WATCH: Rick Perry Consults the Big Guy in the Sky [Cartoon]


Editors’ note: Mother Jones illustrator Zina Saunders creates editorial animations riffing on the political news and current events of the week. In this week’s animation, new GOP contender Gov. Rick Perry consults with his chief advisor and star of his recent Christians-only prayerfest—God. As always, that’s Saunders doing the voices. Sound effects are courtesy of freesound.org.

Read the prayer’s hilarious transcript:

Omnipotent One Whose Secret Words Only I Can Hear and Interpret, I promise to slash the size of government just like I have in Texas, where government spending and debt has almost doubled in the 11 years I’ve been governor.

O Big Man in the Sky Who Can Kick The Ass of All Other Gods, I promise to focus on jobs, like we do in Texas, where more of our workers earn the minimum wage than in any other state.

O Magical Daddy Who I Must Obey If I Know What’s Good For Me, I promise to keep cutting taxes on corporations and rich people by slashing school budgets and using phony accounting gimmicks.

O Secret Henchman Who Wreaks Revenge on Anyone Who Gets On My Nerves, I promise to bring to the nation the educational results we have in Texas, where we are ranked 47th in literacy.

O Jumbo Being Who Cannot Be Detected in Any Way, But Who I Not Only Detect But Speak For, I promise to force vaccines on children, especially vaccines made by drug companies that give me campaign contributions and hire my staff to lobby for them.

O Invisible Friend Who Only I Am Seeing at the Moment, I promise to shrink government but impose mandatory ultrasounds on women trying to get abortions.

O Incomprehensible Giant Guy Who Despite My Lack of Education or Insight I Am Able to Comprehend (and Translate For), I promise to oppose and criminalize everything gay.

O Unproveable One Who I Can Use as Validation for Doing or Saying Anything I Want, I promise to make schools teach Intelligent Design as a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution.

O Best Friend in the Sky Who Passes Me Secret Notes, I promise to fight against the global warming hoax being perpetrated by evil scientists and government bad guys!

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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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