BACK IN BALA

Spent a great week in southern Spain and northern Morocco, including spending International Women’s Day in Grenada, where the day was marked with a march at dusk with puppets, music, and an impressive crowd holding signs with slogans (roughly translated) like “Women’s rights will not be lost or privatized.” We also spent a lot of time on the beach.

Meanwhile, the port deal collapsed, Olmert announced plans to get out of much of the occupied West Bank and annex the rest of it, South Dakota moved to annex women’s wombs, and the GOP ethics sketch-fest continued apace. You can catch the details of the latter over at the now-open-for-business TPMMuckraker. Speaking of which, self-appointed ethics czar James Dobson is apparently shocked at being associated with Jack Abramoff; I compiled some of the evidence here.

Meanwhile, Whiskey offered an update on the locked-out workers in Boilermakers Local 484 in Meredosia. And Michael Tomasky gave Democrats across the political spectrum good reason to be grateful he’s not a candidate for political office of any kind – or a kingmaker for one either (otherwise, we’d only be running candidates who knew which two ex-presidents died on the same day in 1826.

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Spanish Prime Minister-Elect Zapatero Thursday announced his commitment to push for gay marriage and full gender equality in Spain. As Dan Munz sarcastically observes:

More separation between religion and the state, freedom for gays, and equality for women written right into the Constitution. Somewhere, Bin Laden is dancing and singing around his cave, using a hairbrush as a microphone.

I know it’s been said here and other places before, but if Bush was really opposed to giving Usama Bin Laden what he wants, Bush’s domestic agenda (as well as his international one) would look much more like Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s and a lot less like Jerry Falwell’s.

David Brooks on the Spanish electorate:

I don’t care what the policy is. You do not give terrorists the chance to think that their methods work. You do not give them the chance to celebrate victories.

If that’s really the case, then why did Bush provide Usama bin Laden exactly the “clash of civilizations” confab he was seeking by invading Iraq? Why does he support Israel’s policy of advancing Hamas terrorists’ intentions of forestalling peace by responding to terrorism by suspending peace talks? Why is he appeasing religious fundamentalists worldwide with a federal marriage ammendment?