I love how he just makes shit up. It's true that China does not have independent trade unions, but India does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_unions_in_India

The jokes were kind of douchey, and I wish Letterman had given a slightly less disingenuous apology. I believe that he intended the A-Rod joke to be about Bristol, but the fact of the matter is that 14-year-old Willow was the one who went to the game, so it's understandable that the Palins would construe it as an attack on her. It was Letterman's fuck-up and he should have acknowledged it instead of making it seem as if the Palins had arbitrarily decided to interpret the joke as if it were about Willow.

But the fact remains this is a late-night comedian making a tasteless (and, even worse, unfunny) joke, and I can't really get too worked up about that. Call me when you hear a similar joke from a Democratic presidential nominee ("Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." - John McCain) or the presumptive head of the Democratic party (Rush Limbaugh talking about Chelsea Clinton while displaying a picture of the White House dog).