JSACast Podcast

Stan Dai Assistant Director, Trinity's Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence Stan Dai is the Assistant Director of Trinity's Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence in DC. He was formerly the Assistant Operations Officer at a Department of Defense irregular warfare fellowship program and a Fellow on Terrorism at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Stan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the George Washington University. Stan's main interest is the intersection of political mass movements, culture, and violence. He has discussed these topics as a guest lecturer at the George Washington University and on media outlets including C-SPAN's Washington Journal and Voice of America. Stan has been involved in JSA since 2001: after attending summer school at Yale, he founded the JSA chapter at Naperville North, served in various Midwest region positions, and was a resident assistant at Georgetown.

Eric Rubin U.S. Department of State Mr. Rubin is a career foreign service officer. He has a B.A. in history from Yale University (1983). His non-degree training includes intensive language study in Thai, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian at the State Department's Foreign Service. Mr. Rubin joined the State Department in 1985 following two years as a reporter trainee at the New York Times. He served as internal politics and human rights officer in Honduras from 1986 to 1988. He was a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center before joining the Office of Soviet Union Affairs in 1989 as internal politics and nationalities officer. From 1991 to 1993 he was regional and security affairs officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the Department's first desk officer for Slovenia. From 1994 through 1996, Mr. Rubin was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev as Deputy Political Counselor. Upon his return to Washington, he served as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs from 1996 to 1997. In 1997, he was appointed Assistant White House Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs and NSC Director for Public Affairs. He returned to the State Department in 1998 as special assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering. Mr. Rubin was Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow and a resident associate at ISD from 1999-2000 and a non-resident associate in 2000-2001. He taught an SFS seminar on U.S. foreign policy and the breakup of the Soviet Union in spring 2000 and spring 2001, and an MSFS seminar on Transnational Issues in Southeast Asia in spring 2006.He was U.S. Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 2001 to 2004, and returned to Washington in 2004 as Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. He is currently Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

Massie Ritsch Communications Director, Center for Responsive Politics A former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Communications Director Massie Ritsch oversees the Center’s original journalism and its frequent contact with the news media and others who rely on CRP’s computer-based research and nonpartisan analysis. Before joining the organization in January 2006, Massie was a communications strategist for a public affairs firm in Los Angeles, following nearly five years covering politics, education and other news for the Times. A native of Richmond, Va., he received a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University.

John Passacantando Executive Director, Greenpeace A onetime conservative, John Passacantando was converted to the environmentalist cause in 1987 when Mike Roselle, founder of Earth First! and the Ruckus Society, scaled Mount Rushmore and hung a giant gas mask on George Washington. Roselle served time in prison for this stunt. Passacantando now praises Roselle as a sort of personal guru (despite the destructive and often violent tendencies of his other organizations), calling him “the environmental equivalent of the old blind guy on Kung Fu, where you try to grab the pebbles and you can’t.” Passacantando, who holds degrees in economics from Wake Forest and New York University, served as Executive Director of the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, doling out grants for campaign finance reform work and environmental issues. He then founded Ozone Action, an anti-global warming group, before moving to Greenpeace in 2000. He has promoted a variety of aggressive tactics to publicize Greenpeace. “Don’t always measure us by tactics that have worked in the past,” Passacantando says. “Look for a variety of tactics from us.” In April 2001, he led a group of about a dozen activists who locked themselves inside the main entrance of the Environmental Protection Agency, leading to his arrest. The action came less than a week after other Greenpeace activists, borrowing a Ruckus tactic, scaled a water tower in Crawford, Texas, during President Bush’s visit. And two months later, when Greenpeace activists were accused of conspiracy to violate a safety zone to disrupt a missile test (a felony), Passacantando called it “an incredibly brave thing.”

For more information on Dennis Kucinich visit http://www.dennis4president.com/ Stay tuned for additional interviews of candidates/candidate supporters -Henry Willson and Zach Brass Northeastjsa.org

The first JSACast of the year is here! Special thanks to Matt Wood for being such a great sport. For more information on Invisible Children visit www.invisiblechildren.com Please consider helping this great organization bring an end to the war in Uganda! -Henry Willson and Zach Brass Northeastjsa.org

JSA Cast had the opportunity to interview Joe Trippi, one of the NES's Winter Congress Keynote speakers. Trippi is an accomplished campaign consultant for the Democratic Party. He is most known for his innovative campaign style, utilizing the Internet to increase candidate interest and raise donations. Working on the Dean campaign, Trippi revolutionized internet campaigning through the use of blogging, programs such as Meetup, and other social networking sites. Trippi is the author of the book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything Thanks for listening! Contact us with any ideas at: jsacast@northeastjsa.org -Jason Katz and Zach Brass

Presidential Candidates' Websites: http://www.barackobama.com http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ http://johnedwards.com/ http://www.johnmccain.com/ http://www.joinrudy2008.com/ http://www.mittromney.com/

Thanks for listening! For Information on the St. Joseph Hill Academy's minicon visit: http://hs.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2230415033 and for the Concord Carlisle minicon: http://hs.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2229056939 JSA Forums are up! http://forums.northeastjsa.org Contact us with any ideas at: jsacast@northeastjsa.org