Neil irwin:
We can only guess the exact volume and color of the steam coming out of Daniel Snyder’s ears right about now. Wednesday morning, the United States Patent and Trademark Office canceled the trademark for the Washington Redskins, the pro football team that Mr. Snyder owns — and that he has steadfastly refused to rename, amid accusations that its mascot is racist.
It’s important to be clear on what the ruling from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruling means and doesn’t mean. It does not prohibit Mr. Snyder from using “Redskins” as the team’s name. It merely prevents him from using the court system to prevent others from using the term.
One could now imagine someone opening the “Redskins Bar & Grill” without paying a royalty to Mr. Snyder, though that opens up an awkward Catch-22: It’s legal to use the name because a government commission found it disparages Native Americans, but you would then own a restaurant whose name disparages a minority group.
Welcome to the wrong side of history, Mr Snyder.
Newtown Bee:
US Representative Elizabeth Esty and US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy announced on June 17 a $7.1 million grant from the US Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime to support victims, family members, first responders, and community members in Newtown in the aftermath of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The grant will be used to support victim services with a portion reserved for school safety efforts. The funding will support new mental health services, specifically longer-term counseling for families, law enforcement, and first responders. It will also help reimburse ongoing services for those affected by 12/14.
“This grant will provide much-needed relief and support for Newtown to help this brave community heal,” said Rep Esty. “The community of Newtown has faced unimaginable tragedy with incredible strength and resiliency. Survivors, families, law enforcement, and first responders deserve sustained counseling services and enhanced school safety resources, and I’m grateful to the Department of Justice for responding with continued support.”
She said the leadership shown by First Selectman Pat Llodra, town officials, the families, and community activists inspire her, Rep Esty’s colleagues and the nation.
Here's a small but important example of government doing its job. Newtown may be extraordinary, but people are still hurting and need help. Being a hero has a price.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Harry Enten:
President Obama’s approval rating is stuck in the low 40s. That’s as low — if not lower — than it was four years ago, when Democrats sustained massive midterm losses. Republicans have a good chance to take the Senate and are very likely to keep control of the House, but they’re not running away with the 2014 midterm elections. Democrats remain even among likely voters on the generic congressional ballot, a key measure of the national political environment.
How is that possible? Well, Republicans control the House of Representatives, and Congress is super unpopular.
Dana Milbank:
Politico’s media blogger, Dylan Byers, regularly supplies his readers with tidbits on comings and goings in the news business, but this week he provided an additional service: a lesson in the limitations of armchair journalism.
After my column appeared Tuesday on a Heritage Foundation event on Benghazi that devolved into anti-Muslim ugliness, Byers tweeted that I had “totally misrepresented the panel.” It linked to a nine-minute video clip from the session. Byers followed that up shortly with a blog post titled “Dana Milbank’s Heritage Disaster,” based on the same excerpt.
I read Byers’s post, and there was indeed a disaster: the sort of disaster that occurs when a journalist, from the comfort of his office, levels accusations based on a nine-minute clip of a 65-minute panel he hadn’t attended. (Heritage didn’t post the full video until well after the Byers report, and Byers didn’t take me up on my offer to provide him earlier with my audio recording.)
Steve Benen:
I’d like to think people who reflect on political developments for a living would at least try to remember context like this. Obama hits 41% approval and some of his lazier critics pounce and write his political epitaph … only to see the president’s numbers improve, prompting his critics to talk about something else … until he hits 41% approval again, prompting another round of finger-pointing … until the president’s numbers improve again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I distinctly remember when healthcare.gov didn’t work for a couple of months last fall. Lazy pundits not only declared Obama’s presidency over, but also insisted it was a Katrina-like moment from which the president would never recover. Except the site was soon after fixed; Obama’s approval rating went up; and the pundits found something new to whine about.
I can appreciate why individual polls occasionally show striking, noteworthy results, but these overreactions to data that confirm pundits’ biases are tiresome. Read the polls, consider the averages, resist the urge to cherry pick, and try not to overreact. This isn’t rocket science, folks.
Ed Kilgore:
So after Jack Kingston made it into the runoff and then sprinted into an early lead in the GA GOP SEN finals on the basis of remaking himself from a career appropriator into Fighting Wingnut savagely battling against The Welfare and Common Core, what’s his opponent, David Perdue, to do? Respond in kind, of course, per this report from Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
In his first TV ad of the long-ago GOP primary for U.S. Senate, David Perdue called himself “the outsider.” Apparently, the word doesn’t have the same charm in a hot summer runoff.
The campaign unleashed its first attack ad in the GOP Senate runoff this morning with a 30-second spot that proclaims the businessman as the “true conservative” in the race and questions Rep. Jack Kingston’s spending on earmarks. The word “outsider” doesn’t receive a mention.
In Georgia as in so many Republican primaries, it’s all about who’s more conservative. It does not appear it is possible to be too conservative (though Thad Cochran is trying that attack-line on Chris McDaniel in Mississippi), though it is possible to have too little money to let voters know you’re the most conservative (viz. Paul Broun in the Georgia race, Sam Clovis in Iowa).
Kilgore notes the opposite happening in the D party throughout the entire country , always and forever running as the most progressive, is absurd and unthinkable.
Elise Jordan, wife of the late Michael Hastings:
His first novel, a satire of the media, will be published next week. Here’s what the late former war correspondent would make of the coverage of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl—the most important story of his career.
Daily News:
'The Last Magazine' book review: Michael Hastings' posthumous satire on magazine journalism is an engrossing read