Saturday Stuff

Is anybody out there looking for a holiday “stocking stuffer”? Here’s a suggestion (probably a little late on this video, I’ll admit – I never imagined a line of sorts from shielding a certain R.M. Nixon all the way to shielding the banksters, Big Pharma, and the rest of the one percent, but fortunately, Glenn Greenwald did more than imagine it)…



…and I thought this was a catchy little seasonal number (sorry, no video).

Friday Stuff

Happy 95th birthday to Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas (a scene that has been often lampooned, but never duplicated, nor could it be)…



…and kudos to Elizabeth Warren for giving Turd Blossom a dose of what he deserves (here)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and Rachel Maddow brings us the “Best New Thing In The World” (yeah, it’s all about that infrastructure that the Repugs hate so much…and by the way, on a similar theme, that being jobs, this was a great Guest Opinion in the Bucks County Courier Times today, for a change)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and here is another holiday item (jump back - gonna kiss myself!).

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 7)

(On we go...Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, Part Four is here, Part Five is here, and Part Six is here.)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for acting like an adult here on the issue of raising the debt limit, coming up with a plan to raise the ceiling by $2.7 trillion along with $2.7 trillion in cuts, which largely come from “winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” as opposed to Man Tan Boehner and his fellow Repugs who don’t give a damn about the deficit and want to do all they can to stick it to Obama (and gut entitlements as well as preserving those stinking Bush tax cuts, of course – the NYT said Reid’s deal wasn’t so hot, but at least he tried to move the ball the right way, as it were)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Pastor” Rick (Half Of America Doesn’t Pay Taxes) Warren here (yet another h/t Atrios - maybe a record this year)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, who ruled that NY Times reporter James Risen did not have to testify in court about who gave him details on a top-secret CIA program targeting Iran; Judge Brinkema ruled Risen would only be required to take the stand to verify the accuracy of his reporting and would not be required to identify any confidential source or sources (wise – here)…

…but on the other hand, Judge Brinkema might have unnecessarily opened up the proverbial can of worms, as noted here.

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Former U.S. House Rep Bob Edgar, now head of Common Cause, who was arrested here along with 10 other religious leaders in July after they knelt to pray in the Capitol Rotunda to protest proposed cuts to social services prior to the conclusion over that utter nonsense in the matter of raising the debt ceiling (Edgar is also a United Methodist minister…exactly the sort of person we need in government, as opposed to the type of cretins we generally have now)

...and speaking of cretins...

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who said here that associating with President Obama is like “touching a tar baby” (he later apologized, yet again, as well he should...at least the third such instance this year by my count)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Former Dregs of the Year Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, who said here after that ridiculous debt ceiling vote nonsense played itself out in August that he was prepared to go through all of it again (once more, idiot voters send this life form back to Washington over and over…unfortunately, McConnell’s antics affect not just Kentucky, but the whole country)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Holy Joe” Lieberman for this (presumably, so we can fight them “there” so we don’t have to fight them “here,” and yes, that’s snark...this guy can't be gone soon enough)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Uber Alles” Buchanan for referring to Obama as “boy” here (and kudos to Al Sharpton for not letting him get away with it…seriously, why is Buchanan still on TV?)...

…and more here (unbelievable).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug Iowa Governor Terry Branstad for vetoing a tax break for the poor because it didn’t lower corporate taxes (here – what a scumwad)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Once again, the bar is set low, but I have to give it to Governor Bully for this (lots of other stuff wrong with this guy of course, but he "found the nut" here)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominees

Our brave Navy SEALs and other personnel killed in Afghanistan in August here (I’m sure the Pentagon is doing some kind of a review to determine why the #@!! so many of them were in that chopper together, including Chief Petty Officer Michael Strange of Philadelphia)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Actor Jeremy Irons for this charming quote (and by the way, for all of his good performances, he should have paid me to sit through “Dead Ringers”…h/t Daily Kos)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The 11th Circuit Federal Appeals Court for ruling against the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate here (commerce clause, people – how many goddamn times do we need to keep repeating that?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Shery Lanford Smith of the Sumter County, Wisconsin Tea Party (figures) gets it for making yet another joke here about killing President and Mrs. Obama here (ha ha – have fun explaining this to the Secret Service, wingnut).

And Joe Nocera of the New York Times actually felt he had to apologize to these cretins (actually, he should’ve apologized for that horrible column about Boeing and the Dems in August)…

…and I guess Nocera would apologize to the Teahadists for this too.

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Judge David Hamilton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit earns a mention here; he upheld a lawsuit by Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, two contractors who went to Iraq to work for an American security firm and became whistleblowers when Mr. Vance grew suspicious that the company was involved in illegal activity, including weapons trafficking (the suit by the two claims they were “physically threatened, abused, and assaulted by the anonymous U.S. officials working as guards”).

And by the way, the parties named in the suite are Former Defense Secretary Rummy “and others” (Bushco will face the music one of these days, and hopefully, this is the beginning of that process).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Minnesota Twin (and former Phillie...and now a Phillie again - yaay!) Jim Thome for hitting his 600th career home run in August (here)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Baby Newton Leroy Gingrich for saying here that same-sex marriage is to blame for our lousy economy (OWWWW, TEH STOO-PID!!! IT BURNS US!!! And he's the frontrunner - hilarious)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Willard Mitt Romney for criticizing Obama's vacation in Martha’s Vineyard here (here we go again) – turns out the Mittster will be there the same day (what a moron)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Crazy Tom Coburn for this (and he will never face criticism over remarks like this from our corporate media – ever)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Pope Benedict XVI for this (a little more of what you might call "social action" would be nice to go with this too, Your Holiness)…

Worst Attempt at False Equivalency By A Dem Who Should Know Better

The term “firebagger” was coined by Obama campaign staffer Ray Sandoval in an attempt to demonize those on the left who may be a bit strident at times (though we’re just about always right on the issues, as it happens) by equating us with the teabaggers, presumably meant as a shot at the blog firedoglake (here - and the geniuses in the Obama Administration actually wonder why “the professional left” gets mad at them).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Antonio Diaz Chacon, who chased down a suspected child abductor and saved a 6-year-old girl from what could have been a horrible fate, as the story tells us; on top of that, he also announced that he’s here in this country illegally (I don’t typically encourage that, but I admire his courage for standing up and doing his best to defeat the wingnut narrative that all illegals are nothing but law-breaking scum living off the “big gumint” teat…by doing so, Chacon single handedly has made a tremendous case for common-sense federal immigration reform AT LONG LAST!)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Puppy dog-eyes Paul Ryan for calling the cops on unemployed constituents who staged a sit-in at his office to protest Ryan’s plan to pay for access to his town hall meetings here (oh, but he’s a common sense, Catholic conservative according to our corporate media, not a shameless lackey for the “pay no price, bear no burden” investor class doing ALEC’s bidding…sure he is)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Straight Talk” McCain and Huckleberry Graham for thanking every country but the U.S. for their role in topping Quaddafi in August here (the lengths that some people won’t go to in order to take a swipe at Number 44 – why do they hate America?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee (“One Really BAA-AAD Idea” Citation)

PA Gov. Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett gets it for his education budget cuts that forced schools in Carlisle, PA to use sheep to cut grass instead of lawnmowers here (unbelievable).

Dregs of the Year Nominee (Special “Born Free…Of Intelligence” Citation)

Texas (of course) GOP congressional candidate Roger Williams compared welfare recipients to donkeys here (takes one to know one, dude).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Steve Chabot of Ohio for banning cell phones and video recorders (which happens to be illegal) from his “town hall” events as a response to push-back he got over lying about Planned Parenthood here (this tactic is also utterly appalling – what country am I living in again?)...

…though it looks like somebody got the message to this clown (here).

Dregs of the Year Nominees (Commemorative “Seven Days In May” Citation)

William Gheen, head of the hardline anti-immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration, who appeared on the talk radio show of “Christian” wingnut Janet Mefferd to discuss plans for an actual military coup against Obama here…so the citation goes out to Gheen, Mefferd – who apparently treated this in kind of a typical blasé manner instead of telling Gheen that he and his pals are nuts and engaging in a criminal act – and those shadowy characters who are actually discussing and probably planning treason against this country; I just asked the question, but I’m keen to ask it once more…what country am I living in again?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, who said here that he expect unemployment to remain high “for years” (for a guy who wrote his thesis on the Great Depression I believe, he sure is dumb as a rock when it comes to putting people back to work)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Daniel Webster and Tim Griffin for this…

“Perhaps A Distant Relative of Chase Utley?” Commemorative Citation

As noted here…

Global news outlets and blogs in Asia have focused this week on a young woman who graduated top of her class at a prestigious college in Singapore. Except they aren't raving about the student's accomplishments. They're abuzz with a bad word she dropped in her graduation speech, according to Singapore's Straits Times.

"We f–king did it!" Trinetta Chong exclaimed to congratulate her peers at Nanyang Technical University's 2011 graduating ceremony. The 23-year-old's remark came after what a local reports called a "rousing" six-minute speech.

Might as well blame those lazy, overweight, unemployed Americans for that also, huh?

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation, for using unpaid Chinese laborers to complete the memorial here (the dedication ceremony was postponed from August 28th due to Hurricane Irene – I seem to recall Dr. King having a thing or two to say about economic opportunity; in fact, supporting it was the last thing he did before he died...more here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Stuart Varney of Fix Noise gets it for saying the poor lack “a richness of spirit” here…

You know what? Upon further consideration, I must tell you that I don’t even know what the #@!$ that means, but if nothing else, it’s still pretty damn stupid.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Goodhair” Perry earns a mention here for billing the U.S. $350 million, supposedly for the cost of Texas incarcerating undocumented immigrants; the thought process (or what passes for one) I guess is that it’s the fault of the federal government for not passing immigration reform.

As noted here, that same supposedly awful federal government assumed $10 million of Texas debt when that state entered the union in 1845 (no idea how that translates to current dollars). So Perry really should shut his pie hole on this (but why pass up the chance for a good sound bite, I guess?).

Oh, and Perry wrongfully claimed that "tort reform" has been a panacea in his state, when in fact, you could argue that it has increased Medicare spending in his state, as noted here.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Glenn Beck for calling Hurricane Irene a “blessing” here (typically disgusting)…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

California school superintendent Larry Powell for this…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The Pima County, AZ Republican Party for this (hard to find the words to truly communicate my disgust)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

President Obama for backing down on creating and enforcing a new standard on ozone pollution here (it’s almost comical to see how many times President Hopey Changey gets rolled by his foes…we need a fighting Dem, but unfortunately, we’re stuck with someone who, more often than not, is nothing but a martinet...lately, though, he's shown a bit more of a spine, which I attribute to OWS)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

New York State Rep Leo Berman of the Crazy Party here for being the one to get all that “anti-Sharia law” crap propagated all over the country, particularly the south of course (a “solution” in search of a problem)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Jim Renacci of Ohio for banning a cameraman from the Democratic Party-aligned group American Bridge from his most recent town hall here (I’m sure Mikey the Beloved is taking notes)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Coffman of Colorado, who said here that having Peace Corps volunteers teaching English in China is “an insult to the American taxpayer” (oh yeah, it’s the fault of the Peace Corps that our supposedly august captains of industry in this country, in their eternal, dunderheaded stupidity, gave away the computer hardware business to China and the lion’s share of software development to India to turn a quick profit, to say nothing of adding to the deficit they pretend to care about…God forbid we should act like we belong to a community of nations – so “pre-9/11,” right?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee (Collectively)

The Richmond, VA area Holiday Inn that cancelled an engagement with that sleazy weasel Eric Cantor, citing liberal protestors that the Inn said were “a security threat” here (a demonstration was planned the same night Cantor was slated to speak – yeah, and your breakfast buffet stinks too)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Alex Dicandio, a college student in Tampa, attended a Phillies road game against the Florida Marlins and tried to catch what would have been a ground-ruled double at the very least by Hunter Pence of the Phillies (possibly a home run) with his cap, and ended up interfering with Marlins’ right fielder Bryan Petersen here (and yes, Dicandio is a Phillies fan apparently since he was wearing a team jersey).

Pence was ultimately ruled out on the play, quite probably negating two runs that would have given the Phillies the lead and possibly a win in a game they ended up losing in 14 innings.

So what did Dicandio say? “It should have been a home run.” It probably would have been, doofus, if you hadn’t interfered (yes, calling the player out in that situation is a stupid rule, though it is a matter of interpretation I realize, but trying to change that is a topic for another day; because of the ump’s ruling, Phils manager Charlie Manuel complained and was tossed, and the team played the rest of the game under protest).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Mike Lofgren, former staff member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote a column here for TruthOut in which he explained why he left Capitol Hill after 30 years and why Republicans are not to be trusted and have devolved into a cult, in his insider opinion (kudos for speaking truth to stupid).

More later (we're getting there).

Thursday Stuff

I thought this was pretty funny, bad words and all...

Rick Perry - Weak (Strong Parody) - watch more funny videos

…and I’m glad to see that Billo successfully defended himself against the mortal threat of a bystander with a high-res camera asking him a perfectly innocent question (what a turd - Falafel Man I mean)…



…”Worst Persons” (God, Fix Noise is sure hyping the anti-Obama spin cycle into overdrive, aren’t they; Glenn Beck, while trying to plug his next media event, inadvertently steers people towards a gay porn web site…in the immortal words of Max Bialystock in “The Producers,” “just say ‘oops’ and get out”; but Rick Santorum earns another dubious mention for saying that we don’t need food stamps because there is obesity in America – whatever comes after us is going to wonder how in God’s name any human being anywhere would have been stoo-pid enough to help elect Santorum to any public office of any kind)…



…and in keeping with the tradition for this day, I give you the following.

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...

Wednesday PM Stuff

RIP, Colonel Potter...



...and here is more holiday stuff.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 5 - update)

(Part One is here, Part Two is here, Part Three is here, and Part Four is here.)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Life Always, for running their billboards in predominantly black neighborhoods that call abortion “black genocide,” or something (and featuring the pic of you-know-who); gee, wingnuts, maybe the abortion rate among African Americans and poor people generally wouldn’t be so damn high if you clowns didn’t fight funding for Planned Parenthood, which, among other things, provides information about contraception and birth control (here)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who bragged about “break(ing) the power of unions” here, though, at the time the bill passed killing collective bargaining rights for most public employees, Fitzgerald was all about “getting our fiscal house in order,” which of course you can’t do anyway when you’re passing more stinking, budget-busting tax cuts…liar

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR for rejecting the appeal of Troy Davis to stay his execution and give him life instead while he prepared for a new trial (here...as we know, Davis was later executed in the worst travesty of justice that I personally have ever seen)

(By the way, add the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, to say nothing of the Savannah police force...as far as I'm concerned, though, the most guilty culprit is former Chatham County DA Spencer Lawton, the chief architect of this obscenity.)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Rand Paul for this (one of these days, this guy is going to get called out for being the total bozo that he is, and that can’t come soon enough)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Rand Paul again, for saying here that, if you believe in a right to universal health care, “you believe in slavery” (about what you would expect from “Doctor” Paul, who was “certified” as an ophthalmologist by a board he appointed himself)

Dregs of the Year (Possibly The Millennia, Again) Citation

Repug State Rep of Indiana Eric Turner, who said here that women would pretend to be raped to get free abortions (dear God)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Tom Marino from our own beloved commonwealth, who apparently doesn’t know that Libya is in Africa (here - and as the cherry on the icing on the proverbial cake, he’s on the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa…your Republican Party on the job, people)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Lex Luthor,” who attended a Special Olympics photo-op on the day that announced deep budget cuts to programs that help the developmentally disabled in his state (here - as Think Progress says, it looks like somebody will have to sell a lot of T-shirts…way beyond disgusting)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Transocean gets a citation here, the bunch contracted by BP to build the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico last year, for giving its top brass big bonuses for “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history,” as noted in the company's Proxy Statement and 2010 Annual Report.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

“Pastor” Terry Jones, who went ahead and burned the Koran anyway despite requests from individuals such as Secretary of Defense Bill Gates that he not do so; as a result, a dozen people died from riots in Afghanistan – now, this numbskull wants to “put Mohammed on trial” (as a TP commenter noted here, someone ought to put Jones on trial instead)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Paul Ryan (here, here and here - Ryan will return at some point)...

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Bill Posey for this…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Crazy Jim Inhofe for this…

Do Gooders (FINALLY!) of the Year Nominees

The 14 Democratic congresswomen mentioned here (if we had more women in government, half the crap that goes on wouldn’t take place)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

OK, we know what outgoing Repug Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said in April here was particularly stupid; namely, that 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions, when in reality, that number is closer to 3 percent, and no federal dough can be used for abortions anyway. And we know his explanation that he “didn’t intend for that to be a factual statement,” or whatever, is a hoot also. However, I’m citing him here for a wholly other reason, and that is for throwing his “press person” under the bus on the whole “factual statement” thing.

Senator, you’re a lying idiot. Stand up and take the hit for your screwup like a man instead of blaming some grunt in your office who probably makes a fraction of what you do.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Marilyn Davenport of the Orange County, CA Repug Party here, for sending out an Email with an image of President Obama as an ape along with his “parents” (oh, but it’s the fault of the “liberal media” for reporting it and not ignoring it – sure it is…she later apologized, as well she should)

Do Gooders of the Year Nominees

The managers of the Lowe’s store in Sanford, North Carolina who helped save all 100 customers in their store when a tornado hit in April (here)…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Repug Indiana State Senator Vaneta Becker for this – the bar is set low once again, I know, but I give her credit for actually saying it (see once more what I said above about women in politics)

Dregs of the Year Nominee (Commemorative “One Toke Over The Line” Citation)

Republican Rhode Island State House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson (R), who made derisive remarks about a “gay man from Guatemala who gambles and smokes pot,” then proceeded to get himself arrested for DUI and marijuana possession (nice)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The Tennessee GOP for this…

…and Repug U.S. House Rep Scott DesJarlais from that state for this…

…and Repug U.S. House Rep Lou Barletta of PA for this.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Oklahoma State House Rep Sally Kern, who said here that “blacks” don’t work as hard as white people (what century is this again? – she later apologized, again, as well she should)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gets it here for signing a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in that state (So what if a bunch of poor women can’t get contraception or screenings for cervical cancer? Oh, and please pass the sweet and sour shrimp).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Blake Farenthold of Texas, who compared unemployed Americans to alcoholics and drug users here (let’s give him a taste of it after November 2012 to see how he likes it)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Joe Scar, for saying that President Obama made “some very tough choices that his own base did not want him to make,” and that he went “against his own ideological leanings” in authorizing the mission to kill bin Laden (as TP notes here, Obama’s "base" presumably forgot to be angry at Number 44 for going against their wishes, or whatever, judging from the celebrations nationwide upon the news of bin Laden’s death)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Mikey The Beloved gets a dishonorable mention for not holding a town hall meeting with constituents for the two-week period when Congress was off for the Easter/ Passover break in April, which would have taken place right after he voted for “Ryan Care” (of course, he DID manage to hold a “tele”-town hall phone call with constituents earlier in April, a tactic he criticized Patrick Murphy for in the 2010 campaign).

Fitzpatrick was a lying coward when he served from 2004-2006, and he’s no better than that now.

(Oops, he DID have a “town hall” of sorts…at a senior center in Plumstead Township on Friday May 6th at 2:00 in the afternoon as noted here, when just about all of the people who could call him out were working…yep, still a coward.)

Dregs of the Year (Maybe The Last Decade) Nominee

Dubya for this (so disgusting that I almost wish someone would “walk it back”)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The Champion sports apparel company gets a dishonorable mention for dropping Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall as a spokesman (here).

Now I’m not going to tell you that I agree with every single thing that Mendenhall said, including some 9/11 “truth” stuff that, to be perfectly honest, I wonder about myself (though I have no facts to question “the official story,” so I’m not sure what I can do at this point – all I’m going to say is that, concerning Towers 1 and 2, I know what controlled demolition looks like, and don’t give me this “sympathetic vibration” crap about Tower 7), and I don’t think bin Laden deserved an ounce of sympathy. However, we do have such a thing as free speech in this country, and even though I’m quite sure Mendenhall will be OK financially in spite of this, I don’t think he should have been punished for speaking his mind.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

I could probably spend most of my time cataloguing the idiocy of Repug U.S. House Rep Allen West of Florida, but because I don’t wish to punish myself, I try to pick and choose among the very worst of what he says and does; here, though, he makes the patently false claim that China is in charge of the Panama Canal (I hope all of the meatheads who voted for this clown and got rid of Dem Ron Klein are happy with themselves).

…and here and here are more for the West file…

…and West does it again here, breaking the law that the flag shall not be below ground (yeah, I would say that underwater kind of counts here).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

I could never have imagined a universe where I would end up giving hockey player Sean Avery of the New York Rangers, one of the NHL’s worst agitators, credit for anything, but in May, he spoke out on behalf of gay marriage in the state of New York here.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Flush Limbore, who told listeners to send Mother’s Day flowers to their “mistress” here (speaking from experience once more, I’m sure)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The numbskulls in Brooklyn who run the Hasidic paper Der Tzitung for scrubbing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and another woman from the photo of the White House team watching something onscreen pertaining to the killing of bin Laden in May, as noted here (I didn't care about this photo in May and cannot imagine why so many people are preoccupied with it, but I don’t want to hear about supposed religious objections…I don’t mean this as an attack on Clinton, but what are the clowns who run this paper going to do if, one day, she is elected president?)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

New Hampshire Dem Gov. John Lynch for vetoing a so-called “right to work” bill from the wingnuts, and doing so in a forceful manner (here...three cheers for the Granite State!)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Meredith Attwell Baker, a former FCC commissioner who approved the NBC-Universal merger and then took a job with the company as “Senior VP of Governmental Affairs” (your basic betrayal of the public trust here, people – this will doubtless kick off another round of mergers of entertainment and communications companies that will further consolidate the corporate voice)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Sen. John McCain for saying straight up here that torture didn’t provide the information that led to the killing of bin Laden (glad to see him not pandering to his party’s utterly loony base and basically telling them where to go…good for him)

…and by the way…

Do Gooders of the Year Nominee

Primarily to the Navy SEALs who got bin Laden, but also to President Obama for authorizing the raid, managing to do something Dubya and “The Big Dog” couldn’t do

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Another for the Supremes and the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (here)...

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Philly boxer Bernard Hopkins for his ridiculous comments about former Eagles quarterback Donavan McNabb here (one too many head shots, apparently...yes, McNabb's career is definitely in its descent at this point, but he did manage to put up some good numbers for the Eagles for awhile - there's such a thing as class; maybe Hopkins should buy a dictionary and look up the meaning of the word)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Pretend Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul gets a dubious mention for saying we should abolish FEMA (here, particularly stupid in light of this)…

…and saying we’d be “better off” without the Civil Rights Act (here)…

…and calling Social Security and Medicare “unconstitutional” and comparing them to slavery here.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Ben Stein, who wrote the following in response to the arrest of IMF Bank head Dominique Strauss Kahn on sexual assault charges here (h/t Atrios…I honestly thought it was a parody at first also because it was so utterly tasteless, but nope, Stein was serious)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Governor Bully for this (and as noted here, he’s soooo popular, isn’t he?)

…and berating a constituent for asking him whether or not he sends his kids to public or private school here? What a thug – and no, her question wasn’t “completely ridiculous.”

Update 12/9/11: It looks like Governor Bully was at it again here...



In response, I give you the following (here)...

This is a guy who made a national name for himself standing with a microphone alone in front of a crowd. You weren't supposed to know those crowds were carefully chosen for maximum adoration, or that loyal Republicans were given heads-up when the Christie roadshow steamed into town. In NJ, we're used to seeing people who dare to challenge Christie get slapped down, to cheering crowds. And dare to ask if the Christie team plants favorable questions to him? You get his tough-guy talk, then he shuts your mic off.

Your Republican Party at work once more, people, telling you to sit down, shut up, and go along with the program while you lose your job, your retirement, your health care, your home, etc., etc., etc.

Update 6/8/12: Christie continues to be an utter embarrassment.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Little Ricky for this (Lord knows I’ve disagreed with John McCain about a lot, but when he says that torture doesn’t work…well, I would just shut my mouth in response)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for claiming here that it’s “unconstitutional” to close a tax loophole whereby the existence of a “subsidiary” corporation gives the parent company the option not to collect taxes from that subsidiary in another state (here...needless to say, Amazon has greatly benefitted from yet another gift of our tax code to the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Tenth grader Amy Myers of Cherry Hill, NJ, who offered to debate Moon Unit Bachmann on the Constitution (here...of course, Bachmann refused – and a Dregs citation to the alleged human beings who threatened Myers in response)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

John Watson, C.E.O. of Chevron, who, during a hearing about tax breaks for oil companies in May, said “I don’t think American people want shared sacrifice. I think they want shared prosperity” here (oh, and did I note that, in April, Chevron reported that its first-quarter net income rose 36 percent from the same period last year to $6.21 billion?).

And you have the unmitigated gall to expect a tax break?

Read this, you selfish bastard, and find a clue as to what shared sacrifice really is (i.e, May unemployment rate of %9.0).

And there are people in this country who still wonder what gave birth to the Occupy movement.

More later...

Wednesday AM Stuff

I offer the following as a reflection (based on this).

Tuesday Stuff

We know that Solyndra has gotten a lot of play in the wingnutosphere as an alleged Obama “scandal” concerning clean energy – however, the Malkinites and Breitbart’s hack factory, among others, have also taken shots at LightSquared, a company trying to level the broadband playing field, as noted here (and this tells us more about the obstacles they’re facing – hint: it’s not from Democrats)…



…“Worst Persons” (Mayor David Crocker of South Fulton, Tennessee gets the “bronze” for that town’s “pay to spray” policy, meaning that, if you didn’t pay your fire department fee, they let your house burn down – that state must still be living in the 1800s to allow that to continue; Baby Newton Leroy gets the runner up for sucking up to “The Donald” after trashing him in an interview years ago; but Hosni Mubarak Walker gets top “honors” for the story noted here of 84-year-old Ruthelle Frank, who basically has the choice of facing a poll tax or foregoing her vote…um, Attorney General Eric Holder, don’t you think this screams for an investigation and subsequent prosecutions?)…



…and it looks like I fell a bit behind on the holiday stuff – sorry about that – so allow me to catch up with this…



…and this.

Doomsy's Do-Gooders And Dregs (2011 - Pt. 4)

(Part One is here, Part Two is here, and Part Three is here.)

Do Gooders of the Year Nominee

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stated here that unions are “moral choices” and collective bargaining rights reflect the “principles of justice,” in response to Walker/Wisconsin fiasco (gimme that old-time religion, people)

Do Gooder Of The Year Nominee

The bar is set really low here, but I have to give it to Bernard Goldberg of Fix Noise here for turning the tables on Bill Orally and saying that Jesse Watters, Orally’s flunky “producer” who goes out and ambushes people, some while they’re on their way to their vacations (see Amanda Terkel), “is not an objective reporter” (baby steps I know, but progress…I’m sure Bernie came back later to fluff Billo, but as of March, it was all good).

…and sticking with Falafel Man…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Bill Orally, for running a clip of supposedly violent union protests in Wisconsin here, though Digby pointed out the snowless February ground and palm trees of the location in the clip, otherwise known as Sacramento, CA (what a wanker – Orally I mean of course)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Hugh McInnish for this (“Blacks misbehave,” huh? What century is this again?)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Trent Franks of AZ, who, like Baby Newton Leroy, called for impeaching President Obama if he “doesn’t reverse course on (not supporting) the Defense of Marriage Act” here (Oh, so not supporting DOMA constitutes a “high crime and/or misdemeanor”? What a joke – and by the way, get a load of the latest Franks travesty here).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Holy Joe Lieberman for saying here that “the Army could train the Libyan opposition in anti-aircraft defense”…

OK, three things: 1) Why don’t you fly over there and help them yourself instead of sitting on your whining, sanctimonious ass and pontificating as per usual about our military risking life and limb on yet another fool’s errand in an oil-rich nation?; 2) That kind of involvement was just what Quaddafi (is that how you spell his name at long last?) was hoping for so he could get more help from our Arab “friends”; and 3) Gosh, didn’t some terrorist group get started out once with our aid? And who were they again? Gee, let me think…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Baby Newton Leroy Gingrich, not for his ridiculous fan dance of “will I or won’t I run for president” (though that was bad enough), but for using a stock photo of a crowd that he lifted from the web site of the late Dem Sen. Ted Kennedy that he can claim as his supporters here (a new low from this guy every day, people – oh, and by the way, here is another Gingrich item)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Orange County, CA Republicans who allowed this to happen (sometimes there are truly no words)

The “Why Don’t They Just Call It The Inquirer To Eliminate Any Possible Confusion, Since It Fits Anyway” Citation Of The Year

As noted here, an as-yet-unnamed print edition of The Onion was scheduled to debut in Philadelphia last spring (no word on what happened subsequent to this story).

Dregs of the Year Nominees

Bucks County, PA Register of Wills Barbara Reilly, who (as noted here) faced criminal charges in March after a yearlong corruption probe accused her of coercing employees to do political work, illegally reimbursing them on the public dime and then destroying or hiding evidence as investigators closed in (also charged were her “two top lieutenants Rebecca Kiefer, 64, of Warrington, and administrator Candace Quinn, 53”…the part about Kiefer and Quinn stealing the quarters from the Tootsie Pop charity collection jar, which got so bad that someone finally taped a cover over the jar's mouth, is way beyond pathetic - they would later plead guilty...of course Democratic voters who didn't bother to show up on election day ensured the return of Charley "I Have A Semi-Open Mind" Martin for another term as a Bucks County Commissioner, with a Repug majority of course, in spite of this)

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The US Army (and really, by extension, our whole government) gets it here for the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning (and the accompanying silence by all three branches), the alleged “Wikileaker” to Julian Assange, who, as I type this, is being forced to sleep naked in his cell because he supposedly is a risk to himself (Manning I mean…kudos to Glenn Greenwald for publicizing this along with Jane Hamsher and a few others…if this were Dubya’s administration, there would be round-the-clock outrage, and the comparative silence under Number 44 is more than a bit depressing, and a bit of a double standard I’ll admit).

…and in another related item…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Former Obama Administration State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley called the D.O.D. treatment of Manning “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Crowley was forced to resign in March, but his did not “walk back” his criticism (and he also once said the following about Bushco here)…

[W]e have policies, including harsh interrogation techniques, detention without charge, government surveillance, and immigration that are inconsistent with our values and our long-term interest. All this in the name of something called the “war on terror.”

Crowley shouldn’t be pushed out, he should be promoted (and it’s a rather pitiable commentary on how the Obama Administration has co-opted some of the very worst policies of our prior ruling cabal that this is taking place).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Margie Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church for claiming that President Obama is “most likely the Beast spoken of in the Revelation” here (yeah, I know this is about what you would expect from the “God Loves Dead Soldiers” bunch or whatever…aw hell, give this to Fix Noise instead for allowing this human mistake a platform to spout her bile)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Tom Cruise for this (and actually, CO guv John Hickenlooper, who, as a Dem, definitely should know better)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Repug U.S. House Rep Louie Gohmert for this (as I frequently point out, somebody elects these clowns)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Former Wyoming Senator (and member of that ridiculous deficit commission) Alan “Enema Man” Simpson (God, what an embarrassment - here)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Former President Nutball, for “barring the media” from covering his Desert Town Hall Speaker Series speech, which, as noted here, is an “unprecedented” move (and he only answered questions received in advance by people who paid from $80 to $1,150 for a ticket…I believe the phrase “stumbling, demented child former king” fits)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

NPR gets it for supposedly forcing CEO Vivian Schiller out the door in the wake of the latest stunt by James O’Keefe (who, last we checked, was messing around without permission in the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu)…what Jed sez here and here (and OMIGOD, such a controversy over someone pointing out that the teahadists are racists too – and in other “news,” sky is blue and water is wet).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

New Hampshire State Senator Martin Harty, who told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that “the world is too populated” and there are “too many defective people,” and “I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population” here (I don’t care how old Harty is – these comments are still reprehensible)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

CNBC’s Larry “The Human Toll (of the Japanese Tsunami) Looks To Be Much Worse Than The Economic Toll, And We Can All Be Grateful For That” Kudlow here (h/t Atrios…he probably meant the opposite, but still, we are talking about Larry Kudlow here)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Fix Noise for this concerning the disaster in Japan – I shouldn’t, but ROFLMAO (h/t Atrios)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

The thoroughly execrable Evan Bayh – I think the Think Progress headline here says it all…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Kansas State Representative Virgil Peck, who joked here about shooting illegal immigrants from a helicopter (and no, this asshat isn’t apologizing, the last I checked anyway)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Ted Borawski, chief oil and gas geologist with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told a group of insurance underwriters in Lancaster County (figures) in March that "Joseph Goebbels would be proud" of the Oscar-nominated film "Gasland," which explores the environmental impacts of natural gas drilling (here).

Now that’s a bad enough thing to say because “Gasland” is superbly researched and filmmaker Josh Fox lets you learn all about the people whose lives, and livelihoods in some cases, have been utterly ruined by natural gas extraction. However, what makes this particularly awful, as noted in the Philadelphia Daily News story, is the fact that Fox’s father and paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and Fox (rightly I believe) wants Borawski fired (here).

Governor Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett, by the way, has said only that Borawski is being “disciplined” (because, as every Repug knows, transparency is only for liberals…and Democrats, of course).

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Actress Sandra Bullock for pledging $1 mil to help Japan in the aftermath of the tsunami here (here…not a real big fan, but kudos anyway)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Bexar County, TX, Democratic Party chairman Dan Ramos, for calling gays “termites infecting the party” here (oh joy)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Dane County (WI) Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order in March, barring Hosni Mubarak Walker’s bill stripping collective bargaining rights from most of that state’s public workers (here - as we know, Walker was eventually able to sneak in the provision stripping collective bargaining rights, but Judge Sumi deserves credit for doing the right thing).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

AIPAC, for trying to fundraise off a bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed one and injured “dozens more,” as noted here (let the demagoguery rest at least until the fatality is cold in the ground, OK)?

...at least they apologized later.

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Actor Steven Seagal for this – I’m sure those 115 chickens posed a mortal threat (tee hee...and here is a thoroughly repulsive development concerning Seagal's partner)…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Wayne LaPierre of the NRA for refusing an invitation here to sit down and talk with Obama about guns (Obama being President of the United States of course, continuing a pattern started by Orange Man of blowing off the president – and disrespecting the office in a huge way – when it suits him).

Dregs of the Year Nominee

This is a tough call I’ll admit, but I’m sorry, I have to give this to Bill Maher. One reason why is because, in a March episode, he interviewed Dem U.S. House Rep Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is a Muslim (can’t remember the name of the other Muslim House member – Andre Carson?), and he basically challenged Ellison to prove to him that the Koran isn’t a book that incites violence against non-Muslims (to his credit, Maher allowed Ellison to answer rather eloquently, I thought). As soon as the interview was over, Maher started his panel discussion with a remark like, “I guess my liberal friends are going to be mad at me now.” Gee, ya think?

I would have let that slide, but one of the people on the panel that night was Dana Loesch, another one of Andrew Breitbart’s flunkies, serial liars and/or propagandists. Maher routinely gives Breitbart and his crowd a forum on his show, which to me begs the question: how many lies are enough for someone to be told never to come back? And it’s not because Breitbart is a conservative – there are plenty of other people of that persuasion who, while I probably won’t agree with them, will at least have to courtesy not to lie so outrageously as Breitbart and his crew.

(To be fair, though, Maher had Ellison on as a panelist for his final show of the season this year, and Ellison received considerably better treatment.)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Carlos F. Lam for this (all class – shades of the “Brooks Brothers” Riot)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

President Obama for this – I don’t know about you, but I’m waay past being sick of his “Bush-lite” crap such as this example (and please tell me what your latest strategy is for “motivating the base,” by the way)…

Do Gooder of the Year Nominees

The Vermont State House for passing a bill calling for a single-payer health care system (this is how it starts – we need to keep the momentum going somehow)

Do Gooder of the Year Nominee

Former California Superior Court Judge Donald McCartin, a self-described “right-wing Republican,” gets it for calling for an end to that state’s use of the death penalty here (I’ll admit that I go back and forth on this myself, but if you’re not going to use it, abolish it and save the money).

More later...