The Council Has Spoken! ~ J O S H U A P U N D I T

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Council Has Spoken!

Once again, the votes have been cast, the Council has spoken and the results of this week's Watcher’s Council contest of are history.

This week's winner was Joshuapundit for Turkish PM Erdogan Consolidates His Islamist Regime By Purging The Military, my examination of what's going on under the wire in Turkey while the West's eyes are focused on Egypt and the Arab world...and why it may end up being much more significant Here's a slice:

Turkey's 1982 constitution proclaims Turkey's system of government as democratic, secular, and parliamentary and the country's original Constitution makes the military the guardian of Turkey's secular rule. The largely secular Turkish military has historically been a check on both Islamist and Leftist elements in the country.

Erdogan and the AKP party checkmated that role by winning a referendum on September 12, 2010 on constitutional amendments that removed the remaining obstacles to its absolute power, targeting the courts and the military.

Among other things, the referendum allowed Erdogan to change the rules and try retired members of the Turkish military in civil court who participated in the last military coup against an Islamist government, back in 1980 when Turkey was beset by internal violence. It also allows him to try the current 'conspirators' in civilian rather than military courts. This ensures that the Turkish military will no longer be the guard of secularism that it was, and to guarantee that, the very composition of the military is being changed as AKP President Abdullah Gul has been intervening in promotions and appointments of generals to block all non-Islamists from acquiring command positions.

Second, to make sure the outcome of the trials aren't in doubt, the new changes expanded the nation’s constitutional court from 11 to 17 judges and provides that the prime minister, Erdogan appointed 14 of them, with the legislature - that's Erdogan's AKP Party - choosing the other three.

Having finished appointing his hand picked new judges, Erdogan is using them to get rid of political opposition to him in the military and civil society, and to further consolidate the AKP's rule and the increasing Islamization of Turkish law and society.

Our non-council winner, Gulag Bound scored with Top 5 Revolutions Backed by George Soros an examination of how busy the ex-Nazi collaborator and outlaw billionaire has been in fomenting Hope n' Change around the world.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

*First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Joshuapundit--Turkish PM Erdogan Consolidates His Islamist Regime By Purging The Military
Second place with 1 2/3 votes – Right Truth-Lies That Lead To War And Death
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Simply Jews – In Doubt About Multiculturalism
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Razor – The Real Problem With Libertarianism
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – VA Right – Ron Paul's Drug Problem
Third place with *t* 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room – Obama suffers an empathy failure when it comes to Israel
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right – Odd, No Liberals Objected To Political Activity By This Judicial Spouse
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Noisy Room - Soros, the Youth, High Tech and the Fundamental Change that is Revolution
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Glittering Eye- From Memory
Sixth place with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – L'Etat C'est Moi

Non-Council Winners

First place with 2 votes! – Gulag Bound- Top 5 Revolutions Backed by George Soros submitted byThe Noisy Room
Second place *t* with i 2/3 votes – Ace of Spades – Thank G-d Obama Gave That Cairo Speech, Eh?submitted bySnapped Shot
Second place *t* with i 2/3 votes – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – The Muslim Brotherhood's Five-Year Plansubmitted byThe Watcher
Third Place with 1 1/3 votes –Wolf Howling – http://wolfhowling.blogspot.com/2011/02/battles-that-changed-history-chip-yong.html submitted by Bookworm Room
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Melanie Phillips -The Palestine Paper That Got Away submitted by Joshuapundit
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -USNI Blog -HH104, WWATMD… submitted by The Glittering Eye
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Zero Hedge - Jim Quinn -Guest Post: Grapes Of Wrath - 2011 submitted by The Razor
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Danger Room - Wired – ‘Armed Humanitarians’ Kill People Between Sips of Tea submitted by Right Truth
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Project Syndicate – The Poverty of Dictatorship submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Modernity Blog – Chomsky And The IHR submitted by Simply Jews