I woke up this morning to the news that President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The first thing I did was check my calendar. No, it wasn't April 1st. Then, I turned on the news on TV. I did not check MSNBC as I'm sure they think Obama should have won in 2008 too. No, I checked CNN and FOX News. Yes, they were both reporting it.

Obama becomes the third sitting president to win the prize joining Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter in that distinction. Woodrow Wilson won the prize after he left office. Former Vice President Al Gore, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger have also won.

It's been a tough year for me and for many, many Americans so I probably have not been paying as much attention as I should be to all of the news going on. I was scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what he had done to win the prize. Iraq? No, things have been better there but President Bush was responsible for the surge that finally brought a degree of stabilization to the country. Afghanistan? No way!

Maybe it's because the former community organizer brought together the African-American Harvard professor and the white police officer for beer at the White House. No, I don't think that's it.

It wasn't because the Olympics are coming to Chicago in 2016 either!

What did he do???

Then I saw it!

The Nobel website says that to be considered, all nominations must be submitted by February 1st. Obama was inaugurated on January 20th so he must have done something in those 12 days to merit winning the prize. That's it!!

It's the promise of his election that was going to bring peace and prosperity to the world. Remember that he was anointed by the media as the messiah who was going to save the world from itself. He's The One who can walk on water. (Full disclosure: I can walk on water too when it's frozen.) He was going to bring order and prosperity to all of us. He was going to unite the Muslim and Jewish worlds together. All he needs to do is apologize to everyone for our past misdeeds! He's going to bring health care reform to the United States—and don't let the fact that you are in this country illegally stand in the way!

For whatever reason, the national and international media are just enthralled with this guy. He's very intelligent and speaks well (when a teleprompter is around!) and is the first mixed-race president. But his track record as a U.S. senator was incomplete at best. He really did not accomplish much during his time in the Senate and he has not accomplished anything at all during his first year as president. Oh, he's increased the federal budget more than it's ever been increased before in history. I guess that counts for something!

The only remaining question is which expressway in Chicago will be renamed the "Barack Obama Expressway."

Anyway, even Janeane Garofalo must be laughing at the stupidity of the Nobel committee for awarding Obama the peace prize.

According to one conservative blog: "...Obama [stands] out as the only recipient who never negotiated any agreement, didn’t intervene to prevent bloodshed, never put his personal popularity on the line to push through an important treaty, didn’t risk his life to bring peace to his own war torn country, or any other criteria previously used in Nobel citations that would place him on par with those so honored in the past."

I'll just sit here enjoying the health care reform, my increased 401(k), the price appreciation on my home, the rising dollar and the increased respect that my country has in the world. In other words, I'm really enjoying "The Change."

And please—someone—what did he do??

In going through some of my dad’s papers the other day, I found a couple of yellowed newspaper clippings containing news about my father’s return to the States after the war ended. According to the newspaper accounts, he returned to New York on the Navy transport vessel USS Admiral Hugh Rodman.

Although the newspaper clippings are not dated, it appears he left Okinawa on April 19, 1946. It is not clear when the Rodman actually arrived in New York.

Dad began his tour of duty when he left the United States on February 14, 1945 and was in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands and arrived on Okinawa on June 7, 1945 where he was stationed for the remainder of the war. After the Japanese surrender, he spent a few days in Tokyo in November 1945.

Here is a photo I found in Wikipedia that I saved on my Flickr site:

The history of the Rodman is interesting. It was named after Admiral Hugh Rodman (1859 – 1940) -- a naval officer who was at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. He was later Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) in July 1919 and retired from the service in 1923. The ship itself was launched in February 1945 and was commissioned in July 1945. It served in the Navy for a year and then was recommissioned as an Army vessel (the USAT General Maurice Rose) in August 1946. The ship was eventually decommissioned in June 1970 and was scrapped in 1997.

Why is it that when I call customer service, I'm told to “listen carefully” as menu options have changed? Here’s a thought: WHY KEEP CHANGING THEM??

via en.wikipedia.org

Lisa and I spent a pleasant day at Long Grove on Sunday for Irish Days. We've gone for the past couple of years for shopping and walking around. This year they had some kind of a "dog contest." We must had seen four or five Irish Wolfhounds walking about with their owners. I don't think I've seen so many large dogs in one place before. We also saw a couple of beautiful Irish Setters.

Posted via web from SteveCorneli.us

I have seen a number of other cartoons about Obama's upcoming speech to students. Most contain themes similar to this cartoon. I'm personally not aware of any parent referring to the president as a Nazi (although the Speaker of the House earlier referred to health care opponents at town hall meetings as carrying swastikas!).

Most parents are concerned about the politicalization of the speech. True, presidents have often talked directly to students...usually about the importance of staying in school and learning. No argument there. However, this is the first time that I've heard of a president asking students to submit essays to help him run the country. I thought he already had a plan!

Many schools are letting students "opt-out" should their parents wish that they not be exposed to the speech.

I picked up the sports section of the Chicago Tribune this morning and read WCIU TV’s ad about the White Sox – Red Sox game they are televising tonight. The ad pictured slugger Jim Thome crushing the ball. That’s great…except Thome was traded late Monday night to the Los Angeles Dodgers. OOPS!!

I’m watching the Chicago Bears play their fourth preseason game tonight. During a commercial break, I switched over to ESPN and saw a college football game being played. Seems like football starts earlier and earlier every season. Actually, I remember some college games beginning in late August, but it just seems like it’s earlier this year!

There’s some genuine excitement in Chicago this year with the Jay Cutler trade with Denver. The Bears actually have a real quarterback this season. Hopefully they can play like a real team.

For years and years, there has been a photograph hanging in our finished basement. It’s an aerial photo taken of my grandparents’ farm in Perkins County, Nebraska sometime in the late ‘50s or very early ‘60s.. The farm site was originally settled by my great grandfather, William Seborn Cornelius, in 1910. He settled a total of three farms in the area. In about 1918, he turned over the farms to his three sons—one of which was my grandfather. My grandparents were married April 4, 1922 and settled on one of the other farms located about 3/4 of a mile north of this farm. My dad was born there on February 8, 1924 and his younger sister, Elaine, a year later on August 12, 1925.

I’m not certain of the date, but my grandparents and the two kids moved to this farm and it is the farm on which my dad spent his boyhood. The rest of my father’s siblings were born on this farm beginning with Eldon on November 1, 1927.

My grandparents ran the farm through the mid-‘60s, but my grandfather started cutting back on his farming once the boys grew up and married. My uncle Lowell was the last of the boys to get married in 1957.

As a young boy, I would look forward to summer vacation when we would visit my grandparents and spend days walking all over the farmland. For a kid from the city suburbs, it was a treat to go out to the country and play. My favorite building was the hog house because it had a low slanted roof and I could climb on to the roof and look south for miles and miles. I have a lot of fond childhood memories of seeing my grandparents and all my aunts, uncles and cousins.

  
Here is the original black and white photo.

For fun, I also “aged” the photo by applying a sepia tint.

In 1965, my grandmother suffered a stroke and my grandfather turned over the farming to his sons and spent his remaining days caring for my grandmother and for the house. He passed away in August 1968 and my grandmother in March 1969.

After their deaths, the farm remained in the family, but the house and buildings were rented out to tenants. Sadly--over time—the condition of the buildings deteriorated and the decision was made to burn down most of the structures. Today, only the granary is still there. Because of my dad’s declining health, he never saw how the farm looked. The two photos below were taken in January 2002 after he passed away and we buried him in Madrid.

This is the granary and is the only original farm structure still on-site.

This is approximately where the barn and the chicken house stood.

After my dad passed away, I brought the photo over to my house and displayed it in my den. The original frame was starting to show it’s age and so I removed it from the frame to eventually put it in a nicer frame. Since I had it out, my brother-in-law arranged to have it scanned by a commercial scanner (the original photo is 11 x 14) and so now I have a digital copy.

Happily, the land still remains in the family and my cousins farm the land. Hopefully it will always remain in the Cornelius family.

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Update: Last night my wife reminded me of a meeting that was held a week ago between area car dealers and representatives from NADA, the National Automobile Dealers Association. In that meeting, it was disclosed that one of the contributing reasons for the slow reimbursement process is that early in the program, the government paid out over $100 million without any paper trail or any assurances that the transactions even qualified for reimbursement!

My wife works at a car dealership. She works in the office and is the person responsible for preparing and filing the paperwork needed for the dealership to be reimbursed under the CARS [Cars Allowance Rebate System] better known as “Cash for Clunkers.” The program has been a needed shot in the arm for her dealership and for dealerships all over the country. However, is the CARS program providing a peek into how health care reform may work?

The CARS program works buy paying $3,500 or $4,500 to a consumer trading in an older, fuel-inefficient car for a new, fuel-efficient vehicle. The difference is based upon the difference in combined MPG from your old car. I wholeheartedly support the concept as it’s a “win-win” for everyone – we take old gas guzzlers off the road replacing them with more efficient cars and provide a short-term boost to struggling automakers. I think the program is a bit too costly. I would prefer seeing the amounts range from $1,500 to $2,500, but that’s my opinion.

The problem is that the government -- i.e., the Department of Transportation -- has really messed up the administration of the program. Last week it was reported that only two percent of the claims submitted to the department had been paid and there were over 338,000 claims outstanding. The department has only 225 people reviewing the claims which comes up to about 1,500 claims per employee. It got to be so bad that a number of dealer associations were encouraging their members to cease the program. The government finally announced that the program would cease on Monday. When they say “cease,” they mean that all claims must be submitted by Monday. Most dealerships were ending the program on Friday; my wife’s dealership is ending the program today (Saturday) at the close of business. She’s at work now – she’s normally off on Saturdays – and will be working late into the night!

I’m sure the Obama administration will do everything they can do to make sure all claims are reimbursed. If, for some reason, properly-submitted claims are not reimbursed, I hope Republicans raise holy hell about this. If the government cannot properly administer a straight-forward program like CARS, how are they ever going to administer a complicated program like health care reform?

Separate from the arguments brought forth in the town hall meetings held all across the country, the next few weeks will show if the government can even handle something along the order as socialized health care.

A photo of our little dog, Wrigley who was watching me as I took pictures of our garden. This is a rare pose as he was keeping still as I snapped the picture!

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Update [August 13, 2009]: It finally dawned on me today this this e-mail list is the one under attack by the media and those Americans concerned about privacy. A few days after the inauguration, I sent a comment via whitehouse.gov about the loan modification program that was being discussed early on in the new administration. They obviously harvested my e-mail address for further contact as I do not recall being asked if I wanted to receive additional e-mail messages.

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I'm obviously on some mailing list at the White House (hope it's not an enemies list!). I disclosed the earlier e-mail that I received from David Axelrod and now I have received this e-mail. I was also listening to today's press briefing and it is obvious that the White House is attempting to correct the "misconceptions" about health care that are being disseminated.

A lot of these misconceptions are generated by the White House itself. For example, at the recent town hall meeting in New Hampshire, President Obama said that A.A.R.P. was "on-board" with his health care plan. A.A.R.P., however, said that -- no -- they have not endorsed any proposal. The Democrats have not helped their cause either at the locallevel as town hall meeting and constituent meetings have fallen into disarray covered happily by news outlets and bloggers. I've seen several videos about the meetings and posted one this morning about the Texas congresswoman who ignored a questionner and listened on her cell phone instead.