Watcher's Winners

The Watcher of Weasels has posted the winners in this week's blogospheric panorama of prose.

Wolf Howling wrote a heck of a piece on Boumediene v. Bush, Judicial Activism Run Amok-- thoroughly researched, deeply troubling and worthy of a bookmark under 'habeas corpus' -- that rightfully got the nod from the Watcher's Council as the best Council post of the week.

Just one-third point behind in second was my analysis of Bush's failures as a war time communicator, Admitting Defeat in the Rhetoric War.

Among the non-Council entries, many of which were about Boumediene v. Bush, it was a war journal post from Miserable Donuts, After the Charge, that won. It tells the story of the only American officer in Basra during the recent campaign. I didn't vote for it myself (that darn Michael Yon/Michael Totten standard), but I always like it when one of our soldiers gets this little honor.

My pick for the category went to Lone Star Times, for Obama and Taxes: An Unchanged Liberal Agenda, which came in second. Yikes! I see a cut in income ahead -- no one in their right mind would want to be a billionaire under Obama. No, I'm not a billionaire in the normal sense; he just defines it as anyone who makes over $250,000.

View all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher, for so expertly stretching all these canvases and letting us bring our own palettes and brushes.

Watcher's Winners

The Watcher wants not for worthy notes. This week's submittals by the Watcher's Council were a joy to read and the winners were worthy.

Joshuapundit topped the Council rankings with a piece innocuously titled The Chicken or the Egg? which is such a comprehensive analysis of the ills of Islam that I tagged it for future reference. Wolf Howling followed the same tack, but with biting sarcasm, in his second-place post, Dear Pakistan.

Bookworm tied for second with For Once, It really Is About The Children, which is pretty remarkable because the piece (which got my vote, along with Joshuapundit) is just the set-up for a series she's going to do on children. This piece frames the series with some clear thinking on gay marriage, race relations, socialism, freedom, reproduction and, of course, those sweet little results of reproduction.

On the non-Council side, an American Thinker piece, What Kind of War Crimes Trials Does Obama Plan? (Updated), won. The piece presents an entirely new Obama Horror: The good chance that, if elected, Mr. Bipartisan may very well start his administration with war crimes investigations and trials against members of the Bush admin. In Obama's own words:

What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated.

Yeah, that's reaching across the aisle. That is the new politics. That'll help win the war against Islamofascism.

See all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher, for another weekly walk through the forest of illuminating electrons. And thanks for keeping those nasty cyber-bears away.

Wednesday Reading

The Watcher of Weasels has posted this week's selections by the Watcher's Council for the primo output of the Web this week. Council members will vote Thursday evening and you'll see the winners here Friday morning.

Council links:

1. I'm a Fuel, Fuel, Fuel for You
   Soccer Dad
2. Omaha Beach
   Done With Mirrors
3. The Global Warming Cult
   The Razor
4. Excellent Article On Parenting
   The Colossus of Rhodey
5. Quote of the Day: Gas Wars Edition
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
6. For Once, It Really Is About the Children
   Bookworm Room
7. Caring Is Not Enough
   The Glittering Eye
8. Remembering the Heroes
   Rhymes With Right
9. No Threat of Heterosexual AIDS
   Hillbilly White Trash
10. The Chicken or the Egg?
    Joshuapundit
11. Dear Pakistan
    Wolf Howling
12. The Carnival of Education: Week 174
    The Education Wonks

Non-council links:

1. Obama and Khalidi -- What We Know So Far
   Daled Amos
2. Shooting Down the Enemies of Progress
   Spiked
3. Dear Mr. President
   Ace of Spades HQ
4. When Worlds Collide
   The Weekly Standard
5. Hillary Said... Oh, Who Cares!
   The Tygrrrr Express
6. What Kind of War Crimes Trials Does Obama Plan? (Updated)
   American Thinker
7. Have You No Shame, Sir?
   Winds of Change
8. Arson Supected at Texas Governor's Mansion
   UrbanGrounds
9. Wake Up and Smell the Soup!
   Melanie Phillips
10. Krugman Tries the Race Card
    The QandO Blog
11. Noted Imbecile Mark Morford: Obama Is a "Lightworker," an "Enlightened Being"
    Hot Air
12. Air Is Free
    Eternity Road
13. Jimmy Obama, Meet Barack Carter
    Big Lizards
14. Senator John Cornyn Leads the Way
    Pondering Penguin

Nearly every non-Council entry this week is from a blog, which is nice to see. Note that the Hot Air entry, #11, covers a column I fisked with great joy yesterday, nominating it for a "Most Ridiculous Story of the Year" award.

Thanks, Watcher, for tucking all these entries nicely into bed and reading them a blogger's bedtime story.

Watcher's Winners

The Watcher of Weasels has posted the results of this week's Watcher's Council panning competition for internet gold -- and some sparkling, weighting nuggets were found.

Coming in first among the Watcher's Council members was Done with Mirrors' inspiring, heartbreaking piece, Memorial Day, that introduced us to a half dozen or so remarkable Americans who have died in the war against Islamofascism. Yeah, I know you've read these bios and have felt all the emotions, but these are a different mix -- the anti-war woman who realized that she could actually help people if she was in Iraq, instead of just complaining, for example. Different, very good.

In second was The Glittering Eye's The Costs of Withdrawing from Iraq, which looks under the security blanket of rhetoric and digs into the details involved in actually doing what so many would have us do.

On the non-Council side, it's no surprise the winner was John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account, an ancient US News & World Report piece that was republished in January. The account, of course, is of his days as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, which makes it quite significant as we head towards the general election.

See all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher, for the spiffy dungarees and nice tin pans -- you always make nugget-panning a treat!

Wednesday Reading

Sure you could spend the day poring over exit polls and precinct data from yesterday's blandly unexciting races, but why bother -- especially when the Watcher of Weasels has published this week's pick of blogolicious posts, as selected by the Watcher's Council.

Check back here Friday to see who came out on top.

Council links:

1. Choice and Honor
   The Razor
2. Memorial Day
   Done With Mirrors
3. The Costs of Withdrawing from Iraq
   The Glittering Eye
4. You Have To Ask?
   Hillbilly White Trash
5. More Outrageousness At Trinity UCC -- UPDATED
   Rhymes With Right
6. Brave? Yes. Unique? No.
   Bookworm Room
7. Leveraging -- Reloaded
   Soccer Dad
8. Slouching Towards Statism
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
9. The Media Furor Over McClellan's Book Leads to Whoppers
   The Colossus of Rhodey
10. Much Lizardly Ado About... A Little Something
    Wolf Howling
11. Worst. President. Ever?
    Joshuapundit
12. Life Expectancy Down For Some American Women
    The Education Wonks

Non-council links:

1. Where Is John McCain?
   Right Wing Nut House
2. Conservatives and "Liberal Guilt"
   The Atlantic
3. Iraqi Army Interdicting Iranian Operations in the South
   The Long War Journal
4. Why Spain Lectures Other Countries on Immigration
   The Brussels Journal
5. Shut Up and Do What Andy Says
   Stop the ACLU
6. John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account
   US News and World Report
7. The Jewish Vote In 1968 and 2008
   History News Network
8. Obama, Manliness, and the Notion of Black Privilege
   Villainous Company
9. Neocon Nation: Neoconservatism, c. 1776
   World Affairs Journal
10. Reagan Democrats
    Power and Control
11. The Gaza 'Siege' Is Not an Answer To Terror
    Israel Matzav
12. Bigotry Is Destiny? (Why We Cling To Our Guns...)
    Classical Values
13. Obamanomics 101
    Big Lizards
14. Hillary, the VP Ppot, and That Bucket of Warm Whatever
    Neo-Neocon

Thanks, Watcher, for fertilizing the field of growing minds.

Watcher's Winners

Bookworm has a knack for taking an ages-old issue -- oh, say the Middle East morass -- and presenting it with sparkling new clarity. That's what she did this week in her post Why Jews are right to suspect Obama's advisors, and that's why she's the winner in this week's Watcher's Council competition for the best o' the blogs.

Soccer Dad came in second with Dear Dr. Hoyt, which exposes academic antisemitism. My post, UN Peacekeepers raping children ... again, came in tied for fourth.

Among the non-Watcher's Council entries, Deep thoughts with Biggie Smalls, tales of an Iraqi translator from Kaboom, came in first, followed by a second-place tie: Over Red Coffee Cans and Cigarettes from long-time blog-friend The Paragraph Farmer and Return to Sender from Iowahawk. The latter, as regular Iowahawk readers will know, is a humorous piece, regaling politicians for the conversions they go under because of DC fever. The Paragraph Farmer's piece is an imaginary conversation on appeasement with his colorful but passed on grandmother.

See all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher of Weasels, for tying all the ballet slippers nice and tight so another entertaining dance of the electrons could be performed.

Wednesday Reading

Let's all welcome to The Razor as the newest edition of the Watcher's Council, filling the rather awesome shoes of Rick Moran at Rightwing Nuthouse. Also of note this week -- curious note -- I have, for the second week in a row, nominated the non-Watcher's Council Post with the longest name. You'll see it below.

Council links:

1. Dear Mr Hoyt
   Soccer Dad
2. In Which It Gets Worse
   Done With Mirrors
3. Cowbama Diplomacy and Iran
   Wolf Howling
4. An Honest Assesment of the MSM's Problem
   Rhymes With Right
5. Reflections on the State of the Republic
   Hillbilly White Trash
6. Why Jews Are Right To Suspect Obama's Advisers
   Bookworm Room
7. Will History Redeem President Bush?
   The Colossus of Rhodey
8. Strange Device
   The Glittering Eye
9. Peacekeepers Raping Children... Again
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
10. Say Goodnight, Hillary
    The Education Wonks
11. Looking At The Last Full Measure Of Devotion
    Joshuapundit
12. Memorial Day 2008
    The Razor

Non-council links:

1. Return to Sender
   Iowahawk
2. Deep Thoughts with Biggie Smalls
   Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal
3. An Open Letter to Senator Obama on Iran
   Pajamas Media
4. Democratic Congress Votes to Defund the Future of Military Prepardness
   UrbanGrounds
5. The State of Englishness
   The Brussels Journal
6. Over Red Coffee Cans and Cigarettes
   The Paragraph Farmer
7. Siege of the Ivory Tower
   The New York Sun
8. Madonna of China: Chinese Policewoman Saves Orphan Babies' Lives by Breastfeeding Them
   The Moderate Voice
9. Obama Excludes Military Service as Way to Serve Country in Memorial Day Weekend Commencement Speech
   Bottom Line Up Front
10. Remembrances
    Classical Values
11. All the Views They Spit Into Print
    Big Lizards
12. Libertarian Party Embraces Big Tent
    Outside the Beltway
13. Unavoidable Sadness
    Eternity Road
14. Google Earth Mysteries
    Dodgeblogium

The Watcher's Council will submit its votes to the Watcher of Weasels Thursday afternoon, and you can see the results here Friday morning.

Watcher's Winners

Pardon the late start -- I took the day off and stayed up last night until 3 a.m. with the Incredible Wife watching the last season of Six Feet Under on DVD. So belatedly, and still a bit sleepy, here's what the Watcher's Council determined to be the best entries in the Watcher of Weasels (not to be confused with the watchers of Six Feet Under) celebration of blogs.

Winning among Watcher's Council members was Wolf Howling's Republicans Ponder The Abyss. As you can tell, it was not the cheeriest of assessments of the condition of the GOP today. WH gives a spot-on remedy that left me wondering why the party's leadership has become so clumsy and blind.

Runner up was Soccer Dad's George Bush Isolationist, an interesting piece that cues off a recent Joe Lieberman line:

Lieberman argued that in many ways, the 2000 ticket of which he was a part was more hawkish than its Republican counterpart.

Imagine what Soccer Dad can do with that!

Also of note was Hillbilly White Trash's piece on energy independence, which I quoted from heavily yesterday, and Bookworm's post, Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED*. I've written recently about Obama's magic words -- it turns out Bookworm actually found some -- and they really worked!

On the non-Council side, I was aligned with the winners. Coming in first was The White Sepulchre's Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008, which beautifully tied Norman Rockwell's four freedoms paintings to photos showing the horrors that happens when those rights are absent.

My nominee for the week, Pundita's tortuously named The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him, came in second. It's everything you want to know about the Obama-Ayres relationship.

See all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher, for getting this bowl of blogospheric porridge just right.

Wednesday Reading

If nothing else, I'll win the award for submitting the longest-titled entry into this week's Watcher of Weasels blog-0-rama. Check out Pundita's title below.

We august and revered members of the Watcher's Council (who? what?!) will submit our votes for the best on Thursday and you'll see the results here on Friday morning. 'Til then, good reading!

(Regular readers will note that the truly august Rightwing Nuthouse has left the ranks of the Watcher's Council -- but was promptly nominated as a non-Council entry. This means, of course, that there's a slot opening on the Council. If you've got a couple hours a week to dedicate to reading good stuff, and you write some good stuff yourself, think about it.)

Council links:

1. Is Human Moral Progress Inevitable?
   The Colossus of Rhodey
2. Net Loss
   Done With Mirrors
3. Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED*
   Bookworm Room
4. No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us
   Hillbilly White Trash
5. George Bush Isolationist
   Soccer Dad
6. Time To Remember The "Global" In The War On Terror
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
7. Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression!
   Rhymes With Right
8. Republicans Ponder The Abyss
   Wolf Howling
9. Death Toll Continues to Mount
   The Glittering Eye
10. Hillary's Fuzzy Math
    The Education Wonks
11. Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman?
    Joshuapundit

Non-council links:

1. The Love That Dare Not Speak His Name
   Intellectual Conservative
2. Bush Begs Saudis (Again)
   Middle East Strategy at Harvard
3. The Lord of Perpetual Victimhood
   Pondering Penguin
4. Vanderboegh: Loophole
   Western Rifle Shooters Association
5. Dow Jones: Israel Means Business
   The Elder of Ziyon
6. The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him
   Pundita
7. Is Gasoline Really That Expensive?
   Lone Star Times
8. Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008
   The Whited Sepulchre
9. Human Progress
   The Speculist
10. Judges Can't Judge
    Atlas Shrugs
11. Turning Down the Volume?
    Classical Values
12. More Whining From Obama
    Right Wing Nut House
13. Stop the Presses!
    Dodgeblogium

Thanks, Watcher, for brewing up this enticing pot of tea...leaves.

Watcher's Winners

Here are a few stories that are really worth reading this week, the winner's of the weekly best o'blogs compiled by the Watcher's Council under the watchful eye of the Watcher of Weasels. And this week's winners were particularly good.

On the Council side, Soccer Dad wears the gold for his piece "Evolution" = "growth," which uses a shockingly too-true premise to set up an even bigger shocker of a story.

The two other best posts of the week came in right behind: Joshuapundit's Lebanon Becomes Hezbollahstan, which will bring you depressingly up to date on Lebanon, and Wolf Howling's The Audacity of Newsweek, that shows how unabashedly biased Newsweek has become.

My own And Tango Makes 420, about the American Library Association's campaign against decency, came in next.

The best post of the week by far came from the milblog Kaboom, simply titled Numb. It is a beautifully written piece that captures poetically and powerfully the exhaustion combat brings. How exhausted? Well ...

Lord, give me the strength not to attack with a baseball at every fool and every chickenhawk and every Apathy Kid and every soft elitist and ever intellectual hack and every Jody and every yuppie and every thirty-something child still finding himself when I get home. It's not worth my time. Do give me the strength to convince them to stop breeding and to kill themselves, in the name of bettering America. It's' the only chance we have.

That exhausted.

POLITICS: Yes, Experience Matters by Baseball Crank came in a strong second. It runs through five points of experience a president needs, points out that few have all and only one has had virtually none of them: Abraham Lincoln. Obama also has none of them, but he is assuredly no Abraham Lincoln.

Also of note: Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?, which rebuts every black apologist argument and makes it clear: Blacks are disproportionately jailed because they are disproportionately violent, and Lebanon's "300" Heroes, a tale of the Druze defense of Lebanon, as brave and probably as failed as the Spartans against ... who, class? who? ... the Persians.

Some things never change.

See all the winners here. Thanks, Watcher, for fueling up this week's blogospheric hot rod.

Wednesday Reading

I was just telling Incredible Wife last night how much I get out of reading the Watcher's Council nominees for best writing on the blogosphere each week, and here it is, time for a new bunch to get processed.

Here, then, courtesy of the Watcher of Weasels, is this week's reading list:

Council links:

1. "Evolution" = "Growth"
   Soccer Dad
2. Making Capitalists
   Bookworm Room
3. The Audacity of Newsweek
   Wolf Howling
4. Curiouser and Curiouser
   The Glittering Eye
5. And People think George W. Bush Is a Moron
   The Colossus of Rhodey
6. BUMPED: McCain Ahead In Electoral Vote Race?
   Rhymes With Right
7. Where we went wrong
   Hillbilly White Trash
8. Protecting Marriage
   Done With Mirrors
9. Los Angeles' Combat High School
   The Education Wonks
10. Lebanon Becomes Hezbollahstan
    Joshuapundit
11. And Tango Makes 420
    Cheat Seeking Missiles
12. Poll: Aberica Is a Sucky Place To Live Right Now
    Right Wing Nut House

Non-council links:

1. POLITICS: Yes, Experience Matters
   Baseball Crank
2. Obama on Lebanon: Cognitive Egocentric Porridge
   Augean Stables
3. Lebanon's "300" Heroes
   Ya Libnan
4. Numb
   Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal
5. Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?
   City Journal
6. Military Exceeds All Recruiting Goals
   UrbanGrounds
7. Minn: Muslim Students Force Out Disabled Teacher With Dog
   Atlas Shrugs
8. The Fall-Out: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His Innocence
   Democratiya
9. Heroes and Villains
   Dr. Sanity
10. "We Are All Jews Now!"
    All Things Beautiful
11. Has Obama "Lost His Bearings"?
    Sister Toldjah
12. Holding Things Accountable for What Men Do With Them
    Classical Values
13. Monopsony Madness
    The Atlantic
14. Boris Scares Cameroonies
    Dodgeblogium

Check back here Friday morning for the results. Thanks, Watcher, for such masterful cutting and pasting.

Watcher's Winners

I was a bad, bad Watcher's Council member this week because my schedule didn't allow me to read the entries. As a consequence, I got dinged 2/3 of a point, so my entry, Fatal Energy Policies, fell out of what would have been a fourth place position.

Oh well, it was out of the medals either way.

Whatever Joshuapundit wrote in Who Cares About Israel Anyway? must have been fantastic, since he got four points, double Rightwing Nuthouse's Partly Like It's 1980 All Over Again.

On the non-Council side, the unthinkable happened! Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks, a Huffington Post piece -- that's a Huffington Post piece -- creamed the competition. It scored a full 3 1/3 points ahead of Iraqis Begin to 'Despise' the Mahdi Army in Baghdad's Rusafa District from Long War Journal.

So I've got my lunchtime reading! How about you? Enjoy all the winners here.

And thanks, Watcher, even though you dinged me!

Wednesday Reading

The Watcher of Weasels has posted this week's Watcher's Council compendium of blogospheric excellence. Read and enjoy; I've got another big Coastal Commission hearing today, so I may not be able to join you. Sigh.

See the results here Friday, and happy reading!

Council links:

1. Death and the Madam
   Done With Mirrors
2. Obama As Marley
   Wolf Howling
3. I Have a Nightmare
   Soccer Dad
4. Whither?
   The Glittering Eye
5. Al Gore Won Florida in 2000
   The Colossus of Rhodey
6. It's Too Late To Turn Back Now
   Rhymes With Right
7. Are You Ready To Be a Democrat?
   Bookworm Room
8. Fatal Energy Policies
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
9. Merit Pay Chronicles: A Teacher Speaks!
   The Education Wonks
10. Random Thoughts
    Hillbilly White Trash
11. Who Cares About Israel, Anyway?
    Joshuapundit
12. Party Like It's 1980 All Over Again
    Right Wing Nut House

Non-council links:

1. If I Didn't Like Hillary Before... [UPDATED]
   AmbivaBlog
2. Turning the Juggernaut Round
   EU Referendum
3. Another Gaza Media Moment
   Confederate Yankee
4. Iraqis Begin to 'Despise' the Mahdi Army in Baghdad's Rusafa District
   The Long War Journal
5. The Liberal Imagination of Frederick Douglass
   The American Scholar
6. Escape From A Brooklyn Mosque
   Atlas Shrugs
7. Israel's 60-Year Test
   The Wall Street Journal
8. Outlawing the Pig
   Israpundit
9. Paging John McCain: GOP House Leader Boehner Rips La Raza Earmark
   Michelle Malkin
10. Duly Noted: The Riflemen Aimed to Miss
    The Brussels Journal
11. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks
    The Huffington Post
12. Obama, the One Hit Wonder
    American Thinker
13. How Many Times Can the Shock Wear Off?
    Classical Values
14. Rough Time for the Left in the US
    Dodgeblogium

Watcher's Winners

Here are the winners from this week's Watcher of Weasels weekly trans-blogosphere quest for good stuff, as divined by the oracles of the Watcher's Council. Or some such thing.

First place deservedly goes to The Total Witlessness of Obama Apologists from Rightwing Nuthouse, a fine fisking of a particularly loony Obama nut. (By the way, I just realized that when Obama goes to Japan, he will be called by the honorific Obamasama!)

Frequent chart-topper Wolf Howling came in second with Outfoxed By Obama & The Twelve Unasked Questions, a "the questions he shouldda asked" piece that poses some real stinkers you'll never hear asked ... and certainly will never hear answered.

But you know the answers anyway.

I also draw your attention to Joshuapundit's The Company One Keeps a who's who of nefarious dudes in the Obama camp.

My little contribution, Obama's Exxon Valdez got linked at the New York Times, but skunked by the tough judges of the Watcher's Council!

On the non-Council side 'tis as I divined:

In first, An Anatomy of Surrender from City Journal, a frightening contemporary history of the media's complicity in Islam's rise in Europe, and in second, Political Maneuver in Counterinsurgency from Small Wars Journal, which shows how a new road can be a strategic weapon of great significance.

See all the winners here.

Wednesday Reading

After last week's techno-meltdown, the Watcher of Weasels is back and has configured the Watcher's Council nominees for best on-line troopers of the week into smart columns, all linked up to their individual mother ships, standing at parade rest for your perusal.

Council members will submit their votes Thursday afternoon, and you'll see the winners here Friday morning.

Council links:

1. Past Is Never Past
   Done With Mirrors
2. The Company One Keeps
   Joshuapundit
3. Oppressive Speech Regulation
   Rhymes With Right
4. Outfoxed By Obama & The Twelve Unasked Questions
   Wolf Howling
5. Throwing Bashar a Lifeline
   Soccer Dad
6. An Article About Islam Most Amazing for What It Doesn't Say
   Bookworm Room
7. Moral Relativism Reaches a New Low
   The Colossus of Rhodey
8. Rising Food Prices
   The Glittering Eye
9. Obama's Exxon Valdez
   Cheat Seeking Missiles
10. Teacher Arrested Not Once, But Twice!
    The Education Wonks
11. Wright's Revenge
    Hillbilly White Trash
12. The Total Witlessness of Obama Apologists
    Right Wing Nut House

Non-council links:

1. An Anatomy of Surrender
   City Journal
2. Obama. Wright. Farrakhan. Cone.
   Ace of Spades HQ
3. Affirmative Action Abortions
   Balkinization
4. Standing Up for Their Culture
   Brits At Their Best
5. Rushing to Blame Israel
   Israellycool
6. Syriana
   Commentary
7. ID (the Other Kind): Beginning of the Death of the Democratic Party?
   Big Lizards
8. Political Maneuver in Counterinsurgency
   Small Wars Journal
9. Obama's Eagleton Affair
   The American Spectator
10. "A Triumph of Postmodern Politics"
    Dr. Sanity
11. Chevy Bill Ayers: A Classic Ride for Limousine Liberals
    The People's Cube
12. The Obama Aesthetic
    American Thinker
13. Choose Your Identity Group Carefully, Kids!
    Classical Values
14. Multiculturalism Breeds Cultural Apartheid
    Dodgeblogium

At ease, Watcher!

Wednesday Reading On Thursday Night

The cyber-meltdown experienced by the Watcher of Weasels this week would have torn asunder our weekly blog-in were it not for the indomitable Joshuapundit, who rallied us and was able to get nine Council members and their non-Council entries together.

So here's the link to some good reading.

No Wednesday Reading

The Watcher of Weasels had a technology meltdown this week, and was not able to post this week's picks from the Watcher's Council of the week's best alignment of electrons into insightful words to fire your synapses.

Soccer Dad may yet salvage something. In the interim, here are my nominees for anyone who's interested:

• Mine: Our Crumbling Civilization: Killing for Art Edition
  
  
• Non-Council: The Nose On Your Face -- Transcript of Barack Obama's Meeting with Typical San Francisco Citizens

If you missed mine last week, read it first. It's very troubling and you'll need the cheering up you'll get from The Nose on Your Face.

Watcher's Winners

Blow-outs don't happen too often in the competition among Watcher's Council members for best post of the week, but a blow-out it was with Wolf Howling's The Next Moves In An Existential Chess Match garnering five votes, leaving all the other Council members to split six votes between them.

Like most Wolf Howling pieces, it is long and well researched, this time focusing on what Iran is up to, what we are doing about it, and why Iran should be worried. It's one to bookmark for future reference.

Trailing Wolf Howling was Hillbilly White Trash's Does America Need a New Enemy? One Brit Thinks So..., a nice fisking of a silly Brit, with Rightwing Nuthouse's Elitism and the Elitist Elites Who Think They're the Elite tucking in for third.

Someone was kind enough to give my post, Warmie Psychic: Global Headache Coming!, a second-place vote so I avoided a skunking. Sometimes I enter posts I know won't cut the mustard just because I want to give the Council a new bit of info; such was the case this week.

Over on the non-Council side, a newcomer (I think) to the Watcher of Weasels' festivities, Baldilocks, won running away with It's the "White" Church that Obama's Talking About (UPDATED).

See all the winners here.

Thanks yet again, Watcher, for lassoing the cats and lining them up all purty-like.

Wednesday Reading

It looks like there are a couple days of intense and intensely interesting reading, as the Watcher of Weasels has published a Weekly Reader of incredible breadth and compelling subjects. Fortunately, I have airplane and hotel time this week, so I'll be able to relax and enjoy.

Members of the Watcher's Council will submit their winners Thursday evening, and you'll see the winners here Friday morning.

Council links:

Bullshit! -- Done With Mirrors

The Candidates on the Economy: Taxes -- The Glittering Eye

Does America Need a New Enemy? One Brit Thinks So... -- Hillbilly White Trash

Painting? -- Soccer Dad

The MSM -- Mis-educating the Masses -- Bookworm Room

Further Proof That the Western P.C. Left Is Akin to the Societies They Admire -- The Colossus of Rhodey

Warmie Psychic: Global Headache Coming! -- Cheat-Seeking Missiles

Bedtime For Bonzo? The Clinton Eclipse -- Joshuapundit

Censorchimps: The Mandarin Subspecies -- The Education Wonks

The Next Moves In An Existential Chess Match -- Wolf Howling

Wright's Eulogy For Black Fascist Parishioner -- Rhymes With Right

Elitism and the Elitist Elites Who Think They're the Elite -- Right Wing Nut House

Non-council links:

Zombie Chronicles the Olympic Torch Relay in SF -- Pajamas Media

It's the "White" Church that Obama's Talking About (UPDATED) -- Baldilocks

"Universal Health Care" -- Eternity Road

Carter: "I've Been Meeting With Hamas Leaders For Years" -- Daled Amos

McCain's Electoral College Math -- American Thinker

'This Is How We Lost to the White Man' -- The Atlantic

The Rich and Their Taxes -- Real Clear Markets

Hope for Iraq’s Meanest City -- City Journal

Exposing Shariah Finance -- Gates of Vienna

The War of Ideas -- Family Security Matters

Anbar, An Amazing Transformation -- The QandO Blog

Obama: You Only Need to Count on Your Family and Your God if Your Government Doesn't Make You Rich or at Least Richer; UPDATED -- Anwyn's Notes in the Margin

If You Disagree With Me, You've Either Been Hoodwinked, Or Else You're a Hoodwinker! -- Classical Values

'Broadband Tax' Could Fund TV News Bulletins -- Dodgeblogium

Oh, the things we'll learn! Thanks, Watcher.

Watcher's Winners

The results of the Watcher of Weasels weekly runway show of some of the fanciest blog-writings of the week are in, and they're good. Not perfect in my humble opinion, but very, very good.

Coming in first among the Watcher's Council entries was Joshuapundit's "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie"... Accommodating Islam. If you've read the children's book from which the title comes, you know the drill: A little seemingly innocuous request is followed by another, lager, and another, even larger request.

Right behind was a post I thought to be one of the best of the year, Bookworm Room's The Wizard of Ooze. Bookworm used to think Obama was like Chance the gardener in Being There; now she sees him (much more correctly) as a reverse Wizard of Oz. Reverse Wizard? Read it.

On the Non-Council side, The Brussels Journal scored a runaway win with Creating a European Indigenous People's Movement, which you can't read without drawing analogies to The Communist Manifesto or the Declaration of Independence. It is right, it is true, and I hope it sweeps through Europe like wildfire.

I call your attention to my nominee, which came in tied for third, Rachel Lewis' Put On Your Helmets, We're Talking About Abortion. I thought this an exceptionally powerful discourse opposing abortion, just because Lewis approaches the subject as a single person who enjoys sex frequently, is not at all bound by moral constraints or a fear of retribution, yet came to find herself quite opposed to abortion.

See all the winners here.

Thanks, Watcher, for running such an exciting show.