At the risk of being accused, again, of link-baiting, I feel the need to come to Sarah Palin’s defense here.  Levi Johnston is all over the TV in the run-up to the revelation of his Johnston in Playgirl, and promising of Palin that he will “leak some things on her.”  Thanks for that visual.

One of those leaks is that Palin, apparently, would make “retarded baby” jokes about son Trig.

I’m sure most people already realize this, but for those who don’t, understand that families who go through traumatic struggles often resort to humor as a way to cope.  Good famlilies, bad families, we all say things in the safe confines of our nuclear units that we would never say in public.  There’s an unspoken context bred through familiarity that makes it tough to explain to an outsider.

I haven’t seen many liberals trying to make hay out of this, but maybe I just don’t get out enough.  I think everyone realizes that Levi is not the wagon that anyone wants to be hitched to.

Palin’s response was somewhat rich.  She aptly sizes Levi up as an attention whore, but then the former beauty queen and serial winker slams him for “selling his body” by appearing in Playgirl.  I suppose it’s a matter of degree.

Even if you don’t like Palin, the fact that 71% of Americans don’t think she’s qualified to be President even as the other 29% stand ready to make her their nominee is comforting.  Even better is the prospect of Palin continuing to torpedo Republicans in favor of 3rd party candidates.  Go Palin Party!

“I know the truth about my family. I know details about whether Levi Johnston was allowed to live with my teenage daughter or not. By the way, it would be over my dead body that a kid would live with my teenage daughter,” Palin said.

Well, I guess that settles that.  I’ll be doing a story at AOL focusing on that quote.

What I found interesting was Palin’s compromise on abortion:

On abortion, Palin said she’s now willing to compromise on a bill that would require parents to give their permission before girls under age 17 could get an abortion.

Palin said she’s willing to drop the requirement for consent and just accept a bill that would require parents to be notified about their teenager’s plan to have an abortion.

Palin said late last month she was not interested in the compromise.

While the compromise also sucks, the fact that Palin is willing to budge now on parental consent is noteworthy.  In reality, though, parental notification is pretty much the same as parental consent.  Most young girls don’t have the resources or the wherewithal to defy their parents.

Palin is likely to come under fire from the religious right for the compromise, which gains her nothing on the left.  This is another example, if a small one, of Palin’s ability to set aside personal political gain for the sake of pragmatism.

On the other hand, she continues her Tony-Award-Winning political theatre over the stimulus money, presenting her arm to the state legislature for them to twist:

Gov. Sarah Palin told news media here this morning she’s willing to accept the federal economic stimulus money — if legislators agree to use some of it to replace state spending.

“We can back out state (general fund) dollars and replace them with stimulus dollars…I’ll feel better about it because then those dollars won’t just be additional dollars they’ll be replacement dollars,” Palin said.

This is where being part o f an impotent minority can come in handy, a lesson the Democrats never learned.  She can “fight” for what her base wants, no matter how stupid, because she knows that the legislature will force her hand anyway.  It’s like, if Mike Tyson is about to beat your ass, you might as well talk some shit and wink at the chicks in the crowd.

She also spoke about the Alaska Senate’s rejection of Joe Nelson to fill a vacant seat:

“That’s disappointing lawmakers have chosen not only to not discuss and vote in public but disappointed that a very experienced, educated, young dynamic Native leader was not accepted by the Senate Democrats,” she said.

Palin’s been taking a lot of hits lately, and things aren’t looking great for her.  While Levi Johnston is pretty much reviled for his dishing, Palin needs to end this public feud now.  If it continues, there is no way she comes out of it looking sympathetic.  Levi slipped up by talking about his and Bristol’s sex life, but in the end, he will look like the victim of a powerful political family.

If she wants to be President(tial nominee) in 2012, Sarah Palin needs to figure out a way to end the family feud quietly.

I’m going to include my AOL cross-post here in a minute, but I wanted to add a little to what I said there.

It would be facile for my newfound conservative fans to assume that I’m just trying to even the score from the Daily Kos shitstorm, but I will say the same thing I did then:  This is not some anonymous, black helicopter freeper accusing Levi Johnston.  It’s the managing editor of Redstate, as identifiable on the right as Daily Kos is on the left.  The irresponsibility here is extreme.

I really don’t get it, there’s plenty of legit garbage to throw at Levi and company.  Why risk this kind of loose talk?  Are there any Redstate readers who are unsure whether to hate Levi?  And why demonize guns?  That seems highly counter-intuitive.

Anyway, here are the particulars of this story, in all their stomach-turning glory.

Redstate Crosses the Line: Implies Incest in Attack on Levi JohnstonI started out the week reporting on a prominent liberal blogger who crossed the line of decency, and now, an influential conservative blogger has , effectively, evened the score.

In what appears to be a warning to any who would oppose GOP superstar Sarah Palin, the Managing Editor of Redstate.com has launched an all-out attack on Levi Johnston:

The left was right. Now, though, they can’t be bothered by it. Below is the actual Levi – no preppy clothes. No polish. Just good old boy who knocked up the Governor’s daughter. Not exactly the image Tyra Banks and he would like you to think about.

The picture he’s referring to is this one, picturing Levi and his sister posing with guns. I find it curious that a conservative would attack someone by showing a picture of them enjoying their 2nd Amendment rights.

Never mind that, though. Although I, too, was sickened by Levi’s exhibitionistic performance on Tyra, I would never get down in the mud like this:

What’s even more creepy is that the other person in the picture is his sister. And, as if lifted from the pages of Deliverance, she has his name tattooed on her back. Think about that one for a minute.

In case you missed it, here it is again, toward the end:

Soon Levi will sell his tell all book, delightfully ignoring awkward questions about his relationship with his sister while relishing in the awkward details of his relationship with Sarah Palin.

While the shock of the implication is stark, it is also telling that the picture used is from a collection that made the email rounds during the election, sent by liberals. I guess treason isn’t the only thing that’s a matter of dates.

The conservative blogosphere was quick to condemn Markos Moulitsas for his insensitivity this past weekend. Let’s see if they can be as circumspect about one of their own leaders.

Tommy on: Daily Dose:

• Today’s Quickies and…From ‘House’ to White House
• Sarah Palin Porno Parody Actress in Eminem’s New Vid, and on Tour
• Today’s Quickies and…Another Hot Hack

Tommy on: Twitter

So sad, now, that the baby is going to go through this crap.  No matter who’s right, they all lose.  As I said there, Levi blew it by not taking the high road.  If the Palins are really keeping him from seeing Tripp, there’s nobody in the world who wouldn’t support him fighting that.

Of course, if it comes to him trying to publicly shame Bristol and family into letting him see Tripp more, he’d better have his ducks in a row and doing the Electric Slide.  Going on TV and saying “Let me see my son” is an invitation to the Palins to explain why they don’t.

I really can’t stand the sickening glee with which people eat this stuff up.  I tire of explaining this, but the only reason I write about this stuff is to try and add a productive voice to all the voyeuristic titters.  These 2 kids (3 now) never asked for this shitstorm, and they deserve a lot of latitude.

Just a quick side-note on the Daily Kos shitstorm.  I wrote a heartfelt denunciation of Markos’ joking Twitter exchange, posted a link at Daily Kos, and I did a followup piece at AOL today.  Never did I attack Markos personally.  In fact, quite the opposite.  It’s because he is so important that this matters.

So, what was the reaction?  Well, one of the Kos commenters wished me dead (arguably a threat), which the army of Daily Kos moderators seemed fine with:

Go figure. Kos Kommenters think Tommy deserves to DIE for his heresy:

Good bye. Scum like you should not be allowed to breath[sic]. More or less allowed to use a computer. What “Kos” said was true in every since of the word. I just wish you the best of no luck.

This morning, a DKos contributing editor has been Twitter-griefing Lee Stranahan about his article at HuffPo. Like most of the commenters at DailyKos, this guy doesn’t come within 2 feet of the substance of this issue. What I really love about this is the guy’s Twitter profile. Kossacks are notoriously dickish about anything that remotely resembles self-promotion, but this guy’s name and profile pic are of his goddam book!

People like this make me sick. So unaware of themselves, they’re going around shaming good liberals. Devilstower, you should be telling your pal, Markos, to watch his mouth while he’s still our spokesman, not griefing Lee Stranahan because he called your boss out yet again.

Having said that, and having written about the way blogs on both sides play politics with cooling corpses, I have to say that DailyKos frontpager Dana Houle and Kos himself have earned my “Unbest Individuals Upon the Earth” award (patent pending).  So badly have they made me sick to my stomach that I am resigning as a DailyKos diarist and reader. Here’s why:

This is Twitter, so you have to read from the bottom.  I snipped Houle’s Tweet because it was much earlier in the day.

Dana Houle is a Daily Kos frontpager, not some tinfoil diarist, and Markos is the public face of the liberal blogosphere.  Granted, his influence isn’t what it used to be, but he is still the most recognizable, the most closely-associated liberal blogger out there.

When I saw his re-Tweet, I was stunned, and I hadn’t even heard about the Pittsburgh shooting yet.  I thought he was talking about the shooting in Binghamton.  When I looked back at Houle’s Tweet, and I found the story of the three policemen who were killed yesterday, I could not believe my eyes.  As you can see, I tried to get Markos to explain his re-Tweet, unable to believe that these two would be joking about this at all, let alone hours after the tragedy.

Here are the relevant Tweets, but you can check out Kos’ Twitter feed, my Twitter feed, and Dana Houle’s Twitter feed if you want to look for context.

DanaHoule With no Veep to shoot people, folks are taking things in to their own hands about 20 hours ago from TweetDeck

DanaHoule “He said he’ll be ready if there’s ever an invasion of the United States and that he had stockpiled foods and guns…” Wolverines!! about 19 hours ago from TweetDeck

markosmoulitsas RT @DanaHoule: With no Veep to shoot people, folks are taking things in to their own hands about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

TommyXtopher What does this mean? RT @danahoule @markosmoulitsas With no Veep to shoot people, folks are taking things in to their own hands about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

markosmoulitsas When we were out of power, we organized to win the next election. Conservatives, apparently, prefer to talk “revolution” and kill cops. about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

I also sent Kos a Tweet letting him know I would be writing about this, to give him a chance to clarify.  He didn’t respond.

Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I think this is shameful. This is the kind of thing I would probably delete at Political Machine.  I don’t even see the humor in it, even setting aside the heartless ghoulishness involved.

More broadly, I’m starting to feel like a lot of the liberal blogosphere is forgetting what it means to be a liberal, or maybe I’m using the wrong word.  After 8 years of mortal kombat with the right, we’ve swung too far, become too belligerent.

More and more, I find the left taking shots at targets that they ought to leave alone, or even reach out to.  Take the Palin family, for instance.  The same writer, Houle, goes Full Snarkal Jacket on the Palin family.  Now, I am as staunch an opponent of Sarah Palin as there is, but I fail to see how her troubled family validates my policy disagreements with her.  In fact, her family, and Levi’s, are precisely the people we should be reaching out to.  Normal people have dysfunctional family members whom they a. don’t think represent themselves and b. they still love.

Aside from the political stupidity, taking stories like this and having a good laugh is not the liberal way.  Levi and Bristol are in for a world of heartache, and Palin’s sister-in-law pretty obviously has serious problems.    Where’s the compassion?  Why is it funny that Palin’s family has problems?  Did she put a hex on them?

Some would argue that these stories belie the “family values” she promotes.  I disagree, and most Americans would, as well, I think.  Failing to always live up to your values doesn’t, in ands of itself, invalidate them.  Funding abstinence and  abstinence-only education isn’t a bad idea because Bristol got pregnant, it just is a bad idea.

We’re supposed to be better than this, it’s why we fight.  But when we engage in this kind of scattershot haymaking, we give up the right to say a fucking word about it when Ann Coulter trashes 9/11 widows, or when Palin accuses our President of pallin’ around with terrorists.  We need to know where the line is.  We’re not stand-up comics, or radio entertainers.  We have a responsibility to our ideals that we ought not to betray for a cheap, barely-audible laugh.

Update: Caleb’s “healing” take.

But seriously, dude! Your son is going to see that some day.

This is only funny in the abstract:  Rocket fuel in baby formula.  Aside from the obvious jokes, the article actually says this: “The formula also contains a compound that can counteract the rocket fuel chemical’s effects.”  I’ve never heard of simultaneous food poisoning and unpoisoning.

Rush Limbaugh Slam Poetry.

This site can suck it!

This headline sounds like a Wall Street Journal article written by Dr. Seuss.

I have a follower named Kristy Kaleal now.  Is she related to Superman?

Good day to be gay.

Obama is effin’ funny. “OBAMA TO CEOS: I’M “THE ONLY THING BETWEEN YOU AND THE PITCHFORKS“  Classic.

Cyberstalk Rahm Emanuel.

Ward Churchill wins a dollar.

Tenacious D meets Conchords meets Fellini.

You can’t breathe in Jello.

Dick! (h/t OhHellNawl)