Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 6)

(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 Nominees

The western Michigan teabaggers and U.S. House Rep Justin Amash here for having reporters from Think Progress and seniors ejected from a supposed “town hall” event in which Amash spoke because the people from TP allegedly threw things at the teabaggers, even though multiple individuals testified that no objects were ever thrown (and as TP notes, it’s particularly funny that the teabaggers advocate transparency, supposedly)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Kansas state house Republican Pete DeGraaf – I’ll let this exchange with fellow Rep. Barbara Bollier speak for itself, just as the poster at Daily Kos did (here)…

(DeGraaf), a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill (that called for banning coverage for abortions of rape pregnancies…Dear God, why are these clowns debating this garbage??), told (Bollier): "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?"

Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with pregnancy?"

DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have a spare tire on my car."

"I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."

And the linked story from the Daily Kos post tells us that DeGraaf is actually a “pastor.”

I cannot imagine what is in the minds of these people, and hopefully, I never will.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug Georgia U.S. House Rep Rob Woodall gets a citation here; in response to a query from a constituent about obtaining health insurance after they’re dropped from their employer and lose private coverage, he chided her and said “when am I going to decide to take care of me” instead of “the gumint” doing it, presumably (Dregs citations also to the idiot constituents who applauded the remark from Woodall).

To begin, it should be noted (according to Ryan Grim’s story) that Woodall now makes about $174 grand a year with “generous benefits,” so he is hardly in the same situation as the vast majority of the constituents he represents. Second, in his tirade about everything that is supposedly wrong with government, he warbled on about how Social Security is adding to the debt, which is a pretty obvious clue that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, since that is part of a separate fund that is nowhere near bankruptcy.

I believe that, basically, constituents get the elected officials they deserve, and it looks like the people represented by this numbskull just want to turn off their brains, turn up the ether and just let themselves be lied to and taken advantage of time and time again.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

House Majority Leader and sleazy weasel Eric Cantor for calling for spending cuts here to (I suppose) offset aid to Joplin, MO, which was struck by a tornado that killed more than 100 people and wrought horrific devastation (as Steve Benen noted elsewhere on this, Cantor has pulled off the seemingly impossible feat of making Tom DeLay look like a moderate by comparison – DeLay has said to pretty much just ante up the aid without any strings, or at least he has said so in similar circumstances)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

“Bibi” Netanyahu, who is a world-class liar for saying here that Israel “does not occupy the West Bank,” when even Ariel Sharon admitted that they did as far back as 2003 (and a secondary citation to all of the idiots in the House who applauded Netanyahu when he said so...of course, Obama and Sarkozy are supposedly bad guys for this - riiiiight)

Dregs of the Year Nominee (and related to the item above)...

Rob Andrews for this (and he was doing so well, but this is a big step backward)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The Mittster for now claiming here that he supported the automaker bailout (which, again, was really a loan), when he wrote the following in 2009 in the NYT: “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Reagan-appointed federal Judge James Cacheris, who ruled here that corporations have a constitutional right to contribute money directly to political candidates (I thought there may be hope from this development, but no – he let that awful ruling stand, as noted here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee (Special “Welcome To The Club” Citation)

Repug U.S. House Rep Joe Walsh said here that President Obama was elected because he’s black (giving voice to a wingnut narrative others wish would stay silent, no doubt).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

John Elway, vice president of the Denver Broncos and Hall of Famer, for telling the punk rock band Elway to change its name, which actually turned into great publicity for the band, here (maybe the band should change its name to "Quarterback That Bailed On The City of Baltimore" instead)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Get ready for a shock – Kristol Mess gets it for accidentally telling the truth here (the bar is set really low again, I know).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Lex Luthor Scott in Florida for pushing for welfare recipients to undergo drug tests before they claim benefits here (I hope those Florida voters who thought he was a reasonable alternative to Alex Sink last year are happy with themselves)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

That half-term, moose-hunting-from-a-helicopter former governor of Alaska herself for claiming here in Massachusetts (during that bike/bus/whatever tour in May/June) that, during the legendary midnight ride of Paul Revere, he warned The British also (and runner-up citations to her single-digit-IQ fans who tried to edit the related Wikipedia page here to make it conform to her twisted narrative – see HuffPo…still, though, The Old Gray Lady and Mark Leibovich decided to feature her as the main story in its Week in Review section on 6/5 – that woman can literally say or do anything and still get press)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug LA state rep John Labruzzo for comparing women seeking abortions to heroin addicts here (he’s lucky this got out on the same day as the “Weinis” story, as Atrios called it, broke)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Paul Broun of Georgia for this (typical of a repeat offending a-hole like this guy)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Delta Airlines gets a note of infamy here for charging troops returning from Afghanistan an extra $200 each to bring a fourth bag home, forcing one unit to pay more than $2,800 in baggage fees. Evidently, Delta’s policy is to allow troops only three free checked bags, while the soldiers said that their military orders allow them to carry up to four bags free of charge.

So they’re anti-union, anti-fair elections, and now anti-troops to go along with it.

Bastards.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Willard Mitt (“I’m Also Unemployed”) Romney here (elitist, rich, out-of-touch asshole – another h/t to Atrios)…

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for suggesting in a ruling that undocumented immigrants have no Fourth Amendment rights (here)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The fans of the Vancouver Canucks for rioting in that city after the team lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on their home ice here (hey, you’re only entitled to do that if you win, and yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek…I was tempted to cite the Boston Bruins fans for a pic where two of the faithful were smiling as they watched Mason Raymond of the Canucks sprawled on the ice with a compression fracture of his vertebrae after a check by Johnny Boychuck of the Bruins, but I thought better of it…I don’t know how the other Bruin fans in attendance reacted)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Texas (of course) State Senator Chris Harris gets it for telling Antolin Aguirre of the Austin Immigrant Rights coalition here that “he should be speaking in English” before Harris’ subcommittee during a hearing on an immigration bill (Aguirre, a naturalized citizen since 2001, brought an interpreter with him…probably wouldn’t have done any good anyway, since I don’t think either one of them knew how to talk in “stupid-ese” to Harris).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR gets the nod yet again for tossing the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that certified the class action lawsuit brought against Wal-Mart by, at one time, 1.5 million women employees claiming discrimination in pay, though the number had fallen to about 500,000 with other court rulings (Scalia – of course – writing for the majority, said that the claim didn’t meet the “commonality” standard, though that many claimants having the same grievance sounds pretty “common” to me…as Adam B. of Daily Kos points out here, business wins in the Roberts court yet again).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Ian Ritchie, the head of England's Wimbledon tennis tournament, for complaining here about the grunting of women tennis players during matches (Dude, seriously, is that what preoccupies your time? Actually, I think it’s kind of kick-ass)…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Louis “Luigi” Borda, a teacher at the college-prep Masterman school in Philadelphia, who embarked on a 100-mile run to Harrisburg to protest the “catastrophic” (yep, that fits) cuts to public education by Repug Gov. Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett (here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Todd Akin of Missouri for saying here that liberals hate God (a consequence of the continued right-wing hissy fit over NBC’s airing of a pre-taped segment before the U.S. Open golf match including the Pledge of Allegiance - ?? – in which the words “under God” and “indivisible” were omitted, though the network apologized for the omission…wonder how many wingnuts like Akin know that the phrase “under God” wasn’t added to the Pledge until 1953, and the “Bellamy” pose when reading the Pledge for years looked suspiciously like the Sieg Heil salute?)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

The bar continues to be set low here, but I have to give it to Moon Unit Bachmann for this…

…on the other hand…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

To Bachmann for this and this (And what is it with Repug candidates stealing songs? And I think she tried it with “Walking on Sunshine” too and got slapped down again.)

...and let's not forget this too.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Greta Van Susteren of Fix Noise for saying here that Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson should resign, in response to the news that fellow justice David Prosser “grabbed (Justice Ann Walsh Bradley) around the neck” in an argument in Bradley’s chambers in June (as TP tells us, Abramson has also been victimized by Prosser’s abusive behavior also…and of course, not a word of reproach to Prosser himself)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Missouri Repug Governor Jay Nixon gets it for cutting help for abused children in his state to pay for flood disaster relief here (secondary citations to a certain Willard Mitt Romney and that sleazy weasel Eric Cantor for saying that it is immoral and unacceptable to offer disaster assistance without other spending cuts…then again, give them a minute before they yammer on about how much we supposedly still need Dubya’s stinking tax cuts, one of our biggest deficit “drivers”).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Judge Emmet Sullivan for this…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

That fossil Don Imus yet again for this, and yes, I think the photo juxtaposition was intentional (how many second chances is this guy supposed to get?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

NJ State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Dem, for being dumb enough to actually trust Governor Bully and helping to sell that state’s public employee unions down the proverbial river (here…and for waiting to get angry until AFTER he was totally played by Christie – was this guy born last night or something? Yes, I know he ended up doing the right thing in the end, but give me a break!)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The Houston, TX jury that acquitted Charles Boartz and KBR of raping former employee Jamie Leigh Jones here (almost too despicable for words)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Obama SecDef Leon “”We’re In Iraq Because of 9/11” Panetta (here – thanks for helping to codify perhaps the most egregious of all the Bushco lies that we have been working tirelessly to refute)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein (R). who aimed her raspberry-pink handgun here at a journalist who was interviewing her about her pro-gun positions outside of her chambers; the gun, a .380 Ruger, was loaded, and Klein did not have the safety on (oh, but I’m sure that raspberry pink color was just so adorable, wasn’t it?)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Christian Lopez, the New York Yankees fan who, after catching the ball from Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit (a home run), gave it back to Jeter when Lopez could have kept it and probably earned six figures out of the deal…and though it pains me to say this, a Dregs citation goes to the IRS for making Lopez pay anywhere from $5 to $13G in taxes on the gifts he received from the Yankees in return, including “luxury box tickets for the rest of the season (including postseason), along with signed baseballs, bats and jerseys from Jeter” – Lopez also scored four premium front-row seats to the June 10th Yankees-Rays game (sickens me that a honest man like Lopez could get hosed on taxes like this while megacorps like GE ended up paying zilch in taxes in 2010 - here)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Peter King for this (what balls, considering how his party takes its marching orders from Roger Ailes and Rupert The Pirate…Dem Rep Earl Blumenauer of Oregon gets a nod also for echoing King’s call for an investigation into “RupertCorp”...more on this later)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Cisco, for this…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Eric (“I Don’t Remember Any Terrorist Attacks On American Soil” Between 2000 and 2008) Bolling (here…the bar for a Fix Noise flunky is already set low, but he cleared it easily)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco for ruling here that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should continue (and the Obama Administration also for asking for a continuance of this discriminatory policy)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“President Hopey Changey” himself gets it for bailing on Elizabeth Warren as head of the consumer financial protection bureau (here, even though Gallup said Obama was “over performing” here).

Yes, Obama gets credit for standing up and walking out on that ridiculous debt ceiling meeting with Eric Cantor in July, but then he turns around and utterly caves on making Warren a recess appointment.

Do I need to point out for the hundredy umpteenth time how Obama’s predecessor would have handled this? He would have “recessed” the nominee he wanted anyway and extended the middle digit to Congress (and, knowing Dubya, he might have literally done that), all with that idiotic smirk on his face.

Going “balls out,” as it were, to support Warren here was the correct course of action, Mr. President. Instead, yet again, you cut a progressive off at the proverbial knees.

And funny, but I seem to have lost that “Obama 2012” fundraising Email and, gosh darn it, wouldn’t you know that I can’t find it? What a shame (of course, a benefit of this was that it spurred Warren to run against “Wall Street Scott” Brown in Massachusetts, where, last I checked, she had a slight lead).

Update: My bad - seven points is more than "slight" (woo-hoo!).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Tom McClintock of CA for this…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Rais Bhuiyan (this Think Progress post tells us who he is and why what he’s trying to do is so heroic – it would be nice if everyone prattling on about the ZOMG SCARY GROUND ZERO “MOSQUE”! story had read it also)…

More later...