The Jolly Green Pliants

Well, some in the media weren't ignoring avowed Communist and Barack Obama Administration "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones after all.

The New York Times' Thomas Friedman was lauding him.

In print on October 17, 2007, Friedman offered up a Van Jones paean entitled "The Green-Collar Solution."  In which Friedman offers nary a hint as to the radical nature of Jones' many ridiculous and disturbing positions and proclamations.  (In addition to being an outspoken Marxist, Jones is amongst other bizarre things a 9-11 "Truther.")

Friedman was undoubtedly in at least the beginning stages of writing his September 2008-released book Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution - and how it can renew America.  (The title of which would indicate the ruminations of a man who has never stepped outside of Manhattan; Friedman should know better.  There are vast expanses of abject nothing all over the planet, with elbow room aplenty there for the taking.)

Apparently, along the way towards his tome Friedman stumbled upon Jones.  And was wowed from the outset.

Van Jones is a rare bird. He's a black social activist in Oakland, Calif., and as green an environmentalist as they come. He really gets passionate, and funny, when he talks about what it's like to be black and green:

As were finding out in the Obama-Czar era, Jones isn't as rare a bird as many of us would like. 

Friedman finds Jones to be "passionate," "funny," delightful.  What he doesn't find, apparently, is the need to mention that he is a Communist Truther. 

As my friend and fellow NBer Matthew Vadum puts it, liberals live vicariously through Communists.  And so it is that Friedman gleefully examines what Jones plans to do to enact their shared green eye shade vision.

Mr. Jones, who heads the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which helps kids avoid jail and secure jobs, has an idea how to change that - a "green-collar" jobs program that focuses on underprivileged youth....

...One thing spurring him in this project, he explained, was the way that the big oil companies bought ads in black-owned newspapers in California in 2006 showing an African-American woman filling her gas tank with a horrified look at the pump price. The ads were used to help bring out black votes to defeat Proposition 87. That ballot initiative proposed a tax on oil companies drilling in California, the money from which would have gone to develop alternative energy projects. The oil companies tried to scare African-Americans into thinking that the tax on the companies would be passed on at the pump.

“The polluters were able to stampede poor people into their camp,” said Mr. Jones. “I never want to see an N.A.A.C.P. leader on the wrong side of an environment issue again.”

Fret not, you two, the N.A.A.C.P. is no longer a threat.  And of course "the tax on the companies would be passed on at the pump."  This is is not simply "the oil companies tri(ying) to scare African-Americans."  Tommy Boy, Econ 101.  You're better than that. 

For Friedman and Jones (and always with liberals and Communists), their green-collar jobs "answer" actually only raises more questions.  Who's going to pay for this?  How are you going to get the uncompliant to comply?

The answer to these questions is of course: government.  Government money to pay for the economy-crushing make-work jobs, and more government regulation and taxes to ensure that everyone toes the line and pays the freight.  More from Friedman.

It's about jobs. The more government requires buildings to be more energy efficient, the more work there will be retrofitting buildings all across America with solar panels, insulation and other weatherizing materials. Those are manual-labor jobs that can't be outsourced.

What about raising these people out of the manual-labor hell the likes of Friedman and Jones so often decry?  Hasn't the war chant been that education is the silver bullet to help these people escape this sort of existence?  Are "green-collar" jobs nothing more than blue-collar jobs with a moss frosting?

At which point Friedman and Jones go to the government well to haul up enough Other People's Money to answer the green jobs questions they inadvertantly raise.

To this end, Mr. Jones's group and the electrical union in Oakland created the Oakland Apollo Alliance. This year that coalition helped to raise $250,000 from the city government to create a union-supported training program that will teach young people in Oakland how to put up solar panels and weatherize buildings.

It is the beginning of a "Green for All" campaign (greenforall.org) that Mr. Jones - backed by other environmental activists like Majora Carter from Sustainable South Bronx - is launching to get Congress to allocate $125 million to train 30,000 young people a year in green trades.

Tommy Boy, please.  "Helped to raise from the city government?"  That's called lobbying (cajoling?  extorting?), they didn't hold a bake sale outside city hall.

And was Jones thinking small or what?  $250,000 from Oakland?  $125 million from Washington?  Flash forward two years, and he's the Green Jobs Czar overseeing $60 billion.  The Apollo Alliance - as Friedman says here and as we noted earlier today Jones helped found - ended up helping to write the stimulus bill which set aside that staggering sum with which Jones now gets to play.

And Friedman in 2007 helped pave the way for his exponential governmental monetary ascension.  Mainstreaming the radical to effect an ideological outcome.  Bravo, Tommy Boy, well played. 

H/t: to NBer dbo, who referenced this article in the Comment section of my last Van Jones effort.

—Seton Motley is Director of Communications for the Media Research Center and Contributing Editor for NewsBusters.org.