Today, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For what you say? According to the Nobel committed, for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” Have they not noticed that he’s only been President for nine months? Have they not noticed that he hasn’t really accomplished much of anything in his time in office with the exception of creating trillions more in debt for the children of the United States?
Honestly, I don’t hold this against Obama. I don’t know that it is something that was actively pursued. Heck, as JayTea at Wizbang pointed out, the nomination deadline was February 1st, meaning that he was nominated less than two weeks after he was in office. Had he created so much cooperation between people in two weeks as to deserve this kind of award? I lay this partially at the feet of the people around him. A part of me thinks that this was done so far in advance because they expected him to be such a stellar success and that this would be the cherry on top of his first year in office.
I put the majority of the blame (yes, blame) for this award on the Nobel committee itself. Again, JayTea says it best –
Essentially, Obama’s award is for the outstanding achievement of “not only not being George W. Bush, but joining the rest of the world in blaming him for everything.”
Why do I use the word blame? Simply because awarding this to Obama does nothing to increase the reputation of the Nobel Peace Prize. You’re giving an award to someone who has done little to deserve it, at least not yet. As much as I disagree with what Jimmy Carter says and does, for years he has worked towards peace in the Middle East. It may not be the way many would like to see, but he is doing something. I think when Al Gore was awarded the prize, it was a joke. Climate change fearmongering doesn’t bring about peace. By giving the award to Obama, they are joining in the nonstop praise for someone who has so far not shown the ability to bring people together.
Tonight I watched “The Pentagon Wars“, a movie from 1998 about the development of the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. During a scene where a general is being grilled about oddities during testing for the vehicle, he finally gives them the cost so far to develop it. He says “14″, one of the senators replies, “million?” The general doesn’t say anything, and the another senator says “billion?” incredulously.
Wouldn’t it be nice if $14 billion was still a lot of money to our government, not a pittance to be thrown at every little whim?
So, we now have President-elect Barack Obama. Congratulations to Senator Obama, Senator Biden, and all those who voted for and supported him. I disagree with many of his positions, but it is quite a thing to know that the country has elected the first black president in history.
Liberals, be warned. You now have every major seat of power in the United States. You have captured the presidency, and have majorities in the US House and Senate. Be careful what you wish for. Four years or eight years from now, you might experience the same turnaround that has happened in the last two years. Unlike President Bush you do have a mandate from the American people, of that there can be no question. Treat that mandate well.
Senator McCain, you are a fine and honorable man who I was happy to support. I wish you had been given the opporunity to serve our country as president, but it was not to be. I can say that I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Governor Palin.
As I posted earlier, God is sovereign. His hand is on this election, and His hand will continue to be on us. I may disagree with what has happened, but God is in control. My finite mind can’t see what is to come. The one thing that I can do is pray for our leaders and I ask each of you to do the same.
In the immortal words of the great Kent Brockman, I for one welcome our new liberal overlords.
1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
Whatever happens, God is sovereign. What he has decreed will happen will come to pass. We can not see the big picture, nor can we always know the reason.
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit wrote this today about someone pulling Joe the Plumber’s driver’s license or license plate information from the Ohio state system.
I think there is some truth behind this, but I also think it could have been done somewhat innocently. I work for a software company that deals with the Texas version of Ohio’s LEADS system. We’ve heard stories of people innocently doing a drivers license search on a name from the FBI’s Most Wanted that comes up on the TV or a license plate search on a car that is in the President’s motorcade. In either case, they had calls within a few minutes from federal agencies wanting to know why they did it. It could be that a bored rookie emergency dispatcher was watching the debate and decided to put Joe the Plumber’s name through the system to see what might come up.
It’s just a thought. It could very well be thuggish, but it could also be quite innocent.
UPDATE: Look, I’m not saying this is the most likely scenario. I’m just saying it’s another way of looking at it. I’ve posted before about what they did to Joe the Plubmer was wrong. I don’t agree with what happened.
I often disagree with Orson Scott Card, but I think he’s right on here.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that’s what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don’t like the probable consequences. That’s what honesty means . That’s how trust is earned.
I have to agree with Iowahawk on this (caution: profanity). What the media has done to Joe the Plumber is reprehensible. Joe merely had the guts to ask Obama a question, and now the media has done more investigating into a guy who isn’t even a candidate than they have into an actual candidate.
I am Joe. I prefer Wal-Mart to Target. I grew up on a farm in small town Kansas. My dad had more cattle in the pasture across the road from our house than I had kids in my school. I work on my own car, browse the aisles at Home Depot, and am the father to my children. I cling to my religion (yes, it’s religion, not a relationship). Nearly my entire family is made of the same kind of people. I’m not perfect, but then I’ve never pretended to be. I’m sure if the media wanted to dig up dirt on me, they could.
My answer is yes. Take this snippet from an AP article:
The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.
I’m going to assume that they are comparing it to history using the point loss rather than the percentage loss because it makes a more gripping storyline. However, the loss was not the worst loss in history. The largest one day percentage drop was 22.61%, which occurred on October 19, 1987. Today’s loss of 777.68 points is a 6.98% drop, less than 1/3 of the loss suffered on Black Monday.
I may be overly optimistic about this, but let’s not get all caught up in it. By not passing the huge bailout bill, the House of Representatives has actually saved us a great deal of debt in the future. If they are serious about fixing the problems that face this country, how about all the Senators who have served more than two terms, and all the Representatives who have served more than four terms resign immediately, or remove themselves from ballots if they are up for election this fall. The problem lies in the current power-hungry, career politician class. No more lobbyists, no more crony appointments, just sensible people in government. People who have the ability to lead this country won’t run for office because honestly, who wants the headache of all the personal attacks and partisanship. The whole system is corrupt. It’s time t reboot it.
I thought that this piece by CNN’s Campbell Brown hits the bail-out nail squarely on its overinflated head.
I know everyone is screaming about how urgent this crisis is and that action must be taken immediately.
But I love and live by former Supreme Court Justice Brandeis’ great quote: “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
What we need is scrutiny and debate. If it has to happen quickly, then do it fast, but without grandstanding or political posturing.
We need serious scrutiny and debate, and that should happen whether we are talking about a giant piece of legislation that is going to affect us all, or whether we are talking about presidential and vice presidential candidates.
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