The Dish

David Corn offers his assessment of the post-NY-23 Palinapalooza.

NIAC compiles the early reports:

According to Parleman News, scattered clashes have taken place between the security forces and protestors in Seven Tir Square in Tehran.  The security forces have reportedly used tear gas several times while the number of protesters is increasing. 

Mowj Camp reports that Tehran University students have left the university to join the demonstrations.  According to Mowj Camp, anti-riot police has attacked the protesters who were going from the university to Seven Tir Square and there have been clashes in other parts of Tehran.  Bullets were also shot in the air around Seven Tir Square.

Enduring America has more footage. Another clip after the jump:

The Guardian blog captions:

This one is appears to have been shot undercover so it is difficult to get a sense of what is going on, but the crowd can be heard chanting "don't be afraid, we are altogether" and "down with the dictator". Fires can also be seen burning in the streets – a sign that teargas has been used as the smoke weakens the power of the gas.

DiA notices that the South dislikes more than the President.

Newest Deal's Masoud sets the stage:

Basiji commanders have announced that three million members of their militia will be deployed. Supreme Leader Khamenei again gave stern warning to the Green movement just last week, stating that the questioning of the June election is a crime. If there was any doubt whether his words were empty rhetoric, then the proceeding sentences handed down to 50 political detainees for committing just this "crime" should suffice. The regime is preparing for confrontation, perhaps because it has no choice — no choice but to retreat and wither.

The Basij headband above reads: “Khamenei is the leader.”

Jean MacKenzie reports:

As interim president after the American invasion, Karzai systematically drove out anyone who did not agree with him or who challenged his power. One of them was Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who held the post of finance minister from 2002 to 2004 and who can legitimately be credited with creating the post-9/11 structure of Afghanistan. (Ghani came in fourth place during the recent elections.) Based on his own experience, Ghani told me that any attempt at power-sharing is doomed to failure. “Karzai will make it impotent within three months,” he said.

A reader writes:

You've recently posted several quotes by Gideon Levy of Haaretz. I'm an Israeli leftist, operate a leftist blog, participated in the Bil'in demonstrations, and I can tell you that most leftists won't touch Levy with a ten foot pole. He's our equivalent of Michael Moore; mostly he interviews Palestinians about the horrors they go through.

Having served in the territories, I can testify to some horrors – but Levy, who spent some 20 years in the territories and has a weekly spot about this, does not speak Arabic. Somehow he never bothered to learn it. He gets his information via translators, many of whom are employed by the Palestinian Authority. Now, the IDF has a penchant for lying, but it's got nothing on the Palestinians when it comes to deception. Levi, for all practical purposes, is a Palestinian fellow-traveler and useful idiot. He has basically zero credibility or influence among Israeli Jews, even leftist ones. His columns should be viewed in that light.

The Iranian opposition movement makes a grand gesture:

On the occasion of the anniversary of the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran, moderate cleric, Ayatollah Hoseinali Montazeri, revisited the event which he had approved of at the time, and claimed “considering the negative effects and heightened sensitivity” it produced amongst Americans, he believes it was a “mistaken” act. The Shiite cleric added, taking over the embassy of a country that was not in “official war” with Iran was akin to “declaring war on that country.” He claimed even “some of the revolutionary and committed youth, who were instrumental in that act at the time, now believe that it was a mistake.”

Full statement here.

Tehran Bureau puts together a primer on the historical significance of today's date – known on the Iranian calendar as "13 Aban":

Nov. 4 marks the the day, 30 years ago, when Islamic leftist students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 69 people hostage. Seventeen of them were released at various times, but the remaining 52 remained captive for 444 days. The event was a watershed in U.S.-Iran relations with repercussions still felt today. The main consequence of that event has been that the United States, the most powerful nation on earth, and Iran, the most important country in the Middle East, have not had diplomatic relations for three decades.

Nov. 4 also marks the anniversary of two other important events in the history of contemporary Iran. On that day in 1964, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi forced Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini into exile, first to Turkey and then to Najaf, Iraq. The Ayatollah returned to Iran triumphantly on February 1, 1979, after the Shah had gone into exile on January 16, 1979.

It was also on Nov. 4, 1978, that a gathering of students on the campus of the University of Tehran was attacked by the Shah's security forces. Scores of young people were killed, including students as young as 13. That event made it clear that the confrontation between the Shah and the Iranian people had entered its final stage, and that it could end only if the Shah was removed from power.

Much more here.

We will have more reaction later this morning. But for now, here's a round-up of bloggy goodness, assessing the still-incomplete results from tonight. First up, the always essential  Ambers:

Yes, independents are moving to the GOP. That's a big headline. Bad

news for Dems, etc, etc. But. And this is important: these are conservative independents. Many disassociated with the GOP — at least in terms of what they tell pollsters — because of the GOP brand problems and because it's cool to be independent in parts of the country and in parts of states. Don't confuse "moderates" with "independents."  Still, it seems clear that for people who call themselves independent, Republican messages wear better than Democrats.

DiA:

As for the wider implications of the elections, the Wall Street Journal points out, "Going back to 1989, one party swept the off-year gubernatorial elections five times. Three of those times, that party also won the following year's congressional elections; twice it did not." So, nothing.

Jonathan Chait:

It seems pretty clear that new Jersey and Virginia vote for the out-of-power party every four years now. Yes, there's a lot more energy on the right, but no, this election (the outcome of which I don't yet know, except Virginia) isn't evidence of it. I think basically everybody in politics understands this. I also think the political news media will tend to treat the elections as important, because the media has a bias toward reading importance into every new thing that happens. If you're going to have a discussion on cable news about what the elections mean, the producer isn't going to be very pleased if everybody says it doesn't mean anything.

Jennifer Rubin:

Multiple news outlets are calling the New Jersey gubernatorial race for Republican Chris Christie. Yes, this is largely a referendum on the incumbent governor and the tax, corruption, and budget woes which bedeviled his administration. But this is New Jersey, a Blue state where Obama campaigned hard for the Democratic candidate, Jon Corzine. He made five separate stops. Corzine’s ads looked like Obama ads. Corzine tied himself tightly to Obama, but it helped not at all.

McArdle:

2010 won't be about Obama either.  Oh, his performance over the next year will matter–but he's not going to get that surge of voters out to the polls for house and senate races.  The Blue Dogs who are up for election in 2010 aren't worried about Obama, or his voters.  They're worried about their own political fates.

Yglesias:

I think you can see from the unexpected closeness in the NYC mayor’s race that an economic catastrophe is not a good time to be an incumbent elected official.