The Practice of Democracy

One of the stated intentions of the U.S. in trying to justify its invasion of Iraq was to bring 'democracy' to the country.

It seems it's succeeded. In an unannounced vote last Sunday, the Iraqi parliament quietly amended a law so that approval of the new constitution now becomes easier. Instead of the constitution being rejected if 2/3rds of those voting in at least three of the eighteen provinces cast a negative ballot, now it is 2/3rds of registered voters which means that someone who abstains is now considered to approve of it. & since less than 60% of Iraqis voted in the January elections......

Changing the transitional laws is supposed to require the approval of 2/3rds of the National Assembly & of the Presidency Council. But because the politicians consider what they did as merely "clarification" of the laws, approval wasn't sought.

(Abutting this report in the paper was another item detailing how charges were being brought against Bush ally Tom DeLay for laundering corporate donations & using them to help fund the 2002 Republican Texas election campaign in which the Republicans took control of the Texas Legislature for the first time since the Civil War & prompty remapped the State's congressional districts to increase the number of Texas Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.)