October 9, 2009

Morning Roundup

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Hey, good morning.  Anything new going on today?  Let’s see…..NASA crashed a probe into the moon….a car bomb killed 49 people in Pakistan….Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace prize….

Wait a second.  Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize?  What for?  Says here it’s in recognition of “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

I’m going to head out into the blogosphere and see what people think of this.  But before I do, I just want to say that this is ridiculous.  I mean, I’m all in favor of making wingnut heads explode, but the guy’s been in office for slightly less than nine months.  That’s barely enough time to make a baby, let alone bring world peace.  Shouldn’t the luminaries in Oslo have waited until he had done something more significant than making nice with his former primary opponent before declaring him a man for the ages?

Oh well.  Sometimes people do dumb things.  At least we get to see wingnut heads explode.

UPDATE: OK, I’ve now spent a few minutes taking in reaction from all corners.  Is there anyone who’s defending this choice?  Couldn’t they have just given it to Bono instead?  At least then maybe we’d get some nice music at the awards ceremony.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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