Spain and Russia this weekend. Well, the elections were held in Spain this week and the Socialist beat the incumbent Aznar for Prime minister. Spain was an ally with the US during the war, and the socialist, Zapatero, has said that he will pull out the 1,500 or so troops that Spain has in Iraq. As I mentioned yesterday, this is a clear win for Al-Qaida (I am still having trouble remembering how to spell that, so bear with me). They have successfully used terror and murder to change the political environment of an entire nation. This is almost as terrible as the 200 deaths they caused by blowing up the trains. However, I'm not sure it will make much difference with a Bush-run White House. A Kerry white house could look much different, though. From the sound of Kerry's speech of sympathy toward the Spanish, it sounded like all he would do in response to this would be to sic Inspector Clouseau on the terrorists responsible and call it a day.

Russia also had some elections, and Mr. Putin is still the president of that spiraling nation. Just when you thought that Russia was on the way to Democracy and sanity, a former KGB insider takes over and can anyone say "autocracy?" Russia is now one step away from being Iraq, as Putin controls all the media (just like the old days, eh Mr. Putin?) and didn't have much opposition to speak of.