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Why are so many (secular) Baathists leading ISIS? US deBaathification, Maliki sectarian rule. http://trib.al/ojHUp9N 

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Why are so many (secular) Baathists leading ISIS? US deBaathification, Maliki sectarian rule. http://trib.al/ojHUp9N 

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No ethics at The Mary Sue

Last week, we wrote "Oh, Mary Sue, really?" about The Mary Sue's nearly 2,000 word essay on the film Sheena: Queen of the Jungle which repeatedly misspelled the name of the film's star Tanya Roberts.


The article in question was Lesley Coffin's  "Re-View: Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, The Marvel Movie Nobody Remembers,"


And the good news?


They have corrected their error.




And the bad news?

They do not note that they did a correction.

They repeatedly got the name of the star of the film wrong and they finally correct it but don't note that they've corrected it.

For those confused, when you correct something you're supposed include a note about the error corrected.

Now Mary Sue readers -- apparently only semi-smarter than the trash that produces The Mary Sue -- took Leslie Coffin's 'facts' as real and repeatedly called the actress "Tonya Roberts" in their comments.


So now The Mary Sue has left their readers looking like idiots.

But, mainly, they've demonstrated that they have no ethics.

Or smarts.

Because the old version is still available in cache versions and we did our screen cap of it.



So they can lie and pretend that they didn't correct anything but this page will always expose their lie and their lack of ethics.


And if you're looking for another reason to stop visiting The Mary Sue, please note the following.





Yeah, they're one of those crappy sites that slow your computer down.

Barack wanted Netflix

"Damn it!" Barack Obama exclaims.





"John Kerry?" he asks in disgust.  "I thought we were watching House of Cards!  I already told Josh [Earnest] to start popping the Orville Redenbacher Kettle Korn!"

This edition's playlist

1) Ringo Starr's Postcards from Paradise.


2) india.arie's Testimony Vol. 2: Love & Politics.


3) Joni Mitchell's Shine.


4) Patti Smith's Twelve.

5)  Aretha Franklin's Aretha Sings The Great Diva Classics.

6)  Tori Amos' Unrepentant Geraldines.

7) Prince's Art Official Age.

8) Carly Simon's Anticipation.

9) Rickie Lee Jones'  The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard.

10) Nina Simone's Here Comes The Sun.

Federal Court Rules for Indian Families in ACLU Lawsuit

The ACLU issued the following last week:

March 31, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org


RAPID CITY, S.D. – In a sweeping victory for Indian families, a federal court has ordered South Dakota officials to stop violating the rights of Indian parents and tribes in state child custody proceedings on several grounds.


The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and Rapid City attorney Dana Hanna on behalf of two South Dakota Indian tribes – the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe – and Indian parents who suffered the loss of their children at the hands of the state.


The lawsuit in part charges that Indian children are being removed from their homes in hearings that lasted as little as 60 seconds, and that parents have no chance to present evidence. In a 45-page ruling issued late yesterday, Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken wrote that "Indian children, parents and tribes deserve better," agreed with all seven of the ACLU's claims, and ordered the state to:

• Provide parents with adequate notice prior to emergency removal hearings
• Allow parents to testify at those hearings and present evidence
• Appoint attorneys to assist parents in these removal  proceedings
• Allow parents to cross-examine the state’s witnesses in the hearings
• Require state courts to base their decisions on evidence presented during these hearings.

 The court also found that the state violated the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a federal law designed to ensure the security and integrity of Indian tribes and families. The law is intended "to curb the alarmingly high rate of removal of Indian children from Indian parents."


"Indian children are being removed from their homes without giving parents and tribes any valid chance to respond. These reckless practices have led to enormous suffering BY Indian children and their parents, and the unnecessary breakup of Indian families. This important ruling should help keep this from happening in the future," said Stephen Pevar, an attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. "We are very grateful that Judge Viken is putting an end to years of violations of basic rights."


The defendants are State Judge Jeff Davis, Pennington County Prosecutor Mark Vargo, State Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS) Lynne Valenti, and Pennington County DSS employee Luann Van Hunnik.


"All praise and honor should be given to those tribes and to the Lakota parents who have fought for the rights of all Indian people in this historic legal victory," said co-counsel Dana Hanna.



The lawsuit, Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Van Hunnik, was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota in Rapid City.


The ruling is at: https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/oglala-sioux-tribe-v-van-hunnik-summary-judgment


More information is at: https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/oglala-sioux-tribe-v-van-hunnik

Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Van Hunnik»

Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Van Hunnik

Defending Targets of Discrimination»

Defending Targets of Discrimination

Repost from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:

Lift the lid on child sex abuse

---

Cops who had evidence implicating MPs and others in child sex abuse were threatened with the Official Secrets Act if they did not drop the cases.


A scandal was covered up with the connivance of the police, the intelligence services and senior politicians. But that facade is starting to crack.

Tory home secretary Theresa May repeated in parliament assurances that the act should not stop anyone from giving evidence to the inquiry into child sex abuse.


David Cameron repeated the reassurances. It was guff.


 An amendment to a crime bill would have given immunity from prosecution only in relation to historical incidences of child abuse.

But May and most of her coalition colleagues blocked it.

The threat of using the Official Secrets Act to prosecute people who give evidence to any inquiry should of course be lifted.

But Socialist Worker goes further. The Official Secrets Act should be abolished.

Its only purpose is to protect those at the top from having to reveal what they are up to.

The security services should release all their files on politicians living and dead. Political parties’ whips should do the same.

The full truth of the child abuse committed and covered up by the establishment may not come out.
But we should have no truck with attempts to keep that truth hidden.

Payments © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.     

Michigan Greens Support SB 13 to End Straight-Ticket Voting People

The Green Party of Michigan notes the following:



Ecological Wisdom      *  Social Justice

Grassroots Democracy  *  Non-Violence


Green Party of Michigan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  www.MIGreenParty.org


**  News Release  **
**  ------------  **
    April 3, 2015


For More Information, Contact:
-----------------------------
Art Myatt, GPMI Vice Chair
    ALMyatt@yahoo.com
    (313) 815-2025

John Anthony La Pietra, GPMI Media Committee
    jalp5dai@att.net



Michigan Greens Support SB 13
to End Straight-Ticket Voting
=============================
    The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) announces its support of Senate
Bill 13 of 2015, which would end the "straight-party" ticket mechanism
so often confused in its application in Michigan.

    The bill was introduced January 20 by Marty Knollenberg (R-13,
Troy) and assigned to the Senate Committee on Elections and Government
Reform.  Committee chair David Robertson (R-14, Grand Blanc) has not yet
scheduled the bill for a hearing.

    GPMI Vice Chair Art Myatt points out, "For years, Michigan has let
voters check a party's 'straight-ticket' box at the top of a
general-election ballot, then split that ticket by voting against
candidates of that party in individual races.  But many voters don't
understand this.  Worse, some poll workers don't understand it either,
and give voters who ask about it wrong advice.

    "That means 'straight-ticket' voting is generally NOT used as
intended.  We are better off eliminating it entirely."

    This month's issue of Ballot Access News notes that straight-ticket
devices unfairly exclude independent candidates (listed in Michigan as
having "No Party Affiliation").  And they distract voters from ballot
questions and non-partisan races – which in Michigan, officially
includes state Supreme Court justices.

    Doug Campbell, the Green Party's first candidate for Governor of
Michigan, sums it up this way:  "SB13 will take some of the
decision-making power away from party bosses and return it to the
voters, where it belongs."

    GPMI's 2014 platform lists grassroots democracy as a Green Key
Value, and backs other voter-centered election reforms:

• Eliminating taxpayer-funded primary elections, and making parties pay
for their own selection processes.

• Ending the influence of money in politics:  public financing and free
air time for all legally qualified candidates, etc.

• Amending the Constitution to say corporations aren't people and money
isn't speech.

• Ending “referendum-proofing” and restoring and respecting the power of
the people to petition for redress on laws.

• Voting reforms including paper ballots, counted by people; election
audits; all voters voting, all votes count.

• Public financing (and free air time shortly before Election Day) for
all legally qualified candidates, of any party or none.

    GPMI elections co-ordinator and 2014 Attorney General candidate
John Anthony La Pietra notes a good companion reform to SB 13:  repeal
of language in MCL 168.786 which limits voters to two minutes in the
voting booth, with more time up to poll-workers.  “All polling places
should have enough voting stations to give voters all the time they need
to complete their  ballots.”

    The next statewide membership meeting of GPMI is scheduled for
Saturday, June 6 in Grand Rapids.

    The text of SB 13 and other official information can be found at
the Michigan Legislature Website:

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=2015-SB-0013


    The Senate committee's homepage is

http://www.senate.michigan.gov/committee/elections.html

    For GPMI's 2014 platform on election reform, see

http://www.migreenparty.org/democracy-and-human-rights.html

    For more information about GPMI and its values, visit

http://www.MIGreenParty.org/

You can also “like” the Green Party of Michigan US Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/migreens

and follow GPMI's Twitter feed @MIGreenParty

https://twitter.com/migreenparty


#  #  #


created/distributed using donated labor

Green Party of Michigan
PO Box 504
Warren, MI  48090-0504
    313-815-2025
    www.MIGreenParty.org

    GPMI was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics.  Greens are organized
in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  Each
state Green Party sets its own goals and creates its
own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:

    Ecological Wisdom
    Grassroots Democracy
    Social Justice
    Non-Violence
    Community Economics
    Decentralization
    Feminism
    Respect for Diversity
    Personal/Global Responsibility
    Future Focus/Sustainability

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.


"Response to Susan's post at On the Edge" -- most requested highlight by readers of this site.

"Kat's Korner: What The Bedroom Tapes reveal" and "Kat's Korner: Ringo's Postcards are not be missed" -- Kat offers two new album reviews.

"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Deal" -- Isaiah weighs in on the non-deal.

  

"Idiot of the Week" -- Mike selects the winner ( "Justin Raimondo goes for Idiot of the Week" was so close).

"Juliette Lewis,""The Slap (finale) and salsa," "scandal's rating problems," "Shonda Rhimes inspires a big yawn," "Arrow -- how does the Atom shrink,"  "they keep putting more make up on her and her ratings keep falling,"  "MSNBC?," "Shirley MacLaine and Hawkgirl,"  "revenge (the big yawn)," "TV beef," "Hawkgirl," "The Originals," "The scandal of Scandal," "The Wiz" and "revenge (yeah, i was right about louise)" -- Mike, Trina, Rebecca, Betty, Stan, Rebecca, Marcia, Ann and Elaine cover TV.

"Smack Talking Wuss" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.

"Actors," "Natalie and Steve," "Jodie," and "Kevin Hart bombs again" -- Ruth, Marcia and Betty go to the movies.

"The Homophobes" -- Ruth calls them out.

"Music, Music, Music," "Laura Nyro," "Taylor Swift?," "This year's music," and "Cara Dillon" -- Kat and Elaine cover music.

"She'll always have Jimmy Crack Corn!" and  "THIS JUST IN! CRANKY CLINTON WILL ALWAYS HAVE JIMMY CRACK CORN!," "Slippery Hillary," "It's their fault for believing her" and "THIS JUST IN! CRANKY CLINTON DIDN'T EXPECT ANYONE TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE HER!," "Does Hillary ever stop lying?,"  "The depressed electorate," "Martin O'Malley," "O'Malley," "Jill Stein? Really?," and "Cranky's all about the Chicago way" and "THIS JUST IN! HILLARY WAS BORN INTO THE CHICAGO WAY!" -- Cranky Clinton and politics.

"The militias are not an answer for Iraq," "The chart," "Iraq," "The never-ending Iraq War" and  "Cracker Dicks Medea Benjamin and Katie Powers" -- Betty, Ann, Trina and Marcia cover Iraq.



"There is no deal," "Barry calls a maybe 'historic'" and "THIS JUST IN! ALL HAIL THE MAYBE HISTORIC DEAL THAT MIGHT BE REACHED IN 3 MONTHS! OR NOT!"  -- Trina, Cedric and Wally cover the non-deal.