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legionnaire

legionnaire

United Kingdom
November 2003

NOV 24, 2006 07:24 PM

Silvio Berlusconi could well be counted as one of the major political casualties of the Iraq war. His close allegiance with George W. Bush in the "war on terror" permanently aligned him in the public eye with the war in Iraq, despite Italy's relatively modest contribution to the war effort. His domination of the media in Italy guaranteed a virtual lock on his reelection despite his relative unpopularity just due to the ubiquity of positive coverage from his own networks. Except that it didn't work. He lost the general election in a tight race that was perceived as a referendum on his relationship with the US and commitment to Iraq. What's even funnier, however, is that recent allegations have surfaced that Berlusconi tried to fix the election, and still couldn't pull it off.



The allegation is made in a documentary entitled Kill Democracy being given out on Friday with a left-wing magazine.



The authors say blank ballots were fraudulently counted in favour of Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.



Former Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who oversaw the vote, said the claims were "false and libellous".



Mr Pisanu said he welcomed the investigation "because it will surely serve to erase even the remotest of doubts".

[...]

The film notes that every election in the past 60 years has seen about 1.5 million blank votes, while there were fewer than 500,000 in April's election.



The authors suggest that a computer program allowed the interior ministry to change blank votes.



Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia colleagues have denied any wrongdoing and say they are considering legal action against the magazine.



Proving the allegations could be difficult, especially as Berlusconi is still running a major media empire that would not benefit from the discovery of any scandals, so there will be considerable pressure to eliminate any evidence of wrongdoing if it did occur. And the fact of the matter is that proving Berlusconi's political organization to be cheaters would serve little purpose except to further humiliate the man who had hoped to dominate Italian politics for the next decade. But it would still be damned funny.

JoLeigh

JoLeigh

SUICIDEGIRL

Florida, USA

NOV 24, 2006 08:48 PM

that is crazy
surreal

Stellae

Stellae

SUICIDEGIRL

Italy

NOV 24, 2006 08:51 PM

Do you really want to give him even more publicity with this blog?
The less people who know of him the better.

Vestril

Vestril

Coronado, CA
February 2003

NOV 24, 2006 10:23 PM

Stellae said:
Do you really want to give him even more publicity with this blog?
The less people who know of him the better.



I'm in the "the more people who know what he did, the better" camp myself.

ron

ron

United Kingdom
February 2003

NOV 24, 2006 10:52 PM

Tony Blair has suffered a similar loss of popularity in England due to his support for Bush and the Iraq war. The only reason he is still in office is that his Conservative opponents are unable to benefit, as they also supported war. Now the police are closing in on Blair, investigating the "Bribes for Peerages" scandal, so he may well end up as the first British Prime Minister to be prosecuted for corruption.

A shame that all of Bush's close allies turn out to be crooks.

BGage

BGage

Los Angeles, CA
February 2004

NOV 25, 2006 02:24 AM

Vestril said:

Stellae said:
Do you really want to give him even more publicity with this blog?
The less people who know of him the better.



I'm in the "the more people who know what he did, the better" camp myself.



I agree. Besides, it's a little silly to suggest that an ephemeral posting on an American porno website bestows undeserved publicity on a European Media Kingpin and former head of state who otherwise would have gone to his grave in obscurity.

jake_lex

jake_lex

Lexington, KY
February 2003

NOV 25, 2006 08:47 AM

ron said:
Tony Blair has suffered a similar loss of popularity in England due to his support for Bush and the Iraq war. The only reason he is still in office is that his Conservative opponents are unable to benefit, as they also supported war. Now the police are closing in on Blair, investigating the "Bribes for Peerages" scandal, so he may well end up as the first British Prime Minister to be prosecuted for corruption.

A shame that all of Bush's close allies turn out to be crooks.



And perhaps the ultimate victim of Bush's policies: George W. Bush.

His presidency is effectively over. The last two years of any President's second term are fairly useless anyway, but with his approval rating hovering around 30% and the Democrats in control of both houses, he has no power at all.

Domo_Kun

Domo_Kun

Rockford, IL
March 2005

NOV 25, 2006 11:37 AM

You know what happens when people start publicizing allegations based entirely on conjecture?

Douchebags like this guy:



pass off their tin-foil hat induced speculation as fact, and produce crap like this:

NickFaust

NickFaust

USA
April 2004

NOV 25, 2006 01:29 PM

In answer to the basic interogatory of the headline - yes.

fountainofdreams

fountainofdreams

Mokena, IL
January 2005

NOV 25, 2006 09:45 PM

Ha_Ha_Guy said:
You know what happens when people start publicizing allegations based entirely on conjecture?

Douchebags like this guy:



pass off their tin-foil hat induced speculation as fact, and produce crap like this:



what the fuck does this have to do with ANYTHING?

erleichda

erleichda

Germany
May 2003

NOV 26, 2006 12:37 AM

Funniest thing about all this is that Berlusconi himself warned before the election that there would be fraud.

Guess he knew what he was talking about.

midfuckepiphany

midfuckepiphany

Niue
August 2004

NOV 26, 2006 05:20 AM

is the US-led military operation in iraq unpopular in italy? yes. undoubtably. just as it is in europe more broadly. but it's dramatically misleading to be trumpeting Berlusconi's outster as PM as primarily a referendum on iraq. italian voters, like voters anywhere, think about plenty of other things besides the US (to put it mildly), and Berlusconi never had a "virtual lock" on the election. italian politics are very complicated and different compared to the US, and there were a great many issues on voters' minds in that election - italy's stagnant economy, retirement issues, union issues, youth unemployment issues, issues vis a vis the EU, as well as a myriad of fringe issues ... the iraq situation was just one of many ingredients in a very big stew, in a very tight election. also, Berlusconi has been an extremely controversial and flamboyant political figure in italy for more than a decade, and he has been in and out of courtrooms on various corruption charges for his entire political career. these latest allegations are just a continuation of the show.

Andvari

Andvari

Calgary, AB
April 2005

NOV 26, 2006 10:54 AM

Berlusconi just had a heart attack like episode while giving a speech.

Domo_Kun

Domo_Kun

Rockford, IL
March 2005

NOV 27, 2006 04:39 AM

horatios_dreams said:

Ha_Ha_Guy said:
You know what happens when people start publicizing allegations based entirely on conjecture?

Douchebags like this guy:



pass off their tin-foil hat induced speculation as fact, and produce crap like this:



what the fuck does this have to do with ANYTHING?



Read the OP:

The film notes that every election in the past 60 years has seen about 1.5 million blank votes, while there were fewer than 500,000 in April's election.



Some idiot is making assumptions about the integrity of Italian elections based on the number of blank votes in this recent election vs. hoiw many there usually are. They may possibly be right. However, there is no proof whatsoever, and citing an irregularity like the number of blank ballots turned in is not anywhere near compelling enough to base an accusation on.

It's kind of like how Loose Change uses conjecture and baseless allegations to make it's erroneous points.