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D.C. Protest Organizer to Democrats: 'The Van Jones Approach is Exactly the Wrong Approach'
 (CNSNews.com) -- In an interview with CNSNews.com, one of the organizers of the D.C.-version of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, Kevin Zeese, said Van Jones' Rebuild the Dream movement is "the wrong approach" because its main mission is to elect more Democrats.Well, duh... Van Jones is the former green jobs czar for the Obama administration. He left the administration in September 2009 after a controversy erupted over his signing of a petition in 2004 by the group 911Truth.org. "We want to be independent of the two parties and I think the Van Jones approach is exactly the wrong approach," said Zeese, a long-time political activist who advocates for medical marijuana and other drug policy causes. He said Democrats could have a negative impact on the protests, which started in New York more than three weeks ago and have attracted small crowds in Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Plaza. "We see [Democrats] as actually something that could corrupt this movement," Zeese said. "If they co-opted this movement that would be like what the Republicans did to the Tea Party." "We don't want to see that happen," Zeese said. Last week at the Center for American Progress, Van Jones praised the protesters. "Help the Occupy Wall Street movement," Jones told the crowd at the CAP event on Friday. "When people speak truth to power, that takes courage," Jones said. "I admire these young people so much." "People say, 'What the heck, these young people, I can't understand their messaging,'" Jones said. "Look, they may not have message clarity yet. [But] they have moral clarity. And that's something. That's something in this world." The 911Truth.org petition that Jones signed in 2004, according to The Washington Post, questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war." Zeese said protesters are against tax breaks for banks and corporations, calling the practice "corporate welfare." He also echoed Jones's idea of getting financial institutions and Wall Street to "pay their fair share" by charging a transaction fee for stock trades. Posted by: Fred 2011-10-11 |
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