I voted for Michael Moore because of the extent of his influence. My 17 year old daughter doesn't care a whit about politics, but after she saw that damn movie I had to completely deprogram her. He is contributing the the idiotizing of minors.

I can't decide. There are so many who are deserving.

While all of these candidates are indisputably worthy of the title Idiotarian of the year -- one clearly stands above the rest in his obtuseness: Jimmy Carter. Never before in the annals of ex-Presidents has one been so wrong, about so much, so often. See e.g., Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, North Korea, Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kim Il Sung.

I voted for Jimmy (Why don't I take money from Arab states and then say they can do no wrong) Carter as well. He's a disgrace to America.

OT, but is it me or did you change the font on the front page?

Going to vote now. It will be tough.

I really have to complain. :-))) My two favorites did not show up on your Idiotarian award voting list.

Al Gore and Senator Patty Murray

Yours, Dry Mouth Trumpeter

I voted for the State Department because they've been doing the most damage on a consistent basis. My runners-up are Carter and Scott Ritter.

You have Nelson Mandella twice :)

Any special reason that Nelson Mandela appears on the list twice?

Charles - you should permit each person to vote for their top 3 choices. It's too hard to decide between such a cast of deserving idiotarians.

Another thought - geographical breakdown? Idiotarian of the year for the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Austrailia?

And what about the United Nations? I think its a tossup between the UN and State.. Voting State since the UN was left off.

I have no problem if you add Nelson Mandela a third time. Makes sense to me to help us find his name. :-)

I voted for Jimmeh because he has no agenda. He's a genuine idiot.

I have no problem if you add Nelson Mandela a third time. Makes sense to me to help us find his name. :-)

Ha.. LOL.

Hmmm a few observations to help me decide.

Trent Lott - simply stupid but not in the same idiotarian league as most of the others.

The ones from Hollywood who have distinguished themselves above and beyond the stock idiotarianism eminating from there cancel each other out.

Concordia - understandable but it needs refining. Naming Concordia as a whole has the unfortunate affect of mislabling some (few ie Hillel) who don't deserve it.

France - see Concordia. (ie Le Pen (sp?) - well at least not for the same reason).

Berkeley - see Concordia. Besides, as it has been pointed out, we actually have some ANTI-idiotarians from up that way who post here.

Jaggi Singh - idiotarian or just evil (cf Arafish).

Jesse Jackson - could this be listed as "Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton"?

So hard to decide.......I'm personally torn between Schroeder, Belefonte (despite the cancellation factor mentioned above) and our wonderful congressional reps, Jim McDermot & David Bonior.

Gotta do it - Belefonte it is. His is the kind of idiotarianism that just chaps me.

Very difficult choice. They're all so qualified. What to do?

One nitpicky point: Streisand spells her first name Barbra, not Barbara. She made a big point of it early in her career. In fact, one of her first albums is titled, "My Name Is Barbra."

It's too hard. There are so many deserving candidates! Maybe some categories? Kinda like the Oscar's?

Biggest Idiotarian (The Fisk Prize)
Biggest Idiotarian in an International Role (The Bin Laden Award)
Biggest Idiotarian in a Domestic Role (The Bonior Prize)
Biggest Idiotarian as a Religious Leader (The CAIR Award)
Biggest Idiotarian as a Columnist (The Sontag Award)
Biggest Idiotarian as a Politcal Entity (The Berkeley Prize)
Biggest Idiotarian from an EU counrty (The Scroeder Award)
Biggest Idiotarian from an Arab League Country (The Ashwari Award)
and last but not least a special:
Religion of Peace Award (For the person/group that most "demonstrates" the peaceful attirudes and intentions of members of the Religion of Peace)
etc.

The 2nd Mandela has magically morphed into ... Al Gore.

The 2nd Mandela has magically morphed into ... Al Gore.

Ok, but Gore before the UN? I think most of us know that Gore was pandering for a potential democratic nomination. There's no way his policies in the whitehouse would be anything similar to what he said recently. He was rather pro israel in the past I believe as well.

May have to add Jane Fonda to the list?

New York Daily News
December 20, 2002

Haifa Jane off to see Yasser

By DEBORAH BLACHOR

JERUSALEM -- Jane Fonda cried yesterday when she heard harrowing tales of survival from victims of terror.
But in an echo of her controversial visit to the other side 30 years ago, during the Vietnam War, Hanoi Jane upset the people whose bravery she wept for when they learned she planned to visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"I don't know what they will see there," said victim Shoshana Gottleib, 49, who was paralyzed from the waist down after Palestinian gunmen sprayed her car with bullets.

"I know so many injured people," Gottleib said. "And there are many injured on the Palestinian side as well. We know where this started -- with Arafat."

Fonda is on a three-day listening tour with a delegation led by "The Vagina Monologues" writer Eve Ensler.

[Link: www.nydailynews.com...]

UPDATE! I just changed the polling code to allow five votes per person, since the list is so long.

And by the way, there's nothing scientific about this poll, I feel obliged to point out. (It's a sort of reverse popularity contest.) If you're Internet-savvy at all you can figure out how to get around the limit, but I'll just delete the bogus votes anyway, so why bother?

New additions: Jane Fonda, the UN, and Lewis Farrakhan.

Amnesty International, of course.

what i want to know is how to get tickets to the award ceremony. i would pay big bucks to hear the acceptance speeches.

The word must be getting out. So many people want to win the honor.

Marc Herold makes the first cut. Nice!

Down the stretch they come! It's Moore & Carter, neck and neck, in a photois finish!

Moore, Carter, France, the UN..... I wish the list of people for nobler awards had more names :P

I was just voting and the votes seem to have reset from 357 back to 0 ???

At the risk of sounding overly b-Eurocratic, maybe there should be a run-off poll of the top five vote getters? There are so many good choices that it would be nice to be able to narrow it down to the, um, cream of the crop.

Charles, I voted for Moore just now and he has a score of zero still.

I found myself changing my mind as I read through it.

My Top 5 were:

1) Carter;
2) UN;
3) US State Dept.
4) Chris Patten
5) Hollywood

I really could have justified voting for all of them.

so many idiots to choose from

Jimmy
UN
Nobel Appeasement Prize Committee
The Baghdad Twins
Scott Ritter

Whoa!

Whassup w/ the poll, Charles? Did you reset it when you increased the vote total to 5 per person?

Hmm. I'm not sure what happened, but I just tweaked the file locking code. Let's see if it happens again.

I had to vote for Noam Chomsky, if only because of his book "9/11" that was published last year, and the fact that my ex-roomie (a dyed-in-the-wool leftoid Euroweenie) is convinced that Chomsky is THE ONLY intellectual in the USA.

I don't know about Idiotarian of the Year, but I can tell you my Idiotarian of the Day -- Senator Patty Murray of Washington. This prize nitwit has praised Osama bin Laden for building schools when those schools are madrassahs, medieval institutions, which, as almost every human with an IQ in triple digits knows, do nothing more than instill religious and racial hatred in the minds of seven year olds. What is this woman talking about? She's as bad as Lott. In fact, she may be worse (and I despise Lott).

Having trouble deciding who to vote for? Maybe invoking one of the 99 magical names of Allah will help.

For example, chanting "Ya Sabur" 3000 times will rescue you from any difficulty [Guarantee void in Guantanamo, Cuba] and who knows, maybe by this time next year you'll be a nominee yourself.

Reuters is an egregious omission.

What is the Fiskie trophy going to look like? Something like the Oscar, but clutching copies of the Das Kapital and Stupid White Men to his chest?

I can't believe we forgot about Harvard. They may not make my top 5, but I say, if you help a guy advocating mass murder have a platform for his views, you deserve a mention among the idiotarian elite.

Charles - I think Ms Streisand spells her first name 'Barbra'.

Is there any reason why only two of the candidates (Chretien and Bradley) are identified by occupation? Chretien is a lot more famous than, say, Heather Malick (who I'll have to look up to find out why she is on the list).

Also, Farrakhan's first name is spelled "Louis."

so many idiots......too few votes....:(

I have to go with Carter. Besides, we will be doing him a favor. He was crushed in 1980 so at least he can now tell people he has won something. (The Nobel Prize doesn't count because he didn't deserve it; he deserves this.)

OT but it looks like the jihadis are doing our dirty work for us...

A suspect linked to the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and the deadly bombing of the U.S. consulate in Karachi earlier this year died Thursday in an apparently accidental explosion, Pakistani police say.

[Link: www.cnn.com...]

#38: You're right. Reuters MUST go on the list. I'm saving two votes for those bastards.

Nice job Charles (and the LGF nominating committee). I'd rather the contest be settled via Celebrity Deathmatch tournament though. On the downside, the top idiotarian would live, but it would be worth it!

Perhaps this can be awarded in top-5 (10?) fashion? Can Dennis Miller M.C.? And what is J-Lo going to wear? Maybe a photoshop-savvy LGFer will suprise us with a nice trophy.

Tough voting. Baghdad Boys start out with a lead here due to audacity, position of power, position of accountability, and no excuse to not know better. But so many other good ones to ponder.

It turns out that Heather "Malick" should actually be spelled "Mallick," and she's an anti-American columnist for the Globe & Mail newspaper in Toronto.

Ted Rall made fun of Marianne Pearl and others who lost loved ones to terrorists. He reigns supreme in Idiotia.

Oh please oh please can't I vote for Robert Fisk himself? Pretty please. It would be so gratifying.

Charles, surely Patty Murray slid in just under the deadline? She should definitely be on here.

I'm still voting for Dhimmi Carter though.

1) UN
2) Kofi Annan
3) Pilger
4) Vidal
5) Chomsky

The last three were just my general dig at the leftist "intellectuals". The UN, just for Iraq, 9/11, and everything since the Cold War. Annan for Kosovo, Rwanda, Arafat and general stupidity.

I suggest that the award be a glittering figure of a man with his head up his ass.

OK, the final additions to this year's nominees have been made:

Reuters
The New York Times
Indymedia
Harvard
Patty Murray

Nominations are now closed. (I feel so official when I write things like that.)

And marymary's suggestion for the award is absolutely perfect.

come on - desmond tutu EARNED his place - i'm on a hunger strike until he is placed on this list. or not.

Maybe the prize could be a 1-way ticket to Bagdad to be the official Idiotarian human shield. (Be tough if Berkeley wins tho.)

marymary:

very nice idea for an award!

I have another suggestion for the runner-up: how about an exploding owl to honor one of America's greatest poets? (Who, by the way, I hope to see as one of the runners-up, if not the Idiotarian of the Year.)

What a thrill to be able to vote for so many home-town favorites: Jimmeh Cahtuh, McDermott & his faithful sidekick, and seeing Patty Murray included just made my afternoon.

I think it means I need to choose more carefully the next time I move.

Sigh ... so many idiots, and so few votes.

Michael Moore, here's the poster for your next "artistic" effort

Bowling for Crap

*sigh* too late, too late. the polls are closed. I would *truly* have loved to have been able to ask you to add (1) Saudi Arabia, (b) Prince Bandar, and/or (c) Abdullah. I alternate between thinking surely they're evil because *no* one could so consistently keep shooting themselves in the foot and then keep disclaiming any responsibility for the resultant gore. Maybe an official American election where people could vote with or without chads would have made it clearer what my peers think: evil or really really stoopid.

Jose Bove is not on the list so I'll just have to vote for Froggystan

Does Trent Lott still apply?

He's going to resign:

[Link: news.bbc.co.uk...]

It's fun to pick the biggest idiotarian but it's also sad that there is such a long list. I see Jimmy Carter is doing well (vote wise), he is a true idiot and the first anti-American ex-President of the United States. Also this will be my only chance to vote for Cynthia McKinney, I just wish that I had had the opportunity to vote against her.

First prize: a Fisk style beating from Afghan refugees.
Second prize: the exploding owl.
Third prize: a blind date with Gore Vidal.

To me Ted Rall is more of an asshole than an idiotarian.

Too bad Justin Raimondo wasn't nominated. Guess he was just a flash in the (bed)pan.

Michael Bellesais would have been a choice of mine. He may have got the pusishment he so richly deserved, but the 9th circut (another worthy choice) is STILL citing him in their attempts to remove one of our constitutional amendments.

I had to vote for the New York Times... their arrogant 'Leftism is the stance of all THINKING people' attitude, combined with their reach, makes them prime-grade idiots.

My criteria was actual damage to society, and thereore idiotic but impotent people like Gore Vidal and Nelson Mandlda just didn't make the cut. You have to be a moron AND have an effect on more than just the usual idiots.

I just saw this monstrosity regarding Amiri Baraka. He was just appointed the poet laureate of the Nearwk, NJ SCHOOL DISTRICT. [Link: www.nytimes.com...]
It is, in every sense, mind boggling. I feel the need to vote for him again but, in truth, it's the school district that deserves the vote. Unbelievable.

. I feel the need to vote for him again

I feel it... its coming...

Inspiration!

Idea: Voting as therapy! After the nominees are decided, keep the list up, add a few more morons and remove all voting restrictions except a 5-second wait between votes.

Are you so pissed off at Jimmy Carter that you must sit and vote for him all day? No problem!

Just saw a new news item featuring Ted Rall and regret not voting for him? No problem!

The resulting poll would arguably be MORE accurate than a representative sample, because it could reflect DEPTH of anger, as well.

Has the New York times just totally gotten your goat so bad that you can't talk without going 'baa?' Keep a seperate window open while surfing and KEEP VOTING! All day, all night, only let your kid have the PC if he promises to keep voting for Mandela!

See how long it can go before anti-idiotaring RAGE shuts down the poll! Fear the anti-idiotarian street... when we get angry, WE BREAK THE INTERNET! Beat that, you Saudi llama rapers!

I think its an awesome idea (of course). Anyone else like the idea?

And a monstrosity it is.

In an act of defiance!? What the hell!

Mr. Cammarieri, a friend of Mr. Baraka, said he did not consider the poem, "Somebody Blew Up America," anti-Semitic, noting that it addresses the oppression of both blacks and Jews and poses a provocative a question that is directed at Israel, not Jews

That classic anti-Semitic disclaimer.

And the poem is directed at Israel, not Israeli policy, just Israel. So it's directed at the actual country, including plants, but not the people. And in what way does the poem address the oppression of blacks and Jews? It sounds like Mr. Cammarieri has been sharing Baraka's crack pipe.

Although that theory has been discredited, Mr. Baraka stands by the contention that Israelis were forewarned about the Sept. 11 attacks, saying there were only five Israelis among the nearly 3,000 victims.

He sounds so disappointed. Scumbag.

Correction: After the WINNER is decided, I meant to say

I feel the need to vote for Amiri Baraka about 100 times.

I just used three of my votes on him, but if I could, I would vote for him 100 times too.

See? Its a great idea!

My thoughts on selecting the Idiotarian of the Year --I'm trying to inject a little rigor into the selection process.:

(1) It can't be a person or group who's also had substantial positive effects. This rules out Harvard (home to Dershowitz, who called for tough anti-Intifada policies, and Summers, who is about as anti-Idiotarian as you can get). The Harvard English dept., maybe, but they're not a choice in the poll. This criterion also rules out the UN, since they are functioning quite well as an American pawn in our buildup to overthrowing Saddam.

(2) It shouldn't be someone who basically manifested their stupidity in the course of their daily affairs. A true Idiotarian is someone who goes out of their way to commit idiocy. This rules out the State Dept, who are, after all, just doing their jobs, however incompetently. It also rules out cartoonists like Rall and politicians like McKinney, as it is their job to weigh in on the issues and campaign for election, even if they act like retarded squirrels.

(3) The act of idiocy should be as indefensible as possible, no matter what your ideology. Even liberals should look at the winner's actions, stand up, and say, "Damn, that's just WRONG."

So, based on my three criteria, the winner is Sean Penn. He's an actor. He has no business inspecting Iraq. Yet he chose to do so, not even thinking, apparently, that the Saddam-sponsored tour he got might be a little, um, selective in what it revealed. No, Penn was going to Show Us the Truth. And after his jaunt to Baghdad (surprise! no WMD's!), the thank-you he got from Saddam was to have fake quotes stuffed in his mouth via an Iraqi press release. It takes a special kind of idiocy to pull a "Hanoi Jane" for people who don't even respect you enough to quote you accurately.

Happy Holidays everyone,
--Q2

I be Amiri Baraka
Vote for me
Or your brain be ca-ca
Don't vote fo' Powell,
He no 'blowd up da owl!
Don't vote fo' Carter
He just be a sissy-farter!
Don't vote fo Moore,
He be a fat-boy movie whore!
Don't vote fo' McKinney
Ize be tryin' to $%^& that ninny!
Don't vote fo' Gore
(Did I already use dat bit 'bout da whore?!?)
Don't vote fo' Rall
He be my b!tch-boy gal!
I ain't never won no Nobel,
So them mutha$%^&rz can go ta Hell!
Don't be voting fo' the United Nationshuns,
Dumb brother leadin' even dumber Kaw-kaz-junz!
Don't be votin' fo' that nosy Babs,
Ugly b!tch give me da crabs!
Don't you vote for none other of them,
'Cuz my light bulb be really dim!
So all y'all, don't ya blow it,
Vote fo' me, da Jersey iggnunt poet!

(Do I gets me a cash prize iffen I win?!? DAG!!!)

The poet laureate of the NEWARK SCHOOL DISTRICT! My God, is there no end to the lunacy in the Garden State? Once again the abused taxpayers will be footing the bill.

Zulubaby, you are so right, Cammarieri's statements regarding "Who Blew Up America" are complete bullshit.
Baraka is a sleazy racist and anti-semite, but he is also a darling of the Left. Accordingly, his disgusting rants are rewarded with public sector paychecks.

It also rules out cartoonists like Rall and politicians like McKinney.

I disagree. It isn't Rall's JOB to mock 9/11 widows as a publicity stunt. I don't think Jew-bashing was what McKinney's supporters had in mind when they elected her. At least it wasn't on her platform.

The New York times didn't have to make its entire damn paper the editorial page, and torch a long legacy of semi-responsible reporting.

And the poet-lauerate of New Jesey doesn't have to write his own personal protocols of the the elders of zion to be relevant.

All of these people CHOSE to go out their way to be idiotarians, and may even be WORSE because they abused their platforms.

Who are the nine tools on that advisory board?

All of these people CHOSE to go out their way to be idiotarians, and may even be WORSE because they abused their platforms.

And whose lies and conspiracy theories are being validated by the NJ School District.

This is from the Derb, John Derbyshire:

Somebody Stuck It To New Jersey Taxpayers
by John Derbyshire

Who took help from Jews when getting his scam started
Then turned and spat on them when a cozy sinecure came along
Who praises despots, wreckers of nations
Murderers, despoilers of innocence — Kabila, Lumumba, Lenin, Che
Who thinks Nkrumah was a benefactor of anyone but himself
Who believes the most transparent driveling anti-Semitic lies about 9/11
Who thinks "Tom Ass" is a really, really funny way to write "Thomas"
Who mau-maued the governor
Who put one over on the guilty white liberals at those fool Art Councils
Who's an illiterate moron
So stupid he can't even keep his racism straight...

[Link: www.nationalreview.com...]

Both Mr. Derbyshire and clutch are poets who are well out of Baraka's league (I know, that's faint praise indeed and I apologize ... Bobo the wonderchimp is a better poet than Amiri).

I am so pissed off about this! What an absolute disgrace. It's frightening how en vogue anti-Semitism is now. Those nine members of the advisory board should be ashamed of themselves, but no, they did this in defiance of the state of NJ! Sickening.

Nice one Jheka. Makes me feel slightly better.

Re: #21
I have access to 40 different computers at work (40 IP addresses) and so could vote 200 times for my hero, Jean Chretien. But really, why bother? The Moral Vacuum isn't worth it.

Don't tell the trolls are starting early tonight. Please. Where are all these stinkers coming from?

Charles,

When is the cut-off for the semi-finals, and when will the finals start?

I guess I am now openly campaigning on Mr. Baraka's behalf. Who woulda thunk it?

If he wins, I suggest as his prize having to spend every waking moment of every day transcribing the collected works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dunne, Blake, Poe, Whitman, Homer, Hughes and other great poets on a blackboard in a stuffy classroom with a very small piece of chalk until next year's winner is announced.

Maybe it will teach him something about poetry. At the very least, it'll keep the smug little hate-pimple out of trouble for a year.

#83:
Chretien appears to be safely in the top 10. Be original! Be bold! Vote Baraka, vote often!

Baraka it is. In my book, an ultimate idiotarian combines evil sliminess and terminal stupidity. So, the malicious fuckwit fits the bill perfectly.

I was truly surprised and dismayed at how long the list is, especially when they all deserve the award. But some are truly odious. I am especially ashamed at the Hollywood celebrities, who by virtue of their fame think they somehow qualify as great thinkers and social reformers. I have loathed Hanoi Jane for many years, and now I can add Harry Belafonte, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn to that ever-growing list of those who have betrayed the very country that made it possible for them to be so obscenely rich. I absolutely refuse to support them anymore. I urge everyone to boycott these people.

Charles, some ideas for the voting:

--In the finals, each finalist should get a photo and a brief synopsis of his/her/its misdeeds of the past year. This could be really funny if done right.

--How about another award for the ANTI-Idiotarian of the year, the person/group that has done the most to fight the spread of idiotarianism and uphold common sense? Nominees would include the Iranian student protesters, Donald Rumsfeld, Oriana Falacci (sp?), the guy who caught the Beltway Sniper, Mark Steyn, Joel Mowbray, you yourself (of course), and so on. Might help take our minds away from all the negativity that the Idiotarian nominees generate. The awards itself should be named for Todd Beamer (sp?), and called the "Beamies", to counter the "Fiskies".

Just my $0.02,

Q2

Still openly lobbying for my alma mater, Concordia. Not that the whole school is stupid, mind you . . . I got a damn good education in the business faculty. But the idiotarians in the CSU and their supporters are beyond belief.

Vote Gaza U!

Heavens to Elizabeth, what is this poor festering cheese of a planet coming to when Jane Fonda is at the bottom of a list of terror-worshipping dumbasses?

Well, I didn't vote for her either --- she rates a sort of Idiotarian Emeritus status, i.e., people no longer worth the effort it takes to cuss at their witless carcasses.

She belongs to the ages, now ... to the future Paleontologists of Stupidity. Meanwhile, a new generation of dunderheads has arisen, ready to expand the pure theoretical limits of cretinism.

Vote Baraka, vote often!

I'm with you! I hear you!

Wow -- this is tough stuff. Some thoughts, inspired by my friend -- may I call you my friend? -- Ntropy, and others, such as my friend Q -- may I call you my friend? -- who've tried to winnow down a list of astonishing a*holes down to manageable proportions.

I wish I could vote for all, but here's who I won't vote for, and why.

I'd vote for Hanoi Jane Fonda Vadim Hayden Turner (am I missing a husband?), except that Imshin says she actually visited Israeli hospitals to see the victims of the murdering islamikazes. So she's an idiot, to be sure, but others on the list are so much worse.

Maureeen Dowd is silly, but she's not an Idiotarian. She was actually quite funny at times when she attacked the 92-94 jackass-in-chief (who should've been nominated over Carter; both are idiots, but slicky boy fouled the office in ways that Carter never dreamed). Not in the class here.

Jesse Jackson, sure, but wouldn't that be overkill? After all, he's been a perennial favorite for 3+ decades. Always a bridesmaid, Jesseh, never a bride. Oh, sorry -- didn't mean to bring up weddings, which suggests children, which. Uh.

Trent Lott: an empty, pathetic helmet of hair. An idiot, to be sure, but Idiotarian of the Year? Not with this competition.

Thus far I'm leaning toward Amiri Le Roi Baraka Jones. Let me explain. I'm still fuzzy on what I consider the real criteria that distinguish one Idiot from another. Carter is an idiot, but not a joke. Jones, though, is truly ridiculous. Derb's parody, and the brilliant one by Clutch, don't quite compare with the original. A man who could pass himself off a "poet" and scam the gov of New Jersey -- uh, forget that -- that man may well be the biggest idiot around. But let me ponder.

Oh, and permit me to say hello to my "friend" Zulubaby, whom I respect and admire. Lekker, girl.

John Boanerges (#94)

Thus far I'm leaning toward Amiri Le Roi Baraka Jones

I think I love you. Jheka's going to love you too.

Howzit! :-)

Speaking of the last minute entrant - Idiotarian Senator Murray from Washington (Also Home of Idiotarian Representative McDermott), her press office has offered for immediate release:
Sen. Murray Statement on America's Role in the World

Having a challenging and thoughtful discussion about America's future reflects the best values of a free democracy;

To sensationalize and distort in an attempt to divide does not

For Immediate Release: December 20, 2002

Osama Bin Laden is an evil terrorist who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. Bringing him to justice, dismantling his terrorist network, and protecting our nation from further attacks must continue to be our government's highest priorities, and I continue to vigorously support those efforts in the Senate.

While we continue to search every corner of the globe to destroy Osama bin Laden and his al Quaeda network, should we also consider the longer-term issue of what else can be done to improve relations with all nations including the Arab world?

How else can we bring America's values to those who do not understand us?

And while there are some whose hearts and minds may never be won, should we try to reach those who can?

The White House believes that we can do more, and has devoted an entire department to improving America's image in the Arab world.

Having a challenging and thoughtful discussion about America's future reflects the best values of a free democracy; to sensationalize and distort in an attempt to divide does not.

While there are some on the extreme fringes of society who try to exploit fear and uncertainty for political gain, there are many more who understand that the best value of our democracy is the freedom to think and to secure a better future.

So it is still all America's Fault........

Let's keep those votes coming.......

Dhimmi Carter he's our man, leader of our nation.
Stuck his finger up his a*s and called it ... ?

- rationalization
- masturbation
- a morally superior occasion
- equivocation

...

ZuluLekker (please do correct my Afrikaans if I'm screwing up here), don't tempt me.

More thoughts on this award. Nominations are too broad and can be grossly unfair. For instance: I didn't vote for Gore and wouldn't, but he's a smart and decent man, and I'd never name him in the same sentence as, oh, Ramsey Clark, who is an utter freak, and almost certainly needs to be committed. (Lawyers out there, especially, know what I mean.) Same with MoDo; she's often vicious and bubble-headed, but she shouldn't be in the running with "Adam Shapiro." Methinks we shouldn't group good and patriotic Americans with jackasses like "Chomsky."

And shouldn't the IoY be someone who is not just stupid (Streisand), or wrong on the relevant issues (Dowd; Mandela), or even evil (Arafish; Saddam), but someone who is foolish and comical?

Which leaves me with Penn, LeRoi/Amiri, Jackson, and McKinney. To my lights: Jackson, again, can't be a fair candidate -- he's been foul and ridiculous since at least 1968, and probably deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award. Penn: well, I still remember "Ridgemont High," so I'll cut him some slack. McKinney. Wow. She's well deserving. But then there's our favorite "poet." Mainly because the "poem" makes me chuckle, and the parodies even more. I'm still leaning Le Roi's way -- pronounced, BTW, "luh rwah", if you remember grade school French -- but let's see.

#96 & #94
Yup, I've taken up the flag of Le Roi and I welcome all allies. Actually, I'm engaged in an interesting exercise. I've started a Baraka thread on Democratic Underground and the reactions are, well, let's just say that they're not as unanimous as they are here. That being said, there are at least a couple of people over there who are completely reasonable when it comes to Le Roi. I expected to be flamed worse for attacking the great artiste.

I find it interesting to see how much sense you can make over there without being kicked off. It's like a game of ideological/intellectual chicken.

#18 -

The 2nd Mandela has magically morphed into ... Al Gore.

Wow, I can't wait to see what happens to the 37th Mandala.

Nice Clutch :)

To me, "idiotarian" implies some one so dim they don't know a lot of the time what they are doing is horribly, horribly wrong. Fonda, while not worthy of the gold, would beat Baraka by a mile. That's because I think he knows exactly what he's doing. Evil racist bastard.

Penn's (and other celebs') idiocy could be overlooked to some degree. A guy as respected in diplomatic circles as, well, me, or my plumber, or that guy walking his dog across the street, goes to Iraq to speak his mind. The guilt here lies with the "objective professional news" media that treat any of us doing such a thing (if it advances their agenda) as newsworthy. Symbiosis I guess.

But when these celebs fully expect the circus, idiotarian could apply. I just wish one of the 3 or 4 decent Americans that are in Hollywood would head to Iraq for a similar mission. Play the bleeding-heart dictator-felating role to the hilt. Then when all the cameras are rolling, go on a huge rant about how Saddam is a traitor to Islam and an Arab knock-off of a Korean knock-off of a Chinese knock-off of a Russian madman. Then the celebs (that used to serve in our armed forces with pride in times of war) could mean it when braying about their courage in spouting their politics.

On reflection, I haven't paid enough tribute to Mr. Clutch. Dude, if you're out there: know that we mere pagans find this to be *brilliant* stuff. You know you're encountering a genius when you read the first three lines:

I be Amiri Baraka
Vote for me
Or your brain be ca-ca

I encourage all to read more. It's really great.

More thoughts on some candidates.

Patty Murray: just plain stupid, as in dumb, as in retarded (as we used to say in grade school; forgive me if I'm transgressing). Not quite an Idiotarian; more just an idiot.

Ramsey Clark: needs serious help (paging Dr. Freud!, for starters). I'm no shrink (though I play one on TV), but it's pretty apparent that this dude has some issues re his father (who was a harmless, if thoroughly mediocre, Justice), and other repressed influences.

Phil Donahue: is he still around? I remember "Donahue," from probably 20 years ago, but that's like "The Gong Show." Phil, alive? Chuck? You too? I'll be danged.

Harold Pinter: his plays suck big time. Nuff said.

Which leaves us . . . where?

Moore. He is destroying the youth of America and Canada with his lies. He must be stopped. Vote for Mike Moore-on!!!!!

Done with exams,
McGill Jordan

Model4, forgive me for not responding earlier. (It's my crush on Zulu.) You're absolutely right, cept that you misunderestimate -- yes, that was deliberate; I *like* that word -- folks like Amiri "The King" Jones. Or misoverestimate them. He's so absurd and comical, that he's . . . . I don't know.

On a more serious note, the fact that our "who, who" jackass manages to make a living is, well, pathetic.

Mau-mau-ing the Flak Catchers. Highly recommended.

I fear, sometimes, for our magnificent republic.

But then I log on to LGF.

Bless you all.

Three for Murray, one for Chomsky, one for Rall. Murray currently holds a seat in the US Senate. The others on the list are just has-beens and cranks.

Wait! Five votes now? Thanks for making it even harder Charles :-P. One question - do we start over now? I used one earlier.

I need to be able to cast more votes.

5 votes is simply not enough for Cynthia McKinney, alone! - Let alone the other worthies.

I bet the "New York Times" selection would get a lot more votes if it were simply "Howell Raines".

Incidentally, if you add all the Nobel Peace Prize Committee votes to Carter's, his lead becomes pretty commanding...

Washington Times Editorial Page Lists it's Nobles and Knaves for the Year

Not to confuse the LGF vote - but some more ideas and perhaps a few reminders of how many idiotarians are around.

Thanks all!

I blame my muse on too much Mad Magazine as a child and too much National Lampoon as a young adult. Throw in a few parody albums (like those Twisted Christmas ones) and you get a warped muse like mine...

So many names...so few votes! How to decide, there are so many types of idiots. Useful idiots, evil idiots, stupid idiots, silly idiots...

Hey
don't forget

Anglo-Irish poet

TOM PAULIN

and

German chancellor

GERHARD SCROEDER

Ramzi Clark

That's it. I just wanted to post how I will henceforth refer to him in the future.

Hey, whoever didn't vote yet. Keep in mind that some are not doing it out of stupidity, but out of malice and/or self interest. I think that the idiot in "idiotarian" implies stupidity rather than malice.

Usually, I follow the adage that one must never assume to maliciousness what can be attributed to stupidity, but some of these guys do know better, and yet act for the enemy. There's a difference between the likes MoDo the gullible moral midget and Sean "violent only in the US" Penn, and the ilk of Kofi, who know about massacres in real time and didn't bat an eyelash, and "Sellout" Scott Ritter.

The real "permanent" owners of this award is the ROP.
Maybe we should stop calling it the ROP and call it what they refer to themselves (ie Slaves of Allah) or SOA for short. This phrase contrasts nicely with "the Free World" or TFW.

c'mon Michael I know you can do it, don't let Jimmy beat ya.

er..........Charles.......:{

i forgot how i voted.....can we not count those votes 'cause i want to begin again..........:}

(ahem) Charles, you know you could have charged a $1 donation per vote, no cap. Doh!

Or maybe $1 per vote beyond the 5 free ones, added manually to the tally?

Model4 - bringing you yesterday's great ideas today. I predict this "Internet" thing is really gonna catch on.

Terje Roed-Larsen (Norwegian) has only 11 votes and it's a shame. He's Kofi's right hand man in the Middle East and did his level best to screw Israel last spring. At Jenin and elsewhere. He's a very dangerous man who actually wields some power to do evil as opposed to many of the talking heads who top the list.

Terje Roed-Larsen (Norwegian) has only 11 votes and it's a shame

Now he has 13.... heh heh heh.....

So many idiotarians to vote for, so little time...

So many deserving candidates! I went with Chomsky, Baker, Trent Lott, the Nobel committee and Jaggi Singh, all of whom should damned well know better (especially Singh, who is using the courts of an open and liberal society for his own purposes and at the same time condemning that society).

I'd like to cast a contrarian vote, though, for MKs Michael "bomb West Bank villages from the air" Kleiner of Herut and Baruch Marzel of Yisrael Beiteinu, for giving Zionism a bad name. They aren't real Zionists - they're idiotarian Zionists.

How about a write-in vote for the Guardian?

marymary

Heres an idea for the award.

Sorry, folks.
But besides the two names I've suggested above, TOM PAULIN and GERHARD SCHROEDER, I think it would be unforgivably unfair to ommit two other absolutely worthy candidates; here they are:

1) PETER HANSEN
the comissioner-general of UNRWA

and, why not,

2) UNRWA
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Sorry again:
I had not seen Scroeder was there already.

You know it's been a special year when France can't crack the top ten (and not for lack of trying, lord knows).

I'm wondering why there needs to be such a competitive, militaristic system of "top ten." Shouldn't we reward all participants for achievement instead of pitting one against another? This reeks of the illegal and discriminatory games of dodgeball and tag (which have thankfully been eliminated in our public schools). We need a system wherein everyone wins, not a capitalist colonialist oppressive cowboy system like the one Charles has instituted.

Seriously, why not make a percentage threshold to be crossed instead of a "top ten?" What about 2.5%, which is about what Ralph Nader polled in 2000?

Some suggested guidelines for voting:

* vote for someone who has been a consistent idiotarian all year, not someone like Murray who just made an outrageous comment last week.

* vote for someone who has been especially idiotarian this year. LGF may end up calling attention to personalities or organizations which the general public doesn't already have a firm opinion about. Noam Chomsky and Jane Fonda have been idiotarians for 30 years, and are already a joke to many people. Voting for them may feel good, but in terms of making an impact they are wasted votes. (I would also put Baraka and Babs in this category, albeit at a lower level.)

* vote for someone who has the most influence to do a great deal of harm. Larsen and Patten are doing much more harm than Sean Penn.

Just my $ . 02

PS Charles, when is the first round of voting over?

My votes were:

Chris Patten
Terje Roed-Larsen
Indymedia
Mona Baker
Nobel Peace Prize Committee

My criteria were:

They influence many people and their actions do harm on a global scale.

They are not idiots who are dismissed by all but a lunatic fringe, or actors who nobody expects to be political geniuses anyway - they are intelligent, well-meaning social activists who think they are doing the right thing - that's why they are trusted by so many and why they are so scary. (Mona and Indymedia less so, but they are still influencing many people.) (I am using Mona as a symbol of "all academic boycott of Jews.")

They have long histories of self-righteous bigotry in the name of social justice.

Chomsky would fit in this category, but he deserves emeritus status. Larsen really needs to be pushed into the top 10. He is such a slimebag. He is UNRWA's constant defender and apologist.

Incoming Instalanche on the poll...

#132 Yehudit

Your suggestions about how to vote seem pretty good. Following your advice, I'd say that Peter Hansen has been more dangerous than Terje Larsen and, among institutions and organizations, the most influentially evil around the world has been, in my opinion, the BBC.
On the other hand, it is curious that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee's work has been as bad as the Literary Prize Committee's has been good, giving last year's prize to Naipaul, the first important author to show the ugly face of islamism, and this year's to Imre Kertész, a Holocaust survivor, something quite important to do right know in synagogue burning Europe.

I was in a forgiving mood and gave Hanoi Jane a pass, but then she fouls it up again. Should'eve known. (Though permit to say, pace Zulu, those fake breasts, though fake, are quite impressive.)

Jenin Jane is a total flipping, repellant, stupid, idiot. Please rid her of us, please.

Then there's the good news. Hooah, boys and girls. We will win this war. We will.

I think Charley Reese should be on the list for the Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year. Read his column provided here in the link from Arab News. [Link: www.arabnews.com...]

John Boanerges (#135)

What did you expect, that she would visit the Israeli victims and ignore the poor, poor Palestinians? Like hell.

(Though permit to say, pace Zulu, those fake breasts, though fake, are quite impressive.)

Please explain what that means!?

The good news that you posted made me feel quite emotional for some reason.

Here's how I voted:

Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan

Um, where's George W. Bush? I can't think of anyone more dangerously stupid than him.

#139 elrobbo

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