December 21, 2007

Meet the Attack Lads – Swift Boat Veterans For Truth

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Instructions: Click on the images below to watch the ads and meet the attack lads. Red links will take you to an appendix with more information.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (2004): Smear campaign claiming John Kerry lied about his service in Vietnam. FEC fined the group $299,500 for violating election laws.

consulting by
Chris LaCivita

Decorated ex-Marine; headed National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) during phone-jamming scandal. Took over as president of Progress for America after Tony Feather stepped down to work for Bush/Cheney ’04.

has worked for:
DCI Group, an offshoot of Feather Larson Synhorst that Edmund Matricardi III and James Tobin have also worked for
consults for:
Mercury Public Affairs, which Terry Nelson and Tim Griffin currently work for

chris lacivita was linked to:
Phone jamming (2002)


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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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