On this anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, with all the ginned-up media concern over the potential for tea party fervor to morph into acts of domestic terrorism, just wait until the media catches wind of this virulently anti-government song published by a very prominent political activist:
F*ck the government, they never done sh*t for me
For my people their defeat is a victory
“The man” wants the whole world under his thumb,
Plunders the globe and tries to buy us off with the crumbs…
That’s not your flag, not your government
Not your war, not your President
Now is not the time to be silent
Raise your voices, raise your fist
Against the real terrorist – Uncle Sam.
Whoa – the American government is the “real terrorist”?
Now I’d say that this is going beyond reasonable political discourse. Except of course this song was not published by any tea party activist. And far from generating any concern within the mainstream media, they completely ignored it when the discovery of this song spread like wildfire throughout the conservative blogosphere just a few short months ago. In fact, far from being condemned, the man most responsible for financing and promoting the album in which this song appears is now a senior fellow at the most prominent liberal think tank in the nation, and will soon be teaching at Princeton. Oh, and he was also recently awarded the highest honor given by the NAACP.
I’m referring of course to the former White House green jobs czar, Van Jones.
The Ella Baker Center, founded and run by Van Jones, was the “sponsoring non-profit” for Freedom Fighter Music which in 2003 produced and published an album entitled “WarTimes: Reports from the Opposition.” An album narrated by convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, and which also featured an interview segment with Van Jones himself.
Just in case there remains any question as to Van Jones’ direct involvement in this effort, he acknowledged his ownership of the Freedom Fighter record label in this 2003 interview with USA Today Weekend. Furthermore, the act which performed the song highlighted in this post was called The Red Guard, and consisted of artists Ying-sun Ho and Jakada Imani who were both on staff at the Ella Baker Center at the time. In fact, after Van Jones’ departure, Imani became the Executive Director of the Center, and Ho is now an attorney on staff with Green for All, another organization founded by Jones.
In other words, this was Van Jones’ crew.
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.
But I want to close by expressing what an outrage, and glaring hypocrisy it is for so many members of the media to continue to give credence to fabricated accusations against the tea party for racism and fomenting violence. All the while, virtually ignoring Van Jones’ sordid history of genuine anti-Americanism, while openly aiding in the effort to rehabilitate his image after he abruptly left the White House last fall.
Case in point, the media’s shameful coverage of former President Clinton’s propaganda against the Tea Party on Friday. In his speech, Clinton accused conservative activists of fostering an environment ripe for political violence by “demonizing the government.” This speech was given at the liberal Center for American Progress, where Van Jones is now on staff as a senior fellow.
The media’s willingness to propagate the baseless attacks of those attempting to de-legitimize the tea party, while glorifying real hate-mongers like Van Jones, represents either a disgraceful level of partisan bias, or a complete lack of journalistic courage to expose the truth about the personal history and views of a leading liberal voice in the “green jobs” movement. I suspect both factors are at play. But it is no wonder that so many media organizations continue to struggle in the marketplace, while the tea party movement continues to gain momentum as we head into the mid-term elections.
[LANGUAGE WARNING]
The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and The Red Guard, present “United We Stand”:
[audio: http://www.verumserum.com/media/2010/04/United-We-Stand-Red-Guard.mp3|titles=United We Stand – Red Guard]
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