KEITH OLBERMANN: First — because these next folks can only dream of lasting long enough to even compete with the eight-years-old — eight-year-olds of this world — here are "Countdown"'s top-three nominees for today's "Worst Persons in the World."
The bronze? To Mayor David Crocker of South Fulton, Tennessee. He's the man in charge in Obion County, where they have "pay for spray," which is — if you do not subscribe to the services of the fire department, the fire department will not put out the fire at your house.
It has happened for at least the second time in a year. This time, to a woman named Vicky Bell. It is, of course, beyond all human comprehension that you could run a community-safety element this way. Not even a pay-afterwards or an a la carte exception for a house while it's actually on fire.
But the most maddening thing is — the fire department, as it always does, went to the Bell home and, as it burned down, they stayed there and watched. The logic behind that being that they have to do that to make sure the fire doesn't spread to the property of any of the subscribers. The state of Tennessee permits this, makes its statewide government and everybody in the state look like cretins. And pyromaniacs.
The runner-up? Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich. As our friend Dave Weigel reported — while we were all watching Newt the chameleon kissing Donald Trump's shiny, metal ass yesterday, an operative at a rival campaign sent out an old interview with Gingrich, conducted in 1989 with the Ripon Society.
Quoting Gingrich, 1989: "Quotas send exactly the wrong signal to poor people. It says that they're going to get justice through political action and that justice is going to redress the past. That is simply, historically, not true. It's not the way the world works. The more power there is in a political system, the more the powerful exploit it. New York hasn't ended up a dream world for the poor. It has become a place where Donald Trump manipulates the game."
Gingrich now calls Trump an American original, and lets Trump manipulate him.
But our winner? Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
We have yet another human face representing all the victims of this bubblehead marionette of the Koch Brothers. Please meet Ruthelle Frank of Brokaw, Wisconsin. Ruthelle is 84 years old and she's voted in every election since 1948, despite the fact that she has been paralyzed on her left side since birth.
Ms. Frank went even further than that. She didn't just vote for all these years, she was eventually elected to the Brokaw, Wisconsin Village Board.
But right now it looks like she's cast her final vote, 'cause she was born at home in 1927, so there's not birth certificate and so — even though Ms. Frank has a certificate of baptism and her Social Security card — she cannot get one of those new state-issued IDs that was foisted upon Wisconsin by that fascist bastard Scott Walker and the criminal gang put in control of the state by the blood money of the Kochs.
The State Register of Deeds in Wisconsin does have a record of her birth, but her maiden name was misspelled by the doctor in 1927. So — to get an actual birth certificate, so she can get her Walker-approved "identity papers" — she has to petition the court to get the mistake made in 1927 corrected in 2011. Total cost could easily exceed $200.
To prevent the almost non-existent crime of voting when you're not supposed to, $200 — to get an ID for a woman who has voted in every election since 1948. And before you say, "Well, that's asinine but it's just the one woman," one study estimates that there are 177,399 residents — 65 and older — who do not have state photo ID in Wisconsin alone.
Governor Scott Walker, fascist bastard — today's "Worst Person in the World."
