Kony 2012 campaigner Jason Russell has been arrested for masturbating in public the Guardian reports:

One of the co-founders of Invisible Children, the San Diego-based charity which is campaigning for the arrest of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has been hospitalised after police said he was detained for being naked and masturbating in public.

Jason Russell, 33, was picked up by police in San Diego at around 11.30am on Thursday after receiving numerous calls from the public about a man vandalising cars, being apparently under the influence of a substance and making sexual gestures while wearing only his underwear.

According to local TV station NBC, San Diego police spokeswoman Lieutenant Andra Brown told a press conference in the city that Russell was co-operative as he was detained by officers. “He was no problem for the police department. However, during the evaluation we learned that we probably needed to take care of him. So officers detained him and transferred him to a local medical facility for further evaluation and treatment,” she said.

A brief statement by the Ben Keesey of Invisible Children said:

“Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalised suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better.

“The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday. Jason’s passion and bis work have done so much to help so many and we are are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue.”

Read the full story here.
 
Via the Guardian
 

 
Just when you thought shit couldn’t get any more cynical, here comes Charlie Brooker to cast some withering scorn over the recent ‘Kony 2012’ meme propagated by the group Invisible Children (as broadcast on last night on Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live.) I could not think of anyone better than Brooker for this job:

“So, in summary, Invisible Children are expert propagandists with what seems to be a covert religious agenda, advocating military action in Africa while simultaneously recruiting an “army” of young people to join their cause (and their weird Fourth Estate youth camps) and to stand around posing like this [quasi-fascist looking picture], a bit like an army of child soldiers might.”

Take it away Charlie…
 

 
Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing reports:

Bruce Wilson digs in to the sources of funding for the group behind “Kony 2012,” and finds that 990 IRS tax forms and yearly financial disclosure reports from the nonprofit and 990s from its major donors “tell a story that’s jarringly at odds with the secular, airbrushed, feelgood image the nonprofit has cultivated.”

The documents show that Invisible Children received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the biggest financial backers of California’s anti-same-sex marriage Proposition 8, with links to James Dobson, The Family (see Jeff Sharlet’s excellent book on the subject), and similar Christian Right entities.

Read the rest of the story: Kony 2012’s Visible Funding: Invisible Children’s anti-gay, creationist, Christian right donors at Boing Boing.