Oh, New Mexico ("Why Not Bill?" edition)

I arrived at our place in New Mexico last Sunday and have been continuing my projects while here. Old adobe ranch houses require a lot of maintenance, to say the least. There's still plenty to get done before winter comes on, but about as far as I got this time was to gravel the front walk so it isn't as likely to be a path through the big muddy when the rain or snow or slush comes, make arrangements with Critter Control and the neighbor lady to deal with the skunk infestation (this is an ongoing challenge. I will say these skunks are really beautiful, and everyone claims they make great pets if you get them when they're little), and mow some of the dust.

Well, there's been a real drought here, not like the pseudo-drought in California that has had everyone in hysterics for the past year or more. There hasn't been any rain in this part of New Mexico, not even close to normal, though it's been tropical up in Santa Fe, downpours all the time, and our unlandscaped property looked rank and dry and sere. So I mowed the dust. Looks better. I guess. Have to do something about xeriscaping eventually, but I'll have to have more time to do it.

My internet here is now dialup as the source of the high-speed that used to work from time to time has disappeared. I think I know what happened, but cannot be sure. Many of the neighbors have moved, new ones moved in, my next door neighbor is moving out at the end of the month, and yet things aren't really as bad here as in many other places.

It's just that in rural anywhere, but especially rural NM and regions contiguous, it's tough all the time, and when a recession like this hits, it can be devastating.

But to the topic, I was listening to NPR, and one of the local persons had an editorial opinion to the effect that all this hoo-hah over Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was keeping people buzzing, to be sure, but real Worthies weren't being mentioned as substitutes for the President. "Why not?" he said.

"Why not Bill?" Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, in other words.

The guy went on at some length about all of Richardson's many peace-making accomplishments (quite a list), and yet, he said, nobody much knew about it and it seemed like fewer people cared.

I've got plenty of issues with Richardson (Wen Ho Lee, anyone?), but when it comes to actually doing something, accomplishing something, sticking to something, in the realm of what you call your mediation and your peace, Richardson is right up there with some of the giants in the field, and his neglect (apparently he's been nominated several times) by the Committee tells you pretty much all you need to know about them and what they're up to.

And, no, I don't hold it against them. You see, I don't get a vote on the Nobel Prize Committee, and neither do you (well, I assume!). They make their choices based on whatever they think is important at the time, and they don't consult us about it; they consult one another.

Yes, Richardson is worthy of Honor -- at least for some things -- and there is nothing to stop anyone at all from honoring him appropriately.

Why wait for the Nobel Committee to get its Norwegian ass in gear?

I never understood that.

Nobel

My God. The almost universal reaction in this country to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to His Serenity Barack Obama was more than over the top. It was darned near insane. The ruling class and the Permanent Palace Functionaries (those that His Serenity didn't bring with him) of course decried the whole thing, practically spitting their contempt for Obama and the Prize Committee, yowling their disgust, fuming in their fury. They were apoplectic, niggardly, and everywhere.

Quite obviously Cokie Did Not Approve. And there will be Hell to pay.

As for His Serenity himself, he popped out of the Oval Office for a brief statement in the Rose Garden, one he fumbled and mumbled and bumbled his way through, expressing how honored he was, how humbled, how unworthy. For all the awkwardness of his presentation, he actually seemed quite honestly stunned by the news of the award.

Practically as one, the blogosphere in its entirety exploded in OUTRAGE™!!!!! that this Undeserving Little Man was awarded one of the World's Highest Honors for Doing Nothing!!!!! except give a few speeches. NOTHING!!!!1!!! I tells ya, NOTHING!!!!! He's not WORTHY!!!!!! The extraordinary level of Puritanism and judgementalism throughout the blogosphere over this Incomprehensible Action by the Nobel Prize Committee -- reactions that were practically identical regardless of political ideology -- was something to behold.

The consensus was that Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he Wasn't George Bush. And, pretty much, that's about what the Prize Committee had to say about it, too.

I think it is impossible for the Busheviks who still infest so much of the Permanent Palace and of course the Media to imagine just how ruinous the Bush Regime was for the United States. They all sort of want to take after John Bolton, arch Bushevik, whose whole personna and value system is based on denouncing the whole wide world and everyone in it, in perpetuity, even if they go along with the addle-brained pipe dreams and schemes of Imperial Grandeur -- and Power -- that informed the Bush crew.

The whole point is to hate and despise everyone who isn't one of us. And to define "us" in as narrow a manner as possible.

What we see is that that attitude of contempt for everyone who isn't One Of Us has had a pervasive and corrosive effect much wider than we might have otherwise thought, if we didn't see this explosion of domestic OUTRAGE™!!!! for ourselves. And quite clearly, Obama is Not One Of Us.

I think that's the key insight here, the notion that there is an "us" that can be so narrowly defined that practically everyone is excluded. "Everyone is an enemy except for me and thee, and I'm not so sure about thee." And for the entire chattering class, top to bottom, in all media and venues, regardless of ideology, to denounce the award and condemn the committee and to demonstrate the belief that Obama is truly not one of us, as they define it, is shocking but not surprising.

One of the comments I heard on the radio yesterday was the question of whether, "with his polls dropping," this award would help or hinder him. "With his polls dropping...?" Obama is at roughly 60% approval, been bouncing around in that general vicinity for some time. It's lower than his start, and the trend has been declining, but it's still a very high approval rating for Presidents. It seems to me that Bush's approvals were in the 30's before the chatteratti noticed that his "polls were dropping," and they defended him no matter how low his polls went. But chip a few points off of Obama's poll numbers, and despite the strong majority approval he still has, he's losing support and practically reaching his nadir, and this Stupid Award can't possibly help him now. He's Going Down.

It's so bizarre.

The effect of the award in truth has been to shape and change the narrative. Those who opine -- myself included -- are now the outliers, whereas there may be a much stronger sense of forward motion for Something Else Again in both domestic and international arenas, working its way through a global body politic that Americans know little and care less of.

Whether that can be sustained against the onslaught of the Puritans and their chattering ilk remains to be seen.