(Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, Part Four is here, and Part Five is here).Dregs of the Year Nominee
John (“We Already Won” The Iraq War) McCain (here - tell me again why he is continually taken seriously as a foreign policy expert by the Beltway gasbags?)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Elton John - this hurts a bit, but it must be pointed out.
According to this, he says that his fellow artists who refuse to perform in Arizona over that state’s “illegal to be brown” law are “(expletive) twits” because, as a gay man, he plays in California even though “he has no legal rights in that state,” implying an equivalency that, somehow, I don’t think exists.
Some apples with your oranges, Sir Elton?
Also, I don’t begrudge John for playing at Limbore’s wedding – the gig payed a mil, from what I understand – but posing with him in the photo is a bit much.
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The National Organization for Marriage returned here, advocating lynching same-sex couples (not content with their ridiculous “gathering storm” TV ad, I see).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
The Old Gray Lady gets it here for placing “The Obama Diaries” by right-wing harpie Laura Ingraham on their list of nonfiction literature (h/t Atrios…logical I guess in a way, since they also printed The Moustache of Understanding telling us on 8/1 that Dubya’s Not-So-Excellent Iraq Adventure was to spread democracy – I think Mr. “Suck. On. This” is suffering from amnesia).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Former Dregs of the Year Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao for now opposing the DISCLOSE Act here after spending years calling for more transparency in financing of political campaigns; he now claims that the Act is designed to “protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics”…what a world-class wanker (and for this)...
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Tom Shales for doing his best (worst?) to smear Christiane Amanpour as a Taliban sympathizer here; she took over the Sunday morning ABC DC talk show formerly chaired by George Stephanopoulos…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker for this…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Sticking with legal stuff, Federal District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson gets a raspberry for allowing that idiotic lawsuit against health care reform started by Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli to proceed (signed on by 20 other officials of other states, including PA’s AG and Governor-Elect Tom Corbett here…the Constitution’s commerce clause mandating federal authority exists for a reason, people - and as we know, Hudson would make himself look like a bigger fool than he already is in December...second bullet item here).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
“Democrat” Ben Nelson of Nebraska again, the only senator of his party to vote against confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court (she was confirmed by a 63-37 vote here)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Irvin Good Jr. gets a bit of recognition here, the head of an eastern Pennsylvania game company who yanked a carnival game in which players shot foam darts at an image resembling President Barack Obama...OK, so Good did the right thing by pulling the game, but he only did so after Kathryn Chapman, 55, of Medford, Mass complained (Chapman gets a Do-Gooder nomination). As for Good, maybe he didn’t realize the implications of the game, which is hard to believe actually, but he’s still responsible for it.
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria, who returned his award from the Anti-Defamation League here, saying he was “stunned” at their decision to oppose the construction of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero (uh, I hate to break the news to everyone opposing a mosque near the site, but there already is a mosque near where the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11 as well, as noted here)
The “Interesting Way To Try And Get Out of the Pre-Nup (just kidding), And I’m Sure It Was Approved By Marcel Marceau Also” Citation
In an obituary for Lorene Yarnell, one half of the team of Shields and Yarnell (who, along with just about every other individual in the Western world at the time, had a ‘70s variety show), it was noted that the marriage ceremony between her and Robert Shields was performed in mime.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
The geniuses behind MSNBC’s web site who totally f#@ked up their video uploads earlier this year and never fixed the issue; before, I would just grab the embedded code and paste it into one of these posts, but no more - I think there's some kind of a IE 8/Blogger incompatibility thing going on, but it isn't my job to fix it, is it?…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
President Obama, for supporting the mosque and Islamic community center to be built near Ground Zero, a principled stand which will earn him nothing but enmity from people who hate him already (here…he was accused by many in our media of “walking back” his support, and I thought he did also briefly, but I was wrong on that – he didn’t, in theory anyway...I think this is his second "Do Gooder" to go with three "Dregs" citations, for what it's worth)
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Ted Olson, whose wife died in the 9/11 attacks, for arguing in support of the Ground Zero “mosque” here (also for his legal support on the marriage equality issue with former Bush v. Gore foe David Boies in case I hadn’t pointed that out earlier…and Dregs citations to both Harry Reid and Howard Dean – the latter was particularly shocking – for being dead wrong on this issue)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Jeff Greene, the “Democrat” who contested Kendrick Meek for that party’s nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida; he ended up losing the nomination, but he still forced Meek to spend funds against him that would’ve been better used in the general election, which both Meek and Charlie Crist lost to Marco Rubio (and as noted here, Greene had plenty of baggage)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Judge Royce Lamberth, for his ruling here that not only “block(ed) President Obama’s expansion of federally funded research to include scores of new stem cell lines,” but also potentially restricted funding of lines approved by Dubya (forward into the past, my fellow prisoners)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Former Repug Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, charter member of the “catfood commission,” for this (this old fossil should just go lie down somewhere and turn into sawdust or something - also for this and this)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
The inaptly named Bobby Bright for this (Any wonder that he lost in November?)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Jim “High And Tight” Bunning again, who said, "Five-hundred twenty starts, I never refused the ball…What a joke!" in response to news of the injury to Washington Nationals’ pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who will need “Tommy John” elbow ligament surgery, requiring a 12-18 month rehabilitation (here - have fun yelling at the TV in your retirement, you loon)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Singer Nadja Benaissa, a member of the group No Angels, who was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and 300 hours community service here after she was convicted in a Darmstadt, Germany administrative court; it found her guilty of causing bodily harm to her ex-boyfriend by having unprotected sex with him despite knowing she was infected with HIV (she faced ten years in jail, but was spared because she said she was sorry – I think that’s a bit lenient, but what’s done is done)
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Former President Jimmy Carter, who flew to North Korea and secured the release of Aijalon Gomes, an American arrested seven months ago for “trespassing” into that country (why anyone would go anywhere near that place is something I cannot possibly comprehend - here)
…on the other hand…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
I never expected that I’d be giving former President Carter a citation like this, but I don’t know what else I can say since he pointed out that Ted Kennedy blocked his attempt at health care reform prior to Carter’s election loss to Reagan in 1980 – all of this proves what exactly, particularly since Kennedy isn’t here to defend himself and already admitted his stubbornness on this before he died (here)?
(Carter also gets it for this...probably a net minus this year for our 39th president, unfortunately - is he seriously saying that people like yours truly who helped elect him in 1976 were racists?)
Update 12/26/10: Ooops, my bad - definitely a net plus for President Carter based on this.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Chambersburg, PA – apparently the entire locality has been bought off by Fix Noise (here)…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Orrin Hatch, for defending the “ground zero mosque” (here – fair is fair...this probably assures Hatch of a "teabagger" primary challenge in 2012)…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Dennis McKeon of “Where To Turn,” a 9/11 victims’ families’ group, for saying that the “ground zero mosque” protests “disrespect the memories of our loved ones” (here)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Oklahoma (of course) Repug gubernatorial candidate Mary (“I’ve Never Been Offered A Job By a Poor Person”) Fallin here (also for this)...
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
Roger Ebert, truly a profile in courage, the author of a recently published cooking book (even though the man can no longer eat and has lost a portion of his face due to cancer) and someone who continues to remain a vital presence in online communication with commentary such as this (here...h/t Daily Kos – and oh yeah, he knows a thing or two about movies also)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Baseball player Nyjer Morgan of the Washington Nationals; what a rocket scientist this guy is (here).
First, he threw a baseball at a Phillies fan in the stands and hit him (good aim, if nothing else), then he went out of the baseline to hit St. Louis Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson, and in September, he got involved in a fight against the Florida Marlins in a game where he stole bases while his team was down 14-3 (and he also injured Marlins’ catcher Brett Hayes previously).
Gee, since Linda McMahon lost in Connecticut, she can devote her time to the WWWE again - maybe she could sign up Morgan for a steel cage match.
Dregs of the Year (And Most Other Years Too) Nominee
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio (here, for starters)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Hate “pastor” Terry Jones (definitely not to be confused with the Monty Python member) who decided to stage a “Burn a Quran Day” on 9/11 even though he was warned by Gens. David Petraeus and William Caldwell not to do it because it might endanger our troops (here - idiot at the very least…and how the hell can NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg say the “ground zero mosque” is OK and so is burning the Quran? And yes, I know Jones bailed at the last minute and didn't do it, but it was such a dumb idea that it never should have been considered in the first place.)
Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips for this…
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The “Remember Us We The People” teabaggers for this (but just keep telling yourself that those teabaggers aren't racists)...
The “No Word On Whether Or Not She Now Thinks Jerry Lewis Is A Cinematic Genius” Citation
Due to a migraine headache, an English woman ended up speaking with a French accent (here)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
PG&E in California, which never used the 5 million rate hike it requested to repair a high-risk gas line which (yep, you guessed it) blew up and killed “at least four” people (here)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Evan Bayh yet again for this – h/t Atrios...
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Stevie Wonder, for pressing the World Intellectual Property Organization to “relax” copyrights to make it easier for about 300 million people who "live in the dark" to "read their way into light" (well put – here)
Do Gooders of the Year Nominee
The Florida 3rd District Court of Appeals for striking down that state’s ridiculous ban on gay adoption (here)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Mary Landrieu for "block(ing) the nomination of Office of Management and Budget director Jack Lew until the Obama administration lifts its deepwater drilling moratorium" here (she lifted her "hold" on Lew last month - Crazy Tom Coburn couldn't have done this any better)
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Anyone who thought that Stephen Colbert would not do his comedy bit here when asked to testify on Capitol Hill over immigration (Colbert is a very bright guy and his humor cuts both ways – hard for me to be bugged by a guy who showed the guts he did by skewering Bushco at that White House Correspondents Dinner a few years ago)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Former President Clinton for falling back on the whole “we have high unemployment because we have so many workers with the wrong skill set” lie that seems to be perpetrated during every recession/depression, as Paul Krugman points out here
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska (again), Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia (all Dems, of course) who voted to block a bill that would have punished U.S. firms to exporting jobs (here)…
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Prominent Charleston, SC chef Nathalie Dupree for staging a write-in campaign against Jim DeMint, who basically ran unopposed for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina (my cat stood a better chance of winning than “Democrat” Alvin Greene, up on some kind of a porn charge - here; she lost, but nice try)
Stupidest Name For A Cable Talk Show Nominee
So, if you have conservative columnist Kathleen Parker and former New York Governor and “Emperor’s Club VIP” Eliot Spitzer hosting a gab fest, what do you call it? Why “Parker/Spitzer” of course.
Is that the best they can do? How about “The Lady And The Tramp”? Makes no never mind to me.
This is CNN?
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The firefighters in Obion County, Tennessee who, though fully equipped to fight a blaze when they arrived at the scene, stood by and did nothing as the home of Gene Cranick burned to the ground because the Cranick family had failed to pay the annual subscription fee to the fire department (here)
Do Gooder (And Good Sport) Nominee Of The Year
“Snarlin’ Arlen” Specter, who agreed to campaign for Joe Sestak here (yes, I know as a Repug Specter did a lot of things to piss off people of my political persuasion, but he also delivered a hell of a lot to Pennsylvania in the way of jobs that we probably would not have had without him – nice to give him kudos for a change)
Do Gooder of the Year Nominee
Repug U.S. Senator from GA (!) Johnny Isakson, who said here that “reducing the deficit begins with the Department of Defense” (I seriously hope he doesn’t “walk this back,” because he’s absolutely right...he hasn't up to now)
Worst Ad Campaign Of The Year
I give it to the UPS “That’s Logistics” ads based very loosely on the song “That’s Amore” – somehow I don’t think anyone will ever associate legendary crooner Dean Martin with the shipping and processing of parcels as part of the cycle of supply-chain management (kind of a giveaway that I end up watching a lot of CNBC and MSNBC).
More later (we're getting there)...
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