Berlusconi went over the top on the Italy's main infotainment show the other day. He has now invented a picturesque cabal called the Red Pentagon which consists of red finance, red judges, red coops, red communes and the red ex-reds (PCI-PDS-DS). He neglected to mention the red regions after his unprecedented lose last year. Now that the red judges have archived his unsubstantiated claims related to private dinner chatter he now accuses the coops of being in collusion with the camorra.

This is very promising for B watchers who are all too familiar with his pre-emptive smear tactics. If B is accusing the left of association with the camorra, one can reasonably assume that there is already an investigation underway that involves the camorra and his party, if not himself. Once the hypothetical investigation breaks, he can bray about "clockwork justice", "communist conspiracies", and do the outraged victim routine, preferably on all channels, prime time.

Berlusconi omitted to mention that his red judges are responsible for having uncovered the red Unipol scandal.

Mamma Rosa, B's venerable Mum just turned 95 the other day. We wish her the best. A comic did a sketch on her for her birthday bash for us plebes who weren't invited. Apparently it was funny by regime standards.

Senator Fabrizio Cicchitto, played at being indignant and offended over this clear lack of taste and respect. Cicchitto, for those who would like to know, is an old P2 hand like Berlusconi himself. The P2 was a subversive Masonic lodge that sub-contracted murder, terrorism and corruption from mid-sixties throughout the eighties, both in Italy and South America.

Speaking of subversive lodges, Gaetano Saya is in the news again. He's the extremist wingbat who put together his own subversive parallel police ring that was busted up last year. Italy produces criminal organizations and militia-cake lodges on an industrial scale. His site was ordered down last year for inciting hate and racism but he has now cleaned up his act with a soft-sell version. Anyway, Gaetano founded his own little fascist party- pardon, New Right Party-  the Nuovo MSI. Since he was under house arrest for a while (Saya claimed it ended on January 1st; however he was ordered by the court not to speak in public last July), his wife, Maria Antonietta Cannizzaro, handled proselytizing to the Faithful- and received a Helping Hand from the Saviour of the Nation last October. Antonietta passed a pleasant hour with Cavalier B and should officially enter B's rightwing coalition along with the other representatives of the lunatic fringe, such as the closet goose-stepper, hammerhead Roberto Fiore, who systematically attempts to stage Nazi rallies throughout Italy. The veteran fascist pistolero, Pino Rauti, is on boat along with Miss Mussolini. Everything goes in the final battle against the malignant Romano Prodi and his Islamo-communist hordes.

By the way, this reminds me that Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League thought so highly of B that he awarded him the "Distinguished Statesman of the Year Award" in 2003, despite international outcry by just about everybody who still possessed critical faculties at the time. But what the hell, it makes up for that lost Nobel Peace Prize. Silvio just didn't cut the ice with the Norwegians in that neck-to-neck with Jimmy Carter.  B of course was nominated candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2002 for his obvious merits. Well, almost. He is by his own account a tireless harbinger of peace who has resolved conflicts throughout the planet, even between Putin and Bush, but certainly not his own mundane conflicts of interest. Just doesn't have the time. The Right Honourable Antonio Gentile, Senator from Calabria for B's personal political entity put the petition together. We hope Antonio got a gold rolex for his noble efforts from the man in person.

It appears that being top wizard in a subversive Masonic lodge has its benefits. Even Venerable Master Licio Gelli would have us believe he was nominated for the Nobel in Literature in 1996, between one trial and another for bank cracks and train station massacres. Alas, it's news of the last hour that his famous Villa Wanda, confiscated by judiciary sentence to pay off the Calvi Bank bankruptcy, is up for auction. Let's hope Berlusconi can cook up another ad personam law before his personal parliament closes to solve Licio's housing problems.

Rumours have it that B is in pole position for Secretary General of the UN when Kofi Annan steps down this year. After all, it's Continental Europe's turn to express a candidate for the job, and no one is as qualified as B to fill the post. At least he'd get the hell out of Italy for awhile.

The most hated newspaper in Italy

Once the staid communist party organ, l'Unità went out of business in 2000, but was back on the stands after three months with a new owner. The new director was Furio Colombo, long-time professor of journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism. He brought fresh air, a new way of making journalism in Italy that recalled the blunt, no-frills style of reporting that was once a hallmark of American and English reporting (Guardian, Independant).

L'Unità is uncompromisingly against Berlusconi and everything he represents, whether it be his mafia henchmen or the vapid pornocracy that now permeates the state and the airwaves.

For Berlusconi l'Unità is an obsession. He rails constantly against the paper, accusing it of preposterous crimes and instigation to murder. Not to be outclassed by Hussein of Jordan or Hassan of Marocco, he has announced that he's had forty attempts on his life, some of them instigated by l'Unità. His genial pundit and gargantuan slob, Giuliano Ferrara, went on a prime time rant accusing l'Unità and Antonio Tabucchi of being the "linguistic commissioners" of his prospective murder.

For someone who has survived unlimited lunch breaks at Pierre's and lugging suitcases full of money around, Giuliano's rage seemed out of place. It certainly has not addressed the arguments brought up by l'Unità such as Berlusconi's durable and mutually profitable relation with the mafia.

As part of Berlusconi's electoral strategy, he has engaged a brutal attack against l'Unità on prime time, in courts and before the journalists' syndicate.

Sadly, last Friday evening the mafia may have exploited the atmosphere.

In Corleone, the mafia burned two cars as a warning. One of them belonged to Dino Paternostro, a correspondent for l'Unità. Dino had published a book two months ago about the Corleone mafia and its involvement in subversive coup attempts against the Italian state. The book did not reveal much that was not already known, but may have brought unwelcome attention. Dino is also involved in labour union activism in Corleone and is presently investigating the waste management business there.

David Lane of the Economist was present in Corleone to attend a public rally of solidarity. If many Italian papers won't discuss these mafia intimidations, at least there's the Economist.

Dino has said he will not cave into intimidations and will continue his investigations. A new edition of his book will be on newsstands in the days to come.

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For previous diaries on Gaetano Saya and his parallel police (DSSA) go to:

Breaking in Italy- Blitz against subversive parallel police by de Gondi

Breaking: Italian fascist spy network possibly linked to US intelligence by paper tigress

The Plot Thickens by Hannah K O'Luthon

Another Operation Gladio? by gilgamesh.

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For a background primer on the upcoming general elections in Italy, see this Wikipedia article.

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The Osservatorio di Pavia Media Research Center monitors televised political communication on a permanent basis since 1995 on all national broadcasting companies. Since 1999 it also monitors agenda setting for all televised news. The site also has some interesting lexical analysis (Alceste 4.0, out of Toulouse of all places) in English of the Kerry-Bush debates for those interested in ancient history.