Open Thread, Wanker Of The Decade?

I'm taking the day off. This is an open thread. The floor is yours. I'll be approving comments (or not) as they come in.

If you need something to talk about, it came to my attention that popular progressive blogger Atrios (Duncan Black) of Eschaton fame recently named New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, aka. The Moustache of Understanding, his wanker of the decade.  A wanker is vulgar British slang for—

1. A person who masturbates
2. A detestable person

I assume Atrios was using sense #2. It seems to me that calling Tom Friedman wanker of the decade attributes far more importance to this douchebag than he deserves.

Though the common douchebag thinks he is accepted by the people around him, most of his peers dislike him. He has an inflated sense of self-worth, compounded by a lack of social grace and self-awareness. He behaves inappropriately in public, yet is completely ignorant to how pathetic he appears to others.

Friedman's book The World Is Flat created great "excitement" when it came out, as all such mediocre, uninsightful efforts do for a short time—this is called marketing. The buzz was hot and heavy after Tom's publisher changed his original title for the book, which was My Electroencephalogram Is Flat (left).

So, who is your wanker of the decade? I believe the word "decade" in this context referred to the 10th anniversary of Eschaton, so let's extend the time period to the beginning of the current century.

Who is your wanker of the 21st century? (so far)

Have a nice weekend.

Comments

[Stu from Rutherford]

Friedman is a good candidate, and would be my first choice.
Another candidate should be Daniel Yergin (of Cambridge Energy Research Associates) for (a) being wrong all the time; and (b) probably *knowing* that he's wrong but not caring since it's what butters his toast.

[Ben]

The Wanker of The Decade: George W. Bush.

The Iraq War is responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqi's and over 5,000 Americans. He's the Wanker of The Decade for that alone.

[rumor]

My money's on Alan Greenspan. Sure, he didn't make it through the whole decade, but his contribution is just so outsized. Failing him, I'd go with The Bernank or perhaps Timothy Geithner. I can't think of wankers who had a bigger influence on the world overall who so many people take (or took) at face value.

[John D]

I'll go with Hopey-Changey, for sucking the life out of everyone who felt he offered a change from the business as usual paradigm.

[Bill Hicks]

Since Hopey-Changey is already taken, I'll go with John McCain. Here was a guy who seemed dedicated during the 2000 presidential campaign to trying to restore at least some sanity to the Republican Party, and then spent the next decade pandering to its craziest elements. If nothing else, he should get it for his awkward hugging of Chimpy after what the latter's campaign did to him in South Carolina:

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=972&bih=469&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=ElktYGH6_hWh1M:&imgrefurl=http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/2008/02/mccain-shares-his-triumph-with-w/&docid=--lV9ZRYfElHDM&imgurl=http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/bush-mccain-hug.jpg&w=400&h=355&ei=kYCRT6SVIouf6QHl7oi4BA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=661&sig=117218589656482442806&page=1&tbnh=123&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:74&tx=114&ty=14">http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/2008/02/mccain-shares-his-triumph-with-w/&docid=--lV9ZRYfElHDM&imgurl=http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/bush-mccain-hug.jpg&w=400&h=355&ei=kYCRT6SVIouf6QHl7oi4BA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=661&sig=117218589656482442806&page=1&tbnh=123&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:74&tx=114&ty=14">http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=972&bih=469&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=ElktYGH6_hWh1M:&imgrefurl=http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/2008/02/mccain-shares-his-triumph-with-w/&docid=--lV9ZRYfElHDM&imgurl=http://www.spiralroad.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/bush-mccain-hug.jpg&w=400&h=355&ei=kYCRT6SVIouf6QHl7oi4BA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=661&sig=117218589656482442806&page=1&tbnh=123&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:74&tx=114&ty=14

[Bill]

The USA is a nation of wankers ... the courtesans named above are doing their jobs pretty well, so can't qualify as something special. I'd give the award to the entire Baby Boomer Generation. The best "educated" in human history, who managed to learn absolutely nothing. Who thought wealth was borrowed, investments in houses that produce nothing of value made sense, who with 30 years of public warning about the reality of the size of their energy inheritance only spent it faster, and now that our entire life's endeavors are shown to be be sham and failure, don't say a word as our representatives pass laws and sign orders that will be used to round up our kids, who have begun to understand what we've done and how little we've left for them.

[DP]

I'll go with Dick Cheney. Not only is he a obnoxious wanker, but he thinks so little of everyone that he is completely unashamed of anything he has ever done. He believes in torture. He believes in and cares nothing about large financial deficits. He doesn't care that the public knows how much Halliburton (and by extension himself) made off the wars he lied to get us into. He got off from leaking Valarie Plame to the media. He got off after he SHOT SOMEONE IN THE FACE? Exactly how powerful is one man if he can shoot someone in the face and THEN get him to apologize for getting in his way? He was the puppet master behind the moron Bush, who treated the Presidency as an extended all expense paid vacation. Who has done more in recent memory to single handedly destroy this nation?

Hopey-Changey, well give him 4 more years and he will probably eclipse him. I take that back, give him 2 more years and he will eclipse him. I'll see you guys in Guantanamo Bay in 2014. I bet we get adjacent cells.

[Lin S]

Ben Bernanke.

[Wanooski]

That's a tough one Dave, 'cause there are just so many to choose from, and hell, we're only 12 years into the 21st century... There are just so many wankers to pick, and each with their own unique brand of ass-hattery, some don't have much power or influence, but they're just such total wankers they can't be ignored. For instance, basically every rethuglican presidential hopeful, from Perry to Bachmann to Frothy and Newt. And one can't forget all the tea-bagger congresscritters. I don't think I can pick just one.

[Dennis McCaffrey]

Well, Dave, It's nice that you're taking a day off - you've earned it.

As to wankers, I agree with all those named so far. I'd like to add the supreme Court, notably those who elected George Bush. But you could easily add most of the commentaters at NPR, the editors of the NYT, WP, etc.. Then there's the gender issue - can women wank? If so let's add Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton to the list.

Regards, Dennis

[BS]

I am nominating all at Fox News. Someone making money pretending to be experts on everything when in fact they are experts at nothing but cashing their checks.

They are largely responsible (but have many brethren) for turning the US into what it has become. Discusting.

[Biocentrist]

Wow-it would take 10,000 posts just to scratch the surface, from naming every single MSM political pundit to every MSM economist, just about every CEO of every publicly-traded corporation, so on and so forth. I'll choose Chuck Schumer, for his unapologetic bloodlust of the Palestinian people and anyone who disagrees with him (if you dare disagree, you're an "anti-semite"-I prefer being called "anti-sociopath".) This psycho has said some of the most outrageously despicable words ever uttered aloud, and been cheered wildly for it, right here in this "Christian" nation of ours

[Huey]

Bill McKibben. Enviro-wanker. He's what leaps to mind right now, at least.

BTW, do you read http://www.deathbycar.info/? He bashes McKibben at every opportunity. Fun.

[S P]

Ah, so many to choose from.

On either side of the pond you could make a very good case for George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

[Joy]

Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, and head cheerleader for the housing bubble, deserves at least an dishonorable mention. Colin Powell was another faux respectable wanker who was essential in selling the Iraq war of conquest. Team America has a very, very deep bench of wankers. It's wankers all the way down.

[XRM]

I would say that those nominating(for wanker of the decade) the elite who 'got us into the Iraq War' don't understand the true reason why we went there (think oil and privatization of Iraq's resources) or the fact that we really don't value human life over our (America's) "Way of Life"(i.e. massive resource consumption).

The true wanker of the year is industrial civilization's first world citizen who thinks that...
1.) our way of life is sustainable.
2.) our society is a desirable model to be followed and replicated throughout the rest of the world.
3.) we are a beacon of Democracy and Freedom to the rest of the world
4.) we believe in human rights and equality.
5.) our economic system is the only way and there is no alternative.
6.) terrorists hate us for our 'Freedoms'.
7.) technology will solve all problems.
8.) peak oil is false.
9.) climate change is not caused by man's burning of fossil fuels on this finite planet.
10.)the 6th mass extinction occurring around them is no big deal.

The world we are leaving for our ancestors will definitely earn us the title of "Wankers of the Millennium".

[RobM]

Bill on the nation of wankers above said what I was thinking only better than I could have, except maybe I would have refered to the planet of wankers. We are all the same. Including our kids if they had a big inheritance.

[Mister Roboto]

That's and easy one. Scott Walker, Wisconsin's fundamentalist-plutocrat governor supported by the Pee Tardy.

[Biocentrist]

@XRM - excellent post; you pretty much summed up my entire belief system

[DonF]

I nominate the ones who started and enabled the whole shebang, the guys Andrew Jackson singled out, the Central Bankers. And of course, that includes the Rothschild dynasty. They are the leaders of the power and greed grab. ALL others are just pawns and subordinates. I have no facts and figures to back me up, only history, observation, and deduction. The Sherlock Holmes Factor, if you will.