Pen-Elayne on the Web

"But three million voters arose essentially from disenchanted abstentionists to nail them. And almost all of these voters supported the Socialist Party, the main opposition group that had spoken openly against the Iraq war and was also denouncing the media manipulation."

From a letter written to Tom Tomorrow about the Spanish elections. I wish more progressive bloggers would reject the whole "Al Qaeda won" scenario being pumped so hard by the right-wing media. When the party controlling your government takes you to war against the express objection of the majority of your population, and then further insults your intelligence by calling your demonstrations against war and terrorism "anti-democratic" - well, to me voting that party out of power doesn't say "terrorists and warmongers have won," it says to me very clearly that they've lost. And that's important to remember - terrorists and warmongers are two sides of the same coin. When White House Communications Director (and Karl Rove buddy) Dan Bartlett is interviewed on the Today Show and says, straight-faced, that the world and the country are safer then in the next sentence talks about stepped-up Al Qaeda activity, and he's not even questioned about the discrepancy between his two consecutive statements, it's high time to realize Americans are facing the same situation as Spaniards - an administration that has, since it took office and in complicity with a bended-knee media, belittled and marginalized and mocked and ignored any opposition while lying its way into disaster (both foreign and domestic). And if (when) this administration is defeated in November, it will be no more a matter of "terrorists winning" than the Partido Popular's defeat in Spain was - it will be a matter of ¡Basta, Bastardos! here as well.

P.S. Is it just me (and Robin), or did anyone else feel that the Steven Colbert segment on last night's Daily Show was a bit inappropriate, joking about terrorists when the bodies in Spain haven't even been buried yet? Particularly when very much the opposite happened right after 9-11, there was an unspoken moratorium for at least a month as I recall...