Best in Blog: 19 June 2009

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Happy Friday to Kevin’s cats and the MoJo frog. Three quick MoJo must reads before you glue yourself to today’s Iran coverage:

1) Sotomayor With A Starr

Conservative legal stalwart Kenneth Starr has endorsed Obama’s Supreme Court pick. David Corn broke the news, writing: “He noted that he has not written any official endorsement letter for Sotomayor but that no one had asked him to do so—suggesting he would if requested.” How will Rush, Newt, and other 4-letter-word Republicans take it? Read more.

2) John Ensign’s Interns Pack It In

Now that anti-gay marriage Sen. John Ensign has admitted to his own opposite-marriage problem with The Ladies, will we get an Ensign resign? Note to Ensign interns: MoJo‘s hiring! Join our scandal-free DC bureau and investigate your ex-boss and his ilk for a living. Read more.

3) Did Lead-Laced Sludge Taint Michelle Obama’s Garden?

It’s not easy being green. After the National Park Service disclosed that the White House plot was a wee bit toxic, lead-based paint was fingered as the culprit. But what if the real plot problem is the Clinton-era “very clean poo” once used to fertilize the White House South Lawn? Read more.

Plus, keep an ear out later today for David and Kevin’s week-in-review podcast.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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