The 2010 Nobel peace prize will be awarded to one a record 237 nominees the sheer according to a Nobel official earlier this month.  This surpasses last year’s record of 205 nominees which was comprised of 199 individuals and 38 organizations according to Geir Lundestad, the committee’s permanent nonvoting secretary.

“The long-term trend has been upwards. Not every year, but almost every year, we have a record,” Lundestad told The Associated Press. “I also think there’s a short-term trend. There’s a renewed interest in the prize after it went to President (Barack) Obama last year.”

Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for, among other achievements, bringing the U.S. into the fight against global warming and for supporting multilateral diplomacy.

The fiercely secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee refuses to name candidates, but nominators sometimes announce their picks. This year, known nominees include a Russian human rights group, a Chinese dissident and the Internet.

Those with nomination rights include former peace laureates, members of national governments and legislatures, selected university professors and others.

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A Norwegian politician nominated Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and Memorial — a prominent rights group she works with — while a Princeton philosophy professor put forth Liu Xiaobo, a recently jailed Chinese dissident.

Lundestad said the committee reached a final count after its first meeting of the year, on March 9.

At that meeting, the five-member panel added its own nominations to those put forth by others, he said, though he noted that “they did not add particularly many this year.”

The 2010 laureate will be announced in mid-October, and the prize will be given out on Dec. 10 at a ceremony in Oslo.

Last year’s recipient, President Barack Obama has named 10 charities to share his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize, with causes ranging from wounded veterans to Haiti’s earthquake survivors and education for minorities.

“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students and veterans and countless others in need,” Obama said in a statement.

He had vowed to donate the prize money to charity after unexpectedly winning the prestigious prize last year and his selection included some politically important domestic constituencies.

The White House said $250,000, the largest single amount, will go to Fisher House, which houses families of wounded veterans while they receive treatment.

This was followed by a $200,000 donation to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, set up by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at Obama’s request to help survivors of Haiti’s January earthquake.

Following is a breakdown of Obama’s donations:

$250,000 to Fisher House, a national nonprofit organization providing accommodation for families of patients receiving medical care at military and Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

$200,000 to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which was set up in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake to help survivors.

$125,000 or to College Summit, a national nonprofit organization to increase college enrollment rates.

$125,000 to the Posse Foundation, which awards scholarships to promising public high school students.

$125,000 to the United Negro College Fund.

$125,000 to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

$125,000 to the American Indian College Fund.

$125,000 to the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation.

$100,000 to AfriCare, which promotes health, food security and access to water primarily in Africa.

$100,000 to the Central Asia Institute, which provides education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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My Take: Well, at least he gave most of the money to American organizations.  I think he should have given it to America in general and help with the national deficit.  I realize it would not have been much of a scratch on how much the deficit really is, but it would have helped.  Or better yet, give it to the Medicare fund, which the government stole money from, oh excuse me, borrowed money from.

In his position, he really didn’t need the money.  It’s not like he has to buy a banquet tablecloth from the next White House banquet or anything.  No matter what, I think he did the right thing in giving the money away.  I know I would have been hard-pressed to do it myself.  In my case, I would need to buy quality table cloth, even if I didn’t need it

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An accused bomber scoured the web and visited beauty supply stores on a hunt for chemicals needed to build bombs for the Al-Qaida.  That accused bomber is Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi.  Authorities are calling the alleged plot one of the most significant terror threats in to the US since 9/11.  However, the 12 page memorandum that outlined the alleged conspiracy sent chills down backs of those reading it because the route a repeated phrase “and others” that gave evidence of a possible Al-Qaida cell plotting a homemade bomb attack on US soil once again

Zazi, a 24-year-old coffee cart owner in New York and Denver airport shuttle driver, was charged in New York with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He was to appear in court in Denver on Friday.

Since he was arrested a week ago on a lesser count of lying to terrorist investigators, investigators have fanned out over New York City, going to beauty shops, home improvement stores and neighborhoods Zazi frequented looking for possible accomplices, while the government issued national terrorism warnings for sports complexes, hotels and transit systems.

Prosecutors said they have yet to establish exactly when and where the Zazi attacks were supposed to take place. But Attorney General Eric Holder said in Washington, “We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted.”

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that Zazi had associates in New York who were in on the plot. Court papers say that during the summer, Zazi and three unidentified associates bought “unusually large quantities” of hydrogen peroxide and acetone – a flammable solvent found in nail-polish remover – from beauty supply stores in the Denver area, products with names like Ion Sensitive Scalp Developer and Clairoxide.

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He searched a Queens home improvement store Web site for another ingredient needed to make a compound called TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide), the explosives used in the London bombings that killed over 50 people, prosecutors said.

Zazi has publicly denied being a terrorist since his arrest. He left the Denver court without commenting.  The government motion seeking to deny bail laid out a chronology of the alleged scheme, which prosecutors said had been in the works for over a year.

Zazi – a legal U.S. resident who immigrated in 1999 – began plotting as early as August 2008 to “use one or more weapons of mass destruction,” when he “and others” traveled from Newark, N.J., to receive explosives training in Pakistan, prosecutors said.

Within days of returning from Pakistan in early 2009, he moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora, where he used a computer to research homemade bomb ingredients and to look up beauty supply stores where he could buy them, according to prosecutors.

A second law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said associates of Zazi visited Colorado from New York to help him buy the chemicals, using stolen credit cards to make the purchases before returning to New York.

Security video and receipts show that some of the purchases were made near a Colorado hotel, according to court papers. On Sept. 6 and 7, Zazi checked into a suite at the hotel with a kitchen and a stove, the papers say, and tried to contact an unidentified associate “seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives.”

“Zazi repeatedly emphasized in the communications that he needed the answers right away,” the papers said. “Each communication” was “more urgent than the last.”  FBI explosives testing later found residue in the vent above the stove, authorities said.

On Sept. 8, court papers say, Zazi searched the Internet for home improvement stores in Queens before driving a rental car for a two-day trip to the city. The visit triggered a series of searches in Denver and New York City over the past two weeks, and netted backpacks, cell phones and a scale at a home where Zazi spent the night.

A law enforcement official said Thursday that authorities had been especially worried about Zazi’s Sept. 10 visit to the city because it coincided with a visit by President Barack Obama, and considered arresting him right away. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.

Beauty supply store employees in New York and the Denver suburbs said authorities had been there recently asking whether anyone had come in buying a lot of hydrogen peroxide or acetone.  At Beauty Supply Warehouse in suburban Denver, Paul Phillips said a co-worker told investigators he had sold chemicals to Zazi. Company president Karan Hoss said the firm turned over security video of a man matching Zazi’s description to the FBI. A check of sales found that someone bought a dozen 32-ounce bottles of a hydrogen peroxide product in July. More was purchased in late August, Hoss said.

A Perry in court because they lied to investigators were Zazi’s father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and a New York City imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali.  Receiving a hearing for October 9 in Denver Mohammed Zazi, 53, was ordered freed under court.  Afzali was released in New York on $1.5 million bail.  He was accused of tipping off the Zazis that the feds were investigating them in a tapped telephone call,.  Afzali’s attorney, Ron Kuby, denied his client knew anything about a plot.

“Obviously, the government would not be consenting to bail if it thought he was involved in a terrorism conspiracy,” he said.

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My Take: The thing I do not understand is why did we make him a citizen in the first place?  That seems a little unusual to me.  I am sorry, but I do not think we should be making anybody else citizens of this country if they are from Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan because of people like this.

“Send us your tired, your poor, your huddle masses,” does it mean we need to take in every person who’s dissatisfied from another country.  It is time that big brother put his foot down on the throat of all immigrants.  I apologize is just that this type of thing really makes me angry.  I do not like the rules of Homeland security has, yet they are necessary and sometimes I agree with them.  I know, I am contradicting myself.

Our country has been one that has accepted everybody into it.  Maybe it’s time that would put a stop to it for a while.  Not because of the threat of terrorism, but because we are beginning to get just a little bit overcrowded.  We can barely feed the people or own country let alone those of another.

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