Is the Battle of Falluja over or what? PM Allawi is declaring victory, but in the old city we continue to face strong resistance from insurgents. What the hell is going on?

IRAN HAS FORMALLY AGREED TO HALT ITS ILLICIT NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Hopefully, they will make good on this promise. (Otherwise, we're gonna have to lay the smackdown, right?)

After recent fierce battle, the 'major offensive operations' in Falluja are said to be over. But is it true ...?

This affiliate, Atlanta's WSB-TV station, released this statement. I'm outraged that they even considered editing the film, which ABC intended to air in honor of veterans; editing it would no doubt be an affront to that. The station entreats, "We hope you understand." I wish I did. After all, 'strong language' simply is not acceptable even if it's in the context of horrific battle. Why give kids a preview of the kind of things they, God forbid, might one day see in Iraq ...?

In a move that ought to fill any reasonable person with disgust, several ABC affiliate stations have decided not to air the Oscar-winning, Stephen Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan, uncut, in honor of our veterans, who praised it for its realistic depiction of the horrors of war. My local station, thank God, did. Bless them. To all the rest, who feared FCC backlash and 'sanctions', you are a bunch of spineless cowards.

FALLUJA UPDATE:

Significant progress appears to have been made, and our forces are now continuing to 'choke off' the insurgents, of which about 600 have been killed. 18 U.S. GIs have been killed, and about 178 wounded. New beds were needed, according to a report by MSNBC, for "the main military hospital" in Landstuhl, Germany to facilitate "a stream of wounded." Nevertheless, even if we retake the city (which does look certain), it is understood that this will not end the insurgency. Personally, it appears like we're sort of sweeping the floor here: the dirt doesn't go away, it is just put somewhere else.

At least 70% of Falluja has been taken from insurgents and our soldiers are facing relatively light resistance, which has led some to speculate that the insurgents had fled the city on the eve of the invasion, perhaps right before we sealed it off. In which case, we may be seeing them again ... but where we do not expect them to be. Nonetheless, this is described as a pivotal battle. The end of the war? Fuck no. Far from it. A major turning point? Probably not. A pivotal battle? It is said so. Anyway, I hope it ends as soon as possible ...

An American sniper looking for insurgents ...

This was the general invasion plan for the Falluja assault yesterday. Progress appears substantial, albeit 10 U.S GI deaths. On the plus side, about 100 insurgents have thus far been killed, which is good from our perspective. But it ain't over yet ...

THE BATTLE OF FALLUJA HAS BEGUN

What the fuck is happening in the Ivory Coast?

CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul, who is "embedded with the Marines," reports that a Kurdish Iraqi "company commander of the Iraqi security forces who received a full briefing on the expected Falluja assault is missing from a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for the possible operation." Marines, it is said, "are concerned that the information" the Iraqi captain, who commands "a company of about 160 men," "knows could be passed along to insurgents." After all, "U.S. military sources believe insurgents have friends in the military and government," assumed to be those of interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

Ever since I heard about Bush's 3.5 million lead over Kerry in the popular vote, I was suspicious: I thought, No way. It just didn't make sense. It still doesn't. Perhaps this is just paranoia, I don't know, but it has been bugging me ... more importantly, I think there is some reason behind it, too. Case-in-point: the Diebold Corporation. It provided Ohio, the state in which it is based, with the unaccountable* machines for the 2004 elections, Ohio being a state known to be extremely divided (according to polls taken until November 2); thus, the third most valuable swing state behind Pennsylvania and Florida. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diebold, Walden O'Dell, is a registered Republican and was a strong contributor to the President's campaign, organizing fundraisers and, in one instance, had wrote a letter to Bush in which he assured him that he would "deliver Ohio's votes" to him, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as cited in the 'progressive' webzine Common Dreams. From the record as it stands now, in Ohio President-Elect Bush received 2,783,655 votes versus Senator Kerry's 2,653,005 (50.96% to 48.57%, respectively).

*Unaccountable for the reason that the electronic voting machines that Diebold made for the state of Ohio, such as the ones employed elsewhere (such as in the entire state of Maryland), had no paper backup whatsoever ... hence no paper trail. Perfect, really: the easily hackable and insecure machines could have been grossly tampered with and, most deviously, no one would ever know. Not exactly. There is a movement sponsored by an organization called Black Box Voting, which is filing the largest Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in history to find out what exactly happened, county by county. The organization, through its 'Help America Audit' campaign, "has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines." They claim to "base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information, and other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems." (You can take a look at the 30-minute documentary they made on it, titled "Votergate," here.)

Employment has finally been jolted into gear out of several months stuck in neutral, as 377,000 new jobs have been added to the payrolls across the nation, from figures from the Department of Labor, which attributes the biggest "surge" in job growth since March in part "to repair widespread hurricane damage in the Southeast," according to The Washington Post (Nell Henderson, "October Job Growth Stronger Than Expected," 5 November 2004). However, it is reported that the "unemployment rate rose slightly, to 5.5 percent last month from 5.4 percent in September, because the number of people looking for work rose faster than the number of jobs."* The New York Times (Eduardo Porter, "Labor Market Snaps Out of Lull to Add 377,000 New Jobs") reports that "economists cautioned, ... that a one-month gain did not constitute a trend, since the economy has recorded encouraging spurts of job growth before that have just fizzled out in subsequent months." [The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' report in question can be found here.]

*Emphasis added.

With President Bush's victory, coupled with an entrenchment of the Republican majority of the Senate and House (not to mention sustained Republican domination of the governorship as well as the Supreme Court, which will have four vacancies within the next few years) and an unmerciful pounding on the lame-duck Democratic Party, his newly-elected administration and its self-declared mandate (51% of the popular vote was won by Bush, about three and a half million more votes than Kerry) may give him virtually free license to exploit the new rightward shift in Congress toward pursuing an ever more radical, divisive agenda. He now will not need to give a shred of thought to public opinion (domestic and worldwide), because it simply bears nothing to him anymore: Bush won the coveted second term and, barring a Constitutional amendment to change it, will remain our Commander-in-Chief until January 2009. And what will the world look like then? I shudder at the thought ...

MEANWWHILE IN IRAQ: The expected presidential election, set roughly a week after what will be Bush's second inauguration, does not appear a plausible prospect, especially if the anticipated assault on Falluja is to take place. (Can it wait until after Ramadan?*)

*A random note, no doubt, but I felt the need to note this: therefore I'm guessing that the invasion of Falluja will not begin until probably the day after the 16th, the day that the Islamic holy month ends.

With four states remained uncounted, Kerry today conceded the election. Bush has won a second term. This brings to mind an old aphorism that the newly elected President once attempted to enunciate. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Indeed, shame on all of us ...

The first polls will close at 7 PM EST. No data has yet to come in (of course), and the results for the whole country are impossible to predict with certainty, it's just so close.

Tomorrow is Election Day. The time has finally come. An anticipated record rate of voter mobilization and turnout will either show Mr. Bush the door or give Mr. Kerry a term in the White House. Barring another harrowing recount, or some other legal debacle that unfortunately appears imminent, once the final tally is counted and agreed upon the American people will see one of two probable scenarios, aside from a plethora of other disturbing possibilities: a President-Elect Kerry and an early retirement for Bush, or the second term his father never got. What will it be? Hell if I should know, but I can take a stab at it. Lessee ... the Electoral College results might (based upon my estimates as well as those of others whose names I wish not to disclose) go 270-268 with Bush the winner or the same with Kerry the winner. I really do think it will be that close. But God forbid that it's 269-269, in which case the victor will be decided by a newly elected House of Representatives.* But what happens will happen: the world ain't gonna end any time soon ...


*The Republican-dominated (the ratio as of now is 229-205) House of Representatives, that is.

That's strange: most of the unscientific surveys (that is, those that do not go by random sampling but rather via voluntary participation) on this site have shown strong majorities supporting Kerry. I must say, it seems kinda odd. And nothing for Nader? That's just crazy. After all, there's gotta be someone out there among the 1,000,000+ people who took part in this 'Live Vote' who would vote for Nader, right? Whatever.

A deployment of new troops have been sent to Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi forces rally for a massive assault on the city of Falluja, in an effort to root out the insurgent stronghold there. I pray for the best outcome possible, but prepare for the worst. Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has warned of many civilian casaulties and has professed to have gone through every possible avenue aside from invasion. He has said of late that his "patience is wearing thin," and it appears that a full-out attack on Falluja is imminent. However, it appears it will have to wait until the Presidential election tomorrow.