The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results 03.20.15

The Council Has Spoken! The votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“”You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?” – Adolf Hitler

“I studied the Qu’ran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“All this talk of people who burn the Koran and nothing about the people who reacted in such a stupid way. We are always blaming the victim and not holding them — not most Muslims, but at least a large part of Muslim culture that doesn’t condemn their people… There is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them and they say ‘look, we are a religion of peace and if you disagree we’ll f**king cut your head off, and nobody calls them on it — there are very few people that will call them on it. It’s like if Dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids, you don’t blame the kid because he set Dad off. You blame Dad because he’s a violent drunk” - Bill Maher

This week’s winning essay, Joshuapundit’s The Chicken Or The Egg? looks at some elements of Islamic culture and asks: is it Islam that promotes the extreme violence and misogyny associated with Muslim societies? Or is that just [art of a tribal society that persists in spite of Islam? Here’s a slice:

Unless you’re in a coma, you’ve probably noticed that a great many of the violent and barbaric acts in our modern world can be attributed to followers of Islam.

In the Islamic world today, aside from homicide bombings, jihad and terrorism directed against dar harb ( the part of the world not ruled by Islam), honor killings, female genital circumcision and other forms of violence against women are commonplace, and homosexuals are routinely brutalized and murdered. Non-Muslims are treated as barely human in much of the Islamic world, if they’re allowed to exist at all. Warfare carried out by Muslims is done with modern tools of the trade provided by the despised infidels, but is a relic of the good ol’ primitive and tribal days. Hostages, beheadings and the deliberate killing of civilians are all fair game, and the language of jihad is essentially the same heady stuff used back in the 7th century against the infidel. And through it all, there remains the miasma of seething violent rage at things like the Danish cartoons that simply doesn’t exist in other religious groups.

The question nobody wants to ask keeps floating to the surface: Is Islam to blame? Or, to put it another way, are the perpetrators simply bad Muslims or are they actually good ones who are simply more in tune with Mohammed’s message than the majority? Does Islam itself promote violence? Or are the acts simply a product of primitive tribal society that persists in spite of Islam?

Actually, this is a trick question. I personally believe that Islam and the primitive tribal culture combined back in the day to sustain each other and can’t be separated by their very nature…even though some valiant attempts have been made in the past, and are being made today.

Let’s look at honor killings, for example. Probably the oldest recorded one is in Genesis 34, when Jacob’s daughter Dinah was seduced (or raped, depending on how you interpret the text) by a man from the town of Shechem (modern day Nablus). Afterwards, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi instigated the killing of the town’s men in revenge. But the Torah also tells us how Jacob denounced the killings and actually took the time to bad mouth his sons for the deed from his deathbed. Not only that, but you’ll notice a profound difference from the Islamic way of handling this – the onus of punishment fell on the male, not the female.

his isn’t the only honor killing mentioned in the Bible, but they were never condoned or part of Jewish law, just merely reported.

Islam, on the other hand, not only sanctions honor killings but is quite clear about its position in the matter. Killing or flogging an adulteress or a female that has relations with a non-Muslim male are part of sharia ( Qu’ran: 4:15, for example) – provided an Islamic court orders the punishment rather than an individual male family member going off on his own.

Even at that, Islamic courts today in the Muslim world frequently view male family members taking the law into their own hands fairly leniently. In Jordan, for example, many brutal honor killings have been punished by as little as a three month sentence under Jordanian Public Law 340. Moreover, in the context of Islamic society such murderers are often celebrated and held up as role models. Just as homicide bombers and terrorists who kill infidel civilians often are.

But what if a Muslim feels himself disrespected and lives in say, Britain or New Jersey? If no Islamic courts are available, is it permissible to take the law into one’s own hands? Probably. There’s not much in the way of Islamic rulings or commentary on that particular subject, but the near silence of most Muslim clergy in the West when it comes to denouncing honor killings speaks volumes…one of those little inconvenient truths Western apologists for multiculturalism and Islam constantly run up against when a number of Muslim clerics themselves insist that honor killing, female genital mutilation, and stoning of adulterers are mandated by Islam. And, as you’ve probably guessed by now , that’s one of the unspoken reasons behind the push among many Muslims in the West for sharia courts to handle those messy domestic problems that come up with uppity females from time to time.

Violent death penalties for women caught in adultery is fairly typical of a primitive society, but only Islam continues the practice into the present day. No Christian court has ever condemned a woman to death for adultery. And although the death penalty for adultery is found in the Book of Leviticus, there is no record of such a sentence ever carried out by any Jewish court. The same is true of homosexuality; while both Christianity and Judaism consider it ‘a sin and an abomination’ only Islam clearly mandates the death penalty for such activities and carries it out in our present day.

So why does Islamic society persist in these practices ?

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Daniel Greenfield’s – Obama’s Treason Is The New Patriotism submitted by The Noisy Room. Daniel has some very hard hitting things to say about President Obama and a number of his questionable actions..and the tendency by the usual suspects to name anyone whom disagrees with the Regime a ‘traitor.’

Here are this week’s full results. GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD and Rhymes With Right were unable to vote this week, but were not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Joshuapundit - The Chicken Or The Egg?
• Second place with 2 votes – Bookworm Room – Trevor Loudon tells enthralled Marin County audience that victory in 2016 requires uniting and inspiring conservative base
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – VA Right! - Is the Location of Hillary Clinton’s Email Server 75 Broad St New York, NY 10004?
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Nice Deb – President Bystander Blames Bush For ISIS – Even Though He Funded Them and They Metastasized On His Watch
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Ask Marion – Beating The Odds
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Don Surber – Prime Minister: “Australians are sick of being lectured to by the United Nations”
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Right Planet – The Silencers
• Fifth place with 2/3 votes – The Noisy Room – The Faustian Pact Between Obama And Iran
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 votes – The Glittering Eye - The History of ‘Advice and Consent’
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 votes – Rhymes With Right – But The Obama Administration Assured Us These Folks Were Poor People Who Just Needed Jobs!

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Daniel Greenfield/FrontPage Mag – Obama’s Treason Is The New Patriotism submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Michael Totten – Let Iraq Die: A Case for Partition submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place with 2 votes – James Rosen/Playboy – Dick Cheney Interview: ‘Obama is The Worst President Of My Lifetime’ submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Walter Russell Mead – The Way Forward on Iran submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Michael Douglas/LA Times – Michael Douglas finds Judaism and faces anti-Semitism submitted by Don Surber
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Richard Epstein/Hoover Institution - Race Baiting And Ferguson submitted by Nice Deb
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Veronique de Rugy/The Daily Beast – On Ex-Im Bank, the Democrats Are the Real Corporate Shills submitted by The Razor
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Victor Davis Hanson/PJ Media - A Tale of Four Droughts submitted by Bookworm 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 on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

Our Weasel of the Week!! 03.19.15

Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week’s nominees were all truly slime-worthy and disgusting,but in the end the unanimous winner was….the envelope please..

The Regime’s Own Komedy King, ‘Director Of National Intelligence’ James Clapper!!

JoshuaPundit: Yes, good ol’ Jim Clapper, Obama’s ‘intelligence’ specialist, who referred to the Muslim Brotherhood as ‘a secular organization’ without even cracking a smile when testifying before congress. Yes, the laugh was in in his delivery – pompous, all knowing and put upon that he should even be questioned on such things by such mere peasants.

Since then, Jim Clapper has been good for a lot of laughs as he reliably shills for Obama’s failed foreign policy.

His latest caper? In his 2015 Worldwide Threat Assessment for congress he totally delisted Iran as a state supporter of terrorism and Iran’s proxy Hezbollah as a terrorist group. And why not? They’re our allies now, President Obama says so, and so does James Clapper. So it must be true.

Yeah, they seem like a friendly bunch, don’t they? What’s wrong with them having nukes?

Hey, Jim Clapper, just like his boss in the Oval Office doesn’t see anything wrong with it? Why should we? And Hezbollah? Sure, before 9/11 they held the record for the terrorist group murdering the most Americans,but that was then and this is now.

Y’know, Clapper and a number of his buddies throughout out the Obama Administration like Robert Malley, Dalia Megahead, Huma Abedin, Mohamed Elibiary, Rashad Hussain, Salam al-Marayati and a number of others remind me a lot of how commies,their sympathizers and Soviet spies like Owen Lattimore, Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Harry Hopkins, Nathan Gregory Silvermaster and lots of others infiltrated the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Most of them weren’t high profile..they functioned behind the scenes as trusted behind the scenes advisers, apparatchniks and bureaucrats at various choke points where they could see and hear a lot and/or had the ear of people whom directly affected policy. They were the ultimate weasels of the Cold War, and between them they gave Stalin the atomic bomb, convinced Roosevelt to trust Stalin when he said he’d pull the Red Army out of Europe after the war, and duped Truman into allowing the Soviets to keep eastern Europe enslaved and bring the USSR into the UN.

I have a feeling that when the history of these times is written, some of the names I mentioned, perhaps even Mr. Clapper’s might just be mentioned as he ultimate weasels of their own time.So I think it’s only appropriate and fitting that Mr. Clapper receive this well earned Golden weasel…both for the weaselly deeds he’s already done and the one’s he’ll undoubtedly do in the future. Step up to the stage, James Clapper, and here’s your weasel!

Oh, the red stuff on the sides? Well, we had that done especially for you, kind of a symbolic tribute. Looks almost like blood, doesn’t it?

Well, there it is!

Check back next Tuesday to see who next week’s nominees for Weasel of the Week are!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum, and remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

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

Emboldened Iran Is Making War Moves

Illustrative photo of an Iranian warship in the Strait of Hormuz
(photo credit: Alex Hicks, Wikimedia Commons)

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton  -  the NoisyRoom

Gee, it’s just peachy that we are giving Iran additional time to go completely nuclear. And we are giving them billions in dollars to help them out. Don’t want them to run short when they get ready to take out Israel, you know… Iran could have a bomb in as short a time as 2 to 3 weeks – Israel estimates 1 to 2 months. As we give them trust and money, they are vowing to annihilate Israel. That makes us complicit in the planning and carrying out of genocide.

It’s not just Israel though… the Great Satan is definitely in Iran’s battle plans for war. They have been strengthening ties with Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia – guaranteed to bring terrorism to our homefront and Obama will have American blood all over his hands – again.

Solidly, over the past week, Iranian media outlets have been highlighting a 10-day visit to Latin America by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs, Majid Takht Ravanchi. The Cuban government can’t wait to cuddle with the Iranian theocrats and become ‘strategic partners.’ They are spouting the same tired old rhetoric that the Iranians have every right to nuclear power. What they really mean is, they have every right to a nuclear bomb and global aggression. The line is long to join the Axis of Evil these days apparently.

Under the guise of strengthening trade and economic expansion, despots will unite across the globe with a common goal. The destruction of the free world and the rise of communism and theocratic totalitarianism. Iran’s Fars News blathered on about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who “described Iran as a great power that deserves special respect.” That’s communist respect. Mass murdering asshats have to stick together after all. A hot topic was ending the hegemonic powers’ monopoly on world resources. In other words, taking what is America’s and giving it to the more deserving communists. That is what redistribution of wealth is all about. It’s not helping the poor… it’s helping communist regimes.

To further their goals, Iran will use Hezbollah as their terrorist weapon of choice:

But some have warned that greater Iranian engagement in Latin American could also spur more terrorist activity from its proxy Shiite terrorist group, Hezbollah.

U.S. officials and national security experts told TheBlaze in September that they believe Iran is recruiting an “invisible army” of revolutionary sympathizers in Latin America to one day infiltrate the U.S. through the “soft belly” of the southern border.

As TheBlaze reported, “The Iranian regime’s conversion efforts are becoming increasingly aggressive, especially over the Internet, with the goal of conducting operations against United States interests in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.S. government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of their work in the region.”

During a March hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Roger F. Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under President George W. Bush, testified, “It is said that wherever Iran goes, Hezbollah is not far behind.”

“Hezbollah is not a lone wolf. In this Hemisphere it counts on the political, diplomatic, material and logistical support of governments – principally Venezuela and Iran – that have little in common but their hostility to the United States,” said Noriega, who is now with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

The terrorist group uses smuggling, money laundering, and fundraising in collaboration with Latin American “well-financed narcotraffickers and guerrilla groups,” Noriega said. Furthermore, the Venezuelan state airline, Conviasa, runs regular flights from Caracas to Damascus and Tehran, “providing Iran, Hezbollah, and associated narcotraffickers a surreptitious means to move personnel, weapons, contraband and other materiel.”

As Amnesty is shoved down our throats to make the wealthy, wealthier, while providing a permanent slave class for big business and a cemented, never ending get out the Marxist vote; our open borders will enable these terrorists to strike constantly at the US with very little to stop them. Blood will flow and the body count will rise… our government will blame it on the Second Amendment and TEA Party extremists. But they won’t blame it on Hezbollah, Iran, radical Jihadists, communists, Progressives or anything that it actually is. Progressive Republicans and Democrats will wring their blood stained hands and flout their impotence while hiding within their fortified retreats and places of power. The rest of us will be on our own and fighting not only for our country, but for our lives and the lives of those we care about. And so it will go until we either fall as a country or wrest control back into the hands of patriots from the Marxist ruling class. If you don’t want this to become reality, we had better stop this Amnesty push and fast. Obamacare has already destroyed the greatest health system in the world and our economy – Amnesty will finish us off.

While this drama unfolds, Iran is now sending two warships into the Atlantic on a feigned ‘good will tour.’ And pigs fly. This is a first for Iran, who has long wanted to expand their military presence across the globe. All the better to launch EMPs with, don’t ya know.

From TheBlaze:

Iran is moving a group of warships to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in the country’s history, as its navy held a ceremony on Tuesday in honor of the launch, Iranian media are reporting.

The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that Iranian Navy Deputy Commander Rear Admiral Seyed Mahmoud Moussavi told the sailors gathered in southern Iran that the flotilla bears a message of peace and friendship to the world and aims to demonstrate the Islamic Republic’s defensive power.

“The flotilla, which is the first dispatched to the Atlantic, but the 29th one dispatched to the international waters, consists of Khark logistic and helicopter-carrier warship and Sabalan destroyer. The warships should sail 25,000 nautical kilometers in the next three months,” Fars reported on Tuesday.

The ships will also carry some 30 navy academy cadets in training, according to the Associated Press, which quoted Iranian television.

The Iranian news service says that this is the first flotilla of warships heading to the Atlantic, though Iran has long expressed a desire to make its naval mark in the western hemisphere.

Neither Fars nor Iranian TV said if the ships would be docking in any countries on the Atlantic shores.

As justification (very, very weak at that), Iran says this is in response to the US naval deployment near Iran’s coast in the Persian Gulf. Don’t forget that Iran threatened to deploy ships off the US coast in 2011. So, this has been on the drawing board for a long time.

An emboldened Iran is making war moves and forging alliances in Latin America, while we do nothing. This is far worse than the Cuban missile crisis. Don’t our leaders have a responsibility, morally and strategically, to protect us from terrorism rather than welcoming it into our country? Why would you do away with the Monroe Doctrine unless you wanted America attacked from across the border (or you were on drugs and dreaming of Lotus land — anyone seen Biden lately). Why aren’t more in the halls of Congress demanding action on this? Sometimes I wonder if Americans are so detached from reality that we have lost our sense of survival – our gift of fear of what is real and threatening us. Since our current leadership seems unwilling to protect Americans and their families, we need to put true conservatives in power in 2014 and 2016 who have a spine and will do what needs to be done. This time, we dare not settle for less.

Video: Two Iranian Warships Set Sail For The Atlantic Ocean – John Bolton 

Iran 2-3 Weeks Away From Nuclear Bomb Capability, Says Fmr Head Of U.N. Nuclear Watchdog 

Louie Gohmert: Let’s Blow Up All Iran Nuclear Sites

Obama To Pave Way For 30,000 Syrian Islamists To "Resettle" In America

Technorati Tags: Iran,History,Military,Politics,Religion,Survival,John Bolton,Terrorism,Obamaland,War,Nuclear Iran,Foreign Policy,Middle East,Wake-Up America

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results 12.06.13

Alea iacta est… The Council Has Spoken!, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. – William Shakespeare, from ‘Julius Caesar, Act 1 Scene 2

Impeachment is not a remedy for private wrongs; it’s a method of removing someone whose continued presence in office would cause grave danger to the nation. – Charles Ruff

This week’s winner, The Noisy Room’s Astroturfed Marxists Call for an Obama Dictatorship is a fine if disturbing piece based on a report by photojournalist Zombie about some disturbing and apparently staged events during President Obama’s recent fundraising tour in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here’s a slice:

Enter Sandman (Metallica):

Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never-never land

Something’s wrong, shut the light
Heavy thoughts tonight
And they aren’t of Snow White

Dreams of war, dreams of liars
Dreams of dragon’s fire
And of things that will bite, yeah

Of dreams and nightmares, a dictator arises — enter Obama. As Obama arrived in San Francisco Monday, no one literally cared. Few showed and they practically had to give tickets away to his presidential fundraisers. Evidently, the false Messiah has fallen to earth, but after all, this is his realm, singed wings and all. Today’s must read is from Zombie at PJ Media: SF Protesters to Obama: Please be a Dictator! An excellent piece and as always, incredible photography.

Obama’s growing theme now of just get on with the revolution, ignore the Constitution and rule by executive diktat, is being screamed by people in his audiences. Funny thing though, they are astroturfed plants. Monday’s heckler at Obama’s pro-amnesty speech in San Francisco was Ju Hong, an approved guest of the White House and an illegal alien from South Korea who recently graduated from UC Berkeley. Ju Hong came to the US with his family on a tourist visa and never left. He has Marxist ties. Ju Hong also listed himself as an outreach coordinator at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, as a legislative intern for San Francisco and as a senator at the Associated Students of the University of California. Marxists of a red feather…

So, let me get this straight. The one screaming for amnesty was a commie South Korean. Obama’s first fundraiser of the day in the City by the Bay, was at the Betty Ong Recreation Center, on the edge of San Francisco’s Chinatown. He’s now trying to appear that he is a man of the people and not just a wealthy, corrupt Marxist elitist. No… he is a Marxist for the down trodden as long as they are useful to him. But notice that he went to Chinatown. Now he has Chinese communists screaming for amnesty. Hmmm, I see a trend. Only about 40 showed for the blowhard, but you get the drift. Eventually this asshat will take full control because the people demanded it – er, well… a few Marxists any way.

more at the link.

In our non-Council Category, the winner was by M. Northrop Buechner over at Forbes, Obama’s Disdain For The Constitution Means We Risk Losing Our Republic submitted by Nice Deb . Related to the theme of our Council winner, it seriously examines the current occupant of the White House’s lawless and imperious ways, his disregard for the separation of powers, and the danger they pose to our republican form of government.

OK, here are this week’s results. Only The Mellow Jihadi was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty.

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes!The Noisy Room – Astroturfed Marxists Call for an Obama Dictatorship
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes –The Right lanet – UNCONSCIONABLE! Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit - About That ‘Jewish Controlled Media’
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Bookworm Room - Why a healthy society should resist the new generation of gender-neutral pronouns
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Liberty’s Spirit – Control Education-Control the Future
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Nice Deb – The IRS Continues to Punish Obama’s Enemies (Video)
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Razor – The Rich Get Richer Thanks to the Fed
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Battle For Protecting Troops On The Ground
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – The Iran deal: another big red herring
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Obama’s Secret Police
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote – VA Right! - New Christmas Song – ‘Deployed Again for Christmas’ – Christmas Tribute to our Troops!

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – M. Northrop Buechner/Forbes - Obama’s Disdain For The Constitution Means We Risk Losing Our Republic submitted by Nice Deb
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – David Gerstman/Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – For our Iran nuke deal negotiator, there’s no business, like failed business submitted by Simply Jews
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Kyle Mizokami/War Is Boring – If China’s Airspace Grab Turns Violent, This Is What Could Happen submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - Charles Krauthammer – An Outbreak of Lawlessness submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - PJ O’Rourke –The Boomer Bust submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place with 1 vote-Mark Steyn/NRO – Surrender in Geneva submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - War On The Rocks – Keep Fighting! Why The Counterinsurgency Debate Must Go On submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Douglas Ernst – 113th Congress deemed ‘least productive ever’ by officials with a perverse love of new laws submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - C. Steven Tucker – The TRUTH About Preexisting Conditions submitted by The Right Planet
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Michael Totten – The Once Great City of Havana submitted by Joshuapundit
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Thomas Sowell/IBD - Is Black Underperformance The Result Of Welfare State, Victimhood? submitted by Bookworm Room

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series 2013 – WoC 2013
• Boker Tov Boulder – A White House Debased: Politicizing Thanksgiving
• Right Truth – Honor And Betrayal: The Untold Story Of The Navy SEALS Who Captured The “Butcher Of Fallujah”And The Ordeal they Later Endured
• The Pirate’s Cove – Bummer: “Climate Change” Is Aiding Al Qaeda

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

One Giant Leap Towards War

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – the NoisyRoom – Cross-Posted at AskMarion

My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds. — Neville Chamberlain

Today, that diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure — a future in which we can verify that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon. While today’s announcement is just a first step, it achieves a great deal. For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back. — Barack Obama

So much for the US’ non-existent red line and the numerous UN Security Council resolutions that required Iran to halt nuclear enrichment. Now Iran gets six months to finish their nuclear preparations with no sanctions and in fact, with 4.2 billion dollars in additional aid from the US. We are actively funding and assisting with a planned extermination of the Jewish State. In the last great war, we fought against the NAZIs, who allied with radical Islam. This time around, we have switched sides.

I have no love for Bill Kristol, but his quote on this is timely and apropos:

What will the Obama administration’s leading lights say when this becomes obvious? When he sees his grand diplomatic achievement crumbling around him, will Secretary of State John Kerry join his counterpart, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in sighing and exclaiming with pithy eloquence, “Uh-oh”? Will President Barack Obama offer the same apology to the Israelis that he has to Americans who held insurance policies they liked: “I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me”? As the implementation of the Iran agreement goes the way of the implementation of Obamacare, will his reaction be to say, “We’re going to have to, obviously, re-market and re-brand”?

The president and his colleagues will presumably say these sorts of things. But of course it will be too late. Congress can legislate to try to make up for the failure of Obama’s assurances about health insurance, and to try to help Americans get their old policies back. But Congress won’t be able to legislate to undo a nuclear Iran. The American people can ignore Obama’s efforts to re-market and re-brand Obamacare, and instead insist on its repeal. But the American people won’t be able to repeal Iran’s nuclear weapons once Iran has them.

Indeed. As the nukes begin to fly, will Obama feign shock and quietly applaud? I believe so, even when the EMPs strike America. His allegiances are to communists and Islamists, not to America. Israel will stand alone and fight it seems. My money is always on God’s people. For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be an American. May God forgive us for what our ruler has wrought.

Video: Barack Obama: Iran Has a Right to Nuclear Energy

Video: UNREAL... Nuclear Deal Includes $4.2 Billion in Aid Relief to Iran

As my friend Maggie Thornton so aptly put it, Obama and the European leaders have just given the green light to Iran to kill the Jews and I might add, attack the US. This will be war in our time, count on it:

Representatives of Iran and Western powers reached an interim deal on Iran’s controversial nuclear program early Sunday morning, after a weekend of intensive talks in Geneva.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “Yes, we have a deal,” as he walked past reporters crowding the hotel lobby where marathon negotiations had taken place over the past five days. Asked if there was a deal, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said “Yes” and gave a thumbs up sign.

Diplomats refused to spell out details of the talks, but a senior Obama administration official said that the West had not conceded an Iranian right to produce nuclear fuel through uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in previous negotiations.

The official said the deal included an agreement that Iran would halt progress on its nuclear program, including a plutonium reactor at the Arak facility. The deal also calls on Iran to neutralize its 20-percent-enriched uranium stockpiles. Tehran has also agreed to intrusive inspections under the terms of the deal.

According to a Western diplomat quoted by Reuters, the deal would grant Iran access to $4.2 billion in foreign exchange.

In a statement Sunday morning, US President Barack Obama said the deal opened up a “real opportunity to achieve a peaceful settlement.”

“It won’t be easy,” he said, “and huge challenge remain ahead, but through strong and principled diplomacy, the United States will do our part” to deny Iran nuclear weapons. Obama acknowledged that the deal may be hard to stomach for some of Washington’s allies in the Middle East, saying, Israel and the Gulf countries, “have good reasons to be skeptical.”

The West has been seeking a six-month agreement to partially freeze Iran’s nuclear program while offering Iran incentives through limited sanctions relief. If the interim deal holds, the parties would negotiate final-stage deals to ensure Iran does not build nuclear weapons.

The agreement built on the momentum of the historic dialogue opened during September’s annual UN gathering, which included a 15-minute phone conversation between Obama and Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, after three decades of US-Iranian estrangement.

“The Iranian people’s vote for moderation and constructive engagement, plus tireless efforts by negotiating teams are to open new horizons,” Rouhani said in a statement Sunday morning.

“Agreement in Geneva: first step makes world safer. More work now,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a comment tweeted by the State Department Sunday morning. The statement was retweeted by Rouhani’s account.

Kerry and his counterparts from Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany headed for Geneva Friday after diplomats said Zarif and EU representative Catherine Ashton had made significant progress.

A previous round of talks between Iran and the six world powers ended November 10 with no deal, even after Kerry, Lavrov, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and a Chinese deputy foreign minister flew in and attempted to bridge differences.

The United States and its negotiating partners had signaled they were ready to ease some sanctions in return for a first-step deal that starts to put limits on Iran’s nuclear program.

They wanted Iran to stop enriching to a level higher than its main stockpile and only a technical step away from weapons-grade uranium as part of such a deal. They also sought to limit overall enrichment, as well as a formulation that would reduce the proliferation danger from the Arak reactor, which, if completed, would produce enough plutonium for up to two weapons.

But they insist that the most severe penalties — on Tehran’s oil exports and banking sector — will remain until the two sides reach a comprehensive agreement to minimize Iran’s nuclear arms-making capacity.

No details on relief offered have been made public. And the US administration has not commented on reports from congressional officials that Obama’s team estimates Iran could get $6-10 billion in benefits over six months for rolling back its nuclear program.

Several US senators — both Democrat and Republican — have voiced displeasure with the parameters of the potential agreement, arguing that the US and its partners are offering too much for something short of a full freeze on uranium enrichment.

Iran evidently got everything they wanted and more, including money to speed along their evil little venture. I expected this and even I am shocked. Iran never even slowed down. They were confident of the outcome, one way or the other. They are on a mission from their God — one for the Mahdi that ends in blood across the globe. It would seem the leaders of the world are cool with that, especially Obama. In fact, Russia is funding two new nuclear power plants as I write this. You knew the Ruskies were behind Iran, right? I’ve stated it enough on this blog. Russia is using Iran to do its dirty work for them and Obama knows it.

And its not just Iran and Russia. China is stepping it up and making a move as well:

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Saturday the United States is “deeply concerned” over China’s move to establish an air defense zone over a string of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said in a statement. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”

The Associated Press reports that the Chinese Defense Ministry issued a map showing the new East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, which encompasses what the Chinese call the Diaoyu islands. The move is seen as an aggressive step against Japan, which bought what it calls the Senkaku islands from private owners in 2012. The islands are uninhabited, but are believed to rest near large underwater oil reserves. Taiwan also claims possession of the islands.

Hagel said the map will have no effect on how the United States conducts military operations in the area, and that concerns are being conveyed to China “through diplomatic and military channels.” Hagel also said the United States believes that the Senkaku islands are included as part of Japan in the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty.

China worries the US, but not enough to actually do anything. It’s all lip service and faux concern. As far as the US is concerned, China can do whatever she wants. After all, she owns us right?

You would never know we are on the brink of war as our dufus Kerry slaps backs and shakes hands with monsters — takes one to know one, I guess:

After Ashton read out a statement on the deal to the cameras at the United Nations in Geneva, ministers appeared elated. Ashton and Kerry hugged each other, and Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shook hands. Minutes later, as the Iranian delegation posed for photos, Zarif and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius approached each other and embraced.

A White House fact sheet detailed what Iran could obtain:

• Potential access to $1.5 billion in revenue from trade in gold and precious metals and the suspension of some sanctions on Iran’s auto sector, and its petrochemical exports;
• Allow purchases of Iranian oil to remain at their currently significantly reduced levels. “$4.2 billion from these sales will be allowed to be transferred in installments if, and as, Iran fulfills its commitments,” the fact sheet said;
• License safety-related repairs and inspections inside Iran for certain Iranian airlines.

Most of the sanctions, Kerry said, would remain in place.

“The approximately $7 billion in relief is a fraction of the costs that Iran will continue to incur during this first phase under the sanctions that will remain in place,” the White House said. “The vast majority of Iran’s approximately $100 billion in foreign exchange holdings are inaccessible or restricted.”

I agree with General Thomas G. McInerney that the US now faces the greatest threat it has seen militarily since 1930:

Video: Gen. Thomas G. McInerney --- Arutz Sheva

The Jew hatred is ratcheting up in the UN and across Europe. You also see it in the knock out games here in the US and in our government. Now, the United Nations has barred Jews from attending a Monday meeting of the United Nations Division of ‘Palestinian’ Rights reports Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon:

The Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust (IHRH), a U.N.-approved NGO group, claims the U.N. Division for Palestinian Rights (UNDPR) has unjustly barred 18 pro-Israel Jews from attending a Monday event marking the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

U.N. security officials initially had granted the Touro Institute credentials permitting 18 Birthright Israel alumni to attend the daylong series of meetings, which will be attended by the U.N.’s most high-level officials.

However, those credentials were quickly revoked at the behest of the UNDPR, according to IHRH officials and e-mails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The incident has sparked a pointed back-and-forth between U.N. officials and IHRH director Anne Bayefsky, who accuses the body of allowing the UNDPR to effectively bar pro-Israel groups from attending major events regarding the Palestinians.

Bayefsky is concerned that this behavior is part of a larger trend by the Palestinians to control the narrative at the U.N. and prevent dissenting voices from being heard.

Bayefsky has registered her concerns with multiple U.S. officials and even U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, who has yet to reply.

“This is the face of modern anti-Semitism by the U.N.,” Bayefsky told the Free Beacon when asked about the days-long back-and-forth. “This is the how discrimination works in the real-life operation of the U.N. Where is Ambassador Samantha Power?”

Kerry sold Israel and all of us down the river as Weasel Zippers put it. True that. But this was decided upon long ago. Valerie Jarrett has been holding secret talks with the Iranians (her family is from Iran) for a year. Obama has never been Israel’s friend – he has always been their enemy. And by the way, they lied about these secret negotiations. But that’s okay, they were only lying to the infidels:

WASHINGTON – The United States and Iran secretly engaged in a series of high-level, face-to-face talks over the past year, in a high-stakes diplomatic gamble by the Obama administration that paved the way for the historic deal sealed early Sunday in Geneva aimed at slowing Tehran’s nuclear program, The Associated Press has learned.

The discussions were kept hidden even from America’s closest friends, including its negotiating partners and Israel, until two months ago, and that may explain how the nuclear accord appeared to come together so quickly after years of stalemate and fierce hostility between Iran and the West.

But the secrecy of the talks may also explain some of the tensions between the U.S. and France, which earlier this month balked at a proposed deal, and with Israel, which is furious about the agreement and has angrily denounced the diplomatic outreach to Tehran.

President Barack Obama personally authorized the talks as part of his effort — promised in his first inaugural address — to reach out to a country the State Department designates as the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism.

The talks were held in the Middle Eastern nation of Oman and elsewhere with only a tight circle of people in the know, the AP learned. Since March, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Jake Sullivan, Vice President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy adviser, have met at least five times with Iranian officials.

The last four clandestine meetings, held since Iran’s reform-minded President Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated in August, produced much of the agreement later formally hammered out in negotiations in Geneva among the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and Iran, said three senior administration officials. All spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss by name the highly sensitive diplomatic effort.

The AP was tipped to the first U.S.-Iranian meeting in March shortly after it occurred, but the White House and State Department disputed elements of the account and the AP could not confirm the meeting. The AP learned of further indications of secret diplomacy in the fall and pressed the White House and other officials further. As the Geneva talks appeared to be reaching their conclusion, senior administration officials confirmed to the AP the details of the extensive outreach.

I am sooo freaking tired of the lies. Just bring on the Hunger Games already.

There are those in Congress that are stating this is the best deal we could get. Now, that’s hilarious. It’s the best deal we could get, because Obama arranged it that way, you morons.

Daniel Pipes put it best:

This wretched deal offers one occasion when comparison with Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1938 is valid. An overeager Western government, blind to the evil cunning of the regime it so much wants to work with, appeases it with concessions that will come back to haunt it. Geneva and Nov. 24 will be remembered along with Munich and Sep. 29.

Barack Obama has made many foreign policy errors in the past five years, but this is the first to rank as a disaster. Along with the health care law, it is one of his worst-ever steps. John Kerry is a too-eager puppy looking for a deal at any price.

With the U.S. government forfeiting its leadership role, the Israelis, Saudis, and perhaps others are left to cope with a bad situation made worse. War has now become a much more likely prospect. Shame on we Americans for re-electing Barack Obama.

As the world charges into the breach of a Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1938 moment, the US has taken one giant leap towards world war.

Watcher’s Council Results – 11.15.13

Alea iacta est… The Council Has Spoken!, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

But before we get to that, we have some important business to take care of... likely celebrating our compadre Tom White of VA Right’s birthday!

Aside from his prodigious writing talents featured on one of Virginia’s top blogs (which includes some pretty good songs and musicianship by the way as well as his writing),Tom has many of the qualities that makes a great friend..a great sense of humor, clear insight and the rare quality of being there when you need him. He’s always there to share his IT expertise and help out someone in the Council with a techie problem, and he’s someone I can always rely on to give me an honest and common sense answer whenever I’ve asked his advice. Ever since he joined our posse, I’ve always felt like I’ve known him for years, which might seem odd to some people since we’ve never met in person yet, (although we’ve yakked on the phone) but that’s just how it is.

We have carrot cake today with chocolate pralines ( be sure and take a hunk home for Mrs.Tom,OK?)

To go with the cake, in honor of the Old Dominion we have a nice couple of bottles of Williamsburg Winery’s 2011  Vintage Reserve Chardonay to share around. Yes,  I’m told by reliable sources that they actually make good wine in Virginia.

For those of you who prefer grain to grape…some wondrous Virginia moonshine, made by men who despise both the revenooers and the idea of turning good corn into ethanol and go their own way. Pure heaven, and dandy for the sinuses:

And I arranged for a special express delivery to get it here on time:

One of the best parts of being involved in the blogosphere isn’t the fame and huge amounts of money involved,but the great people you meet. Tom is definitely one of them. Have an absolutely wonderful birthday my friend..many more

OK, down those shots and let’s look at this weeks results…

Last week in Geneva, the permanent members of the UN Security Council met with the Iranians on their illegal nuclear program . We heard a number of versions of what happened, especially from our Secretary of State John Kerry, who assured us that a wonderful deal was all ready to be signed, but..

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s What No One’s telling You About Iran’s Big Victory In Geneva  is the real story of what actually happened inGeneva, why the French opposed the deal, and why it ended up as a huge victory for Iran for reasons that are simply not being reported here in the West, probably because a lot of Americans would be shocked at what went down. Here’s a slice:

What exactly happened in Geneva?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s tells us that the Iranians ‘walked away’ from the impending deal:

According to Mr Kerry the P5+1 group, representing the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, were united when the proposed deal was presented to the Iranian negotiating team on Saturday.

“But Iran couldn’t take it, at that particular moment they weren’t able to accept,” Mr Kerry said.

Our hope is that in the next months we can find an agreement that meets everyone’s standards.”

I thought that Secretary Kerry spoke fluent French,but somehow it seems he’s lost the ability.French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was fairly and publicly open about France’s opposition to the Iran deal, and the French refused to sign on. What France wanted was the Iranians agreeing to halt work on their Arak heavy water reactor, which can produce plutonium and has no peaceful application. The French also insisted that the Iranians ‘downblend’ their stockpile of 20% uranium to 5%, which could still be used for nuclear fuel but was much further away from weaponization. The French also wanted the Iranians to cease enrichment during the talks, as well as the inclusion of far better plans for verifying Iranian compliance.

France’s motivation for opposing the proposed deal was their country’s own self interest,nothing more.

France has always had major trade and diplomatic interests in the Arab world, and they aspire to a larger role in the region, especially since the U.S. is retreating. And France has particularly close trade and security relationships with to Sunni Arab countries in the Middle East that oppose Iranian domination and a Shi’ite nuclear power. Saudi Arabia, for example, is the Middle East’s foremost buyer of French arms. Last August, the French signed a €1 billion ($1.34 billion) defense contract with Saudi Arabia, which included overhaul work on four frigates and two refueling ships in the Saudi navy, and the French reportedly have arms sales contracts with other Sunni countries in the GCE and throughout the region.At the same time the Saudis and others are investing heavily in France’s farming, food and industrial sectors. Given France’s economy, all this represents a substantial and important financial interest for the French. And in terms of their influence, a nuclear armed Shi’ite Iran undermines France’s long standing Mediterranean Union’ project with the Arab world. This explains why the French have consistently been fairly tough on Iran in general.

France’s stance on Iran is also affected by domestic politics. Almost all of France’s Muslims – whom voted for the ruling Socialists and Hollande by a 90% margin or so – are Sunni and fear Iran’s dominance over Islam.

And while the French could hardly be said to be Israel’s best friend, France and Israel have substantial trade relations as well as a number of French nationals who hold dual French-Israeli citizenship, which added up to one more reason for the French.

So when Secretary Kerry says that the P5+1 group were united….we can only assume something got lost in translation.

The real story is the huge victory in Geneva the Iranians walked away with that no one’s reporting on.

You see, the Iranians have their own version of what went on in Geneva. As the Iranian government organ Fars reports, the Iranians consider what happened in Geneva as a huge win, and an important development. I can certainly see why.

More at the link

In our non-Council category, the winner was the one and only Mark Steyn with  The Drift Towards Depotism  submitted by Liberty’s Spirit. It’s Steyn at his best looking at certain disturbing trends in our Republic and  the reality of Barack Obama’s presidency.. Do read it.

OK, OK, here are this week’s full results. Only Rhymes With Right was unable to vote this week, but was not affected by th e2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit – What No One’s telling You About Iran’s Big Victory In Geneva
• Second place *t* with 2  votes – The Razor - The Siren Song of the Moderate Republican Presidential Candidate
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Simply Jews - A topsy turvy review of A Plague: Contesting Syria, in Context by A.J. Adler
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room - Obama’s Betrayal of Israel and Arming of Iran
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Nice Deb - Gingrich Compares Obama to Clinton: “Obama Wants You To Feel His Pain”
• Third place *t* with 1  1/3 votes – Liberty’s Spirit - Newsflash: The Demise of America is Premature
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Bookworm Room - As Obamacare defines America’s economic landscape, are we going to see a new trend of Soviet-era jokes?
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Right Planet – It Only Works with Internet Explorer
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Thank v Schlieffen”s Plan For Monday Off?
• Sixth place  with 1/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Kristallnacht tutorial for Jews (and anyone else) with a short memory!

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Mark Steyn - The Drift Towards Depotism  submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Second place  with 2 2/3 votes – Nick Cohen/The Spectator – Why Can’t We Admit We’re Scared Of Islamism?  submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Sultan Knish – The American Iron Curtain submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - The Chicago Boyz - Under The Flag submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 vote – Sultan Knish - Bad Apple President   submitted by The Political Commentator
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Michael Totten – Why the US Can’t Leave the Middle East submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Passing Parade – Proud and prejudiced, or was Lot’s wife the victim of a salt intensive diet?   submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - YouTube/ Project Veritas – Obamacare Navigators Counsel Applicants to “Lie”    submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - House Of Marathon – Heeding The Heretics   submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Matt Walsh – The positive side of Obamacare that Fox News doesn’t want you to see    submitted by Nice Deb
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion –Typhoon Haiyan: How you can help    submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Douglas Ernst – New York Times finds ‘some’ Catholics upset with Pope — slow clap for NYT   submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Be a Mensch… Inform Yourself
• Right Truth – Don’t believe a word he says
• Tina Trent.Com – Varieties of Self-Pity and Murder: Aaron Alexis and The New York Times
• The Pirate’s Cove – Surprise: Ethanol Creates Environmental Problems  

Forum: What’s Your Reaction To The News Of The Pending Deal With Iran 

Miley metaphor: McCain likens Kerry's diplomacy to 'wrecking ball'

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Says Country Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons in NBC INTERVIEW… Is the World Really That Naïve?

Video: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani NBC INTERVIEW Country Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons  -  Is Anyone Really That Naïve?

Published on Sep 18, 2013:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.

"In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority," Rouhani told Ann Curry, NBC News national and international correspondent and anchor at large, in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his election.

"The problem won't be from our side," he said at the presidential compound in Tehran. "We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem."

Asked whether Iran would ever build a nuclear weapon, Rouhani noted that the country has repeatedly pledged that "under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever."

"We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to do so," he said. "We solely are looking for peaceful nuclear technology."

Rouhani's comments are the latest in a slew of signs that he is cautiously open to defrosting relations with the U.S., which were in deep freeze under the isolating leadership of his predecessor, the inflammatory Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

He and President Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on "some issues."

"From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his June election, in which he defeated five hard-liners.

"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future. I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that in the letter, Obama told Rouhani the U.S. is open to a resolution to the nuclear impasse in which Iran can prove its atomic program is peaceful.

But he also conveyed the need to act quickly because the window for a diplomatic deal "will not remain open indefinitely," Carney said.

On another pressing topic, Rouhani was questioned about his views on Iran's close ally Syria and its promise to give up chemical weapons under the threat of air strikes from the U.S.

He said he could give no guarantees on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, just days after he was quoted by his country's official news agency as saying he would accept any Syrian president elected by the people.

Fox News Contributor Lisa Diftari had quite a different take from the hopeful and naïve  mainstream media on Rouhani’s NBC Interview comments.  She warned that this was a play by Rouhani to improve the Iranian economy, which would take his people off the streets and in-turn take pressure off the Iranian government, buying Iran more time, funds and flexibility to continue their uranium enrichment program and to develop nuclear weapons!  As she warned, “In Iran’s case, the motto must be ‘guilty until proven innocent’”  Should America, Israel and the world really be naïve enough not to follow that line, everyone will be the loser in the end!

Book:  Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy

Technorati Tags: Iran,Nuclear Iran,smoke and Mirrors,manipulation,Middle East,wake-up,Rouhani,Ahmedinejad,Naive,NBC,MSM,Ann Curry,Brian Williamson,guilty until proven innocent,buying time,NUKES

Thoughts on Syria… From All Sides

This Is About Destroying Sovereignty’: Beck Examines Potential Syria Strike Through the Eyes of a ‘Radical Leftist’

Many have been alarmed by the rapid escalation in Syria this week after years of horrific violence. With the reported use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, U.S. officials say America could begin missile strikes within the week.

But why now? What exactly do we hope to achieve?

(Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Glenn Beck tackled the issue on his television program Wednesday evening, arguing that the focus of the administration may not be on the war itself — but on the subsequent layout of the world.

“This administration knows that we are on the brink of World War III. The global economy is fragile, global stability is weak, the west is on the edge, it’s only a matter of time before it crumbles,” he said. “Iran will eventually lose any remaining restraint and go after Israel, Syria starts spilling across the border… When it all falls apart and the west is so weakened, who puts it all back together again?”

“War is — after a long period of just running things into the ground — war makes the people of the world forget what the world was like before the war,” Beck continued. “Beyond that, history shows us that war also changes all the players. It changes borders, it changes everything…”

He speculated that after a period of violence, we will “gather at the U.N. because we have to stop an international crisis, and everything is teetering on the edge, and people will cry out, ‘stop the madness!’ And so we do, the international way.”

If we’re not listening to China now, Beck said he guarantees we’ll listen to them at the bargaining table, and we’ll concede. If they say, for instance, we’ll forgive your debts if you just sign the U.N. Arms Treaty, we will.

“This is about destroying sovereignty,” Beck asserted. “The United Nations will, in the end, broker the deal, making them the new superpower and making us just one of the guys. That’s what everybody wants, for the United States just to be average, just like everybody else…”

Considering alternate explanations, Beck said he can think of “a million reasons” why we shouldn’t intervene, “and not one why we should.”

Intervention, he said, will further destabilize Syria, further destabilize the region, and will likely impact our gas prices and the stock market.

If we are intervening purely for humanitarian purposes, why didn’t we intervene sooner? Why don’t we intervene in other cases of mass slaughter? And if the tipping point is truly chemical weapons, Beck asked if you trust the intelligence community more or less than the last time they claimed there were weapons of mass destruction?

Remember the guy who cut his enemy’s heart out and ate it, Beck added? “We’re on his side now.”

The list goes on, Beck said, including the financial cost of the endeavor and the possibility of dragging us into another war we don’t have the energy or resources for.

“Syria is not about teaching Assad a lesson. Two days of bombing probably won’t even seem out of place in Syria today, unfortunately,” he concluded. “Syria is not a response to the shock and horror of murder — hundreds of thousands have died… Syria is this — it is a sick opportunity for the globalist progressive revolutionaries in our own administration and all around the globe to remold the world closer to their heart’s desire.”

Beck - Syria Intervention

Video: Glenn Beck: Intervention In Syria Will Establish One World Government - New World Order

8/28/13 - Glenn Beck says the threat of military action against Syria is part of a plot by global progressives to allow the UN to establish peace and avert WWIII and create a One World Government. 

Video:  George Galloway Explosive Speech British Parliament Debate On Military Action Against Syria

August 29, 2013 - George Galloway Explosive Speech British Parliament Debate On Military Action Against Syria

'Me And My Big Mouth' - UK's Cameron Backs Off From Syria Attack

The French Bow Out Of Syria Strike

And Russia Calls For Urgent UN Security Council Meeting

Some more from BBG:

• RUSSIA CALLED FOR THE SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, DIPLOMAT
• 5 PERMANENT COUNCIL MEMBERS U.K., U.S., FRANCE, CHINA, RUSSIA
• FIVE PERM. SEC. COUNCIL MEMBERS TO MEET AT 2:30P

Hopefully Putin doesn't whip out incontrovertible proof the chemical gas attack was linked to Al Qaeda, Qatar... and the US of course.

Two Minds on Syria

The New Yorker: So it looks like we’re going to bomb Assad.

Good.

Really? Why good?

Did you see the videos of those kids? I heard that ten thousand people were gassed. Hundreds of them died. This time, we have to do something.

Yes, I saw the videos.

And you don’t want to pound the shit out of him?

I want to pound the shit out of him.

But you think we shouldn’t do anything.

I didn’t say that. But I want you to explain what we’re going to achieve by bombing.

We’re going to let Assad know that chemical weapons are over the line. There’s a reason they’ve been illegal since Verdun or whenever.

Except when Saddam used them against the Kurds—we knew, and we didn’t say a word.

Is that a reason to let Assad use them against his people?

At this point, I don’t think Assad is too worried about the Geneva Conventions.

He should have to think hard before using them again.

He’s a bloody dictator fighting for survival. He’s going to do whatever he has to do.

Not if we really hurt him. Not if we pound his communications centers, his air-force bases, key government installations. He’ll be more likely to survive if he doesn’t use chemical weapons.

Killing civilians while we’re at it.

These would be very specific targets.

The wrong people always get killed.

Maybe. Probably. But if you were a Syrian being bombed by Assad every day, trying to keep your head down and your family alive, wouldn’t you want the world to respond, even if a few more people die? I think so.

Easy for you to say.

Hey, can we not personalize this?

Weren’t you just saying that I don’t care about dying children? (Pause.) So you want us to get involved in their civil war.

I’m not saying that.

But that’s what we’ll be doing. Intervening on the rebel side, tipping the balance in their favor.

Not necessarily. We’ll be drawing a line that says dictators don’t get to use W.M.D.s without consequences.

You can’t bomb targets on one side of a civil war without helping the other side.

It would be very temporary. We’d send Assad a clear message, and then we’d step back and let them go on fighting. We’re not getting involved any deeper than that, because I know what you’re going to say—

The rebels are a bunch of infighting, disorganized, jihadist thugs, and we can’t trust any of them.

I’m not saying we should.

And what do we do if Assad retaliates against Israel or Turkey? Or if he uses nerve gas somewhere else?

We hit him again.

And it escalates.

Not if we restrict it to cruise missiles and air strikes.

Now you’re scaring me. Have you forgotten Iraq?

Not for a single minute.

My point is that you can’t restrict it. You can’t use force for limited goals. You need to know what you’ll do after his next move, and the move after that.

It only escalates if we allow ourselves to get dragged in deeper. Kosovo didn’t escalate.

This isn’t Kosovo. The Syrian rebels aren’t the K.L.A. Assad isn’t Milosevic. Putin isn’t Yeltsin. This is far worse. Kosovo became a U.N. protectorate. That’s not going to happen in Syria.

You think Putin is going to risk a military confrontation with the U.S. and Europe?

I think Russia isn’t going to let Assad go down. Neither is Iran or Hezbollah. So they’ll escalate. This could be the thing that triggers an Israel-Iran war, and how do we stay out of that? My God, it feels like August, 1914.

That was a hundred years ago. Stop with the historical analogies.

You’re the one who brought up Verdun. And Kosovo.

I brought up Kosovo because you brought up Iraq. That’s the problem with these arguments. Iraq! Vietnam! Valley Forge! Agincourt! People resort to analogies so they don’t have to think about the matter at hand.

And because they don’t know anything about the matter at hand.

I know what I saw in those videos.

Thank God Obama doesn’t make foreign policy that way. He knows what he doesn’t know about Syria. He’s always thinking a few steps ahead. He’s not going to get steamrolled by John McCain and Anderson Cooper.

At a certain point, caution is another word for indecisiveness. Obama looks weak! Or worse—indifferent. Anyway, he should have thought ahead when he called chemical weapons a “red line.” He set that trap a year ago, and now we’re in it.

Why does it have to be a trap?

Because our credibility is on the line.

Thank you, Dr. Kissinger.

See, that’s another thing people do in these arguments.

What?

“You sound like so-and-so.” It shouldn’t matter who else is on your side. I mean, you’re in bed with Rand Paul. Anyway, credibility matters even if Kissinger said so. You have to do what you say you’re going to do, especially with bullies.

I don’t think Obama committed himself to any one course of action. But if he does bomb them, we’re involved in that war, and I sure hope his advisers have thought through all the potential consequences better than you have.

Inaction has consequences, too. Assad gases more people, the death toll hits two hundred thousand, the weapons get into Hezbollah’s hands, Iran moves ahead with its nuclear program, the Syrian rebels disintegrate and turn to international terrorism, the whole region goes up in sectarian flames.

And how does firing cruise missiles at Damascus prevent any of this?

It doesn’t. But, look, all of this is already happening with us sitting it out. If we put a gun to Assad’s head, we might be able to have more influence over the outcome. At least we can prevent him from winning.

A violent stalemate. How wonderful for the Syrians. Some people think that’s the best solution for us.

I’m not saying that.

What are you saying?

I don’t know. I had it worked out in my head until we started talking. (Pause.) But we need to do something this time.

Not just to do something.

All right. Not just to do something. But could you do me a favor?

What’s that?

While you’re doing nothing, could you please be unhappy about it?

I am.

___

Above: photo authenticated based on its contents and other A.P. reporting, Syrians inspect buildings damaged by heavy shelling from Syrian government forces in Aleppo, on Monday, August 26th. Aleppo Media Center AMC/AP

Video: Daily State Department Press Briefing FULL. 8/28/2013  

Video: "IT'S NOT CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE!" Pentagon Sounding Kinda Defensive About Their Syria Intel 

Video: John Bolton with Greta Van Susteren slams Obama - President needs a character transplant to work effectively on Syria

And after all of this… Obama Threatens To Go It Alone On Syria

Ah, yes...President Obama is steaming mad since the Brits and French backed out of his little Syrian adventure, and he saying he's fully prepared to go it alone.

He even sent another American ship towards Syria, a destroyer escort.The Russians already have a fleet of warships headed that way.

Remember what our Dear Leader and his minions said in 2007 and 2008 about 'Cowboy' Bush? Remember the horse manure about "meeting the global Test" and the Magic Wisdom of the International Community?

Biden 2007

Video:  Here is Senator Joe Biden: Iran & Impeachment – Biden Saying If “W” Didn’t Get Congressional Approval Before Going to War He’d Seek Impeachment… and Senator Obama Agreed

So what happened?  There is very little support by Americans to enter the Syrian Civil War… In a new HuffPo poll, conducted after U.S. officials claimed Syria's government killed thousands of civilians with chemical weapons, shows 25 percent of Americans now support air strikes to aid rebels in Syria, while 41 percent said they are opposed. Another 34 percent said that they're not sure.  Germany I also a thumbs down along with Britain and France.

The only logical conclusion is that the truth about the scandals Obama is attempting to divert attention from, by getting involved in Syria, are probably a lot worse than any of us thought.  Time for more investigation!!

You be the judge…  By Marion Algier – AskMarion~

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