Et Tu Berlusconi?

Prime Minister of Italy ,Silvio Berlusconi got a broken nose, split lip and broken teeth from a voter in Italy yesterday in the city of Milan. That was Berlusconi's home town. In these days of would be empires e.g. , al Qaida and the United States which are projecting their aspirations among the remains of former empires -Italy's Roman Empire being the most famous- the assault on Berlusconi is worth noting. 

A quick look of Berlusoni's history on Wikipedia involves about a 2-3  foot scroll down of mostly allegations of criminal conduct without convictions. The allegations range from collusion with the Mafia in assorted schemes through corruption and bribery of the police and judges to tax fraud and criminal accounting techniques. His personal moral rap sheet is another matter.

But Berlusconi on a number of occasion has used his postion as head of state to pass laws in Italy's paliament to protect himself from prosecution and conviction. In two or three court battles the proceedings were stopped  because of a statute of limitations law that was passed by his majority in parlaiment while the court was in session.

One can understand the frustration of Berlusconi's assailant. One can hardly understand why there was only one such incident in Berlusoni's long tenure. Anyway, Berlusconi got off a lot easier than former empire dreamers Julius Caesar and Benito Mussolini did. 

All empires dissolve because of corruption. There will always be corruption . But the best way to limit it is to have more power locally so the corruption can be accessed and stopped more quickly and easily. I predict that this physical voter activism towards deseriving unindicted criminal politicians  will gain more popularity. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are on many short lists if opportunity provides an opening.

Cheney Deserves Torture With Legal Fees

Cheney is in the news again. This time he's accused of ordering a CIA "couterterrorism"program kept secret from Congress. I hope they nail the SOB. In the old days one could challenge guys like this to a duel and get some quick satisfaction. But today Cheney hides behind layers and layers of legal manuevering to avoid prosecution. Basically it's a de facto innocent until proven broke strategy . But I'd settle for his  bankruptcy from legal fees. He values money and power more than his life anyway.

I don't like lawyers. But I don't like Cheney more. Get an asshole to go after an asshole.

What If Congress Disappeared?

There's an assumption that one of the missed targets on September 11, 2001 was Congress and the Capitol. The United Airlines flight that crash landed in a Pennsylvania field was to have done that chore.

Congress now has an approval rating lower than the infamous Dick Cheney when he left office. Congress' approval rating is grasping to a 12% mark. One wonders if Al Qeada took out the 545 spending and conspiring monkeys of our Capitol how many real tears would have been shed? We will never know.

Dick Cheney's Revealing Comment

Yesterday on a Fox News interview Dick Cheney made an interesting comparison. He was defending the Bush Administration's war policies when he said, " If you think about what Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War.... [he] went far beyond anything we've done in the global war on terror".

He's right. Lincoln was acting more like Saddam Hussein's treatment of the Shiites and Kurds in his over-the-top punishment and occupation of the American South. The Civil War was not justified nor was its barbaric prosecution.
John Wilkes Booth provided some but not off setting justice to that crime. Now there was an actor who could do more than just act.

Halliburton & Citigroup: Poor Results For Their Greedy CEOs

Halliburton and Citigroup are stocks that symbolize the criminal greed of the past 8 years. Halliburton represents war for profits. Dick Cheney was its CEO before he was sworn in as Veep in 2001. Using his position of power and the life-long relationship he had with Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Halliburton was awarded no-bid contracts in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I think the war in Iraq was largely for Halliburtons benefit along with other war for profit companies.

How did the stock do in these past 8 years ? Well Halliburton was trading at $19.00 when Cheney was sworn in and now the stock trades at $16.00. So after 4200 American lives, app. 1,500,000 Iraqi lives, 2,500,000 displaced Iraqis and app. $750,000,000,000 and counting in war expenditures and 2 or 3 adjustments to asshole Cheney's heart regulator the stock is down app. 16%. How stupid can some monkeys be?

And then there's Citigroup. Under the direction of former CEO Sanford Weill who took the reins in 1998 when the stock was trading at $25.00 Weill used his connections and money to repeal the Depression- era Glass-Steagall Act which mandated a seperation of stock brokers and insurance companies with banks. The Wall Street meltdown is directly traced to the repeal of this Depression-era firewall banking act. Citigroup's stock was trding at $25.00 when Weill slid in to power. Now Citigroup trdes at $ 8.50. That's almost 60% less in value.

A quiet retirement for these 2 assholes is not what they deserve.

Thursday Morning With Dick And George

Early Thursday morning Dick Cheney bolts into the private quarters of George and Laura Bush. Laura is munching on a cold pizza and reading a tabloid. She doesn't notice Dick. Bush is snoring loudly from under his pillow.

Cheney almost yelling, " Get up you worthless son of a bitch. You got a speech to make ".

Bush flips him the middle finger and asks, " What speech you fat fuck, chosen people or lower taxes?"

Now Cheney is red in the face, " It's the ' I really mean to bomb Iran' speech, you little jerk monkey".

Bush with a particularly dense-look, " Didn't I do that yesterday?".

Cheney in a panic, " Yeah but the market is down over 200. Goldman Sachs just advised clients to sell General Motors, Citigroup and Wall Street brokers. Ya can't trust those filthy Yankees and Jews at that kike firm. Next they will advise sales on Halliburton and the military-industrial complex. We've got to beat the war drums."

Now an anxious Bush fires, " Gee why did'nt you tell me earlier? Hey Dick when I'm out of here can I still have that Dairy Queen in El Paso?"

"You fuckin' useful idiot, of course you can. But don't look for me or Rummy or your pickaninny to come by . Get dressed".

Dick Cheney Fights Whale Protection

Just when you think your opinion of Vice President Dick Cheney couldn't sink further . Up jumps Cheney's executive blocking of a National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regulation to protect right whales from sea collisions. The ship-operators lobby got Cheney's ear on the topic and asked him to use his executive authority to block the regs implementation. He has for a year and at least 3 more right whales have died because of being rammed by ocean-going ships and numerous other whales have been mangled by the vessels propellers. Right whales are extremely endangered with only 350 left after a very slow recovery from near extinction 100 years ago.

Simply the new regulation would require ships that are in right whale waters to reduce speed by app. 40% to 10 knots until they are out of whales locale. It's like cars slowing down in a school zone. The ship owners lobby say their costs of operation will go up because of the reduced speed. So The Dick's office is quoted ,"We had no evidence that lowering speeds of "large ships will actually make a difference". Arrogance and callousness thy names are Dick Cheney.

It's too bad this asshole is still alive. And not even endangered. It's easy to determine where he lives. Its' the pixelated Google maps in Northwest Washington at the Naval Observatory or his second home in St. Michaels, Maryland. Rumsfeld also lives in St. Michaels. Hey while in the neighborhood, why not stop by?