The spirit of Madison is on display here on a rolling basis. And everyone has a role to play, a way to engage more deeply in the community. By becoming a member of FDL you can get not only discounts on progressive events and activities, but ways to interact at a greater level with our writers and editors. More than anything, membership will foster ways to get involved. Just like I saw in Madison.

And now, there’s the Writer’s Foundation, which will enable writers to continue this work. The predictable statement is that journalism is under stress. But journalism itself is actually thriving. When given just some resources, citizen journalists can call attention to undiscovered issues and make a difference. The FDL Writer’s Foundation can support that work, and give new opportunities for writers to promote and actually enact real progressive change.

I’d be honored if you would consider making a donation today.

And anyway, it beats just screaming to your neighbor when you see an injustice.

Bill Halter appeared on the morning panel, and I got to steal a few minutes with him. I asked him about the difficulty running against candidates who “progressive-wash” themselves. Blanche Lincoln came out with this derivatives title that she “wrote” right before the primary, blunting Halter’s message of Lincoln as a Wall Street fighter. Halter said that the complexity of the specific issue made it even harder to counteract the message – it was hard to wrap Arkansans heads around the fact that Lincoln left a big loophole in her Section 716 of the bill, for example, or that she didn’t filibuster the bill when Maria Cantwell was doing so precisely because her derivatives title became unenforceable. This is something that progressives need to figure out, because incumbents have done this over and over again to inoculate themselves from criticism from the left.

Here’s Firedoglake’s most popular videos of 2009. What does this collection say to you about this year?