Please sign the petition below to remove the statue of Jefferson Davis currently in Kentucky’s Capitol Rotunda, and replace it with a tribute to Muhammad Ali, “the Louisville Lip” and “the Greatest of All Time.”
I just heard from the Ali family: It is the Champ’s belief that Islam prohibits three-dimensional representations of living Muslims. Accordingly, I have adjusted the petition to call for a two-dimensional representation of Ali (a portrait, picture or mural) in lieu of a statue.
UPDATE (Tuesday, December 2, 2014)
In this interview with WHAS-TV’s Joe Arnold, Governor Steve Beshear endorses the idea of honoring Muhammad Ali in the State Capitol (although he disagrees with removing Davis). Arnold explores the idea further on his weekly show, “The Powers that Be.”
Click here to check out WDRB-TV’s Lawrence Smith’s coverage of the story.
And here’s my op-ed in Ali’s hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal.
UPDATE (Saturday, June 4, 2016)
In the wake of the 2015 Charlestown tragedy, in which a Confederate flag-waving murderer united the nation against racism, all of the most powerful Kentucky policymakers — U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Governor Matt Bevin, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo — called for the removal of the Davis statue from the Rotunda. Today, as we commemorate last night’s passing of Muhammad Ali, there is no better moment to replace the symbol of Kentucky’s worst era with a tribute to The Greatest of All Time.
UPDATE (Wednesday, June 8, 2016):
Great piece by Lawrence Smith of WDRB-TV in Louisville on the petition drive to replace Jefferson Davis’ statue in the Capitol Rotunda with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.
UPDATE (Thursday, June 9, 2016):
Excellent piece on the petition drive by Jack Brammer that was featured on the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Highlight of the article:
Miller said he has received a few “angry comments” on his call to honor Ali.
“One of them encouraged me to kill myself,” he said. “You can quote me that I have decided not to take their advice.”
UPDATE (Friday, June 10, 2016)
The petition drives continues to show the Big Mo(hammed): check out these stories from WKYU-FM public radio in Bowling Green and WKYT-TV, Channel 27 in Lexington:
UPDATE (Saturday, June 11, 2016):
Still not convinced? Check out this excerpt from today’s New York Times:
By John Y. Brown III, on Sun Jun 24, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A shocking antidote to a shocking bullying episode.
Karen Klein, the 68-year-old school bus monitor from suburban Rochester, N.Y. was the victim of a horrific bullying episode caught on tape in a video now gone viral. She is the quintessential grandmother –and a genuinely kind hearted and caring woman.
She’s received an outpouring of support, well wishes, and donations.
Southwest Airlines offered her a 3 days all-expenses paid trip to Disney with her choice of 9 guests.
I think Karen Klein should invite her family and the kids who bullied her on this trip and their families–with the condition that the trip be covered by a Reality TV crew and the bullying teens and their families have to spend the entire time with Karen Klein and her family. Obviously, there will be lots of discussion and reflection on why the bullying occurred and, hopefully, heartfelt apologies and perhaps a friendship and respect for the bullying victim who will obviously be viewed as the hero in this awful episode.
It is a seemingly crazy idea, but one I think could work. Really. Karen Klein is an extraordinarily wise and patient woman who could pull this off successfully. And turn the most momentous national teaching moment about the cruelty of bullying into what could be the most significant teaching moment ever about exposing the cowardly forces that create bullying and the resolution between the bullied and the bullies that humiliate the bullies –and discourage future bullying episodes by those who watch.
It would not be a reward by any means. It would be the most humiliating and possibly most important 3 days of the bully’s lives. And for the lives of many future bullies who watch. The gift these teen bullies would be receiving would not be 3 days in Disney. But an opportunity to redefine themselves as decent human beings who could take on the cause of denouncing bullying by others like them. Nothing would speak to discouraging future bullies than former bullies who have seen the light. Not even 68 year old grandmother victims, unless they turn the tables in a manner such as this. It may just work.
And, of course, this has to be Karen Klien’s decision, and I don’t want her pressured into doing something she doesn’t want. She’s endured enough already. But if the following petition helps get the idea in front of her to consider, and she agrees it is something she wants to do and believes would be valuable, I’d love to help provide our encouragement
By Jason Atkinson, on Fri Jun 22, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET
RP Jason Atkinson helps you kick off your weekend with his latest film about last weekend’s adventures with his kids. Mostly filmed with GoPro, Gunder and Pomp fished the Deschutes with their old Dad’s guiding:
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Fri Jun 22, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
The Politics of Tech
In the biggest tech news in quite a while Microsoft has announced their upcoming foray into the tablet market with the Surface. [The Verge]
“Department Of Justice Realizes That Comcast & Time Warner Are Trying To Prop Up Cable By Holding Back Hulu & Netflix” Yeah, I think this has gone on about long enough. We can start taking it seriously now. [TechDirt]
Oracle is getting exactly ziltch from all those patent claims they used against them. A swing and a miss. [Examiner]
Google is reporting an “alarming” rise in requests by governments to censor political content. Here’s hoping they stay strong in their anti-censorship stance. [Guardian]
Here’s an interesting and disturbing piece of news: Making a call using Skype or Google Voice in Ethiopia could get you a 15 year prison sentence. [Venture Beat]
This is just cool – check out the lightshow created during a Coldplay concert by LED lit wristbands. [Mashable]
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jun 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Facebook will slowly undermine the effectiveness of negative political advertising.
Oh, you think I jest?
Seriously, I believe there’s a connection–and that over time Facebook will slowly erode the shock impact—and therefore the political and electoral impact that political campaigns have relied on for decades by using political attack ads to help defeat opponents.
Really. I do.
Why?
Not because people will be on Facebook instead of watching political ads on TV or because the ads will somehow run on Facebook or that voters will start getting political information on Facebook—none of that. Rather, I think Facebook is facilitating an overdue cultural correction in America. Namely, making us less prudish, secretive and judgmental (of ourselves and others).
Remember Mrs Crabtree from Bewitched? The nosy neighbor always shocked at any behavior she’d spy that wasn’t befitting a model 1950s imaginary TV family? We voters have been a little like that the past 40 years–even though we would hate the think of ourselves as “Nosy Neighbor Voters” (to make up a new voting block moniker, like “Soccer Moms.”)
But I think it’s true. Don’t you–at least to some extent?
A good deal has been written about how Facebook encourages narcissism. Perhaps a little. But not nearly as much as it has fostered more open and honest sharing about how we daily think and act in all too human ways.
I mean, think about it. What would Mrs. Crabtree share about herself on Facebook? A recipe or two?
Facebook. Facilitating, one "like" at a time, the end of an era. What's on your mind, Mrs Crabtree? It's OK, we won't tell the neighbors.
Maybe over time she’d chill out and admit she’s a voyeur and getting help with weekly therapy and medication. For now, though, the Mrs. Crabtrees of the world are simply watching what others write on Facebook and telling others who increasingly couldn’t care less. And although there are all sorts of personal abuses and overshares on Facebook, in the end, Mrs. Crabtree will lose.
And when the minor faults of political candidates are overtaking the airwaves again a few years hence, instead of acting “Shocked. Shocked!” We’ll be more likely to shrug and say, “Yeah, that actually happened to me a couple of years ago. Not a big deal. In fact, I posted on Facebook yesterday about how glad I was to have that behind me.”
By Artur Davis, on Fri Jun 22, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
When a gifted politician stumbles over words, it is often the case that Michael Kinsley’s venerable definition of a gaffe is the reason: namely, that the supposed miscue is nothing but the truth being told unintentionally. By those lights, there is a value in lingering over the last week of presidential gaffes: Barack Obama’s observation that the private sector economy is “doing fine”; and Bill Clinton’s aside that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for the immediate future.
The Obama blunder has already been discarded by the White House, with the campaign team weakly offering that “doing fine” was a poor word choice offered on behalf of a fact—that private sector job growth has been constant for 20 odd months. Clinton has more doggedly pleaded the defense of context killing by Republicans. The maze of explanation goes something like this: the former president opposes and has always opposed the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy and if he had his druthers, would repeal them; having said that, repealing the cuts not in isolation but as one element in a comprehensive deficit reduction deal is the best strategic approach for the economy; to buy more bargaining space for a deal, Clinton reverts to a short-term extension of the cuts for one year past their expiration this December. Not exactly a model of clarity, but perhaps a model of how to muddy the record.
The Kinsleyan truth is that both men meant it, but didn’t quite mean to say it. As for Obama, the remark on Friday paints a candid picture of this administration’s sanguine view of its economic record. Whereas most of the country incorrectly but tellingly describes the economy as mired in a recession, the Obama team believes it has woven a success story that compares splendidly with the staggering job losses in early 09. While the country hands Obama an approval rating barely above 40 percent on its economic policies, Team Obama grades itself as the architect of an emergency set of maneuvers that averted a depression. While polls show the country leveling at least some blame on Obama for failing to break the gridlock in Washington, it is the president’s conviction that the recovery would be stronger if only Republicans had not been so determined to block his policies out of calculation and extremism.
In other words, it is a self-drawn portrait that is indeed “fine”, perhaps even verging on quite good; it’s premises are recited as an article of faith by Democratic loyalists on every level. If only the country could see it.
As for the 42nd president, it is worth noting that no high profile Democrat more consistently draws a link between taxes and economic growth. On more than one occasion, Clinton has extolled the virtues of the Simpson Bowles Commission and its blend of entitlement reform, discretionary spending discipline and tax reform as well as outright tax hikes—but he has regularly done so with the caveat that the blueprint ought to be adopted now but shelved until after the recovery has gotten more robust. While the distinction can seem like a timing detail, it is in fairness a sharp point of departure from the 44th president, who sought just last summer to forge a substantial tax hike (and a package of spending cuts) in the teeth of the weakest three months of job growth in the last two years.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Of Presidential Gaffes & Their Consequences
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Jun 21, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET
From The Huffington Post:
MSNBC has found its replacement for Dylan Ratigan’s show: “The Cycle.”
The new program, which the network was set to announce on Thursday, will feature a permanent cast of four: conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, author and pundit Touré, Salon writer Steve Kornacki and former Congressional candidate Krystal Ball. All were previously contributors to the network. The show launches on Monday at 3 PM.
Who says primaries are not important? Tell that to the candidates and incumbents vying for New York’s US House seats. The 2010 census reduced the number of US House seats for New York from 29 to 27. The redistricting of these newly-redrawn districts means a new shuffling of the cards for the candidates and incumbents vying for these reduced number of US House races.
In the 2010 primary, only 18% of voters turned out for the New York Primary. The turnout this year could be even worse because, in January, a Federal judge moved up the primary from Sept. 11 to June 26. New York voters became accustomed to having a primary after Labor Day. The change in date can only further hurt turnout. So, possibly fewer voters will determine who might be elected to Congress.
Currently three-quarters (21 of the 29) of New York’s U.S. House seats are currently held by Democrats and only one-quarter (8 of the 29) by Republicans. Of the 27 newly-created districts, there are 10 traditionally held Democratic seats (Districts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23) being hotly contested. Many contests have between 3 to 5 candidates seeking a place on the November ballot. The Republicans will only have 5 contests on the primary ballot and they are a lot simpler with only 2 candidates in each contest. Three Republican US House district races are selecting a candidate who will attempt to unseat an incumbent Democrat. Two races are selecting a Republican for a traditionally-held Republican district. They also have three candidates hoping to unseat Democratic incumbent senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Probably the most interesting contests in the New York Primary is New York’s 13th Congressional District, where Democrat Charles Rangel, who was the incumbent from the pre-redistricted 15th District now has to win the primary in the new 13th District. The old 15th District was basically the Harlem neighborhood. The new 13th District, which is still centered in Harlem, is no longer primarily African-American and has changed dramatically. The District has ballooned to cover all of Upper Manhattan, and extends into the Bronx. The old 15th District was close to 80% African-American, while the new 13th is only about 36% African-American and has a majority-Hispanic voting-age population.
U.S. Representative Rangel has been in the U.S. House since 1971 (i.e., for 41 years) and is age 81. In 1971, he defeated Adam Clayton Powell Jr. by a razor-thin 300-vote margin but has won handily every election since, garnering over 95% of the vote in most elections. He is the third most senior member of the House and Chairman emeritus of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. That seniority has allowed him to deliver millions of dollars to Harlem. But, he now faces four challengers in the upcoming primary election. Whoever wins this primary contest probably will be elected to Congress in this Democratic District.
In the new 13th District, Rangel is facing one of the toughest campaigns of his political life. He faces four very strong candidates.
Probably Rangel’s biggest threat comes from Adriano Espaillat. Espaillat is a Dominican-American and the only elected official among Rangel’s four challengers. He probably will obtain the majority Latino/Hispanic vote in the District. El Diario, the oldest Spanish language newspaper in New York, and is one of the most read publications in the 13th Congressional District, has endorsed and praised Espaillat’s work on behalf of poor and middle-class New Yorkers and said he would be a strong voice on immigration, healthcare, and other critical issues. Also, helping Espaillat is former candidate Vince Morgan. He withdrew from this race and endorsed Espaillat on April 10th.
But, Joyce Johnson also poses a significant challenge. Johnson ran against Rangel and came in third to Rangel and Adam Clayton Powell IV in the 2010 primary. At that time, The New York Times editorial board endorsed her over Rangel. She is a long-time activist, a former local Democratic district leader, and has spent many years in New York City government. She’s smart and is a graduate of Howard University with a degree in microbiology.
Another worthy opponent is Craig Schley. Schley is a highly-motivated 48 year old NYU Dean’s List Scholar and Harlem activist who built his reputation by opposing the 125th Street rezoning in 2008. This is his third time challenging Rangel. His campaign theme is to oppose the status quo. It may be dangerous to under-estimate an African American Bobby Kennedy type candidate.
Read the rest of… Ron Kahlow: Charlie Rangel, Redistricting, and the New York Closed Primary
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jun 21, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Now there’s a summer blockbuster!!
On vacation this week I’ve seen 3 movies.
Dictator, That’s My Boy, and Think Like a Man (a topic stretched to nearly 2 hours that could have easily been handled in less than 2 minutes)
There were fresh and hilarious lines in all 3 movies–but probably only enough for one really good movie.
So….I guess what I’m saying is I wish someone had combined the three movies and made one really good movie about a short-sighted, shallow and cadish guy who as a teenager has a son out of wedlock (with his hot high school teacher) and after becoming a dictator in a Middle Eastern country works to resolve that relationship by getting drunk and going to strip joints with his formerly estranged son.
Blog this!
