Bluestem has been keeping an eye on "Bangkok/Istanbul" Jeff Backer's Minnesota House campaign in HD12A as the West Central Minnesota Republican seeks his party's endorsement to run against freshman Jay McNamar (DFL-Elbow Lake).
Today in Backerstan, the candidate has posted a typographical meme on his Facebook page of Jefferson's stirring prose from the Declaration of Independence (National Archives text here):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
And copyrighted it.
Is it possible to copyright an image of a work in the public domain?
It hardily seems likely that the Jeff Backer for Minnesota State Representative 12A has creatively altered those timeless words--many would argue that they belong to all of humanity--by placing them in a white font on a blue background.
Perhaps Backer was merely seeking to disclose the source of the meme, not to assert property rights to Jefferson's genius.
We'll let the Library of Congress sort this question out.
Meanwhile, in his quest to represent citizens in The Bump, Backer has shared a link about the latest pop cultural amnesia, NBC's Olympic game coverage to Soviet Communism as a "pivotal experiment." It's certainly one of sport television's more worthless moments. But a burning concern for citizens when they pick a representative in St. Paul? Perhaps he might bone up on transportation needs, nursing home payments in areas defined as "deep rural," bonding requests and other policy areas the legislature actually controls.
On the other hand, maybe Backer's Facebook friends in Bangkok and Istanbul genuinely want sports media reviewed in St. Paul. And the question certainly should help keep Bump citizens' minds off the menace of Iranian warships heading up the Red River of the North to its headwaters in the district.
If Bluestem's world headquarters wasn't downstream in the Minnesota River Watershed from HD12A, we'd suggest that there's something in the water.
Photo: Backer so owns the Declaration of Independence. Or maybe not.
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