The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akahshic records of cyberspace.
The problem with race-baiting and identity politics as practiced by the Left is that different groups eventually have conflicting and competing goals and each one demands its pound of flesh..which results in problems satisfying everyone.
This week’s winner, Do Blacks Realize They’ve Been Played By Obama? by Joshuapundit examines this problem in detail, and also reveals the new narrative being used to try and paper over the conflict by creating a brand distraction – hatred directed towards ‘ racist Tea Party Republicans.’ Here’s a slice:
It was a fairly tense scene at a Congressional Black Caucus- sponsored event in Miami, where President Obama’s executive director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Don Graves had to dodge heated questions from the likes of Maxine Waters ( D-CA) and Laura Richardson (D-Ca) in front of a fairly hostile crowd.In his remarks, Graves said that the president is “focused on every community across the country” but when he attempted some careful race pandering, saying that “certain communities have been hit harder than other communities,” Waters pushed him. “Let me hear you say ‘black,’” the California Democrat yelled.
Notice what groups this fine public servant, who gets paid a handsome salary by all of the American people left out.
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), who being an expert practitioner herself knows a lie when she hears it referred to Graves’ remarks as “a bunch of bull.” She later asked Graves to bypass Congress and shuttle dozens of pieces of special interest legislation authored by CBC members to the president so he could enact them using executive authority.
“Let’s be honest”, Richardson said. “We have met with the president. We are asking you in the capacity of your position [at the council on] jobs, are you willing to review our bills, to work with us?”
“You may not feel like the president is listening to you, but he hears you loud and clear,” Graves said. And of course, he blamed “folks who are going to stand in the way and block the legislation that the Congressional Black Caucus has proposed.”
Waters interrupted him. “What people are you talking about?” she said, according to the Miami Herald. “Say tea party. Say it!”
Graves did, though the Post described him as doing so “reluctantly.” “It was tea party Republicans,” he said.
Interestingly enough, it bookended theme wise in some respects with our winner in the Council category. It was Mead’s interesting dissection of Jeffry Toobin’s piece in the New Yorker, where after years of racist claptrap from the Left declaring Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas an idiot and an Uncle Tom,the Left is slowly waking up to the fact that Justice Thomas has become a forceful intellectual leader of the Court who could become the Left’s worse nightmare.
(Here’s Eric Clapton’s sweet version, and Leadbelly’s original recording, just for contrast)
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 those determined members who dealt with flooding and power outages and still pumped out this week’s fine nominations. Them, and Glenn Beck.Can’t leave him out.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akahshic records of cyberspace.
It’s been a rough week in the Middle East for Israel, and this week’s winner, Right Truth‘s superb Israel In The Crosshairs focused not only on the ongoing attacks on Israel’s people but the obscene hypocrisy in how the media is reporting it. Here’s a slice:
This headline from the Jawa Report, “Israel ‘Ignites’ Violence By Defending Itself”, seems to sum up the media’s spin on the latest attacks on Israel and Israel’s response. USA Today reports that ‘militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip‘ (isn’t that redundant) bombarded southern Israel with rockets and mortars Sunday and Israel hit back with an airstrike. Actually Israel hit back more than once and rounded up 50 Hamas activists in the West Bank.
Israel blamed The Popular Resistance Committees for Thursday’s attack and killed its top commanders in an airstrike later that day, igniting cross-border exchanges after months of relative quiet under an informal cease-fire with Hamas.
“Relative quiet,” of course, meaning Israel looked the other way as Palestinian militants lobbed hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory. (Jawa Report)
Some might excuse the media reporting on Israel and blame it on lack of knowledge or lack of understanding of the situation. But the truth is their bias is purposeful and it is all about placing blame on Israel and not on those terrorists who are actually guilty.
Barry Rubin, who has studied the Middle East professionally for 35 years, has a PhD in Middle East history, says:
… let me make it perfectly clear: Glenn Beck, who is holding several rallies in Israel this week, has a better grasp of Middle East politics than most Western experts, not to mention Western leaders.
In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with Obama’s Paradoxes submitted by Joshuapundit, an examination of them many contradictions between what the Obama Administration claims it wants and what it actually does.Very much worth the detour, as most of Dr. Hanson’s pieces are.
Ah, the sultry lazy days at the end of summer, when the warm weather brings out the torpor and laziness in all of us and little gets accomplished except by the determined and the desperate.The Romans were the first to label this time of year the Dog Days(dies caniculares), noting that Sirius, the Dog Star, was the brightest star in the night sky at this time of year.
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 dedicated to letting sleeping dogs lie…at least for awhile.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
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.
One thing we’ve always taken for granted here in America is the availability of doctors and being able to see them in a timely manner. As this week’s thought provoking winner, Working for Free: The Economics of Being a Primary Care Physician by the Razor reveals, if present trends continue, that maybe a thing of the past – especially if ObamaCare isn’t repealed. Here’s a slice:
Assume a business day of 8 hours. For each hour a family/primary care physician can see 3 patients at 20 minutes each. During each 20 minute visit a doctor has to review a patient’s history, listen to the patient’s complaint or reason for the visit, make a clinical diagnosis on how to best treat the patient’s problem, and assess the patient for signs of any other disease process. All this must be carefully notated in the patient’s chart to track progress and to document the visit for insurance purposes and in rare cases, legal actions.So the doctor sees 24 patient’s in a day. Assume each patient’s insurance is billed $100 for the visit. Of that $100 the doctor’s practice expects to receive (including patient co-pays) $50. 50% of that $50 is kept by the practice to pay for overhead (medical assistants, receptionists, nurse practitioners, building costs etc). That leaves the doctor $25 per patient.
3 patients an hour means $75 hour, and that equals at 2000 hours a year, $150,000. This is a good wage by most standards. The problem is that doctors don’t work 2000 hours.
As well as seeing 24 patients, the doctor is responsible for managing physician assistants and nurse practitioners. He or she is ultimately responsible for the treatments made by these mid-levels and can be held accountable by the medical board and in court for any mistakes they make. This usually means monitoring what the mid-levels are doing, reviewing their charts, and assisting with their treatment options. This supervision is completely unpaid; the doctor is not reimbursed for his or her time.
Throughout the day test and lab results from current patients arrive on the doctor’s desk. S/he must review these and sign-off on them, adjusting medications or marking for follow-ups as needed. This work is unpaid.
Each refill request made by a patient must be reviewed and signed off by the doctor. He or she is not paid for this work.
20 minutes is not enough time to adequately document a patient’s chart. A doctor will often make quick notes during the patient visit and complete the chart after visiting hours. Charts for those with complex problems and chronic conditions can take upwards of 30-60 minutes to document each visit – all done for free.
In our non-Council category, the winner was a superb piece by Terry Glavin – The Final Nail In The Coffin Of The Pakistani Pantomime? submitted by Simply Jews. It outlines the misconceptions about the war in AfPak and especially about our ‘ally’ Pakistan that have cost us dearly in blood and treasure.
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.
This week we ended up with tie between two superb pieces, The Razor’s Betting It All And Losing , a great piece about the pain of indebtedness and how politicians play roulette with other people’s money and John Bolton: ” Why I May Run For President” and Why We May Need Him by Right Truth, an excellent exposition of the mostly hidden issue in the campaign thus far, foreign policy and national security – and why Ambassador Bolton might be just the man to bring it into the spotlight.
The current situation in Washington calls for new leadership, and John Bolton might be exactly what we need. Departments must be done away with, spending must be cut both here at home and especially abroad. US foreign aide must be reviewed and either cut drastically or stopped completely. Will he run, or won’t he, time will tell. Whether he could actually get the nomination or whether he could win is debatable. Frances Martel at Mediate says:What makes his threat most believable is how forthright he is about his reason for running. He specifically avoids saying anything that could be interpreted as “in it to win it” language– he’s in it to argue a case, to put in the national spotlight the importance of national security in the economic viability of the nation. As he concludes his piece, he suggests that “no Republican candidate has persuasively argued that our economic recovery and long-term prosperity are completely intertwined with a strong national security posture,” and that he will run if no one argues this to his satisfaction.(continue)
The truth is that Bolton has a point. Barack Obama has been terrible for our security, in spite of the fact that Osama bin Laden was taken out under Obama’s administration (perhaps in spite of the fact that Obama finally allowed the SEALs to go in and get Osama). His actions in the Middle East and Africa have made the situation there worse. The so-called Arab Spring has turned out to be a disaster. Obama has no idea what he is doing, what his picking and choosing of countries to help (one might question the help or harm issue) has done to endanger Israel and the US. Is he incompetent or intentional? Does it matter? The damage is the same.
We also had a tie this week between two must read entries in our non-Council category. One was Mark Steyn’s Mad Debt submitted by The Noisy Room, one of the best expositions of the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into I’ve read and the other was Walter Russell Mead’s American Tinderbox submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey.
Steyn’s piece was masterful as always and got my vote, but I urge you to read Mead’s piece as well. While I disagreed with some of Mead’s conclusions ( I frequently do) the fact that he was willing to honestly try to deal with the topic of increasing black on white crime and ‘flash mobs’ when most of the media won’t touch it with a ten foot pole was almost enough all by itself to get the nod from me.
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.
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 the ‘Contact Me’ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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?
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.
This week’s winner focused on an important news story almost ignored by the media and its very troubling implications.style=”font-weight: bold;”>Joshuapundit’shref=”http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2011/07/most-dangerous-story-in-news-today.html” target=”_blank”>The Most Dangerous Story In The News Todaytook an anonymously sourced story about how al-Qaeda is all but defeated and examined both the national security aspects as well as the political motivations…and who stands to benefit:
Here’s a slice:
In href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaeda-could-collapse-us-officials-say/2011/07/21/gIQAFu2pbI_story.html”>today’s Washington Post..here’s the opening paragraph:
U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed al-Qaeda to the brink of collapse.
/> The article quotes the usual unnamed sources.
The WAPO, being the relatively careful news organization it is covers its tracks carefully with caveats stuck away in odd corners like “al Qaeda might yet rally”, “its demise would not end the terrorist threat” and “Even if al Qaeda is dismantled, its militant ideology has spread and will remain a long-term threat.”
But the headline and the overwhelming thrust of the article is that al-Qaeda is finished.
Isn’t that just wonderful? Wouldn’t it be nice to believe that the war that began on 9/11 is all over now, and we beat the bad guys?
Sorry, but I’m afraid I have to pop your bubble.Let’s look at something obvious. Why would this be fed to the media just now? And who benefits?
This story fits neatly into the Obama Administration’s plans. And even though the WAPO isn’t naming names, I can pretty much figure out whom they got it from and why.
We’re getting out of Afghanistan, but if we oh pardon me, President Barack Obama killed Osama bin-Laden and defeated al-Qaeda, it’s not a retreat anymore is it? On the campaign trail, it becomes astyle=”font-style:italic;”>win.It can be touted as ”We’ve finished off the bad guys, and look at who it was that ended Bush’s War brought our troops home!’ So President Obama gets a totally undeserved label from the usual media suspects as a national security genius.
Not only that but since we’vestyle=”font-style: italic; font-family:trebuchet ms;” >won, we can slash defense spending to the bone and spend that money on Obama’s domestic agenda, can’t we?
Now that we’ve figured out the why and who benefits, let’s examine who the media almost certainly got this from..and why it’s so dangerous.
In our non-Council category, this weeks winner was a superb rant by style=”font-weight:bold;”>Jonah Goldberg entitled href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273444/hell-you-people-jonah-goldberg”>To Hell With You people submitted by Joshuapundit that examined the foul hypocrisy of the Left’s meme of widespread referrals to Republicans and Tea Party members as ‘terrorists’.
Here are this weekâs full results:
Council Winners
style=”color:red;”>*First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit’- href=”http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2011/07/most-dangerous-story-in-news-today.html” target=”_blank”>The Most Dangerous Story In The News Today
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Second place *t* with 2 votes ‘ The Colossus of Rhodey - href=”http://colossus.mu.nu/archives/319296.php” target=”_blank”>Think like a “progressive”
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Second place *t* with 2 votes ‘ Simply Jews- href=”http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/2011/08/understanding-israeli-right-and-left.html” target=”_blank”>Understanding Israeli right and left, new dichotomy and the future
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Third place *t* with 1 vote ‘ The Razor- href=”http://www.therazor.org/?p=3707″ target=”_blank”>Obama The Anti-Leader
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Third place *t* with 1 vote’ The Glittering Eye ‘ href=”http://theglitteringeye.com/?p=14163″ target=”_blank”>What To Do About a Balance Sheet Recession?
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote ‘ The Noisy Room ‘ href=”http://noisyroom.net/blog/2011/07/31/the-conservative-stand/” target=”_blank”>The Conservative Stand
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote’ New Zeal ‘ href=”http://trevorloudon.com/2011/07/obama-and-marxists-march-in-unison-on-immigration/” target=”_blank”>Obama and Marxists March in Unison on Immigration
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote’ Rhymes With Right ‘ href=”http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/319355.php” target=”_blank”>Reconstitute HUAC And Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations As They Existed In The 1950s
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote’ VA Right! ‘ href=”http://www.varight.com/opinion/democrats-meet-the-new-party-of-no/” target=”_blank”>Democrats: Meet the New Party of NO!
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote’ Right Truth ‘ href=”http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2011/08/a-little-ray-of-sunshine.html” target=”_blank”>A Little Ray Of Sunshine
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote- The Political Commentator- href=”http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/2011/07/zadroga-act-makes-911-victims-victims.html” target=”_blank”>The Zadroga Act makes 9/11 victims the victims once more!
style=”font-weight: bold;”>Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote’ GrEaT sAtAnâS gIrLfRiEnD ‘ href=”http://greatsatansgirlfriend.blogspot.com/2011/07/sokos-new-clear-angle.html” target=”_blank”>SoKo’s New Clear Angle
Non-Council Winners
style=”color:red;”>First place with 2 2/3 votes! ‘ Jonah Goldberg/The Corner- href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273444/hell-you-people-jonah-goldberg”>To Hell With You people submitted by Joshuapundit
Second place with 2 1/3 votes ‘ American Thinker ‘ href=”http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/does_this_deficit_make_me_look_fat.html” target=”_blank”>Does This Deficit Make Me Look Fat? submitted by The Razor
Third place with 1 2/3 vote - Doug Ross ‘ href=”http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/07/journolist-lives-democrat-media.html” target=”_blank”>Journolist Lives: The Democrat-Media Complex’s Hostage Meme submitted by Snapped Shot
Fourth place with 1 1/3 vote - Big Lizards ‘ href=”http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2011/07/lightswitch_leg.html” target=”_blank”>Right-Wing Folly, Another Reason Why I Am Not a Conservative submitted by Rhymes With Right
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Foundry ‘ href=”http://author.blog.heritage.org/2011/08/01/morning-bell-liberals-force-choice-between-economic-and-national-security/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell” target=”_blank”>Liberals Force Choice Between Economic and National Security submitted by The Noisy Room
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Sad Red Earth ‘ href=”http://sadredearth.com/how-greenwald-argues/” target=”_blank”>How Greenwald Argues submitted by Simply Jews
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Small Wars Journal ‘ href=”http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2011/07/how-we-became-a-nation-of-warr/” target=”_blank”>How We Became a Nation of Warriors submitted by GrEaT sAtAnâS gIrLfRiEnD
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - James Taranto/Best of the Web Today ‘ href=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903520204576482083738819032.html” target=”_blank”>“Fine! Call My Bluff!” submitted by The Glittering Eye
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Daniel Pipes/Big Peace ‘ href=”http://bigpeace.com/dpipes/2011/08/02/another-islamist-soldier-turns-terrorist-in-texas/” target=”_blank”>Another Islamist Soldier Turns Terrorist In Texas submitted by VA Right!
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Tea Party Tribune ‘ href=”http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/08/01/movie-redeems-itself-kinda-in-leftright-analogy/” target=”_blank”>Movie Redeems Itself (Kinda) In Left/Right Analogy submitted by The Watcher
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Arthur Hu/Asian Week ‘ href=”http://www.asianweek.com/2011/07/23/norway-counter-jihadist-goes-jihad-as-oslo-city-bomber/” target=”_blank”>Norway Counter-Jihadist Commits Mirror Image Jihad as Oslo City Bomber submitted by The Watcher
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Accuracy In Media ‘ href=”http://www.aim.org/guest-column/a-warning-from-norway/” target=”_blank”>A Warning From Norway submitted by New Zeal
Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Radarsite ‘ href=”http://radarsite.blogspot.com/2011/08/alan-dershowitz-on-norway.html” target=”_blank”>Alan Dershowitz on Norway submitted by The Political Commentator
See you next week! And don’t forget to follow us onhref=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/Watcher-of-Weasels/”>Facebookandhref=”https://twitter.com/weaselwatcher”>Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!
No you can’t always get what you want, can you? But that means you just have to try harder next time.
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.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week.
Oddly enough, both the Council and non-Council winners this week dealt with the same subject, the mainstreaming and legitimizing of Antisemitism. This week’s winner, Simply Jews for The Labor Of Hate dealt with how Jew hatred still flourishes in Russia. Here’s a slice:
It so happened that soon after finishing the Russian parents, beware post, I have received a link to a Russian-made movie made sometime in 2005. Seeing its first few frames, I was inclined to quit immediately. After all, the title of the movie is “Russia stabbed in the back” (precise translation is “Russia with a knife in the back”), its subtitle is “Jewish Fascism and the genocide of the Russian people”.
But seeing the surprised reaction of some friends who considered the case described in “Russian parents, beware” to be an isolated outbreak of anti-Semitic plague, I have decided to give the movie my full attention. If only to show that the blood libel episode described in that post is only a symptom of a much more serious malady that continues to eat its way into the very heart of Russia, that great and unfortunate nation that for so many years cannot find its way to true democracy and true freedom.
The movie clearly shows that:
The blood libel case is only a single incident in a well-organized anti-Semitic campaign
The campaigners are numerous and occupy positions of power and influence in modern Russia
The worst and more revolting incidents in rich Russian tradition of anti-Semitic libel are alive and well, being tirelessly revived
Our non-Council winner, Walter Russell Mead’s The Hate That Dares Not Speak Its Name submitted by The Razor dealt with the same subject, namely how the world has defined anti-Semitism down.
The Council has spoken, and boy did I earn my munificent salary this week!
We ended up with three-way ties in both Council and non-Council categories, and you-know-who as Watcher had to break ‘em and decide this week’s winners. So this week I have the ‘opportunity’ to have two of my fellow Council members ticked off at me!
It was a tough choice, believe me. I loved both The Noisy Room’s take on the ‘smart meters’, and Right Truth’s look at how Iraq is coming along, but ultimately I was won over by New Zeal’s expose’ of a Leftist Weasel with enormous influence that most of us have never heard of. So accordingly this week’s winner is New Zeal for Judith LeBlanc: Top US “Peaceâ Activist and Communist Leader . Here’s a slice:
The US “peace movementâ can take at least part of the credit for the Obama Administrationâs proposed cuts in defense spending.
For years the movement has campaigned to end every US war, dump every possible weapons system, close all US bases abroad, and divert US military spending to domestic social programs.
One of the key leaders of the US peace movement in recent years has been Judith LeBlanc.
LeBlanc herself is also a Marxist, first joining the Communist Party USA in 1974.
Le Blanc is one of the vice-chairs of the Communist Party and chairs its Peace and Solidarity Commission, the body charged with directing the US “peace movementâ. Leblanc was formerly a reporter for the Peopleâs Weekly World, forerunner of the Peopleâs World. She has written extensively on her travels to Japan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Australia and elsewhere and was an eyewitness reporter on the 9-11 attacks and their aftermath in New York City.
Same story in the non-Council category. We had a deadlock between Melanie Phillips for How can men like this pose as moral arbiters? submitted by New Zeal, an examination of the records of some of the characters presuming to criticize Rupert Murdoch over the UK hacking scandal; Tulisan Murtad/ Lee Jay Walker for Srebrenica – Bosnian Muslim Jihad killings of 3,500 Christians submitted by Right Truth, some information you might not be aware of about what really happened when NATO intervened in Yugoslav civil war against the Serbs and how media shaped our perception of it; and New Ledger with Gawker’s John Cook Attempts to Out CIA Agent Who Helped Kill Bin Laden submitted by Rhymes with Right, a story I covered over at my own site that make the Valerie Plame affair look tame by comparison.
Again, three excellent pieces , but my vote went to
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.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The Council has spoken, the votes recorded, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.
This week we again ended up with tie between two pieces, The story of a fanatic or why Alice Walker is sailing to Gaza by Simply Jews, an excellent analysis of how a useful idiot confuses supporting evil with her personal notions of humanitarianism and Gettysburg – A Fourth Of July Long Ago by Joshuapundit, a look back at what happened outside a small Pennsylvania town on a very different July Fourth 148 years ago.
As per our ancient bylaws, signed in blood under a full moon, The Watcher loses in all ties with his fellow Council members, so Simply Jew’s The story of a fanatic or why Alice Walker is sailing to Gaza is this week’s winner, and a worthy winner it is! Here’s a slice:
I have spent some time since reading Alice Walker’s article in The Guardian Why I’m joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza attempting to get my head around it. I was trying to understand her motives and her justification in joining the travesty of what, in effect, was unabashedly confirmed by its leaders to be a political provocation, having nothing to do with the mythical and largely unnecessary “humanitarian assistance”. The problem with Ms Walker’s article is that, filled by so many slogans and buzzwords, it’s a veritable jumble of frequently contradictory emotions, bereft of logic and, eventually, of common sense. To borrow from a much better writer than I, Howard Jacobson:
That Alice Walker believes it is right to join the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza I do not have the slightest doubt. But beyond associating her decision with Gandhi, Martin Luther King and very nearly, when she talks about the preciousness of children, Jesus Christ, she fails to give a single convincing reason for it.
It is easy to dismiss Alice Walker’s stance as a case of useful idiocy, as my good friends of CiF Watch rightly diagnose. And, especially when you read the full version of Walker’s article on her blog, her obsession with Israelis=Nazis imagery certainly justifies what they say:
To equate the democratic Jewish state with Nazi Germany is more than stupid, its unimaginably cruel ‘ a simply grotesque moral inversion of the worst order.
Our winner this week in the non-Council category was Treppenwitz’sWho, what, where, why and when? submitted by Simply Jews, an examination of how a single picture can be worth 10,000 words or even more – and almost all of them biased and mistaken.
Here are this weekâs full results. Only Snapped Shot was unable to vote this week and was affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:
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 a great man honored in far away places.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The Council has spoken, the verdict is in and the results for this week are carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.
This week’s Watcher’s Council nominations were especially scrumptious, and I personally had a difficult time voting. To make things even worse, in the end we wound up with a tie between two superb pieces, The Fascist Stealth of Agenda 21 by The Noisy Room and The New Misogyny: The Left’s Sexist Treatment of Conservative Women by The Razor, and it was my unpleasant duty as Watcher to have to pick between the two of them..but that’s why I get paid the big bucks, no?
While The Razor’s piece admirably caught the meme of the outright demonization of women who stray off the Leftist plantation, The Noisy Room’s detailed expose’ of the stealth agenda to curtail our freedoms ultimately won me over. Here’s a slice:
I didnât even know about Agenda 21 until a couple of months ago. Did you know it has been around since 1992? It is quietly and stealthily being implemented throughout the United States and the world. And within its scope is contained some oldie but goody concerns that I have held for some time: confiscation of public lands by the government (the Wilderness Project), EPA over-regulation, population distribution and control and the list just keeps getting longer and scarier⦠Agenda 21 is a 40 chapter plan that lists a series of goals to be achieved globally. It is the global blueprint for changing the way we “live, eat, learn and communicateâ because we must “save the earth.â Humans be damned.
Under Agenda 21, everything you can imagine would be heavily controlled by the government: water, electricity and transportation are just some of the areas of concentration that are targeted. This new way of living would usher in an uber-nanny state globally, the likes of which we have never dreamed of. Forget one-world government⦠Think one-world totalitarian regime.
So what exactly does Agenda 21 entail? It consists of 115 specific programs designed to facilitate, or to force, the transition to Sustainable Development. The objective, clearly enunciated by the leaders of the Earth Summit, is to bring about a change in the present system of independent nations.
Scary stuff.
In our Non-council category, the winner was Right, Wing Nut for Sarah Palin Loves The Jews More Than The Jews Love Themselves submitted by Right Truth. It’s an interesting reflection on how many Jews of the Leftist persuasion are so tied the Leftist agenda that they embrace those who mean them no good and demonize someone who supports them on every occasion.
Here are this weekâs full results. Only Snapped Shot was unable to vote this week, but was unaffected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty :
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 in this space on Friday.
This week’s contest in dedicated to my favorite gang of troublemakers, The Founding Fathers.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to 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 Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The US DOJ had a really bright idea. They put together an operation known as ‘Fast and Furious’ that allowed almost 2,000 illegally purchased weapons to be sold in gunshops to known straw buyers – people who legally purchase firearms and then sell them to unauthorized third parties – in Arizona and sent to Mexico, where the DOJ knew they were almost certainly going to end up in the hands of drug gangs. The idea was that the Department of Justice would record the serial numbers and eventually recover them from crime scenes and use them as evidence to build a conspiracy case that might take down the leaders of major drug cartels.
Accordingly, The DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( BATF) ordered its agents to ignore the purchase and subsequent smuggling of these weapons into Mexico, over the objections of many BATF agents who realized something their bosses were too stupid to comprehend – that the influx of weapons would lead to a spike in murder and mayhem across the border, that it would eventually spread across the border and that the sort of weapons being being purchased were going to allow the drug cartels to outgun the lightly armed Border Patrol. In fact, as BATF agents later testified, ATF supervisor David Voth implied in an e-mail that staff who objected to his orders would be fired.
What the agents who objected predicted is exactly what happened, as the body count mounted on both sides of the border and only a few relatively small time operators were apprehended with the smuggled weapons.
Two of the guns allowed to get into the hands of the drug cartels were used in a December 14, 2010 shoot-out that killed a US border patrol agent, Brian Terry. This lead to a congressional investigation by Rep. Darrell Issa and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which endured an incredible amount of stonewalling and outright untruths from the Department of Justice and the BATF, and squarely contradicted a Feb. 4, 2011, claim by a department spokesman that DOJ did not approve of the program that sanctioned the illegal sale here in America by legitimate gun dealers of assault weapons to representatives of Mexican drug cartels.
In our non-Council category, this weeks winning entry,The Palestinians of 1967 submitted by Joshuapundit was penned by Michael Totten and explored the beliefs and situation of ‘Palestinians’ who live in Judea and Samaria, particularly those whom live in Jerusalem but have refused Israeli citizenship. A wonderful read, accentuated by Totten’s always evocative photographs.
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.
This week’s winning piece, An American Descent Into Hell by The Noisy Room definitely sees the glass as half empty in her take on what she thinks America is on the way to becoming. Here’s a slice:
Itâs hard not to see the signs all around us that America has begun a cataclysmic downward spiral in finances and morality. Itâs like watching a slow motion murderous wreck, all the while denying that it is actually occurring. I assure you, what is unfolding in the US now is all too real. Itâs a reality that is about to smack Americans full frontal in the face and many will never even see it coming until it is way too late.
It is hard for me to imagine how people cannot see what is happening in finances and in politics in their own country. It is in the news if you look at all⦠It is on the Internet for all to see⦠It is whispered by many all around us if you just listen.
The stock market has gone down for the last 6 weeks in a row. And if stock futures are to be believed at all, things will not be good Monday morning this next week. The last time the stock market dropped seven weeks in a row was in 2001 when the dot.com bubble burst. I have said for a long, long time that the stock market is fiction and is being manipulated. But they are running out of ways to fake recovery and growth ‘ they canât hide forever just how bad things are about to become. We are in free fall economically and stand to not only enter another great depression, but a great, great depression in the next twelve months. Only this time, we donât have manufacturing or a winnable war to bring us out of it. Obama has ensured that ‘ he has masterfully implemented Cloward and Piven at every turn and we have just sat here allowing him to do it.
China claims that we are already defaulting on our debt and we are virtually owned by them. Between borrowing everything but our soul (and that may be included as well) and letting the Chinese in to build cities along with business, we are the prize fools on the planet. Our Asian overlords will come knocking to collect and considering the regard they hold us in, I donât think it will be what our elites would consider âcivilized.â
And as inflation and high gas prices are just clearing their throat, we are in for one hell of a ride.
In our non-Council category, our winner was Sultan Knish’sRedistributing Freedom To Tyranny submitted by New Zeal, a piece that dealt with how the West is outsourcing its traditional culture and freedoms in favor of multicultural and ‘international’ norms that are far different.
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.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcherâs Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didnât get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to the âContact Meâ page at Joshuapundit and post your link along with an e-mail address in the comments sectionno later than Monday 6PM PST to be considered for our honorable mention category, and then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcherâs Council contest for the week.
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcherâs Council readers and Council members, while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.
