July 29, 2011

This Week in National Insecurity: Debtageddon Edition

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctbto/4926598654/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Flickr/CTBTO</a>

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While you were watching The Town on Blu-Ray the DC debt-ceiling drama, a lot happened in the national security sphere. In this installment: We’re defenseless against default, would-be domestic terrorists do it wrong, a Russian diplomat rips red-staters, a Vets’ Hall of Fame inducts…Rick Scott, a fighter jet has gremlins, and the DOD outputs an epic cyber fail.

The sitrep:

• Yes, going into a debt default could make America less safe. Kind of a dilemma for conservative hawks.

• A Planned Parenthood clinic was firebombed in Texas. Terrorism? Perhaps. Al Qaeda? No, because they probably know better than to use diesel in a Molotov cocktail.

• In other “alleged domestic terror in Texas” news, a Muslim Army private was arrested near Fort Hood for conspiring to attack soldiers on the base with guns and explosives. And for possessing child pornography. It appears the soldier was also connected to a host of antiwar groups. Right-wing bloggers, commence cackling.

• What happens when you throw a Russian ambassador in a room with two hawkish Republican senators? Sound bites galore.

• Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed his old chief of staff to oversee a new state Veterans Hall of Fame. On the list of inductees: Rick Scott! And six Confederate ex-governors. And none of the state’s dozens of Medal of Honor recipients. Shockingly, this plan may change.

• After decades of delays and cost overruns, the Air Force’s top fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor, has a strange problem: It’s leaking anti-freeze into the pilots’ oxygen systems, making the aviators dangerously woozy during flights. It may take many more flight hours to identify the cause, at $44,000 an hour. And you thought your mechanic was expensive.

• The Pentagon launched its new cyber strategy website on Monday…the same day the GAO issued a report concluding that the DOD is dreadfully unprepared for a cyber attack. Evidently, the military is also dreadfully unprepared for negative media reports.

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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.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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