The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, today sparked controversy when he said the 17,000 people made homeless by Monday's earthquake should think of themselves as being on a "camping weekend". .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
It appears natural disasters always bring out the very best in our right wing corporate elite.
Berlusconi told the reporter for the N-TV channel that the homeless quake victims "lacked nothing".
"They have medicaments. They have hot food. They have shelter for the night," he said.
"Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping."
"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."
–Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005
Is there something about being so immersed in the bubble of power that it affects their IQ?
Hot on the heels of his triumphal unification of the parties of the Italian right, including some post-fascist groupings, Berlusconi began selecting the directors of state-run television - increasing his powerful grip over Italian society, according to his more liberal detractors, who claim the PM is going too far.
Among the candidates for prominent positions with RAI 1, the equivalent of the BBC in Italy, was Maurizio Belpietro. He's an effective Berlusconi propagandist who is a familiar face on the three television networks owned by the premier and whose career has progressed from editorship of the Berlusconi family's daily newspaper to that of its weekly magazine.
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Despite the apparent conflict of interests - Berlusconi owns RAI's principal commercial competitor, Mediaset - the prime minister reportedly took an active part in the discussions with his political allies, held earlier in the week at his private residence in Rome.
http://www.sundayherald.com/...
Own the commercial media then control the public media, whereas the Bush motto was serve it on a plate to your friends.
Another Italian Fascist posing as a populist.
Looks like Berlusconi really has no intention of being thrown out by the popular vote again. he is allying himself with the extreme authoritarian right of Italian politics
Paradoxically, it is the fascist-inspired National Alliance that will be giving up the trappings of a democratic political party to throw in its lot with Forza Italia, a party founded, funded and monarchically ruled by the former media magnate.
Apart from that he worries the Queen Elizabeth II.
Or he could be merely:
"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
–House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX)