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:
While we were public servants, our constituents counted on us to represent them well in Washington. It was our job to deliver to the best of our abilities.
Unfortunately, both today and while we were in office, Congress has simply been unable to deliver on one of its most fundamental responsibilities — passing, on time, the spending bills necessary to fund and run the government.
It has been more than 1,000 days since Congress last passed a budget on time, and well over a decade since it did so with all appropriations bills.
Read the rest of… Evan Bayh & George Voinovich: No Budget, No Pay
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Tue Feb 28, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
Marketers are finally targeting new categories of see today’s women: young urban professionals, working mothers, and luxury-seeking older women. [Adweek]
WikiLeaks is about to release 5 million emails from Stratfor, a private intelligence firm based in Texas that specializes in international affairs. [CNN]
Why are Twitter death hoaxes still so popular? [NY Times]
The Washington Post steps into the world of paid online content, with an iPad app about politics. [Poynter Institute]
Now that the Oscar winners have been announced, relive the magic with these (some unintentionally) hilarious moments frozen into awkward GIF files. [NY Magazine]
In several well-read pieces here at The Recovering Politician, former Missouri State Senator (and contributing RP) Jeff Smith has analyzed the impact of redistricting on his one-time political rival Congressman Russ Carnahan, and then predicted that Carnahan would ultimately choose to challenge his fellow Democratic Congressman William Lacy Clay.
Scores of hopeful candidates turned out Tuesday to file for political offices in Missouri, including a pair of incumbent St. Louis congressman now poised to square off in a Democratic primary, despite legal uncertainty over the district boundaries.
The candidacy filing period for the 2012 elections kicked off as planned, even though Missouri still lacks a final map for the state Senate districts and the Missouri Supreme Court has yet to rule on challenges to the state and U.S. House districts.
The first to file Tuesday was Democratic U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan of St. Louis, whose 3rd District was carved up and re-assigned to surrounding districts under a reapportionment plan enacted by the Republican-led state Legislature after the 2010 census. Until Tuesday, Carnahan has steadfastly affirmed he would run again in 2012 but had remained silent about in which district he would run _ hoping the Supreme Court would toss out the new map and order a do-over on the boundaries.
Carnahan filed to run in the 1st District in St. Louis, which currently is held by Democratic U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay. Not too far behind Carnahan in line, Clay also filed to run for re-election Tuesday, setting up a battle in the August primaries that both congressmen declared they could win.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Feb 28, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Advantages to being a slow learner.
A friend of mine today broached the topic of mid life crisis in men…and wondered if he, at 44, was in the midst of his own midlife crisis.
We talked about it and I’m not so sure. I explained that even if he was, he had plenty to be upbeat about.
“Like what?” he asked.
“Well, look at it this way,” I said. “I had my midlife crisis at around 38….I consider that young for a midlife crisis. I was sort of an AP mild life crisis type—you know, kinda precocious for that stage of development. But here’s the silver lining for you. If that was truly midlife for me, my life expectancy is only 76. You, on the other hand, are a little slower to get around to passing through your midlife crisis “right of passage”–but if 44 is midlife for you, your life expectancy is, well, 88. That means you’ll live 12 years longer than I will based on my mid-life math.
Sure you may be more confused and depressed than me this year…and you’ll say silly and pathetic things, maybe even quite your job or buy a tacky looking sports car. But you get to outlive me by over a decade! I guess sometimes it pays to be a slow learner.”
The Supreme Court announced last week that it will revisit the perennial hot button of affirmative action in the college admissions process. The case, which involves the University of Texas’ admission practices, is a constitutional cliff-hanger: the 5-4 majority in 2003 for the proposition that colleges can treat race as a vague, non-specific factor rested on the now retired reed of Sandra Day O’Connor. Her successor, Samuel Alito, has a history of skepticism toward racial preferences. Adding to the peril for defenders of affirmative action, the court’s emerging liberal superstar, Elena Kagan, has recused herself.
The Texas plan provides automatic admission for the top ten percent of students in every Texas high school. To fill out its freshman class, the university deploys a formula that does not assign a specific point value to race, but unmistakably makes it a factor. It is precisely the kind of half-measure the court endorsed nine years ago, and which seems to be the prevailing practice in all manner of elite public and private colleges 9 (full disclosure: it’s also the kind of plan that admitted me to Harvard 25 years ago).
Count me as a conflicted spectator who chafes at both poles of the debate.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Race & College Admissions
The RP’s favorite TV show premiere is less than a month away — Sunday, March 25. From their latest sneak preview, it turns out that despite her divorce from the series’ anti-hero, Don, Betty Draper — played by January Jones — is back.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Feb 27, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Calendar equity? It may be time….
February is soon coming to a close. As usual, too soon.
I don’t say that because anything especially touching or profound happens ever February. Not at all. Just the very literal fact that Feb got the shortest number of days of any of the 12 months.
And over time it’s taken its toll on February’s self-image and self esteem.
It’s one thing to draw the short end of the stick one, two, three years in a row. But over 200 here in just the US! And don’t get me started on the whole Julian Calendar thing. It’s wounded generations of Februaries than can never be made right again.
It’s just that I was born with and have developed in my life a strong sense of social justice. And it’s time that we stand up for February to have equal time.
I commented last week about February have lousy national holidays. Do you think that President’s Day and Groundhog Day being in February is really an accident? It takes confidence and some successes to be able to handle a Thanksgiving or Fourth of July even (although there admittedly would be temporal challenges to moving the 4th to February).
The point is you’ve never heard anyone say, “I can’t wait until February!” Or “I hear we’re going to have an awesome February this year.”
It doesn’t happen.
In fact, we are so impressed, sated, and exhausted from the over-achieving November and December and –to a lesser extent–January, we typically just quietly endure the chronically under-achieving February….and, frankly, don’t even get our hopes up about anything until March 1.
It’s like February, already inferior, has to sit each year next to the three most popular kids in the class. Not fair!
February is like the Kentucky of Presidential Primaries (we get to vote in May to decide if it will be Romney or Santorum or Gingrich or any of the others, if they are still alive, physically and politically).
Sure, primaries (and Februaries) happen. But no one pays attention and neither really matters. Both are done mostly out of habit. More as an afterthought than eagerly anticipated.
I think, perhaps, we should take one day each from May, July and August (none has used efficiently their 31st day) and give those three days to February. February will then at least feel like it’s equal to most other months—with 31 days.
And then every four years, on Leap Year, February can look down it’s nose on all other months. And on that day, for the first time, Leap Year –and February –will totally rock!!
Or maybe…just maybe—and I’d love this!–February could turn the tables on the other “slacker” months by pointing out that it does in 28 days what it takes most the others 31 days to do.
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Mon Feb 27, 2012 at 9:15 AM ET
Good morning, RP readers! Are you dreading your week before it starts? New research shows that your case of the Mondays may be caused by your brain. [CNN]
By Krystal Ball, on Mon Feb 27, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
Our own contributing Krystal Ball helped change an imminent government policy in Virginia last week. After helping expose the implications of a proposed state law that would have required transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortion, Governor McDonnell withdrew his support.
Here’s Krystal on MSNBC’s “Martin Bashir Show” last week:
MSNBC’s expert on abortion Krystal Ball: “So, Virginia is my home state and I actually ran for Congress there in 2010. So this hits very close to home for me also being a woman. What they are saying in Virginia is not only do women have to undergo an ultrasound, they have to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound. Mandatory state probing, okay. That’s what this legislation is talking about.”
“It actually meets the Virginia definition of rape.”
And here’s Krystal’s piece from last week’s The Recovering Politician:
State mandated-transvaginal probes!
Well Virginia, you certainly know how to get a gal’s attention. This weekend I went home to Virginia, partly to give my parents their granddaughter fix but partly to survey the political landscape. My home state has suddenly become the focus of national attention due to extreme anti-woman legislation that looks ready to be passed by the Republican legislature and could yet be signed into law by Republican Governor and vice presidential hopeful Bob McDonnell. The truth is that Virginia’s lady problems go way beyond what I like to call PAP (Probes and Personhood).
For years, a slim Democratic margin in the Virginia Senate and a hold on the governorship kept extreme legislation from becoming law. But since Republicans took over both chambers and the governor’s mansion, each bill has been more hard-edged than the last. With PAP, the Virginia GOP seem to finally have crossed a line — and it may well doom McDonnell’s national ambitions.
Read the rest of… Krystal Ball: Transvaginal Ultrasounds Are Akin to Rape
Blog this!
