George W. Bush Honored Twice
October 9th, 2009 at 7:46 am by CrankyThe Nobel committee has wisely chosen to honor former President George Bush as second time by giving its shiny The-World-Is-Upside-down award to President Obama. Recall that former President Carter was also awarded the Golden Albatross in a concerted effort to confer credibility to Bush.
The committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a “kick in the leg” to the Bush administration’s hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.
Good on you Oslo!
UPDATE:
Best quote so far:
“While it is OK to give school children prizes for ‘effort’ — my kids get them all the time — I think international statesmen should probably be held to a higher standard,” he [Gideon Rachman, a foreign affairs columnist for The Financial Times] wrote.
UPDATE 2 (PTH):
Sorry to butt in, Cranky. Here are two more must reads on Prizegate. The lovely Cara Ellison and the not-as-lovely-but-brilliant Iowahawk.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Former winners of this idiotic booby prize:
2007 – Al Gore and the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”
2002 – Jimmy Carter
2001 – the UN and Kofi Annan
1994 – Yasser Arafat
The list goes on. It has been a joke for years, this is just another punchline.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Apparently this prize means pretty much….TA DA!!!
NOTHING….
How appropriate. I’m going to go puke now…
October 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Mrs. McMurphy woke me up to this news today. If you think he deserved the “peace” prize for all the peace he’s accomplished this year, heh, you haven’t seen anything yet.
I know I haven’t.
Evidently letting every rogue country on earth become a nuclear superpower while undermining the value of the currency of the people who donate more money and aid to needy people all over the world is going to make it a safer place.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I think it’s funny, just because it makes you guys apoplectic. Of course it’s political. On the other hand, if it didn’t mean anything at all, you wouldn’t even comment on it. For instance, if the South Bronx Kiwanis Club gave Obama an award, you you wouldn’t be phased one bit. Unless they had kids singing at the event. Then it’s the Hitler youth.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Don’t worry about us, Funk. I’m anything but apoplectic, mainly just amused by the predictability of it. In fact, I’m in a pretty damn good mood this morning. I do appreciate your concern though.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:55 am
C’mon Funk, you don’t find kids singing for Obama a little creepy? I know you don’t put much value behind our “cult of personality” accusation, but maybe this is a just a teeny bit?
October 9th, 2009 at 11:54 am
As I posted elsewhere…..
Dear Nobel Prize Committee,
I plan on curing cancer and ending world hunger in the near future. Where do I pick up my prize?
Sincerely,
Army Mom
October 9th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Sure, the singing thing is a bit much, but it’s hardly unprecedented, and you know as well as I do that sycophants exist across the political spectrum. The examples of juvenile sycophancy towards Obama that I’ve seen clearly fall within the realm of questionable taste, not the horrifying Hitler Youth accusations being suggested around the web. Personally, I found the clamor on the right five or six years ago that unquestioning support of President Bush was a patriotic requirement to be far more disturbing. The kids’ Obama songs are full of silly praise, but none that I have heard suggest that dissent is tantamount to aiding and abetting the enemy.
As for the Nobel thing, seriously. We just went through eight years of a dumb guy grabbing his junk and telling the world to “bring it on.” Now we have a guy who at least says we ought to act like grown-ups and try talking before shooting. Some folks find that refreshing. Even Obama thinks the award itself is premature. He said today, “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” Some folks within and outside the US would like more dialogue and less Official Grabbing of One’s Presidential Junk in Belligerence. Nobel Peace prizes have always been political statements, and if you think about it, with very few exceptions they’d pretty much have to be. Lech Walesa won in 1983, and Desmond Tutu in 1984. Seems to make obvious sense now, but both of those awards were strong political statements at the time. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson won while in office, but were not universally loved by all Americans at the time. It’s political.
In the end, though, my amusement over this is with those on the right struggling between trying to act indifferent about it and being all mad about a supposed cult of personality.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Do you think Dear Leader will answer the American People and bring our Predator Drones home, once and for all?!?
October 9th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Right on, Army Mom.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Maybe he’s being rewarded for continuing Bush’s policy of keeping Guantanamo open for business, occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing Pakistan and encouraging a bunch of Iranian protesters to die while he sat, watched and did nothing.
/Stoic
October 10th, 2009 at 12:26 am
“Golden Albatross” is a perfect term for it!
Do you ever feel like we’re all just in one mega Punk’d production? Cuz I’m starting to suspect it.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Now we have a guy who at least says we ought to act like grown-ups and try talking before shooting.
I guess I musta missed the talks that Al Qaeda offered before 9-11.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Up in the hills we had what we would call The Noballs Peach Prize, that you would get fo being a chicken and not shootin at yo neighbor. Does this be what Obama done won. It sure do be fittin. It more easier to come by then a chicken for the fox who got in the hen house.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
@ badanov, I’ve made the same point in the past. Like, on 9/11, at what point was AQ open to chatting? While 30 miles away from the Twin Towers? 10? 5? 250 feet?
October 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Thelonius sez: “We just went through eight years of a dumb guy grabbing his junk and telling the world to “bring it on.” Now we have a guy who at least says we ought to act like grown-ups and try talking before shooting. Some folks find that refreshing.”
I don’t find it refreshing, I find it scary as hell. When it comes to International affairs, nuclear weapons, airplanes as weapons, suicide bombers etc, I much prefer to be “large and in charge”. Give me the cowboy over the bar-maid anyday. Life is toooooo short, and while this “schmoozer in chief” is busy having a “teachable” moment, we can all be blown to frickin’ smithereens.