GUESS WHO'S PREGNANT?

Paris Hilton? Nope. Brittany Spears? Nope? Her sister? Nope.

None of the above.

It's BRISTOL PALIN:

September 1, 2008, 12:16 PM
Palin’s Daughter Pregnant
Posted by Vaughn Ververs| 16
CBS News

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has announced that her 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant. The announcement is “intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child,” says the Reuters news service, which carried the first report.

In a statement, the Palin family says that Bristol Palin is “about five months pregnant” and that she intends to marry the father. “We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins said in the statement. "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”

The Palin family asked the media to “respect our daughter” and her privacy. According to the Reuters report, John McCain’s campaign was aware of the pregnancy when the Arizona senator selected Palin to be his running mate last week.

Update: The following is the full Palin statement as released by the McCain campaign:

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

I can respect the request for privacy. Heck, I can even relate. My mom was pregnant with my sister before she got married. Of course they weren't religious at the time. Sarah Palin and her family ARE. VERY MUCH SO.

Here's an article from the International Herald Tribune.

And this from the Independent (UK):

McCain officials said the news of the daughter's pregnancy was being released to rebut what one aide called "mud-slinging and lies" circulating on liberal blog sites.

According to these rumors, Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy and pretended to have given birth in May to her fifth child, a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. The rumor was that Trig was actually Bristol Palin's child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother.

A senior McCain campaign official said the McCain camp was appalled that these rumors had not only been spread around liberal blog sites and partisan Democrats, but also were the subject of heightened interest from mainstream news media.

"The despicable rumors that have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama's name in them, is a real anchor around the Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud in a way that certainly juxtaposes themselves against their 'campaign of change,'" a senior aide said.

Methinks they doth protest TOO MUCH about those rumors from yesterday about Trig Palin being Bristol's son, NOT Sarah's.

Now, this isn't 1952 where the pregnant mother and her boyfriend need to "do the right thing" and make the mistake of getting married at 17 years old. It may end well, but it usually doesn't.

Finally, THESE are the Right Wing "Family Values" the Republican party espouses?! That's ridiculous and completely hypocritical, but what can you expect from the party of The Idiot, The Puppet Master (Cheney), McFlip-Flop, Larry "I am not nor have I ever been gay" Craig, and pastor anti-Semite Hagee?

Point is, this election isn't, and shouldn't be, about "family values." The Republicans don't have a monopoly on the concept. Quite the opposite, in fact. NO ONE has a monopoly on "family values," a concept that can be different from region to region and from one religion (or even WITHIN one single religion) to another. No party, region, group, or religion has a monopoly, and the Republicans screw up what THEY consider to be family values just as much as Democrats, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or anyone else. And this is a prime example. Here's Sarah Palin, an ultra-conservative, extreme Right Christian. And her seventeen year old daughter is now pregnant, and, if the rumors are true, this may not even be Bristol's first pregnancy. And if it's not, there are some criminal charges that may come up, including falsifying medical records.

So, I'm not telling (at least right now) anyone how to vote. I am saying, don't vote based on some vague concept of "family values" on which the Right Wing, Republican party claims to have a monopoly. They just don't.