The professional Democrats at Organizing for America, the political organization spun off from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign staff, aren't bullshitting anymore in their fundraising pleas. The subject line of their latest mass email? "I'm writing to ask you for money."

A foundation that "promotes progressive causes" and owns $52,000 in News Corp stock has written the company to object to its donations to Republican political groups. Good of them to give old Rupert Murdoch something to laugh about. [NYT]

Be scared, Democrats, because Daddy's taking the credit card away. That's right: George Soros, the billionaire financier who's bankrolled many Democratic victories in previous years, isn't donating to them this year, saying that even he can't stop the Republican "avalanche."

Fox News' parent company, News Corp. made headlines earlier this year for donating $1 million to the Republican Governor's Association. Looks like that wasn't their only beneficiary: The Republican-allied U.S. Chamber of Commerce received the same sum this past summer.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear on Oprah Friday to announce a $100 million donation to help resuscitate Newark's failed public school system. That's a lot of money, even for someone worth $6.9 billion. Talk about some well-timed PR!

The liberal watchdogs at Media Matters have gotten Fox News to air a commercial about News Corporation — Fox News' parent company — donating $1 million to the Republican Governors Association recently. But they'll only air it once, got it?

A Goodwill store in Albuquerque, New Mexico received a bizarre donation in its collection box last week: a pistol, a grenade, some ammo and some weed. The store was evacuated until the bomb squad arrived and gave the all clear.

After coming under fire for his company's donations to a political action group supporting right-wing Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wrote a letter apologizing to his company's employees for... hurting their feelings?

If you're a Republican fundraiser, sure, you're happy that Wall Street is donating more to Republicans than Democrats, who stabbed Wall Street in the back by writing an inevitable, watered-down reform bill. Still, you shouldn't brag about it on Twitter!

Apparently "there's talk in GOP circles" that Sarah Palin should replace Michael Steele as RNC chair, after Steele made the terrible mistake of calling the Afghanistan war stupid. This will not happen, because Sarah Palin is a terribly unpopular person!

America's irresponsible pill-popping step parents on Wall Street are breaking up with the Democrats, for being mean to them. See all of those donations they gave you during the 2008 cycle, Democrats? Well now they're going to Republicans, harumph!

Would you like a job as an executive at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp? It looks like there's one minor hoop you have to jump through: donating thousands to Fox's PAC.

The Red Cross is "out of medical supplies." The Daily Beast has identified the NGOs most deserving of your donations. (Watch out for frauds soliciting donations in the coming days.) And the White House emails:

The Way We Live Now: Putting things in perspective. It works like this: we think our lives are fucked because of the recession. Then we contemplate Haiti's circumstances. A few minutes later we're like, whatever, it still sucks here, too.

In your inexplicable Thursday media column: picturing the New York Times' printing presses, Porsche's CEO pays off old reporters, a 174-year-old newspaper folds, and Steve vs. Steve. Steve?

Three years ahead of schedule, Columbia J-School has met its goal of raising $100 million, thanks in part to a $20 million donation from John Kluge, a rich man who values Ivy League schools over starving children in Africa. The school plans to increase scholarships, start an "academic center focused on the coverage of…

Hot naked man-on-man pornography supports Obama! Not that there's anything wrong with that. But Page Six would like you to know that one of Obama's big donation "bundlers" is Terrence Bean—a real estate developer who owns a holding company that receives revenue from the sale of a gay porn company. Why, Obama himself…