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:
I don’t know what he’ll do. I do know that it’s better to lead than to follow. I also know that future public opinion on this issue is easier to predict than that on any other major policy issue.
That’s because of the stark generational split: polls consistently show overwhelming majorities of people under 40 supporting gay marriage, and overwhelming majorities of those over 65 opposing it – just as polls during the mid-1960s showed on interracial marriage (before the Supreme Court banned state anti-miscegenation laws in Loving v. Virginia).
As generational replacement occurs, clear majorities of the electorate will support gay marriage, and it will require little courage to support it. Now is the time for the president to ensure that he is on the right side of history.
We began it with the debut of former Republican National Chairman Michael Steele at The Recovering Politician, and we end it with more national feedback on the RP’s article earlier this week denouncing the injection of anti-Semitic language into the political debate in Kentucky.
If you thought we’d take a rest from controversy, tomorrow another contributing RP joins the RP in his call for President Obama to endorse gay marriage now.
Come back for the latest developments tomorrow AM!
Within the past hour, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) issued a release that strongly denounced the anti-Semitic language used by former Kentucky GOP gubernatorial candidate, Larry Forgy, in a TV interview that was discussed earlier today at The Recovering Politician.
[T]his incident is deeply troubling and deserves condemnation from all who believe that anti-Semitic language and canards have no place in our political discourse.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Jun 23, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
The Politics of Speed
This week a 7-year-old Michigan boy got behind the wheel of his stepfather’s Pontiac Sunfire and drove it for 20 miles, hitting speeds of 50 mph. He was eventually stopped by police officers. [Detroit Free Press]
Speaking of driving in Michigan, Denny Hamlin managed to do so very fast at this week’s Sprint Cup race in Michigan; securing his first win of the 2011 season. [ESPN]
After taking the #1 spot in ESPN’s NASCAR Power Rankings last week, Dale Jr. took a hard fall to #8. Replacing him, once again, is Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth both gained spots this week to round out the top 3. [ESPN]
All Left Turns has a great post on how to prepare for a race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Whether it’s drinking a nice Merlot at your tailgate or actually cheering for California-born drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, Sonoma provides a unique atmosphere that you cannot find anywhere else. [All Left Turns]
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, a documentary filmmaker and former Washington Post reporter that just “outed” himself as an undocumented immigrant. Read his remarkable story, My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant, and check out Define American, a website he founded to attempt to change the conversation on immigration reform.
Did you hear last week that immigrants were to blame for the forest fires in Arizona? Remember the dozens and dozens of Arizonans murdered and decapitated in the desert by immigrants? We’ve all heard (and far too many have bought into) urban myths related to immigrants, so, what the hell, Got A Problem? Blame It On Illegal Immigrants!
And yet even with all of the anti-immigration rhetoric, hysteria and demagoguery, Americans’ views on immigration have stayed relatively steady and relatively positive over the last two decades. Check out the latest Gallup Poll that shows that Americans for the most part manifest a slight preference for lower immigration levels, yet continue to believe that immigration is good for America. Oh, those crazy Americans!
And, finally, demographics often trump negative views of immigration and immigrants in many European countries, where aging populations and low birth rates have created a dearth of workers (i.e., a tax base). With American baby boomers beginning to retire this year, will the United States face a similar situation over the next twenty to thirty years? Wall Street Journal
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Jun 23, 2011 at 12:15 PM ET
Earlier this week, I wrote a piece for The Huffington Post that shared some absurd and offensive comments made by Larry Forgy — a former Kentucky GOP gubernatorial nominee and a prominent supporter of GOP State Senator David Williams’s 2011 campaign for Governor — regarding the Jewish faith of Governor Steve Beshear’s running mate, former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson:
The “only reason” Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear picked former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson to be his running mate was “to attract New York and Hollywood Jewish money” for the campaign.
See the interview with Insight’s CN2 “Pure Politics” below.
Of course, in typical Williams style, he blamed a Democrat for starting the controversy.
Me:
Unfortunately, Larry Forgy stood his ground in another interview with Insight. Forgy claimed that Jews such as George Soros, Barbra Streisand and Steve Spielberg would be pumping in significant loads of cash to support their co-religionist’s bid for Lt. Governor. Of course, the reporter followed the interview by noting that none of the those famous names had contributed; and in fact, the Beashear campaign had raised only a tiny fraction of his campaign war chest in New York and Los Angeles.
I share the video interview below with a little hesitation. I want to assure my out-of-state readers that this is not a reflection of the significant majority of Kentucky citizens who have embraced their Jewish brothers and sisters and do not believe in a Jewish conspiracy led by Soros, Streisand and Spielberg that dominates national politics. With that caveat, check out the video below:
By Michael Steele, on Thu Jun 23, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
Summertime, and the living won’t be easy. From electricity to groceries to clothing, the cost of everything you need, and of most things you want, has increased. But there are few places where Americans have felt the sting of higher prices more profoundly than at the gas pump. And you don’t have to own a car to feel it; just get on a plane, take the train — heck, catch a cab.
As we begin to pack up the family car for that long-awaited summer vacation at Grandma’s house, a gallon of gasoline averages $3.80, $1.07 more than this time last year. Maybe you can just email Grandma a photo of the kids instead.
Or better yet, maybe President Barack Obama could address workers at a research facility funded by a $528.7 million stimulus-act grant to develop a new alternative mode of energy-efficient transportation: airborne porcine units (also known as “flying pigs”). Although the facility won’t have produced a commercially viable prototype, Obama could go on to express confidence that, with additional government investment (aka “spending”), the needed technology breakthroughs would be achieved. I can hear him now: “When pigs fly, my energy policies will be vindicated, and the taxpayer dollars we have committed to this effort will greatly lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”
Fantasy? Of course, but then again, taxpayers are on the hook for a $528.7 million loan to a company seeking to make plug-in electric cars that the Obama administration announced with great fanfare in 2009. The result? That company recently breathlessly announced that it plans to sell a car for the bargain price of $96,850 that charges in “as little as six hours” and has — wait for it — a 50-mile range before a backup gasoline engine kicks in.
Read the rest of… Michael Steele: Obama’s Energy Policy vs. Reality
Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee Chair and Lieutenant Governor of Maryland joins the team as a contributing RP.
Tomorrow, he weighs in on energy policy, and suffice at to say, he has a different viewpoint than the RP. Remember: Michael was the originator of the catch phrase: “Drill Baby, Drill!”
And that’s what The Recovering Politician is all about — a post-partisan dialogue on the issues of the day. Please join us and comment away tomorrow at 8:30 AM.
Blog this!
