ideas

div class=”dkimg-c”img src=”http://images.dailykos.com/i/user/28416/PalinPAC.jpg” alt=”" width=”550″ / div class=”dkimg-cap”The front page of Sarah Palin’s site urges citizen action against government corruption. Wait. Maybe it’s on a different page. A different site? On her Twitter account?

CASPER, Wyo. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the University of Wyoming must allow 1960s radical William Ayers to speak on the school’s campus in Laramie. The university had cited threats of violence in not allowing Ayers to speak at a campus event planned for Wednesday. U.S. District Judge William Downes said Tuesday that violent threats can’t be used as a reason to deny Ayers’ right to speak on campus. Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, now plans to speak at UW on Wednesday at the invitation of a student.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing lately that gets at the point that Americans are poorly informed about substantive issues in politics and that further laments the lameness of our political institutions. I don’t like to write too much about such negative things, because it tends to bring me down and piss me off at the same time. So I’m not writing anything more on it for a bit, but I am giving you a few fun–and well-written–things to read. Is it an echo chamber? Perhaps. But I like the sound my thoughts make when they bounce off of smart people.

Sarah Palin will always be a Hail Mary Pass. She is a last-ditch, slapdash shot for a win. Regardless of facts, faux pas or folly, conservatives will continue to tout her as an asset as long as she continues to act like a battering ram to their opposition. If she still throws jabs, utterly doe-eyed to the implications (i.e. ripping on teleprompters in a prepared speech), the dreaded “elites” of her party will still use her for what she’s worth.

Earlier this week, I asked for your ideas on what gifts we should give to some of our favorite — and not so favorite — public figures. You dusted off your Santa suits and squeezed down the virtual chimney, loaded with gift ideas. Now it’s time to unwrap the presents. Here are our favorite gifts to stuff into the stockings of some of 2009’s most memorable characters: Chris Matthews: a microphone that cuts off after he asks a question. (submitted by MrJoyboy) Barack Obama: a GPS, to show him the way from Wall Street to Main Street.

Think of it as a second chance. Or a second course in the “Dinner with Sarah Palin” eBay auction that you thought was already history. Here’s a quick recap for those of you who haven’t been playing along at home. Sarah Palin decides to auction off dinner with herself with proceeds going to benefit the veterans’ charity Ride2Recovery. Nice. Bidding ensues.

Sarah Palin’s garbled, often incoherent speech delivered in Anchorage on Wednesday–the one in which she declared “screw political correctness” and wondered why “we have to pussyfoot around our troublesome foes”–was largely lifted from an article written four years ago by Newt Gingrich and Craig Shirley. Palin apparently also felt that she could “screw” intellectual integrity.

Dear Democrats, progressives and all those who voted for Obama but don’t agree with some of his policy decisions and are now publicly criticizing him: No, you’re not traitors. Yes, constructive dissent is the lifeblood of democracy. You may even be correct in the details of what you are saying. But this is not the time to criticize President Obama. President Obama is so calm, reasonable and unflappable that it may not appear so, but our president is in a knife fight. He is fighting for you and me. He needs rock solid friends now as steady in our resolve as he is in his.

PHOENIX–Arizona is not a sexy state. Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, DC, these are the locales people pay attention to. Arizona politics barely gets attention in Arizona. So, when non-party-hacks start following Arizona party politics for the entertainment value — and not just regular politics but inside baseball party politics — then something is happening. Whether it’s good or bad depends who’s asked.

This morning, NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed the chairman of the Republican party, Mike Duncan, who is trying to hold on to his chairmanship despite the massive GOP loss in November. The most interesting part of the interview wasn’t anything Duncan said. Rather, it was Duncan’s long silence when asked about the perception of the GOP as the party of exclusion. His silence spoke louder than anything that he had said in terms of how incapable the Republican Party still is of recognizing what it did wrong and what it needs to do in order to gain Americans’ trust.