I'm So Pretty, Cosell, You Can't Stop Me!

Hey Silvio Berlusconi, you're no Muhammad Ali:

ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday dismissed suggestions that he should step down for the good of Italy's image, saying he was the only person qualified to lead the country now and by far the best in Italian history.

Berlusconi, speaking at his first news conference since Italy's top court lifted his immunity from prosecution and opened the way for a resumption of corruption trials against him, also said he was the man most persecuted by judges "in the entire history of the world."

Berlusconi was asked by an American reporter about calls by critics that he step down because his personal and legal problems damage Italy's image in the world.

"The reality is completely the opposite," he said, remaining unusually calm in his response. "In my opinion, and not only mine, I am the best prime minister we can find today."

This is not a recent delusion of grandeur. Berlusconi has repeatedly claimed that he is the finest leader Italy has ever had, and all indications are that he actually believes it.

And if I essentially owned an entire country, and could shield myself from accountability at will - even with his immunity lifted, there are plenty of schemes he can and will use to avoid prosecution, and given his age he can never face jail time - I'd think I was pretty great myself.

The Last Tycoon's Luck Runs Out?

I've been obsessed with Silvio Berlusconi ever since I read "The Sack of Rome" by Alexander Stille. It's incredible that someone so corrupt, so obviously a thief, so clearly in politics to enrich himself and save himself from personal harm, was able to become Prime Minister, and do so entirely on the back of his own media empire and public relations effort. In the book, Stille details that Berlusconi basically entered politics to ensure that he not lose his business or suffer from prosecution for his past illegal actions. He immediately set to work on having his puppets in Parliament pass laws to that effect. A huge blow to those efforts occurred yesterday, as the pillar of his protective bubble - an immunity law for himself - was ruled unconstitutional by Italy's top court.

Italy was cast back into political turmoil tonight when the country's constitutional court threw out a law passed by Silvio Berlusconi's government that gave him immunity from prosecution for as long as he remained prime minister.

The majority decision represented a severe blow for Berlusconi, who was already struggling to contain the damage from a lurid sex and drugs scandal in which he is accused of using the services of prostitutes.

With some of Berlusconi's associates claiming that the judges of the country's top court had joined a plot to remove him, there was also a clear risk that Italy could be plunged into a constitutional crisis.

In a statement, the prime minister dampened speculation of an early election. He said the decision had not in any way altered his "will to carry on" in government.

He said: "I cannot but respect the response from the constitutional court." But he appeared to foreshadow an attempt to bring the court under tighter political control when he said that "this system, and above all the way in which the members of the court are chosen, risks upsetting over time the correct balance between the powers of the state".

Fabrizio Cicchitto, the leader of Berlusconi's party in the lower house of parliament, blamed the outcome on a "process of politicisation of the court which is joining the line of attack against prime minister Berlusconi".

This is what they always do when the law breathes down their necks. They cry politicization, just as they did with the magistrates in Milan who were closing in on Berlusconi. In that case, it worked, and this may as well. In a way, he's already won. Italy has a law that you cannot be jailed if you are over the age of 70. Berlusconi delayed the tax evasion case against him long enough to hit that milestone.

The BBC has more. Berlusconi's reign is fascinating and depressing.

Can I Write The Sack Of Rome II?

I've been reading The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi by Alexander Stille, which is a rollicking read, about one of the greatest monsters currently running the world, Italy's richest man, who basically cheated his way to billions, bought his way into the Prime Minister's chair, and saved his own ass from criminal charges time and again by having his handpicked Parliament give him amnesty. It's really good, but I keep thinking that I'm reading the original but missing out on the sequel. Berlusconi returned to power this year, and immediately sank into a sex scandal, a divorce, a scheme to run a bunch of starlets as candidates for Parliament to get notoreity, and a general series of embarrassments for the people of Italy. Now this is all coming to a head with a potentially ultimate ignominy: getting kicked out of the G8.

Preparations for Wednesday's G8 summit in the Italian mountain town of L'Aquila have been so chaotic there is growing pressure from other member states to have Italy expelled from the group, according to senior western officials.

In the last few weeks before the summit, and in the absence of any substantive initiatives on the agenda, the US has taken control. Washington has organised "sherpa calls" (conference calls among senior officials) in a last-ditch bid to inject purpose into the meeting.

"For another country to organise the sherpa calls is just unprecedented. It's a nuclear option," said one senior G8 member state official. "The Italians have been just awful. There have been no processes and no planning."

"The G8 is a club, and clubs have membership dues. Italy has not been paying them," said a European official involved in the summit preparations.

The behind-the-scenes grumbling has gone as far as suggestions that Italy could be pushed out of the G8 or any successor group. One possibility being floated in European capitals is that Spain, which has higher per capita national income and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place [...]

Silvio Berlusconi has come in for harsh criticism for delivering only 3% of development aid promises made four years ago, and for planning cuts of more than 50% in Italy's overseas aid budget.

This really would be a delicious come-uppance for Berlusconi, the mogul who turned to politics to "save Italy" and has only succeeded in tossing it into the toilet. He's holding the summit in L'Aquila, which basically crumbled to the ground in an earthquake three months ago, and the region is still having aftershocks. Both the images of Berlusconi showing off his country by proudly displaying rubble, and the idea of the Prime Minister pronouncing Italy's stability in an area where the ground is still moving have rich figurative possibilities.

Italy's W

250 people have now been confirmed dead in the terrible earthquake in central Italy. Tragedies like these require statesmen to help a nation heal.

What is wrong with Silvio Berlusconi?

Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is reported to have said the 17,000 people made homeless by Monday's earthquake should think of themselves as being on a "camping weekend". .

The website of the German television news channel N-TV said he had made the quip while being interviewed by one of its reporters on a visit to one of the emergency camps set up to take those who lost their homes in the disaster. But a video clip from the interview featured on the site did not contain the remark, which is bound to prompt intense controversy.

Berlusconi said they "lacked nothing. They have medicaments. They have hot food. They have shelter for the night," according to the video soundtrack.

His remarks, which seem to have been intended to reassure the public, scarcely correspond to the experiences of the homeless. Between Monday and Tuesday they had to endure a night of driving rain and hail in which the temperature fell to 4C (39F).

Curious that the remark isn't on tape, but I believe it. Berlusconi is both a rich bastard and a thief. The book The Sack of Rome details his reign better than anything else I've seen. He controls Italian media - literally owns it - and has used this control to wriggle out of countless scandals and return to power.

Bafangu. (Am I getting that right?)

On Earthquakes And Infrastructure

The earthquake in central Italy sounds terrible. And it's worth understanding the importance, in this context, of infrastructure. Similar-sized earthquakes in Iran or Pakistan killed thousands. Even in Italy, the death toll has reached 92 and will probably rise, because a lot of the areas affected are villages with less stringent building standards. Buildings that are not constructed to withstand earthquakes will simply split in two or collapse.

We have lots of earthquake-prone areas in the United States, but still plenty of buildings and bridges and pieces of infrastructure that have not been retrofit. The cost in lives, to say nothing of the fiscal cost in rebuilding, far outweighs the cost of retrofitting. And the retrofit creates construction jobs, making there no better time to engage in such a program other than right now when jobs are scarce.

Obviously we have a far better infrastructure than in the developing world. But there are compelling reasons to make it better.