One Nobel Peace Prize Can Ruin Your Whole Day

It's a Coke world after all.

Jake Tapper:

apparently the standards are more exacting for an ASU honorary degree these days

The Corner:

His self-worship has created real problems for him and this will only feed into it. His vanity is his Achilles heel. The Nobel committee actually did him no favor.

Erick Erickson (RedState):

I just stopped myself from passing gas. I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting against global warming and air pollution.

Rush Limbaugh:

With this ‘award’ the elites of the world are urging Obama, THE MAN OF PEACE, to not do the surge in Afghanistan, not take action against Iran and its nuclear program and to basically continue his intentions to emasculate the United States.

Michael Steele:

One thing is certain — President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.

Bill Kristol:

If the Swedes Norwegians wanted to give the Nobel Peace Prize to an American, it would have been been better to give it to Sen. John McCain for having the guts to push through the surge in Iraq, which has brought relative peace to that country.

The Taliban:

We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan.

56 Comments

And what of the Malkin-thing?

…”And he speaks. Obama acknowledges he doesn’t deserve the award, but he will accept it anyway. He’s “deeply humbled.” But not really.

It’s about “aspirations,” not achievement. It’s a “call to action.”

Reporter shouts: “What will you do with the prize money?” No answer.”

Always classy. Oh, and did you hear anyone shout that in any of the coverage today? Maybe it was one of the voices in her head…

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: I wasn’t paying attention to Reporter Shouts as Barry walked away from the podium.

But while we’re there, K-Lo passes along a concern from a reader:

1. Under Article I, section 9 of the Constitution, “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust [in the United States government] shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

2. Under this provision, it seems that President Obama would need the consent of Congress to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. That prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which consists of five members elected by the Norwegian parliament and is thus an agent of a “foreign State.”

3. Congress’s existing blanket consent, set forth in the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, does not seem broad enough to apply to the cash component of the prize, though it probably would apply to the gold medal that is awarded.

Ha! I had totally forgotten about that ASU flap.

I’d like to watch the wingnuts whine
In perfect harmony
I’d like to see the wingnuts cry
And laugh constantly
That’s the Nobel.

@nojo: It will be interesting to see where he plans to donate the prize money.

The spectacle of a fight in Congress for the consent to accept the award could potentially be as entertaining nauseating as the Clinton impeachment hearings, but for the fact that the Dems will be able to squelch it quickly.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: Actually, that was the one question I heard shouted at him as he returned to the White House, which says all that need be said of the state of “journalism” today.

@nojo:

In other words, let’s pretend that this is a problem even though there is standing law which covers it.

From The Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2365: Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch:

d) Awards and honorary degrees. (1) An employee may accept gifts, other than cash or an investment interest, with an aggregate market value of $200 or less if such gifts are a bona fide award or incident to a bona fide award that is given for meritorious public service or achievement by a person who does not have interests that may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the employee’s official duties or by an association or other organization the majority of whose members do not have such interests. Gifts with an aggregate market value in excess of $200 and awards of cash or investment interests offered by such persons as awards or incidents of awards that are given for these purposes may be accepted upon a written determination by an agency ethics official that the award is made as part of an established program of recognition:

(i) Under which awards have been made on a regular basis or which is funded, wholly or in part, to ensure its continuation on a regular basis; and

(ii) Under which selection of award recipients is made pursuant to written standards.

(2) An employee may accept an honorary degree from an institution of higher education as defined at 20 U.S.C. 1141(a) based on a written determination by an agency ethics official that the timing of the award of the degree would not cause a reasonable person to question the employee’s impartiality in a matter affecting the institution.

(3) An employee who may accept an award or honorary degree pursuant to paragraph (d)(1) or (2) of this section may also accept meals and entertainment given to him and to members of his family at the event at which the presentation takes place.

Example 1: Based on a determination by an agency ethics official that the prize meets the criteria set forth in §2635.204(d)(1), an employee of the National Institutes of Health may accept the Nobel Prize for Medicine, including the cash award which accompanies the prize, even though the prize was conferred on the basis of laboratory work performed at NIH.

I am very google-y today.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: If things don’t work out with the mouse, I urge you to consider library school.

@Pedonator: It will be interesting to see where he plans to donate the prize money.

Bill Ayers. Dude’s owed royalties for ghostwriting Dreams.

Not Our President’s fault the prize committee has a man crush on him. And , btw, fuck those RW assholes.

@nojo: Maybe he could use it to provide Constitutional Law scholarships at Harvard for needy Afghan kids whose parents are indefinitely detained at Bagram.

@redmanlaw:

I wonder what breakfast was like at Chez McCain this morning?

The wingnuts are upset because Obama got the Nobel Prize for Peace while neither Ann Coulter nor Ayn Rand got the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Not bad for a president who’s worse than Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler and Genghis Khan combined.

Wingnut headz mus’ be ‘asplodin.

And I had to check the AP/Yahoo Nooz headline like six times for The Onion’s byline.

The generally agreed-upon meme among those conservatives who pretend to sanity, George Will, for example, is simply “Uppity.” Or as they put it, vain.

The Rushbo Oxycontin crowd, they have a complicated argument that this weakens amurrica, because now that they’ve bribed him with a Peace Prize, he won’t nuke Iran like we need to.

Amazing.

I want to move out, I have had it, just about.

@Prommie: I want to move out, I have had it, just about.

I’m increasingly thinking Spain. Decent healthcare coverage, Mr. Pedo and I can marry, good food, small language barrier, and you can still find charming places for $100-200K in villages that offer some cultural life and easy access to larger cities.

Even given their almost recent experiment with overt fascism (as opposed to the stealth flavor practiced by the US oligarchy), I imagine the delayed-perhaps-but-not-averted cannibal anarchy will be a more…humane experience there than over here with the teabaggers.

@Pedonator: Spain was actually not a bad empire to be under once we straightened out a few things in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. The RMLs are prolly going next summer.

@Pedonator: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead — and delicious!

@nojo: Wow, I had totally forgotten that line. There’s a zombie joke on the tip of my tongue but I can’t quite spit it out…

@Pedonator:

I’m down with España if for no other reason than the PM’s totes awesome, goth daughters.

We could listen to The Church, paint each others’ nails aubergine and gossip sobre los jovenes hombres.

@Original Andrew: ¡Fiesta de pijamas en el Palacio de la Moncloa!

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: First Carter, then Gore and now Obama? I’m more interested to know what breakfast was like chez Clinton this morning.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: Uhh, I don’t think Bubba wakes up next to Hillbot 99% of the mornings.

@Jamie Sommers is an island: Oh, fuck yes. “I thought I was the first black president. And then, this Kenyan Hawaiian jackass comes along. I set up this stupid foundation so I could beat Bono to the Peace Prize, for what?” Mr. SFL, by the way, is bummed that Barack won before Bono. I pointed out that Bono would be even more insufferable and I want Bruce to win before Bono. He couldn’t argue with that.

@SanFranLefty: I am surprised Bill didn’t have to go to Bethesda for emergency penis re-attachment surgery.

@SanFranLefty: I would actually nominate the Evil Capitalist Socialist George Soros before Bono or Bruce for a Peace Prize.

@Prommie: Go to the beach. Look around. Talk to your neighbors. Buy vodka. Go to PriceChopper. Go to Cape May. Look at this beautiful country. Your son with the beautiful manners. His future. Your family and its history. That’s the truth. Not the nonsense from TV. And such as. Don’t make me come down there so you can force me to eat that fragrant tabbouleh you make. Don’t make me do that.

@Pedonator: You can marry here. Tomorrow. Or go to Canada and do it. Say by Tuesday? If enough of us do it they can’t hold out. Plus: Spain? Really? You don’t have enough hooting Brits and overweight Scandos in your life? Plus, fried eggs and rice for breakfast? I think not.

@Jamie Sommers is an island: Cap’n Crunch with Frosties.

@SanFranLefty: Bono? As if.

@Benedick: You are a sweet and lovely man, Mr. Benedick. Of course you are right. But on the other hand, if you really will come down here if I keep raging over the cant, you give me a motive to continue, and I will gladly make for you and yours the most deluxe, lovingly prepared tabouleh, and much more besides (did you catch my recent desert invention? Chocolate popovers, soaked in rum, then injected with a decadent warm dark chocolate sauce flavored with a hint of french four-spice powder, kahlua, nutmeg, cayenne, and chipotle, served over a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

What you all must understand, you stinquers, is this; I am a social misfit, and don’t know how to make the right small talk and freindly conversation with people I wish were my friends. But I do know how to express love and freindship by lovingly preparing happy-making little delicacies, and all the energy and communication I do not know how to put into words, I put into the special care and effort I put into the food I would just so love to give to you and make you happy, thats the only way I know, to give a gift of love and joy to people I like, you have to let me feed you.

@Benedick: Yes, but marrying in Vermont or Maine or Connecticut or Canada doesn’t mean much in concrete benefits to me and my spouse.

I already have Mr. Pedo covered on my health plan, that’s the most important thing. We share title on our house, not that it’s a good thing right now. He’s beneficiary on sundry insurance and 401K scams and such. That’s good.

Until we have federal recognition of “opposite-marriage”, our kind must still pay extra legal fees to establish many rights that are automatically conferred with the single, simple estampille on a civil marriage contract — and even then we can’t get full equality in US America.

(Yes, we were too preoccupied and/or lazy to take advantage of the California Summer of Love last year, and I regret it now.)

Anyway, we’re not talking about retiring to Palma de Mallorca — more like some hill town in the boonfuckeries.

@Promnight: I’m not much for sweets, but that dessert tempts one to make a special effort to have a New Jersey Vacation.

@Pedonator: You are invited, tell me when you are coming.

@Promnight: You are a total emotional feeding loving man. We live in a grand and glorious country full of astonishingly brilliant and creative people. We are the world. Don’t sneer you bitchez. We live where history happens. Also, Prommie, we’re all misfits, darling. Wear it as a badge of honor.

I don’t get desert. Chocolate? Meh. But we’ll talk. I could maybe plan a trip for your prommiefest. (Shh!! in the secret place!!)

Exit tittering.

@Pedonator: Exactly, my dear. We’ve done all that. Have I mentioned in the last 14 mins that the OH and I are about to celebrate our 40th anniversary? Next Feb. I was 12. We got married in Canada 6 years ago. We’ve done all the legal stuff plus my copyright stuff. I love my family by marriage. We must press the system. Marriage rights are meaningless till they are federal. We can’t file joint returns even though our governor has declared them legal.

I has Hope®

@Benedick: You can, anyone can, through legal strategems, create something close to the legal relationship of marriage, the only parts you cannot affect are pension and government benefit aspects of marriage, specifically, the spousal rights under pension plans and Social Security.

Its all so shitty, I hate when I even begin to think like a lawyer, lawyers are pharisees, manipulating words without regard to the deeper meaning and intent.

Fuck them all , the hating fucks, who have a problem with it. Bastards.

@Benedick: Happy 40th Anniversary to Benedick and OH!!! Smooch-smooooooooch-smooch!

Oh, I know you reserved Brit/Scots prefer dry air kisses. But a big sloppy mwwwaaaaahhh to both of you.

@Benedick: Congratulations on 40 years. You are an inspiration.

Wait, you got hitched when you were 12? I only had fantasies at that age…

Keep up the Hope. Someone has to. Meanwhile, Nate Silver has predicted opposite-sex marriage inevitable in all 50 states by 2024! Yay!

I’ll probably be dead by then.

@Promnight: the only parts you cannot affect are pension and government benefit aspects of marriage, specifically, the spousal rights under pension plans and Social Security

Yes, not to mention military spousal benefits and that in some states medical powers-of-attorney, or whatever they are, are not treated with the respect they deserve.

But on the other hand, without lawyers, our kind would be dust in the wind.

So Here’s To Lawyers! The good kind, anyway!

@Benedick: 40 years? damn, thats special. You know, I still love everyone I have ever loved. Is that strange? I really do. It was real, every time, I believe that. If it was not, what does that say about any love? I would be repudiating and rejecting a part of myself, if I were to deny what I once so fervently believed. How could I trust the reality of the love I feel now, if I ever denied the loves I have felt in the past? And I would hope the same of my love now, how could I feel confident of her love, if she has decided that the love she has felt in the past was false? She could someday decide that the love she feels now is likewise a mistake or an illusion.

Love is different from commitment, though. There comes a time, there comes a love, for the fortunate, when the love is coupled with commitment. Love is not voluntary, it comes on one and overwhelms, you cannot decide to love. But to commit, you must decide, and make a choice, and continue to make that choice every day, to commit, to commit yourself to that love, to hold to it, and nurture that flame even when it grows dim, and commit to fueling that flame and making it burn bright again.

When I met Mrs. Prom, when our love was new and sparkly and perfect, just like a new car, I spoke to her often about how I could not wait for the time to pass, for when our love was old, and weathered by time and tribulation, and yet still shone, I wanted history, we had then nothing but future, thats an exciting time of love, but love gets really intense and special only when it has both a future and a past, I could not wait till we had a past.

We now have a past, and its the past that gives strength to commitment, I think. Every love begins with an unlimited future, but the prospects of the future do not sustain deep bonds through troubles, only the history of love and commitment, that adds a strength to love. I love Mrs. Prom more than I ever did, though things are not shiny and new and there are difficulties, despite the difficulties, no, because of them, my commitment is stronger. Its easy to give up on a love that was never based on anything but hopes and dreams for the future, its easier to remain committed to a love that has weathered time and tribulation and disappointment. I love my wife more than ever, for the fact that we still love despite the failure of so many hopes and dreams.

@Benedick: And l’chaim again to you and Mr. Benedick. Take the awesome doggies out for an extra-long walk to mark the anniversary.

@Benedick: Congratulations, darling!
@Promnight: I am totally stealing from that for my wedding ceremony.

@Mistress Cynica: We got married in the garden of a B’n’B in Canada. The owners were sweet and stood witness. They had a friend make a special CD of showtunes to play in the background. Cos you know the gays love showtunes. When it came time to exchange rings it was discovered that one of us (not me) had lost his. So we had to stop and spend the next half hour hunting for it till it was discovered on someone’s finger (not mine) where it had been placed for safe-keeping. When we got back to it Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina was playing on the boom box (pity nojo wasn’t there) and I was helpless with laughter for the vows.

@Benedick: I certainly hope that Nojo will use the factoid that you got married with Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina blaring on the boom box against you the next time you make fun of his ALW affection.
@Mistress Cynica: I’m planning on stealing something Prommie said earlier this week for a speech I have to give next month. You’re in good company.

@SanFranLefty: Ah, but it was not being played by me. At me, rather. Nojo, of course, favors the concept recording with Julie Covington. He’s such a purist when it comes to ALW.

@Benedick: Oh, I don’t know, I thought Madonna did a pretty good job as Evita.

/can’t get through the sentence without laughing.

@Benedick: Mazel Tov! May there be 40 more, at least.

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