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I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate and set aside Thursday, the twentieth day of November, 1941, as a day to be observed in giving thanks to the Heavenly Source of our earthly blessings.

Our beloved country is free and strong. Our moral and physical defenses against the forces of threatened aggression are mounting daily in magnitude and effectiveness.

In the interest of our own future, we are sending succor at increasing pace to those peoples abroad who are bravely defending their homes and their precious liberties against annihilation.

We have not lost our faith in the spiritual dignity of man, our proud belief in the right of all people to live out their lives in freedom and with equal treatment. The love of democracy still burns brightly in our hearts.

We are grateful to the Father of us all for the innumerable daily manifestations of His beneficent mercy in affairs both public and private, for the bounties of the harvest, for opportunities to labor and to serve, and for the continuance of those homely joys and satisfactions which enrich our lives.

Let us ask the Divine Blessing on our decision and determination to protect our way of life against the forces of evil and slavery which seek in these days to encompass us.

On the day appointed for this purpose, let us reflect at our homes or places of worship on the goodness of God and, in giving thanks, let us pray for a speedy end to strife and the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice for enduring time.

Supreme Court Judge G Barry Anderson said the ballots should be rejected, citing state statute that “does not directly grant the board to include rejected ballots.”

 “The relief that has been requested by this board has been extraordinary,” Anderson added.

 Edward Cleary of the Second Judicial Court was unpersuaded by Anderson's statements, but ultimately voted for his motion. “We are not in a court room and we have to keep that in mind…although I agree there is no specific authority for us to do that.”

Judge Kathleen Gearin of Ramsey County argued that the question to be settled wasn’t whether or not the ballots should be counted, but whose decision it should be to determine whether the rejected ballots should be counted.

From TIME's Swampland blog:

I recently spoke to Fred Davis III, the advertising mastermind behind John McCain's presidential run. Looking back, he described a campaign of missed opportunities. "I made a list once, which no one will ever see, of all the reasons that my hands were tied on this campaign," he told me. "And I've never had a list this long."

The biggest handcuff, he said, was the concern that McCain's attacks on Obama would be viewed as playing the race card. (The campaign still ran into trouble; McCain's operation was accused of playing the race card here and here.) Davis described an environment of overwhelming caution at McCain campaign headquarters. A series of spots that Davis made attacking Obama's record on crime never ran, because of concerns that they would be seen as playing to racial bigotry. The campaign dropped drums from ad scores because they might be viewed as an African tribal reference. Davis said he avoided using bad photos of Obama in the spots because of concerns about racism charges. Most importantly, the campaign never went close to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, on orders from McCain himself. But Davis still developed ads to attack Obama on Wright.

... Milk, among the first openly gay elected officials in the country, had a profound impact on national politics, and his rich afterlife in American culture has affirmed his status as pioneer and martyr.