Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2009 - Pt. 4)

Onward and upward we go (Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, and I also posted here)...

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Brian Ross and ABC News for “reporting” here that Robert Kennedy Jr. called Barack Obama an “indentured servant” to the coal industry; RFK Jr. said no such thing (h/t Atrios)

(And by the way, a more recent "smooth move" by ABC News is here.)

Dregs Of the Year Nominee

Dem Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who joined the Repugs in filibustering the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to lead the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel here because of “her pro-choice views on abortion,” though Nelson opposed the use of the filibuster on John Bolton and former Bush EPA administrator Stephen Johnson (even though the Dems might lose their Senate majority, it would almost be worth it to pare characters like Nelson, Lincoln and Bayh, telling them to make it official and join the Repugs at long last)

Update 12/26/09: This tells us that, in addition to Nelson, Repug John Cornyn and "Democrat" Arlen Specter also opposed Johnsen's nomination, to the point where the Senate took its holiday break without acting on her nomination, as well as that of Department of Labor Solicitor Patricia Smith and four other Obama nominations.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Texas (of course) Repug (bingo) U.S. House Rep John Culberson, who tells us that the land of the “yellow rose” could “divide up into smaller states” and “add six new rock-ribbed conservative Senators to the Senate overnight by dividing into five states” (uh, I believe Article IV, Section Three of the Constitution has something to say about that, as Jed Lewison points out here – also, Culberson has to work on his math; adding five states equates to 10 senators…idiot).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Repug Sen. Susan Collins of Maine for removing just about all of the $900 million in pandemic preparedness funds from the stimulus package here (particularly bad given the recent outbreak in Mexico in April and what this country would experience in the fall)…

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Repug Louisiana Governor Bobby ("Don't Call Me Piyush") Jindal here, for making fun of stimulus funding for volcano monitoring; the problem is that Mount Redoubt in Alaska erupted a month later

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Shane Murphy for this…

Dregs Of The Year Nominees

Senate Dems Ben Nelson (Neb., again I know), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Jon Tester (Mont.), who opposed the central measure of a bankruptcy bill from the House proposed in April -- giving bankruptcy judges the power to reduce, or cramdown, a homeowner's mortgage payment under bankruptcy proceedings (here)...

Stupidest Use Of Political Campaign Resources (Thus Far)

Upon Arlen Specter’s defection back to the Democrats, the NSRC launched a campaign of robocalls to PA Dem voters (including this one) “reminding them of former President George W. Bush's support for Specter, in an effort to drive a wedge between Specter and the voters of his new party,” according to here.

Now here is my question – since PA’s primaries are closed, how on earth do the Repugs think this will possibly help Pat Toomey, their all-but-primary-winning candidate? Does the NSRC think Dem voters will now re-register and vote for their candidate instead as a result of creating a nuisance for those voters?

God, even when the Dems were out of power, I honestly can’t remember them doing stuff as stupid as this (and they did some dumb things, believe me).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Former Secretary of State Our Gal Condi Rice, for chiding a Stanford University student to “do your homework” on the question of who stayed the “trials” of the military commissions sponsored by her and her boss, without bothering to explain to the student that the Supremes (here, with plenty of conservative justices) did indeed stay the proceedings three times because the commissions "(were) not an adequate and effective substitute for habeas corpus" and thus "operates as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ" (if she and Dubya had done their legal homework, then maybe their “trials” could have proceeded...but of course, it will be up to Obama and Eric Holder to figure out what to do with the commissions).

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Dem Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois (where that other guy came from), for his efforts on the "cramdown" and the Credit Card “bill of rights” (here - a shame the cramdown went for naught, and maybe one or two credit card changes ended up in legislation signed into law, but not much else...not for his lack of effort, though)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Jayson Werth of the Phillies for stealing four bases (including home) in one game against the Dodgers in May (the Phils would defeat LA again in the National League Championship Series before losing the big one to the Yankees - boo hiss!:-)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Toxic radio hater Michael Savage who, after attacking Hillary Clinton for years with some of the most abusive language you can imagine, has now asked for her help in revoking Savage’s UK ban (here - breathtaking hypocrisy).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Fluffyhead David Gregory of NBC News for this (h/t Atrios – I’m not even going to try and paraphrase Jason Linkins’ terrific post here…you have to read this whole thing to believe it – and our corporate media actually wonders why they’re losing money).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

MoDo, for plagiarizing Josh Marshall (here - h/t Atrios, though, to her credit, she owed up to it here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Philadelphia city councilwoman Joan Krajewski here for “(changing) the zoning and planning provisions of the city code” to allow for development of Fairmount Park (so many levels of awful in this that I’m not sure I can capture them all – Philadelphia will have to work REALLY hard to show me that they can develop that area properly, and I don’t think they can).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch for killing a bill permitting gay marriage, which had already passed the legislature and enjoyed popular support (here - talk about giving Dems a bad name; here is an update)...

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

U.S. House Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) here for describing an ad attacking Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “reprehensible, irresponsible and unpersuasive” (the bar is already set pretty low for these people, so I guess this is progress).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

A collective citation to the Inky for 1) hiring Bushco torture architect John Yoo as a monthly columnist (here), and 2) doing so in late 2008 but not bothering to tell anyone, though word leaked out more or less unofficially in May 2009

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

In this latest installment here, former Senator Man-On-Dog gets the nod for telling Obama “to act like a role model” and…take his wife “down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer” (Steve Benen nails it at the end).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Media critic David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun, for claiming that Keith Olbermann’s commentaries create “the path to fascism” (huh? – I think C&L gives a good analysis here - as with Andrew Malcolm, other reasons for this guy too)...

And by the way, get a load of Zurawik’s response here and tell me if you think he’s mad that Olbermann apparently mispronounced his name or not (and, once more, anyone purporting to criticize MSNBC on the basis of the content of its stories should go through the exercise of actually verifying them for truthfulness against Fix Noise first before they try arguing some equivalency between the two that doesn’t exist).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

U.S. House Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX), who said here that the greatest threat to America is “liberal media bias”

Dregs Of The Year Nominees

The legislature of the state of Tennessee for overriding the veto of Dem Gov. Phil Bredesen on a bill allowing guns into bars and restaurants here, thus giving it the force of law (idiots).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

"Deadeye Dick" Cheney, for periodically poking his head from the hole of his undisclosed location from time to time over the year to remind us of how bad he thinks Obama is (and once more, in response, I give you Dem U.S. House Rep Alan Grayson)...



Update 12/30/09: And kudos to Dem House Rep Eric Massa of New York for giving it back to this vulture here...

Dregs Of The Year Nominees

New York State Senators Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens, who, by switching their party affiliations from Dem to Repug, gave control of the New York State Senate to the Repugs (here; peee-yoouuuu – hat tips to Atrios and FDL)...

(And by the way, Monserrate would flip and go back to the Dems, leaving Albany deadlocked - fun; later in the year, he would be convicted of misdemeanor assault on his girlfriend, though he would escape jail time, as noted here.)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Bill Orally, for opposing gay humans but defending gay penguins here (I can’t make this stuff up, people)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

President Obama (yes, you’re reading this right...I think I cited him earlier too; hope I gave him a "Do Gooder" for Lilly Ledbetter) for signing a credit card fraud protection bill that included an amendment allowing loaded guns into our national parks (here - what, are “sportsmen” afraid of being robbed by grizzly bears...also for this).

Update 1 12/22/09: I seem to recall a lot more vocal support from him on the public option earlier this year; yes, I understand his point with this remark, but it would still have been better had he said nothing (and Dr. Dean is spot-on again here, despite Reid's handling of this...oh, and by the way, no one should forget this).

Update 2 12/22/09: Nothing "hopey, changey" here...

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Rusty DePass, a state Republican activist who said here that a gorilla that escaped from the Riverbanks (SC) Zoo on June 12th was an "ancestor" of First Lady Michelle Obama (he apologized, as well he should).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Sherri Goforth, an executive assistant for Republican State Senator Diane Black of Gallatin (a suburb of Nashville, TN), the life form responsible for the racist joke on Obama in the portrait linked here (and Black is another “values” crazy against GLBT people, and she just can’t wait for Roe to be repealed…wonder if Goforth and DePass are related? And check this out from Think Progress, by the way – her apology for getting caught only…)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee (for now, until he inevitably flips on this)

Georgia Repug Senator Johnny Isakson for appearing to support a public option for health care coverage along with Obama and the Dems (here – but this is all a big “if”)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

A collective citation here to The Washington Post for firing Dan Froomkin (I guess when you’re told by Little Debbie Howell that you’re “highly opinionated and liberal,” that means that it’s time to get your resume on the street PDQ, not that it would help in this wretched job market, though, as noted earlier, Froomkin would be scooped up by HuffPo...to be fair, I should note that they've quite rightly given Ezra Klein exposure in Froomkin's place).

Dregs Of The Year Nominees

The Supremes are at it again here, this time for a ruling that, because Alaska is one of six states that doesn’t allow prisoners access to DNA evidence that could exonerate them, that takes precedence over that person’s right to that evidence (and a secondary Dregs citation to the Obama Administration for, bizarrely, choosing to side with Alaska on this).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Missouri Repug State House Rep. Cynthia Davis for claiming that “hunger can be a positive motivator” as a response for not spending more on that state’s summer food program (here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Repug Senator Bob (Keep On Demonizing The UAW While Sucking Up To The “Banksters”) Corker for blowing off a meeting with Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Obama Supreme Court nominee who of course was eventually confirmed, because she was 10 minutes late (here – let’s see how well you do hobbling along with a cast, sh*t-for-brains).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who believed that a strip search of a teenage girl suspected of carrying drugs, but who in fact was carrying Advil, was “constitutional” here (fortunately, the majority disagreed in a somewhat qualified ruling - and by the way, Poppy Bush's quota appointee ended up calling out Sotomayor recently here; nice to know Thomas has a pulse).

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

I’ve had issues with “Jello Jay” Rockefeller on surveillance, but good for him for saying this about a public plan in the Senate health care proposals, though, as we know, the "public option" appears dead, and at this moment, we don't know exactly what will come in its place (h/t Atrios).

Commemorative Stu Bykofsky Citation

Michael Scheuer, who said we need another 9/11 here…

The "Even Though They're Gone, Bushco's Misdeeds Live On - The Nearly-Ruined Economy Which Obama Now Owns, In This Case" Citation

As Calculated Risk notes here the "naughts" truly were the "naughts" in terms of employment, statistically (h/t Atrios...I actually saw a wingnut site today refer to the decade as the "naughties"...where's that apocalypse that I ordered, garçon?)

More later...