Former Obama Czar, 9/11 Truther, and Communist to Speak at Philips Exeter
February 22, 2010A few months ago, Conservatives around the country followed the lead of Glenn Beck and exposed Obama “green jobs czar” for his past comments which many see as out of the mainstream. Now!Hampshire has the scoop and the dubious connection between the invitation and a State Senator.
A disgraced former Obama administration official who once thought the U.S. government may have been responsible for the deadliest terror attack in American history will spend time in New Hampshire on Monday, a guest of a New Hampshire Democrat state Senator, NowHampshire.com has learned.
Van Jones, one of President Barack Obama’s controversial ‘czars,’ was forced to step down from the administration in September of last year when it was revealed that he had signed a petition alleging the administration of President George W. Bush “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”
Jones is also a self-professed communist and has alleged that whites were deliberately poisoning minority neighborhoods.
Jones is speaking at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire on Monday, having been invited by Thomas and Maggie Hassan, NowHampshire.com has learned. Thomas Hassan is the principal of Philips Exeter. His wife Maggie is a Democratic state Senator.
Of course if a similarly controversial Conservative, or at least someone sympathetic to the movement, were in invited to speak anywhere they would be run out of town. Its truly telling that the Liberals around NH are silent on this speaker.
TimothyHorrigan
Feb 22, 2010
Attacking Van Jones for being a Commie seems a little goofy in an era when Red China has the world’s fastest growing economy (and is our largest trading partner.) BTW, Matt, do you have any actual examples of conservatives being run out of Exeter after being invited to speak at the Academy?
Matt Suermann
Feb 22, 2010
Tim,
I am simply saying that BH would be up in arms if a similar situation were occurring on the right.
Amos Tuck
Feb 22, 2010
Timothy — This is not some blog throwing out the generic term that someone is a communist. He is actually a self-described communist. To answer your question to matt, I don’t know of any conservatives lately who have spoken at the school. It is a private school and they can invite whomever they want. I just can’t understand why, of all people, they would want him.
TimothyHorrigan
Feb 22, 2010
I dunno: Newt Gingrich & Andrew Breitbart spoke in Manchester a few weeks ago without much fuss being made. Certainly no one tried to stop them from speaking.
Van Jones is any case “controversial” only because he was targeted by the right: before they outed him as an (alleged) Commie, no one even knew who he was. Jones’s actual message— that “green jobs” are good and should be encouraged— is not controversial at all. Even Newt Gingrich said green jobs would be good when he spoke in Manchester.
Maggie Hassan’s role in the Jones speech is minimal. Sen. Hassan is the headmaster’s spouse, and as such is a person of some special prominence at Philips Exeter, but she does NOT decide who gets invited to the school. She has no formal job at the Academy— and probably spends very little time worrying about what goes on there. Jones was invited as part of a sustainability program: Thomas Hassan doubtless could have vetoed the invitation, but he wasn’t the one who specifically chose Jones to speak today.
The Academy is in any case a small private institution which serves a very specific constituency and which gets only minimal taxpayer subsidies (aside from paying no property tax on its large campus.) If they want to invite a Communist to speak on their campus, they are free to do so. The school doesn’t have to answer to me or even to Matt Suerman.
Amos Tuck
Feb 22, 2010
Bad example. Andrew Breitbart and Newt Gingrich don’t believe that 9/11 was an inside job.
TimothyHorrigan
Feb 22, 2010
Has Breitbart ever expressed an opinion on 9/11? Does he even HAVE an opinion on 9/11? As far as I can tell, 9/11 is totally beyond the scope of Breitbart’s interests— he seems to be 100% focussed on making fun of liberal politicians’ personal foibles. Expecting Breitbart to weigh in on 9/11 would be like expecting snowboarder Shaun White to weigh in on 9/11: it’s a past event which has nothing to do with what he does.
I will certainly admit that Gingrich never said that 9/11 was an inside job.
There actually are a lot of questions unanswered about 9/11. The relationship between Osama & the US government is clearly much more complicated than one of James Bondesque Bad Guy vs. the Forces of Good. Osama clearly was at some point in the past, before 2001, working with “Our” side. He also clearly has political goals which go beyond simply doing Evil to the Good Guys. There are many unanswered questions about the 9/11 plot (which was actually led by Mohammad Atta): many of the details of the official story simply don’t make any sense.
Amos Tuck
Feb 22, 2010
So you also are a truth-er. Good to know.
steve vaillancourt
Feb 22, 2010
If the hammer and sickle fits (and it certainly does to Van Jones), he must wear it. We can no longer afford to ignore the Communists and socialists in our midst. Glen Beck is right (at least on this point). They are such a theat to civilization (hey, I just finished reading all 1200 pages of Atlas Shrugged) that we need to call them out at every opportunity.
Down with all the Communists, socialists and other who would hold reason, justice, human dignity and individual productivity captive. Down with them all, and
LONG LIVE LADY LIBERTY.
SheridanFolger
Feb 23, 2010
Communists speak at Philips Exeter every day, suddenly someone is willing to raise hell about it?
TimothyHorrigan
Feb 23, 2010
Right off to one side of the stage where Jones spoke was a memorial to Exonians who had fought and died on Stalin’s side in the 1940s. There were roughly a hundred names on that plaque, including almost 10% of the class of 1944. That shows you just how Communist Philips Exeter Academy was back then.
Even now, Van Jones was applauded for proposing economic policies which are almost identical to Red China’s.
In case anyone’s irony meter is miscalibrated, Stalin’s Soviet Union was one of the Allies in WWII: Stalin was on “Our Side.” And, what Jones proposed Monday night before a rather small crowd in Exeter was investing in manufacturing, investing in our domestic economy, rebuilding our infrastructure, and placing massive emphasis on teaching our workforce how to do real work building real things. (Which is basically the same thing China is doing.)