They had an anti-global warming protest this evening in Europe: everybody was supposed to turn out all their lights between 7:55 and 8 PM. Of course, I turned on all my lights, opened the windows, and cranked up the Hag doing "The Fightin' Side of Me." Remei said I was being childish, but I thought it was pretty funny. I didn't notice any participation on my street; everybody kept their lights on as far as I could tell.

Supposedly Woody Allen is going to film a movie in Barcelona with Penelope Cruz next summer. I haven't actually liked any Woody Allen movies since about "Annie Hall." Penelope Cruz is certainly one hot babe, though she was even hotter before the plastic surgery, of course. As an actress, I'm not much of a judge, though I have noticed that the only character she ever plays is a hot babe. If you've never seen "Jamón, Jamón," check it out, as Penelope is at her most babelicious.

Go to Hell Hugo has passed an enabling act which will allow him to make laws. I know that comparing someone today with the Nazis is a sign you have lost the argument, but I'm going to do it anyway. It was the enabling act that the Reichstag passed that allowed Hitler to seize total power in Germany. Venezuela right now still has hope: the press hasn't been completely muzzled and the opposition isn't in jail yet. This is going to be the last straw, though; Venezuela has officially become a dictatorship. I would leave now. Meanwhile, the shit is about to hit the fan in Ecuador. New President Rafael Correa has threatened "mucha violencia" if a new constitutional convention is not called.

Fausta has more at Pajamas Media.

Democratic Representative Loretta Sanchez has accused Democratic Representative Joe Baca of calling her a "whore." Where's the feminist wing demanding Baca's resignation? Oops, he's a Hispanic Democrat, not a white Anglo Republican.

Half of Spanish households now have an Internet connection. That seems kind of low.

The Audiencia Nacional, Spain's highest non-appeals court, has ordered that the CNI, the National Intelligence Service, declassify all information on alleged secret CIA flights in and out of Spain. Meanwhile, Germany has demanded the extradition of thirteen alleged CIA agents, which of course will happen when George Jones sings rap.

The controversy about Basque premier Ibarretxe's testimony on charges of meeting with an illegal political party, ETA-front Batasuna, has turned into a much-needed debate on the independence of the judiciary. In Spain, judges do not even pretend to be apolitical; instead, there are several major political organizations of judges, one leftist, one conservative, and one sort of in the middle. There are also some non-affiliated judges. This is, of course, absolutely wrong. A judge must interpret the law as she is wrote, not through his political perspective.

A bunch of ETA-wannabe fourteen-year-old kids profaned the grave of Gregorio Ordóñez, the Basque PP leader murdered by the ETA. That's just sick. Agreed, it's merely symbolic, but it shows total lack of respect for human life. This is the sort of person that the 15% of crazy mental Basques who support ETA produce, and that is one evil subculture. I'm not sure we'll ever completely crush ETA as long as such a significant fraction of society is pro-murder.

La Vanguardia says straight out that the UN is planning a pro-Kyoto Protocol campaign in order to pressure the United States. They plan to produce a whole series of reports to be released during all of 2007. Quote: "The Inter-Governmental Group of Experts on Climate Change (that is, the usual gang of crooks) has a program for the year that seems like the perfect script to put the US up against the ropes." Naturally, the Vangua's headline is "UN increases pressure on Bush to accept Kyoto." Of course, it's not Bush who's blocking American acceptance of the Kyoto Protocol, it was the Senate, who voted 95-0 against it back in 1997. During the Clinton administration.

They thought of a brilliant idea to reduce automobile traffic in Barcelona. They're planning to reduce tolls on turnpikes entering town for cars carrying two persons or more, in order to provide an incentive for people to carpool! Gee, that's creative and original! Next thing you know they'll actually build parking lots near suburban train stations so people can "park and ride"!

I was just disgusted by this story. (Note: I've been a vegetarian for 25 years.) There is an organization in Catalonia that wants to preserve historic breeds of farm animals. Great, sounds good to me, I love animals, and it'd be a shame for the Catalan donkey, of which about 300 remain, to disappear. So up in the Pyrenees, THEY KILLED TWO OF THEM AND TURNED THEM INTO DONKEYBURGERS, which 500 people ate. This was supposedly in order to get media attention. Said Jaume Mora, "Our goal is to promote the Pallars region as a gastronomic tourist destination, and we think this could be attractive." What exactly is attractive about eating donkey meat?