I’ve been ignoring the controversy over Van Jones, the White House “green jobs czar” (whatever that means), being a former communist (the “former” part is assumed) and publicly calling Republicans “a**holes“. I figured he’s just one more crazy in the White House, and his position doesn’t seem particularly important. Nevertheless, this is a bit much:
President Obama’s “green jobs czar” Van Jones has been targeted again and again by conservatives for his controversial views and now they’ll have another item to use as fodder.
Mr. Jones signed a statement for 911Truth.org in 2004 demanding an investigation into what the Bush Administration may have done that “deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.” . . .
9/11Truth.org spokesman Mike Berger told the Washington Times over the phone that all of the signers had been verified by their group. He said 9/11Truth.org board members “spoke with each person on the list by phone or through email or individually confirm they hae added their name to that list.”
“I think in most cases they spoke to them personally,” he added. “No one’s name was put on that list without them knowing it.”
(Via Instapundit.)
UPDATE: Van Jones wants to take it back:
In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of “the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.”
He did not explain how his name came to be on the petition. An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.
(Via Hot Air.)
He didn’t “carefully review the language”?! It’s a truther petition, for crying out loud! What did he think it said?
UPDATE: He’s not just a former communist and a truther, but also a supporter of Mumia Abu-Jamal, cop killer and darling of the lunatic left. Geez. (Via Instapundit.)
UPDATE: Mark Steyn (as usual) has it right:
Is Van Jones a real Truther or a faux Truther? The White House position is that he’s the latter – hey, he just glanced at it, saw it was some routine impeach-Bush-for-killing-thousands-of-his-fellow-Americans thing, and signed it without reading it; we’ve all been there, right?
Van Jones Trutherism, like Van Jones Communism and Van Jones Eco-Racism Theory, is a kind of decadence: If you really believed 9/11 was an inside job, you’d be in fear of your life. Instead, for a cutting-edge poseur like Jones, it’s a marketing niche, one that gives you a certain cachet with the right kind of people – like, apparently, Barack Obama.
UPDATE (9/6): Jones also says the state of Israel is illegitimate. In an album he produced in 2002, he says:
What we want to see at this point is the rights of the Palestinian people being respected. And at this point, the end of the occupation, the right of return of the Palestinian people. These are the critical dividing lines, global dividing lines, questions of human rights. We have to be here. No American would put up with an Israeli-style occupation of their hometown for 53 days, let alone 54 years.
You have to do some arithmetic to get what Jones is saying. Subtracting 54 years from 2002 gives us 1948, the year Israel declared independence. Jones is opposing Israel’s very existence.
By the way, the album is full of anti-American sentiment as well, but it’s too vulgar to repeat here.
Internet Scofflaw 