| Today kicks off Book Blogger Appreciation Week but this is likely the only post I’ll do on it. And it is devoted to a few excellent blogs I discovered while narrowing down the longlist in two categories and judging the shortlist in another. There won’t be much more than that because I confirmed I’m too [...] With the first round of voting complete and, hence, the first of my actual participation in Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I was left with several initial impressions. I thought I would offer up a few of them, even if that may not be wisest thing to do knowing there is more voting to be done [...] It was just under a year ago that I first became aware of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. It sounded intriguing but, because I was unfamiliar with it, I basically just observed. As I did, there were aspects of it I didn’t have the time or inclination to do — and some actually seemed a bit [...] Last December 1, blogs were explicitly brought within the scope of updated Federal Trade Commission guidelines on rules governing the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The FTC last month quietly posted on its web site the “closing letter” of its first investigation involving blogs under the rules. The FTC investigated whether the Ann [...] As I indicated Friday, I saw too many years of the legislative sausage-making process to really want to weigh in on the so-called “blogger bills” in the state House, particularly at this early stage. But the blogospheric lines seem so sharply drawn (with attendant personality conflicts) when it seems somewhat unnecessary. There’s no sense arguing [...] One of the problems with the interweb is often you at times see the ultimate layout only after the fact, especially if another site or server is populating the page with ads. At least that’s what I’m attributing this bit of ad placement to in a Slate blog post aboutHarper’s Magazine: Adding some irony [...] Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to the Senate floor a version of the Free Flow of Information Act that appears to include bloggers. Briefly stated, a shield law protects journalists from having to disclose sources to prosecutors unless certain requirements are met. One of the battles to date is who would be protected [...] In the scheme of life, the universe and everything, it’s no big deal. But it does kind of piss me off so you’ll have to forgive this rant as I vent a bit. When I post a bunch of links in Weekend Edition or Friday Follies, I use “Via” to link to whomever led me [...] I’m one of those who always rants about how early Christmas stuff shows up each year. So it may be somewhat hypocritical for me to join a new book blogger effort called Buy Books for the Holidays. But I think there’s excellent reasons for doing so. First, it’s something I’ve been doing for many years. [...] You may recall I posted last month about how a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee amendment to legislation creating a federal “reporters privilege” appeared to require that a person work for the mainstream media, thereby excluding most bloggers. Now it appears the committee will do a near complete reversal. Sens. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Arlen Specter [...] | DisclaimerThe views expressed here are mine and mine alone. I do not speak for my law partners, our associates, staff and clients or my family and friends. Not only should any opinions here not be attributed to them, chances are they probably don't agree with me.  Contact meYou can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom. |