ruthie
12-24-2004, 08:00 AM
thought this was pretty enjoyable. :01:
by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin
NAUGHTY AND NICE 2004
The Progress Report makes this year's holiday list and checks it twice
Naughty: Ron Artest, for punching out (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041208/483/mico10312082230) the front row at an NBA game.
Nice: Mark Cuban and Dallas Mavericks season ticket holders, for offering 140 front row seats (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6728782/) to American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for sending U.S. soldiers into battle without the equipment and armor (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a8NFkJZYWw.o&refer=us) they need to fight.
Nice: Grassroots charity groups like "Give 2 The Troops (http://www.give2thetroops.org/)" and "Operation Gratitude (http://opgratitude.com/website/html/index.php)," for sending care packages, supplies and reminders of home to American troops abroad.
Naughty: Merck, for spending millions to market the pain-reliever Vioxx to consumers long after the company knew it was unsafe (http://).
Nice: Dr. David Graham, of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, for fighting to keep dangerous drugs off the market (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E7DB113FF93AA25752C1A9629C8B63).
Naughty: Bernard Kerik, for turning an apartment donated for weary Ground Zero police and rescue workers into a love nest (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/nyregion/15apartment.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=) for his adulterous affairs.
Nice: Miramax Films, for putting the kibosh (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6708243/) on Kerik's summer blockbuster biopic.
Naughty: Congress, for underfunding the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (http://www.cbpp.org/11-19-04bud.htm) (LIHEAP). allocating "$164 million less than needed to cover the expected 24 percent increase in home heating costs" this winter.
Nice: Richard Hamann and his wife, Donna (http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-12-21-iowa-electric_x.htm), for paying the electricity bills for the entire town of Anthon, Iowa, because they wanted to give something back to their community.
Naughty: NRA Radio (http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/stories.php?story=04/06/16/8030490), for broadcasting anti-gun-control propaganda and calling it legitimate news.
Nice:Ed Schultz (http://www.bigeddieradio.com/), Arnie Arnesen (http://www.arniearnesen.com/), Tony Trupiano (http://www.thetonyshow.com/), Thom Hartmann (http://thomhartman.com/show.shtml), Wendy Wilde (http://www.wendywilde.com/), Al Franken (http://www.airamericaradio.com/shows/alfrankenshow/index.asp), Katherine Lanpher (http://www.airamericaradio.com/shows/alfrankenshow/index.asp) and the rest of the Air America (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) crew, for showing progressive radio can be thought-provoking, hard-hitting and fun.
Naughty: Department of Homeland Security, for omitting "major sites (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-08-terror-database_x.htm)" like chemical plants and dams from its unfinished national database of potential terrorist targets.
Nice: Department of Homeland Security, for including "water parks and miniature golf courses (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-08-terror-database_x.htm)" in the national database. At your local putt putt, the terrorists never win.
Naughty: The Environmental Protection Agency, for using camcorders (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/31/MNG149JJ0C1.DTL&type=printable) to bribe parents into offering up their toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on children…sponsored by the chemical industry. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62569-2004Oct25.html)Nice: The Natural Resources Defense Council (http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/nfarm.asp), for fighting to protect kids from the harmful effects of pesticides and chemicals.
Naughty: Right-wing conservatives in the House of Representatives, for changing ethics rules (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A16FE3B5B0C7B8DDDA80994DC404482) so Tom DeLay (R-TX) could one day be their indicted leader.
Nice: Whistleblowers like Bunnatine Greenhouse (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=282432&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312), Richard Foster (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6339-2004Mar18?language=printer) and Paul O'Neill (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml), for holding our government to a higher ethical standard.
Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for letting a machine do his work (and not hand-signing condolence letters to grieving families (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2004Dec18.html)).
Nice: Ashlee Simpson, for letting a machine do her work (and not forcing us to listen to her natural singing voice (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-10-24-ashlee-snl_x.htm)).
Naughty: Medicare head Tom Scully (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/politics/16drug.html), Rep. Billy Tauzin (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2004-12-15-drugs-usat_x.htm), Rep. James Greenwood (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7537-2004Jul22.html) and trade representatives Ralph Ives and Claude Burcky (http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/2360.html), for using public service for personal benefit, taking lucrative, top-dollar jobs with the pharmaceutical industry they had formerly regulated.
Nice: Rep. Henry Waxman, for using public service for public benefit, compiling reports on everything from the Halliburton to undue secrecy (http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/secrecy_report/index.asp) in the White House.
Naughty: Russian President Vladimir Putin (http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/031117/story.html), for single-handedly shutting down the press, jailing his political opposition and trying to validate his hand-picked, fraudulently elected lapdog in Ukraine. (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-russia22dec22,0,4981927.story)Nice: Viktor Yushchenko and supporters of the Orange Revolution, for fighting against all odds -- including poison -- to bring democracy to the Ukraine (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/international/europe/12ukraine.html?)
Naughty: Bill "I Like Families" Donahue, for using his pulpit to launch partisan, hate-filled attacks (http://mediamatters.org/items/200412210001).
Nice: The Reverend Jim Wallis, for teaching us something about real "moral values (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0501&article=050151)."
Naughty: Alberto Gonzales (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536), for crafting memos which provided legal justification for torturing detainees.
Nice: The International Committee of the Red Cross (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108384106459803859,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us), for exposing brutal treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
Naughty: EPA administrator Mike Leavitt, for blaming pollution on poverty. (http://www.iht.com/articles/538809.html)Nice: The Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org/), for giving us the facts about global warming (http://http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=443), pollution (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=448), clean energy (http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=1546) and the Bush administration's ideological approach to science (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=424).
Naughty: Sinclair Media, for planning to run an hour long anti-Kerry screed (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-sinclair9oct09,1,4817545.story?coll=la-home-) as "news" just before the U.S. presidential election.
Nice: Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200410190004) and the blogosphere, for forcing Sinclair to change its plans. (And continuing to demand (http://sinclairaction.com/) that Sinclair stop broadcasting one-sided political spin.)
Naughty: Sen. Norm Coleman (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5142779.html), for using the oil-for-food scandal as an excuse to launch an attack against the United Nations.
Nice: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=UN%20Global%20Threats), for launching the first serious attempt to reform the United Nations and bring it into the 21st Century.
Naughty: The Kuwaiti Hilton, for giving Halliburton's employees a place to stay (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11664) while they bilked US taxpayers.
Nice: Paris Hilton, for bringing the "simple life" to Washington, D.C (http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14964,00.html).
Naughty: Bill O'Reilly, for claiming Christmas is "under siege (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140742,00.html)."
Nice: Americans, for not laying siege (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0412220117dec22,1,4071067.story?coll=chi-) to Christmas.
Happy Holidays from The Progress Report Team (mailto:[email protected]) and everyone at American Progress, dedicated to making America a little less naughty and a lot more nice.
by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin
NAUGHTY AND NICE 2004
The Progress Report makes this year's holiday list and checks it twice
Naughty: Ron Artest, for punching out (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041208/483/mico10312082230) the front row at an NBA game.
Nice: Mark Cuban and Dallas Mavericks season ticket holders, for offering 140 front row seats (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6728782/) to American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for sending U.S. soldiers into battle without the equipment and armor (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a8NFkJZYWw.o&refer=us) they need to fight.
Nice: Grassroots charity groups like "Give 2 The Troops (http://www.give2thetroops.org/)" and "Operation Gratitude (http://opgratitude.com/website/html/index.php)," for sending care packages, supplies and reminders of home to American troops abroad.
Naughty: Merck, for spending millions to market the pain-reliever Vioxx to consumers long after the company knew it was unsafe (http://).
Nice: Dr. David Graham, of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, for fighting to keep dangerous drugs off the market (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E7DB113FF93AA25752C1A9629C8B63).
Naughty: Bernard Kerik, for turning an apartment donated for weary Ground Zero police and rescue workers into a love nest (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/nyregion/15apartment.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=) for his adulterous affairs.
Nice: Miramax Films, for putting the kibosh (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6708243/) on Kerik's summer blockbuster biopic.
Naughty: Congress, for underfunding the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (http://www.cbpp.org/11-19-04bud.htm) (LIHEAP). allocating "$164 million less than needed to cover the expected 24 percent increase in home heating costs" this winter.
Nice: Richard Hamann and his wife, Donna (http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-12-21-iowa-electric_x.htm), for paying the electricity bills for the entire town of Anthon, Iowa, because they wanted to give something back to their community.
Naughty: NRA Radio (http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/stories.php?story=04/06/16/8030490), for broadcasting anti-gun-control propaganda and calling it legitimate news.
Nice:Ed Schultz (http://www.bigeddieradio.com/), Arnie Arnesen (http://www.arniearnesen.com/), Tony Trupiano (http://www.thetonyshow.com/), Thom Hartmann (http://thomhartman.com/show.shtml), Wendy Wilde (http://www.wendywilde.com/), Al Franken (http://www.airamericaradio.com/shows/alfrankenshow/index.asp), Katherine Lanpher (http://www.airamericaradio.com/shows/alfrankenshow/index.asp) and the rest of the Air America (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) crew, for showing progressive radio can be thought-provoking, hard-hitting and fun.
Naughty: Department of Homeland Security, for omitting "major sites (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-08-terror-database_x.htm)" like chemical plants and dams from its unfinished national database of potential terrorist targets.
Nice: Department of Homeland Security, for including "water parks and miniature golf courses (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-08-terror-database_x.htm)" in the national database. At your local putt putt, the terrorists never win.
Naughty: The Environmental Protection Agency, for using camcorders (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/31/MNG149JJ0C1.DTL&type=printable) to bribe parents into offering up their toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on children…sponsored by the chemical industry. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62569-2004Oct25.html)Nice: The Natural Resources Defense Council (http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/nfarm.asp), for fighting to protect kids from the harmful effects of pesticides and chemicals.
Naughty: Right-wing conservatives in the House of Representatives, for changing ethics rules (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A16FE3B5B0C7B8DDDA80994DC404482) so Tom DeLay (R-TX) could one day be their indicted leader.
Nice: Whistleblowers like Bunnatine Greenhouse (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=282432&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312), Richard Foster (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6339-2004Mar18?language=printer) and Paul O'Neill (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml), for holding our government to a higher ethical standard.
Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for letting a machine do his work (and not hand-signing condolence letters to grieving families (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2004Dec18.html)).
Nice: Ashlee Simpson, for letting a machine do her work (and not forcing us to listen to her natural singing voice (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-10-24-ashlee-snl_x.htm)).
Naughty: Medicare head Tom Scully (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/politics/16drug.html), Rep. Billy Tauzin (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2004-12-15-drugs-usat_x.htm), Rep. James Greenwood (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7537-2004Jul22.html) and trade representatives Ralph Ives and Claude Burcky (http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/2360.html), for using public service for personal benefit, taking lucrative, top-dollar jobs with the pharmaceutical industry they had formerly regulated.
Nice: Rep. Henry Waxman, for using public service for public benefit, compiling reports on everything from the Halliburton to undue secrecy (http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/secrecy_report/index.asp) in the White House.
Naughty: Russian President Vladimir Putin (http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/031117/story.html), for single-handedly shutting down the press, jailing his political opposition and trying to validate his hand-picked, fraudulently elected lapdog in Ukraine. (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-russia22dec22,0,4981927.story)Nice: Viktor Yushchenko and supporters of the Orange Revolution, for fighting against all odds -- including poison -- to bring democracy to the Ukraine (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/international/europe/12ukraine.html?)
Naughty: Bill "I Like Families" Donahue, for using his pulpit to launch partisan, hate-filled attacks (http://mediamatters.org/items/200412210001).
Nice: The Reverend Jim Wallis, for teaching us something about real "moral values (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0501&article=050151)."
Naughty: Alberto Gonzales (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536), for crafting memos which provided legal justification for torturing detainees.
Nice: The International Committee of the Red Cross (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108384106459803859,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us), for exposing brutal treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
Naughty: EPA administrator Mike Leavitt, for blaming pollution on poverty. (http://www.iht.com/articles/538809.html)Nice: The Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org/), for giving us the facts about global warming (http://http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=443), pollution (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=448), clean energy (http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=1546) and the Bush administration's ideological approach to science (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release.cfm?newsID=424).
Naughty: Sinclair Media, for planning to run an hour long anti-Kerry screed (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-sinclair9oct09,1,4817545.story?coll=la-home-) as "news" just before the U.S. presidential election.
Nice: Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200410190004) and the blogosphere, for forcing Sinclair to change its plans. (And continuing to demand (http://sinclairaction.com/) that Sinclair stop broadcasting one-sided political spin.)
Naughty: Sen. Norm Coleman (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5142779.html), for using the oil-for-food scandal as an excuse to launch an attack against the United Nations.
Nice: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=UN%20Global%20Threats), for launching the first serious attempt to reform the United Nations and bring it into the 21st Century.
Naughty: The Kuwaiti Hilton, for giving Halliburton's employees a place to stay (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11664) while they bilked US taxpayers.
Nice: Paris Hilton, for bringing the "simple life" to Washington, D.C (http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14964,00.html).
Naughty: Bill O'Reilly, for claiming Christmas is "under siege (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140742,00.html)."
Nice: Americans, for not laying siege (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0412220117dec22,1,4071067.story?coll=chi-) to Christmas.
Happy Holidays from The Progress Report Team (mailto:[email protected]) and everyone at American Progress, dedicated to making America a little less naughty and a lot more nice.