FEAR OF FLORIDA: What the matter, networks? Afraid to call Florida this time around? Et tu, Fox? It’s okay. I understand. I’ll call it for you. Bush wins it. He’s ahead by 4.2 percent with 93.5 percent counted.

BUSH IS AHEAD in Florida by 4 percentage points with more than 85 percent of the vote counted. (See here for the live tally.)

BUSH IS AHEAD in Florida by 4 percentage points with 79.2 percent of the vote counted. (See here for the live tally.)

CALL ’EM YOURSELF: Drudge links to the realtime vote tallies for Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

COUNTY MAPS: You can drill down into CNN’s state map to find red and blue counties. (Via The Corner.)

BUSH WINS VIRGINIA – NBC.

NBC CALLS North Carolina for Bush.

SOLIDARITY: Filmmaker Theo van Gogh’s murder was loudly protested by 20,000 people, including some of his political enemies, in the streets of Amsterdam today. (Hat tip: Eric the Unread, who really does deserve to be read.)

ZELL MILLER did not seek re-election this year. His former seat was won today by Johnny Isakson, a Republican.

YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE READING THIS. And I’m lucky to post it. 601am says we’re under denial-of-service attack.

UPDATE: Then again, Hosting Matters says it’s a bandwidth problem that should settle down shortly.

FOR THE RECORD, I take Jeff Jarvis’ post-election peace pledge.

JOE KATZMAN posts a Media Watch roundup at Winds of Change.

GUANTANAMO IN FRANCE? OUI. You can’t make this stuff up.

Armed with some of the strictest anti-terrorism laws and policies in Europe, the French government has aggressively targeted Islamic radicals and other people deemed a potential terrorist threat. While other Western countries debate the proper balance between security and individual rights, France has experienced scant public dissent over tactics that would be controversial, if not illegal, in the United States and some other countries.

JOHN KERRY’S chief pollster predicts a 3-point Bush victory.

ELECTION DAY REMINDERS: Let’s get a couple of things out of the way before today’s votes are counted.

You have the right to vote. You do not have the right to see the man of your choice in the White House.

If George W. Bush wins the election, the world will still spin on its axis. Canada will not grant you asylum. If John Kerry wins the election, America will still be America. Australia will not grant you asylum.

People who vote for the other guy aren’t stupid, brainwashed, or evil. They are your friends and family. Someone you love will almost certainly cancel your vote. (My wife cancels out mine.)

If, by some chance, everyone you know votes for the loser it won’t mean the election was stolen. It will only show that you live in a bubble.

If this thing is close (the victor could easily win by 0.1 percent) try not to read too much into it. We’ll still be closely divided.

If the election doesn’t go your way, don’t pop off as though America were Guatemala under the generals. You’ll get lots of attention, but it won’t be the kind you want. People will laugh, not near you but at you.

OSAMA BIN LADEN declares Robert Fisk a neutral. Wow. That must have taken some effort, Bob.

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: Germany’s largest newspaper demands the Queen of England apologize for Britain’s bombing of Germany in the war against Hitler. Oddly enough, this is the same paper that endorsed the election of George W. Bush. (Hat tip: Jeff Jarvis)

F911, INDEED. Most of us who have seen or read a transcript of Osama bin Laden’s new video noticed how much the reconstructed jihadist’s rhetoric has in common with Michael Moore’s. Moore noticed, as well. From his Web site:

There he was, OBL, all tan and rested and on videotape (hey, did you get the feeling that he had a bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in Afghanistan?)

He’s bragging about this in the middle of an anti-Bush taunt. I’d be embarrassed if a mass-murdering fascist reminded me of myself. If something like this doesn’t give the man a reality check, absolutely nothing ever will.

(Hat tip: Jim Boston.)

CLUELESS: Novelist Tom Wolfe tells the Guardian that his own liberal elite social set hasn’t a clue.

END OF AN ERA: The American tripwire dividing North and South Korea is no more.

PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) – The United States has relinquished its last outpost in the Demilitarized Zone to South Korea and cut troops there as part of a deal to give Seoul more responsibility for guarding the tense border with the North.

The change, which took effect at midnight on Sunday, is part of a much bigger picture in which the United States is cutting its forces on the divided peninsula by a third from 37,500 and moving bases further south away from the border.

South Koreans, especially those in the younger generation, increasingly resent the U.S. military presence. The war that purchased their freedom is passing out of living memory. I wish they could be a little more grateful. My grandfather was wounded in battle on their behalf. My father was stationed in the DMZ when I was born.

I can’t really blame them, though. South Korea isn’t a Third World victim anymore. It’s a grown-up First World success story now. Today marks their rite of passage into national adulthood.

SHOCKING HEADLINE in the Washington Times: Study find press pro-Kerry.

CARRYING WATER FOR BEIJING: Somebody needs to have a few words with Colin Powell. His recent comments about Taiwan are inexcusable.

“Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy,” he said.

In Taipei this was regarded as the harshest, most decisive expression of this principle made for some time, at least during the administration of US President George W Bush. And it was a remark that managed to annoy just about everyone, irrespective of where he or she stood on the political spectrum.

I imagine his remarks will annoy just about everyone in this country, as well.

Taiwan is surely the Israel of East Asia. The tiny democracy doesn’t stand a chance in the appeasement-minded court of world opinion against its vastly more populous tyrannical enemy. And because of its size it’s somehow undiplomatic (or whatever the noxious realpolitik rationale is) to recognize its right to exist securely and independently.

I know President Bush doesn’t like to argue with his administration in public, but I think it’s time to make an exception. This is no way to treat a country that should be an ally.

(Hat tip: Harry’s Place.)

OSAMA BIN LOSIN’. Three years ago Osama bin Laden shook the world and swung history on its hinges. Today Nelson Ascher notes that he can barely survive a 24-hour news cycle.

UNHINGED: The Beeb asked its audience “What is your reaction to the [bin Laden] tape and its message?” Whoo boy. Britain’s Eric the Unread points out that way too many of those polled are wallowing in conspiracy theory-riddled bollocks.

JIHAD TV: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT: At least some people took a look at the uncut and unrated version of Osama bin Laden’s latest episode of Jihad TV. Niles Lethem at the New York Post has the details.

Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

The tape also sparked some concern that an attack aimed at disrupting Tuesday’s election may be planned.