No Runny Eggs

Welcome to the 5th and final day of the NRE 2011 Awards. Today, we name our people of the year. As a review, here is the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/3
– Thank You for Existing, 1/4
– Dumbest Thing Said, 1/5
– News Story of the Year, yesterday

For historical sake, here’s the 2009 and 2010 nominees for Person of the Year. Now, on with this past year’s nominees:

Paul Ryan (from realdebate) – While Washington D.C. regulars offer band-aids and kick the can down the road one man offers actual solutions instead of rhetoric. Time after time that man is Paul Ryan. The left hates him and his own party doesn’t understand him but Paul Ryan continues to articulate the issues in a clear, concise fashion. Why is this the exception instead of the norm?

Scott Walker (from BadgerBlogger) – Governor Walker’s steadfast support of common sense changes that were needed to save Wisconsin from its self, even in the face of the vitriol heaped upon him by teachers and other public employees and their unions, makes him, my Person of the Year. Honorable mention goes to the Republican legislators that have had the courage to follow our Governor.

Steve Jobs (from Shoebox) – I think one could argue that not since Thomas Edison has a single individual had a greater influence on how we work and play over the past 30 years. Computers, software, movies, music, communications are amongst the industries where Jobs had significant influence and caused or led major change. Some might argue that Jobs himself wasn’t the creative spark like Edison but rather a catalyst that unleashed creative talent in others. Either way, Jobs was transformative and should have been Time’s person of the year as well.

Jenni Lake (from Kevin Fischer) – She stopped her cancer treatments o avoid aborting her pregnancy. She died 12 days after she gave birth to her son. Selflessly, courageously, she chose her baby’s life over her own. Jenni Lake was 17.

Dan Kapanke (from steveegg) – As Patrick pointed out, Scott Walker couldn’t change the dynamic of the taxpayer-to-public-employee relationship, or fix the damage done to the state finances, without the Republican legislature. Kapanke was from the most-liberal of the seats held by Republicans to start the year – indeed, his home was targeted for vandalism when Assembly Bill 11, what was ultimately to become Act 10, was introduced. He had to know that it was quite possible that, once the talk of recalling state Senators began, that he would lose his seat. He went forward anyway, not backing away from his votes in the recall election that ultimately cost him his Senate seat.

Welcome to Day 4 of the NRE 2011 Awards. Today, we focus on the biggest news story of the past year. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/3
– Thank You for Existing, 1/4
– Dumbest Thing Said, yesterday
– Person of the Year, tomorrow

For historical sake, here’s the 2009 and 2010 nominees for News Story of the Year. Now, on with this past year’s nominees:

The killing of Osama Bin Laden (from realdebate) – Obama got one thing right, he gave the right order.

“The Empire Strikes Back”, or “Unionistas, Occupiers, Democrats Unite, Create Chaos” (from steveegg) – It all started when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) first lived up to his campaign promise to balance the budget not on the backs of the taxpayers. The unionistas, who had grown fat and powerful over the last couple of decades, screamed bloody murder and unleashed the template for the wider Occupy movement.

Meanwhile, the pitched fit the Senate Democrats threw by fleeing for 6 weeks in, ultimately, a failed attempt to protect the golden pigs was, sadly, rewarded with two of the three pickups they needed to wrest control of the Senate from the duly-elected Republicans, and they’re back for another bite of overturning the watershed 2010 election. In other states, such as Ohio, they were more successful.

Operation Fast and Furious (from Phineas) – This wasn’t one story, but a series of revelations over the course of 2011 about a monumentally stupid law-enforcement operation that supplied thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels (by coercing legitimate US gun dealers into breaking the law), with no capability of or recovering them until they were found at crime scenes. As a result, over 200 Mexican soldiers, civilians, and federal agents are dead, as is US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed by cartel gunmen in Arizona with an OF&F firearm. It has exposed incompetent and probably criminal behavior at the DoJ and its agencies, and has the potential to be the biggest story of 2012, too.

The dysfunctional GOP Presidential field (from Shoebox) – After Barack Obama has done nearly everything he could, short of putting the Whitehouse keys under the front mat, to cause his eviction from the Whitehouse, the GOP fields what is arguably the most dysfunctional group of candidates ever seen.

In a year where GOP voters are looking for some level of, let’s call it “purity” on issues related to spending, government size/influence on our lives or social issues, we get a rag tag bunch, of which none of the leaders can put the whole package together. To make matters worse, the folks who may have some ability in the purity category, have shown themselves to be either stark raving mad or having the presentation skills of a third grader.

Following the 2010 elections, most conservatives entered 2011 enthusiastic and optimistic about the 2012 Presidential elections. As we leave 2011, I dare say most conservatives are at best concerned and at worst, pessimistic about the chances of sending Obama back to Chicago in 2013.

Scott Walker and legislative Republicans produce a balanced budget that erases a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes. (from Kevin Fischer) – The budget also provides much-needed property tax relief in Tax Hell, USA.

The Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl! (from BadgerBlogger) I fully expect to repost this next year too.

Welcome to Day 3 of the NRE 2011 Awards. Today, we focus on the dumbest thing unleashed into the public consciousness. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/3
– Thank You for Existing, yesterday
– News Story of the Year, tomorrow
– Person of the Year, 1/7

For historical sake, here’s the 2009 and 2010 nominees for Dumbest Thing Said. Now, on with this past year’s nominees:

“We know our decision to split our services has upset many of our subscribers which we don’t take lightly, but we believe this split will help us make our services better for subscribers and shareholders for years to come,” Netflix letter to shareholders on 9/15/11 (from Shoebox) – Netflix thought that by sheer force of its brand it could pass through a 60% price increase, make its product more difficult to use for its subscribers and experience only minimal blow back from its customer base. In the same letter noted above, Netflix thought that the result of their actions would cost them approximately 1 million of its 25 million customers. A loss of 4% of its customers but a price increase of up to 60% on the 96% remaining sure sounded like a financial home run. The problem is, that’s not how it worked. The blowback was so severe from the implementation of the change that Netflix not only back tracked on the product split, it also back tracked on the price increase. The net result is no new revenue for Netflix and as of early December, already 800K fewer customers.

Yes, I know this isn’t a political quote however it exemplifies a problem that not only Netflix has/had but that we see throughout politics. Just look at one example such as Obamacare and see how Big Government behaves just like Big Netflix i.e. jamming things down our throats. The only difference is that in the case of Netflix, consumers have the option to tell Netflix to “pound sand” and Netflix has the option to respond…oops, mea culpa. When was the last time you remember Big Government saying “oops, we screwed up and we’ll change it back?”

“Here is your pink slip!”, Miles Kristan throwing a pink slip at Robin Vos at the Racine County Lincoln Day Dinner (from realdebate) – Vos auctioned the garment off at my suggestion to raise money for the party. That same pink slip was later sold on E-Bay to raise money for Scott Walker & Robin Vos.

“No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square,” unnamed Obama administration official quoted by the New York Times (from steveegg) – This perfectly illustrates the fecklessness of the Obama administration. This was offered up by an official trying to defend Barack Obama’s desire to be the leader of a Communist country in the middle of the Egypt portion of Arab Spring. No explanation is required, or possible.

“That is not true,” said by DNC Chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz went told that unemployment had gone up sharply under President Obama. (from Phineas) – Oh, really?

“I look forward to bringing new blood to the Supreme Court and focusing my energy on the important work Wisconsin residents elect Supreme Court justices to do.”
–JoAnne Kloppenburg, from her “victory” speech… Before she lost.
(From BadgerBlogger)

(From Kevin Fischer) There were so many, but I managed to narrow the field down to three:

1) “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…” Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the night Osama bin Laden was killed

2) “Do you think this Constitution-loving is getting out of hand?” Joy Behar

3) “I just want to tell you a little bit about what it’s like to not have Planned Parenthood. You have to add water to the formula to make it stretch. You have to give your kids Ramen noodles at the end of the month to fill up their little bellies so they won’t cry.” Gwen Moore

Welcome to Day 2 of the NRE 2011 Awards. Today, we honor the person/institution that made the past year at least somewhat tolerable. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, yesterday
– Dumbest Thing Said, tomorrow
– News Story of the Year, 1/6
– Person of the Year, 1/7

For historical sake, here’s the 2009 and 2010 nominees for Thank You for Existing. Now, on with this past year’s nominees:

The Occupiers (from realdebate) – Never have so many whined so loudly about something so undefined. Anarchy fails again. Special kudos to the left wing media that ignored the abhorrent behavior of this human refuse while at the same time denigrating the TEA party.

Marco Rubio (from Phineas) – One of the few politicians to truly understand America and her potential. His speeches, values, and life story are inspiring, and he reminds us of the best of our immigrant tradition. I think there’s little doubt that he will be president, one day.

The SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden (from steveegg) – I still remember September 11, 2001 like it was yesterday. The SEALs who went after and ultimately killed the man responsible for ordering the attacks on that day shouldn’t have to pay for drinks the rest of their lives. They undertook a very difficult (for diplomatic reasons) mission, adapted when one of the helicopters failed, and achieved their objective with extreme prejudice.

Our brave, courageous military (from Kevin Fischer) – From the mouthes of babes, or in this case, 8-year-old Cody Jackson, comes wisdom and patriotism beyond his years.

Our men and women in uniform (from Shoebox) – From members of Seal Team 6 to the most recently enlisted individual, our country would not have the freedom it does without the sacrifices of these individuals and their families. The sad part is that after the sacrifice of nearly 4,500 US lives and countless more injuries, President Obama dishonored that sacrifice by allowing his own arrogance to give Iraq to Iran.

#Occupy (from Aaron) – The cluelessness of the left was exposed by #occupy. None of them knew what they were protesting. The just wanted to complain that their own lives suck because everyone else is rich.

Scott Walker (from BadgerBlogger) – Wisconsin should thank their lucky stars that a man of such uncommon common sense has taken the reigns of Wisconsin and brought fiscal sanity back to the Badger State. We were headed, full speed into the financial abyss that other states, like California and Illinois find themselves in, and Scott Walker has reversed direction, and I believe he will be a great governor for many years to come. Recall, indeed…

We here at No Runny Eggs have decided to make famous (or infamous as the case may be) some of the people and events that shaped the past year. Today, we start with the nominees for Jackass of the Year. We’ll each choose the person who we think was the biggest jackass in 2011. Some of us may agree, some of us may not. For historical sake, here are the 2009 and 2010 nominees for Jackass of the Year.

The rest of the NRE Awards schedule is:

• Thank You for Existing, which will be announced on 1/4.
• Dumbest Thing Said, which will be announced on 1/5.
• News Story of the Year, which will be announced on 1/6.
• Person of the Year, which will be announced on 1/7.

And the nominees are…

Miles Kristan (from steveegg) – If there’s a face for the Occupier/Unionista/Democrat Axis, Miles is it. He started off the year throwing a pink slip at Rep. Robin Vos, and his obsession with both female clothing and Vos only worsened from there. While he was wearing a pink dress, he harassed a MacIver News Service intern trying to film a protest he was a part of. A few months later, he proved he is a subject of the Kingdom of Dane rather than a resident of Wisconsin by pouring a beer on Vos’s head in a Madison bar.

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) (from Kevin Fischer) – To not select former NY Congressman Anthony Weiner would be hard, pun intended. The cocky, married Democrat engaged in several inappropriate relationships with six different women over three years, providing fodder for bloggers and comedians to this day and beyond.

His illicit behavior involved a pattern of sending inappropriate and at times explicit photos and messages to women he met over the Internet. He lied about it, then fessed up (“I take full responsibility for my action. The picture was of me, and I sent it”), but refused to exhibit the decency of resigning immediately. His lame defense was that he broke no laws.

Meagan Broussard, a 26-year-old single mother from Texas who provided dozens of photos, emails, Facebook messages and cell phone call logs that she claimed demonstrated an extremely sexually-charged relationship with Weiner said, “I thought for sure, ‘why would someone in that position be doing this?'”

No kidding. What a jackass.

The Obamas (from Shoebox) – Oh, I’m sure I could have thought about this more and come up with something more creative but why? It seems impossible that Barack Obama has not been purposely running for this award throughout the year. Let’s see….Lecturing the GOP on demagoguing, immediately followed by accusing them of scaring seniors regarding social security or, claiming that his administration, when it came to foreign policy and legislative accomplishments, his administration was probably 4th best of all time…even as he cedes Iraq and every other Middle Eastern country to the Mullahs in Iran.

Finally, it’s not only Barack; this is the first time this prize should go to a jackass duo. Michelle is equally a jackass. Note only Michelle’s African safari that cost over $400k and which she listed her daughters as “Senior Staff” to avoid having to pay for any part of the trip personally!

Now that I think about it, call the Obama’s jackasses give jackasses a bad name. When it comes down to it, this pair is clearly amongst the most self-entitled, out of touch persons ever to live in the Whitehouse. On that account, I would definitely put the Obamas in the top four administrations!

Madison Justice (from realdebate) – From Judge Sumi ignoring obvious conflicts of interest to old left-wing Shirley leaking a false story about Justice Prosser, the most biased D.A. in the state ignoring charges against left-wing nuts to the Capital Police Chief that ignored horrid behavior on his watch, the entire Dane County Judiciary has shown themselves to be leaning heavily on the left side of the scales of Lady Justice. If you are a liberal in Dane County you can get away with just about anything. (Can you give a parking ticket to a Segway?)

President Barack Obama (from Phineas) –  Prior to our military intervention in Libya, the president authorized the evacuation the evacuation of American citizens and their dependents from the war-torn country. There were three hitches, though. First, his administration rented a civilian ferry instead of sending the US Navy. (The British sent in the SAS to rescue their people.) Then, when people got to the designated evacuation point, they had to have been thrilled to discover it was an open pier, water on three sides, and no one there to protect them should any rebel or loyalist goon squads show up. Finally, they were expected to reimburse the United States for their evacuation. Yep, you want to get out of a war zone, cough up the dough. The protection of US citizens and their dependents overseas is one of the president’s jobs; indeed Jefferson went to war against the Tripolitanian (Libyan) pirates to protect American lives and property. For the way he handled his duties, I think Barack Obama richly deserves “Jackass of the Year.”

Welcome to the 5th and final day of the NRE 2010 Awards. Today, we name our people of the year. As a review, here is the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, 1/2
– Dumbest Thing Said, 1/3
– News Story of the Year, yesterday

And the nominees are…

The TEA Party (from realdebate) – Obama tried to ignore it, leftwing radicals like Wisconsin Dem Chair Mike Tate and the NAALCP threw out insults and false accusations of racism. Every time the left tried to impugn the TEA party activists it only served to strengthen their resolve. Grass roots activists, many of them active in politics for the first time in their lives, rose up against the astroturfed organized left wing radicals and threw the left to the curb.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama (Shoebox) – Oh, I could have said the Tea Party but when I thought about it, the Tea Party was the response not the impetus.  There were many times during the year that the Tea Party could have fizzled out and we would have had just another spin of the Merry-Go-Round of the Elite for the November election.  Fortunately, at every opportunity for the Tea Party flame to die down, one of the above would do or say something so overwhelmingly arrogant, stupid or brash that it fed new fuel into the Tea Party.  Watching these three during 2010 was more predictable and tiring than seeing Rob Schneider showing up in an Adam Sandler movie.

Scott Brown (from Phineas): By winning the Senate seat once held by the late and contemptible Edward Kennedy, Brown put an exclamation point on the growing populist reaction against liberal statism, particularly ObamaCare. His election had a tremendous effect on the Senate, providing the 41st vote to end the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority and forcing Harry Reid to resort to such sleazy parliamentary tactics (and outright bribery) to pass ObamaCare. That public display of ethical corruption, in turn, fueled the public outrage that burst forth last November. For being the key domino that set all the others tumbling, Senator Scott Brown should be Person of the Year.

Aisha (from Kevin Fischer) – In July 2010, TIME magazine wrote:

The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband’s house. They dragged her to a mountain clearing near her village in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ignoring her protests that her in-laws had been abusive, that she had no choice but to escape. Shivering in the cold air and blinded by the flashlights trained on her by her husband’s family, she faced her spouse and accuser. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn’t run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Later, he would tell Aisha’s uncle that she had to be made an example of lest other girls in the village try to do the same thing. The commander gave his verdict, and men moved in to deliver the punishment. Aisha’s brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. Aisha passed out from the pain but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die.

Aisha posed for a controversial TIME magazine cover. Her willingness to be photographed in such a manner told the world of the evil of the Taliban and why American soldiers are at war in Afghanistan.

The Daily Mail headline says it all.

Ron Johnson and Sean Duffy (from steveegg) – If you told me this time last year that the two liberal lions of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation would be ex-elected officials today, I would have called you nuts. Yes, there were some rumblings that Russ Feingold might be vulnerable to a certain candidate because of the spectacular failure of his 2009 “non-hearing” tour, but the first poll that showed that vulnerability had yet to show up. Indeed, that first poll, and the several after, showed that it wasn’t the announced candidates that could give Feingold fits, but the biggest name in Wisconsin politics, former governor Tommy Thompson. Then, Thompson decided not to run on April 15, Ron Johnson used an incredible 6-week run-up from an unofficial launch of his campaign then (and an official launch at the beginning of May) to the RPW convention at the end of May to become that “certain candidate”. With some of the best help Wisconsin GOP politics could come up with (and notably the researcing ability of friend-of-the-blog Kevin Binversie), a willingness to use his personal fortune, and an ability to raise money unseen in a GOP Senate candidate in 12 years, Johnson overcame the new liberal lion of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Dave Obey was riding high as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. In the past year, he had steered through Porkulus and the two largest budgets in the history of the country. Yes, Sean Duffy had entered the race in 2009, but he was still considered a serious underdog, with the 2010 run merely an attempt to get his name and face out to the voters of the 7th so he would be well-positioned when Obey would retire. Nobody knew that would be in May when, apparently after an internal poll that showed Duffy at a minimum too close for comfort for someone who hasn’t had to seriously campaign for as long as I’ve been able to legally drink, Obey pulled the plug. How insurmountable had Duffy become in a district that historically votes for Democrats by double-digit margins? The sitting state Senate Majority Leader, Russ Decker, was ordered to try to (and ultimately fail to) hang onto his seat rather than pursue his decades-long dream of succeeding Obey, and the only major Democrat candidate was a state Senator who didn’t have to give up her seat to run what turned out to be a lackluster campaign. The ultimate margin of victory for Duffy was 7 1/2 points.

Welcome to Day 4 of the NRE 2010 Awards. Today, we focus on the biggest news story of the past year. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, 1/2
– Dumbest Thing Said, yesterday
– Person of the Year, tomorrow

And the nominees are…

The November election (from realdebate) – Never in my lifetime have I seen such a dramatic shift. The country saw real liberalism in action and rejected it soundly. Major kudos to Wisconsin which had the biggest turn around of any state in the nation: 2 Congresscritters, The Governor’s Office, the State Assembly & Senate and of course a US Senate seat. The left still doesn’t understand it, they just think people who don’t agree with their world view are stoopid.

Passage of Placebocare (Shoebox) – I don’t think there’s any question that the passage of this bill crystalized the anti Obama, anti Democrat, anti incumbent and anti Rino movement that culminated in the elections of 2010.  Sure, people were upset about the stimulus bill, sure, people were upset about the finance bill and numerous other efforts by Democrats to make us less free and more beholden to our D.C. masters.  However, passage of Placebocare, in spite of overwhelming public sentiment against it, showed even those in the electorate middle that we could no longer tolerate the arrogance of the D.C. meritocrisy mentality.  I hope the sleeping giant of the silent majority has finally been awakened….we’ll find out as 2011 plays out.

Chilean mine rescue (from Kevin Fischer) – Trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days, how did Edison Pena and the other 33 workers survive? With help from the King. Appearing on the David Letterman Show, Pena said the miners found comfort in listening to Elvis on a specially-delivered MP3 player sent into the mine. Without publicity, Elvis Presley Enterprises sent whatever material could fit into a tube: DVDs, CDs, Elvis sunglasses. The men entertained themselves in sing-a-longs to lift their spirits while they waited for help. The Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote this headline: “Elvis to the rescue-The King’s music soothed Chilean miners.”

President Barack Obama becomes President George W. Bush. (From Phineas) This is really more of a theme over several stories, but it also is a story in itself. Riding a wave of Bush-bashing into office and promising to be anything but Bush, Obama found himself time and again mugged by reality and force to continue Bush’s policies: tax rates, military commissions for terrorists, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan… One can almost hear Obama speak with a Texas twang. The irony is laughable.

The national debt tops $14 trillion (from steveegg) – Up until very late last night, I was going to pretty much repeat last year’s choice of the Tea Party Movement getting vocal (and this time, power), while those in government doubled (this time tripled with both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government taking part) down on stupid. However, I’ll get ahead of the fiscal curve and explain why a specific element of that, the debt hitting 95% of the Gross Domestic Product, is going to be THE STORY. Yes, we’ve been in that territory before. However, there are three big differences between 1946 and 2011:

1. There isn’t 16 years of pent-up demand just beginning to be met to drive the GDP up to a point where the debt load becomes manageable.
2. On a related note, we’re not the sole source of goods like we were after World War II.
3. The nature of the debt is far different – rather than the debt being almost exclusively past obligations that, once met, don’t recur, a significant portion is on future obligations that are only increasing.

Sooner or later, the house of cards is going to get a “major makeover”, and another 2-year delay in a serious attempt at a crash diet means it’s more likely that “major makeover” will be a collapse.

Welcome to Day 3 of the NRE 2010 Awards. Today, we focus on the dumbest thing unleashed into the public consciousness. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, yesterday
– News Story of the Year, tomorrow
– Person of the Year, 1/5

And the nominees are…

“It (unemployment insurance) creates jobs faster than any other initiative you can name,” Nancy Pelosi while pleading for an extension of unemployment benefits (fron steveegg) – No, you twit, it lengthens a lack of employment (I can’t properly call it unemployment because on the federal level, one can drop off the unemployment rate while on unemployment) right up to just a couple of weeks before it actually ends. As for the extended quote (courtesy Breitbart), I don’t see (or at least I didn’t used to see) too many people on unemployment picking up ribeye steaks and Dom Perignon (which carry a rather healthy profit margin) to survive, much less the new Chevrolets, Fords, Toyotas, Arctic Cat snowmobiles and hand-crafted furniture that allow jobs to be created.

“Are you serious?”, Nancy Pelosi, in response to a question about the constitutionality of Obamacare (from realdebate) – Yes Nancy we were serious, and correct. Enjoy your new status in the minority!

“We have to pass the bill so you can see what’s in it,” Nancy Peolosi regarding Placebocare (from Shoebox) – Not since Alfred E. Neuman’s infamous “What, me worry,” has a single phrase conveyed the level of conivary and deceit as this utterance from Pelosi.

“If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this. But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border,” Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West during debate on a resolution condemning Arizona for passing a immigrant status-verification law (from silent E and Kevin Fischer – yes, they both submitted the same quote)

“I don’t worry about the Constitution.” (from Phineas) Said by (now former) Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL), when asked last April  by St. Louis Tea Party members about the constitutionality of ObamaCare. I guess the “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” part of his oath of office is something he doesn’t worry about, either. Oddly, his constituents elected his opponent last November.

Welcome to Day 2 of the NRE 2010 Awards. Today, we honor the person/institution that made the past year at least somewhat tolerable. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, yesterday
– Dumbest Thing Said, tomorrow
– News Story of the Year, 1/4
– Person of the Year, 1/5

And the nominees are..

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey (from Phineas) – As a Californian, I can only look on with envy at a state that has fallen into as bad a situation as mine, but found a leader willing to do what it takes to clean up the mess, regardless of his personal popularity. He’s faced down his legislature, the entrenched, greedy bureaucrats of the teachers’ union, and done it while keeping the public on his side. His frank, no-nonsense style is a refreshing change from the pabulum we’re usually served by politicians. And, by showing how it can be done, he gives genuine hope for change, that our states can heal themselves of the fiscal mess they’re in. Now, if I could only clone him…

Anyone named Palin (from realdebate) – Face it; anytime anyone named Palin does anything the left has absolute fits. Whether it is a stupid dancing show, a TLC program showing the wonder of the Alaskan landscape, conjecture about 2012, or Sarah on Fox News it is fun to watch the left’s heads spin around.

Conservative talk radio (from Kevin Fischer) – Forgive my personal bias, but without this alternative (along with conservative blogs and web sites), we’d be stuck with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, NPR, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Boston Globe, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and just about every other local daily paper in America, Time, Newsweek…….you get the point. Despite FOX and Rush and Hannity, etc., our side is still mightily outnumbered on the media ideology scorecard. But we have strong, powerful, and persuasive voices that can more than hold their own.

Scott Walker (from steveegg) – Before there was Christie, there was Walker. Even though the entrenched LeftStreamMedia, the entrenched Milwaukee County Board (which was never sufficiently cleaned up by the wave that sent Walker to the Executive chair to even allow Walker’s vetos to stand without some persuasion), and entrenched county public unions (enriched beyond even their wildest dreams just before said wave was generated by said enriching) were united against him, going so far as to substitute him for Bush in the local “I blame…” game, Walker submitted and then cut the passed county budget (with one full-veto exception) down to the same property tax levy as the previous year. While he still has the hostile presstitutes and unionites at his new job as Wisconsin governor, at least he won’t have a hostile legislative branch sabotaging him at every turn.

Mrs. Shoebox (from Shoebox) – how many people would uproot from the state they had lived in their whole life, leave all family behind, take on the challenges of a relocation during the worst housing market in memory, just to let their spouse chase a dream?  Was Don Quixote married?

We here at No Runny Eggs have decided to make famous (or infamous as the case may be) some of the people and events that shaped the past year. Today, we start with the nominees for Jackass of the Year. We’ll each choose the person who we think was the biggest jackass in 2010. Some of us may agree, some of us may not.

The rest of the NRE Awards schedule is:

• Thank You for Existing, which will be announced on 1/2.
• Dumbest Thing Said, which will be announced on 1/3.
• News Story of the Year, which will be announced on 1/4.
• Person of the Year, which will be announced on 1/5.

And the nominees are…

Brett Favre (from steveegg) – I could have gone with the safe political picks of the architects of the POR Economy (Pelosi, Obama and Reid), or their Wisconsin acolytes Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) and noted slumlord/abuser of Milwaukee County Board Supervisors/acting Milwaukee County Executive Lee Holloway, but this isn’t just a political blog. At the beginning of the year, I said that Favre would do to the Vikings what he did to the Packers and Jets, and I was right – he held out of training camp. Worse (or better, depending on one’s point of view), he finally proved he was human, but only after he broke every record there was to break from consecutive games started to fumbles.

Alan Grayson (from realdebate) – The leftwing bomb thrower who claimed conservatives just wanted people to die, called his opponent Taliban Dan and deliberately took statements out of context to make scurrilous campaign ads. Grayson then actually had the cojones to complain about a negative ad directed at him claiming his kids could see it. Enjoy your retirement you putz, you earned it.

364,598 South Carolinians (from Shoebox) – This is the number of people who voted for Alvin Green for the South Carolina Senate Seat.  The fact that; Green had been indicted on a pornography felony, hadn’t held a job for 13 years and considered manufacturing action figures of himself “economic development”, all could be overlooked  by nearly 30% of South Carolina voters, proves without a doubt that you can fool some of the people all of the time.  It also proves that for at least 30% of voters, party affiliation and skin color mean more than capability of doing the job….and that goes for the South Carolina Senate race as well!

Eric Holder (from Phineas) – Let’s see… He sues the State of Arizona for trying to enforce a law that the federal government refuses to enforce. He tries to move the trial of Khailid Sheikh Muhammad to New York City, regardless of public sentiment or public safety. He carries on with the trial in federal court of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani for the embassy bombings, even though the judge threw out his key witness, assuring us there would be no problem. Then he loses the case. Finally, we have the revelations of racial bias in the enforcement of civil rights laws at the Justice Department, apparently tolerated Holder, if not encouraged by him. For this, I think he is a truly worthy Jackass of the Year.

Stan Cox and Ryan Brown (from Kevin Fischer) – Why is it liberals aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy, taking all our comforts away? During July 2010, as a stifling heat wave was gripping many parts of the nation, Stan Cox wrote a book entitled, “Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Condtioned World.”

In a book review for the lefty web site, Salon.com, Ryan Brown wrote:

In the last half century, air conditioning has joined fireworks, swimming pools and charred hamburgers as a ubiquitous ingredient of an American summer. It’s no exaggeration to say it has changed the way this country functions, shaping everything from where we’re willing to live (Las Vegas, anyone?) to the amount of sex we have (more: It’s never too hot to get it on when the A.C. is blasting). Nine out of 10 new homes in this country are built with central air conditioning, and Americans now use as much electricity to power our A.C. as the entire continent of Africa uses for, well, everything. It has so thoroughly scrambled our way of life that when the National Academy of Engineering chose its 20 greatest engineering accomplishments of the last century, A.C. not only made the list, it clocked in ahead of spacecraft, highways and even the Internet.

But as science writer Stan Cox argues in his new book, the dizzying rise of air conditioning comes at a steep personal and societal price. We stay inside longer, exercise less, and get sick more often — and the electricity used to power all that A.C. is helping push the fast-forward button on global warming. The invention has also changed American politics: Love it or hate it, refrigerated cooling has been a major boon to the Republican Party. The advent of A.C. helped launch the massive Southern and Western population growth that’s transformed our electoral map in the last half century. Cox navigates all of these scientific and social angles with relative ease, providing a clear explanation of how A.C. made the leap from luxury to necessity in the United States and examining how we can learn to manage the addiction before we refrigerate ourselves into the apocalypse.

That no good A.C.! Why should we live and work in comfort! And who knew A.C. was such an integral part of the immense success the GOP enjoys!

Maybe Stan Cox and Ryan Brown, my Co-Jackasses of the Year and their disciples should step to the plate and be the first to live outside, eat outside, sleep outside, work outside when the thermometer is hitting 100.

Welcome to the 5th and final day of the NRE 2009 Awards. Today, we name our people of the year. As a review, here is the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, 1/2
– Dumbest Thing Said, 1/3
– News Story of the Year, yesterday

And the nominees are…

The Tea Party Protester (from RealDebate) – For the first time in their lives many people are getting off the couch, making their own signs and letting their voices be heard. They’ve been called every name in the book by the hate left and still they come. The country figured out that “Hope and Change” was code for a massive expansion of government debt and an even bigger grab of personal rights from a far left wing that thinks it can provide a better life for the individual citizen than the individual citizen can for themselves.

The men and women in the Armed Services (from Big G)

The Tea Party Movement (from Shoebox) – while this has taken various forms throughout the year, the notion of conscientious objectors from the right has never been seen before.  Without the people in these efforts we would likely have seen health care reform skate through Congress.  Without these people we may well have seen cap and trade enacted.  While clearly the people with the biggest surprise impact in 2009, the true proof will be seeing their impact on the 2010 races.

Sarah Palin (from Phineas) – Don Surber makes a great case, so I’ll let him do the talking. An excerpt:

Ordinary people did read her book and they were impressed. The people who shop at Wal-Mart bought 1 million copies of her autobiography in just 2 weeks. Thousands of them stood in line by the thousands in the freezing nights of November and December just to get her autograph. She is of them — a hockey mom who is naive, unsophisticated and learning just how rotted from within America’s political system has become. She beat corruption in Wasilla. She beat corruption in Alaska. And well, she finished 2009 with a higher approval rating than The Won.

The Honduran people (by steveegg) – When former Honduran President Mel Zelaya tried to set the stage to be El Jefe for Life, the army, Congress, and Supreme Court teamed up to enforce the very-strict Constitutional prohibitions against multi-term Presidents. When the entire world tried to descend upon Honduras to restore their favorite Marxist, the people rose up and said, “Hell no.” When Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Europeans said that they wouldn’t recognize the pending Presidential elections, they went ahead with them and held a rather-clean election.

Welcome to Day 4 of the NRE 2009 Awards. Today, we focus on the biggest news story of the past year. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, 1/2
– Dumbest Thing Said, yesterday
– Person of the Year, tomorrow

And the nominees are…

Tea Party protesters rise up, Democrats double down (from steveegg) – It would be infinitely easier to focus on one half or the other, but it has been a year-long test of wills between those who generally like a small government and free enterprise and those who generally liked the Soviet Union. The first exchange came in February, when, even before Rick Santelli made his famous call for a little Tea Party on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago on July 4 on CNBC, grass-roots protests rose up against the prospect of Porkulus. It’s been an episode of escalation since, as every refusal to listen to the public by the Commun…er, Democrats has led not to the usual descent into disillusionment, but to ever-louder calls for small government and free enterprise.

Honorary mention goes to the demise of the daily home-delivered newspaper in Detroit, as Gannett Newspapers, owner of the Detroit Free Press and operator of the Detroit News, dropped the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday editions of their home-delivered products.

Climategate (from RealDebate) – Actual data that is hurtful to global warming claims are hidden, people with opposing views are shunned and ignored, those who are propagating this sham are making billions on it. The biggest crime of the news event of the year is that the US new media isn’t covering it yet.

The ACORN Stings (from Shoebox) – Simple and effective.  Has there ever been a story so completely ignored by the major media that had such a significant response by Congress?

George W. Bush is no longer the President (silent E) This is the story that the left so eagerly reported on, and leading up to, January 20th of 2009 but seemingly was forgotten shortly afterwards by news outlets and the Obama Administration.

Rep. Joe Wilson shouting “YOU LIE” to president Obama during a speach to a joint session of Congress (silent E) No truer words have ever been spoken in that room….. The look on Nancy’s face was priceless.

The administration’s attempt to turn the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) into a propaganda arm for Obama policies (from Phineas) – Big Hollywood covered this pretty thoroughly and FOX mentioned it in its list of news stories the MSM missed,  but that’s it. Yet the attempt of the Obama White House to turn the non-partisan NEA and the artists it supports into a megaphone for its policy preferences should worry anyone who thinks about it.

Welcome to Day 3 of the NRE 2009 Awards. Today, we focus on the dumbest thing unleashed into the public consciousness. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, 1/1
– Thank You for Existing, yesterday
– News Story of the Year, tomorrow
– Person of the Year, 1/5

And the nominees are…

“Uh, a good, solid B+,” President Barack Obama describing what grade he’d give himself (from steveegg) – Outside of laying groundwork for a rule-by-fiat system and handing out “cash from his stash” (which itself was in the running), Obama has done absolutely, positively nothing. It doesn’t matter whether one looks at Teh Won’s record from the right, the middle, or the left – there is no actual “there” there. As of the 12/22/2009 Rasmussen daily tracking poll, more people strongly disapproved of Obama’s job performance than even somewhat-approved of it. I’d give him a gentleman’s D.

“We ‘misread’ the depth of the economic troubles we inherited and we still expect more new jobs in the long term as the spending pace from the $787 billion stimulus plan quickens,” Vice President Joe Biden (from RealDebate) – Hey Joe, you might want to start thinking about taking responsibility for your role in our current mess. Remember this one Joe?

“If we don’t pass it, here’s the guarantee…….. the federal government will go bankrupt,” Barack Ussein Obama (from silent E) – Economic GENIUS!!!!

“…that I inherited from the previous administration” (from Shoebox) – Never has there been a president who has taken so little responsibility for so many problems.

The system worked……. (silent E… Can I add another??) Janet Napolitano….. Mentally unequipped to perform her duties.

“Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.” (from Phineas) – That amazing bit of fawning nonsense was spoken by Rocco Landesman, head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Stalin would have blushed.

Welcome to Day 2 of the NRE 2009 Awards. Today, we honor the person/institution that made the past year at least somewhat tolerable. As a review/preview, here’s the rest of the schedule:

– Jackass of the Year, yesterday
– Dumbest Thing Said, tomorrow
– News Story of the Year, 1/4
– Person of the Year, 1/5

And the nominees are..

Michelle Malkin (from steveegg) – For me, outside of picking Shoebox as he’s taken more of the posting duties, this wasn’t even close. Do you remember the Tea Parties? While Michelle wasn’t the person who started them, she was covering and promoting them before they were known as Tea Parties. Throw in an explosive book on the ObamiNation and a take-no-prisoners approach to both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government, and I honestly can’t think of anybody else more deserving.

Sarah Palin (from RealDebate) – Despite some of the nastiest attacks ever devised by the left wing hate media Palin has risen above it all. When others are preaching moderate behavior Sarah Palin is one of the few people willing to stand up for conservative ideals.

Glenn Beck (from Shoebox) – I don’t listen to Beck on a regular basis and I never catch his TV program.  However, would the tea party movement have kept it’s momentum through the year without Beck?  Would the stories, especially about the background of Obama’s czars have come to light without Beck?  Love or hate his style, Beck’s compass always points true north.

The United States Military (silent E) No explanation needed………

Victor Davis Hanson (from Phineas) – Who’d have ever thought a Professor of Classics and Ancient History would be someone the nation should be grateful for? And yet we should be. VDH is a conservative intellectual in the best sense of the words.  His books, essays, and blog posts regularly tie current events to analogous times long in the past, showing us what we can learn from our own history. He reminds us of the proud heritage of Western civilization from the farmer-soldiers of Greece to their modern-day descendants seeking to defend individual liberty and constitutional government from tyrants in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this modern-day clash of civilization, he shows us why ours is worth defending. He is a true national treasure.

We here at No Runny Eggs have decided to make famous (or infamous as the case may be) some of the people and events that shaped the past year. Today, we start with the nominees for Jackass of the Year. We’ll each choose the person who we think was the biggest jackass in 2009. Some of us may agree, some of us may not.

The rest of the NRE Awards schedule is:

• Thank You for Existing, which will be announced at 5 am 1/2.
• Dumbest Thing Said, which will be announced on 1/3.
• News Story of the Year, which will be announced on 1/4.
• Person of the Year, which will be announced on 1/5.

And the nominees are…

Senate Majority Leader “Dingy” Harry Reid (D-NV) (from steveegg) – I was going to go with Wisconsin Governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale), but there is a reason why I decided to wait until the absolute end of 2009 before running the awards. When push came to shove in the Senate, he muscled a way to make PlaceboCare permanent by requiring a 2/3rds majority in either House to change anything the Death Panels rule upon with nothing more than a party-line bought-and-paid-for filibuster-proof 60, and then had the balls to call for civility.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) (from Phineas) – Hometown pride had me strongly considering Senator Barbara “Don’t call me Ma’am” Boxer, but hers would be an award for a lifetime of jackassery. No, the biggest jackass of 2009 has to be Harry Reid.  Forget the stimulus bill that indebted us for nearly a trillion dollars, and ignore the other budget-busting measures; don’t bother counting the unimaginable cost of the forthcoming health-care reform fiasco; put it out of your mind that he once said visitors to the Capitol smell. (Okay, that was last December, but it still counts.) No, Dingy Harry deserves this award because this Democratic senator is ramming his health-care bill through in the most anti-democratic way imaginable: locking out the minority party and much of his own majority party, ignoring a raft of polls from across the political spectrum showing majorities of the public don’t want this bill, and then trying to shove it through so fast that no one, not senators nor the public, has a chance to even know what’s in the bill.  Is this any way to run a constitutional republic? For this and so much more, Harry Reid should be Jackass of the Year.

Rod Blagojevich (from RealDebate) – This poster child for Illinois politics still refuses to admit any wrongdoing even though he was caught on tape trying to sell a Senate seat.

Al Franken (from Shoebox) –  In less than six months Al has managed to alienate more Senate members and more residents of Minnesota than Harry Reid

The Leaders of the Republican Party (silent E) – Althought there seems to  be a slight turn around as of late, the party consistently ignored the conservative direction it’s members want the party to take. This was quite evident by the endorsement of the VERY liberal Dede Scozzafava in an election in the 23rd congressional district in New York.