George Soros thinks John Kerry would have won if he’d played up his Vietnam war protest years instead of his Vietnam war service months. (here) He said Kerry’s “hero” role is not suitable for the Democratic party, but the “protester” role is what the Dems are all about.

Does it seem to you, as it does to me, that he’s conceded perpetual defeat for the Dems? After all, the leaders don’t protest.

Lie of the day, from Soros:

“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. I’m distressed that Bush was re-elected, but I don’t feel that I wasted my money.”

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A Clintonista and a Cuba/Nicaragua-ist on the staff of the Lefty Center for American Progress boldly made predictions on the Iraqi election. I bet they think they could take them back. Here are their main points:

Ongoing violence and confusion threaten to undermine the election’s legitimacy. Most Iraqis do not even know where to go to vote …. [Apparently up to 73% got it right.]

The Bush administration has a big mess on its hands in Iraq. But if the election does not go well, it will not be surprising if the White House – instead of taking responsibility for its mistakes – tries to lay blame elsewhere. Potential scapegoats abound; beware of finger-pointing at the United Nations or our European allies for allegedly not doing their parts. [I wonder if any of them will point at us and say, "Good job, Uncle Sam!" Doubt it.]

Any victory by the Shia majority is bound to incite Sunni insurgents and Saddam loyalists to violence. Lack of participation by the Sunnis – who may be too intimidated and fearful to vote – will sow the seeds of unending strife. [Time will tell on this one, but the Left is compiling quite a record of underestimating both Bush and the Iraqis.]

It should come as no surprise that this administration, which has never been fond of planning, seems to have no idea for what comes after the potentially explosive election. [No explosion; no need for a back-up plan.]

The Iraqi election has cost Americans more than 1,400 lives and $220 billion. The Bush administration has already spent $144 billion prosecuting the war in Iraq and is about to ask taxpayers for another $80 billion . In the meantime, American soldiers – 35,000 of whom will deploy on the streets of Baghdad alone to protect voters – are killed or wounded every day. At this price, one might expect better results than a highly uncertain election amidst widespread instability – and no end in sight for our troops or taxpayers. [The end became a lot closer today, and more important, the reason why we are there should be evident to all.]

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It must be tough writing at Daily Kos in light of a 72% turnout* amid lower-than-expected violence in Iraq. Tough indeed. Contributor Armando ‘s struggling (here):

This Election is simply, in my estimation, an exercise in pretty pictures. Why? Because Elections are to choose governments, not to celebrate the day. Are the people elected capable of governing Iraq at this time? Without 150,000 U.S. soldiers? Or even with them? I have been accused of gloating by people right HERE because of my focus on the continuing violence. But my focus has been on the realities of governing a land in chaos, in the midst of civil war, with 150,000 U.S. soldiers the only force with the ability to provide security. And this is 2 years after the invasion.

So the election went better than he hoped. Now he hopes the forming of a government will go worse than expected, and before too long he’ll have to deal with another false prediction and ignore another pillar of his shaky foundation falling away.

Update:

The Independent Election Commission of Iraq clarified an earlier estimate of a 72 percent turnout, saying that the “figures are only very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered informally from the field.” (CNN)

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How Al Jazeera portrayed the election

Al Jazeera’s coverage of the election is a world apart from what we’re hearing. The photo they chose — of an Iraqi policeman guarding a voting station — tells the bias even more than the copy. They could have shown joyful Iraqis dancing in the street, but instead, they lead with a photo of a thuggish, hooded police officer. The copy also works hard to suppress any hopeful thoughts among other Arab populations:

Iraqis cast their vote amidst fear and deadly attacks

The Iraqi people started voting Sunday in their country’s first election in half a century, as anti-occupation rebels stepped up their attacks and mortar strikes at polling stations, killing 30 people, including four policemen and two Iraqi soldiers.

Casting his vote in Iraq’s first multi-party ballot in half a century, interim President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq’s first step “toward joining the free world.”

Although Iraqi authorities adopted strict security measures, numerous explosions and violent attacks shook Baghdad on the elections’ first day. Also multiple blasts rocked the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Baquba.

A bomb attack in western Baghdad killed one policeman and wounded several others. Meanwhile mortar attacks rocked Khan al-Mahawil, 40 miles south of the Iraqi capital, killing another policeman at a polling center.

Three other people were injured when a rocket landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad’s Shiite Muslim community, witnesses said Sunday.

The Iraqi capital was hit with several explosions and mortar attacks. Several other Iraqi cities, including Baqouba, Basra and Mosul were also struck with similar attacks.

Also the Ministry of Interior on the city’s eastern edge was hit Sunday with two mortars, according to one witness.

In the New Baghdad area in the eastern part of the city, an exchanges of gunfire were also heard.

Meanwhile Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, and southern city of Basra, the country’s second-largest were also struck with several explosions.

Only after wading through all that, do you get any coverage of the voting itself. But evenin that coverage elation is underplayed, and negative news takes the fore. Read it here.

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Yesterday, the LATimes buried the Iraqi vote in the US on the last page of the front section. They made up for their error today with a great page one story on a group of Seattle Iraqis who caravaned to OC to vote. (here)

Highlights:

“Last month they kidnapped my uncle from his house in Baghdad,” Sadik says about the insurgents, her breath a white plume in the inky morning. “He escaped from them. He is safe, but he’s still worried. He can’t go out. He can’t work. He’s depressed. He has four kids. The situation is really bad.

“But he’s going to vote,” says Sadik, whose family came from Baghdad via Syria to Seattle three years ago because her mother wanted the children to have an education, medicines, a future. “He’s really excited to vote, so he can live safe with his children. Especially now, after what happened to him. He really wants a better life.” …

“When you have the first election in the history of Iraq, you want to be a part of it. For me, honestly, if I don’t take part, I give up on my own people and tell the terrorists over there, ‘you won,’ ” says Muhamed Qatrani. …

Qatrani gets his ballot at 2:07 p.m. and sticks an index finger into the purple ink pot, a security measure to ensure that no expatriate votes twice. He holds the inky digit up with a smile. He steps behind a cardboard screen, and it’s over in a moment. He stuffs his ballot into the plastic box and kisses his wife.

“Hopefully, we will see you in Iraq,” a poll worker tells the grinning man. “Inshallah, inshallah,” Qatrani responds, “God willing, God willing.”

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According to the US Elections Project, 60 percent of eligible voters voted in Bush v. Kerry. Quite high by US standards, but it appears it will be small by Iraqi standards. Fox News is reporting over 60% and, but according to the country’s election commission, the turn-out is 72% (in another Fox News report.)

Friday, the NYTimes predicted “less than overwhelming voter turnout in many parts of Iraq.” It looks like once again, MSM cynicism has biased its ability to process news. Turnout among Sunnis may not have been as high, but that was their choice — a word that didn’t have meaning under Hussein.

Meanwhile, on Meet the Press Kerry appeard to downplay the election, focusing instead on the likelihood for more violence through the transition. Yes, that’s important, but the vote is significant, and the most significant thing of all is that Iraqis by the millions cared enough to turn their backs on the terrorists and vote. Gloom and doom didn’t work any better today than it did in November for Kerry.

“It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can’t vote and doesn’t vote,” Kerry said. (here)

On Fox News Sunday, Condi, projected the right balance of excitement for today and frank assessment of the future. (here)

“What we are seeing today is what the Iraqis want their future to be. They want it to be one based on democracy — on the vote, not the gun. And yet there are some terrible thugs, mostly from the old regime, who are trying to forestall that process, and we saw today that they are not succeeding.”

No pollyanna, she said the terrorists might get more nasty as they see the transfer of power, but it was framed within the enthusiasm she has for the election — an enthusiasm for Democracy Kerry didn’t project at all.

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You’re a terrorist hiding from US troops in Mosul. What could be more terrifying than an army of mechanical spiders — the same ones that sought out Tom Cruise in Minority Report – entering his lair?

Well, how about if they’re flying?

If Boeing’s Future Combat Systems is successful in its endeavors, in a few years, a soldier will be able to pull a Micro Air Vehicle out of his pack and send it off, up stairs and around corners in urban warfare settings, giving the soldier a view of what’s inside.

Future Combat Systems is a $21 billion program to transform the U.S. Army by networking soldiers with vehicles and surveillance devices, including unmanned ground and aerial vehicles. Boeing is a lead contractor on the program, which already employs 700 people at Boeing’s Huntington Beach campus and 4,800 more across the country.

The program is meant to reduce the “fog of war,” or the confusion and chaos that can result when soldiers don’t know the location of other forces, including their own.

More here.

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The announcement by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that it would increase its contribution to fight disease in poor countries to $1.5 billion is a hymn in praise of capitalism.

The amount of wealth created by Bill Gates almost defies comprehension. Not just his wealth, a great deal of which he is giving away, but also the wealth of every MicroSoft employee right down to the warehouse packer, of the owners and employees of thousands of companies made possible or more efficient by MicroSoft’s products, the retailers and service companies who make a living sellling and servicing the project.

I’ve never seen any numbers on it, but my guess is that Bill Gates, because he got to work in a country that champions capitalism, single-handedly created more wealth than the Soviet Union did in its entire history.

And most important is that capitalists like Carnegie and Gates give much of it away. Complain about their products, complain that they don’t give enough … but still, when those kids in Africa and Bengaladesh live instead of die, say a prayer of thanks to Bill Gates and Capitalism.

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What the LA Times Ignored

Yesterday, Iraqis from around the Western US convened in OC to vote, less than 20 miles from the LATimes’ Orange County bureau. The OC Register played it as its “In Depth” front page story, with the story continuing on — get this — pages two, three and four.

Almost utterly ignoring this momentus beginning to the tomorrow’s incredibly significant vote, the LAT ran the story on the very last page of the first section. It sent a reporter to Skokie, Illinois and El Toro (whose report ran inexplicity at the very end of the coverage in what is, after all, a SoCal newspaper — delusions of grandeur?) and even dialed up lazy old John Daniszewski in London to hustle up a quote.

Why bury the paper so deeply?

Simple. There were no negative quotes to be had at any of the venues. Why would the LAT ever give prominence to a story about Iraq with quotes like this?

“Muslim, Christian — it doesn’t matter. We are all here to help each other. This is a good day for God, for Muhammad, for Jesus and Moses.”

“I am born again. This is my birthday. This is the birth of the Iraqi state.”

Note: My Inside-the-Beltway Liberal and retired journalist mom is visiting and we had an interesting discussion about this, focusing on the provincialism of the media. The OCRegister played up the OC Iraqi vote on page one but relegated the arraignment of MetroLink murderer Juan Manuel Alvarex to page 16. He is, after all from just up the road in LA County, where the crash occurred. And the LAT, which has tried and failed for years to become OC’s newspaper, couldn’t see the El Toro vote as an opportunity to be an Orange County newspaper.

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In its Really Big Story for Saturday, the NYTimes attempts to paint Homeland Security chief nominee Michael Chertoff with the Gonzales brush.

“Security Nominee Gave Advice to the C.I.A. on Torture Laws,” screams the headline. But funny, the story never mentions “torture” in the context of what Chertoff did in his former position. It’s all about “interrogation techniques.” Are we to believe no one told the headline writer?

Sift through the sensationalism, and what you get is a story about a man who gave good advice to the CIA. “Pain is OK, but not life-threatening pain” is as bad as it gets with Chernoff’s opinions. Most were much less dramatic. Yes, you can pretend they’re being interrogated by the security officials of another country. No, you can threaten them with death.

This is the kind of advice we’d expect from a government attorney in a country where the intelligence agency knows it’s bound by laws and is not free to kill, rape or cut off hands, like many of those they are interrogating did under Hussein.

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