All Election Post: Palestine, Iraq, Russia, and Afghanistan

Kathleen Parker
Julian Delasantellis
Joe Klein

"30 Republican members of the U.S. Senate have been getting phone calls lately from people asking, "Why do you support rape?" - Kathleen Parker

"Let me be precise here: Fox News peddles a fair amount of hateful crap. Some of it borders on sedition. Much of it is flat out untrue."  - Joe Klein

It has become the normal way that politics is played out in the Middle East: to take two steps backwards and call it forward progress. It explains Iran's behavior in missing the deadline on the nuclear agreement, which they originally proposed thinking no-one else would like it. It also explains why the Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas can't reach an agreement among themselves, yet saying that there are no problems with the Egyptian brokered deal. Well, Fatah has agreed, Hamas has not, thinking that if they ignore deadlines like their buddy Iran, they will ultimately get their way.

Anyway, the Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who's term actually expired earlier this yer, has decided to move on and call for elections on January 24. The reaction from Hamas is: "Hamas officials said Mr Abbas's election call would deepen divisions between their faction and Fatah.
"This is an illegal and unconstitutional step because Abu Mazen's [Mr Abbas's] tenure is over and he has no right to issue any decree concerning this," Hamas officials declined to say who had the authority to create n election. They are afraid that they will lose power if they don't get  landslide results like the last election, which boosted them into power and created the isolation of the Gaza strip. It's certain that Hamas will lose some seats in the election, just like the Democrats will lose some seats come 2010...

Hamas has finally begun taking responsibility for the well-being of the citizens of Gaza after the recent invasion by Israel. The firing of missiles into Israel are down to a few per month, where before they were raining down with awful regularity, splatting in the fields of southern Israel like lethal toads.

 Despite smuggling in everything from goats to motorcycles through the Gaza tunnels, most residents are dependent on food donated through the UN. Many houses that were reduced to rubble have not been rebuilt, and the complaints sound eerily like those victims from Hurricane Katrina. Is it the universal nature of those in authority to drag their heels when it comes to being merciful and charitable? "Mr Abed Rabbo, 55, and his wife share a rickety shed in the shadow of his former home. He is tired and fed up. "Of course, Hamas is responsible here in Gaza," he says, his arms waving. "They have to start rebuilding. But they're the ones who are rejecting reconciliation with Fatah. This will cause us another hundred years of suffering. The whole Palestinian cause is in danger." Amen to that, brother...

dead but not forgotten...
In an aside, the Angry arab is reporting: "Did I tell you that "somebody" is launching a Saddam TV satellite channel that will air Saddam speeches and songs non-stop? Did I also tell you that Saudi propaganda outlets (erroneously known as media) have been promoting it???" I wonder if it will be a new feature on the Fox Network???

more Sunni democracy...
The UN is taking a greater role in the upcoming Afghan runoff election, hoping that the same fraud will not happen again. The Afghan election commitee is scrambling around like a headless chicken, firing as many corrupt officials as they can, which, in as poor a country as this, may be all of them. The problem here is that this won't be seen as legitimate in the eyes of local villagers, so maybe the UN should butt out. I have never seen UN observers at any American elections, and Lord knows there have been a lot of fraudulent ones...

The Taliban, of course, are threatening more coordinated attacks: "The Taliban called the elections an "American process" and said its fighters would "launch operations against the enemy and stop people from taking part".  Not only do they see themselves as the only rulers of the country, but if they can disrupt and scare away enough people so there aren't enough voters to legitimize the election, then maybe the US won't send in another 60-70,000 troops. No matter who wins they will be characterized as puppets of the US military, helpless to stop those independent contractors from partying and pulling denigrating pranks...

Of course, they could do what Iraq is threatening to do, postpone their elections indefinitely. These are all examples of how the Sunnis interpret democracy. Shia democracy takes place in Iran, where they justify the results with a military crackdown and murdering their citizens. So, how is this Democracy thing working out for you?

I wish this was something completely different...
Another country where election fraud and corruption is a time-honored tradition, is Mother Russia, or Putinland as it is fondly nicknamed: "The Kremlin doesn't rig elections; it engineers them. This is something everyone in Russia, no matter what their rhetoric or political persuasion, knows and accepts. So when recent local elections returned some unusual results, the only surprise was the intensity of the backlash." The reult is that most Russians are disillusioned with participatory democracy. The last election had a turnout of just 29%.

Cynical? Sure. "The joke making the rounds in Moscow when Dmitry Medvedev was up for election in the spring of 2008 was Medvedev's mom calling on election night, frantically asking if he'd won. "Mom," he says, "don't you fuck with me, too."

After the election there was a brief, surprising revolt: "It was a bit much even for those used to such Kremlin antics. But still, it all could have passed without remark, because, still, no one cares. And absolutely no one expected the plot twist: On October 14, three days after the elections, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist right-wing LDPR party, stood up before the federal Duma and declared the election results unacceptable. He and his party, he said, were leaving, and they wouldn't come back until the Central Election Committee chairman was fired and until they could secure a face-to-face with Medvedev. Then the leader of A Just Russia (SR), a center-left party engineered by the Kremlin to serve as an opposition magnet, got up and said her people were out of there, too. Then the Communists followed, and all of a sudden, only United Russia was left in the chamber." 

It didn't last long, they all came back a few days later: "Duma representatives insist they will keep fighting, but they are, at this point, simply saving face. The revolution is very much over..."

This exemplifies the weariness and deep cynicism that happens when a person's vote no longer counts. Voter fraud engineered by the parties in power in countries like Russia, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan makes a mockery of each system while their citizens are made to look like fools. It's sad to watch, and bears a grim lesson of where we may be heading in the US, as more and more people are leaving the Democratic and Republican parties. Actually, Fox News is already reporting it, in their unique fair and balanced way...

"Here, you can falsify as much as you want because the voter has nothing invested in it." - Russian citizen