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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-10-15

Today's Real Story (with updates)

I'm searching the internet and surfing the dial for information about the voting going on in Iraq today.

Infuriatingly, there is precious little actual information out there. So keep your eyes on whatever sites you can find that are going to actually report what's going on, and I'll keep posting updates as I find them.

8:30 UPDATE

The television coverage this morning is awful. In fact, it's so bad that I'm stuck watching Christianne Amanpour on CNN for news. UGH!

What she is reporting is that turnout across Baghdad seems to be running at around 50%, which is about the same as in Fallujah, though Ramadi seems to have very low turnout. No reporting of turnout from elsewhere in Iraq.

Get that? No reports from elsewhere--from the places where you would expect turnout and enthusiasm high. Typical CNN.

On the other hand, there was a camera in a counting room at one Baghdad precinct, and while the reporter was unable to read the tally, Amanpour did say that the votes in the "yes" column were outpacing those in the "no" column.

As usual, the blogs are out in front. Iraq the Model has some good on-the-ground reporting, including the following:

-One attack was reported in Hilla; three armed men attacked a voting office but Iraqi security men were able to arrest the attackers. Nothing reported damaged in the office, one attacker was shot in the foot!
-Turn out rate in the Kurdistan region has exceeded 70% of the registered voters. (Sources: Al-Iraqia and Al-Hurra TV.)
-170,000 votes were cast in the first 3 hours in Kirkuk, that’s around one quarter of the registered voters in the city.
-Voting stations in Tal Afar are open but no reports on the turnout in the town, however the local officials of the electoral commission in Mosul said that the number of voters who turned out in the city is a “surprise”.

6:15 p.m. UPDATE

Iraq the Model is reporting that the Iraqi Electoral Commission is reporting that NINE OF THE EIGHTEEN Iraqi provinces had turnout of over 66%. Eight other provinces had "moderate" turnout (between 33%-66%--who wants to bet that those numbers are actually closer to the 66 than the 33), while one--JUST ONE--had a turnout of below 33%. In addition, there is some incredible video linked at ItM which I cannot urge you strongly enough to go watch.

Another spectacular failure for the Iraqi people and the Bush Administration policy.

Also, there were also, apparently, a grand total of 13 attacks by rebel terrorists, a puny number compared to the attacks from last January 31st.

But, apparently, the Iraqis aren't capable of taking care of themselves.
Posted by: Michael / 10/15/2005 12:38:00 AM

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