Conservative Think Tank Thinking Less

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Oh how sad. The venerable conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute–so flush during the go-go years of the Bush administration–is having a budget crisis, reports the Washington Independent. The group that launched so many of the worst neoconservative ideas of the Bush era (remember those guys who wanted to privatize Social Security and bring democracy to Iraq?) has watched helplessly as its long-time corporate benefactors have hit the skids and no longer have the luxury of funding loony political “scholars.” Perhaps we should consider this one of the few upsides of the nation’s grim economic crisis: a few conservatives are actually going to have to work for a living, or discover the pitfalls of retiring during a bear market!

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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.

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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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