The Further Adventures of THAT WOMAN: Sarah Palin in the News

Sarah Palin is, I wouldn't say back in the news, but she is involved in some unusual news stories today.

First, the on-line gossip/news site Gawker managed to acquire 21 page proofs from Palin's new book, and published them on its website, along with the expected snarky commentary. Palin is unique in inspiring this behavior in her political adversaries, even when said "adversaries" are journalists working for a site known for posting sex videos of the rich and famous. (Gawker also published the hacked Palin emails, which resulted in the recent prison sentence for the college age hacker).

As is usual for this sort of thing, when Palin tweeted that this was not legal, some Gawker mouthpiece sniffed and lectured the governor on "fair use." Which makes total sense. It's why you always see unauthorized leaks of heavily anticipated books before their publication date that are put up on the 'Net with impunity. Oh, wait, no you don't. Gawker probably thought it was enough of a defense to insult Palin's intelligence, but Palin's publisher wasn't convinced. They have sued for copyright violations:

The publisher of Sarah Palin's forthcoming book filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media on Friday for leaking pages of "America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag" before its release next week.

The legal complaint was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, said a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Publishers. The filing came two days after Gawker published images of 21 of the book's pages and its dedication page. In response, Palin tweeted, "Isn't that illegal?"

Her publisher contends it is. The lawsuit asks that Gawker be banned from what it terms "further copyright infringement" and that Gawker deliver the source material to the publisher so it can be destroyed. HarperCollins is also seeking financial damages.

Gawker did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment Friday evening, but an item published the day before and titled "Sarah Palin Is Mad at Us for Leaking Pages From Her Book" defended the blog's actions and linked to websites defining the fair use doctrine of copyright law.

Where's your fair use now, Gawker? Oh, and a judge has already issued a temporary restraining order directing Gawker to take the pages down.

The other bit of Palin news is daughter Bristol's miracle run on Dancing With the Stars, which has resulted in accusations of voter fraud, tea party conspiracy, TV rage, and now the inevitable discovery of an envelope filled with white powder that was mailed to DWTS production company.

TMZ is reporting that someone sent “white powder” later determined to be Talcum powder to the offices of Dancing with the Stars:

Cops and other emergency responders raced to CBS Television City studio late Friday after a white powder substance was discovered by a member of the “Dancing with the Stars” staff … and sources tell us Bristol Palin may have been the intended target.

This is the second deranged response to the show in the last week. Just a few days ago a man shot his television when Bristol Palin made it to the finals. Police were called and there was an actual stand off for several hours until he surrendered.

Bristol, along with the rest of the Palin family, has been the subject of endless insults and worse from the highest levels of the Democratic Party and their allies in the media and entertainment worlds. They obviously can't stand the fact that this 20 year old woman might succeed at anything, even a televised dance competition.

The problem seems to have been building each week as Bristol managed to hang in there as her supposedly more worthy rivals dropped out one by one. But, things exploded after the semi-final, when Bristol beat out the heavily favored Brandy. Brandy, you see, is a professional entertainer while Bristol is...you know. Excuse me, but I thought the point of DWTS was to pair celebrities with "real" dancers; but in the case of Brandy and the other semi-finalist Jennifer Grey (daughter of Joel Grey. Did you know that?), we seem to have some ringers, and people often don't like ringers, which is how the votes came out. Anyway, what's so great about Brandy? Didn't she kill someone?

Just another day in the media, where "dumb" conservatives must fend off the endlessly absurd attacks of the party of "facts and reason and science."

Sesame Street XXX: Katy Perry Video Too Racy

Via Tigerhawk, today's dumb media controversy is the "racy" Elmo-Katy Perry video that Sesame Street producers pulled on account, apparently, of Perry's outfit.

I don't know how you can watch that and not think that's the cutest thing you'll see all day. Perry isn't much of an actress, but she has a winning attitude, and a fantastic voice. She's practically tailor made for singing the sort of bouncy pop music that is her stock in trade (plus she comes from a Christian music background, although more from the Bristol Palin side of things, if you catch my drift). If you're tired of Lady Gaga's dark arts, Perry might be next in the queue.

As for the video, the reason to pull the video is that the song - especially Elmo's parts - is not easy for kids to sing. That's become a bit of a pet peeve of mine: contemporary kids songs where the lyrics are either too bland or too complicated to sing along with.

St. Andrew Lays Down the New Rules

I wasn't going to write about the Sarah Palin - David Letterman war, but this post by Andrew Sullivan that just popped up on my "Sarah Palin" Google Alert was so stupid, dumb, and retarded - "Stumbtarded," if you will - that I had to comment:

It's getting worse. This is a classic:

"The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said Wednesday.

So Letterman is a child abuser for making a tasteless joke? But the surrealism and narcissism of the Wasilla nutcase is what stands out:

"First, remember in the campaign, Barack Obama said, 'Family's off limits. You don't talk about my family.' "And the candidate who must be obeyed, everybody adhered to that and they did leave his family alone. They haven't done that on the other side of the ticket and it has continued to this day so that's a political double standard."

So brandishing a special needs infant as a campaign prop was putting your family off-limits? Pushing your own daughter into the klieglights to divert attention from your own fantastic lies is family-protective? Pushing Bristol Palin into an absurd abstinence campaign to gin up support from the Christianist right is looking after your kids? Palin reaps what she sows. And she clings to any whisp of victimhood like the attention-starved celebreality star she really is

First off, I would like to see Sullivan walk up to Todd Palin at a bar and say that to his face. He won't, of course. He's a whiny ninny who doesn't understand one of the basic rules of manhood: i.e. speak your mind, but don't act surprised when you get your a** kicked. Most progressive "men" are like that. That's why they hide their cowardice under a veneer of hip liberalism. Oh, I forgot, Sullivan is a "conservative." Impossible. True conservatives would never write about Gov. Palin, or any GOP politician in the manner Sullivan does (and, as long as we're being hostile and judgmental, Sullivan shows himself to be an almost comically stereotypical prickly, emotional gay man who is irrationally hostile towards women).

More important, nothing Sullivan has written on this matter makes any sense.

1. "It's getting worse." It is?! Palin's coming out of this looking re-energized and righteous, while Letterman and his apologists are acting quite defensive and out of sorts. Their Solomonic attempt to explicate his "joke" so as to make it look like it referred to the 18-year old in Alaska, rather than the 14-year old who was at the freakin' game (!) are worthy of a sleazy defense attorney with mobsters as clients

2. "So Letterman is a child abuser for making a tasteless joke." Um, I read the statement Sullivan quotes more than once and saw no reference to child abuse. Calm down, Andrew. You're projecting again. No one's calling you a child abuser.

3. "So brandishing a special needs infant as a campaign prop was putting your family off-limits?" Uh, Andrew, Gov. Palin had a baby. The baby, as you know, is a member of her family. News flash: all politicians bring their families to campaign events. Does this really need an explanation? I seem to recall Chelsea Clinton showing up on stage with her parents back in the Nineties. I also seem to recall that she was "off-limits" at the time. Indeed, she has been "off limits" even as a young adult. That almost sounds like a double standard. Or maybe it's Gov. Palin's narcisism and surrealism.

4. "Pushing your own daughter into the klieglights to divert attention from your own fantastic lies is family-protective?" What???? Which daughter is being used to distract from Gov. Palin's 'fantastic lies?' What lies? What makes them fantastic? I'm afraid Andrew is heading out into the tall grass on this one.

5. "Pushing Bristol Palin into an absurd abstinence campaign to gin up support from the Christianist right is looking after your kids." At this point, I would imagine Sullivan's voice is rising in pitch. Why Bristol Palin's abstinence advocacy has given rise to these sorts of hysterics is beyond me. As if no ex-gangbanger ever went around trying to keep kids off the streets. As if no former drug addict ever wrote about his experiences to set an example of what not to do. As if no former alcoholic ever founded AA to help his fellow sufferes kick their destructive habits. Jesus, Andrew, haven't you ever heard of the Fall and Redemption? It's a pretty basic human story and one that many people relate to. Nice use of the insulting phrase "Christianist," by the way. All true conservatives talk about the dangers of "Christianists."

6. "Palin reaps what she sows." Oooo. A biblical allusion. Must be a conservative!

7. "And she clings to any whisp of victimhood like the attention-starved celebreality star she really is" Gov. Palin was in NY for three things: to visit little Auburn, NY, which has an Alaska connection (and where she was joined by a crowd of 20,000); to attend an autism fundraiser; and to go to a Yankees game. Oddly, only the Yankees game seems to have attracted any interest. Gov. Palin is also (you might want to sit down, Andrew) the Governor of Alaska. Do you know what governors do? They make public appearances! Really, I'm not joking! As for clinging to her "whisp of victimhood," I'd say what she is doing is pushing back against the media attacks against her and her children in a manner that is sadly uncommon among GOP ranks. Maybe that's what offends you so.

Up The Junction

There are over a 1000 comments on this post about Bristol Palin's interview with Greta van Sustern wherein in Bristol scandalized the prudes and provoked smirks among the sleazy by declaring abstinence to be "unrealistic."

Debbie Schlussel comes up with a little bit of the old-time religion:

Not only does she not believe in abstinence, but she doesn’t believe in marriage either, apparently, since it’s been almost a year since she learned she was pregnant and almost two months since she had the kid. And yet, she’s still a baby mama. Hilarious that people call her mother–who enabled this baby mamahood and continues to put a roof over it–the “conservative of the year.” Simply hilarious. Not only has America become socialist under Obama, but conservatives have abandoned any sense of family values. In this one family–the new template for America’s conservative movement–you have a Mr. Mom, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, and opposition to abstinence teaching. Awesome.

This is, quite simply, deranged. First of all, can we leave all the "baby mama" insults for the people over at "The Atlantic?" And, forget Bristol. Why is Schlussel picking on Todd as a Mr. Mom?

A more interesting point is: why do discussions about teen sex always seem to devolve to discussions about sex-ed vs. abstinence? Education, or the supposed lack thereof is always blamed when there's a pregnant girl in the family. Hah! If there is a kid in America who doesn't know about sex, contraceptives, pregnancy, and abstinence by the time they're 13, I would like to meet them (I can assure you that most teenage boys receive a lengthy and forced education in abstinence as a result of their gawkiness and dimwittedness).

It seems like there are a couple things that American society seems to have been able to successfully put across to teens like Bristol:

1. repeated demands that they DON'T HAVE SEX!!!!

2. lots of information about the mechanical aspects of sex.

What's often left out of the discussion about education is the emotional aspect of sex; namely that sex will create a bond with your partner, whether or not you intend to. Most teenagers, especially girls, are pitifully unprepared for this, leading to the occasionally explosive emotional displays you can see at any high school when a girl learns that she has been "played."

A psychologist of my acquaintance once told me that, as soon as a girl becomes sexually active, that's basically the end of her education. Oh, she can go to class and finish high school. But, her primary focus will turn from school to her sexual relationship. It literally takes center stage in her life. It seems like parents might try combatting this, rather than relying on abstinence-ed or sex-ed.

As for Bristol, she is a pretty, healthy looking girl who looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly. But for her mother, she is an unremarkable girl. She is not losing out on some glamorous "career" by raising this child She is healthy, fertile, and has a strong extended family. Women like this SHOULD be having babies. She set an excellent example by acknowledging the pregnancy, and bringing the child to term, something most politicians teenagers would not do. I expect her children will grow up healthy and well adjusted, which is an increasingly rare thing in this world.