Watcher's Council Nominations 6/13/07

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels

Some real good stuff this week, both in the council and non-council links...



OK, here's this week's Council lineup:

1. JoshuaPundit: A modest Proposal for Middle East Peace Even before the `Palestinians' voted Hamas into power, going back at least 3+ years, I predicted that the end result would be a Hamastan in Gaza and a dysfunctional Fatah gang fiefdom in Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank)...simply because of my innate knowledge of the players involved and the fact that the only way a second Arab `Palestinian' state had any way of succeeding was for it to have close and friendly diplomatic and economic relations with Israel. And I knew that was always a no-hoper with Arafat and company involved.

Now,it seems that the average `Palestinian'in the street is increasingly realizing that lawlessness, gangland rule by corrupt leadership and 70% unemployment does not exactly make for a happy life, so those that can are trying to vote with their feet and leave.

Based on that, I came up with a sure fire Middle East Peace plan that will satisfy everybody...you betcha.What's more, if you listen to the Saudis, James Baker and the current crop of Middle East `realists', with this problem solved the Middle East will be like one big Switzerland.Only with sand, not snow.

After I get my Nobel Peace Prize and I'm chowing down at those fancy restaurants and staying at five star hotels on the UN's dime, I'll be thinking of you..

OK, admittedly this was an exercise in satire and sarcasm (and one I'm positive some folks will take ultra-seriously), but if nothing else, it proves how ridiculous the whole `Middle East realist/comprehensive settlement' nonsense really is.

2. Done With Mirrors;Diplomacy Callimachus, in a well written post writes that he likes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Democrat's plans for talking to Syria and Iran. But being a sensible guy, he wonders whether they're going to be able to pull it off effectively.

I think you can guess my views on this.

3. Soccer Dad: Money for something Soccer Dad muses about campaign financing and its role in predicting the eventual winners. Based on that, he sees a Hillary/Obama ticket for the Democrats,and Romney as the GOP nominee in `08.

I think he's incredibly brave to make that prediction this far out,although I think he's right about a Hillery/Obama ticket, simply because Obama has eaten too far into the Black vote, without which the Democrats can't win.As for the GOP, I think it's far too soon to predict anything, although I will hazard this one - the GOP nominee, and possibly the eventual winner will be the one who most successfully runs against George Bush.


4. The Glittering Eye :Steering away from the shoals This week, The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler writes a fine piece centered on moderation, narcissism and its effect on our society.

5. Bookworm Room: Judging people by their friends and their enemies Ms. Bookworm observes the reception George Bush got in Albania as opposed to Germany at the G-8 summit and postulates that people recently freed from fascism have a clearer appreciation of freedom than people who have been free for decades. I think she 's right.

6. Rhymes With Right: I hate the Phelps Klan- -but this arrest is wrong Greg has an interesting piece this week on a local church with extreme political views who allowed and encouraged their children to stamp on an American flag at a military funeral...while the adults backed off, flag desecration being a crime.

However, as Greg points out, this is covered by the First Amendment, and Federal law trumps state law. Odious as these people are, they have their rights.

7. The Colossus of Rhodey: The one that got away - biggest missed entertainment moments Hube has his personal list of the biggest missed entertainment opportunities. Ah well...you can't TIVO life, y'know.

8. Right Wing Nut House : And the wall came a tum-ba-lin down Rick writes about the anniversary of Ronald Reagan's famous `tear down this wall' speech. Remember when we had a president who would actually walk the walk instead of just talking the talk?

9. Cheat Seeking Missiles:High efficiency woes Laer writes on an interesting topic, sparked by the performance of his new `energy efficient' high tech washing machine as opposed to his older workhorse models - what price `efficiency' as opposed to performance? And how much of a lack of performance, safety and other criteria are we prepared to sacrifice for the `efficiency' and `environmentally green' labels?

10. Big Lizards: Immigration as a GOP talking point in 2008 Dafydd Ab Hugh basically likes the new amnesty bill and says that the GOP should embrace it so as not to give the democrats ammunition in 2008.

He also feels that because `triggers' and `penalties' are written into this new legislation, they will be enforced better by this administration...as opposed to 6 1/2 years of non-enforcement of the laws we already have.

11.The Education Wonks:The all-Muslim all-girl's high school prom
EdWonk writes about a prom event by an Islamic student organization at the University of Minnesota that excluded non-Muslims and males - held on university property and funded by mandatory student fees levied on ALL students.

Imagine if we replaced Muslim with Jewish or Christian...think the ACLU would wait 5 minutes before slapping a lawsuit on the student organization and the university?

12.Something Wicked This Way Comes -- A Democrat Congress Tryin' To Fix the Alternative Minimum Tax at ‘Okie’ on the Lam Okie sees the class warfare blood in the water as the move is on in the new Democrat dominated congress to use the AMT to `tax the rich'...which in this case, might expand to include people in the AMT `cutoff' with incomes as low $75,000 per household!

As Okie puts it, grab your ankles...

That's this week's lineup..enjoy