Yep, it's that time again (getting a jump on some people with this, I'll admit, partly because posting will get flakier through the month), and I'd better start getting this wrapup for 2010 together because I have a lot of stuff; like last year, it will probably take me up to New Years Eve to get to it all, so here goes.
And what is the point of this, I hear you ask? Well, aside from this being my own obligatory “year end” list, I’m noting here a lot of stuff that I happened to come across during the year that I, for the most part, didn’t post about but wanted to comment on anyway.
(And by the way, unacknowledged hat tips are probably owed here to Eschaton, Daily Kos, Think Progress, Huffington Post, Open Left, Democracy Arsenal, and a few other sites here - many thanks.)
Dregs Of The Year NomineeMann Coulter trying to resurrect the Obama/Madrassa lie
here (that didn’t take long)…
Dregs Of The Year NomineeFormer NJ Governor Tom Kean, one time co-chair the 9/11 commission, who said
here that the “pants bomber” Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab “probably did us a favor” by launching his unsuccessful attack; Kean went on to say that the Obama Administration “wasn’t focused” on terror (as if Kean would know)…
Dregs Of The Year Nominee (Would-Be Holy Roller Citation)Brit Hume of Fix Noise, who implied
here that Tiger Woods’ infidelities stemmed from the fact that he’s a Buddhist…
Dregs Of The Year NomineeTeabagger extraordinaire Dale Robertson – funny, but I always thought that word was spelled with an “e” (
here)
Dregs Of The Year NomineeAllan (“Defeating Liberals Is More Important Than Defeating Terrorists”) Quist (
here - yep, they were sure “off and running,” weren’t they?)
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeNot the biggest fan of Ron Paul, but he gets it here for taking on “Deadeye Dick” over the former veep’s attacks on Obama over those dern terrists (
here)
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeRaul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for criticizing the fact that health care reform legislation won’t go to a House-Senate conference committee (
here - he would be one of the relatively few incumbent U.S. House Dems re-elected in the fall)
Dregs Of The Year NomineeErick (“Son of Erick”) Erickson of Red State, for claiming
here that Obama’s Nobel Prize was awarded because of affirmative action (and get a load of his “sourcing” on the “brown shirt” remark he attributes to White House health care spokesperson Linda Douglass)
Do Gooders Of The Year NomineesOnce upon a time as they say, former Toronto Blue Jays’ second baseman Roberto Alomar got into an argument over a called third strike with umpire John Hirschbeck, and it became so heated that Alomar did the utterly unconscionable thing of spitting on Hirschbeck, an act for which Alomar quite rightly apologized. Well, as the Sports Illustrated
story tells us, the two have since become friends, with both men helping to support a foundation Hirschbeck started to combat a rare brain disease known as adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), which, tragically, took the life of Hirschbeck’s 8-year-old son.
(By the way, Alomar didn’t get into the Hall of Fame, though he should one day because he ended up having an otherwise outstanding career.)
Idiot Of The Year Nominee (Would-Be Plaxico Burress Citation)Gilbert Arenas of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, who (
here) brought guns into the team’s dressing room at the Verizon Center and, before a game with the Sixers, made a shooting motion with his fingers at his teammates as if it were a joke (there are kids who get suspended from school for those kinds of actions – the joke I mean, not the guns…hopefully that’s only a hypothetical – Arenas has been suspended indefinitely without pay pending an investigation – I’m not the biggest fan of NBA Commissioner David Stern, but I think that’s exactly the right move)
Idiot Of The Year Nominee (Runner Up, So Far)Staying with sports, Eagles employee Dave Spadaro gets it
here for spitting on the star in the middle of the field of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium prior to the team’s opening round playoff game (the Eagles got waxed 34-14 in what would prove to be Donavan McNabb's final game as an Eagle…Spadaro apologized, but why he would’ve thought it was a good idea to begin with escapes me).
Dregs Of The Year NomineeFormer Bushco lawyer John Farren (
here), who was arrested in his New Canaan, CT home Wednesday and accused of trying to kill his wife, according to the New Canaan Police Department (yes, I know this is a bit beyond the usual political yak-yak stuff – hopefully she’ll recover all right and Farren’s sorry ass will end up in jail)
Dregs of the Year NomineesThe New Jersey State Senate for defeating a same-sex marriage bill (
here)…
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeTom Ridge, for defending Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
here against right-wing criticism in response to the failed Christmas bombing last year (and somebody tell Dan Burton to go take pot shots at pumpkins, or something – see #7
here)
Dregs Of The Year Nominee (“As Primitive As Can Be” Citation)Fresh on the heels of the underwear bomber, Joseph Hedlund Johnson of Salem, Oregon boarded a plane bound for Hawaii and scribbled a note including references to “Gilligan’s Island” and the plane “ripp(ing) apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth” and handed it to a flight attendant, leading to the plane turning around and heading back to Portland, Oregon with a NORAD escort (and this brainiac apparently was
surprised that he would be interviewed by FBI agents -
here).
Dregs Of The Year NomineeBush Dog (and "U.S." Chamber of Commerce Dem "pet") Dan Boren for
this (guess the fix was in by then but Boren was too dumb to keep his mouth shut about it)...
Dregs Of The Year NomineeBrian Williams of NBC News, who seemed here to have plenty of outrage over the fact that former baseball slugger Mark McGwire finally stopped lying about taking steroids, but, as Attaturk notes, doesn’t seem to feel any such outrage over Bushco’s continual lies, particularly about Iraq (and yes, he would do fine reporting on the Haiti earthquake soon after this - which is his job, after all - but that doesn’t make up for his goof
here)
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeShep Smith of Fix Noise provided a moment of sanity
here, slapping down nutball Pat Robertson over the latter saying, in essence, that Haiti got what it deserved concerning the horrible January earthquake (usually a good thing when Shep goes “off message” like this).
Do Gooder (?) Of The Year Nominee (Special “Returning To The Scene Of The Crime” Citation)Obama asked Dubya to “lead the bipartisan effort” to help Haiti, even though, as TP notes
here, we have undermined that country for years
Dregs of the Year NomineeFlush Limbore for his Haiti earthquake comments
here – too much even for him (as noted previously, dishonorable mention to “Reverend” Pat Robertson for his remarks on this also - Flush gets called on absolutely nothing by our corporate media, but we know that of course...though one fine person did the right thing)…
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeSpeaking of which, Roger Ebert gets it for saying
here that Limbore should be “horse whipped” for implying that Obama would steal money for Haitian relief (h/t Daily Kos – no bottom for Flush, people…our pal “Rog” will show up later too).
Dregs of the Year Nominee (Pot, Meet Kettle Citation)Former local CBS News anchor Larry Mendte gets a mention for a close-to-home topic;
here, he criticized the “sexism” of remarks made by people who opposed the notion of Mendte’s wife Dawn Stensland’s run for political office (Stensland was a former news anchor also).
I’m not saying Mendte doesn’t have a point, but these remarks are coming from a guy who was sentenced to six months’ house arrest for hacking into the email of former co-anchor Alycia Lane, who contended that, as HuffPo tells us
here, “his jealousy over her ascending career and popularity led him to (hack her Email) and spread salacious details to gossip columnists that ultimately resulted in her firing.”
Dregs of the Year NomineeJim Cramer of CNBC, who predicted a big stock market rally
here if Repug Scott Brown won the Massachusetts U.S. Senate contest against Martha Coakley to fill Ted Kennedy's seat (Brown did, of course; the market lost 200 points the next day – after Jon Stewart took him apart in ’09, you’d have to be a dope to take Cramer seriously anyway)
Dregs of the Year NomineesThe All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) gets a nod
here; they sent out a press release on Sunday saying that the league intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.” AABA commissioner Don “Moose” Lewis insists that he’s not racist, but he just wants to get away from the “street-ball” played by “people of color” and back to “fundamental basketball” (no word on whether or not the players would wear white hoods during the games).
Dregs of the Year Nominee“Straight Talk” McCain, who chastised National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter on the Christmas Day would-be plane bombing
here even though McCain said the would-be bomber had a one-way plane ticket (it was round trip) that he bought in Copenhagen (actually, the would-be bomber bought the ticket in Ghana).
And it doesn’t matter how many facts McCain screws up; he will always be welcomed on the Sunday morning gab fests as a supposed expert on foreign policy (he would further lend himself to self-parody over his “danged fence” video in May...Senator "Country First" was busy this year, but not in a good way).
Dregs of the Year NomineeDem Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, the state where New Orleans was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, for blocking climate change legislation (as TP tells us
here, “Landrieu’s actions are quite simply morally indefensible. The Mississippi Delta is under extraordinary threat from global warming, as seas rise and storms intensify” – un-freaking-believable! Also, Landrieu earns a citation for more “Drill, Baby, Drill” nonsense after the horrific BP spill in the Gulf)
Dregs of the Year NomineeHere’s the once-a-year (at a minimum) citation to Senate numbskull Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who does everything possible
here to block a hearing for Obama nominee Erroll Southers as head of the TSA because DeMint believed that Southers wanted the TSA to become a “labor union,” then complains that Southers “wouldn’t answer simple, direct questions” – uh, yeah…because DeMint NEVER GAVE HIM THE CHANCE – when Southers gets tired of this whole fiasco and withdraws his name from consideration (and of course, the next time something almost happens or – God forbid – actually
does happen involving a terrorist incident on a plane, train or other means of transportation, the Repugs will scream louder than anyone about it, even though DeMint is putting us at greater risk by not granting a hearing to Obama’s nominee…truly mind-numbing stupidity here)
…and by the way, DeMint,
if you’re going to lie, at least be man enough to owe up when you’ve been busted (Who do you think you are, Flush Limbore? And this bit about the Repugs working on health care reform “for years” is hilarious).
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeFormer Sixer Samuel Dalembert for his Haitian relief efforts (
here – good luck with Sacramento)
Dregs Of The Year NomineesCollectively, to the five wingnut Supremes on the court of Hangin’ Judge JR for their “Citizens United” decision
here, basically opening up the tap of corporate dough in elections that had previously been turned off (Think Progress provides the details of this travesty, along with what is hoped to be congressional legislation to invalidate the ruling and Justice Stevens’ sound, stinging dissent, though none appears to be forthcoming because of typical Senate gridlock – K.O.’s Special Comment on this was outstanding)
…and
here is another awful consequence that led in large part to the electoral debacle in November (probably hands-down Dregs of the Year winners for this in a typical year, but this wasn't a typical year).
Do Gooder Of The Year NomineeDeparting U.S. Senator Snarlin’ Arlen Specter earns a mention; he told Moon Unit Bachmann
here to “act like a lady” because she repeatedly interrupted him during a discussion about the Massachusetts election on WPHT in these parts (I supported Sestak, sure, but kudos to Arlen for putting this idiot in her place).
…so of course, Specter, being a typical Dem,
apologized even though he was right – pathetic.
Dregs of the Year NomineeRadio personality Michaela Majoun of public station WXPN in these parts; I need a minute to set this up.
So newsreader Robert Drake told us about a story in January of a black bear giving birth in the wild and the fact that the birth would be filmed, and Majoun kind of jokingly asked, “where’s the father?,” to which Drake replied, “Well, you know how bears are, ha ha,” which was silly but OK, but then Majoun says,
“You know how men are, ha ha.”This, by the way, from someone who once said that a station volunteer taking member phone calls for song requests was “
personing the phone” (who cares if it’s an imaginary word – it’s “PC” and Majoun is the high priestess in that department, if you will, so that’s all that matters).
I’ll remember this the next time the station has one of their obnoxious pledge drives and fellow DJ David Dye “suggests” a membership contribution of $12 per month.
(Actually, though, based on
this, maybe "personing" isn't such a complimentary term after all.)
Dregs of the Year NomineeYes, I know what John Edwards is (speaking of “knowing how men are,”) and yes, I remember how I once supported him, and he’s not going to get a pass from me here, but the New York Times has to get a citation for its photo spread and feature article in January (can't track down an online link) on Edwards admitting paternity of Rielle Hunter’s child (about freaking time, I know), lavishing coverage on Edwards as his personal and political lives imploded that he never received when he was a presidential candidate (excluding Paul Krugman, of course – Edwards was one of the first high-profile Dems to admit he was wrong on Iraq, he was the first to put out a policy on health care that was well-received by Dem policy experts on the subject, and he was and remains the only Dem politician to give a damn about poverty in this country).
Do Gooder of the Year NomineeSecretary of State Hillary Clinton, who, as noted
here, “called for an unfettered worldwide Internet and urged global condemnation of those who conduct cyber attacks,” as a result of this practice by the Chinese; her words sought to contain tensions with the United States over the hacking and censorship of Google (unclear exactly how this affects Net Neutrality, but I don’t know how it couldn’t be beneficial...she would run into trouble over the Wikileaks stuff later, of course)
Do Gooder of the Year NomineeGary McLean, a CSX Railroad train inspector, who rescued an 8-week-old puppy that was frozen to the train tracks in Alabama
here (all together now –
aaawwwww….)
Dregs of the Year NomineeSouth Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer for
this (nice job not getting “Gov. Appalachian Trail” to step down, BTW)…
Dregs of the Year NomineeFix Noise – so many reasons I know, but as Media Matters notes
here, they were “virtually alone” in not airing the “Hope for Haiti Now” concert
Dregs of the Year Nominee (Posthumous “So I Guess We Really Didn’t Hear The Rest Of The Story After All” Citation)As noted
here, longtime radio commentator Paul Harvey, who died in February ’09, “enjoyed a 20-year friendship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, often submitting advance copies of his radio script for comment and approval. Harvey wrote Hoover and his deputies regularly. Hoover, in turn, helped Harvey with research, suggested changes in scripts and showered the broadcaster with effusive praise.”
Dregs of the Year NomineeDem U.S. Senator Bill “Spaceman” Nelson of Florida, for blaming “the left” for the problems of health care reform (
here)
Dregs of the Year NomineesThe “village elders” in Bangla Desh who “issued (a) fatwa” against a 16-year-old Bangladeshi girl who was raped and conceived during the attack
here; the elders also fined the girl's father and warned him that his family would be forced into isolation if they didn't pay (the alleged rapist suffered no punishment).
Dregs of the Year NomineePaul Shirley, the former NBA player who still plays pro basketball, who penned a long letter about Haiti and the consequences of its earthquake, in which he seems to hold most Haitians accountable for the dire state of the nation (
here).
He began the letter by stating that he has not donated to relief efforts in Haiti and "probably will not... for the same reason that I don't give money to homeless men on the street."
Nice guy.
Yes, I know Haiti is a basket case of a country, but the time to try and put it back together is later, not this very moment. For now, we
still have a humanitarian disaster on our hands (
here). Let’s try solving that before we point fingers, OK?
Dregs of the Year NomineePresident Obama (here we go again) for referring to nukes, development of coal and oil drilling as “clean energy jobs”
here (nice work on the SOTU, though...I'm pretty sure I give him kudos later for other stuff)
…and also, as far as I’m concerned, the proverbial buck stops with him on the failure of the HAMP program (
here).
…and maybe
this is “piling on,” but I expected better of them (though I will admit that “the world’s greatest deliberative body” has been tying his hands on closing Guantanamo, as well as other matters).
Dregs of the Year NomineeRepug U. S. Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire for having a meltdown
here when questioned by MSNBC hosts about what items he would cut from the budget, particularly concerning education (Gregg’s outrage is funny when you consider that, as TP tells us, Gregg voted to “balance the budget faster by eliminating the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Departments of Education, Commerce and Energy in 1996”…still can’t believe Obama considered him for commerce secretary).
Dregs of the Year Nominee“Strip Search Sammy” Alito, for mouthing the words “not true”
here when Obama criticized the
Citizens United Supreme Court ruling during the SOTU address (and as Think Progress reminds us
here, Alito's comment would prove to be "not true" itself)
More later...
