Saturday, November 05, 2005

Choices to be taken (Week 12)

Greetings, and welcome to another Week of analysis in Weekend Update!

This week we have Patricia and Álvaro on the side. Miss P is doing a trip around Europe (lucky girl) and Álvaro is still terribly busy with his degree... So, we stand alone, basically.

Pity, because this week in France, the fighting is on the streets of Paris. Shame on De Villepin's ruling, as he's contested in his very own cabinet... This however could turn into his excuse to sack his Interior Minister and rival within the party, Nicolas Sarloky, and finding himself a new right hand.

In Washington, there's choices to be made, of a very different nature. James Alito has been appointed candidate to the Supreme Court and the Beltway is now rocked. They dismissed a moderate judge like Harriet Miers, only to get a hard-liner, very much of the liking of the Republican "falcons". Will this choice stand firm?

Here in Spain, things turn from bad to worse. Once we had the northern basq Country that wanted to change its self-government into a "free-bounding" relationship. Project was not passed in the parliament, but, as a friend would say, it made people think: if you don't vote, you get idiots in charge.

Seems like those same idiots that turned down the basq project have a different idea of the new Catalonian one. It's not based on "free-bounding", it's based on the conquest of a country by one of their regions. Nationalists along with the socialist misguided majority have planned it and it has come all the way to the Spanish Cortes. Congratulations, Zapatero. The only choice of the Center-right Partido Popular was, logically, to turn to the judges... the project is darned illegal, man!

Turning to Italy, it seems that a diplomatic hot-spot has appeared between the country and Iran, after the declarations of the Irani president, incitating to burn down Israel (for a change). Italy stood at the side of Sharon, and now it's time for them to suffer Iran's wrath, those last say. Of course, the Left asks for "peace", but how long can you turn your back to the problem, Prodi?

Finally in Argentina, an ALCA summit is taking part. Even if the attention is centered in the current strife Bush vs. Chavez, the host, Mr. Kischner is torn apart by the loyalties he owns to both of them. Will he pick ALCA or Castro and Chavez's cheap, tropical communism?

These are the choices this week. I'm Miguel Vinuesa and these is news to me!

EL PAÍS Lo único que queda por hacer

A esto se ha llegado. A tener que recurrir, con poca esperanza, lo admito, a los jueces. Y todo para que diriman por los cauces de la justicia algo que los políticos no parecen ya dispuestos a respetar. La responsabilidad política ha desaparecido. Ahora reina el talante.

El Estatuto se va a aprobar, nos guste o no, porque tiene no solo el apoyo de PSOE y el "conjunto de las fuerzas políticas de Cataluña", una mayoría que ya sabemos sobradamente que le permite a Zapatero mantenerse a flote en lo tormentoso de su gobierno. Todo indica que ahora toca devolver el favor. Y solo cabe vaticinar sobre los escenarios posibles, ya que no se plantea la alternativa de tramitar este asunto como Reforma Constitucional, lo que sería hacer caso de las propuestas de "la derechona".

Podríamos encontrarnos con una "independencia de facto" Catalana, que no debemos confundir con una independencia de jure, es decir, formal, como la de cualquier país emancipado en el Siglo XIX. Estamos hablando de algo más siniestro que los "folklóricos Países Catalanes", producto de una enferma mentalidad cantonalista, que fue el reflejo del peor momento de nuestra historia, la implosión de la Nación Española. Hablo de una conquista tácita de Cataluña sobre España, de un dominio absoluto en el plano energético y comercial, que situaría a Cataluña en una posición no ya de ventaja sobre las demás regiones, sino en una posición de soberanía.

Ya está ocurriendo, y una de las reacciones de la opinión pública ha sido el boicot contra el cava primero, y luego contra todo lo producido en Cataluña.


Más improbable, pero más cuadrando los deseos (públicos) de ZP, sería estatuto light que satisfaga las ansias más simbólicas, aunque para mí que eso no se va a dar, teniendo en cuenta la presión que ya llevan a cabo los "socios" de este gobierno. No pensemos ya en una disolución de las Cortes.

Si al final se aprueba el Estatuto, no vamos a tener "Una España más plural, como sostiene Zapatero, sino una España que va a estar a lo que Cataluña le diga. Unos Paises Catalanes de Iberia.

Miguel Vinuesa

CORRIERE Prodi ci salverà

Ancora una volta, mi direte, il post del corriere lo dedico a Romano Prodi, ma lui è un pò come il cibo dei McDonald's... una volta non basta.

Infatti, il supremo leader della Sinistra (par condicio, aò, che Berlusconi lo facciamo essere Duce, di questo passo), viene a dirci che l'Iran viene fermato con la politica. Voglio vedere se questo si puó dire anche della Korea del Nord, per esempio.

Io, fossi lui, smentirei quella riflessione poco lucida della situazione. Soppratutto perchè in Medio Oriente, politica e religione sono ancora, e purtroppo, molto unite. Se veniamo a metterci dal lato israeliano, una posizione non di certo comoda in un'Europa solitamente pro-Arafat o pro-Palestina, evidentemente non si può chiedere di non assumere rischi ai paesi che seguono quest' atteggiamento "scomodo".

Ma il fatto è che l'Iran è una minaccia per i suoi vicini dal momento che il suo presidente -di nome impronunciabile- viene a dire "amazzateli tutti". Se qualcuno si mettesse dal lato iraniano, cosa non accaduta, sarebbe scandaloso, perchè si starebbe dando una legitimazione a quelle parole irresponsabili, poi smentite dal premier, anche se solo in parte.

Quello che Prodi vuole, però è la "roadmap", come se fosse una soluzione magica! E invece no, dico io! La roadmap va seguita se i Palestinesi di Abbàs e gli israeliani di Sharon cooperano insieme, non se si lanciano missili l'un l'atro. Il pretendere altrimenti, risponde solo alla visione narcotizzata della Sinistra europea, che pensa che la colpa è unicamente degli israeliani. Non capiscono che fra i Palestinesi, e la loro storica povertà, si nascondono terroristi, e che questi vanno fatti fuori coi mezzi meno rischiosi possibili.

Per lo stato d'Israele tutti i suoi vicini sono nemici, anche se le relazioni sono migliorate col tempo. Comunque, la presenza ebrea in medio oriente è scarsamente tollerata dai governi arabi, e niente affatto fra la popolazione, guidata dagli Imam, i clerici musulmani.

Un governo demagogico come l'Iraniano si nutre di questo sentimento di odio, non per attacare Israele, ma per avere una solida base di potere per sè. È questo il fondo rivoltante di questa questione. Non serve a nulla lamentarci, ma speriamo che questa faccenda non vada a peggio. In tre parole: PRODI, STÀ ZITTO.

Miguel Vinuesa

LA NACIÓN: What Kischner wants

Para empezar, quisiera suybrayar que la crónica de Rodríguez Yebra podría comenzar no mencionando la lluvia, pero eso sería luchar contra tópicos...

Así que ya tenemos a Bush en la Argentina, por primera vez, y por no tan primera vez Maradona se echa a la calle a manifestarse. Sin duda servirá de mucho, y el mandatario norteamericano considerará sin lugar a dudas el replantearse el ALCA. Menos mal que tenemos a la mano de Dios.

Pero el que está verdaderamente preocupado en estos momentos no es Bush, ni siquiera Maradona, sino el Presidente Kischner que se juega el tipo en esta cumbre. Por un lado, tiene a sus alianzas filo-comunistas que el presionan para que mande todo ALCArajo, y por otra al FMI, del cual Argentina depende y que no esconde el que recibe directas influencias de Washington.

Es lo que en Ajedrez se llama una tijera: si mueves esta pieza, tienes dos posibilidades. Y las posibilidades de Kischner son (volver a) hundir al país en el lodo de la Miseria, pero contar con el inestimable apoyo del Coma-andante cubano y de su mascota venezolana, o bien el de poner las menos trabas posibles al ALCA y empezar a comerciar con la primera potencia mundial, ganándose el respeto de la mayoría de sus pares del continente, menos de Chávez y Castro.

Si tuviera dos dedos de frente, cosa que francamente dudo, se tiraría de cabeza a los pies de Bush. No sólo por contar con el FMI, sino porque la Argentina puede salir del hoyo de una sola manera: exportando lo que produzca. En cuanto sea rentable crear una empresa en la Argentina se van a terminar los planes "trabajar", por lo menos si se hace seriamente. Será más rentable trabajar que subsistir de las subvenciones a fondo perdido.

Y sólo entonces se podría recordar a Kischner como una persona un poco más decente que sus predecesores, aunque siempre, siempre pesará sobre él el haber atacado a la Iglesia con tan infame tenacidad, siempre quedará marcado por haber sido una fuerza directora de piqueteros.

Y además, sólo dibujamos el mejor de los escenarios posibles. Tengo muchas dudas que Kischner dé el 100% de visto bueno al ALCA. Ya saben. Él es así.

Miguel Vinuesa

POST Defeating prejudice with Alito

After Miers' withdrawal from the run for the Supreme Court, it's quite clear that Bush has been thrown in the conservative's point of view. An evident path considering the current composition of the Senate.


Many will agree in saying that, considering the options that were being balanced. Is Samuel Alito what the Supreme Court should get? Democrats keep shouting "NO, the balance will be broken". Crocodile tears, in my humble opinion, as they would pack the court with abortionists and pro-rights judges to serve their most radical electors, if they had their opportunity.

I'm still trembling, actually, at the possibilities of Kerry, a fake catholic, in the White House. Legalizing free abortion, letting Gay marriages, just like in Spain, and smoking pod in the oval office. I can't help thinking that Bush, not being confessionally catholic, represents much better our interests than anyone else, in the Beltway. That is quite more reassuring that Kerry's views. A lot more.

From the same man that knows that liberty has boundaries, we now get James Alito. A man of the liking in the most conservative circles of the judiciary system, therefore, of the liking of the Republican right-wingers. This has both positive and negative sides which are, basically, the friends that back you up.

I mean, if you're moderated, either being liberal or conservative, you've got all the odds to be hated, rather than loved. Specially if a "more suitable man", ) and let me point up that I'm not being sexist at this) is fit for the place you're aiming. It's like "Ok, you're a moderated person, but we're looking for something else" when applying for a job.

If you want my personal thought about it, I'd say Alito, being a radical, is going to be quite more backed up than Miers was. And is it good for the Supreme Court? Yes. In the end, we're not talking about politics, up there, but of justice. A title the new judge gets, and in the end, what they seek with every decision they take.