Recent News

The election in Iraq happened yesterday. The expatriate vote was reported to be about 95% of those that registered. While this sounds amazing, its also highly misleading. It was estimated that only about 10-20% of those expatriates that were eligible to vote actually voted. The in-country vote was reported to be about 60% although the Sunni vote was much less. I also don't know what this 60% means. I am not sure if it means 60% of those that registered or 60% of those that were eligible. While this looks great and it will be sold as a great thing, the voters were voting for lists. The candidates on the lists were pre-approved by Bremer and Negroponte and they were largely invisible to the voters. The people might as well have voted for a random number. The lists are supposed to come together to make an interim congress that will write a new constitution. This is a farce that means nothing and if something does happen, it will be a three way civil war.

Mt St. Helens is again (or still) erupting. It actually has been erupting since October, but there was an explosion on January 18th and it has been much more active since then. Recent earthquakes and explosions have resulted in the loss of a spider and a camera. The lava dome inside the crater has been growing rapidly and is about half the size of the lava dome that was inside the crater prior to the explsion in 1980. Another major eruption of the power of the 1980 event is not expected but eruptions happen over a period of months and things could change.
Movie: To Die For (3 1/2 stars)
Music: Time - Tom Waits
Book: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Iraq: January - 103 Americans, 10 Brits
Total - 1436 Americans, 86 Brits, 1607 Coalition Troops