COLUMBUS -- As Republican officials stonewall and subvert the recount process, Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud fiasco "the biggest deal since Selma" and has called for a national rally at "the scene of the crime" in Columbus January 3.

Another major national demonstration will follow in Washington on January 6, as Congress evaluates the Electoral College. Should at least one US Representative and one Senator challenge the electors' votes, a Constitutional crisis could ensue.

Meanwhile, volunteer attorneys have poured into Columbus from around the US to help investigate the bitterly contested presidential vote that has allegedly given George W. Bush Ohio's electoral votes and thus a second term. A lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court charges that a fair vote count would give the state and the presidency to John Kerry rather than Bush.

On December 21, notice of depositions were sent to President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to appear and give testimony regarding the legal challenge of Ohio's elections results in the case Moss v Bush et al.

"Which is more revolting?" an editor e-mailed me the other day, "Rupert Murdoch spending $44 million for a triplex at 834 Fifth Avenue with 20 rooms and a monthly maintenance of $21,469.07, as narrated on the front page of that day's newspapers, or King Mswati III of Swaziland spending $690,000 on a Daimler-Chrysler Maybach 62?"

            Mention of the Great Beast buying his three-floor pad on Fifth Ave. gave me a chance to saunter down Memory Lane. I think Murdoch had one floor of that building back in the late 1970s, when his only properties in the United States were the Star and a newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. Then he bought the New York Post and duly made it onto either the cover of Time or Newsweek, I can't remember which. Maybe both. He was depicted as King Kong, clinging to the Empire State building.

On Dec. 11, 2004, I turned 41 years of age. The very next day, I bought my first Christmas tree.

Now it may not seem to some that buying a Christmas tree should be that big of a deal. After all, according to the National Christmas Tree Association (yes, there is such a group), Americans bought an estimated 24 million real Christmas trees this past holiday season, making it the second year in a row the number of trees purchased went up from the previous year.

Until this year, however, I had not bought one. In fact, until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even celebrate Christmas at all.

Didn’t get a tree, didn’t send out Christmas cards, didn’t buy presents for my family and friends.

Instead, year after year, I simply pretended Christmas didn’t exist.

And for years, my friends—and, later, my wife—put up with my little seasonal eccentricity.

They didn’t have much choice, seeing how I would regularly rail against what I saw to be the hypocrisy of the holiday.

Three contiguous counties in southwestern Ohio, all traditionally Republican counties, gave unexpectedly large margins to George W. Bush over John F. Kerry on election night.  All three counties experienced a huge increase in voter turnout.  In all three counties, Bush received a higher percentage of the vote than he did in the 2000 election, and Kerry received a lower percentage of the vote than Al Gore did in 2000.  This study analyzes how it happened.

In Warren County, the administrative building was locked down on election night, all in the name of "homeland security."  No independent persons were allowed to observe the vote count.  Compared to 2000, the population increased by 14.75%, the number of registered voters increased by 29.66%, voter turnout increased by 33.55%, Bush’s point spread increased from 42.24% to 44.58%, and Bush’s victory margin increased from 29,176 votes to 41,124 votes.

In Clermont County, compared to 2000, the population increased by 4.39%, the number of registered voters increased by 10.20%, voter turnout increased by 24.86%, Bush's point spread increased from 37.50%

I understand that Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer dismissed Cliff Arnebeck's first petition to contest the presidential election results, which also included a contest of the election of the chief justice himself to the Supreme Court. How can any judge in America refuse to recuse himself in a lawsuit in which he has been named a defendant? That clearly violates the 14th Amendment's due process right to a "fair tribunal." How can this be?

  Charles Reed
(former mayor of Waco, Texas)