Forum: What Do You Think Of The Black Lives Matter Protesters ?

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 Think Of The 'Black Lives Matter' Protesters ? 

Don Surber : They are paid well. The chants need some work.


The Independent Sentinel : I am not impressed.

When I went to the spring Left Forum conference, a conference for the far, far left, three #BlackLivesMatter people sat next to me in the lobby. The woman in the group turned to me and literally hissed at me - I have no idea why.

One wore a t-shirt that said 'f... the police'. They were all drunk or stoned - I can't be sure which.

A worker for MORE, the Soros group, went over to them to apologize for not paying them promptly. They cursed at him, warned him it better not happen again or he'd see what they could do. They said they weren't making enough as it was and were making a lot of sacrifices.

The person from MORE groveled and promised it wouldn't happen again.

One was particularly scary - he had gang tats. Someone went up to him and asked for his autograph.

I guess he was important.


The Right Planet: What do I think Of the "Black Lives Matter" protesters? I think George Soros who has bankrolled the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and others like it, to the tune of $33 million. Like they say, follow the money.

Via the Washington Times:

Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times.

In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations.

"Black Lives Matters" was founded by three women, who then found themselves being showered with funding by radical leftists like George Soros. Interestingly, the movement has gone international; which means there's a bigger agenda at play here, and folks like Soros are at the center of it all.

This is classic Marxism, if you ask me: divide the people, create appearance of popular support, neutralize the opposition, precipitate mob violence, and create the semblance of "revolution." It's the old Marxist tactic of creating constant tensions, struggles and conflicts between opposing forces (i.e. dialectics) in order to move things toward a predetermined outcome--more than likely some big government solution. And it's the usual suspects--i.e., mainstream media, public education (esp. universities), and the federal government--who are agitating for the movement and actively promoting it. The fact of the matter is that not all black people agree (see here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Huh. Imagine that! But you'll never hear any contrary views concerning racial agitation if the only place you get your information is from academia, mainstream media and the government.


 Bookworm Room : The BLM protesters have an agenda, but it's not one that has anything to do with black lives. If they really cared, they'd be screaming most loudly in the deadly black ghettos in Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and other Democrat-run enclaves in which blacks killing blacks has become a competitive sport, with everyone the loser. Their goal, quite simply, is the accretion of power and they are using a tried-and-true playbook to do so.

Watching the BLM protesters at work, I am reminded of Shelby Steele’s White Guilt, which makes for illuminating reading. Steele, a black man, was part of the 1960s Civil Rights movement and was there, on the ground, in an Iowa University president’s office when he saw white guilt kick in, rendering the guilty party completely helpless, anxious only for the faint hope of redemption that acceding to extremist demands could provide:

I know two things about Dr. McCabe that help explain his transformation before our eyes into a modern college president: he was a man of considerable integrity, and he did not deny or minimize the injustice of racism. He had personally contributed money to Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference when this was not typical of college presidents. Thus, on some level—and in a way that may have caught him by surprise—he would have known that behind our outrageous behavior was a far greater American outrage.

And in this intransigent piece of knowledge was the very essence of what I have called white guilt. Dr. McCabe simply came to a place where his own knowledge of American racism—knowledge his personal integrity prevented him from denying—opened a vacuum of moralauthority within him. He was not suddenly stricken with pangs of guilt over American racism. He simply found himself without the moral authority to reprimand us for our disruptive behavior. He knew that we had a point, that our behavior was in some way connected to centuries of indisputable injustice. So he was trumped by his knowledge of this, not by his remorse over it, though he may have felt such remorse. Our outrage at racism simply had far greater moral authority than his outrage over our breach of decorum. And had he actually risen to challenge us, I was prepared to say that we would worry about our behavior when he and the college started worrying about the racism we encountered everywhere, including on his campus.

And this is when I first really saw white guilt in action. Now I know it to be something very specific: the vacuum of moral authority that comes from simply knowing that one’s race is associated with racism. Whites (and American institutions) must acknowledge historical racism to show themselves redeemed of it, but once they acknowledge it, they lose moral authority over everything having to do with race, equality, social justice, poverty, and so on. They step into a void of vulnerability. The authority they lose transfers to the “victims” of historical racism and becomes their great power in society. This is why white guilt is quite literally the same thing as black power.

(Steele, Shelby, White Guilt [KindleLocations 370-374]. HarperCollins; emphasis mine.)


Since Bernie Sander's obeisance to the BLM protesters shows that, on the Left, white guilt is still a powerful motivator -- despite the absence of any reason for that guilt, which distinguishes the present era from the Jim Crow era about which Steele writes -- the next question is "What will the BLM protesters do with this power when they get it?" My assumption, without doing any research, is that they will use it to further the hardcore Leftist Progressive agenda including, ironical enough, unending support for Planned Parenthood, an organization that makes the womb the most dangerous place in the world for an American black child.


Puma By Design : The ' Black Lives Matter' protestors are political operatives looking for an opportunity and payday not for just any Black life but their own.

While I do not agree with everything, R.L. Stephens II of Orchestrated Pulse’s article, Dear #BlackLivesMatter: We Don’t Need Black Leadership breaks down the objective behind the Black Lives Matter leadership, for example the likes of Tia Oso, national coordinator for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration in Phoenix, Marissa Janae Johnson, Black Lives Matter, Seattle and agent provocateur, TFA alumni/indoctrinator, DeRay McKesson.

Excerpt below:

You can’t build real mass political power that way, but building effective power is not their point. Make no mistake, this Bernie Sanders hoopla is ultimately about campaign jobs and foundation funding, not emancipation for the masses. These interruptions will create career opportunities for a few activists and political operatives…

If you recall, a few weeks back Oso interrupted former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont during a forum at the NetRoots Nation Conference.

Two weeks ago, Sanders hired Symone Sanders, a Black American as his press secretary.

On that same day, Johnson and another woman took the stage interrupting Sanders stump in Seattle forcing the senator to cancel the campaign appearance.

No, these interruptions are purely strategic and selfish.

A quote from Oso, "It is under the guise of keeping America safe, that Black communities are preyed upon.” Yet while Oso decries violence and discrimination against transgender people (whatever that is) and Blacks killed by law enforcement regardless of the circumstances surrounding the shootings, Oso and her ilk remain loudly silent on Black on Black crime.

In every instance where Black Lives Matter ideologues and comrades converged upon cities to create chaos and wreak havoc, the citizens of those towns, those who joined the movement, businesses and the local economies were left worse off.

Blaming it on a right-wing narrative, Black Lives Matter will not go near Black on Black crime. That alone should shame them into changing their name and their game, of which they are failing miserably but they will not. Instead, they will spend the next year interrupting, stealing the stage and making a scene.

If they are lucky, some loon will join the movement and martyr his or herself.

Their Caucasian slave masters will demand it and they will comply right on through the November 2016 election season.


  Well, there you have it.

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.

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

'What Thy Right Hand Possesses' - The Rape of Kayla Mueller

 

According to people loosely identified by ABC as 'counter terrorism officials' American captive Kayla Mueller was repeatedly tortured and made a sex slave by the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Mueller's family confirmed to ABC News that government officials have told them that their daughter, who would have turned 27 today, was the victim of repeated sexual assaults by al-Baghdadi.

"We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of al-Baghdadi. We were told that in June by the government," Kayla's parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, told ABC News today.

Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi who calls himself "Caliph" as ruler of the Islamic State, personally brought the enslaved 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, to be imprisoned inside the home of Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian in charge of oil and gas revenue for the group, counter-terrorism officials have told ABC News over the past several months.

"Baghdadi was at the house of Sayyaf. He delivered Kayla Mueller, live and in person," one of several counter-terrorism officials briefed on the case told ABC News.

These counter-terrorism officials claim they got this information from debriefings of at least least two Yezedi teenage girls who were also held as sex slaves in the Sayyaf compound as well as from the interrogation of Abu Sayyaf's wife Umm Sayyaf, who was captured in a U.S. raid. Kayla Mueller was reportedly killed by a Jordanian air strike last February.

 

The first thing that occurs to me is that it was incredibly cruel for the Obama Administration to tell Ms. Mueller's family these horrific details. Does any parent ever want to know that their abducted child died in pain and torment? Isn't it enough to know that they'll never see their loved one again?

I have a feeling the release of this news via ABC in this fashion is not coincidental. As I write this, President Barack Hussein Obama is arming and training a Syrian force known as 'The Army of Conquest' to fight ISIS and then Assad. The Army of Conquest (Jaish al Fata) is primarily composed of jihadis drawn from al Nusra and other Islamist groups, and the strategy Obama is pursuing is exactly how ISIS got started, as a part of the Free Syrian Army that this president  armed and trained in connivance with Qatar and Turkey without the knowledge of congress. Having built up one terrorist army and seen it go out of control and become ISIS, President Obama is now building up a second one to fight the first..ignoring the possibility that ISIS and Jaish al Fata might decide to join forces against Assad and the infidels. It might very well be that releasing a news story of this kind is designed to encourage the American people to pick sides and to embrace the Iran deal, with Hezboallah and Iran considered our new 'allies.' The Ayatollah Khameinei has said repeatedly that while Iran might fight ISIS on its own accord at a time of its choosing, the Iranians and their allies are definitely not going to operate in any sort of alliance with the  Great Satan. This, even though we're still arming Hezbollah and they're showing off their American weapons to the American advisers they're sharing bases with in Iraq.

If this seems like an insane 3 ring circus with the Obama Administration arming and training both sides of this conflict and no clear direction or strategy in mind, you get no argument from me. You can't make this stuff up.

Another thing to consider...while as usual the Obama Administration is carefully steering away from even mentioning the word 'Islam' it is worth knowing that this behavior is religiously sanctified by sharia and  the Qu'ran,  in verse 33.50 ("O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee" Pikthal translation) as well as 23.5-6. 4.24 and numerous other places.

This is not to say that all Muslims are rapists of non-Muslim women or that non-Muslims never rape captive women. But only in Islam is it religiously sanctified. The Bible actually forbids such practices and was the first recorded document to give women in that situation any rights at all, as laid out in Leviticus. But based on the Qu'ran, what happened to Ms. Mueller, a captive, is fully in accord with sharia. Mohammed himself took many sex slaves.

President Obama is bringing a lot of Muslims into America via diversity visas and refugee asylum programs similar to Europe's from countries like Syria, Somalia, Pakistan and other countries where sharia law based on the Qu'ran is practiced and the traditional cultures are built around these beliefs, including honor killings and FGM ( female genital mutilation).

Ironically enough, Kayla Mueller, who was something of a career activist actually worked for a while with the pro-terrorism International Solidarity Movement, whom supports the Palestinian Authority and Hamas where these practices occur with distressing regularity.

At last count, something like 800,000 Muslims have entered the US under these programs since Barack Obama took office and the screening has been fairly minimal. As I write this, another surge of refugees to America is being planned for Syrian Muslims by the Obama Administration with screening done not by our FBI but by the UN.

Europe has seen major problems develop by importing huge amounts of Muslims, many of whom are not at all compatible with European culture, are disproportionately on public assistance, want to impose sharia in their new home countries, and strongly resist assimilation. Crime among Muslim refugees in Europe is rampant, especially rapes involving Muslim males and non-Muslim females. For example, Stockholm, Sweden, once relatively crime free for a city its size has experienced a 300% increase in crime since it began importing substantial numbers of Muslim refugees into the country. Rapes have increased to the point where Sweden is one of the rape capitols of the world, with the second highest number of rapes per capita of any country on earth.

The vast majority of these rapes are committed by Muslim immigrants or their teenage sons whom may hardly think of these infidel women as anything more than 'what thy right hand possesses.'

Whether we want to change America in this fashion is a conversation the Obama Administration refuses to even consider, but I think it's a conversation we deserve to have as a nation, and sooner rather than later.

All human beings are equal, but cultures are not.As Kayla Mueller discovered too late, she wasn't in Arizona anymore.

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.

"Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!" - Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth , Act V, Scene 1

"Character is destiny." - Attributed to Greek philosopher Hereclitus, 500 BC


"There's hostility to lying, and there should be." -Bob Woodward


""Painful as the task is to describe the dark side of our affairs, it sometimes becomes a matter of indispensable necessity." -George Washington





This week's winning essay,Joshuapundit's -#Hillary Lied About Her E-Mails, Broke The Law And What It Really Means is my take on the scandal concerning Hillary Clinton's private server during her tenure as Secretary of State, the serious issues actually involved and ultimately, what's behind the curtain. Here's a slice:


Once again, Mrs. Clinton has revealed to us that if she tells you the sun is shining, you'd better make sure you have an umbrella handy.

Most polls show that the majority of Americans, for some odd reason consider her untrustworthy and an out and out liar.CNN’s national poll shows that 57% of Americans see her that way, and ABC News and the Wall Street Journal put that number at 52%.

She's continued to sing the old Right Wing Conspiracy song, and to claim, as she did in an interview with CNN's servile Diane Keillor, “When I mailed anybody in the government, it would go into the government system,” she said. “Now I didn’t have to turn over anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system.”

There are enough outright lies in that small paragraph to warrant a serious trial.

Even storing Federal records on a private server is a serious violation of the Federal Records Act for reasons that should be obvious, and a violation of the agreement Mrs. Clinton signed when she started at the State Department. Mrs. Clinton was likewise required to turn over any and all records in her possession to government, which she quite obviously did not do.

Not only did Mrs. Clinton fail to turn over work-related emails, but she and her staff also edited some of those emails before submitting them, as the Examiner's Sarah Westwood reported.

In legalese, this shows intent. Mrs, Clinton intended to deceive congress.Not only that, but the committee obtained a number of e-mails that were work related and were either edited or somehow missing from the 55,000 Mrs. Clinton turned in:

The missing materials, which the State Department says it does not have, came to Congress by other means. They include writings about the jockeying for oil contracts in Libya after President Obama engaging in a war without congressional approval to overthrow Moammar Gaddafi. This comes among her back-and-forth emails with Sidney Blumenthal, a former staffer who had been barred from employment in the Obama administration, to continue offering his insight and advice on Libya. [...]

But the proof of intent to deceive comes in the fact that Clinton or her staff actually edited some of the emails and turned over censored versions to State before destroying her copy of the originals.

I think we can reasonably be certain that cash donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for an inside track on oil deals or for Federal contracts involving Libya and other areas were the subject of some of these communications, but what's already known is damaging enough.

Another, much more serious problem than the usual lies and corruption is the fact that Mrs. Clinton's private server was almost certainly hacked by foreign agents. Her server lacked the normal security given to classified information within the government's official system. Professionals who have examined the security of Hillary private e-mail account have said that the question is not whether the account was hacked, but to what degree.

Not only were classified communications almost certainly compromised, but there's not telling what kind of personal, perhaps even indictable messages might have been scooped up. Imagine a president in the midst of negotiations with a foreign power like China, Russia or Iran suddenly confronted discretely with an ultimatum that unless she made certain far reaching concessions, certain information she desperately didn't want revealed would be made public.

Federal Law(36 CFR 1234.24) requires agencies to collect all records from “external electronic mail systems” so that they can be stored inside government archives. There's also a federal law (44 USC 3106) that authorizes legal action through the Attorney General and the Justice Department “for the recovery of records” that are threatened by destruction, deletion or erasure. Willfully destroying a federal record is a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Mrs. Clinton is already guilty of that crime as well by admitting she destroyed her server.

Like I said, a lot of lies in one paragraph.

Mrs. Clinton felt free to destroy her private server and laugh at the subpoenas from congress because she knew that President Obama's Attorney General and the DOJ were not going to take any action against her, again for obvious reasons. Among them is that there's no longer a requirement to do so.


To find out why,and what's really behind this go to the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Rueben Navarette Jr. with a moving piece, I Don’t Know if I’m Pro-Choice After Planned Parenthood Videos submitted by The Watcher.

This took courage and some obvious soul searching to write. It's always a threshold moment when person realizes that a belief they've held for some time might be a grave error.

Recommended.

Here are this week’s full results. Great Satan's Girlfriend, Ask Marion and Rhymes With Right were unable to vote this week, but none were affected by the normal 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes!-Joshuapundit-#Hillary Lied About Her E-Mails, Broke The Law And What It Really Means


• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes –The Right Planet – The Trump Factor


• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Bookworm Beat 8-11-15 — the illustrated edition, devoted to excavating the Leftist mind through Facebook posters


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! - I Like Donald Trump for President Because he is not for Sale and the Rest Are!


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Noisy Room – Put America On Cruz Control


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Don Surber – Carly For President


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Glittering Eye -Devaluation of the Yuan


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Razor – New Zealand Flag Ideas


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Independent Sentinel – Hillary Might Soon Have Her Own Server at Leavenworth

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! –Reuben Navarette Jr. -I Don’t Know if I’m Pro-Choice After Planned Parenthood Videos submitted by The Watcher


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Walter Russell Mead –A Deal Iran's hardliners can love submitted by The Razor


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The BelFer Center – A Guide To The Iran deal submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Andrew McCarthy – No Trust, No Verification, No Sanctions: Obama’s Humiliating Capitulation to the Mullahs submitted by Joshuapundit


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Mark Steyn–If It Bleeds, It Leads submitted by The Noisy Room


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Abraham Miller/JNS.org-The mindset of Progressive Jews and the "Israeli problem" submitted by Bookworm Room


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Jonah Goldbereg – GOP's Trump problem will fade, but Democrats' Bernie Sanders troubles are just beginningsubmitted by The Watcher


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -The Free Beacon -Jon Stewart Wanted Video Evidence That He Was an Obama Propagandist So We Found A Bunch submitted by Nice Deb


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Peter Ferrara/Forbes – The Disgraceful Episode Of Lysenkoism Brings Us Global Warming Theory submitted by The Right Planet


• Fifth place with 1/3 vote -Sheryl Attkisson –Fast and Furious: Guilty Plea in Brian Terry Murder submitted by Puma By Design

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!!

Yes, once again, 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 particularly slimy and despicable, but the votes are in and we have our winner...the envelope please...


 
Obama's Soviet-Style EPA!

JoshuaPundit : When they're not killing jobs and raising energy prices by killing coal or driving businesses overseas because of insane, arcane regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency does  a pretty good job of polluting....and breaking the law by trying to cover it up.

The Animas River in Southwestern Colorado in not only a major source of water and the aquifer in the area, but a wonderful recreation area and a prime environment for fish and wild life. Now, thanks to the EPA, its a polluted mess.

Obama's environmental commissars were nosing around and 'accidentally' - it's been difficult to get a straight answer on exactly what happened - broke into an abandoned mine and released a huge amount of chemical-laced water...that flowed right into the Animas River.

It appears that someone, believe it or not, used a backhoe to move some debris out of the way rather than removing it more carefully, since it was known there was water in the abandoned gold mine.

Even worse was that the EPA attempted to cover it up, at first saying it was just a minor spill and then finally admitting it amounted to over 3 million gallons. There have also been no answers about why the EPA took so long to repair the breech.

Fortunately the local authorities were able to keep the polluted mess, which contains
arsenic, lead and other metals out of the city of Durango's main reservoir, but wells and groundwater will definitely be affected.The polluted water has traveled down to New Mexico and to the Navajo Nation's reservation.

Durango and and La Plata County have declared states of emergency, and there's now a potential water shortage.

The Weaselness comes from the EPA's attempt to cover up what happened and shift the blame to the owner of the long abandoned mine for a catastrophe the EPA caused. Particularly odious was the E.P.A.’s regional director, Shaun McGrath, who led the charge, but he was just a Good German following orders. We all know that had a private company done something like this, the Obama Regime would be calling for their heads.

Yes, the EPA under Obama remind a lot of Soviet apparatchniks. Causing a major toxic waste spill through clumsy use of a backhoe, trying to cover it up and blame others for it and lying about the extent of it...it all reeks of Big Government run amuck. There's even a story out there about how one of the EPA spokespeople lied to the local ranchers and farmers about a large shipment of clean water coming their way that never arrived..except in the case of one rancher who had a personal connection with Colorado Senator Michael Bennett and had the brains to call him about it. He ended up with a 1,600-gallon tank and clean water for it. So far, few other deliveries have surfaced.

And the EPA, in an effort to avoid their responsibility are now claiming that most of the metals and chemicals are either safely buried in river sediment (!) or washed away, something the locals aren't buying at all. The City of Durango and and La Plata County are doing their own testing and continuing to insist the EPA clean up after itself.

The real Weaselness comes from the cover up, and from what the EPA would do to a private company whom behaved in this fashion...not to mention the headlines in the ObamaMedia.

  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?

Trump Defends Planned Parenthood

Remember Donald Trump's fairy tale about how he was now pro life at the GOP debate? How he knew a couple who were considering abortion but decided against it, and now that kid is a 'superstar?'

Well, today on Hannity, the real Donald once again revealed himself:

Hannity threw a few softballs at Trump, but also pressed him a little on specific policy proposals for Obamacare, the economy, and even Planned Parenthood.

And Trump kind of surprised Hannity by defending them, saying that abortion is only a “fairly small part of what they do” and overall they do a great service for women, so “we have to look at the positive also for Planned Parenthood.”

Why yes! Our taxes should definitely continue to fund trafficking in baby body parts.

I pretty much said everything I had to say about Trump's candidacy here.

He's there to ensure that his friends the Clintons get back into the White House, just like Ross Perot did in 1992. Trump ias this year's Ross perot

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....

 
RedState's Talking Head Erick Erickson!!


Puma By Design : I nominate RedState, Erik Erickson, for Weasel of the Week.

Late Friday night, Eric Erickson, disinvited Donald Trump from RedState Gathering supposedly because of disparaging remarks Trump made about Megyn Kelly. In turn, Erickson invited Megyn Kelly to speak in the Donald’s place.

His actions led to an uproar on social media and beneath the comment section of his post.

Erickson in his post laid out his rationale for disinviting Trump, alluding to the fact that Trump is a “non-professional politician” and a “blunt talker” only to expose himself later in the post:

The other day, we sent out the agenda for the RedState Gathering. The file had been saved with the “final” tag and the Washington sent it out. But it still had Governor Deal on the agenda and it did not have Donald Trump on it. Obviously, it wasn’t the final.

So then Erickson never really invited Trump? Trump was not invited. Or he was invited and Redstate just waited anticipating moment and opportunity to disinvite?

As time went on and RedState found itself inundated with comments from an endless wave of outraged voters.

How did RedState, a so-called Conservative website respond? They responded by deleting comments and when that didn’t slow down the wave is displeased readers directing their comments to Erickson, the moderator closed the comments section.

Throughout the RedState Gathering, a snarky Erickson read angry tweets that were directed at RedState. In addition, Erickson responded to tweets on social media but the tone of Erickson’s tweets gave one the impression that Eric Erickson was working overtime to cover himself.

Then we learn a day and a half later that Eric Erickson intentionally failed to extend an invitation to Dr. Benjamin Carson. Again, the rationale for not inviting Carson, seen by Erickson as another "non-professional politician" much like the excuse for disinviting Trump does not hold water.

According to Breitbart, Erickson allegedly attended two events where Carson was speaking before a group of veterans. According to Erickson, Carson spoke only of himself and Barack Obama failing to acknowledge the concerns or struggles of our vets. Then he went on to blame failure to invite Carson to the RedState Gather on the fact that there were limited slots available.

“I was at two different events for military non-profits in the last year,” Erickson stated. “They were non-profits that had asked Dr. Carson to speak about military veterans and the work he did with the disabled and both times he spent the entire time talking about himself and his battle with the president and it just struck me wrong. And when we were putting together a list of RedState speakers we had a limited selection and I chose not to put Dr. Carson on the list unless the other spots didn’t fill up. The other spots filled up so I didn’t ask him. I was impressed with his debate performance the other night and his closing statement but I just, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Okay, if the reason for not inviting Ben Carson had to do with limited slots being available, Erickson could have very well remedied that situation after disinviting Trump but he made no effort to because he had no intention of inviting Carson in the first place.

Erickson is obviously overlooking the fact that “professional politicians” is how this country got so screwed up in the first place.

Erickson is colluding with the media (Fox) and the GOP leadership to bring out long-term results unfavorable to the American people and for that, I nominate Erick Erickson for Weasel of the Week.

The Right Planet :While there were plenty of candidates for Weasel this week, I'm going to have to give the crown to RedState's Erick Erickson; who rescinded invitations to speak at a RedState event for GOP presidential candidates to both Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Now, let me just say that I'm not on the Trump bandwagon. I'm not trying to defend Trump. I have some serious reservations about Donald Trump. With that being said, Erickson apparently took umbrage with Trump's comments about Megyn Kelly as "a bridge too far." This is coming from the same guy who was praising Trump's retorts to Rosie O'Donnell not too long ago. It's also the same guy who once tweeted, that with the retirement of Justice David Souter,  America had lost "the only goat-f*cking child molester to ever serve on the Supreme Court." Some of Erickson's own views on women have left a bad taste in few people's mouths as well. Furthermore, Trump's "on her knees" comment that Megyn Kelly grilled him on at the GOP debate appears to have been taken completely out of context, from what I can gather. This really smacks of gross hypocrisy.

Erickson also calls Ben Carson a "non-professional politician"; and defended his un-invite by claiming Carson "spent the entire time talking about himself and his battle with the president" during a veteran's event he attended. Apparently, Erick Erickson and the Fox News moderators have decided to act as the gatekeepers. Are we going to let the media or the voters pick our candidates?



 
Target Stores!

The Noisy Room: My nomination this week is Target. More political correctness insanity rears its hoary head. This time Target has claimed that there has been a massive outcry that they remove gender references from toys and bedding. I just don’t believe there are millions of Americans crying out for this. If they are under pressure, it is a small radical, vocal minority. More likely it is a combination of pressure from the Obama Administration and Liberals among the upper echelons of their internal leadership. Kid’s clothing will still be separated and labeled by gender for the simple reason that sizing dictates it. But they’ll find a way around that before long and go to some stupid universal sizing code. You watch. This is just ridiculous. Little girls can no longer just be girls and God forbid that a little boy would just be a boy growing into a man. No – we are all transgenders now.

Our culture is not evolving – it’s twisting and disappearing. Home and entertainment is also being ‘de-genderized.’ I’m literally running out of places to shop these days over all this political correctness crap. I find myself shopping more and more through Amazon.com where at least I’m not subjected to this PC torture. I don’t want all of society to be the same, bland vanilla stereotype. We are allowing Progressive tyrants to paint us all with the same brush and herd us into one big controllable corral. People will ditch Target over this. I’m one of them. They can take their gender-neutral society and stuff it. This will not end well. For pushing Marxist propaganda for the Obama Administration, Target gets the nod for Golden Weasel this week.

 
Obama's Soviet-Style EPA

JoshuaPundit : When they're not killing jobs and raising energy prices by killing coal or driving businesses overseas because of insane, arcane regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency does  a pretty good job of polluting....and breaking the law by trying to cover it up.

The Animas River in Southwestern Colorado in not only a major source of water and the aquifer in the area, but a wonderful recreation area and a prime environment for fish and wild life. Now, thanks to the EPA, its a polluted mess.

Obama's environmental commissars were nosing around and 'accidentally' - it's been difficult to get a straight answer on exactly what happened - broke into an abandoned mine and released a huge amount of chemical-laced water...that flowed right into the Animas River.

It appears that someone, believe it or not, used a backhoe to move some debris out of the way rather than removing it more carefully, since it was known there was water in the abandoned gold mine.

Even worse was that the EPA attempted to cover it up, at first saying it was just a minor spill and then finally admitting it amounted to over 3 million gallons. There have also been no answers about why the EPA took so long to repair the breech.

Fortunately the local authorities were able to keep the polluted mess, which contains
arsenic, lead and other metals out of the city of Durango's main reservoir, but wells and groundwater will definitely be affected.The polluted water has traveled down to New Mexico and to the Navajo Nation's reservation.

Durango and and La Plata County have declared states of emergency, and there's now a potential water shortage.

The Weaselness comes from the EPA's attempt to cover up what happened and shift the blame to the owner of the long abandoned mine for a catastrophe the EPA caused. Particularly odious was the E.P.A.’s regional director, Shaun McGrath, who led the charge, but he was just a Good German following orders. We all know that had a private company done something like this, the Obama Regime would be calling for their heads.


 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?

Our Watcher's Council Nominations - Classified Edition

"OK, so some of the stuff was classified. So my server was hacked by foreign governments. What difference does it make now anyway at this point?"

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 Pirate's Cove, Gates Of Vienna 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 – Put America On Cruz Control


• Joshuapundit-#Hillary Lied About Her E-Mails, Broke The Law And What It Really Means


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – General Suleimani


• The Right Planet – The Trump Factor


• Puma By Design – Erick Erickson Rescinds Trump Invite to RedState Gathering over Megyn Kelly Remark


• The Razor – New Zealand Flag Ideas


• VA Right! - I Like Donald Trump for President Because he is not for Sale and the Rest Are!


• Bookworm Room – Bookworm Beat 8-11-15 — the illustrated edition, devoted to excavating the Leftist mind through Facebook posters


• Nice Deb – Hillary Gives Up Possession of Private Email Server/Top Secret Emails found on Acct.


• Don Surber – Carly For President


• The Independent Sentinel – Hillary Might Soon Have Her Own Server at Leavenworth


• The Glittering Eye -Devaluation of the Yuan


• Rhymes With Right – Retail Hypocrisy

Honorable Mentions

• The Pirate's Cove - Good Grief: Illegal Aliens File Tort For Being Detained


• Gates Of Vienna - In the Middle East, There Are Only Lose-Lose Options


• The People's Cube - Obanga and Keranga: a Peace Epic

Non-Council Submissions

• Mark Steyn–If It Bleeds, It Leads submitted by The Noisy Room


• Andrew McCarthy – No Trust, No Verification, No Sanctions: Obama’s Humiliating Capitulation to the Mullahs submitted by Joshuapundit


• The BelFer Center – A Guide To The Iran deal submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Peter Ferrara/Forbes – The Disgraceful Episode Of Lysenkoism Brings Us Global Warming Theory submitted by The Right Planet


• Sheryl Attkisson –Fast and Furious: Guilty Plea in Brian Terry Murder submitted by Puma By Design


• Walter Russell Mead –A Deal Iran's hardliners can love submitted by The Razor


• Freedom Outpost – CALLED IT: Billionaire George Soros Funded Ferguson Protests to the Tune of $33 Million
  submitted by VA Right!


• Abraham Miller/JNS.org-The mindset of Progressive Jews and the "Israeli problem" submitted by Bookworm Room


• The Free Beacon -Jon Stewart Wanted Video Evidence That He Was an Obama Propagandist So We Found A Bunch submitted by Nice Deb


• Tablet – Crossing A Line To Sell A Deal submitted by The Watcher


• Bret Stephens/WSJ – All the President’s Certitudes submitted by The Watcher


• Jonah Goldbereg – GOP's Trump problem will fade, but Democrats' Bernie Sanders troubles are just beginningsubmitted by The Watcher


• Reuben Navarette Jr. -I Don’t Know if I’m Pro-Choice After Planned Parenthood Videos 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!

#Hillary Lied About Her E-Mails, Broke The Law And What It Really Means

(some of this piece was based on what I wrote on July 10th. I've updated it to reflect recent events and no, as I said then she still won't be prosecuted)

Once again, Mrs. Clinton has revealed to us that if she tells you the sun is shining, you'd better make sure you have an umbrella handy.

Most polls show that the majority of Americans, for some odd reason consider her untrustworthy and an out and out liar.CNN’s national poll shows that 57% of Americans see her that way, and ABC News and the Wall Street Journal put that number at 52%.

She's continued to sing the old Right Wing Conspiracy song, and to claim, as she did in an interview with CNN's servile Diane Keillor, “When I mailed anybody in the government, it would go into the government system,” she said. “Now I didn’t have to turn over anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system.”

There are enough outright lies in that small paragraph to warrant a serious trial.

Even storing Federal records on a private server is a serious violation of the Federal Records Act for reasons that should be obvious, and a violation of the agreement Mrs. Clinton signed when she started at the State Department. Mrs. Clinton was likewise required to turn over any and all records in her possession to government, which she quite obviously did not do.

Not only did Mrs. Clinton fail to turn over work-related emails, but she and her staff also edited some of those emails before submitting them, as the Examiner's Sarah Westwood reported.

In legalese, this shows intent. Mrs, Clinton intended to deceive congress.Not only that, but the committee obtained a number of e-mails that were work related and were either edited or somehow missing from the 55,000 Mrs. Clinton turned in:

The missing materials, which the State Department says it does not have, came to Congress by other means. They include writings about the jockeying for oil contracts in Libya after President Obama engaging in a war without congressional approval to overthrow Moammar Gaddafi. This comes among her back-and-forth emails with Sidney Blumenthal, a former staffer who had been barred from employment in the Obama administration, to continue offering his insight and advice on Libya. [...]

But the proof of intent to deceive comes in the fact that Clinton or her staff actually edited some of the emails and turned over censored versions to State before destroying her copy of the originals.

I think we can reasonably be certain that cash donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for an inside track on oil deals or for Federal contracts involving Libya and other areas were the subject of some of these communications, but what's already known is damaging enough.

Another, much more serious problem than the usual lies and corruption is the fact that Mrs. Clinton's private server was almost certainly hacked by foreign agents. Her server lacked the normal security given to classified information within the government's official system. Professionals who have examined the security of Hillary private e-mail account have said that the question is not whether the account was hacked, but to what degree.

Not only were classified communications almost certainly compromised, but there's not telling what kind of personal, perhaps even indictable messages might have been scooped up. Imagine a president in the midst of negotiations with a foreign power like China, Russia or Iran suddenly confronted discretely with an ultimatum that unless she made certain far reaching concessions, certain information she desperately didn't want revealed would be made public.

Federal Law(36 CFR 1234.24) requires agencies to collect all records from “external electronic mail systems” so that they can be stored inside government archives. There's also a federal law (44 USC 3106) that authorizes legal action through the Attorney General and the Justice Department “for the recovery of records” that are threatened by destruction, deletion or erasure. Willfully destroying a federal record is a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Mrs. Clinton is already guilty of that crime as well by admitting she destroyed her server.

Like I said, a lot of lies in one paragraph.

Mrs. Clinton felt free to destroy her private server and laugh at the subpoenas from congress because she knew that President Obama's Attorney General and the DOJ were not going to take any action against her, again for obvious reasons. Among them is that there's no longer a requirement to do so.

Thanks to Bill Clinton, there is no such thing as a truly independent special prosecutor's office any more. When the Democrats dominated congress after Watergate, they passed the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 that created a special prosecutor, later called an Independent Counsel position, which could be used by either Congress or the Attorney General for investigations of Officials in the executive branch. It was totally independent of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice. That's who Kenneth Starr worked for, whose work led to President Clinton's impeachment for the felonies of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of office.

As I've mentioned before, one of Mr. Bill's last 'gifts' to the country before he left office in 2000 was to eliminate the Office of the Independent Counsel totally and replace it with the very different Office of Special Counsel, controlled by the Attorney General as part of the Justice Department.

For those of you who've been wondering why IRS-Gate, Fast and Furious, Benghazi and other scandals haven't been fully investigated and prosecuted the way Watergate was, you now have your answer. And now you also know why Eric Holder laughed out loud when congress cited him for contempt.

Congress itself has no real police power anymore. They can investigate matters and subpoena documents, but they have little power to compel testimony or prosecute anyone the Obama Regime wants to protect. Congress does have the remedy of hiring its own prosecutor and impeaching the president, but the process is likely to take longer than 18 months, and certain members of the Republican establishment are afraid that going there would be 'messy.' So that's highly unlikely, just as Mrs. Clinton being prosecuted for breaking federal law is.

The problem Mrs. Clinton has is that unlike her husband, she's not really good at lying. Not only does she lack the delivery skills to pull it off, but she lacks Mr. Bill's astounding memory and forgets what lies she told people previously. That's actually even more disturbing in a way, because it shows an innate contempt for those she wishes to rule to tell them such obvious and easily debunked whoppers.It's as if we're not worthy of the effort to do it really well.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about whether someone like this should be president.

And speaking of which, new developments may actually affect that much, at least. The State Department's inspector general informed congress that 4 out of the 'sample' of 40 e-mails Mrs Clinton provided were indeed classified material that should never have been on her server, and two were of the highest category and classified as “Top Secret.”

The FBI seized both her server (which it turns out wasn't destroyed after all) and three thumb drives containing copies of work-related emails sent to and from her personal email addresses via her private server. And the probe has expanded to include Hillary's two long time personal aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, who also sent e-mails via the private server.

Her spokesman, Nick Merrill, told CNN last night that Clinton's team "has worked with the State Department to ensure her emails are stored in a safe and secure manner."

I'll just bet they did. And, as you'll recall, Mrs. Clinton claimed to have deleted scads of 'personal' emails from her server. Again that's easy to believe, although her definition of personal is likely to be different and a lot more expansive than the average person's.

In spite of all this, Mrs Clinton won't be prosecuted for offenses that would land most State Department functionaries in jail for years. Aside from what I mentioned above, Mrs. Clinton had a ringside seat to a lot of things the Obama Regime would just as soon sweep under the rug, like Benghazi. She knows far too much about what really happened and why, and is in position to take a lot of people with her if it comes to that.

But there may be another, more cynical game in the works.

Don't be surprised if this goes just far enough to knock Hillary out of the running for 2016.

It's fairly common knowledge that the Obamas and the Clintons aren't exactly friendly. Part of it is personal, as anyone who's followed the politics since 2008 knows. But a lot of it is political in nature.

The Clintons, believe it or not, are the heads of the more conservative part of the Democrat Party as it's composed just now. Barack Obama and the über-progressives that are the base of the party are far to the left of them. And they're not fond at all of She Whom Would Be Queen. They see Hillary and her minions as old, washed-up and not in tune with the new, more radical stance Obama brought to Washington.

President Obama has plans for when he's out of office, and one of them undoubtedly is to replace the Clintonista machine with his own and mold the party in his own image. He already personally owns the vast database his computer whiz kids put together for him of supporters and funding targets nationwide, and his Organizing America is a well constructed machine to direct the über-progressives after he's out of office.

Rest assured that if Barack Obama wanted this business with Hillary stonewalled, that's what would have happened. The inspector generals and the FBI, after all, work for him now.

So I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this goes just far enough to the point where Hillary has to withdraw...and the Clintons and their wing of the party are history.

After which, Obama's ideology and control of the party's direction is assured as his protege, über-progressive favorite Elizabeth Warren jumps in.

We'll be able to tell whether I'm right depending on how this investigation goes. It wouldn't take all that much to stop Mrs. Clinton's coronation.

Forum: What Did You Take Away From The GOP Debates?

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 Did You Take Away From The GOP Debates?


Don Surber : Only women bleed?

Seriously, Carly won. Kasich took the nightcap by co-opting the message of The Other Donald (my phrase for him). Next day comments by Donald Trump about Megyn Kelly may have ended his campaign.

My main takeaway was that it was good TV. Sharp, well-researched questions followed by good answers. No Coke or Pepsi bullshit. The bar is raised by Fox News.

The Independent Sentinel : Carly Florina won both debates. She was quick, knowledgeable, strong. she wants to bring America back and I believe she can do it.

The evening debate was a ruined after the intro and the second question which was worthy of a debate on TMZ since it was taken out of context and only meant to take Trump down.

An article by the hill called Trump teflon and they wondered how he could be taken down. The obvious answer is to stop trying to take him down with tactics unbefitting Fox News. People resent being manipulated and they don't like unfair attacks.

Of course the left loved it. The three-person Fox team took up one-third of the time and asked candidates questions at the start that addressed the worst criticisms against them. Everything the candidates said afterwards hardly mattered to those not on the right.

Hello, Fox, Hillary is the enemy, not our candidates!

And why did they go after the pro-life issues when we have Planned Parenthood selling infants parts from their baby chop shop. They're probably committing infanticide. Why all the social issues questions?

The afternoon debate wasn't the ratings-getter but it was so well-done. All our candidates could do their best in that atmosphere.

Did Fox switch teams to get ratings?

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD:I pretty much decided yours truly doesn't give a rat's assets over anything GOV Christe, SEN Paul or GOV Kasich has to say. Personally rather see Carly Fiorina and GOV Perry get into the top ten.

All in all - a big phat field to choose from!

 JoshuaPundit : Much of what I had to say about the debate can be seen here. But I think a few points need to be emphasized, and definitely amplified in few of the events of the last few days.

While few questions could have been better off not asked, overall I thought FOX did a fine job, especially given the amount of people involved. They kept things moving and asked exactly the tough questions needed. FOX News is not an organ of the GOP. That, after all is what the Left says,isn't it? They are a news organization and their job is to ask the tough questions. Considering Trump's history of Twitter insults towards women I didn't find Megan Kelly's question to be at all out of line as it will be a major Democrat talking point.I found his obvious reference to her menstrual cycle to be odious, one men have used for years when faced with strong women they disapprove of.

Let us examine Mr. Trump. His speeches consist of obvious applause lines and zero real policy. Yet no one questions that. There's talk of the 'Teflon Trump' and insults to ethnic groups and women that would normally have the media in a howling frenzy get passed by, just like questions about aspects of his previous record. This sort of license is unheard of for Republican candidates. Ever wonder why?

I got my answers Thursday night. When he was asked straight questions about his 180 degree pivots on issues like abortion, his sudden change from being a lifelong Democrat to a Republican, and his relations with crony capitalism and the Clintons, he came out with obviously rehearsed and bogus sounding answers. And to top it off, he refused to commit to not running as a third party candidate.

Let's go back to 1992. Another billionaire named Ross Perot ran for president. He had the same formula...lots of applause lines and little meat, the ability to glom onto an angry electorate and a fair amount of media savvy; He did exactly what Trump is doing know, except he had the honesty to run as a third party from day one. He got just enough votes to allow Bill Clinton to slither into the Oval Office. You see, I fell for Perot's nonsense too so I know exactly what Trump's appeal is. Of all the votes I ever cast, that's the only one I wish I had back - it would likely have prevented 9/11, because George HW Bush would have had Osama bin-Laden in custody somewhere singing like a canary, North Korea wouldn't have the bomb and China would be at least 29 years behind militarily from where she is now.

Trump is this year's Perot, and being that he is so personally close to the Clintons, the idea might very well be for the Donald to help her get elected. It's exactly the sort of scheme I could see Bill Clinton coming up with. It also explains the 'Teflon Trump.' Why else would the ObamaMedia not be tearing his head off?

I urge people not to fall for this scam. If you really want an anti-establishment Republican, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee fill that space admirably. And with consistency without any last minute conversions.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : The first GOP debate was disappointing. The format did not give each of the candidates enough time to leave an impression with the viewers. For the most part it was The Trump Show, and he spent more time bloviating than actually giving any substantial answers to any of the questions.

The good news is that over 24 million viewers watched the debate, which hopefully means people are truly looking for a change from the last six and a half years of President Obama’s destruction and fundamental transformation of our country.

The biggest problem the GOP faces is not Donald Trump, it is all of the disaffected voters who are tired of the GOP establishment turning their backs on the issues they promised to fix if only we gave them majorities in the House (which we did in 2010) and the Senate (delivered to them in 2014). We no longer have a Congress truly representative of we the people.

There were some good moments had by Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee. It will be interesting to see how the voters reacted to them and how their numbers do in the post debate polls.

One thing we need to see the Republican candidates do going forward is convey the fact that Hillary Clinton is just another Barack Obama and electing her would only bring us more of the same. In addition, they need to explain clearly what our country stands for and how that differs from the direction progressive policy makers and educators have taken us over the last century. This election is not just about whether an R or D becomes president. It is about restoring our country to the Constitutional Republic our founders intended.

The Right Planet : I was left scratching my head. Some believe Fox News was aiming to take down Donald Trump. But Fox has also given more airtime to Trump than any other candidate. I find that rather "interesting." The Washington Post (insert grain of salt here) reported Bill Clinton had called Donald Trump and encouraged him to play a larger role in the Republican Party. If these reports are true, why would Clinton want Trump more involved in Republican politics?

What is at play here, in my opinion, is what I call the "Trump Factor." Trump is tapping into the vast reservoir of frustration and anger many Republicans and right-leaning voters feel when it comes to the GOP's rather nasty habit of caving to the Left on just about everything. It is certainly something that has caused me endless exasperation and frustration. But I just can't take Trump serious as a viable candidate for president. I don't want a narcissistic hothead for leader. We already have one of those, albeit a passive-aggressive one. Yeah, Trump is good for a vicarious thrill. I get it. But that's about it for me. And I have some serious questions about Trump's motives.

It was interesting, too, to note that the Fox News moderators gave Trump more than double the amount of time (11:14 min.) as some of the other candidates. Jeb Bush came in second with 8:48 min. Rand Paul and Scott Walker spoke the least amount of time.

I think Cruz and Walker sounded the most presidential, and echoed a lot my own beliefs. Both Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee did surprisingly well. Although their responses seemed over-rehearsed and canned to me. Ben Carson seemed a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of the debate. But, as the debate got going, I really liked what Carson had to say. He certainly provided the best quote of the debate: "I'm the only one to take out half a brain, but if you went to Washington you would think someone had beat me to it." John Kasich's and Jeb Bush's brand of neocon, big government politics just does not appeal to me. I thought Jeb Bush did the worst overall, as expected.


 Puma By Design : I watched both debates, Tier 1 and Tier 2.

To be honest, I favored the Tier 1 debate over the second.

While there was no audience present at the Tier 1 debate referred to by the media as the “undercard”, it did little to stifle the energy and performance of Carly Fiorina.

Finally, Americans would hear directly from the candidates instead of a biased media acting as the intermediary, framing, sabotaging and misinterpreting what these candidates have to offer.

Enter the Tier 2 debate, which from my perch in the window came off as a well-orchestrated dog and pony show put into play by the GOP leadership. Primary agenda: Take out Donald Trump.

Acknowledging that time was limited with so many candidates on stage, right out of the gate, moderators and a few others seemed to set their sights on Trump. In so doing, the pace was set for the rest of the evening to the point of chaos prevailing and dominating the news cycle for two days after instead of the debate.

As a result, candidates were deprived of a long awaited opportunity to introduce themselves to America thus shortchanging 24 million viewers. To be honest, I expected better of Fox.

Jeb Bush was far from impressive and on common core Bush stated, “I don’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content. It is clearly a state responsibility. I’m for higher standards…And if states want to opt out of Common Core, fine. Just make sure your standards are high.”

Twenty-four million viewers tuned into the debate, I cannot begin to imagine how many of those viewers nearly felt out of their seats on that one.

Common Core IS federally funded. Bush also said that it is fine for states to opt out of Common Core provided states make sure that their standards are high. So who sets the bar, governor?

Balderdash. Taking a swipe at opponents of Common Core while commending Ohio governor, John Kasich’s embrace of Common Core, Bush in an op-ed posted in The Columbia Dispatch on April 27, 2013 entitled, “Students need challenge of Common Core standards” stated the following:

Ohio joined 45 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting world-class academic standards, known as the Common Core State Standards. The initiative is state-driven, voluntary and truly bipartisan. Unfortunately, as full implementation of the new standards nears, myths and misinformation are threatening to derail this great progress.

Retreating from this bold education reform would be bad policy and bad politics and would jeopardize the college and career readiness of future generations of students and, ultimately, the quality of tomorrow’s work force. It also would render Ohio’s already significant taxpayer investment in the new standards worthless and without account. To understand the significance of this policy issue, it is important to review the facts and separate the truth from mendacity….

You want to separate the truth from mendacity, let us start with the fact that Common Core standards are pushed by the Department of Education, a federal agency.

Kudos to Marco Rubio for checking Jeb Bush on this and setting the record straight.

I expected better of Rand Paul…PERIOD.

Emeritus of Neurosurgery, Benjamin Carson is a patriot but I suspect in over his head.

So who would I say won the debate? Carly Fiorina hands down. I would, however, recommend Fiorina not allow the mainstream media to pull her into Trump/Kelly debacle.

Finally, I believe that it is clear that the GOP leadership is determined to put on these dog and pony shows only to force their chosen one down the throats of Americans.

After all, they did it in 2012 and got away with it. The Republican leadership is working from the same playbook.


 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 Opening Salvo - Last Night's Debates

What can we take away from the FOX news GOP debates last night?

The first and most important thing is that it gives the lie to President Obama's current approval numbers, which I've always questioned. Over 24 million people watched the debate last night, an audience that shattered all previous records for a non-sports event.

These people are hungry for change,literally starved for it. They may not say so to a pollster, out of fear of the regime targeting them, which they've seen happen all too much. Or of being labeled 'rscist'. But they're not deaf dumb and blind to how the country is being destroyed.They were watching to see who among these men could be relied on to save it.

And there's also immense anger at the betrayal of the Republican establishment, whom did nothing they promised during the 2014 campaign. That is what explains Donald Trump's high poll numbers, and last night's huge audience.

I disagree with much of the criticism being tossed at the FOX moderators last night. First, handling that many people is extraordinarily difficult anyway, but I thought FOX managed it fairly well. And I liked the way they kept things moving. I also disagree that the questions were overly barbed or biased, although there were a couple I think the event could have done without.

This is the big leagues, and the Republican candidates had better get used to this sort of scrutiny, the kind Democrats never face. If you think last night was bad, wait until you see how Candy Crowley and CNN treat the GOP lineup. And don't ask me why the GOP agreed to Candy Crowley as a moderator after what she pulled in 2012. You wouldn't like my answer.

The candidates? In the lower tier, Carly Fiorina did very well, and may have launched herself into top tier. She went after Hillary Clinton with both fists and was extraordinarily on point. Unfortunately, I researched Ms. Fiorina thoroughly when she ran for senate in California, I'm very aware of her record. I'll be sharing that with you in a separate piece.

In the top 10 tier?

Donald Trump was initially the focus of attention, but that shifted very quickly. The overall impression on anyone with an open mind is that with a few exceptions, this is a highly qualified group of people.

I thought Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee did extremely well. For many people it's the first time they've seen either man in action, and both were articulate and intelligent. I would also say that for those people thrilled by Trump's anti-establishment rhetoric, both of these men came across as choices with actual records of long standing opposing the status quo and that GOP establishment. And both candidates are going to have an appeal to people of faith...of all colors and backgrounds.

Donald Trump trotted out the expected applause lines, but was hit hard on his donations to the Clinton Foundation, his past support for abortion on demand and his sudden conversion to being a Republican after being a life long Democrat. His answers to these questions struck me as pat and rehearsed. The real kicker, of course was when he was asked if he would commit to not running as a third party candidate and he refused.

His performance last night will reinforces suspicion in many quarters that he may very well be running as a faux candidate to split conservative votes and deliver the election to Hillary Clinton, with whom he's on very good terms. It is not out of the realm of possibility in the least. Especially when we're talking about the Clintons.

Personally speaking, I've already been here before with Ross Perot, who delivered the White House to Bill Clinton in 1992. Yes, dear readers, I fell for Perot's song and dance and voted for him, and it's the one vote I ever cast I wish I could take back.At least Perot had the honesty to run as an honest third party candidate from the jump. Donald Trump apparently lacks that honesty, and as far as I'm concerned that's the end of the story for me unless he changes his mind. For those of you enamored of Trump's anti-GOP establishment rhetoric, there are other candidates running more worthy of support if you're being intellectually honest.

Rand Paul and Scott Walker had some really excellent moments, and Walker in particular was able to show off his outstanding record as Wisconsin's governor. He's also noticeably more comfortable at the podium, and in discussing foreign policy. Rand Paul thrilled the entire crowd when, in response to a question on same sex marriage he responded "I don't want the government registering my guns or my marriage." He also deserves credit for pinning down Donald Trump on his refusal to commit to not running as a third party candidate.

Ben Carson was a pleasant surprise, showing off a sense of humor that went over very well, and a knowledge of security and foreign policy matters that showed he's been studying up.

Marco Rubio did well also, although his performance was fairly rehearsed. If you like Marco Rubio, you were pleased with his showing. If you don't, and especially if you still don't trust him on illegal migration, it didn't change your mind.

Jeb Bush had a coupe of stumbles, but again did OK if you like Jeb Bush. After all, he was a very good governor for Florida and accomplished quite a bit. The illegal migration issue will either lose him or get him the nomination. His attempt to differentiate 'legal status' from citizenship struck me andpropbably a lot of other people as desperation.

Christy-Creme is finished. I can't imagine why anyone takes him seriously.He's been a lousy governor of New Jersey with a poor fiscal record, and is simply the last quivering corpse of the endangered East Coast RINO species. And I can't imagine why John Kasich was first tier. He had his moments, but it's hard to imagine him as president.

What was most interesting to me was the high quality in general of the candidates. With th possible exception of Cristy-Creme and perhaps Mr. Trump, these are serious and qualified people...some more than others in my view, to be sure.