Meghan McCain states the obvious:
“Joe the Plumber — you can quote me — is a dumbass. He should stick to plumbing.”
I wonder, if in a future unguarded moment of candor, Miss McCain will blurt out the name of the person responsible for elevating all of these “dumbasses” to the national stage.
I believe she calls that person “dad.”
eastriver
Yes, but can I quote you?
With all the redoing, remodeling, and make-overing, can we just call them Rehablicans? Please?
Tom
I’m beginning to like that young lady.
I don’t think we can really expect her to slam her dad. Obviously she disagrees with him on a lot of stuff. I wouldn’t slam my dad in public either. She’s outspoken about issues that she knows full well that daddy is wrong about. You just have to wonder why she stays Republican. The Party of Dumbasses.
Punchy
I shudder to think what the fucksticks at RudeState and ABP will trash her with…..where can I bet my haus n car that they go with the ‘weight’ angle?
Fulcanelli
@Tom:
The inheritance factor, of course. She’s not that stupid.
Cat Lady
@Punchy:
Ingraham already went there before, and to her credit, McCain shot back that she’s proud of her curves. I love how being a maverick now in gooperville means stating the obvious.
zoe kentucky
I didn’t have strong feelings about Meghan McCain until I saw her on Bill Maher– she really isn’t that bright. I’ve known a few 23-year olds who seem wise beyond their years, who knock you over with their insight and energy. Meghan McCain is not one of them. If she weren’t a McCain she wouldn’t be doing anything any kind of political spotlight. While I applaud her efforts to push the GOP into the modern world she can’t explain why she’s a Republican other than “I was raised that way.”
BruceK
I respectfully submit that Ms. McCain didn’t go quite far enough. I’d trust my malfunctioning kitchen sink to a hyper-caffeinated spider monkey before I’d let not-Joe the not-Plumber work on it.
Bob
“…He should stick to plumbing.”
He can’t. He isn’t licensed.
Tom
Well I’m not so ready to diss her like that. I think she is advancing the conversation in a constructive way, and I wish there were more Republicans who would do that rather than mindlessly repeating the daily distortions and lies put forth by Republican leadership. She’s just about the only Republican that called out that racist old shrew for the “Young” Republicans, and she has taken a pretty courageous stand on the issues of gay rights. She’s in a unique position to possibly salvage the remnants of the Republican Party that have a chance in hell to return to sanity. She doesn’t deserve mocking and ridicule for that, nor slams about her intelligence.
JenJen
I think I posted this in one of last night’s thread, but before we get all excited here, John’s right that Meghan doesn’t seem to see her dad’s role as kingmaker in all of this, and that while she was willing to “go there” with her feelings about Joe the Plumber, she has said publicly that she will never have comments to make about Palin or her family. Why? Well, I’d like to know, but we’re not going to, apparently.
But anyhow, I posted a snip from her Twitter feed last night (I’m mobile and can’t get to it right now but have a look); she backed down from her Joe comments quickly, writing that she was only speaking to his homophobia, and that “the media” blew her criticism of him out of proportion.
In other words, someone said something to her, and she backed down. I’m wondering if criticizing Joe is now akin to slamming Rush.
NJHudelson
I saw that episode, and while she stumbled more than a bit, she didn’t strike me as unintelligent–just over her head in certain areas. While I disagree with many of her blog and daily beast articles, they are are (almost) always well written and thoughtful. Clearly she doesn’t excel at public debate. That’s a skill that takes a lot of practice–a skill that others on that panel clearly had much more time to cultivate.
That said, it doesn’t take a whole lot of intelligence to be a thoughtful and well written Republican these days.
The Grand Panjandrum
@zoe kentucky: Yes! My sentiments exactly. I do admire her for speaking up but that doesn’t make her a policy wonk. I know plenty of recent college grads and young grad students with the intellectual heft to take on almost anyone, but they weren’t born into a politically connected family. In that respect, McCain is just like her dad. Do you really believe former POW McCain would have gone to the Naval Academy had he not been the son and grandson of Flag Officers? So good for her for taking advantage of the family connections. I just don’t think she should be taken seriously on policy matters.
As far as the weight issue goes, I see nothing wrong with a young lady of size. Besides doesn’t the camera add weight? I’ve always preferred women who DO NOT look like teenage boys from behind.
inkadu
Meghan McCain is the establishment’s gambit to take control of the stupid vote, which has recently gotten away from them with Joe and Sarah, both now seeming more like independent party crashers.
Meghan has everything stupid like — she is stupid — and everything the establishment like — she is rich, well connected, and loyal to their interests.
Meghan is the Avril Lavigne anti-Britney of the GOP.
lotus
I’m wondering if criticizing Joe is now akin to slamming Rush.
Might be. If so, they’re not only dead, they’ve putrefied.
4tehlulz
@Bob: Actually, I think that was a veiled reference to gay porn.
Comrade Jake
The sad fact of the matter is that Meghan won’t comment on Palin. Palin puts “dumbass” into a whole new light.
RP
Why are you guys talking about politics? I thought this site was for meeting Thai women.
Michael
She’s tappable, in that sort of “underutilized, could be a lot of fun, slightly heavy, would make a nice bed partner/housemate” kind of way.
I find her very appealing.
SpotWeld
You know, there’s the rather scary possibility that “Joe the Plumber” might actually be a bettter um… poltical activist (?) than he is a plumber.
Violet
@Tom:
But in saying everything she’s said, she ends up essentially sounds like a centrist Democrat. She in no way sounds like a Republican. That’s the disconnect and why it’s so jarring. If she believes things the Democrats believe, why the heck is she a Republican? And what “Republican values” does she believe?
For me, this is the problem. She talks like a centrist Democrat, supports policies like a centrist Democrat, yet says she’s a Republican. Why? Well, for the inheritance obviously. If inheriting Daddy’s money weren’t an issue, she’d never be a Republican. She doesn’t believe anything they stand for.
mapaghimagsik
I can’t help but think that taking shots at Joe the Plumber when you’re Meghan fuckng McCain is cheap. Obviously, his star is falling and he was a bad idea to begin with, so why not score some points by pissing on the grave of his alleged career?
Want to see a more, base political act? How about putting Meghan and John in a small room with a long knife. Beforehand, tell Meghan that daddy’s full of chocolate, tax cuts and political ponies, just waiting to be ridden to the white house. Watch hilarity ensue.
No one would care about her if her last name wasn’t McCain and she wasn’t trotted out as some sort of poster child of Republican Reformation. Can we have Luke Russert interview her so we can have a nepotism feedback loop?
I swear people like Joe the Plumber are elevated for the distinct purpose of being so crazy they make the “Real” republicans sound more sane by comparison. Then, when things like the Sotomayor conformation start to make things look a little too old, white and southern, they gut a Joe the Plumber to show how “moderate” they are.
strawmanmunny
“Well I wasn’t born during the French Revolution but I know about that!”.
Graeme
This is the stupid bitch who just wrote a column about Mark Sanford without even one mention of the Clinton impeachment.
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Dusty
But Meghan McCain doesn’t really have any constituency in the Republican Party. Neither does her father, for that matter. Their constituency is the media more than voters or party players. She’s not working within the party, she’s not really an operative or an activist. She’s a former employee of her father’s campaign who now writes a blog.
McCain’s the same age as Ezra Klein. Somehow, Klein has managed to learn something about policy in his short time on earth; McCain hasn’t.
geg6
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I’m with you and Zoe. Meghan McCain only comes off sounding somewhat less than totally brain dead or insane simply in comparison to her mates (and relatives) in the GOP. I give her props for occasionally jumping off the crazy train to state obvious truths that most of the rest of the country take for granted. But she is not very smart at all and only the teensiest bit brave. I see 18-year-old freshman undergrads who have more nuanced and well-thought-out points of view than she does and who will never back down from or downplay their true beliefs the way McCain has often done. Her one consistent theme, which I will applaud, has been the dysfunctional and creepy GOP view of sex and how it damages the lives of real people.
I do, however, hold out hope for this really lovely young woman. It is the hope that one day the cognitive dissonance of the ideas she espouses (however elementary the thinking behind them) and the policies her political allies advocate will finally, along with the maturity that comes with age, turn on the lightbulb. And she’ll dump them rather publicly. I would truly enjoy that.
Ed in NJ
It seems to me that Meghan McCain is just following in the path of her father. Celebrity politician. Obviously she’s cultivated some interest in what she has to say, all of which is calculated to appear “mavericky”. Can the run for office be far behind?
It disgusts me that she gets the attention she does without ever having to denounce the damage her father and Palin did to the national discourse. In that sense, I find her just as distasteful as Liz Cheney. Possibly more dangerous in the long run.
Brick Oven Bill
Note to Meghan:
Joe the Plumber is smarter than you are. He beat Obama in a debate.
Meghan jumping on a bed.
SpotWeld
B.O.B.
Shut up
Brick Oven Bill
Spotweld:
You suck.
strawmanmunny
@Brick Oven Bill:
LOL. The only debate Joe the Plummer could beat Obama at is how many Pork Rinds you can eat without taking a swig of Pabst.
anonevent
@zoe kentucky: In her defense, most 23 year olds aren’t ready to save the world. Jesus didn’t start doing it until he was in his 30’s, and most people never want to do it. If she wasn’t a McCain, she wouldn’t be having to do this at all. Is she the best spokesman for her generation? No, but even she realizes that JTP needs a slap across the face.
Johnny B. Guud
Can we stop making Ms. McCain out to be some kind of alert and intuitive thinker. She’s as dumb as Palin is, and the only reason we’re even talking about her is that she’s trashing her own party.
She’s a Republican because she was born and bred that way, is obviously too dumb to think on her own to make any serious political moves, and quite frankly, she remains a Republican because the party is so devoid of sane leadership that she just fits in the vacuum.
If she decides to switch to the Democratic party, the party faithful shouldn’t exactly be proud. The GOP is obviously, a freak show at this point.
Dork
There’s a metric fuckton of funny in this comment.
jenniebee
@NJHudelson: I was giving her a break and just wondering what would happen if it ever dawned on her that all of the cultural aspects she dislikes in the GOP simply don’t exist in Democratic circles (complaints about the virgin/whore dichotomy, for instance, I just wanted to put her, Amanda Marcotte, Jessica from Feministing and a bottle of vodka in a room together and see what comes out) right up until her exchange with Paul Begala. And at that point, it became clear to me why she really is a Republican and where the culture shock would be. In Republican circles, it’s apparently acceptable to believe that history is the record of your personal living memory, and anything beyond that is superfluous, pedantic and rude to bring up.
Goodbye, Meghan. Sorry, Meghan.
anonevent
@Brick Oven Bill: Yep, JTP beat Obama by debating the same way my children do with me, at which point I realize that they aren’t listening to what I have to say. Then, since I’m their dad, I put them in the corner until they stop acting like asses. When I run into adults like that, I put them down on my list of people to ignore.
Edit: As for you, I seem to be stuck in the correcting-someone-wrong-on-the-internet mode.
mapaghimagsik
@anonevent:
If she wasn’t a McCain, she wouldn’t be getting the time of day, but thank god she’s willing to bear the burden of being some sort of Republican Diva.
If she wasn’t a McCain, would you even be *reading her blog*?
jenniebee
@Brick Oven Bill: is that the one where Joe lied and then stood there not saying anything, and then went on TV afterward and said that Obama hadn’t convinced him?
Would Obama have “won”, do you think, if he’d tried to explain it to Joe with props, like monopoly money or something? Or maybe puppets? Or licensing forms? No, what does Joe know about getting licensed?
Dusty
McCain also seems to believe that she hit a home run when she started out life on third base and then gets really testy when people wonder why anybody should care what John McCain’s relatively undistinguished twentysomething daughter has to say about anything. She’s a legacy hire and she doesn’t see it. She thinks she’s earned her current status. I don’t see her putting the time to develop either her knowledge base or intellect.
Crashman06
Megan McCain is one of the half-dozen people under 25 left in the GOP and she’s obligated to stick around because of dad. Her opinion carries no weight, though I’m sure the Inquisition will quash her heretical thoughts pretty quickly.
PaulW
It’d be nice if we could just ignore this whole GOP celebrity circus… but considering this is all the Republicans have to offer us, we’re stuck with it.
linda
lindsey graham is one slimy, condescending little bitch.
that is all.
linda
megan mccain is a celebrity.
;-)
Will Danz
@Brick Oven Bill:
In your sad, fevered wingnut dreams, he did.
“Joe the Plumber” is a hapless, dishonest dumbass trying to extend his already-pathetic 15 minutes of fame. The only people more pathetic are those trying to sell him as something other than that.
Dr. Rockso
Really? People think she’s fat? She looks healthy enough to me. Not everyone wants to look at a coat hanger type body.
Heroin chic is so 90’s…
Nim, ham hock of liberty
OT….
I guess John was right yesterday, the hammer is starting to fall on our birther friend.
Short version of link: Birther’s lawyer filed a fast motion for a protective order yesterday. After the Major found out that he wasn’t being deployed, he also found out he’d been fired by his employer who happens to be a DoD contractor. Whoops!
How to frivolously litigate yourself out of the military and your job in 3 easy steps.
Michael
She appears to be likely to be an, um, energetic sort, possibly a tad neglected.
Screamin' Demon
I have a young friend who’s earned a doctorate in nuclear engineering from Georgia Tech. She graduates Aug. 1.
She’s only 25. Far and away the smartest person I’ve ever known. She can blow me away on just about any subject. Her only flaw is that she’s not political at all.
Brick Oven Bill
The reason Obama surrounds himself with Robert Gibbs, Peter Orszag, and Tim Geithner is because he is uncomfortable around white males, and these three make him feel better. This shall be defined as Caucophobia.
His talk with Joe the Plumber is Exhibit ‘A’, note the shoulders and the disclosure error meant to seek Joe’s acceptance, as a perceived future beneficiary of government coerced redistribution programs.
Exhibit ‘B’.
Will Danz
Meghan McCain is a celebutard. Seems she’s not a terrible person, but really just another trust fund baby a la Paris Hilton, having fun with her inheritance while she’s young. Her political opinions are that of a not-very-bright-or-deep person her age, given a platform exclusively because of her name.
Let’s check in with her in 30 years, shall we? Or… not.
Will Danz
Is Brick Oven Bill a conscious parody of a drooling rightwing idiot, or simply a drooling rightwing idiot? I can’t tell.
Zifnab
@Violet:
There are a lot of regional politics involved. In a sane world, the Ben Nelsons from Nebraska and Florida would be Republicans. Diane Feinstein and Evan Bayh would be Republicans. Joe Lieberman would be a Republican. But certain parties hold a heavy sway on certain districts and states. So, if you want to get elected in Pittsburg, you run as a Democrat no matter what your political ideology because Democrats control that area. And if you want to get elected as a Congressman in Arizona or Utah, you run as a Republican, because when people hit the pools they just pound the (R) button on impulse.
Ms McCain is aware of the political realities of her state and her family, so she keeps the (R) tag as a sign of allegiance, but she writes what she wants. It’s like being a USC fan who prefers the running game rather than the spread offense. Or joining the local church for the pot luck dinners and the ice cream socials. Her political affiliation says more about her neighbors than it does about herself.
SGEW
Remember, Meghan McCain can go after Samuel “Ex-Plumber’s Assistant” Wurzelbacher, in defense of her father, because Joe had already attacked John McCain first back in December:
Also:
Jebus, I feel old.
Zifnab
@Brick Oven Bill: Is that like the “Steven Colbert: My New Black Friend”
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2008/05/jordancolbert.jpeg
OBAMA HATES WHITE PEOPLE! I HAZ PROF!
SGEW
I repeat myself: B.O.B. is the Schrödinger’s cat of trolls. He occupies both potentialities, and every attempt to collapse his wave function has failed so far. Therefore, I suggest you simply assume that he is both a cretinous, racist, misogynist, conspiracy theorizing, quixotic nutjob and a complete fabrication brilliantly written by DougJ.
Very post modern.
kay
I don’t think it matters. Like nearly everything McCain did, Joe the Plumber was just a complete flop as a political tactic.
I think it’s safe to admit that, now that the campaign has been over for 8 months.
Palin’s latest gimmick is probably a flop too.
Monday, July 13, 2009
CBS Poll: Most Republicans doubt Palin’s ability to be an effective President
A new CBS poll shows a resounding 52%-24% of Americans think Sarah Palin resigned to further her political career and not to better Alaska, as she’s claimed.
Additionally, a full 51% of Republicans don’t think she has the ability to be an effective President. Only 33% do.
JGabriel
Violet:
Maybe. There’s also the problem, of course, that centrist Democrats sound like Republicans formerly did, and maybe McCain wants to bring the GOP back to that sort of center-right moderation rather than give up on them and join the Dems.
Many of us have bemoaned the lack of a sane opposition party. I’m not really a fan of McCain, and I doubt she has the intellectual heft to effect any kind of major change in the GOP, but she certainly has the financial heft and family connections. If she wants to use those resources to pull the Pugs from the brink, well, I think that’s an admirable goal and admire her for it – even while remaining skeptical of its value and her ability to achieve it.
.
kay
NOW only 33% of Republicans think Palin has the ability to be an effective President. NOW they figure it out. What if she had gotten in?
I swear, they’re reckless as hell.
GP
When is She going to open up about Dear Sarah.
Brick Oven Bill
“To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.”
Caucophobia. Check.
anonevent
@kay:
And yet 71% of Republicans would vote for her?
different church-lady
I la Megan. Dems could learn a real lesson from the way she dealt with Laura Ingraham: bullies only pick on people who don’t fight back.
Persia
@Nim, ham hock of liberty: I confess. I giggled.
JGabriel
“… I witnessed a fight between a lesbian with no front teeth and a very large woman, who ended up getting her shirt and bra ripped off. This was spectacular to witness and it is entirely possible that it has affected my psyche.”
Batshit insane. Check.
.
maya
Say, this reminds me. How come this guy wasn’t at the Sotomayer herrings?
different church-lady
@zoe kentucky:
She may not be that bright, but she’s brighter than Joe. And she appears to be brighter than anyone else working for the McCain campaign last summer.
In fact, she may be brighter than her father.
kay
@anonevent:
It’s a different poll. I am of the opinion Palin’s popularity is over-stated. I’m not sure why they’re promoting her, but they’re promoting her.
different church-lady
@Brick Oven Bill:
You’re either very funny, or very stupid. Hard to tell which.
GregB
I think the word has gone out on Palin. I just read a news quote from a few NH pols dissing her.
She bailed out on the party and now they are bailing out on her.
Palin may end up leading a rumpist insurgency of snake handlers and tea-baggers.
Then the GOP gets to try to win over the scraps with Michael Steele’s potato(e) salad and fried chicken parties.
More popcorn, please.
-G
different church-lady
@kay:
It’s the irresistible power of starbursts.
Jason
Like other commenters, I’m also surprised that being a Republican is more important than the positions which Republicans hold. It’s as if she’s saying, “Right, I’m a Republican, and I’m so worried about the Republican party that I’m suggesting we adopt these platform positions so that the Republican party survives.” In her defense – and I don’t mean this as snark – when your dad is a leader in the Republican party, it can’t be easy to differentiate “talking back to your dad” and “political discourse.” Lots of young people conflate the two. But this version of political parties as a sort of Sam Goody, where you only find Journey’s Greatest Hits or “Look What the Cat Dragged In” but for some reason keep going back thinking you’re going to find a decent vinyl section with [insert awesome hipster band here] – it’s kind of stupid.
Ultimately she’s just like every other hi-profile Republican, be it Cantor, Fleischer, Romney, or Gingrich – why doesn’t she just shut up and do some real work?
burnspbesq
@Zifnab 51:
the analogy to USC football is especially apt. I think there must be an unwritten agreement among Carroll, Garrett, and the President of the University that Pete will run Student Body Right at least once at every home game so that fundraising from crotchety old white alums won’t be adversely affected.
Simillarly with young Ms. McCain, I think. She can snipe all she wants from within the EverShrinking Republican Tent, but it is quite reasonable to believe that if she heads for the door, her access to the Hensley money goes away. If that’s true, then her behavior is totally rational and understandable.
JenJen
Apropos of nothing, here’s a Meghan anecdote: In my previous life, before the economy crushed my industry, I was the Food & Beverage Executive at the Hilton in downtown Cincinnati. We hosted many celebrities and politicians, and I met Meghan and her father on a few occasions during the campaign, when they were guest of the hotel. Unfortunately, when Obama visited our city, he’d stay at the Westin across the street; it’s a union hotel, and we weren’t.
As far as politicians and their children go, they are warm, engaging, relaxed, tasteful, and very good to staff. (I could not say the same of Mitt Romney and family, which is another post, I suppose.) On this page, if you scroll down about 3/4, you can see the cookies I had made for her visit. Believe me, it was a big “win” for me when she posted the photo on her blog; free promotion was the goal, and always is in the food business. :-)
(I also love that very weird photo of two very weird people holding hands and snapping cell phone pics!)
Anyhow, I shared an interesting elevator ride with Meghan and John McCain that I’ll never forget. It was your basic conversation between a young woman and her father, and they were speaking as though they were alone. Somehow, it took me by surprise, because you always expect people as famous and influential as they are to be on constant guard, but there they were; dad telling her not to stay out too late, daughter pushing back; dad complaining about her blog, daughter pushing back. Should I have been surprised that they were as normal as could be?
Sigh. There are days when I really miss that job. Had some very interesting days there.
Molly
@Brick Oven Bill:
Can you site a source for this? I’d like to read the whole thing so I can get the context.
SGEW
Why am I getting a malware warning for Balloon-Juice?
?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The hired help will take care of the details of actually running the country. Remember, that was the theory back in 2000. Worked out so well, too.
MikeJ
BOB’s around and your AV knows too much pie can be bad for you.
JenJen
@Molly: The full quote:
Anyone who actually read “Dreams of my Father” (unlike, apparently, BOB), understands the quote in the context of the full paragraph, and of course, the entire book. It’s a damned excellent book too, about meaningful self-reflection, and searching for who you are, and who you want to be. Some people will never understand that concept, or Barack Obama, obviously. To me, in that paragraph, he sounds like just about any college kid, including myself during those years.
JGabriel
SGEW:
You may have a virus that substitutes its own ads for those of a site’s advertisers. Are you suddenly getting a lot of ads for dick embiggening pills or
services to meet Thai women(oops) or … well, you the drift.Anyway, run a scan of anything you may have downloaded recently, or your entire drive if you want to be on the safe side.
.
Keith
The trojan is definitely coming from this site (likely exploiting something in Adobe Flash…we told you the ads sucked!). I’ve wiped my entire IE8 temp files, etc, and this is the first page I hit, and I get a warning for ZBot Domain every time.
iluvsummr
@Tom: Didn’t she vote for Kerry in ’04? If she wasn’t a McCain, I think she’d be a Democrat.
Germane Jackson
I think she’s hot.
inkadu
I don’t feel any need to be nice to Meghan until I feel like she is more than a pretty face on an old decrepit racist backwards party.
Michael
@JenJen
I never really had much of a problem with him (he is more conservative than me, as are many of his generation, but not in a particularly mean spirited way).
It was just what he was, take it or leave it.
Then he caved on his VP choice. The wingnut powers that be foisted it on him, and his resultant lack of enthusiasm was palpable. He lost focus, and became something different – disengaged. I think the isolation bubble popped about the time that trembly woman started talking about how Obama “scared” her, because that’s when the pushback on the nutbags seemed to kick up. I shudder to think of what would have happened had McCain and Schmidt not vetoed the Palin “concession” speech/call to arms.
I know that some here have some real deep negative feelings toward the man, but frankly, an opposition party built around the likes and basic temperament of John McCain is infinitely preferable to the one envisioned by the nuts.
OT, I’m just down the road from Cincy, and prefer to do my flights (domestic and international) out of CVG.
Nylund
Meghan McCain hasn’t ever said anything particularly insightful or intelligent. Quotes like these may be a tad surprising from a Republican but they’re about as insightful as “the sky is blue.” Add that to the tales you hear of her screaming, “But don’t they know who I AM?!” when doormen don’t let her into the nightclubs and she’s just another spoiled rich girl who has had an entirely undeserved career absolutely handed to her. She is famous for being famous, and is getting rich by simply being rich. She is the Paris Hilton of politics and nothing more. But, the GOP is in such bad shape that “the sky is blue” comments about Joe Plumber pass as real insight these days.
Its sad for America on so many levels.
Keith
OK, it doesn’t appear to be Flash, as I disabled that and still got it. For those who see this error, try disabling the add-on called “Research” that does *not* list Microsoft as the publisher. My guess right now is that it was calling itself that to give the appearance of it being the standard MS “Research” add-on, but MS’ plug-ins all have “Microsoft Corporation” as the publisher.
This one looks to be in the same family of trojans that have been popping up around my office for the last couple of weeks. (the nastiest one was based on a browser extension that installs itself into the System32 folder as “msxmlm.dll” – the only msxml*.dll library that does not have a publisher/version info)
Ash
Meghan McCain is completely useless for everything except getting into fights with other blonde, vaguely attractive Republican women.
As someone who’s only a couple years younger than her, she shames all young, 20-something education women. She holds views no different than the rest of us, yet acts as though she’s some ground-breaker. The ONLY subject of which she seems to care about is being “pro-sex” whatever the fuck that even means. Remember, she doesn’t “know anything about economics” so she can’t speak about that, and she was only born in the 80s, so she apparently doesn’t know jack shit about history. She has no sway with anyone inside the Republican party, young or old, and her existence is pointless. Except to go on the teevee and giggle and tell blogging stories.
She needs to be refunded for her so called Ivy league education.
MikeJ
A quick look around the web says that MS screwed up (big surprise, huh?) and didn’t sign the legit version of that. I’d still remove every plugin that you didn’t explicitly install yourself. Lowers the memory footprint of the browser, makes it more stable, less exposed surface for attacks, fewer annoying things flashing at you all the time.
Dennis-SGMM
@Keith:
Google Chrome warned me that something on BJ links to klikvs.cn.
Here’s the Google Diagnostic Page for klikvs.cn
gbear
Meghan meh. Has anyone seen the video of Bernie Sanders putting pops McCain in the hotseat over the public option in health care? Bernie does a pretty good job of naming names as he’s pointing out the hypocracy of ‘socialized’ health care.
Allan
@Violet:
Fixed.
different church-lady
@JenJen:
Spot on. I’m continually mystified as to what there is in that passage that the wingnut codetalkers find such resonance with.
Keith
Dennis: Yeah, looks like you’re right. After researching at the Norton site, the warning isn’t necessarily something running, but rather it found a link on the page that Symantec has registered on their database as a source of the ZBot trojan (which, incidentally, tries to steal your banking passwords – particularly BofA).
I like that Chrome gives such a specific warning. While I would rather shut down all non-essential features in IE than install a third party app on my machine, IE (even at version 8) is still a bloated, unstable pile of junk, and MS should be embarassed by releasing it. In fact, the two MS apps I use the most – IE8 and Visual Studio 2008 – are both that way. Thankfully, if Win7 is any indication, the are starting to get their act together.
Fencedude
WTF? Your logic makes no sense.
IE is a pile of shit, has been for forever and by all appearances continues to be so.
Dennis-SGMM
@Keith:
I’ve been very happy with Chrome. OTOH, I had to “upgrade” to IE8 in order to set up VPN access to my wife’s work PC. That’s all we use it for. I’m optimistic about Win7 but my hardware is so old that I doubt I’ll ever actually run it.
dan robinson
I’m tired of political celebrities who don’t allow their ignorance of issues keep them from commenting on policy; I’m tired of the media that feeds that celebrityhood by recording and trumpeting those comments as if they were manna from heaven.
McCain, pere, is a political celebrity. He has shown little desire to actually work on policy. He has shown a lot of desire to further his political ambitions.
While Obama is also a celebrity, he has strong policy roots.
The GOP will fasten itself to another celebrity before the next round of presidential elections and we end up debating whatever crazy assed shit they say as if it actually has value.
different church-lady
Explain to me again why nearly everyone insists on continuing to use Windows?
Dennis-SGMM
@Fencedude:
While working in software dev at EarthLink years ago I was given the chore of browser customization, among other things. We hates IE.
cbear
Let’s review:
Pampered, intellectually lazy, dumbass fat girl labels fellow dumbass as dumbass. Libruls discuss relative aspects of dumbassery among said dumbasses.
That about cover it???
Dennis-SGMM
@cbear:
LOL! Lamentably, things have gone so far downhill for the GOP that discussing their politics becomes a discussion of dumbassery by default.
OGB
@Brick Oven Bill:
When I was in my late teens/early 20s, I chose to hang out with junkies, winos, the homeless, and transvestites, even though I was a suburban white kid from a middle-class background. Why? Initially, so as not to be stereotyped as a suburban white kid from a middle-class background. Later I came to find that I had more in common with a lot of drug-addicted Puerto Rican prostitutes than I did with people in my own family, who are a lot like Brick Oven Bill.
By the way, I remember my ex-mother in law, who is a right wing nutjob birther type, sending me that quote in an email forward, along with a lot of other quotes from Dreams from my Father, all taken completely out of context. So I Fed-Exed the bitch a copy of the book and told her to shut her fat face until after she read the whole book.
Rick Taylor
I remember when I heard that McCain was using Joe as a prop in his appearances. That was a little surreal. Having him enter the spotlight because of his question to Obama was one thing, but bringing him into the campaign? Of course McCain had already chosen Palin as his running mate, but even still that was weird.
Keith
Don’t get so damn offended by another person’s preferences. My problem with IE stems from its poor performance as an application host (it’s a glorified operating system that does OS tasks very poorly), and I find that it’s perfectly OK when most of those features are turned off. And while its “OS” services are crap, MS Research *is* writing a ground-up browser to ultimately replace IE that takes the approach that it *is* an operating system and therefore builds security and performance isolation into the browser at its core.
Dennis-SGMM
@Rick Taylor:
It reminded me of when Dave Garroway added a chimp, “Kokomo Jr.” to the cast of the “Today Show”. And yes, I’m old.
JenJen
Wow… clicked to reload the site, and my entire computer crashed. Is there any way I can turn off ads; is that what’s causing this? Norton doesn’t seem to see anything wrong…
Google Chrome won’t even load the site for me right now; I’m looking at it (after restarting my PC) using IE7. Yuck.
Leelee for Obama
In other news-just read on HuffPost that Frank McCourt is in Hospice, dying of meningitis. It will be sad to lose this man. He made me proud of my Irish ancestry in ways my own family never did.
Flights of Angels, Frank
Jim Pharo
Meaghan McCain is a force for good. She may not be super-bright, and she clearly has a lot of both growing up and thinking to do. But she is headed in the right direction.
She may end up pushing the Republicans in a more constructive direction, or she may end up joining our side. Either way, to have a prominent Republican who isn’t obviously insane is a boon to the nation. Plus, she seems sweet, likable and sincere, things that cannot be said of just about any other Republican.
IndieTarheel
@different church-lady: Why can’t it be both?
Ash
@Jim Pharo:
This would require Republicans to give a shit about what she says or does or thinks. They don’t. No one does.
Let’s not forget this is the same twit who hangs out with Heidi from “The Hills” and counts Tila Tequila as a best friend. Just……UGH. Maybe I just hate her so much because I’m her age and she has infinitely more opportunities than I ever will, and she takes them and acts like a dumb blonde.
Germane Jackson
@cbear:
Is the fat name-calling really necessary? One, it shouldn’t be a pejorative, and two she’s not even really fat, just curvy and healthy-looking.
The Moar You Know
@SGEW: I, too, am getting a malware warning for Balloon Juice. It’s a trojan, probably through one of the ad feeds.
John, I sent you an email. Best of luck hunting this down. I hope everybody’s got decent A/V software or is using a Mac/Linux system.
Ken
For anyone interested in having a shrieking Glenn Beck ringtone:
WAV Format
I’m going to use it for my ex
GET OFF MY PHONE!
GET OFF MY PHONE!
GET OFF MY PHONE!
MikeJ
Try just turning of javascript. It’s easier if you’ve got a plugin like noscript in firefox that allows it on a per site basis, but even in IE you can turn off javascript. That by itself may make it safe, but it’s not something I can check at the moment.
Dusty
Except that she allows the media to pretend that there are prominent Republicans who aren’t obviously insane. Since she’s not a prominent Republican, not in the sense that she’s got any standing in the party, she’s not relevant to the discussion. McCain puts a more moderate face on the party than it deserves right now.
iluvsummr
@cbear: Okay I have to confess, I heart Meghan McCain as a human being. Love the fact that she doesn’t care what people say about her weight, loved the music picks on her blog during the campaign, bought some songs on iTunes because of her. Still voted for Obama; she didn’t change my opinion of her father in any way. Her response to the bitchy Laura Ingraham made me smile. Her twitter marriage proposal to the vapid Tila Tequila made me laugh till I hiccuped for a good ten minutes. I think she should return to her original goal of being a music journalist. Until then, I’m just glad that there is at least one under-25, female, “pro-sex”, non-homophobic member of the GOP whose heart is in the right place and who occasionally makes sense on political issues. If the GOP had more people willing to flatly state that Bristol Palin’s campaign for abstinence is absolutely laughable, they’d be in much, much better shape.
MikeJ
The funny thing is, I think McCain got the nom because most republicans knew how much the base hated him and wanted someone who could ignore the base. As soon as he got the nomination he decided he couldn’t stand up to the loons, modulo that one time he told the insane lady in the audience Obama wasn’t a terrorist.
John Cole
@MikeJ: I simply did not understand why she went on the abstinence education tour after the election. It made no sense whatsoever. There are literally hundreds of millions of women more qualified to speak out in support of abstinence only education- all of whom made it to the age of 18 without getting pregnant. Bristol Palin was uniquely unqualified for the position.
JenJen
@Michael: But, I’m not at all convinced that the Palin pick was forced upon McCain, from reading various post-mortem accounts of his campaign (I especially look forward to the upcoming Dan Balz book, which I hear is scoop-a-licious). Sure, he wanted Lieberman, that much is known, and according to Richard Wolffe’s excellent book “Renegade”, the Obama camp was convinced it would be Lieberman. Schmidt and Davis nixed it, and suggested the Palin Hail Mary in a cynical and deeply misguided attempt to go after the nonexistent PUMA voting block. And to think… these men wanted to run our country.
(aside… if you’re a political junkie, buy “Renegade” today. That book is SO money!)
I was certainly never going to vote for McCain at any rate, but it really was the Palin pick that utterly disqualified him for the Presidency, IMHO. He owns it, because the buck has to stop with him. And his embarrasing display on MTP last Sunday confirmed it for me… he just doesn’t get it.
Hey, next time you roll thru CVG, pop me an email!
@The Moar You Know: Glad to read that it isn’t just my PC that’s acting squirrely when I load Balloon-Juice. I’m concerned that it crashed my PC, but Norton didn’t seem to catch anything.
MikeJ
Perhaps she dislikes her mother, or at least her political career.
cbear
@Germane Jackson:
Let’s just call it “artistic license”, ok?
I’m sure she’s a very nice girl and a wonderful human being—once you get past the fact that, regardless of her very occasional bleating to the contrary, she’s just another fucking gooper who, given her druthers, would have us ruled by her fellow fucking goopers.
Ash
@John Cole: Mommy Dearest obviously made her do it, in another effort to prove how much she and her family love unborn babies. And Bristol, apparently having no discernible skills and needing somewhere to live with little Trip (or Trap or Trunk or Tree or whatever it is) had to play along.
different church lady
@IndieTarheel: because just saying that straight out would screw up the rhetorical flourish.
Fencedude
@Keith:
“Offense”? I didn’t take offense at your preferences, I said that your logic doesn’t make sense.
And while its nice that they seem to be working on something better, that hardly has anything to do with the current situation regarding IE.
Every time someone on a blog or a forum or whatever complains about malware, viruses, whathaveyou, they are running IE, while all the rest of us running non-shitty browsers are all “wait, what?”
And it was the jab at “third party apps” that I found the most ridiculous. Seriously, installing a third party app is a…bad thing now?
Ken
Good lord I’m dumb – that’s what happens when you spaz out on too many open tabs
RedKitten
Yeah, I’m really not understanding the whole “fat” thing with Meghan McCain. She is perfectly average-sized (and really quite pretty) from what I can see. I’d say she probably wears about a size 14, which is the size of the average American woman.
If you want to attack her politics, go nuts. But when people call her “fat”, it makes a lot of other females who are the same size (females who you might really like and would never wish to hurt) feel pretty insulted.
different church lady
@RedKitten:
In order to understand it, you need to be one of the following:
a) 12 years old.
b) Part of the GOP base.
Svensker
Things are all weird in Firefox today — things not loading, applications not working. Could that be related to a virus? No problems when using IE (except that it sucks, but not more than usual).
Meghan McCain seems like a normal 23-year-old young woman. Not particularly bright or insightful, but does have a bit of spunk and some common sense.
harlana pepper
Does John Cornyn and Cornyn only, get license to question Sotomayor ad nauseum, like fucking days? Aren’t there other Senators who might want to ask some questions? Just a thought.
eh god, Coburn up. I guess he’s the exception to the Cornyn Rule. What a stellar individual. Oh well, at least he’s not pretending to be pregnant today . . . yet.
tammanycall
Wonkette has a great Meghan anecdote – they were at some DC event, and a man walks into the room.
Meghan: Who is that?
Wonkette: Antonin Scalia.
Meghan: Who’s that?
…yeah, she’s fully qualified to be a political pundit.
Re: the “fat” stuff – she’s a lot heavier than most other people on television, so that’s not too surprising.
different church lady
@tammanycall:
please clarify by checking the one that applies:
A) you’re being serious
B) you’re being sarcastic
C) A and B
mapaghimagsik
Lots of people consider Meghan McCain pretty.
I think cobras are pretty too. Doesn’t mean I want one in the petting zoo.
harlana pepper
ugh, Sessions: “wise latina” for 51st time; back to the Oxygen channel & bon bons for me
Ash
Please don’t insult the rest of us 23-year-old young women like that. She’s 24.
Joe Max
It’s mommy’s money. Actually.
WMass
@The Moar You Know: The latest version of Safari running under Leopard shows the “Suspected Malware Site” warning for Ballon Juice and this comments page. I thought it was just Safari being flaky, but if other browsers are doing the same thing maybe it’s something real.
kay
@harlana pepper:
Just so you know, I share your horror, and I completely applaud you continuing to rant. You have more stamina than I do. I can’t watch anymore.
Somebody said on tv last night that they’re tone-deaf in that room. That they can’t know how this sounds, or they would stop. I agree with that.
WMass
Meghan McCain seems like a decent human being at heart, considering what her parents are like. Her father is arrogant and childish, Her mother seems like a thoroughly despicable person, I’m not sure why, it’s like she has a big sign over her head saying “Uber Bitch”. And I wouldn’t consider Meghan to be fat, she is really quite attractive.
inkadu
Maybe someone could explain to me at what point someone starts becoming “fat.” I think most people start getting “fat” when they start having a sizeable layer of fat on their bodies.
If you think calling someone fat means they are unattractive, you’re the one with the problem.
White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)
“Comes off thoughtful and intelligent in her Beast columns” + “Sounds like an empty-headed sorority girl when she’s part of a panel discussion” = someone’s writing her columns for her.
Duh.
Sorry, but her exchange with Begala on Bill Mahar (“Well you just know everything and I’m a dumb blond.”) tells me most of what I need to know about Meghan McCain. Callow and, yes, kind of simple. I read blogs by seventeen-year-olds that run rings around Meggy’s ability to comprehend and analyze a story.
No comment on her being zaftig, other than that it probably drives Cindy McCain crazy (See: Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People) so good for Meggy on that score.
JGabriel
harlana pepper:
Sessions was committed to saying it once for each of the states, plus one for Puerto Rico.
Cuz he’s just that kind of guy!
.
TenguPhule
In a battle between Joe and Megan, we can only root for casualties.
John S.
I dunno, that’s how I personally like my women. Size 10-12 seems to be my personal comfort zone, which works out great for my wife.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with how McCain looks whatsoever.
steve s
It’s the contrast that makes her stand out. For someone to call herself a republican, but then manage to go 5 minutes without drooling on herself and calling Obama a porch monkey, is unusual enough to be fascinating. Like watching a dog juggle chainsaws or something.
Piper
I was embarrassed for McCain and everyone else watching her trainwreck performance on Bill Maher. “Well, I wasn’t alive, so…” Thank god Begala completely nailed her: “Well I wasn’t born before the French Revolution but I know what happened during it.” Zing!!! So much of a smackdown Maher literally stood up and tried to physically block her. It was really, really embarrassing.
.
Oh, and as someone who is almost never attracted to blondes, Megan McCain is pretty damn hot which is why we will continue to see her on TeeVee.
steve s
Based on Demographic trends, until they reconstitute themselves as something other than the party of learning-disabled southern christians, the only way republicans will win things in the future is when the democratic opponent gets caught on the Appalacian Trail with underage mentally retarded children.
JK
Meagan McCain is full of shit. Just because she criticizes other Republicans doesn’t mean liberals should welcome her with open arms. She’s said on several occasions that the MSM is giving Obama a free ride. Meagan is as much of a dumbass as Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin. I haven’t heard Meagan criticize her dad for saying that Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election. I didn’t hear Meagan criticize her mom for saying that the thought of Obama being commander in chief sent a cold chill down her spine. Meagan McCain can go to hell.
cbear
I’m curious as to how many of you folks were offended when Al Franken penned “Rush Limbaugh is a BIG FAT IDIOT” or when Olbermann regularly ridicules his gluttonious behavior???
Is that beyond the bounds of polite conversation for most of you? After all, Rush the Pigboy is not overly large by today’s standards, is he?
Hey, I’m REAL sorry that I called her fat.
I’m REAL sorry that I’ve lost my liberal cred by straying so far beyond the bounds of polite conversation regarding our good gooper friends.
I’m going to try REAL hard not to offend anybody in the future, even when I’m discussing a card carrying member of a group of cretins that haven’t the slightest compunction in routinely calling me a traitor to my country—or stealing every fucking cent that’s not nailed down, or being perfectly fucking content with watching the less fortunate die in the streets, or ad-fucking-infintium.
Oh yeah, I’m also REAL sorry for the bad language I used in the above paragraph. I hope I’ll at least get credit for not saying “blowjob”.
Carry on.
harlana pepper
@kay: You know, being from the south, I guess it just dawned on me how much this looked like typical White Southern Good Ole Boys’ Club racist zeal to protect and preserve their status in society amongst the brown people. While poor Sotomayor had to keep reminding them, including former attorneys, ad nauseum, what “precedent” means.
inkadu
Cbear — Rush Limbaugh was never a little girl. I hope the implications of that are clear to you.
harlana pepper
Meh on Meghan McCain. She stated the obvious. Not sure what the big whoop is about. Her party is fucking crazy and so is she if she doesn’t at least leave the party instead of just throwing out one-liners.
cbear
@inkadu: LOL…consider me suitably chastised, or should I say “Daou-ed”.
inkadu
@cbear: Daou! Is that the Homer-like sound liberals makes when they suddenly realize they are attacking a minority?
cbear
@inkadu: Close, but “DAOU!” it’s actually the frightened exclamation one makes when surrounded by goopers in a public restroom.
inkadu
Sorry, did you mean goopers or gropers?
inkadu
Well, it looks like nobody wants to get into a fight with us about the word “fat.” Sigh. Well, I’m sure Meghan will come up again. Or, if not, Andrea Dworkin.
harlana pepper
Well, I guess I’d rather be “full-figured” & pretty like Meghan than skinny & ugly-as-homemade-sin Mary Matalin, also. Hope that helps.
Wile E. Quixote
Rick Perlstein has an article on Newsweek about Palin’s fall and what it means for the Republican party. It’s good reading, as everything by Perlstein is.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/206098/output/print
`
Wile E. Quixote
@cbear
If you see a bunch of old white guys with flag pins and wide stances heading towards the men’s room my advice to you is to hold it in and find another restroom.