Exploiting the Oil Spill: One Word—Lithium

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In recent days, Rush Limbaugh and other rightwingers have accused the Obama administration and environmentalists of trying to exploit the BP oil spill for political gain—even suggesting that they caused the disaster or let the leak continue in order to undermine plans for expanding offshore drilling. This is wacko stuff, showing that the soundbite scoundrels of the right will exploit anything to score political points. But there are those on the right who are also trying to exploit the BP oil spill the old-fashioned way: for financial profit.

This morning I received an email from Townhall.com, a prominent conservative site that features the writings of well-known conservative pundits. The subject head: “Obama may cancel ALL oil drilling, wants Lithium. LTUM stock could triple.” Townhall had rented out its email list to a stockpicking newsletter that was pushing lithium stocks—and attempting to make a buck off the paranoid conservatives who soak up Limbaughian lies. Well, if  rightwingers really do believe that President Barack Obama will cancel all offshore drilling, then they ought to be easy marks for Townhall’s partner. They might also be interested in purchasing some swamp land in Florida.

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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?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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