Think Progressive has that the United States Patent and Trademark office nixed six federal trademark requests for the Washington Redskins NFL team. The courts ruled that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans," and unable to be trademarked because federal law disallows the protection of derogatory or racially offensive language.

From Think Progress:

“I am extremely happy that the [Board] ruled in our favor,” Blackhorse said in a statement. “It is a great victory for Native Americans and for all Americans. We filed our petition eight years ago and it has been a tough battle ever since. I hope this ruling brings us a step closer to that inevitable day when the name of the Washington football team will be changed. The team’s name is racist and derogatory. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – if people wouldn’t dare call a Native American a ‘redskin’ because they know it is offensive, how can an NFL football team have this name?”

Unfortunately, this won't really affect the team or the brand. But it does send a message. The team's legal counsel has already filed an appeal, and don't plan on going down quietly. 

Here's the official word from Bob Raskopf, Redskins trademark attorney :

Loving the World Cup? Then yeah, this Durex ad for condoms makes absolute sense.

Soccer players, especially our Latino brothers, know the art of dramatizing fake fouls with fake injuries in order to get a penalty called against the opposing team.

But if they #dontfake it, where's the fun in that?

More on flopping and evidently American soccer's dislike of this soccer tradition in the Wire:

Another World Cup has begun and that means another opportunity to explain away America's global soccer failures on our stubborn obsession with fairness and sportsmanship.

Experts agree that American soccer players are particularly bad at one essential skill of the sport: flopping. On the cusp of the U.S. team's opening match against Ghana, The New York Times reminded us why the U.S. just doesn't flop very well, or much at all. The practice of the flop is a tried-and-true method of manipulating each game's referee to make calls go your way by aggressively exaggerating fouls or the appearance of fouls. The benefit — as Brazil's Fred showed on the opening day of the World Cup (image above) — can be as decisive as an occasional undeserved penalty kick.

Juanita Molina of the Border Action Network shares a heart-wrenching account of the conditions insides the Nogales Placement Center where roughly 1,300 undocumented kids are being detained while their cases are sorted out:

The management and care of migrant populations has become an increasingly complex and heartbreaking situation, especially now that we are seeing an unprecedented surge of unaccompanied minors coming into this country. White House officials have acknowledged that criminal violence and ailing economies in Central America are the primary factors driving this migration. The thousands of unaccompanied minors held in National Placement Centers for lack of an appropriate shelter by government entities must be cared for and information about their status and well being must be made public in an appropriate manner.

Having developed a working relationship with the Tucson Sector of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), I was invited to tour the Nogales facility and participate in a discussion and evaluation process based on our shared values. It pains me deeply that the conditions of the National Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona, have been sensationalized in the media, and I want to give a first-hand account of what I saw during my tour of the Nogales facility. My reason for undertaking this visit was to witness the conditions and report on them to the community with the goal of finding solutions to this overwhelming problem.

Border Action Network (BAN) fully acknowledges the long history of abuses and human rights violations by CBP officers, and as an organization we address these issues on all levels, both locally and nationally. As a humanitarian organization, BAN supports the ACLU in its action to bring light to the violations against unaccompanied minors in detention. With this said, it is important to remember that institutions are composed of individuals with shared values, and CBP is no exception. Abuses and violations occur, but there are individuals in these institutions whose actions exemplify the values of our government entities and who endeavor to improve the human condition through their service.

I had previously toured CBP’s detention areas and had complied with all information requests to be properly vetted for this visit. The tour and briefing lasted approximately 5 hours. I met with Tucson Sector Chief Manuel Padilla and the commanding officers in charge, and I had the opportunity to engage with all officers and ask questions at each station of the facility. They provided a comprehensive overview of operations including protocols, procedures, and organizational flow charts. In a limited amount of time, CBP had created a holding facility to house approximately 1,300 children in temporary detention.

Kevin Hart and Ice Cube are on a Think Like a Man Too talk show press blitz. We have learned that Cube is annoyed by Hart's comedic antics, and that Hart is deathly afraid of roller coasters.


The  5' 2" popular comedian was a guest on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, and the duo spent the day at Universal Orlando Resort. Apparently, roller coasters and Hart don't mix well. This might be Hart's best acting performance, ever.

Everyone and their drummers are venturing off to cooler weather this summer. Human Behavior will embark on a 20-day tour along the west coast this Thursday, so we wish them a successful and safe trip. The folktale band is performing a free show starting at 8 p.m., Wednesday, June 18, at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.


The special guests are UNITS, Tucson bands Ex-cowboy and Shmee and The Followers. There's no cover charge, but the bands are raising gas and food money for Human Behavior's tour. Click here for more information.

Before he was indulging in sock puppetry on left and right wing blogs as well as more traditional media outlets, before he was Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal was selectively editing his Wikipedia bio, as well as the bios of current Secretary of State Ken Bennett and a former political opponent, State Senator Slade Meade, who Huppenthal defeated in the 2004 senate primary.

That's two cardinal internet sins Huppenthal has indulged in: posting comments as someone else to praise and defend himself, and altering Wikipedia pages to make them more favorable to himself and unfavorable to his opponents. Neither action is illegal, but both indicate Huppenthal has a shaky grasp of the concepts of honesty and integrity.

You can learn more about Huppenthal's sock puppetry here (a Brahm Resnik news clip) and here (my first post on the subject). And you can go to Blog for Arizona for continuing updates.

The newly discovered information is that Huppenthal was actively altering Wikipedia pages in 2006 (recently brought to light in this BfA post), and admitted as much in an email which contains a truly hilarious passage in light of his current anonymous commenting. Geo wrote a November 24, 2006, post on the now-defunct blog, Precinct 134: Senator Huppenthal, you're BUSTED! Geo describes and details the thorough sleuthing process he used to show that Huppenthal went onto Wikipedia at least 28 times to edit entries. He began by editing "Merit pay" and "Standardized testing" pages, then went on to edit his own page 10 times, Ken Bennett's page twice and Slade Meade's page twice.

The Tucson Improv Movement is trying to permanently relocate to Fourth Avenue, but they will need your help. Currently, TIM has been performing and training out the Red Barn Theater and shifted from various stages since the group’s inception in 2012. The improv group has a signed lease at 329 East Seventh Street next door to D & D Pinball.

Together, the TIM company members have the goal of being Tucson's premier longform improv theater. Longform improv originated in Chicago in the 1960s and 70s, most notably with Del Close's invention of the harold format. With longer scenes and deeper themes than shortform (like Who's Line Is It Anyway?), our audiences come to see a show where, as Del Close said, "we create a Theater of the Heart". Today long form improv comedy is performed at the world's most famous improv theaters in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and TIM is working to bring this style of improv to the Old Pueblo!

TIM has launched a Kickstarter to raise $10,000 to convert the warehouse into a theater:

• Purchase the raw materials needed to build out our stage, DJ/Tech booth, entrance, bathrooms and more
• Put in professional lighting and sound systems for our stage
• Modify our walls with a professional contractor to soundproof and isolate our new theater space
• Purchase and install video screens for the stage to have state-of-the-art interactive show pieces
• Purchase seating and paint to clean and upgrade the theater space for the perfect audience experience
Depending on the pledge amount, donors will be rewarded with TIM shirts, stickers, posters, tickets for events and their name on the TIM Comedy Theater Wall of Donors Plaque.

WASHINGTON – AMVETS spokesman David Gai said his organization is hoping for one comprehensive reform bill to fix problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But choosing just one could be difficult, considering the dozens of bills that members of Congress have introduced recently on the issue.

“While there are varying ideas and legislation being brought forth to try and solve the VA problems we hope that they will be consolidated into a comprehensive bill in the Senate and House,” Gai said in an email.

Since the VA scandal first broke in to the headlines in April, Congress has introduced at least 28 bills related to the Veterans Affairs system. House and Senate committees dealing with veterans affairs have held a total of nine hearings since then, with more scheduled this week.


The rush to introduce VA bills started after allegations of lapses in patient care at the Phoenix VA, and bogus waiting lists that made the department’s performance appear better than it actually was while vets went unserved. A subsequent inspector general‘s investigation showed similar problems with care nationwide.

William Kling, a professor of public policy at the University of Illinois Chicago, said that sometimes Congress needs a crisis to spark action. Many times, legislation is reactive as opposed to proactive, Kling said.

“I see this kind of veterans thing as being more reactive, based on some of the recent events that have occurred,” he said. “The timing of it is really as a result of some of the stuff that’s been happening.”

Huppenthal didn't respond to a request for comments from Resnik, but his implausible deniability is becoming more implausible daily. And the story is far from over. With hundreds of comments spread over a number of Arizona blogs and news outlets, there's no telling what gems are yet to be uncovered. Oh, and Huppenthal did some Wikipedia editing of his own bio back in 2006, another big internet no-no. More on that later.

The smell of mud is in the air. The GOP has created this Sports Center inspired 35 second spot to show off the $866.18 French squirrel mascot that's against the notion of Hillary Clinton running for President. We find this premature campaign odd because Hillary hasn't announced that she's running for anything, yet.


Clinton told  Stern magazine that she would everything in her power to make sure that the United States will have a female president, even if she's not the woman for the job.

"I don't know if that means I will be the person to make it happen. I just have to factor that into my decision making."

Considering Clinton's high approval ratings, the GOP might have to step up their mascot game.