I am one of the livebloggers representing Meet The Bloggers at Channel 3 Studios in Cleveland, not too far from the Democratic primary debate.  I am liveblogging the debate via my Blogger blog, subset of derek and via twitter.

One thing that Chuck D addressed while in Akron a couple of days ago is the absence of historical context when it comes to talking about hip-hop.  The monicker to describe what is now known as hip-hop was born in 1976 but the spirit that allowed all of its element to come together as an American art form (as American, if not more so, than jazz, the blues or Appalachian folk music) comes from the whole of the experience of Africans and African-Americans.  

I was reading a series on the working poor from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (you know, Cleveland had two newspapers once--Seattle has the Times and the P-I--but I digress) and I thought of a way to (1) jumpstart Ohio's economy and (2) bring bright, motivated people to Ohio. 

How about this:

Philadelphia has chosen a provider for their municipal wireless network and the winner is...Atlanta-based Earthlink over HP.Click here to read the story .

Who are the gatekeepers in Northeast Ohio? I was reading what Jon Garfunkel (a fellow Drupal user) has written on his site, civilites.net. He has a series of 8 articles and the first asks, Who are the Gatekeepers?.

There is an article ( http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/050630/b0630102.html ) from the CBC ( http://www.cbc.ca ) that talks about a new Toyota plant opening in Ontario. The combination of a well-trained and educated workforce, a comprehensive national healtcare plan (which saves employers money) and proximity to other employees led to choosing the Canadian facility over possible American options

One of the most telling statements is this one, made by Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association:

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States,"

French sociologist Gustave Le Bon once said, "The masses live by,
and are ruled by, subconscious and emotional thought process. The crowd
has never thirsted for the truth. It turns aside from evidence that is