Wired magazine writer Kevin Poulsen lists the best and worst tech moments of 2005.

With tech stuff taken care of, let's look at what happened politically in 2005. The year began George W. Bush's second term. In his inaugural address, he said that he had a "mandate" and "political capital" that he intended to spend in the coming four years. After his Social Security initiative failed to gain support, a lot of things started to go wrong. In June, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, raising the eyebrows of everyone in Washington. Who would Bush pick? The Democrats wanted a moderate. Bush's base -- consisting of the religious right and corporate fatcats -- wanted a nominee who would overturn Roe v. Wade if the opportunity asserted itself. Bush chose D.C. Circuit Court judge John Roberts.

Pope died. That happened before June, but I didn't want to split up my paragraphs. After a few days of voting, Cardinal John Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI. Pope "Eggs" Benedict has cut down on liberalism within the church, mandating that no priest can be homosexual, not even if he's celibate. Unexpectedly, he has ordered an increase in the church's supply of hollandaise sauce.

But it was about to get worse. In July, bereaved mother Cindy Sheehan went to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex. with a few family members in order to ask the president for what noble cause her son died last year. The camp-out turned into a magnet for war protestors as they came by the busload to Crawford to protest the war in Iraq. Bush and his Republican Spin Machine tried their best to smear Cindy Sheehan, portraying her as a puppet of far-left personalities George Soros and Michael Moore. Ultimately, though, the American people didn't buy either Sheehan's or Bush's arguments. Instead, they fell asleep, as is the custom of their people.

John Roberts was just about to begin his hearings as a new Supreme Court justice when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, prompting Bush to elevate his nomination to the chief justice nomination. Great idea, but that meant that poor Sandra Day O'Connor had to remain on the bench.

Then, in September, a hurricane blew away the "political capital" that Bush claimed to have earned in the 2004 election. Hurricane Katrina attacked the Gulf of Mexico, leaving typical hurricane stuff in its wake. But it also left the city of New Orleans devastated by floods and revealed just how callous and unprepared our government was for such a disaster. Hurricane Katrina was, by all accounts, a complete foul-up that exposed many interesting facts, one of them that the nation's director of federal emergency management had absolutely, 100% no experience managing disasters and got the job because he was roommates in college with the old FEMA director. Oops.

And suddenly, the newsmedia that had been castrated since Sept. 11 started to ask questions again, to wonder why such a thing could happen, how such people could be employed, and why the government didn't do anything sooner or better. Down side: Anderson Cooper wasn't helping anyone by driving around in a boat and lamenting the devastation.

Hurricane Katrina also caused a spike in the price of oil ... or did it? Complex charts and graphs reveal that the price of oil was already on the rise before Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf region's oil production. How about that? Sounds like we need to call the CEOs of the major American oil companies into a Senate hearing for some answers! Unfortunately for America, Alaskan senator Ted Stevens was in charge of the hearing. He could barely mask the fact that he was in bed with all of those CEOs as he decided that they wouldn't be required to testify under oath, despite motions from other committee members requesting it.

Following John Roberts' confirmation, Bush forwarded a new nominee for the O'Connor position: White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Oh, man, if he wanted to prove that he employed competent people, this was not the way to go about it. Miers angered Democrats who said that she wasn't qualified; she also angered Republicans who wanted a nominee that they could be absolutely sure would overturn Roe v. Wade. After a month of haranguing, Miers "withdrew herself" from the nomination after closed-door meetings between Bush and Senate Republicans revealed that there wasn't enough support in the Senate to get her out of committee.

U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicted Vice Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case. Woo!

Then, Bush went to Latin America. That went well, if "well" means dozens of anti-American protests. The president didn't do himself any favors by taking a pot-shot at Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who is also president of the Central and South American Branch of the Anti-Bush Fan Club. Turns out that the war in Iraq -- in addition to making the world safer -- has also made America less popular in the eyes of ... well, everyone who doesn't spend the day watching NASCAR. And that happens to be most of the rest of the world.

In Califoahneeah, Gov. John Kimball tried to get voters to approve measures that were bad for them. Curiously, they decided they didn't want to enact measures that were bad for them. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains at large.

The Washington Post revealed the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world, prompting the Bush administration to reply, "What prisons?" At the same time, it was revealed that Vice President "Darth" Cheney opposed John McCain-sponsored anti-torture legislation. The administration's usual tactics of ignoring the problem and smearing the critics wouldn't work this time; the legislation had the support of 90 of the Senate's 100 members. Bush, true to form, didn't seem to understand the conflict inherent in the statement "We do not torture" and the action of opposing anti-torture legislation. Bush's excuse was that they didn't want to rule out any tactics in the War on Terr'. Hell, as long as we're not ruling out tactics, let's put nuclear weapons on the table! What's the matter, Bush? Are you yella?

And, most recently, it was revealed that the NSA has been conducting semi-legal wiretaps within the U.S., all in the name of the War on Terr'.

Now, let's assemble a list of SEDHE Villains of the Year:

• George W. Bush, U.S. President
• Dick Cheney, U.S. Vice President
• Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff (for now)
• Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Political Pundit
• Michael "Brownie" Brown, Disgraced Former FEMA Director
• Harriet Miers, Semi-Competent White House Counsel
• Ted Stevens, R-AK

All of these people have done something to really make me mad, whether it is placing the nation in more danger than it was in before, being incompetent, or generally being a jerk. I don't need to justify anything; it's my blog.

Oh, and guess what? Turns out that one of the craftsmen of this NSA wiretapping thing is a Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley) law professor, John Yoo. Man, what a great place to hide! Put that guy on my list, too.