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The Democrats have just been annihilated yet again at the polls. Their controversial candidate from the liberal Irish strongholds of the Northeast lost decisively by millions of votes and the Republicans swept the presidency, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The new president, championing the conservative, religious Heartland values of America's old Anglo-Saxon and Scotch-Irish ethnic core is confident the party will set the direction of the nation for at least a generation to come. Sorry, President Herbert Hoover, but this is 1928 and the Great Depression is about to come knocking at the door.

"George Bush'sunpopularity around the world is unequalled in the history of the United States. Never has the outcome of an American presidential election been so impatiently anticipated around the world, and never have so many people wished that voters 'oust the incumbent from the White House,' to such a degree." These words were printed in Tuesday's edition of Le Monde, the influential Parisian daily newspaper, as American voters headed to the polls in unprecedented numbers. With this latest anti-Bush rant, the Paris newspaper has come a long way from the historic headline it ran a day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Manhattan and the Pentagon, when it headlined the now famous banner, "We are all Americans."

Healer cells engineered to attack cancer HOUSTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Texas researchers have created a system to deliver anti-cancer treatments directly to a tumor without hurting surrounding tissue. The new technique uses the cells that naturally help heal injuries. When the body is wounded it signals mesenchymal stem cells. These cells migrate to the damaged areas, surround them, and morph into the types of cells needed to repair the wound.

President George W. Bush cut it fine, but he made it in the end. The president owed his re-election victory Tuesday night to the bonds he forged with the U.S. people in the terrible days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to massive deficit spending that cushioned unemployment losses that would otherwise have been far more severe, but most of all to a tactically superb nationwide organization that was at its most formidable in the Republican-controlled vital swing states of Ohio and Florida, both of which eventually tilted crucially into the GOP column, just as they did four years ago. At the end of the day, the enormous pro-Democratic Party voter-registration drive failed to provide any magic margin to tilt Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee, over the top. As we predicted in these columns, many of the newly registered voters, especially the young among them, appear to have broken for President Bush.

Today is Monday, Nov. 8, the 313th day of 2004 with 53 to follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British astronomer Edmond Halley in 1656; author Margaret Mitchell ("Gone With the Wind") in 1900; actresses Katharine Hepburn in 1909 and June Havoc in 1916 (age 88); heart transplant pioneer Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1922; TV journalist Morley Safer ("60 Minutes") in 1931 (age 73); singers Patti Page in 1927 (age 77), Minnie Riperton in 1947 and Bonnie Raitt in 1949 (age 55); TV personality Mary Hart in 1951 (age 53); actress Alfre Woodard in 1953 (age 51); singer Ricki Lee Jones in 1954 (age 50); and actresses Courtney Thorne-Smith in 1967 (age 37) and Parker Posey in 1968 (age 36).

Norway's King Harald canceled his appearances during a state visit to Vietnam Tuesday because of a stomach illness. King Harald and Queen Sonja arrived in Asia last week, first for a state visit to Singapore and then a visit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Where the United States performs superlatively is in the collection of information. Whether it is the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency or one of the lesser-known acronyms in the intelligence community's alphabet soup, vast volumes of data are processed and sent up the food chain. Yet, for all that, much of the intelligence inputs get analyzed from a context and perspective that ultimately distorts their meaning. Osama bin Laden, poster boy for the Wahhabi war of revenge against the West's victory in the Crusades, conveyed a message in his latest tape that is very different from that which a mere translation of his Arabic indicates. He offered a conditional ceasefire to Western populations, provided they elect governments that refuse to militarily intervene in the Middle East or give substantive backing to local regimes there.

Tuesday's presidential election caps a campaign season that bruised the reputation of one of the top television networks, saw the rise and fall of one candidate's future based on a scream, provided saturation and oversaturation of mud-slinging advertisements and left the country's future in the hands of Americans trying to decide between two candidates who had polarized the rest of the population. The results of the 2004 presidential election likely would be settled by the success of voter-mobilization efforts as the country remained split over President Bush, a Republican from Texas, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., while busloads of voters headed to battleground states to plead on behalf of their candidates. For Bush, the election looks to be eerily reminiscent of his contested win in 2000, while pundits predicted an even more protracted and uglier legal battle to decide the outcome. Tens of thousands of lawyers were poised in teams around the country to provide legal challenges, while both candidates charged voter intimidation and voting irregularities. For Kerry, his campaign officially began July 29 when he accepted his party's nomination at the national convention in Boston. It was the culmination of a three-year quest for the Democratic nomination that was never assured and appeared unlikely from the beginning of the party's primaries.

Today is Sunday, Oct. 31, the 305th day of 2004 with 61 to follow. This is Halloween. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.

A lineup of celebrities including Jack Klugman, Donna Mills, Connie Stevens and JoAnne Worley turned out for Veterans Appreciation Day -- an event intended to lift the spirits of hundreds of clients at a facility for homeless U.S. military veterans. The stars served lunch to the veterans who are temporarily living at the Weingart Center in downtown Los Angeles, in the heart of the city's Skid Row district. A study conducted by the Weingart Institute concluded that veterans are twice as likely as non-veterans to become homeless and represent about 20 percent of the homeless population in Los Angeles. Weingart Veterans Program manager Richard Caines told United Press International most of the clients at the center served in Vietnam, while the second-largest group is made up of Gulf War veterans.

Arab press roundup for Oct. 28: The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat Thursday quoted senior U.S. military officers in Iraq as saying that a massive U.S.-Iraqi military attack on Fallujah "cannot be avoided in the next few days." The officials told the Saudi-owned daily the assault would include major operations to take control of both Fallujah and Ramadi, and expected to close down the borders with Syria. Kuwait's al-Rai al-Aam quoted what it described as informed Islamic sources as saying that the Syrian security services have recently arrested at least 20 Arab fighters planning to enter Iraq through Syrian territories. The sources told the pro-government Kuwaiti daily that 10 days ago, the Syrian authorities arrested a Saudi fighter in a cheap hotel in central Damascus. They said that after questioning him, the suspect led investigators to a Syrian man "who harbors the mujahedin in an apartment he owns on the rural outskirts of Damascus." They said the authorities captured 20 people of different Arab nationalities, including Saudis, Yemenis and Libyans.

Last Friday, the Army announced that 843 -- 36.8 percent -- of 2,288 Individual Ready Reservists ordered to report for duty by Oct. 17 have neither reported nor asked for a delay or exemption. Many other IRR members have requested exemptions for health or personal grounds. Individual Ready Reservists are ex-soldiers. Technically, all enlisted soldiers join the armed forces for eight years. For example, if a soldier enlists for three years of active duty, upon receiving his honorable discharge from active duty, he reverts to the IRR for the next five years. During that time, he doesn't belong to a unit, doesn't drill and isn't paid. Basically, his name just remains on a list and he is subject to call-up in a war or other national emergency. The rules are different for officers. Upon finishing their active duty service, officers revert to the IRR indefinitely (the Army recently recalled a 67-year-oldpsychiatrist to active duty), unless they formally resign their commissions. The Army has announced that it will call 5,674 members of the IRR back to active duty this year and next. Major IRR call-ups are rare. The last one was during the first Gulf War. It involved slightly more than 20,000 troops.

Insider notes from United Press International for Oct. 26 U.S. relations with the European Union, already badly frayed by the Iraq war, have taken an even nastier turn over rival potential "dual use" technologies. Earlier this month U.S. representatives at a space conference in London warned that the Pentagon could attack the EU's planned Galileo network of 30 global positioning satellites, due for deployment in 2008 if it were hijacked by a hostile power such as China. Galileo is the EU and European Space Agency's bid to enter the burgeoning GPS market, which could create 150,000 additional jobs. China in September became a partner in the program. In a leaked U.S. Air Force document written two months ago, the Air Force's Undersecretary Peter Teets wrote, "What will we do 10 years from now when American lives are put at risk because an adversary chooses to leverage the global positioning system of perhaps the Galileo constellation to attack American forces with precision?" The threats were delivered at the conference after European delegates reputedly said they would not turn off or jam signals from their satellites even during a war with the United States. A senior European delegate present at the conference speaking on condition of anonymity said, "They made it clear that they would attempt what they called reversible action, but, if necessary, they would use irreversible action." The Bush administration has repeatedly expressed concerns about Galileo, especially as the program also includes Israel and Russia, fearing that Galileo could compromise U.S. and NATO GPS-based military operations as well as interfering with the Pentagon's own classified M-Code GPS system.

Following the killing of 49 unarmed recruits in Iraq -- the deadliest attack against post-Saddam Iraqi armed forces -- it is hard not to draw parallels with the situation in Lebanon 21 years ago when the U.S. Marines suffered their deadliest losses. Then, as now, it was a result of failure of U.S. foreign policy to fully grasp the complexity of the situation. Sunday was a grim day in Iraq as insurgents ambushed the recruits, shooting them "execution style," as they were headed for home leave from their base in Baquba. This latest attack seriously undermines efforts by the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Iyad Alawi to control the violence and fight the insurgency, which appears to be getting bolder by the day.

As the candidates battle over Pennsylvania and its 21 vital electoral votes, the longtime Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia appears a given for John Kerry's column. But while Kerry maintains what appears to be a comfortable hold in the city, Philadelphia supporters appear in the grip of the ABB phenomenon -- Anybody But Bush. "I would vote for a cantaloupe if it was the other candidate," Kerry supporter Bill LeFevre told United Press International. Philadelphia resident Shelby Wilson described a vote for Kerry as "the lesser of two evils."

Is the United States inept at planning for war? It is if we take it from Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow in military affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a speech this week, Cordesman argued that from Vietnam to Iraq the United States has consistently failed to develop and implement coherent grand strategic goals in times of conflict, despite our successes on the battlefield. Arguing that Bush administration's grand strategy for Iraq was "at best ridiculous," Cordesman noted that policymakers "failed to see the need for serious stability operations and nation building; they did not see the risk of insurgency; and they assumed that we were so right that our allies and the world would soon be forced to follow our lead."

The controversial documentary on Sen. John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities will be made available free to the public, it's producer said Friday. Producer Carlton Sherwood said "Stolen Honor" would be available on the Internet Monday and would also be available for screening or broadcasting.

A recent cartoon of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps just about sums up the loathing most Europeans have for U.S. President George W. Bush ahead of the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential elections. The sketch highlights different parts of Kerry's Mount Rushmore-like face that appeal to different sections of the U.S. electorate. "Perm: pleases the women," says one caption pointing to the Democratic contender's blow-dried coif. "Vietnam scars: pleases veterans," says another, while an arrow pokes fun at his "Celine Dion chin" which "pleases young people." But the most important part of Kerry's anatomy is left until last. "Not George W. Bush," it says. "Pleases everybody."

Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry closed the final debate by recalling his dying mother's words that there is nothing more important than "integrity, integrity, integrity." While moved, many people were left wondering: "Yes, but what exactly was the point?" That Kerry values integrity more than anything? That integrity is absent from President George W. Bush? Or was this a prime-time Freudian slip, his mother's words haunting him about his own deficiency? This wasn't the first time. Kerry made integrity very personal in Boston when he said he would "restore trust and credibility" to the White House. Not so subtly, the senator reminded us of the president's own 2000 pledge to restore "integrity and dignity" to the Oval Office. A rhetorical shot across the bow began echoing in the unrelenting refrains of lies and deception launched toward his opponent.

The specter of a military draft in a second Bush term raised by Sen. John Kerry and campaign supporters appeared no more than an election-year spitball Thursday to gin up draft-age voters. The Selective Service said it has been given no heads-up on preparing for renewed operations and that implementing any conscription proposal would be no uncomplicated matter. And the Army apparently is in no hurry to face the prospect of thousands of unmotivated, reluctant recruits to fill in ranks stretched thin by the increased operations tempo of combat in Iraq. "None of us are even thinking about that as a way to fill any gaps. There are forces available within the total Army (regulars, plus Reserves and National Guard)" said a Pentagon Army source, who requested anonymity. "The bottom line is there are forces that are available if the country can be convinced it is the right thing to do. We've got the people to do it."

A new report from the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee says a key figure at the Pentagon deliberately exaggerated the connection between Iraq and al-Qaida to bolster public and congressional support for the war. The alleged relationship was one of the two main reasons for the war in Iraq. The other was Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, an arsenal that has not yet been found or proven to even exist. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., sponsored the study, which was researched over the last 16 months. According to Levin, the Defense Department developed and disseminated an "alternative" assessment of the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida that made claims that could not be substantiated by the CIA and the intelligence community, and, therefore, provided inaccurate intelligence information about Saddam Hussein's relationship with al-Qaida to policymakers.

Nearly 1.7 million American military veterans lacked health insurance in 2003, a Harvard Medical School study indicates. That number represents 11.9 percent of the nation's veterans, according to the study.

"They'll be home by Christmas" said the British government as it sent troops off to fight the Boche at the optimistic start of the World War I. As Britain sends its famous old Black Watch regiment to relieve U.S. Marines -- for the first time hundreds of miles out of their area -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has said it again, and that makes a lot of Brits worried. Some 850 troops in the Black Watch battle group, it was announced Thursday, are to begin moving from Basra over the next two weeks towards an undisclosed area, expected to be the Iskandariyah area south of Baghdad where they will relieve the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Marines will prepare to join other U.S. and Iraqi troops in a strong assault on Fallujah and other towns as part of a major effort to pacify Iraq prior to elections in January. From Blair on down British officials insist this is not "mission creep" or that British troops are being sucked into a an escalating, vicious American war of the kind that a former Labor government rejected when Harold Wilson refused to support President Lyndon Johnson's policies on Vietnam with British troops in the mid 1960s.

What if they held an election and no one accepted the results? It has never happened in more than 200 years of U.S. history. But there's always a first time. One thing is already all too clear: Whomever wins on Nov. 2, unless the result is an incontestable landslide for either President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in decisive battleground states, the losing side is going to contest close results in hard-fought races all across the nation. Both the Bush and Kerry campaigns, mindful of the extraordinary complicated procedures and hairsbreadth cliffhanging returns and legal decisions that decided the 2000 presidential election, have made extensive plans to fight contested results through the legal system all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States if necessary.

Today is Monday, Oct. 25, the 299th day of 2004 with 67 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British historian Thomas Macaulay in 1800; Austrian composer Johann Strauss in 1825; French composer Georges Bizet in 1838; artist Pablo Picasso in 1881; explorer Richard Byrd in 1888; comedian Minnie Pearl in 1912; actors Tony Franciosa in 1928 (age 76) and Marion Ross in 1936 (age 68); basketball coach Bobby Knight in 1940 (age 64); author Anne Tyler and pop singer Helen Reddy, both in 1941 (age 63); and violinist Midori in 1971 (age 33).