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Geezus.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo found out about this gaffe via El País, Spain's "paper of record".

John McCain, is being interviewed by a journalist with an obvious Castillian accent. She asks him a series of questions about his future policies towards Latin America (which was the focus of the press conference).

Then in the last 30-40 seconds of the clip she asks him if he's looking forward to meeting with Jorge Zapatero, the prime minister of Spain. This is a somewhat tricky diplomatic question. Since winning the elections more than a year ago, Zapatero has not had a chance to visit the White House, nor has George Bush gone to Spain for an official meeting.

What does McCain do? Give his standard talking point about meeting with friendly countries only and standing tough against rogue and hostile countries.

The reporter re-frases the question 3 more times, with the last one being, "what about Europe? Spain is in Europe". McCain sticks to the talking about as if Spain were a Latin American threat to the United States.

Here's the audio clip :

If there is one thing that seems constant among far right wingers it's fear and loathing. Here in America you turn on Fox News and you get nothing but rants about how horrible Muslims are, how blacks are criminals and all Latinos are illegals. All you hear is fear and loathing of anything different or foreign.

Seems that European right wingers are no less filled with fear and loathing than our own right wingers. Problem is, when you form an international bloc of barking crazy rightwingers, eventually that fear and loathing will split up the bloc. Which is exactly what has happened with the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty Bloc (ITS) in Euopre.

ITS was a rag-tag collection of idiots in the EU Parliament that formed in January, 2007, from barking crazy right wingers primarily from France, Italy, Romania, Belgium and Bulgaria. Among their members is Alessandra Mussolini...yes, the granddaughter of Italy's biggest asshole, Il Duce. I guess having her grandfather shot and hung upside down on meat hook didn't discourage her from following his discredited ideology. The ITS platform seems basically to be a mishmash of anti-Darkie bullshit. They first gained enough seats in Parliament when Romania's entry into the EU brought in a fresh bunch of intolerant assholes, bringing the number of such anti-Darkie assholes to the minimum required to get seats in the EU Parliament.

Once upon a time there was a high school. It was a beautiful high school, and rich in history, being more than 200 years old, and everybody in town wanted to attend it.

With its fine roots in liberal education and the almost unprecedented power over their own destinies that it bestowed upon its students, it was unlike any other high school in the district, or indeed, the state. At the turn of the last century, whole families, many of them Irish and Eastern European, moved across town so that they'd be zoned for it. The high school welcomed them with open arms, but the students weren’t so kind.

It is my sad duty to report that many of these new students were beaten up, or had their lockers vandalized. Thankfully, things settled down, and the high school was once again a harmonious whole.

In the 40s, there was a shameless and dangerous power grab by a school superintendent a few districts over. He was intent upon eventually absorbing every school in the state into his district, under his control, and decreeing with a wave of his hand who could stay and who could not.

Fortunately, the president of the student body, a well-liked disabled guy named Frank, worked tirelessly with the other schools until the superintendent was voted safely out of office.

But our story begins about fifteen years ago with the election of a Jock to Student Body President.

The Jock was a nice guy, everybody liked him, and there was no denying that he had charm. He was a great guy to grab a burger with, and, whoever you were, you felt like the Jock knew where you were coming from. At this time - actually, to this day - the Jock was going steady with someone who defied high school logic.

You know what? Not only is Bush the worst President ever, but he is also the biggest embarassment to America. Okay, so Bush freaking out a baby in Germany wasn't completely his fault, though his expression of complete abandonment of all responsibility was disgusting. But Bush's latest embarassing act in Germany is just plain inexcusable in a man who is on a diplmatic mission. At the G-8 summit, President Bush reached from behind to grab German Chancellor Angela Merkel and gives her a quick massage before rushing off. This is a condescending and inappropriate gesture when one leader is interacting with another. Chancellor Merkel was clearly horrified at Bush's behavior.

Okay...THIS is the man who we have as our leader? THIS is the man who is determining our foreign policy? Sheesh! I bet Elmer Fudd would be a more dignified and diplomatic leader than Mr. "I peed on a police car and daddy got me off the hook" Bush.