I have a degree in history and what I see happening to America is very distressing. In my opinion, it is too late. I fear the republic is destroyed. The election of 2000 was a bloodless coup; this last one was a cynical and methodical rip-off of those foolish enough (myself included) to hope we could regain our nation through the use of a ballot box. Diebold resolved that to corporate satisfaction.

The mindless puppet who has catapulted us into WW III has free reign to continue the madness for another four years. I predict Iran is the next target. In the meantime our young people will die, the national debt will continue to climb and our way of life is being destroyed forever. We now have a one party system; the checks and balances are gone.

At this point, I am looking to emigrate to Canada.

I appreciate what you are doing more than I can express in words. I HOPE the requests for Ohio recounts will make a difference, but I feel they will not. The courts will push them around for years.

Regards,
Marilyn Gjerdrum

So what’s so wrong about saying you’re sorry?

Apparently, quite a lot, if the response to a popular new web site called Sorry Everybody (sorryeverybody.com) is any indication. Created to let those who are dismayed by the re-election of George W. Bush let the world know how they feel, the site features page after page of photos of voters, presumably liberals, progressives and Democrats, holding handmade signs apologizing to the rest of the world for their inability to vote their nemesis out of office.

The United States is bringing "democracy" to Iraq on the same terms that Russia imposed its federal mandate on Chechnya, a region that has Iraq's future written in its rubble. The advocates of intervention in Iraq and the epigones of Paul Wolfowitz should take a walk through Grozny and measure against its ruins the fate of their proclaimed ambition to bring democracy to Fallujah and other cities in Iraq.

In the waning weeks of the U.S. election campaign, the antiwar movement here in the United States was largely corralled into the Kerry campaign and strangled by the bizarre contradiction of supporting a candidate whose "peace plank" was continuing war. Will it now turn out that for many Kerry supporters their interest in the U.S. war on Iraq was in fact mostly its utility as a rationale for attacking Bush? Now that the race is over, will they forget the war along with Kerry's disastrous campaign?

Ohio attorney and prisoner-rights activist Alice Lynd was held in contempt of court and sentenced to jail on November 19 until she agrees to testify before a grand jury about an inmate's purported confession to her that he killed an inmate during the bloody Lucasville prison riot in 1993.

 Lynd was released two hours later pending a decision by the Fourth Appellate Court on the issue.

In an emotional hearing before Scioto County Common Pleas Judge William T. Marshall in Portsmouth, Ohio, Lynd, 74, refused to testify about what an inmate she referred to only as "Mr. X" told her about the murder because it would violate attorney-client privilege.

Prosecutors argued that Lynd was not the inmate's attorney and that attorney-client privilege did not apply. Judge Marshall agreed, and sentenced Lynd to jail. He offered to stay the sentence while Lynd's attorney sought a stay from the appeals court if she agreed to testify if the appeals court upheld his ruling. Lynd said she could not, in good conscience, testify about what "Mr. X" told her without his permission under any circumstances.

A nationwide strike of 46,000 flight attendants has been authorized by the board of the Association of Flight Attendants. They are resisting airline employers making workers labor for longer hours at lower wages, and threatening to get rid of their pensions. A strike vote will be taken at four airlines——UAL Corp.'s United, US Airways Group Inc., ATA Holdings Inc.'s ATA Airlines and Hawaiian Holdings Inc.'s Hawaiian Airlines—with the votes set to be counted by the end of December.

Many U.S. air carriers are in financial distress and squeezing their work forces in an effort to return to profitability. The judicial branch of the state is a key player. For example, US Airways is trying to use federal bankruptcy court to void collective bargaining agreements for current and retired employees over hourly pay, pension plans and health care coverage.

Several factors are driving insolvency for US Airways. One is the rising price of jet fuel. This has increased the cost of energy for the carrier and the airline industry as a whole.