Dancing with the Politics.

I stopped watching Dancing with the Stars a few years ago, when they ran out of stars. I'm still fascinated by the concept, however, and I follow the show in absentia by reading the news stories that circulate after each results show.

I notice that Sarah Palin's devil spawn, Bristol is still on the show in spite of being given low scores by the show's judges, to the point of having to defend herself for being there. Rational thinking people say she is a bad dancer, yet she continues on the show, presumably because of the votes she gets from the viewers. She gets tons of them, no doubt from the Tea Baggers that support her mother.

Somebody should check to see whom the show's producers supported for president in 2008 and where their money goes. It says here that they are probably big supporters of the Republican party and have figured out a way to use their television show to put their favorite candidate front and center. I smell a conspiracy.

Sarah's new book, America by Heart comes out on the 23rd. Her dopey reality TV show debuted last Sunday - and now the kid is carrying the family torch on that Dancing show. It's a perfect storm of events and it's no coincidence. I'd bet a week's pay she wins. Even if she doesn't, it's a big win for ABC, who had no stars of note on the show, so having a Palin in the mix only serves to pump up their ratings and inspire people like me to mention it. That's the state of modern entertainment. Mix it with politics, get people riled up and create a buzz.

It's a shame that television has such a powerful influence over our lives. As though it wasn't enough that a TV show stretched the boundaries of entertainment to include a politician's daughter and call her a "star." We have to be subjected to the public's insatiable desire to prove a point - to the point that they would use the TV show to make a political statement, which is exactly what is going on here.

The sad part is, it's being fully funded by the American Broadcasting System, and you're all along for the ride. Well, America is along for the ride. I'm just reading and writing about it.

OK, maybe I'm along for the ride too.

But what scares me about this little exercise is that the Palin's are being foist upon America, and whether we like it or not, they are in the public eye, led by Sarah's hot mom persona, which she plays to the hilt. It's all about image and form over substance. Television is the perfect media for such things, and it is all too happy to cooperate.

There are thousands of hours to program over hundreds of channels. The days are gone when there were three major networks and a handful of local stations. Now, we have almost 800 different channels on our cable systems, and each one of them has a full day's programming to put together. They give us junk like celebrity dancing contests and failed politicians touring their home state in a recreational vehicle. It's a sad state of affairs.

I just hope we wake up at some point, but I fear that the show will continue.