This should be shocking news... but sadly, it falls under the day-to-day, business-as-usual category. The Iraq constitution was just passed - unfortunately it passed with more votes then there are voters in 12 of the 18 provinces. But, I suppose, these things happen.

On top of the fact... well, it's under investigation, so instead of "fact", I'll use the term "incredibly-high-probability", that the constitution's vote was fraudulent... the whole thing was written not by Iraqis, but by the U.N., and submitted to Iraq two days before the vote. Leaving almost no time to go over it and discuss it's wording.

And! On top of this - the new constitution takes away a massive amount of woman's right's that the previous constitution warranted... now, granted, I doubt that Saddam truly stuck to it. But the previous constitution was modeled, in the 70s (if I remember correctly), after the current British constitution... demanding equal pay and work for men and women, it allowed woman to go to school, marry who they wanted, when they wanted.

And now - the new, U.S. backed, constitution, that was shadily passed a few days ago, doesn't allow women to go to school or work without a male's written approval... they aren't even allowed equal pay. So much for a "democracy".