R i g h t a r d i a

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.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Intrade Update: Sotomayor confirmation and 2012 Republican nominee

Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to approve Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. The 13-6 vote, largely along party lines, clears the way for a full Senate vote and her likely confirmation.

How many Senators will vote to confirm Sotomayor? Our market shows a 95.0% chance she will receive at least 65 votes and a 20.0% chance of receiving 70 or more votes.

2012 Republican Nominee

The resignation of Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska has ignited speculation she intends to run for president in 2012. There has been no official announcement from last year's Republican vice-presidential nominee but she remains the most traded potential candidate in our market for the 2012 Republican nominee.

Palin is given a 15.5% probability of securing the nomination, some distance behind market leader Mitt Romney on 33.9%. Other current contenders include Bobby Jindal (15.9%), Newt Gingrich (14.4%), Mike Huckabee (13.9%) and Tim Pawlenty (12.1%).

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Is the US ready to go big time with soccer?

Sepp Blatter, the President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), discusses soccer with the Wall Street Journal.

If the US wants to be an international player and enhance international diplomacy, soccer is an excellent way to do it. Soccer is a true international sport unlike baseball and American football.

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The Republican view of US health care

Why is Obama trying to change the status quo? Nurse Ratchet and I don't want the Democrats to ruin "the best health-care system in the world.*"

* The World Health Organization ranks the US dead last in the 23 industrial nations of the world. The US is ranked 37th in the world behind France (no. 1), the UK (no. 18) and Canada (no. 30). US health care costs twice as much as most of the other industrial nations.

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DOJ Tells UBS They Must Release Names Of 52,000 U.S. Tax Cheats

By Logan Murphy Wednesday Jul 01, 2009 12:00pm

It is curious that this AP article left out one aspect of the UBS scandal -- the role former GOP Senator Phil Gramm may have played in their illegal activity.

As Jon Perr wrote earlier this year, Gramm was instrumental in handcuffing the IRS while he was in the Senate, and may have paved the way for UBS to commit their crimes once he became their Vice Chairman in 2002.

Also, the Department of Justice has already convicted two of the UBS tax evaders.

As the Justice Department said: "In 2004 alone, Swiss bankers allegedly traveled to the United States approximately 3,800 times to discuss their clients' Swiss bank accounts.

The information further alleges that UBS managers and employees used encrypted laptops and other counter-surveillance techniques to help prevent the detection of their marketing efforts and the identities and offshore assets of their U.S. clients."

It is hard to believe that Phil Gramm was not aware of the UBS tax evasion scheme.

MIAMI – Swiss bank UBS AG "systematically and deliberately" violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers to recruit wealthy Americans interested in evading taxes and must be forced to reveal the identities of 52,000 of those clients, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday.

The filing, which comes amid several published reports that the case may be near settlement, urges U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold to hold UBS accountable for conducting years of illegal business on U.S. soil — business that earned the bank more than $100 million in fees but cost the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.

"It is time for UBS to face the consequences that it has brought upon itself," said Justice Department tax attorney Stuart Gibson in the 55-page filing. "The United States has proven its case for enforcement."

source: http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/doj-tells-ubs-they-must-release-names

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/endgame-for-gramm_b_187004.html

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China Daily view of Africa

source: China Daily

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China cracks down on human rights lawyers

One lawyer said 70 per cent of rights lawyers had been harassed

The authorities in China appear to have mounted a sweeping crackdown on human rights lawyers, revoking the licences of more than 50 lawyers in the past week.

The lawyers handle a wide-range of cases, from families affected by last year's tainted milk scandal, to Tibetan and Uighur rights and the representation of prominent dissidents.

But the government's crackdown has now forced many of these law firms to the brink of closure.

One such firm is the Yirenping Centre, which for years has fought scores of cases of discrimination against women, gays and people who are HIV positive.

On Wednesday the authorities showed up unannounced to collect evidence and investigate supposed illegal activities.

According to officials the problem centred on the publication of the office's newsletter, which had not been given the necessary government approval.
'Increasingly restrictive'

In video

China accused of crackdown on human rights lawyers

"I suspect our anti-discrimination activities have offended many people, including big corporations, government officials, and wealthy businessmen," Lu Jun, a lawyer with Yirenping, told Al Jazeera.

Human Rights in China, a US-based rights group, said on Thursday that the raid on Yirenping showed the "increasingly restrictive legal environment under which China's civil society organisations must operate".
The raid on Yirenping is just the latest blow to the handful of organisations in China that push for social change and justice.

Last week police raided the offices of another Beijing law firm, Gongmeng, which offers legal aid specialising in human rights issues.

The raid saw police confiscate most of the firm's computers and office equipment.

In the months previously, several of Gongmeng's lawyers have had their licences revoked because of their work.

'Clear signal'

Teng Biao, one of the firm's lawyers, says the crackdown appears to be a warning to other organisations to rein-in their activities.

"The fines slapped on our legal aid office, and the possibility of our closure, would be a blow to civil society," he told Al Jazeera. "It also sends a clear signal to other organisations fighting for human rights and the public interest to be more careful. It's very worrying."

The groups targeted in the crackdown are China's social conscience.
They are the organisations which have helped families with babies sickened by toxic milk formula, or who have raised the profile of powerless groups, such as migrant workers and peasants.

Teng says the crackdown has had a devastating effect.

'Harassed'

"Most human rights lawyers are based in Beijing. And over the last few months, I'd say the effect has been huge," he says.

Rights lawyers assisted those affected by last year's tainted milk scandal

"I'm guessing about 70 per cent of rights attorneys have been harassed." In most cases the authorities are using technicalities to handicap organisations.

Gongmeng, for example, has been targeted with a tax investigation.

But with the 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China approaching – a sensitive date in the country's political calendar - what many suspect is that this is a concerted effort to silence organisations that highlight difficult issues.

The assault on these institutions means that after the dust settles, if the government succeeds, there may well be no one left to fight for the public interest.

Source:

Agencies http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/200973022215254741.html

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Editorial: Rachel on Rampant Right Wing Racism

by Rightard Whitey

Rachel Maddow is correct that right wing racism is at new heights. Richard Nixon established a Southern Strategy established in 1968 that 'whites should stick together.'

This was after President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting rights Acts that gave bare bones civil rights to blacks in the South to stop minority voter suppression. Most of the Dixiecrats then left the Democratic Party and became Republicans.

While Bush was president, the GOP tried to convince Americans that Affirmative Action and other programs that benefited blacks and other minorities was no longer needed because racism and discrimination had been eliminated in the American society.

That seemed to be born out in the election of Obama. There was little indication of a racial backlash against him because he had a black father.

Shortly after the election, an odd assortment of illiterate racists popped up on the Internet and Usenet. Obama was openly refered to as the Moon ni**er or the Kenyan Koon as well as by many other racist terms.

Rush Limbaugh referred to Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama as being racially motivated and is still continuing to fans the fires of racism. Glen Beck and a host of other broadcasters including Lou Dobbs joined in with the 'Birther Conspiracy' that an executive at MSNBC called racist. The head of CNN indicated the birther story was dead months ago.

Several racial incidents have occured in Tennessee including a RNC candidate who published a song called 'Barrack the Magic Negro.' Another GOP staffer released a photo that had pictures of all the presidents on it. The last picture of Barrack Obama was simply a black background with white eyeballs. A prominent neurologist in St. Petersburg, FL published a graphic portraying Obama as witch doctor with a hammer and sickle. An so forth and so on.

It is peculiar that Republicans are always asking the President for an apology when few have come from the GOP for all of the overt racism. It is clear the Republican Party is playing the race card in an attempt to marginalise the president. It is also clear that the US has a long way to go before racism and other irrational prejudices will be eradicated from our society.

The GOP needs to grow up.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Just so you don't forget why the Democrats are running America

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Hardball talks to former congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) about the GOP Southern Strategy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tom Davis, a former GOP Congressman from Virginia, had some tough, but sensible, advice for his party during an appearance on "Hardball" on Wednesday night. Asked by Chris Matthews if the flood of white Dixiecrats into the Republican party who joined "because of civil rights back in the '60s" is "killing" the GOP. The former Congressman honed in on how the politics of culture has wounded the GOP's mass appeal:

Politics has been defined by culture over the last few cycles, and we've become a rural party and a Southern party. We've been losing inner suburbs and the like. A lot of this was the policies of the Bush administration.

Read the rest of the article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/29/gop-rep-tom-davis-warns-r_n_247482.html

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