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?

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?

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?

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results - 01.24.14

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

 

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto Von Bismark

“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” - Walter Lippmann

 

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable, Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It is my analysis of the long delayed Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Benghazi debacle. Here’s a slice:

The bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its long-delayed report on the Benghazi attack, and based on what it said, it’s pretty understandable why some of the Democrats on the committee strung things out as long as they could and fought over the wording. But some things simply give off too foul a stench for any perfume to make a difference.

The committee’s minority Republicans criticized the White House for obstructing the report, which the committee had wanted to complete much earlier, and openly accused Patrick Kennedy, U.S. undersecretary of State for Management of shielding the Obama administration from Congressional oversight.

Of course, Kennedy was also concentrating on covering his own behind. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who normally votes with the Democrats an dis the very epitome of bi-partisanship angrily made a point of saying that Kennedy “failed to ensure that a facility he personally approved in December 2011 had the necessary security to match the heightened threat environment.”

The committee’s report said that Benghazi was entirely preventable, and that the State Department failed to increase security at the Benghazi consulate in spite numerous warnings. As I’ve mentioned on these pages before,even the Brits and the International Red Cross had pulled their people out because Benghazi, thanks to President Obama’s timely intervention had become a major headquarters for al-Qaeda and other Islamists. Anyone who knows anything about Ansar al Shariah and its connections to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) understood that a long time ago.

The report states, unequivocally: “Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.”

The very fact that mortars and other heavy weapons were used points to long time planning. A mortar isn’t like a Kalishnikov. It takes training, and it takes time to scope out ranges and angles of fire.

Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss summarized the report, saying,

“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

Another thing that came out is that the entire ‘protest over a video’ narrative pushed by the president, Mrs. Clinton, Jay Carney, Susan Rice and goodness knows how many others was an outright lie…and just like ObamaCare, they lied knowingly, although the report doesn’t put it in such blunt terms.

What we were told – conveniently after the 2012 elections- is that the original fairy tales about the video and a spontaneous protest occurred because the situation ‘was developing.’

It wasn’t.

In fact, the FBI interviewed the Benghazi survivors over a three-day period right after the attack, when they were still being prevented from speaking to anyone. None of them reported a protest or a demonstration.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) said that “The FBI confirmed to me that when they interviewed the survivors on the 15th the 16th and the 17th [of September], not one person ever mentioned anything other than a terrorist attack. No one mentioned a protest outside the consulate.”

“So, how could the Obama administration come up with a protest story if everybody on the ground during the attack said it was a terrorist attack and there was no protest?” he asked.

Trust me, the stench increases. Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, we had a tie between Neo NeoCon with “Wendy Davis: ‘empowerment’ and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man” submitted by The Glittering Eye,and Kevin Williamson/NRO for  The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit, a beautiful and haunting portrait of Applachia.

I was torn on this one..I honestly like Wiliamson’s piece a lot more personally, but while the totals were the same Neo Neocon got more individual votes among the Council, and it’s a really nice piece, so I’m calling it that way,

Here are this week’s full results.

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 votes!-Joshuapundit - Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes –Simply Jews – Bedouins of Negev
• Third Place *t* with 1 vote– The Right Planet – Hegelian Dialectics for Dummies
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –The Noisy Room – Bolstering the Marxist Vote
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote– Liberty’s Spirit – Not Surprisingly US State Department Agrees as UNESCO Cancels Jewish Cultural Exhibit…(Update) Oopsie Foggy Bottom Says “My Bad”
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room – Bleeding heart liberal misses football’s important lessons for our boys
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – Facebook’€™s Culture of Like Breeds Conformity
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Analysis of Rocket Used in Syria Chemical Attack Shows “Administration Narrative Not Even Close To Reality”
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –We Can Pay For an Unemployment Extension with a Day for a Day Delay in Obamacare Mandates
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Does Barack Obama Seek To Reduce Americans To A State of Slavery?
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Castle Strat
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye - Out Of Sight
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Arrow gets it right

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Neo-Neocon – “Wendy Davis: ‘empowerment’ and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man” submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Second place with 2 votes – Kevin Williamson/NRO – The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – White House Dossier -The Root of Obama’s Imperious Presidency submitted by Nice Deb
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Caroline Glick – The Truth Hurts submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - Kimberley A. Strassel/WSJ – IRS Targeting and 2014 submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -  Western Journalism – The Problems of Women in Combat – From a Female Combat Vet submitted by Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Mahmoud Salem ( AKA Sandmonkey) – Consequences submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Rebuilding Freedom – Part1 – Agenda 21, Born in America, Raised by the United Nations submitted by The Right Planet
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Ace of Spades HQ - Common Core is pretty dumb submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - PJ Tattler – Has Wendy Davis’ Charmed Run for Governor Started to Implode? (Update: Meltdown) submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Douglas Ernst – ‘White Privilege’ artist: Does it exist, or do I simply lack critical thinking skills? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Rick Moran/American Thinker – Think it’s hard signing up for Obamacare? Try getting out of it submitted by VA Right!

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Protecting Hillary…
• Blue Ridge Forum – NEW: Crucial WSJ Report! Tea-Party-Gag Rule: Will Appropriators Wolf & Harris Push Back?

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 guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Watcher’s Council,Alternative Media,Collection of Articles,Bloggers,Blogosphere,News,News Nuggets,Politics,Knowledge,Protecting Hillary,Tea Party,IRS,Benghazi,Al-Qaeda,Lies,Obamaland,White House,A21,Texas,Wendy Davis,Get-Involved

The Wrap at Ask Marion 1.05.14 Thru 1.12.14

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

Quote of the Week: "If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton

Election 2014 and 2016… All Sewn-Up or the Battle(s) for Americas Life

Alert: Rand Paul Sues Obama… Join Class Action Suit

• Gohmert Breaks Down The ‘War on Poverty’
• Judge Jeanine Pirro – Obamacare lies – How Many More People Will Lose Coverage?
• Sarah Palin Responds to Roger Ailes Quote Explaining Why Fox News Hired Her AND Why She Accepted
• Alfred E. Smith: Betrayal of the Democratic Party
• Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – Benghazi IRS NSA 1-11-2014
• No Confidence
• The Lynchpins Have Been Pulled
• Rush on Jobs Report
• Website of Top House Republican Drops Opposition to Amnesty and Others Are Waffling… Get Invovled!
• Glenn Beck: Similarities Between Christie & Obama [video]
• The Well-Greased Machine… and the Plan
• The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results 01.10.14
• What really happened to the German gold housed in the United States?
• FOX News’ Roger Ailes Talks Back – Great Interview!
• ISSA Warns Sebelius That She Could Face Perjury Charges Over Obamacare Testimony – Rep Trey Gowdy
• Gates Book Puts White House in Defense Mode… And Conveniently a Christie Scandal Appears
• Rolling Stone Article Tells Millennials To Push For Communism… Gutfeld Responds
• Watcher’s Council Nominations – Global Warming Edition
• Political Researcher, Trevor Loudon is Speaking to The Clark Co. IN TEA Party Feb 7th — Be There!
• Global Warming Hits Michigan…
• Cruz will headline local GOP fundraiser
• Louie Gohmert: Let’s Blow Up All Iran Nuclear Sites
• Sean Hannity Reacts to WFB Story on Al-Qaeda Being Invited to Briefing on Drone Policy By Congressional Democrats
• Judge Jeanine Pirro – Benghazi 9/11 Whitewash – Rep Trey Gowdy Responds To NY Times Article
• The Chinese High-Tech Dynasty Wrapped in Red 
• Forum: Whom Would You Least Like To See In A Presidential Matchup In 2016? 
• Iraq…is it really over for America 
• The Season and Meaning of Epiphany – WoC 2013/14 
• NYT, Hillary & Obama’s War on a Mom 
• Los Angeles Times Skips the I-Word As California Grants Law License to Illegal Alien 
• Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – Justice Resolutions – Obama Admin Vs Little Sisters 1-4-2014
• An American Depression: Extreme Haircut Edition
• The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watchers’ Council Results Posted 01.03.14
• The Atheist War on Christmas and Religious Freedom – WoC 2013/14
• Iraqi Army Shells Fallujah As Street Fights Rage In Ramadi
• Eleven AGs slam Obama’s healthcare fixes; Greg Abbot says Obama is acting like a king 
• The Wrap at Ask Marion 12.29.13 Thru 1.05.14

Also See:

• The GOP’s Grandfather Weapon 
• Vermont plots course for single-payer health care system 
• Obamacare Is A Disaster & A Train Wreck… Sarah Palin Delivers Passionate Response
• HEALTHCARE REFORM’S FIRST BIG TEST
• If You MUST Vaccinate, Aim for This Body Part 
• Hair Of The Dog… Portraits of People Wearing Clothes Made From Their Pets’ Fur 
• Could an E-collar Help Settle Your Pet’s Stomach on Car Rides? 
• Dog found frozen to floor of doghouse during cold snap in PA 
• Dog Rescued from Trash Pile
• Iditarod Trail Race Headquarters, Palin and Alaskan Tourism

Book of the Week – Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (Kindle)

Gates Book Puts White House in Defense Mode… And Conveniently a Christie Scandal Appears

Rush Limbaugh slammed the media on Wednesday for its coverage of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, saying “The focus on the bridge controversy only serves to take former defense secretary Robert Gates’ critique of President Barack Obama “off the front page.”

From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vividly written account of his experience serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House in 2006, he thought he’d left Washington politics behind: after working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happy in his role as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty. Now, in this unsparing memoir, meticulously fair in its assessments, he takes us behind the scenes of his nearly five years as a secretary at war: the battles with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military itself, and the vast Pentagon bureaucracy; his efforts to help Bush turn the tide in Iraq; his role as a guiding, and often dissenting, voice for Obama; the ardent devotion to and love for American soldiers—his “heroes”—he developed on the job.

In relating his personal journey as secretary, Gates draws us into the innermost sanctums of government and military power during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, illuminating iconic figures, vital negotiations, and critical situations in revealing, intimate detail. Offering unvarnished appraisals of Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Presidents Bush and Obama among other key players, Gates exposes the full spectrum of behind-closed-doors politicking within both the Bush and Obama administrations.

He discusses the great controversies of his tenure—surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan,  how to deal with Iran and Syria, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Guantánamo Bay, WikiLeaks—as they played out behind the television cameras. He brings to life the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid. And, searingly, he shows how congressional debate and action or inaction on everything from equipment budgeting to troop withdrawals was often motivated, to his increasing despair and anger, more by party politics and media impact than by members’ desires to protect our soldiers and ensure their success.

However embroiled he became in the trials of Washington, Gates makes clear that his heart was always in the most important theater of his tenure as secretary: the front lines. We journey with him to both war zones as he meets with active-duty troops and their commanders, awed by their courage, and also witness him greet coffin after flag-draped coffin returned to U.S. soil, heartbreakingly aware that he signed every deployment order. In frank and poignant vignettes, Gates conveys the human cost of war, and his admiration for those brave enough to undertake it when necessary.

Duty tells a powerful and deeply personal story that allows us an unprecedented look at two administrations and the wars that have defined them

Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – Benghazi IRS NSA 1-11-2014

NYT, Hillary & Obama’s War on a Mom 

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.

Memorable Photos…

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 

True Meaning Of Family – Stray Cat Takes Day-Old Puppy Off The Streets

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