Well, what would it be if we didn't have some final kudos to extend and parting shots to deliver before this year fades into memory?As you can see, I've spent a good amount of time accumulating this stuff - I hope you enjoy it.
Runner Up Do-Gooder of the Year
Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest, who refused to turn over phone records to NSA in fall ’01 despite the fact that Verizon, AT&T and Bell South did (and I don’t care if in this case if he was investigated for securities fraud)
Another Runner Up
Steve Almond, former adjunct professor of English at Boston College, for resigning after the school allowed Condoleezza Rice to give the commencement address.
Another Runner Up
Bill Richardson, for telling "St." McCain that he’s wrong to request more troops for Iraq, and that any possible solution to that mess has to be a political one.
Most Unnecessarily Contrite Shooting Victim At The Hands of the Vice President of the United States
Harry Whittington (this has sound)
("Deadeye Dick" also went hunting on Election Day apparently; we never received word of any casualties.)
Bad Sport Of The Year (Runner Up)
Author Annie Proulx who wrote the original story for "Brokeback Mountain," lamenting that film's loss of the Best Picture Oscar to "Crash."
Bad Sport Of The Year (Runner Up)
Isaac Hayes for leaving “South Park” because Matt Stone and Trey Parker lampooned Scientology (Hayes is a member...I should add, though, that I think "South Park" gets a little tiresome in its lampooning of religion in general - just my opinion, for what it's worth).
Most Overplayed Celebrity Dustup
The spat between George Clooney and Arianna Huffington over whether or not it was Clooney blogging or his publicist at the time of the release of "Good Night And Good Luck" onto DVD.
Most Delusional Political Campaign Operative
Jon Laramie of the Andy Warren campaign (Warren was defeated in the Democratic priamry last May by Congressman-elect Patrick Murphy) who suggested that Murphy “could work on Andy’s campaign after May 17th the same way he worked on John Kerry’s” and referred to a commenter with an alias as one-time Murphy campaign manager Josh Nanberg, which the commenter vociferously denied.
Most Chickenhearted Attempt To Honor An Antiwar Protestor
Georgia Senator Steen Miles (why am I not surprised that this came from Georgia?) who introduced a resolution to honor Jane Fonda and then voted against her own resolution when it came to a vote.
Most Insane Linkage Between Abortion And Immigration
Georgia Republican Nancy Schaefer (Georgia again?).
Hero of 2006 (Runner Up)
Arizona governor Janet Napolitano for vetoing that state's "fetal pain bill."
Anti-Choice Numbskull Of The Year
Repug Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey for trying to get the "fetal pain bill" passed in the U.S. House after Napolitano vetoed it.
Most Paranoid Delusion of a U.S. Invasion
That fine Christian man Dr. Earl Tilford of Grove City College envisioned Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba joining Dubya's "Axis Of Evil" in a May column that appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times.
Most Inappropriately Tactile Moment Involving A Foreign Head Of State, Possibly In An Attempt At Evangelical Conversion
Dubya’s “laying of hands” on Angela Merkel.
“To Boldly Go Where No Man Ever Imagined Another Man In A T.V. Science Fiction Series Would Ever Go” Award
Faye Flam of the Inquirer discussing some Kirk-on-Spock soft core porn.
Most Tedious Moment Of ‘Fear And Smear’ Campaigning
Santorum’s speech to the National Press Club on 7/20 in which he criticized Condoleezza Rice, among others, for opposing the Iran Freedom and Support Act, of which Santorum was a co-sponsor; Rice opposed the legislation because she said it “would hamper her ability to negotiate alongside U.S. allies”
Most Pointlessly Commercialized Exploitation Of Air Sickness
The decision by U.S. Airways to advertise on barf bags.
Darkest Bushco Moment Of The Year
Aside from ignoring the ISG report, I would nominate his veto of the stem cell research bill, the only veto thus far of his fraudulent presidency.
The “No Divinity Shapes Her Ends” Award
Former NJ attorney general Zulima Farber for trying to get various vehicle violations fixed for her “friend” Hamlet Goore.
Most Irrelevant Notation of a Doctored Photo Award
Charles Johnson of the freeper blog Little Green Footballs for blowing the whistle on the Reuters freelancer who doctored the photos of the bombing in Lebanon, which apparently falls under the category of "do as I say, not as I do," based on this.
Do-Gooder Of The Year (Another Runner Up)
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor for ruling against Dubya’s domestic spying.
Most Offensive Iraq War Apologist
Christopher Hitchens for giving the finger to the "Real Time With Bill Maher" audience.
The “Art Hopefully Never Imitating Life” Award
The UK drama that fictionalized Bush’s assassination (hey, even I draw the line somewhere).
The “Channeling Edward R. Murrow For Real” Award
Keith Olbermann’s response to Rumsfeld on 8/31 (followed by an equally withering commentary on Dubya for his 9/11 propagandizing a few days later – the commentary in response to Kerry’s backfired joke was probably the best).
The “Actor Who Knows More Than The Screenplay Author And The Director” Award
Harvey Keitel for trying to straighten out the factual problems (good luck) in “The Path To 9/11.”
The “You Are Always On My Mind, I Think” Award
Willie Nelson for his bust for pot and mushroom possession in September.
“Dregs Of The Year” Nominees
Mike McCurry and Christopher Wolf for their “Hands Off The Internet” fraud.
Song Parody Of The Year
Paul Hipp of HuffPo for his take on the Ted Haggard travesty (this has sound: story here - Hipp's parody of Cheney's shooting of Harry Whittington takes second place)…
Highest Profile Democratic Politician For Whom "No-News" News Was Continually Generated
Harry Reid (and apparently now, the freepers are mad at him because he said he wouldn't be able to attend any of the funeral functions for Gerald Ford...unbelievable; Nancy Pelosi is the runner-up for this one based on her support of John Murtha for House majority leader - meanwhile, Trent "Jim Crow" Lott wins the role of Senate Minority Whip by one measly vote, but nary a mention is made of that).
Non-Genius Of The Year
Karl Rove, for the GOP’s loss of Congress in the November elections.
Dregs Of The Year (Runner Up)
Robert Barchi, president of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, for allowing “The Gross Clinic,” perhaps Thomas Eakins’ masterwork once housed at the university, to be sold to an art consortium including heirs who are owners of Wal-Mart, which would have allowed the painting to be housed in Arkansas (11/11, Philadelphia Inquirer); fortunately, the sale was prevented. Barchi's memorable quote during this fiasco was “we’re not a museum; we’re not in the business of art education.”
Do-Gooder Of The Year (Runners Up)
Sen. Christopher Dodd of CT for standing up to Dubya on his “Military Commissions Act.”
Jim Webb for his answer to Bush’s question about his son (and his great column in the Wall Street Journal)
Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post (his 11/30 “Bullshit” column)
Ink-Stained Wretch Of The Year
Columnist J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier Times…as much as I wanted to throttle him for some of his fawning pro-Bush columns, he wrote that, if the Democrats were serious about helping Patrick Murphy win the 8th district U.S. House seat, they would have found a way to have Bill Clinton campaign with him. Well, that’s what ended up happening, and it definitely created some excitement that only helped Patrick in his successful bid to defeat Mikey Fitzpatrick.
Idiot Of The Year
Michael Richards for his racist rant followed by an apology festival a la Mel Gibson, then his statement that he “feels Jewish” after he went into an anti-Semitic rant prior to his racist rant, and then it turned out that he wasn’t really Jewish after all.
Wow, first he insults blacks and then Jews. I guess Arabs would have to be next then, right?
Dregs Of The Year (Runner Up)
Officials at Valley and Desert Springs Hospitals in Las Vegas as well as Universal Health Services Incorporated who persuaded the SEIU nurses at the two Las Vegas hospitals to agree to a "cooling off" period in contract negotiations just before they were locked out and replaced with scab nurses.
Do-Gooder Of The Year (Runner Up)
Bob Maxwell, formerly of the Department of the Interior who of course had to be fired by Bushco because he performed his oversight function so well and saved the taxpayers so much money.
Campaign Of The Year
Murphy-Fitzpatrick actually takes second place to the PA House contest for state representative between Dave Steil and Mike Diamond in District
Update 1/1/2007: My bad - Steil is in District 31, not 10 (thanks to anonymous commenter).
The “Resurrecting Mikey’s ‘Delete Online Predators’ Nonsense” Award
That “straight talker” and “maverick” himself John McCain (a lot of this garbage sounds exactly what Fitzy came up with – McCain morphs more and more into a version of Dubya with each passing day)…
Anti-Semite Of The Year
Don Imus, for his remarks as recorded here by Media Matters.
Let’s forget about Mel Gibson and Michael Richards for a second. Imus uttered these insulting words on or about December 8th, and it wasn’t picked up by anybody. Not CNN, MSNBC, AP, Fox – nobody!
Why didn’t HE get sentenced to some “mass apology festival” showing contrition to Norman Lear or Alan Dershowitz or something?
Most Ignored Remembrance Of A Presidential Crisis
November marked the 20th anniversary of the Iran-Contra scandal, but aside from refdesk.com and this blog, I didn’t see any mention of it anywhere. Of course, our corporate media was too busy commenting on the size of Barack Obama’s ears to notice along with the fact that his middle name is – horrors! – Hussein, so I guess that’s their excuse.
CD Of The Year
“Kaskistocracy” (hey, just trying to give Luke and Tommy another assist, OK?)
Most Public Imaginary “Hacking” By A Winning Democratic Primary Candidate
Ned Lamont (or so said the Lieberman For Myself And Not Really Connecticut Campaign - more on Ned Lamont later).
Invisible Man Of The Year
Porter Goss, former head of the CIA who seemed to completely disappear after this scandal was brought to light (and by the way, in "State of Denial," Woodward mentions that former Bushco stooge Andrew Card made sure that Goss attended a management training course after he was named head of the CIA...if you're going to get that kind of a job, shouldn't you know that stuff already? Goss said he was unqualified, and it seems that he was telling the truth).
Misinformer Of The Year
ABC (echoing a post from Atrios on 12/23)
Homophobe Of The Year
Crazyland Repug Sen. Sam Brownback (re: Janet Neff and same-sex commitment ceremony)
Most Bigoted Virginian In Need Of A History Lesson
A shocker – George Felix Macaca Allen actually DOESN’T get this award. It goes instead to Repug congressman Virgil Goode.
Good Sport Of The Year
Believe it or not, Rick Santorum for his gracious words about Bob Casey, Jr. when Santorum conceded on November 7th.
Bad Sports Of The Year (Winners?)
Mikey Fitzpatrick and his legion of followers for their incessant and absolutely juvenile mean-spirited whining about Mikey’s loss to Patrick Murphy in the recent PA-08 U.S. congressional election (the most recent episode is Mikey’s interview recorded by the Philadelphia Inquirer with stenographic accuracy…gee, is it asking too much for Philadelphia’s conservative newspaper of record to actually provide some background and context into why Patrick DEFEATED HIM because he was a BETTER CANDIDATE and Mikey’s record was so HORRIBLE??!!)
Stupidest Storyline Of The Year
Lots to choose from as usual: narrowing it down, do you think it was A) Sandy Berger’s admitted destruction of 9/11-related documents at the National Archive and the subsequent ramifications up to and including the collapse of the republic (yes, it was stupid on his part, but it was over-reported, analyzed, spun, critiqued and lied about into infinity, and it probably always will be), or B) The promise that Jack Abramoff would name Democrats in his massive lobbying scandal (and short of that, the fact that Dems received donations from Abramoff clients, which somehow was as bad as receiving donations from Abramoff itself...and by the way, Abramoff is in "the gray bar hotel" now; if he's going to name Dems, what's he waiting for)?
Well, my choice would be C) The idea that, no matter what calamity befalls us domestically, what new disaster occurs in Iraq, or anything at all really, it can somehow result in good news for George W. Bush. And that insanely idiotic notion is echoed here (via Atrios) by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a person I used to respect.
R.I.P.
Gordon Parks, Maureen Stapleton, Coretta Scott King, Dennis Weaver, Syd Barrett, William Styron, Mike Douglas, Peter Boyle, James Brown, Ed Bradley, Glenn Ford, Wilson Pickett, Ahmet Ertegun, Frank Stanton, Billy Preston, The Pennsauken Mart, Goodnoe’s, Blog Cabin, Brandoland
And now, without further ado...
Do-Gooders Of The Year (Co-Winners)
For the longest time, I considered Russ Feingold a lock for this because of his motion to censure Dubya on the NSA spying, but I think it's also appropriate to include Ned Lamont for his U.S. Senate candidacy that, among other things, stirred up opposition to the Iraq war against the “conventional wisdom” of the DLC. Congratulations!
I thought the following from Act For Change was a neat summary of what we accomplished in 2006 also:
Through both our ActForChange and Citizen Action Letter programs, you sent more than 3.7 million messages this year, and helped convinced decision-makers to do the right thing on the following issues:I think that's about it (probably enough for now), and I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2007!
• Permanent repeal of the estate tax -- The Senate adjourned this year without making Paris Hilton's generous tax breaks permanent -- an unnecessary giveaway to the already-wealthy that would have made our national debt even worse.
• Judicial appointments -- Despite repeat attempts, four of President Bush's unqualified and ideologically-extreme nominees (Myers, Haynes, Wallace and Boyle) were never confirmed for lifetime appointments to the federal bench.
• John Bolton -- President Bush gave him a recess appointment as UN Ambassador and repeatedly sent his name up for permanent confirmation, but the Senate wisely declined to act, and Bolton resigned in early December.
• Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage -- This proposed amendment would have been the first to enshrine discrimination into our U.S. Constitution, but fortunately Senate conservatives fell far short of the 67 votes necessary to pass the amendment.
• The Cheney-Specter wiretapping bill -- S. 2453 would have retroactively authorized all of the President's warrantless wiretapping, but it never passed the Senate, and expired when the 109th Congress adjourned late this year.
• Reauthorization of Voting Rights Act -- In July, Congress renewed and strengthened the Voting Rights Act, including bilingual ballots and other protections for language minorities in 500 jurisdictions. The law also requires federal observers to document and deter intimidation and discrimination at the polls.
• Punitive immigration legislation -- H.R. 4437, if passed in the Senate, would have made it a felony to provide any assistance whatsoever -- such as a drink of water to someone dying of thirst in the desert -- to undocumented immigrants. Fortunately, the Senate passed different legislation, and the two versions of the bill could never be reconciled.
• National Uniformity in Food Safety law -- This legislation would have preempted state regulations and set a uniform, and completely inadequate, national standard for truth in labeling on the foods we eat. This legislation never passed the Senate.
• Corruption in Congress -- Following exposure of their unethical (and potentially illegal) acts, Representatives Ney of Ohio and DeLay of Texas both resigned from their seats in Congress. (We're still calling on Representatives Jefferson and Doolittle to do the same.)
• State-level victories -- In California, we helped convince the Public Utilities Commission to create a $3 billion solar energy program (the nation's largest); helped pass the Global Warming Solutions Act to mandate a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020; helped pass AB 774 to prevent hospitals from overcharging the uninsured; helped pass AB 1870 to require a visible smoke test as part of statewide smog check inspections; and helped persuade the governor to formally request protection of all 4.4 million acres of the state's roadless wilderness. In Oregon, we helped convince the Environmental Quality Commission to officially adopt the California clean car standard. In Washington, we helped pass expanded family-leave legislation; and helped convince the Washington Pharmacy Board to require that all pharmacists fill prescriptions (including emergency contraception) regardless of personal objections. In Texas, we helped establish the Neches River Wildlife Refuge, and protected school funding equity through amendments to House Bill One. In Utah, we helped reject the teaching of creationism by stopping a plan to add 'Divine Design' to the state's curriculum. In Arizona, we helped pass a bill to provide tax incentives for solar energy installations. In Massachusetts, we helped secure a $1.25 million increase in funding for state housing vouchers for low income residents. In New York, we helped convince the state Environmental Review Board to move forward on strict regulation of mercury emissions from power plants.
Update 12/31: Yep, I would definitely say that Rep. Thomas Caltagirone qualifies as a last-minute candidate for Dregs Of The Year based on this.
5 comments:
Impeach Bush. Why is it, we Americans were so willing to impeach Clinton over a sex scandal when almost every president in the U.S. has done the same thing, but we are unwilling to impeach Bush and Cheney for lying to the American public with their aggregious lies of evidence for going to war in Iraq? For not representing the American people's will, for putting us American's in more harms way by entering Iraq.
Impeach Bush.
Absolutely - may it be so somehow in 2007. Thanks.
Steil and Diamond are in the 31st House District. The 10th House District is a rural district somewhat Northwest of Pittsburgh. (You probably were thinking of the 10th Senate District in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.)
You forgot to mention that, after Clinton came to campaign for Murphy, J.D. wrote another column about how he didn't really get Clinton's appeal. What a chump.
Oops - good catch on Steil's district...color me embarrassed. I'll update that in a minute.
Yeah, J.D. is such a "bud," isn't he? I didn't enjoy pointing that out, but I had to give credit where it's due (funny...he doesn't "get" Clinton's appeal, with the implied assumption that, somehow, Dubya has any whatsoever).
I know Mullane had a column about the Saddam snuff film yesterday which is currently online all over the place, including Michelle Malkin's site I believe. I guess I would be just some filthy, unkempt liberal blogger if I pointed out to people that maybe we should stop salivating over that long enough to realize that we suffered our 3,000th military fatality in Iraq yesterday, so I really don't see any type of reason to celebrate at all.
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