October 25, 2007

DREAM Act Fails

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I like Ana Marie Cox’s take on the DREAM Act.

The “DREAM Act” would allow undocumented high school graduates with no criminal record who have been the country for at least five years (and who entered the country before they were 16) a form of “conditional” legal status. They then must complete two years of college or two years of service in the military. In other words, it’s aimed primarily at illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents who are now on a path to, you know, make a better life for themselves. Their illegal status is something that happened to them, their academic success is something they’ve earned.

You’d assume conservatives would want to rewards such self-starting, entrepreneurial behavior. You’d be wrong.

If you do a Google New search for “DREAM Act,” you find a bunch of web commentaries from conservatives hating on the bill. It’s a back-door version of amnesty, they say.

Well, they won this fight. Yesterday, Democrats failed to garner the 60 votes they needed to move the bill forward, yet more evidence of the importance of the 2008 senate races.

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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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