Spirit of America’s work with Friends of Democracy to provide a full picture of Iraq’s elections is coming to fruition. This project has been to provide a ground-level view of the elections from the people and bloggers of Iraq (yes, I know, bloggers are people, too). There are lots of good reports already on the Friends of Democracy site at http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info

The information is not “candy coated” – it simply does more than emphasize terrorism and violence. It provides good news and bad. Please link to the site and check it for news. It will be especially good on election day. We’ll have reports and photos coming in from all corners of Iraq.

It’s not too late to put up a blogad or button on your site to tell people about Friends of Democracy and the election coverage. If you want to, please contact Michele Redmond at michele@spiritofamerica.net

THIS SUNDAY, ELECTION CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON – YOU ARE INVITED We are hosting a small conference in Washington, DC on Sunday (Jan. 30) from 1.30pm to 4pm that will provide a consolidated picture of Iraq’s elections featuring prominent Iraqis, selected guests (Cliff May from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Christopher Hitchens), live call ins from the Friends of Democracy correspondents and bloggers, photos, video and stories. It will provide a picture of Iraq’s elections people will not get anywhere else.

The event will be webcast (check the http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info site on Sunday) and we hope it will be picked up by C-SPAN.

We’ll be inviting the media and SoA donors but wanted to give you first shot at the small number of seats we have (35). If you’d like to attend, please RSVP to this message. We expect there to be Wifi for live blogging and there will be opportunities for Q/A. If you RSVP, please arrive on time or you won’t get into the studio.

Again, thank you for your support.

Jim Hake and the Spirit of America team.

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ps – the men and women at Friends of Democracy have demonstrated extraordinary courage in pulling this together. have chosen to stand for their country’s freedom and its future. They put themselves at great risk in doing so. It is an enormous privilege and honor to work with and support them.

Please know that we continuously ask about their safety, especially if there is anything we can do to help. We do anything (drop ideas, change information on the site, etc.) they ask. Like you, we worry about them.