• Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Condoleezza Rice of California is confirmed as Secretary of State by a U.S. Senate vote of 85-13, 2 not voting.
• Former Utah Governor Michael O. "Mike" Leavitt is confirmed as Secretary Department of Health and Human Services by the U.S. Senate viva voce (by voice vote).
• Former Ambassador to the Vatican, Jim Nicholson, originally from Iowa, is confirmed as Secretary of Veterans Affairs by the U.S. Senate viva voce (by voice vote).

• Kellogg Company Chief Executive Officer Carlos Gutierrez is confirmed for Secretary of Commerce by the U.S. Senate viva voce (by voice vote).

• Chairman, Federal Communication Commission, Michael Powell announces his resignation.

• Nebraska Governor Mike Johanas (Republican, first elected: 1998; re-elected: 2002) was nominated by President George W. Bush for Secretary of Agriculture on 2 December 2004 and approved by the U.S. Senate viva voce (by voice vote) on 20 January 2005. Following his approval, Secretary Johanns resigned his Governor's Chair.
• Following the resignation of Nebraska Governor Johanas, Lieutenant Governor Dave Heineman succeeded to the Governor's Chair. Governor Heineman plans to announce his selection for the position of Lieutenant Governor on Monday 24 January 2005.

• Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff, of New Jersey is nominated to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Chertoff has served as a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey and special counsel for the Senate Whitewater committee.

• Former Indiana state Republican Party chairman and businessman Allan Hubbard of Indiana nominated as Chairman of the National Economic Council.

• One MINNESOTA Elector casts Presidential Electoral Vote for John Edwards instead of John Kerry... actual Electoral Vote for President will be Bush-286; Kerry-251; Edwards- 1.
• THE "FAITHLESS NINE" ... Presidential Electors who have defected in the past.

• Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael O. "Mike" Leavitt is nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

• Bernard Kerik withdraws his name from consideration as the nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce Samuel Bodman is nominated for Secretary of Energy.

• Ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson is nominated for Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

• Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Joseph Principi announces his resignation.

• Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson resigns.

• United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth resigns.
• Bernard Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner, is nominated to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Mike Johanns, Governor of Nebraska, is nominated to be Secretary of Agriculture.

• Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge resigns. Mr. Ridge will remain with the agency until 1 February 2005 unless a succcessor is confirmed before then.

• Kellogg Company Chief Executive Officer Carlos Gutierrez is nominated for Secretary of Commerce.

• Chairman of the National Economic Council Stephen Friedman announces his resignation effective 31 December 2004.

• White House Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Margaret Spellings of Texas has been nominated to the position of Secretary of Education.
• Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Harriet Miers has been named to the position of General Council to the President.

• Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Condoleezza Rice nominated for Secretary of State.
• Stephen J. Hadley of Ohio is nominated to the position of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

• Secretary of State Colin Powell announces his resignation;
  National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice Powell's likely successor.
• Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announces his resignation.
• Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announces her resignation.
• Secretary of Education Rod Paige announces his resignation.

"Many in Our Nation are making plans for observances in remembrance of those who died in the horrific events of September 11th, 2001 and to show solidarity with those who were injured, lost loved ones, acted most heroically and/or simply survived these dastardly and cowardly attacks on America."

"We of the Staff of 'The Green Papers' urge all of you reading this to mark the occasion with respect, primarily by spending a moment in whatever thought, prayer, or meditation is comfortable for you-- for the diversity of observances held on this particular anniversary of that tragic day are in themselves a tribute to what makes Our Nation great."

"Do not allow yourselves to become sidetracked, not even for a moment, from your dreams and goals by those who would wish to take Our Freedoms away. We at 'The Green Papers' will do what we can in this regard by, as ever, posting data on, along with information about, Elections in particular as well as Politics in general, along with continuing to make such data available to a potential global audience via the World Wide Web: for by this website so being, in such a small way, a beacon of Free Speech and a chronicler of the Free and Fair Choice of One's Elected Representatives, we do our admittedly somewhat insignificant part- but a part nonetheless- in keeping the Flame of Republican Democracy aglow."

"Terrorists can never destroy Our Ideals. Nor can Hatred kill a Good Idea!"

• In an emotional press conference at the State House in Trenton this afternoon, held only days after his 47th Birthday, Governor James E. "Jim" McGreevey (D-New Jersey) announced his resignation from that office effective 15 November 2004, on which date State Senate President Richard James Codey D-Essex County, NJ) will become "acting Governor" (New Jersey being one of the few States in the Union without a Lieutenant Governor). The reason the Garden State Governor gave for his resignation was his desire to keep his office from being adversely affected by his sexual preference, also publicly acknowledged by the Governor for the first time at this same press conference.
• My truth", Governor McGreevey said, "is that I am a gay American" and that, while "I am blessed to live in the greatest Nation with the greatest tradition of Civil Liberties in the world", he noted that the fact of his homosexuality is not at all in line with the traditional values of most of his fellow countrymen. Acknowledging the pain he has caused "my beloved family: my parents, my wife, my friends", McGreevey further acknowledged that "shamefully, I engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man", adding that "I accept total and full responsibility for my actions". McGreevey said that he felt that, while "it makes little difference, as Governor, that I am gay", in order to keep the Office of Governor from being "vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure", the only right thing to do would be for him to resign that office.
• The date of McGreevey's resignation is evidently so timed as to allow for a smooth post-General Election transition (though the New Jersey Governor's office would not normally be up for election until November 2005, there are elections for Members of Congress and, of course, the American Presidential Election this coming 2 November, all with major ramifications for politicians within the Governor's Party) but, at the same time, to take care of a rather arcane bit of New Jersey succession law. Had Governor McGreevey's resignation taken effect prior to this coming 16 September, there would have had to be a Special Election to fill out the remaining year or so of his term (which ends in mid-January 2006); by resigning after that date, State Senator Codey can- once McGreevey's resignation takes effect- serve as acting Governor" for the remainder of McGreevey's term without an intervening election for that office other than the one regularly scheduled for November 2005.
• The resignation of Governor McGreevey seemingly ends a rather up-and-down career for a politician still so relatively young. McGreevey was first elected to the State Assembly (the lower house of New Jersey's bicameral Legislature) in the wake of then-Congressman James "Jim" Florio's narrow victory in the 1989 Gubernatorial Election. McGreevey was then summarily swept out of office two years later in the anti-Florio "tax revolt" legislative election in which one-fourth of the seats in both houses of the Legislature switched over from the Democrats to the Republicans, an event which would help give Republicans control of the State House for the ensuing decade. In the meantime, McGreevey was elected Mayor of the suburban Township of Woodbridge, his hometown in Middlesex County, a position in which he would serve for the next ten years until he became Governor.
• In 1993, McGreevey was elected to a four-year term in the State Senate (in New Jersey, it is legally permissible for someone to hold State or County legislative and local executive office simultaneously), a seat he gave up come 1997 in order to- unsuccessfully, as it turned out- run for Governor (the Democratic Party nominee, McGreevey lost to incumbent Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman in the General Election that November). On his second try for the State's highest office, in November 2001, McGreevey defeated Republican former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler.
• This will be the second time in only four years that a State Senate President will have become "acting Governor" of New Jersey in the wake of a Gubernatorial resignation. In early 2001, Governor Christie Whitman resigned to become then-newly inaugurated President George W. Bush's first Enviromental Protection Agency head, after which then-State Senate President Donald DiFrancesco (R- Union County, NJ) served almost all the remainder of Whitman's four-year term. The last week of that term was finished up alternately by then-co-State Senate Presidents Codey and John Bennett (R-Monmouth County, NJ) because a newly elected Legislature (with an evenly divided State Senate) took office just before McGreevey was inaugurated as Governor.