if yo in de crosswalkz, da bus still get yo”
Like Cabrini Green, this administration will be gone.
Tom Blumer is offering a clever variation on the sliding scale concept for comparative criminality. Plenty of good mileage is routinely obtained from various theories of moral elasticity. They don’t need further advocacy.
MOHO:
I don’t know why you’re here. You are not a happy person. Apparently the only joy in your life is demeaning other people. You hold yourself in very high regard, and have this need to belittle everybody else. That is very, very sad. I truly feel sorry for you, because you will never obtain the admiration and the valadiation that you so obviously crave. I just wanted to let you know that I am heare if you need to talk about this. Sometimes just a little human interaction can have extraordinary effects.
Wow, there are way too many people around here who’ve had recent ridiculectomies!
“In Defense of Van Jones”
===========================
I’m really surprised. I expected an empty set.
Based on the title, “In Defense of Van Jones” I expected an empty set. What a surprise!
Re #14/Moho: [...] You could never have had a position like the one Jones had, even if Ronald Reagan came back and lowered the bar as low as a Republican appointment could stand. You’re just too stupid. [...]
Moho, you damaged merchandise – no one has any expectation from you, and your trying to obfuscate in this Van Jones affair is pathetic.
The explosive substance of Van Jones affair is that a Birther kicked a Truther in the dust, and this has driven the libs out of their wits (despite increasing their Clorox consumption) – so here’s the short history of Van Jones’ fall:
1) Glenn Beck in his radio show addressed Obama’s BC issue, affair which keeps the WH & libs on edge, so –
2) ColorOfChange (green, of course) a liberal association established by Van Jones and his minions started a boycott assault on Fox/ Glenn Beck, action whose remarkable lack of success showed them, again, how off and marginal they are, and how low they are regarded by the American citizenry -
3) then Glenn Beck caught the misdirected wrecking ball against him and skillfully re-routed it back, towards the moral author of the entire affair (an idiot called Van Jones who had a inflatable doll job in the WH as a Green-New-Age-African-Wisdom-Gay-Etc. thing), and, researching him discovered that:
4) Van Jones is a major fool with a large load of shit in his pants (decreeing y/self as communist in 1990-s should suffice as evidence of solid idiocy), who was given a pass for the job, vetting-wise, and now because of his past has became a liability for Barry, therefore (and as anticipated):
5) the bum was thrown out (gosh, rapoido, rapido, let’s hope they’ll Reps & conservatives forget about that clown);
Whether this hemorrhoyd (Van Jones) will reappear in the Democrats’ ass, we’ll see -
Now, why there still is yakking about Van Jones around – the rapidity Obama dumped him, Obama’s unstoppable (and overdue) slippage and all other ominous messages creeping on the liberals’ walls, all these have brought them over the edge. They simply cannot handle the fact that they’re living their dawnfall and, hysterical natures as they are (Mojo, look in the mirror), cannot but wail, yell, lamment and do idiotic post like yours in PJM -
And since here, do y/self a favor, Mojo & save some energy, you’ll need it soon – the US District Court (California Central) has set January 10th as hearing date in the Obama BC matter (also, has allowed the addition of David Kreeps to the plaintiffs attorneys).
This is big thing, Mojo. So forget about the fact that the Sprint and Clorox crews have been seen, hats in hand around Glenn Beck’s office and prepare y/self for the great moments to come – i.e. Barry being impeached -
Life is beautiful – bye.
So your thesis is that since VJ isn’t that much if at all more icky than a half dozen other dirt bags in this administration he has good reason for being upset.
Maybe, maybe not. All I can say is good riddance to bad rubbish. It’s akin to the old joke about what to call a bus load of liberals driving over a cliff with an empty seat. A shame!
I think if one needed an explanation for why this particular douche was singled out ahead of some others who may be more deserving, it’s simple. This piece of human garbage’s act is on video! We don’t have You-Tubes of Turbo Tax Tim or dead beat Charlie cheating on their taxes.
“has not committed an error of commission or omission.”
Er, what about his post-appointment declaration that he regarded his job as a steppingstone to the destruction of “gray capitalism” and the “oppressive and racist structure” of America?
This guy is Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayres rolled into one. Should we be surprised? Nah.
Or only read the headline, and then ran to the comments section.
21. misanthopicus,
Thank you for spelling that all out. There’s a subtext out there in the media that Beck went after Jones’ scalp. In reality, it was the other way around. He who lives by the political attack…
Give me the old-fashioned thieves and bastards every time!
I don’t care if a congressman has a few extra thousand in his freezer. What worries me is the simon-pure True Believers who are itching to tell me what I can put in my freezer. And what to eat, and what to drink, and what to wear, and what to think.
The existence of the Republic is not in danger when the odd public servant dabbles in larceny.
But freedom and democracy are never in more danger than when government is harnessed up to drag us all into the Brave New World. That way lies the gulag.
RE #25/Calvin Ball: RE #21/misanthopicus: [...] Thank you for spelling that all out. There’s a subtext out there in the media that Beck went after Jones’ scalp. In reality, it was the other way around. He who lives by the political attack… [...]
Thanks, calvin..
… and for the CNN clowns, in a very simple form: When you live in a glass house, don’t start throwing stones around – it’s very likely you’ll regret it.
It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck!
I hope the Conservative Movement picks up the “White Enviromentalist = Racism” mantra!
That would be a very cool “in your face” to the jackasses in Berzerkley etc…
#26.Martin, that is what I have been thinking for a long time. We need to make more Americans aware of what the secular progressives are up to through TV ads, etc.. No individualist wants to be told how to live their life, whether it be from the extreme right or left.
This reminds me of the ultra-conservatives of the 1950′s, where they wanted to decide what was best for everyone, and when they eventually caved, the progressives discovered an opening, and now we are experiencing the opposite extreme.
I have good news for you Tom, you do not have to defend van jones, he is gone now. However, I just hope the next person appointed is good at his/her job. Our environmental agenda has never been more important than now. The oil companies/arabs are rakin in billions while we in the west worry everyday if we will have enough gasoline to get to work. A fifty percent oil company “at source” tax increase is needed to help us create a green future. The time to get oil independant is now imperative. I Just hope it happens.
There is one reason, and one reason only, why Van Jones was ousted. It was not because he was a Communist: it was because he had identified himself publicly as a communist.
The Communist cadre that has taken over the White House doesn’t mind being called Hard Leftist, or even Socialist, though they prefer the term “liberal”. But to be identified as a Communist Administration would blow their cover. Even a high percentage of their slobbering disciples would bolt.
The trouble with the conservative punditry and commentators is that they feel the same way: they avoid Communist, Stalinist, or Reds because they’d rather die than be accused of McCarthyism, even if the accusers are certainly Communists.
After Obama’s in-your-face statement of determination to Rahm through his statist healthfare rogram, unaltered from July, who can question his carrying of the Red Star flag, as surely as Ayers on his bog site.
We will never rid ourselves of this scourge unless we accept the truth that the last election scammed a COMMUNIST cabal into the White House, and then hammer and scythe them our of power.
Van Jones is an unpatriotic Communist clown. Although I’m not altogether against the idea of Czars, I am against the idea of communists in charge of billions of dollars in stimulus money.
MOHO (is that an anagram????)
Ya know in most of the world, you would be up against the wall?? Ya know??
MOHO (is that an anagram????)
Ya know in most of the world, you would be up against the wall?? Ya know??
I just wanted to let you know that I am heare if you need to talk about this. Sometimes just a little human interaction can have extraordinary effects.
Good to know. Let me know if you find a human; not likey in your neck of the woods I imagine, but I’m pulling for you.
Van Jones is an unpatriotic Communist clown. Although I’m not altogether against the idea of Czars, I am against the idea of communists in charge of billions of dollars in stimulus money.
I hope you people keep saying things like this. Because it only reveals that you have no idea what Jones’ position actually was.
Mr. Blumer, why did you truncate Mr. Jones’ quote on green-collar jobs? He was definitely talking about much more than recycling pop cans.
From your Washington Post link:
“MR. JONES: Sure. Yeah. A green job and especially a green-collar job is a blue-collar job that has been upgraded and up-skilled to better respect the environment.
00:04:28 So, for instance, you’re talking about the–the guys who put up the solar panels or–or the women who put up solar panels. You’re talking about people who are manufacturing wind turbines and putting those up, people who weatherize and retrofit buildings, so they don’t waste so much energy, but, also, you’re talking about the middle of the country. We’re also talking about rural green jobs. For instance, it’s not just about manufacturing those wind turbines in the cities. You’ve got to deploy them, and that’s got to be deployed out in rural America. You also have the opportunity to have green jobs in crops to energy, so-called “smart biofuels,” or wood to energy.”
#30 Poor Citizen – Man, you are just all over the place! You get a chance to talk your “Green” Agenda and you cream your pants!
Let’s see: 1. Oil companies raking in billions, 2. Worried about gas prices and getting to work, 3. A 50% source tax (where the hell did that number come from?), 4. Time to get oil independent!
It is apparent you know nothing of economics and the world in which you exist. You only live in a fantasyland. Do you know what happens to your precious gas prices when you tax the source? Your price at the pump goes up Idiot. Do you know that the world’s infrastructure, just about every aspect of it, including your precious green future is dependent on petroleum products?
Oil independence sounds like you don’t want the USA to depend on foreign oil. Good idea but loons like yourself won’t allow steps to be taken to become truly “independent.” All options are “bad” for the environment, e.g. oil drilling on-shore or off-shore, nuclear, natural gas, coal, etc. All forms preferred by the Green movement today only contribute miniscule amounts of energy on good days, wind, geo-thermal, solar, etc.
You sound like one really confused puppy who really needs to do some studying.
IMO, what we need is a public/private plan for converting the world’s economy off petroleum over say the next century. It will take a lot of research and investment and time to avoid stochastic shocks that could put the world economies into a lot of hurt if not managed properly. But it is unrealistic to simply turn off the oil spigot or tax those big, bad oil companies into oblivion. And don’t be fooled by the scare mongers who will cry “We can’t wait that long! The earth will be destroyed by then!” They don’t know squat!
Exactly what does a “Green Jobs Czar” do? How does he create green jobs? I suspect the only jobs he would have created would be some affirmative action appointments on his staff.
I am sure the “Green Jobs Czar” would be as effective creating jobs as the Department of Energy has been in finding alternative energy sources and getting us off oil.
The “Green Jobs Czar” would create jobs as well as the Department of Education has brought up test scores. Thank you Washington. Thank you Barack.
MOHO:
Sigh. I was just trying to be nice, human, a friend.. Your bitterness is too deep, too entrenched, too much a part of your soul. I hope that you find peace. Your anger will destroy you.You will die alone, and unlived. Intellectual eclat may satisfy you for the present, but it will dim, and then you will see what you missed. I will pray for you.
MOHO:
Jones is a asshole. I am surprised that you have difficulty recognizing that. Truly.