Congressmen Get Involved With Redskins

As others have already pointed out around the web you would think that members of congress would have more pressing issues to deal with than sending letters to the commissioner of the NFL.

Members of Congress urge NFL to press for Redskins name change

Two members of Congress will reportedly send a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell Monday calling for the league to put pressure on the Washington Redskins to change the team's nickname.

The Washington Post reports that the letter, signed by Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., asks Goodell to "to take a formal position in support of a name change."

The letter goes on to add that the league "is on the wrong side of history. It is not appropriate for this multibillion dollar… tax-exempt organization to perpetuate and profit from the continued degradation of tribes and Indian people," the Post reports. Cantwell is the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, while Cole is one of two Native Americans in Congress.

The Redskins franchise, which was founded in 1932 and has been based in Washington since 1937, has been under increasing pressure to change its name, which many deem offensive to Native Americans. Some newspapers have refused to use the team's nickname in stories and NBC commentator Bob Costas referred to the nickname as "an insult, a slur" during the network's broadcast of a Redskins game this past October.

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has insisted that he would never change the name while he owned the team. Team spokesman Tony Wylie responded to the letter in a statement to the Post: "With all the important issues Congress has to deal with ... don’t they have more important issues to worry about than a football team’s name? And given the fact that the name of Oklahoma means 'Red People' in Choctaw, this request is a little ironic."

For his part, Goodell has resisted calls to change the team's name. At a news conference during Super Bowl week, Goodell responded to a question about the name by saying, "Eight out of 10 Americans in the general population would not like us to change the name. So we are listening. We are being respectful to people who disagree. But let's not forget this is the name of a football team."

Whether you like the name or not what a private entity names their organization seems to me to be a matter of free speech. To use their positions as congressmen to "urge" that a private entity change their name seems to me to be a intrusion by the government to regulate the Redskins free speech rights.
Opposing the name as private citizens is one thing, but when they use the power of their office then it becomes a constitutional intrusion.

Liberal Media:We'll Tell you When to Be Offended

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

It appears that the liberal/commie media thinks it has the responsibility to tell us what's moral and what's not.
You know, the same people who's neglected to hold Obama accountable for....well anything, tells us how reprehensible the second amendment is, how Christianity is destroying the country and patriots/conservatives are little more than terrorists.

As if there aren't more serious issues related to native Americans.

Daniel Snyder's Best Possible Answer to Critics of the Redskins' Name

Another football season is upon us, which means another opportunity for America to engage in another autumn ritual—condemnation and praise for the controversial nickname of Washington's professional football team. This always strikes me as hypocritical—bordering on the cruel. As a nation, we spend virtually no time discussing grave issues of concern to Native Americans. Most of us could care less about the way our laws and policies treat them. And yet every fall our airwaves are filled with passionate debate over the merits of a team's nickname. Talk about misplaced priorities.
The brunt of the focus has been on the Redskins' owner, Daniel Snyder, who has been defending his decision to keep the team's name. Some respect this choice. Others scorn it. Few are neutral. None have suggested, however, that Snyder could use the current spotlight to make a critical point about the way in which white America, and black America for that matter, believe they can assuage their guilt over the mistreatment of Native Americans by taking a stand on a symbol rather than by demanding substantive reforms. If Snyder really wants to call out these Helmet Hypocrites, here's what he should say:~snip~

To the PC liberal types out there this whole "controversy" is the least they can do in their self important minds to brow beat everyone else as neanderthals so they can pat themselves on the back and wallow in their own smugness.
But then again that's what PC liberals do, the very least, by focusing on the one thing that even most native Americans could care less about then they get to avoid addressing the really big issues of concern for native Americans.
They can again deflect responsibility away from Obama and his administration to "do something" about the much more egregious slights that Washington has made towards native Americans. Because their messiah holds high office, instead of looking to him to alleviate the more serious wrongs, they point their fingers at "racist" Americans.
Lecturing them to do something that changes nothing.
Again we're subjected to liberal/commies self righteousness and demands for symbolism instead of substance.

White Liberal Bob Costas Offended by Redskins

Possibly the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to TV talking heads is "sportscasters". Being lectured to by one of them is roughly equivalent to having a democrat tell someone about the constitution.
Yet here is good old Bob Costas explaining about how painful the Washington Redskins name is to an audience that's made up of at least 50% of viewers who are fans of the team.
While he enjoys a fat paycheck for bobbing his head and moving his lips at half time during said game.
Over an issue that,except for the Washington Post, the majority of people couldn't care less about.
Have the people spoken?

I hate to spring it on this self righteous douche bag but football is entertainment, people watch the game to be entertained not watch some smug has been lecture them on their insensitivity.
Note for NBC, If Costas wants to get his smug on then tell him to write a blog post or letter to the editor, instead of pissing people off by droning on about nothing on your dime.
Also Bob, next time you feel like hanging your hypocrisy out there for the entire world to see just take a sniff of your own smugness and leave the rest of us alone.

Washington Redskins Name Brings on the Leftist Smugness

This has got to be the best article I've read on the whole kerfuffle over the Washington Redskins.

Have the people spoken?

I guess this is where I'm supposed to fall in line and do what every other American sports writer is doing. I'm supposed to swear I won't ever write the words "Washington Redskins" anymore because it's racist and offensive and a slap in the face to all Native Americans who ever lived. Maybe it is.
I just don't quite know how to tell my father-in-law, a Blackfeet Indian. He owns a steak restaurant on the reservation near Browning, Mont. He has a hard time seeing the slap-in-the-face part.
"The whole issue is so silly to me," says Bob Burns, my wife's father and a bundle holder in the Blackfeet tribe. "The name just doesn't bother me much. It's an issue that shouldn't be an issue, not with all the problems we've got in this country."
And I definitely don't know how I'll tell the athletes at Wellpinit (Wash.) High School -- where the student body is 91.2 percent Native American -- that the "Redskins" name they wear proudly across their chests is insulting them. Because they have no idea.
"I've talked to our students, our parents and our community about this and nobody finds any offense at all in it," says Tim Ames, the superintendent of Wellpinit schools. "'Redskins' is not an insult to our kids. 'Wagon burners' is an insult. 'Prairie n-----s' is an insult. Those are very upsetting to our kids. But 'Redskins' is an honorable name we wear with pride. … In fact, I'd like to see somebody come up here and try to change it."
Boy, you try to help some people …~snip~

Read the whole thing then you'll realize that the whole "controversy" is just an artificial construct for a bunch of lily white libtards to beat their chests and show the world how sensitive they are to the plight of "people of color".

Their smugness has to be so self satisfying.