Posted on 04/15/2006 6:15:53 AM PDT by FairOpinion
"As centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi clings to power pending a recount of disputed ballot papers, Unione leader Romano Prodi, a former prime minister, has Italo-Australian voters to thank for his knife-edge win.
Before the votes of expatriate Italians were counted on Tuesday, Berlusconi looked to have secured a one-seat majority in the Senate, which would have allowed him to force a new election if Unione gained the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies.
Then, to his fury, the votes of immigrant Italians swung the election outcome the other way. Four of the six expatriate Senate seats (Randazzo's included) and seven of the 12 expatriate lower house seats (including one held by Melbourne social worker Marco Fedi) went to the Unione. This was enough to give Prodi control of the lower house and a two-seat margin in the Senate over Berlusconi's Casa delle Liberta (House of Freedoms) coalition, led by Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia (Go Italy). "
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What is significant here, is that Berlusconi is a true capitalist, someone who understands how to fight the war on terror, and has been our staunch ally.
The left, besides wanting power in general, targeted him for defeat precisely because he supported the US.
Note that the Italian people in Italy DID reelect Berlusconi, but the left managed to get the Italian expats to vote for them and swing the election in their favor.
The reason we should care, is that the left defeated the Spanish PM, who was our strong ally, now they have just about defeated our ally in Italy. They are working on all fronts.
"While the left-wing candidates ran on a single ticket for the Unione, the conservative vote was split between five parties, including one set up in the name of Italy's minister for expatriates, Mirko Tremaglia. In Australia, more people voted for the Unione than for all the conservative parties put together. But when votes are added from Africa and Asia, Berlusconi's team would have beaten the Unione had it run on a single ticket."
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.
"We hang together, all we all hang separately", while the Dems take power.
A lesson from the Italian elections.
I'm surprised this story is not getting more play. While I wouldn't quite call this election devastating to the WOT, it certainly was a strong blow against the Good Guys.
This is why I'm somewhat dismayed to see some conservatives saying that if this vote or another vote (all of them important, by the way--not diminishing the issues here) doesn't go the right way, they'll vote for a third party candidate or even stay home. Yes, it's tempting, but it's also cutting off our own noses to spite our faces.
I'm not in favor of everything this administration has done (immigration problems being my major gripe), but all I have to do is look at the current Supreme Court--I have to realize that they are doing many of the important things this country needed to have done.
I happen to think Iraq is another--Clinton put it off and left it for the grown-ups to handle, and I pray we don't go all wobbly before it gets done.
"I'm surprised this story is not getting more play"
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This is from an Australian paper. I bet the US and the rest of the world MSM won't even mention it, they'll just report that Berlusconi has been defeated, to their great delight, without mentioning the important details.
That's why I put it into FrontPage news, because people need to know the truth.
Fortunately the US Congress doesn't assign any seats in the House of Representatives to expatriates. Of course, Americans living abroad can vote by absentee ballot if they maintain a legal residence in one of the states. (Absentee ballots coming from Israel were a factor in the 2000 Florida results.) If there were extra seats for Americans living abroad, probably most of them would go to the Democrats.
Already some of the minor parties in the Unione are starting to grumble - and then we have the hopeless situation of the Italian economy. The best thing Prodi could do would be to give up on the Euro, and reinstate a new Lira. But as former EU Commission president, he won't do that - so we will have to sit back and watch the total implosion of the Italian econoomy - poor Italians.
Italian debt rings alarm bells at EU
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Another thing to look at is the alternatives.
Could any conservative really think that Al Gore or John Kerry would be better for the country and conservative causes, not to mention the War on Terror? And the difference between President Bush and the Dems is NOT minor -- it may well mean the survival of the US, as we know it.
Carter is responsible for the Ayatollahs taking over Iran -- things would be very different, if we had a modern secular government in Iran today, as the Shah wanted.
And Clinton is responsible for Al Qaeda growing and Iraq spurning the UN resolutions.
I don't think we can afford another Dem in these critical times.
This is getting WORSE:
Apparently not only did the Italian expats vote, but they actually elected people who live in Australia, NOT Italy, to the Italian Senate.
This should not be allowed. If someone wants to be part of the Italian government, one would think they should actually LIVE in Italy.
Of course these are actual COMMUNISTS.
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Berlusconi contests election of two Australians
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18799660%5E421,00.html
Senators elected from Italy's global expatriate community - including Melbourne journalist Nino Randazzo - decided the outcome of Italy's photo-finish election on Monday.
The victory of four left-wing senators pushed Romano Prodi's Union opposition over the line, handing him a two-seat majority in the Italian Senate.
A communist social worker from Melbourne, Marco Fedi, was elected to the lower house Chamber of Deputies, where Mr Prodi holds a comfortable majority. But Mr Berlusconi is contesting the result on the grounds of "irregularities" in the expatriate vote.
Reading this other article, it seems the leftists were playing dirty tricks, there may be more votes from Australia, than there are expats there, and the leftists sent out campaign material, in Italian Embassy envelopes, making it seem as if it came from there.
So in the USA, how many of us are Americans, willing to defend our ally, Israel (and in the process, to defend our own USA from otherwise possible nuclear attacks years from now)? And how many of us have our identities stuck in some mostly anti-American "old country?"
I think this is mostly about the left trying to manipulate elections.
Do you remember that in the 2000 elections, the Dems were sending out absentee ballots to US expats living in Europe, all of whom were voting for the Dems, but most likely wouldn't have bothered to vote, except that the Dems were soliciting them. And in the meantime the same Dems didn't want to count the votes of our troops.
Ah, I see they learned from the Gores and the Kerrys.
Yes, I agree. The left does try to manipulate elections. But have a look at how some 400,000 Italians in North, Central and South America voted--collectively, pretty much the way those in Italy voted.
There's too much anti-American sentiment in all of Europe, except that most of Poland is on our side. And the most pro-American country on the planet that I know of is India. That info is from various surveys over the past few years.
The ransoms paid for the Simonas and that other chick were disgusting, too. The money went to the terrorists in Iraq!
Hopefully, western Europe will get closer to us while working on the Iran problem.
Come to think of it, nearly half of our own country is anti-American (the Democrats).
America's left wants to fight the war on terror with spitballs. Zell Miller was right!
What sort of idiotic country allows expatriates to vote? My understanding (though it may be flawed) is that these people are now citizens of other countries (in this case - Australia). So, are they allowed to maintain dual-citizenship? How stupid is that?
I wonder how many nationalized US citizens from Mexico actually maintain citizenship of Mexico too.... I thought the naturalization oath made you forsake all other citizenship, but I could be wrong.
I also know that Jewish people are allowed to maintain dual citizenship US/Israel.....
And I still don't see a legitimate purpose...
I wonder if McCain and Kerry have dual citizenship - Chi-Com/US citizens.
nice stretch in trying to apply Italy's situation to the one here.
at least there they have any number of choices and sadly like here few of any really good ones,,,
here we also have few and it seems worse choices this year, basically none that is for the people , all seem to be self absorbed and ego driven and highly monied with disdain for conservative principles as their foundations..
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