Starting Wednesday morning--in the wee hours in the Pacific Time Zone--the Heroes of the Blogosphere Challenge begins. A group of private backers and U.S. Marines is forming what The Wall Street Journal calls "a coalition of the Can-Do" to get defunct Iraqi TV stations up and running, and thereby give the Iraqi people an alternative to the tripe being broadcast on Al-Jazeera.

Dean's World, Michele & Kevin, and John of Argghh! have created individual alliances that will be competing against each other to raise funds for this project, entitled The Spirit of America and run by Jim Hake (who headed earlier efforts to send toys, medical equipment and school supplies to Iraq).

Please give early and often; this entire fundraising project will only last for eight days, because it is imperative that all the video/editing equipment be purchased and at Camp Pendleton by May 7. We must get the new TV stations up and running before the new Iraqi government starts up on June 30: multiple sources of information are essential to democracy.

The only two conditions that will be placed on the Iraqi owners of the stations: 1) do not actually lie on behalf of the terrorists (legitimate criticism of the government and/or the Americans is fine), and 2) allow the Marines to purchase television time to get their own viewpoint across to the masses.

I would encourage you to give if any of the following applies:

1) you like my blog;
2) you hate my blog;
3) you like my writing but hate my politics;
4) you like my politics but hate my writing;
5) you're hoping I'll post a picture of my breasts someday;
6) you prefer leggy brunettes to round blondes, thank you very much;
7) you're gay;
you're bisexual;
9) you're transgendered;
10) you're asexual;
11) you're married;
12) you're divorced;
13) you're single;
14) you walk on your hind legs;
15) you're paraplegic;
16) you have a pulse.

The shorthand?--I'm a fundraising 'ho. I'm perfectly happy to have you on board for this worthy a cause. Hell--you can even troll my comments, for the right price.

We have eight days to raise funds, people. Make this the one time you gave money over the internet: the cause could not be more important. Click here to give.

Thank you.

Posted by: Attila at 03:07 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 391 words, total size 3 kb.