The King's verbal putdown of Hugo the Chav is now part of popular culture. El Mundo is reporting that "¿Por qué no te callas?" is bringing in €1.5 million as a mobile phone ringtone, and some guy in Alicante is selling T-shirts for eighteen euros each.

There are already hundreds of YouTube parodies. Check out this one, to the tune of "Y Viva España," this max-mix disco thing, and this Latino-Caribbean rap version. The first one is most definitely racist, comparing Chavez with a monkey repeatedly.

Last night's riot was a lot worse than they reported. Some 20 police officers and 40 rioters were injured. The rioters were actually trying to kill the cops outside the Interior building, hurling metal fence barriers at them, along with rocks and bottles and everything else they could find. It was premeditated, too, since they picked up most of the crap they threw at a construction site in Plaza Catalunya and carried it all the way to Via Laietana. The cops had to fire rubber bullets, and actually did beat the shit out of a lot of them. Good. Let's go, Cops! Club 'em, thump 'em, Cops, Cops, Cops! I've read--and take this with a grain of salt--that Jarrai has sent instructors to train Barcelona radicals in correct rioting procedures.

That old Commie son-of-a-bitch, Gregorio Lopez Raimundo, died. Good. This guy was a PSUC political commissar on the Aragon front during the Civil War, which means it was his job to have anarchists and Trotskyists arrested and executed. Yes, he was opposed to Franco. Being opposed to Franco does not mean that you were necessarily one of the good guys, just like being opposed to Hitler does not put Stalin on the side of the angels. Lots of murderous radicals were opposed to Franco.

The Catalan Parliament, with the exception of the Socialists, voted for the first time ever in favor of the resignation of a cabinet minister, Maleni Alvarez, who is the scapegoat in the Great Barcelona Transport Snafu. The PP, the Commies, the Cataloonies, and CiU all agreed on something for once.

Sports update: Spain's national soccer team clinched a spot in next year's Eurocup with a 3-0 victory over Sweden at the Bernabeu. They finally played well, led by Iniesta and Xavi; Capdevila had a tremendous game. Iniesta needs to start every game for Barça, no matter who has to sit on the bench to make space for him. Italy beat Scotland 1-2, eliminating them; good show by the Scots, stuck in the same group as Italy and France and in the fight until their very last match. Israel saved England's ass by beating Russia, which means that England needs only a tie against Croatia on Wednesday to qualify. So far, along with the hosts Austria and Switzerland, the teams that have qualified are Spain, Poland, Italy, France, Croatia, Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Czech Republic, and Rumania. The other four qualifiers will probably be Sweden, Turkey, England, and Portugal.

Kansas stomped Iowa State, and is still the only major-conference team without a loss. 11-0. Yes, six of the eleven victories were over bad teams. But they face Missouri at Arrowhead next week; the winner takes the Big 12 North title, and will play either Oklahoma or Texas in San Antonio for the conference championship. Oklahoma lost at Texas Tech, and Oregon lost to Arizona, which means that KU is ranked number two for the first time ever.