Friedman's Ass-essment

Many better bloggers and most notably, Kevin Drum over on his new Political Animal bog at The Washington Monthly (Kevin called it revolting), have taken Tom Friedman to task already for his 3-18-04 Times column, "Axis of Appeasement." Thus, I won't say much but...

Why is Spain bad for voting out Aznar and company? I've admired the way the people of Spain have responded to the bombing last week (3-11-04) which I don't believe in anyway represents their desire to appease or buy themselves protection from the terrorists.

I think their subsequent vote meant several different things, among them the fact that the way the War on Terror has been handled has been inappropriate and the specific way the existing government responded (through truth-mangling) to it egregious. They said NO to any more of this "whatever Bush wants, we'll do it" mentality. Remember, 85-90% of Spaniards were against the Iraq War before the war. Did you really expect them to vote in Aznar who sided with Bush against the vast majority of his own people?

Yesterday, I heard the tale end of an independent radio format's afternoon speaker talking about a conspiracy theory that the Spanish bombing was planned to try to ensure that Aznar would be returned to office. I don't buy that, although sometimes, the sheer audacity of the BushCo crowd does worry me in its breadth. They've gotten away with so much that one cannot conceive would be possible.

Today, I heard people say how scary this was for "poor Italy", who might feel forced to do something similar because they would not want to be the next target of violence. Now that, I think, is conspiracy theory, too. First, is anyone but Berlesconi a serious candidate? Second, Berlesconi manages almost every single word the people of Italy see and read. I'll bet what passes for my bank that Berlesconi would be returned to power if not a single vote was even cast.

But I can't do anything about Italy. I just want the current US administration removed in a completely fair election, even if the Supremes need to have all that Tom Ridge-sanctioned needlessly purchased duct tape applied to their mouths to keep them from intervening this time. Perhaps Scalia and Cheney can go duck hunting on election weekend.

Hmmm... sorry, I said much after all.