The End of the American Century

Whether it was when we were children growing up or students in college, we have all been influenced by a teacher or professor. While many people may think my blog is a partisan left of center political blog, any close examination by the academic influences I have listed in my favorite book area, should note that there are many right of center authors and academician members. One such member of the academia community I have been influenced by includes Andrew J. Bacevich, who is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University.

I am beginning to read his current book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, and as other bloggers have done on their blogs when they want to pass along information they have acquired, I want to post a recent video from this respected author and member of the academic community.

I hope you take the time to view the video and consider some of the points he is making in his discussion.

American tax dollars supporting the mafia in Italy

When Mr. Obama visits Italy for the G8 summit in July, I hope some of his advisors ask the president to question Silvio Berlusconi on what his government is doing to fight the mafia. With stories appearing in the public press about the mafia moving into the central parts of Italy such as Rome and the earthquake region of Abruzzo, the problem of the mafia and the links it has to international terrorism should be a major concern for the United States. Controlling over 130 billion dollars that comprises over 8 percent of the entire GDP of the country, the fight against the mafia should be the Italian governments prime objective in the next 10 years. However, as history has demonstrated, unless the courageous civic-minded judges and police forces have the support of the state, the fight against the mafia will be a lost cause.

In the book, Excellent Cadavers, an American author and journalist, Alexander Stille, documents the work done by the anti-Mafia pool in Palermo and in particular the work done by Giovanni Falcone in the 1980s. The book is very easy to read for anyone new to Italian politics or is not familiar with the history of Italy. The book is a well-documented narrative of how the heroic and hard working efforts of judges such as Giovanni Falcone and police in Palermo, Sicily were sabotaged by corrupt Italian politicians from the Christian Democratic Party during that period. In addition to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino who were well known anti-mafia prosecutors killed by the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily, the mafia in collusion with the political leaders of the Sicilian sect of the Christian Democrat party in Italy , killed scores of judges and police.

During the period between 1946 and 1985, the mafia used its network of supporters and family members to bring in large blocks of votes for the Christian Democrats. This was proven by a mafia boss, Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone, who told Giovanni Falcone in sworn deposition that each “man of honor” in the mafia disposes between 40 to 50 votes from his friends and relatives. With about 1,500 to 2,000 men of honor in Palermo alone, multiply that by fifty and you get a nice block of 75,000 to 100,000 votes.

In addition to the political corruption in the way the mafia is able to protect its interests, the petty and selfish acts of Italian bureaucrats and members of the judiciary undermine the state. When the state should be focusing all its energy and resources towards the enemy of illegal drugs and the other industries the mafia is involved in, members of the Italian judiciary attack one another out of envy, pride, and their own personal career advancement

One case in particular involves the appointment of a new chief prosecutor for the Palermo office in 1988. This case is a classic example of one of the biggest problems in Italy where seniority of an individual often outweighs merit and accomplishment, in combination with the selfish goal of career advancement.

After completing a successful anti mafia trial in 1987 where over 475 defendants were tried and 344 were found guilty in what has become known as the Maxi-Trial, the chief prosecutor who successfully helped bring the case to trial, Antonino Caponetto, wanted to see the post go to Giovanni Falcone, who had been instrumental in the trial’s successful outcome. But due to the personal career ambition and pride of a 68 year old magistrate, Antonino Meli , all the work of the anti mafia pool would soon be undone.

The political appointment of Antonino Meli to be the chief prosecutor in the Palermo office was a very pivotal point in the war against the mafia in the late 1980s and is another example of the role of the political class undermined and ultimately had blood on its hands when Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were killed.

In addition to the political decision to give the chief prosecutor position to another less experienced judge in mafia cases, the political leaders of the Christian Democratica party in Sicily and the Cosa Nostra mafia, it was agreed that the appeals process for the convicted members of the mafia in the maxi-trial would be handled by a certain judge on the Italian Supreme court.

As Silvio Berlusconi’s party has replaced the Christian Democratic party in Sicily, and the southern part of the peninsula where the other mafia clans are located, the political support any serious challenge the state mounts against the mafia may not be given to the police and anti-mafia prosecutors.

Mr. Obama and his advisors need to be pushed by the American press on this important issue. With several American military bases in mafia-controlled areas of the country, American officials should be held accountable for supporting the mafia in an indirect way.

The Return of Fascism in Italy Part 2

While most other countries in Europe are ashamed of their fascist history and are shunned in politics, in Italy, a post-fascist party the Alliance National formally known as the MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano) is a part of the current Berlusconi coalition government. In fact, due to the strong majority in the Italian Parliament, the post-fascist party and Berlusconi himself is pushing legislation that will allow Italian fascists who fought for Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini along with Nazi SS troops be allowed to collect military pensions and be recognized for their sacrifice in World War II. This bold move by the Berlusconi coalition would essentially equate Italian partisans with fascist black shirt troops responsible for some of the aforementioned war crimes such as summary executions, ransacking, and the retaliation against civilians for partisan attacks. The opposition in the Italian Parliament has tried to block the legislation, supported by the main organization of partisan survivors, the National Association of Italian Partisans, which has called it an "insidious" attempt to pave the way for a new authoritarian regime, but due to the strong majority in Parliament, the proposal may pass.

As an American and a military veteran, I find this disgusting and disrespectful to all the American soldiers who gave their lives fighting the Nazis in World War II. If the Italian state has enough money in its budget to pay pensions for fascist soldiers who also killed American soldiers, than I propose that the US begin to withdraw all the military bases from the country of Italy. These bases directly employ over 5,000 Italians and an additional 20,000 Italians indirectly through the businesses that support those bases.

With more Americans out of work, and the US auto industry on the verge of collapse, the proposal by the Berlusconi coalition proves that the Italian state has enough money to provide for its own defense and is a slap in the face to all the men buried in Anzio, Salerno, and Messina, Sicily.

The economic stimulus money that US taxpayer money is pumping into the 45 military bases in Italy contributes nothing to the national security of the United States. If anything, these bases are undermining the national security of the United States by contributing to the national debt, which in turn is weakening the power of the US dollar. In addition to the thousands of Italians living a good life off of the American taxpayer, some of the money being spent in Italy helps fund operations run by the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily, the Ndrangheta mafia in Calabria, and the Camorra mafia in the Naples area.


If the exclusion from government were not bad enough for the Italian communist party to endure during the Italian First Republic, the emergence of Silvio Berlusconi on the political stage in 1993 to protect his own financial interests would cause further injustice to the legacy of Italian communist party members who fought against the fascists in World War II.

While most Italian families had to take a side in the Italian civil war that raged in the north of Italy during 1943-1945, the father of Berlusconi, who was a banker in a Milan credit boutique before the war broke out, decided to flee to Switzerland. Perhaps this is where Silvio Berlusconi gets his strong self-interest characteristic, which was instrumental in his desire to enter Italian politics.

When ever Berlusconi would need to draw attention away from his numerous court cases where he has been charged with tax evasion, false accounting , tax fraud, and embezzlement, just to name a few, he would always accuse communist judges of plotting against him. He has been tried in Italian courts in 12 cases, where in all he was either acquitted by a court of first instance or on appeal, or when proceedings had to be stopped due to the expiry of the statute of limitations.In addition to never being convicted,a new law recently passed by him, allows him to be exempt from being prosecuted for any future crimes while in office.

Italy, like most European countries is dealing with a large influx of immigrants. This influx of immigrants have triggered xenophobic reactions from some Italians and fueled the creation of more post fascist political parties like Forza Nuova. Although immigrants only make up 6 percent of the population of Italy, they account for over 10 percent of the work force. Like immigrants the world over, these workers are a pool of low wage labor that is allowing the Italian economy to limp along in any economic growth they can manage.

The below picture is from political poster that says Italy should be free of immigrants.



As America was able to gain much of its economic prosperity and growth in the late 19th and early 20th century from immigrants, more Americans should be concerned at the xenophobic attitude of some of the political parties such as Forza Nuova and Alliance National.

The Return of Fascism in Italy Part 1

On Saturday 25 April, Italians celebrated Liberation Day, a celebration to commemorate the liberation of Italy from the tyranny and oppression that fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his German allies inflicted on the Italian people during the years of World War II. This holiday however continues to be a bittersweet celebration for Italian communist party members and the original party members who fought against fascism in World War II and the brutal treatment the occupying German forces inflicted upon Italians.

While most Americans know of American forces fighting in Sicily and landing in Anzio, most Americans are unaware that from 1943 to 1945, anti-Fascist Italians and members of the communist party in Italy were killed by German soldiers and supporters of Mussolini’s Salo Republic. The military alliance that fascist leader Benito Mussolini made with Adolf Hitler also resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Italy. During the resistance movement by Italian and Partisan forces, German and Italian Fascist soldiers committed a number of war crimes such as summary executions, ransacking, and the retaliation against civilians for partisan attacks. Some of the most notorious events were the Ardeatine massacre, the Marzabotto massacre, and the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre.

As a direct result of the military alliance between Mussolini and Hitler, the most brutal example of the numerous war crimes during the Resistance movement, was the Marzabotto massacre, where over 770 Italians were killed in a mass murder. Among the victims, 45 were less than 2-years-old, 110 were less than 10-years-old, 95 were less than 16-years-old, 142 were more than 60-years-old, and 316 were females, in addition to five Catholic priests.

During the Resistance and the era known as the Italian Civil War, the Italian Communist Party put aside its social and political goals for national unity in the fight against the Nazis and fascism. This later proved to be a fatal error on the part of the Italian Communist leader
Palmiro Togliatti, as the opponents to the Italian communist party such as the northern capitalists, southern landowners, the allies, the Catholic Church, the King of Italy, and the leader of the interwar government in Rome all acted, decided, maneuvered, and pursued their own political and social goals.

As a result of this, the Partico Communist Italia (P.C.I) was a casualty of the post World War II geo-political battle between the Soviet Union and the United States, where American leaders treated all left wing political parties as the enemy. This unfortunate classification by American leaders punished Italian communists during the Italian First Republic era (1947-1993) by encouraging the conservative Christina Democratica (DC) government who the United States supported after the war, to exclude the communist party from any post war coalition government in Italy. Even though the members of the DC did little during the resistance, the United States rewarded this conservative political party with its support after the end of the war. Even though sacrificing tens of thousands of men in the Resistance against German occupation, and averaging over 27 percent of the population voting for the communist party during the era of the First Republic, the Christian Democrats excluded the communists from government their entire time in power.

Corporate Welfare instead of good governance in America

With another two billion dollars of tax payer money being thrown at GM, republican leaders that had the majority in Congress in addition to democratic leaders where the auto industry is located, should be held responsible for their failure to enact tougher fuel economy standards on American auto manufactures. The failure to regulate the auto industry, just as the failure to regulate the financial industry, has contributed to the longest and most severe recession since the Great Depression. Unlike the politicians who drift whatever way the wind is blowing, this political analyst has a long documented track record of encouraging more oversight and regulation of businesses with the goal of having the best interests of the country in mind.

In a letter dated July 24, 2005, I wrote to Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and thanked him for his support of an amendment to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFÉ) standard on American auto manufactures. This letter demonstrates my ability to identify the selfish interests of Carl Levin of Michigan and the fear-mongering tactic used by the Republican Senator from Missouri, who said that any tougher regulations on the car industry would result in job losses.

Thank you for your support of amendment # 902 in support of raising the CAFÉ standard in motor vehicles. I found your speech supporting Mr. Durbins amendment to be an excellent example of trying to confront the problem of fuel efficiency of vehicles in a proactive intelligent manner, as apposed to the typical republican message of fear and ignorance that Kit Bond of Missouri gave or the selfish interest as Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

The senator from Missouri and Michigan both spoke of American jobs being lost if CAFÉ standards were raised. Their logic is flawed in this argument with the recent announcement of GM and Ford where over 26,000 jobs are being eliminated. These jobs cuts were not a result of higher CAFÉ standards but a direct result of slower car sales of higher gas burning vehicles and the fact that Ford and GM do not offer the American consumer a product that is of the same quality for the same price.

The failure of American officials to encourage more fuel-efficient vehicles through stricter fuel economy standards has caused the auto industry to the brink of bankruptcy. Perhaps if more congressional leaders like Carl Levin from Michigan studied the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, maybe more workers that are American would still have a job and America would be producing cars the rest of the world wants. As The father of modern day political science, Nicolo Machiavelli, explained to Prince Lorenzo de Medici in his book “The Prince” ,"It is better to be feared than loved, more prudent to be cruel than compassionate."

Mr. Levin and the other elected officials from auto producing states however cannot be wholly responsible for the implosion of the American auto industry. The entire government has to take responsibility for their role in the collapse and their own greedy behavior in regards to the money they take from auto industry lobbyists. While some people have tried to regulate and stop the flow of money from the lobbyists in Washington D.C., the time has come for a viable third party in America to emerge and break the monopoly of power the two party system in American politics has.

The chauvinistic and condescending attitude Italian political leaders have towards women.

The calendar may read 2009, but Italy is still living in the 1950s. Maybe that explains why any visitor to Rome will see scores of the 1953 classic movie, Roman Holiday being sold in every souvenir shop.

The most recent example of this was the decision by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, to nominate several beautiful film actresses and beautiful women television stars as candidates to represent Italy in the European Parliament. Long seen as a clown in the international press, this latest political stunt by Berlusconi however demonstrates the chauvinistic and condescending attitude Italian political leaders have towards women.

Due to the power of the political party, where members join at an early age and work their way up the ladder, the Italian political system is a male dominated elite that smothers initiative and change in order to perpetuate its own power. Some 60 percent of Italy’s politicians and union leaders are over the age of seventy. In addition to the rampant corruption and incompetence this fuels, the Italian political system also has the lowest amount of female participation compared to any European country. While Berlusconi may say he is nominating these women to serve in the European Parliament to put a fresh face on people representing Italy, the real tragedy is that he is not changing anything for his own country.

In contrast to the mockery and utter contempt, Berlusconi is showing for the quality of the people he is nominating for the European Parliament elections, a former anti-corruption judge who helped persecute Berlusconi’s corrupt political friend Benito Craxi, Antonio Di Pietro is running in the same European Parliament election. However, while most other countries would support a former judge and honorable man as Antonio Di Pietro, Italy is not your normal country.

The latest nomination by Berlusconi highlights why Italy is a flawed democracy and becoming more so each year he is in power. None of the women he has nominated has any political experience, and like Berlusconi when he first entered politics in 1993, all come from the entertainment and media world.

Paul Ginsborg, a respected academic scholar and an expert on Italian history and politics, once labeled Silvio Berlusconi as an enemy of democracy. With control of a large percentage of the media and living in a country where seniority and patronage outweigh merit and skill, the latest political stunt by Silvio Berlusconi demonstrate why Mr. Ginsburg’s analysis has some merit.

The steady evolution of corporate power into a political form

Future historians when they examine the rise and fall of the American Empire, will most likely link the power of the private corporation in America to the deterioration of democracy in America. As a country already ranked as only the 20th most democratic country in the world, the continued involvement of lobbyists representing corporations that are undemocratic institutions into themselves, is a harbinger of the future of American democracy.

As a corporation charted in America was declared by the Supreme Court to be an individual, the corporation has not acted like a good citizen and individual when it comes to democracy and human rights. This was demonstrated in 1934 in America when a group of capitalists whose interests were threatened by the New Deal legislation that F.D.R was enacting, wanted to install a military dictator in the White House, who would have been favorable to their interests.

In an interesting link to the current military petroleum industrial complex, the US general that the capitalists in the Great Depression tried to recruit was a long time ally of US corporations. During his military career, U.S. Marine Corps General Smedley Darlington Butler by his own accounts, helped pacify Mexico for US oil companies, Nicaragua for US Sugar interests, and Honduras for United States food companies. When considering this information, you begin to understand why Dick Cheney’s company, Halliburton, where he was a CEO of, was rewarded a multi-billion dollar no bid contract in Iraq in 2003. The owners of capital in America learned it was much easier to have your men in power inside the government. Obama and his inner circle of advisors with close ties to the financial industry is the latest example of the weak state of American democracy.

The collusion between corporate America and elected government leaders is eroding democracy in America is causing America to follow a more ideological path of fascism and its sister ideology corporatism. It becomes clearer when you consider the path America is embarking with the privatization of public services and functions such as public schools and the voucher program, to the use of military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to public schools, even the latest killing of a contractor working for a company that issues traffic tickets in Arizona, highlights the continued privatization of government services to private corporations.

Long time followers of the blog will know that I supported Dennis Kunichich and Ron Paul during the 2006-2008 presidential primary races. As we have seen the candidate Obama change positions on issues such as the Iraq War, lobbyists in government, and his support of stronger gun control laws, it would have been interesting to watch and see if these two radical candidates from the political left and right in America would also have been corrupted and influenced like Obama has.

I discovered a short video I hope you will watch that demonstrates why Ron Paul would have been a great President.

With a last name like Paul, how can he could not have been a great president.

Actions speak louder than words

As the old saying goes: Actions speak louder than words.

There could be no better phrase that explains how politics and the actions of politicians work. Case in point is Barack Hussein Obama’s recent appearance and speech at the icon of the National Security State, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Although most of the coverage surrounding this event on Monday centered around the use of water boarding and the release of Bush administration memos in the process, the underlying and more powerful message being sent to the people at the CIA and the national security state is that his administration will not challenge the status quo power of the national security state. This decision by the Obama administration will only further accelerate the demise and the eventual collapse of the American republic. Living in a former empire, I know one day that the Mall in Washington D.C. will one day look like the ruins of the Roman Forum.

While most of the press coverage may discuss and try to focus the debate on the legality of the use of torture and if water boarding should be used or not, the real issue of the secret budget of the CIA which violates the US Constitution, will go on un-debated and discussed in the public forum.

Instead of discussing the current topic of day in regards to the CIA, maybe more Americans should demand their elected leaders’ answer why they are not upholding and defending the United States Constitution. Just as brave American men and women serving in the US military have taken an oath to defend the US Constitution, so too have American elected officials serving in the Congress.

It is time more Americans point out to their elected officials in Washington that the democracy the fore fathers of America had intended for them is being subverted and weakened by the actions of American officials in their quest for secrecy.

The United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7, clearly states that all money should be accounted for by the Congress. The Constitution writes:

“No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time”

The latest actions by the Obama administration make it evidently clear that both political parties act in collusion to weaken the power of the people by engaging in propaganda style policies and protect the elite against the mischief of a democratic majority.

James Madison once said that “a capable set of men understand that the role of government is to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority”

For all those naïve Americans who thought that Obama was going to bring any real change for the good of the American republic and the institution of democracy in America, perhaps this may change their expectations.

For those readers who have read this far, I leave you with a great video by the late George Carlin on American politics.

Enjoy.

A deficit of Democracy in America

Like the ever-growing federal government budget deficit and the economic risks it carries, Americans are also suffering from the negative consequences of a deficit of democracy in America. In a country that tries to claim to be the standard-bearer for democracy, a close look at the institution of democracy in America exposes some of the reasons why America is ranked the 20th most democratic country in the world and suffering from a deficit of democracy.

When America is compared to European countries where a large concentration of liberal democracies are located in the world, some of the reasons why American democracy is facing a democratic deficit become clearer. One such example includes the high ratio of Americans serving in prison. According to the US Dept of Justice website, there are over two million Americans serving in prison.

At midyear 2008, there were 4,777 black male inmates per 100,000 black males held in state and federal prisons and local jails, compared to 1,760 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 727 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.

While some people may question why the prison population can be associated with a democracy deficit in America, consider the fact that the millions of Americans serving in prison or the ones who have been released are disenfranchised from the election process. In some states, a past conviction, even for a non-violent drugs offence, is enough to remove a person from the franchise for life. Further supporting this thesis of disenfranchisement of the blacks and lower socio-economic classes in America is the observation of residents living in Washington D.C. the nation’s capital. For the readers who may not be aware of the fact, residents of Washington, D.C., are still not allowed representation in Congress.

Another factor contributing to the democracy deficit in America is the composition of the United States Senate. In this elite club of just 100 members, each state in America is allocated two seats in this exclusive club. This allows the same representation of California’s 32 million people as it does to Wyoming's 500,000. Since the more populous states tend to be those that contain big cities and the people generally have a more liberal and egalitarian outlook, an additional factor contributing to the democratic deficit in America is how this minimizes the political power of blacks, minorities, and people from the lower socio-economic classes. If you recall, it was less than a hundred years ago that women finally earned the right to vote in America.

Part of the problem lies in the inability for elected leaders in America to question some of these issues and the wording in the US written constitution, which has remained virtually unchanged since the 18th century when it was written. Despite their admirably advanced principles, the founding fathers, being affluent, slave-owning property owners, distrusted not just executive power but mass democracy itself.

Perhaps when Mr. Obama returns to America from this his trip south of the border, he can attempt to change some of the factors contributing to the democratic deficit in America.

Blowback from the Washington Consensus

Following his recent trip to Europe, Barack Hussein Obama will be traveling to the small Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago and attend the 5th Summit of the Americas. At the Summit, Obama will encounter several Latin American leaders who have long criticized American economic policies known as "The Washington Consensus”, which was a policy mixture of free trade, privatization, and public-debt reduction. This neoliberal economic policy thrust upon the leaders of Latin American countries in the late 1980s and 1990s, resulted in economic contraction and increased levels of poverty in all the countries that implemented the policy. With the sole exception of the Uribe regime in Columbia, due to the backing of the US government, due to the flawed economic policy of the Washington Consensus, the entire region south the Mexico has shifted to the political left over the last 10 years.

Starting with Venezuela in 2002 where the CIA and the Bush administration tried to kill its leader Hugo Chavez, country after country in the region has ousted the center right political party from power in Latin America because of the Washington Consensus and the public debt reduction policies designed by the international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In addition to Mr. Chavez, who used the week before the summit to visit China, Iran and Cuba, in part to celebrate what he said was the end of American financial hegemony; Mr. Obama will get a chance to meet several other heads of state in Latin America from the political left. Some of these leaders include, Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader who battled the C.I.A. sponsored contra insurgency through the 1980s, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, the only president to have expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from his country.

Like Mr. Chavez, the President of Bolivia is from a country rich in natural resources but one of the poorest countries in the region due to decades of corrupt leaders from the elite minority. Similar to Hugo Chavez, the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is trying to pursue a policy of wealth redistribution in his country. As a member of the majority indigenous population in Bolivia, Mr. Morales is the first President of Bolivia to challenge the status quo of wealthy elites in the Santa Cruz area where a majority of the natural gas reserves are located but controlled by the minority of the population.

Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of internal resistance to the changes Evo Morales wants to make in his country. While some of the resistance has been political and limited to street protests and other forms of protest by the opposition, on Thursday the opposition appears to have gotten more desperate and has resorted to violence with a plan to kill the President Evo Morales and his vice President. Bolivian security forces however thwarted an assassination plot against President Evo Morales on Thursday, killing three people in a half-hour shootout at a hotel in the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz.

Due to the lack of news coverage by the media in America, and previous involvement of the CIA meddling in the internal affairs of Latin American countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Chile, I am inclined to believe that the opposition in Bolivia may be trying to get the help of the CIA or other intelligence services in their bid to get rid of Evo Morales.

The deafening silence of the American weapons of mass distraction media of a failed assassination attempt of a world leader is only further adding to this analysis.

History repeating itself in Minnesota

The legal precedence that republicans set forth in 2000 by turning to the courts to challenge an election, is continuing to have a negative impact on the institution of democracy in America.

It seems history is repeating itself in Minnesota where Norm Coleman the losing incumbent republican senator recently filed yet another lawsuit to challenge the results of the 2008 election where he was recently found to have lost by a narrow 312-vote margin. In a close race due to a strong third party showing, the incumbent republican senator was beaten by former Air America talk show host and former Saturday night live writer and comedian, Al Franken. Although Mr. Franken, a Harvard graduate is taking the legal fight in good stride, the reluctance of Norm Coleman to concede defeat shows how some people cannot give up power.

The legal clause enabling the political supporters of Norm Coleman to file a suit in the state supreme court and eventually the United States Supreme Court is having a very damaging effect on democracy in America. While the state legislatures who wrote the laws governing the election challenge process wanted to draft a process that was legally fair, the legislators failed to take into account how partisan politics may corrupt and damage the process.

In another example of how history is repeating itself in Minnesota like it did eight years earlier in Florida during the 2000 Bush –Gore battle, the lawyers and political strategists employed by Norm Coleman are being helped by the political party controlling the state bureaucracy. In a similar manner how Catherine Harris the Republican Secretary of State helped certify the questionable election results in Florida, the republican governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty has said he will not certify a winner until every legal challenge is exhausted.
Although a three-judge panel recently declared that the election was fair and valid, the Coleman campaign and a compliant republican governor are making a mockery of the democratic process. In its decision the judges wrote: "The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately. "There is no evidence of a systematic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures."

It is unfortunate the lack of press coverage and political analysis this election challenge is having in the weapons of mass distraction media in America. The press and the corporate owners of the cable news stations in America are again failing to discuss how political partisanship and the civil court case clause is weakening democracy in America.

This is another example of why the American political system is ranked as the 20th most democratic in the world.

The Buccaneer the Pirates had to have

On the day after Easter Sunday, the US military helped free a ship captain that was held hostage by Somali pirates. While the news of the freeing of the hostage was all the news in the US and international media, a more important and intriguing story happened on Saturday when an Italian owned tugboat with 10 Italian nationals was captured by Somali pirates. With the Italians on a four day weekend enjoying a national holiday while America and most other countries were at work, the under reported story of the captured Italian tug boat Buccaneer, highlights the lack of responsibility the Italian government is taking to fund and maintain an adequate navy of its own.

Considering that Italy is the 7th largest economy in the world , has one of the largest coastlines in Europe and possesses the two islands of Sardegna and Sicily, the Italians should have one of the largest navies in the Mediterranean. Instead, due to the aspiration of the Americans who want to continue to have the power and prestige of the having the largest navy in the Mediterranean and the world, the Italians are allowed to slack off on their responsibilities as a world economic power. This allows the Italian government to devote more of their limited national resources into more social programs to its citizens. Some of these social programs include free health care, a generous pension plan, and a high standard of living.

Making the story of the hijacked Italian tug boat Buccaneer more interesting ,is the fact that Italy has a history of negotiating with people and groups that hold their nationals hostage, so the under reported news coverage of this event may be an indication of how the Italian government plans to act. Unlike American officials who never enter into negotiations with kidnappers, Italian government officials often engage and negotiate with kidnappers. Recent examples of this include the 2005 release of an Italian reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, held by Iraqis where it is reported that the Italian government paid an estimated 6 to 8 million dollars. Unfortunately in that case, an Italian secret service agent was killed by American forces who fired over 300 rounds into the car carrying the freed journalist and the Italian secret service agent who paid the ransom on behalf of the Italian government.

The prominent American news coverage of the ship captain freed by the US military plays very well into the hands of the national security state and its need to keep the perception alive that we live in a dangerous world. However, that dangerous world the national security state and a compliant corporate news controlled US media wants you to remind you that we live in, usually consists of people fighting the US military with AK-47s and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). This was evident when Robert Gates the Secretary of Defense told an audience the following:

"Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons," Gates told students and faculty at the Marine Corps War College. "Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that."

Perhaps if the Italians were asked to invest more in their own naval forces to help patrol the world’s shipping lanes, than maybe the US tax payer and worker might be able to enjoy some of the generous social programs the Italian government and other European Union countries gives its citizens.

As the world’s seven richest economy, the Italian government can easily afford the new ships and personal to man them. If the Italian government tells US leaders it does not have the money to fund such a request, American officials should remind the Italian leaders of the 130 billion dollars of wealth the mafia controls as a good starting point for the Italian leaders to fund their own defense.

The egalitarian outlook that comes with experience

With the exception of our Greek and Russian Orthodox Christian friends, this past weekend was the Roman Catholic celebration of Easter. This recent Gregorian calendar celebration commemorates the political persecution, state sanctioned death, and eventual rebirth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Living in the capital of the Roman Catholic Church and the capital of the former Holy Roman Empire, I could not pass up the opportunity to discuss the political aspect of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the similarities his life and death share with contemporary politics.

While I do not claim to be a theologian in any sense of the term, nor any true follower of the Roman Catholic faith and its dogma, any cursory review of the political actions of Jesus of Nazareth would explain why he was a threat to the status quo in Judea and the Roman regional power to a lesser degree. The political persecution of Jesus of Nazareth by the Jewish supporters of King David and the Jewish monarchy, highlight the danger people face when they are perceived a threat to the status quo. History is littered with numerous examples of political martyrs, ranging from Giordano Bruno who challenged the power of the Catholic Church, Antonio Gramsci the co-founder of the Italian Communist Party killed by the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, to Che Guevara, killed by the CIA in 1967.

The methods may have changed since the days of the Roman Empire where persecuted people like Jesus of Nazareth were executed by the state using crucifixion; however, the underlying political message to dissidents of a government or institution remains the same.

In the case of Jesus of Nazareth, the political power that controlled the Iudaea Province, wanted to send a message to the people what would happen to any individual or group that tried to challenge the power of the state. While political killings by the state have become less explicit, state sponsored terrorism is still used by many governments to intimidate and control a population. Modern examples of this include the mass killings by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s during the Great Purge, killings of thousands of people under General Pinochet in Chile, and the recent war launched by Israeli against the Palestinians in December of 2008. With a ratio of deaths of 100:1, the subliminal message to Palestinians could not be clearer. Submit to the power of Israel or suffer the consequences.

In addition to viewing the killing of Jesus of Nazareth as a political message to dissidents of the Roman Empire, the state sanctioned killing of Jesus of Nazareth can also be interpreted as a form of capital punishment. Although the bible has numerous phrases that have been construed to endorse capital punishment, the state sanctioned killing of Jesus of Nazareth highlights the fallacy that capital punishment is morally justified and infallible. Many capital punishment verdicts in the United States judiciary system are being overturned based on scientific DNA evidence. Even the case of Jesus of Nazareth where Pontius Pilate, according to three of the four gospels in the Bible, did not believe that Jesus was guilty, should cause more Christians in the United States to question state sanctioned capital punishment.

The Colosseum in Rome, once a location for persecution and unspeakable violence against Christians, is often lit up with bright lights to celebrate a country or a state in America that abolishes capital punishment. Due to the egalitarian outlook that the European Union and Italy has from studying history, the Colosseum is now a symbol of peace and reconciliation.

While I used to view the act of the Colosseum being consecrated a church as a political expression of Christianity’s triumph over the previous political power, there may be conceivably a more admirable reason.

With the Pope presiding over a candlelit mass every Good Friday evening, perhaps the real reason is a political form of protest against wrongful persecution and the use of capital punishment.

War is the most dreaded enemies of public liberty

The honeymoon for Barack H. Obama seems to be over with an ever-increasing amount of liberal voters in America realizing what this political analyst knew even before he was elected. While this political analyst started to question the political moves by Barack H. Obama back on January 31 after he did not withdrawal the nomination of a former defense industry lobbyist for consideration for the second most powerful position in the Pentagon, I knew Obama was no agent of change. The Change slogan was so shallow and superficial I saw right through it all the way from my perch in Social Europe.

Many long time blog followers will remember that I also said that Obama campaigned in black and white, but is now governing in the grey. In a posting all the way back on January 27, in political time that is a lifetime, I said that in regards to the same issue of appointing defense industry lobbyists to senior positions in the Pentagon. Obama has made no change of the revolving door politics of the defense industry cartel. In addition to not making any change in this area, the Obama administration is also applying the same standard to wiretapping Americans and the erosion of civil liberties in America as George W. Bush did. That is why I started this posting with the middle initial for Mr. Obama.

As I pointed out in a blog posting on the path America is taking towards an Imperial Presidency, one of the consequences of a having an Empire is that a country often has to give up its democracy to hold that empire together. Many academic authors have discussed the Imperial Presidency and the US Congress even wrote a 400-page report on it. I wrote about this in a blog posting back in February called Reining in the US Presidency. The US Congress can challenge it, but as I pointed out in the blog posting, the US Congress is so partisan now; they cannot even challenge the Executive Branch because of partisan politics.

In the attached video link, Keith Olberman, one of the more respected voices in the Weapons of Mass Distraction media in America, discusses the recent Obama administration argument to continue the same standard as the Bush administration on wiretapping Americans. While the Newsweek guy discussed the politics of the CIA and how the Obama administration does not want to antagonize the intelligence services for their support in his war on terror, the News Week reporter should have been more straight forward with Olberman and his audience. Unlike the weapons of mass distraction media in America, I do not sugar coat my political analysis. The Newsweek reporter should call the CIA, the NSA, and the other 14 American intelligence Services exactly what they are. The national security state.

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Andrew Bacevich, the conservative and brilliant academic scholar on American politics recently said in an interview, that one of the institutions that benefited from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is the national security state. In addition to the corporations like Halliburton and its sister corporation KBR, who recently got awarded another contract to continue electrical work in Iraq even after 18 military members have been electrocuted by inferior and criminal negligent work by KBR, the National Security State, is the main benefactor of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

James Madison, one of the founders of the American Republic spoke about the dangers of never ending war.

In the very powerful quote, Madison said, “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few…No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare”

$ 1 trillion dollars and nothing to show for it

It was encouraging to read that Secretary of Defense (SecDef) Robert Gates has proposed to cut several costly weapons systems from the FY2010 defense budget. Some of the more notable and justifiable cuts from the FY2010 budget include the US navy’s stealth destroyer, the Air Force’s F-22 air supremacy fighter, and a new helicopter to transport the President. Many of these weapons systems are unneeded and do little if anything for the security of the United States. All of the programs are over budget, spread across scores of congressional districts, and are excellent examples of the Military Industrial Complex that Dwight D. Eisenhower discussed in his 1961 farewell speech to the nation. Perhaps, like Mr. Eisenhower, a war hero from the Allied invasion of France and commander of European Forces in World War II, at 65 years of age, Mr. Gates’ moral conscience may also be getting the best of him when he recently submitted his budget proposal. Nevertheless, like most things in politics, everything is not as it seems. The weapons of mass distraction media is failing to report that even with the cuts Gates is proposing for the Pentagon, the U.S. military budget is actually rising, to $534 billion from $513 billion, when adjusted for inflation.

The Gates budget proposal, which has a goal to purchase more intelligence and counter insurgency weapon systems, is both pragmatic and a reflection of his career working in various positions in the national security state. Since joining the CIA in 1966, Gates held numerous positions in the national security state apparatus, with positions at the Strategic Evaluation Center, Office of Strategic Research, Deputy Director for Intelligence in 1982, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from April 1986 to March 1989. During all of this time however, Gates or other senior CIA officials never predicted the demise of the Soviet Union. Gates further lost credibility with political analysts for his belief that the Reagan Administration’s pursuit of creating an anti missile defense system known, as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was instrumental in causing the internal demise of the Soviet Union.

Similar to way the American people and a naïve congress were manipulated with fear during the Cold War to justify large military programs like SDI, the military industrial complex and its allies are continuing this fear campaign by telling the American public that American jobs are at risk with any defense cuts. Probably a news release by a LA area paper sums up this fear campaign the best. In the report, the paper writes that:

A new budget proposal from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has alarmed individuals and families locally and throughout the nation. Part of that new focus means cutting out F-22 and C-17 productions, which has consequences locally. Boeing's C-17 production line in Long Beach employs 5,000 people, 1,500 of which that reside in Orange County. In total, those cuts would affect 30,000 nationwide.

Highlighting the power of the military industrial complex in America, the story further states that both a Democrat of Long Beach and a Republican of Huntington Beach plan to challenge the Gates budget in order to protect the local production lines. One reason why the SecDef may be willing to challenge the powerful defense industry lobbyists and other members of the military industrial complex, may be due to his last stint in public office in Washington.

Like the recent arrival of spring, the political move by Gates is revitalizing.

However, with the recent news of President Barack Obama seeking another $83.4 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the form of a war supplemental spending bill, this optimism was short lived. The latest spending proposal by the Obama administration will push the costs of the two military operations to almost $1 trillion since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With the exception of a few thousand politically connected people in the United States, America has nothing to show for all that blood and treasure wasted in far away countries. One can only imagine what 1 trillion dollars spent inside America could have achieved in terms of mass transit and health care for the needy, helping to raise the standard of living of tens of millions of Americans.

Using a disaster for political gain

The recent earthquake that struck Italy is a vivid example of the deadly consequences corruption in a government can have on a population. With a long history of earthquakes in her past, the Italian state failed to protect its citizens by enforcing anti-earthquake regulation that was passed by the government following the 1980 Naples earthquake that killed over 2,500 people. With a long history of illegal housing, mafia related construction companies, and a corrupt political system, the L’Aquila earthquake is stark reminder to Italians the risks they take with tolerating a corrupt political system.

Many Italians are resigned to the fact that they live in a corrupt and poorly run country. Highlighting this feeling is a remark from Franco Barberi, who heads a committee assessing earthquake risks at Italy's Civil Protection agency. In a recent interview, he said,

"Once again we are faced with the lack of control on the quality of construction. In California, an earthquake like this one would not have killed a single person."

Highlighting the inability of the government to enforce regulations is the San Salvatore hospital. According to one Italian media report, the hospital was finished in 2000. Designed to withstand the 6.3 magnitude quake that struck the area on Monday morning, part of the hospital collapsed and many of the patients had to be evacuated or treated outdoors. In addition to hospitals in Italy being built with inferior building materials and lax enforcement of building regulations, the European Centre for Research in Earthquake Engineering, said 80,000 public buildings in Italy are unsafe. Many of these buildings include hospitals like San Salvatore and public school buildings. In the not so distant past in 2002, an earthquake in San Giuliano di Puglia killed 26 schoolchildren.

While Silvio Berlusconi says the Italian state will rebuild the towns that have been destroyed, the track record of the Italian state rebuilding areas hit by an earthquake is marginally at best.

Following the 1968 earthquake in the poverty stricken area of Belice in north-west Sicily, where over 500 people were killed and another 90,000 thousand homeless, political leaders were also quick to offer aid to the people affected by the disaster. However, 9 years after the earthquake struck, there were still over 60,000 people living in the Nissen huts, which had been erected immediately after the earthquake.

Highlighting the corrupt nature of the political system here in Italy and the links to the mafia, most of the money that was approved to provide housing for those earthquake victims, was spent on needless construction projects.

Therefore, when Silvio Berlusconi says that the Italian state is going to rebuild entire towns in 24-28 months, any casual observer to Italian society would know this is unrealistic. Completing a major public works project in Italy takes slightly less than six years and costs four times more than in other European countries.

Like previous Italian political leaders have done in Italy, Berlusconi will use the latest earthquake for his own personal and political gain by giving out generous building contracts to further increase his political party’s power and control of the country.

Mr Obama should reconsider his "high opinion" of Silvio Berlusconi

Even the pro capitalist magazine The Economist, knew all the way back in 2003 that Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy. However, according to Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, United States President Barack Obama has a ''high opinion'' of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. As an American with an in depth knowledge of the Italian political leader, it is disappointing to learn that Mr. Obama feels this way.

Analyzing the remarks made by Mr. McDonough, senior level Obama advisors calculate that domestic American political opinion of Berlusconi and Italy will not play a factor in its relationship with Silvio Berlusconi. While most Americans are ignorant of the Italian leader, part of the analysis by the Obama inner circle of advisors is most likely based on their own internal poll data similar to a recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24. This recent poll, showed that only 10 percent of Americans had a negative opinion of Silvio Berlusconi and three out of four Americans had no opinion at all of the Italian leader. This is in contrast to the over 50 percent negative ranking that Berlusconi has in Europe. While President Obama is enjoying an 80 percent favorable ranking and only an 8 percent negative ranking similar to the Dai Lama, other world leaders who share a similar negative ranking include, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

To help the senior advisors to President Obama such as Denis McDonough and David Axelrod provide the President with better political advice, maybe some expert on Italian politics should explain how Berlusconi repealed some anti mafia legislation in the 1990s, which allowed for the comeback of the Mafia in Italy after several years of progress against the crime syndicate. Knowing that law abiding Americans on both sides of the political spectrum favor tougher sentences for criminals who commit crimes in America, it is very disappointing to see that Mr. Obama has a ''high opinion'' of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Perhaps the high opinion that Obama and his advisors have of Berlusconi would change if more Americans were aware of the close relationship Silvio Berlusconi has had with mafia figures throughout his financial and political career.

Due to Cosa Nostra mafia members in Sicily and his own political organization Forza Italia threatened by tough judicial reforms passed in response to the political corruption and mafia violence of the late 1980s, in Silvio Berlusconi’s first term in political power in 1993 his under secretary of justice Domenico Contestabile proposed drastically modifying the witness protection program. This program helped many anti mafia witnesses testify against the mafia in Sicily who had previously been too afraid to testify against the mafia. This legislation was one of the main reasons why the mafia in the early 1990s along with the work being done by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino was bringing the Sicilian mafia to its knees.

Using the political tactic of the bait and switch that American leaders have used in military conflicts ranging from the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to the Iraq War in 2003, Silvio Berlusconi and his political allies in Italy have used the same political tactic. In the Italian case, Silvio Berlusconi used the bait and switch tactic to modify and change judicial reforms aimed at fighting political corruption, which also helped the mafia.

Highlighting the corrupt nature of the Italian political system, even when Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia political party were out of power from 1996 to 2001, the center left government of Massimo D’Alema passed legislation, which helped the mafia to regain power in Italy. Under the guise of opening up islands off the Italian coast that were being used to isolate and imprison mafia leaders, the government in Italy rewrote the legislation for these special prisons. Some of the new legislation passed during the center left government of D’Alema included removing the Plexiglas barriers separating mafia bosses from visitors, allowing mafia prisoners to receive food from the outside, and allowing the mafia prisoners to spend more time together while in prison. This new legislation substantially weakened the efforts of the Italian police and helped the mafia in Italy to reassert itself.

American Foreign Policy history is full of examples where American leaders put American military and business interests, ahead of democracy and human rights for the people living in those countries. Some of the better-known examples include the support of the Shah of Iran, the corrupt government of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and government of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, who is known to have killed over 3,000 political dissidents in his country.

I find this remark by Denis McDonough yet another example of the questionable embrace American leaders show heads of state with low moral and ethical character.

Corruption in Italy and the double standard of the Obama administraiton

The recent G20 Summit picture of Barack Obama with Silvio Berlusconi demonstrates that there is no expert on Italian politics inside the Obama administration advising the President of the United States (POTUS). If there were an expert on Italian politics in the Obama inner circle of advisors, the political analyst would have advised POTUS to stay an arms length away from Silvio Berlusconi, as President-elect Obama did when the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, was accused of corruption. Some of the reasons for the continuing close relationship are due to American Military Industrial Complex factors and the friendly treatment Americans receive from immigration officials. While Italy may belong to the G20, the country is ranked as the 30th most democratic in the world, and the 45th least corrupt country in the world. The lack of willingness of the Obama administration to try to alter its foreign relations policy towards Italy to encourage an improvement in these critical rankings is preventing Italy from developing into a full democracy and a less corrupt government.

President Obama should be advised to distance himself from the current Prime Minister of Italy, due to Silvio Berlusconi’s questionable ties to the Mafia in Italy and his close relationship with the previous corrupt political leader Benito Craxi. Any cursory review of Silvio Berlusconi’s rise to financial and then political power, would provide numerous opportunities to question Berlusconi’s link to the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily. The Mafia in Italy is responsible for the killing of hundreds of innocent citizens in Italy in addition to several honorable Italians killed like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who have tried to challenge the power of the Mafia in Italy.


Unlike in America, where Obama quickly distanced himself from the former Illinois governor who was caught trying to profit from his ability to appoint someone to the US Senate, here in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi has further lowered the already low moral bar in political ethics, by giving seats in Parliament to his friends so they could avoid criminal prosecution. Only in Italy can someone join a government to avoid going to jail. Examples of people suspected of crimes being given public office by Silvio Berlusconi to avoid criminal prosecution include Marcello Dell’ Utri, Cesare Previti, and Massimo Maria Berruti.


The utter contempt that Berlusconi shows for democracy and the rule of law is evident when he put his own criminal defense attorneys Gaetano Pecorella and Niccolo Ghedini up for seats in Parliament and then appointing them to the Justice Commission of Parliament. Gaetano Pecorella who was Berlusconi’s lead defense attorney was appointed as President of the Justice Commission. During the early 2000s, Berlusconi’s lawyers would fly back and forth between Milan and Rome, part of the week defending Berlusconi in court, the other part of the week, drafting legislation that help their clients get off the legislative hook.

Perhaps the Obama administration is unwilling to hold Italian political leaders to the same political standards as they are held accountable for in America, due to the long history of political corruption in Italy that America did little to discourage. By discouraging, I mean to withdrawal military bases out of Italy and the thousands of jobs they offer to the Italians and the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development in the towns where these bases are located. In addition to the withdrawal of American military expenditures in Italy, the United States should also use its weight inside the UN system to relocate the UN agencies located in Rome.

As an American, it is very disappointing to see any of my elected officials like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi meeting the likes the corrupt mafia tainted thug of Silvio Berlusconi and the neo-fascist, Gianfranco Fini.

Democracy is an illusion

One disappointing figure the weapons of mass distraction media is failing to report is the over all percentage of the world’s countries that the Group of 20 countries represents. If you consider that there are over 168 countries in the world, having only 12 percent of the global community have a say in how wealth should be created and distributed in the world, does not seem to be morally right.

According to the G20, member countries represent around 90 per cent of global gross national product, 80 per cent of world trade (including EU intra-trade) as well as two-thirds of the world's population. G-20 supporters believe that this economic weight and broad membership gives it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system.

A small fraction of the total amount of countries in the world, managing the global financial system is morally wrong. Does this mean that the G20 and the countries and institutions that belong to this elite group of counties in the entire world, believes that business and wealth is more important than democracy, equality, and what is morally right.

Many countries are not a part of this elite group of countries. Some of the countries not a part of this elite group include Egypt, Pakistan, Chile, Libya, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, and Venezuela. While the list could go on, five of the previous eight countries listed are all energy producing countries. Excluding these countries from the elite membership of the group of 20 summit, may undermine the interests of the countries not invited to the elite G20 club and give other countries inside information further enriching their economic power at the expense of the other countries.

Instead of groups like the G20 being created, perhaps the world leaders could use the pre existing international organization, the United Nations to discuss economic issues.

At least this forum would allow all countries in the world to be involved and aware of what is being discussed.