BREAKING LIVES BULLETIN FROM MY OLD NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE BRONX:

The management of Brynwood Partners, an avaricious private equity firm closed the Stella D’oro bakery today (Thurs) at 3:00pm throwing 136 workers into the streets. Brynwood is refusing to honor the union contract’s severance terms and is in the process of selling the Stella D’oro brand name and much of the machinery to Lance, a non-union company in Ohio. Much of the plant equipment was paid for by NYC taxpayers.

FABULOUS ONION SPOOF ON WORKERS OUTSOURCING THEIR JOBS

WHY TIM GEITHNER IS A DISASTER?
COULD THE DROP IN DOLLAR BE A GOOD THING?
INTERVIEW WITH RALPH NADER (AUDIO)

THIS JUST IN: OBAMA W I N S N O B E L P E A C E P R I Z E

Never mind that he’s involved in two wars and contemplating a third, President Obama snags the big peace prize even as he snubs the Dalai Lama, another Nobel laureate….Hmm….Will thus devalue the prize by further politicizing it, enhance skepticism, or give Barack a new sense of destiny?….

OSLO — AP: 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.

Speculation had focused on Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a
Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan woman’s
rights activist.

Reuters: The decision to award one of the world’s top accolades to a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, came as a big surprise and provoked strong international criticism as well as praise.

OBAMA’S RESPONSE AP: WASHINGTON – A beaming President Barack Obama said Friday he was both honored and humbled to win the Nobel Peace Prize and would accept it as a “call to action” to work with other nations to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

Obama told reporters in the White House Rose Garden that he wasn’t sure he had done enough to earn the award, or deserved to be in the company of the “transformative figures” who had won it before him.

But, he said, “I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century.”

Obama will travel to Oslo, Norway, in December to accept the award.

Republicans dismissed it. Some analysts said it could hurt the President more than help him impact it could be perceived widely as undeserved.

National Security Network: RESPONSE FROM U.S, RIGHT, OTHER NOBEL LAUREATES

Conservative leaders like Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh lambasted the President. And Limbaugh went as far to say “The Nobel gang just suicide bombed themselves.”

The Nobel Prize doesn’t just go to people who have completely succeeded in their efforts, nor is it a lifetime achievement award. Instead, it is given explicitly to endorse and encourage those who are working to bring about a better more peaceful world. Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat received the award not because they had resolved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but because they had set out to resolve it in such an inspiring way. The committee is recognizing Obama’s efforts to lead a growing global movement – and this is a moment for us to be proud of our country.

World lauds Nobel committee’s decision to award Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama:

* Mohammed Elbaradei, director-general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel recipient. “I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor. In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself.” [NY Times, 10/09/09]

* Shimon Peres, Israeli President and Nobel recipient: “Very few leaders if at all were able to change the mood of the entire world in such a short while with such a profound impact, You provided the entire humanity with fresh hope, with intellectual determination, and a feeling that there is a lord in heaven and believers on earth… Under your leadership, peace became a real and original agenda. And from Jerusalem, I am sure all the bells of engagement and understanding will ring again. You gave us a license to dream and act in a noble direction.” [NY Times, 10/09/09]

* Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union and Nobel recipient. “In these hard times people who are capable of taking responsibility, who have a vision [of problems], commitment and political will should be supported.” [NY Times, 10/09/09]

* Past Nobel recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “It is a very imaginative and somewhat surprising choice. It is wonderful.” [Middle East Online, 10/09/09]

* Masdar Mas’udi, senior leader of Indonesia’s largest Muslim Organization: “I think it’s appropriate because he is the only American president who has reached out to us in peace. On the issues of race, religion, skin color, he has an open attitude.” [NPR, 10/09/09]

* The Nelson Mandela Foundation: “We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty.” [NPR, 10/09/09]

Among the critics is Mark Stenzler in Switzerland: “I guess you don’t have to actually do anything to get a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Let’s count his accomplishments…

1. Universal healthcare for all
2. Closing of Guantanamo prison
3. End of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
4. US signature on Kyoto treaty
5. Green regulations for automobiles.

Ah I get it… it’s all smoke and mirrors….”

PEACE INSTITUTE IN LUND SWEDEN CALLS PRIZE A SCANDAL

Scandal: Obama gets the “peace prize”

After Ahtisaari got it last year…

Look at Nobel’s criteria, at the misuse of this prize by a committee that consists of retired politicians instead of experts on peace – and look at how politically pre/immature this choice is.

Would anybody accept that the prize in, say, chemistry, literature or medicine was decided by former members of a parliament? No, we would expect experts. Not so…this is only about peace so anyone is an expert!

It’s time to raise a serious discussion about this increasingly bizarre institution.

The most qualified attempt so far – lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl’s book, Nobel’s Vilje – has been sidelined consistently because it contains an analysis of Nobel’s will that most media and experts and parliamentarians have presumably never bothered to read. They would be surprised if they did !

THE GUARDIAN (UK) COMMENTS: “The reality is that the prize appears to have been awarded to Barack Obama for what he is not. For not being George W Bush. Or rather being less like the last president. The question now is whether having being anointed perhaps too early by the committee, a Nobel prize earned so cheaply and at so little cost will help him in his efforts on the international stage or rather be an albatross around his neck. Something against which all his future efforts will be judged – and perhaps found wanting.”

STRONGER VIEW: PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS (COUNTERPUNCH)

On the other hand, this prize is clearly a symbolic gesture–pre-emptive praise?—that the Nobels are using to try to encourage him to continue to move in a peaceful direction….Unclear if it can have that effect, given his outlook and pressure from pols, generals and media…..

Conflicts continue worldwide…Gordon Brown in the UK has sent another 500 UK troops to Afghanistan..China said to have detected nerve gas on N Korea border…

MEDIA TENOR: OBAMA’S MEDIA IMAGE HERE AND THERE

Obama’s Media Image supports Nobel prize – but not in US!

Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was based on “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”. Media Tenor’s analysis of President Obama’s image on foreign policy shows that this is truly the case when it comes to Obama’s image in world media markets – but with one big exception – inside the US.

Outside America Obama’s the balance in negative and positive reporting is very strongly tilted towards the positive with between around 15% positive reporting in the Middle East and Western Europe and close to 40% positive in the Middle East. As Media Tenor CEO Roland Schatz puts it, “The high positive news flow from Obama outside the US is really helping to correct negative perceptions of Americans. As our work with the C1 foundation has shown, it is easy for the media to create negat ive perceptions of other cultures and religions – with Obama our data show an American President working to create positives”.

Obama’s greatest strength in foreign media, is exactly the same strength which led the Nobel Prize committee to its decision – foreign affairs. In Middle Eastern, African and Western European media markets Obama’s image is driven by between 40-65% of all volume on issues relating to foreign policy with correspondingly high ratings for the president in those media markets,

Yet Obama’s image ha developed a significant downside – his own domestic media market. In US TV news, Obama suffers a negative balanced rating for the year 2009. The failure of his healthcare reforms, the inevitable backlash on the administration over high unemployment and the ongoing financial instability in the wake of the financial crisis have given the US media plenty of ammunition against the President. In the US where Obama’s overall media rating is a round 25% negative – he also rates negatively on foreign affairs.

Media Tenor’s analysis shows that the vast majority of Obama’s negative foreign affairs news still comes from the two wars in the Middle East – with Afghanistan occupying the majority of that negativity. This presents an interesting challenge to a Nobel Prize recipient who is currently lauded abroad for changing the direction of international perception and fostering peace – but suffering at home due to two occupational wars.

MOON ATTACK

More Late News: CNN—- NASA crashes a spacecraft and the upper stage of a rocket on the moon in search for water.

Before I get into the bad news of the day, a promising development for the heads among us:

SAN FRANCISCO – Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy.
At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana

HEATH CARE “REFORM”

Finance committee vote on Baucus healthcare bill scheduled for Tuesday

The Senate Finance Committee will vote Tuesday morning on an $829 billion healthcare reform bill, giving chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) extra time to shore up wavering votes. Read more

LATEST HEALTH CARE POLL

A new survey of American attitudes toward health care reform will be released at 2PM today in an event at the Brookings Institution. The survey of 1400 Americans was conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO), a public opinion project managed by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes, in cooperation with the Brookings Institution.

The data present a new and complex portrait of how Americans view health care reform and the policy debate surrounding this polarizing issue.

“Our research illustrates that the current partisan debate is fracturing the public consensus on the role of government in health care and alienating many Americans. The good news, however, is that among the American public, Republicans and Democrats alike, is still able to find common ground on specific reforms, including a limited public option,” said Steven Kull, director of WPO said.

Robert Borosage, Our Future.org Glenn Beck Isn’t Blocking Health Care Reform

Glenn Beck has captured national attention with his caustic poison. The aging right-wing troubadours-Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly-still rouse the wingnuts and enforce discipline among Republican legislators. They’ve peddled the fantasies about ACORN and the all-powerful poverty lobby, and launched a search-and-destroy hunt for targets of opportunity in the Obama administration. But it is worth remembering: Glenn Beck is not blocking the passage of a good health care bill. The old and new carny acts of the right aren’t undermining the energy legislation or frustrating financial reform. To focus on who and what is standing in the way, follow the money.

ROBERT GREENWALD”S NEW DOC ON HEALTH CARE:

PERSONAL STORY: JEN NIX: HOW HEALTH CARE SAVED MY LIFE

THE NEED TO KNOW

Oklahoma Introduces Its Own Scarlet Letter
By BarbinMD – dKOS

“On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website.”

AFP: DALAI LAMA CALLS HIMSELF A FEMINIST

WASHINGTON — The Dalai Lama, a celibate monk whose position has always been
held by men, said he could be considered a feminist and called for women to
take a greater role in world affairs.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader shared his views on gender after being
introduced at a Washington awards ceremony by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a
longtime supporter of his efforts to secure more rights in his Chinese-ruled
homeland.

“I really feel for female, like the Speaker….

Should You Be Concerned?
Dr Meryl Nass: On the Saftey of Swine Flu Vaccines