Pajiba

I'm fine with the fact that he apologized (twice), but I must say, that little soapbox that Sarah Palin was standing on made me sick. And her comments about keeping her daughter away from Dave, making it seem like he was some kind of danger were really out of line. I understand the idea that children should not be the butt of jokes when their parents are the politicians/celebrities/whatever, but it was an honest mistake. Come on...when you hear the words "Sarah Palin's daughter" you automatically think of the one who got knocked up and was in the press all the time. I forgot she even had a younger daughter.
I don't know, maybe if I was a parent I'd feel differently, but her haughty outrage felt really false to me, like she was using it to get her name in the spotlight a little longer.
Kudos to Dave for showing class through the whole thing. I hope it is dropped now.

Oh, Nadine, from your mouth to Trey and Matt's ears, please God.

I'll do what I can to make sure they get ahold of the idea Jerce....for you

I absolutely wish he had gone the other direction, except that he would have had to step out into the light politically to make it work. My desired outcome was for Dave, who has an unusual credibility in this particular situation because of his politics, to say, "Many of you may be aware that I have been very loosely affiliated with the Republican Party for many years, though I am not devoted to either party. I usually keep my politics to myself, but this ridiculous nonsense, and Ms. Palin's utter lack of shame and honesty, require me to speak out. It grieves me to see the state of the GOP right now, that this meatbag full of venom and retardation is the standard-bearer for the party. Without a viable second party, a two-party system is a joke. Without decent candidates with an ounce of goddamn sense in their heads, there's no second party.

"Ms. Palin, I apologize to your daughter, though there was never a hint of a threat or insult to her. I do not apologize to you, however, because you are a cancer on our society. You have been hiding behind your family for a long time now, and this week you revealed just how much of a ludicrous jackass you are in that respect. It's my job to point that out, and I will continue to do so. You will never cow or threaten me with your idiotic scolding, you fucking toadstool." [/Dave]

Fuck you, Sarah Palin. Fuck you straight to hell. I hope the Republican Party is stupid enough to put you up for president in 2012, just so I can enjoy watching Obama destroy your stupid ass. Actually, if they'll puppetize Michael Steele a little more, that will be even better: two weak, empty stereotypes for the price of one.

i happened to catch dave's apology last night & it made me really sad that he had to do that. fuck palin and her skanky daughters. paddydog is completely on point about having HER apologize to obama. apparently, there's a website up called firedavidletterman.com & they're planning to protest outside of his show today. the only thing i wanna fire up is the murdertank & head toward alaska.

Let's hope this is the end of the David Letterman - Sarah Palin feud. While last week Letterman apologized, it was in a snarky sort of way, and wasn't accepted by Palin...
Exclusive Video here:david letterman sarah palin joke

The joke was lame anyway. If anything, dave should be reprimanded for total lameness.

In terms of offensiveness, it's no worse than jokes that GOPers have been making about Democratic politican kids (McCain on Chelsea Clinton having Janet Reno as a father, Rush calling Chelsea Clinton, then 12, a "dog"). But there was no rush to demand apologies from them, even though their jokes were at least as offensive as the lame joke Letterman put out there.

A number of years ago, when Rush Limbaugh had a TV show, he made an horrible joke about the then 14 year old Chelsea Clinton. The setup was the White House getting Socks the cat-then Rushbo mentioned that there was a White House dog as well, and they flashed up a picture of Chelsea. When there was the inevitable outrage, Rush retreated behind the excuse that his staff put hte picture up without his knowledge. Here's hoping Pantsload thinks about htat when attacks Dave, who at least was stand up enough to apologize.

Jim, I think the one sadly misinformed here is you. I'm not saying I'd love it if someone made a joke about my child, but you have to take it in context. He's a comedian on late night TV. And frankly, Sarah Palin is doing nothing more than fueling fires to keep her name out of total obscurity. Anyone with any intelligence would realize that. He's a comedian...that's what they do. If all "children of parents" were off limits, EVERYONE would be.

And just for the record, I have a Political Science degree, and never have I EVER voted in an election "blindly". I'd say that my "ilk" can say the same thing.

Whorish Mouth FTW.

Jim...you can pick up the 'Biatch!' card she just threw at your feet near the door.

I am just so sick of fake apologies, the whole "I'm sorry if you were offended" asshattery that always gets offered instead of a sincere apology. I mean, If you don't mean it, why bother? And whether Palin deserved an apology or not, that's something different. She got one, and it was sincere and David Letterman is a fucking Class. Act.

Jules, a great many people thought the joke was about the 14-year-old, because that's who was at the ballgame.

14 years old or not, the joke was awesome. Cuz what's better than knocking up a 14 year old?! Especially if the baby-daddy is A-rod. Plain should be licking Letterman's sweaty yam bag for planting the seeds of a Palin/A-Rod union. She would NEVER be out of the headlines and could do all the day-time chat shows. She could go on Wendy O and talk about how much fun it is to have A-Rod as her future son in law (after 3 years of courting of course). Then, for SOOOOOOME odd reason, after A-Rod and Willow (peck! Peck! Peck! Peck! PECK!!!) decide not to get married after her failed presidential run, she can go on the circuit again! She totally just lost out on YEARS of front-page news with her mock-outrage. Typical Palin, not thinking before she reacts. Silver lining Sarah. You missed the silver lining. A-Rod is impresionable and willing to please anyone. And for all we know, he might actually think he DID knock up Willow. His recollection of things past seem pretty suspect as I recall from all the steroids stuff. Nothing a crying teenager, a popsicle stick painted pink (for positive) at the tip, and a broken condom couldn't have convinced him of.

meanwhile, a man actually DID rape a 4 year old (4, not 14) and is getting one ONE! year in jail. Todd Palin twists a joke about his eldest daughter into a threat about raping his 14-year-old and people want David Letterman fired for it. The Palin cult need to drink their fucking koolade already. I'm ashamed of Dave for bowing to the pressure, and hope the rumor is true that he only did it because his mom asked him to.

"Intent vs perception" Very smart, Dave. Very smart indeed. I think it could turn out great for him if she keeps harping on about this. He has apologised in a very sincere, erudite manner. If she doesn't let it go, then she will just be bringing a knife, not just to a gun fight, but an artillery barrage.

Sorry to put it so crudely, but one isn't "impregnated" by Levi, one's "knocked up."

Palin should also be grateful that no one seems to be paying attention to the oh-so-convenient post-election breakup of the Levi-Bristol "engagement," which would be better joke fodder.

I will immodestly point out that I predicted way before the election, in this space, that Levi and Bristol would NEVER get married and that the whole thing was a lie so that Palin would have a shot at not sinking the McCain ticket. There was never the slightest intent that those two would get married, and Palin should be called to account for that fundamental dishonesty about her utter inability to even approximate the rules and expectations she wants to impose on other people.

Palin is an evil liar, which has nothing to do with core conservative values but everything to do with what the modern RNC is willing to do to keep power -- just as Michael Steele is another example of the same thing. "Hillary's out of the race? Let's get a woman candidate, dumb bitch voters won't know the difference!" "Black president elected? [GULP] Well, fuck me let's get us that one Negro that's in our party! Dumb black voters won't know the difference. Let's make sure he talks some of that "hippety-hop" the young people are offending Baby Jesus with. Soon as he finishes sweeping, o'course."

Fuckers.

You know it drives them BATSHIT when he gives interviews, appears in pictures with the baby, etc.

I just pray he comes clean about what actually happened, preferably on the eve of any election involving Palin: "Yeah, now that I'm safely out of Alaska and away from the Palins and their helicopter and long range rifles, I can admit that they made me say we were getting married, during the same conversation in which they told me they'd never actually let their daughter marry me."

And I agree about Trig. That whole family is just really off, like a dead raccoon in a hot attic.

Umm...

I mean - I fucking hate Sarah Palin. But Letterman's jokes were sexist. In my book, that is inexcusable. I'm glad he apologized. Why wouldn't he?

Call me a feminazi, but I can't stand sex jokes about women who aren't prostitutes or strippers. I mean, yeah Palin is pretty and probably pretty dumb and her daughter is a teenaged mother, but that doesn't justify jokes about her being a "slut" or her daughter getting knocked up during a brief encounter with an athlete. By those standards we can start making nasty jokes about Obama's mother.

And he's not a "pussy" for apologizing.

*sigh*

Kayla, as far as I'm concerned jokes about Obama's mother are okay. I'm of the opinion that nothing should be off limits.

I'm sad to see Dave apologize. If he thought it was funny the first time around, it should have stuck to that.

Good jokes, bad jokes, offensive jokes, or any other kind of joke they all come from the same place. There's no need to justify a joke, be it sexist, racist or what have you. You don't have to like it and it's okay to feel the joke is "inexcusable", but no one should have to apologize for attempting a joke.

The point of these jokes was not that "ha ha all women are sluts" or even "ha ha Palin's daughter's a slut"--they were simply absurdist observations based on facts that ended up in the news. That's the point of a joke--take something and reduce it to absurdity, as if meeting A-Rod for a few minutes would cause Bristol (and I think it's obvious that in making the joke Letterman was referring to Bristol as that was the daughter who got knocked up in high school despite having a mother who is a preachy super-Christian self-righteous governor whackjob) to catch preggers as they say. Yes, it's unfortunate for Bristol but guess what, her mother was the one that thought it would be a good idea to accept the nomination for VP and proceed to show the world what a dim bulb and vicious person she was. Making yourself a public figure means that your whole family gets exposed (this is why Obama's wife wasn't thrilled with him going into politics). There's no avoiding it, and while Bristol never did anything bad to anyone (probably) that's just a casualty of being part of a spotlight family. Sarah made that choice.

But it isn't sexist, any more than it is sexist to assume that A-Rod would have such an uncontrollable libido that he'd have to knock up a girl within minutes of meeting her. It's just ridiculousness, which is where any humor in the joke comes from. If you don't find it funny, that's fine--but at least understand where the humor is intended.

As for why the Palin dislike, it largely stems from the nastiness of this woman's attacks during the campaign, as well as her comical insistence that she was fully qualified in areas in which she was well out of her depth--the best example being the absurd argument that she had foreign polciy experience since her state is so close to Russia. Her hypocritical preening about abstinence and traditionalism and the use of her family as convenient props while it was clear that they were not practicing what she was preaching only intensified this--and a lot of people didn't like how the failures of her abstinence preaching would mean one thing for a poor single mother without resources versus Bristol, who at least had a millionaire family to support her and her kid (while the Palins conducted a smear campaign against the kid's father--great family values there!). You don't have to like anything Obama's doing to find Sarah Palin distasteful--it's not a zero sum game.

"I won't call you a feminazi, but i will say that your words hold a RIDICULOUS double standard. Does the fact that a joke is about a stripper or prostitute not make it sexist?????????? No...it just makes it an "easy target" joke. Whore or stripper, they are still women."

Yeah, I agree. I was actually hesitant to make an exception for strippers and prostitutes but then I decided to keep it in there to see how you lot would react.

Bd - you didn't have to explain the joke. I understand the idea that he based the joke off of what has appeared in the media (Bristol's teenage pregnancy). Yeah the joke stemmed from fact.

Sexism doesn't come from random shit. It doesn't just land out of thin air. But from where I stand a teenage girl who got knocked up for whatever reason doesn't automatically constitute a joke about sexual frivolousness. Honestly, I wouldn't have been so bothered by the joke if Bristol was known to be the town slut. Then it would have stemmed from more truth. But to take a girl who has found herself to be a young mother in public eye and say she's suit to be fodder for the next lame ass sexist joke is outlandish.

I'm sorry. But the whole "Hey! It's JUST A JOKE!!" defense is fucking lame.

The shit I find humorous is clever and has truth to it. Sexist jokes about a girl who had sex with her boyfriend which ended in pregnancy isn't even necessary or interesting in the 21st century.

bd is on the money, and samantha is spot on too. Palin is virtually incompetent in every aspect of her life, except to the ability to opportunistically manipulate people and situations. She is actually a marvelous Iago looking for the right Othello.

Her vicious attack originated from her realization that Letterman, in his own puppy dog way, outed her. She could not, can not, manage her own family to a successful outcome. He brought this to the surface in public and she is outraged. Now she wants to transfer the responsibility for her failure to him, and make it his fault. "You told the nasty joke, you shameless man. She what you are doing to innocent daughters. How can I be expected to raise a virtuous child in an environment where someone like you is on television?"

DAVID LETTERMAN'S HATE, ETC. !

David Letterman's hate is as old as some ancient Hebrew prophets.
Speaking of anti-Semitism, it's Jerry Falwell and other fundy leaders who've gleefully predicted that in the future EVERY nation will be against Israel (an international first?) and that TWO-THIRDS of all Jews will be killed, right?
Wrong! It's the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah who predicted all this in the 13th and 14th chapters of his book! The last prophet, Malachi, explains the reason for this future Holocaust that'll outdo even Hitler's by stating that "Judah hath dealt treacherously" and "the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this" and asks "Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?"
Haven't evangelicals generally been the best friends of Israel and persons perceived to be Jewish? Then please explain the recent filthy, hate-filled, back-stabbing tirades by David Letterman (and Sandra Bernhard and Kathy Griffin) against a leading evangelical named Sarah Palin, and explain why most Jewish leaders have seemingly condoned Palin's continuing "crucifixion"!
While David, Sandra, and Kathy are tragically turning comedy into tragedy, they are also helping to speed up and fulfill the Final Holocaust a la Zechariah and Malachi, thus helping to make the Bible even more believable!
(For even more stunning information, visit MSN and type in "Separation of Raunch and State" and "Bible Verses Obama Avoids.")