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NO BAILOUT….The bailout bill has failed. Two-thirds of the House GOP caucus — primarily the lunatics in the Republican Study Committee, I assume — voted against it. I have a feeling we might now get a bunch of emergency nationalizations whether we like it or not.

Our current financial crisis has never been explained well to the public because (a) it’s mind-bogglingly complex and (b) even the experts don’t entirely know what’s going on. And the Paulson plan was never sold well because (a) the initial draft was indefensible and (b) the theory underlying it was uncertain and complicated. So Lou Dobbs and his brand of populist yahooism won out instead.

I don’t know what happens next. Hopefully we’ll get another bite at the apple, but with Congress adjourning and elections approaching, action is only going to get harder, not easier. In the meantime, I guess we just have to pray that all the Chicken Littles like me are worrying too much.

On another note, an upcoming debate whose main attraction is the possibility of Sarah Palin melting down amusingly is suddenly less appealing than it used to be. I’m not really in the mood for bread and circuses right now.

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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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