The Brown bear burgers and kebabs were part of the menu on offer at the rally held by the Northern League, key allies of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister.
Armed officers stormed into the venue at Imer near Trento after they heard how 50kg of bear meat was due to be cooked. Hunting bear is banned in Italy and the meat had been imported from neighbouring Slovenia.
There was tension as the meat was seized from refrigerators with police saying that ''documentation'' was not in order and so the meat could not be eaten.
Furious members of the Northern League booed and jeered as the packets were collected and taken away and menus had the words bear scrawled out as the event continued.
Posters for the event had openly advertised the fact bear meat - which is seen as a delicacy in north east Italy - was on the menu and recipes have been handed down from generation to generation.
Enzo Erminio Boso, a Northern League senator, told the 200 strong crowd:''We have been told that he documentation is not in order to eat the bear meat and this is an order that has come direct from Rome.
''On Monday I will be calling Umberto Bossi (Northern League party leader) and telling him that we should leave the ruling coalition immediately. The paperwork is in order and this is an attempt to stop our traditions.''
In Italy bears are a protected species due to their dwindling numbers and the police intervention was welcomed by conservation groups. This is likely an effort by some opponents of Berlusconi in the government to break up his coalition. The left in Rome has long hated the North, and tried to use it as a cash cow to feed southern socialism.
(KUNA) -- The U.S. government must cut spending it cannot afford "so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs," President Barack B.O. Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday.
Over the last few weeks, Obama said, he and Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... have gotten both political parties to identify more than one trillion dollars in spending cuts, "but after a decade in which Washington ran up the country's credit card, we have got to find more savings to get out of the red".
"That means looking at every program and tax break in the budget - every single one - to find places to cut waste and save money," he said. "It means we will have to make tough decisions and scale back worthy programs. And nothing can be off limits, including spending in the tax code, particularly the loopholes that benefit very few individuals and corporations".
Obama and congressional Republicans sparred this week over Obama's insistence that 400 billion dollars in tax increases be part of a deficit-reduction package. Republicans insist they will never support any tax increases on anyone.
Both sides remain at an apparent impasse as Republicans seek even deeper cuts in domestic programs before they will agree to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, with a looming deadline of Aug. 2 before the United States would default on its international debt.
"If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or for hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, or for oil and gas companies pulling in huge profits without our help, then we will have to make even deeper cuts somewhere else," the President said. "We have got to say to a student, 'You do not get a college scholarship.' We have to say to a medical researcher, 'You cannot do that cancer research.' We might have to tell seniors, 'You have to pay more for Medicare'".
That is neither right nor smart, he added.
"We have got to cut the deficit, but we can do that while making investments in education, research and technology that actually create jobs," Obama said. "We can live within our means while still investing in our future".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
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#2
I have no problem with cutting tax loopholes or breaks or deductions - just don't single out specific recipients for ineligibility, but remove the entire loophole in question. Like the Obamacare 'waivers', this is just wrong.
#4
he's in full campaign mode: it's all someone else's fault, demonize the rich, straw men galor, false choices. F*cking liar and fraud. January 2013 can't come fast enough
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2011 9:53 Comments ||
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#5
I thought the only budget proposal Obama came up with was unanimously rejected by the Senate? I did not think his administration has had a budget since he was elected.
He is a scoundrel and a deceiver! January 2013 can't come fast enough I hope and pray the outcome is good. It is possible the ONE will "find, buy, or swindle" enough votes--it is the "Chicago way." Dead people are resurrected. Fictitious and cartoon characters vote multiple times. Voters are intimidated at the polls and nothing is done about it. You can be sure, the donks will get out the illegal immigrant vote. And then there are so many people on the government dole--they have no interest in reforming our system. I worry that there are not enough voters who want to see this catastrophe get corrected.
#6
"...Tough budget cuts starting with just about everything in uniform...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/03/2011 11:43 Comments ||
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#7
They believe that government is and should be the biggest thing in our lives and it's just not.
It's not necessary. Not $4 trillion a year's worth necessary.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Joe 
