Liberal Utopia: A Pee Glee

Monday, March 15, 2004

AOL shows its regular slant on the news by picking this report for its headline story about Sunday's elections in Spain. [AOL link] Of course, knowing AOL - like CNN - is a Time-Warner moon-unit, I wasn't expecting anything better.

Socialists Oust Spain's Ruling Party
Popular Party Hurt by Charges It Provoked Bombings by Aiding Iraq War
By DANIEL WOOLLS, AP

MADRID, Spain (March 15) - Spain's ruling conservatives crashed to surprise defeat in elections overshadowed by anger over terrorist bombings, becoming the first government that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq to be voted out of office.

And, AP hopes, not the last. Hint, hint. Seeing people they hate "crash" fills the Alleged Press' reporters' alleged hearts with unmitigated glee.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1701.

And what's with the phrase "ruling conservatives"? A comparative Google seach on +"ruling conservatives" +ap and on +"ruling liberals" +ap shows the AP is seven times more likely to use that exact phrase if it's a conservative party holding a majority of parliamentary seats than when it's a liberal one. Also, the later are almost always "Liberal" not "liberal." According to the APoplexic reporters' style manual, "conservatives" don't rate being capitalized. It's doubly disingenuous on their part when the official name of the one they hate is "Popular Party."

The win by the Socialists over President Jose Maria Aznar's favored Popular Party Sunday came amid charges that Aznar made Spain a target for terrorist by supporting the Iraq war.

Subreporter's subtext: "It's bad to fight 'terrorists' and 'despots' because you'll make them mad" (AP sneer quotes supplied). That's a charge the AP has no problem lending all its Unquestioning Credibility to, if not being the first ones to actually make it. No wonder "terrorists" and "despots" don't have to spend money running a propaganda outfit. They can just outsource that work to the AP for free.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1702.

[photo of a polling place]
AP

Pre-election polls had favored the ruling Popular Party to win handily.

Spain's incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has pledged to bring home the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq when their tour of duty ends in July.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1703.

Zapatero fell short of a majority in Parliament and will need help to form a government. But it was still a spectacular - and bittersweet - triumph that capped four tumultuous days beginning with Thursday's terror attacks in Madrid, which killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. Critics of the government said it had provoked the attacks by backing the Iraq war.

There's them unnamed but Unquestionably Credible critics again. Being that they're critics of a government run by "ruling conservatives" makes it more likely the "reporter" was only typing about the oft-repeated guttural sounds he overheard in the newsroom.

Señor Jose Luis Rodriguez is going to need help, all right - and with a lot more than forming a government - if he thinks that "We surrender, please don't bomb us anymore" is a viable response to terrorist attacks.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1704.

Next came millions-strong, nationwide street rallies against the railway bombings, smaller ones against the increasingly beleaguered government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, the arrest of five suspects in the bombings, including three Moroccans, and a reported al-Qaida claim of responsibility in a videotape.

The tape raised the possibility that terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden had changed the course of a national election. Spain's government has insisted its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Basque separatist spokesthug: "We want to liberate people by blowing up a lot of babies and women." Seems they had a change in parties too. One that pledges to buy dynamite from France and use it for simultaneous explosions on commuter trains. There's no way those Basque cowards have anything more in common with al Qaeda than the letter Q.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1705.

In one fell swoop, voters ousted Aznar, whose party was favored to win just days ago, even though he brought Spain eight straight years of economic growth, made it a founding member of the euro single currency, cut unemployment in half and brought a degree of prominence to a long-ignored country.

Another hint-hint from the AP: You could be the bestest most wonderfulest thing going for the country. But if you're the "ruling conservatives," we won't even mention it in our ~~propaganda pieces~~ ~~hatchet jobs~~ reports until after you've been "ousted" in "one fell swoop."

No, there's no need to thank us, terrorists and despots. We're just doing our "jobs."

Spain 0, Terrorists 1706.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, the Socialists soared from 125 seats to 164 in the outgoing 350-seat legislature. The ruling Popular Party fell from 183 to 148. It cannot try to form a coalition because it has no virtually no allies in the legislature, where it had enjoyed a majority and was often accused of riding roughshod over opponents.

Often accused by the AP and its Unquestionably Credible unnamed anecdotal sources, that is. Socialists would never think about riding roughshod over their opponents whenever they soar into power. They'd use a steam roller.

Rodriguez Zapatero started his victory speech by remembering those killed in the railway bombings. "At this moment I think of the lives that were broken by terror on Thursday,'' he said, then asked the crowd to join him in a minute of silence.

"My most immediate priority will be to fight terrorism,'' he said.

By not fighting it anymore. He must've been reading the F'in' al-Qerry "exit strategy" plan.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1707.

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party ruled from 1982 to 1996 but ran afoul of corruption scandals and was voted out in 1996, when Aznar took power.

More on This Story
· Al-Qaida Linked to Attack
· AOL Search: Elections
Savoring victory again, outside Socialist party headquarters 1,000 jubilant supporters cheered and waved the party's red flag. But they, too, mourned those killed in the railway blasts. "Not all of us are here. Two hundred are missing,'' the crowd shouted.

"I think the party won because of people's frustration people about the Popular Party getting us into the war in Iraq,'' said one of them, housewife Loli Carrasco Gomez, 36.

Of the troops in Iraq, she said: "I hope they all come home and never go back.''

That'll show them terrorists and their state sponsors. They'll know they can't attack Spain without winning.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1708.

Ruling party candidate Mariano Rajoy, Aznar's hand-picked successor, called Zapatero to congratulate Zapatero.

Outside the Popular Party headquarters, some 100 supporters chanted "Viva Espana! Viva Aznar'' and waved party flags although there was nothing to celebrate.

If I were drinking freshly blended puppies I would respond with "Indeed."

Aznar chose not to seek a third term, saying he wanted renewal in government and his party.

Pre-election polls had favored his ruling party to win handily.

But on election day voters expressed anger with the government, accusing it of provoking the Madrid attacks by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which a vast majority of Spaniards opposed.

You're repeating yourself again, Woolls. Got it already. You fight terrorists. They. Get. Mad.

That empty spot on the shelf reserved for your Pulitzer is going to stay that way if you don't work at inserting your anti-U.S. views more subtly into your stories.

Spain 0, Terrorists 1709.

The government had insisted that its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA, even as evidence mounted of an Islamic link in the bombings.

The government was accused of withholding information on the investigation to save the election.

Accused by AP - and who else? More of those Unquestionably Credible Unnamed Sources, no doubt.

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Basques Fear Backlash
Throughout Sunday, voters said they lost faith in the ruling party.

"I wasn't planning to vote, but I am here today because the Popular Party is responsible for murders here and in Iraq,'' said Ernesto Sanchez-Gey, 48, who voted in Barcelona.

03/15/04 01:56 EST