Obama breaking the law with new logo? (Updated)

June 20, 2008

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Barack Obama has been using a new "presidential seal" logo lately:

Maybe you like it, maybe you don't. It doesn't do much for me. But the folks over at the Change & Experience Blog have pointed out that it's illegal:

§ 713. Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United States, the seals of the President and Vice President, the seal of the United States Senate, the seal of the United States House of Representatives, and the seal of the United States Congress

(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Posts on the accompanying message board thread are vehement that he should be jailed for this blatant illegality, ranging from gleeful:

In a heartbeat! I would love to see this. How can we make it happen?

...to the savagely bitter:

At this point, I don't think much is going to get him into trouble. Obama could run over a bunch of people with a bus a few times and not get arrested.

He already has.

I'm just glad that someone has called attention to thi-- wait a tick, what's this? Is that the logo of the Change & Experience blog?

Well, clearly whoever runs that blog should be jailed as well.

Sigh.

Update: apparently they noticed the cognitive dissonance and changed the logo. Here's a screenshot of the blog post, and here's a screenshot of the message board thread, both showing the original Change & Experience logo. I guess this is what Hillary Clinton supporters mean by "change" - if reality doesn't suit you, change it.

Update 2: I registered for an account on that message board, and it was finally approved by the mods. Here's what I posted, for as long as it lasts anyway.

Update 3: Well, that was quick. I checked back in that message thread a few minutes later, and got a message saying my password had expired. So I tried to log in again, and got this message:

You have been banned for the following reason:
No reason was specified.

Date the ban will be lifted: Never

So I deleted the cookie to get rid of the login, and went back again, and got another message:

Sorry. The administrator has banned your IP address. To contact the administrator click here

DOH. Well, here's what I posted, just in case they deleted it:

@ChangeAndExperience:

Wow, amazing... I can't believe you have the stones to accuse Barack Obama of illegally using the presidential seal when you used it yourself, and then accuse Obama of dishonesty after posting this blog post/discussion thread, and then changing your blog's logo and your forum .sig graphic an hour later to cover up your own use of the seal. I also can't believe that the users of this forum haven't caught on to that cognitive dissonance. Have people been posting about it, but having their posts deleted?

Screenshots:

Blog posting at changeandexperience.com:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4...ncescretf3.jpg

.sig image in this forum post:
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/389...ncescregl8.jpg

I suppose, just to top off the Orwellian nature of this incident, that you'll accuse me of faking the screenshots, if anybody even manages to respond to this post at all before moderators delete it. (I'll get a screenshot of this post after I hit "submit", just in case.)

This is what "change and experience" means to you - if reality is a bad experience, you just change it.

Comments

Posted by Valacosa :: :: :: Jun 21, 2008 10:50am
I love it when people are called on their bullshit. You can tell a lot about a person (or a group of people) by how they react.

I miss your posts. Comrade Otto Yamamoto isn't the same.
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Posted by Valacosa :: :: :: Jun 21, 2008 05:24pm
You have been banned for the following reason:
You post unpleasant things which happen to be true.
This is how I look at it, anyway.
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Posted by ledrag :: :: :: Jun 21, 2008 06:25pm
Hey, I think the image on Hillary page is the Seal of United States of America as seen on the back of the one dollar bill. The one Obama is using is certainly meant to mimic the Presidential Seal, but the other? Meh, buncha pussies should have kept it.

Anyway, it's fun watching the Hillary/Barak supporter mudfest even if it is just a tempest in teh teapot.

also, I'd like to echo Valacosa's comments on Comrade Yakamoto.
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Posted by Sir Craig :: :: :: Jun 22, 2008 03:52pm
This is a scream: They have banned you AND your IP address, deleted your comment, and yet, right there on the front page at the bottom of the article it says this:

Special Thank You: Ryland Sanders of Austin, Texas.
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Posted by Ryland :: :: :: Jun 22, 2008 05:02pm
Holy crap, that's awesome. I hope people wonder what they're thanking me for enough to Google it. If you search for "Ryland Sanders of Austin, Texas", the first hit that comes up is my bio page... which I've just updated to link to this story.
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Posted by Revolution :: :: :: Jun 23, 2008 05:53pm
I actually went through and read the comments that Hillary's supports were making about this. Wow. I mean, REALLY? It's incredible how angry they are. I was actually getting angry about some of the things that they were saying...until I remembered...THEIR HORSE LOST! Lawl
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Posted by SDA in SEA :: :: :: Jun 26, 2008 12:49pm
Oh, please. Obama's logo is kinda, sorta, vaguely similar to the presidential seal. It's also kinda similar to the Starbucks logo. It's also kinda similar to half of the stuff you can make with your "Official Seal Generator". The claim that his logo violates the law is preposterous on its face.

But if you really want to get all offended, take a look at the logo for the Republican Presidential Task Force, the logo for the Republican Presidential Roundtable, etc.: (link)
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