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:
Much to the great chagrin of all of us at the RP Nation, the RP is breaking his sacred vow of no-politics-week, and will appear on Fox News’ Fox and Friends talk show tomorrow (Friday) morning at 7:15 AM EDT.
The RP will be participating in a roundtable that will discuss a recent Media Research Center report which found that “in the first half of this year, NBC, ABC and CBS morning and evening news shows attached the term ‘conservative’ to a presidential contender 62 times, while during the same period in the presidential race in 2007, ‘liberal’ came up only three times.”
Tune in tomorrow as the RP enters the lions’ den for the first time in 23 years. And to prepare yourself, check out video of the last time the RP appeared on a contentious cable TV talk show (disguised as Justin Bieber — years before the Beebs was born):
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Aug 18, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
The Pompatus of Speed
Here is a pretty definitive and comically-executed tug-of-war between a Ford truck and Chevy truck. (The Ford is on the left). [Youtube]
The California DMV has released their list of banned vanity license plates. It is a pretty interesting article. If you’ve ever wondered if that risque vanity plate you have been considering would be allowed, this will give you a good idea. [NBC Bay Area]
Jalopnik has the “Ten signs it’s time to let your car die.” My favorite is “when Google no longer helps.” [Jalopnik]
Your most recent ESPN NASCAR power rankings keep Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson at 1 and 2. Also featured is Kurt Busch taking a tumble and Junior gaining a few spots. [ESPN]
A GM engineer managed to squeeze 3,108 mpg out of a Chevy Volt. That equates to driving 1,554 miles on half a gallon of gas. You have to admit that the new technology we are seeing come from the auto industry can do some pretty awesome things. [Jalopnik]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Thu Aug 18, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
London is burning, and no one knows why.
It’s been a week since anarchy took over the city of London and some of its suburbs. The cause: the wrongful shooting of a man in a poor neighborhood. But it seems as if the protests aren’t even about that anymore. Gangs are looting every store in sight and carrying out TVs and computers. Historic buildings that have been around since World War II are now piles of ash and rubble. One particularly harrowing YouTube clip shows a group of people helping a crying, injured child– while simultaneously stealing everything out of his backpack. The violence is still going, with no sign of stopping.
I won’t pretend to have the answers to a massive political conflict; this is Politics-Free Week at The Recovering Politician, after all. What matters is that this destruction is tearing apart one of the most amazing places in the world. Here’s my love letter to London, the historic, diverse city that many of us know and love.
Read the rest of… Stephanie Doctrow: London’s Burning
By Will Allison, on Thu Aug 18, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
I haven’t watched network TV in many years. I can’t stand pretty much any contemporary music act. I enjoy professional sports, but do not follow them, and always embarrass myself when I pretend that I do. However, I do faithfully watch a handful of cable television programs. Here they are, with some thoughts on each:
5. True Blood
As President Obama would say, let me be clear. This show is as dumb as a bag of hammers. I am dumber after I watch it. All of us are. The pilot episode offered the worst dialogue I had ever heard on a television show. The performances as a rule are unbelievably repetitive. A handful of the characters—including THE LEAD—are unusually annoying. When did Anna Paquin decide that every line should be served with three extra helpings of sass? And Tara, thanks, but if I wanted to be yelled at for an hour, I’d time travel back to Mrs. Phillips’ seventh grade math class.
This scene alone invoked three separate articles of the Geneva Conventions.
And yet…
OK, I confess. The damn show is entertaining. As dumb as it is, dumb also means I get to turn my brain off for an hour and watch vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, witches, whoknowswhathehellelse go at it. In bad Cajun accents. Usually, sans clothing. There are worse ways to spend an evening.
4. Game Of Thrones
This series appeared at first to be a conventional medieval fantasy epic, told in the style of The Lord Of The Rings, pitting good against evil. It slowly revealed itself to be a far more complex piece of storytelling. The “good” guys in this tale often behave stupidly and are far too trusting of their enemies, not to mention the “neutral” parties of whom they assume good faith. The “bad” guys are regularly more successful because they do not slow themselves down with quaint notions of “honor”. They also may have more legitimate grievances than we are initially led to believe. The history of the world in which these people reside is slowly revealed to the audience. It is a world nowhere as simple as that depicted in The Lord Of The Rings, a world much more like our own, where nothing good is accomplished easily–if at all–and what “good” actually is becomes harder to define at each turn.
Exemplifying this outlook is the performance of Peter Dinklage, who has created the most fascinating supporting character on television since…Omar. He is The Imp, a little person living in a chaotic world ruled by “might is right”, and yet The Imp manages to slip through incredible dangers using his mental ingenuity alone. He is neither good nor bad, possessing no innate hostility towards perceived enemies, nor any frivolous notions of “honor” that would too firmly entrench him. The Imp has no problem helping strangers, and bets they’ll never realize how much more he needs them. He has only his wits, and his mouth. In a land where most have lost sight of what matters save some ancient moral code, the man with none may be the most moral of them all.
3. Teen Mom
I generally detest reality television. I believe 99.9% of it is useless, vapid exhibitionism of the lowest order. I think anyone who would put themselves on a reality television program is very likely to have either some kind of severe personality disorder, or simply be un-hirable in any other occupation.
However…
Teen Mom is one of the most gripping and educational shows ever put on the screen. The show is pretty straightforward: let’s film the repercussions of some teenagers who got themselves pregnant. Let’s show what it’s like to be an 18 year-old girl with a 2 year-old boy. What happens when that girl wants to go out with her friends, but doesn’t have any time, because she has a 2 year-old boy, and doesn’t have any money, because she doesn’t have a job, because she can’t get a job, because she has to stay home to take care of the 2 year-old boy. And if she gets a job, it won’t be a good job, because she didn’t finish high school, and even if she did, she didn’t go to college, because she has a 2 year-old boy. And if she tries to go to college, then she’s being a bad mom, because she’s not devoting herself entirely to the 2 year-old boy, and eventually one of her parents will step in and fight for ownership of the 2 year-old boy. And God forbid she go and try to do what got her into this mess in the first place: fall in love. On Teen Mom, nothing is more dangerous than trying to have a life of your own. And that is what makes it truly compelling television, as well as essential life education. I wish it was shown in every middle and high school in America.
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Aug 17, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
The September 11 memorial is the ultimate symbol of our nation’s recovery. [Esquire]
One Pennsylvania man gives back to his community and helps himself… through his Dairy Queen franchise. [NY Times]
Three Nobel Prize-winning economists share their thoughts on what went wrong and how our economy can start to rebuild. [Newsweek]
Here’s a little mid-week inspiration for you; try to appreciate the simple things, like these adorable kiddos from Austin dancing in the rain. [CNN iReport]
By John Johnson, on Wed Aug 17, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
My daughter was born in the spring of 2000. That summer, as many new parents with infants do, we found ourselves around the house quite a bit, learning the ropes of parenthood. As it turned out, lucky for us, Summer 2000 was also the summer that network TV discovered reality TV game shows! With the launch of Survivor and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, my sleep deprived wife and I could get our nightly Regis Philbin fix and watch the exploits of nude Richard on the island (“the tribe has spoken”) without having to think at all!
Strangely, that summer launched the reality TV genre. More than a decade later—where it seems the majority of TV is reality—I have found my own personal obsession…the bad reality TV game show. Who needs American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, or the Amazing Race? (I can hear some RP readers already saying—aren’t those bad reality TV shows? Not compared to the rest of this list!) Bad imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or, Rule 1 of Bad Reality TV Game Shows: If it is cheap, and it might draw any summer ratings, rip off the idea!
To that end, I offer my pop culture tribute to 5 worst reality game shows of all time. (A side note for the analytic amongst the RP Nation: “Reality” TV probably has a more precise meaning, but in my world, it is a broad genre encompassing any show where contestants compete as themselves in some less than realistic setting…)
5. 101 Ways to Leave A Game Show. The only one on my list that is still on TV…though not sure how long it will last. How can you beat a show where in one episode, contestants were eliminated by being: 1. dropped off a barge going 30 mph at sea, 2. sent to the bottom of the ocean by an anchor around his leg, 3. dumped into a river with dead fish, and 4. ejected off a 10 story platform from a bed face down into water. Purely sensational…even down to the smarmy host cackling the whole time. I call that must see TV.
4. (tie) the Joe Schmo Show/ Joe Millionaire. Double the Joe for the average Joe. Joe Schmo was a guy from Pittsburgh. They created a fake reality game show for him (The Lap of Luxury). Hire 10 actors to fit every stereotype…the blond bombshell, the gossip queen, the quack doctor, the retired army general. They create a fake world, completely get the guy to buy in for several weeks. After playing with the guys emotions, getting him to embarrass himself repeatedly on TV, they reveal everyone was actors and he was a total mark! But, they justify the whole thing because they gave him the prize money…and play up what a special, trusting person they had to find to make this all work.
What’s worse than that? How about a reality game show where you can find “true love” with a millionaire? But after you think you’ve found the one, you find out he’s not a millionaire. I hate when that happens. Rule 2 of Bad Reality TV Game Shows: Deception is ok as long as you get money in the end.
3. I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
I think someone should have filed a lawsuit for false advertising…because there were no celebrities here. Unless you think Bruce Jenner, Melissa Rivers, and Robin Leach are celebrities… The premise is simple. Dump a bunch of C-level stars in the jungle. Make them do stupid stuff. Someone leaves every night. Broadcast live every night. Someone wins. Poor mans survivor meets Ed Mcmahons star search. Bad! (Another side note: In checking the web today, I found NBC is actually remaking this show again. Wow. See Rule 1 of Bad Reality TV Shows Above).
Read the rest of… John Johnson: The Five Worst Reality Game Shows
While the RP is enjoying his week-long vacation from all things politics, there’s one group that he strongly believes should stay immersed in politics: the supercommittee designated to tackle the country’s debt problems.
Washington dysfunction and hyper-partisan politics have crippled Congress’s ability to meet the major challenges of our day. You need only to look at the S&P’s justification for our recent debt downgrade as case in point. As such, the 12 members of the “supercommittee” must forgo their annual August respite, come back to the table and begin the hard work to stave off what could potentially be a financial and budgetary catastrophe.
The financial unrest and subsequent Wall Street roller coaster created when intransigent Republicans and Democrats failed the American people was a preview of what we can expect if the supercommittee fails to reach consensus on a debt reduction package of at least $1.2 trillion, triggering abrupt and irresponsible across the board cuts to federal programs.
Economic decisions of this magnitude will require sacrifice from both sides. With divisive partisan politics in Washington at an all-time high and compromise viewed as a four-letter word, it is going to take time and sincere bipartisan cooperation for the members of the committee to put everything on the table and make the tough but necessary choices to restore our fiscal sanity.
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