Project 21: Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – With lawmakers at an apparent impasse over how much spending reform will be included in a budget covering the remainder of the fiscal year and non-essential government services set to be suspended at the end of the week, members of the Project 21 black leadership network suggest a slowdown may be just the thing to bring liberal politicians to the table to talk common sense on spending. "Given our nation's precarious financial situation, it should be simple for lawmakers to find the mere tens of billions in cuts that conservatives are asking for. After all, they and ...
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Washington, D.C. – A member of the Project 21 black leadership network is criticizing the American Lung Association for the misleading nature of its billboard campaign denouncing Rep. Fred Upton. Upton has introduced legislation, the "Energy Tax Prevention Act," that bars the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing costly and job-killing carbon dioxide regulations without congressional approval. The billboards say, "Rep. Fred Upton, protect our kids' health. Don't weaken the Clean Air Act." The billboards feature a photo of a girl wearing a mask to assist her breathing. Upton's legislation would not weaken the pollution-control elements of the Clean Air Act, ...
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Washington, D.C. – Mychal Massie, the chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, has challenged Al Sharpton, National Urban League President Marc Morial and former D.C. Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy to justify accusations and implications by them and others that the Tea Party movement is steeped in racism. A room is reserved for the debate. Will Sharpton, Morial and Fauntroy show up? The debate is set for 1:00 PM on Monday, February 28, 2011 in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club (529 14th Street NW, 13th floor, Washington, D.C.). Massie's debate challenge stems from a widely-broadcast allegation ...
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Black Conservatives Criticize Obama Effort to Stifle Domestic Production Washington, D.C. – Black conservatives with the Project 21 leadership network say the only way to ensure America has affordable and reliable energy and can achieve the hope of energy independence is for President Barack Obama to end his war on fossil fuels and allow expanded domestic production and development of them. These remarks from the Project 21 membership come after Obama made much of the his administration's feeble efforts to encourage domestic production while continuing to embrace his risky alternative energy agenda during a White House press conference today. "Obama ...
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Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network strongly disagree with the President's contention, as reported in the new book Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House, that the tea parties are motivated more by the color of Obama's skin than the content of his agenda. "As a keynote speaker at numerous tea party events around the country which has allowed me to meet tea party activists from all walks of life, I know it is Obama's progressive politics and not his race that motivates these patriotic Americans to protest our nation's slide ...
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Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are appalled that Attorney General Eric Holder used the race card to block congressional inquiries into the Justice Department's silence and possible mishandling of a race-fueled voting rights case. "Eric Holder is sending a consistent and unfortunate message that we should expect justice to be applied only on the terms set by him and President Obama. This disregard for the rule of law is made worse by divisive rhetoric that is anathema to his sworn duties to uphold our Constitution as Attorney General," said Project 21's Jerome Hudson. "Holder's ...
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Washington, D.C. – Jesse Jackson has reappeared, surfacing at rallies in Madison, Wisconsin and Columbus, Ohio in support of public employees attacking efforts to reform some collective bargaining practices in order to close deficits threatening state governments with bankruptcy. Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli takes issue with Jackson seeking to equate domestic protests to retain lavish benefits packages for union workers with the social unrest in Egypt. "It is out of line for Jesse Jackson to compare people in Egypt rebelling against tyranny to union activists in Wisconsin who are afraid they might have to make contributions to their pension ...
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Washington, D.C. – Black conservatives with the Project 21 leadership network say President Obama's decision that the executive branch will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act because of its alleged unconstitutionality is unconstitutional in itself — and point out that it sets a potentially dangerous precedent. "At no time in the history of this nation has a president so openly shown such unabashed contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law," said Project 21's Jerome Hudson. "President Obama's decision to have the Justice Department ignore the Defense of Marriage Act removes all doubt that he has nothing ...
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Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are condemning a major left-wing web site's blistering racial attack on black conservative Herman Cain, and once again is asking why the liberal civil rights establishment still refuses to condemn racial attacks on black conservatives. "I find it shocking and an indictment of Herman Cain's antagonist when he is obviously compelled to retreat to amoral diatribe when valid arguments against Cain's record cannot be found. This tactic is the 800-pound yellow gorilla in the middle of the room that progressives like to pretend doesn't exist," said Project 21 çhairman ...
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Black Activist Speaks Out Against Agenda that Assures Suffering Washington, D.C. – The Obama Administration proposed today that the federal government cut home heating assistance in half, even as the Administration continues to fight for controversial programs that will raise the price of energy. The Obama Administration's FY2012 budget, released today, reduces funding to the Low Income Home Energy Program (LIPHEAP) to $2.57 billion -- roughly in half compared with the 2009 budget. In its analysis, the Office of Management and Budget justifies the cut by reporting that "energy prices are now significantly lower, and the prior level is no ...
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Washington, D.C. – Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli is urging liberal civil right leaders to denounce violent, racist rhetoric against black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with the same vigor with which they sought out alleged racial extremism within the tea party movement. "The NAACP, Al Sharpton, Marc Morial of the National Urban League and others command national attention whenever they allege racism in the tea party movement, but they've so far ignored the revolting comments caught on video in which leftists call for the hanging of a black Supreme Court justice," noted Borelli, who is a frequent speaker at ...
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Washington, D.C. – With the completion of President Obama's second State of the Union Address, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are assessing the President's rhetoric before Congress and the direction in which he wants to take the nation: Mychal Massie: "Has Obama had an epiphany, or is he still dazed from his shellacking from the American people in the November elections? From the beginning, he was a free-spending Keynesian. Now he's talking about capping spending and ending earmarks. It's inconsistent with his advocacy thus far. It's too much like when Bill Clinton declared that the 'era of ...
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General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt — Barack Obama’s choice to lead the new “President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness” — is only about “big government and big business” and not thinking about the little guy. This is the message of Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. On the 1/25/11 edition of “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News Channel, Deneen presents a new commercial from the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project and FreedomWorks that asks Immelt to resign his position with GE. To see the petition, click here.  To see the commercial in it’s entirety, click here ...
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Washington, D.C. – Black conservatives with the Project 21 leadership network hold a dim view regarding what is to be expected from the State of the Union Address to be given tonight. While members of Project 21 see a nation looking for concrete reassurances that the government is acting in their best interests and focusing on the key issues of economic stability and job creation, they do not expect more than rhetoric from President Obama and his supporters tonight. "When the polite applause and the partisan demonstrations of loyalty cease in the wake of tonight's address, will we have seen ...
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Washington, D.C. – With the U.S. House of Representatives voting today to completely repeal last year's legislation to begin a federal government takeover of the nation's health care apparatus, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are reacting: Bishop Council Nedd II: "Today's bipartisan vote in the House to repeal ObamaCare is not an end to the debate but a beginning. It is the clarion call for a larger effort to begin improving our health care system using free market solutions such as tax incentives that promote individuals' choices, tort reform and an end to mandates that put bureaucrats ...
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Soon After Juan Williams Firing, Black Conservatives Question Subsidies for Divisive Rant Recalling Arizona Shooting Washington, D.C. – Project 21's Jerome Hudson is calling for an end to all National Public Radio subsidies in light of NPR's broadcast of a racialist rant on January 12. The broadcast of Hispanic activist Daisy Hernandez featured derogatory racial language. "Hernandez's comments and NPR's poor decision to air them highlights a hypocrisy at NPR," said Project 21's Hudson. "That, and the separatism voiced in the Hernandez essay, nightmarishly blur the lines between legal and illegal immigration. NPR, in airing it, effectively perpetuated America's racial ...
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Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership group are questioning whether FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's approval of the NBC Universal-Comcast merger was contingent upon the two companies making major concessions to minority special interest groups. Deneen Borelli, a full-time fellow with Project 21 who is calling for a Congressional investigation, says the FCC may have tacitly approved the "race card" being played against the companies. "It would seem corporate shakedowns are still alive and well in 2011," said Borelli. "It's appalling that General Electric and Comcast are allowing themselves to be bullied by special interests. The fact ...
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You Can't Go After Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Without Going After Others Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 leadership network are condemning efforts by liberal lawmakers to impose restrictions on free speech in light of the tragic shooting spree in Arizona that critically injured Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). "Loss of humanity is the issue at hand in the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords and the senseless murder of a nine-year-old girl, among others. Losing liberty and finding ways to silence conservative views shouldn't even be on the table," said Project 21 member Lisa Fritsch, a guest ...
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Washington, D.C. – Howard Dean, a former presidential candidate and former head of the Democratic National Committee, opened up the new year on a hateful note by playing the race card against "tea party" supporters of limited government. Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are condemning Dean's lack of decorum and his simplistic interpretation of the historic midterm elections. "Obviously struck and frustrated by the complete rejection of progressive policies and the reality of a host of new tea party-backed members of Congress coming to Washington, Howard Dean threw a verbal tantrum and made unfounded claims alluding to ...
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Washington, D.C. – As winter weather already grips portions of the United States, the need for cheap and efficient power for heat and light is essential. Deneen Borelli, a fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network, points out that the Obama Administration's continued war on fossil fuels that is making the guarantee of a comfortable winter increasingly bleak for the nation's poorest citizens. "With millions of Americans unemployed and struggling to keep their homes warm, the need for government assistance will only increase. Heavy demand and higher prices due to the Obama Administration's assault on the fossil fuels we ...
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