Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin posted what is being hailed as a “masterpiece” of the genre of Facebook status updates Tuesday, wowing both literary critics and fans alike. The post has received millions of views and sparked questions about Palin’s political future.

“Today is a day for freedom,” Palin’s post began. “Isn’t that what’s so great about America?!!?! Freedom! I love freedom. And I know you do, too. You know who doesn’t? The Washington bureaucrats. They don’t see freedom the same way you and I do. They don’t value it. They just say the word, but they don’t feel it down deep inside.”

The post was part an expression of thanks to her many fans in the social networking community, and part mission statement.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to see that your freedoms are protected,” she wrote. “I may not be a governor anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working for you. I haven’t. And I never will. I’ll keep fightin’ till the sun don’t shine.”

The post transcends the normal limitations of the Facebook update genre, says Earl Ablenon, Professor of English at Duke University and an author of several biographies of famous American authors.

“She has done something quite unusual here, even for her,” Ablenon said. “She has combined the simple, conversational tone with…well, with more simple, conversational tone. It’s like nothing I’ve seen in all my years studying literature.”

Ablenon cited specific parts of the post as examples.

“This right here,” he said, pointing to a particular point within the post, on his computer monitor. “This is a type of phrasing I have never seen before: ‘When the bureaucrats run things, that means more of the same, for sure, for ever. For sure.’ I mean, the repeated use of ‘for sure,’ and the off placement of ‘forever.’ Extraordinary.”

“Ms. Palin, being fond of communicating on the social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook,” the statement read, “is hereby ordered to be put to death in a manner befitting the social networking community. She will be inundated with 140-character tweets, until unable to sustain life.”

In a post on Facebook reacting to the panel’s ruling, Palin wrote, “You see?!?! I told you there were death panels!!!! I was right!!! And they’ve targeted me!!! Your favorite gov!! Help!!!!”

The panel is manned by anonymous bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to euthanize large swaths of the U.S. population, particularly elderly Americans and disabled children and adults, by denying them medical care. However, in Palin’s case, the panel ruled that further action must be taken beyond the usual denial of necessary treatment.

“We must look at a person’s value to society when deciding whether they live or die,” the panel’s statement explained. “And in the case of Gov. Palin, she is not only of no use to society, but she is actually a negative drain on society. Each time she posts a ‘tweet’ or updates her Facebook page, the collective intelligence of the country’s population is lowered significantly. This must stop. She must stop. Her next update will be her last.”

Palin has made headlines throughout the health care reform debate, speaking out against the lack of choice such reform will bring, and most notably, warning Americans about precisely the type of death panel that has just determined her fate.

“Seriously, this isn’t a joke,” Palin wrote on Twitter Monday afternoon, after receiving multiple tweets. In the next post, or tweet, she managed to send, she wrote, “Stop!! Stop tweeting me!! I can’t take much more!!! Pleeeeeaaaassee!!!”

She did not tweet again.

An Alaskan Bull Moose. Many moose in Alaska are unhappy with comments made by Sarah Palin during the presidential campaign.

Two groups in particular have apparently turned on Palin since she ran on the Republican ticket with John McCain: wolves and moose. Palin’s approval rating among the two groups has dropped some 52%, from 71% before the election season to just 19% this week. Many wolves and moose say they respected Palin early on, but after the way they were treated during the campaign, everything changed.

“I’m just not happy with the way we were thrown about — used, if you will, in the campaign,” said Harvey Moose, who voted for Palin for governor. “I used to love her. I really did. But making a point of hunting us, making stew out of us. ‘Oh, I love moose stew.’ I mean, come on. That’s my cousin you’re talking about. He was probably in that stew. You know. Just disrespectful. It really turned me off.”

Allan Wolf, a younger Alaska native, said that Palin’s treatment of wolves was even worse than that of moose. “I have to say, I didn’t know she supported such a thing as hunting us from airplanes,” Allan said. “Now that I know that, how could I possibly support her? She wants to shoot me. From a plane. From the ground. She doesn’t care. From anywhere. You know, it’s tough to vote for someone who uses you as target practice. It just is.”

Insiders say it will be tough for Palin to regain the support of the two groups, even if she were to make large gestures to court their approval. “It’s going to be very, very tough,” said an aide to Palin, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly. “I mean, you say you kill and eat a certain constituency, it’s likely to be tough to get that constituency back. That’s a rule of politics. I think Nixon said, back when he lost to Kennedy, ‘I never should have said I would eat the Italians.’ And he lost that whole vote. So it goes to show you.”

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HENRY: Yes, this is the Henry “Mack Truck” Harvey Show. Welcome aboard.

Had a little break there. Short hiatus after the election.

Don’t worry. Nothing’s wrong. Nothing’s wrong here. I wasn’t losing my mind or anything like that. I didn’t have a “breakdown,” or whatever the liberal elites on the coasts call it.

I’m not angry at all. Really okay, fine.

First caller is Dave from Silver Lake. Dave, go ahead. You’re on with The Mack Truck.

CALLER: Yeah, I just want to say, I voted for Obama, and–

HENRY: Wait, you–Dave, you voted for Obama?

Dave, just give me one reason–Just give me one reason why you voted for Obama.

CALLER: I thought he had a better grasp on the economy, and–

HENRY: Oh, yeah. “Better grasp on the economy.” Yeah, yeah. That’s a good theory. Let me tell you something, Dave. Voting for Obama, you know what that is? That’s Country Third. Voting for McCain, Country First. Voting for Obama, Country Third.

CALLER: Oh, is that so?

HENRY: Yeah, it is. Voting for Obama puts the country behind Socialism, Marxism, and spreading the wealth around.

CALLER: Well, that would be country fourth. So you don’t even know what you’re talking about.

HENRY: Oh, I don’t know what I’m talking about? Let me tell you what I’m talking about, Dave, okay? We could have had a beautiful Alaskan princess in the White House! She could have been Vice President! She would have been on TV every day! I could have seen her every day. And everyone wants change, change, change. Kick, ball, change. All over the place, blah, blah, change, change. You know what’s change? A hot, Alaskan, moose hunting mama in the White House. That’s change I can believe in!

CALLER: I thought you weren’t angry.

HENRY: I’m upset! It’s different!

Philadelphia International Airport – Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin is trying to explain why she pushed Republican Presidential nominee John McCain off Mr. McCain’s campaign plane early this morning. Governor Palin, who first said Mr. McCain “fell out of the plane somehow,” now claims that she did, in fact, push him out of the plane, but says her doing so was an accident.

At approximately 9:50 AM EST, while Senator McCain and Governor Palin were the only two passengers aboard the campaign plane, the main cabin’s door suddenly flew open, and Mr. McCain was hurtled into the air outside. He began plummeting to earth, surviving only because an escort plane was flying below the campaign plane and caught the senator’s fall. The crew aboard the escort plane retrieved Senator McCain from the plane’s roof, and then both the escort plane and the campaign plane landed safely at Philadelphia International Airport. A reporter for the Associated Press said he heard Senator McCain say “She pushed me out,” before being rushed to the hospital for examination.

Once confronted with Mr. McCain’s statement, Governor Palin, who first said Mr. McCain had fallen out of the plane of his own accord, admitted that she did in fact push him out of the plane. However, she says it was purely accidental.

“I guess I must have been walking by, and must have bumped him with my hips or something,” Palin explained to a group of reporters after deplaning. “Kind of cross-checked him, if you know hockey terminology there. But it was totally accidental.” Asked how the door to the plane had opened, Palin said, “Jeez, you know, I have no idea. Maybe Senator McCain hit it by mistake. Not sure there. Did he…did he say anything about that? No? Okay, good. I mean, you know, not good that he didn’t say anything. Just…good. You know. That he will speak soon. That’s always a good thing. When people can speak, where they couldn’t before. I’ve always thought that was great. But did the senator say anything else? About the…the thingee that happened? Any other details?”

Spokesman for the McCain campaign, Tucker Bounds, said that it would be at least a few hours before Mr. McCain was able to make any further comment. Asked if she realized the incident might seem suspicious, coming as it does on the heels of recent reports of Palin breaking with the McCain campaign and going out on her own, Palin scoffed. “I’ve seen some of those reports, and let me tell you, they’re just flat-out untrue,” Palin said. “Just a bunch of cockamamie baloney. I want nothing more than for John McCain to reach the White House as president. Now, does anyone know when he’s supposed to be able to talk? Like, are we talking an hour, a day, what?”

According to rules laid down by the Republican Party, Palin would not automatically become the party’s nominee, should Senator McCain be unable to serve as the nominee. It would go the Republican National Committee, who would have five days to come to a decision regarding a new nominee.

Told about this fact, Palin said, “What? What do you mean? I wouldn’t be the… Ha. Well, that’s all well and good. Because, as you know, I don’t want to be the nominee. I want to be second-in-command. That’s the job I was asked to do by Senator McCain, and it’s a job I intend to give my all to. Now, do any of you know which hospital Senator McCain was taken to? And the quickest route to get there?”

“I was concerned, after one of the times where she seemed to be answering a question I hadn’t asked,” Couric said. “It didn’t seem possible that she would intentionally answer the question that way, knowing people would see it. So I stopped the interview, and I said, ‘Governor, are you aware that this is the actual interview? What we’re doing right now? That this isn’t a rehearsal?’ She said she was aware. And I said, ‘Okay. Just so you know it’s being recorded and parts of it will be broadcast.’ And then she said, ‘You can’t blink, Katie, because we share a narrow maritime border with Russia and it has to be all about job creation.’ I didn’t understand it, but we just went on with the interview. I was pressed for time.”

Ms. Couric said she became equally concerned during a session following a speech Governor Palin made, which preceded the second phase of the interview. Portions of that segment of Couric’s interview aired tonight on CBS and have spread quickly on the internet.

“In one part of the interview, I asked her what newspapers and magazines she read before being asked to be John McCain’s running mate,” Couric said. “And she couldn’t name any. So again, I turned to the crew and I said, ‘Hold it, guys,’ and I went to the Governor privately and said, ‘Governor Palin, did you not understand the question? I’m asking you to name some newspapers or magazines you read. You can’t come up with any? I’m just trying to make sure you’re clear and to give you a fair shake here.’ And she said, ‘Okay. Nightline? Is that a magazine?’ I said, ‘No, that’s a television show.’ She said, ‘What about Lou Dobbs? Isn’t that a newspaper?’ And I said, ‘No, that’s a man. Lou Dobbs is a man.’ And there wasn’t much more I could do. I’m not a miracle worker.”