Snerk. Boy, half of my picks musta been real outliers, since they didn't make the list!

Yeah, I had few out there ones, too, such as Nathan Forest.

Hmmm…the list does seem a bit biased toward recent history.

How about one for World History? My votes would be Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Lennin, and Saddam Hussein.

Only three of my 11 suggestions made the list.

I didn't agree with a lot of the people on the list. I'm going to make my own on Monday. A “worst in world history” sounds like a good idea, too. Of course, next up is best in American history.

If Jane Fonda is there, you HAVE to include John Kerry.

Obama does not deserve to be on the list, as his chapter in American History has yet to be written.

Alger Hiss should have ranked higher!

Care to share your picks with us, Trog?

no cindy sheehan?

I would include Rachel Carson. How many millions of deaths from malaria did she cause by her junk science Silent Spring? William Ayers?

My picks would have dragged the center of mass deeper into history.

My picks (in no particular order), for what it's worth:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Alexander Hamilton
The Rosenbergs
Charles Manson
Benedict Arnold
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Timothy McVeigh
Lyndon Johnson
Aldrich Ames
John Walker Jr.
Robert Hanssen
Jane Fonda
Alger Hiss
Richard Nixon
J. Edgar Hoover
Saul Alinsky
George Soros

Can we count the NY Times as a person? After all, they wrote GLOWING op-eds for Mussolini in 1930s.

One person out of our history, often overlooked and even praised by many, would be William Tecumseh Sherman, who utilized a terror campaign against civilians as a part of his prosecution of the civial war. Whole towns were raised with the elderly, women, and children left homeless. Plantations, with there crops, homes, and buildings (slave quarters, too) were burned as part of his scorched earth policy, leaving the masses to starve. The shock of major cities, not being fought over and captured as in past wars, but leveled, demoralized the southern forces, speeding the end of the war. It was the first time since the hords and barbarians of the past that war was made against a civilian population. Much of what was spared was only spared do to some of the soldiers under his command disobeying orders and showing mercy to some of the sick and elderly that needed the shelter.
In today world he would be considered a war criminal, but to many he remains a hero.

Yeah, seems more of a list of who's unpopular. I mean Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky may be idiots, but do they really rate among actual spies and traitors? There's room for cult leaders like Manson and Jim Jones who had cultural effects beyond just the death and damage they caused.

Can't believe I forgot Jim Jones.

Off hand, I'd say you could replace Ted Kennedy with Joe Kennedy. I mean, yeah, Teddy was a drunken, left-wing, douche. But, I don't think he can hold a candle to a Hitler-supporting mobster who used the government as his muscle, took advantage of recent immigrants, brought his mistress to Sunday dinner, and had his daughter lobotomized for being uncontrollable.

I'm sorry, I am not trying to be a troll here, but this list is stupid.

Worst figures in American History? Obama places higher than Timothy McVeigh and the Rosenbergs? Hillary Clinton? Perhaps it should be labeled “political history”, and the list would still be skewed and bitterly biased.

Worst Figures in American History (in no part. order)?

- Charles Manson
- Richard Nixon
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Joe McCarthy
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Benedict Arnold
- John Wilkes Booth
- Charles “Lucky” Luciano/Myer Lansky/Al Capone
- John Walker Lindh
- Boss Tweed
- Ted Bundy
- The Rosenbergs
- Huey Long
- Jesse James

I agree with Vega. I thought the majority of this list would be more applied to the worst politicians or political pundits.

Figures that you would put a great patriot like Joe McCarthy on your list Vega.

Joe McCarthy is one of the worst American in History. He was great, great at being worst.

You opinion of McCarthy is based upon LIES, as you have already demonstrated, Vega. McCarthy was a partiot and more importantly, HE WAS RIGHT!

Thank you, King.

I think American History is too long anyway to limit it to 25. Maybe the worst figures in the last 100 years?

Even so, Hillary Clinton wouldn't be on any of those. What exactly did she do that was so bad? Noam Chomsky? Really?

Jim Jones is a really good one. People still use the term “Drink the Kool-Aid.”

Whatever, Stan. History has judged McCarthy for the POS he was.

I guess he will be on the list for best in American History then, considering the obvious extreme bias in this poll.

I think I also would add Stanley 'Tookie' Williams. Think about it.

Very classy, Vega. You edited your condemnation of McCarthy right out of your post, I wonder why?

But I will give you credit for one thing, there are far too many Liberal politicians on the list who's only crime is being a Liberal Politician. That negates any validity this poll might have had.

History has not judged McCarthy, Vega. Lying Liberals like you have. The truth about McCArthy was that he did find Communists agents working for the government and found Democrats willing to protect them. He was right in his mission and right on the results.

And YES, I would include him in a list of great Americans!

Master Nixon, Peace Be Upon Him, got the US out of the Democratic War in Vietnam. The South Vietnamese would still be free if the Democrats in Congress had not totally cut off their aid after we left.

Yet because of some action that no one died or was injured in he is one of the worst people ever?

Sounds like some the pundits are really (not) intelligent.

Some people left off are Jefferson Davis, John Kennedy, Joe Kennedy, George Soros, and Ko$.

Maybe, how about Mumia?

He ruin a lot more lives than he ever caught communists, and he pissed on the Constitution while he did it.

If he is on the list for best figures in AmHis, we can then get into this further. I don't want to screw the thread.

I thought the alternate copy was better.

And thank you for the credit.

Then there's Robert E. Lee, America's most romanticized traitor…

*runs from the room*

Again, running away from the subject YOU STARTED because you are too much of a pussy to post your lies AGain and get slapped down by me AGAIN.

I have asked you repeatedly to give me the name of ONE person who's life McCarthy ruined. ONE VEGA? And you can't do it!

You edited your post to change the meaning of it AFTER I had commented on it. Thsi is exactly the type of cowardly behaviour I predected Liberals woudl pull with an edit feature. You get trap;ped by your own words, so you go back and edit them out!

Pathetic!

It's not cowardly, I stand by my original statement. I just don't want this thread to be about McCarthy.

Sorry Andrew…. Mother Sheehan is just a kook who served her purpose to the Left during President Bush's terms. See how much attention she is getting now?

Then maybe you should not have been an asshole and brought him up, Vega.

(In a horrible Yosemite Sam souther drawl)

You, sir, are a scoundrel.

While Mumia is a bad guy, he is not one of the worst in history.

Tookie founded the Crips, which in turn established and evolved the street-gang culture in this country to unprecedented levels. And also caused the creation of other gangs like the Bloods, the Mexican gangs, etc. There are now Crip sets in every state and even internationally.

You could hazard a guess that Tookie Williams has the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands. Violence that continues to this day and shows no signs of stopping.

I hate gangbangers.

I agree with Tookie, but Mumia has been a poster boy for the Death Penalty for far too long. He has been turned into a celebrity.

“Of course you know… this means WAR!”

Not my fault he is one of the worst figures in American History. He should have been on the list.

He is not one of the worst, you have posted nothign by lies about him, and you STILL are unable to name a single innocent person that was ruined by McCarthy!

How about Mengistu (dictator of Ethipia), Charles Taylor, Idi Amin, and (of course) Robert Mugabe….

Or any other of the African dictators (or warlords if you will).

I can't believe that you added J. Edgar hoover to that list either. The guy created the modern FBI and revolutionized law enforcement. your typical leftist anti-LEO bias is showing.

I do like the inclusion of Jesse James though. The guy was a murderous criminal and all arround scumbag. But he is still lionized as some sort of folk hero. But we do that to our criminals, don't we? Look at the undeserved sainthood given to murderous children Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker for example.

TR

Sorry man, but your namesake makes the list because the institutional damage he did gave rise to a whole generation of liberal activist Woodward wannabes and cemented the MSM as anti-Republican and anti-American.

Watergate itself was nothing but a petty B&E.

I can get behind this post and agree with everything you said. That's the old Vega we all know slipping back in.
In any event, good post. It gets a “like point” from me.

Stan, although i agree that Muima has done alot of damage via his place as a cause for the misguided, you really can't compare his effect to William's body count.

TR

So what? He broke the law and the Constitution in order to run the place like his own private playground.

Just the other day, you said Lincoln's faults were enough that he should be included as one of the worst Presidents, and yet JEH shouldn't be listed as one of the worst Americans figures?

If the FBI Director today was doing what Hoover did in his time, he would be going to jail.

Body count accepted, Trench, but there is more to being a bad influence that just number of dead. Mumia would make my top 100 list, but not my top 25.

I agree with your point too, about all the famous outlaws in the 20's like Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Babyface Nelson, etc.

But Jesse James is perhaps the most infamous out of outlaws.

Thanks, TR. I have a special place of disdain for gang-bangers. They are a cancer within some of the poorest communities of all ethnicities, and they kill and terrorize more than any crazy muslim you can think of.

Not now, later.

That is what you said last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. One might think that you keep bringing up McCarthy just to call him a bad man, but run away when you are asked specific questions about him. People might think you are nothing but a pathetic partisan hack that is too much of a coward to back up what you claim.

AND THEY WOULD BE RIGHT!

John Wilkes Booth as one of the worst Americans? His only mistake was that he was 4 years late.

Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Osama bin Laden, Rasputin, Franco, Pinochet, Ho Chi Min, Mao Tse Tong, Vlad Tepes, Japan Emperor Hirohito, Pontius Pilate and some Popes (yes, some Popes.)

I know his hairstyle and his escaped plan definitely were mistakes.

Later, Stan. Don't be in a rush to be proven horrible wrong.

Keep running away, you pussy. I know you'll bring McCarthy up again, say what a bad man he is, and then run away AGAIN.

Just say you are a coward and have nothign but lies to say about McCarthy and well call it a day, ok princess?

Liberal troll?

Sure:

John Wayne Gacy
1919 Chicago Black Sox
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Lee Harvey Oswald
The guy who cancelled Firefly
Al Sharpton
John Maynard Keynes
Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot
Jane Fonda
Mike Nifong, DA in the Duke rape case
and Mike Ditka

The guy who cancelled Firefly
I think the guy that invented Reality Television is even more deserving.

Mike Ditka Seriously?

Should be a simple thing, Stan. Joe Mac should be on the list for best Americans, and then I will refute it then.

He will, of course, be on that list, right?

I will vote for him, Vega. And you are such a pompous prick that if you could refute it, you would.

You are nothing but bluster and cowardise, Vega.

Jimmy Carter? Maybe the most imcomptent list but not the worst person in American history list. And Al Sharpton is so irrelevant that to make this list is giving him way too much credit. My list: Wilson, FDR, Alexander Hamilton, and W. Obama would be on the list but I thought I would give him his full turn.

We'll see, Stan.

I know you'll vote for him. That's gonna make it even sweeter.

Put up or shut up, Vega. YOU brought McCarthy up this time, so prove your case. Don't do your dance of “I'll do it NEXT time”. This si the Fourth time we have had this debate and you have run away EVERY TIME!

If you can't do it, just admit you are a lying pissy little bitch and we'll debate other things.

Classical liberal? Sure. Troll? Not so much.
Abe was less faithful to the constitution than any other president in American history. He is responsible for the deaths of a few hundred thousand human beings because he wanted to collect tariffs from southern ports, not to free the slaves. Lincoln was a tyrant that has been deified by revisionist historians.

ahmen brother.

Jefferson Davis? Davis wasn't even hated by people during the civil war! He was well respected befoire and after the war, even beloved by many. Many of his ex-slaves (those that left after the war) travelled across country to attend his funeral.

I agree with you on Nixon. While he doesn't make my best presidents list, his list of accomplishments while in office is extensive. From opening up our relationship with China and creating detent with Russia which directly lead to the end of the spread of communision, not to mention returning calm to our streets and campuses by futhering human and civil rights. Getting us out of Vietnam and returning our POW's home like he said he would… but then again, he did bring us 55mph speed limits. I did hate him for that.
I could be mistaken but I think the main thing many people hate him for is that he won the elections. It's why many hate Bush, after all.

Lincoln was no tyrant, as he was duly elected.

Wilkes was a traitor to his country, as the south had surrendered and it was over. Wilkes was simply acting out of revenge and pettiness.

You do sound like the old guys from this site – SicSemperTyrannis, or maybe DocNeaves?

Good call, Hawkins.
I'm going to type up my own “worst 25″ list in preparation for that thread. i'd do it for this one, but this is a busy day for me. I have to visit the DMV (pity me…) and Mrs. Trench Raider and I have a “date night” starting in two hours.

TR

No George H. W. Bush for his role in Ruby Ridge?

The good that JEH did outweighs the lapses in the civil right era. The same could not be said for Lincoln who provoked a war that killed 600,00 Americans, had civil rights violations that made the leftist hype about Bush look childish by comparison, and left a resentment and rancor that persists to this day. (with no Civil War there would have been no reconstruction and thus no Jim Crow in response to that. Likewise had slavery died a natural death I feel that blacks would have been more gently and fully intigrated into US society)

TR

Hirohito not so much, Hideki Tojo, definitely

Just to be anal about it, the outlaws you list above are from the “public enemies” era during the early 1930s, not the '20s. ;-p

But your point is well made and I agree. Although I find that era of US criminal/law enforcement history facinating (“Public enemies” by Brian Burrough is one of the best books I've read recently) I find the idolizing of criminals to be disgusting.

The James/Younger gang certainly does deserve a spot on the list over other famous outlaws. Not only did they invent the modern daylight bank robbery and caused alot of mayhem during their careers, but their exploits really started (at least here in the US…in other countries it goes a long way back. Robin Hood anyone?) the disgusting pehnomenon of the “celebrity criminal”.

TR

Nathan Bedford Forrest actually disowned the Klan later in life… The early Klan was really more a response to Northern interventionism in the South.

Credit where it's due. You're absolutely right.

Eh.
I would contend as the poster boy for everything that is wrong with the US left in recent decades teddy tops Joe. In addition, the 1965 immigration reform act (which he sponsored) is one of the most damaging pieces of legislation in US history. It's slowing rotting the US and if left in place will eventually destroy our national character.

TR

Yes, Jesse James' gang was the first and most effective at being so bad, that people actually admired them for being so bad. A morbid fascination of guys that played by their own rules.

That romanticization continued through the “public enemies” era, then the Italian mobsters, and now to the street gangs, who still admire the outlaw culture.

You can't judge someone on “shoulda, coulda, woulda”, it is as it happened. Point is, Lincoln saved the union.

JEH broke the LAW. He wasn't President in a time of emergency, he was simply an unelected Director. At certain times, he could've been considered the most powerful man in the country.

Jimmy Carter is worse than Timothy McVeigh? Wow.

C'mon Last Word. You STILL haven't argued until your “statements” were broken down by syllable. Pansy.

And I'm not sure why a fair minded liberal would bother to argue with a troll like you stan. You have a potty mouth and always seem to deteriorate any conversation to name calling.

Imbicile. (sic)

Glad to see Lee Harvey Oswald on your list. I can't believe he was forgotten in other lists. He did assasinate a sitting president.

In that spirit, do you agree Jimmy Carter is the worst?

Oh, for the love of God! This list is pathetic. Over half of those on the list are alive RIGHT NOW?

Most of those 13 are simply small-time contemporary political nuisances, not truly abominable figures who merit historical contempt.

Ah yes, because no leader elected through the regular workings of a government has ever usurped more power afterwards.

I might disagree with a few of your choices, but certainly there is a place for most of them. Indeed, they can be more accurately classified as “the worst” than many of the folks on the list.

Like it or not, McCarthy was a demagogue who did more harm to the cause of anti-Communism than any liberal via his irresponsible, drunken activity.

So what? He broke the law and the Constitution in order to run the place like his own private playground.

In what way, Vega?

I'm not trying to pick a fight here but I do know a few retired former FBI members who looked upon him with respect. I've known these people for a long time, they are not prone to irrational thought.

Hoover made a lot of enemies because he was hard against criminals. Hoover certainly wouldn't make the most cheerful person to work for but he did earn the respect of a lot of people in law enforcement.

This is really a stupid list. Seriously. I expected much better from conservatives. How in the hell is Hilary Clinton on this list and not Charles Manson? Jimmy Carter and FDR worse than Tim VcVeigh?!? Were is Jessie James? Aaron Burr? Jay Gould & Jim Fisk? Lt. Calley? John Dillinger? Al Capone?

I'd expect such a silly list from Daily Kod but not RWN. Not only does this reflect contemporary political sentiments, it also displays a profound ignorance of American history — again, very surprising for this site.

With an academic background in History, Political Science, and Theology, how about if this conservative blogger offers you folks a list of 20, in no particular order.

1) Benedict Arnold
2) Joe McCarthy (his drunken demagoguery did more to harm the anti-Communist cause than any liberal could have)
3) John Wilkes Booth
4) Margaret Sanger
5) Lee Harvey Oswald
6) Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground
7) James G. Blaine (his anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment and its progeny have forever warped our First Amendment Jurisprudence)
8) Al Gore (2000 election and Global Warming)
9) Aaron Burr
10) Hugo Black
11) FDR
12) Teddy Kennedy
13) “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman
14) Theodore Bilbo
15) Bull Connor
16) Barack Obama
17) John Brown
18) Woodrow Wilson
19) Josephus Daniels (See these)
20) Boss Tweed

The name Lee Harvey Oswald occurred to no one? Really? And the president during WWII was the third worst person in American history?

Wow. You've got to find a new roster of bloggers to poll, because these guys are idiots.

This is the stupidest thing on the internet today. It's not even internally consistent: John Wilkes Booth and not Nathan Bedford Forrest? No Thurgood Marshall or Earl Warren, but the Rosenbergs? No Louis Farrakhan? Y'all need to try harder.

And you can back that up with proof, right RwR?

First, you will have to find a fair minded Liberal, martha, because it has been a long time since one has posted here.

Second, you labor under the assumption that I give a DAMN what you think!

…I believe you mean “Billlis Smalley” and “Weed Hoot”.

We ARE talking about people in the historical context of American history (people that damaged our country) aren’t we, not just political in scope and nature?
1 – Osama Bin Laden (His actions will turn out to be the costliest in its human toll and expenditure of time, resources, and money)
2 – The Rosenburgs (what they did had world wide negative consequences)
3 – Benedict Arnold (his name is synonymous with evil intent)
4 – Timothy McVeigh
5 – Jeffery Daimler
6 – Charles Manson
7 – Lee Harvey Oswald
8 – John Wilkes Booth
9 – Margaret Sanger
10- Aldrich Ames
11- Jim Jones
12- Sirhan Sirhan
13- James Earl Ray
14- William Tweed
15- Malcolm X
16- Arthur Bremer
17- Ted Bundy
18- David Berkowitz
19- Bernard Madoff
20- Warren G Harding
21- Franklin Roosevelt
22- Larry Flynt
23- Louis Farrakhan
24- Timothy Leary
25- Jimmy Carter (Why? Not only did Carter sink the economy along with the national psyche, but caused negative reactions and turmoil in the middle east that lasts until this day.)

You people are filth.

Troll

This kind of 'conservatism' is a social disease.

Henry Ford
Joe McCarthy
Lyndon Johnson
Richard Ramirez
George W. Bush
Robert Byrd
Wayne Wheeler
Frances Willard
Anita Bryant
Sitting Bull
King Camp Gillette
Andrew Jackson
Bob Jones, Sr.
William H. Hays
Sam Walton
Al Roker
Brigham Young
Steven Spielberg
Noah Webster
Benjamin Spock
Jay Gould
Hubert Humphrey

Let's consider this one for just a minute. McCarthy made progressively more outrageous charges, often with little or no proof, as his fame grew. Ultimately, he was completely discredited at the Army-McCarthy hearings, where his demagoguery was on display for all to see as he made accusations against individuals without a shred of evidence. His alcoholism was already known at the time, and he was dead not long afterward due to complications from that illness.

I happen to agree with Bill Bennett on McCarthy, and feel the former Secretary of Education sums matters up more eloquently than I can: “The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy … McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government. But his approach to this real problem was to cause untold grief to the country he claimed to love … Worst of all, McCarthy besmirched the honorable cause of anti-communism. He discredited legitimate efforts to counter Soviet subversion of American institutions.”

Alexander Hamilton? The champion of the “vigorous executive” — why?

What the fuck is wrong with you people?

Which people? And on what basis?

3 years ago almost no conservatives had any idea who Saul Alinsky was and now he qualifies the 23rd worst person in American history???

It's only the paranoid mindset of Conservatives that causes them to elevate an obscure nobody like Alinsky into some would-be socialist Machiavelli.

3 years ago almost no conservatives had any idea who Saul Alinsky was and now he qualifies the 23rd worst person in American history???

It's only the paranoid mindset of Conservatives that causes them to elevate an obscure nobody like Alinsky into some would-be socialist Machiavelli.

God Bless General Sherman.

really stupid people, these right wing loons who brought our country to the brink of destruction

Probably the ones who display a fundamental ignorance of history and group terrorists, spies, and traitors with politicians who did good things but belonged to the Democratic party (even though back then both parties had liberal and conservative wings). Can't admit the dems have ever done anything good, can we? That would be, like, viewing the world in less than black and white terms. And complexity makes people's heads hurt.

And I suppose you would like to eradicate the disease and its carriers, right, you little genocidal freak?

While I am pleased to see FDR beat Benedict Arnold, if wasn't for President Eisenhower we would all be speaking Japanese right now thanks to surrender monkey FDR, aren't we missing someone here?

* Abraham Lincoln. The man's radical anti-ownership society agenda FORCED the American Civil War and caused the deaths of 600,000 of his fellow citizens.

* Edward R Murrow: the man helped McCarthy discredit anti-Communism. If wasn't Murrow's reporting of McCarthy's witch hunts McCarthy would be an American hero

* George McClellan: The man had a chance to stop Lincoln's blood crazed presidency threw a military intervention and he failed to do the right thing. McClellan deserve partial responsibility for all those American Civil War Deaths.

I can admit that some Dems, including my wife, have done good things — but I also acknowledge that many of the “good things” that you talk about were neither good nor within the proper limits of government authority as spelled out by the US Constitution — hence my inclusion of both Obama and FDR on the list of worst people.

What the fuck is wrong with you, that you can't make any better response than that? Yor response shows that you are incapable of offering a cogent, well-reasoned response to what you disagree with — proving your intellectual inferiority to those who have something the fuck wrong with them.

FDR was Ronald Reagan's favorite president.

This poll is yet more evidence that the right-wing in this country has gone completely insane.

Incredible. Jeffrey Dahmer? Al Capone? Those guys murdered people. And you have idiot Nancy Pelosi, incompetent Obama, ignorant Harry Reid above murderers? How about Aaron Burr who tried to set up his own country as Vice President? What about John C. Calhoun who more than most was responsible for starting the civil war?

There are 50 Americans who are worse than any contemporary Democrat listed above. Not even close guys.

Plenty of us on the right recognize that while anti-Communism was and is the only morally correct position to take with regards to that vile political philosophy, McCarthy and his irresponsible drunken antics did much more to harm that cause than to advance it.

You would put McCarthy there? Then this conservative would label you a fool.

Gotta agree with you, Mahatma. I wonder if Stan would like to offer a well thought out defense of his position that not only was McCarthy not one of the worst people in US history, but belongs on a list of the best? Indseed, I wonder if he is capable of doing so.

I hope to God you are concern trolling.

Hoover ran the FBI as his own little fiefdom, illegally wiretapped folks without warrants, maintained files with which he blackmailed politicians into supporting his continuance in office and the expansion of his authority, and showed a striking disregard of the Constitution when it came to those who he disagreed with politically. I'll be the first to concede that he and his gay lover did a great job running the agency and did a lot to protect America during his days and evenings in drag, but his method were often those that anyone who loves the Constitution and the values that underlie it ought to look upon askance.

She's just a delusional, mentally ill tool, not rising to the level of evil that would qualify for the “worst Americans” list.

Seems rather random.

Because the choices do not warrant a response any more then one is warranted in trying to reason with a person who is convinced the moon is made of cheese.

Noted. However, constitutional authority is a subjective thing–the document is explicit in many cases, and less so in others (i.e. Article I's commerce clause, the 2nd amendment, 10th amendment). The executive branch is tasked to uphold the constitution, the judicial branch is tasked to review and interpret it. Obama hasn't overstepped constitutional bounds any more than his predecessor did, and while FDR's Japanese concentration camps were probably one of the lowest presidential points of the century, his other major attempts to circumvent the constitution were thwarted by the legislature. I agree that Obama is not the more effective Jimmy Carter that we all hoped he'd be, and that FDR is not the squeaky-clean super-president we like to think he is (but then, neither are Washington or Lincoln or any of them, really).

Unfortunately, the constitution is an old, imperfect document. But if we're not giving politicians the benefit of the doubt in assuming they believed they were upholding the constitution (and I wouldn't in all instances), then George W. Bush takes the cake.

Two words:

1) Cop

2) Out

If you believe yourself to be so much more superior, it should be a really easy task for you to run off a list of 20 (or even 10) defensible choices.

This is easily the most embarrassing thing I have ever seen. It's beyond juvenile… because it's really so sad and pathetic. I echo everyone who asked, “Are you even trying?”

Wow. Y'all really need emotional help. I worry for you.

Any chance of your adding me to the pool of those polled?

You will have to go bigger than a top 25 for world history — either that, or you are going to have to sharply limit the time frame for the list. After all, we've got some six or seven millennia of civilization to cover.

About what I would expect from militarist pentagon worshiping “right” in this country. Laughable. Jimmy Carter number one! You can't parody these idiots. LOL.

This sort of “conservatism” is not a social disease- it is just tribal idiocy. At the core of the mainstream “right” today is a bunch of military contractors and other assorted federal government tax feeders- who call for more war- more fat and lard for their “defense” buddies (while they provide cover for the Kleptocrats on Wall Street). They have hijacked conservatism and made it stupid, mean, petty, and irrelevant. They are fed gov warfare state shills and most of them get federal checks in the mail on way or another.

True, but, he did help start it.

What an spectacularly ignorant list. I'm a progressive, and I could do a better job of being a right-wing butthole than the people who voted.

You want to put a labor agitator on there, you don't pick Saul Alinsky over Eugene Debs, John L. Lewis, Cesar Chavez or Jimmy Hoffa.

Al Sharpton over Malcolm X or Martin Luther King? Yeah, right.

Noam Chomsky– who has had absolutely zero impact on public policy– over George Kennan, who is known is “the father of containment”?

Michael Moore over Upton Sinclair or Lincoln Steffens? Jane Fonda over Paul Robeson? Not one member of the Warren Court? Not Theodore Roosevelt? Where's Daniel Ellsberg or Seymour Hirsch– or Julian Assange?

This is why we make fun of your lack of intellect, folks– you can't even identify the people who've done the most damage to your belief system. It would be as if progressives compiled a list of the most vile and bigoted conservatives in history and picked Wally George, John Schmitz, Ann Althouse and Orly Taitz.

I had Oswald on my list.

Hilarous….no wonder the so-called Right is in such disarray. I think one is pre-20th century.

“FDR was Ronald Reagan's favorite president.

This poll is yet more evidence that the right-wing in this country has gone completely insane.”

Wrong.

“Reagan's favorite president after Lincoln was Calvin Coolidge, a minimalist whom historians rate near the bottom of the ladder.”

http://www.thepilot.com/news/2010/apr/04/reagan…

So, Lincoln, followed by Coolidge…

I'm sure this is a surprise to Reagan, who said, in his memoirs, that his fav was Calvin Coolidge…

Chomsky should stick with linguistics and leave foreign policy assessment to Raymond Ibrahim and Ali Sina…

Many on your side of the political spectrum insist on the innocence of the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss to this very day, D-Vega. Indeed, the Left had it out for Nixon way, way before Watergate… because he (quite correctly) went after Hiss.

Leaving out the absurdity of a terrorist receiving fewer votes than three presidents, two of whom presided over financial crises that they inherited from their inept predecessors, I guess it is somewhat comforting that someone who killed about 200 people, including, like, kids and stuff, gets more votes than Nancy Pelosi and Hilary Clinton who, to my knowledge have not blown up anything. But this is pretty pathetic.

And how about the list of college professors that listed FDR as #1 over the Framers, and Wilson in the top 10, Obama as #16… Tell me that isn't stupid. The respondents in this poll are POLITICAL BLOGGERS, which means they are supposed to be opinionated, whereas professors are supposed to be objective…

At an early point in his life that was true — but as he grew in age and wisdom, he recognized that FDR did grave damage to the country through his policies.

Richard Nixon, right next to Charles Manson? Really???

Why, did Nixon subvert the democratic process in order to Sovietize our economy? Did he threaten to bypass Congress in order to legalize tens of millions of illegal aliens? Did his party openly boast it will pass anything it damned well wants too even after its coming historic wipe out, before the people's elected representatives have a chance to take their seats in Congress? Did he openly threaten to shut down any and all media opposition to his rule?

You little disgusting fascist freaks are SO getting your tight little panties all in a knot, knowing you are about to be flushed down the toilet bowl of history, with your smarmy little communist social and economic programs, your condescending hate for all things American, your disgust at Western Civilization and the Christian religion, your open & self-loathing bigotry against white people in general. Suck it, b*itches!

Nixon didn't get us out. Gerald Ford did. And Eisenhower started it. But then history was never a strong suit with you idiotic RWNJ's

Definite troll — after all, only Democrats believe in a society in which blacks are property of other Democrats (or the Democrat party as a whole).

No, the really stupid people are the Obamunists who are driving the country headlong over a cliff.

looks like two.

Khalid ibn al-Walid (“The Sword of Allah”, one of the Sahabah or companions of Muhammad who massacred the Sabaeans of Banu Jadimah and whose thirst for blood culminated in the Battle of Ullays (“Blood River”) in 633 in Sassanid Mesopotamia; the quotes “we are a people who drink blood, and we know no blood is better than Roman blood” and “we desire death as you desire life” are attributed to him)

Abd al-Mumin (the Almohad emir who, in 1148, massacred 100,000 Jews in Fez and 120,000 Jews in Marrakesh)

Ante Pavelic (the WWII Poglavnik of the Nazi puppet state Independent State of Croatia, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs, and Roma in Jasenovac concentration camp)

Radu cel Frumos (Brother of Vlad Tepes, Pasha of Ottoman Wallachia [modern-day Romania] from 1462-1473 [he converted to Islam], whose brutality in suppressing Janissary uprisings is often overlooked)

Tamerlane (For his indiscriminate massacres of Christians and “heretics” from the Volga to the Indus, in the case of the Alans [ancestors of the Ossetians] exterminating 90% of them; by 1404, a year before his death, he expressed his desire to “make war upon the infidels and exterminate the idolators of China”)

Enver Hoxha (The repressive, murderous tyrant of Albania)

Nicolae Ceau?escu (The repressive, murderous tyrant of Romania)

Hong Xiuquan (For the atrocities he caused during the Taipeng Rebellion)

Slobodan Milosevic, Alija Izetbegovic, and Franjo Tudjman for causing murder and mayhem in the Balkans

Titus and, later, Hadrian for their destruction of Judea

Definitely Tojo. I left him off my list; thanks for reminding me.

“The early Klan was really more a response to Northern interventionism in the South.”

Yes, but that doesn't make them sympathetic. They were and are genocidal thugs who deserve no respect.

Carter beat out Obama? Hey Jimmy, you're still number one!

You know, I think it really says something that men with names like Raymond Ibrahim (a Copt) and Ali Sina (a murtadd i.e. apostate from Islam) are anti-Hezbollah and anti-Hamas, but Chomsky provides misleading apologetics for these modern-day white-hood groups…

Huh. What a moronic list. Those are seriously the worst people you can come up with from US history? Michael Moore isn't even significant enough to make the cut, even if you accept the premise that being a left-wing documentarian is evil.

I mean, I wouldn't put Limbaugh on the list.

What this speaks to is the tiny cultural memory of the Right. Asked to make a list of historical bad guys, the best they can do is make a list of Liberals they've heard of. Pitiful.

…but Booth is on the list. No president has ever expanded the Federal Government more than Lincoln, and Booth shot him. You should be a fan.

That's right…and don't forget the evils of Hamilton and Madison…without them, we wouldn't even HAVE a Constitution and there wouldn't be a Federal government at all. Those communist jerks.

I would leave FDR off the list myself.He made some serious errors but he saved the capitalist system and led us through WWII…in fact, I wish Bush had fought the War on Jihad the way FDR fought WWII.

Also,putting Nixon, one of our most accomplished presidents on is an injustice IMO.

Here's my list in no particular order: Barack Obama, James Buchanan, The Rosenbergs, Sol Alinsky, John Wilkes Booth, George Soros, Jimmy Carter, Elijah Mohammed, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Ted Kennedy, Earl Warren, Roger Baldwin, The Clintons, Ibrahim Hooper, Stephen S. Wise, John Kerry, Khalid Mansour, and Louis Farrakhan.

The framers aren't by default the best presidents. They had their fair share of mistakes. The Articles of Confederation, for instance…

In terms of efficacy, FDR is number one. It's a bit skewed in his favor due to the fact that he was elected to four terms, however.

Basically, it comes down to this: you're letting your bias get in the way of reality. You don't like that FDR is considered one of the best, if not THE best, president of all time, so you choose to attribute that fact to liberal bias. You may as well trash Nixon as being the worst president ever, despite the fact that he was quite good when it came to policy (he was just a prejudiced douche with too much focus on political ambition).

You do have a point — remove John Wilkes Booth from the list, and replace him with your mom for failing to abort you.

Given your own trollishness, I find your comment rather amusing.

But under the Robert Byrd rule, quitting and disavowing the group makes him a civil rights hero.

Limbaugh or Palin may be the new face of the Republican Party, but George W. Bush will always be its asshole.

Great job guys! Yeah, Jimmy Freakin' Carter is OBVIOUSLY WAY WORSE than Osama Bin Laden. Enjoy your epic fail.

I like this challenge…20 American historical figures that tick me off. In no particular order:

Nathan Bedford Forrest
Joe McCarthy
Herbert Hoover
Andrew Jackson
Alexander Stephens
Richard Nixon
A. Mitchell Palmer
Jeffery Amherst
Jerry Falwell
Barry Goldwater
Henry Kissinger (okay, I'm overdoing the 1960s)
Jay Gould
William “Boss” Tweed
Dick Cheney (can't blame Bush, Bush is a sock puppet)
Al Capone
Phyllis Schlafly
James Earl Ray
Roger B. Taney
Irving Fisher
Bernie Madoff
Derek Jeter

I like that the right is still scared of Alinsky. They should be.

I can't believe somebody married you.

Only thing worse than a conservative troll? A liberal troll, because then I'm annoyed AND disappointed.

What? No Jesus? No Ghandi? No Martin Luther King???!!!

WOw, talk about “politically correct”! Even JFK & RFK get a pass because they remain overwhelmingly beloved by the American people, and rightwingers have a spine like a rubberband.

It must suck being a rightwinger. The sex is vanilla (or involves children & diapers), the music is 70's crap-rock, and your leaders cannot speak in complete sentences. And even the most rabid racist a-holes are too afraid (even in a meaningless poll like this) to attack people they truly hate, like King, the Kennedy's, Thomas Jefferson, etc., because it would require a backbone and they're cowardly, flabby, little weenies.

I wonder what goes through the “mind” of a wingnut deciding that Jimmy Carter is even worse than Timothy McVeigh. The “malaise” speech? The 70's stagflation that preceded his presidency and took his appointee Paul Volcker to cure? Billy? The drooling morons of the hard right don't need particular reasons, needless to say. Belief is everything.

Speaking as a physician, I would seriously recommend that you sick-fucks (a term probably not found in Stedman's – but probably should be) need to:

[1] Start taking your psychotropic medications
[2] If you are on psychotropic meds – INCREASE YOUR DOSAGE
[3] If you are NOT on psychotropic meds – get yourselves to a psychiatrist POST HASTE!

I get that Lincoln offends people who like States' Rights, but you're talking about a guy whose presidency got him killed, who in fact had been arguing against slavery for years prior to his election, and who put the US at pretty significant economic risk in order to preserve the Union. What personal benefit did Lincoln get from 'collecting tariffs'? Although he did run roughshod over individual liberties during the war, Lincoln is 'deified' for being a hero. There are about a billion pages of Lincoln's personal writings out in the either, and a critical mass of them demonstrate Lincoln's concerns with a) preventing the spread of, and ultimately ending slavery and b) preserving the Union. Your reading of history is atypical mostly because it's hard to support.

Dude. Tonkin Gulf.

Nixon also proposed Universal Employment, because he was a Communist.

Laugh it up by all means.

Jimmy Carter, who is more of a Christian than the lot of you, is worse than John Wilkes Booth and Timothy McVeigh???

Wow…

What is your problem with Stephen Jay Gould? Don't tell me…you are a Young Earth creationist…

Your strawman-fu is weak, young Jedi.

How did Lincoln provoke the war? Secession was the idea of traitorous rich planters in the South who used intimidation at the ballot box to win the day. They then had their pro-slavery armies attack a Federal fort. Lincoln did his job and kept the Union together.

The idea that Reconstruction is responsible for Jim Crow is laughable. Without SLAVERY there would have been no Jim Crow. Without RACISM there would have been no Jim Crow. Your argument amounts to saying that if the Federal Government had not tried to let black people vote and hold office, the South wouldn't have needed to shoot and kill them and then pass laws to keep them from exercising their civil rights. How disgusting.

I'm sure your wife is deeply impressed with your patronizing condensation.

Some Bircher types would indeed say that Nixon “Sovietized” America when he took it off the gold-standard, his Enemies List was heavy on figures in “the goddamned media” – & he fought a futile war in Indochina that wound up driving three formerly neutral countries into the Communist sphere while destroying them … & if you like government by dirty tricks, he's your man. Ironically, the US has gone so far right since Nixon that he'd easily qualify as a far-left Democrat today – detente with China, wage & price controls & establishing the EPA come to mind.

As for bloviations about “the toilet bowl of history,” I heard exactly the same pro-GOP chest-beating right before both the 2006 & 2008 elections. If the GOP can't pick up at least 15-20 seats in the fall, with the economy this bad, they may as well change their name to Teh Keystone Kops – & so far they've literally done everything wrong. Perhaps replacing basic competance or proven performance with ideological purity as a prerequisite for membership ISN'T such a cunning plan after all?

That has to be one of the most vile things I've read in awhile. The management here should seriously consider banning you for that.

Unbelievable.

BTW…do you actually profess to be a Christian? Just wondering. Your pastor ought to read that, if you have one.

Sorry, next time I'm being heavily sarcastic I'll be clearer about it. Abraham Lincoln is awesome, but generally speaking a liberal, in that he's a social justice kinda guy (except habeas corpus, but I forgive him). JW Booth shot him. Therefore, JW Booth should be lionized by anyone whose dumb enough the think that Michael Moore counts as “one of the worst people in history”, although actually RWR's own list was much better than the one up top.

Senator Bilbo certainly does belong on the list.

Do you think I care what a liberal troll like you says? Do you think John does?

I think the point is that your lack of respect for other people is so pronounced that it's hard to imagine you could have any interest in the public good, which renders any and all opinions you might have about what counts as a “great American” kind of meaningless. If you're just a narcissist, no amount of historical background or critical thinking will make you any less of a tool.

You clearly missed my point — but then again, a dumb bunny like you probably would in any event

15 years last week, and still happily married.

I did miss the sarcasm, and found it to be liberal trolling. Insult withdrawn.

jim, this list is about AMERICAN's, not foreigners. Please pay attention.

Here was my list:

FDR,

The Rosenberg's
Aldrich Aimes
Jimmy Carter
Woodrow Wilson
John Walker Lindh
Tim McVeigh
Charles Coughlin
John Wilkes Booth
Nathan Forest
J. Edgar Hoover
Ramsey Clark
Noam Chomskey
Al Gore (which is a shame, since I used to be a big fan of his, and even voted for him in 2000. Unfortunately, he has done serious damage worldwide, IMO)
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger

And, yes, I left Obama off the list, as he is not history as of yet.

If you insist on including contemporary figures to assess “the worst in American history,” how about Major Nidal Hasan, who murdered 30 soldiers at Fort Hood?

Your Kung Fu is strong, AnneMarie. Awesome.

Comment from another blog FTW: Funny, I didn't think Obama was American.

[citation needed]

“Condensation” said she who would educate the heathen. LOL (Condescension, maybe?)

The merits of this argument aside, I did enjoy how the replies in this thread literally became narrower and narrower until StanW's last comment on McCarthy was one word wide, which gave it the appearance of abusive concrete poetry. Especially the part that read:
lying
pissy
little
bitch

I think that's some Robert Frost shit right there.

JFK signed the Excecutive Order permitting municipal unions. He belongs at #1. He did so in 1962 and 48 years later, those unions own America.

Gee! One of the few times I've ever found myself in agreement with Wm. Bennett. He may know his history, but he was the most out-of-touch Secretary of Education I've ever seen.

He was a drunken, opportunistic incompetent liar. You may lionize him all you want, but the record stands against him. He died in disgrace.

she must be a dog……..

I left the Republican party years ago in disgust when I found that it was full of liars and racists. Not a fair-minded individual in the lot.

Long after Reagan retired from the presidency, Nancy insisted that he not replace FDR on the dime because he's been a lifetime admirer of FDR. Try again.

Carter got the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel signed. That's the biggest American achievement in the Middle East ever.

And there is much to be admired in his conduct of WWII — I put would also put him on my good list.

She's a troll. I don't respect trolls.

I'd have to beat the crap out of you if you dared make such a comment to my face.

But then again, I doubt you would dare make such a comment to my face.

Well done sir.

Abraham Lincoln belongs on it for beginning the destruction of the united states as the Framers designed it.

Disagree, but not for the reasons you think. Sherman didn't go far enough in his sweep thru the South. Every confederate soldier above the rank of lieutenant should have gotten a 10 year sentence at the minimum. Each and every “Southern Plantation” should have been burned to the ground. Reconstruction should have extended until the end of that century.

It was Sherman's pussyfooting, Lincoln's acquiescence and Pres. Andrew Johnson's curtailment of the Reconstruction that has led to the frigging mess we now find ourselves in.

To the abhorrently arrogant Woodrow L. Goode,

It is exactly YOUR lack of intellect that even gave us the opportunity to compile a list of flotsam as this. Your condescending tone allows me the opportunity to look no further than the congressional majority to define an even better list.

How 'bout we start with every moron who voted for Obamacare without even reading the freaking bill”?

We can follow up that mindf__K with a list of those who voted for the latest round of bailouts (hey Maxine how's hubby's bank stock doing now .. let's not forget Barney and Chris Dodd and Charlie – OH MY!)

Or an even more robust list of those who voted for the recent financial “responsibility” bill. No one knows whats in it or who is in charge of enforcing … well what the f__K are they enforcing anyway?

I think just printing a simple roll call from the left side of the congressional aisle is a list more worthy of your self-anointed intellect there, Woody.

With a 10% positive approval rating for Congress, I think most of us “stupid taxpayers” get it, even without the benefit of someone as intelligent as you putting it all together for us.

Oooohhh! Internet tough guy.

Pathetic.

Agreed. They also supported the Viet Nam war long after our leadership saw it as a lost cause, and they were cheerleaders for the Bushroids, the frigging Iraq war and the stupid “War on Terra”.

The NYT is nothing but Corporatist Scum. Cheerleaders for the Kleptocrats.

From Zero to Godwin Violation in no time flat.

Maybe you should marry RhymesWithRight? You clearly deserve each other.

No doubt about it, Nixon and George W. were FAR too liberal for mainstream conservative tastes… Ironically, both wound up thoroughly hated by the likes of D-Vega for their troubles. What lesson do you draw from THAT, Grasshopper?

BTW, when it comes to fighting a futile Indochina War… I think you got Nixon confused with LBJ. Nixon pretty successfully wound things down in Vietnam… until Watergate led to a liberal takeover in Washington, and the sort of Congressional fellow-traveling Leftists D-Vega admires so much quite deliberately threw it all away.

And when was the last time you spotted a Trendy Latte Sipping Leftist sport a T-Shirt that had anything to say about the Plight of the Boat People, by the way? Something that should be seared into the conscience of every Leftist that spouts the usual Commie line of bull about Vietnam.

That really makes no sense, Jenny. I was responding, in jest, to his avatar. You know, the picture of the DOG that is directly to the left of his posting handle.

The fact that he responded to me with a pathetic ITG whine clearly deserved my “pathetic” response. That crap went away about 10 years ago.

Please obtain a sense of humor. Thx.

Yeah, the thing is that when I said you deserved each other I didn't actually mean that as a compliment to RWR.

You're not making any sense.

Bye now.

Agreed, this list is horrible.

Pelosi is obviously a more despicable character than Booth.

The worst people in American history are:

1. Jefferson Davis (traitor)
2. John Wilkes Booth (assassin)
3. Lee Harvey Oswald (assassin)
4. Benedict Arnold (traitor)
5. Martin James Monti (traitor)
6. Charles Guiteau (assassin)
7. Leon Czolgosz (assassin)
8. Timothy McVeigh (terrorist)
9. Boss Tweed (corrupt)
10. Alger Hiss (traitor)
11. The Rosenbergs (traitors)
12. John Walker Lindh (terrorist/traitor)
13. Ted Bundy (serial killer)
14. Nathan Bedford Forest (racist)
15. James Earl Ray (assassin/racist)
16. Charles Manson (serial killer/cult leader)
17. J. Edgar Hoover (assaulting the constitution)
18. Joseph McCarthy (witch-hunt)
19. Richard Nixon (for destroying the Presidency and assaulting the constitution)
20. Everyone who listed a political figure solely because they disagree with them or they are “Socialist” or “ignorant” or Bush or Obama. Go read a history book.

Ah, how the mighty have fallen. Your mamas spent the '30s screaming that FDR was a traitor to his class, and all he got was 3rd? And he's worse than Benedict Arnold? What world do you guys live in?

This shows the stupidity of conservative bloggers better than anything else ever could.

Can't help but notice the numbers of persons who have abstained from giving you LIKE props versus the number of persons who have given LIKE props to your rhetorical opponents.

You CAN count, right? If you can, then that's all the evidence I need to know who 'won' this 'debate'.

BTW, this response from you is about the worst I've ever seen. You suppose? Really? Eradicating conservatives like the Nazis tried to eradicate the Jews? That's all you got?

Then you got nothin'. How's that working for you lately?

ha ha

Ok what did Mike Ditka do that you didn't like? Other than take the '85 Bears to the superbowl?

A terrorist who murdered hundreds of people (#9, Timothy McVeigh) is ranked below a President (#1, Jimmy Carter) who, no matter how awkwardly, did at least try to do the right thing for the nation and never intentionally murdered anyone, and since leaving the Presidency has done more for the peace of the world than any of your right-wing heroes can even dream of. What is the hell is the matter with you? Are you on something?

Ya forgot Woodrow Wilson.

He just did what Lincoln wanted him to do.

Saying your rhetorical opponent should never have been born? Using a metaphor that describes a medical procedure that you probably consider SHOULD be illegal–and then say it's okay for that to happen to my enemy? Not care what some Samaritan like she says?

THAT'S what Jesus would do!

You can't be a Christian AND a Republican conservative or a Teabagger. I am sorry to bring you this news, but you'll probably burn in Hell just for what you posted here.

“…whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

Love your enemies and pray for them. This is the Christian mission. I don't think you understand that.

– Charles “Lucky” Luciano/Myer Lansky/Al Capone

Sorry I have more respect for these guys vs. Obama.

Two words:

1) Cop

2) out.

I stole that from somewhere, but I can't quite remember where, exactly…

ha ha

Oh! Oh! Please don't hurt me! I promise to be better!

ha ha

Like I said…you got nothin', bubba. Not a goddamned thing, but lies.

Most historians and professors edge Lincoln over Washington as the best President, because our experiment in democracy would have come to an abrupt end if Lincoln had not prevailed.

FDR didn't do much; all he did was win World War II. No big deal. That's nothing compared to torturing Iraqi nationals into making up lies about Saddam's WMD and bankrupting the nation and shriveling our military. FDR was a piker compared with George W. Bush.

Right?

Jeeze Stan as much as I agree with you and like your posts, why does this always end up being an argument about McCarthy since the columns are not about him. This has been going on for 3 or 4 weeks. Please stay on topic.

But…but…but…

Your hero Ann Coulter would beg to differ. In her view, McCarthy is a hero.

I can't wait until I go on that liberal bus tour of pissing on famous reactionaries' graves. McCarthy is number one. I hear they put a layer of gravel around and on his grave, the better to drain it off…

ha ha

Name an innocent person who was ruined by McCarthy? Define innocent, and define ruined, and maybe we can answer your question.

But: everyone he ever named was innocent who was guilty of only being a member of the Communist Party. He ruined them, their lives and livelihoods, because being a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s WAS NOT A CRIME. Being a member of the Communist Party has NEVER BEEN A CRIME.

You sure changed your tone in a hurry. You sure jumped from sounding reasonable and giving credit where credit is due, back to knee-jerk rhetoric of lambasting liberals.

that is not Steven Jay Gould, it is Jayson Gould the infamous robber baron.

A railroad developer and speculator, Gould sold out his associates, bribed legislators to get deals done, and even kidnapped a potential investor. He duped the U.S. Treasury, pushing up the price of gold and prompting a scare on Wall Street that depressed all stocks. After hiring strikebreakers during a railroad strike in 1886, he was reported to have said, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”

In no order:

Benedict Arnold
James Buchanan
Franklin Pierce
Theodore Bilbo
John Wilkes Booth
Aaron Burr
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Joseph McCarthy
Styles Bridges
John C. Calhoun
Preston Brooks
John Yoo
Newt Gingrich
Ken Lay
Allen Dulles
Robert E. Lee
Jefferson Davis
Sarah Palin
Timothy McVeigh
Roger B. Taney
Harry F. Byrd, Sr.
Boss Tweed
Richard M. Nixon
And a special dishonorable mention to my own forebear, Abel P. Upshur

They had 200+ years of of history – and that's what they came up with?

Where's Aaron Burr? (Wasn't Alexander Hamilton a conservative favorite?)

While living in South Carolina in late 1991, I overheard some kids taunting one another. “You're Pee-Wee Gaskins!” “Well, YOU're Pee-Wee Herman!” At the time, I was amused by the childish lumping together of a serial killer and a guy who'd been caught masturbating in a movie theater.

Why do I bring this up in this thread? Oh, no reason in particular…

Is it worth mentioning that 43 Conservative bloggers voted on a list of bad guys… and there are no conservatives and no surprises on the list? That's a whole lot of harebrains working on a list that anyone could have predicted.

That's because I see beyond the left-right ideological frames that other people are allowing to take over their thinking. The blogger list has nothing to do with which people had the biggest impact in the notorious things they did, and everything to do with who is easiest and most agreeable target. When you stop playing the lib/con cheerleading game and start paying attention, you will begin to see how the corrupt capitalists, thieving statists, and raving moralists are all working for the same team.

The governments and institutions need to stop treating theirs citizens like a social management and engineering project, and allow town-level, citizen-based democratic institutions to rise up and deal with the problems that nobody in Washington wants to deal with: peak oil, retiree entitlement burden, an agriculture policy that is poisoning Americans, destruction of social fabric by 'revolutionary' innovators in business and their government enablers, and the monolithic 'standardized' morality and political correctness of the national media which has no business existing except during war time (it's been wartime in the US for 70 years and that needs to stop).

Citizens need to stop worrying about what some gays are doing in a town 1000 miles to the west, who is being racist in a town 500 miles to the south, what religious buildings are being built in a city 300 miles up north. Keeping politics rational means keeping politics local. That's exactly the opposite of what the people on that list want.

you dumb cunt. Give it a rest, whore.

My god, Hawkins.
What kind of cess-pools did you cross post this to? We have a regular troll invasion here now. I also love how they are repeatedly voting on each other's posts to give the illusion that their views are popular.

Happily these are probably drive by trolls that will be gone soon rather than stick around and disrupt the site. But we do need some serious moderator attention on this thread none the less.

TR

I agree – it's a rather clever dodge. It's terribly hard to defend the likes of cynical hypocrites like Noam Chomsky and Al Sharpton, and it's a stretch to pretend such people are “conservatives” in disguise. Better to try a bait-and-switch.

I can't say I agree with the list. But one must admit, most of these individuals are hardly credits to the “liberal” or “progressive” worldview (or whatever euphamism is being used to soft-peddle Left fascism these days).

Just a small caveat here: “States' Rights” is a misnomer intended to obfuscate. There was really only one States' Right the Confederate States were concerned with-the right to own slaves.

Please provide empirical evidence for your assertions…

Julian Assange is Australian, though I guess he's made himself a part of American History.

Ted Kennedy and Jane Fonda certainly deserve mention. Why not Bill Ayers, ghost-writer for the silly fraud now infecting the Oval Office with Muslim fellow-travellers? Also, Frank Church way back in the day, as well as the creepy crawly Charlie Crist, the latest hopeless fraud in a list which Al Franken should be on, were Al more than just a smutty joke played on the hapless burghers of Minnesota. Sanger is a mass-murderer and all the NOW successors continue their war on the helpless unborn. And why not the SEIU and ACLU founders whose Marxism is the core of their agenda to destroy the US Constitution through legal chicanery and thuggish non-secret voting. Aaron Burr deserves a spot for killing the great genius of American exceptionalism, Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, that “man of honor” who broke his oath sworn at West Point to protect the Constitution of the US. And last but not least, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the sleazeball who finagled the income tax past its constitutional firewall and whom Leon Trotsky called a “fellow traveller” in the first known use of that phrase, during Wilson's backstage shenanigans trying to subvert the American Republic and replace it with a world govt—The League of Nations. Conversely, the hero would be Sen. Lodge of Massachusetts.

As an afterthought, the late unlamented traitor Howard Zinn, certainly the hero of Hollyweirdos like Josh Brolin and the simple-minded Harvard dropout who has a continuing identity crisis with a guy named Bourne.

Numbnut oaf Woodrow [!] Goode demonstrates how and why the progfrog mindset is spiraling in a circular fashion down a porcelain tunnel to the repository where progfrog ideas belong….! Woody lacks more than intellect—and he should check out Danny Ellsberg's many polaroids back in the day to FSO-friends of mine in Bangkok brothels with ten-year-old boys—that's the moral sewer that Woody and his progfrogs inhabit while they dream that they're really lotus-eaters! The plumbers shouldn't have broken into Danny's shrink's office, but he and many other progs are more pervs than perps—while they preen themselves with antediluvian factoids. Aaron Burr was a progressive, come to think of it!

“What the fuck is wrong with you, that you can't make any better response than that? Yor (sic) response shows that you are incapable of offering a cogent, well-reasoned response to what you disagree with — proving your intellectual inferiority to those who have something the fuck wrong with them.”

I'm surprised near the end if he didn't say his favorite US president was Daffy Duck.

Um, Global Warming is real, Pakistan is having a 15,000 year flood right now and living in Russia at the moment is like smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day.

Considering the man drank himself to death, yes.

No, it is just going to make most of the Southern States over 50% Hispanic in a few decades. That is like saying French-speaking parts of Germany are ruining the character of Germany, they are not, they are celebrated.

We should celebrate our Hispanic heritage as much as any other that make up what it means to be an American.

Fail. B.O. admires Reagan. Why? Transformative. Reagan admired FDR for the same reason.

Since the death of William Buckley the right wing has had no one that even begins to peer with Chomsky, perhaps that is why they are so often acting like an ideology without a head.

I think Bush already did that, if anything Obama is just having a really hard time explaining to everyone that we can't scale the cliff face and get back to we were. The credit crazy 90's are over.

First time at this site (today). I'm amused to see that it appears the comment thread is akin to a voodoo doll for 'progressive' hatred and seething contempt for those who do not practice the farcist faith of leftwing wackery?
Quite entertaining (and educational) to chuckle over.
Off now to openleft to get some less overtly sick entertainment.

I only wish he had killed all of the white southerners, so we wouldn't have to start thinking of coming down there again with Gov Perry talking about his plans to secede from the union rising from populist rhetoric, will you good old boys ever learn or do you need a whipping again?

I'm sure whatever makes bigotry possible is genetic on some level, Sherman was just trying to cure America of a disease before it rose up and started looking for more things to enslave, murder and rape. The average white southerner at the time was a monster, and they were treated as such.

Really, he should of wiped the whole civilization of bigotry off the face of the planet and given the land to the freed slaves, the south would of been a thriving cosmopolitan culture instead of the mess of ignorance amidst the rotting infrastructural wasteland it is today.

Seriously, don't make us come down there, we won't be gentle this time.

You're all wrong. Clearly the real number 1 is Joe Quesada.

Pathetic troll is pathetic. Flagged.

Nice. Do you practice being a skeev, or is it something that just comes naturally to you?

Fair point, but you certainly well couldn't have had Teddy Kennedy if not for Joe Kennedy. So, I say the old man deserves at least part of the blame for spawning him in the first place.

He does deserve credit for bringing the two leaders together, but it was more a fuction of Sadat and Begin being brought together at Camp David than anything Carter did directly (IMO). Sadat was the real statesman here, and it cost him his life. Egypt is still considered at best a stepchild in the Arab world. And while the achievement was good for the US and both Egypt and Israel, its still a cause of much of the ill will the Islamic world holds toward us. Therefore, this 'good' of Carters doesn't come close to outweighing the bad.

Also, I've notice quit a few comment objecting to John Wilkes Booth being on several of the lists, and I won't go into the reasons why that might be. But I will explain my reasoning for including him on my list, even though much of what has been said about Lincoln is correct. Lincoln was an advocate of restoring the union without punishing the South. Many people don't realise it but even the emancipation proclomation contained an “out” for the south to rejoin the Union on terms favorable to the South (retaining the right to own slaves). Booth's assassination of Lincoln took away the south's best chance of rejoining the union without oppressive influence from the north. Most people don't understand that racism as we know it wasn't a product of slavery, but arose out of and in reaction to the oppressive policies put in place after the war. Many of these policies most likely wouldn't have existed under Lincoln. The Carpetbagger Legacy that kept the South beat down and second rate still has its horrible effects till today. John Wilkes Booth holds the blame for that. He is one man who dramatically changed our history for the worse. Without him things would probably be vastly different.

I've notice quit a few comment objecting to John Wilkes Booth being on several of the lists, and I won't go into the reasons why that might be. But I will explain my reasoning for including him on my list, even though much of what has been said about Lincoln is correct. Lincoln was an advocate of restoring the union without punishing the South. Many people don't realise it but even the emancipation proclamation contained an “out” for the south to rejoin the Union on terms favorable to the South (retaining the right to own slaves). Booth's assassination of Lincoln took away the south's best chance of rejoining the union without oppressive influence from the north. Most people don't understand that racism as we know it wasn't a product of slavery, but arose out of and in reaction to the oppressive policies put in place after the war. Many of these policies most likely wouldn't have existed under Lincoln. The Carpetbagger Legacy that kept the South beat down and second rate still has its horrible effects till today. John Wilkes Booth holds the blame for that. He is one man who dramatically changed our history for the worse. Without him things would probably be vastly different.

They talk more about Alinsky, and cite him, than any liberal I've ever known.

Who, Czech?

I love how Chomsky is 13. I doubt a single person who voted for him has ever read so much as one essay by Chomsky on anything. He is one of those names that right wing pundits throw around and trash and dismiss without coming close to ever examining anything he actually said. I know- because when I was a good little National Review Reading chump “conservative” I “hated” him too without reading one damn word he ever wrote. Then- when I grew up- I did read some of his stuff. And although I can't say I agree with the “solutions” he would prescribe for what ails this country- when I actually did read him- I found myself agreeing with his analysis and diagnosis. Chomsky's basic foundation belief- that the two parties are shills for a ruling elite- an oligarchy (that is neither liberal or conservative) pretty much matches the analysis of conservative commentators (granted from different directions) that don't draw their paychecks from the feds (ie- not Pentagon shills like “National Review”).

Slavery was pretty much a settled issue as far as the South was concerned. The concern with slavery was with new states and territories. The main problem the South was having with the North which (contrary to common belief thanks to revisionist history) was with economic control of the produce of the South, which was very much a “States Rights” issue. Who controlled the shipping, tariffs, taxes, and such. The Supreme Court had laid to rest the larger fears that slavery would be forcibly ended, and was nothing that would have caused separation and war. Even on face value slave owners were few and far between and nothing that would cause the common Southern citizen to take up arms over. Money, on the other hand…
The mistake was that the south bombarded Fort Sumpter instead of just blockaiding it and forcing its surrender (again). Without that act the succession might well have been held. And if not the South would probably have rejoined the Union at a later time under favorible cercumstance.

Ha.

Lotta noobs here.

Pretty much every “Southern Plantation” was burned to the ground (putting tens of thousands of ex-slaves out of homes and jobs along side of the owners), along with many whole cities and towns.
Racism today is the legacy of Reconstruction which is the main cause of the “mess” we now find ourselves in, so I guess we have YOU to thank for that.

I didn't go into what he did to the Indians…

Top 15 Worst Americans for expanding federal power and tyranny from earliest to modern:

1) Lincoln
2) Woodrow Wilson
3) FDR
4) Truman
5) Eisenhower
6) JFK
7) Johnson
8) Nixon
9) Ford
10) Carter
11) Reagan
12) Bush Senior
13) Clinton
14) Bush jr.
15) Obama

But yeah- you all go on with that tied worn out and completely irrelevant (to the people who actually rule this country) “liberal” and “conservative” thing. It is what they want afterall- and it is how they rule.

Certainly a lot of new people commenting on this thread, and the number of comments is high. Just goes to show you a good topic can make a better discussion than the same old, same old, drummed-up controversy.

You're the silly!

Stan & I do good work.

I don't hate either Bush or Nixon.

“As president, Reagan often mentioned his admiration for FDR’s spirit of leadership. On a trip back to his alma mater, Eureka College, in 1984, he reminded his listeners what it was like to experience the Great Depression, and how the Fireside Chats had been so reassuring. “All of us who lived through those years,” he instructed them, “remember the drabness the depression brought. But we remember, too, how people pulled together, that sense of community and shared values, that belief in American enterprise and democracy that saw us through. It was that engrained American optimism, that sense of hope Franklin Roosevelt so brilliantly summoned and mobilized.” In his view, FDR was instrumental in reviving an inherent American optimism that was endangered by the economic crisis.

Twice he spoke at events honoring Roosevelt. The first was in 1982. He had visited the FDR exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, then returned to the White House for a luncheon that included the Roosevelt family. Naturally, when speaking in front of someone’s family, one avoids comments critical of a loved one. The speech was instead a tribute to FDR’s leadership. Reagan called him “one of history’s truly monumental figures,” “an American giant, a leader who shaped, inspired, and led our people through perilous times,” one who could “reach out to men and women of diverse races and backgrounds and inspire them with new hope and new confidence in war and peace.””

I repeat – the inclusion of FDR on this list is absolute evidence that the right-wing in this country has gone completely batshit crazy.

Reagan is puking in his grave over what wingnuts have become.

You do realise that “Godwin's law” is basically the pseudo-intellectual way of saying “Hitler? Oh puh-lease dahling, that's FAAAAR too melodramatic!”

Why isn't Jesus on the list? He helped the poor, healed the sick, and drove the money changers out of the temple. Oh, and he was a Jew.

Okay. My bad. Apologies.

Really not cool. That kind of response is unacceptable from anybody irrespective of their politics or the issue being debated.

OK, let me try to explain this in terms ever a moron can understand. I'm presuming that “Saul Alinsky” is being chosen to represent evil organized labor. I spent five years working for the AFL-CIO and I know more about labor than all of you people combined, Alinsky wouldn't be on a top ten list– he'd be towards the bottom of the top 20.

Any wingnut who thinks Alinsky did more damage to their universe than Debs, Chavez or Lewis is an idiot.

This is what Jim Manzi and David Frum were referring to in discussing the “Epistemic Closure” on the right. The understanding of history is so poor that you can't even make a good enemies list. Hillary Clinton pretty much failed at every task she set out to accomplish and her impact on history is pretty much negligible. Eleanor Roosevelt proposed and passed an enormous number of things you people loathe.

Wasn't the point of this exercise to pick people who had done the most damage to causes you held dear– as opposed to incompetents? It would be as if were picking a “worst persons” list and chose, as our economist, Donald Luskin or Rick Santelli, rather than Milton Freidman or Arthur Laffer.

Not melodramatic, deranged.

Imagine my concern.

There is nothing so pathetic as impotent internet threats.

Well, George Soros was born in Hungary and he made the list. And don't you guys think Barack Obama is Kenyan or Indonesian or something?

So, the man who won World War 2 was worse for this country than the people who gave the nuclear bomb to the Soviets.

This says a lot about conservative bloggers.

Most people don't understand that racism as we know it wasn't a product of slavery, but arose out of and in reaction to the oppressive policies put in place after the war.

The wafting aroma of bovine excrement.

Uh, slavery was a product of deeply held racist attitudes, and when you read period documents you can appreciate how pernicious they were. African America slaves were assumed to be less intelligent and therefore in need of white control, as well as Christian proselytizing (which gets mentioned a lot).
Of course, white male slave owners got to use their female slaves an awful lot. Ta Hehisi Coates posted some pictures at his blog at The Atlantic showing New Orleans slave children who were as white as any Irish emigrant and were the product of white men using slave women of color sexually over several generations until the slaves were not really people of color any longer. Again, racist attitudes of control and the superiority of white men were assumed and used as justification for this.

The pro-treason history revisionists in this thread are astonishing. In my wildest dreams I would never have imagined the GOP and party of Lincoln and Reagan would be infected with treason apologists and Lincoln haters. I see the Copperheads never died out after all.

Then that says more about you then you may like.

My point flew right over your head, too. If I'm making an enemies list, I'm going to pick enemies who were actually skillful. Ellsberg gave a classified defense department study to the press, providing proof that the U.S. Government was not telling people the truth about Vietnam. Noam Chomsky wrote some books that very few people have read.

I find it amazing that Ralph Nader didn't make this list, but Michael Moore did.

Just imagine if Obama had done the following:

# Had the biggest terrorist attack in US history on his watch
# Started a war that would cost trillions of dollars and thousands of US lives for reasons that ended up ALL being false.
# …. and then lied about the reasons for the start of the war repeatedly.
# Oversaw the worst crash of the stock market since the great depression
# Signed secret orders to listen to everybody's phone calls and read all our emails… and then lie about it and say that it is not happening
# Remove a person's right to find out why they've been arrested. And allow them to be held indefinitely without cause
# Oversaw the passing of the largest healthcare expansion in history that adds trillions in spending with no checks or balances. (Yes… larger than the 2010 health care reform )
# Tried to push forth immigration policies based on allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens
# Passed 3 stimulus bills totaling around $300 billion. (more if you convert to 2010 dollars)

He may have moved to #1

As i read the list, only one thought came to mind: what a bunch of bitches. No fucking clue. Maybe American public schools really do suck that bad.

Hilariously epic fail!

According to the Supremes, Bush did overstep his constitutional bounds (see Hamdan and just about every other case to do with the proper way of dealing with gitmo detainees).

Here's a bit of military strategy for you, dipstick. If you're fighting a war, your chances of winning are much higher if you can actually identify the correct targets. Of the four people you named in Congress, exactly one of them is someone who has gotten anything done.

I guess I should give you credit for not mentioning Dennis Kucinich (whose sole successful bill was getting his local post office renamed). But you have a lot to learn.

Sorry we harshed your mellow. I may stick around just to tweak you guys, though. I get tired of poking at ideologues on the left. Poking at them here makes a nice balance.

I would put the vile, race baiting Senator Bilbo on the list in place of John Walker Lindh, who is more of a hapless idiot then anything else. The judge at the Salem Witch Trials should probably get a mention as well, I'm sure, along with some others from the 18th and 19th centuries.

And the people sending out false and racist propaganda that turns American against American, then couches the propaganda in a patriotic veneer.

More pro-treason apologetics. A disgrace to the GOP.

but that would make him GWB….therefore a superhero!

Prove it?

Yep. The “conservative”…(I use the term loosely, since I think many people who call themselves conservatives haven't the first clue what conservatism is and are abusing the word) penchant for accusing everybody else around them for doing the exact same thing they make a career out of was noticed by John Stewart at The Daily Show. He believes it is due to a disease he calls “Ballsheimers”. Sadly, there is no cure.

I love the comment section here. Even for a particularly dim-witted right wing blog, there sure is a lot of wingnut ass being kicked. Instead of sending out bullshit poll solicitations that make no sense, you guys should work on sharpening your debate skills and rejoinders. The progressives are lighting you guys up.

Of course, you did make it awfully easy by publishing such a retarded poll.
Jimmy Carter? The peanut farmer? He makes you guys wake up in a cold sweat?

good point…not to mention that alinsky was considered “one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left.”

Margret Sanger! Jesus!

Most of the comments I've read here are from liberal dumocrat dolts. Fools, who like obama want to turn this country into a communist paradise when all the other communist paradises except the idiots on the island south of us, are trying on forms of capitalism.

What is amazing is the number of liberal fools, some even literate.

the list is a reflection of the misery and ignorance of right wing bloggers– what a bunch of tools. Makes me ashamed. GET AN EDUCATION

This is extremely short-sighted. All but two of the chosen were twentieth century figures, and more than half of them are still alive so we don't know how great their bad legacies are.

I agree with some of the commenters, that some of these just aren't important enough, like Michael Moore (who will be forgotten one year after his death, Saul Alinksy (who hadn't registered on the national stage at all until Obama became a major figure), and Noam Chomsky, who gets dragged out of mothballs once a year for his literary bombs as they are released.

Where is James Buchanan, who just sat back and did nothing while 11 states left the union, either in a means to draw them back or to prepare military forces so Lincoln wouldn't be so far behind?

Where are the Radical republicans after the civil war who Impeached Johnson on trumped up, ultimately unconstitutional charges, particularly Thaddeus Stevens. They brutalized the south after the civil war so badly, they didn't recover politically or economically for twenty years. This was not Lincoln's aim.

Aaron Burr should be in the mix, as he created a plot to draw US territories out of Union control.

How on earth is Nixon, admittedly a shoddy President, above Alger Hiss? Hiss A traitor in the highest levels of the State Dept., handing over important nuclear secrets and encouraging US officials to tread lightly with the USSR while the USSR was conquering nations, murdering millions, and stealing our technology right from under our noses.

This should have been a discussion, and perhaps a vote on the merits of each. As a very right-wing individual, and a student of history, this is one of RWN's worst efforts

I thought Rick Moran's post on this list's 43 respondents deserved a rebuttal.

Check it:

http://liberalsmash.blogspot.com/2010/08/one-of…

I thought Rick Moran's post on this list's 43 respondents being STUPID deserved a rebuttal.

Check it:

http://liberalsmash.blogspot.com/2010/08/one-of…

Wimins cant haz no birf controll. Birf controll is of da Devil.

Actually the high post count is due to the thread being cross posted at a large numnber of blogs. It has nothing to do with the quality of the discussion.

Oh yes, and a good number of the posts are trolls. So it's not all good, Vega. Oh yeah that's right. You don't think this blog even has a troll problem.

TR

Where is James Buchanan, who just sat back and did nothing while 11 states left the union, either in a means to draw them back or to prepare military forces so Lincoln wouldn't be so far behind?

I draw your attention to the many comments on this thread that consider Lincoln to be a tyrant and bloody monster. The pro secessionist/treason wing of Southern grievance has taken hold in the GOP, and you will not see any criticism of Buchanan from that quarter.

Were those interviewed third graders? Do they not know any history beyond the 20th century with a sprinkling of other past eras? Just by releasing this list of talking points makes it very clear that the right is retarded. FUCKING retarded.

That was uncalled for.

More treason coddling. Move along…nothing to see here…

Wow the inmates have taken over the asylum.
And they dont bother to know history.

Margaret Sanger shared the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) masthead with the current president’s grandfather and George Bush, Sr.’s father, businessman Prescott S. Bush, who in 1947 served as the treasurer of Planned Parenthood’s first nationwide fund-raising campaign. This at a time when contraception was illegal in his home state of Connecticut.

Remember wingnuts – McVeigh was your creation.

Trenchie, since you are an avowed troll (and boast about it), you should be celebrating. However, I hope many of these new posters hang around. There actually are *new* ideas and opinions.

Without Benedict Arnold, the British win at Saratoga and open up a second front, potentially crushing the Revolution. Yes he attempted to defect, but his attempt was a failure. In terms of plus/minus, Arnold brought more benefit to the Revolution than he took away.

It's almost unfathomable how little of American history you right-wing bloggers really understand.

Simplistic analysis. You need to learn more about the causes of gang violence before you spout off. Yes, Tookie Williams was a very bad guy who helped found the Crips in South Central, but the idea that he was some kind of cartel leader organizing gangs in every city is utterly erroneous. He was a small-time thug whose reputation exploded late in his life due to the furor over his execution.

That you go on to blame Tookie Williams for Mexican gangs is simply laughable.

On the list of world-historical villains, Osama is a flyspeck. Don't give him so much credit.

It's an odd list which does not have The Beach Boys on it. The hedonistic and self-serving lifestyle which they espoused put the final nail of the productiveness of the Baby Boomer generation. They have done as much to weaken the USA as has the greed of capitalism and the rapaciousness of Big Business. Such are the stuff Californian dreams are made on.

It seems pretty clear that the people responding composed their lists in the context of modern politics. I don't think that's particularly surprising since they're political bloggers and this is a political website.

In any event Carter would make my list. His feckless foreign policy signaled the Soviets they could get away with invading Afghanistan, God only knows how many people died. That same weakness inspired the Iranians to invade our embassy and hold our personnel hostage for over a year. His economic policies resulted in gas lines, double digit inflation, double digit interest rates and double digit unemployment. His response was to raise taxes. And on and on. Carter slashed defense to the point that when I was in the USMC we couldn't even get screws for equipment repair (yes, screws).

After leaving office Carter further debased himself by interfering in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy in North Korea (during Clinton's term), Cuba, Irag and Israel to name a few while openly criticizing sitting presidents.

Carter was a venal, nasty little man and remains so to this day. His recent book, which plagiarized maps from another author and calls Israel an apartheid state, is a perfect example of his petty grudge holding.

People that say we have the worst economy since the depression have forgotten the Carter economy which was easily worse. I lived through the Carter years as an adult. He was – and remains, so far – the worst president in modern American history. It's entirely understandable that he appears on this list.

This list implies that Obama is American, which, I guess is a step forward for the brain dead right.

A terrible rebuttal. You just reinforced his point that the respondents are indeed stupid.

You forgot GW Bush and Chaney, torturing mass murderers, lying war mongers who trampled the constitution, drove us into the worst economic crisis in more than 80 years.

Oh, thats right the pas doesn't exists unless it is used to complain about a Democrat or
anyone who doesn't drink you rightwing cool-aid. The only ones you got correct, Alger Hiss, John Wilkes Booth, Aldrich Ames, Benedict Arnold, The Rosenbergs. But you left out McCarthy, the John Birch Society (en toto), Sarah Palin and any sitting republican menber of the house and senate. I won't go into you talking-heads on fox or their “contributors” because I have a life and it would take more time that I wish to devote to it.

Yup, you got us figured out. You're just so smart! No one was supposed to know the master plan. Tax whitey, give to darky. The end.

How could J Edgar Hoover not make the list?

You can say that with straight face, and after what Hoover, Wilson, and FDR did? Really, Lincoln was no Washington or Jefferson, but Wilson and FDR were far less faithful.

Awww. Trenchie is upset. There, there now. Don't cry.

http://www.bannedinhollywood.com/35-sad-keanu-r…

Keanu Reeves has a sad 4u.

Jeez, no Eugene Debs?

Don't make me go all “Holy Grail” bunny on you, Brave Sir Robin…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

Are these people blogging from the rec room at an asylum?

You do realize that I was intentionally duplicating the methodology of Dave Niewert when he declares the right to be guilty of using “eliminationist” rhetoric. http://www.amazon.com/Eliminationists-Hate-Radi…

Alinsky was chosen perhaps for the followers of his ideas that he has, not as any representative of “evil organized labor”

True, he's slain far fewer mushrikin and murtaddin than most historical mujahedin and ghuzat, some of whom I've listed above…

The Kurds and Marsh Arabs disagree.

No, tax the productive, give to the unproductive. It has its merits and its faults when viewed objectively.

If you were fair, you'd criticize both Christian and Islamic fundamentalists equally for their opposition to birth control.

So stupid. If you wanted to make some sort of a point, why didn't you do it intelligently? Rounding up the most popular Democrats from the last 2 decades, then throwing in mass-murderers and assassins, while completely ignoring so many business leaders and others that are much more deserving just proves you're full of nonsense. Grow a brain.

Jesus expected the believers to engage in personal charity, not to establish government bureaucracy which coerces charity from its citizens at the metaphorical point-of-a-sword. Charity which is enforced by government through taxation is no longer charity. As a non-Christian with Evangelical and Orthodox friends, that's how I understand it.

Margaret Sanger?!! Yeah! If it hadn't been for her, there would have been even more abortions to rail against.

The Right needs its own Alinsky.

Dude, you need to re-read your history book. Getting us out of Vietnam is what caused Nixon to win reelection by a landslide. Ford was there for the fall (which when you think about it…).

As a conservative who wants Thomas Sowell in the White House and public education and unionism in the dustbin of history, I say that this list sucks dirt.

Ask the same question of a bunch of average lefties who never heard of this post, and they would also crank out a banal list. I'd bet several solar systems that Dubya would be on it.

A general “worst person” list covers such a wide array of human badness that a top-25 list would be meaningless. I'd do separate lists for different professions, perhaps including a “worst philosopher” list.

I wouldn't do a “worst politician” list, because most of the respondents (including those idiot scholars who give Obama glowing marks) don't know enough history to concoct a rational list. Better, IMO, would be a “worst policies” list (or perhaps two, one specifying economic policies, and rightfully including Smoot-Hawley).

Very shallow understanding of libertarian metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics…

why is Obama on the list? Isn't this supposed to be a list of “Americans”?

Paid your jizya yet to your Islamist masters?

You're the type that masturbates to pictures of the Halabja massacre committed by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds, I bet…

“its still a cause of much of the ill will the Islamic world holds toward us.”

Apparently, you aren't acquainted with the concept of al-wala'a wa'l-bara'a, loyalty towards believers and enmity towards unbelievers…

I hope you realize that the enslavement of blacks was not initiated by Europeans, though their sins are quite egregious; they merely tapped into a well-established nasty raid-and-trade engaged in by Africans, Arabs, and Berbers for centuries upon centuries. In fact, the Arab enslavement of blacks continues to this day, and is rooted in racist ahadith such as Jami at-Tirmidhi Hadith #38…

“Allah’s Messenger said: Allah created Adam when He had to create him and He struck his right shoulder and there emitted from it white offspring [dhurriyyah bayd] as if they were white ants. He struck his left shoulder and there emitted from it the black offspring [dhurriyyah sawd] as if they were charcoal. He then said (to those who had been emitted) from the right (shoulder): For Paradise and I do not mind. Then He said to those (who had been emitted) from his left shoulder: They are for hell and I do not mind. Transmitted by Ahmad.”

The American south was indeed a cesspool of bigotry. But try today being a Kurd or Armenian in Turkey, a Baha'i or Arab or Baloch in Iran, a Shi'a or black in Saudi Arabia, a Copt in Egypt, a Hindu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir [so-called "Azad Kashmir"], a Kabyle Berber in Algeria, a black in Yemen, or an Ainu in Japan, and tell me that only America has ever known bigotry…

“The average white southerner at the time was a monster, and they were treated as such…Really, he should of (sic) wiped the whole civilization of bigotry off the face of the planet”

So, genocide is sometimes justifiable? As much as I agree with the first sentence, as for the second…Barf. I never thought I'd see a Progressive basically proclaim “Carthago delenda est”…

That's where you are misunderstanding the difference between 'racial' and 'racism'. Racial differences were perverse, but not just between blacks and whites, but between almost every group or race. In truth many 'Africans' were less intelligent, but that was due to the condition of their prior existance that there intelect. We often forget that even blacks owned slaves (and owned the largest slave action house is New Orleans it is said.) Slavery also wasn't a product of America nor the South, nor the “white man”, but has roots stretching back to per-historic times. It continues even today in Africa and perhaps in the mid-east. White men also had mistresses of many other races than black. However in the south MOST slaves were well thought of and cared for by their owners (they were rather expensive property) and much pride was taken by their owners in their productivity. It would do well to remember also that slaves were sold into slavery by their fellow africans. Most of them were captured prisoners from intertribal wars who would have otherwise been held as slaves by those tribes or put to death. Although many were sold into slavery by their families, the myth that the “white man” was roaming around africa with a big net scooping them up is just that, a myth.
The “racist” attitudes arose first with the rabble-rousing from the anti-slavery movement (which one really can't begrudge), but mainly due to the resentment of the conditions that reconstruction forced on the south. Racial “hatered” didn't exist beforehand. A good moderator of that would be with the attitude people have with the American Indian, who was perhaps treated worse that the African. Racial attituded do still exist there, but at a far different level that with the black/white issues we have. Stop and think, if you had a large group of people that you had hated and oppressed, would you go off to fight a war and leave your wife and children at home, miles from town, with nobody to look after them but those very people you've oppressed? A good lesson on slavery as it really existed would be to study Jefferson Davis's relationship to his own slaves. The truth is life was hard for anybody back in those day that was poor. Many blacks in the north found conditions there harsh and travelled on to Canada. Around 20% of the runaways are said to have returned home after finding life in the north worse than back home. (The song Dixie was written by a black man in New York after all, listen to the words)

nice

Sorry, but “bigotry” had just as big a home in the north as it did in the south. The north didn't 'need' slaves, as the had a ready workforce of Italians, Irish, Gremans, and even blacks to oppress in their factories. You've still got the ghettos to prove it.
That being said, slavery WAS a horrible institution that can't be justified on any moral level. It was a sad chapter in our countries history (the north had slaves too. They just got rid of them earlier and on their own without being forced). In truth “Slavery” became the issue with the civil war as a way to get the north to fight it. Read up on the riots of New York that happened when the war started. That should give you a better understanding of the times.

I'm a conservative and this is a JOKE. I'm embarrassed.

Not a slaveowner among them so I guess owning slave is all good.

John, can you post every name that people sent in so we can truncate the moronic comments on here?

Best list yet.

What's the fuck wrong with you?

I wonder if anybody speaks to his mother and sister that way. He had to get the training from somewhere, just saying.

Get a load of that stupid list!

If this list is honestly trying to select the 25 worst figures in American history and not 25 “leftists” chosen nearly at random then… I mean there are a ton of awful people that easily beat out some of the people on this list.

Where's Bull Connor or George Wallace, for example – surely being strident advocates for institutionalized racism is worse than whatever it is Noam Chomsky has done. Why not Jefferson Davis or Robert Lee?

C'mon son.

As a web surfing Australian with a mild interest in US psychopathologies and brainwashing, can I just say that as an ally I'm really worried about the US right. It seem to have gone completely stark raving bonkers. Your little list is so stupid its laughable. All you're saying is anyone who doesn't agree with your increasingly weird and evil politics/religion is as bad as a murderer or a terrorist. Including people like FDR (sorry just belly laughed even writing this).

Haven't you people even the slightest clue that publicly parading yourselves around as immature fools might just make the rest of the world despise you?

I say this out of concern, as one friend says to another friend that he has snot hanging out his nose.

Ultra left-wing kooks? What about the KKK? Aren't they on the RIGHT?

I was sent here from Newsvine. Now I must leave, this is a right wing site! ewww

Oh, no you dont, righties. McVeigh is yours. So is John Wilkes Booth.

Read Gore Vidal's heavily researched historical novel Burr for another take on this fascinating man. I think his reputation as a traitor is deeply unwarranted, and that he's rather been the victim of a two-century-long propaganda campaign.

uh no. communism is kewl.

This list just shows how in tune conservatives are. They know who the people are that want to “change” America. Those people who despise self-determined people who enjoy freedom. These people look like the college elites..the Washington Insiders..the philosophers who think their thoughts should be mainstream. Some of these people had crazy notions. racists and bigots. Snake oil salesmen and traitors. Few owned their own business or made payrolls. Yep the title of this list is accurate

If your weren't so blinded by your arrogance maybe you could see that there are more criteria to being the “worst American” than some ethereal damage done to a belief system that you are too stupid to grasp in the first place.

You don't make fun of this “lack of intellect” because it actually exists, you do so because it makes you feel superior even though your progressive ideology can't even stand on it's own merits.

Next time you want to be snide and condescending, try actually knowing what you are talking about first.

Don't you guys think McCain was Panamanian and Bush Jr. was Mexican. Your ignorance is showing.

The point of this was to pick who you thought was the worst American. Since when do you get to decide what that means to someone else?

And since your glaring intellect is so much greater than the sum of us poor knuckle-dragging inbred mouth breathers, I am sure the fact that Alinsky was NOT in the top ten, but all the way at the bottom at #25 was just a minor oversight on the part of your genius mind.

Now please don't talk about epistemic closure when you obviously had to google the definition and still became a posterchild for it.

Right, Bush did it. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Democrat controlled congress in 2006 and the CRA. Nope….not one thing to do with that.

Vega brought up McCarthy, GF. And when I asked a simple question about him, Vega returned lies.

I know a lot of people have a problem with Mcvcarthy, but getting anyone to actual see the truth and not the lies is nearly impossible. Look at the reactions here.

I am an advocate of the truth, and as Vega has proven, there is little truth about him out there.

Yeah the the disdain directed toward Sanger had nothing to do with her racist eugenics ideology and general half-baked defence of abortion. That couldn't be it. It has to be about men oppressing women. The more you speak the more you look foolish.

Instead of the hyperbole and the straqwman arguments, why don't you just answer my question, Daddy-O. Name an innocent person that McCarthy ruined. That's all I asked.

McCarthy found numerous Communist agents working for the US Government. He also found Democrats protecting them. They smeared him.

Being a member of the Communist party was not and is not a crime. but working for the Soviet union and working for the American government is.

Hel[p me out an give me some examples of the people he ruined.

You left the Republican party, Gillian, SURE YOU DID!

Learn what the man did, what he stood for, and learn that he was right before you judge. I expect Conservatives to figure things out for themselves with being fed a load of lies by Liberals.

Ah, the famed Army-McCarthy hearings. Fiza brought thiose up as well. Can you tell me…
1) What was McCarthy investigating during those hearings?
2) Who was the individual he falsly accused?
3) What was the context of the “have you no decency” screed?

I'll await your answer.

You can tell by the volume of idiots trying to discredit the list by rattling off names of irrelevant historical douchebags, that this list infuriates the left. They are stumbling all over themselves in the rush to defend their progressive heroes. I think that adds a little more credibility to the list even though there are other names I would have suggested.

He made an excellent point, and your answer is to attack him?

Are you familiar with logical fallacies? I don't think so. The fallacy you are using is referred to as an “ad hominem” attack. Instead of answering his argument (perhaps by explaining what your magical “more criteria”) you attack him. Perhaps his comment is snide and condescending (I don't see how he condescends to folks he obviously is not directing his comment towards, but I'll give you that one), but that doesn't make it less true.

His point, in case you missed it, is that there have been more effective figures on the left than some of these folks. If being on the left makes you an enemy of America (which seems to be one of the points of this list) it would seem likely that folks who were more effective would de facto have been “worse” than less effective politicians.

I, for one, am puzzled that Eugene Victor Debs didn't make the list. As an ACTUAL socialist who ran for President many times, he would seem a better target than an obnoxious college professor who has (as of yet) had absolutely no impact on American foreign policy. This list really only proved that most of the bloggers who responded are fairly poor students of history.

I also wonder why Jefferson Davis isn't on the list. John Wilkes Booth assassinated the President, but he wasn't responsible for widespread treason. Why are the traitors of the Confederacy not afforded the same opprobrium as loyal liberal politicians of the 20th century? They committed treason in defense of slavery. Couldn't at least Nathan Bedford Forrest make the list for his treason and founding of a domestic terrorism operation?

I remember in 2000 working as an election monitor, I had an excellent conversation with a Republican poll worker. We disagreed a great deal on a number of issues; however, we could still assume good faith. Talking to folks you don't agree with without assuming bad faith is absolutely essential in a democracy. Regardless of your political affiliation, you should at least have enough respect for your fellow Americans to show them that decency.

No matter what you believe, a majority of Americans can't “hate America.” Not agreeing with you is not “hating America.” Folks who think differently than you are not aiding the “worst Americans.” They prefer different solutions to problems. The reason we have elections is we all can't agree.

What a joke! Carter has done more to help people-both during and after his presidency- than both Bush presidents combined. What an incredibly ignorant joke of a “list.” And Republicans wonder why they are doing so badly in both fundraising and in public sentiment polls. (pssst….it's called “disconnect from reality”)

McVeigh has written he wanted a system between communism and capitalism. He also wrote: 'Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations.' That sounds more in line with Bill Ayers to me. McVeigh certainly wasn't a typical small government conservative as the authorities at the time tried to portray him.

John Wilkes Booth… You do know that Lincoln was a Republican, right? Booth was an actor who spent most of his time in New York and Boston. And the Democratic Party was the party of the racist south.

Seems they forgot some names , Bush the first who place Saddam Hussein in power as head of the CIA and helped start as well as finance Al Qaeda . His Father Prescott who funded Hitler and was a Nazi idealist who continued his financial dealings with the Third Reich even after WW2 started . Bush the second and his cohort Cheney who were in large part responsible for the lack of jobs and financial ruin this country faces . The up had cumming Ben (I never worked for a porn site) Quayle . and a host of others like John (the NVA pet) McCain who without waiting to be so much as question gave accurate intel to the North Vietnamese resulting in the deaths of more than a few American pilots .
The list goes on and on ……

Any reason to exclude Ted Kennedy? If there is somebody guilty of the mess we have today is “uncle” Ted, who changed immigration laws to allow chain migration, and opened the American gates to a flood who went later to shrine the democrats in power. Oh, and remember the pitch “do it for Ted?” Wasn't he the big pushover for the government take over of health care and every other freaking socialist plan out there, from green crap to welfare?

Noam Chomsky???….Really?!?!?

Don't forget papa Joe Kennedy was a nazi sympathizer as well. How relevant is it that/if (?) Prescott was a “nazi funder and idealist” (?) when his son was in the US Navy during the war.

Shame on you for comparing Obama to Woodrow Wilson and/or FDR.! (except for health care reform —you can thank Ted Kennedy for that, too. You idiot.

Do you see how your argument just completely changed?
You start with “No, Reagan changed his mind!”
When this is pointed out to be completely false, you immediately shift to “There's much to be admired!”
These are completely disparate arguments and yet cognitively you have no problem shifting from one to the other without pause.
WTF?

Help people how?! What has Carter done for “people”?!

I'll be you get all your news from John Stewart. How informed you must be.

You clowns sure give a lot of credit to Sarah Palin. Are you AFRAID of her or something??? Hmmmm? Like Obama before he was elected President, she hasn't done much.

Condensation??? You're all wet, Dickey

So the left wingers show their intellect by arguing over a stupid LIST ON THE INTERNET? ITS A LIST!?!?

Here is a challenge:

Has anyone (right or left) EVER heard of a SINGLE blogger that took part in this vote???

Heh. You really think her “ideology” is why she is here when most Southern racist leaders of the 19th century did not make the list?

Keep shoveling.

Apparently, better informed then most of the bloggers making this list. But by all means, please do go on…

What in the hell are you talking about? Snarky jokes don't work if nobody is aware of the basis for the humor…and nobody seriously believed McCain was Panamanian. The Bush/Mexico thing is…huh?

Fail.

Since when do you get to decide what that means to someone else?

You can decide what it means to you and we can laugh at it if we so desire. Next?

And since your glaring intellect is so much greater than the sum of us poor knuckle-dragging inbred mouth breathers, I am sure the fact that Alinsky was NOT in the top ten, but all the way at the bottom at #25 was just a minor oversight on the part of your genius mind.<>/i>

Now please don't talk about epistemic closure when you obviously had to google the definition and still became a posterchild for it.

You seem to have some sort of inferiority problem or issue here. Curious. You alsmo may want to look the definitions of several logical fallacies, including:

*Argumentum Ad Hominum

*Red Herring

Yep. PIMF.

Are you really complaining about a guy using an ad hominem in response to an ad hominem? At least be consistent. The post you are slobbering over yourself to defend was full of snide insults. Save as the righteous indignation.

I know how frustrating this must be. Your best minds try to pick a list of your worst enemies. And they fail so completely that people you hate can't even get angry. They're so coming over to laugh and tell you how many mistakes you made, and how you could improve the list.

It must be infuriating to read someone who has no respect for your movement, and simultaneously understands its ideas better than you do.

Here's another mind-boggling selection. According to statistics at nrlc.org, there have been 49 million abortions performed since Roe v Wade. And yet you have no one directly connected with the decision or its implementation on this list. (Nancy Pelosi was elected 14 years after it became legal, Harry Reid 13.)

The choice of Margaret Sanger is comically dense. Sanger, who promoted contraception, was VIOLENTLY opposed to abortion. She once said “I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization” and also “Abortion was the wrong way—no matter how early it was performed it was taking life.”

If you want to not be mocked– or maybe I should say “refudiated”–
then do the amount of reading and thinking required to know something about the subject. You might even find that it helps you achieve your policy objectives.

You're a troll and a liar. Nice try.

You ALL are a bunch of self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual fools – especially Lil' Woodie and Orph 'n Annie. Until November, grow up!

How, precisely, did FDR win WWII? It's quite easy, on the other hand, to recount all the numerous ways in which is eviscerated the Constitution and aimed our government on a collision course with insolvency. His reckless and entirely politically motived response to the Great Depression also extended the suffering of countless millions of Americans for years beyond what otherwise would have occurred.

But I just love seeing all the lefties in here defending a man who rounded up hundreds of thousands of Americans and imprisoned them based on their race. How high-minded of you all!

Maybe you should try understanding US history before exposing your ignorance. Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_…

“Wasn't the point of this exercise to pick people who had done the most damage to causes you held dear…”

No. Learn to read.

FDR illegally interned over one hundred thousand Americans based purely on their race, attacked the Constitutional independence of the Supreme Court in an unprecedented manner, established the most elaborate system of political kickbacks and government waste under the guise of “works programs,” and prolonged the Great Depression for many years. That he – completely by historical accident – happened to be in office when WWII started shouldn't render discussion of his actual policies and behaviors as moot.

That's a fair argument, but let's test it. If Alinsky's ideas were so brilliant, there should be some lasting achievement one could point to. Alinsky didn't found his own organization or rise to any position of power in an existing one. He didn't win any political victory or court decision.

He did write a book that a lot of people read; it is a good book. If you have never tried to organize people and you read it, you will learn what you need to do. But even Alinsky's biggest fans say that it was his ability to juggle tasks, work ethic and personal magnetism that made him so good at his ob. He did what everyone else did, but did it better.

Jack Newfield, who wrote a history of organizing. put him in a tier with Jesse Jackson, Cesar Chavez and Ralph Nader– each of whom, please note, got stuff done that we can actually point to.

Alinsky owes his fame in wingnut circles mostly to two things– Hillary Clinton did a history paper on him at college and William F. Buckley called him “close to being an organizational genius.”

What can one expect in the Age of Ignorance?

If the list is trying to measure people's accomplishments, I'm far more qualified to assess the subject than you are. Among other things, I know people who worked with Alinsky who have firsthand knowledge of what he could and could not get done.

If the question is “Who makes silly people jump up and down and wet their pants?”. then you're clearly more qualified.

Your voters seem to feel that Teddy Roosevelt (“Speak softly and carry a big stick”) had things backwards. With a few exceptions, you chose people who shouted a lot, but carried twigs.

Wow. You are simply one arrogant ass. I would bet that even you don't believe your supposed superior qualifications. You seem to be working really hard to get someone else to believe them. It is really good that you know better then others. For then no one needs to talk to you to teach you anything. You wouldnt learn anyway, you already know it all. Now where have I heard that before…hmmmmm… oh yes, my 8 year old child.

No, but starting to suspect you are from Uranus.

Let's start with a definition and then a walkthrough.

1. “Ad hominem” (“to the man”) means replying to a substantive argument with attacks on the person, rather than a counterargument.

2. I called the selections “ignorant” and then listed five glaring errors and three groups who were unrepresented. That's called substance. One might disagree with my reasoning, but there is reasoning going on.

3. A response to the post didn't address any of the eight criticisms, but called me arrogant, stupid, snide and condescending. That's ad hominem.

4. You're committing a logical fallacy here Every ad hominem argument is abusive, but not all abusive arguments are ad hominem. If you present substance in a condescending way, it can be fundamentally unpleasant to read. But it isn't ad hominem.

To compare and contrast, if I end this entirely substantive post by saying “If yo're still having trouble comprehending this, let me know and I'll send you a version that has simpler language and pictures”, that's not very kind, but it's not abusive to you and it doesn't outweigh everything else and turn the post into ad hominem.

If I had replied by saying “You don't know what you're talking about, you retromingent putz”, that's abusive, substance-free and therefore ad hominem.

5. When someone shoots at me, I shoot back. But, if I remember correctly “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

And, yes, I know that's a logical fallacy (“appeal to authority.) But it's funny.

To respond substantively, even when I'm calling someone names– which I only do after someone comes after me– I include a fact or two to support my position. It lends the argument more weight and makes the insults sting that much more.

The right-wing really ought to try that sometime.

Yes, all of these people are worse then someone mentally defective and evil like a Jeffrey Dahmer. Why? Because they knowingly do wrong to millions.

Funny the Left didn't wet themselves over Keith Olbermann's nightly demonizations and ad hominem “olbermann worst person in the world list”.

Bush is not on the list, list is irrelevant.

What is priceless is the meltdown the self-delusional haters from the “reality based community” are having in the comments section. Apparently a few have decided that Saul Alinsky is at the top of the list because of the reverse order of the listing. So of course they criticize the list for including Saul Alinsky when our current national financial difficulties are being exacerbated by a student of Saul Alinsky. His willful ignorance and advocacy for methodologies that advance fascism are therefore going to be in the mind of any political blogger from the Right side of the aisle. What does this say about those who squeal that this illustrates the stupidity of Right Wingers?

Reverse Carter and Obama and I would say that's about right.

LMAO…..no mention of GW Bush, mass murderer of US history. You on the 'right' crack me up.

As an American, I can gladly say, we are not all sh&t heads, but whenever a Democrat is in the WH, the “religious-right” come out from under their rocks with their misogyny, racism, xenophobia all under the umbrella of American Elitism and Exceptionalism which is just a fancy way to say “Terrorist”.

I believe McCain is a stateless ghost. The point is, McCain's eligibility for the office of president is a lot shakier than Obama's. So if the right wing troglodytes, the descendants of white pointy hat wearing lynchers, want to get their panties in a twist over citizenship, they should have been looking more closely at McCain in 2008. Or Al Gore, in 2000, who was born in DC.

Why don't they do this? Because the primary motivation is racism. Racism is, and always will be, part of the conservative DNA. And they'll feverishly fret over it until Obama is replaced with another republicrat stooge tasked with selling the illusion of choice.

Janet Reno rather than Timothy McVeigh. #1 LBJ and Ted Kennedy for all that civilization destroying legislation of the 1960s.

Liberal elitists just never get it. Here is an ad hominem attack, you're an idiot. It's not the right, majority wise, that are uneducated fools, its the left. No forgive me, inter-city Detroit is full of conservatives, eh? For that matter, i'm sure the crips and the bloods, once Obama gives them the right to vote again, will certainly go conservative. Point being, the people you mention may swim in the elite intellectual waters that you find so important but remain unknown to our more urban dwelling lefty. So, when it comes to shaping destructive positions that plague America, your assessment is merely for, and completely typical for elitist liberals, your own smug sense of importance. By and large, you mock the conservatives while pandering to the least educated, most dependent and violent sect of this nation, dumb ass.

Why is it always so easy to toss out that Racism card? Don't they teach you anything at Liberal school?
Like how to take an argument and refute it based on facts and reason?

Why is it every single time someone on the right says something the automatic response from the left is: 'you are a racist”.

President Obama won by the largest vote in history. That means he had to have a lot of support from both sides or he simply would have LOST.

I'm so sick of the racist claim. Either participate in the debate with a sound argument or shut your mouth.

“Liberal elitists just never get it. Here is an ad hominem attack, you're an idiot. It's not the right, majority wise, that are uneducated fools, its the left.”

This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Hahahahhahaha Oh man, this made my day.

The last time I checked, FDR didn't own people as property…

Wow, where to start.

FDR saw American's involvement WWII coming long before Pearl Harbor. He ordered the largest military expansion in history to prepare. He put the US on a war footing, ordering the expansion of the armed forces and the building of the weapons they would need. From aircraft carriers and battleships to guns and tanks, his building programs put in place the tools necessary for the US to transform from a regional power to a superpower. This was the “Arsenal of Democracy” that he used in speeches. Building war machinery not just for us, but for our Allies as well. America became the source of arms for England, India, Australia, China and Canada, as well as the Free French and Free Polish exiles.

Without policies FDR put in place, England would have fallen to the Germans. Unquestionably. Lend-Lease loaned the English money in exchange for US bases in English territories. England then used that money to buy supplies like food and guns and aircraft to stay in the war after they lost most of their army in the Battle of France. FDR engineered having US Navy ships guarding supply convoys from German U-Boats for at least the American side of the Atlantic.. All of which was a technical violation of neutrality. At one point, the British were down to a 45-day supply of food and fuel before some American convoys were able to make it through the blockade.

FDR personally ordered the creation of the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb, even though it wasn't clear if it was actually possible. He mobilized tens of thousands of people and spent a billion dollars (in 1940's money!), all based on a letter and a conversation with Einstein.

You say our Generals and soldiers won WWII for us? FDR also personally chose the appointments of Nimitz, MacArthur, Patton, Eisenhower and Marshall to lead the American armed forces. He gave them a vast military to work with, and then stood back and let them persecute the war without micromanaging them.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor (and the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies fell to the Japanese), most Americans believed that we were going to lose the war. FDR used the radio and filmed speeches and rallied the American people to the cause of defeating the Axis through sheer charisma.

You may hate his social programs. You may hate his methods. But make no mistake, FDR was responsible for the US coming out of WWII secure and a superpower unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Misogyny? Really? Can you Leftists even bear to hear the name Sarah Palin without foaming at the mouth and wishing for her death? Hypocrites.

Now that you right wing bloggers have an enemies list, what do you plan to do with it?

Can't you think of anything better to do with your pathetic lives?

Why not get a real job and make a contribution to society.

Since its always opposite day with wingnuts, these are actually the greatest Americans.

You forgot to include that bastard, Mr. Rogers.

So you are saying the first 6 years of Bush was great and nothing bad happened? You guys realy are delusional that you are still defending Bush. He can't even release his book because it'll be bad for Republicans, yet you defend the guy who wasted a surplus and invaded a country for WMDs.

Do you really not grasp how this looks?

If only about half of right wing bloggers think Carter, Obama and FDR are among the 20 worst Americans . . . they must not be so bad.

And since only about a third think LBJ and Ted Kennedy are among the worst 20 . . . they must be even less bad. And so on.

Pathetically ignorant.

George Soros? You can't possibly list his name now that an even bigger funder of liberal movements has been outed.

I'll give you a big hint. He lives in Omaha, wears Fruit of the Loom undies, drinks Coke, and really, really likes steak.

Such an idiotic list. Go get a life.

The CRA was around for over 20 years, it had nothing to do with something that happened 20 years later, learn your history and take personal responsibility for the epic fail of Dumbya.

Saying that FDR interned the Nisei and the Issei isn't entirely accurate, While he certainly bears some responsibility, he simply went along with the xenophobia in the country because he thought fighting against it would detract from the war effort.

Call it his great sin if you want, but it was a sin of omission, not commission.

Next you should ask a bunch of devils to name the most horrible saints.

Next you should ask a bunch of devils to name the most horrible saints.

he got his fame in the ignorant wing-nut circles through glenn beck, not buckley, who would be an intellectual giant to these guys. but i'm glad to see chomsky's name on the list, since i respect and appreciate him so much. there's a lot of names that would be better suited for that list. propaganda works so well.
great arguments by the way, i wish i could do half as well.

Excellent list.

scratch the word 'feel'

You haven't got a clue as to what is frustrating to me. YOU are making more baseless assumptions. First you think you get to decide what someone else's opinion should be, now you think calling out internet bullies and trolls and using their own tactics against them (forgive me if I wasn't as passive aggressive in my insults as you were) is somehow a “logical fallacy”. You don't understand the meaning of the term.

Troll, he did not make an excellent post. His was flawed, as I pointed out, and assumed that the only criteria for making the list should be what HE viable. Never once did he stop to consider that there are other qualifications for the list. Instead he went on his own ad hominem filled rant calling the list “ignorant” because it did not adhere to HIS preconceived notions. Sorry, but you and he fail. Both on this subject and in life.

Oh yes, please enlighten us as to how Your Majesty is so much more qualified and better and more handsome than us commoners. Your arrogance oozes out of every pore only trumped by the ignorance that precedes it.

No where have I seen anything that restricted the list to some narrow view of their “accomplishments”. That is where YOU are wrong. I''' say it again. YOU DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHAT CRITERIA IS USED IN SELECTING PEOPLE FOR THIS LIST. If you can't understand that simple concept then you aren't as smart as your failing t….trying to convince us.

ANd here I think you are the ones who have things backwards, as usual with leftist blow hards, tight sphincters, and miscellaneous idiots. Nobody in here “was jumping up and down” until you arrived crying and bitching because your leftist demagogue heroes were on the list. You got your panties in a knot and rushed to defend them.

Really, Jimmy Carter, the philanthropist? That is the worst person ever in the entire history of the U.S., worse than John Wilkes Booth, Benedict Arnold or Timothy Mcveigh? Seriously? I notice Hinkley didn't even make an appearance.

Hey, wasn't Mcveigh one of your guys?

FDR? Seriously? FDR? Yeah, he only lead up to victory over the Nazis and repaired the totally wasted economy that Hoover made evn worse.

You people are a joke, and nobody with half a brain takes you seriously.

What about Cezar Chavez? He should have been at the top of the list for you morons. No, not the president of Venezuela, but the American migrant worker advocate, labor leader and civil rights advocate who began, you know, to give them thar peons the idea that they had rights? No, not the president of Venezuela, not that you know where Venezuela is.

That's how you know you scored a hit, when they start accusing you of being “arrogant” or “condescending”.

That is pure revisionism. Roosevelt issued an executive order. That is most certainly a sin of commission. The left's refusal to condemn FDR's blatant and frequent disregard for the Constitution (all the while claiming Bush is the worst ever for Gitmo), make all the various criticisms of this thread a laughable hypocrisy. FDR was a tyrant of the worst kind.

SInce you respond with passive aggressive insults yourself, perhaps you should look up another logical fallacy called “hypocrisy”.

I have no inferiority complex, but it's completely obvious to all who listen to your ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about this list, that you are trying to convince someone – anyone, that you are relevant, but you aren't. You are just another incarnation of the internet bully and as such, you should be stood up to.

By the way, idiot, it's ad hominem not ad hominum. And there were no red herrings. A red herring is a fish that was used to train foxhounds, a false clue designed to mislead, or something used to draw attention away from something. Nowhere in any of my posts did I start a criminal investigation or suddenly become British, so I'll have to assume you meant the latter definition. And since I stayed with the central issue being discussed, poorly by your side, at the time (that being the list of course) then you are still off-base with that one. Learn something.

Two facts:

1.) You are wrong about the content and legitimacy of my post.
2.) You are wrong to think my pointing out yours and others logical fallacies, is in itself, a logical fallacy. I do like how the only ones who think calling out bullies and those instant internet wikipedia brand geniuses is a logical fallacy. As if allowing it to continue unabated was somehow more logical.

I aim to please.

What are you smoking?

Lincoln was elected on an anti-slavery platform. The Republican Party was founded on an anti-slave platform, and Lincoln was its first President. The South succeeded solely because of that platform, and if think it was for any other reason, I suggest you read the Texas Articles of Succession.

Lincoln sole purpose for fighting the war was to save that Constitution, and it had absolutely nothing to do with collecting tariffs from southern ports.

They are so ridiculously ridiculous and don't even know it. Looking over this list, I see that slavery is not something that bothers these people and why should it? When you think FDR was a monster but you defend McVeigh…

Hehe. To rightwingers, a simple peanut farmer and naval officer who rises to the highest office in America and, after leaving office, goes around building homes, establishes the Carter Center, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization that works to advance human rights and travels extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations is considered on par with “gangsters, serial killers, mass murderers, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks”.

Was one of the requirements of the 43 blogs that responded that they had to be retarded?

Don't be an asshole- maybe it's hard for him to type when he's doubled over and out of breath from laughing at you.

Wow. Conservatives are a bunch of pathetic, childish brats. Seriously – Timothy McVeigh who killed 130 Americans in a terrorist attack shares a list of 'worst Americans' with some politicians you don't like? You really should be embarrassed by this list. This proves that conservative bloggers are dumb, have a very poor understanding of history, no moral compass whatsoever and that they're basically a bunch of thumb-sucking pussys. How pathetic can you losers possibly be? Move out of your mom's basement and get a real job, or at least start paying rent and help clean the dishes. You 'conservatives' are losers.

Surely you know they don't like facts around here. The truth is too inconvenient for them.

lol… this is ridiculous… These people are the greatest enemies of the right-wing? Anyone who disagrees with you is your enemy? Seriously, the Clintons are ineffective at best. And Michael Moore? Ooh noes! He made fun of us… Where's Stephen Colbert? He makes fun of the right wing constantly.

“I'm a progressive”, translation: I'm a Communist A-hole who wants to tear down America

Tim McVey would be a Tea Party Hero today

OK, that little “camp” episode was totally unprovoked.

That's right. They envisioned a country with slavery but not a free-market.

Somehow I can't see how you missed me on your ask-list. :0)

I agree with:
Saul Alinsky, Communist agitator;
George Soros, nationalist-socialist agitator;
Alger Hiss, traitor;
John Wilkes Booth, assassin;
Margaret Sanger, child killer;
Aldrich Ames, traitor whose sale of secrets killed Russian patriots;
Timothy McVeigh, terrorist and traitor;
Ted Kennedy, Ted Kennedy;
Benedict Arnold, traitor;
Julius Rosenberg (Ethel doesn't even belong on this list; she merely aided and abetted)

The others for various reasons don't belong on the list.

The Three Worst

Harry Blackmun and the Roe v. Wade Supremes Crew [count as one]
Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, Norma McCorvey's ('Roe's') attorneys [count as one]
Roger B. Taney and the Dred Scott Crew [count as one]

Dishonorable Mentions:

Walter Duranty; New York Times reporter, 1930s
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.; (defeatist in WW2 AND lotomized his own daughter!)
Henry Wirz, commander of the Andersonville POW Camp in the Civil War
John C. Calhoun
Jefferson Davis
Robert E. Lee
Edmund Ruffin
Aaron Burr
David Curtiss Stephenson, murderer & head of the KKK in Indiana, 1923
Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas during the integration crisis, 1957
Angela Davis
William Ayres and Bernardine Dohrn

Three Democratic presidents bet out right-winger Timothy McVeigh, America's most prolific mass murderer? More proof, as if we needed any, that America's right-wingers are America-hating, treasonous scum who should be taken out and executed en masse.

Actually, we're just here having a nice time laughing at you.

Don't see how you guys missed asking me :0) but here are my agreements:

Saul Alinsky, Communist agitator;
George Soros, nationalist-socialist agitator;
Alger Hiss, traitor;
John Wilkes Booth, assassin;
Margaret Sanger, child killer;
Aldrich Ames, traitor whose sale of secrets killed Russian patriots;
Timothy McVeigh, terrorist and traitor;
Ted Kennedy, Ted Kennedy;
Benedict Arnold, traitor;
Julius Rosenberg (Ethel doesn't even belong on this list; she merely aided and abetted)

See michigansilverback.com for my reasons. My replacements:

The Three Worst

Harry Blackmun and the Roe v. Wade Supremes Crew [count as one]
Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, Norma McCorvey's ('Roe's') attorneys [count as one]
Roger B. Taney and the Dred Scott Supremes Crew [count as one]

Dishonorable Mentions:

Walter Duranty, NYT stalinist
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., lobotomized his own daughter! AND WW2 defeatist
Henry Wirz, commander of the Andersonville POW Camp in the Civil War
John C. Calhoun, slavery monger
Jefferson Davis, traitor
Robert E. Lee, traitor
Edmund Ruffin, traitor
Aaron Burr, traitor
David Curtiss “Steve” Stephenson, Klansman, rapist, killer
Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas during the Little Rock integration crisis, 1957
Angela Davis, communist and terrorist supporter
William Ayres and Bernardine Dohrn, communists and terrorist supporters

Of course I'm interested in hearing anyone's opinion on the subject…. :0)

Sorrysorry forfor thethe doubledouble postpost.

Noam Chomsky could have written Fox News Business plan see his interview on “How Propaganda Works” on YouTube

Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are worse than Tim McVeigh and John Wilkes Booth? Really?!… and you think your whole faux-conservative ethos, (what's left of it), deserves to be taken seriously? And you actually put Benedict Arnold on your list? It would be cute if it wasn't proof of how willful ignorance has triumphed over an ideologically bankrupt political party.

Check McCain's Birth Certificate

Any foaming you see comes from laughing really, really hard. And far from wishing for her death, we want you to run her for president. We see her as a kind of gift from God to the Democratic party.

But even if you're right and we all ~hate~ her, hating one woman does not make a person misogynist. Look it up.

Oh, Yes Glenn Beck is sooooo much better

One other thing BTW:

McVeigh? I'm actually from Buffalo, NY so i know the kind of loser that this guy was and he wasn't a left-winger by any stretch of the imagination. He was, if anything, a representation of modern fascist beliefs. And contrary to what morons like Jonah Goldberg like to lie about, fascism is a right-wing phenomenon. Mussolini was proudly right wing and fascist, as fascism originates in ancient Rome. The Romans, they were a bunch of left wingers huh? Sure. Anyway, if you want to know about McVeigh's political views then go here and scroll down to the section titled “McVeigh's Politics”:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/mcve-…

LOL this is more fun than this guy has had all year!

While they were democrats, they were also conservatives. And now they are republicans. The same people, new name.

Hey! We can start taking our meds ANYTIME! We don't need them now! We feel so free without them!

The lack of Confederate traitors on this list says a lot more about you and your understanding of what it means to be a “good American” than you might realize.

Most “conservatives” represent the Woodrow Wilson wing of the Democratic party. He was Bush's role model and the Republicans adore him. Spreading Democracy and Empire at the point of gun for am all-powerful collective state un-Constitutional state is the Republican ideal.

Burr saved the country from Alexander Hamilton, the man who twisted the interpretation of the Constitution 180 degrees from the intent of the people who ratified it. Hamilton would have set up an aristocracy and that is the goal of the “Federalist” to this day.

And he was driven to the other side by cynical politicians and George Washington who sucked up to them.

Andrew Jackson could be on a best or worst list depending on the topic.

The Rosenberg's were low level middlemen and Ethyl probably not even that. The government knew who some of the real spies were, one of the key men was in uniform and could have been tried in a military court. They went for the little people and the real traitors walked. I saw an interview on the BBC when I was working in London of a woman who was identified as a Soviet spy bragging about it in her front garden. Kabuki theater.

Ft Sumter was under siege. An attempt by Buchanan to supply the Ft resulted in the Star of the Sea being shelled. Lincoln decided to send supplies and not reinforcements making his attempt a humanitarian effort. If he had succeeded then secession would have been a joke. If the Confederates fired on the ship or the fort it they would have fired the first shot and been the aggressor and unifier of the North.

Why is McVeigh on this list? Is it because he reminded everyone that there's lunatic redneck inside every double-wide just waiting to exercise his “Second Amendment remedies”, just as soon as NASCAR's over?

What about Cezar Chavez? He should have been at the top of the list for you morons. No, not the president of Venezuela, but the American migrant worker advocate, labor leader and civil rights advocate who began, you know, to give them thar peons the idea that they had rights? No, not the president of Venezuela, not that you know where Venezuela is.

I am a descendant of the Governor of MA that authorized the courts. Cotton Mather said not to allow spectral evidence but he was ignored. It wasn't until his wife was accused of being a witch that he acted to end spectral evidence and stop the trials. People acting stupid, malicious, and woefully ignorant isn't new to the world. One of the main actors in the New Salem fiasco was the new minister. But basically it was neighbors going after neighbors which while the basic unit of evil and strife in the world, doesn't mean much in terms of historical impact.

He was a community activist or organizer and a liberal. Good enough for the list if he was an American.

Along with Donald Rumsfeld and the Republicans and German corporations that supported Saddam and supplied the gas. from Bush to Wilson to Teddy Roosevelt and McKinley the Imperialist have been striving to take over the world for corporations for over a century.

If you put down Ames you should add Jonathon Pollard who sent more Russian patriots to their deaths via his masters in Israel.

Carnegie, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, pick a robber baron. Plus the current Wall Street criminals. The greatest theft in the history of mankind and they are still living large on the taxpayer dime.

1). Supposedly who promoted a dentist named Irving Peress who was a 'pink'. In fact it was retaliation toward the Army for drafting Roy Cohn's boyfriend G. David Schein.
2) A junior lawyer named Fred Fischer who worked for Joseph N. Welch of Hale and Dorr, a Boston law firm.
3) Joseph Welch to McCarthy, after McCarthy accused said assistant Fred Fischer of being a Communist since Fischer had briefly joined the National Lawyer's Guild, an organization then on the Attorney General's list of Communist fronts.

Where's Adolf Hitler?

I thought Reagan beat the Nazis. No ?

You shitiots think spewing utter nonsense amongst yourselves proves more than what? No wonder your brand affiliation is lower than Reagan's heart beat.

LMAO……

PALIN? she is the least pro-woman in the public eye. It is the LEFT that gave idiots like her the right to vote, the right to work, the right to get divorced if she is being beaten by her husband, gave her the freedom to wear pants, stay unmarried for as long as she wants and choose what she does with her body. It is Sarah Palin who voted AGAINST closing a loop hole in the law that allows men to be paid more than woman for doing the same job, though it was written to make that illegal. Apparently Palin believes woman still shouldnt be paid as equally. Seems she is a tad misogynistic, must be that Conservative Christian anti-woman ideology she follows, like that abstinence only…opps…..that doesnt work either…just look at her own family. PS I dont want Palin dead, however, I do think the USA and the world will be better off when all the fat old conservative Christian men die off.

Lincoln fought to 'save the Union', that is true. True too was the fact that slavery was a large concern of Lincolns. But slavery became to overiding issue (not that it wasn't one of the issues) only after much of the north refused to fight. There were even riots in New York over fighting the war. But slavery was a concern of many people of the north, so slavery was pressed as a 'hot button' in there to garner support.
The South, on the other hand wasn't overly concerned about slavery 'in the south', as the Supreme Court had ruled it Costitutional. The concern about slavery was more to do with the ability to expand it into new states and territories.
Economic issues were very much the concern of the south, as the soputh had up until recently held much power which the north had started upsurping. Tariff Issues andTaxes where what was making the headlines back then in the south, not slavery. Most Southerners didn't hold slaves, as that was mostly a rural farm labor thing that the majority had little dealing with (unless one was quite well to do). Not something that the average man on the street would have dreamed of marching off to war over… but the north won the war and therefore it was they who wrote the history books.

You people are sick. You list 6 Democratic POLITICIANS as worst than terrorist Timothy McVeigh? Shows your patriotism for America real well.

Weak

The righties are just parroting what the hear on Fox. Every one of those names is frequently brought up in a negative light. Fox has told the them to hate and being lemmings they have no choice but to submit.

Racist!

towards the end he was crazy anyway, hell in office he seemed top be losing it.

Jeffrey Daimler? What did HE do? Buy a car company or something?

Ole' Rupert has had a big hand in shaping these right-wing minds. I'm preaching to the choir, as an Australian you know this first hand.

You now that glenn beck called Obama a “racist” last summer, don't you?

Yeah, let's execute EVERYBODY who doesn't agree with the progressive left! Wait, that's been done. China, Russia, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, Yugoslavia…. ahem.

No kidding, even the righties liked Kennedy.On his watch taxes on the rich were cut drastically. That's all it takes to be a hero to the right.

Surely he's a democrat hero, like, he killed lots of US citizens, so he must be a hero ?

No one is trying to say they “get to decide what criteria is used in selecting people for this list”. Woodrow Goode is telling you that the list doesn't make sense, and why. It's called criticism. You're not following his argument. You don't get it. He won the argument, and you don't even understand that an argument is happening. You lose.

Seriously? John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, Benedict Arnold, and The Rosenbergs are “better” than Obama and Carter? Just goes to show why no one should listen to bloggers.

With very few exceptions they picked only living people. Guess the right has a very short memory….wow I guess that explains most of their politics too.

Number 1 thru 1,000….George W. Bush. 1,001 thru 1,000,000….that would be his daddy followed immediately by Ronnie Reagan. Without a doubt.

If any of you morons had a brain, you'd be dangerous. But thanks for demonstrating that Homo Sap, the hairless biped that lacks frontal lobes and opposable thumbs, can use a computer just like a real person.

Once again, Mencken is proven right: nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of Republicans.

If you want to discuss logical fallacies instead of actually discussing the problems with her argument, you should probably realize that hypocrisy is not a logical fallacy. This should be obvious to you. Look at Newt Gingrich who argues for family values while cheating on his cancer stricken wife, or Ted Haggard who argues against gay right while partaking in male prostitutes or Senator Craig, a Republican who is yet another family values Republican who tries for gay hookups in airport restrooms.

Oh, if you are looking for the specific fallacy name that you violated by calling AnneMarie a hypocrite rather than addressing any points she made, it's Ad Hominem Tu Quoque.

What a bunch of idiots! No wonder the right is devoid of any ideas. Where is Osama, Hitler, true threats to America. Instead all the right comes up with is a bunch of boogeyman invented by FoxNews. I don't know who these bloggers are but somebody should get kicked out of mommy's basement and get a real job.

“Fail on this subject” is substantive, albeit wrong.

“Fail on life” is an ad hominem attack.

But, I am sure you knew that. (Ad hominem sarcasm.)

Me too. Here's a fun factoid. Einstein, the greatest mind in the history of man, leaned towards socialism.

Pleased? I am. I've never had more fun making an argument from authority. You see, academics overwhelmingly lean towards leftism. It's a clash of civilizations. Well, that is to say, a clash between civilized, educated, thoughtful human beings (leftists) and egoistic, McCarthyist, warmongering, bloodthirsty, xenophobic, flagsucking barbarians nurtured by a culture of hate, revisionism and gleeful ignorance (rightists).

Choices.

I actually have to somewhat agree with you on this. Sarah Palin is a symptom of the raging anti-intellectualism of the Republic Party (see what I did there?) rather than a cause. The swing against all things intellectual was already well in motion when she came on the scene. She just had perfect timing, entering the national scene right as being educated was viewed as being a horrible left wing affliction.

Perhaps, it was pretty funny though.

Anybody whose synapses are still firing should be afraid of an incompetent boob, by far the most shamelessly stupid tart in the history of the United States, running for president. Palin is the most sorry ass reminder of a failed educational and political system imaginable. A brainless pin up, a clueless barbie doll with an extremist agenda having the final say over the worlds largest thermonuclear arsenal. Suitable for a B-movie or Monday morning comedy, or an SNL sketch. However, it's actually being considered seriously and allowed to continue, and it has long stopped being a thigh-slapper. This is serious business. This ain't no freaking game. The American people need to snap out of this insanity and they need to do so now. Palin is THE exception on that list, not listed for her dangerous wit but for the absence of any detectable adult intelligence. Palin is so gigantically dumb, so outrageously stupid, I'd rather have Basil Marceaux dot com in the WH than Sarah Palin.

Any sort of education would instantly cease their support for rightism. Intelligence and general knowledge is the kryptonite for conservatism.

This is stupid. How generic can you get? In fact, this whole site is about as ignorant and bizarre as Conservapedia. You could have at least tried to make an intelligent go at this. Instead you just picked the most off the top of your head people.

Reagan transcends time and space to beat every single villain in history.

At the end of Braveheart, you can hear him yell out FREEDOM as he rescues Mel Gibson from the English.

Worst figures in American history? Seriously? This is the difference between liberals and conservatives, right here. No thought into this whatsoever, just a bunch of names that invoke knee-jerk reactions to names you've been programmed to hate. Thanks though for reconfirming why I seldom pull for (R).

Yet right-wing favorite Michelle Malkin defends the internment camps as necessary (as a precursor for doing the same to Muslims, no doubt). She even wrote an entire, inane book about it? Guess he's not so evil after all.

And I must agree with her, why?

replace him with joseph stack, fighting the big bad government and IRS

you forgot someone major…he was PRO immigrant, anti war against the rich, very liberal and didnt speak out against abortion or homosexuals, Jesus was against most everything the major players in conservatism speak for…

I must congratulate these bloggers not only on their stupidity about history, but also on how they defile a great word like conservative by claiming to be part of something they would never understand: an intellectual tradition.

Habitat for Humanity, for one.

Habitat for Humanity?! A charity he lend his fame to long after his disastrous term as president? Is that the best you can come up with?

I'm kind of curious as to how you view politics in general. Not necessarily right vs left, but of the actual end goal.

See, I am a liberal, quite proud of it. I believe in helping others, and in situations where there are failings in society not being met by the free market, the government is the institution that should step in. I don't believe these things out of malice or greed. I just believe that if the government works to right the wrongs that the free market wont, that this will be a better country. That's it, really. I want this to be a better country, and view the government as a vehicle to accomplish that.

When it comes to Democrats vs Republicans I wish it was just ideological differences. That both sides could argue their cases believing that the other side was acting in good faith. That both sides could disagree, but both believe that the other side was acting in the best interests of the country.

But the impression I am getting from you and many others is that this isn't about America, that this isn't about what is good for society. It feels like this is some glorious sports game, and the Democrats and Republicans are two rival teams and that the end goal is to win. That's it. Win the game and punish the other team.

The people who are coming in here ridiculing the list are doing so because the list is hilariously stupid and accomplishes nothing, while also showing off a ridiculous lack of knowledge of history. That we view the list as really stupid doesn't lend it credibility, all it does is make us shake our head that those who helped craft it are either painfully ignorant, or intentionally creating a list that can be used to influence uneducated people into scoring political points for conservatives. This list has absolutely nothing to do with any goal of improving this country, and everyone should should see that, liberals and conservatives alike.

this is a very funny list, and shows how little the bloggers chosen know and read about american history

very sad

im sure that not one of these guys had even heard about alinsky till obama began his campaign

I see this list filled with people who cannot find common ground with those here on the Right, but that certainly doesn't make them eligible for “Worst American”. I see on this list two people who used violence against one or more people (John Wilkes Booth and Timothy McVeigh) being placed behind — not ahead of, or anywhere near number one — five US presidents. Four of which are considered Liberal. Jesus, Ted Kennedy is worse? I don't remember him blowing up a federal building, along with a full nursery and daycare center.

Where on this list is any one of the Phelps family (of Westboro Baptist Church fame)? I thought Conservatives supported the troops. Where is Joseph McCarthy? Where are the people in your own party inciting hatred? Where is Osama bin Laden? He should be at the very tip-top of your list — as a matter of fact, he should be a list unto himself.

This list is a slap in the face to Patriotism, and a genuine kick in the balls to the Republican party to place intellectuals and US presidents who you just simply don't agree with ahead of murderers and terrorists.

Also read this:

Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity. Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_…

McVeigh has written he wanted a system between communism and capitalism. He also wrote: 'Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations.' That sounds more in line with Bill Ayers to me. McVeigh certainly wasn't a typical small government conservative as the authorities at the time tried to portray him.

George Bush didn't make this list? Move on folks, move on, nothin' worth seeing here…

re-read the list – he's on it so you are mistaken! (and you thought conservatives were stupid)
I don't know ANYONE who admires McVeigh, but liberals constantly say conservatives do. I guess if you say something enough people start to believe it…

“Mussolini was proudly right wing and fascist”

Mussolini was editor-in-chief of the socialist party newspaper. The left-right distinction originally meant in favor vs against the French Revolution. Classic liberalism, or capitalism, was leftwing, just like socialism. The Founding Fathers were leftwing. Rightwing was monarchists, the church, etc.

Fascism's pitch was that they would establish socialism in national unity, without a destructive class/civil war as was going on in the young Soviet Union. Mussolini and later Hitler also were the opposition to leftwing governments; “social democrats” who had sold out to the liberal democratic system.

Fascists and national socialists called themselves rightwing to distinguish their brands of socialism from the ruling parties and because they were looking back beyond the French Revolution to medieval models as they imagined them. But they had absolutely NOTHING in common with current American conservatives and libertarians.

McVeigh has written he wanted a system between communism and capitalism. He also wrote: 'Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations.' That sounds more in line with Bill Ayers to me. McVeigh certainly wasn't a typical small government conservative as the authorities at the time tried to portray him.

(I know I'm repeating myself, but so are these Obama propaganda bots with their talking points.)

Who is defending McVeigh?!

I see the tax-funded propaganda bots at ACORN/Organizing for America/Obama Jugend with their scripted talking points (McVeigh…) and fake identities (another pale vegan posing as a veteran) are out in full force again. Must have touched a nerve somewhere.

I see the tax-funded propaganda bots from ACORN/Organizing for America/Obama Jugend with their scripted talking points (McVeigh…) and fake identities (another pale vegan posing as a veteran) are out in full force again. Must have touched a nerve somewhere.

“That he – completely by historical accident – happened to be in office when WWII started shouldn't render discussion of his actual policies and behaviors as moot. “

Um… If by “historical accident” you mean “elected three times by the American people – the second time by the biggest landslide in American history”, then… sure, it was an historical accident that he was in office on Dec. 7, 1941.

Didja ever wonder why — if FDR was ruining the country and prolonging the Depression — he was re-elected so handily in 1936 and 1940? (we won't even talk about 1944, since we were at war then and the Depression was over DUE TO MASSIVE DEFICIT SPENDING)

Y'think maybe people LIKED the Depression and wanted it prolonged?

Or maybe, just maybe, you know nothing substantial about history, politics, or economics and simply love parroting revisionist talking points.

To add to the Australians showing their concern for the American right's craziness I'd like to say as a New Zealander I feel much the same way. Seriously guys you've gone too far, you've stared into the abyss of craziness too long, you are either openly mocked internationally or feared like a crazy teenager with a gun at school whenever you are left to make policy decisions. Education is the first step towards recovery, please help yourselves.

You've completely missed/ignored the point. I don't care how many times he was elected. Is your argument that anyone who gets elected is good? George W. Bush got reelected, if you'll recall.

And yes, it was historical accident that WWII happened to occur during his term. You've done nothing to make a case to defend the claim that he did anything to actually “win” WWII. How many times he was reelected has nothing to do with that question.

Why was he reelected so many times? That's easy, he was a great politician who used all the deficit spending to fund his political allies and starve his opponents. It was a massive vote buying scheme the likes of which has yet to be repeated. I hardly consider that a net-positive.

As far historical knowledge, you've given no indication that you have any specific understanding when all you can throw out is such weighty arguments like “he was reelected so many times!!!” so I could really care less what you think of my understandings.

This list might have been worth something if it involved the opinions of more than about 100 people. Say, 100,000, or millions of Americans. 100 is nothing at all. And so I don’t think this list is worth anything. I mean, seriously, 25 people think Carter is the worst American in the world. WOW, twenty-five people! Heck, that’s got to be a majority, opinion, don’t you think?

why the name change to progressive. new rock to hide under?

Well, this list is verifiable proof of the right-wing's continual sanctification of ignorance. How sad you people will feel at the end of your lives and look back upon a lifetime of hatred and selfishness. Just pathetic.

Sanger opposing abortion is like the pope opposing religion.

She promoted abortion, founded planned parenthood, and she was into eugenics, one of the philosophies behind the holocaust.

You can quote mine all you want, but Sanger promoted terrible things.

Harry Blackmun.
George Tiller.

Harry Blackmun, George Tiller, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, The person who started the moronic style of boys and young “men” having messy hair as a style.

What article are you reading Woodrow? A list of worst enemies?Funny I don't recall reading that,just in your own post.Deflection? This has got you lefties annoyed,put your panties in a bunch did it?Maybe you want to refudiate?

McCarthy?I suggest to learn something about the Venona papers.Turns out the old man was right.How many countries went left?China,30 million dead.Soviet Russia,I don't know,maybe another 30 million dead.German SOCIALIST Republic, Sandanistas,cuban prisons,North Korea,Pol Pot,gulags,Wow that is a lot of egoistic ,warmongering,bloodthirsty,xenophobic,barbarians nurtured by a culture of lies,hate,revisionism and the gleeful brainwashing to instill ignorance into their children.

Hilarious–it's as though facts completely don't matter. Sanger saw the issue as a choice between contraception and abortion; she promoted the former and spoke out strongly against the latter, as the provided quotes demonstrate. Have a look at them rather than plugging your ears and shouting, “Lalalalalala I can't hear youuuuu!” Reality is not that pliable. Things are not so because you claim them to be. I know guys like stark black-and-white contrasts so here: You either recognize that Sanger was anti-abortion or you have no idea what you're talking about, which is Woody's exact point.

There is no third option. Pick one.

Hilarious–it's as though facts completely don't matter. Sanger saw the issue as a choice between contraception and abortion; she promoted the former and spoke out strongly against the latter, as the provided quotes demonstrate. Have a look at them rather than plugging your ears and shouting, “Lalalalalala I can't hear youuuuu!” Reality is not that pliable. Things are not so because you claim them to be. I know guys like stark black-and-white contrasts so here: You either recognize that Sanger was anti-abortion or you have no idea what you're talking about, which is Woody's exact point.

There is no third option. Pick one.

Is this really that difficult? It's not about defending Al Sharpton and Noam Chomsky; it's about ridiculing you guys for failing to realize how marginal and ineffective your choices are. You set out to compile a list of America's Greatest Enemies and ended up with a list of people modern conservatives don't like.

Trying to understand the kind of tribalist mentality it must take to assume that liberals are on the hook to defend an arbitrarily-chosen list of people we may or may not personally respect is just mind-boggling.

bwaahhhahhha Right Wing Trolls

But Nathan Bedford Forrest was still in command of the Southern troops responsible for the Fort Pillow massacre of Colored Union soldiers.

How the hell could you leave Keith Olbermann off your list of “wursts”?

Go sit in the corner!

U morons are exactly what treason smells like.

Check this guy out not even realizing when he's talking to a different person. Every liberal is Woodrow Goode! He is the central nerve! Careful, he's probably under your bed too.

You really like those blanket statements eh? Yes, it's completely obvious to every single person on the entire planet that people you disagree with are self-important blowhards who just want to impress you. *yawn* There's a statement that can withstand scrutiny.

The red herring happened when, after having this explained to you multiple times, you still think you can corner someone with this ingenious thing about “omg who are you to think you can decide the critera of this list?” Nobody is deciding the criteria of the list. They're forming their own opinions — ie making fun of the list — based on their own criteria, which is generally along the lines that you guys can't tell the difference between people who've actually done harm to the things you believe in and those who are presented to you as cable news Bogeymen.

In case it's somehow still too complicated:

We are not telling you what you should've put on the list. We are telling you why what you *did* put on the list is hilarious.

ps. Congrats on spotting the typo. Major victory on your part there.

Then maybe you can tell us what being one of the “25 Worst Figures In American History” actually means. Or maybe you don't know and this is really just a reverse popularity contest..?

“Why is it always so easy to toss out that Racism card?”

Because you guys keep acting like racists. Anything else I can clear up for you while I'm here?

“Kenneth Whitmore and 16 more liked this”

Wow. He doesn't even know when he's being mocked.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

This explains a lot.

“It is completely impossible that any conservative would ever disagree with this list. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar.”

You're a real piece of work, dude.

Yeah that's as well and good, but you typed “persecute” when you meant “prosecute” so the conservatives are right anyway.

Their response: you're not really Australian and you aren't honestly concerned. You're just a liberal troll from the opposite team and as such you are of low moral fiber, poor intelligence and have bad breath.

I'm sure you've noticed but they are literally incapable of believing that someone could disagree with them for any reason other than tribalism.

Wait… when did Palin get a vote? Now I'm *really* scared.

Sorry, Kenneth, but Woodrow is right. You conservatives are just flat out stupid.

If I'm understanding you right, your point is that the indefensible internment of Japanese-Americans means FDR didn't actually win the war and put is in a position to be the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world for decades to come?

If not, please elucidate. A link is not an argument, lazyass.

is = us

Who is this “The Left” person you're going on about? The internment camps were one of the worst things that ever happened in our history. At the same time he did a brilliant job with the war and he set us on a path to prosperity for decades to come. You're absolutely right–he signed the executive order and bears the most responsibility. BUT the public went along with it. Where was the outcry? Where were the protests? But no, it couldn't be possible that this was symptomatic of a wave of national hysteria based on fear of an out-group who happened to be ethnically similar to an otherwise-unrelated group of people who did something horrible* — it's all because FDR is horrible and evil. Period. The American People actually wanted to rise up and force him to let the interned go but they were just so __________________ by the horrible _________________ that he and his liberal administration used to keep them in line. (consider this a gift…sort've a conservative nutball mad-lib.)

Here's a concept for you to work on: people are capable of doing both good and bad things. Good people make horrible mistakes on a daily basis.

*GEE I WONDER IF THERE ARE ANY MODERN PARALLELS NAH COULDNT BE

So the “he did something bad once so therefore nothing else he accomplished matters” guy is trying to look down his nose at the complexity of other peoples' arguments? Give me a break. Scroll up to the top of the page. Hit Ctrl+F. Look for the phrase “War Footing.” Hint: It's in a post ADDRESSED TO YOU. This has already been explained, you're just choosing to ignore it.

…but yeah, other than selecting generals who went on to succeed wildly, saving England from starvation, transforming the US economy so swiftly and dramatically that we were able to act as the Allies' arsenal and leaving us with an engine of economic, military and manufacturing might so powerful that we were able to ultimately position ourselves as the world's sole superpower, yeah, that FDR guy was a real bum.

If only he had been lucky enough to have an “accident of history” make him be president when the Soviet economy collapsed on itself… :(

(now their heads are REALLY going to explode)

So wishing death on people is the good, proper Christian thing to do. As long as they're liberal trolls.

Gotcha.

What about potent internet threats? Or internet dog bites?

At any rate, you have to sympathize. This is a case of using an avatar to imply that someone's wife is similar to said avatar — not some trivial thing like wishing death-in-the-womb on someone.

“The truth about McCArthy was that he did find Communists agents working for the government and found Democrats willing to protect them.”

Name one of each.

Close, but points for actually attempting to answer the question.
1) McCarthy was investingating nothing. The Army-McCarthy hearing were an investigation of McCarthy for exerting undue influence on the Army on behalf of David Shine. As McCarthy said during the hearings “Is my committee being accused of forcing the Army to give Shine a fur-lined cap?”
2) Fischer was a member of the Lawyers Guild, and that fact had been disclosed by Welch himself in a New York Times article weeks earlier. Fischer was made partner of Welch's law firm while still a member of the lawyers guild.
3) Hyperbole and ignorant rhetoric by Welch, sine McCarthy revealed nothing new about Fischer.

Thank you for answering and helping me to show that many things people think they know about McCarthy are based upon lies.

FDR? Really? You do realize he was our greatest President ever, right?

I've read every comment on this page and all that comes to mind is You Cannot Argue With a Republican. It is impossible to change the scent of schyte through reasoning. RhymesWithRight is an excellent example of anti-intellectualism and simple humanity. I am beyond disgusted, but then Republicans generally make me vomit.

Owen Lattimore was a Communist agent working in our government.
Democrat Millard Tydings tried to whitewash McCarthy's investigations.

Your turn, give me the name of an innocent victim of McCarthy.

Jimmy Carter who gave more money to Africa's poor and diseased in one year than the entire Bush Administration? Yeah he's a real criminal!

Stan W. from this statement alone we see how feeble your arguments and weak minded that you are. Pussy? Princess? I find these sort of comments lead back to a mans comfort and prowess in the sack and in the street. Can you even find it Stan? You aren't making an argument you are pissing on your own shoes. Typical Republican idiocy.

I also agree with this. Maybe Obama would take the first place.

Kit, I am laughing at your stupidity. You are too much of a coward to register your name and you want to criticize my words to another poster.

Vega has repeatedy brought up McCarthy as an example of a bad Republican. In our last four exchanges, he has replied ONCE with any defence of his position, and that defense was nothign by lies. On this occasion, he once again brought up McCarthy, but when pressed sayed “later…”.

Vega is a coward and knows he has nothing. And your defense of him is the epitome of Liberal idiocy.

That is debatable… Fort Pillow refused to strike its colors when they were obviously defeated. They also continued to fire on Confederate soldiers. There is no evidence that Forrest ordered or condoned the massacre.

“Jimmy Carter who gave more OF OTHER PEOPLE's money to Africa's poor and diseased in one year…”

Fixed that for you, Kit.

Maybe you could try arguing, Kit, instead of just jumping in and slinging for feces against the wall.

And if we make you so ill, then WHY ARE YOU HERE??????

Come on people!! We couldn't list Dahmer, Manson, McCarthy? Luuuucy, you got some splainin' to do!!!

There is also a saying that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

Also know as Dahmer (spelled both ways by the press. Unsure which is correct…)
Showed that the human soul knows no depths to the depravity it can muster.

When I was a kid we had this neighbor who had out of control kids who were constantly getting head injuries. Now, I want to know how in the world this woman actually birthed forty three children who ALL became right wing bloggers? I mean–can someone do the math on that one?

Robber Barons they perhaps were, but the overall creation of industry and employment brought forth by these “robber baron's” is largely responsible for America becoming the greatest power and leading producer of the world.

What a pathetic list.

Right, absolutely a stupid list. Hardly any votes. We have ad more people comment on this than voted on that list. Waste of web space.

The south was no more a cesspool of bigotry than the north. The main difference between the two was more a “labor management issue”. Look at the history of many 'groups' of people up north before, during, and after the civil war. People of the north hated others just like people of the south, look no further than the American Indian for proof of that. Was Slavery wrong? Definantly. There is no “excusing” it, but to think the north was somehow 'Lilly White' in relation to racial bigotry is to ignore reality. People up north 'hated' others just like people in the south. But the irony is that many blacks in the south were well thought of, but in a different way than can be morally justified,.. akin to thinking of them as a tool or implement like a tractor, rather than as a 'human'. Fact is that after the civil war many ex-slaves stayed right where they were, with many taking by choice the name of their ex-masters. The 'Hate' aspect of it came in as a reaction to reconstruction. And it would do well to remember that ideas such as “Company Stores” and sharecropping were brought down from the north.

Comment number 600…

It is worth mentioning that Hamilton was, himself, a founder.

This is living proof of how ignorant Conservatives are. Just keep watching Fox News for all your spoon fed information.

I'm a conservative, and this is a stupid list. It betrays a profound ignorance of U.S. history. That most on the list are still living demonstrates that this is merely a “whom we hate the most at the moment” list, and little more. How about the leaders of the German-American Bund, which was a U.S. front group for Adolf Hitler? How about the Rosenbergs, who betrayed their country by giving the Soviet Union USSR the secret of the atomic bomb, enabling Stalin to duplicate it? How about Dr. Armand Hammer, who openly traded with the Soviet Union when no one else would?

There's no consideration of the degree of damage done to the nation by those listed. During the American Revolution, we must list Benedict Arnold, who betrayed the American cause (we now know) at the instance of his Tory wife, who was having an affair with the notorious British Major, John Andre. During the Civil War, the copperheads would comprise an excellent list.

A list comprised of anyone except notorious traitors is inane.

Where is Osama Bin Laden on that list? How about Hitler? I don't see him on the list either…

richard Nixon, Strom thurmond, Joe McCarthy. I gues presidential Impeachments, racists (states rights) and demagogues who like hearings, don't count.
US Judge Rejects Inter-racial Marriage
A low-level judge in the southern US state of Louisiana is being pressured to resign after it was revealed he refused to marry a mixed-race couple. http://www.newslook.com/videos/151380-us-judge-…

Wow! This comment is not just ahistorical, it's insane. Lincoln provoked the Civil War and in turn is responsible for Jim Crow? And you seriously believe that slavery should have continued until it “died a natural death”? When would that have been?

Really, in what world do the unions “own America”?

…and don't call me Shirley!

What does Uranus have to do with Woodiesaregood?

Blaspheming St. Ronald will certainly get a reaction. Facts have no place in the hagiography of The Great Communicator.

Your [sic] teh [sic] awesome!

Elected to four terms. Obvious failure, you betcha. <wink>

Obviously the result of elitist education by the fascist librul Nazi Communist babykiller socialist illegal alien America-hater professor's. All that elitist education tends to turn them stoopid and delete's there objectivity.

Two items: BLASPHEMER!
Don't feel bad. Brian actually could care less about the argument, so oviously it isn't the lowest on his list or he wouldn't be able to care any less about it. Maybe it was the “Dubya was re-elected” that hit the bottom of the list…

So this is what it has come to – trying to be rational results in this. And all this time I thought the compassionate conservatives didn't want homeless living under bridges because they hated unsuccessful people. Now I know it's the Trolls they hate out of obvious Christian values because trolls are, like, you know, magical and evil.

Glenn Beck says stupid things over and over again and again as if it is the truth…..so he is well familiar with the value of lying..!

Eduard Hanslick complains about Richard Wagner yet again…

Be more precise, or people will foolishly think you're accusing the framers of being Bolshevist instead of mercantilist (not libertarian).

Look, governments should neither subsidize nor assist corporations — it's antithetical to individualist meritocratic ideals. Regardless, if you really hate corporations, stop using your mac or pc.

The manner in which you snort about the Republic bogeyman which you have fabricated demonstrates the depth of your paranoia and your inability to view the world in a nuanced manner. Saddam was not supported per se, except out of realpolitik. Ba'athist Iraq was oddly seen as less of a threat than Mahdist Iran by earlier administrations. History would have been quite different if we had intervened in Iraq to stop the Kurdish genocide at the hands of Arab racial supremacist Ba'athists; I think our intervention in Yugoslavia on the side of neo-Ustasa Franjo Tudjman and Islamist Alija Izetbegovic against the Serbs was shameful. We ignored a real genocide and responded to a fake one.

Why do you people think that “wingnut” is so derogatory? In construction, a wingnut is very useful — it holds things together. A MOONBAT, on the other hand, has no intrinsic positive value unlike a wingnut, and serves as an accurate description of the mental inactivity of illiberal regressive scum…

Al-Qaeda was founded by Abdullah Azzam (author of “Join the Caravan” and “Harakat al-Mujahedin”) as an offshoot of Hizb al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood). The CIA which viewed the mujahedin as a bulwark against hegemonic expansionist communism was ignorant of the ideology of jihad al-talab wa'l-ibtida (offensive jihad) which was and is espoused by al-Qaeda (Arabic for “the fortress”).

“This [jihad] will continue until they all submit to the religion of Allah, yield to its laws, and surrender to its rule…Yes, we believe that the entire world must be ruled by Islam, and no grain of soil should be made an exception, because the Prophet Muhammad was sent to all people without exception. This does not mean, however, that we must fight all peoples of the world at once, in order to subject them to Islamic law. Islam did not command us to do so. Islam commanded us to fight the closest and then the next, from among the people who refuse to submit to the rule of Islam. We should move from the closest to the next, and widen the circle, until all people submit to the rule of Allah. We are now at the beginning of the road, when we try to regain the lands taken over by the infidels, from among the Jews, the Christians, their apostate supporters, and treacherous rulers.”–Al-Qaeda mujahid Abu Yahya Al-Liby, in August 2007 video We Will Continue the Jihad until All the People in the World Submit to the Rule of Islam

Even today there are more Democrats than Republicans in the KKK, which was founded by Democrats. The KKK lynched white Republicans historically as well as blacks…

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WbXc6-ZCxQs/Smead-6B8…

Some of us reject Fox News as rightly idiotic, alongside such failures as MSNBC.

“hatred and selfishness”

Right back at ya.

No one said all all Conservatives were Christian. Also, give me proof that he was pro illegal immigrant…

As for anti-war, you do know that when Jesus “returns”, he is supposed to bring great bloodshed, replete with a sword sticking out of his mouth.

Who's programmed to hate Dubya here? Oh, but that's different, Bush is an idiot, and he's an eeeeeeeeeeeevil genius, and he's a fascist who deposed a self-professed fascist named Saddam Hussein who committed genocide but was regardless all-around a nice honorable guy because it's useful to exonerate Saddam for his crimes against humanity in order to have an excuse to hate the former ape-like President…

“nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of Republicans.”

Among those moronic Republicans are Lincoln, Clara Barton, Teddy Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, Mary Terrell, John Langston, and Hiram Revels, I guess…

Touchdown!

Paid your jizya yet?

Corey, did you know that Saddam Hussein committed genocide against the Kurds, the indigenous people of Eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia? 182,000 innocent Kurdish civilians gassed to death between 1986-89. I guess they're blood is less than Arab blood, according to you stinking filthy dhimmis…

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!

Dude… must be a mistake. The malevolent Schmuck Schumer didn’t make the list!