The Council winners for last week got posted Friday so naturally I’m getting to them now. Joshuapundit had the week’s top Council post, discussing the White House’s power grab on interrogations and just about everything else:
Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton announced today that President Obama has approved creating a brand new anti-terrorism interrogation squad that will report directly to the White House… First, the formation of this new unit reporting directly to the president is yet one more example of this Administration’s obsessive consolidating of power in its own hands through minions and ‘czars’ and ‘special envoys’ who report directly to the White House and undercut the normal congressional oversight… Second, this statement is a clear indication that Obama has decided to reduce the CIA to a mere figurehead, and the fact that the FBI is taking the lead is a clear indication that this White House considers Islamist fascism as primarily a law enforcement problem.
The Council runner up was Bookworm Room. Her post on the smug condescension of the workaday Blue State liberal juxtaposed nicely with the top non-Council post, where Fouad Ajami discussed the creepy fascination the left has with Obama’s Cult of Personality:
So we are to have a French health-care system without a French tradition of political protest. It is odd that American liberalism, in a veritable state of insurrection during the Bush presidency, now seeks political quiescence. These “townhallers” who have come forth to challenge ObamaCare have been labeled “evil-mongers” (Harry Reid), “un-American” (Nancy Pelosi), agitators and rowdies and worse.
A political class, and a media elite, that glamorized the protest against the Iraq war, that branded the Bush presidency as a reign of usurpation, now wishes to be done with the tumult of political debate. President Barack Obama himself, the community organizer par excellence, is full of lament that the “loudest voices” are running away with the national debate. Liberalism in righteous opposition, liberalism in power: The rules have changed.
The non-Council runner up was Oceanguy’s eulogy for Scott Speicher. Suffice to say that it’s not the easiest read.
References:
* Sowing the Seeds of Discontent [Watcher Of Weasels]
* Obama Versus CIA: New WH Interrogation Unit Created As Panetta Threatens To Resign [Joshuapundit]
* Why pay $10 for Julie & Julia just to suffer gratuitous insults? *UPDATED* [Bookworm Room]
* Obama’s Summer of Discontent [Fouad Ajami / WSJ]
* Welcome Home Scott Speicher [Oceanguy]
Previously:
* Watchers Council Results – Watching Obama Watching Iran
* Watchers Council Results – Liberal Activism In Academia And Beyond
* Watchers Council Results – Actual Literal Wealth Destruction Is Very Nuanced
