Maybe this will shut up the idiotic freakin' freakazoids that hate him

Does this make him the youngest winner of all time?

CONGRATULATIONS TO BARACK OBAMA...only true legends and Gods win this prize

The world looks with love to America again

after 28 years of tyranny

WE are FREE again!

God Blessed US when God gave US Barak Obama

It is indeed ironic that as Obama is murdering people in Pakistan, he is also given a peace prize ...

WHAT BULL****!

Hitler should have gotten one too, with Obama as an example ....

And so ...

That is a real stretch, graham ....

And you don't even believe in God, so it was not God who gave us Obama ....

That came from some different direction ....

Maybe it was the Chinese, since Obama is selling us out to them ....

And so ...

Obama is only the 4th US President to win

Teddy Roosevelt was the first to win, I believe ...

God bless old Teddy Roosevelt ....

And so ...

two of the greatest people ever to be presidents

Teddy and Barack

Jimmy Carter and Woodrow Wilson were the others

Don't forget Al Gore, graham, although he was never a president ...

And so ...

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/10/...eace_prize.html
October 09, 2009


Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
"In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama 'for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples' less than nine months after he took office," the New York Times reports.

Said the committee: "He has created a new international climate."

Washington Post: "The committee's decision to choose Obama from among 205 nominees appears in part to be a rebuke to the Bush administration's unilateral approach to world bodies and alliances, most notably in its decision to go to war in Iraq without U.N. approval."

The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt also won the prize in 1906.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs emails a one word reaction: "Wow."

Boston-based Marcela_Elisa wrote: "Can someone explain?
I thought award was for accomplishments, not intentions."

Others like Mohammed, from Johannesburg, South Africa, point to the irony of awarding the peace prize to someone who is presiding over two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wrote: "So Barack Obama wins Nobel prize for literature for his books and not peace - cos last I heard Afghanistan is still a war zone."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09...peace.reaction/

President Barack Obama is an anomaly who defies classification. The world has judged him to be worthy of this prize. Thank God those outside our country's boundaries view him the way so many in the land he leads refuse to.

AP news article



This might encourage him to negotiate a withdraw of troops from Afghanistan-----perhaps this could be an opportunity to reduce tensions there without emboldening the Taliban to escalate the violence.

Yup!

First there was the WORD...

President Obama: Nobel Peace Prize?


“Obama was actually TWO WEEKS in the job before he was seen to deserve to be listed for this nomination*…

What has happened since? World peace? Worldwide nuclear disarmament? A Middle East peace setlement? An unclenched fist from Iran?”

Saying is NOT doing.”


He has pointedly overlooked Israel’s wars of aggression and its war crimes.

He has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections… http://politicaltheatrics.org/2009/10/02/e...s-nukes-secret/ ...
but we have to be able to inspect Iran’s or else we might bomb it into submission.

Just recently, Obama's Palace of Peace planned to spend $19.1 million to procure four deep-penetrator bombs, $28.3 million to accelerate the bomb's "development and testing", and $21 million to accelerate the integration of the bomb onto B-2 stealth bombers.

He has developed laser gunships which the Marine Corps envisioned using it as a way to target individual insurgents — to devastating psychological effect. Such weapons, when used against people, “can be compared to long-range blowtorches or precision flamethrowers, with corresponding psychological advantages…” http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/12/military-reques/

He has developed and deployed long range acoustical weapons (and deployed them even against his own citizens).
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-preparin...tory?id=8765343

His "peace" efforts deploy more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet at 737 bases.

“The worldwide total of U.S. military personnel in 2005, including those based domestically, was 1,840,062 supported by an additional 473,306 Defense Department civil service employees and 203,328 local hires. Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased. The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world's largest landlords.

These numbers, although staggeringly big, do not begin to cover all the actual bases we occupy globally. The 2005 Base Structure Report fails, for instance, to mention any garrisons in Kosovo (or Serbia, of which Kosovo is still officially a province) -- even though it is the site of the huge Camp Bondsteel built in 1999 and maintained ever since by the KBR corporation (formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root), a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston.

The report similarly omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq (106 garrisons as of May 2005), Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, even though the U.S. military has established colossal base structures in the Persian Gulf and Central Asian areas since 9/11. By way of excuse, a note in the preface says that "facilities provided by other nations at foreign locations" are not included, although this is not strictly true. The report does include twenty sites in Turkey, all owned by the Turkish government and used jointly with the Americans. The Pentagon continues to omit from its accounts most of the $5 billion worth of military and espionage installations in Britain, which have long been conveniently disguised as Royal Air Force bases. If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases overseas, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/47998

***

The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a popularity contest, a beauty prize, or the Miss (or Mr. ) Universe contest.

It is not the Pulitzer Prize.

It is (or was) one of the highest if not the highest awards any sentient human being could ever hope to win.

But it must have been won, for it to have any credibility whatsoever, on action and results, not hope, wishful thinking, or some venture from within the new world – do away with all the boundaries – political power craze.

I will be happy to support him in his acceptance of the world’s only real Peace prize if he gives up his nukes first. I appreciate that that is not going to happen, but he might start with assuring us definitively that they actually found the one missing from the infamous Minot-to-Barksdale adventure.

I will be happy to support him if he gets to the bottom of the international crime syndicates currently active in black markets for arms, solves the old Plame business, and acknowledges the US role in the development of nuclear weapons in other countries (India, Pakistan and North Korea come to mind.)

I will be happy to support him if he reins in the war export business run out of Langley.

I will be happy to support him if he disbands the use of private military contractors, the hiring of foreign mercenaries, the operations in which drug profits are turned into unaccountable black ops budgets, the use of assassination techniques and technologies, the use of torture and extraordinary rendition, and the maintenance of secret prisons around the globe.

I will be happy to support him for the Peace Prize when he reins in his puppet state Israel (actually, it appears that the US is Israel’s puppet state).

Maybe the Prize should have been given to "Bibi" Netanyahu.

So, here’s today’s question: Can they prosecute for war crimes those former (or current) officials from the country whose President has won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Giving Obama the Peace Prize is tantamount to recognizing Darth Vader for his vast contributions to the galaxy

Obama even has his own storm troopers.





####

* At this rate, let’s announce Torii Hunter as MVP of the World Series.

It might happen, ya know? At least there are those who have hope…

Lest some here forget...

Obama didn't start the current wars... the neocon military industrialist administration practicing pre-emptive world domination and empire building DID.

Obama just inherited the mess and has to deal with cleaning it up in the face of damned if you do, damned if you don't public sentiment... with people divided between those who want us out and those who want to "win".... whatever in the Hell misguided definition of "winning" they may hold.

Obama haters now have something more to cackle about
yawn
it gets boring

CONGRATULATIONS BARACK.

Carter: Obama's Nobel 'bold statement' of support

Oct 9, 9:14 AM (ET)


WASHINGTON (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter says the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama is a "bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment."

Carter won the peace prize himself in 2002, two decades after leaving office. In a statement, he described the Nobel committee's decision Friday as support for Obama's work toward peace and harmony in international relations.

Carter says the award shows the Obama administration represents hope not only for Americans, but for people around the world.

So what exactly has he done to get us out of the wars...SQUAT!
Blaming Bush is starting to sound like a broken record...Rather Grahamlike IMO!

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/vid...ddress/1163263/
These guys got it right!

Huge surprise.
Have to congratulate him here, and it is definitely a surprise to almost everyone as his name added in to the list was floated just during the time of his campaigning. No one took it seriously.

That he won without having a year under his belt on the presidency is a shock to even them.

Any how, the other surprise that shouldn't be one as it is, is that the Right can't seem to be civil enough to congratulate him for such an award be it undeserved on their view and just move on. Just shows how petty the political climate has become.

I know that he has not done enough to merit such an award. However, I believe that this was done to encourage other world leaders towards a more diplomatic course rather than the opposite extreme prior. One must take in to account that rhetoric and general presentation can influence matters globally, that we as Americans don't see the effect on the world is nothing new as Americans have other things to worry about and their attention tends to not stray beyond the borders.

That's right. Obama did not start the current wars. He inherited this mess. And he is trying to improve our relationship with other nations. I say, Congratulations President Obama!! You deserve it.

Congratulations sir!

The Nobel Peace Prize is an award presented to either an individual or an organization in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s living will. Alfred Nobel, creator of the five Nobel Prizes, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He disposed the Nobel Peace Prize in his will to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

#####

What Does Peace Mean?
By Cindy Sheehan

I guess to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee it means presiding over the further destruction of the population of three countries that didn’t harm anyone.

I guess it means voting for every war-funding bill while one is a Senator.

I guess it means continuing the use of the obscene and immoral drones.

I guess it means continuing torture and building larger prisons to pre-emptively and indefinitely detain suspected “terrorists.”

I guess it means using the politics of fear to justify your wars. “Afghanistan is a war of necessity.” “There are still people in the world who want to hurt Americans.”

I guess it means increasing your military budget.

I guess it means paying back your donors on Wall Street and in the insurance companies to profoundly harm people in your own country.

I guess it means hiring hostile people like Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Petraeus.

I guess it means extending the damaging embargo on Cuba and threatening “crippling economic sanctions” for Iran.

I guess since the committee awarded the prize to Jimmy Carter who gave rise to the Taliban and al Qaeda in Iran giving billions to those who fought against the USSR (talk about Blowback), it tells the people of Afghanistan if you are killed, we will give your killer the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jesus Christ, why didn’t they just give it to George Bush?

The US Peace Movement was put on life support with the election of Democrats. I hope now that we have a president who is just a tool of the war machine AND a Nobel Peace Laureate that it hasn’t put the final nail in the coffin of the Peace Movement.

Peace to us means, not just an absence of war but, an absence of preparing for war.

Peace to us means that innocent people won’t suffer for profit.

I guess to the Establishment: War is Peace.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/46873

###

By Dave Lindorff

"It’s not a much of a travesty as when Henry Kissinger, a war criminal of the first order who was an architect of the latter stages of the Indochina War, and was personally responsible for the slaughter of well over a million innocent people, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, while that war was still raging, but the awarding of the latest Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama is travesty enough.

We’re talking about a man whose practically first act upon taking office early this year was to escalate the ugly and pointless war in Afghanistan with the addition of some 20,000 troops, and who, even as the Nobel committee was discussing his award, was meeting with his military and political advisors to consider expanding that war even further, both in Afghanistan and across the border into Pakistan.

The Nobel Committee claimed that during Obama’s short period as president, the US “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."

Well, certainly when compared to the prior presidency of George W. Bush, that statement is correct, but that’s not saying much. After all, under President Obama, Guantanamo’s terrorist prison is still in operation and is holding people whom even the government admits are guilty of nothing. Under President Obama, the US has also blocked the Goldstone Report which condemns Israel of war crimes in its recent assault on Gaza. And under Obama, the US military in Afghanistan has continued to slaughter disproportionate numbers of civilians through its wanton use of aerial bombardment, pilotless Predator drones, and antipersonnel weaponry.

President Obama may have, as the Nobel Committee states, put forward a vision of nuclear disarmament, but his administration at the same time continues to refuse to sign the international anti-landmine treaty (putting America in the wretched company of just Russia, India and China). And under Obama, the US continues its role as not only the leading producer and exporter of arms, but also as the major initiator of wars in the world. Under Obama the US continues to outspend the rest of the world’s nations combined on its military. And don’t forget, Obama, like President Bush before him, continues to threaten to attack Iran, over that nation’s alleged nuclear weapons program—a program the very existence of which remains highly debatable.

As for climate change policy, President Obama in practice has taken a largely hands-off approach to getting Congress to act, not using his considerable political clout to force action on climate change legislation. It is now conceded that the US will go to the international climate conference in December with no bill passed to limit or reduce the nation’s CO2 emissions. Nor is the Obama administration likely to push for any significant program of CO2 reductions in the future.

Nominations for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize closed on Feb. 1, less than two weeks after Obama took the oath of office as President, but the Nobel Committee in Norway had a good nine months since then to observe this president’s actions—and his lack of actions—on the key issues weighing on the decision. In the end, committee members were bamboozled by this president’s rhetoric of hope just as were the American people during the election campaign. As the committee wrote in announcing its decision: "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future."

If Nobel Peace prizes are being awarded to people who are simply giving the world hope, surely the judges could have found any number of worthy speechifiers. Hell, even the dictatorial leaders of China and North Korea can make flowery speeches about peace and human dignity. More to the point, the committee had under consideration at least two far more deserving nominees for the award who were actually acting at great personal risk to further peace and human rights: Chinese freedom-fighter Hu Jia and Afghani women’s rights advocate Simi Samar. It is an insult to the memory of former award winners like the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jody Williams, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, and others who put their lives and careers on the line to struggle for peace and human dignity to give this award to a man who has accomplished so little, and who, in fact, in his short time in office, has managed to expand one war, to block the international condemnation of the brutality of another, and who has done nothing to reverse his own country’s leading role as a promoter of war and international violence.

Henry Kissinger hung his blood-drenched Nobel Peace Award on his office wall on Wall Street and continued to make obscene sums of money off human suffering in his dotage. One can only hope (ah, that intoxicating word!) that President Obama will take his award seriously, and will use his new status as official man of peace to halt America’s campaign of violence in Afghanistan, calling a regional peace conference to settle that conflict instead of simply expanding the war, that he will announce a major cut in American military spending and a halt to arms exports, that he will sign the landmine treaty and voluntarily end the production and use of antipersonnel weapons of all kinds, and that he will finally have the US join the International Criminal Court of Justice.

Right. Now that’s the audacity of hope."

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/46876

####


Massive expansions of US-NATO “counterinsurgency” in Afghanistan
McChrystal demands bloodshed

by Larry Chin

US and NATO commander Stanley A. McChrystal is demanding a massive expansion of “counterinsurgency” operations in Afghanistan that, according to classified documents, would require 500 thousand troops over the next five years.

While bellicose new calls for the Obama administration and NATO to exponentially deepen the “war on terrorism” are being repeated endlessly, McChrystal and his own horrific crimes have received scant notice in the corporate propaganda media.

Murderer

McChrystal is a cold-blooded killer, who spearheads the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which writer Seymour Hersh identified as an executive assassination wing of the White house---a death squad.

As noted in Steve Lendman’s "Afghantistan's Operation Phoenix":

“McChrystal is a hired gun, an assassin, a man known for committing war crime atrocities as head of the Pentagon's infamous Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) - established in 1980 and comprised of the Army's Delta Force and Navy Seals, de facto death squads writer Seymour Hersh described post-9/11 as an "executive assassination wing" operating out of Dick Cheney's office.

“A 2006 Newsweek profile called JSOC ‘part of what Vice President Dick Cheney was referring to when he said America would have to 'work on the dark side' after 9/11’…

“In his May 17 article titled 'Obama's Animal Farm: Bigger, Bloodier Wars Equal Peace and Justice", James Petras called him a ‘notorious psychopath’ in describing him this way:

“ ‘His rise through the ranks was ‘marked by his central role in directing special operations teams engaged in extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions. He is the very embodiment of the brutality and gore that accompanies military-driven empire building.’”

“…JSOC's assignment was (and still is) to capture or kill ‘high-value’ combatants, including Saddam Hussein, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, and many hundreds of Iraqis targeted in sweeping capture and extermination missions that include lots of collateral killings and destruction.”

Deception and propaganda

In addition to his role as a leading hit man for both the Bush-Cheney and Obama administrations, McChrystal has also spearheaded the official cover-ups of notorious black ops, including the manufactured "capture" of Saddam Hussein, to a host of deceptions surrounding the “kill” of Musab Zarqawi, which the Pentagon has admitted was a fabrication and a psy-op.

It was also McChrystal who personally led the cover-up of the friendly fire murder of Pat Tillman.

Torturer

McChrystal and his thugs are enthusiastic proponents of sadistic torture, as noted by Lendman, “committing endless atrocities Baghdad's Camp Nama (an acronym for Nasty-Ass Military Area) and elsewhere in Iraq.

“Through most of 2003 and 2004, detainees were held at interrogation facilities like Camp Nama at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). With good reason, it was off-limits to the ICRC and most US military personnel. In summer 2004, it was moved to a new location near Balad and also had facilities in Fallujah, Ramadi and Kirkuk.

US personnel and former detainees reported torture and abuse as common practice, including beatings, confinement in shipping containers for 24 hours in extreme heat, exposure to extreme cold, death threats, humiliation, psychological stress, and much more.”

Hell’s warden

What the world is witnessing in McChrystal’s skyrocketing public profile and political power is yet another instance in which a murderous psychopath is not where he belongs (in a high security prison, or institutionalized), but in command of US and NATO forces, virtually dictating the course of world events.

There is little doubt that the Obama administration, already an enthusiastic proponent of the "war on terrorism" deception, will follow McChrystal deeper in the abyss of death, horror and genocide. Throughout the years of imperial set-up into the 9/11 operation and the world war that ensued thereafter, Afghanistan today remains the key geostrategic hub for oil and gas pipelines and transit routes, opium and narco-trafficking, and military control of the Eurasian sub-continent. Obama’s vaunted promise to withdraw troops from Iraq is nothing more than a transfer of operations into Afghanistan (and Pakistan, Iran, etc.)

Seasoned observers of history, particularly the atrocities of the US wars in Vietnam and Latin America, are too familiar with the word “counterinsurgency”; what the code word means, how it will be used as a pretext, and what will happen next.

A world-class killer, assassin and spook will lead the charge.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...a&aid=15600

#####

Friday, October 9, 2009
GW Bush to be awarded "Humanitarian of the Century" prize
And Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz will win the "Veracity in Government Award." Condi Rice to preside at ceremony. Heavily armed mercs from Blackwater/Xe will provide security at this invitation only event.

Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke will receive the distinguished "Transparency in Bookkeeping" award. Treasury Secretary Geithner to present award to Bernanke inside the NY Fed.
No reporters or outsiders will be welcome or allowed to see this ceremony and any that try to breach security will be tossed in jail

Israeli PM Netanyahu will be given the prestigious "Kindred Soul Award." This elite prize is shared by others, like Henry Kissinger and Jeffrey Dahlmer.
The award is to be presented in the new Israeli "Ministry of Truth" building, constructed in the West Bank on the rubble of several Palestinian homes whose owners were gently persuaded, using tanks and armored bulldozers, to move or else!

Former VP Dick Cheney will be fêted by surviving relatives of 9/11 victims when he receives the "9/11 Truthers" award.

Why not, if Obama is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

kenny's sideshow: Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize for not yet bombing Iran

Next week, Obama will be honored at the annual defense contractors ball with the "Thanks to YOU" prize for fattening their bottom line!

Only 10 days into his term, Obama gets nominated. The Nobel prize has become irrelevant.

Process of Nomination and Selection

The candidates eligible for the Nobel Peace Prize are those nominated by ... on nominations that must be postmarked no later than 1 February each year. ...

Maybe it's appropriate that the prize was founded and is funded by an organization started by a man renowned for his expertise in developing newer and more devasting explosives.

Posted by Greg Bacon at 5:20 AM
Labels: Satire?


http://careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.c...itarian-of.html

####

In other news the National Football League has given
next year's Vince Lombardi trophy to Cleveland
to encourage them.

I doubt Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize will shut up the haters.....they love the hating too much to abandon it......
This might might work, however.....




I bet Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award is ruffling feathers in many quarters....envy being a driving force in some cases, I imagine......


Anyway........

Btw,
The vote was unanimous to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize......

I wonder if any of you have any idea of how much the world's image of the USA has changed since Obama took over. It may be considered a reach for some of the more negative thinkers but what that has done to further the cause of peace around the globe is inestimable. .To say nothing of how his way of doing things has diluted the hate towards the nation which is considered to be the leader of the Free World.

America now negotiates instead of dictating. Its amazing how that aids communication

That hatred, and yes, fear,intensified the danger to all of us more than you can imagine. The hatred which was tangible was not only coming from Bin Laden or the Taliban. It was widespread. For that reason alone I believe he deserves this prize.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10...rss&emc=rss

Excerpts:

The award, announced in Oslo by the Nobel Committee while much of official Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.



“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

In one sense, the award was a rebuke to the foreign policies of Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, some of which the president has sought to overturn. Mr. Obama made repairing the fractured relations between the United States and the rest of the world a major theme of his campaign for the presidency. Since taking office as president he has pursued a range of policies intended to fulfill that goal. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year; reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June; and sought to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, said the president had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and international understanding to earn the award.

“We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year,” Mr. Jagland said. “We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

I've taken that in to account which is why I've mentioned it in my prior post.

Thing is, matters such as these create rampant speculation. At times though I think that some at the Right are commenting about this in jealousy due to the consideration that none of their party would even come close to getting one at this time, so they rely on small mindedness and insular thinking.

However, some of the criticism is understandable as I myself think it is a bit too soon for him to win the prize without a year of Presidency as of yet.

That he changed the tone of global discourse is incontrovertible, however in voting or actual legislation or action beyond the rhetoric not much can really be seen as of yet to merit this. However, again in presentation and so forth, such can influence perception and in doing so I can see why the award to him was given. So I can only congratulate him and hope he lives up to it.

From the AP

OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to build momentum behind his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Obama said he was surprised and deeply humbled by the honor, and planned to travel to Oslo to accept the prize, which he said he does not see "as a recognition of my own accomplishments," but rather as a recognition of goals he has set for the United States and the world.

"I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," Obama said.

Many observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline and has yet to yield concrete achievements in peacemaking.

Some around the world objected to the choice of Obama, who still oversees wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has launched deadly counter-terror strikes in Pakistan and Somalia.

Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said their choice could be seen as an early vote of confidence in Obama intended to build global support for his policies. 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 American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change.

Aagot Valle, a lawmaker for the Socialist Left party who joined the committee this year, said she hoped the selection would be viewed as "support and a commitment for Obama."

"And I hope it will be an inspiration for all those that work with nuclear disarmament and disarmament," she told The Associated Press in a rare interview. Members of the Nobel peace committee usually speak only through its chairman.

The peace prize was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts but Obama's efforts are at far earlier stages than past winners'. The Nobel committee acknowledged that they may not bear fruit at all.

"He got the prize because he has been able to change the international climate," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "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. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."

After the prize was announced, Jagland compared the decision to give it to Obama to the prize was given to German Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1971 for his "Ostpolitik" policy of trying to find common ground with Eastern Europe, which was under Communist sway.

He said the same thing was true when then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev got the prize in 1990 after he had launched perestroika and glasnost, and allowed Eastern Europe to emerge from Kremlin control.

The selection to some extent reflects a trans-Atlantic divergence on Obama. In Europe and much of the world he is lionized for bringing the United States closer to mainstream global thinking on issues like climate change and multilateralism. At home, the picture is more complicated. As president, Obama is often criticized as he attempts to carry out his agenda — drawing fire over a host of issues from government spending to health care to the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

U.S. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele contended that Obama won the prize as a result of his "star power" rather than meaningful accomplishments.

"The real question Americans are asking is, What has President Obama actually accomplished?" Steele said.

Obama's election and foreign policy moves caused a dramatic improvement in the image of the U.S. around the world. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.

Asked whether the prize could be seen as praising Obama's reversal of Bush administration policies, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, a senior political adviser to the right-wing populist Progress Party told the AP that: "I guess you could read it like that."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made no secret of his admiration for Obama, called the decision the embodiment of the "return of America into the hearts of the people of the world."

But Obama's work is far from done, on numerous fronts.

He said he would end the Iraq war but has been slow to bring the troops home and the real end of the U.S. military presence there won't come until at least 2012.

He's running a second war in the Muslim world, in Afghanistan — and is seriously considering ramping up the number of U.S. troops on the ground and asking for help from others, too.

"I don't think Obama deserves this. I don't know who's making all these decisions. The prize should go to someone who has done something for peace and humanity," said Ahmad Shabir, 18-year-old student in Kabul. "Since he is the president, I don't see any change in U.S. strategy in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Obama has said that battling climate change is a priority. But the U.S. seems likely to head into crucial international negotiations set for Copenhagen in December with Obama-backed legislation still stalled in Congress.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the prize in 1983, questioned whether Obama deserved it now.

"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," Walesa said.

"This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.

The award appeared to be at least partly 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.

"Those who were in support of Bush in his belief in war solving problems, on rearmament, and that nuclear weapons play an important role ... probably won't be happy," said Valle, the Nobel Committee member.

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.

"You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase," Jagland said. "And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize."

Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919.

Wilson received the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations, the hopeful but ultimately failed precursor to the contemporary United Nations.

The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.

Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.

In July talks in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the current range of 1,700-2,200 to as low as 1,500. The United States now has about 2,200 such warheads, compared to about 2,800 for the Russians.

But there has been no word on whether either side has started to act on the reductions.

Former Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Obama has already provided outstanding leadership in the effort to prevent nuclear proliferation.

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," ElBaradei said. "He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts."

Obama also has attempted to restart stalled talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but just a day after Obama hosted the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York, Israeli officials boasted that they had fended off U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction. Moderate Palestinians said they felt undermined by Obama's failure to back up his demand for a freeze.

Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war on Friday to consider a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the U.S war there enters its ninth year.

Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area.

Nominators for the prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

___

Associated Press writers Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg, George Jahn in Vienna, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

Here we go....the haters are at it again.....sad, indeed.......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/o...r_n_315167.html

The unexpected news that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early Friday morning has prompted a serious debate as to whether the award was deserved and what exactly Obama should do to commemorate the moment.

It's also created a remarkable bit of fury among the president's Republican opponents. One week after conservatives were exuberant with Obama's failure to secure the Olympics for his hometown of Chicago, they were left bitter and bemused that he was bestowed the world's most prestigious honor

"The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?'" reads a statement from the Republican National Committee. " It is unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain -- President Obama won't be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action."

The White House, itself, was surprised when it awoke to the news, with press secretary Robert Gibbs informing the president in the wee hours of the morning. And, from the moment it was announced, the prize presented as many political hurdles as they did moments of congratulations.

Even Obama's supporters raised questions about whether the reward was deserved, with progressives pointing to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a detention policy that still enrages civil libertarians as logical points of contention.

For Obama's critics, however, the Nobel Prize has touched a far more bitter nerve -- affirming their firmly-held beliefs that the president is more symbolism than substance and that he's accomplished little of note on the international stage except to serve as an emblem of U.S. repentance for the Bush years.

"This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama," conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh told Politico via e-mail. "And with this 'award' the elites of the world are urging Obama, THE MAN OF PEACE, to not do the surge in Afghanistan, not take action against Iran and its nuclear program and to basically continue his intentions to emasculate the United States... They love a weakened, neutered U.S and this is their way of promoting that concept. I think God has a great sense of humor, too."

"I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota," wrote Erick Erickson, of the site RedState.com, "but that is the only thing I can think of for this news."


UPDATE: Either sensing an opening to cast the Republican Party as actively rooting against America, or just fed up with the stream of negative responses, the Democratic National Committee put out an unusually blunt statement Friday morning. The gist: that the GOP sides with the terrorists.

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists -- the Taliban and Hamas this morning -- in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize," wrote DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse. "Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize -- an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride -- unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It's no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore - it's an embarrassing label to claim."


Good for the DNC! How on earth are intelligent, sensible people supposed to deal with these "ignorant haters...."?

the more the Obamahaters hate him, the more you know He is Great.
and how petty and small the Obamahaters are

and how the Obamahaters are NOTHINGS and Nobody and just teenytiny

Thing is, it is the Republicans themselves who purport the significance of symbols. So as a symbol of hope, change and a better international relation Obama has succeeded in those areas through not much in regards to his own actions.

Like GW Bush and other leaders they rely on the photo op and the presentation to play with perception. So, even if I view him as another typical politician, one must admit that he does it well.

The problem is that many in the US has their mind view stuck to only the US borders, and then most times less than that to only themselves. The sense of social community is limited to those similar to themselves.

That was a decent response from the DNC.

Presumably, amy, you are of course referring directly to yourself when you talk about INTELLIGENT SENSIBLE PEOPLE ...

And I am sure that you have yourself right on up in the top ten of them, so that of course, you are fit to judge everybody else not only in here, but in the world as well, and to condemn those who you do not feel are like you, which is to say, EXCEEDINGLY INTELLIGENT AND OVER-POWERINGLY SENSIBLE ...

And of course, we have to have the HATE word coming out of your mouth to describe everybody who does not agree with you in here ....

I personally find it INCREDIBLE that Obama was awarded the PEACE PRIZE when he is murdering people in Pakistan and Afghanistnam and Somalia, and God-alone knows where else ...

It is very ethno-centric of this Nobel crowd over there in Norway to hand out the prize to Obama, which trivializes it to less than a trinket ....

What they are saying is that it is alright in their eyes for Obama to engage in GENOCIDE in Pakistan in the name of PEACE, so long as he is only killing brown-skinned WOGS who everybody, and especially the INTELLIGENT SENSIBLE PEOPLE, know are not human, anyway ...

Rather, they are nothing more than two-legged big game animals for Obama to hunt down and kill at his liesure ...

If I was a person in a country where Obama is killing people, I would really have to give some serious thought as to just who in the HELL these Norwegians are who have given this prize to Obama for killing them ....

WHAT A MOCKERY OF THE WORD "PEACE" ...

I heard two things on the radio today that I deem to be true statements ....

One was Obama saying that he DID NOT deserve the prize, and boy, truer words were never spoken ....

The other was that Obama was awarded the prize because of image, and not because of anything he has done, and that is quite true as well, given that Obama was in office for two weeks when the vote for the prize was held ...

Since this is your thread, you can crow all you want in here, and denounce whomever, starting with me ...

But I think that this prize is nothing but a crock of $***, and never will it mean a thing to me again ....

And so ...

No, they did not ...

A handful of people in Norway voted him this prize ...

I wonder how the people he is murdering in Afghanistnam and Pakistan and Somalia and elsewhere would have voted ...

And so ...

No, he is not ...

Mass murderer works for me ....

OH!

Add cowardly to that ....

And so ...

PUH-LEEZE!

Obama has labeled Afghanistnam a WAR OF NECESSITY ...

And Obama took over on George W. Bush's COWARDLY practice of killing people in Pakistan with drone-fired missiles and he has EXPANDED the program, killing way more people in a couple of months than George did before him ....

And he is promoting war in Pakistan, as if it were his country to run ....

It mocks the word PEACE to give Obama a peace prize ....

It renders the Nobel prize to less than a trinket or BLING ....

And Adolph Hitler was nominated for the Nobel prize twice, so Obama is in good company is my thought ...

And so ...

Adolph Hitler was also TIME magazine's MAN OF THE YEAR here in America back when ....

Before America flip-flopped and didn't like him anymore ....

And so ...

What it really shows is just how much SELF-RIGHTEOUS people such as yourself trivialize and devalue and dehumanize human life in other countries by congratulating a man with blood on his hands who is murdering people in other countries with NO due process of law, whatsoever, which is the defining characteristic of a TYRANT ...

And so ..

I'm a combat veteran, amy ...

I DO NOT have any envy whatsoever for HUSSEIN Obama whom is a cowardly mass murderer of people in Pakistan, Afgahnistnam and Somalia and elsewhere ..

And so ...

If Obama is worthy of a Nobel prize, so too is George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who maybe is worth five or ten of them ...

And so ...

"Hitler ought to have the peace prize!"

The renowned Jewish author and Nobel Prize winner, Gertrude Stein, led the campaign that got Adolf Hitler nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938.

"I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany."

"By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity."

"That means peace..."

This was disclosed by Gustav Hendrikksen, a former member of the Nobel committee, in Nativ, a political magazine published in Israel.

(Reports about this appeared in the New York Jewish community weekly Forward, Feb. 2, June 14, and Oct. 25, 1996.)

Hendrikksen recalled: "...Gertrude Stein... turned to a number of intellectuals--no, not all of them Jews--who signed an appeal urging the Nobel prize committee to give Hitler the Nobel peace prize."

"The committee rejected this proposal politely but firmly..."

In 1939 Adolf Hitler was once again nominated for the Nobel peace prize by E.G.C. Brandt, Member of the Swedish parliament.

He was subsequently pressurized to withdraw this nomination.

http://www.adolfthegreat.com/Trails/NobelPeacePrize.html

EAT THAT, ALL YOU HATERS OF LIFE AND LIBERTY FOR OTHER PEOPLES OF THE WORLD ....

And so ...

Apparently the rest of the world doesn't share your view Livy.

It seems to me that the rest of the world is far more pleased with Obama than they were with a bunch of warmongers in the WH.

It seems to me that, if there is any global conflict whatsover, the United States will be right in the middle of it... so the rest of the world is probably much more content without a moron with a apocalyptic world view and a hand on the red button in the WH.

I'm not going to debate opinion... because that is what the Nobel Prize comes down to. A judgement.

What I heard on the news from the REST OF THE WORLD was a sense of shock and disbelief ....

Which I share, of course ....

And so ...

Obama had been in office 2 weeks when the dead line for nominations occurred. The actual vote was taken during the last few days. So they have observed him on the world electronic psychodrama stage about 7 months...

It is my opinion that he received the recognition for consistently projecting a humanitarian democratic Ideology
that most of the people in the world have been able to identify with. His self concept and world view is, in my opinion, one to be admired. He consistently describes the kind of world I wish to live in...If he is able to do this for
eight years without the world imploding, it may start catching on...

Well, then, rla, you obviously admire TYRANTS and you obviously want to live in a world where a TYRANT can go anywhere he wants and kill anyone he wants with no due process of law whatsoever ...

And so ...

You were around back then, rla ...

You were young, of course, but you still were around ...

Do you remember how much America loved Adolph Hitler back then?

America loved Hitler so much that TIME magazine made him their MAN OF THE YEAR ....

Did you love him, too, I wonder ....

And he was nominated twice for the Nobel prize, Hitler was ....

And he got the Olympics, too ....

And so ...

"Historians will one day record that never were the peaceful proposals of one man met with more hatred than mine."

"When Germany became the example to the world of the peaceful solution of social problems and economic difficulties, the hatred of the Bolsheviks and capitalists, the exploiters of nations, was turned against her."

"Only then did I turn to create the new German Wehrmacht."

- Adolf Hitler, 1936.

http://www.adolfthegreat.com/Trails/NobelPeacePrize.html