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My sister thinks I should join the movement to declare February a Palin-free month. The logic behind this is unassailable. And yet….it would prevent me from sharing stuff like this:

The first segment is some sort of painfully rehearsed word salad about Obama’s mention of a Sputnik moment in his State of the Union address, and it ends with Palin suggesting that what America really needs is a “Spudnut moment,” referring to a small business in Richland, Washington. Tommy Christopher tries to make sense of it all:

Palin never really explains how this is supposed to work, but I think the equation goes something like this: “Sputnik moment” + “Something that sounds like Sputnik but isn’t”=WIN!

For what it’s worth, Greta Van Susteren’s blank look at the end of Palin’s harangue is sort of priceless. Still, it leaves the question open: are we better off taking a month’s vacation from this? Or is the entertainment value just too high? Decisions, decisions…..

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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