Dear Free Press,

I just got through reading Harvey Wassermans article, "If Jesus returns, Karl Rove will kill Him." It's brilliant!! It's the truth through in and through out. There must be some way to get this out in the mainstream!!! Harvey hit the nail on the head...and hard!

Sincerely,
James Butler
Lebanon, Me.

I’ve only been at Kent for a short time, but I get excited everyday I arrive. I encourage students to learn and work hard academically. Currently, there are over 200 students attending Kent Elementary School. They have a daily routine, which gives them a sense of security and belonging. It’s been a difficult adjustment for them, since the proposed closure of Kent Elementary School to them. Many of them are saddened and angry about the decision to make them leave their school, so other students can attend Kent. They don’t understand why they should be treated unfairly. I don’t have answers that they can understand, because I don’t understand it myself. Don’t get me wrong, I know about the missing 20.8 Million Dollars that no one is being prosecuted for. I know about Governor Taft’s plan to cut education funding and how the Ohio House and Senate Bills affect the funding for local school districts. The parents and students also know that Governor Taft and his wife adopted Kent Elementary. They want to know where are they now? Governor Taft, your adopted school needs your support.

President Bush just told reporters that he has no intention of setting any timetable for withdrawal. "Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending herself," he said. Powerful pundits keep telling us that a swift pullout of U.S. troops would be irresponsible. And plenty of people have bought into that idea -- including quite a few progressives. Such acceptance is part of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

Sometimes, an unspoken assumption among progressive activists is that the occupation of Iraq must be tolerated for tactical reasons -- while other issues, notably domestic ones, are more winnable on Capitol Hill. But this acceptance means going along with many of the devastating effects of a militarized society: from ravaged budgets for social programs to more authoritarian attitudes and violence in communities across the country.

"The bombs in Vietnam," King said in 1967, "explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America." He rejected the insistent claims that it would be more prudent to avoid clear opposition to

The bewitching hour of midnight is historically viewed as a time of bad luck, and that certainly proved true for David Kibble on June 19, 2004. Because of an unfortunate intersection of unrelated events just after midnight that evening, Kibble was shot and seriously wounded by a Columbus police officer and ended up in prison for a crime the physical evidence and witness statements suggest he didn’t commit.

Kibble’s bad luck went beyond getting shot when he was charged on June 24 with felonious assault of Officer Adam Hicks even though every statement taken by police until then indicated that Kibble was chased by one or two men into the alley in which Hicks him shot him at approximately 12:06 a.m. With gun drawn, Hicks was looking for an armed suspect in a car-jacking who reportedly was wearing a red shirt when Kibble, who also was wearing a red shirt, ran into the alley while pulling a knife out of his pocket in case he had to defend himself from the men chasing him, one of whom he believed had a gun. Doctors said later that two of the bullets went right through Hicks. A third lodged in his upper gastric area and was removed during surgery.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro

Ohio Attorney General James Petro has had a longstanding reputation as a political enforcer for the dirty practices of the Ohio Republican Party. Prior to becoming Attorney General, Petro served as the state’s auditor. In that position, Petro established his credentials as a politician willing to punish whistle-blowers while covering up organized crime and corruption. Petro is now attempting to sanction the election protection attorneys who uncovered the fraud and irregularities during the 2004 Ohio election. Petro’s using state funds and assistant attorney generals as enforcers. Some, like the late Franklin County Sheriff Earl Smith, allege that Petro has longstanding ties to organized crime and that the Attorney General’s office in Ohio has been corrupted for decades. Smith ought to know. He served on the Governor’s Organized Crime Commission under Rhodes.

Bill Barndt