I've been on DU for far too long to stand idly by while DU'ers badmouth a Democratic president

Of course, he earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

I'm looking at this right now: "Commander In Chief Of The Biggest WAR MACHINE On The Planet Gets Peace Prize?"

Alfred Nobel invented DYNAMITE! So what about it? We should be proud to have a man of peace in charge of the war machine... Would you rather have a war monger?

If anyone thinks that they have to denigrate President Barack Obama while he carefully tries to correct the errors of the last eight years, that person should RETHINK the prospect of their further membership to this forum.

Rather than un-recc'ing me, I'd rather you reply with a defense of your position so that we may have a debate,

Thank you.

'scuse my French.

Recommended.

And I'm not gonna ask anyone to excuse me OR my French.

to listen to each other & find common ground;

who makes kids want to plant organic gardens
and learn to be beautiful and good on the inside;

who stirred up the hearts of literally billions of human beings
and inspired them to believe in their own power, the yes we can.






the peace you are looking for is inside of you.
http://www.wopg.org

The US has an abysmal record over recent years and disproportionate power.

Our POV is not and cannot be the same as those on the NPP committee, but I'd like to think that an enormous sigh of relief was heard throughout the world on election day.

Perhaps our president will have more to live up to now, but that cannot be a bad thing.

baby! On Lennon's Birthday

~GIVE PEACE A CHANCE~
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/john-lennons-birthday-...

"nobel peace prize" = "prince of peace" = "antichrist" = "prince of darkness" =

brought to you by Glen Beck

as is Rush Limbaugh

Nothing can melt brain cells the way those guys do. Even O'Liely seems placid compared to them, but I'm sure he's working on it.

that a guy who likes to talk the talk and has yet to walk the walk gets rewarded.

i have no problem with obama getting the prize, if troops were actually starting to come home and were not being replaced by private mercs.

some of us could produce a list a mile long of recipients who have earned it.


has barack obama done as much for world peace as Mahommed Yunus? doubtful.

____________________

PS. Bad mouthing authority figures is what some of us are best at.

The weird part is that the annual endorsement of a reading circle is treated like a heavenly ascension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGTzbj3fRSw

Still, we're talking about five members of their parliament, and their endorsement is considered the greatest possible honor on earth. That idea should have ended with Kissinger.

and applying for a visa.

Compare with Miami where convicted sex offenders who have completed their sentences are living in a tent city under an overpass, because, legally, they can't live anywhere else.

The idea of a well run prison community the whose goals are to rehabilitate prisoners rather than extract revenge is attractive, even if the goal is unreachable for some.

I think that there are probably a certain percentage of people who cannot be rehabilitated. For whatever reason, they are not fit, and never will be fit, to live in the general population.

However, there is no reason not to treat these people dignity. Perhaps someday there might be a treatment that can turn the most incorrigible sociopath into a decent member of the community. And even the worst of us have something to contribute to the betterment of society.

The Nobel Foundation's rules have forbidden that for more than 40 years.

"During the Committee's earliest decades, it was normal for both current Storting representatives and Government Ministers to be members. The first Committee thus consisted of Prime Minister Johannes Steen, Foreign Minister Jørgen Løvland, Storting representative John Lund, Professor of Law Bernhard Getz, and the national bard Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.

With prominent politicians so heavily represented, it became difficult over time to convince the surrounding world that the Committee was not influenced in its work by Norwegian authorities. In 1936, in the wake of the Peace Prize award to Carl von Ossietzky, the practice was changed so as to bar members of the Government from sitting on the Committee.
In 1977, out of regard for the Committee's independence, a further restriction was imposed whereby current members of the Storting can not be elected to the Nobel Committee. At the same time, the Committee changed its name from the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting to the Norwegian Nobel Committee."

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/nomination_committee/

Look at their bios. They are all recently of the Storting, elected by the Storting, roughly apportioned by party within the Storting. It is a Storting committee, barely removed. Of and by. Supposedly for the world.

In some way suppose I like the little gamble they took this year. Hoping to influence the policy more towards peace. Hoping that strengthening the just-in Obama against the long-entrenched war interests will work to reduce war. I wish them luck.

I have been the subject of some bitter rants by republicans today over this issue. They've given me a lot to think about.

I believe the main problem here as in most of these issues is that when we let ourselves be guided by contempt and outrage we blind ourselves to whatever truth there is to be had. Outrage is at its core the unpardonable sin of Ethan Brande, cutting yourself off from the rest of humanity. Outrage is the weapon of propagandists everywhere. If they get you to deny the humanity of their opponent, they've won before the argument ever starts.

They gave him the award because he is an inspiration to a huge part of the world. I recently spent 3+ weeks in Africa. I have seen the changes in the faces of huge numbers of people who look up to him. He has inspired hope in a billion of our fellow human beings. I am a white member of a black family and I have seen this inspiration up close. It is real; he is a leader, and he is leading.

If you believe yourself to be a member of a different slice of the human race because you don't look like the people who see themselves as his principal constituency, you may also blind yourself to the absolute wonder of his leadership. So much the worse for you. You may even believe yourself exempt from this carving up of humanity, but search your feelings before you make any more excuses. If you are blind to it, there is a good reason and it is up to you to find it and remove it.

Grant us the dignity of our own kind of spiritual uplift. Stretch your imagination a bit, and begin to see the accomplishments that you cannot feel. Become part of the solution. Repeat after me: I consider nothing human alien to me. (Interesting that it was a Roman slave from 200 bce who taught us the central tenet of humanism, eh?)

Be well. Be whole. Be proud of our President.

--Casey

Thank you.

SANITY in the White House vs a raving lunatic who drove 3 oil companies and an entire country into the ground. For the last 8 years before Obama there was "nobody home at 1600 PA" to dialogue about peace. *ush was one cracker short of a barrel, one cookie off of a dozen. The man didn't even KNOW what a soveriegn nation is. HELL--O!!?


I apologize only because there were many other people who also deserved that award.


But THAT is MY President. Damm right I'm proud.

because there were 6 negative letters to the editor (3 from Dems.) who are fucking outraged at the audacity of the Nobel Committee to give this to our president.

Yesterday too many people opened their mouth before the man had a chance to respond to this honor he didn't seek.

openforum@denverpost.com

Awesome post.

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controls the largest army on the planet, in the nation with the world's biggest prison population, and is in charge of two rather large wars. One could characterize this award as a little ironic, no?

The decision is theirs to make, it's not for us to justify or criticize.

While your observations re wars and army are quite accurate, that shouldn't disqualify a good president from consideration.

Any other president would have that same burden.

The Dalai Lama or Ghandi, if elected, would probably be strapped with the same baggage.

by posting each sentence in a new post.... irritating to the readers, but innovative.

I gotta say, it takes a lot more than having a D by your name to be a worthwhile legislator, or leader.

If Obama and the congressional leadership being a dem is enough for you, then I dont even know what to say.

And no, Obama hasnt done enough to deserve that prize, he just hasnt. Maybe if he indicted the war criminals, or restored habeus corpus, or pulled the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, or did something real with the guantanamo detainees, then he'd have some legs to stand on, but lets list his actual accomplishments so far:
1) talking tough to Israel
2)
3)
4)

so, either its a lot easier to get the prize lately, or he doesn't deserve it.

expect President Obama to do about the army and the prisons? Besides, the U.S. Army is minuscule compared to Red China's. You probably meant 'most powerful military'.

Do you expect him to end two wars with the snap of his fingers? Do you expect him to throw open the prison doors? And if you haven't noticed, President Obama hasn't exactly had the most cooperative political environment to operate in.

No, I expect him to order our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan in an orderly manner. They could bring what ever equipment that could easily be removed and destroy the rest (military equipment) in place. In 90 days or less we could be disengaged and have all troops out. Within two years I expect him to have 90% of our troops out of every other country. All contracts with mercs should have been canceled before then and all mercs would have to surrender their weapons before returning to the US. I expect him to cut the DOD budget by at lest 25% per year for the next several years and spend the remainder on DEFENSE, that is, the protection of Americans inside the borders of the US. The Department of State should be concerned with relations with other countries not the DOD.

Then Norway can give him 50 Peace prizes.

Well said.

I guess some people just think he hasn't done all that much to promote general disarmament, or peace between nations. Or something...

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I'm sick of the cheerleaders.
Kumbaya while nothing gets done helps absolutely no one.
take the red pill, cheerleaders. wake up, see the real world.

While I'm not shocked that so many pissed on the celebration, I am disappointed that for just one stinking little day they couldn't simply say "Congratulations" and then move on to something else. I don't expect them to gush but for gawd's sake, Obama IS a Democrat AND he is a President who just won a Nobel Peace Prize!

crap all over anything that's even slightly positive.

the responses here are what I see on a predominantly Rep site. Amazing. And you all wonder why the Dems can't show a cohesive force in any decision.

are just contrary regardless of the topic, you will see that those contrary posts are, in their own way, a form of congratulations.

there are many miserable people out there and they wish to make other people miserable so they aren't alone.

Thank goodness it fails most of the time.

isn't it?


But I will celebrate and I agree with you completely!

K and R

They both have tons and tons of things to criticize Obama for and now they can add winning the Nobel Peace Prize to the list!

I mean, I find it utterly predictable that the wingnuts would bash Obama for anything and everything, but apparently winning this award gives wingnuts on both sides of the aisle an opportunity to pile it on. And, the beauty part is...how both sides are now in perfect agreement about how worthless and meaningless the Nobel Peace Prize is and how completely undeserving Obama is in receiving it!

I mean, the man can do NOTHING right with these people. He wins and award. Terrible. He accepts an award. Even worse. If he declined the award he'd be accused of exhibiting a false show of humility.

I say, way to go Obama, way to go America. We've reversed course and the world has taken notice and is showering its gratitude on us. KISS. He won. It reflects well on us as a nation. We should say thanks. End of story. Instead: Big time hissy fits.

insanity has affected the entire thought processes of the citizenry.

There is nothing but pure paradise on Earth that would keep some people from complaining, and even then the damn clouds would be too puffy for their liking.

I am SO proud and thankful we have him

I've always assumed that once in office, a President is privy to a lot of stuff we don't know. Call me a fool, but I really do think that a president (any president of the US) has more knowledgeable resources at hand than BJ from MASH does.

and in the end it turned out that the information LBJ and Nixon had that we weren't privy to was that we couldn't win in Vietnam - it was just their egos that kept us from getting out.

As a distint cousin of his (must run in the family), I'll trust Mike Farrell's opinion over what we're told by the administration about Afghanistan.

Basically, it was fear of national humiliation and the mindset of "We are #1, we can do anything".

and neither one cared how many died because of that attitude. Sounds like a lot of ego to me.

his/her presidency if s/he'd taken the steps to re-open diplomatic avenues with the world. We have a long history of being bullies to overcome, and I think he's turning us in the right direction.

They want something like this:

Candidate X (insert name here) gets elected, boldly attacks the legislature, demanding his programs or nothing. Of course gridlock and chaos ensues, but "our man" stands his ground and will concede nothing.

So, nothing gets done, and the country continues to go to hell in a pot, but we "stuck by our principles, no matter what."

I honestly think even Dennis Kucinich would be too compromising for some of these posters, Howard Dean sure as hell would be.

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or the adults, for that matter

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/10/09/20939...

Fraternity between nations. A fraternity where we blow the shit out of our brothers and kill their children.

"Awarding a Peace Prize is, to put it bluntly, a political act"
ah! Now I understand it.

of your "shock and awe" post. You've been here long enough to realize how gauche it is to post photos like that without a warning in the post title.

This is every bit as bad as the anti-choice fetal ads, and intended for the same purpose.

Just so you know how much I'm offended by your post, I'll make an admission I've never done on DU: I'm an infantry veteran from the Viet Nam War and I'll be dealing with the flashback for the rest of the day.

Pull your head out of your self-absorbed ass and delete your post. You might add an apology for your willful lack of respect.

Thank you for your service. Sorry for your memories.

Peace.

about YOUR flashbacks? Maybe you'd like to share YOUR combat experience with us.

It's goddam easy to be glib about displaying hateful pictures of burned children, when you've never heard the screams or smelled the stench of burning flesh.

I won't sleep well tonight, but you'll be cozy and warm with your self-satisfaction, won't you? 'Cause you fought the good fight right here on the battleground of DU!

Pictures of burned children are the reality of war.

And yes, I am satisfied with my work and activism. And because I am such a dedicated peace activist, I deplore awarding a peace prize to a president who is waging a war. It's insane.

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There are also rules and if you feel they have been violated, then alert. Calling ME insane and telling me to butt out does absolutely NOTHING to further a discussion on this board.