Republicans Do Know How to Use the Internets and Make Videos

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The bailout got you down? Does it feel like the members of Congress just aren’t listening? Got a video camera and too much spare time? Don’t fret, sad little big-government-haters: You can heed the advice of Meghan McCain, get your fifteen micro-seconds of fame, and win your bailout burden back.

Yes, Republicans do know how to use the internets.  Right.org (you got to give them credit for the snazzy URL), launched an online video contest that asks DIY film makers to “Be creative. Make us laugh. Teach us. Above all, make us oppose the bailouts.”

The winning entry receives $27,599, or one person’s share of the bailouts. Entrants will flood YouTube until a winner is chosen by a “panel of qualified judges” in July. The idea for a video contest follows hard on the heels of the Best Job in the World put on by the Queensland Tourism. Though there are, understandably and sadly, far fewer bikinis in the Right.org contest.Right.org describes itself as a “grassroots online community” who
“gathered some talent and money and built this side.” Where the money
came from is unclear. Comments go to Evan and Duncan (who could not be
reached for comment). Besides the video contest, Facebook, and a Twitter feed, Right.org offers users
nifty tools for calculating their family’s share of the bailout and
gives them the chance to sign a petition opposing the bailout. The
options are “sign the petition” and “No thanks (I’m fine with Congress stealing my money).

Right.org even redefines the Merriam-Webster word of the year,
“bailout,” as “making us pay for corporate failures that are not our
fault.” And, we all know, the only appropriate response to that kind of
malfeasance from the Man is to dress up in a Hawaiian leis and make a
freaking video.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist 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 need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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