Levi Vs. Palin

Levi posing nude for Playgirl? I didn't even know Playgirl magazine still existed. Can you imagine if this reality show nonsense was going on as Palin was trying to assist John McCain in leading the nation? Scary stuff. How can anyone possibly consider Palin a candidate for president? Apparently, people are thinking less of her. Her approval ratings, 27%, might be lower than Cheney's.
But it's wrong for the media to exploit Levi Johnston because they can. Johnston is immature right now and the media ought to consider that.

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Can't Keep Levi Johnston Down

Levi just keeps spreading more dirt on Sarah Palin. Not very classy, or wise. But it sure is interesting.

He almost became a member of the Palin family, but Levi Johnston — who fathered former Gov. Sarah Palin's grandchild with her daughter Bristol — isn't holding back when it comes to spilling the Alaska clan's secrets.

"There was a lot of talk of divorce in that house ... times when Sarah and Todd would mention it and sound pretty serious," says Johnston, who turns 19 this year. (Last month, the couple denied Internet rumors of a pending divorce.)

But that wasn't all. In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair in its October issue, out nationally Sept. 8, the teen says that the onetime vice-presidential nominee's frequent self-description as a "hockey mom" who put family above career was far from the truth. MSNBC

Sarah Palin to Be Republicans Ralph Nader

I'm not comparing their smarts.
Obviously, Nader is smarter, policy-wise.
But in terms of what they mean to their parties, Sarah Palin is going to be the republicans' Nader. She doesn't seem to care if she's attached to a party. She had a good job as a republican governor and she quit.
She surely has to be aware that she hasn't an Alaskan snowball's chance in Florida to be president. So what the heck? She may as well do what she does best--rattle people. She'll also be making piles of money.
What Nader means for protecting the consumer, Palin will be for "family values." She'll talk about exactly what she wants to talk about, without a party hanging over head. She can be as mavericky as she wants.
She's going to be Sarah Palin. She'll dictate her own party.
She's going to have a small, but vocal band of supporters, enough to give the republicans a headache, but not enough to get her elected to higher office.
Palin's supporters like her because the "elite" don't like her. Her supporters view themselves as righteous.
If Palin wasn't opposed as much as she is, she'd fade away. But this kind of talk amps up Palin supporters and keeps her in play:

"People at the grass roots see a charismatic personality who is popular with other people at the grass roots. But their horizon only goes so far as people who think like them," said Mike Murphy. The veteran GOP ad man eviscerated Palin -- a "political train wreck," "an awful choice" for vice president, her resignation an "astonishing self-immolation" -- in a column published Thursday in the New York Daily News.

"Professional operatives keep their eye on a broader horizon and understand, without independents and swing voters, she can't win," Murphy said. "She's a stone-cold loser in a general election." LAT

Here's what else we're going to continue to get--Levi Johnston's thoughts and family feuds:

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Sarah Palin is a Granny

In between the SNL shoots, shopping sprees, campaign stops and a mother-in-law busted for drugs, a baby is born. Happy birthday Tripp!

People: Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Sunday to a healthy 7 lb., 4 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

"We think it's wonderful," said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. "The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited."

The baby's name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

Bristol Palin is currently residing in Wasilla and completing her high-school diploma through correspondence courses.

Johnston is studying to become an electrician. He told the Associated Press in October that he and fiancée Bristol plan to wed in 2009 and raise the child together.

Obama, Bush, Blago, Warren and Levi

An action packed day and I've been away so let's get caught up.
Obama announces Ron Kirk for Federal Trade Representative and venture capitalist Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration. Obama announces his picks for labor, Hilda Solis, and transportation, Ron LaHood:

CNN: At a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis for secretary of labor. She is a four-term Democratic congresswoman from Los Angeles, California.

He also nominated Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary, venture capitalist Karen Mills to head the Small Business Administration and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to serve as U.S. trade representative.

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Will Bush pardon the shoe thrower? The shoe thrower, who has been beaten hopes so.
Blagojevich won't back down and his attorney is thuggish. I caught a few minutes of his press conference.
George Bush taps into the bank bailout money to rescue the automakers:

Politico: President Bush steps into the Roosevelt Room at 9:01 a.m. and announces a $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler, with the loans conditioned on the automakers showing a plan for 'viability' by March 31. A senior administration official told reporters during a telephone background briefing just before the president spoke that the firms need to show they can be 'profitable soon.' Ford got new financing before credit froze, and has said it does not need immediate government assistance to stay alive.

I kind of feel sorry for Bush because he seems to be a guy of limited talents forced into big shoes. He did the best he could, which wasn't good enough.

WSJ: The administrations of George W. Bush have virtually assured such a displacement by catastrophically throwing the country off balance, both politically and financially, while breaking the nation's sword in an inconclusive seven-year struggle against a ragtag enemy in two small bankrupt states. Their one great accomplishment -- no subsequent attacks on American soil thus far -- has been offset by the stunningly incompetent prosecution of the war. It could be no other way, with war aims that inexplicably danced up and down the scale, from "ending tyranny in the world," to reforging in a matter of months (with 130,000 troops) the political culture of the Arabs, to establishing a democracy in Iraq, to only reducing violence, to merely holding on in our cantonments until we withdraw.

Also, from Politico:

'Obama has yet to name his picks for senior intelligence positions; those announcements aren't expected until Obama returns from his holiday break. Several Democratic officials with knowledge of the deliberations said Friday that Dennis Blair, a retired admiral and the former head of U.S. Pacific Command, is likely - if not certain - to become director of national intelligence.'

Obama team is seriously scouring NASA's budget:

LA Times: Reporting from Washington -- Most nights it's possible to look skyward with a pair of cheap binoculars and see a $100,000 mistake circling the Earth. The glowing object -- an orbiting NASA tool bag -- was lost last month by an astronaut during a routine spacewalk.

The canvas-and-acrylic caddy contained two grease guns, a scraper, a trash bag and some wipes, hardly cutting-edge technology. So why did it cost $100,000?

NASA officials said they had no answer to that question -- beyond the fact that, as spokesman Allard Beutel put it, "space flight is expensive." That expense is drawing serious scrutiny from the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Of 74 questions submitted to the agency by Obama's NASA transition team, more than half asked about basic spending issues, including cost overruns.

Two Obama administrations for the price of one?

WSJ: The Obama transition is putting a new twist on that idea. The president-elect is giving the country two administrations for the price of one.

The first, composed of Mr. Obama's initial wave of high-profile appointees, is full of familiar Washington veterans. This is the team that pleased moderates and even some Republicans, reassured financial markets -- and made the party's liberals complain about "retreads" and wonder what all that change rhetoric was about.

The second wave of appointments, most coming in the past week or so, is composed of lesser-known names, new faces and, all told, the kind of folks who look like the fabled "agents of change" promised in the campaign.

Obama's team lacks the ideological fervor:

But the most striking characteristic of the emerging cast of characters is this mix of old and new faces. What the two camps have in common is a general lack of obvious ideological fervor.

The gay community is really upset about Rick Warren giving his inaugural blessings. I think this guy is being elevated to more than his worth. I understand the outrage, though. An Obama advisor assures Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic that he's with gay people:

The deeper dynamic, though, is this: liberal groups are used to being treated like stepchildren in Washington. They are used to being under seige at all times, and it's going to take some adjustment to realize that gay rights are probably not in danger because of things like the Warren pick. (An Obama adviser, discussing this matter with me, urged patience, saying that Obama is committed to the substance of his campaign promises to expand gay rights.)
A little private reassurance would go a long way, and it seems that the Obama team ihas not accounted for the fact that everyone, on all sides, is going through a period of psychological adjustment from the Bush years.
This includes liberal interest groups accustomed to being slapped around by Bush and taken for granted by Bill Clinton.

Rick Warren praises Obama's "courage." Seems to me Warren could've offered a bit more humility to the gay community. Warren will be on Dateline tonight declaring that he's not homophobic. I think Warren is too big for his britches. That's the one of the problems with the choice of Warren. It validates his views. But he's not worth the fuss.

I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.

Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America.

The Bible admonishes us to pray for our leaders. I am honored by this opportunity to pray God's blessing on the office of the President and its current and future inhabitant, asking the Lord to provide wisdom to America's leaders during this critical time in our nation's history.

Mike Madden of Salon asks: How the hell did Warren get inauguration tickets?
All the people at Salon are angry about Warren:

Even on vacation, I can't quite get over the choice of pastor Rick Warren to give Barack Obama's inaugural invocation. I'm all for Obama (and Republicans, for that matter) reaching out to the other side. I am not theoretically opposed to Obama choosing an antiabortion gay-rights critic; I'm opposed to Warren himself. He's a poster boy for kinder, gentler 21st century bigotry, and Obama shouldn't validate him with this lofty symbolic role.

Sarah Palin's daughter's Bristol's soon to be mother-in-law (Levi Johnston's mom) is busted on drug charges. The Palin clan never stops making news. 

Russell Brand: Elect Barack Obama Please

This is funny and brutal, in an honest way.

Republicans: Life Happens

Yep.

Maureen Dowd: Now reality, in all its messy, crazy, funky glory, has flooded the party, in the comely, crackling form of Sarah Palin.

Unable to stop the onslaught of wild soap opera storylines erupting from the Palin family and the Alaska wilderness, McCain campaign adviser Steve Schmidt offered caterwauling reporters a new mantra: “Life happens.”

Indeed, it does. Only four days into her reign as John McCain’s “soul mate,” or “Trophy Vice,” as some bloggers are calling her, on the ticket known as “Maverick Squared,” Palin, the governor of Alaska, has already accrued two gates (Troopergate and Broken-watergate), a lawyer (for Troopergate), a future son-in-law named Levi (a high school ice hockey player, described by New York magazine as “sex on skates”), and a National Enquirer headline about the “Teen Prego Crisis” with 17-year-old daughter Bristol.

Here's some more

As more and more titillating details spill out about the Palins, Republicans riposte by simply arguing that things like Todd’s old D.U.I. arrest or Sarah’s messy family vengeance story will just let them relate better to average Americans — unlike the lofty Obamas.

“If this doesn’t resonate with every woman in America, I’ll eat my hat,” Bill Noll, an Alaska delegate whose daughter got pregnant at a young age and kept the baby, told The Times’s Ashley Parker.

Even as they push Sarah Barricuda as the glamorous but tough hunting and fishing mom who can juggle it all — she’s the only nominee, as Fred Thompson bragged in his convention speech, “who knows how to properly field dress a moose” — they rant at reporters who wonder how she will juggle it all and question some of her judgments.

I recommend the whole story. Pretty much sums up where we are.

Palin to Give Spectacular Speech Tomorrow

I'm all Palin-d out. But I love those mooses. I have to say, Wasilla looks like a lovely place to live. 

Palin is all anyone at the republican convention is talking about. Here's what's going to happen: She's going to give a brilliant speech tomorrow, maybe on par with Obama but in her way, the female Joe Biden--she'll speak to the working class. Her first speech wasn't extraordinary. This one will be.

How do I know? Levi will be there. 

How better to make a statement of family values and solidarity. Levi's mom said B. Palin and her son had planned to marry before she was pregnant. Forget about that myspace page.

Expectations are low, which will also help boost her.

McCain Opposed Funding for Pregnant Teens

Teen pregnancy happens and then something worse: marriage. Levi apparently didn't want kids or marriage (how many teen boys do?). It doesn't look like Sarah Palin's daughter has a choice.

Here's what else happens with teen pregnancy, the financial burden of raising a child is placed on the mother. Often, the father bows out leaving the mother alone to fend for herself. But if you're a teen who belongs to a loving wealthy family, the challenge isn't as great. The family will financially support the teen, and care for the child, and in Sarah Palin's case, have the daughter marry.

Republican blogs are selling this as "an American story."

If they'd stop with the glorifying, bloggers wouldn't feel so compelled to blog. Palin has introduced a good reason to talk about how to reduce teen pregnancy so that it works for everyone, not just the wealthy. 

CBS: Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement Monday about her daughter, Bristol, was aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's. Palin said her daughter intends to raise her child and marry the baby's father, who was identified only by his first name, Levi. The baby is due in late December.

McCain's record on issues surrounding teen pregnancy and contraceptives during his more than two decades in the Senate indicates that he and Palin have similar views. Until Monday, when the subject surfaced in a deeply personal manner, teen pregnancy and sex education were not issues in the national political campaign.

Palin herself said she opposes funding sexual-education programs in Alaska.
....
In Senate votes, McCain has opposed some proposals to pay for teen-pregnancy prevention programs. In 2006, McCain joined fellow Republicans in voting against a Senate Democratic proposal to send $100 million to communities for teen-pregnancy prevention programs that would have included sex education about contraceptives.

In 2005, McCain opposed a Senate Democratic proposal that would have spent tens of millions of dollars to pay for pregnancy prevention programs other than abstinence-only education, including education on emergency contraception such as the morning-after pill. The bill also would have required insurance companies that cover Viagra to also pay for prescription contraception.

McCain voted for the Family Support Act in 1988, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate and required teen mothers who receive public assistance to remain in high school and, in some cases, to live with their parents.

RCP: The 2008 Republican Party platform acknowledges that "each year, more than 3 million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases, causing emotional harm and serious health consequences, even death." It expresses support for "efforts to educate teens and parents about the health risks associated with early sexual activity and provide the tools needed to help teens make healthy choices."

Then it adds, "Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases."

Yes, but talking about abstinence turns out to be easier than abstaining. More than 60 percent of high-school seniors report having had sex at least once. The message that every family should take from Bristol Palin's pregnancy is: It can happen here.

Wasilla

McCain Doing More Vetting on Palin

They're making up for a rash decision. All of a sudden, "Sarah Barracuda" doesn't seem so cute anymore. But she's still hot and she still kills moose with her own gun and makes them into mooseburgers.

The McCain camp should be vetted on their reckless vetting. I love the spin that Sarah Palin is a hero because her daughter is pregnant by an 18-year old boy named Levi, and she's keeping the baby. I would also argue that keeping the baby isn't so extraordinary. They've made it out like abortion is the common choice. The conservative wingnuts have no other choice but to rally around their gal because they forced McCain to choose her.

I've posted this before but this is my theory: McCain wanted to pick Joe Lieberman, his best bud, but he was getting shaped and molded by radio talk show hosts and republican wingnuts. McCain the "maverick" was being tossed around by the right of right. He finally threw up his hands, picked Palin and said: Happy now. After all, it was the lowly Rush Limbaugh, who pushed for Palin, whom he called a "babe."

NYT: On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin

Here's more that the McCain camp should've discovered about Levi:

He also warns that if anyone messes with him, "I'll kick ass."
The Web site, before it was removed, appeared not to have been accessed for a year.
On it, he admits to having a girlfriend.
On the part where it asks about children, he wrote, "I don't want kids."
Mark Okeson, the assistant principal at Wasilla High School, told the Chicago Tribune that Bristol started her junior year last fall, in the town where Sarah Palin grew up.
He said Bristol inexplicably transferred to an Anchorage high school midyear, leaving Levi behind.
"I never heard the story why," he said.

McCain's Camp is Outraged at Democrats

Outraged they are.
McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace was on all the morning "news" shows responding to the rumors that spurred the announcement that Sarah Palin's daughter is five months pregnant with the help of, and we may as well call out Levi Johnston, the father.

Wallace blamed the liberal and democratic blogs. She called the rumors "lewd" and the most disgusting ever, "the ugliest of politics as usual." I admit I read the rumor but knew better than to repeat it here, but the republicans have no room to talk. There are wingnuts out there who are still trying to prove that:

1)Obama is a secret terrorist Muslim
2)Obama wasn't born in the US
3)Obama was an "illegitimate" child
4)That he's a drug addict.

The smears against Obama are the ugliest of politics as usual. Despicable. I haven't seen the McCain camp come out against these smears. There has been an all out campaign to smear Obama. Meanwhile, Obama told the media to back off the Palin story. He reminded them that his mother was 18 when she had him. He said families are off limits.

So for the McCain camp to throw the blame at the democrats for outing Sarah Palin, when the McCain camp should've let the public know up front, is an outrage. Their excuse is they couldn't let the public know upfront, Palin was introduced on Friday and she couldn't announce it in her speech.

Well, if they hadn't been so intent on politicking and announcing the day after the democratic convention, they could've allowed time to let the public know.

Here's why it matters: If a poor teen of color gets pregnant it's a scurrilous event but when it's a rich white family, it's the best thing since sliced bread. Sarah Palin is practically a hero at this point.

Here's another reason why it matters:
Palin and McCain believe in abstinence-only education. While she may be able to support her daughter's child, there are poor teens who aren't able to do that. So what's good for her family isn't necessarily what's good for America.

It's hypocrisy at its ugliest.