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Spellcheck suffers a nervous breakdown while viewing lolcatz.

The founder of ICHC is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Normality restored. Whatever constitutes "normal", anyway. ;)

Disagree. He championed the important idea that sharing source code is a Good Thing, and did it with a degree of consistency over time that is remarkable.
Yeah, I lose track of his ideas after a point (ethics), but I'm a firm believer in "credit where due".
Certainly more deserving of something like a Nobel Peace Prize than some of the nitwits that have besmirched the concept in recent history.
Anyone know how to nominate someone for http://www.medaloffreedom.com/

Well, the vast majority of them are funny, but the one that says 'the Republican Party will attempt to control science to meet political needs' deserves a prize. How about a 'Medal of Freedom', I hear they are going pretty cheap these days.

Well, I, for one, welcome the new soon to be awarded Medal of Freedom award winner Donny Rumsfeld.

George Tenet was awarded a presidential medal of freedom.. Not exactly a tossing out of underperformers..

This is newsworthy? This is the same President who gave George J. Tenet the Medal of Freedom.

This is generally cronyism at its worst, and media attention getting at its finest. There is no Constitutional mandate or power. President Harry Truman enacted the medal in 1945 and it was virtually ignored until JFK brought it back -- through an Executive Order in 1963.

That same Executive Order also expanded the size of unconstitutional government by extending the "Distinguished Civilian Service Awards" board -- yet another cronyist bunch given very nice salaries* by the President.

I know the political spectrum is well covered here, but does anyone honestly believe a government that is trillions in debt needs a board to give out awards? Disregard any constitutional grounds and focus on the need of the governed. Can't an independent not-for-profit group do the same? BTW, Clinton also gave the award to some ridiculous recipients, so I'm not Bush bashing. This is just a waste of your money.

*There's almost no oversight or budget restrictions on what the board can be paid: Expenses. Necessary administrative expenses of the Board incurred in connection with the recommendation of persons to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including expenses of travel of members of the Board appointed under Section 3 (a) of this Order, during the fiscal year 1963, may be paid from the appropriation provided under the heading 'Special Projects' in the Executive Office Appropriation Act, 1963, 76 Stat. 315, and during subsequent fiscal years, to the extent permitted by law, from any corresponding or like appropriation made available for such fiscal years. Such payments shall be without regard to the provisions of section 3681 of the Revised Statutes and section 9 of the Act of March 4, 1909, 35 Stat. 1027 (31 U.S.C. 672 and 673).

The US Medal of Freedom is roughly equivalent to this kind of knighthood. Here is a list of recipients in the past ten years. Intel founder Gordon Moore (of Moore's Law) is only computer geek on the list.

This may be controversial, but I think Bill Gates will eventually receive this for his charity work.