“I Don’t Work For You, I Work For the American People”

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The last time I checked, singer Sheryl Crow and environmental activist Laurie David were Americans, just like me. But according to Karl Rove, he does not have to answer to them because he “works for the American people.” Rove was approached on Saturday night by the stars and asked to discuss the president’s environmental policy (or lack thereof).

Citizenship issues aside, Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino scolded Crow and David for not showing respect to George W. Bush.

(Here is where I take a break so I can recover from Perino’s statement. Why on Earth would anyone who has been paying attention for the last six years want to show respect for Bush? And, as Think Progress says, “…the last time we checked, Karl Rove is not the president.”)

But I digress. Perino’s next zinger was even better: “The president’s record on climate change is very strong.”

Right. It is so strong that he has all but demolished the Environmental Protection Agency, encouraged falsification of scientific reports on global warming, removed reports that indicate the seriousness of global warming and the harm being done by pollutors, backed out of the Kyoto agreement, and lied about reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Perino decribes herself as “a strong environmentalist.”

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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.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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