Friday, September 04, 2009
Van Jones
Lots of to-do lately about the checkered past of Van Jones, the Prez's Green Jobs czar. First he admitted to being a communist, then he called Repubs a**holes, then he railed against white polluters and white environmentalists for directing the poison to minority neighborhoods. In the last couple of days it came out that he signed the 'truther" petition asking for an investigation whether the attacks of September 11, 1991 were an "inside job." (All of the above facts appear in the Wikipedia article on Mr. Jones, which bears a disclaimer that the neutrality of the article is disputed, so you might not see what I saw if you visit that page.)
Now Jones has issued one of those "politician special" non-apology apologies--you know, the kind where he says "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" without admitting doing anything wrong. He also says he does not now and never did agree with the truthers' claims. Query: why, then, did he sign the petition? Mr. Jones' office has issued a statement to the effect that he didn't review the document carefully before signing. I call bushwa--whether he read it or not, he certainly knew its tenor and purpose at the time. Was he lying then or is he lying now?
I for one do not accept so-called "apologies" that are really insults in disguise; i.e., "I'm right and you're wrong but if you're too stupid to see that then I didn't mean to hurt your feelings while trying to educate you." I further believe that the statements Mr. Jones made before becoming a part of the Obama administration more truly demonstrate his real thinking than the measured, massaged and vetted comments that he makes now. Accordingly, I believe Mr. Jones is a racist, radical communist who wants to overturn the capitalist system that the United States has done so well by these last 220 years and replace it with something he calls the "Green Collar Economy" that pretty much has the government running everything. I don't want a guy like that advising any president.
Assuming the facts are true (and some undoubtedly are, as they appear in video clips available on YouTube in which you can see and hear Jones speak), then either the Obama administration did a really crappy job of vetting this guy before bringing him aboard, or they knew about all of this stuff and made a conscious decision that it didn't matter. Either way, in my view it doesn't reflect well on the Obama administration.
You're judged by the company you keep, Mr. President. Better keep that in mind.
Now Jones has issued one of those "politician special" non-apology apologies--you know, the kind where he says "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" without admitting doing anything wrong. He also says he does not now and never did agree with the truthers' claims. Query: why, then, did he sign the petition? Mr. Jones' office has issued a statement to the effect that he didn't review the document carefully before signing. I call bushwa--whether he read it or not, he certainly knew its tenor and purpose at the time. Was he lying then or is he lying now?
I for one do not accept so-called "apologies" that are really insults in disguise; i.e., "I'm right and you're wrong but if you're too stupid to see that then I didn't mean to hurt your feelings while trying to educate you." I further believe that the statements Mr. Jones made before becoming a part of the Obama administration more truly demonstrate his real thinking than the measured, massaged and vetted comments that he makes now. Accordingly, I believe Mr. Jones is a racist, radical communist who wants to overturn the capitalist system that the United States has done so well by these last 220 years and replace it with something he calls the "Green Collar Economy" that pretty much has the government running everything. I don't want a guy like that advising any president.
Assuming the facts are true (and some undoubtedly are, as they appear in video clips available on YouTube in which you can see and hear Jones speak), then either the Obama administration did a really crappy job of vetting this guy before bringing him aboard, or they knew about all of this stuff and made a conscious decision that it didn't matter. Either way, in my view it doesn't reflect well on the Obama administration.
You're judged by the company you keep, Mr. President. Better keep that in mind.
Labels: Czars, Economy, Environmentalism, Obama, politics, weasel words
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