‘High-Tech Lynching’ of Van Jones Signals McCarthyism Alive and Well

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Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

Separate articles appeared in Monday’s New York Times and in the Washington Post. Both suggest that the resignation submitted by Van Jones, a special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality, were the result of inadequate White House “vetting.” Neither newspaper examined the question as to whether the true problem was the inability to withstand a smear campaign led by extreme right-wing whack jobs like Glenn Beck; an inability reflected by the Times’ description of a “terse” acceptance of the resignation, with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs taking pains to stress that President Barack Obama “did not endorse” Jones’ views.

The three Jones sins were his having uttered an expletive in referring to Republicans, his having “signed a petition in 2004 questioning whether the Bush administration had allowed the terrorist attacks of September 2001 to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East,” and his support for Mumia Abu-Jamal (“Mumia”)…

I won’t dwell on the first except to state that although the use of vulgarity in political discourse is inappropriate, a single utterance, followed by an apology, in no way compels a resignation. The right-wing echo chamber conveniently forgets that their hero, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, told a U.S. Senator “Go fuck yourself” on the floor of the U.S. Senate. And even George W. Bush famously pointed a NY Times reporter out to his then-running mate Dick Cheney, as a “major-league asshole”.

Truth be told, you could probably count on one hand the number of Democrats and Independents who have not, at some point, at least thought of Cheney as a lying S.O.B., even if they have refrained from saying it.

While I, for one, do not believe there is sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion that the Bush regime intentionally permitted 9/11 to occur, it is not all that unreasonable to raise the question, as millions of Americans have, so as to warrant further investigation to either substantiate or refute the “official theory” of that event.

Consider the two things that are clear: (a) in the face of dire warnings, at a minimum, the Bush regime appears to have been asleep at the switch, and (b) the Bush regime seized on the event to target Iraq, with Bush not only refusing to accept Richard Clarke’s 9/12/01 assessment that there was no link between Saddam and 9/11, but reportedly instructing Clarke to find one — at least according to what Clarke wrote in Against All Enemies: Inside the War on Terror.

However, in the eyes of the corporate media, even a call to test the veracity of the disparate official theories on 9/11 and the deeply flawed 9/11 Commission Report are considered evidence that one is not fit to hold high office. As I noted in “On Conspiracy Theories,” the corporate media will label anyone who challenges official reality a “conspiracy theorist” even if they merely “seek an investigation to test whether there is empirical data that supports the official reality.” Indeed, as used by the corporate owned media, anyone labeled a “conspiracy theorist” is by definition “mentally deranged.”

But the corporate media did not stop there. It suggested that support for a death-row inmate who may have been wrongfully convicted serves to disqualify someone from holding high office.

While it often comes as a shock to some of my hard-right friends, not everyone convicted of a crime is actually guilty. As Ezekiel Edwards, staff attorney at the Innocence Project, explained during a 10/24/08 appearance on Democracy Now, since “the Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Newfeld, 223 people have been exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing.”

Edwards, who specializes in the inadequacies of eye witness identification, spoke on the eve of a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis.

The appeal was a smashing success. Six members of the Court, persuaded not only by the absence of physical evidence linking Davis to the crime but by the fact that seven of nine eye witnesses not only recanted but identified one of the two remaining witnesses as the party who committed the crime, ruled [PDF] that Davis was entitled to a new trial in which he would have the burden of proving his innocence. Two of the Court’s Federalist Society-connected Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, dissented. They made the astounding claim that the U.S. Constitution does not preclude executing an innocent man.

Among the many prominent figures to speak out in support of Davis were former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr, now an independent, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions.

Like Davis, a broad range of individuals have stepped forward to question Mumia’s conviction. This has included a large number of individuals and unions under the aegis of the Partisan Defense Fund, former six-term Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, educators, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which passed a unanimous resolution [PDF] urging that Mumia be granted a new trial.

In an interview and at greater length in his book, The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal, reporter J. Patrick O’Connor presents a persuasive argument that Mumia did not kill Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner; that Faulkner was murdered by Kenneth Freeman, a business partner of Mumia’s brother.

The question of guilt or innocent in Mumia’s case has been complicated by issues of racial bias in jury selection and the disparate application of court precedents.

As explained by Mumia’s lead appellate counsel, Robert Bryan, following an appellate decision which upheld the conviction but granted a new penalty trial to determine whether Mumia should receive a death sentence or life in prison:

The District Attorney’s office…in Philadelphia…during…the…late ’70s and mid- to late ’80s, engaged in a pattern — this is judicially recognized — of removing people from sitting on juries because of race….

[In] Snyder v. Louisiana, decided last week…the US Supreme Court, in a seven-to-two decision, reaffirmed that the removal of even one person from sitting on a jury because of his or her race is constitutionally…unacceptable. And that is exactly what happened in this case, but not just one. The prosecution in this case engaged in a pattern of…nearly 70 percent of their strikes, of removing people who could be on the jury, were people who were African American….

Linn Washington, a columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune and a journalism professor at Temple University, who has followed the case for 25 years addressed the manner in which “the judiciary has consistently failed to apply its own legal precedents” to Mumia’s case.

Washington raised an issue of judicial ethics that may be unique to Pennsylvania:

Five members of the seven-member Supreme Court that upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction in 1998 received campaign contributions and campaign support from the Fraternal Order of Police, which is a Philadelphia police union, the main group that is pushing for his execution.

Washington noted that during that same year a PA Supreme Court study revealed that four in ten members of the public in that state “felt that campaign contributions had a direct impact on rulings and deliberations of all courts, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.”

So here we have two cases in which African-American men may be victims of wrongful murder convictions. In the case of Troy Anthony Davis, the hard-right has said little. In the other, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the right wing echo chamber, led by Glenn Beck of Fox News, has gone berserk.

It would be one thing if the corporate media argued that Troy Davis presented a stronger case for innocence than Mumia Abu-Jamal. But, alas, there is not one word in either The New York Times or Washington Post articles about guilt or innocence; not one word about issues of bias in jury selection or the potential of judicial impropriety tied to campaign contributions. Instead, the articles assume that merely by supporting Mumia’s appeal, Van Jones demonstrated that he is unfit for high office.

Why the disparate treatment by both the right-wing echo chamber and corporate media? The answer lies in politics. Troy Davis is simply a young man wrongfully accused. Mumia, prior to his arrest and conviction, was a former member of the Black Panther Party and an award-winning journalist — an outspoken journalist not afraid to challenge the local and national power base. Since his conviction, Mumia has remained a prolific writer and commentator, sharply critical of such things as the prison-industrial complex and the politicization of the U.S. Justice Department under George W. Bush and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In the mind of the American hard-right, Mumia’s politics warrant his death sentence even if the facts do not. And anyone who supports Mumia’s appeal for personal justice must be a radical as well. Thus, we find Beck labeling Jones a “communist-anarchist radical” — demonstrating that Beck doesn’t have a clue about the irreconcilable differences between Communism and anarchism.

When it comes to Van Jones, Beck’s animosity may be of a more personal nature. Beck has been smarting from the loss of revenue, as 55 sponsors, including Wal Mart and Sprint, withdrew ads from his program after Beck called President Obama a racist during remarks that typify Beck’s knack for Orwellian double-speak:

I’m not saying he [President Obama] doesn’t like white people. I’m saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist…

The sponsors of Beck’s program withdrew support at the urging of Color of Change, an activist group co-founded by Jones with James Rucker.

In the larger context, the silent acceptance of this type of right-wing smear campaign by the corporate media and the Obama administration has deeply troubling implications. In losing Van Jones, a Yale Law School graduate and author of the New York Times best-selling The Green Collar Economy, the United States has lost an exceptionally well-qualified individual to help lead this nation away from global climate degradation. What possible relevance does Jones’ support for Mumia Abu-Jamal have to that position?

As James Rucker observed on Democracy Now (video below):

Beck himself has said, and Fox has made clear, that they will go on such witch hunts if they can keep doing it. And when you…respond to what Beck has done by essentially trying to be silent, it doesn’t work. And when you respond by allowing your folks to leave, it’s basically not only rewarding bad behavior, it also sends a message that, hmmm, maybe something was wrong with Van Jones…

The fact that both The New York Times and Washington Post would raise the question of adequate vetting underscores that Beck’s smear campaign led the unthinking stenographers in the corporate press to conclude “maybe something was wrong with Van Jones.”

Jones’ resignation portends to a 21st Century return to the dark days of the “Red Scare” under the late Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI). What’s next, loyalty oaths and a return of the infamous House on Un-American Activities Committee?

* * *

UPDATE 09/08/09: James Rucker’s observation, offered this morning on Democracy Now that the administration’s silence will only serve to embolden the Glenn Beck/Fox witch hunt has proven quite prescient. Tonight, on Countdown, Keith Olbermann revealed that Beck is now seeking to target Cass Sunstein, Mark Lloyd & Carol Browner.

===

Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).

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29 Comments on “‘High-Tech Lynching’ of Van Jones Signals McCarthyism Alive and Well

  1. Arianna Huffington has shown herself to be empty of logic, and honor, as well. Despite the plethora of questions that need answering, and eyebrow raising things that happened on 9-11-01, she has denounced the truth movement, that has the guts to tackle these questions. I’m done with H.P. She’s shown her true colors and there are none, she’s void of integrity, and empty vessel. Van Jones had the objectivity and personal honesty to see, and say, the government version of 9-11-01, is more like a cartoon, especially when an abundant amount of science backs up the Truth movement’s concerns. Sadly, he denied it afterwards, which makes him somewhat of a coward. Maybe now, he’ll have the cajones to speak out more.

    Arianna Huffington said:
    [i]”More full disclosure: I despise 9/11 “truther” conspiracies. Indeed, one of the guidelines for bloggers on HuffPost is a ban on posts putting forth those kinds of theories. And it was stupid of Van to put his name on a very stupid “9/11 Truth Statement.” I’ve spoken to Van. He doesn’t believe that the Bush administration orchestrated the 9/11 attacks or allowed the attacks to happen in a cold-hearted attempt to gin up support. The 9/11 “Truthers” are fringe-dwellers and Van was completely wrong to allow himself to be associated with them.”[/i]

  2. Despite all that Sibel Edmonds has revealed on this site about the CIA/FBI working with Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, why is there always such a need to cling to the “government would never do anything like that?” WTC7 fell into its own footprint with 2.3 seconds being at PERFECT FREEFALL….from office fires alone! Is there anyone here who can explain how this could possibly happen (please submit answers to NIST as well because apparently they cannot explain it either!)

  3. Joseph Mc Carthy is alive and well, now inhabiting the body of Glen Beck. Here we go again!

  4. Reminds me of when Cynthia McKinney was hounded out obstensibly for cutting in line or some such minor non-event while most thinking folks knew it was because she asked tough 9/11 related questions. Yeah, I’m going to “resign” cause I call someone an asshole. Or think a guy on death row deserves a 2nd look? Please.

    Even the Color of Change connection would never rise near lynching status alone. Clearly the perps behind 9/11 are playing for keeps and brook NO hint of even a tiny crack in the massive wall of ignorance they have erected in the mass mind via their total media control.

  5. Richard Clarke won’t admit Bin Ladin graduated from Harvard’s mechanical engineering school in 1976.

    Tunga was there when Osama said he intended to bring down the west.

    He probably didn’t expect so much help from the CIA.

    The transcripts documenting the last flight of UA77 obtained through FOIA requests show the insertion of script files into the radar data seen by Radar operators coast to coast courtesy of the 84th RADES in Utah.

    The files were created by a Massachusetts company called P-Tech. All of the flights involved in the 911 caper were involved in the Vigilant Guardian exercises being run by NORAD on that day.

  6. Glen Beck is a real piece of work.

    I try not to watch or listen to the factually incorrect rubbish, lies, and misleading propaganda spewed by the privateley owned U.S. corporate mass media run by your Illuminati rulers in government so I never heard this acehole speak.

    It doesn’t matter what these treasonous self-serving individuals on corporate TV say no more than Federal government public servants who take an oath to serve the interests of working class Americans and in REALITY are purely serving the militaristic rule of NEW WORLD ORDER MULTI-NATIONAL BANKERS, INDUSTRIALISTS, AND WAR MACHINE CONTRACTORS.

    Beck’s quoted material I have read speaks volumes. This man needs to be heard and then called out as the big white racist loser muther fcker with a microphone that he is. Spreading hate, twisted facts, and creating controversy as a manipulative antagonist for the super rich greedy careless losers in control of the corporation known as the U.S.A.

    Anyone like Arianna Huffington who openly refuses to look at the factual evidence that the official story about 9-11 is a cover-up is part of THE COVER-UP.

    High tech military thermate cutter charges or Nanothermate left it’s particle trace signature in dust samples from all 3 controlled demolition sites as evidenced by Dr. Steven Jones in a peer reviewed paper.

    Over 800 architects and engineers have signed a petition asking for a new investigation. The 9-11 COMMISSION REPORT overseen by Phillip Zelicow by the Bush-Cheney regime didn’t even mention the textbook conforming controlled demolition of 47 story World Trade Tower Building #7. A structure not hit by a plane that collapsed in 6.5 seconds.

    http://www.ae911truth.org

    The secretive New World Order make up maybe 5% of the U.S. population. Then you have the 10% that benefit from their “working” relationship with this group.

    When enough of the 85% of Americans population of 300 million WAKE UP and learn the truth, they can work together as a team with a purpose. To punish and remove these corrupt indivuals from their stranglehold control of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE MONEY SYSTEM FOREVER.

    Then concentration can be placed on protecting RRR fragile home called earth that is CURRENTLY IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY.

  7. One, you are way off base on your McCarthyism comparison. Two, good riddance to Van Jones. Three, you are a “whack job” yourself.

  8. Respectfully, Anthony J. Topper, placing numbers before your ideological rant does not add weight to your unsupported arguments.

  9. Lynching? It’s amazing to read the diatribe by so many of you “progressives” out there who cannot see the forest for the trees. I’d love to understand how it is called a “Lynching” when all Beck did was replay clips of Van Jones, speaking out his radical beliefs in his own words? Showing Jones discussing how he believes white america is singling out and poisoning people of color. Showing his signature on the petition demanding an investigation of 9/11.

    Yeah, he said he denied signing. Unfortunately for him the petitioners were all confirmed. So then he said he didn’t read it well enough. Right.

    So let’s put a self professed communist with a grade school understanding of how a free market works and who believes the former administration allowed 9/11 as a pretext to war, $30 Billion dollars to manage.

    His, and most progressives’ lack of understanding to the mechanisms of a free market will be disasterous to our ecomony. In this case, emphasising “green” jobs at the expense of goal, oil and gas, the number of jobs lost in those sectors would dwarf any possible gains made in solar, wind or others. Cap and Trade will lead to higher costs for producers and what most of you seem to miss is that producers will simply pass those higher costs to consumers.

    Instead of a “green revolution” you’ll have massive unemployment.

    But more to the point, what you can’t get beyond is that most of america vehemently disagrees with your radical politics. So rather than debate your position which, res ipsa loquitur, cannot hold water as in the case of Jones, you resort to personal, vitriol attacks.

    There’s no debate in that. But who wants to debate, right? To debate you run the risk of having your truth exposed as the folly it is and what would you do then? No, can’t risk that. Better to attack everyone who disagrees as a racist.

    That may have worked in the past, but this is a new day.

  10. #13 above said.

    I’d love to understand how it is called a “Lynching” when all Beck did was replay clips of Van Jones, speaking out his radical beliefs in his own words?

    The article say’s, “High-Tech Lynching.”

    your intentionally out of context -imo

    Who said I thought Van Jones’s beliefs were radical? Did I say it? No. Don’t put words in my mouth. (like you already have above) Okay. Alright. You can pipe that shit down. Oh wait you call us radical one more time…

    But more to the point, what you can’t get beyond is that most of america vehemently disagrees with your radical politics

    That’s a fucking lie, since most of America doesn’t even know what my politics are. And again you disrespect me by calling me radical. Who say’s radical YOU? you don’t even know what my politics are.

    white america is singling out and poisoning people of color

    Duh, White people have been. I’ve seen it happen many times and I was only born in 1963. Thank god, I was taught, not to behave like that, it’s disgusting and unacceptable no matter WHO does it, and yeah I have seen reverse discrimination too.

    Showing his signature on the petition demanding an investigation of 9/11.

    Yeah, he said he denied signing. Unfortunately for him the petitioners were all confirmed. So then he said he didn’t read it well enough. Right.

    This is so stupid, since wanting to know what happened on 911 is a legit question. There will be no statute of limitations on that, we all have a god given right to ask! From Veteran’s like myself to the lowest paid job in the country, we all have a right, if not a DUTY to ask what REALLY happened on 911 not that Blue and White 911 Commission “book of missing data.”

    So let’s put a self professed communist with a grade school understanding of how a free market works and who believes the former administration allowed 9/11 as a pretext to war, $30 Billion dollars to manage.

    Na let’s keep the vote cracked with electronics so we can’t hold our Senators responsible for allowing (even encouraging) banksters to steal $65 Trillion (estimated) by over leveraging and rigging their books from audit. Still to this day 9th of September 2009, not coming clean from their fraud. 30 Billion is nothing compared to 1 Trillion. Oh I understand enough about the monetary system to know that 20-30 billion if not lets’ round it up to 50 billion is NOTHING in the big picture.

    Good luck on Bradblog dude, seriously. Even the village idiot (ME) can cut your nonsense down to size.

  11. A lot of people know who Glen Beck is but who is quiet “The Catastophic Terror Kid” Philip Zelikow who produced the 700 page 9-11 Commission Report?

    This is the man who decided what information SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be included into the official government investigation of complex military events staged on 9-11-2001.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuoQZkBFj9A

    THE treasounous corrupt BUSH-CHENEY-RUMSFELD-ROVE-RICE-GONZALES ADMINISTRATION false flag attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon was used as an effective emotional boost to sell “their” New World Order war on terror campaign. So far they got away with murder and business is good.

    Condolezza Rice wrote a book with Philip Zelacow and like many other lying criminals in the George W. Bush Administration, she was handsomely rewarded for promoting 9-11 cover-up and lying to the American people about reasons to go to war. She was promoted to Secretary of State.

    Please remember, Obama is President because he represents the same people.. the same people entirely responsible for killing thousands of people to line their pockets and attempt to take over the 3rd largest oil reserve.

  12. I was under the impression that the reason for Mr.Jones’ resignation was the fact that he believed that the former President Bush had complete knowledge of the 9/11 attacks before they occurred, but let them happen because he needed an excuse to invade Afghanistan.

  13. It is truly unfortunate that truth can so easily be mangled in the minds of the uninformed.

    Take Jessica-Lender, comment #16:

    I was under the impression that the reason for Mr.Jones’ resignation was the fact that he believed that the former President Bush had complete knowledge of the 9/11 attacks before they occurred, but let them happen because he needed an excuse to invade Afghanistan.

    In actuality, Jones never said that he “believed” Bush had advance knowledge, complete or otherwise. The Washington Post article, cited in this piece, states that Jones allegedly signed:

    [Emphasis added] a petition in 2004 from the group 911Truth.org that questioned whether officials in President George W. Bush’s administration “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war”…

    The word “may” appears to have been used not to assert official complicity as established fact but to suggest a reason why the event warrants a full and complete investigation.

    Additionally, the decision to invade Afghanistan is relatively uncontroversial. The core problem was the Bush regime’s deliberate deception in which it falsely portrayed a WMD-armed Iraq as being linked to al Qaeda and 9/11; claiming Iraq constituted such an immediate threat that our only recourse was to launch a preemptive invasion. It was a deception aided in large measure not only by Fox News but the rest of the unthinking stenographers in the corporate-owned media.

    As I stated in this article, I, for one, am not convinced by the evidence offered to date by 9/11 Truthers is sufficient to warrant the conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job.

    Lest I again incur the wrath of the 9/11 Truther movement, I will reiterate that I am also not satisfied that the evidence produced to date warrants acceptance of the “official conspiracy theory” of what took place on 9/11.

    As I noted in “On conspiracy theories,”

    The word “theory” as a method of scientific study merely refers to “systematically organized knowledge applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances, especially a system of assumptions, accepted principles, and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict, or otherwise explain the natural behavior of a specified set of phenomena.” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).

    In most criminal investigations, detectives develop a theory and then follow up with leads to ascertain whether the evidence supports or negates their theory of the crime.

    9/11 is no different.

    Whether we look at that event through the official lens, entailing 19 hijackers linked to al Qaeda, or the unofficial lens, which questions whether that event was an “inside job,” we are examining the issue of a conspiracy (a meeting of the minds of more than one individual to commit a crime) theory.

    But the corporate media never uses the words “conspiracy theory” to describe the official theory of an event. Those words are reserved for any and all who question “official reality” — an unscientific form of dismissive denigration that evades the core question — does the evidence support or negate the official reality?

    That said, I must say I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the 9/11 question would dominate the comments.

    My primary purpose in writing this piece was to demonstrate the gaping hole in corporate media logic that equated questioning the adequacy of evidence used to convict Mumia Abu-Jamal with an affinity for Mumia’s politics.

    If my reading of the comments is accurate, it would appear that I have failed in my central mission as an author, for my core point was lost in the maze of 9/11 rhetoric.

  14. Floridiot: I usually agree with your posts. But the site you link to presents the “murder/rape” allegation as nothing more than a “rumor.”

    I don’t think it serves the progressive cause to repeat unsubstantiated rumors.

  15. It’s a parody site of the way the right wingnuts present/frame things, like the birther movement.

    Think about that, then go look at it. I’ll guarantee you you’ll laugh your ass off then.

  16. You’re quite right, Floridiot, but you didn’t present it as such here. I would have preferred that, prior to your link, you added — a parody on Glenn Beck’s methodology — or something of that nature so that it would be clear to all that your comment was tongue-in-cheek.

    And yes, when I took my time to read it, I did “laugh my ass off.”

  17. But, but…Iffin I would’ve warned you first it wouldn’t had been as funny (to me anyway) 😛 😉

    Plus I figgered with the first link you would have known I was in humor mode…oh well, sorry.

  18. Sorry Ernest for perpetuating the 9-11 truth movement into this blog, however, the fact remains that these killers and their corporate controlled media are still running the country.

    The ways I see it is 1st a majority of competent people have to be aware of what really happened and the current situation. Then American people with any available help can push to investigate and remove the lying treasonous murderers from power as well as put safe guards in place to correct the corrupted system.

    Simultaneously multi-tasking, America can legitimately get on with doing “the right things” such as leading world nations in an effort to protect and take care of the air, remaining forests, and the world water systems. We can install the Green Peace plan of 80% wind, solar, and geothermal renewable energy by 2050 to best head off Global Warming.

    The root of the problem is until the careless dangerous liars of the New World Order rulers are removed from control of U.S. Federal government, they will continue to mislead, confuse, and destroy RRR chance to be good planetary stewards until that time is gone.

  19. Flo, GBD — no apologies are required.

    I have no problem with either the levity or the extended discussion of 9/11. I’m just a bit disappointed my piece did not generate some thoughtful commentary on the plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the illogical effort to equate the non-ideological questioning of the sufficiency of the evidence in his case into Van Jones’ purported affinity with Mumia’s politics.

    My original title for this piece, which Brad thoughtfully revised, suggested that if support for those who question the adequacy of evidence for a murder conviction is “radical” then we’re all in trouble.

  20. In 2009 We are ALL in trouble. That is my point because the corporate media and a big mouth bull horn like Glen Beck ARE the most powerful distraction of control from the truth about the killers in the White House who did 9-11 and still run the Federal government under their puppet Obama.

    The Bush Administraton and their “project for a new century” people who planned and carried out the events on 9-11 have still gotten away with murder and it of course is openly debated if these isolated Illuminati individuals will get prosecuted and convicted for those torture crimes committed alone.

    I agree that the smoke and mirrors slant of “their” private information machine will not question evidence for “their” murder conviction.

    Connecting the dots, the 9-11 attack forced changes to U.S. government,and it’s all it’s policies in it’s aftermath. It takes away from important enviro matters that dramatically worsened under 8 years of the criminal Bushit Administraton as well as budgetary dollars.

    Fossil fuel industrialists at the helm will suck the last bit of earth to make a dollar regardless of the reprecusions. It does not have to play out that way.

    Because the treasonous lying super-rich dangerous criminal 5% indivuals control the information to the mass American public it exerts and represents this strong powerful check on the revolutionary changes that must occur to remove them.

    After decades of control, They know the big picture, and have enjoyed their big corporate INCREASE of wealth and shored up control that experienced exponential growth under the incompentent corrupt Bush-Cheney Administration.

    Reversing these changed and increased extradinary powers has been very minimal under “their” new puppet President. A combination of left over Illuminati Bush and Illuminati Clinton office holders have filled the positions.

    Can We find a better way to gain converts than exposing the whole corrupted system on a blog thread?

  21. INCARCERATING PEOPLE “FOR PROFIT” IS IN A WORD….WRONG!
    Even if one does not ask or pretends not to see the rope and the flashing red flag draped around the philosophical question standing solemnly at attention in the middle of the room, it remains apparent that the mere presence of a private “for profit” driven prison business in our country undermines the U.S Constitution and subsequently the credibility of the American criminal justice system. In fact, until all private prisons in America have been abolished and outlawed, “the promise” of fairness and justice at every level of this country’s judicial system will remain unattainable. We must restore the principles and the vacant promise of our judicial system. Our government cannot continue to “job-out” its obligation and neglect its duty to the individuals confined in the correctional and rehabilitation facilities throughout this nation, nor can it ignore the will of the people that it was designed to serve and protect. There is urgent need for the good people of this country to emerge from the shadows of indifference, apathy, cynicism, fear, and those other dark places that we migrate to when we are overwhelmed by frustration and the loss of hope.
    My hope is that you will support the National Public Service Council to Abolish Private Prisons (NPSCTAPP) with a show of solidarity by signing “The Single Voice Petition”
    http://www.petitiononline.com/gufree2/petition.html

    Please visit our website for further information: http://www.npsctapp.blogspot.com

    –Ahma Daeus
    “Practicing Humanity Without A License”…

  22. Ernest Canning,
    You are not convinced that the Government allowed it to happen? C,mon…
    Norman Mineta….Col. Anthony Shaeffer / Able Danger…War games…Rumsfield not commanding the Pentagon in the morning….Insider trading on “put” options…
    Whats your hang up?

  23. Van Jones and Mumia Abu Jamal have to be silenced.

    If they were allowed to speak, we might learn that we are not free.

    Arianna Huffington is still republican.

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Buzz Flash's 'Wings of Justice' Honoree
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The 2008 Weblog Awards