More p-shops at Buzzfeed

In the sidebar, I'm collecting up "terrorists." Here's one that writes a long confession to his terrorist designs.

George W. Bush launched a “preemptive” war. Now the Nobel Committee is trying for “preemptive” peace. I had always thought the way these things worked was that you helped bring peace or democracy to some corner of the globe first, and then you won the Nobel Prize. But this year, the Nobel Committee has turned that logic around: It clearly likes what Obama is trying to do: on nuclear disarmament, climate change and Middle East peace—and so, in a “preemptive” strike, it’s giving him the award now, in hopes that doing so will boost his chances of success later. It’s an interesting idea....

I like Barack Obama as much as the next liberal, but this is a farce. He’s done nothing to deserve the prize. Sure, he’s given some lovely speeches and launched some initiatives—on Iran, Israeli-Palestinian peace, climate change and nuclear disarmament—that might, if he’s really lucky and really good, make the world a more safe, more just, more peaceful world. But there’s absolutely no way to know if he’ll succeed, and by giving him the Nobel Prize as a kind of “atta boy,” the Nobel Committee is actually just highlighting the gap that conservatives have long highlighted: between Obamamania as global hype and Obama’s actual accomplishments.

He says Obama will "survive" this award, but the Nobel committee might not.

Obama will survive the award, but this will be the most damaging blow to him yet. The floodgates open for talk-show jokes. The American public will begin thinking, "Can we maybe wait until he actually solves some problems before rushing to decorate him with Certificates of Participation and Badges of Effort? Is Barack Obama here to improve our lives, or we his?"

And they will also begin noticing Obama's outsized ego, and worrying about further feeding that bloated, dangerous monster.

A minor actor can be perfectly average but perfectly respectable in his averageness. No one usually begrudges an average person for being average.

But if that average actor wins the Academy Award, suddenly his inadequacy becomes the talk of the town. He was neither more or less average before the award -- but the bestowing of the undeserved award suddenly makes his quite-unobjectionable averageness a subject of sudden derision and his otherwise-unremarkable career the butt of a thousand jokes.

The Marisa Tomei comparison is already being made -- but Marisa Tomei actually earned her Oscar. It's not her fault that the Academy Award almost never rewards inspired comic performances, and so we're surprised when they finally see some comedic acting they think is worth noting.

And Marisa Tomei at least fulfilled the most basic requirement for receiving an Oscar -- she finished a project and did so to general accolades.

Obama has done none of that.

Barack Obama has done nothing to earn his many accolades -- his book deals, his law review editorship, his Senate seat, his presidency -- except simply exist.

Woody Allen observed that 80% of success was just showing up. For Barack Obama, that's 99.9%.

And this highlights the already-wide and quickly-expanding gulf between Obama's reach and his grasp, his reputation and his resume, his accolades and his accomplishments, his words and his deeds... and his hopes and his actual changes.

There has long been an elephant in the room, best ignored, at least best ignored for Obama's political sake.

The Nobel Prize committee has painted that elephant in hot-pink and gold-flake and thrown a ten thousand watt spotlight on it.

The elephant can no longer be ignored.

Obama will become a laughingstock because of this.

Is this his fault? Partly, sure. But not mostly his fault.

But then, neither it is the fault of a mediocre actor who awakes one day to the grim news he has been honored far beyond his abilities, and now will be ridiculed far beyond his culpability for that.

Posted by: Ace at 11:01 AM | Comments (170)
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I thought I'd mash-up two articles getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere.

The first is Thomas Edsall's good (mostly) article on liberal media bias. And how liberals in the media should stop pretending they're not liberal, stop lying, take ownership of the problem, and correct it.

The other is Mark Halperin's absurd grading of the Obama Administration. Halperin must be thanking God right now that the Nobel committee made him only the second biggest joke of the day (and, in fairness, a fairly distant second). But I'm not done with him yet.

I trust you'll be able to tell which is which. I have made frequent cuts without notice (as it would be disruptive to the nature of this mash-up). In one case (the discussion of the media's belief conservatives are stupid), I've moved Edsall's order of topics in order to make a better comparison at the end.

I recommend a reading of Edsall's critique in full -- we can deal with his claim that conservatives can't be real journalists later -- and Halperin's risible autoerotic beclowning too, just for the lulz.

Correction/Note: Halperin's piece is not, as I thought, new. It is in fact a grading from Obama's first 100 days. Not sure why the Seinfeld Presidency deserved such high marks then, either -- seems ludicrous to grade him after such a short period of time, and give him "A-'s" to boot.

But this was an error of assumption on my part, and I'm sorry about that.

Still: I like the mash-up.
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Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Comments (69)
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We should have more, as Slublog's really inspired. He did these in like ten minutes.

(See credits as post's end. Most are Slu's, others are readers'.) more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:44 AM | Comments (451)
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From Newsbusters. I'm stealing their vid, but they are rounding up lots of reactions. Including Dianne Sawyer gushing that Obama's "win" is the "Gold medal of international diplomacy."

Also there: A "senior White House advisor" emails Scarborough to say "stop being an @sshole." (Spelled out in the email.) Newsbusters puts on its thinking cap to ponder who at the White House is known for casual profanity.

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Posted by: Ace at 08:30 AM | Comments (134)
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That's what Medaite claims.

Once again, it seems, Obama's big achievement is talking.

And talking so modestly that he embarrasses those who note, as they say, that Obama is a man with much to be modest about. By, um, confirming that truth, or something.

Video of his humble and yet TOTALLY AWESOME comments:

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 AM | Comments (155)
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10. Dr. Neil Farkas, DDS, Sheboygan, WI, for once thinking about a new type of dental adhesive before forgetting about it

9. Sue Lefkowitz, homemaker, Poughkeepsie, NY, for vowing on New Years Eve to lose her last 20 pregnancy pounds (she gained 6)

8. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees third baseman, NY, NY, for having the intention of one day hitting a home run in October

7. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for almost being elected President of Iran, and then bringing "peace" to that country as President of Iran

6. Stanley Urquhart, assistant pipefitter, Des Moines, IA, for "seriously considering" legally changing his name to Jake "The Snake" Drake (pure unadulterated awesome!) and joining the Ultimate Fighting League, at least after he finally makes that brown belt that sensei has been holding back from him for a year

5. Charles Johnson, blogger, Santa Monica, CA, for "conspicuous heroism" in defending a little-trafficked website from fascists, neo-nazis, white supremacists, and other Enemies of the Blog

4. Myron Klepnitz, IT supervisor, Brooklyn, NY, for writing a chapter and a half and "copious notes" for his "vampire erotica" novel tentatively titled Suck

3. ACORN

2. Ace of Spades, blogger, whereabouts unknown, for posting by 11:30 am

...and the Number One Candidate who almost won a Nobel Prize...

1. One-tenth of an ounce of that stinky, sweaty, rancid-buttery grey fuzz that collects at the bottom of your belly-button and kind of scratches when you try to fish it out

My List Sucked: Eh. But here's something funny. DrewM just tweeted: "BREAKING: Obama named Motor Trend's Car of the Year!"

TP Carney, via Michael Goldfarb, is starting a campaign to write-in Obama for the Heisman Trophy.

Posted by: Ace at 07:54 AM | Comments (100)
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Cap'n Wonnerful glides by in his 2010 Tour de France shirt. Yeah, they just gave it to him. Because "...he could have done it if he wanted to."

So, what are you guys doing this weekend?

UPDATE; Treacher on Twitter: "Obama also won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his groundbreaking work in preventing unneeded amputations and tonsillectomies."

Slushop courtesy of the most awesomest Slublog, of course. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 07:38 AM | Comments (63)
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This is so embarrassing. It highlights Mr. A-'s odd propensity to be given grades, degrees, book deals, law review editorships, presidencies, and now Nobel Prizes based on doing nothing.

Right now about 100 million Americans are wondering if they, too, might be announced as a Nobel Prize winner. Many of us, too, have done nothing.

The Nobel committee has not done Obama any favors here. This is going to make him more of a joke.

Under such circumstances, he should decline the award and state he wants to win it after he's, I don't know, healed the earth and lowered the oceans, as promised. The Nobel committee will be just itching to give him three or four more of these anyway.

But he's a malignant narcissist and so he won't. The most he can bring himself to do is accept the award on behalf of those wise enough and filled with enough hope and change to vote for him -- sharing the award with those virtuous enough to vote him another beauty pageant prize.

Good God. Laughingstock.

In case it hasn't been linked yet, even the Leftwing Media is a bit skeptical that Obama has earned this particular A-.

Posted by: Ace at 07:25 AM | Comments (99)
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Obama is about to make a statement on how awesome he is.

Obama Statement:

Says he doesn't feel he deserves to be in the company of the previous winners and is really about the US and its commitment to our values.

Knows it's about the future and its a call to action.

It's about as humble as he'll sound but now he's using it to advance his nuclear disarmament crap.

And climate change! I thought the oceans stopped rising when he was nominated. What happened?

He stumbled over his responsibilities as Commander in Chief in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's strangely fitting.

And he's done.

It was about as reasonable a speech as he could give. Orrin Hatch congratulated Obama, says it's great but then goes after the committee for never picking a conservative like Reagan.

It's the right tone for an elected official to take...surprise, better choices available, a bit incredulous and attack the bias of the selection committee but overall pleased an American President has won.

The rest of us however should say what we know...Obama is a fraud and a dangerous one at that.

Original Post:

Meanwhile the DNC says if you aren't thrilled with this, you're obviously a Republican who supports terrorists.

No really.

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize - an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride - unless of course you are the Republican Party.

“The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore - it’s an embarrassing label to claim,” Woodhouse said.

Republicans have 'thrown in" with Hamas? You mean the same terrorist group that endorsed Obama last year?

Thank God Obama has brought peace to the world. Now he can focus on that healing the rifts at home thing he used to talk so much about. Perhaps he cans start with Mr. Woodhouse.

BTW-How stupid to the Tony and Emmy Award people feel this morning for not giving one of their prizes to Obama? When it comes to Mr. Wonderful actual accomplishments don't matter.

The only logical answer is they are racists.

Look for other groups to get on board.

Fearless prediction...Obama will be named the MVP of the World Series and the Super Bowl. He will win an Oscar and be named Homecoming King and Queen at several high schools and colleges across the country.

Oh and remember the university that wouldn't give him a lousy honorary degree because he hadn't done anything yet? I can only imagine how stupid and racist they feel today. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure I heard people chanting "Boy" during his commencement speech.

Breaking: Early Vegas line on the number of self references (I, me, my, etc.) in Obama's speech in Oslo...278. Take the over.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:55 AM | Comments (140)
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(Pulled from the ArthurK's headline.)

It is beginning to look less like ignorance, and more like willful malice towards our economy. Forbes puts us some knowledge on the issue, and the future of CRA.

Brief recap: CRA forced banks to make concessions to "community activists", like ACORN of late scandal, in the form of committing to huge numbers of loans to those who are least able to afford them.

Forbes pegs the dollar amount of total commitments as of 2007 at 2.7 trillion dollars. Trillion.
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Posted by: Open Blog at 06:50 AM | Comments (28)
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