As an Italian-American who has lived in Italy and knows how corrupt and political everything there is, I am embarrassed by how long it took to free Amanda Knox, who was convicted so Draconiously on almost no evidence and completely concocted xenophobia.  I hope she is forever rewarded for her endurance of being used as a ploy by the Machiavellian prosecutor who sought to use her as a scapegoat for a horrific murder she had no reason nor no ability to commit.

Lest we forget that her boyfriend at the time of the killing, an Italian national, was also targeted, for being with what the media there considered a party girl harlot.  He too was freed today.

This is not like the OJ Simpson trial where someone was acquitted finally after there was no explanation on how the victim died.  There has already been a drifter drug dealer who had both the motive and the gender to rape and mutilate the poor roommate of Amanda.  In this case he was tried and convicted with sound evidence long ago.  Why the Italian tribunals had to create a conspiracy out of thin air for two other college students to have been involved is the fodder of garbage tabloids.  Finally in the appeal some science was used and it was because of the diligence of those who had some common sense that Amanda and her boyfriend were exonerated.  It remains to be seen if the propaganda in the Italian press will admit their mistake and correct the embarrassing excuse they have for a legal system.

I usually agree with 99% of what Religulous filmmaker Bill Maher says and 95% of what Michael Moore says, and I still don’t consider myself to be that liberal. The U.S. population is just artificially puritanical.

Bill Maher let mainstream Republicans and conspiracy theorists have it in a major response rant to the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden (reposted via Politicus USA):

“Now that it’s become clear that the Republicans, the fiscally conservative strong on defense party are neither fiscally conservative nor strong on defense, they have to tell us what exactly it is they’re good at. It’s not defense. 9/11 happened on your watch, and you retaliated by invading the wrong country, and you lost a 10 year game of hide and seek with Osama Bin Laden, and you’re responsible for running up most of the debt, which more than anything makes us weak.”

“You’re supposed to be the party with the killer instinct, but it was a Democrat who put a bomb in Gadhafi’s bedroom, and bullet in Bin Laden’s eye like Moe Green. Raising the question how many Muslims does a black guy have to kill in one weekend before crackers climb down off his ass? Let’s look at some facts. Now for you Fox News viewers feel free to turn down the sound until the flashing facts light at the bottom of your screen disappears.”

“Nuke the Whales” is an attention-grabbing bumper sticker that my dad had at home (he wouldn’t dare put it on his car) because he found it to be so ironic.  He loved pumper stickers.  I’ve been meaning to chime in about the devastation caused by Mother Nature in Japan.  I’ve shed many tears watching so much of the footage.  I know more people died in the Indian Ocean calamity a few years ago, but I don’t think there was nearly as much footage or visible understanding of the death toll (the numbers were mind boggling) and the shoreline damage.

It’s amazing to me how the politics in Japan have sought to blame the privately-owned power company that owned the nuclear plants and the executives and their families in particular who cared more about profit (which is what private companies do by definition) than safety and contingencies such as this.  I don’t think death threats are warranted, but there have been many because of the sheer frustration and lack of accountability.  I don’t think there should be any protest by the entities to the power utilities becoming government-run going forward, so that the safety of Japan’s people is put before everyone.  It still remains to be seen just how much death and illness will result from the radioactive fallout, but my heart goes out to the people and entire families that were simply washed away to their deaths.

It’s unimaginable, but I’m very happy to see many countries come to Japan’s aid, just as we came to Haiti’s aid.  Last night I spoke to my friend who works for the Red Cross about the challenges to helping these countries in the crisis periods and he said that they have people on the ground, but at times like this while the best thing they can do is channel money to the areas.  I know Japan is probably the most high-tech country in the world, but with their electricity output seriously compromised, there is still a “need” for other countries to gather resources and concentrate on the immediate crises at hand.

I’m in uncontrollable tears after watching some of the news about Libya today.  I just watched on the news children in bandages in smaller cities of Libya with shrapnel in their heads and limbs!  Who knows how many were killed instantly?  What do these kids know about what’s going on?  Most of them didn’t even look ten years old, and here they are wanting to play and smile for the camera, through their injuries!  To add insult to injury, medical supplies can barely get to them (thank you to Italy and Germany for going through the ship blockades).  And what about the thousands of non-Libyan refugees who are surviving on nothing near the ports waiting to get the hell out o there?  These people in these towns that are vacillating between rebel and Quadafy forces are the worst victims.

Too bad if it seems “imperial” that we are interested in doing more than helping with the no fly zone to save lives of our fellow humans, especially the innocents.  Apparently it’s not enough to stop the bloodshed and I don’t give a fuck about the deficit!  If NATO cannot remedy the situation, then more American involvement is perfectly okay with me!  The money and power in Libya is still on the side of an insane, decrepit dictator and his blond bombshell prostitute body guards from Eastern Europe.

I can’t believe that there are people (extreme left and extreme right) who are drawing comparisons to our involvement in Libya with Iraq and Afghanistan.  Perhaps some are people more liberal than me (it could happen!) who are hippies who don’t believe in “war” under any circumstances but this is a rescue mission!  Conservative pundits who are looking for ways to criticize Obama, without any regard for the suffering he is trying to avoid by helping the rebels.

Have these American critics on both side of the aisle forgotten their recent history? Afghanistan’s extreme sharia former government was sanctioning Al Queda training camps so we had a legitimate interest in stopping that from happening after our country was attacked.  I witnessed the demolition of two outstanding towers in downtown Manhattan.  That wasn’t even a war against the Afghani people themselves, the majority of which I doubt had any knowledge of what had transpired.

Iraq was completely bogus and an attempt at Bush Jr. to save his father’s purportedly good name.

The true comparison is like the former Yugoslavia and President Clinton having us go in there, NOT for economic interests, but to avoid genocide!