This blog is dedicated to progressive and liberal thought. It also discusses new technology, how technology affects privacy and developments in Russia, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rightardia fully supports the rights of workers to organize, the feminist movement, and all Americans regardless or ethnicity, sex or gender.It uses humor, satire and parody to expose conservative thought for what it truly is: BS! Rightardia contributes to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and MoveOn.Org.
"My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president." -Mittens
In other words, My sons joined the Mormon Foreign Legion and rode their sissy bikes all over the world spreading our non-creedal Christian faith.
That's a lot more important than serving our nation in a time of war.
Of course, Mittens is heading to Israel and Poland and you will hear him talk big how he will force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambition. This, of course, would never happen with "right wing diplomacy" if there is such an animal.
Mittens will also talk about building an ABM system in Poland that is certain to anger the Russians, who Mittens considers to be geo-political enemy number one.
Initial reports indicates most of the men were unemployed and not connected to neo-Nazi groups. The sign had been cut up into three parts to make it easier to transport.
Rightardia comment:The world is a safer place today and this move will prevent an arms race escalation. Rightardia doubts that it is coincidental that Russia cut its reserves to 100,000 men yesterday and reduced its tank order of battle from 20,000 to 2,000 tanks.
Obama is a peacemaker. Rightardia hopes that Obama gets the Jackson-Vanik amendment suspended so the US can resume trade with Russia.
The right will fall all over themselves over this. Rightardia would expect Dick Cheney and perhaps even George W. Bush, to attack the Obama decision to abandon the ABM system.
The United States is expected to abandon plans to build a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Thursday that the system would be scrapped after a review concluded that Iran's long-range missile programme was not the threat previously perceived.
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, was due to give a news conference on the missile defence programme in Washington at 14:30 GMT.
The defence shield was to have seen a battery of 10 missile interceptors deployed in Poland and a radar station built in the Czech Republic.
"The US will base its decision on a determination that Iran's long-range missile programme has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals," the Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed current and former US officials.
'Big challenge'
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Todd Kent, professor of political science at Texas A&M University, said: "It's hard to imagine they [the US] would announce they were not going to put the missile defence shield in Poland without getting something in return, as that would appear very weak.
"What they went is Russia to be able to put pressure on Iran to slow down on their nuclear aspirations, to stop the flow of arms from Russia to Iran.
"I think Iran's major ally is Russia and this is a way of putting pressure on them, I think Iran without Russia is very marginalised ... so this could be a major blow."
Kent said the "big challenge" for Barack Obama, the US president, was "how do you reassure these folks [Poland and the Czech Republic] that you've made promises to that you're going to be there for their security".
US 'failure'
A senior foreign policy adviser in Poland said it would be a "failure" of US policy in central Europe if Washington abandons its plans.
"If that is confirmed, it would be a failure in long-term thinking in the US administration regarding this part of Europe," said Aleksander Szczyglo, chief of national security at the Polish presidency.
The United States and the Czech Republic signed a missile defence deal in 2008 [AFP]
Szczyglo said the proposed missile shield had not only a military dimension, but also a "political and strategic" one. A Russian official said the decision would be "good news" if confirmed.
"If the United States is really intending to refrain from its plans to place missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic then that is of course good news," the foreign ministry source told Russia's Interfax news agency.
At an army missile defence conference last month, Marine General James Cartwright, who was tasked with dealing with the technical issues of the plan, suggested that Washington may have underestimated how long it would take Iran to develop long-range missiles.
Military officials at the conference discussed possible alternatives to the defence shield plan, including using shorter-range interceptors from other locations closer to Iran.
The proposed programme has been under review since shortly after Obama entered office in January. Russian objections
The missile defence shield prompted severe objections from Moscow, which said it was a threat to Russia's own nuclear deterrent.
Obama has tried to improve relations with Russia and the expected decision comes just a week before Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, is due to arrive in the country.
Medvedev has previously praised Obama for choosing to review the plans, though the US administration has maintained that the European missile defence plans were aimed at countering a threat from Iran and posed no threat to Russia.
The administration of George Bush, Obama's predecessor, had pushed hard for the shield, arguing that Iran was developing long-range missiles alongside its controversial nuclear programme.
But Iran denied that it was seeking to build atomic weapons and said its missiles were only for self-defence.
Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are due to start wide-ranging talks with Iran on October 1.
Rightardia comment:Bush gallivanted around Eastern Europe trying to get former Warsaw pact nations into NATO. He also wanted to install a US anti-ballistic system in Poland and the Czech Republic after he abrogated an ABM treaty with Russia.
Bush emboldened Georgia to attack Russian nationals in South Ossetia. The Russian response was swift and effectively ended Bush's aspirations in Eastern Europe to destabilize Russian security.
The war in South Ossetia resulted in a reconsideration of US policy towards the post-soviet space. "America learnt that the level of involvement they would like to have in places like the South Caucasus and more broadly in the former Soviet Union will no longer be uninhibited and there will always be consequences," said Lincoln Mitchell, professor of international politics at Columbia University.
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VILNIUS, Lithuania - The parliamentary assembly of the Organization of Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe passed a resolution equating the roles of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in starting World War II.
Only eight delegates in the 385-member assembly voted against the resolution.
The non-binding resolution calls for making Aug. 23 a day of remembrance for victims of Stalinism and Nazism. That is the day in 1939 that Germany and the Soviet Union signed a pact carving up Eastern Europe between them. Germany invaded Poland a week later starting WWII.
Russia's delegates were angered by the resolution and immediately left the assembly once it passed.
“Those who place Nazism and Stalinism on the same level forget that it is the Stalin-era Soviet Union that made the biggest sacrifices and the biggest contribution to liberating Europe from fascism,” said Russian delegate Alexander Kozlovsky.
For many years the west has downplayed the role of the Soviet Union in WWII says John Laughland from the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation in Paris.
“When you look at the history of the Second World War, the fighting in the east was of such an enormous magnitude that the fighting in the west, like the Normandy landing, pales into insignificance, they are almost non-events in comparison,” Laughland said.
“One can, of course, compare Soviet communism and German Nazism, but there’s one big difference that emerges. Hitler came to power explicitly on the basis of war and racial prosecution. Soviet communism never had a racist element in the way Nazi Germany did.”
History usually supports with the country that wins the war.
