BBC NEWS | Europe | Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8298580.stm)

Congratulations!

For doing what?

I posted a link, you can read more there.

The Nobel committee jumped the shark years ago awarding it to Arafat. Obama is in good company.

The Nobel committee jumped the shark years ago awarding it to Arafat. Obama is in good company.
LOL! Lots of people guessed correctly that that's the first thing the righties would say. You lockstep with them. Hehe.

LOL! Lots of people guessed correctly that that's the first thing the righties would say. You lockstep with them. Hehe.

Who is lots of people?

for doing what?

For campaigning, that's about all he had accomplished at the time of the nominations.

Who is lots of people?Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (http://digg.com/world_news/Obama_wins_2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize)

I knew I was nauseous this morning for a reason!!

I knew I was nauseous this morning for a reason!!!
Because you're Party Girl and drank your face off last night?

Because you're Party Girl and drank your face off last night?

I wish that was the reason! Too busy birthin' babies to party!!

Nobama? The NPP? You have GOT to be kidding me!! :eek:

I just relate the news.

Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (http://digg.com/world_news/Obama_wins_2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize)

Without browsing every page I saw 2, that's lots of people? Most wondered for what? Why do you think these "lots" of people" would expect us to say that, because we have a point? Because they know Arafat and peace prize should be two mutually exclusive things?

Lots of people... being the commenters on Diggs... yup .

But this doesn't address the question raised at the presser after the announcment about the President considering increasing troops in Afghanistan and threatening tough sanctions and leaving the military option open in Iran.

The bottom line. The nominations had to be in the 1st week Feb. That meant the President was nominated roughly 2 weeks after being sworn in.

Giving the Goracle the Peace Prize for making a movie about the environment had more credibility.

Giving the Goracle the Peace Prize for making a movie about the environment had more credibility.

Exactly, or has giving someone an award for actual accomplishments become passé?

... because we have a point? No because you follow party lines and will oppose anything for the sake of opposing it. It's also called "politics of spite": http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05krugman.html It's part of the fractiring of the republican party that's going on. People are getting sick of the stunts, here's a list: Top 30 Stupidest Attacks on Obama - Eyes On Obama (http://www.eyesonobama.com/blog/content/id_55096/title_Top-30-Stupidest-Attacks-on-Obama/)

I think it's funny Obama's two biggest Enemies are upset about this. The Taliban and the Republicans. You guys are in good company.

No because you follow party lines and will oppose anything for the sake of opposing it.

Then tell us in YOUR OWN WORDS why he deserves the NPP! Don't just direct us to links... we want to hear what you have to say.

Here is the whole argument in favor of his selection... he is not Bush

Then tell us in YOUR OWN WORDS why he deserves the NPP! Don't just direct us to links....we want to hear what you have to say.
I mentioned it earlier, I just related the news. I won't get into your petty little never ending "discussions" which are always of the same theme.

I mentioned it earlier, I just related the news. I won't get into your petty little never ending "discussions" which are always of the exact same theme.

If you don't want to get into our discussions then why do you report?

It's a Current Event is it not? Do you question all askers when they post something and don't get into discussions or just me?

Let's see...

Obama was nominated for the Prize on February 1, 2009... just two weeks into his Presidency.

At that point, he hadn't accomplished anything except winning an election. With the exception of his inaugural address, he hadn't even made any speeches of note. (He has since made up for that lack in spades, hasn't he, but that's a topic for another thread.)

He hadn't created any legislation, hadn't put any policies in place, hadn't even appeared in an international public forum.

So, what was he nominated for?

According to the Nobel website (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/), the prize is being awarded to Obama
"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Huh? What efforts was he responsible for as of the time of his nomination? In fact, what efforts is he responsible for up to this point?

Even the Nobel Committee has admitted (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace) that Obama's initiatives in "reducing nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim Nations and strengthening the US role in combating cclimate change" have yet to bear fruit.

So now we are offering Nobel Prizes for making a good effort, rather than for results.

Wouldn't that be kind of like granting the Mets the World Series Championship for their STRONG EFFORTS at playing baseball, rather than for actually winning games?

Back in 2002, when the Prize was awarded to Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development", Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel Committee Chairman commented (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace) that the award should be seen "as a 'kick in the leg' to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war."

Similar comments were made when Al Gore won the prize in 2007... supposedly for his work on Global Warming... but in reality it was an award for the guy who had run against Bush.

I suspect that this is just more of the same. The Prize had nothing to do with anything Obama has done. This was just one last attempt to slap Bush in the face.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has once again shown itself to be a politically motivated body, not a body that bases its awards on actual results. They once again have proven their irrelevence.

Elliot

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has once again shown itself to be a politically motivated body, not a body that bases its awards on actual results. They once again have proven their irrelevence.

Elliot

Perfectly put!

It's a Current Event is it not? Do you question all askers when they post something and don't get into discussions or just me?

I have never seen anyone post something in the "Member Discussions" section and then claim that they don't want to discuss what they posted.

So, yeah, it is just you that is being questioned... because you're the only one who has done that.

Elliot

I have never seen anyone post something in the "Member Discussions" section and then claim that they don't want to discuss what they posted.

So, yeah, it is just you that is being questioned... because you're the only one who has done that.

Elliot

I can't say it enough... perfectly put!

If you don't want to discuss it, don't bring it up. And YES, I do question my OP's when the situation warrants it, and this situation warrants it.

Why bring it up if you don't want to discuss it?

OK. That's cool.

No because you follow party lines and will oppose anything for the sake of opposing it. It's also called "politics of spite": http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05krugman.html It's part of the fractiring of the republican party that's going on. People are getting sick of the stunts, here's a list: Top 30 Stupidest Attacks on Obama - Eyes On Obama (http://www.eyesonobama.com/blog/content/id_55096/title_Top-30-Stupidest-Attacks-on-Obama/)

Gee, NK, I always love that you give us so much credit for being able to think for ourselves. I personally checked in with Michelle Malkin this morning before asking myself, "what for?"

Some things are so painfully and obviously ridiculous even you should be able to pick up on it, like giving Arafat a Nobel Peace Prize or to a man who at the time of the nominations had managed to make a career of political campaigning, hold a gaudy inauguration, proclaim "I won" to Eric Cantor and break his first campaign promise by announcing his intention to name a lobbyist as Deputy Defense Secretary. So tell us, what had Obama done to deserve this prize? What had he done to even be nominated, have good intentions?

Hello:

Yesterday, I won a poker tournament.. It wasn't because I'm a GOOD poker player. It was because I was lucky. The money spends the same.

Congrats Mr. Pres. Now go get a public option.

excon

It is so great that you guys agree with the Taliban. I don't think my day could have gotten off to a better start. This is classic

As far as I can tell his accomplishements to date is the increasing unemployment rate and the collapse of the dollar. His new motto 'Peace through Poverty ' .

But at least this explains why he lost the Olympic bid. All his bribe money went to Oslo instead of Copenhagen.

Hello:

Yesterday, I won a poker tournament.. It wasn't because I'm a GOOD poker player. It was because I was lucky. The money spends the same.

Congrats Mr. Pres. Now go get a public option.

excon

I want to make this clear... I'm not blaming Obama for this bit of insanity. I don't think he had anything to do with it, and he and his White House were caught off-guard... they had no comment this morning because they weren't expecting it. And yeah, he got "lucky" that a bunch of jerks wanted to slap Bush in the face, and he was in the right place at the right time to do it.

I blame the Nobel Committee for this. It is THEIR judgement and their sanity, not Obama's, that is called into question at this award.

Elliot

It is so great that you guys agree with the Taliban. I don't think my day could have gotten off to a better start. This is classic

Hey Spit, what's that they say... even a broken clock is right twice a day? The Taliban should ease up on him though, the headline in my paper today was about Obama wanting to give them a role in Afghan affairs.

Or maybe the right should just be quite on this one since Obama had nothing to do with it. Well Tom thinks he bribed them. I bet if we dig a little bit deeper we will find the right and the Taliban aren't too much different. We can start with Religion if you like.

Spit : I'm sure his acceptance speech will include :" This isn't about me" .

Mary Katharine Ham at Weekly Standard dug up the names of the other nominees.
Here is the list of those who did not win the award this year:

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"

"Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."
The Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/10/meet_the_people_who_were_passe.asp)

I bet it was the kegger summit that put him over the top.

I think the Taliban and the GOP should file a joint complaint to the Noble people. Then next year Richard Steele or Hakimullah Mehsud can get nominated. Or maybe the Noble people will award both of them with the Peace prize for working together. Think about it!

Or maybe the right should just be quite on this one since Obama had nothing to do with it. Well Tom thinks he bribed them. I bet if we dig a little bit deeper we will find the right and the Taliban aren't to much different. We can start with Religion if you like.

Yeah, I support World Vision (http://www.worldvision.org), they support world conquest. They want to dominate Afghanistan, I want to dominate our fantasy football league :D

Yeah, I support World Vision (http://www.worldvision.org), they support world conquest. They want to dominate Afghanistan, I want to dominate our fantasy football league :D

No way, I am turning the season around. I got the first win finally now on to the second win. I have to get ready to face the beast from the east (Tom) in 3 weeks. I can't believe it is week 5 already.

I think Mark Sanchez should be awarded the MVP .The CHANGE he represents has brought HOPE to the long suffering NY Jets fan.

I think most Jets fans will agree with you Tom.

I think the Taliban and the GOP should file a joint complaint to the Noble people. Then next year Richard Steele or Hakimullah Mehsud can get nominated. Or maybe the Noble people will award both of them with the Peace prize for working together. Think about it!

Spitvenom,

Are you arguing that the Nobel Peace Committee's choice to award Obama the Prize is a good one? Do you believe that Obama has earned the Prize? If so, what is your justification or reasoning for that opinion? What actions has he taken that have earned him that award? More importantly, what actions had he taken at the time that he was nominated that had earned him the award?

Elliot

I don't give a Sh&t to be completely honest with you. I just think it's great how much it has gotten your panties in a bunch.

I don't give a Sh&t to be completely honest with you. I just think it's great how much it has gotten your panties in a bunch.

It hasn't gotten in my panties, I'm not the least bit surprised. I just wondered what did he accomplish to deserve it? And by the way, you're using the DNC's talking point (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/DNC_official_GOP_siding_with_terrorists.html) for today. :D

Now, will Braylon Edwards be the man, did he bring more hope to Jets fans?

I don't give a Sh&t to be completely honest with you. I just think it's great how much it has gotten your panties in a bunch.

So... what you seem to be saying is that we're right, but you just want to get our goats.

OK.

You win.

Elliot

I don't give a Sh&t to be completely honest with you. I just think it's great how much it has gotten your panties in a bunch.http://www.gearbits.com/images/thumbs-up.gif LOL!
Then they say their panties are not in a bunch while posting 8 or 9 times in the thread.

It hasn't gotten in my panties, I'm not the least bit surprised. I just wondered what did he accomplish to deserve it? And by the way, you're using the DNC's talking point (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/DNC_official_GOP_siding_with_terrorists.html) for today. :D

Now, will Braylon Edwards be the man, did he bring more hope to Jets fans?

It is just an easy point to make speech.

I don't know about Edwards I am still a little suspect of him. But in fairness to him he hasn't had a decent QB since Chad Henie (sp) at Michigan.

http://www.gearbits.com/images/thumbs-up.gif LOL!
Then they say their panties are not in a bunch while posting 8 or 9 times in the thread.

Actually NK, you have posted 11 times in this thread... the most of anyone in this thread.

Spit and Speech have posted 8 times each.

J_9 and Tom have posted 6 times each.

I have posted 5 times.

Excon and Zippit have posted 1 time each.

Oops! Looks like the joke's on you.

Elliot

ET Whoever wins the NPP has absolutely no effect on my life. Say they would have given it to Richard Steele I wouldn't even post anything about how he doesn't deserve it or anything. It is petty and for the right to come out and blast it just shows how petty the right is.

Et to be fair to me and speech a few of our post are about imaginary football teams we "own"

Even the MSM seems skeptical... the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100900914.html?hpid=topnews):


Obama is the third sitting U.S. president -- and the first in 90 years -- to win the coveted peace prize. His predecessors won during their second White House terms, however, and after significant diplomatic achievements. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919, after helping to found the League of Nations and shaping the Treaty of Versailles; and Theodore Roosevelt was the recipient in 1906 for his work to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese war.

In contrast, Obama is struggling with two wars -- weighing whether to increase the number of U.S. troops fighting to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and overseeing the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq. He is mired in domestic struggles over health-care reform and economic recovery efforts, and searching for ways to build momentum to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and to assemble an international effort to stop Iran's nuclear program.

In choosing Obama from among 205 nominees, the committee appeared to be continuing its rebuke of the Bush administration's go-it-alone approach to world bodies and alliances, including its decision to go to war in Iraq without U.N. approval.

The NY Times (via AARP (http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/barack_obama_wins_nobel_peace_prize.html) as they've already scrubbed this portion from their original article) :


Reporters at a news conference to announce the prize pressed the committee’s chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, to explain the reasons Mr. Obama had prevailed over other candidates who included human rights activists in China and Afghanistan and political figures in Africa.

Specifically, reporters asked whether Mr. Obama might not become mired in a war in Afghanistan as Lyndon B. Johnson was in Vietnam.

But the committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts so far rather than anticipate events in the future.

Even Matt Lauer said (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2009/10/09/nbcs-lauer-not-be-rude-obama-hasnt-done-anything), “We’re less than a year into the first term of this president and there are no -- I'm not trying to be, you know, rude here -- no major foreign policy achievements, to date. So why did he win?”

He won because he's not Bush was their assessment.

http://www.gearbits.com/images/thumbs-up.gif LOL!
Then they say their panties are not in a bunch while posting 8 or 9 times in the thread.

I'm just relaying the news. :D

ET Whoever wins the NPP has absolutely no effect on my life. Say they would have given it to Richard Steele I wouldn't even post anything about how he doesn't deserve it or anything. It is petty and for the right to come out and blast it just shows how petty the right is.

Want to bet?

If Steele won the prize, I would wonder quite loudly WHY he was winning it. Because "world peace" ain't his job, it ain't part of his list of accomplishments and it isn't something that he's done.

What makes you so sure that I wouldn't question it?

But this is such an OBVIOUS farce that even those who support Obama are wondering how he won it. Even Obama didn't expect to win it, because HE KNOWS HE HASN'T EARNED IT.

Elliot

I never said you wouldn't. But for people to come out and blast it is pointless. Who cares it doesn't change anyone life in this country. We have 6 pages of posts on such a non issue. The funny thing is you can't even stop yourself from posting. You are taking it seriously while I am sitting here laughing my @$$ off at you.

Et to be fair to me and speech a few of our post are about imaginary football teams we "own"

True... but NK's have not.

Which just makes my point all the more.

On one hand NK claims that he's "just reporting the story" and "doesn't really care", and yet on the other hand, he points to the number of posts that others have as "proof" that we have our "panties in a knot"... all the while having more posts on the topic than anyone else.

Elliot

LOL! This is fun!

I never said you wouldn't. But for people to come out and blast it is pointless. Who cares it doesn't change anyone life in this country. We have 6 pages of posts on such a non issue. The funny thing is you can't even stop yourself from posting. You are taking it seriously while I am sitting here laughing my @$$ off at you.

And yet you continue to post too. You must care to SOME degree, otherwise you wouldn't still be posting.

Elliot

Hello:

Panties in the knot crowd --- 6

The good guys --- 7

excon

Do you guys think Massa will recover well enough to be competitive?

I hate to be painfully obvious again but this is a "discussion" board and this is the "current event" of the day. You're surprised people are posting?

Now, will Braylon Edwards be the man


I hear he packs quite a punch

What I want to know is ;what compelled Reuters to go to the Taliban for a comment ? One would suspect that they were trying to steer the discussion .

Nahhh not a reputable news organization!

I am having too much fun. There is this Tea Bag guy who stands out in front of the post office everyday near my work with an Obama sign with a Pinokio nose on him. I bet his head is ready to explode.

I hear he packs quite a punch

I like how LeBron's friend didn't call the cops but called ESPN about Edwards punching him in the face.

Turns out that we have more in common with Lech Walesa than the Taliban . The Taliban says he doesn't deserve it because he is waging war against them . I actually think that is an endorsement in favor of his consideration. But ,our argument is that he has done nothing to deserve it. That is a position that Lech Walesa took when asked.



http://www.krakowpost.com/imgsize.php?w=350&img=i/2009/1009-walesa.jpg
Former Peace Prize winner puzzled by announcement


The former president, himself a Peace Prize winner in 1983, told the press in Warsaw "Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast - he hasn't had the time to do anything yet." This sentiment was reflected by current Prime Minister Donald Tusk: "Shock - absolutely. It's interesting, but shocking."

"Too Fast" for Obama Nobel, Says Wa??sa | Krakow Post (http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1623)

The Poles of course are good at recognizing appeasers masquerading as peace makers.

What nonsense, this is just political correctness and pandering to the extreme. If Obama were white, his candidacy for president would have been laughable much like senator Larry Pressler, who ran for president in 1980 after being senator for about 8 months.

What nonsense, this is just political correctness and pandering to the extreme. Better go tell those crazy Norwegians that. They have the control, not any of us.

I volunteer .The Norwegians are crazy leftys. Obama's plans there are considered right wing

I love Newsweek's take, Obama Not First Surprising Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Seven Controversial Recipients (http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2009/10/09/Obama-s-Not-the-First-Surprising-Nobel-Peace-Prize-Winner-Seven-Controversial-Recipients.aspx)

He's not the first shocker, just the latest "controversial recipient."


President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today, only eight months into his term. It's a bold—and some might say strange—move to fête a president who's still in the beginning of his diplomatic career. After all, Arizona State didn't even think he was ready for an honorary degree. Who knows what else he has in store for the United States? One thing we do know: Obama is likely to order thousands more troops into a war zone within weeks.

So the U.S. president may seem like a surprising choice for the award. This is the Nobel Peace Prize we're talking about, an honor designed to seek out and reward those who's contribution to the cause of harmony and peace on the face of this earth is both outstanding and unquestionable.

Well, most of the time.

LOL! I can't wait for the spin to really accelerate.

Better go tell those crazy Norwegians that. They have the control, not any of us.

And there you've almost got it. We're not criticizing Obama, we're criticizing the Nobel committee.

At work we had already decided that Obama should be in the running for Super Bowl MVP, the next American Idol, and since Tom DeLay dropped out... he should win the mirror ball on Dancing With The Stars. You can nominate him as a write-in candidate for the Heisman trophy here (http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/2009/) (h/t David Freddoso at the Washington Examiner).

At work we had already decided that Obama should be in the running for Super Bowl MVP, the next American Idol, and since Tom DeLay dropped out...he should win the mirror ball on Dancing With The Stars. You can nominate him as a write-in candidate for the Heisman trophy here (http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/2009/) (h/t David Freddoso at the Washington Examiner).

Don't forget to tell your local Bishop to make sure his name is in for the next canonization ballot.

Don't forget to tell your local Bishop to make sure his name is in for the next canonization ballot.

LOL, Pope John Paul II didn't manage a win, surely Obama can. :D

I truly don't think Alfred Nobel would approve of this choice but on second thought maybe he would considering Aflred Nobel made his money in weapons and expolsives. So possibly the Nobel nominating committee just wants to ensure that Obama is going to use plenty of Nobel's products in the near future in the world on the unsuspecting peoples in his new and bigger wars he has yet to concoct.

And yes, April Fools Day did come early this year.

What where they thinking? How to have this man more hated than he already is?

Flash - update. Time magazine is nominating Obama Man of the Year. For what? Who cares?

Flash - update. The Academy Awards will nominate him for his "truly stirring speeches given under duress" and he should be a shoe in for an Oscar with the award winning utterances of "Umma umma umma, anna, anna, anna."

Flash - update. Globe newsmagazine has uncovered just WHY he was nominated for the Nobel Prize. It was his wife's designer attire of the Bloody cammoflage outfit she wore at a funeral!

Update at 11 on your local channel 3 news.

I hear he's going to give the $1M of the prize money to charity. If he spent nearly $1M for a ride on AF 1 to get the Olympics in Chicago who's paying the bill? Are the taxpayers footing a $1M plane ride and then are the taxpayers then effectively donating $1M to charity?

Inquireing minds would like to know?

I truly don't think Alfred Nobel would approve of this choice but on second thought maybe he would considering Aflred Nobel made his money in weapons and expolsives. So possibly the Nobel nominating committee just wants to ensure that Obama is going to use plenty of Nobel's products in the near future in the world on the unsuspecting peoples in his new and bigger wars he has yet to concoct.


Yes Nobel invented dynamite ;but this award is right in line with his utopinan vision. His intent for the peace prize was to award the person who best moved towards world disarmament and the abolition of standing armies.

Found out the real reason why Obama won the prize...

He was the 10th caller.

Found out the real reason why Obama won the prize......

He was the 10th caller.

Good as any, but surely it wasn't that easy. He must have known the name of the mystery song.

And there you've almost got it. We're not criticizing Obama, we're criticizing the Nobel committee.Now I'm getting it? LOL! Look at yours and tom posts, they all making fun of Obama not the Norwegians. Falls in line with the Republican "do as I say not as I do" credo.

Look at yours and tom posts, they all making fun of Obama not the Norwegians.Hello NK:

**greenie**

It IS true. Real words and what they mean don't much interest our loyal foes... They see words like "death panel", where there are none. They tell you they're not insulting Obama when their words say they are... It's getting harder and harder to have a REAL discussion with them when you can't trust that the words they write convey the thoughts they have.

Then the posts devolve into posts like this where all we talk about is words and what they mean, and who said them... Then they deny they said them, or they deny what they mean...

It's kind of silly - unless it's intentional. Like I said earlier, I think this is a real right wing strategy. Then they can get us talking about words instead of issues... I don't know if it works or not, but I'm catching on...

excon

Now I'm getting it? LOL! Look at yours and tom posts, they all making fun of Obama not the Norwegians. Falls in line with the Republican "do as I say not as I do" credo.

You guys expected us to have a sense of humor during the Bush years, were we supposed to lose it when Obama won? The material is too rich to pass up, and surely Obama - and YOU - aren't naïve enough to think that he wouldn't be the butt of many a joke for accepting the award. Regardless, the jokes illustrates the absurdity of giving such a prestigious award based on potential and not actual accomplishment and that reflcets on the Nobel committee.

"Extreme Makeover" the show - all those folks should have won the NPP - they do great work. :)

How about the folks over at Red Cross - they do great work to. I wonder what the POTUS is doing about Darfur?


G&P

Ross Douthat hits the nail on the head (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/opinion/12douthat.html?_r=2)...


This was Barack Obama’s chance.

Here was an opportunity to cut himself free, in a stroke, from the baggage that’s weighed his presidency down — the implausible expectations, the utopian dreams, the messianic hoo-ha.

Here was a place to draw a clean line between himself and all the overzealous Obamaphiles, at home and abroad, who poured their post-Christian, post-Marxist yearnings into the vessel of his 2008 campaign.

Here was a chance to establish himself, definitively, as an American president — too self-confident to accept an unearned accolade, and too instinctively democratic to go along with European humbug.

He didn’t take it. Instead, he took the Nobel Peace Prize.

Big mistake.

People have argued that you can’t turn down a Nobel. Please. Of course you can. Obama is a gifted rhetorician with world-class speechwriters. All he would have needed was a simple, graceful statement emphasizing the impossibility of accepting such an honor during his first year in office, with America’s armed forces still deep in two unfinished wars.

Would the world have been offended? Well, to start with, the prize isn’t given out by an imaginary “world community.” It’s voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians. So turning it down would have been a slap in the face, yes, to Thorbjorn Jagland, Kaci Kullmann Five, Sissel Marie Ronbeck, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and Agot Valle. But it wouldn’t have been a slap in the face to the Europeans or the Africans, to Moscow or Beijing, or to any other population or great power that an American president should fret about offending.

In any case, it will be far more offensive when Obama takes the stage in Oslo this November instead of Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s heroic opposition leader; or Thich Quang Do, the Buddhist monk and critic of Vietnam’s authoritarian regime; or Rebiya Kadeer, exiled from China for her labors on behalf of the oppressed Uighur minority; or anyone who has courted death this year protesting for democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

True, Obama didn’t ask for this. It was obvious, from his halting delivery and slightly shamefaced air last Friday, that he wishes the Nobel committee hadn’t put him in this spot.

But he still wasn’t brave enough to tell it no.

Obama gains nothing from the prize. No domestic constituency will become more favorably disposed to him because five Norwegians think he’s already changed the world — and the Republicans were just handed the punch line for an easy recession-era attack ad. (To quote the Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, anticipating the 30-second spots to come: “He got a Nobel Prize. What did you get? A pink slip.”)

Really you are still hung up on this. So Sad rightys. Actually I take that back. Keep griping on this BS so we can pass health care while your distracted by this nonsense.

Really you are still hung up on this. So Sad rightys. Actually I take that back. Keep griping on this BS so we can pass health care while your distracted by this nonsense.

Us still hung up on it? The media is still hung up on it, it's all over the place. I've already about it from both sides in today's paper. Our paper specifically solicited opinions. It's still news, Spit.

By the way, how'd you do? I squeaked out my 4th win in a row thanks to a lousy performance by the Jets D.

Speech I lost again. I think it was something like 155 to 123. I was winning until the 4:00pm games. I don't know I am in two other leagues and in first place. I don't know where I went wrong besides Vick as an experiment.

But The Phillies had a great game last night. That win was bitter sweet for me because I had tickets to Game 5 tonight if they needed it. Now I have to spend all day at work and no playoff game!!

Now is the time to kick it up a notch if you can with all the byes coming up. That's the main thing I work on is making sure I have good fill-ins for the bye weeks. Of course on one team I pulled a boneheaded move and used Derek Anderson... -2 points for the week.

Go Phillies!

Sorry Spit but I'm a little behind on my Huffpo reading and just had to share their logic.

Jacob Heilbrunn said (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-heilbrunn/president-obamas-noble-no_b_314909.html), "It would be hard to think of a more electrifying and deserved recipient of this year's Nobel Peace prize than President Obama." But, "obviously, the award is based on the hope that Obama will achieve real progress in advancing diplomacy rather than confrontation around the globe."

I'm sure next year it will be renamed the Hopenchange Award in his honor.

Robert Fuller acknowledges his greatness (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-fuller/obamas-nobel-honors-his-d_b_315002.html) this way, "Obama got the prize not for doing, but for being."

Good to know he's still The One.

He's the 'prince of Peace' .

Stratfor is speculating the reason he got it is because the Europeans hope that he will not ask too much of them and that he will consult and give them veto power over American foreign policy decisions.

http://image.patriotpost.us.s3.amazonaws.com/2009-10-12-brief-cartoon.jpg

In the past I have admired the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize but no more, I also thought that the winning of the prize was an honor but now I think the Noble Peace Prize is really no more of an honor that getting the prize out of a box of Cracker Jacks.

In the past I have admired the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize but no more, I also thought that the winning of the prize was an honor but now I think the Noble Peace Prize is really no more of an honor that getting the prize out of a box of Cracker Jacks.

At least with Craker Jacks, someone took the action of buying the box.

When Arafat won the NPP, there was at least a piece of paper that he signed. He lied, but at least there was a piece of paper to show people.

Al Gore at least made a movie to win his NPP... full of misleading and ambiguous statements and outright lies, but at least there was something to show people.

Jimmy Carter had a bunch of leaky homes and a piece of paper signed by Sadat and Begin to show people as a reason for the NPP.

What actions has Obama taken to earn the NPP? What does he have to show the world? Other than his "Obamaness" (def: the state of being Obama), I mean.

Elliot

Alas, the Norwegians have spoken (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BAA3U80&show_article=1)...


Three of them rejected the notion that Obama hadn't accomplished anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question. A fifth member didn't answer calls seeking comment.

"We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done."

Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

"All these things have contributed to—I wouldn't say a safer world—but a world with less tension," Jagland said by phone from the French city of Strasbourg, where he was attending meetings in his other role as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.

He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals.

"I take note of it. My response is only the judgment of the committee, which was unanimous," he said, adding that the award to Obama followed the guidelines set forth by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who established the Nobel Prizes in his 1895 will.

"Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year," Jagland said. "Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?"

In the "previous year" Obama helped heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scaled down the Bush anti-missile shield in Europe? I thought about all he accomplished in the last year was running for and winning the presidency. And throwing his pastor and grandmother under the bus.