A couple of weeks ago, Glen Beck ( http://www.glennbeck.com/index.php ) devoted part of his show to the Apollo Alliance (AA) and its connection to the writing of the Porkulus Bill. Later, Glenn went into depth on the one of the members of the AA, who was actually a co-founder of Apollo Alliance was Van Jones, a self proclaimed "communist" and "revolutionary" who served on the AA board of directors for several years ( http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/ ) and is now the Green Jobs Czar in the Obama administration or whatever want to call him, frankly I don’t care what his title is along as you call him GONE. Since Glenn began his expose’ of Van Jones others have gotten on the bandwagon, Sean Hannity ( http://www.hannity.com/ ) in particularly, who seemed a little late and a dollar short on this one. So be it, I am not going to talk about Van Jones, everybody seems to have covered him, but not mush has been said about the Apollo Alliance.

The Apollo Alliance is a project of the TidesCenter. AA claims to have been “launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America.” (http://apolloalliance.org/ )  AA then says that in late 2007 it “spun off from its founding organizations, Campaign for America’s Future and Center for Wisconsin Strategy, and formed its own Board of Directors. Besides Van Jones, other luminaries such as: Gerald Hudson, International Executive Vice President of the SEIU; environmentalist Carl Pope; Joel Rogers, a founder of the Marxist political coalition known as the New Party; John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress; Robert Borosage, co-founder of both the Institute for America’s Future and Campaign for America's Future; actor and environmentalist Robert Redford; former Bill Clinton administration officials Kathleen McGinty and Dan Reicher; and key figures from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the United Steelworkers Union, and the Laborers’ International Union of North America. It also expanded its staff and program to better meet the critical challenge of “promoting clean energy and good jobs.” A director of New York State’s chapter of Apollo Alliance is Jeff Jones (no relation to Van Jones). Jeff Jones is described on the AA website as someone devoted to “cleaning up toxic pollution in inner-city and rural neighborhoods (does this sound familiar, like some of the past statements of Van Jones) and reversing global warming.” However, the website does not mention that in the 1970s Jones was one of the four key leaders of the Weather Underground terrorist organization, along with Mark Rudd, Bill Ayers, and Bernardine Dohrn. It seems amazing that Obama, dismissed connections to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn during the campaign. However, at the same time Van Jones, who is one of his advisors, just happens to be associated with a person that was a leader of the same terrorist organization.

AA’s unique role in the climate debate is supposed to be their ability to mobilize a coalition unprecedented in its strength and diversity by speaking directly to the economic benefits of moving toward a clean energy economy. In 2008, as the economy and energy rose to top Americans’ concerns, AA released The New Apollo Program, an update of their original Ten-Point Plan that was developed for the 2004 elections. This “plan” identified priorities for federal action and investment, including a “cap and invest” program (I prefer calling it Crap and Tax, currently pending in the Senate), to reduce carbon emissions; investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and mass transit; a plan to revitalize the manufacturing sector; and specific strategies to expand opportunities for American workers in the clean energy economy. Can anyone imagine what would have happened in 2005, if John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, had been elected in 2004? If any one thinks that the financial crisis from last year was bad, it would have been a whole lot worst, in fact we may have devolved into the dark ages and surfing the web by candle light.

AA has exerted a powerful influence on the views and policies of the Obama administration, why not Van Jones is a chief advisor. AA also “helped” craft portions of the $787 billion “stimulus” legislation (Porkulus Bill) that was signed into law in early 2009. Specifically, AA had a hand in writing the “clean energy and green-collar jobs provisions” of the bill, for which $86 billion was earmarked. This included funds “to build new transit and high speed rail lines (Gee, I wonder what company will benefit from this), weatherize homes, develop next generation batteries for clean vehicles (what country will benefit from this, since the EPA has strict rules on the materials used in manufacturing), scale up wind and solar power (ask Slim Boone Pickens about the wind energy project or Dianne Feinstein, who said “ Don’t spoil our deserts with solar panels, Fox News online, Mar. 3, 2009) , build a modern electric grid or so – called “Smart Grid” at the cost of $11 billion (again I ask, what company this may benefit), and train a new generation of green-collar workers.”

Confirming the magnitude of AA's role in shaping (writing) the stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader, The war is  lost, Harry Reid said, “The Apollo Alliance has been an important factor in helping us [the U.S. Senate] develop and execute a strategy that makes great progress on these goals and in motivating the public to support them.” In July 2009, Senator Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed AA Board Chair Phil Angelides, the former Treasurer of the State of California, to serve as chairman of the newly created Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Now, as with anything else, the Apollo Alliance does not exist in a vacuum it is associated and has a long list of radical endorsers, among which are: ACORN; Change to Win (an ACORN entity); the SEIU; the Van Jones-founded Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which claims that the American criminal-justice system is infested with racism; Green For All (another organization founded by Van Jones); the Working Families Party; Greenpeace USA; the League of Conservation Voters; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the Rainforest Action Network; the Sierra Club; the Union of Concerned Scientists; Working Assets; EarthJustice; the National Wildlife Federation; the Progressive States Network; and a host of big labor unions (including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Teamsters, Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers, Transportation Workers, United Auto Workers, Food and Commercial Workers, Mine Workers, and Steel Workers). Apollo Alliance has received funding directly from the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation and the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation. In addition, AA has been the beneficiary of “grants” made to the Institute for America's Future that were earmarked specifically for AA; among these were grants from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Town Creek Foundation, the Overbrook Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation, and the Energy Foundation.

As Glenn pointed out on his show, the Apollo Alliance is deeply in trenched in the Obama administration, particularly with Van Jones being an advisor. As many know, since the relationship between AA, White House and Van Jones was brought to light, a radical, web based organization,  Color of Change, current campaign is “ Stop Glenn Beck's race baiting….Fox's Glenn Beck recently said President Obama is "a racist" and has a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Beck is on a campaign to convince the American public that President Obama's agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. It's repulsive, divisive and shouldn't be on the air.” However, a visit to the website, where the above quote is from, there is no mention of Van Jones as the founder of the site. Now, I have a couple questions for Mr. Jones and the White House. What’s wrong has Glenn gotten to close to the truth? Are you afraid that the American people will look behind the curtain? What is the legality of an advisor to the President of the United States, to use his website to attempt to destroy and American citizen’s right to speak out and earn a living? Is this not similar to the enemies’ list of the Nixon administration.