Isn’t that way more than what it would cost on eBay?
Alan emails us about reports that Spain’s former Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, used government funds to lobby for a nice and shiny US Congressional Gold Medal for himself:
The Spanish Ser radio station revealed yesterday that while in power the former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar engaged an American firm of lawyers who act as lobbyists to promote his image and collect signatures to enable him to get the Congressional Gold Medal. The contract was signed in secret and was paid for with Foreign Ministry funds. The news has sparked off widespread criticism.
In accordance with the terms of the contract signed with the Piper Rudnick firm of lawyers, the Spanish Ambassador to the United States Javier Ruperez paid 700,000 dollars at the beginning of the year and had undertaken to pay other sums during the following months until the figure of two million dollars had been reached. […]
The firm of lobbyists undertook “to assist the Spanish Government in its public diplomacy and communications strategy.” The contract refers to “the consolidation of relations with the White House” at a time when Aznar was continually saying that he had ?a privileged relationship? with George Bush.
In January the firm undertook to advertise the speech Aznar gave on Capitol Hill in February and to ask members of Congress to attend and to give their signatures in support of the Spanish president. Aznar has secured 306 signatures so far and has exceeded the minimum (290), but the Senate has not yet begun to process the proposal for awarding him the medal.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that:
Former Spanish prime minister Jos? Mar?a Aznar yesterday denied allegations that he was illegally holding on to secret intelligence reports and that his government paid a Washington lobbyist firm to help him secure a Congressional Gold Medal. […]
Mr Aznar, who is in Latin America promoting an autobiography, has so far failed to reply to a request from Spain’s Centre for National Intelligence (CNI) that he return any documents he may still have that refer to the March 11 bombings.
Mr Aznar suggested to a radio interviewer in Colombia earlier this week that he was still in possession of the CNI reports handed to him after the attacks that were followed three days later by his party being voted out of office.
“I have them because I was the prime minister,” he told the radio station.
So how do you say Go fuck yourself in Spanish?
So how do you say Go fuck yourself in Spanish?
“Chingate” (chinga-tay), I believe. It definitely got a reaction when I said it to a guy in college.
Mephisto, that’s the more American Spanish version. In Spain it’s more like “Que te jodes.”
That guy got pretty crooked in his last few years as presidente. But apart from him, think about the implications in the story – to have a “privileged relationship” with W, he had to pay $700,000.
Isn’t “Chingate” Fuck you my friend, as opposed to, “Chinga-se” which is a more formal fuck you, like you’d say to a stranger?
It would depend more on where you’re at with other verbs. In some places the ‘tu’ form is used with just about anyone except in very formal settings. In other places it’s used only for people that are close to you, that you know well, or who are, hmmm… not sure how to put it exactly. I guess the last group would be the people who use ‘usted’ with you.
However, with a word like ‘Chingar’, I feel that you probably wouldn’t be showing much respect to anyone you’d be saying it to, therefore the familiar ‘tu’ form would work out best.
Speaking of ‘Chingar’ there’s a great song by the Mexican/LA rap group Molotov called “Chinga tu madre” that’s all about social equality. It has a clever play on words in it too.
Not to change the subject from Spanish 101, but I just wonder how many other rich corrupt bastards have bribed the Bushmen to buy their own Congressional Gold Medal?
Doesn’t the process for receiving the Congressional Gold Medal sound an awful lot like the process for receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
My sources tell me that you would say: Coga tu propio. And while it might be amusing to tell someone to fuck himself in the formal address, my guess is it’s standard to use the informal.
Amanda-
From what I understand they don’t use ‘Coger’ to mean “to fuck” in Spain.
Of course, it’s possible that the Spanish have heard enough American/British English that simply saying “go fuck yourself” in English will work.
If you’re in a pinch, you know.
And you could always throw in a little sign language in the form of a middle finger to make sure they get the point. As long as it means the same thing in Spain…
Well, I had better clear this up, since I started the whole thing! The verb “to fuck”:
Chingar is Mexican Spanish, coger is used in Argentina I know, maybe other places (here in Spain it means to pick something up, like your luggage) and in Spain it could either be joder or follar. Follar is less vulgar but more dirty, if that makes any sense; you would tell someone you want to follar them, but tell VP Crashcart, for example, to joder himself.
Yosef has it right: Que te jodes.
Wouldn’t the correct sign language be a raised left fist with the right hand in the crock of the left elbow?
I wonder how much Tony Blair had to pay for his Congressional Gold Medal? I hope he didn’t get a discount because of his “even more personal than Aznar’s” relationship with Doofus.
Actually, it’s “Que te jodan”, with an “a”. It means, roughly, “May they fuck you”. But like Alan said, just in Espana.
And Greg, if you want to be formal, it’s “Chinguese” like “CHEEN-gay-say” 🙂
But that’s just in Mexico.
Sometimes my poop comes out green
Mine too !
So how do you say Go fuck yourself in Spanish?
It’s Chingate or Vete a la verga! 😀