Peace Is Not Anti-American

This is a picture of President Obama's lovely daughter Malia. She happens to be wearing a T-shirt with a peace sign on it. But it has gotten the right-wing in an uproar. One of them even said it was proof of Obama's radical agenda. Personally, I think it's just a T-shirt. But even if it means more, when did the idea of peace become a radical concept? Isn't this what decent people all over the world are striving for?

Abusing The President's Children

It certainly didn't take long for a capitalist to take advantage of our new president's family to make some money. The Ty Company, makers of the Beanie Babies dolls, has come out with two additions to its Ty Girlz line of dolls. Coincidentally, the two new dolls (pictured above) are the first African-American dolls in the line, and they just happen to be named "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha".

Of course, the company denies that the president's children are the inspiration for the dolls. They say they don't name their dolls for "any particular living individual", because that might inhibit the imagination of the girls who buy or receive the dolls. What a fantastically large load of crap that is!

Anyone with even half a functioning brain can easily see where the inspiration for the dolls came from -- the president's children. I am amazed that the company has the audacity to deny that!

Now, I wouldn't complain if the company had made a Barack Obama doll. He intentionally made himself a public figure when he ran for office, especially on a national scale. But Sasha and Malia had no choice in the matter, and they deserve to have as private a life as possible -- without being taken advantage of for some company's profit.

If this company wanted to put out dolls based on the first family children, they should have first asked Barack and Michelle Obama. Then, if they got the OK, they should pay those children handsomely for using their names and/or likenesses. If they didn't get an OK, they should not make the dolls.

The Obamas are probably too nice to do it, but if this was done to my daughters, I'd find the greediest lawyer I could find and sue the hell out of them. The company deserves it.

A spokesperson for Michelle Obama said, “We feel it is inappropriate to use your private citizens for marketing purposes." I totally agree.