Berlusconi to resign after parliament OKs reforms

Started by garbon, November 08, 2011, 02:16:44 PM

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Viking

First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Razgovory on November 08, 2011, 11:29:29 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on November 08, 2011, 11:10:37 PM
Quote from: Tyr on November 08, 2011, 11:09:10 PM
This is...unexpected. But interesting. Wonder if Italy will get competent government from now on....or just Berlusconi 2.
My money is more on the latter.
He was rather competent wasn't he? I don't think he could have stayed on top so long if he wasn't.

You seriously aren't that naive are you?
He certainly was a competent politician.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Razgovory

It's easy when you control most of the media in the country.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Drakken

You are still talking about a PM in Italy which not so long ago had an history of cabinets falling every six months or so, French IIIrd Republic-style.

That he held out for so long despite scandals, attempted prosecutions, his proximity to neo-fascist movements, and a lack of proactive platform, I'm willing to consider he was a competent politician and power-broker.

Razgovory

I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

garbon

Quote from: Razgovory on November 10, 2011, 10:39:08 AM
Or simply a gangster.

Perhaps competent has a different definition in the seduction community.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Viking

Silvio's a pimp. A P.I.M.P. literally. And of course a crooked mafiosi as well.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

Sheilbh

Quote from: Drakken on November 10, 2011, 09:51:31 AM
You are still talking about a PM in Italy which not so long ago had an history of cabinets falling every six months or so, French IIIrd Republic-style.

That he held out for so long despite scandals, attempted prosecutions, his proximity to neo-fascist movements, and a lack of proactive platform, I'm willing to consider he was a competent politician and power-broker.
Italian governments didn't fall though.  They were actually pretty stable.  I think the Christian Democrats with some partners were in power for almost the entire post-war period.  The factions within those parties would move their support around and there'd be musical chairs based on who could do enough to guarantee the support of most factions at any given point (Andreotti was, of course, particularly adept at this).  That system, I think, fell apart in the tagentopoli scandal that destroyed post-war Italian politics.  It was in that conflagration that Berlusconi emerged as a political figure.  I don't think his own methods of making a party and buying the support of the neo-fascists (weirdly their old leader is now a centre-right critic of Berlusconi and the rest were absorbed into Berlusconi's party) were much cleaner.

Having said all that there's no doubt he was an effective politician, he won elections and has survived a few hundred no-confidence votes.  That doesn't mean he's been a competent Prime Minister though.

Apparently Mario Monti was appointed a Senator for Life last night so it looks like he'll be Italy's technocratic saviour.
Let's bomb Russia!

Queequeg

Has Italy ever considered some kind of financial incentive to have larger families?  I know Russia is doing something along these lines-albeit haphazardly and incompetently.  It will be interesting to see how dysfunctional Med countries deal with collapsing birth rates when they aren't as likely to draw talented immigrants.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Martinus

Quote from: Queequeg on November 12, 2011, 04:00:25 PM
Has Italy ever considered some kind of financial incentive to have larger families?  I know Russia is doing something along these lines-albeit haphazardly and incompetently.  It will be interesting to see how dysfunctional Med countries deal with collapsing birth rates when they aren't as likely to draw talented immigrants.
God, what a tard you are.

Razgovory

Quote from: Queequeg on November 12, 2011, 04:00:25 PM
Has Italy ever considered some kind of financial incentive to have larger families?  I know Russia is doing something along these lines-albeit haphazardly and incompetently.  It will be interesting to see how dysfunctional Med countries deal with collapsing birth rates when they aren't as likely to draw talented immigrants.

I think they gave away medals for women who had lots of children in the 30's.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Sheilbh

Quote from: Gups on November 09, 2011, 09:42:45 AM
Berlosconi has been in charge since 2001 (and for a year or two in the late 90s). Italy stagnated between 2001 and 2007 while most of the west saw decent growth and it's fallen off a cliff faster than anoyone else. He's built up a huge debt and had done nothing about the sturctural problems in the Italian economy.
According to the Economist I think in the past decade only Haiti and Somalia have had slower growth than Italy.
Let's bomb Russia!

The Brain

Quote from: Queequeg on November 12, 2011, 04:00:25 PM
Has Italy ever considered some kind of financial incentive to have larger families?  I know Russia is doing something along these lines-albeit haphazardly and incompetently.  It will be interesting to see how dysfunctional Med countries deal with collapsing birth rates when they aren't as likely to draw talented immigrants.

You can get talented immigrants? What, Sweden shouldn't have picked hundreds of thousands of unskilled Muselmen? :unsure:
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Razgovory

Quote from: Sheilbh on November 12, 2011, 06:26:03 PM
Quote from: Gups on November 09, 2011, 09:42:45 AM
Berlosconi has been in charge since 2001 (and for a year or two in the late 90s). Italy stagnated between 2001 and 2007 while most of the west saw decent growth and it's fallen off a cliff faster than anoyone else. He's built up a huge debt and had done nothing about the sturctural problems in the Italian economy.
According to the Economist I think in the past decade only Haiti and Somalia have had slower growth than Italy.

Wow. that's pretty bad.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Larch

And it has happened. I can hardly believe it.

QuoteItaly crisis: Silvio Berlusconi resigns as PM

Silvio Berlusconi has resigned as prime minister of Italy, after dominating the country's politics for 17 years.
President Giorgio Napolitano accepted his offer and is likely to appoint technocrat Mario Monti his successor.