fantapolitica
humorous look at Italian politics (bilingual)Saturday, February 26, 2005
Rai televido page 121.2
"Berlusconi ha auspicato nuovamente una
modifica dei regolamenti parlamentari.
"Ci sono tempi infiniti in commissione,
tanti emendamenti,estenuanti bracci di
ferro sul loro arrivo in Aula. Quando
una legge esce fuori รจ diversa da quel-
la inizialmente progettata"."
My translation
"Burlusconi again advocates a modification of parliamentary rules
'things take for ever in committees, many amendments, exhausting tests of will about their (bills) arrival on the floor. When a law is completed it is different from that which was initially planned'"
That is, the prime minister of Italy, objects that laws are written by the legislature and are therefore not exactly the same as the laws proposed by the government.
I am sure that not even Berlusconi's worst political adversary will note that someone who openly displays such utter contempt for the idea of a constitution is unfit for public office.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Birds of a Feather
A Small victory for US chutzpa (faccia di bronzo)
Via Kevin Drum Via Sam Heldman
Kevin Small argues that his punishment for violating the endangered species act should be to lobby congress to "reform" the endangered species act so that his actions would be legal. My countryman has more nerve than Marcello dell'Utri who argued that his punishment for false accounting (and thus tax evasion) should be a the "community service" of putting his personal library in order.
Now it is true that ForzItalians have pioneered both the fields of making the punishment more fun than the crime and of changing laws so that their actions are no longer crimes, but they did not think of combining these noble efforts.
And Small isn't even (exactly) a politician. He is secretary (read secretario not secretaria) of the Smithsonian Institution a foundation which owns musems on the Mall (next to the capital building in Washington DC).
Friday, February 11, 2005
Un'inchiesta del Sole-24 ore e del Financial Times svela
la "pista italiana" seguita dagli ispettori delle Nazioni Unite
Lo scandalo 'Oil for food' in Iraq: l'Onu indaga su Formigoni
It is suspected that Roberto Formigoni, the conservative and extremely catholic governor of Lombardi, received large gifts from Saddam Hussein in the form of rights to purchase Iraqi oil under the oil for food program. This should come as a shock to almost everyone except for the e 200 or so who have ever read fantapolitica (my other blog). On May 31st 2004 I reported my suspicion that Formigoni had received such a gift based on, get this, information www.freerepublic.com got from a newspaper associated with Ahmed Chalabi in fantapolitica
Was I 8 months ahead of UN investigators ?
