Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO relays news that Rupert Murdoch's Sky News and "Israeli TV" are reporting Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat's brain death.

There are no links. If indeed he is dead, then perhaps we, with the assent of the Almighty, may be able to take another step towards a peaceful and constructive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I wouldn't have lost any sleep had the IDF found it necessary to kill the man, but the prospect of eventual peace will be improved greatly if he dies peacefully in bed.

Despite the ending of an election campaign here in America, the larger world continues unabated around us.

UPDATE: KJL gives us this, from Reuters: "Arafat clinically dead -- Israeli television JERUSALEM, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was determined to be clinically dead on Thursday in a French hospital, Israel's Channel Two television said citing French sources."

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't think I'll be watching the Bush speech live. There's a yard to be mowed, and I'm not entirely concerned about what the President has to say. Smith on FNC and Rich Lowry are speculating that AG Ashcroft will be gone, replaced by Giuliani.

Bah, this shuffling mess is for others.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Heh heh heh. I'm sitting here at the computer with ye olde Red Sox hat on, and Carl Cameron just said something funny, noting that Senator Kerry walked under a banner that said something about "CONGRATULATIONS BOSTON RED SOX" and how Boston was hoping for back to back victories.

Cue Warner Wolf: If you had the Red Sox in four games, you won. If you had the Red Sox and John Kerry, YOU LOST! Heh heh heh. It was good that Boston won because they used up all of that city's luck prior to the election. Hooray!

Anyways, liveblogging will now commence.

1354: Hrrm, I've been to this place, Faneuil Hall. The Kerry family is out there; Senator Kerry now out on the podium with Edwards.

1357: Every vote matters, blah blah every vote counts, yeah yeah, I hear Mike Ditka's still counting fourth-and-inches from some game back in the 1980s. Keep it up, Edwards.

1400: What's this "fight has just begun" stuff? You lost. Get out. It's over. You had almost two years to begin your fight. Cripes, that's ridiculous. I didn't miss anything to vote, and it took me all of about ten minutes.

1403: Yay, he says 'idear'. I like that.

1405 Enough about group hugs and wrapping arms around everyone. That's not a manly thing to say, Senator. Steel your considerable jaw and say, "Well, we lost."

1408: All the kids were there every step of the way, including that one daughter who wore the see-through top at Cannes or somewhere. Here we go, mentioning Vietnam, his "great band of brothers". Senator, I watched Richard Winters. I liked Richard Winters. You sir are no Richard Winters.

1412: Senator, mentioning kids who give from their piggy banks to your campaign is trite, when men like George Soros have essentially underwritten your effort. Admittedly, I wouldn't talk about Soros either if I was in Kerry's shoes.

1414: Augh, hearing him say that he wishes he could have brought the race home hurts. I hate seeing candidates say things like that, because I know it's a painful thing to do. I am, however, appreciative of Senator Kerry's remarks towards reconciliation, as opposed to a Dean-style theory of warfare.

1417: An announcement of his continuance in the Senate? Possibly.

1420: John Hillen of National Review provides an interesting summary.

1425: Well, that's over. Enough of this sordid electioneering, and back to the more important things. Priority number one: Slaughter our enemies and meet them with the unified and ruthless force that this Republic is capable of generating. Secondly, improve the moral health of the nation, where possible for the President, and hope that we can maintain the favor of Almighty God. Thirdly, improve our economy so that food banks and food pantries are rarely needed, and to the point that our States have lesser need for welfare rolls.

I'll borrow from Senator Kerry's short prayer: "God bless America."

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I stole this from the Dean for America blog, or whatever it's called these days. (Me, I'd call it "irrelevant", but that's just victory hubris talking.)

"My bumper sticker *Frodo Failed - Bush Has the Ring* stays."

Count all the votes, [Expletive Deleted].
Posted by vb at November 3, 2004 10:17 AM

Click here for more details. I can't help but chuckle malevolently at that; the rest of the thread is filled with the standard "Bush eats children; AmeriKKKa lives" tripe that so poisoned the minds of voters in the Democratic primary.

I was thinking back to the early days of the campaign yesterday, and thought of Howard Dean fora second. Before I laughed in standard Virginian snobbery at the unseemly Northeasterner, I was reminded of how their people thought that simply posting to a blog and filling the comments section with tripe like, "AMERIKKKA! YOU HAVE THE POWER!!!!!" and screaming about how they wanted a "bat" meter to fill with funds---I'll give you a bat, Easton aluminum upside the head, you bunch of freaks---and how I thought they might've done significant damage to the American electorate.

Well, that remains to be seen, but it appears that the Dean style of campaigning wherein we are told that Saddam Hussein is a nice guy and that Osama bin Laden is on Karl Rove's payroll, has been shot in the head and dumped in a ditch. Yee haw.

At any rate, I can happily wear my Boston Red Sox hat because a) the Red Sox won and b) the red 'B' on the thing can just as easily stand for "Bush". I'm seeing Lanny Davis on FNC at the moment, and darned if this hasn't knocked him back a notch. He's working the "two nations" bit, talking about division which hadn't existed since the Late Unpleasantness. This victory might be worth it if we get to see Lanny Davis as something other than a sneering Democrat who's certain that we, Republicans, are evil and/or incompetence incarnate.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ugh. It's 0249 and I'm still hanging in there hoping for the best on the thing. I want e*trade to go out of business and the SEC to ruin their executives with long prison terms. Why? Because they're playing that cursed Jefferson Airplane song in their ads. I don't need to hear Paul Kantner or Marty Balin whining about "Got a revolution? Got to revolution!"

I may die and be component molecules in my casket before the 1960s and their worthless progeny are finished with this country. Bah! I'd much rather hear from Karen Carpenter and Carly Simon, if we are to hear ancient radio types doing ads.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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John, I wouldn't exactly be bragging about counting every vote. If Ohio keeps trending the way I see it, er, well, the more we count, the more the President's lead extends. Carl Cameron says that these statements---Mary Beth Cahill and John Edwards'---were meant to be tough. Well, I hear that the Maginot Line was meant to be a tough defense against the Germans, but that didn't work and neither did the "tough" statements.

In my opinion, Edwards looked essentially worn out and, hopefully, looked like a man who was merely going through the motions. You've waited four years for victory and, God willing, you'll be waiting at least eight years before you've got a chance at victory. As for Mary Beth Cahill, I could care less what that Kennedy retread thinks. The numbers may make her position untenable, and she will only look more ludicrous and less credible if she keeps trying to spin the Kerry defeat as some sort of "progressive" victory.

This particular pundit is running on clinkers and low steam at this point; I'm about to chug to a stop. Bother.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm watching the FNC coverage, and I'm pretty much seeing all the ads run there. I've seen the Norfolk Southern Railway's "Road to/of the Future" ad several times, and something's struck me about it. As best I can tell, all but a tiny stretch of that has been filmed on single-track line.

I'm not the ad agency handling the campaign, but I'd suggest that the NSR needs to suggest, among other things in its ads, that the physical plant of the railway has sufficient capacity to handle any new business that prospective new shippers would place upon new NSR trains. In other words, I'd show more footage along double- and triple-track lines, if not actually showing a couple of the bigger NSR yards. After all, capacity improves the ability to handle traffic growth which means timely deliveries of shippers' goods, for both existing and new customers.

From what I understand, any problems that the NSR has had in recent years are not capacity related, but still. If David R. Goode's people are reading this, then perhaps their next national ad buy might be improved by my suggestion, which is offered free of charge and without need for attribution. I am, however, very pleased to see my favorite modern railway on television, as opposed to the cursed Union Pacific.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Thank God I have done my duty."

I am not, of course, mortally wounded aboard HMS Victory, but I did in fact cast my vote for the President yesterday, and it appears that Virginia has done her duty as well. As of 0133 my time, Virginia has gone to the President with a 54-46 result, according to the news ticker on the surprisingly useful Fox News Channel. Brit Hume, you rule the world. Unfortunately, I'm about to pass out at the keyboard, and I can't guarantee that I'll still be awake.

Godspeed, Mr. President. Michael Moore, I'll be waiting to read your site and your spin on how we stole this and how John Kerry really won.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I crawled out of my bed this morning, wishing that I'd spent the evening (and very early morning) out with friends and Jack Daniel's. That way, I would have a reason as to why I felt so crummy. As it was, I had turned in kind of early after finishing Kashyyyk in Knights of the Old Republic.¹ and reading the latest print issue of National Review.

Turnout apparently was decent; in the bottom of the 8 o'clock hour there had been maybe 400 through my polling place. My precinct includes both white- and blue-collar residents, so the opportunity for early-morning voters is meaningful. I chatted with a couple of voters on the way in, and I conversed pleasantly with the Democratic and Republican canvassers. In my county, some of us are still Southerners and thus don't get our knickers in a twist like the Northeasterners over politics. Apparently, there were some constitutional amendments on the ballot, and I asked one of the canvassers what he thought of them. He responded that our local delegate thought they were acceptable, and that was enough for me. I know our local delegate, and he is a good man; I trust his word for I know him to be honorable. His word weighed heavily in my decision to vote 'yes' for both of Virginia's constitutional questions presented this year.²

After receiving copies of both the Republican and Democratic sample ballots---there's that Southern courtesy again---I ambled into the aging elementary school. I got given what looked to me to be a raffle ticket, and I briefly wondered if my door prize was going to be being stuck listening to Sean Hannity. Thankfully, there was no such issue.

Our voting machines probably pre-date my mother, but from what I understand, they're reliable and they're paid for. As far as I'm concerned, there need not be any further inquiry. Besides, the older they get, the harder they might be for someone to rig. The Republican sample ballot had operating instructions for the machine, but the Democratic sample ballot did not. Luckily, I was too busy staring at the instructions printed in large letters, and the kind fellow outside was eager to tell me how the thing worked. After a few seconds of trying to figure it out---I hadn't cast a live ballot since November 2000, due to being away at law school---I got finished and voted a straight Republican ticket.

This isn't an earth-shattering thing. I saw at least four known straight-ticket Democrats from the area, so my vote was overwhelmed in the liberal flood. Tee hee. At any rate, I saw a reporter, but I didn't figure out how I could get noticed in such a way as to be interviewed. Had I been, I would have said something about how my county didn't need any of those foreign election observers or any of those Democratic vote sniffers, because I was certain that the good people of my county would never engage in vote fraud, suppression, or anything else that would give Terry McAuliffe's hitmen ammunition. Speaking of which, I didn't see anyone hovering about as an election nuisance; if there's to be any cheating, it would be an inside job in this precinct.

Enh. I took my "I VOTED" sticker and meandered on out to face the rest of an uncertain and probably uneasy day. That being said, I love to vote. Intelligent exercise of the franchise is probably one of the most honorable things that a man can do in the Republic, and I am happier for doing it. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh, bollocks and bother. I'm watching the news on NBC, specifically their fawning coverage of Senator John Kerry. He's at some worthless rally in some battleground State, when I stop listening and start looking.

Lo and behold, he appears to have the same Boston Red Sox hat that I do. Admittedly, this can't be too surprising, given the fact that their hat logo's pretty generic. There's not a lot that can be done with a red 'B'. Nonetheless, I'd bet that my hat was bought before his was, and I've got the receipt to prove it.

At any rate, I'm hoping that the collective States in the New England area used up all their luck last week in the World Series, and that Senator Kerry won't have anything to draw on. I'll be voting early---but not often, !@#$---tomorrow so that I'll have done my civic duty in voting for George W. Bush and the Republican Party's congressional candidate. Down with Kerry/Edwards '04!

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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