"Is this not the buying of votes any more, but of history?"

Kennedy history for sale - The Boston Globe
Quirky international copyright laws, and an interesting twist by the Kennedy clan.

In the case of literary giants such as James Joyce -- whose grandson is halting even public readings of ``Ulysses," according to his whim -- this is a nightmare. In the case of non-creative personalities who, nevertheless, have had a prominent role in history (good or bad), it produces an educational disgrace. For 70 years after a person's death, every word he or she uttered will be literally owned by his surviving family -- who can then either impose silence on historians, or give access and copyright permission to those who can be counted upon to cast their ancestor in a good light.

Economic Development Futures Journal: Tennessee Rated #1 by Business Facilities

Economic Development Futures Journal: Tennessee Rated #1 by Business Facilities
This is good news for our contingent in Knoxville, and it's sort of what we suspected, judging from the level of play in their business community. There's an excitement in the air down there, and it's invigorating--reminds me of Atlanta in the mid-70s.

strange mating ritual: odd bedfellows

Investors, Including Bono, Buy a Piece of Forbes - New York Times
Odd as it may appear on the surface, this is actually some very exciting stuff.

The Forbes company and Elevation circled each other for several months — Mr. Forbes and Mr. McNamee both described it as a mating ritual — before getting down to serious negotiations in the last several weeks, concluding Friday with the signing of documents. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but some people said that the deal gave Elevation a stake of more than 40 percent at a cost of $250 million to $300 million.

Those people, however, did not have firsthand knowledge of the transaction, and no one directly involved in the deal would confirm those numbers. Even though Forbes has now taken on partners, it continues to be an exceedingly private enterprise.

Proceeds from the sale will be used both to invest in the business and to pay out money to members of the family.

Mr. McNamee called the alliance with Forbes a “brand-defining moment” for Elevation, a relatively new partnership conceived by a rock star and guided by some of the more successful venture capitalists on the West Coast.

“It says that we are in the business of helping content creators in the traditional media world manage the transition imposed by the Internet,” he said. Bono was not directly involved in the Forbes meetings, but Mr. McNamee said that the singer was attracted to the magazine because it “has a point of view,” adding that Bono “drove this part of the discussion and likes the fact that there has been a consistent philosophy throughout its history.”

But it was clear from talking with Mr. McNamee that his group was buying into a Web site with a magazine attached, as opposed to the other way around. Forbes.com had 10 million unique visitors worldwide, a very robust number, in June, according to comScore Media Metrix.

New Registration Rules Stir Voter Debate in Ohio - New York Times

New Registration Rules Stir Voter Debate in Ohio - New York Times: "CLEVELAND — For Tony Minor, the pastor of the Community of Faith Assembly in a run-down section of East Cleveland, Ohio’s new voter registration rules have meant spending two extra hours a day collecting half as many registration cards from new voters as he did in past years.
Republicans say the new rules are needed to prevent fraud, but Democrats say they are making it much harder to register the poor.
In the last year, six states have passed such restrictions, and in three states, including Ohio, civic groups have filed lawsuits, arguing that the rules disproportionately affect poor neighborhoods.
But nowhere have the rules been as fiercely debated as here, partly because they are being administered by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state and the Republican candidate in one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the country, a contest that will be affected by the voter registration rules. Mr. Blackwell did not write the law, but he has been accused of imposing regulations that are more restrictive than was intended."

Once again, Ohio's in the forefront of the controversy over voting and access to the process. There are lots of good links and graphics here in the sidebar.

Hear Chris Ronayne, and learn about Walk and Roll, too

Meet the Bloggers » Meet The Bloggers: Chris Ronayne--The podcast is now posted, but the comments aren't done yet, and there's no way you can see a synopsis of the discussion. There is an event tomorrow, Sunday, that you might want to hear more about, so take a trip over to MTB to hear Chris talk about the August 6th Walk and Roll, being staged by our friend & neighbor Lois Moss, from 11 AM to 5 PM.

Gloria Ferris: number one in many ways

blueohioan: The bloggapalooza Interviews : Gloria Ferris. Gloria's number one in many ways for me and a good number of others she's birthed, raised, or adopted, but she is also the very first to be interviewed on Anthony's blueohioan.

I'm learning to use the Create a Link feature, from Anthony's site to here, but I guess it only works among Blogger accounts. Anyawy, today I notice that he's already up to #17, with Bridgette Ginley.

Ohio Earn and Learn: The Subliminals

Allwords.com Definition of ole: I wonder if the flaks for Ohio Learn and Earn considered the subliminal Spanish cry of "ole" in their OLE acronymn. Usually, the traditional cheer follows close on a bull's getting artfully faked out by some tricked-out guy waving a red cape, which right at the last minute disappears into thin air. There may be a lesson here, muchacho.

"olé

exclamation

1. Especially associated with Spanish dancing and bullfighting, etc: expressing approval, support or encouragement, etc.
2. An expression of triumph.

noun

olés
1. A cry of ‘olé'.

Etymology: 1920s: Spanish, meaning ‘bravo'."

The dog: Man's best friend, arbiter of true value

Dog destroys Elvis' teddy bear at museum - Boston.com: I sympathize and side with the dog. I feel this way a lot of the time, too, but moreso around "Sweet Nothings" and other schmaltzy ceramic lines. Go Barney. Yay. This story featuring "the dog as arbiter of true value" helps put things in perspective.

"LONDON --A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum.
'He just went berserk,' said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.

Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff."

Muggers, Lovers, and Thieves

Debtors' Hell | Part 3 | Behind the badge | Boston Globe/Boston.com
The Standells got it right with Dirty Water, and the GLOBE investigative reporters are continuing to get it right with this third part of the series of four. Today it's about the constabulary's mugging the public.

Mugging the Public II

Official Ohio Learn and Earn Blog » Ohio Learn and Earn Committee Response to Ohio Council of Churches Statements--There's a lot of this "mugging the public" going around these days, this time by Ohio Earn and Learn. I'm glad Gloria and I didn't sign the petition in the first place, because I certainly would not have known the name of the young man who approached me at the West Side Market and told me he was getting $1 for each signature, and he said he did believe in what he was pushing, because now he could go to college. He was in his mid-teens. He had been conned, and he was unwittingly trying to con me.

Just because they have this blogsite listed in their sidebar on Ohio Earn and Learn does not constitute my endorsing their specious arguments--I don't. They never asked permission. They assume too much, in many, many ways, and they need to be taken to task. This is a massive con.

We have to start talking about responsibility and truth in political matters, just the same as we require full and honest disclosure when it comes to things like contracts and finances, and we need to exact penalties on liars and public-relations con men and perhaps even bar them from the business of speaking to the public on matters where the public would put their trust in what is spoken.

The Ohio Earn and Learners are selling their fellow citizens down the river. They need to be regulated. They need to be sanctioned. They need to be held to a minimal standard of truth.