On Friday morning, I wrote a post answering the question of who did Obama beat for the Nobel Peace prize? That post generated quite a bit of traffic and buzz.  But as the weekend wore on, several left-wing hacks decided that I had made it all up because Wikipedia told them that the Nobel committee keeps the records of all nominees sealed for 50 years.  So I need to respond.

Any person with half a brain and the ability to read news reports and press releases will be able to find the majority of nominees for the Nobel Peace prize.  HOW CAN THAT BE? Simple.  Many of the people who nominate a person or organization for the Nobel prize tell not only the nominated person that they have been nominated, but they also tell many news outlets.  For example:

Nicolas Sarkozy, Barack Obama’s counterpart in France, was nominated by people in the French government.

The Macedonian humanitarian and artist Zivko Popovski-Cvetin was nominated by the Macedonian government.

The Australian children’s charity SOS-Kinderdorf International was put forward by the Austrian government.

American Greg Mortenson was nominated by six members of the US Congress for his Asian school building charity.

Vietnamese religious leader Thich Quang Do was put forward when a campaign recruited lawmakers to nominate him.

Even American musician Pete Seeger was nominated after he ran a campaign for nomination.

So for those of you who like to drink the Kool-Aid, maybe you should pick up a newspaper or learn to use Google.  Because accusing people of “making up names of people” just because you don’t think anyone is worthy of even being in the same “prize pool” as Obama is just plain ridiculous.  Because while it is true the 5 person voting committee for the Nobel Peace prize doesn’t reveal the nominees, many other people reveal their nominees voluntarily.