Finally: I real debate with my nemesis, Republicans Abroad Chair James Levy!

The very interesting poll of Spanish citizens about the US election that’s mentioned at the beginning of the interview was conducted by MAS Consulting and you can see the full results on their blog. (I should have credited them in the interview since Intereconomia didn’t but the whole thing caught me by surprise!)

A very helpful source for me was this week’s Economist had an excellent analysis of John McCain’s current situation and his prospects for winning in November: It won’t be a walk in the woods.

Does he think that he can just say whatever he wants because it’s being read outside of the US or does he just not get American politics? Mario Vargas Llosa wrote a passable summary of the Democratic Primary in “Obama en los infiernos” in Sunday’s El Pais, EXCEPT for his conclusion about the Clinton campaign:

“El candidato demócrata se enfrenta a la guerra sucia desatada por Hillary Clinton. La senadora prefiere que gane el republicano McCain, para así tener ella una nueva oportunidad en 2012”

Translated: “The Democratic candidate faces a dirty war unleashed by Hillary Clinton. The Senator prefers that Republican John McCain wins, so that she can have another opportunity in 20012.”

That’s a slanderous statement that I absolutely disagree with.

To be fair, I’m not happy with al of her campaign’s recent tactics, however, accusing her of wanting McCain to win is just plain slander. Unfortunately, Mr. Vargas Llosa failed to note the following indications that Clinton’s campaign values the ultimate goal of putting a Democrat in the Whitehouse this November:

The Washington Post recently reported that top fundraisers from the Obama and Clinton campaigns have met to discuss merging the campaigns behind the winning candidate. Fundraising is the most important indicator of the health and direction of a campaign.

Clinton’s hiring of Geoff Garin as a chief strategist after the departure of Mark Penn in early April. Garin’s background with “deep ties” to the party was seen as an indication of her desire to not to destroy the party nor her own legacy. Mara Liasson’s report on NPR is a good analysis.

Or how about Clinton’s comments on ABC’s This Week television program on :

“Well, first of all, I think both Sen. Obama and I have made it very clear that we will have a unified Democratic Party, going into the fall elections. I have said that I will work my heart out for him…”

Certainly, Clinton is in the last days of her campaign doing her best to pull off a win—so of course, she’s going to compete like the fighter she is. But to say that she wants McCain to win in November is just going too far.

Better late than never! Here’s my Intereconomia interview from May 2nd. Friday May 9th, Sean Carroll substituted for me because I was on my way to Tenerife to participate in the iCities conference on blogs, e-government and digital participation.

This is the question that I am asked over and over lately by the Spanish press. I talked about it a bit in my weekly interview in TV Intereconomia last Friday:

I refered to Howard Dean’s comments to the Washington Post saying “he is ‘less concerned than a lot of Democrats’ about the consequences of the nominating contest, noting that the primaries are drawing hundreds of thousands of new voters to the party rolls and that in 60 days, that will be more important than the combat between Clinton and Obama.”

A couple weeks ago I cited a Gallup poll that show both Obama and Clinton beating McCain in the so-called “purple states”(not red=Republican nor blue=Democrat but somewhere in between). This is much more significant than the ever changing national polls showing potential match-ups between the three candidates because the presidential election is won by winning these states and since almost every state’s electoral votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis all is takes is a slight margin to win.

Democratic leaders have already been saying this but today the Washingon Post reports that Democrats are registering in record numbers:

“The contest between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has engaged enough new voters to change the political makeup of the country, experts say. The next several months — and the general election in November — will reveal the extent of the shift. Is it a temporary increase in interest resulting from a close election between historic candidates? Or is it a seismic swing in party realignment that foretells the end of the red-blue stalemate?”

Americans want change and yet another Gallup Poll shows us how deep this desire goes: Bush’s 69% job disapproval rating is the highest in Gallup’s 70 year history! Whether he likes it or not, McCain will be tied to this legacy throughout the campaign. And speaking of McCain’s campaign,there was fairly little notice of his dismal showing in Pennsylvania: he lost 27% of the Republican vote there to Huckabee and Ron Paul–further illustrating the lack of interest his party faithfuls have in him.

I suppose I’m not the only person who was shocked to hear the news that Esperanza Aguire’s decision to put Catholic priests on the Ethics Committees of all of Madrid’s public hospitals. (maybe I shouldn’t have been so shocked given we’re talking about Esperanza!) I may not be a Spanish citizen, but I do have permanent residency, pay taxes and rely on these hospitals for my health care. I’m not Catholic and do not see why decisions that affect my health should include this one religious point of view. Please sign this protest and forward it on and, if you have a blog get the code here to post it.

Another week without James and of course the big question was what the primary in Pennsylvania on Tuesday means. Of course, there’s a lot of numbers out there and I relied on the NY Times Election section which has very nice summaries of the delegate counts and projections. Then there’s always the weekly question about the every-changing polls—you’ll find that my answer reflects what I wrote in my blog earlier this week. In the end, some polls tell us what we want to here and others don’t. I propose to take all them with a grain of salt for the duration of this campaign.

The big scandal of the week was, of course, Obama’s comments about working class folks in Pennsylvania. This summary and analysis on Meet the Press, was pretty complete and insightful. This episode says a lot about the culture of American politics today: a ridiculously long campaign coupled with the ability to record and upload everything means that we analyze everything that comes out of a candidate’s mouth. We can watch it over and over, add our comments and send it around.

Is this Democracy at its best or worst? What will be final effect be on how campaigns are run? Will candidates moves toward more and more scripted encounters? Or will only the ones with exceptional spit-second judgment and control over their message survive? Your thoughts and comments, as always, are welcome…

These polls change every day so there’s really no use in getting all riled up over them. However, due to the winner-take-all nature of awarding electors in each state in the presidential election and importance of winning the so-called “purple” states (not red nor blue but undecided) I think today’s findings from Gallup are a much better indication of a possible match-up:

In states where the 2004 presidential election was decided by five points or less, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton currently maintain 47% to 43% advantages over John McCain, according to aggregated data from Gallup Poll Daily tracking.
Read more at GALLUP.com.

I’m beginning to believe that El Pais has made an editorial decision to support John McCain in his presidential bid. I first got this impression, two Sundays ago when the ran a front page story about him that extended to the following two pages touting him as a hero. I’ll just wait and see if they do the same for the Democratic Candidate once he or she is finally chosen.

This afternoon I was dismayed by a rather glaring error in their reporting of the latest Reuters/Zogby poll. The El Pais article ran as follows:

“El candidato republicano, John McCain, ganaría tanto a Barack Obama como Hillary Clinton de celebrarse hoy las elecciones presidenciales estadounidenses, según el último estudio hecho público por Reuters/Zogby.”

Now, let’s take a look at the first sentence of the original article out of Reuters:

“Republican presidential candidate John McCain runs even with Democratic rival Barack Obama and narrowly leads Hillary Clinton in potential match-ups in November, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.”

Which begs the question: is this the same?

Did this poll report the same results for an Obama-McCain match-up as it did for a Clinton-McCain match-up? Absolutely not. Then why is El Pais reporting it that way? One can only guess. It’s either lazy translating or are they really trying to help John McCain win the votes of the 80-100,000 American citizens living in Spain.

I went it alone again today—which allows for more analysis. In preparing to talk about Mark Penn’s dismissal from the Clinton campaign, I found myself trying to translate “pollster” to Spanish—turns out, there’s no such term. It also turns out that I skipped over talking about the pitfalls of having your chief pollster doubling as a strategist. I took my talking points for this based on Mara Liasson’s insightful analysis of this on NPR this week.

As for John McCain’s comments on Afganistan, there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself:

MCCAIN: “Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq. Afghanistan is in trouble..
WALTERS: A lot of people think it is because we don’t have the troops there that we need.
MCCAIN: “I know a lot of people think that. And we do need more troops there.”
[The View, 4/10/08]

Not the first example of how out of touch he is with the reality of the situation. I e-mailed my friend Julio de la Guardia about this because he spent 6 months last year in Afghanistan as the spokesperson for the European Police. He said:

Finally, we need less “Enduring Freedom” (only anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency) and more ISAF (security but also reconstruction and development) and more UN and NGOs. Afghanistan is still one of the poorest countries of the world despite the presence of the International Community. We are turning a blind eye to corruption in the government (interpreted to be a lesser evil in comparison to the Taliban). This has to change. The government and parliament of Afghanistan must be accountable and the wealth must be better distributed!

I won’t repeat any of my past rants on women in politics, but I will recomend that you read Nicholas Kristoff’s interesting take on this campaign in a column titled Our Racist, Sexist Selves.

The topics for this debate as e-mailed to me were all focused, of course on the Obama-Clinton race–wonderful because I like to talk about our two fantastic candidates but on the other hand, we need to make this fair and include McCain as well. The DNC site always provide good talking points for this. I also asked them to touch upon the recent NY Times/CBS News poll that says that 81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on Wrong Track. The point about the economy that I wanted to make but didn’t is that every Republican administration in recent memory has left it in shambles and it’s taken a Democrat to fix it–this time will be no exception.

I really felt the difference doing an entire 8 minutes on my own and not having James to spare with. The advantage of an interview like this is that I don’t have to worry about being attacked or having to go on the attack and can focus more on an analysis of the situation.

I’m reading articles about Elliot Spitzer’s announcement following his being identified as a client of a prostitution ring and I’m seeing very little commentary about the women in the story.

In one radio report, a friend says she was shocked and speaks of him (Spitzer) talking of his wife and daughters with pride. Well, this is precisely what I want to know: how, can a man with three daughters go to prostitutes? Does he not see the connection? These women too have fathers and families who love them and don’t want to see them exploited and used for sex.

And these are not just any prostitutes; this is an exclusive prostitution ring, known as Emperors Club VIP. The Washington Post writes: It charged well-heeled clients as much as $5,500 an hour for “exclusive, beautiful, educated companions of fine family and career backgrounds” while ensuring “privacy and discretion when dating and traveling,” according to the company’s Web site.

This sentence set off a small explosion in my brain.

Since when are beautiful, educated women of fine family and career backgrounds prostitutes?

Since when?

Statistically, the more education a women has, the less possibility she has of getting married. So, are we to become spinsters or prostitutes? What do educated men of fine family and career backgrounds do? (We know the answer to this don’t we?)

Beautiful yet simple-minded girls from the wrong side of the tracks just aren’t good enough for these men? They will only feel good about themselves if they can degrade and exploit one of those “uppity” educated women (but beautiful as well). And of course the high price tag makes them feel all the more powerful—how sexy.

Let me remind you again that this guy has THREE daughters.

Four people from Emperors Club VIP have been arrested. Justice will not be served until their clients are arrested as well. There will no gender equality until we punish and stigmatize the men who employ prostitutes as much as we do the women. An article in Salon actually says that he might have “politically” survived this scandal if he hadn’t “made his reputation as a crusading state attorney general who was more zealous than the Securities and Exchange Commission in prosecuting Wall Street misdeeds.” Yes, how typical—the guy makes the requisite apology with his shocked wife by his side (it only works with her by his side mind you) and all can be forgiven.

As a Democratic Party activist, I want politicians like him out. There is no place for hypocritical misogynists amongst progressives and certainly no place for them in public office.

Four years ago I watched the election returns here in Spain and was inspired. I was inspired that change could happen so dramatically here in Spain. I thought—if this can happen here, it can happen in the US. I went online and found Democrats Abroad, signed up and wrote that I was willing to help out any way possible.

In May of 2004 I attended a meeting to launch the Madrid chapter of Democrats Abroad Spain. About 80 of us turned out—an agitated group desperate to replace Mr. George W. Bush and restore sanity to the White House. The meeting progressed to the key point of the evening: we needed a president to lead this group.

One member raised his hand and said he was willing to do it, but couldn’t be here in the summer. My heart raced—I thought, this, I can do. I know how to lead groups of volunteers. I nudged my new friend Genevieve and said, “Hey, nominate me.” Without flinching she raised her hand and did so. I accepted. A few minutes later, I was voted in as the founding president of the Madrid Chapter of Democrats Abroad Spain.

We didn’t win in November, but I think the true test of an activist is you ability to keep going during hard times. I’ve spent the past four years building up Democrats Abroad Spain. Last year I was elected national president and have built a formidable national executive committee of activists. Since January, we’ve doubled our numbers and I expect to double them again between now and November to deliver thousands of votes for the Democratic candidate.

Thank you, Prime Minister Zapatero and the PSOE for continuing to inspire me!

So, I was ready to slam the Republican (James had sent a sub yesterday) in the TV Intereconomia debate that we do weekly on what was called “La Campana” and now with the much more macho title: “Maximo Interes.” With the name change came a format change and I all three of us were on separate sets, unable to hear each other’s comments and with about 1/2 the time we normally have. But back to slamming the Republican: while everyone is enraptured with the Hillary-Barack show-down, John McCain has made a serious mistake. As a Democratic activist, I’ve already grown weary of our family fight—I’m ready to beat on the Republican and this week, Howard Dean is leading us in that effort.

On the 25th, the DNC filed a complaint with the FEC against John McCain’s campaign Monday, calling on the FEC to investigate whether the McCain campaign violated or is about to violate the law by ignoring the spending limit agreement and other conditions Senator McCain agreed to when he became eligible to receive federal matching funds. According to McCain’s latest campaign filing, he has already spent $49.6 million and given that a month has passed, he has exceeded or is about to exceed the approximately $56.8 million spending limit.

So when McCain’s campaign had financial troubles last summer, applying for federal matching funds and then using it as collateral to secure a loan kept his campaign alive. This status also got him on the ballot in several states without having to spend money on seeking signatures like other candidates have had to do. Now that it his campaign not only alive but kicking and he’s about to become the Republican nominee, he has money pouring in to his campaign and doesn’t want to have to abide by the $50 million limis set as a condition of these funds. If the FEC finds that McCain is indeed in this system, he will effectively have to stop campaigning until the beginning of September.

Lucky for him the FEC doesn’t have a full slate of commissioners at the moment and can’t make an official decision. So it looks like McCain will likely get away with this without suffering immediate consequences. Does this make you angry? It should! McCain paints himself as a “maverick” but he’s just another Bush Republican who thinks he’s above the rules.

Watching the debate tonight between Prime Minister Zapatero and the opposition leader Mr. Rajoy, more than anything I was struck by how the leader of the Popular Party got his moves from his Republican friends from across the pond. Shame on Mr. Rajoy for using immigrants as scare tactics. Shame on him for trying to divert attention from real social issues such as gender equality, gay marriage, assistance for the elderly, a raise in pensions and the minimum wage and stem cell research. Shame on Rajoy for trying to divide the people of Spain through xenophobia. And shame on him for copying these moves right out of the Republican Party playbook.

It was a pleasure to interview with Daniel Urena of MAS Consulting Group, who is very knowledgeable about American politics, political communication and online activism.

Libertad Digital is known for it’s fairly right wing politics, nonetheless I was surprised and a bit miffed that they kept cutting me off and giving the floor to James, who later comented that now I know what it’s like for him to interview with Cadena SER.

I just voted online in the Democrats Abroad Global Primary. The interest in this primary has been tremendous: Democrats Abroad international membership has doubled in the past few weeks. In Spain, we’ve grown our membership base by more than a third. My phone has been ringing off the hook today with press requests. In fact, as I write this I’m on hold with Cadena SER for an interview. They’re talking about weird telephone answering messages—I have no idea how they plan to segue to the US Primary!!

Newsweek ran an article with the headline: “In a tight race for delegates, Democrats voting abroad could be crucial to winning the nomination.” Wonderful to be called “crucial”! Spanish news agency, EFE ran our story and various media picked it up as well.

It’s been exhausting but extremely gratifying to see so much excited on the part of voters. It makes all this hard work worth it. Hope to see you tonight!

Democrats Abroad Spain, Madrid Chapter
Global Primary In-person voting and Fat Tuesday party
Star Café, Serrano Jover 5
20:00- 2:00

When I was about 7, I spent a lot of time running around in a T-shirt my Aunt Gloria had given me emblazoned with the words “WOMEN’S LIB” (it was VERY 1975). I may not have fully understood its meaning back then, but I can assure you that I’ve never been afraid to call myself a feminist.

I’ve always been 1/2 tomboy and 1/2 girly-girl—I can participate in a political debate, bake a pie, go backpacking and read through Vogue all the course of a week. I’ve always been like this and never thought much of it because I was brought up to at least believe that I can’t be defined by traditional gender roles.

When I was 17 years old and planned my high school homecoming dance I was shocked and “ohmygod, grossed out” when the 30-something year old catering manager from the hotel called to ask me out. I was outraged when a colleague at the UCLA Daily Bruin newspaper had to drop a lucrative advertising client because his condition for further advertising was a date with her. I was enraged by how I was treated in my first job after university, fetching coffee and answering phones while carefully avoiding the “secretary track”—things my male colleagues were hardly concerning themselves with. I actually stopped going out at night in China so that I didn’t have to endure watching fat, old, balding Western men having their way with cute little Chinese girls. I was shaking with rage over a month ago when I was waiting to meet someone in front of the Telefonica building on the Gran Via in Madrid (dressed in a business suit) and some man waved cash at me asking “How much?”

These are just a few of my small experiences with sexism in a fairly protected middle-class life and they may seem superficial, but they are real. And despite these experiences, my own inner “macho” tends to take over and think that I’ve never been treated differently because I’m a women and forgets that sadly, sexism is far from over.

Bob Herbert (who I love) reminds us of this in today’s column, Politics and Misogyny. I thank him for it and urge you to read it.

(ok, rant over, but girls, please feel free to continue)

Democrats Abroad has a new website. It just went live and looks fantastic!

http://www.democratsabroad.org/

So, what can you do today to help elect a Democrat in 2008?

If you are an American living abroad:
1) Register with Democrats Abroad NOW so you can vote in the global primary February 5-12th–just followingthis link to the Democrats Abroad website.
2) Send an e-mail to your American friends who also live abroad-remind them that they must register on our site by January 31st in order to vote.
3) Write about this on your blog.
4) Save the date: February 5th voting events in Madrid and Barcelona.

If you aren’t American:
1) Send an e-mail to your American friends about Democrats Abroad and our global primary. Don’t forget to include a link to our new website. Remember, all American citizens can vote regardless of where they live or if they’ve never lived in the US. This includes Spanish-American dual nationals.
2) Write about this on your blog.
3) Save the date: February 5th voting events in Madrid and Barcelona.

I’m from a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area called San Carlos. This town is among others, such as San Mateo, Menlo Park and Palo Alto, connected by the railroad that runs between San Francisco and San Jose. These towns mostly began as country retreats for wealthy San Franciscans then tuned into middle and upper-middle class suburbs.

When I was growing up, San Carlos was just a quiet little town with good schools and baseball and soccer fields filled with kids on weekends. I now know that I lived a privileged life, but nothing like the life that’s lived there now. Or rather, after it became Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley is not a geographical term–it is simply a term used to describe an area in Northern California where silicon chips were manufactured. Wikipedia attempts to define its borders:

“Geographically, “Silicon Valley” encompasses the northern part of Santa Clara Valley and adjacent communities in the southern parts of the San Francisco Peninsula and East Bay. It now reaches approximately from San Mateo (on the Peninsula) and the Fremont/Newark area in the East Bay down through San Jose, centered roughly on Sunnyvale. The Highway 17 corridor through the Santa Cruz Mountains into Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz County is sometimes considered a part of Silicon Valley, as well as the East Bay cities of Livermore and Pleasanton.”

An article in today’s New York Times grabbed my attention for its headline:
In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich
It goes on to describe how people who have millions of dollars still feel the need to work 12 hours days and weekends. It’s never enough because someone else has more. I love the Bay Area–I think it is one of the most spectacular places in the world to live. Most of my childhood friends still live there and have managed to escape this mentality. But still, I find these attitudes distressing and can certainly list it as a reason why I no longer live there.

Surfacing Madrid
Party’s Waning; It’s Time to Shop

By SARAH WILDMAN
Published: July 29, 2007

Partygoers have returned to the Malasaña neighborhood, not to relive their youth, but to dine at upscale restaurants, shop for designer dresses and even buy baby outfits.

Click here to read the article…

My favorite example when explaining the verb structure used to do something is:

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to ride my bike along the famous beach path on weekends. (This is a past habit, living in Madrid makes this impossible at the present moment!)

I’d ride down San Vicente Boulevard to Santa Monica then down to Venice and sometimes all the way to Redondo Beach. Venice is where it’s most interesting–you know you’re getting close by the sound of beating drums and the smell of burning weed. I would often hop off my bike and walk through to take in the atmosphere and some California sunshine.

Take a look at the LA Times web page where readers have posted their own photos of Venice Beach.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided 10 medical marijuana clinics in Los Angles County this week. Yes, that’s right, medical marijuana clinics. Those of you who’ve spent time with me in class know that California is quite different from the rest of the U.S.

In 1996 voters in California approved the “Compassionate Use Act” that allowed use of medical marijuana and said users should not be subject to criminal prosecution. We’re not alone: 19 other states have decriminalized marijuana, approved it’s medicinal use or both (see map and info). However, it remains illegal under federal law to possess, sell or cultivate marijuana and neither the federal nor state courts have resolved the matter.

This is a classic example of federal versus state power in the United States. Whether or not you believe in legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the bigger question is who takes precedence. Most laws that regulate our daily lives in the US are made at the state level–from speed limits to alcohol regulation. The controversial subject of gay marriage will most likely be settled at the state level (Massachusetts, for example, allows it). People who strongly oppose it want a constitutional ban on gay marriage to prevent states from passing their own laws. What I find ironic is that the people who oppose progressive laws such as allowing medicinal marijuana use and gay marriage tend to be Republican. And the Republicans supposedly support a small and limited federal government that stays out of the private lives of citizens.

Some extra vocabulary and facts on this subject:

• slang for marijuana: pot, weed, grass, bud, more slang at marijuanadictionary.com
• 40.1% of the US population aged 12+ as tried marijuana at least once
• According to a study by drugscience.org, Marijuana is the biggest cash crop in the US.
• White House Drug Policy website

You can read more about this in today’s LA Times.

Linguistic follies
Jul 19th 2007
From The Economist print edition

IN RECENT years Brussels has been a fine place to observe the irresistible rise of English as Europe’s lingua franca. For native speakers of English who are lazy about learning languages (yes, they exist), Brussels has become an embarrassingly easy place to work or visit. English is increasingly audible and visible in this scruffily charming Belgian city, and frankly rampant in the concrete-and-glass European quarter. Now, however, signs of a backlash are building. This is not based on sentiment, but on chewy points of economic efficiency and political fairness. And in a neat coincidence, Brussels is again a good place to watch the backlash develop.

Read the rest of the article…

Don’t miss your chance to get an up close and personal report on Afghanistan:

Julio de la Guardia and Alexandra Meyer will join the Madrid Chapter of Democrats Abroad Spain this Wednesday while they’re in Madrid on vacation from their work in Afghanistan. Julio is currently Chief Press Officer and Spokesperson for EUPOL, the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan. Alex, originally from Virginia, now works as coordination and external relations advisor for the Afghanistan Stabilization Program for the Ministry of Interior of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Join us for this informative discussion on Wednesday, Julio 25th at 8pm at Cafe Almendro, Santa Engracia 41 (metro: Iglesia & Alonso Martinez).

Democratic presidential candidates will participate in the first official debate tonight (1:00am here in Spain) and one the some predict to be the most democratic debate ever. It will be televised on CNN and the questions will be chosen from thousands of videos posted to Youtube.com. The debate will be broadcast not only in English but in Spanish (questions are also accepted in other languages beside English).

How questions will be chosen? Check out this video on CNN to find out.

Watch some of the submitted videos on Youtube.com.

Further reading in the New York Times and Washington Post.

Another interesting read about this is Why the YouTube debates matter.

A very important cause and a great party! Check out the video and you’ll have no doubt that Democrats have more fun!

9 years ago today I boarded plane in Los Angeles, passed through Washington DC and Frankfurt and eventually landed in Malaga. I had just broken up with my boyfriend and was about to turn 30 years old and a couple months on the beach combined with Spanish classes seemed like a good idea to get away from it all. So, I decided to take it a step further–I quit my job at the American Heart Association and planned to travel indefinitely after a 2 month Spanish course in Nerja.

I arrived in Nerja after about 24 hours of travel: 3 flights and a 2 hour bus ride! I was exhausted and sweaty as I got off the bus with my backpack. I had the address of the house I was to stay in, but nothing more so I approached a group of old men standing at a bar and managed “donde esta…” and pointed at the piece of paper I had! Fortunately, they were able to help and soon enough I was at Maria’s home, my host for the next two months.

Maria didn’t speak a word of English and I had just a few memories of high school Spanish, but somehow we managed to understand each other enough. I remember that on that first night, she walked me through the village of Nerja and showed me the “Balcon de Europa” and I thought it was one of the most beautiful villages I had ever seen.

A week later, I celebrated my 30th birthday with a group of newly made friends–many of whom I’m still in touch with. The rest of the summer was a fabulous combination of mornings at the beach, afternoon Spanish classes, the Costa de Sol party life at night and weekend excursions all over Andalucia. Not a bad way to begin your thirties…

9 years is a long time to live in another country. At first everything is interesting and exotic. Then, you go through a period where you just feel foreign. Then finally, you adapt to your adopted country so much that when you go home, you feel a bit foreign there. As one writer once put it “you’re neither here nor there.”

So today, I not only celebrate the Independence of my home country, but 9 years in Spain, my adopted home.

The long awaited visit from Condoleezza Rice finally happened last Friday. James Levy (President of Republicans Abroad in Spain) and I discussed this visit in our weekly debate TV Intereconomia just before her press conference, but unfortunately, there was no time for us to comment after.

As an American and a Democrat living in Spain, I find it appalling that the Bush administration has allowed relations deteriorate with Spain since the 2004 election. The US and Spain are longtime allies and both presidents, Bush and Zapatero, must represent all of their respective countries and not just party interests. An article in the Washington Post summarizes the deterioration of this relationship and a related article comments about the close relationship Colin Powell and Ana Palacio had.

This begs the question: should relations between two long-time allies be threatened by every administration change? Isn’t the role of the president to represent his/her entire country, not just the interest of his/her political party? Do party politics play a role in international relations? Absolutely this is the case with US-Spain relations and I personally find it outrageous. The Bush administration is so closely allied with Spain’s Popular Party that they have lost the ability to have civil working relations with Spain’s currently ruling Socialist Party.

The good news is that US-Spain economic relations have grown despite a lack of relations between Bush and Zapatero. Thankfully, diplomatic relations have also continued at lower, less-publicized levels in both administrations. Howard Dean, DNC Chair met with Zapatero during his visit in December and various PSOE MPs have been warmly welcomed in Washington DC by Democratic leaders.

I think the essential difference here is that the Democratic party believes that continued dialogue brings further understand and leads to solutions while the Republicans favor disengaging from those who don’t agree with them. Sounds a bit childish, doesn’t it?

In the aforementioned Washington Post article, there is an anecdote that I didn’t see in the Spanish press: “Talking to reporters after a long meeting, Moratinos and Rice tried to play down their differences by noting that they shared the goal of a democratic government for Cuba. But when Moratinos defended the Spanish approach of engagement with the Cuban government and suggested that eventually Rice would see the merit of that method, Rice rolled her eyes, turned to U.S. reporters and silently mouthed, “Don’t hold your breath.”

Is this how one should expect the US Secretary of State to behave at a press conference? Mocking her Spanish counterpart at a press conference? This is one more example of the arrogant Bush administrations’ mistaken policy of cutting ties with those who disagree rather than engaging them in discussions in order to build understanding and negotiate solutions.

The 2004 Democratic National Committee Platform specifies the following in regards to Cuba:

“We support effective and peaceful strategies to end the Castro regime as soon as possible and enable the Cuban people to take their rightful place in the democratic Community of the Americas. We will work with the international community to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Castro regime to release all political prisoners, support civil society, promote the important work of Cuban dissidents, and begin a process of genuine political reform. Within this framework the Democratic Party supports a policy of principled travel to Cuba that promotes family unity and people-to-people contacts through educational and cultural exchanges.”

Further reading about this visit can be found here in a recent New York Times article.

This headline caught my attention yesterday. I met Cindy when she was in Madrid in December of 2006. She spoke at a Democrats Abroad cocktail reception that we organized for her and I can tell you, it was not a pleasant experience.

“MADRID, Dec. 10 — Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who earned great popularity by withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004, has used his political capital to broadly reshape life here, pushing Spain to the left both socially and politically. One result is the opening of deep rifts in a country long dominated by religious conservatism.”

Click here to read the article

More words you will want to understand before you read the rest of the article–match them with their definitions below:
1. to take for granted
2. to temper
3. to back someone up
4. to split
5. to threaten
6. agenda
7. to gamble
8. wager
9. to roil
10. to bend to someone
11. quest
12. to undertake
13. to dislodge

Definitions:
a. to moderate
b. to divide
c. List or program of things to be done
d. To do what the other person wants
e. Goal or objective
f. To displease or disturb
g. A bet where money has been pledged
h. To pledge or commit oneself
i. to support
j. to underestimate the value of something, become used to something
k. An expression of an intention to inflict pain, injury, evil, or punishment
l. To bet on an uncertain outcome
m. To remove

(See comments for answers)

Last Wednesday December 6th Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee visited Madrid and attended a reception organized by Democrats Abroad Spain. During a breif talk, he said one win is not enough. “Our job is to plan for the long term.” The coming two years of a Democratic majority in Congress and the Senate will not be enough to fix 30 years of Republican damage. He also thanked Democrats Abroad members for “rejuvenating” the party and helping bring about victory. “We did a lot of hard work,” he said. “We’re going in a different direction now. We have support for what we’re doing around the country and around the world.”

From today’s New York Times:

World Briefing Europe
Spain: White Christmas by Decree

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: December 8, 2006

The southern town of Lepe has not had snow for half a century, but it will have a white Christmas this year, by order of the Town Hall. It has brought in two converted cannons to fire fake snow from its balcony into the town square for 15 minutes every night until Jan. 6.

The most important film you’ll see this year, An Inconvenient Truth, explains why global warming is an urgent, life-threatening reality.

According to the film’s website, “If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”

Do yourself, your children and the world a favor–do these things:

1) Watch the trailor
2) See the movie
3) Take action
4) Join StopGlobalWarming virtual march

As you may have noticed, English in Madrid has been on holiday since November 2. This is due to my role as Vice President of Democrats Abroad Spain and the US elections that took place on November 7th. It’s been a fun week filled with lots of news, parties and interviews with the Spanish press.

Of course you’ve seen the news and know that it was a big win for the Democratic Party. Or, if you prefer President Bush’s words: a thumpin’. (slang for: they lost really really bad) Dems are thrilled but are also trying to be very realistic about how this will shape US policy during the next two years. Nancy Pelosi, who is about to become the first woman (and Californian) Speaker of the House, has vowed to work with the Bush Administration to find the best solution to the Iraq question as well as domestic policy issues. The President says he will collaborate with the Dems but at the same time has urged Congress to act quickly to pass certain legislation before the changeover in January.

If you want to learn more about Nancy Pelosi, take a look at her interview with Brian Williams:
Pelosi: Democrats ready to lead
If you’re ready for a challenge, take a look at Keith Olberman’s summary of post-election humor: Last laughs
To increase your political vocabulary, try these quizes.
And for further laughs and a bit of grammar check out About.com’s “Bushisms”

Many of us are following the US midterm elections and the most entertaining, shocking and disappointing parts of any election are the TV ads. Here’s where things really get interesting and often very dirty. Take a look at few that are in today’s news:

The good: Michael J. Fox The actor, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has done a series of political ads supporting candidates who favor stem cell research. Watch the TV ad he made supporting Missouri Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.

The bad: A political TV ad targeting a black candidate for Senate (Democrat Harold Ford Jr.) contains what critics, including the NAACP, are calling racist sexual innuendo about a black man and white woman. This ad features a series of characters facetiously declaring their support for Ford. Read more about this: AP article.

The ugly: Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh is, in my opinion, the ugliest of the uglies. To Rush Limbaugh on Monday, Michael J. Fox looked like a faker in the ad above. “He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told listeners. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.” You can listen to his comment here.

Two recent research studies, one in Scotland and the other in California, give evidence that smoking bans are improving the health of bar workers.

In 1995, California passed a law called “smoke-free workplace” a public health measure designed to protect all employees from exposure to secondhand smoke in indoor workplaces. The banning of smoking indoors was phased in, bars being the last phase in January of 1998.

Since laws like this have been passed, researchers have been able to study the health benefits of smoke-free workplaces and the findings have been encouraging to those who support smoking bans, “showing not only that people who work behind bars are healthier if they no longer inhale smoke, but also that they recover more quickly than was thought when smoking is banned.”

Researchers in Scotland say that the most surprising finding was the speed at which health improved after the ban. In California, the similar findings were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, citing “compelling scientific evidence that smoke-free workplace legislation is rapidly effective in improving the health of workers.”

Read the entire article that first appeared in St. Andrew’s Journal, “As smoke clears, Scots Breath Easy Behind the Bar” then, post a comment with your opinion.

Do you think laws in Spain have gone too far or haven’t gone far enough? Should we be concerned about protecting the health of those who work in bars?

Have women achieved equality with men? The Washington Post ran an article last week about women’s progress here in Spain. What do you think? Did they get it right?

Before (or after) you read, take a look at the following words and match them to their definitions below. I’ll post the answers in the comments section.
1. Outspoken
2. allot
3. split
4. shrinking
5. seismic
6. family-friendly
7. cracking down on
8. are striking back
9. scoff
10. pick up
11. to make up for something
12. deeply ingrained

DEFINITIONS
a) very large
b) becoming smaller
c) favoring or helpful to families
d) to speak one’s mind
e) divide
f) to laugh at
g) clean or straighten
h) to marked in a lasting way
i) to return aggression
j) seriously enforce a law or rule
k) give in fixed amounts
l) compensate

In September our bodies have returned to work but our heads (and hearts) are lingering somewhere in summertimeland. This September, with its especially summerlike weather was no exception. But today, being a Monday–the first Monday of October no less–seems to be the real deal despite the weather. Time to get serious. Time to look forward. Time to blog!

And so I return to writing this blog and look forward to helping friends and former students get their daily dose of English. I’ve redefined my goals for this blog and will continue to provide you with information about events happening in English in Madrid as well as organize a daily dose of current affairs reading, listening and viewing from around the web. I look forward to your comments and feedback.

And yes, that’s me wading into the surf at Pismo Beach this summer…