Yep, it's the time for "year-end" lists once again (getting a jump on some people with this, I'll admit, partly because posting will get flakier through the month), and I'd better start getting this wrapup for 2009 together because I have a lot of stuff; like last year, it will probably take me up to New Years Eve to get to it all, so here goes (and I also posted, more or less, over here).(And by the way, unacknowledged hat tips are probably owed here to Eschaton, The Daily Kos, Think Progress, Huffington Post, Open Left, Democracy Arsenal, and a few other sites here - many thanks)...
Whiner Of The Year Nominee (And Probable Winner)
Yep, Hangin’ Judge J.R. returned for his bi-yearly ritual of bitching about his salary (here, funny when you consider how he screwed up administering the oath of office to Obama)…
January Grinch Of The Year
Brian Tierney of Philadelphia Newspapers tells Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to cut city payroll by 5 percent for a staff of 23,000 city employees (no particular suggestions on how to do that, of course; Tierney, the “bottom line” guy that he is, doesn’t realize that he’s trying to run government like a business, which, as we know, worked so well for Bushco...here and here)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
Incoming (as of January) Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and outgoing chair “Jello Jay” Rockefeller for opposing Obama’s nomination of Leon Panetta to head the CIA, particularly given the fact that they both have a better record of supporting Bush nominees (here - I also see that DiFi dimed out Harry Reid on the "seating Obama replacement Roland Burris" thing, but to be honest, I think Reid “screwed the pooch” by refusing to seat Burris without knowing that Blago, warts and all, had the upper hand there – DiFi made up a bit on the Panetta thing, BTW, and Rockefeller has thus far stood tall on the public option in the seemingly-never-ending Senate health care reform grind)…
The “You Knew This Was Inevitable” Citation
In light of the financial stimulus packages requested for the financial services and auto industries, Think Progress tells us here that “Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt have asked Congress for a $5 billion bailout, arguing that their industry is also one of the ‘nation’s most important businesses’.” (here - insert your scatological snark here).
The "No One - Except Everyone - Could Have Foreseen This Either" Citation Of The Year Nominee
“Mississippi, Hotbed Of Abstinence Education, Now Boasts Highest Rate Of Teen Pregnancy” (here)...
The "Prolonging The Agony That Would Eventually End, But Not Soon Enough" Citation
Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao for this...
The "Too Smart To Work In This Business" Citation
To eventually terminated WaPo columnist (who was scooped up immediately by HuffPo) Dan Froomkin for this...
From The “Paybacks From Mother Nature Are A Bitch” File
Mike "Heckuva Job" Brown, formerly of FEMA, gets it for this...
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Rep. Milton Patterson, a Chicago Democrat, who cast the sole vote against impeaching embattled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (final tally was 114-1…guess the “present” vote by fellow State Rep. Elga Jefferies was counted as one of the 114 – here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who was indicted on charges that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree (she was eventually convicted on one of four counts, noted here).
Do Gooders Of The Year Nominees
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, for telling the Smithsonian to change the wording of a sign next to a portrait of President Bush that says his time in the White House was "marked by a series of catastrophic events" including the "the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq" (here).
And it should be noted that the director of the portrait gallery (Martin Sullivan) agreed with Sanders and said he’ll change the sign – a Do Gooder citation to him also.
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
IL Repug Rep Mark Kirk, who said here that it’s “time to take out the trash” In Gaza; as Brandon Friedman of VoteVets says, “People who throw around such cavalier remarks have never watched a civilian bleed to death on a battlefield after being cut down in the crossfire”...
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, considering the reason for his retirement (here - he would reappear in an impartial role in the Philadelphia Eagles' fiasco with Michael Vick later)...
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Glenn Beck, for citing the fictional congressional testimony of “24” character Jack Bauer as a supposed defense for torture (I know, considering this is Beck, I have to “grade on a curve” here, but this is truly ridiculous...so many other reasons, I know).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Dem Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island for this…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Evan Thomas of Newsweek, who said here that torture “may work,” even though he said in 2006 that it didn’t (should have quit while he still made sense).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, as noted here (he landed that US Air jet in the Hudson River, for the benefit of the five people on earth who don't know that...even though he is a true hero, he would end up squeezing those proverbial "15 minutes" to death)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
The criminals who vandalized the Arizona home of Eagles QB Donavan McNabb by burning messages into his front lawn in support of the Arizona Cardinals football team here (the Cards beat the Eagles in the NFC Championship game...how far away that seems now - aside from the obvious stupidity and maliciousness of that act, the fact that the team moved from St. Louis and never even bothered to change either their nicknames or their uniform colors is ridiculous as far as I’m concerned; maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never seen too many cardinals…i.e., that species of bird…in a desert).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, who urged the U.S. to pursue former President George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques (here)...
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Merrill Lynch, for paying out $4 billion in bonuses from TARP funds (here)....
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Former Bushco speechwriter Marc Thiessen for this (haven’t checked on his military experience, but I’ll bet it’s zero).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Russ Feingold for this…
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Yusef Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, for recording a cover of “The Day The World Gets ‘Round” by George Harrison for the children of Gaza (heard about this on ‘XPN in these parts...he would launch a tour after three decades later in the year)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Repug U.S. House Rep Phil Gingrey of Georgia (surprised?) who apologized for his criticisms of Flush Limbore and Sean Inanity (here...I don’t know who’s worse, actually: Gingrey or the idiots who voted for him).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Cleveland drum major and firefighter John Coleman for this (what a ridiculous overreaction by the corps)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Dem Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota for saying here of the stimulus package that “very little (was) done to help the financial sector”; as Atrios quite rightly asked, “how many trillion do we have to give them??”
The “And Windows Vista Really ‘Bites’ Too” Citation
As noted here, Bill Gates “opened a jar containing mosquitoes during a talk Wednesday at the Technology Entertainment Design conference in Long Beach, California,” trying to drive home the threat of malaria.
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Justice John E. Wallace Jr. of the New Jersey State Supreme Court, who ruled here that officials in Lawrence Township could not ban the display of a 10-foot inflatable rat on free speech grounds (the rat is a national symbol used by organized labor to signal a dispute).
Dregs Of The Year (And Fashion Fascist) Nominee
Former Bushco Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who complained to “Inside Edition” here about Obama not respecting some imaginary White House dress code by the new president’s taking his jacket off in the Oval Office, or something.
Hmmm, let me think here; wasn’t Card the guy who, along with Abu Gonzales, traveled to John Ashcroft’s hospital room in an attempt to strongarm a desperately sick man into signing a statement that Bushco’s warrantless surveillance (illegal at the time of the visit) was OK?
And wasn’t Card the guy who said here that Dubya would give John Kerry “the respect of more time” before conceding the presidential election in 2004 (as if that’s a decision for Card to even make or have a say about)?
Yeah, he’s a swell guy, isn’t he? Based on this, though, just call him Andrew “Cheeseburger Boy” Card (heh heh).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Repug U.S. House Rep “Mullah Pete” Sessions of Texas (of course), for saying (in essence) that the Repugs should adopt the tactics of the Taliban (here).
Dregs of The Year Nominee
Dem Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, for all the reasons Atrios notes here (I should compliment her for calling those Wall Street geniuses who very nearly wrecked our economy “idiots,” but the Eschaton post, noting this mythical “bipartisanship” McCaskill seems to be pursuing, explains why she ends up as a net negative on the stimulus bill before it was eventually signed into law)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Collectively, to the Virginia state legislature for allowing bar patrons to enter with guns (real swift) AND defeating a measure by Dem Governor Tim Kaine to enforce background checks on anyone purchasing a gun at a weekend “sportsman’s show,” as the New York Times tells us here (trying to stem the flow of gun traffic from VA to Washington, D.C. – responsible for half of the guns used in crimes in our nation’s capital – and also for crimes in NYC, though I don’t know what the percentage is there…pathetic).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who said that "this is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill," here.
You know, I’m sorry, but at this point, anyone who advanced the idiotic “it’s a spending bill, not a stimulus bill” notion was a liar, a crook, or a stone-cold moron (or any combination of the three).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Tennessee Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, who, as a one-time potential candidate for Health and Human Services Secretary under Obama (with Daschle out - Kathleen Sebelius was eventually named and confirmed), said here that "advocacy groups don't matter nearly as much as the pharmaceutical groups, the hospitals, the doctors' groups…”
What an asshat.
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
It's hard to give it to Snarlin' Arlen Specter, especially since I support Joe Sestak for the Senate in his place, but I have to for returning fire on Laura Ingraham over Specter's vote in support of the stimulus here (Update 12/7/09: and if it weren't for Joe Sestak, he probably wouldn't say this either, but give him credit for saying it just the same)
More later...
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