there isn't a great deal of respect for him any ways.

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Sarkozy, Merkel and the crime lords from Israel, a cabal of Ugliness all very carefully packaged and processed for MSM consumption.

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Hmm. "Amateur" and "Hated by many" better double check to make sure that wasn't George W being described....

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..is that a "briefing note" of any kind was considered necessary for the well-read and worldly wise White House press corps. They should know who Berlusconi is without any guidance.

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Do remember that the Italian republic was declared after the King (Vittorio Emmanuele III) was exiled with his very much loved Queen, Eleni,one of the many princesses from the astonishing royal family of Montenegro who made some fantastic marriages: thus, King and Queen exiled, House of Savoy, should be loved by Berlusconi's Lombard League northern-only party. Not so. The New King and Queen back about '47), Umberto and Marie-Josée from Belgium were kept interned during the "campaign", and even so the republic won by only 51 vs. 49%; no one believed it anyhow, remember the "red north", meaning Bologna, Modena, etc. That plebiscite was right afer the war, but until Berlusconi I never heard about the north being anything but red.

Truth is, Italy was and is two counries. Before Garibaldi,the section of Naples down to the bottom of Sicily was the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Berlusconi wanted to break up the country in favour of his Lombard League robber barons. Bourbons were of the Spanish school, and now, good thing, the south is fighting back. Connected to this is, the King of Spain is Juan Carlos I de Borbón y Borbón, Bourbon father and Bourbon mother, she being a princess of Bourbon Two Sicilies, and now there is a group,-- look for "Due Sicilie" in google. I surely wish them well, I may love north Italian food, prosciutto, easter gorgonzola, most of it, but a lot is to be said for bread of Calabria and more.

Now Bersulsconi gets the axe from Bush: these are divine twins in Roman theology, really meant for each other. Back to Napoleon up to Garibaldi (think of "Tosca"), The Neaplolitan/Palermitan Kings of The Two Sicilies were maybe the worst in Europe, reactionaries and repressive. Like Bush now. But fact remains, the South was and is still monarchist, and the north is supposedly republican. The incomparable delights of Milan and Bologna (art and cuisine both) are their wonders; their politicians did not start out, as did the Mafia and other protection groups, to render some kind of help to poverty-stricken country and townsmen both. The ageing parents of a dear friend of mine are both about 4'6-8" tall, and that is witness to childhood malnutrition.

Some of us hide when we are supposed to hear Verdi's "Otello", but there is from Catania in Sicily, marked now with an incomparably beautiful and quite miniature half-xize opera-house named for the very great Vinceno Bellini, who gave us "Norma" ('Casta Diva," for one) and "I Puritani." Who has not heard Dame Janet Baker in Bellini's "I Capuleti e I Montecchi" (Romeo &Juliet)? Even the Big Wigs in Rome did not goof this one, having on the last series of Lire banknotes Vincenzo Bellini on front and his Norma on back, that was the L.5000 note I think, so now they have sterile non-subjects in the Euro notes. An arch, a bridge, a washout. Sometimes I think some countries should divide like the amoeba, -- I am looking forward to it. But we need to remember: even some of the greatest can fall under the boot-heel of the most evil men.

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The worst, most hated, most ridiculous, ignorant, warmongering, murderous and crooked "president" in US history is calling someone else hated and an amateur? WOW

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He was "one of the most controversial leaders" of a country "known for governmental corruption and vice".

Mr Bush visited his old ally, calling him a "good friend". Gee,this sounds so familiar.

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