Just to briefly interrupt the historic Baseball drama with some Horserace trivia:

With one-third of the actual votes tallied, the President has a huge margin with 64%. The challenger, however,

“…has refused to concede defeat and claimed on Monday that ballot boxes had been stuffed…Election officials say there is no evidence of this.”

The allegations of Irregularity are not unexpected, having been previously Flushed out.

Hmm… I wonder if this will get integrated into a Kerry talking point.

American-style democracy truly HAS taken hold in Afghanistan.

Their electoral learning curve totally Spiked! It’s amazing. They GET it! Already!!

The candidates have grasped the fundamental principle of free & fair elections: When you Lose, just grab on to whatever procedural Glitch is available and scream “FRAUUUUD!!!”

I am so proud of them.

And, of MY beloved country. Just LOOK what we have done for these formerly-primitive people. Liberated them from Taliban tyranny; taught them how to Vote, how to Run for office, and how to Whine like real Politicians. THIS is what we are fighting for, by Golly. USA! USA! :>

CNN excerpts. Emphases added.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations, which is helping to oversee the Afghan election, is in crisis talks with the country’s presidential candidates to save the historic voting day, the country’s first direct democratic election.

Ink that does not stain spurred 15 challengers to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to unite in a boycott of Saturday’s election, charging that it was open to fraud because citizens could possibly vote several times.

Voting…stalled at several polling stations when election officials realized ink used to mark voters’ fingers could be washed off.

After about two hours of confusion, a new supply of ink was delivered to some polling stations and voting resumed.

But the damage had already been done: Rumors about the ink used to color the thumb prints of voters to avoid fraud spread as thousands of Afghans, including severla hundred women, waited in line to vote.

It was not known whether or not elections would need to be postponed for a new round of voting, but that is exactly what opposition presidential candidates were demanding.

“This is completely, completely prearranged fraud,” declared Ahmed Shah Ahmadzai, a presidential candidate representing the party of a former warlord.

He emerged from a meeting with the other candidates insisting the election glitch required that voting be rescheduled.

He said 15 candidates were united in demanding a new election and insisted that they would not recognize or respect Saturday’s voting…”

There are 5,000 polling centers throughout Afghanistan, as well as in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran, according to a fact sheet on the White House Web site…

Among the 16 candidates, Karzai is favored to win in the voting, which was due to take place under the watchful eyes of hundreds of election observers.

Now with this shining example for them to follow, there IS hope for the Iraqis. If their Militias will just lay down their Grenade-launchers and take up the American/Afghan Political Handbook — “How To Win By Losing” — democracy will surely triumph yet again. Free at Last, Free at Last…

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P.S. - “Doonesbury”’s Uncle Duke: “You’re a very cynical man, Senator.” (The Senator: “Tell me about it.” :)

In regard to the topic that David mentioned earlier, the lack of even an active WMD program in Iraq, Wonkette adds her two cents:

We hate to see a perfectly good invasion get marred by, oh, a complete lack of justification, so we thought we’d suggest some other things about Saddam that the president, at least, might find reason enough to go to war:

1. Didn’t rewind rental tape
2. Mixed recyclables
3. Wrote a book
4. Reads books
5. Throws like a girl
6. Is too tall
7. Fuzzy math
8. Prevented OBGYNs from practicing their love
9. Wanted us to pass a global test
10. Is a BIG GAY

Heh.

The latest CIA report states that not only did Saddam not have stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction, but he had not begun a project to create such stockpiles.

It also accuses Saddam of trying to weasel his way out of UN sanctions, a finding that may be related to another report, this one from the Iraq Survey Group, a U.S. arms-inspection group.

The report has generated strong statements from both sides, Bush claiming that Saddam was still a threat, and Kerry accusing Bush of not acknowleding his mistakes and the realities of the Iraq war.

Paul Bremer’s statments on Iraq reminded me of one of the more outrageous comments Bush made during the last debate.

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President, two minutes. You have said there was a “miscalculation” of what the conditions would be in postwar Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?

But because [Gen.] Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operation, we moved rapidly, and a lot of the Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. I thought they would stay and fight, but they didn’t.

So let me get this straight. The reason we have so much trouble now is that we won too fast? Wow. Guess they don’t teach that at the academy.

“And remember when you are fighting a war, make sure you take it slow”

This is spin of the most incredibly outrageous kind. Rather than admitting he made a mistake, which in my mind would increase my opinion of the man, he instead he tries yet again to paint a rosy picture of Iraq. Wow.

We link, you decide.

President Bush: Don’t criticize my policies! It demoralizes the troops!

One minute, President Bush is planning a back-door draft… or maybe a front-door draft… and will launch four more wars.

The next minute, he’s planning to cut and run from Iraq!

Man, these conspiracies are hard to keep track of! :)

But seriously, the scariest thing about that much-discussed Novak article is his mention of the possibility that Paul Wolfowitz will be the defense secretary in a second Bush Administration. Shudder.

He also says Condi Rice might be the new Secretary of State. Which would, I guess, solidify the notion that white men are no longer allowed to hold that particular position. :)

The 143rd Area Support Group, a Connecticut Army National Guard unit based in Newington, is leaving for Fort Drum, NY on Tuesday and will go from there to Iraq in November. A send-off ceremony was held at Newington High School yesterday.

Well, it’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it, so here goes:

What say you all, about the alleged Israeli spy in the Pentagon?

Do we believe it? Is it a Wolfowitzian conspiracy? Is it “false and outrageous”? Why was it leaked just now?

Most importantly, did anybody besides me see Pat Buchanan holding forth about it on the tube last night? As I had predicted to my wife Kinaret Chaye as soon as I heard about this story, yer man Paddy was beside himself with excitement, speculation & glee. (You can tell by the escalating pitch of his voice. Patrick J. should be elected Squeaker of the House, IMO. :) His theory is that the Israelis leaked it, in order to stop the investigation before it goes any further. / Now I eagerly await the Take of that other esteemed Elder of Zion, Bob Novak.

P.S. On the same program before Buchanan came on, some ex-Spook, interviewed by phone & claiming all sorts of inside knowledge of the matter, stated that it is all connected with the forged memo about the Never-happened Iraqi effort to buy uranium from Niger. IOW, Israel was the Forger. In order to bolster Bush’s case for taking out Saddam. (Then came Buchanan’s turn and he jumped onto that one with great enthusiasm.)

Bad news: Iraq lost the bronze-medal game to Italy, 1-0. Still, a valiant run by the soccer Dream Team. Who ever would have expected the world’s most recently liberated nation to finish fourth in the entire world? Wow! Way to go! Viva Iraq libre!!

Good news: Ireland wins the gold in equestrian! Up the Republic!

The Iraqi soccer team beat Australia today, 1-0, and is now two wins away from a gold medal! Wouldn’t that be f***in’ amazing?

Worst-case scenario, the Iraqis lose in the semifinals and still get to play for the bronze medal in the consolation game. One way or another, they’re playing for a medal.

I hope Uday Hussein is watching this on a satellite feed in Hell, and getting a nice poke from the Devil’s pitchfork every time Iraq scores. Or, for that matter, every time Iraq touches the ball.

Iraq will take on Paraguay in the semifinals Tuesday. The other semifinal is Italy vs. Argentina, also Tuesday. The bronze-medal game is Friday; the gold-medal game is Saturday. And let me tell you, if the championship is Iraq vs. Italy or Iraq vs. Argentina, that will be Saturday’s biggest “football” game in my book; sorry, USC vs. Virginia Tech, but you’ve just been bumped down to #2 on the list. GO, IRAQ, GO!!

P.S. As if to erase once and for all any lingering doubts about who is the real “dream team” in these Olympics, the pathetic, marketing-over-basketball U.S. men’s hoops team lost again today.

The Iraqi footballers are a true dream team. The U.S. basketballers are just lame.

While I certainly agree that Bush shouldn’t be using the Olympics as any kind of political platform, I have to think that some of the reactions from the Iraqi soccer players are a little overboard.

“Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,” [Iraqi midfielder] Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. “He can find another way to advertise himself.”
Ok, no problem with that.

To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
Um, you’re welcome.

“My problems are not with the American people,” says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. “They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?”
You should probably talk to the Iraqi extremeists about that one too buddy.

“I want the violence and the war to go away from the city,” says Sadir, 21. “We don’t wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away.”
And here is my biggest problem. Does he think the violence will suddenly stop when the American’s leave? If we were to do so now, like he asks, all that would do is create a power vacuum that would be filled by former Baathists and other extremeists. It would be all out civil war.
Personally, as much as I disagree with Bush taking us to war, since we are there I’ve always thought we should finish what we started.
Then again, if the Iraqi’s really think they will be better of with us gone, maybe we should let them see what it will be like…

Or not.