Where The Rubber Meets The Road (12/28/07)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.

House

New energy policies: Voting 314 for and 100 against, the House on Dec. 18 sent President Bush a bill that would raise vehicle mileage requirements by 40 percent by 2020; boost residential and industrial energy-efficiency standards; phase out the incandescent light bulbs now used in most U.S. homes; and increase production of ethanol and other biofuels sixfold by 2022.

A yes vote was to pass the bill, HR 6.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.) Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

How apropos to close the year with another utterly pointless and stupid “No” vote on a piece of legislation that would do a world of good from Pancake Joe Pitts.

(I wonder if Inquirer reporter Maria Panaritis still considers Pitts a “moderate” as she did here, by the way?)

Catchall 2008 budget: Voting 272 for and 142 against, the House on Dec. 19 sent President Bush a fiscal 2008 budget bill that appropriates $473.5 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, $70 billion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $11.2 billion in emergency domestic spending.

A yes vote was to pass the bill, HR 2764.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Murphy.

I wish Admiral Joe would stand as steadfast on not approving more money for Dubya to waste in Mesopotamia without a timetable for troop withdrawal as Patrick Murphy has so far.

Alternative minimum tax: Voting 352 for and 64 against, the House on Dec. 19 sent President Bush a bill to exempt about 21 million middle-income households from the alternative minimum tax (AMT) this year. The bill, HR 3996, will add $50 billion to the national debt as a result of Senate Republicans' refusal to accept House-passed tax increases and loophole closers designed to offset its cost.

Voting yes: Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews and Murphy.

I already noted Patrick’s objection last week (don't know if Rob Andrews voted that way for the same reason, but nice work by him also), and kudos to the Inky for a change for stating exactly what is wrong with this bill, which is why Patrick voted no.

Senate

Catchall 2008 budget: Voting 76 for and 17 against, the Senate on Dec. 18 sent the House a bill appropriating $555 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2008, including $70 billion to finance war in Iraq and Afghanistan through May. The House (above) then sent the bill to President Bush, completing congressional work on the 12 spending bills that fund the federal government.

A yes vote was to pass the bill, HR 2764.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Not voting: Joseph Biden (D., Del.).

And ladies and gentlemen (you’d better sit down and brace for the shock), you’re not going to believe this…but President George W. Milhous Bush ACTUALLY SIGNED THIS BILL INTO LAW AND DIDN’T VETO IT!!! (here - from that typically bizarre look on his face, he seems to be admiring his pennmanship; I guess he finally mastered cursive).

But of course, he simply had to take yet another shot at the “Democrat” party in the process, didn’t he? And that’s why he stated that “Congress dropped into the bill nearly 9,800 earmarks that total more than $10 billion.”

Funny, but I didn’t hear him complaining when the 109th added 15,832 earmarks totaling $71 billion in 2006 into legislation, as noted here (#5).

Iraq-Afghanistan funds: Voting 70 for and 25 against, the Senate on Dec. 18 added $70 billion to bill HR 2764 (above) to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through May 2008 without conditions set by Congress.

A yes vote backed unconditional war funding.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey and Specter.

Voting no: Menendez and Lautenberg.

Not voting: Biden.

Sideshow Bob Casey ends the year with the first of two bad votes…

Iraq withdrawal mandate: Voting 24 for and 71 against, the Senate on Dec. 18 rejected a bid to require President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 90 days of enactment, leaving behind a small force to protect American interests, train Iraqi security forces, and conduct strikes against foes such as Al Qaeda. The amendment was offered to HR 2764 (above).

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Menendez and Lautenberg.

Voting no: Carper, Casey and Specter.

Not voting: Biden.

…and this is the second one (both typical for Carper, of course).

And kudos to Russ Feingold for keeping up the good fight here (I don’t say this in a flip manner, but if there is anyone in our government truly acting in a manner similar to that of Churchill in Great Britain in the 1930s, it is Feingold and certainly Chris Dodd also).

And by the way, not only did Biden fail to vote for this, he didn’t even bother to sign on as a cosponsor. What a joke.

The House will resume legislative business on Jan. 15 and the Senate on Jan. 22.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2007 - Pt. 6)

Not sure how close I am to the end with this, but I'm getting there (prior related posts are here, here, here, here, and here)...

Do Gooder Of The Year Candidate

Connecticut Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd, for putting a hold on the FISA bill that led to the eventual filibuster (way up on the list for all of this - another related post is here).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Harry Reid for this – and he and Pelosi, despite some of their legitimately good work, STILL don’t understand why Congress has lousy approval ratings.

Update: Not really Reid and Pelosi's fault here, but Atrios sums it up well in a single-worded title and text link.

Dregs Of The Year Nominees

The school officials in Cape May County, NJ who suspended a second grader for drawing a picture of a stick figure shooting a gun (here...and by the way, the Inquirer notes that four kindergartners were suspended for playing cops and robbers and using their thumbs and forefingers to “shoot” each other – the NJ School officials who suspended them are idiots also).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Glenn Beck of CNN, “the most trusted name in news,” for saying that "[A] handful of people who hate America ... are losing their homes in a forest fire today" (here - the fires burned in Malibu in southern California in late October – with his crappy ratings, why the hell is he even still on the air? And by the way, Atrios pointed out that it’s probably the case that more people in that area are conservative, but that’s too much of a subtlety for Beck to comprehend, I realize - reaction here).

Another Underreported Story Of The Year

The Repugs had problems with states moving up their primary dates also as well as the Dems; according to here, Florida, South Carolina, Wyoming, Michigan and New Hampshire may lose delegates for moving up their primaries.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Dem Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who favored immunity for telecoms participating in NSA eavesdropping after taking $42 in campaign contributions from AT&T and Verizon (here).

Stupidest Repug Presidential Candidate (lots of competition in this field)

Frederick Of Hollywood; yep, those insurgents are just “a bunch of kids with IEDs” all right (here...and kudos to Biden for throwing it right back at him)…

Stupidest Democratic Presidential Candidate Spectacle

The furor over the Obama campaign’s decision to allow homophobic recording artist Donnie McClurkin to continue performing for his campaign, thinking that adding the Rev. Andy Sidden, an openly gay South Carolina pastor (hope his insurance is paid up) would somehow balance out McClurkin (still measuring the repercussions here; this does as much damage as any attack on Obama Fox “News” could have imagined - here).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Dem Rep. Tom Lantos of California, for telling Dutch representatives that "You have to help us (re: Guantanamo), because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," according to Dutch lawmakers (here).

And this is the guy who said nothing while Duncan Hunter and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were yakking about the MoveOn ad during the Petraeus/Crocker hearing – is he senile? And he definitely "hearted" Bushco on its Not So Excellent Iraq Adventure until it went bad, let's not forget.

Update 1/2/08: I'm sorry he's ill, but I'm glad he's leaving (here).

Update 2/11/08: My condolences...

Stupidest Supposed Political Guru Of The Year

Tyler Cowen, for his Rudy “The Angry Ape” Giuliani theory of presidential electability (here - probably works in some circles, unfortunately).

Unjustified Condemnation Of The Year

Radar Magazine here for saying that Keith Olbermann, in a November Special Comment, was incorrect when he said that former Bushco DOJ official Daniel Levin said that waterboarding was torture; Radar reported the following…

"Levin, who refused to comment for this story, concluded waterboarding could be illegal torture unless performed in a highly limited way and with close supervision," wrote ABC News's Jan Crawford Greenburg and Ariane de Vogue (emphasis added). "And, sources told ABC News, he believed the Bush Administration had failed to offer clear guidelines for its use."

And in spite of this, the magazine said that Olbermann got Levin’s story “100 percent wrong.” How appropriate that Radar's column is called “The Idiot Box.”

By the way, Mark Bowden of the Inquirer wrote a column last Sunday on waterboarding saying that no one should be prosecuted for doing this to terrorist Abu Zubaydah; this probably wouldn't happen anyway since the CIA seems to be exempt from the requirements our military must observe on this, though the CIA shouldn't be; the Dems are trying to hold the CIA accountable, but a certain opposition political party led by its Chimp In Chief is making that impossible at the moment.

I was really repulsed as I read what Bowden said since it was full of the typical "there was no other way to obtain this information, and we had to get it quickly to fight terra, terra, terra, and those responsible knew they could be prosecuted by those cowardly Dems in Congress - partly true there, though - but those responsible are still heroes, and somebody must have known something or else Zubaydah would not have been made to undergo it" rationalizations.

We are a nation of laws, or we have no claim to prosecute battle against an enemy that apparently doesn't observe them either (and here is another point of view on this - h/t Atrios).

Least Qualified Person To Run A Blogger Ethics Panel

Karl Rove

(Rove also deserves a Liar Of The Year nomination for this and this.)

Dem Turncoat Of The Year

Dianne Feinstein (fresh on the heels of helping to confirm Mukasey with Schumer, she gives us this – h/t HuffPo)…

The Smartest Person in 2007

Iowa waitress Anita Esterday (here)

“Dubya Finally Goes To Combat In Iraq” Citation

Of course, we’re talking about a computer game (here).

Worst Excuse For Malfeasance When His Greedhead Scam Goes Up In Flames

Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide here who blamed “pressure from minority advocates” for the subprime lending crisis generated principally by his company due to its loose (being charitable here) lending standards (and how ironic that Mozilo made this observation at a conference sponsored by the Milken Institute, with this year’s subprime mortgage debacle sharing some of commonalities of the ‘80s junk bond scam perpetrated by the institute’s namesake).

Junk Science Of The Year

A column that appeared here in the New York Times that purported to measure brain activity of respondents to presidential candidates stated that “subjects who had (John Edwards) low on the thermometer scale showed activity in the insula, an area associated with disgust and other negative feelings."

As Brandon Kiem of Wired tells us in this post…

How many people started out with a low regard for Edwards? We aren't told. Maybe it was everybody, in which case the findings might conceivably be extrapolated to the swing voter population of the United States. But maybe it was just five or ten voters, of whom one or two had such strong feelings of disgust that it skewed the average. What about the photographs (that the respondents viewed to stimulate brain activity)? Was he sweating and caught in flashbulb glare that would make anyone's picture look disgusting? How did the disgust felt towards Edwards compare to that felt towards other candidates? How well do scientists understand the insula's role in disgust -- better, I hope, than they understand the Romney-activated amygdala, which is indeed associated with anxiety, but also with reward and general feelings of arousal?

Arousal for the Mittster? Eeeeewwwwwww (better not tell Roger Simon, though – he may get jealous).

“Palookas” Of The Year

Jim Kirkham of the American Contract Bridge League along with the United States Bridge Federation here, who thought that an apology from four women bridge players that represented the U.S. in Shanghai in October and criticized President George W. Milhous Bush in the process, “isn’t good enough,” according to Kirkham (they later relented somewhat).

More later...

A Bhutto Postmortem

I thought this Daily Kos post from diarist DHinMI regarding the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto today made the following good point...

Pakistan's government has been under the control of the military for much of its history, and often those dictatorships had the sanction of the US. Cold War politics figured heavily in to its history, and the current crisis has its roots in the US/Pakistani creation of the Mujahadeen forces that fought in Afghanistan in the 1980's against the Soviets. While it certainly has huge consequences for the US, this assassination is another chapter in the internal struggles of Pakistan.

It was the creation of those forces for the Afghan war that eventually led to the rise of the Taliban, the creation of al Qaeda, and the radicalization of the mostly Pashtun peoples in the "tribal areas" of Pakistan, where Bin Laden is widely believed to have found a safe haven, most likely with the tacit acceptance of Pakistan's intelligence service, which is believed to be sympathetic to, and probably actively supporting the religious extremists who seek to overturn Pakistan's government. These are the proximate roots of the current struggles in Pakistan.

So, once again, our involvement in the 1980s Soviet-Afghan conflict has sewn another bitter seed (and DHinMI makes the point that this horrific development undercuts Pervez Musharraf even more and hardly plays to any advantage he may have).

Yes, my first reaction is why on earth could we not have found a way to protect this woman who represented us, ostensibly, and I thought that it showed that we have so little clout in that area of the world now that we have to depend on unreliable proxies to do our bidding (i.e., actually trying to support democracy instead of undercutting it), and events like this are the result.

But I don't know what was behind her death, people, and I'm not presuming that I do here. Was it the work of al Qaeda? Perhaps, but until we've established that, Giuliani, among others, should stop calling this "a terrorist attack" (I realize that you have to "consider the source," though).

And Willard Mitt Romney's statement here trying to play down the foreign policy experience of John McCain (flawed though it may be) by saying that he could pretty much find a diplomat to make up his mind for him concerning events like this should terrify any reasonably sane individual who has had to endure the administration of George W. Milhous Bush as have we all (McCain blamed terrorists also prematurely, but not as stridently I think - using this to take a shot at Huckabee was petty, though...and by the way, Barack Obama should serve David Axelrod a big, steaming, heaping dose of STFU for this one).

And I'll bet you think I'm going to link to a statement from John Edwards that captures perfectly how I feel about this.

You're right (Axelrod/Obama/Sargent post also embedded here).

Update 12/28/07: I read that al Qaeda took “credit” for Bhutto’s death today, but that was being investigated; this, however, looks more suspicious than anything (and given Bhutto’s prescience, Bill Richardson looks like a genius for the moment here - kind of invalidates some of what DHinMI said above, though, but oh well).

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2007 - Pt. 5)

The beat goes on (prior related posts are here, here, here, and here)...

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Cecilia Sarokzy for telling the Bushes what they could do with their “picnic” invitation in August where hubby Nicolas attended (may be petty, but it’s nice to see SOMEBODY stand up to these people here).

Freeper Love Match Of The Year

Tweety and Erin Burnett (don’t know much about her, though – she may be a totally innocent party in this nonsense; Matthews needs an intervention of some type, however).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Bob Beckel, a “Democrat” who attacked kos in August on Hannity and Colmes, substituting for Colmes (nice to have a clue, Bob – saying that, if he’d been sitting across from Markos on Bleat The Press instead of Harold Ford, he would’ve “whipped that boy,” huh? Bring it on, old man).

Most Absurd Name For A Collection Of Killers

According to this article, the murder of Oakland, CA journalist Chauncey Bailey last summer was allegedly performed by individuals affiliated with “Your Black Muslim Bakery” here (“Croissants? Muffins? Extra clips for your AK-47?” - yes, I know they're still lethal and I'm not trying to make a joke out of that).

NBA Idiots Of The Year

LeBron James and Dwayne Wade for refusing to sign a petition protesting China’s link to the catastrophe in Darfur; in James’s case, he said he was still “educating himself,” and as Selena Roberts states in this Times story, Google “Genocide”; that’s all the education you need.

Dregs Of The Year Candidate

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Dubya’s war czar, for describing a return to a military draft as “an option that’s always been on the table” (a disturbing remark given the bunch he works for).

Repug Coward Of The Year

Arlen Specter who, as noted here, backed down as Senate Judiciary Chairman of the (now happily gone) 109th Congress when Dick Cheney told Congress it was “not allowed to issue subpoenas.”

Democratic Coward Of The Year (so far…)

U.S. House Rep Jerry McNerney of California here.

Worst Literary Invocation By A Head Of State

Dubya’s mention of Alden Pyle here, the main character in Graham Greene’s “The Quiet American” in a VFW speech in August (Pyle symbolized American naiveté in Greene’s novel about U.S. entry into the Vietnam War; Dubya’s attempt to spin a new literary interpretation into this character to cast himself in a favorable light is pathetic even by his lowly standards, ignoring his own similarity with that character).

Best Impression of Faded '80s Pop Star George Michael By A Politician

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)

The “Naughty Boy” Hypocrite Of The Year Award

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Arlen Specter, for defending Larry Craig (here - it helped the Dems a bit, though).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Judge Victor Marrero for striking down the part of the Patriot Act that requires telephone and Internet service providers to turn over records to the government without telling customers (here; honorable mention to Judge Henry Kennedy also here, with Bushco trying to tell him what a judge can and can't do - unbelieveable).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

John “3700 Or So Of Our Troops Dead In Iraq Is A Small Price” Boehner (here - h/t Atrios - another Boehner moment is here).

Know-Nothing Economic "Guru" Of The Year (Decade?)

Alan Greenspan (hey, nice job to not criticize Bushco’s fiscal mismanagement when it mattered but instead do it later in a book after you’d already quit, Mr. Andrea Mitchell).

Memory Lapse Of The Year

Fredrick of Hollywood, who said he “couldn’t remember” the Terri Schiavo mess since it happened “a couple of years ago,” or something (definitely not good enough for the wingnut “base” - here)

The “I Guess They Don’t Really Like Me After All” Citation

Fox, the network broadcasting the Emmys on September 16th, censored Sally Field’s anti-Iraq war comments in her speech when she accepted an Emmy for Best Dramatic Actress (I mean, we’re talking about Fox here, remember).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

State Senator Tom McClintock of California who actually opposed a law banning anyone under 18 from using a cell phone, laptop PC or texting device while driving (here - somehow I'm sure a judge and jury would take into consideration any emergency situations that necessitated using these devices; the point of the law is to save lives).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

U.S. House Rep (Repug, of course) Peter “There Are Too Many Mosques In This Country” King (here).

Most Tasteless Political Screwup Of The Year

Rudy! and his $9.11 fundraiser (here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

"Ari Ari Bobari" Fleischer (here - what a prick)

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken (here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Flush (“Phony Soldiers”) Limbore (I think that pilonidal cyst of his traveled north and impaired that lonely brain synapse; either that, or the OxyContin addiction has taken over for good - here)…

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Mark Udall, for introducing a resolution here against Flush for his remark in the wake of the controversy over that ad in the New York Times.

Cartoon Of The Year

Chris Britt from the State Journal Register and Copley News Service on the Petraeus/MoveOn controversy (here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Candidate

NJ Governor Jon Corzine for suing Dubya over SCHIP.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Rep. Darrell Issa (Repug-CA) for his veiled threat against Henry Waxman for Waxman’s investigation of Blackwater (here).

Lamest Conservative Nonsense Of The Year (tough field here)

Fred Barnes on Barack Obama (here - h/t Atrios)

You know, I’ve thought for a long time that Obama’s not in quite as strong a position on the war in Iraq as he really thinks he is. Remember, when he famously came out against the war, it was back in a time when the entire world believed that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that he would probably be willing to use them himself at some time or pass them along to terrorists who would use them. And yet, Barack Obama was against going to the war at that point. I don’t think that shows that he is very strong on national security, which he needs to be.

So…because Obama was completely right, he was somehow wrong..???

Only in Beltway pundit land, ladies and gentlemen.

Lamest Conservative Nonsense Of The Year (Runner Up)

Michelle Malkin and her foul freeper ilk who attacked Graeme Frost and his family (Frost was the 12-year-old boy who spoke out against Dubya’s SCHIP veto on behalf of the Democrats…”fetid compost where their hearts should be” indeed).

Ignored Media Quote Of The Year

Arlen Specter in Mehoopany, Pa. in August (here)…

"I don't know that there is any victory there. We're not going to be able to defeat all the crazies in Iraq."

Proof That bin Laden Is Protected

Bushco’s particularly stupid decision to leak an al Qaeda video to Fox and thus betray knowledge of a terrorist web site that Fox promptly let everyone know about; the group shut down the minute they knew they’d been discovered (here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee (with reservations)

Gen. Ricardo Sanchez for telling the truth about Iraq (this man’s career is probably over now for this, unfortunately - also this and this).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Brenda Jensen of Wayne, PA, the person who caused this horrific accident on the Schuylkill Expressway near Philadelphia that ended up closing the road between about midnight and 5 AM on October 12th (more here).

Most Under (Non?)-Reported Story Of The Year

Bushco threatened the telecomms to participate in massive domestic spying before 9/11 (here).

Quote Of The Year (Runner-Up)

Senator Wide Stance, from this story...

"I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney," Craig told Lauer. "... And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Patrolman Gerald Tallo, the Scranton, Pa. police officer who cited his neighbor Dawn Herb for yelling too loudly as her toilet was overflowing (here).

Herb was yelling for her daughter to get a mop to help clean it up.

In her house.

And she was not intoxicated, on drugs, or threatening anyone in any way.

All she was trying to do was clean up an overflowing toilet.

In her house.

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Dem Rep. Pete Stark of California (for this - no reason on earth why he should have been forced to apologize).

I'll try to have more on Friday.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2007 - Pt. 4)

Back at it (prior related posts are here, here, and here)...

Tort “Reform” Hypocrite Of The Year

Robert Bork (h/t Atrios)

I. Lewis Libby “Amicus Brief” Hypocrite of the Year

Robert Bork (h/t Atrios)


The "That's Really Baaaad" Citation

Trent "All These Problems" Lott (here)

Racist Of The Year (Runner Up)

Dubya

Dregs Of The Year Collective Nominees

Scooter Libby apologists (here also)

Racist/Historical Revisionist Of The Year (Runner Up)

George Will

Would-Be Bad Actor Of The Year (Ex-Politician Category)

Little Ricky Santorum (though, after reading some of his Inky offerings, maybe this would have been a better move...by the way, Frederick of Hollywood wins the Bad Political Actor award outright this year).

A Thorough Argument In Response To The Inevitable Freeper Charge That Sandy Berger Hid National Archive Documents In His Underwear (or something)

Here (h/t Atrios)

Corporate Media Journo Of The Year

Mika Brzezinski, who refused to cover Paris Hilton’s release from jail in June (actually shredding the copy of the “story” in the process - here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Candidate

Derek Fisher of the Utah Jazz, leaving the NBA to care for his daughter (here)

Gun Nuts Of The Year

Dual dishonors to Richard Shelby and Tom Tiahrt, Congressional Repugs (here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Candidate

Dem U.S. House Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan (here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Sirius Satellite Radio (why not just call it “Sirius Terra-Lovin’, Profanity-Spewing Godless Liberals” instead of “Left”?... h/t kos - here)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Dubya yet again (mocking the pleas of Karla Faye Tucker for her life before she was executed is a new low even for him)

Update: Anyone who thinks Dubya should be the "Most Admired Anything" (here) should get slapped silly at the very least.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Eric Edelman of the Pentagon for telling Hillary Clinton that her questions about U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq ‘boost enemy propaganda” (schooled at the unholy feet of Dick Cheney, as noted in the post - and here's HRC's response, by the way).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Willard Mitt Romney again for posing beside some mental defective and thus lending credence to her sign comparing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to Osama bin Laden (try the spelling again, brainiac - story here...also, for keeping kids ignorant about sexual predators here).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Christopher Shays of Connecticut for losing his mind here (also, for trying to bring us "Iraq Study Group II: The Sequel" - also for this, where Shays said that baseball player Mark McGwire behaved worse than anyone he'd seen in his 20 years in congress, while at the same time praising Eric "Heckuvajob Blackwater" Prince to the heavens.)

Press Dregs Of The Year (may yet be other competition here)

NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski for accepting $30,000 from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to give a speech attacking John Edwards for (you guessed it) the $400 haircut (here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Joost R. Hiltermann, author of “A Poisonous Affair,” a book in which he sets the record straight concerning the involvement of Ronnie Baby and GHWB with “Chemical Ali” and Hussein in Iraq (here).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Dick “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” Cheney (so many reasons; here, and kudos to Will Bunch for this)

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Illinois congressional Repug House rep Ray LaHood, who actually gave the Democrats credit for accomplishing something with the power they were given last November (however, you have to put an asterisk next to this one; he only told the truth because he was retiring, which I suppose is the only way you’ll hear it from these characters).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Paul Zeise, for saying Michael Vick would have been better off “raping a woman” here - I don’t care if he apologized or not.

Do Gooder Of The Year Candidate (and a Quote of the Year nominee)

Dem U.S. House Rep. Rush Holt of NJ, who said, regarding Congress’ gutting of FISA in August (with way too many Dems signing on here), “Legislation should not be passed in response to fear-mongering” (so true).

The Commemorative “Please Don’t Hurt Me With Your Patriotic License Plate, You Brave Okie” Citation

Here (from the state that sent both Jim Inhofe AND Tom Coburn to the U.S. Senate).

Quote Of The Year Nominee

First, the context; David Rees and his killer post in August here totally eviscerating Michael Ignatieff’s apologia over the Iraq war which appeared in the August 5th New York Times magazine, in which Ignatieff states this…

"A sense of reality is not just a sense of the world as it is, but as it might be. Like great artists, great politicians see possibilities others cannot and then seek to turn them into realities. . ."

Now, the quote from Rees in response…

Winston Churchill is Leonardo daVinci. George W. Bush is Thomas Kinkade. Michael Ignatieff basically helped us buy a half-trillion dollars' worth of Thomas Kinkade paintings. Thanks.

God, what a howler!

The “Unwanted Constituent Service” Citation

Glenn Murphy, Jr. president of the Young Republican National Federation, who resigned in the wake of an investigation for alleged criminal deviate conduct after a man said Murphy performed a sex act on him as the man slept at a home Murphy shared with a relative (Murphy originally stated that he was leaving the national organization and the Clark County Republican party for “business reasons”).

Sick Bastard Columnist Of The Year

Stu Bykofsky of the Daily News, who wishes to see another 9/11 (sometimes there are just no words)…

I think we're about 2/3rd's of the way there - I'll be back with more later.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2007 - Pt. 3)

Time for some more fun (prior related posts are here) and here)...

Heretic Of The Year

Michael Savage (could probably double as idiot of the milennium for this - also, smooth move here to also suggest that the Dems were somehow responsible for Hangin' Judge J.R.'s epileptic seizure).


Dregs Of The Year Nominee

John McCain (but Matt Bai says he'll rebound in the New Hampshire primary; we'll see).

Some Insight Into Why Time Magazine Was Never, Ever, Ever, Ever Going To Name Al Gore As Person Of The Year

Courtesy of Billmon here.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Senior Bob Reese of Brigham Young University for calling Dick Cheney “an example of success” here. (re: Cheney’s commencement speech in April)

'07 Racist Of The Year (Formerly ’06 Anti-Semite Of The Year)

Don Imus

Most Revealing Journalistic Moment

Kathleen Parker’s column on John Edwards’ hair (re: that YouTube video, and no shot on a link to Parker here…dishonorable mention to Yahoo and AP News for a 4/17 “story” by Joan Lowry about the subject noting how much Edwards paid the hair stylist and giving a plug to the YouTube video Parker wrote about; if you want to disagree with Edwards, do it for intelligent reasons).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Judge Laurence Silberman, who, along with former Senator Charles Robb of VA, headed the WMD Study Commission in 2004, which was intended to whitewash any negative findings from the Baker-Hamilton commission for purposes of the election (Cheney described Silberman’s report as “enormously helpful” according to Bob Woodward in “State of Denial”). The reason this year, though, is that, according to this New York Times article, Silberman wrote the opinion of the court in the District of Columbia case overturning the D.C. handgun law, which ignored all case law on the Second Amendment that preceded it.

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Pete Sessions (h/t Atrios)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Dubya (so many reasons, but for starters, he gave away the location of Baghdad military outposts in a press conference as noted here – I pray to God our people didn’t get killed as a result)..

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Laura Bush also for this (and I'm sure you and your hubby were "suffering" here also).

Do-Gooder Of The Year Nominee

Bill Moyers

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Protestor Alan Kiser who held up a poster saying that PA House Rep. Angel Ortiz should be "hung from the tree of liberty" for trying to sponsor a bill requiring gun registration in Philadelphia to assess a $10 annual gun fee (here).

Racist Of The Year (tie with Imus)

Flush Limbore

Historian In Need Of A History Lesson

V.D. Hanson (what war was being fought in December 1945?)

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Thomas Sowell, for advocating a military coup because “liberals have ruined this country” or some such nonsense (here).

Do-Gooder Of The Year

Philadelphia City Councilman Darrell Clarke, who sued the PA General Assembly so Philadelphia can enact its own gun laws (here).

Presidential Pretender Of The Year Nominee

Willard Mitt "Seven-Year Marriage In France" Romney (here).

The "Do A 'Bada-Bing' Upside His Head" Citation

David Chase, creator of “The Sopranos” on HBO, for sneaking in a plug for Fred Barnes’ fluffer of a bio on Dubya, “Rebel In Chief”; Carmella, Tony’s wife, was sitting up in bed reading it in one episode (and also for this).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter for calling Radar Magazine's Jebediah Reed a "bad reporter" because he supposedly mischaracterized a remark fellow reporter Tom Edsall made about David Broder (yes, this is really "bitchy journo" inside stuff that not a lot of people would care about, but Alter's smackdown was pretty nasty and totally unwarranted, as noted here).

Loony Litigants Of The Year

The couple that sued over their eighth grader watching “Brokeback Mountain” (here - the teacher was an idiot, but half a mil?)…

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

Rick "Kill Them All" Sanchez (here)

The "Ecclesiastical Foot In Mouth" Award

Pope Benedict XVI

The “Ancient Chinese Secret That They Never Bothered To Tell Us About Until Our Pets Started Dying” Citation

The melamine outbreak

The “Somewhere, Uncle Adolf Is Smiling” Citation

Tom Wayne, the book-burning numbskull in Kansas City (here - there has GOT to be a better way for him to make this point).

The "Jerry Falwell Smiles Somehow From What Is Hopefully A Tortured Afterlife" Citation

Eva Sowinska of Poland, who supposedly advocates for children's rights but still believes that Teletubby Tinky Winky, with the triangle atop his head and "man bag," somehow "promotes homosexuality" (I guess it's true that the rest of the world consumes both the best and the worst of this country - here).

Dregs Of The Year Nominee

James Carville, for signing a letter petitioning the sentencing judge requesting that Scooter Libby not receive jail time for his obstruction of justice conviction (Libby got 30 months, though Dubya commmuted that to nothing of course).

Poet Persecutor Of The Year

Dennis Dunne of Nassau County, Long Island (here).

More later...