I doubt purple fingers will be on display in October

With Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s fizzled attempt to suppress Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army by silence, Sadr and his followers are probably right about this:

The Sadrists believe the goal was to weaken their movement before provincial elections this fall. Al-Sadr's followers expect to make major gains in the regional voting at the expense of al-Maliki's Shiite partners in the government.

So, if politics by other means didn’t work, expect Maliki to practice politics by yet other means in the fall —

• Voter intimidation;
• Ballot-box stuffing;
• Ballot-box tampering;
• Pre-emptive disqualification of candidates, a la Iran.

I can probably think of more if you give me enough time.

Since the provincial elections are scheduled for before our general elections, Preznit Bush, Uncle Fester and others will probably pull their fingers out of their asses or Dutch Boy dikes, dip ’em in purple, and loudly hail “democracy” meaning we need to stay in Iraq for John McCain’s 100 years.