Ty Inc. -- the company that brought us Beanie Babies --is on to the next big thing. Namely, exploiting the two first daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama. The worst part is that the toy outfit refuses to cop to the fact that they plan to profit from the names and likenesses of the Obama girls.

The new 12-inch-tall dolls are named "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia," and according to the Associated Press:

The Oak Brook-based company chose the names because "they are beautiful names," not because of any resemblance to Malia and Sasha Obama, said spokeswoman Tania Lundeen.

"There's nothing on the dolls that refers to the Obama girls," Lundeen said. "It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls. They are not."

Right. And that Garfield 'I don't do perky" Beanie Baby just happened to look like a fat, sullen cartoon cat but was in no way meant to be that Garfield. President Obama's camp has said that it is "inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes." The Ty Girlz are already selling for $29.99 for two on sites like www.barrysbeaniescatalog.com. And they are already selling on ebay.com, natch.

-- Monica Corcoran

What do you think? Should the company be allowed to rip off the Obama girls' images for profit? And will Sasha and Malia be able to stay normal?



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