Polling

Well the voting in the Iraqi elections has started. In America. Powerline has a few words on the subject and a nice photo of a man voting in Michigan. In the photo the man is crying for his son killed in the 1991 uprising against Saddam. (Which I think is a very black mark on GB41).

Reuters has a few nice things to say about voting in Detroit.

Iraqis Brave Long Trips, Cold to Vote in U.S.

Is the headline. Brave Iraqis. Can you imagine that? From Reuters? Maybe that will be the line in the Sunday Iraq voting stories as well.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Emotional and jubilant Iraqi expatriates braved long trips and frigid weather to cast their votes across the United States on Friday, their enthusiasm making up for their low numbers.

Ah, low numbers. I guess they can't do an Iraq story without some ankle biting.

Poll workers applauded, cheered and whistled as a trickle of voters submitted paper ballots in the Detroit suburb of Southgate during the first of three days of voting.

Pointing to his blue-stained finger, dyed with indelible ink to indicate he voted, Khadim Al-Khafaji said: "This is my finger I push in Saddam's eye. The Saddam regime is gone. Thank you United States," said Al-Khafaji, who moved to Detroit from Baghdad six years ago.

And thank you's for the United States, from an Arab Muslim, in a Reuters Story. Has the world turned upside down? Reuters goes on with a report from my neighborhood, Illinois (about 70 miles from where I live):

Besides Detroit, Iraqis in the United States could cast ballots at other sites in the Chicago; Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. areas.

Samar Ahmad, 25, a convenience store clerk from Minneapolis, smiled and flashed a "V" for victory sign when he voted at the Rosemont convention center outside Chicago after a five-hour drive.

"It's never happened before," said Ahmad, who wore a red, green and black Iraq soccer jersey under his leather jacket.

You mean the Saddam elections were a sham? Who would have guessed?