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Obama: Reach for world 'as it ought to be'

OSLO, Norway, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama recalled the lives of previous Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday, urging that the world follow their example of faith in human progress.

"We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice," the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said during the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway. "We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace."

Obama began his remarks by recognizing the controversy the prize committee created when it announced he was this year's recipient. He noted he was at the beginning of his "labors on the world stage" and his list of accomplishments compared to previous winners was slight.

"But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander in chief of a military, of a nation, in the midst of two wars," Obama said.

"I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war," Obama said. "What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace."

Part of the challenge of achieving peace is reconciling two "seemingly irreconcilable truths" that war is sometimes necessary and is, at some level, and an expression of human feelings.

Peace, Obama said, isn't just the absence of visible conflict, offering three ways a "just and lasting peace" may be achieved.

First, when dealing with rule- and law-breaking nations, "I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior -- for if we want a lasting peace, then the words of the international community must mean something," Obama said. "Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable."

Second, peace is not just the absence of visible conflict, he said.

"Only a just peace based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting," he said.

Finally, a just peace must not just encompass civil and political rights, it must include economic security and opportunity, he said. "For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want."

"So let us reach for the world that ought to be -- that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls," Obama said to warm applause.

The peaceful practices of Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi and others tell the story of human progress "that is the hope of all the world," Obama said, "and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth."

Polls show Obama approval rating slide

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Another national poll indicates public approval for the job Barack Obama is doing as U.S. president fell below 50 percent.

A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday indicated Obama had the lowest approval rating so far in his presidency -- 46 percent, Politico reported.

Also released Wednesday was a poll by Public Policy Polling, which pegged Obama's approval rating at 47 percent and included the commentary "44 percent (of respondents said) they'd rather have his predecessor," George W. Bush.

A Gallup daily tracking poll this week showed Obama's approval rating slid to 47 percent, while a CNN poll released last week showed Obama's rating at 48 percent.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said he viewed the latest approval numbers with a jaundiced eye, Politico said.

"I don't put a lot of stake in -- never have -- in the EKG that is the daily Gallup trend," Gibbs said.

Group takes credit for Baghdad bombings

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A group aligned with al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for a series of Baghdad bombings that killed more than 100 people and wounded more than 400.

A statement Thursday reportedly from the Islamic State of Iraq, published on a Web site sympathetic to al-Qaida, said the five bombings Tuesday targeted "bastions of evil," CNN reported.

"The list of targets will not end until the flag of unification is raised again in Baghdad," the statement said.

The statement's authenticity could not be confirmed, the U.S. broadcaster noted.

Iraq's finance and labor ministries, a courthouse and a commercial district were among the targets of Tuesday's suicide car bombings that killed a total of 127 people and wounded 448.

Islamic State of Iraq also claimed responsibility for an attack in October, when 160 people died and 540 were wounded, as well as a major assault in mid-August in which at least 100 people were killed and more than 500 were wounded.

Zelaya safe passage talks falter

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A plan for ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to leave his country for Mexico fizzled when talks on his safe passage fell apart, Mexican officials said.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was trying to negotiate Zelaya's safe exit from the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to travel to Mexico as a guest, but the negotiations faltered, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Zelaya said on the Mexican TV network Televisa the de facto Honduran government offered him safe passage only if he would seek political asylum. He said he has not asked for political asylum.

Zelaya has been holed up in the embassy since September. The government, which took over after a military coup in June, pledged to arrest Zelaya if he left the embassy.

Negotiations between Zelaya and successor Roberto Micheletti have been in fits and starts during the last several months, but the men signed an agreement Oct. 30 to accept a congressional vote on Zelaya's return to power to serve out the final weeks of his term, the Times said. When Honduran lawmakers decided to vote only after the presidential election, Zelaya pulled out of the agreement. Congress last week voted against his return.

Tea party movement flexes political muscle

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The tea party movement is flexing its muscle through political action committees and other measures to shake up politics, movement leaders said.

The movement, which disrupted summer town halls on healthcare reform and forced a moderate Republican to pull out of a special election, is eyeing the 2010 elections by directing money and support to conservative candidates challenging Democrats and Republicans, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The grassroots conservative movement takes its name as homage to the Boston Tea Party from the American Revolution.

"It's time to take control," conservative activist Eric Odom said on the Web site of his political action committee, Liberty First PAC.

Odom, a key organizer of the first tea party protests, told the Post his PAC won't support incumbents of either party.

In Washington, FreedomWorks, which also helped organize tea party protests, plans to borrow from President Barack Obama's fundraising playbook by reorganizing and honing in on small donations, the group President Matt Kibbe said.

"We're looking at the potential of raising small checks from a vast number of donors, just as Obama did," Kibbe said. "We've been studying everything about the Obama primary strategy, and I happen to think the tea party movement could make even the Obama grassroots machine look obsolete."

Movement leaders must consider the realities of politics, some Republicans said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the GOP must "temper our conservative approach with pragmatism" when selecting candidates, particularly after a conservative-backed candidate ran as a third-party challenger in a New York race, forcing the moderate, state party-backed candidate to drop out.

S.C. House panel censures Sanford

COLUMBIA, S.C., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A House panel voted to censure, not impeach, embattled South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, making it unlikely he would be removed from office.

The special House impeachment panel Wednesday approved the official rebuke of Sanford for bringing "ridicule, dishonor, disgrace and shame" on the state of South Carolina, its residents and the governor's office, The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., reported Thursday.

Sanford, a Republican, has been under the microscope since June, when he returned from a secret five-day trip to Argentina and admitted an extramarital affair. For the last six months, Sanford's use of state aircraft, travel arrangements and campaign funds have been reviewed by media, the State Ethics Commission and lawmakers.

Six of the seven impeachment panel members said Sanford's offenses didn't rise to the level of impeachment.

"We can't impeach for hypocrisy. We can't impeach for arrogance. We can't impeach ... for his lack of leadership skills," committee chairman Rep. Jim Harrison, a Republican, said when arguing about the lack of grounds to remove Sanford from office.

Sanford said in a statement he thought the State Ethics Commission would dismiss the charges against him. He said the 37 pending State Ethics Commission charges against him were, at most, minor or technical oversights.

"What has been suggested with regard to supposedly not watching out for the taxpayer was just not correct," Sanford said.

Sanford, who leaves office in 2011, isn't in the clear, The State said. State Attorney General Henry McMaster is considering whether to press criminal charges or turn the matter over to a local or federal prosecutor. Sanford also faces an ethics commission hearing.