Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Bwahahahahahaha!
I heard the news when the radio went on this morning at 6:00, and just started laughing:
OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
* * *
The award appeared to be a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.
"The award appeared to be a slap at Bush . . . " No shit, Sherlock. I can just imagine heads exploding all across the Right today.
Heh. Hehehehehe . . .
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to my blog.)
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All kinds of heads should be exploding.
I'd naively believed that the NPP meant something; that it was awarded for actually doing something to merit it. Imagine my surprise when it became obvious that the Conservatives were right a few years ago when they said the NPP committee awarded it as a way to embarrass or show up Pres. Bush. I thought they were being paranoid and ridiculous; now it's clear that they were dead on.
I don't consider this an indictment against Pres. Obama, but the whole NPP has now been cheapened to the point of absurdity. At least it gives hope to all of us who've done nothing to deserve it that we may too win the NPP.
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
Strong Disagreement
I kinda think the Prize is awarded based not so much on any specific act, but on the effect a person has on the social atmosphere of the world -- the effect he has on PEOPLE.
If that's the case, Obama deserves it.
I see this less as a slap at Bush and more the result of the ugly context Bush created in the world. If you're stuck down in a well, even the faint light of dawn looks really bright.
To a lot of the world, Obama is that light. Admiring the light is not the same as cursing the guy who dug the well.
However ... Just last night I was watching a report about how badly things are going in Afghanistan, and I said to a friend "The one thing that didn't make it into this report is the biggest reason WHY things are so bad there -- that Bush got us into that other idiot war and ignored the really important one. I wonder how many MORE kids are gonna die now because of it."
Say what you will, Bush ->IS<- the guy who dug the well. He pulled a trigger that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq. Our own young people -- somebody's sons and daughters -- will still be dying in Afghanistan ten years from now. There will never be any justice for that.
If the Nobel Committee can spotlight Obama for being somebody new and different after the tiring, malignant 8 years of Bush and his right-wing cronies, I say Hell, yeah!
Well, if that's all it takes
If just being better than Bush is all it takes, that's a pretty low bar (which I guess was the point of my original response.) If it were going to be a legitimate award, by rewarding people who have actually sacrificed to make a difference, I'd bet at least half of the 204 other nominees met the "better than Bush" requirement, plus actually accomplished something.
There's obviously a liberal bias to the award, which makes sense because Liberals are more aligned with "Peace" in most people's eyes. It just seems there were a lot of people who made more meaningful contributions to world peace than what Pres. Obama has thus-far done. That's not to say I don't think he will in the future, but giving it to him now because of the hope he represents is like naming the Detroit Lions' rookie QB this year's League MVP because he's a stud with a lot of up-side and gives them hope of winning a few games this year.
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
Thats not all it takes
McCain would've been better than Bush, but his election still would have just signaled the world that the US was going to continue on a course which emphasized militarism over diplomacy. Getting elected President wasn't nothing-it took a massive effort which paid instant dividends in significantly clearing the poisonous atmosphere created by Bush. How many people in 2007 really even thought it was possible that a black man with a foreign sounding name could be elected president? I didn't.
Since then, Obama has reduced tensions in Europe, killed hideously expensive, utterly unnecessary weapons systems, and reintroduced the concept of diplomacy to America's foreign policy. Maybe you think there is someone more deserving (who? for what?), but the President isn't an undeserving candidate.
Argh.
Again, I think the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded based not so much on any specific act, but on the effect a person has on the social atmosphere of the world -- the positive effect he has on PEOPLE.
If that's the case, Obama deserves it. He HAS done something – for THIS guy (not just a black man, but yes, that’s part of it) to get elected president in THIS United States, in THIS world, that’s one serious accomplishment, kids. He’s a diamond that floated up out of a septic tank, and that didn’t just happen by itself. He won that office after a lot of damned hard work.
Since he got elected, he's reached out to the rest of the world, including the Islamic world, in ways few before him have. He has inspired people all over the world.
What I was trying to say was that though the award is presented post-Bush, it doesn't have anything to do with Bush. It has to do with the type of world we've been living in, and what Obama has accomplished to pull us out of it, back into light and hope.
I gotta admit . . .
. . . that I have been enjoying this just way too much this morning, watching all the idiots try and denigrate Obama and/or the prize itself. This vid from Balloonjuice is hilarious:
But I still think the funniest damned thing I have seen yet was the suggestion that Obama should ask W to collect the award for him, since Obama has too many other problems from the last administration he's trying to fix.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Well put Hank! I've been
Well put Hank!
I've been thinking along those lines since I heard the news this morning and you've expressed my position much better than I could.
Well...possibly
You have to admit that it comes off somewhat hypocritical to relish in the Award as a slap on Bush, but be so disgusted when someone makes a crack about Obama...
I'm a hypocrite too, so I appreciate that.
Still, reason should stand that actually doing something versus reading a teleprompter real well. I like seeing Americans win things, either way.
Cheers,
JLancaster
www.taxtipsfordemocrats.com