Prior related posts appear below:
| Part 13 |
| Part 12 |
| Part 11 |
| Part 10 |
| Part 9 |
| Part 8 |
| Part 7 |
| Part 6 |
| Part 5 |
| Part 4 |
| Part 3 |
| Part 2 |
| Part 1 (with setup) |
The “And Somewhere, Cecil Smiles” Citation of the Year
As noted here, Matome Mahlale, an hunter engaged in an illegal lion hunt, was killed by the lion he was tracking (karma can not only be a bitch, but it can also be incredibly strong with jaws that will clamp down and crush your limbs if you’re not careful…the late, lamented Cecil is pictured above, by the way)
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominees
Buffalo Sabres coach Dan Bylsma and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins here…to begin, Bylsma gets credit for tossing a puck to a kid in Pittsburgh who asked him for it (Bylsma is a former Penguins coach) before an alleged “adult” took the puck from the boy (what a loser); however, after the game, Bylsma made sure he got another puck and Crosby made sure the kid got a stick and a Crosby jersey…nice job by all concerned to do the right thing
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Mets’ pitcher Noah Syndergaard, for his first pitch in Game 3 of the World Series that very nearly beaned Alcides Escobar of the Kansas City Royals here, supposedly to send a message (that Syndergaard, for all his talent, is still an idiot – was THAT the message? Oh well, the Royals got the last laugh by winning the Series 4 games to 1.)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Former Bushco Education Secretary Margaret Spellings for this (h/t Atrios)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug U.S. Senator Rand (Ophthalmologist Certified By A Medical “Board” That I Created Myself) Paul claimed here that free college is like free heroin; so I guess all the students in Brazil, Germany, Finland, France, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden are junkies, huh (here)? What a damn fool.
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee
Paul Armand Rater of Buckeye, AZ (it almost writes itself, people) – guess what this will-never-be-a-MENSA-nominee did (here)?…
Deputies said (Rater) and (his granddaughter) left their home in Buckeye, about 30 miles (48 km) west of Phoenix, in a pickup truck early on Sunday afternoon and that the girl was reported missing four hours later.
She was eventually located in the desert by her mother and an off-duty firefighter. The child was holding (a .45-caliber handgun).
“She was given the gun and told to shoot any bad guys,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told Reuters by telephone. “I don’t know how a five-year-old can tell a good guy from a bad guy, but that’s what she said she was told.”
U-S-A! U-S-A!…
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Can someone please explain to me the rationale for the existence of Politico?
I mean, it’s definitely not investigative journalism, and it’s not supermarket tabloid fluff since its “beat” is the Beltway, full of perhaps the most soulless humans in existence (and definitely not movie stars – not that I am either, of course).
If all it is, after all, is a PR factory for our political/media/industrial complex, it should at least have the fortitude to admit it.
What’s making me rant like this is this item, in which this oozing pustule on the butt of the Fourth Estate claimed that there could be a “Willie Horton” in the estimated 43,000 federal inmates that could be released early from prison (I think the story from Think Progress does a good job of pointing out how ridiculous this claim is). And of course Obama would be the one to blame for it.
I’ll look for the inevitable take down by Charles Pierce on this, since he’s much better on this “beat” than I am.
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee
He hasn’t graduated beyond the “high Broderism” of “both sides do it” (I mean, it’s not like a Republican Senator is actually going to criticize his own party), but kudos to freshman Republican Ben Sasse for being brutally honest otherwise here in communicating to “the world’s greatest deliberative body” why people basically hate its collective guts (now, try to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson (who apparently has been standing for too long out in the cornfields) for this (“even a special needs kid can be a twerp” – nice bleeping guy)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Ohio prosecutor Timothy McGinty for smearing Samaria Rice, the mother of slain 12-year-old Tamir Rice here, by saying she had “economic motives” in bringing to trial the officer responsible for her son’s death (what a disgusting human being – McGinty I mean)
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee
Georgia state trooper Nathan Bradley; as the story tells us, he had the heartbreaking task of informing kids on Halloween that their parents had been killed in a traffic accident…
“The door hesitantly opened and there behind the locked screen door stood four children in full costume — a 13-year-old Freddy Krueger, 10-year-old daughter of a Dracula, 8-year-old wizard and a 6-year-old that appeared to be a firefighting ninja turtle,” he wrote on the GoFundMe page he set up.
He and his colleagues were speechless. They’d hoped to find an adult among the family members in the house, but the eldest boy, Justin Howard, told them no one was home.
“My parents went to the store to get more face paint. They told us not to open the door for anybody, but they should be back soon,” he told the officials, according to Bradley.
…
“I wanted to preserve these kids’ Halloween and the ones to come,” (Bradley) wrote in the GoFundMe statement, which was also shared on Facebook by the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
He took the children to get burgers, fries and milkshakes before giving them a tour of the troopers’ post. Other people who had heard what happened brought over candy, toys and Disney movies to watch.
The children were put to bed in rooms at the post, still uninformed of the terrible news.
“You turned an F-Minus day into an A-Plus night!” the little girl told him at bedtime — words (Bradley) found difficult to take in.
Their grandmother (the next closest adult family member who lived in Florida) arrived just before dawn and agreed with Bradley and others that it would be better to tell the children what had happened the following day.
“We hoped that they would then relate the tragedy to November 1st, rather than Halloween,” Bradley wrote.
Oh, and that GoFundMe page Bradley set up? To date, it has raised over $330,000.
This is a tremendous story for a lot of reasons, one of which is because of all the reports of awful police behavior out there – nice to highlight someone in law enforcement doing something wonderful like this (and kudos to the people who contributed also).
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominees
The University of Missouri football players who promised here not to play unless University President Tim Wolfe resigned – the primary charge against Wolfe was that he, apparently, had failed to address incidents of racism on the campus (I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but that’s all I know at the moment; kudos to not only the students for taking a stand, but also the coaches for standing behind them…Wolfe eventually resigned, even though I’m not sure he understood how he screwed up by allowing the racism on campus to fester…the only thing I’ll say in Wolfe’s defense is that I’m sure there’s plenty of racism/homophobia/misogyny on college campuses all over this country, which isn’t much of a defense I’ll admit…a Do-Gooder citation to hunger striker Jonathan Butler also)
…on the other hand…
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The University of Alabama students who hung a banner before a football game with the Louisiana State University saying they would “finish what Katrina started” here (actually, to be fair, the HuffPo story notes at the end that, apparently, it’s unclear whether or not Alabama students were responsible for the banner, and the university decried it, which of course was the right thing to do)
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Michael Szeliga, deputy for the Pinellas County (FLA) Sheriff’s Department, was slated to receive a MADD award in July for making more than 100 DUI arrests. But when Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent saw him staggering around outside the awards venue, he told Szeliga he seemed too drunk to go inside, according to documents from an internal affairs investigation obtained by news station WFLA (here).
“I said, ‘You don’t want to embarrass the sheriff here — that’s probably not too wise,” Vincent told ABC Action News. “Apparently, he did.”
Szeliga responded to Vincent’s warning with “disrespectful” comments, according to the documents, and Vincent subsequently informed the deputy’s supervisors that Szeliga was “wasted.” They ordered him to go back to his hotel room, and he never received his award.
Just say “oops” and get out, Ofc. Szeliga, assuming you can do so without slurring or slobbering your words (unbelievable).
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Judge Richard Posner for his rather novel interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution here…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Repug AK Sen. Tom (People Spiral Downward Into Heroin Addiction Because of Social Security) Cotton here (every time I think these characters can’t find a new bottom)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Someone named Roop Raj, who apparently is a reporter for WJBK in Detroit, who had the following interaction with a fast food worker striking for a $15 an hour wage (here)…
“Some people say that paramedics don’t even make $15 an hour and they save lives,” Raj told fast food worker Lakecha Jackson. “So, why should fast food workers get that?”
“Because we do too much,” Jackson replied. “We do more than we get paid.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for paramedics was $30,710, or $14.77 per hour as of May 2011.
Of course, no word on how much Roop Raj makes an hour, which I think is noteworthy because, as a reporter, he/she doesn’t save any lives either (I mean, it’s not like this person is reporting in an area where shots are being fired).
And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes – WJBK is a Fox affiliate.
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Missouri State Sen. Kurt Schaefer wants to block research into the effects of that state’s imposition of a 72-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion; as Daily Kos diarist Meteor Blades points out here, this is right out of the wingnut playbook of also blocking research into gun violence (Heaven forbid that actual science and evidence is used that ends up flying in the face of conservative dogma).
However, I have to also point out the following from the post…
“Schaefer, who chairs the state senate’s interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life…”
What the hell kind of a committee THAT IS SUPPORTED WITH PUBLIC MONEY is THAT??!!
You know what? They want to play that game, fine – I’m all in favor of an Interim Committee on the Belief That Worship of Rocks Is A Legally Protected Faith-Based Enterprise.
Can I Get an Amen??!!
Dregs of the Year Nominee
And speaking of personal beliefs run amok, this tells us that a Utah judge ordered that a foster child be removed from the care of a lesbian couple (and yes, Judge Scott Johansen is a graduate of BYU Law School and is, by all accounts, a Mormon – I would hope that there are actually tolerant Mormons out there, because all I ever hear about are the intolerant ones, including this bigot…Update: The judge reversed the decision!)
…and I think this is a good, predictable response…
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee
Actress Jennifer Lawrence for this (met with the inevitable wingnut outrage, of course – good for her)…
Dregs of the Year Nominee
Former Bushco stenographer Judith Miller won’t be named Dregs of the Year, but she came awfully close with this horrible “tweet” in the wake of the Paris attacks in November (part of the total right-wing “tsunami of stupid” noted here).
Dregs of the Year Nominees
The PA Commonwealth court (and President Judge Dan Pellegrini in particular) that reinstated the pension of convicted sex offender (and former Penn State football assistant coach) Jerry Sandusky – as noted here…
“Mr. Sandusky’s performance of services that benefited PSU does not render him a PSU employee,” said the decision of the seven judge panel written by (Pellegrini). “Because we find nothing in the record that in any way establishes that Mr. Sandusky was a PSU employee when the underlying criminal acts were committed, we reverse the Board’s decision.”
Got that? Because Sandusky performed “services” for PSU, that doesn’t make him an employee, and thus he’s eligible to keep his pension.
Of course, as the story tells us, the awarded amount will probably all go to the lawyers anyway, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s a principle involved here, one which Pellegrini & co. don’t care about, apparently – namely, that the nature of Sandusky’s horrific acts should transcend the award of any civil monies whatsoever.
Dregs of the Year Nominees
Fix Noise “business” Hos Stuart Varney and conservative pundit Mark Steyn had a good laugh here over the entirely accurate claim from Dem Sen. Bernie Sanders that climate change increased instability in Syria to the point where it ended up being beneficial to ISIS…
“He’s brilliant, that guy (Sanders),” Steyn quipped sarcastically. “I mean, [ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi] will be sawing Bernie Sanders’ head off, and he’ll be saying as his neck is being sliced, ‘Oh, if only we had an emissions trading scheme!'”
Typical violent, eliminationist rhetoric from the wingnuts…
Oh, and did I point out (as the Crooks and Liars post tells us) that the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a paper earlier this year backing up Sanders’s claim, which helped give rise to ISIS? And that the Defense Department has also called climate change a “threat multiplier”?
Laugh at that, you morons.
Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee
Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers for this – in addition to being a great quarterback, he’s also a smart guy when it comes to matters off the field (and is it really that hard to imagine what was said?)
More later…
Posted by doomsy 
The Liberal Doomsayer 