Tony Blair, Labour Prime Minister of Great Britain, is my Hero of the Year for 2005. Blair may be on the left in his home country, but he, like Bush, is a politician who 'gets it' when it comes to national and international security. He seems to seek truth in the world, and usually stands where he believes is right, not what is necessarily politically advantageous. In spite of this, and in spite of not agreeing with his party on everything, Blair won reelection in May, a feat that many were surprised at considering the perceived general opinion in Britain being against the war. Another example of Blair's steadfastness shows in his defeat on the anti-terrorism bill in November. Rather than concede, he risked political capital on something he believed in and lost.

Blair is also a key player in the anglosphere (Wikipedia article). He recognizes that the UK, and US, Australia, and the rest of the anglosphere are the most important world powers because they all enjoy freedoms, and have worked since the end of World War II (and perhaps earlier) to bring freedom to those who don't have it. The War in Iraq is an Anglo venture (excluding Canada), as The Washington Times noted during the British election:

Countries in the Anglosphere have similar concepts of law, of trial by jury and private property and share some preconceptions about a citizen's home being his castle and keeping the state in its place. They also share robust attitudes toward the use of military force in the modern world. The Brits, Yanks and Aussies of the Anglosphere were also the only countries whose troops attacked Iraq from day one of the war.

Blair has also expressed dissent with Continental Europe over the Kyoto Protocol. He realizes that enviromental change should not hinder economic growth, which Kyoto is doing:

Just as it is becoming increasingly clear that mankind cannot fine tune the climate system it is also becoming clear that the Kyoto-style policy solution of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by means of binding targets is just as simple-minded. The vast majority of countries, recognizing the link between energy use and economic growth, have rejected any binding targets on them. Most of the countries that have accepted targets are now looking increasingly unlikely to meet them.

The United Kingdom is one of the only countries that is likely to meet its Kyoto mark, as the BBC has recently reported.

For these reasons, Prime Minister Tony Blair is my pick for Hero of the Year, 2005.

Honorable Mentions:
Tom Coburn
Haley Barbour
50 Cent
Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
Iraqi Voters
American and Coalition Troops


My Hack of the Year for 2005 is the Mainstream Media. The above is the Day By Day cartoon for September 28, 2005. This year, the MSM had some major blunders, and Katrina reporting was as worse as Rathergate, because not just one news team fabricated reports or used unverified reports on the news. I am not even blaming the media's left-wing bias for this. It is just sloppy, overhyped, sensationalized reporting. From March, the only thing I wrote concerning Terri Schaivo:

It seems like the media is constantly in a state of frenzy. "Summer of the Shark," "Scott Peterson," "Michael Jackson," and now Terri Shciavo. Even the Almighty Drudge Report has six headlines dedicated to this story right now.

Were it not for the media's attention to the story, perhaps Republicans wouldn't have acted so badly in response to the case. Michelle Malkin has a post calling out 20 infractions of the New York Times alone. Seems like an animal cornered and lashing out. The Mainstream Media is flailing, as more and more I am turning to blogs, from which I can determine the whole picture, looking at various sources. I doubt Big Media will ever fade, but there needs to be more accountability.

Dis-Honorable Mentions:
Cindy Sheehan
John Kerry (for assuming he is still relevant)
Tom DeLay
Scooter Libby
Kanye West
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Harriet Miers
Michael Crook
Paul Martin

Posted by Ryan S. on Friday, December 30, 2005 at 12:01 AM | Permalink |