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.)
Meanwhile, David Paine, president of My Good Deed Inc., a 9/11
families group involved in the upcoming National Day of Service,
told me in an interview Monday night that he wishes to make it
clear that his group has nothing to do with the Green the Block
campaign.
Paine didn’t express an opinion on Green the Block but said his
group wants the National Day of Service to remain outside the
realm of government, adding “We would oppose anything that would
make it either political or commercial.”
“No one should utilize 9/11 to try and score political points,”
he said.
Paine said his group is encouraging people voluntarily to serve
their communities on Sept. 11 as a way to honor those killed in
the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We’re not promoting any particular
activity,” he said. “This is a free country.”
He also stressed that his group, which pushed for a National Day
of Service for years, resisted earlier calls to make Sept. 11 a
federal holiday.
“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.”
