All right! It looks like Blogger is willing to let me post again. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, though.

The idiots in the Basque Nationalist Party, who control the Basque Parliament, are behaving like a bunch of pricks as usual. The Supreme Court told them that ETA's political arm, Batasuna (or whatever it is this week), has been illegalized. Outlawed. Banned. And that the Administration was perfectly inside the bounds of the Constitution in doing this. This means that the Basque Parliament must kick out all the Batasuna deputies. They are refusing to do so.

The Basque Parliament has no choice but to comply. This is not a proposed Administration policy. This is a Supreme Court decision and all administrations, national, regional, provincial, comarcal, and municipal, MUST comply with it. That's called the Rule of Law, and it's more basic even than democracy in the defense of our rights as individuals. Remember that the Liberals in the 19th century wanted written constitutions, checks on the power of the king and the judges and the Parliament, as the first step in getting rid of the ancien regime. They didn't get around to asking for "one man, one vote" until the latter part of the 19th century.

But the Basque Nationalists are, as of now, refusing to obey the Court's sentence. They want to negotiate about it. Sorry, guys, there's no negotiating a Supreme Court decision, as the state of Arkansas found out when Eisenhower sent the troops into Little Rock and as Mississippi learned when Kennedy marched them into Oxford. You got two choices: obey or go to jail. Which is it gonna be?

Basque Nationalist leader Retch (Juan José Ibarretxe) and Basque Communist leader Javier "the Madman" Madrazo are daring the central government to get tough on their asses, claiming that this whole shebang is a cover-up for the evil PP Spanish Nationalists to destroy Basque freedoms and accusing Aznar of getting ready to apply Article 155 of the Constitution, which states that "exceptional measures" may be taken if a regional government does not obey the principles of the Constitution.

Well, if I were Aznar that's what I'd do. Close 'em down. He can suspend the activity of the Basque Parliament if they do not comply with the Constitution, and he should. This is not a matter for negotiation. This is Spanish society telling Retch and the Madman and that gang of psychopathic killers that we are heartily sick of terrorism and are not going to tolerate it or its apologists and sympathizers and fellow-travelers, and as for the democratic process, it is perfectly democratic and legal to close these bastards down for defying the Supreme Court.

Can we pass a law forcing members of the Basque Nationalist Party to be those who clean up the blood and guts and human hands blasted onto rooftops that ETA leaves lying all around Spain? Yes, Mr. Zugazugatxoia, that's you. Please pick up that severed hand and carry it down, the coroner is waiting, and then use these paper towels to mop up the blood and collect the bone fragments. Now may we have your reaction towards the latest ETA atrocity? You still seeking to remedy the root causes of the discontent of the oppressed Basque people, who are as wealthy and privileged and free as any group of people in the Western world, before worrying about arresting murderers and breaking up their support groups? Don't puke all over that hand, we need it for evidence, and we hear the widow wants to bury it along with the rest of her husband later.