Neo-Neocon writes, answering the question as to whether President Obama has done irreversible harm to the country:

 But Obama has become a loose cannon, and American is suddenly not the rock it used to be. And I wonder if we ever again will be regarded in the same way.

Instapundit (offering no rationale) isn’t as certain.

Anyone else have an idea?

Welcome back weasel hunters! Today we announce our winners from last week’s hunt in that vast wasteland known as the WeaselSphere. Our esteemed council members searched high and low for the best articles they could find that informed the world of weasels in their midst; what a great hunt it was!

But first let’s reflect on what a great day this truly is! Last night the Chicago Blackhawks took it to the Vancouver Canucks and tied up their playoff series, Nancy Pelosi was outed by the media as a liar on her knowledge of waterboarding (a claim that only the idiots at the Daily Kos still dispute), and we have the best and brightest collection of journalists, educators and opinion makers helping to shed light on those that would otherwise go unnoticed for their weasely ways.

I was reading this week’s articles and I was floored by how one winning entry summed up and expanded my thinking on the Arab/Israeli conflict. Non-Council winner Richard Landes at Augean Stables quite literally hit the ball out of the park with his answer to some Christian students about his perspective on why the conflict is so hard to solve and how he would resolve it.

For example, the following is an expert from his response to the question: What do you think is the root cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

Here, I think the only viable explanation is to understand the blow to Arab/Muslim honor at the creation of a free and independent state run by non-Muslims in Dar-al-Islam. (For a larger discussion of this, see here.) As the Athenians explained to the Melians: “It’s not so terrible to be conquered by those who should rule (like the Spartans, or in this case the Christians), but it is unbearable to be defeated by those who should be subject (like the Melians or, in this case, the Jews).”

If you don’t know about the Muslim principles of Dar-al-Islam (the realm of submission where Muslims rule) and Dar-al-Harb (the land of the sword, with which Muslims are at war), you can’t possibly understand either the permanent hostility of the Arabs to Israel (including their refusal to recognize her), or the willingness of the Arabs to keep the Palestinians suffering in refugee camps so that they can be used as a weapon against Israel.

By Muslim standards, the very existence of Israel is a theological blasphemy and an unbearable affront to their honor. That’s what the Naqba is about. If it were about the terrible suffering of the Palestinians who had to flee as a result of the war (which is what the “pro-”Palestinian would have us believe), then the Arabs and Palestinian leaders would have done something to make their lives better (including using a tiny fraction of the trillions of petrodollars Arab countries have taken in in the last half-century). Instead they confined them to permanent refugee camps (no cement floors allowed, they had to live in tents and the mud for years).

It’s striking that during the Oslo peace process, when the Palestinian authority had control of both refugee camps and territory, they didn’t take one refugee family out of those camps.

This is just one of many great insights; a must read.

Likewise, the winning submissions on the council side presented me with a dilemma as we had a two way tie for the top spot. It is up to me to decide the winner of these ties as part of my Watcher’s duties and it was very close. On the one side we have Bookworm with her wonderful insights pertaining to a television show she watched with the hubby on the predator/prey relationship in Yellowstone National Park and how that pertains to the United States under the Obama administration.

Here is Bookworm on defense:

The worst defense is the cute defense my dog uses, because it’s the only defense that depends, not just on the prey’s skills, but on the predator’s conscience. The only reason this defense works between my dog and me is because I have a conscience and I’m extremely amenable to cute. However, it’s an utter failure if (i) you’re incapable of being cute and (ii) your predator couldn’t care less about cuteness. Indeed, for a true predator, the “cuter” you are, the more of a meal you present. Good food, with the virtue of easy hunting.

Unfortunately, President Obama is trying to position us as the cute nation. He’s convinced, as are his liberal acolytes, that if he just goes around the world being cute and submissive, other nations will just want to hold the United States in their collective arms, and feed us and cuddle us. The problem with this notion, of course, is that nations (except for maybe Lichtenstein) are not cute and, even if they were, our enemies are not amenable to cute. Just as a wolf, faced with my darling little dog, would eat her in a single bite, so too will the hostile nations of the world, most of whom function either as perfect predators or smart ones (the Norks, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, etc.), view Obama’s supine, submissive, cute, cute, cute America as the perfect easy target.

Pitted against Bookworm is returning council member Wolfhowling (how appropriate is that, wolf, predator, prey, …., I digress, hey, it’s Friday!). The howling one wrote his article on the predator known as Iran.

Iran’s government is a hyper-aggressive theocracy whose goals are to spread the Khomeinist Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East and the world, to destroy Israel, and to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East. Those goals are non-negotiable and Iran’s mad mullahs have proven utterly beyond any civilized limits in their pursit of these goals. In the history of Iran’s theocracy, the only things which have ever caused the mad mullahs to alter their deadly trajectory have been the actual or threatened use of force.

As Sec. Def. Robert Gates summed up the nature of the theocracy a year ago, “everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or cost in the blood of innocents – Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.” The Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence has testified that Iran is the “central banker” for terrorism throughout the world. I have blogged on Iran repeatedly and itemized many of the terrorist acts by the Iranian regime. The list is as valid today as it was when I wrote it – with the exception that Iran has now become even more aggressive in its deadly pursuits with the ascension of Obama to the post of U.S. President.

The choice was difficult and in the end I went with Wolf Howling as his article, like Bookworm’s, touches on all sorts of dangers lurking out there for the unwitting, and in some case willing, victims of aggressive predators; hyper weasels just waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce on and devour their foes. Tasty.

Congratulations go out to all the winning entries. Remember, keep your head up, your eyes wide open and your keyboards clicking. Please share these great articles with all your fans!!

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! – Wolf Howling - Waiting For The Iranian Shoe To Drop
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – Bookworm Room - Predators and Prey
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Right Truth - More Dangerous Than Al-Qaeda: Liberals and Sharia
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Mere Rhetoric - UC Santa Barbara Professor Spams Class With Graphic “Jews Are Nazis” Email
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Razor - Yet More Green Hypocrisy
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Rhymes With Right - A Hero Of My Youth Passes
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Soccer Dad - The iranian priority
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – The Colossus of Rhodey - As yet another example of demonizing the speech of your opponent as “dangerous” …
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – The Provocateur - From President to King While the Media Yawns
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Joshuapundit - Can The GOP Get It;s Groove Back?
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – The Glittering Eye - Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – The Augean Stables - What Do I Think of the Arab-Israeli Conflict? Answers to a Questionnaire
• Second place with 1 1/3 points – Kevin Mooney at The Washington Examiner - ACORN got $53 million in federal funds since 94, now eligible for up to $8 billion more
• Third place with 1 points – (T*) – National Journal - Twelve Points to Consider in Replacing Souter
• Third place with 1 points – (T*) – Will Wilkinson - Libertarian Democraphobia
• Third place with 1 points – (T*) – Weapons of Mass Discussion - On Specter, The GOP Big Tent, & Reagan
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Anchoress Online - Why “the recession is over.”
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Times Online - 9/11 conspiracy theories: The truth is out there…just not on the internet
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Gone Mild - How to Influence a Legislator (Free Version)
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – The Hill - Obama’s Economic Policy: Washington Knows Best
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Vinny’s Rants - Of Swine, Birds and Humans
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media - Let Us Praise Extraordinary Activists Who Stood Against Radical Islam in Times Square.

This weeks two winning entries span both sides of the latest Presidential election.

On the pre-election side political science professor Paul Kengor discusses the impact that academia had on the youth vote that turned out overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. Noting how we won the cold war yet lost the war on campus as left leaning professors took hold of the institutions of higher learning, Kengor discussed the various factors that rendered Barack Obama’s past connections to radicals and communists a non-issue. The effects of this meltdown on campus were seen in the election results and in post-election reports that show Americans sadly lacking in understanding the history of this country’s fading heritage.

On the other side of the election council member Joshua Pundit discusses how the incoming Obama administration plans to approach the war in Afghanistan and how that ties into the wider approach to fighting the war on terror. Throughout the campaign President-elect Obama spoke of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as a virtual outsider. Now that Mr. Obama has been elected he is proposing a regional approach that will involve talks with Iran alongside discussions with the  “reconcilable” elements of the Taliban. JP discusses the various factors that will make this regional approach difficult and unrealistic.

Please enjoy (and promote) this weeks winning entries:

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – Joshuapundit - The Afghanistan Blues
• Second place with 1 1/3 points – The Colossus of Rhodey - Oh, the musical memories …
• Third place with 1 point – (T*) – Bookworm Room - Perpetually Selfish Anger and Victimhood
• Third place with 1 point – (T*) – Rhymes With Right - Intolerant Gays Attacking Religion
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – The Provocateur - The Coming Mortgage Class War
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Soccer Dad - Names will never hurt me – the double standard
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Mere Rhetoric - Detente In Our Time – Obama Prepares To Sell Out Poland In The Face Of Russian Aggression. Again. (Plus: By The Way, Missile Defense Works)
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – The Razor - COIN of the Realm

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 3 points! – American Thinker - How the Academic Left Elected Obama
• Second place with 1 point – Chicago Tribune - Obama and the Chicago Way
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Hot Air - Obama picks presidential assassin’s lawyer as White House counsel
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Pajamas Media/Ed Morrissey - Growth through dismemberment doesn’t work
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Laz-a-fare - Time for a culture change

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

Oh yes, welcome to the first post-election week Watcher of Weasels event.

In 1971 David Bowie released an album called “Hunky Dory” that contained a relatively low profile song that started out as a parody. Bowie was surprised at the cult like status the song reached after its 1972 release as a single despite staying out of the top 40. From that point on however “Changes” became a crowd favorite. The song that had been rejected by the mainstream took on a cult like following prompting David Bowie to state “I had no idea it would become such a popular thing.”

Sixteen years later another cult like force brought an era of change to America as Barack Obama became the first black man to be elected President of the United States. A majority of Americans voted for change, any change, that would distance themselves from the Bush years.

Now that change is upon us our work is just as hard if not harder. We are facing an unprecedented attack on free speech as Democrats float another stab at the Fairness Doctrine to shut down talk radio. But that could be the first step in a larger move to stifle political dissent across the internet.

Please enjoy this week’s submissions:

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – That ‘ol “kindred spirit” argument
• The Glittering Eye – A Prospective Obama Administration (Updated)
• Bookworm Room – Reaching new demographics
• Mere Rhetoric – Noted Democratic Shill Begs Nutroots Not To Viciously Attack Emanuel For Being Too Jewish
• Hillbilly White Trash – The Great GOP Civil War
• Soccer Dad – Overcoming idiocy
• Joshuapundit – From The Beginning
• Cheat-Seeking Missiles – Valor and Patience
• The Razor – Return to First Principles
• The Provocateur – Fraud, Corruption, and Power: What Our Bailout Tax Dollars Are Really Going To
• Rhymes With Right – Something That Must Be Said

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey
  damnum absque injuria
  Sore Winners
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye
  The Next Right
  Change.gov and the Contradiction of the Postmodern Left Netroots
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room
  Seraphic Secret
  Israel: The One Bomb State
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric
  Danger Room
  Defense Chief: Give Us New Nukes, or Else
• Submitted By: Hillbilly White Trash
  Big Lizards
  The Great Leap Forward: How the Heck Can We Win Anyway?
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad
  Seraphic Secret
  Israel: The One Bomb State
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit
  Dr. Robert Zubrin/Pajamas Media
  We Can Solve the Financial Crisis by Destroying OPEC
• Submitted By: Cheat-Seeking Missiles
  Real Clear Politics
  A Few Post-Election Thoughts
• Submitted By: The Provocateur
  Dick Morris
  President Obama: Conservator in Chief
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right
  Right on the Left Coast
  Agency Fee Rebate

This weeks winning entries pit the mainstream media’s pro-Obama narrative against Barack Obama’s actual record of accomplishment and personal identity.

The media has shed what little credibility they had by coming to the defense of Barack Obama’s “share the wealth” statement. Once again those that oppose Barack Obama on substantive matters are being labeled as racist. Attacked by the very people that should protect the rights of those that speak candidly about their political leaders.

The winning entries in both categories touch on these topics. The top entries in each category explore these topics in depth with a focus on the corrupt media and their attempts to rewrite history in real time with the skilled expertise of antagonistic propagandists.

When viewed as a retrospective I doubt that any of today’s so called journalists will publicly admit to their intellectually bankrupt behavior but these entries note it as a public record.

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 votes votes! – Bookworm Room – Why Obama’s “share the wealth” argument should hurt him
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – Soccer Dad – The Washington Post chooses hope ahead of substance
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – The Razor – If Obama Wins… Part 2
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – Cheat-Seeking Missiles – Media Bias #89 – The Audacity Of Inexperience
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – The Glittering Eye – Unforeseen Secondary Effects
• Fourth place with 2/3 votes – (T*) – The Colossus of Rhodey – Don’t know much about history? The media sure doesn’t
• Fourth place with 2/3 votes – (T*) – Rhymes With Right – Some Sense From The Pentagon

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 votes votes! – Hot Air – The Comprehensive Argument Against Barack Obama
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes – Daled Amos – o so far… Saturday, October 18, 2008 “In what kind of nation, do the media investigate critics more than candidates?”
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – Nolan Finley – America Should Follow The Little Red Hen
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – The Paragraph Farmer – An Open Letter To My Friend Art
• Third place with 1 vote – (T*) – Patterico’s Pontifications – Evidence of Obama-Ayers Tie Sent Down the Memory Hole . . . Almost!
• Fourth place with 2/3 votes – Gateway Pundit – Media Refuses to Release Video of Obama Toasting & Praising Close Friend Rashid Khalidi– A Former PLO Operative, Jew-Hater & Friend of Bill Ayers
• Fifth place with 1/3 votes – (T*) – American Thinker – Obama’s campaign built on lies
• Fifth place with 1/3 votes (T*) – NewsBusters – Enraged Leftwing Blogosphere Hurls Attacks Against Joe the Plumber

T* – Denotes Tie

Watchers Council submissions are submitted in a week where the mainstream media had been dragged reluctantly into reporting the ACORN voter fraud scandal. Now the media can return to the same MO of reporting and running; a pattern that has been seen repeatedly as the media seeks to run away from scandals linked to Barack Obama as quickly as they reported them.

Please enjoy this weeks submissions.

Council Submissions

• Rhymes With Right- Democrats Object To Fundamentally True Statement
• The Razor- Oil Boom Turns to Bust
• Joshuapundit- The Jewish Stockholm Syndrome
• Cheat-Seeking Missiles- Raile Odinga Joins Ayres, Wright, Alinsky et. al. As Questionable Obama Associates
• The Glittering Eye- Issues 2008: Reforming Government
• Hillbilly White Trash- More on the little messiah’s troubling friends
• Soccer Dad- Putting on Ayers
• The Colossus of Rhodey- Why “hazard pay” for tough schools won’t work
• Bookworm – A Great Day By The Bay

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Real Debate Wisconsin – Racine schools hand out textbook with 15 page Obama love-fest
• Submitted By: The Razor – Michael Totten – Resisting the United Nations
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Jim Hoft/Pajamas Media – The Complete Guide To ACORN Voter Fraud
• Submitted By: Cheat-Seeking Missiles – Shiratdevorah – Hijacked Iranian Ship was Dirty Bomb Meant for Israel on Yom Kippur
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – The Torch – Pennies a day
• Submitted By: Hillbilly White Trash – VDH’s Private Papers – Wall Street 101
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Seraphic Secret – The last Kaddish redux
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Power Line – The “troopergate” report — thin gruel N
• Submitted By: The Watcher – The Provocateur – Analyzing Barack Obama’s Four Point Economic Plan
• Submitted By: The Watcher – My Right Word – Condi Rice Soothes Economic Doubts…in “Palestine”
• Submitted By: The Watcher – Webloggin – NYT Pulls Misleading Account of Palin Puck Dropping Ceremony
• Submitted by: Bookworm – Michelle Malkin – Crush the Obamedia Narrative : Look Who’s “Gripped by Insane Rage”

The preceding week was so eventful I decided to put the synopsis below the winning entries. Surmise it to say that the financial crisis, a media that continues to whitewash the associations of Barack Obama, a GOP candidate that continues to miss opportunity after opportunity to confront Barack Obama with questions of importance to the conservative base  and the breath of fresh air known as Sarah Palin dominated the weeks conversation.

Winning Council Entries

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Wolf Howling – Hurricane Subprime – Part I (1977-2000)
• Second place with 2 votes – The Razor – If Obama Wins
• Third place with 2/3 vote – (T*) Soccer Dad – No runs, no hits, plenty of errors
• Third place with 2/3 vote – (T*) Joshuapundit – How The Democrats Created the Financial Crisis
• Fourth place with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – The downside of being a teacher

Winning Non-Council Entries

• First place with 3 votes! – Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Baseball Crank – The Integrity Gap, Part I of III: Gov. Sarah Palin
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Heretical Ideas – Obama v. McCain: Foreign Policy
• Third place with 2/3 votes – (T*) – Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Michelle Malkin – How ACORN got a piece of the bailout pie
• Third place with 2/3 votes – (T*) – Submitted By: Cheat-Seeking Missiles – American Thinker – How Allies of George Soros Helped Bring Down Wachovia Bank
• Third place with 2/3 votes – (T*) – Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Q&O – Watch As Democrats Try To Blame Financial Mess On “Deregulation”
• Fourth place with 1/3 votes – Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Pajamas Media – Obama and the Attempt to Destroy the Second Amendment

* – T denotes a tie

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Most importantly the financial markets continue their steady decline despite attempts by the U.S. government to commit the largest power grab in the nation’s history.

Despite pumping nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer money into the middle of a blazing fire not 1 person has been indicted, no independent investigator has been assigned and few in power have the desire to hold anyone accountable. Worse, the pork laden bailout failed to alleviate concerns with confidence and did not open up tightly locked credit. Both of which are critical if the world global markets are going to stop the skid that is occurring at this very moment.

Meanwhile the excesses continue. AIG lavished insurance executives with a $443,000 weeklong stay at the St. Regis Monarch Bay resort and spa before the ink was even dry on the $85 Billion dollar loan that will be paid for by American taxpayers.  Adding insult to injury, the New York Federal Reserve has agreed to “lend” AIG an additional $37.8 Billion dollars a mere three weeks after the first figure was agreed upon. Experts are skeptical that AIG will be able to sell their assets in the midst of a credit crunch. The American taxpayers loses again.

The U.S. government isn’t even close to being done with their thrift store purchases. Student loans are in the cross hairs, an increase on the pork laden $850 Billion dollar bailout is being mulled, the government is looking to reduce the principle on existing home mortgages and an undefined group of “wealthy people” are facing the prospect a tax code rewrite that will negate their 401k’s tax exempt status. Healthcare and credit card debt loom on the horizon.

Meanwhile on the election front the media is being dragged kicking and screaming to ask Barack Obama about his relationship with unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Most of them used the opportunity to allow Barack Obama and his handlers to spew talking points, rarely if ever met by a follow up question, satisfied to buy the line that Obama didn’t know of Ayers terrorist past or that Ayers was now a reformed educator.

This is the week that was. During that time the Watchers Council diligently scoured over a score of article and came up with a list of winning articles that takes on the established narrative by those that are supposedly paid to be objective.

Please read these very important articles: