Afghan women's activist wins seat | IndyStar.com: "One of the first winners announced in Afghanistan's historic parliamentary elections is a women's rights activist who gained fame by calling militia leaders criminals at a constitutional conference, according to unofficial results released Thursday.
Malalai Joya received 7,813 votes and placed second out of 47 people vying for five seats representing western Farah province."

Well, that was interesting! Big storm last night. 3" of rain here, 6" in the burbs to the south and 10"(!!) to the north. Lots of lightening which was very cool to watch. The thunder scared the crap (fortunatly, not literally) out of the dog. He went and curled up in my son's room. A room he never goes into, weird...

I went down to the basement to get something and noticed water coming in. Razzlefrats! Went to check out the new egress windows and discovered that one of them was filling up, already at least a foot deep and slowly leaking through the tacked down trim (waiting to be removed and finished and completely tacked down). Checked the gutters and, yup, they were clogged and the rain was just coming over the edge right down into the egress window bay. Threw on sandals and a hat, grabbed a bucket, and went to bail out the bay like it was a boat. After I got it bailed, I needed to put something over it to keep the still-coming-down rain from refilling it. Ended up putting the deck table upside over it with a bucket under it to give it that just-right slant. Got competely soaked and my back is still yelling at me.

More rain today, but I think it will be slow so it will be ok. And the table is still there.

BostonHerald.com - Opinion & Letters: Kabul's good news missed: For women, a new role: "Ebadi isn't alone in her passionate patriotism or her belief in women. Scores of Afghans never mentioned to me the violence that preoccupies Western press. Instead, they stressed their hope for a transformed homeland that includes a robust presence of women governing the country. One man told me he didn't know who the thousands of candidates were, but he was going to vote for women because they weren't the ones behind the guns. "