The Last Word: Hatewatch’s 2nd Annual Smackdown Awards

[babylonsister]

The Last Word: Hatewatch’s 2nd Annual Smackdown Awards
Posted in Year-End by Mark Potok on December 30, 2008


It’s been another sorry year in the world of hate, as knuckle-dragging white supremacists and their fellow travelers did their best to make our country a little worse with each new passing day. Here at Hatewatch, we’ve been hard at work trying to winnow away the garden-variety savagery that habitués of our blog know so well in favor of truly extraordinary examples of asinine activities from the benighted denizens of the radical right. It hasn’t been easy for members of the Hatewatch 2nd Annual Smackdown Awards Committee, who’ve had to wade heroically through the sewers and cesspools to produce our list. But now they’ve returned from that underworld, muddied but unbowed, to offer our readers, without further ado, Hatewatch’s year-end countdown of the very, very worst of 2008:

10. Most Creative Tattoo Award
We’ve seen more than our share of those who believe that large tattoos of swastikas and SS lightning bolts are attractive additions to their faces and other body parts, no matter what their mommies and daddies think. But the truth is that this year, there simply was no competition at all in this category once Ron Edwards, imperial wizard of the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America, showed up for a February deposition with attorneys of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Edwards was there for a lawsuit the SPLC brought against him and his organization after two of his followers beat up a 16-year-old boy, and he wasn’t happy, as evidenced by a new tattoo on the side of his freshly shaven head that read, “Fuck S.P.L.C.” The other side of his head — this one tattooed with “Aryan Justice”— apparently reflected his hopes for the trial’s outcome, but the mostly white jury didn’t agree. In the end, it came back with a $2.5 million judgment for the boy who was beaten, and Edwards’ head was plumb out of space for further commentary on the state of the world.

9. Creepiest Cult Leader Award
After last year’s recognition of neo-Nazi boss Kevin Alfred Strom for his arrest on charges of possession of child pornography — not to mention his version of “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” detailing his interest in marrying a 10-year-old girl — it’s been hard to find real competition in the Icky Sexual Proclivities Department. But just when we were beginning to despair, along came Tony Alamo, the cult leader known for his blistering hatred of Catholics and homosexuals. Turns out that the 74-year-old Alamo allegedly had something in common with Strom, who emerged from prison last fall after serving time on the kiddie porn charges. In truly awful documents filed in court this fall, a 14-year-old girl accused Alamo of fondling her in the shower; another said she was about 9 when Alamo “married” her; and a third recounted having sex with him at age 11. According to a confidential source, Alamo, who goes on trial in February on 10 counts related to transporting underage girls across state lines for sex, kept candy and Barbie dolls in his bedroom.

8. Worst International Travel Plan
Jerome Corsi — the insult-spewing WorldNetDaily “reporter” who helped lead the Swift Boat defamation of John Kerry and also wrote a fawning tome glorifying anti-immigrant vigilantes — had a plan. His new target was Barack Obama, and Corsi, who’d just been exposed on this blog for his appearance on a white supremacist radio show, decided in October to go to Kenya to track down “deep dark ties” between the Democratic presidential nominee and various Muslim politicians there, including the prime minister. Corsi apparently forgot that most people in Kenya, where Obama’s father was a well-known economist, thought quite a bit of the man who would be America’s first black president — and he also neglected to get a work permit. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when authorities snatched up Corsi, who likes to call Muslims “Boy-Bumpers” and “RAGHEADS,” and put him on the next plane back to the United States. Never one to be deterred by the facts, Corsi had also just published a book falsely claiming that Obama is secretly a Muslim.

7. Most Septic Politician Award
So many nutty politicians, so little time — and only one winner per category! In the end, we settled on a local (we’re in Montgomery, Ala.), Alabama State Sen. Charles Bishop (R-Jasper). After all, Bishop chose to deliver the keynote speech in June to the “Leadership Conference” put on by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a charming group that has compared a black pop singer to a chimpanzee, called black people “a retrograde species of humanity,” and generally spread racist swill far and wide. Bishop took his turn at the microphone to warn of the dire consequences of a potential Obama victory in November. Not that Bishop was in any way propelled by his party; on the contrary, as long ago as 1998, Republican National Committee head Jim Nicholson asked GOP party members in the CCC to resign because of that group’s “racist views.” One background fact helped clinch the award for Bishop: the national infamy he gained in 2007 when he was photographed socking another senator on the floor of the Alabama Senate.

more...

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/12/30/the-last-word-hatewatch-2nd-annual-smackdown-awards/

[Faygo Kid]

1. Love these year-end lists. Great to see Jerome Corsi in this company.

My only beef is that so many here are rather obscure. Hannity merited a mention.

[Hawkeye-X]

2. Take a look at #1 - well deserved.

Whoever named their kids needs to go stay in a state institution for life.

ANd the kids re-named and re-fostered and rehabilitated with YEARS of therapy. The parents should pay for it too - sell their old crap, and burn all the Nazi crap.

Hawkeye-X

[babylonsister]

3. Maybe hannity has a permanent spot on this list; he surely

would deserve one.