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?

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results – 03.06.15

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

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. “ – George Orwell’s 1984

“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” – Jim Morrison of The Doors

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” - Malcolm X

This week’s winning essay, The Noisy Room’s – Net Neutrality: “Young fool … Only now, at the end, do you understand” takes apart the Obama dominated FCC’s plans to ‘regulate’ the Internet and turn it int0 something unrecognizable. Here’s a slice:

We keep hearing, from the saviors in Washington, DC, how government regulation is the answer and how “evil monopolies” (created, incidentally, by other government regulations) are responsible for all our trials and tribulations and the “fundamental unfairness” of the Internet as she is currently wrote.

Obligatory movie quote:

“No. No government. I know those people. Absolutely not.” – Col. Ira Kane

Yeah, it’s a movie. It’s also absolutely right.

The founder of Broadcast.com, Mark Cuban, has recently been vociferous in his opposition to so-called “Net Neutrality” with his most recent public appearance on the subject in an interview where he breaks it down. His effort to “plain-language” the argument notwithstanding, and frankly, it’s a subject that should not be oversimplified, he laid out the unintended consequences dominoes and how this “everything is equal” push plays out in terms of common services.

Now, you might want to shrug Mark Cuban off as “some rich guy who owns a sports team” and clearly that’s being done a lot, but don’t forget how he got rich: he pioneered live broadcasting over the Internet. He’s not some political hack, evil cable company exec, or mushy thinking me-too “fairness uber alles” flag waver. He is, for once, someone who knows what the hell he’s talking about.

Net Neutrality, like so many political labels, is a “fair sounding” name that hides the actual motives and consequences of the real world implementations we will experience after the seemingly inevitable adoption of this latest government overreach.

It won’t be fair. It won’t be optimum. And the right answer will never even be mentioned, never mind entertained: deregulate the cable and broadband space to eliminate the protected monopolies.

The broadband space needs more competition, not less; needs less regulation, not more. Companies like Google laying fiber? Cox, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast suddenly no longer have a free pass.

Otherwise? The cynical and dystopian view?

One of the unavoidable dominoes will be broad censorship. Once the deprioritization of broadcast packets leads to the epic traffic jam that will reduce the Web’s US speeds to worse than those found in Europe, the government of the day will, once again, have to “save us” from this “unforseen” outcome and their clever plan will include limiting who can “legitimately” have bandwidth preferences, since clearly “legitimate” news outlets need to bypass the buffering jams that will afflict TV signaling and once dot-gov starts adjudicating who’s a “real” news or other “essential” service, licensing will naturally follow, and then “standards” of what is “acceptable” traffic.

At which point, whichever political party is in power at that time will have the distinct advantage of licensing whomever they deem to be more politically correct in their eyes. “Neutrality” on the ‘Net? Yeah, not so much.

We’re in the hands of fools and corrupt bureaucrats. Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission held a faux meeting on open Internet rules and access to broadband Internet. Commissioner Ajit Pai made a statement before the FCC vote to take unprecedented control over the internet with a secret plan. Yes, secret. Secret as in no exposure to the public or Congress prior to its enactment. What follows is the transcript of his comments – in echoes of Obamacare, this had to pass before we could know what was in it. Except, they are still keeping it under wraps. It must be very, very bad indeed.

From Breitbart:

“The Wall Street Journal reports that it was developed through ‘an unusual secretive effort inside the White House.’ Indeed, White House officials, according to the Journal, functioned as a parallel version of the FCC. Their work led to the president’s announcement in November of his plan for internet regulation, a plan which the report says blindsided the FCC and swept aside months of work by Chairman Wheeler toward a compromise. Now, of course, a few insiders were clued in about what was transpiring. Here’s what a leader for the government-funded group Fight for the Future had to say, ‘We’ve been hearing for weeks from our allies in D.C that the only thing that could stop FCC chairman Tom Wheeler from moving ahead with his sham proposal to gut net neutrality was if we could get the president to step in. So we did everything in our power to make that happen. We took the gloves off and played hard, and now we get to celebrate a sweet victory. Congratulations. what the press has called the parallel FCC at the White House opened its door to a plethora of special interest activists. Daily Kos, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Free Press, and Public Knowledge, just to name a few. Indeed, even before activists were blocking the chairman’s driveway late last year, some of them had met with executive branch officials.

“But what about the rest of the American people? They certainly couldn’t get White House meetings. They were shut out of the process altogether. They were being played for fools. And the situation didn’t improve once the White House announced President Obama’s plan, and ‘asked’ the FCC to implement it. The document in front of us today differs dramatically from the proposal that the FCC put out for comment last May, and it differs so dramatically that even zealous net neutrality advocates frantically rushed in, in recent days, to make last-minute filings, registering their concerns that the FCC might be going too far. Yet, the American people, to this day, have not been allowed to see President Obama’s plan. It has remained hidden.

“Especially given the unique importance of the internet, Commissioner O’Rielly and I ask for the plan to be released to the public. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune and House of Representatives Chairman did the same. According to a survey last week by a respected democratic polling firm, 79% of the American people favored making the document public. Still, the FCC has insisted on keeping it behind closed doors. We have to pass President Obama’s 317-page plan so the American people can find out what’s in it. This isn’t how the FCC should operate. We should be an independent agency making decisions in a transparent manner based on the law and the facts in the record.

“We shouldn’t be a rubber stamp for political decisions made by the White House. And we should have released this plan to the public, solicited their feedback, incorporated that input into the plan, and then proceeded to a vote. There was no need for us to resolve this matter today. There is no immediate crisis in the internet marketplace that demands immediate action. now. The backers of the president’s plan know this. But they also know that the details of this plan cannot stand up to the light of day. They know that the more the American people learn about it, the less they will like it. That is why this plan was developed behind closed doors at the White House. And that is why the plan has remained hidden from public view.

“These aren’t my only concerns. Even a cursory look at the plan reveals glaring legal plans that are sure to mire the agency in the muck of litigation for a long, long time. but rather than address them today, I will reserve them for my written statement. At the beginning of this proceeding, I quoted Google’s former CEO, who once said, the internet is the first thing that humanity has built, that humanity doesn’t understand. This proceeding makes it abundantly clear that the FCC still doesn’t get it. but the American people clearly do. The proposed government regulation of the internet has awakened a sleeping giant. I’m optimistic we’ll look back on today’s vote as a temporary deviation from the bipartisan consensus that’s served us so well. I don’t know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future commission, But I do believe its days are numbered. For all of those reasons, I dissent.”

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Jim DeMint in the Daily Signal with If Not Now … When? Will the GOP Majority Ever Stand for Anything? submitted by Ask Marion . As the man who, along with Sarah Palin was pretty much responsible for the victory in the 2010 midterms that resurrected he GOP from the grave, Deb Mint is definitely in a position to look at the Republicans in Congress today and wonder if they stand for anything.

After lying to their supporters again in 2014 about how they would dismantle President Obama’s radical agenda and being rewarded with majorities in both houses of Congress, they’ve reneged on everything they said they would do at election time. Can they ever be trusted again? Do read it.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! – The Noisy Room – Net Neutrality: “Young fool … Only now, at the end, do you understand.”
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit - A Speech, A Choice And A Challenge
• Third place with 2 votes – The Right Planet – The White House Prayer Deception
• Fourth place with 1 2/3 votes – The Independent Sentinel – Breaking…WH Plans to Develop a Country Within a Country of 15 Million “New Americans”
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Glittering Eye -The Devil in the Details
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – VA Right! - Republicans Betray the Voters – AGAIN
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – What If… Shirley MacLaine is Just an Idiot?
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – The Faux Outrage Of The Fatuous Left And The Fabulist Media

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – Jim DeMint/The Daily Signal - If Not Now … When? Will the GOP Majority Ever Stand for Anything? submitted by Ask Marion
• Second place with 121/3 votes – T. Greer/Zenpundit – Guest post, T Greer: A civilization is at stake here submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Ace Of Spades HQ – It’s Over: Boehner, Boehner’s Establishment Allies, and Democrats Unite to Fund Obama’s Executive Amnesty submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Breitbart – New Documents Blow Lid Off Obama/Clinton Benghazi Scandal submitted by VA Right!
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Breach Bang Clear - The New Definition Of Traumasubmitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Daily Beast – Iraq’s Attack Against ISIS Catches U.S. ‘By Surprise’ submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Robert Joseph, William Tobey/NRO – Iran: A Bad Deal Is (Much) Worse than No Deal submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Bring Back the Bush Doctrine – with One Addition submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Maggie’s Notebook – Defense Intelligence Told Not to Update Obama on Bin Laden Documents submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Kyle MizoKami/ War Is Boring – I Built An AR-15 In My Kitchen – Without Telling The Government submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - America – The National Catholic Review – The Catholic Pagan: 10 Questions for Camille Paglia submitted by The Razor

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?

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results 02.27.15

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

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung. “ -Sir Walter Scott

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. – General George S. Patton

“I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside. - Sir Winston Churchill

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America? was my reaction to the question raised by former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the media meltdown that followed. Here’s a slice:

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani created a press-fueled tempest in a teapot when he raised those issues at a private dinner. As you know, only Democrats and Leftists are entitled to  private conversations and secrecy even the Mafia would envy. And of course, to the freedom to express their opinions  no matter how bat sh*t crazy they are. Rudy Giuliani obviously doesn’t qualify for that kind of protection.

Of course the press leaped on this. The current administration and its minions are free to refer to ‘right wing Tea Partiers’ as  terrorists and to deride a serving US General commanding a combat operation as ‘General Betray Us’ in the New York Times,  but again, the rule for Democrats and the Left is that you may never question  their patriotism under any circumstances, no matter what they say or do.

Having pretty much struck out trying to smear GOP front runner Governor Scott Walker for not undergoing four years or more of Leftist indoctrination at someplace like Harvard, Yale, Columbia or Princeton, the Obama media decided to grab at another straw and make a point of asking Governor Walker if he thought this president was a Christian.

His quite sensible reply was that he didn’t know, and as Byron York pointed out, a fair amount of Americans don’t know either. I suppose it all depends on whether you consider Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church with its radical politics and its  anti-Semitic and racialist overtones ‘Christian.’  Or whether you’re confused about a president who defends Islam and Islamists at every turn while dissing Christianity and standing by and doing nothing while Christians are being  ethnically cleansed from the Middle East by those peaceful Islamists.

But at any rate, the only way to know for sure would be to look inside this president’s head and heart, and Walker was astute in simply saying he wasn’t going to attempt that.

Now, does this president love America? Again, like the question about Christianity, it all depends on what your definition of loving America is.

In his memoir about his time as Secretary of Defense in the Bush and Obama Administrations, Robert Gates chronicled his struggle to contain his rage as former Democrat Senators and 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden chuckled to Gates about how their efforts during the second Bush administration to sabotage America’s war effort in Iraq and the Surge in particular while our troops were under fire were ‘hah hah,just politics, ho ho.’ As Gates related, these efforts along with their calculated attempts to insult and emasculate its commander General Petraeus literally cost American lives.

Now again, some people are going to say ‘what difference does it make?’ Others would be outraged at this and a lot of other things that have happened in this administration.

So you see, it all depends on your point of view.

But walk with me a minute.

Let’s say,just for giggles, we elected a president who actually didn’t love the country, but whose agenda could more accurately be described in one word – payback.

How would such a president behave?

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was the one and only Mark Steyn  with Oh Beautiful For Specious Guys submitted by The Noisy Room.

Steyn exercises his usual mastery at getting to the heart of the matter, in this case the Obama Administration’s craven response to violent, radical Islamism uhhh, ‘violent extremism’ that dares not speak its name. A must read.

Here are this week’s full results. Only the Right Planet was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – Joshuapundit - Is President Obama A Christian? Does He Love America?
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room – Hey, Sweden! How’s that open immigration and PC-multiculturalism working out in your faux-socialist land?
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes  – Nice Deb  – Al Sisi and Haftar Fight ISIS in Libya With No Help From US – While Obama Meets With Muslim Brotherhood
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes  – The Right Planet – Doomed To Repeat…
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – China’s Attack Strategy: Swarm Baby, Swarm
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – The Russian Bear Moves In Next Door
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! - Is Obama a Christian or a Muslim? What Do His Deeds Say?
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote  – Rhymes With Right – Is Obama A Christian
• Fifth place with 1/3 votes –Ask Marion – Texas Is Leading the Way to Stop President Obama’s Illegal Amnesty

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Mark Steyn –Oh Beautiful For Specious Guys submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes  – Jonah Goldberg – Progressives’ Peculiar Sense of Patriotism submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Warrior Lodge  – A French Soldier’s View of US Soldiers in Afghanistan submitted by The Right Planet
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Sultan Knish – We Can Kill Our Way to Victory submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Bobby Ghoush/Defense One  – Why Arab Ground Troops Won’t Defeat ISIS submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - The People’s Cube – Quran-Quran: glam band puts a face to the Muslim Invasion submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Roll Call – McConnell Throws in Towel on DHS Fight, but Reid Is Waiting for Boehner to Cave (Updated submitted by VA Right!
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Gay Patriot – Liberals Really Are Less Patriotic than Conservatives submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -DC Clothesline  – Jobs for Jihadists’ Applications Flood State Department submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Mister Chambers – Onward To Defeat submitted by The Watcher

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?

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Snowed In Edition 01.28.15

Video: Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer - Baby Its Cold Outside

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

The Council In Action!

*Terresa Monroe-Hamilton of The Noisy Room was quoted from coast to coast on Christian radio for a post at Right Wing News For God and country’ recruiting poster was ordered removed by the US Army; ‘God’ is a problem in Obama’s military

*This week, Trevor Loudon, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The Political Commentator and The Pirate’s Cove earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have for you this week….

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – The Shadow of Crisis Engulfs the United States
• Simply Jews – Charlie Hebdo murders and three paragons of hypocrisy
• Ask Marion – Saudi Arabia King Abdullah dies at age 90 as Yemeni President Resigns –
• Bookworm Room – “American Sniper” — a Rorschach test separating the wheat from the chaff
• Joshuapundit - Obama, Netanyahu And Congress: The Real Inside Story Raises Further Questions
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Shia Crescent
• The Right Planet – The Sudden Friends Of Charley Hebdo
• Rhymes With Right – How The GOP Base Views The GOP Field
• Nice Deb – Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: Bowe Bergdahl Has Been Charged With Desertion
• The Razor – To My Wife’s Patients: Things She Can’t Say To You – But I Can
• The Glittering Eye  Declaring Victory
• VA Right! - Does RPV General Council Opinion Prevent Speaker Howell and Others from Running as Republicans?
• The Independent Sentinel – Medicare Won’t Pay Fees for Services Next Year

Honorable Mentions

• Trevor Loudon – Top Communist Admits How CPUSA Uses the Democrat Party
• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Argentine Prosecutor Death in Iran Terror Case Gets Curiouser
• The Political Commentator – Epilogue: Bowe Bergdahl…Deserter! (Video)
• The Pirate’s Cove – Crazy Warmists Continue To Blame Blizzard On “Climate Change”

Non-Council Submissions

• Andrew McCarthy/NRO – What Bobby Jindal Gets about Islam — and Most People Still Don’t submitted by The Noisy Room,
• Howard Jacobson – Try ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ and you’ll find that America and Israel are not to blame for all the world’s atrocities submitted by Simply Jews
• Adriana Cohen/Boston Herald - Sarah Palin is the Perfect Foil to Take on Hillary Clinton submitted by Ask Marion
• David Daoud/The Tower- Replacement Theory: The Administration’s Crazy New Middle East Illusion submitted by Bookworm Room
• Ruben Diaz Jr – Why I Am Visiting Israel submitted by Joshuapundit
• Daily Beast – Spy General Unloads on Obama’s ISIS War Plan submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) – A Reply to Michael Moore and the Left on Military Snipers submitted by The Right Planet
• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Finally Obtained: David Gregory Arrest Warrant Affidavit submitted by Rhymes with Right
• James Delingpole/Breitbart London - 2014 Was Not The ‘Hottest Year on Record’. So Why Did NASA Claim It Was? submitted by Nice Deb
• Jakub Grygiel/The American Interest  – Know Thy Enemy submitted by The Razor
• Sic Semper Tyrannis – Yemen (Arizona in 1870 Reborn) submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Pariot Update – Liberals are rewriting America’s History to Create an Ignorant Electorate
  submitted by VA Right!
• Dennis Prager/NRO – If Obama Gave the State of the Union without Telling a Lie submitted by The Watcher
• Bill Whittle/Truth Revolt – Terrorist Nation submitted by The Watcher
• Stephen Moore/Washington Times – Obama’s illusory economic recovery submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!And don’t forget to tune in Friday for the results!

The Council Has Spoken!! Watcher’s Council Results 01.23.15

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

“I came from the United States of America to stand for freedom, with all free people, against the forces of oppression and darkness which you are representing. … You are fighting for the most radically intolerant and hateful ideology on the planet. … You are already subjugated! You are already their useful idiots. You are already their tools. “ – Robert Spencer, speaking to a Left wing audience in Europe, June 2, 2011.

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” – CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad

The ideological descendants of the communist/progressive Left that spent its capital hoping the West would lose the Cold War to the Soviet Union are today’s leftist core. Based on their hatred for the United States, the Left has forged a symbiotic relationship with radical Islam, whose hatred for America equals theirs. Both make it clear that they consider Western civilization evil and unworthy of preservation. - Ben R. Furman, Former FBI Counterterrorism Chief

This week’s winning essay, The Noisy Room’s – An American Intifada – Communists and Radical Islamists Join Forces is a scintillating piece that concerns something only the most blind refuse to see, the alliance between the Red and the Green, between the radical Left and Islam. Here’s a slice:

Trevor Loudon wrote an article that each and every one of us should read and take note of: Intifada USA? American Radicals Build Ties to “Palestinian” Revolutionaries. I agree completely with Trevor when he says that 2015 could usher in chaos, unrest and violence as we have not seen in our lifetime. The Communists are now joining hands in America with the Radical Islamists, forming an American Intifada – an uprising, resistance, revolt. They are using racism as the building blocks and their hate for America as the glue to forward massive havoc and violence in our streets.

The riots in Ferguson and New York were just the warm up act for these thugs. They are looking to create what they think is an American Spring, which will push every radical and Communist ideal there is out there. It will scream racism, go after the police and alphabet agencies, cry social and environmental injustice, push demands for Islamic acceptance and Shariah law – and in the mix will be the ever-present Jew-hatred which is the kindling for their hatred. In this twisted case, the enemy of my enemy is my ally. For the short term anyway.

Taking the lead are primarily Black and Latino revolutionaries who claim to represent the movements for “black lives” and racial justice, who took a jaunt to Palestine to show solidarity against – you guessed it – Israel. Meet the Dream Defenders Palestine Delegation:

Representatives at the forefront of the movements for Black lives and racial justice took a historic trip to Palestine in early January to connect with activists living under Israeli occupation.

Black journalists, artists and organizers representing Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) and more have joined the Dream Defenders for a 10-day trip to the occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

The trip comes after a year of highly-publicized repression in Ferguson, the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as solidarity between these places.

Ahmad Abuznaid, Dream Defenders’ legal and policy director and a co-organizer of the delegation, said that the goal of the trip was to make connections.

“The goals were primarily to allow for the group members to experience and see first-hand the occupation, ethnic cleansing and brutality Israel has levied against Palestinians, but also to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation,” wrote Abuznaid.

“In the spirit of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and many others, we thought the connections between the African American leadership of the movement in the U.S. and those on the ground in Palestine needed to be reestablished and fortified.”

Abuznaid said the trip represented a chance to bring the power of Black organizing to Palestine.

“As a Palestinian who has learned a great deal about struggle, movement, militancy and liberation from African Americans in the U.S., I dreamt of the day where I could bring that power back to my people in Palestine. This trip is a part of that process.”

[…]

For Steven Pargett, communications director for Dream Defenders, visiting the Dheisheh Refugee Camp outside of Bethlehem made these connections clearer: “A camp doesn’t have to have a fence with barbed wire all around it in order to be a place where displaced people are struggling to survive.”

Pargett said that Black people in the United States are also displaced refugees.

“Our refugee camps are lower income communities and project buildings all around the country that many would not be living in had we not been taken into slavery generations ago. Rather than having the Israeli Defense occupation in our hoods, we have the occupation of police officers who often prove to have little regard for our lives, being that they are not from these communities,” Pargett wrote.

Hip-hop was a unifying force for the delegation, Pargett said, commenting that Palestinians have been inspired by hip-hop in the U.S. and use it as a tool to amplify their own voices.

St. Louis-based rapper and activist Tef Poe said his experience in the camps connecting through hip-hop was the best day of his life.

“A refugee camp with a bunch of people fighting for their lives and using hip hop to lift their spirits and spark the minds of the children and break down gender barriers between young girls and boys,” Tef posted to Facebook. “I spent a day with these ppl .. Most amazing day of my life. Thanks be to the Most, the struggle is beautiful.”

This trip is another chapter in the recent history of Black-Palestinian solidarity. In November, a group of 10 Palestinian student activists visited Ferguson and St. Louis, meeting with people organizing in the streets.

A month later, upon their return, the students hosted a series of events at their university in the West Bank to raise awareness with the Black struggle and stand in solidarity. Dream Defenders unanimously passed a resolution to support the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in this interval.

[…]

Moving forward, delegates expressed a desire for Black and American action in support of Palestine.

“I believe the Black Lives Matter movement can benefit greatly by learning about struggles outside of the U.S., but particularly the Palestinian struggle,” said Patrisse Cullors. “I want this trip to be an example for how Black folks and Arab communities can be in better solidarity with one another.”

Cherrell Brown sees joint action as a way to global freedom.

“I want us to take back things we can do in the now, as Americans, to raise awareness and action around Palestinian liberation. I want us to reimagine what society could and will look like when we’ve dismantled this white-supremacist patriarchal and capitalist society. I want us to do it together. I want to bring back these conversations and stories in hopes that it will help add to this global struggle to get free.”

The full list of delegates includes five Dream Defenders (Phillip Agnew, Ciara Taylor, Steven Pargett, Sherika Shaw, Ahmad Abuznaid), Tef Poe and Tara Thompson (Ferguson/Hands Up United), journalist Marc Lamont Hill, Cherrell Brown and Carmen Perez (Justice League NYC), Charlene Carruthers (Black Youth Project), poet and artist Aja Monet, Patrisse Cullors (Black Lives Matter), and Maytha Alhassen, a USC PhD student. Catch up with the delegation and follow their last few days using #DDPalestine on Twitter and Instagram.

Gee, that’s a who’s who of racists, social justice agitators and Communists. Just look how chummy and united they have all become. I know you will be really, really shocked to learn that the Tides Foundation is funding this. And who is behind the Tides Foundation? Why, that old spider George Soros who hates Jews, America and freedom in general. You know, the guy who gave $33 million to the activists who took part in Ferguson and other venues of violence.

This is all part of a movement that has been gathering steam for a while now and it is thoroughly anti-Israel. Guess who is in the thick of it? Dr. Marc Lamont Hill of HuffPost Live, BET News and CNN. Watch it Marc, your antisemitism is showing and badly. Our comrade Hill also spouted revolutionary rhetoric to promote the Dream Defenders. Ferguson, Eric Garner and #BlackLivesMatter protests have become the calling card for the new face of the Occupy Movement. You are witnessing the rise of the Islamo-Communist Axis in America.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson – Muslims And Islamists submitted by Joshuapundit. I’m a huge fan of VDH, even when I disagree with him. In this particular case, I think he is spot on, and all I’ll say is that what he wrote here deserves your utmost attention.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! – The Noisy Room – An American Intifada – Communists and Radical Islamists Join Forces
• Second place with 2 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit - The ‘Selma’ Controversy And What It Says About Race In America
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Ask Marion – American Sniper… Hollywood and Sharpton
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room – Mt. Holyoke, The Vagina Monologues, and why “The Coming College Decline” is a good thing
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Razor – Consensual Incest Puts Progressives on Slippery Slope
• Fifth place with 1 vote –The Right Planet – The Marxist Dialectic – From Lenin to Obama
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Deborah Maccoby to Jews of Europe: denounce Israel and live happily thereafter
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Nice Deb – The Obama Regime, CAIR, and the Doctrine of Taqiyya
• Seventh place with 1/3 vote – VA Right! - Hanover Photo-gate Deepens – New Photo Casts Doubt on Statement to Mechanicsville Local

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! –Victor Davis Hanson – Muslims And Islamists submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Marine Le Pen –To Call This Threat By Its Name submitted by The Razor
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Global Guerillas – Saudi Arabia Plunges into an Abyss submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Jerome Corsi/WND - Admirals, generals, intel: Benghazi inquest compromised, ‘I think Gowdy has been warned away or threatened’ submitted by Ask Marion
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Sultan Knish – The Importance Of Blasphemy submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Michelle Malkin – Attack Of The Open-Borders Mau-Mau-ers submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Kevin D. Williamson/ NRO - The FOX News Obsession submitted by Nice Deb
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - The Passing Parade – The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - American Thinker – Eric Cantor Lectures On How to Win Elections? submitted by VA Right!
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Tom Rogan/NRO – The New Islamic State: Boko Haram submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Mike McDaniel/The Truth About Guns-It Happened Before, It Will Happen Again submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - The New American – Obama and UN Created Terror State in Libya submitted by The Right Planet
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Volokh Conspiracy – Over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA” submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Eli Lake – Why Obama Can’t Say ‘Radical Islam’ submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - The Other McCain – Rapists Rape and Rape Again submitted by The Watcher

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?

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results - 01-09-15

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

“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.” – Abba Eban

““The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. - Eric Hoffer

“We must take positions. Our weakness in the West is born of the fact of so-called ‘objectivity.’ Objectivity does not exist – it cannot exist!… The word is a hypocrisy which is sustained by the lie that the truth stays in the middle. No, sir: Sometimes truth stays on one side only.”
- Orianna Fallacci

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s - Who’s ‘Responsible?’ came about when I read an astounding statement from the mouth of European Union foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini. Here’s a slice:

Sometimes, a public figure makes a statement that simply defies the imagination in its blatant hypocrisy and ignorance of reality.

Those of you who have been following events in the region know that the Third Intifada against Israel is well underway, and that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are doing their best to incite violence. Against this background, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority AKA Hamas/Fatah recently went to the UN Security Council in an attempt to get a resolution declaring a Palestinian State along the pre ’67 lines that would have called for forcing Israel back to indefensible borders, re-dividing Jerusalem and barring Jews from their Holy sites, ethnically cleansing 500,000 Jews, freeing all terrorists currently in captivity in Israeli jails and allowing any of the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians to return to whatever they claim their homes were in Israel.

The resolution failed by one vote, but Abbas has promised to re-introduce it now that three pro-Israel nation’s terms on the Security Council have finished and three anti-Israel countries terms on the Security Council started in 2015. And Abbas is also attempted to join the International Criminal Court, saying that if he’s successful he will attempt to prosecute Israel there for war crimes.

Aside from violating both the Oslo Accords and The Road Map, this is nothing less than a hostile entity making a declaration of war against Israel.

In retaliation, Israel decided to take the measure of freezing $127 million in tax monies it gathered for Hamas/Fatah, and is considering other measures as well.

The EU immediately condemned this, and their reaction is worth looking at.

European Union foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said in a statement today that even this moderate pushback “runs counter to Israel’s obligations.”

“An effective Palestinian Authority, committed to non-violence and a peaceful resolution of the conflict, is a key element for a two-state solution,” Mogherini said.

Mogherini said that “recent steps taken … could aggravate the already tense situation on the ground and bring them further away from a negotiated solution.”

“Both sides should refrain from taking actions which could raise obstacles to the rapid return to the negotiations,” she added.

She also threatened that the EU’s financing of ‘Palestine’ could be endangered by Israel’s withholding the money.

You have to wonder what planet the EU thinks it lives on.

Israel’s ‘responsibilities?’ What about the Palestinian Authority?

In exchange for being gifted sovereignty by Israel in the Oslo Accords over some land it otherwise had no claim to, The Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians agreed to do three things…renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist and end anti-semitic incitement in its mosques schools and media. Those same three requirements were also part of the Road Map.

Not one of them has ever been adhered to, not by Arafat, not by Mahmoud Abbas and certainly not by Hamas.

While the PLO charter tepidly recognizes Israel, neither the Fatah charter or the Hamas charters do. Support for terrorism against Israeli civilians is a given, and not merely tolerated but rewarded. In the twenty years since Oslo, not a single person has ever been arrested by the PA security forces for killing a Jew. Financing of terrorist activity by the PA and Hamas is a long documented fact. Terrorist killers convicted of some of the most heinous murders by Israeli courts are called ‘holy martyrs’ by Abbas and receive a nice salary from the PA courtesy of Eu and American taxpayers, and these ‘martyrs’ are held up as heroes and role models to Palestinian society. They’re glorified in its media, lionized in its mosques and have public buildings named after them.

Mahmoud Abbas’s Moscow University treatise claiming that the Holocaust never happened and that the few Jews that were killed were the result of ‘Zionists’ collaborating with the Nazis is a required text in the PA’s school curriculum.

And the PA itself is now allied in a unity government with the genocidal Hamas.For that matter, the PLO has already said that the Oslo Accords no longer apply to them.

And when Mogherini talks about a Palestinian Authority, committed to non-violence and a peaceful resolution of the conflict, does she even recognize the years of sustained and constant rejectionism and unwillingness to negotiate anything by Arafat,Abbas and the PA as the main contributor to the current impasse?

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was the one and only Rush Limbaugh with The GOP Leadership’s Attitude Toward Its Own Base Is Unprecedented submitted by Ask Marion. This is a transcript of Limbaugh’s comments on the air during his hugely popular radio show and he takes on the contradiction of a large part of the Republican leadership showing outright contempt for the voters that just gave them one of the largest GOP congressional majorities in history with his usual clarity and logic. Definitely read it.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Ask Marion was unable to vote, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty :

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Joshuapundit - Who’s ‘Responsibility?’
• Second place with 2 votes –The Noisy Room – John McCain’s Progressive Hand Is Behind The Purge Of Tea Party Detractors From The Arizona GOP
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room – The New York Times ignores the reasons why Swedes might be turning against immigrants
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – VA Right! - Barack Obama – The President of No!
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Ask Marion – Time For GOP Leadership
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Lefty Losers Spam Twitter With Lie About Officer Liu’s Widow
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Simply Jews – Jonathan Freedland and the liberal Zionists’ support: thanks but no thanks
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – What I learned In 2014
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Right Planet – British Lawmaker: Hitler Was a Socialist
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye - The Problem With Student Debt
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Independent Sentinel – Cuomo’s Captious New Law: No More Selfies With Tigers and Lion

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! –Rush Limbaugh - The GOP Leadership’s Attitude Toward Its Own Base Is Unprecedented submitted by Ask Marion
• Second place with 2 votes – Victor Davis Hanson – Autopilot nation submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Roger L. Simon/PJ Media – Egypt’s al-Sisi Makes Extraordinary Speech on Islam submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Sultan Knish – December 31st, 1912 submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Klari Goldman Bates/ Times Of Israel – A Tango With Hypocrisy submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Peter Pomerantsev/Politico – Inside Putin’s Information War submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes – USNI News – Navy Wants Rail Guns to Fight Ballistic and Supersonic Missiles Says RFI submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes  -Angry White Dude – Trust the Republicans They Said! This Time Will Be Different, They Said!submitted by VA Right!
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes – Powerline – Liberals Can’t Argue, They Can Only Bully [Updated] submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – Weasel Zippers - Today #BlackLivesMatters Imploded submitted by Nice Deb

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?

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Lawless Edition

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

The Council in Action…

Greg over at Rhymes With Right was instrumental in getting a resolution passed by his local county Republican Executive Committee coming out against ‘pay for play’ local endorsements.

Joshuapundit’s latest piece Going Democrat-Lite will make GOP a permanent minority is up at the Washington Examiner…and a shout out and thanks from me to all of you whom linked to it or tweeted it.

Noted author and Council Alumni Trever Loudon continues to burn up the ground with his book tour for his latest opus,“The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress” .He’ll be appearing on the Glenn Beck Program on ‘The Blaze’ TV next month,with taping scheduled for March 27th. And that’s not all:

Peoria IL TEA Party
Gateway Building, 200 NE Water St., Peoria, IL 61614
Thursday, February 13th — 6:30 pm

[RADIO] Roger Moore Interviews Trevor Loudon
WOAM 1360AM Talk Radio
Friday, February 14th — 7:00 am

Peoria IL TEA Party Morning Event
Sterling Restaurant, 4513 N. Sterling Ave., Peoria IL 61615
Friday, February 14th— 8:00 am

The DuPage IL TEA Party
Carriage Greens Country Club, 8700 Carriage Greens Dr., Darien IL 60561
Saturday, February 15th — 2:00 pm

[RADIO] Van The Radio Man
BlogTalkRadio
Monday, February 17th — 2:00 pm

AZ Red Mountain Patriots
Faith Christian School, 7464 E. Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85207
Monday, February 17th — 7:00 pm

The TEA Party Patriots of Arizona
Northgate Church, 34835 N. 7th St., Phoenix, AZ 85086
Tuesday, February 18th — 6:30 pm

This week, The Mellow Jihadi, Daphne Anson, Maggie’s Notebook, Right Truth and The Pirate’s Cove earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Liberty’s Spirit – When told they can’t use the word “bitch,” watch some male heads explode
• Simply Jews – John Kerry’s “stand with Ukraine’s people” and the staggering ineptness of State Department
• The Noisy Room – Idaho Opens the Door to Martial Law and Gun Confiscation – the Nullification of the Posse Comitatus Act
• Joshuapundit-The UN Reveals Its Cowardice And Hypocrisy By Attacking The Catholic Church
• Ask Marion – Beatles, Olympics, Leno, History, Perspective…
• The Razor – A Republican Reflects On a Kennedy
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Code Name: Johnny Walker
• Bookworm Room – Conservatives should take a page out of the Islamists’ book and disavow bad actors marching under their banner
• The Right Planet – David Carroll: Angry Blacks Confront DNC/MSNBC Slave Al Sharpton
• Rhymes With Right – Note To Michael Sam — I Don’t Care
• The Colossus of Rhodey – A Kickstarter idea which is not only unoriginal, but based on pure media bias
• The Independent Sentinel – Common Core Is Rewriting History Like a Tin Pot Dictatorship
• The Glittering Eye -It’s Not Our Salami
• VA Right! - Battered Obama Supporter Syndrome – B.O.S.S.
• Nice Deb – ACLJ Head Says Newly Discovered IRS Emails Are A “Smoking Gun” – Calls For Special Prosecutor

Honorable Mentions

• The Mellow Jihadi – Flooding & the nine P’s
• Maggie’s Notebook – Diane Blair’s Hillary Papers: Hillary Furious Bill Ruined Presidency, Couldn’t Organize or Punish
• The Pirate’s Cove – Hooray! Warmists Find Excuse #8 For Pause
• Daphne Anson – Why Jordan’s Not Jumping for Joy: David Singer explains …
• Right Truth – Republican Punk – Book Review

Non-Council Submissions

• Oliver Bullough/New Republic – Sochi is Haunted by the Ghosts of a Forgotten Genocide submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• The Sad Red Earth – Academic Boycotts and Re-Colonization by Theory submitted by Simply Jews
• Diana West – A Nation of Laws, Not Men, Must Impeach Obama submitted by The Noisy Room
• Mark Steyn – America Takes Early Retirement submitted by Joshuapundit
• KingJester - Welcome to the Sochi Olympics… My Name is “Peggy” submitted by Ask Marion
• Michael Totten – The Truth About Che Guevara submitted by The Razor
• Small Wars Journal – General Patton as a Counterinsurgent submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• The Elder Of Ziyon - EoZ posters for “Apartheid Week” submitted by Bookworm Room
• Frontpage Mag – Union Gangsters: John Sweeney submitted by The Right Planet
• George Scott Reports – Veteran Texas House Lawmaker Eviscerates Pay To Play Slates As Destructive To GOP Future; Uses Schofield’s Race In District 132 As Example submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Minding The Campus – An update on the mess at Bowdoin submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• The Daily Caller – EPA ‘clean coal’ rule would increase power prices by 70 or 80 percent submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Robert Haddick/War On the Rocks – America Has No Answer to China’s Salami-slicing submitted by The Glittering Eye
• The Federalist – “Alex” Tokeville Has Some Choice Words For President Obama submitted by VA Right!
• Sipsey Street Irregulars - An Open Letter to Michael Lawlor, the CT Governor’s Hatchet Man on Firearms Confiscation. “How’s your KGB file hangin’, Mike?” submitted by Nice Deb
• Marc Thiessen/WAPO – Obamacare’s $70 billion pay cut submitted by The Watcher
• Victor Davis Hanson – An Immigration Morality Tale submitted by Watcher

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

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The Wrap at Ask Marion 1.26.14 Thru 2.02.14

Our weekly wrap… Sunday to Sunday… Please share! Ask Marion

Quote of the Week: "If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." …Ronald Reagan

Want things to change… then elect someone that believes in the principles that made this country great, but who can win against the Democrat’s probable ‘first female president’ candidate carrot… and that person is someone the left fears.  That person is Sarah Palin who just Polled With Highest Favorability Rating Among GOP Primary Voters.  Palin is Reaganesque, undefeated and tested after unending attacks by the Left which includes the probable 2016 Democrat ‘Female’ Presidential Candidate… Hillary, who really is Barack Obama in a Dress. Sarah can win!!  She had the crowds eating out of her hand in 2008 after her VP Presidential Nominating Speech! And Rino John McCain and the Progressive Liberal Media tried to destroy her.

Protecting Hillary…

The Persecution of Conservatives in Hollywood  

• Hannity Exclusive: Dinesh D’Souza is ‘undeterred’ by backlash [video]
• Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – Obama Take That Pen &.. SOTU, Keystone, Iran, Little Sisters
• A Black Reporter Summarizes Barack Obama!
• Smith & Wesson says goodbye, California over ‘microstamping’ law
• State of the Union 2014 Proves Obama Failure… Lies, Theft, Failure, Pinocchio’s…
• ICE Officers Claim They’re Being Prohibited From Enforcing The Law – Huckabee – Wake Up America
• Is the House GOP Leadership Being Blackmailed Into Voting for Amnesty?
• Watch the Powerful Olympics Ad That Disappeared From the Internet Last Night [video]
• From Reagan to Rubio: The Wussification of the Republican Party
• Crews Killing Thousands of Dogs for Sochi Olympic Games
• Seems There Is Such a Thing As a Free Lunch After All…
• Fixing the News
• The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results – 01.31.14
• Here It Comes – Amnesty
• Obama’s Loving Requiem For A Prominent Communist – And Mine
• Former Clinton WH Counsel Lanny Davis Struggles To List Hillary’s Achievements At State Dept
• Poll: Sarah Palin Has Highest Favorability Rating Among GOP Primary Voters
• Are You a Potential Plaintiff in an Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit? Please Respond by January 31, 2014
• State of the Union Obama THEFT ACCOUNTS | Damon Geller
• The Making of a Black Conservative
• GOP Senators’ Obamacare Replacement Beneficial to Young People says Senator Colborn as He Loses His Own Cancer Doctor in the Midst of His Cancer Fight
• Watcher’s Council Nominations – State Of Disunion Edition 01.29.14
• The Devil’s In The Marxism
• 2014 State of the Union (SOTU)
• Abuse of Power
• The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld offered up a State of the Union drinking game…
• Persecuted the Movie (Official Teaser)
• Ex-Trader Joe’s President To Open Expired Food Store For The Poor
• Republican Plan for Immigration: Anchor Babies, Visa Reform? Co-Sponsors for King’s Anchor Baby Legislation?
• Forum: Do You Feel We Are Moving Closer To A Police State?
• Sunday News 01.26.14 on Video(s) – Updated
• Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – State Of The Union – A Call For Unity?
• Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie – Oh, how the mighty may fall – WRIGHT
• Mitt – Whatever Side You Are On See Another Side
• New Poll: Voters blame Clinton and Obama for Benghazi…
• National Newspaper Chain Plans To Build Massive ‘State-By-State’ Database Of Gun Owners
• Bombshell: Pentagon ‘didn’t know’ Benghazi annex existed
• The Wrap at Ask Marion 1.19.14 Thru 1.26.14

Also See:

• Washington State’s Pending Legislation Seeks To Prohibit Barbaric Muslim Practice Of Young Female Genital Mutilation
• Obamacare Architect Retires
• Are You a Potential Plaintiff in an Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit? Please Respond by January 31, 2014 
• GOP Senators’ Obamacare Replacement Beneficial to Young People says Senator Colborn as He Loses His Own Cancer Doctor in the Midst of His Cancer Fight
• Warning: Dem Rep. Says Obamacare Is Unraveling & “We Don’t Have a Solution” 
• Another Obamacare Fiasco
• Ex-Trader Joe’s President To Open Expired Food Store For The Poor
• Moody’s Downgrades Health Insurers, Cites ObamaCare Uncertainty  
• In Addition to the Super Bowl… Today Was Groundhog Day
• World’s oldest flamingo which has been in the same Australian zoo since before World War II dies aged 83
• Crews Killing Thousands of Dogs for Sochi Olympic Games 
• Three Nuns Adopt the Senior Pit Bull Nobody Else Wanted 
• Paralyzed dog found dragging himself through streets begging for food
• Two By Two… Was Noah’s Ark ROUND? 3,700-year-old clay tablet reveals giant boat was made out of Reeds and Bitumen
• Contagious Cancer In Dogs Leaves Prehistoric Paw Prints

Book of the Week – Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics (Kindle) by Charles Krauthammer

In an interview with Bret Baier about his latest book: Things That Matter, Charles Krauthammer said that sometime between his accident and the process of getting his degree and finishing Med School to become a Psychiatrist he realized that everything in life is affected by politics (and religion) in one way or another, therefore touching all the Things That Matter in our lives.



From America’s preeminent columnist, named by the Financial Times the most influential commentator in the nation, the long-awaited collection of Charles Krauthammer’s essential, timeless writings.

A brilliant stylist known for an uncompromising honesty that challenges conventional wisdom at every turn, Krauthammer has for decades daz­zled readers with his keen insight into politics and government. His weekly column is a must-read in Washington and across the country. Now, finally, the best of Krauthammer’s intelligence, erudition and wit are collected in one volume.
Readers will find here not only the country’s leading conservative thinker offering a pas­sionate defense of limited government, but also a highly independent mind whose views—on feminism, evolution and the death penalty, for example—defy ideological convention. Things That Matter also features several of Krautham­mer’s major path-breaking essays—on bioeth­ics, on Jewish destiny and on America’s role as the world’s superpower—that have pro­foundly influenced the nation’s thoughts and policies. And finally, the collection presents a trove of always penetrating, often bemused re­flections on everything from border collies to Halley’s Comet, from Woody Allen to Win­ston Churchill, from the punishing pleasures of speed chess to the elegance of the perfectly thrown outfield assist.
With a special, highly autobiographical in­troduction in which Krauthammer reflects on the events that shaped his career and political philosophy, this indispensible chronicle takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the fashions and follies, the tragedies and the joys of Krauthammer’s life.

And another must read is: Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election—and How to Stop Them from Doing It in 2016 (Kindle)



Is the House GOP Leadership Being Blackmailed Into Voting for Amnesty?

There are some great options on the GOP side if we don’t let the old guard Establishment Co-Opt the process as they did in 2008 and 2012 and the Democrats must have someone better than Hillary or their old Establishment guard.

Sarah Palin for President and Ted Cruz for Vice-President… a winning ticket that would represent ‘the American people’, restore the Constitution and get government out of our lives and pockets

And just today I heard a new interesting option: Dr. Ben Carson for President and Judge Jeanine Pirro for Vice-President

Bombshell: Pentagon ‘didn’t know’ Benghazi annex existed; includes overview of Benghazi Attack and Scandal Events and Timeline

Hillary now wants to get Benghazi out of the way… Clinton said when asked to identify “do-overs” of her time as America’s top diplomat during her keynote appearance before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans. she said, “My biggest, you know, regret is what happened in Benghazi,”  I think what Hillary meant was that her biggest regret is not being able to squelch the Benghazi scandal.  Just for the sake of history, let’s recall that Clinton could have prevented the attack but failed to do so

Benghazi Report: Obama and Hillary Lied, Americans Died, Media Complicit… Obama Went to Vegas and they need to take responsibility!  Yet, RNC Chairman Says Hillary 2016 Candidacy is Set… And Female Presidency Will be the Carrot… Time to say no thanks and fight back with our own powerhouse!!

In the meantime, there are rumblings that there has been a shake-up in the White House because Obama Puppetmaster, George Soros, is not happy; perhaps coming off the meetings by the power elite in Davos?  And the Democrats facing re-election in 2014 are also running scared. 

Obama has already warned that he will use his phone and pen to sign executive orders to circumvent Congress and the witch hunt against Conservative Opponents and anyone the White House considers to be in their way will be investigated, minimalized and silenced.  David Plouffe is said to be out, Valerie Jarrett has been demoted and replaced by John Podesta and David Simas will run Obama’s new operations office.  The State of the Union is expected to be anything but a call for unity, and 2014 definitely will be the most divisive Obama year yet as Soros pushes his agenda to move the U.S. toward Socialism. It is time for everyone to get-involved and for Conservatives, Libertarians, Tea Party Groups and all the other small groups who are fighting to take back our Country to find common ground and work together to save America for our children, our grandchildren and future generations.  There is too much at stake not to!!

The real question is… will we, Conservatives, Libertarians, Tea Party Groups and all the other patriotic groups, continue letting the media and RINOs and Progressives from both parties steal elections from us? because we can’t or won’t find common ground and compromise?

David John Marotta, a Wall Street adviser and President of Marotta Wealth Management, puts U.S. unemployment closer to 37.2%, much higher than even the 25% most bloggers and honest journalists have estimated, and certainly not the unicorn dust propaganda of 6.7% claimed by the Fed.

Alert: Rand Paul Sues Obama… Join Class Action Suit

Memorable Photos…

Thousands of Shelter Pets Killed Every Day Yet Half of Americans Uninformed and Unaware 

Crews Killing Thousands of Dogs for Sochi Olympic Games

Dogs slaughtered for meat in Vietnam… Stop the Dog Meat Trade

Stop the Pain… Get-Involved and Speak Up Whenever You Suspect Abuse, Of Any Kind

We are living in amazing times, good and bad, the kind of times that truly try men’s (and women’s) souls and that make or break countries and shape (or reshape) societies. Please get involved, pray for guidance, prepare for the worst (for yourself and to help others), then educate yourself and share what you learn with as many people as you can. All our futures depend on it!!

Be sure to come visit us here at Ask Marion regularly and subscribe to receive the latest posts first… as well as visit: Just One More Pet, True Health Is True Wealth!!, Knowledge Is Power, and the Daily Thought Pad.

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