Van Jones was in the White House six months longer than YOU!

Run time: 27:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JLE22iLJHk   Posted on YouTube: July 09, 2010 By YouTube Member: campusprogress Views on YouTube: 226   Posted on DU: July 10, 2010 By DU Member: NJmaverick Views on DU: 1711

 
Van Jones, globally recognized pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy, gave a humble, humorous and inspiring address to the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC. Jones served as White House green jobs advisor in 2009 and is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, as well as a senior policy advisor at Green For All.

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shot.

there was just so much good stuff

he came under assault from the fringes of the rabid right. I wish they cared as much about what their base thinks of Rahm or Geithner, but apparently if the rabid right attacks, the WH jumps.

He was one of the best appointees of this WH. They should never have let him go.

:(

he doesn't hold the sadness you do

'that sucks'. Yes it does. However, he is smart enough to try to let it go, but his reputation took a serious hit and he will have to work to overcome that. He is trying to do that and his statement that he was in the WH for six months longer than anyone of us, is clever, but it is sad that he has to 'make the best of it' which is what he is doing. He knows not to antagonize those in power, he has work to do and he is wisely going ahead with that work.

But it is clear in his remarks that the message he is giving to those young people is that they need to fight. No one fought for him. He loves his country enough, as he said, not to let this be about him. He is a far bigger person than those who caved to the rabid right, the ONLY people anyone had to worry about, and the question is why does anyone worry about them to begin with?

They are irrelevant and should be treated that way. Instead they are given power every time Democrats rush to try to placate them. So foolish, since they will never be placated. So there is no reason at all to pay any attention to them whatsoever.

As for whether or not he is sad about what happened? I'm sure he is, who wouldn't be, but he is getting on with life and his work, because that is the best thing he can do.

you would learn he doesn't blame the White House like you do.

Do not try to coerce Van Jones's sense of decorum into being something else.

rather than listening to what this brilliant man has to say

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both as a policy- and in the minds of the electorate.

The rabid, discredited, rightwing of the Republican Party. It wouldn't have taken much to expose them for what they are. In fact it was an opportunity to do so.

Instead, they made a spectacle of Van Jones, causing him to lose credibility and handing yet another victory to the right, who to this day boast about that victory. THAT is a spectacle.

Funny how no one worries about the anger from the left about people like Alan Simpson being made co-chair of the Cat Food Commission. Why hasn't he been fired? He is making a spectacle of this whole Commission and making Obama look very bad, even to people like Paul Krugman.

It seems to me they pick their fights and always seem to come down on catering to the fringe elements of the right.

The reason anyone takes these morons on the right seriously is because Democrats have never stood up to them. They stand up to the left, but not the right.

Van Jones was worth fighting for. And who cares what the right thinks? Obama would have had the full support of democrats, his base, Independents and decent Conservatives. Who are these people that anyone should worry about them at all?

And did letting Van Jones go stop them? Are they not still screaming and yelling and targeting other decent Democrats? No, because when you cave to people like that they see it as weakness and they will not go away. Standing up to them, making fun of them, dismissing them would seriously weaken them, but that has not happened yet. Look what happens when people like Grayson stands up to them. They are afraid to take him on. Because they have nothing, just lies and smears and whining and it's long past time to treat them like tantrum-throwing children, rather than caving to them every time.

Inspirational...each and everyone of us is a part of the "we" that can change things..Its well time the mantel of patriotism be taken up for those that are real conservatives ..those that want to use our resources responsibly by switching to renewable energy that saves money our environment and in the end ourselves. liked the part about serve your country in any way you can and don't be afraid.

for the folks who put this administration in office and still making us proud. Hope he runs for something so I can support him. I buy what this ray of hope is selling, hook line and sinker.

that's for sure

but in reality I'm afraid our addiction to fossil fuels has already ran its course to the point that even building a green infrastructure now will be too late.

For over a century we have been depleting this resource with disregard to the fact that its finite. Building giant wind mills, solar panels and other green infrastructure in mass will further increase the depletion of fossil fuels to even create them and then maintain them.

We have reached the peak level and we are on a steady decline, even more so now that more and more people around the world are becoming dependent on fossil fuels.

Call me a cynic and I hope I'm wrong but it might just be too little to late.

You think about loosing those 15 pounds... You loose them.... What's the easier task?

I know we need to change... Damn it... it's being the change agent that leaves me with the feeling of, oh, I don't know... 'aren't we there yet?'

I took a lot of shit locally for signing a petition that basically said, "I want accountability"... Then, I looked at what happened to VJ. THEN, in spite of that so-called, 'mean talk', he can let it go just by thinking of the historical hero's journey, even when they called him everything from a commie pinko double secret probation commie, to whatever you can think of.

I've become stronger and I stood up for myself in large part over people like VJ and still do. He makes me feel slightly more patient about Obama. You have to. You also have to forgive others for not having the balls to step away from their little fantasy world, where being patriotic means that you dress up like everyone else and march falsely to the drum of some fascist pig.

and ignorami. What a shame. He must have threatened the hell out of them.

He just said so. So, maybe it was about more than the obvious, maybe he just didn't fit with the policies of this administration any more. I cannot imagine him sitting still and saying nothing about the lifting of the ban on Offshore Drilling. He certainly doesn't sound like someone who would be silent about oil drilling in this speech. So, it is possible there is a lot we do not know about why the WH was so quick to accept his resignation.

Amazing to have such compassion. Along with volumes of precise detail and a very rational plea to persist for change to prioritize the environment.

He really gives you the sense of the gravity of that situation.

A nice, articulate, likable, liberal black man: no wonder Glenn Beck fought so hard for his ouster.
And that's why he's fighting so hard for the ouster of his former boss at the White House (except that the president isn't as liberal as Van Jones).