The American Spectator : The Color of Change Is Green

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The Color of Change Is Green

By Max Schulz on 8.27.09 @ 6:08AM

Hijacking the green agenda for access to government green.

A mini-media controversy has erupted over conservative TV and radio show host Glenn Beck's remarks that he thinks President Obama is racist. A black activist organization called Color of Change has led the charge for a boycott of Beck's highly rated Fox News Channel program. This has led Beck to return fire at Color of Change and its co-founder, Van Jones, who presently serves as the president's green jobs advisor.

Beck has dredged up quotes from Jones in which he describes his path to communism and anarchism. This comes just several months after it was revealed that Obama's top energy and environmental advisor, Carol Browner, was associated with the organization Socialist International.

The White House doubtless can't be too happy with the ongoing Glenn Beck tumult, even if it ultimately succeeds in costing the hated Fox News Channel sponsors and revenue. What the controversy really serves is to shine the spotlight on one of the seamier aspects of President Obama's push to transform America's energy economy. And what it shows is that the green jobs and clean energy campaign waged by the Obama administration appears to be a lot more about radical politics than about the environment.

The curious thing about the troops manning the effort to create a clean, green economy in the age of Obama is that they are not the stereotypical environmental activists one normally thinks about. Sure, the greens at the major environmental organizations are on board with Obama (though some think he's not going far enough). But the real leaders of the new green jobs movement aren't environmentalists at all; they're labor union officials and inner-city community organizers like those at Color of Change. Their interest is not protecting the environment as much as it is hijacking the green zeitgeist to agitate for economic justice, airing ethnic, racial, and other grievances, and grabbing government cash.

Last September these groups came together to stage a massive pre-election rally in cities all over the country called the Green Jobs Now National Day of Action. Most of the major environmental organizations were represented, like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. But what raised eyebrows were the numerous decidedly non-environmental outfits that signed on, including ACORN, MoveOn, and Codepink. Lesser groups, such as the Hip Hop Caucus, Art in Action, Voto Latino, and Democracia USA, participated as well.

Helping lead the charge were a number of Oakland-based organizations tied to Van Jones, a Bay Area activist and author who would be brought into the Obama administration as green jobs czar in March. One is Color of Change, which describes its mission as "dedicated to strengthening Black America's political voice." Previous Color of Change campaigns centered on calling for release of the so-called Jena 6 and fanning post-Katrina recriminations. Other groups involved in the new green jobs push include the Ella Baker Center, which Jones helped found in 1996 to protest what he claims is racist policing, and the organization Green For All.

Thanks to Jones, in fact, inner-city Oakland may well be the heart of the green jobs movement. Its Mayor is Ron Dellums, for a quarter century one of Congress's most left-wing legislators. (In 1977 Mother Jones noted -- approvingly -- that he was the first "dues-paying socialist" to serve in Congress in over a century.) Dellums and Jones collaborated to pioneer the Oakland Green Jobs Corps (OGJC), which disperses tax dollars to eligible groups to run so-called green-job-training programs. According to OGJC documents, "The program will have a special focus on providing 'green pathways out of poverty' by recruiting and training people with barriers to employment (e.g., lack of job skills, lack of education, language/cultural barriers, or history in juvenile/criminal justice system)."

Jones is an interesting character. He is perhaps the leading proponent of harnessing the green jobs wave to benefit low- or no-skill candidates, many with troubled backgrounds. The organizations with which he has been affiliated have seized on the promise of green jobs to benefit inner-city communities.

Jones is as an affable and charismatic messenger of the green gospel with its inner-city twist. A skilled quotesmith who has become a go-to guy for reporters looking to add flavor to stories about the environment, he talks often about the green economy being not just for the Ph.D., but also for the "Ph.-do." Another Jones aphorism for disaffected youth is that "you can make more money if you put down that handgun and pick up a caulk gun."

Jones talks up the need for a "green New Deal" that will "help our Rust Belt cities blossom as Silicon Valleys of green capital." But scroll through the websites and reports of the many organizations with which he's been connected, and one begins to suspect that this "green" commitment is less about nature than about welfare--for inner-city residents without the skills or knowledge to compete in a 21st-century economy, and for the professional poverty organizations that collect the money for government job-training programs.

Perhaps that's not surprising given Jones's radical past, as brought to light by Beck and others. In flattering 2005 profile of Jones in the East Bay Express, he said that he was radicalized shortly after the Rodney King verdict when he was caught up in a mass arrest at a rally protesting the decision. "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. … I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist." He would help found an organization called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) that, according to the Express, "held study groups on the theories of Marx and Lenin and dreamed of a multiracial socialist utopia."

He claims to have been converted to green activism after meeting Julia Butterfly Hill, the activist who spent two years living in a California redwood tree a decade ago to prevent loggers from cutting it down. After befriending her, he decided that environmentalism could be the cure for America's urban ills.

Will it work? The idea of greening the inner-city to improve the lives of its poorest residents would seem to rely on two fallacies. The first is the notion that government must undertake a rescue mission to the inner city because society has failed to provide opportunities for urban blacks. Yet over the last several decades, as the economy has steadily expanded, millions of construction jobs were created in urban centers all across America. For the most part these have been filled by Mexican and Central American immigrants, not by blacks, who largely have absented themselves from this employment boom.

The other fallacy is that inner city green jobs proponents are serious about anything other than seeking more and more taxpayer money. Shortly before the election, the Apollo Alliance (on whose board Jones sat) released a study concluding that five million green jobs could be created for an investment of $500 billion. Obama had cited the same jobs target -- five million -- but for less than one-third the cost ($150 billion). The co-director of the Apollo Alliance dismissed the discrepancy to the Wall Street Journal, saying the number is less significant than the message. "Honestly," she was quoted saying, "it's just to inspire people."

A $350 billion discrepancy no doubt buys a lot of inspiration. What's telling, though, it how utterly divorced from economic reality these green-jobs pleaders are. If Jones and his compatriots in the green-jobs movement truly wanted to help poor minorities, they might start by taking a long, hard look at the history of government-run job-training programs. In terms of money wasted, skills not imparted, and opportunities lost, the history of such programs is abysmal. According to journalist Jim Bovard, one of the foremost experts on government job-training efforts, "Many, if not most, of the participants in federal jobs and job-training programs would be better off today if the programs had never existed." There's not much reason to think that green-jobs-training efforts will prove any different.

topics:
Van Jones, Green Jobs

About the Author

Max Schulz is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment

Kitty| 8.27.09 @ 7:22AM

I've been watching Beck since he first wondered who/what was ACORN. Like peeling an onion, he began delving into the multi-layered underbelly of Obama's administration. He's populated it with people who are admitted communists, people with rap sheets, people who would normally never get anywhere near the Oval Office. And yet they're there now.

Beck is doing one heck of a job, and I hope he has the best personal protection money can buy.

And by the way...
FTA: "Jones is as...affable and charismatic"

It seems only lefties are characterized as "affable and charismatic." So whenever you hear a politician described in those terms, hold onto your wallets and freedoms.
...

drudge ette obama| 8.27.09 @ 7:43AM

I have looked at the Colors of Change website - despite the sanitization of the 'causes' presented, as I scrolled down them, I could feel underlying racial anger and hate.

This Van Jones is bad news for everyone. Imagine being an adult and being so confused as to change so dramtically after meeting a woman who sits in a tree? This is Eric Hoffer's true believer "fanatic" to the letter.

Glenn Beck is truly courageous and I encourage people who haven't listened to him to watch him on t.v. on Fox news and on his radio program. There isn't a racist bone in Glenn Beck's body. I can't say that about Van Jones, despite his camera-loving face and apparent smooth talking ways.

Keep on keepin' on, Glenn.

drudge ette obama| 8.27.09 @ 7:44AM

I have looked at the Colors of Change website - despite the sanitization of the 'causes' presented, as I scrolled down them, I could feel underlying racial anger and hate.

Keep on keepin' on, Glenn.

Big J| 8.27.09 @ 7:52AM

Lately I have felt strangely like Alice - tumbling down an endless rabbit hole.

The oval office and capital hill are occupied by a bunch of crooks, liars and thieves. It's surreal, to say the least.

Anyone who tries to expose these people for who they really are gets knee-capped.

When will the American people demand not only their removal, but prosecution?

RustyG| 8.27.09 @ 8:04AM

How could a Republican candidate in 2012 actually loose to Obama? It would seem that if an opponent of The One would simply tell the truth about him and the people he surrounds himself with it would not be a contest.

Kitty| 8.27.09 @ 8:29AM

My husband has been predicting that we won't have elections, beginning with 2010. I've been pooh-poohing that idea, to which he replies, "Who's going to stop him?"

Considering that even the Constitution doesn't deter Obama, my husband might have a point.
...

Sue| 8.27.09 @ 8:42AM

They are nothing but looters and thieves and they are robbing taxpayers blind which is their only objective. The big issue now is they are using taxpayer money to do it with.

Once they finish looting the Treasury, they'll be gone to their taxpayer funded mansions laughing at us from their hot tubs.

Independents: March with us in Washington D. C.;
on September 12. This is what happens when you follow along instead of voting intelligently.

owyheewine| 8.27.09 @ 10:02AM

The only jobs that those targeted by these programs are qualified for would be horizontal solar collectors, but alas they much prefer to do their lounging in the shade. That means the only green will be in the form of taxpayer funded handouts.

Hermus| 8.27.09 @ 10:53AM

Government programs such as these are usually headed by con artists who want to use poor people as a front to line their pockets and double dip in the taxpayers pocket. I'm not saying that's happening here but.... Also, one should look to see how lavishly these socialist are living themselves. Total hypocrisy and on the backs of poor people.

Grzmlyk| 8.27.09 @ 11:26AM

It may be too late for America. Even if Obama is ultimately unmasked as a vengeful, racist ideologue - and he will be, in spite of the media's tireless efforts - there are too many of these people holding the reins of power now, and still too many willing dupes among once-sane people. Sounds a bit like Germany in 1933, eh?

As Beck himself has pointed out, the groundwork for this has been laid over the last 10 years (at least), not just with the ascent of Obama. As history will prove, we cannot unring this bell.

If Nazi Germany isn’t an apt comparison, perhaps we should look further back in history and across the Rhine. I believe we are on the verge of something very akin to the Reign of Terror in this country.

As for Obama and his fellow travelers - every last one of them – they are loathsome, detestable, self-serving, lying, ruthless, uncaring tyrants.

Back on 09/11 we wondered how evil on such a vast scale could visit our homeland.

That was nothing.

In the blink of history’s eye it has infected every cell of this country like a plague. And like all parasitic infections, it will run its course, gleefully going about the business of killing its host.

I don't like Beck - I think he's emotionally exhibitionistic, perpetually apocalyptic and utterly obnoxious. Every day is a harangue worthy of Chicken Little.

But the truth is, Chicken Little will eventually be proved right. For just as sure as the planets were made, they will all eventually implode.

One day, the sky WILL fall. I just never dreamed it would happen in my lifetime.

Texgeoas| 8.27.09 @ 11:28AM

We owe Glenn Beck a debt of gratitude for reporting the truth to the American people. Of course, the MEDIA should have been all overe these czars a long time ago. Since they WEREN'T, can only assume the media approves of these dangerous actors in the Obama administration. Please continue to support Beck's quest to get the facts to the American people when no one else is willing.

Jas Murphy| 8.27.09 @ 11:41AM

Excellent article, but please pick up in subsequent articles on how the "green" wedge is being used to promote a big agenda of regulations and federal control. That the EPA would unilaterally declare CO2 as a pollutant, a laughable position, in order to impose a regulatory regime where a legal framework is lacking, is just one example of the Green Shirt eco-fascism being promoted in the Obama administration.

flybynight| 8.27.09 @ 11:42AM

There are 3 Certain Things about "Democrats"

1. When "Democrats" speak of the workingman they are speaking ONLY of labor-union members: UAW-AFGE-AFLCIO-SIEU-NEA-IBEW etc. etc. Gainfully employed citizens who do not belong to a labor-union are not workers. They are the enemies of unionized labor.

2. "Democrats" expand their power-base by constantly legislating new statutes and regulations. Then they appropriate taxes, taxes and more taxes to fund, organize and staff huge bureaucracies of unionized bureaucrat-workers to enforce the "law."

3. Whenever a "Democrat" starts whispering about convening an investigative elite task-force of any kind you may be sure that someone somewhere is about to lose some freedom.

Question: Why would any freedom-loving person be a "Democrat"?

Democrats have morphed into the very Soul of oppression and exploitation. Sweep them out, cast them away. Goodbye and good riddance to "Democrats" With rare exception, the current crop of Republicans is not much better but at least they are not "Democrats."

Conclusion: The unionized bureaucratic Federal "labor" force is killing the Republic of The United States of America. The AxelRahmObama Consortium draws its life and power from The Federal Labor Force (AFL-CIO). The bureaucrats are the head. ObamaCo is the body. It wiill be difficult to kill the bureaucratic Hydra but it has to be done or the Republic is lost. Are YOU willing to suffer the inconvenience? Painful days are ahead and the longer we wait the more painful they will be. The huge overpaid and overprotected Unionized Federal Bureaucracy is the problem. Do We The People have the will to kill it and start over?

grzmlyk| 8.27.09 @ 12:00PM

Just to clarify, even with all the self-hype, I do think Beck is performing an invaluable - and courageous - service for this country by exposing the rat's nest underneath the "hope and change" happy talk.

Who would have thought it would take courage merely to connect factual dots?

grzmlyk| 8.27.09 @ 12:00PM

Who would have thought it would take courage merely to connect factual dots?

Abby| 8.27.09 @ 12:09PM

I had the experience of working for the City of Oakland, CA for 29 years, so I had first hand knowledge of ACORN and the green movement, community organizers and their true agenda. I was in a department that regularly hired people referred from community organizations. I also saw the socialism of ACORN first hand. I have often thought that the current white house group is a mirror of Oakland on a national scale and I am very nervous about this. For one thing the City is run by SEIU which is a useless organization for its members except for one ethnic group. It is obviously a front for power. If you are a woman or a white male you will receive no help from SEIU if you should need assistance in dealing with the beaurocracy. The city also regularly gets itself involved with splinter groups and those who are undertrained. The undertrained are not held to any accountability standards and the results of the programs are doctored up to imply they are a success. One example is the summer jobs program for youth, which supposedly helps inner city youth put down their guns. I have actually tried to hire from this group and had nothing but trouble. Again there was no accountability and when the leaders of the program were told about the attendance problems, attitude problems, etc. they dismissed it rather than dealing with the problem. I have often said that before a person can vote in this country they should spend a year or 2 in a government job. This would be a real eye opener.
Glenn Beck is absolutely on course with his research and interpretation of where our country is heading. One of the most glaring things about the government is its ability to cover up the truth. Departmental and financial failures are regularly swept under the rug. Pointing the finger is an art form. Reverse racism is rampant. Agendas are hidden. Dissent is destroyed along with many times the dissenter. I have had a great deal of contact with concerned citizen groups (not community organizers) and eventually they give up on trying to work with the city to improve their neighborhoods. Unless of course you belong to one of the favored ethnic groups, you will experience the bureaucratic runaround. The city is about to possibly go bankrupt. The spending over the years has been with reckless abandon.

I can tell a million stories of what I have seen firsthand. It is frightening to see where this country is headed. The worst part of it is when a regime such as Oakland (or the White House) gains power, it is nearly impossible to reverse the damage or change the direction. Glenn, please keep up the good work for this country. I will help in any way I can. If America goes the way of the City of Oakland we are doomed to fail as the city has.

oldmomster| 8.27.09 @ 12:17PM

How did this guy even get a whitehouse clearance? or have those things gone the way of 'transparency'?

Campy| 8.27.09 @ 1:41PM

Grzmlyk,
"And like all parasitic infections, it will run its course, gleefully going about the business of killing its host."

This is the point that bewilders me the most... what will they do when the host succumbs? Are they that obtuse?

BTW, did you see where there is a cash for clunker appliances now??... as you predicted!!

Grzmlyk| 8.27.09 @ 2:08PM

Campy,

I agree, it's counterintuitive. But then I've always thought medical diseases were counterintuitive - I mean, cancer ultimately kills itself when the host dies. So what is the point?

The same is true of these left-wing policies. They ultimately kill governments. But I think that's part of the entire mentality we have fostered - no one cares to look down the road. They look to re-election. Or they look to what's going to feather the nest NOW - let someone else worry about the consequences a few years hence. Even corporations tend to focus on quarterly earnings rather than the big picture.

We have no visionaries in public service today - well, Obama and his ilk are visionaries, but they're nihilists: Ironically, they hitch their wagons to the enviro hog-wash of "sustainable" this and "sustainable" that, and yet the structure they would put in place is utterly unsustainable.

But again, they don't care. We have devolved as a civilization, I think, to where bread and circuses are all we really require and we actually cheer Nero while he fiddles even as Rome burns.

Yes, it's cash for clunker cars yesterday, cash for clunker appliances tomorrow and cash for illegal immigrants to take those vacations tomorrow!

I never tire of the following quote, whose provenance is disputed, but is probably the pithiest summation of our fate that exists:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

Right now, I'd say we're somewhere between dependence and bondage.

Jaded| 8.27.09 @ 2:29PM

I would have thought there was no hope for this country with all these communists/leftists/liberals destroying it however just seeing the people rise up with the TEA Parties going to the Townhalls I feel real and tangible hope that we can turn this around. It would appear that dictators CANNOT control over 300 million people!

Campy| 8.27.09 @ 2:42PM

Grzmlyk,

The Fatal Sequence... holy crap.

While (obviously) not completely alone, I feel like an anomaly watching a stagecoach go over the cliff. I want to prevent it, but the wheels keep turning relentlessly.

As far as disease being counterintuitive, the result is the same indeed. But purportedly civilization has 'intelligence' to avoid its premature demise and, one would presume, that of its progeny. While I agree with you on how things are, I still just don't 'get it.'

One thing about cancer: at least you know it for what it is.

Jerry Olaughlin| 8.27.09 @ 3:03PM

Please tell us who these advertisers are so that we can buy thier product and also to notify them that the only reason I am buying their product is because of Glenn Beck. We have got to come together as REAL Americans to stop these communist freaks from detsroying our country. They don't love America. How could they when they sell us out and bad mouth us every day?

Sue| 8.27.09 @ 3:09PM

Meet up in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10, 11, 12. We have to SHOW them we KNOW them.

That's what counts!

Don't Boycott;write letters| 8.27.09 @ 3:21PM

The latest is that there are now 33 advertisers pulling their ads from Glenn Beck's air time. It appears that no one can find a complete list - probably the advertisers fear the public's boycotting; which is already taking place against the known advertisers.

Here is a site that has a petition against Beck. Please keep in mind, I support Glenn Beck's right to free speech and his ideals.
This is not a link - just the site address. It will give you a partial list.

www.petitiononline.com/gbb2007/petition.html

It will be very difficult to boycott all of the advertisers as many of us may be caught in their trap as a necessity. I will keep the research up and inform you as to my progress.

Perry

www.democrats.com/boycott-fox-news-advertisers

I would like to know why you have decided to violate Mr. Glenn Beck's free speech rights by pulling your advertising dollars. The organization COLORofchange.org is a racist organization that backs Mr. Obama. The very name, COLOR, excludes white people specifically. The fact that you do not think Mr. Obama is a racist is irrelevant to most people. The very idea that a "racist" organization is demanding that you pull your advertising dollars from Mr. Beck's show is a "racist" act by you.

Your organization has a responsiblity to remain neutral in political speech. If you do not remain neutral in political speech, then you are violating and chilling the delivery of all views to a "diverse" citizenry. The chilling of political speech cannot be tolerated in a free society. If the comments by Mr. Beck offends some people, or specifically, members of an organization that practices "racism" by intentionally excluding "white males" then I would suggest they turn off their TVs. That's what I do when Mr. Maher, Mr. Letterman, Mr. Sharpton, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Frank, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Rangel come on and start spouting "hate" speech. I have a choice in this matter. When you deny the opportunity for political speech, no matter how inflammatory you may think it is, you are denying and marginalizing dissidents. The very reverse of what the organization, COLORofchange.org would be upset about if you did this to them.

I, for one, will not patronize a Wal-Mart store. I have a Kroger's and Meijer, and Target close by and I believe I will SPEND my money where it will help me. I also see that you do not support "white males" in your desire to be "diverse." I guess now that we have a black president the "white males" can be considered needing a "helping hand."

All of you, from management to the Board of Directors, know that what I speak of is true. Your managers are so terrified of offending the "diversity" Gods, you will go to any lengths to satisfy whatever extorted action the minority class demands.

I for one am quite sick of it all. Nowhere do I see the "underprivileged" white male given a helping hand. Why, the way society portrays him, you would think he's the very devil. And you all know it's not true. No race in a civilized society has given up so much to rectify pass atrocities that they didn't even commit, to help people that didn't even suffer from the atrocities, than the "white" race of America. Specifically, the poor white male. It's he who is passed over for promotion so governments can meet their “diversity goals,” passed over for jobs, not given scholarships and opportunities. And you all know it. It's not the politically connected, the privileged "black" children, the "silver spoon" white man's children, it's the "poor/middle class white males." Acknowledge it - instead of burying your head in the sand - avoiding the next extortion lawsuit by the "Jesse Jacksons" of the Country.

Grzmlyk| 8.27.09 @ 3:25PM

I agree, Campy. I don't get it either. I don't get why people can't see this health care "reform" for what it is. I don't get why they think it'll be just dandy when our own government has messed up every government program it's ever created (and always the same way - by overpromising, underdelivering and wildly underestimating the out-of-control costs) and every other country has messed up universal health care in precisely the same way.

It's as if people keep dropping eggs off of a skyscraper expecting that one day, the egg won't shatter.

It truly mystifies me.

Then again, it mystifies me why anyone - some people very close to me - thought Obama really WAS the way, the light and the hope. And it mystifies me why people think you can create a government that will be a fair dispenser of social justice. Or why you can legislate self-interest out of human nature. Or why they think the government can do anything competently in the face of 100 percent evidence to the contrary.

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be a grown-up so that I, too, would have a command of how the world works. Imagine my shock when I arrived at adulthood only to find there's no more rationality here than there is on the playground.

Depressing.

Read this and Understand| 8.27.09 @ 3:27PM

Well, the "lion of the Senate" has passed away. I think this may liberate Massachusetts from decades of cronyism politics. I certainly hope so.

There is talk about naming the health care bill after Kennedy. I think this is wrong. The health care bill, if passed, should be name after Karl Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and others. It is wrong to take the wealth of another American and pass it out to others and garner political power with the masses.

One Congressman, I can't recall his name, made the outrageous statement that he would vote for the bill regardless of what his constituents wanted.

The Federalist Paper #78, Alexander Hamilton:

"If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution. IT IS NOT OTHERWISE TO BE SUPPOSED, THAT THE CONSTITUTION COULD INTEND TO ENABLE THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE TO SUBSTITUTE THEIR WILL TO THAT OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS. It is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to KEEP THE LATTER WITHIN THE LIMITS ASSIGNED TO THEIR AUTHORITY.

The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. IF THERE SHOULD HAPPEN TO BE AN IRRECONCILABLE VARIANCE BETWEEN THE TWO, THAT WHICH HAS THE SUPERIOR OBLIGATION AND VALIDITY OUGHT, OF COURSE, TO BE PREFERRED; OR, IN OTHER WORDS, THE CONSTITUTION OUGHT TO BE PREFERRED TO THE STATUTE, THE INTENTION OF THE PEOPLE TO THE INTENTION OF THEIR AGENTS.

Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both, and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental."

This is how we came by "social security." Roosevelt's packed Supreme Court did not do their jobs. There is nothing in the Constitution that allows the government to provide an "income" to its people through taxation. That is also one reason why they titled it a "revenue act." They do have the authority to tax and raise revenue, but they do not have the authority to guarantee "income" to its citizens.

Johnson and his democrat party did the same thing with Medicare. The judges once again failed to do their duty by standing with the people against the legislation. In this Country, with 60 years of socialist policies, the people have been cowered into believing that a "republic" means that the people are represented by their legislature and THEY HAVE THE FINAL AUTHORITY IN MAKING LAWS REGARDLESS OF THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE. They may make the unconstitutional law, but it is the JUDICIARY that must overturn it.

Then, they continue to bamboozle the voters into believing that through statutory takings, it is legitimate under our Constitution. It is just the opposite.

If Americans want every other American to be taxed for his "guaranteed income," "guaranteed health care," "guaranteed education," then the Constitution has to be amended.

This is the beauty of the compact between our federal and state governments and the people. The people should not be allowed to reduce the rights of everyone, because they want to "see" a right in the Constitution. There is no authority to do this without the will of the people being expressed through an amendment.

This is also precisely why our legislators pit us against one another by class and status. They know very well that if the majority of Americans understood their lawful rights under the Constitution, they would lose the election by the minority who see it as their "lawful check" from other citizens.

MARCELL REDD| 8.27.09 @ 3:33PM

DEMOCRACIA,USA is more like ACORN. They are a fraud they claim to be non-partisan and they are a bunch of democrats posing a non-partisan. Look at their staff members. They director from Nevada did Hillary's campaign. In New Jersey they secretly helped Robert Menendez win his election in 2006. They claimed to have registered 105,000 voters how can you register 105,000 voters when with 2 weeks to go in registering voters you project to have 98,000.
Sadly, no one has checked to see what DEMOCRACIA,USA is about. They do not empower anybody but themselves. check out the youtube video on their election fraud.

MARCELL | 8.27.09 @ 3:34PM

Campy| 8.27.09 @ 3:44PM

Grzmlyk,
"...it mystifies me why anyone - some people very close to me - thought Obama really WAS the way, the light and the hope."

Same here, man. Just glad I was led to this site; I feel less alone.
C

Josh Price| 8.27.09 @ 5:55PM

The color of American communism isn't red or brown, it's green.

The Green Shirts are coming...

Josh Price-- theconservativebeacon.net

pjean| 8.27.09 @ 10:45PM

God sees all, folks. But just because He does, doesn't mean we get to sit on our hands. Eighty percent of Americans do not believe in Marxist and leftist beliefs. WE ARE THE MAJORITY. We must educate ourselves and stand in the belief that we are powerful over this force. We believe in what is good about America and we must defend it for our children and grandchildren.

Flel| 8.27.09 @ 10:47PM

It's pretty simple how they plan to continue getting elected: they expand the group of Americans (and illegals if they can work it out) that receive govt aid thus providing a most pliable electorate beholden to govt for their survival. Self-respecting Americans that don't ask for more than secure borders and a firm defense will be left to shoulder the load with an ever increasing tax burden. Welcome to socialism for the 21st century. I don't like what I see of it so far.

Christopher Holland| 8.28.09 @ 12:01AM

Herman Goering is famous for saying 'when I hear the word "culture", I put my hand on my gun'. After 20 years as an environmental economist, that is how I feel when I hear about green jobs. The idea of green jobs is nothing but a boondoggle and a fraud on consumers and taxpayers alike. Put your hand on your gun.

Ralph| 8.28.09 @ 4:34AM

Sitting in church on Sundays with Jerimiah Wright is this any surprise to anyone Obama is one of Farrakhan's boys he employed two people from the nation of Islam while he was in the Senate. Eric Holder was a lobbyist from a law firm Covington & Burling that firm is doing pro bono work for the prisoners at GITMO aid and comfort to the enemy our countyry will be attacked with these idiots in office we are sleeping with the enemy. Ronald Reagan said many great things had a wealth of wisdom one of them was "You want to make America a socialist country one word HEALTH CARE" Obama wants to destroy this county I think no one can be this stupid mental patients aren't this stupid this is Chicago style quid pro quo politics as usual one man said he had not seen such racism anywhere like Chicago not in Mississippi nor Alabama that man was Martin Luther King Jr. Wright is getting his wish Obama was elected and America is Damned!

bobc| 8.28.09 @ 11:31PM

We must have far more communists than I ever imagined. For those of color, why do many of them turn to such groups, rather than work and find a way to better their lives without government involvement? We hear it all the time, in prison many turn to Islam, or communism!

The traitors in Washington are not helping them, they are just coming up with schemes to steal from other citizens and give it to these groups that obviously hate the country, our sovereignty and freedom.

I went to that Appollo web page, one of the heads of this group is a friend of George Soros...I say follow the money and it always leads to Soros when it comes to the far left.

Soros should be investigated!

bobc| 8.28.09 @ 11:31PM

I went to that Appollo web page, one of the heads of this group is a friend of George Soros...I say follow the money and it always leads to Soros when it comes to the far left.

Soros should be investigated!

Obama is no Dr. Martin Luther King!

Justplainbill| 8.30.09 @ 5:32AM

I have heard these people described as "watermelons"; green on the outside and red on the inside.

Richard Baker| 8.30.09 @ 2:41PM

Amazing! Only in America can one be a Rich Communist. What a Country!

AJC| 9.4.09 @ 10:52PM

Thanks for sharing news The Color of Change Is Green

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Flu-Bird| 1.24.10 @ 12:53PM

The real green color these eco-wackos realy want has the picture of BEN FRANKIN on it and is green and with $$$$$$$$ everywhere

The lifewave| 5.13.10 @ 3:48AM

Do you know the diferences between socialist and communist? Really? buf...
And I agree with somo other opinion of readers of this post, the only color that's counts is the green of dollars...nothing more...

superonline

Audrey Kolb| 1.19.11 @ 1:26PM

As an African-American female living in a country of racists, such as you and (it seems) all of your bloggers, I take offense to your view that green jobs would not help the African-American community and to the fact that all the green job activists want is taxpayer money. When you look at what our taxes are spent on: war, repealing the healthcare plan, healthcare and a comfortable lifestyle for politicians, corporate welfare, etc., it seems that spending taxes training those who need jobs would be healthy for our economy as well as our morale and would be money well spent.

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