Here’s the first short video to be released from the second season of the ACLU‘s Freedom Files series. It’s about the Hutto Detention Facility in Texas where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – the same jerks who detained Sima Fallahi – lock up entire families including small children.
Author: Ruby Sinreich
Double whammy for Tarheels
(Cross-posted from OrangePolitics.)
Hours after the men’s basketball team fell to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament, a student who cheers the team as Rameses passed away after being hit by an SUV on Friday. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Jason Ray.
Also, consolations to seniors Rayshawn Terry, Wes Miller, and Biscuits of the men’s basketball team that had a very frustrating end to an exciting season. Fortunately, the women’s team marches on. Don’t miss the last games for super-talented seniors Ivory Latta and Camille Little. Next game is against Purdue in the Elite 8 on Tuesday at 9:30 on ESPN and WCHL.
WTF UNC?
Carolina is now out of the NCAA tournament after losing to Georgetown 96-84. I believe UNC has had 7 losses this season, but this was by far the most inexplicable. After leading throughout most of the game, Georgetown started to make a scoring run while UNC started to shoot nothing but high-risk 3-point shots, missing every single one until the final seconds of the game.
By the end when they were down by 10 points with a minute left, I could understand putting up 3-pointers. But we were ahead until we started using that strategy. Then the game went into overtime in which we scored no points until last 8 seconds. Roy Williams is a great coach, but I can’t understand what they were thinking with this strategy. Someone needs to explain.
Fortunately, the season is not over for the women, who play in the Sweet 16 against George Washington tonight at 9:30. I expect them to stay in this tournament until the bitter (or sweet) end!
Second Life echos the first one
I just blogged on techPresident about the Hillary Clinton campaign HQ that some folks have created in Second Life. Short version: it plays into the worst stereotypes of her as an iron maiden and looks like butt to boot. It amazes me that Hillary is portrayed as a clueless authority figure even by her supposed supporters.
Here are my two favorite parts: the stage that looks like it came straight out of the popular “Vote Different” (a.k.a. Hillary 1984) video, and the helipad complete with limousine motorcade and police HUMV for security!
(Click for larger versions.)
Please check it out and let me know what you think: http://techpresident.com/node/171
I plan to post pictures and reviews of all of the candidates in SL. Right now there’s only Edwards and Obama, so they will be next.
How do you spell L-I-E?
I just got the following new alert from CNN.com “The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Cannon says.”
In other words, we don’t want to start a whole ‘nother perjury investigation so we’ll let them lie to you, just not under oath. Does that make you feel better?
Get yer red, hot schedule
March Madness is in full swing, and after suffering through someone else’s not-very-well updated men’s calendar (which didn’t include tournament games!) and making my own schedule to publish the UNC women’s basketball schedule, I have finally got it all together in one place.
Introducing Ruby’s Unofficial Basketball Calendar. Never miss a game again!
This includes both the men’s and women’s teams and includes the regular season, general tournament dates, and specific times for tournament games (when they become available). You can view it on the web, subscribe to via RSS, put in your Outlook or iCal, or add it directly to your Google calendar.
Each game title is preceded by a “[M]” or “[W]” depending on which team is playing, and the TV broadcast info is included in the event description. Please try it out and let me know what you think.
And please watch the women’s games – the very last that seniors Ivory Latta and Camille Little will be playing as students at Carolina. You don’t want to miss it when we go all the way to the NCAA Championship!
Irrepressible content
Another great online strategy from Amnesty International: to counter growing censorship and repression of Internet speech, they have created http://Irrepressible.info where you can sign a pledge for Internet freedom and get your own badge to dynamically display censored content on your own blog.
Por ejemplo:
They also have a public API! (They do lose points for having a typo in the code for the badge above. Good thing I know how to spell “fragments” and fixed it myself.)
Bad Neighbor Rules
Carr Mill employee posting a sign in the MIDDLE OF THE LAWN. Message received: no fun allowed!!!
NC State 70 – Duke 65
It’s unusual for me to root for NC State, they’re Carolina‘s #2 rival. But our chief rival and bogeyman is Duke. In today’s ACC semi-final, NC State (#4) beat the undefeated Duke. I love this for so many reasons:
- As a true Carolina fan, it’s always nice to see Duke lose. (The Waner sisters and their ponytails are especially bile-inducing for me.)
- State played really well in spite of several injuries and three bad foul calls against Gillian Goring who fouled out. And it’s great to see the success of NC State coach Kay Yow who fought back breast cancer to re-take the helm of her team mid-way through this season.
- If Carolina wins the other semi-final (starting right now) I’d rather have us play State, with whom we are one and one this year, than Duke, who beat us twice and who was undefeated this year until today.
Woo hoo. Go Wolfpack and GO HEELS!
Change is here
http://Change.org is a wonderful new social networking site for activists and organizations. It allows you to write about what “changes” (or issues) you support and sign on to other people’s changes. It also connects those issues with the nonprofits that are working on them, and encourages users to rate the organizations, blog about changes, and make pledges of both money and action.
The site basically combines the best of web 2.0 technology with the best of your conscience. All it needs is a critical mass of users, and it’s well on the way, having only launched a month ago, and now branching out to international activists.
Their newest fun feature: widgets! Here’s mine:
powered by Change.org
I hope to see you there.