Free Republic

Phil Simms may have self censored himself from saying the name “Redskins” but fans show no signs of abandoning the name.Link to song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVfFzbRuc4&feature=youtu.be

A palate cleanser via Time, which notes that the “Redskins Facts” site is behind this and that the team itself is apparently behind “Redskins Facts.” (The anti-Redskins ad that inspired this rebuttal is also embedded below for context.) This is really just a taste of what they’ve got cooking; go to their YouTube account and you’ll find interviews with individual Native Americans defending the name. It’s an understandable counterattack — if your critics claim you’re victimizing a group, the natural response is to find members of the group who don’t feel victimized — but realistically we’re past the point...

San Fransico-based T-shirt company Headline Shirts has taken full advantage of the Redskins name controversy by introducing a new line of shirts based on the team logo. But instead of a Native American, a redneck, complete with raccoon tail and mullet -- is prominently featured. (No idea if this violates trademark law, but if it does, and a judge does not overturn the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's ruling canceling the Redskins' trademark registration, there's nothing the team would be able to do about it.)

You know, being a fan of the Minnesota Vikings is difficult enough just based on what happens on the field. We’re 0-4 in Super Bowls. We’ve got to deal with the stomach-curdling memories of the 1999 NFC Championship Game, not to mention 41-doughnut in the same game two years later, and the bounty-hunting Saints putting out a contract on Brett Favre in 2010. But on a cultural level . . . hey, what the heck did we do? We were just sitting here minding our own business. First we got stuck with a petulant, attention-mongering punter who couldn’t and can’t...

The University of Minnesota is working with the Minnesota Vikings in an effort to keep the Washington Redskins’ name from being used in “promotional and game date materials” during the NFL teams’ Nov. 2 game at the school’s stadium in Minneapolis, according to an Aug. 1 letter from university President Eric W. Kaler to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

Former Washington Redskins tight end and Tea Party-backed candidate, Clint Didier, seeking to replace the retiring Congressman Doc Hastings in Washington State’s 4th congressional district, advanced against a crowded field of Republican hopefuls in Tuesday’s GOP primary. Didier, who won two Super Bowl rings playing in Super Bowl’s XVII and XXII under coach Joe Gibbs, is a farmer residing in Eltopia, WA. Because of Washington State’s somewhat unusual “top-two” primary system, which advances the leading two vote-getters regardless of party status, Dan Newhouse, a GOP establishment-backed candidate and top money fundraiser in the race thus far, will also advance to...

RUSH: Look, I want to make this point again because I really think I'm onto something here. I think it is a profundity. Young people, low-information people, are the ones who claim to hate politics. They don't like it. They don't like the arguing, right? The 25-year-old girls, they don't like loud voices. It all makes 'em nervous. They don't like it. "Can't we just all get along? Why do we have to argue about everything?" They hate politics. They do not understand how everything they are exposed to is political. They don't like politics, and so therefore the only...

The Washington Times and the Washington Redskins announced a unique partnership that will make the newspaper a content and marketing partner of the team. Under the partnership, the Redskins and the Times will collaborate on unique content offerings throughout the year designed to provide Redskins fans with compelling, timely and unique coverage. The offerings will include a weekly “Redskins Weekend Game Guide,” which will wrap the front page of the Times’ print edition each Friday during the NFL season and a new free digital magazine called “The Redskins Report,” which will showcase exclusive content about the Redskins. Both features are...

There’s no shortage of piling-on when it comes to the controversy over the name of the Washington Redskins football team. But too often overlooked is the government’s response to all the noise. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) created a fatal contradiction for itself when it announced on June 18 that it would cancel the trademarks of the Washington Redskins. In handing down the decision, the PTO claimed the name was disparaging. However, a Freedom of Information Act request showed that nobody complained to the PTO about being disparaged by the name, revealing the decision as entirely subjective....

The Redskins. Just the mere mention of the name is enough to bother some people. Well, one federal judge ruling on a case about the team had forbade any references to the name in court or in court documents, and aside from a footnote, “Redskins” is never mentioned once in his ruling. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote in that footnote, “Pro Football’s team is popularly known as the Washington ‘Redskins,’ but the Court will refrain from using the team name unless reference is made to a direct quote where the name appears.” And so, when he referenced the team...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office isn’t the only federal authority that has taken a stance against the name of the Washington Redskins. A federal judge in Maryland issued a ruling last week that purposely did not contain the team’s name, which has been described as an offensive slur against Native Americans. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, who is presiding over a lawsuit that former New York Giants linebacker Barrett Green brought against the Redskins, issued a 21-page ruling with this footnote on the first page: “Pro Football’s team is popularly known as the Washington ‘Redskins,’ but the Court...

The Washington Redskins professional football team is under growing pressure from Native American activists and politicians from President Obama on down to change its name. Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a two-to-one vote canceled the team’s trademark on the grounds that it is “disparaging to Native Americans.” But most Americans nationwide agree with the team's owner Daniel Snyder that a name change is not necessary, and those who follow pro football the most are even more opposed. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 26% of American Adults believe the Washington Redskins should...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that the Washington Redskins' name 'ought to be changed' and that it's 'an offensive name,' reports TMZ. Holder made the comments in an appearance on ABC News.

There was a time when you could afford to ignore insane ideas in America, but these days you can barely manage to blurt out, "Nobody can be that stupid," before some liberal starts calling for them to be made into laws on MSNBC. So it is with the demands that the Redskins change their name, but this time 50 Democrat senators and bureaucrats at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are tagging along with the Left-Wing loon patrol. That really shouldn't surprise anyone because it has become the standard modus operandi for liberals. Pick a group of people (In this...

Former FCC chairman Reed Hundt is suggesting the FCC may want to strip Redskins owner Dan Snyder of his radio station licenses if he does not change the name of the team. According to an interview on Indian Country Today Media Network, Hundt said that the FCC should "reevaluate" whether Snyder is fit to be a licensee, by which Hundt meant "a person of appropriate character," he said. “The FCC should consider whether Mr. Snyder is fit to own radio station licenses given that he uses radio stations to broadcast an ethnic slur,” he said. “These licenses are owned by...

Given how much evil there is in the world; given how many signs of moral, intellectual and economic decline there are here in America; and given the increasing irrelevance of America to world events, it is fair to ask why the American Left is preoccupied with the name Washington "Redskins." The Washington Redskins have been in existence for 82 years. For about 80 of those years, virtually no one, including the vast majority of American Indians, was troubled by the name. Yet, it is now of such importance to the American left that the majority leader of the United States...

The recent decision by an obscure administrative law board to cancel the Washington Redskins‘ trademark registrations came despite the fact the agency hadn’t received a single letter from a member of the public complaining about the team’s name, records show. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which is part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, ruled last month that the name was disparaging to American Indians. The team is appealing that decision. Politicians, including President Obama, have waded into the team name controversy, with many saying the team should change its name. But despite widespread media attention and a...

Political Correctness: Despite the latest example of word-use insanity, naming a helicopter after the Indian nation that handed the U.S. Army one of its most ignominious defeats is a sign of respect, not racism. In 2012, military blogger Crispin Burke reports, American Indian leaders were on hand to bless two brand-new UH-72 Lakota helicopters, named after the Lakota Sioux, the tribe that gave Col. George Custer a final exam on the proper use of light cavalry in combat at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. The two choppers, christened Eagle and Turtle for prominent Indian symbols, have honor feathers...

Given how much evil there is in the world, given how many signs of moral, intellectual, and economic decline there are here in America; and given the increasing irrelevance of America to world events, it is fair to ask why the American Left is preoccupied with the name Washington “Redskins.” The Washington Redskins have been in existence for 82 years. For about 80 of those years, virtually no one, including the vast majority of American Indians, was troubled by the name. Yet it is now of such importance to the American Left that the majority leader of the United States...

Veterans aren’t happy with a recent op-ed by the Washington Post, which charged that the Apache, Comanche, Chinook, Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa military vehicles were a “greater symbolic injustice” than the NFL’s Washington Redskins’ name. “Even if the NFL and Redskins brass come to their senses and rename the team, a greater symbolic injustice would continue to afflict Indians — an injustice perpetuated not by a football club but by our federal government,” Simon Waxman of the Boston Review wrote for the Post on Thursday. He added that the helicopter names were “propaganda” that needed to end, because Native American...