Spain will drop case against BushCo torture enablers…

IF, IF, IF the Barack Obama Department of Justice will open an official investigation.

That’s one of several interesting items on the torture issue offered by Scott Horton. He also tells us AG Eric Holder and top staff are irate at how White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel et al (presumably acting on “higher orders,” irony, hypocrisy both intended) so politicized this issue.

Rick Perry sucking up to Spanish Ambassador … is Cintra on the agenda?

From an e-mail I got at work from the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce:

The Honorable Rick Perry will be among a host of business executives and Texas leadership welcoming U.S. Ambassador to Spain Eduardo Aguirre to Dallas on Monday, May 12, at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel hosted by the Greater Dallas Chamber.

“We are pleased to welcome the Governor and the Ambassador to the Dallas region for this important event,” said Victor Almeida, chair of the Greater Dallas Chamber¹s International Business Council (IBC) and CEO of Interceramic Inc. “The Chamber has a long history of working to recruit inward investment and trade development opportunities to North Texas. This is an excellent opportunity for Dallas-area businesses to connect with Spanish companies without crossing the Atlantic,” continued Almeida.

Companies like Cintra, the Spanish tie-in with Zachry Construction for the Trans Texas Corridor?

In four years time, Spain has quadrupled its investments in the United States. Spain is now focusing its attention on the North Texas region. The Honorable Eduardo Aguirre, U.S. Ambassador to Spain and the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain will lead this U.S.-Spain development mission to the State of Texas to promote Spanish investment in Texas and develop joint ventures and technology exchanges with key Texas cities. This mission includes 20 Spanish companies from the following sectors: life sciences, aviation technologies, food and wine products, and sustainable technologies including renewable energies, water treatment and industrial manufacturing.

What, where’s road construction?

But, aviation technologies? Maybe Cintra wants to toll our air traffic controllers?

Anyway, hold on to your hats.

Spanish economy as credit-sickly as US?

A Fistful of Euros notes Spain has many of the same credit- and mortgage-related problems as America does.

And, interestingly, it looks like the European Central Bank may be willing to play a “pawnbroker” role similar to the Federal Reserve. Read the whole post for more.

It’s long and somewhat economically wonky, but very interesting.

And, I’m sure that Germans who feared the loss of bank independence when the Bundesbank was superceded by the ECB are tearing their hair out at the possibilities.

International roundup – Spanish Socialists rise, Sarko falls, Israel to build in West Bank

Socialists win, but still short of majority

Spain’s Socialist Party gained five seats in national parliamentary elections. That left them still seven short of an absolute majority. However, the right-of-center Populist Party also gained five seats. The biggest losers were smaller left-wing parties, so the Socialists’ actual coalition could be smaller. Reuters says political analysts expected the Socialists to coalition with the Catalan party Convergencia i Unio (CiU), which has sided with the Socialist minority government in many votes over the last four years.

Spain’s real estate bubble/credit crunch fallout was an overhead in the elections, but the Socialists got a pass to continue to fight the issue themselves.

Sarkozy party loses in municipal elections

French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s rightist UMP lost votes in the first round of municipal elections but hopes to hold firm in the March 16 runoff round. French voters think Sarko has been gallivanting with Carla Bruni too much, as much as anything. Nice to know that Euro voters can be as personality-focused, issues-lite as Americans.

Olmert OKs more West Bank homes

In a move that is certain to do nothing good for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has OKed as many as 330 homes in the West Bank. Per the Reuters story, Israeli officials said they revived a plan to build a total of 750 homes in Givat Ze’ev, a settlement near Jerusalem. About 200 partially built homes will be completed as well as the new ones approved by Olmert.