Italian PM Berlusconi tells Obama he's being persecuted

[iBender]

I don't know what happened, but in the World I live, which is subject to the BBC and SKY News, with food produced by big faceless companies that use UK Mosiacs and my address to determine my diet... With Metropoltian Police everywhere on a diet of Evian big faceless water or Thames Water... I with my none biest totally real window of the world, EVERYTHING in Europe seems fine if it isn't going bust and needing a bail out, so that hurts, what the Italian PM said, that's my British twopence Two Cents view.

 

[Canadave]

Y'know, on one level, Berlusconi is clearly an awful person, and an awful leader for a major European country.

On another level, he's awesomely hilarious.

 

[Count Zero]

... but Obama seemed surprised when he was buttonholed by the Italian premier.

Well there's your next scandal ...

Buttonholed--not cornholed.

Though I'm sure the President would have been even more suprised in the latter case.

There were some other weird remarks, too. In his final statement, Sarkozy seems to have said that due to the view of the sun going down over the Atlantic they all had during dinner last night, Chancellor Angela Merkel had been "sensitive" and that "if Angela is sensitive and happy at the G8, everything is fine." Ok, maybe that sounds less sleazy in French, but still .

 

[Shaytan]

"Angela Merkel est sensible et heureuse, cela veut dire que le G8 a été une réussite". No, that's ridiculous in French too

 

[iBender]

I predict, but could be wrong, an Italian State Visit to Washington D.C. real soon; with the Red Carpet rolled all the way out, to resolve what was said...

 

[Roger Wilco]

Gods, I hope a video doesn't turn up sometime of Merkel, Sarkozy, Berlusconi and the Finnish President doing unspeakable things with each other...

 

[Shaytan]

Some years ago, Kouchner said something at the Assemblée Nationale about a night Sarko and Merkel spent together...actually that's not what he meant but that made laugh a lot of deputies

 

[Thestral]

^ Somebody call The Onion, stat!

 

[Count Zero]

"Angela Merkel est sensible et heureuse, cela veut dire que le G8 a été une réussite". No, that's ridiculous in French too

Well, at least he used her full name so it sounds slightly less sleazy.

 

[iguana_tonante]

This is embarrassing as shit, but hardly surprising. Berlusconi is a horrible human being and a disgrace as a Prime Minister, and on top of that he is going senile fast. But he's supported by his own coalition, and that's all that matters for now.

Some of your posts deserve a longer reply, I will get to them soon.

 

[iBender]

Well I don't speak for what David Cameron does, why should you speak for what Berlusoni does? Relax, no one blames you or anything, however, being in Italy, you actually do have a unique insight into this, more than I.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, even if we didn't vote for them, our governments sort of represent us abroad. I remember that while watching the news recently, I felt very embarrassed about being represented by the likes of Merkel, who had just made a stupid, populist and of course factually wrong statement about other EU countries, and Westerwelle, who always seems just to play the part of Foreign Minister to me and who stood just at the edge of the group photo taken at the recent meeting of the Libya contact group, like the unruly kid oblivious to the fact that no one likes him. I bet no one takes him seriously. He just comes across as very lightweight.
After hearing about Berlusconi's and Sarkozy's statements I don't feel as embarrassed anymore. But I do understand how many Italians will feel about their PM's statements and I sympathise.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I feel sorry for President Obama on this.
Italian PM: I am having trouble with my sex probes...
Obama: ... Say that again?

 

[MANT!]

I feel even more sorry for the translator involved in this...

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I feel even more sorry for the translator involved in this...

No kidding. That would be damn near impossible to say with a straight face. Especially in that situation, with major world leaders and the media around.

 

[Marc]

Berlusconi did not have sex with someone under the age of consent, he had sex with someone under the age for prostitution, iirc. The state has to prove that he gave her money or gifts for sex in order to convict him.

But he's also facing charges in a corruption case which could be harder for him to duck because the lawyer whom Berlusconi's reputed to have paid the money to has already gone to court, pleaded guilty and is now serving time.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'm having trouble keeping track which Berlusconi scandal is which. Which one was this?

 

[Marc]

I'm having trouble keeping track which Berlusconi scandal is which. Which one was this?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/09/3212069.htm

He was speaking during a break in the hearing where he is charged with paying his former British lawyer David Mills $556,000 to give false testimony about his business dealings.

It was also the instance where he called the judges a cancer on democracy.

 

[Kegg]

I advise you to Watch Obama's address to the British Parliment if you can.

I wasn't that far from where Obama gave his address in Ireland... where he also talked about historic cultural and ideological ties.

I'm pretty sure if Obama went to Rome he'd talk about Italian-American contributions to the United States, the strong ideological bonds the two republics share, the role Italy plays today in America's foreign policy, and so on.

It's political theatre, pretty much.

 

[iBender]

I actually wasn't that far when he was in London, I was sitting across the street from the Houses of Parliment and Westminister Abbey the day before on Tuesday; when President Obama was somewhere in town, and the day he addressed Parliment, I was just down the street, in a Pub, in Piccadilly, with Ruburbenodron last Wednesday... - What a co-inky-dink ; Kegg.