You have got to be kidding me (UPDATED) (AGAIN) (JUST KEEP CHECKING BACK)

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize:

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.
 
The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations."

He added that the committee endorsed "Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"

It's now official. 

We live in an f'd up world run by f'ing idiots.

My mouth is agape.  This is beyond ridiculous.

UPDATE: Each week, I submit a status up the chain detailing my team's accomplishments, what we're currently working on and what's left on our plates for the next week.  In that status, I usually embed a joke, largely meant to see if anybody's actually reading the status.  Inspired by today's events, I've submitted the following:

I’m inspired by the news that the President was nominated for the 2009 Peace Prize two weeks after taking office and that in fact he has won the award.  So inspired that I’ll be hitting [the bosses] up for a raise for my hope and desire to become more productive, my hope and desire to make [my department] the best IT department in the land, my hope and desire to influence [where I work] positively, my hope and desire to work for change we can all believe in.  Hope and desire should be awarded as taught by the Nobel Peace Prize committee and I hope that [my bosses] agree and more importantly to me (because I’m also inspired to believe that it’s all about me), that [my bosses] award me with a huge bonus, honor and prestige, and maybe even a corner office with a view.  Just sayin’.

UPDATE II: Vanderleun weighs in (and ya gotta go over to see the accompanying pic):

You always knew those beauty contest declarations about "world peace" would pay off. And without even having to put on a bikini. US President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his calls to reduce the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons and working for world peace.

Plus his signal accomplishments so far in office, "Jack" and "Sh*t." Now the whole world has an imaginary friend. And like all beauty queens he looks good in a thong.

[Note: Since this broke at about 2:10 PST Twitter's been running at about 2,000 tweets a minute... the vast majority going to "WTF?"]

UPDATE III: Received in e-mail from the RadioPatriot:

UPDATE IV: Bookworm makes an apropos observation:

... there’s good reason to believe that he needs to tamp that ego down and put his acceptance on hold until the end of January 2013.  It seems that it’s unconstitutional for him to accept.  Although, the Constitution hasn’t stopped Obama before, so why should it stop him now?

UPDATE V:  Kim Priestap of WizBang e-mails:

If just wanting world [peace], talking about world peace is enough to get the Nobel Peace Prize then every beauty pageant winner should have gotten one.

To which a co-worker at my place replied: "Isn't that what's happened here?"

UPDATE VI:  Headline of the year:

Obama's won the Nobel Peace – WTF?!

 

Comments

[Locutisprime]

As Chris Wallace just remarked on Fox this morning, that this is nothing more than a further indication of them awarding the prize to someone who "isn't George Bush."

Jimmy Carter 2002, Al Gore 2007 etc.

[Chris Vehr]

Obama was nominated for the award just two weeks after becoming president.

What's that tell you?

[Chris Vehr]

Could his delay on Afghanistan decisions be related to his wanting to win this award?

Let's see what happens now that he has it in the bag.

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

Somebody wake (or take me AA) me when this crap is over. Mmmm, mm, mm.

[Morgan K Freeberg]

Respectfully disagree with small-tee tim. I want to catch every single instant of this. I want to TIVO it. We are learning things about human nature that are not often revealed...at least, not often revealed this starkly.

I babbled on for a little bit longer than I intended in Bullet Number One about How to Motivate Large Numbers of People to Do a Dumb Thing, Without Anyone Associating the Dumb Thing With Your Name Later On. The gist of #1 is this: Once people sit down together in a group to decide on something (especially when they're voting on something, as a committee) the mission is no longer one of laboring to produce the best results. Instead it becomes the mission you remember from K-12: Try to get everyone to watch you when you feel like you know what you're doing, and look somewhere else when you're feeling like maybe you don't.

It isn't that "everybody" has all this hope in Barack Obama's efforts, it's more like everybody wants everybody else to know they have the hope. People acting in their individual self-interests, and trying to act like they're not acting in their individual self-interests.

This stuff fascinates me, just endlessly. Bring it on. Not too wild about what will inevitably result from it, but at this point it's rather unavoidable. Elections have consequences. Might as well learn as much as we can from going through it.

[MAS1916]

Never underestimate the power of stupid people with a large amount of money and a prize to award. (actually, this includes Pelosi and Reid who are awarding our money to others)

MAS
http://conservativeblog.thewebinfocenter.com

[Ann]

I think this prize is fitting. Obama has shown a maturity and humanity on the international stage that few other leaders have emulated. Let us not forget that the Vatican has openly congratulated him and explained why.

An NCR translation from the Italian of the Vatican message follows:

"The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace to President Obama is greeted with appreciation in the Vatican, in light of the commitment demonstrated by the President for the promotion of peace in the international arena, and in particular also recently in favor of nuclear disarmament. It's hoped that this very important recognition will further encourage that commitment, which is difficult but fundamental for the future of humanity, so that the desired results will be obtained."

[Mommynator]

Obama has done NOTHING. Period. Ann, please pull your head out of wherever it is hidden.

He has emboldened our enemies and the enemies of all people who love freedom, while insulting and denigrating our true friends.

If you really expect peace to break out with the muslim world, you need to step away from the drugs. Really.

[Mommynator]

Seems the population of Facebook agrees that this is ridiculous. About 76-something percent say it's not merited.

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

Morgan, point taken and I agree, all this is rather fascinating while maddening at the same time.

Also on second, I agree with the award. He overthrew a tyrannical dictator In Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan while freeing 50 million Muslims, decimated Al Qaeda worldwide, forced Libya to turnover their stockpiles of WMD’s, kept Li’l Kim relatively quiet in NK and made Iran nervous about our troops on two of their borders.

Congratulation Pres. Bush for…what…he didn’t win it?

Ann, you're funny. Almost as hilarious as this -

"Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline."

Using that criterion, I guess my three years in the US Marine Corps qualifies me to run the Pentagon.

[Morgan K Freeberg]

This is priceless...

http://thehostages.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/everyone-gets-a-trophy/

[Instinct]

So, he's going to give the prize money to charity, right?

Who wants to bet that the charity will be ACORN and they will use it to give him a campaign contribution?