Anyone who tracked the election of 2008 probably has a pretty good idea of who Meghan McCain is. The daughter of Sen. John McCain, Meghan became notable for her blogging and vlogging of the McCain Campaign. A rare insider voice that was actually interesting to listen to, Meghan became kinda well-known in political circles for being a young voice for her father’s message. More to the point, she also showed that the ability to buck the official party line didn’t stop with her father. A diehard Republican, she’s voiced her stance on many issues that would be considered liberal socially. She’s now a political commentator on The Daily Beast.

This is Meghan around the time of the campaign.

This is ALSO Meghan, from a few months after.

An attractive woman, and far more of a real woman than the stick figures roaming the halls of Fox News and other cable channels these days (and as a red blooded American male, I prefer the healthier look to the “I eat a bean for breakfast, one for lunch and a sensible bean for dinner” look). The important point is, she’s a young woman who could be very useful to the Republican Party as a spokesperson and commentator… if they didn’t try their best to fuck it up.

It started in March, when conservative radio host Laura Ingraham called her a “Valley girl” and “plus size model” in response to a blog post McCain had written. Very mature, naturally. (As an aside, her article was about how there were other voices besides Ingraham’s and Ann Coulter in the female Republican movement.)

Well, now we come to the latest debacle. McCain has a twitter page that is followed by tens of thousands of people. The other night, she was relaxing at home reading a book. When people relax at home, they don’t wear suits- after all, we can’t all be Don and Betty Draper. She was wearing what a lot of women wear when they relax at home- tank top, shorts.

Deciding to share about her boring evening, she posted the comment “my “spontaneous” night in…” along with a link to this picture:

You can kinda guess what happened next.

Postings of “slut” began coming up quickly, and within an hour she was posting regrets about ever putting the picture up. Defenders and attackers both came out of the woodwork, and by this afternoon the picture was removed from Twitpic.

Okay, so the title of this post asked what was wrong with this picture. You want my answer?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing is wrong with the picture I posted up a few lines above- however, there’s something seriously wrong with the way some people have responded to it.

Look, never mind the fact that Meghan is very attractive and, ahem… very blessed to boot. She posted a picture of herself relaxing. That’s it. And because of this, some people have taken it upon themselves to be the proof of John Gabriel’s G.I.F.T. theory written about so long ago.

Now, why would people do this?

Seriously, why? What benefit is there to being an anonymous asshole?

I mean, if you’re honestly offended by the site of slightly exposed boobs then that’s your opinion and you’re welcome to it- but don’t attack the woman for it. If you want to say that posting the pic may not have been the best judgment call, then that’s a valid opinion- and one that I don’t even necessarily argue with given the responses she’s received. But to demean the woman by calling her a “slut” is patently ridiculous, and majorly offensive.

Ms. McCain, I doubt you’d ever read this. Quite frankly, Wetwired just doesn’t have the cache’ that other commentary sites have. However, should you read this I just want to say two things. First, ignore the jackasses who feel the need to personally attack you about something as innocuous as the pic above. You’re above them.

Second… you’ve made my heart skip a beat.

Out.

So, Paula Abdul has left American Idol.

In and of itself, this is newsworthy .After all, she’s an integral part of one of the most successful shows of the past 20 years. Her departure is the first major cast loss of the show since Brian Dunkleman left in Season One. (And before you ask, the ONLY reason I know this guy’s name is because he’s a stand-up comedian who’s been on Bob and Tom.)

What makes this story interesting, however, is not that she left. It’s the way in which she announced it.

On Twitter.

That’s right, folks. A major part of a hugely successful show announced her departure, 140 characters at a time. Shortly afterwards, Fox confirmed her departure in an official press release.

Now, I don’t care that an aging ex-pop star got in a hissy over pay and decided to leave the cash cow that is AI. I don’t care that her younger, more attractive replacement was practically groomed for the position with her introduction last year. I don’t care about the damn show at all, in fact.

What I find interesting, in this case, is that she used Twitter to announce her departure. This was major news for a very profitable production, and it was done on a social media tool used by many to announce things no more important than what they ate.

This could be the high water mark for Twitter, once you think about it. I have to wonder what else may come through the tool, given this turn of events. I also find it remarkable that Paula’s agent didn’t stop her from posting this message, and that it went through an unofficial channel first instead of being squeezed through the PR funnel.

I’m also interested in what our social media guru has to say about it. Stacked Heel, what’s your take on this?

Out.

There’s no escaping the meteoric rise of Twitter in the past few months, with it getting mentions on morning tv shows, celebrity gossip shows, it’s been pushed to the forefront of everyone’s internet consciousness. There was also a much-publicized Twitter Race to a Million Followers between Ashton Kutcher and CNN.

Right after the Twitter War, ev, the CEO of Twitter posted this cryptic message: “Tomorrow just became a very big day” What would it be?

Turns out, the big news is that Oprah is now on Twitter, and it’s really her. Game On. Will her “Oprah Effect” be as influential in 140 characters as it is on her show? Well, by noon of her inaugural day she had almost 1000 followers, by 4pm (CST) she had almost 100,000 followers, and only 6 benign updates (someone please get her a Reuben). And this was just the soft opening. The hook was that she was going to make her Twitter Debut live on her show.

I am curious to see what she will do with Twitter. She’s already an adopter of new media and technology, often Skyping in people onto her show. I’ve been asked if her legions of apostles are even internet savvy. I’m postive many of them are, if it’s just to go internet shopping. If she tweets out her Favorite Things? Oh Hell. Bitches will be crashing some servers to get to them. Ever watch an Oprah’s Favorite Things show? The level of screaming and cheering women rival that of The Beatles or a Barack Obama appearance. You can’t get them to shut up. If she will tweet out discount codes or free shipping to get the stuff she recommends, I fear the internets will become one huge Fail Whale. It could take this country right out of the recession. Two things power the internet, and that’s porn and women who shop online. I’ve seen instances where a discount code and secret sale is leaked onto a women’s makeup and shopping message board and they have crashed Sephora and Nordstrom’s sites getting to it. Yes, Oprah could break the internets with the right free ship code.

She could use it for good as well, I suppose, her book club recommendations and her various causes. There’s lots of Twittering for charity lately. Many of the Twitterati has been behind a lot of charitable tweeting, and I think Ashton Kutcher’s hook to get him to 1M follwers included mosquito nets in third world countries. Does she still do her book club? Twitter would be another good way to get her book recs out to her apostles and keep em reading.

So, while there is a certain undercurrent rumblings of people displeased with such a high-profile person on Twitter, I have high hopes for Oprah’s use of it. Hopefully more than just an update to who’s going to be on her show. I think she can use it for good.

She might need an internet coach and Social Media Marketer on her team, my favorite celebrity twitter-er, THE_REAL_SHAQ pwns her after she makes her inaugural post:

twitter, oprah, ashton kutcher, cnn, larry king, aplusk, shaq

This Weekend Week’s End Wrap Up for April 12th thru 18th is brought to you by macaroni and cheese.

Sunday: The Obamas got a dog. Are you happy now? No, you’re not, because the purebred dog is not from a shelter. The dog is a present to the President’s daughters from Senator and Mrs. Edward Kennedy. Is it a rescue dog at least? It was originally registered to another owner, but they returned the dog to the breeders, and the Kennedys got a dog for themselves, and a dog for the girls. So, no, it wasn’t from a shelter and it wasn’t really abandoned, and Obama promised he would rescue a puppy from a shelter because that’s the only way good people get pets. Oh yea, this sounds exactly like a conspiracy.

Monday: This isn’t really news, but did you know there is a 75 year-old porn actor? In Japan?! Well, that Japan part isn’t shocking, but still! He says he does it (acting in porn, that is) because he wants to encourage other people his age to… do it. Shigeo Tokuda debuted at age 59, and has made over 200 movies in the past 16 years. “In Monday’s film he used vibrators, whips and candle lights to show the master satisfying a 36-year-old actress. The film was not scripted.”

Tuesday: NASA named the new room for the space station “Tranquility.” They say it has something to do with the whole Sea of Tranquility moon landing thing. “Tranquility” was the eighth most popular response in the online poll. “Colbert” was the first most popular in the original poll, and those were write in votes. Congrats NASA, you saved your dignity and screwed yourself out of getting Colbert to beg his legions of fans to fund terraforming Mars.

Wednesday: A 13 year-old boy robbed a bank in Peoria, IL. He threatened a teller with a gun and demanded money, and got a whole four blocks away before ducking in to a nearby garage. Police found him covered in red dye from an ink pack placed in the bag of cash. Authorities will not say whether the boy will be charged as an adult. If he is, he can face up to 30 years in jail. If he is not, he should be forced to wear those spotty red clothes for an equal amount of time.

Thursday: Sarah Palin used her family’s dirty laundry to school President Obama about supporting abortion rights. “Palin said the challenges she faced during her pregnancy with her son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, gave her an opportunity to live out her anti-abortion beliefs… Palin said women who can’t give birth should have the opportunity to adopt children who might otherwise be aborted. She mentioned that her own daughter Bristol became pregnant as an unmarried teen and has since given birth to a son.” Well, good, is Bristol giving up her baby so a sterile woman can be blessed with a child? No, then shut up and quit dragging her in to everything.

Friday: Ashton Kutcher became the first twitter member to reach 1 million followers, beating out CNN by 1,200 followers. Kutcher had promised to buy 10,000 mosquito nets if he was the first to reach 1 million. First: Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN? Pourquoi? What the hell is Ashton Kutcher doing every 10 minutes that’s so damn important? Also, he has millions of dollars, why isn’t he buying thousands of mosquito nets every month. Learn to budget!

Saturday: London resident Carolina Cartwright was handed an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) after being reported to the police 25 times for noisy sex. “The 47-year-old denied the latest five charges, but was convicted after Sunderland magistrates listened to recordings of the loud lovemaking.” The judge will make his final ruling, as soon as he finishes listening to the evidence in his private chambers.

So, I have a twitter page now.

Py’ been after me or ages to get one of these, so I signed up and I’m updating it now. You can find it here, and I’ve added a link on the Blogroll. Enjoy, I guess.

Out.

First off, they had some this morning.  Apparently there were multiple rumors flying around about apple telling stores not to sell anymore because of the itunes server issues.  This morning though, the apple store had some in stock.  The Lakeline mall did not nor did the store near there in Texadelphia.  But, a few scattered AT&T stores near Parmer/35 and also near the domain/arboretum did have some.

One of our readers “superman” went this morning to be number 16 in line at a store and talked to a guy who was 2 away yesturday from getting one and had he arrived 5 minutes sooner he would have got one today.  That has so got to suck to wait for 6 hours and still have nothing to show for it.

As far as my own iphone goes – last night I was able to activate as soon as I got home from work.  iTunes backs up your iphone, syncs of contacts if you have that setup on your apple computer – syncs with mobile me, and then syncs any applications you’ve already downloaded.

One of the cool features (and slightly scary): Sitting on my couch in the corner of my house and then clicking on the maps – finding my location and having the blue dot right on the corner of my house where I am – with the satalite hybrid picture of my roof.  I also like the twitter plug in – it allows you to show pictures really quickly to others.