City Council Sues Obama for Plagiarism

Written by Cat Copy Friday, 04 April 2008

Steamboat Springs City Council announced at its last meeting that it plans to sue Senator Barack Obama for plagiarism and copyright infringement. They claim that his campaign slogan, "Change We Can Believe In" was stolen from the council's longstanding official slogan, "Change Because We Can."

"It's not right for him to get away with that," said Councilperson Steve Icantsee. "When we heard he was getting in trouble for copying other people's stuff, we decided right away that we'd get on that bandwagon and see where it takes us. It's kind of how we operate around here."

Steamboat Springs City Council found "uncanny similarities" between the slogan of Barack Obama (left) and their own official decree (right).

When it was noted that the only two words that are the same are "change" and "can," Councilperson Quinnagin Beginnagin defended their lawsuit, noting that those are the two most important words.

"Plus it's really in the spirit of his message, about bringing change and all that crap," noted Beginnagin. "We've been changing things left and right: changing laws, changing positions, changing decisions ... shoot, we change our seats at meetings all of the time."

Councilperson Icantsee also noted that Steamboat Springs itself is all about change.

"Downtown is changing before our eyes. When all those cranes, dump trucks and other assorted eyesores are gone, that area will have changed so much that you'll hardly recognize it," he continued. "And wait until you see what happens with Ski Time Square. The whole thing's getting leveled! Talk about Changetastic!

"Ha! That's a good one," said Icantsee. "I bet Obama tries to steal that one from us, too. Changetastic ... I'm gonna propose that as our new slogan. Maybe make some bumper stickers. That's what this council needs: bumper stickers! I'm on fire today!"

Unfortunately, the council wasn't sure how to go about suing someone for plagiarism. But just as they were about to give up their litigation, Councilperson Scari Helmetheadski found an article on the subject on the Web. She then simply copied that entire article and pasted it into an official City Council document, which each member signed and took original credit for creating.

"You think we can't sue you for plagiarism, Senator?" asked Helmetheadski proudly. "I say 'Yes, we can!'

"You can take that to the bank!" she added. "Just be careful taking it to some banks around here."