Well, those of you who have followed the travails of Spain’s “green jobs” mythology in this space must find the following Wall Street Journal story puzzling. Didn’t the Obama administration just click its heels and declare the myth to be true (or, at least task a taxpayer-funded federal agency to hire some greens to produce a piece of paper that says so)?

The e-mail I received indicated I’d be a naughty boy if I just reprinted the entirety, so, excerpted in pertinent part, it reads:

World News: Spain Raises Taxes as Budget Crisis Deepens — Europe Scrambles After Financial Crisis
By Thomas Catan 10 September 2009 The Wall Street Journal MADRID — Spain’s prime minister announced tax increases and spending cuts to begin to reverse a ballooning budget deficit, as countries around Europe are grappling with such deficits in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
… In Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in a speech to Parliament that the tax burden would rise by as much as 1.5% of gross domestic product — around 15 billion euros ($21.75 billion) — under a series of fiscal changes. At the same time, he vowed an ‘exhaustive purge’ of all nonessential spending by the central government.
While bigger euro-zone members like France and Germany are starting to recover from the recession, weaker members like Spain remain mired, spiking concerns about a divergence in the euro zone’s economic fortunes. The global financial crisis pricked Spain’s debt-fueled housing bubble in 2008, causing the bloated construction sector, the engine of Spain’s 14-year-long economic boom, to stall.
In the face of soaring unemployment — which at 18.5% is now twice the rate in the rest of the European Union — Spain’s debt-laden households have slashed spending, hobbling Spain’s only other major growth engine. Economists believe Spain is facing years of economic stagnation, as it struggles to find new sources of growth and regain its international competitiveness.
On Wednesday, Mr. Zapatero, altering his usual upbeat tone, acknowledged that Spain would face a lengthy period of high unemployment and economic difficulty even after it pulls out of recession. ‘The 2010 budget will be the most austere in recent years,’ he said, promising to cut government spending by 4.5%, or 8.6 billion euros. Mr. Zapatero ruled out raising income taxes, but he didn’t specify what taxes will be raised.
Spain’s main opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, has long accused Mr. Zapatero of being in denial about the seriousness of Spain’s economic predicament. It said the center-left government had been spending recklessly and lacked a coherent plan to right the economy.
’There is no tax increase capable of filling the hole that you have created,’ the Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, told the prime minister in Wednesday’s debate.”

OK, that’s all really bad stuff; as is: “Many private economists expect Spain’s budget deficit to approach 10% of GDP this year, up from 3.8% last year.” And I seriously do hate to gloat. But then, beginning the paragraph which follows the above excerpt, and the snark sets in:

“Madrid is preparing to introduce a bill aimed at shifting Spain’s growth model from construction to what it calls a ‘sustainable economy.’”

Oh. So that windmill and solar panel binge that’s collapsed upon you wasn’t sustainable, eh? Yes, I think we’ve covered that here.

Soon, however — in fact just when reading the rest of the paragraph — snark turns to anger. The stupidity of the following, for anyone familiar with what’s gone on there is just heartbreaking:

“While details remain vague, Mr. Zapatero has hinted it will include fresh government incentives for the renewable-energy sector.”

You know, those numbers just say the darnedest things, sometimes drowning out the proclamations of politicians and ideologues. But after reading Zapatero, I have to scratch my head and wonder why anyone would listen to him even for uno momento.