Tammany Time Warp in Iraq

With this story about coercion and intimidation by gangs and religious thugs bullying Iraqi voters, you'd think you were back in the US of A, ca. 1850s-1900. Pres. Bush and his Iraqi fairy tale link between the infant US democracy and its growing pains that he painted a week or so ago sure seems a far cry from the reality in Iraq.

But the parallels remain: intimidation to vote for their guy makes these thugs as American as EA Poe...

UPI reports:

"This climate of intense pressure by armed groups is an undeniable fact in these elections," Rand al-Rahim, executive director of the Iraq Foundation and former Iraqi representative to the United States, told the CAP meeting.

I imagine that if liquor were legal they'd be wheeling guys around in wheelbarrows so they could vote more than once... Oh, yeah, those purple fingers. That settles it, they got the plum from the pudding after they got the shove in the ass from a rifle butt.

Update 12/18/05: Protest marches against election "irregularities." From the Washington Post: a story to set your mind at rest before the real civil war starts.