The ballots and computerized voting records from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio constitute one of the most important historical artifacts in our nation's history. They must be preserved as part of the essence of our democratic rights and traditions, and in the patriotic interest of future generations of citizens, teachers, students and scholars. The fact that the state of Florida has preserved its presidential voting records from the election of 2000 adds important weight to the demand that Ohio do the same for 2004.

Since 1848, only five presidential elections have been close enough to have turned on the Electoral College votes of a single state. (In the presidential election of 1960, the true tally of the voting in Illinois has been widely questioned, but that state’s electoral votes were ultimately not decisive in the final outcome).

The presidential elections of 1916 and 1976 were close enough to have been turned by the electoral votes of a single state, but there were no serious challenges to the vote counts of any such state raised in those years.

September began with 140,000 American troops in Iraq -- 13,000 more than in late July.

Almost 30 months have passed since Time magazine’s mid-April 2004 cover story, “No Easy Options,” reported that “foreign policy luminaries from both parties say a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would cripple American credibility, doom reform in the Arab world and turn Iraq into a playground for terrorists and the armies of neighboring states like Iran and Syria.”

Back then, according to the USA’s largest-circulation newsmagazine, “the most” that the president could hope for was that “some kind of elected Iraqi government will eventually emerge from the wreckage, at which point the U.S. could conceivably reduce the number of its troops significantly. But getting there requires a commitment of at least several more months of American blood and treasure.”

As I noted in my book War Made Easy, which came off the press nearly 18 months ago, “Hedge words were plentiful: ‘the most’ that could be hoped for was that ‘some kind’ of elected Iraqi government would ‘eventually emerge,’ at which time the United States ‘could conceivably’

Hello there.

I am requesting that you do an in depth story on William Peirce. Is it just me? Or is the mainstream media mind manipulation machine up to it's old tricks again? Never a mention of the one REAL candidate we have on the ticket for Governor this year. All we ever hear is Strickland this, Blackwell that. Blah-blah-blah! They have held many "staged events" (my words), though they like to refer to these events as "debates" for the people of Ohio. If they were REAL DEBATES, they would include ALL candidates. Mind you, I do not agree witth everything the Libertarian party is all about. But when it comes to the Republicrats and that other party I like to refer to as the Demopublicans, I have to look for another choice. Anywhere! Because the (er-hem) two main parties have become one, and are instrumental in selling our country to the highest bidder, and slowly pushing the USA into the New World Order One World Government system. Where in the end we will all end up being microchipped and counted as nothing more than the slaves to the system that we have allowed ourselves to become. I could go on and on here.

On Tuesday, September 5th, at least three things will change.  Congress will finish vacationing and return to its long and difficult task of destroying the world; many of us will welcome our Congress Members back to Washington with a giant protest camp called Camp Democracy; and Network News will officially go Cable with Katie Couric playing the role of Edward R. Murrow.

That's right, Katie will be "anchor" and "managing editor" of CBS Evening "News".  And she's already hard at work.  "It's very exciting," she says, "because you're benefiting from all the terrific people and systems already in place, yet hopefully creating something different and fresh.  Whether you're talking about the music and saying 'Can the trumpets be a little brighter?' or figuring out the sets and the graphics, it's a lot of fun."