The Watcher's Council Nominations - Fear And Loathing 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.

This week's contest is dedicated to TOTUS..may he soon return safely, because there's no POTUS without TOTUS.And to our pal Gerard Van Der Leun...get well soon Bro.


Council News:

This week, The Grouch and Liberty's Spirit took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

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.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the link and title of the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

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 this week....

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Barack Obama and the Enemies Within



• The Mellow Jihadi – Warm Afghani Feet, a Barefooted Blogger, and One Bear Footsie



• Rhymes With Right – What A Difference A Couple Of Years Makes



• The Political Commentator – A 30-year NYPD veteran pays the price for political correctness and government fear of the OWS movement! (Video)



• The Colossus of Rhodey – M.L.K. Memorial Quote-a-palooza



• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Iraq: The UnAssing



• The Right Planet – The True ‘Social Compact’



• VA Right! - Former KKK Grand Dragon David Duke Supports Occupy Wall Street



• Bookworm Room – Is it true that the poor ye always have with you?



• Joshuapundit-Blood And Sand



• Right Truth – Open Letter to Herman Cain - UPDATED



• The Razor – Watching the Final Moments of a Dictator's Life




• The Glittering Eye -Norman Corwin, 1910-2011



• New Zeal – Treason? Senior Communist Lobbies “Super Committee” for Defense Cuts



• Simply Jews – Plastic bags for bathrooms

Honorable Mentions

• The Grouch - Fun With Looney Facebook Liberals
• Liberty's Spirit - Of Terrorists, Negotiations and Two-Faced Bullcrap

Non-Council Submissions

• FrontPage Magazine – Obama's Libyan Disaster submitted by The Noisy Room



• Big Peace – Why I'm Baffled And Troubled About The Alleged Iranian-Terror Plot submitted by The Mellow Jihadi



• Reason Hit And Run – Gaddafi Snuff Footage submitted by Rhymes with Right



• American Power -Occupy Wall Street and the Jews submitted by The Political Commentator



• Andrew Klavan – The Mask Of Fascism submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey



• Pressure Points – Obama and Libya: Hold the Triumphalism, Please submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• American Thinker – OWS: Easy Prey submitted by The Right Planet



• Iowahawk – Together, I Shall Ride You To Victory submitted by VA Right



• Via Meadia-The Vain And Empty Rituals Of Protest On The Streets submitted by Bookworm Room



• Barry Rubin – Obama’s Foreign Policy: Manchurian Candidate or Keystone Kop? submitted by Joshuapundit



• The Last Refuge -Optical Illusions and Falsehoods From The President…… Ugly Stuff submitted by Right Truth



• Pam Geller/American Thinker –Reading The real Qu'ran submitted by The Razor



• Kausfiles – Yglesias Blows Graphs, Part II submitted by The Glittering Eye



• Michael Yon – Golden Seconds submitted by The Watcher



• Human Events – SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For Obama submitted by The Watcher


Enjoy! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!



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Blood And Sand

By now, the whole world knows that Libyan dictator Moamar Khaddaffi was captured wounded, helpless and alive in Sirte by the rebels.

Instead of being brought in for trial, which is what the rebel leadership claimed they were going to do to him, he was essentially lynched. The snuff videos that the rebels mailed to western journalists show him being beaten and executed while begging for his life, with his corpse being sodomized and mutilated as a last sign of triumph by the mob.

As Mahmoud Shammam, the chief spokesman of the Transitional National Council, said with a smirk, "This is the day of real liberation. We were serious about giving him a fair trial. It seems Allah has some other wish."

Khaddaffi's corpse was then left to rot for a couple of days, after which he was buried, but not allowed a Muslim funeral. The Grand Mufti of Libya, Assadiq al-Ghiriani denied him that because, as the Grand Mufti declared, Colonel Gaddafi was an ''infidel'' and for this reason ''prayers should not be spoken over his body''. He was subsequently buried in an unmarked, secret grave, something that has deep symbolic significance is Islam as a sign of disrespect. In many Islamic cultures, unmarked secret graves are reserved for bastards and apostates.

Several Western observers, Michael Totten and Jonathan Foreman among them admitted being moved to pity for a moment as they saw this spectacle, but then reminded themselves what a brutal dictator Khaddaffi was and came to the conclusion that the punishment fit the crime so to speak, and was thus understandable.

With all respect to two writers who are normally extremely astute observers, I think they missed something that's worth pointing out.

Moamar Khaddafi was indeed a monster...but by our standards, not the standards of the world he lived in.

That world was the culture shaped by Islam, and I have never failed to be astounded at how much of it seems to revel in cruelty and domination.

In Khaddaffi's world,just as in Saddam's world or Basher Assad's,torturing and killing political opponents is just how business is done, and terrorism is just another tool of statecraft. And it's no different for Khaddaffi's successors. Ugly stories are already drifting back about the rebel's torture chambers,summary executions and scores being settled. And it's no coincidence that the interim leader of the new Libya announced cheerfully the other day that the country will be governed by sharia law.

The Qu'ran and the sharia law derived from it permeates this world and it allows wife beating and what we in the west would consider gross injustice for those on the wrong end of the pecking order, such as non-Muslims. It mandates horrific punishments and executions designed to inflict maximum physical pain for homosexuals, adulterers, apostates and for those caught committing crimes, even petty theft. It is a culture that produces forced clitorectomies for small girls, honor killings, and yes, torture and painful death for those who end up on the wrong end of the power struggle or who are seen as a threat to the established order.

Moreover, the more Islamic the society is, the more the above seems to apply. The Iranians who overthrew the Shah's relatively secular regime in 1978 made much of the cruelty of the Shah's SAVAK secret police. But the theocratic Islamic Republic that replaced it soon made the Savak look benign, and the few accounts that have leaked out of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison bear witness to the extreme brutality of the regime.

Saudi Arabia's penchant for lashes, decapitations and the amputation of limbs is well known, as is the famous instance of a number of young girls burning to death when their school was on fire and the muwataheen ( religious police) forced them back into the burning building and refused to let them out because they felt they were insufficiently covered . The regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan was characterized by the same kind of brutality.

A quick look around the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle East but actually anywhere there are large numbers of Muslims shows this to be fairly common, even in the West where violence like honor killings are frequently covered up by the media. Ilan Halimi, a young French Jew, was lured to an apartment by an attractive girl he didn't realize was a Muslim. He was then tortured slowly to death by a Muslim gang over a period of weeks, with his screams fully audible to the rest of the Muslim residents of the building, some of whom stopped by to participate. And this happened in Paris, not in Tehran, Ramallah or Damascus.

In an earlier essay,I examined whether this was more a case of an existing tribal culture or whether it developed from Islam per se, and came to the conclusion that at this point,the two are so welded together that it ultimately doesn't matter.

The reaction in the West to what happened to Moamar Khaddaffi is important, because it illustrates a very dangerous mindset. We have become so permeated by the poisonous nonsense that all cultures are equal, that we have to be non-judgmental of the 'other' no matter what, that we easily fall into the bigotry of low expectations. That explains why the Western Press prints reams of critique about the supposed injustices done by a relatively benign and humane Israel but ignores the celebration of brutal murder as a holy act and and the holding up of murderers as heroes and role models just over Israel's borders.

It's why the exchange of a large group of convicted killers for one Israeli soldier was commonly referred to as a 'prisoner exchange' instead of what it actually was, a ransom drop to release a kidnap victim who received no trial but was held incognito in brutal captivity for five and a half years.

It's why a mob demonstrating in Tahrir Square in Egypt for freedom and equality could horrendously gang rape a TV reporter while screaming "Jew, Jew" without anyone in the dinosaur media calling for them to be punished or even pointing out the hypocrisy. Even Lara Logan's own network spirited her quickly out of the country without even making a police report or getting her medical attention until she was safely out of Egypt.

If Muslims break into a UN aid office in Afghanistan and decapitate every non-Muslim there because a Florida preacher burned a Qu'ran, we're understanding and don't even insist that anyone be brought to justice. But if American Christians were to kill Muslims in our own country because Muslims burned a church in Pakistan or confiscated and burned bibles in Saudi Arabia, the headlines and tearful apologies would be rampant, and anyone who participated would receive a healthy prison term if not a death sentence.

It's absurdly easy to fall into this trap with someone like Khaddaffi, who admittedly is no great loss to the world. But this kind of cultural cringe is the proverbial slippery slope and shows how poisoned our reactions and expectations are not only of Muslim nations but for Muslims who live in the West among us. If the lynching of Khaddafi had happened in America or if the Israelis had simply dragged Yasser Arafat out of the Muqata one day and strung him up, the media outcry would have been deafening. But we accept such behavior from Muslims with hardly a murmur. In our minds, they're 'supposed to act like that'. So we allow more and more trespasses on our own mores and standards and feel guilty about to defending ourselves against the most egregious assaults on our culture, and even our persons.

Even an Adolf Eichmann in Israel or Timothy McVeigh or a Ted Bundy in America rated a trial, and a judicially mandated execution at the end of it.

Believe it or not, so did Moamar Khaddaffi. And we should be saying so loudly and clearly,instead of shrugging our shoulders at yet another act of barbarity emanating from the Muslim world.

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Rick Perry's New Tax Plan

GOP Candidate Rick Perry has finally released an actual economic plan,and the policies he's endorsing are not terrible,at least the way they've been outlined so far.

It starts off with a 20% flat tax proposal that includes the key word voluntary,something you rarely hear. In other words, you would be able to have your accountant figure your taxes based onyour current rate and compare it to the flat tax rate of 20% and pick the one most advantageous to your situation.

It's unclear whether Perry's plan would continue to allow you to use itemized deductions if you picked figuring your taxes the old way over the 20% flat tax. If it does, fine, it's workable. If not, that's an error that will stifle a certain amount of economic activity.Either way, it's certainly something a lot better than Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan.

Perry's plan would continue to allow deductions for mortgage interest and charitable deductions for households earning less than $500,000 a year and would increase the standard deduction to $12,500.

Perry's plan calls for a 20 percent corporate tax rate,and calls for capping federal spending at 18 percent of the country's GDP - something I want a lot more details on.

It would be far preferable for me to hear a candidate make specific commitments on what he plans to cut rather than just throwing a figure out there.

Perry's proposal also calls for allowing younger workers the option of privatizing their Social Security accounts, something we also need a lot more concrete details on. Total privatization is likely counter productive and could lead to a situation like we had when the program was first adopted at the height of the depression - substantial numbers of destitute old people with no means of being self-supporting. But intelligent privatization that uses actuarial tables to determine a certain minimum amount as forced savings to prevent that but also allows discretionary invest of the rest is exactly what's needed.

After a number of gaffes and some horrible debate outings,Governor Perry is trying to play catch up and be seen as a serious candidate again. This is at least a step in the right direction.

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What They're Not Telling You About The Earthquakes In Turkey

As you may have heard, Southeastern Turkey was rocked yesterday by massive 7.2-magnitude quake that has killed nearly 300 people. Hundreds of buildings are down and there are still many victims buried beneath the rubble.

Israel's president Shimon Peres called Turkey's President Abdullah Gul to offer his condolances and the help of Israel's expert rescue teams, who are only about 90 minutes away from the quake site by air. Gul refused. Instead, Turkey accepted help from Iran and Azerbaijan and refused all international help except from those two countries.

To find out why, we merely need to look at a map. The epicenter and hardest hit area is near Ercis, in the mountainous area inhabited primarily by guess who - the Kurds!

The same people the Erdogan regime has been steadily oppressing for some time.

And that's exactly the area where the Turks want no one seeing anything but the Iranians, who have their own issues with the Kurds! What a coincidence, eh?

Could it be that Turkey doesn't want any international observers getting a look at what's been going on there, or talking to the local people? Are they afraid of what they might find out? Are they worried about the Kurds gathering international attention and sympathy?

And would Turkey be perfectly fine with a few less Kurds around anyway?

Three guesses.

UPDATE: More on this from my pal Greg over at Rhymes With Right .

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Obama DOJ Bows To Islamists, Pulls References To Islam From Security Training Manuals

This would be pathetic if it weren't so dangerous. The Obama Department Of Justice is pulling back all training materials used for law enforcement and national security communities in order to eliminate all references to Islam:

“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.

The move comes after complaints from advocacy organizations including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the 2004 Holy Land Foundation terror fundraising trial.

In a Wednesday Los Angeles Times op-ed, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) president Salam al-Marayati threatened the FBI with a total cutoff of cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement if the agency failed to revise its law enforcement training materials.

Maintaining the training materials in their current state “will undermine the relationship between law enforcement and the Muslim American community,” al-Marayati wrote.

The MPAC, like CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood front group.

Let's chew on this just a second, here we have a supposedly 'moderate' Muslim and someone who purports to be a loyal U.S. citizen threatening the security apparatus of the U.S. government not only with his own non-cooperation but with inciting other Muslims to do the same unless he gets his way.

To those who know about the MPAC and al-Marayati, who has defended Islamist terrorism repeatedly, none of this is any mystery. Al-Marayati has even defended genocidal groups like Hezbollah on occasion, referring to their terrorist attacks as 'legitimate resistance' in an interview on Jim Leher's PBS 'NewsHour

Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/114

' show. But the fact that he could make this kind of threat and have the Obama Administration cave in so completely is almost unbelievable in it's scope.

Not only was al-Marayati able to get the training manuals pulled, but he wants " a clear and unequivocal apology to the Muslim American community” and input into the revised manuals and the people providing the training, and calls for the DOJ and FBI to “establish a thorough and transparent vetting process in selecting its trainers and materials.”

Al-Marayati also demanded a new “interagency task force” to review any training materials..which would include representatives of the Islamist organizations the FBI is supposed to be monitoring! And the indications are he'll more than likely get all of that.

Dwight C. Holton, the U.S. Attorney in Oregon told the Soros galley slaves over at Talking Points Memo that he had spoken with Holder directly about the the “egregiously false” training that took place at the FBI’s training headquarters at Quantico and at a U.S. Attorney’s office in Pennsylvania.

“I want to be perfectly clear about this: training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this president, this attorney general and Department of Justice stands for,” Holton said. “They will not be tolerated.”

This sort of sensitivity even embraces terrorists. Holton boasted that when he made the announcement of the arrest of the “Christmas tree bomber” Mohamed Osman Mohamud in 2010, he never mentioned a thing about The Religion of Peace.

“In the 37-page complaint that laid out the allegations against Mohamed Mohamud, he is never once identified as a Muslim. We were very careful about that. It’s not relevant from our perspective, what’s relevant is the violence,” Holton said.

“Every time I opened my mouth about that case, I said maybe two or three main points and one of them is ‘violence knows no country, no religion, no boundaries’,” Holton said.

Yes, we're simply overwhelmed with Jewish, Buddhist and Christian terrorists. Gotta keep an eye on them.

This is a man in charge of prosecuting terrorist cases in America.You're paying this clueless dhimmi's salary, folks.

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Two Quotes On Our Iraq Withdrawal

One frustrated,one abysmally stupid.

First, the frustration, from General John Keane, who was key in persuading President Bush to implement the urge strategy:

“I think it’s an absolute disaster,” said Gen. Keane, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was top Iraq commander. “We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.”

“Forty-four hundred lives lost,” Gen. Keane said. “Tens of thousands of troops wounded. Over a couple hundred thousand Iraqis killed. We liberated 25 million people. There is only one Arab Muslim country that elects its own government, and that is Iraq.

“We should be staying there to strengthen that democracy, to let them get the kind of political gains they need to get and keep the Iranians away from strangling that country. That should be our objective, and we are walking away from that objective.”

Sorry, General Keane. It is a disaster, but that mistake was set in stone when the Bush Administration decided to rush Iraq into elections with the idea of massaging his fetish of 'Arab Democracy' and empowered Shi'ite politicians with close ties to Iran instead of putting an interim pro-US government in power. Once that happened, the rest was predictable and just a matter of time.

And now the stupidity, from the same article:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday warned Iran not to miscalculate the U.S. decision to withdraw its troops.

“No one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward,” she said in an interview with CNN from Uzbekistan.

“In addition to a very significant diplomatic presence in Iraq which will carry much of the responsibility for dealing with an independent, sovereign, democratic Iraq, we have bases in neighboring countries, we have our ally in Turkey. We have a lot of presence in that region,” she added.

As if Iran hasn't simply laughed at such pronouncements before? As if Erdogan's Islamist Turkey didn't sabotage our invasion of Iraq in 2003 and hasn't been a conduit for Iran evading the so-called sanctions since then? As if 150 troops guarding an embassy is going to stave off Moqtada al-Sadr and his Iranian armed and trained Shi'ite militia from Lebanonizing Iraq? As if the Iraqis themselves aren't booting us out in response to pressure from Iran?

Unbelievable. And there are people that still want this clueless woman as president.

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The Pope And The Vatican Endorse OWS' Anti-Capitalism

The Vatican has released a new encyclical that specifically endorses the anti-capitalist rhetoric of the OWS protesters and calls for a "global public authority" and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions:

“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.

The Vatican called for the establishment of "a supranational authority" with worldwide scope and "universal jurisdiction" to guide economic policies and decisions.

Such an authority should start with the United Nations as its reference point but later become independent and be endowed with the power to see to it that developed countries were not allowed to wield "excessive power over the weaker countries".

"Of course, this transformation will be made at the cost of a gradual, balanced transfer of a part of each nation's powers to a world authority and to regional authorities, but this is necessary at a time when the dynamism of human society and the economy and the progress of technology are transcending borders, which are in fact already very eroded in a globalised world."

One would have expected something more intelligent from a pope who saw first hand what such central control did to half of Germany, and from a Church who has seen exactly how Marxist societies treat religion and the Church. And this is not the first time Pope Benedict has indulged in this folly.

Pope Benedict is simply too weak to take a moral stand here, just as he was in his positions on Islam and the relationships with Israel and the Jews. Far easier to react with cringing appeasement instead of moral leadership.

Perhaps this Pope will next appear in a 'kill the banksters' OWS tee shirt, just as he was once happy to done a keffiyah, today's equivalent of a Nazi armband.

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Western Media Surprised That New Libyan Regime Will Be Islamist

A number of western experts and pundits were shocked when Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and now Libya's de facto president announced that Libya will be governed by laws based on Sharia.

Abdul-Jilal immediately repealed by decree a law banning polygamy, and announced that from now on there would be strict adherence to Islamic financing.

None of this ought to surprise anyone. Look, for instance at the dark mark on Abdul-Jilal's forehead. You will find similar marks on the forehead of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri and many other Islamists. It's generated from long hours spent abasing oneself on a Muslim prayer rug, with the forehead being the point of sometimes forceful contact.

It's already widely known that the Libyan rebels have a fair amount of Muslim Brotherhood and even al-Qaeda adherents in their ranks. In fact, a shipment of surface to air missiles, part of Khaddaffi's arsenal was intercepted coming from Libya and en route to Hamas in Gaza Just a little more than a week ago.

What appears to be in the process of happening with western help is the resurrection of an Islamist caliphate under Muslim Brotherhood rule that will stretch from Libya to Gaza, financed by Libyan oil and aid from gullible western donor nations who believe they can co-opt such a regime by financing it and making nice to it.

This is a fallacy, and if such a caliphate comes together it will be a huge a danger to the West and its freedom.

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The Ground Continues To Collapse Under Ahmandinejad's Feet in Iran

The blowback from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's steady fall from favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei continues.

In the latest sign that Ahmadinejad is on his way out or at least is going to have a lot less power in the future, Iran's majlis ( parliament) has impeached two Ahmadinejad loyalists, Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini and Energy Minister Majid Namjou.

Both men are accused of involvement in fraud and corruption, as well as the catch all offense of "striking a deviant path."

In Hosseini's case, the idea is to find a scapegoat for a scam involving forged letters of credit approved by half a dozen Iranian banks to the tune of about $2.6 billion dollars. Namjou's ministry oversees the electricity and water networks but not the oil sector, and he's on the hook for cronyism, 'weak performance' alleged kickbacks and well, for being an Ahmadinejad ally.

Ahmadinjad himself was the subject of an impeachment move back in June when over 100 lawmakers signed an impeachment motion against him. So far,the majlis' presiding board has simply let impeachment proceedings lie.

It's easy to see why. Dumping Ahmadinejad after less than two years might lead to a certain amount of political turmoil and further unrest in the Islamic Republic, but Khamenei likely would be content with a weakened Ahmadinejad who does his bidding and poses no threats staying in office.

Just to be clear, the opposition from Ahmadinejad isn't coming from moderates or the Iranian dissidents but from hardliners and Khamenei loyalists. Ahmadinejad apparently got a little too independent for the Supreme Leader's taste.

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Tunisia's Elections...'Arab Spring' Or Islamist Takeover?

Tunisia is holding elections today for the 217-seat assembly that will draft a constitution and appoint an interim government. Former President Zinedine el-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown nine months ago.

Regardless of what some of the usual suspects are saying, this is not going to be some kind of signpost as to where the other elections in the region will be heading.Tunisia is unique in that a higher percentage of its population is literate and has a degree of education than say, Egypt, tribalism is not a major factor as it is in Libya, and Tunisia was always a more moderate country than either. Unique in the Arab world, the country even actually has a tiny Jewish population, with an historic synagogue on the Island of Djerba and a small one in Tunis. However, there were a number of indications from the demonstrations that this tolerance could change rapidly,particularly if an Islamist regime comes to power.

In spite of Tunisia's moderate image, an Islamist party, Ennahda, ( formerly Al-Nahda) is expected to win the most votes, although it may not gain enough seats to win a parliamentary majority. It's chief secular opponent is likely to be the Left-leaning, Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), led by Najib Chebbi.

Ennahda and its leader Rachid Ghannouchi have made a point, particularly in the cities, of reassuring Tunisians of their commitment to democracy and women's rights.The PDP favors a secular, European style socialist government.Significantly Ghannouchi has said that he considers the Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP as a model, which means essentially that he likes the tactics of a gradual takeover, turning a formerly moderate Muslim country into an Islamist state bit by bit.

Results are expected Monday.

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George Jones & Hank Williams Jr - 'I Saw the Light' 1963

A little somethin' somethin' for my Christian friends...What could be nicer than a little gospel on Sunday morning,performed by George Jones, a teenage Hank Jr.,his mom Audrey Williams, Bill Anderson and a bunch of others I can't quite identify.

The Killer's version is a lot better,but this is pretty good..

From 'Country Music on Broadway' circa 1963.

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Out Of Iraq - The Lesson Learned?

President Obama has announced that all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of this year, except for 150 troops needed to guard the massive U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

“The rest of our troops in Iraq will come home at the end of the year,” Obama said today at the White House. “After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.”

Contrary to the spin given to this by the WashingtonPost and the other establishment media, this was not President Obama's choice, but the demand of Iraqi government, who insisted that all U.S. troops be out of Iraq by year's end.

While this is also being spun as an expression of 'Arab democracy' it's actually anything but.

Moqtada al-Sadr's Iran-trained, armed and funded Mahdi Army militia has been maintaining a publicly declared quiet period with the provision that all U.S. forces leave the country. They're doing so on Iran's orders.

The Iranian strategy is to allow U.S. forces to leave and then begin a political de facto takeover of the new Iraq, aided by Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki, who depends on the support of the Shi'ite Bloc controlled by Iranian proxy al-Sadr to stay in power. Maliki actually lost the last elections back in March to the secular, pro-American bloc led by Ayad Allawi, but Maliki was able to overcome that by making a deal with al-Sadr to form a government and 'disqualifying' a few of Allawi 's winning parliamentary candidates on grounds that would have done credit to a Chicago ward heeler.

Iran owns Maliki now, and the Mahdi Army will prove just as useful as Hezbollah was in Lebanon at persuading anyone who objects to the new order to see things differently by removing any particularly stubborn opponents as an example.

Maliki is simply acting like the creature of the region he is and gravitating towards what he perceives as the strong horse. As soon as President Obama got in, Maliki took his measure, saw his weakness and understood that we were leaving, Iran isn't and that working with the mullahs was not only a way to stay in power but to stay healthy.

Besides, he doesn't need us around any more. We've already built him a shiny new army and repaired the country's infrastructure at our expense.

So Iraq will almost certainly dance to the Mullah's tune, while President Obama will now campaign as 'the man who ended Bush's war in Iraq and brought the troops home.'

President Bush's frequently stated war goals in Iraq were to have a stable Iraq who would be democratic and an ally of ours in the so-called 'war on terror.' The goals themselves were absolutely farcical in terms of the reality on the ground and what our actual war aims should have been, and even at that we have only barely accomplished one out of three, stability. And it cost us over 4,000 lives and a trillion dollars, much of which was wasted or stolen.

In the end, we didn't even wind up with the oil. The leases on the oil fields Halliburton was miraculously able to save after Saddam set them on fire went to China.

What we've established in Iraq is a Shiite Islamic Republic based on Sharia that will have much of its government friendly or beholden to our enemies in Iran. Iraq has continued to adhere religiously to a boycott of Israel that is against US law, and there has been open season under our watch on Iraq's Christians, a story that rarely merits a mention in the dinosaur media. Iraq will no more be a 'ally ' of ours against our enemies than say, Pakistan, and will limit their 'war on terror' activities to simply suppressing any dissident elements in their own society.

This was something that was easily predictable.

Let me make one thing very clear. To repeat what I said more than two years ago, General Petraeus, his successor General Ordiano and our warriors achieved an amazing victory in defeating an in-country insurgency backed by unfriendly states to the east and north that acted as havens, bases and transit areas for our enemies. And even more miraculously, they did it in spite of ridiculous Rules of Engagement designed with political correctness in mind that no American fighting men and women have ever had to face before. The warriors who won WWII would have shaken their heads in disbelief at that.

That said, what their valiant achievement accomplished(aside from sending a notable number of jihadis to their just desserts and putting a fighting edge on our army) was to put the best possible face on a bad situation and allow America a graceful exit. It wasn't a victory, but thanks to what our warriors accomplished, it wasn't a defeat.

Before we get involved in another war with foggy, dubious goals and no clear path to victory, we need to remember the lessons of Iraq. Nation building and establishing democracy are all very well in their place, but they come from victory.

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The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watchers Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akashic records of cyberspace.

Many of this week's Council entries focused on the OWS protests. This week's winner, Joshuapundit for Egypt Moves Towards The Abyss took at look at the current state of affairs in the place many of the OWS protesters look to as an inspiration for their current tactics, and how those developments look to be playing out for Egypt,the region and ultimately for America. Here's a slice:

The recent bloody clashes and unrest in Egypt is merely a foretaste of what could easily occur next month, when elections are supposed to be held.

The latest violence, between Egypt's Christian Copts and the army, involved a protest over a whole series of church burnings and killings at the hands of Muslims and ended with the army driving armored vehicles at top speed into the crowd and crushing people to death. It left 26 dead and over 200 wounded.

The Copts, who comprise about 10% of Egypt's 80 million population mostly supported the ouster of Mubarak. They're one of the earliest groups who are likely destined to be very disappointed at the way the 'Arab Spring' turns out in Egypt.

One of my notorious Little Birdies on the ground who ought to know tells me that if elections were held today, there's absolutely no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood would win a majority in both the Majilis Al-Sha’ab ( "People's Assembly") and the Majilis Al-Shura, the lower and upper houses in what passes for Egypt's parliament.They have proven far better organized than the group we'll refer to as the Twitter Liberals and are in position to dominate the next Egyptian government provided elections are held as scheduled.

Mubarak's National Democratic Party(NDP) controlled the last national assembly. While it no longer exists, its members are active among a few newly formed secular parties whose agenda is to band together to block the Muslim Brotherhood from establishing a religious state.

In response the Muslim Brotherhood upped the ante by giving the military leaders now ruling Egypt an ultimatum - that they expect former NDP members of Parliament to be banned from participating in the upcoming elections.

As in most Muslim countries, Egypt's Army is one of the few parts of society that actually functions. It's an entity unto itself that owns about one third of Egypt's economy, and supports a number of wealthy businessmen with Army connections. At present, the Egyptian Army rules Egypt through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

The big question for the Army is whether to continue to assume its normal role in Egypt as guardian of the status quo or to stand aside and allow the ascension of an Islamist government, which would entail the loss of a number of its current privileges.

That's the choice the Egyptian Army is going to have to make fairly soon, and by all accounts there's a deep division within the military on which way to go.

Even worse, whatever choice they actually make is going to lead to more outbreaks of violence and instability, the last thing Egypt needs right now.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Dana Loesch's superb piece in Big Government, Journolist 2.0: Occupy Wall Street Emails Show MSM, Dylan Ratigan, Working With Protesters To Craft Message submitted by Bookworm Room. It examines in detail how Jornolist, the now not-so-clandestine organization of left wing journolists who supposedly report the news in a neutral fashion collaborate to promote talking points and a narrative in ways that suit their agenda and that of the Obama Administration.

The last time this surfaced, we saw how the Journolistas plotted to destroy then GOP Vice Presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin while burying stories like the Reverend Wright revelations that reflected badly on candidate Barack Obama. This time,their working together to craft a narrative sympathetic to the OWS protesters.

Here are this week’s full results. Only New Zeal was unable to vote this week, but was not affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty :

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! Joshuapundit–-Egypt Moves Towards The Abyss



• Second place *t* with 2 votes – The Noisy Room-Lenin's 99 Percenters



• Second place *t* with 2 votes – The Mellow Jihadi-Three Petty Officers of the United States Navy



• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – The Razor-Out of the Mouths of Babes Comes Gibberish



• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – The Colossus of Rhodey-Narcissism Indeed



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Lord's Resistance Army



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Some in the OWS movement, like the Nazis before them, say "Blame the Jews"



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Right Truth – Who Are You, Who Who, I Really Wanna Know ...



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Democrats – Supporting The Terrorist Enemy Is Patriotism, Opposing Obama’s “Jobs Bill” Is Treasonous



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Right Planet – The Surreality of Evil

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – Big Government- Journolist 2.0: Occupy Wall Street Emails Show MSM, Dylan Ratigan, Working With Protesters To Craft Message submitted byBookworm Room



• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – Melanie Phillips – Journalism? No, cruelty and propaganda submitted by Joshuapundit



• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -Sultan Knish – The Age of Accounting submitted by The Noisy Room



• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 vote -Poli Pundit – Republicans Pulling To The Left? submitted by Rhymes With Right



• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Common Sense Political Thought – Why Not Just Treat Everybody Equally Under The Law? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey



• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Michael J. Totten – The Swing State of the Levant submitted by The Watcher



• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -The Ellis Washington Report – Lenin’s ‘useful idiots’ in Manhattan submitted by The Right Planet



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Daily Caller – Red, White and Angry
: Communist, Nazi parties endorse ‘Occupy’ protests submitted by The Political Commentator



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Babalu Blog – Remembering Laura Pollán submitted by The Glittering Eye



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Global Spin – Obama's Iran Dilemma: How to Respond to a Plot Seemingly Designed to Provoke Escalation? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Newsbusters – Will Other Journalists Follow Martin Bashir and Highlight Anti-Semitism at Wall Street Protests? submitted by Right Truth



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Human Events – Guess Where Over Half of America's New Jobs Came From In June? submitted by VA Right!



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Tundra Tabloids – To Be Black In Iraq: They Still Call Me Abd (Slave)…… submitted by The Watcher

See you next week! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

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Another One Bites The Dust - Dem Rep. Cardoza Won't Seek Re-election

California Democrat Dennis Cardoza, a five-termer and prominent member of the so-called conservative-leaning Blue Dog Coalition announced today that he's not going to run for re-election next year.

While Cardoza made some noises about 'the increasingly harsh tone in American politics', the real scoop is that he was re-districted into a much more GOP leaning district and doesn't see good things in his future chances. Cardoza's exit gives the GOP an excellent shot at capturing the seat.

Nobody should miss Dennis Cardoza by the way.He was a weasel and a waste of space.

He got into politics under the wing of Democrat Congressman Gary Condit, who trusted him and made Cardoza his chief of staff. Once Condit was sufficiently wounded by what turned out to be fake gutter press allegation's of Condit's involvement in the death of aide Chandra Levy,Cardoza turned on his one-time benefactor and ended Condit's career by defeating him in the primary.

In one of life's little ironies, while Levy was actually murdered by an illegal alien, Cardoza has been a consistent and reliable shill for the amestia lobby.

He's also supported most of Obama's Agenda, including policies that have destroyed productivity and employment in his own district, which has a large agriculture segment and a current unemployment rate of 17.5%.

Definitely not someone to be missed. Not at all.

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Big Government Run Amuck - Louisiana Bans Cash Sales On Used Items

This is such a comical example of the mindset of most of those who presume to govern us that it actually makes me giggle, even though the joke's actually on us.

The State Legislature of Louisiana in its wisdom just passed House Bill 195, which bans cash transaction for second hand or used items,unless the seller is a licensed pawnshop - they're exempted.

State representative Rickey Hardy ( a Democrat,of course), who co-authored the bill explained it this way, saying, "they give a check or a cashiers money order, or electronic one of those three mechanisms is used."




According to Hardy, the bill is targeted at thieves stealing anything from copper to televisions who then sell them for cash. Hardy thinks that somebody who just broke into a Garden District apartment in New Orleans and got away with an IMAC, some jewellery and maybe a TV set is going to ask the fence he deals with for a cashier's check or a money order, especially if he's going to rush from the fence to go hit up his connection for a fix or some crack.

"It's a mechanism to be used so the police department has something to go on and have a lead," explains Hardy.

Of course, if most of N'awlin's Finest ever did track down the kind of burglar I mentioned above and the stuff was in good condition, it would likely just end up in their homes. But then combatting crime isn't reallywhat this is about. I could be wrong,but I doubt even State Rep. Hardy is that stupid.

No, the idea of banning cash payments is designed to accomplish a number of other ends. When there's a money order, a credit card purchase or a cashier's check, there's a paper trail not to a criminal but to the seller involved. That means that sales tax has to be collected and remitted to the state, whether you're selling something out of a shop or at a garage sale (frequently known as tag sales in that locale) or gran'pa's old vintage radio or the gee-tar you stopped playing six months ago via a classified ad in the local paper or something like Craig's List. Th ebill evens targets non-profit sellers of used items like Goodwill. Not only is it designed to collect more tax but to collect additional fees for reseller permits and allow Big Government to add a whole new layer of regulations and regulators and additional law enforcement.

It also makes it easier for Big Government to add special new and improved taxes and fees on any particular items it thinks it can - used cars or firearms, for instance. Or to ban legal sales of them entirely. Read between the lines on that one.

Another benefit for fans of Big Government is that it creates an entirely new criminal class out of generally law abiding people, who usually have enough money and property to be capable of paying hefty fines if they're caught.

The ones targeted will of course be generally law abiding, because the criminals the bill is supposed aimed at aren't going to give a damn about breaking a new law. They and those they deal with will keep right on doing business as usual.

By the way, I wouldn't want anyone to go away thinking this was anything less than a bi-partisan effort. Not only did this bill pass with majorities from both parties, but it was signed into law by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, someone some folks still cite as a 'conservative' icon.

Yes, there are Republicans who enable Big Government too...when it's doing something they like.

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Khaddaffi Dead : The Fall Of The Brother Leader

Libyan leader Moamad Khaddaffi was killed this morning, fighting to the last as his final stronghold in Sirte was taken by the rebels.He'd been in power for 44 years.

National Transitional Council (NTC) Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril announced the death at a news conference this morning in Tripoli.

Jibril said NTC forces were now pursuing Saif al-Islam, Col Khaddaffi's most prominent son, who fled Sirte in a convoy before Sirte fell. He's probably the last major Khaddaffi loyalist still at large.

Jibril also called for neighboring Algeria to turn over the members of KHaddaffi's family who fled there in August to revolutionary justice. Two of KHaddaffi's younger sons, his daughter and his wife are in the country.

"A new Libya is born today," Mahmoud Shammam, the chief spokesman of the Transitional National Council, said today in a statement. "This is the day of real liberation. We were serious about giving him a fair trial. It seems Allah has some other wish."

Apparently so.

British and French leaders hailed the of Khaddaffi's death and the preservation of those lucrative oil contracts they signed with the rebel forces.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the death a major step forward for the people of Libya and urged the pursuit of democratic reforms.

"The disappearance of Moamer Kadhaffi is a major step forward in the battle fought for more than eight months by the Libyan people to liberate themselves from the dictatorial and violent regime imposed on them for more than 40 years."

William Hague, Britain's Foreign Secretary said: "When the uprising began, we didn't know how long this would take. I think we feel vindicated all along as the country is now free to become a free and fair democracy. We are very pleased that with Khaddaffi has been removed. There is work to be now to stabilise Libya and bring together separate militias under the control of one governemnt. Once the liberation is declared then there's 30 days to form a transitional government. We should be on the optimistic side, but should not rule out further problems.

It could be a long job for the UK and our allies, but not so much a military job now. Tripoli is not Baghdad."

In other words, count on a lot more of your tax dollars going for nation building before the nature of Libya's new government is actually known.Actually, the odds on an Arab state being established in Libya that's actually free and democratic are incredibly long ones, but the oil will start flowing,which is all the British and French ever were concerned about in the first place.

After all, they didn't care a fig about 'democracy' when they were actively dealing with the Khaddaffi for the oil during his reign, and they were even able to happily ignore the Brother Leader's involvement in the Lockerbie Bombing. What they cared about was that black gold underneath Libya's sands.



The British and French only dumped Khaddaffi during the initial surge of the rebellion, when it looked like he was finished, and their response was to abandon Khaddaffi and rush to sign new oil deals with the rebels. When Khaddaffi rallied and pushed the rebels back to their final stronghold in Benghazi, the Brits and the French realized that they were going to be left out in the cold. And that's when NATO suddenly became involved and western military action against Khaddaffi's forces was launched to turn the tide.

I remind you of this not to defend Khaddaffi, but to give you a little realistic perspective on the matter, so no one's disappointed when the West pours billions into a Libyan rathole only to have it turn out as something different than 'free and democratic'. If the West's leaders were really all that fired up about freedom of democracy, they would have put Khaddaffi in the jar a long time ago.

All the pious nonsense about 'establishing freedom and democracy' or 'protecting the rights of the Libyan people' needs to be seen as exactly that. This was nineteenth century imperialism writ large, and it was always about the oil.

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The Farce In Las Vegas

There's only one word to describe last night's GOP debate in Vagas - embarrassing.

Part of it was Rick Perry's desperation to do anything to stop his campaign's freefall, and part of it was that CNN's Lefty moderator Anderson Cooper did an abysmal job and not only allowed some of the candidates to behave like kids fighting in a schoolyard but actually egged them on.

The wildest swinging came from Governor Perry, who tried to make an issue about Governor Romney's supposed 'hiring' of illegal aliens for landscaping and maintenance work at his home, something that been unsuccessfully thrown at Romney before. Romney's explanation is a simple and plausible one, that he hired a company to do the work and simply had no way of knowing they had illegal aliens among the work crew.

I've got news for Rick Perry. In most states with substantial populations of illegal aliens, you've probably unknowingly 'hired ' one of them if you've gone to a car wash,visited a restaurant, gone to a fast food drive through, had your house painted or your roof repaired or hired anyone to do your gardening or brush clearance. In fact, if Governor Perry has done any of these things, he's almost certainly 'hired' an illegal alien or three himself.

So instead of actually discussing the issue intelligently, what we got was a silly brawl.

Most of the debates have highlighted a certain lack of substance among all the candidates, although that's definitely a product of the way the debates have been conducted. No one with any real understanding of the issues America faces should be expected to answer some of these questions in a minute, and when you get someone like Anderson Cooper in charge, you get exactly what you got last night. I don't think it's accidental that the questions asked seem skillfully constructed steer away from anything that could be construed as an avenue to attack President Obama's failed policies, although some of the candidates are better than others in using the brief time they're allowed to work a mention of that in.

After last night, it struck me that most of the candidates on that stage might justifiably mention President Reagan as someone worthy of emulating, but they seem to have forgotten what President Reagan called his eleventh commandment: 'Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.'

As I look at the GOP field, I think I mirror the feelings of many Americans. While we realize that almost anyone on that stage would be better than what we now have in the White House now, (let's eliminate Ron Paul please, in spite of his occasional good idea) we're still undecided because of the lack of substantive answers on most of the issues from any of these candidates.

A capsule look at the three frontrunners makes the reason for this uncertainty obvious.

Herman Cain, likeable though he is seems to answer almost every question aside from his unworkable 9-9-9 plan by saying he would 'gather all the intelligence/information, look at all the angles and make my decision based on that.' He's an intelligent candidate with a compelling personal story who's been impressive in how quickly he's learned the political ropes, but his answers in certain areas have highlighted the fact that he simply isn't knowledgeable about a lot of areas like foreign policy or how government works. I'm simply not convinced he's ready for the top job yet.

Ron Paul, of all people took advantage of this when he slapped Cain around last night about his 9-9-9 plan by saying that the Republicans were at fault for the debt problem 'because we were in charge during the last adminsitration' . A confident and informed candidate would have responded by reminding Paul that according to both the Federal Manage and Budget office and the Congressional Budget Office, the major debt problems and the bulk of the outlandish spending occurred after January, 2007 - the date when the Democrats got control of both houses of Congress. ...followed up by a line about how he,Cain, was more about solutions than blame, and maybe even including a stinger by alluding to Rep. Paul's long and successful career in bringing pork and government largess to his home district.

Another question mark I have about Cain is his not revealing what advisers he has, if any. As a successful CEO, he obviously knows how to hire, a significant aspect of what a president does, and especially one with no governing experience - so whom has he hired? And why the secrecy?

And then there's Cain's propensity for shocking gaffes,like the recent one about building an electrified fence on the Mexican border. While he later dismissed it as a joke after it raised eyebrows even among his supporters, he certainly didn't deliver the remarks as one.

Mitt Romney may come across as presidential, and he's obviously done some deep thinking about the issues, but his convenient endorsement of policies that resonate with the GOP's conservative base as opposed to some of his former positions has created a lot of uncertainty.

He's become pretty good at fending off some of the slapshots sent his way by the other candidates, but there still seems to be a packaged, slightly insincere aura about him, mainly because he does seem so crafted.

As a former Blue State governor who created the clear antecedent to ObamaCare, is he serious when he says he wants to repeal it? As a Harvard-trained technocrat, can he really be counted on to rein in the excesses of Big Government run amuck? Who is the real Mitt Romney? That's essentially what people want to know, and while he's given off some positive signals, he's been far too cautious about revealing it, and it's no certainty that he ever will.

Rick Perry's executive experience as a governor is obviously a plus, but his obvious weaknesses as a debater and his facile endorsement of boilerplate conservative positions set against his failure to adequately address his endorsement of Big Government programs like the Gardisil vaccination dust up, the Trans America Super Corridor or his defense of instate tuition rates for illegal aliens makes me wonder if he ever really wanted to run for president at all in the first place, deep down.

His performance in last night's debacle couldn't have gratified anyone but his hard core supporters.

He's proven himself skillful at raising campaign cash and at slapping together an organization in record time, but the question remains at how serious the whole endeavor is. Thus far, Perry has proven himself to be good at mechanics but poor at both process and substance.

There's no such thing as a perfect candidate, but at least one of these three men is going to have to take some serious steps to address these questions in order to get voters to support them for any other reason than the fact they aren't Barack Obama.

I doubt it would happen, but I would love to see representatives of the major GOP candidates ore even the candidates themselves sit down quietly somewhere, take an honest look at what happened last night and whom it actually helped and come to an agreement about better ways to conduct themselves with each other so that the American people get a better and more substantive look at the candidates.

It may be that our politics have degenerated to the point that someone who's actually a real leader simply can't surface in today's political circus, but I think I speak for a great many people in saying that I'm sick and tired of simply voting for the lesser of two evils.

The stakes in 2012 are higher than they've ever been.

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Watcher's Council Nominations - Fall Back 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.

This week's contest is dedicated to Gilad Shalit. Baruch shuvcha habayta, khayal shel Yisrael...

Council News:

Our good friend Brian over at Snapped Shot has decided to devote his energies to other pursuits instead of blogging and has resigned his seat on the Council. It's been great having him, and we'll all miss his good humor and insights on photojournalism.

But hey...looky what we got here! I'm proud to announce the debut of two brand new Council members, Sard from The Right Planet and The Mellow Jihadi, both of whom bring unique outlooks and writing skills to the group. Both have previously appeared as Honorable Mentions and non-Council nominees, and if you're not already familiar with them, then you're in for a real treat.

And speaking of Honorable Mentions, this week, Maggie's Notebook and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned Honorable Mention status.

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.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and leave a comment with the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with the mandatory e-mail address in case I need to contact you (it won't be published) no later than Monday 6PM PST. Then simply return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week. 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, without further ado, let's see what we have this week....

Council Submissions

• Rhymes With Right – Democrats – Supporting The Terrorist Enemy Is Patriotism, Opposing Obama’s “Jobs Bill” Is Treasonous



• The Political Commentator – Some in the OWS movement, like the Nazis before them, say "Blame the Jews"



• Joshuapundit-Egypt Moves Towards The Abyss



• The Noisy Room – Lenin's 99 Percenters



• The Colossus of Rhodey – Narcissism Indeed



• The Razor – Out of the Mouths of Babes Comes Gibberish



• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Lord's Resistance Army



• Bookworm Room – Is this the weasel way of saying "You smell bad and you scare me?"



• The Right Planet – The Surreality of Evil



• The Mellow Jihadi – Three Petty Officers of the United States Navy



• Right Truth – Who Are You, Who Who, I Really Wanna Know ...



• VA Right! - Obama's Teleprompter Stolen at Virginia Center Commons Mall



• The Glittering Eye -Austerity This Ain't



• New Zeal – The Left Speaks Of War



• Simply Jews – Nikolai Valuev as female yeti

Honorable Mentions

• Maggie's Notebook - Occupy Wall Street Protestors Not Unemployed, Not Diverse – Are Radical Wealth Distributionist Left-Wingers


• Capitalist Preservation - Jose sez: "Si este hombre es mi hermano, yo quiero ser un hijo único."

Non-Council Submissions

• Polipundit – Republicans Pulling To The Left? submitted by Rhymes with Right



• Daily Caller -Red, White and Angry
: Communist, Nazi parties endorse ‘Occupy’ protests submitted by The Political Commentator



• Melanie Phillips – Journalism? No, cruelty and propaganda submitted by Joshuapundit



• Sultan Knish–The Age Of Accounting submitted by The Noisy Room



• Common Sense political Thought – Why Not Just Treat Everybody Equally Under The Law? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey



• Blog Maverick - The Mark Cuban Weblog –My Soapbox Advice to the OWS Movement and then some submitted by The Razor



• Global Spin – Obama's Iran Dilemma: How to Respond to a Plot Seemingly Designed to Provoke Escalation? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• Big Government-Journolist 2.0: Occupy Wall Street Emails Show MSM, Dylan Ratigan, Working With Protesters To Craft Message submitted by Bookworm Room



• The Ellis Washington Report -Lenin’s ‘useful idiots’ in Manhattan submitted by Right Planet



• Roger L. Simon/Pajamas Media – “Tahrir Envy” Meets “Tea Party Envy” on Wall Street submitted by The Mellow Jihadi



• Newsbusters -Will Other Journalists Follow Martin Bashir and Highlight Anti-Semitism at Wall Street Protests? submitted by Right Truth



• Human Events – Guess Where Over Half of America's New Jobs Came From In June? submitted by VA Right



• Ziva Sahl/Babalu Blog – Remembering Laura Pollán submitted by The Glittering Eye



• Liberty's Spirit – Face Of A terrorist submitted by The Watcher



• Tundra Tabloids – To Be Black In Iraq: They Still Call Me Abd (Slave)……. submitted by The Watcher



• Barry Rubin – The Middle East Today: Ha, Ha! It’s Too Funny! I Can’t Take It Any More! submitted by The Watcher



• Michael J. Totten – The Swing State of the Levant submitted by The Watcher


Enjoy! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!



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Obama's Teleprompter Kidnapped!!! The President Is Speechless

I regret to inform you that the TOTUS has been kidnapped along with President Obama's podiums, presidential seal and a truckload of other sound equipment by persons unknown when the truck carrying them was stolen in the midst of the president taxpayer funded campaign swing.

The truck was found abandoned outside Henrico, Virginia.

The president, shown here above frolicking with his beloved TOTUS in happier days was not available for comment, but special presidential aide Charles 'Tick' Jamal spoke briefly with the press:

"The president is obviously speechless and distraught over the incident. He and TOTUS have a uniquely close and personal relationship. The FBI is currently working with the local authorities trying to ascertain the facts of the case. There has not yet been any communication or ransom demands from the kidnappers."

A Defense Information Systems Agency spokesperson who spoke on background added, "No classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle. We take incidents such as this very seriously and a formal investigation is continuing."

A nation waits and hopes. Or at least an Administration does. I'll keep you posted as new details come in.

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