Bushism In Italy

Weazl has long suspected that the massive corruption of the criminal Bush cartel would spread its way into Europe. As weazl predicted in the last paragraph of his entry "Realignment Continues," do not be surprised if Silvio Berlusconi miraculously ekes out "victory" in the Italian elections despite only days ago trailing by a significant margin. The latest reports have the challenger Romano Prodi having eked out a small victory in the lower house while Berlusconi's Forza Italia party retains a one senator advantage in the Upper House. Yet do not expect the shenanagans to be over. The Forza Italia party is challenging the electoral count and still yet to be included in the tally are votes from Italians outside of the country who were granted the right to vote for the first time in Italy's history.

Will everything be conducted fairly? Don't expect it. Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, has been involved in almost as many scandals as his allies, the Bush crime family. He's been involved in bribing judges, asking for (and receving) immunity from prosecution, bribery allegations of the husband of a British cabinet minister, and 14 criminal cases against him, including three prison sentences (none of which he has had to serve). Despite his criminality, Berlusconi uses the court system as his personal weapon, lodging lawsuits against anyone who challenges his fraudulent authority (The Economist, Sabina Guzzanti, Marco Travaglio, Stefano Tealdi, Dario Fo, among others) . But if Berlusconi uses the courts as his personal sledgehammer, he uses the media as his personal playpen. His family controls 90% of Italian media and his abuse has been so bad that Italy's freedom of the press is ranked only as "partly free" in the annual Freedom House world report on the subject, and he has used his control to affect the outcome of elections through one sided coverage. He has used the same type of one sided coverage in the current run-off, with claims of being like Jesus Christ and promises of celibacy flooding the airwaives in his controlled media empire.

Weazl has said that this vote will simply be a referendum on whether democracy even exists in all countries in Europe, or whether another nation's democratic institutions have been simply broken for the larger aspirations of empire and corporate smorgasbords. And as of today, the day after the Italian election, it seems like the jury is still out on whether the Bush crime family still has a European alter ego. Let's hope not for long.

UPDATE

Of course, the bastard won't go down without a fight. He's willing to drag his nation even further down the political abyss for the sake of empire and the Bush criminal family, even trying to resort to the same "recount" tactics.

Get ready for Florida, Italian style.