From The Daily Show:

World leaders ride to a climate summit in limos, and Sean Hannity denies that global warming exists because it snowed in Houston.

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From Think Progress--Kristol: Obama’s Nobel Speech ‘Lays The Predicate For The Legitimate Use Of Force’ Against Iran:

Since President Obama delivered his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech last week, Bill Kristol has been arguing that it is somehow in-line with his neoconservative philosophy and that it vindicates President Bush’s “global war on terror” that he wholeheartedly supported.

[...]

“The satisfying purity of indignation,” as Matt Duss noted, is “a wonderfully succinct description of the simplistic and destructive ideology that drove George W. Bush’s foreign policy, and which Bill Kristol is still trying heartily to convince himself and others hasn’t been discredited.”

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Transcript via.

WALLACE: After a series of speeches overseas in which he apologized for past American actions, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize this week with a strong statement of the positive role the U.S. has played in the world.

And it's time now for our Sunday group -- Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, Mara Liasson of National Public Radio, former State Department official Liz Cheney, and Juan Williams, also from National Public Radio.

So, Bill, the president chose an interesting time and place to make this speech, before an audience -- accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, of course, before an audience, I think it's fair to say, of European leftists. He defended the use of force and said that the U.S. is not the problem with the world.

How significant a change in the president's world view?

KRISTOL: It could be pretty significant. It wasn't the speech the Nobel Peace Prize committee expected him to give, I think, when they awarded him the prize entirely for being not George W. Bush. And he gave the most Bush-like speech of his presidency.

Those who -- what did he say? The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. That's a very elegant and strong statement of the fact that you can't just want peace.

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The O'Reilly Factor fill-in Laura Ingraham thinks that anyone should care what disgraced former U.N. ambassador John Bolton thought about President Obama's Nobel acceptance speech.

Transcript via.

INGRAHAM: In "The Factor followup" segment tonight, as you may know President Obama in his Nobel acceptance speech said war, though never glorious, is sometimes necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I face the world as it is and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake, evil does exist in the world. A non violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: For that, he's getting some praise in conservative quarters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a complex, intellectually rich, impressive speech.

NEWT GINGRICH: I thought the speech was actually very good. In some ways, it's a very historic speech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He made the case for a just war. He did. And it was pretty stunning.

PALIN: I liked what he said. In fact, I thumbed through my book quickly this morning to say wow, that really sounded familiar.

CHARLES KRAUHAMMER: Well, I thought it was the best speech he's ever given on foreign soil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: But with us now is a man who was not so impressed. John Bolton is the former ambassador to the United Nations.

And John, I mean, you're always the ant at the picnic. I mean, you got Gerson, Gingrich, Scarborough, Palin, all said, look, you know, he praised America. He said war was sometimes necessary. What's your beef with the speech?

AMB. JOHN BOLTON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look, I thought it was shallow and sophomoric. He didn't say anything new in this speech he hadn't said in the West Point speech on Afghanistan or his two speeches at the U.N. Like most politicians, and that's an important point, he is like most politicians, he put a lot of chum in the water for a lot of different people.

It's true, he said sometimes war is necessary. Nobody's ever accused of him being a pacifist. Jimmy Carter wasn't a pacifist. Woodrow Wilson wasn't a pacifist. Neville Chamberlain wasn't a pacifist. Their mistake was fundamentally misunderstanding what to do about threats to their respective countries. And that's where Obama gets it wrong. And this speech is filled with fundamental errors that I think pose grave dangers for the U.S.

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(Tehran, December '79 - amping up the noise machine)

With the situation regarding the American hostages in Iran at a standstill, now it was the UN's turn to get involved. An emergency session of the Security Council was called On December 2nd, with a universal condemnation of the situation in Iran.

Donald McHenry (U.S. Ambassador to the UN): “Governments, of course retain the right to require that foreign diplomatic personnel leave their soil. But every standard of International behavior, whether established by practice, by ethics, by treaty or by common humanity supports the principle that the personnel of a diplomatic mission and diplomatic property are inviolate. Even in the darkest moments of relations between countries, the security and well-being of diplomatic personnel has been respected.”

Iran however, decided its Ambassador would skip the session - so basically it turned into a sermon to the choir. It's interesting the Soviet Union stayed reasonably mum about the goings on, preferring the old "we don't dabble in others affairs" line of reasoning. Of course, nobody knew the Russians were going to be sending troops into Afghanistan two weeks later.

But that's another story.

And 1979 just kept rolling along.

From The Colbert Report:

Dan Esty believes President Obama will bring a change in spirit to the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

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November 03, 2008 C-SPAN

Congressman Dennis Kucinich on the floor of the House during debate of Congressional Resolution in Opposition To United Nations Gaza War Crimes Report.

You can watch the Full Debate at MOX News.

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(Laying the Cornerstone for the UN Building October 24, 1949)

Further evidence it's impossible to find a week where nothing happened. I've tried. Sixty years ago this week we had deaths, inquiries, strikes, political aspirations and the laying of the cornerstone for construction of the United Nations building in New York. President Truman added his two cents.

Pres. Truman: “I should like to speak of one other problem, which is of major concern to the United Nations. That is the control of atomic energy. The establishment of the United Nations Atomic Energy Committee . . . Commission was one of the first acts of the first session of the General Assembly. That commission worked for three years on the problem. It developed a plan of control which reflected valuable contributions by almost every country represented on the commission. This is a good plan. We support this plan. And will continue to support it unless or until a better or more effective plan is put forward.”

All in all - just another week that wound up on October 29th. And we somehow survived.

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Rachel Maddow does an excellent job explaining how the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in the past and why President Obama deserved to receive the award. The most stark example being this portion comparing then candidate Obama’s view of diplomacy compared with that of John McCain.

Maddow: The Nobel Peace Prize not always, but often awards effort. It recognizes people trying in big ways to get the world on a more peaceful path. The deadline for nomination for the prize is February first of the year in which it's awarded.

President Obama's critics say that by February first he should not have been nominated. He'd done nothing by then and by the way he's done nothing since to deserve it.

Obama: We need a fundamental change if we’re going to dig ourselves out of the hole that George Bush has placed us in and that’s going to require the kind of aggressive diplomacy— preparation yes—but aggressive diplomacy, personal diplomacy of the next president to transform how the world sees us. That is ultimately going to make us safer.

Maddow: Before he was nominated for the Nobel, Mr. Obama had persuaded the people of the most powerful nation on earth to choose him and his vision of strength through diplomacy—instead of the vision offered by his rival for the presidency.

McCain: You know that old, uh, that old Beach Boys song, bomb Iran? Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb… anyway…

Rachel goes on to contrast President Obama’s words to those of John Bolton, President Bush’s choice to be our representative at the United Nations. Another stark reminder of just what we finally rid ourselves of with the end of the Bush administration.

The entire segment is well worth spending the eleven minutes or so of your time to watch. Rachel wrapped it up with this.

Maddow: President Obama’s critics railed today that winning the Nobel Peace Prize is somehow an insult. That international encouragement and hope for success for an American president is something to be ashamed of. I never thought that I would quote Charles Krauthammer, but Obama derangement syndrome appears to be upon us. The American president just won the Nobel Peace Prize. By any reasonable measure, all Americans should be proud.

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September 30, 2009 News Corp

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I documented 10, then 10 more and yet another 10 moments in the extremism of Mike Huckabee. Now, fresh off his victory in the straw poll at the so-called Values Voters Summit, the one-time Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor turned Fox News host called for the United States to leave the United Nations. Following his use of the late Ted Kennedy to fight mythical "death panels" and his tacit endorsement of ethic cleansing in the Middle East, the 2012 White House hopeful's latest statements can mean only one thing.

It's time for still another 10 moments in the extremism of Mike Huckabee:

31. Huckabee Calls for the U.S. to Leave the UN
32. Huckabee Uses Ted Kennedy to Push Death Panels Myth
33. Huckabee Warns of "Union of American Socialist Republics"
34. Huckabee Says Governors Should Ignore Court Rulings
35. Huckabee Sees "Hand of God" in Prop 8 Victory
36. Huckabee Claims Civil Rights of Gays Not Being Violated
37. Huckabee Opposes Two-State Solution in Middle East
38. Huckabee Calls for Abolition of IRS and Putting Politics in the Pulpit
39. Huckabee Parrots GOP's "Club Gitmo" Talking Point
40. Huckabee Headlines Electromagnetic Pulse Conference

31. Huckabee Calls for the U.S. to Leave the UN
The United Nations has been a favorite right-wing punching bag for generations, the bogeyman of Birchers and Birthers alike. At this weekend's "How to Take Back America" shindig (an event which featured sessions such as "How to Recognize Living under Nazis & Communists"), Mike Huckabee added his name to the list.

Looking to top John Bolton's hypothetical about lopping off 10 floors of the United Nations building, Huckabee called for casting the whole institution into the sea. To a standing ovation, Huckabee declared:

"It's time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip that part of New York City. Let it float into the East River, never to be seen again."

32. Huckabee Uses Ted Kennedy to Push Death Panels Myth
In their ever-escalating effort to derail health care reform, Republicans from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to Obama's ersatz negotiating partner Chuck Grassley warned of mythical government "death panels" which would "pull the plug on grandma."

To make his version of the case, Governor Huckabee turned to the example of the late Senator Kennedy. Just moments after criticizing Democrats for defying "good taste" by claiming "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory," Huckabee announced:

"It was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to just consider taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them. Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He chose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments."

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From Saturday Night Live Sept. 26, 2009-- Muammar al-Gaddafi tries to explain his rambling speech at the U.N. which went on for an hour and a half and had his first translator breaking down and collapsing before it was over.

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Syndicate columnist Charles Krauthammer appeared on Fox News Sunday with sharp criticism of President Barack Obama speech to the UN General Assembly. "I think he indulged himself in his speech at the General Assembly, which started out as sort of adolescent utopianism and went downhill. He started out saying things like no nation can dominate another. He said no group of nations ought to be above others," said Krauthammer.

"What do our allies think when they hear that and when they hear -- as we saw in the clip -- Obama denigrating his own country and presenting himself as the man who will redeem America from its wickedness and he said those of you who doubt that the character of America should look at what we -- meaning I -- have done in the last eight months, including joining the human rights council act at the U.N. which is a body which we should take no pride in being on. I thought it was a sorry performance. It did not advance our interest in the least," concluded Krauthammer.

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From The Situation Room Sept. 24, 2009. Lady McCheney Matalin is still out there trying to say that George Bush's foreign policy made the world a safer place to live. What a completely ridiculous thing to say. Walk is what keeps peace in the world. No, "walk" is called starting wars Mary. Why CNN feels the need to continue to give this woman air time as though she has anything credible to say is beyond me.

BLITZER: Mary, let's talk a little bit about the substance, though. Do the folks and the leaders in Iran or North Korea or the Taliban for that matter or al Qaeda, do they fear President Obama?

MATLIN: Well, absolutely not. And what Paul just said is emblematic of how the Democrats think about foreign policy in general. That's demean our strongest friends our greatest allies, like the Australians, like the Polish, like the Czechs, like the central and eastern Europeans who are working so hard at democracy and just demean any kind of opinion.

Look, this is not some sort of partisan or right wing or Murdoch thought. Since the beginning of time the history of the world is that weakness invites provocation. And we have -- and talking is good and relationships are fine. But our allies need to know that they can rely on those relationships and that there will be consequences for the bad guys when the talk runs out and they're not doing the walk.

As for proliferation and chairing a U.N. committee, great. Oh, isn't that wonderful? It's the U.N. that wouldn't enforce 17 of its resolutions against Saddam in the first place, so big deal. He's chairing and talking in another instance.

But the proliferation security initiative of the Bush administration was responsible for quantum leaps in the reduction of proliferation and including the disarmament of Libya, the capture and detention...

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(LBJ at The UN - selling The Great Society was one thing - Selling Vietnam was something else)

When President Johnson addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of its 20th anniversary in June 1965, he had very little trouble selling his concept of The Great Society to the rest of the world. It was when the subject of Vietnam and Southeast Asia came up that ears suddenly turned deaf and support dwindled. Support for the war was rapidly fading in the U.S. and protests were mounting in intensity on an almost daily basis as the war escalated to no seeming end.

So it was with mixed results that President Johnson made his case to the world body.

LBJ: “ We in this country are committing ourselves to great tasks in our own Great Society. We’re committed to narrowing the gap between promise and performance. Between equality and law and equality in fact. Between opportunity for the numerous well to do and the still too numerous poor. Between education for the successful and education for all of the people. It is no longer a community or a nation or a continent. But a whole generation of mankind for whom our promises must be kept and kept within the next two decades. And if those promises are not kept, it will be less and less possible to keep them for any. And that is why, on this anniversary I would call upon all member nations to rededicate themselves to wage together an international war on poverty.

War on Poverty sounded good - War in Southeast Asia - not good.

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(Lake Success 1949 - John Foster Dulles and Andrei Gromyko - between them, an iceberg)

With the upcoming General Assembly meetings at the UN, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back sixty years, before the United Nations headquarters was built and meetings were held in New York at Lake Success. In 1949 it was about forming the Atomic Energy Commission and the subject was inspections. The USSR had only announced a few weeks earlier that it had tested its first Atomic Bomb, adding one more name to the club that has grown increasingly ever since.

But in 1949 the UN was still grappling with the ground rules - where was this new potentially devastating power heading - and who else was going to get it?

During the weekly radio program Memo From Lake Success, co-produced by CBS, the CBC and United Nations Radio, the subject of regulating nuclear energy high on the list.

Future Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson is interviewed, explaining his take on the situation.

Interviewer: “Mister Pearson, the West maintains that atomic energy can be controlled internationally only by this proposed agency which will manage and operate the Atomic Industry. Would it be possible to set up, by treaty beforehand, a system of quotas, allocations of atomic plants and nuclear fuels. And then a system of continuous rigid inspection be set up for the international agency, which might be effective and perhaps necessitate a little less of the insistence on ownership and operation?"

Lester Pearson (Canadian Foreign Secretary): “ Well, of course naturally that point had occurred to people, but you must remember that the representatives of the majority in this commission, have gone through this matter very, very carefully. And they have come to the conclusion that the only safe way is to have international operations and control. But if it were possible to give more power of operations to nations, and take away some power from the international agency, then that would make it all that more important that you had complete international power of inspection at any time without any reservation of qualification. And that means a really . . well . . .quite important interference in what our Russian friends call National Sovereignty. And they have given no indication whatever at any time that they are willing to accept that kind of international supervision or inspection. And that seems to me to be the fundamental difference between the two positions now. We are willing to go very far in the direction of international inspection and supervision. They are certainly not willing to go so far."

The climate has changed considerably since 1949. There is no more Soviet Union for one thing - only now there's North Korea and Iran.

Two more members of the ever-expanding club.