UPDATE — September 1, 2008, 2:20 p.m. EDT: In what might be characterized as a remarkable coincidence, Sarah Palin, GOP nominee John McCain's running mate, has announced that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. Rumors had been swirling in the Blogosphere that Gov. Palin had faked her last pregnancy to cover for her daughter, who was absent from school for almost five months with what the family claimed was a case of mononucleosis (see the main story below for details). Now, however, with the announcement that the unmarried Bristol was pregnant in April of this year, it would be impossible for Palin's latest child, Trig, who was born April 18, 2008, to have been Bristol's.

The Palin family is not releasing information about the individual who impregnated Bristol, other than that his first name is "Levi," and that he is going to marry Bristol. While the family's discretion in protecting the young man is admirable given that Gov. Palin is now making her daughter a public figure to kill a rumor, the question of his age is a matter of concern, given that Bristol might have been 16 years old at the time he impregnated her.

Nevertheless, the announcement of Bristol's pregnancy, as stunningly convenient as the situation is, should pretty much end any questions about who the mother of Trig really is.

At least for the time being.



The story is now making the rounds fast about John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The gist of the gossip is that her last child is not hers, but is, instead, her daughter's. The basis of the rumor is that pictures of the Governor when she was supposed to be pregnant show a woman who has no visible evidence of abdominal enlargement, but in the same time frame, her 16-year-old daughter was absent for four months from school with a case of mononucleosis, a condition that, for most teenagers, indicates bed rest for a far shorter period of time.

The case gets more interesting. She was in Texas when she claimed her water broke. Instead of heading straight to a hospital to give birth, she got on a plane back to Alaska; and, once there, instead of going to a hospital in Anchorage, she went to a clinic in her home town. All of this after her water broke. (As commenter Labrys pointed out to me from her personal experience, many women giving birth to a fifth child would not have the luxury of deciding when and where to deliver after the water had broken.)

The rumors about Gov. Palin's pregnancy actually being her daughter’s were swirling before John McCain even heard of her, and no professional vetting group for a national politician would have wanted their man to be within light-years of a person with a rumor like that hanging over her head. This seems to confirm speculation, contrary to the more official story, that Palin was, indeed, a last-minute choice for McCain, a choice made without thorough prior investigation of the potential running mate's background. Regardless of whether or not the rumor about Palin's child had any truth to it, that rumor had legs. In Palin's role as governor, it was more or less a "gentlemen's understanding" that the suspect nature of her story about the child's parenthood would not be used against her except by malcontents, in somewhat the same way the rumors about John Edwards' affair were well known, but better journalists and politicians did not talk about the matter.

That standard has been around for generations among journalists and politicians alike, and it has often served better ends, although in some cases the widely known secrets have allowed venal people to keep doing venal things, as was the case with J. Edgar Hoover and others whose personal lives were at radical odds with their public positions and actions. Palin is, however, no J. Edgar Hoover, nor is she a John Edwards: her secret, if the rumor proves to be true, was arguably to the purpose of "protecting" her daughter, even though a cynic might point out that she was really trying to protect her own credentials among her conservative Republican supporters. Palin would not be the first parent who went to extraordinary lengths to hide a daughter's pregnancy, not for the benefit of the daughter, but instead for the protection of the family name and its reputation in the community.

The rumor about Palin has not, however, been proven beyond reasonable doubt, and it is only right to make that point very clear. First, she has been thrown into a national meat grinder, and a magnifying glass is being turned on her in the worst way possible. She is vulnerable precisely because she is brand new to national politics. That John McCain's team did not fully and properly vet her is an indictment of those so-called professionals, not of her.

Second, concerning that pregnancy, the claims that she did not "look" pregnant at the seventh month are not proof of anything: to describe Sarah Palin (and her husband, for that matter) as athletic is an understatement. Descriptions of her personal lifestyle point to someone with muscles that most flabby Americans would only dream of having, and that kind of body will carry a pregnancy far more tightly for far longer than most. For the typical, less-than-muscular American to use personal experience in assessing what a woman with muscular abs would look like pregnant is like the typical American male, who looks like an idiot sweating and gasping as he jogs the neighborhood, describing the runner's high in a 30-mile mountain marathon.

Finally, yes, teenagers can be down for months with mono. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Most signs and symptoms of mononucleosis ease within a few weeks, but it may be two to three months before you feel completely normal." Four months out of school, as was the case with Palin's daughter, is outside this indication, but the claim that kids get better in a few weeks is far too simplistic.

Unfortunately, the rumor mill is kicking into high gear, and already there are indications that the story of Gov. Palin's child is getting perilously close to the mainstream media, which might end up eating her alive if a few ambitious TV or big newspaper journalists have nothing better to do than grab this story and run with it.

I had no intention whatsoever of writing about this rumor here at The Dark Wraith Forums because it had the taste of nothing other than sleazy prying into personal, family issues; but then something occurred to me that changed my mind, and I need to point this out: if Palin did, indeed, represent her 16-year-old daughter's pregnancy as her own, that's a personal if more than slightly questionable choice; if, however, the baby were represented in public filings (specifically, the application for a birth certificate) as hers when it was actually her daughter's, we are talking about a criminal act.

If that birth certificate was the evidence for acquiring a Social Security Number for the child, then a federal crime may have been committed, as well.

If the child is not Gov. Palin's, but she represented it as hers in seeking coverage under her health insurance plan, then she has committed insurance fraud, too.

In summary, once a lie like that starts, it becomes a cascade of lies that transforms almost seamlessly into a pattern of wrongdoing. Once the line between prevarication and criminal activity has been crossed, what was, upon casual consideration, a personal matter becomes something entirely different.

I am not sure this matter is going to get the vultures in the mainstream media interested right away, but it has explosive potential, and it could force McCain to change his mind and get her off the ticket. It could get ugly: circling media hounds; initial denials; then the tearful confession. In the aftermath, McCain—a man whose violent temper is legendary—will have the Tantrum to End All Tantrums in private meetings with his inner circle of advisers, and a wholesale shake-up of his inner cirlce will ensue, sort of like the centrifugal force experienced by the swirling material in a flushing toilet.

At the same time, the hapless public will be inundated with clueless media "consultants" talking about the "underlying issues" of teen pregnancy and parental support while assiduously avoiding the whole issue of a woman's right to choose. In the end, not one mainstream media personality will dare to mention the obvious: for Palin, an anti-abortion stalwart, "pro-life" meant "pro-lie."

No, John McCain's people certainly did not investigate Gov. Sarah Palin the way they should have. If they had, they would have been visited by an unmistakably clear vision of McCain's Straight Talk Express going straight over a cliff. Now, McCain and his team could very well experience that exciting ride in real time.


The Dark Wraith encourages everyone to step aside as the McCain Express flies by on its way to paydirt.

Andrew Sullivan reports that long-time Right-wing Whine Mistress Mona Charen has commented on John McCain's VP pick, first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by asserting that "Sarah is from America. Obama is not."

Let us now explore this theme with variants, herewith offered by Dark Wraith Publishing as a special, no-charge public service:

"Sarah is from Candyland. Obama is not."

"Sarah is from Alaska. Most other people are not."

"Sarah is from junior high. Many people made it through."

"Sarah is from Vogue. Barack is from Chicago."

"Sarah is from Anchorage. So are a lot of hoofed animals."

"Sarah is from Alaska. So is Ted Stevens."

"Sarah is from Alaska. So are cold fronts."

"Sarah is from America. So is Pee Wee Herman."

"Sarah was born in Idaho. So was Mr. Potato Head."

"Sarah won the Miss Wasilla (Alaska) beauty contest. Obama did not (but he’s moved on by now)."

Okay, ENUFFF! Point made.

Memo to Governor Palin: Tell your Right-wing flankers to shut up. The nastier they get, the better the jokes about you will get.

See if you can get your shills to stick to the issues. You'll still get eaten alive, but at least you'll get eaten alive with your dignity intact.


The Dark Wraith will enjoy it either way, though.

Dark Wraith Publishing presents The Dark Wraith Audio Lecture Series, specially edited, streaming audio versions of academic lectures in economics and business offered as a public service to visitors at this Website.

Lecture 5: "Cost and Price"
Duration: 0:05:43
Size: 5.23 Mb

In a recent article written by Father Tyme at the blog BlondeSense, the suggestion was made that supporters of Hillary Clinton should "stop and think" about their continued opposition to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama because "[S]he stands a rather good chance of becoming a Supreme Court Justice" if Obama is elected President. The writer explains: "A very good 62 year old 'liberal' would be in a position to not only help out the country in ways a president couldn't, and for possibly 15 to 20 more years, but it would make the Republicans gnaw their own legs off!"

Suffer me a minor point and attendant suggestion.

For a while—just for a while, mind you—perhaps we could set aside the idea of politically motivated paybacks, quid pro quo motivations, and ideologically driven hopes in appointing Justices to the Supreme Court.

I know, I know: Radical! OUTRAGEOUS, even.

Hear me out.

Perhaps, for just a few appointments, we could seek in potential Justices these three qualities:

a vast understanding not merely of common law but of its evolving arc across time in building an ever more refined rationale of rule by which people should interact with one another both in their capacities as individuals and in their small and large aggregates as groups;

a profound knowledge of the history of statutory law that may guide clear understanding of what laws mean, what intentions were purposely crafted in their enactment, and how that intent in application comports with the United States Constitution;

a keen insight into original intent of the Founding Fathers in writing the Constitution that we may have an unyielding anchor in documentary statement that was written by men of sufficiently great wisdom who were motivated to establish a nation that would not be drawn asunder from external enemies or internal strife.

Concomitant to these qualifications, and acting as an umbrella over them, we would in our search for Justices look for those who could masterfully balance strictly constructionist interpretation of statutory law against the desirable, if often impatient, impetus afforded by time and social evolution to advance the community from early brutishness to later, humane accommodations. In broadest summary of this most important, overarching selection criterion, and without any defect in the above three requirements, every person considered for position on the high court would always, unfailingly be dedicated to preserving at all possible opportunities the underlying interest those founders of this republic had in finding the means by which natural law could be respected in the maintenance of a civil, well-ordered society.

That last, overriding criterion would be the most important and the most difficult to fulfill because it is the tendency of the ignorant, the rash, and the harsh to imagine that individual freedom is anathema to a maximally civil, well-ordered society. It is not, but it is far easier to find a construction of law that permits license at the expense of order or, as is common in the present time, a construction of law that progressively subordinates freedom to the interest of government in security as a flawed proxy for order.

Such guiding principles in the selection of men and women for the high court would necessarily demand that radicals like Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, ideologues like Associate Justice Samuel Alito, political favorites like Chief Justice John Roberts, and imbeciles of political opportunism like Associate Justice Clarence Thomas be turned away. It is their kind who, in the cacophony of their opinions replacing judgment, beliefs replacing reason, and personalities replacing jurisprudence, deny this nation the opportunity to construct an arc of constitutional law that adheres as closely as possible to the principle that free people accorded their rights under natural law organize to the best nation and, consequentially, the best society.

In fear of bias to the Left, the conservatives cast their lot with the degraded men and women of the extremist Federalist Society.

In fear of bias to the Right, liberals are now planning their response with men and women who might promote this or that agenda.

In neither case, however, do we have any conversation about finding those who would, despite personal affiliations and background, locate a profound, consistent respect for liberty, a deep suspicion of the state in its authority, and a brilliance of mind to walk the narrow and harrowing path that would keep us safe as a nation and free as a people. That conversation is worth having.

As the alternative, we may continue a long, tit-for-tat, debilitating whipsaw of Supreme Court decisions from one case to the next and one era to the next in which event enduring natural law never emerges, while passions, agendas, and plans are paraded as the pale imitation of the rule of law.

I submit that it is in this degraded arc of Supreme Courts that the greatest harm will be done, for it is in this environment, where the rule of law is at auction, that justice cannot be aligned to its gravest duty, which is to hold at bay the ever-waiting state that would prefer obedience at the fist of law to compliance at the behest of freedom.


The Dark Wraith has spoken.

In comments on a recent thread at Big Brass Blog, your host here at The Dark Wraith Forums took yet another opportunity to criticize the soon-to-be Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. Referring to his newly chosen running mate, Joe Biden (a man I still maintain looks too much like actor George Hamilton), I described Joe Biden as...

...a seasoned politician who has suffered great personal tragedy and been a strong (if sometimes foolish) leader of a nation through great and bad times [who is now] second fiddle to a vapid, messianic young fellow who dumps on progressives to suck up to the Religious Right, Israel, and global free-traders, has disastrously out-of-touch economic plans, and likes to have different names and citizenships depending upon what suits his needs.

It's a pity the Democratic Party thinks more of form than substance.

Perhaps this will work out, though: maybe Cheney has ensured that the Office of the Vice President is permanently more powerful than that of the President.

Big Brass Blog contributing writer Foiled Goil responded with the following comment: "The deal (for me) is: The Republicans HAVE to be voted out. End of story."

Below was my answer, which stands as my considered judgment in the matter of why Republican John McCain should be the next President of the United States:

...I would be more than happy to see the Republicans standing front and center as this economy collapses, which it will regardless of which man becomes President. Neither of them has even the slightest clue as to how to fix the mess, and even if they did, neither has the guts to do what has to be done. In that circumstance, I would be just giddy to see this mess come down all over the party that brought it about.

Unfortunately, the voters are going to be as fickle and clueless as usual, and they will blame the party in power and, more specifically, the President in office when this disaster hits the fan.

That's how it worked for Jimmy Carter. The only difference is that he had the intelligence to grasp what had to be done and he had the guts to appoint Paul Volker to head the Federal Reserve to take the awful, painful steps to deal with the mess that had been building for nearly two decades.

More importantly, Carter had the moral courage to face the consequences from voters, who ran in droves to a race-baiting, mentally diminishing, nasty man who dog-whistled his way into the Oval Office.

John McCain called Jimmy Carter a "lousy" President.

John McCain can go to Hell.

Better yet, John McCain should be the President when the house of cards that George built comes crashing down. In that event, McCain wouldn't have to go to Hell, he'd already be there.

Absent that happy ending, I suppose I'll have to content myself with a self-absorbed, messianic, vacuous rich-boy, globe-trotting Democrat taking the fall. In that event, maybe the Democrats will learn that turning their fortunes over to children in a nation of sick, vicious, cheating opponents and catastrophically failing circumstances isn't the answer.

Who knows? Maybe some of them will finally ask me what to do.

You know what I'll tell them?

I'll tell them, "Go to Hell."


The Dark Wraith has some blog posts they can read for free.

As can be seen in the graphic below, the resemblance is striking. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's choice for the VP slot, looks remarkably like ultra-cool, ultra-dashing actor and frequent companion of beautiful ladies George Hamilton, perhaps more widely known for his deep, perfect, always-there tan than for his roles in movies all the way from his uncredited debut in Lone Star (1951), to his notable role in The Godfather, Part III (1991), and more recent appearances in movies such as Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001) and The L.A. Riot Spectacular (2005).



Readers are encouraged to decide for themselves. More pictures of Sen. Biden can be found at France-Amérique, at the PBS Online NewsHour, and at About.com. In every one of these pictures, astute viewers will be amazed by how much the Senator from Delaware looks like George Hamilton, who can be seen in pictures at I Watch Stuff, at JAMD, and at PanacheDaily.com.

Is the likeness mere coincidence?


The Dark Wraith suspects otherwise.

China has suffered a minor embarrassment with the revelation that a comely little nine-year-old girl by the name of Lin Miaoke, who sang "Ode to the Motherland" at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, actually lip-synched her way through the number. The actual singer, a seven-year-old girl by the name of Yang Peiyi, was deemed too unattractive to be seen by a global audience of perhaps hundreds of millions.

The large, cautionary tale enveloping this story will be lost, perhaps most significantly upon the free-trade globalists. The lesson is this: China will do whatever it must to present to the world what it thinks that world wants to see.

For years, American free-trade globalists have believed—in fact, they are compelled by their own, self-contained, self-validating trade theory to believe—that so-called "market reforms" the Chinese government was enacting would lead to a growing middle class that would then demand greater political and social freedom. Even as the Chinese year after year pegged the exchange rate of their currency against the U.S. dollar, thereby making their imports to the U.S. outrageously underpriced and our exports to China symmetrically overpriced, the globalists were convinced that it would all come to a good end.

The United States lost millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in industrial capital, all in the name of "free trade" with a nation run by classic mercantilists, who will say whatever they must to achieve their goals, which most decidedly do not include political and intellectual freedom for their own people, much less a better world for anyone other than the sublimely smiling brutes at the top of their corrupt, communist government.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have as their chief economic advisers the same näive globalists who have brought this nation so much harm in the name of "free trade," "open markets," and "capitalism."

McCain will pursue the same international economic policies as his predecessors because he is inextricably in the thrall of multi-national corporatists who benefit from this degradation of the United States. Yes, he will trade our nation's economic sovereignty for the support of those who pay his way.

Barack Obama will pursue the same international policies as his predecessors because he is just plain stupid. Yes, he is a mental midget who suckers people with vacuous, meaningless, eerily messianic rhetoric about "Yes, we can!" without even the slightest clue about how to shepherd a nation away from the disastrous economic course upon which it is unrelentingly bearing.

The next time you see the face of that pretty little girl who lip-synched that song, let the lesson of the less attractive child in the shadows be on your mind: behind the façade of beautiful and worldly China is a fierce, merciless dragon that has already struck deep into the heart of our nation as our leaders sat back in mesmerized satisfaction at the alluring song of global free trade, even as we bled millions of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars of American industrial capital, and, ultimately, control over the destiny of our own nation.


The Dark Wraith has spoken.

In an interview with ABC News, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted that he had an affair with Rielle Hunter, who had been hired by as a videographer for his campaign despite her lack of experience in the field. Little information prior to 2006 is publicly available about her, although a first-person narrative by a character based upon her in a novel by her boyfriend at the time paints her as "an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious" young woman; but Hunter, herself, claims subsequent 'spiritual quests' of an unspecified nature led her away from previous lifestyle choices.

Edwards, a former United States Senator from North Carolina, had previously characterized as "false" the allegations that he had engaged in an extramarital relationship with Hunter.

First reported last year, rumors of Edwards' extramarital affair were sourced to allies at the National Enquirer of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Edwards denied the allegations and his staff removed all references to Hunter from the his campaign Website. More rumors surfaced several weeks ago when the National Enquirer reported that Edwards and Hunter had been seen together at the Beverly Hilton, adding further fuel to stories that Edwards is the father of Rielle Hunter's illegitimate child, speculation that was disputed by Edwards' long-time friend, Andrew Young, who claimed the child was his.

John Edwards' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination came to an end earlier this year after lackluster showings in early primaries. Prior to stepping away from the campaign trail, he and his wife, Elizabeth, had appeared together at an outdoor press conference to disclose that her breast cancer, which had been in remission since surgery in 2004, had returned in the form of what doctors believed were metastatic cancerous masses in bone and lung tissue.

John and Elizabeth Edwards have three children, Jack, age 7, Emma Claire, age 9, and, Cate, who currently attends Harvard Law School. A fourth child, Wade, was killed in a car accident in 1996.

No official statement has been issued by Elizabeth Edwards concerning her husband's admission of infidelity.