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The Obama Watch
Greenwashing 9/11
Green for All’s free-for-all, so to speak, all in the name of national service.
From inside the Obama White House, green jobs czar Van Jones has been orchestrating a campaign to greenwash the meaning of 9/11 using federal resources and a political front group he founded, new research suggests.
It is unclear if this is illegal but at a minimum it raises questions about ethics, self-dealing, and the proper use of U.S. government resources.
The group, called Green for All, was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in California on Dec. 11, 2007 by Jones. Green for All is one of two groups involved in a campaign called Green the Block. Green the Block was created “to educate and mobilize communities of color to ensure a voice and stake in the clean-energy economy,” according to its website. Jones was also on the board of the Apollo Alliance, a hard-left environmentalist group that is now running large chunks of the Obama administration. The group has acknowledged that it dictated parts of the February stimulus bill to Congress.
In an apparent conflict of interest, Jones, a self-described “communist,” presided over the White House endorsement of Green the Block in an online video conference on Aug. 4. Jones touted Green the Block’s first major initiative which involved participating in the National Day of Service scheduled for this Sept. 11. He described the day as a great opportunity “for people to connect, to find other people in your peer group who are also passionate about repowering America but also greening up America and cleaning up America.”
As I wrote last week, about 60 groups including ACORN, Apollo Alliance, Color of Change, and Rainbow PUSH Coalition are trying to help the Obama administration modify the meaning of 9/11. They want to turn each Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the importance of bicycle paths, ethanol, carbon emission controls, putting solar panels on your roof, and radical community organizing. It has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year’s election campaign.
On a White House-sponsored teleconference call Aug. 11 leaders of these groups said that they view Sept. 11 as a “Republican” day because it focuses the public on supposedly “Republican” issues like patriotism, national security, and terrorism. According to liberals, 9/11 was long ago hijacked by Republicans and their enablers and unfairly used to bludgeon helpless Democrats at election time. Shifting the focus of 9/11 from remembrance to environmentalism and community service helps diminish the day as a Republican symbol, they believe.
Although Sept. 11 was designated a “National Day of Service and Remembrance” when President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law on April 21, few Americans associate Sept. 11 with the activities envisioned by Green the Block. Americans tend to think of the horrors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but Green the Block is trying to change that.
Using the language of markets, Green the Block attempts to further the goals of the radical environmentalist left by convincing Americans that the utopian fantasy of an oil-free so-called green economy is possible without turning the U.S. into a Third World country.
“Green the Block is a movement to build a clean-energy economy where everyone has a chance to succeed,” said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All. “That starts with making sure that those who are often left out and left behind — low-income people and communities of color — have a voice and a presence in this movement. These communities also need a fair share of the economic, social and environmental benefits this transition is creating.”
No IRS Form 990 — the tax return a nonprofit files — is yet publicly available for the group, possibly because the group is so new, but some donations to it have been identified.
According to philanthropy databases, Green for All has received charitable contributions from the Kendada Fund ($1 million in 2008), the Schmidt Family Foundation ($125,000 in 2007), the Starfish Group ($100,000 in 2007), and the Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation ($10,000 in 2006). Tompkins Buell is a member of the George Soros-led donors’ collaborative known as Democracy Alliance that aims to turn America into a European-style socialist state.
James Rucker, a former MoveOn.org lead organizer, is on the board of directors of Green for All. Rucker is also, like Jones, a co-founder of Color of Change, the group that is urging an advertiser boycott of Glenn Beck’s TV show after the commentator called President Obama a “racist.” Rucker is also a co-founder of the Secretary of State Project, a group that aims to elect Democrats across the country to that key state office that presides over elections. The Secretary of State Project has been funded both by Soros and by Tompkins Buell.
Many of the donations to Green for All were passed through another nonprofit Jones founded called the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Such pass-through arrangements are common with small or new nonprofits that have not yet attained tax-exempt status from the IRS.
Major donors to the Ella Baker Center include reliable left-wing funders Nathan Cummings Foundation ($1,125,500 since 2002), George Soros’s Open Society Institute ($1,026,800 since 1999), Tides Foundation ($891,168 since 2000), Annie E. Casey Foundation ($558,424 since 2001), and Surdna Foundation ($500,000 since 2001).
The Ella Baker Center is also notable because it was involved in an Oakland, California vigil the day after Sept. 11, 2001, “mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world.” The vigil was organized by another group Jones founded called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM). (For more on the vigil, see my report filed here yesterday.)
About the Author
Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (43) | Leave a comment
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Big J| 9.1.09 @ 7:36AM
iday.
"We believe volunteerism should be something that people do out of the goodness of their hearts," he said. "Self-directed service: Americans know what needs to be done."
Oh, yes we do - we know exactly what needs to be done.
Expose these crooks for who they are, indict and prosecute them, and take our country back.
That's exactly what needs to be done.
And, if patriotic Americans will take a moment on September 11, 2009, go to:
http://project2996.wordpress.com/
Read and remember the victims of this heinous crime on freedom-loving Americans.
You can take your national day of service and stick it where the sun don't shine.
reads1| 9.1.09 @ 8:34AM
I did my "National DAYS of service from August, 1942 until Jan., 1946. I look at what has become of the Country to which I dedicated this 'service' and I am ashamed of the results. I suppose I and my children and grand-children bear some responsibility for this but none of us will sully the memory of those who died on 9-11 at the hands of a so-called "Religion of Peace" group. This Communist, who leads this effort should be summarily dismissed from our Government payroll, along with all his supporters. It will not happen as there are too many Demoncrats in Congress that are in sympathy with this thinking. I have but a few, if any years to devote to this Country but will continue to hope that all was not in vain!
joseph p bell| 9.1.10 @ 10:33PM
reads 1 ( i did my Service from 1952-1956 ) i am a 911 truther, and i am totally ashamed at the people my age ,or older because they are the reason this country is the way it is , a DISASTER of major proportions :The entire Administrations of BUSH 41 and 43 are responsible along with CONGRESS ;regardless of party .. everyone is asleep in this country .. 99.9 % of the people are brain dead .I have reverted to usa has the united sheeps of arabia and israel .our children and grand children will be the losers here ... Democrats and Republiecans are all the sam now .GREEDY and afraid of life /// the usa is GONE until Jimmy Carter can come back ...
Duke| 9.1.09 @ 11:42AM
It has been a mystery to me how the populous has allowed the lefties to try fade the memory of 9/11. First it was "lets not play the tape of it anymore", then all the apologies and attempts by obama (the lowercase "o" is intentional) and his lefty-wacko minions to tell us what we did to deserve it. Now this! Another hard left Communist with viable power in DC is furthering his agenda in this tawdry, despicable manner with obamas blessing. I sometimes wonder what this country will look like in 3 more years.... it chills me.
Marc Jeric| 9.1.09 @ 12:06PM
Having escaped years ago from a communist hell I think I could introduce some clarity in what is happening to our country, by translating this new vocabulary now in vogue. ACORN brownshirts together with SEIU and AFSCME union thugs are in reality a system of local soviets or block committees charged by the White House to demonstrate, threaten, intimidate, and if necessary to apply violence against the political enemies of the ruling party; they are also paid for that work through the $9 billion in the stimulus bill, with more to come in the next year. The 34 so-called czars in the White House are in reality what we refugees used to know as komissars - unelected, unconfirmed, and solely responsible to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Only one thing is still missing - the system of local soviets (sorry - community organizations) within the National Guard and the military, and then our Great Leader, Abu Hussein from Kenya, our Community Organizer-in-Chief, can dispense with future elections with the excuse of "extreme crisis" and "saving the nation".
National day of Service - indeed!
joseph p bell| 9.1.10 @ 10:43PM
DUKE AND MARC JERIC AND SL TODDARD : WHERE HAVE YOU ALL BEEN SMOKING THAT WEED ;HOW DID BUILDING 7 GO DOWN , ? ILL HUFF AND ILL PUFF AND BLOW THIS HOUSE DOWN .. and if you think Commercial jets can fly like they did(didn't ) on 911 ;then we should be winning in iraq and afghanistan ,but , we had an AWOL "my daddy piad for me to go into the Guards ". Hitler was a corporal in the army and fought in a war. and gwb's granddaddy suplied money and oil to the Nazi's 1941, until Herbert Hoover put the handcuffs on them (Rockefeller ,Harriman . Prescott Bush NIXON's sweetheart .. check you "real "history / The Americans Indians were slaughtered by your crazy white grandparents
S.L. Toddard| 9.1.09 @ 2:14PM
The Fox News Right is *steamed* that Barack Obama is hijacking 9/11 to advance his socialist agenda. They hijacked it first to advance their imperialist agenda, after all, and in keeping with the level of political sophistication at which their supporters operate they take the "Finders Keepers - Losers Weepers" rule very seriously.
Pete| 9.1.09 @ 3:51PM
http://www.glennbeck.com/conte.....198/29967/
They are basically good people...time to buy more ammo.
Jeremy| 9.1.09 @ 4:48PM
So, in order to honor those who died in September 11th rather than having a day encouraging the men and women of this country devote some time to their communities you would rather have people put up websites? Putting up more websites isn't going to honor the deaths of those people from New York, Washington D.C., Boston, and New Jersey would died on September 11th.
This is remarkably familiar to the early days of the Iraq War when the right-wingers would self-righteously talk about their support for the troops and the yellow ribbon they bought and denounce the liberals like me who opposed the war. I spent my weekends working on rallies and performances to raise money for the Wounded-Warrior Project while the ROTC kids went on about how I didn't support the troops cause I opposed the war. (http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/)
Pingback| 9.1.09 @ 5:18PM
The American Spectator : Greenwashing 9/11 | Online - Online.com.pt links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.1.09 @ 5:56PM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
true religion jeans | 9.1.09 @ 9:28PM
I spent my weekends working on rallies and performances to raise money for the Wounded-Warrior Project while the ROTC kids went on about how I didn't support the troops cause I opposed the war.
GENE HAUBER| 9.3.09 @ 2:09PM
IF THE "MEANING" OF 9/11 IS MODIFIED BY THIS DESPICABLE, ANTI-AMERICAN WHITE HOUSE, then ALL TRUE AMERICANS, not just the "racist and bigoted whites" of this country, BUT EVERYONE WHO THINKS THAT HAVING COME TO THIS COUNTRY, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WAS THE """"BEST"""""THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO THEM OR THIER FAMILY, THEN IT ONLY PROVES WHAT OUR """"""ENEMIES"""""SAY ABOUT US CONSTANTLY IN THE PRESS.... AND EVEN OUR "ENEMIES" WHO SPEAK"FOR US" FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT, OUR SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON.....A REAL AMERICA HATER.
Make no mistake about it folks......IF YOU BROUGHT YOUR FAMILY HERE TO AMERICA TO PROVIDE FOR THEM A MUCH, MUCH GREATER OPPORTUNITY THAN THEY WOULD HAVE IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY........THEN YOU NEED TO OPPOSE THIS PRESIDENT'S EFFORTS TO RETURN YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TO THE SAME CRAP YOU TRIED TO LEAVE, SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST CONTROL OVER YOUR LIVES.
THIS IS AMERICA.....YOU SHOULD BE ...FREE....OF ALL OF OBAMAS CONTROLLING CRAP.
GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE IN COMING HER....I WILL SUPPORT YOU!!!
Pingback| 9.3.09 @ 8:48PM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.4.09 @ 4:17AM
Van Jones Thinks 9/11 Was A Republican Campaign Ad « NewsReal Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.4.09 @ 7:59PM
The “Greening” of 9-11 « Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.7.09 @ 4:00AM
Who is Van Jones and Why Did He Get Thrown Under the Bus? « American Elephants links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.7.09 @ 7:44AM
| JoeWebb.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.10.09 @ 11:13PM
I Say “NO” To Obama’s Hijacking Of 9/11 links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Larry Miller| 9.11.09 @ 5:43PM
We just got rid of that wack job Bush who caused 9/11, then secretly flew Ben Laden's family out of the country on an air force jet. Then he invents intelligence so he can invade Iraq and not his buddy's country.
Then he passes the Largest expansion of Socialized Medicine in history with no way to pay for it. Then he bails out his dad's buddies on Wall Street. And he's supposed to be the good guy. How stupid are you guys? You'll follow anybody who wears a lapel pin with the flag on it. Don't you see how you're being fooled/ Everytime these guys get in office, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But you go ahead and vote for them anyway. They pick your pocket and laugh behind your back.
123123| 9.15.09 @ 6:29AM
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happy valentine| 2.3.10 @ 1:05PM
We believe volunteerism should be something that people do out of the goodness of their hearts.
Writing in thoughts
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