Every decade has its mistakes, of course, but one nice thing about the past 10 years' foibles, foul-ups and flubs is that so often they came with neat, two-word monikers, almost like keepsakes: "Wardrobe malfunction." "Mission Accomplished." "Balloon boy."

Here's a review of 10 what-were-they-thinking moments.

1. Bernie Madoff has been called many names. For one federal regulatory sleuth, he was ... "a wonderful storyteller." For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission received detailed complaints that Madoff's investment operation was certainly fishy and probably criminal ("Nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme," a tipster wrote in 2000, eight years before Madoff confessed). SEC examiners found, instead, "a very captivating speaker" who assured them he was not "greedy" and all was OK. An SEC branch's decision to shelve the probe turned out to be a mistake — one of, oh, several billion blamed on Madoff, who's now charming fellow inmates in prison.

2. White House flight of fancy, 2003: Advance folks had almost everything right: the golden sunset light, President George W. Bush's dramatic landing on the carrier deck, the speech. But that giant "Mission Accomplished" sign, with years of mission still ahead, who came up with that? Reporters launched the "bannergate" investigation.

3. White House flight of fancy, 2009: We always thought Air Force One takes a good picture in any setting — but an aide to President Barack Obama thought a few snaps with lower Manhattan as a backdrop would be dramatic. How's this for drama: panicked office workers, seeing the low-flying 747 shadowed by a fighter plane, streaming out of buildings, phrases like "stupid and alarming" coming from local officials, and pretty much everybody mad about the taxpayer-funded photo op's price tag: $328,835. The aide was, er, grounded.

4. Aerial ambitiousness also gave us the balloon boy. When a homemade foil-covered balloon supposedly slipped its tether with a 6-year-old inside, we all held our breath — except some heavy-breathing cable anchors. The balloon finally landed — empty — and the kid was found safe at home, hiding, his father said. But why? "You had said that we did this for a show," the tyke told Dad, a would-be reality TV star, live on CNN. Whoops. Hoax charges followed.

5. Publishing mistake of the decade, coming in 2006: "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's book about how the murders of which he was acquitted might have been carried out. Amid furious protest, the project was aborted, the book was ordered "pulped," and the publisher acknowledged its "ill-considered project." And that wasn't the biggest faux pas of the decade for OJ. No. 1 was going to that Nevada hotel with weapon-toting friends to "reclaim" his sports memorabilia. "It was," said the sentencing judge, "much more than stupidity."

6. In 2006, after former Vice President Dick Cheney shot an orange-clad hunting buddy who looked nothing like a quail, the pockmarked victim graciously allowed that accidents happen. How did others react? A Texas Monthly cover threatened: "If you don't buy this magazine, Dick Cheney will shoot you in the face." A hockey team held a "Cheney Hunting Vest Night" — "Don't Shoot, I'm Human," the vests said. Even Bush joked about his veep's middle initial: "B. stands for Bull's Eye."

7. Looking for guv in all the wrong places. That's how you might categorize a couple of high-profile statehouse mistakes. South Carolina's family-values Gov. Mark Sanford missed the Appalachian Trail and ended up in Buenos Aires, with his Argentine "soul mate." New York's crime-fighting Gov. Eliot Spitzer turned up far from Albany and as "Client-9" in a hooker's black book.

8. "So, we were watching the boob tube Sunday..." So began an editorial in the Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News, commenting on the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show during which Justin Timberlake tore away part of Janet Jackson's costume, momentarily exposing her breast in what was later called a "wardrobe malfunction." Knowing the offense given to millions of live viewers (plus those offended again and again as they cued up the YouTube rerun), Federal Communications Commission smut-busters imposed a fine — but that, too, turned out to be a mistake. Arbitrary and capricious, a federal appeals court ruled.

9. What caused California's energy crisis back in 2000-2001? Deregulation? Too many hands on the AC switch? What about "creativity" by Enron employees? On Jan. 17, 2001, amid rolling blackouts, a fellow at the energy-trading firm told a power plant worker to "get a little creative" and find a reason to shut down, tightening electricity supply. "OK, so we're just coming down for some maintenance, like a forced outage type thing?" the worker offered. "I knew I could count on you," his colleague replied on a tape revealed in a lawsuit. California's grid eventually stabilized, but Enron itself blinked out — under hefty fines and criminal charges.

10. Finally, it must be acknowledged there were a few mistakes in the entertainment world — and we're not just talking about "American Idol" auditions. No, at least those didn't cost $100 million, the amount investors plowed into the 2002 movie "The Adventures of Pluto Nash." Basically, nobody showed up at the box office. Well, not quite nobody. "I know two or three people that liked this movie," said the star, Eddie Murphy. Who knew there'd be no audience for a comedy about a nightclub arson on the moon?[/quote]

and stupid yahoo made her #1

you'd think her breast caused a nuclear war, stupid middle america.

mimi07 said:

yahoo is buggin... shit wasn't that serious

banks said:

I think what landed it on this list and why people go all into it, was for the stupid denials by all parties involved. I mean it was the same shit when Britney did "Gimme More" MTV knew the state she was in, they pushed her out there and then let the wolves go nuts and then reaped ratings plus next time for having her back. I think if Janet would have just said "its a tit, gimme a break already" people would have gotten real, but you had her and timberfake playing like "oh shit that happend" like it was 2nd grade.

Another stupid mistake was Michael Jackson agreeing to do that Martin Bashir documentary. The mistake of his life!

dreamfactory313 said:

yea...that was a bad move

lastdecember said:

it was an accident, people love to blow things out of proportion. it was only like a mil second and if u blinked you missed it but you have the media which slows the footage down and makes sure everyone takes notice and constanly replying the clip doesn't help either.

yes this was all a mistake but not oone of the worst.

dreamfactory313 said:

I agree .. alot of stuff could have been avoided smh but I did watch that interview alot

babybugz said:

Me too. I think most people watched it when it originally aired. Remember the dozens of spin-off tv specials and rebuttal documentaries? It was a Michael Jackson tv tug-o-war for weeks after that doc originally aired.

mimi07 said:

But the thing is that is 100% correct, but as Jay Leno once said to Pete Rose adn Bill Clinton, American People like honesty rather than dishonesty, this incident was nothing more than a bullshit moment, but lets face it, it was done to cause attention and it did, BUT it could have died by both saying "Fuck you its no big deal" but neither did that, both lied, and offered up apologies and bull like that, The same goes for Tiger Woods, i mean, big shit he cheated, so do millions of americans male and female, BUT this dude should have just said "look i fucked up, im a cheater, lets get on with it" rather than the bull and dragging it on. YES the media is dumb for the focus, but its a combo of the people, the media and the public.

dreamfactory313 said:

Yes I do and I watch all that ..I taped most of it lol but that's when things got way worse for him

She was a scape goat for the growing conservative "we must censor everything" movement at the time. She was in the right place at the wrong damn time.

No one watched the video from the audience that showed her clearly upset, bent over, and covering herself, in shock at what happened. Of course fucking Timberlake just stood there, and didn't even offer her his jacket. What a douchebag. I just don't buy that it was on purpose. She'd never done that kind of stunt before, even when sales of her albums or songs were lower than usual/expected (like Velvet Rope, or stuff from All For You). She was never a stunt puller like that. It wasn't in her M.O. Still isn't.

ernestsewell said:

yup that pretty much sums it up for me. ridiculous that people are still talking about this, it was by far the most overblown idiocy of the past decade.

NoVideo said:

I completely agree. It was much ado about nothing.

NoVideo said:

Tommy fucking Lee was mooning audiences all over the place. Marilyn Manson rubbed his balls on some guy's head. Wendy O. Williams used to do some crazy shit on stage in public. All of these things got ::snap:: that much press time, and people moved on. But a fun bag flops out, and Laura fucking Bush is on a plane talking about "we don't stand for that in America". Yeah, tell that to the most rewound TV moment in TiVo history, ya dumb bitch.

ernestsewell said:

The hypocrisy is staggering considering the scantily clad cheerleaders bouncing along the sidelines of every NFL game. And violence is a frequent part of the game, but that's far more family-friendly than a split-second accidental boob shot.

Don't get me wrong I love football, but this acting like the Super Bowl is some sacred American honor is just absurd. People acted like she pissed on the pope.

NoVideo said:

Like I said, she was a scapegoat. Even Janet said she only regretted apologizing, but felt pushed into it right after to do it. She kept asking, "But what am I apologizing for?"

ernestsewell said:

But again, the whole "malfunction" shit, what was that. Not only was this a stupid moment and should have been forgotten, the blame goes all around. Simply just go out there and say "its my tit deal with it" why apologize, it wasnt an accident, they both planned it, back up what you do. Outside of that 100% right that this was overblown and should have been forgotten, as far as Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson, they are not relevant in the world compared to Timberlake and A jackson, most of america doesnt even know who Tommy Lee is and those that do, probably thought he died 20 years ago

lastdecember said:

i don't think it was planned, based on her reaction after the fact. and frankly that kind of stunt is just not her style. i don't think she would have been that foolish.

NoVideo said:

It was planned. Rip-away titty-cover, ripped off when Timberlake says "have you naked by the end of this song"? Come on. It couldn't have been more planned if there was an advisory before the performance.

That said, I don't put it in the same league as a guy who robbed people blind and caused people financial ruin and to commit suicide.
[Edited 12/17/09 22:06pm]

Superstition said:

Janet said it WAS in fact planned, but Justin was supposed to rip off the black part and expose the red bra underneath.

I don't believe that either.It was all too convenient.

Superstition said:

If that was true, why would she only expose one breast?

Paris9748430 said:

Yes, the plan was to rip off one part of the costume, leaving a red bra exposed. It still would have stood out, and went with the lyric "I'm'a have ya naked, by the end of this song". He's not going to rip her whole jacket off or something.

So her tit popped out clean with a little piece of nipple jewelery, even though only a bra was supposed to show? So he just cleanly ripped off the rip away part AND the bra cup? Seems that if it was an accident it wouldn't have been so picture perfect. It wasn't like a nipple slip or the bra slipped and part of her chest flaps were exposed, he clean and jerked that clothing off and there was Janet's jackson out there for the world to see.

That was one weird performance between them anyway...

Superstition said:

Janet has had her nipples pierced for years, so it would only make sense to actually have jewelry on the nipple.

Maybe. But does she wear big, round, ninja slicer thingies all the time? Maybe.. who knows. But the whole thing was too perfect to be an accident or "malfunction" in my mind. And if it was an accident, she must not have been the least bit concerned if she was wearing a bra where the cups pull off. We will have to agree to disagree.

babybugz said:

The interview itself wasn't a mistake. Openly admitting that he shared his bed with young boys was the mistake.

I really never understood the fuss about it.