Remaining Two Kidnappers Of Three Israeli Teens Brought to Justice

Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha,two Hamas operatives responsible for the kidnap and murder of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach (HY"D) were finally found hiding out in Hebron by the Shin Bet and IDF soldiers from the Yamam anti-terrorism unit.

The two opened fire on the Israelis during the arrest attempt and were both killed in the fire fight that followed.

“Two members of the Izz A-Din al-Qasam brigades, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha, were killed after a journey of sacrifice and giving,” Hamas spokesman Hussam Badran said in a statement. “This is the path of resistance and we walk it side by side.”

The IDF made its usual error in turning the bodies back over to the Arabs. What they should have received  is an unmarked  hole in the desert somewhere with a nice piece of pork in their mouths.

Instead, the two had a huge heroes' funeral in Hebron featuring mourners waving Palestinian and Hamas flags, s pretty much the standard response when one of the Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians murders a Jew and is killed doing it. They're 'holy martyrs.' And of course, role models.

Kawasme’s brother, Hussam, was arrested on July 11 for masterminding the operation, and told the Shin Bet that Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha came to his house on the night of the attack after killing the three teens, and that he helped Marwan and Abu Aysha escape and hide.

Hussam also admitted to receiving money for the attack from Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, after initially denying they were responsible finally admitted that this was their 'operation.'



The parents of the three Israeli victims received a personal call from Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu, telling them what had happened and that justice had been done. The mother of one of the victims reportedly said that at least there's some closure, some light at the end of the tunnel for her now.

Speaking of justice, You may remember a piece I wrote about three weeks ago asking this question; Will Eric Holder Extradite A Hamas Terrorist Involved In Murdering A US Citizen?.



The Hamas terrorist in question was this man, Hamas West Bank commander, Saleh al-Arouri, who lives in Turkey and was the financier,control and planning contact for the Hamas cell thast murdered the three Israeli boys, including Naftali Fraenkel, an American citizen.

The Israelis asked Holder to use the current extradition treaties between Turkey and the U.S. to have al-Arouri extradited to the U.S. as an accessory to Frankel's murder, since Turkey supports Hamas and will not honor extradition requests from Israel. Israel could then have him extradited from the US to face similar charges in Israeli courts.

Holder has not done so. Nor apparently, will he.

Another point I mentioned in this article was that according to U.S. law, the FBI is required to investigate the death of an American citizen overseas. That policy has never been implemented when either Fatah or Hamas have been the perpetrators. And it was not implemented in the case of the murder of Naftali Fraenkel.

Justice indeed.

The Watcher's Council Weasel of The Week Nominations!!!

Hello and welcome to the Watcher's Council's new feature, 'Weasel Of The Week', where we award the golden plastic Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be publicly slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations and check back Thursday to see which Weasel gets the votes and walks off with the statuette of shame!


Here are this weeks' nominees:



Senator Elizabeth Warren!

The Noisy Room: In a speaking event at Tufts University Monday, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren told a “Holocaust refugee” that she thought it was "fair" to compare Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews in the Holocaust. Warren also walked back her previous statement that Israel had the right to defend itself by saying that the Gazans do as well and that her ultimate goal is ending war and establishing a two-state solution. Is there a category for 'fascist, anti-Semite weasel?' Just sayin'.

 

 'Personality' And Global Warming Activist Robert F.Kennedy Jr. !

Nice Deb: for getting a little  too hot and bothered at PJTV's Michelle Fields when she called him out
 on his hypocrisy at the climate rally in New York City, Sunday.

 Kennedy took great umbrage, waving his hands in front of her face, even grabbing at the young reporter's mic at one point.

 Pretty disgraceful behavior - even for a Kennedy.


 

RINO Squeaker Speaker Of The House John 'Mr. Flexy' Boehner!

 Virginia Right! : Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But often, the enemy of my enemy is simply another enemy.

John Boehner led the House to pass the appropriations for Obama's plan to arm and train "moderate" Syrian fighters, who are Muslims to fight other Muslims on behalf of America.

There is no way this turns out well for anyone but the "moderate" rebels who will soon turn the weapons on us, or hand them over to ISIS.

 The Right Planet: Speaker John Boehner for attempting a rule change to squelch dissent among more conservative members of the GOP, who he refers to as "knuckleheads." It sure would be nice to see folks like Boehner direct such vitriol at the Democrats, but apparently he's too spent after going after his own.

 

The GOP "Establishment" Leadership!

Ask Marion : for passing the complete funding of Obamacare including funding Planned Parenthood and for distancing themselves and alienating the Republican base in a year that should be a wave election and risking loss of the House and Senate in the midterms.


 
Peter Gelb, Useful Idiot and Head of the NY Metropolitan Opera!

JoshuaPundit: for bringing Jew Hatred and 'anti-Zionism' into the cultural mainstream and for encouraging moral delinquency.


  Well, there it is! Are these worthy weasels or what? 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?
 

Jordan's Arab Bank Found Liable for Funding Hamas Terrorist Attacks

Bloomberg News reported this afternoon that the Arab Bank, the biggest lender in Jordan and one of the largest in the Middle East, has been found liable for helping "Hamas militants carry out a wave of violence in Israel that killed and wounded hundreds of Americans."

The Amman-based lender did business with more than 150 Hamas leaders and operatives in the early 2000s, helping finance about two dozen suicide bombings and other attacks, jurors decided today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

The case highlights the ways banks can play a role in funding terrorist groups and the extent to which they can be held responsible for monitoring their customers, even those who aren’t on government lists of terrorists. Credit Lyonnais SA and Bank of China Ltd. are facing similar cases in the U.S., alleging they served as conduits for terrorism financing.

The plaintiffs were nearly 300 Americans who were victims or were related to victims of Hamas attacks.

 

The New York Times adds:

The burden of proof was high: The plaintiffs had to prove that the terrorist attacks were indeed conducted by Hamas, and that the bank’s support of Hamas was the “proximate cause” of the events. In addition, the plaintiffs had to demonstrate that their injuries were “reasonably foreseeable” as a consequence of the bank’s acts.

After 10 years of litigation and a five-week trial, the jury apparently found that the plaintiffs met the legal threshold, and ruled that the bank was liable. A separate hearing will be held to determine damages.

The verdict in the trial, which started in August, "was the first against a bank on civil claims of violating the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, making the verdict a potential industry landmark," according to Bloomberg.

Cross posted at The Tower. Reprinted by permission.

Israel Hayhom Columnist Ruthie Blum Nails The Real Problem With The 'Two State Solution'

Exactly. Until the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians accept that Israel is here to stay and give up their dreams of destroying it, a two state solution is not only farcical and impossible but dangerous.

U.S. Middle East Diplomat and Qatar's Money

 

by David Gerstman

The New York Times earlier this month published an expose of how foreign money influenced think tanks. One of the subjects of the article was the Brookings Institution, its vice president Indyk and $14.8 million grant that the government of Qatar had given Brookings. A former scholar at Brookings cautioned that because of Qatar's influence any report coming out of the institution is likely not to be the "full story."

The New York Times didn't seem much concerned with the implication of its reporting but some people did notice.

In Tablet this week Lee Smith pounced on the Times for not looking into the implications of what it reported.

Or maybe the editors decided that it was all on the level, and the money influenced neither Indyk’s government work on the peace process nor Brookings’ analysis of the Middle East. Or maybe journalists just don’t think it’s worth making a big fuss out of obvious conflicts of interest that may affect American foreign policy. Maybe Qatar’s $14.8 million doesn’t affect Brookings’ research projects or what the think tank’s scholars tell the media, including the New York Times, about subjects like Qatar, Hamas, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other related areas in which Qatar has key interests at stake. Maybe the think tank’s vaunted objectivity, and Indyk’s personal integrity and his pride in his career as a public servant, trump the large piles of vulgar Qatari natural gas money that keep the lights on and furnish the offices of Brookings scholars and pay their cell-phone bills and foreign travel.

 

Smith also observed that the Qatar connection made Indyk poorly suited as an interlocutor for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Of course, Hamas, which Qatar proudly sponsors, is a problem not just for Israel but also the Palestinian Authority. Which means that both sides in the negotiations that Indyk was supposed to oversee had good reason to distrust an American envoy who worked for the sponsor of their mutual enemy. In retrospect, it’s pretty hard to see how either side could have trusted Indyk at all—or why the administration imagined he would make a good go-between in the first place.

But there's one particular point that's particularly galling, Smith asks "why in the midst of Operation Protective Edge this summer did Kerry seek to broker a Qatari- (and Turkish-) sponsored truce that would necessarily come at the expense of U.S. allies, Israel, and the PA, as well as Egypt, while benefiting Hamas, Qatar, and Turkey?"

Kerry's support of the ceasefire deal that favored Hamas sponsored by Qatar and Turkey raised questions at the time. There  was an Egyptian ceasefire proposal on the table at the time. It's possible (though by no means certain) that if the United States had supported the Egyptian proposal and brought international support behind it, that the war could have been ended a month earlier before hundreds of more people were killed. Did Kerry listen to his compromised former envoy (who said he'd "consult" with the State Department after he resigned) and prolong the war by giving Hamas hope that it could get everything it wanted?

The corrupting influence of Qatar and its effect on the Middle East is something that needs more exposure.

 

One last note ... when Kerry appointed Indyk, The New York Times ran an editorial that described Indyk as having "a long association with pro-Israel groups." The mention was gratuitous but the suggestion was clear: Indyk might be too pro-Israel to be effective. Now that the Times' own reporting has exposed Indyk's ties to Qatar, will it ask the appropriate question in retrospect?

cross posted at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

What Critics Of Obama's ISIS Plan Are Missing

 

President Obama's plans to deal with the Islamic State have garnered a huge amount of criticism. Relying on haphazard airstrikes and al-Qaeda and Islamist Syrian rebels and the dysfunctional Iraqi Army for boots on the ground is not a recipe for success, and either is essential acting as Iran and Hezbollah's air force.

Even the New York Times, among other sources has reported on the president's refusal to listen to his military advisers, and former Marine commandant General James Conway and former CENTCOM Commander General James “Mad Dog” Mattis,both retired as part of the president's military purge on experienced generals he considers politically unfriendly have weighed in.

 

The highly decorated and capable Mattis told the House Intelligence Committee, “You just don’t take anything off the table up front, which it appears the administration has tried to do. Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies our enemies in advance that they will not see American ‘boots on the ground.’ If a brigade of our paratroopers or a battalion landing team of our Marines would strengthen our allies at a key juncture and create havoc/humiliation for our adversaries, then we should do what is necessary with our forces that exist for that very purpose.”

 

General Conway was even more outspoken, saying, “I don’t think the president’s plan has a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding.”

A number of the military and ex-military who are regular visitors to these pages were even more explicit, and as you know I had some fairly pungent critiques of President Obama's non-strategy here, here and here.

So it's important at this point to remember something I brought up right after the president's dismal speech. This isn't about actually destroying The Islamic State.It's about appeasing his far Left base while still trying to appear  like he's actually doing something to the American people to try and rescue his awful poll numbers before the midterms.

You see, President Obama's strategy doesn't have to make military sense or even common sense as long as it makes political sense.That's where his priorities lie. That, and kicking the can down the road for the next president to deal with, so he can get back to his usual routine.

Intel Bets On Israel - Invests $6B To Upgrade Facilities

Intel, the leading chip, microprocessor and computer hardware manufacturer has decided to spend $6 billion to upgrade its Kiryat Gat chip manufacturing plant, in one of the biggest single investments ever by a foreign company in Israel. The deal is expected to generate thousands of jobs.

Intel will get a grant from the Israeli government of $300 million over a five year period, and be eligible for a significant reduction in corporate tax rates over a ten year period. Intel will also guarantee to hire at least 1,000 workers, and to spend hundreds of millions of shekels on products and services in Israel. In addition, under the agreement Israeli contractors and workers will get priority on the upgrade work.

This is nothing new for Intel, which is by far the largest international firm operating in Israel and knows a win-win when it sees one. Over the past 40 years, the company has invested over $10 billion in in Israel, and employs some 10,000 people directly, as well as indirectly employing about 30,000 Israelis whom work for subcontractors and other Israeli companies that do business with Intel.

This comes on the heel of other good news. Standard and Poors, the international ratings agency reaffirmed its high 'A+/A-1' rating for Israel's bonds and sovereign debt, making it a better bet for investment than many EU countries.

S&P's forecast for Israel? :

"In our view, the recent Gaza conflict will lead to only a modest weakening of Israel's fiscal trajectory,” the agency wrote in its report. “Although Israel may temporarily reverse its fiscal consolidation, we expect its gross general government debt ratio to remain largely flat in the next three years.”

"Although the recent fighting in Gaza is a reminder of the long-term threat posed by geopolitical risks, we consider that in the short term, the effect will only be to accentuate the economic slowdown and modestly weaken the fiscal account,” the report continued. “The fighting has not changed our view of Israel's core credit strengths, such as its prosperous and diverse economy, the contribution of natural gas production to a healthy external balance, and its relatively flexible monetary framework,” it added.

The BDS freaks that demand their institutions  and pension funds divest from the booming Israeli economy are not only revealing their inherent anti-semitism - they're cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Music To Hate By - The Met and The NYT Bring Anti-Semitism Mainstream

The Metropolitan Opera has an interesting choice in its repertoire for this year's season.

It's the debut of its production of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer on October 20, just under a month from now. The opera is fairly controversial, because of the way it treats the victim of a heartless atrocity and the terrorists who committed it.

 

Leon Klinghoffer was a 69-year-old American Jew who was a decorated American World War II veteran, wheelchair bound and was taking a cruise in 1985 with his wife and 11 friends to celebrate his 36th wedding anniversary on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

The ship was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists from Black September, and Klinghoffer was taken aside and shot to death, murdered on the direct orders of Yasser Arafat. His body and his wheel chair were then thrown into the sea. He was no physical threat to the terrorists and was murdered simply because he was a Jew.

An opera based on these events was composed by John Adams with the libretto written by apostate Jew Alice Goodman, a convert from Judaism who's now Anglican.

The opera was apparently designed to 'equivocate' the Arab terrorists and their victim morally and show the 'humanity' of both sides. The very title, using the word 'death' rather than 'murder' is a good indication of where this opera stands.

Needless to say, given the expansive growth of Jew hatred, including the recent beheading of a Jewish journalist by Islamic State, this drew some major flak, to the point that last June the Met cancelled a gala worldwide HD broadcast of this performance scheduled to stream to theaters and on radio.

But they are still putting on the opera.

Actually, the opera itself doesn't merely 'morally equivocate' an old, harmless Jew in a wheel chair and his murderers. It comes down squarely on the side of the Arab terrorists.

It openly refers to the Israelis as the new Nazis. The opening scene shows graffiti on a wall, “Warsaw 1943, Bethlehem 2005,” while Jews wearing kippot are shown planting trees and building on 'plundered Arab territory'. The Palestinian chorus sings, “My father’s house was razed in 1948 when the Israelis passed over our street.” The Palestinians sing, “We are soldiers fighting a war. We are not criminals and we are not vandals but men of ideals.”

 

Yes, brave soldiers fighting one unarmed 69-year old Jew in a wheel chair. How heroic!

And the rest of the libretto is riddled with typically anti-semitic stereotypes and slurs. At one point, the principal terrorist says, “Wherever poor men are gathered, they can find Jews getting fat. You know how to cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, pollute where you have exploited, defame those you cheated, and break your own law with idolatry.” Later, he yells at Klinghoffer, “America is one big Jew.”

That of course reveals the truth of the relationship between a crippled American Jew and Palestinian hatred. It has never been about Israel per se, but about the Jews. All Jews, where ever they are, no matter how Left-leaning and 'anti-Zionist' they are, not matter how self-degrading.

 

And the music itself deliberately  underlines the superiority of the viewpoint of Arabs as freedom fighters and victims. The Palestinian choruses are strong, virile and filled with emotion, especially as the opera progresses and more of their grievances against Jews are revealed and explored in the opera and the libretto. The Jewish choruses and lyrics are flabby and vague..exactly the way Adams wanted the two sides portrayed.

It is the Palestinian who are shown throughout the opera as heroic with justifiable anger while the Jews are shown as money grubbing and exploitative, always in an unfavorable light. What the music and the libretto both underline in a particularly sick way is that Leon Klinghoffer's murder was justified, because his death was a sacrifice for the 'crimes' of his fellow Jews.

Needless to say, both the Met and the New York Times are beating the drum of 'artistic freedom' to justify putting this propaganda - because that's exactly what it is - on stage. The Times in particular praised Met general manager Peter Gelb for being “true to its artistic mission.” 

Now I wonder...what would happen to a composer who wrote an opera about KKK members in the South during the Reconstruction lynching a negro who was a tool for their carpetbagger oppressors and attempted the same sort of 'artistic statement' that John Adams and Alice Goodman put together, showing moral equivalence of murderers and victim? Would the Met stage that opera? And would the New York Times laud it as 'artistic freedom'? Would the composer ever get another commission to compose anything? I think we know the answers to those questions.

Does the Met have the right to put on this anti-semitic work in a mainstream cultural arena that justifies violence against Jews? Of course they do. Did John Adams have the right to compose it? Of course he did. Was a it a moral and decent thing to do? Are they being sympathetic and respectful of the feelings of the Klinghoffer's children? Do they bear some responsibility for violence done to Jews as a result of what amount to a justification for it.

Absolutely. And no amount of rationalizing about 'artistic freedom; cleanses that guilt, before G-d or man. To even try to do so is to reveal oneself as morally dead.


Peter Gelb can be reached at pgelb@metopera.org or call (212) 799-3100.

Forum:What's Behind The Downturn In The GOP's Chances To Take The Senate?

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's Behind The Downturn In The GOP's Chances To Take The Senate?


David Gerstman , Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: FWIW, here's Charlie Cook.


The Independent Sentinel:I don't know that I believe there is that much of a downturn from what I've read. If there is a downturn, it's primarily because the Democrats are cleverly winning the media war with a lot of help from their biased allies in the mainstream media who paint Republicans as having no alternatives to anything. That's not true but it's perceptions that count.

The Media doesn't report the news, they create the news.

Obamacare is a disaster but they've managed to delay many of the worst aspects and have bailed out insurance companies so people don't know how bad it is or how much premiums will rise.

The public turned against the wars in the Middle East in part due to the media's biased reporting. We won those wars. Many more men and women have died in Afghanistan under Obama's watch than under Bush's but you won't read that in the mainstream media. You won't see their flag-draped coffins being carried into Andrew's Air Force base.

Democrats have been bailed out by their media allies.

Republicans have backed down on many issues but if they don't, public opinion turns hard-left against them. They don't have the bully pulpit.

Republicans have flaws but the biggest flaw lies with the deceit the opinion media is peddling.

 GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD: As best understood - those Donkiecrats are like totally outspending the GOP on the Senate Race... :

Democratic fundraising has allowed the party and its allies to run more TV advertisements than Republicans in the first two weeks of September in nine of the 10 top Senate races this fall, according to an analysis of political spending by the nonpartisan Wesleyan Media Project.
The Democrats' edge in TV ads of late is due partly to a string of super PACs that have ramped up their efforts in the past two months. Since July 3, the largest super PACs aligned with Democrats have raised four times the money of pro-GOP super PACs, and have now spent $60 million to Republicans' $38 million, data compiled by The Wall Street Journal shows.

The Democratic push is being led by Senate Majority PAC, run by people affiliated with Mr. Reid, which has raised more money this election cycle than any super PAC aligned with either party: $33 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. It has put $28 million so far into TV and digital advertising, with nearly half of that spent in the last 10 weeks. Its biggest donors include hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who has given $5 million since 2013, and former New York City Mayor Nanny Bloomberg who has given $2.5 million.

Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of or against candidates, but they can't donate directly to candidates.

To be sure, conservative outside groups plan to spend millions this fall to help Republican candidates. But the efforts of the Senate Majority PAC and other Democratic interest groups could represent the best chance that Democrats have of holding onto control of the Senate and keeping Mr. Reid in charge of the chamber.{...}

Republicans must pick up a net six seats to gain a Senate majority. Though polls show GOP candidates hold the lead in some of the closest races, Democrats have the financial advantage. The major Democratic Party committees—the Democratic National Committee and the party's House and Senate arms—have raised nearly $370 million, about 10% more than their GOP counterparts, according to data collected by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : The conservative Tea Party worked to support their candidates only to be trounced by the well funded Republican machine in the primaries. The downturn occurred after the primaries as conservatives became disheartened, disappointed, and disgusted by the attacks on conservatives from those within the party. Many are now focusing their efforts on getting local candidates elected.

In order to take the majority in the Senate, Republicans have to pick up six seats. Of those six it appears Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia are the only seats we can be confident the GOP will win. However, polls show voter dissatisfaction with President Obama’s job performance. People don’t believe they are better off today than they were in 2008. In addition, with increasing global instability in the world, we see social issues taking a back burner here at home. It’s kind of hard to talk about a war on women when women and children are being beheaded, crucified, and sold into slavery and forced marriages in the Middle East. Historically, conservatives and Republicans vote more in the mid-term elections than liberals and Democrats, so Republicans have a little better than 50/50 chance of taking the Senate, imho.

 JoshuaPundit: Can anyone tell me what the GOP's message is, except that they're not Barack Obama? They have none. That's because their real campaign is not against Democrats, but against conservatives and Tea Party candidates in their own party..and against their conservative base.

Let's not forget that it was Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint who were the driving force in the GOP landslide in 2010, not the party establishment which fought them tooth and nail. As a matter of fact the GOP establishment and Michael Steele's antics actually cost the Republicans two seats they could have won - Nevada and Colorado.

ObamaCare is still hugely unpopular. The GOP  isn't mentioning it, and Boehner just pushed through funding for it.  President Obama's planned amnesty is only supported by about 30% of the public, mainly in deep blue states with large illegal migrant populations like California.The only Republican senatorial candidate I've seen making it a major issue is Scoot Brown  in New Hampshire, and he's gone from being better than 12 points down in the polls behind the Democrat incumbent Jean Shaheen to being essentially neck and neck...and he has hardly any money compared to Shaheen's $11.2 million. Joanie Ernst in Iowa, Tom Tillis in North Carolina and Cory Gardner in Colorado  aren't getting any GOP maney either. But the checkbook's open for Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts.

Benghazi, IRS-Gate, NSA-Gate, Fast And Furious? Sssshhh!

That's why the GOP is lagging behind. And now, they're touting the return of Obama's boyfriend Chris Christie, and talking about another Romney run for 2016 (OK, someone who could be a capable president but possibly the world's. worst.candidate. ever). Even I can't believe the GOP establishment is stupid enough not to understand what amnestia will  mean to both conservatives and the Republican Party, but then I never thought they would simply cede California to the Democrats without challenging the bogus redistricting scam,  or the state's lawless winking at wholesale illegal migration and voter fraud.

This should be a Reagan -style conservative revolution. It shouldn't even be close. Basta. Enough. Either conservatives need to take over the GOP or it's divorce time.

The Right Planet: I would suspect it has something to do with the abysmal treatment the GOP leadership and the RNC has shown toward its base and the TEA Party, not to mention the fact that the current GOP leadership has caved on almost every issue--funding Obamacare, arming so-called Syrian "rebels," pushing amnesty, etc.

Doug Ross recently posted, "From Mitch McConnell's vow to 'crush the Tea Party' all the way to rampant vote fraud in Mississippi, the Reince Priebus- and Karl Rove-led band of numbskulls have wagered that corrupting the primary process, demonizing the conservative activist base, and using borderline criminal tactics would unify the party."

There's no excuse for all this, in my opinion; it's electoral suicide. And one has to question whether it's intentional or not. It seems that anyone who just wants the government to get its house in order--meaning: reduce spending, cut taxes, strong defense, limited government, defend individual liberties, etc.--is treated worse than a terrorist by not only the Democrats but by certain members of the GOP as well.

Writing about this makes me so furious I'll have to end my response here.


Bookworm Room: This is an easy one: The GOP itself is behind the downturn. Here in my native state, I have it on the best authority that the establishment GOP elected to give several thousand dollars to a candidate who cannot possibly win, while giving $200 to a candidate who, if properly funded, could definitely win. Apparently the GOP decided that it was better to send good money after bad than to give the necessary help to someone who could be a sure thing. Whatever they're drinking at GOP headquarters is some seriously bad stuff.

All of America there are similar stories: the establishment sides with the Washington version of conservativism, which is simply a slower growing version of big government, complete with cronyism and a devotion to the cheap labor promised by amnesty. Meanwhile, back in the real world, real people are drowning under government controls, mandates, and taxes, and they're seeing illegal aliens sweep up the few jobs in our terrible economy. They can't stand what the Democrats have done to them, but they won't vote for a stale, flat-footed, tin-eared, self-serving GOP.

When Americans are exposed to true conservative ideas advocated by people who have solid support and are not allowed to be destroyed by an MSM portraying them as whackadoodles, they win, if not every time, at least a lot of the time. Two things don't win: Stale, corrupt, expensive GOPism and conservative extremists who are able to get enough fringe support to manage without GOP support.

The Glittering Eye: Most of the minor upticks and downticks are statistical anomalies. As the actual election nears, pollsters concentrate more on likely voters than on registered voters or other larger groups of people who probably won't vote. That can cause some surprising apparent changes, too.

All this by way of saying that early polls probably exaggerated Republican voting strength in some areas. It's always been close and the nearer the election comes the more opinion polls are likely to reflect that.


  Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. Every  Tuesday morning, be sure to drop by when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week! Tune in Thursday to see who gets awarded the Golden Weasel!

 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?

Kerry's Talks With Iran Deadlocked As Iran Calls For Israel's Destruction

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chaired a four hour meeting with an Iranian delegation that included Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif.

Secretary Kerry's 'agreement that was never and agreement' on Iran's rogue nuclear weapons program continues to fall apart at the seams.

The Iranians have flat outrejected any limits on their enrichment program (and let's remember, a nuclear energy program doesn't require enrichment). The Iranians have also refused to consider reducing the size and output of their centrifuges that can enrich uranium both to levels needed for reactor fuel or for nuclear warheads.

 

According to the Associated Press Kerry caved and promptly put a new U.S. proposal on the table that is based on removing piping connecting the centrifuges...as if that piping can't be reconnected in between inspections!

The Iranians are also adamant about any inspection of their military base at Parchin where there's substantial evidence that nuclear weapons research has gone on, nor will Iran make any concessions on its fortified nuclear facility at Fordo or on its heavy water reactor at Arak. The Arak reactor has no peacetime application whatsoever, and the reactor can be used to produce plutonium, an alternate path to nuclear weapons.

You may remember that last November, Secretary Kerry was claiming that the Iranians had agreed to suspend operations at Arak.The Iranians were quite prompt to reply they said no such thing, just one of the many details Kerry and President Obama claimed the Iranians agreed to that they absolutely didn't, and something Iran said it wouldn't ever make concessions on. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime got over $12.5 billion in badly needed funds and the dismantling of what was left of the sanctions that was years in the making for this faux 'agreement' anyway. As I said at the time, it's a wonder Secretary Kerry returned with his pants and shoes on after that bit of negotiating....

The next topic of conversation was the Islamic State. As I reported earlier, the Iranian response to Kerry's attempt to get them on board as part of President Obama's coalition was pretty much along these lines:

 

Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi refused the idea of any coordination of efforts with the Great Satan, he did say that his government was in agreement with Western powers on the evil  nature of Islamic State, saying,  “we couldn’t agree more that ISIL [Islamic State] is neither Islamic, nor a state.”  Most Sunnis, not just Islamic State feel the same way about Shi'ites, of course.


But they did have a unique suggestion for Kerry.

Araghchi said that Israel’s actions in Gaza can “only be called genocide,” and said that Israel's existence was a rallying cry for Islamic State. So Islamic State's destruction and demise must thus be tied to “an end to the Israeli occupation of Arab lands.”

Since the Iranians (and the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians) have said many times they consider all of Palestine 'occupied Arab lands' and Iran funds and arms genocidal groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, there's no mistaking what Aragchi meant. It's a reprise of the old Iranian call to wipe Israel off the map.And keep in mind, Aragchi isn't just speaking on his own. That doesn't happen in a regime like Iran's. This is official policy.



In fact, if the 'Palestinian Authority’s ambassador' to Iran, Salah Al-Zawawi is to be believed, Iran has already begun shipping weaponry and missiles to Fatah as well:

“I would like to reiterate my gratitude to the Islamic Republic of Iran for the training, financing, and weapons it has provided us, as well as for its political and diplomatic positions regarding Palestine. Iran has helped us to attain our great victory,”

“I am not saying that Palestine will be liberated tomorrow, but we have made real strides on the path to liberation. A missile with a 200 kilogram warhead will carry a warhead of 100 tons in the future, because weapons change as men change. We just need to cross the scientific threshold to get to our goal.”

Ah yes, the old goal of pushing the Jews into the sea. And perhaps later after the missiles are developed, a spare nuke, once the Iranians develop one? Just for the record, a top Iranian military commander recently confirmed that the Islamic Republic is sending weapons to Fatah.

Israeli PM Netanyahu may one day be sorry he didn't defy President Obama and take out Hamas when he had the opportunity. A three front war with Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah as adversaries is not out of the question at all.

And Secretary Kerry? There's no indication that he voiced any objections to this call for Israel's ethnic cleansing by Iran. Not that he agrees with it per se, but he appears to be far more focused on what concessions he can make to Iran to get some kind of piece of paper signed before November 24th, the new deadline that was agreed to after the Iranians ran out the clock on July 20th, the official deadline. Iran received an additional bribe of a mere $2.8 million to keep these 'talks' going after that fiasco.

Meanwhile, the centrifuges are turning and Iran hasn't given up anything. Nor will they. They know whom they're dealing with.

 

Senate Passes US-Israel Strategic Partnership Bill

The United States senate voted unanimously to pass the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act late Thursday evening.The bipartisan legislation was authored by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) had 81 co-sponsors, out of a total of 100 Senators.

Much of this is cosmetic, what with the midterm elections looming closer, but there is some important meat here.

 


Aside from declaring that Israel is a “major strategic partner” of the United States, the bill increases the frequency and detail of US government reporting on Israel’s qualitative military edge and includes a provision that will expand the forward-deployed US weapons stockpiles in Israel.

One of the many things America gets out of its alliance with Israel is a weapons depot in a friendly country where arms and ammo can be held securely and safely to speed US resupply in the event of a crisis in the Middle East. That's a lot more valuable than it might first appear, especially when you look at the cost of a leased US base in the region, the restrictions placed on the use of our leased bases by our 'ally' Turkey and the benefits of having needed supplies to be used when we need them in a friendly nation.

The new bill allows an increase to the value of US weapons held in Israel by $200 million, for a total of of $1.8 billion. from Israel's standpoint, the good part of the deal is that the IDF, with U.S. permission, is allowed to access that stockpile in the event of an emergency, after which Israel reimburses the US for any weapons used. This summer, the stockpile — known as War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) — was accessed by Israel in Operation Protective Edge when the US let Israel use 40mm grenades and 120mm mortar rounds from the stockpile.

The bill also upgrades Israel’s trade status. And it authorizes the president to provide assistance to promote cooperation in water, homeland security, agriculture and alternative fuel technologies, pretty meaningless for the most part since Israel is self sufficient in water and food, its security apparatus is arguably better than ours and Israel is on the cutting edge when it comes to solar and biomass, but hey, a sop to the carbon footprint fanatics and it does no harm. Also it creates the establishment of a US-Israel Center of Excellence for the development of research and development and academic partnerships. There's also a provision for cooperation on cyber security.

The legislation also addresses a growing scandal, Israel’s high rate of visa rejections by the U.S.since the Obama Administration came to town.The bill encourages - it doesn't mandate - Israel's inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program, which currently allows three-dozen countries to have visa-free entry to the US.

Just guessing, but I have a feeling that a dangerous jihadi would be more likely to be a French citizen or a British subject than an Israeli. And perhaps Israel is bit more of a strategic ally to America than say, Chile or Brunei. So we'll see what happens.

Part of the problem here is Israel's disinclination to let certain violent BDS activists such as members of the International Solidarity Movement or American Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians who hold U.S. citizenship and have a history of 'activism' into Israel. America certainly has no such problem with Israelis coming here. Again, we'll see how this works out.

The bill (of course!) has the usual language about US support for a negotiated political settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians resulting in two states living side-by-side in peace and security.

Say the last part of that sentence ten times quickly and commit it to memory and you too may qualify to be a U.S. Senator who's an 'expert' on the Middle East. Or at least for State Department spokesmouth.

Again, let me emphasize that this bill is largely about politics and the midterms.  The House has its own bi-partisan bill with similar attributes that has already passed in March 2014, but congress is set to adjourn soon and the two bills will not be able to be reconciled until after the November elections, after which President Obam has to sign it, which he may very well refuse to do.And there's no telling what kind of amendments a weasel like  Harry Reid might try to tack on as a lame duck Senate Majority Leader if the Republicans take the Senate.

So there's a lot of fluff here, but also some real meat. It might just be that some of Israel's persistent critics in the Senate are finally starting to realize how valuable our relationship with Israel really is.

Cheerleaders, G-d And Civil Disobedience

 

Oneida High School in Oneida, Tennessee ended prayers before athletic events because they were afraid of the possibility of lawsuits after pressure from the ACLU and atheist organizations like the Freedom From Religion foundation. So they stopped the usual broadcasting of the Lord's Prayer, otherwise known as Psalm 23 (written by King David) over the PA and substituted a 'moment of silence' instead.The school's decision didn't resonate well with the students and much of the community.

What happened next is simply heartwarming.

The next Friday night football game, the school's cheerleaders in a body used that 'moment of silence' to lead the assembled crowd and the athletes in Psalm 23.

“We need prayer for so many reasons especially in our community now and the troubles we face every day,” said junior Kayla King.

“During the moment of silence all the cheerleaders came together and recited the Lord's Prayer,” King explained.

Cheerleader Captain Ally Meyers said she was "emotional" when she learned that prayers could no longer be recited over the PA system. She said the cheerleaders decided to keep it going on their own, and the whole crowd joined in.

"Our community needs God in it, especially at football games. We pray for the safety of each and every player out there and the cheerleaders and the fans for the drive home," she said.

“In that moment the atmosphere was kind of great because it was nothing but heads bowed, and you heard the Lord's Prayer ring over the football field,” said King.

It must have been quite a moment.

And here's the irony. While the outside groups trying to impose their version of secular tyranny were looking to limit prayer, they had the opposite effect. Instead of one person reading Psalm 23 over the PA, there are now hundreds of people reciting it, and receiving an enhanced spiritual charge from a wonderful act of civil disobedience.

Contrary to what you've heard, there is no legally mandated 'separation' of religion and state, and that entire belief is based on a couple of highly questionable decisions from the ultra-Left Warren Court. But for those of you whom claim there is, here's a test.

If you think reading a Judeo-Christian prayer over a PA system at a non-mandatory school event is 'unconstitutional', do you feel the same way about the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer? That consists of a statement of Islam's superiority and other religion's inferior status broadcast publicly through PA systems at often earsplitting volume where people are forced to listen to it even if they are non-Muslims.



Funny thing...I haven't heard of any letters to mosques telling them to ditch broadcasting the adhan...not even so much as one threat of an ACLU lawsuit, have you? The muscular secularists at the ACLU or the Freedom From Religion Foundation seem to have plenty of courage when it comes to Judeo-Christian practices and institutions, but somehow they aren't lining up to file suits against mosques that are openly even more intrusive when it comes to broadcasting their religious beliefs in the public sphere.

If you're going to go after Oneida High School and not the mosques and their minarets, that is selective enforcement, a polite name for bigotry. It really is that simple.

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks' 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.


“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” - Adolf Hitler

“There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool” - Plato



This weeks' winning entry, The Independent Sentinel's – Anti-Americanism, Marxism, Porn, Pedophilia Now Available in the Classroom does a great job in exposing h the organized mind rape and indoctrination of America's children in the public schools by the implementation of the Common Core program. Here's a slice:

Did you know that ‘our bodies, being products of eating, are immoral by essence’, and ‘consumption not only bites the world but lessens the leftovers for everyone else’? [...] “procreation has become an unintentional act of aggression against the fellow multitudes already cramming the planet.”

~ from The American Experience, a propagandized high school literature text

Leftist revisionist history is seen through a negative, bleak, self-flagellating prism and it is now permeating our schools thanks to Common Core.

Periodically, I post an article about one of the texts or supplementary materials being used under Common Core that promote propaganda, and anti-American ideas. America Now is one such book.

America Now by Robert Atwan is a book of essays from recent periodicals, which is being used in AP English classrooms in numerous high schools and in undergraduate college classes throughout the nation. It is Common Core aligned. It is typical of the type of indoctrination that is becoming part and parcel of the Core. It has less to do with English than it has to do with perpetuating the leftist vision of America – the new America, America Now!

America now is an America that abandons traditional America and takes up a new, improved Leftist America. Common core is the vehicle by which this new America can be rapidly and widely spread.

Parading around as English literature, it is simply leftist propaganda. The theme capitalism is evil runs throughout.

Big Government and government agencies are extolled. The rich are demonized, Southern people are demeaned, man is described as too costly, man is an agent of destruction on earth, and illegal immigration is promoted.

Happiness is something to be attained by adapting to the Marxist perspective.

A telling quote from the book: “One cure–for those who feel that their pursuit of happiness has been sent on a long detour through the labor camps of American and international capitalism–is the institution of a government department that has as its only priority the happiness of all Americans.”

Another article, on the sticky post on our front page, deals with yet another vile, unAmerican book called The American Experience.

A Tea Party leader, Becky Gerritson, who testified before Congress last year and who told Congress “they had forgotten their place,” testified before an Alabama Senate Education Committee in support of a bill to allow local school districts to opt out of Common Core.

Her testimony concentrated on the widely-used literature text, The American Experience: 1900-Present by Prentice Hall. It is Common Core aligned. When she read one paragraph from a recommended novel that was incorporated into the book, it was so pornographic even the senators wouldn’t listen to it. She reminded them that this is being taught to 16 and 17 year olds.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Sharyl Atkisson in The Daily Signal with Benghazi Bombshell: Clinton State Department Official Reveals Details of Alleged Document Review submitted by Joshuapundit. Ms. Atkisson, an award winning reporter reveals via a former State Department functionary how for mer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her people were part of an operation to “separate” damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Do read it.

Here are this week’s full results. Only The Colossus of Rhodey was unable to vote this week, but was not affected by the 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! – The Independent Sentinel – Anti-Americanis, Marxism, Porn, Pedophilia Now Available in the Classroom


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Razor – Why I Think Bombing ISIS Is a Bad Idea


• Third place with 2 votes –The Noisy Room – Cruz: Those Who Hate Israel, Also Hate America


• Fourth place with 1 2/3 votes –Joshuapundit-Kerry: US Must Help Push 'Real Islam'


• Fifth place with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet – What The United Nations Doesn't Want You To Know


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! - New Music Video – American Freedom Fighter


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Colossus of Rhodey – Pro-Israel Students Arrested at Ohio University for Standing Up to BDS-ers


• Seventh place *t* with 2/3 vote –Bookworm Room – What passes for theater and theater reviews amongst New York’s self-styled finest


• Seventh place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Obama Administration Denies Threatening Journalist's Families With Prosecution,
  

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Sharyl Atkisson/Daily Signal – Benghazi Bombshell: Clinton State Department Official Reveals Details of Alleged Document Review submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place with 2 votes – The Diplomad 2.0 – 9/11/14: Year Thirteen in the 1400 Year War submitted by The Glittering Eye

li>Third place with 1 1/3 votes - Moon of Alabama – The New "Regime Change" Plan - Attack Damascus From The South submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD

• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote-David Greenfield/Front Page Mag –Can Republicans win in a post family America submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote- Michael Totten –Face the Brutal Truth About ISIS submitted by The Razor


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Victor Davis Hanson/PJ Media –Are the Orcs Winning? submitted by The Noisy Room


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - SE Cupp – Is it OK to hunt while pregnant? submitted by VA Right!


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Election Law Blog – Breaking News and Analysis: Federal Court Grants Injunction Restoring Early Voting in Ohio submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Michael Goodwin/New York Post – Obama's Ship Is Sinking submitted by Nice Deb


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -World Net Daily -U.N. to dump flood of Muslim refugees on U.S. submitted by Ask Marion


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Douglas Ernst – Army’s diversity storm troopers fret over numbers of white men leading combat brigades submitted by The Colossus Of Rhodey


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Caroline Glick – Of politicians and moral courage submitted by The Watcher ( h/t Terresa at The Noisy Room)

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 Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

Scotland votes 'Nae' - Will Stay In The UK

 

Scotland has voted stay in the United Kingdom. The results were:

	Votes	%

NO	1,914,187	55.42
YES	1,539,920	44.58
TARGET TO WIN	1,810,042

Only four of Scotland's Councils - Glasgow, Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshie voted for independence, although a couple of the others were close.

What happens next is interesting, a little.

 

Brit PM David Cameron had promised the Scots a number of goodies if they voted to stay in, and now will come the task of delivering. It's called 'devolution of powers' in the local  lingo, and what it means is more autonomy for Scotland and the right to set its own tax levels, perhaps. The details were deliberately left kind of foggy.

The Brits plan to draw up a  white paper - a parliamentary agenda of sorts -  by the end of November, setting out the proposed new powers Scotland's parliament will gain. And a new "Scotland Act" law would then be published if all goes according to plan by January 25, 2015  for the House of Commons to vote on.

However, since there's a new a UK general election due in May 2015, the legislation would not be passed until the new parliament takes over. Cameron is something of a weasel and as a Tory isn't going to get too many votes in Scotland anyway since what Scotland finally gets at the end might very well be a lot less than they've been led to believe.

Another interesting paradox..since  this is a 'devolved system'  Scottish MPs in Britain's lower house, the House of Commons   get a vote on spending and other budget matters in England while, since Scotland already has semi autonomy  and its own independent parliament, English MPs have no voice in how these things are run in Scotland because the Scottish Parliament handles them.

If Scotland gets even more autonomy, there will be more areas where English MPs have no say on Scottish matters while Scottish MPs in Britain's parliament continue to have a vote in how similar things are run in England. Look for an outcry in the near future at this basic unfairness in the future, which might even eventually lead to a kind of federalist system. 

It remains to be seen if Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond resigns



Why did 'No' win? There are probably lots of reasons, but I think that the bottom line is that a number of Scots have gotten very used to the welfare state and life on the dole and didn't want to take a chance on anything that might disrupt it or change it. And there were enough of them to carry the day.

UPDATE: Alex Salmond has formally announced his resignation as head of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and has said he will also step down as First Minister of Scotland after the failure of the independence referendum.

"For me as leader my time is nearly over but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream will never die," Salmond told reporters in Edinburgh.

He said he would not accept the nomination as leader of the Scottish National Party at their annual conference in November and that he would then resign as First Minister.

"After the membership ballot I will stand down as first minister to allow the new leader to be elected."

The Watcher's Council's Weasel Of The Week!

Fanfare!! It's time It's time to present this weeks' 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 weeks' nominees were all certainly deserving, but one stood out this week as the overwhelming winner..

Yes, it's Maxine 'No Justice No Peace' Waters, Democrat Congresswoman from Crazyfornia!



 The Independent Sentinel : For telling the Council of Pakistan Affairs and Islamic Society of Orange County that Sharia Law is compatible with the U.S. Constitution and for telling them that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.

So much for free speech and the right to dissent.

While Ms. Waters certainly deserves the award for this bit o' bigotry, (can you imagine how she'd look in a burka and niquab) this is really something of a career  achievement award.

She represents California's 43rd congressional district, which is centered in South Central Los Angeles and includes Inglewood, Hawthorne, and parts of Carson and Torrance (shsssh! She doesn't live in the District, but in upscale Hancock Park).

She got her nickname from leading chants during the 1992 Rodney King riots, which she insisted should be called a 'rebellion' rather than a riot. She described the violence in which 58 people were killed as  “a spontaneous reaction to a lot of injustice.” And speaking of injustice, when she was asked about the wide spread looting of Korean owned businesses, she shrugged it off, saying "There were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, to take some shoes... They are not crooks."

Ms. Waters also has a fond spot in her heart for commie dictator Fidel Castro,  whom she thanked for - wait for it -  providing help to those who needed to “flee political persecution.”

I have a feeling Congresswoman Waters never toured Fidel's gulag on the Isle of Pines.

One of the people she was referring to was black 'activist' Assata Shakur, and in 1998, Waters wrote a letter to Fidel Castro asking him not to extradite Shakur. This was in spite of the fact that Shakur is an escaped convicted murderer, a former member of the Black Panther Party and The Black Liberation Army, and is classified by the FBI with good reason as a domestic terrorist.

On the other hand, you can't say she's not consistent. As a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus she put major pressure on President Clinton in 1999 to ship 6-year-old Elian Gonzales back to Castro's Cuba.

Economics? Of course! Remember this?



"This liberal would be about socializing … uh, umm. … Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies.”

Hey, socialism and 'justified' theft is good when it comes to whitey and them Ko-reans, right! And do I have to tell you she favors reparations for slavery,and co-authored a bill to mandate it with Senator John Conyers (D-MI)? Or that she was a major force in helping to KO any oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae when the Bush Administration attempted to institute it?

Of course, let's not get the wrong idea. Ms. Waters is actually pretty savvy when it comes to finance. Her own, at least.

Chuck Neubauer and Ted Rohrlich wrote a major piece in the LA Times in 2004 to the effect that Maxine Waters' relatives had made more than $1 million during the preceding eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters had direct influence over because of her position in congress. They claimed she and her husband helped a company get government bond business, and that her daughter Karen Waters and son Edward Waters have profited from her connections. Waters reply? "They do their business and I do mine."

Oh, indeed she does!

She also holds the distinction of being named one of the 14 most corrupt members of congress by Business Insider in 2011. Considering whom else was in congress at that time, this was and is a major achievement. She's a superstar.

F'rinstence, back in September of 2008, Waters lobbied for TARP funds for OneUnited Bank, because she claimed it was part of an association of minority controlled banks.This happened when she was on the Financial Services Committee and had a voice in determining where TARP funds would go.

Waters' husband Sidney Williams just happened to have been a board member of OneUnited, and was and still is a stockholder.

Part of her lobbying efforts involved arranging personal meetings with her husband and Treasury Department officials without ever disclosing her personal financial interest. OneUnited ended up with a healthy taxpayer bailout of $12 million.

Thyen Waters was brought up on Ethics charges, largely because another part of her lobbying involved chairperson Barney Frank and he needed to cover his own capacious behind.

Having a choice between a trial in the House or pleading guilty, Waters was savvy enough to choose a 'trial' knowing that (a) after seeing the wrist slap her fellow BCC compadre Charley Rangel got for doing far worse, even if she was found guilty it wouldn't amount to much and (b)the Democrat dominated House wasn't going to push too hard to prove charges against a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and they would likely stonewall and drop the charges before the newly elected GOP house was seated in January of 2011.

Which is exactly what happened.

For racism, outsize nastiness, hypocrisy and sheer grasping corruption, Maxine Waters richly deserves her Golden Weasel. She's literally one of the best weasels to be found in the parasitical halls of government. Accept it and all that goes with it, congresswoman.

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?