Sarah Palin must be feeling neglected so she resurrects old stories from the past as an attack on journalists.

Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page: 

Nice to see light shine. Doesn’t it make you wonder about other accusations (absolutely false, in Todd’s and my case) that are reported as truth? Total lies that escape real journalists’ “who/what/where/when/why” ethical reporting practices. - SP 

I have to tell ya that this really feels like Palin is specifically baiting me, since a number of these stories involved me in one way or another. 

I guess somebody is feeling lonely, and is desperate for people to talk about her again.

Well I am pretty damn tired of constantly posting about Donald Trump so why the hell not?

That Star Magazine cover seems to be reporting on my Splitsville story so for the handful of you who may not be familiar with it, here is a link.

I will also include this follow up post that I made last year after receiving some corrections from Levi Johnston.

As you can see the post did contain some misinformation provided to me by Tank Jones, who I hired as a private investigator.  However the story of their marital problems, Palin's desire to leave the state, and the fact that she was looking to get a job in media (We thought at the time talk radio, but it turned out to be Fox News.) all turned out to be accurate.

Now let's move on to the Shailey Tripp story.

I first reported on that story only after The National Enquirer story came out with it, even though I had been hearing about it for weeks.

Later of course I made contact with Shailey and recorded an interview with her.

(Here is a transcript for those who do not want to listen to the audio.)

Of course Sarah and Todd denied the story vehemently ("Have you seen Todd?"), but this still remains a case of she said she said. You can choose for yourself who seems more believable.

I have to say that if Palin had not brought these old stories up that I was prepared to never talk about them again. They are, after all, old news.

But since she opened Pandora's Box, why not take a look at all of the embarrassing things inside?

Time to straighten out some facts about Splitsville. With assistance from Levi Johnston.

So as most of you know the 2009 post "Splitsville" was one of my biggest and most controversial posts of all time.

It was packed with all sorts of explosive and at that time unknown information about Sarah Palin, her marriage, and her plans for the future.

Unfortunately as it turns out much of it was also bullshit.

As most of you already know my source for the Splitsville story was Tank Jones who I had hired as a private investigator.

There is always a risk going with a single source on a story, but since Jones was both a well respected and licensed private investigator with unfettered access to Levi Johnston, there was literally no reason to question the "facts" that he was sharing with me.

At the time of the post Sarah Palin had essentially disappeared from Twitter and Facebook and people were wondering what was going on behind the scenes.

My post filled in a gap left by her sudden silence.

As time went on I became aware that some of the things that I predicted in the post did not come to pass, and that some of the things that Tank shared with me were never backed up with facts from any other news outlets or even gossip sites.

However until I talked with Levi I was never sure which things were for sure incorrect, and which things were true but never confirmed.

So let's just go through the post and knock them out one by one.

The first one, and the biggest reveal, was that Sarah and Todd were planning to end their marriage.

According to Levi yes that was accurate, and it was something that they argued and threatened each other with all of the time.

In fact the reason why the post blew up the way that it did is because my friend Dennis Zaki, who had home phone numbers for some of Palin's former staff members, was able to confirm that the story of their marriage falling apart was well known within that tight circle.

Of course the marriage remains, on the surface, still intact. However I have heard from other sources, not Levi, that the marriage is all for show and that part of the reason they will not simply get a divorce is because Palin refuses to give me, and others, the satisfaction of knowing we were right.

(Actually to be honest I find this staying together to spite me even more satisfying.)

The land purchase in Montana.

Yeah, that was bullshit. I have no idea why Tank told me that, but according to Levi he never heard them talk about it. And of course they ended up buying land in Arizona not Montana.

The missing wedding ring thrown into Lake Lucille.

Levi has no idea where that story came from, but it did not come from him.

(He did confirm the portion about loud arguments and Sarah's emotional distress however.)

The story of the Todd pulling a gun on Levi.

Now this one is particularly upsetting because even before I talked to Tank about the story, and had it confirmed by him, I was asked by another reporter in town whether I had heard it or not. Based on the fact that it was heard by others and Tank confirmed it, I felt confident in reporting it on the blog.

I should not have done so, because according to Levi it never happened.

In fact though things were strained between Levi and Todd on several occasions for the most part he always liked Todd.

In the post I also mentioned Levi's upcoming Vanity Fair article, which up until then nobody had heard about. In that article Levi confirmed a number of things mentioned on the Splitsville post.

The final part of the post was about Sherry Johnston's conviction for selling Oxycontin and yes Levi, along with his whole family, believe that Palin set her up.

Levi does not like to talk about that much, but my take is that he feels that it was a warning as to what Palin was willing to do to keep him in line.

In many ways Levi remains intimidated by the Palins and is afraid of what they might do in retaliation for things that he talks about publicly.

For all of you who are constantly complaining about folks in Alaska not divulging secrets about the Sarah Palin and her family, just imagine hearing how people were jailed, fired from their jobs, or run out of town for doing so, and you might understand why certain people in the know might decide it was better simply to keep that information to themselves.

Now I have more posts coming on this topic, but with all that is happening in politics, and the requirements from my actual job, I do not have the hours needed to devote to them right now.

I will post them when I can. Which will hopefully be soon.

Radar Online gets access to court documents showing that Levi Johnston did not give Bristol permission to take Tripp out of state.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Johnston has dragged Palin back into court in Alaska in a bid to get more time with their five-year-old son, Tripp, and to curb Palin’s repeated trips out of state with the boy. 

“I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put[ting him] on your tv show,” Johnston snaps in bitter text messages submitted as evidence in the case, and only Radar has all the details.

Radar also finally learned that there has never been a legal custody agreement between Levi and Bristol, and that all of this time he has been at her mercy as to when, and for how long he could see Tripp. (Just another way that he was screwed over by Rex and Tank.)

Instead of having a solid visitation agreement, Bristol just up and took Tripp whenever she wanted to, and often this came as a surprise to Levi: 

“Hey I thought our flight left tomorrow, but it leaves midnight tonight,” a supposed text from Palin sent January 6, 2014, reads. 

“When does my son get back?” Johnston’s response reads. “I told u … There is not chance you are taking him there for another 3 months. TRIPP wants and needs his father, Bristol. U need to let him stay with me or fly him back up to me when I’m back from work. That’s completely reasonable.”

“Look Levi, bfeore sunny got involved in this, you were fine with me being in school,” Palin snapped back in the alleged text. “Tripp is enrolled in school in AZ and will be back when I’m done with training.” 

Johnston insisted, “Tripp needs to be in Alaska. We’re [sic] the rest of his family is. How can u be so selfish and no I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put on your TV show. It’s all crap. He deserves more then [sic] that. He needs his dad and my family just as much as yours. And more importantly. Tripp needs stability and a routine and sports. And all that. I really hope and pray u put 2 and 2 together one day. It’s not right. Or fair to our son.” 

“Go ahead and ask him if he want to stay with dad or go with u,” he taunted. “Bet he says dad. Just saying Bristol. Tripps old enough to tell u what he wants now.”

I have been told that Levi often did not even realize that Tripp was out of town until days after he left.

I remember that Sadie would complain bitterly that there would be agreed upon visitations, often around holidays and birthdays, and then at the last minute Bristol would simply cancel, without bothering to give a reason.

Hopefully this time there will be an actual agreement that will protect Levi and his parental rights, and introduce some stability into the child's life.

Which by the way is more than Bristol apparently ever had.

Levi Johnston turned down both DWTS and "Stars Earning Stripes." So WHO is the fame whore now?

Courtesy of Rumor Fix:  

Bristol Palin’s baby daddy has been asked to follow in the footsteps of his ex-girlfriend and join the highly-rated talent competition, says Levi’s new wife, Sunny Johnston. 

Sunny tells RumorFix exclusively, Levi turned it down because, “He wants out of the media.” 

She also says he turned down an offer to join Stars Earn Stripes, the show that Jack Osbourne couldn’t get booked on. 

The 20-year-old newlywed also says Levi has rejected doing his own reality show. (Our sources say the show was shelved after Sarah Palin decided to stay out of this election.)

That last part is undoubtedly true, but  I do KNOW that the whole "Ricky Hollywood" idea was the brainchild of Tank Jones, and that Levi was very uncomfortable with the idea of being a celebrity.

In fact, though he appeared to be all for it, Levi did not really want to star in a reality show or pose for Playgirl.  Those were things that Tank talked him into and Levi trusted him implicitly back then.

I am not at all surprised that Levi does not want to continue pimping himself out for attention, and even though he could make enough money to pay off his debts, that he is not willing to give up any more of his dignity in exchange for money.

By the way though I think Levi would suck ass as a dancer on DWTS (Though not nearly as much as his baby mama), he would have kicked ass on that stupid "Stars Earning Stripes" show and made Todd look like the panty waist that we all know him to be.

Levi has spent weeks hunting in the Alaska wilderness, and from all reports is quite skilled with firearms. He surely would not even had to have all of that special editing to make HIM look like a capable combatant. If you know what I mean.

"LIfe's a Tripp" or "How to help build a case for the noncustodial parent to revisit a child custody agreement." Update!

"OMG Tripp! My attempt to make your dad look like a loser backfired, and now everybody thinks I am a hateful bitch!"

Okay well like many of you I am recovering from my reality show hang over. (Not to mention an actual hangover, that resulted from my need to self medicate throughout the program.) 

This morning I have had time to reevaluate what we saw last night, and all I have to say is "When did Bristol start working for Levi's legal team?"

I cannot imagine how ANYBODY could have consciously provided SO much useful data, right there in an easy to access video format, to be used on a reopened custody case. It quite literally boggled my mind.

Not only might Bristol actually be mildly retarded, but apparently so is her entire family, AS WELL AS the producers of her show. I know I should not be surprised, but I have to admit I kind of am a little.

Last night was such an incredibly distasteful example of character assassination, and libelous statements, that I cannot help but believe it made Levi's attorney's legal briefs just a little tighter.

Now I hate reality shows as a rule, but even by the low standards set by that genre last night's two in one episode was a putrid turd of a show. The dialogue was so clearly scripted, and poorly written, that it brought to mind dialogue from a bad 1970's porno. However unlike the porn, where the talking is just to provide a flimsy plot linking sweaty episodes of hippies humping, the screwing in Bristol's unreality show was contained in the actual dialogue itself.

Last night just about every scripted word was designed to trash Levi and make Bristol out to be an abandoned single mother. And of course all of it was bullshit.

Let's focus for a moment on the "Bouncing Bears" meeting supposedly arranged between Levi and Bristol, because I actually know a little about that.

In reality Levi did not even know about the meeting until right before it was supposed to take place. He received a call from Tank Jones, saying that Bristol had offered him money to show up at Bouncy Bears, and be part of her new reality show.

Levi had no idea what it was about, but knew enough to realize that it was a setup, and did not go. (Tank by the way was aggressively encouraging Levi to participate, despite not having a written contract in hand protecting his client, for any of you who still believe that he EVER had Levi's best interests at heart.)

So all of that teasing Tripp about seeing his father was all just a cruel joke played on a little boy, and done simply to push forward the Palin family narrative.

As for the portions where you see Bristol trying to call Levi? That whole "mailbox is full" trick is the same crap that Tank used to pull on me, and anybody else trying to get a hold of him. Not surprisingly the phone that Bristol was calling is the one that Tank got for Levi, preset to reject voice messages.

However Bristol knew full well that the way to get a hold of Levi was through texts, as she demonstrated later by texting him. However the question is WHEN did she text him, and more importantly DID she really did text him? (Since my understanding is that Levi knew NOTHING about this meeting it appears to me that she faked the entire thing.)

Like I said the show has done Levi a great service in providing him with ample evidence to take Bristol, and of course her puppeteer mother, back to court.

However that may not even be the WORST of the legal problems coming the Palin's way.

Late last night I received a link to the Massey brother's legal complaint, which you can find here.

I am not a lawyer but from what I can glean the Masseys have a very strong case.  Here is just a sample:

Beginning July 2011, ATI began to produce the Helping Hands reality series involving BRISTOL, TRIPP, CHRISTOPHER, and KYLE, their family and friends. 

For example, ATI began to film BRISTOL, CHRISTOPHER, and KYLE living in a house, together with BRISTOL and her son, TRIPP. Helping Hands featured scenes of KYLE and CHRISTOPHER going to parenting classes to assist BRISTOL with babysitting her son, TRIPP. 

There were scenes featuring KYLE and CHRISTOPHER taking TRIPP to a photo shoot. 

Defendants arranged for KYLE, BRISTOL, TRIPP, and CHRISTOPHER to travel to Alaska and spend time interacting with the Palin family at their home. BRISTOL, ANGEL, CHRIS, and KYLE agreed to include the Palin family, as participants in the Series at the time the idea was originally pitched to BRISTOL. 

Defendants shot scenes of the Palin family throwing a party for BRISTOL, celebrating her move to Los Angeles,wishing her well, and appreciating KYLE and CHRIS for befriending and supporting their daughter. Defendants shot scenes of BRISTOL and her family camping together all night. Defendants shot scenes of BRISTOL, KYLE, and CHRSTOPHER riding ATV motorcycles, river rafting in Alaska, and visiting BRISTOL' s grandparents in Alaska. 

In one scene, BRISTOL talks about how sad she is that TRIPP does not have a dad, and she cries about not having any help with child care.

So in other words all of those scenes showing Bristol crying to Willow about Levi, were actually scenes that were filmed for the original reality show of Bristol crying to the Massey brothers about  Levi. And those were broadcast (WITHOUT their authorization) last night. So there is no way that the Palins can simply reedit the footage and take that part out, especially since it really seems as if THAT is an important reason for WHY the Palins worked so hard to patchwork this thing together and get it out onto unsuspecting television sets everywhere.

Like I said the Massey's have a strong case, and in my opinion, so does Levi. In fact after all of this time, the decision to put this steaming pile of mooseshit on the air waves may finally be the thing that destroys the Palin's reputation for all time, and keeps them forever exiled from the public consciousness.

Here's hoping.

Update: For those who have not seen the show and want to know what all the fuss is about, you can see the full episodes here.

Update 2: This from Sunny's Facebook page:

3 important Things that were cut out of "Life's a Tripp" last nights episode... 

1) Levi got a call from his manager that day saying "when Bristol calls don't answer your phone. She just wants to argue and fight on camera for her reality show." 

2) Levi was trying to get Tripp all that week and Bristol only said yes the day that she needed Levi for the cameras (bouncing bears) and Levi refuses to help her show out even though there was lots of money offered. A week later she changed her number without telling Levi. 

3) The 15 missed calls I had from Willow earlier that day because I was at WORK! I called her back when i got off of work. 

And nasty texts from Bristol and Willow all day that day. 

I was obviously set up. That is not how our conversation went. She was talking over me the entire time. 

 -Taking care of some business today.

Ah, a little truth shines through the Palin cloud of BS.

Here is more from Sunny on Rumor Fix.

Some details don't quite line up with what I had been told earlier, but I will defer to her version since she was closer to the incident than I was.

Update 3: It looks like Bristol's show lost even MORE viewers last night. This from TV By the Numbers:

 Lifetime's 'Bristol Palin's Life's a Tripp' 10pm: 586,000 viewers, 0.2 adults 18-49 rating; 10:30p 426,000 viewers, 0.2 adults 18-49 rating.

Ooh, that is substantially down from even last week's dismal numbers of  726,000 total viewers.

Gee  I guess trying to create drama by insulting the father of your child on national TV is NOT good for ratings. Who knew? Besides everybody I mean.

Just when you think the Palins CANNOT sink any lower, they simply can't wait to prove you wrong.

The unnecessarily sad tale of Levi Johnston.

As many of you already saw the other day, Levi is back in the news.

Well back in the same tabloid news as always that is.

Bristol Palin's baby-daddy, Levi Johnston, is now penniless and living in his mother's Alaska home, a source tells Us Weekly. 

"Levi made more than $1 million and squandered it on guns, boats and four-wheelers," the source says of Playgirl's winter 2010 cover model, 22.  

The cash certainly didn't go to Palin, 21, for their 3-year-old, Tripp. "Levi hasn't paid child support in nearly two years," says another insider. "And he has little contact with Tripp." 

Meanwhile, the onetime mayoral hopeful is expecting a daughter with girlfriend Sunny Oglesby. (They told Inside Edition they plan to name her Breeze Beretta, after the gun.) Says the first source, "Levi is confused about his life." 

I don't have any tangible proof but this leak has the Grizzled Mama, and her nasty little grizzled cub, written all over it. Their anger at Levi is something that is always just boiling under the surface, and they will rarely miss an opportunity to twist the knife, or use Tripp to punish him further.

Sadly this time the information is all too accurate.

Levi actually IS virtually broke and, last I heard, living at home with Sherry.

He has few options and, according to sources, was ripped off by his management team.

Now as many of you remember I became VERY excited early last month when I heard through some contacts that Levi had cut Tank and Rex loose and was ready to spill some potentially damaging beans.

At the time we were ALL very excited since not only did Levi finally walk away from Rex and Tank, but he had ALSO come to believe that they might have been working for Palin all along. (I had suspected this for years by the way.)

As you can imagine THIS was big news, and I was assured it would be revealed during his interview with the Insider.  And lo and behold, it was!

Only for some reason the Insider chose not to air that part of the interview. Why I have no idea.

However I was led to believe that Levi STILL wanted to get that story out, and that his girlfriend Sunny was even MORE determined. So I started to beat the bushes trying to find a legitimate news agency to interview him.

As you can imagine not too many reporters wanted to take another chance on Levi since he had severely damaged his credibility by allowing the Palins to craft that apology in his name, saying that he made up all of the stuff that he told Vanity Fair.

But I did manage to find somebody, and I sent that information to his family in the hopes that he would tell his story to the legitimate press and salvage what was left of his reputation.

I just heard back the other day that Levi is uninterested in talking to the press unless they are willing to pay him. Which of course NO legitimate hard news outlet is willing to do.

Clearly this is the left over residual effect of learning public relations from Tank Jones.

Who, by the way, had this to say about their recent parting of the ways: "I wanted to work on other projects. This was a mutual decision," Jones tells Us of his decision to cease working with the Alaska native. "I would think he would want to do some different things too. I would never leave him at a low point."

Yeah that's bullshit by the way.  The facts are that after Tank and Rex realized their golden goose was no longer producing any easy to market golden eggs, it became virtually impossible for Levi to get them on the phone.

And later after Bristol accused Levi of not paying child support, he found out that even though he had been assured that the payments were being made from his account, that they weren't. And in fact the account was now empty.

Apparently THAT is what happened.

If Levi can prove, through documentation, or even anecdotal evidence (I certainly have some of THAT to provide), that his management team was indeed working for Sarah Palin and that they stole from him, he can have Rex disbarred, and then sue both of them for everything they have. Not to mention that he could attribute virtually every stupid decision that was made on his behalf to their purposefully destructive advice.

Which means that essentially he could repair his damaged reputation, find good legal representation, get at least some of his money and visitation with his son back, and actually have a story to tell that people will WANT to hear.

However as of right now, he is not working toward doing any of that. And he is so poisoned against me, that he flat refuses to even speak to me on the phone, so there is nothing I can do to convince him. Currently he has no access to his son, no money in the bank, and no real prospects for the future.

You know the thing that drives me crazy is that Levi could have actually come out of this thing smelling like a rose, and with his bank account stuffed full of cash, if ONLY he had not signed up with THESE two clowns.

You know life is about learning lessons, it is well past time that Levi learned just WHO he can, and cannot, trust.

Levi Johnston ready to speak out.

Time to get serious.

I just received a tip that Levi is getting ready to tell his side of the story about this child support situation to the national media.

I don't want to give the Palins too many details but it is happening soon, and apparently it is NOT being set up by Rex Butler and Tank Jones.  I think Levi might have finally seen the light and cut those two losers off of his coattails.

I will let you know when I have more, and of course I will post the video when it becomes available.

P.S. This information did NOT come from Sherry and Sadie!

The war of words between Levi Johnston and the Palin clan heats up. Update!

A brief oasis of happiness in a desert of animosity.

Courtesy of (Who else?) TMZ:

 Levi Johnston owes more than $38,000 in unpaid child support to Bristol Palin -- according to team Bristol. 

Bristol's lawyer tells TMZ, Levi hasn't made a child support payment for the ex-couple's son Tripp since June 2010 ... 22 months ago. 

According to court records, Levi is required to pay $1,750 a month -- which means his outstanding balance is $38,500. 

As for why Bristol hasn't attempted to enforce the order -- via wage garnishment or otherwise -- Bristol's attorney tells us, "We forbore pursuing child support collection in the (perhaps naive) hope that Mr. Johnston would do what men are supposed to do and pay his support obligation voluntarily." 

The lawyer adds, "We were also concerned that garnishment or other aggressive collection efforts could exacerbate an already strained relationship" ... no kidding. 

We're told Bristol is still holding out hope that Levi will pay. So far, no word back from Levi's camp.

I would love nothing more than to say this is bullshit.  But I can't.

There are extenuating circumstances, that I hope to share soon, but for right now I promised to stay silent. (Here is a hint: All of you are not the only ones surprised by this news.)

I will however say that there was an easy way to avoid this WHOLE thing, and it was a way that I suggested to "Team Levi" way back when the issue of child support was first brought up.

In Alaska we have an agency called CSED (Child Support Services Division), whose job it is to make SURE that the payor goddamn well pays the payee on time and in the correct amount.

This removes ANY opportunity for one parent, or the other, to make false claims out of spite, and it makes damn sure that the parent who is in arrears pays up, one way or the other. This is especially important when you have the kind of messy breakup that Levi and Bristol had.

I remember insisting to Tank Jones at one point, that they waste NO time in filing paperwork with CSED to protect Levi, and of course Tripp, from this very thing.  Tank, of course, assured me that everything was handled.

As you can see that was just more bullshit.

Levi has received the worst advice imaginable on how to handle all of this, and now he has been painted as a dead beat dad. As a father I cannot imagine carrying around a more hurtful label.

In my opinion Levi has every right to sue Rex and Tank for every dime they have.  They mishandled his career, mishandled his child support situation, and essentially destroyed his reputation.

Now let me ask you this, does anybody else wonder if they did this out of sheer incompetence, or whether or not there is something even uglier working behind the scenes?

Stay tuned.

P.S. One more thing, in Alaska child support payments and visitation, are two SEPARATE issues.  We do not pay for the right to see our children.

If Levi had an honest, capable attorney he would NEVER have had to miss time with his son. And neither would Sherry and Sadie.

Update: Here is the original custody agreement, courtesy of Radar Online.

According to these Levi is supposed to have Trip every Wednesday and Saturday.

Kind of hard to do when the mother moves the child to Arizona for extended periods of time, or takes him along to California to participate in a reality show, now isn't it?

By the way, neither of those choices were discussed with, nor approved by, Levi. In fact he did not even know they were in Arizona until I contacted Sadie and gave her the heads up.

Update: For the slow people in the room let me clarify.

Yes, my understanding is that Levi DOES owe this amount, or a similar amount in back child support.

What I said is that there are extenuating circumstances as to the reasons, but taht I cannot expand on them right now.

If it had simply been bullshit, I would have said "This is bullshit, but I am unable to give details at this moment." I tried to, at the very least, let all of you know that the Palins had orchestrated this to hurt Levi and that they had also made it impossible for him to meet his obligations.

Let me ask, would you all have rather I simply let this story sit out there without comment? Or was I right to tell you what I could now, with the hopes of following up with more later?

Addressing charges of "sloppy" research conducted for my "Two Babies" post.

As I am sure many of you are no doubt aware there has been a little controversy stirring as of late.  Specifically directed at my February 2010 post, "A Tale of Two Babies."

Now before I begin, I must confess that I have not actually read all of the information posted attacking my reporting (I make it a policy NEVER to visit that particular part of the internet) so I cannot defend each allegation individually.

Instead I will focus on the research that went into the writing of that post, and my attempt to gather as much info as possible before posting it.

As I mentioned in this post, in May of 2009 Tank Jones, manager for Levi Johnston and my Private Investigator at the time, told me that he had witnessed Levi picking up a one year old child from the Palin household whom he referred to as Tripp. This led me to believe two things.

One, that the infant presented to the world by Bristol was either NOT Tripp Johnston, or that he was not the ONLY Tripp Johnston.

And two, that Bristol could not have given birth to Trig on April 18, 2008. This may sound like a small thing today, since now the majority of us don't believe she gave birth in April, but back then it was a huge departure from the working theory. (Since this epiphany I have also seen pictorial evidence and heard first hand reports which confirm that she was certainly not visibly pregnant around March and April of 2008.)

It was right around this time, and while I was stilling trying to make sense of what I had heard, that I received this picture.

 At first, like a lot of people, I did not notice anything particularly odd about the picture.

Then I was prompted to look closely at the ears.

"Oh, now I see" said the blind man.  Well, I thought,  THAT ear certainly does not match THIS ear.

So I decided the first child MUST be the one that Tank was referencing.  Made sense right?

But no, according to Tank the baby he saw had no ear defect. (Of course he, like many of the people who saw and even held this "ruffled ear" baby, might have missed it.)

Back to square one, I thought. But not entirely.

Because now we did seem to have evidence of TWO completely different children. Not to mention an eye witness account confirming either the existence of this mystery baby, or yet a second mystery baby.

So I began to look for physicians who could explain this ear defect away.

But after consulting four doctors, two of them pediatricians, and one an Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist, I realized that there were no simple explanations. As one doctor said, "There is an approximately zero percent probability that these two sets of ears belong to the same infant."

At that I realized that I needed to put the information out there for others to read, hopefully new information would present itself, and we could all figure this out together.


But I was very hesitant. I realized that this could cause quite a lot of consternation on the internet, and possibly even blow up in my face.  So I held off for over ten months.

Finally, with the assurance from one of the doctors that we were definitely on solid footing, I wrote and published the post.

Afterwards, as expected, the blowback was withering.  I was inundated with messages from people who had, or knew, or were children that had a similar defect that had either repaired itself, been fixed by "earforms," or had been taped into place until healed.

This went on for about a month I guess.

However at the same time I also received e-mails from physicians, and at least one nurse, who said that my post was spot on and that there simply was NO way without surgery for this ear to have repaired itself. And of course as pointed out in my post, surgery could NOT be performed until Trig was four or five years old.

Much later we came across even more confirmation of the existence of the ruffled ear baby in Frank Bailey's book.

Some have speculated, based on the baby's size, that this is either late may or early June.

The findings of the post managed to survive a GREAT deal of scrutiny, and in fact were even supported by Laura Novak's physician friend in a post she wrote in June of this year.

Now my "Two Babies" post proved to be IM's MOST visited post, and received well over 100,000 hits. It was looked at, and criticized, by truckloads of people, and in the end the consensus was that it was a VERY solid post and in fact did prove the existence of another baby.

So recently, when it was challenged, I admit I was not terribly interested in rehashing an old post that I had written two years ago. Especially since the information being used to challenge it was the same old ear taping, and ear form argument used back in 2009.

As most of you know my reticence was taken as arrogance, and the criticism was then posted on two other blogs.

So since this issue has been broached, and opened for discussion, let me explain why my point of view remains unchanged.

As I explained in a private e-mail that I sent early in this discussion, it is important not just to consider what is possible, but also what is probable.

Now the first thing to consider is what did Trig Palin symbolize in Sarah Palin's world?

Well he was at the center of Sarah Palin's pro-life credibility. His existence, as an imperfect baby that Sarah chose to carry to term (well almost) and give birth to, provided proof positive to the Republican electorate that she not only "talked the talk" but  that she "walked the walk."

His very imperfections made him invaluable to her image.

So ask yourself WHY would she bother to fix an imperfect ear, on a soon to be famous imperfect child? To what benefit would that be to Sarah Palin? And have no doubt, if it was NOT in her best interest, she could not be bothered.

Now if you can get past that, then ask yourself if any known intervention would have repaired the damage that we see in the first baby's ear?

I asked the ENT that very question. Was there any procedure that could repair that ear and make it look like the ear we see at the RNC?

"Not without surgery." I was told, "And even then it is unlikely there would not be scarring still visible on the ears."

Do you see scars?

We asked again if there were any other methods outside of surgery, that could account for the dramatic change in the ear and he said no, because what you are seeing is missing cartilage in the upper helix of the ear. Nothing except surgery, very expensive surgery, would fix that.

So even if Palin did decide to use ear forms, or conned some unethical surgeon into performing surgery on her Pro-life Down syndrome prop, it STILL would not result in the perfect ear that we see on October 18, 2008.

But let's pretend that it COULD, just for shits and giggles.

From what I read the ear forms should be applied starting in the first fourteen days of the baby's life,  while the ears are still malleable and the cartilage has not yet hardened up.

But is there ANY evidence they were applied?

Here are two different pictures taken on May 3rd, two weeks after Trig's "birth."

 Do you see anything in, or around, his ears?

And once again here is the picture from Bailey's book which was taken even later. Are there any signs of corrective measures applied to these ears?

I have spoken to a couple of people who saw the baby right around the six week to two month period and NONE of them reported seeing Trig with anything on his ears.

Sarah wrote a book where she went on and on about her mothering abilities. Did she mention daily treatments for her little boy's damaged ears so that he could appear normal to the other children? No she did not. (And let us not forget that this is a woman who does not even bother to make sure that Trig has the glasses and hearing aids he needs to successfully engage with the world around him. Yet we are expected to believe she would care for this ear malformation on a daily basis?)

So that should put to rest the idea of correction through the use of "ear forms" or ear well treatments.

What about a surgical intervention?

Well first Palin would have to find yet ANOTHER doctor who would willingly put their medical career in jeopardy. (I don't believe CBJ moonlights as a plastic surgeon, do you?)

Then she would have to be willing to PAY for it. Now remember this is the woman who charged the state of Alaska a per-diem to stay in her very own home! Cosmetic surgery is NOT covered by most medical insurance plans, so she would have to pay the entire cost out of pocket.

You people probably know Sarah Palin just about as well as anybody at this point, how likely do YOU think it would be that she would pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for an unorthodox, medically unnecessary, surgery like this?

Yeah that's what I thought too.

Like I said, it might be "possible" to correct the malformation we see in that little ruffled ear baby. But it is highly, and I do mean HIGHLY improbable! As hard as it is to swallow, the more likely scenario is that we are looking at two different babies.

Look I understand that the "Two Babies" post, and my post about the information Tank Jones provided to me, have made it difficult to embrace a simple narrative to explain what Sarah Palin did in order to pull off this hoax.  But was the solution that I simply keep the information to myself, while watching people jump to conclusions, or make false assumptions that I believed were not based on reality?

And is that confounding complexity reason enough to attempt to discredit the information in order to return to a simpler, easier to digest storyline?

You know the really disheartening thing about this is that it is just the latest example of people investigating Sarah Palin turning on each other.  We saw it happen with Joe McGinniss and the authors of "Blind Allegiance." We also saw it happen with other bloggers and even Joe taking shots at me. And now we are seeing it happen yet again.

It is almost like whoever Palin brings together, must eventually tear each other apart.

Well like I said, I am in this for the long haul.  So hopefully this post will provide a little perspective, and answer any doubts, because I would like to return my focus to what is ahead, and hopefully leave the past in my rear view mirror.

In the immortal words of Robert Frost.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep.

Finding the pearls of truth among the moosepoop of Sarah Palin's deceptions.

Lately I have received a number of requests from people through the comments section or e-mails asking that I tell them my theory on what all of the evidence we have accumulated thus far concerning Sarah Palin's pregnancy, the "birth" of Trig, the birth of Tripp, and the possibility of numerous babies, tells us.

And my answer to that request is, "no."

I know that disappoints people, but the truth is that I don't necessarily have a working theory that combines every piece of the puzzle that we have gathered so far. In fact I feel that if I started to try and manufacture missing pieces in order to bring something imaginary into focus that it could very well keep me from recognizing, or correctly understanding, any new evidence that is certainly still out there yet to be discovered.

I KNOW that there are a number of other blogs and websites who have spent a great deal of time and energy creating possible scenarios, and I have seen some of them here in the comments section as well, but personally I really do not find any of that helpful.

My job, as I see it, is to find the new information, or reexamine old information to look for new clues. If I find something, then I attempt to determine in which direction it leads us, and then probe in that direction to see if it leads to more revelations.  If it does not then I have to go back to the beginning and start again.

I have done this numerous times. I do NOT simply make stuff up, and then see if my gullible readers will buy into it. I have more respect for all of you than to do that.

So essentially I stick pretty close to the few things we can know for certain.

The first being that Sarah Palin did NOT give birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin on April 18,2008. I believe that there is more than ample evidence to prove that in a court of law if called upon to do so.

I am also confident that Bristol also did not give birth to a baby on April 18, 2008, based on eyewitness sightings and pictorial evidence. Now whether or not she did give birth before that is still a rather strong possibility, however the only evidence for that is that she missed school for a number of months in both 2007 and 2008, that there were rumors she was pregnant going back to 2007, and of course Tank Jones eyewitness account of seeing Levi pick up a child from the Palin household who was not a newborn in March of 2009. I would be hesitant to go to court however until I had discussed this further with Tank, but if he could be compelled to testify under oath then I think this is provable as well.

Another firm piece of the puzzle in my opinion is the "ruffled ear" information.

Recently I have received a number of e-mails suggesting that we reexamine my "The Tale of Two Babies" post from February of 2010, and that perhaps I made a mistake. However I am not sure what the purpose of reexamining the post would be since I consulted a number of doctors before writing the post, and had others, including an ENT, corroborate my findings after I published it on the blog. Not to mention that Laura Novak also had a Neonatologist reach the very same conclusions. (Add to that the fact that Todd Palin suddenly dropped out of the Iron Dog snowmachine race four hours after my post and Meg Stapleton quit her job as Palin spokesperson two days later and I think you have enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that the post hit pretty close to home.)

This however has not stopped others from essentially creating their own diagnosis, and then explaining how it could have been remedied before Trig was presented at the RNC. Recently I did try to ask one of the doctors that I consulted back then if that was feasible based on the evidence at hand.  I will let you know his answer just as soon as he stops laughing.

Look the point I am making here is that those of us who have been attempting to get to the bottom of this egregious pregnancy hoax by Sarah Palin, and gather proof to convince others, have been marginalized, ridiculed, and even used by Palin to play the victim card.

If we just make shit up, and act like insane people, then by definition we are insane people.

This is still a very important and potentially explosive scandal to expose, but it does NO good to have people simply inventing things to attract hits to their websites that confuse fantasy for facts, and create scenarios that people begin to accept as truth with nothing to back them up but a fertile imagination and access to a keyboard.

In other words, you are not helping.

It is a free world, and people can do as they like on their blogs. But if you TRULY want to solve this mystery, perhaps you might want to think before you type.

Will the real Tripp Johnston please come down?

Trig and Tripp

I first met up with Mr. Sherman "Tank" Jones late in April right after Levi, Mercede, and Sherry returned from doing the Larry King show. We had a very animated conversation in his office, where I offered to help the Johnston family in any way that I could, and things progressed from there. 

The relationship with Jones, which occasionally included Rex Butler as well, lasted until December of last year. (That would be December 2009.)

I wrote this passage back in July 2010. I go on to say that after awhile I became convinced that Tank was not being honest with me about what he was doing for Levi, and that I began to believe that he and Rex were purposefully mismanaging his "career."

All of that is absolutely true. However early on it seemed that Tank was not focused on making money off of Levi, in fact he really seemed to want to help him, and was providing me with very interesting and completely unknown information. Much of this information I was able to verify independently, though in some cases it took years, but there was one very explosive piece that I have never been able to verify.

Back in May of 2009, Tank asked me to meet him at the Glacier Brewhouse near his office, because he had something BIG to tell me.

He was late as usual, but once we sat down, and we had ordered, he shared some information and related to me an incident that he had witnessed when he had driven Levi out to the Palin house sometime in March.

According to Tank, Levi entered the house and later emerged with a young boy that he estimated to be about a year old. As Levi put the boy into his car seat he kept referring to the child as "Tripp."

Now remember this was in March of 2009, when Tripp would have been no more than three months old. According to Tank he then drove them to a house, NOT his mom's house, and dropped them off.

I was of course skeptical and I confronted Tank on his version of events, while telling him that it was impossible for a one year old child to be the same Tripp that had just been born in December, but Tank was adamant that he was telling me just exactly what he saw. I then accused Tank of not knowing enough about babies to be able to judge the age by looking at them. Once again Tank assured me that since he had a son of his own, and had spent a substantial amount of time around babies, that he could certainly tell the difference between an infant and a child that was clearly at least a year old.

I asked if he had confronted Levi about this, but Tank said they had a policy about never discussing the child. (Later in May Levi would pose in GQ magazine with a naked baby. When I confronted Tank with these photos he swore that this baby was NOT the same one that he knew to be Tripp.)

Now at this point I am sure most of you are thinking "Poor Gryphen, got taken in by a liar and STILL doesn't realize it." That is a good point, and there have been times that I have almost agreed with it. Except for a couple of things.

First, that conversation did not take place JUST between myself and Tank Jones.  There was a third person at that table as well.

Shannyn Moore.

I had brought Shannyn along to be a witness to this big story that Tank was going to divulge. And she was sitting right there, mouth hanging wide open, as Tank revealed that the baby that he knew as Tripp was at least a year old, NOT five months old as reported by the Palin family.  What's more he claimed Bristol's pregnancy was "not as it appeared" during the RNC.

Which of course should not shock anybody with two good eyes.

Or even ONE for that matter.

Tank went on to explain that Trig WAS indeed Sarah Palin's child. When I asked him if she had given birth to him, he said "I did not say that. I said that he was her child." He went on to say that we would never be able to prove otherwise, because any paperwork to the contrary would be impossible to access. Essentially he said that she had covered her tracks very well, and it was unlikely that anybody could PROVE she was not his birth mother. (In a separate conversation Rex would describe the hospital scene that Levi witnessed as a "show' which Sarah put on for the benefit of certain people.)

Shannyn and I left the restaurant and went down the street for a beer.  We found ourselves giggling and shaking our heads at this new bombshell, but neither of us knew what to do with it.

As you know Shannyn simply kept it to herself. And until now, so did I.

However it changed my perspective completely on who might be Trig's actual birth mother. Up until then, like most of us, I had assumed it was probably Bristol. But after that conversation I realized that was impossible.

I changed my focus and started looking for more clues to explain this other child. That is when the picture of the "ruffled ear baby" made its appearance.

"There," I thought,  "now things are starting to make sense." So I arranged another conversation with Tank, only this time I invited another knowledgeable person to participate.

I invited my friend Audrey, of Palin's Deceptions.

We arranged a three way call on July 30th. During the call Tank once again told his story about the other, older, Tripp.  However when asked specifically about any ear deformities, Tank claimed that the child he had seen had perfectly normal ears. Dammit! Another dead end.

Here is the e-mail that Audrey sent me right after our conversation:

Jesse, I don't know what to make of Tank's story any more. 

He seems absolutely credible and believable to me that the baby he saw last winter was much larger than newborn AND that Levi introduced him as Tripp. Last winter (March, say) Tripp should have been barely three months old. That's still a tiny baby. The baby he described was a toddler or nearly so. 

But then when we ask him if the "big Tripp" had a messed up ear, he says no. When we asked him point blank if "Tripp is Trig" he was emphatic: no. How many babies are there? And are we to think that they were hiding another Tripp in the house for months and NO ONE noticed? That "old Tripp" was still there when "new Tripp" was brought home? I have wondered for a long time if there are twins somehow but can't put it together. 

He is also emphatic that the pregnancy during the campaign is not as reported, but won't tell us why. 

Very frustrated at this point. 

A

And of course she was not alone.  It would take me another seven months to finally write my Two Babies post, after extensive research and my finally becoming comfortable with the fact that it could withstand the scrutiny that I was sure would be coming after it was posted. (How's THAT for an understatement?)

However up until now I have never known what to do with this information.  I had hoped that Levi would write about it in his book (I even found him an author, who was eventually rejected, back in December of 2009), but of course now we all know that he not only did not mention it, we know that he stayed fairly close to the Palin version of events.

So we are left with the question as to whether to believe Tank Jones concerning this information or not. Would he really lie to two different bloggers with access to large audiences, and a radio host with ties to the national media?

That seems unnecessarily risky. And besides what would be the point of doing so?

Oh wait I left something else out.

Tank Jones was NOT just a guy that I was using as a source for the blog.  He in fact worked for me.

The above is my receipt from the deposit I put down to hire Tank Jones Investigations Group.

In other words when Tank relayed the information about the larger child that Levi referred to as "Tripp," he was doing so as a private investigator relaying information to the client who hired him. Me.

Tank is a licensed PI, to purposefully relay false information would immediately put his license in jeopardy. He also was not relaying information gleaned from an anonymous source, he was reporting his own eyewitness account.

Before Tank and I had our falling out over Levi's first book deal with my author friend, I asked him about this a couple of times. He ALWAYS said "Jesse I did not lie to you."

The last time I saw Tank face to face was a year ago when Rachel Maddow was up here.

Tank wanted to know why we don't talk anymore, and when I brought up that I thought he had been less than truthful with me in the past, he again said "I have never lied to you. Never!"

Now that statement is NOT completely true.  But what IS true is that the information which Tank provided me while working as my PI, and that I was able to verify, always checked out as truthful.

So at this point you might be wondering what all of this has to do with Levi's book, since I sort of promoted this post as part of a review of "Deer in the Headlights." Well I'm glad you asked.

Levi's book actually has some rather startling and potentially damaging (to the Palin brand at least) pieces of information within its pages. Such as:

• Levi again points out that Todd and Sarah are in a loveless marriage, and NEVER sleep together.  
• That Palin quit being governor simply to make money, and that while she WAS still governor came home midday everyday and complained about how much she hated her job.
• That Bristol got pregnant on purpose.
• That Bristol had numerous cosmetic surgery procedures while still in her teens.
• That Bristol admitted that Todd and Sarah were not married when Track was conceived.
• That Sarah "had it set up for Bristol to receive her high school diploma" whether she submitted her school work or not. (I KNEW she did not earn that degree!)

And of course many others that I have already mentioned in my earlier posts about his book.

However we have heard very little from the Palin-bots, or the Palins themselves, attacking his book. Which, to be honest, seems kind of odd.

As a matter of fact compared to how aggressively they went after Joe's book, NONE of the other books, not Bailey's, not Dunn's, nor Levi's, have received quite the same vitriol and aggressive attempts to block efforts to publicize it, that The Rogue has suffered. One cannot help but wonder why that would be?

What the other books seem to have in common is that they either barely mention the questions surrounding Palin's pregnancy, or they go out of their way to refute them.  Which is EXACTLY what is found in Levi's book.

On pg.87, Levi even seems to go that extra mile to dispute the "rumors:"

It was Christmas Day 2008. Bristol was huge; a photo of that belly would have cut off at the knees the Trig truthers who insisted she was his mom.

There are other parts of the book that seem written for the sole purpose of putting the controversy to rest as well.  Which beggars the question, why did Levi put so much emphasis on bolstering the official version of Trig's birth? Especially since, according to Tank, Levi must know full well that the "Trig truthers" are absolutely correct?

And what is it that Levi supposedly knows about Sarah Palin that could be considered "bigger than Watergate," or that would have concerned Palin so much that she had twenty pages removed from her "Going Rogue" manuscript before it went to the publishers? (Before publication the National Enquirer had reported that Palin slammed Levi in the book, but when it came out there was hardly a mention.)

Because whatever that is, it certainly does not show up in Levi's book. Neither does any mention of this mystery baby that Tank has repeatedly claimed exists. (Though as we have already observed, Levi seems to have significant difficulty keeping the dates of Tripp's conception and due date consistent.)

So does this new information clear things up, or only create more confusion? Well dear reader I leave that up to you to decide.

I will say this however. I think that many of us have been right all along in believing that the scandal which Sarah Palin is the most desperate to keep quiet has nothing to do with politics, her marriage, or even her religious beliefs. But it has everything to do with the births of two little boys.

Some people are born liars. Levi Johnston is not one of those people.

This is why I kept saying in the comments yesterday that Levi was not being truthful. 

Just watch how his eyes are CONSTANTLY shifting over to the right, where I am certain Tank Jones is standing, to make sure that what he is saying is okay. If this book is telling the whole truth then how can what he says NOT be okay?

This same behavior continues as Joy questions him about allegations in Joe's book that Palin might not be Trig's mother. He keeps looking over at Tank and appears to become quite anxious that Joy will not let it go.

I cannot find the clip but Levi also claims that he actually saw Sarah in her hospital bed hours after she would have given birth, and she that still had the IV in her arm.  That would make Levi the ONLY person to have ever claimed they saw Sarah in a bed in that delivery room. Even Bailey did not go that far.

But is it feasible that She would actually have the  doctor insert an IV drip JUST to fool her family, Frank Bailey, and Levi Johnston into believing that she had given birth?

 On page 53 of his book, Levi claims the following:

Sarah had been telling Bristol for the past month that her water was leaking once or twice a day.

WTF?  This was right before Trig's birth, so the logical questions would be, WHO would would risk a flight out of town in that condition? And what kind of a doctor would allow that to happen?

Now we know that Palin was not pregnant so what is the story here?

Did the Palins put on a circus act that fooled the whole family and others, including Bristol, Willow, Piper, Frank Bailey, the Heaths, AND Levi?

Or is Bristol and the family in on it and helping to flesh out the mythology while feeding it to only those outside fo the family?

Or is Levi also part of the cover up and, for reasons that I cannot wrap my head around considering that they will NOT let him see his son, is still willing to play his part?

Actually, as I alluded to earlier, there is another piece that will only make this even more confusing which I will add later when I can finally sit down and write out a comprehensive review of Levi's book.

Trust me when I say that it will not help but it will strongly suggest that Levi IS covering something up.

And I cannot tell you how much I wish that were not true.

P.S. I am still looking for the clip of Joy talking to Levi specifically about babygate. If any of you find it please send it my way and I will include the link.

Now we know why Bristol can do whatever she wants with Tripp and Levi can't do anything to stop her.



Levi with Tank Jones.

 From Radar Online:

In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Levi’s manager, Tank Johnson (I have no idea who this "Tank Johnson" guy is.  I used to regularly talk to  Tank Jones" so I assume it is the same guy and that it is THIS kind of great writing and command of the facts that keeps "Team Levi" coming back to Radar Online over and over again as their media outlet of choice.) says that his 20-year-old client is refusing to dignify Bristol’s recent comments about him being an absentee father, and is choosing to take the moral high road.

Bristol recently told a radio station that "since Dancing With the Stars [Levi’s] seen [his son] at most three times.”

Tank denied her allegations and said Levi spends as much time with his two-year-old as he can, and went on to dish out some advice to both Bristol and her family.

("Levi spends as much time with his two year old as he can?" Bullshit!  The custody agreement states that he gets Tripp twice a week, not three times in three months. The only reason that he is NOT seeing his little boy more often is because he is not using the courts to enforce his rights.)

"The Palins need to take the high road. There's a child involved in this and Levi is not going to stoop to this level,” he said. "The Palins like to fight. They can say whatever they want to say.

(Yes they like to fight.  Because they are bullies. The ONLY way that bullies stop beating you up and taking advantage of you is when you FIGHT BACK!)

"But Levi is not going to dignify their comments with a response.”

(Why the hell not?)

And as for Bristol wanting to change Tripp's last name from Johnston to Palin, Tank said that wasn't going to happen.

"Levi has his son and that isn't changing. It is what it is."

(Well as it turns out the only reason that Tripp Johnston may not wake up one day and find that his name is Tripp "Palin" is because it is too much hard work to change it, and the Palins don't like hard work.)

However, a source close to Palin confirms that there won’t be a legal name change: “That will not be happening, legally that would actually take a lot of work and despite all the rumors Bristol and Levi are actually getting along pretty well just now.”

Yeah well how could they not be "getting along pretty well" since Levi is allowing Bristol to treat him like her bitch at every turn?  The Palins LOVE people who bend to their will and let them treat them like dirt. Isn't that right RAM?

Personally I am beyond disgusted with Levi's legal team.  Tank Jones is a six foot, two inch, three hundred pound behemoth, who obviously has balls the size of dried raisins. He talks tough but every time he is supposed to have Levi's back he is nowhere to be seen, or working on getting a little media attention of his own.

And as for Rex Butler, I know at least two female attorneys in Alaska who would have had Thomas Van Flein huddled in a corner sucking his thumb and promising to let Levi have Tripp every day if somebody would just "make the mean lady stop!" Yet Rex has NEVER presented much of a challenge to the Palin legal team even when the deck is stacked in his favor.

Bristol took Levi's son away from him and all he has to do is complain to the court to force her to bring the child back so that he can see him, and work out a better arrangement.  But if his "team" is too cowardly to stand up to the Palins than he is screwed.

Once again Levi, sac up and call me and we will get your little boy back. I promise.

It looks like Levi Johnston is trying to "out Palin" Palin.

The news is full of stories that Levi is attempting to pitch a new reality show idea in which he would run for mayor of Wasilla and have the entire thing filmed for a program called, get this, "Loving Levi."

However right now this whole thing is nothing more than a Tank Jones version of smoke and mirrors. Check out this unbelievable, unless you know Tank of course, quote:

Asked whether he believes people will take the run seriously, with TV cameras rolling, Jones said: ''People questioned Jesus Christ, so I definitely don't care about these mere mortals questioning Levi Johnston.''

Yeah, THAT is how Jones handles the media.  Now do you know why nobody takes Levi seriously?

In an attempt to make the recently discredited Levi seem more interesting Tank has obviously been feeding him what he considers to be provocative one liners:

Johnston -- who describes himself as "half red-neck, half Hollywood" -- said he hoped the show would correct what he believes are misconceptions about him in the media.

"It's hard to figure me out," he said. "You've got to follow me around. I'm very different. I lead a crazy life. But it will basically be both worlds, my life in Hollywood and back home, the real country boy that I am."

Johnston said he knows his reputation "is love and hate right now... but we're trying to flip that around." This show, he added, will "send a message to America about who I really am and what I want to do with my life."

Look I don't want to be mean, but I have stepped in mudpuddles with more depth than Levi Johnston. 

Of course before Levi can start on his new "political career" there is ONE teensy little thing he needs to get out of the way first:

Reads the statement, "The docu-soap will follow the ever controversial, headline making, matinee idol, handsome father of one as he embarks on a run for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska... [the] series will chronicle a 'no-holds-barred' period in Levi’s tumultuous life; co-raising his son Tripp, looking for love, and taking care of business for his fellow Wasillians. He will give us a real inside look into who he is as a father, a skilled hunter, an avid dirt biker, and of course his journey down the road of small town politics -- right after he gets his high school diploma."

That is almost like saying, "Hey I am going to be a famous race car driver, just as soon as I get my driver's license."

Look I really supported Levi in the past, and I do hope that he gets his act together in the future, but he has allowed himself to be turned into an absolute laughingstock, and that did not have to be the way this worked out for him.  He has a young son to raise, does he really want to be known as the stupidest person in Wasilla, Alaska? Because I guarantee if he actually pursues this type of program, that is EXACTLY how he will be seen.

If you think that a Sarah Palin press conference is a huge embarrassment for Alaskans, wait until you see Levi attempt to field reporter's questions about HIS political experience.

Just because Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasilla does that automatically mean Levi should follow the same path to gain recognition? Isn't there anybody with some real inspiration working for this poor kid?

Nope, I guess not.


Tank Jones will serve as Levi’s campaign manager."

This is the same Tank Jones that failed to sign a book contract worth millions of dollars, who failed to take advantage of much more lucrative offers back when Levi was still a hot property and nobody thought of him as a liar prone to "youthful indiscretions", and who, along with his partner Rex Butler, failed to even get a visitation schedule for Levi to see his own son! 

In my opinion, with Jones as his manager, Levi will be end up as nothing more than a reoccurring late night joke and a question asked on Alaska's version of Trivial Pursuit.

And that is a fucking shame.

Perhaps the only REAL victim in the Bristol/Levi saga is the little boy trapped in the middle.

Don't you hate it when you are watching a movie and you suddenly realize that you don't really like ANY of the main characters?  The storyline keeps trying to create drama by putting each of the actors in jeopardy, but you simply yawn and think "Hurry up and kill them off, so I can go to bed!"

That is about how I am feeling about this little soap opera.

My first instinct of course was to suspect that Sarah was behind the US Weekly engagement announcement, because it certainly seemed like something she would do.  But I sort of forgot that while Sarah's many advisers have been carefully orchestrating her media events, and putting a spin on the negative stories about her when she screws up, others have been paying close attention.

They have essentially been attending Palin Media Spin class 101.

You see I missed it at first because I had not heard ANYTHING from Tank Jones in a very long time, and I started to wonder if he were even involved with Levi anymore.  Especially since the last several statements from "Team Levi" had been issued by Rex Butler instead of Tank, who was usually the go to guy for those kinds of press releases in the past.

Now I know he is still in the mix, because nobody else could EVER have screwed this publicity stunt up as badly as Sherman "Tank" Jones just did!

Though he would never admit it, Tank has been carefully watching how Palin's team orchestrates her publicity, and trying to copy their methods for use with Levi.  However Palin has several very experienced media people to advise her, and Tank is simply an ex-pimp trying to figure out how to squeeze the last golden egg out of his goose before Levi's contract expires in the next six months or so. (By the way that ex-pimp statement is not an insult, it is a FACT.)

After the big revelation everybody was trying to figure out why Bristol and Levi went with US Weekly instead of People magazine to make their big announcement, especially since they both interviewed Bristol on the very same weekend. (Hell, one of People's reporters even called ME to try and to figure it out.)

Now, thanks to Bristol's tearful confession to People magazine we know that choosing US Weekly was Levi's idea. Of course Levi is only for show, and he does not "have ideas", which means it was Tank Jones who had this brain.....drizzle.

And do you know how I KNOW it was Tank Jones?  Because it completely blew up in their face! 

Now I don't believe that Tank orchestrated the reunion or anything quite that clever, but I am damn sure that the minute he found out about it he immediately smelled the possibility of money.  Tank had to have realized that he had blown it the first time in getting Levi any truly lucrative deals, and that this represented his second chance to get back on that gravy train before it rolled over the horizon and once again left them behind.

So before Levi and Bristol could even take their refurbished relationship out of a test drive, Tank had already made some phone calls and hyped the event enough to get US Weekly to crack open their wallets and hand over 100 grand for the exclusive on this very, very temporary engagement.

But just like the deals that I described in yesterday's post, this one was doomed from the start.  Surprisingly this couple had the opportunity to sign onto a reality show for 1.5  million dollars, but before any money could change hands, or any contracts get signed, Team Levi pulled a Houdini.

Now it MIGHT have been because Bristol is a crazy woman who is constantly consumed with jealousy, or it might have been because she is swelling up like Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Ben Barber's baby. (Still waiting for confirmation on that second one.) But whatever the reason it is just the latest in a string of opportunities that Tank Jones failed to make good on

With friends like this WHO needs enemies? The sad tale of the Wasilla boy who almost had it all.

From Hollywood Life:

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston were on the verge of scoring a huge seven-figure reality TV show deal, but a major reality TV exec tells HollywoodLife.com that they completely walked away from the offer.

Our source, who has created and executive-produced several very highly-rated and well-known reality series in the last decae, reveals that a $1.5 million reality deal was on the table for Bristol and Levi. One stipulation from the producers who made the offer: The couple’s 19-month-old son, Tripp, had to be part of the show.

Once the offer was made we’re told, however, the couple “completely disappeared.”

It turns out the former couple was so close to sealing a deal that the reality TV producer sent an advnce producer to Anchorage, Alaska, in order to meet with Bristol and Levi. But as soon as the producer arrived, Bristol and Levi were nowhere to be found. Our source tells us Bristol and Levi “didn’t answer any calls” and it was “completely shocking” when the couple stopped communicating with him.

When I read that last part it was, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "Deja vu all over again."

That EXACT scenario has played out over an over again as people have attempted to make deals with Levi Johnston. Now this time it may have a much to do with the problems between Levi and Bristol, but that certainly was NOT the case during this last year when producers, potential authors, and talent agents found themselves leaving message, after message, with "Team Levi" and rarely, if ever, hearing back from them.

As hard as it may be to believe these days, there was a time when Levi Johnston was the hottest property this side of Sarah Palin.  At one point last fall it seemed that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, wanted to take a meeting with Alaska's most famous sperm donor.

I remember sitting at meetings with Tank Jones and having our conversation interrupted repeatedly as reporters, and agents, and producers tried desperately to pitch their ideas for a chance to work with Levi.  It was an amazing thing to behold.

What I did not realize at the time was that many of these people were NEVER going to get a call back.

You see for some reason, Rex and Tank never seem to have seriously considered allowing Levi to sign a book deal, or for that matter any contract for a movie or reality show.  Why?  To be honest, I'm not sure.