September 7, 2007

Washington Times Editor Gets Desperate, Compares the Surge to the Battle of Midway

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Rambling screeds on right-leaning editorial pages are often stuffed with unintentional humor and unintended self-parody, but the op-ed by Editor in Chief Wesley Pruden in today’s Washington Times really takes the cake. In between busily accusing Democrats of hoping for bad news on Iraq (“only bad news makes their hearts sing”) and pretending some “Let’s not pay taxes or follow laws” crazy on the internet is representative of the Democratic party, Pruden came out with this gem:

Some of these doom-criers would have swooned in the miserable spring of 1942, when Rommel’s unstoppable march across North Africa was finally stopped by the British at el-Alamein. Halfway around the world, the U.S. Navy turned back the Japanese tide at Midway.

So if you’re keeping track, Iraq is Vietnam, General Petraeus is Bernard Montgomery, the surge is the First Battle of el-Alamein, the insurgents are Nazis (or Japanese), and Democrats are (again!) a fifth column that only wants to see America lose, the terrorists win, and babies cry. Bravo, Mr. Pruden. Your achievements in convoluted overstatement are truly impressive. Bravo.

— Nick Baumann

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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