Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Power Line is reporting some statistics in Iraq from an Arabic paper Alsharq Alausat. I really do hate statistics especially when I don’t know how many were polled and what the context was for the questions. None the less, the info is interesting. I would check it out. Here are a few of the more interesting stats:

72.4 % of all of those polled said they would participate in the elections. [Ed.: If so, Iraqi voting will vastly outstrip participation here in the U.S., where 56% of eligible voters contributed to a record turnout in 2004.]

62.1% of those polled said that the elections will be neutral and free.

Interesting: 75% of Iraqis say security where they live is either “good” or “average.” Not exactly the impression you would get from the American press.

Indeed. Most of the sensationalism, naturally, is centered on all the bad things going. People just living their lives, feeling relatively safe isn’t news apparently.

The picture at right is of an election poster in Najaf borrowed from Friends of Democracy: “Ground-level election news from the people of Iraq.”.

Shalom

UPDATE: well not really an update, just something I found and thought others should see.
The Antiprotester Journal has put together a niece piece that parallels Bush’s inagural speech with John F. Kennedy’s. Good read. Also makes the comment that Kennedy referred to God more often than Bush did and yet the press and many others jump all over Bush if he talks about God.

REAL UPDATE: Here is a really interesting post from Friends of Democracy with an account of the first debates in Iraq and another with a first person view of the event. Good stuff! Go democracy!