Fetishism of the ballot box. And Democracy is not possible in the developing world. And if Marx talked about the fetishism of commodities, we now suffer from fetishism of the ballot box. I never was such a believer in capitalist democracy--a contradiction in terms; there is so much fascination with voting itself these days. Democracy is not an ideology, it is a way or a means to select leaders in a variety of political systems. But the fetishism of voting (like in Bush's discourse) is an ideology, intended to spread US Empire through vapid discourse on "liberty" and "freedom." I do not know about you, but I do not seek the "liberty" of Bush's speeches, nor his "freedom." And the propaganda about democracy and liberty, assumes, among many other things, that the person in the "advanced" world is free. Even the homeless, the poor, and the destitute are free, because they have to be free. Otherwise, the (im)moral foundations of the propaganda would collapse. And in the age of US domination over the World Bank, the IMF, and the UN: there are no "free elections" possible in the world. There cannot be. How could elections be free when the IMF suddenly would announce that Russia would obtain $10 B of aid in order to advance the sagging political fortunes of Yelstin during a tough campaign? Is Abu Mazen's election free when the US/Israel suddenly pump money into the coffers of the Palestinian Authority. Or what about the billions of dollars that the US occupation can put in the disposal of the car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen/former Saddam's henchman (Allawi)? Allawi is running on the platform of US taxpayers' money. His political commercials which run unendingly on Allawi TV (also known as AlArabiyya TV) brag about the US-funded projects of the US occupation enterprise. I would rather the people of Gaza get jobs and freedom from occupation before they get the right "to vote" whatever that means. Hannah Arendt did not even consider voting to be about "democracy." She called it "work." Here, you are supposed to be proud of yourself when you vote, and you wear a special red pin or a purple potato to tell others that you have proudly voted. Well, good for you. Your nation salutes you. Go vote now; vote every day if it makes you feel good. And while you are at it, go vote in the Iraqi election too. You are voting anyway without voting you know. So you might vote twice. It is good for "democracy." Make that a double democracy, or double latte democracy. So am I supposed to be impressed? Look at this silly media (Arab and US) propaganda about democracy. This is a cult, not coverage, really. Results are known: the Grand Ayatollah who does not leave his house will be running against former Saddam henchman turned US occupation henchman. If this is your democracy, please count me as a non-democrat. I do not want to play a role in this affair. Slicing a potato would be more productive for me. And how much money the US has spent on creating polling stations: there is one polling station per 500 Iraqis which is incredible. There are so many polling stations, except in Iran. There are some 50000 eligible Iraqi voters in Iran, but they are the only voters who do not have sufficient polling stations. I guess the American Iraqi "independent" election commission did not want yet more votes to go Sistani's way. Iraqi voters in Iran were complaining about that situation today. But, you will be pleased to know that the US set up polling stations for Iraqis in..............Nashville. I am not kidding. But then again. Was Nashville a Ba`thist bastion in the 1980s? You almost will drag people with a gun to their head to vote in Iraq, literally it seems, so that Bush can tell the American public that the US war, occupation, and devastation was all worth it. The US public, mark my words, will be mightily impressed. Hell. They may even vote for Bush a third time. Let them amend the constitution. Let them vote for Bush as president-for-live. And while you are at it, crown him king too. And there is US tool Kofi Annan addressing himself to the Iraqi people urging them to vote. What business is it of him. Did he address himself to the Iraqi people when they were receiving uninvited US bombs and missiles? And do not forget the special election monitors...in Jordan, busy closely monitoring the puppet election in Iraq. And I will now monitor every election in Latin America from my living room. It is the same logic. Americans would never stand for an American election in the presence of 10 foreign troops on their lands, but they seem to not notice that the Iraqi puppet elections take place in the presence of 150000 US troops and 38 Macedonian troops (of course, I am only implying that the Macedonian troops are the problem, not the US troops who are merely Heavily Armed Tourists.) I notice that no US or Middle East media (not even AlJazeera) are allowed to refer to the US occupation forces as "occupation forces." Even Angry Arab is now obliged to call them Heavily Armed BUT VERY KIND American Tourists in Iraq.