Project 21: Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Three apologies were offered by New York Post editors and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for an editorial cartoon said to compare President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.  None of these apologies were accepted.  Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie says it is time to recognize the protests for what they are: revenge and an attempt to silence conservatives. "When Al Shaprton was investigated for tax evasion, it was the New York Post that broke the story.  Now Sharpton seems to be blowing this cartoon out of proportion to get even.  I also think others are using ambiguous allegations ...
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Washington, D.C. - Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC), the third-ranking member of the congressional leadership, has engaged in unnecessary and harmful race-baiting in his criticism of governors wary of accepting money from the so-called "stimulus" package, say members of the African-American leadership group Project 21. "Trepidation about accepting a federal handout is rational, not racist," said Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie.  "For Congressman Clyburn to claim that refusing stimulus money would hurt blacks is the last gasp of a desperate politician revealed to have been making a career out of the loathsome practice of pushing set-asides, pork projects and increased government ...
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Washington, D.C. - Commerce Secretary-designate Judd Gregg's abrupt withdrawal implies a constitutional crisis involving the 2010 Census my be pending, says Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network. "One of the principal jobs of the Commerce Secretary is to conduct a census every 10 years that will decide voting districts and in part creates a new political playing field.  Senator Gregg seems to have recognized that the White House wants to usurp this power and rightly wanted nothing to do with it," said Massie.  "Senator Gregg's act should be seen as a wake-up call to America that ...
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Washington, D.C. - Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, is calling on lawmakers in both chambers to ascertain that the most controversial aspects of the stimulus were removed by the House-Senate conference before either chamber moves to a vote on the final legislation. "I submit that the urgency articulated by the Senate leadership and the Obama Administration is simply an attempt to have this egregious bill passed before its contents can be fully unearthed," said Project 21's Massie.  "Despite the claim there are no earmarks in the bill, there are certainly enough pet projects that have ...
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Washington, D.C. - In the nearly trillion dollars in spending contained in the so-called "stimulus" bill the U.S. Senate is now considering are programs that could go into coffers of the left-wing group ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). "It's outrageous that potentially billions of taxpayer dollars may end up aiding a group instrumental in causing the economic crisis in the first place," said Deneen Borelli, a fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network. ACORN became infamous during the 2008 presidential campaign when its involvement in fraudulent voter registration efforts and ties to the presidential campaign ...
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Washington, D.C. - The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the so-called stimulus bill would have a detrimental long-term effect on the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Commenting on this disturbing finding, a member of the Project 21 black leadership network who is also a small business owner is speaking out against the heavy-handed partisan strategy of White House and liberal congressional leaders to rush a vote on the earmark-laden legislation. "There's a difference between truly stimulating the economy and paying for pet projects that have languished for years.  The question smart Americans need to ask themselves is how almost ...
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Statement of Tom Borelli, PhD, director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research: "The adage 'haste makes waste' applies to Obama's massive stimulus plan.  In response to our economic crisis the liberal majority is rushing to spend taxpayer money without regard to the consequences of its plan.  We've seen this movie before - when Congress panics, taxpayers suffer.  Just a few months ago, billions were spent on TARP with little effect on the economy. "In reality it's a left-wing spending plan masquerading as economic stimulus.  Only about 5 percent of the current bill will ...
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Washington, D.C. - At least $8.6 billion of President Obama’s proposed $1.2 trillion stimulus plan is meant to fund dubious special interest policy initiatives of environmental activists and should immediately be jettisoned, says Deneen Borelli, full-time Fellow with the Project 21 national black leadership network. "It's outrageous that taxpayer money is slated to be used to fund the agenda of environmental special interest groups.  These special interest groups are using global warming alarmism to fund dubious projects while discouraging the use of fossil fuels," says Borelli.  "If liberal lawmakers really cared about stimulating the economy, they would remove rules and ...
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Washington, D.C. - Responding to GAO estimates that the full cost of the so-called "stimulus" legislation under consideration now on Capitol Hill could reach $1.2 trillion over 10 years, Chairman Mychal Massie of the Project 21 black leadership network is condemning this collection of earmarks, saying it is less about economic growth and more about growing government at the expense of future generations. "The pretense that passage of this bill will in some way stimulate the economy is an attempt to obfuscate and deceive on a scale not witnessed since Satan suggested Eve try an apple," said Massie.  "There seems ...
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Washington, D.C. - Columnist and spokesman Ak'Bar Shabazz of the Project 21 national black leadership network is warning that proposed federal bailout efforts currently under debate in the U.S. Senate pose a risk to the independence of states and localities. "Although it may be attractive for taxpayers to see some local return on their tax dollars, this measure only allows the federal government - with all of its requirements and stipulations - more intervention into thousands of local communities nationwide," said Project 21 member Ak'Bar Shabazz.  "To maintain autonomy and integrity, measures like this need to be orchestrated at the ...
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Washington, D.C. - Mychal Massie, the chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, is praising the decision made today by outgoing President George W. Bush to commute the sentences of jailed Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Under the terms of the commutation order, made by President Bush on his last full day in office, the imprisoned law enforcement officers will be released on March 20.  Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively.  Much of their time since entering prison in January of 2007 has been spent in solitary confinement. "I sincerely want ...
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Washington, DC - Thursday’s first hearing of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee since Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) ousted Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) as chairman is drawing criticism from the National Center for Public Policy Research, which says the hearing illustrates how powerful corporate interests are working with influential special interests and with the liberal majority in Congress to use government to enhance private profits at great cost to economic growth and liberty. The hearing will, according to the committee’s announcement, “present the perspectives of members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (‘USCAP’), a coalition of over 30 businesses ...
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Washington, DC - President Barack Obama has now laid the groundwork for sweeping government intervention in the free market with his announcement of new government requirements for its continued support for struggling American automakers. Mychal Massie, the chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, had this to say about Obama's announcement: I am not aware of any part of the U.S. Constitution in which the government is given the right to dispense taxpayer money to private institutions and then use that ability to hire, fire and make other major decisions for that business.  But I am aware of Saul ...
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Federal Tax Dollars Now Sought to Prolong Baseless Protest of Agatha Christie Play Washington, D.C. - Members of the Project 21 black leadership network have renewed criticism of the Butler County (Ohio) chapter of the NAACP and its executive director over the group's new call for federal intervention into a local school district.  The NAACP is protesting a student presentation of the Agatha Christie play "And Then There Were None." Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie says the local NAACP chapter chairman, Gary Hines, deceived him when Hines told Massie that he is not trying to intimidate Lakota administrators or its ...
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Washington, D.C. - Black conservative leader Deneen Borelli, a full-time senior fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network, says she's not thankful America is about to have Barack Obama as President - at least, not yet. While she's grateful for "our nation's greatness and endless opportunity..." which made it possible for "a fatherless, racial minority of modest means rise to the most powerful position in the world," Borelli says, and even "excited... about Barack Obama's achievement," she's reserving judgment until she sees what kind of President Barack Obama turns out to be for not only racial minorities, but all ...
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Washington, D.C. - As yet another potential tax-related ethical lapse involving Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) surfaces, a member of the Project 21 black leadership network is calling for the veteran lawmaker to be removed as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – at least until these serious allegations are fully investigated. Bishop Council Nedd II, a member of Project 21's national advisory council, said: "It's galling that the head of the committee in charge of levying taxes has either a profound ignorance of tax law or a disinterest in adhering to the laws he wants others to follow." ...
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Washington, D.C. - Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie is condemning President Bush’s inaction regarding incarcerated Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean and is reiterating his call for a pardon or commutation of the agents' sentences before the President leaves office in January. Massie’s call comes as the White House has announced that President George W. Bush granted pre-Thanksgiving pardons to individuals involved in the distribution of drugs and bank embezzlement and commuted the sentences of two men given harsh mandatory sentences related to cocaine trafficking. "I condemn President Bush in the harshest possible terms for not pardoning ...
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Washington, D.C. - Project 21 Senior Fellow Deneen Borelli is issuing a warning to President-elect Barack Obama: Don't let special interests control your Administration. Borelli's comments come in light of the apparent success of ultra-liberal feminist groups in derailing the predicted nomination of Lawrence Summers to the post of Treasury Secretary. Summers had been considered a favorite for the post, a job he held in the Clinton Administration.  Politico reported this caused an "intense backlash" from feminist groups, which, Politico said, "have issued press releases slamming a Summers' appointment, organized e-mail campaigns to key Obama transition staff and communicated their ...
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Washington, D.C. - Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are denouncing the racial slur made against President-elect Barack Obama by al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, and hope al-Zawahiri's crude action is a sobering reminder for the President-elect and his supporters about the harsh attitudes of our nation's enemies. "While no fan of Barack Obama, I am a proud American.  I find this terrorist's remarks directed at our nation's incoming leader to be highly offensive," said Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie. In a videotaped message posted on Islamist web sites on November 19, al-Zawahiri - al Qaeda's number-two leader ...
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Washington, D.C. - After a federal judge last week refused to reduce the sentences of incarcerated U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, Mychal Massie - chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network - is calling on President George W. Bush to use his executive power to similarly commute the agents' sentences before leaving office in January. Massie said:  "At this juncture, whatever penance demanded from Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean pursuant to their actions has been met.  Now is the time for President Bush to show mercy and allow these men to rejoin ...
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