Well, we've spent the last couple of days talking about Spanish politics in depth. The waters are calming as the uproar over Jose Maria Aznar's surprise announcement of Mariano Rajoy dies down, the cabinet reshuffle fades out of popular consciousness, and everybody gets bored with the Socialists' sniping at one another. The media is giving Rajoy a genuine honeymoon; he really is genuinely popular among what they call the "political class" here and among the media. They like him in a way they don't like Aznar. But they respect and even fear Aznar. The question is whether Rajoy, whose public image is more that of the velvet glove than of the iron fist, will get the same respect. I think he will; Rajoy's not so much iron-fisted as he is Edward Scissorhands. He doesn't punch, he cuts, but the results are the same: he who gets in the way gets hurt. Or at least gets a new hairdo, and Rajoy will leave you looking like a cross between Sid Vicious and Gopher from the Love Boat when he gets through with you.
By the way, Gopher was a several-term Republican congressman from Iowa after he got out of acting, and he genuinely did a fine job. I have to look this up, but I think he was some sort of successful businessman before he kind of accidentally became an actor. Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard got elected to Congress, too, but I think the voters got sick of him real quick. I believe he was a Democrat from Georgia, which tells you all you need to know right there.
Anyway, here's all the other stuff that's going on around here. What everyone's been talking about, even more than the political upheavals, is the Malaga murder cases. As I said a week or so ago, murder is very rare in Spain. The Madrid murder rate is the highest in Spain, and it's something like 4 per 100,000 per year. In the US as a whole it was 5.7 in 1999, but that includes all the rural areas and suburbs where murders are also very rare. Some of our cities have just horrendous rates: in 1998 Detroit's was 43, Baltimore's was 47, Washington's was 50, New Orleans's was 49, Atlanta's was 36. Some of our cities, though, really are very safe: San Diego's was 3.5, San Jose's was 3.4, El Paso's was 2.7. New York's was 8.6 and L.A.'s was 11.8, for purposes of comparison.
There are basically three kinds of murders in Spain: domestic killings, organized crime hits (often Eastern Europeans), and sex pervert killings.
What happened in Malaga province was that four years ago an attractive 19-year-old girl, Rocio Wanninkhof, of Spanish nationality and German descent, was stabbed to death in the town of Mijas. She'd apparently been kidnapped on the way to a local fiesta. Rocio's mother's ex-lesbian lover, Dolores Vazquez, who had lived with Rocio and her mother for ten years, was convicted of the murder on very sketchy evidence. She appealed instantly on the ground that there was basically no evidence against her, which you can do in Spain, and she was freed a year and a half later. Rocio's mother was virtually the only hostile witness. Vazquez is still waiting for a retrial, but absolutely nobody but Rocio's mom, who is understandably very bitter, thinks she did it.
Then on August 14 of this year Sonia Carabantes, 17 years old, disappeared in the town of Coin, again on the way to a fiesta mayor, and her body was found two weeks later. She had been strangled. There was a very quick break in Sonia's case: they found bits of skin and the like under Sonia's fingernails. The material obviously corresponds to that of her attacker(s)--the cops believe there may have been more than one. They checked the DNA, which belongs to a man, and it matched that found on a cigarette butt at the scene of Rocio's body. This seems to point to the innocence of Dolores Vazquez. Neither Sonia nor Rocio had been sexually attacked.
Now there's another twist. On August 18, 2000, 18-year-old Maria Teresa Fernandez was kidnapped on her way to a fiesta mayor in Motril, in the neighboring province of Granada. Her body was never found. Maria Teresa's case is being reopened. The three girls had several things in common: they were all on their way to local fiestas, they were all tall with long hair, they were all very pretty, and they were all of Central European German-speaking origin, since both Sonia and Maria Teresa had been born in Switzerland.
There is a fourth case that may also be related to these three. At about the same time as Maria Teresa's disappearance, 19-year-old Ana Maria Lorente was murdered in the town of Alora in the province of Malaga.
My guess, and most other people's guess, is that there is a serial killer operating in the Malaga area. Murph has dived into the deep end of conspiracy theory; he thinks some high-muckety-muck in the deeply corrupt nouveau riche Eurotrash town of Marbella is behind these cases. Who knows? I hope we find out soon, I hope nobody else has to die before the guilty parties are caught, and I wish we could hang the bastards when they find them. I hope it's Jesus Gil. He's so fat they'd have to set the drop at a foot and a half in order not to rip his head off. On the other hand, would anybody mind?
Eusebio Val in Washington has a long unintelligent article about the movie "Thirteen", which I've never heard of. Says Eusebio, " 'Thirteen' contains a severe criticism of the pressures that adolescent girls suffer because of advertising and the media--the cult of beauty, the instrumentalization of sexuality--and by the culture of consumption in general." When in doubt, it's capitalism's fault! And, of course, this shit exists only in America, and if we see it in Spain, too, it must be America's fault!
Two points: One, it's just a movie, people, and two, I'm a little more worried about what's going on down in Malaga than I am about whether nutty moms let their daughters get their tongues pierced. Competition and bitchiness and insecurity and peer pressure and problems with the discovery of sexuality, among adolescent girls, are not precisely news.
I would really like to whack a bunch of Europeans upside the head real hard and scream in their unhearing ears, "THE FACT THAT YOU SAW IT IN A MOVIE DOES NOT MEAN THAT THAT'S WHAT AMERICAN DAILY LIFE IS LIKE."
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
What most Americans and British are probably interested in regarding this tornado of political news is: how is it going to affect Spanish international policy, especially respecting Spain's status as a member of the Coalition?
The answer is: it ain't, at least if we're right and Rajoy is going to breeze to an easy triumph. The entire PP is down with Aznar and Rajoy. Their position on the war and on international affairs is the position of the whole party, not just the Prime Minister. Spain will continue to stand tall at America's and Britain's side as our key continental ally.
Now, in contrast, if you want to know what the Socialist Party's position is on international issues, we can sum it up in two words: "Yankees suck". No, they're not imitating Boston Red Sox fans screaming at Derek Jeter. As evidence, we submit this article that Murph and I wrote back in April, which includes a translation of sections of an interview that the Vanguardia did with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, at this writing still the PSOE's candidate for Prime Minister. Definitely read it, both for a laugh--Zapatero is not just an idiotarian, he's an idiot--and as evidence of what's at stake and how important it is that Rajoy will succeed Aznar and become Prime Minister through 2008.
The answer is: it ain't, at least if we're right and Rajoy is going to breeze to an easy triumph. The entire PP is down with Aznar and Rajoy. Their position on the war and on international affairs is the position of the whole party, not just the Prime Minister. Spain will continue to stand tall at America's and Britain's side as our key continental ally.
Now, in contrast, if you want to know what the Socialist Party's position is on international issues, we can sum it up in two words: "Yankees suck". No, they're not imitating Boston Red Sox fans screaming at Derek Jeter. As evidence, we submit this article that Murph and I wrote back in April, which includes a translation of sections of an interview that the Vanguardia did with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, at this writing still the PSOE's candidate for Prime Minister. Definitely read it, both for a laugh--Zapatero is not just an idiotarian, he's an idiot--and as evidence of what's at stake and how important it is that Rajoy will succeed Aznar and become Prime Minister through 2008.
Breaking News: The fur is really flying in Spanish politics this morning. Catalunya TV is reporting that the governing People's Party has announced the Cabinet shakeup directly following the ascension of Mariano Rajoy to candidate for Prime Minister.
Rodrigo Rato, who lost out to Rajoy for the nomination to succeed Jose Maria Aznar, becomes First Vice-Prime Minister, the Number Two man in the government. Javier Arenas becomes Second Vice-Prime Minister and also Minister for Presidency, the chief of staff of the Cabinet. Eduardo Zaplana, the PP's strongman in Valencia, moves to press secretary. Juan Costa takes over at Science and Technology. Josep Pique leaves the Cabinet to devote himself to the campaign for Prime Minister of Catalonia, and Julia Garcia-Valdecasas, currently central government representative in Barcelona, will take over the post of Public Administration. All of these moves were reasonably predictable, and this is proof that a) the PP had this all planned out in advance and b) Rato is not going to go eat worms, he's going to be Rajoy's right-hand man.
Meanwhile, Socialist ex-Cabinet minister Cristina Alberdi, now a Parliamentary deputy, has resigned as president of the Madrid Socialist organization. She publicly blasted her own Socialist Party for massive incompetence and for trying to distract attention from its own problems by blaming the PP for the fiasco of last May's Madrid regional elections. She also said that Jose Bono is the Socialist leader whose position is closest to hers. Jesus Caldera, the Socialist press secretary, proceeded to publicly blast her. Gotta figure that her days as a holder of the Party card are numbered. Like maybe one, two maximum. Unless she's acting as Bono's stalking horse.
Murph says that the whole point here is that the general contrast couldn't be clearer. The PP is organized, disciplined, competent, and professional. Rajoy was confirmed in his post as Secretary General of the PP by an overwhelming margin: everybody voted for him but himself. It was unanimous except for one abstention, and you gotta figure that's his own. The PSOE are confused divided amateur blunderers. It's the Night of the Long Knives and they're cutting each other's throats, fighting like a bunch of fratboys over the last can of beer. They are in free fall and the parachute ain't gonna open.
If you're in Britain and you can gamble on anything at Ladbrokes or William Hill, go down right now and bet your house that Rajoy will be Spain's next Prime Minister. I'll be in London next week and that's exactly what I'd do if I had a house to gamble with. I am going to slap down about a hundred quid if I can find anybody to take the bet.
The dirty tricks have already started. Alfonso Guerra, Socialist bigmouth asshole and Felipe Gonzalez's Number Two, called Mariano Rajoy a "mariposon" (big butterfly, meaning "faggot") in public. The Plataforma Popular Gay, the PP's gay association, has already announced that they're going to sue his ass for slander.
This is just disgusting. Calling your opponent a faggot is not exactly the best way for the supposedly tolerant and inclusive leftist politically correct Socialists to impress anybody with their sense of responsibility and just plain common decency. "Well, we don't have any plans or any kind of program or any good reasons for our supporters to turn out to vote for us, but our opponent is a fag." Fuck you, Alfonso Guerra.
Rodrigo Rato, who lost out to Rajoy for the nomination to succeed Jose Maria Aznar, becomes First Vice-Prime Minister, the Number Two man in the government. Javier Arenas becomes Second Vice-Prime Minister and also Minister for Presidency, the chief of staff of the Cabinet. Eduardo Zaplana, the PP's strongman in Valencia, moves to press secretary. Juan Costa takes over at Science and Technology. Josep Pique leaves the Cabinet to devote himself to the campaign for Prime Minister of Catalonia, and Julia Garcia-Valdecasas, currently central government representative in Barcelona, will take over the post of Public Administration. All of these moves were reasonably predictable, and this is proof that a) the PP had this all planned out in advance and b) Rato is not going to go eat worms, he's going to be Rajoy's right-hand man.
Meanwhile, Socialist ex-Cabinet minister Cristina Alberdi, now a Parliamentary deputy, has resigned as president of the Madrid Socialist organization. She publicly blasted her own Socialist Party for massive incompetence and for trying to distract attention from its own problems by blaming the PP for the fiasco of last May's Madrid regional elections. She also said that Jose Bono is the Socialist leader whose position is closest to hers. Jesus Caldera, the Socialist press secretary, proceeded to publicly blast her. Gotta figure that her days as a holder of the Party card are numbered. Like maybe one, two maximum. Unless she's acting as Bono's stalking horse.
Murph says that the whole point here is that the general contrast couldn't be clearer. The PP is organized, disciplined, competent, and professional. Rajoy was confirmed in his post as Secretary General of the PP by an overwhelming margin: everybody voted for him but himself. It was unanimous except for one abstention, and you gotta figure that's his own. The PSOE are confused divided amateur blunderers. It's the Night of the Long Knives and they're cutting each other's throats, fighting like a bunch of fratboys over the last can of beer. They are in free fall and the parachute ain't gonna open.
If you're in Britain and you can gamble on anything at Ladbrokes or William Hill, go down right now and bet your house that Rajoy will be Spain's next Prime Minister. I'll be in London next week and that's exactly what I'd do if I had a house to gamble with. I am going to slap down about a hundred quid if I can find anybody to take the bet.
The dirty tricks have already started. Alfonso Guerra, Socialist bigmouth asshole and Felipe Gonzalez's Number Two, called Mariano Rajoy a "mariposon" (big butterfly, meaning "faggot") in public. The Plataforma Popular Gay, the PP's gay association, has already announced that they're going to sue his ass for slander.
This is just disgusting. Calling your opponent a faggot is not exactly the best way for the supposedly tolerant and inclusive leftist politically correct Socialists to impress anybody with their sense of responsibility and just plain common decency. "Well, we don't have any plans or any kind of program or any good reasons for our supporters to turn out to vote for us, but our opponent is a fag." Fuck you, Alfonso Guerra.
Many thanks to InstaPundit for instapunditing both us and EuroPundits. The new readers are rolling in. Thanks for coming. Hope y'all will sit down and read for a spell, and y'all come back now, you hear?
Also thanks to the OmbudsGod for the links both to us and Trevor from Kaleboel, and for his support in our crusade to clean up La Vanguardia by getting rid of plagiarists Marius Serra and Rafael Ramos, violators of all the ethical codes of honest reporting Tomas Alcoverro, Rafael Poch, and Andy Robinson, and incompetent ombudsman Josep Maria Casasus.
Check out Jonathan's Puerta del Sol Blog out of Madrid for a report on the death at age 101 of Ramon Serrano Suner, Franco's brother-in-law and former minister of Interior (law enforcement) and of Foreign Affairs. Jonathan points out that Serrano Suner may have been the next-to-last person alive to have known both Hitler and Mussolini; Leni Riefenstahl, I assume, would be the last. Serrano Suner was also acquainted with Petain, Ciano, Ribbentrop, and Wild Bill Donovan, and corresponded with Churchill though I can find no evidence they ever met.
Also thanks to the OmbudsGod for the links both to us and Trevor from Kaleboel, and for his support in our crusade to clean up La Vanguardia by getting rid of plagiarists Marius Serra and Rafael Ramos, violators of all the ethical codes of honest reporting Tomas Alcoverro, Rafael Poch, and Andy Robinson, and incompetent ombudsman Josep Maria Casasus.
Check out Jonathan's Puerta del Sol Blog out of Madrid for a report on the death at age 101 of Ramon Serrano Suner, Franco's brother-in-law and former minister of Interior (law enforcement) and of Foreign Affairs. Jonathan points out that Serrano Suner may have been the next-to-last person alive to have known both Hitler and Mussolini; Leni Riefenstahl, I assume, would be the last. Serrano Suner was also acquainted with Petain, Ciano, Ribbentrop, and Wild Bill Donovan, and corresponded with Churchill though I can find no evidence they ever met.
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
The big news over here is, again, Mariano Rajoy's succession of Jose Maria Aznar as PP leader and candidate for Prime Minister in the March 2004 general elections.
Wild guess: What if Aznar calls a surprise general election to correspond with one of the other elections coming up? You see, general elections bring out a considerably better turnout than regionals, municipals, or Europeans. If turnout for a regional election is, say, 60%, and turnout for a general election is, say, 75%, and you hold the two elections on the same day, you'll get that 75% general election turnout in the regional election, too.
I firmly believe--and I bet Aznar and Rajoy and the rest of the brain trust firmly believe--that the PP will win the next generals with another absolute majority, barring absolute disaster. The answer to the question "Are you better off now than you were when the PP took over in 1996?" is, for an overwhelming majority of Spaniards, "Yes." And the less politically oriented a person is, the more likely he is to vote for the incumbent as long as there's a chicken in every pot. (Second quarter economic growth, just announced: 2.3%, the best in Europe, I think.) That extra 15% of voters for a general election is likely to be pretty solidly PP. Turn them loose in a regional election, which non-political people often ignore, and you might be looking at some real surprise regional results.
Aznar's got his party all ready to go, and they know what issues they're running on. The opposition parties are all in trouble, disorganized, fighting among themselves, and the like, and certainly not ready to go.
Calling the general election to correspond with the Madrid regional elections on Oct. 26 would really catch everyone by surprise and bring out those extra PP voters to put Esperanza Aguirre over the top. The Socialists would have no time to react, and they would get creamed in both Madrid and Spain as a whole.
Calling it to correspond with the Catalan elections, which still haven't been set but will almost certainly be in November, might be a really nasty trick, especially if you are Pasqual Maragall. See, Catalonia, along with the Basque Country, is the only place where the PP is not one of the two dominant parties, and the nationalists hate Aznar and the PP much more than the Socialists do. A huge nationalist turnout for the generals to vote against the PP would throw a bunch of votes to Convergence and Union and the Republican Left in the Catalan elections--quite possibly enough to torpedo "Delirium Tremens" Maragall. All those Catalan nationalist votes in the general elections won't hurt Rajoy, since for him the competition is the Socialists, not CiU and ERC. And Rajoy is pretty simpatico with CiU--he wouldn't mind it if they picked up a couple of extra deputies in the Spanish Parliament. Also, non-Katalanisch voters here in Catalonia often ignore regional elections, and they're quite likely to be, if not PP-friendly, at least PP-tolerant. Bring them out and watch the PP score 15% of the votes for the Catalan parliament, increasing their strength there.
Calling it to correspond with the Andalusian regional elections--for which a date hasn't been set, either, but they'll be sometime before March--will strike straight at the heart of the Socialists' biggest power base in Spain's most populous region. If the PP somehow manages to win Andalusia, and they've had a good deal of success there, they've really been giving the Socialists a run for their money, the Socialists are toast for the next five years.
Three more advantages to calling early elections: a) the most likely "unforeseeable disaster" that would badly hurt the PP is a big terrorist attack on the Spanish contingent on Iraq, sending a lot of Spanish boys home in body bags. The sooner you call the elections, the less likely you are to have to deal with that; b) Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is a bumbler who doesn't control his own party, and there are serious rumors that many elements among the Socialists (see: Bono, Jose) would like to get rid of him and impose a stronger candidate (see: Bono, Jose). The sooner you call the elections, the more likely you are going to be able to run against Zap rather than someone else. What would be really ideal is for the Socialists to boot Zap and for Aznar to immediately call elections to correspond with Madrid, Catalonia, or Andalusia. No way the Socialists would be able to mount any kind of campaign with a brand new leader who'd just taken over in a factional fight, even if he is Bono, Jose; c) right now Rajoy is just beginning his media honeymoon, and if you called general elections on Oct. 26 to correspond with the Madrid regionals, you'd still be able to take advantage of that.
A clue that this might be going to happen: Aznar has just lame-ducked himself. He's turned over control of the party to Rajoy.
"Bicephalism" is Spanish political jargon for a situation in which there are really two people in charge of a political party, not just one. Bicephalism is generally considered to be very, very bad. The Socialists are bicephalic; Felipe Gonzalez is believed by many to still have his hand in PSOE affairs and even to still be the guy who is really in charge. Convergence and Union is bicephalic; Artur Mas is the candidate but Jordi Pujol is the boss. The Basque Nationalist Party is bicephalic; Juan Jose Ibarretxe is the frontman but Xabier Arzalluz really runs things. The PP is not going to be bicephalic. Aznar has just said adios and hasta luego.
Jose Antich, the Vanguardia's editor-in-chief, wrote today's page 2 signed editorial. Here it is:
The first meeting of the Executive Committee of the People's Party, held yesterday in Madrid, gave Jose Maria Aznar the opportunity to symbolically push the button of his voluntary retirement from the front lines of Spanish political life. He didn't wait for September to reveal the name of his successor, keeping his promise that the political race would begin with the announcement of the new PP candidate, yesterday he slammed the door in the face of those who have insisted over and over that the centrist party will suffer from bicephalism. Aznar turned over all his functions within the party to Mariano Rajoy, who will be the formal leader of the organization with his new post of secretary general of the PP added to the inherent functions of the Prime Minister. There is no doubt that, as already happened in the last municipal elections, Aznar is still setting the pace of political activity; his detractors would do well to tone down their criticism of the system by which Rajoy was selected--didn't Gonzalez designate, or if you prefer, propose Almunia, didn't Pujol do the same with Artur Mas, or Xabier Arzalluz with Juan Jose Ibarretxe?--and recognize the democratic gesture of the Prime Minister's renouncing the continued leadership of the party after eight years in the Moncloa (the "White House"). I do not know if we will ever have another Prime Minister of Spain who will voluntarily renounce so much.
Note the word I boldfaced. Not "right-wing" or "conservative" or even "center-right". Centrist. The PP is centrist, says Jose Antich, the editor of Catalonia's most important newspaper. Jose Maria Aznar has made his party, the "conservative" party, the mainstream of Spanish political life for the first time since the death of Franco. Spain is finally shrugging off the effects of the dictatorship. Aznar might very well be the best political leader that Spain has had since Ferdinand of Aragon.
Wild guess: What if Aznar calls a surprise general election to correspond with one of the other elections coming up? You see, general elections bring out a considerably better turnout than regionals, municipals, or Europeans. If turnout for a regional election is, say, 60%, and turnout for a general election is, say, 75%, and you hold the two elections on the same day, you'll get that 75% general election turnout in the regional election, too.
I firmly believe--and I bet Aznar and Rajoy and the rest of the brain trust firmly believe--that the PP will win the next generals with another absolute majority, barring absolute disaster. The answer to the question "Are you better off now than you were when the PP took over in 1996?" is, for an overwhelming majority of Spaniards, "Yes." And the less politically oriented a person is, the more likely he is to vote for the incumbent as long as there's a chicken in every pot. (Second quarter economic growth, just announced: 2.3%, the best in Europe, I think.) That extra 15% of voters for a general election is likely to be pretty solidly PP. Turn them loose in a regional election, which non-political people often ignore, and you might be looking at some real surprise regional results.
Aznar's got his party all ready to go, and they know what issues they're running on. The opposition parties are all in trouble, disorganized, fighting among themselves, and the like, and certainly not ready to go.
Calling the general election to correspond with the Madrid regional elections on Oct. 26 would really catch everyone by surprise and bring out those extra PP voters to put Esperanza Aguirre over the top. The Socialists would have no time to react, and they would get creamed in both Madrid and Spain as a whole.
Calling it to correspond with the Catalan elections, which still haven't been set but will almost certainly be in November, might be a really nasty trick, especially if you are Pasqual Maragall. See, Catalonia, along with the Basque Country, is the only place where the PP is not one of the two dominant parties, and the nationalists hate Aznar and the PP much more than the Socialists do. A huge nationalist turnout for the generals to vote against the PP would throw a bunch of votes to Convergence and Union and the Republican Left in the Catalan elections--quite possibly enough to torpedo "Delirium Tremens" Maragall. All those Catalan nationalist votes in the general elections won't hurt Rajoy, since for him the competition is the Socialists, not CiU and ERC. And Rajoy is pretty simpatico with CiU--he wouldn't mind it if they picked up a couple of extra deputies in the Spanish Parliament. Also, non-Katalanisch voters here in Catalonia often ignore regional elections, and they're quite likely to be, if not PP-friendly, at least PP-tolerant. Bring them out and watch the PP score 15% of the votes for the Catalan parliament, increasing their strength there.
Calling it to correspond with the Andalusian regional elections--for which a date hasn't been set, either, but they'll be sometime before March--will strike straight at the heart of the Socialists' biggest power base in Spain's most populous region. If the PP somehow manages to win Andalusia, and they've had a good deal of success there, they've really been giving the Socialists a run for their money, the Socialists are toast for the next five years.
Three more advantages to calling early elections: a) the most likely "unforeseeable disaster" that would badly hurt the PP is a big terrorist attack on the Spanish contingent on Iraq, sending a lot of Spanish boys home in body bags. The sooner you call the elections, the less likely you are to have to deal with that; b) Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is a bumbler who doesn't control his own party, and there are serious rumors that many elements among the Socialists (see: Bono, Jose) would like to get rid of him and impose a stronger candidate (see: Bono, Jose). The sooner you call the elections, the more likely you are going to be able to run against Zap rather than someone else. What would be really ideal is for the Socialists to boot Zap and for Aznar to immediately call elections to correspond with Madrid, Catalonia, or Andalusia. No way the Socialists would be able to mount any kind of campaign with a brand new leader who'd just taken over in a factional fight, even if he is Bono, Jose; c) right now Rajoy is just beginning his media honeymoon, and if you called general elections on Oct. 26 to correspond with the Madrid regionals, you'd still be able to take advantage of that.
A clue that this might be going to happen: Aznar has just lame-ducked himself. He's turned over control of the party to Rajoy.
"Bicephalism" is Spanish political jargon for a situation in which there are really two people in charge of a political party, not just one. Bicephalism is generally considered to be very, very bad. The Socialists are bicephalic; Felipe Gonzalez is believed by many to still have his hand in PSOE affairs and even to still be the guy who is really in charge. Convergence and Union is bicephalic; Artur Mas is the candidate but Jordi Pujol is the boss. The Basque Nationalist Party is bicephalic; Juan Jose Ibarretxe is the frontman but Xabier Arzalluz really runs things. The PP is not going to be bicephalic. Aznar has just said adios and hasta luego.
Jose Antich, the Vanguardia's editor-in-chief, wrote today's page 2 signed editorial. Here it is:
The first meeting of the Executive Committee of the People's Party, held yesterday in Madrid, gave Jose Maria Aznar the opportunity to symbolically push the button of his voluntary retirement from the front lines of Spanish political life. He didn't wait for September to reveal the name of his successor, keeping his promise that the political race would begin with the announcement of the new PP candidate, yesterday he slammed the door in the face of those who have insisted over and over that the centrist party will suffer from bicephalism. Aznar turned over all his functions within the party to Mariano Rajoy, who will be the formal leader of the organization with his new post of secretary general of the PP added to the inherent functions of the Prime Minister. There is no doubt that, as already happened in the last municipal elections, Aznar is still setting the pace of political activity; his detractors would do well to tone down their criticism of the system by which Rajoy was selected--didn't Gonzalez designate, or if you prefer, propose Almunia, didn't Pujol do the same with Artur Mas, or Xabier Arzalluz with Juan Jose Ibarretxe?--and recognize the democratic gesture of the Prime Minister's renouncing the continued leadership of the party after eight years in the Moncloa (the "White House"). I do not know if we will ever have another Prime Minister of Spain who will voluntarily renounce so much.
Note the word I boldfaced. Not "right-wing" or "conservative" or even "center-right". Centrist. The PP is centrist, says Jose Antich, the editor of Catalonia's most important newspaper. Jose Maria Aznar has made his party, the "conservative" party, the mainstream of Spanish political life for the first time since the death of Franco. Spain is finally shrugging off the effects of the dictatorship. Aznar might very well be the best political leader that Spain has had since Ferdinand of Aragon.
Monday, September 01, 2003
This is very interesting. John Hawkins ran a poll among conservative bloggers in which they voted on the twenty worst figures of the twentieth century. Nazis were somewhat underrepresented, though Hitler and Stalin tied for first, of course; Chairman Mao came in third and Pol Pot fourth. I'd have definitely put Himmler very high on my list, and Reinhard Heydrich and Julius Streicher would have made it too. Hans Frank would be a good candidate.
The figure whose absence most surprised me was Leon Trotsky.
A case could be made for "Bomber" Harris and Curtis LeMay.
Hideki Tojo didn't make it.
Juan Domingo Peron should have; his actions were nasty enough, but one thing about, say, Lenin, is that he thought he was doing the right thing. He was monstrously wrong, of course. But Lenin himself was personally incorruptible and probably thought of himself as an extremely virtuous person. Peron, however, was low, vicious, corrupt, base, and vile, and he knew it. Kind of like Hermann Goering.
Franco didn't make it. I'm not too surprised. I personally would not put Franco on my "20 worst" list, though he of course goes on the bad side. Franco, again, certainly thought of himself as a virtuous patriot rather than a mass murderer.
The Rosenbergs did make it; I wouldn't have voted for them, since they were fairly minor figures in espionage. The Cambridge circle of Philby, MacLean, Burgess, Cairncross, etc. were much more significant traitors.
How about Robert Byrd, the corrupt Ku Klux Klansman? And what about Old Joe Kennedy? If half what they say about Old Joe is true, he probably belongs. How about Jew-baiter and iron-fisted dictator of his company, Henry Ford? Maybe we ought to run a poll of "20 Worst American Public Figures." Psychopathic murderer-types like Ted Bundy or Bonnie and Clyde don't make it, as they were just criminals who didn't affect anyone's lives but those of their poor victims.
Here's my list.
20. Joe McCarthy
19. Robert Byrd
18. Vito Marcantonio
17. Strom Thurmond
16. Margaret Sanger
15. Emma Goldman
14. Meir Kahane
13. Huey Newton
12. Huey Long
11. Jesse Jackson
10. Mayor Daley I
9. Gus Hall
8. William O'Dwyer / all those damn Mafia-connected politicians
7. William Randolph Hearst
6. Curtis LeMay
5. Bull Connor / Ross Barnett / all those damn segregationists
4. Joseph P. Kennedy
3. Henry Ford
2. Alger Hiss / All those damn traitors who sold out to the Soviets
1. Woodrow Wilson
The figure whose absence most surprised me was Leon Trotsky.
A case could be made for "Bomber" Harris and Curtis LeMay.
Hideki Tojo didn't make it.
Juan Domingo Peron should have; his actions were nasty enough, but one thing about, say, Lenin, is that he thought he was doing the right thing. He was monstrously wrong, of course. But Lenin himself was personally incorruptible and probably thought of himself as an extremely virtuous person. Peron, however, was low, vicious, corrupt, base, and vile, and he knew it. Kind of like Hermann Goering.
Franco didn't make it. I'm not too surprised. I personally would not put Franco on my "20 worst" list, though he of course goes on the bad side. Franco, again, certainly thought of himself as a virtuous patriot rather than a mass murderer.
The Rosenbergs did make it; I wouldn't have voted for them, since they were fairly minor figures in espionage. The Cambridge circle of Philby, MacLean, Burgess, Cairncross, etc. were much more significant traitors.
How about Robert Byrd, the corrupt Ku Klux Klansman? And what about Old Joe Kennedy? If half what they say about Old Joe is true, he probably belongs. How about Jew-baiter and iron-fisted dictator of his company, Henry Ford? Maybe we ought to run a poll of "20 Worst American Public Figures." Psychopathic murderer-types like Ted Bundy or Bonnie and Clyde don't make it, as they were just criminals who didn't affect anyone's lives but those of their poor victims.
Here's my list.
20. Joe McCarthy
19. Robert Byrd
18. Vito Marcantonio
17. Strom Thurmond
16. Margaret Sanger
15. Emma Goldman
14. Meir Kahane
13. Huey Newton
12. Huey Long
11. Jesse Jackson
10. Mayor Daley I
9. Gus Hall
8. William O'Dwyer / all those damn Mafia-connected politicians
7. William Randolph Hearst
6. Curtis LeMay
5. Bull Connor / Ross Barnett / all those damn segregationists
4. Joseph P. Kennedy
3. Henry Ford
2. Alger Hiss / All those damn traitors who sold out to the Soviets
1. Woodrow Wilson
I just put up a long post over on EuroPundits; it's a translation of an article by Fernando Onega from the Vangua about Aznar's successor as PP leader, Mariano Rajoy. The article is very positive in tone, and virtually takes for granted that Rajoy will be elected as the next Prime Minister in the March 2004 general elections.
Be prepared for some very dirty tricks in the upcoming string of elections. Artur Mas, Convergence and Union's candidate for Catalan Prime Minister, has already accused Socialist candidate Pasqual Maragall of suffering from delirium tremens; Maragall is VERY widely rumored to be an alcoholic. This hadn't been brought up in public by an opposing politician before, at least not so loudly.
The rumor already being spread about Rajoy is that he is gay; this is alluded to obliquely in Onega's article. Rajoy was, certainly, a bachelor until he became a Cabinet member. Now, as Onega says, his sentimental life is stable.
Now, my opinion is that it doesn't matter whether or not Rajoy is gay. That's not going to affect his job performance, and there's no reason to prefer a gay to a straight or vice versa for a political post.* But if Maragall is a drunk, that is going to affect his performance. I would not vote for someone I knew to be an alky.
*Well, Ignatius J. Reilly does believe that there are reasons to prefer gay political leaders to straight ones:
As I was wearing the soles of my desert boots down to a mere sliver of crepe rubber on the old flagstone banquettes of the French Quarter in my fevered attempt to wrest a living from an unthinking and uncaring society, I was hailed by a cherished old acquaintance (deviate). After a few minutes of conversation in which I established easily my moral superiority over this degenerate, I found myself pondering once more the crises of our times. My mentality, uncontrollable and wanton as always, whispered to me a scheme so maginficent and daring that I shrank from the very thought of what I was hearing. "Stop!" I cried imploringly to my god-like mind. "This is madness." But still I listened to the counsel of my brain. It was offering me the opportunity to Save the World Through Degeneracy. There on the worn stones of the Quarter I enlisted the aid of this wilted flower of a human in gathering his associates in foppery together behind a banner of brotherhood.
Our first step will be to elect one of their number to some very high office--the presidency, if Fortuna spins us kindly. Then they will infiltrate the military. As soldiers, they will all be so continually busy in fraternizing with one another, tailoring their uniforms to fit like sausage skins, inventing new and varied battle dress, giving cocktail parties, etc. that they will never have time for battle. The one whom we finally make Chief of Staff will want only to attend to his fashionable wardrobe, a wardrobe which, alternately, will permit him to be either Chief of Staff or debutante, as the desire strikes him. In seeing the success of their unified fellows here, perverts around the world will also band together to capture the military in their respective countries. In those reactionary countries in which the deviates seem to be having some trouble in gaining control, we will send aid to them as rebels to help them in toppling their governments. When we have at last overthrown all existing governments, the world will enjoy not war but global orgies conducted with the utmost protocol and the most truly international spirit, for these people do transcend simple national differences. Their minds are on one goal, they are truly united, they think as one.
None of the pederasts in power, of course, will be practical enough to know about such devices as bombs; these nuclear weapons would be rotting in their vaults somewhere. From time to time the Chief of Staff, the President, and so on, dressed in sequins and feathers, will entertain the leaders, i.e. the perverts, of all the other countries at balls and parties. Quarrels of any sort could be easily straightened out in the men's room of the redecorated United Nations. Ballets and Broadway musicals and entertainments of that sort will flourish everywhere and will probably make the common folk happier than did the grim, hostile, fascistic pronouncements of their former leaders.
Almost everyone else has had an opportunity to run the world. I cannot see why these people should not be given their chance. They have certainly been the underdog long enough. Their movement into power will be, in a sense, only a part of the global movement toward opportunity, justice, and equality for all. (For example, can you name one good, practicing transvestite in the Senate? No! These people have been without representation long enough. Their plight is a national, a global disgrace.)
Degeneracy, rather than signalling the downfall of a society, as it once did, will now signal peace for a troubled world. We must have new solutions to new problems.
I shall act as a sort of mentor and guide for the movement, my not inconsiderable knowledge of world history, economics, religion, and political strategy acting as a reservoir, as it were, from which these people can draw rules of operational procedure. Boethius himself played a somewhat similar role in degenerate Rome...
Be prepared for some very dirty tricks in the upcoming string of elections. Artur Mas, Convergence and Union's candidate for Catalan Prime Minister, has already accused Socialist candidate Pasqual Maragall of suffering from delirium tremens; Maragall is VERY widely rumored to be an alcoholic. This hadn't been brought up in public by an opposing politician before, at least not so loudly.
The rumor already being spread about Rajoy is that he is gay; this is alluded to obliquely in Onega's article. Rajoy was, certainly, a bachelor until he became a Cabinet member. Now, as Onega says, his sentimental life is stable.
Now, my opinion is that it doesn't matter whether or not Rajoy is gay. That's not going to affect his job performance, and there's no reason to prefer a gay to a straight or vice versa for a political post.* But if Maragall is a drunk, that is going to affect his performance. I would not vote for someone I knew to be an alky.
*Well, Ignatius J. Reilly does believe that there are reasons to prefer gay political leaders to straight ones:
As I was wearing the soles of my desert boots down to a mere sliver of crepe rubber on the old flagstone banquettes of the French Quarter in my fevered attempt to wrest a living from an unthinking and uncaring society, I was hailed by a cherished old acquaintance (deviate). After a few minutes of conversation in which I established easily my moral superiority over this degenerate, I found myself pondering once more the crises of our times. My mentality, uncontrollable and wanton as always, whispered to me a scheme so maginficent and daring that I shrank from the very thought of what I was hearing. "Stop!" I cried imploringly to my god-like mind. "This is madness." But still I listened to the counsel of my brain. It was offering me the opportunity to Save the World Through Degeneracy. There on the worn stones of the Quarter I enlisted the aid of this wilted flower of a human in gathering his associates in foppery together behind a banner of brotherhood.
Our first step will be to elect one of their number to some very high office--the presidency, if Fortuna spins us kindly. Then they will infiltrate the military. As soldiers, they will all be so continually busy in fraternizing with one another, tailoring their uniforms to fit like sausage skins, inventing new and varied battle dress, giving cocktail parties, etc. that they will never have time for battle. The one whom we finally make Chief of Staff will want only to attend to his fashionable wardrobe, a wardrobe which, alternately, will permit him to be either Chief of Staff or debutante, as the desire strikes him. In seeing the success of their unified fellows here, perverts around the world will also band together to capture the military in their respective countries. In those reactionary countries in which the deviates seem to be having some trouble in gaining control, we will send aid to them as rebels to help them in toppling their governments. When we have at last overthrown all existing governments, the world will enjoy not war but global orgies conducted with the utmost protocol and the most truly international spirit, for these people do transcend simple national differences. Their minds are on one goal, they are truly united, they think as one.
None of the pederasts in power, of course, will be practical enough to know about such devices as bombs; these nuclear weapons would be rotting in their vaults somewhere. From time to time the Chief of Staff, the President, and so on, dressed in sequins and feathers, will entertain the leaders, i.e. the perverts, of all the other countries at balls and parties. Quarrels of any sort could be easily straightened out in the men's room of the redecorated United Nations. Ballets and Broadway musicals and entertainments of that sort will flourish everywhere and will probably make the common folk happier than did the grim, hostile, fascistic pronouncements of their former leaders.
Almost everyone else has had an opportunity to run the world. I cannot see why these people should not be given their chance. They have certainly been the underdog long enough. Their movement into power will be, in a sense, only a part of the global movement toward opportunity, justice, and equality for all. (For example, can you name one good, practicing transvestite in the Senate? No! These people have been without representation long enough. Their plight is a national, a global disgrace.)
Degeneracy, rather than signalling the downfall of a society, as it once did, will now signal peace for a troubled world. We must have new solutions to new problems.
I shall act as a sort of mentor and guide for the movement, my not inconsiderable knowledge of world history, economics, religion, and political strategy acting as a reservoir, as it were, from which these people can draw rules of operational procedure. Boethius himself played a somewhat similar role in degenerate Rome...
Spanish soccer: Barcelona beat Bilbao away, 0-1. Cocu headed in a free kick cross from Ronaldinho. Madrid won, too, and Beckham scored on another header. The event of the week, though, was streaker Mark Roberts running out on the field at the Madrid game, Beckham's debut in the Spanish First Division. This time he was advertising an Internet gambling site. For more on Mr. Streaker, check our post from a few days ago.
Don't forget to listen to my favorite radio station, KHYI in Dallas. They play hard Texas country mixed with western swing and a good variety of other country, from Bakersfield to bluegrass. Just go to their site and click on Listen Now. Their site explains the different shows they have, so you know what you're going to hear in advance. On weekend nights they play some ass-kickin' live shows, ranging from well-known artists (including the occasional Grammy winner) to local guys just coming up to Texas jazz. Mega-highly recommended, as good as a commercial radio station can get.
Our buddy Dennis Hollingsworth, whose website you might check out--it's on the blogroll over there--wants to know something about Mariano Rajoy, the next prime minister of Spain.
Well, OK, he hasn't been elected yet, that's not coming up until March 2004, but barring massive disaster he's going to win another absolute majority for the center-right People's Party because the competition is so pathetic. The PP is a well-oiled machine. Aznar announced that Rajoy was his choice as his successor and the entire party, including competitors for the top spot like economics genius Rodrigo Rato and hardball political player Eduardo Zaplana, has saluted, said "Yes, sir", and is already at work getting Rajoy elected as Aznar's successor.
That is professionalism, competence, and party discipline, exactly what the Socialists have shown us they so badly lack.
Rajoy is a Gallego but of the non-nationalist sort. He's not real good looking--has kind of a scraggly beard and wears glasses, sort of like yours truly. His ears are a lot bigger than mine, though, and he's got more white hair in the ol' beard. He is known to have a sense of humor, unlike his predecessor Aznar, and he is especially well-known as a negotiator and political operator. He's the PP's fireman, the guy they send to make a deal with whoever when a deal has to be made. He smokes huge cigars constantly. He is, as Willy Loman would say, well-liked. He's comparatively young, only 48, so if he gets in he might be there for a while.
He's been with the PP during his whole political career, going back to 1981 when he was elected to be a regional deputy to the Galician parliament and the PP was still called the AP.
He's been in the Cabinet since 1996 when Aznar got elected Prime Minister for the first time. He's been minister for Public Administration, Education and Culture, Interior (law enforcement), and Presidency (more or less Chief of Staff). [I had to look this up, of course.] Right now he's Minister for Presidency, First Vice-Prime Minister, and party spokesman. He was also campaign manager for the PP in both the 1996 and 2000 elections.
The general opinion floating around here in non-tinfoil hat wacko circles is, hey, good choice. Mariano Rajoy will be very goddamn hard to beat. Prediction right here, right now, is that in the March general elections he takes another absolute majority in Parliament.
To sum up: this guy is a pro.
Well, OK, he hasn't been elected yet, that's not coming up until March 2004, but barring massive disaster he's going to win another absolute majority for the center-right People's Party because the competition is so pathetic. The PP is a well-oiled machine. Aznar announced that Rajoy was his choice as his successor and the entire party, including competitors for the top spot like economics genius Rodrigo Rato and hardball political player Eduardo Zaplana, has saluted, said "Yes, sir", and is already at work getting Rajoy elected as Aznar's successor.
That is professionalism, competence, and party discipline, exactly what the Socialists have shown us they so badly lack.
Rajoy is a Gallego but of the non-nationalist sort. He's not real good looking--has kind of a scraggly beard and wears glasses, sort of like yours truly. His ears are a lot bigger than mine, though, and he's got more white hair in the ol' beard. He is known to have a sense of humor, unlike his predecessor Aznar, and he is especially well-known as a negotiator and political operator. He's the PP's fireman, the guy they send to make a deal with whoever when a deal has to be made. He smokes huge cigars constantly. He is, as Willy Loman would say, well-liked. He's comparatively young, only 48, so if he gets in he might be there for a while.
He's been with the PP during his whole political career, going back to 1981 when he was elected to be a regional deputy to the Galician parliament and the PP was still called the AP.
He's been in the Cabinet since 1996 when Aznar got elected Prime Minister for the first time. He's been minister for Public Administration, Education and Culture, Interior (law enforcement), and Presidency (more or less Chief of Staff). [I had to look this up, of course.] Right now he's Minister for Presidency, First Vice-Prime Minister, and party spokesman. He was also campaign manager for the PP in both the 1996 and 2000 elections.
The general opinion floating around here in non-tinfoil hat wacko circles is, hey, good choice. Mariano Rajoy will be very goddamn hard to beat. Prediction right here, right now, is that in the March general elections he takes another absolute majority in Parliament.
To sum up: this guy is a pro.
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Check out this archive with literally hundreds of links on nationalism. Its purpose is scholarly rather than inflammatory. The links range from high-level political theory analyses to organizations promoting atrocious pseudo-history and racism. Many of them are just plain fascinating, ranging from Dutch claims to have invented printing to Italian irridentism in Dalmatia to invented "Irish" names used by the diaspora in America to an exhaustive list of the nearly 100 "genocides" the Assyrians have suffered since 612 BC.
There is something in here to offend absolutely everybody, so check it out. You are likely to learn a great deal, a lot of which is probably wrong; you yourself must be the judge of the credibility of a linked source.
There is something in here to offend absolutely everybody, so check it out. You are likely to learn a great deal, a lot of which is probably wrong; you yourself must be the judge of the credibility of a linked source.
Saturday, August 30, 2003
June Thomas has finished her very interesting series in Slate on the Basque country. Go read it if you haven't yet. Here's a paragraph I'm going to take exception to, though.
A recent study by Inaki Zabeleta found that 85 percent of articles about Basques in the U.S. press refer to terrorism, so it's not surprising that for most Americans, nothing says "Basque" more than Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom), the terror organization responsible for more than 800 deaths over the last 30 years. Of course, ETA didn't appear out of nowhere—the Spanish establishment imprisoned more than 8,000 Basques in the 20 years following Franco's death, torturing many of them while in custody.
Well, first, ETA was founded during the early '60s, so its existence has nothing to do with anybody's being arrested after 1975 when that old bastard kicked off. Now, it's possible to justify ETA's actions during the Franco dictatorship, which included the 1973 murder of Admiral Carrero Blanco, Franco's No. 2. However, after about 1960 Franco turned over all real power to the "technocrats" who administered the country competently for him, and really the only restrictions on freedom were those on speech and assembly--you couldn't criticize the government but you could do pretty much whatever else you wanted. Franco was still a dictator, though, and a few people were still executed for political reasons. You can make reasonable arguments that it is OK to use violence to overthrow a dictatorship, even a dictablanda like that of the late Franco years.
But after Franco's death, Spain went through a three-year transition-to-democracy-period, and in 1978, with the approval of the Constitution, Spain became a full-fledged democracy, including special rights for minority groups like the Basques and the Catalans.
There is absolutely NO justification for the use of violence against an elected representative democratic government, especially not one with such a liberal constitution as Spain's.
So the Spanish government, made up of lots of Basques (see Benegas, Txiki, and Damborenea, Ricardo) as well as people from all the rest of Spain, imprisoned 8000 Basques between 1975 and 1995. First, let's eliminate those arrested between '75 and '78, when Spain was still in transition and the government was not completely democratic yet. I bet that drops our number of Basque arrestees by plenty. Second, do you think the Spanish government was going around arresting Basques for shits and grins? I sure don't. I think they were arresting them for their connections with ETA. And, yes, it's true that a few ETA prisoners were tortured. A few of them--six or eight--were even killed by the anti-ETA GAL death squads the early-eighties SOCIALIST government set up. But ETA prisoners, as a rule, always claim they've been tortured. I don't buy the great majority of their claims any more than I buy the claims of torture in Guantanamo.
A recent study by Inaki Zabeleta found that 85 percent of articles about Basques in the U.S. press refer to terrorism, so it's not surprising that for most Americans, nothing says "Basque" more than Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom), the terror organization responsible for more than 800 deaths over the last 30 years. Of course, ETA didn't appear out of nowhere—the Spanish establishment imprisoned more than 8,000 Basques in the 20 years following Franco's death, torturing many of them while in custody.
Well, first, ETA was founded during the early '60s, so its existence has nothing to do with anybody's being arrested after 1975 when that old bastard kicked off. Now, it's possible to justify ETA's actions during the Franco dictatorship, which included the 1973 murder of Admiral Carrero Blanco, Franco's No. 2. However, after about 1960 Franco turned over all real power to the "technocrats" who administered the country competently for him, and really the only restrictions on freedom were those on speech and assembly--you couldn't criticize the government but you could do pretty much whatever else you wanted. Franco was still a dictator, though, and a few people were still executed for political reasons. You can make reasonable arguments that it is OK to use violence to overthrow a dictatorship, even a dictablanda like that of the late Franco years.
But after Franco's death, Spain went through a three-year transition-to-democracy-period, and in 1978, with the approval of the Constitution, Spain became a full-fledged democracy, including special rights for minority groups like the Basques and the Catalans.
There is absolutely NO justification for the use of violence against an elected representative democratic government, especially not one with such a liberal constitution as Spain's.
So the Spanish government, made up of lots of Basques (see Benegas, Txiki, and Damborenea, Ricardo) as well as people from all the rest of Spain, imprisoned 8000 Basques between 1975 and 1995. First, let's eliminate those arrested between '75 and '78, when Spain was still in transition and the government was not completely democratic yet. I bet that drops our number of Basque arrestees by plenty. Second, do you think the Spanish government was going around arresting Basques for shits and grins? I sure don't. I think they were arresting them for their connections with ETA. And, yes, it's true that a few ETA prisoners were tortured. A few of them--six or eight--were even killed by the anti-ETA GAL death squads the early-eighties SOCIALIST government set up. But ETA prisoners, as a rule, always claim they've been tortured. I don't buy the great majority of their claims any more than I buy the claims of torture in Guantanamo.
We've got a scoop! Television Espanola is reporting that they have learned that Mariano Rajoy will be Jose Maria Aznar's successor as the conservative People's Party candidate for Prime Minister of Spain. The official announcement will be Monday.
So we're going to have lots of electoral fun over the next few months here, with the Madrid regional Parliament elections on Oct. 26, the Catalan regional elections sometime in early November, the general elections in March 2004, and the Andalusian regionals sometime around then, possibly on the same day. Then we'll have the European Parliament elections sometime in later spring 2004. This is going to be great.
Predictions already: PP wins the Madrid region, Maragall and his Commie / Republican Left supporters win in Catalonia, ending 23 years of Convergence and Union government, the PP takes an absolute majority in the generals, the Andalucist Party will decide the Andalusian elections because there'll be a near-tie between the PP and the Leftist coalition, and nobody's going to vote in the Europeans since nobody gives a rat's patoot.
So we're going to have lots of electoral fun over the next few months here, with the Madrid regional Parliament elections on Oct. 26, the Catalan regional elections sometime in early November, the general elections in March 2004, and the Andalusian regionals sometime around then, possibly on the same day. Then we'll have the European Parliament elections sometime in later spring 2004. This is going to be great.
Predictions already: PP wins the Madrid region, Maragall and his Commie / Republican Left supporters win in Catalonia, ending 23 years of Convergence and Union government, the PP takes an absolute majority in the generals, the Andalucist Party will decide the Andalusian elections because there'll be a near-tie between the PP and the Leftist coalition, and nobody's going to vote in the Europeans since nobody gives a rat's patoot.
Yesterday El Periodico, Barcelona's working-class newspaper, printed a three-page "dialogue" between "actors" Carles Flavia and Pepe Rubianes. Here are a few of the highlights:
Flavia: ...Hey, listen, Pepe, you should have come to the Club (Barcelona de Natacion, where some of the events at the world Swimming championships were held). They insulted the American anthem!
Rubianes: I'll tell you something really kick ass (cojonudo) that I saw in Egypt, in a hotel in Cairo: the TV was on and I saw all the people watching and applauding. I thought there was a football game. No way. It was some scenes from Iraq, Yankee soldiers...And you know why they were applauding? They applauded every time an American got killed.
Flavia: Did they do the wave?
Rubianes: And they cheered...One day, when they killed three of them, I thought Cairo was going to explode...
Rubianes: ...What's happening in the world has me completely traumatized. I really mean it.
Flavia: You pick up a newspaper and it makes you bitter.
Rubianes: I never thought that humanity could reach such levels of barbarity and of moral and ethical misery. The Iraq war, Israel and Palestine, so much injustice that we're seeing and so much arrogance and so many lies. Today everything is OK, everything is justifiable. We've reached a terrible point of human evolution, above all because power is in the hands of a bunch of mental retards, morally handicapped, who always have the ace up their sleeves.
Flavia: We could have a very bad time.
Rubianes: They talk about terrorist groups, Al Qaeda and all that, and it turns out that it is the army of the poor. It's their defense against the rich. When I was a kid, my dream was to kill Franco. I didn't want to be an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor. I wanted to kill Franco. I would have been thrilled to kill him when I was 18 or 20 years old. And, of course, I'm a terrorist. I'm very proud of having been one, although only mentally, because I've never killed anyone. Of course, later they tell you that innocent people die, but there's nobody innocent in this world. We're all guilty from birth.
Flavia: Original sin.
Rubianes: People defend themselves the way they can. State terrorism is as bad as these groups' terrorism. Isn't what Israel is doing in Palestine terrorism? Isn't what Bush is doing terrorism? You see this and your soul falls down to the floor. People are good. But the problem are those four sick people who govern, who live far away from the people's reality.
Flavia: All this is creating, in addition, a huge abyss between civilizations, a bestial hatred.
Just one comment, from the historian Stanley G. Payne:
(Andreu) Nin (leader of the semi-Trotskyist POUM in Catalonia during the '30s, killed by the Communists) was a sincere and courageous man who died an martyr to his cause. Yet it is well to remember where he stood on the question of revolutionary violence. There is no evidence that he did anything to limit the mass killings in Catalonia in 1936, and in 1922 he penned the following justification of the Bolshevist liquidation of the revolutionary extreme left in Russia:
"The Russian Communist Party is the only guarantee of the Revolution, and in the same manner as the Jacobins saw themselves obliged to guillotine the Hebertists, in spite of the fact that they represented a tendency to the left, in the same manner that we ourselves (in the anarchist CNT--Nin was none too stable in his affiliations) have eliminated those who constituted an obstacle to the realization of the objectives we pursued, our Russian comrades see themselves inevitably obliged implacably to smother any attempt which might break their power. It is not only their right but their duty. The health of the Revolution is the supreme law."
Like most of those who seek to justify revolutionary murder, Nin assumed that he was justifying the elimination of other people, not himself.
Source: The Spanish Revolution, p. 301.
Flavia: ...Hey, listen, Pepe, you should have come to the Club (Barcelona de Natacion, where some of the events at the world Swimming championships were held). They insulted the American anthem!
Rubianes: I'll tell you something really kick ass (cojonudo) that I saw in Egypt, in a hotel in Cairo: the TV was on and I saw all the people watching and applauding. I thought there was a football game. No way. It was some scenes from Iraq, Yankee soldiers...And you know why they were applauding? They applauded every time an American got killed.
Flavia: Did they do the wave?
Rubianes: And they cheered...One day, when they killed three of them, I thought Cairo was going to explode...
Rubianes: ...What's happening in the world has me completely traumatized. I really mean it.
Flavia: You pick up a newspaper and it makes you bitter.
Rubianes: I never thought that humanity could reach such levels of barbarity and of moral and ethical misery. The Iraq war, Israel and Palestine, so much injustice that we're seeing and so much arrogance and so many lies. Today everything is OK, everything is justifiable. We've reached a terrible point of human evolution, above all because power is in the hands of a bunch of mental retards, morally handicapped, who always have the ace up their sleeves.
Flavia: We could have a very bad time.
Rubianes: They talk about terrorist groups, Al Qaeda and all that, and it turns out that it is the army of the poor. It's their defense against the rich. When I was a kid, my dream was to kill Franco. I didn't want to be an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor. I wanted to kill Franco. I would have been thrilled to kill him when I was 18 or 20 years old. And, of course, I'm a terrorist. I'm very proud of having been one, although only mentally, because I've never killed anyone. Of course, later they tell you that innocent people die, but there's nobody innocent in this world. We're all guilty from birth.
Flavia: Original sin.
Rubianes: People defend themselves the way they can. State terrorism is as bad as these groups' terrorism. Isn't what Israel is doing in Palestine terrorism? Isn't what Bush is doing terrorism? You see this and your soul falls down to the floor. People are good. But the problem are those four sick people who govern, who live far away from the people's reality.
Flavia: All this is creating, in addition, a huge abyss between civilizations, a bestial hatred.
Just one comment, from the historian Stanley G. Payne:
(Andreu) Nin (leader of the semi-Trotskyist POUM in Catalonia during the '30s, killed by the Communists) was a sincere and courageous man who died an martyr to his cause. Yet it is well to remember where he stood on the question of revolutionary violence. There is no evidence that he did anything to limit the mass killings in Catalonia in 1936, and in 1922 he penned the following justification of the Bolshevist liquidation of the revolutionary extreme left in Russia:
"The Russian Communist Party is the only guarantee of the Revolution, and in the same manner as the Jacobins saw themselves obliged to guillotine the Hebertists, in spite of the fact that they represented a tendency to the left, in the same manner that we ourselves (in the anarchist CNT--Nin was none too stable in his affiliations) have eliminated those who constituted an obstacle to the realization of the objectives we pursued, our Russian comrades see themselves inevitably obliged implacably to smother any attempt which might break their power. It is not only their right but their duty. The health of the Revolution is the supreme law."
Like most of those who seek to justify revolutionary murder, Nin assumed that he was justifying the elimination of other people, not himself.
Source: The Spanish Revolution, p. 301.
Friday, August 29, 2003
Did you need any more evidence to make you believe that what they're calling the "Iraqi resistance" over here are a bunch of terrorist murdering sons-of-bitches? Here it is.
You know who's got a funny site is our regular contributor in the Comments section, Akaky. Check out Passing Parade. It's worth a read. I just wish he'd post more often, but he's somewhat more selective in his posting than we are. I mean, over here at Iberian Notes we just blather on off the top of our heads about whatever. Akaky doesn't post unless he's sure it's good.
Big news today in Spanish politics: For some reason the government funds something called the Center of Sociological Investigation, which is their equivalent of the Gallup Poll. Anyway, the most recent survey on which party Spaniards intend to vote for gives the PP a solid six-point advantage, showing that the mud the Socialists have been slinging (Iraq, the oil spill, the water plan, the education plan, the failed general strike, the problems with the high-speed train) is not sticking, while the circus the Socialists have put on in the Madrid regional Parliament has re-convinced a lot of people that the Socialists are unprofessional and incompetent and not fit to govern.
The stats: PP 41.2%, Socialists 35.2%, Communists 6.3%, Convergence and Union 3.8%, Galician National Bloc 1.5%, Basque Nationalists 1.2%. Aznar has promised to name his successor as PP candidate for Prime Minister within a month; the two big favorites are Rodrigo Rato and Mariano Rajoy. Jaime Mayor Oreja is their man in the Basque Country, Josep Pique is their guy in Catalonia, the incombustible Manuel Fraga is the man in Galicia, and Alberto Ruiz Gallardon is their leader in Madrid. These guys, except Pique, are all heavyweights. The Socialists have nobody comparable.
The Socialist reaction was to accuse the government of manipulating the statistics, of course. The PSOE is drifting; they stand for nothing except for being against Aznar and the PP. They have no program, no proposals, no plans, nada de nada. They are reduced to simply reacting to everything the PP government does.
The stats: PP 41.2%, Socialists 35.2%, Communists 6.3%, Convergence and Union 3.8%, Galician National Bloc 1.5%, Basque Nationalists 1.2%. Aznar has promised to name his successor as PP candidate for Prime Minister within a month; the two big favorites are Rodrigo Rato and Mariano Rajoy. Jaime Mayor Oreja is their man in the Basque Country, Josep Pique is their guy in Catalonia, the incombustible Manuel Fraga is the man in Galicia, and Alberto Ruiz Gallardon is their leader in Madrid. These guys, except Pique, are all heavyweights. The Socialists have nobody comparable.
The Socialist reaction was to accuse the government of manipulating the statistics, of course. The PSOE is drifting; they stand for nothing except for being against Aznar and the PP. They have no program, no proposals, no plans, nada de nada. They are reduced to simply reacting to everything the PP government does.
Check out HispaLibertas, one of our favorite blogs. They were nice enough to link to us regarding the heat wave controversy, even though they disagree with us. Well, hell, this is just more evidence that us folks on the right aren't a conformist flock of sheep that don't think for ourselves, as our amigos on the left would have it.
They've picked up a hilarious story (in English) on a bunch of Ukrainian hoaxters-con men who sucked up subsidies and contributions from Western radical-left groups by pretending to be the representatives of a variety of Ukranian lefty groups struggling among themselves. These guys represented themselves to Commie groups as Commies, to Trot groups as Trots, to Green groups as Greens, and the like, and the money came rolling in. I've been laughing for the last ten minutes. I hope these dudes are on their way to Rio; I'm normally anti-fraud, of course, but this one is just too good.
They've picked up a hilarious story (in English) on a bunch of Ukrainian hoaxters-con men who sucked up subsidies and contributions from Western radical-left groups by pretending to be the representatives of a variety of Ukranian lefty groups struggling among themselves. These guys represented themselves to Commie groups as Commies, to Trot groups as Trots, to Green groups as Greens, and the like, and the money came rolling in. I've been laughing for the last ten minutes. I hope these dudes are on their way to Rio; I'm normally anti-fraud, of course, but this one is just too good.
I'm starting to feel like a sportsblogger, but it's August and there's not that much in the news except for Iraq and Tony Blair, who seems to have given a bravura performance during his testimony. This whole deal about the "45-minute" intelligence report has been blown massively out of proportion. There were thousands of facts, all damning to Saddam and his government, in the British dossier on Iraq that was released to the public. (I linked to it back in the day--just hit "search this site" if you want to find it again.) One of those facts turns out to probably have been wrong. One error does not a liar make. And as for David Kelly, I'm sorry he's dead, but if you're a government official and you go around leaking stuff to the media, your ass is going to be called on the carpet. If Kelly, who seems to me to have had the same problems I have (major depression, possibly bipolar, along with a couple or three personality disorders--trust me on this one, I've spent enough time institutionalized with really crazy people to be an authority on this subject) couldn't handle pressure, he should simply have avoided pressure situations for his own health. That's what you do if you're unstable.
So here's the sports.
In American Major League Baseball the payroll maximum is $117 million; if you exceed that, you have to pay a "luxury tax", so teams try to stay below that amount. Teams close to the limit are the Yankees, the Mets, Texas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Boston. The Yankees' total budget is something like $150 million. In baseball, the smallest payrolls are in the $20-40 million range, putting the smallest possible total budget at around $40m.
Here are this year's total budgets, in millions of euros, in the Spanish soccer First Division:
Real Madrid 293
FC Barcelona 163
Valencia 90
Deportivo de La Coruna 75
Atletico de Madrid 54
Betis of Seville 48
Celta de Vigo 42
Athletic de Bilbao 38
Mallorca 36
Real Sociedad of San Sebastian 35
Malaga 29
Villarreal 27
Espanyol of Barcelona 26
Sevilla 24
Racing de Santander 23
Valladolid 18
Zaragoza 18
Osasuna of Pamplona 13
Murcia 7
Albacete 4
Gee, who do you think is going to win? And can you predict which teams are almost certain to drop down to Second? They really ought to go to a 12 or 14-team First Division--who wants to see Madrid play Murcia?--but that ain't gonna happen. It's fascinating that American sports leagues are much more "socialist" and European leagues are more "capitalist"--e.g. the NFL's sharing out, equally, the TV money among all teams, or the fact that all the leagues are closed to new teams and that teams that perform badly don't drop in category. In baseball even the most pathetic team wins three of every ten games. If Albacete wins three games all season (out of 38) I'll let Baltasar Porcel, Chemical Lali, and Ballpark Nacho take over this blog.
So here's the sports.
In American Major League Baseball the payroll maximum is $117 million; if you exceed that, you have to pay a "luxury tax", so teams try to stay below that amount. Teams close to the limit are the Yankees, the Mets, Texas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Boston. The Yankees' total budget is something like $150 million. In baseball, the smallest payrolls are in the $20-40 million range, putting the smallest possible total budget at around $40m.
Here are this year's total budgets, in millions of euros, in the Spanish soccer First Division:
Real Madrid 293
FC Barcelona 163
Valencia 90
Deportivo de La Coruna 75
Atletico de Madrid 54
Betis of Seville 48
Celta de Vigo 42
Athletic de Bilbao 38
Mallorca 36
Real Sociedad of San Sebastian 35
Malaga 29
Villarreal 27
Espanyol of Barcelona 26
Sevilla 24
Racing de Santander 23
Valladolid 18
Zaragoza 18
Osasuna of Pamplona 13
Murcia 7
Albacete 4
Gee, who do you think is going to win? And can you predict which teams are almost certain to drop down to Second? They really ought to go to a 12 or 14-team First Division--who wants to see Madrid play Murcia?--but that ain't gonna happen. It's fascinating that American sports leagues are much more "socialist" and European leagues are more "capitalist"--e.g. the NFL's sharing out, equally, the TV money among all teams, or the fact that all the leagues are closed to new teams and that teams that perform badly don't drop in category. In baseball even the most pathetic team wins three of every ten games. If Albacete wins three games all season (out of 38) I'll let Baltasar Porcel, Chemical Lali, and Ballpark Nacho take over this blog.
June Thomas from Slate has continued with her week-long series of articles on the Basque Country. They're very good, and she does discuss ETA terrorism, though perhaps not as much as some of us would prefer. See, when most people in Spain think of the Basque Country, the first thing that comes to mind isn't "the food is great" or "the people are friendly" or "the coast is lovely" or "the countryside is pretty" or "the culture is unique". It's "ETA has killed more than 800 people and wounded thousands more."
One minor complaint: she doesn't like the Jeff Koons statue "Puppy" out in front of the Guggenheim museum. It is, simply, an enormous puppy made of a wire screen (I suppose) that is completely covered with flowers. I love it. It's a perfect living contrast to the metallic museum building. Sure, it's kitschy. It's also far superior to any of the works of "art" inside the museum except for the three small rooms of mediocre Picassos and Kandinskys and Klees and Grises and Mondrians that they stuck in seemingly as an afterthought. The rest of the place is filled with contemporary conceptual crap.
If you look carefully, near the giant puppy off to the left, there is a small bouquet of flowers left there every day. It's in homage to a Bilbao policeman who was killed on that spot on opening day of the museum by the ETA.
One problem with these huge new museums--Barcelona spent millions of dollars on an enormous white lump of a building that's called the MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporari de Barcelona?)--is that they don't have anything to put in them. There are only so many good works of art. The Macba, I believe, doesn't even have a permanent collection, though I wouldn't know because I've never been inside.
If you want art in Barcelona, go to the Romanesque / Gothic museum in the Palau Nacional on Montjuic, which is unique in the world, or the Museum of Modern Art in the Parque Ciutadela, full of 1860s-1920s works by Catalan artists, or the Thyssen collection up in Pedralbes (not nearly as impressive as the one in Madrid but well worth a visit) or the Miro Foundation, also on Montjuic (only if you like Joan Miro, of course; I don't, but if you do, this is THE place) or the Picasso Museum in a 16th century palace on Calle Montcada. The thing about the Picasso is that it's full of mediocre works that he did before he was famous and mediocre works that he did after he was famous, but all the works that actually made him famous are in New York or Paris. Also check out the galleries along Calle Petritxol; you might even want to buy something if you have some bucks.
Dumbshit thing I saw in Kansas City: We have an excellent art museum, the Nelson-Atkins, strong on American, Expressionist, and especially Oriental art. I suppose the pride of the collection are the Van Goghs. They have a Miro, though, and on the little sign next to the painting telling you the title and the artist, they identified Miro as French. Jesus Christ. Any professional art historian or curator ought to know that Joan Miro was from Montroig del Camp right here in Catalonia and that he lived for most of his life in Mallorca. Remei and I complained and they corrected it. But that's a really basic and just plain embarrassing, provincial mistake.
Anyway, though, go read Ms. Thomas's series.
One minor complaint: she doesn't like the Jeff Koons statue "Puppy" out in front of the Guggenheim museum. It is, simply, an enormous puppy made of a wire screen (I suppose) that is completely covered with flowers. I love it. It's a perfect living contrast to the metallic museum building. Sure, it's kitschy. It's also far superior to any of the works of "art" inside the museum except for the three small rooms of mediocre Picassos and Kandinskys and Klees and Grises and Mondrians that they stuck in seemingly as an afterthought. The rest of the place is filled with contemporary conceptual crap.
If you look carefully, near the giant puppy off to the left, there is a small bouquet of flowers left there every day. It's in homage to a Bilbao policeman who was killed on that spot on opening day of the museum by the ETA.
One problem with these huge new museums--Barcelona spent millions of dollars on an enormous white lump of a building that's called the MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporari de Barcelona?)--is that they don't have anything to put in them. There are only so many good works of art. The Macba, I believe, doesn't even have a permanent collection, though I wouldn't know because I've never been inside.
If you want art in Barcelona, go to the Romanesque / Gothic museum in the Palau Nacional on Montjuic, which is unique in the world, or the Museum of Modern Art in the Parque Ciutadela, full of 1860s-1920s works by Catalan artists, or the Thyssen collection up in Pedralbes (not nearly as impressive as the one in Madrid but well worth a visit) or the Miro Foundation, also on Montjuic (only if you like Joan Miro, of course; I don't, but if you do, this is THE place) or the Picasso Museum in a 16th century palace on Calle Montcada. The thing about the Picasso is that it's full of mediocre works that he did before he was famous and mediocre works that he did after he was famous, but all the works that actually made him famous are in New York or Paris. Also check out the galleries along Calle Petritxol; you might even want to buy something if you have some bucks.
Dumbshit thing I saw in Kansas City: We have an excellent art museum, the Nelson-Atkins, strong on American, Expressionist, and especially Oriental art. I suppose the pride of the collection are the Van Goghs. They have a Miro, though, and on the little sign next to the painting telling you the title and the artist, they identified Miro as French. Jesus Christ. Any professional art historian or curator ought to know that Joan Miro was from Montroig del Camp right here in Catalonia and that he lived for most of his life in Mallorca. Remei and I complained and they corrected it. But that's a really basic and just plain embarrassing, provincial mistake.
Anyway, though, go read Ms. Thomas's series.
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