Palin's particular brand of absurdist theater was in fine form, especially in her anti-gun-control sentiments:

you're going to see anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood and here's how they do it. They use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets, they use Alaska as a fundraising tool for their anti-second amendment causes.

Is she warning Alaska against Miley Cyrus? (Actually, Ben Smith thinks the "starlet" in question might be Ashley Judd, who narrated an ad attacking Palin's record on wolf-hunting.) There's plenty more where that came from — but there's also something more disturbing than sheer silliness at work in Palin's speech. Check this out:

And first, some straight talk for some, just some in the media because another right protected for all of us is freedom of the press, and you all have such important jobs reporting facts and informing the electorate, and exerting power to influence. You represent what could and should be a respected honest profession that could and should be the cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how 'bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quite makin' things up. And don't underestimate the wisdom of the people, and one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family too, so leave his kids alone.

This kind of anti-press guilt-trip (when you "make things up," you hurt our troops and our children!) isn't new, but Sarah Palin has become a poster child for the idea that no criticism is substantive criticism. Everyone who says something bad about her is attacking her, and not just her qualifications or her experience, but her family, her patriotism, her America. She's careful to say she's talking about "just some" in the press here, but Sarah Palin's basic refusal to engage with people who disagree with her makes her destructive to any sort of shared national discourse. Watch her respond to a heckler at about minute 7:30 of the second part of her speech. She says:

Now, people who know me, and they know how much I love this state, some still are choosing not to hear why I made the decision to chart a new course to advance the state. And it should be so obvious to you. (indicating heckler) It is because I love Alaska this much, sir (at heckler) that I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one's last year in office. How does that benefit you? No, with this decision now, I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, for truth. And I have never felt like you need a title to do that.

Palin sees anyone who questions her resignation as "are choosing not to hear it" in her, because to anyone who actually heard her, the decision would be "obvious." Obvious because ... she loves Alaska! And because no more politics as usual! Yeah! Watch her bask in the applause at the end of this particular bit to see her in her element — people who don't question her, because she has no real response to those questions. All she can do is criticize the questioners themselves — as inattentive, immoral, or un-American.

On CBS this morning, Ann Coulter called Palin "an amazing speaker," and it's true that she's extremely good at working a crowd — especially if she's serving them hot dogs, or, as David Frum points out, $1,200 oil-money checks. But Frum counters that she's a "divisive" force that could lead the Republican party to "ineffectiveness" in government, and I've never agreed so wholeheartedly with a Republican speechwriter.

The Awl's Alex Balk says of Palin's final official tweet, "this is the most direct, clear, and comprehensible statement she's ever made on the microblogging service." And the message — "Last state twitter. Thank you Alaska! I love you. God bless Alaska. God bless the U.S.A." — certainly makes more sense than anything she's ever said about bears. But what it basically displays is one of Palin's two great skills: pandering to her base. The other is deflecting criticism by making it seem unfair. Neither of these is what we need in a leader. David Frum says it's "impossible" that Sarah Palin could win a presidential election in 2012. Let's hope he's right.

Sarah Palin's Farewell Address - Full Transcript [AKMuckraker]
President Palin 'Impossible' [CBS News]
Sarah Palin Train Choo-Choos Into The Sunset [The Awl]
Never Before... [Politico]

MEGAN: It's morning again, and I'm finally awake enough to realize that I put my shirt on backwards when I went to bed last night... and I wasn't even intoxicated.

ANA MARIE: You put a shirt on to go to bed? lerjkewjr! Sorry that was my kind of clearing my throat. Typing- wise.

MEGAN: Otherwise my boobs get all wonky. Plus, I prefer my place kind of chilly and I haven't swapped in my winter bedclothes.

ANA MARIE: Ah, a nightshirt. I was somehow thinking you wore, like, a tux.

MEGAN: That would be kind of awesome, but I feel like the shirt studs would leave marks.

ANA MARIE: Should we talk about the news?

MEGAN: Anyway, so Tina Brown was just on Morning Joe looking kind of fabulous and speaking all British-y.

ANA MARIE: Yes, she sounds smart pretty much all the time. (Hi, Boss!)

MEGAN: Did you watch Arianna guest on Maddow last night?

ANA MARIE: I did. From the studio! Because I was on fake Countdown with fake Keith. I think maybe she and Cindy McCain have the same vocal coach.

MEGAN: A bit somnolent, right? The accent makes me want to get, like, cocoa. By a fire.

ANA MARIE: With that accent, I don't need cocoa. Mika just said "team of rivals" on Morning Joe. DRINK!

MEGAN: Damn it, the tequila is just out of reach! Tina Brown, though, sort of makes me want to learn to like whiskey, and I mean that as a compliment.

ANA MARIE: Hey, I have a question: WHY is Hillary considered a legitimate SecState nominee? Does she have some foreign policy experience I don't know about? I asked this of an MSNBC employee yesterday and she said, "Well, her husband..." and I was like, "If someone tried to give me a job because of my HUSBAND's resume, I would be embarrassed." I guess I might even make up some kind of story about Bosnian sniper fire! I mean, there's an argument that the President's job is big enough that foreign policy experience is just a PART of what you'd need to have. (Clearly, this was the American people's judgment.) But SecState? There's no other part of the job! Having worked on health care policy is kind of not relevant!

MEGAN: Well, but, frankly, what foreign policy (as opposed to defense) experience did Colin Powell have? Hell, what foreign policy experience do most of our ambassadors have? Clinton's nomination is, I think, a great deal about her international star power/prestige, etc. I think it's also about her supposed managerial ability, which, having tried to work with her Senate office and watched her campaign, I frankly question.

ANA MARIE: Then why not nominate Miley Cyrus? She is very popular and has not lied about being under sniper fire.

MEGAN: But it's no longer a nomination, didn't you hear? Only the story is probably completely false since no one else has been able to confirm it. Like, for real, people, The Guardian is the best source on this? I go back to: Hagel, Kerry, Grabbyhands, Nunn. And then you get Hillary Clinton.

ANA MARIE: Maybe this whole thing is a sideshow to make Kerry seem like a noble choice. Oh, and another thing? There are cabinet positions that Hillary would be qualified for: HHS, maybe even Defense (given her well-regarded service on the Armed Services Committee). But this whoopdedoo has probably scotched those. It's probably ruined her chances at State. To the extent it was ever real. I mean, seriously: Is this what the Obama administration is going to be like? Endless high octane pundit debates about things that won't happen?

MEGAN: I think the problem is that there isn't real news to talk about! It's the gossip season. Plus, at the point at which Chris Hitchens is drunkenly inveighing against you on TV, I'm sort of more pro-the idea, frankly. Plus, it would be nearly full employment for me.

ANA MARIE: Oh, and I love Christopher. I would be honored to be the subject of his inebriated inveighings. He should auction that shit off.

MEGAN: MEGAN: But does he need the money? Also, can we just mention, the music that is playing on Morning Joe: "North American Scum."

ANA MARIE: They have pretty good taste in music. There's a very disappointing relationship between taste in bumper music and shows themselves. Proof: You know who has GREAT bumper music? Laura Ingraham. I see that the New York Times is selling copies of its Nov 5 edition for $15. The print media industry is saved! We will borrow the Franklin Mint business model and print WEEKS-OLD NEWS!

MEGAN: And you know that the New York Times will totally make bank on that. I do not understand the people that collect that sort of stuff, but, then, I have moved around a lot in my life.

ANA MARIE: You have a life, maybe?

MEGAN: No, that's not true at all. I'm just too lazy to haul shit.

ANA MARIE: We're going to be LIVING THROUGH the Obama administration. That sort of is my idea of keepsake. That, and the policies he'll enact. Who told the entire MSNBC hosting staff they could go on vacation this week?

MEGAN: What in particular are you keen to see him do? After listening to Mika inveigh against the auto bailout, I now know what she really, really doesn't want.

ANA MARIE: My wishlist for his honeymoon period? Election reform — while it's fresh on everyone's minds — to include making election day a national holiday and some kind of reform to registration so that fake registrations don't slow down legit new voters. Statehood for DC (with the Utah congressional addition off set). Exec orders on torture and Gitmo. Card check.

MEGAN: Oh, see, I sort of hate card check. But I'm on board with the rest of it.

ANA MARIE: AND GET THE PUPPY ALREADY! Why? Oh, and gays in the military! More gays! He could executive order that shit.

MEGAN: Yes, an end to don't ask, don't tell! That would be awesome. On card check, I don't like the elimination of secret balloting. I don't know how that helps. But, then, my parents are required to belong to unions that have variously screwed over our family over the years, so I'm not exactly like "Woo, unions."

ANA MARIE: You've been listening to right wing radio or something. The American workplace is not a pure and formal democracy, and employers have never had much respect for the secret ballot when it came to unions in the past. Not that unions are all good either.

MEGAN: Yeah, well, how does card check help is my point? It fixes the management sins of 40 years ago? But, yeah, I remember when my dads union decided to flex their muscles for no sake other than flexing their muscles against management and my family went without health insurance for a while. Their families didn't, of course, since they were not covered by the same health insurance as us since they weren't actual employees of the organization. And we never got it back retroactive, either. But, hey, they showed management! Something. Yeah, I hold grudges.

ANA MARIE: Speaking of pointless flexing of muscles: I think Lieberman will not get much more than a wrist slap.

MEGAN: Ooh, I'm sure he's so scared at the loss of his subcommittee chairmanship. I can't believe that Jon Tester is defending him on MSNBC right now. How is fucking Tester scared of Jowls McGee?

ANA MARIE: Nice moment though: Jon Tester just started to say "Joe was wro— DIFFERENT on the war." I think we can say "wrong" now.

MEGAN: I think we could have said "wrong" then, That's on my list of stuff I'm looking forward to seeing change in an Obama Administration. I also want a full-on, prisoner-less, compromise-minimized 1984-style tax reform.

ANA MARIE: I don't think Tester or anyone is scared of Jowly Joe. I think this is an attempt to extend the "no drama" policy to the Hill. An attempt that will ultimately be unsuccessful but I admire the effort.

MEGAN: The point of the legislative branch is fucking "drama," so I just wonder when they forgot it.

ANA MARIE: And, yes, I think there will be drama to spare. No thanks to sleepwalkers like Mark Warner, but I have faith in, you know, McCain.

MEGAN: Well, and let's not forget Max Baucus is running around with his own health care reform bill when Kennedy is promising his next year.

ANA MARIE: There you go. DRAMA! COMPETING HEALTH CARE BILL! I think we have the solution to reviving Heroes!

MEGAN: Well, and this is why everyone is focusing on speculating about the Cabinet and Hillary Clinton: everything else is just Nerd Drama. Like, woo David Frum is leaving the National Review?

ANA MARIE: So does that mean we can we talk about the new Star Trek movie?

MEGAN: I am so worried it will suck. For my dad's sake, of course.

ANA MARIE: Oh, and Frum is leaving to start some new "solo web project," by which he means, of course: porn.

MEGAN: But PORN WITH OTHER PEOPLE!! PORN WITH OTHER PEOPLE!! Please don't make me cry.

ANA MARIE: Hey, he's the one talking "solo."

MEGAN: And now my brain needs another bleaching, as, inevitably, I imagine David Frum jerking off on a web cam. This is why I wasn't reading his NRO columns, to avoid that mental picture!

ANA MARIE: I am clearly not the person you should be talking to first thing in the morning. I'm sorry. Tomorrow's mental images will be based on the Shiba puppy cam.

MEGAN: Yay puppies! Honestly, my preference in the morning is to grumpily drink my coffee while mentally cursing the supposed need to arise before 10:00 regardless. So, it's not you, it's me.

ANA MARIE: Well as long as I have someone to watch Morning Joe with I'm good.

MEGAN: For a campaign that attempted to accuse everyone and anyone of sexism in regards to Sarah Palin, there's some sort of irony in campaign staff now calling her a "diva", I think. Also, I love the back-stabbing of the end of a campaign because it just shows you who is in it for the candidate and who's only in it for what the candidate winning can do for his/her career. And, yes, I'm looking at all the lobbyists in the McCain campaign.

LATOYA: I just feel like it's karma — you asked for a maverick, didn't you? Well now, she's just gone maverick on the trail. I watched McCain on Meet the Press on Sunday, he still says he's proud of her.

MEGAN: Not that her remarks this weekend were "the remarks [they] sent to the plane [that] morning."

LATOYA: I'm loving how some polls are calling Palin "a bigger drag on the campaign than Bush" — that's cold. Yet, there seems to be a strong push for Palin in 2012. (OMG, I am sleepy — I keep typing Plain when I mean Palin. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something?)

MEGAN: Apparently because she can deliver the xenophobes and the racists.

LATOYA: And the VPILF set.

MEGAN: Then Stephanie Herseth for VP in 2012!

LATOYA: Don't forget them. I was watching D.L. Hughley's comedy show on CNN on Saturday and Palin supporters were obviously playing bingo with the campaign buzzwords. "Maverick." "Real American." "Hot"

MEGAN: Palin supporters are the most boring people ever, like, how do you not just make that a drinking game?

LATOYA: See, I was thinking scrabble myself. I know I could hit a couple triple word scores with "RealAmerican", hit "maverick" with the M... I was amused at Hughley's sketch though — he kept telling the supporters that Palin needs a black guy to win, and handed out Palin/Hughley 2012 signs.

MEGAN: The only board game I am really good at is Trivial Pursuit, and even that I haven't played in years.

LATOYA: Response from the one guy — "We don't know you!" (Doesn't that sound familiar?)

Response from an angry woman: "Are you for abortion?"
DL: "I would never have one."

MEGAN: Maybe they're just worried that all black people aren't really Americans.

LATOYA: Neither are you latte-sipping coasters.

MEGAN: Screw lattes, it's all about the café au laits for me.

LATOYA: I think we need to start a campaign for fake America. American Faux. We need a tee shirt.

MEGAN: What would be our symbol? Lattes, arugula and diversity?

LATOYA: Oh, we should make a crest! "In cosmopolitia, we trust."

MEGAN: Do we still have to use the eagle? Could we go with the turkey like Ben Franklin, the ultimate latte-sipper if there ever was one? And then like in those old grade school drawings where you make it from an outline of your hang, we could put a different symbol for our cause on every feather!

LATOYA: See, this is shaping up nicely. I vote for Ben Franklin, Crispus Attucks, and Phyllis Wheatley as our symbols of American Faux. Though I think the first tee we make should be telling K. Rove to sit his ass down somewhere and stop being Captain Obvious. I thought he was a strategist. Who changed the job description?

MEGAN: A strategist is something even other Republicans think McCain lacks. Rove's a pundit now and so like Bill Kristol he has to walk that fine line between a level of intellectual honesty that can leave his job intact and party loyalty, so that's about all he can say. At least David Frum had some helpful suggestions, even if they were basically to let McCain continue to run his campaign into the ground on his own and start fighting to keep some Republicans in office.

LATOYA: Yeah, well it looks like they switched strategies — maybe they are hoping that they can just stop people from voting outright. Or that the election boards will do their work for them:

Berry is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote. Experts say lists of people with mismatches are often systematically cut, or "purged," from voter rolls.

It's a scenario that's being repeated all across the country, with cases like Berry's raising fears of potential vote suppression in crucial swing states. "What most people don't know is that every year, elections officials strike millions of names from the voter rolls using processes that are secret, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation," said Wendy Weiser, an elections expert with New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. "That means that lots and lots of eligible voters could get knocked off the voter rolls without any notice and, in many cases, without any opportunity to correct it before Election Day." Weiser acknowledged that "purging done well and with proper accountability" is necessary to remove people who have died or moved out of state. "But the problem is it's not necessary to do inaccurate purges that catch up thousands of eligible voters without any notice or any opportunity to fix it before Election Day and really without any public scrutiny at all," she said. Such allegations have flared up across the United States during this election cycle, most notably in Ohio, where a recent lawsuit has already gone to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MEGAN: I love how even Scalia was like, oh, Christ, fuck off, Ohio Republicans.

LATOYA: I feel like I need to call the election board and make sure I'm on the guest list. I didn't know voting was like clubbing — "I swear I'm on the list! I registered on Thursday! Can I please get my free drink ticket?"

MEGAN: Well, even if they purged you, they have to let you cast a provisional ballot.

LATOYA: Yeah, like someone is going to count those. And those ballots are shady anyway.

MEGAN: Well, I mean, that is the issue. I think, though, if they have purged so many people that the provisionals could make a difference, Obama's lawyers will probably have your back. I saw Recall. God, I love that movie.

LATOYA: One would hope. In good news, it seems that a lot of former felons have been re-enfranchised.

According to advocacy groups, about 5.3 million Americans, or 1 in 41 adults, have lost their right to vote because of a felony conviction.

"The issue here is really if someone should have a permanent scarlet letter on them — if there are certain offenses for which there is no redemption," said Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who played a lead role in revising Tennessee's voting law in 2006.

The suffrage laws vary by state and often by felony, with violent crimes incurring greater restrictions. Only two states — Maine and Vermont — permit voting by all felons, including those still in prison. California, along with states such as New York and Colorado, automatically reinstates voting rights to felons once they are released from prison and are off parole.

MEGAN: I think that if you've served your time, you've served your time, you shouldn't have to re-apply for citizenship. But people on probation and parole aren't done repaying their debt to society.

LATOYA: But unfortunately, we're still hating on Native Americans. And, um, Ohio voters.

MEGAN: I mean, there are reliable voting blocs that go Democratic, right? Why does the GOP not try to systematically disenfranchise groups of white people? Why is it always people of color?
Why do they hate your freedom?

LATOYA: Because, obviously, I'm not a real American. Therefore, it is obvious that I should only have fake rights and fake freedoms.