Tutto e' cominciato quella mattina che ho deciso di prenotare un biglietto per Olbia, Sardegna, sulla motonave Nuraghes della Tirrenia Navigazione. La voce femminile del call center, dopo avere effettuato il pagamento, mi ha assicurato che mi sarebbe arrivata conferma via Internet che avrei potuto stampare. Ma la conferma non arriva dopo due ore tanto che richiamo il call center della Tirrenia. Mi dicono che non possono farci nulla perche' il sistema e' andato in tilt a causa del grande traffico di richieste. Meglio scrivere un messaggio specificando il numero del biglietto (che per fortuna mi e' stato dato) e richiedendo ancora l'invio della copia del documento.
Passano le ore ma non ricevo alcunche'.
La mattina dopo alle otto mi presento alla biglietteria Tirrenia di Civitavecchia. Una addetta mi dice che le risulta sul suo monitor che il mio biglietto e' stato stampato. Non e' vero: lei crede ciecamente nel suo computer, io nel mio. Comunque mi fornisce copia del biglietto e mi imbarco trascinandomi un po' di valigie.
Durante la traversata tocco il portatelefono americano che porto sempre alla cintura. E' vuoto, il telefono e' sparito.
Mia moglie cerca di attenuare l'esplosione di autocommiserazione.
"Guarda che sono cose che succedono anche ai ragazzi. Magari prova a fare mente locale e a pensare dove puoi averlo perso."
Ma i tentativi sono inutili, salvo il fatto che mi sembra di avere verificato alla biglietteria Tirrenia che i telefoni cellulari erano al loro posto, quello italiano in un contenitore attaccato al collo e quello americano, appunto, alla cintura.
Chiamo l'amico che mi ha accompagnato a Civitavecchia per sapere, tante le volte, se ha visto il cellulare caduto da qualche parte nella macchina. Mi conferma di non avere visto nulla.
Sono seduto durante le cinque ore di viaggio verso Olbia nella prima classe sulle poltrone sleepers.
Un signore che occupa la poltrona davanti alla mia si sporge e mi dice: "Guardi, ho sentito dei suoi problemi. Poco fa hanno annunciato che e' stato trovato un cellulare." Non ho sentito l'annuncio perche' avevo la cuffia.
Ringrazio e mi reco da basso al banco della reception. Il Commissario di Bordo mi dice che loro non hanno trovato il cellulare, ma che hanno ricevuto notizia del ritrovamento dalla Tirrenia di Civitavecchia.
"Che devo fare?" chiedo confuso e spaesato come si conviene ad un vecchio un po'rinco.
Interviene una signora. "Mi dica il tipo di telefono ed il suo nome". Chiede con tono deciso.
" Si tratta di un Blackberry Pearl. Posso sapere con chi ho il piacere di...?"
"Sono l'ispettore." Taglia corto la signora, con un sorriso.
Si chiama Rosa Cappiello e mi assicura che al rientro a Civitavecchia dopo qualche ora,prendera' il telefono e lo affidera' a chi arrivera' con la stessa nave il giorno dopo a Civitavecchia alle sei del mattino.
Alle una di notte l'ispettore Rosa Cappiello mi chiama sul cellulare italiano e conferma che tra qualche ora il telefono sara' a Olbia.
Alle sette e trenta altra telefonata di un tale che mi informa, per conto dell'ispettore Cappiello, che il telefono e' ora presso la biglietteria Tirrenia della Stazione marittima di Olbia.
Da Baia Sardinia, dove alloggio, a Olbia ci vogliono quaranta minuti di guida. Arrivo alla Stazion Marittima grazie alla cortesia dell'amico Giancarlo Oderda che mi assiste.
Il funzionario della biglietteria Tirrenia e' momentaneamente impegnato con un cliente super arrabbiato che imputa alla compagnia i disastri del suo viaggio da non so dove.
Forse non e' il momento adatto.
Il funzionario mi guarda. "Sono venuto per quel telefono smarrito."
Lo scontro con il cliente inviperito e' terminato.
Mi fa cenno di andare allo sportello successivo.
Chiama un collega che appare con un pacchetto con il mio cellulare che contiene 5mila indirizzi ed una infinita' di altri dati personali.
"Ecco qua, signor Bartoli. Tutto a posto."
In un empito di gioia dico ai due funzionari: "Grazie! Mi avete fatto riconciliare con la realta' italiana."
Complimenti alla Tirrenia, all'Ispettore Rosa Cappiello e ai suoi collaboratori.
Le terribili balle della propaganda repubblicana
"Staccare la spina alla nonna", "Eutanasia", "Quelli della morte". Sono queste alcune tra le tante definizioni che i parlamentari repubblicani, i conduttori radio e televisione conservatori e di estrema destra, gli agitatori professionali che si infilano nelle riunioni dei consigli comunali, lanciano contro il progetto di legge del Presidente Obama che prevede la ristrutturazione del sistema sanitario americano nel quale oltre 47 milioni di cittadini non hanno diritto ad alcuna copertura sanitaria.
I repubblicani hanno buon gioco sulla fascia degli anziani che anche nell'ultima elezione presidenziale hanno votato in massa per il vecchio candidato McCain. E le dstre, finanziate dalle industrie farmaceutiche, dalle assicuzioni sanitarie e da quei medici che ricevono consistenti elargizioni per utilizzare come cavie i propri pazienti, hanno buon gioco nell'accusare di ogni nequizia la legge volta dal presidente Obama, Il gioco e' facile ad attuarsi perche' la memoria del cittadino medio e' corta e quella del vecchio ancora di piu'.
Nessuno ricorda che durante gli otto anni della presidenza di George W.Bush sono state passate leggi che favorivano le industrie esentandole dall'applicare ai propri impianti misure di abbattimento dei veleni lanciati nell'atmosfera o insinuati nei terreni. Ogni anno decine di migliaia di persone anziane muoiono in America per le conseguenze dell'inquinamento atmosferico. Ma vallo a spiegare a chi non vuol sentire. Meglio accusare il Presidente abbronzato di essere un novello killer, una sorta di Dottor Morte su scala di massa. E dire che il numero degli anziani ricchi che vogliono mettere fine ai tormenti della propria esistenza si va facendo sempre piu' consistente gonfiando i bilanci di quelle cliniche all'estero che praticano da tempo l'eutanasia a caro prezzo.
I repubblicani hanno buon gioco sulla fascia degli anziani che anche nell'ultima elezione presidenziale hanno votato in massa per il vecchio candidato McCain. E le dstre, finanziate dalle industrie farmaceutiche, dalle assicuzioni sanitarie e da quei medici che ricevono consistenti elargizioni per utilizzare come cavie i propri pazienti, hanno buon gioco nell'accusare di ogni nequizia la legge volta dal presidente Obama, Il gioco e' facile ad attuarsi perche' la memoria del cittadino medio e' corta e quella del vecchio ancora di piu'.
Nessuno ricorda che durante gli otto anni della presidenza di George W.Bush sono state passate leggi che favorivano le industrie esentandole dall'applicare ai propri impianti misure di abbattimento dei veleni lanciati nell'atmosfera o insinuati nei terreni. Ogni anno decine di migliaia di persone anziane muoiono in America per le conseguenze dell'inquinamento atmosferico. Ma vallo a spiegare a chi non vuol sentire. Meglio accusare il Presidente abbronzato di essere un novello killer, una sorta di Dottor Morte su scala di massa. E dire che il numero degli anziani ricchi che vogliono mettere fine ai tormenti della propria esistenza si va facendo sempre piu' consistente gonfiando i bilanci di quelle cliniche all'estero che praticano da tempo l'eutanasia a caro prezzo.
Eulogy for Edward Kennedy by President Obama
Boston, MA
Mrs. Kennedy, Kara, Edward, Patrick, Curran, Caroline, members of the Kennedy family, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate - a man whose name graces nearly one thousand laws, and who penned more than three hundred himself.
But those of us who loved him, and ache with his passing, know Ted Kennedy by the other titles he held: Father. Brother. Husband. Uncle Teddy, or as he was often known to his younger nieces and nephews, "The Grand Fromage," or "The Big Cheese." I, like so many others in the city where he worked for nearly half a century, knew him as a colleague, a mentor, and above all, a friend.
Ted Kennedy was the baby of the family who became its patriarch; the restless dreamer who became its rock. He was the sunny, joyful child, who bore the brunt of his brothers' teasing, but learned quickly how to brush it off. When they tossed him off a boat because he didn't know what a jib was, six-year-old Teddy got back in and learned to sail. When a photographer asked the newly-elected Bobby to step back at a press conference because he was casting a shadow on his younger brother, Teddy quipped, "It'll be the same in Washington."
This spirit of resilience and good humor would see Ted Kennedy through more pain and tragedy than most of us will ever know. He lost two siblings by the age of sixteen. He saw two more taken violently from the country that loved them. He said goodbye to his beloved sister, Eunice, in the final days of his own life. He narrowly survived a plane crash, watched two children struggle with cancer, buried three nephews, and experienced personal failings and setbacks in the most public way possible.
Story continues below
It is a string of events that would have broken a lesser man. And it would have been easy for Teddy to let himself become bitter and hardened; to surrender to self-pity and regret; to retreat from public life and live out his years in peaceful quiet. No one would have blamed him for that.
But that was not Ted Kennedy. As he told us, "...[I]ndividual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves." Indeed, Ted was the "Happy Warrior" that the poet William Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others - the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed -- the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children's health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act -all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy's life's work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.
We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights. And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did. While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect - a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.
And that's how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, but also by seeking compromise and common cause - not through deal-making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor. There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch's support for the Children's Health Insurance Program by having his Chief of Staff serenade the Senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; and the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas Committee Chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the Chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the Chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.
It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support on a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave him my pledge, but expressed my skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how he had pulled it off. He just patted me on the back, and said "Luck of the Irish!"
Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy's legislative success, and he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, "What did Webster do?"
But though it is Ted Kennedy's historic body of achievements we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss. It was the friend and colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, "I'm sorry for your loss," or "I hope you feel better," or "What can I do to help?" It was the boss who was so adored by his staff that over five hundred spanning five decades showed up for his 75th birthday party. It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. Senator would take the time to think about someone like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study - a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office the first week he arrived in Washington; by the way, that's my second favorite gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories - the ones that often start with "You wouldn't believe who called me today."
Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John's and Bobby's as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him. Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, "On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to be spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love."
Not only did the Kennedy family make it because of Ted's love - he made it because of theirs; and especially because of the love and the life he found in Vicki. After so much loss and so much sorrow, it could not have been easy for Ted Kennedy to risk his heart again. That he did is a testament to how deeply he loved this remarkable woman from Louisiana. And she didn't just love him back. As Ted would often acknowledge, Vicki saved him. She gave him strength and purpose; joy and friendship; and stood by him always, especially in those last, hardest days.
We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God's plan for us.
What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings.
This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy. He once said of his brother Bobby that he need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, and I imagine he would say the same about himself. The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy's shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became. We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy - not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country he loved.
In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn't stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:
"As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us."
We carry on.
Ted Kennedy has gone home now, guided by his faith and by the light of those he has loved and lost. At last he is with them once more, leaving those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good he did, the dream he kept alive, and a single, enduring image - the image of a man on a boat; white mane tousled; smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for what storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May God Bless Ted Kennedy, and may he rest in eternal peace.
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Mrs. Kennedy, Kara, Edward, Patrick, Curran, Caroline, members of the Kennedy family, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate - a man whose name graces nearly one thousand laws, and who penned more than three hundred himself.
But those of us who loved him, and ache with his passing, know Ted Kennedy by the other titles he held: Father. Brother. Husband. Uncle Teddy, or as he was often known to his younger nieces and nephews, "The Grand Fromage," or "The Big Cheese." I, like so many others in the city where he worked for nearly half a century, knew him as a colleague, a mentor, and above all, a friend.
Ted Kennedy was the baby of the family who became its patriarch; the restless dreamer who became its rock. He was the sunny, joyful child, who bore the brunt of his brothers' teasing, but learned quickly how to brush it off. When they tossed him off a boat because he didn't know what a jib was, six-year-old Teddy got back in and learned to sail. When a photographer asked the newly-elected Bobby to step back at a press conference because he was casting a shadow on his younger brother, Teddy quipped, "It'll be the same in Washington."
This spirit of resilience and good humor would see Ted Kennedy through more pain and tragedy than most of us will ever know. He lost two siblings by the age of sixteen. He saw two more taken violently from the country that loved them. He said goodbye to his beloved sister, Eunice, in the final days of his own life. He narrowly survived a plane crash, watched two children struggle with cancer, buried three nephews, and experienced personal failings and setbacks in the most public way possible.
Story continues below
It is a string of events that would have broken a lesser man. And it would have been easy for Teddy to let himself become bitter and hardened; to surrender to self-pity and regret; to retreat from public life and live out his years in peaceful quiet. No one would have blamed him for that.
But that was not Ted Kennedy. As he told us, "...[I]ndividual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves." Indeed, Ted was the "Happy Warrior" that the poet William Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others - the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed -- the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children's health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act -all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy's life's work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.
We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights. And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did. While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect - a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.
And that's how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, but also by seeking compromise and common cause - not through deal-making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor. There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch's support for the Children's Health Insurance Program by having his Chief of Staff serenade the Senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; and the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas Committee Chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the Chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the Chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.
It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support on a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave him my pledge, but expressed my skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how he had pulled it off. He just patted me on the back, and said "Luck of the Irish!"
Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy's legislative success, and he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, "What did Webster do?"
But though it is Ted Kennedy's historic body of achievements we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss. It was the friend and colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, "I'm sorry for your loss," or "I hope you feel better," or "What can I do to help?" It was the boss who was so adored by his staff that over five hundred spanning five decades showed up for his 75th birthday party. It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. Senator would take the time to think about someone like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study - a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office the first week he arrived in Washington; by the way, that's my second favorite gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories - the ones that often start with "You wouldn't believe who called me today."
Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John's and Bobby's as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him. Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, "On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to be spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love."
Not only did the Kennedy family make it because of Ted's love - he made it because of theirs; and especially because of the love and the life he found in Vicki. After so much loss and so much sorrow, it could not have been easy for Ted Kennedy to risk his heart again. That he did is a testament to how deeply he loved this remarkable woman from Louisiana. And she didn't just love him back. As Ted would often acknowledge, Vicki saved him. She gave him strength and purpose; joy and friendship; and stood by him always, especially in those last, hardest days.
We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God's plan for us.
What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings.
This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy. He once said of his brother Bobby that he need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, and I imagine he would say the same about himself. The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy's shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became. We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy - not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country he loved.
In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn't stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:
"As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us."
We carry on.
Ted Kennedy has gone home now, guided by his faith and by the light of those he has loved and lost. At last he is with them once more, leaving those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good he did, the dream he kept alive, and a single, enduring image - the image of a man on a boat; white mane tousled; smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for what storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May God Bless Ted Kennedy, and may he rest in eternal peace.
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
After Kennedy's Death: Silence from the Pope
Da Time On Line
By Jeff Israely
There was a poignant footnote to President Obama's historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the Pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody — not even the President — knew the contents of the sealed missive. Obama asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.
The letter, most likely already resealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy's death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communiqué in response to Kennedy's death. The niceties of international diplomacy do not require the Pope to issue a statement on the death of a non-head of state. Earlier in August, when the Senator's sister Eunice was dying the Papal Nuncio to the U.S. delivered a letter to her family saying the Pope was praying for her, her children and her husband.
One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan's rapport with the Catholic Church: "Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium." (Magisterium is the formal term for the authority of Church teaching.) (See a Kennedy family photo album.)
During Benedict's 2008 trip to the U.S., there was some heated debate — with conflicting photographs and eyewitness accounts — about whether Kennedy took Holy Communion at the papal Mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington, with conservatives insisting that the Pope says the rite should be denied to prochoice politicians. With this in mind, Church observers are keen to see if Boston's Archbishop Cardinal Sean O'Malley will preside over Kennedy's funeral. Some conservatives already see the fact that the rites are not being held in a cathedral (but rather at the Senator's favorite church) as significant.
For four decades Ted Kennedy remained the nation's most prominent Roman Catholic politician, as well as brother of America's first and only Catholic President. Ted Kennedy received his first Communion directly from Pope Pius XII, and his marriage in 1958 was performed by Cardinal Francis Spellman, the influential Archbishop of New York. His mother Rose once reportedly said that she'd dreamed that her youngest son would become a priest rather than a politician, destined to ultimately rise to bishop status. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.)
Edward Kennedy, it can be said, was not cut out for the priestly life. His first marriage, to former model Virginia Joan Bennett, ended in divorce in 1982, with the marriage annulled by the Roman Rota more than a decade later. And there are the infamous episodes in his life that showed a man not quite in control of his demons. But ultimately, beyond his personal travails, Kennedy's relationship with the Church hierarchy was destined for conflict because of politics. The Senator became both the face and the engine of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that has long led the battle for abortion rights, stem-cell research and gay marriage, all of which Catholic doctrine strictly forbids.
"He is a complicated figure," says the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and the culture editor of the Catholic magazine America. "Catholics on the right are critical because of his stance on abortion. Catholics on the left celebrate his achievements on immigration, fighting poverty and other legislation that is a virtual mirror of the Church's social teaching." (See pictures of the Lion of the Senate.)
Back at headquarters, however, there is little room for nuance. "Here in Rome, Ted Kennedy is nobody. He's a legend with his own constituency," says the Vatican official. "If he had influence in the past, it was only with the Archdiocese of Boston, and that eventually disappeared too." Some say the final sunset on the Kennedy name within Catholic halls of power was the Vatican's decision in 2007 to overturn the annulment of the first marriage of former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, the eldest son of Robert Kennedy. The successful appeal by Joe Kennedy's ex-wife Sheila Rauch, an Episcopalian, was another blow to the Kennedy image in Catholic circles.
In what may mark the final flicker of Kennedy influence in American Catholicism, reports circulated last spring that Obama was considering JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy as the possible next U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. That was not to be. Indeed, in the wake of Uncle Ted's death came word Thursday that Obama's final choice had arrived in Rome to take up the diplomatic post at the Holy See. He is Miguel Diaz, a little-known Cuban-born professor of theology firmly on the record as prolife.
By Jeff Israely
There was a poignant footnote to President Obama's historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the Pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody — not even the President — knew the contents of the sealed missive. Obama asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.
The letter, most likely already resealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy's death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communiqué in response to Kennedy's death. The niceties of international diplomacy do not require the Pope to issue a statement on the death of a non-head of state. Earlier in August, when the Senator's sister Eunice was dying the Papal Nuncio to the U.S. delivered a letter to her family saying the Pope was praying for her, her children and her husband.
One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan's rapport with the Catholic Church: "Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium." (Magisterium is the formal term for the authority of Church teaching.) (See a Kennedy family photo album.)
During Benedict's 2008 trip to the U.S., there was some heated debate — with conflicting photographs and eyewitness accounts — about whether Kennedy took Holy Communion at the papal Mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington, with conservatives insisting that the Pope says the rite should be denied to prochoice politicians. With this in mind, Church observers are keen to see if Boston's Archbishop Cardinal Sean O'Malley will preside over Kennedy's funeral. Some conservatives already see the fact that the rites are not being held in a cathedral (but rather at the Senator's favorite church) as significant.
For four decades Ted Kennedy remained the nation's most prominent Roman Catholic politician, as well as brother of America's first and only Catholic President. Ted Kennedy received his first Communion directly from Pope Pius XII, and his marriage in 1958 was performed by Cardinal Francis Spellman, the influential Archbishop of New York. His mother Rose once reportedly said that she'd dreamed that her youngest son would become a priest rather than a politician, destined to ultimately rise to bishop status. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.)
Edward Kennedy, it can be said, was not cut out for the priestly life. His first marriage, to former model Virginia Joan Bennett, ended in divorce in 1982, with the marriage annulled by the Roman Rota more than a decade later. And there are the infamous episodes in his life that showed a man not quite in control of his demons. But ultimately, beyond his personal travails, Kennedy's relationship with the Church hierarchy was destined for conflict because of politics. The Senator became both the face and the engine of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that has long led the battle for abortion rights, stem-cell research and gay marriage, all of which Catholic doctrine strictly forbids.
"He is a complicated figure," says the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and the culture editor of the Catholic magazine America. "Catholics on the right are critical because of his stance on abortion. Catholics on the left celebrate his achievements on immigration, fighting poverty and other legislation that is a virtual mirror of the Church's social teaching." (See pictures of the Lion of the Senate.)
Back at headquarters, however, there is little room for nuance. "Here in Rome, Ted Kennedy is nobody. He's a legend with his own constituency," says the Vatican official. "If he had influence in the past, it was only with the Archdiocese of Boston, and that eventually disappeared too." Some say the final sunset on the Kennedy name within Catholic halls of power was the Vatican's decision in 2007 to overturn the annulment of the first marriage of former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, the eldest son of Robert Kennedy. The successful appeal by Joe Kennedy's ex-wife Sheila Rauch, an Episcopalian, was another blow to the Kennedy image in Catholic circles.
In what may mark the final flicker of Kennedy influence in American Catholicism, reports circulated last spring that Obama was considering JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy as the possible next U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. That was not to be. Indeed, in the wake of Uncle Ted's death came word Thursday that Obama's final choice had arrived in Rome to take up the diplomatic post at the Holy See. He is Miguel Diaz, a little-known Cuban-born professor of theology firmly on the record as prolife.
Berlusconi sues local, foreign media for libel
Berlusconi-Church relations sour over newspaper report
By Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is launching legal actions against media in Italy and abroad, including Britain, France and Spain, for libel in their coverage of his private life, his lawyer said on Friday.
His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told Reuters that he and his colleagues abroad had already filed lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain and had instructed lawyers in Britain to study possible cases of libel there.
"We have instructed our colleagues to evaluate, according to the laws in their countries, the most serious cases of real, true defamation," Ghedini said in a telephone interview.
He said lawyers acting for Berlusconi had sued the French weekly Nouvel Observateur for a story headlined "Sex, Power and Lies" and Spain's El Pais for publishing photos of guests at the billionaire premier's Sardinian villa cavorting naked.
In Italy they have sued La Repubblica, a tireless critic of the conservative leader, for repeating the Nouvel Observateur story and for defaming Berlusconi by repeating daily its "10 Questions" about his private life and political aspirations.
Ghedini declined to list which other publications could face lawsuits, especially in Britain where papers have taken a special interest in the scandals over Berlusconi's relationship with a teenage girl, prostitutes and divorce from his second wife.
Berlusconi, owner of Italy's largest private broadcaster Mediaset, has accused his television competitor Rupert Murdoch of mounting a personal attack on him via the London newspaper The Times, owned by Murdoch's News Corp.
Ghedini said British papers "have indeed been aggressive, but I have not looked at this article by article, I have left that to my colleagues. I have enough to do here in Italy."
"INTOLERABLE"
The lawyer said the 72-year-old Italian leader, who has been elected prime minister three times and still enjoys high ratings in polls despite a deep recession and all the scandals, "expects to come in for harsh criticism like any other politician."
But he said La Repubblica had an "intolerable" campaign against the premier "which brings Italy into discredit, because all foreign papers repeat these offenses as if they were true."
"If you say to someone 'You are sick and have a sexual addiction' and ask how they intend to get cured, you are taking it for granted that this person is ill," said the lawyer, giving an example of one of the allegations made against Berlusconi.
His estranged wife, Veronica Lario, said earlier this year that she wanted a divorce because of, among other things, his relationships with young women.
Berlusconi denies anything "spicy" in his relationship with Naples teenager Noemi Letizia which angered his wife and says he did not know that an escort who slept at his Rome apartment, and secretly recorded conversations with him, was a prostitute.
These episodes have earned him reprimands from the powerful Roman Catholic church and hopes of a rapprochement were dashed when his presence at a ceremony for repentance was called off on Friday, as was a dinner with Pope Benedict's deputy.
Berlusconi's family newspaper Il Giornale fueled the spat by digging up a sex scandal involving the editor of a Catholic paper which has criticized Berlusconi for his lifestyle.
The head of Italy's main opposition Democratic Party, Dario Franceschini, called Berlusconi's attacks on his critics in the media "a sign of fear and weakness."
(Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Ted Kennedy
President Obama praised Ted Kennedy as "one of the greatest senators of our time" and a "singular figure in American history" in his first live statement to reporters this morning since the passing of the Massachusetts senator.
Castro difende Obama!
"Il presidente Obama sta cercando di fare dei cambiamenti positivi negli Stati Uniti ma e' combattuto ad ogni mossa dagli estremisti di destra che lo odiano perche' e' nero."
Questo apprezzamento della azione politica del Presidente Obama e' stato scritto da Fidel Castro (si',non trasecolate: proprio lui!) in uno dei suoi commenti settimanali pubblicati dai giornali controllati dal governo.
Fidel Castro continua dicendo che Obama ha ereditato molti problemi dal suo predecessore Bush e sta cercando di risolverli. "Ma- aggiunge-la potente estrema destra non accetta di vedere diminuita la sua forza."
"Non ho il minimo dubbio, conclude il dittatore cubano, che i razzisti di destra faranno il possibile per buttarlo giu', bloccare il suo programma per farlo fuori in un modo o nell'altro col minimo costo politico."
Il commento positivo di Fidel Castro si inquadra in un clima di attesa per gli sviluppi degli incontri tra la dirigenza cubana,guidata da Raoul il fratello di Fidel, e il governatore del New Mexico, Bill Richardson, che dovrebbero portare ad una attenuazione dell'embargo nei confronti di Cuba.
Questo apprezzamento della azione politica del Presidente Obama e' stato scritto da Fidel Castro (si',non trasecolate: proprio lui!) in uno dei suoi commenti settimanali pubblicati dai giornali controllati dal governo.
Fidel Castro continua dicendo che Obama ha ereditato molti problemi dal suo predecessore Bush e sta cercando di risolverli. "Ma- aggiunge-la potente estrema destra non accetta di vedere diminuita la sua forza."
"Non ho il minimo dubbio, conclude il dittatore cubano, che i razzisti di destra faranno il possibile per buttarlo giu', bloccare il suo programma per farlo fuori in un modo o nell'altro col minimo costo politico."
Il commento positivo di Fidel Castro si inquadra in un clima di attesa per gli sviluppi degli incontri tra la dirigenza cubana,guidata da Raoul il fratello di Fidel, e il governatore del New Mexico, Bill Richardson, che dovrebbero portare ad una attenuazione dell'embargo nei confronti di Cuba.
Un po' meno trionfalismo in economia. La crisi non e' finita.
Stando agli ultimi dati pubblicati dalla amministrazione Obama il trionfalismo sul superamento della fase recessiva deve essere ridimensionato in un molto cauto ottimismo.
Gli Stati Uniti, in una proiezione di dieci anni, dovranno afforntare ulteriori sfide per l'aumento del costo della sanita'dovuto in gran parte all'invecchiamento della popolazione. Secondo il CBO, il comitato che sovrintende alla formazione del budget federale,si rendera' necessaria una politica di interventi per ridurre la spesa ed alzare le tasse.
La disoccupazione salira' al 10% prima di accennare a diminuire nei prossimi anni. La crescita della ricchezza nazionale accennera' ad invertire positivamente la tendenza solo alla fine dell'anno, ma il recupero sara' lungo dopo la peggiore crisi dopo quella del 1930.
Dice Christina Romer, assistente per l'economia del Presidente Obama: "Questa recessione e' stata peggiore delle informazioni che siamo stati in grado di avere lo scorso autunno e inverno." E in quei mesi era ancora al potere George W. Bush.
Ed a farne le spese ancora per molti mesi saranno i lavoratori americani che continuano ad essere espulsi dal sistema operativo.
Gli Stati Uniti, in una proiezione di dieci anni, dovranno afforntare ulteriori sfide per l'aumento del costo della sanita'dovuto in gran parte all'invecchiamento della popolazione. Secondo il CBO, il comitato che sovrintende alla formazione del budget federale,si rendera' necessaria una politica di interventi per ridurre la spesa ed alzare le tasse.
La disoccupazione salira' al 10% prima di accennare a diminuire nei prossimi anni. La crescita della ricchezza nazionale accennera' ad invertire positivamente la tendenza solo alla fine dell'anno, ma il recupero sara' lungo dopo la peggiore crisi dopo quella del 1930.
Dice Christina Romer, assistente per l'economia del Presidente Obama: "Questa recessione e' stata peggiore delle informazioni che siamo stati in grado di avere lo scorso autunno e inverno." E in quei mesi era ancora al potere George W. Bush.
Ed a farne le spese ancora per molti mesi saranno i lavoratori americani che continuano ad essere espulsi dal sistema operativo.
Diario di un'estate in Italia: Poggio Aquilone
Poggio Aquilone, borgo medievale, in cima ad un monte, strada impervia, 30 abitanti, quando ci stanno. Siamo in Umbria, comune di Marsciano una cittadina che ha trovato una sua vocazione industriale. Guido e Manola Colomba ci hanno invitati nella loro casa, quattro camere da letto e quattro bagni, ricavati da un rudere in cui hanno riversato un sacco di passione e di soldi.
Sono molti quegli italiani che ritrovano una loro dimensione di vita, lontana dal frastuono delle grandi citta' e riscoprono il fascino di questi borghi medievali in cui il tempo sembra avere una cadenza piu' lenta del normale e tornano ad avere importanza abitudini dimenticate. Come quella di avere un orto, il gusto della bistecca di chianina che si trova solo da quel macellaio giu' in paese o il sapore delle salsicce arrostite sulla brace con quel profumo spettacoloso incrementato da qualche bicchiere di prezioso Sagrantino.
E Manola ci onvince a guidare alla volta di Montefalco dove arriviamo nel pieno di un rally di auto d'epoca che si ammassano nella piazza ellittica di questo straordinario centro.
Visita obbligata al Museo di San Francesco, basilica sconsacrata (perche'?) con i mirabili affreschi di Benozzo Gozzoli appena usciti da un accurato restauro. Decine di turisti stranieri, pochi gli italiani che si distinguono per il tono di voce squillante.
La vista dalla Ringhiera fa capire come, sia Benozzo che il Perugino, si ispirassero nelle loro composizioni alla visione di un panorama mozzafiato.
Lasciato Montefalco e' la volta di una visita al famoso Borgo dove si trova il Relais 'Il Canalicchio'.Perfettamente restaurato, quattro stelle, ambienti pieni di stile e clienti che vengono da tutto il mondo e lasciano sul libro delle firme composizioni elegiache trasognate.
I Colomba insistono perche' vogliono che gustiamo i manicaretti di un noto ristorante di Marsciano di cui omettiamo il nome per carita' di patria.
Siamo tutti oppressi da laute mangiate e Guido ordina un piatto di 'umbricelli', una pasta locale e, a seguire, un misto di affettati che gli viene servito subito.
Guido attende la sua pasta che non arriva e chiede ragione al cameriere che si stringe nelle spalle. Interviene il padrone del locale che, con fare burbero, spiega al Presidente Colomba che prima vengono gli antipasti, poi ci sono i primi seguiti dai asecondi. Ecco perche' a Guido e' stato servito per primo l'antipasto e fino a che non lo finisce non gli serviranno la pasta.
Ad appesantire la situazione ci pensa il sottoscritto che chiede ad una brunetta, slanciata che serve al nostro tavolo se sugli 'umbricelli' si deve mettere o no il parmigiano.
"Se le va lo metta!" risponde la tipa che deve avere frequentato dei corsi serali di 'customer satisfaction'.
"Se mi va faccio quello che mi pare con gli umbricelli.", rispondo forse in maniera un po' brusca. "Volevo sapere solo se il gusto del formaggio e' consentito sull'elaborato sugo a base di funghi ed altre prelibatezze." La brunetta fa spallucce e non si fara' piu' vedere, mentre il suo posto viene preso da una bionda e avvenente collega, sempre sorridente. Prima del conto le chiedo di quale nazionalita' sia. "Sono russa", dice e continua a sorridere, vivaddio.
Dieci giorni di vacanza per il Presidente
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
President Barack Obama left the White House on Friday for a 10-day vacation, taking with him the beloved family dog and leaving behind an acrimonious debate about a proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Obama left the White House's South Lawn by Marine helicopter early in the afternoon for the presidential retreat at Maryland's Camp David. He and his family then head on Sunday morning to Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard, where they will stay at a private 28-acre estate that rents for $35,000 a week. They are expected to keep mostly to themselves.
"I think he's going to spend a decent part of his time relaxing with his family," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "There are no official events scheduled in the week ahead. I anticipate that he'll play golf a number of times."
But will be play golf with Tiger Woods, as rumored?
"I have no idea if he's going to golf with Tiger Woods," Gibbs demurred in the briefing room; the president simply flashed a grin and said as he strode across the South Lawn that he planned to play a lot of golf.
It's just one piece of the frenzy over the first family's first vacation in office. Will he visit ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.? (No plans yet, aides say.) Will he attend the rumored wedding of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on the Vineyard? (No comment from the White House; denials of a wedding from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.) Will Michelle Obama again wear shorts that caught the eye of the fashion world? (No comment on her wardrobe from the first lady's East Wing.)
President Barack Obama left the White House on Friday for a 10-day vacation, taking with him the beloved family dog and leaving behind an acrimonious debate about a proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Obama left the White House's South Lawn by Marine helicopter early in the afternoon for the presidential retreat at Maryland's Camp David. He and his family then head on Sunday morning to Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard, where they will stay at a private 28-acre estate that rents for $35,000 a week. They are expected to keep mostly to themselves.
"I think he's going to spend a decent part of his time relaxing with his family," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "There are no official events scheduled in the week ahead. I anticipate that he'll play golf a number of times."
But will be play golf with Tiger Woods, as rumored?
"I have no idea if he's going to golf with Tiger Woods," Gibbs demurred in the briefing room; the president simply flashed a grin and said as he strode across the South Lawn that he planned to play a lot of golf.
It's just one piece of the frenzy over the first family's first vacation in office. Will he visit ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.? (No plans yet, aides say.) Will he attend the rumored wedding of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on the Vineyard? (No comment from the White House; denials of a wedding from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.) Will Michelle Obama again wear shorts that caught the eye of the fashion world? (No comment on her wardrobe from the first lady's East Wing.)
Agosto, Obama mio non ti conosco...!
Calunniate, calunniate, qualcosa restera'. E' quanto sta accadendo in questo mese d'agosto negli Stati Uniti. Andate a dire a delle persone anziane che con la rivoluzione della assicurazione sanitaria voluta dal presidente Obama non avranno piu' alcuna assistenza e saranno destinati a morte precoce. Al punto che la ex candidata alla vicepresidenza repubblicana, Sarah Palin, ha definito il progetto dell'amministrazione Obama come 'eutanasia'. O provate a dire a chi ha un lavoro ed una assicurazione medica pagata dall'azienda che presto sara' costretto a rivolgersi alle strutture pubbliche perche' biosgna garantire una coertura sanitaria ai 47 milioni di americani che non ce l'hanno o l'hanno perduta perche' hanno perso il lavoro. A chi ha la pancia piena non gliene importa nulla di chi sta male. E quando vai ad intervistare questa gente le critiche fioccano sul presidente nero. E poi i dati delle ricerche sociologiche si tirano da una parte all'altra come la pelle di Zigrino. La ricerca promossa da ABC e dal Wall Street Journal ha messo in evidenza che il 77% degli americani e' convinto che la rivoluzione sanitaria di Obama sia necessaria. Ma i repubblicani sono saltati su quel risicato 43% di coloro che sono favorevoli alla creazione di un sistema pubblico da mettere in concorrenza con quello privato ed hanno intensificato la campagna mediatica contro Obama, alimentata dai fondi delle industrie farmaceutiche e delle aziende di assicurazione. Ed anche questa e' America.
Diario di un'estate in Italia: Fritto misto mare, prosecco e un coro eccezionale
Grado centro marino un tempo famoso perche' soprattutto i calciatori vi si recavano per fare le sabbiature che sembra siano la mano santa per sanare contusioni, strappi muscolari, recupero da fratture. I calciatori attiravano come mosche stuoli di belle fanciulle pronte a farsi sposare e raggiungere in poco tempo una agiata vita, almeno fino a che il pedatore del cuore ce la faceva a stare sul mercato.
Oggi Grado batte la fiacca, non solo per la crisi economica che ha dimnuito le presenze della clientela. Ma anche perche' questo paese di ex pescatori non ha saputo rigenerarsi come invece ha fatto Lignano (nelle sue versioni di Sabbiadoro, Pineta). Quelli che hanno la barca a Grado, appena possono dirigono la prua su Lignano, anche perche' i prezzi a Grado hanno continuato a lievitare nella convinzione generalizzata che bisogna spennare gli ultimi clienti.
"A Lignano ed in altre localita' della riviera, puntano su due fasce di clientela: i giovani e gli anziani. Si tratta di componenti della societa' italiana che vogliono, sia pure con motivazioni diverse socializzare. Qui a Grado pensano che i clienti non possano fare a meno di venire da queste parti. Ma la concorrenza e' spietata. A cominciare dalle localita' balneari della Crozia." Cosi' si esprime malinconicamente mio nipote Massimo che ha appena finito di restaurare da solo un potente motoscafo col quale propone di fare una visita ad una isoletta famosa per il suo ristorante La Ravaiarina.
Attracchiamo ad un barcone che funge da pontile e ci incamminiamo verso la bassa costruzione della trattoria.
Siamo ricevuti da un giovane cameriere scortese che ci dice che tutto e' prenotato. Poi trova un tavolo in ottima posizione.
Accanto a noi un gruppo di sei uomini di varia eta'. Cominciano a cantare sottovoce alcune canzoni friulane e degli alpini.
Sono molto bravi e si capisce che fanno parte di un coro. Il cameriere antipatico interviene dicendo che devono smettere di cantare perche' i clienti di un tavolo situato a 30 metri di stanza hanno protestato. Non e' vero, ma il tizio insiste.
Considerata la situazione scendiamo in soccorso del tavolo di coristi che nel frattempo si sono tenuti su il morale con qualche litro di ottimo vino, fritti misti eccezionali e spaghetti allo scoglio.
Il cameriere nevrotico viene messo all'angolo quando il manager del locale si unisce a noi ed e' ormai un turbinio di calici innalzati a festeggiare gli ottimi componenti del coro che, veniamo a sapere, si chiama Aris Avian ed e' diretto dal maestro Cescut che si definisce uomo di destra in mezzo ad un coro di sinistri. Ma la musica riesce a sanare tutte le differenze ideologiche.
Quando intonano 'Stelutis Alpini' mia moglie comincia a lacrimare e non e' solo colpa del prosecco ma delle parole di questa famosa canzone friulana che narra di un alpino morto sulla montagna che parla alla sua ragazza e le indica il posto dove e' la sua tomba sulla quale e' cresciuta una stella alpina che lei portera' poi sul cuore. Ed il suo spirito sara' sempre vicino alla fanciulla.
E dopo un ennesimo tintinnio di calici ci lasciamo sperando di rivederci a Washington per uno spettacolo da regalare ai friulani d'America
Ferragosto in America
Mentre gran parte dell'Italia e' chiusa per ferie, qui negli Stati Uniti tutti sono al lavoro. Almeno quelli che ancora ce l'hanno. Dall'inizio di gennaio sette milioni di americani hanno perduto da un giorno all'altro il proprio posto di lavoro. I dati di luglio sono stati una doccia fredda per il Presidente Obama con 550mila americani espulsi dalle aziende e con una inversione di tendenza rispetto ai confortanti dati dei mesi precedenti. Mentre nelle grandi citta' il traffico e' intenso, i piccoli centri di provincia, soprattutto quelli collegati all'industria dell'auto, si vanno spopolando perche' il lavoro manca e a cascata negozi e attivita' connesse sono costretti a chiudere. Queste piccole citta' stanno diventando delle 'ghost towns, citta' fantasma, identiche a quelle vicine alle miniere ormai chiuse di argento, diventate una attrattiva turistica perche' ricordano i film western.Anche se l'economia americana da' qalche segno di ripresa, il Presidente Obama ha detto a chiare note che non potra' dichiarare finita la fase piu' negativa della crisi sino a che non vi saranno segni che le aziende ricominceranno ad assumere personale. Ed anche questa e' America.
Per il GR2
Oscar Bartoli
Washington DC
Per il GR2
Oscar Bartoli
Washington DC
Diario dell'estate in Italia - Il Palio, vissuto all'interno della contrada
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"Quando arrivi in Italia devi venire a Siena mio ospite per il Palio dell'Assunta." Questo l'invito categorico dell'amico Galasso.
Ho provato ad obiettare:
"Guarda Giuseppe che il Palio l'ho gia' visto tre volte."
"E allora?"
"Beh, ad essere sinceri e' sempre stata una sveltina di 90 secondi."
"Immaginavo che ti fossi limitato alla corsa. Devi vivere la contrada, la sua atmosfera. Altrimenti ti riduci ad essere il solito turista che non capisce nulla del Palio."
E cosi', caro Lettore, sono stato catturato da un gruppo di amici senesi che mi hanno trascinato alla cena della Torre nella strada principale della contrada con altre duemila persone, tra canti, cori, sberleffi all'indirizzo delle altre contrade. Il giorno dopo mi sono arrostito al sole insieme ad altre centinaia di contradaioli per assistere e riprendere con la mia camcorder la benedizione del cavallo e del fantino. Poi rinchiusi in un magnifico appartamento le cui finestre danno sulla Piazza del Campo e' cominciato il conto alla rovescia con processione dei figuranti, sbandieratori, sino al rito della 'mossa' che e' durato piu' di un'ora ed alla fine siccome il sole stava tramontando, visto che si erano superate le otto di sera, il mossiere ha pensato bene di dare per buona una mossa che proprio buona non era. Subito dopo il mossiere e' stato portato via dalla polizia per difenderlo da probabili aggressioni della gente.
Ha vinto la Civetta che non guadagnava il Palio da trenta anni.Un Palio molto criticato dagli esperti amici. L'unica contrada che avrebbe potuto acchiappare la Civetta nella sua solitaria cavalcata sul tufo della Piazza del Campo avrebbe potuto essere l'Aquila che pero' all'ultimo passaggio alla San Martino ha sbattuto in un colonnino ed il fantino e' rotolato per terra.
"Poveretto, mi trovo ad esclamare, si sara' fatto male.."
"Ma che male!", sale il coro degli intenditori. "Quello o e' un bischero incapace o si era venduto. Se l'acchiappano i suoi contradaioli saranno dolori veri per lui."
E parte la dissertazione tecnica su come il fantino dell'Aquila abbia affrontato l'ultimo giro gia' con il cavallo piegato sull destra anziche' raddrizzarlo per garantirsi una traettoria utile per il sorpasso della Civetta.
Sono rimasto ad ascoltare quel dialogo serrato tra amici super conoscitori del Palio, della sua storia, delle sue tecniche.
Federico Minghi ha citato i Palii vinti da cavalli 'scossi', o quello in cui un tale si e' appostato su un colonninno al bordo pista ed ha sferrato un cazzotto in pieno viso al fantino della contrada avversaria che stava vincendo.
E poi mi hanno spiegato, mentre li ascoltavo a bocca aperta, che tutto e' permesso nel Palio: i fantini si vendono all'ltimo momento, i capitani delle contrade contrattano tra di loro per fare alleanze che escludano la vittoria dei favoriti. Ammiccano al fantino, sperando che sia ancora fedele alla contrada e che esegua gli ordini. Il tutto a suon di centinaia di migliaia di euro. La vittoria di una contrada importante puo' costare due milioni di euro. Vince chi vince, ma vince anche chi perde con l'eccezione del secondo arrivato che perde tutto e non domandatemi perche': me l'hanno spiegato ma non l'ho capito.
Sul Palio sono stati versati fiumi di inchiostro.
Tutto e' permesso, il tradimento istituzionalizzato, la perfidia nei comportamenti, i fantini che montano a pelo e si prendono a nerbate. La paranoia in cui i senesi vivono tutto l'anno in preparazione dei due Palii quello della Madonna di Provenzano del 2 luglio e quello dell'Assunta del 16 agosto, il morboso attaccamento alla contrada che viene prima, molto prima della citta', sono -se volete- lo specchio rifrangente dei comportamenti dell'umanita' sotto ogni congiuntura storica e sociale.
Il Palio e' la vita, quella vera, fatta di conquiste, di cattiverie, di attaccamento morboso all'ideale della casta di appartenenza che tutto riscatta e tutto gistifica.
L'uomo nella sua dimensione fatta di divino e di demoniaco, un rito pagano benedetto da una Chiesa sempre pronta a giustificare e assolvere pur di non perdere il contatto con la plebe impazzita e urlante.
I 90 secondi della corsa sono una disillusione per chi non ha avuto l'opportunita' di capire dal di dentro il meccanismo possente di questa tradizione che risale al Medio Evo, unica manifestazione in cui il turismo e gli interessi ad esso cllegati devono cedere il passo alla follia collettiva dei contradaioli. Con matrimoni che vanno in standby per giorni perche' marito e moglie sono di contrade diverse, mentre si cita con orgoglio il caso di quel contradaiolo la cui moglie ha avuto il cattivo gusto di partorire il figlio in un ospedale al di fuori della contrada. Ma lui si e' precipitato nel nosocomio con un secchio della terra della sua contrada e l'ha fatto mettere sotto la culla del neonato.
Grazie Giuseppe e Federico per avermi dato questa 'full immersion' di Palio, pagina avvincente della follia quotidiana dei senesi.
Stanno tornando le milizie di estrema destra
WASHINGTON (AP) - Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.
The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.
The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.
Michael Schumaker e il mancato ritorno in F1
Sarebbe dovuto tornare. Poi ci ha ripensato. La decisione di Michael Schumaker di cancellare la sua disponibilita' a correre nei prossimi Gran Premi in sostituzione di Felipe Massa e' stata accolta dalla stampa italiana con una tiepida reazione. Il sette volte campione del mondo ha detto che i dolori al collo determinati dalla caduta in una gara di motociclette non gli consentono di programmare il suo rientro in Formula Uno.
Ma, siccome a pensare male si fa peccato ma in genere ci si azzecca, e' probabile che Schumaker abbia avuto un ritorno di fiamma e ci abbia fatto un pensierino. "Chi me lo fa fare di rischiare la mia super immagine di supercampione, mettendomi al volante di una macchina che non ho potuto provare prima, alle stesse condizioni dell'ultimo ragazzino approdato alla F1?"
Ecco quindi tirare fuori i dolori al collo, che magari saranno anche veri, ma che nelle prove fatte con i kart sembra non fossero evidenziati. Almeno stando alle sue dichiarazioni immediate.
Ed e' probabile che per scendere di nuovo a competere in pista il campione tedesco abbia chiesto un cospicuo 'valsente' che Montezemolo non avrebbe accettato.
Il caratterino di Michael e' noto nell'ambiente ed anche il suo attaccamento al denaro del resto conquistato mettendo a rischio tante volte la sua vita.
Ci torna alla mente quando Montezemolo, dopo che il Campione si era rotta una gamba a Silverstone e da mesi era assente, fu costretto a recarsi in Svizzera per verificare le sue condizioni fisiche visto che non si decideva a tornare a lavorare e lo trovo'
che giocava a calcio.
Insomma: nessuno e' perfetto e neanche il tedesco di Germania Schumaker.
Ma, siccome a pensare male si fa peccato ma in genere ci si azzecca, e' probabile che Schumaker abbia avuto un ritorno di fiamma e ci abbia fatto un pensierino. "Chi me lo fa fare di rischiare la mia super immagine di supercampione, mettendomi al volante di una macchina che non ho potuto provare prima, alle stesse condizioni dell'ultimo ragazzino approdato alla F1?"
Ecco quindi tirare fuori i dolori al collo, che magari saranno anche veri, ma che nelle prove fatte con i kart sembra non fossero evidenziati. Almeno stando alle sue dichiarazioni immediate.
Ed e' probabile che per scendere di nuovo a competere in pista il campione tedesco abbia chiesto un cospicuo 'valsente' che Montezemolo non avrebbe accettato.
Il caratterino di Michael e' noto nell'ambiente ed anche il suo attaccamento al denaro del resto conquistato mettendo a rischio tante volte la sua vita.
Ci torna alla mente quando Montezemolo, dopo che il Campione si era rotta una gamba a Silverstone e da mesi era assente, fu costretto a recarsi in Svizzera per verificare le sue condizioni fisiche visto che non si decideva a tornare a lavorare e lo trovo'
che giocava a calcio.
Insomma: nessuno e' perfetto e neanche il tedesco di Germania Schumaker.
Gelato al Viagra
A settembre, a Londra, sara' disponibile il gelato al Viagra. La notizia pubblicata da Thelondonpaper.com interessera' sicuramente gli attempati cittadini britannici che vogliono ancora competere con fanciulle piu' o meno gratuite.
Il gelato si chiama 'Sex Pistols', e' un cocktail di ice-cream con ingredienti stimolanti del tipo: ginkgo, biloba, arginine and guarana.
Il gelato viene servito con una sola porzione a persona. Costera' 11.99 sterline e potranno richiederlo quei giovanotti che abbiano compiuto almeno i diciotto anni.
La confezione del gelato prevede un sorso di La Fee Absinthe che e' considerata ad alto potere di intossicazione ma assicura che il sangue sia pompato alla grande dove deve arrivare.
Non sappiamo se tra i clienti della boutique del gelato al Viagra vi saranno anche le donne sulle quali il noto stimolante chimico sembra avere scarso potere risvegliante.
Il gelato si chiama 'Sex Pistols', e' un cocktail di ice-cream con ingredienti stimolanti del tipo: ginkgo, biloba, arginine and guarana.
Il gelato viene servito con una sola porzione a persona. Costera' 11.99 sterline e potranno richiederlo quei giovanotti che abbiano compiuto almeno i diciotto anni.
La confezione del gelato prevede un sorso di La Fee Absinthe che e' considerata ad alto potere di intossicazione ma assicura che il sangue sia pompato alla grande dove deve arrivare.
Non sappiamo se tra i clienti della boutique del gelato al Viagra vi saranno anche le donne sulle quali il noto stimolante chimico sembra avere scarso potere risvegliante.
Auguri a Prodi
9 Agosto: compleanno di Romano Prodi, l'unico politico che per due volte ha battuto il Cavaliere.
Benvenuto, caro Romano, nel Club dei settantenni che non sono afflitti da 'libidine geriatrica', hanno una sola moglie, si dedicano ancora allo sport, alla famiglia ed ai pochi amici veri.
Oscar
Benvenuto, caro Romano, nel Club dei settantenni che non sono afflitti da 'libidine geriatrica', hanno una sola moglie, si dedicano ancora allo sport, alla famiglia ed ai pochi amici veri.
Oscar
Australian Sex Party gets all-clear
Forse questa potrebbe essere un'idea per il Premier italiano.
___________________________________________________________
Sex and politics have officially come together, with the Australian Sex Party obtaining approval from the Australian Electoral Commission for registration as a political party.
The commission, which announced the registration on its website, said it had received several objections.
The party's convenor and likely future candidate Fiona Patten said the approval was evidence the commission cared about free speech "and the democratic rights of various groups in the community".
"One of the reasons for establishing the party was to provide a positive platform for sexual issues amongst the negative notions of sex that most politicians and political parties have," she said in a statement on Saturday.
"The fact that the AEC spent so much time considering the word `sex' further exhibits our need for honest and open discussion about sexual matters - be they censorship, education, health or discrimination ones."
© 2009 AAP
___________________________________________________________
Sex and politics have officially come together, with the Australian Sex Party obtaining approval from the Australian Electoral Commission for registration as a political party.
The commission, which announced the registration on its website, said it had received several objections.
The party's convenor and likely future candidate Fiona Patten said the approval was evidence the commission cared about free speech "and the democratic rights of various groups in the community".
"One of the reasons for establishing the party was to provide a positive platform for sexual issues amongst the negative notions of sex that most politicians and political parties have," she said in a statement on Saturday.
"The fact that the AEC spent so much time considering the word `sex' further exhibits our need for honest and open discussion about sexual matters - be they censorship, education, health or discrimination ones."
© 2009 AAP
Non fare prigionieri!
Non fare prigionieri. Questo il principio culturale della politica americana, in cui la mano sul cuore e le affermazioni di disponibilita' al dialogo con gli avversari sono solo la facciata.
La sostanza e' che gli avversari e i competitori devono essere distrutti con ogni mezzo.
Ne sa qualcosa l'ex presidente Bill Clinton, il cui'priapismo' era ben conosciuto sino dai tempi del suo governatorato in Arkansas. I repubblicani avevano costituito un faldone che venne poi usato ad arte, manovrando la Lewinsky.
Oggi il Presidente Obama si trova a dovere fronteggiare attacchi a palle incatenate promossi dai repubblicani, dalle organizzazioni che li affiancano e dalle maggiori industrie che sentono il fiato sul collo di questa amministrazione ed hanno perduto l'amichevole anche se costosa sponda del governo di George W. Bush.
Con la scusa che la legge sul nuovo sistema sanitario deve essere discussa a livello di base, i membri repubblicani del congresso stanno aizzando i propri elettori perche' chiedano che si svolgano le 'town halls, le riunioni dei consigli comunali alle quali partecipano i cittadini che possono prendere la parola.
Le town hall che si sono tenute fino ad ora sono state teatro di risse orchestrate, aggressioni verbali al presidente Obama definito 'nazista', offesa questa ripetuta in maniera ossessiva da tutti i siti di destra a cominciare da quel Rush Limbaugh, che commenta sulle onde medie ed ha piu' di 25milioni di ascoltatori.
La Casa Bianca non puo' per legge farsi promotrice di iniziative per controllare lo spettro della comunicazione e rispondere adeguatamente. Ecco perche' nei giorni scorsi e' stato aperto un sito della White House in cui si invitano i sostenitori di Barak Obama a segnalare ogni iniziativa che sia in contrasto con la politica del presidente. Apriti cielo. L'opposizione repubblicana e allineati, sono insorti denunciando il tentativo di golpe e insistendo sulle accuse di socialismo fatte all'amministrazione Obama.
A settembre ne vedremo delle belle. Sono in molti a giurare che la nuova legge sulla sanita' sara' la Waterlow di Obama. Molto dipendera' dalla consistenza del partito democratico nel quale la presenza dei 'blue dogs', ovvero quei parlamentari che si considerano al confine con i conservatori, rappresenta una spina nel fianco per il giovane inquilino della Casa Bianca.
La sostanza e' che gli avversari e i competitori devono essere distrutti con ogni mezzo.
Ne sa qualcosa l'ex presidente Bill Clinton, il cui'priapismo' era ben conosciuto sino dai tempi del suo governatorato in Arkansas. I repubblicani avevano costituito un faldone che venne poi usato ad arte, manovrando la Lewinsky.
Oggi il Presidente Obama si trova a dovere fronteggiare attacchi a palle incatenate promossi dai repubblicani, dalle organizzazioni che li affiancano e dalle maggiori industrie che sentono il fiato sul collo di questa amministrazione ed hanno perduto l'amichevole anche se costosa sponda del governo di George W. Bush.
Con la scusa che la legge sul nuovo sistema sanitario deve essere discussa a livello di base, i membri repubblicani del congresso stanno aizzando i propri elettori perche' chiedano che si svolgano le 'town halls, le riunioni dei consigli comunali alle quali partecipano i cittadini che possono prendere la parola.
Le town hall che si sono tenute fino ad ora sono state teatro di risse orchestrate, aggressioni verbali al presidente Obama definito 'nazista', offesa questa ripetuta in maniera ossessiva da tutti i siti di destra a cominciare da quel Rush Limbaugh, che commenta sulle onde medie ed ha piu' di 25milioni di ascoltatori.
La Casa Bianca non puo' per legge farsi promotrice di iniziative per controllare lo spettro della comunicazione e rispondere adeguatamente. Ecco perche' nei giorni scorsi e' stato aperto un sito della White House in cui si invitano i sostenitori di Barak Obama a segnalare ogni iniziativa che sia in contrasto con la politica del presidente. Apriti cielo. L'opposizione repubblicana e allineati, sono insorti denunciando il tentativo di golpe e insistendo sulle accuse di socialismo fatte all'amministrazione Obama.
A settembre ne vedremo delle belle. Sono in molti a giurare che la nuova legge sulla sanita' sara' la Waterlow di Obama. Molto dipendera' dalla consistenza del partito democratico nel quale la presenza dei 'blue dogs', ovvero quei parlamentari che si considerano al confine con i conservatori, rappresenta una spina nel fianco per il giovane inquilino della Casa Bianca.
I dolcetti di Obama per Helen Thomas
Il Presidente Obama e' apparso nella saletta stampa della Casa Bianca mentre era in corso la quotidiana conferenza stampa del suo ministro per l'informazione Robert Gibbs.
Obama, tra lo stupore divertito dei corrispondenti, portava in mano un piatto con alcuni dolcetti sormontati da una candelina. Si e' diretto verso la prima fila di sedie dove siede sempre Helen Thomas, la decana ultraottantenne dei giornalisti accreditati presso la White House. I dolcetti erano per lei che ha compiuto gli anni proprio oggi 4 agosto. Lo stesso giorno del compleanno di Obama.
Il miglior regalo che il presidente poteva concedersi e' stata la liberazione delle due giornaliste imprigionate da mesi nella Nord Corea. Avere mandato in missione speciale un personaggio come l'ex presidente Bill Clinton ha permesso di risolvere una spinosa situazione diplomatica e ha offerto al dittatore Kim Jong-il la possibilita' di mostrare un volto meno arcigno all'opinione pubblica mondiale.
E' presto per dire che e' iniziato il disgelo con la Nord Corea. Comunque anche il mutamento reciproco delle relazioni tra USA e Cina e' cominciato con il ping pong.
Happy birthday, Mr. President
Ogni giorno il presidente Obama riceve 30 minacce di morte. Di pazzi scatenati di estrema destra ce ne sono a centinaia di migliaia in America.
Per giunta questo giovane di 48 anni, (oggi 4 agosto 2009), durante le primarie e la campagna presidenziale non ha mai fatto mistero che non intendeva essere la longa manus delle industrie e della finanza cosi' come aveva fatto per otto anni l'ineffabile George W. Bush.
Ed in un paese come l'America quando si va a toccare il soldo si rischia grosso.
Dire "Happy birthday, Mr. President!" ricorda Marylin Monroe e la sua imbarazzante performance quando si mise a cantare la canzoncina a Kennedy in pubblico sollevando un grande imbarazzo.
Ma l'augurio e' sempre quello e non si puo' cambiare.
Per cui: tanti auguri di Buon Compleanno, signor Presidente sperando che CHI DI DOVERE le tenga una mano sulla testa (che in sei mesi e' gia' diventata brizzolata) e l'aiuti a risolvere con il suo entusiasmo la missione che si e' preposto.
Per giunta questo giovane di 48 anni, (oggi 4 agosto 2009), durante le primarie e la campagna presidenziale non ha mai fatto mistero che non intendeva essere la longa manus delle industrie e della finanza cosi' come aveva fatto per otto anni l'ineffabile George W. Bush.
Ed in un paese come l'America quando si va a toccare il soldo si rischia grosso.
Dire "Happy birthday, Mr. President!" ricorda Marylin Monroe e la sua imbarazzante performance quando si mise a cantare la canzoncina a Kennedy in pubblico sollevando un grande imbarazzo.
Ma l'augurio e' sempre quello e non si puo' cambiare.
Per cui: tanti auguri di Buon Compleanno, signor Presidente sperando che CHI DI DOVERE le tenga una mano sulla testa (che in sei mesi e' gia' diventata brizzolata) e l'aiuti a risolvere con il suo entusiasmo la missione che si e' preposto.
Servizio postale celere
La signora Mae sedeva nel balcone della sua casa, una town house, in un residence di Sherman Oaks, uno dei quartieri bene di Los Angeles. Strade interne costellate di 'bumps', montarozzi che impongono di guidare con estrema cautela se non si vuole rovinare l'auto.
Senti' ilrumore di un'auto che si fermava sotto la sua terrazza. E dopo qualche istante due grossi pacchetti volarono all'interno del balcone colpendo la signora Mae alla testa.
Riavautasi dalla sorpresa e constatato che, per fortuna, non era stata ferita dal lancio dei plichi, la signora Mae si affaccio' in tempo per vedere sparire dietro la curva l'auto del servizio postale americano, famoso per la sua decantata efficienza e per il testimonial Amstrong vincitore di sette Tour de France.
La signora Mae si alzo' e presa la macchina si reco' all'ufficio postale ad un miglio da casa sua competente per lo smistamento della posta.
Due impiegate asiatiche fecero finta di non capire quello che la filippina signora Mae diceva in perfetto inglese.
Finalmente intervenne il manager della struttura al quale la signora Mae espose il caso e disse che le erano arrivati in testa due plichi scagliati da un fantasioso postino che aveva avuto quella pensata visto che il box della posta della signora Mae era pieno.
Il manager si dichiara costernato si profonde in scuse e quando la Mae gli dice che le due impiegate al banco si erano rifiutate di risponderle in inglese si rivolge sottovoce ad una di queste rimproverandola e ricordando i doveri di un funzionario postale. La tizia comincia a strepitare che lui non deve permettersi di riprenderla in quel modo mentre le persone disciplinatamente in fila per spedire qualcosa osservano smarrite e perplesse.
Il manager, un indiano, accompagna l'isterica collaboratrice all'interno dell'ufficio.
La signora Mae ha deciso di presentare una protesta scritta.
Lo US Postal Service ha annunciato in questi giorni la chiusura di mille uffici.
Senti' ilrumore di un'auto che si fermava sotto la sua terrazza. E dopo qualche istante due grossi pacchetti volarono all'interno del balcone colpendo la signora Mae alla testa.
Riavautasi dalla sorpresa e constatato che, per fortuna, non era stata ferita dal lancio dei plichi, la signora Mae si affaccio' in tempo per vedere sparire dietro la curva l'auto del servizio postale americano, famoso per la sua decantata efficienza e per il testimonial Amstrong vincitore di sette Tour de France.
La signora Mae si alzo' e presa la macchina si reco' all'ufficio postale ad un miglio da casa sua competente per lo smistamento della posta.
Due impiegate asiatiche fecero finta di non capire quello che la filippina signora Mae diceva in perfetto inglese.
Finalmente intervenne il manager della struttura al quale la signora Mae espose il caso e disse che le erano arrivati in testa due plichi scagliati da un fantasioso postino che aveva avuto quella pensata visto che il box della posta della signora Mae era pieno.
Il manager si dichiara costernato si profonde in scuse e quando la Mae gli dice che le due impiegate al banco si erano rifiutate di risponderle in inglese si rivolge sottovoce ad una di queste rimproverandola e ricordando i doveri di un funzionario postale. La tizia comincia a strepitare che lui non deve permettersi di riprenderla in quel modo mentre le persone disciplinatamente in fila per spedire qualcosa osservano smarrite e perplesse.
Il manager, un indiano, accompagna l'isterica collaboratrice all'interno dell'ufficio.
La signora Mae ha deciso di presentare una protesta scritta.
Lo US Postal Service ha annunciato in questi giorni la chiusura di mille uffici.
Mr. Obama si gioca la sua presidenza sulla sanita'
Questo articolo del New York Times dimostra quanto sia difficile il cammino del Presidente Obama. Il suo progetto di rivoluzionare il sistema sanitario americano che annovera ben 47 milioni di persone prive di ogni copertura sanitaria, ha coagulato non solo l'opposizione repubblicana, ma anche le grandi industrie farmaceutiche, le societa' di assicurazione sanitaria, i medici che sono collegati strettamente alle industrie della salute, gli avvvocati che vivono di liti sulla malasanita'. Un conglomerato di business che sta invadendo gli Stati Uniti con una campagna insidiosa a tappeto rivolta ai cittadini perche' facciano pressione sui propri senatori e deputati per arrivare ad una bocciatura della legge Obama in parlamento alla riapertura dei lavori dopo la pausa estiva. Sulla sanita' Obama si gioca la sua presidenza cosi come l'insuccesso dell'analoga legge voluta dai Clinton nel 1993 rappresento' un formidabile calcio negli stinchi a quella amministrazione. Il business della sanita' e' il piu' lucroso in America e sconfiggerlo e' giudicata una missione da pazzi. Obama e' stato sempre accusato di incoscienza sin da quando ha deciso di scendere in politica da solo e contro tutto l'establisment finanziario e politico. I prossimi mesi diranno se la sua stella puo' continuare a brillare nell'interesse di tutta l'America.
____________________________________________
August 3, 2009
Two Sides Take Health Care Debate Outside Washington
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON — With Republicans mobilizing against the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama, Congressional Democrats and leading advocacy groups are laying the groundwork for an August offensive against the insurance industry as part of a coordinated campaign to sell the public on the need for reform.
The effort will feature town-hall-style meetings by lawmakers and the president, including a swing through Western states by Mr. Obama, grass-roots lobbying efforts and a blitz of expensive television advertising. It is intended to drive home the message that revamping the health care system will protect consumers by ending unpopular insurance industry practices, like refusing patients with pre-existing conditions.
“I think what we want to communicate is that this is going to give people who have insurance a degree of security and stability, the protection that they don’t have today against the sort of mercurial judgments of insurance bureaucrats,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, adding, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.”
Revamping health care is the president’s top legislative priority, and people on all sides of the debate agree that August, when lawmakers leave Washington to take the pulse of constituents, will be crucial to shaping public opinion. With Republicans making headway by casting the legislation as a costly government takeover, Democrats have decided they must answer the question on the minds of those now insured: “What’s in it for me?”
That has led to a campaign of increasingly harsh rhetoric against the insurance industry, which says it favors an overhaul but is working to defeat Mr. Obama’s call for a government-run insurance plan to compete against the private sector. On Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, promised a “drumbeat across America” to counter what she termed a “shock and awe, carpet-bombing by the health insurance industry to perpetuate the status quo.”
The tough talk, however, has risks. The industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, is urging members to confront Democrats at public meetings, and the rising tensions could make it difficult for the president to keep insurers at the negotiating table.
The drumbeat will begin Monday, when Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, travels to Hartford to talk about what the White House now calls “health insurance reform.” Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, who disclosed Friday that he has prostate cancer and pointedly reminded Americans that he was fortunate to have health coverage, will be among several Democratic lawmakers present.
Also Monday, Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, will appear with doctors, nurses and administrators at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver to discuss “how insurance company procedures are burdening our physicians, nurses and patients,” a spokeswoman said. Throughout the recess, Democratic lawmakers will hold similar events, coordinated with advertising by allied groups.
“We understand the future of health reform could hinge on how the conversation with the American people goes in the next six weeks,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and assistant to the speaker, who is coordinating the House effort.
Republicans understand that and will also be campaigning hard.
In the Senate, Republicans will meet this week to coordinate strategy, but some plans are already in motion for public meetings and a blizzard of radio and television appearances. Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a family practice doctor, and John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon, will take their “Senate Doctors Show,” an Internet program, on the road to argue that the Democratic plan will not improve care or control costs.
In the House, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Conference, distributed a packet to colleagues on Friday urging them to argue that the Democrats’ plan would include “more than $800 billion in new tax hikes” and “harmful cuts” to Medicare that would “result in millions of seniors losing their health coverage.”
The Democrats are getting a lift from a little-known group of former Obama campaign operatives called Unity ’09 that has held weekly strategy meetings, away from the White House, to bring together administration officials, labor unions, health advocacy groups and other backers of the legislation. Mr. Axelrod said he had attended as an “infrequent visitor.”
The current message is an eight-point list of “Health Insurance Consumer Protections” the White House Web site promises will “bring you and your family peace of mind.” Mr. Obama picked up on the theme last week, promising members of AARP that he would “reform the insurance companies so they can’t take advantage of you.”
The hard line is a departure for the White House, which began its overhaul campaign by trying to win over constituency groups — doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and insurers among them. Insurers played a leading role in killing a health care overhaul in the Clinton administration, but Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said at a White House meeting in March that the industry would cooperate this time.
In an interview Friday, Ms. Ignagni noted that the industry had endorsed many of the administration’s proposed changes, including ending the practice of refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions, and said it would work with lawmakers to develop a bill that did not include a public plan.
“The rhetoric that we are hearing is reminiscent of ’93, ’94, but we’re on the 2009 playbook,” she said, adding, “The inconvenient fact is that we support those reforms.”
Republicans say the new rhetoric reflects desperation among Democrats to find a message that will resonate.
Broadly speaking, Mr. Obama’s goal is to extend coverage to the nation’s 47 million uninsured while also slowing the growth of health care spending. The president wanted the House and Senate to pass legislation before the August recess, but the House broke on Friday without doing so and the Senate will not complete a bill before recessing after this week.
Polls show that the public is growing uneasy; a New York Times/CBS News survey last week found that while Mr. Obama still has strong support for revamping health care, Americans are concerned that an overhaul would reduce the quality of care, increase out-of-pocket costs and tax bills and limit their options in choosing doctors.
“August is going to be a critical period for closing the deal,” said Ron Pollack, director of the advocacy group Families USA. The group is now in a strange-bedfellows advertising partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. Their latest advertisement, a three-week, $4 million campaign, updates the “Harry and Louise” advertisements that helped kill health legislation in the 1990s.
In the new advertisement, called “Get the Job Done,” Louise tells Harry that Americans need good coverage. To which Harry adds, “Even if they have a pre-existing condition.”
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
____________________________________________
August 3, 2009
Two Sides Take Health Care Debate Outside Washington
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON — With Republicans mobilizing against the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama, Congressional Democrats and leading advocacy groups are laying the groundwork for an August offensive against the insurance industry as part of a coordinated campaign to sell the public on the need for reform.
The effort will feature town-hall-style meetings by lawmakers and the president, including a swing through Western states by Mr. Obama, grass-roots lobbying efforts and a blitz of expensive television advertising. It is intended to drive home the message that revamping the health care system will protect consumers by ending unpopular insurance industry practices, like refusing patients with pre-existing conditions.
“I think what we want to communicate is that this is going to give people who have insurance a degree of security and stability, the protection that they don’t have today against the sort of mercurial judgments of insurance bureaucrats,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, adding, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.”
Revamping health care is the president’s top legislative priority, and people on all sides of the debate agree that August, when lawmakers leave Washington to take the pulse of constituents, will be crucial to shaping public opinion. With Republicans making headway by casting the legislation as a costly government takeover, Democrats have decided they must answer the question on the minds of those now insured: “What’s in it for me?”
That has led to a campaign of increasingly harsh rhetoric against the insurance industry, which says it favors an overhaul but is working to defeat Mr. Obama’s call for a government-run insurance plan to compete against the private sector. On Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, promised a “drumbeat across America” to counter what she termed a “shock and awe, carpet-bombing by the health insurance industry to perpetuate the status quo.”
The tough talk, however, has risks. The industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, is urging members to confront Democrats at public meetings, and the rising tensions could make it difficult for the president to keep insurers at the negotiating table.
The drumbeat will begin Monday, when Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, travels to Hartford to talk about what the White House now calls “health insurance reform.” Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, who disclosed Friday that he has prostate cancer and pointedly reminded Americans that he was fortunate to have health coverage, will be among several Democratic lawmakers present.
Also Monday, Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, will appear with doctors, nurses and administrators at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver to discuss “how insurance company procedures are burdening our physicians, nurses and patients,” a spokeswoman said. Throughout the recess, Democratic lawmakers will hold similar events, coordinated with advertising by allied groups.
“We understand the future of health reform could hinge on how the conversation with the American people goes in the next six weeks,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and assistant to the speaker, who is coordinating the House effort.
Republicans understand that and will also be campaigning hard.
In the Senate, Republicans will meet this week to coordinate strategy, but some plans are already in motion for public meetings and a blizzard of radio and television appearances. Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a family practice doctor, and John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon, will take their “Senate Doctors Show,” an Internet program, on the road to argue that the Democratic plan will not improve care or control costs.
In the House, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Conference, distributed a packet to colleagues on Friday urging them to argue that the Democrats’ plan would include “more than $800 billion in new tax hikes” and “harmful cuts” to Medicare that would “result in millions of seniors losing their health coverage.”
The Democrats are getting a lift from a little-known group of former Obama campaign operatives called Unity ’09 that has held weekly strategy meetings, away from the White House, to bring together administration officials, labor unions, health advocacy groups and other backers of the legislation. Mr. Axelrod said he had attended as an “infrequent visitor.”
The current message is an eight-point list of “Health Insurance Consumer Protections” the White House Web site promises will “bring you and your family peace of mind.” Mr. Obama picked up on the theme last week, promising members of AARP that he would “reform the insurance companies so they can’t take advantage of you.”
The hard line is a departure for the White House, which began its overhaul campaign by trying to win over constituency groups — doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and insurers among them. Insurers played a leading role in killing a health care overhaul in the Clinton administration, but Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said at a White House meeting in March that the industry would cooperate this time.
In an interview Friday, Ms. Ignagni noted that the industry had endorsed many of the administration’s proposed changes, including ending the practice of refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions, and said it would work with lawmakers to develop a bill that did not include a public plan.
“The rhetoric that we are hearing is reminiscent of ’93, ’94, but we’re on the 2009 playbook,” she said, adding, “The inconvenient fact is that we support those reforms.”
Republicans say the new rhetoric reflects desperation among Democrats to find a message that will resonate.
Broadly speaking, Mr. Obama’s goal is to extend coverage to the nation’s 47 million uninsured while also slowing the growth of health care spending. The president wanted the House and Senate to pass legislation before the August recess, but the House broke on Friday without doing so and the Senate will not complete a bill before recessing after this week.
Polls show that the public is growing uneasy; a New York Times/CBS News survey last week found that while Mr. Obama still has strong support for revamping health care, Americans are concerned that an overhaul would reduce the quality of care, increase out-of-pocket costs and tax bills and limit their options in choosing doctors.
“August is going to be a critical period for closing the deal,” said Ron Pollack, director of the advocacy group Families USA. The group is now in a strange-bedfellows advertising partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. Their latest advertisement, a three-week, $4 million campaign, updates the “Harry and Louise” advertisements that helped kill health legislation in the 1990s.
In the new advertisement, called “Get the Job Done,” Louise tells Harry that Americans need good coverage. To which Harry adds, “Even if they have a pre-existing condition.”
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
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