November 9, 2013

The Private Party

Meet the strange bedfellows driving the establishment nuts.


Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.)

Elected: 2010

Sought to defund the NSA’s domestic surveillance. Tried to prohibit indefinite detention of American citizens. Snubbed John Boehner by voting for buddy Raúl Labrador for House speaker. Once brought a hemp granola bar onto the House floor.

 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)

Elected: 2012

Cosponsored Amash’s NSA amendment. Opposed expanding Iran sanctions. Pushed a bill to end the federal prohibition on industrial cannabis. Drives a Tesla and lives in a solar-powered house.
 

 

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

Elected: 2008

Worked with Amash to stop the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which aimed to expand federal partnering with tech firms. Introduced a bill to defederalize marijuana laws.
 

 

Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho)

Elected: 2010

Cosponsored Amash’s LIBERT-E Act to curb surveillance. Toured Amash’s district and the talk show circuit to make the case for immigration reform (though he didn’t end up following through on it).
 

 

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.)

Elected: 2012

Supported decriminalizing marijuana. Has suggested that President Obama might not have been born in the United States. Maintains a license as a large-animal veterinarian.
 

 

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)

Elected: 2008, 2012

Made a practice of trolling Republicans during his first stint in Congress. Scheduled an unofficial hearing to have reporter Glenn Greenwald testify on NSA surveillance. Pushed legislation to ban funding for drones.
 

 

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.)

Elected: 2010

Teamed up with Barney Frank to promote a Pentagon spending freeze. Joined with Amash and Polis to introduce legislation requiring a court order to obtain phone records.
 

 

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)

Elected: 2012

Supported Amash’s various NSA proposals. Wrote a book calling for an end to the drug war. His band’s first 7-inch was titled “The El Paso Pussycats.”

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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.

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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.

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