Sarah Palin becomes a grandma

Bristol and Tripp, AP photo.

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My first thought: Please God, why can't they give these children some decent names?

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old unmarried daughter of former Vice Presidential candidate/Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has delivered her first child, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, over the holidays. Interestingly, Bristol and her child's father, Levi Johnston, repeatedly promised to get married during the presidential campaign and still haven't.

Now, what's up with that? Inquiring minds want to know!

Bristol obediently delivered a statement, claiming teens need to "prevent pregnancy"--yet provides no details about how exactly one should do this. Birth control? Abstinence? Since she did neither, maybe she doesn't know.

“Teenagers need to prevent pregnancy to begin with,” the governor’s teenage daughter said in the statement dated Wednesday but posted Friday. “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.”

She added that she “obviously discourages” other teenage couples from getting pregnant, noting that her life has been forever altered.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Levi's mother, Sherry Johnston, was busted for trafficking Oxys:

Johnston's mother was arrested on felony drug charges this month after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home. According to authorities, she sent text messages to two police informants in which she discussed making drug transactions involving OxyContin, a strong prescription painkiller.

Alaska? Are these people really from ALASKA? (((winks))) Cultural lesson for today: Just remember, people from the south ain't the only ones that sound like stereotypical Jerry Springer show guests, okay?

And besides, people in the south are not usually named Trig, Track, Willow, Piper, Bristol and Tripp. But maybe I speak too soon...I fear a dangerous trend.

Dear God, those poor kids.

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My piece on Palin's impending grandmotherhood, a perennial favorite I posted on Feministe.

Palin is "hardcore pro-life" by Jill at Feministe

The Sarah Palin Baby name generator!--which was obviously pretty useful for Bristol.

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Listening to: The Strangeloves - Night Time
via FoxyTunes

Odds and Sods - post Veep debate edition

Voltage Records, Asheville, NC.

Photo chosen (from my Flickr-for-cheapskates account) to go with Legends of Blues, a newbie blog just added to my blogroll. David provides Howlin Wolf, Lightnin Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and other great music on a regular basis. Whenever you're feeling the need to hear some blues, drop by and have a listen!

Also new to my list of fabulous blogs, Scrutiny Hooligans of Asheville. (Major points for the great blog name!) And don't forget: Stop Parkside!

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Political Teen Tidbits includes this letter to Governor Palin from author Cassie:

How come [Governor Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin] gets to make a decision but the rest of the girls and women in America don’t! You won’t even let me learn in school about all the decisions I might need to make!

Governor Palin, when I had my first boyfriend, my brother talked to me and to him about why we shouldn’t have sex. Actually, we had to sit down in my boyfriend’s living room with his parents and my brother and hear all about STD’s and love and all the reasons we were too young for sex. AND they told us about condoms and other ways of preventing pregnancy even though we promised to keep all hands above the waist until at least 16.

Did you have a talk like that with Bristol and her boyfriend? Did anyone show him how to use a condom? These are fair questions because of the policies you advocate for.

I am glad that Bristol decided to have her baby. Will she and her boyfriend raise it? Will they give it up for adoption? Who is going to pay for her to give birth? And for all the other doctor visits?

If you want your family life to stay private, the please don’t bring your family on stage with you when you campaign, and please stop being a hypocrite.

You go girl! I said much the same thing, in my piece on Palin for Feministe. I was surprised that some people didn't get it, but Cassie has phrased it far better than I did!

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And speaking of Feministe, you MUST have a look at Jill's new KITTENS! SQUEEE! (((dies from cuteness)))

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: The 10th edition of the Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy will be October 6th at XXBN. I know, not much notice! But if you know of any appropriate blog posts or have one of your own, send it in ASAP.

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M.J. Rosenberg writes about how the GOP is attempting to stir up racism to garner Jewish support for John McCain:

Of course, the Republican Jewish operatives never believed Obama was hostile to Israel. What they were -- and are -- counting on is that Jews won't vote for Obama because he is African-American. They are having some success with that approach. The race issue is all they have but it's something.

A must read!

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Currently watching an old Steve McQueen movie, Nevada Smith, written by Harold Robbins, of all people. Nosing around on the net, I learn that Harold Robbins was an advanced, senior-citizen cokehead, which makes sense since most of the characters in his later novels were strung out all the time. I ingested countless of Robbins' dirty, nasty novels in one sitting as a teenager, and embarrassingly, well into my 20s. I actually believed that story about his Chinese exotic dancer wife dying from a bite from a diseased parrot... turns out it's all made up.

Damn, it was just like one of his books, and it FELT true...(((sigh))) I'm just one of them gals who prefers legends and myth to reality...

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Listening to: Joy Division - Warsaw
via FoxyTunes

McCain camp angry over Obama's 'lipstick' comment

I certainly know what it is to stick one's foot in one's mouth, which I did today too...so my heart goes out to Senator Obama.

Or maybe he meant it? Yow!

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McCain camp angry over Obama's 'lipstick' comment

By NEDRA PICKLER, AP

LEBANON, Va. - What's the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick.

The colorful cosmetic has become a political buzzword, thanks to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's joke in her acceptance speech that lipstick is the only thing that separates a hockey mom like her from a pit bull.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he'll change Washington, but he's just like President Bush.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

McCain's campaign immediately organized a telephone conference call in response and called on Obama to apologize for calling Palin a pig. Obama's campaign said he wasn't referring to Palin; he had been talking about McCain immediately before the lipstick comment.

Obama followed up by saying Palin is an interesting story, drawing boos at the mention of her name that he tried to cut off.

"Look, she's new, she hasn't been on the scene, she's got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I've got two and they tire Michelle and me out," he said.

McCain has used the lipstick phrase, too.

Last year while criticizing health proposals from the Democratic presidential candidates, he said Hillary Rodham Clinton's resembled the failed plan she offered as first lady during the 1990s. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," McCain of her proposal.

In Virginia, a questioner asked Obama to join Republicans and agree that candidates' families and religion are off limits. Palin's pregnant teenage daughter and the teachings of her church, the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church, have been the subject of scrutiny since McCain picked her as his running mate.

Obama responded that he already has said families are off limits and he's very protective of his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha. He said he doesn't want their inevitable future mistakes to become newspaper fodder if he gets to the White House.

Obama also is no stranger to attacks on his religion. He's been the subject of a false rumor campaign saying he's a Muslim, and the racially tinged sermons of his longtime former preacher caused problems for his campaign earlier this year.

He stressed that he's a Christian and "so the fact that Gov. Palin is deeply religious, that's a good thing." He said poking around in her religion or saying it's wrong is "offensive" and he wants to have a debate about the issues.

"But don't give people some sort of religious litmus test because I don't want somebody to question my faith and I'm certainly not going to question somebody else's," he said.

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Listening to: U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
via FoxyTunes