The American Spectator : Van's Line

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Van's Line

You can't grasp the full craziness of Van Jones unless you watch his speeches on YouTube.

You can't grasp the full craziness of Van Jones, Obama's now-resigned "green jobs czar" (actual job title: "Special Advisor on Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the White House Council on Environmental Quality"), unless you watch his speeches on YouTube.

In a nutshell, along with his anti-capitalism, Marxism, and anti-white racism, Jones' big idea is that we should knock down our prisons and create green jobs by having the nation's murderers and rapists come over to caulk our windows.

Jones describes U.S. prisons as "slave ships on dry land," a "punishment industry" that's disproportionately victimizing people of color and profiting from America's ongoing "racist war."

One of the victims of that racist war, trapped unfairly on a "slave ship" in Philly, according to Jones, is Mumia Abu-Jamal. He's the former community organizer and "Lieutenant of Information" for the Black Panther Party who was convicted of the Dec. 9, 1981, murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Jones asserts that whites are the actual violent ones, shooting up whole schools, not just one person at a time. "You've never seen a Columbine done by a black," says Jones. "Never."

Perhaps. But the U.S. Department of Justice, totaling up all the murders nationwide -- not just what happened on one day in 1999 -- reports that the offending rate for blacks who commit murder is more than seven times higher than the rate for whites; the homicide-victimization rate for blacks is six times higher than the rate for whites; and 94 percent of black murder victims are killed by blacks.

In any case, Jones' green-justice idea is to "build a pipeline from the prison economy to the green economy," an innovative solution that allows us to simultaneously achieve several major goals. The "historical victims" trade in their AK-47s for caulking guns, the piggy public uses less energy, the polar bears get back their non-melting ice, and the abused occupants of the land-based slave ships will get out from behind bars and be pocketing a public sector "living wage" by applying weatherstripping from a nonprofit government factory.

As Investor's Business Daily points out, Jones may not have been truly original in coming up with this scheme: "In his 2006 memoir, President Obama proposed government-subsidized green jobs 'to hire and train ex-felons on projects' such as 'insulating homes and offices to make them energy-efficient.' Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who worked with Jones in California as a congresswoman, has already put such plans into motion."

Jones explains that it was in the aftermath of the Rodney King riots in California that he became a communist. As he told the East Bay Express in 2005: "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28 (1992), and then the verdicts came down on April 29. By August, I was a communist."

In the same interview, Jones explains how he developed a soft spot for felons, the future weatherstrippers of America: "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And I was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' I spent the next 10 years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary."

And so we ended up with a self-described red as a "green czar," a special adviser to the president, set to distribute some $30 billion or so of our tax dollars in ways that he determines would save the world from an Earth-killing capitalist system.

Jones outlined his strategy for a green and collectivist utopia last year during an interview with leftist Uprising Radio in Los Angeles: "The green economy will start off as a small subset" of a "complete revolution" against "gray capitalism" and toward a "redistribution of all wealth."

And how's the mundane caulking of windows fit in? It's just the way to get Van Jones into the White House as a "czar" of something that sounds nice -- a way to get guys like Abu-Jamal back on the street with our money in their wallets, ready to do some real community organizing on a grand scale.

In one of his more honest moments, Jones explains the ruse, the use of "green" as a deceptive maneuver to destroy the existing American system: "We are going to push it and push it until it becomes the engine for transforming the whole society."

About the Author

Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment

drudge ette obama| 9.17.09 @ 6:23AM

Again, Van Jones must be highly unstable if he is so easily transformed in his ideological beliefs. This True Believer fanatic reminds me of another fanatic, Bill Ayers’ wife, Bernadette Dohrn, who stated after the Manson Family murders, including victim Sharon Tate, “Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!”

To think that our President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have sat socially with Dorhn and her husband, Bill Ayers, despite the passage of time, and that Obama was only 9 years old, is nauseating.

Honestly, how many of us would be repulsed if we were by chance in the presence of Ayers or Dohrn? And some of you may send your children to the school where she teaches.

Pretty soon, Van Jones will be a visiting lecturer at Harvard or Columbia. If he isn't already. Protect your children.

Appleby| 9.17.09 @ 7:05AM

Anybody who thinks the Book of Revelation is a fantasy had better read it again.

Stop it wherever you can, but trim your wicks and fill your lamps; and notice that Satchel Pages advice still holds true -- the Obamination of Desolation and his Krew dare not look back, because they know Something is gaining on them.Rapidly.

stephanie| 9.17.09 @ 8:16AM

My God! what do we have in the White House?
This is outrageous!
I hope with all my soul that the energy I experienced in Washington last Saturday will continue to build and we can stop this takeover by these unAmericans that are running and ruing our country. And the fact that obama didn't denounce this man's views speaks volumes.

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.17.09 @ 10:00AM

Stephanie
Thank you for going. Believe me the energy is building with every word Obama speaks, and every time a new video or study comes out about the truly despicable people surrounding Obama.

Ms Malkin's book "The culture of Corruption" was absolutely stunning from cover to cover. I had to set it down over and over again to digest some of the outrageous inter-connections of these people.
Heck, it will take me a year to digest just what she footnoted from impeccable sources.
By the way, where do you hail from? We at TEAM America have identified a BUNCH of great potential candidates for congress around the country now. I will pass the name of the best vetted ones in your neighborhood. www.myteamusa.org

ccc| 9.17.09 @ 11:02AM

Yes chain gangs of home insulators is a silly idea, particularly because due to the higher black incarceration rates this would essentially recapitualate 18th century slavery.
The questions remains what are ex-cons to do after serving their time? Construction is one of the more viable trades.

Tim| 9.17.09 @ 11:24AM

Just the folks I want to hire to fix my house: the west side Gangsta Crips.

Pete| 9.17.09 @ 11:51AM

Why would he denounce Van's views? HE SHARES THEM! HE IS ONE OF THESE CRAZY PEOPLE! Everything he is doing is an attempt to consolidate enough power to be able to do the kinds of things his buddies Van and his esteemed Pastor want to do. It is all quite insane and only possible because of a complicit media.

This reminds me of a talk my Dad used to have with my older brother and I. We laughed about it and called it the "life comes in packages" speech. The gist, and I am oversimplifying just a bit, was that if you choose to hang out with dirtbags, you will likely become a dirtbag. Choose to hang out with good people with good values and you will be drawn in that direction. Now that I am older, I can see that he was 100% correct.

stephanie| 9.17.09 @ 11:51AM

Old Texican,
We hail from Virginia, an hour east of Richmond. We are forming Patriot parties, (see Peninsula Patriots) and doing our best to make positive changes in our local and state governments. All are corrupt and we are looking to shine the sun on those who will not abide by the constitution and govern with openness, honesty and decency. I was honored to be in DC Saturday, to march with other patriots and to sit at the foot of our Capital to protest peacefully. It was truely the most moving event I have been to in my 56 years. The positive nature of the thousands there was so inspiring and uplifting. We have hope but will not let up on this banana republic of an administration. That goes for the slack dog republicans too!
Thanks for your appreciation, again, it was my honor.

Jim O'Brien| 9.17.09 @ 1:17PM

It appears that Obama has 32 czars, of which 18 are new since the bloated Bush government. Obama has created a Shadow Government which not only duplicates the expense of Cabinet departments but is designed to hide activities and decisions from public scrutiny. Does Congress really know how many czars have been hired? How many have criminal records, or have ties to organizations and ideologies which oppose our republican form of government?

Ray | 9.17.09 @ 2:16PM

So, Van Jones believes that prisoners should be working on a chain-gang, be FORCED to work for redemption? How is that any different from slavery?

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.17.09 @ 2:59PM

Hi back, Stephanie

In VA, congressional districts 2,5,11, and 8 are in our sites. We can win every one of them. Please get your patriots in the loop. myteamusa.org is trying to determine who we will get nominated then elected with your help.
heh heh...we are "outside agitators". We can do stuff your local friends cannot do.
We hope you will join us. It costs 20 dollars...and we are worth it...(smile)
Help us vet your local candidates. write me at
kbjudgeroybean06@gmil.com
God bless

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.17.09 @ 3:01PM

Stephanie...my finger did not work properly (oops)
kbjudgeroybean06@gmail.com

Flel| 9.17.09 @ 4:02PM

Of course Obama supports Jones and his ilk. He thanked him for his service following his resignation in the dead of night on a holiday weekend. What guts that must have taken to go out on a limb and thank him for his service. No wondering out loud why he wanted to resign or what his reasons were for leaving. Just a fond goodbye and thanks for being part of my team. Almost like a one-night stand.

Flel| 9.17.09 @ 4:05PM

One more thing, why do they need to be released from prison to do these great eco-friendly tasks? Let them learn by doing it in the prisons first and produce some results before they get loosed on gentle society. Let them go back to growing their own food and taking care of themselves too. This would greatly reduce the cost of incarceration and reduce the power of the prison guard unions in our state and I'm sure many other states.

Burlington| 9.18.09 @ 5:10AM

All the still photos that I have seen of Van Jones in the last month have been posed with studio lighting. That in my experience has been very unusual.

Margie| 9.18.09 @ 8:35PM

If you think Van Jones is scary. It's a lot scarier to me that the President is just like him. I say it again, folks. Go to youtube. type in obama constitution and you will come across someone's video of Obama's autobiography. They put the words up on the screen as well as the audiobook. Portions of it. This man is absolutely despises "white people." It is unbelievable. I had never heard it till the other day and I will not stop telling everybody I know.

Canthisbe| 9.20.09 @ 4:04PM

While I agree with the substance of this article, I think that it is a mistake to refer to people like Van Jones as “crazy”. Van Jones is far from crazy. He is not stupid, an idiot, insane, etc., etc. Van Jones is intelligent. When you start calling people like Van Jones crazy etc., you turn off more moderate, middle of the road readers before they get to the substance of the article. And it is never a good idea to under estimate your enemy. Van Jones is a radical, a socialist, a black power racist, etc. , but not crazy. He has a very powerful concept in using environmental bs to push his socialist, black power agenda because outside of the hard core socialist liberal Democrats is a number of people who are not as socialist or not as pro-black power who are willing to go along for Van Jones’s program once he spins it as being about the environment. It is import to peel as many of middle away from supporting Van Jones just because he claims to be an environmentalist.

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