Project 21: New Visions

Primatene Mist is an over-the-counter (OTC) inhaler that has been used safely for over 50 years by millions of people coping with asthma. It was the only non-prescription inhaler available to the public before it was banned for sale by the Environmental Protection Agency on January 1, 2012. The EPA banned the inhaler to comply with an international treaty — the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This treaty determined that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) damage the ozone layer and must be outlawed. CFCs help propel the Primatene Mist into the user's lungs, and this is where it gets ...
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At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, as American athletes are locked in a fierce battle for medals with China, chapters are closing on some household names such as Michael Phelps while youngsters who go by Missy, Rebecca and Gabby make their entrance. Despite all the talent on display, surprisingly, the national conversation centers on hair. This year's gymnastics team is dubbed the "Fabulous Five." Sixteen years have passed since America last fielded a squad with as much depth and promise this year's group brought. All-around gold medal champion Gabby Douglas was a mere toddler when the "Magnificent Seven" ...
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In a frustrating and disappointing blow to individual liberty, the Supreme Court's four reliable liberals and Chief Justice Roberts upheld a coercive and unprecedented federal encroachment on our freedom and our nation's health insurance industry. Liberals are celebrating while conservatives despair.  Both are understandable, albeit knee-jerk reactions to a rather strained ObamaCare opinion. A closer look at exactly what the Court hath wrought in the case reveals a far more limited victory for the government, and not nearly as painful or dangerous of a defeat for America as was first feared. The true victory for the nation lies in the ...
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It's said Lyndon Baines Johnson used voter fraud to win his 1948 Senate primary campaign. In 1954, then-Senator Johnson orchestrated a law prohibiting church involvement in electoral politics. Yet it was LBJ's presidential library where Attorney General Eric Holder chose to demonize ballot protection laws last year. And it was Holder who, this past May, huddled with black clergy from the Council of National Black Churches and the IRS and the Congressional Black Caucus to determine how political black churches could be without running afoul of LBJ's rule. And, for good measure, he further criticized voter ID. In the analogy ...
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President Obama lacks an urban agenda. Sure — he's all for policies that increase spending on food stamps, dismantle Clinton-era welfare reforms and enforce hiring quotas, but what has Obama really done to help black folk help themselves? It certainly isn't his eagerness to saddle small businesses with new taxes and regulation or to make energy costs a larger part of people's budget. It's this lack of results that now seems to be causing a pivot from promoting hope and change to fear and division by embracing false premises about voter ID laws. Obama's field marshal in this campaign to ...
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Since the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare, the final piece of the puzzle is in place. America begins an inevitable slide away from patient-driven health care — individualized medicine led by independent doctors in consultation with their patients. In 1971, the Rand Corporation's "Rand Health Insurance Experiment" found that increasing patient costs via cost-sharing (making patients responsible for a portion of medical costs through "deductibles") with a maximum out-of-pocket expense of $1,000 led to reduced "overutilization" and led to reduced "appropriate or needed" medical care. This shows the detrimental effect of removing the free market from health care. Controlling patient behavior ...
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In 1980, asking the American people to assess President Jimmy Carter's performance, Ronald Reagan posed the question: "Are you better off [now] than you were four years ago?" It was a simple yet very important question. Today, as President Barack Obama's term of office comes to an end, asking that question again is very reasonable — especially taking into account the economic turmoil that ushered him into the White House. And, considering that Obama received almost monolithic support from the black community, it is highly relevant to ask the question in terms of how things have gone for them since ...
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On July 5, 1852, the famous black abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a stinging indictment of American independence. He did so because it was not yet realized for black Americans. At Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, Douglass declared: "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." To his hosts, he asked: "Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?" Douglass continued, explaining: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the ...
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May was a game-changer for the national conversation on homosexual marriage. On May 8, North Carolinans overwhelmingly voted in favor of Amendment 1. The ballot measure changed the state's constitution to define marriage as a union existing solely between a man and a woman. The approximately 61 percent to 39 percent vote in favor of the Amendment 1 makes North Carolina the 30th state to vote against homosexual marriage. The very next day, to the surprise of exactly no one, President Barack Obama finally stated this belief: "At a certain point, I've just concluded that for me — personally — ...
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I've had several unfortunate opportunities to observe the consequences of single mothers raising male children without the influence of positive male role models. Many boys who are raised by single moms can acquire the skills and maturity to lead healthy, full and productive lives. But they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. There are too many boys these days who are either feminized or reliant on false bravado. My criticism is not to find blame with single mothers. They often do the best they can with limited resources. But I do believe many single mothers need to ...
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Benjamin Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP, heartily embraces the absurd assertion of the left that asking someone to simply prove their identity in order to participate in the sacred honor of casting a ballot is thinly-veiled voter suppression and an assault on civil rights. At the NAACP's recent annual convention, the 39-year-old Jealous likened the opposition to popular and democratically-enacted voter ID laws to the civil rights movement when he referenced "Selma and Montgomery times." Such rhetoric is nothing but divisive. I'm sure Mr. Jealous attempted this analogy to create an emotional response about that momentous time ...
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ObamaCare was peddled as a solution to America's health care troubles. Enticing promises were made to garner support. It was sold, however, without regard for the difference between health insurance reform and health care reform. Our health care system is broken.  Costs are at unacceptable levels, but it's not because of doctors. A progressive decrease in reimbursements, in fact, has made doctors less of a factor.   Costs are really being driven by hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, compliance regulations and a food industry that contributes to rising chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. ObamaCare won't fix these problems.  It actually doubles down on the root ...
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While campaigning for the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama was asked about his views on gay marriage. At that time, he stated: "What I believe, in my [Christian] faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting." Four years later, running for president, during a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, Obama repeated that he thought marriage is "between a man and a woman." He also said, "Now, for me, as a Christian, it's also a sacred union. You know, God's ...
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Legislative report cards that favors some politicians over others are nothing new, but the NAACP's newest one throws the group's nonpartisan mandate into question. Every single Republican in the 112th Congress received a failing grade from the NAACP! Of Democrats and the independents who caucus with them, the House score from the NAACP was much friendlier — over 95 percent As and Bs, and over 98 percent As and Bs for senators. Not only does the NAACP's report card seem like an outright admission of the group's partisan bias, the way it found its grades exposes the NAACP's support of ...
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"Right to Work" laws provide American workers with a choice. Put simply, it prohibits compulsory union membership. If a worker wants to join a union, they can. Right to Work laws mean they cannot be forced to do so and are protected from retribution. President Obama is against such laws protecting freedom of choice. On April 30, at the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference, Obama said Right to Work laws are a "political" ploy aimed at "dismantling unions." He added that he would support union-favored Project Labor Agreements and the David-Bacon Act "as long as I serve ...
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Before the liberals rammed through ObamaCare, conservatives in Congress proposed health care reform that didn't go through. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) said "The Patients' Choice Act" would "finally enable Americans to own their health care instead of being trapped in the current system, which leaves people either uninsured, dependent on their employer, or forced into a government program." What Burr and other conservative lawmakers fail to recognize is that our health care system fundamentally favors the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, large hospitals, the American Medical Association and insurers. It doesn't represent the interests of doctors or patients. How could ...
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Now that George Zimmerman faces murder charges for the death of Trayvon Martin, it's time to reflect on things that were said and done in Martin's defense. Not all of it was necessary or logical. Take, for instance, that wearing a hoodie was almost a civil rights issue. At one point, there was a "Million Hoodie March" in New York City. People posed in hoodies for their Facebook photos. Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL) caused a stir on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives when he broke decorum by wearing a hoodie. But it's hardly akin to segregated lunch ...
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Protesters, many aligned with Occupy Wall Street, recently disrupted American businesses to commemorate International Workers' Day (May Day). Banks in Manhattan received suspicious (albeit non-toxic) powder in envelopes. Businesses were vandalized. Commuters were disrupted. Stacy Washington, a member of the Project 21 black leadership network, said: "It's attention-seeking behavior at its worst. Like children throwing a tantrum, they should be ignored. Without a clear goal, or objective, Occupy protesters are a constant reminder of just what this country does not stand for: rape, destruction of private and public property, filth, violence and disrespect for the American way." It is ironic ...
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Recently, we have been besieged with news reports about hamburger. At issue is whether hamburger containing lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is safe and should be part of our diet. As I am a mom, food safety warnings naturally raise a red flag. Before anyone decides whether to sell or serve hamburger with LFTB, however, it is necessary to discover and clarify the facts. Contrary to some media portrayals, LFTB is beef — 95 percent lean beef to be exact. LFTB was approved by the government in 2001, and it is often blended with cheaper and fattier hamburger to increase ...
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Trayvon Martin became a household name for all the wrong reasons. Martin's death created an international firestorm because George Zimmerman, the person at fault, was not immediately taken into custody by Sanford, Florida authorities. What made things worse is that Martin is black, Zimmerman is part-Hispanic/part-white and the Sanford police chief is white. It is a somber event that has unfortunately become an angry racial mess. The level of pain Martin's parents must be feeling is unimaginable. A parent should never have to bury their child — especially under such tragic circumstances. And to be thrust into the national spotlight ...
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