I don't know if you caught it -

...."their partially retarded" should be
...."they're partially retarded"

indicating that maybe I AM!!!

(I had to catch that before booklady did!)

Fup

Skunk:

Hay muchisimos estadounidenses que pensamos igual que tu sobre estos temas. El problema es que los derechistas, solo saben insultar y vomitar las mentiras que les atibúrra la prensa americana. Yo soy estadounidense y la verdad es que me provóca un estrés magnífico esta administración y pensar que la prensa derechista y la gente, paralizada con miedo, van a elegir a Bush de nuevo, pues, es suficiente para hacerme llorar. Pero, bueno, solo quería dejarte saber que somos muchísimos los que tenemos ideas más progresívas sobre la política estadounidense y las decisiones de Zapatero (que por cierto, una encuesta por CNN dijo que la mayoría de la gente piensa que ha hecho bien). Te lo escríbo en español porque no quiero dramas con esta gente, que aunque no les tengo miedo, no necesito pensar que hay gente que puede creerse tanta mierda. Un beso!

One question, did someone just say Spaniards are partially retarded? I have to say that it is sickening that a comment like that would be allowed to remain on this site.

silvita -

Nope, Nobody said anything even similar to that. It was the opposite. Americans were indicated as being ignorant, which I referred to as saying that the inference was - Americans - were "partially retarded".

Fup

silvita - To be sure you didn't miss it -

Comment by skunk:

"No comments as I can imagine you could be the typical US guy that could ask me if in Spain we live in houses or if we use kleenex"

Response by me (though he didn't direct his comment towards me):

""skunk, I get the feeling that you don't come in contact with those that disagree with you much... you take it too personal. You wail that you've been insulted - while throwing them out. I can honestly say that I love Spain, without indicating that I think their partially retarded - like you seem to feel about the "typical American". And yep, I think I'm right... that's called an opinion - which you have a few of yourself!""

Follow-up bad joke about MYSELF:

""I don't know if you caught it -

...."their partially retarded" should be
...."they're partially retarded"

indicating that maybe I AM!!!""

********

If we would only read and listen to leftest media we would understand the world ...sorry, I do read & listen - but we don't all follow that view of the world - and disagreeing with you is not a high crime - and not necessarily an indication of a character flaw....

Fup

Fupanier,

You have got to be the most patient person on the face of this earth. I think skunk forgot to mention that Bush had bad breath.

So, what will make terrorism go away?

Electing John FARC Kerry? He is an apologist for the Marxist terrorists who have murdered thousands of innocent Colombians for almost 40 years.
Making OBL the Time Man of the Year?
Electing Yasser Arafat to the UN Secretary General position?
Nuking Israel out of existence?

Spain faced a crossroads. Those who bothered to vote voted for a man who has chosen to side with Chirac and Schroeder, two men whose governments - along with Russia - were the most responsible for arming and supplying Hussein.

This is progress?

France and Germany have unemployment rates near or over 10%. France and Germany, especially France, have allowed Muslim immigration while having a declining birthrate.

Is this something to follow?

Chile does not agree with all points of US foreign policy, and that is fine. I am not here to give blanket support for Bush. At times the guy infuriates me. However, Chile, for the past several years, has embraced capitalism. The Chilean economy has grown substantially for more than a decade and has made terrific progress in cutting its poverty rate. Chile now has a free trade agreement with the US. Chile has mandated English as the second language to be taught in all its schools.

All this with the "repressive" Catholic Church that does not even permit divorce!

My point is that Spain had one of two parties to hitch its wagon to, and in my humble opinion, made the wrong choice. Zapatero embraces a failed economic philosphy - socialism - and has backed down to terrorism. Zapatero has politically embraced two losers in Chirac and Schroeder.

What has happened to the brave Spanish, like Cortez, De Soto, and other conquistadores?

What happened to the brave Spanish like Fray Junipero Serra, who left Mallorca at a young age, never to return, to found and build missions in California during the time of the American Revolution?

Apparently they are of the past.

Perhaps soon, if not now, there will be more speakers of castellano in the United States than in Spain.

I did not write this post to denigrate Spain. I love Spanish history and Spanish traditions. I appreciate the contributions of the Spanish to the United States - from the oldest European settlement in the US at St. Augustine, Florida to the Spanish intervention in the American Revolution, and many other items. I love the language, which I do not speak well, regrettably, but I hope to change that in the future. (Mi señora es da Santiago de Cali, Colombia. They speak the best Castillan - just ask them!)

Spain had, and perhaps still has, a unique opportuity to wield inluence in the Western Hemisphere, especially among its former colonies. While many of these countries are still poor, the opportunites for growth in trade, especially with Chile, Costa Rica and even Colombia, is enormous. Even Argentina is slowly rising from its terrible recession. This also provides a gateway for trade with the growing Spanish speaking population in the United States.

A forward looking Spanish government would propose a free trade bloc with other Spanish speaking counties in the Western Hemisphere - many of whom still see Spain as the Mother Country.

Islam still has issues with Spain because spain kicked them out in 1492. Apparently, Spain has forgotten. Think OBL has? I don't.

One other thing - while Spain pulled out of Iraq, Poland and Ukraine stayed in.

Maybe the Slavs are tougher than the Iberians. One cannot use Spains's repression under Franco as an excuse. Poland and Ukraine has it far worse.

Poland stood up to Chirac and Schroeder.
Too bad the Spanish voters did not.

What I find amazing about this topic is how people with no (or very little) knowledge of Spain culture or politics, who most probably didn't know who Zapatero was before he was elected, who haven't got a clue about the main political parties and their latest decisions in Spain cast their opinions so carelesly.

Do you know what an informed opinion is? Because posting is free for everyone...

How can some of you underestimate the way you do the vote of 10 million Spaniards? People who live in Spain and who see what's happening here everyday.

After all, I'm beginning to think ZP was the right choice.

Thank goodness for Skunk! This forum was turning into a Bush love fest!

1) Zapman pulled out of Irak, despite of huge pressure from Aznar, Blair and the US, because he gave his promise before March 11th that he would. He is just honoring what he said he would do, and which 95% of the country feels too.

2) Bush and co. planned the invasion of Iraq long before 9/11. It wasn't only the oil, but to implement a secret plan called the Plan for the New American Century (I might have the name wrong), which was backed by the Neocons, right wing Christians.

3) The US has now lost all claim, all pretense of being the "liberator" of the Iraqui people. The International Committee of the Red Cross wrote Bush in December that 80% to 90% of the prisoners in that hell-hole of a prison were INNOCENT of any crime and rounded up randomly. Now it is coming out the the tortures WERE NOT THE RANDOM ACTIONS OF A FEW, but A PLAN HATCHED BY RUMSFIELD, AND APPROVED BY BUSH! Rummy felt the methods used to loosen the tongues of Al Q. members in Afganistan could be expanded to help gather information in Iraq. CIA interrogators apparently ordered MPs illegally to "soften up" the prisoners by "giving them the works." Now the US is seen as practicing torture in ways similiar, if not as extensively, as Sadaam.

4) the whole war has been botched by idiots. Instead of spawning democracy in the region, Bush and Rumsfield are guaranteeing radical Islamist jihaad in the entire Moslem population of the world. Good going Mr. Bush.

5) now the UN and the rest of the world is going to have to try to clean up the mess, which includes tons of ultra-fine depleted uranium powder from our shells (also in Afganistan and the Bosina), which is causing severe birth defects on a massive scale in those countries. Think about something this toxic and fine (smaller than a virus) in the land of dust storms. It is in the water too. And. . . now will be picked up by the high-altitude winds and DISTRIBUTED WORLDWIDE! Brilliant.

6) the war in Iraq has seriously compromised the efforts in Afganistan and elsewhere. Doesn't anyone remember the economic problems caused in the 70s by the money pit of Vietnam? I won't even start on the disasterous economic and energy polices of the Bush administration. . .