Spain, JFK, and Groping Bush: Today's News for October 27th

CNN:

Spain on verge of seizing control of Catalonia amid independence crisis

The Spanish Senate was due to vote on the Madrid government's unprecedented plans to seize control of the autonomous region of Catalonia on Friday, as the crisis over the province's bid for independence comes to a head.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy outlined plans to dissolve the Catalan parliament under a never-before-used article of the country's constitution, vowing to remove the region's elected leaders as soon as possible and hold new elections.

The Senate -- where Rajoy's Popular Party has a majority -- must first approve the measures, drawn up under Article 155 of the constitution.

Somebody needs to inform Spain that you can't keep holding elections until you get the results you like. The only form of democracy that allows for that is called "corrupt". Considering Spain's government undemocratically interfered with Catalonia's last election, they don't have much justification for further interference in Catalonia.

Meanwhile:

...members of Catalonia's regional Parliament will continue a contentious debate Friday in Barcelona, the regional capital, on the best way forward.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Thursday backed away from a plan to call new elections himself, amid disagreement within his own party and pressure from opposing sides. Instead, he put the ball back in the court of the regional parliament, which will debate a proposal "to form the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state" on Friday.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont

In other news....

Fox News:

JFK Files: 'Big news' coming, British reporter was told before shots fired

 A senior reporter at a British newspaper received an anonymous phone call prior to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, alerting the reporter to “some big news” about 25 minutes in advance, according to a CIA file released Thursday.

“The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American Embassy in London for some big news and then hung up,” reads the document from former CIA Deputy Director James Angleton.

The reporter, who was not identified in the Nov. 26, 1963, report, “never received a call of this kind before and MI5 said that he is known to them as a sound and loyal person with no security record.” (MI5 is Britian's Security Service, similar to the CIA in the United States.)

After Kennedy’s death, the reporter told the Cambridge police about the call and the police informed MI5. "The important point is that the call was made, according to MI5 calculations, about 25 minutes before the President was shot.”

While this is curious, even if it is true, it isn't definitive. "American Embassy in London" plus "big news" roughly 25 minutes in advance of JFK's assassination is an interesting coincidence, but it doesn't prove correlation. For all we know, the big news could have been related to some kind of trade agreement with Britain. We don't even have a clue who made the call. It could have been Lee Harvey Oswald, or even someone with whom Oswald shared his plans.

Nothing to see here, move along...

The Hill:

Third woman says she was groped by George H.W. Bush

A third woman said Thursday that she too was groped by former President George H.W. Bush during a photo op in 2014.

Christina Baker Kline described the incident in a Slate op-ed, saying it took place at a Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy fundraiser.

"You wanna know my favorite book?" Kline recalled Bush telling her as she leaned closer to him for the photo, with she and her husband standing on either side of Bush's wheelchair.

"President Bush put his arm around me, low on my back. His comic timing was impeccable. 'David Cop-a-feel,' he said, and squeezed my butt, hard, just as the photographer snapped the photo. Instinctively, I swiped his hand away," Kline wrote.

This is pretty creepy stuff. It gets worse:

A spokesperson for Bush issued an apology on behalf of the former president on Wednesday.

"At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures," Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said in the statement.

"To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke - and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate," it added.

If Bush wants to be a dirty old man, we get it. Just admit it, ok? That way women can keep their distance going forward.

At the very least, he needs to get new joke material. "David Cop-a-feel" is lame by my standards, and my standards are pretty loose. (Pun intended.)