"Men who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either being made" Otto Von Bismarck
[quote added on November 29]

Omigod they don't do stuff like that here in Rome. Amazingly I only just learned that a majority of representatives voted against the medicaire reform bill
"an absolute majority of the House -- 218 of the 435 members -- had voted no,". I honestly would have assumed that this means the bill is voted down. I am amazed to leard that the speaker of the house could (and did) keep the vote open untill two members could be convinced to change their votes. Amazing. Appalling. Precedented but not very.

I stress that I am not holding the Italian parliament up as a model of fair play. It's just doing something outrageous that they don't do here is a very impressive accomplishment.

Of course I learned about this from Atrios .