The Dish

Stand in awe of his skills.

Zaid Jilani explains the plight of Bethlehem:

Palestinian Christians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, are living under an occupation that is squeezing the city’s only hope for economic recovery — tourism.

The Israeli “security fence” — a sometimes 8-meter tall barrier that contains guard towers and barbed-wire fortifications that the World Court has ruled is illegal — cuts deep into the Palestinian city, and severely restricts travel and supplies. The United Nations estimates that between 50 to 70 percent of the agricultural land used by the citizens of Bethlehem has been confiscated by the building of Israel’s fence and settlement expansion. As a result of the occupation, fewer than 30 percent of visitors choose to spend the night there. ”When tourists see the wall, they think they are going into a war zone,” Adnan Suboh, a souvenir shop owner told the press. ”They are afraid.”

But this is paradise compared with the plight of Christians in US occupied Iraq.

Chokwe, Mozambique, 11 am

Many readers have this impression:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see anywhere where Sarah Palin said that they would pretend Tripp was theirs by birth. She may have wanted to pretend for Todd and her to be such awesome pro-life people that they would even adopt a child from a 'poor ignorant' teenager, pretending to have prevented an abortion. Also that way they could still hide Bristol's pregnancy, and they'd appear as the most wonderful parents ever. Sounds plausible to me…no? I still believe Levi Johnston … Palin's lies and deceptions are always more complicated than they seem. I do wish he'd have to balls to come out with everything. May be he'll wait to see if she's actually going to run for President, then he'll decide she's too dangerous for that…..than may be his balls will grow to the correct size.

Points taken. All we know for sure is that Johnston claims that Palin wanted Tripp to be adopted by her and that she wanted Bristol's pregnancy to be permanently removed from the public record.

I just find the notion that this could have been accomplished while hiding Bristol from public view to be implausible. Someone would have guessed. It's a classic old-school maneuver to evade "scandal". But if you fake a one-month pregnancy, there are fewer questions. No one usually dares to question a woman's claim to have given birth to a child, however weird or implausible the facts of the story. And in that scenario, there's also no other woman to explain away, no adoption agency to point to, etc.

But we really don't know, until Levi tells us everything. As for his cojones, who knows? But it does seem to me that the press should encourage him to tell everything he knows first-hand. No speculation; just first-hand memories and verifiable facts. If Pa;in is to remain a major player in national politics, we really do need to know who this bizarre person really is, and fight through the mythologies and fictions of her own account.

He's currently neck and neck with a stunning stop-motion of a beautiful young woman facing her quotidian morning in the contest for the best Mental Health Break of 2009. My own favorite was the elk calf splashing around in a woodland puddle. But that's my goddamned hippie side coming out again.

Anyway, Cartman's Poker Face is now getting 24 percent while the beautiful young woman is at 23 percent. Break the tie!

It turns out that the list of banned bloggers from Palin book events was crafted by none other than Todd Palin, whose role in the various lies, cover-ups and mysteries of La Palin is almost certainly under-estimated. Mudflats looks at the list of unmentionable bloggers and tries to see a pattern:

Dennis Zaki – videographer and filmmaker. His videos of Palin have gone viral on the web, and his trip (funded by progressive blogs) to Emmonak last year brought national attention. But what do I really think it is? He reported on the rumor (that still exists) that the Palins’ marriage is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Gryphen of the blog The Immoral Minority – A frequent commenter on the more personal side of the Palins, and a burr under their saddle, he too reported on the dreaded “splitsville” rumor. A kindergarten teacher, Gryphen was threatened with legal action at his place of work by the Palin clan.

Shannyn Moore – A regular on Keith Olbermann, she and Dennis have both transitioned to the moving picture part of the media. Her report of a rumor existing that Palin was in trouble with the law resulted in the infamous Fourth of July threat of legal action by Thomas Van Flein, Palin’s attorney.

Andree McLeod – You’ll remember her as the ‘falafel lady’ in Palin’s fictitious memoir “Going Rogue.” Her watchdogging is surpassed by no one, and her current legal suit regarding Palin administration officials’ use of personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business “off the radar” has been back in the spotlight lately. As a matter of fact, McLeod was in court on that very matter while the book signing was happening. Guess the Palins weren’t keeping track of that.

Multiple ethics complaints, and coverage in Alaska blogs, and on the Huffington Post have made McLeod Palin’s arch-nemesis. It’s worth noting that McLeod is the only Republican on the list, and was a former ally of the ex-gov before learning what she’s really like.

He must love the Daily Dish.

Seems like a perfect day to revisit this SNL classic. Here in Detroit, I gave myself two hours’ time to get my flight home … and, of course, it was easy as pie. Apparently, it was mayhem earlier this morning, according to my check-in dude, but that had nothing to do with security. Just under-staffing on a busy travel day. Happy and safe travels.

Deer are pictured in the snow in Knole park, Sevenoaks, Kent, England on December 18, 2009, not far from where I grew up. By Carl De Souza//AFP/Getty Images. The Big Picture has more snowy scenes.

Gryphen casts doubt on Levi Johnston's claim that Sarah Palin nagged him and Bristol to allow the governor to fake a pregnancy for Tripp as a way to keep the baby and save her daughter's reputation. But how, Gryphen asks, could that be possible given the timeline of both Trig's and Tripp's births? Good question – and the first real dent in Johnston's credibility.