March 12, 2010

Congress Ruins Obama Girls’ Vacation

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TPM relays the news that President Barack Obama is delaying his trip to Indonesia and Australia because the House may vote on health care reform next weekend:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who for days has insisted the schedule would not change, detailed the news on his Twitter feed this morning. “The President will delay leaving for Indonesia and Australia—will now leave Sunday—the First Lady and the girls will not be on the trip,” Gibbs wrote.

According to the AP, “the trip was scheduled to coincide with his daughters’ spring vacation from school.” Now, thanks to recalcitrant Dems, Sasha and Malia won’t get to spend their vacation with their dad. It’s clear there are plenty of lawmakers who don’t particularly care about making sure all Americans have access to affordable health care. But do they really want to make the Obama girls cry?

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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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