WELL BUST MY BUTTONS GUESS WHAT I FOUND.

A news story on the Baghdad City Council meeting.

I found it after reading the headlines of over 700 stories in the internet today.

See?

"I hope I can help the people of Karada and all its neighborhoods," Sabah Mohammed Ali Jumah said in a brief speech to his fellow members of the district council, a pitch to be elected the council's chairman.

"I worked for the Ministry of Oil starting in 1958, but I was fired in 1979 after I quarreled with the minister," Jumah said. "I was head of the association of Iraqi engineers in Basra. I hope you will be satisfied with my qualifications."

Jumah was elected vice chairman. The man he defeated in the race joined in the applause at the announcement of the result.

For the U.S. officials involved in the project, such small scenes of citizen participation are gratifying.

"This has been a bottom-up governance program," said Andrew Morrison, deputy civil administrator for Baghdad. "It's involved thousands of residents of Baghdad."...

The Americans involved in the project clearly see another element of their mission: passing on the basic values of their 2-century-old democracy.

"We're here to understand the democratic process and to discuss the matters that are important to the Beladiya," Johnson told the Karada district council, using the Arabic word for district.

"This is the last time I will chair your meeting. From now on, the chairman you elect will run the meeting and will be responsible for the agenda."