President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. It is a great honor for this country and for the President. For civil libertarians, however, the prize is a bit of a mixed message. Obama has blocked any investigation of war crimes or torture in violation of international law. He has also supported the limitation of free speech to allow the criminalization of criticism of religion. With less than a year in office, the selection may send the wrong message to Obama that personality rather than principles succeed in both domestic and international politics.
I know that it is not going to be popular to question the basis for this selection, but Obama has not proven to be exactly a ray of light on questions of human rights and international law. He is now in violation of various international agreements over torture and United Nations officials have denounced the United States for refusing to carry out its duty to prosecute those responsible for the torture program. Yet, the Nobel Committee has chosen this time to award him with the Peace Prize — undermining the importance of the Geneva Conventions.
To his considerable credit, he has re-examined our positions on a host of international agreements, including most notably global warming. However, one would expect to wait for at least a year to see if he carried through on such statements and policies. I believe if you look objectively at the record, it is hard to see why Obama warrants such an honor at this time. At least Teddy Roosevelt helped end the Russo-Japanese war and supported the creation of the Hague arbitration court. To put it simply, Obama’s selection is the triumph of hope over experience and he will have to earn this distinction in the years to come.
What do you think?
Congratulations President Obama!
I hope you prove all the naysayers wrong and prove the Nobel prize committee to have been prescient!
The great folk singer Pete Seeger now ninety and a perennial contender for this award (in my mind at least) wrote this song and whenever i heard him live, it always made me cry, not sad tears but the kind where you get all choked up thinking why can’t we all get along, and wouldn’t it be wonderful.
My Rainbow Race
One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shores
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I’ll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It’s too soon to die
Some folks want to be like an ostrich
Bury their heads in the sand
Some hope their plastic dreams
Can Unclench all greedy hands
Some want to take the easy way
Poisons, bombs…They think we need them
Don’t you know, you can’t kill all the unbelievers?
There’s no shortcut to freedom!
Go tell, go tell all the little children
Go tell mothers and fathers too
Today is our last chance to learn to share
What’s been given to me and you
http://www.last.fm/music/Pete+Seeger/_/My+Rainbow+Race
Of course it could just be the Irish in me because Kermit the frog does it to me too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVY51DD0Hk
P.S. Sorry if this is a double post, it did not seem to take.
Congratulations President Obama!
I hope you prove all the naysayers wrong and prove the Nobel prize committee to have been prescient!
The great folk singer Pete Seeger now ninety and a perennial contender for this award (in my mind at least) wrote this song and whenever i heard him live, it always made me cry, not sad tears but the kind where you get all choked up thinking why can’t we all get along, and wouldn’t it be wonderful.
My Rainbow Race
One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shores
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I’ll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It’s too soon to die
Some folks want to be like an ostrich
Bury their heads in the sand
Some hope their plastic dreams
Can Unclench all greedy hands
Some want to take the easy way
Poisons, bombs…They think we need them
Don’t you know, you can’t kill all the unbelievers?
There’s no shortcut to freedom!
Go tell, go tell all the little children
Go tell mothers and fathers too
Today is our last chance to learn to share
What’s been given to me and you
http://www.last.fm/music/Pete+Seeger/_/My+Rainbow+Race
Congratulations President Obama!
I hope you prove all the naysayers wrong and prove the Nobel prize committee to have been prescient!
The great folk singer Pete Seeger now ninety and a perennial contender for this award (in my mind at least) wrote this song in 1967; you all probably know it too, when ever i hear him live and sing along, it always makes me cry, not sad tears but the kind where you get all choked up thinking why can’t we all get along and wouldn’t it be wonderful.
My Rainbow Race
One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shores
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I’ll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It’s too soon to die
Some folks want to be like an ostrich
Bury their heads in the sand
Some hope their plastic dreams
Can Unclench all greedy hands
Some want to take the easy way
Poisons, bombs…They think we need them
Don’t you know, you can’t kill all the unbelievers?
There’s no shortcut to freedom!
Go tell, go tell all the little children
Go tell mothers and fathers too
Today is our last chance to learn to share
What’s been given to me and you
http://www.last.fm/music/Pete+Seeger/_/My+Rainbow+Race
I think the award should have gone to Iommi, Osbourne, Butler & Ward for writing “War Pigs.” They’re way overdue.
Quote:
“…the abolition or reduction of standing armies…”
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“In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/nobel-prize-to-obama-defe_n_316098.html
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I also have not agreed with Obama on everything that he is done, but he has done a good job in ending the unilaterlism of the Evil Bush Empire. Now that President Obama has won this award, he has even more pressure on him to do the right thing in many areas. Congratulations President Obama. I wonder if he got a congratulatory call from Bush or Cheney??