Important things in the news today:
1) ABC has signaled its faith that the California recall will draw a TV audience by moving the premieres of two shows up a week
to avoid an October 7 conflict.
2) Why Democracy Works/Doesn't Work: a
Denver ballot initiative "would order city government to 'ensure public safety' by adopting and promoting 'stress-reducing techniques or programs.'" 2,458 signatures were required to qualify the question for the ballot. Supporters of the initiative were able to find 2,462.
3) Europe's recent heat wave
has been nothing but good news for wine vineyards.
4) Iraq isn't all bad afterall says the New York Times:
"We like the Americans very much here," said Zainab Khaledy, 22, who received her medical degree last Sunday. "We feel better than under the old regime. We have problems, like security, but everything is getting better."
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The atmosphere in Diwaniya is far different. The 2,300 marines based here move freely about the city, tossing candy to the children, waving back to the parents. Not a single marine in Diwaniya has been lost to hostile fire since their arrival in April, even though the marines mix with the population here more than their colleagues do in Baghdad. There is not even a curfew.
"This is not Baghdad," said Lt. Col. Patrick Malay, who commands a force of about 950 marines in Diwaniya. "The Iraqis love us here."
****
With hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring into the area, the city and its surrounding areas are rapidly being restored and in some cases improved.
Since April, groups of marines have been fanning out across Qadisiya Province to oversee an array of projects designed to revive the local economy, its government and education systems, while putting Iraqis back to work.
In interviews, Marine commanders rattled off a list of local projects: 86 schools renovated; the police station, courthouse and jail reopened and back in business. Some 2,500 police officers, many of them graduates of a crash, one-week human rights course, walking the streets. Hundreds of local men earning $15 a day clearing weeds from local irrigation canals.
Go read the whole thing. Now.
