Just POlitics

Liberal US Media wrong again:
Iraqis turnout in large numbers to VOTE!

According to a NewsMax.com article, “preliminary reports that turnout in Sunday's Iraq election has topped 70 percent have surprised American reporters, many of whom had predicted that terrorists would succeed in sabotaging the U.S.- backed referendum.”

It was America’s liberal media that also wrongly predicted a big victory for failed presidential candidate John Kerry.

Persistently negative, doom and gloom stories about Iraq have blanketed the mainstream press leading up to the elections in Iraq. As record numbers of Iraq’s citizens are voting, the truth may yet get reported:

"I have to say, it's going a lot better than I thought it would," Rod Nordland, Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief, said Sunday as the numbers came in. "The attacks by the insurgents, while they're numerous, haven't reached that kind of critical threshold where it really kept everybody home," he told the Fox News Channel.

With an hour left to go before the polls in Iraq close, Reuters reported that turnout had reached 72 percent nationwide. Election officials in Shiite areas say turnout there may top 90 percent.

Initial voter response was slow as the polls opened late Saturday U.S. time, but increased dramatically after threats of spectacular attacks failed to materialize. Of 5300 polling stations, only 15 reported attacks. 29 people were killed, including five police officers.

"Once it seemed like the worst was over, [voters] came out in very large numbers," Nordland said. While Sunni turnout was lower, "it was a lot better than would have been expected."

Sour Grapes I: John Kerry

According to NewsMax.com: “A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event.”

John Kerry spent the entire hour – live – with Rim Russert on “Meet the Press.” When presented with the surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by voters in Iraq, Kerry dismissed it by saying the voting had “gone as expected.”

"No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press." The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote."

And what would a John Kerry interview be without a famous Kerry flip-flop? Here’s yet another one:

Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of a terrorist threat, Kerry at first said, "No, it's more. And, in fact, I believe the world is less safe today than it was two and a half years ago."

But he changed his answer moments later, after "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert pressed him on the bizarre claim.

"I'm glad Saddam Hussein is gone, and I've said that a hundred times," he insisted.

Sour Grapes II: Peter Jennings

According to NewsMax.com: “Reacting to reports that Iraqi election turnout was far higher than predicted, with voters dancing in the streets in celebration of their newfound democracy, ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings insisted that for Iraq's Sunni population, the vote was still ‘illegitimate.’”

Jennings made his comments on ABC’s “This Week”. Guest on the show was new Scretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

"I don't want to seem unnecessarily skeptical," Jennings told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on ABC's "This Week." "But in fact the Iraqis seemed to turn out in some places and not turn out in others." Though ecstatic Iraqi elections officials said Sunday that turnout nationwide was 72 percent - and may top 90 percent in Shiite areas - Jennings wasn't satisfied.

"Just today one of the leading Sunni secular leaders said he was worried about the degree of the turnout," he told Dr. Rice. "And it is similarly true that many Sunnis are not turning out because they think this is an illegitimate election in the presence of a U.S. occupation."

During the show, Rice countered Jenning’s views and commented that if Sunni turnout was depressed, it was largely because of threats of violence from Iraqi terrorists, and not because of American involvment.

Sour Grapes III: George Soros

It looks like sour grapes for big bucks George Soros. According to an article [LINK] on Bloomberg.com:

Billionaire investor George Soros, the biggest financial contributor to the failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush in November's election, said Democratic challenger John Kerry was a flawed candidate.

Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, spent $26 million in last year's campaign that he said was undermined by the candidate he supported.

“Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative,'' Soros, 74, said yesterday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ``That had a lot to do with Bush being re-elected.''

So, $26 million dollars later, Soros’ goal of defeating George W. Bush would seem a bit... failed in light of Bush’s reelection last Nov. 2. 

“I don't feel it's an investment that's gone bad, because when you stand up for principles you have to do it whether you win or lose,'' Soros said. ``I'm distressed that Bush was re-elected, but I don't feel that I wasted my money.''

Arab media reacts to Iraq Vote

The Arab media has reacted with joy and caution at the landmark elections in Iraq - the first free vote to take place in the country for 50 years - and a rare example of democracy in the region.

The Abu Dhabi-based daily Al-Ittihad was jubilant, declaring "The new Iraq is born today" on its front page.

Other newspapers were more guarded, concerned about the ongoing chaos and violence in the country.

"We don't want to drown in optimism," Qatar daily Al-Sharq said. "For we know that the elections in Iraq aim for democracy, but it is not held in such an atmosphere."

Iraqis casting absentee ballots in nearby countries said the vote showed the Iraqi people would not let the insurgents dominate the country.

The Arab News newspaper in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia called the vote "a very historic moment in the country's long history," and said it was "a much needed victory for moderation."

source:  Telegraph, U.K.

Mehlman reacts to Kerry

“On a day when all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are celebrating the growth of freedom and honoring the sacrifices of American and Iraqi troops with elections in Iraq, it's sad that John Kerry has chosen once again to offer vacillation and defeatism. Even after the first free elections in Iraq in more than 50 years John Kerry still believes Iraq is more of terrorist threat than when the brutal tyrant Saddam Hussein was in power and even more remarkably Kerry is now once again for funding our troops, after being for the funding before he was against it.”
-Ken Mehlman, RNC Chairman

 Kofi’s son admits oil dealing

In a reported carried by the Times/U.K., Kofi Annan’s son Kojo is admitting his illegal involvement concerning the United Nation’s Oil for Food program:

THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.

Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.