Statuette used to hit Berlusconi does brisk trade

[bemildred]

Source: Reuters

MILAN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Souvenir vendors reported brisk business on Tuesday in statuettes of Milan's cathedral like the one hurled at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in an attack at the weekend.

Sales have definitely gone up," stall owner Mario said in the cathedral square where the attack took place on Sunday.

"People are definitely buying it as a souvenir of the event, it seems to be one of the most popular Christmas gifts."

A spiky replica of the gothic Duomo was used by an Italian man with a history of mental illness to strike 73-year-old Berlusconi in the face, breaking his nose, two of his teeth and gashing his lip.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BE1KR20091215?type=marketsNews

[Solly Mack]

1. The things people hold dear...

(and don't)

[SkyDaddy7]

2. I wonder if you can buy one online?

I would buy one! Its no different than the shoe thrown at Bush...The sales of those shoes went through the roof! LOL! Folks simply do not like old crusty Conservatives.

[Raster]

3. It's the NeoCON slap-down pack: the statue thrown at Mr. Italy, the shoe thrown at Shrub*...

...and the book about to be thrown at Tony Blair.

[Raster]

4. self-delete because of the Lag Monster

Anyone else noticing this on DU this morning?

[bemildred]

5. These ought to make great Christmas gifts. nt

[JackRiddler]

8. No, it's VERY different from the shoes.

The shoes could not have killed Bush, and were unlikely to harm him.

The shoe-throwing told a story. The shoe-thrower did not act from mental illness. His act gave voice to the deeply-held and fully justified convictions of his people. The shoe thrower acted during a press conference broadcast to the world. As he threw the shoes, he spoke truth with eloquence. The act was instantly comprehensible to the world.

It was in fact perfect that the shoes did not hit Bush, because rather than winning him any sympathy it created a moment of divine slapstick that reduced the man, brought laughter to the world, and gave pride to a nation.

Here is what the shoe-thrower said on his release:

The Story of My Shoe

By MUTADHAR al-ZAIDI

Mutadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi who threw his shoe at George Bush gave this speech on his recent release.

In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.

Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war.

Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act.

But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot. And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland's) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country.

We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade. Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. Until we were invaded by the illusion of liberation that some had. (The occupation) divided one brother from another, one neighbor from another, and the son from his uncle. It turned our homes into never-ending funeral tents. And our graveyards spread into parks and roadsides. It is a plague. It is the occupation that is killing us, that is violating the houses of worship and the sanctity of our homes and that is throwing thousands daily into makeshift prisons.

I am not a hero, and I admit that. But I have a point of view and I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated. And to see my Baghdad burned. And my people being killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, and this weighs on me every day and pushes me toward the righteous path, the path of confrontation, the path of rejecting injustice, deceit and duplicity. It deprived me of a good night's sleep.

READ MORE
http://www.counterpunch.org/zaidi09152009.html

[Earth_First]

11. +1

[SpiralHawk]

20. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[Solly Mack]

15. I'll look...but then I might just take a trip

I don't live all that far from Milan

[David__77]

6. Berlusconi Says 'Love Always Prevails' From His Hospital Bed

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aap9rSY4bMws

“Everyone needs to be calm and safe,” Berlusconi said in a message posted on his party’s Web site, thanking all his well- wishers. “Love always prevails over envy and hate.”

...

This statements makes my blood boil, and betrays his fascist ideology. He presumes that the political left, principally Marxism, is based upon "envy and hate"; nothing could be further from the truth. It is based on a profound love of humanity and desire to further human liberation from the likes of this fascist oligarchical scum.

The "love" heralded by the likes of him is social and political passivity - immobilization in the face of the status quo. Of course that's fine for him! He'll get what's coming to him though...

[UTUSN]

7. Here's a pic of Milan's Duomo cathedral: Whoa, that must have SMARTED!1

[UTUSN]

9. Here's a pic of the model itself:

**********QUOTE********
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/15/it-was-a-model-of-milan-s-duomo-cathedral-that-struck-silvio-berlusconi-in-the-face-115875-21898813/

It was a model of Milan's Duomo cathedral that struck Silvio Berlusconi in the face
This is a model of Milan's Duomo cathedral - like the one used to batter Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi.

The 73-year-old lost almost a pint of blood after being attacked at a rally in the city on Sunday.

He was rushed to hospital with a broken nose, broken teeth and split lips after crazed onlooker Massimo Tartaglia, 42, threw the model at him from inches away. ....

********UNQUOTE********

[bemildred]

10. Silvio Berlusconi attack blamed on 'campaign of hate'

Silvio Berlusconi's followers today pounced on the attack in which he was injured, blaming his political enemies and courtroom adversaries for inciting the violence, and announcing plans for new restrictions on demonstrations and the internet.

In a tumultuous debate, the leader of Berlusconi's parliamentary party in the chamber of deputies, Fabrizio Cicchitto, said: "The hand of he who attacked Berlusconi was primed by a pitiless campaign of hatred." He went on to name the organisations and individuals he said were behind it.

Top of the list was the group that owns the daily newspaper La Repubblica and the weekly magazine L'Espresso, which earlier this year made the running in coverage of successive sex scandals involving Italy's prime minister. Next came a new, radical daily, Il Fatto, which Cicchitto described as "the morning paper of the prosecution service". After losing his immunity from prosecution in October, Berlusconi now faces trial for bribery and fraud.

The leader of the majority in the lower house then singled out Marco Travaglio, author of a recently re-published book about Berlusconi's links with the mafia, whom he denounced as a "media terrorist". Finally, Cicchitto pointed the finger at "certain prosecutors who go on television" and two of Italy's opposition parties, including the biggest, the Democratic party, whose leader, Pierluigi Bersani, visited Berlusconi in hospital on Monday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/15/silvio-berlusconi-supporters-blame-campaign

[yorgatron]

12. it's not really a "campaign" if everyone hates you.

a campaign would mean people werre trying to convince you to hate him.

[bemildred]

14. Did you see the cute little Silvio dolls?

[Bragi]

13. So will they ban these from airplanes now?

[bemildred]

16. Battles over Berlusconi rage in cyberspace

---

Within minutes of Mr Berlusconi having been laid low by a tourist souvenir of Milan's cathedral at the end of a political rally on Sunday, the social networkers had gone into action.

First out of the blocks were the prime minister's critics: by the following morning more than 20,000 had signed up to one Facebook page giving hero status to the alleged attacker, Massimo Tartaglia. That's now risen to more than 70,000.

---

Two examples - from an enemy of the prime minister: "Death to Berlusconi"; and from one of his defenders: "I'd like to wash my feet in the blood of Communists".

This is not the first time that Italian social networkers have expressed views that would be frowned upon by mainstream media outlets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8415170.stm

[bemildred]

17. Man Arrested Trying to Enter Berlusconi’s Hospital Room

ROME — Three days after an attacker left him with a fractured nose and broken teeth, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was at the center of another bizarre episode Wednesday when police arrested a man who entered the hospital where he is being treated at around 2 a.m., ostensibly to talk to him.

Mr. Berlusconi, 73, was admitted to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Sunday after being struck in the face by a man wielding a statuette depicting the Milan cathedral. Massimo Tartaglia, a 42-year-old man with a history of psychological problems, was held after the attack.

Early Wednesday, the police said, a 26-year-old man took the elevator to the hospital’s seventh floor where the Italian leader is recuperating.

News reports described the man as apparently mentally unstable. He was not reported to be carrying weapons or dangerous objects and had merely shown an interest in talking to Mr. Berlusconi.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/world/europe/17italy.html

[bemildred]

18. Doctors order Silvio Berlusconi to remain in hospital for fourth night

Silvio Berlusconi was ordered by his doctors to remain in hospital last night for the fourth successive night, raising alarm over the long-term physical and psychological damage caused by the attack on him in Milan.

The Italian Prime Minister was initially taken to hospital for overnight observation after Massimo Tartaglia, 42, an electronics engineer with a history of mental problems, hurled a spiked marble and metal model of Milan cathedral at him at the end of a rally on the cathedral square.

Alberto Zangrillo, his doctor, said that Mr Berlusconi needed another 24 hours in hospital because of continuing pain from the wounds to his face — including a broken nose and two broken teeth — but also from the recurrence of chronic arthritis of the neck, which the attack had aggravated. Mr Berlusconi, 73, was also having difficulty eating, Dr Zangrillo said.

The delay in his discharge came as police revealed that an intruder had attempted to visit the Prime Minister in hospital. A man, 26, from Turin was arrested outside Mr Berlusconi’s seventh floor hospital room during the night, sparking a new security alert. “He was coming out of the lift when bodyguards and police immobilised him,” a police spokesman said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6959634.ece

[pinniped]

19. I want one for my desk.

The souvenirs come in different materials, with the heavier marble model costing about 10 euros and the lighter resin model 5-6 euros. It was not clear which one was used by Berlusconi's assailant, 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia.

"People keep passing by and picking it up to see how heavy it is, to see if the weight of the object could really have caused all that physical damage to Berlusconi," said Mantuzzi.

[bemildred]

21. Silvio Berlusconi leaves hospital with bandaged nose

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, left hospital today after spending a fourth night under observation after an assailant broke his nose with a model of the Milan cathedral.

With a small bandage on his nose and a large compress on his left cheek, Mr Berlusconi, 73, was seen leaving the hospital in a black sedan, waving to reporters through the rear window.

Massimo Tartaglia, 42, an electronics engineer with mental problems, threw a heavy souvenir statuette of the Duomo at Mr Berlusconi's face, leaving him with a fractured nose and two broken teeth. He later apologised to Mr Berlusconi by letter but told police the controversial populist Prime Minister was "ruining Italy".

Doctors say the normally ebullient Mr Berlusconi, is still in pain and having difficulty eating properly, and there are fears for the long-term impact of the attack on his morale.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6960175.ece