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.

George The Vulgar

Simple, vulgar George Bush's foreign policy is "Kill, kill, kill" and his domestic policy is "Drill, drill, drill". Those are the two primary missions of our would be emperor and chimp-in-chief. The goals were pointed out by two of the most powerful lobbys in our country---the military- industrial- complex and the fossil fuel industry respectively. And chimpy is the perfect messanger. He doesn't ask questions because he doesn't know what questions to ask. And this trait dovetails perfectly with the requirement to continue policies inspite of their real world failures.

Chimpy just landed in Rome. He will be visting Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope is the heir to the what's left of the Roman Empire. Chimpys Air Force One mentally juxtaposed to Vatican City tells a tale. The Roman Empire is now an enclave and a would-be emporer's transportation is more a sore eyeful like some graffitti on an ancient architectural wonder. Whatever the excesses and problems with the Roman's were -and there were many- the Romans did have a rich culture and style. That's more than can be said about chimpy and the Pope.