Obama on DC NFL Team Name: "I'd consider changing it."

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday October 05, 2013 · 5:21 PM PDT

2013/10/05 · 17:21

I checked the recent list and saw nothing on this topic, so I thought I'd throw this up. This is one of those issues that, I'm confident, will become more of an open-and-shut case as it continues to get broader exposure.

In an interview with the AP conducted Friday evening, Obama weighed in on the name of the NFL football team that plays in DC. It's a pretty big scoop in the sporting world. The link I'm providing appears on the front page of ESPN.com.

Full story from the Associated Press, posted at ESPN.com

"I don't know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things," he said in the interview, which was conducted Friday at the White House.
An avid sports fan who roots for his hometown Chicago Bears, Obama said he doesn't think Washington football fans are purposely trying to offend American Indians.

"I don't want to detract from the wonderful Redskins fans that are here. They love their team and rightly so," he said.

There are names and resources at the link, including an "Outside the Lines" video in the playlist that covers the issue in more detail.

Here is a video of the AP interview:

I'll cut short my response and analysis, simply stating that I believe wholeheartedly that names, symbols, and imagery such as "Redskins" have no place in our modern culture, and feel confident that they will (continue to be) phased out in due time. (this coming from a diehard Cleveland Indians fan!)

Couple shameless plugs:

Paul Lukas has been a strong opponent of the use of Native American names and symbols in sports and other cultural fields. He writes for ESPN and has his own blog, Uni-watch.com. You can use the search bar to dig through his many commentaries on this issue throughout the years. Heck, you won't even need to search...he's been offering near-daily commentary for a while now.

Julie Pace conducted the interview for the AP. She's a childhood friend. Good people.

Deadspin, a part of Gawker media, has also been on the case. (Hat tip to a2nite for reminding me). Here's a blog post about some pretty disgusting behavior at my beloved Indians playoff game earlier in the week: "Indians Fans Wear Redface"The comment section is encouraging, informative, provocative, and as with most deadspin articles, amusing.

Moravan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 03, 2013 · 10:44 AM PDT

2013/04/03 · 10:44

Looks like Jay Leno and his writers have been taking 'outreach' seminars at the Limbaugh institute for advanced conservative studies.

Over at Salon:

Jay Leno: Call them undocumented democrats

The joke isn’t particularly original — it’s typical fare at Tea Party rallies and conservative confabs. Here’s radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Roger Hedgecock and Lars Larson all making the same joke. Rep. Steve King earned whooping applause when he cracked the line at CPAC last month. You can even buy a whole variety of “undocumented Democrats” apparel at the UpYoursObama.com store on CafePress.

Full description at link. I've no time to offer comment, other than to say Rush is congratulating himself today on writing jokes for Jay Leno, and suggesting his dittoheads keep pushing the "undocumented democrats" meme. I say, please proceed.

This narcissistic gas bag with his money already in the bank has no use for rebranding. Neither does Rush.

Rush Tells All - "I want to be an Obama"

Moravan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 28, 2013 · 12:43 PM PDT

2013/03/28 · 12:43

Incredibly revealing segment on the Limbaugh show today.

El Rushbo was attempting to state his position on same-sex marriage. Apparently his listeners kept complaining that he'd been obfuscating up to now.

Some context: Garafalo pegged Rush a few years back as a 'self-loathing narcissist'. He's demonstrated again and again his deep desire to be loved, by Americans, by women, by friends. But his ego gets in the way, and it must kill him to know that he's widely despised, mocked, and discredited.

Today, he stated his position on marraige equality by way of analogy: Same-sex couples desire something that society has heretofore rejected - broad acceptance of marriage equality. Same-sex couples demanding marraige equality is therefore analogous to Rush demanding to be 'an Obama,' by which he means, at bottom, widespread admiration (it's a bit more convoluted - according to Rush, Obama is accepted and loved by society for all the wrong reasons, blah blah blah).

So Rush sputtered on for a couple minutes, in his typical half-joking tone, with this analogy. 'I want to be an Obama!'. Paraphrasing (for real) 'I want society to change their opinion of me! I want admiration like Obama! It's not fair, society should learn to love me! I am discriminated against!'

But, taking the analogy to its conclusion, life ain't fair...and Rush is painfully aware that he'll never be widely admired, loved, revered, no matter how much he desires it so.

It was stunning to hear. Honest to god, i felt sorry for the man by the end of it. He faded out to commercial, then came back and pulled his typical "illustrate by way of absurdity" card. But as was the case with Ms Fluke, we know that he was simply hiding behind humor to make his point.

Anyway, I hope people get a chance to hear it, and that the Flush Rush groups do a more in-depth diary, with audio, hyperlinks, context.

UPDATE:

This is how it begins:

If I were to say, "The Obama family has more rights than I do. Obama's family, which hasn't been elected to anything, get millions of dollars in government benefits. They are globally admired in a way that I'm not. My self-esteem is wounded. The world loves the Obamas and they don't love me. Therefore, I want to be considered an Obama. From now on, I want to be an Obama so that people respect me and love me...."

It goes on and on.

It's in the latter third of this transcript: Full transcript at RushLimbaugh.com.

Coach Jim Boeheim Voices Support for Gun Safety, Directly Calls Out 'More Guns' Advocates

Moravan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday December 18, 2012 · 8:25 AM PST

2012/12/18 · 08:25

Scanned the Diary List and didn't see this. Jim Boeheim, coach of the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team, currently ranked third in the nation, is a well-known and well-respected voice in the sporting world and among its followers...you know, the middle-aged, 'man-card'-carrying demo. As wdrath notes in the comments, he's also known regionally as prominent Republican in Central New York State.

This was a big night for Boeheim. Notched his 900th win, which garnered top billing in most sports media. The first headline in ESPN's newsfeed read, "Boeheim wins 900th, talks guns."

“If we in this country as Americans cannot get the people that represent us to do something about firearms, we are a sad, sad society. I’m a hunter. I’ve hunted. I’m not talking about rifles. That’s fine. If one person in this world; the NRA president, anybody, can tell me why we need assault weapons with 30 shots in the thing... This is our fault. This is my fault and your fault [pointing to members of media in room]. All of your faults if we don’t get out and do something about this.
“I saw one guy, a representative I was very proud of, somebody in his state had just come out and said ‘We need more guns. We don’t need less. We need to give teachers guns so they can shoot people.’ Yeah, that’s really good thinking to do that.

“If we can’t get this thing done, I’m with the mayor of New York City, if we can’t get this thing done, I don’t know what kind of country we have.’’ This is about us. This isn’t about the President or those other people down there (in Washington D.C.). We need to make them understand somehow that this needs to get figured out. Real quick. Not six months from now.’’

I expect gun advocates, teabaggers, and the Huckabees of the world to lose their minds, as they did when Costas and PBO interrupted their precious Sunday Night Football twice in three weeks. That's fine. At this rate, with what many here have justly identified as a wave of support for gun safety across the land, any publicity is good publicity. Let the freepers further alienate themselves from civil society.

RSS

Obama on DC NFL Team Name: "I'd consider changing it."

Jay Leno Lifting Jokes from CPAC

Rush Tells All - "I want to be an Obama"

Coach Jim Boeheim Voices Support for Gun Safety, Directly Calls Out 'More Guns' Advocates