[El Gato]

It's almost impossible for someone like me, living within the-relatively speaking-safe confines of the United States, to appreciate the bravery displayed by the Iraqi citizens who have decided to cast their ballots in today's elections.

Just now on Fox, Shep Smith was saying that at one polling place, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the checkpoint, killing an Iraqi policeman, an Iraqi National Guardsman or two and a couple of other Iraqi officials. This was well away from the school where the polling was going on. People on line at that time, stayed on line to vote, even as the body parts were being cleaned up from the area. That takes stones. I'm in awe.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

No question about it.

I heard a similar report about the same incident on WNYC.

When Iyad Allawi stated that he'd keep the polls open, no matter what happened during the course of the day, he wasn't blowing smoke up our a**ses.