Yesterday I posted a pretty ridiculous story about Sarah Palin, just to see if at some point the little bit of nonsense might get picked up by the Internet rumor mill. Today I started Googling to see if there’s been any traction. Much to my surprise, I found a “real” rumor spreading that is much more astonishing than the one I made up. We’ve had plenty of sex scandals in politics, but this could turn out to be the first-ever “birth scandal.” If you enjoy poking around in other people’s possibly phony dirty laundry, here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://commentsfromleftfield.com/2008/08/who-is-the-mother-of-trig-paxon-van-palin

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223

Less than twenty-four hours after being selected as the GOP’s candidate for Vice President by Senator John McCain, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is already the target of some particularly vicious rumors circulating through the Internet “blogosphere.”

One such tale dates back to Palin’s days as a star high school basketball player in Wasilla, Alaska. According to a 2008 biography by Kaylene Johnson, Palin achieved fame by making an important free throw in a statewide basketball championship game. Now a source who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the event is reporting that Johnson left out a critical detail from the story. According to this source, immediately before Palin sank the free throw, she loudly passed gas and sent the entire arena into fits of laughter. Palin allegedly skipped the post-game celebration and refused to go back to school for a week.

The potential impact on the campaign of this revelation, if proved true, is unclear at this point. Some analysts believe it could drag down Palin’s image as a clean-cut reformer, while others noted that it might serve to humanize her in the eyes of the voters. Several commentators questioned the validity of the report, however, noting that the story bore striking similarities to an episode of the TV sitcom “Roseanne,” in which Becky cut the cheese. Neither the McCain-Palin nor the Obama-Biden campaigns could be reached for comment.

Whether or not this specific rumor — which some in the media quickly dubbed “Fartgate” — turns out to have legs, the fact that it has surfaced so quickly is yet another testament to the impact that the Internet can have on today’s political climate.

Boy, I thought I was so clever to note that Sarah Palin and Tina Fey look alike. But a Google search for +”tina fey” +”sarah palin” already yields 1,160 hits. And that’s within an hour or two of her selection as McCain’s running mate.

The resemblance, from certain angles, is rather striking:

I sure do hope they can get Tina back for the SNL debut on September 13.

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A college buddy and I have been razzing each other about which team is more likely to collapse this month, the Yankees or the Red Sox. He predicted a Yankees meltdown before the Democratic Party convention, and I pointed out that the Red Sox were the team that typically has a problem in August. Then he has to go and rub my face in the fact that the Red Sox have won two World Series titles since 2000, whereas the Yankees have only two AL championships in that timeframe (2001 and 2003), and no World Series wins. But Dan, that wasn’t my point. I was only talking about August. So let’s look at the stats, provided by Baseball Almanac.

So you see, Dan, over the last seven years the Yankees are 38 games over .500 in August, whereas the Red Sox are a mere 6 games over .500. I admit this year is looking a bit grim for the Bombers, but history is on our side.