Better make that your rain slicker, for the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show will be in DefCon 5, full Warp speed overdrive, with flinging their feces around
Of course, the NYT couldn't let it go by, with urging a little feces-flinging;
For Mr. Obama, the award could, in a strange way, prove a political liability. As he traveled overseas during his campaign for the presidency, he was subjected to criticism from Republicans who argued he was too much the international celebrity. Winning the Nobel at such an early stage in his presidency could further that kind of criticism, especially in Washington’s hyperpartisan political environment.
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.
Finally, expect the Nobel Prize award to turn the spotlight on internal disagreements within the administration over the future of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for instance has said in the past that United States needs the Reliable Replacement Warhead, a new nuclear weapon design, if it is to maintain a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing while reducing stockpiles. It will be interesting to see if this prize changes the debate about re-sizing the nuclear arsenal.
In the US realm, this is a great boost for the Obama foreign agenda - which certainly played into the decision by the Nobel folks. While the US political scene is often quite skeptical of the international community, the Peace Prize is a quite lauded affair. Even major Obama detractors will have a bit of hard time criticizing his win, especially after their poorly received revelry of Chicago's olympic demise. For Obama liberal supporters, it is a bittersweet moment --many have criticized the administration's foreign policy for moving to the center, particularly on war issues, and the Peace Prize designation takes a great deal of air out of that balloon.
Perhaps the happiest people in the US on this one will be the centrists - and those who wanted Obama to reshape the US image abroad. Whether the award is warranted (too soon? too uncertain?) or relevant (peace prize as we're discussing escalation in Afghanistan?, for the leader of the largest and most powerful military force in the world to be awarded a prize for peace and diplomacy is quite an interesting development.
Forget the Chicago Olympics foul up. Barack Obama has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- the first sitting US President to win the Prize since Woodrow Wilson.
[snip]
But the reality is that this Prize puts some air back in the Obama Bubble -- and this is good for the country and world as the challenges in the international system are enormous today.
Obama's efforts to talk the world into a better place have indeed created opportunities that were hard to imagine during the Bush administration -- but now a lot of heavy lifting and deal-making are required, and the Nobel Prize will give Obama a boost in these efforts.
From David Kurtz, at TPM; A TPM commenter wonders if this isn't a bit premature:
Isn't it a little soon for this? Maybe after he brokers an Israeli-Palestinian agreement or something like that. It sounds like the, 'boy is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award
Bob Cesca has how Morning Joke was dissing it, and more;
When asked whether the Nobel Peace Prize will negate the Copenhagen thing, White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie replied, "Well. I don't know." I don't know? The Nobel Prize doesn't supersede a ridiculous story about the Olympics? Please. The last sitting president to be selected was Woodrow Wilson. The only prize George W. Bush received was yanked out of a box of Froot Loops.
NPR speculated that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is like handing him a poisoned chalice. The poison is the inevitable the reaction of the political opposition in this country to the prize. The Nobel committee is seen as heaving a great sigh of relief that Bush/Cheney are off the scene.
We all have to pitch in to get Ta-Nehisi Coates some television;
My Lord. I wish I had cable, so I could watch Fox News flip the fuck out over this one. Rush is gonna be all-world today, Glenn Beck is gonna be all-universe.
And the Big Cheese Flying Monkeys are locked-and-loaded with their feces.
Michelle "Staklin" Malkinharumps that it is an award for his symbolism, while Mona Charen, at the big Flying Monkey perch, wants to keep that "Pal'n around with terrorists" meme going;
Before they break out the champagne at the White House, they may want to pause over the fact that Obama now shares this honor with Mohammed el-Baradei, Yasser Arafat, and flagrant liar Rigoberta Menchu Tum.
Meredith Jessup,at Flying Monkey Perch Townhall has the headline "Apologies Apparently Accepted: President Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize";
So correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this essentially mean Obama received this award for making some good speeches? Sure nothing he says has actually been accomplished, but it all sounds good!
Sure the Nobel Prize lost a lot of luster after they awarded one to Al Gore, but c'mon! This is just more evidence the "messiah" mentality has reached the world stage...
And, Flying Monkey Dan, at Riehl World View, at the end of his feces-flinging, predicts Obama winning the Nobel Prize will actually bring about his demise;
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.
I don't think Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Limbaugh and Beck) come to work until later in the day, so you can expect a second wave of Flying Monkey feces flinging well into the night.
Oh yeah, keep watch of the wire services today, to see when (if) Shadow President Dick Cheney is rushed to the hospital with heart trouble.
So, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them. Hence this post.
[snip]
So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:
a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;
b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and
c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.
For Ralph Lauren, it's "Holy snagged tights, Batman! ... What do we do now?" Kudos, Boing Boing!
Barry Crimmins (Via Charles Laquidara) The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes about 15 seconds to go to their site and ...click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'
It actually, if you have broadband, or an otherwise super-speedy connection, takes less then 15-seconds, so, no excuses about taking even less time to think about clicking, than making a decision about which shoes to put on ...
The Animal Rescue Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific need — providing food for some of the 27 million unwanted animals given to shelters in the U.S. every year. Over 10 million animals are put to death every year in the U.S. alone because they are abandoned and unwanted.
Each click on the purple "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at The Animal Rescue Site provides food and care for a rescued animal living in a shelter or sanctuary. Funding for food and care is paid by site sponsors and distributed to animals in need at the Fund for Animals' renowned animal sanctuaries (including Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Texas and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in California), pet shelters supported by the Petfinder Foundation , North Shore Animal League , and other worthy animal care facilities supported by the GreaterGood.org foundation.
100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners.
Hit the link, and give yourself a good feeling that you did something positive today.
In New Zealand the travellers make their way through one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. They are on a journey to find the last remaining kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot which, when threatened with attack, adopts a strategy of standing very still indeed.
Well, as you will see in the video, the rare bird doesn't, exactly, stand still.
It appears to engage in a mating ritual, complete with flapping wings, on Mark Carwardine, as Stephen Frye narrates.
The only existing film footage of Anne Frank has been uploaded to YouTube by the Anne Frank House. The Amsterdam museum is hoping to bring attention to Anne’s story and diaries and reach a new generation who may be unfamiliar with her story.
It happens, ever so briefly - like the snap of the fingers - at about the 9-second mark.
Considering the story of Anne Frank, what happened, not so long after this remarkable video, it's all the more heartbreaking, as Anne is doing the incredible innocuous action of simply watching a wedding party in her neighborhood.
From the YouTube description;
July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.
