(Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, and Part Four is here).Dregs of the Year Nominee
Reading Phillies GM Scott Hunsicker for his creation, the Ryan Howard Garden Gnome (here – I don’t think it’s racist, but it sure is odd)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
I’d expect “Caribou Barbie,” as a commenter referred to Sarah Palin (heh), to attack author Joe McGinness as a “pedophile” for actually daring to get too close to her so he can do his job (McGinness is writing a book on Alaska’s most notorious waste of DNA), but the citation here goes to Time Magazine for not calling Palin’s attack for what it is – which is potentially libelous and legally actionable – but for calling it “shrewd” instead (h/t Atrios, and as he plaintively asks, “What’s wrong with these people?”)
Non-Story Of The Year
Clinton/Sestak/Specter/Obama/Emanuel/Was-Sestak-offered-a-job-Omigod-I-swear-I-don’t-freaking-care!!!!!!!!! here - and the runners up would be the divorce of the Gores and the competition for basketball player LeBron James between Cleveland and NYC (and the funny part is that he ended up going to Miami)
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Phillies ace Roy Halladay (speaking of sports) for pitching the 20th perfect game in the history of major league baseball on 5/29/10 (here - he would follow up with a playoff no-hitter against Cincinnati, earning him the National League's Cy Young Award)
Classiest Sports Gesture Of The Year
And in a related story as they say, Jeffrey Loria, owner of the Florida Marlins (the team Halladay pitched his "perfecto" against) had the pitching rubber used by Halladay removed from Sun Life Stadium and sent to the Phillies to be presented to Halladay at a ceremony honoring the Phils’ pitcher at Citizens Bank Park on June 5th (special citation also to the Marlins’ fans cheering Halladay during the final outs while he pitched against their home team)
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The Pacific Palisades Democratic Club of California withdrew its "Political Courage" award offer here from Military Religious Freedom Foundation head Mikey Weinstein, who has led the fight against efforts by radical evangelical Christian groups to take over the United States military; the reason was because Weinstein served in the first Reagan Administration (this led to Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson returning their awards from the group – as they rightly put it in their letter to the group, “Democrats are not the only ones who demonstrate political courage”).
Ed Asner described this as a “circular firing squad,” and he’s right; I can hardly wait for more wingnut opining from Irrational Spew and the Murdoch Street Journal now about liberal purity tests.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Major league umpire Jim Joyce, who blew the call on what would have been the final out of a perfect game pitched by Armando Gallaraga of the Detroit Tigers here (actually, MLB commissioner Bud Selig is worse for not overturning the call and giving Gallaraga the “perfecto” as Joyce asked Selig to do)…
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Former Philadelphia Weekly editor Tim Whitaker, who founded “Mighty Writers” here “an after-school program (with) a roster of writing workshops (with) plenty of kids (ages 7 to 17) wanting to participate. We also have a simple credo: There is no straighter route to success than being able to express yourself through words.”
Would that more would do the same (original philly.com link expired)…
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The Supremes, again, for this…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts for this (all class, Repugs – and by the way, an apology from the party isn’t good enough…I want to hear this moron say, “You know what? I was a goddamn flaming asshat for that remark, and I sure as hell am sorry for saying something so stupid.”).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
For all of his legendary political skills, I cannot understand why Bill Clinton campaigned for Dame Blanche Lincoln in the days leading up to her runoff win against Bill Halter in June (and also here). Lincoln had zero support from traditional Democratic constituencies, as well she shouldn’t, and that had a lot to do with why her seat flipped to the “R” column in November.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Dem (!) U.S. House Rep Ike Skelton for this (somehow I think the kids are smarter than this numbskull will ever be - wonder if this had anything to do with his loss in November?)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Adam Burish of the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks for this (a verbal broadside against Chris Pronger of the Flyers that, IMHO, was particularly stupid, a bit beyond the normal "trash talk" - what Frank Seravalli says, and more...Burish later apologized)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Huckleberry Graham for this (oh yeah, we need a “bullhorn” moment from Obama on BP all right; as Jed says, what we REALLY need is for you, Huck, to pull your thumb out and support climate change legislation)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
President Obama for his administration’s relentless pursuit and prosecution of press leaks as noted here (more so than Bushco, if you can believe that – now I know why he won’t support a federal shield law…yes, I’m sure there are the proverbial extenuating circumstances in the Tom Drake case, but I still think we’re witnessing a big overreaction...I think the count is now three Obama Dregs citations and a Do Gooder one also, for anybody keeping score)
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Shane Victorino of the Phillies for a $900,000 donation to the Nicetown Boys and Girls Club in Philadelphia (written about by Ronnie Polaneczky of the Daily News, though the link has already expired - heckuva job, philly.com)
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The supervisors of the Southland Christian School in Florida here, who fired teacher Jarretta Hamilton because Hamilton admitted that she conceived three weeks before her wedding day (I hope this idiots get sued – I’m sure they will; not the smartest thing for Hamilton not to tell them to pound sand when they asked her about it, but there you are)
The “Not Exactly What He Would Have Done, I’m Sure” Citation Of The Year
The family of David Makoeya, a 61-year-old man from the small village of Makweya, Limpopo province in Johannesburg, South Africa, beat the man to death because he wanted to watch a World Cup soccer game between Germany and Australia; the family wanted to watch a gospel show instead, as noted here.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor gets it for investing in “an exchange-traded fund that ‘takes a short position in long-dated government bonds’ — effectively betting against the U.S. Treasury bonds that the government uses to fund its operation,” as Think Progress tells us here.
I realize that Cantor has the right to put his money anywhere he wants. However, having put it here, he really should shut his mouth about the “stim,” since that creates a financial conflict of interest if the bonds do badly as a result of his statements (though, as TP and the Murdoch Street Journal tell us, the fund is down 31 percent, so Cantor can’t be too bright about this anyway).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug Kentucky Senator-elect Rand Paul gets it here, for “urg(ing) Americans who have been unemployed for many months to consider returning to the workforce in less desirable jobs rather than continue relying on government unemployment assistance” (Why don’t you “lead by example,” then? Why don’t YOU try making ends meet with either unemployment or a crap “McJob,” assuming you could even get one because of your skin color, and I mean Caucasian…don’t get me started).
One conservative talking point I’m particularly disgusted with, by the way (in a related vein) is this notion that, if you pursued a B.A. in college, you’re an idiot. And obtaining a business or science degree (or an advanced degree) automatically means that you can talk down to people who aren’t as “textbook smart” as you are concerning career choices.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Daniel W. Nesbitt of Philadelphia who “stripped to his underwear, grabbed some shampoo and took a shower in the reflecting pool of Pennsylvania's official Sept. 11 memorial in Lower Makefield,” in June according to police (phillyburbs link expired)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Missouri farmer David Jungerman, who, despite the fact that he has erected this idiotic sign on his property calling the Democrats “parasites” (his right to do so, I’ll admit), has received over a $1 million in farm subsidies (we’ll be await the return of that money any day now, you asshat)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
The no-longer-Moonie-but-still-hopelessly-right-wing Washington Times for doctoring a photo of Obama Supreme Court Nominee (and eventual confirmed Justice) Elena Kagan here showing her wearing a turban and alleging that she would observe Sharia law, or some such nonsense.
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Sandra Gallant of Morrisville, PA, who courageously shared the story of her struggle with suicidal depression in a Guest Opinion that appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times in June (all the best of luck to her…getting this out in the open is bound to help more people seeking treatment, to say nothing of tolerance from family and friends for their condition...another expired link - sorry)
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee (Memorial citation)
I would really hate it if somehow this year came and went without more attention paid to the tragic story of Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, perhaps the best-known human rights activist in the Congo who himself became a casualty of one of the most brutal regimes on earth.
As the New York Times tells us here…
“He was a man who was faithful to his convictions, full of integrity, and not corrupted,” (said Jean-Claude Katende, president of the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights). “For Congo, where corruption is massive, this is very unusual. It’s a shame we had to lose a man like that.”It truly is – the world needs as much of the courage embodied by Mr. Bahizire as it can get.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
CNBC’s Rick Santelli for this (what a WATB!)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Federal Judge Martin Feldman of New Orleans, who, as noted here, lifted the Obama Administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil after the BP disaster (and Feldman owns about $15K in Transocean stock – Transocean is an oil drilling company that contracted with BP…guess Feldman didn’t think that little detail was reason enough to recuse himself)
Dregs of the Year Nominee (Yet Another Commemorative Bill Marrazzo Citation)
WHYY’s Bill Marrazzo for this (h/t Atrios)…
Do Gooders of the Year Nominee
The Chicago City Council, which approved a new gun ordinance by a vote of 45-0 here after The Supremes invalidated the old one (in your face, Hangin’ Judge JR!)
Looney Liturgical Idea Of The Year ("Don't Tell The Penguin" Citation)
As noted here, "L'Osservatore Romano," the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film “The Blues Brothers” (yes, the original with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere (and I’m sure He would have driven a used Plymouth police car through an Illinois shopping mall at 120 miles per hour, demolishing everything in sight - hey, great movie, but…).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, gets it for not describing waterboarding as torture at the request of Bushco way back when, then saying in July, in response to a Harvard study on how waterboarding had been reported as torture for about 100 years prior to then, that "I think this Kennedy School study -- by focusing on whether we have embraced the politically correct term of art in our news stories -- is somewhat misleading and tendentious."
As Glenn Greenwald points out here, this fits the pattern of the Times also sitting on the NSA spying story until after the 2004 presidential election (h/t Atrios).
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Texas home builder Dan Wallrath, who has given vets injured in Iraq and Afghanistan homes of their own mortgage free as part of his Operation Finally Home project (here)…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Closer to home, Shane Burroughs of the Synergy Project, begun by the Warminster, PA-based nonprofit organization Valley Youth House in January of this year, gets a note here. Burroughs typically searches for homeless young people between 18-21 and finds about two a week; according to a Bucks County Courier Times story in July (I think), he connects these young men and women with career centers, counseling, food banks, rehabs and shelters. Occasionally, there's room at the Covenant House shelter in Philadelphia, Burroughs said. There's usually a waiting list at the American Red Cross Homeless Shelter in Bristol Township.
Because of the lack of shelters, Burroughs said he often has no choice but to help these young people find a relatively safe place to sleep outside.
And tell me once again, Repugs, why it’s more important to give tax breaks to Big Oil and the “banksters” on the one hand, and on the other, cry “poor mouth” to the states when they need help with projects like this one (and yet another busted link from phillyburbs - unbelievable between this site and philly.com)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug Minnesota gubernatorial candidate (and eventual loser) Tom Emmer; his brilliant idea to stimulate the economy is to cut the minimum wage of bartenders and waiters (here)
Pundit Asshattery Of The Year Nominee
To Terry Savage of the Chicago Sun-Times (h/t Daily Kos), who uses the excuse of a lemonade stand where the girls running it give away the stuff for free to extrapolate about how bad it is to modify underwater mortgages and extend unemployment benefits (here)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug U.S. House Rep (and incoming Oversight Committee Chair - hope you like pointless Obama investigations, because they're a-comin') Darrell Issa of California (who once threatened Henry Waxman here and gave Rahm Emanuel “the finger” for an episode Emanuel doesn’t remember, as noted here) has been getting a lot of press lately for picking fights with the White House; however, given this story that “a bank lender in Ventura County is accusing a bank of selling Issa the building for at least $3 million less than it should have,” maybe Issa should investigate himself (and by the way, Chris Dodd resigned in part over alleged housing improprieties a lot less flagrant that this).
Dregs of the Year Nominees
CNN, for basically firing Octavia Nasr, CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs, for using complimentary language in acknowledging the death of Lebanon’s Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Hezbollah (her “crime,” I suppose, was not to allege that he was the boogeyman that the wingnuts claimed that he was, when in fact, Fadallah favored some liberalization of horrific Shia law, particularly against women, and was a spiritual guide of sorts to Nouri al-Maliki, the guy in charge of Iraq that we supposedly like - here)
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Outgoing Repug U.S. House Rep Bob Inglis of South Carolina, for properly calling out those in his party here…
Dregs of the Year Nominees
All of those who are rich who walked away from their “underwater” mortgages (a good post about that by Jed L. of Daily Kos here)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
“Baby Ruth” Marcus for complaining about Obama and recess appointments when her husband, Jon Leibowitz, benefitted from such appointments under both Obama and Dubya (amazing catch by Jed L - here)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug PA Governor-elect (ugh) Tom Corbett for the following from July; he spoke these insulting words in Joe Pitts-land (here)…
At a campaign stop Friday in Lancaster County, Corbett said employers had told him that they have jobs, but can't find workers.No, what’s “becoming a problem” is idiot politicians like you discussing the worst economic crisis since the Depression in vague generalities so as to promote your conservative bona fides with your fellow wingnuts.
"People don't want to come back to work while they still have unemployment," he said. "They're literally telling him, 'I'll come back to work when unemployment runs out.' That's becoming a problem."
Where exactly are these “jobs,” Tom? Where are people supposed to go to find out about them? Are they “McJobs” that pay at the same rate as unemployment or slightly better, or are they real jobs through which someone can support himself or herself and/or his or her family?
I know Dan Onorato beat Corbett over the head with this until Election Day, but sadly, it wasn't enough (prepare to reap the whirlwind, all you numbskulls who voted for Corbett anyway).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Richard Cohen for this (h/t Atrios – re: the story of the Swiss refusing to extradite Roman Polanski to the U.S. in July)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Here is another citation to Ben Nelson of Nebraska (even though I know what would happen if his seat flipped to an “R,” it would almost be worth it - also for this).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Fix Noise humanoid Megyn Kelly for this (and in response, I give you this)…
Do Gooders of the Year Nominees ("F*ck Yeah!" Citation)
I’m loathe to give the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York credit for anything, but kudos to them for a change for “(striking) down a Federal Communications Commission policy on indecency (in July) saying that regulations barring the use of ‘fleeting expletives’ on radio and television violated the First Amendment because they were vague and could inhibit free speech,” noted here.
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Except for Dem U.S. House Rep Donna Edwards, every single member of the United States Congress for refusing the invitation from Nicole Lamoreaux (who continues to do heroic work) to attend a free clinic sponsored by her National Association of Free Clinics in Washington, D.C. on August 4th (and yes, Congress was in session - here).
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Mississippi Public Broadcasting and executive director Judith Lewis for dropping “Fresh Air” hosted by Terry Gross; as noted here…
…(the last show aired on the Mississippi network featured) an interview with comedian Louis C.K., who self-deprecatingly confided that he always wears a T-shirt in sexual situations, out of consideration for women. When sex occurs on his TV show on the FX cable channel, he added, "There's a rule that I have to be on my back . . . I don't think anyone wants to see me looming over her. I think that's an upsetting image."The response from Judith Lewis…
"Mississippi Public Broadcasting strives to deliver educational, informative and meaningful content to its listeners. After careful consideration we have determined that Fresh Air does not meet this goal over time. Too often Fresh Air's interviews include gratuitous discussions on issues of an explicit sexual nature. We believe that most of these discussions do not contribute to or meaningfully enhance serious-minded public discourse on sexual issues."Based on this, though (and alluded to in Lewis’s response), it seems that there’s a history in Mississippi of pulling the show because of “inappropriate content” but then putting it back on the air when listeners complained (good for them).
This is ridiculous (though sadly typical, I realize). Is Mississippi afraid to air legitimate adult content?
If people are afraid that their fragile sensibilities will be hurt, there’s a simple solution; DON’T LISTEN TO THE DAMN SHOW!
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The Obama Administration and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, for letting themselves be suckered by Andrew Breitbart once again in the matter of Shirley Sherrod (I guess you could call this ACORN II; gee, people like yours truly exhort the Dem base to get out and work for the party in the elections and also for 2012, and then they pull crap like this - here - Vilsack and the Obama Administration did make amends a bit later, though, as noted here)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Moon Unit Bachmann, for comparing Tea Party wingnuts to WWII heroes here (too far even for her)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Dem U.S. House Rep Charles Rangel of New York gets it here for not taking the hint and retiring after having been quite thoroughly busted by the New York Times here on his “failure to report income from a villa in the Dominican Republic, his acceptance of four rent-stabilized apartments in NYC, and his use of his office to preserve a loophole for an oil company executive who pledged a $1 million donation to a new public policy center to be named after (Rangel).”
As we know, after Rangel won re-election, he was censured in the House, thereby codifying his malfeasance inasmuch as he will retain elected office.
Yeah, great message to send to the voters in an election year in which Dems otherwise got wiped out, Charlie.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Washington, D.C. “chancellor” of public schools Michelle Rhee, for firing 241 teachers and putting 737 district employees on notice for being “minimally effective” here (that’s a hell of a lot of “underperformance”…and to toss these people, and maybe more, into this wretched economy also - so of course "Governor Bully" offers her a job here)
More later (I think we're past the halfway point)...
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