nobel peace prize - if you don't think obama deserved it, why aren't you trumpeting whoever does

[unblock]

exactly one nobel peace prize is given out every year regardless of how peaceful the world is. there is no criteria or minimum level of accomplishment needed. it's effectively a competition and whoever is at the top of the list wins.

i hear a lot of arguments that obama didn't do much, or or didn't do enough, or doesn't deserve it, but i haven't seen (and i'll admit i haven't read ALL the threads) people saying that someone ELSE was more deserving.

from everything i can tell about the other "front-runners", their achievements pale in comparison to obama's. yes, that is largely due to the fact that obama has vastly more influence on war/peace than, well, anyone, but well, that's part of the nobel decision, isn't it. and certainly the real progress he's made has in no small part been simply by virtue of being sane after 8 years of insanity in the white house.

perhaps obama's achievements aren't as great as, say, carter's, who actually brokered a very challenging peace treaty between israel and egypt. or elie weisel or mother teresa. but THAT'S NOT THE QUESTION. obama was not in competition with any ideal standard, nor with past winners. he was in competition with this years nominees.

if you think obama shouldn't have one, please explain to me who and why you think someone else should have.

[eleny]

1. As if the nay sayers gave the many nominations any thought until now

k&r!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Heh! The point is just to trash Obama, not find a more worthy recipient.

[eleny]

4. yup

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

13. Exactly. Not one of them has suggested an alternative recipient.

[movonne]

19. I thought it might be the one who did overthrow the government of Honduras

[tomm2thumbs]

14. b i n g o

[Exilednight]

23. See post #17

[valerief]

2. Hartmann gives some reasons here why the president deserves it and

why the committee awarded it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x385777

[Oregone]

5. Bradgelina, who are saving Africa one child at a time.

Or Oprah, who are educating the ones they leave behind

[Critters2]

6. I'm not saying Obama doesn't deserve it. I agree with him, that it's probably

at least partly about the US finally overcoming our racist past and electing our first AA president. The man who inspired this nation to do that deserves some recognition.

Having worked in conflict resolution, I'd also give the prize to theoreticians who give us meaningful tools to work toward peace--as they give to scientists who make progress possible for others. In this vein, I'd give it to Rene' Girard for his work in Mimetic Theory and helping us understand the impulses that move us toward violence. And the Italian scientist who discovered mirror neurons, for similar reasons.

[BlooInBloo]

7. The silence you hear is the "Anybody but Obama" people quickly looking up the others...

So they can come to this thread in a few minutes and act like they've been supporting whatever other random candidate all along.

:rofl:

[HopeOverFear]

10. HA!

[CakeGrrl]

11. +1 No kidding!

[Aramchek]

8. they wouldn't have cared if someone else won it, they just despise Obama

[Nederland]

9. I have

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6734058#6736689

[DevonRex]

12. They couldn't have cared less about it until Obama won it. Now they're using it

as yet another excuse to bash him. Buncha traitors, if you ask me.

[tomm2thumbs]

15. But Glenn Beck would have been given accolades if he got it (as he said he should)

where is that vomit smiley icon when you need it.... <hunting>

[bigwillq]

26. Same could be said about those

who are cheering. Where were the Obama for Peace Prize threads in the past days, weeks, months, years? :shrug: Now that he wins, everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

It's certainly a very nice honor for the President. Congrats to him. There is some bashing by a select few, very few. That's not bad considering the amount of people that post here. I guess we cannot have a difference of opinion here without being accused of being "bashers" or "traitors" That's odd, because I thought this was a progressive site with open-minded people. :shrug:

[scheming daemons]

16. Their choice is "anybody but THAT ONE"

[Exilednight]

17. I have, but no one wants to hear it, but just in case YOU do - Here you go ......

Wei Jingsheng (Chinese: 魏京生; Pinyin：Wèi Jīngshēng; born May 20, 1950) is an activist in the Chinese democracy movement, most prominent for authoring the document Fifth Modernization on the "Democracy Wall" in Beijing in 1978.
He had joined the Red Guards as a sixteen-year-old student during the Cultural Revolution. When Deng Xiaoping came to power and repudiated the Cultural Revolution, Wei Jingsheng, then a twenty-eight-year-old electrician in Beijing's Zoo, attacked the dictatorship of the Communist Party of China, becoming one of the first few daring to denounce Deng and his will to maintain a dictatorship in China. Wei's and others' public dissent worried Deng who was anxious to consolidate his power. Apart from the Fifth Modernization ("第五个现代化") authorship, Wei Jingsheng is known for his editorial work in a short-lived magazine Exploration (《探索》 ;) in 1979.

Wei Jingsheng was arrested March 29, 1979 for "Passing military secrets", and was condemned to 15 years of prison.<1> He had also published a letter under his name in March 1979 denouncing the inhuman conditions of the Chinese Qincheng Prison, where the 10th Panchen Lama was imprisoned.<2> However, a major part of Wei's essay came from other anonymous authors with personal experiences involving Qincheng. Those parts were published by Wei without their consent. Mary Holzman declared that Wei completed his research and wrote his essay of investigative journalism within a week,<3> which makes it highly doubtful that Wei wrote the essay himself, as he simply did not have the factual knowledge present in the text.

Although they could not bring any formal charges against him for his attacks on the Communist system, the government exaggerated Wei's correspondence with foreigners about the Chinese-Vietnamese War and charged him with treason. He stayed in prison until 14 September 1993, when he was released because the PRC wanted to show their new openness before the International Olympic Committee. The Olympics were a huge event for Chinese nationalism and when they lost their bid to Sydney, Australia, the country was deflated. Wei, once again looked at as a scapegoat, was thrown in jail once more after China lost the Olympic bid. Charged with plotting against the state he was to remain in jail until November 16, 1997, when he was released for "medical reasons" and promptly deported to the United States. He was sent to the United States due to international pressure, especially the request by then US President Bill Clinton.

Dissidents who are widely known in the West, such as Wei Jingsheng, Fang Lizhi, and Wang Dan are typically deported when the Chinese government is really under pressure. Although Chinese criminal law does not contain any provisions for exiling citizens, it is carried out informally by giving these well known dissidents a severe jail sentence and subsequently granting medical parole before sending them out in exile.

In 1996, Wei Jingsheng was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. He is a winner of numerous other human rights and democracy awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1996, the National Endowment for Democracy Award in 1997, the Olof Palme Memorial Prize in 1994, and the International Activist Award by the Gleitsman Foundation, etc. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy by the Europe-based magazine A Different View.<4> He has been praised in numerous places with titles such as "Father of Chinese Democracy" and "Nelson Mandela of China". Thousands of entries about him can be found on the Internet in various languages.

Besides the well publicized essay he wrote in 1978, the Fifth Modernization, he is the author of "Courage to Stand Alone -- letters from Prison and Other Writings", which compiles his articles written initially on toilet paper in jail. He has weekly commentary on Radio Free Asia, and many other news media.

From his prison, Wei Jingsheng wrote to Deng Xiaoping many letters that were smuggled out secretly and published.<5> Hence, in 1992, he wrote a long letter about Tibet, which questioned the suzerainty of the Qing Dynasty over Tibet. He believed Tibet should become a part of India.<6>

This many could very well end up being the MLK of China.

[depakid]

21. Some folks are just as blind and single minded as Republicans

and quite frankly, the false attributions spread around sound a LOT like what you'd hear on hate radio. Sadly, the corporate media and AM radio has affected discourse on both sides of the aisle.

That- and of course, American ethnocentrism.

[frylock]

28. sorry you wasted your time with this post..

i don't think the OP had any intention of replying to anyone who had the temerity to answer their challenge, but thanks anyway.

[RetroLounge]

18. Mutual masturbation thread.

enjoy it...

RL

[unblock]

22. thanks, and you enjoy your solo masturbation reply.

[Cha]

25. What a sour bitter little

post. Can't stand to be happy and can't stand for anyone else to be, either.

[RetroLounge]

27. Did you even read this thread?

Happiness is in mutually denigrating other posters and their opinions.

It's an echo chamber, but at least it's our echo chamber.

and I'm pretty happy, all-in-all, and being called bitter by the likes of you makes me even happier.

:hi:

RL

[Orsino]

20. What does the one have to do with the other?

Relatively few winners take the prize when running multiple wars.

Mind you, my problems with war don't necessarily negate our president's other work, which arguably qualifies him. But President Obama's helming of our Iraqi and Afghani failpiles rather complicates the matter, doesn't it?

[unblock]

24. again, you're comparing obama to past winners. the prize is not award on that basis

never has been, never will be.

if you want to think he won because it there was slim pickings this year, fine.

but same goes for people who complain about the winner of a sports event not "deserving" it. you just have to best the opponents who enter that competition, not the greats who won in previous competitions.

[Orsino]

29. Comparisons are inevitable. n/t