BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: artbrooks
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 02:38 PM

Why people are nominated is an interesting conundrum - for example, that well-known peacemaker Vladimir Putin was nominated in 2008 and our beloved former President George W. was nominated in 2002.   Clearly, though, an individual's accomplishments after the nomination is made are considered when the prize is awarded.

Subject: Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 02:51 PM

Doug, if you think "everybody" loves Obama, you haven't been paying attention to the TV and radio media.   The amount and intensity of outright hatred for and vilification of this man is so out of proportion to any of his faults, failings, misdeeds, or misguided plans that it defies credulity.

There have been 400% more death threats against this President than against any other US President in US history. And a lot of this vilification began long before he took office, even before he was elected.

Obama has never presented himself as a "Messiah" type. His message is "we," not "I." And, in fact, a major reason his 'liberal' base has been so disappointed so often is that he insists on trying to "work across the aisle" and forge "bipartisan" solutions to problems (despite the apparent unwillingness of the Republican Party to work with him even on "centrist" legislation).    I actually wish he WOULD act more like a "leader" sometimes and less like a mediating "community organizer."

The "Messiah" epithet is just one of a slew of negatively-charged labels that Obama's opponents try to pin on him to gin up that hatred.
He's a "fascist" and a "communist." (Now, there's an oxymoron for ya.)
They call him a "racist" and a would-be "Messiah" and a "dictator" -- based on what?

If the world at large "loves" this US President more than they did George W Bush and Dick Cheney, maybe that's because this President doesn't think the US and its citizens and the multi-national corporations are all that matter in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Amergin
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 03:23 PM

Yeah....things have become so peaceful under Obama....we're no longer in Iraq or Afghanistan.....and no more of our men and women are being murdered for corporate greed....

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: bankley
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 03:45 PM

$1.4 million is a lot of dynamite....

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 03:54 PM

What Genie said...

Fox and friends call him:

"Liberal Nazi Socialist Communist Dictator Racist Halfrican Godless Muslim Messiah"

Now are they really as stupid as all of those oxymorons suggest?

No, its just a string of epithets that they hope will stick in weak, scared, small minds.

And they do.

Subject: Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 04:10 PM

Amergin, if the Nobel Committee used your criteria -- we have peace, no more genocide, nobody dying because of corporate greed -- nobody would ever have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. : )

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 04:17 PM

I really have mixed feelings about this. When I first read the headlines, I thought I misunderstood and moved on to another story. When I came back to it, I shook my head and had to ask "Why?" I have read all the coverage, understand the message but honestly I don't see it. I voted for Obama, support him, will vote for him again. I am thrilled that a US President has received the honor. But...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Amergin
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 04:21 PM

No, Genie, my criteria would be for him to actually do something....like bring our troops home...and instead of spending billions on weapons, spend the money on education, and health care, and to rebuild the infrastructure of our country, Iraq, and Afghanistan...

I am still waiting for the changes he promised.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Amos
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 04:25 PM

WASHINGTON/OSLO (Reuters) - Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement and drew both praise and skepticism around the world.

The bestowal of one of the world's top accolades on Obama, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success after nearly nine months in office, was greeted with gasps from the audience at the announcement ceremony in Oslo.

Describing himself as surprised and deeply humbled, Obama said he would accept the award as a "call to action" to confront the global challenges of the 21st century.

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he said in the White House Rose Garden.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," citing his fledgling push for nuclear disarmament and his outreach to the Muslim world.

Obama, a Democrat who took office as the first black U.S. president in January, has been widely credited with improving America's global image after the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, who alienated both friends and foes with go-it-alone policies like the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 04:30 PM

This thread's been interesting. Especially some of the contributions describing the amount of opposition Obama faces in furthering Peace, from within America itself.

As an 'investment in the future peace of the world', I jolly well hope this symbol of international support for his intentions (if not his actual achievements to date), supports Obama's ongoing much needed work towards initiating and consolidating, some of the peace promoting policies that he's currently got opposition to, at home...

Maybe it wasn't such a bizarre choice after all.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:17 PM

He could shoot the right wingers in the foot--lemme rephrase that because they usually have their feet in their mouths and shooting them in the foot would mean shooting them in the head if ya know what I mean. Anyway, at first I thought this was a joke thread. I am surprised it is fact.

Congratulations to the American people who voted for the man. And to Obama, too.

Back to the right wingers: he could shut 'em up by donating the money from the NPP by donating it to charities. Let them bitch about that!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Emma B
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:20 PM

The White House has already announced that the money will be donated to a charity

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:20 PM

Amergin, I'm still waiting for a lot of the same things. But I've seriously never seen a new President face such opposition, both in Congress and in the media -- and such resistance from the military, from the outset of his administration.   The way the Republican echo chamber treated Clinton from the outset was bad but it's far worse this time.

I don't think the President - any President - has the power to do all the things Obama said he wants to accomplish. I'm still waiting for Obama to follow through on a lot of what I believe to be his goals, but I don't think it's fair to say he's accomplished nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:22 PM

My first reaction was that he won because he was not George Bush.

Later I engoyed the way Gibbs put it. "Its actually a prize for the millions of us who have hope for a better world and have worked very hard to make it possible."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:23 PM

Peace, Obama has already announced that he is donating the entire $ prize to charity.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 05:28 PM

Thanks, Emma and Genie. I figured he would but hadn't heard he did.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Stringsinger
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 06:01 PM

Absolutely ridiculous. 1. Obama opposes Kyoto. 2. Obama's military buildup in Afghanistan. 3. Obama buildup in Guam. 4. Obama supports AIPAC to destroy Gaza.
5. Obama lied about getting out of Iraq.

These are not peace actions.

Who cares if Pete Seeger gets that prize? It is meaningless.

Kissinger got it. That should tell you something.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Stringsinger
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 06:13 PM

Zoya from Afghanistan should get it. Barbara Lee could have received it.

There are so many more qualified candidates.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 06:38 PM

I believe it was very important for the world and for those of us in the USA who DO have hope, that he got it as a demonstration of good faith in his and our abilities to carry on with the plans he promised. It would be NICE if EVERYONE would, Democrats included, remember that the President cannot do anything without Congress. If you don't like the way things are going, bitch about Congress and write/call your reps and senators and tell them to WORK WITH THE MAN...the WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING and Full of Hope.

I reckon if Americans could actually get it together, we'd get back that huge amount of support from the world which was just waiting for us after 9/11 when the shrub fucked things up so badly we lost it all. wow, what must that be like. Does anyone remember...before the long eight years of...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 06:47 PM

AMEN, sistah Kat!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Peace
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 06:59 PM

Ditto that.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: DougR
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 07:06 PM

Uh, Amos: What has he changed? Note: I didn't say what has he TALKED about changing.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: DougR
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 07:10 PM

Peace: I think it is admirable of Obama to contribute his winnings to charity, so long as he doesn't give it to ACORN.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: pdq
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 07:15 PM

Perhaps he should first pay Tony Resko for the adjacent property that Obama has exclusive use of.

After all, the neighbors might talk.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Janie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 07:31 PM

Could a clone be kind enough to change the title to say Awarded instead of Wins?

Thanks,

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: artbrooks
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 08:25 PM

Genie, I'm on several military sites and blogs, and I've heard of no opposition to the President. Military retirees, of course, have the same right to express their opinions as any other citizen.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 08:40 PM

Nobel Shock shows America oblivious to its reign of terror
by Nashville fan
Fri Oct 09, 2009 at 04:34:51 PM PDT

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/9/791680/-Nobel-Shock-shows-America-oblivious-to-its-reign-of-terror


"I find it truly mind boggling how very insulated and oblivous most Americans are to the sheer hell we have put the world through over the last 8 years.

President Obama deserves the Nobel Prize for bucking the conventional wisdom in BOTH political parties and charting a course for PEACE.

- Because he ended the policy of pre-emptive war, which basically stated that the United States can do whatever the hell it wants.

- Because he ended the mindless policy of not talking to our enemies. If you won't talk to someone, how can you make peace with them?

- Because the world was weary of America's capricious selection of enemies based on our economic interests. A wink and a nod for China, our banker, and bombs for everyone else.

- Because after a war based on lies which killed THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of Iraqis, America has been smeared by the blood of all the innocents whose only crime was to be living in the wrong oil rich country at the wrong time.

- Because he ended the policy of torture and secret prisons and lawlessness that saw agents of OUR country terrorizing people around the globe.

These changes were not small ones and not to be belittled. . . we came within 7 percentage points of World War III, with Senator McCain wanting to take Georgia into Nato and go to war with Russia AND Iran.

Those folks cheering in the streets around the world weren't cheering for the "first black President". They were cheering for an end of tyranny and oppression from the "shining beacon on the hill".

We take all these things for granted, because the bombs don't blow up here, the carnage doesn't fill the streets here, President Bush said it plainly - we fight them over THERE so we don't have to fight them here.

So we Americans are oblvious and shocked at the impact our President has had on the lives of billions of people around the world, who once again can view the stars and stripes as a sign of a friend, and not a foe.

President Obama EARNED the Nobel prize by ignoring the "conventional wisdom" that said negotiating is weak, admitting error is weak, working in alliances is weak and finally recognizing that ALL PEOPLE are precious in God's sight, not just Americans.

Well done, Mr. President. Well done."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Alice
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 09:08 PM

No, they are not going to Hardin, Montana. That's an old rumor.

Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 09:13 PM

I had the radio on through the night and for some reason I awoke about 2 am Alaska time to hear the Bill Bennett program "Morning in American" talking about what Obama should do with his Nobel money. It seemed like a fantasy but it was just weird enought for validity so I turned to our local NPR station which plays, wait for it, BBC programme-ing all through the wee hours, and the Beeb confirmed. So this morning I made an effort and tuned to the start of the Rush Limbaugh program just to hear his head explode, which made less of a hollow popping sound than I expected.

A thoroughly enjoyable Fridam morning.

As to whether Obama deserves it, I can hear loud and clear what the world is saying to us...."He deserves it because he ain't 'W'!"

And even though I'm also hearing a lot of 'left' Democrats who are not totally sure of that, the world is still optimistic, so it is 'morning in America' across a lot more than our vertically aligned continent.

(still laughin' in 'laska!)

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Peace
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 09:16 PM

Article about Hardin, Montana' s Two Rivers Detention Facility.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Riginslinger
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:25 PM

Pretty amazing, Peace. It continues to amaze me when people want to use punishment as a source of enterprize. When I lived in California they called it the California Prison Industry.

                     I did a paving job in Stockton one time, next to what they called the "California Juvenile Authority, and we saw bus loads of black children coming and going all the the time we were there. The guards stood in the isles of the buses with loaded M-16's, while the kids rode along with blank expressions on their faces chained to the backs of the seats.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Peace
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:28 PM

I hear you, Rig, and I trust you're doing well.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Janie
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:32 PM

This thread is really interesting to me, and reflects in microcosm all the different opinions and povs I have been listening to and reading in the media today.

The Nobel committee articulated very clearly their reasons for awarding the Peace Prize to President Obama. It is their perogative to award any of the Nobel prizes to whom they will.

I don't know that they have done Obama any political favor in awarding this to him. However, I think the Nobel committee has a long view, and their decision represents support and advocation of a process that holds promise for improved global negotiating and effectiveness over time. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in conceiving and promoting the League of Nations. The US legislature voted against the League of Nations anyway. A couple of decades later, however, the United Nations did become a solid reality. While not as effective as most people would like, the United Nations represents a significant step forward.

I think it unlikely the Obama administration will accomplish many of it's ambitious and often lofty goals in the 4 or 8 years that may be allotted. However, I do think it likely this administration will nudge the country and the world along a few inches in an effective direction. The fruits of those nudges may not be harvested until long after Obama is gone.

Change on the level of society, be it national or global, is slow and is incremental. I see the Obama administration as planting seeds, some in fertile and some in infertile ground. Who knows which of those seeds will sprout now, and which of those seeds will lie, seemingly dormant, for years or decades, then germinate.

Regarding whether he correctly accepted the award or should have declined it, after reading this thread and following the news, he was clearly damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. Having no reason whatsoever to think he would be accorded this award, he also did not have much time to contemplate the appropriate action. My impression is he accepted it on behalf of a country and a world in which a number of people, whether a majority or a significant minority, see the need for a paradigm shift, even when we are not sure what the final result will be.

One last thing. All these different points of view are the reality of the human race. I try to not make judgements (and am often unsuccessful) when some one else's pov differs radically from my own. I try to keep in mind that pov is about belief, paradigm, needs, wants, and rarely about fact or actual reality. Two things that impress me about Obama is his acceptance of reality, and his ability to understand and respect the validity of differing povs.

Well, two last things. Bill Clinton was on The Daily Show last week, and made what I consider a wise observation regarding health care reform. It was something to the effect of "we need to just stumble forward."   That is what I call radical acceptance of reality.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:35 PM

Wow, that must have been painful-having faces chained to the back of seats...

**

But I know what you meant. And probably I'd put on a stoic face if I was being transported to one of those juvenile prisons.

I hope those youth-now adults are doing as well as they can.

And yes I know this is off topic but not really.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Alice
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:45 PM

Hardin's story is a sad one. The town is on the edge of the Crow Indian reservation. Jobs are scarce. It is near the Little Big Horn Battlefield (Custer's last stand). The people were duped into thinking the prison building would be a good idea. They were recently duped again by a con artist, a convicted felon, who claimed he would run a for-profit jail in Hardin. news from today's Billings Gazette
... but this is off the thread topic.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
From: Naemanson
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 11:17 PM

Speaking to my fellow United Statesians only:

You may not see it but the rest of the world sees us as a bunch of self centered clowns with too much power and ego and not enough humility and team spirit. Obama may have changed that a little. I certainly hope so.

If he can do that then I say go for the gold, Barrack.

By the by, my knowledge of what the rest of the world sees in us is founded on a spread of contacts similar to those many of you Mudcatters have. The difference is that my spread of contacts is family who are not averse to sharing and showing their opinions. The countries I am speaking of are England and Japan, with a few friends from Taiwan, and the islands of the Pacific. And my daughter's friend from Ethiopia. The universal opinion of the USA is that we have more money than brains. We are like the proverbial bull in the world's china shop.

Subject: Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:23 AM

Doug, if you are demonizing A C O R N, you've been drinking too much of the right wing Kool-Aid.   

(There's a bill in Congress now to defund and refuse to do give govt. contracts to ANY organization or business that has had any of its subsidiaries or representatives convicted of defrauding the govt. If that passes, ACORN will look almost saintly compared to, say, Blackwater, Halliburton, KBR, Pfizer, etc., etc.)

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:26 AM

Azizi, thanks so much for posting that! Bravo!

Subject: Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:32 AM

Rig, you are so right. The "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned about has now expanded to the military-insdustrial-prison complex -- and beyond. And it's one of the main things that is destroying our country.

Thing is, I don't hear Obama touting the idea that we need to lock more and more people up -- whether as "detainees in the war on terror" or because of street gang activity or drug offenses. I'd say it's the right wing that is pushing that agenda. And, really, the muscle behind it is the power of those who make the big bucks by locking more and more people up.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:36 AM

I skimmed this thread on my way down the the reply box. These may have been said, maybe even by the same person. Pardon me if I repeat the view:

To me, it looks like there are two main things going on here.

He received it because he ISN'T George W. Bush. This was a way the rest of the world has of saying thank you for being yourself and arriving when you did and we wish you the best after 8 hellish Bush years.

They're paying it forward, urging him to keep up the work he has started, despite all of the fiscal distractions he's trying to clean up after Bush.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: artbrooks
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:41 AM

This from the horse's mouth:

The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee – four of whom spoke to The Associated Press, said awarding Obama the peace prize could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support for the policies of his young administration.

They lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease U.S. conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen its role in combating climate change.

"Some people say – and I understand it – 'Isn't it premature? Too early?' Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told the AP. "It is now that we have the opportunity to respond – all of us."

Jagland said the committee whittled down a record pool of 205 nominations and had "several candidates until the last minute," but it became more obvious that "we couldn't get around these deep changes that are taking place" under Obama.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Alice
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:41 AM

You can disregard my posts about Hardin, because I was replying to a Guest's conspiracy theory messages about Hardin that have now been deleted.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 12:42 AM

Oh, and well said, Janie.

Subject: Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 02:04 AM

Stilly, I think you're onto something.

Here's an interesting history and analysis I came across via AOL online:

-----------------

Obama's Win Fits With Nobel History

By ANDREA STONE, Senior Washington Correspondent, AOL News
10-9-09

WASHINGTON (Oct. 9) -- Mother Teresa. Nelson Mandela. Elie Wiesel. The Dalai Lama. Barack Obama.

The stunning decision to add Barack Obama to the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize laureates is the latest head-scratcher from the Nobel committee, a secretive five-member panel appointed by Norway's Storting, or parliament. This year's committee, which leans left in a distinctly Scandinavian fashion, consisted of four women and a chairman, former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland.
"If you look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prize," Jagland said, "we have on many occasions tried to enhance what many personalities are trying to do."

Few would mistake recent Nobel winners with beauty pageant contestants aspiring to bring world peace. Yet University of Minnesota political scientist Ronald Krebs said the Nobel committee does reward good intentions by "seeking to promote peace by giving the award to those they thought were going along the right path. Barack Obama represents the extreme end of that element."
Others aren't so sure. The reaction of Lech Walesa, who won the 1983 Peace Prize for founding Poland's Solidarity union and defying the Iron Curtain, was typical: "Who? What? So fast?"

Critics called the honor an embarrassment.
"Outrageous," said Jay Sekulow of the conservative American Center for Law and Justice. "Who gives awards to a president in office for nine months?"
In Norway, the local chapter of Amnesty International said the prize shouldn't go to a sitting American president overseeing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Stein Tønnesson of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo noted, "The Nobel Peace Prize has always been politicized. It was once even given to President Teddy Roosevelt."

Roosevelt was the first of three sitting U.S. presidents to win the prize, taking the honor in 1906 for negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. He is better remembered for charging up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War and sending the U.S. Navy around the world in a show of military might.

More than a century has passed since Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, endowed his fortune to start a prize for peace in his name. According to his will, the Peace Prize was to reward those who had "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Over the years, the emphasis shifted. The first winners were often organized peace group activists. Later, politicians seeking peace were chosen. More recently, the idea of peace has been broadened to include promoting democracy and fighting climate change.

Since 1901, when the first award was given to the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the head of a French peace organization, winners have ranged from the iconic -- U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. -- to the obscure -- Carl von Ossietzky, an anti-Nazi German journalist whose 1935 prize was meant as a message to Adolf Hitler.

Obama is the 21st American to win the Peace Prize and the third African-American, after United Nations official Ralph Bunche and King.
He isn't the youngest -- Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Corrigan was 33 in 1976 when she won.
He's not even the first Chicago community activist. That honor went in 1931 to Jane Addams, who ran Hull House to help the city's poor and immigrant community.

The president's resume of accomplishments may be short, Tønnesson said, but this year's prize is meant to "encourage his further work for peace" and finish initiatives he started. Among them: a "return to respect for civic and human rights," rapprochement with the Muslim world, Iran and North Korea and withdrawing troops from Iraq. "Then a big question is if he can find a way to be peaceful also with relation to Afghanistan."

Obama was chosen over 204 other nominees, including 33 organizations, the highest number ever. He didn't help end a Cold War like Mikhail Gorbachev. He didn't topple apartheid like Nelson Mandela. Nor did he launch a "green revolution" in agriculture that saved millions from famine like American plant scientist Norman Borlaug, who died last month.

What he did bring, said J. Paul Martin, director of human rights studies at Barnard College in New York, is a change from George W. Bush and a diplomacy that often saw America go it alone on the world stage.

"It's a vote for peace and a vote of confidence," Martin said. "The view of Obama outside the United States is not appreciated inside the United States."

___

I'd say amen to that last point. Especially amid the egocentric, ethnocentric right wing extremists who dominate the Fox cable network and talk radio. They have so devalued the rest of the world that they not only discredit the opinions of those beyond our borders but seem to be oblivious to them.

When the US was passed over for the 2016 Olympics in favor of Rio De Janiero (the first S. American city ever to host an Olympics), some media on the right were quick to proclaim (all too gleefully) "WORLD REJECTS OBAMA."

I'd say this Nobel Peace Prize award reinforces this: I think not.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: LostHills
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 04:39 AM

It's a farce, and there is no way to spin it that makes it right. This man is making war against people in three different countries and is responsible for more deaths in the world than any other person. Giving a peace prize to a warmonger is disgusting, really, but they gave one to Rooseveldt and they gave one to Kissinger. Shows how much they really care about "peace," doesn't it? It just gives encouragement and legitimacy to a man who is leading our country in the wrong direction. The war should have ended in January, and that's the only way he would deserve this prize.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Emma B
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 09:33 AM

On the same day that President Obama met with his war council yet again to consider sending up to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

It's difficult to know whether this confluence of events was some fluky irony or a bravado attempt by the five judges to highlight to a global as well as a domestic audience the president's decision to potentially further escalate the war in Afghanistan or not.

Maybe that eye roll speaks volumes

Emerging from the White House on Tuesday Reid put his arm around Pelosi to announce that "everyone" would support "whatever" Afghanistan policy the president produces.

Nancy Pelosi reflects the views of many anti-war voters who gave the Democrats the majority and of the progressives who elected her as speaker,

Some reports have speculated that 'if President Barack Obama decides to send more troops to Afghanistan, he risks setting off an internal party struggle on a foreign policy issue that may well define his performance as commander in chief.'

Premature?
Time will tell!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 09:39 AM

Well, Lost Hills, the Nobel Committee obviously has their own goals, rules, and standards in awarding the Peace Prize, and they are different from what you would have were you awarding something called a "Peace Prize."

It's a bit like the never-ending quarrels over Time Magazine's "Person Of The Year" award. It is supposed to be the person most newsworthy or who generated the most news (not the most honorable or admirable person), but every year there are those who quarrel with Time Mag's choice on the grounds that the POTY isn't all that admirable.

I think the Nobel Committee made it pretty clear what message they were sending in awarding the Peace Prize to Obama (and to former recipients such as TR, Woodrow Wilson, Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore).   And Obama accepted the award in keeping with that meaning and message. If you want to dismiss the Peace Prize as worthless, fine. But it's really not up to you or me to redefine what it is supposed to signify.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Riginslinger
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 10:45 AM

Yes, it's pretty obvious the committee has its own political agenda. Some of the awards for Literature really seem to come from Never-Never-Land.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Alice
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 11:01 AM

Front page news in Bozeman is the disappointment that Greg Mortenson did not get the prize (Three Cups of Tea, building schools for girls in remote areas of Afghanistan & Pakistan). Mortenson's home and HQ is Bozeman. Here is a quote from him regarding the award to the President.
"The Nobel Peace Prize decision was very interesting," said Mortenson, whose Bozeman-based Central Asia Institute builds schools, especially for girls, in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. "This is a mandate that puts tremendous pressure on a really young new president who has yet to commit to some resolve and action in the world.

"Obviously the prize is being given with the hope that it might give Obama leverage as he begins his peace efforts in the world," Mortenson said early Friday morning.

the rest of the article here.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 11:45 AM

I have never heard anyone but right-wingers call him the Messiah. And, they do it a lot.

About what you'd expect from assholes, no?


...donating the money from the NPP by donating it to charities. Let [the right-wingers] bitch about that!

Oh, they will, Bruce, threy will - just give 'em a chance. Gobshite Erick Erickson has already said " I did not realize that the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota..." These assholes know no shame - and they keep sayinf that it "isn't about racism".

Yeah, right.