It seems like all of the news this week surrounded the death of Philadelphia police sergeant Stephen Liczbinski. So it's only fitting—albeit sadly so—that this week's Asshole of the Week be tied into that story as well. As you've certainly read by now, in the wake of Liczbinski's death, Michael Nutter requested that all the flags in the city be lowered to half-staff. We've come to be familiar with, and even accept, this kind of......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! You knew it was only a matter of time. He was doing everything he could possibly do to get himself named Asshole of the Week, but for whatever reason, it just hadn't happened until now. After all, this was the guy who, for awhile, had the testicular fortitude to try and retain his state Senate seat while under indictment, had his multi-million dollar......

This breaking news just in, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead, and Joey Vento is still an asshole. Yes, that's right, our favorite grease-slinging dipshit (oh, and he sells soggy cheesesteaks, too) was back in the news this week. This time, he wasn't bitching about his court victory (which earned him Asshole of the Week a couple weeks back). No, instead, he was joining the clusterfuck debate about what went down in the campaign leading......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! We love the First Amendment. We love that, in this country, people are free to express whatever their views are, regardless of how idiotic, offensive, or flat-out wrong those views are. That's why, in one sense, we thought it was a little ridiculous when, in June 2006, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission received a complaint against Geno's Steaks owner Joe Vento for the......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! So, we're (still) counting down to the Pennsylvania primary. This six-week gap between the last big primaries and Pennsylvania's is really starting to wear on us. But, on the positive side, it means that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have to spend a substantial amount of time in our state, and specifically in Philadelphia. Of course, that also gives Philadelphians more opportunities to......

We, like most of sane America, hate Rush Limbaugh. Really, what's not to hate? C'mon, the guy calls his faithful listeners "Dittoheads." (Editor Jill and Wikipedia told this Phillyist that it's because Limbaugh listeners start their call-ins by saying "Ditto" to echo how much they enjoy his show, but I know it's really because they're mindless, or misguided, carbon copies of one another.) We've panned Rush on these pages before for encouraging his Republican listeners......

We heart capitalism. Americans come up with some really kooky, brilliant, ridiculous, and/or creative ways to make a buck. And what could be more American than finding a way to cash in on a holiday? That's why the Christmas decorations hit Macy's before you've even taken your little cousins trick-or-treating. It's why jewelers can sell and men will buy a rose dipped in gold for their girlfriends or wives (but not their girlfriends and their......

As we're sure you've noticed, we're big fans of Educators Gone Wild here at Asshole of the Week. It seems like every week there's at least one story about a drug-dealing coach or a pedophillic teacher. But this week, one story got us thinking: how much blame can we put on the academic institutions who hire these people? Usually, we think the answer is "Not much." After all, people will go a long way to......

It's in a Philly sports fan's nature to bitch and moan about the often nonsensical moves made by the people in charge of our sports teams. Of course, we're not always rational beings ourselves. Hell, we're getting excited about the Sixers, who are—let's face it—a mediocre basketball team. So how can we possibly expect the people who run our teams to be rational? But we've just about had it with the Eagles' front office. It's......

For awhile there, it was looking like this column could be retitled "Educators Gone Wild," as one of our winners and a number of our runners-up work(ed) in the Philadelphia area's schools. There was the ecstacy-dealing high school basketball coach, the "abstinence education is the only appropriate sex education" administrators at Archbishop Ryan, the elementary school teacher who wrote threatening messages throughout her school and the pedophile special ed teacher. But it's not just educators......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! This week's winner was a no-brainer. How could we pick anybody but the man who grabbed pretty much all the headlines, Milton Street? Where could we even begin? The biggest news, of course, was Milton being convicted of tax evasion. But our favorite part of this whole ordeal was Milton's "defense," sort of like the one Wesley Snipes pulled out in connection with......

I’m filling in for Ross this week with Asshole of the Week, and the honorable fossilized simpleton from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, is my selection for this prestigious award. This camera-ready attention whore, who is so desperate for air time that he calls up 610-WIP every Monday morning and eagerly reveals how little he knows about Philadelphia sports while the majority of the hosts' mics are turned off in order to stifle their stupefied laughter,......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! We love stories about local bureaucratic idiocy. They're always good for a laugh or two, but we do tend to forget about them five minutes after we've read them. And then there's the story of Edward Stanley Harris. By now, we're sure you all know the story. This guy had been hassled annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for 17 years over......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! Normally, kids get a pass for doing asshole-ish things. Let's face it, kids are just immature, and 95% of them will knock off most of the really asshole behavior by the time they're adults. But some kids are just shamefully, hopelessly doomed to a life of being assholes. A couple such kids are the eighth-grade dipshits who beat up a mentally challenged, partially......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! There were some strong contenders for Asshole of the Week this week, a couple of whom probably might have won on another week. But this week, there was one asshole who stood knees and ankles below the rest. Our Asshole of the Week is... Adrian Matthew! Right about now, you're asking yourself, "Who the hell is Adrian Matthew?" This guy is the upstanding......

The other day, a friend sent this Phillyist a link to Bill Maher's Dickheads of the Year blurb from Rolling Stone. (Maher's obvious liberal partisanship aside, it's pretty damn funny.) We're kind of ashamed that neither this Phillyist nor any of the other Phillyists with a sick sense of humor and a liking for this kind of thing—Bill Hayes? Bill Hayes? Bueller?—didn't do a Countdown to 2008 list of the top dickheads of 2007. So,......