Aimless thoughts while listening to Hayes Carll:

The Economist completely shreds Jacques Chiraq. Read this one if you read nothing else today.

La Vanguardia's Victor M. Amela makes a ridiculous comparison and throws in a little Jew-bashing for good measure:

Beirut is Barcelona. Tomas Alcoverro, our Barcelonese in Beirut, has always said so. And, today, after a week of bombing, more than ever: they are now bombing families like ours, mistreating them as they mistreated us here in 1938. The same as always. How many more plagues must the Lebanese suffer? Do the sons of Moses hope to destroy all the firstborn sons of Lebanon?

La Vangua also gives Beirut Bob Fisk a full page, again.

Sports update: La Vangua's top story, the big headline on the front page and everything, is about...FC Barcelona! Seems a judge ruled that club president Joan Laporta has to call new elections for the board of directors. I have no idea why the opposition within the club wants elections now, right after Barça won the double, when Laporta seems sure to be massively reelected to another term.

Meanwhile, rumor has it that Barça will sign Zambrotta and Thuram and Madrid will sign Cannavaro and Emerson, as players flee Juve and Milan.

Mini-blog roundup:

Guirilandia has a collection of videos of tourists shot by Spaniards in Spain. Very funny.

Barcepundit comments on Zap's disgraceful photo op wearing a Palestinian scarf.

Davids Medienkritik lays into Der Spiegel again, and includes a link to a great Josef Joffe article. (I've actually been following Joffe for years; he's the best German commentator I know of.)

Rainy Day attacks the vampirism of the Continental press. (Note: The sleazeball softcore porn magazine Interviu that published the photos of Princess Diana is owned by Grupo Zeta, the same company that puts out Ferreres's employer El Periodico.)

Expat Yank rewrites history Al-Jazira style.

In case you were wondering about Ted Nugent, Snopes has verified this foreign policy statement.