The drama of elections in the Middle East

The elections in Palestine seem to be coming to an end. Alrhought the results won't be official until Monday, it seems like Mahmoud Abbas has won the elections. The mainstream media news is full of narratives about the prospect of peace and democracy. This is another view which I found interesting.
And this is an article I read in ProgressiveTrail.org today. The author, Dahr Jamail, makes an analogy between U.S. troop increases in Vietnam war and the recent increases in Iraq. He says, it was called escalation then, it is called elections now...
I read in another article today that the U.S. support for Tsunami so far equals a day and half of the cost of War in Iraq. Sigh...
And finally, I received an email from MECA (Middle East Childrens' Alliance) about a silent vigil in Berkeley on January 16th. If you are a Bay Area resident, you may be interested in this.
On a happier note, Joojeh Kabob was lovely and Sanam seemed to be doing great.