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DEMOCRACY ON THE MARCH

The Iraq elections have begun:

The first votes in the world in the Iraq elections were cast in Australia this morning.

Polling centres in Sydney and Victoria opened at 7am (AEDT) for nearly 12,000 Iraqi expatriates who have registered to vote.

The Australian head of the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program, Bernie Hogan, said a crowd of people was waiting outside the Fairfield centre when he arrived.

“We had a line-up of probably 60 or 70 people at the front door at seven o’clock,” he said.

Beautiful.

UPDATE:

Meanwhile across the road, a small group of protesters from the World Communist Party assembled to demonstrate against the elections.

These clowns apparently haven’t heard that the Iraqi Communist Party is fielding candidates in these elections. Whatever happened to “solidarity�, comrades?

(Via Chrenkoff and Murph)

Posted by Tim B. on 01/27/2005 at 04:39 PM
  1. A certain drunken rapist and murderer serving in the U.S. Senate has some thinks this is dangerous and destabilizing:

    Now, Kennedy said, the United States and the insurgents are both battling for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the U.S. is losing.

    “There may well be violence as we disengage militarily from Iraq and Iraq disengages politically from us, but there will be much more violence if we continue our present dangerous and destabilizing course,” said Kennedy. “It will not be easy to extricate ourselves from Iraq, but we must begin.”

    More dead Kennedys please.

    (Ms. Harris it would be, IMHO, MUCH better if the “Notify me of follow-up comments?” item were unchecked by default.  Or at least if unchecking it once would stick…)

    Posted by profeti on 2005 01 27 at 06:21 PM • permalink

  2. No! The blind fools! Don’t they read the Age? Don’t they understand?! They’re supposed to run into the polling place with satchel charges and hand grenades, not vote!  These brown barbarians have no idea what true civilization is all about!

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 01 27 at 06:22 PM • permalink

  3. And there’s NOTHING on this on the front page of the NYT online.

    Posted by m on 2005 01 27 at 07:18 PM • permalink

  4. Profeti,
    I second you on the uncheck notify me of follow-up comments; I didn’t notice, and didn’t uncheck; uh-oh.

    Posted by m on 2005 01 27 at 07:20 PM • permalink

  5. Guys: I attempted to send out an email on the notify thing, but I’m having a bit of trouble emailing. Anyway, to keep the notify checkbox empty by default, go to your profile page (use the “Your Account” link under the comment box) go to “email settings” and deselect the “Enable email notifications by default when you post messages” box on the right-hand side of the screen.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 01 27 at 07:31 PM • permalink

  6. Meanwhile across the road, a small group of protesters from the World Communist Party assembled to demonstrate against the elections.

    The phones are probably ringing out down at Ultimo and at Sussex St.

    Posted by murph on 2005 01 27 at 07:47 PM • permalink

  7. Wait a minute - I thought the election begins on Sunday.  Is it already Sunday in Australia?

    Must be something wrong with the time zones again.

    Posted by JayC on 2005 01 27 at 08:09 PM • permalink

  8. Last night on the ABC’s 7:30 Report, aside from endorsing cheque-book journalism so that the hapless Mr. Habib could make a bundle out of his escapades with Al-Qaeda, Kerry O’Brien referred to Sunday’s election in Iraq as, “being billed as the country’s first democratic election.”
    Even at this late stage the Left simply can’t accept that history is being made this weekend. To these so-called ‘progressives’ the prospect that things may actually workout in Iraq is too horrible to contemplate. They would gladly sacrifice Iraq and its people just to score a few petty points in their self-indulgent ideological war and to see the United States fail.
    NO Mr. O’Brien it’s not merely the promotion that makes it so. It’s that inconvenient little thing called history which brings you and your sneering ilk undone. A history that will undoubtedly be set upon by the misery loving Left should, God forbid, things turn out well.

    Posted by Brian on 2005 01 27 at 08:10 PM • permalink

  9. I guess it’s “being billed as” because Saddam already won a real, authentic democratic election with some 6 trillion percent of the vote and nobody disenfranchised by long lines.  How’s he doing in the polls this time around?

    Posted by carpetback on 2005 01 27 at 09:22 PM • permalink

  10. carpetback — You’ve heard of absentee ballots?  He’s the absentee candidate…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 01 27 at 09:47 PM • permalink

  11. It’s no use expecting logic from the looney left.  They wouldn’t recognize reality if it stabbed them in the ass.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 01 27 at 09:51 PM • permalink

  12. There’s an urgent need to liberate the Australian Labor (sic) party. They now have a new leader who received 100 per cent of the vote. There were no other candidates. He does not, however, wear a moustache.

    (Wonders… if the Liberal Party of Australian was founded by unionists, would it have been called the Libral Party?)

    Posted by Henry boy on 2005 01 27 at 10:11 PM • permalink

  13. What amazes me if how tone deaf the Democratic party is.  These people keep telling us how “stupid” the republicans are. They really need a dose of introspection.
    Someone like Zell needs to tell Teddy to STFU.

    Posted by jvk on 2005 01 27 at 11:11 PM • permalink

  14. C’mon, jvk.  That would be a waste of Zell’s time.  Have *you* ever tried to shut up an obnoxious drunk?  Hopeless.  I just close my eyes when I hear Ted “Speedo” Kennedy and imagine a crappy bar and a fat, pushy drunk yelling, “Whadday mean it’s closing time? I wannaother drink.”  Works for me.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 01 27 at 11:20 PM • permalink

  15. The World Communist Party would clearly prefer the type of elections that were held in the now thankfully ex-communist country I grew up in - that is, one candidate, one party and voting being compulsory. Or maybe, better still, no elections at all. I mean, who needs elections anyway when you are already living in paradise run by the people for the people?

    No wonder the Left love Saddam so - he clearly was the perfect candidate from their point of view.

    JPB

    Posted by JPB on 2005 01 28 at 12:37 AM • permalink

  16. Not much of a word about it on the online editions of Australian newspapers. Plenty about St Mamdou though

    Posted by Nic on 2005 01 28 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  17. Brian.

    Red Kerry’s not the only ABC apparatchik who’s upset about the possibility of Iraq’s elections being reasonably successful. Just listened to ABC Radio’s PM with Tanya Nolan talking to Peter Cave (the ABC’s man in Bagdad)about the impending elections. Cave seemed reasonably objective and almost upbeat about prospects ( which probably means that his career prospects with the ABC aren’t all that good). Nolan seemed to be reading from a different script because after each of Cave’s comments, she translated for us thick proles putting her own spin on what was said.
    Man! if this bint could bowl and played for Australia, most of the world’s cricket teams could stay home and take up baseball.

    Posted by Boss Hog on 2005 01 28 at 03:57 AM • permalink

  18. I heard Ted Kennedy on the way home from work today saying that the US should withdraw, and that Iraq was another Vietman.
    It is much more serious than that, and the only similarity is that creeps like him are undermining public morale.
    Iraq must be persisted with. The only withdrawal should be sideways. Take the fight to the others who are participants in the conflict.
    ABC - reform or be disbanded. Having been modelled on the BBc they can’t stop tracking the BBC’s “progress” from news and entertainment through to agitprop disguised as news & entertainment.
    It may date back to David Hill (referred to by Frank Morgan as Wran’s Revenge) or it may just be creeping takeover of arty lefties and their fellow travellers (aka journalists).

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 01 28 at 05:58 AM • permalink

  19. It dates back way before David Hill. The ABC was always Left Central. In past times, it had, however, many good things to balance that. It still has a few, but sadly, far fewer than in those days; and today it also has far more stations broadcasting left-wing culture. Just look at its program notes. No subject, no matter how apparently innocuous or unconnected with politics, is left untouched by leftie spin.

    Posted by ilibcc on 2005 01 28 at 07:15 AM • permalink

  20. Iraqi nationals in the US begin voting today.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 01 28 at 11:02 AM • permalink

  21. Here’s more on pan-communist solidarity.

    Posted by TheTapir on 2005 01 28 at 11:40 AM • permalink

  22. Off topic—
    Trackbacks aren’t working—here’s the error:

    Notice: Undefined variable: tb_array in /home/lilith33/public_html/tim2/ee/croc/modules/trackback/mcp.trackback.php on line 455
    1 Trackback unable to be accepted 0 1. Trackback unable to be acceptedtimblair.net /ee/index.php/trackback/1192/wowjQpOe/


    Anyway, about the Commies—I expect no less than such utter stupidity.  What a laugh!

    Posted by Beth on 2005 01 28 at 12:34 PM • permalink

  23. The WCP knows thet the ICP are a bunch of splitters. Practically Trotskyites.

    Posted by Sigivald on 2005 01 28 at 03:42 PM • permalink

  24. Perhaps follow Teddy’s lead. Get the troops to do a runner then call the lawyers when they get home.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2005 01 28 at 04:26 PM • permalink

  25. James Tranto on WSJ on-line had the best line of the day on Fat Teddy’s speech at Johns Hopkins:
    “If he (Ted Kennedy) has his way, democracy in Iraq will suffer the same fate as Mary Jo Kopechne.”

    Priceless.

    A Degenerate Dynasty

    Posted by Bucky Katt on 2005 01 28 at 04:47 PM • permalink

  26. God bless and keep every Iraqi who squares their shoulders, draws a deep breath, and sets off to their local polling place to cast a vote.

    God bless’em every one.

    —furious

    Posted by furious_a on 2005 01 28 at 06:19 PM • permalink

  27. Beth: for some reason Worpress’s trackbacks don’t always work correctly with Pmachine/Expression Engine’s. I don’t know why they are both PHP programs. They usually work fine with Movable Type, go figure. If this helps, I have the “randomize Trackback url” setting set to “on” to deter automated trackback spams. The Wordpress support forums might be able to help.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 01 28 at 07:23 PM • permalink

  28. Yeah Boss I know!
    Last week they had a documentary…if you could call it that…on the commie-loving singer Paul Robson. To promote it they played the Star-Spangled Banner accompanied by footage of the Ku Klux Klan! This week (on Tuesday) it’s more Fox bashing. Last Night “Red Kerry”...who actually lives like a capitalist…said of the holocaust, “that it was PERHAPS the worst crime of the twentieth century.” Now how’s THAT for revisionism!?

    Posted by Brian on 2005 01 28 at 07:24 PM • permalink

  29. I agree blogstrop.
    Just take a look at their new nightly news format.
    Looks and sounds every bit like their BBC counterpart, right up to the pretentious theme. Doesn’t quite scale the 7:30 Report’s dizzying heights of pretention though, but when you throw in all that BBC-style sneer and sarcasm, from all those vicious sissies, it comes mighty close.

    Posted by Brian on 2005 01 28 at 07:32 PM • permalink

  30. Check out the quote at http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_01_23_corner-archive.asp#054540
    for an answer to the Vietnam analogy:
    The insurgency here [he’s in Iraq] has no philosophy to speak of. This isn`t a philosophy like the Viet Cong that had communism, that had a national leader, Ho Chi Minh, that they adored. The insurgents basically have no philosophy, except no government, no control, no self-determination.

    BTW, anybody know how many Iraqi expats there are around the world?

    Posted by AST on 2005 01 28 at 07:55 PM • permalink

  31. Brian console yourself by reminiscing O’Brien emceeing ABCelection night coverage.Picture him being forced to describe the ALP’S further humiliation and defeat.You would have thought he was a passenger on the ill fated Hindenberg as his world fell apart around him.(No disrespect intended).The ABC actually covered the phenomenon of schaudenfreude on one programme, irony being they were not referring to themselves.I honestly, sincerely believe they want the election to fail and are doing their damndest to assist in that objective.

    Posted by crash on 2005 01 28 at 08:30 PM • permalink

  32. Well, the Sydney Morning Herald is getting started early with the “violence mars election” line… apparently there was a bit of shoving in the queue to vote in Sydney, so the headline is:

    “Democracy dawns with a shove in a Sydney queue”

    Mind you, that’s not the dumbest SMH headline of the day. That honour goes to:

    “Snow fails to soften horrors of Auschwitz”

    which may also be the dumbest of the year.

    Posted by Jorge on 2005 01 28 at 08:59 PM • permalink

  33. Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

    “How do we tell if the Iraqi elections are a success? That they happen at all? Surely we should have a higher standard than that. Here are my criteria: over 50 percent turnout among the Shia and Kurds, and over 30 percent turnout for the Sunnis. No massive disruption of voting places; no theft of ballots. Fewer than 500 murdered. Any other suggestions for relevant criteria? Am I asking too much? I’m just thinking out loud. But it makes sense to have some guidelines before Sunday so we don’t just fit what happens to our pre-existing hopes or rationalizations.”

    I’m not sure why we can’t simply wait until Sunday before commenting on the success of the outcome.

    Posted by Butch on 2005 01 28 at 10:25 PM • permalink

  34. Brian,to be fair the Soviet and Chinese “collectivisations” both killed as many people or more than the holocaust.

    Somehow though, I suspect, that is not what Kerry had in mind!

    Posted by Local oaf on 2005 01 28 at 10:58 PM • permalink

  35. Further to my previous post, I did not intend to suggest that the Holocaust should be diminished by any comparison with other 20th-century disasters.
    The fact that there were enough genocides to even make such a ranking possible is a terrible tragedy.

    I suspect Kerry O’Brien’ s comments were just evidence of the left’s gradual slide from anti-Israeli to anti-Semitic.  They seem to feel it necessary to put their own spin on any issue, or event that could possibly arouse sympathy for the Jewish people.

    Posted by Local oaf on 2005 01 29 at 12:54 AM • permalink

  36. Just as an insight into the thought process of those, like the WCP, who oppose these elections:

    Tonight in Canada, on a foreign-affairs panel show called Diplomatic Immunity televised on public broadcaster TVOntario, the group invited an Iraqi history professor (who will be voting in the election) and a loathsome professional hate-monger named Iwad Khadduri (who will not be voting) to put forth their opinions.

    Khadduri’s interesting viewpoints included full support for the Iraqi ‘resistance’, which he claimed was opposing the ‘occupation’ (how they do that by blowing up innocent Iraqis, he never did explain), and warmly lauding the Taliban’s ‘democratic’ process of assembling 200 ‘tribal leaders’ to discuss whether to accede to the United States’ demand for the handover of Osama bin Laden.  During the process of piling accolades upon the beheaders and suicide bombers of his beloved ‘resistance’, he claimed they were doing great things by voting the only proper way - with bullets and explosions.

    To sum up the considered opinion of the anti-election retards:  vote with bullets and the democratic ideal of the Taliban will be your reward.

    Unfortunately, neither the unusually passive panel nor the pro-election prof really took the opportunity to pound Khadduri’s disgusting rhetoric into the metaphysical nothingness his repulsive views deserve. A wasted opportunity to truly humiliate at least one purveyor of sickening madness.

    Too bad the show didn’t replace wishy-washy windbag Lew Mackenzie with Andrew Coyne.  He’d have torn Khadduri a new one.

    Anyway, I for one hope Khadduri finds the ‘courage’ to leave hypocrisy behind and votes with his preferred method.  And earns a 5.56mm round delivered from an Iraqi Security Forces weapon between his eyes for his efforts.

    /Canada-centric, sorry
    /but this performance tonight really pissed me off

    Posted by Crispytoast on 2005 01 29 at 01:26 AM • permalink

  37. andy sullivan and teddy kennedy.

    a match made in heaven.

    Posted by guinsPen on 2005 01 29 at 01:53 AM • permalink

  38. Yes Jorge that is the stupidest headline of all time.

    Posted by ilibcc on 2005 01 29 at 07:43 AM • permalink

  39. Local oaf,
    You hit the nail right on the head Mate!

    Posted by Brian on 2005 01 29 at 08:56 PM • permalink

  40. What I still dont understand is the level of hatred that lefties have for the various incumbents. Its all thru Sydney, all the professionals are maintaining a state of horror.

    I put it down to stressed out lives; politics to them is a way of letting off steam.  Confronted with evidence they go quiet, I can hear them thinking “hes one of them”, I’m marked as a redneck and allowances are made.

    Posted by rog2 on 2005 01 30 at 02:06 AM • permalink

  41. Just to put the record straight, I was initially against Iraq, based on evidence in local press which I then quickly found to be totally superficial.

    Posted by rog2 on 2005 01 30 at 02:09 AM • permalink

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