Neither rain, nor snow,nor power outages stop the Watcher’s Council! The Council has rendered its judgment and the results of the Watcher’s Council contest this week are history.

Our winner this week was Joshuapundit for Lipstick On A Pig – Whitewashing The Muslim Brotherhood. I don’t mind admitting it…over the past week, I have been appalled ( to put it mildly) by the Obama White House’s new embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood, echoed by the administration’s fanboys and fangirls on the Left who now proclaim the Brotherhood as ‘non-violent’ and ‘democratic’. So I decided to present a little history to remind my readers of who these people really are, as opposed to the revisionist version :

‘Non-violent’ and ‘democratic’ is an interesting way to describe the Muslim Brotherhood, the chief inspiration of jihadists worldwide, including its ‘Palestinian’ branch, the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as Hamas.

The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, and the movement’s major philosopher and ideologue Sayyid Qutb are the intellectual inspiration behind al-Qaeda, Lashkar e Tiaba, Hizb’ut Tahrir,The Taliban, Jemayaah Islamiah,and virtually every violent Sunni Islamist group on the planet. And it was the ‘non-violent’ Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that assassinated Egyptian prime minister Mahmud Nokrashi in 1948 for being too secular, and attempted to assassinate Egyptian strongman Gamal Nasser and launch an Islamist coup against his regime. More recently, the Brotherhood murdered Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 for making peace with Israel, and made a number of attempts on King Hussein of Jordan’s life.

After these episodes, the Brotherhood was vigorously suppressed in Egypt by both Nasser and Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak. Both occasions led to a large number of Ikhwan followers seeking refuge in countries like Saudi Arabia,Qatar, Kuwait and the Emirates.

They found refuge and welcome there, and the Brotherhood ideology merged seamlessly with wahabism and petro-dollars to create today’s Islamist movement.

The Brotherhood, like the other jihadist groups favors a Global Islamic Caliphate ruled by sharia, Islam’s legal-political structure along the same lines that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and Hamas rules Gaza,but they have taken Mohammed’s words. “War is deception” to heart.

While they have no compunction in using violence to advance their agenda at a time of their own choosing, their official preferred model is is to undermine a society politically and socially first. However, they have no problem with more violent jihadists, and a number of Brotherhood adherents have played a prominent role in violent jihad. Sheikh Abdul Rahman of WTC bombing fame and al-Qaeda’s Number Two Ayman Zawahiri both came out of the Ikhwan, among many others.

Our Non-Council winner by TPM was Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story , a heart rending and impeccably sourced account of what happened at Mumbai and who was involved in the planning, training and execution of the attack.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – Joshuapundit--Lipstick On A Pig – Whitewashing The Muslim Brotherhood
• Second place with 2 votes – The Razor-Accepting the Change In Egypt
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room – The Egypt crisis; or, the Community Activist and foreign policy
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Future Pyramidland
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Right Truth – You have options if government shuts down Internet
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Colossus of Rhodey- A “shut up and write” protest doesn’t quite work, but …
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – Of Philanthropists and Monsters – Rockin’ the Casbah
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Law Prof Gets It Wrong On Right To Revolt
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Egypt revolution: so this is what it’s all about…
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right – Obama Observes 30 Days of Silence on Egypt

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 1/3 votes! – TPM- Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story submitted byJoshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Big Law Firm Takes Down Big Conservative Blogger submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Second Place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Energy Tribune – Is It Really The Warmest Ever? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Iowahawk – B.Y.O.B. submitted by The Watcher
• Third place with 1 vote –Doug Ross – Constitutional Crisis Brewing: Administration Refuses To Submit to Subpoena Requests submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Center For Security Policy -The Muslim Brotherhood: the enemy in its own words submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -American Thinker-The Story Of The Egyptian Revolution submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Passing Parade-State Of The Union submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Cato @Liberty-Judge Vinson’s Greatest Hits submitted by VA Right
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote -The Pagan Temple – Sarah Palin Responds To Obama’s State Of The Union submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it…
“Peace on Earth” was all it said.
One Tin Soldier – The Coven

While I know that it is an anti-war song, I chose “One Tin Soldier” because of the irony. Nowadays it is usually those of the Left who, in the name of peace, support some of the most repressive, violent regimes around. That is a theme that unites our two winning posts of the week.

This week’s regular Council voting ended up in a tie between Joshuapundit‘s Jews, Democrats And ‘Progressives’ and VA Right -‘s The Bush Administration Never Fondled Our Genetalia. After careful consideration of both fine posts, I cast my deciding vote for JoshuaPundit.

In his winning post Jews, Democrats And ‘Progressives’, Joshuapundit outlines one troubling element of the Jewish vote:

 For many Jews who embrace the ‘progressive’ mindset, the very existence of Israel is an embarrassment. It is a nasty bit of old time nationalism in an ideology that embraces ‘solidarity’ and a New World Order where such tiresome concepts are put to rest under the banner of the UN. Not only does the necessity of a strong and powerful Jewish State as a haven for Jews in a world that has demonstrated its hostility and even murderous intent towards them more than once escape them, it serves to single them out once again amongst their ‘progressive’ brethren.

Is it any wonder that the most vicious condemnation of virtually everything Israel does to preserve its security and nationhood should find its harshest critics among Jewish ‘progressives’ on the Left? Is it really a mystery that outspokenly pro-Israel Christians like Sarah Palin and Pastor John Haggee should come in for special vilification? It shouldn’t be. ‘Progressive’ Jews need to prove their bonifides to their philosophical comrades .

In his non-council winning post,  A Smiling Obama Returns to Bloody Jakarta , Sultan Knish  writes about President Obama’s selective outrage:

While Obama found time to blast Israel for building housing in Jerusalem, he made no mention of the Indonesian genocide in East Timor. No word about the Indonesian mass murder of between 100,000 to 200,000 people in a country whose population totaled little more than half a million. Shortly after Obama left Jakarta, the Indonesian regime began an occupation that lasted until 1999. An occupation armed and aided by successive US administrations.

But there is a reason you won’t hear about the meat hooks where Indonesian backed militias hung their victims, before mutilating and killing them. You won’t hear about the fields of the dead where the corpses of men, women and children were piled into mass graves. You won’t hear of the machete squads who hacked people to death in full public view and on video. You certainly won’t hear about the ethnic cleansing, the mass deportations, the gang rapes or even the murder of Western reporters. And there’s a simple reason for all that.

Indonesia is a Muslim country. Their victims in East Timor were Christians.

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! – Joshuapundit – Jews, Democrats And ‘Progressives’
• Second place with 2 2/3 votes – VA Right - The Bush Administration Never Fondled Our Genetalia
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes - GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD - Asking For It
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Simply Jews – Mutual backscratching society
• Fourth place *t* wiht 1 vote – Bookworm Room – Why I am a fascist (according to my liberal friend)
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Mere Rhetoric – J Street Candidates Wiped Out In Senate, Lose More Than Half Of Competitive House Races
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Right Truth – Obama Forces Jihad Down India’s Throat, and America’s
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Colossus of Rhodey – Election Post-Mortem
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Razor – California: SNAFU

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Sultan Knish - A Smiling Obama Returns to Bloody Jakarta submitted by The Watcher
• Second place with 2 votes – Harry’s Place – East London Mosque: When in Trouble, Throw Chaff submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Republican Riot -Israeli Professor Nails It: Obama was Right when he said America is not a Christian Country submitted by Right Truth
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Arm Chair Generalist – Progressive National Security Policies submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - American Thinker – De Facto Shariah Law in America submitted by VA Right
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - LATMA – Tribal Update/Victims Of Peace submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – johnny dollar’s place – The Phony ‘Journalism’ of Rachel Maddow submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Discriminations – The Quest For “Diversity” At The Most Selective Public High School In America submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Gizmodo – The Quadrotor Drone Learns Several Terrifying New Tricks submitted by Mere Rhetoric

Click here to view the embedded video.

I said to the man, “Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?”
Down Under – Men At Work

Yes, I still enjoy it. And while we’re enjoying things, enjoy these paraprosdokians. I especially like the third one.

Now here are this week’s Watcher’s Council submissions. To be enjoyed in a different way.

Council Submissions

• Simply Jews – Mutual backscratching society
• Joshuapundit -Jews, Democrats And ‘Progressives’
• Right Truth – Obama Forces Jihad Down India’s Throat, and America’s
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Election Post-Mortem
• Rhymes With Right – Keith Olbermann Suspended From MSNBC — UPDATED
• Bookworm Room – Why I am a fascist (according to my liberal friend)
• The Razor – California: SNAFU
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Asking For It
• Mere Rhetoric – J Street Candidates Wiped Out In Senate, Lose More Than Half Of Competitive House Races
• VA Right - The Bush Administration Never Fondled Our Genetalia
• The Glittering Eye -Divided Government

Non-Council Submissions

• Harry’s Place – East London Mosque: When in Trouble, Throw Chaff submitted by Simply Jews
• LATMA – Tribal Update/Victims Of Peace submitted by Joshuapundit
• Republican Riot -Israeli Professor Nails It: Obama was Right when he said America is not a Christian Country submitted by Right Truth
• Common Sense Political Thought – It isn’t just that President Obama doesn’t understand the common man; the Democrats in general seem to have that failing. submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Discriminations – The Quest For “Diversity” At The Most Selective Public High School In America submitted by Rhymes With Right
• You Tube – Parody — Hitler reacts to the 2010 election results submitted by Bookworm Room
• FrontPageMag – How Leftists Argue submitted by The Razor
• Arm Chair Generalist – Progressive National Security Policies submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Gizmodo – The Quadrotor Drone Learns Several Terrifying New Tricks submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• American Thinker – De Facto Shariah Law in America submitted by VA Right
• johnny dollar’s place – The Phony ‘Journalism’ of Rachel Maddow submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Sultan Knish – A Smiling Obama Returns to Bloody Jakarta submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

No more broken hearts
We’re better off apart let’s give it a try
Tell me, tell me, tell me lies
Little Lies – Fleetwood Mac

In her winning post the this week, NPR’s carefully crafted tales — and why I don’t listen anymore, Bookworm Room writes about about the the little lies that moved her to decide that she was “better off apart” from NPR.

The problem is that, once you realize that a narrator is comfortable abandoning the truth, you start to wonder, “Where does that end? I know NPR is lying when it tries to make a moral relativism argument re Israel or, worse, when it presents the Israeli military as an out-of-control killing machine, so I have to wonder if it’s lying about other things too.”

After 9/11, I got some further reality checks regarding the NPR world view. I didn’t like the way NPR kept trying to exculpate Islam from the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. That made no sense to me. I also didn’t like NPR’s relentless negative war coverage. I actually agreed with Bush: when a nation supports mass murderers, you bring war to that nation. I also had a hard time understanding how, despite the fact that Bush spent a year begging the UN for help, eventually ending up with a coalition, NPR could keep selling little story packages that presented Bush as an out-of-control, go-it-alone cowboy. The spin was inconsistent with the facts on the ground.

On the non-council side, I had to cast the deciding vote between two fine entries. In the end I cast my vote for In Praise of Irrational Exuberance at Big Questions Online. Like the council winner, this essay also deals with a measure of dishonesty, or perhaps I should call it delusion. In this case the dishonesty is good thing for society.

All this delusion can, of course, become destructive. But there’s more to it than mere foolishness. The illusions that spur entrepreneurial ventures and consumer daydreams point to the nonmaterial side of markets. Markets not only expand health and comfort, providing a sustaining material existence. They also spur ambition and imagination, the quest for achievement and the pursuit of meaning. They give us an opportunity to exercise our creativity, to enjoy the satisfactions of absorbing, productive work, and to fashion and express our identities.

Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Bookworm Room - NPR’s carefully crafted tales — and why I don’t listen anymore
• Second place with 2 votes – The Glittering Eye – Tyrant For a Day
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - Right Truth – Changes in Fighting Terrorism and the Conservative Tsunami
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - Simply Jews – The dull, throbbing anxiety of Jonathan Franzen’s potential reader
• Fourth place with 1 vote - The Razor – Life in the Echo Chamber
• Fifth place with 2/3 vote - GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Miss Beautiful Morals
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Rhymes With Right – A Quick Note On Texas Poll Watchers Standing Behind Voters

Non Council Winners

• * First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Big Questions Online - In Praise of Irrational Exuberance submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – RedState – Pretending The Union Money Doesn’t Exist submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – HillBuzz -An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh and His Listeners — With Notes on the Democrat Civil War Already In Progress submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -The Daily Bail – When The Big Banks Come Crawling Back, Screw ‘Em! Talking Points for the Anti-Bank Bailout Revolution submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – FrontPageMag – Thomas Sowell -Legacy of Lies submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Abu Muqawama – An Open Letter to the Washington Post submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - YouTube/Team CrazyTalk -We Are The Ones: O RLY? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - RedState – A Special Note to Our Democrat Readers in Washington submitted by VA Right
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Contentions - Some Historical Perspective on Negative Campaigning submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - FrontPageMag – Bin Laden’s Iranian Protectors submitted by Right Truth

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well, the landslide brought me down
Landslide – Fleetwood Mac

The GOP majority of 1995-2007 never had more than 231 seats. Republicans are poised to coast past that tonight.

“Four years ago Republicans controlled just 22 governorships. The fact that we’ve already reached a majority tonight is a testimony to the four-year plan our governors and staff developed and executed,” said RGA Chairman Haley Barbour. “Any other committee would be happy securing the majority because it is a major accomplishment, but we are hoping for more because Republican governors are so important to the future of our Party, and more importantly, America.”

via Contentions

The Daily Caller via Twitter

The House currently has 255 Democrats and 178 Republicans. The new reality will be a Republican majority of at at least 230, and a Democratic minority in the low 200’s, and possibly below 200.
The GOP House gains were the biggest swing for either party since 1948, when Democrats gained 75 seats on the back of President Truman’s campaign against a “do-nothing” GOP Congress.

The last time such a large swing occurred in a midterm election was in 1938, when Democrats lost 72 seats to Republicans in the middle of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second term, as voters lost confidence in the New Deal.

While there’s a landslide bringing President Obama down; the Watcher’s Council would like to introduce its newest member, Simply Jews. We also acknowledge that a lot of us predicted that Harry Reid would lose. That’s why we blog more frequently than we prognosticate.

Council Submissions

• Simply Jews – The dull, throbbing anxiety of Jonathan Franzen’s potential reader
• Right Truth – Changes in Fighting Terrorism and the Conservative Tsunami
• Joshuapundit - Reconquista: The Democrat’s Civil War Surfaces
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Well, knowing Channel 28 …
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Miss Beautiful Morals
• Bookworm Room – NPR’s carefully crafted tales — and why I don’t listen anymore
• The Razor – Life in the Echo Chamber
• VA Right -  Vote!
• Rhymes With Right – A Quick Note On Texas Poll Watchers Standing Behind Voters
• The Glittering Eye – Tyrant For a Day

Non Council Submissions

• Life in Israel - GETTING THE YIDDISH SLURS RIGHT submitted by Simply Jews
• FrontPageMag – Bin Laden’s Iranian Protectors submitted by Right Truth
• HillBuzz -An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh and His Listeners — With Notes on the Democrat Civil War Already In Progress submitted by Joshuapundit
• Big Questions Online – In Praise of Irrational Exuberance  submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Abu Muqawama – An Open Letter to the Washington Post submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• YouTube/Team CrazyTalk -We Are The Ones: O RLY? submitted by Bookworm Room
• FrontPageMag – Thomas Sowell -Legacy of Lies submitted by The Razor
• RedState – A Special Note to Our Democrat Readers in Washington submitted by VA Right
• RedState – Pretending The Union Money Doesn’t Exist submitted by Rhymes With Right
• The Daily Bail – When The Big Banks Come Crawling Back, Screw ‘Em! Talking Points for the Anti-Bank Bailout Revolution submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Contentions - Some Historical Perspective on Negative Campaigning submitted by The Watcher

I (the Watcher) asked our illustrious council members their predictions for Tuesdays elections. Before I go to them, I see that David Bernstein posted his and asked his commenters for theirs. Here are Sabato’s Final Calls (via memeorandum). Here are the latest from 538 (via memeorandum). The latest from Real Clear Politics: House, Senate and Governors. (h/t Right Truth)

Without further ado, here are the results of my polling. I asked for:

How many seats will be gained (or lost) by Republicans in the House? Senate?

Most surprising upset.

Highest ranking politician to lose power. (This would not include the President who might lose a house or two, but won’t lose power this year. And Pelosi ranks higher than Reid who ranks higher, I think, than Hoyer.)

A sentence or two with overall observations.

Here are the results I received.

From Rhymes with Right:

1)  US Senate:  After the election, the breakdown will be 50 GOP, 47 Democrat, and 3 Independent — GOP GAIN of 9, Dem LOSS of 10, Ind. GAIN of 1

2)  US House:  I expect a 50 seat GAIN for the GOP, with the configuration of the House of Representatives the next Congress being 229 GOP and 206 Dem.

3)  Most surprising upset?  Lisa Murkowski wins her write-in candidacy and becomes the third Independent in the US Senate.

4)  Highest ranking loser?  Harry Reid.

General Observations:  As a Republican, I’m expecting this to be a good night for the GOP, as the American public begins to move its voting behavior back in line with its political ideology.  Face it — the last 18 months have shown that the results of 2006 and 2008 were less about a shift Leftward than a rejection of a war that was not going well and excessive spending by a Congress that had promised responsibility.  Now that the public has seen what the Democrats will do when given total control, the American public is tacking back to the Right — which leads me to think that the 2012 election may, ironically, turn out to be one in which the GOP gains in Congress with a more moderate set of candidates than seen in 2010 while Obama manages to cling to s the presidency by a narrow margin as the American people vote for divided government.

Bookworm:

My predictive abilities are so random, I’m loath to try.  I can see patterns develop.  (I figured out that Saudi Arabia would be forced to develop a limited working, although never friendly, relationship with Israel as Iran went nuclear, or that ObamaCare would raise insurance costs.)  I’m lousy at specifics, though.  Indeed, a month ago, I would have been aghast to learn how close the Brown/Whitman and Boxer/Fiorina races are.  Given California’s disastrous Democrat economy, given the national trends, and given what icky candidates Brown and Boxer are, I would have thought it be a rout, not a race so tight that I’m afraid it will be a Democrat sweep.  (Monkey and I clearly are reading the same crystal ball on that one.)

Anyway, in lieu of predictions, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and send up some prayers.

JoshuaPundit with his sidekick, Weekend Monkey:

1) Senate: I see a split senate, 50-48, with a gain of 9. Monkey says 8 seats, Both of us see GOP pickups in Arkansas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Indiana

Here’s how we see that stacking up  in the competitive contests:

Rob: The rest of the GOP Pickups are  in CA, CO, WV, NV, PA. GOP holds KY,OH.  Miller wins in Alaska, Rubio in FL. DEM Holds in IL, (Crook County) DE, WA. Senate ends at 50 GOP, 2 IN, 48 Dem.

Monkey: Boxer stays. Trust me, I know these things. Additional ReThug  Pickups in  CO, WV, NV, PA, and they hold KY,OH.  Miller  in Alaska(barely), Rubio in FL. Democratic  holds in IL, (where the dead will vote for my Democrats) DE (unless O’Donnell really is a witch and casts some kinda spell),  CA,  WA. Senate ends up at 49 GOP, 2 IN, 49 Dem. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Ben Nelson and Lieberman go over to the ReThugs afterwards.

2. The House:

Rob: I’d be very surprised to see the GOP end up with less than a 60 seat pickup,and it could easily be higher, so I’ll say between 60 and 70.. Bonanza territory would be a gain of 85 seats – a veto proof majority.That’s possible, especially if Rush’s Reverse Operation Chaos takes off.

Monkey: In yer ear, Rob. 54 seats. But I gotta admit with me giving the ReThugs a 40 odd seat pick up already and 40 toss up seats out there, 60 + seats could happen, and I’m only betting individual seats this year rather than the House composition. And yeah, it could be higher. But 85 seats? Pass that opium pipe around and share, willya?

3. Most surprising upset? Rob: Fiorina over Boxer in Cali. Monkey: Alexi Giannoulias wins in Illinois.Only it ain’t exactly gonna be a surprise in Chicago, if you know what I mean.

4. Highest Ranking loser?: Rob:I’d say Harry Reid  Monkey: Ditto.A victim of the Mad Hatter’s GOP  Tea Party.

5. General Observations: Both of us are keenly interested in how Obama is going to handle the new reality next year,and what Hillary Clinton might do,and I’m sure both of us will weigh in after the election.

Rob: One of the most interesting factors here is not just the Republicans winning but the type of Republicans…mostly real conservatives who are being elected precisely because they promise to take the country back and end Obama’s ruinous policies. If they fail to deliver, they’ll get voted out as quickly as they got in, and the GOP will go the way of the Whigs. The day of the RINO is over. 2012 could be the real start of a new period of conservative dominance, especially if the GOP successfully runs someone like Sarah Palin or Mike Pence.

Monkey: Eh! DC changes everybody. The ReThugs are gonna screw it up just like last time. I think the odds are at least 50-50 that Hillary runs in 2012, especially if Obama’s poll numbers continue to slide and the economy stays in the crapper, as it likely will.

The Glittering Eye:

House:  GOP +47

Senate:  GOP +9

In other words GOP takes control of the House, Democrats retain control of the Senate,

small margins.

Upset:  Russ Feingold defeated in Wisconsin

Highest ranking loser:  most of the high ranking are losers

House: GOP +53

Senate: GOP +8

Upset: Murkowski wins in AK.

Highest Ranking Loser: Harry Reid.

VA Right:

Senate:

I see the GOP +8 overall. A few weeks ago, WV was a Dem stronghold, which shows you how rapidly things can turn around. The real balance of power will be for the I’s to decide. If the House goes to Republicans (and it will) this will influence the decision of the Independents as far as who they caucus with. In this age of “spotlight on the pork”, I really don’t see much for either side to offer other than committee assignments and such. Even with 9 GOP pickups the fight for control of the Senate will be interesting. A pickup of 10 seats by the GOP is outside of the realm of possibilities.

House:

I am going with 59 GOP seats gained. There are so many toss ups and sure to be a number of GOP pickups that are not on anyone’s radar. I realize 59 is on the high side, according to most, but it is still a sane bet.

Upset Race:

Barney Frank. He is scared. This tells me it is much closer than we may think. I admit this one falls in the wishful thinking category, but someone has to say Barney, so I just did.

Highest Ranking Loser:
Harry Reid. I think this makes it a consensus, right?

A few thoughts:

I have seen a reliance this year on Real Clear Politics by almost everyone. The problem I have with RCP or averages in general is you cannot compare apples and apples by averaging. There are some really big problems with some of the polls. PPP is weighting polls as if a greater number of Democrats will turn out than in 2008 in some states. With the enthusiasm gap as high as it is in favor of Republicans, I believe some of these polls are more propaganda and spin than an actual measure of voter intent. If both Republicans and Democrats were spin polling, then averaging things out would probably work. But I have not seen nearly as many Republican spin polls as Democrat.

Another concern is that these polls in heavily Democratic areas have no real model based on previous years. In my home state of Virginia, which has been Red for a long time, most of the polls in 2006 and 2008 seemed to overestimate Republican voters, As a result, there were a number of surprises. But the only surprise was the polls failed to properly weight the data because they underestimated the voter anger with Republicans.

We may very well see this same thing again this year, only in reverse. How do you properly poll a CA, WA, and OR race in a Republican trending year like we have now? The Democrats are not very interested in supporting Obama, and the Conservatives are chomping at the bit to delete the 2006 and 2008 “mistakes”.

We should know early how things are going to go on election night. As the polls in the east close, the number of shockers will speak volumes. Very few early, the House ends up as predicted – 45 – 55 on average. Several “off the radar” pickups for the GOP, and a 100 seat tsunami is not impossible.

We will learn a lot about polls this year. That much is for sure.

The Razor:

I also heed the wisdom of the greatest American Zen master, Roshi Yogi Berra, who taught “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Ohmmmmmm

As for me I’ve read too much and know too little right now. I’ll go with the emerging consensus that the Republicans will turn the House but not the Senate. I assume that the highest ranking Democrat to fall will be Harry Reid. But that’s not so much because of the polling of his race, but because he’s had absolutely no coattails for his son to glide on. I’d have to rank the defeat of Barney Frank as the most surprising upset.

Last week the President said:

My name may not be on the ballot, but our agenda for moving forward is on the ballot, and I need everybody to turn out …

I don’t understand this at all. His party is headed for a historic defeat, by making this claim he is tying his agenda to the likely disaster. In Baltimore, near where I live, (in Maryland, one of the few states impervious to Democratic overreach) signs with the famous Obama logo of two years ago are going up. This is a very risky strategy.

There’s one other implication to the President’s tying the election to his agenda. Democratic pollsters Patrick Cadell and Douglas Schoen write:

President Obama’s post-partisan America has disappeared, replaced by the politics of polarization, resentment and division.

In a Univision interview on Monday, the president, who campaigned in 2008 by referring not to a “Red America” or a “Blue America” but a United States of America, urged Hispanic listeners to vote in this spirit: “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.”

Recently, Obama suggested that if Republicans gain control of the House and/or Senate as forecast, he expects not reconciliation and unity but “hand-to-hand combat” on Capitol Hill.

What a change two years can bring.

We can think of only one other recent president who would display such indifference to the majesty of his office: Richard Nixon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And I’m floating
in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different todaySpace Oddity – David Bowie

In his classic “Space Oddity,” David Bowie sings about Major Tom to whom the stars “look different.”

In her council winning post this week Bookworm Room explains why a different Tom sees things differently. Specifically she explains  Why Tom Friedman is an idiot

So I’ve now provided proof that Friedman is an idiot. He doesn’t understand the facts he has, and ignores the facts he doesn’t like. From that foundation, he makes grossly (and gross) ideological arguments, assuming the preening, snide posture of a seasoned sage, condemned to deal in perpetuity with ill-educated louts.

Bookworm nails Friedman’s inability to assimilate new facts; he’s still living in a pre-2000 world.

Not everyone is as impervious as Friedman to changing realities, in his winning non-council post, Angela Merkel, multikulti and “progressives” mental paralysis  Simply Jews credits Merkel with acknowledging what few others in Europe will.

In short: Europe is looking into abyss. And the only good thing is that some more courageous leaders are willing to face the facts, instead of hiding behind the mental paralysis of the “progressives”.

Enjoy!

Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Bookworm Room - Why Tom Friedman is an idiot
• Second place with 2 votes - Mere Rhetoric - Turkey Leveraging Obama’s Failed Russia “Reset” To Isolate Israel, Boost Iran 
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes - Joshuapundit - Stolen Valor: Dems Try To Steal Close Elections By Disenfranchising Overseas Military
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Iraq Casualty Myth
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Right Truth - Elections Have Consequences
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - VA Right – Blue Dog Democrats – Unkindest Betrayal of All
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right -Democrat Election Law Violations In Harris County — And A Reflection On The Authority Of The Presiding Election Judge At The Polling Place
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - The Glittering Eye – The Next Generation of Political Communication

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – Simply Jews - Angela Merkel, multikulti and “progressives” mental paralysis submitted by The Watcher
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – YID With LID – Illinois League of Women Voters Big Shot Who Bashed Pledge of Allegiance, is Former ACORN Worker submitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Perfunction – Historic Illiteracy: Idiot Sarah Palin “Party Like It’s 1773″ After The Election! submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Third place with 1 vote - Patterico’s Pontifications – The Right to Abort Gay Adults!!! Or Overwrought Silliness and Mendacity in Perry v. Schwarzenegger submitted by VA Right
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Big Journalism – John Sexton -NPR Highlights Anti-Semite in Its Explanation of Juan Williams Firing submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Cranach: Blog of Veith -Dead Sea Scrolls will go online submitted by Snapped Shot
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - CAMERA Snapshots – Hamas Militant Admits Most Palestinian Policemen in Gaza Double as Militants submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - KeithHennessey.com -The other side of the White House white board submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Theo Spark -Flight Of Old ’666″ submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – American Thinker -A Mass Nervous Breakdown of the Left submitted by VA Right
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote - Open Democracy - The intolerance of the tolerant submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled

The Times they are a-changing – Bob Dylan

I don’t know if Bob Dylan intended “The Times the are a-changing” for the kind of change that we are anticipating next week. But who would have predicted that the drummer for the Velvet Underground would be sympathetic to Tea Parties? Maybe the times, they have a-changed.

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – What happens when you blindly follow “the narrative”
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Iraq Casualty Myth
• Bookworm Room – Why Tom Friedman is an idiot
• The Razor – Peering Into The American Political Landscape
• Snapped Shot – Leading the Context
• Mere Rhetoric – Turkey Leveraging Obama’s Failed Russia “Reset” To Isolate Israel, Boost Iran
• VA Right – Blue Dog Democrats – Unkindest Betrayal of All
• Rhymes With Right -Democrat Election Law Violations In Harris County — And A Reflection On The Authority Of The Presiding Election Judge At The Polling Place
• Right Truth – Elections Have Consequences
• The Glittering Eye – The Next Generation of Political Communication
• Joshuapundit - Stolen Valor: Dems Try To Steal Close Elections By Disenfranchising Overseas Military

Non-Council Submissions

• Open Democracy – The intolerance of the tolerant submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Theo Spark -Flight Of Old ’666″ submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• YID With LID – Illinois League of Women Voters Big Shot Who Bashed Pledge of Allegiance, is Former ACORN Worker submitted by Bookworm Room
• Big Journalism – John Sexton -NPR Highlights Anti-Semite in Its Explanation of Juan Williams Firing submitted by The Razor
• Cranach: Blog of Veith -Dead Sea Scrolls will go online submitted by Snapped Shot
• CAMERA Snapshots – Hamas Militant Admits Most Palestinian Policemen in Gaza Double as Militants submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• American Thinker -A Mass Nervous Breakdown of the Left submitted by VA Right
• Patterico’s Pontifications – The Right to Abort Gay Adults!!! Or Overwrought Silliness and Mendacity in Perry v. Schwarzenegger submitted by VA Right
• Bob McCarty Writes – Army Mom Pens Powerful Letter to Army Secretary submitted by Right Truth
• KeithHennessey.com -The other side of the White House white board submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Perfunction – Historic Illiteracy: Idiot Sarah Palin “Party Like It’s 1773″ After The Election! submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Simply Jews – Angela Merkel, multikulti and “progressives” mental paralysis submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve come to set the record straight
I’ve come to shine the light on you
Let me introduce myself
I’m the cold hard truth.

The Cold Hard Truth – George Jones

In 1999, country legend, George Jones released a comeback album the Cold Hart Truth. The title reminded me of this week’s winning council entry  The Cold Comfort of Truth by The Razor. The Razor’s studied Islam and concludes:

Mohammad built his ideology for the Ages, and after 1300 years, no religion has stayed closer to its founder’s beliefs than Islam. It is that success that allows us to judge his ideology by modern standards because the Islam that Mohammad created carries the 7th century’s attitudes and morality unadulterated into the modern era. By those standards Islam cannot coexist with Christianity or Judaism: it views the former as lied to by its founders, and the latter filth for having rejected Allah’s teachings. It cannot accept democracy when the Koran speaks of nothing but Allah’s will and law. It will not tolerate the equality of women when they are viewed in the Koran as those who corrupt the pious, nor will homosexuality be allowed to exist except under a hail of stones.

Our winning non-council entry was a speech given by the much (and unfairly) maligned chairman of Fox, Rupert Murdoch, before the ADL, ‘The Aim Is to Make Israel a Pariah’ 

Murdoch gives an example:

We saw a recent outbreak when a European Commissioner trade minister declared that peace in the Middle East is impossible because of the Jewish lobby in America. Here’s how he put it: “There is indeed a belief—it’s difficult to describe it otherwise—among most Jews that they are right. And it’s not so much whether these are religious Jews or not. Lay Jews also share the same belief that they are right. So it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East.”

This minister did not suggest the problem was any specific Israeli policy. The problem, as he defined it, is the nature of the Jews. Adding to the absurdity, this man then responded to his critics this way: Anti-Semitism, he asserted, “has no place in today’s world and is fundamentally against our European values.”

Of course, he has kept his job.

If, as the Razor observes, Islam is hostile to the West generally, it is especially hostile to Israel. And yet in an apparent effort to buy off Islam, many in the West are willing to sacrifice Israel. For example the Goldstone report was initiated by Organization of the Islamic Conference. The OIC is an organization that protects and honors President Bashir of the Sudan, and indicted war criminal. And yet they were seeking to convicting Israel for defending itself.

Islam presents a challenge to the West. It is one that the West needs to confront; not appease.

Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – The Razor - The Cold Comfort of Truth
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Colossus of Rhodey – “Qualified”
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Right Truth – Pro-Iran Government in Iraq
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room – The smug racism of the neo-colonialists
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – Mere Rhetoric – Newest Defense Of J Street’s Daniel Levy – His Anti-Israel Quotes Are “Ripped Out Of Context” Because He Means Well Or Something 
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Joshuapundit - New Theory: ‘Suicide Terrorism Caused By Occupation’
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Glittering Eye - Why Is the Foreclosure Mess a Significant Story?
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Victory Parade
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Where Is Obama’s Defense Of First Amendment Rights

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 1/3 votes! – Commentary/Rupert Murdoch -‘The Aim Is to Make Israel a Pariah’ submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - Daniel Pipes – Israel and Congressional Democrats submitted by Right Truth
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Anchoress – Muslim Moonwalks on High Altar submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Big Peace – Debunking the Ridiculousness of the ‘Poverty Draft’ Legend…. submitted by Bookworm Room
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Daily Caller – One nation, under fraud submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The American Scholar.org – What Columbus Day Really Means submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Pajamas Media – Andrew Bostom – Geert Wilders, Western Sages, and Totalitarian Islam submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote – Six Meat Buffet – I Fear Aragula submitted by Snapped Shot

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I was in college, I had a roommate who was contemptuous of over-produced rock music. He wasn’t a fan of most of the popular groups; he dismissed it as pop. Some fifteen years later I got the same attitude from a friend who was into country music. He couldn’t stand most of the major country acts with the over-produced sounds, but he liked those who stuck to a more traditional sound. In particular he really liked Lee Ann Womack who was just starting out at the time.

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – “Qualified”
• Joshuapundit – New Theory: ‘Suicide Terrorism Caused By Occupation’
• Right Truth – Pro-Iran Government in Iraq
• The Razor – The Cold Comfort of Truth
• Snapped Shot -Washington is the New Moscow
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Victory Parade
• Bookworm Room – The smug racism of the neo-colonialists
• VA Right -VA-07 Candidate Floyd Bayne Has Some ‘Splaining to Do
• The Glittering Eye -  Why Is the Foreclosure Mess a Significant Story?
• Rhymes With Right – Where Is Obama’s Defense Of First Amendment Rights
• Mere Rhetoric – Newest Defense Of J Street’s Daniel Levy – His Anti-Israel Quotes Are “Ripped Out Of Context” Because He Means Well Or Something

Non-Council Submissions

• The American Scholar.org – What Columbus Day Really Means submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Commentary/Rupert Murdoch -‘The Aim Is to Make Israel a Pariah’ submitted by Joshuapundit
• Daniel Pipes – Israel and Congressional Democrats submitted by Right Truth
• Pajamas Media – Andrew Bostom – Geert Wilders, Western Sages, and Totalitarian Islam submitted by The Razor
• Six Meat Buffet – I Fear Aragula submitted by Snapped Shot
• The Last Stand -Putting Two And Two Together submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Big Peace – Debunking the Ridiculousness of the ‘Poverty Draft’ Legend…. submitted by Bookworm Room
• Modern Survival Blog -Enormous Ring is Developing on the Sun submitted by VA Right
• The Daily Caller -  One nation, under fraud submitted by The Glittering Eye
• The Anchoress – Muslim Moonwalks on High Altar submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Rick Richman / Commentary – Pulling Teeth at the State Department submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• Day by Day Cartoon – Nonfiction submitted by The Watcher