Listen up, teens: Guess what happens when you get teen pregnant, you’re not allowed to have a smushmortion, and you can’t figure out how to secretly swap your fetus into your mother’s aging but willing womb. Umm . . . you get rewarded with an eccentric celebrity handler and sexy undies shots in Vanity Fair? Oh ho no, honey, that’s what’s happens to the dude. What happens to you is you get to hold the dang thing throughout a couple of tortured appearances on a crazy middle-aged lady’s FOX News program, and then everyone makes fun of you for being a hypocrite because GOD, YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER EVEN HAD SEX. And then you have to raise it.

Did I mention your babby’s daddy got to do Tyra?

In this edition of Sexist Beatdown: Why Sady of Tiger Beatdown and I think that’s kind of fucked up, actually? BONUS: what to expect next in the SARAH PALYN SNOMOBLOWJOB TODD PALYN BAREBACK LEVI JOHNSON porn saga of the Palin family story, after the jump.

Read More “Sexist Beatdown: Palin Family Anecdote or “Paylin” Porn Plot? Edition” »

Protesters—15 of ‘em!—who gathered outside a Late Show With David Letterman taping yesterday had a hard time finding a consistent message.
Read More “David Letterman Protesters Prefer Leno, Hate Sluts” »

David Letterman apologized to Sarah Palin and her family last night for telling that joke. Palin accepted, saying:

Of course it’s accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who ‘joke’ about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.

Letterman certainly has the right to ‘joke’ about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction,” Palin said. “This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America’s Right to Free Speech—in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.

Hey, minus the military-protecting-our-right-to-get-mad-at-rape-jokes stuff,  they both sounds pretty reasonable to me.

It is a simple formula for both comedy and political commentary:

Take a public figure (Sarah Palin) who holds disagreeable views (abstinence-only education). Zero in on an aspect of her personal life counter to those views (her own teen daughter, Bristol Palin, becoming pregnant). Reveal the comedic irony and/or hypocrisy of the public/private contrast. Repeat ad nauseam on blogs, 24-hour news channels, and late night talk shows.

We should all beware this construction. Though very easy to pull off—and often journalistically and comedically sound—it is a trap. And it will render us all hypocrites. Three lessons from history, after the jump.

Read More “Sarah Palin And the “Hypocrisy” Trap” »

That’s what Ruth Marcus claims in today’s Washington Post, quoting Sarah Palin’s remarks from a—what else—a pro-life fundraiser. At the dinner, Palin discussed her “choice” to have a child with Down syndrome  at the age of 44—a choice that, as Marcus points out, Palin wants to deny other women. Marcus is miffed that right-to-lifers like Palin routinely justify their anti-choice positions by describing their own “correct” “decisions” to have children. This isn’t the fist time Palin has used choice to explain why women shouldn’t chose—who could forget Palin’s election-season classic, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby”?

Palin’s pro-”choice” comments—where she describes twice considering abortion before deciding to carry her pregnancy to term—after the jump.

Read More “Sarah Palin Makes Case For Abortion” »

And we’ve got the whole, non-white-trashy thing on tape:

Sarah Seltzer for Reproductive Health Reality Check wonders if Levi is a “victim” in the Palin spotlight. “The Internet is buzzing over Levi Johnston’s appearance on Tyra yesterday to ‘break his silence,’ and providing us all with a reminder that patriarchal policies like abstinence-only education hurt young men, too,” writes Seltzer.

I couldn’t agree more: We’re all victims here: Levi, Bristol, Tripp, and Palin herself all suffered at the hands of her ridiculous abstinence (with a teenage pregnancy backup) method. Everyone, that is, except Tyra, who pulls a fierce Katie Couric to get the daytime interview of the post-pregnancy season.

There are no words. [Via].

Stare into those 24th-most-beautiful eyes

NUMBER 24: The Daily Mail reports on a poll ranking the world’s most beautiful lady politicians. The poll was conducted by Spain’s ” 20 Minutos” newspaper, so, whatever. Peruvian congresswoman Luciana Leon is the most beautiful. Of the 54 women on the list, Palin currently ranks 24th, with 3,173 votes. At 61, Hillary Clinton is the oldest lady politician to make the list, coming in at 34th place with 2485 votes.

On the one hand, ranking the attractiveness of female politicians is extremely sexist. On the other, readers of “20 Minutos” are collectively aware of 54 female politicians internationally! That’s progress!

Read More “Daily Pain: 24th Most Beautiful Lady Politician Edition” »

UT OH:Anchorage blogger Linda Kellen Biegel, who goes by the name Celtic Diva has filed an ethics complaint with the state’s Attorney General, alleging that Palin promoted First Dude Iron Dog sponsor “Arctic Cat Inc.” while representing the state of Alaska by covering herself in head-to-toe Arctic Cat gear at the start of this year’s snowmachine race.

Read More “Daily Palin: Sarah Vs. Blogger Edition” »

Sweet bootlegged Bill O’Reilly camera action!

O’REILLY & GRETA & BRISTOL, OH MY! O’Reilly weighs in on the Bristol Palin / Levi Johnston fallout: MSNBC “incredibly viscious”; “disturbed individuals egged on by . . . the Air America on the radio.”

BONUS: Greta downplays O’Reilly’s characterization that she is “close to the Palin family,” sayinh, “The only way that I’ve met them is by interviewing them. I don’t socialize with them or spend a lot of time with them.”

Greta goes on to chastize journalists who are “gushing with glee” to her at the news; O’Reilly says, “nobody would do that to me.”

Read More “Daily Palin: O’Reilly / Greta / Bristol 2012″ »