“A Norwegian member of parliament nominated former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday, arguing that his release of classified documents made the world a safer place.,” Balazs Koranyi reports for Reuters.
“Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former education and environment minister for the Socialist Left party, said Snowden’s revelations deepened the public’s understanding of the extent to which states spy on their own citizens,” Koranyi reports. “Snowden, living in temporary asylum in Russia after disclosing U.S. government secrets on surveillance programs and other activities, faces criminal charges in the United States after fleeing last year first to Hong Kong and then Russia.”
“Thousands of people around the world are eligible to nominate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, including any member of any national assembly. There were 259 nominees for last year’s prize, which was won by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its efforts to eliminate Syria’s chemical arsenal,” Koranyi reports. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee will collect nominations for the 2014 prize up to February 1 and finalize its list on March 4, when the committee holds its first meeting of the year and members submit their own nominations. The winner will be announced on October 10.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Finish this sentence:
The Nobel Peace Prize jumped the shark when it was awarded to ____________.
(Full list of Nobel peace Prize winners here.)
—
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1961
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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Ex-NSA chief calls for Obama to reject commission’s recommendations to rein in NSA surveillance – December 30, 2013
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Hero!
Tom Lehrer noted, “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
If you know the history of East Timor and Kissinger green-lighting the Indonesian military you realize how meaningless the Nobel Prize is.
Holy Sh@@t. Here we go, everybody strap in.
The Nobel Peace Prize jumped the shark when it was awarded to Jimmy Carter and Barack “Affirmative Action” Obama.
Jimmy Carter was a much better peace maker around the world than a president. He worked for his prize.
Giving it to Obama was jumping both the shark and the gun. They had know way to know what kind of president he was going to be. Perhaps he will make a better post-president too. One can hope.
Jimmy Carter was a jackass. Now he’s a senile jackass.
Hum -rims with Oh lama ?
It also rhymes with rims. Its tough when you have to click another button to check a word.
Well, since revealing national secrets is rewarded in this fashion, lets also nominate Dick Cheney for releasing the name of a US spy to the public. A criminal is a criminal is a criminal.
This only degrades the Nobel Peace prize.
As if it wasn’t already degraded beyond recognition by giving it to Obamaliar for doing nothing beyond hoodwinking 51% of the U.S. electorate (low info and/or gullible voters).
If you like your Nobel Peace Prize, you can keep it.
Lord help us if EITHER Obama or Romney got elected. The entire US citizenry got hoodwinked to accept EITHER candidate.
Shot By Both Sides
To hell with both Democrats AND Republicans. It’s time for an actual REPRESENTATIVE third party to rise and stomp the hell out of our two CRIMINAL parties.
Yeah, lets go Tea Party. They want to take this country back to the 19th/early 20th century where white men ruled and only they were allowed to vote, women were for the grabbing and minorities knew their place.
Thankfully, I think in 3 dimensions. I laugh at your Tea Party comment. A bunch of goons suckered by the Neo-Conservative crazies.
Just the modern arm of the Nazi Party. They’re all about hatred and scapegoating people with progressive ideals. Poor people supporting oligarchs and plutocrats is beyond my comprehension. These people are voting over they’re own best interests to a group of people who don’t give a rats ass about them. Just like the Nazi’s blamed all their ills on the Jews. Amazing, I can’t believe how strong and alive racism still is in this country. We’re still pretty immature and ignorant to hate people simply because of skin tone, amazing.
Hannah might have better insight on this behavior. I simply notice that primitive human causes require a scapegoat in order to mesmerize the masses into believing their bullshit cause. It’s a standard of human history.
I was just chattering with a friend two nights ago about who the next scapegoat will be in the USA. The fascist cause, in the form of the Neo-Conservatives and their thug-puppets, the Tea Party, have thoroughly destroyed their credibility. (Still to come will be further ruin as data about their involvement in 9/11 becomes public knowledge). Therefore their manipulated derision of anything remotely ‘liberal’ is considered as inane as they are. Meanwhile, the actual loon level liberals wrecked their credibility ages ago, making their derision of ‘conservative’ anything similarly ridiculous. The LGBT community is gradually removing itself from the HATE IT radar as people figure out that LGBT people are just as human as they are. We’re in debt up to our eyeballs to the fake ‘communists’ (read ‘totalitarians’) of China. So the commie hoard is off the HATE IT radar. There were efforts to put the 1% on the HATE IT radar, but the counter propaganda has, for now, derailed that effort.
It’s going to be, ahem, ‘interesting’ in the future. I personally surmise that the USA will managed to make itself irrelevant in the world whereby everything will focus on the Muslim cultural empire versus the Asian (read fake ‘communist’ China) cultural empire. This situation would become a final catastrophic dark age, with nukes. But hope springs eternal.
My personal goal is to encourage the creative, kind, caring and sharing culture among humans as, in the end, that is what’s most important for human and Earth survival and thriving.
/abstract rant
Right! If a third party, anything whereas a partisan of the extremest side of one already existing. It would need a REAL NEW thing… But are american citizens ready for changing their habits? That’s another story…
I didn’t vote either party. I voted libertarian.
Good on ya! I voted Green, although they don’t exactly please me either. Loon level liberalism is not my idea of a good time. But they’re a third party that had a much better platform than the two goons put up by the Dems and Reps.
And yes, for those concerned, I vote ‘the lesser of two evils’ when I seen the worst of two evils might possibly win.
Your political party gets hi-jacked, so you join another instead of standing up for your beliefs. They call that being lost.
Then that new party is also jacked so you repeat. They call that going around in circles.
You hang in there then with your political party that hates you and refuses to represent you.
I never vote for a political party. I vote for the candidate who best represents my region and my values
you have no values.
Good for you. You posted another deep thought. We all look forward to your next tome of wisdom.
Now, now, Botty. You were doing so well. I saw you do two whole (albeit brief) comments on another post that didn’t insult ANYONE! Now here you go again!
Stab your mother in the heart why don’t you? After all we’ve done for you. It’s going to be a good spanking from your dad tonight — AND early to bed with no dessert.
That is the ideal for me as well. When I hear the line “The Party Line” I cringe because it usually means the citizens are being ignored for the sake of political rubbish of concern only to an inner sanctum of SELF-interested worthless parasites.
Yes, ballots only have names of actual candidates which are representatives of a political parity and its ideologies. It is those ideologies that can get this country into deep financial trouble.
I no longer use “Democrat” and “Republican” as political labels as they mean less than the Nobel peace prize. I prefer “Creators” and “Destroyers.”
HAHAHA! Excellent concept! I find that to be very descriptive. Clearly there are some of each within both ‘parties’ and plenty of each who want nothing to do with either.
I supposed it’s a fair summary to say that I enjoy encouraging creators and stomping destroyers.
if national secrets are crimes…
The Nobel Peace Prize jumped the shark when it was awarded to Kofi Annan.
Henry Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
…along with Le Duc Tho…hilarious.
Let’s see. Guy steals tons of top secret docs with his security clearance. Flees to China, then on to Russia. Gives away top secret info on US security. Gets asylum in Russia. Threatens US through his lawyer that he will release more.
Yup. That’s right. NOT Hero.
Traitor, Spy.
Period.
If he’s a whistle blower…why steal all the other stuff ?
Say your peace and make your point.
Why bring a lap top to the Chinese & Russians ?
No ‘Steve’. Snowden has no documents with which to threaten anyone at this point, does he. Everything is out of his hands. Go rant at the news organizations who now have it all.
I too have no respect for Snowden going to Hong Kong and Russia, especially since Iceland repeatedly offered him asylum and he repeatedly ignored them. WTF was that about? So I’m not going to call the guy a saint by any means.
BUT: Snowden IS a patriot citizen for saving the USA from secret demolition of the First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution. That’s the fact.
And Obama SHOULD be impeached and tried for treason. That’s also the fact.
Hahaha…well, that’s interesting.
So when his lawyer got up in London and said he had a lot more to release. That’s files like recipes, angry birds scores, p*rn clips & stuff like that. Okay. Got it.
Of course the Gov has said he stole millions of documents. He fled with a laptop. Went right to China and on to Russia.
How come he didn’t go to Ecuador or Venezuela ?
Maybe that’s because he wasn’t being paid or handled by those countries. His handler was Russian Secret Service.
Sorry. It’s becoming clearer that he was recruited at an earlier time, by Russia, and completed his mission.
Traitor
Whatever any lawyer does is not to be considered truth. It’s simply a fact that Snowden gave away ALL his documents before being accepted into Russia for asylum. That’s well documented.
As to why he ignored asylum from reputable countries, that intensely bothers me as well. But be wary for leaping into conspiracy theories. It ruins one’s credibility. By comparison, I have no qualms about pointing out the involvement of the Neo-Conservatives in 9/11 because we have verified and admitted facts proving they did. Meanwhile, I don’t speculate their involvement beyond that for which we have proof.
I support Edward Snowden, but this is a bit silly:
his release of classified documents made the world a safer place
On the other hand, maybe Snowden’s whistle blowing HAS made the world safer, at least safer than treasonous Obama, a former recipient of the Nobel Prize.
This entire situation is sick, twisted and surreal. WTF have you done, NSA idiots? You’ve got to be crazy.
The Peace Prize has been a bad joke for many years now, but its crowning top of sour cheese was Obama, with Kissinger just under the brim, and Carter smiling manically. Usanians all, for what matter that might be. But let us remember, Nobel was a munitions manufacturer. Double-think is in the prize’s nature.
Nobel was not a “munitions manufacturer.” He was chemist who invented dynamite.
I’ll go one better – my favorite headline of the new year on Time Magazine’s website:
The White House Is Now Required to Respond to the Petition to Deport Justin Bieber
http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/29/white-house-petition-to-deport-justin-bieber/
It just doesn’t get much better than that. We live in a strange yet wonderful world. I’ll leave my opinions about Snowden aside and celebrate the world’s absurdity.
Giving the Peace Prize to Obama based on hope that he would make the world a better place obviously tarnished the Nobel Peace Prize a bit. But, giving it to Snowden would bring back some credibiltiy to the Nobel selection committee, I must say.
Now regarding comments that Snowden “stole” documents from the government. Is taking documents that were obtained illegally using unconstitutional means really stealing?
Finally, for those who question Snowden because he sought santuary in China and Russia, let’s get real. China and Russia are the only countries powerful enough to tell the US to F__K OFF. That’s why Snowden went there and that’s why he is still alive.
correct.
This makes a lot of sense, there certainly is a lot of support for this, considering the response by some members of a terrorist nation that needs not be named here but its initials are U.S.A.:
– Current NSA analyst: “In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself,”
I wonder is this is the same analyst that came up with the number of iPhones Apple was expected to sell last quarter.
– Pentagon Official: “I would love to put a bullet in his head,” and “I do not take pleasure in taking another human beings life, having to do it in uniform, but he is single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history.”
This is a big endorsement, I mean these days being a traitor to a terrorist nation kinda helps world peace and security.
– Defense contractor: “Most everyone I talk to says he needs to be tried and hung, forget the trial and just hang him.”
One of my personal favorites. These days justice via a trial is a foundation of civilized free world countries. Keeping people locked up indefinitely and torturing them most certainly is not.
Army intelligence officer: “I think if we had the chance, we would end it very quickly. Just casually walking on the streets of Moscow, coming back from buying his groceries. Going back to his flat and he is casually poked by a passerby. He thinks nothing of it at the time starts to feel a little woozy and thinks it’s a parasite from the local water. He goes home very innocently and next thing you know he dies in the shower.”
Certainly indicates to the free world how low they are willing to go with their desires.
Now of course one could sink to their level and attempt something like this: The USA jumped the shark when it ____________.
That would not do of course, so at least let’s try to show the way back out of the hole they have dug themselves into.
The USA will regain honor and moral integrity and a place in the civilized free world when it ____________.
The USA will regain honor and moral integrity and a place in the civilized free world when it…dumps Barack Obama.
You have no idea of how opposite it all is.
With Obama as President, USA regained a lot of trust from the rest of the world… But… Oooo! right: most americans don’t give a damn for anything else than USA…
The world thought Obama was going to pull the US back to more moderate and peaceful norms, which he didn’t.
For doing that, one has to be helped… How could anybody change a world filled with people who don’t even want basic things to change?
How is this nomination related to Apple? I don’t visit this site for political commentary.
Finish this sentence:
The MacDailyNews jumped the shark when it posted ___________?
Just because you are too stupid to grasp the link(s) to Apple, of which there are many, doesn’t mean this article isn’t Apple-related.
Well, in fact these posts are always very interesting in terms of sociology: you learn a lot about peoples mentally when following MDN…
mentality.
Both
If he wins we get to find out if he actually exists.
Or Snowden sends the chick who Marlon Brando
sent to pick up his Oscar when he won for playing
Vito Corleone. (runs to look it up on wikipedia, sound
of pages being hastily flipped) ah ha! (runs back to
computer)
I got it fellas, her name was Sacheen Littlefeather.
Hmmm…y’know, wiki says she turned down Marlon’s
Oscar! You fellas think Snowden will get her to turn
down his Nobel Prize?
I came across a meme that showed a photo of Prez. Nixon about wiretapping an individual and getting impeachment and then another photo of Obama basically wiretapping the entire nation….why are we letting him go? And a photo of Ron Paul saying something like, What the fuck is up with that?
I thought it was a funny meme.
wow.
Snowden Nobel!
Is Freedom not a beautiful thing!!
if he wins Nobel, US can no longer touch/kill him, haha!
otherwise they’ll be not only 1st nation to kill freedom but kill a noble fellow human!
great way to save this hero of humanitarian rights!
Snowden might be hated by many fearful paranoid americans for being unpatriotic but he IS the MOST patriotic!
after all, people with guts like him, who do not merely accept everything the gov., which is not God, and IS led by only frail corrupt humans, says as mantric truth, are those that question or do the check & balance of the status quo & how we’re sticking to the principals of the Constitution our ancestors sacrificed their lives for!!
Snowden deserves Obama’s Prize- money included.
Obama owes Snowden a pardon and a Medal of Freedom.
YEp, but one little problem, Obama and others in the Gov. don’t appreciate it when their crimes against US citizens and their violations of the Constitution are brought to light.
Those who shine the light of truth into dark places are not revered as heros by those hiding in the dark.