Eideard

 
Silvio Berlusconi’s scandal-ridden premiership ended in ignominy as he was forced to hide from a jeering crowd in Rome after handing in his resignation at a late-night meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano. His departure followed a historic vote in parliament that paved the way for a new government tasked with shoring up the ailing economy.

Berlusconi was forced to leave the presidential residence through a side entrance, to chants of “buffoon, buffoon” from thousands of demonstrators outside….The protesters, including a choir singing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, rejoiced at his departure.

The 75-year-old billionaire brought down the curtain on a government that has become plagued by scandals and seemed increasingly helpless in the face of the economic storm that has taken his country and the euro to the brink of catastrophe. The dramatic end of his 17-year domination of Italian politics came as the lower house of parliament approved a package of savage cuts and stimulus measures demanded by the European Union to trim Italy’s massive €1.9 trillion debt.

After losing his majority in the house, a weakened Berlusconi had pledged to resign as soon as he had pushed the reform package through parliament. The reforms were passed by 380 votes to 26. Opposition parties did not participate…

Italy’s longest serving postwar prime minister raised a toast with ministers at a final cabinet meeting after the vote, only for his car to be chased by protesters shouting “Go, go, thief!” as he left for a second meeting with party officials at his Rome residence…

The questions facing Italy, today, are the natural result of leaving the Clown Prince of Populism in place all these years. Those who vote for nationalism, imperial lies, the histrionics of a Berlu or his counterparts throughout the Western world run the inevitable risk of getting exactly what they vote for.

An incompetent, a paper tiger who buried his nation in debt and disgrace.

After 14 years as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs resigned his post on Wednesday and was replaced by Tim Cook, who previously was the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Jobs, in turn, was elected as chairman of Apple’s board of directors.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,” Jobs said in a letter addressed “to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community.”

“I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role,” Jobs wrote. “I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

“In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration,” board member and Genentech chairman Art Levinson said in an Apple press release. “Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company. Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team.”

Jobs had been on a medical leave of absence since January 2011. He continued to hold the CEO title while Cook oversaw the day-to-day operations of the company. At the time, Jobs told Apple employees he was taking a leave from his day-to-day duties to “focus on my health.”

The full text of his letter of resignation and the board of directors’ statement are here.

It’s been six years since I bought my first Apple computer. The shiny new Mini had just been introduced and offered me an affordable way to experiment with Apple’s OS X operating system Like any longtime geek, I had spares of monitor, keyboard, etc. to hook up.

I credit Steve Jobs for what he did to make that change so easy for me. As someone who’s spent a long and varied career involved with commerce around the planet, I also appreciate the cultural and social boundaries he’s set aside in the process of building Apple into one of the most successful firms on the planet.

Anti-government protesters ride through the presidential palace

The WHO got it right

Follow along at Reuters. They’re updating this page constantly.

And as ever, AlJazeera is with the people in the streets.

The new coalition government was plunged into its first crisis as the Liberal Democrat cabinet minister charged with cutting the £156 billion deficit resigned following revelations about his expenses.

David Laws, appointed chief secretary to the Treasury less than three weeks ago, stood down saying that he no longer believed his position was tenable after it was revealed that he had claimed more than £40,000 to live in his partner’s house. Commons rules introduced in 2006 barred such claims by MPs.

His decision marked a sudden and dramatic end to the brief honeymoon enjoyed by David Cameron’s and Nick Clegg’s new government. It also brought to an end one of the briefest cabinet careers in recent history…

The chancellor, George Osborne, expressed sadness at Laws’s resignation. It was “as if he had been put on earth” to do the job of Treasury chief secretary…

Uh, who was running that lift?

The die had been cast when the Daily Telegraph made the revelations on Friday night about Laws’s expenses claims, paid to his partner, James Lundie.

Laws had said he deeply regretted the situation. “My motivation throughout has not been to maximise profit but to simply protect our privacy and my wish not to reveal my sexuality,” he said…

Laws’s resignation is a massive blow to the coalition, which has made cutting the deficit its priority in office. A former investment banker with JP Morgan, Laws was seen as the man to bridge the divide between Tory and Liberal Democrat visions of how to bring the nation’s finance into better shape. His resignation will complicate already hurried preparations for the government’s emergency budget on 22 June.

Laws also came under pressure to resign from gay equality campaigners. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, writing in today’s Observer, says: “Pious political parties (that is, all of them) whisper privately that there are more gay MPs than the public imagines. But how can anyone ‘represent’ a community of interest if they’re entirely unable ever to admit that they belong to it? Some of us hope for a Britain where one day Westminster is grownup enough to select and promote politicians from all sorts of backgrounds.”

Gay Rights campaigners are perfectly correct. The parallel in the U.S. with statements from Civil Rights activists condemning Black members of Congress like William Jefferson who stashed ill-gotten thousand$ in his freezer.

Ask a Family Values’ Republican. Oh.

Ray Sansom resigned from the Florida House of Representatives on Sunday night, a dramatic decision on the eve of an ethics trial by his colleagues over his dealings with a Panhandle college.

The move, rendered in a letter hand-delivered by Sansom’s attorney to the Capitol shortly before 8 p.m., ends a career that once put Sansom at the apex of Florida politics but unraveled in scandal as he took a job at Northwest Florida State College on the same day in November 2008 that he was sworn in as House speaker.

Sansom, Republican-Destin, did not acknowledge wrongdoing but said he was stepping down out of love for the chamber. The resignation was effective immediately.

The chairman of the disciplinary panel called it the right move.

“This is a resolution that’s in the best interest of everyone involved. He is no longer a member of the Florida House,” said Rep. Bill Galvano, Republican-Bradenton…

Sansom, 47 and a father of three, will lose his health insurance benefits but will still be eligible for a pension for his time as a public servant.

He insisted he acted properly despite ample signs showing he used his power as House budget writer in 2007 and 2008 to funnel tens of millions in taxpayer money to the small college…

The prospect of a messy, public ethics investigation was something few fellow Republicans wanted to endure, and it had the potential to embarrass current and former lawmakers who would have been called to testify, including U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who picked Sansom as his budget chief when he was speaker.

And on and on. The interlocking directorate of corruption, sleaze and graft that characterizes “mainstream” American politics continues unabated.

Electing an Obama for President, a Udall for Senate – whoever – doesn’t do much to nationwide promises about ethics and democracy when the pigs at the trough are in charge of writing and administering the laws governing conduct.

Light at the end of this tunnel

A day after his cabinet collapsed, the Dutch prime minister says he expects Dutch troops to end their mission in Afghanistan in August as expected.

“If nothing else will take its place, then it ends,” Jan Peter Balkenende told Dutch television.

The cabinet fell after the two largest parties failed to agree on a Nato request to extend the tour of the almost 2,000-strong Dutch contingent…

Dutch troops have been stationed in Afghanistan since 2006. They should have returned home in 2008, but their deployment was extended by two years because no other Nato member state offered replacements.

In October, the Dutch parliament voted that the deployment must definitely end by August 2010.

Mr Balkenende’s government had not endorsed that vote, and the finance minister and leader of the Labour Party, Wouter Bos, demanded an immediate ruling from the prime minister.

When they failed to reach a compromise during marathon talks that continued into the early hours of Saturday, Labour said it was pulling out of the coalition.

Later, Mr Balkenende said there was no common ground and offered his cabinet’s resignation…

Reflect upon the principles involved in these political acts – and their absence from American and British government.

BTW – Expect to see and hear any discussion of this event on TV talk shows, today?

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter (.pdf) to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end…”

U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer,” Holbrooke said in an interview. “We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to him.”

RTFA. The breadth and range of questions being asked publicly is an indication of the transparency gained in the last election.

Support for agreement – and disagreement – with administration policies in the region are stoked by a thoughtful political act. Again, something missing in recent years.

Roy Keane has resigned as manager of Sunderland after 27 months in charge.

Keane, 37, took over in 2006 but chose to step down with the club lying 18th in the Premier League following five defeats in six matches.

“Roy’s decision sums up his desire to always do what is best for the club, despite the club’s efforts to keep him,” said chairman Niall Quinn. “Roy deserves huge respect for his contribution and the manner in which he guided the club from the depths of the Championship back to the Premier League.

“His winning mentality and singled mindedness were just what this club needed. Even in his departure he has been more concerned for the welfare of the players and his staff than himself.

I’ve just had to call my wife at work and pass along the sad news.

We’ll miss you, Roy. Hopefully, not for long.

A commander of the elite special forces in Afghanistan has resigned. Major Sebastian Morley, a reservist commander with the Special Air Service (SAS), blamed a chronic lack of investment in equipment for the deaths of some of his soldiers.

He described the failure to equip his troops with heavy armoured vehicles as “cavalier at best, criminal at worst,” the paper reported.

The Ministry of Defence and the government have faced repeated criticism from senior officers and politicians over equipment shortages in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last month, a coroner said defence chiefs should “hang their heads in shame” over the lack of proper equipment and training that contributed to the death of a British soldier during a rescue in an Afghan minefield.

The Telegraph report said Morley thought his soldiers were needlessly put at risk because they were forced to travel in lightly armoured Land Rovers rather than heavier vehicles.

The debate over where and when nations put their soldiers at risk is a separate topic. I have friends who have served in Afghanistan for more than one tour of duty and they know they have my support and respect.

Unnecessary deaths of soldiers in harm’s way is the result.