For the first time since 1936, the recipient of the Nobel Peace prize was awarded in absentia. Today in Oslo, there was an empty chair on the stage where Liu Xiaobo, 54, would have been, were he not currently serving an 11-year term on subversion charges from the Chinese government. His wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest. Human Rights in China, the organization responsible for publishing Liu's writings in English, is based in NYC, and today the Times reported on HRC's director Sharon K. Hom's struggle to make it to the airport in time to fly to Oslo. A traffic jam in the Lincoln Tunnel seemed the perfect metaphor for her work as an activist, and, in a lede fraught with hyperbolic pseudo-poignancy, Times columnist Clyde Haberman determined the experience was "almost enough to make anyone think of herself as the victim of human-rights deprivation." Good thing they didn't take the Holland—that's worse than the Holocaust! more ›

A year after awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, the committee has turned its eyes to a jailed Chinese dissident and writer. Liu Xiaobo, 54, is the first Chinese citizen to win the Peace Prize and one of three people to have received it while incarcerated, the Times reports. He's currently serving an 11-year term on subversion charges. The Chinese Foreign Ministry calls award a "desecration" of the Peace Prize, and the news is all but blacked out in China, where mobile phone users can't even transmit text messages containing his name (which makes us feel kind of bad for complaining about the HD cable being glitchy). more ›

Today, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize from the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway. The committee's decision had set off controversy, because Obama hasn't even completed a year in his presidency—something that he acknowledged in October, calling the prize "as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century." In his remarks today, Obama struck a similar tone, "I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations - that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice." more ›

Even though Obama whupped Hillary in the primaries last year, a Gallup Poll conducted from Oct. 1-4 shows that our Secretary of State is currently more popular than our peace-loving President, with a 62% approval rating over his 56%. Though Hillary's numbers have not changed much since January, Obama's popularity has been on a steady decline. And now we wait for Tracy Morgan's opinion. more ›

Finally, we get to hear what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win! Of course, Clinton treaded carefully in her Today Show interview, pointing out she can't predict the Nobel Committee's mind, but says that the President's "attitude toward America’s role in the world" was the reason, "His willingness to really kind of challenge everyone ... restores a kind of image and appreciation of our country." more ›

Oh, Mo. In her op-ed column today, NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd imagines a conversation between former president Bill Clinton and George W. Bush discussing President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win. Here's some: "CLINTON: I guess my work with the Clinton Global Initiative saving lives in Africa and hanging with Bono and Barbra wasn’t enough. W.: Calm down, bro. You gotta take care of that ticker. CLINTON: It was a case of premature adulation. W.: Heh-heh-heh. Yeah, very pre-emptive, sort of like Cheney’s pre-emptive war policy." more ›

Well, one thing is for sure: The Nobel Prize Committee's decision to give President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is at least giving people something to talk about this weekend! Even as the President himself admitted he didn't think he deserved the award—but said he'd accept it as a "call to action— a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century"—the decision was met with some enthusiasm and a lot more criticism. more ›

A few hours after learning that the Nobel Prize Committee had bestowed on him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama spoke of his surprise and honor, "I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations." more ›

In a major surprise, President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize, making him the first sitting American president to win the prize since Woodrow Wilson in 1919. (Theodore Roosevelt was in office when he received the honor in 1906, and Jimmy Carter won some two decades after he left office.) The Nobel Committee's press release said the prize was "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." more ›

Yesterday the legendary Pete Seeger celebrated 90 years on this earth with an intimate gathering of friends at Madison Square Garden. You know, just the typical birthday party with a guest list that included Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, John Mellencamp, Oscar the Grouch, Tim Robbins, his son, and many many more (51 all in all). Even Barack Obama sent a greeting to the singer, praising him for voicing "the hopes and dreams of everyday people," reports the NY Times. The grand finale included “This Land Is Your Land,” a song he sang at the President's inauguration, with everyone (including his 95-year-old brother) on stage to sing along. more ›

A day after the NY Post served up a Thanksgiving day front page cover of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as a turkey, the embattled Thomas proclaimed he would stay in his job, saying, "I don't foresee there being any changes this year." Which the Post calls "LOAD OF BULL?" But really, if there's one thing that the Post and Daily News must have been thankful for, it's having such a spectacularly poorly managed... more ›

Former vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. The Nobel committee said the shared award is "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." more ›

THEATER: A.R. Gurney’s new meta-play, Post Mortem, takes place in a future tyrannical America where a college student discovers a lost “masterpiece” by the largely forgotten playwright A.R. Gurney. In Post Mortem's cowardly new world, many believe Dick Cheney to be responsible for Gurney’s death, and the discovery of an unpublished memoir reveals Gurney affairs with Cameron Diaz, Katherine Hepburn and Katrina Kerns. (Okay, that last one's from our own meta-memoir.) The student’s willingness to defy the government by producing the banned play wins him both a shot at the Nobel Peace Prize and his hot professor’s affection. - John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: Teflon war criminal and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger made news again this week with the revelation that Dr. Strangelove has secretly cautioned against any troop withdrawal from Iraq because, just like ‘Nam, such action would “become like salted peanuts to the American public; the more troops come home, the more will be demanded.” Kissinger’s breathtaking contempt for democracy is matched only by his Machiavellian genius; both attributes are skewered to great effect in this terrific revival of Nixon’s Nixon, which imagines what went down during Nixon’s historic meeting with Kissinger on the eve of his resignation. The play is getting great reviews, which further disproves Tom Lehrer’s quip that political satire became obsolete when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. - John Del Signore more ›

The Dalai Lama was in town yesterday to receive a key to NYC - maybe this was his way of celebrating his 70th birthday! The ceremony took place in front of the Farley Post Office, site of the future Moynihan Station, because of the Dalai Lama's friendship with the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and he said, "With the opening of this new station here in the future, it will contribute to the joy and also to the greater ease for the movement of the people of this city." Selfishly, Gothamist wishes the Dalai Lama could guilt the State government into rethinking its financial support (as in, giving some) to the MTA, but, really, we'll take whatever spiritual guidance he can give us. more ›

Jonathan Mandell & Mark Berkey-Gerard, Gotham Gazette more ›