Lebanon goes to the polls tomorrow, and even though Obama didn't mention the election in his big address in Cairo on Thursday, the outcome is rather important.

This is a chat with my good friend Nadine, a young political activist whose family is from Lebanon. It provides some valuable insight into tomorrow's elections - and hopefully we'll be hearing more from her soon over the next day and half, as I've urged her to write into TPM as a reader and maybe even start a reader blog!

*edit - Nadine has posted here. Excellent read!*

Nadine: elections tomorrow!!! you would NOT believe how crazy it is over here!!!
me: oh man!! tell me all about it!!
i was thinking about you the other day, you know everyone's talking about the middle east now bc of obama's big speech in cairo
what did you think of it??
Nadine: it was great, although a little weak on women's rights
i mean, women are being stoned and genitally mutilated and all he mentions is the right to a hijab? ehhh
me: yeah
good point
Nadine: but it was very well-received here
me: awesomeeee
glad to hear it!!
Nadine: but seriously things are CRAZY here
me: so tell me about the elections...who are you supporting and what's the public feeling like?
crazy in a good way??
Nadine: there are basically two coalitions
me: right, i remember you telling me about him
so tayyar al-mustaqba is the name of the party or that means something, like 'go mustaqba'? haha
Nadine: there is the March 14th coalition and the March 8th coalition
tayyar means flag, it's how they refer to the parties here
the March 8th coalition is hezbollah and its allies
me: right, i was just about to ask if this was accurate: 'Lebanon goes to the polls on Sunday with the main choices a Hezbollah-backed alliance or the U.S-backed coalition to lead their government.'
Nadine: everyone is afraid that hezbollah will cause problems
yes that is correct
me: so i guess the march 14th is the US-backed one?
Nadine: here they are referred to as March 14th (US backed) and March 8th (hezbollah)
yes that's true
me: got it
Nadine: there are a lot of people who are afraid to go into beirut and vote tomorrow
you should see the streets
right now
there are soldiers EVERYWHERE
me: oh god
that is scary!
your parents get to vote, right?
where are you exactly, are you in beirut?
Nadine: we just saw six tanks filled with soldiers go up the street next to us, and we're in the mountains right now!
me: omg
geez
:( be careful :( how likely is it to erupt into violence??
Nadine: my parents get to vote too, but i have to wait until i am twenty one until i get to vote here!!! lammmme
me: 21! damn
Nadine: and there are political parades everywhere too, just a bunch of young people taping political flags to every surface of their vehicle as they sit with their bodies halfway outside the window (or even on top of the car!) and honk horns and yell and stuff, there was already a car crash earlier from someone who was going too fast (right outside the house!)
me: oh dear
Nadine: there are political ads all over the tv
and all over billboards and the radio and people are saying that if
hezbollah wins, lebanon will become another iran! basically right now
it comes down to the christian vote: lebanon is 33% sunni muslim, 33%
shiite muslim, and 33% christian.. the sunnis are mostly all for the
progressive democratic Future party and the shiites are
mostly all for hezbollah, and the christians are split.
me: it sounds exciting and a little terrifying, haha!
Nadine: well nobody knows
me: oh man
Nadine: what will happen
me: the christians
i think i just read about a christian leader who's backing the march 8th guys?
Nadine: if hezbollah loses they might just try to take over again like they did may 7th
me: :(
Nadine: yeah that would be the general aoun
me: ugh
frustrating
how long are you going to be there, until the end of the summer?
Nadine: he was a general in the civil war, and he is absolutely desperate to be president
he would do and say anything to be it
me: you should totally get a TPM account and post a blog there nadine. everyone would be fascinated
Nadine: i am staying until june 30th
you think so?
me: YES, definitely

The rest of the chat is just technical stuff about emailing TPM and getting a blog here - but I thought I would share the above. I know I'm interested, even though the Obama administration thus far is literally staying away from Lebanon - thought you all might be too.

Liz Cheney is on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC right now doing her best to tear down Obama's impressive address in Cairo today.

Among the many things she finds "troubling" - Obama's comment that women who choose (keyword - choose!) to wear hijabs are exercising their right to equality. In a rather rambling criticism, Cheney says that "'if you looked at the audience [at Cairo University], you could tell many of the women who weren't covering their heads were Christian."

Really, Liz? And how can you tell that by looking at someone? Was it the lack of a hijab, even though not all Muslim women wear one, or are you alluding to something else?

Argh. As Ashley, another TPM intern put it: She must be able to tell by her "Jesus love radar."

CNN has had experts in Muslim-American relations and the heads of key Muslim organizations and councils on all day to give their response to Obama's speech - so far, MSNBC has had Liz Cheney on. Twice.

(To be fair, they've also had Richard Haass on twice, the author featured in next week's book club...but the amount of Cheney still frustrates me.)

**UPDATE** 10:38 PM

Al has responded to your queries here.

Also, I've spent the last few hours reviewing all TPM abuse emails for the month of May - double-checking ones I've already been over - just to make sure. You may be pleased to know that I was able to ban 11 IP addresses of seriously-repeat offenders!

Again, thanks for keeping us on our toes, and keep reporting spam as abuse. We'll stay on top of it.

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Hi all,

I originally posted the comment below here on barefooted's blog in response to the issue of spam on TPM and TPMCafe. I thought it might be useful or of interest to some while I work on getting the ever-busy Al and Andrew to post something more detailed of their own!

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I'm Versha, the Cafe intern. I don't have quite the coding or web
knowledge that Al or Andrew do but I can tell you that one of my daily
tasks is to kill all the spam I find - or Al finds, or Andrew finds,
etc. Unfortunately, it pops up almost as quickly as I delete it.

The other problem is that we can only ban IP addresses when the
user/spammer leaves a comment. With the current system we have, we
cannot track or ban IP address via blog posts. Please do trust me when
I say we're working to come up with something!

And yes, staff is low on the weekends, I'm sorry to say!

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Thanks everyone. Keep keeping us on our toes. :)