Don’t forget to vote

By Fuzzy Gerdes
December 13th, 2005 @ 9:45 AM Uncategorized

Don’t forget, you have until Thursday to vote. If you’re one of the thousands of Iraqi ex-pats in Chicago, that is. Skokie is one of the seven places in the US for Iraqi citizens to vote in the upcoming parlimentary elections.

12 Comments so far

  1. Ben (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 12:06 pm

    I would like to wish all Iraqis, especially those voting in Iraq, good luck. According to an ABC/Time poll, the future of Iraq looks very promising:

    – 7 in 10 Iraqi


  2. nikkos (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 12:41 pm

    Ben, while I share your well-wishes to the people of Iraq, I must take issue with your highly selective reading of the poll results.

    Here’s a link to the entire poll results in PDF:
    http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/1000a1IraqWhereThingsStand.pdf

    Also see Informed Comment: http://www.juancole.com/

    It’s a big PDF- 36 pages- so the full results are too mcuh to summarize here, but I’d like to offer a few results that Ben does not mention:

    – There


  3. Ben (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 1:31 pm

    Nikkos, thank you for bringing all the negative news to light. It wasn


  4. nikkos (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 1:59 pm

    Ben, look, I’m not going to initiate an 80-comment battle with you over the opinions of the Iraqi people. The poll results are what they are. As such, the poll results are only valid when taken in totality, not out of context.

    This sort of selective reading is exactly why your opponents in the comments fight with you so vociferously. You, like Bush and his crew, seem to believe that if we would just focus on the good news then the bad news sort of fades away- almost as tough it never happpened at all- and thus, the American people will see the light, renew their support for the war and the President, and thus victory will follow.

    If you would try to bring some intellectual honesty to your aruments, you would merit a more sympathetic hearing.


  5. Ben (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 2:17 pm

    I


  6. nikkos (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 3:16 pm

    Ben, when you report “some of the upsides” yet fail to mention the other side of the coin, you are being selective, despite your assertions to the contrary. I’m sure that’ll send you running to your dictionary, but there it is.

    Of course, in the next breath, you essentially admit to being selective- you want to bring more good news to light.

    My use of the word sympathetic was perhaps a poor choice. What I meant was, if you want your ideas to get a fair, serious hearing, then you need to be more intellectually honest in how you wage and support your arguments. The reason you have been called a troll by me and worse by others is because the lack of honesty in your comments.

    But then I see that a real dialogue is not at all what you are interested in anyways. Does it strike you as ironic that in order to bring balance to, in your opinion, unalanced coverage of the war, you yourself present an argument that is willingly ignorant of any inconvenient facts?

    You say you enjoy debating people like me because you find it “amusing.”

    See, I am engaged in this debate because I believe it to be the most important single issue confronting our country right now- and is the single biggest issue we have faced as a nation in a long, long time.

    Maybe I just need a better sense of humor, then I too could find amusement in an illegal, immoral and unwinnable war.


  7. Ben (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 3:29 pm

    I said that I wasn


  8. Gabe (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 3:48 pm

    Wow! no response from darby yet? I figured he would be in the middle of this.

    Good points by all. Ok, let’s get out of here and go have a beer….before darby gets back.


  9. Fuzzy (unregistered) on December 13th, 2005 @ 10:04 pm

    Ack — this is what I get for posting in the morning and then not getting back to the site until the evening (and I really hope I’m not stirring up the pot by posting *this*) but my post, my rules — no more comments on this post that are not actually about voting by ex-pat Iraqis in Chicago (or comments by ex-pat Iraqis in Chicago).


  10. nikkos (unregistered) on December 14th, 2005 @ 9:26 am

    Fair enough Fuzzy- your post, your rules.

    NPR has also had good coverage- if I can find a link to some audio I’ll put it up.


  11. nikkos (unregistered) on December 14th, 2005 @ 2:49 pm

    Here’s a whole blog devoted to Iraqi Elections:
    http://iraqivote.blogspot.com/


  12. Ben (unregistered) on December 15th, 2005 @ 3:30 pm

    One Iraqi officer described the day as feeling like his wedding day.

    Is it just me, or does this article make you very proud to be an American?

    http://www.nationalreview.com/smitht/smith200512150827.asp



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