Obama's Czars: Van Jones, green jobs czar

Green Jobs Czar Van Jones

On March 10 of this year, President Obama appointed Van Jones as his Green Jobs Czar. Not since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt has an American president appointed a known communist to such a high position in the federal government. Not only is Green Jobs Czar Jones an avowed Marxist, he has joined together with such certifiable leftist loonies as Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Howard Zinn in signing the 9/11 Truth Statement, and expressing his belief that the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center was “an inside job,” involving a conspiracy within the administration of George W. Bush. He has acquiesced in the claim that the government response to Hurricane Katrina was a Bush conspiracy, as well, and that the levees may have been dynamited as part of some sinister plot.

Where in the world does Obama find such executive material? A native of Tennessee whose parents were both teachers, the 40-year-old Jones became a community organizer in the San Francisco Bay area after graduating from Yale Law School. SLATE magazine’s Chadwick Matlin reports that Jones gained the support of several luminaries in the left’s galaxy of stars. The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman devoted an entire 2007 column to Jones, writing of his lofty goals, "I would not underestimate him." Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wrote a rave book blurb for Jones' 2008 best-seller The Green Collar Economy, writing that Jones possessed "sparkling intelligence, powerful vision, and deep empathy." The New Yorker ran a glowing yet thorough profile of Jones in January.  Vice-President Joe Biden has yet to call Jones "clean and articulate," but he's been busy lately trying to put a positive spin on the news that U.S. unemployment is now at a 26-year high.

 

Blogger Trevor Loudon reports that Jones was recommended for the Green Jobs Czar position by Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, whose late father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, was an associate of Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis when they worked together in Chicago. Davis, the subject of a 600-page FBI file, is the mysterious "Frank" from Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, and served as a mentor to a young Barack Obama in Hawaii.

Jones was arrested as part of the protests following the Rodney King verdicts in 1992, and later told a reporter that he became a communist while in jail. He helped form a communist revolutionary organization called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, that fought against police brutality and envisioned a socialist future.

A section of STORM's manual that describes Jones' organization as having a "commitment to the fundamental ideas of Marxism-Leninism." "We agreed with Lenin's analysis of the state and the party," reads the manifesto. "And we found inspiration in the revolutionary strategies developed by Third World revolutionaries like Mao Tse-tung and Amilcar Cabral." Cabral is the late Marxist revolutionary leader of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1996, he formed his own group, called the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

World Net Daily reports Jones, while speaking to the East Bay Express, as saying he first became radicalized in the wake of the 1992 Rodney King riots, during which time he was arrested. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist. I met all these young radical people of color – I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it 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," he said.

Succeeding revelations by WorldNetDaily included:

Jones signed a petition calling for nationwide "resistance" against police, accusing them of using the 9/11 attacks to carry out policies of torture.

• Jones previously served on the board of an environmental activist group at which a founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization is a top director.
• Jones was co-founder of a black activist organization that has led a campaign prompting major advertisers to withdraw from Glenn Beck's top-rated Fox News Channel program. The revelation followed Beck's reports on WND's story about Jones' communist background.

• That Jones and other White House appointees may have been screened by an ACORN associate.

• One day after the 9/11 attacks, Jones led a vigil that expressed solidarity with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as what he called the victims of "U.S. imperialism" around the world.

• Just days before his White House appointment, Jones used a forum at a major youth convention to push for a radical agenda that included spreading the wealth and "changing the whole system."

• Jones' Maoist manifesto while leading the group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, was scrubbed from the Internet after being revealed by WND.
• Jones was the main speaker at an anti-war rally that urged "resistance" against the U.S. government – a demonstration sponsored by an organization associated with the Revolutionary Communist Party.
• In a 2005 conference, Jones characterized the U.S. as an "apartheid regime" that civil rights workers helped turn into a "struggling, fledgling democracy."

On Thursday, Jones responded to questions about his record with a typical leftist non-apology, conditional apology: "If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize." While not denying having signed the 9/11 petition, he said that "it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever." Observers are forced to choose between knave and fool; neither of which particularly qualifies Jones for high office.

When asked Friday whether the administration had issues with Mr. Jones's views, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs referred reporters to Mr. Jones's statement. "He continues to work in this administration," Mr. Gibbs said. "He apologized."

President Obama’s appointment of Van Jones underscores the dangers attendant to the appointment of powerful executive “Czars,” who can wield unrestrained governmental power without ever having been subject to a public vetting, and who don't face Senate inquiry before taking key jobs. There’s a reason for the Advise & Consent clause in the United States Constitution, of which the Van Jones fiasco is a relevant example. 

Read more: Obama’s czars: Autocratic tyranny

 List of Obama’s Czars (to date)

1. Green Jobs Czar — Van Jones
2. Energy czar — Carol Browner
3. Urban Czar — Adolfo Carrion
4. InfoTech/Information Czar — Vivek Kundra
5. Faith-Based Czar — Joshua DuBois
6. Health Reform Czar — Nancy-Ann DeParle
7. Stimulus Accountability Czar — Earl Devaney
8. Regulatory Czar — Cass Sunstein
9. Drug czar — Gil Kerlikowske (C)
10. Guantanamo Closure Czar — Daniel Fried
11. Salary/Pay/Compensation Czar — Kenneth Feinberg
12. Non-Proliferation/WMD Czar — Gary Samore
13. Terrorism Czar — John Brennan
14. New TARP Czar — Herb Allison (C)
15. Cyber Security Czar — OPEN (Click HERE to apply for job)
16. Technology Czar – Aneesh Chopra (C)
17. Car Czar — Ed Montgomery
18. Economic Czar — Paul Volcker
19. Great Lakes Czar – Cameron Davis
20. Intelligence Czar – Dennis Blair (C)
21. Weather/Science Czar — John Holdren (C)
22. Border Czar — Alan Bersin
23. AIDS Czar —Jeffery Crowley
24. California Water Czar - David Hayes (C)
25. Domestic Violence Czar – Lynn Rosenthal
26. TARP Oversight Czar – Elizabeth Warren
27. Weapons Czar – Ashton Carter (C)
28. Copyright Czar – OPEN (Click HERE to apply for job)
29. Mideast Peace Czar – George Mitchell
30. Af-Pak Czar– Richard Holbrooke
31. Sudan Czar – J. Scott Gration
32. Southwest Asia Czar – Dennis Ross
33. Climate Czar – Todd Stern
34. Eurasian Energy Cxar – Richard Morningstar

(C) – Senate Confirmed Czars

When Ronald Regan was president, he appointed 3 Czars, over 8 years. George W. Bush appointed 14 in 8 years. In his first one-half year, Obama has appointed 34 Czars. At this rate, we can anticipate 272 Czars in Obama’s fist term; and 544 Czars if he lasts two terms. Lots of grist for your Louisville City Hall Examiner’s mill. Mne nuzhna praktikovat’sa v Russkam.

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