White House Names 6 for Medal of Freedom

[deminks]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Gen. Peter Pace, who was denied a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a year ago because of the war in Iraq, will receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, the White House announced on Wednesday.

General Pace, a retired marine, is one of six medal recipients who will be honored by President Bush on June 19, the White House said. Two Democrats are among the six. Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami in Florida and a former president of Hunter College who was secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton, is one. The other is the late Representative Tom Lantos of California, a Hungarian-born Jew who was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress and was widely known as a human rights champion. Mr. Lantos died on Feb. 11.

Two doctors will be honored: Benjamin S. Carson Sr., a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins, and Anthony S. Fauci, a leader in AIDS research as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The sixth recipient is Laurence H. Silberman, a senior federal appeals court judge who was co-chairman of a commission appointed by President Bush in 2004 to study failures in intelligence before the Iraq war. The commission’s report was highly critical of the American intelligence bureaucracy.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/washington/12medal.html

[TomInTib]

1. Silberman, that figures...

"The dumbass CIA deceived the poor, unwitting, trusting White House."

[speedoo]

2. Pace. Fucking ridiculous.

The Freedom Medal is now worth nothing. I hope Obama retires it in favor of a different medal.

[DRoseDARs]

3. Presidential Medal of Non-Douchebaggery n/t

[Prophet 451]

5. I've said for years that America needs a peerage

Now, hear me out. The peerage these days in Britain is used to (theoretically) single out and reward the great and the good. I think that's what the USA needs, not something that carries any additional privledges but just something that says to the world "This is a truly remarkable person". I named my hypothetical award the BUSA (Benefactor of the United States of America), a sort of American Nobel Prize. We have the peerage, Canada has the Order of Canada, France has the Legion of Honour but teh US doesn't seem to have one.

[aquart]

8. No. Not fucking ever.

[Prophet 451]

9. Did you even read my post? n/t

[aquart]

10. Yes. It was remarkably shortsighted.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Is Freedom Medal like Freedom Fries?

[Prophet 451]

4. Fuckin' ridiculous

There was a time when being awarded the medal meant something.

[saigon68]

6. It is useless

The more thugs and Hoodlums who get this the less value it has.

Hell why not give one to the President of Blackwater while the Chimp is at it.

[tom_paine]

11. Bad pennies just keep turning up: Larry Silberman is as much a judge

as the nazis who replaced the real German judges were.

In David Brock's book, he indicates several unethical actions and at least one criminal action by Silberman.

And I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg.

[annabanana]

12. Laurence H. Silberman must be part of the official coverup

Everyone knows what the "bad intel" story was all about.