Women Hoo Embarrass Women

BRISTOL PALIN & LEVI: SHOTGUN BREAK-UP

Reports are that Bristol Palin, daughter of the Governor and unwed teen mother of Tripp, and the thick-necked hockey player named Levi who fathered Tripp in the biological sense of the word, are not getting shot gun-married after all.

Bristol and Levi fell in love in high school. Then stopped going when Tripp popped up. (The Governor asked the world to stop saying they were high school drop outs so be clear that what they did was stop attending before they graduated: we are not talking drop outs here. No sir.)

People is reporting it was a mutual thing. Just kinda happened. You remember. Like when all of sudden the cute, funny boy who sat next to you in bio that was boyfriend-y struck you one day as inexplicably and unacceptably dorky. Things morph, noone is really at fault, and you move on. When you are 17, you get to do that. Difference here is a little Tripp.

The Star, on the other hand, is reporting phrases like White Trash have been flyin' around up there in Alaska. (Let us all hope it doesn't hit Russia and start something bigger than all of us.) And that Levi, the woulda been Second Dude, has been rebuffed in his daily runs at parentin'. 

Some even report that Bristol won't let Levi take baby Tripp to over to his place. Maybe Levi's mother's alleged drug runnin' is buggin' Bristol. But poor Levi. Stopped attendin' high school and had to drop out of an oil field apprentice job due to questions about his eligibility. What's a Wasilla boy to do?

Whether a graceful decline of a deep, ever lasting connection or an abrupt end driven by Late Breaking Impressions of White Trashiness, the split is a sobering reminder of how frail love is. I mean, the boy tattooed the girl's name on his ring finger. That's right: pigment, in the form of her name, driven deep into his epidermis so that his immune system could engulf and display it until the end of time. (Or until removal.) If we can't believe in that, what is left?

Link to People.
Link to the Star. 

BRISTOL PALIN AND REALISM

Cheers to Bristol Palin for telling the national media that her mother's abstinence only schtick is "not realistic at all."
The Bristol Palin interview with Greta on Fox was painful and slow. Greta took more airtime with her questions than Bristol did with her answers. Lots of "wished this happen a decade from now" and "this is not glamorous" and the disclosure that she was so sick at telling her parents about becoming grandparents that Bristol's best friend had to blurt it out to them. But, loud applause to her for being direct about the usefulness of her mother's preferred means to reduce the number of babies having babies

PALIN RAISIN' MONEY FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD, KIND OF

Sarah Palin, in a way, helped raise money for Planned Parenthood. An email campaign - not sponsored by Planned Parenthood - encouraged donations made to the organization to be put in Governor Palin's name.  (Palin said anti-hunting groups are doing the same thing.) The Governor, in turn, was flooded with thank you notes from the organization in the standard practice of thanking donors. All told, the effort raised about a million.
Palin called it "great theater" and said it wouldn't budge her views. Not that it was intended to.
Frankly, this somewhat silly stunt intended to shine a not so friendly light on the Governor did less harm to Palin than did the pre-Thanksgivign turkey-kill interview planned by Palin's very own staff...

GOVERNOR PALIN ANNOYED AT BORED BLOGGERS

                                                                                   

Governor Sarah Palin announced in a recent interview that she is annoyed by ..."Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers..." who, blog, that is, about her. She also says the world at large needs to "let go" of her I-Can-See-Russia-From-My-House thing. Because, she argues, its true. And if she could rewrite history, she would tell the campaign that she would be callin' some of the shots.  Read story here...
She is also wonderin' whether she is readin' her own local paper "right". Read her exchange with the Anchorage Daily News here...(Note to Governor: god made press people to do this sort of bickerin' with the press while governors go ahead and spend time governin'...)
Putting aside her tendency to go blamin' everything on everyone but herself, her announcement makes me sad. Sad because she doesn't realize what a gift she is. Palin may not be the kind of gift she wants to be, but a gift she is.

She speaks, and we listen. For the same reason we watch NASCAR. How long before something goes up in flames? How many crashes in a row might we see?  Will anyone be carried off?  For that moment, we don't want to take our eyes off the screen...
We listen for the sentence so mangled we must reconstruct it in our heads in order to follow where the conversation might go next. We turn up the volume so as not to miss a new record for speaking without commas and periods. Or even a good dash. We are riveted to what will pour out of her mouth when her eyes and body language make real clear there is no answer formulating in her brain at that very moment.  This, from a woman with a family that includes a belly-coverin' pregnant teen, a snow machinin' first dude, a grandbaby's drug dealin' grandmother...a gift that gives and gives.
Here is hoping that in '09, Palin finds a way to "let go" of her annoyance at bored bloggers and replace it with gratitude for the throngs who can't wait for the next utterance from this gift to the world wide web.

KATIE COURIC & THE PALIN MYTH ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE

                                                                       

I feel lost. Upside down. Like I've been living a lie.
All these years I woke every day assuming Katie Couric was the center of the universe. If Katie isn't reading the news, it isn't news. Not for me anyway. I cancelled cable years ago, when MTV got old, because Wolff, Anderson, Rachel are nobodies. I only need Katie.
I cut my hair right after the new year. Because Katie did. I go a little heavy on the eye-liner because Katie likes that look.
Now, all of a sudden, Governor Palin announces that Katie is not the center of the universe.
What is that supposed to mean? Why would she say such a thing? Is she dipping into Tripp's other grandma's goods? Doesn't Palin know that this hate speech she is spewin' also isn't protected up there near Russia any more than it is down here near the east coast elite media?
I am wiped at this news. I need to go lay down, say my evening prayer and hope that tomorrow order is restored..."now I lay me, down to Katie...."

PALIN, KENNEDY AND "CLASS"

                                                                               

J'all hear it?
Governor Palin: "I've been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope. ... It's going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be."
Holy moly.  She has a point that generally speaking, the Kennedy's ain't Wasillabillies.
Not to say they aren't loaded with issues. They are. My mother had the occasion to be at an event with Ted years ago, for example, and I found myself forbidding her from being alone with him.  And I meant it.
The simple, painfully obvious issue Palin misses entirely, and sadly, is this: the scrutiny of a candidate who will be one of 100 legislators with no independent authority to do anything but show up for work each day v. the scrutiny of a candidate one misfired palpitation away from being the leader of the freeworld oughta be fundamentally different.
This I learned in high school.
The only commonality between these two candidates is that in each, estrogen is paramount to testosterone. And that, Governor Palin, we all have long argued is irrelevant in our professional pursuits. Join the cause.

GOVERNOR PALIN: MEDIA WRECKIN' THINGS FOR LEVI

                                                                                           

Levi Johnston, 18 year old father of Bristol Palin's baby Tripp, quit his job. And it's the media's doing, gosh darn it. (Tripp is not the baby in the picture above; that's Trig)
Levi had left high school (HE DID NOT DROP OUT: NOONE IS ALLOWED TO SAY THE BOY DROPPED OUT JUST BECAUSE HE STOPPED GOING, Sarah says) and took a job as an electrical apprentice on an oil field.
Over the weekend, an Anchorage radio talk show host questioned in a newspaper column how it is that Levi, who did not finish high school because he, um, stopped going, could get the position as an apprentice when all participants in the program are required to have a high school diploma.
According to Levi's father, this not having the diploma stuff as required  for the job was "...just something that slipped through the cracks." He said the lack of a diploma wasn't something that company managers caught and Levi didn't give it much thought.
The Anchorage Daily News reports here that Governor Palin, in an interview Monday, said she considered Fagan's column "a political potshot taken at me," one that threatens to "destroy a young man's opportunity for work." 
Gosh darn that mainstream media out there destroyin' opportunities and takin' shots and askin' questions when rules aren't followed...

GOVERNOR PALIN STATEMENT ON TRIPP

This is the text of Governor Sarah Palin's public statement regarding her new grandson, Tripp.

Key Words: shocking, amazing, despair, joyful, discourage, perfect, fear, precious, prevent, blessing. (Go ahead. Try makin' some sense of those...)

December 31, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin has welcomed her first grandchild, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, born to Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston on December 27.

“We are over the moon with the arrival of this healthy, beautiful baby,” Governor Palin said. “The road ahead for this young couple will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Bristol and Levi are committed to accomplish what millions of other young parents have accomplished, to provide a loving and secure environment for their child. They are both hard workers, they’re very strong, and have faith they’ve made the right decision in setting aside their own interests to make this child their highest priority.”

Palin added, “When Bristol and Levi first told us the shocking news that she was pregnant, to be honest, we all at first looked at the situation with some fear and a bit of despair. Isn’t it just like God to turn those circumstances into such an amazing, joyful blessing when you ask Him to help you through?”

Bristol Palin said she “obviously discourages” teen pregnancy and knows that plans she previously made for herself will now forever be changed. “Teenagers need to prevent pregnancy to begin with – this isn’t ideal. But I’m fortunate to have a supportive family which is dealing with this together. Tripp is so perfectly precious; we love him with all our hearts. I can’t imagine life without him now.”

Bristol begins her final semester of high school next week where she’ll get her last credit needed to graduate. She looks forward to continuing her record of good grades and high achievement. Levi is continuing his online high school work in addition to working as an electrical apprentice on the North Slope.

Bill McAllister, the governor’s office communications director, adds: "The governor's office previously declined to comment to honor the family's wishes that the event remain as private as possible. However, the high volume of press inquiries, along with some erroneous information that was published, prompted the governor to make a statement."

CASH FROM PEOPLE MAGAZINE FOR PICTURE OF PALIN GRANDBABY TRIPP?

                                                                       

MSNBC is reporting that People magazine won the bidding war for pictures of Sarah Palin's grandbaby Tripp, son of teens Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston. The price tag may be around $300,000. The bidding started at $100,000 according to MSNBC. The drug bust of Levi's mom helped push the photo value up a little.

Not being one to say I told you so, let me simply say I told you so. The January 1st post referenced the scent of a money trail here. What but bucks could account for Governor Palin announcing the baby was a "private matter" and then ringing up People to admonish America not to call these two kiddos dropouts just because they stopped going to high school. And, Levi's family spoke to People the day of the birth rather than to the Anchorage Daily News. Read MSNBC story here.

Anybody guessing the profits will go to charity???

PALIN: TEENS NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL ARE NOT "DROPOUTS"

                                                                                   

The mainstream media still has a horrible way of distortin' facts from gettin' to the American people, says Sarah Palin.
Levi Johnston, dad of Palin's grandson Tripp, told the press he dropped out of high school last fall to enroll in a training program to be an electrician some day. A fine career path to be sure.
Bristol Palin stopped goin' to have a baby. Babies can interfere with high school that way. You betcha.  Bristol plans to finish her high school career up by correspondence classes.
Governor Sarah Palin was miffed enough upon hearing these kids who are not in high school called "high school dropouts" that she called People magazine. (Wonderin' somethin': if Sarah meant that this baby thing was a "private matter", why does she select People magazine to speak through? Her in-laws-to-be spoke through People too the day Tripp was born. This private girl is smellin' a money trail...or else, wouldn't she speak to the Anchorage Daily News? Huh?) 
Governor Palin told America through a voice message to People that we should NOT consider Bristol and Levi high school dropouts. Not them.
They are "working their butts off". Palin emphasized: "They are certainly not high school dropouts."
So let us not, like that mainstream media, distort things by sayin' out loud that these two teens who stopped goin' to high school are high school dropouts. They simply stopped goin' to high schoool. Because, ya know, up there in Alaska there are other things for unwed pregnant teens to do besides goin' on in to school every day. That doesn't go makin' 'em dropouts.
Wink wink.