Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Watcher's Council Nominations, 12/20/06




Every week, the Watcher's Council nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels




Watcher's Council News: The new seat on the Council has been filled by the fine blog The COLOSSUS OF RHODEY. Check `em out!


Here's this week's lineup:

1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: Ex-president and Jew hater for sale - Jimmy Carter's dirty little secret Ex-president Jimmy Carter has been making the rounds touting his latest book,` Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid'. It is full of lies, distortions, outright falsehood and even plagiarism if you believe Carter's ex-aide.

Carter has refused to defend the book's merits or address any criticism, stating merely that he stands by the book and accusing his critics of not being objective because of `ties to The Jewish Lobby', simply being Jews or connected to universities with a high Jewish enrollment.

They won't mention it on the Sunday shows, but there are substantial reasons to question Carter's `objectivity' in this matter. Not only is he a bigot, but he's for sale. You can read about it here.


2. Gates of Vienna: We Live in Interesting Times In this week's essay, Dymphna writes about the burgeoning global middle class..and examines the threat of China in a way youvmight not have thought of before. In fact, she postulates that the US, focused on the Middle East is ignoring the Chinese threat. Good and interesting stuff.


3. Done With Mirrors: Right of Return Calimachus provides a new twist on the `right of return'. Apparently, some Germans have learned from the `Palestinians'. A group of Germans kicked out of what is now Poland after World War II have fled a complaint arguing that their human rights were violated when Eastern Europe's boundaries were redrawn after WWII and they were driven from their homes.

In many respects, this is exactly analogous to what the Arabs want, only more so.

The Germans tried to exterminate the Poles (and succeeded with a large part of the population)were defeated, and now want back what they tried to take by force.

As I pointed out in a comment onsite, in view of what these Germans supported and participated in when it came to Poland and the rest of Europe during WWII, they got off quite lightly. So did the Arabs....the genocidal intention was there, even if they weren't quite as successful as the Germans were.

4. Soccer Dad: What Moynihan and Kirkpatrick saw Soccer Dad writes a fine essay about our ambassadors, past and present to the UN. He focuses on certain `changes' to the UN charter and certain resolutions that were passed during Moynihan and Kirkpatrick's tenure specifically to delegitimize Israel and legitimize Arafat and the PLO, and draws some interesting parallels with today. A must read by Soccer Dad.


5. Right Wing Nut House: A LONG GOODBYE It's a funny thing about our pets - how they become part of our family, and how they become emotionally intuitive with us. Here, Rick writes about his friend Ebony, and reflects on he and his cat's 14 years together.


6. The Sundries Shack: So, Mr. President. What Will It Be? This week, Jimmie Bise examines a column by John Hindraker advising President Bush to follow the model of Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis:

" commandeer a half hour in prime time to tell the American people, and the world, that we have clear evidence of Iran’s involvement in killing American servicemen. Show the captured munitions. Explain exactly how they have contributed to American casualties. Display aerial photos of the training camps.

You should say that Iran’s supplying of weapons in order to kill Americans is an act of war. In the dramatic finale of your speech, announce that thirty minutes earlier, American airplanes stationed in the Middle East took off, their destination, one of the munitions plants or training camps of which you have shown pictures. That training camp, you say, no longer exists. You say that if Iran does not immediately cease all support for, and fomenting of, violence in Iraq, we will continue to strike military targets inside Iran."


Jimmy concurs, but adds the important caveat that the President must ask the American people for an `explicit sacrifice'.

IMO, this is what President Bush should have done after 9/11, and failed to do utterly.

We will have to confront Iran, but I honestly doubt if the American people have sufficient confidence in President Bush's leadership or decision making ability right now to provide the necessary backing...unless he goes to Congress for a declaration of war and puts the nation on a war footing.

And, in all candor, I don't think the president has the courage to be honest enough with the American people to pull something like this off anyway.

An important post by Jimmie, and one that we all need to think about.

7. Rhymes With Right: Should Executions Be Painless? Here, Greg writes about the flap over lethal injections as a method of execution as `cruel and unusual punishment' for murderers. I agree with his take here..let's limit injections to lethal doses of lead out of the business end of a firearm.


8. The Glittering Eye:Directions on Iraq: a Blogging Colloquium (updated) Dave pulls off something interesting here.... essentially, what he's done is to, in his words, set up an extended cross-blog conversation on Iraq with various views represented. Dave made a real effort here and it is well worth checking out.

9. The Education Wonks: One Principal's Pathetic Potty Policy Here, EdWonk writes about a Maryland principal who instituted a draconian bathroom breaks policy at his school.


10. AMERICAN FUTURE - Pinning the Blame on Iraq Marc writes about Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and his stance on the Sunday Shows that if Iraq turns out badly, it should be seen as Iraq's failure, not as America's failure.

The CFR is a fairly dodgy and suspect group anyway, as far as I'm concerned, and I agree with Marc that mere propaganda is not going to change either the facts on the ground or the perception of them.


11. Andrew Olmsted : Tenets for a Useful Military Major Andrew Olmsted writes about what he thinks a military should consist of and how it should operate in today's counter insurgency environment. The right stuff from a professional..

12. The COLOSSUS OF RHODEY: Death of Pinochet In a debut piece as a member of the Watcher's Council, Hube compares how the Dinosaur media covered the death of Chilean dictator Pinochet with their probable take of Fidel Castro's impending demise... but of course, we know that Pinochet was a fascist and Castro a benevolent man of the people, right?


That's this week's lineup..enjoy

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