E-Actions for Freedom

Join Amnesty's Human Rights Action Center, and earn them $1

I'm a member of Amnesty International, and also part of their Human Rights Action Network, which is basically an e-mail alert service about human rights violations around the world. Why limit your sphere of influence to just your own country? As much as freedom is in danger here in the United States, there are plenty of places where freedom is little more than a myth, barely existing at all. While I'm opposed to governmental military intervention as a means to end such tragedies, I'm strongly in favor of almost every other means there is, including social intervention, and boycott. The Internet greases the gears on this kind of action, big time.

And as you can see, AI has a major donor who will reward them for each new person that signs up for their network. So go to it -- what have you got to lose?

Here's their pitch:

Help Celebrate 30 Years of Action to Free Prisoners of Conscience
For Every New Online Activist Who Signs Up in June, $1 Will Be Donated to Amnesty

Take an easy, simple step to promote human rights! This year marks the 30th Anniversary of Amnesty International's Urgent Action Network (UAN), the global network of concerned citizens who are available 24 hours a day to intercede on behalf of prisoners of conscience everywhere. Tens of thousands of concerned folks have already made an enormous difference in our global fight for human rights - responses to e-mail alerts and Urgent Actions have resulted in hundreds of thousands of faxes, letters and emails and the ultimate release of more than 40,000 prisoners of conscience worldwide.

To mark this important anniversary, an anonymous donor has agreed to donate one dollar to Amnesty International for every new sign-up to Amnesty USA's online Human Rights Action Center (HRAC) - up to $100,000! Help us recruit 100,000 new participants in the HRAC! Launched in 2000, the HRAC grew out of our 30 years of experience with the UAN, utilizing new technologies to mobilize more people, more quickly via email and the Web.

Participation in the Human Rights Action Center is free. Sign up today - and forward this message on to your friends and encourage them to sign up too!

Use this link to join:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=464134&l=5960

Also, read more about the Urgent Action Network and its 30th Anniversary:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=464134&l=5961

If you are already a member of the Action Center, please forward this message on to your friends! Help us reach our goal!

Subscribe to TruthOut

TruthOut is an excellent free news service.
It leans a little to the left, but mostly it seem to focused on being the opposition -- presenting the stories and voices that the Powers That Be would rather not have heard. I am very much down with that. And they have been very focused on the wars in Iraq and elsewhere, and the War on Terror -- two of the greatest threats to freedom so far this century.

They have a website loaded with dissident and lesser-seen articles, and a daily e-mail newsletter that looks something like this:

t r u t h o u t | 06.24

Bush Forced to Defend Rising US Death Toll
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403A.shtml

Top Blair Aide to Go Public Over Iraq Weapons
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403B.shtml

Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Cluster Bombs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403C.shtml

US Soldiers Attacked Again in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403D.shtml

Supreme Court Narrowly Upholds Affirmative Action
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403E.shtml

Brooklyn Bridge Al Qaeda Bomber was FBI Spy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403F.shtml

Brooks | A Nation of Victims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403G.shtml

'Saddam' Strike Shows US Desperation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403H.shtml

Jennifer Van Bergen | Your Medical Privacy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403I.shtml

Contractors in Iraq Share '7 Billion Dollar Bank Account'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062403J.shtml

t r u t h o u t | 06.23

William Rivers Pitt | Slaughtergate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303A.shtml

US General Condemns Iraq Failures
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303B.shtml

Iraq-Al Qaeda Connection Undermined by Intelligence Report
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303C.shtml

Blix: Iraq WMDs Were Little More Than 'Debris'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303D.shtml

Meyer | Where Are WMDs? Where's Congress?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303E.shtml

Halliburton is Principal Beneficiary of Iraq Reconstruction
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303F.shtml

Resistance Simmers as Iraqis Await Government
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303G.shtml

Iraq Grenade Attack Kills U.S. Soldier
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303H.shtml

Hentoff | Justice Denied at the Source
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303I.shtml

Papers Used to Accuse British Parliament Member Deemed Forgeries
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062303J.shtml

Perhaps the coolest thing about TruthOut is that they create a permanent archive copy of all the articles they feature, no matter the source. So even if the original website puts the article in their for-pay archives, or takes it down, TruthOut has a copy. I use TruthOut for a lot of the news items I post at PNAC.info, and it's great to not have to worry about those articles disappearing. They include a link to the original with each item, so folks can see the article in its original form if it's still available.

I've been receiving TruthOut's e-mail updates for about 6 months now, and I've been a monthly pledger for a few months, and I'm a very satisfied customer.

At the very least, subscribe to their e-mail updates. You can always unsubscribe if you don't like them.

I would also encourage you to support them financially, and will do so more thoroughly in another action item.