Slashdot Mirror
Italian Police Seize Blog Over 'Kill Berlusconi' Satire
Giorgio Maone writes "Italian Police just seized the Savona e Ponente Blog because the 60-year-old journalist Valeria Rossi posted a satirical article titled 'I want to kill Berlusconi,' writing that 'you can't feel guilty of wishing him death, because he's not human: he's an alien, with incredible psychic powers.' Otherwise, how could such a clown, with multiple pending trials for corruption, tax offenses, abuse of power and even child prostitution, convince the majority of the other politicians and a consistent slice of Italian people to keep him as their prime minister for almost 20 years now? Here's a mirror of the incriminating text (Italian)." And here's a translation to English.
On the other hand, Roman emperors also had the habit of occasionally getting things done in grand style. That is what I find most baffling about Berlusconi's endurance: Not only is the guy a grossly corrupt sleazeball plutocrat, he hasn't achieved particularly thrilling results in economic, law-and-order, or quality of life metrics.
He's like the decadent and incompetent version of Putin.
Would YOU want to run against him? If you were to, remember, if something happened to you he'd automatically win...
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
Your comment will lead to some militrary contractor getting the opportunity to sell gigantic fans for $500 million each to the white house. within two weeks you'll notice that the flags around the white house will always point in a offset from the actual wind direction.
He owns the media in Italy.
What keeps him in power so long? You mean apart from owning the press, subverting due process and being beloved by the police?
The funny thing is that put that way; he sounds just like most of our beloved leaders.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
I see this a lot in politics these days: educated, intelligent journalists lashing out and saying anyone who doesn't agree with their political opinions must not be a member of the human race. And here's one who thinks that it's OK to call for deaths just because she's frustrated.
There's a critical difference between a satirical call for death and an actual death threat. Death itself is a powerful subject, and it can be used quite aptly to evoke far more sentiment than straight murderous rampage. In this case, she wasn't stating her intent to kill Berlusconi, nor was she attempting to rally others to do the same. Rather, she was expressing her rage and frustration at him, which is well within (at least American) bounds of free speech.
This seizure wasn't made out of fear and concern for Berlusconi's wellbeing. This is textbook abuse of law for the purpose of silencing opposition.
America has the same thing, Sarah Palin's calls for violence incited her followers and real people died.
This is a really stupid example. Maybe read a little into things before echoing the political impulse. As outrageous and annoying as Palin is, there is no good reason to suspect she had anything to do with the shootings.
To an outside observer, it seems that Berlusconi has stayed in politics for one primary reason - to make sure that he can keep changing laws every time there's an attempt to prosecute him for some misdeed. With that tactic, he's rendered the judiciary largely irrelevant. He owns a vast media empire, and hasn't been forced to keep his media holdings at arm's length while in office, so he's used that to prop up his political empire. The Italian Parliament doesn't seem to be able to deal with the issue. The disconnect between those in power and a good chunk of the population is very high, according to some recent news reports.
Given his personal behavior, you have to wonder just how corrupt his government actually is, and who may have been in a position to blackmail him for favors over the last twenty years. If he'd managed to avoid sexual misconduct that seemed deplorable to his core supporters, he wouldn't be in trouble now.
If Italy was in another part of the world, there would probably be a lot of questions about how democratic it actually is.
> saying anyone who doesn't agree with their political opinions must not be a member of the human race
Lemme translate some famous pearls of S. Berlusconi
"Judges are mentally ill and antropologically different from the rest of human race"
About his opposition: "I can't believe there are so many dumbasses ('coglioni') that vote against their interests"
So, police, go seize his TV stations.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Perhaps we build this large, wooden Badger...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
-- John J. Chapman, Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900
Oh, the memories. I always believed that Bill should have been impeached, not for the silly 'crimes' he was accused of, but for a serious violation of aesthetics. Gees, he was the President, couldn't he do better than that? It reflected poorly on the whole country.
"Did you know it is illegal to say: "I wish President Obama was killed by mortar fire on the White House. It could be set up across the park and use the flag on said White House to provide a rough wind measurement.""
BZZT! Wrong! I've had several talks with the SS, in person, regarding a phone call I had with someone stating similar things.
It is not illegal until you say "I plan to" or "I am going to."
Saying "I wish" is an opinion and is protected speech.
The whole thing revolves around INTENT. Wishing is not the same as saying you'll do it.
This has been a PSA from someone that has dealt with the Secret Service on multiple occasions - in fact some of my own ./ postings have made the SS come to my house.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Burlusconi has been Prime Minister of Italy for a long time now, in part by owning most of the media -- he started with a radio station and a newspaper in the south, and pretty much came to control everything. When he wanted the job of PM, guess who every newspaper endorsed for the job? He's basically the William Randolph Hearst of Italy, except Hearst never managed to hold an office.
Burlusconi is in it only for the power and will stomp on anyone to get his way. In a way, though, this is extremely instructive: This is what happens when you allow one person or a handful of people unrestricted control of the media.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."