After examining President Barack Obama’s leadership capabilities earlier on tonight’s Real Time, Bill Maher went to some familiar territory at the end of the program: Palin-bashing. This time, though, it wasn’t Sarah: it was daughter Bristol, over her new memoir, Not Afraid of Life. And judging by just how far he went to bash the younger Palin, Maher didn’t feel like he had much to fear, either.

Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor and current Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, is coming out with a book, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, in which she details the various reasons she dislikes various people. First up: Meghan McCain.

Hot off her star turn on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin has landed her own show. Or, as the New York Post puts it, “Bristol Palin’s assault on the reality show world continues.”

BIO has announced the deal, describing the latest Palin family TV adventure as a 10-episode half hour series (sadly, it’s still untitled) that puts single mom Bristol in Los Angeles, where she cares for son Tripp, works at a charity, and lives–seriously–with two former child stars turned singers:

Washington, DC is often referred to as “Hollywood for ugly people,” but in recent years, the town has enjoyed one night of the year when it blossoms into a Hollywood swan: The White House Correspondents Dinner, aka “Nerdprom.” As the dinner’s profile has risen, so has the demand for tickets to see, and be seen, at an event that is ostensibly a celebration of DC’s least glamorous denizens. Even as this year’s Seth Meyers-headlined fete has had to compete with the Royal Wedding, the clamor to get in has reached an all-time zenith.

When Bristol Palin was named the “teen ambassador” for the abstinence-pushing Candie’s Foundation, she said she’d be a perfect “living example” to teenagers considering having sex. As tax documents have now proven, she was completely right. Teenagers everywhere can learn from Palin that, if you get pregnant, merely become a “teen ambassador so that you can make $262,000 and figure out your baby’s college tuition just like that!

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee continued his campaign to unseat Charlie Sheen as shiny media object of the moment by slamming Best Actress winner Natalie Portman for her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Huckabee took Portman to task Thursday, in an appearance on Mike Medved‘s radio show, for “glamoriz(ing)” single motherhood, an opinion he shares with Fox News colleague Sarah Palin. Like Palin, though, Huckabee also seems unaware of the existence of Bristol Palin.

Abstinence advocate and pseudo-motivational speaker Bristol Palin received some bad news this week when Washington University in St. Louis revoked her invitation to speak at their “Sexual Responsibility Week.” Given that the university had previously welcomed personalities such as Van Jones to campus, many are arguing that the younger Palin’s exclusion from the event was political, and last night/this morning the Red Eye crew stood up for her ability to teach on the matter.

Bristol Palin was scheduled to speak to students at Washington University last night – a speaking engagement which would reportedly have earned Palin somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000 – but her appearance was canceled after students grew upset that student funds would be used to pay her fee. In fact, the university’s Student Union Treasury approved a total of $20,000 to sponsor the panel, although those involved were asked not to divulge the specific amount Palin would make.

Here’s what appears to be an editorial from former Dancing With the Stars finalist Bristol Palin in less than 140 characters: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s eldest daughter took to Twitter to write a rather surprising critique of her famous mom. Update: the updates to Bristol Palin’s Facebook page appear to come from an iPhone platform, and this Twitter feeds appear to be updated via Android, suggesting that that this is a fake Twitter account (unless she got a new Droid for X-mas!)

Comedian Kathy Griffin appeared on The Late Late Show to tell host Craig Ferguson that there’s a very good reason why she makes jokes about the Palin family — including calling Dancing with the Stars “star” Bristol Palin “the white Precious” for having evidently gained weight throughout the show’s season. Griffin is merely, she explained, trying to capture the attention of The View and Bill O’Reilly.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visited cholera-ravaged Haiti this weekend, accompanying a delegation from Franklin Graham‘s Samaritan’s Purse charity, and accompanied by Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. While there has definitely been some less-than-gracious sniping about Palin’s visit, it was the caption from this Associated Press photo, linked to a Free Republic blog, that prompted Palin to tweet “This takes the cake. Really?”

TIME‘s Top 10 of Everything of 2010 issue hits newsstands today, and both Sarah Palin and dancing daughter Bristol Palin made the cut–taking Top 10 honors in the category “Best Reality TV Moments of 2010.”

Mama Grizzly Sarah takes ninth place for the highly rated premiere of Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Bristol’s best moment–dancing in a gorilla suit–got her one notch higher into eighth place. That puts both Palins ahead of “The Jersey Shore Takes Miami,” but behind such classic reality moments as The Amazing Race‘s watermelon to the face moment (5th).

As you may have heard, Bristol Palin recently appeared on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and she did pretty well–defying the judges and rising to the final three. Ultimately, she and her partner finished in third place.

Well, the against-all-odds success of Sarah Palin‘s kid apparently boiled the blood of some DWTS viewers, who weren’t satisfied simply moaning to friends, family and neighbors, nor even to picking up the phone and complaining to ABC. No. They went to the government.

A report citing an “MSNBC insider” in this morning’s Chicago Sun-Times suggests Countdown host Keith Olbermann got “called on the carpet” for his recent “Worst Persons” segment that bashed Bristol Palin for appearing in a public service ad for abstinence.

As Bill Zwecker writes in his column, the Olbermann segment which called Palin a hypocrite for appearing in the ad–since she has a child out of wedlock–was singled out for sharp criticism in house:

Over the weekend, the Dancing with the Stars 2nd runner-up responded to comedian Margaret Cho‘s claim that Mama Grizzly Sarah forced Bristol to enter the dance competition as penance for losing the 2008 election.

Ms. Palin dispels that notion in a good-natured post that leaves the door open to friendship with Cho (complete with baby-sitting job offer), but she misses big by suggesting that Cho “embrace us faster than KD Lang at an Indigo Girls concert.”

Comedian and self-proclaimed “D-lister” Kathy Griffin hosted VH1 Divas Salute the Troops which was taped for an audience of servicemen at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, and aired last night. The ribald and unconventional comedian set the tone for the night when she joked about Bristol Palin and her supposed weight gain while competing with Dancing With The Stars. But the joke fell flat, as the military men and woman in attendance lustily booed the host for taking a shot at Sarah Palin‘s daughter.

On Friday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann‘s “Tweet of the Day” concerned his simmering feud with “Worst Person in the World” recipient Bristol Palin. Linking to Palin’s Facebook rebuke of Olbermann, Sabrina Brown‘s tweet read “aww keith! Bristol is pissed at you!

The back-and-forth between Bristol Palin and Countdown host Keith Olbermann continued Friday morning, as Palin hit a local Alaska radio show to discuss her “Worst Person in the World” win. While the eldest Palin daughter was generally a good sport about the whole thing, hosts Bob & Mark laid it on pretty thick, and secured agreement from Palin that Olbermann is, indeed, a “dick.”

Bristol also displayed a willingness, even an eagerness, to appear on Countdown and let Olbermann take his best shots at her.

Bristol Palin took to Facebook to fire back at Keith Olbermann over his criticism of her for doing an ad promoting abstinence. Perhaps you remember the spot? Awkward as all get-out and co-starring “The Situation,” Palin–a teen mom–urges other kids to cool their proverbial jets.

That spot earned Palin “Worst Person” status on Countdown, with Olbermann mocking her selection as an abstinence role model: “That’s like saying George Bush kept us safe, except for that 9/11 thing.”

Now comes Palin, with a pretty forceful reply:

Barack Obama, Joe Biden… and Jennifer Grey.

Yes, that’s your list of successfully Palin-beaters as detailed on Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.

O’Donnell had Grey on his show, fresh from her Dancing with the Stars win (hey, had you heard anything about one of Sarah Palin’s daughters being a contestant on that show?) and O’Donnell asked her how it felt–you know, to win. And to win over somebody who’s named Palin and all:

It’s been nearly 24 hours since we posted our last story about Sarah Palin—yeah, we can hardly believe it either. Thankfully, now we can end our long silence with a juicy news item. Dancing With the Stars Season 11 contestant and comedian Margaret Cho published a blog post yesterday in which she offered her take on Bristol Palin‘s television debut—one that claims the teen wouldn’t have been Dancing at all if a certain Mama Grizzly hadn’t pressured her into it.

Two weeks ago called, Keith. They want their news back.

Viewers of Countdown might have thought they had tuned in to a rerun tonight, as host Keith Olbermann pegged his retrofitted “Worst Persons in the World (Not Really)” award to a two-week-old abstinence and safe sex PSA starring Bristol Palin and Jersey Shore’s “The Situation.”

Worse than that, though, Olbermann criticizes perhaps the only redeeming thing about the cringe-worthy spot, and makes a tone-deaf comparison to George W. Bush and 9/11.

Mostly missed, in an hourlong interview with Sean Hannity that produced buzzworthy soundbites about Katie Couric and Dancing with the Stars, was former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s unprompted response to the uproar surrounding daughter Willow’s recent Facebook misadventure.

While Palin correctly points out that the national media should not have exploited the musings of a 16 year-old, the balance of her response reveals important things about Sarah Palin, not as a parent, but as a media critic and human being. Not only does she undermine her claims of media “lies” by making stuff up herself, she also displays a disturbing attitude about the use of the word “faggot.”

If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Dancing With the Stars is one of the most polarizing issues in America today. It’s inspired conspiracy theories, threatening mail, and gunfire. You can now add name-calling to the list: on a recent visit The Joy Behar Show, comedian Sandra Bernhard commented on Bristol Palin‘s post-DWTS activity thusly: “She is such a hooker!”

Earlier this week I was invited to join Joy Behar on her eponymous show to discuss some of the more pressing issues of the day: Was the TSA pushing it too far? Were Prince William and Kate Middleton headed for a rocky road? What did we really think of Bristol on “Dancing With The Stars?” I was joined by Laura Bennett, “Project Runway” designer and author of “Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday?: A Mother’s Guide To Sanity in Stilettos,” and comedian Jamie Kilstein, co-host of Citizen Radio.