Barack Obama takes a slap from the shadows at the Washington Redskins.

This is such an Obama administration thing to do. Which is to say, it’s petty, pointless, and precedent-setting. That last part isn’t a good thing, from the Democrats’ point of view: as somebody in the comments section here noted, the Washginton Redskins will probably just decide to wait a couple of years. Anyway, here’s the key grafs from The Hill:

The National Park Service (NPS) owns the land under the 54-year-old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, a venue two miles east of the Capitol that hosted the Redskins from 1961 to 1996. Some city leaders want to demolish the current stadium and build a new one to lure the football team back from suburban Maryland.

But Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department includes the NPS, told D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in April that, unless the Redskins change their name, the Obama administration would not work to accommodate construction of a new venue, according to The Washington Post.

So, if you have problems with any facet of the stadium’s aging infrastructure between now and when the new one comes up, Redskins fans, remember: it’s all because Barack Obama likes to engage in sneak behavior. He’d lose an open fight over this issue, and he knows it – so he’ll instead try to use the government as a club to get his way, pretty much exactly like an entitled man-child with no useful skill set. This is the way it goes.

Moe Lane

PS: Personally, I don’t particularly think that the Redskins need a new stadium anyway. Of course, I’m a Giants fan who hasn’t watched a game in forever, so what do I know?

 

Whaddya know: the ACLU can actually take free speech seriously.

I don’t give much of a tinker’s dam about the Washington Redskins name – although I think that the unconscious patronizating done by the ACLU author here is remarkable in its utter lack of self-awareness, and remarkably privileged – but the important thing is that the right answer is gotten to. The right answer, in this case, being ‘keep the government out of this one.’

The Washington Redskins is a name that is offensive and perpetuates racism against Native Americans. Should it be changed? Yes. But should the government get to make that call? As we told a federal district court yesterday, the answer is no, because the First Amendment protects against government interference in private speech.

Continue reading Whaddya know: the ACLU can actually take free speech seriously.

An entertaining proposed compromise on the Washington Redskins thing.

Worth it, just to see the screaming. From Constant Reader BigGator5:

I am going to go against the grain and agree with President Obama. Change the name

President Barack Obama says that if he owned the Washington Redskins, he would “think about changing” the team name, wading into the controversy over a football nickname that many people deem offensive to Native Americans.

…To the “DC Tea Party”.

And oh, my, but there would be screaming.