Spain: Our hearts and thoughts *are* with you

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Liar
Everything points to Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile the Spanish government continues to blame ETA. There is a general election in 2 days, if A-Q did the bombing then the government will lose the election for taking the USA side in a war that the Spanish people did not want.
200 people snuffed out to politics.

Shit I'm angry.

W

*HUGS*

I'm no expert on the ETA, but this dosen't seem thier style at all. It looks like the kind of quasi military attack AQ is becoming infamous for.

-Colly

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Someone just pointed out on the radio that not only is it two and a half years since 9/11/01, but that 911 days have passed.

---dr.M.

 

[minsue]

Speaks for itself

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040312/capt.xmad81803122016.spain_bombings_xmad818.jpg

Hundreds of thousands of people march down a main street of Zaragoza, Spain, Friday March 12, 2004 during a demonstration to protest the bomb attacks on trains in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and injured another 1,400. (AP Photo/EFE, Javier Belver)

 

[oggbashan]

Hundreds of thousands in Basque country demonstrated against the attack.

That proved to other Spaniards, who thought that Basques support terrorism, that ETA is in a minority and detested by those who they claim to 'fight' for.

Not just Spain but the whole of Europe is demonstrating against terrorists.

If ETA did it they miscalculated badly.

Og

 

[Couture]

My deepest sympathies to the people of Spain.

It did my heart well to see such a display of unity to the people who were in the streets demonstrating against terrorism. If only the whole world could join in and turn in these cowardly people so that they are no longer a threat to society or civilization.

 

[SlickTony]

My sympathy goes out to the people of Spain. The thing that I keep remembering that creeps me out was the phrase about body parts raining down on people.

Everything points to Al-Qaeda. Meanwhile the Spanish government continues to blame ETA.

Maybe the Spanish Government is being cagy--pointing to ETA but heavily investigating the Al Qaeda lead in hopes that the media won't get in their way.

This evening, my husband said, "I think Al-Qaeda fucked up when they messed with Spain. There's a country that has had some experience with dealing with Muslim terrorists" That, of course, is perfectly true, starting in the Middle Ages.

 

[ChittyLoveR]

Lou,

Thanks. I was in a bit of shock earlier. We have relatives in Madrid, I hadn't heard the news all day and had a distressed call from my daughter asking if I knew if everyone was Ok, thankfully they are.

There can be no excuse for what happened today. If you have seen the tv pictures you will have seen bombs placed at each end of a carriage, calculated to cause the maximum possible damage.

What is as tragic as the loss of life is the bigoted narrow minded assumptions that inevitably follow such events that further erode 'freedom' of thought, expression, culture with never a thought to what may have caused such extreme action to be taken. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making excuses for anyone. Whoever did this deserves the harshest punishment.

But we do need to look at ourselves from time to time and ask the question.

my heart goes out to all who are physican victims of these cowards... and also to all of the rest of us that loose another dealy held, treasured thing, our freedom.

remember, that is really what they want to take from us... our way of life.

 

[SummerMorning]

 

[rgraham666]

my heart goes out to all who are physican victims of these cowards... and also to all of the rest of us that loose another dealy held, treasured thing, our freedom.

remember, that is really what they want to take from us... our way of life.

Freedom is like souls.

It's never taken. It's always given up.

 

[Wills]

Learning a Lesson

Exit polls following the voting in the Spanish general election are indicating the ruling PP party has lost to PS (swing from Republican/Conservative to Democratic/Labour).

This was inevitable following Al-Qaedi's bombing three days ago AND the fact that 90% of the
Spanish people opposed the USA/UK/Spain pact over Iraq.

Terrorists have brought down a government that acted against the wishes of its people in the most public way possible.

The cost - 200 lives.

We have Portuguese National Guard in Iraq against the wishes of the majority of Portuguese people. In 90 days time the European Football Championships will be staged in Portugal, matches beamed around the world.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Edited: 21.08hrs PS declared winners in Spanish general election

 

[hiddenself]

200 lives later...

Aznar and his lying cronies in the PP got whammed by the Spanish electorate. PP candidates were met at the polling places by angry demonstrators shouting "liar" and "manipulator" and even "murderer"!

Would it be too much to ask for the same fate for the BB twins (Bush/Blair)? Alas, I fear the Anglosaxons don't have what it takes.

 

[Just-Legal]

The BB twins (which, by the way, is the perfect nickname for THOSE two) *should* be brought down. But they won't.

I abhor violence. The kind of attacks seen in Madrid and NY are unforgivable. But to fight violence with violence?

My family is part Irish. Southern Irish. Some have been beaten for being born in the wrong place, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the worst days of terrorism people would spit on my grandfather - a school caretaker in Yorkshire - because he spoke with an Irish accent.

Fighting with these people breeds hate and contempt in those who lose loved ones, and yes, I do understand that we need to be seen to do something... But if all you ever do is fight, then you teach your children hate, and that is what started this in the first place - hate.

 

[minsue]

The BB twins (which, by the way, is the perfect nickname for THOSE two) *should* be brought down. But they won't.

I abhor violence. The kind of attacks seen in Madrid and NY are unforgivable. But to fight violence with violence?

My family is part Irish. Southern Irish. Some have been beaten for being born in the wrong place, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the worst days of terrorism people would spit on my grandfather - a school caretaker in Yorkshire - because he spoke with an Irish accent.

Fighting with these people breeds hate and contempt in those who lose loved ones, and yes, I do understand that we need to be seen to do something... But if all you ever do is fight, then you teach your children hate, and that is what started this in the first place - hate.

Hear! Hear!

 

[Wills]

I agree with every word of JL and Mindy's endorsement, except for one thing.

Hate was the second thing.

Greed was the first thing.

 

[hiddenself]

I abhor violence. The kind of attacks seen in Madrid and NY are unforgivable. But to fight violence with violence?

Elections are not violence!

 

[Michelle-TV]

Re: 200 lives later...

Aznar and his lying cronies in the PP got whammed by the Spanish electorate. PP candidates were met at the polling places by angry demonstrators shouting "liar" and "manipulator" and even "murderer"!

Would it be too much to ask for the same fate for the BB twins (Bush/Blair)? Alas, I fear the Anglosaxons don't have what it takes.

Blair is deeply unpopular in Britain and if the Conservatives carry on as they have been there is every chance that Blair will lose the next election.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Madrid. I remember the Birmingham Pub bombings, one of the worst terrorist attacks on Mainland Britain, I was only a kid but the effects of that stayed with me for years.

The people who did this are cowardly scum and they must NEVER be allowed to achieve their aims.

 

[shereads]

And people still profess that the wars against these type of people aren't necessary!!

As soon as you locate the headquarters of these type of people, I'm sure everyone in the civilized world will want to join the battle. Nobody I know has disputed the need to fight terrorism; the question has always been whether an invasion of a particular country is any help. As it turns out, we've opened the doors of Iraq to terrorists and other outlaws. We've traded one enemy for another, one that is infinitely more difficult to fight because they have no borders.

That said, I feel sad and empty and frustrated for the people of Spain, and at a loss for anything useful to say. I spent the last week completely out of touch with the news - my mom doesn't subscribe to a paper and when she's ill, she hates to have the television or radio tuned to anything "depressing." I missed the attack in Spain, and on a tinier scale, the discovery of Spaulding Gray's body.



Being isolated from current events is like being away from the office for a week. We don't really get to miss anything; it just piles up and waits for us.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: 200 lives later...

The people who did this are cowardly scum and they must NEVER be allowed to achieve their aims.

Unfortunately, they did achieve one aim. They turned the tide of public opinion against a government and helped change the political future of a nation. What else could they have been trying to do?

 

[shereads]

Re: 200 lives later...

Aznar and his lying cronies in the PP got whammed by the Spanish electorate. PP candidates were met at the polling places by angry demonstrators shouting "liar" and "manipulator" and even "murderer"!

Would it be too much to ask for the same fate for the BB twins (Bush/Blair)? Alas, I fear the Anglosaxons don't have what it takes.

I'm afraid the only thing that will un-elect Bush/Cheney (or Bush/Guiliani or Bush/Rent This Space) is if enough voters hold the administration responsible for the "jobless economic recovery." Clinton's campaign people read the U.S. electorate right when they posted signs at campaign headquarters reading, "It's the economy, stupid." Nothing that happens thousands of miles from our local McDonald's drive-thru seems to move us to take action.

It might make a difference if the press could find a way around the administration's refusal to allow media coverage of coffins arriving from Iraq. The direct result of the Iraq fiasco is kept out of sight "out of respect for the soldiers and their families," as the official rationale goes. Of course, it's different when Bush's own TV commercial uses footage of a coffin being carried out of the World Trade Center rubble.

 

[SlickTony]

I was in favor of the Iraq war when it was still thought that Iraq had WMD. Since then, and especially after reading and hearing about Kevin Phillips' account of the Bush family, I am more and more convinced that we have a set of rascals in the government that need to be voted out.

My daughter is going to be studying in Italy for the better part of a year, or at least until her grant money runs out. She is going in September. I usually don't tell her what to do at her age, but I could not forbear to remind her to be sure and vote absentee before she left--she's largely apolitical but this is too important an election to ignore.

 

[shereads]

I was in favor of the Iraq war when it was still thought that Iraq had WMD. Since then, and especially after reading and hearing about Kevin Phillips' account of the Bush family, I am more and more convinced that we have a set of rascals in the government that need to be voted out.

My daughter is going to be studying in Italy for the better part of a year, or at least until her grant money runs out. She is going in September. I usually don't tell her what to do at her age, but I could not forbear to remind her to be sure and vote absentee before she left--she's largely apolitical but this is too important an election to ignore.

Read Molly Ivans' "Bushwhacked" if you want to seethe with helpless rage...You don't want to? Neither did I. I picked up the book at the airport because Ivans makes me laugh. I had no idea these people had left such a clear paper trail of political disasters before they moved into the White House. I thought they hadn't been caught yet; not true. They just haven't been caught doing anything that caught the imagination of the press and the public.

Bush inherited a surplus as governor of Texas, pushed through two massive tax cuts and left the state with a deficit - without any help from terrorists. According to Ivans, a reporter on candidate Bush's campaign bus in early 2000 asked the governor to comment on the budget crisis that awaited the next legislative session. Bush replied, "I hope I won't be around to see it."

He wasn't.

 

[SlickTony]

We get Molly Ivins in the Florida Times-Union. Considering that the other columnists are Cal Thomas, Ann Coulter, Mona Charen, Michelle Malkin, George Will, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Matt Towery (who often says things that make sense) I sometimes wonder why, but hell, I'll take it--we even get Ellen Goodman, too.