Earlier this week, I offered the first part of my list of all the things from 2009 that I want to forget. Now, as we prepare to cross the threshold into 2010, here is the second part of my compilation of 2009's political and cultural detritus.
We'd all be better off if we could forever put out of our mind:
Tom DeLay's rump-shaking cha-cha to "Wild Thing" on Dancing With the Stars.
Mackenzie Phillips telling Oprah about her long-term sexual affair with her father.
That Sen. Sam Brownback introduced legislation outlawing "part-human, part-animal creatures, which are created in laboratories, and blur the line between species." And that the bill had 20 co-sponsors.
The Obama administration's habit of conflating the health of the Wall Street economy with the health of the real economy -- when, in fact, the two economies have become decoupled.
Jon and Kate. Kate's hair.
Rachel Uchitel, Jaimee Grubbs, Kalika Moquin, Jamie Jungers, Cori Rist, Mindy Lawton, Holly Sampson, Joslyn James, Loredana Jolie, Julie Postle, Theresa Rogers.
That Hamid Karzai is still our man in Kabul.
That close to 4 million foreclosure notices were sent to homeowners this year, but both the House and the Senate voted down cramdown amendments that would have allowed judges to modify mortgages.
That the Bush Years ended with W lying about there being not enough room at Blair House to allow the Obama family to move in in time for the kids to start school.
How quickly Michael Steele caved in after saying that Rush Limbaugh's show was "incendiary" and "ugly."
The post-beating snapshot of Rihanna. That it took Rihanna a while -- and public rebukes from Oprah and Ellen -- before finally breaking up with Chris Brown.
That Lou Dobbs latched onto the birther movement.
What happened in the backyard where Jaycee Lee Dugard was kept for 18 years. The numerous missed opportunities to rescue Jaycee over the years.
That Obama nominated Judd Gregg as his Commerce Secretary.
That Bill Kristol, hot on the heels of being dropped by the New York Times, was picked up by the Washington Post.
Patti Blagojevich putting a tarantula in her mouth on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!
Jersey Shore.
Orly Taitz.
Somali pirates.
That in his final press conference Bush claimed: "I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession. In the meantime, there were 52 months of uninterrupted growth." (This is kind of like saying the flight of the Hindenburg was fabulous up until the landing.)
The right-wing firestorm over President Obama's speech to America's school kids.
That Kris beat Adam on Idol. Adam's performance on the American Music Awards.
Kanye at the VMAs.
James Inhofe welcoming Al Franken to the Senate by saying, "We are going to get the clown from Minnesota."
House Minority Leader John Boehner spending an hour on the House floor reading aloud portions of the landmark climate-change bill he labeled "a piece of shit."
John McCain's head-spinning spin on Sarah Palin's resignation: "I don't think she quit. I think she changed her priorities."
Investors Business Daily claiming that physically disabled scientist Stephen Hawking would have had his life cut short by the government-run British health care system if he lived in England -- which, in fact, he does. And always has.
Chuck Norris, health care expert.
Bobby Jindal's primetime rebuttal to Obama, in which he used part of his moment in the spotlight to rant -- inaccurately -- about wasteful "volcano monitoring" programs.
Tom Ridge's couldn't-be-less-surprising admission that he was pressured to raise the terror alert at the end of the 2004 campaign to help Bush win re-election.
Heidi Montag, recording artist ("Body Language" was easily one of the worst records of the year).
Heidi Montag, author (How to Be Famous -- co-authored by Spencer Pratt -- was easily one of the worst books of the year).
That John McCain, the number one recipient of telecom campaign cash in Congress, introduced a bill that would effectively kill Net Neutrality -- and, Orwell-style, named it The Internet Freedom Act.
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Arianna and Rob Johnson, director of the Economic Policy Initiative at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, urged Americans to move their money to community...
The pirates are engaging in simple power politics. Create a power vacuum, as we have done for Somalia, and anyone with initiative and guts will fill the gap. Somalis have watched as foreign ships have dumped god knows what off their shores, but they have no government able to protect their interests.
This is not the main reason that these pirates have become such a force to reckon with. But their anger at being so abused twigged them to see these transgressive ships and all the others that blithely pass by their shores as more than symbols of the world's indifference. It's no surprise that they've realized these ships are sitting ducks that provide access to the wealth and power of the "superior" nations.
They are merely engaging in the brand of politics that the Bush administration followed when we muscled into Iraq for the sake of oil and the economic gain.
All this doesn't give much insight into how to "fix" the situation. But, sad to say, we in the west have never been particularly proficient at "the vision thing" when it comes to actually helping the third world stand on its own two feet (Afghanistan encore).
Hey, did it ever occur to you that people are responsible for their own actions? Oh, yeah Bush is the reason they hijacked 4 airliners on 9/11 and slammed them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
And you guys think the “birthers” are crazy but I think your type is just as wacked out.
This war is much older than you and me. It goes back over 1500 years and will likely continue as long as this rock is orbiting the Sun and there is nothing that you or I can do about that and it certainly wasn’t “caused” by Bush, Clinton or any other American policy.
There are powerful groups of Muslims that hate us just because we are not Muslims. Period.
We can either convert to Islam and there will be peace or we can defend ourselves. As far as they are concerned there isn’t anything else to negotiate.
No one. And that's why the Somali piracy started.
By the way. Bush isn't the reason they hit us on 9/11. But there are a long list of reasons that do deal with our Presidential administrations. Installing a puppet government in Iran in the 50s, which the people hated so much they had a revolution. Giving Saddam Hussein chemical weapons to use against the Iranians, and then having him hanged when he used them on his own people (in retaliation against an assassination attempt, no less). Paying the mujahideen to wage a proxy war in Afghanistan against the Russians. Protecting Israel from the UN so that they can steal land from the Palestinians. Protecting Israel's nuclear weapons from the IAEA inspectors, while enforcing sanctions against any Muslim nation that might want the protective effects of "Mutually Assured Destruction" by acquiring their own nukes.
If you think the terrorists hate us for our freedoms, you're a fool. They have better reasons to hate us. America isn't the problem; Muslims by and large don't hate Americans. America's government is the problem. I love the land, and I love the people...but I hate the politicians and the horrors they commit in our country's name.
(1st Wii comment from the comfort of my couch)
What I found more disappointing than this is that he recanted the statement so fast that in some parts of the country the recantation actually arrived ahead of the above statement due to vagaries of the speed of sound in the atmosphere.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!
Let's not say anything we can't take back!
The current Congress has taken corruption to new heights (or lows). They don't even try to hide it. They try to justify it. They brag about it. Absolutely disgusting. And our American brethren will re-elect most of them in 2010!
We have brought this unto ourselves and we shall suffer the consequences.
The republicans love to use the phrase Tax and spend Democrats, how about borrow Republicans, remember Paulson and the eight hundred billion bail out because we couldn't let Wall street fail, that didn't include the seven hundred billion plus Obama ask for. Breaking this country without a whimper from public I cannot understand. We own nothing only the privilege of paying our taxes to own home,
eat, drive, work, buy clothes, cars, recreation, And Bail Wall street and GM whether we like it or not, without representation. Its enough to make a grown man CRY. Happy New Year?