FAILED ADULT ACTRESS ALYSSA MILANO CONTINUES TO FEEL BITTER THAT HER ACTING CAREER IS OVER. DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION, SHE TOOK TO TWITTER ON MOTHER'S DAY WITH THIS GEM:
“I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married...
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, MS. MILANO EXPLAINED THAT THIS WAS PART OF HER UPCOMING PUNKY BREWSTER FAN FICTION, "I'VE GOT A PLAN FOR A 3-PART SERIES INVOLVING FINGER BANGING, SKUNKING AND SCISSORING ENDING WITH A BAD CASE OF RUG BURN FOR BOTH PUNKY AND MYSELF. I THINK THIS IS JUST THE THING TO RESTART MY CAREER."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Daniel Bellamy (EURO NEWS) reports 3 people died from a bombing after polls closed -- two were voters and one was a polling observer. These were the first parliamentary elections since April 30, 2014. At that time, the Islamic State was on the rise thanks to the actions of then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki but they had yet to seize territory.
Strangely, there are 'experts' (gas bags) who judge ISIS by how much territory they hold when holding territory was actually not their goal or aim but something they managed to do because of Nouri al-Maliki's corruption, violence and ineptitude.
The elections that took place today had been postponed. In addition, they were cut in half -- this was supposed to combine provincial and parliamentary elections.
That didn't happen and provincial candidates may be very grateful about that since turnout was very, very low. Nabih Bulos (LOS ANGLES TIMES) notes, "Before noon, Prime Minister Haider Abadi ordered the curfew lifted in what was thought to be a bid to encourage more people to come out to vote, but it appeared to have little effect even with 30 minutes before polls closed at 6 p.m."
Why would they be excited?
Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) notes, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and prime minister." RUDAW adds, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs." AFP explains that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women. THE SIASAT DAILY adds, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers." Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) report, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37 million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi women has declined steadily since 2003. According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence and sanctions." RUDAW also notes that 60 Christian candidates are competing for the five allotted minority seats. How do they elect the prime minister? This comes after the general election and is based on who won seats in the election. Abdulrahman al-Rashed (AL ARABIYA) explains, "To win the premiership, a candidate needs to win the majority of the votes, i.e. the votes of 165 MPs out of 329. Since it is a multi-party system, it is almost impossible to win these votes without sealing political alliances. The governorate of Baghdad is the most important one because it is the largest with 69 seats." The chief issues? Mustapha Karkouti (GULF NEWS) identifies them as follows, "Like in previous elections, the main concerns of ordinary Iraqis continue to be the lack of security and the rampant corruption." Sunday, RUDAW explained that the electoral commission "so far fined 210 candidates for violations of commission guidelines."
Corruption is a key issue and it was not a topic explored by candidates outside of Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition. Empty lip service was offered. Hayder al-Abadi, current prime minister, had been offering empty lip service for four years. He did nothing. Iraqis were supposed to think that, for example, Hayder's focus on ISIS in Mosul mattered. All life was supposed to stop because of Mosul? All expectations were to be ignored because of Mosul?
Arabic social media today and yesterday was full of comments about the lack of improvement in services. It noted how the elections had not mattered before and, yes, how in 2010 the US government overturned the elections because they didn't like the outcome.
I'm sorry, where's the special counsel investigating that?
Oh, that's right, in the US, Americans only get outraged when they feel their elections are stolen, not when they know they stole another country's elections. So it's not at all surprising that NPR states, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." It's left to AP to point out the obvious NPR ignored, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent." AFP also spoke clearly, "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."
So this turnout was historically low.
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