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Juno of Juneau
Continuing with her stalker-like obsession with the Palin family, Greta Van Susteren wings her way to Alaska to interview high school dropout & teenaged babymama Bristol Palin But Not Johnston:
Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, told Fox News in her first interview since giving birth that she would like to be an advocate against teen pregnancy.
"Everyone should wait 10 years," Palin said. "I hope people learn from my story."
"It’s so much easier if you’re married, have a house and career. It’s not a situation you want to strive for."
[...]
Bristol Palin described to Fox’s Greta Van Susteren the moment when she, her boyfriend, Levi Johnston, and another friend told her parents that she was pregnant. She described that moment as "harder than labor."
But this was not the only surprise Bristol Palin said she had for her mother, Alaska’s youngest governor. She told Van Susteren she had only told her mother she was doing this national television interview – in which Van Susteren and crew flew to Alaska – one day prior to the taping.
Wait! A camera crew? Guess what happens? Go on, guess.
Nevertheless, Governor Palin appeared at the interview, with baby Tripp in tow.
Sarah Palin jumping in front of cameras while hauling a baby around like a prop? Nobody could have seen that coming…
As for that "Bristol and Levi were already planning to get married" Republican convention storyline? Eh. Maybe later:
Bristol Palin said she is getting help from many members of her family with raising the infant while continuing her studies. She told Van Susteren she has no immediate plans to marry Levi Johnson, who she described as a ‘hands on Dad." Last year, there were reports that the couple would marry in the coming year.
"Eventually we’d like to get married," the young mother said. "We’re focusing on getting through school though, getting a career going."
If I had to bet on what will happen first: the Palin/Johnston wedding or President Sarah Palin, I would put my money on something with slightly better odds. Maybe Jonah Goldberg’s Olympic gold medal in pole vaulting.
Totally gonna happen…
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Money quote: Palin, who backed an abstinence-only sex education program when she ran for governor in 2006, told Van Susteren to expect abstinence from all teenagers was “not realistic.”
I imagine many heads will explode over that comment. She better hope her countertops aren’t in the interview or this could get medieval.
The Palins are as disgusting as the Bush and McCain families.
But not nearly as hi-larious!
I thought Larry Craig was the top pole vaulter on the right. I see Jonah as more of a badminton player, flailing about aimlessly, the soft whooosh of air from his racquet reminiscent of the sound made when he unsnaps the top button on his chinos.
Hell, I salute that kid. This cannot have been easy and she’s taken the hard, hard road by raising the child but refusing the fake marriage with the loser boy friend. I feel sorry for her that she’s stuck with Palin as a mother but she sounds like she’s got her head screwed on right.
aimai
The only thing the Palins could do to make me laugh more AT them is to change their names to the Clampetts. Sarah Palin and clown troupe might be the greatest act of revenge ever committed by a mentally ill miscreant on his own party.
As to Doughy. He went to a womens teacher’s college, so I bet he was a standout in girls field hockey. Maybe goalie.
Palin Jr. on sex & babies: “It’s so much easier if you’re married” Clearly, the abstinence indoctrination advocated by her mom didn’t work in in her case, either. I would imagine the inquisitors at the Wasilla Bible Church might have some thoughts about that icky sex-before-marriage that they’d want to share?
Having said that, I completely agree w/ aimai: the teenager is handling this situation with considerably more aplomb than the baby-daddy or grandma Sarah. Kudos to her, hopefully she’ll get her life sorted out in spite of the challenges posed by her family.
From the short clip that I saw, Bristol appears to be more coherent than Sarah, although that bar is certainly set low.
But TBogg is of course right at the outset, Greta has some issues to resolve.
Thank goodness she’s not going to get married at 18 in addition to becoming a parent. I only wish he mother had had the courage to say they had no plans to get married during the campaign — compounding one mistake with another is not to be modeled.
As of last week, there was no evidence–via birth certificate, hospital records, photos of newborn with family, etc.–of Tripp’s birth, which allegedly took place December 27. (How do we know that the child who appeared on Faux was even born to Bristol?) As with the alleged birth date of Trig, all of the comments and “evidence” came not from the hospital (or the Mat-Su Band-Aid station, not an NICU) at which Trig was born. The birthdate is in doubt. The doctor’s not talking. (Her specialties include adolescent medicine and sexual assault. Hmmmm.) All comments come from the Palin family; and as Palin said early on in the Veepstakes, “They do what I tell them to do,” hastily following up with gooey paeans to family unity and helpfulness. I’m still not 100% convinced that Trig was born either when the family said he was, or to Sarah and not to Bristol. An excellent site of citizen reporting is the website/blog http://www.palindeception.com. Webmistress Audrey points out that the only MSM journalist to follow the Trig/Tripp/WTF? in great and ongoing detail has been, of all people, Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic Monthly. Audrey herself doesn’t accept donations for her research, not wanting it to be, in her words, “tainted”; some Photoshop experts have analyzed Palin photographs gratis for the site.
This sprawling story, including analysis of Sarah Palin’s surprise “pregnancy” announcement, her weird, erratic belly-padding during 2008 (her “belly” had pillow-like corners at times), with the size varying dramatically from day to day (as Audrey says, there’s no such thing as a “low amniotic-fluid day”), Palin’s abrupt decision to wear winter coats indoors, adorned with voluminous scarves, and to position Piper and other children in front of her during photo sessions, etc., etc., all have been a source of fascination to many women (like me) who’ve given birth. Men, childless women, and Palinistas who believe anything she says have been focusing on other, myriad aspects of Sarah Palin’s behavior. (And G-d knows, there’s a lot there.)
Whatever the True Facts, Bristol Palin’s got a tough row to hoe. Either she’s the eighteen-year-old mother of one infant or two, without a husband, high-school diploma, outside job, or independent source of income. It will be interesting to see what fallout there will be from the hardcore GOP base from her mother’s admission that teaching teens on an abstince-only basis is, um, risky. So often school-taught ignorance leads to pregnancies that short-circuit the young parents’ lives far, far too early. I feel sorry that Bristol (and the other Palin kids) have been thrust into the spotlight as window-dressing at such vulnerable ages.
I don’t know what I can add with respect to Palin-venting, but did anyone else hear the Doughy Pantload on NPR yesterday? And they wonder why I stopped donating, when a lump like he gets air time.
Interesting stuff, MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel, as a childless woman these are things I wouldn’t know much about. What I do know about though is fundy whack-job families and their intense desire to hide any evidence of unmarried sex; that alone makes what you report sound perfectly logical.
I feel sympathy for Bristol’s situation myself, but I think she’s mostly a waste. She’s basically just another “OK for me but not for thee” Republican. She’s watched Mommy get to be a star by lying and hypocrisy, so she’s learned Republican family values well. After all, if she was one of those bad teen mothers, she’d be much poorer and darker-skinned, right?
Oh, I think a Johnson was involved at some point in the process.
I blame Madonna for the whole mess.
Calling an 18 year old girl “a waste” is real classy.
You have to hope she’ll rise above her origins, but I’m afraid that in verbal eloquence Bristol is her mother’s daughter. I mean, under the circumstances calling Levi a “hands on Dad” is rather unfortunate.
This is a normal kid, from an average family, and she’s probably gonna turn out ok. The only problem with this family is not their problems, we’ve all got problems, but this family has a total wingnut for a mama, a real whack-job, who agreed to run for vice-president being not only unqualified, but with a loose-cannon habit of stating embarrassing views and statements. Who selected her? An old geezer who moved from hero to nut-case status in about the amount of time it took to point to Obama and sneer, “that one,” and their party? One that pins its ideology on heroes of the 1890 robber-baron era.
We’re with you, Bristol. Keep your head on straight Sweetie, make your own decisions, and don’t listen to the to that ditzy air-head Mama Palin or the van Susterens of this world.
Here’s a little more grist, to help you make a few more biscuits:
Bristol Palin described to Fox’s Greta Van Susteren the moment when she, her boyfriend, Levi Johnston, and another friend told her parents that she was pregnant. She described that moment as “harder than labor.”
Wonder how Bristol knew that? I’m guessing this is close to an impromptu admission against interest, not a retelling of advice from a recently pregnant Sarah.
I’m happy to see young Bristol had the good sense to ditch the loser.
And her boyfriend too.
TEXAS WAR BOYCOTT
In a recent trip through Texas and saw a lot of wealth and people driving BMW’s across newly paved roads. New projects covered almost every square inch of the state, except for El Paso, which voted democrat and looks like an ashtray because it was “punished.”
This economic sword cuts “two ways.”
America is in a bad way, because of over-inflated gas prices but Texas is doing GREAT! George W. Bush and LBJ are the two WORST American presidents in our history. Both TEXAS MANIACS started wars bankrupting our nation, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Americans and both came from the B.S. state of TEXAS.
Someone has to pay for this betrayal of America.
IT’S TIME TO BILL THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS!
Let’s start the TEXAS WAR BOYCOTT.
How?
1) Rejecting all business and vacation travel “through” or “to” the state of Texas.
2) BOYCOTT or REJECT all Texas products & services like Exxon/MOBIL, ALL Frito-Lay Products, Doritos, Southwest Airlines, Dr. Pepper, Lone Star Beer, DELL computers, Continental, Express Jet and American Airlines, the Dallas Cowboys, Apache Computer software, Hewlett-Packard, FMC, Perot Systems, Chili’s, Maggiano’s, Romano’s, Centex Homes, Dallas Mavericks, J.C. Penney, Kimberly-Clark, Pilgrim’s Pride, SBC, Stewart Title Guaranty Co., Texas Instruments, SYSCO, Texaco and CONOCO Phillips – until these companies and organizations leave the state of Texas.
3) Post in your home or business a computer print-out sign that says,
“GOD-DAMNED Texas Redneck Trailer-Trash Christian Fundamentalist are
NOT WELCOME HERE.”
Every square inch of Texas roads have been repaved and infrastructural building within the state is exploding from inflated gas prices that fattened up the most ignorant section of America.
These Texas people LOVE George W. Bush.
Help Texas “FEEL THE PAIN!”
Also, Karl Rove, Tom Delay & other Texas Republicans, used PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE- through FEAR & INTIMIDATION – AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Here is the “BLOW BACK” for these tactics! Give TEXAS a taste of its own medicine shoving its garbage politicians with its stupid hats, boots, buckles, & B.S. bravado, right “up” all Texas throats!
The Palin haters, godbless them, are still lurking behind the bushes. Unlike some of these “progressive?” thinkers, my take is that this young girl recognizes the fact that she made a mistake. If we take the politics out of it, we should come back with the notion that teenagers that have children could eventually be seeking government help to raise their offspring. Ask our friend with the 14 children. I guess you don’t have to be a teenager to fall into that progressive trap!
Damn, trolls are everywhere these days, even taking the time & effort to register. What an economy Bush left us, leading directly to the no longer employed w/ too much time on their hands typing furiously.
she sounds like she’s got her head screwed on right.
Because nothing says “head screwed on right” better than being a unwed teenage mother without a HS diploma or a job.
Jeebus, I didn’t realize the bar had been set that low. Or was that satire that was too subtle for me?
Attn: MBouffant, if you would take your head out of your… you would check into an economy that was fueled by neg am loans created by your pals Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in the mid 90’s. Sorry to dissappoint you but it’s up to us trolls to educate the BBouffants of the internet with facts not fantasy!
Nice talking to you….
Wow, no trollses for an age, and suddenly two in one post. Must be all that rain in SF.
aimai and JayMagoo, hats off and a cheer. MamaFromOhio had similar origins and turned out okay in the long run. People in Bristols’ plight deserve empathy and encouragement, not harsh judgments and vitriol. We don’t get to choose our mothers.
Oh, and WTF?! is with the OSU sweatshirt? You can’t much farther from Columbus than Anchorage without a valid passport.
Corrected: “Bristol Palin’s a tough hoe to row.”
They’re all about accuracy here, doncha know?
Bristol’s got a tough roe to ho’?
Is that pink thing in her hoodie pocket a smoked salmon?
heh. Apparently not, since the little swimmers that sprung from Levi’s Levis had no problem planting in the Bristol roe.
“Nevertheless, Governor Palin appeared at the interview, with baby Tripp in tow.”
Isn’t Sarah’s baby named “Trig”?
Who is Tripp?
Look. This young girl and her boyfriend have been going through hell…
Whose so innocent reading this??
Stop attacking the teenager..like you weren’t all teenagers…Geez.
Sarah Palin–that is another story.
I’ll bet ol’ Levi Johnston thanked God when McPalin lost in Nov., knowing that now there’d be no PR pressure for him to actually marry into such a fucked up family.
Greta Greta..Greta. How have you come to this?
Digg it!
See, Trig Tripped over a Track and fell into the Trapp.
I feel sorry for all the Palin young’uns. Can’t be easy.
It’s not the kids’ fault.
Heartbreaking really. Not their fault at all.
Seriously though, has there ever been a bigger media whore than Sayrah Paylin? I swear a day doesn’t go by without a headline from a BigMedia outlet (or HuffPo for that matter) about Mooselini, with Mittens Romnutz in a close second.
Note: They lost. A long time ago. They’re simply trying to prop them up for future campaigns. Gotta luv the BigMedia!
Right. It’s the parents’ fault for treating their kids as stage props. Seems like Stamford, or Hartford, or whatever the hell her name is, is wiser than her mama already, even as a teenager.
the media should leave Bristol Palin alone.
we should leave Bristol Palin alone.
on the other hand, she did sort of inject herself and her unwed mother status into the public sphere by agreeing to the TV interview…
Oh my…shopping for homes anyone?
http://www.boston.com/news/loc…..he_market/
I don’t blame her.
I don’t blame them either.
Shizzola happens.
Not sure, but that’s definitely a dead ferret she just killed with her teeth, and she’s still licking the blood off her lips in the photo. Mommy’s so proud.
Look. Her name is Bristol, she is named after a bay in Alaska…she had a romance with her boyfriend and got pregnant. Her mother was running for VP. So it goes.
Who is so innocent as to attack her. Geez….ya got lucky that’s all.
Yea, isn’t Middletown 18 or 19 by now. She’s legal and completely responsible for her own actions now. YeeeHAW!
Not what I heard…
http://www.courant.com/news/po…..6841.story
anybody know whether the Republican National Committee paid for the sweatshirt, or did she find it in her mother’s favorite consignment shop?
OSU sweatshirt…. Oregon… Ohio….. or is it Oh Shit U didn’t
Newt Gingrich is proof that Georgia is the top penis producer in the country.
-G
Juno of Juneau? Given Sayrah’s circle of friends, maybe it should be “Juno of JewNo!”
OK I will.
g’nite all.
Well, the story passed out during the election was that Sarah & the First Dude (mercifully forgotten his name, don’t remind me) lived or something on Bristol Bay in Alaska when FD worked there, & maybe even Bristol P. was born conceived there. Guess the story changes every so often, like the Palin nanny changes the poopy-pants.
Maybe people are inclined to feel negatively about this because the republics go around talking shit about people who need public assistance. She could very easily have found herself one of those people. When you disparage a certain section of society and then become part of it, it invites comments. Not to mention they won’t stay the hell out of the media.
could also be Oklahoma State, but lettering would probably be orange
somehow I really think that the Palins got their own reality TV show via Greta.
In a weird way, I’m cheering Bristol on, knowing the whack job of a mother she must endure.
todd, pr. TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDD!
A.K.A The first Dood.
ESPN: Every Strange Palin Name
Secular Hollywood scientist caught fabricating fossils to propagate myth of evolution.
Not really, but a shitload of fossilized remains were recently discovered in he La Brea tarpits.
-G
if they make a “reality” show out of the Palins, I promise to never, ever watch it.
My heart goes out to young Bristol and especially to her child-of-a-child son. With 2 “non-traditional” grandmothers, and a moose killing/control freak granddad. She was flown all over the country as a prop while pregnant as a child-woman herself. Shame on John McCain.
Maybe she needs to become a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood? She might want to get the f%$k out of Dodge. Needs an income.
Give the girl a chance !!
If they’d set up a microphone and TV crew in the governor’s office, maybe Sarah would stay home and do her job.
They already did. It’s called Fox News.
This is all part of Gov. Palin’s plan: Do something, say something, anything, (or push members of your family to do so) no matter what it is, to get yourself in the news every single week until 2012. Then, she’ll run for president. She’ll be oh-so-familiar and liked by everyone then, so she thinks.
My plan: I don’t click on any more stories about the Palins (except for here
I wish there were Palin-free websites/blogs!!!
I notice a lot of negative comments re: Bristol, but not as many re: Levi.
That is always the way, isn’t it? You have the baby, catch hell, get called a whore, and the father of the baby? He’s free.
I hope she gets as many paid interviews as she can. She’s going to need the money.
Dunno…Judging by younger siblings and friends, I think that stuff is changing in general in society, but yes, a long way to go. It’s much more okay for a young woman to enjoy her sex drive now without being called a tramp. This is good.
But in this case, Groton is an adult now choosing to appear on a national TV show. She’s gonna get more scrutiny because of her decisions as an adult, plus anyway, seems to me most of the naughtiness is directed at her mama.
Really?
I noticed in a previous comment you said “Bristol Palin’s a tough hoe to row.”
Judging from you, it isn’t changing near fast enough.
Yea, you’re right. That was just moderately funny. I’ll try to step it up next time. There goes my job chances at The Onion, or as Al Franken’s writer, or the official Tbogg Wanna-Be. Damn…dreams dashed.
By the way, I think a boy that gets a girl pregnant, when their very young or have no intention of long-term, are the lamest of the lame, and have told several to their faces. It’s especially lame since often there was some manipulation on their parts to “get in her pants,” and as you said, she’s left to deal with the consequences.
But this post wasn’t about that lame excuse for a male named Levi.
Bristol Palin seems like a very nice, intelligent young woman, outgrowing her upbringing. Such a shame she has to do it the hardest way.
Here’s an interesting article.
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “f** redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their f*** ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor, and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’ re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
By my posting of this is in no means saying Barack Obama is a flawless candidate, but I think he has a lot more upside than the Republican candidates running against him. Please let me know what you guys think by posting in the comments section. I think this article is a perfect catalyst to start a real dialogue about the going-ons of this the presidential election and the general make-up of race relations in America.
By Tim Wise
YES
I feel sorry for Bristol Palin irregardless of the other comments here.
She grew up with Sarah Palin and her bible thumping ways.
She is a typical teenager. And I’m sure, where she comes from, no women would think about staying single. They could not afford to live on one salary or they would be considered “gay”.
I wish the best for her.
Her mother is Sarah Palin. Enough said.
Me too.
Good catch, MaryCh; that did occur to me. The possibility that Bristol may have given birth to both infants has not been disproved, and if true, makes the whole situation even sadder.