I have a great but challenging life. I am a single mother with two boys on the autism spectrum. My oldest, has full blown autism, mental retardation and also suffers from epilepsy. My youngest is higher functioning but he had speech delay until five years of age and it has greatly improved through early intensive behavioural intervention. He is still behind his typical peers and still has many outbursts. Just the every day mundane things that we all take for granted is a major challenge for us. Several months ago, when we went to the grocery store, my youngest got excited when he saw watermelon on display and screamed "Watermelons"! I didn't think it was any big deal, it was a major improvement since my oldest son enjoys smashing eggs on the floor (we always avoid that aisle). Well, an old man jumped and screamed "Those children should be at home and not taken into public!" I can't even count the number of times people have reprimanded me for not discipling my children.

I do not have autism but I have two children that do. I have not been able to visit the Daily Kos recently because of some major battles I have been having with my new Democratic Governor, Ted Strickland of Ohio, and his administration. In 2006, I worked hard on his campaign. I wrote letters, typed registrants names on spreadsheets, cut fliers, stuffed envelopes, walked door to door with my two children. My motives were many fold. I wanted to defeat Kenneth Blackwell. I was so ready to finally have a democratic governor. I mistakenly thought he would finally help us parents that are raising children with autism. Instead, we get this.

As some of you may know, I am single mother of two children with autism. I live and breath autism. I spend any spare time I have speaking with other parents in finding ways to care for our children. Today, I received an email from another mother that really touched my heart. Her son, James, had his first day at football practice.

But first, I want to tell you more about James.

Hello, my name is James and I will be 17 years old next week. I came to live with my parents when I was three and they adopted me. Boy they got more than they bargained for! I am diagnosed with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Mental retardation (overall development of a 6-7 yr old), an unknown slow Bowel Disorder, and ADHD. Oh ya and also what my parents lovingly call ETH (explosive teenage hormones).

Sad news here in Columbus, Ohio. Our local newspaper reported on December 23rd that our local progressive radio station, WTPG 1230AM will be replacing their progressive radio shows such as Stephanie Miller and Al Franken with radio shows that feature Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham.

Liberal listeners in central Ohio will lose their only radio voice next month when WTPG (1230 AM) drops its format of "progressive talk" and makes a hard right turn.

Out: Al Franken, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes.

In: Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and a mix of sports and consumer shows featuring Jim Rome and Dave Ramsey.

The station will change its call letters to WYTS on Monday; the new format will begin at 9 a.m. Jan. 9.

Folks, I can't handle this. Over 58 percent of the voters here in Columbus, Ohio voted for the blue ticket in November's election. Please visit me over the flip to see what can be done about this.

The Columbus Dispatch announced that voters must provide I.D. on absentee ballots.

The 6 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order last night (Sunday, 29 Oct 2006) staying a lowercourt ruling from last week that had put the ID provision on hold.

There will be a live discussion live on-line at the Columbus Dispatch. You can write them right now and ask a question before the live event or during it. It is very important that the cumbersome I.D. requirement be removed. Please follow me below the fold.

Many of you have read the diary Action Alert: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct. 1st - Vote Early. This is an important diary but many Kossacks, rightly so, doubted the diarist claim because it was not based on facts that could be verified. Honestly, I don't know if any of the Ohio County BOE's actually removed people from the registration rolls in the last two months. I do know that many people will be voting provisionally in this election. In Franklin County OH alone, 150,000 people on the voter registration roll will have to vote on a provisional ballot. I am writing this diary to show you the facts that back up this claim and also to let you know what you can do about it.

Please follow me below the fold:

This is important! I am making this diary short and to the point so that many of you will get this message.

I was astonished when I read that Bill O'Reilly of Faux News fame mis-labels Foley as a democrat. You would think it would end there but no.... Faux News turns around and then mis-labels Chafee as a democrat. Will it end there? Apparently not.

The mislabeling of candidates has gone from Faux News to our ABSENTEE BALLOTS. Is this the new strategy for Republicans to hold on to power?

According to Newsnet5, 5,100 absentte ballots in the Cleveland area had to be reprinted because of errors on the ballots. What were those errors?  Please see below the fold!!!!!

Can you tell we are in a war?  Everyday I pick up my local newspaper in Columbus, OH and the war in Iraq is never mentioned on the front page.  Well, today Iraq was on the front page but it was regarding an audio tape made by Abu Hamza al-Mulhajir.  No mention of Iraqi deaths, soldiers deaths, IED's etc.  I had to search in the New Times to find out that Iraq had lost its 4th Journalist in September.

I was drawn to the Daily Kos because of Kos's excellent coverage of the Iraq War. Not to undermine this wonderful website but I would greatly appreciate it if the Iraq War combat coverage was back on the front page of the Daily Kos. I hope we all work on getting Iraq back on the front page of our local newspapers as well by contacting them and reminding them that a war is going on.