WATCH: Senator Kyl’s START Gamble [Cartoon]

A little nuclear terrorism is a small price to pay for political gains.


Mother Jones illustrator Zina Saunders creates editorial animations riffing on the political news and current events of the week. In this week’s animation, Key Senate Republican Jon Kyl is upping the ante in his game against Obama: he’s determined to stop START, even after Republican bigwigs like Henry Kissinger and George Schultz came out in support of ratifying the nuclear missile agreement with Russia. Wiley Kyl smells victory in his gamble to put a Republican in the White House in 2012; after all, a little nuclear terrorism is a small price to pay. And since you ask: Yes, Saunders does all her own awesome songs and cartoon voiceovers.—The Editors

Here are the lyrics, written and performed by Zina:

Kyl’s feeling lucky, got the world on a string

He’s in a gambling mood and he’s betting everything

It’s a scary game but one he’s glad to play

He’ll show them what he’s made of and what he’s set to pay.

Missiles and treaties don’t mean a thing to him

Who cares about a war when there’s a race to win

Who cares if it’s disaster, who cares if it’s the end

He’s gonna get Obama out, replace him a friend 

Watch him as he gambles, spin the wheel and see

He’s betting with the world on taking back DC.

He thinks it might be useful if we should go to war

It would fire up his voters and even up the score.

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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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