The 2012 Presidential Campaign kicks off in high style tonight at eight:

There will be high security tonight when Sarah Palin shows up to watch daughter Bristol perform on “Dancing with the Stars”…

Our spies say security guards at CBS Television City in L.A. — the place where “Dancing” is broadcast — is on “heightened alert.”

Well, so are we! Almost enough to liveblog it, except we’re on the Left Coast, so it would be more like a Tape-Delay Blog, which takes all the fun out of it. Especially the fun that would ensue if there’s a security breach on live television, in which case protecting Mama Grizzly is a “higher priority than Bristol.”

And speaking of The World’s Luckiest Unwed Teen Mom:

Palin, 19, calls herself “naturally shy” and wants to make sure she sets a good example for her son, Tripp, 20 months.

Yes, we remember how proud we were at 5, to learn that Mom had whored herself out on national television before we could walk.

‘Dancing’ Studio on Red Sarah Palin Alert [TMZ, via Political Wire]

Bristol Is Miss Modest in Her Dancing Costume [People, Sept. 7]

So we were working up a post on the latest adventures of Political Pestorkers John Ensign and David Vitter, and we were going to call it “Remembrance of Creeps Past”, and not having a clue where to go with the illustration, we entered “creep” in Google Image Search, and this turned up, and we decided it was a lot more interesting than whatever we were writing about.

Megahouse Kellogg’s 10 Collection: Tony The Tiger & Boy [PidgeonBlog]

“Roll Call reports that [Steve] King is now demanding a ‘blood oath’ from House Minority Leader John Boehner to include a repeal of health care reform in every appropriations bill next year, even if a government shutdown results.” [ThinkProgress]

Radio shock jock, queen of hate, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Iron Maiden mascot “Eddie.” The resemblance is striking. Were they, perchance, separated at birth?

Discuss, my fellow Stinquers.

Todd Henderson, a law professor at the University of Chicago, is mad as hell, and he’s not gonna take Obama’s Clinton-level tax proposal anymore:

The rhetoric in Washington about taxes is about millionaires and the super rich, but the relevant dividing line between millionaires and the middle class is pegged at family income of $250,000. (I’m not a math professor, but last time I checked $250,000 is less than $1 million.) That makes me super rich and subject to a big tax hike if the president has his way.

Without getting deep into numbers, let’s just note that Obama advocates letting the top marginal Bush tax cuts expire. This means that all your income up to $250,000 will benefit from the same extended tax breaks as everyone else. It’s only the income above $250,000 that will be taxed at the confiscatory Clinton rates. Say your income is $300,000: Instead of paying $16,500 on that last $50k, you’ll be paying $1,500 more.

Or — hold on a sec — $4.11 a day.

Hey, that’s coffee and a croissant, pal, and that’s enough to get the good professor heading for the window:

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Christine O’Donnell canceled appearances on Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday because of “commitments to church events and [an] afternoon picnic with Republicans in a key county where she has solid backing” after Friday night’s Shocking! revelation that she “dabbled into witchcraft.”

Senate hopeful O’Donnell cancels national TV spots [AP/Google]

Frank Lloyd Wright died in April of 1959, and the museum on Fifth Avenue was not completed until October. When Wright found out where the museum was to be built, he was glad that it would stand nearly across from the Metropolitan Museum and declared that “his museum” would make the Metropolitan look “like a Protestant barn.”

This is a photo I took of the Guggenheim in 2003, using my crummy little Holga and standing in more than a foot of snow.

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