So many choices. So little time.

does anyone come really close to Fisk...??

or does a nominee have to be relatively sane.?

I don't think Arafat fits the bill. He is pursuing his slimy goals rather doggedly, and not altogether unsuccessfully. He's a slime, not an idiot.

I can't believe Ted Rall isn't up there - though my vote is for Michael Moore ...

W.

Charles....what about dissembler of the year...

-propagandist of the year

-most deluded

-most effective liar

this list could go on and on.....

I nominate James Earl Carter for an Idiotarian Life Achievement Award!

Charles, John Hawkins at Right Wing News has his own list of the top twenty most annoying liberals in the United States. You can probably get some good ideas there.

Gore Vidal

How about "John R. Bradley News Editor, Arab News Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia"?

Chomsky should get the lifetime achievement award.

Gotta be Fisk. Ramsay Clark should have been the idiotarian for the last 4 decades however. I remember when he came to our university to speak out on the Iranian hostage mess back in 1980, he was such an apologist for the fundy regime. He spoke out against war and was playing the pacifist to the hilt. Several times, he was asked where he was during the Johnson administration.

On second though I don't see how Fisk could ever lose. Perhaps the award should bear his name? This way he doesn't have to win and the spot remains open for competition.

Well, I'll be the one to nominate The Right Honourable (but often wrong) Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada for a terminal case of Idiotarianism and Foot-in-Mouth Disease.

Too difficult to choose. Kind of like having to pick somebody to root against when USC is playing Notre Dame.

If forced, I would have to go with Fiskie, though. For the sheer incoherence of his logic-challenged output. For the way he finishes up some completely off-the-wall piece with a trumpeted "so there!" as if he had just delivered some unassailably brilliant riposte. The way he weaves together totally unrelated facts and occurences and incidences and opinions, and presents them traiumphantly as if they made up an airtight case against the US or the West or the Russians or Israel, instead of a steaming pile of incomprehensible garbage.

Or should he be disqualified for his obvious affliction with brain-damage?

# 3 E.Nough is correct.

Idiotarian of the year may be an idiot, a fool, as you say, a buffoon, charlatan or apologist, but not an evil murderer. Fisk, Penn etc. are fools, but not deliberately evil. Arafat, Bin Liner or Hussein, are evil mrderers.

Can you group the Baldwin-Penn-Asner-Babs group into some sort of Hollywood Idiotarian entity...

Mo Do should be on th list.

How about an ensemble award for the cast of that idiotarian letter? Mike Farrell was the ringleader, he can accept on behalf of the others.

I nominate 'Hollywood'.

Hollywood can win the same way the UN won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Here's a curve ball. Trent Lott.

I have to stick with the disgusting pop-culture commando, Michael Moore. He is most representative of the real origins of the current crisis, the fantasy ideology of the West's cultural elite, and its habit of promoting any terrorist, fanatic or totalitarian who gives the appearance of opposing the pop-culture's absurd version of the established order. To the Moores of the world, this is a giant movie and Saddam, Osama, and Arafat have the James Dean role. The others are simply publicists, producers, groupies, and hangers-on.

Remember the German composer who got in trouble for calling 9-11 "a work of art"? He may have been perversely closer to the truth, at least as Moore and cronies see it, than many realize.

I agree with E.Nough and Ken; Arafat is evil, not an idiot. If he's on the list, why not Saddam and Osama? Etc. It's a completely different category... altogether. ("It's a completely different category", chimes in the flight crew from "Airplane".)

Other nominees:

Susan Sontag
Harold Pinter

And I definitely second the motion for Rall.

Fisk. The man had a new, derogatory verb fashioned after his name. I think #11 James has it right. This year he can win the award and have it named after him for years to come.

Methinks there should be a Win, Place & Show ranking, so on with my votes:

1) Fisk Me
2) Michael "Gimme that donut!" Moore
3) Ted Rall

Honourable mention: J. Pilger, J. Carter, S. Penn.

The beauty thing about Ted Rall is you get him on two counts - A Fisk for drawing and a Fisk for writing.

Oh, and the Award has to be called the Fisk - (echoing James #11) - for no other reason that that he gave the blogosphere it's first verb:

I fisk
you fisk
he fisks

fisko
fiskas
fiskat

B

I think serious consideration could be given to Mr. Sullivan of the Arab News.

But I'd have to run Jimmy 'the Peanut" Carter as my favorite son candidate.

You have to look for the root causes of idiotarianism and ask, why do they hate themselves so much?

Berkeley, California

If an entire city can not qualify, definitely Fisk.

Nominations, in no particular order:

Scott Ritter, Best Supporting Role to a Dictatorship (edged out Sean Penn)

Nelson Mandela, Most Original Use of Race-Baiting in Middle East Conflict

Kofi Annan, Most Useless Talking Head

Chris Patten, Most Pathetic Terror Supporter and Moral Equivocator

Cynthia McKinney, Most Dramatic Crash-and-Burn sequence in an election

John Bradley, Most Inept Smear Campaign (for attacks on Taranto and LGF)

...that's it for now.

Ooh, Berkely vs Hollywood.

The competition heats up.

The early returns are loud and clear: Fiskie by a mile. His reward: Every word of Mark Steyn's parody of his "I understand why Muslims were trying to kill me" column engraved on a bronze placque.

Billary Clinton

Obvious "DUH" question:

What's the trophy going to look like? I suggest a frozen mackerel (to smack upside the recipient's head).

I agree with E. Nough that Ararat and his ilk are inappropriate.

I second the nomination of Trent Lott. Especially since he may cause an erosion of the Republican majority which may mean problems for pushing the good bits of the Bush agenda.

I would like to add a nomination for M. Thierry-Miessan (sp?) author of the book calling 9/11 a big set-up and a best seller in France.

I would like to make a nomination for anti-idiotarian of the year for Ms. Oriana Fallaci for her various articles, clear and consistent fight against fascism, and passionate writing.

When I think of Fisk, I think of bad movies - some movies are so bad that they're funny to watch, such that it's almost entertainment. Then there are movies that are so horrible that you can't get any entertainment value out of them whatsoever - not even by laughing at their sheer horrible-ness (Battlefield Earth is one such movie that readily comes to mind as an example of this.)

I think of Fisk as a bad movie that is somewhat entertaining because he's so easy to laugh at. Michael Moore on the other hand is Battlefield Earth ...

W.

E. Nough #27 forgot:

Terje Roed-Larsen, Chief Ostrich

Actually, it's not a fair race with Fisk in it, he's the Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan of idiotarianland. You should just call it the Fisk (as mentioned above) and award to someone else, to preserve the competetiveness.

a fiskfull
fiskesque
fisk out of luck
fisk for brains

Can we have a category of "all the above"?

As James said, the prize should be named after Fisk. I propose the Fisk Peace Prize. When the benighted recipient comes to claim his prize (after having been appropriately congratulated), he finds out that his prize is a fisking a la Fisk in Afghanistan.

Gnome Chomsky, Kofi Annan, Michael Moore, Ted Rall & Jimmy Carter get my votes, in that order.

He shouldn't win, but he should be nominated: TRENT LOTT

Bonior/McDermott have to be included for their brief but powerful portrayal of the useful idiotarians.

Oh come now, when you have Rall mocking 9/11 victims, Jim McDermot calling Saddam more trustworthy than Bush, and Fisk doing what he does best, how can Lott even compare? What he did has more potential impact on the US than any other candidate's action, he still falls short of the term "idiotarian".

My personal vote is McKinney. It was fun to see her crash and burn, and then blame it on the J-E-W-S.

Jesse Jackson & Jesse Jackson JR

In addition to those you've already mentioned, I'd like to nominate the following individuals:

Gore Vidal (for his article "The Enemy Within" published in late October)

[Link: www.punditree.blogspot.com...]

Barbara Streisand (for three very funny gaffes)
Alec Baldwin (for still living in this country)
Woody Harrelson

[Link: www.punditree.blogspot.com...]

How 'bout:

Ranbutan, Most Egregious Example of Uncontrollable Judenhass Obliterating Whatever Common Sense One Might Have Had

Sorry, Fisk should have gotten his award last year.

For this year, surely it's History's Greatest (Nobel-Peace-Prize-Winning) Monster. But let's not forget Bonior & McDermott. Or Cynthia McKinney (& father). Or local favorite Amiri Baraka! (Who? Who?)

#33 Wayne,

Fisk's entertainment value went way down for me after he publicly dumped on his "friend" Daniel Pearl's father shortly after Pearl was murdered.

Ditto his wet-dream hero-worshipping fantasies of Osama bin Laden.

How about a group award for Baghdad Penn and those moron congresspeople who became Saddam's useful idiots?

For dark horses (or should I say illumination-challenged horses?), I nominate James Trafficant, a world-class clown in his own right, and Maureen Dowd and the rest of the buttbrains on the editorial page of the NY Times.

Billy "J-E-W-S" McKinney

It's true, Fisk really is the über idiotarian. It's beyond debate; why even put him in the race? So we'll call it the Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year.

And yes, no Arafat-type killers. (I was thinking more of the semi-comical Arafat who shrieks shut up at reporters...)

#45, someone,

Amir Baraka would bet apped to play the Billy Crystal emcee part at the nationally televised awards ceremony. The traditional opening monologue would be delivered in Ebonics (with subtitles in English and Arabic.)

Sorry, that should be "Baraka would be TAPPED to play the Billy Crystal. . ."

I hope there'll also be an Anti-Idiotarian of the Year chosen. (As the presenter of the award, Charles will be disqualified from the competition.)

Has to be Jimmy Carter -- from Iraq, to North Korea, to Israel, to Cuba, to Arafat -- he has demonstrated impecable idiotarian credentials on a breathtaking range of issues just in the past year. None of the other nominees has displayed such versitile stupidity.

As per Greg and Ariel, a couple more:

Trent Lott, two nominations! -- Most Inopportune Revelation of True Feelings and Most Graceless Stage Exit

Terje Roed-Larsen - Best Direct Colorectal Self-Examination

Re: #52

I second Falacci's nomination.

The threshold question as E has illustrated with Arafat is whehter someone is evil or just schtoooopid.

I would classify only the well meaning idiot as idiotarian of the year.

For people like Fisk, Jimmy Peanut, the entire cast of UN pricks, I think they really know what they are doing but have an axe to grind against Israel, the Jews and America. They argue idiodarian points in support of their position because usually there is no support of their position. That is why I will not nominate Ranbutan. Sure is a Jew hater, and sure he says really stupid things, but he has an agenda. Rueters falls into this same category. This makes the award much more difficult.

I think the Hollywood group nomination is a good one. These people just don't get it, despite for the most part good intentions.

Had Al Gore not bowed out and proved that he finally gets it, he would have recieved strong consideration. Therefore I would like to give this award to someone who most acknowledge meant well (alhtough Spoons made a great point) but who proved time and again, he just didn't get it.

Therefore, my posthumous idiotarian of the year is Paul Wellstone. My runner-up might be the producers of that PBS Muhammed love letter.

Incidentally, yesterday's New York Post used the term 'Euro-weenies'. I'm not sure exactly where the term originated, but it was obviously the blogosphere. Good job all around.

Also, I'd like to request that whatever is written on the prize includes the words You must be accurately!.

Thank you.

The awards should be segmented by category just like the Oscars. A few suggestions:

Best Idiotarian of the Year (overall)

Best Idiotarian Performance by a Former or Present World Leader

The heartwarming Jean ibn al-Hersholt Anti-Humanitarian Award

Best Idiotarian Song (or Poem)

Best Idiotarian Academic

etc.

James (#57), Euroweenies has always struck me as one of those terms that's obvious enough for many people to come up with spontaneously.

Can we nominate a country?

One that one hand France is... France.

On the other hand, Sweden gave us Hans Blix, is offering asylum to Palestinians and is contemplating bans on kosher slaughter and circumcision all in one fell swoop.

Charles:

It's true, Fisk really is the über idiotarian. It's beyond debate; why even put him in the race? So we'll call it the Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year.

I agree - I think it was MEMRI who nominated Fisk for most biased reporter last year. Our boy did his best, be he lost out to the superb team effort of the BBC.

It's time Robert "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another" Fisk got the recognition he deserves.

E. Nough,

On the other hand, the Post's editorial page editor is John Podhoretz. Last Friday (I think) he wrote a column addressing the phenomenon of the blogosphere and he attributed the awakening of the Trent Lott story solely to the spontanous efforts of the blogosphere. He thinks its a portend of things to come.

They are paying attention. ;-)

#61,

Yes, you can nominate a country for Best Idiotarian -- Country award. But, as in the case of Fisk, we'd have to retire France at some point because it would win the award every time.

You are ignoring Canada -- a fertile source of idiotarians. Here goes the list:

Judy Rebick -- feminist whackjob with a severe case of self-hating
Tom Walkom -- socialist nutjob with a severe case of the Jews are too successful
Haroon Siddiqui -- official Canadian apologist for Al-quaeda, Hezabollah and every other Islamist
Antonia Zerbasias -- media pundit whose arguments are punctuated by poo poo and pee pee (and those are her stronger arguments)
Neil MacDonald -- HIs job is to bury the Jews and build up the Islamists for the CBC
Naomi Klein -- self-appointed leader of the anti-globalization movement who will bash Jews and Israel if she thinks it will burnish her brand image
Rick Salutin -- snotty washed-up feminist womanizer (he sleeps with those women, men with a sense of smell and sight wouldn't come near with a ten foot pole) who writes as if he loves Islamists and hates those uppity Jews
Jean Chretien -- lame duck with lame brain
Linda McQuaig -- pumps up the anti-capitalism and loves to absolve Arab terrorists
Ted Honderich -- thinks he's British, hates Jews as if he were a 1938 Nazi and stupid as a doormat
Tom Paulin -- not Canadian, just a Jew-hating idiot whose mother probably hangs out in a brothel in Beirut with the others crank-calling Ms. Fallaci

#61

And Canada would get increasingly jealous.

Yep fisk wins hands down. Just his rough trade recall in pakistan was more then enough for me. His body of work is truly the finest that the idiotorian world has to offer.

But i think MoDo, Jimmah Cartah and my fave the two headed monster known as Desmond Tutu/Nelson Mandella should be given special credit for their idiocy.

Down the ladder: Michael Moore, Ted Rall, Jihad Cyndi, etc

Aren't we forgetting Streisand?
Especially after her rant about "Big Wood".

James #57: The first place I heard the term "Euro-Weenies" was in a P.J. O'Roarke piece from one of his books. Funny stuff.

My nomination goes to Pinter and anybody else that is STILL using the DU shell/birth defect to try to avoid war. I heard it AGAIN on NPR yesterday afternoon.

Allow me to nominate Concordia University.

I'd like to suggest some other awards, too:

THE ORDER OF THE FLAMING BUDDHIST MONK for the most outrageous display of grief over the fate of Cynthia McKinney (Cindy and her relatives not eligible).

THE KY-COATED TED RALL TROPHY for those who think Oil is the answer to everything.

THE ROYAL CANADIAN CRETIN MEDALLION for the most outstanding example of total inability to recognize terrorism. The medal would be worn on the butt, and there could be a little bell on it.

Here's a cheap shot: Colin Powell

Could we at least give a boobie prize to John Bradley and Kahil of Arab News. They don't deserve to win, but lord, they deserve something.

After Chomsky' exchange with Eliot Mark David, I think even Chomsky himself would argue that he deserves to win.

I'm all for nominating the troika of
McDermott, Bonior and Thompson

Ted Rall, without a freaking doubt, along with Michael Moore. They are more popular in America amongst the lefty and youth crowds than Fisk ever will be. They are icons almost to these people.

If I had a dollar for ever time someone qouted from Bowling for Lies.. err.. Columbine

THE ORDER OF THE FLAMING BUDDHIST MONK for the most outrageous display of grief over the fate of Cynthia McKinney (Cindy and her relatives not eligible).

That would be Israel 'An Ode To Cynthia' Shamir.

Why wasn't Israel Shamir nominated? I hereby nominate him!

List of Esteemed Canadians:

Jaggi Singh: Self-important waste of skin whose claim to fame is destroying property. Not very smart but runs around trying to ape a reporter in the manner of a latter day Peter "Scoop" Brady.

David Ahanakew: If he wants to revitalize his image in Canada, all he has to say is he's against globalization. The anti-globalization crew appear to consider anti-semitism an asset.

Not necessarily in order of importance...

1) Susan Sarandon

2) Al Bore & daughter Karenna (2-for-1 special)

3) Julia "Bush is not my president" Roberts

4) Gary Condit

5) Andrew Cuomo

6) Mike "I never met a Death Row inmate I didn't love" Farrelll

7) Illinois Governor George Ryan (erased sin-in-law's DUI arrest, held 15-minute hearings to determine if a death row inmate should have his/her sentence commuted, Licenses-For-Bribes scandal, etc.)

8) Egypt's Pres. Mubarak

9) George "Celebrities Can Erase the Memory of 9-11" Clooney

10) Katie Couric

And so on, and so on, and so on...
10)

I suggest that in rankings, consideration be given to how much power the idiotarian has, and how much harm he/she/it can do. Many otherwise deserving candidates just would not make the cut because they are not dangerous enough.

By that method of ranking: Kofi Annan.

perhaps not appropriate to the category, but worth a mention is the uber-sleazy Saudi spinboy ADEL JUBEIR (or whatever his name is). he's had a busy year...

Trent Lott's not an idiotarian: he's just an idiot (perhaps ill-intentioned as well). He's not trying to bring us closer to our own existential doom.

But maybe Richard Boucher is an idiotarian.

Fisk might get it for the purist idiotarianism out there but with a movie and a book out this year I gotta vote for Michael Moore. He's trying the hardest to get his idiocy out to the world.

Let's not forget these strong contenders:

ymietown Jackson - you all remember his "mission" to the Middle East this past year and his sucking up to Arafat?

Al Sharpton - same as for Hymietown Jackson

Peter Jennings

Janeane Garofalo

Amr Moussa

Ragida Dergham

James "Israel Has A Right To Exist" Zogby

Sarah Eltantawi

Charley Reese

Joe Sobran

Chas Freeman

Edward Lippman (based on his execrable performance this past week from the "Middle East Institute" on C-SPAN.

And there are so many more.............

How could we leave out the entire editorial staff of Al-Guardian?

Let's not forget Ali Abunimah.

. . For Best Idiotarian Description of a Make-Believe "Massacre."

There should be some sort of Oscar for this sort of thing. With a lot of different awards. Such as:

1. idoterian of the year
2. Writer of the most debunked article
3. The paragraph written with the least amount of logic
4. Best crash and burn sequence.

Etc...

Feal free to offer other proposals

......and Ibrahim Hooper...

Ted Rall (I almost subconsciously typed Turd Raw, how strange!), without a doubt for unfailing delivery of poorly drawn comics and poorly drawn conlusions.

Like Fisk, Chomsky should get his own award. Perhaps we can give Moore the Noam Chomsky Knee-Jerk Award for Wealthy Leftists.

Robert Fisk should win the Kurt Cobain Rape Me award.

#88,

Oh God how could we forget Ibrahim Hooper?

Peter 'Oh Hanan, you make my heart flutter' Jennings.

My nominees:

David Ahenakew

The Concordia Student Union (especially exec members Sabine Freisinger, Yves Engler, Ralph Lee, Aaron Mate, Sameer Zuberi, and Kealia Curtis as well as members of the council of representatives

Jaggi Singh and his buddies (including Samer Elatrash and Laith Marouf)

Françoise Ducrois

The 11% of Americans who couldn't find the USA on a world map.

Bill Graham

and, last but not least, Jennifer Durocher.

Okay, with Fisk out of, as always, I change my vote to Michael Moor-on. I loathe that foul creature.

How about these classifications:

Idiotarian - Journalist

Idiotarian - Cartoonist (cough) Rall (cough)

Idiotarian - Politician (US / Europe/ etc.)

Idiotarian - Academia

Idiotarian - Actor / Actress

Idiotarian - Country

Idiotarian - Honorable Mention

Mix & match with some of the other categories, it's doable!

it should have read: with Fisk out of IT, as always,...

sorry

I nominate the entire staff of the Arab News. Although, admittedly, Concordia will be tough to beat.

um, I meant #64

And I cannot believe that no one has mentioned Donahue yet ... and while we're at it, how about Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins? I don't think they'll win, but let's at least nominate them for their efforts.

Oh, and speaking of lifetime achievement, I saw this morning that Jane Fonda, who has been a VERY useful idiot in the past, is in Israel as a guest of Peace Now reprising the role for which she is most famous.

My idiotarian nominee is this guy

Just to make sure that the nominations cover ALL the bases, let's not forget the execrable Katha Pollitt.

Howell Raines executive editor of The New York Times

Wow, dennisw! We're on the same channel. I just dug out my copy of that oldie but goody.

So many idiots, there should be categories within the Idiotarian Awards. In the Urban Snob category I nominate the triumvirate of Howell Raines, Mo Dowd and Frank Rich.

To paraphrase Whitehead:

All of Idiotarianism is a series of footnotes to Chomsky.

Has Hussein Ibish slipped under everyone's radar?

Mattan (87):

2. Writer of the most debunked article

God damn, how on EARTH could I have forgotten about Marc Herold?

while i already voted for Fisk, i would be remiss if i didn't at least nominate Whore-aldo "We're under fire; I'm a Palestinean; Please President Arafat just tell the world how much you want peace" Rivera. That mustache must stink like a kitty litter box, don't cha think?

I would like to nominate any Jews who would prefer Amram Mitzna and a return to the glorious success of the land for peace strategy over Ariel Sharon and the fight against terrorism. Fisk, Rall, Moore, Penn, Amarat (not a misspelling of Arafat...just a good alternate name), etc. are idiots except being idiots pays them well. A vote for Mitzna is a vote for getting your own throat slit.

By the way Amram Mitzna is a Winner of The Church of Rabin And Peace Award not only for his political views but because he says he still takes counsel with Yitzhak Rabin just as when Rabin was alive.

Form the Idiotarian in Foreign Government Category:

1) The German Frau who called Bush Hitler

2) Qubecois Damselle who called Bush a moron.

3) Jean Chreiten - he can be nominated for several stupid things including blaming America for 9/11 ("American arrogance"); Sitting next to Sheik Nasarallah of Hizbollah fame at a ceremony to steal water for Israel)

From the media department;

1) Asleigh Banfield

2) Any journalist who calls DC Sniper John Muhammed by his given name John Williams unless they also call Muhammed Ali, Cassius Clay, and Ahmed Rashad, Bobby Moore;

3) Lifetime acheivement: Donohue.

I'd like to add a third vote for Babs Streisand for a reason not mentioned yet - her joining in with the knucklehead paranoids who suggested Wellstone's plane crash may not have been an accident.

Hans Blix - does he even qualify as a "useful" idiot?

Gore Vidal, Koffi Annan, or the head of the UNRWA...what's his name?

#74, NTropy has it right.

The Baghdad Boys (Bonior, McDermott, Thompson) must win.

That was a truly outstanding achievement in idiotarianism.

But I'd also like to nominate these saucy wenches.

And lest we forget: blogosphere snipers like Anil "bendy straw" Dash and Neale Talbot

Idiotarian Journalist of the Year - Maureen Dowd
Iditotarian Politician of the Year - Jimmy Carter
Idiotarian Cartoonist of the Year - Rall
Idiotarian Blogger of the Year - Anil Dash
Idiotarian Actor of the Year - Tie - Sean Penn, Ed ASner
Idiotarian Actress of the Year - Babs Striesand
Idiotarian Country of the Year - France
Idiotarian Honourable Mention - Hollywood
Idiotarian Media Wonk of the Year - Tie - Peter Jennings / Ashleigh Banfield
Idiotarian Company of the Year - Tie - CNN / MSNBC / BBC
Idiotarian Newspaper of the Year - Tie - NY Times / Arab News
Recipient of the Fisk Lifetime Idiotarian Achievement Award - Noam Chomsky

Too bad the list is so long. Years ago, when at the Boston Globe, Mike Barnacle wrote of the Barnacle Bus....load it up with idiotarians and drive it off a very high cliff. This year, it seems to be a banner year for the Barnacle Bus(es).

I nominate Mr. Splodey-Owl, New Jersey's own Amiri Baraka (that may need a spelling check).

Idiotarian Message-Board Poster of The Year:

The person who left this post on the PBS forum on "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet":

12/19/02 9:45 AM
Subject: Muhammad: Legacy of a prophet
Message: I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this film last nite. It was enlightening and thought provoking. I wasn't planning on watching it, I was just channel surfing when I hit upon it. I decided to watch it for only an hour, but I couldn't bring myself to change channels and ended up watching the whole thing.

My impression of the Islamic faith now, after watching this film, is that of a very beautiful, universal and humanitarian religion. This film has prompted me to learn more about it. Perhaps someday I may even convert. But for now, I just want to thank PBS for bringing me this film into my home. Thank you.

Idiotarian Journalist of the Year - Maureen Dowd

I humbly suggest she be disqualified for the running due entirely to her recent jaunt in Saudi Arabia where she was detained by the religion police for having her neck exposed. Granted, she acted like a true idiotarian by informing them that she's a journalist (like they'd give a fuck) but she did the freedom loving world a good turn by writing about the incident and helping expose our 'ally' in Saudi occupied Arabia.

While we're on the subject, how about Tom 'I almost get it' Friedman for his inventing and pimping the 'Saudi peace plan'?

Charles - You out did youself with this thread. Very Funny. I think tho that you need to run down specific categories with candidates to be fair, i.e Idiotorian University and the candidates are Concordia, Berkeley and SFSU. Or else it'll get ugly, me thinks. Oh, SFSU for Idiotorian university of the year.

Journalist - Jerry Rivers
Anchor - Peter Jennings
Cartoonist - Ted Rall
Actor - Susan Sarandon
Newspaper - NYT
Politician - Jimmah Carter
Honorable mention: Koffi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Al Gore, Michael Moore, Phil Donohue

I nominate Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (Health Minister of South Africa) for the Idiotarian Self-Destruct Award.

(In addition to the story linked above, Manto is responsible for distributing pamphlets at the Durban racism conference claiming that the AIDS epidemic is actually a bioweapons test being conducted by - guess who? - white J-E-W-S.)

Don't forget about Eric Margolis and someone who deserves STRONG consideration: Ann "If only terrorists targeted liberals" Coulter. She and Ted Rall should be forced to fight to the death. The winner gets to beat up Fisk.

Oh c'mon... David "those cleaver Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks" Duke deserves a mention for idiotorian of the year... or was that decade?

I like the idea of different categories like the oscars.

Jimmy Carter for most idiotarian former world leader He is definetly number one overall as well as he has had a lifetime of idiotarian action that led to millions of innocent peoples death and oppression. Plus he got the Nobel Peace prize which has kind of become the Golden Globes of Idiotarianism.

Gerhard "I won't help those unilateralist Americans even if the UN is behind them" Schoeder for current politician.

The U. "we wont enforce our own resolutions" N. for most idotarian institution

Berkeley for city

Babs for actress/singer

Michael Moore for entertainer/"journalist"

Ted Rall for cartoonist

Baraka for Poet

Concordia for school

OK - this is tough - gotta distinguish between people I despise and those I think are idiots... Not necessarily coterminous groups.

A shared prize goes to the two Congressmen who went to Iraq and felt Saddam's pain. (Sorry - forgot their names and I'm being lazy; you all know whom I mean)

Jean Chretien, most definitely - no explanation needed.

Desmond Tutu, for analogizing Zionism to apartheid and lending moral authority to the stinking pile of corruption known as Arafish and the Palestinians Without a Cause.

Trent Lott, for forgetting the politician's cardinal rule: when the cameras are rolling, and the fourth estate is present and hostile, keep yo' dayum mouf shet, boy!

Jee-meh Caw-teh - also requires no explanation.

The female employee of the Department of Agriculture who tried so hard to be nice to Mohammed Atta in a warm and fuzzy, multi-culti kind of way.

dennisw....

I nominate that PICTURE OF THE YEAR.....

ROFL

Can't...decide...too...many...of...them...brain... hurts...

Is it safe to mention all these idiotarians all in one place? I mean, might not this list go critical stupid-mass and release highly dangerous morons and gam-duhh rays throughout the blogosphere? When you consider all the moronium that is in Michael Moore, for example and if he were to be brought into close proximity to another mass of dumbonium like Ed Assner, there is no telling home much fatal stupidactive fallout would result! And Bab's schozz can only suck up so much of the idiotactive debris! Well, you could always use Sean Penn and Woody Hairbrainedson for control rods (I'll leave that one to your imagination...)

Re David Duke (#122)

Looks like he's on his way to prison. Doubtlessly he'll emerge with a freshly penned Mein Kampf (or Mein Jihad).

Ok, my nominations include:

Adam Shapiro (and his father, Noah Shapiro)

The Nobel Peace Prize committee

The FBI agents investigating the LA El Al shooting ("it's not terrorism")

Bill O'Reilly - for the Saudi Arabian girls fiasco

Colin Powell

Shimon Peres

Lionel Jospin

Walter Mondale

The Berlin police (for warning Jews to hide their identity)

.... there are just sooooo many to pick from this year. I could go on forever!

U.N.

all the rest is commentary

Oh, and Adam Shapiro.

The FBI where Muslim agents are governed by the Shariah:

Perhaps most astounding of the many mistakes, according to Flessner and an affidavit filed by Wright, is how an FBI agent named Gamal Abdel-Hafiz seriously damaged the investigation. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz, who is Muslim, refused to secretly record one of al-Kadi's suspected associates, who was also Muslim. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz told him, Vincent and other agents that "a Muslim doesn't record another Muslim." Wright said he "was floored" by Abdel-Hafiz's refusal and immediately called the FBI headquarters. Their reaction surprised him even more: "The supervisor from headquarters says, 'Well, you have to understand where he's coming from, Bob.'

I know Ted Rall has been nominated for cartoonist, but I would really like to nominate M. KAHIL in both cartoon, and the general idiotarian catagories. He is one bigoted idiot.

for elected idiotarian of the the year - George Galloway
for homicide bomber cheerleader of the year - George Galloway
for most likely to marry Saddam Hussien given the chance - George Galloway

and i'll second the nomination for "hollywood" but minus speilberg and mel brookes

Clutch.....LOL

Babs & Alec. Ah hell, everyone in Hollywood.

It's so bloody typical of you Yanks to ignore us Canadians. I was very vexed not to see our Chretien included in this rogues gallery

Allegra Pacheo(sic) and her hubby KhalialalaRamalla(or whatever)

#116

lmao

...and the nominations for the best use of pyrotechnic avians are...

Perhaps honerable mention should go to the voters of South Korea.

Hi,

I'm really horny and would like some photos of Hannan Ashwarbi riding a camel bareback. Please e-mail me. Thanks.

To aid the judges, let's include some of the memorable quotes from our picks. For example, Noam Chomsky (after September 11): "The guns were pointed back at us."

#127 James

Surely David Duke (since he's pals with the Islamonazis now) would just love to have Saudi Prince Naif Ibn Abd-Al-Aziz help him co-author a few chapters in Mein Jihad or, at the very least, help with enough Saudi funding to provide a copy to every high school and college.

I can't believe that nobody nominated Gary Trudeau.

Although This cartoon might disqualify him. OTOH
this one on Blogs probably gets him back in the running

:-)

PS... add Saudi Prince Naif Ibn Abd-Al-Aziz to the list too :)

Moore...just for the sheer nastiness of his invective...

Sorry about the broken link. The first cartoon is
here.

Nomination: attorney Stanley Cohen for his "defense" of the Islamist who threw the Molotovs at the Riverdale Synagogue.

To round out the Hollywood contingent:
Harry "House Slave" Belafonte and Danny Glover!

Let's not forget the Miss World organizers and most of the Australian media "elite".

Can't believe no one has mentioned James Carville! Mr. white trash himself.

Wow, where to begin. There's so many out there so perhaps you should have categories: Academia, the Press, Entertainment and the Arts, Literature, Politicians, web sites/bloggers, Foreigners, etc.

Anyway here's my picks:
1. Academia: Naom Chomsky, UC Berkeley
2. Press: The Village Voice, Arab News, MoDo
3. Entertainment & the Arts: Woody Harrelson, Sean Penn, Michael Moore (I could go on)
4) Literature: Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer
5) Politicians: Cynthia McKinney, Trent Lott
6) Web sites/bloggers: Democratic Underground, Counterpunch
7) Foreigners: the Saudi royal family, the French

My personal choice: the poet laureate of New Jersey, the exploding owl, Amiru Baraka.

cynthia mckinney, marc herold, arundhati roy, jessica rutter of the duke chronicle are my nominations

THE J-E-W-S and the I-N-D-I-A-N-S who made Cynthia McKinney lose!!! (joke!)

And the accountants of the World Zionist Conspiracy for being so damn slow getting the checks out!

José Bové

For The Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year I would suggest that we keep it to one name. Yes, there are many from which to choose, but we shouldn't water down the honor, although first and second runners-up should be ok. We should be focused and disciplined and just pick one winner. Also, no repeat winners.

For this I must nominate the execrable Michael Moore. (Sorry Noam, maybe, or probably, next year.)

For The Charles Johnson Award for Anti-Idiotarian of the Year, the clear thinking Mark Steyn.

I second Photios's nomination of Steyn. Who knows? He might even show up to accept it.

Here's a curve ball.

How about an honorable mention for George W. "Islam is Peace" Bush?

That one really hit a raw nerve, especially considering his families ties to the Saudi "gang of one thousand cousins" regime. I make raucous snorting sounds every time I hear someone suggest he's a "straight shooter."

faster, please!

-adam.

PS - Technically I think Michael "Stupid White Guys is really my autobiography" Moore should win as corrupter of youth.

Michael Moore is like the GATEWAY DRUG of IDIOTARIANISM.

#102 Charles
_______________

If you act, as you think
The missing link
Synchronicity

A star fall, a phone call
It joins all
Synchronicity

Michael Moore
Ramsey Clark
Yasser Arafish
Pilger
Fisk
Chomsky
Penn

I don't understand why Penn is on this list. It's totally mean the way he never lets Teller say anything, but no one who makes fun of astrologers and spoon-benders can be all bad...

I really think Charles needs to have an idiotarian of the month award. Then next December we can have a vote off for the twelve winners (ahem) losers for next years idiotarian of the year.

Karen Armstrong deserves an idiotarian writer's award.

Jimmeh "The Peanut" Carter, just so he can finally get an award he actually earned.

I don't think Arafat really fits the bill as an idiotarian. An idiotarian is a) supposedly intelligent b) a Westerner (or as they'd prefer to be called, white males punishable for the sins of past generations) and c) not in need of baby wipes. That said, I nominate Chris Patten, the EU's commissioner for external affairs. He is the one who has refused to investiagte European funding of the PA because an investigation would make clear that EU money is being used to fund terrorism. My second nominee is the infamous Scott Ritter, and my third is Herta Gmelin. Herta Gmelin is the former German Justice Minister who compared George W. Bush to Hitler.
What about a contest for Un-Idiotarian of the Year?

People, people, people. Get with the context here. There can be no doubt whatsoever. This man stands head and shoulders above (below) the rest. No that Fisk has been removed from competing, there is only one choice -- Michael Moore.

Please remember this as you approach the ballot box.

Thank you

The entire U.S. State Department.

And what do we call the nominees?

A fiskfull of dullards!

I'd also like to see the opposite type of award, not sure of a good name, but Tony Parsons comes to mind for his astonishingly insightful article.

I love that picture of Fisk. When we look at the picture, we see Number #1 Idiotarian with his head wrapped in bloody rags, but I'll bet Fisk saw J.C. with a crown of thorns every time he looked in the mirror.

Anyhow, my nominees are:

Worst Idiotarian Website The Clearguidance Kidz beat Anil and Neal by light years (surprised nobody's mentioned them yet.)

Worst Idiotarian Academic Mona Baker /Tom Paulin(I second Chomsky's Lifetime achievement award nomination. Come to think of it, Said should get one too.)

Worst Jewish self-hater A three-way tie: Adam Shapiro/Stanley(?) Cohen/Noami Klein

Worst Canadian Idiotarian, Media Division Jennings/Heather Mallick

Worst American Idiotarian, Media Division Holy Lord, where to begin? MoDo/Richard Cohen.

Worst LGF Idiotarian Troll A week ago, I would have said Mookie, game, match, set. But Terry and his pirate are providing some serious competition.

Worst Hollywood Idiotarian Penn/Woody Harrelson/Jessica "I'm ashamed to be an American" Lange

Worst Female Impersonator in a Supporting Role Hanan Ashawi

Charles Johnson award for Most Noble Anti-Idiotarians Victor Davis Hanson, Steyn, Fallaci, Ledeen (Hitchens doesn't quite make it - he still hasn't washed the "Pali freedom fighter" cobwebs out of his head. Maybe next year.)

Could someone provide the definition of idiotarian. Is Justin's (post # 163) a good working definition. A little help Charles.

I am struggling with the lumping of people with malice in their hearts e.g. Reuters, Zogby, every one who has re-named themself "Abu Something," Jimmy Carter in with the idiots like Sean Penn and Woody "Hemp-boy" Harrellson.

If so, hands down Jimmy Carter. He is so pretentious yet so wrong. Clinton and Gore would be runners-up.

The 63% of Palestinians who think suicide bombings should continue.

[Link: www.haaretzdaily.com...]

MY votes:

Dhimmi Carter

Cynthia McKinney

The FBI

Obviously Harold Pinter (British Journalist) - his recent rant against the U.S. is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever read.

Donna (#167)--In the category of most self-hating Jew, you've left out a big one: Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, founder of Gush Shalom, supporter of Amram Mitzna and all-around utter fucking imbecile. Do a search for his columns in the Arab News online and see if I'm not right.

A lot of the people nominated have malice in their hearts, and advocate malicious actions.

Some advocate malicious actions without malice in their hearts.

And some are just idiots, who take themselves seriously, but few others do.

It's clearly easier to define an 'anti-idiotarian' than it is to define 'idiotarian'

While I don't know if I'd call them 'idiotarians', if the award is to be smacked upside the head with a frozen mackerel, I'd like it to happen to Kofi, Jimmah, and Chris Patten, in no particular order. Repeatedly.

I nominate Mark Steyn as anti-idiotarian of the year.

The blogging anti-idiotarian nominees: Charles, Stephan Sharkansky, Andrew Sullivan, Tim Blair and Steve Den Beste.

Oriana Fallaci wins an award for best (continental) European anti-idiotarian.

Christopher Hitchens and Salman Rushdie share a special award for leftist anti-idiotarians.

There are just soooo many good choices - it would be cool to have them all in one voting-list.

Then make it a two round vote - e.g. the 5 with most votes go to the grand finale - THAT would be cool!

I just scrolled down without reading any comments to say this: arafat does not belong on the list. He is in a different category. pathological liar, yes; mass murderer, yes; complete scum bugus, indeed: but I always thought of idiotarians as those who apologize for and attempt to justify the sickness of those like arafat.

Also, Chomsky should get some sort of a lifetime achievement award.

But my vote goes to Sean Penn---to me, he defines idiotarian.

Now, I will scroll back up and surely get an education...

Award for the Most Annoying Regular lgf Poster : shared by Ranbutan and G.I. Joe.

Maybe we should be thinking of idiotarians whose stupidity will expand in the new year:

David Ickes, the new-age conspiracy guru whose millions of followers believe that the "reptilian blood line" corrupts the world.

www.davidicke.com

Pepe Escobar, anti-globalist fabricator posing as an Asian Times journalist.

Thierry Meysson, French "911 complot" specialist, and Arab League consultant.

Harunyahya, AKA Adnan Oktar, Turkish mental patient and the Einstein of "koran science."

www.harunyahya.com

Colin Powell, "islam is peace" believer and conduit of the Middle East Partnership Initiative cash cow subsidy to Islamania's corrupt cultural entities.

If not this year, Powell will get the award in 2003.

Hedy Fry and for those who aren't familiar with her name she is the federal MP for the constituancy I live in. Last week, in my mailbox, I received a 2003 calendar from Ms. Fry that notes every single international/denominational/non-denominational/wo rld/UN/secular/day, week, month, time period, known to man. So, for the edification of the worldwide LGF audience, mark your calendars please:

January 20 - World Religion Day
January 20 - 24 National Non Smoking Week
February 16 - Brotherhood/Sisterhood Week (zulubaby and Q this one's for you!)
February 21 - UN International Mother Language Day
March 7 - World Day of Prayer
March 21 - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (0h please, someone tell the mullahs)
March 22 - UN Day for Water
April - National Poetry Month (who blow up da April)
April 7 - World Health Day
April 22 - National Volunteer Week
April 22 - Earth Day
May 3 - UN World Press Freedom Day (Arab News are you listening?)
May 15 - UN International Day of Families
May 22 - International Day for Biological Diversity
May 25 - Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self Governing Territories (my personal favorite)
May 31 - World No-Tobacco Day (Fidel's favorite)
June 2 - Environment Week
June 5 - Nur Ascension (Minstrel, how did you get in here?)
June 5 - UN World Environment Day
June 20 - UN World Refugee Day
June 26 - UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
July 6 - UN International Day of Cooperatives
July 11 - Un World Population Day
July 27 - International Bog Day (I'm tempted, but it's too easy!)
August 3 - World Forgiveness Day
August 9 - UN International Day for the World's Indigenous People (really, even if you tried, you couldn't make this shit up, could you)
August 23 - International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
September 1 - Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Environment
September 16 - UN International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (woohoo)
September 21 - UN International Day of Peace (quick, somebody tell the splodeydopes)
October 1 - UN International Day for Older Persons
October 4 - UN International Space Week
October 5 - UN Teacher's Day
October 6 - UN World Habitat Day
October 16 - World Food Day
October 17 - UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (close on the heels of World Food Day, who'd thunk it)
October 24 - UN United Nations Day (and that would be redundant wouldn't it?)
October 27 - Ramadan
Phew, October = Critical Mass
November 6 - UN International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Conflict (I rescind my former favorite and nominate this as my personal favorite. I mean, WTF, never mind the death and destruction of innocent people let's have a day to protect the fucking trees ferchristsake)
November 16 - UN International Day for Tolerance (PBUH)
November 20 - UN Universal Children's Day
November 25 - UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
AND, ON THE SAME DAY:
Eid al-Filr
December 2 - UN International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
December 3 - UN International Day of Disabled Persons
December 5 - UN International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
December 10 - UN Human Rights Day
December 18 UN International Migrant's Day

LGFer's fill you diaries please. oooooK Kofi, is that everything?

okay, I got through about two dozen comments to see that my thoughts (#176) were hardly original.
Can I nominate any of my coworkers?

Steyn gets my vote for anti-idiotarian. Charles is runner up.

#179 Fay,

too funny. I see that Ramadan makes the list (the same list that includes an interntional day for tolerance... oh the sick, sick irony): the author must have been watching pbs lately...

Ordinarily I would suggest Svend Robinson. Normally he is as idiotarian a person can get, but this week he showed signs of brain activity when he figured out what to do with David Ahenakrap. Now I don't know what to think.

centaur, I have no idea who comes up with the list or how you get a day/week/month named after your cause or whatever. Maybe we could lobby for an annual day named in honour of something on LGF, eg, the other day was E.Nough's Nitwit Troll Day. I definitely think that should make the calendar!

I would have to vote for Moore. His STUPID WHITE MEN and BOWLING FOR COLOMBINE, both came out this year and were leaps forward in the cause of idiotarian.

The other worthy contenders in my opinion were persistant in their normal idiotiarian ways thus acted as expected without adding to the total of the content used for idiotiarian mythos.

Noam Chomsky all the way.

Chomsky. The quintessential idiotarian. Moore is a callow pretender. Give him the award if anyone still remembers him next year.

My nomination is Jimmah Carter for long and distinguished service in the cause of naive, gutless pandering to America's enemies.

To make it better...when the award is announced, sent it to the Carter Foundation with a disclaimer that Carter really didn't deserve it as much as others, but that the award was given as a slap against all those opposed to America.

#44 Q and #177 Squiddy......Thank you deeply for thinking of me. Knowing your perfidious, trecherous sort are ticked at my comments makes me happy that I must be speaking the truth, since the truth hurts you boys. Face the music. Change will either come to Israel-Palestine by their mutual agreement, or it will be imposed by the world community that the US finally joins with. Really, don't you want Israelis and Pals to agree on how to draw the final borders up tween the sides??.....Rather than a team of Russian and Belgian diplomats do it for you?? (Think you can flip the world off?? Fine- try it with a total trade, oil embargo the US joins in if Israel and the Pals remain pig-headed..and not a cent of EU or US money to either Israel or the Pals) The US cannot afford to have our attention to the major diplomatic issues of the 21st Century diverted or sabotaged as the ME did to us - the last 30 years of the 20th century.

Fay #179

I notice that there are neither Christian nor Jewish holidays on that calendar, but that Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr are there. No Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah.

Of course Ms. Fry would deny any religious bias, if asked. She probably just 'forgot'.

I favor dividing the award into categories, and I in sports I nominate Bud Selig.

The problem, generally, is that there are just so many worthy candidates. I would rule out Chomsky because I think he verges into actual evil. As to Michael Moore, this certainly would be a decent awardee, but he's such a sloppy thinker and so blatantly uninterested in facts. I think we should find someone who ought to know better.

Has anyone named the perfect candidate, the one who, to paraphrase Falstaff, is not only an idiotarian himself but is the cause of idiotarianism in countless others: Howell Raines.

172: NC: I did a search on Uri Avnery and oooh, dear Lord, I do believe you're right. His aiding and abetting of the people who want his people six feet under is disgusting. Adam Shapiro's clownish coziness with Arafat is minor league compared to Avnery's spews.

Nasti 178: I have to hand it to you: howling moonbat David Ickes is an excellent nominee. Never heard of the Turkish nutwing, will have to google him,...,

Regarding the "Who is an Idiotarian?" debate (dumb naifs vs. evil anti-Semitic creeps), well, obviously between Babs and Penn on one side and CAIR and Reuters on the other, you're going to get a lot of overlap. The Clearguidance brats are nasty little neo-Nazis, but they're also clearly dumb naifs - which is why they can both terrify you and make you laugh (like when their simultaneous prudishness and adolescent Muslim sex obsessions are on display at the same time.) Similiarly, Jihad Cyndy and Dad bear definite malice aforethought, but they're also staggeringly stupid.

I figure that well-intentioned or not (and how can we ever know, for instance, how much of Kofi Annan's anti-Israel leanings are due to dumb PC Third-Worldism and how much are due to baleful anti-Semitism. 60/40? 51/49?), all the above nominees have done their level best to prove the validity of Blair's Law - the thesis that all the world's stupidities are converging together in a massive useless lump.

I have to correct some of the posters regrading that Fisk picture, the one with his head in bandages. He did not incure those wounds from being attacked by Afghans.

The truth is Fisk's injuries occured when his head was removed from his arse. The good blokes at the Guardian helped him get it back in place to stop the bleeding so he's doing fine, don't worry.

#187

Yeah, fuck you (deeply) too, Ranbutan. "My sort" (as if you'd know what "my sort" really is, fuckwad) is "ticked" at your poisonous hateful buchananite sort because you can't stomach those uppity "perfidious, trecherous (sic)" J-E-W-S in general, not just the fact of them freely living (the nerve!) in their ancestral homeland.

There have been LGF posters (Andrew X, even Andrew Lazarus) with whom I disagreed respectfully, despite sometimes heated arguments. I have my views, but I'm open to discussion on this and any other issue. Not with you, though. You are a contemptible bigot, choking on the toxic brown bile of Judenhass, and this completely smothers any shreds of sense you might've otherwise offered.

Ranbutan (#187), thank you for your acceptance speech. Actually, I didn't nominate you for your posturing on the Israel/Palestine issue, as is evidenced by my selection of your co-winner, G.I. Joe, who is hardly a detractor of Zionism, being instead off his rocker in the other direction. I nominated you for your Jew-baiting tendencies and general smugness.
Will G.I. Joe now step up to the podium?

He's like the idiotarian Lance Armstrong in the Tour de Schtoopid

In case anyone hasn't already said it yet, Charles...Lileks himself couldn't have come up with a better description of the Fiskbot!

:-D

LGF Anti-Idiotarian of the Year:
Victor Davis Hanson

(I did a search for the total number of Mark Steyn and VDH columns which have been featured as LGF topic headings, and by my count, Hanson edges out Steyn by a slight margin. Hanson - 40, Steyn - 37. Still, it's very close, and if you wanted to wimp out and call it a tie, you could give Steyn a few extra points for having personally visited and defended LGF. I give Hanson the edge, though.)

Shouldn't this award be a little green lucite version of the Vince Lombardi trophy?

Mikey Moore all the way.

Fisk in a landslide. After all, he has entered the vernacular as a verb.

Since Fisk is ineligible, Michael Moore is the Idiotarian of the year. He is the most contemptible, nauseating, repulsive human sewage there is among anyone whose name is known. Calling him a piece of crap would insult excrement. Make him an award winner, and then never mention his name, ever again.

I predict that Arafish will when...how can you say that number 202?

uh meant win not when, hey i'm a seer not a scholar

#65 - you forgot the Saskatchewan Indian spokeman who praised Hitler in a speech last week.

BTW a commenter on Daddy Warblogs also suggested awards last week, so great minds etc.

It might be worth compiling a few awards for 2002: Most strained metaphor, worst analogy, the Harold Pinter Stridency Award and so on...

I like the idea of having several awards, naming them for other idiotarians, thereby getting more bang for your buck so to speak. We should also actually make little trophies, have them engraved, and send them to the winners. And send out press releases announcing the winners, and do a blogburst on it.

This would be a great publicity stunt for the Anti-Idiotarian cause, not to mention the blogs involved. I am happy to volunteer to do some of the drudge work.

Too difficult to choose. Kind of like having to pick somebody to root against when USC is playing Notre Dame.

that is the funniest thing to be posted on this weblog.

Why We Fight - An Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto

Put the link in the press release with a few choice quotes, send a copy to ALL the award winners, and link to when doing your blogburst contribution.

Earlier drafts.

Addendum.

Yehudit....

I like the idea of having several awards, naming them for other idiotarians, thereby getting more bang for your buck so to speak.

excellent idea...

I second that....

So what do the winners get? A hideously ugly engraved trophy? An Osama doll? A Robert Fisk-autographed baseball bat (useful for self-punishment as penitence for being a Westerner)? An all-expenses paid "fact-finding" trip to Gitmo?

Idiotarian Blogger of the Year - Anil Dash

Idiotarian blog of the year has to be Stand Down, if only for the consistent pinheadedness of their comment section and the way commenters let grossly anti-semitic trolls walk all over them.

Karen Armstrong, I understand. But Lance? What did he do? Did I miss one on my idiotarian radar? I'll be bummed if Lance is an idiotarian, almost but not quite as much as I am that Barbra is one.

Also, if she weren't a complete and inconsequential joke of a "reporter" [ha!], I would vote for Ashleigh Buttfield. But she's such a birdbrain, that she disqualifies herself.

Send all of the winners a certificate and an American Flag. It will be the perfect present for all the winners - think about it.

in terms of a "prize'..how about a copy of this

accompanied by the gentleman on the left.....

and a scrap of his bloody bandage, bronzed....

LOL

how about a subscription to the Weekly Standard.....or New Republic...

something they could use....

I have another nomination

HUGO CHAVEZ, el presidente of Venezuela.

How clever of a SOCIALIST to FORCE LABOR UNIONS to end their strike...

So much for being "the workers party..."

no...I got it....

a subscription to Commentary Magazine, and free membership to ZOA....LOL

or maybe B'nai Brith...

hehehe

Lifetime Award - that would be Jimmuh. The award? A framed picture of himself in Nicaragua in March 1990, shocked...SHOCKED that the Salvadorans would, upon being able to vote for the first time in decades, vote for someone other than His Friend the Commie Who Destroyed Their Country.

Michael Moore for this Year's Award. (How long before he joins the Involuntary-Obesity lawsuits against McDonald's?)

Nominee for Runner-Up for this year - that Brit Clergy idiot "male bonding" with Yassir in the October office photo.

Rambutan may be an idiot, but at least he's funnier than any of the other nominees put together. That's a mitigating factor as far as I'm concerned. And he's Irish, too. :)

#207 - QueenEsther

I hadn't thought of Ashleigh Banfield until your post. I linked to the Board lambasting her....the language is much cruder than normal on LGF....but a few posts were hysterical....like the one about Ash needing to be asphixiated during sex to get off, her part ownership in a leather dyke bar in Houston dragging her BF to BDSM clubs by a slave leash. All for a Canadian!!

Actually, I think she is better than most of the blabbering males...Wolf Blitzer and the Cretin Phil Donahue. She filled in for Jerry Nachman and did a nice job. Sure she is a war babe, but she occasionally does good pieces - like the tour of Kabul from the back of a pickup truck (her idea) and visiting a mine-clearing school for dogs. The warbabe competition is Amapour - who is getting long of tooth. Christianne spent the first week of the war in Pakistan talking about how "KaaaBooool" was the key - same spiel, for a solid week.

#193 - Squiddy. I smugly accept your nomination in the spirit it was offered in, with appropriate humor.

#192 - But Q....given the truth hurts....Ouch! I evidently gave you so much painful truth to chew on that you launched into a foul-mouthed frothing frenzy of pain....Chill, dude...and if you have guns you may wish to avoid thinking about Mosques for a day or so.

There are so many great nominations that it's difficult to choose the complete idiotarian. I (#151) chose the poet laureate of New Jersey but after reading further I realize that Old LeRoi is just an idiot, not an idiotarian.
He's not dangerous, just pathetic and silly. Ditto for the Clearguidance teens (thanks Donna, I had forgotten them).

I'm now inclined toward Michael Moore. Tubby makes movies, writes best-selling books, gets enormous amounts of publicity, appears on Donohue and is generally a media darling. Yet he's is a man who doesn't know the difference between lying and telling the truth.

Dishonorable mention: Trent Lott, who single handedly undid the recent elections.

Hello. I don't believe I've ever posted before, but I've lurked for a little while.

For a nominee, I would have to go with the Concordia Students' Union for Idiotarian of the Year. Their model for idiocy could threaten student governments in the States, and that has me, a university student, on edge for whatever happens next.

Regarding my previous post, I believe it should be changed to:

Concordia Students' Union, with the exception of one delegate: Noah Joseph, president of Concordia Hillel and the lone dissenting vote on the issue of the kicking Hillel off campus

As I scrolled down the comments with mounting glee, I realized that no one I saw mentioned the obvious dark horse contender, who, MARK MY WORDS, will be standing on the chair like Robert Bennini during the this years televised FISKIE award when he wins from way down the pack:

Dr. Peter N Kirstein of St Xavier University

Yes, that wonder of integrity who lambasted the Air Force cadet and who is currently undergoing "professional review."

I can already hear what you're saying. Our test marketers thought he should have gone with the sure thing and been nominated for Best Supporting Idiot, but Peter was insistent. He is not a man willing to settle for the Silver. He is not a man willing to settle. He is not a man willing. He is not a man. He is not.

Yes, yes...Michael Moore is obviously the bigger target. In fact, Michael Moore looks like he ATE Dr. Kirstein. But mark my words, Peter will erupt from Moore's abdoment, Alien chest-burster like in his bloody glory and sharp pointy teeth, and slither away with the thing in a late rally.

You heard it here first.

I must now go back to my thoughtful and sensitive design of the actual Fiskie (tm) statue, which I will submit for member approval in the near future.

#211 Chavez is just plain evil, not an idiototarian. I have friends in Caracas right now and they are afraid for the country. They are americans and can leave whenever they want, but they have not gone to work for days and they fear it will only get worse.

If I have to pick just one it is Jimmy Carter by a nose over Moore. Moore just talks a lot and but does not have enough influence to do much damage. Jimmy Carter is directly responsible for North Korea having nuclear weapons (lets see the other nominees top that!) along with all the other damage he has done.

#218 Good call. I had almost forgetten about him.

Bill Whittle!!!! You ROCK!!! I loved your piece on the 2nd amendment. I am so looking foreward to your blog. If you've not been here before welcome. If you've been here and I missed you, welcome anyway.

Anybody who wants a fantastic read check hereand read this!

I repeat my appeal to fellow voters:

Do not waste your ballot on idiotarians for their annoyance and nuisance value alone. Ask yourself: How much real harm and evil does this idiotarian accomplish.

Sappy columnists, babbling cinema performers, scribblers of lousy poetry -- Simply not contenders.

Even Jimmy Carter no longer wields any power -- A has-been idiotarian.

Stick to the bad guys and gals who still do real mischief:

Kofi Annan

The UN collectively

The US Department of State collectively

The British Foreign Office (hasn't guessed right in 80 years)

Go for the BIG FISH, nor the minnows

I think Ashleigh Banfield gets a pass because she rates pretty high on the babe scale. She would have to go into Fisk territory to lose her exemption.

Conservative humorist PJ O'Rourke coined the term "Euroweenies" in an article for Rolling Stone back in the '80s. Its in one of his books of collected articles, "Holidays In Hell."

Not sure whether to nominate Amiri Baraka or the idiot who allowed him to nab the New Jersey poet laureate position, Governor Jim McGreevey.

But I think Rall should win it, with Chomsky pulling down a Lifetime Achievement Award for his sterling efforts.

Hmmm... Would Chris Hedges be award material, or just evil?

Patrick (#223)

Ashleigh Baffled stays. I don't care how much of a babe you think she is.

She would have to go into Fisk territory to lose her exemption.

If only.

John Pilger, for sure. He is the only idiot on the list whose name has added new words to to the language (thanks to the late Auberon Waugh some 20 years ago, writing in The Spectator). We have 'to pilger', meaning to present gross distortions and outright lies as truth, 'pilgerism', and 'pilgerise'. Please note that apart from the fellow travellers in the staff-controlled Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which worships the ground he walks on) Australians on the whole are heartily glad he is an ex-pat. Britain -- you are wlecome to him.

Janeane Garofalo?
Tim Robbins?

Say it isn't so! all my favorite actors - *sniff*-*sniff*

as if having Jane Fonda come over for a visit isn't enough...

After much deliberation, Cynthia McKinney gets my vote.

How about an Idiotarian Newcomer of the Year award?

If this category is accepted, my nomination is for the unspeakably awful Mark Morford, electro-diarrhetic professional pseudo-hipster of SFGate (the online version of the loathsome San Francisco Chronicle). Imagine a sort of uber-Idiotarian slapped together with the most vital components of others of his repulsive ilk, and you get an idea of what this guy is like. He's got the doomsday alarmism of a Bill Moyers, crossed with the prevarication of a Michael Moore, mixed in with the useful-idiot shallowness of a Sean Penn, and the aesthetic and moral sensibilities of a Ted Rall, all bound up under the thin skin of a Peter Kirstein-style bullying hysteric.

Click on the link above for a sample of his stream-of-unconsciousness prose -- the closet thing you can get online to the actual ravings of a Berkeley streetcorner wingnut.

I am disappointed with John Pilger's Special Report on Palestine.

From the outset I knew it was going to be one sided after seeing him show a map of Palestine that was similar to this map: [Link: www.users.on.net...]

But this is actually historic Palestine: [Link: www.users.on.net...]
As you can see Palestine is 77% bigger than what John Pilger would have us believe.

He also didn't mention that Jordan is in fact a Palestinian state. The leaders of Jordan themselves have admitted this. The first ruler of Jordan, Abdullah of Mecca actually wanted to name the new nation "The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine". :o)

Half-truths and the omission of important facts to paint a biased picture of this issue is not good Journalism. Give the people all the facts and lets us make up our own mind.

I think all land West of hte River Jordan should be part of Israel and this includes the disputed territories.

Seamus (231)
First of all, most of the Jews in Isreal are European Jews who have no Jewish blood, so send them back to Europe. So when do you plan on getting your ass out of america and give back the land to the Native Indians. Jews know they are wrong and they should go back to Europe where they belong. Jews are hated by Europeans that's why they got kicked out of Europe. We can see why the Arabs hate the Jews, for the same reason everyone else does.

Brian, Steinberg, Joe, Hoffman, Susie, Sammy.

Can the real Jew-Hater please stand up.

Sammy spells

Isreal

the same way Brian Ally does. Funny that.

Sammy - what about the Sephardi Jews -all 1.5 mil of them In Israel- what would u do with them -send them back to be killed by the fanatics of Islam?

Sammy I hope your little jew hating ass isn't in "England" cause if it is u should get the fuck out and give it back to the Cornish and Welsh.

Sammy is a fanatic of Islam, and a rather deranged on at that.

Plenty of new candidates for idiotarians, even if the award is only for this thread. I nominate SAMMY.

I nominate Ran for the "With Allies Like These...." Award.

Sorry Ran but you desreve it.

In WW2 your position likely would have been - we must fight the Germans and prevent them from dominating the world.... but they are right about the Jews.

Such a sentiment may have been popular in America then --- anti-Semitism in America peaked in 1944. But since the opening of the German death camps in 1945 that sort of thinking has gone out of vogue. Any fool can see where it leads. The Americans of that era I'm sure were deeply ashamed to have been in league with the Germans if only in their minds. Fortunately we (most of us) have learned the lesson. Envy coupled with hate can leave a moral stain on a country that no amount of history can erase.

Ran, as a shipmate I must tell you --- it didn't look so good on the Germans and it don't look so good on you.

#233 Sammy 12/20/2002 12:57AM PST

Seamus (231)
First of all, most of the Jews in Isreal are European Jews who have no Jewish blood, so send them back to Europe. So when do you plan on getting your ass out of america and give back the land to the Native Indians. Jews know they are wrong and they should go back to Europe where they belong. Jews are hated by Europeans that's why they got kicked out of Europe. We can see why the Arabs hate the Jews, for the same reason everyone else does.

What reason would that be?

BTW, are you aware that Samuel is a Hebrew name...?

#221, NTropy:

Wow. (Yes, I hadn't read that before. Thanks.)

Welcome, Bill Whittle.

ROTFLOL!

#232 wasn't intelligent enough a troll to copy my email address while pretending to be me!

:o)

You Yanks are going to have to face it. The world champion is undoubtedly a Limey.

"Fanfare"

Onto the podium steps the undisputed, undefeated, heavyweight champion of the world, the true peoples' champion........gorgeous George Galloway.

"Crowd erupts into frenzied cheering".

"Fireworks" etc, etc.

What about Mona Baker.

Fired a Peace Now Israeli professor, well for the mortal sin of being Israeli.

I am sure it comes as no shock. I agree with the Ranbutan award.

trent lott
in the space of two weeks the man went from waxing nostalgic for the 1948 Dixiecrat platform to fully embracing affirmative action. maybe whore of the year? The man will do ANYTHING to keep his position of power.

Yo Patrick - Ashleigh was OK looking until she piled on 20 pounds, like saddlebags. To many back bacon sandwiches i think.

Ran - I find you a little offensive but you're not a bad poster IMHO.

Has anyone voted for the UK's Galloway (i think?) - his jewbaiting , anti american rants are a thing of idiotarian beauty

What might be useful would be determining what the "root causes" of idiotarianism are.

I understand what kind of idiotarians Moore and Chomsky are - left-wing ones - but I'm not sure what kind of idiotarian Fisk is. (Apart from "A class of his own")

I have to go with my hometown favorite: Jim McDermott, although it should be a joint award with David Bonior.

Jimmy and Roslyn Carter should get a special lifetime achievement award.

Michael Moore, although very high on my list, will be around to kick some more another year. But I don't know if McDermott will again achieve such a highly public level of international idiocy so I think he should be recognized this year.

Give the award to Canada and to all Canadaians except, of course, those Canadians who frequent Little Green Footballs. To norrow it down though I'd suggest the following "great Canadians". #1: Jean Chrétien, our esteemed P.M. He'll be the death of us all.Crooked mouth, crooked brain.
#2 Mizzzzz Judy Rebbeck: After 35 years as head of Canada's women's movement she's finally decided that it's time to define "just what constitutes a women" How can she possibly lead women if she doesn't know what one looks like?
#3 Svend Robinson. "thvend" is our national gay ( whereas I'm Canada's official national faggot). Thvend took a trip to Israel to form a human chain around Arafat's bunker. If this were April 45' Thvend would be formming a human chain around Hitler's bunker chanting "Nazis have feelings too ya know".

For their unstinting efforts to ensure that the Religion of Peace continues to have unfettered access to our country and its' most vulnerable infrastucture, I nominate Secretary of Transportation Norman Minetta and the INS.

For their pervasive antiamericanism, antisemitism, political correctness, multiculturalism and other efforts to refight the Vietnam War, I nominate the entire American intellectual/academic community and the college administrations and other institutions that abet and facilitate them.

Even though 9/11 took place in 1991, there should be a category for idiotarians and anti-idiotarians associated with that event. For the former, I nominate Janet Reno, and Big Bob Toricelli (both happily since deposed) for their superlative efforts to hamper law enforecement agencies in tracking the animals. Also in this august grouping is the turd of a professor who cheered the plane that went into the Pentagon. He, too, has now moved on to greener pastures.

Anti-idiotarians of the 9/11 group would of course include Rudy Guiliani and the "Let's Roll" patriots of Flight 93.

#240 writes: "BTW, are you aware that Samuel is a Hebrew name...?"

Yes, and maybe someone could tell John Walker Lindh that in choosing his "nom de jihad", "Suleyman", he named himself after a Jewish king who ruled over Israel, the disputed territories, as well as chunks of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. (Solomon, in case you were wondering.)

How about this guy?

My choices for IDIOT of the year:

Politicans: Dashcle, Lott, Bonior (all suffer from foot in mouth)

Entertainers: All those "B" actors who now lecture us in foreign policy. (Asner and Farrell have not worked in 20 years)

Statesmen: Bill Clinton; former presidents are not supposed to inject thenselves into the policies of the present administration.

Countries: France (don't play well with others), Germany (for that comparison of Bush and Hitler),
Canada (if your system is that great, how come your doctors come to the USA for treatment)
Saudi Arabia (for the national act of denial)
European Union (for the same thing, also I miss the mark, franc, and guilder)

And finally, all those who call for the distruction of Israel. Even the US can't claim a perfect record and the next time somebody tries to attack Israel, they will be in for a great shock.

Caroline Glick makes the case for Europe and its tool the Quartet road map as idiotarians of the year

Rather than demanding actual Palestinian reform and cessation of terror, the Orwellian road map calls for the Palestinians to regurgitate past statements to the effect that terrorism is a bad thing and declare that they plan to reform. In exchange, Israel will have to ban all Jewish construction activities in Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and withdraw IDF forces from Palestinian areas so that the Palestinians can think about making additional statements to the effect that they intend to reform themselves and stop murdering Israelis.

There is much more, Blair's snubbing of Netanyahu and lavish pandering to Baby Doc Assad; the State Department's determination to undermine Bush's "vision" as expressed on June 24, 2002 all have made the folk involved in the Road Map the idiotarians of the year.

Wow. What a year! So many, many deserving candidates. But my vote has to be for Michael Moore. He's the Hope Diamond of idiotarians. There's some other real jewels in the collection, but he's the biggest, by at least a few belt-notches...

Esther, I could be wrong, but I think Lance Armstrong was brought into the picture as an example of persistance and overcoming adversity, not of idiotarianism. He was used to show that some idiots really have to try to be idiotarians and must really fight against logic and facts and common sense to get the the top of the idiotarian heap.

ROTFLMAO!!!
Love that Fisk stuff.
Michael Moore is a worthy first time recipient IMO.

Photios#179, actually it did show all the Christian and Jewish and Hindu and Buhddist and Moslem and Rastafarian and Hare Khrishna and.......

I just didn't have enough time to transcribe them all :>)

Gerhard Schroder....or at least the fruit who offed me.

Nelson Mandela...

#238 - M Simon

It is not an attitude close to bigotry...it is - being outside the club, an attitude that there are aspects of pro-every thing Israel that damage America's interests. And, that Jewish desire to alter American institutions to something more of their liking - such as the war on anything Christian in the public sphere under the Establishment Clause by way of intimidating lawsuits - has markedly changed American culture. In a sense, it is no different than looking in from the outside at Christian fundamentalists or radical Muslims...and seeing aspects of their agenda that damage American culture. (Not that the activists groups are intrinsically evil.....but that their interests are different and getting their way is judged to be damaging to the interests of the majority). Barring Christ from schools is no different than the fundies wanting Evolution barred, or Muslim watchdogs sanitizing school history books to purge passages "offensive" to them regarding Islamic history.

The 30-year long war to religiously cleanse Christmas of Christ in the schools and stores has largely succeeded without the majority culture having any say in it. It was done by lawsuit....stores and schools were told by their own lawyers that their legal exposure was high from ACLU lawsuits initiated by Jews and Atheists, now Muslims....unless they either purged all Christian religious overtones...or added equal footing to Jewish, Muslim, Hindi....religious symbols at Christmas.

Stores, worried about the new class of ACLU lawsuits...the "religious harassment" ones of captive employees who are non-Christian..that threaten high individual awards....have rigorously taken on policies to bar overtly religious displays - no angels on display trees...which have been renamed "Trees of Light". Christmas music or carolers are under sanitizing as well - Jingle Bell Rock is acceptable, Silent Night is prohibited.

The current state of schools warring against the Christian faith is described here:

Christmas Celebration Fears

For the last 30 years, the operative societal reaction to an "offended" activist was to bend over backwards to please them....so the majority culture took various pot shots and took various dives from confrontation. But I think just like we are standing up to the terrorists...we are starting to stand up to religious minorities...Local examples are two fundamentalist Christians getting purged from the Board of Ed after they tried deleting sex ed; a Jewish couple suing to block Christmas carolers from their neighborhood getting publicly savaged in the newspapers & by neighbors, and a Palestinian man who sued to overturn his daughter's failing gym because "gym is immodest for females" getting tossed from court and his daughter keeping the "F"s he caused her through her obediance.

Naturally, just like many fundies or Jews who are rebuffed in efforts to change the system to something more of their liking....the Pal is screaming "bigotry" and appeasers are emerging talking about "private gym classes" to accomodate Muslim women...at considerable taxpayer expense. It won't happen.

Simple rules....get along. Don't push your preferences on others, but don't seek to squash manifestations of others beliefs from any public or private institution. Stay out of other people's faces...and if you want change and know the popular will is not their, don't try to bypass the democratic process by use of legal intimidation. If some people still take the "push the majority route"...and meet with strong resistance as the majority is now starting to push back...don't play the "bigotry card" and cry "You hate us...If not, you must prove your tolerance by giving us exactly what we want" - it's old and worn out....as the Muslims here are discovering.

Ranbutan,

The ACLU is not a Jewish organisation. Period. End of story.

Oh, there are Jews involved in the ACLU? Yes, and there are Jews involved in the Republican party. In the Democratic party. There are Jews who are baseball players and rock stars and doctors and school techers and bartenders and actors and airline pilots and computer programmers and politicians and everything else. There are gentiles involved in all these pursuits too, including the ACLU.

Quit it with the conspiracy crap.

Josh:

There are a few more good people on the CSU council who just didn't attend that meeting where the vote was called (it was at midnight, after all, and called last-minute, right before final exams). One such person is Naomi Sarna, another Hillel executive memeber and a representative on the CSU council.

It's a balance of power thing. The pro-Palestinian Left has more seats on council than their opposition. So they can outvote the opposition on motions.

And don't get me started on the exec . . .

Anyway, I nominated the CSU above and I thank you for seconding (or thirding, or whatever) this nomination.

I think we have a late new addition to the lead group.

Jimmy Carter deserves this one. Do it for the children.

Hi,
I felt strongly enough about the Idiotarian of the year that I though my position warranted a comment.
It's a personal issue to me. As a musician - not a famous one certainly, but at least as someone on the outer periphery of show business - while everyone nominated to the list is eminently deserving, I reserved my votes for show-business/entertainment types who have used their artictic success and resultant celebrity a form of bully pulpit, given that their line of work places absolutely no requirement whatsoever on them to form a responsible, informed opinion on the matters to which they've contributed so much anti-American and/or anti-human (Belafonte) blather.
I decided not to indict Hollywood as a mass, so as not to tar entertainment figures who may have had the wisdom to keep silent on political matters, with the same brush as the Streisands, Pinters, Belafontes, et al. I'm sure there are a few. I also excluded Sean Penn, as I understand he exhibited a moment of class, while commenting to the media from inside Iraq, by declining to criticise the president while on foreign soil. I think that puts him one up over the rest of the ilk on this list, most of whom doubtless would seize any and every opportunity.
My only disappointment was that I didn't spot Jessica Lange on the list. Hope I didn't just overlook her.
Thanks to LGF, and equal thanks to so many of the commenters here.

- Sam
Delaware County, PA, USA

How about stupid (Bush). How about knee-jerk scortched earth Monday night football Soccer hooligans?
There is NO subtlety at all: The Bush team puts 300 thousand troops in harms way... what ever happened to the probe, the feint? Yeah, they'll nuke Sadam is he uses poisons. That'll make the poisoned troops happy.
Doesn't ANYbody think?
Trent Lott (I won't go, I won't go, I won't go... I'm gone, but I'm doing it for the good of the party.).... ooops, that was Cardinal Law.
And Michel Moore: where is the category for cheap shots and guilty by cinematic technique?

How has Bush not been nominated? Or does starting an unnecessary war, putting the economy in the toilet, and generally ignoring domestic policy matters not qualify? How about the creation of an unwieldy and ineffectual agency, which will ultimately serve only to limit the freedoms of innocent citizens? But wait, these things would fall under the heading of "evil". Unless you admit the guy you're rallying behind is an idiot of the first order? But when the alternative possibility is a power-hungry madman who is slowly usurping power, well, I guess the choice is clear.

If it hasn't already been mentioned, you forgot Gray Davis and Robert Mugabe.

Gosh, so many splendid choices! In the end it comes down to dear Senator Murray. Most of the others I suspect (and oh how it pains me to write this) possess at least marginal or even greater intelligence--well perhaps not Trent Lott, but he's history now). Not so the Honorable Patty. Her utterances as to day care center and school underwriter Osama Bin Laden display a stupidity so spectacular it comes close to rivaling third-generation Kennedys.

WHY ISNT GEORGE DOUBLEU ON THE LIST? HE WOULD DESERVE THIS AWARD MORE THAN ANYONE

#267 Matt

Or does starting an unnecessary war,

Perhaps you missed this and this or quite possilby this.

putting the economy in the toilet

First of all, the econonmy was starting downhill at the end of Clinton's administration. Can't imagine why with the stellar business plans so many dot coms had. The nerve of some people!! Actually requiring a return on their investments. Now examine my first link. Gee that helped the economy lots huh? Kinda hard to blame Bush for all of that - any of it really. Real nice inheritance.

Believe it or not I'm not completely against what you wrote though.

How about the creation of an unwieldy and ineffectual agency, which will ultimately serve only to limit the freedoms of innocent citizens?

As opposed to the many disjointed and ineffectual agencies but yes I distrust it too.

But when the alternative possibility is a power-hungry madman who is slowly usurping power

He's a politician! They ALL do that. Until we as a country are ready to make informed choices for ourselves again, until we understand the need for more than two parties who are really no different than the labels they wear, WE are the ones to blame.

There are no Clintons on the list. Does that seem strange to you?

Time Magazine has just put itself in the running for Idiotarian of the Year. Indeed it has flung itself with abandon to the front of the pack. Can you sqeeze in a late entry?

How absurd to have left the esteemed "Rev" Al Sharpton off the list? Perhaps this is because even rubrics for sheer idiocy have some standard below which they dare not tarry?

Still, as a black (no hyphenation necessary, thank you) American, one wretchedly tired of the race-baiting, ebonicized populism being spread by urban-carpetbaggers of Reverend Al's ilk- I think the Mr. Sharpton's name should have at least been tendered for consideration.

And daft Trent Lott, for giving fresh existential air to Sharpton's windbag, should be rating much higher marks as well! Bigot cum quasi-Republican cum Big Dummy- "strange fruit" never falls far from the tree.

Sorry, nominations are closed. I can't add anyone else to the list at this point -- it wouldn't be fair to those who've already used their votes.

It's pretty clear the big (and I mean that literally) favorites are Michael Moore and Jimmah Carter.

#272 wrote - "There are no Clintons on the list. Does that seem strange to you?"

It's probably unintentional, but it's strangely appropriate, that this pathetic attention-craving loser should vanish so completely from the radar screen, in a way that would make even Nora Desmond feel smug and superior.

Permit me a minority view, but I still think that we should reserve the "Fiskie" for folks who are truly preposterous and reprehensible. I consider Carter a fool, but however misguided he means well, and this award should go to a Baraka, or Paulin, or someone else who's not just misguided, but ridiculous.

#277 says:

I consider Carter a fool, but however misguided he means well,

That's the problem. He has also deluded himself that he is right! A double-whammy idiotarian.

Dhimmi Carter he's our man, hero of the nation....