Saturday, December 10, 2011

Most Evil Person of the Year Award?

Reader MyLessThanPrimeBeef inquired after having a NC Most Evil Person of the Year Award, and Doc Holiday was enthusiastic:

Smashing concept! I see member votes, contributions, discussions, videos, pixs, stories, editorials and a big build-up, possibly door prizes, publicity, snaxs, parties and a great summation of who had done the most damage to the global economy … best role by a central banker, best supporting role by a Greek Prim Minister, Best financial illusions, best use of a MEFO Covered Bond by a German, Best Italian bankruptcy, Best French Connection, Largest Chunk Of Cash Looted or Burned … great lists that could go infinitely, as we continue our exploration of the black hole this drama is played out in!

Doc is correct in that this is a target rich environment. When I ran the idea by some politically plugged in readers, a lively conversation ensued.

Don’t get your hopes up regarding a poll (that takes more organizing than I can muster right now) but I am interested in getting your views as to who you think is the worst miscreant of 2011.

Topics: Curiousities, Social values

Email This Post Email This Post Posted by Yves Smith at 3:53 am

214 Comments » Links to this post

214 Comments:

  • CB says:
    December 10, 2011 at 3:57 am

    Let me be the first: Obama. It’s so hard to choose just one, but Obama does it for me.

    Honestly, there are so many (un)worthy contenders, I look forward to the suggestions.

    • Jane says:
      December 10, 2011 at 4:12 am

      CB – that was exactly my thought, even before I saw your post. That hopey-changey thing hasn’t been working for a while now. When I heard that he had explicitely requested that US Citizens and legal residents be included amongst those that could be ‘detained’ by the military if ‘suspected’ of supporting Al Queda, The Taliban or their ‘associates’ under the rules of The New National Defense Authorization Act, that was the final act of tyranny. It’s as if the government is spoiling for a real revolution. There’s a strange underlying mood spreading across the country, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

      • CB says:
        December 10, 2011 at 4:34 am

        A couple of interesting posts:

        http://my.firedoglake.com/fflambeau/2009/12/07/obamas-smoking-gun-his-hamilton-project-speech-shows-his-links-to-goldman-entitlement-tuts-part-1/

        http://my.firedoglake.com/fflambeau/2009/12/07/obamas-smoking-gun-his-hamilton-project-speech-shows-his-links-to-goldman-entitlement-cuts-part-2/

        The second makes perfect sense without the first, if you want to skip ahead to the whodunit part.

        • LucyLulu says:
          December 10, 2011 at 5:50 am

          The articles don’t mention that Alan Krueger, Obama’s current chief economic advisor, also has long-standing ties with the Hamilton Foundation.

          At the UN Climate Change meeting in Durban this past week, there will calls to kick the US out for its unwillingness to make meaningful binding agreements to reduce emissions over the next decade. In the last two decades the US has made dramatic improvements (but due to our energy consumption levels, we need to make more) however so this is being viewed as a policy shift. African nations in particular are denouncing American practices that they see as extortive and causing widespread poverty locally…… increased flooding and natural disasters causing displacement of local farmers while foreign (i.e. Anglo-Saxon) investors swoop in to buy the land cheap. Obama is not a progressive beneath his public veneer.

          • rotter says:
            December 10, 2011 at 9:39 pm

            One big problem with your post. what do you mean by “Anglo Saxon”?? Do you mean “Anglohpone”(English speaking)? That would be more accuarate, not only is the US far from “Anglo Saxon” The UK is not even very Anglo Saxon anymore…but even Anglophone would be incorrect considering how much expoliting of Africa and Latin America is being done by Germany, France, Russia,China and Japan. White, Generally European heritage, however remote, does not make one “Anglo Saxon”, and Asia is not even 1% of 1 whit(thats a scientific measurement) Anglo Saxon.

          • Harley Warren says:
            December 11, 2011 at 12:03 am

            Could someone explain this to me. Are we talking about the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institute? I always thought they were fairly left wing/liberal/progressive or is this a part of the smoke screen?

            The FDL articles left an even worst taste in my mouth regarding Obama.

            I wish the US could scrape Obama and cronies off of the bottom of it’s shoe.

            Ok I’m settled, my vote is for Obama as most evil.

            Noble Peace Prize my arse.

          • Harley Warren says:
            December 11, 2011 at 2:20 am

            Never mind, I get it. I usually do better research….

            Still, Obama should get the prize…

      • Dan B says:
        December 10, 2011 at 8:12 am

        As Oprah said, “HE’S THE ONE!”

        • peony says:
          December 10, 2011 at 3:26 pm

          I feel it too. t is a sense of foreboding, like the stillness before a devastating wind. Storm clouds are gathering. The air is electric.

      • aletheia33 says:
        December 10, 2011 at 9:29 am

        “There’s a strange underlying mood spreading across the country, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable.”

        i would seriously like to hear you expand on this. such intuitions on the part of people with sensitive antennae are often the very first sign of what’s to come, and at the same time very hard to articulate. your attempt to do so would help us all.

    • Psychoanalystus says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:11 am

      Obummer was first that came to my mind too. I can’t believe I actually voted for that war criminal. Next year, I’m going all the way Michelle Bachmann… well, not in that “way”… I prefer younger chicks, really…LOL

      • LucyLulu says:
        December 10, 2011 at 7:41 am

        Hey, watch your mouth, child!

        Is is a time for a release of The Graduate again?

        • mansoor h. khan says:
          December 10, 2011 at 8:22 am

          LucyLulu,

          Now that is a good movie.

          Two points about the movie (as an indian american that i observed):

          A. Man America was so cool already by then (clean beautiful burbs and beautiful highways and university at Berkeley, color tv, etc) in 1967.

          B. Innocence of Dustin Hoffman symbolizes the innocence of America. Right now America is involved with this other bad older women (like Dustin Hoffman was). The other old women symbolizes the 1% (the current bad leadership).

          And more points (in general):

          C. God willing america will be guided to shed the current bad leadership and get on the path of being an example of what is good and just for the rest of the world.

          D. I moved to America at the age of 13 and honestly I feel that there is a lot less racial (tribal) discrimination here than was where I came from. Sure, it is far from perfect.

          E. Even after 9/11 events as a muslim I tell people that if same thing had happened to us (in Pakistan) we would have probably killed many, many members of that group living peacefully among us in the streets.

          F. So, I pray that America gets back on track (and like Dustin Hoffman did in the movie– i think her name was Elaine, and that ending with the bride in the bus scene is so cool).

          Mansoor H. Khan

          • Psychoanalystus says:
            December 10, 2011 at 9:29 am

            Hey, can you set me up with one of them 1% chicks? Say… Paris Hilton?…

            As far as praying for America to come to its senses, forget it. Why ruin a great show. Just kick back in front of your 70 inch plasma screen, and enjoy the spectacle… but make sure you got a place to run to when this place crumbles… say, New Zealand or Australia.

          • mansoor h. khan says:
            December 10, 2011 at 2:23 pm

            Psychoanalystus,

            well. praying can’t hurt. I just want my lord to NOT give me such a harsh test (crumbling of our society/chaos).

            Even though the quran says that we will all be tested (but I can ask for test not too harsh).

            Mansoor H. Khan

    • Ep3 says:
      December 10, 2011 at 8:45 am

      Here here. Obama

    • rafael bolero says:
      December 10, 2011 at 9:34 am

      Right there, right away: Obama. Let’s cut the slack some shit. Uncle Tom, with twin Koch-Holder.

    • psychohistorian says:
      December 10, 2011 at 11:42 am

      Maybe this is piling on, I haven’t read all the comments yet but I am in agreement that our fascist in chief that does just enough to keep the hopium hook in the public’s jaw is far and away the number one pick for me.

    • BR says:
      December 10, 2011 at 1:27 pm

      Obama

    • Maju says:
      December 10, 2011 at 8:11 pm

      Obama is too lame to be “the most evil”. Geithner is a much better candidate. Not to mention he has so low ethics that he is in governments with both parties alike, carefully managing the show from the semi-shadow (as any good super-villain).

      But even Geithner is too political to be the true black hand, so I propose Lloyd Craig Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

      • emptyfull says:
        December 11, 2011 at 10:20 pm

        Agreed. Geitner is where a lot of the stench that pervades this administration originates. When I’m feeling generous to Obama, I feel like he’s just fallen in love with his very own Iago.

        But I think this site will lose some credibility if it gives the President an “evil” award. That’s easy, is done all over the web on marginal blogs, requires little compelling intellectual thought and might pigeonhole the site as a place where everyday Democrats aren’t welcome. We NEED regular dems. to come here and see what’s being done in their names.

        A more compelling question is: “Who (this year) has illustrated the corruption and moral perversion of the rising oligarchic system most vividly?” Of course, we don’t really know the crimes of the worst of the worst — I’m willing to bet that Jamie Dimon has more blood on his hands than we can imagine, but I can’t proove that.

        But the point is that the choice should be well reasoned, backed by evidence, educational for those who still don’t get it, and something that Salon or even Krugman could link to. Bigger audience, more people getting it=successful new feature. Make it sloppy or generic and you’re just a fringy Keith Olberman that most people will dismiss with ad hominems.

  • Jessica says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:00 am

    This poses the same quandary as a baseball MVP award? Do you vote for the one who did the most damage or the one who made the largest difference in a negative way?
    The one person who I think made the most negative difference has to be Barack Obama. The Best Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Award should simply be renamed in his honor. And his name should be used as a unit of measure for making a negative difference. For example, “Yes, Merkel has been harmful, but the damage she has done can’t be more than 0.4 or 0.5 Obamas.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 4:16 am

      Oh, I really like that unit of measure idea. Based on a ratio. Brilliant.

    • PaulArt says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:37 am

      Brilliant!

    • Glenn Condell says:
      December 10, 2011 at 5:22 pm

      Sounds like Matt Taibbis Supreme Court of Assholedom where they have a 10000 pt scale, with your Pol Pots and Hitlers vying for top spot. David Sirota is one of the judges.

      Obama gets my vote, in a crowded field, principally because his position makes him Enabler in Chief for the rest of them and because none of us ever invested any hope let alone expectation in the others but even those of us who saw thru him early harbored a desperate, quixotic desire to see him turn on his handlers and take the reins on our behalf.

      History’s greatest disappointment, and perhaps it’s most successful grifter.

  • Jessica says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:02 am

    And we could have a pool and bet on how many comments this thread draws. It will be a lot I think. Even though it is the weekend.

  • As promised says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:22 am

    I am failing to understand the Obama-votes. To me (and many others) it would have to be Eric Cantor. Most cold-hearted SOB without a doubt, trying to hold FEMA funding hostage – low low low.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 4:31 am

      I understand your Eric Cantor vote. I still vote for Obama. It is hard to choose, but we’ve got to buckle down, here. No shirking.

    • Jessica says:
      December 10, 2011 at 5:01 am

      Please forgive me if you are a Republican, but let me put it this way: a vicious Republican is dog bites man. A Democratic leader, especially one cloaked in the mantle of Civil Rights who took office with so much hope to at least reverse the excesses of the Bush era, to serve as the point person for debt-based warfare of Biblical style and to make those excesses seem normal, that is man bites dog. Or at least it used to be.
      Besides, the FEMA money is chump change compared to the trillions Team Obama funneled to the financial malefactors. Or the uncountable amount of well-being lost to the unemployment, foreclosures, foregone medical care, and insecurity they created.
      I will grant that Cantor deserves some kind of Even Nasty to Widows and Orphans Award for utter classlessness.

      • JTFaraday says:
        December 10, 2011 at 7:14 am

        Agree with the point that Cantor’s claim to fame is a lack of class. He takes the cake in that category in 2011, even surrounded by the usual pack of snarling dogs.

        OTOH, Obama has been high on the evil list for several years running. (It’s almost too easy). Is there a case for his being particularly evil in 2011 specifically?

      • Psychoanalystus says:
        December 10, 2011 at 7:15 am

        Wow! “Man bites dog”… I hope it’s not this dog’s friend:

        http://rt.com/news/yakutian-hachiko-stray-dog-429/

      • Rcoutme says:
        December 10, 2011 at 8:11 am

        Umm…Bush began the ‘funnel all cash to banks’ idea with TARP. I am not defending Obama (or really Geithner and Larry Summers) since his advisors led him to our current catastrophe, but let’s put blame where it deserves to be. Meanwhile, I’m still considering for THIS YEAR’s most evil. The shredding of the Constitution (via congress and Obama) loom heavily in my sights…

        • lambert strether says:
          December 10, 2011 at 3:28 pm

          TARO: Wrong on two counts.

          1. TARP’s $700 billion was trivial by the side of the trillions orchestrated before TARP by the Treasury and the Fed, who might as well have been seamless between administrations.

          2. TARP was when the bailouts entered public consciousness, serving both to reveal the nature of the bailouts, conceal their amounts and beneficiaries, and permit the later mis- and disinformation campaigns like “They paid it all back,” and “the American people profited” and so forth.

          TARP would not have passed without D votes, and in particular without Obama, who whipped the CBC to get it passed.

      • MontanaMaven says:
        December 10, 2011 at 10:57 am

        Perfect response. I was trying to think of a description for Cantor and “Nasty to Widows and Orphans” or the Ebenezer Scrooge Award seems to fit. I see him as a minor demon like most of the mediocre satraps in Congress.

      • Walter Wit Man says:
        December 10, 2011 at 1:52 pm

        Agreed.

        A sheep in wolf’s clothing is more evil than the wolf himself!

        • Walter Wit Man says:
          December 10, 2011 at 2:43 pm

          That should be a wolf in sheep’s clothing is worse than a lone wolf.

          Or something. Jeesh. See how it gets confusing with the wolf starts putting on clothes?

      • Blunt says:
        December 10, 2011 at 11:50 pm

        Jessica,

        My memory says that the bailouts were done prior to the 2008 election and were the handiwork of one Henry Paulson, ex. Goldman and then Treasury Secretary under fascist by heritage Dubya. Also that under the bailout legislation Paulson’s decisions to place credit in the hands of his ex-bank and to usefully give all sorts of people inside knowledge of govt arrangements and decisions was ll pre-Obama.

        I could be wrong and that could have just been a mid-Autumn nights dream in 2008, but that’s my recall.

        Not that Obama and Geithner and Summers haven’t bolloxed things all to hell themselves, but I prefer giving credit where credit is due. Apparently I shold also give credit to Faux news and other Repug mouthpieces for making sure folks like you actually believe the bailouts had nothing to do with the evil empire’s last Repug administration.

        • Fiver says:
          December 11, 2011 at 2:45 am

          Obama was all for the bailouts prior to the election, and said a number of times while campaigning it was necessary for Congress to “step up”. You’ll recall that McCain took a very short sniff at being against (which just happened to be the overwhelming public response), but by the time he’d “returned to Washington to deal with the crisis”, i.e., for the Congressional votes, he’d dumped any memory of that silly notion. Obama fired his campaign economic advisors and handed the keys to the banks the day after the election.

          By not doing what was vital to undo the massive damage done under Bush, he has made everything just incredibly worse – to the point where it’s now an open question as to whether there will even be another chance.

          • Blunt says:
            December 11, 2011 at 10:23 am

            Not disagreeing with a bit of that. Just requesting that we all manage to remain sane enough to recall that Henry Paulson, Dick Cheney, & GWB authorized those horrid bailouts “to save the country.”

            I think that of itself should have told us all what was up: “saving the country” means saving “high-roller CEOs and their bidnizez. And that’s true whether you’re GWB, Obama or Newt gin-Grinch or a commenter at NC.

            That McCain, Obama, Frank, Dodd, evryone in DC managed to see the import of that and top act accordingly simply tells us how far we have to go. Not a one of the runners for Prez or anyone who isn’t to the fore at this point was/is against having a government of, for and by those who count and pays the most money.

            Thus, if NC commenters are looking for the chief evil-doer they’d better look somewhere beyond the various whore and puppets and get to some meat real soon.

    • briansays says:
      December 10, 2011 at 11:11 am

      To paraphrase
      As I have quoted Julia Roberts from an early episode of Miami Vice

      I prefer to date hoods (or for that matter not give this award to a Republican). They are more honest in their treachery.

      • EH says:
        December 10, 2011 at 1:05 pm

        Hah! Listening to NPR as I woke up this morning, for no reason in particular I started thinking of Newt as the most honest politician in that all of his foibles are on display and he lies, dissembles, and flip-flops with impunity. I don’t know if that kind of treachery deserves reward, however.

      • Doug Terpstra says:
        December 10, 2011 at 2:10 pm

        Exactly right, Eric Cantor is WYSIWYG, a wicked oaf who doesn’t hide his boorishness. With a creepy leer, he smugly telegraphs his intent to throw widows, orphans, the homeless poor, and elderly right under the freight train. He’s Snidely Whiplash personified and damn proud of it. You know who he works for, but as a transparent minion, he’s largely ineffectual.

        It’s the ravening wolf dressed in finely-tailored wool we must be most alert to. And indubitably, Obama wins that dubious prize hands-down. We don’t need no steenkeeng poll to elect the father of lies incarnate, the great deceiver and ivy-league shyster. As the consummate false prophet mouthpiece for Wall Street’s one-percent, he is intent on destroying the republic, the commonwealth, and the middle class by stealth, when it could not be achieved by more direct assault by his hero Reagan or any of his murderous Neocon predecessors. Alas, given his comically make-believe 2012 opposition, he’s also likely to be reelected POTUS.

        • Tenney Naumer says:
          December 10, 2011 at 3:11 pm

          Why do you say Cantor is a minion — Boehmer seems to be his minion.

          I vote for Cantor and any other Republican who prefers to make Americans suffer so they think they can win in 2012.

          If you think what you see right now is evil, just wait to see the stupendous evil that will occur if the Republicans win.

        • Stratos says:
          December 10, 2011 at 5:57 pm

          His stealth and duplicity make him a much greater evil than any of the thuggish republicans. Undermining Social Security with a “payroll tax holiday” and selling it to the American electorate as a “middle class tax cut”(!) really takes the cake.

          At least most Americans could see the smirking chimp and heart-attack man a mile off. Far too many Americans (especially African Americans) are still on their knees before him with their eyes closed.

    • lambert strether says:
      December 10, 2011 at 3:21 pm

      Since when does Cantor have a tenth of Obama’s real record of accomplishment?

      • CB says:
        December 10, 2011 at 8:29 pm

        I’m not sure I get this. Explication?

      • Doug Terpstra says:
        December 10, 2011 at 9:13 pm

        As Trojan horse for the plantation masters, Obama has done 10x the damage of Cantor. The GOP has a well-deserved rep for rank hypocrisy, but Obama has raised treachery to an art form.

  • ambrit says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:01 am

    Friends;
    This is, as the lady says, a target rich environment. However, the short list consensus is spot on; Obama is a no brainer (pun intended.)

  • Charles Frith says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:06 am

    Polls are a piece of cake. Register at Poll Daddy. Set the voting list. Cut and paste the embed information in blogger html mode. http://polldaddy.com/

    • aletheia33 says:
      December 10, 2011 at 9:45 am

      let’s leave fun polls to other sites where the readers are inarticulate and their comments are not interesting. here at nc, when people choose their target, they do it with a comment that may have a point that hasn’t occurred to me or will make me laugh. i vote for the conversation!

  • rjs says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:06 am

    if you’re into an international figure, go with jean-claude trichet; when the history of europe is written, he will rank high with europe’s other great villains…

  • Max424 says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:20 am

    Yeah, I gotta go with the Droner too.

    How many countries are we Droning. Is it over one hundred? Giggle. Probably, if you believe that Droning should be broadly defined as: semi-unauthorized flyovers by little man-made flying things — that aren’t carrying munitions on that particular mission.

    But really, we’re Droning seven (if you go by Glenn Greenwald’s figures — which I do, because I’m sane). Seven fucking countries … that’s how many we are bombing at same time.

    All-time record! Beats our WWII record of three (Italy, Germany, Japan), by four (unless you count France, Algeria, Burma, China etc., which you shouldn’t … collateral, and all that), and our Vietnam record of four (Laos, Cambodia, N. Vietnam, S. Vietnam), by three.

    That’s some ballsy bombing, so Obama the Mad Bomber gets my vote as the number-one most evil, followed closely by Bush-Cheney, who got the bombing ball rolling in the first place.

    Note: If you want to lump them altogether and call them, The Co-Equal Triumvirate of Evil; I won’t argue.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 5:34 am

      Drones define Obama: dishonest and sneaky. What’s the expression, “Obama and drones, perfect together!” He do love his drones.

    • Psychoanalystus says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:26 am

      Hey Max,

      I hate to correct you, but the United States bombed a heck lot more than 3 countries during WW2. For example, it bombed most of Germany’s allies in Eastern Europe, which included virtually all of Eastern Europe. A few months ago, I was in Bucharest, Romania, and people still remember the American bombing raids. I was told that the Americans killed more Romanians during WW2 than the Germans and the Russians combined. But you won’t see that in Saving Private Ryan.

    • lambert strether says:
      December 10, 2011 at 3:23 pm

      “The droner” — I love it. Worthy of propagation!

  • Mary Clinton says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:28 am

    Obama

  • CB says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:29 am

    Here’s another possibility: Best Good Riddance Award. I was thinking Jon Corzine, but, really, it’s a field with so many players I’m going to have to give it more thought. I wish I could vote for Tom Miller but he’s still in office, and still “working out” a bank deal. Any day now.

  • FatCat! says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:17 am

    I vote myself as the most evil god of the year.
    Is that clear?!

    FatCat!

  • Skippy says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:26 am

    How about the people that got us here but, no longer center stage…. um rumyfield, chimmny, ayn b]rand, greenspend, mac’na,flame, SCrOuTUmS, et al. Its like an evil sundae with Obama as a cherry on top, as the head.

    Skippy… its evil don’t touch it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6X9KcrXHwg

    • Psychoanalystus says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:39 am

      Yeah, but those didn’t try to hide their evil.
      On the other hand, Obummer, with his silver-tongued deceitfulness and pattern of betrayal, represents a much greater level of Machiavellian evil. I have friends who think he is the Antichrist… and now, my friend, that’s evil…LOL

    • citizendave says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:00 pm

      We Americans often can’t see the forest for all the trees. The view from Down Under, or from the EU, can help us to see the whole forest. Clearly there are evil forces at work. The American Presidency is always a lightning rod for blame. The evil forces — the lightning in the storm — are attracted to the Presidency. They have access to the Presidency. When he was campaigning it was the grassroots, the People, who had access to him. His message was to the People. Upon his election, it was the Spooks and the Generals and Big Money who gained access to him. After he was elected, access to the People was cut off, by the Secret Service, by layers upon layers of bureaucracy, and by a busy schedule. The message and the orientation changed. So if you want to hate on the President, do it for the right reasons. Don’t hate him because he is evil. His fault is his strength of character, his go-along-to-get-along, his inability thus far to reconcile in his mind those opposing forces of evil versus the common goodness of the people of the USA and of the World. He has thus far failed to solve the problem.

      Blaming the President for not solving the problems we face is just like the Republicans in Congress who block his every move, and then laugh and taunt him and say “Look, the President can’t fix the economy!”

      It’s too easy to single out the President for failing to solve our problems. The real foes are all but invisible. Readers of NC should already know that. Take a cue from Yves’ post — target rich environment — many, many deserving targets.

      Try looking at the US government like it’s the Army or the Marine Corps. You can run for Congress and be idealistic, but as soon as you get into basic training or boot camp, they cut off your hair, take your civilian clothes, and issue a UNIFORM. They don’t tolerate anybody who does not “get with the program”. If you don’t go along to get along, your bill won’t get reported out of committee. The Spooks, Generals, Bankers and Financiers all explain their hidden agendas to the President and explain why he must go along with them on their various missions. I submit that the apparent lack of strength of character is not the same as resident evil. The former leaves open the hope of redemption (second term). The latter does not. Speaking only for myself, if he had evil in his heart before he was elected, I would have detected it — but I saw no evil there. He has been co-opted by the forces of evil, who are deviously clever. He needs to be rescued.

      The former VP, old shoot-your-friend-in-the-face Cheney, seems to me more like the embodiment of evil. But he’s also too easy. Blankfein, Dimon, the Masters of the Universe? The President is too easy, a small goldfish swimming in a clear glass bowl. There are great white sharks circling around nearby, all but unseen, who deserve our spotlight.

      • Neal Deesit says:
        December 10, 2011 at 4:01 pm

        “…The Spooks, Generals, Bankers and Financiers all explain their hidden agendas to the President and explain why he must go along with them on their various missions….”

        Bill Hicks has a similar take on it:

        I have this feeling man, ’cause you know, it’s just a handful of people who run everything, you know … that’s true, it’s provable. It’s not … I’m not a fucking conspiracy nut, it’s provable.

        A handful, a very small elite, run and own these corporations, which include the mainstream media. I have this feeling that whoever is elected president, like Clinton was, no matter what you promise on the campaign trail – blah, blah, blah – when you win, you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks who got you in there.

        And you’re in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down … and a big guy with a cigar goes, “Roll the film.” And it’s a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you’ve never seen before … that looks suspiciously like it’s from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, “Any questions?” “Er, just what my agenda is.” “First we bomb Baghdad.” “You got it …”

        • citizendave says:
          December 10, 2011 at 4:57 pm

          Yep, that’s pretty much the way I see it, although perhaps not so dramatic, a bit more mundane, routine. The Intelligence apparatus is vast, but kept out of the public eye by design. The bankers are secretive. (My favorite phrase from the Financial Crisis: “dark pools of liquidity”.) To the Generals, “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. Their agendas are always urgent, and they are only too happy to fight, rather than look for wimpy diplomatic solutions.

          When the commercial paper stopped moving one day — was it after Obama’s inauguration? — many of us felt like we were staring into the abyss. The economy is ultimately mental, and we imagined it disappearing in the blink of an eye. I figured the President saw it that way as well, or Tim and Larry and the Goldman alumni persuaded him we were really on the brink of disaster, and one wrong move would mean the end of life as we know it. Rather than try to reform it at that point, he decided it was best to put it back the way it was, to get clear of the crisis. Missed opportunity for reform.

          If you’ve ever had access to Top Secret Codeword information, you know how carefully the secrets are kept. We may never know the reasons for the decisions he made. It’s a fair bet that he could have vetoed any or all of the agendas presented to him, being the President of the United States of America and all. But for whatever reason he has chosen to allow them to proceed. Just say NO!

          He still has a chance to redeem himself. Have the people been clamoring for reform? Is he bucking popular will to do the bidding of the establishment? OWS is the beginning of popular demand for reform. The President can still side with the people.

        • Blunt says:
          December 11, 2011 at 12:06 am

          Agreed.

          Dimon or one of the Kocks (sp?) or someone more deeply woodworked than they are, but the president is a figurehead. He may be evil, but his strings are pulled by others.

      • Stephen Nightingale says:
        December 10, 2011 at 6:39 pm

        I’m with CitizenDave on this. When you look at the President’s background and upbringing he had to have developed an abiding distrust of the banks, through his grandmother and the whole rotten health care system, through his mother. Then the period living overseas, getting another country’s view of the United States and its evil foreign policy influences: wasn’t he in Indonesia around the time Ford and Kissinger let shit get kicked out of East Timor? No, with his background he couldn’t fail to be a passionately believing Democrat.

        I tend to think that somewhat because of the ‘inexperience’ that McYawn was banging on about, he got cornered into some Faustian bargains when picking his cabinet. Not to mention the several piles of steaming shit that GW, Hank, Cheney and assembled running dogs left him. Given enough Progressive cover, he will surely support the right Agenda. He’s certainly unlikely to veto any Democrat bills that pass across his desk. Not that any are likely.

        Most likely outcome for next November is the status quo: Obama Prez, Repub house, Dem senate, filibuster intact. If he wants to do anything for the subsequent four years it will have to be by executive orders and recess appointments.

        McConnell gets my vote for the Banality of Evil award.

        • Skippy says:
          December 10, 2011 at 8:57 pm

          Zenophilia = Phrenocon = That organization which would again change its name to Phi Kappa Tau in 1916 became a major focus of Boles’ volunteer work for the rest of his life.

          He enjoyed considerable success in business, serving on the board of directors for some 15 companies. He was president of the Investment Bankers Association. – Boles

          Skippy…sometimes rabbit holes- warrens cross streams, the ghost busters hand book says that’s a BAD THING.

      • Fiver says:
        December 11, 2011 at 3:13 am

        Sorry, but no sale:

        You could argue there are things over which he has little control. But if nothing else, he had the power to NOT do certain things. He is by any reasonable definition at the very least a war criminal.

  • Woody in Florida says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:41 am

    For anyone who makes the daily and longer term decisions that Obama does, and is able to sleep at night, must be making some amazing justifications and rationalizations. Sounds like we should maybe pray for him and his soul, while he has one. Bailing out billionaires, bombing people in countries most of us could not point to on a map, continuing policies that keep people unemployed, underwater on mortgages, etc. So very sad.

  • MIWill says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:46 am

    Preznit F*** You

  • Moneta says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:19 am

    How can a puppet be evil?

    Maybe those pulling the strings…

    • psychohistorian says:
      December 10, 2011 at 11:49 am

      The puppet masters came a close second to our fascist puppet in chief.

      What are the chance of Obama laughing the global inherited rich out of control of “western Democracies” and into rooms at the Hague?

  • ftm says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:21 am

    Obama showing desperation. I just received my second xmas card from Obama which included a direct pitch by Michelle for a large contribution.

    Hard to believe that Michelle would agree to this, how hard would it be to send the pitch a few days later.

    Obama.

    • ex-PFC Chuck says:
      December 10, 2011 at 9:25 am

      Return the postage-paid envelope with a slip of paper saying FMOSOY FMTSOM (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.)

  • Middle Seaman says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:30 am

    Shooting fish in a barrel:

    - For those of us who didn’t expect much from Obama, his trillion to the banks, wars’r'us, no help for unemployed and foreclosed tax payer (we can use the evil coin too) are way more than we suspected.

    - Ms/Mr Republican played faithfully the role of home grown terror organization (Cantor is just one of many).

    - Ms/Mr Mayor/Chief of Police that are fighting free speech with buttons and pepper spray.

    - The deficient hawks with the evil Petersen and Koch duo as the second largest home grown terror group in the country.

    - Spineless ace of the decade to the Democrats, their leaders (Obama, Pelosi, etc.) and the Blue Democrats who supported the Republicans on almost everything.

    - The media for mindlessness, corruption, stupidity, right wingary, falling on the job and uniformity Soviet Union style.

    God, haven’t we suffered enough?

  • Norman says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:35 am

    Jessica gets my vote, originality as well as community togetherness. Brava to you, this Saturday in December.

  • Skippy says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:53 am

    How about a list of credits like at the end of a movie.

    Skippy…its that long lol.

  • Dayve says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:15 am

    I nominate Mitch McConnell, obstructionist extraordinaire. Cameras catch a slick smile on a shiny, sunless face, and blindered, frightened eyes scurrying shamefully as he reads his prepared lies with relish and bravado, before pulling his head back into shell.

  • Psychoanalystus says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:36 am

    I nominate Christopher Columbus, for having discovered America.

    Now, can you top that!?…LOL

  • rafael bolero says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:42 am

    Wow, Obama is so overwhelmingly chosen, it shows he is the crux of the corruption, the Bud on the shit.

  • Alex says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:43 am

    Obama Been Laden Down With Corporate Cash gets my vote.

  • Art Eclectic says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:45 am

    What, no Grover Norquist on this list? You can blame Obama all you want but republican refusal to do anything to help the economy recover in order to damage Obama’s chances of re-election is just about as slimy as things get.

    • citizendave says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:09 pm

      Word!

    • lambert strether says:
      December 10, 2011 at 3:31 pm

      You can’t blame Republicans for acting like Republicans.

      But you can blame Obama for turning into one of them.

      • John Emerson says:
        December 10, 2011 at 7:04 pm

        You have to blame Republicans for being Republicans. You just can’t be surprised at what they do, or expect anything different, and you’re wasting your time if you whine about what they’re doing.

        Norquist is more important than any single Congressperson of either party, and he’s one of the worst of the Republicans too.

        • Helen says:
          December 11, 2011 at 2:46 pm

          Ding ding!

          Obama touches nerves because he hasn’t met (unrealistic) expectations. PSA to future centrist candidates: when your base starts believing the lies (Socialist! Liberal! Leftist!) that the opposition tells in an effort to hinder your election, you have to start early and work consistently to clarify your brand and your goals.

          Obama is in now way any more evil than the people that dug the hole the nation and world is in now. The people that made off with the money and have gone unpunished for the fraud they committed. The people that continue to benefit from the fraud they’ve committed.

          Obama just reminds people that they got something wrong, and that makes ‘em mad. That’s not a tell about Obama, it’s a tell about the people who feel that way.

  • Bill C says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:46 am

    Eric Holder is my vote for Most Evil, just because he of all in the Administration, shouldn’t be.

    • emptyfull says:
      December 11, 2011 at 10:49 pm

      If you’re going to pick a government official, I agree that Holder would be an interesting choice, because he’s the man that connects ALL the criminals who have gotten off scot-free. He symbolizes the two-tier justice system by having done nothing substantial to prosecute a huge number of white-collar crimes (which can be listed and explained based on old post from this site). You could make similar cases against the S.E.C., etc. But most folks don’t understand the alphabet jungle of federal regulators.

      Attorney General? That’s understandable. It’s easy to see he hasn’t done his job. A well-written article would be great to educate OWS sympathizers. And popular media (see 60 Minutes) is just beginning to sniff some blood over the lack of prosecutions.

      Making a forceful case for Holder would be interesting and maybe move the needle just a bit.

      But if we just want to vent, then we could get lost amongst the millions screaming at Obama.

  • Black Smith says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:46 am

    As a Quaker I cannot condone Obama’s endless war on brown people. As a humanist I cannot condone Obama’s endless war on civil liberties. As a citizen I think he is merely incompetent with economics, but not evil on that one issue.

    However, if we are talking the most economical evil person I vote Angela Dorothea Merkel – IF the EU breaks up. I hallucinate every time I read her speeches and the words “mongrel race nations” magically appear whenever she mentions one of the periphery countries.

    • Psychoanalystus says:
      December 10, 2011 at 9:49 am

      Can you tolerate a war on yellow people instead? Because that’s the direction Obummer is headed.

      • Stephen Nightingale says:
        December 10, 2011 at 6:58 pm

        Exactly: It’s the inevitable geopolitical corollary to the long game inherent in “Conjuring Hitler”. Neutralizing China is a game that started with Kissinger,and is the reason for hollowing out the US economy: they get to produce the plastic widgets, the US produces all the big guns, and retains the superior air force, navy and missiles. US shuts the door on Chinese imports, China has big depression, China gets conditions ripe for regime change.

        But whatever happens next it won’t be an invasion of China: the US can’t win that way. Fomenting a big civil war there maybe.

    • Fiver says:
      December 11, 2011 at 4:53 am

      Last time I checked the US was far wealthier than Germany. Buffet didn’t call those financial WMD for nuthin’:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

  • kms says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:47 am

    No one said Merkosky? I saw Trichet, and can see that… But Obama? Really? He’s a huge disappointment to people who believed in him, but he is an American Politician… What did y’all expect? He’s even less corrupt than some, even if he’s not less corrupt than most. If I was going American I’d give my vote to the CEO of Bank of New York Mellon (Gerald, right?) before I’d go Obama. Don’t confuse callous, useless pomposity with evil. It’s bad for evil’s street cred.

  • PMW says:
    December 10, 2011 at 9:54 am

    Grover Norquist. He has redefined arithmetic (in a bad way) for the Republicans who lead the House.

    • Walter Wit Man says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:03 pm

      I don’t blame Norquist. He’s simply been repeating the same talking point for decades now.

      I really blame Obama and the Democrats who have now justify Norquist’s propaganda by letting him set the agenda.

      The Democrats and Obama took the U.S. to the edge of default because they legitimized Norquist’s terrorist tactics. By playing the game the Democrats and Obama are also engaging in economic terrorism. The Democrats are using Norquist as a bogeyman to distract the blame from them. The Democrats are not only complicit but actually more culpable.

      • John Emerson says:
        December 10, 2011 at 7:01 pm

        Grover does more than repeat talking points. He bullies Cpngressmen into submission. He’s more important than any single Congressman or Congresswoman in either party.

  • Dan Duncan says:
    December 10, 2011 at 10:11 am

    It’s essentially impossible to invoke the designation of “Evil” without also invoking the desire for retribution.

    The desire for retribution is the desire–at some level–to inflict pain.

    The intensity of your desire to inflict pain is inversely proportional to your level of empathy towards the person you desire to “punish”.

    So how does the Conscience of the Liberal guide you on the path over this moral landmine?

    These are “Evil” people, after all. They do deserve punishment don’t they?

    But what if your belief of Evil runs counter to the belief held by others? There are plenty of people, for example, who–honestly– believe that neither Obama nor Cantor (to name a few herein cited) are evil.

    Do you just let it go? Remember: We’re talkin’ Evil. [It's only a matter of time before a commenter pulls out the ever-handy Niemoller ditty, cautioning against the Evil of turning a blind eye this "First the came..."]

    You can’t just let it go! Even Liberals eventually have to take a stand. Right?

    But what of sacrosanct Libbed-out notion of Tolerance?

    At what point does a difference of opinion cross the line from mere relativistic perspective over into the realm of The Absolute?

    Because Evil is Absolute, right? Surely you aren’t a mere relativistic concept of evil?

    So when does Evil become Absolute? And who decides?

    Religious Leaders? Elected Officials?

    C’mon, you don’t believe that!

    Here is what you do believe: Only the rational and enlightened consciousness of the Liberal should be trusted with such a weighty decision.

    But isn’t the aforementioned Evil Obama a Liberal?

    “No!”, you’ll shout. “Obama is NOT a true Liberal”.

    And in keeping with today’s theme, you’ll not only decide that which is “truly Evil”, you’ll also decide that which is “truly Liberal”.

    So which is it, Naked Cappers:

    Sniveling Impotence…OR…

    Are you going to unfurl your jheri curls…and go Samuel Jackson wherein you punish evil by getting your Ezekiel 25:17 on…

    “AND I SHALL STRIKE DOWN UPON THEE WITH GREAT VENGEANCE AND FURIOUS ANGER THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO POISON AND DESTROY MY BROTHERS!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJCa6Bp6vOo
    ________
    Oh the Narcissism! The lack of Tolerance! How dastardly Evil!

    And if you are Tolerant towards Evil, then I lament: You who tolerates Evil…Oh yee of Impotent Cowardice! Your Evil lies in your fecklessness!

    And the winner of this contest: Naked Cappers in a runaway!

  • lloyd blankstein says:
    December 10, 2011 at 10:24 am

    Eric Holder, period.

  • Susan the other says:
    December 10, 2011 at 10:31 am

    The most evil person of the year was, hands down, a greedy, destructive, incompetent, lying corporation named TEPCO.

  • Martin Finnucane says:
    December 10, 2011 at 10:32 am

    Friedrich von Hayek. Yes, I know, he’s technically dead, but I sense his slithering presence arise from the slimy deep every time a libertard belches its vileness in a blog comment section. When I think of what the Reagan/Thatcher/Pinochet new dawn has done to our Social Democracy, and indeed to our Enlightenment heritage, I picture the Austrian archmage grinding away, automata-like, on the theme of liberty through pain: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/09/the_curse_of_tina.html (scroll about 1/2 down). It Lives!

    But, keeping with what I think are the rules of the contest, I nominate Merkozy, the two-headed beast of the Europocalypse.

  • Gobsmacked says:
    December 10, 2011 at 10:48 am

    I was working for a large, well-known corporation based in New York when a reliable rumor came to our attention that Fortune magazine was planning an article “Corporate America’s Ten Toughest Bosses.” Everyone knew “toughest” coded to “meanest SOBs.”

    Our CEO called the lady in charge of public relations. “You get me into that story,“ he said, “or it’s your ass.”

    She did, no problem.

  • gs_runsthiscountry says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:01 am

    The idea he presented a prize on how to quote “best proposals to create jobs and productivity”, is, well, absurd. Since this person has been instrumental in creating the crisis we endure to this day.

    His fingerprints are all over everything in Washington, and the year 2011 is no different. One of the people who “still” lurks behind the curtain.

    Most evil person of the year 2011

    *Robert Rubin*

  • Ziggy says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:02 am

    A single “Oscar of Evil” award is a great idea, but we also need to know the candidates and winners in a variety of subcategories. The evil is too widespread to be limited to single individual. Some suggested subcategories:

    The Bernie Madoff Financial Fraud and Malfeasance Award

    The Joseph Goebbels Media Propaganda Award

    The Orwellian Use of Language by a Politician Award

    The Joseph McCarthy Domestic Fear Mongering Award

    The Ronald Reagan Regressive Taxation and Award

    The George W. Bush Misguided American Imperialism Award

    The Dick Cheney Private Military Contractor of the Year Award

    The Alan Greenspan Destructive Economics Theories and Practices Award

    The Douglas MacArthur Protest Removal Award

    The Eric Honecker Civil Liberties Rollback and Security State Expansion Award

  • billwilson says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:02 am

    I’ll go for the American Political Process. (A thing not a person). With the US dollar a close second.

    Does anyone really think that anything would be better had McCain won the presidency. Really. Anyone?

    Does anyone really think that anything will be better with Romney or heaven forbid, Gingrich, as President?

    It is the system that is busted. Too much money, period.

    As for the dollar, its status as world reserve currency is going to allow the US far more rope than should be possible with which to hang itself. By the time a crisis gets around to finally hitting the US the debt will be far far far larger and more unmanageable. It will be too late. I mean already the US financial situation is a disaster, yet money flows into the dollar, for lack of an alternative.

    If we do have to choose a person … I would not go with Obama (he may not be doing a great job, but I doubt he is truly evil) … If we are going really evil we need to talk Assad (Syria) or Qaddafi (Libya), or from an economic perspective there is always the perennial number 1, Alan Greenspan, followed by Jamie Dimon (his total inability to grasp the damage baks have done, plus JPMs involvement in the missing MF Global funds) Corzine, Blankfein’(God’s work), ….

    • gs_runsthiscountry says:
      December 10, 2011 at 11:29 am

      “I’ll go for the American Political Process. (A thing not a person).”

      The “112th congress” would have been a good choice. Selecting one person would be to let the other 534 off the hook to easy.

    • Walter Wit Man says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:25 pm

      I truly believe that things would be better with McCain instead of Obama, and I’m a leftist that reluctantly and foolishly voted for Obama.

      Obama has made things much worse than McCain would have because he gets away with his fascism because of the propaganda that he’s the liberal one.

      In almost every area Obama is the same or worse than McCain: from expanding wars and war crimes to civil liberty violations to right wing tax law and supply side economics to gutting environmental regulation to selling his administration to industry to . . . . just about every area.

      It astounds me that there are still Democrats that refuse to believe their lying eyes. He’s not failing to stand up to the McCains of the world. He’s working for the same guys McCain is working for they just play different roles–McCain’s the bad cop and Obama is the good cop. The good cop is more evil because he uses trickery to screw you over where the bad cop comes at you directly. Neither one of them are on your side.

    • Walter Wit Man says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:34 pm

      And I see NO EVIDENCE that Obama should get a free pass while Gaddafi and Assad are listed as evil.

      What do you base this assessment on? Death toll? Illegal killing death toll? Obama clearly has engaged in greater war crimes. And Obama also claims the right to kill his own citizens. The U.S. is one of the few countries on earth where the courts aren’t allowed to even consider assassination because of “state secrets.” U.S. civil rights are not much better in practice than what those countries have. Do you have any doubt that the U.S. would respond less violently to a revolt among its citizens (especially if said revolt was funded and organized by your enemies?)? I bet Obama would be much more evil if he faced a similar revolt. Look how the U.S. has crashed peaceful left-wingn demonstrations!

      Then if we take into account economic justice and spreading the wealth amongst the people I think both Gaddafi and Assad would win hands down over Obama.

      I see no evidence that the U.S. is less of a police state that those two regimes. The U.S. police state is simply more sophisticated and has more effective propaganda (and is more powerful).

      If I was ordering the evil of these three leaders it wold go (from most evil to least evil):

      1. Obama
      2. Ghadaffi
      3. Assad

  • GIABO says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:06 am

    Timmy G–the banality of evil.

  • MontanaMaven says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:17 am

    “The Droner” is perfection. It describes his persona – unmanned. It describes his style – sneaky and violent. It describes his speaking manner which I have never found engaging although he actually screeches more than drones. It just seems like droning because the rhythms are monotonous as is the empty rhetoric.

    • psychohistorian says:
      December 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

      Nicely put, thank you.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 12:48 pm

      I can’t listen to him. I tried, during the 2008 campaign, but I gave it up. Boring, pompous, so full of himself you expect him to float up on his own gas. And the look on his face……… Jeebus. The appeal is beyond me.

  • Jill says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:41 am

    Likely we should really be voting for the people who are nameless to us, those giving Obama and other incompententcenti their orders. But I’m going to vote for Obama also. He’s such a willing lackey. How evil do you have to be to eagerly await your next order in slaughtering the innocent? To imprison others without trial? To torture with no mercy? To watch so many suffer as you protect those who brought financial ruin upon them? Definitely voting Obama in this case!!!

    There is a phrase from the oral history of the Nootka people. They were speaking about the priests who destroyed their way of life but it fits the “leaders” of the US today. “Men came. Men without even the memory of kindness.”

  • MIWill says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:55 am

    Homeland Schutzstaffel

  • JBOY says:
    December 10, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    Obama, who is a wolf in a sheep skin.

  • mcgee says:
    December 10, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Piling on but so what…Obama.

    He is the Manchurian Candidate. I’d nominate the .1% but they are too nebulous.

  • Valissa says:
    December 10, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    The Good Vs. Evil game is not my thing… too Manichean for my tastes. So I’ll offer some different catgories.

    I nominate Timothy Geithner for the Biggest Financial Asshole Award!

    I nominate Silvio Berlusconi for the Most Corrupt Political Asshole award! Sooooo glad he’s gone that I’ll even overlook the financial coup that replaced him.

    An image for posterity http://2.images.theweek.com/img/dir_0055/27940_cartoon_main/berlusconis-legacy.jpg

    Berlsuconi gets booted http://caricatures.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Berlusconi.jpg

    Don’t let the door hit you on the way out http://client.globecartoon.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/GCAdmin.woa/wa/jpgImage?UID=1002169

    It’s fascinating to see that so many voted for Obama for this award. From my perspective he’s behaving as expected, or perhaps a little worse. But since he’s basically a tool for the subset of elites he represents he’s not the real problem, IMO.

  • gruntled says:
    December 10, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    Obama is just a patsy for Wall Street, despite his recent rediscovery of populism now that the elections are around the corner. That makes him a dishonest, run-of-the-mill politician. That “most evil person” award should go to someone on WS. Just about anyone from TBTF banks would do. The Bernank would also easily qualify.

    • EH says:
      December 10, 2011 at 1:07 pm

      Populism will merely be a cloak for him to hide in. How can anybody trust his campaign promises? Maybe his strategy for re-election is not to make any.

  • Union Member says:
    December 10, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    Must take into account evil in the Media, and evil Journalism. No miscreant can do what they do without the aid of good stenographers or “Rodeo Clowns” to distract already overwhelmed and confused public.

  • Paul Tioxon says:
    December 10, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    My nomination will be for the Society for The Perpetual Obama-rama Hate Fest. It goes out to all of the intellects who have managed to turn Obama failures into the single issue litmus test most closely resembling abortion bombers and mutilated fetus picture publicists. Beyond all reason and evidence to the contrary, Obama-rama Hate Fest has managed to be indistinguishable from any televangelist conspiracy accusation, red neck country singer Hitler accusation, 2 bit Rick Perry I will liquidate the entire cabinet except for the war and god stuff or bible cult homo haters who attend military funerals for publicity.

    Then, it is a toss up between billionaire Mayor Bloomberg for making sure NYC remains the whore of bablyon for eternity or until Putin moves all of Goldman Sachs to Moscow, and The queen of England for continuing to mesmerize the American public with royal bullshit that is endlessly covered by all of the news media in America, despite the fact that we are a completely different country and really should not give a shit about the Buckingham Palace set. One can only guess that hope springs eternal in the royal mind with expectations that the former glory of Empire will be rightly restored to the Commonwealth of Nations, starting with a future fallen America.

    • Doug Terpstra says:
      December 10, 2011 at 2:42 pm

      “…evidence to the contrary”? Please enlighten us . . . after you’ve digested and rebutted at least some of Hugh’s list of 300-plus Obama scandals.

      http://www.correntewire.com/obama_scandals_list_at_300#more

      The evidence is now overwhelming and incontrovertible: Obama is a stealth Neocon. A searing but accurate indictment is not necessarily hatred.

      You write like a member of the veal pen with a stake in the fortunes of the Democratic Party. The buck stops at the POTUS’ desk, and none of your nominees comes anywhere close to wielding the dangerous power of an imperial president.

    • Stephen Nightingale says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:15 pm

      Paul Tioxon: “and The queen of England …”

      With an attitude like that you’ll be asked to start paying those 235 years of back taxes. Hands off our Liz. She dances on the end of her strings so gracefully.

  • BondsOfSteel says:
    December 10, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Lt. John Pike, the “Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop”.

    John Corizine… for orchastrating the biggest theft of the year and testifying that it’s somehow it’s not his fault.

    But my vote would go to Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl for blowing up the debt talks to save tax cuts for the wealthy.

  • Maximilien says:
    December 10, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    I nominate the ENTIRE mainstream media, for abdicating its responsibility to keep the citizenry informed of the doings of its government.

    An informed citizenry is the sine qua non of a democracy; without it democracy quickly dies. The people become little better than mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed a lot of shit.

    MSM today (pick your own names) is truly EVIL, for from it spring all the other evils which threaten democracy.

  • ECONOMISTA NON GRATA says:
    December 10, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    I vote Obama… With Cantor, Schumer, Pellosi, the ugly guy from Kentucky, Kerry, the guy with the crispy tan, the bald guy the runs GS, the ex president that likes to fondle young girls with his pal the molester from Palm Beach, the big LOUD MOUTH at MSNBC, all in the top ten, however I’m not sure of the order…. There’s just so many to choose from……

  • Hugh says:
    December 10, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    Most Evil Person of the Year: Barack Obama by popular acclamation

    Most Evil Banker of the Year: Jamie Dimon edging out BOA’s Brian Moynihan. Judges said that it was Dimon’s evil narcissistic whines that made the difference

    Most Evil Central Banker: This was a surprise. I think most of thought that Bernanke had this one locked up again, but Jean Claude Trichet won the category convincingly this time around

    Most Evil Bank Puppet: This was won again by Timothy Geithner despite an impressive last minute surge by Italy’s Mario Monti. Monti fell short because he and Greece’s Lucas Papademas split the euro vote.

    Most Evil Weasel: Tom Miller for his yeoman efforts to forge a “Get out of Jail Free” card for banks in Mortgagegate. Eric Cantor fans will I am sure be miffed. Parenthetically, Mitch McConnell has not been in the running for a Most Evil award since they retired the Most Evil Snake trophy with his name on it. Nor has Harry Reid who got the lifetime achievement award for Most Evil Ineffective Louse a few years ago.

    Most Evil (Europe): Germany’s Angela Merkel was a shoo-in. As in everything else re Germany, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy happily came in second

    Most Evil (Asia): Masataka Shimizu, president of TEPCO which ran the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants

    Most Evil (US): You will remember last year this was a joint award to the Supreme Court for their Citizens United decision, and the year before that to Goldman Sachs for well, just being Goldman Sachs. This year continued the tradition going to the Koch brothers. There has been a lot of debate about this award, that is whether the Koch brothers really were the most absolutely evil kleptocrats out there or simply the most annoyingly evil ones, but as the judges made clear, while the brothers are excessively annoying, the depth and breadth of their evils efforts, in industry, politics, the Tea party, think tanks, even in energy and climate change remain unmatched.

    Most Annoyingly Evil: the Koch brothers aside, this award would go to the media hands down if they were eligible, but they are not, and there is no Lackey and Lickspittle category envisaged at this time. The winner this year was a dark horse: The Nobel Prize Committee which awarded the Prize for Economics (yes, I know it’s not a real Nobel but that’s just another annoying aspect of this) to a couple of neoclassical economists for their foundational research proving that governments had no effect on markets. Post the meltdown and even as Europe was falling apart, this view was breathtakingly at war with reality but also really, really annoying, hence the award.

    • lambert strether says:
      December 10, 2011 at 3:39 pm

      Is there a category for most evil costumes and sets? I nominate our famously free press!

      And for most evil screenplay, a joint nomination goes t to Karl Rove and David Axelrod.

    • Don Lowell says:
      December 10, 2011 at 4:30 pm

      Nice manifesto you laid out there. Good stuff!

    • psychohistorian says:
      December 10, 2011 at 5:51 pm

      WORD!

      Have you seen the pictures of the lump on the side of the neck of the Tepco pres…..not long for our world, sounds like.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:13 pm

      Harry Reid is definitely a louse, a crumb, really, but not, I think, ineffective. I think old Harry is very, very cagey and knows how to get what he wants without anyone being the wiser. What you see Harry get is mostly just what Harry wants.

      • Doug Terpstra says:
        December 10, 2011 at 9:19 pm

        Harry loves his role as rubber-stamper in the Roman Senate. It’s a cushy gig that he owes to Obama and last minute corp sponsors who saved his zombie campaign from Sharron Angle in 2010.

        • CB says:
          December 10, 2011 at 9:51 pm

          Sharron did him any number of favors, as well. “Inept” comes to mind. The switcheroo over at DKos was funny as hell: before the primaries, they were hammering Harry; after Angle made the Republican cut, they twirled around and, lo, Harry was The Man. Metamorphosis.

  • bob says:
    December 10, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    2 votes for Jamie Dimon? The king of all assholes. His evilness is right there in front, no attempt to hide it. Just a seething boil of puss oozing human contempt.

    Lloyd would of course be jealous.

  • Tenney Naumer says:
    December 10, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    You want truly EVIL??? I’ll give you truly EVIL!

    Every single CEO of every single major oil and coal company on the planet —

    they are responsible for the death of billions to come and the extinction of most species of life on the planet

    • robert157 says:
      December 10, 2011 at 3:45 pm

      Of course, to protest this evil, you forego using oil and coal whenever possible…

      • Tenney Naumer says:
        December 10, 2011 at 5:13 pm

        Much of disastrous global warming is already locked in.

        There are so many shoulda woulda couldas.

        If we had spent the trillions lost in Iraq instead on subsidizing clean energy, on improvements to our national infrastructure, especially the power grid, if we had not had delay after delay after delay, we might have had a chance of warding off some of the worst effects, but now they are baked in the pie.

        The people who caused these delays by using hundreds of millions of dollars to suppress the truth and manipulate public opinion — those are the truest and most evil people imaginable.

        You can be glib all you want, but we are already seeing the effects, and these are intensifying in a rapid fashion.

  • Don Lowell says:
    December 10, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    Its an impossible task as there are just too many. How about the top 100 evilest people??

  • bmeisen says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Obama? Top miscreant of 2011? Most commentators here have it wrong. Obama isn’t all that bad. He’s down the list a ways because, as a few commentators have noted, he is a juice pouch.

    Those of us on the left who did not vote for him are not surprised.

    The emphasis on politicians here is mistaken. The true bogey men are the manipulators behind the scenes: our friends at FOX, the top of the oil industry, the TBTF banksters, the defense contractors.

  • JohnB says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    Most evil?
    Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

  • Markbn says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    My nominee is Bill Clinton–his evil genius in unleashing financial deregulation, NAFTA and “welfare reform” are gifts which keep on giving. His proper penance would be to run a small third generation manufacturing firm in Indiana. Instead he is a millionare many time over from speaking fees and book royalties, not to mention his federal pension and retiree health care.

    Second place would be the younger George Bush for the carnage he inflicted on Iraqi’s and coaltion servicepeople (not to mention the financial toll). Those gifts will continue to give for decades, if not longer. His penance should be to be dropped, with his daughters, on a street corner in Baghdad, to fend for themselves. Yes, he might have to prostitute his daughters to survive, as many Iraqi families have. Alternatively, instead of writing books and giving speeches for large sums of money, he should be required to spend his money and time until death, taking care of individual wounded soldiers, one at a time.

    Obama gets an honorable mention, for having been a professor of constitutional law for 10 years, and thus quite competant to expand Bush’s war on civil liberties.

    • CB says:
      December 10, 2011 at 7:16 pm

      I still vote Obama, but you make a strong case. Especially the Clinton brief: I’ve come to see him that way, also.

  • Seal says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    Zero-bama is the evilest person of 2011. The Harvard Law grad that continues to preside over violations of international law, the Geneva conventions, and flat refuses to follow clear language of the US constitution such as habeas corpus. The worst fears pf our Founding Fathers have come to pass – we have become a country ruled by men not by the Law.

  • Maximilien says:
    December 10, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    In order to avoid casting disrepute on the Nobel Foundation, any Peace Prize winner (this would include Obama) is in perpetuity ineligible for any Most Evil Person of the Year Award. See nobelprize.org.

    Just kidding! Now remind me again, why the hell did Obama get that award?

  • dejavuagain says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    How about the:

    Teddy Roosevelt “Speak softly and carry a big stick” Award
    and the
    Barack Obama “Speak loudly and carry a little stick” Award

  • mario says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    Obama should not get any award. He didn’t do a shit.

  • Glen says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Pretty hard to pick for the whole year. How about we pick once a week and award the Most Evil of the Year to the one that placed best throughout the year?

    But offhand, I would have to give this award to Obama. There are more evil people, but Obama is hands down able to inflict the most evil on the most people by not fighting evil with the vigor that he both promised to do while running for election, and was elected to do. Never has the American people so dramatically witnessed the moral fall from grace of a person after being elected President.

  • NancyinStL says:
    December 10, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    To everyone nominating Obama: Consider the alternatives for replacing him. I can’t say Obama lived up to my expectations, but do you want another term for the Dubya crowd? Or maybe a Walker/Kasich/Scott clone? The thought of Newt scares me to death!

    • Ziggy says:
      December 10, 2011 at 8:22 pm

      A Republican president would accelerate economic disaster, amplify social unrest and thus hasten much needed reform.s Another four years of zer0bama will only perpetuate the deceit, wishful thinking and excuses for meaningful action.

      I don’t agree that zer0bama deserves the 2011 Evil Oscar. He’s no more in charge of this country than a dotty old executive who nominally serves as a failing company’s Chairman of the Board. The Federal government’s most important departments are operating units of global national corporations. zer0bama can phone in a request, but it’s usually deferred to the Department of Silly Complaints.

  • Mary T in Redondo Beach says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Yesterday I would’ve voted for the pepper spray cop, but today, I’m leaning toward Jon Corzine.

  • Maju says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    I have three candidates:

    1. Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs’ CEO). It is quite obvious that they are the main actor and beneficiary in the financial chaos they are themselves propitiating.

    2. Timothy Geithner, who has been more than once involved in legal-financial scandals, from manipulating the euro-crisis to trying to rally banks against Massachusetts attempt to impose some legality into the mortgage scandal.

    3. Nicholas Sarkozy, who has been stirring the pot in Libya and the IMF alike, not to mention the Eurozone.

  • Dimitri L says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Without question, the Great Betrayer Obama, who every day finds new ways to befoul the principles he claimed to espouse, deserves this prize, and merits it far more than that Nobel Peace thingy they tossed at him for no apparent reason while he was plotting yet more war and destruction.

    • JTFaraday says:
      December 10, 2011 at 10:54 pm

      Yeah, who does something like that?

      That’s why I’m a little reluctant to just lob everything off on Obama, if the topic is “most evil person” as opposed to “should we legitimize his administration by re-electing him.”

      It’s not like Obama invented “‘liberal humanitarian interventionism’ by drone attack.”

  • lambert strether says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    Shouldn’t there be a trophy, like the Oscars or the Stanley Cup? Thoughts?

    * * *

    I’m thinking Cthulhu, or possibly a vampire squid?

  • Mark K says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    It’s got to be Corzine. No brainer.

  • XRayD says:
    December 10, 2011 at 11:54 pm

    My vote is for The American Voter.

    Look at what he has achieved, by voting and not voting over the past 30 years or so!

    • Up the Ante says:
      December 11, 2011 at 10:40 am

      To a certain extent, yes.

      The American shopper would be better yet. You know, the type that dumps their money in the globalists’ pockets, mindlessly? with no intention of ever doing it any differently??

  • Historicaecon says:
    December 11, 2011 at 1:01 am

    Obama’s popular acclamation is bit overdone, I’d say. Even if he agreed with the Occupy Movement as he intimated in Kansas, who would he even begin to staff a government with that wasn’t already on the corporate payroll? The problem is not one man: He NEVER could have done anything. The fact that he hasn’t tried is disheartening, but it’s hard to blame the guy. I wish he wouldn’t run for a second term though; that would be the most honorable thing he could do. So forget Obama, Canto and Koch brothers. Make it a joint award: The 1% for profiting off of and enabling the ignorance of our failed system, must win the day.

  • brainstorm category 1 says:
    December 11, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Most Evil is a team sport and should be presented as a group somehow.

    I see a last supper format, with the US Taxpayer as jesus and a bankster as judas, the rest of the disciples could be obama and ? – fill in the blanks… the pepper spray police meme could be included

  • lorac says:
    December 11, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    ALL of them. (e.g., Holder, Summers, Geithner) Obama is just their facilitator. Although he is a darn good facilitator…

  • EmilianoZ says:
    December 11, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    So many to choose from, that’s the problem. The Empire stretches its tentacles everywhere, finance, politics, media, academia, etc. The dissolution of responsibility has been maximized.

    I’ll nominate Oakland PD for critically injuring Kayvan Sabehgi and Scott Olsen, 2 veterans peacefully protesting with OWS. I’ve seen a video of Scott Olsen after he was out of the hospital. He still had difficulty forming words but seemed in fine shape. I haven’t seen any updated news of Kayvan Sabehgi’s condition.

  • Fiver says:
    December 11, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    As always on NC, many good responses.

    Hard to top Obama even if it is a third year running following on a number for Bush (not all – the people who are most responsible for the 5 million killed in Congo during the Bush tenure can claim at least a couple years – though Bush’s failure to intervene in a situation, where like Rwanda, it would not have taken major deployments of force to prevent the slaughter also buys him another win for simply not caring because after all, they’re Africans).

    But I digress. This year, just call a Cabinet-level WH meeting to discuss the implications of the European crisis and look around the table:

    Obama, Clinton, Holder, that insane killing machine Patraeus, Geithner, Leon Ponetta. Bernanke’s invited. And Dimon. The stink of putrefied souls hangs heavy in that room.

    For purest evil this year, I’m going Patraeus. All he’s done for nearly a decade is to think about new ways to murder, slaughter, torture, drone or otherwise eradicate human beings HE determines are “threats”, no matter how many innocent lives are lost, because they had the colossal gall to resist a stupendously corrupt puppet government maintained by a decade-long brutal attack and occupation apparently just a testing ground for new killer toys, as there is no valid reason of any kind to be there. It is terrifying to think what far-flung, consequential havoc this reptilian killer might wreak as head of the CIA under a President with total disdain for the law.


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