You may have noticed that when you go to www.freepress.org, you now have the choice of going to two different “Free Press” websites. One, of course, is us. The other is a national organization that calls itself “The Free Press” and is a “nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.” They are currently fighting the FCC media monopoly decisions and they were the group that held the big Media Reform conference November 7-9 in Madison, Wisconsin. They made a deal with our Columbus Free Press to share the homepage of our website for a monthly fee, because more people were finding us than them.

The Secretary of State's Office has rejected the Libertarian Party of Ohio's petition to get candidates on the ballot for the 2004 election, although over 57,000 signatures were turned in and the Party spent $50,000. People all over the state circulated petitions and people all over the state signed petitions saying they want the Libertarian Party on the ballot in Ohio.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell arbitrarily ruled the pettions invalid due to a petition language technicality.

Libertarian, Green, Reform, Natural Law, etc.  parties deserve the same right to run for office and vote for their candidates as Republicans and Democrats have. But apparently Blackwell doesn't think so. The 57,000 who signed our petitions have no voice, according to him.

And the plot thickens...in a recent article in the Columbus Dispatch columnist Steve Stephens called Blackwell, "The politician who might benefit the most from no Libertarians on the ballot." Regardless of Blackwell's motives, Ohio is the only state in the top nine (with 15 or more electoral votes) that has NO third parties on the ballot.

House bill 272 has passed in the house and the Senate will be taking action on the companion bill, SB62 in the near future. Passage of this bill by the Ohio house brought Ohio one-step closer to being the most intolerant state in the union. This is the “Denial of Benefits Act” that some call the “Defense of Marriage act.”

House bill 272 has passed in the house and the Senate will be taking action on the companion bill, SB62 in the near future. Passage of this bill by the Ohio house brought Ohio one-step closer to being the most intolerant state in the union. This is the “Denial of Benefits Act” that some call the “Defense of Marriage act.” The claim by the sponsor and supporters of HB 272 that this bill defends marriage is as ludicrous as it is insulting to all Ohioans. The real goals behind this legislation are to deny benefits to Ohio citizens who the supporters find amoral and to add another weapon to the arsenal of groups who have a long history of using the courts to harass gay and lesbian families. Here’s the real story on the effects of this draconian bill:

The ACLU has denounced a classified FBI Intelligence memo, obtained by the New York Times, which gives police detailed instructions on how to target and monitor lawful political demonstrations under the rubric of fighting terrorism. The ability to speak freely and peacefully protest governmental policies is a cherished right, as enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Peaceful protesters should not be treated as potential terrorists nor spied upon by federal government agents. According to the New York Times, the memo was circulated to local law enforcement agencies around the country, detailing protest activities such as rehearsing for demonstrations, using the Internet for raising money and purchasing gas masks. The ACLU has already seen proof that peaceful activities have been monitored. Documents from the Colorado “Spy Files” include information collected about peaceful protests and protesters.

Write, call and email John Ashcroft and tell him you want him to support the First Amendment!

U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001

AUSTIN, Texas -- Good grief, the tree's not down yet, the bills aren't due and the diet doesn't start until the bowl games are over, so what's with the unseemly haste? Not even time to take a deep breath here in 2004, and already we're like the white rabbit -- behind, breathless and late.

            Not that I suspect this administration of managing the news -- horrors, no -- but a number of unusual objects were dropped into the holiday punch bowl whilst the rest of us were still caroling and wassailing, including quite a few bad nooz items for the Bush team.

            One interesting piece of information that got completely lost earlier in the capture of Saddam Hussein was the resignation of David Cay, the guy in charge of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The search for WMD in Iraq has effectively ended. (Liz Carpenter said, "I must have seen 20,000 shots of them looking through Saddam's hair and into his mouth -- they're not gonna find the WMD in there.")