WORKIN' THE CRAZY PEDAL:

We Needed Van Jones on the Inside (Melissa Harris-Lacewell, 09/08/2009, The Nation)

The modern environmental justice movement emerged more than three decades ago. Its fight has been centered on two important issues: the disproportionate impact of local decisions that site polluting industries and undesirable land uses in poor and minority communities, and the damaging health effects of urban pollution on black and brown citizens.

Distinct from the earlier conservation movement, EJ linked environmental injustice to racial injustice. It opened a new era of civil rights activism in many localities and created new Latino, African American, and Native American leaders who became important, if largely unknown, actors in green activism. [...]

There are likely to be real political consequences for the Obama administration as a result of Jones' exit. John Nichols calls it "an unnecessary and unwise surrender." Baratunde Thurston likens it to "negotiating with terrorists." They identify Jones' resignation was hasty, unnecessary, and ultimately more distracting than useful.

But it is not the politics of this episode that trouble me most. I am most concerned with the substantive consequences. The EJ movement was just beginning to gain a foothold in national politics, just beginning to develop a more cohesive and identifiable national platform, and Jones' position within the White House was important to those efforts.

Setting aside the hilarity of important but unknown activists, is this EJ anything more than affirmative action for the environmental whackos?

MORE:
And, just in case you thought his main job qualification wasn't race, Obama Sells Out Van Jones to Racists (Matthew Rothschild, September 8, 2009, The Progressive)

Obama blinked again.

By hanging Van Jones out to dry, he showed that he can be easily rolled.

And he once again took the left for granted.

Van Jones was probably the single most prominent progressive in the Obama Administration. A founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and a leading green jobs advocate, Van Jones represented us in the White House. [...]

And Beck flailed against Van Jones because he signed a 9/11Truth petition, along with Ralph Nader and Howard Zinn and many others.

Can you really not fire a nutjob if he's black?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 8, 2009 12:19 PM