Where are we on the “$4,800 Before I Turn 48″ State Senate fundraiser, with six days left? Making good progress, as Bush liked to say: we are only about $1,500 shy of the goal. And that’s amazing, really. Of course, that’s when it begins to hurt the most, when you’ve drunk the glass of eggs, run to the top of the Philadelphia Museum steps, yet Burgess Meredith is still hitting you in the stomach to toughen you up because it’s not over yet. If you can help us raise this last chunk, help us be something more than just another bum from the neighborhood, thanks in advance. The easy Act Blue contribution link is here.

Late Update, Saturday, 4:00 pm:

A number of people have helped out since Friday, but we’re still just lagging the pace we’ll need to bring it home by lights out on Wednesday: about $1,300 shy now.

So we present this inspirational HD quality video montage of Rocky Balboa, running around in training pants that seem a little dorkier than we remember, but still trying hard and reaching the top of the steps and making up for all of the horrible sequels and action rip-offs that would later follow. An undeniably nice moment, emblematic of this dogged campaign, and now text-enhanced for Spanish-speakers [Meat-Punching Warning For Vegetarian/Vegans]:

Later Update, Sunday 4:47 pm:

Yes, we’ve been here at the tiller all weekend long, nursing the harsh black coffee, afraid to let our eyes close, coaxing this thing along through the fog, slowly closing the gap on the Wednesday goal. Some wonderful folks checked in today, and have brought us ever nearer: just $1,100 dollars short of the goal.

But with just three full days left to go.

One last thing to think about: how long would a CEO like Entergy’s Wayne Leonard need to think about a little over $1000? Leonard, remember, makes $40 million over 5 years, which figures out to 21,917.80 per day.

Or $913.24 per hour.

So let’s look at it like that: Entergy’s CEO could close the gap for us with the salary he draws on his lunch hour. And Entergy the corporation, if it chose to exercise its God Given Right to Free Speech, could fill the gap with less than 5 seconds of their yearly profits.

That’s why small time campaigns, like this one, need you, and the small donation repeated until it amplifies the voice saying: enough.

Monday Afternoon Update, 12:16 pm:

Still moving doggedly forward: down to triple figures now, with only about $850 left to raise, but also with time running low. Just two and a half days left.

You know, Sarah Palin spoke to the Tea Party crowd a few days back, and mocked the “Hopey-Changey thing.” It was the same tone she used, back at the 2008 Convention, to mock community organizing.

And they ate it up in Tennessee, because they’ve doubled down on failure at this point.

But when you put out a fundraising challenge as a small candidate, in order to power a campaign for green power and against the status quo on Yankee, for universal broadband and against underfunded schools, and you watch people come to the digital rescue, not just in the County but from all over Vermont, it does keep hope alive and it does enable change.

Which is to say that we’re not ready to throw in the tea towel yet, not by a long shot.

I like to think this early campaign, by speaking openly and loudly and clearly on Yankee, affected candidates who got into the race at a later point.

And I like to think that all those candidates, speaking together, have forced the Governor out of his protective crouch on the issue.

Not to say change couldn’t have happened without this campaign. What I’m saying is that what change we’ve been able to produce thus far couldn’t have happened without you. And that’s true of this last distance to the goal too.

The Act Blue link is here, if you can help us gut it out here at the bitter end of this thing.

Later Monday Update, 2:37 pm:

Down to $750. Feeling it now.

Latest Monday Update, 5:53 pm:

Okay, no movement. Feeling it, you know, a little less now. But 48 hours to go, and that’s two full days by any count.

Tuesday Morning Rejuvenation Update, 7:21 am:

Some late-night rangers stepped up, which made the morning seem bright, for early February: $620 away from the goal, which seems so small compared to the $4,800 we set our sights on originally.

And a few of those late-night rangers sent things along with their contributions. From VDB wingman Don Shall we got the following shot of the now-late John Murtha, who died yesterday of complications from surgery. Circa October 2006, when Murtha was riding a wave of national publicity, and came to campaign for Peter Welch.

Murtha had his issues — and faced a series of ethics charges at his death — but he came out strongly and publicly against the Iraq War when the anti-War movement most needed a hawk to take on Bush. And for that, he will always have VDB’s respect.

And from another donor we got this beautiful link, to a NewsChannel 5 editorial broadcast last week, in which the station calls for Yankee to be shuttered. Make no mistake: that’s an earthquake. But it’s not just that NewsChannel 5 calls for shut-down; it’s the language that’s so striking.

They call the Enexus proposal “shell game economics,” which we’ve done ourselves on more than one occasion, but the final line? “Tell the truth or pay up and go to jail.”

Oh, snap! Wish we’d said that.

That’s where we are folks: major television outlet talking jail time for the Entergy management team, unless they face up to their clear moral and financial responsibilities. You telling me a morning can get any brighter?

Okay, raising that last nugget would help. But still.

Tuesday Afternoon Update, 1:57 pm:

Just $520 left to go.