There have been 63 (not a typo) governments in Italy since World War II, an astonishing number unless you consider that governments to Italians are what potato chips are to Americans: Bags full of empty calories that bloat the tummy and ruin their appetite for more nourishing fare. But few Italian governments have been more hapless that that led by Silvio “Bunga Bunga” Berlusconi, who regularly...

President Ahmadinejad inspects an Irani nuclear facility With United Nations weapons inspectors expected to say that they have substantial new evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear device in a much-leaked forthcoming report, is there a middle ground for the U.S. and its allies between going to war and trying to keep diplomatic channels open? The war option is favored by the usual suspects including most...

Chuck Pfarrer, a former Navy SEAL, who commanded the “same outfit” that carried out the strike on the Al Qaeda leader, has a new book out on the killing of Osama bin Laden titled Seal Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden. In it, he says he wants to eliminate some myths about the operation. Here are five “bombshells” in the new book. It’s likely some of...

India says it’s new C-17 aircraft are for defensive purposes only With the U.S. and most European countries lurching from economic crisis to economic crisis, India continues to hum along, its homegrown mix of democracy and capitalism driving a vibrant economy that is among the fastest growing anywhere, and many of its major corporations are striding ever more confidently into overseas markets. India,...

About three weeks ago, Reuters quoted Afghan President Hamid Karzai saying: “God forbid, if ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan,” Karzai also said: “Afghanistan will never forget the welcome, the hospitality, the respect, and the brotherhood showed by the Pakistani people towards the Afghan people…Pakistan will never betray their brother.” According...

With the remaining 33,000 US troops in Iraq preparing to leave, bomb blasts and a gasoline blaze in a market on this Muslim festival Sunday killed another 10 innocent persons and injured many others. The troop withdrawal was always known to be fraught with menace but things seems to be going from bad to worse. Bombings and killings occur daily as Sunni insurgents probably linked to al Qaeda and Shi’ite...

The Egyptian revolution is in gridlock. As elections loom ahead, the ruling military council is concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood will easily win more parliament seats than the secular candidates threatening the secular nature of Egypt. This weekend Islamic holiday, which centers on sacrifice and feeding the poor, offered the Muslim Brotherhood a golden opportunity. Putting to use its vast charity network,...

Pakistan has indicted 7 men in the killing of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto: This was the assassination:

Two weeks ago, I applauded as European leaders finally forced their mega banks to take a haircut. But events this week have illustrated how fragile their plan is. The union is too multifaceted to deal with the extraordinary mess the so called best and brightest have managed to create. As Tom Walkom points out in The Toronto Star, what began as a noble experiment fell victim to arrogance: The arrogance emerged...

UPDATE: I have just finished watching the CBS 60 Minutes special on Operation Proper Exit. If you have watched it, thank you. If you haven’t, please watch it when you can (I will try to have a video in the next update) It will change your outlook on these brave young men — these Wounded Warriors — who have given it their all; on war; perhaps on what life is all about … (Have a handkerchief...

OTB’s Doug Mataconis and I never agree on any thing economic or domestic – he is after all an immature Objectivist/Randian jerk; That said we usually do agree on foreign policy and war.  He has a good post today on the rumors of an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. We have reports that Israel, Great Britain and the US are planning to attack Iran.  Doug: So, expect the drumbeat of war...

For several years now, Greece has been presenting on a global stage, a never-ending “Waiting For Godot” comic-tragedy in which there is constant worldwide audience participation despite a complete lack of plot, or any ideas on how to end this story. A Greek default on its international debts may not bring down the global financial system, but it regularly paralyzes governments, bondholders, and stock markets...

Despite Booming Economy, Brazilians Rally Against Amazonian Dam by John C.K. Daley No one in the developing world is against hydroelectric projects, which bring the benefits of power and development. Except perhaps the locals. Brazil’s proposed Belo Monte Amazon dam is experiencing an “occupy” moment, with 100s of Xingu River basin indigenous peoples and riverine community members gathering to protest...

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The crisis in Greece is threatening the European and American economies. Read Andrew Sullivan’s solid roundup HERE. Also be sure to read The Christian Science Monitor’s take on the crisis.

As the world is playing catch with the events in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and other Arab Spring focal points, Iran is very busy. Trying to keep people oppressed in light of Arab Spring revolutions surely keeps the regime in Iran occupied. But more than that, viewing once strongman like Mubarak and Gadaffi defeated, jailed humiliated and assassinated is probably the strongest driver to Iran’s nuclear...

Protesters shout anti-government slogans after Friday prayers at a Damascus mosque. What is happening in Syria would appear to be pretty much a carbon copy of the bloody events in Libya earlier this year: A brutal dictator cracks down on pro-democracy demonstrations and sics his army and their tanks on protesters. A NATO-imposed no-fly zone over Libya turned the tide there and eventual forced the ouster of...

Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In a recent piece about how the GOP seems to be bent on blowing off the Latino vote, Shaun Mullen sees the Latino answer to the GOP as being “¡Muéranse!” or drop dead. I believe that the GOP begets — deserves — such a reaction because the GOP has, for years, been telling Latinos exactly the same. According to the New York Times, seven Republican presidential candidates are telling Latinos...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from John Yemma, editor of The Christian Science Monitor, who looks at the Occupy movements in the United States and Europe and asks whether we are in a new era of leaderlessness. Here’s part of his must-read-in-full post: The tea party and the “Occupy Wall Street” movements evolved on different planets, even if members of both groups sport red-white-and-blue face...

Motormouth Limbaugh Meets the Machine Gun Preacher by Michael Winship If you blinked, you might have missed a recent movie called Machine Gun Preacher. The film hasn’t burned up the box office and the title may have kept you away from your local picture palace in the mistaken belief that it was some kind of exploitation flick or the latest Quentin Tarantino exercise in post-modernism and ironic bloodbaths....

If Halloween by itself wasn’t frightening enough, this Oct. 31 has been set by U.N. demographers as the official day when the 7 billionth person will be born, as TIME says, “on a planet already strapped for resources.” No one knows where this 7 billionth person will “officially” be born, albeit TIME says he or she may be born in India, “which will be the world’s most populous nation by 2030.” Halloween...

Amid good (guarded) news from Europe and good (guarded) news from the United States on the economic front, there’s bad news coming from Spain: unemployment is continuing to rise. One of the protest movements (The Indignants movement) there is believed to have partially inspired Occupy Wall Street: Note that in Spain as in the United States they are now talking about a “lost generation” of...

You know that the going is going to be tough for the new Libya when the first thing the liberators do is sodomize the deposed dictator with a knife in a kind of revenge fantasy, when their leaders promise accountability and then refuse to fess up about the circumstances of the deposed dictators death, let alone where he was buried. If in fact he was buried. And so while I understand the request of interim...

Will Saudi Succession Impact the Country’s Energy Exports? by John C. K. Daley The death apparently in New York City on 22 October of 80 year-old Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, throws a spotlight on the question of who will succeed ailing 87-year-old King Abdullah, currently recovering from a third operation to resolve back problems in less than a year. Insiders are betting that Sultan, who reportedly...