Nemo me impune lacessit

No one provokes me with impunity

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No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Article 1, Section 9, Constitution of the United States

If this is the law of the land...why in a republic (little r) and as republicans, do we allow mere POLITICIANS to the right to use a "title of office" for the rest of their lives as if it were de facto a patent of nobility. Because, as republicans, this should NOT be the case...just saying...

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Friday, October 09, 2009

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize...FOR WHAT?

In a fit of sheer insanity, the Nobel Committee this morning awarded "The One" the Nobel Peace Prize. For What? What has this man done? He's certainly NOT Theodore Roosevelt, who deservedly convinced the Russian and Japanese Empires to sign a peace treaty closing the Sino-Russian War early in the last century. James Earl Carter convinced Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to sign the 1st Camp David Accords ending thirty years of conflict between Israel and Egypt. William Jefferson Clinton, had the 2nd Camp David Accords been signed/ratified, would justly have been a recipient of the award.

Mr. Obama has done what? Run several successful election campaigns, first to the Illinois Senate, then several years later to the US Senate and finally to the Presidency of the United States. In that time he has authored no significant legislation, nor has he convinced ANY waring factions to sign peace treaties...nothing.

Mr. Obama; the best advice you could possibly follow is from Mickey Kaus of Kausfiles published in Slate's online magazine
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/archive/2009/10/09/what-obama-should-do-with-his-nobel-peace-prize.aspx
Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he's honored but he hasn't had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Result: He gets at least the same amount of glory--and helps solve his narcissism problem and his Fred Armisen ('What's he done?') problem, demonstrating that he's uncomfortable with his reputation as a man over celebrated for his potential long before he's started to realize it. ... Plus he doesn't have to waste time, during a fairly crucial period, working on yet another grand speech. ... And the downside is ... what? That the Nobel Committee feels dissed? ... P.S.: It's not as if Congress is going to think, well, he's won the Nobel Peace Prize so let's pass health care reform. But the possibility for a Nobel backlash seems non-far fetched.
And that Mr. Obama is that. You've done nothing to deserve this honour and your accepting it only cheapens it into meaninglessness.

Jonah Goldberg of NRO offers an excellent insight:
The only thing that really bothers me is that this comes just days after the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the Dalai Lama and told the world that it's at least considering a separate peace with the Taliban. That's grotesque. Meanwhile, there are real peace activists and dissidents out there whose dungeons will stay just as cold and dark for another year because of this. Indeed, this news comes during a year when the Iranian people rose up against tyranny and were crushed. Surely someone in Iran — or maybe the Iranian protestors generally — could have benefitted more from receiving the prize than a president who, so far, has done virtually nothing concrete for world peace.

Doug Mataconis on Facebook: “Teddy Roosevelt wins Peace Prize for stopping a war. Carter wins Peace Prize for a lifetime of work. Obama wins Peace prize for breathing.”

Further, from the London Times...perhaps the most prestigious news organization in the English speaking world:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6867711.ece
The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself. Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world. Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace. The pretext for the prize was Mr Obama’s decision to “strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”. Many people will point out that, while the President has indeed promised to “reset” relations with Russia and offer a fresh start to relations with the Muslim world, there is little so far to show for his fine words.
From Huffingtonpost.com, Michael Russnow writes:
I am generally a supporter of Barack Obama. I voted for him and campaigned in print for his election. Why else give him the honor now? Whatever one might feel about Obama, he has not earned this singular award. Few American presidents have received it and of those who have it was bestowed after they'd been engaged in something special. Theodore Roosevelt had helped to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War. Woodrow Wilson had tirelessly worked for the creation of the League of Nations -- a struggle that was blamed for causing the serious stroke he suffered, which left him disengaged in the last years of his presidency. Jimmy Carter received the Peace Prize after he left office, but in the wake of huge achievements monitoring worldwide elections and in his efforts with Habitat for Humanity, building homes for the poor.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-russnow/barack-obama-nobel-peace_b_314899.html

This award literally makes a mockery of all those men and women who have actually accomplished something of note. Something that merited world-wide recognition of their achievements. Mr. Obama has done nothing of the kind; other that is, giving a few good speeches. That manifestly DOES NOT merit this award.

2 comments:

Donald Borsch Jr. said...

Rich,...

Yeah, was this just the freaking weirdest and most unbelievable thing so far that we have heard about Obama?

The Nobel Peace Prize. Um, why, exactly? All day I have been rolling this over in my head and have come to this conclusion:

Somewhere along the lines of world history, we were sucked into some weird wormhole where nothing would ever make sense again.

It's just a theory, but tell me it doesn't make you wonder...

Interesting that The HuffPo actually had someone wonder about this whole event. And apparently Matt Lauer did also this morning. (I'm sure some fanatical Obama worshipper will be sending old Mr. Lauer a horse head soon enough.)

Rich Vail said...

From what I can gather...most people who I spoke to (that voted for Obama) can't believe that to Nobel Committee actually did this. The consensus that I get is that this will become a huge millstone around his neck...because he has simply not done anything in the 9 months since he took the oath of office. Additionally, if you keep in mind that he was in office for all of 11 days prior to the deadline for nominations...If he actually goes through with this, it's going to be a fun three years.

Online, what I get is that basically he was chosen as NOT-Bush...that is all.