By naming her son Tripp, Bristol kept in line with the men of the Palin clan (her father is named Todd, and she's got brothers named Track and Trig), and while lil' Tripp's namesake can't match the sheer WTF-ness of, say, Bronx Mowgli Wentz, we're still big fans of the handle. After all, it not only recalls the windswept vistas of Alaska's north — and "American Psycho" author Bret Easton Ellis — but it also makes him sound like a character in "Dazed and Confused" ("Tripp Johnston ... Alright, alright, alright!").

Having said all that, we're still a little disappointed in Bristol (and the hockey-playing father, Levi Johnston). Being the offspring/unwed mother of a very public figure affords you all sorts of latitude when it comes to choosing a name for your baby — the weirder and more incomprehensible the better (Nic Cage named his son Kal-el, for crying out loud). It's a tremendous opportunity to foist another bizarrely named child onto the unsuspecting public ... a responsibility that is, frankly, part of your celeb/civic duty. It should be embraced, not shirked.

We're willing to give Bristol a do-over, considering this is the first time she's done this. Still, we'd be remiss if we didn't offer up a host of other names for young Tripp, just in case she wants to change the birth certificate (and since her mom is the governor of Alaska, she can probably do this). Consider your options, B, and let us know what you think:

» Tab Easton Mitchell Johnston
» Trap Star Easton Mitchell Johnston (Young Jeezy Approved!)
» Maverick (just Maverick)
» Easton Mitchell Easton Mitchell Johnston
» DJ Z-Trip(p)
» Trim Trabb. This is a really great song on Blur's 1999 album 13 (we're old.)
» Trick Trick
» Tic Tac Easton Mitchell Johnston
» Tush. Like the ZZ Top Song. There is a 100-percent chance your dad owns this on cassette!
» Joe Six-Pack Easton Mitchell Johnston

And maybe they missed the stories about the Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Heart and Jackson Browne complaining about the same thing. We're not saying an intervention is in order, but while five is troubling, six is definitely a sign of a problem.

The latest? Jersey icons Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi told TMZ that the band was "surprised to hear that our song 'Who Says You Can't Go Home,' was used by the McCain campaign at rallies yesterday and today.

"We wrote this song as a thank you to those who have supported us over the past twenty-five years," JBJ continued. "The song has since become a banner for our home state of New Jersey and the defacto theme song for our partnerships around the country to build homes and rebuild communities. Although we were not asked, we do not approve of their use of 'Home.'

McCain certainly should have seen this one coming, what with the singer throwing a $30,800-a-plate dinner at his house for Obama last month.

What do you think of McCain's musical miscues? Does the campaign need to be more careful, or do these musicians need to lighten up?

But sometimes we wish we'd never said anything and instead just encouraged artists to stick to what they do best — making pretty songs and insisting we not look them in the eye when they pass us backstage. A few cases in point:

Madonna: The pop icon has been railing against Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain and his running mate almost nightly on her current Sticky & Sweet Tour.
 
First, she banned Palin from attending her concerts (not that the Alaskan governor was going to get within shooting range of one anyway). Then, during a show this week, she dropped an impromptu verse that confirmed a few things for us: Madonna probably doesn't realize what kind of muscle it takes to field dress a moose, Madonna fans will clap along to anything, and saying you're going to kick someone's ass and then adding the caveat "It's nothing personal, I love her soul" kinda defeats the purpose.

Art Alexakis: Then there's our old friend Art, singer for Everclear, who never met a controversy he couldn't try to create from scratch, preferably one having to do with Jesus. Alexakis' latest cry for attention is the free online tune "Jesus Was a Democrat," which his publicist described as "Alexakis tackles religious and political hypocrisy head-on with lyrical vibrancy and epic rock n' roll swagger."

A few choice lines:

"If Jesus was a democrat like the bible says he was" (Really? I missed that chapter.)

"If Jesus was alive today he would be sad to see/ That it is no different than it used to be" (You mean his 401(k) was also wiped out a Biblical mortgage market meltdown?)

"I think Jesus would have been a card-carrying liberal/ If he was a young man born in the U.S.A./ He would not be "fiscally conservative"/ And he wouldn't vote for John McCain" (I bet that sounded way smoother in your head than it does in the outside world.)

Aaron Tippin: Yeah, we were on board when the Village-People-mustache-sporting country singer released the America, F--- Yeah! song "You've Got to Stand for Something," back in the '90s and the post-9/11 "Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagle Fly." And we, frankly, didn't really notice when he put out "Drill Here, Drill Now" a year ago, way before Palin and McCain got their people shouting "Drill, Baby, Drill!"

But now that the song is getting a new life thanks to Palin's drill-happy speeches, we went and looked at the lyrics:

"Now I don't know what a gallon of gas costs up on Capitol Hill/ But we sure know what it cost down here in Reality-ville/And the damage already done has been a mighty heavy toll/ And if we're gonna fix it, we gotta start right here at home. Drill here, drill now/ How 'bout some oil from our own soil that belongs to us anyhow/ No more debatin', we're tired of waitin'/ Everybody shout out loud/ Drill here, drill now"
 
Really, Aaron? Reality-ville? I hope that's not anywhere near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because it's gonna take years to get that oil flowing. Really.

Read more about the Palin e-mail-hack investigation here.