ETA again: They set off a truck-bomb loaded with 60 kilos of explosives on the beachfront street in Guecho (Getxo), Vizcaya, at 1 AM today. They called in a warning an hour before the bomb went off, so nobody was hurt. For a big explosion--it left a crater a foot deep and six across--it did surprisingly little structural damage.

Constitutional Court confusion: Justice Roberto Garcia-Calvo, a conservative, died suddenly yesterday, leaving another vacancy among the court's twelve members. The Court had been divided six to six between "progressives" and "conservatives," with the progressive Chief Justice breaking ties. No one knows who's going to replace Garcia-Calvo, especially since four of the current Justices' terms expired in December and the PSOE and PP haven't been able to agree on who'll replace them, either.

Here in Catalonia the focus is, of course, on the controversial Catalan statute of autonomy (= regional constitution), which was passed by the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, but which has been held up by judicial appeals from both the opposition PP and from other Spanish regions. With Garcia-Calvo dead, the "progressives" would have an advantage if a decision on the statute were to be made now. Which is highly unlikely.

The Spanish construction sector's production was down 10% from a year ago as of March, the highest drop in the EU; the EU average is a mere 0.1% decline.

72% of Spanish soccer fans would rather watch soccer than have sex, which might have something to do with the birth rate around here.

ERC Catalunacy: Pepelu Carod-Rovira is going to Portugal to request support for Catalan independence. Why would he possibly think he's going to get any? Meanwhile, accused embezzler and influence-peddler Joan Puigcercos wants to be the party's candidate in the 2010 regional election so he can get Catalonia all ready for independence in 2014.

Defense Minister Carme Chacon said yesterday, "I am a pacifist woman, and the Army is pacifist too."

They had a big old demonstration in Amposta, a small Catalan city on the Ebro River, against sending any of their precious liquid to keep us clean and hydrated here in Barcelona. As usual in Spain, the organizers and the authorities claimed radically different turnouts; this time the organizers said 35,000 and the authorities said 6000. The selfishness is appalling, since the Ebro Valley towns and farms don't need the water to be sent to Barcelona through the new "mini-transfer" aqueduct supposedly already under construction. The whole point of sending this Ebro water to Barcelona is that Barcelona is buying the excess water that the Ebro Valley farmers aren't going to use.

I bet the murder in Reus becomes a big stink; the victim was a law-abiding citizen, a 37-year-old engineer from a nearby small town, while the alleged killer is a Spanish gypsy. That is not going to go over well around here, where gypsies are stereotyped as knife-wielding criminals. Which some of them are.

The Spanish First Division soccer season is over. Real Madrid is champion; other Champions League teams next year are Villarreal, Barça, and Atletico de Madrid; Racing, Sevilla, and Valencia (Cup champion) will play the UEFA Cup; and Levante, Murcia, and Zaragoza are relegated to Second. Just wait till next year. Meanwhile, this summer we'll have the Eurocup to keep us entertained.

It's raining again this morning, and they've already gotten half an inch up in the Pyrenees; we had more than an inch yesterday here in Barcelona. A couple of rainy days do not an April make, but it's better than nothing. The content of the reservoirs is slightly up, though some of that is due to mountain snowmelt, not rain.

The transfer of water from the Ebro to Barcelona has hacked off PP-governed Valencia and Murcia, who are demanding that the old PP water plan be revived. Their argument: Barcelona needs water. Send them water. We need water. Send us water too. This issue is amazingly touchy. The lying sod Francesc Baltasar continues to call the planned Tarragona-Barcelona aqueduct a "mini-transfer," since the Spanish left made "No water transfers" a rallying cry against the PP back in 2004. Now that the capital of the Spanish left is thirsty, of course, a water transfer is needed at all costs, but we still can't call it that.

I think this is what Lakoff means by "framing the issue"--inventing euphemisms.

By the way, La Vanguardia is calling this whole kerfuffle "The War for Water." The Cataloonies are, get this, blaming the PP for trying to use the water issue to stir up anti-Catalan feeling in the rest of Spain. No, I think the PP is trying to stir up anti-Zapatero feeling in the rest of Spain.

2008 will be the first year since 1997 in which housing prices have increased by less than the rate of inflation. The five most expensive cities for housing in Spain, per square meter: San Sebastian, Guecho, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao.

Oh, Lordy. You know we're in real economic trouble when Spanish beer consumption declines, 5% in 2007.

The Basque police arrested ten pro-ETA punks for "street terrorism," vandalism and rioting, in Guipuzcoa province. These dirtbags had committed more than twenty "acts of sabotage," several of them against the railroad system, which sounds like attempted train-wrecking to me. Seems to me the cops could have arrested them after, say, one or two, but the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow. Three of them put up a fight and got busted for resisting arrest as well. These little shits are violent criminals and need to be locked up.

More little shits: The so-called university students against the Bologna Plan, the EU reform that is supposed to actually make them go to class and learn something, had a sit-in today at the Autonomous university. They're still there; about thirty of them locked themselves in the auditorium. I say we send in the cops to beat the crap out of them and arrest the lot for creating a public nuisance, disturbing the peace, disobeying a police officer, trespassing, and mopery.

They don't get the concept of "civil disobedience" in Spain. See, as Thoreau envisioned it, you were supposed to break laws that you believed to be unjust, and then submit yourself to society's punishment, as a sign that you believed morality to be above the law. You are not supposed to try to escape punishment, which is what these little shits who think it's fun to play radical always do. By the way, when Thoreau actually tried this by refusing to pay his taxes on the ground he was against the Mexican War, and they came and got him, his aunt bailed him out.

Not much news today, not even any obnoxious media anti-Americanism. Zap will be officially seated as Prime Minister today. Looks like the Zap government prefers the water scheme that would send unused water, currently destined for irrigation, from Tarragona to Barcelona. Supposedly they could build the 60-km aqueduct in six months. Yearly inflation has hit 4.5%, with an 0.9% increase in March alone. As well as oil and grain, clothing and shoe prices are leading the increase. La Vangua claims that Barça is negotiating with AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Manchester City to sell Ronaldinho, and that Inter has offered €25 million.