Ongi Etorri Barcepundit Clones!

So many of you have come to my blog so far, what a nice thing for you to do.

Of course, besides your master, non of you have had the courage to say a bleep.

How does it feel to see your master being exposed as the rancid Francoist vermin he is?

He finally got it.

Yes indeed, I called him on the Sabino Arana bluff and he folded.

Oh yes, how easy it is to find fault on the words of Sabino Arana, you have to be a babbling idiot not to see that he went to an extreme on more than one issue.

But to compare what happened at the Parliament in Gazteiz last week with Sabino Arana was a cheap shot.

What do you do when someone like Franco (that is the Barcepundit, not Hitler's underling) wants to blemish the peaceful and lawful negotiations by Ibarretxe with the ghost of Arana?

Simple, you remind the world that this idea of a monolithic Spain, la España Una, is tied up to the ideals and actions of Franco, that is the Generalísimo Francisco Franco, and the ideals of his ideological succesor, José María Aznar (the proffessional liar).

He claims that Aznar has nothing to do with Franco, well, besides being the son of Franco's Minister of Propaganda, besides being part of a political party founded by Fraga (a Francoist Minister), and besides demanding that Guernica would not dare to change the name of the main square to Liberty Square from Generalísimo Francisco Franco Square, he banned political parties and shut down newspapers, only a blind person would not see it.

The difference of course is that in between 1936 and 1975 thousands of Spaniards, Basques and Catalans died as a result of Franco's isms.

Those same isms that the Barcepundit refuses to deconstruct, claiming that he is not trying to undermine the right of the Basques to their self determination.

He is so obsessed with this ism of One Spain that he went to the extreme of claiming that it is illegal from the UN's stance. Heh, the UN Charter enshrines the right of every nation to its self-determination, including those without statehood.

The Barcepundit thought he could infect the internet with his Neo-Francoist propaganda, well, I've been exposing his kind for three years now, he is just the last wannabe I expose.

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Referendum, the Pesky Issue

Well, despite what other people say, seems like the Lehendakari will continue with his plan of a referendum.

Reminder to the nay-sayers, referendums are not violent, people answers to a couple of questions and that's it.

Meaning, the Basque Premier and those who support him are as commited to a peaceful resolution to the conflict as they can be.

Why are the Spaniards that have been telling the world that the Basque do not want independence so afraid of?

If they are so sure of their statement, one that the US media repeats like the mindless parrots they are, how come no one wants the referendum?

Wouldn't the same Basques that (according to Madrid) do not want independence simply vote against it at a referendum making it the end of it?

Seems like the spin-meisters are not being consistent, double standard is a bitch.

Here is a note that appeared at Berria regarding Ibarretxe's promise for a referendum:

Ibarretxe says referendum will complete process

In his end-of-year message the President of the Basque Autonomous Community spoke of his intention to hold a referendum, either on an accord reached with Madrid or on the project passed with an absolute majority in the BAC Parliament

Editorial Staff – GASTEIZ (Vitoria)

During his end-of-year message Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the Lehendakari (President) of the BAC-Basque Autonomous Community, hailed the legislative term that will shortly be coming to an end as “historic”, because it had “paved the way towards breaking the deadlock in the Basque question”. With respect to the Political Statute Proposal he said that he had asked the Spanish Prime Minister to begin “an open, flexible” negotiation process, and confirmed that the process would culminate in a referendum. “Either with a referendum on an accord which could be reached in the future, or one on the project which had been passed with an absolute majority in the BAC Parliament,” he said.

Regarding the approval of the Plan, he said: “I am delighted to be able to tell you that today we have set the train of the future in motion. As you know, we debated the New Political Statute Proposal in the BAC Parliament yesterday [December 30]. This proposal sets out a new sphere of coexistence with Spain, which is based on free association and the acceptance of mutual respect.” He explained that the thirty-nine votes in favour meant that the Proposal had secured a majority backing, which was sufficient, according to the terms of the Statute of Gernika [currently in force], to continue the process to draw up a New Statute in the Spanish Parliament. “This is not the moment,” he went on, “to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the support obtained by the new Statute Proposal”. He pointed out that the ones who doubted the legitimacy of Batasuna’s votes in Parliament had not said a single word about the fact that the PP, the PSE-EE and Batasuna had often voted together against the initiatives of the BAC Government, like the vote on the Budget on December 28.

In this context he said the time had come “to stress the two main foundations on which the New Statute Proposal is built: respect for all the human rights of all the people and citizens and respect for the wishes of the Basque public at large.”

He explained that he and his government had decided that meetings should be held with representatives of the parliamentary groups over the coming days to discuss how to manage the New Statute Proposal, “to specify how to manage a new political era from which there is no turning back”. He pointed out that everyone, starting with himself, “has to rise to the occasion calmly and not insult anyone else.” He went on to say he had informed the Spanish Prime Minister on December 30 that the BAC Parliament had passed the New Statute Proposal and asked him to start “an open, flexible process of political negotiation”. He added that the process would culminate in the decision taken by the Basque public at large by means of a democratic consultation conducted in a situation without violence, “either on an accord that can be achieved in the future, or the project that has secured an absolute majority in the BAC Parliament”.

With respect to peace he said: “Basque society has been through many years of pain and suffering. Wars, repression, dictatorship, violence, terrorism, victims, torture, dispersion. We have suffered enough. We have to put an end to this tragic spiral.” He concluded by saying that 2005 would be a year of peace in the Basque Country.

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Friendly Greeting By Barcepundit

So, the Barcepundit (yikes, his last name is Franco) thinks that only the Basque isms are wrong.

Therefore, all the isms dished out by Madrid are good.

So, he tells his readers that I may or may not support violence.

As in, for all we know he is Basque, and well, all Basques are terrorists or terrorist supporters but we have to be politically correct so we are not just gonna plain say it out loud.

He does not have the courtesy of allowing readers to comment at this blog, so I answer from here.

Dear Mr. Franco Alemán,

I reject all kinds of violence, no matter if the source is an individual, a group or a government.

That includes the violence generated by Madrid; the violence generated by phonie judges like Baltasar Garzón and Juan del Olmo, the violence generated by the Guardia Civil and the Ertzaintza, the violence generated by the para-military groups deployed in the Basque Country like the now defunct (we hope) GAL, the violence generated by the biased penitentiary system in Spain.

I also reject the violence by ETA and the Kale Borroka.

I am a man of peace, and when I see reactions like yours to the Plan Ibarretxe, I'm reminded of Gernika, of Nanking, of Sarajevo, of Dubrovnik.

Your drivel plays well with the drones that read you, you are a savvy spin meister, always apologizing for your English grammar when in reality is your Spanish what falters. Histerycal does not trasnlate literally from English to Spanish, it means nervous breakdown, on a previous post at your blog you translated "reacción histérica" as if the old man meant the reaction to S-11 was funny, he meant people suffered a nervous breakdown. If you spoke Spanish as a mother tongue you would know that.

I see that you bask in deconstructing Sabino Arana.

Do you mind deconstructing Francisco Franco or José María Aznar for us? They are not too far apart.

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Spaniards Should Decide, Sure Why Not

I encounter that line of thought time and again among some members of the international community.

They seem to believe that the independence of an occupied nation should be left to decide to the citizens of the occupying nation.

Try to picture that back in the age of the great wars of independence in America (and that is America the Continent, Dean, don't get a coronary over this one).

Just try to imagine demanding that the independence of the USA should had been left to be decided by the English people in England, or the independence of Colombia to the Spaniards in Spain, or the independence of Brazil to the Portuguese in Portugal, or the independence of Haiti to the French in France.

That concept expressed so matter-of-factly by some can not be more idiotic.

It is that line of thought that led Slobodan Milosevic to unleash the war in Croatia and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The self determination and the possibility of independence belongs only to the people that conforms the nation without statehood, it is enshrined by the UN Charter, that is how Israel got statehood back then.

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One Word: Taiwan

Dean Esmay is your classic example of someone that comes across as politically correct and delivers lines that seem to be balanced and intelligent.

But it takes the pushing of one button to expose them. In this case I used a simple one.

Phonies that reject the right to the self determination of the Basque Country, rush to say that the Basque Country has been part of something called Spain for a long time. They forget about the part of the Basque Country in France, every single time.

They also say that the Basques give up their right to self determination because they allow a few terrorists to blow up things and kill people.

As if the Basques were going around telling other Basques, go blow something, go kill someone. The fact is, ETA is un the run and hiding in France, in Spain AND IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY.

At the time when the violence against the Basques was on an open and large scale, there was many among the Basques and the international community that thought of the members of ETA as freedom fighters, they were after all responding with violence to the violence generated by Hitler's last standing underling.

But today, although torture, illegal detention, targeted killings, state of exception and other niceties by Madrid and Paris are still present in the Basque Country, the big picture tells the Basques that just like they promised the Allies at the end of WWII, they must negotiate their self determination through peaceful means, and that is why the large majority of Basques repudiate ETA and its violence, just like they repudiate Madrid's violence.

So, it is people like Dean that allows ETA to take over the right of the Basques to their self determination, one of his readers even places the decision of Basque independence on the Spaniards.

Later, when they talk about Taiwan they will say the exact opposite, because their media told them to think that way regarding that issue, and since using your own brain can be a burden, they do as they are told.

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Baghdad Bobs In Action

Ever since I read this heading:

Spain says Basque nationalists teamed with terrorists

I knew I was going to be posting a lot about the misconceptions that plague the way some in the international community perceive the Basque Conflict based on what the media tell them.

And as usual, I was proven right.

Madrid does not miss a chance to equate anything Basque with the "T" word. Because of that, there is people out there that swap both words as if they were synonims.

Lets get to the heart of this matter, the pony they jumped on is easy to identify, it is the banned Basque political party Batasuna. Before we get into that, lets talk about a couple of legal concepts highly valued among democracies, and lets try to remember, there is people that rejoices when calling Spain by the eufemism "The Young Democracy".

And what are those two concepts?

The first one is called Presumption of Innocence.

Meaning, you are innocent until proven guilty.

Where am I going with this?

Well, is simple, Batasuna has never claimed to be ETA's political arm, it is the different Spanish governments acting as democracies the ones that accuse Batasuna of being part of ETA's entorno (just like elementary schools and newspapers are supposed to be part of ETA's entorno).

It has been more that a year since Aznar banned Batasuna, and until today no one, not Garzón nor del Olmo have produce the evidence to prove them right.

Assumptions, accusations, but no hard evidence.

Which brings us to concept number two, Timely Trial.

In a democracy, when you set the wheels of justice turning, you are supposed to initiate a legal process in a reasonable period of time. You accuse someone of something and unless you catch that person hot handed, you have to present evidence and take the case to court as soon as possible, ensure a fair trial and if proven guilty, secure a sentence.

Non of that has happened so far.

And do you know who would benefit the most from Batasuna being proven either innocent or guilty?

The Basques.

If innocent it demonstrates that Spain is still clinging to its fascist past and a political party was banned to suffocate the political voice of part of the Basque society.

If guilty, they would be removed from the political scene, so in the future when the Basques express their will to their self determination, no moron nor spin meister will link it to terrorism.

And that would still leave the fact that England negotiated with Sinn Fein, who claim to be the IRA's political arm at any chance they got.

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Into Context

I came back to the Blogosphere after a couple of days of soul searching and enjoying the company of family and friends to find, among other things, a lively discussion at Dean's World about the shocking triumph of the Ibarretxe Plan at the Basque Parliament.

There is so many goodies in that discussion that I'm salivating over just how many posts I will be able to produce over some of the comments that the readers of that particular post have been sharing.

The original post is by Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice fame, he knows how to keep things flowing without too much preaching and without tearing off his robes, unlike Dean Esmay that just blew a gasket because he does not know how to read his own language, English, and decided to address another adult by the rather mature names of moron and asshole.

There is also someone in Barcelona that does not know the difference between the concepts Pundit and Spin Meister, I will get to him eventually, now I want to leave you with a picture that will remind some that while the Basques were on the side of the Allies in WWII, the Spaniards...

...well, the picture will tell you.

Fascists

For those of you unable to tell Pinochet from Somoza, the guy on the right, the one saluting, is the Generalísimo Francisco Franco, the one on the left, well, if you don't know him, you better give the Simon Wiesenthal center a call for more info.

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Shocking Victory Indeed

What a day, I'm not sure how to feel, I guess I'm shocked.

Arnaldo Otegi lent the strength needed for the plan by Basque Prime Minister Juan José Ibarretxe to be approved.

The zipayos from the PP and the PSOE are licking their wounds.

The message is clear, the future of the Basque Country will be decided by the Basques.

Here is the note from Yahoo News:

Basque Autonomous Plan Set For Shock Victory

VITORIA, Spain (Reuters) - A Basque proposal for virtual independence from Spain gained vital and unexpected support in the regional parliament on Thursday from Batasuna, a party banned as the political wing of armed separatists ETA.

The proposal by Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe, a moderate nationalist, would enshrine the region's right to self-determination through a referendum and create a "status of free association" with Spain.

Ibarretxe presents his plan as a means to end ETA's campaign of bombings and shootings that has killed about 850 people since 1968, but Spain's ruling Socialists and main opposition Popular Party say it is unacceptable.

Batasuna, which was outlawed in 2003 but still fills the seats in the regional parliament it won before the ban, had originally rejected the scheme for not including the Spanish region of Navarre and three provinces of southwest France.

But Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi made a surprise announcement that three of his party's parliamentarians would vote in favor of the Ibarretxe plan later on Thursday -- thus giving it an absolute majority, crucial for its approval.

"When it comes to voting, we are going to say yes to self-determination ... and to a popular vote," Otegi told the assembly.

If approved, the plan would pass to the national parliament in Madrid where it is certain to be rejected, with the Socialists and Popular Party both set against it. However, even to get that far would be a symbolic victory for Ibarretxe.

The controversial proposal could cause trouble for the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which relies on small regional parties for its parliamentary majority.

Zapatero has relaunched dialogue with Ibarretxe that had been frozen under his predecessor Jose Maria Aznar, whose government was so angered by the Basque leader's plan it threatened to throw him in jail.

Yet like Aznar, Zapatero considers the Ibarretxe plan a breach of Spain's 1978 constitution and will not accept it in anything like its present form.

Earlier, Batasuna supporters clashed with police outside the Basque regional parliament in Vitoria while the Ibarretxe plan was being debated.

Several hundred protesters waving Basque flags and banners demanding complete independence from Madrid tried to stage a protest just outside the parliament building until the police charged. (Additional reporting by Inmaculada Sanz and Emma Pinedo in Madrid)

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Road to Sovereignty?

Ibarretxe

Basque regional president Juan Jose Ibarretxe gestures as he proposes his Ibarretxe plan in the Basque regional parliament in Vitoria, Spain, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004. Basque lawmakers gathered Thursday in the regional parliament to vote on the hotly contested plan that would turn their troubled region into a virtually sovereign state, the stiffest challenge to the Spanish government since the Basque country gained broad autonomy 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

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Gazteiz II

Ertzaintza

Basque riot police charge at demonstrators outside Vitoria's regional parliament, December 30, 2004. Several hundred protesters demanding complete independence from Madrid clashed with police on Thursday as the Basque Parliament debated a plan put forward by regional premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe that would create a status of free association with Spain. REUTERS/ Vincent West

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