Attention, list lovers

DemWit loves lists, especially those which summarize the year or decade gone by. Here are a few I hope will inform and entertain you:

ASSOCIATE PRESS TOP 10 OF 2009:

1. THE ECONOMY: “Despite a $787 billion federal stimulus package, much of the U.S. economy continued to sputter throughout the year. The jobless rate topped 10 percent, scores of banks failed, the federal deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion, and stocks fell to their lowest levels since 1997 before rallying. Yet investment banks' profits surged, triggering public anger and efforts in Washington to crack down on Wall Street bonuses.”

For details on the remaining stories, go HERE.

2. OBAMA INAUGURATION

3. HEALTH CARE REFORM EFFORTS

4. AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY

5. SWINE FLU

6. AFGHANISTAN

7. MICHAEL JACKSON DIES

8. FORT HOOD RAMPAGE

9. EDWARD KENNEDY DIES

10. MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON

“Just missing the Top 10 was the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

“The war and political turmoil in Iraq was voted the No. 16 story, the first time since 2001 that Iraq was not in the Top 10.”

THE DOUBLE OUGHTS

Did we ever decide what to call this decade now winding down? For the first eight years, at least, we could call it “The Double Oughts.”

Here’s a brief recap of Gallup’s “Decade in Review: Four Key Issues:”

“As 2009 draws down, a review of Gallup trends finds that satisfaction with the direction of the country plummeted this decade, the economy emerged as the top problem facing the nation, George W. Bush saw vast swings in his approval ratings, and congressional approval achieved a new high and a new low.”

Read more at GALLUP.com.

LIKE, IT’S A BRAVE NEW WORLD

PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” was Sarah Palin’s Facebook assertion about “death panels.” Like, if healthcare reform passes, the government will, like, set up panels to decide if seniors and the disabled are worthy of healthcare. LINK

The top two runners-up: “A claim by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that John Holdren, President Barack Obama's top science adviser, "has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population" and “a claim by Orly Taitz that a birth certificate showed that President Obama was born in Kenya.”

MOST, ER, NOTABLE QUOTES

On Yale’s Top 10 “Most Famous or Important or Revealing Quotes of 2009” (LINK) three were uttered by my fellow South Carolinians:

No. 1: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare,” yelled by a Simpsonville attendee at a healthcare town hall meeting.

No. 2: “You lie!” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled this at President Obama during his address to Congress. The charge was in response to Obama’s statement that healthcare reform legislation would not cover illegal immigrants. (The quote, of course, made Wilson the darling of the GOP and a hero here in Conservative Land.)

No. 3: “The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail” left a spokesman for S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford red-faced when it was revealed the gov was actually making whoopee in Argentina.