Van Jones: A Radical, Anti-War Record Producer as Well?
Morgen on September 4, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Van Jones, the White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs, has come under withering fire this week from conservatives for past controversial statements and positions that are too numerous to detail at this point. If you aren’t up to date on this, Gateway Pundit has all the details and deserves a special mention for breaking key elements of this story. And Ace (updated link) is in superior form taking on another “conservative” blogger who has bizarrely staked out a position defending Jones.
As with so many other staff selections by this White House, I think the real story here is not so much Jones as it is the ineptness (or arrogance?) of the Administration in hiring someone who was guaranteed to eventually come under fire. And in retrospect, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long. How could they not have anticipated this?
At the risk of piling on, I made a discovery of my own related to Jones’ past. As has been detailed elsewhere, Jones was the founder and long-time executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. One of the Center’s projects that Jones was involved in has been little noted or discussed at this stage: a record label sponsored by the Center called Freedom Fighter Music. The label appears to have been created in the 2002-3 timeframe, and to have fizzled out by 2005-6. And apparently, Freedom Fighter only produced 2 or 3 albums.
However, one of these albums was an anti-Iraq-war compilation album that caught my attention because it was narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal, a Black Panther Party activist who is on death row for murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. One of the controversies over Jones this week has been his prior statements and activity in support of Jamal.
I managed to track down an MP3 of the full album entitled WarTimes: Reports from the Opposition. And lo and behold, not only did Jones run the organization which sponsored the creation of this album, but he is also featured on the album itself. I created a highlight clip featuring Mumia Abu Jamal and some of the more outrageous song lyrics (NSFW WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE). The clip featuring the short interview with Jones begins at about 3:45…but the whole clip is worth a listen, IMO.
Ok, if you are interested you can find the entire MP3 here. And if you think the fact that Jones was the founder/director of the organization which sponsored the record label, and was featured on the album itself, is not quite enough to connect him directly to this work…then here is a link to a USA Today interview of Jones from this timeframe where he mentions both the record label and this album (albeit indirectly as their “second CD”, which it in fact was).
As mentioned up front, there seems to be no shortage of fodder related to various issues and past statements of Jones. And so it’s a little difficult to assess what the ultimate import may be of this album. Personally, I think it is very likely that he was directly involved in its creation and promotion. The Ella Baker Center does not strike me as having been a very large organization in the 2002-3 timeframe. But at a minimum, you’d certainly think that Jones would have had to green-light this effort at some point, and you’d also think that he could have exerted some editorial control over the album’s content.
So therefore I think it’s reasonable to hold Jones’ responsible to some degree for the anti-war (and anti-American) views expressed on the album itself. Of course even if Jones personally shared the most extreme of these viewpoints, he was fully entitled to do so. But it’s also completely reasonable to question whether the radical nature of these views – and his involvement in such an effort – should have precluded him from being hired for such a prominent position (or any position) within the federal government. Cindy Sheehan must really be feeling left out at this stage.
[Album cover courtesy of Kristinn at Free Republic via Gateway Pundit]
Category: Politics |
[...] this page was mentioned by Lance Duncan (@thenoblepatriot), Verum Serum (@verumserum) and others. [...]
September 4, 2009 @ 5:35 pm[...] Van Jones: A Radical, Anti-War Record Producer as Well? [...]
September 4, 2009 @ 7:40 pmvan jones said out loud what obama believes. and wright. and ayers. and khalidi. and farrakhan. and the entire inner circle of obama’s politburo.
obama is just slicker dude who knows how to use code and wink at the left and not weird out everyone else.
September 4, 2009 @ 7:50 pmIt never ends…
I bet Al Gore wishes he never invented the internets…
September 4, 2009 @ 8:47 pmI found a link to their website…
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/06/13/16852091.php
check that page out… search for freedomfightermusic.com
http://web.archive.org/web/20030326011728/http://www.freedomfightermusic.com/
Wednesday, May 28
7.30 p.m. – midnight.
See The Red Guard perform at a benefit for the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. Sponsored by SUSTAIN (Stop U.S. Tax-Funded Aid to Israel Now). At the Fellowship Of Humanity Hall, 390 27th St. @ Broadway, Oakland.
I’m going through this now…
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.freedomfightermusic.com/*
September 4, 2009 @ 9:22 pmNo…your wrong, or at least half the country would think your not only wrong but a racist. This is clearly a man (a very black man at that) who sticks up for the little guy, the minorities and is not afraid of the big bad government.
Just because he is now a part of the sparkly unicorn powered government of the Messiah Obama, does not mean that it is reasonable to question his past activities nor his appointment to this very important post he now occupies (at a damn good salary too I would bet).
You stand corrected…right?
I didn’t think so.
Papa Ray
September 4, 2009 @ 9:40 pmWest Texas
All right, didn’t really come up with much…
September 4, 2009 @ 9:45 pmCan it get any more obvious that there is a significant number of Blacks in this country that hate America soley because they despise the White people that live here?
September 4, 2009 @ 10:34 pmAnd that Barack Obama is directly connected to some of the leaders of these groups?
[...] leading the charge into exposing Jones. This time its Verum Serum to expose Jones. We learn from Verum Serum that Van Jones also spent a lot of time in the music stupid too. While he was director of the [...]
September 4, 2009 @ 10:53 pmThis is the worst thing that could of happened to Obama.
These black nationalist rats that he hangs with and appoints are going to stain him big time.
This will be an endless gift that keeps on giving to the Republicans. The material they can draw on will be a bottomless pit.
September 4, 2009 @ 11:17 pmif America turns it’s back on atrocities in the world, does America have blood on its hands, Van?. and how does it feel, Van, that you are the decider of what is an “atrocity”, Van? Van? is sharia law an atrocity, Van? is the subjugation of women an atrocity, Van? oh, Van, enlighten us all. all of us US citizens need to know your vision, Van. your last word, Van on what IS an atrocity, Van. tell us white fuVKs how dumb we have been through the ages, Van, how white we are. how many other NATIONS have fought to end slavery!!!! Van, list them: we wait…
September 4, 2009 @ 11:25 pm[...] Verum Serum discovered this and has much more on Van Jones the record [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 2:40 am[...] Verum Serum discovered this and has much more on Van Jones studio recordings including this one: [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 2:55 am[...] Verum Serum discovered this and has much more on Van Jones the record producer:Here are a few of the lines from [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 3:00 am[...] video of Michelle Malkin on Glenn Beck’s show discussing Van Jones. Others: Gateway Pundit, Verum Serum, The Corner on National …, Blue Crab Boulevard, Pajamas Media, Little Green Footballs and [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 4:53 amWOW! Big media has STILL not covered this! I wonder why? Could they be in the tank for Obama?
Just another example.
September 5, 2009 @ 4:57 amWow. So Van Jones thinks “U.S. tax dollars” are subsidizing violence against black people IN the U.S. ? I wonder if that implies he’s REAL angry with our country? Must be, when such a thought rolls around in his brain, seemingly very often, because that wasn’t even the topic of the interview!!
September 5, 2009 @ 5:22 amAnd what’s he saying about Palestinians? That the Israelis should give up Jerusalem to them? The man is angry AND dangerous.
#4…you made me spit up a mouth full of diet pepsi on my keyboard.
Shame on you.
Signed…Still Laughing
September 5, 2009 @ 6:38 amOf course even if Jones personally shared the most extreme of these viewpoints, he was fully entitled to do so. >>
Some may consider this CD along with other things that Jones has said and been involved with treason.
It is clear from what is going on in the Soros controlled administration that puppet Obama and his commie radicals want to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.
This is treason, plain and simple.
Jones has not defense period.
September 5, 2009 @ 6:53 am[...] to his assertions–comes yet another insult, this time to the ears of the American people. Verum Serum has dug up his hatey pseudomusical rant. I suggest that you listen to it with ear [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 7:50 am[...] Verum Serum, money @ 3:45. As has been detailed elsewhere, Jones was the founder and long-time executive [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 8:13 am[...] Verum Serum, a golden oldie from the vault of Freedom Fighter Music, for which Jones’s Ella Baker Center [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 9:58 am[...] This “music” talks about “US tax dollars are funding violence against people of color in the US borders and outside the US borders.” It contains rants about how evil Israel is for defending herself against terrorist attacks on civilians, and spews enough pro-terrorist pap to make Hamas very proud. The clip features an interview with Van Jones himself at about 3:45. Read more about it at Verum Serum. [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 10:44 am[...] Comments “Who’s the real terrorists? Uncle Sam.” That according to a record put out by Freedom Fighter Music, a label created by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 11:12 am[...] Read more about this at http://www.verumserum.com [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 11:31 amNice dtective work bro! Now if someone would only turn their investigative eye towards how these shakesters manipulate the non-profit status of these various “groups” to steal our tax money. The non-profit is the haven for these corrupt fools, they game the system to keep the dollars flowing–out of our pockets and into theirs… It’s time for a nationwide investigative crackdown–we must stop funding these non-profits!
September 5, 2009 @ 11:46 am[...] leading the charge into exposing Jones. This time its Verum Serum to expose Jones. We learn from Verum Serum that Van Jones also spent a lot of time in the music studio too. While he was director of the Ella [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 12:40 pm[...] the free market system is still in control. A paranoid, truther, communist, cop killer lover, record producer spending your [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 1:12 pmAbout this line, taking “on another “conservative” blogger who has bizarrely staked out a position defending Jones.”
I assume you’re talking about Charles Johnson, and from what I’ve read, he’s not really “defending” Jones. He has said that Johnson doesn’t belong in the Obama administration and should leave.
What Charles has been focusing on is the specific charge that Jones is a 9/11 truther, based on a petition in which several signers have said they were misled into signing. IIRR, Jones hasn’t denied signing it, but that he didn’t read it thoroughly.
All right, all right, this all sounds like splitting hairs, but I think Johnson has a point. Don’t try to ascribe to Jones certain positions that might not be true. After all, there’s a ton of stuff that he did do.
Let truth will out. Get the facts straight. Don’t blow your credibility staking out positions that can’t be defended. That’s Charles’ point.
September 5, 2009 @ 2:50 pmI’m not a fan of CJ – and so I don’t read his blog. But now that I’ve taken a look, I will readily concede that he is not taking a position in absolute defense of Jones. (Though it’s accurate to say that he is “defending” Jones with regards to the Truther stuff).
I personally think Jones’ activity in support of the Truther cause is just about as indefensible as the rest of this stuff. But I don’t care to get caught up in the minutiae of that debate.
I’ll let my record stand on its own in terms of my credibility…
September 5, 2009 @ 2:59 pmLou,
It’d be nice if Charles showed that level of nuance when discussing Christians. From what I’ve seen, he pretty much paints all of us in with the same broad brush as liars and kooks. That’s his prerogative, but it doesn’t say much for his credibility.
September 5, 2009 @ 3:25 pm[...] I’ve been resisting piling on Van Jones because he’s probably the least dangerous man inside the Obama administration. He’s out there, obvious, direct and to the point. It’s the sneaky quiet ones you need to worry about. He also oozes charisma — not the kind that puts you at ease – the dangerous kind that puts you immediately on your guard but you are riveted in spite of yourself. I have this strange fascination for charismatic speakers and the chaos that follows them. It’s kind of a hobby of mine and watching Jones has been like a shiny new college credit class for me. [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 5:43 pm[...] Feel the hate. [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 7:22 pm[...] – self-described, communist, 9/11 Trufer, supporter of cop killer, racist, black nationalist. Van Jones: A Radical, Anti-War Record Producer as Well? | Verum Serum [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 8:20 pm[...] VERUM SERUM: Van Jones, the White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs, has come under withering fire this week from conservatives for past controversial statements and positions that are too numerous to detail at this point. If you aren’t up to date on this, Gateway Pundit has all the details and deserves a special mention for breaking key elements of this story. And Ace (updated link) is in superior form taking on another “conservative” blogger who has bizarrely staked out a position defending Jones. [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 10:09 pmStop making excuses for that progressive left wing blog-nazi Charles Johnson.
He defended Van Jones and feels bad that he’s gone because he blames his arch-nemesis Glenn Beck for engaging in McCarthyism.
September 5, 2009 @ 10:45 pmStop shilling for Chuckie the Clown Johnson.
Charles Foster Icarus Johnson (Whatever the heck his name is this week) is a progressive left winger who supported Van Jones until it was obvious that it served him no purpose to publically admit it anymore.
The same way Obama is throwing Van Jones under the bus, Charles is doing the same…only in a nicer way.
Chuckie Johnson supports Obama and thinks you should as well.
September 5, 2009 @ 10:48 pm[...] Saturday, Jones came under more fire after Verum Serum posted an excerpt for an anti-war CD that Jones appeared in which also featured Mumia Abu-Jamal, [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 11:38 pm[...] oil companies, and everything else American. Van Jones was even featured in the recording! ** Verum Serum discovered this and has much more on Van Jones the record producer: Here are a few of the lines [...]
September 5, 2009 @ 11:43 pm[...] President Bush, stated that only white children shot-up schools, supported a cop-killer (and made a music album with him) or accused the white “majority” of deliberately steering pollution to black [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 4:55 am[...] Verum Serum discovered this and has much more on Van Jones the record [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 5:29 am[...] this isn’t a fictional character dreamed up by Obama’s conservative critics.” The latest revelation was that he participated in an anti-American recording narrated by convicted cop-killer and [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 6:16 am[...] President Bush, stated that only white children shot-up schools, supported a cop-killer (and made a music album with him) or accused the white “majority” of deliberately steering pollution to black communities. No, [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 6:28 am[...] Jones supports convicted Cop Killer and Black Panther Activist Mumia Abu Jamal. Van Jones used Mumia Abu Jamal in to help create and product an Anti-Bush, Anti-American, Anti-War, … Here’s a clip Jones helped produce and can be heard in the audio around the 4:00 [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 8:05 am[...] hat noch ein paar weitere Fakten zu dem rassistischen Kommunisten und Antisemiten, dazu einen Link zu noch viel mehr; auch PowerLine schlägt zu. – Und tschüß: Der lügende Kommunist ist zurückgetreten. Natürlich [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 1:55 pm[...] the communist left the White House. They refused to report on the story until the Mumia Abu Jamal-supporting Truther was long, long gone. Good work, guys. Related… Mark Hemingway has more thoughts at The [...]
September 6, 2009 @ 11:34 pm[...] used this template to screen Van Jones his controversial speeches, his past arrest, and his musical collaborations with cop-killers should have raised a red flag or two with the [...]
September 7, 2009 @ 6:50 am[...] used this template to screen Van Jones his controversial speeches, his past arrest, and his musical collaborations with cop-killers should have raised a red flag or two with the administration. Either Team Obama [...]
September 7, 2009 @ 7:08 am[...] last, but not least, Jones produced an “album” featuring cop-killer and leftist heartthrob Mumia Abu [...]
September 7, 2009 @ 7:22 pm[...] advocacy of freeing notorious cop-killer and far-left radical Mumia Abu-Jamal (with whom he cut a rather disgusting album, incidentally), nor his belief in a conspiracy by “whitey” to poison blacks with [...]
September 9, 2009 @ 4:05 pm[...] admitted former communist and black nationalist. His Ella Baker Center for Human Rights produced a rap record in 2005 “hosted by” cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal, in which Jones links the Palestinian [...]
September 10, 2009 @ 7:55 pmAl Gore…invented the internets. Ha-ha.
First he never said that. Second, idiot Bush did say internets.
And I never voted for Gore and don’t like the man. But I do like accuracy.
November 27, 2009 @ 8:41 amBrian, can you send me whatever you’re smoking. I need some pain relief for my aching back.
November 27, 2009 @ 10:44 am[...] they’ll play his hate-filled album with cop killer Mumia al-Jamal during the ceremony? Comments [...]
February 23, 2010 @ 6:57 pm[...] Jones is yet to explain why he cut a rap album with a cop killer. Jones released this hate-filled album with cop killer Mumia al-Jamal back before the Iraq War. Not only did Jones run the organization [...]
February 26, 2010 @ 7:16 am[...] I’ve embedded the entire track below for your listening (dis)pleasure, and you can find an MP3 of the entire WarTimes album and a highlight video here. [...]
April 19, 2010 @ 4:46 am