Malala Yousafzai becomes youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast: 

Malala Yousafzai has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous, and near fatal, campaign to secure girls’ education. At 17, she is the youngest recipient in the century that the prize has been given. 

The Pakistani campaigner, who survived an assassination attempt at the age of 15, will share the award with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist who has dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of children. 

As the announcement was made Malala was in class at her school in England. She sought refuge in the U.K. after surviving a shot to the head from a Taliban gunman. She has made history today but she will remain in school until classes are out this afternoon, Eason Jordan of The Malala Fund tells The Daily Beast. 

It was Malala’s determination to get to class, despite the wish of extremists in the Swat Valley in Northwest Pakistan, that lead her to become one of the world’s most prominent education campaigners. Her refusal to cover her face and a willingness to speak out in defense of girls’ rights made her a target for the Taliban. Two years ago, a gunman boarded her school bus and fired three shots at her from close range. 

Somehow she survived, and after treatment in Britain, she has continued to campaign – now with a worldwide audience. Last year she spoke at the United Nations in New York, and continued to promote her positive message. “A Talib chose guns to solve [a] problem, we chose our voices,” she said.

Finally a positive story about a young woman making a difference in the world and being recognized for her contribution.

I think we all needed this. 

Okay how did this young woman NOT receive the Nobel Peace Prize?

Courtesy of the Telegraph: 

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle welcomed Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai to the Oval Office on Friday. 

Mr Obama met with Malala on the same day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 

The Pakistani teen had been considered a front-runner for the prize and was in Washington to speak at two events. 

The teen said in a statement after the meeting that she was honored to meet with the president, who is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. 

"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact," she said.

So much wisdom in such a young person.

I think that her opportunities to win that prize are by no means behind her.

I see her as a great leader for her people in the years to come and have little doubt that she will remain a symbol for peace and the importance of education.

Among documents stolen by Edward Snowden is the detailed blueprint for how the NSA works. Uh oh!

Courtesy of Boston.com: 

Edward Snowden has very sensitive ‘‘blueprints’’ detailing how the National Security Agency operates that would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance, a journalist close to the intelligence leaker said Sunday. 

Glenn Greenwald, a columnist with The Guardian newspaper who closely communicates with Snowden and first reported on his intelligence leaks, told The Associated Press that the former NSA systems analyst has ‘‘literally thousands of documents’’ that constitute ‘‘basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built.’’ ‘

‘In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do,’’ Greenwald said in Brazil, adding that the interview was taking place about four hours after his last interaction with Snowden.

I swear in my nine years of writing for this blog I have NEVER run across a story for which it was so difficult to form a definite opinion. Is Edward Snowden a champion for the rights of citizens to resist the government's efforts to spy on them? Or is he a traitor to the country and ultimately a dangerous threat to our security?

The article up above certainly reinforces the latter interpretation. Clearly if this "blueprint" falls into the hands of those who wish us harm, or simply want to find a way around our defenses, they would now have the means to do both.

And Greenwald's assurances that the data is encrypted does not exactly put my mind at ease.

Like I said yesterday, and for which I received aggressive blowback from some, IF Snowden's actions result in the end of the NSA data mining programs, or some modifications and assurances that it was no longer scooping up EVERYTHING we post or email online, he could well be ultimately considered a heroic champion for individual privacy.

However if these "blueprints" fall into the wrong hands, and there is some controversial information that it has already happened, then Snowden would rank right up there with Benedict Arnold and Aldrich Ames.

What is clear is that this is a story that is not yet finished, therefore making it impossible to determine how the final chapter will play itself out.

For those who view Snowden as a criminal, there is ample evidence to support that contention.

However there are those on the other side who view him as a hero. In fact heroic enough to have already been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The girl who strikes fear in the heart of the Taliban.

Courtesy of the YouTube site:

Malala Yousafzai speaks for the first time since was targeted and shot in October 2012 for her advocacy on behalf of girls' education. Malala announced the creation of the Malala Fund, which supports the right to education for children across the world. Vital Voices established the Fund on behalf of Malala and her family, working together with supporters of the cause including the United Nations Foundation and Girl Up, and within a community of supportive organizations and individuals, to realize Malala's vision of education for all girls. MalalaFund.org

Malala was also recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Her life as an activist is really only just beginning, and I cannot help but imagine great things to come from this incredibly brave young woman.

Someday historians will write about the end of the Taliban.  I would not be surprised if little credit was given to American bullets and bombs, and that in the end the credit for their demise was identified by one simple name....Malala.

Is there really a MORE deserving choice for Time magazine's Person of the Year?

As you know every year Time chooses their person of the year.

There are a lot of really good choices this year such as Stephen Colbert (his work with those SuperPAC's was invaluable), Hillary Clinton (Duh!), and President Obama (Double duh!)

There also some, in my opinion, stupid choices. Such as Kim Jong Un (WTF?), Paul Ryan (Seriously?), and Karl Rove, (I just thew up in my mouth a little.)

However after much deliberation I think the choice should be clear.

This of course is Malala Yousafzai the incredibly brave little Pakistani girl who defied those attempting to suppress her desire to learn, and was ultimately shot in the face for her heroism.

Here is how Time magazine makes her case:

At first, the Pakistani girl blogged anonymously about her desire to go to school without fear in a part of the country where the Taliban had once imposed strict Shari'a law. Then, with the surprising encouragement of her devout Muslim father, Malala Yousafzai wrote in her own name and revealed her face to the world, a symbol of young women around the world seeking empowerment. She became the subject of a documentary and a celebrity of sorts in the world of nonprofit organizations. Who knew that such prominence would put her life at risk? On Oct. 9, 2012, Taliban gunmen boarded her school bus, sought her out and shot her in the head. Eventually airlifted to a hospital in Britain, she survived her severe wounds. In the meantime, Malala, now 15, has become an inspiration not only in her native Pakistan — where the culture wars over women's rights and religious diversity have taken many violent turns — but all around the globe. Malala is now a first name that hundreds of thousands of people know. But in a way, hers is an even more moving story, because the saga is not just of a brave young girl but also of a father willing to risk local opprobrium to raise his daughter — not a son — as a proud example for the world. It is among the tenderest of stories in the world of conservative Islam. 

Now this is only my opinion, and of course you are welcome to disagree, but personally I cannot think of a more deserving recipient of this honor. Nor can I think of a more profound message to send to those who felt they had the right to snuff out her life, and quiet her voice, simply because it did not agree with their fundamentalist from of religion. 

P.S. I lied really DO think there is a more profound message to send and that would be by honoring her with the Nobel Prize for Peace. And trust me I will be advocating for that as well.

Nine, count'em nine, Nobel Prize winners ask that the reality show which features Todd Palin be pulled off the air. This day just keeps getting better and better.

Desmond Tutu, and eight more Nobel Prize winner, demand that NBC drop "Stars Earn Stripes."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Nine Nobel Peace prize winners said Monday that NBC must “immediately” drop a planned “reality” show called “Stars Earn Stripes,” where former four-star general and one-time Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark sends celebrities on military-style training “missions” to entertain viewers. 

Signers of an open letter to the network include Nobelists Desmond Tutu, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Jose Ramos-Horta, Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Rigoberta Menchu and Betty Williams. 

Here is their letter in full:  

MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION NOMINATED FOR 2010 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Albuquerque-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF; www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org), the civil rights charitable organization that has worked both fearlessly and tirelessly to stop religious discrimination and oppression in the United States armed forces, has been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Since its founding in 2005, the MRFF has become the undisputed national and international leader in the civil rights movement to restore the severely fractured wall between church and state in the United States military and to stop the ill effects of noxious religious discrimination both domestically and abroad. The growing organization currently has over 15,000 constituent clients from today’s American active duty military, amazingly most of them practicing Christians. MRFF has also fought aggressively for the Constitutional rights of United States service members who are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, atheists, agnostics and other religious minorities, and to stop the unbridled proselytizing of Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis and other foreign nationals by the U.S. military.

While the Nobel committee does not officially release the names of nominees for 50 years, the letter nominating the MRFF was authorized for release by the Foundation, though redacted so as not to reveal the identity of the nominating source at his request. The nominator of MRFF for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize is identified as a Senator from a foreign nation, which is an ally of the United States, and the only Christian legislator in the upper chamber of that country’s national parliament.

The nomination letter states, “The past accomplishments and ongoing critical work of the MRFF have gained this civil rights organization the profound respect of officers and officials in the highest ranks of the United States military…”.

The MRFF has tenaciously taken on the U.S. military with a bold, brave approach to stopping the systemic and embedded discrimination against those who are not fundamentalist Christians in today’s armed forces, as well as against the citizens of the Islamic countries where our military is presently engaged in combat operations. Such egregious acts of bigotry and prejudice include violence and threats against U.S. sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen, cadets and midshipmen who will no longer accept the unconstitutional abuse of forced religious oppression from their military chains of command.

“I am deeply and profoundly honored for the Foundation to be nominated; especially by such a respected and influential member of a foreign Parliament allied with America,” said Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, MRFF's Founder and President. Weinstein is a former White House lawyer and also former General Counsel to Texas billionaire and two-time Presidential candidate H.Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation. Mr. Weinstein is a 1977 U.S. Air Force Academy honor graduate who has taken on and leads this civil rights mission for religious non-discrimination. Over the past five years, Weinstein, his family and MRFF have endured a steady diet of serious threats and offensive acts of reprisal and retribution.

The nominating letter goes on to say that, “Mr. Weinstein and his family have been the target of grotesque retaliatory death threats and actions from the American religious fundamentalists MRFF fights; such harassment has included the repeated shooting out of the windows of their home, the burning of a church where he was to speak; the placement of slaughtered animals at his front doorstep…and the crude markings of swastikas and crucifixes on his family’s dwelling.”

Weinstein has been described by Harper’s magazine as the "constitutional conscience of the U.S. military." He is the father of three children including two sons (and a daughter-in-law) who also graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy. His family includes three consecutive generations of military academy graduates and over 130 years of combined active duty military service in a plethora of U.S. combat theaters and situations spanning most of the last century.

In 2005, in response to overt religious discrimination at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Weinstein started MRFF. His specific mission at the time was to stop the ubiquitous religious discrimination from fundamentalist Christians at the Academy bent on converting mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics and non-Christians to their beliefs utilizing the draconian spectre of military command influence. That civil rights mission has now massively expanded over the last four years to include all of the approximately 1,000 American military installations scattered around the globe in over 130 host countries.

Weinstein is the author of “With God On Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military,” published in 2006 from St. Martins Press. The paperback edition, published in 2008, has a forward by Ambassador (retired) Joe Wilson. The book is an expose on the systemic problem of religious intolerance throughout the U.S. armed forces.

My friend Leah Burton has more on this, and the dangers the Weinstein family has faced for speaking out against religious intolerance in the military, over at her site God's Own Party.

And Huffington Post also has something up about the importance of MRFF and the rampant evangelicalism of the military.

Sarkozy applauds choice of Barack Obama at recipient of Nobel Peace Prize.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama embodies the "return of America into the hearts of the people of the world."

In a message to the US president, Sarkozy expresses his "very great joy" for Obama and says the honor should strengthen the US leader's determination to work toward peace, justice and "maintaining our planet's great balances."

Uh oh! Now that the President of FRANCE has given his thumbs up for Obama's award you know what that means.

Now McDonald's restaurants in red states like Georgia and Texas will have to change their menu's to say "freedom fries" again.

I wonder how many crocodile tears for Glenn Beck and apoplectic outbursts for Rush Limbaugh THIS will inspire?

Update: John McCain demonstrates the class that seems to be in short supply with most of the Republicans by congratulating Obama on his win.

“I congratulate President Obama on receiving this prestigious award. I join my fellow Americans in expressing pride in our president on this occasion,” McCain said Friday in a prepared statement.

Anybody want to guess at what Palin's response will be?

President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize!

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

Wow! This is so much cooler than getting the Olympics to come to Chicago.

Could you even imagine John McCain having been awarded this prize? No freaking way. Especially with Caribou Barbie standing behind him and scaring the hell out of the Norwegian
Nobel committee.

Well now Obama needs to make sure he continues to work toward world peace and really earn this amazing honor. Perhaps ending a couple of our own wars would be a good start.

I am just saying.

Update: Apparently the Republicans are losing their shit over this announcement. Which has inspired the DNC to compare them to the terrorists.

"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," wrote DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse. "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."

Wow! You know usually I resist this kind of hyperbole but you have to admit with the calls to overthrow this government, the constant comparison of Obama to Hitler, and the disruptions of the Health Care town halls this is could be considered late in coming.

Update2: Here is President Obama giving a press conference about his big win.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Us terror list includes dangerous insurgent and Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the situation "embarrassing," and some members of Congress vow to fix it.

The requirement applies to former South African leader Mandela and other members of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC), the once-banned anti-Apartheid organization. In the 1970s and '80s, the ANC was officially designated a terrorist group by the country's ruling white minority. Other countries, including the United States, followed suit.

Yeah I can see how the man who stood up to an oppressive regime and managed to attract the attention of the world to horrible human rights violations being visited upon his people might frighten the Bush Fourth Reich.

I actually think the Bushies are more afraid of intelligent people who have experience fighting oppressive regimes visiting this country then they are of a terrorist bomber showing up at the airport.

Look there's the guy we elected President in 2000! And he is standing right next to George Bush!

Talk about an inconvenient truth. Al Gore finally won his place in the Oval Office on Monday - right next to George W. Bush.

Forever linked by the closest and craziest presidential race in history, the two men were reunited by, of all things, White House tradition.

Gore was among the 2007 Nobel Prize winners who were invited in for a photo and some chatter with the president; Gore got the recognition for his work on global warming.

The two men stood next to other, sharing uncomfortable grins for photographers and reporters, who were quickly ushered in and out.

I would have paid a lot of money to have been able to listen in on that meeting.

I would have liked Gore to have grabbed Bush by the lapels and said "You stole that election in 2000, and this is the best you could do with your chance at being President?"

What would you have liked Gore to ask Bush?

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.

Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," had been widely tipped to win the prize.

He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.

"We face a true planetary emergency. ... It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," he said. "It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

This will get the whole "Gore will run for President" debate heated back up, but personally I don't think that Al's heart is in it.

Still this is a great accomplishment and he should feel very proud and vindicated.