Top Stories of 2008

Well, it is almost over. The good, bad, and ugly of the year, you will find most of it here. Surely, I can’t put together an all encompassing list, but this is the best I can do off the top of my head, and with a little research.

The list is not a top # list, and it is also not in chronological order. It is also not intended to just be “top” stories, but definitely stories of interest. It does, however, contain some editorial content- which should make it all the more fun for you and me both!

Enjoy!!!

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Without question, the number ONE story of the year is the election of Barack Obama, who claims along with his supporters to be the first black President. I tend to disagree. He is the first mulatto President. I clearly delineate that here.

The important part of this story is, however, that a non-white has been elected to the highest office in the greatest nation on earth. More on that here.

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Hillary Clinton states in the campaign that Obama has no experience, and that his biggest contribution is the ability to make a speech. She then entertains taking the Secretary of State for President Elect Obama. Only in a world of Democratic idiocy could this happen.

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Charlton Heston dies at 84, April 5th.

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John McCain runs a bumbling campaign for President. Examples might be Sarah Palin. Just mentioning that will make some people cheer, and some people scowl at me. You take it for what it is worth.

Another example might be McCain’s stupid comments about the economy. On the morning of Sept. 15, as Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy, Republican presidential candidate John McCain declares “the fundamentals of this economy are strong.”

That day, the Dow falls more than 500 points; the term “Black Monday” is applied, and McCain does the backstroke, pronto.

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Billy Mays starts crawling up our rears with infomercials. Oh- so does that “Sham Wow” guy.

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Heath Ledger gives the performance of a lifetime in “Batman- The Dark Knight”. Literally. Ledger died later of a prescription drug reaction. The movie itself is laboriously too long, and too clever for even high intellects. The performance by Ledger was stupendous.

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Elliot Spitzer gives Ashley Dupré her 15 minutes of fame by giving her money for sex. I’m waiting for the book. Personally, considering Spitzer’s background, I suppose you could say they both were whores- they both got paid for screwing people.

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Meet the Press’s inimitable anchor, and news great Tim Russert passed. They’ve replaced him with David Gregory. This is like replacing Ronald Reagan with Gerald Ford.

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More Billy Mays and Sham Wow- welcome to America.

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The Olympics are presented and competed in China, a country that really has no place at the international table of which the Olympics represents. Apparently, they not only use child labor, but underage gymnasts.

The big story, however, was again an American. Michael Phelps becomes the most awesomest stud ever. (Hey, that’s how the kids talk about him on the “street”!)

Phelps won 8 gold medals in one Olympics… Unheard of to this point. Amazing. American.

I wonder if Phelps dried off with Sham WOW, like the commercial says…

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Michael Jackson turned 50, making kids one year closer to being safe again…

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with major banks across the nation, face potential bankruptcy at a level that could cause another great depression. AIG, Lehman Brothers, and others go under or threaten to.

The cause? Greedy mortgage lenders, working on and making a fortune on commission, selling sub prime loans to people who did not deserve the loans (based on their credit history), driven by the pressure of Fanny and Freddy to push the market, which was in turn driven by the Government agencies and individuals (committee chairs, etc…) who were suppoooooooosed to be overseeing such matters, instead of trying to manipulate them for their own benefit…

(Deep breath)

Now, that was one long run on sentence, but we can learn a lesson from it: Big government does not guarantee freedom nor prosperity.

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You guessed it! MORE Billy Mays, and… SHAM WOW!

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Paul Newman dies at 83. Hopefully, there are lots of boiled eggs, handguns, no chain gangs in heaven. “Glass ‘o water boss?”

“Not today, Boy!”

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The world is reminded of what lies beneath the surface of peace, at least for the forseeable future. Another terrorist attack takes place, this time at the Mumbai Hotel. Children and the elderly, as well as women, were not spared.

Wake up folks. Do not go back to sleep…

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Rod Blagojevich reportedly tries to sell Obama’s soon to be vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Chicago style politics, as usual, in Illinois.

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Author Michael Crichton dies, not in the jaws of a dinosaur.

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McCain suspended his campaign to try to save the economy, and his Presidential bid. He failed at both.

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Drew Griffin of CNN helps them get it wrong again. He misquotes the Byron York of the National Review, stating “I can’t tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, or all of the above.”

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Fred Thompson skips a GOP debate to be on Leno… Even Homer Simpson could be heard to say “D’OH!”

He did get 1.2% of the vote in New Hampshire as a “reward”. Even Dennis Kucinich topped that. I don’t think Fred will be running again.

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“Billy Mays here!!!”

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The National Enquirer, normally an alien and Elvis sighting rag, outs Edwards on adultery. The MSM ignores it as long as they can… I mean, how can you go after him? He has a “D” attached to his name, a wife with cancer, and… the HAIR!!!

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MSNBC’s David Shuster states that Chelsea Clinton was being “pimped out” by her mother and father, for the task of calling superdelegates. OK… I was listening to this LIVE when it happened, (yes, I watch that crap ass network from time to time, once Fox gets repetitive), and I just about hit the floor. I didn’t know whether to laugh or gasp!

One- stupid stupid stupid move. Never attack the children of candidates, especially a Clinton, ON MSNBC (Mostly Stupid Network Backing ‘Crats). Nearly the first thing out of my mouth to the love of my life was “End of career… END! Right there… DONE!!!” HOWEVER, we ARE talking about MSNBC, AND democrats (they don’t eat their young)… so Shuster was not thrown under the bus.

Two- Even if the statement is true (and, oddly, it isn’t that far off the mark), you just don’t choose those words.

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The Phillies won the World Series. Ho hum, except the season before, they had the worst record in the MLB.

Even if they didn’t score enough runs, Ed Rendell apparently found a box full of runs in the back room of an election office- just in case.

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George Bush dodges a shoe. Then yet another… Can you say “Superhero”? I thought ya could.

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Joe the Plumber bursts onto the scene, and for 15 minutes wonders “What the HELL just happened to me???”

Obama’s handling of the question should have sunk him, but, hey, you can’t expect that a large percentage of the dolts that voted for him to actually think critically, can you?

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Caroline Kennedy announces interest in Hillary’s Senate seat, should Hillary accept her unqualified boss’s offer to be a Secretary.

Caroline’s qualification? That word, “Kennedy”. “My Daddy was in the business…”

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Rudy Giuliani “opts out” of the wasteful early primaries, hoping to stake it all on the big State of Florida. He finished a distant 3rd, with 15% of the vote.

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“Sham Wow! You’ll be saying ‘Wow’ everytime!”

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Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, sings “God Damn America!” and other great hits… Obama backpeddles and distances, finally stating strongly and with conviction “I kinda hate that kinda stuff, don’t really like it, not my words, I’m my own man but sat there for 20 years and never knew this kinda stuff was going on. But yes, I wouldn’t say that. Even though I’m not saying he did… or that I ever heard it, cause I didn’t. Never. Really. Hope. Yes we can… CHANGE!”

America bought it. Well, 92% of blacks, and pretty much all of the rest of the liberally based Democratic party. But I bet I could get them to vote for my dog, if I shaved a “D” into his ass.

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Paul McCartney got a new grilfriend. I think her name was Eleanor Rigby. Met her down at Strawberry Fields. Perhaps this time it will last forever.

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US auto giants GM, Chrysler, and Ford come a calling to Uncle Sam, with hands out. Problem is, you can’t ask for billions from “America” if you are flying Lear Jets to the meeting. OK… this one got blown WAY out of proportion. America then got sidetracked onto Executive salaries and perks, ignoring the fact that the real glutton of this situation is the UAW. Even if you fired all three CEO’s and never flew another damn plane with them in it, their combined salaries for a year wouldn’t run one of those companies for a month.

America needs to wake up, and stop letting unions hijack themselves right out of work. Jobs race overseas for a lot of reasons, but one of them is because labor here is overinflated.

In the sequel, they three tripped to DC in economy hybrids and such. 10 hour drives. In cars that are being discontinued due to poor sales. Brilliant. Seriously, these are the best and brightest?

I object to them making that kind of money based on them just appearing stupid.

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George Carlin passed away at the age of 71. We will miss his list of seven dirty words, “XXXX”, “XXXX”, “XXXX-XXXXXX”, “XXXXXX-XXXXXX”, “XXXXX”….  “XXX”, “XXXX”, and “XXXX”.

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McCain campaign Co-Chair Phil Gramm props up the GOP candidate by calling American’s a “nation of whiners” and coins the term “mental recession” regarding the struggling economy. Now, that was in July, so, we really shoulda seen rest of his faux pas (McCain’s, I mean) coming.

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Harvey Korman, a true national treasure, dies at 81. Emmy winner for ”The Carol Burnett Show”; conniving politician in ”Blazing Saddles.” May 29. Will be missed.

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Bloomberg news accidentally reports that Apple (Macintosh) co-founder Steve Jobs passed away. Jobs later appeared in front of a giant screen with the message, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

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Conservative icon and former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms had less luck finding such a screen with such a statement. He died at age 86.

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Billy Mays and Vince from Sham Wow discovered in gay sex ring…

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A plunging stock market revealed the largest Ponzi scheme in US history- perhaps in the history of the world. It is estimated that Bernard L. Madoff, one of Wall Street’s best-known money managers, orchestrated a $50 billion fraud- some of it on some of the more business savvy and wealthy business people of the world.

The SEC had investigated Madoff and his New York City investment firm several times over the years, and found nothing. SEC Chair Christopher Cox couhged: “I am gravely concerned by the apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations.”

Again, people, the Government cannot protect you and your money.

Once Madoff is out of prison, I expect he will take on a prosperous job as politician. After the book tour, of course.

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Sydney Pollack, 73. Oscar-winning director, a Hollywood mainstay (”Tootsie,” ”Out of Africa.”).

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One of Fox’s plethora of blonde anchors, E.D. Hill, states Barack and Michelle Obama’s “fist bump” is a “terrorist fist bump”. Wow. Blonde. Through and through. Don’t get mad at me ladies. Just pointing out she is blonde as they come.

The gal is a bright woman, but I have never liked her as any part of Fox. Her contract was not extended.

IN her defense, she reads what she is teleprompted to read. And I have seen the video. She was referring to what other people call it, not her.

But, still, glad she’s gone.

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Hugh Hefner was dumped by Holly Madison. The Hef promptly when down to his basement and picked another concubine, this time one without a name that sounded like the name of a pastry manufacturer.

Hey. E.D. Hill is available!!!

Hugh stated “I have to have at least three, ya know? Any less than that, and I just feel lonely…”

Hefner reportedly takes Viagra in an I.V. drip.

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“WALL-E” hits the theaters.

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“DUMB-A” goes to court… again. OJ Simpson finally wound up where we knew he would… in prison… looking for the real killer. The man is relentless.

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Presidential nominee Barack Obama threatens passively that he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which gets Canada in a tizzy, because they simply don’t have “nearly the amount of Mexicans” that Mexico has. Texas and Arizona offer up their illegals, but quickly realize that that would leave them with 14 people in the two States.

The North American Free Trade Agreement also goes by the acronym “NAFTA”, which in Swahili means “Man what the HELL were we thinking???”

Austan Goolsbee described the rhetoric as “Political maneuvering”, which Obama has kept up ever since, and we expect to continue for at least the next 4 years. God willing, just 4 years…

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Billy and Vince die in a huge fiery automobile accident. Sham Wow’s used to sop up all of the spilled fuel. Mays’ headstone to read “BILLY MAYS HERE!”

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And lastly (excepting the links to cheer you up below), I wanted to finish off with the tolerance of the left.

Want to find out how tolerant the left is(n’t)? John Kass of the Chicago Tribune brought the truth to the surface with his article “Tolerance fails T-shirt test”. You can read here about it. It is a MUST read.

Nothing like revealing the ugliness of the “include everyone” left. This is the party of “tolerance”. The tolerance they show exhibits not only how little the left has, but also what they teach their children.

This can’t be our future… these people cannot hold the keys to our future…

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To clear your palette, I have these links to something dear to my heart- excellent photography. Some of the best images of the year can be found below.

Enjoy, and have a Happy New Year…!!!

Most viewed photo galleries at National Geographic