At least according to the new Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, after his Socialist Party swept the ruling conservative Popular Party out of power this weekend, in what many saw as a stunning defeat for a party who was leading in the polls before the terror attack last week. Analysts believe that the vote against the government stemmed from their the fact that al-Qaida was behind the bombings last week and the government tried to hide the truth. The Socialist Party has historically been opposed to the war in Iraq, and used their victory to announce that they would be pulling out existing Spanish troops by the summer unless the United Nations took over the operation. The war in Iraq is unpopular in other countries too, with a recent poll showing that 67% of Canadians believe that Bush knowingly lied to the world to justify the war and an Australian supply ship being defaced in New Zealand with the message '[Australian Prime Minister John] Howard, US Bootlicker'.
The Spanish stock market didn't like the news overall, sliding more than 4% in trading on Monday. The whole event has to make Tony Blair feel at least a little bit nervous. In the rest of Europe countries joined together in a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attack while the European Union called for emergency talks on the terror situation.
The media is still having their little frenzy over how the Presidential race has turned so nasty so soon, with the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post all running articles on the same topic. Kerry has challenged Bush to a series of debates that the Bush team immediately rejected. The Washington Post runs an article about how the Bush campaign greatly exaggerated Kerry's position on former intelligence budgets. In the same misinformation vein, federal investigators are looking into television segments made by the GOP where fake journalists praise the new Medicare law passed by the Bush administration. If there's one thing that the Bush campaign is not lacking though, it's money, with this article focusing on the campaigns fundraising 'rangers.'
In actual issue-related campaign news, the proposed missile defense system got some coverage today, with both the New York Times and Slate magazine running articles questioning the billions of dollars expended on the system. Also, a story about how having a drug conviction can prevent you from obtaining federal funding for post-secondary education. Because we wouldn't want the people who could benefit the most from college actually going, right?
Also:
- According to Pascal Boyer at Washington University in St. Louis, our brains may be attuned to religious beliefs.
- Experiments into creating artificial blood are showing some promise.
- 'Good' cholesterol may not be as good as you think.
- The Max Plank Institute has come out with a studying showing the limits on how fast we can think.
- The Wildlife Conservation Society is concerned that all of the traditional migration paths for Bison are now blocked by some type of development.
- The German Aerospace Centre is designing a probe to melt through the ice on Europa.
- Astronomers may have found our Solar System's 11th planet, Sedna.
- The Canadian government will be forcing industry to release reports on the amount of greenhouse gasses they release as part of the government's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.
- The Canadian Mint is planning on releasing a red 'poppy' coin to commemorate war veterans.
- A professor of social work at the University of Victoria is claiming that Canada's health care system is sliding into eugenics by encouraging parents with disabled fetuses to abort them.
- The Canadian government is calling for an international treaty banning weapons in space.
- The UN is suggesting that Canada pay reparations for a head tax placed on Chinese immigrants at the turn of the 19th century and for blacks forced out of their homes in Africville in 1970.
- Bosnian Serb authorities are ending their search for the former Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war-crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic.
- Tens of thousands of Koreans have staged rallies to protest the recent impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
- India squeaks by Pakistan in the much-publicized cricket match.
- The United States has reportedly sent special forces troops to North Africa as a check against suspected Al-Qaida activities there.
- The UN Human Rights Commission is reviewing the impact of counterterrorism measures on human rights during its annual meeting in Geneva.
- It's now OK to chew gum in Singapore again -- as long as you have a prescription for it.
- The Justice Department and the FBI are looking to make the internet more wiretap-friendly.
- An overview of the sports-switching Nike ad.
- The ABC is featuring a dialogue called a teen's view of the Perth riots.
- Deutsche Welle with a piece called "when gay marriage is just marriage."
- The Guardian interviews some of the Guantanamo detainees.
- Why the United States needs to look beyond the capture of bin Laden.
- The United States and Iran might have recently got into a border skirmish.
- Thought apparently not nasty and brutish, a report on what it's like to live in one of Haiti's villages describes it as hard and short.
- A lesson in speechwriting -- if you're giving a speech praising the accomplishments of women, you should make sure that everyone you mention actually is a woman.
- The Guardian warns against trying to impose democracy in the Middle East.
- Slate discusses how there is very little scientific evidence either way to either support or reject same-sex couples from adopting children.
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