On we go (Part One is here, and I also posted over here).Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Stewart Parnell, owner of Peanut Corp. of America, who repeatedly invoked his right not to incriminate himself before the House subcommittee holding a hearing on a national salmonella outbreak blamed on his company, as noted here (the story tells us that “the outbreak has sickened some 600 people, may be linked to nine deaths - the latest reported in Ohio on Wednesday - and has resulted in one of the largest product recalls of more 1,800 items”).
The story also tells us that Parnell “urged his workers to ship bacteria-tainted products, pleading with federal health officials that he should be able ‘turn the raw peanuts on the floor into money’.“
As I said to a friend of mine, Parnell and Sammy Lightsey, Parnell’s plant manager, should both be tied to chairs with their mouths pried open so they could be force-fed their contaminated peanuts.
And of course, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy.
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Repug Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, for all of the utterly tiresome episodes noted in this post; so as of now, he’s not going to run in 2010, creating another possibility for a Dem seat, but he decided not to support the stimulus, and now, without a cabinet post, he may end up with zilch – not real bright career moves here, people.
Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Florida Governor Charlie Crist (and any other Repug) who actually supported the stimulus (here, though of course he would walk away from that later)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Grant Exton, the executive director of the Arkansas Concealed Carry Association, who said allowing concealed weapons in churches would not make churches more likely to have volatile situations, but adds that that is not his point (link expired - sorry).
"It's a problem of (the government) telling churches what to do in an area of moral issue, where that should be none of their business," Exton said. Of 48 states that allow concealed carry, 42 let churches make the decision, Exton said.Uh – right.
"We have the government in an area that it shouldn't be," he said.
Read this, brainiac; it tells you that Arkansas is one of the 48 states that allows “concealed carry.”
So what is your point, exactly? Besides promoting yourself and your cause at the expense of innocent victims of gun violence, I mean?
The bill sponsored by state rep Beverly Pyle (another numbskull) would end up forcing churches to post signs saying that guns aren’t allowed, if they wisely choose to keep them out of church. Which would lead to the inevitable court challenge to get them INTO church (this whole episode being nothing but an idiotic attempt to overturn the 1995 concealed carry permit law, which specifically prohibits concealed weapons in places of worship - John Phillips, pastor of Central Church of Christ in Little Rock, was the only sane person in this story, IMHO...he spoke out against the bill).
Remind me never to contemplate actually living in the state of Arkansas (I posted on this here).
(Fortunately, the bill died in the State Senate - here.)
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
A dual citation to Virginia House Repug Eric Cantor and Baby Newton Leroy; the former for following the latter’s obstructionist course in the U.S. House from the ‘90s here (meanwhile, the country makes up its own mind here)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
George Will of the WaPo, who claimed in a February column that "according to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979," an assertion which happens to be patently false (kudos to TPM Muckraker for calling Will on this here, and Fred Hiatt of the WaPo receives a dishonorable mention for helping Will get away with this - in a related vein, Will would look like an ass on this subject later over the hacked University of East Anglia Emails here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
George McGovern for opposing the Employee Free Choice Act (here...as noted in the post update, though, he did the right thing by bailing on the CPAC conference)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Cartoonist Sean Delonas of the New York Post for comparing President Obama to a dead chimp (here - unbelievable)…
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominees
The DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team and coach Dave Rohlman; what a story this is.
His team (the Barbs?) was playing the Milwaukee Madison team, whose captain, Johntel Franklin, lost his mother before the game. The game had started, and Franklin showed up from the hospital and was mobbed by his teammates; they and the coach asked Franklin if he wanted to sit with them on the bench for the game. Franklin said no – he wanted to play.
The problem is that, since Franklin wasn’t on the pre-game roster, the rules state that, if he were put in, the Milwaukee team would have to be penalized, giving DeKalb two free throws.
That’s what happened. And DeKalb player Darius McNeal missed both on purpose.
Class.
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Former Senator Man-On-Dog himself here for stating that the Qur’an was written in “Islamic,” which doesn’t happen to be a language – any wonder why he was voted out of the Senate?
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
A dual citation: one to Rick Santelli, on-air editor for CNBC, who called Americans who face losing their homes to foreclosure "losers" who don't deserve government help (here), and the other to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, whose bank received $25 billion in bailout funds from the government, though he refused to tell CNBC anchor Melissa Francis how the bank is performing this quarter and also said the following…
"I don't think just because someone's underwater they say I don't have to stay there. But they're supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you're supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them. Because you have a mortgage doesn't mean you should run away as it goes down."As Bugs would say, what a maroon, at the very least (here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
The Arizona-based punk rock band The Awful Truth here for putting a photo on its album of police officer Erik Hite lying on the ground after he was shot during a chase (Hite later died). And to boot, the photo was the property of the Daily Star newspaper, who sued the band (so they’re insensitive idiots and possibly guilty of copyright infringement also – nice work).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Repug Sen. Jim “I Hear Voices” Bunning, for predicting that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be dead from pancreatic cancer in nine months here (OK, so he apologized here, and fortunately he was wrong also, but is it too much trouble to spell her name right?)
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Utah Repug Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. here for criticizing his congressional party members for opposing the stimulus (and, predictably, earning their wrath in the process)…
The “Just To Prove He Doesn't Walk On Water” (Before His Poll Numbers Fell Somewhat, I Mean) Citation
In his address before Congress in February, President Barack Obama claimed that the U.S. “invented the automobile,” which technically isn’t true (here); Germans Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach produced a four-wheeled automobile with a four-stroke engine in 1895, and Henry Ford didn’t build the “Model T” until 1908.
Cheapskate Of The Year
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who refused to pick up the tab for dinner with the Bushies (here)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
“Diaper Dave” Vitter here, for calling on Blago-appointed Illinois senator Roland Burris to resign due to the latter’s answers concerning his fundraising work for the former profanity-spewing Illinois governor which, inconveniently for Burris, happen to run contrary to what he said prior to confirmation (at least Burris didn’t associate with a prostitute after caterwauling about “family values” during those supposedly awful Clinton days and remain in his seat anyway like Vitter did).
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
I'm sure Colorado is a great state, and it's plenty gorgeous I know, but it sure has two scummy Repug politicians to chastise here: first is State Sen. Dave Schultheis, who says here that HIV testing for pregnant women rewards "sexual promiscuity" here...and State Sen. Scott Renfroe, who equated “homosexuality as a sin with murder” here.
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Los Alamitos, CA Mayor Dean Grose, who sent an “e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title ‘No Easter egg hunt this year’”; he resigned, but he’s still an idiot (here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Dem Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey for still supporting that idiotic embargo on Cuba (here)…and way to help the whole “divided Dems” narrative along, Bob (here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
Repug U. S. House Rep Zach Wamp of Tennessee for saying health care in this country “is a privilege, not a right” here (I’m particularly steamed about that after having watched “Sicko” as I recovered from a sinus infection)…same for Bushie Andrew Card here.
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown for condemning Proposition 8 (here)
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, who pronounced excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped, as noted here (dishonorable mention to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Catholic church's Congregation for Bishops, who defended Sobrinho).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Warren Buffett, for opposing the Employee Free Choice Act here (“card check” my ass)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times here for trying to sanitize Dubya’s abuse of signing statements (h/t Atrios; so many reasons with this guy, including this also for mocking an unemployed man - what an a#@hole - but this will do for now)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Chuck Norris, another wingnut proposing an armed insurrection against the United States here (how appropriate that his “call to the troops” will be broadcast on Friday the 13th).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Former Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; continuing the campaign for his seat in Congress after it has long since been lost is one thing, but posting the credit card numbers of your donor database online (along with the three-digit security codes) is a whole other level of stupid, I must admit (here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Justin Cardinal Rigali for this
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Ari Fleischer, for STILL trying to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11 (here)…
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Former Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell, a member of the ’08 world championship team who was not resigned by the team after the season; Burrell, in a typically odd coincidence in sports, ended up signing with the Tampa Bay Rays, the team the Phillies beat in the World Series – he gets the nod here for taking out a full-page ad in the Philadelphia Daily News in March thanking the fans for supporting him and the team…class.
Update 12/31/09: And by the way, former Eagle and current Denver Bronco Brian Dawkins deserves a Do Gooder citation for doing the same thing as Burrell did in today's issue of the Philadelphia Daily News, thanking the Eagles fans for their expressions of appreciation upon his return to town for the recent game between his current and former teams that the Eagles won 30-27.
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
CNN’s John King for his “fluffarama” of an interview with Deadeye Dick (here)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Dana Perino, for trying to give her old boss credit for the recent stock market rebound here (uh, Dana, he’d been gone for almost two months, OK?).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Chip Reid of CBS News (here), for asking Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if it was OK to attack Deadeye Dick Cheney after the former veep from hell expounded at lunatic length already against the new administration
Dregs Of The Year Nominees
Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin Dontcha Know, who rejected half of her state’s stimulus funds (here), and would-be felon Larry Kudlow of CNBC for setting a dollar bill on fire (here)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Albert Haynesworth, former star defensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans who had signed a $100 million contract with the Washington Redskins, though that didn’t prevent him from an indictment for driving recklessly with an expired vehicle registration here (numbskull).
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., who blocked a Bushco rule allowing people to carry concealed loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges (here - and in a flashback, she also deserves credit for this)…
The “Get A Life, Will You, People?” Citation Of The Year
The New York Times reported in March on Scott Veazie of Washougal, Wash, who, along with a bunch of other “Trekkies,” built chairs designed on the one in which Captain James T. Kirk sat in the original “Star Trek” series (oh, excuse me…I mean, “Trekk-ERs” - here).
Dregs Of The Year Nominee
Israeli President Shimon Peres for calling on the Iranians to topple their government immediately after Obama sent them a message calling for a fresh start of sorts here (I mean, if Peres wants to say that any other time, fine, but just chalk this up to yet another moment when our “allies” the Israelis play us for saps – and by the way, speaking of Israel, does anyone know what the $#@! is going on with Ariel Sharon? Is he hooked up to tubes all over the place like Darth Vader or something? Not trying to make fun if the man is very sick - just wondering).
Most Ignored Anniversaries Of The Year (Including By Me, Unfortunately)
Amadou Diallo died 10 years ago on February 4th (and I think this was the 13th anniversary of the death of Ron Brown and the 10-11 people on that plane in Croatia in April – it was also the 25th anniversary of the death of Marvin Gaye on April 1st). Also, the Phillies and the Cubs played that 23-22 game on May 17, 1979, and the 30th anniversary of the Riverfront Stadium disaster outside the Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio that killed 11 occurred on 12/3.
More later...
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