2)  The Economy.  Although the recession began back in 2007 and it wasn't until the final days of the Presidential campaign in 2008 that it became big news, but 2009 saw unemployment reach 10.2%.

3) Tea Baggers.  Tea baggers came flooding out of the woodwork sporting some of the most paranoid personalities I've ever seen except for the Birthers.  They consumed all of the air time on various news channels especially in August at town halls all over America.  Too bad it took them so long to figure out that tea bagging already had its own sexual connotation.



4)  The craziest of the crazy, the Birthers.  Led by Orly Taitz who filed lawsuit after lawsuit trying to expose Barack Obama as born outside of the US and she even presented a faked birth certificate as evidence.  Let's all give thanks for her craziness and that each and every lawsuit filed was thrown out, some with prejudice.

5)  Hiking the Appalachian Trail.  South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for several days this year and told his aids he was hiking the Appalachian trail to gather his thoughts.  His wife was asked where he was and she gave a different answer, but in reality the man who ran on family values was in Argentina with his mistress and successfully added a new definition for hiking the Appalachian trail.

6)  Senator John Ensign, who also ran on a family values ticket, brought a lot of the funny this year having gotten caught having an affair with a married political aid.  He asked his parents to pay the woman's husband over $90 thousand dollars to keep quiet about the affair, but it just didn't turn out the way his parents wanted it to.


7)  Navy snipers rescue Captain Phillips from Somali pirates.  Somali pirates boarder an American bound cargo ship and took the Captain hostage after being fought off by the crew.  The pirates took the captain to a dingy trailing behind the ship and were eventually picked off by snipers saving the captain.



8) Rod Blagojevich.  This piece of work just does not care what he does to make money and it is definitely the reason he lost the Governorship of Illinois.  He tried to auction off Barack Obama's Senate seat for profit then appointed Roland Burris to the seat after Burris was caught on tape offering anything to get it.




9)  Joe 'You Lie' Willson.  This guy would probably be in the top 5 douche bags of the year when he interrupted President Obama's State of the Union by shouting out "You Lie" when Obama said illegal immigrants would not be eligible for healthcare under his proposed overhaul.