But there is one clear way that Ohio's election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a candidate for governor. Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.

Ken "Mr." Blackwell is the Ohio Secretary of State who disenchfranchise tens of thousands of voters in 2004, a fraud that helped Bush "win" re-election. Now a candidate for governor, he's imposing rules on people collecting voter registrations that will criminalize much of their activities -- and disenchfranchise tens of thousands of voters.

Now that it's time to take down the decorations and recycle the tree, I'd like to start a running list of New Year's Resolutions for our community. I'll get it started, and hope that some of you will jump in. Let's be resolute together!
1. I resolve to be more intransigent--no more moving to right to appease the mythical middle! We may live in a liberal bubble here in Corvallis, but our values are closer to what most Americans hold dear. Let's stand up to unconstitutional activities, to stealing from the middle class to line the pockets of the super rich.

Here is an excerpt from remarks given recently by Bill Moyers, formerly of PBS Now, on the unprecented secrecy of the Bush White House:

It has to be said: there has been nothing in our time like the Bush Administration's obsession with secrecy.

This may seem self-serving coming from someone who worked for two previous presidents who were no paragons of openness. But I am only one of legions who have reached this conclusion. See the recent pair of articles by the independent journalist, Michael Massing, in The New York Review of Books. He concludes, "The Bush Administration has restricted access to public documents as no other before it." And he backs this up with evidence.