Van Jones RESIGNS as WH Green Jobs Czar

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From the Washington Post:

White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism

Updated 12:53 a.m.
By Garance Franke-Ruta and Anne E. Kornblut

White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned Saturday after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

He continued: "I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."

Jones issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition that questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war" and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) called on Jones to resign Friday, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."

Senator Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) urged Congress to investigate Jones's "fitness" for the position, writing in an open letter, "Can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?" On Saturday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote on his Twitter account, "Van Jones has to go."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday that Jones "continues to work for the administration" -- but he did not state that the adviser enjoys the full support of President Obama, instead referring questions to the environmental council where he worked.

Jones, a towering figure in the environmental movement, had worked for the White House Council on Environmental Quality since March. He was a civil-rights activist in California before turning his focus to environmental and energy issues, and he won wide praise before joining the Obama administration for articulating a broad vision of a green economy Democrats could embrace.



In other news, a statement was released from this man:
1251926190-glennbeckjoker.png


"I LIKE this job, I LIKE it!"
 
The guy seemed pretty qualified for the job he was hired. His job title had no influence over any issues for which people take issue with him.

I guess it's good he resigned so as to not be a distraction. At the same time, my patience wears thin with this thrust-Beckian thing of attacking any and all government officials.
 
I just have one question for Mr. Jones.

Jones said in a statement Friday, "I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.
Click to expand...

Then why'd you sign the petition? Do you normally sign away on stuff without reading or agreeing with it?

Regardless of anyone's thoughts on the events behind the scenes of 9/11 (and I'm one of those loons who thinks there was more going on than we know about), the fact that he'd support something without agreeing with it is a little disturbing to me.
 
Wasn't it Obama who said during the 08 election "Judge me by the people who surround me". Well then add this to the increasing pile of extremists he chooses to give important and public jobs to or associates with. It's no wonder the conservative media has no problem painting Obama as a socialist, he makes it to easy for them.
 
This may just be a PR move. From what I read he is still holding a position in the administration, just a different one.
 
In a word, inevitable. This was inevitable when he was exposed as a 9/11 "truther."

On a related note, did anyone see the National Geographic Channel program on truthers? It aired 8/31 for the first time and I caught it recently. It includes some good psychoanalysis of the truthers.
 
[quote name='elprincipe']In a word, inevitable. This was inevitable when he was exposed as a 9/11 "truther."

On a related note, did anyone see the National Geographic Channel program on truthers? It aired 8/31 for the first time and I caught it recently. It includes some good psychoanalysis of the truthers.[/QUOTE]

Link?
 
glenn beck has been attacking this guy for months and asking the white house about his very questionable past. They have refused to answer any of those questions. as becks popularity and influence only increases, they could no longer afford to avoid his questions and had Jones resign instead of answering those questions. The 9/11 thing was only the last straw.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I have a few questions for Glenn beck that he refuses to answer. He should resign from his show.[/QUOTE]

That idea is just as silly as saying that he was boo/hissed out of the position by the right.

People in the political world only leave a post when they've been caught in an embarrassing position. Not just for accusations. At any time, the White House could have easily and publicly refuted the claims Glenn Beck made. Instead, they said nothing and then had Van Jones resign. Those are hardly the actions of someone free from guilt. Anyone who thinks that Beck's claims against Van Jones are absurd, racist, and the ravings of a Neo-McCarthyist should be much more upset at the administration they support for capitulating to "bullshit".
 
atreyue, that was satire. what mykevermin said is classic glenn beck. accuse person A of being X, then attack them because they wont come on the show or talk about it.

why has glenn beck refused to address the accusations of rape/murder in 1990? if he is innocent, why doesn't he produce documents to prove his innocence and lay this rumor to rest?
 
[quote name='IRHari']atreyue, that was satire. what mykevermin said is classic glenn beck. accuse person A of being X, then attack them because they wont come on the show or talk about it.

why has glenn beck refused to address the accusations of rape/murder in 1990? if he is innocent, why doesn't he produce documents to prove his innocence and lay this rumor to rest?[/QUOTE]

I'm actually aware of what satire is. The main reason why it's obviously satire is because the idea that glenn beck or anyone would give everything up because of someone else's lies is absurd. So maybe they weren't lies. And the white house or its representatives issue statements all the time. I doubt they are fans of real misinformation either. So why no effort to refute any of these claims?
 
And since I'm not so up on my environmental issues, how long has Van Jones been a "towering figure in the environmental movement"? I always thought he was a bit of a strange choice, as he seems to be relatively new to the environmental scene.
 
Ok, I'm a noob to this issue. These are the things, from what I understand, he did:
-Called Republicans assholes (fair, next)
-Signed a thing that basically means he's a Truther (dumb but not related to his job)

Is that all or am I missing something?
 
Yeah you missed your first point. Obama ran for president under the banner of uniting parties and many republicans voted for him. Having a guy as one of your top staff calling those same republicans assholes obviously does not mix well with Obama's original message. Also, to label an entire political party as 'assholes' is rather ignorant and thus said person probably should hold a high position just for that reason.
 
He is one of the main people that Glenn Back has used for the past few months to associate Obama with revolutionaries, radicals, marxists and communists. This is because Jones has identified himself by each of those labels at some point in the last 10 to 15 years (It's my understanding that he's relatively new to the environmentalist cause). Beck has been really pushing to have the white house say that they either:

1. Didn't know of his past (Vetted improperly)
2. Knew of his past, but feel he's reformed (he's renounced his past beliefs)
3. Knew of his past , and chose him because of it instead of in spite of it.

The White House chose to give no answer. They were willing to ignore the chants of socialist or communist, as they can be written off as not much of a big deal. The progressive ideology can be said to bear many things in common with those two. Unfortunately, there's nothing popular about 911 truthers and no way to positively spin it, so they let him go and went with the "he didn't pay attention to what he signed" one. The idea that the president has not picked well in his appointments has, rightly or wrongly, been a substantial issue since he took office.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Ok, I'm a noob to this issue. These are the things, from what I understand, he did:
-Called Republicans assholes (fair, next)
-Signed a thing that basically means he's a Truther (dumb but not related to his job)

Is that all or am I missing something?[/QUOTE]

Yes you are missing his multiple arrests and his self-identified links with communist ideals. He's also has been linked with saying racist comments but there is no hard evidence so I will not hold that against him unless some proof comes out. And Glenn Beck has nothing to do with this, Jones is in the public life and therefore he with come under scrunity. It's to bad he has to much baggage to go anywhere. Everyone listed above is not a rumor or a lie, there is plenty of evidence that he has some messed up views and is not fit to hold that position.

I do find it odd however, having worked in HR in the past how someone with his arrest record could possibly get that position in any other circumstance then with this administration, could to see his views on the government's conspiracy on 9/11 didn't completely turn him off from pursuing a career there eventually.
 
Are the communist and other such things verified by real sources other than Faux News and Glenn Beck? Not trying to be an asshole here, I just want to make sure.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Are the communist and other such things verified by real sources other than Faux News and Glenn Beck? Not trying to be an asshole here, I just want to make sure.[/QUOTE]

"Communist Ideals" as puta put it can mean anything from being against child labor and up.

In this case however Van was actually a red when he was younger (in a benign post soviet union way) and of course being arrested doesn't really mean jack shit (which is why it usually gets stretched into him going to prison), in the best documented case he actually got a settlement for being wrongfully arrested.
 
[quote name='Ruined']Yeah you missed your first point. Obama ran for president under the banner of uniting parties and many republicans voted for him. Having a guy as one of your top staff calling those same republicans assholes obviously does not mix well with Obama's original message. Also, to label an entire political party as 'assholes' is rather ignorant and thus said person probably should hold a high position just for that reason.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, in the same speech he called himself an asshole.
 
I see a lot of very very very fuzzy arrows aimed at Jones, with the only solid complaint that he said Republicans are assholes. Which, while there are more delicate ways to put it, doesn't seem to be a resign-worthy offense to me.

Then again, we're living in a day and age where people are scared the president is going to talk to their children and tell them to work hard and stay in school, so any amount of idiotic hyperactive nonsense is fair game.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I have a few questions for Glenn beck that he refuses to answer. He should resign from his show.[/QUOTE]

As soon as Beck makes most of his money from Tax Payers, you can demand he resign too.
##############

This whole thing was blown out of proportion, imo. The guy was a low ranking punk. He founded an organization that actively tried to get advertisers to pull out from Beck's show. Beck intensified his heat on Jones. Who threw the first stone? Who cares?

The only thing I find remotely interesting in this is Van Jones gets thrown on to the "Oh he was my friend but I didn't know he was a left-wing extremist" category with Rev. Wright. It will be amusing, over the next 3 years, to see how large the "hung out to dry" pile gets while we are asked to continue to buy that Obama is politically middle-of-the-road and just sucks at picking friends.

Edit: An interesting article on Politico about all this. Although I think labeling Beck as Obama's primary opponent now, is a bit much.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I see a lot of very very very fuzzy arrows aimed at Jones, with the only solid complaint that he said Republicans are assholes. Which, while there are more delicate ways to put it, doesn't seem to be a resign-worthy offense to me.

Then again, we're living in a day and age where people are scared the president is going to talk to their children and tell them to work hard and stay in school, so any amount of idiotic hyperactive nonsense is fair game.[/QUOTE]
Yeah lets not forget Cheney dropping the f-bomb. If having a potty mouth was enough to make someone resign, Cheney should have resigned way before the end of the Bush administration.
 
there's a lot of bullshit on Youtube. Can you provide me a link so we don't have to swim through video blogs, keyboard cats, and glenn beck to see genuine video evidence behind why he was asked to resign?
 
my favorite glenn beck episode is when he's talking about healthcare...but FIRST he shows a history of eugenics...then he says 'oh im not saying eugenics is coming'.

okay, then WHY talk about the health care proposal immediately after a segment on eugenics...his stupid viewers are going to think one is going to lead the other.

i think stephen colbert said it best:
Now the problem is too many people only focus on the first half of what Glenn Beck says; not the second half where he immediately disavows the first half, or maybe they're confused by the third half where he repeats the first half."
​
And yes you can have three halves, except in a society where government has death panels for fractions."
​
 
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2009/09/van_jones_patriot.html?hpid=talkbox1


Agreed, Van Jones is a great man, a visionary, to aide the President. Most of the mainstream, objective media (except fox news) supported Jones and agreed that the shameless nutjob conservatives railroaded him out of his job -- likely due to the color of his skin.

If you listened to what Van Jones had said you would know he was speaking the truth. It's no brainer the white folks have been poisoning people of color for ages and it's their white kids that have been shooting up schools. George Bush and the government was responsible for 9/11 which you would know if you looked around the internet. And what's so bad about him being an avowed communist? We do need to spread the wealth, and it's good to have such person around the white house to reinforce our President's views. Shame on you right wing nutjobs. Shame on you Glenn Beck.
 
So there's the asshole thing, in which he calls himself an asshole too, there's the 911 truth thing, which he denies, and the 'he's a black supremacist, communist' accusation which is from a quote that has been taken out of context (while arrested for protesting he said he began to sympathize with the black power supporters and communists he was locked up with, not that he began to share their ideals, just sympathize with their shared situation). And he was fired why?
 
[quote name='camoor']Can somebody please explain the Obama-Joker references.

How is Obama like the Joker. That one makes no sense to me.[/QUOTE]

Yes. Please explain it to all of us. Not to mention, what the hell does the Joker have to do with Socialism? Seems to me, he's more of an anarchist... That's the joke!
 
[quote name='UncleBob']Yes. Please explain it to all of us. Not to mention, what the hell does the Joker have to do with Socialism? Seems to me, he's more of an anarchist... That's the joke![/QUOTE]

Perhaps it is a fundamental misunderstanding of Obama, The Joker, Socialism, Anarchy or a combination of the four?
 
My favorite comment on this whole thing.

WHITE HOUSE GREEN JOBS CZAR CREATES FIRST GREEN JOB - Position involves cleaning out the office of the former White House Green Jobs Czar.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']c'mon guys. One only need to do a youtube search to see why he was asked to go.[/QUOTE]
Link please. I even said please.
 
"WHITE HOUSE GREEN JOBS CZAR CREATES FIRST GREEN JOB - Position involves cleaning out the office of the former White House Green Jobs Czar."

And....how is that a green job? Since when is cleaning out an office a 'green job'? If it's being done by a solar powered robot made of recycled tin cans, then I'd agree with you. If not, I'll defer to liberals to make jokes.
 
[quote name='Ruined']Yeah you missed your first point. Obama ran for president under the banner of uniting parties and many republicans voted for him. Having a guy as one of your top staff calling those same republicans assholes obviously does not mix well with Obama's original message. Also, to label an entire political party as 'assholes' is rather ignorant and thus said person probably should hold a high position just for that reason.[/QUOTE]

You're right...it's probably only like 99%.
 
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