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The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."

He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior." (CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)


Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).

"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008



Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:

A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)

"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)


Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush


who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"

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Curious George publisher threatens legal action over 'Obama in 08' T-shirt

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed May 14, 2008 at 19:00:00 PM EDT


Ha ha ha ha. The low-life bar owner who was selling the shirt at left, Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman, of Mulligan's Bar and Grill, has gotten a little shot across the bow from Houghton-Mifflin:
Rick Blake, a spokesman for publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which owns Curious George, said Wednesday that the company didn't authorize the use of the character's image, but hasn't been in touch with anybody selling or manufacturing the shirts.

"We find it offensive and obviously utterly out of keeping with the value Curious George represents," Blake said. "We're monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to legal action."

...Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.

"We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George."

....Norman said he fielded calls throughout Tuesday about his T-shirts. An ajc.com story about the controversy was picked up on the Drudge Report. "One guy in New Jersey wanted me to send him 100 shirts," said Norman, 63.

Hat tip, Jeremy from Cobb.

Video below the fold.

Pam Spaulding :: Curious George publisher threatens legal action over 'Obama in 08' T-shirt

Related:
* More fun in post-racial America

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...nope and it was on CNN this morning.

Here is link to video... found it on their front page earlier, it has since been bumped down.. but I'll bet many saw it.

 

LINK to VIDEO
www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/05/14/bojorquez.obama.tshirt.controversy.wsb



It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.


[ Parent ]
....sorry all.
I didn't realize that was THE VIDEO.  I don't do videos, so ignored fuzzy screen.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.


[ Parent ]
...oops caught again.
Can I qualify.... I don't do videos, unless they are cute guys saying what I want them to say... eg Edwards.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.


[ Parent ]
/chuckle
This is one copyright case that may do some extra good.

"More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read." -- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

My guess is they'll go for trademark infringement
Actually, they'll probably go for both.

But with trademark they already have the use of the mark for clothing. If they don't defend the mark from unlicensed uses they can lose the use of the mark in commerce.

Plus, the dilution and tarnishment laws have been strengthened over the past few years. This is a strong case for tarnishment (adding a negative association) to the mark as well as dilution (lessening the commercial value).

That's probably why the person with the t-shirts is saying he's donating proceeds to charity (I saw a video earlier). So that the use isn't "in commerce."

In copyright, the best (probably only) argument that the person can use is to say it's a fair use as he's using the image as a parody. That probably won't fly as the object of the parody is Obama and not Curious George, so there's no reason that the image of George has to be used.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.


[ Parent ]
Actually this isn't fair use
Fair use only applies in educational environments.

[ Parent ]
Fair Use...
...is not only for education. Take a look at 17 USC 107.

Fair use gets into the purpose of copyright as an incentive to get individuals to create things and make them available to others. Part of that availability becomes allowing a certain amount of use to others to meet certain goals. At present fair use is based on some rather amorphous standards that come from a court case in the 19th century. Generally when these factors are evaluated, a use can be considered fair if it has a transformative nature. Some of the major ways that fair use has been employed, for example, is in being able to copy video tapes at home ("time shifting" -- Sony v. Universal Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984)) or song parodies (Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, 510 U.S. 569 (1994)).  


[ Parent ]
hmm
Is there a place where we can send a friendly email?  

oooh, I just happen to come up with the same idea as a racist, oops.
"you know what else he sorta resembles, this guy I saw on the discovery channel, chucking spears."

This is the same as those people who defend "that's so gay" by saying, "oh, I didn't mean anything against gay people."  

"I'm just saying that Obama, a black man, looks a lot like a cartoon monkey.  What, is that offensive?  You guys are as bad as Pedro.  He's always getting hit in the back with water from the faucet out back, so I started calling him 'wetback' and he got all offended.  Or like my friend, Epstein, he has so much trouble staying focused, so one day I said he should go to one of them daycamps, only for concentrating.  Like a 'concentration camp' or something...what?  What'd I say?"

lord help us.


Embarrassment to Georgia
I still can't get over the morons here that don't think the shirt is racist. I can't believe I have to explain this to other white people why this is wrong. Thanks for the h/t too, Pam!

A television station in Augusta, GA is running an online poll...
... to decide whether or not the t-shirt is racist - as if there could be any doubt!
http://www.wjbf.com/midatlanti...


If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

[ Parent ]
Good for Houghton MIfflin
As a working writer, I'm happy to see intellectual property rights defended.  But I am even more happy to see one of these clowns get slapped down legally.  The idea that being a right-wing Christian nutcase entitles you to say or do anything you want to has been carried miles too far in America.  Conservatives are fond of telling us "this is a nation of laws, not of men."  It's high time they discover that applies to them, too.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary


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