Entrapment

Soldier in Iraq pose for gay porn site
Fort Bragg officials are moving forward with their investigation into claims that several soldiers may have posed for a gay porn Web site believed to be based out of Fayetteville….

WRAL spoke with a man who says he was a soldier and an editor of a gay porn Web site. He said many such sites target young troops, offering quick cash — even thousands of dollars — to people who do not make much money.

“It’s very enticing, very enticing,” said the man. “(It’s) almost a form of entrapment by these porn sites.”

Now that’s not at all like military recruitment of men and women with few other options, now is it?

Make media for peace and justice

Citizens For Global Solutions is a grassroots international organization that emphasizes cross-border solutions to cross-border (ie: global) problems. At a conference last month I saw a few short Flash movies thay had produced to encourage people (especially Americans) to think cooperatively about international issues.

I thought the scripts were powerful, but the movies themselves were visually underwhelming. Which is why it’s great to see they are having a contest to encourage people to make something even better:

We’re looking for short flash movies that can inspire, amuse and activate people out there who believe a better world is possible.

FLASH CONTEST THEME: AMERICA’S ROLE IN THE WORLD >>>
Answer this question: Why do global problems matter to Americans and what do you think America should do about them.

Civil technologies report

In the past year I have received many requests for interviews from consultants trying to develop recommendations for nonprofits looking to use the Internet more strategically. Since I am sometimes a consultant myself, I usually grant the interview on one condition: that I be given the rights to publish an audio or text transcript of the interview. This way I can help out the project, but also share any good ideas I might accidentally have with anyone else who might be interested.

Last year, when I still worked for PPFA, I was interviewed for a paper called “Civil Technologies: The Values of Nonprofit ICT Use” published by the program on Information Technology and International Cooperation. You can download it as a PDF or Word document.

The report is long but it has lots of great examples from real-life nonprofit staff (like me!). My interview follows after the jump. It gets more interesting toward the end when he stops asking me elementary questions about Planned Parenthood and GetActive and we talk more about online organizing strategy. I did some copy editing of what appear to be audio transcription errors.
Continue reading “Civil technologies report”

Roundup

So I am a bit of a news junkie, and sometime I think people would interested in a roundup of the notable stuff I find so they don’t have to do the research themself. Is this interesting? Or am I just re-hashing stale content? I probably won’t post the obvious stuff that is already in the headlines. Please tell me if you’d like me to do this on a regular basis:

  • There’s a new alaskan oil spill. 🙁
    An oil tanker carrying nearly 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline was struck by an ice floe and ran aground while loading oil products at an Alaska refinery on Thursday, causing a spill, a state official and the refining company said.

    “At this time we do not have an estimate as to the amount of product released,” refinery owner Tesoro Corp. said in a statement.

    I love that the story ends with this important information:
    Shares of Tesoro, based in San Antonio, Texas, fell $3.70 to $66.31 and Seacor Holdings’ stock fell $2.25 to $71.19 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trade.

  • Pat Robertson admits he “ad libs.”
    “I’ve been doing TV for years and years,” Robertson said. “And the problem is, I ad lib.”

    Interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on the morning of the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Robertson was asked about statements suggesting that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and intimating that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s punishment for giving up the Gaza strip.

  • Also at the national prayer breakfast: Bono prentending not to realize he’s shaking the president’s hand.
  • And speaking of Mr. Preznit, he wants more money. Shock.
    The White House said on Thursday it would ask the Congress for about $70 billion in new emergency funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and seek another $50 billion for those wars early in fiscal 2007.

    The Bush administration also said it would seek a further $18 billion for the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast and $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible avian flu epidemic.

    The new war funds would come on top of the $320 billion the White House budget office said has been allocated for the wars so far, pushing costs since the start of the wars through early next year to about $440 billion.

  • And finally, the CIA says that telling people what they do makes it hadrer for them to do it. I think that’s the idea, guys!

The truth shall set us free

This is a post I have been needing to write for a while. It is a real test of my committment to right speech because I would really like to attack the people who I feel are attacking me.

Here are a few things about me that normal people can’t possibly give a crap about. But some folks are extremely curious and have active imaginations, and other people just don’t want to listen to me or something.

Continue reading “The truth shall set us free”

A small but good thing

Newsflash: Democrats discover their own values. I wonder if they even recognize them?

The Washington Post’s Politics Blog says that the selection of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to give the Democratic Party’s response to Bush’s State of the Union is indicative of a shift in the Dems strategy: “The brilliance of the Virginia campaign was when you stand up for what you believe in and talk about it from your values center it can inoculate you from Republican attacks.”

Hard to say if this is a real shift, or just insider spin. But anyway I think it’s a baby step in the right direction.

Yeeaah!

I pity anyone who missed the matchup tonight between the two best women’s college basketball teams in the country. Going into this game, UNC and Duke were the only two undefeated college basketball teams (of any gender) in the country. At #2, Carolina surely had the potential to beat #1 Duke, but when we were down by 13 at the half, we were not feeling as optimistic. As Ivory and Sylvia both said: the Tarheels played their hearts out and won a georgeous 74-70 victory.

I know there are a lot of great players at UNC. And Erlana Larkins carried a great part of the game today. But I just have to say that Ivory Latta has the strength of Eric Montross and the size and speed of Speedy Gonzalez. There’s nothing she can’t do. Oh, and by the way…

We’re #1!!!

P.S. Happy anniversary, Dr. Boxhill (the voice of the UNC women’s team, as well as their academic advisor).

Support citizen journalism and peacemaking

Hossein Derakhshan (a.k.a. Hoder) is already effectively exiled from his Iranian homeland for his truth-telling blog that challenges censorship and totalitarianism (including that of the U.S.). He is still the most-read blogger in Iran (being locked out of the U.S. although he’s a Canadian citizen) and has led a grassroots media revolution there.

Continue reading “Support citizen journalism and peacemaking”