Free Republic

My representative in Congress is Jan Schakowsky of Evanston. As I've noted before, she's part of the far-left wing of the Democratic party. Proof? Well, in January, she called for an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Thursday, elections took place in there. Turnout was very high, and even in the Sunni areas, the level of violence was low. Of course, Jan being a liberal means she is for "the people," yet she has not issued a statement on these elections. Quite ironic. Especially since one of the 15 polling places in the US for Iraqi expatriates (and one...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2005 – Today is "a new day for Iraq," regardless of who wins in the country's parliamentary elections, an Iraqi-American who emigrated here 12 years ago and became a U.S. citizen in 1995 said here today. Ali Sadoon al-Timimi, a Shiite Muslim from Basra, proudly held up his ink-stained finger to show he'd been to the East Coast polling station in nearby McLean, Va., set up where Iraqi expatriates could vote. After three and a half decades under Saddam Hussein's bloody dictatorship, Timimi acknowledges he and many of his countrymen never dreamed they'd live to see the...

STOCKHOLM, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Fire bombs were thrown at a polling station for the Iraqi parliamentary election in northern Stockholm overnight but did not ignite, a police spokesman said on Thursday. "Somebody has thrown bottles with gasoline at the building, but they did not ignite," spokesman Fredrik Lindfors said. "They then disappeared on foot." Sweden is home to many Iraqis who fled the country during Saddam Hussein's rule. The police said they had issued a nationwide alert and searched for the assailants using tracker dogs, but without success. Security at the two polling stations in the greater Stockholm area...

A polling station reopened Wednesday morning at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton for Iraqi voting. It first opened Tuesday. It is one of seven similar polling places around the country. Thousands of Iraqis from all over the Western United States are expected to cast their ballots in Pleasanton. The election is open to those who can prove they were born in Iraq or whose parents were born there. The poll closes at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Hundreds of Iraqi expatriates from the East Coast began flocking to a Best Western hotel in McLean yesterday to cast absentee ballots in their homeland's parliamentary elections. The expatriates will help elect the 275-member national assembly, the first fully constitutional government to rule Iraq since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003. Election day in Iraq is tomorrow. "I am 65, and this is one of the first times voting in my life," said Amir Al-Abdulla, a Richmond resident who took part in the historic election in McLean. "No one forced me to choose anyone. No one told me who to...

LONDON - Iraqi expatriates lined up to vote in their homeland's national elections Tuesday, leaving voting stations with ink-stained fingers and expressing hope for the violence-torn country many fled during Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. Voting abroad began first in Australia, where up to 20,000 registered Iraqi voters live. They are part of a group of 1.5 million voters living outside Iraq casting ballots at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States and Canada. "The priority for all Iraqis is to have peace, security and normalcy restored," said Kadhem Ali, 46, a Sunni Muslim in Zarqa, Jordan, who said...

The organization running the Iraqi overseas election in the Unted States has announced the locations of the polling places where Iraqis can cast their absentee ballots in this week's election.Polling places will be open in seven locations across the country: McLean, Va., Nashville, Tenn., Chicago, Ill., Dearborn and Farmington Hills, Mich., San Francisco, San Diego and Ponoma, Calif.The locations of the polling places have not been well publicized in the Iraqi community. This has raised concerns that the organizers have been trying to influence turnout by not getting the word out about the locations until the last minute, thereby making...

In Tucson, Iraqi refugees and families of soldiers serving there expressed pleasure in Sunday's election turnout and hope for Iraq's future. In Iraq, a former Tucsonan was similarly impressed. Ron St. John said in a phone call from Baghdad after the voting Sunday that the intense interest in forming a democracy he has found in 13 months there was evident when Iraqis braved violence to vote. Even when suicide bombers struck near polling places, killing and wounding police and would-be voters, "They set things up again and lines kept forming," St. John said. "Today was a great day," he said....

He in the Netherlands Preparing to choose his party ... The actual voting .. a great feeling ... Inside the boat where the elections were held ... In front of the boat ... Posing in front of a police jeep ...

Iraqis have clashed with demonstrators against the election outside a polling station in Manchester. About 200 demonstrators were chased by another group who burned their flags, while other Iraqis clashed with police. The demonstrators were from Hizb-ut-Tahrir - an Islamic group which is against the elections in Iraq. David Kahrmann, from the Iraq Election Team, said the protesters "were not even Iraqis".

AMMAN - There was nothing surprising about the stunned looks I got last Friday as I stood at the entrance to the girls school in Swafiyeh, handed the guards and the representative of the Iraqi elections committee an Israeli passport and declared my wish to register to vote in the elections to the Iraqi parliament, which would begin in Jordan exactly a week later. The elections official asked to see some document attesting to my connection to Iraq and the belittling look on his face was replaced by one of sincere astonishment when I gave him my grandparents' 1951 laissez-passez....

Fighting broke out between demonstrators and voters One man has been taken to hospital after clashes at a polling station in Manchester for Iraq's elections. About 200 demonstrators against the election were chased by another group who burned their flags, while other Iraqis clashed with police. One man was taken to hospital with head injuries, but Greater Manchester Police described it as a "minor incident". Oldham Athletic manager Brian Talbot was also attacked after his car became stuck in traffic near the disturbance. He accidentally struck one of the Iraqis and more than 20 then surrounded his car, smashing...

File thus under: It ain't braggin' if it's true.Back in October, the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic staged a rally for our Iraqi friends in Lafayette Park in front of the White House.The rally, held on October 25, was hastily put together in two weeks because the Iraqis wanted to send a message of support for President Bush before the U.S. election on November 2.About 30 Iraqis along with a dozen Freepers attended the rally. The media turnout was mixed. Local Washington area media ignored the rally, but NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, Al Hurra and Al Arybia (sp) all...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Abdul al-Najr woke up early Saturday with his wife, piled into a car with three friends and drove 250 miles from St. Louis to the polling place here, where jubilant Iraqis danced and held hands in the steady, cold rain. On the second day of voting for Iraqi expatriates, people drove hundreds of miles to reach the five U.S. cities with polling places: Nashville, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. More than 5,000 Iraqis voted on Friday, and organizers expected larger crowds over the weekend. "I'm so happy because I'm human," al-Najr, 38, said after casting a...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - An Australian polling station for Iraqi exiles voting in their homeland's historic election was closed for an hour on Saturday after a riot broke out and a suspicious bag prompted a bomb scare, organizers said. Bernie Hogan, the head of Australia's overseas voting program, said the riot erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling insults at voters leaving the polling center in a Sydney neighborhood dominated by Iraqi Shiites. Hogan said the protesters were holding up the same black flag with white lettering that has appeared as a backdrop in videos released by...

Nashville, Tennessee..

A riot has broken out at a polling station in Sydney, Australia, between expatriate Iraqi voters and protesters opposed to the poll. The disturbance broke out when a group of 20 protesters started to shout insults at voters leaving the centre. Iraqis around the world have been going to the polls in a second day of voting. Almost 30% of those registered to vote in 14 countries around the world turned out on Friday. Voting will continue until Sunday evening. About one quarter of the estimated 1.2m Iraqis living abroad have registered to vote. "If we don't vote, who else...

Expatriot Vote has Effect in Iraq While the big day here is Jan. 30, Iraqi elections overseas have already begun. The coverage of these overseas elections is having an effect on the homeland. Officials said the extensive Arab media coverage of the expatriate voting process is encouraging Iraqis to vote here. "They see the real happiness that Iraqis in the other countries exhibit at being able to vote," said an Iraqi official. "It is contagious." No official will forecast what the voter turnout might be. "In some areas of the country it will be very high," the official said. "In...

AMMAN, Jordan - We didn't look much alike, those of us milling about the school courtyard and lining up to vote: Elderly men in traditional Arab gowns, young men in ski jackets and women in bright, flowing robes or beneath long, black abayas. The hodgepodge of dress mirrored the mix of sects, religions and ethnicity_ Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Arabs. But we were all Iraqis and all willing to ignore boycott calls and intimidation attempts to have a say in our future and maybe one day live in the free, democratic, federal and united Iraq touted in election posters. We...

"I feel as if I've just been born"; "It was the best thing I have actually ever done in my life"; "This is just like a dream." Those were the words of Iraqi expatriates Friday as they went to polling sites around the world to take part in the first free Iraqi elections in more than a half-century.