(Quickly, I want to apologize for my radio silence. My bag with wallet, laptop, keys was stolen at a gig last Friday, and it’s been mad annoying, to say the least. Please backup your stuff right now. Check your home/renter’s insurance. Photocopy the items in your wallet. OK, end of public service announcement).

Today is Earth Day, fam, and I thought I’d share this important message from and about Van Jones, former director of Green For All and before that the Ella Baker Center For Human Rights. We’ve written about Van’s important green jobs work here before, and he’s written for us. Jones is currently a special adviser to the White House for green jobs. Here’s his Earth Day message via YouTube

The White House is making a big Earth Day push. The president is in Iowa speaking at a former Maytag-turned-wind turbine tower factory. On Capitol Hill, several cabinet and other administration officials are engaged in a full court press to move environmental policy forward. Whitehouse.gov is updating this post throughout the day, highlighting its Earth Day clean economy push.

As for Van, he’s made an interesting transition from outside to inside. Slate has a profile from him up. Here’s a segment:

This spokesperson role is largely why the administration brought him into the fold in the first place. It had two options: 1) let Jones compliment the policies from the outside, lending it credibility within the activist community, or 2) bring Jones inside and give him the authority to evangelize to a far larger audience—all of America—since Obama would probably already have grass-roots support. Option 2 it was.

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