Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2010 - Pt. 2)

(Part One is here.)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

David Margolis of the Obama Justice Department, who claimed here that John Yoo and Jay Bybee only showed “poor judgment,” as opposed to “violating their professional obligations as lawyers” as the DOJ originally decided; the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action – possibly an impeachment inquiry in Bybee’s case, but with the “poor judgment” downgrade, that will now not happen (more on Margolis here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

California councilman (and one-time Meg Whitman for Governor – heh) supporter Bob Kellar for this (try peddling this dookey to companies that hire illegals because they refuse to pay a livable wage)



Dregs of The Year Nominee

Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao here, for claiming that Dubya was wrong to try terrorists in civilian courts (leave it to McConnell to propagandize about one of the few things Number 43 did right – as Media Matters reminds us here, Rudy 9iu11ani praised the conviction of Zacarias Moussaoui in federal court in 2006, though of course “America’s Mayor” walked that one back too…repeat after me, Mitchy Poo: a trial in civilian court is the fastest way to convict these life forms)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

“Straight Talk” McCain for his flip-flop on DADT (noted here – he opposed the policy until he got an ultra-right-wing challenge to his Senate seat from J.D. Hayworth and Minuteman nutball Chris Simcox…and a “Do Gooder” citation to Admiral Mike Mullen for courageously breaking the ice, as it were, here...and as of December of this year, this battle is still going on - a guy who hasn't served for over three decades somehow knows our military on this better than a currently-serving Admiral, or so McCain would have us believe)

Two-Faced Conservative Hypocrite Of The Year (So Far)

Sarah Palin was all up in arms against Rahm Emanuel over his use of the word “retard,” which is understandable a bit given her son, but she never called out Flush Limbore for the same reason (here...and kudos to Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver for having the guts to do something on that Palin wouldn’t do here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Turncoat former Dem Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who threatened to hold up all Obama appointments unless he got two lucrative earmarks for his home state here (Shelby gets a nod for this also)

The “Lucky It Wasn’t Michael Bolton, Or It Could Have Initiated Nuclear War – Seriously, Though, This Is Messed Up” Citation

This tells us that Philippine patrons who sang “My Way” at karaoke bars were getting killed, presumably for not singing well - ? - so much so that police have classified the type of crime as “My Way” killings – too weird.

Sports Goat Of The Year Nominee

Indianapolis Colt (and former Eagle) wide receiver Hank Baskett fumbled an onside kick to start the second half of the Super Bowl in a game won by the New Orleans Saints 31-17 (here)…and the Eagles ended up resigning him anyway – fools (they released him again, and I think he ended up with Minnesota, for now).

Dregs Of The Year Nominees (Special “Cloudy With A Chance Of Stupidity” Citation)

The grandkids of Sen. Jim Inhofe of (Crazyland) Oklahoma built an igloo and called it “Al Gore’s New Home” to commemorate a heavy winter snowfall (I know it’s hard for the wingnuts to comprehend, even the young‘uns apparently, but as TP tells us here, the warmer clouds high in the atmosphere are holding more moisture, and that’s the reason why the weather has been nuttier – of course, these nematodes were strangely silent during this summer’s extreme heat…go figure)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Health America gets the nod here, an insurer who denied coverage to five-year-old Kyler Van Nocker, who suffered from neuroblastoma, which is a very rare form of childhood cancer that targets the nervous system and creates tumors throughout the body (as TP tells us – Health America’s excuse was that his therapy was supposedly “experimental”).

And what do those “tea party” numbskulls have to say about this? Cue the sound of crickets (and by the way, Kyler died in September).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Schubert and Hoey Outdoor Advertising of Wyoming, Minnesota, the idiots who concocted a billboard with a picture of Dubya and the words “Miss Me Yet?” as noted here (what do you think, assclowns?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

President Obama again, for, as Paul Krugman notes here, thinking his key to electoral success is to trumpet “the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies” and saying he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

As Krugman tells us, “irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn’t brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses.”

I’m beginning to think Atrios is right – maybe the Obama people really don’t know what the hell they’re doing, starting with our “hopey, changey” chief executive (I'm pretty sure I gave him a "Do Gooder" nod at one point, though...and speaking of Obama and Krugman, this is one of the most damning columns about a politician that I've ever read, and I wish I could disagree with it).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee (Channeling Rich Lowry Citation)

The “Dean of Beltway Journalism” himself, Broderella, for lavishing praise on Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin to the tune of us “taking her seriously” which about 70 percent or so of this country wisely refuses to do when it comes to presidential aspirations (must be embarrassing to do nothing but provide the journalistic equivalent of fluffery to GOP daddies, or mamas…I know this stuff is Broder’s stock in trade, but this was particularly ridiculous)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

This is a tough call, but I have to give it to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada for agreeing to remove the “offending image” of a sign reading “Tea Bag The Liberal Dems Before They Tea Bag You” from an issue of “Captain America” in which Cap tries to infiltrate the “teabaggers.” The problem is that that sign, with the exact wording, was captured by David Weigel of The Washington Independent, who attended one of their “rallies” (all of this is noted here).

The teabaggers are a bunch of racist right-wing nuts. If they don’t like the fact that they’ve been portrayed that way, tough shit.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

To commemorate President's Day, I wanted to absolutely choke the sh*t out of Evan Bayh based on this (I should watch it with the bad words, I know). It seems like this guy wanted to put it to the Democrats every way possible by deciding not to run for another term. By doing so four days before the deadline of 2/19 for entering the contest, he did a good job of making some Democrat(s) scramble to get into the race before the deadline, while the Repugs already had two nominees not named Mike Pence ready to run (one of which, Dan Coats, ended up winning in November). And all the while, Bayh thumbed his nose at the supposed “partisanship” that made it sooo unattractive for him to serve, apparently.

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that we were finally rid of him without having a solid Dem in place (as in Connecticut, with Dodd bowing out in favor of Richard Blumenthal), or the fact that this Senate seat flipped to the “R” column with Bayh whining “I told you so.”

Bayh is now what he has always been – a coward. Nothing more.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Tom Wroblewski put up a billboard in Wisconsin that said “Impeach Obama” (here). However, that’s not the reason why he gets this citation (it’s really stupid free speech, but it’s free speech all the same). Wroblewski gets the citation because, even though he went to the trouble of raising the dough and putting up the ad, he says “despite the billboard's language, he's not suggesting Obama committed an impeachable offense.”

Dude, at least have the courage of your stupid convictions, OK?

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“The Donald,” for saying that Al Gore should have his Nobel Prize taken away since we’re in the middle of “the coldest winter ever recorded” (it’s about wildly fluctuating climate change, you idiot – gee, I could be a big deal in business too if I was born with $3 million to start with - here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Shamsiddin Abdur-Raheem, 21, of Galloway Township, N.J., who allegedly wrapped his 3-month-old daughter in a blue sleeping bag and threw her off the Driscoll Bridge into the Raritan River (if found guilty, they should do the same thing to him, except his sleeping bag should be weighted with cinder blocks – he confessed...here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Joseph Stack, a software engineer alleged to have flown an airplane into an office building in Austin, TX because he was furious at the IRS (the building contained about 200 federal tax employees – 2 were killed and 12 were injured, and Stack “bought it” as well…I seem to recall a prior presidential administration saying we were “fighting the terrorists over there so we wouldn’t have to fight them here,” or something like that - here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug Rep. Steve Brunk of Kansas (of course) who compared rape to auto theft here (nice guy)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Dianne Capps, an organizer of the Tea Party movement in Washington State, who admitted here that she called for the hanging of Sen. Patty Murray, but says her words were misinterpreted (they always say that – what is it going to take before one of these moonbats is finally arrested? On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know...by the way, Murray won over Dino Rossi in November.)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Damian Kulash, Jr. of the band OK Go for writing this terrific Op-Ed in the New York Times about record companies (EMI in this case) no longer allowing embedding of videos by blogger types such as yours truly, and how that hurts promotion of those videos and, ultimately, sales (as in the case of other media companies, they’re trying to squeeze every last dime out of every last asset and being penny-wise but pound-foolish, as they say)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Oklahoma County Judge Daniel Owens, who ruled here that "a controversial abortion law that mandated collecting personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and posting them on a public website" was unconstitutional (Why not stop there, I wonder to myself? Why not include details of the woman’s menstrual history and how many times she’s had sexual intercourse? I mean, if you’re going to go “the full Neanderthal,” why go half way? And h/t to Think Progress, by the way)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Ryan Franklin, who was upset here presumably at basketball player Gilbert Arenas and football’s Plaxico Burress over their gun antics as the reason that Franklin can no longer bring weapons into the Cardinals’ club house, in keeping with a new Major League Baseball policy banning guns from all of the clubhouses of the other teams also (hat tip to Red vs. Blue).

Now I have no doubt that Franklin practices gun safety, but as a commenter noted to the original "St. Louis Today" article (no longer available), why should Franklin feel put out because he cannot bring a gun to his work place?

Once more, thank you, o Supreme Court of Hangin’ Judge JR for that awful Heller ruling that enables this behavior.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

White House press secretary and counselor Robert Gibbs, for saying the public option “can’t pass” through reconciliation even though 23 senators have signed a letter supporting it (here), typical of the utterly defeatist attitude of this White House (gee, I wonder if he was one of NYT reporter John Harwood’s anonymous sources who hoped around now for a return to ’94 and the Repugs controlling Congress, which we very nearly ended up with?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Miss Beverly Hills” Lauren Ashley, who said it’s “divine law that gays be put to death” (lovely) here…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Dem U.S. House Rep Anthony Weiner of New York, who called his Repug colleagues “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry” here (and in true Specter/Bachmann fashion, he later apologized even though he was right)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Trent “African Americans Were Better Off Under Slavery” Franks here (I swear, what universe do conservatives live in?)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Dem U.S. House Rep Tom Perriello of Virginia, who said the Senate should “get its head out of its rear end” and confront the climate crisis here (I would add passing health care reform with a public option, passing a jobs bill that ISN’T a joke filled up with tax cuts for a fraction of the necessary amount, etc...Perriello would end up losing in November, though he really should try again in 2012, along with people like John Hall, Alan Grayson in another district, and hopefully that guy who was in PA-08 also)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Annabel Park, founder of the so-called “Coffee Party,” which, as nearly as I can determine, is a lot more in line with what we’re supposed to be about in this country when it comes to citizenship than those tea party fools (here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

New York Governor David Paterson for what appears very much to be his interference in a criminal investigation in which his bodyguard beat up his girlfriend (if true, this is worse than the Spitzer stuff as far as I’m concerned...Paterson would later decide not to run for another term - here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Not-soon-enough-to-retire Kentucky U.S. Senate Repug Jim “I Hear Voices” Bunning for blocking the extension of unemployment benefits for a tortuous weekend in February into March before finally relenting (an utterly pointless – to say nothing of ruinous for many people – exercise by a demented, craven fossil of a human being, done with the full approval of his party's "leadership"...here)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Tanesha Turner, 24, and Cornelius Brown, 27, of Indianapolis, Indiana, who made Turner's 5-year-old daughter take the purse from an unsuspecting patron at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in the 5500 block of East 82nd Street on Feb. 14 (here). Turner was charged with theft, a Class D felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. Brown was charged with theft, a Class D felony and assisting a criminal, a misdemeanor.

According to Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, the daughter at first refused, but then Turner said “Do it for Mommy.”

Nice.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-SEPSIS), who, based on this, was prepared to “bring down” the health care legislation unless it included his coat hanger abortion amendment (unbelievable...Stupak would later relent and support HCR and face more threats from the “pro-life” crowd than he ever did from us filthy, unkempt liberal blogger types)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Michael Cannon of The CATO Institute for this charming little “tweet” on HCR (time for another blogger ethics panel – should highlight the screen shot only)

More later...