Peace prize?

I see in the press that the current US President, Barack Hussein Obama, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wow. I mean I am impressed, no, seriously. He's only been in office how long? When were final nominations in?

Obama himself has said that he is surprised and humbled. Well I'll agree with half that. I'll go further and say that I'm bloody astonished. Gobsmacked, astounded and totally flibbled. He'd only been in office for twelve days when the nominations for said award closed. What is the Peace Prize committee on? Are there so few worthy people in the world that they give the prize by default to a newly elected bloody politician? Surely there are many more deserving of the honour. Oh blood and sand, I just remembered, they gave one to Al Gore so that just about shoots the Peace Prize committees credibility down in flames. Mrs S has vouchsafed that this award has devalued the Nobel Peace Prize to 'less than that of confetti'.

Now fair do's, I hold no brief one way or the other, but all the hoopla and charivari surrounding the boy president seems a little too contrived. A little too stagey if you know what I mean. He talks a good talk and makes all these big promises, yet perhaps because the opposition candidates were so poor, and the media campaign against the McCain-Palin ticket so concerted, the majority of the US electorate cast their vote in his direction. Personally, I had my doubts and tried to look past the rhetoric to see what was proposed. All I could do was wince because I could see what was going to happen, and it has. The 'Bailout' hasn't worked terribly well so far, and the asinine attempt to control the climate via taxation is a lead balloon waiting to fall, although now the empirical evidence against AGW is out in the open, maybe that will be quietly shelved. Although I'll try to be charitable and say so far I'd describe Obama's presidency as a no score draw.

Yet something stinks here. It stinks riper than an open sewer on a hot day. Every day I see items in the news and find myself thinking; huh? Who is bankrolling all this stuff? Is it just a common editorial policy or is someone taking money because their publications aren't making any? I hate thinking like this because I feel like I'm some conspiracy basketcase who obsesses about the threat of 'One world Government', the 'death of democracy', and a replacement for the current monetary system. Yet there are dots which cannot, be it rightly or wrongly, help but be joined up. In addition, the chorus of media voices hectoring, dismissing and even insulting their customer base seems somehow too well orchestrated, too partisan.

Now I have no concrete evidence, but it's like hearing screeching and crashing noises in the next street. You know damn well something's going on, but you're not sure what it is and are going to take a butchers anyway. In my streetwalking days I'd call it in to CCTV, and poke my nose around the corner, just to see what's what. Although my working life has changed, my instincts haven't.