Update - BBC Call: NO FREAKIN' WAY!: Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Update 2: Just came in email after a lively phone chat with the BBC producer:

Great stuff. Do visit our site and email me over your details so we can arrange your transport. We're live on BBC World at 11.30 - 1200 Washington time, and 1300 - 1400 live on BBC World Service Radio

Sometimes these things don't come off for whatever reason. But if it does, I'll be on the BBC TV network discussing the award with some folks from around the globe. I believe it's 11:30 AM our time via World Have Your Say. Then, I believe I'll be staying on for a live radio show an hour later. If it works out, this should be a fun day given the headline that attracted them. NO FREAKIN' WAY!! It was an interesting discussion with the producer, I can say that much. Nice person. At one point she wanted to know what he had done so wrong that makes the prize an issue for me. I replied that I didn't realize one received prizes for not screwing up in a certain regard, yet - especially given Iran's quest for Nukes and N Korea getting them as a result of Bill Clinton's talking, which Obama seems destined to repeat. Then I launched into American exceptional-ism, suggesting most of us probably couldn't care less what the world thinks. I can hardly wait to share those views with some good folks from around the world! heh! 

Update: Full text of the pathetic, foolish, worthless and dishonest announcement below.

I do not freakin' believe this. But via the BBC- it appears to be true. For what? Are you frickin' kidding me? What a stupid joke. What a worthless award. Video of the announcement here. They put weight on his WORK? For Nuclear Weapons? All he has done is TALK! This is total BS!

THE MAN HASN'T DONE ANYTHING!! I can't believe this. Really, I can't. What a waste. One sensed this was just a worthless political award anymore. But this removes all doubt. If I were on the committee I'd be embarrassed. This is an absolute disgrace.

Full text below of announcement, via Fox. Try not to throw up in your mouth!

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

There were a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. Zimbabwe's prime minister and a Chinese dissident had been among the favourites.

The laureate - chosen by a five-member committee - wins a gold medal, a diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m).

"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 Norwegian committee said as the prize was announced.

"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."

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA 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.

"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. 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.

"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Unfortunately, this inexperienced, indecisive, ineffectual jerk doesn't seem to speak for America. And that's his real problem in the end. At this rate, the man is going to become reviled by a majority of the American people in four years.

Comments

[templar knight]

SDN, when this guy refers to southern values, he is referring to Castro and Chavez. He's just another useless idiot of the American left.

[Martin]

I agree it's too early - many of his supporters no doubt feel the same - but you come across positively pathetic on tv. A college guy guy talking in a nose stubbed, clumpy voice, repeating political clubroom dogma and saying stuff like "They shoulda given Jay Leno the prize, at least he's accomplished something". You couldn't work a crowd if they had been *paid* to be in front of you (yeah, I know the type, this kind of cheap smug right-winger...)

[TFMo]

THIS JUST IN! Obama's unofficial official pre-response to receiving the Nobel Prize!

http://tinyurl.com/yjvot7y

[whiteandblackmixed]

"Geez and I thought it was obvious that the world community HATED our President when they dissed him over his bullying tactics in regards to the Olympics....."

Nope! Wrong again. Open your eyes and try and see the world...that's what our President is doing.

[Southern Values]

Hey SDN - Aren’t you the little racist. I'm not sure where you're from but peckerwood certainly comes to mind. Why so angry? Is your double wide failing off the block foundation?

And let me add – this is so very typical of the wingnut right. Let’s resort to deeply historical bigotry when no legitimate counter argument to stated points can be offered.

Templar - Castro and Chavez. So very original. Why don’t you bring forward the whole wingnut rant? Women, Black, Jews? There’s plenty of other bogey men out there to hate – don’t stop now.

[Dr. K]

Southern Values:

Really, please tell me what he's actually accomplished.

Yay! An American President won! Good for him.

I want to know how he has had an actual effect on the world and international tensions.

Something concrete, if it's not too much trouble.

[southdakotaboy]

To really gage this President on World Peace we need to have a current count of ongoing wars in the world and how many people are being killed. If at the end of it there is less fighting and death then yes Obama should be given credit for that.

If however, there are more armed conflicts and death around the world (this counts wars the start and end during his term of office) then Obama and Liberal thought should be judged as failures.

In my opion the left and Obama are in for a rude shock as things progress.

[Reaganite Republican]

Right on, Dan-

Apparently "soaring rhetoric" is all they're really looking for at the Nobel committee- rather than any actual results (like Reagan's ending the 40-year Cold War with a military build-up)... or even a speck of historical precedent that would suggest what Obambi's saying makes sense.

And for the Obots of Norway: if it weren't for American nuclear weapons, you'd already be "celebrating" your 40th anniversary as a Soviet colony... right along with every inch of the rest of Europe.

[Chris R]

This is great news. I am very happy that he won. He deserves it.

I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun reading the reactions of people on these blogs. Too funny.

Win the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes we can.

[syn]

Southern Values

I understand the Nobel Peace Prize was award to Obama as the Committees way of rebuking their Nobel Peace Prize they gave to liar Global Warming Al Gore.

[Southern Values]

Dr K: I’ll paste again the commentary from Josh Marshal –
This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

The world community, and the reality based left, saw this. The most powerful country in world acting with utter contempt of not only international law, but the very values and morals of America itself. Bush was a toxic blight on world peace. You may argue this cheapens the Prize due to a lack of substantive accomplishment from Obama, but it speaks volumes to world opinion of the accomplishments of Bush. And any movement away from that legacy is a movement towards piece.

[Southern Values]

SYN,
I’m not expecting any substantive comments / opinions from you or the rest of the patriots here. That said, I would welcome even snark if it was clever or had a modicum of literary content. But your reference to Obama winning the Prize as a rebuke to Gore / Global warming shows you need to reread your wingnut talking points. You sound like a child trying to curse but not knowing the meaning of the words. So I say to you – “You’re a dumb mother shitter”

[Dr. K]

Southern Values:

That is not an accomplishment. That is not concrete. That is simply idol worship.

"You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment". Yes, tie it to an event. Ronald Reagan managed to end the cold war and prove the Soviet system was a sham. Managed to make the world's other superpower (at the time) irrelevant. Essentially eliminated the threat of all-out nuclear war over apperiod of a decade. Reagan was never seriously considered.

Obama wins for bringing hope? How blind are you to not see the inequity?

Try again in your own words.

What did he ACCOMPLISH?

[syn]

Southern Values

And you are a flaccid weenie Liberal prick addicted to internet kiddy porn because you are Bill Maher butt-ugly with his slimy brown crap plastered all over your face.

[Southern Values]

Dr K – the last paragraph were my own words and I stand by them.

This is not idol worship. In fact, I agree that if you are looking for direct cause & effect “accomplishment”, 9 months in office is little time to affect anything and nothing Obama has done internationally can be seen as demonstrative. But I’ll reiterate - any movement away from the Bush legacy is a movement towards piece. And that deserves recognition.

[checkers]

If capturing the world's attention gets you a prize why not Idi Amin or Hitler?

[WPE]

"And you are a flaccid weenie Liberal prick addicted to internet kiddy porn because you are Bill Maher butt-ugly with his slimy brown crap plastered all over your face."

That pretty well sums up the quality of though from the victims of Obama Derangement Syndrome who would rather Obama fail than see the US succeed.

Got your flag lapel pins on?

[Southern Values]

Syn
I’m speechless. But this does beg the question - was you last comment snark or great literary content. BTW, the flaccid point really hurt.

[Dr. K]

Southern:

He was nominated between the time he took office and 1 Feb 2009. So according to you, not being Bush is a concrete achievement that is worthy of the Nobel Peace (note the correct spelling) Prize.

That alone tells us about the standards of accomplishment for this administration.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- If capturing the world's attention gets you a prize why not Idi Amin or Hitler? --"

I think that just gets on the cover of Time.

"-- That pretty well sums up the quality of though from the victims of Obama Derangement Syndrome who would rather Obama fail than see the US succeed.

Got your flag lapel pins on? --"

They'll keep howling and screaming and throwing feces until they tire themselves out. Tammy Bruce at WND is currently taking up a collection to fund Obama's impeachment.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112098

Reasons range from "Obama hates America!" to "He bailed out the banks / car companies!"

I mean, it's a nice counterbalance, if nothing else. European Leftists are applauding Obama for progress he hasn't actually achieved. American fridge lunatics are trying to impeach Obama for crimes against humanity he has yet to commit.

We're looking at the most speculated-upon President in history. If the hype is to be believed on either side, he's either the Second Coming of Jesus or worse than a million Hitlers. All for things he hasn't yet accomplished or is vaguely suspected of planning in the distant future.

[Southern Values]

K

Thanks for catching my semantic error, that’s a real value add to the discussion.

And yes, as someone who strongly feels Bush is a war criminal, not being Bush is worthy of recognition. I don’t take exception to previous comments about the lack of “hard” accomplishments from Obama. Since my preference would be an indictment of Bush in The Hague, not a Nobel, I’ll just have to live with it.

Lastly, let’s not talk about standards of accomplishment. If we use the last Administration as the bar, it won’t take much to exceed that.

[Dr. K]

Southern:

I wish that all you had were spelling errors. That would improve the strength of your arguments.

So there you have it. Another moonbat who wants an indictment of someone who he does not agree with.

You should hope your enemies are more forgiving than you.

[zaugg]

Southern Troll Values- Korea launches missiles. Iran is gearing up the nukes. Russia is rattling the sword. China is growing huge.
Whorled Peas?
Liberalism is a mental disorder.

[Southern Values]

K
Here’s my responses to this delightful tit for tat.

“I wish that all you had were spelling errors. That would improve the strength of your arguments.”

Please note, the spelling was correct, the semantic usage was wrong. I appreciate that nuance usually falls on deaf ears to the Right, but if you were to just speak phonetically, maybe you’ld better understand the argument.

“So there you have it. Another moonbat who wants an indictment of someone who he does not agree with.”
My agreement or disagreement with Bush is irrelevant. As an international war criminal and someone would broke both US law and the American public’s trust – the appropriate charges should be drawn up.

“You should hope your enemies are more forgiving than you”
I don’t need forgiveness as I didn’t break the law. Are you for DOJ or Congressional investigations into the Bush wrong doings ( wire tapping, preemptive war, US attorney firings – the list go on ). I’m a law and order type of guy and believe forgiveness may be noble, but accountability is more appropriate.

[xerocky]

The bottom line is, he's ruined the US economy, the dollar is in serious trouble, and to at least some degree even the most brainwashed idiot lefty can see how it's his doing. So that said, when has an economic downturn ever brought peace?

Peace is a product of economic strength, and so far he's had none of that. So the fact remains that this award is hogwash, and the very notion of it’s ever being significant is long gone. Truth told it died when they gave it to Kissenger, and then Arafat. Obama has done nothing, and yet he continues to receive accolades. It’s plain old stupid.

Next topic.

[Southern Values]

Zaugg
It that a joke or did you have to drop out of home scholling to fix the plumbing?

[templar knight]

"...did you have to drop out of home scholling(sic) to fix the plumbing?"

Wow, what an impressive comment. You must have graduated from at least Harvard to come up with that origninal statement. I'm amazed...yes...amazed at your intelligence!

[WPE]

"The bottom line is, he's ruined the US economy"

Were you asleep for the whole of Bush's presidency?

[Dr. K]

Southern:

You are a fool. Pure and simple. You used the word "piece" when "peace" was the correct usage. Semantics says you chose the word "piece" for a reason (as in "I want a piece of that"). What you meant was "peace". Therefore, it was a spelling error.

You disagree with Bush's policies. He did not act unilaterally, he acted in Iraq with the consent of Congress. The "wiretapping" you are so bent out of shape about was legal under the laws as they were communications where one party was not a US citizen.

Finally, you don't need to break laws to have enemies. That should be obvious. Except to someone who is a blinded by their hatred in their alternate reality.

You may be entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. And repeating the same lies over and over again does not turn your delusions into facts.

[Southern Values]

Xerocky
The Bush economic legacy, per the US Census –

o Under Clinton, the median income increased 14 per cent. Under Bush it declined 4.2 per cent.

o Under Clinton the total number of Americans in poverty declined 16.9 per cent; under Bush it increased 26.1 per cent.

o Under Clinton the number of children in poverty declined 24.2 per cent; under Bush it increased by 21.4 per cent.

o Under Clinton, the number of Americans without health insurance, remained essentially even (down six-tenths of one per cent); under Bush it increased by 20.6 per cent.

o Adding Ronald Reagan's record to the comparison fills in the picture from another angle.
Under Reagan, the median income grew, in contrast to both Bush the younger and Bush the elder. (The median income declined 3.2 per cent during the elder Bush's single term.) When Reagan was done, the median income stood at $47, 614 (again in constant 2008 dollars), 8.1 per cent higher than when Jimmy Carter left office in 1980.

Don't you hate those messy things called facts.

[templar knight]

I recall much, much smaller unemployment and deficit numbers under Bush, WPE, but you keep repeating nonsense as long as you want. The entire Bush presidency of 8 years didn't do the amount of damage to the US economy as this jaybird has done in 8 months. The only expanding industry under Obama is gun-making.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Southern Values indicates the utter stupidity of the left and the Obama Party; their only answer for everything is to blame Bush.

There literally is nothing the incompetent Obama fool has to do. He can simply manipulate the puppets like Southern Values by repeating over and over again that he's not Bush, and they support and do everything he says.

[WPE]

Bush certainly deserves a large amount of the blame. He left behind an economy in collapse - by the numbers, the worst economy since the Great Depression.

[templar knight]

And your boy has made it better, eh, WPE? When the dollar is absolutely worthless, and mobs are rioting in the streets, you fools on the left will still be blaming Bush and the wingnuts, no doubt. My only regret is having to save you liberal idiots when we clean up the Obama mess. There will be a price for you assholes to pay this time. There will be no forgiveness.

[w3bgrrl]

BREAKING NEWS: U.S. President Barack Obama agrees with Taliban: "I haven't done jack squat to deserve this award."

[One More Invisible Citizen]

If he's Soooooo wonderful, why can't he recover ONE kidnapped motherless U.S. child from the clutches of Brasil? Sean Goldman. Despite the fact that there are 65 U.S. children kidnapped and held against their will in Brazil and thousands of U.S. children held in other countries against a treaty that they all signed, Obama can't even get home the one who's mother dieds as his father waits 3,4,now 5 years for his son. He's is still being held in Brazil, and mentally tortured every day according to three Brasilian psychologists and a Supreme Court Judge........and Obama remains silent........the State Dept. remains silent.....they are powerless puppets, all of them when they can't even bring home kidnapped children from 'friendly foreign countries"....world peace??? how about protection for it's own most vulnerable citizens???? Kidnapped Children Oh, I forgot, they're not employess of Al Gore, the new News Guru...

[zaugg]

Josh Marshall aka Southern valuerite- I assumed that you kept up with current events. Check the news ticker from the last few months for those headlines. Your Obamessiah has done nothing but stab our allies in the back and encourage our enemies. But you knew that, didn't you, you just want to play teh stoopid.

[WPE]

1. He's not my "boy". He's OUR President.
2. Where were you when Bush was making the mess? Remember TARP? The near collapse of the banking system? The talk about another Great Depression? That happened BEFORE Obama took office.
3. If you were for all that stuff, then when you talk about forgiveness, maybe you should ask for some.

[Wil]

Honestly,the Nobel Peace prize should be awarded every 50 years for two important reasons. 1) It lessens the power of political ideologists to determine the winner and 2) Time always reveal the true nature of whatever type of peace each candidate of this award had in mind and the result of their work in pursuit of that peace and the after effects of that peace that they thought they had won. Believe me, if the Nobel Peace prize were awarded this way , 2/3s of the winners would never won the award.

[North Dallas Thirty]

As an international war criminal and someone would broke both US law and the American public’s trust – the appropriate charges should be drawn up.

Of course now Southern Values and WPE are screaming that Bush is a "war criminal" because of extraordinary rendition and holding people indefinitely without trial.

And what is their Barack Obama doing?

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/24/shhh-obama-to-continue-rendition-program-for-terrorists/

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/24/obama-wh-adopts-bush-indefinite-detention-position/

Now all of a sudden the laws change arbitrarily.

That demonstrates quite nicely that both Southern Values and WPE are Obama-worshiping hypocrites and liars who have no concern whatsoever for the law and are just trying to smear Bush.

[xerocky]

Obama has spent so much money that the dollar is in serious jepoardy of loseing it's reserve currency status. That didn't happen because of Bush, as bad as he was. It happened because of Obama and his out of control spending. How can there be peace without prosperity? The answer is that there can't. The closer the United States comes to economic collapse, the closer the world comes to war. Obama doesn't have his sights set on doing anything for the dollar, anything for the economy, quite the opposite in fact.

[joyMc]

Obama's step-and-fetch-it efforts for the far left and for anti-American factions around the world got him a nice tip. That's all.

[WPE]

"Obama's step-and-fetch-it" - nice. I'm sure that analogy to stepin fetchit was a mistake. You're really not a racist - right?

Actually, there are lots of liberals, including me, unhappy that Obama has completely shutdown rendition. If he's breaking US laws, then he should be prosecuted for it. Just as George Bush should be.

BDT's buddy Texas Gov Perry and his Tea Baggers get their way, you won't be a part of the US any more and you won't have to obsess about Obama anymore. Evey find the guts to condemn those nuclear attacks on NYC and DC?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/governor-says-texans-want-secede-union-probably-wont/

[Sam Kaufman]

It would seem that the Nobel Peace prize was given to Obama to send a message... to whom and for what purpose, who knows

[Bill]

I hope I'll be excused if this isn't original.

To say that President Obama has done nothing in the foreign area is untrue, and grossly unfair to all those who have actually done nothing. Since his election, he has been both busy and effective.

He’s gotten into slap-fights with the United Kingdom and Isreal, two allies previously so solid that it would have been hard to imagine this a year ago. He’s backstabed the Poles and the Czechs. He’s assured Mainland China that the United States would no longer be a bother about that tiresome “human rights” business, and his despite for human rights in Tibet and Iran has given them cause to know that he meant it. His support for the coup by the would-be “President for Life” of Honduras, and his opposition to the poeple who actually followed the law, and removed the usurper, when the Supreme Court ordered it, suggests general support for tyrants and userpers, and opposition to actual laws.

His groveling has Iran, Al Quaeda, and Russia openly laughing at him, and, by extension, at the United States.

He has trash-talked the United States nonstop, damaging America’s standing both among the unreflective (who may actually believe him), and among the reflective (who note that the United States really elected this guy).

Giving a billion dollars in foreign aid to Hamas, is also indicative of, shall we say, a change in direction of US foreign policy.

Nations across the world, which used to believe that the United States could be relied upon, are now reconsidering their options.

Some of his activities in the economic arena have significant foreign relations effects, as well. The backward, largely communist nation of Mainland China is lecturing the United States on how to run its economy—with good reason, and I hope the United States takes their advice.

His pillage of General Motors and Chevrolet—not taking their money for the state, but giving it (and much of the state’s money) to his supporters in the union—sends a significant message to anyone overseas, who used to think that investments in the United States were protected by actual laws.

President Obama has done more to weaken the United States and its alliances, and to withdraw American support for human freedom, law, and human rights, than any president since Carter—and he’s just warming up.

The President’s actions call for praise and adulation from tyrants and terrorists across the globe. They also call for awards to be heaped upon him by those who are stupid enough to believe that the United States is the main cause of problems in the world—in which category, I suspect, the Nobel Prize Comittee is included.