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...

 

Superhero, Medal of Honor Winner,Captain Of The Starship Enterprise And Now Former NBC Newscaster Lyin' Brian Williams!!

 The Right Planet : Brian Williams claimed the helicopter he was aboard was forced down after being hit by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) during the Iraq invasion in 2003. But military personnel who were there at the time claim Williams was not in the Chinook helicopter that received shrapnel damage from the RPG. Brian Williams then admitted his "mistake" in a lengthy Facebook post, blaming the ‘fog of memory over 12 years.' Now, there are a number of allegations going around claiming Williams has a history of embellishing his experiences, including saving puppies from a fire, seeing dead bodies float down a river during Hurricane Katrina, and Katyusha rockets whistling past his helicopter while he reported from Israel in 2006. Maureen Dowd recently wrote NBC execs were warned a year ago Brian Williams was "constantly inflating his biography." Interestingly, some so-called "insiders" allege Williams has been lying for years, and NBC knew all about it. If true, why did NBC choose to do nothing about it?

 Virginia Right! : My nomination this week is Lyin' Brian Williams the NBC News Anchor who prefers to embellish the news and be the news rather than just read it.

I'm not sure what it is about the Middle East. All the Liberals seem to have delusions of grandeur and feel the need to put themselves in harm's way, but only in their minds.

NBC already had credibility problems and replacing Williams will not be easy. There is no such thing as an honest left wing journalist. There are only those that have been caught lying and those who have yet to be caught lying.

Let's have some fun and look at a few of the other Lyin' Brian snapshotz:








Now, all this does sort of make you stop and think. OK, Brian Williams has told a heckuva lot of lies,but then he's not really a journalist - he just plays one on TV. He's really just an actor hired for his ability to sell the Leftist narrative anyway. So why does he catch all kinds of hell and lose his job when those whom tell  lies that do real damage, like President Obama , the Clintons, and a host of others get a pass..usually by people like Brian Williams?

I think I understand why.

Think of the Left and its ideas as one big seedy carny, where the rubes and their wallets are lured by loud, impressive carnival barkers with a swift line of gab to patronize third rate acts and rigged games where it's next to impossible to win any of the flashy prizes on display. Impossible, that is unless you're a paid shill working for the carny to 'win' something and draw a crowd of people whom swallow the con and line up to try their luck.

 

Ever been to one of those?

Now, if people really thought about it, they'd realize that the cooch dancer in the tent they bought  $5 tickets to see do her erotic snake dance wasn't really a young, sexy blond like  the barker said but probably someone's bored middle aged overweight wife whose act was nothing worth anywhere near that much. And they'd realize that they might be able to buy some of those stupid prizes at the games outright for far less than playing them for 20 minutes or a half hour was going to cost them, and in the end, they'd actually have something for their money instead of a sheepish grin and an empty wallet.

What reeled them in, of course, was belief, belief that they were actually going to get something special. Belief stoked by the barkers and the shills.

And that's why Brian Williams got slammed.

You see,   Brian Williams was one of the barkers, the guy selling the con.  If one of those screws up and gets caught, well, you simply  hire another one, and maybe recycle somebody like Brian Williams a few months down the road when everybody's forgotten all about what happened. Meanwhile, he can sweep up or clean out the concession stands or something else  backstage to make himself useful until his 'comeback.'  

But  Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the other usual suspects and the crap they're peddling are the con, and that's very different. They're the tawdry merchandise barkers like Williams, the crowd at MSNBC and the New York Times are selling. It's one thing to axe a salesman or a shill who got clumsy and got caught. It's another thing entirely when the rubes find out the product is garbage, the acts aren't nearly as appealing as they were told they were and that all important  belief gets suspended. Then the marks stop showing up with money in hand, the whole carny is merely seen as the predatory animal it is and the show could go out of business.

So let's award Brian Wilson his well-earned Golden Weasel.. If anything, what happened is that he forgot he was just the carnival barker rather than the talent itself. Trying to stretch things so that he was the show rather than just another shill was where he went wrong.

 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 - Toaster 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, Seraphic Secret, The Political Commentator, The Pirate's Cove and The People's Cube 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 – What This Video Of Jordanian F-16s Striking ISIS Tells Us Is Alarming And The Implications Regarding the US Are Troubling


• Simply Jews – Bibi does DC and some US Jews get their panties in a bunch. Is there a case for that?


• Joshuapundit-The Burning Man And The Walking Dead


• The Independent Sentinel – King Abdullah, Warrior King, Barack Obama, Wimp King


• The Right Planet – Trolling the National Prayer Breakfast


• VA Right! - Handicapping the Virginia 12th District State Senate Race


• The Razor – Evidently Marijuana is Legal in NC Because These Reviewers Are High


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Strategic Patience


• Rhymes With Right – On Obama’s Prayer Breakfast Speech


• The Glittering Eye -Rauner’s First State of the State


• Nice Deb – The Regime Doubles Down: Kosher Deli Terror Attack in Paris Was Random-Not Anti-Semitic Attack


• Bookworm Room – The difference between the Muslim conquests and the Crusades, in a single picture


• Ask Marion – Is the Taliban a Terrorist Group?–Brooke Goldstein & Andy McCarthy on the Kelly File

Honorable Mentions

• Seraphic Secret - Obama's "Whatever" Ideology In Action


• The Political Commentator - If Obama looks like a duck, walks like a duck...


• The Pirate's Cove - Man With Largest Footprint In World Thinks “Climate Change” Bigger Threat Than Terrorism


• The People's Cube - Leave Brian Williams Alone!

Non-Council Submissions

• Mark Steyn/NRO –The Glamor Of Evil submitted by The Noisy Room


• Harry's Place – David Cameron and Muhammad Salah submitted by Simply Jews


• Mosaic – Obama's Secret Iran Strategy submitted by Joshuapundit


• Sultan Knish –Obama's Big Fat Greek Budget submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Tim Powers/Conservative Read – An Open Letter To Those Who Are Indifferent To The Ongoing Destruction Of Our Republic submitted by The Right Planet


• Daniel Pipes – About Those 14 "Muslim-American Leaders" Who Met with Obama submitted by VA Right!


• Walter Russell Mead –Why the White House Is Getting Lonelier on Iran submitted by The Razor


• Elliot Abrams/CFR – What the President Thinks He's Doing submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• The Political Chicken – State Republican Executive Committee to Select New State GOP Chair March 7th submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Ed Morrissey/Hot Air – High horses and bull puckey: Professor Obama’s history lesson a dud submitted by The Glittering Eye


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


• The Muslim Issue- Islamic India: The Biggest Holocaust in World History...Whitewashed from History Books submitted by Bookworm Room


• Dennis Prager – Obama's Moral Idiocy submitted by The Watcher


• Ralph Peters – Islam's Countless Slaves 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!

The Burning Man And The Walking Dead

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.

The fighters for Islamic State have a cause, one they're deeply devoted to, the creation of a Islamic Caliphate.Their devotion to that cause is absolute, so absolute that they unhesitatingly attacked and destroyed a professional Iraqi army that vastly outnumbered them and had far better equipment, including tanks. They not only have attracted the loyalty of numerous young men and women from Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere in both the West and the Muslim world, but pledges of loyalty and allegiance from numerous Muslim groups like al-Nusra and Boko Haram.

They are united, their fighters are disciplined and effective, and have a clear objective, that of victory, because they know they're in a war and so do their leaders. They have both media savvy and a good knowledge of what inspires their fellow Muslims..or makes them quake with fear. For instance, the burning of the body of a Muslim is strictly forbidden, because according to sharia it prevents them from ascending to the Muslim Paradise. Burning al-Kasasbe to death was Islamic State's way of declaring al-Kasasbe a Kuf'r, a non-Muslim for his role in killing his fellow Muslims. Rest assured that message got across to the men Islamic State's warriors will be fighting against.They now have the symbol of the Burning Man embedded in their consciousness,almost like a flag Islamic State's warriors can carry before them into battle.

On the other hand, facing them, we have nothing but division among our forces. With  the exception of the Kurds, what we have is an increasingly wary Sunni coalition that doesn't trust Iran or  our commander -in chief, and with good reason. And the Kurds are getting just enough military supplies and equipment from the U.S. to hold their own with Islamic State, as a bow to the wishes of Turkey, Iran and Iraq, none of whom want the Kurds to be strong enough to assert their independence.

We also have the demoralized Iraqi army, the Iran backed Shi'ite militias including Hezbollah, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops, all of whom are playing their game, not ours, which is to create a nuclear armed Shi'ite bloc of their own for the Ayatollah. And stuck in the middle, we have our handful of U.S. advisers and our sea and air forces who at present are handcuffed with rigid rules of engagement and tactics that essentially ensure that victory - whatever that is - isn't a serious option.

Our leaders go to some pains to announce that we're not in a war , and refuse to even name whom we're fighting against. There's no clear goal or objective,beyond our disconnected president's vague throw away notions of 'defeating and degrading them' something he appears not to be overly concerned about anyway.There's no real strategy at all, our troops are demoralized over a lack of mission and even our generals are openly complaining about how non-entities without military knowledge or experience like NSA Susan Rice are micromanaging things.


What this president does seem to be concerned with primarily is empowering Iran in the region, a strategic nightmare and a deadly course for America.

Let no one assume that we will somehow escape the specter of the Burning Man,either the one Islamic State carries or one launched by Iran at the Great Satan at a time of their choosing.

Under Barack Hussein Obama's failed leadership, we have become vulnerable to a degree unimaginable before he took office. And if that does not change, we are on the road to becoming the Walking Dead.

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....

 
Gun Confiscator And Progressive Zombie Senator Chris Murphy ( D-CT)

The Noisy Room : I am nominating Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) who along with gun-hating nuts Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen.Robert Menendez (D-NJ) joined bill co-sponsor Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CN)to announce a bill that would limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds nationally.

Murphy stressed that he has not met 'a single hunter or a single person who hunts for sport' who needs more than 10 rounds. And being the Progressive whacko he is, Murphy is promoting an agenda to disarm the American people and he needs to obscure the facts. As such, he went to the old standard of demonizing lawful gun owners.

He said those who wanted high-capacity magazines were more interested in 'arming against the government.'

So, Murphy is equating people who choose to exercise their Constitutional rights with militants who desire an armed insurgency. He's saying that having a 30-round mag is the same thing as joining ISIS. The truth is nearly every gun owner in America is a responsible citizen, including the millions who own modern sporting rifles and 30-round magazines. It's a pity for weasely Murphy that the darned Constitution keeps getting in his way.

 

Superhero, Medal of Honor Winner,Captain Of The Starship Enterprise And Yes, NBC Newscaster Brian Williams!!

 The Right Planet : Brian Williams claimed the helicopter he was aboard was forced down after being hit by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) during the Iraq invasion in 2003. But military personnel who were there at the time claim Williams was not in the Chinook helicopter that received shrapnel damage from the RPG. Brian Williams then admitted his "mistake" in a lengthy Facebook post, blaming the ‘fog of memory over 12 years.' Now, there are a number of allegations going around claiming Williams has a history of embellishing his experiences, including saving puppies from a fire, seeing dead bodies float down a river during Hurricane Katrina, and Katyusha rockets whistling past his helicopter while he reported from Israel in 2006. Maureen Dowd recently wrote NBC execs were warned a year ago Brian Williams was "constantly inflating his biography." Interestingly, some so-called "insiders" allege Williams has been lying for years, and NBC knew all about it. If true, why did NBC choose to do nothing about it?

 Virginia Right! : My nomination this week is Lyin' Brian Williams the NBC News Anchor who prefers to embellish the news and be the news rather than just read it.

I'm not sure what it is about the Middle East. All the Liberals seem to have delusions of grandeur and feel the need to put themselves in harm's way, but only in their minds.

NBC already had credibility problems and replacing Williams will not be easy. There is no such thing as an honest left wing journalist. There are only those that have been caught lying and those who have yet to be caught lying.



 Bookworm Room: Yes, yes, I know he's been nominated a dozen times before, but President Barack Hussein Obama is the weasel-gift that just keeps giving. I mean, honestly, can you imagine any president before Obama going before the National Prayer Breakfast, a primarily Christian function, and castigating its members for being associated in some way with Crusades that took place a thousand years before? Because he's not a member of the clergy, it was amazingly arrogant and disrespectful. Because he's an ignoramus, it was amazingly factually wrong. And because he's a Leftist, it attempted to deflect attention from present-day depredations by practitioners of the religion that shall not be named, by strongly implying that the religion that shall not be named is simply acting out a reasonable response to Christian provocation (a thousand years ago).

Frankly, for this one, Obama should get a special "Weasel into Eternity" award.

 
Rep. G.K. Butterfied (D-NC), Cop Hater And Anti-Israel Head Of The
Congressional Black Caucus.

 JoshuaPundit: G.K. Butterfield is the head of the Black Congressional Caucus. Now,  he could be nominated for his campaign to have all shootings where a black person is killed in an altercation with police judged not by local  prosecutors but by a 'special prosecutor' appointed by the Obama Justice Department (because of course, the entire justice system is racist).

But this week, the weasel merits my attention for another reason. He's a willing tool to bash Israel and support an anti-Israel president.

President Obama, in his continuing efforts to make Israel a partisan issue has been urging Democrats to boycott Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech on Iran's nuclear weapons program...and one of the first calls went out to Butterfield, the head of the CBC, whom eagerly complied. So far, there are 11 other members who are boycotting the speech, including Maxine Waters, John Lewis, Muslim members Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush, James Clyburn, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Barbara Lee, Charlie Rangel, Gregory Meeks, and there are at least 12-14 others I could name whom will probably follow along like John Conyers and Sheila Jackson Lee based on what they share with the ones who have already agreed to boycott, including Butterfield....their stridently  anti-Israel voting records.

In the grand scheme of things, it makes little difference. It's not like Israel is losing any friends here, if you get my meaning. But some of these people ought to be ashamed of themselves, especially the older ones like John Lewis and Charlie Rangel. They've conveniently chosen to forget and ignore  that without Jewish funding, advocacy and help in organizing the civil rights movement, it might very well have taken many years more for the Civil Rights movement's successes, if they happened at all. It remains a long overdue debt.

Perhaps it's too much to expect even a  bit of gratitude, especially since there are several anti-Israel Leftist  Jews also boycotting the speech to give these members of the CBC cover. But I'd expect at least a little shame deep inside, for what little that's a worth. Of course even  that won't exist, since most of  the CBC will gladly follow Butterfield's urging, and become willing soldiers in Obama's anti-Israel campaign.

This  is truly despicably weasel behavior. And I hope in the end the inevitable payback hits them all hard and unmercifully.

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?

CBS: Rape Doesn't Qualify As A 'Physical Injury'

This one is jaw dropping even for one of the Alphabet networks.

CBS in the San Francisco Bay area ran a horrendous story about a Domino's Pizza delivery woman who was kidnapped and raped in broad daylight while making a delivery in Antioch, a small suburb of Oakland in Contra Costa County.

An armed man described as a juvenile pulled a gun on her, forced her to drive to a secluded spot and then raped her. To show you how brilliant the perpetrator was, after the assault was reported, the police were able to arrest him easily - at the same home where he had asked for the pizza to be delivered.

But the last part of this story is what caught my eye:

Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre said the company is “shocked and horrified by what happened.”

McIntyre said the company will give the employee whatever support she needs. It was not immediately known if she was physically injured.

This poor woman was forcibly raped, and CBS doesn't know if she was physically injured?

Being raped doesn't qualify as a physical injury, no matter what else she might have been subjected to? Is 'aw, she was just raped, it's not like she was physically injured' CBS's viewpoint nowadays?

I point this out because the reporters on this network have repeatedly run stories bloviating about 'rape culture' and  'the Republican's war on women.' Funny, but I've never seen  any thing this insensitive towards rape victims on say, FOX.

The hypocrisy on display is amazing.

Forum:Is Journalism Dead?

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 : Is Journalism Dead?

 The Independent Sentinel : If journalism isn't dead, it's critically wounded. People are going to blogs more-and-more for their information out of desperation.

Journalists by-and-large are no longer reporting the news, they are manipulating it.

They aren't journalists any longer, they are commentators, inventors of the news, and political operatives. They no longer serve as watchdogs and they aren't embarrassed by that fact.

Journalists who don't go along are brought into line or they are out the door.

Brian Williams is NBC's Walter Mitty but there are far more dangerous posers out there who are transforming the way Americans think, when they are not dumbing them down that is.

Dan Rather is still revered.

We accept all these liars and there is no accountability when they lie.

Simply Jews : Journalism as a profession isn't  dead and will never be dead. As any profession it requires professional education, extensive support (both on the ground and in the back office, including professional fact checking and, not to be forgotten nowadays, legal support). The tools and the means do change with time and technology progress, but it doesn't mean that citizens journalism will be ever able to fully replace the professional one. At the best it will serve as a watchdog and as a complementary tool, but not as a replacement.

As for cases of sloppy or politically (or otherwise) skewed journalism: these are probably inevitable, as long as the live people, with all their conflicting motivations and all their strange impulses continue to work in the field. Why should, to take one example, Brian Williams signify the end of the journalism, when we had a much earlier example of Walter Duranty? And, not being a scholar of journalism history, I bet that such examples go many years back, way before Duranty. Rotten apples are an inevitable presence in any bushel of apples. And the fact that cases like these are discovered and aired by the fellow journalists is the best warranty of the general health of that profession. It is a keeper.

 JoshuaPundit : Journalism itself isn't dead, but it's become  rare, and more often than not an unpaid (or poorly paid) pursuit. The process started, I think,  when the Left took over most of the major journalism schools and having the proper ideology became increasingly important when it came to getting hired.. And as the the Left began increasingly using news as political propaganda at  institutions they controlled like the New York Times and the Associated Press wire services, which allow 'reporters' to simply rewrite whatever these organs put out and disperse it without actually questioning it or investigating it further.


It was the Left's control of most of the mainstream media that led to alternative channels like FOX, the conservative blogosphere and talk radio. Would Rush Limbaugh have 23 million people listening to him every day if the major newspapers and the alphabet networks on TV were actually practicing journalism? If they hadn't been caught in so many deliberate lies and misstatements? And the practice has never stopped.

There is still a market for journalism..in fact, I think people are hungry for it. But the Left isn't going to give up its megaphone any time soon, nor do I see proper standards of  journalism or a differentiation between news reporting and commentary emerging in the near term.

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD : Gotta go with Mikey G on this here topic...

What difference does this make? For many conservatives, the "mainstream media" is an epithet. Didn't the Internet expose the lies of Dan Rather? Many on the left also shed few tears, preferring to consume their partisanship raw in the new media.

Most cable news networks have forsaken objectivity entirely and produce little actual news, since makeup for guests is cheaper than reporting. Most Internet sites display an endless hunger to comment and little appetite for verification. Free markets, it turns out, often make poor fact-checkers, instead feeding the fantasies of conspiracy theorists from "birthers" to Sept. 11, 2001, "truthers." Bloggers in repressive countries often show great courage, but few American bloggers have the resources or inclination to report from war zones, famines and genocides.


The democratization of the media -- really its fragmentation -- has encouraged ideological polarization. Princeton University professor Paul Starr traced this process recently in the Columbia Journalism Review.

After the captive audience for network news was released by cable, many Americans did not turn to other sources of news. They turned to entertainment. The viewers who remained were more political and more partisan. "As Walter Cronkite prospered in the old environment," says Starr, "Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann thrive in the new one. As the diminished public for journalism becomes more partisan, journalism itself is likely to shift further in that direction."

Cable and the Internet now allow Americans, if they choose, to get their information entirely from sources that agree with them -- sources that reinforce and exaggerate their political predispositions.

And the whole system is based on a kind of intellectual theft. Internet aggregators (who link to news they don't produce) and bloggers would have little to collect or comment upon without the costly enterprise of newsgathering and investigative reporting.

The old-media dinosaurs remain the basis for the entire media food chain. But newspapers are expected to provide their content free on the Internet. A recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans refuse to pay for Internet content.

There is no economic model that will allow newspapers to keep producing content they don't charge for, while Internet sites repackage and sell content they don't pay to produce.

Professional journalism is not like the buggy-whip industry, outdated by economic progress, to be mourned but not missed. This profession has a social value that is currently not reflected in its market value.

The Right Planet : Is Journalism dead? At first glance, it certainly looks that way. But, to be fair, there are some who attempt to do honest journalism (former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson comes to mind). But they appear to be a dying breed.

So just what is journalism? As one who studied journalism in college, I was taught to simply ask the who, what, why, where, when and how, minus the editorializing. I've long been of the opinion the major networks (i.e. ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) abandoned journalism long ago, replacing it with political advocacy masquerading as journalism--specifically, shilling for "progressive" causes and the Democrats. I've heard people on the right, and even the left (see Kirsten Powers), refer to the major news networks as "state-run media." That says it all, if you ask me. So much for a free press, huh! I've noticed, at least in my own experience, that the mere act of simply asking the who, what, why, where, when and how is enough to send a number of leftist political advocates masquerading as journalists into an apoplectic fit. It's as if many so-called journalists have merely become "narrative readers" shilling for all things progressive. Anything deviating from the leftist narrative is ridiculed, mocked, dismissed, marginalized, demonized, etc.

Syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., who writes for CNN, recently came out and unambiguously stated he believes there is a strong bias at the major networks (including CNN) that favors Democrats, while constantly demonizing Republicans. As far as what can be done to remedy the situation, I'm a big fan of competition. There's a new news network called One America News Network (OANN) that appears to be trying to do some honest journalism, separating editorial content from reporting. I wish them success. I think we need more OANN's right now. The leftist leanings of many so-called news organizations is undeniable, in my opinion. And those who would state otherwise are simply being disingenuous, or suffering from a severe case of denial.

The Glittering Eye : Journalism is alive and well. It's committed on a regular basis by our very own Tom of Virginia Right! and Greg of Rhymes With Right. However, there are a number of aspects of journalism as it has been practiced that are extinct, on life support, or endangered that include:

- the 5Ws style of reporting
- beat reporters
- foreign bureaus
- copy writers
- big city dailies
- newspaper conglomerates financed with debt

The 5Ws style of reporting (who, what, where, when, why) has been considered obsolete for a generation. It has been replaced with the "point of view" style--something that used to be eschewed as editorialization. If you find it difficult to tell the difference between the news section and the opinion section that's why. Only the largest newspapers have foreign bureaus anymore. They've been replaced with foreign stringers or the wire services and I hold that responsible for the very low quality of the reporting about what's going on outside our borders. Beat reporters, too, are becoming increasingly rare.

The big noise in newspaper writing today is the automation of writing routine stories. Basically, copy writers and, largely, editors are becoming things of the past. They'll be replaced by a computer program.

Big city dailies have collapsing for the last half century. In 1960 Chicago had a dozen different daily newspapers. Now it has two and those are both parts of large media conglomerates.

Something I've been predicting for some time is the decline of the debt-financed newspaper conglomerate. For thirty years we saw newspaper after newspaper gobbled up by one conglomerate or another, the purchase financed with debt, the newspapers themselves saddled with the debt, in essence paying for their own purchase, and the conglomerate taking cash out of the deal. It sounds like a good plan until you factor in the competition newspapers are getting from the Internet in general and Craiglist in particular. Nowadays the margins are so slim in the newspaper business it's hard for the newspapers to service their debt. Small highly local newspapers are still doing okay. They don't have the debt problems and their owners don't expect to lead lifestyles of the rich and famous, much as stereotype of the newspaper business has been for over a century, when Joe Pulitzer invented the newspaper conglomerate.

These are all subjects I've written about from time to time over at The Glittering Eye. Before he landed a job as a lawyer my dad worked as an editorial writer for the old St. Louis Star and the insights he conveyed to me about the nature of the newspaper business seventy-five years ago have given me an interest in and a distinct viewpoint on the developments in the business today.

  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 Brian Williams Scandal - When Lying Doesn't Matter

NBC's $11 million per year anchorman Brian Williams has been outed for 'misremembering' the details of a supposed exploit he's been telling for years, about being shot at in combat while he was reporting the news from a helicopter in Iraq.

Over the years, the story expanded and expanded, until it was finally challenged by service members whom were actually there. And even a carefully worded 'apology' ended up being challenged.

Among other things, the actual pilot of the aircraft outed this for a lie..the same pilot Brian Williams told a nationwide audience on David Letterman's show had received 'a purple heart' for being wounded.

Brian Williams began to tell the story, from 2003, that the lead aircraft in our flight had received this ground fire.

This was not true.

Brian Williams then began to give account that the aircraft he was traveling on received this ground fire.

This is not true.

This had led to a number of other revelations about things Brian Williams has said during his career...like his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and tall tales about rescuing puppies from a fire.

More will undoubtedly surface, but I doubt in the end if it will mean anything.

Journalism, at least at the Alphabet networks and places like the New York Times died years ago. What matters now is advocacy, and for someone like Brian Williams, that means having the right politics and shilling for the Left. His job isn't reporting the news. It's reading the teleprompter and acting - using certain language and phrasing, his tone of voice and his body language to sell a certain point of  view and slant things in the proper direction. And he's good at it.

That's why I doubt NBC will fire him.Instead, they will concentrate on spinning this in several ways:

'Hey, everybody does it!' - They will push the theme that , you know, everybody exaggerates, don't they? We all lie about our golf scores, about how much money we make, about how we did in Vegas, now don't we? And besides, you know, nobody died, it 's no big deal is it? The same tactic was used successfully to turn President Bill Clinton's perjury and obstruction of justice into 'hey, everybody lies about sex.'

What will be ignored, of course is that lies by someone whom is a nationally known newscaster and supposedly a journalist is supposedly held to a different standard than someone who cheats at golf on on his taxes, just as a president of the United States should be held to a higher standard than your average neighbor hood adulterer...especially when he commits felonies by lying under oath about it and using the power of his office to induce others to lie for him and engage in a coverup.

Breaking stories on other anchorpeople if they can find them - can you even imagine the maniacal media frenzy if this was a FOX newscaster? Rest assured they will try to find something to offset this.

And of course, simply downplaying it and ignoring it until it goes away. Certainly the other alphabet networks and the dinosaur media will aid and abet on that one, simply because they're also vulnerable.

Of course, the real question that needs to be asked, the question about what has happened to journalistic ethics and standards will be ignored. The line between journalism and commentary has been deliberately blurred for quite some time, ever since the Left got control of America's major schools of journalism.

A free nation needs a free and unbiased press. We have now reached a time when journalism no longer exists and where people make up their own facts based on their pet ideologies. In that kind of atmosphere, it truly doesn't matter if Brian Williams lies like the proverbial rug.

What matters is how well he sells the narrative...how good an actor he is.

The Council Has Spoken! 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.

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad

“Mohamed Akram, explained that the Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” - Robert Spencer, Muslim Brotherhood in America




This week's winning essay,The Noisy Room's – The Muslim Brotherhood Calls For “A Long, Uncompromising Jihad” In Egypt After Meeting With US State Department is a well written account showing yet again how the Obama Administration empowers and supports Islamist at every turn. Here's a slice:

It couldn’t be more obvious to me that Obama and his Administration are in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. This past week, they held a confab at the State Department concerning their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013. And that just pissed Obama off to no end. Not hard to tell where his allegiances lie and they certainly aren’t with Israel.

Waleed Sharaby, who is a secretary-general of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council and a spokesman for Judges for Egypt, a group reported to have close ties to the Brotherhood, posed for a selfie in front of the State Department emblem while showcasing the Muslim Brotherhood Rabia four-finger sign. The caption under the pic says, “Now in the U.S. State Department. Your steadfastness impresses everyone.” The sign is named after Rabia Square in Cairo, where a large anti-coup sit-in was held for about forty days before it was dispersed. The sign is meant to express solidarity with the thousands wounded, killed and burnt by the Egyptian army during the dispersal and persistence of the anti-coup movement, whereas pro-coup activists, figures and media consider the sign to be a terrorist sign. Or should that be called an ‘armed insurgent’ sign since we are not allowed to call the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban or CAIR the scum bag terrorists they are? Confusing, huh? Only certain terrorists are actually terrorists according to Obama. Only the ones he doesn’t snuggle with. Actually, doing away with the word ‘terrorist’ altogether is straight out of CAIR’s playbook. Radical Islamists of a feather and all that.

The delegation not only included Sharaby, it also had on board Gamal Heshmat, a leading member of the Brotherhood and Abdel Mawgoud al-Dardery, a Brotherhood member who served as a parliamentarian from Luxor as part of its makeup. Maha Azzam, who was also part of the delegation, proclaimed that the talks were ‘fruitful.’ Yeah, I bet they were. Azzam was speaking at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID). This is yet another group accused of having close ties to the Brotherhood. Azzam also declared that the State Department expressed openness to engagement. Quoi? Engage in what precisely? So, does this mean that the Brotherhood is now just another arm of our State Department? It’s sure beginning to look that way.

Any fool can see that Obama is still supporting putting the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt and wants al-Sisi dealt with and gone. State Department officials would not comment on the content of the talks, several of which consisted of public get-togethers (by invitation) in Maryland and Virginia last week. I’m sure they had cocktails, while discussing the ouster of al-Sisi and the destruction of Israel.

From Patrick Poole:

Patrick Poole, a terrorism expert and national security reporter, said the powwow at the State Department could be a sign that the Obama administration still considers the Brotherhood politically viable, despite its ouster from power and a subsequent crackdown on its members by Egyptian authorities.

“What this shows is that the widespread rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East, particularly the largest protests in recorded human history in Egypt on June 30, 2013, that led to Morsi’s ouster, is not recognized by the State Department and the Obama administration,” Poole said.

“This is a direct insult to our Egyptian allies, who are in an existential struggle against the Muslim Brotherhood, all in the pursuit of the mythical ‘moderate Islamists’ who the D.C. foreign policy elite still believe will bring democracy to the Middle East,” Poole said.

Two days after the delegation meeting, the Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising Jihad” in Egypt. They released an official statement calling on their supporters to “prepare” for Jihad, according to an independent translation of the statement first posted on Tuesday.

In typical Muslim Brotherhood fashion, the releases in Arabic and English contradicted each other. Look to the Arabic translation for their true intentions. The English release is propagandic taqiyya for the infidels and nothing but lies:

A call for “a long, unrelenting Jihad” appeared on the Brotherhood’s Arabic language website Tuesday. The statement, first reported Friday by the Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo, starts by invoking a passage from the Quran: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of God and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know but whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of God will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.”

On its English language website Friday, the Brotherhood struck a dramatically different tone in an article in which it “Reiterates Commitment to Non-Violence.”

[…]

The English posting says Brothers who stray from non-violence “no longer belong in the Brotherhood, and the group no longer accepts them, no matter what they do or say.”

As the IPT has shown, offering mixed messages in Arabic and English is routine for the Brotherhood.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Michael Totten with a great piece in the City Journal – Chris Kyle wasn’t a savage; he killed savages. submitted by Joshuapundit. The film "American Sniper" seems to have sparked a visceral reaction in the Left, regardless of whatever cinematic or artistic merits it might or might not have. Michael Totten, as usual, cuts to the very bone of the matter. Recommended.

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

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes!–The Noisy Room – The Muslim Brotherhood Calls For “A Long, Uncompromising Jihad” In Egypt After Meeting With US State Department


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Neo-Paganism is sweeping the First World - and that's a bad thing *UPDATED*


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Joshuapundit-Breaking: NYT Admits Obama Deliberately Manufactured Netanyahu Spat


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Right Planet – Man In The Mirror


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Nice Deb – Don't Trust Do Verify: Questioning Corrupt and Politicized Climate Science


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Ask Marion –
  Washington Times’ Bombshell Tapes Confirm Citizen Commission’s Findings on Benghazi


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! - CCRC Chairman Don Williams Jeopardizing the GOP Committee’s Tax Exempt Status


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Simply Jews – Saving a man or Aaron Dover on my couch


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Rhymes With Right – Obama Decries Decision That Keeps Government From Limiting Political Speech, Activity


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Foreign Policy Vacuum


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye -In Which I Learn That I Am Not a Liberal

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! –Michael Totten/City Journal – Chris Kyle wasn’t a savage; he killed savages. submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Daniel Greenfield/FrontPage Mag–The Ghosts of Auschwitz in the Muslim World submitted by The Noisy Room


• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Anne's Opinions – Yemen insurgency shows the danger of the lack of a coherent US Middle East strategy submitted by Simply Jews


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –James Delingpole/Breitbart -Forget Climategate: this 'global warming' scandal is much bigger submitted by Nice Deb


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Jim Clifton/Gallup – The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment submitted by The Watcher


• Fourth place with 1 vote –Seth Mandel/Commentary – Scott Walker Rejects Your Premise submitted by The Watcher


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - The Belmont Club – Learning To Hate submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -James Lewis/American Thinker – Obama Is Openly Colluding with the Enemy submitted by The Right Planet


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Anka Pandit/The Diplomat – ISIS-Taliban Turf War in Afghanistan? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Reason Blog – 9-Year-Old Boy Suspended for Using Lord of the Rings Magic on Fellow Student 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!

Fanfare, everyone!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,but in the end the winner by a nose was....the envelope please...

 
Obama Consigliere And Puppet master Valerie Jarrett!

Virginia Right! : Valerie Jarrett for being the driver of hate behind Obama's animosity towards Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Western Journalism wrote:

The real questions are: Who is pushing this agenda? Who is pushing for Iran to go nuclear? And, who is so scared of Netanyahu briefing Congress and the American people on what Iran is up to?

The answer is Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s Rasputin. This is where the anger from the White House is coming from.

 Most people know she was born in Iran. This in itself does not disqualify her from advising the president, but it does open her agenda to scrutiny. There have been reports that she has been secretly negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue, but the White House has vehemently denied it.

I, for one, don’t trust a thing this administration says.

Now, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Obama administration has already given Iran eighty percent of what it has demanded in the negotiations.  The “deal” to be reached will leave Iran within months of going nuclear if they decide to move forward. All of the centrifuges will remain under their control.

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 - 'Who's A Terrorist?' 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:

The Council In Action!!

Tom White of VA Right continues his rise to blogging stardom..this week, he was the subject of a major feature in the Richmond Times Dispatch, as well as appearing on WLEE Mewstalk 990 AM for an interview on the Brother Craig show, which broadcasts during prime drive time. Talk about making waves!

My latest is up at the Times of Israel. If I can be permitted a small boast, it's currently their most read story as I write this.


This week, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The People's Cube, The Pirate's Cove and Seraphic Secret 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 Muslim Brotherhood Calls For “A Long, Uncompromising Jihad” In Egypt After Meeting With US State Department


• The Independent Sentinel – This is what's wrong with American Sniper and snipers in general


• Simply Jews – Saving a man or Aaron Dover on my couch


• Rhymes With Right – Obama Decries Decision That Keeps Government From Limiting Political Speech, Activity


• Nice Deb – Don't Trust Do Verify: Questioning Corrupt and Politicized Climate Science


• Joshuapundit-Breaking: NYT Admits Obama Deliberately Manufactured Netanyahu Spat


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Foreign Policy Vacuum


• The Razor – Terf Wars


• The Right Planet – Man In The Mirror


• VA Right! - CCRC Chairman Don Williams Jeopardizing the GOP Committee’s Tax Exempt Status


• The Glittering Eye -In Which I Learn That I Am Not a Liberal


• Bookworm Room – Neo-Paganism is sweeping the First World - and that's a bad thing *UPDATED*


• Ask Marion –
  Washington Times’ Bombshell Tapes Confirm Citizen Commission’s Findings on Benghazi

Honorable Mentions

• David Gerstman/Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Tom Cotton takes a hard stance on Iran


• The People's Cube - Islamic State's War on Women vs. Republican War on Women


• The Pirate's Cove - Obama’s Unserious Budget Is Still Mostly About Creating A Fight


• Seraphic Secret - The American Sniper Effect: What it Says About the 2016 Election

Non-Council Submissions

• Daniel Greenfield/FrontPage Mag–The Ghosts of Auschwitz in the Muslim World submitted by The Noisy Room


• Nick Tell/NRO –Walker Squirms On Immigration submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Anne's Opinions – Yemen insurgency shows the danger of the lack of a coherent US Middle East strategy submitted by Simply Jews


• Reason Blog – 9-Year-Old Boy Suspended for Using Lord of the Rings Magic on Fellow Student submitted by Rhymes with Right


• James Delingpole/Breitbart -Forget Climategate: this 'global warming' scandal is much bigger submitted by Nice Deb


• Michael Totten/City Journal – Chris Kyle wasn’t a savage; he killed savages. submitted by Joshuapundit


• Anka Pandit/The Diplomat – ISIS-Taliban Turf War in Afghanistan? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Reason.Com –The Voluntarily Unvaccinated Are Harming Other People in California Measles Outbreak submitted by The Razor


• James Lewis/American Thinker – Obama Is Openly Colluding with the Enemy submitted by The Right Planet


• Ace Of Spades HQ – Jordan: Hey, You Know How You Demanded We Release A Female Terrorist Prisoner In Exchange for Our Downed Pilot? submitted by VA Right!


• The Belmont Club – Learning To Hate submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Bloomberg/Megan McArdle-When Bread Bags Weren't Funny submitted by Bookworm Room


• Liberty's Spirit -Iran, the Bomb and Some Commentarysubmitted by The Watcher


• Jim Clifton/Gallup – The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment submitted by The Watcher


• Seth Mandel/Commentary – Scott Walker Rejects Your Premise 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!

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....

 

CBS '60 Minutes' TV Personality, Wascally Wacist and Sleazeball Steve Krofts!!

 The Noisy Room : My nominee this week is 60 Minute's Steve Kroft for not only being a
cheating slime bucket, but for also being uber paranoid of right-wing zealots catching him and being dumb enough to actually get caught. Let's also not forget he's racist - he didn't want to be seen with Harvard
educated Lisan Goines, because she was black and the differences between them would be too 'noticeable.' Good enough to dance between the sheets, but not good enough for public appearances.

An absolute Obama suck up, Kroft bragged of being best buds with Obama and how Obama actually hates Eric Holder. Now that's journalism for ya!

Oh yeah, baby

The Manhattan mistress of married '60 Minutes' newsman Steve Kroft
sent him sexy lingerie photos during their affair, but he insisted
she dress low-key 'like Laura Bush' with him in public to keep
things hush-hush, according to newly revealed texts.

A source close to Kroft's lover told The Post that the TV hotshot
was 'really paranoid about right-wing zealots finding out about
their affair' and using the tawdry details to try to destroy his
career and CBS.

The sexts between Kroft and Lisan Goines (obtained exclusively by
The Post)include a nude selfie of the lusty lawyer that she sent
to her much-older lover. Other photos show her wearing a red thong
and busting out of a black bra.

But "dress in Washington is Either professional or Laura Bush,"
Kroft messaged his illicit squeeze in advance of their September
2011 play date at the Park Hyatt on 24th and M streets in DC.

"Don't dress like Beyonce," Kroft warned the Harvard-educated
beauty, according to the source.

In addition to fearing the zealots, Kroft, 69, was "beyond
terrified" that his wife of 23 years, fellow journalist Jennet
Conant, would find out about the affair, the source added.

Kroft needed absolutely no help in destroying himself. He excelled at
it. You'd think a 69 year-old would know better. His wife is going to
literally kill him and it serves the weasel right. Now, I have to go
bleach my eyes and knock myself unconscious hoping I can forget this
slug's sexcapades.


Hack Writer And Rebel Without A Clue Sheldon Richman!!

The Independent Sentinel : Reason writer Sheldon Richman has some stellar weasel qualities.

First he compared American hero Chris Kyle with the mad shooter of Sandy Hook, Adam Lanza, saying Kyle 'went to a place he had no right to be, heavily armed, and murdered people who never threatened him at home.' He added that the victims were 'defenseless like Lanza's victims'.

Not satisfied with this idiocy, he out-weasled even himself with several responses to tweets. He was asked in a tweet, 'So, to be clear. You are saying that if it came down to an Iraqi or #ChrisKyle, you would rather Kyle have been killed?'

He tweeted back, several times, "If that's the only choice, yes. He invaded, trespassed."

He followed up by tweeting he was 'no kind of capitalist'.

No surprises there!

 
 Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll!

  Bookworm Room : He presides over what may be the most boorish team in the league, he's probably a Truther, and he made the worst call in Super Bowl history.  None of that will change the course of the world, but he sure is weaselly.


 
Obama Consigliere And Puppet master Valerie Jarrett!

Virginia Right! : Valerie Jarrett for being the driver of hate behind Obama's animosity towards Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Western Journalism wrote:

The real questions are: Who is pushing this agenda? Who is pushing for Iran to go nuclear? And, who is so scared of Netanyahu briefing Congress and the American people on what Iran is up to?

The answer is Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s Rasputin. This is where the anger from the White House is coming from.

 Most people know she was born in Iran. This in itself does not disqualify her from advising the president, but it does open her agenda to scrutiny. There have been reports that she has been secretly negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue, but the White House has vehemently denied it.

I, for one, don’t trust a thing this administration says.

Now, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Obama administration has already given Iran eighty percent of what it has demanded in the negotiations.  The “deal” to be reached will leave Iran within months of going nuclear if they decide to move forward. All of the centrifuges will remain under their 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?