MASON, Texas --- Letter from a non-swing state. Every political reporter and his hamster is covering the swing states. Here's the news from the rest of the country. This column is dedicated to all the Democrats in the red states and all the Republicans in the blue states, with affection for all.

In Mason, Texas, pop. 2,148, there are new yellow ribbons up all over town in memory of young Mathew Puckett, the first Mason man to die in military action since World War II. Though Masonites are united in sorrow, the debate over Iraq has only become more embittered. "Now they've killed one of ours. Now you have to support the troops," say the Republicans.

"Now don't you wonder, 'Should we be there?' Now don't you have to ask, 'What good are we doing?'" say the Democrats.

Local Democrats participated in the Mason County Round-Up parade this year. A few people waved at them from regular shoulder-height, but more waved from hip-level, just with their hands, not wanting to attract attention. It's not popular to be a Democrat in Mason County.

This presidential campaign is stuck in the sixties and seventies, right where it belongs.

That's when the preppy draft dodger George W. Bush thought the Beatles were "weird," possibly because, as Kitty Kelly says, he heard them too often on cocaine. He was also the quintessential Chickenhawk, content to see others die in a war he backed but ducked.

That was Vietnam. Now---Oops, he did it again---it's Iraq.

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger knew full well in 1972 that the Vietnam war was unwinnable. They looked into calling off the election, broke into Democratic Party headquarters, dirty tricked George McGovern (with the help of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney), then drunk drove the nation right into a jungle quagmire.

In the age of oil and global warming, that fever swamp has become desert quicksand. But the catastrophe's the same, except now we're also burdened with the last one.

Bush seems morally and mentally incapable of doing anything but plunging deeper, not only into Iraq but into fiscal, ecological, moral and spiritual psychosis.

We, the undersigned, were selected by Ralph Nader to be members of his 113-person national "Nader 2000 Citizens Committee." This year, we urge support for Kerry/Edwards in all "swing states," even while we strongly disagree with Kerry's policies on Iraq and other issues. For people seeking progressive social change in the United States, removing George W. Bush from office should be the top priority in the 2004 presidential election. Progressive votes for John Kerry in swing states may prove decisive in attaining this vital goal. (For updated list of signers, see http://vote2stopbush.com/)

* David Barsamian, Author, Radio Interviewer
* Juliette Beck, California Citizens for Fair Trade
* Herbert Bernstein, Professor of Physics at Hampshire College
* Thomas Berry, Author, Dream of the Earth
* Wendell Berry, Farmer and Writer
* Norman Birnbaum, Author and Educator
* Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Activist and Writer
* Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas
* Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas

The United States has a long history of protecting and preserving freedom of the press. As early as 1789 Madison's version of the speech and press clauses, introduced in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, provided: ''The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."

In the last 40 years the United States emerged as a worldwide leader insuring uninhibited public debate on governmental matters. This principal was permanently weaved in the social fabric of America Society in 1964 when a unanimous Supreme Court stated in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964): ''we consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.''

This policy is now in trouble. Specifically, the U.S. Department of State

When are we going to wake up and get the point? Now that we have counted 1,000+ dead soldiers in Iraq, isn't it about time to reconsider what we are doing? There are no weapons of mass destruction - just lies. There is no connection between September 11 and Iraq - just lies. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda -just lies. The world and especially America is not safer as a result of these actions. The Bush administration continues to manipulate your emotions with constant false alarms, vague warnings, or nonspecific information from unspecified sources, and elevated color alerts. Does this make you feel safer?

The Bush administration seems to think it can defeat terrorism by 'taking the fight to the enemy', but Homeland Security expert Stephen Flynn warns, "Targeting terrorism at its source is an appealing notion, unfortunately, the enemy is not cooperating." The 'coalition of the willing' is slowly coming to the realization that this approach won't work. The few 'coalition' nations still present only have about 90 persons in Iraq and those may be withdrawn soon. We have about 145,000 and are losing