Democracy on the march…

…over the cliff. The latest example of Condi's "quiet political progress"...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9 - Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.

The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

Taking hundreds of US fatalities in pitched battles with the Mahdi Army last spring seems to have worked out typically awful for Bushco™.

There's just no doubt at all...