Politicians, Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up to Be Music Bloggers

John McCain's Daughter takes Reagan Dad to Bitburg

Did you see this in Pitchfork yesterday? "John McCain's Daughter: Music Blogger." Well, John McCain's 23 year-old daughter started (with the help of a couple others) an ersatz blog to follow and report about her dad's Presidential campaign. It's called the McCain . . . wait for it . . . "Blogette." How original that! Like "Wonkette," but, ya know, not all like mega-liberal or wonkish and junk, but, ya know, like, a blog 'n stuff. (Note: Meghan went to Columbia and doesn't really write like that in her li'l "blog." And she probably doesn't talk quite like that either.)

But she did recently post a Super Duper Tuesday playlist that included the RAMONES' "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" -- selected because it felt like her "Brain Was Hanging Upside Down" after "waking up at 5 am to go to The Today Show." I tried to link to this actual Blogette post, but the entries don't have individual permalinks. Because, like, it's not really a blog and stuff. Here's the McCain Blogette site if you want to wade through all the horsehit "musings and pop culture on the campaign trail" posts. The site includes a lot of photos of old, well dressed white people taken on campaign stops and at fundraisers. Dude, so rad! Oh, and it's not published under a Creative Commons license. (Oh that Lawrence Lessig, he's practically a Communist!)

There was a very funny post recently on Slate written by a college student who felt all alone in his support for Hillary. He noted that being a Hillary Clinton supporter instead of a Barack booster on campus was like "being a Yankee fan at a Red Sox game, a Barry Manilow lover at a Radiohead concert." Humm. Maybe being a McCain fan on campus feels like being a neo-Nazi at a Holocaust Museum. Or not.

But back to Bitburg. After that post, Meghan had sum splainin' to do (again, no permalink):

There's always some great irony in between life and art. I posted a link to the Ramone's [sic] "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" yesterday and some people seem to think there's some message in the fact that it was written in part [in part?? huh?] as a criticism of a trip President [Ronald] Reagan made to Bitburg, West Germany in May 1985.

Duh. WTF did she think Joey's song was about?! Then again, she was an infant when Joey and Dee Dee blasted "Bonzo" -- how can she be expected to know that Reagan was called "Bonzo" way back when (gee, what's that all about?) and, ya know, like, went to some Nazi cemetery and like the liberals and radicals and Jews (they're so touchy!)* got all like upset and like misconstrued the visit and stuff. (*As Meghan learned from wikipedia (see below): "Joey [Ramone], who was Jewish, has stated that he started on the song lyrics [for "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg"] after being almost physically sickened by the Reagan visit, feeling that the President had shown disrespect for the six million victims of the Holocaust by visiting Bitburg").

my copy of Bonzo Goes to Bitburg 12" single (back)

Gee, that's just what dad needs. Try to make your campaign seem just a wee bit hip in the face of Obama's netroots juggernaut by letting daughter Meghan write a "Blogette," and what does she do? Goes and slaps the sacred corpse of Reagan upside the head at a time when Dad's desperately trying to convince conservative Republicans that he's one of them after all, and not just some war-supporting moderate the independents love to love.

Gee, sorry dad.

Well, Meghan back peddled away from the Bonzo goes to Bitburg slap as fast as she could (clearly with the help of wiki-"making bloggers everywhere appear to know more than they actually do"-pedia):

Wow . . . I happen to like the song and figured it was a bit of an edgy choice considering the content . . . BUT those of you who know [what the song is about], also probably know Johnny Ramone was a proud Republican and big fan of President Reagan who insisted the title of [Joey Ramone's] song be changed to its refrain. So if you've been following along with us these last few months, you already know things aren't always what they seem on the Blogette . . . enjoy the song . . . love the irony . . .

Oh. It was 'sposed to be ironic. That esplains it. Talk about your "brain hanging upside down." Note: all ellipsis in original. Although I'm not sure she understands their proper usage . . . Meghan loves ellipsis (now there's a blog name).

Bonzo Goes To Bitburg -- RAMONES (1986)

Note that, in addition to no entry permalinks, you can't leave comments on the McCain Blogette. The "people [who] seem[ed] to think there's some message" in the "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" post had to email their thoughts and concerns. I mean, come on, Blogette may be pretending to be all hip and netrooty and connected to the people and all that junk but it's not gonna go all crazy-like and let actual real people contribute and post comments and, like, actually control content! Sheesh. What do you think this is barackobama.com or something?

I'm not sure why, but Blogette didn't post this:


(see "john.he.is" UPDATE to "Barack Obama Has a Posse" post, below).

p.s. "pick up the pieces."

p.p.s. Don't worry, los amigos is not turning into a political snark site or Barack blog. Except maybe every once in a while.
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