Obama - The Nobleman

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." [emphasis added]

The Committee then lauds him for "negotiating" peace and nuclear disarmament, as the US President. I guess our President isn't the only sap mistaken as to the actual purpose of his job. It gets better, the Committee then says: "Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened." Basically, they're just saying that Bush was a sun-of-a-gun that messed up the super power that the US once was, so now, we'll give you a nudge, a pat on the back and you can ride the bike on your own. Yay!!!

Personally, I think its a slap on the faces of all those honorable men and woman that busted their behinds and did what they did and were as a result appreciated with the Prize. Lets rehash some of the famous laureates and what they did:

Gorbachev ended a war and donned that map of a birthmark with grace; Anwar Al-Sadat negotiated the Isreal-Egypt peace treaty (which he was eventually assassinated for because lets face it, Islamists hate the Jew); Mother Teresa - well, her name alone now emanates holiness; the 14th Dalai Lama - he was holiness; Arther Henderson advocated disarmament as early as 1908 (so much for the "new international climate" Obama supposedly created); Nelson Mandela, besides working against the Apartheid, the guy served a 30 year prison sentence for being black; Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and then he got shot; Yasser Arafat was possibly the only man to effectively do something about the Irael-Palestine conflict; Jane Addams: okay, so I don't really know what she did but I remember vaguely that she was the first woman to receive a Prize - It had something to do with women's rights issues I'm sure, and finally Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations and all that jazz.

There's plenty more we've never heard of and probably never will, but they did something, they changed something and it wasn't because they were the first black president of the US. Its an achievement, but lets move on already!

Lets now revert to some of the organizations that received this award. These include the United Nations (Peace Keeping Forces and Commission for Refugees), Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty, UNICEF, ILO and the like. I'm sure Lehman Bros. could use a boost about now, how about handing the Prize to them this year? No? They helped us all "find ourselves" when we didn't have jobs.

A friend of mine semi-equated Obama to Jimmy Carter (another laureate). Sorry, love, not even close. Not only did Carter work for the Middle East through Egypt and Israel, he worked on the forgotten Latin American states such as Panama, which if I recall correctly, he suffers criticism for to date. What he has done with the Carter Center and what he continues to do today in his capacity as a citizen of the world, is unparalelled. Even the Obama's adopting Bo couldn't top that.

This time I agree with the Republicans. Obama did win because of his "star power". “To be honest,” the president said “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative [seriously, O, is that even a word?!] figures who have been honored by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.” Hells yes you don't deserve it! The honorable thing would be to turn it down. That's when I'd stand in ovation for Barack. Le Duc Tho was awarded the Prize for "jointly negotiating the Vietnam Peace Accord" in 1973. He refused it because his country was still not at peace. That, president O, is how its done.

Obama said in his famous speech in Egypt: "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect..." Tell that to the drones. What he said at the United Nations recently was nothing new. Heads of states have been harping on about how important it is for everyone to be signatory to the NPT and disarmament is the only way forward. We have just become accustomed to glorifying Obama's every move, his every word. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. I voted for him. But he is also the man that once said "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." - at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon.

So, yes, O, we're just as surprised as you are.