Ana Marie Cox

Status Update: Special Message to Donors

I'm very, very behind on emailing all the people who should receive thank you notes, and time does not look like it's getting any more available. So, to all those who deserve thank you notes -- and even those that don't -- and especially deserve one from me: How would you feel about, instead, my "friending" you on Facebook?

I have previously held Facebook friends to the "I must actually know them or have several friends in common" standard, so it's not like I'm just GIVING this away... but it is a come down, I suppose, from that special "You've Got Mail" feeling. On the other hand, I hear this Facebook thing is really catching on!

Donors know how to get in touch, so please do.

Meanwhile: video!

EXPENSES:

• Westin Pittsburg: $278
• Flight from PIT to CHM (US Airways): $283
• Ride from Latrobe to Pittsburgh: FREE! (An in-kind donation courtesy of Bloomberg News. Thank you, Al and Hans!)

Brick

Have not been able to turn on MacBook Pro so far today. Gulp.

EXPENSES:

• Flight from Columbus, OH to Louisville, KY: $200 (est)
• Flight from Louisville, KY to Cape Girardeau, MO: $200 (est)
• The Victorian Inn: $78

UPDATE: Working! Thanks to those that sent in suggestions for first aid. Can now spend donations on booze reporting.

Status Update: Independent

The Washington Independent has stepped up as co-sponsor of my adventures -- paying $2k toward travel plus a bit for some original reporting -- and are providing a much prettier home for the reporting I'll be doing.

In any case, please do me the enormous kindness of paying TWI (that's what cool kids call them) a visit. My first installment of my campaign diary is here. Second is here.

EXPENSES:
Cab ride from airport to hotel: $56 [Noted below]
Hotel: $81
Flight from Bowling Green, OH to Chillicothe, OH (25 min): $200 (est)
Plain cheese pizza: TK

Expenses Update

Cab fare from Toledo airport to Toledo hotel: $56.

Not a limo. In fact, driver encouraged me to join him in the front.

For which I assume one of us would get a discount.

Pledge Drive Update

It looks as though I will be heading out on the trail shortly to start putting a dent in the $7,000 or so that total strangers have provided. Words cannot properly convey my gratitude and amazement in the faith you people seem to have in a little Midwestern girl and her fondness for foul language, politics, and hard-luck stories -- not in that order.

Due to the astronomical costs of traveling with a campaign, I am pretty sure that amount will run short of covering the trail through election day. (The cost of access to the McCain press center on election night alone is almost $700, not including the hotel room, or cost of getting there -- a single day of plane travel can be as much as $2,000, though it can also be less.) But I'll be keeping track, and posting a rough running total -- and continuing to offer new and exciting ways to participate in this grand experiment in citizen journalism. But don't worry, I'll pay for my own drinks. Or at least will make sure you don't have to.

My seat on the McCain plane has been temporarily hijacked -- I get it back Friday -- so tonight I'll be joining Palin for a few days, starting in Toledo tonight for a 9:30AM rally tomorrow. If you don't hear from me by 10, send help. Seriously: Not money, but help.

EXPENSES:

Northwest flight from DCA to TOL (connecting in Detriot): $296.00

Pledge Drive Bonus: All Your Vital Questions, Answered!

TODAY ONLY: Anyone who donates $15 before midnight tonight will receive, not just a thank-you email, but also, the opportunity to ask, via email, ANYTHING YOU WANT.

To which I will provide an answer.

Perhaps not the one you want, or even the truth, for that matter. BUT AN ANSWER YOU SHALL RECEIVE.

Meanwhile, please contemplate this image taken just moments ago at a Sarah Palin rally in what must be called "Liminal Viriginia." (Not quite real, not quite fake but, rather, Leesburg.)

I assume the upside down sign means that the campaign is in trouble.

All other pledge drive inducements are still on the table. Or the seat as the case may be.

New Pledge Drive Option: NAME THAT SEAT

First of all: Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. I am humbled and amazed by the generosity of those out there in the tubes. You have made it difficult for me to maintain my air of jaded bitterness, but since I assume that is one of things you are paying for (in addition to my email address, the opportunity to ask a McCain staffer a question, etc.) I shall continue to struggle to keep it. Perhaps I will watch some more "Rock of Love" re-runs. Or Sarah Palin rallies.

At the moment, donations come to about $2500 -- a thousand past my goal of simply seeing the McCain campaign off into the gentle night come Nov. 4 (literally! sort of!), and just about enough to cover spending election eve out on the trail as well. My original plan for the Radar piece was to go out with the campaign for the last five days, and my favorite McCain staffer (hi there, Kristin!) has assured me that I am "manifested" on the campaign charter for those five days. It is a position -- being "manifested" on the plane -- for which other journalists' egos have fought and died for and I am loath to give it -- my "manifestation" -- up, so I'm going to keep this little bake sale going in hopes of not simply being "manifested" but rather actually inhabiting the corporeal space on the McCain plane as well. Also, I may never get to use the word manifest as a verb again.

And now that Radar no longer exists: anyone who ponies up over $1500 to cover the price of that seat will have the privilege of naming it. That is, when the McCain aide who sends out the daily seating assignments, she (Kimmie Liscomb, everyone, girl genius!) will need to put something down where "Radar" used to be. BEFORE (click to enlarge):

AFTER!

Sure, I could use my own name, like Sophie, the French documentarian, but, I would find that sad and also I do not want the kind of brand recognition Sophie has.

And, by the way, this is just for fun. There's no official list, there's not really a way to preserve the genius that might be, say, "Ana Marie Cox, representing Joe: The Magazine," or "Ana Marie Cox, of ACORN! The MUSICAL!" or "Ana Marie Cox, brought to you by Stanley Kurtz." But I will take pictures of said seat, send you the seating chart and, you know, it will live on the memories of us all.

Please no language that I cannot safely repeat on national television. And please avoid the use of the names of any actual candidates. Or staffers. We depend on the good will of Kimmie for this to work -- in general I depend on the good will of Kimmie for a lot. For everything else, I depend on you.

Rate Card

Hi. Welcome to my world. A world in which Radar Magazine does not exist.

It will cost about $1500 to cover just the last day of the campaign, and over $1000 a day for each day leading up to it. While I still blog for TIME's "Swampland" * -- and I will for as long as they let me! -- I am without a source for travel funds.

So, you know, anyone interested in sponsoring a foul-mouthed blogger, slightly used? I have come up with the following pledge drive bonuses! Rewards are cumulative.

• Anything: Good karma, knowledge that sometimes merit is rewarded. If not in this particular case.
• Over $10: A personal thank-you email (please include your email in "instructions for seller")
• Over $50: A personal thank-you phone call (please include your phone number in "instructions for seller")
• Over $100: My instant message screen name, regular personal updates via email and/or instant messages on election night
• Over $250: I will ask a senior McCain adviser the question of your choosing and send you the MP3 audio of the exchange
• Over $500: Phone call from McCain headquarters on election night, detailing hilarious antics sure to ensue
• Over $1000: One-on-one post-election dinner debrief

I also have for sale a half-finished article on "The Last Days of the McCain Campaign," full of chewy, insidery goodness. Word rate negotiable!

Click below, hit the tip jar, whatever seems like justice to you.

*Now up and working again!

UPDATE: Rachel and I discuss my plight. And the ultimately much more tragic plight of John McCain: