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Bristol Palin thinks it’s laughable that President Barack Obama’s children influenced his decision to support same-sex marriage. “While it’s great to listen to your kids’ ideas, there’s also a time when dads simply need to be dads,” Bristol, the eldest daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, wrote in a blog post titled “Hail to the Chiefs – Malia and Sasha Obama” on Thursday. Obama said on Wednesday that his daughers' acceptance of friends with same-sex parents helped prompt his "change in perspective." In response, Palin writes: In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia...

Received a takedown request from the copyright/trademark holder. Please do not post the Maxine character to FR. Even as parodies. They respect our rights to free speech, but do not appreciate Maxine voicing our opinions. If you spot a post of Maxine (examples: google/search/images/maxine ), please alert the moderators via abuse report so we can remove it. Thanks, Jim

*snip* The PAC also paid $4,500 to reserve space at Channelside Bay Mall in Tampa, Fla., near the site of the Republican National Convention, suggesting that Palin plans to have an independent presence at the event separate from the formal proceedings.

The successful trademark registration of “Nordic Model” by Sweden’s Social Democrats has prompted a sharp reaction from the rest of the Nordic region's political establishment. The move has led other political bodies to protest the Social Democrats' move, which has put the question of who created the Nordic Model into ever sharper focus. "We may have understood if they had (trademarked) the 'Swedish Model', but when it comes to the 'Nordic Model' we have no choice but to protest," Jens-Erik Enestam, who heads the Nordic Council representing opposition parties from across the region, said in a statement Tuesday. Sweden's opposition...

BEIJING — Chinese officials face a choice in Apple’s dispute with a local company over the iPad trademark — side with a struggling entity that a court says owns the name or with a global brand that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in China. Experts say that means Beijing’s political priorities rather than the courts will settle the dispute if it escalates. Shenzhen Proview Technology has asked regulators to seize iPads in China in a possible prelude to pressing Apple Inc. for a payout. There have been seizures in some cities but no sign of action by national-level...

Barring any last-second "resonsider movement" to convince Sarah Palin to run for POTUS 2012 (slim to none), why is Organize for Palin (O4P) taking monetary donations? If Sarah isn't running for elective office, why have O4P? Even if she accepted a VP slot for 2012, O4P would most likely pull up states and merge with the Presidential campaign....but even then, why should O4P take money donations? Where is this donated money going to???? Are they helping the Palin "earthquake/reconsider" movement? Even then, what comes after when shen mostly likely says "no" whatsoever to 2012? As a fomer donater...where is the...

Palin: We will not solve our economic problems in this country until we confront the crony capitalism of our permanent political class. This is socialism for the very rich and the very poor but it is a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It’s the collusion of big government, big business. It’s at the heart of President Obama’s economic vision. We need sudden and relentless reform. That will return power to we the people. We need people with a proven record of reform. I served in public office in a state that had a corruption problem. I...

By Tuesday evening, then, I was half-convinced that Palin was stealthily moving toward an announcement. Then on Friday, she released a two-minute online video about her Iowa trip that everyone -- even the wizards who had previously been certain she wasn't running -- agreed looked like an honest-to-goodness campaign ad. The signals seemed clear enough that Karl Rove​ (who is clearly no Palin fanboy) declared she now "looks like a candidate, not a celebrity" and expressed his belief that Palin will get into the race. But if a certified Beltway elitist like Rove is now convinced she's running, wouldn't Palin...

I listen ad nauseam to posters, some who are pro-Palin and some who are anti-Palin, discourse about Sarah Palin's entry (or non-entry) into the 2012 Presidential sweepstakes, generally advising her to "Hurry up!". Those afflicted with PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) gleefully proclaim that she is not running. Of course, not only is there no evidence for this proposition, her actions in the last six months, as well as many of her statements, would lead any rational observer to believe that she will run. But leaving aside the PDSers (who are in any case engaging in wishful thinking because they do...

Sarah Palin and her One Nation bus tour are making a surprise trip to Iowa, if you haven’t heard. In an email sent yesterday to supporters of her political action committee she said she’s going to “meet folks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this week.”(snip) Sarah Palin has proved that she is the quasi-political attention-getting master of the US media universe. That’s because there just happens to be a debate in Ames, Iowa tonight among declared GOP presidential contenders. A straw poll follows this weekend. So hundreds of political reporters are already in Iowa – pre-positioned for...

After a nearly three-month hiatus, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is planning to crash the presidential party once again with a heartland-themed re-launch of her "One Nation" bus tour this week in Iowa, according to a Palin fundraising email obtained by CNN. Palin is bringing her Constitution-themed bus to the Iowa State Fair, just 30 miles south of where the Republican presidential field will take the stage on Thursday for a presidential debate in Ames. It's not yet clear which day the tour will begin, but her surprise arrival in Iowa will happen before the closely watched Ames straw poll....

Politics doesn't always make for gripping TV (we're looking at you, C-SPAN). But that hasn't stopped reality shows from trying -- sort of. Here, a roundup of shows inspired by politics that seem to be anything but political.

Former Alaska Governor and likely presidential candidate Sarah Palin​ came in second and third in national surveys conducted recently by The Washington Post/ABC and Gallup, respectively. But what if her potential impact in an election could be measured by more unconventional methods--such as merchandise sales and movie tickets sold? If the demand for Palin-themed merchandise on CafePress.com and a documentary, titled “The Undefeated, about her are any indication, it may be more accurate to measure how potential voters spend their money, especially in a struggling economy, than how they answer a pollster’s questions. “The GOP candidate pick revealed by the...

As celebrity glamour shots go, Sarah Palin’s cover photo on this week’s Newsweek is danged good! The best-selling author and reality-TV star looks young and vibrant. Her devil-may-care countenance aided and abetted by the wind conspicuously blowing hair back. And while her outfit might be laid back, there’s no doubt she’s in total control. But when Palin’s cover shot is viewed through the prism of presidential politics, it’s a dud. Folks want to be able to envision someone sitting in the Oval Office. They don’t necessarily want to envision them in the pages of Esquire magazine’s “Sexiest Woman Alive 2011”...

In this week's Newsweek, Sarah Palin tells Peter J. Boyer why she thinks she can win in 2012. See more images from her cover shoot with photographer Emily Shur.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has issued a stern warning to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as Boehner sits down with President Obama Sunday night to negotiate a raising of the debt ceiling: don't do it. Palin, in an interview appearing in Newsweek, “made it clear that she’s against any deal that raises the debt ceiling and would hold House Speaker John Boehner’s feet to the fire if he agreed to one” according to the magazine. “No, we have to cut spending. It is imperative, and I will be very, very disappointed if Boehner and the leaders of the Republican...

Sarah Palin will soon be making people pay for trying to cash in on her name. The former Republican vice presidential candidate applied to get her name trademarked last year along with her daughter, Bristol. And over the past few days, the deadlines passed for anyone filing challenges against the trademarks. According to the ex-Alaska governor's application, she wants to protect her name for business and advertising purposes, political elections, entertainment services and for 'providing motivational speaking services in the field of politics.' Bristol, 20, who famously had a baby out of wedlock and appeared on 'Dancing With the Stars',...

The bids by Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol Palin to trademark their names and images have cleared a major hurdle and should soon be approved for the potential presidential candidate and her Dancing With the Stars child. Sources close to the process tell our Suzi Parker that nobody challenged Sarah Palin's trademark application. Today is the deadline to do so. They also say that Bristol Palin's went unchallenged. That deadline passed June 10. Each should receive their trademark within three months, said the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The clear sailing for both Palins is something of a...

In 2005, actor Morgan Freeman won the rights to use the domain name www.morganfreeman.com, which was being illegally used by the company Mighty LLC. Freeman applied for a trademark from the US Patent and Trademark Office when he found out that Mighty LLC was using his domain name "in bad faith to divert Internet traffic to a commercial search engine." Ultimately, the arbitrators for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the intellectual property arm of the United Nations, agreed with Freeman and determined that Freeman's illustrious career made his name sufficiently recognizable in the entertainment and movie spheres. In the...

A New York publisher is suing Apple for trademark infringement over the use of the term "iBooks." Publisher John T. Colby filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports. Colby is founder and publisher of Brick Tower Press and J. Boylston & Company, Publishers. Colby purchased assets related to the "ibooks" mark in 2006 and 2007 from New York publisher Byron Preiss, who had published over 1,000 physical books under the name. The "ibooks" imprint was named "America's fastest growing small publisher" by Publishers Weekly in 2004, according to the company's website. According to the...