Best Laid Plans: Palin Tries To Trademark Her Name, But Little Details Cause Problems
February 7, 2011 No CommentYou know, when you have a multi-media empire you’re trying to build–a basic cable “reality” show, books, lecture circuits, Fox News contributor status–you gotta protect the brand. You don’t want people making porn or tacky merchandise hurting your brand. Now some people may say that horse is already out of the barn, and at the hands of those closest to you , but let’s give Palin credit for thinking ahead to her possible presidential run. Except… Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s bid to trademark her name and that of her daughter, Bristol, ran into trouble at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because the application forms were unsigned , government records show. Applications to trademark the names Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin, both for “motivational speaking services,” were filed on November 5 by the Palins’ longtime family attorney, Thomas Van Flein, but were quickly slapped down by a trademark examiner. “Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, SARAH PALIN, consists of a name identifying a particular living individual whose consent to register the mark is not of record,” the patent agency said in an office action. “Please note this refusal will be withdrawn if applicant provides written consent from the individual identified in the applied-for mark,” the patent office said. The office also said Palin’s application failed to show that her name had been used in commerce and could also be rejected on those grounds. This is a person who thinks she should be given the nuclear launch codes and she can’t even remember to sign a petition protecting her own name? Methinks little details elude the half-governor just a wee too often for comfort. But if she (or her obviously crack legal staff) manage to get their act together and successfully trademark her name, we’ll have to find a new name for her…I’m partial to Sarah WordSalad, but Blue Gal is lobbying for Grifty McQuitter. Your thoughts? Addendum: Bristol’s burgeoning career as a “motivational speaker” seems to have a hit a speedbump or two, thanks to actress Kate Walsh and students at Washington University in St. Louis . Maybe trademarking shouldn’t be Bristol’s first priority either.
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Haitian President Rene Preval will stay in office for three more months as his country chooses a successor in a delayed election. Police responded as protestors expressed their unhappiness with the announcement. (Feb. 7)
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Three-year-olds who eat diets rich in fat- and sugar-laden processed foods may have slightly lower IQ scores at age 8 than their peers with healthier eating habits, a new study shows.
Continue reading …Newstalgia Reference Room – Dean Clarence Manion: Grandfather of Modern Conservatism – 1951
February 7, 2011 No Comment
( Clarence Manion – an eye for interesting “tableware” ) Click here to view this media I had always wondered just when it was the conservative movement took a dramatic, screeching shift to the right. What was that moment, who was the spark. I have on a number of occasions heard that the catalyst was a fellow named Dean Clarence Manion (the Dean comes from his tenure as Notre Dame Law Professor) and it was Manion who gave us Barry Goldwater and was quoted as saying Ronald Reagan was the perfect example of the Modern Conservative Movement. But I had never heard him speak – as I am sure most readers haven’t either. So needless to say, when I discovered this disc (sadly not complete and partially deteriorated) I was pretty excited to hear just who this guy was. I wasn’t disappointed. Clarence Manion: “Now we have heard a lot about American equality. We have been twitted with it by our subversive enemies. Taunted with the alleged hypocrisy of what we profess to be equality and which is, in their jargon ‘not equality at all’. We hear a lot about the rich and the poor and the exploiters and the exploited,, and the malefactors of great wealth and the underprivileged and the this and the that. Let’s see what the doctrine of America is as it is stated and set forth in the blueprint. All men are created equal, they are equal in God’s sight. And for that reason and for no other reason that I can ever find in any law book, they are equal before the law of the land. Equality before God and the equality before the laws of this country. That is the sum and the substance, the beginning and the end of American equality. ” I have heard some strange interpretations of the Bill of Rights, but this interpretation nails it on the head why there is so much misguided righteousness floating around. It all came from someplace. Unfortunately, there is only part one and two and the address goes on, I suspect for at least another half hour, but the rest of it is missing and I don’t think recorded. So we don’t get to hear the summation of this argument and I’m not going to venture to guess where it goes. Important to at least hear part of where so much of our confusion comes from . And just how ingrained it is. Remember, this address was made on December 17, 1951, almost sixty years ago. That is a very long time to misrepresent something.
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In recent days, the civilian blockades that check for identification cards and screen for weapons at the entryways to the square have been augmented by a celebratory greeting crew that welcomes visitors with chants of “Here, here, here! The Egyptians are here!”
Continue reading …For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl has set a new record for American television viewing. The Nielsen Co. said today that an estimated 111 million people watched the Green Bay Packers outlast the Pittsburgh Steelers in football’s ultimate game. That tops the 106.5 million who…
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The era of food volatility is rippling across the globe. In January, world food prices hit a record high. AP’s Robert Ray reports. (Feb. 7)
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In the six days since anti-government demonstrators defended central Cairo in vicious street battles, the occupied square has turned into a warden of semi-permanent housing.
Continue reading …Bill O’Reilly wants to assure us that Fox News isn’t ‘out to get’ President Obama. Uh-huh.
February 7, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Bill O’Reilly phoned in to Fox News’ Happening Now program this morning to talk over his interview with President Obama with Martha MacCallum retrospectively. O’Reilly’s real impressions sound like classic cases of projection: He thinks, among other things, that the president is “thin-skinned” and probably “self-centered.” Indeed. Our impression of O’Reilly exactly. And then he tried to pull a fast one: MACCALLUM: I also want to get your thoughts — at the very beginning of the interview, I appreciated that you took a moment to thank him, and to thank the administration, for some help that they gave us at Fox News in helping two of our colleagues, Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig, and the whole thing kind of reminded me too of that moment, way back, when they talked about the fact that Fox News wasn’t a news organization. And clearly we were treated in a very respectful way in this whole thing. I just wanted to get your thoughts on all that. O’REILLY: Well, look, you have to understand that interview that we did yesterday was the most widely viewed interview of all time, because of the Internet — you know, the moment it was done it was all over the world, everybody was looking at it. And I wanted people who don’t know Fox News, and all they hear about is the liberal media defining us, to know that we don’t have any personal animus against the president of the United States — and he did, and Robert Gibbs and the State Department did really, really good work in helping Palkot and Wiig. That’s the truth. So why not say that? And why not say that to him? And I wanted him to get the message that, look, we’re not out to hurt you. We the network. There might be guys like Hannity and Beck who really feel that you’re not a good president and your policies are destructive. But we have other people on the staff who feel the opposite. So, yes, Fox News is skeptical of President Obama, more so than the liberal networks, of course. We’re not personally invested in hurting him and I think that that statement up top was true. It needed to be said. It was in the context of the event, and I’m glad I said it. Of course they don’t hate President Obama at Fox News. They just call publicly wish for him to fail and announce their intention to make him fail . They just call him a racist , a socialist , a fascist , a radical Marxist revolutionary , and an America-hater . But hey, it’s nothing personal. Really. And those “staff” members who “feel the opposite”? OK, my guess is that they’re all members of the janitorial staff. Because you’ll sure as hell never see them on the air at Fox News.
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