Deal in Iraq Raises Hopes for Passage of Constitution: "'This is the day of national conciliation,' said interim President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, announcing the compromises at a news conference attended by most of Iraq's top Shiite and Kurdish figures and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad."Gee, do you think there is enough time to get the word out?
"It was unclear whether the changes would bring enough Sunnis on board to guarantee passage of the vote, or an easing of Sunni resentment at Iraq's new Shiite-dominated government. In Baghdad, there was no unified Sunni response to the last-ditch changes announced in the draft constitution just four days before Iraqis are to decide its fate in a national referendum.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the only Sunni political party that had been posting campaign posters calling for a 'no' vote earlier, gave its enthusiastic response to the changes, as did some independents."Four days? In order to have a truly democratic election the electorate must be thoroughly informed. Now that they have this wonderful compromise how are the people going to know. How will they sort fact from fiction? Here in America they are already talking about both the 2006 and 2008 elections. In California we are gearing up for another major waste of time. We have so many special elections, propositions and recalls we should just schedule votes every quarter and be done with it. We have news programs to inform us, commercials and bumper stickers to persuade us while we all know a teacher, police officer or someone who will potentially save our house from burning down to help put a human face on it.
Intermittent electricity, suicide bombers and it worked out so well the last time just might make this a sorrier election than it alread is.
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