The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher's Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung. " -Sir Walter Scott

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. - General George S. Patton


"I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside. - Sir Winston Churchill

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7


 


This week's winning essay,Joshuapundit's -Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America? was my reaction to the question raised by former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the media meltdown that followed. Here's a slice:

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani created a press-fueled tempest in a teapot when he raised those issues at a private dinner. As you know, only Democrats and Leftists are entitled to  private conversations and secrecy even the Mafia would envy. And of course, to the freedom to express their opinions  no matter how bat sh*t crazy they are. Rudy Giuliani obviously doesn't qualify for that kind of protection.

Of course the press leaped on this. The current administration and its minions are free to refer to 'right wing Tea Partiers' as  terrorists and to deride a serving US General commanding a combat operation as 'General Betray Us' in the New York Times,  but again, the rule for Democrats and the Left is that you may never question  their patriotism under any circumstances, no matter what they say or do.

Having pretty much struck out trying to smear GOP front runner Governor Scott Walker for not undergoing four years or more of Leftist indoctrination at someplace like Harvard, Yale, Columbia or Princeton, the Obama media decided to grab at another straw and make a point of asking Governor Walker if he thought this president was a Christian.

His quite sensible reply was that he didn't know, and as Byron York pointed out, a fair amount of Americans don't know either. I suppose it all depends on whether you consider Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church with its radical politics and its  anti-Semitic and racialist overtones 'Christian.'  Or whether you're confused about a president who defends Islam and Islamists at every turn while dissing Christianity and standing by and doing nothing while Christians are being  ethnically cleansed from the Middle East by those peaceful Islamists.

But at any rate, the only way to know for sure would be to look inside this president's head and heart, and Walker was astute in simply saying he wasn't going to attempt that.

Now, does this president love America? Again, like the question about Christianity, it all depends on what your definition of loving America is.

In his memoir about his time as Secretary of Defense in the Bush and Obama Administrations, Robert Gates chronicled his struggle to contain his rage as former Democrat Senators and 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden chuckled to Gates about how their efforts during the second Bush administration to sabotage America's war effort in Iraq and the Surge in particular while our troops were under fire were 'hah hah,just politics, ho ho.' As Gates related, these efforts along with their calculated attempts to insult and emasculate its commander General Petraeus literally cost American lives.



Now again, some people are going to say 'what difference does it make?' Others would be outraged at this and a lot of other things that have happened in this administration.

So you see, it all depends on your point of view.

But walk with me a minute.

Let's say,just for giggles, we elected a president who actually didn't love the country, but whose agenda could more accurately be described in one word - payback.

How would such a president behave?


Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was the one and only Mark Steyn
with Oh Beautiful For Specious Guys submitted by The Noisy Room.

Steyn exercises his usual mastery at getting to the heart of the matter, in this case the Obama Administration's craven response to violent, radical Islamism uhhh, 'violent extremism' that dares not speak its name. A must read.

Here are this week’s full results. Only the Right Planet was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes!–Joshuapundit-Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America?


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Hey, Sweden! How's that open immigration and PC-multiculturalism working out in your faux-socialist land?


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Nice Deb – Al Sisi and Haftar Fight ISIS in Libya With No Help From US - While Obama Meets With Muslim Brotherhood


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Right Planet – Doomed To Repeat...


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – China's Attack Strategy: Swarm Baby, Swarm


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Noisy Room – The Russian Bear Moves In Next Door


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! - Is Obama a Christian or a Muslim? What Do His Deeds Say?


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Rhymes With Right – Is Obama A Christian


• Fifth place with 1/3 votes –Ask Marion – Texas Is Leading the Way to Stop President Obama’s Illegal Amnesty

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! –Mark Steyn –Oh Beautiful For Specious Guys submitted by The Noisy Room


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Jonah Goldberg – Progressives’ Peculiar Sense of Patriotism submitted by Joshuapundit


• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –Warrior Lodge – A French Soldier's View of US Soldiers in Afghanistan submitted by The Right Planet


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Sultan Knish –We Can Kill Our Way to Victory submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Bobby Ghoush/Defense One – Why Arab Ground Troops Won't Defeat ISIS submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -The People's Cube –Quran-Quran: glam band puts a face to the Muslim Invasion submitted by The Razor


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Roll Call – McConnell Throws in Towel on DHS Fight, but Reid Is Waiting for Boehner to Cave (Updatedsubmitted by VA Right!


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Gay Patriot – Liberals Really Are Less Patriotic than Conservatives submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -DC Clothesline – Jobs for Jihadists' Applications Flood State Department submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Mister Chambers – Onward To Defeat submitted by The Watcher

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

Our Weasel Of The Week!!

It’s time to present this week's statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!

Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week's nominees were all truly slime-worthy and disgusting,but in the end the overwhelming winner was....the envelope please..

 

State Department Spokeshole,Jihadi Employment Specialist and Chikken Fried Crap Thrower Marie Harsh!

The Independent Sentinel : For me, Marie Harf has a slight edge over Eric Holder who doesn't know why we have to call radical Islam by its name. She thinks the solution to ISIS is jobs!

During an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said: "We can't kill our way out of this war...whether it's more opportunities for jobs..what makes these 17-year old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business."

We're still killing them but they need job opportunities, she assured Chris Matthews.

Since they don't know what this "kind of ideology this is" in the White House, this solution isn't unexpected.

Maybe we can open up an ISIS employment agency at the White House or we could give ISIS jobs as border agents.

Yes, it's Marie Harf who took the honors this week. Straight outta college and into the Obama Campaign, she's been a particularly loyal soldat, she has, and last week's set to proved it.

There she was, saying that we couldn't kill or way to victory, that all IS needs are job opportunities, and that all the Islamist terrorist outfits in the world are somehow absolved by Joseph Kony and the Lord's Army in Uganda, a supposed 'Christian' terrorist outfit. Why,she even wrote her college thesis on the awful way all those wack job Right Wingers and Evangelicals support Israel and how bad it is for U.S.foreign policy.

In other words, mirroring exactly what Barack Hussein Obama believes.

"Hey, I've got a Masters, I wear glasses and I'm smarter than all of you dammit ! That's why I'm Deputy State Department deputy spokeswoman!"

Ah, but all that being down for the struggle  just wasn't enough.

When her supervisor, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki moves to the White House (appropriately on April Fool's Day) to serve as the next White House Communications Director, you'd think Marie Harf would get her reward for all that sucking up ( or whatever direction it was) and get promoted to Psaki's old job. Alas, it appears not. Sigh. It's one thing to lie and dissemble as part of your daily duties, but to not even get a proper reward for it? How dare President Obama deny us all that material! I'm proud to present this Weasel to Ms.Harf, and I certainly hope it starts the ball rolling towards her well earned promotion.

No more war on women!



Well, there it is! 

Check back next Tuesday to see who next week's nominees for Weasel of the Week are!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum, and  remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

U Of Georgia Students Pass Resolution Calling For More Israel Investment

 

Well, they're definitely not Columbia or UCLA:

The Student Government Association (SGA) of the University of Georgia on Tuesday passed the first college resolution this year calling for the school to invest more in its relations with Israel. The resolution was sponsored and composed by the local chapter of activist group Students Supporting Israel and is the third such resolution ever to be passed.

In the resolution, the SGA, which represents over 35,000 students in Georgia, supports the expansion of study abroad opportunities in Israel for both undergraduate and graduate students across all fields of study. The text asserts that “academic freedom and collaboration are crucial to the pursuit of knowledge,” but that the university currently offers “very limited options” for study abroad in the Middle East.

The resolution calls Israel “one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, and the country with the highest ratings in freedom, human rights, and democracy in the region.” It also argues that the Jewish state is a “global leader” in science and technology research, agricultural development and practices in sustainability.

The full resolution's available at the link. And according to my source, it stands a pretty good chance of being adopted by the administration. Sanity reveals itself.

Austria Bans Muslim Groups From Receiving Foreign Funds

 

The Austrian Parliament passed a law today regulating how Islam is funded and administered in the country.

Austrian Muslim groups are no longer allowed to receive foreign funds. This measure largely targets Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the country.

The law also requires any group claiming to represent Austrian Muslims to register and to use a standardized German translation of the Koran (Yes,Mr.President, they speak German in Austria, not 'Austrian) :

The law met with little opposition from the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, was backed by Austria's Catholic bishops, and was grudgingly accepted by the main Muslim organization. But it upset Turkey's state religious establishment.

"We want an Islam of the Austrian kind, and not one that is dominated by other countries," said Sebastian Kurz, the 28-year-old conservative foreign minister - formally the minister for foreign affairs and integration - who is easily Austria's most popular politician. [...]

Austria's biggest Islamic organization, IGGiO, accepted the law, but its youth arm opposed it, as did the Turkish-financed Turkish-Islamic Union in Austria (ATIB), which runs many mosques and has vowed to challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court.

Many of Austria's Muslims are Turkish migratory workers.

The new law also guarantees Islamic imams being allowed attend Muslims in hospitals in hospitals and be chaplains in the army, and protects Muslims' rights to eat and produce Halal food.

Just for the record, banning foreign funds going to religious groups in America and having Muslim groups register in accordance with the Smith Act so that their membership, literature and sources of funds are vetted and available for government scrutiny is something I've championed for some time. And admittedly, my target for this would be Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood groups, but to make it fair the ban on foreign funds would have to be extended to all such religious groups.

Hopefully, this is the start of a trend of sorely needed bit of sanity. Islam is simply not like other religions, and Islamists in particular need tobe watched closely and defanged.

Watcher's Council Nominations - Getting Ahead Edition

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

This week, The MidKnight Review, Anne's Opinions and The Pirate's Cove earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have for you this week....

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – The Russian Bear Moves In Next Door


• The Independent Sentinel – Former Rep. Allen West Calls Out Barack Obama – The American…video


• Joshuapundit-Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America?


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – China's Attack Strategy: Swarm Baby, Swarm


• The Razor – Has Putin Declawed Pussy Riot


• The Right Planet – Doomed To Repeat...


• Bookworm Room – Hey, Sweden! How's that open immigration and PC-multiculturalism working out in your faux-socialist land?


• Nice Deb – Al Sisi and Haftar Fight ISIS in Libya With No Help From US - While Obama Meets With Muslim Brotherhood


• VA Right! - Is Obama a Christian or a Muslim? What Do His Deeds Say?


• Rhymes With Right – Is Obama A Christian


• The Glittering Eye -Visualcy, the Flynn Effect, and the End of Abstract Reasoning


• Ask Marion – Texas Is Leading the Way to Stop President Obama’s Illegal Amnesty

Honorable Mentions

• The MidKnight Review - The names of those 21 Christians slaughtered at the hands of ISIS while Obama pretends this is not a reiligious war


• Anne's Opinions - Naming the enemy: Radical Islam


• The Pirate's Cove - Obama Unshockingly Vetoes Keystone XL Pipleline Bill, And You Won’t Believe Why

Non-Council Submissions

• Mark Steyn –Oh Beautiful For Specious Guys submitted by The Noisy Room


• Sultan Knish –We Can Kill Our Way to Victory submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Jonah Goldberg – Progressives’ Peculiar Sense of Patriotism submitted by Joshuapundit


• Bobby Ghoush/Defense One – Why Arab Ground Troops Won't Defeat ISIS submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• The People's Cube –Quran-Quran: glam band puts a face to the Muslim Invasion submitted by The Razor


• Warrior Lodge – A French Soldier's View of US Soldiers in Afghanistan submitted by The Right Planet


• Stately McDaniel Manor-Barack Obama: Love and Patriotismsubmitted by Bookworm Room


• Jazz Shaw/Hot Air -The double standard which allows Dana Milbank to call Scott Walker “a coward” submitted by Nice Deb


• Roll Call – McConnell Throws in Towel on DHS Fight, but Reid Is Waiting for Boehner to Cave (Updatedsubmitted by VA Right!


• Gay Patriot – Liberals Really Are Less Patriotic than Conservatives submitted by Rhymes with Right


• DC Clothesline – Jobs for Jihadists' Applications Flood State Department submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Mister Chambers – Onward To Defeat submitted by The Watcher


• David Gerstman/Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – White House Struggling to Sell Iran Policy...to Democrats submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!And don't forget to tune in Friday for the results!

Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America?

 

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani created a press-fueled tempest in a teapot when he raised those issues at a private dinner. As you know, only Democrats and Leftists are entitled to  private conversations and secrecy even the Mafia would envy. And of course, to the freedom to express their opinions  no matter how bat sh*t crazy they are. Rudy Giuliani obviously doesn't qualify for that kind of protection.

Of course the press leaped on this. The current administration and its minions are free to refer to 'right wing Tea Partiers' as  terrorists and to deride a serving US General commanding a combat operation as 'General Betray Us' in the New York Times,  but again, the rule for Democrats and the Left is that you may never question  their patriotism under any circumstances, no matter what they say or do.

Having pretty much struck out trying to smear GOP front runner Governor Scott Walker for not undergoing four years or more of Leftist indoctrination at someplace like Harvard, Yale, Columbia or Princeton, the Obama media decided to grab at another straw and make a point of asking Governor Walker if he thought this president was a Christian.

His quite sensible reply was that he didn't know, and as Byron York pointed out, a fair amount of Americans don't know either. I suppose it all depends on whether you consider Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church with its radical politics and its  anti-Semitic and racialist overtones 'Christian.'  Or whether you're confused about a president who defends Islam and Islamists at every turn while dissing Christianity and standing by and doing nothing while Christians are being  ethnically cleansed from the Middle East by those peaceful Islamists.

But at any rate, the only way to know for sure would be to look inside this president's head and heart, and Walker was astute in simply saying he wasn't going to attempt that.

Now, does this president love America? Again, like the question about Christianity, it all depends on what your definition of loving America is.

In his memoir about his time as Secretary of Defense in the Bush and Obama Administrations, Robert Gates chronicled his struggle to contain his rage as former Democrat Senators and 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden chuckled to Gates about how their efforts during the second Bush administration to sabotage America's war effort in Iraq and the Surge in particular while our troops were under fire were 'hah hah,just politics, ho ho.' As Gates related, these efforts along with their calculated attempts to insult and emasculate its commander General Petraeus literally cost American lives.



Now again, some people are going to say 'what difference does it make?' Others would be outraged at this and a lot of other things that have happened in this administration.

So you see, it all depends on your point of view.

But walk with me a minute.

Let's say,just for giggles, we elected a president who actually didn't love the country, but whose agenda could more accurately be described in one word - payback.

How would such a president behave?

Would he openly openly defy the Constitution, use government bureaus like the IRS and the EPA to attack people he perceived as his political enemies and devote significant resources to spying indiscriminately on his fellow citizens to a greater degree than any other president in history? Would he violate the separation of powers doctrine with dictatorial 'executive orders' and make a constant show of his contempt for congress?

Would he use rhetoric and take actions deliberately designed to foster division and friction between Americans, especially racial enmity? Would he use his appointees to try and control education and opposing voices in the press?

Would he and the people he surrounded himself with allow our borders to remain unguarded for political reasons, even though that's a severe national security risk?

Would he run up huge debts? Would he waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a totally unnecessary war that provided vast stockpiles of arms to our enemies? Or on pushing through a dysfunctional 'healthcare' program that actually made healthcare less affordable and led to a loss of jobs and cuts in full time jobs and income for many Americans? Would he take steps resulting in higher costs in food prices, fuel and utilities for the average American?

Would he severely downsize our military and our anti-missile defenses? Would he release dangerous terrorist from a secure facility, even though the evidence was clear that a number of these people who'd been freed went right back to terrorist activities? Would he openly protect anti-American groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and its various front groups here in America and abroad?

Would he markedly and openly alienate traditional allies of America while attempting to appease countries that openly declare themselves our outright enemies?

In short, if, say, President Barack Obama didn't care all that much for the America he was elected to lead, if he thought that there was no such thing as 'American exceptionalism', if he thought America needed to be somehow punished for what all his closest associates for decades have told him are America's sins....

What exactly would he be doing differently? And just to add to the mix, it's worth noting President Obama had a model for making America bankrupt, sharia respecting and virtually defenseless.

Again, this all very much depends on what your definition of what loving America is. So I'm sure all of you can answer that question for yourselves, each in his or her own way.

Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees

It's time once again for the Watcher's Council's 'Weasel Of The Week' nominations, where we pick our choices to compete for the award of the famed Golden Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations!

Here are this weeks' nominees....

 
State Department Spokeshole,Jihadi Employment Specialist and Chikken Fried Crap Thrower Marie Harsh!

The Independent Sentinel : For me, Marie Harf has a slight edge over Eric Holder who doesn't know why we have to call radical Islam by its name. She thinks the solution to ISIS is jobs!

During an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said: "We can't kill our way out of this war...whether it's more opportunities for jobs..what makes these 17-year old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business."

We're still killing them but they need job opportunities, she assured Chris Matthews.

Since they don't know what this "kind of ideology this is" in the White House, this solution isn't unexpected.

Maybe we can open up an ISIS employment agency at the White House or we could give ISIS jobs as border agents.

 
Professional Airhead and CNN  Nooze Barrista Carol Costello!!

The Noisy Room : My nomination this week is CNN's Newsroom anchor Carol Costello for claiming that ISIS is luring young women into their clutches using kittens and Nutella. We are soooo doomed.

Do these talking heads really and seriously believe this crap? If
American women are stupid enough to run into the arms of ISIS fighters
because of kittens and Nutella, then they deserve whatever they get and
believe me, it won't be romance. It will be rape, slavery, poverty and
probably death. That CNN would be moronic enough to air something as
absurd as this, just proves how pathetic and useless CNN is as a media
outlet. The world now sees America as one big joke; a land full of weak
idiots. War can't be far off, trust me.

No matter how Obama and his sycophant media try to paint the Islamic
State as 'normal,' only those who are the dullest of dullards would not
laugh at this. ISIS is not like America - you won't live as you do now
there. They are nomadic, barbaric and brutal. Kittens and Nutella are
about as far away from radicalizing youth as you can get. Try imams at
any mosque instead. Any mother who believes this horse manure should
have her head examined, and I mean that. The Islamic State's idea of
'fun' is cutting off heads and crucifying people, with a human barbecue
in a cage for dessert. They have children watch this. They teach them to
behead people and then give them the heads to play soccer with. I can't
imagine any girl or woman being seduced by ISIS. Maybe they are just
that desperate for a real man, but you won't find any there. Just
cowardly psychopaths who also like raping women and children for fun and
profit.




'Republican' Obama Abetters Lindsay Graham and John McCain

 JoshuaPundit : Two weasels with hearts that beat as one with a collective IQ of 50 except when it comes to low animal cunning, They're constantly involved in selling out to President Obama's agenda. Their latest caper involves leading the charge in the Senate  to stop the House from defunding the parts of the Department of Homeland Security that specifically deal with President Obama's unconstitutional amnesty for illegal aliens.

Graham's weasel line is that  he wants to 'get behind' the Texas judge who issued an injunction (I hesitate to speculate on what that might mean)  whose decision could be appealed and overturned at anytime by the right Obama-appointed judge.

G-d forbid these two and their sell out cronies should ever act like senators and abide by their oaths to defend and protect the Constitution. Sickening.


The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences!!

Ask Marion: My nomination for WOTW is the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

There were some amazing movies made this past year... but as usual, the liberals in Hollywood seemed to miss the mark at the Oscars.

American Sniper made as much at the box office as the other 7 Best Picture nominees for the 87th Academy Awards combined and the Clint Eastwood (who was not nominated) directed film that had received 8 nominations only took home one Oscar. The Alzheimer’s film Still Alice was not even nominated for best picture, although Julianne Moore won the Best Actress Oscar. And Anjolina Jolie’s directed film, Unbroken, was ignored during this entire award season.

“In the end”, said Best Picture presenter Sean Penn “it’s not about box office or politics… it’s about the movies themselves”. Perhaps he should have read the anonymous Oscar ballots published in The Hollywood Reporter… nearly all were based on anything but merit. But that is liberal Hollywood and the Oscars or as Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris joked “the dependent spirit awards”.

 

The evening was filled with the promotion of endless personal and liberal causes as the winners and presenters took the opportunity to push or comment on their personal favorites. But even with that, the evening seemed to backfire on them with Senn Penn’s joke while presenting the Best Picture award to his friend and the ‘of Mexican decent’ director director Alejandro González Iñárritu of Birdman. Penn’s ‘Green Card’ joke went viral; after all there is no room for humor in America these days unless it is focused on conservatives. Some even went as far as commenting that Penn’s remarks ruined the Oscars… When someone as liberal as Sean Penn is accused of racism after making a joke, you know that things are completely out of control.


 Well, there it is. What a despicable group of  Weasels...ANY OF THEM COULD WIN! Check back Thursday to see which Weasel walks off with the statuette of shame!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

 And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

Justice: US Jury Awards Terror Victims $218M From PLO

Justice delayed, but justice at last.

An American jury ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and The Palestinian Authority as co-defendants to pay $218 million in damages for PA and PLO funding and abetting terrorist attacks in Jerusalem that killed and gravely injured American citizens.

The trial, which took place in federal court in Manhattan found in favor of 10 American families suing over six attacks attributed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah) and Hamas. The award might be tripled under the US Anti-Terrorism Act:

"Now the PLO and the PA know there is a price for supporting terrorism," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an interview after the verdict. [...]

Victims and their families had requested more than $350 million, or over $1 billion after tripling, over shootings and bombings from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 people and injured over 450.

In closing arguments, plaintiff attorney Kent Yalowitz had urged the Manhattan jury to order the PLO and Palestinian Authority to pay $350 million for providing material support to terrorists involved in six bombings and shootings from 2002 to 2004.

No amount could make up for the human toll, he said. "But if the only thing you can give them is money, then money has to stand in as compensation for the unspeakable loss," he added.


The PLO's lawyers, of course, stated that their clients wouldn't even hurt a Jewish bunny rabbit, and that these 'radicals' (whom the PLO is paying salaries to,using as heroic role models, lionizing in their mosques, schools and media and naming public buildings after) did what they did for their own reasons.

They will of course appeal, but this is still a landmark verdict. Hopefully these damages could be collected by going after the $2 billion Palestine Investment Fund(PIF) Fatah's slush fund created using stolen donor funds, the personal assets of the PLO and PA official involved or subtracted from any aid given to 'Palestine.'

Throughout the trial, US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan largely denied bids by the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to dismiss the long-running lawsuit. At a court hearing in December, Daniels also reaffirmed his decision in 2008 finding that his court had jurisdiction over claims against the Palestinian Authority and PLO despite changes in law at the appellate level.

The Sokolow family, the lead plaintiff in the trial, testified three weeks ago; a January 2002 bombing injured Jamie Sokolow, her sister Lauren, her mother Rena and her father Mark, all of whom testified.


Adding some unintentional comedy to the proceedings was the despicable Hannan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee. According to her testimony - wait for it - Yasser Arafat worked very hard with US and Israeli officials to combat terrorism.

I'm sure the judge had to bang his gavel to restore order after the bitter laughter that undoubtedly broke out after that disgraceful lie.

Kol Hakavod to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Kent Yalowitz and the rest of their team whom won an important victory for human decency and justice today.

Forum: Should Racially Gerrymandered Districts be Eliminated By Law?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:Should Racially Gerrymandered Districts be Eliminated By Law?

Laura Rambeau Lee,Right Reason : Throughout the 20th century racially gerrymandered districts seemed to be a “fair” practice allowing minority voices to be recognized and counted in elections. Today districts are not so much racially gerrymandered as they are being drawn along party lines. It is no surprise that districts including predominantly African-American or Hispanic voters can be counted on to vote for the Democratic party candidate. We no longer need to draw districts along majority-minority lines. Racially gerrymandered districts should be eliminated.

Ask Marion :Racially motivated gerrymandering should be eliminated. There are no positive benefits from partisan gerrymandering. Districting should be delegated to a nonpartisan commission in each state or by programming a computer that will create districts of equal population that are geometrically compact.

JoshuaPundit :  In some ways, this should be  a Tenth Amendment Issue. In theory, the feds shouldn't be telling the states how to construct their voting districts, as long as there are no federal issues, such as deliberate obstruction to citizens exercising their voting rights.

However, what's happened lately is that the Feds have stepped into this with both hands and feet, deliberately obstructing the active duty military vote, fighting legitimate attempts by the states to enact reasonable voter ID laws, refusing to investigate obvious voter fraud for partisan or even racial reasons and even refusing to prosecute blatant voter intimidation, again on a partisan and racial basis.

The current system of racially gerrymandered districts is practiced exclusively by one party, and largely discriminates against whites and Asians. Certainly if whites demanded specially gerrymandered districts 'to make sure our voices are heard' they would be denounced, justifiably as racists. It is time this practice was ended, and it should be a matter of federal law.

Nor is the usual argument, that this would somehow deny minorities a voice valid in my view. It has already been amply proven that whites will vote non-whites into office. By allowing these partisan, racially gerrymandered districts, are we somehow implying that blacks and Hispanics are more racist than whites?

This strikes me as the typical Leftist bigotry of low expectation, and in any case, it is simply an unjust  practice.

 Well, there you have it!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

The Council Has Spoken! The Watcher's Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

"The difference between golf and government is that in golf you can't improve your lie." - George Duekmejian, former Republican governor of California

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. -President Thomas Jefferson

""If we can really understand the problem, than the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem." - Krishnamurti

"It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you." - Will Rogers




This week's winning essay, The Right Planet's – More Hipster Harf: ‘We Can’t Stop ISIS by Killing Them; We Need to Give Them Jobs’ uses State department Spokesperson Marie Harf's ridiculous statement about buying off Islamic State and others with 'jobs' as a starting point for an explanation on why the Left has such a problem facing up to radical Islam. Here's a slice:

For many years now I have said the State Department needs to be cleaned out from top to bottom. And I’m not alone in that opinion, either. The U.S. Department of State has a long history of working against the best interests of the United States, consistently shilling for all things socialist. Those who have looked into tax-exempt foundations like the Carnegie Endowment, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Consortium, Guggenheim Fellowship, etc., and the subsequent investigation by the Reece Committee, might know what I’m talking about.

The first U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, once said, “Consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If the diplomats who have mishandled our relations with Russia were merely stupid, they would have occasionally made a mistake in our favor.”

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf recently told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews ISIS could be stopped if we could just create jobs for them.

At first blush, for those ignorant of Marxist ideology, this sort of thinking seems preposterous. Well, I am strongly inclined to agree. But I digress.

For dyed-in-the-wool Marxists and their fellow travelers (sympathizers), it makes perfect sense. This is why I believe it so important more Americans gain a better understanding of Marxism—since it is lauded and approved of by so many American universities and the liberal media, not to mention those in positions of power within our own government.

Karl Marx believed our view of history needed to be changed (cf. “hope and change”). Cleon Skousen wrote in his book The Naked Communist about the central importance economics plays in the Marxian religion. Marx believed history should be changed to “a fixed, undeviating, pre-determined course of progress which could be charted in the past and predicted for the future on the basis of a single, simple criterion—economics.”

According to Marx and his votaries, if we could only “level the playing field” by making everyone and everything the same (see “equality and fairness”), it would usher in a veritable utopia, i.e., the long hoped for “workers’ paradise.” Interestingly, about 90 percent of what Karl Marx wrote concerned economics (see Das Kapital).

Well, let’s just get something straight: ISIS doesn’t give a damn about economics—quite the contrary. Their motivations and actions are not influenced by Marxism, per se, but rather the teachings of Muhammad, and a literal interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith.

Although it should be noted that Marxism and Islam have quite a bit in a common.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Graeme Wood in the Atlantic with an interesting piece, What ISIS Really Wants submitted by Bookworm Room . He attempts to present something very rare in today's climate, an examination of the conflict from the point of view of Islamic State.An excellent read.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Bookworm Room and Ask Marion were unable to vote this week, but neither was subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes!–The Right Planet – More Hipster Harf: ‘We Can’t Stop ISIS by Killing Them; We Need to Give Them Jobs’


• Second place with 2 votes –Simply Jews – Then we'll kill us some Jews too...


• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –The Noisy Room – ISIS Parades 17 Kurdish Fighters in Cages to be Burned Alive Like Jordanian Pilot


• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -The Independent Sentinel – Stunning: Barack Obama Refused to Share Intel With Egypt and Jordan


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Bookworm Room – Getting Obama On Board With Israelis: They’re not imperialists; they’re just undocumented immigrants!


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Razor – Fifty Shades Of Pathetic


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! - Will Hanover Schools Teach ‘Both Sides’ of the Pilot ISIS Burned Alive?


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Nice Deb – Supporters of Violent Extremism To Participate In WH Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (Video)


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Chris Hayes Gets One Right On Similarity Of Muslim Murders To Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown Killings


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Ask Marion – Palimania And Why She Can Win

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 2/3 votes! –Graeme Wood/The Atlantic-What ISIS Really Wants submitted by Bookworm Room


• Second place with 1 1/3 votes –Judicial Watch – Border Patrol Ordered to Release Drunk Drivers, “Allow Them to Go On Their Way” submitted by The Right Planet


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Caroline Glick –Obama: Mainstreaming Jew-Hatred in America submitted by The Noisy Room


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Folks Do the Randomest Things submitted by The Watcher


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Tom Gross – What Bat Mitzvah? Nothing Random Here submitted by Simply Jews


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad/The National Interest – Navigating a Turbulent Middle East submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – Joas Wagemakers on al-Maqdisi & the Jordanian pilot negotiations submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -The Other McCain – Tea Party & GOP Elite Walk Into A Bar. . . submitted by The Watcher


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Breitbart – CNN Lists Attacks by Islamists, Says ‘Religion’ Had Bad Week submitted by VA Right!


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Megan McArdle/Bloomberg –A Few More Arguments Against Obamacare submitted by The Razor


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -David Greenfield/FrontPage Mag –Heroes of Freedom Died in Copenhagen submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – U Cal Student Gov't votes to divest from most of world, including U.S.submitted by Rhymes with Right

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

Our Weasel Of The Week!

It’s time to present this week's statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!

Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week's nominees were all slime-worthy and disgusting,but in the end the overwhelming winner was....the envelope please...

 
Obama's Hand Picked Wanna Be Propaganda Kommissar, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler!!

  JoshuaPundit: For his plans to take total control of the internet, make it a utility and hugely expand  taxes and fees. And to  'regulate' internet and broadcast content to shut down 'extremist' (AKA conservative,  anti-Obama thought) via a 323 page plan he refuses to let congress or the public see.


Yes, Tom Wheeler is definitely one slimy weasel...such people are unworthy to live in a free society.


Well, there it is! 

Check back next Tuesday to see who next week's nominees for Weasel of the Week are!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum, and  remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

Watcher's Council Nominations - 'All ISIS Needs Is Jobs' Edition

The Obama Regime's State Department in action, courtesy of spokeshole Marie Harf:



When even Chris Matthews gets it (sort of), we're in real trouble.

The Obama regime can't even create decent jobs here in America, let alone Iraq. Do these people seriously think we're going to be able to buy off Islamic State?

Then there's the president's new 'war' request,which ought to be voted down, at least at this time. The video above tells us why the sort of mindset that prevails in the White House shouldn't be trusted to manage a successful war.

First, the AUMF Matthews refers to isn't really a declaration of war, just another half-assed 'authorization', and we've certainly been there before.

Second, IS is not anywhere near the imminent threat Iran is, and taking IS out simply delivers Iraq to Iran as part of their goal... a Shi'ite, Iran-ruled nuclear armed bloc controlling both sides of the Persian Gulf and stretching to the Mediterranean. Taking out IS simply removes one more obstacle to Iran, the same way our taking out Saddam Hussein did. Let's deal with Iran first..which of course will never happen with this president.

And finally, based on this president's record as commander-in-chief, do we really want him in charge of creating yet another stupid blunder? Do we want our troops fighting another war and dying because they're handcuffed by his ridiculous rules of engagement? Just today, he insulted the Egyptians and criticized them for bombing targets in Libya after IS killed a number of Egyptian Copts there..whom the Obama Administration in their statement pointedly did not refer to as Christians.

Our president would be challenged running a McDonald's successfully,let alone a war. A loose AUMF that gives him the leeway to play amateur strategist in between golf games is not the answer.

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

This week, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The People's Cube, and The Political Commentator earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have for you this week....

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – ISIS Parades 17 Kurdish Fighters in Cages to be Burned Alive Like Jordanian Pilot


• Simply Jews – Then we'll kill us some Jews too...


• Bookworm Room – Getting Obama On Board With Israelis: They’re not imperialists; they’re just undocumented immigrants!


• The Right Planet – More Hipster Harf: ‘We Can’t Stop ISIS by Killing Them; We Need to Give Them Jobs’


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – New AUMF


• VA Right! - Will Hanover Schools Teach ‘Both Sides’ of the Pilot ISIS Burned Alive?


• The Razor – Fifty Shades Of Pathetic


• Nice Deb – Supporters of Violent Extremism To Participate In WH Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (Video)


• The Independent Sentinel – Stunning: Barack Obama Refused to Share Intel With Egypt and Jordan


• Rhymes With Right – Chris Hayes Gets One Right On Similarity Of Muslim Murders To Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown Killings


• The Glittering Eye -Intervene in Haste, Repent at Leisure


• Ask Marion – Palimania And Why She Can Win

Honorable Mentions

• David Gerstman/Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Obama's Concessions to Iran Alienating Allies


• The People's Cube - Isn't it time you upgraded your Race Card to a Gay Card?


• The Political Commentator - I am running out of (printable) words to describe Barack Obama!

Non-Council Submissions

• Caroline Glick –Obama: Mainstreaming Jew-Hatred in America submitted by The Noisy Room


• Tom Gross – What Bat Mitzvah? Nothing Random Here submitted by Simply Jews


• Graeme Wood/The Atlantic-What ISIS Really Wants submitted by Bookworm Room


• Judicial Watch – Border Patrol Ordered to Release Drunk Drivers, “Allow Them to Go On Their Way” submitted by The Right Planet


• Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad/The National Interest – Navigating a Turbulent Middle East submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Breitbart – CNN Lists Attacks by Islamists, Says ‘Religion’ Had Bad Week submitted by VA Right!


• Megan McArdle/Bloomberg –A Few More Arguments Against Obamacare submitted by The Razor


• FrontpageMag -Obama White House Partners with ISIS-Linked Group submitted by Nice Deb


• David Greenfield/FrontPage Mag –Heroes of Freedom Died in Copenhagen submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – U Cal Student Gov't votes to divest from most of world, including U.S.submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – Joas Wagemakers on al-Maqdisi & the Jordanian pilot negotiations submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Gary P. Jackson/A Time For Choosing - “Irrelevant” Sarah Palin Steals the Headlines at SNL’s 40th Anniversary Bashsubmitted by Ask Marion


• The Other McCain – Tea Party & GOP Elite Walk Into A Bar. . . submitted by The Watcher


• Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Folks Do the Randomest Things submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter

Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees

It's time once again for the Watcher's Council's 'Weasel Of The Week' nominations, where we pick our choices to compete for the award of the famed Golden Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations!

Here are this weeks' nominees....


Governor And Apparent Love-Itis Victim Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber!!


 The Noisy Room : My nomination this week is Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber who is embroiled in a weird green scandal with his fiance and had to resign this week over it. Kitzhaber's fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, was allegedly using government contacts to enrich her private business. Hayes earned about $213,000 as a consultant during Kitzhaber's first term, and multiple sources said she frequently guided government contracts toward firms that did business with her. She's now being accused of running what's called a "pay-for-play" scheme where her influence over the former governor was translated into jobs and money for people willing to give her business.

The scandal got so weird, heated and bad that politicians from both sides of the aisle asked Kitzhaber to resign immediately. With Kitzhaber now gone, Oregon's next governor will be the current Democratic Secretary of State Kate Brown. That will make her the first bisexual governor in the US. And here's where it gets even weirder: On Wednesday, Kitzhaber reportedly asked Brown to return to Oregon from a conference in Washington, D.C., for a one-on-one meeting. Brown returned and met with Kitzhaber Wednesday afternoon. The governor was expected to announce his resignation at that meeting, but instead he apparently asked Brown why she "came back early," conveniently ignoring the fact he asked her to.
This utterly confused everyone. Brown herself said the meeting was strange calling ita "bizarre and unprecedented situation." Bizarre and unprecedented are good words, but others have also called the whole thing "illegal." As of Friday, both the state attorney general and the FBI are looking into the
couple.



Obamabot Apparatchnik, Media Muffin And Pants Crease Expert David Brooks!!

The Right Planet : Faux "conservative" David Brooks seemed to go out of his way to excuse Brian Williams and his fanciful tales of derring-do. Apparently he feels it reflects badly on the media, or something. Huh. Ya think? Brooks' admonished us to "cultivate a capacity for forgiveness":

"I personally think the reaction against [Brian Williams] is way out of proportion to what he did. And I think we all have to cultivate a capacity for forgiveness, a rigorous forgiveness for what he did. And I personally hope he continues his job."

What the heck does that mean? Cultivate a capacity for forgiveness? For crying out loud, I've heard it all now. You first, Mr. Brooks, et al., ... start a "forgiveness garden."


 
Obama's Hand Pick Wanna Be Propaganda Kommissar, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler!!

 JoshuaPundit: For his plans to take total control of the internet, make it a utility and hugely expand  taxes and fees. And to  'regulate' internet and broadcast content to shut down 'extremist' (AKA conservative,  anti-Obama thought) via a 323 page plan he refuses to let congress or the public see.

 Well, there it is. What a despicable group of  Weasels...ANY OF THEM COULD WIN! Check back Thursday to see which Weasel walks off with the statuette of shame!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

 And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

Forum: What Do You Like Most About Where You Live? What Would You Change?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question: What Do You Like Most About Where You Live? What Would You Change?

The Right Planet: One thing I like about living in Indiana is the people. The "folks" are pretty down to earth here--a lot of "salt of the earth" types--which I prefer. There is a very strong work ethic in this neck of the woods. I've always respected and admired that. There's more of a "get 'er done" mentality in the Midwest. Additionally, things are pretty stable here economically as well. You can buy a home for a reasonable price, among other things, unlike places like California or New York.

My only complaint is winter. I really hate winter. I, myself, do not have a love affair with the whole "change of seasons" thing. I would change that if I could. Although, admittedly, I enjoyed the climate when I lived in Los Angeles. But we dealt with smog alerts, brush fires, and earthquakes--and the resulting aftershocks that lasted for weeks or months. Yeah, I don't miss that, for sure. The other advantage is the locale. If you want a big city experience, you can head toward Chicago. If you want a small town experience ... well, they're everywhere here. If you want an "international" experience, you can head toward Canada. Being located smack dab in the middle of the country also has its advantages should a SHTF event ever occur.

Laura Rambeau Lee,Right Reason :I have lived in the Tampa Bay area for most of my life, having moved here from Pennsylvania with my family in 1970. While many people believe Florida is the state where people go when they retire, the average age here is in the low to mid 40s.

Located near the Gulf of Mexico and the beautiful beaches along the Gulf coast, it is a great place for those who love boating, scuba diving, sunbathing, or fishing. If you are into sports, we have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (football), the Tampa Bay Rays (baseball), the Lightening (ice hockey) and the New York Yankees have their spring training here.

Tampa International Airport is one of the best airports in the country and was ranked third among global airports serving between 15 and 25 million passengers a year in 2013. In 2013 it was also ranked third best airport in North America. We also have several large cruise lines leaving out of Tampa every week for voyages to the Caribbean Islands.

We are within an hour and a half drive to Orlando and Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios. Busch Gardens is right here in Tampa and visiting the Lowry Park Zoo is a great way to spend a day with the family.

MacDill Air Force Base is home to Central Command and the military makes up a lot of the residents of the Tampa Bay area, many who remain here after they retire.

With the University of South Florida and the USF Medical School, along with the Moffitt Cancer Center, medical care and facilities are state of the art.

If seeing Broadway shows is your thing, we have the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center bringing full seasons of classic Broadway and off Broadway shows.

No matter what type of food you crave, you can find it in Tampa. The Columbia Restaurant is world renowned for its Spanish and Cuban cuisine. We have major steak house chains, as well as many wonderful Thai, Indian, Korean, Brazilian, Chinese and Italian restaurants.

On the negative side, progressives are trying to force urbanization and multi-use development into the old downtown area, as are many similar sized cities. We have a large conservative presence in the Tampa Bay area and have been successful in stopping the push for increases in our sales tax to promote the building of light rail within the city with promises of jobs and economic development. We have been able to defeat these referenda in Hillsborough and surrounding counties with overwhelming opposition from voters. Even after these defeats they continue to push this agenda and we have been forced to continue to fight their efforts. It would be nice if our trusted servants would listen to the voters and stop pushing this agenda and wasting time and tax payer money on these special interest development plans.

The winters are relatively mild. As we see the north-east being hit with severe blizzards this year, we are enjoying lows in the low to mid 40s and highs in the low 60s to mid 70s.

The cost of living is relatively low, and Florida has no state income tax. Whether you are looking for a cosmopolitan atmosphere or a laid back rural lifestyle, you can find it in the Tampa Bay area.

 Ask Marion : I live in Temecula California and have lived in southern California for most of my life.

The things I like best about where I live is that you can do pretty much everything you can think of from here. You can surf in the morning, go snow skiing the same afternoon and then go to a Hollywood premier that same evening… should you so desire.

You also have access to people and things in the greater LA area that if you pursue them could help you make a difference… from politics to rescuing pets to affecting our entertainment industry and culture.

I am also very proud that the people of Temecula-Murrieta had the courage to take a stand against amnesty and President Obama’s illegal policies.

What I’d like to change about where I live is the progressive culture and liberal politicians who have taken over one for the most beautiful states in America and moved it to a state that people want to leave instead of come to.

 Well, there you have it!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

The Council Has Spoken! The Watcher's Council Resuts

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.


 

This week's winning essay,Joshuapundit's -The Burning Man And The Walking Dead is my look at Islamic State, the recent immolation of a Jordanian Pilot, the reaction of certain western leaders and the uncomfortable truths of what they all signify.

Here's a slice:


By now, the burning alive of captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh by Islamic State has become common knowledge.

His captors imprisoned him in a cage, doused it with gasoline, and made a trail of gas leading to it, so that he could see the flames approaching. They then lit it on fire, filmed his agony as it spread to the cage and engulfed it and then put out a slick,professionally produced video of the whole thing, released by Islamic State's Al-Furqan media center. The video was titled 'Healing the Believers' Chests,' which has a meaning worth exploring it detail.

The video itself started with footage of Jordan's King Abdullah essentially declaring war on Islamic State and announcing his support for the anti-IS coalition. It then interspersed shots of al-Kasasbeh sitting in a darkened room and giving details on the air strikes he participated in against Islamic state with TV-style news reports showing the results of the airstrikes. And of course, an emphasis on scenes dead and dying child victims. It then cuts to the immolation of al-Kasasbeh.

The reaction from the West was illuminating. Both UK PM David Cameron and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond referred to this as 'murder'. President Barack Hussein Obama's statement didn't even go that far:



“You know, I just got word of the video that had been released. I don’t know the details on the confirmation. Should in fact this video be authentic, it’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. And I think we will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated. It also indicates the degree to which whatever ideology they are operating off of, it’s bankrupt. We’re here to talk about how to make people healthier and make their lives better. And this organization appears only interested in death and destruction. Thank you very much, everybody.”

Both PM Cameron and President Obama's remarks reveal a great deal about their mindset. To Cameron and Hammond, this is a 'murder' carried out by criminals. President Obama didn't even go that far, just seeing IS as some malcontents who need 'increased vigilance' and 'determination' to be thwarted. That's how they see it..not as war, or as terrorism or, mercy no, anything to do with Islam, but just a band of criminals.

Want to know how Islamic State sees it?

As a wartime execution, as tactics, as fully justified by Islam and not as murder at all. And as barbaric as they are, they have a point. Murder, after all, has a personal element, for sex, for money or to shut someone up. This wasn't murder.

Perhaps it's worth remembering that Islamic State was originally armed and trained by the Obama Administration,  and that their enemies were Hezbollah, the Syrian forces of Basher Assad and the corrupt Shi'ite Iraqi government and its troops. They did not attack U.S. forces or those of any European country. The way they see it, we declared war on them, and without formally announcing it as the Qu'ran mandates. And it was the U.S. that intervened with air strikes, that has put together a loose coalition of Sunni autocrats to attack them and has been allowing Shi'ite Iran to intervene directly and wage war on them.

Of course, after the brutality Islamic State has made its trademark, especially  on any non-Muslims like Christians and Yazidis, a case could be made for going to war against them. But it wasn't and we haven't. All we've done is supply some arms and advisers to the Kurds and the Iraqi Shi'ite army and perform some air strikes and drone attacks.

Because to actually go to war against Islamic State might also involve certain problems, since literally everything Islamic State is doing is fully justified by the Qu'ran. That's why the Obama Administration and UK PM David Cameron are ever so careful not even to whisper the word 'Islam'  where IS is concerned.

Now, Jordan, being an Arab Muslim State did declare war on IS, and publicly. That's exactly why Islamic State showed that footage of the King doing so in their video, why they were careful to include the Jordanian pilot's confession of participating in the bombing attacks and why they were careful to show a number of brutalized children that IS  claimed were victims of those attacks.

You see, they learned this tactic from Hamas and Hezbollah. And while they probably may have figured out by now that it only works in creating an uproar in places like Europe and in the UN if it's Israel defending itself, it will likely have that desired effect on many Muslims.

In fact some Arab members of the coalition were already easing themselves out, although the White House is claiming that they're all still committed to defeating Islamic State and were just taking a breather.We'll see, but it's a fact right now that only Jordan is now more committed than it was after Moaz al-Kasasbeh's death. That's why the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a big part of the coalition,  just sent a squadron of F-16s to Jordan that the  Obama Administration just gifted the UAE as a 'reward' for joining up .

King Hussein's renewed commitment can be understood because Jordan is a U.S. client state heavily dependent on foreign aid, and because al-Kasasbe's death has been a unifying issue in an increasingly disunified kingdom. How long that lasts is anyone's guess.

The Sunni autocrats are wary for a couple of reasons. First, as they see the Obama Administration becoming increasingly closer to Iran, they also understand now that the Sunni forces of Islamic State represent one of the few checks to Iran in the region.

Obama allowing Iranian backed Shi'te rebels to overthrow a Sunni ally of America in Yemen and essentially okaying an Iranian colony and a brand new strategic threat to the Saudis and the UAE to emerge was a major wake up call. The Saudis are now bracketed by Iranian client states from the north in Iraq and from the south by Yemen, and they fear being surrounded and overwhelmed.

The second reason is that the Saudis and the other Sunni autocracies are gradually becoming leery of fighting Islamic state has to do with their need to placate conservative religious constituencies in their own kingdoms. However barbaric Islamic State seems to us, their ideology isn't 'whatever it is'  to quote President Obama but a mainstream fundamental reading of the Qu'ran and Sharia.

Which of course, is the core of the matter.


Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was former deputy assistant secretary of defense and former senior director of the National Security Council Michael Doran's essay in Mosaic Magazine – Obama's Secret Iran Strategy submitted by Joshuapundit.

What he's done here is a must read. His premise - and I largely agree with him - is that President Obama's appeasement of Iran isn't merely inexperience. It's not so much that there is no strategy in place, but that there has indeed been a consistent strategy, one based on this president's malignant ideology that has been his goal since day one. And thus far more dangerous.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Ask Marion was unable to vote this week,but was not subject to the normal 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 2/3 votes!–Joshuapundit-The Burning Man And The Walking Dead


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room – The Noisy Room – What This Video Of Jordanian F-16s Striking ISIS Tells Us Is Alarming And The Implications Regarding the US Are Troubling


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Bookworm Room – The difference between the Muslim conquests and the Crusades, in a single picture


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –The Independent Sentinel – King Abdullah, Warrior King, Barack Obama, Wimp King


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Rhymes With Right – On Obama’s Prayer Breakfast Speech


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – The Regime Doubles Down: Kosher Deli Terror Attack in Paris Was Random-Not Anti-Semitic Attack


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Right Planet – Trolling the National Prayer Breakfast

li>Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Razor – Evidently Marijuana is Legal in NC Because These Reviewers Are High
li>Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Simply Jews – Bibi does DC and some US Jews get their panties in a bunch. Is there a case for that?

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes!–Mosaic – Obama's Secret Iran Strategy submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place with 2 votes –Ralph Peters – Islam's Countless Slaves submitted by The Watcher


• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –Mark Steyn/NRO –The Glamor Of Evil submitted by The Noisy Room


• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Elliot Abrams/CFR – What the President Thinks He's Doing submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Harry's Place – David Cameron and Muhammad Salah submitted by Simply Jews


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Walter Russell Mead –Why the White House Is Getting Lonelier on Iran submitted by The Razor


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Ed Morrissey/Hot Air – High horses and bull puckey: Professor Obama’s history lesson a dud submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Andrew Johnson/NRO - Obama Didn't Just Lie about Opposing Gay Marriage; He Kept Citing His Faith While Doing It submitted by Nice Deb


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -The Muslim Issue- Islamic India: The Biggest Holocaust in World History...Whitewashed from History Books submitted by Bookworm Room


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Dennis Prager – Obama's Moral Idiocy submitted by The Watcher


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Daniel Pipes – About Those 14 "Muslim-American Leaders" Who Met with Obama submitted by VA Right!


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Political Chicken – State Republican Executive Committee to Select New State GOP Chair March 7th submitted by Rhymes with Right

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

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