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Ear to the Ground

Bristol Palin Delivers Baby Tripp

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Posted on Dec 29, 2008
Johnston and Palin
AP photo / Charles Rex Arbogast

The “before” photo: This Sept. 3 photo shows Bristol Palin and her boyfriend, Levi Johnston, at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

After passing the last few months of her pregnancy under public scrutiny, Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former vice presidential candidate and current Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, gave birth to a boy on Saturday and named him Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.


AP via Google News:

Bristol Palin, 18, gave birth to Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston on Saturday, People magazine reported online. He weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol’s grandmother, told the magazine that “the baby is fine and Bristol is doing well.”

The governor’s office said it would not release information because it considers the baby’s birth a private, family matter. Palin family members, hospital employees and spokespeople for the governor’s former running mate, John McCain, either would not confirm the birth or did not return messages from The Associated Press.

The father is Levi Johnston, a former hockey player at Alaska’s Wasilla High School.

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By frank burns, January 22, 2009 at 3:19 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

How do we know that Tripp was born in December?  Which hospital?  ONly Sarah’s statements and her mother’s.  If Bristol was less than five months pregnant in August, the original rumors about Trig still stand. If pictures of Tripp do show up in the future, how can they be dated?  Sarah is making the truth as she goes a long, through nothing but statements, and the press is letting her. The press are cowards.

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By Anarcissie, December 31, 2008 at 12:37 pm Link to this comment

No, the event itself.  I thought something remarkable must have happened to merit inclusion in this estimable journal, but no, it’s just a bunch of yokels exhibiting their usual breeding habits.  As they are happy with them and seem to be getting along well enough, I don’t think anything in the situation calls for our further attention.

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By Allan Scheer, December 31, 2008 at 10:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Not the event, but the comments by some of the people posting here.
Many of you should be ashamed of yourself, and/or get some psychiatric help.

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By Anarcissie, December 31, 2008 at 9:26 am Link to this comment

Why do we have to hear about this?

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By hippy pam, December 31, 2008 at 7:22 am Link to this comment

Dear Volma-At 60+ years of age I have seen it all and done most of it….The “do-goodies” are a big part of the reason that we-as a race-have become sick,obese,overpopulated,uneducated weaklings….I believe that every person against abortion should have to adopt and raise-with all the attendant medical issues and bills-a crack addicted baby…I also believe-in the interests of overpopulation-that said mother should be sterilized[it’s reversible]...And daddy also[reversible]....I believe criminals on death row-convicted with DNA- should be euthanized[I’m tired of them having better health care than productive citizens who need it]and-after all-THEY are on death row…Think of the money that could be spent on health care if we were not keeping some killer alive and giving him/her new teeth,chemotherapy,viagra,a college education etc….After all-the person IS on DEATH ROW…You are allowed your opinions-as am I…And as I stated-This girl has 1-possibly 2 children-and is unwed….Yes-her mommy is powerful but is to busy-obviously-to KNOW WHAT the girl is up to…In my experience[been here/done this]-MOST 18 year olds ARE NOT READY for that large a responsibility..And there is a lot of information on this girl showing her “party ways” and-my space info-showing “baby daddy” wants only to play hockey,ride snow machines and party with his friends…Neither of them is ready….Add in the grandmother selling drugs/Her mother trying to be famous and powerful=Receipe for disaster where the child/children are the PAWNS…You gotta wonder what ALASKA has in place for the children to protect them from harm…I hope their system works better than most-We just had a case here where the child was locked up and allowed to starve by her young,inexperienced,uneducated,unwed mother and live in boyfriend/baby daddy….And you STILL BELIEVE the “do-goodies” are completely in the right??I believe YOU are very young and inexperienced…

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By Verne Arnold, December 30, 2008 at 10:00 pm Link to this comment

Grrr. No edit button. “know it”

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By Verne Arnold, December 30, 2008 at 9:58 pm Link to this comment

I see my post got pulled as well it should. I apologize for my language but not my rage. My rage at the petty, shallow, utterly ridiculous distractions, and second class personalities, our complicity in our and Israel’s inhumanity committed against the prisoners of Apartheid (Palestinians).
Anger can be a very healthy emotion and the deniers of that are the ones with issues. It’s just one more thing used to control us and keep us down. Our adherence to a P.C. world is just another of the many degradations of our society. We are all prisoners of the very ill collective we call a society, which we no longer have an active part in. We are so downtrodden we no longer even no it. It becomes more and more like “The Matrix”. Do you feel it?

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By Volma, December 30, 2008 at 7:35 pm Link to this comment

I do apologize for being too sassy and disrespectful…I am far from being inexperienced, and young, unless you are in your mid 70’s plus we are most likely in the same age bracket.I respect my elders only if I feel they deserve to be, if I don’t I respect them by keeping my distance so I don’t have to be subject to their poison…Anyway, I really wonder how anyone could decide that they were qualified to decide who is worthy to live and to die? And I question anyone who measures worth by their income…..You do know that the Nazi Eugenics policy was also tied to the good of the nation, human kind?
Nazi eugenics were Nazi Germany’s racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the race through eugenics at the center of their concerns and targeted those humans they identified as “life unworthy of life” (German Lebensunwertes Leben), including but not limited to the criminal, degenerate, dissident, feeble-minded, homosexual, idle, insane, religious, and weak, for elimination from the chain of heredity. More than 400,000 people were sterilized against their will, while 70,000 were killed in the Action T4.[1]
Look it up, google it…But anyway don’t you worry, the corporate keepers have their plans that align with yours. I have my doubts that aids came from an African having sex with a monkey, but who knows???The bird flu has not panned out, but if lack of health care, food and medicine for the poor in the US is any indicator, these undeserving burdens of society will of course, be gone soon…Life experience wisdom without love for your fellow earth travelers, is not wise…There are so many ways that the few rich have destroyed this earth by pollution and destruction and war for profit, that the unworthy masses who in the US get food stamps are totally using pennies of American taxes to the hundreds of dollars given to corporate welfare, and war…I would like you, and yours to pay the corporate taxes and the war bills, and I will spend mine on the poor…I will definitely come out ahead…The only thing I can imagine is that a person who feels that they are superior enough, God like enough to judge who is worthy to live and who is not has some issues/problems..Yours is not a loving proposition I hope you get love and peace for yourself and your fellow human beings before you die, it’s really sad to see people choose to follow the dark side (yes I said dark side, Luke)...You seem damaged, hurt and misinformed about the realities of life, but hold onto your issues and promote your agenda, you have that right as we all do…But civilizations have died, wars have been fought, much suffering has been promoted by people who have no love for their fellow humans or the earth. We are all part of the earth we are tied to the earth, even the useless in your eyes has as much right to live as you do..  It’s too easy to scapegoat the weak and the helpless, I for one will not go away or lend myself to martyrdom, I for one will fight and/or die to protect the helpless, innocent, disabled and weak, before I allow the genocide of others in my country..I do not want to live in a evil world where there are the masters to decide who is born, who dies, who deserves to live, this is true insanity…

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By purplewolf, December 30, 2008 at 5:54 pm Link to this comment

Volma:  Those of us, whom you accuse of dribble, have no doubt lived a long time and experienced much of life that you probably have not. This tends to shape the way one thinks about the world as a whole. No one is making any profit from this except for “the Palin around with politics bunch”. Several decades ago a wise person once said “we need to stop making laws to protect stupid people from killing themselves, they then just go on to make more people like themselves. That person was a news journalist, yet his article comes to mind still today. Nature has a way of weeding out those that would never survive on their own without the intervention of others to see to their survival. (Even in the Old Testament, those how were defective were left out in the desert to die or were sacrificed to their God). There is a lot of truth in that statement, whether you like or agree with it or not. In nature, only the strongest, fittest and smartest survive. This makes the herd, be it the four legged animal or the two legged animal stronger, rather than weaker. Today in America, we spend the most amount of time, effort and money on the least productive members of society, while those who might have had a chance to succeed don’t due to lack of the very things needed to survive, but now are gone or greatly cut back due to unwise choices. This may sound harsh, but it may come as a surprise to you that the earth is at a crisis point mainly due to over population of the human kind, which rather that respecting nature, decides it is better to pollute, over populate according to their religious belief doctrines, destroy everything their perceived enemies own, live and work in with wars and corporate greed mainly because they believe differently from you. You, no doubt belong to that crowd, much like Sarah Palin, that thinks it is okay to destroy healthy animals, be it wolf, polar bears, cats or dogs simply because they are in your way to more greed and destruction of the planet or the excuse that there are to many of these animals already. Ask yourself then, when is it to many humans? Is not less actually more, and when did quantity of life rank over quality of life? When there is no longer and quality of life, is it worth living? Is that the reason for the wars and genocide of others, to keep the human over population slightly down?

I know, there are those out there who will blast this comment.
As the song says: “I’ve looked at life from both sides now”.

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By Volma, December 30, 2008 at 3:14 pm Link to this comment

The hateful comments, sanctimonious dribble is pretty disgusting…I truly do not care for celebrity voyeurism, get a life, take care of your life…Some commentators have some nasty problems/issues that are obvious through their hateful comments about people who they truly do not know.. The hippy girl mentioned on another article that the do gooders have allowed the genetically inferior to live through medicine/science…Thus we have a population of morons, something like that, very very Nazi sounding anyway…Either someone is having a bad day, or they are deliberately spieling their Church Lady, neoconservative, Nazi stuff as paid commentors, stirring it up for fun and profit…

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By hippy pam, December 30, 2008 at 9:11 am Link to this comment

This unwed teen has a mother-in law[to be] that sells[and cooks?] drugs…She has a mother who did not impart morals as per christian doctrine[saving her virginity].And her hubby-to-be only wants to play hockey and ride snow machines[as per his myspace page].I’m taking BETS on how long a time goes by before child protection HAS to step in…..ANY TAKERS??????Cyrena-Purplewolf…You both understand..

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By Debby Simcoe, December 30, 2008 at 8:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Is it just me, or am I missing something?  Didn’t Sarah announce that Bristol and Levi were to be marry? I’ve been awaiting the big day - “before” the baby was born. I guess the Christian Right has “fundamentally” changed.

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By Verne Arnold, December 30, 2008 at 8:39 am Link to this comment

Addendum: Are you really that stupid?

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By BigIslandDave, December 30, 2008 at 7:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Isn’t Trig Bristol’s other baby? In other words, not Caribou Barbie’s, as the official mythology has it?

God, what a messed-up family.

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By Thomthum, December 30, 2008 at 6:33 am Link to this comment

...and oh by the way boys and girls, Easton is the name of a big company that makes…wait for it…..wait…...HOCKEY EQUIPMENT!

If my parents had taken this approach to naming me, I’d either be called “Johnnie Walker” or “Pot Roast” today.

Hopefully this is the end of the Palin story line for a while and Trik, Trak, Truk, Tred, Pillow, Willow, Jello Shot, Van Palin and Flossie will all just go da hell away…FOR GOOD!

Fat chance.

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By Lauren, December 30, 2008 at 6:20 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Word on the ground in Wasilla is that this cover-up story has been falling apart because the girl they had arranged with to adopt them a baby boy has changed her mind and backed out. The Palin clan is scrambling to come up with an infant boy before this blows up and damages Sarah’s presidential ambitions.

Why is Truthdig running an unconfirmed report from a questionable source as though it were confirmed fact?

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By cyrena, December 30, 2008 at 3:22 am Link to this comment

Maybe Tripp was conceived while these two were on a trip of some kind, be it drug or road, after all, Sarah stated she named her children from things that related to their conceptions.

~~~

Purplewolf, this is too funny. Now what’s this about grandma saying she named her children from things that related to their conceptions? I’m not sure I really wanna know, but how did she come up with Trig? Was she doing her trigonometry homework in the midst of his conception?

And while I’m at it, (just catching up on the gossip here) which grandma was cooking meth in her basement? Sarah or Levi’s mom?

I’m with you. I think GOPher would be a far better name for ALL of them. GOPher 1, GOPher 2, GOPher 3, and on and on…as they keep popping them out.

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By tony smith, December 30, 2008 at 1:18 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Palin is not the VP.  Why the smear comments?  And especially why the comments that clearly denigrate poor people?  There are a lot of high school dropouts in the country—and a lot of people who are teenaged parents.  As a progressive, I thought we were supposed to care about their well being—not mock them.  But I guess this is the year of that Camelot returns.  Liberals can show their “true” colors.

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By P. T., December 30, 2008 at 1:06 am Link to this comment

Unfortunately, Grandma’s in the slammer.

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By purplewolf, December 30, 2008 at 12:29 am Link to this comment

So Levi is a high school dropout. Good start for a young father in today’s work world, but then again if Levi does marry Bristol, he will never have to worry about providing for his new family as Sarah will make certain they are well cared for. Even if she has to create a highly paid do nothing-know nothing job in Alaskan politics somewhere, even though it is claimed Levi is currently working in “OIL” training to be an electrician. Need we say more?

As for Levi’s attitude about babies, his Myspace page, which I did read before it disappeared, had him stating that he didn’t want no———- babies. And some other rather unworthy descriptions of his personality, attitudes and behaviors. Add to that the recent fame of his mother and her home based business, Bristol could do much better by avoiding the whole marriage thing Levi.

Trig-Tripp, seems like names a person would give to brothers. I still think the name GOPher would have been more fitting given the republican ties. Tripp is such an odd name, reminds one of a road Tripp, bad Tripp, acid Tripp, Tripp’s tripping, Tripp and fall, Takin A Tripp, Tripp to Nowhere-just like the bridge that Sarah wanted then said she didn’t want. Maybe Tripp was conceived while these two were on a trip of some kind, be it drug or road, after all, Sarah stated she named her children from things that related to their conceptions.

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By cyrena, December 29, 2008 at 11:52 pm Link to this comment

“The father is Levi Johnston, a former hockey player at Alaska’s Wasilla High School.”

And there we have it. Tripp’s daddy’s claim to fame.

WHERE to they get these NAMES?

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