Yankee go home!

Random ramblings on happenings in Italy...

Elements of the reliably hysterical hardcore Italian left are going into high gear over an agreement between the government and the United States to expand the latter's military base in Vicenza. Though the satanic US government would be pouring millions of dollars into building contracts which would stimulate the local economy, some people are more concerned with fighting alleged American imperialism than cooperating with a long-time ally, regardless of misgivings over US foreign policy. The fact that 700 local jobs would have been lost, as the U.S. military wants to consolidate the 173rd Airborne Brigade in one location and would have gone somewhere else if the government had not authorized expansion, seems to be of little concern to people with such high ideals...

Incidentally, an incoherent rampage by Emilio Franzina, a communist Vicenza town council member, is being sent all over the place in Italy and it is recommended viewing for anyone who understands Italian, it's a classic example of left-wing hysterics and empty "idealism". The man immemorably rants for six minutes non-stop about everything and anything, yet the only items of substance that came out of it were, apart from his predictably ideological (read anti-American) opposition to the base's expansion, is his being especially upset that he had cut his vacation short to come back to Vicenza to debate the military base issue when they mayor wasn't even around. Oh yeah. That and that he made sure to end his little speech by saying that he loved America. Where have we heard that one before?