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YES FOR THE FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY!
Voting is underway in Iraq. Hammorabi summarises the issues:
Our voting is:
No to the terrorists!
No to the dictatorships!
No to hate and racism!
No to the fascists!
No to the Nazis!
No to the mentally retarded tyrants!
No to the ossified, narrow-minded and intolerants!
The Iraqis are voting in few hours time for the new Iraq.
We are going to create our future by ourselves not by dictators.We are going to say:
Yes for the freedom and democracy!
Yes for the civilized Iraq!
Yes for peace and prosperity!
Yes for coexistence!
Yes for the New Iraq!
Let them bomb and kill us. It will not deter us!
Let them send their dogs to suck our bones. We care not!
Let them bark. It will not frighten us.
Let them see how civilised to be free and democratic!
Let them die by our vote tomorrow! It is the magic bullet which will kill them!
Welcome New Iraq.
Welcome freedom and democracy.
Welcome peace and prosperity for all nations with out exception but terrorists!
What he said. Jeff Jarvis has a comprehensive roundup of other Iraqi views, and Friends of Democracy—edited by Michael Totten, with contributors all over Iraq—is seeking reader input for upcoming C-SPAN election coverage (among guests who’ll field your questions: Christopher Hitchens). Head over there now.
UPDATE. The first several hours of election TV, as viewed by Roger L. Simon. Sharp, funny, and opinionated, just the way you like it.
UPDATE II. It’s the opposite of the Damning But:
At least 20 people have been killed in eight separate suicide attacks on polling stations in Iraq but voters are defying insurgents’ bombs and casting their ballots in an historic poll.
UPDATE III. Egad! Positive news from the ABC:
The chief United Nations electoral official in Iraq says the turnout of voters in some parts of the country is exceeding expectations, despite the violence and intimidation.
UPDATE IV. Mohammed’s inspiring pre-election post has drawn 797 comments.
UPDATE V. Mixed reports from BBC correspondents throughout Iraq:
Roaa Al-Zarari: There’s been a problem in Hamdiya, just outside Mosul. This town is inhabited by Christians and Chaldeans.
But no ballot boxes have been sent there. Residents shouted at the local district officers demanding boxes to be sent.
Fadel al Badrani: A number of polling stations have opened in [Falluja] in the north, north-east, and inside the public park. The turnout to all these stations is very low.
Paul Wood: So far there have been nine suicide bombings in Baghdad, including two car bombs ... We have seen voting here in the capital, and in the streets close to the BBC office the atmosphere was almost euphoric.
Christian Fraser: We were told the Shia would turn out in big numbers and so it has proved. From Basra to Al Amarah, to the northern most sections of the British zone, thousands of people are lined up on the streets.
Mohammad Hussein: A lot of women turned out and their numbers dwarf those of the men. I have seen very old people unable to walk, I have seen blind people being led to the polling stations.
Caroline Hawley: Iraqi authorities have told us there have now been seven suicide bombings carried out by men with explosives strapped around their bodies. There has also been a mortar attack in Sadr City in Baghdad which killed four voters.
Ben Brown: Turnout [in Basra] has been extraordinary. We’ve been to a few polling stations in the city centre and we’ve seen huge queues of men and women who were searched separately. Some have had to wait for an hour before casting their ballot.
Jim Muir: There are very big crowds starting to form at the polling station in the centre of Arbil.
(Via Arthur Chrenkoff, who has many more useful links.)
UPDATE VI. Inky goodness!
UPDATE VII. The Guardian describes murderous assaults as retaliation:
Iraqis voted in nationwide elections today and insurgents retaliated with attacks on polling stations.
Iraqi officials reported a turnout of 72%, but at least 22 people were killed in attacks across the country.
As usual, a guest appearance from the Damning But. (Via J.F. Beck)
UPDATE VIII. Robert Fisk is soooooo cynical:
Yes, I know how it’s all going to be played out. Iraqis bravely vote despite the bloodcurdling threats of the enemies of democracy. At last, the US and British policies have reached fruition. A real and functioning democracy will be in place so the occupiers can leave soon. Or next year. Or in a decade or so. Merely to hold these elections - an act of folly in the eyes of so many Iraqis - will be a “success”.
Happy No Thanks Day, Bobby.
UPDATE IX. The BBC’s Mohammad Hussein mentioned above that he’d seen old people being helped to polling stations. Here’s one fellow in Suleimaniya being carried to the polls.
UPDATE X. CNN examines turnout numbers and reports:
In the northeastern town of Baquba, CNN’s Jane Arraf found a polling station where a long line of Iraqi voters chanted and clapped their hands in front of the camera.
One voter told Arraf that Sunday’s vote was a “bullet in the heart of the enemy.”
Further north in the Kurdistan town of Salamanca, CNN’s Nic Robertson reported seeing a 90-year-old woman being taken to a booth in a wheelbarrow. Others came on crutches to cast their ballot.
UPDATE XI. Positive news from—wait for it— Reuters:
There was quiet determination in the air as voters turned out in force in Basra, a relatively peaceful region compared with Baghdad and the Sunni Arab heartlands of central Iraq.
“We are very happy for this day. It’s like Eid—a celebration,” said Jassim Mohammed Jassim, an election observer from the Islamic Daawa Party.
With cars banned from the city center, people strolled from their neighborhoods in groups or with their families. Children played football in the middle of a normally busy highway.
It’s kind of like Michael Moore’s version of Iraq, as shown in Fahrenheit 9/11. Except without the dictator killing people and his son dragging women away to rape.
UPDATE XII. How do Doonesbury characters breathe, exactly? It must be difficult when you’ve got a cheese wedge for a nose. (Via Jim Treacher in comments.)
UPDATE XIII. Yet more positive news from Reuters (via J.F. Beck, reeling in astonishment):
Millions of Iraqis turned out to vote Sunday, defying anti-U.S. insurgents determined to drown the historic poll in blood.
Even in Falluja, the devastated Sunni city west of Baghdad that was a militant stronghold until a U.S. assault in November, a slow stream of people turned out, confounding expectations.
“We want to be like other Iraqis, we don’t want to always be in opposition,” said Ahmed Jassim, smiling after voting.
UPDATE XIV. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul McGeough performs the rare Reverse Damning But:
Voting in Iraq’s first attempt at democratic elections in half a century opened to a deadly barrage of explosions across the capital. But even before it closed early today, Sydney time, the ballot had prevailed over the bullets and the bombs.
McGeough also notes: “The provisional figures will be seen as a stunning victory for Washington’s policy of democratising the Middle East and will cause great anxiety among the region’s unelected leaders.”
And journalists.
UPDATE XV. To hell with you, McGruder.
I’m not in the habit of recommending Doonesbury, but I thought you guys might enjoy this DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN moment.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 01 30 at 09:38 AM • permalinkBy the way, I e-mailed you a couple other links, Tim.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 01 30 at 10:01 AM • permalinkditto Carl… good to see the iraqi ppl showing some balls (er…) in the face of the insurgents…
“we shall crush them - rebel scum” - LORD VADER
(BTW hi im back since ur new site.. very nice… feels clicky to have a login .. so speshal)
Posted by W i l l i a m on 2005 01 30 at 10:30 AM • permalinkI agree with Robert Fisk on one account. Everytime he votes it is a folly.
Posted by swassociates on 2005 01 30 at 10:31 AM • permalinkCNN just gave out a few websites to find out more about the election. The selection ran the gamut, from all the way from the BBC site to MotherJones.com.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 01 30 at 10:42 AM • permalinkI’ve been `surfing’ the airwaves hoping the elections in Iraq were going well, lives were not being destroyed by the fascists and from CNN to CBS the reports have been pretty good.
However turn to the BBC and two ugly down-mouthed trolls are slagging off the turnout and the motivation:
“This has to be seen in as a reaction to the US occupation”
Typical comment from an ill-informed `academic’ from some `redbrick’ socialist castle in Bristol for god’s sake.
What the fuck does the BBC think they are doing - I’ve now dropped them from my satellite list even though I like `Torque’.
Its news service no longer provides me with reportage, instead just drivelling commentary.
The end of an era for me … I’m elated at the effort in Iraq, but deeply saddened at the prostitution of the BBC.
Not only to hell with McGruder, to hell with Trudeau. His “DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN” moment is right down there with his pissing on the troops.
Both of ‘em are on the same low level as Ted Rall, as far as I am concerned.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 01 30 at 11:59 AM • permalinkSweeeeeet! It don’t come easy.
People everywhere want to be free. They also want to be secure. Under tyranny they are neither.
Please remember peace is how we make it,
there within your grasp if you’re big enough to take it.Old words, new meanings. The Kennedys and Sulzbergers who hiss and hint that courage is obsolete or barbaric are big enough for nothing.
Who’s big today? American and Coalition military people and average Iraqis in all walks and stages of life.
(Repeat of a comment I left in the previous post.)
Hey, Dave S., your webtv mailbox is full and I’m getting your bounced notifications. By the way, you can set the notification checkbox to default to empty by going to your account profile and deselecting the “Enable email notifications by default when you post messages� option in your email settings.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 01 30 at 12:23 PM • permalinkYay to the brave people of Iraq…welcome in the community of democracies.
I can’t wait for all the indignant reader mail that al-Grauniad, the SMH, the Age etc. will no doubt publish this week… Much like the Howard and Bush re-elections, this will be one election that keeps on giving.
And because I’m a bastard, here’s hoping that Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer et al. continue to ostracize themselves from the realm of reasonable political discourse and that the U.S. voters won’t forget about it come 2006.
I turned on the tv this AM (to program my dvr to record a “Queer Eye”) and on soem damn news show, there was that ghastly son of a bitch, John Kerry, blithering about the sad reality of democracy in Iraq, and questioning the validity of the votes. Listen, you pusillanimous fecktard, you aren’t in the running, no one there is voting for you, so shut the fuck up! Why in the hell does anyone, even the MSM, care about this hangdog-faced loser any more???
To the ladykiller Ted Kennedy
To the truthkiller John Kerry
To the pimple-popping Aaron McGruder
To Robert “what’s that nigra doing there? She what?!” Byrd
To Botox Barb Boxer
To the rest of the Condoleeza 13 (don’t worry, we’ll remember your names when the time comes)
To Nancy *stare* Pelosi
To Kos (screw you, too, buddy) Moulitsas
To Andrew Sullivan (this ain’t a damn Starbucks. Make up your mind!)(listed in order of importance)
To George Soros
To ANSWER
To MoveOn
To the Democratic PartyTo the New York Times
To the LA Times
To the Boston Globe
To Dan Rather, Chris Hayward and Les Moonves
To Michael (remember me?) Moore
To Alec Baldwin
To Sean Penn
To Tim Robbins
To Susan Sarandon
To Barbra Streisand
To the Dixie Chicks (how’s that rock career workin’ out?)
To the senescent hippies and snotnosed punks still living with their parents who march across the street from me every Friday (clue: assholes… there were more than three folk songs ever written. Learn some new ones)In the words of those two great lefties from the 70’s, Proctor and Bergman:
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG
Not in your name? Damn straight
(anybody who wants to add to this list, feel free)Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 01 30 at 01:39 PM • permalinkFrom Reuters in update XIII: Millions of Iraqis turned out to vote Sunday, defying anti-U.S. insurgents determined to drown the historic poll in blood.
How is it that Reuters can continue to define the insurgents as “anti-U.S. insurgents”? Clearly they are anti-democratic insurgents, especially in this context. Voting Iraqis are neither pro nor anti-U.S. They are pro-democracy however. It would have made much more sense to say:
Millions of Iraqis turned out to vote Sunday, defying anti-democratic insurgents determined to drown the historic poll in blood.
Of course it’s a lot easier for Reuters and the pro-fascist left to support the insurgency if they characterize it as anti-U.S. rather than as anti-democratic.
Posted by Brian O'Connell on 2005 01 30 at 02:26 PM • permalinkBoss Hog, I am sure I saw a snippet featuring Howard at Davos on the ABC News last night.
Could be dreaming of course. Tell her she’s dreaming.
Terry Lane, who I have no idea what adjectives to use to describe, had an Iraqi resident in Australia on his program yesterday.
It was a man whose brother was killed by Saddam. Tezza sounded a bit gloomy, but when doesn’t he?
The chap said something to the effect that he was optimistic regardless of who prevailed in the election because Iraqis would not stand for one side dominating the country.
Now there’s a chappy who understands democracy.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 01 30 at 03:22 PM • permalinkBy the way, reading all those wonderful stories (I am getting teary here - I am such a girl) about very old ladies being taken to vote in wheelbarrows and women turning out in big numbers and people just getting out there just makes the other negative stuff…well, nuts to them.
Go girls and boys.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 01 30 at 03:34 PM • permalinkI’ll give you folks your day and hats off to the Iraqis for their courage in showing up to the polls.
If you don’t mind though, think I’ll hold the Moet until after the constitution is ratified and our soldiers come home.
Posted by LibbySpencer on 2005 01 30 at 04:52 PM • permalinkI got a reminder of why we all hate the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. A historic day has arrived, democracy in the Middle East after centuries of bloodshed and tyranny! What dominates the SMH front page? The tennis.
THE FUCKING TENNIS.
“Hewetts’s heartbreak!” Fuck you Hewett, fuck your ‘heartbreak’, fuck your stupid, hitting a ball over a goddamn net game and fuck you, SMH.
DU, classy as ever.
I like this one:
“The truth is, with no international media and no international observers, and the electoral process being run by an occupation authority, there is not a single claim that can be verified.”
Hmmm…. no international media? BBC, Reuters, AP, ABC, Channel Nine, B Sky B, etc etc, etc.
Because we all know the BBC is an evil tool of the Bush Administration! And so supportive of the Iraq war.
What’s wrong with Kerry? “He’s insane in the membrane. The man’s insane, he’s got no brain.” Two Live Crew
Let’s see what these anti-free thought racists spew next. “Idiot wind blowing like a circle around my skull, from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol. Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth. Your an idiot, babe, it’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.” Bob Dylan
“If you don’t straighten up baby, child I’m going upside your head.” Jimmy Reed
“I’ll give you folks your day and hats off to the Iraqis for their courage in showing up to the polls.”
Our day? Not yours, too, huh? Why not? Something about Iraqis voting that bothers you?
“If you don’t mind though, think I’ll hold the Moet until after the constitution is ratified and our soldiers come home.”
No, you won’t. You’ll just find something else to carp about.
BTW, five years elapsed between the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution. That’s five 4th-of-Julys you would have missed. And are your grandparents still refusing to celebrate V-E Day because our boys are still in Europe?
The Motto of the Leftist - “Everything Must Be Perfect, Right Now.”
The Motto of the Realist - “Perfect is the Enemy of Good.”
http://www.scrappleface.com/
most accurate report from scrapplefaceWhat amazes and pleases me most of all is the low death toll. On a day when everybody expected the dreaded “insurgency” to go absolutely nuts, only 44 or so people dead (possibly including suicide bombers themselves) out of eight million who voted.
That’s pretty much the same as the Australian xmas holiday road toll. When you do the maths, Baghdad on the long-dreaded election day was probably safer than the Pacific Highway on Boxing Day.
J. Peden, “Insane in the Membrane” is Cypress Hill. C’mon! 2 Live Crew are suckers. What you did there is the rap equivalent of attributing “White Rabbit” to Rick Dees.
Posted by Brian O'Connell on 2005 01 30 at 08:27 PM • permalinkA blogging family from Iraq:
baghdadgirl.blogspot.com
iraqigirl.blogspot.com
crlight.blogspot.com
“Today when I woke up my father said to me that he wants to finish his work so he can go to the elections. And when he finished his work, he went to the elections with my mother on foot so did my grandfather and grandmother because we can’t use our cars (because of the curfew). When they came back, one of thier fingers were purple and they were so happy.”
COME 0N! Don’t knock our little champion Lleyton we love him and the R.N. whinger this morning was very happy that MY BOY (safin) won.Lleyton is not p.c. which is why the media hate him- he is a real symbol of the second country they love to hate—ours. A,M. today—“While the election in Iraq is a success the security situation is still critical - so much so that Australia has abandoned its embassy….” Labor’s Kevan Rudd says the government SHOULD have acted sooner.. Leigh Sales-SENIOR democrat Ted Kennedy wants to withdraw troops immediately and RANKING democrat…“In Davos,Gareth Evans(ex WHITLAMS foreign minister)head of the International Crisis Group said”...(in fact he drowned out Howard’s objection to the negative European tone).In their media roundup on Iraq election- AL Jazeera says 1 man voted in Fallujah etc other quote from the S.M.H. Next up—“George Bush says the election is a rousing success but i’m talking to Anthony Cortesman Senior Research Fellow at the Strategic International Studies Group in Washington..“Oh we’re getting Very Contradictory Reports etc…Presenter “And of course the number has already been revised down to 60%”. “And today Australia Talks Back will discuss (not Iraq), Philip Adams will discuss Solomon Islands.In Life Matters today Julie McCrossin discusses what Batgirl had in common with Roosevelt….
“US Move� by Yeah
Took a straight and stronger course, cornered Sodamn Insane,
Made the Ba’athists run so fast, they didn’t have time to take their brains,
’Cause it’s time it’s time in time for all time and Saddam is captured—
For the freed to try!
Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did that!
Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did that!
Dems surround themselves with themselves,
Echo chambers jammed,
Instant Karma’s getting to them,
Initialed in their own hand,
’Cause it’s time it’s time in time for all time and Iraqis gather—
Liberty they’ll prove!
Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did that! Yea-a-ah!
Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did that!
’Cause it’s time it’s time in time for all time and the world is watching—
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WE’VE SEEN ALL BRAVE PEOPLE VOTE FOR LIBERTY SO SATISFIED WE’RE ON OUR WAY!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Just in case lefties feel they are running out of damning headlines, Gore Vidal has bin keepin the pot boilin
So there we are, on top of the world, militarily and economically. We have the atomic bomb, and here is Harry Truman saying in 1948 that we’ve got to watch out there - there’s this godless nation intent on world conquest.
But the Russians didn’t want anything very much then, except to recover the 20 million people they had lost in the Second World War. They weren’t going anywhere at that time, but we saw to it that over time they became frightened and heavily armed. We made them active enemies, and we’ve been creating enemies ever since. Now we are going to take on one billion Muslims. Brilliant.
Sodamn Insane…
You’re just fanning the flames of hatred!
You know, I could live to be a hundred and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of that line.
Posted by Brian O'Connell on 2005 01 30 at 08:49 PM • permalinkWhy did I call that “US Move�—well, it seemed the obvious pun on the song’s real title “Your Move�...but also obviously, and especially as a foreign guest here, I should have made it “Our Move� as in fact it’s been but I rushed and forgot, sorry darn it wish I could edit my comments
On my daily stagger this a.m., listening to the ABC (it’s about all I can get on my two-bob radio), “Reporter” (and I use the term loosely) in Baghdad, recounting tales of the election, topped it off by saying that what she overwhelmingly heard was that Iraqis were voting as a protest against occupation, and she heard that time after time. Yes, she was a Pommie, and I assume it was a BBC “replay” for local audiences.
To the lady walking in the other direction around Mawson Park this morning, I apologise for my language, if indeed you did hear me. I talk more loudly to myself when I’m wearing headphones.
I also note that Paul McGeogh is still talking up “civil war”, even in today’s articles.
But the really interesting thing on the Herald’s website is to look at the list of today’s most viewed articles:
1. Heavy surf, five killed
2. Zany German welfare, picture of woman in pink panties
3. Tennis
4. Tennis/romance
5. CricketAnd in The Age:
1. Tennis/romance again
2. Outdoor music festival
3. University fees
4. Tennis
5. Howard in DavosSo, while even the Fairfax papers can’t ignore the Iraqi elections, at least their readers seem to be able to.
Just found out you can view more top stories. The Iraqi elections don’t even make the top ten on the Herald - the other five are:
6. More tennis
7. Michael Jackson
8. Desperate Housewives
9. Midnight Oil concert
10. Richard BransonAnd on the Age, it’s:
6. Cricket
7. Drug-dealing granny
8. German prostitution (no picture)
9. “How we bought the WMD lie” by Scott Ritter
10. “Habib has grounds to sue, say lawyers” - (gee, who would have expected his lawyers to say that?)_Nor_ does the Iraqi election come in the top five on “World News”, on either paper. Nor does it get into the top five “Breaking News”, on either paper.
Un-freaking-believable! Check it out:
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/mostviewed/
http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/mostviewed/No Iraqi election story at all!
Dear LIbbyspencer, no champagne for you. Sour little lefties get to drink vinegar.
As for Gore Vidal, I can’t believe he hasn’t died of syphilis yet.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 01 31 at 12:06 AM • permalink
A close watcher catches a CNN blooper: At 8 am, Jane Arraf reports a “nightmare” situation at school polling station in Baquba, Sunni area. No Iraqi election commission workers had shown up. But, at 9:15, viewers learn Arraf had just shown up at the wrong school, which was not a polling site. The real polling site was actually open. At 9:30, Arraf reports that she is “now at ‘another’ polling site. No mea culpa/recognition of previous mistake. Her new polling station is crowded and jubilant.Add to my list A Star From Mosul - http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com
And where are those human shields now??
They should be standing outside a polling booth in Tikrit or Falluja defying the insurgents singing “we shall, we shall not be overcome” or similar.
Maybe the decamped to Iran, to stand outside a nuclear reactor singing “we shall, we shall not be overcome” or similar.
Just where are those human shields now??
I cant get over the success of the elections, and the spirit of the Iraqis; far greater than reasonably expected by the talented and educated commentators.
It’s a victory of common sense over uncommon sense.
Champagne is wasted on the Libbyspencers of the world; their glasses will always be half empty.
yay you iraqi people! just did a quick check of some leftie blogs. iraq election? nothing to see here folks, move along!
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 01 31 at 04:48 AM • permalink
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From today’s edition of The Boston Globe:
“The fate of Iraqi women’s rights rests on the outcome of today’s election. Zainab Al-Suwaij and Ala Talabini, two prominent Iraqi women leaders, say the elections will decide whether women will really become equal citizens or lose their voices.”
Wonder what those protesting about the election in liberal democracies think of that? Nothing probably.