Here Is To Al and the Nobel Peace Award he so much deserves!

[EV_Ares]

Tomorrow is the big day.

Go Al and we are so very proud of you.

[DearAbby]

1. Proud of you, Al! nt

[BOSSHOG]

2. Keep an eye out on those Burmese Monks

They are closing fast.

[Peace Patriot]

3. I'd say, for keeping the issue of peace front and center, and advocating peace

in the most aggressive, murderous country on earth, Cindy Sheehan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

And what an ikon of peace she is--the mother of a soldier killed in an egregiously unjust war. She stood up and led the struggle for peace, in the midst of a spooky quietude in the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. It's not that others were not protesting, and doing everything they could to stop the war. Many were. But Sheehan managed to get the matter into the "news," and thus heartened and inspired many people, and, in some sense, saved our national soul.

She was a nobody, and did this at great sacrifice to her own life--her time, her resources, her energy--and also was reviled by the rightwing scream machine, as well as having to fight the war 'Democrats.'

Gore is deserving, truly, for his singular focus on global warming--the issue around which all domestic and foreign policy should be framed, and a matter with an important, if roundabout, connection to peace. (What is the Iraq War about, after all--if not global corporate predators' desire to control oil and other energy resources, as the supplies dwindle and global warming hits the fan?). I don't oppose him getting the Nobel Peace Prize. It would be very justifiable. He has also given some very moving speeches on torture in particular, and on the Iraq War. But as to direct activism for peace, against great odds, and in the midst of a war, I can't think of anyone more deserving than Sheehan. She is also in far greater need of the financial support and moral support to continue her work. Gore is well-heeled, and well-supported, and a "player," as they say. He moves in elite circles. Sheehan has no such support or entre, and yet has shown such amazing courage and dedication. If the Nobel Committee wants to encourage the peace movement in the U.S.--where it is needed most of all, with people like Bush and Cheney itching to nuke Iran--they will give it to Sheehan.

I have no idea if she is even a candidate for it, but she should be.

[Turn CO Blue]

4. Late tonight at 3 am Mountain time.

[Peace Patriot]

5. I just visited this ABC news site, where they have photos of a few top contenders.

A number of the 9 people whose photos they provide were nominated for their work on global warming, and they think Gore, if he receives the award, may share it with Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier. They say, "Watt-Cloutier is considered to be a strong candidate for her environmental efforts to stop the impact of global warming and the melting Arctic Circle." But bear in mind that there are 181 contenders! And while the nominators sometimes announce the names of those they are nominating, the bulk of the contenders are unknown. Also, the Peace Committee has a horror of getting involved in domestic politics, so the movement to draft Gore for president could well be the reason he doesn't get it (if that's what happens). ABC mentions this as a reason that the Committee may combine Gore and Watt-Cloutier as a joint awardee.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/popup?id=3717504

I still think for current relevance on the matter of peace, Cindy Sheehan would be the best winner. We are in the middle of a hot war, deliberately instigated by the Bush Junta and its 'Democratic' Party collaborators, for no just reason, and amidst massive lying, which has involved not only the slaughter of more than half a million innocent people, but the torture of thousands, and a humanitarian refugee crisis of immense proportions. How can any other issue be on the Nobel Peace Committee's mind? The U.S. has destroyed world peace, and is threatening WW III--all for oil, greed and domination. Can there be anything of more import and immediacy to the Noble Peace Committee than this? And who is the one person who best represents resistance to it--but Cindy Sheehan? There are others--like Lt. Erhen Watada, a U.S. soldier who refused to return to Iraq. But Sheehan is the best known, and the one who rallied the peace movement in its darkest days. It would be a real blow to Bushite warmongers for Sheehan--who dogged Bush's steps, demanding to know why her son had to die--for Sheehan to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The cause of peace--especially here in the U.S.--is at least as important as global warming, and is closely related to it. People are still dying--and being tortured--in this horrible, unnecessary war--and it has been the excuse for massive increases in armaments and weapons dealing (the issue that prompted the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize in the first place), as well as loss of constitutional democracy and human rights in the U.S.A.--an utter catastrophe, given U.S. military might. We need to restore democracy here, if a world war for resources is to be avoided.

All in all, the reasons for bolstering the U.S. peace movement are many, and compelling. While global warming is a companion issue, for sure, it already has many advocates around the world, within governments and outside of them; whereas America's huge peaceful majority (70%!) is in great distress, and has been quite deliberately disempowered, marginalized and ignored. I don't think it really matters to the global warming issue, that it receives the Peace Prize. But it could make a great deal of difference in the struggle to restore democracy and peaceful foreign policy in the U.S.

[Pachamama]

6. I'm on my way right now to see him speak in downtown San Francisco this evening!

He's at a fundraiser for Boxer and Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne are going to be performing!!!

I am so excited! (God I wish he would run.....)