The full rankings for last week’s Watchers contest are worth reading in full. The top Council blogs focused mostly foreign policy and the top non-Council posts did almost precisely the opposite. A good mix.
The top Council post from Joshuapundit dealt with the latest round of “anti-Zionst” government and media witchhunts. Two notable things: (1) any concrete accusations against the Jewish State are demonstrably and admittedly false and (2) those false accusations all happen to sound exactly the same as age-old antisemitic dual loyalty canards. Strange how that keeps happening:
And speaking of paying attention, that’s brings me to another piece that hit the news today. Laura Rozen, one of the Politico’s Leftist ‘foreign policy experts’ ran a story under this cheerful headline: “Maryland scientist arrested for attempted espionage for Israel.” Here are some more headlines on this story: “Moon scientist Stewart Nozette held as Israeli spy in FBI sting” (The London Times), “Top US scientist accused of trying to spy for Israel” (The British Telegraph), US scientist charged with attempting to sell military secrets to Israel (al-Guardian), US scientist Stewart Nozette charged with trying to sell secrets to Israel (The Christian Science Monitor),
Only one thing wrong with these headlines. Israel wasn’t involved in the least. What we actually had here was an FBI sting where someone posed as a Mossad agent, and Nozette made it known that he had secrets to sell for cold, hard cash. The agent could have just as easily said he was from Britain’s MI5, or the French Sûreté, or the Russians. It would have made no difference.
The runner up Council post from Bookworm Room makes it clear that venom is being sprayed at our allies all over the world. Not so much at our enemies though.
The non-Council posts all focused in one way or another on the post-partisan era of unity we’ve entered since the Obama inauguration. Whoever’s compiling Obama’s enemies list, described by the top non-Council Real Clear Politics post, is apparently the one exception:
But this White House seems to feel they’re different. It’s not just that the current occupant of the Oval Office has a particularly thin skin when it comes to criticism – which is especially ironic given that he’s been the recipient of more glowing press coverage than possibly any candidate or president in modern American history. But not since Nixon conjured up an “enemies list” have we seen the full weight of the Office of the Presidency brought to bear in such a targeted and deliberate effort to delegitimize a media organization critical of the President… The current presidency, as much perhaps as any in history, is built upon the foundation of the President’s personal popularity. President Obama has, out of necessity, become the Salesman-in-Chief for his progressive agenda. But as the White House continues to struggle adjusting to the reality of governing versus campaigning, it is either unwilling or unable to brook criticism of the President or his policies. Thus FOX News is targeted as the enemy.
Almost difficult to understand how a Cult of Personality built on a utopian promise of unity could devolve into thuggishly scapegoating one group after another for “dividing” the country and blocking “the people’s will.” If only there had been historical examples that academics who unceasingly attacked Bush could have used to speak out against the dangers of charismatic leaders who run on promises of literally remaking the world.
Instead we just wrapped up another round sheer, incoherent political rancor. We were treated to left-of-Democrats Republicans calling the cops on journalists, Democrats rhetorically dismissing the conservative base from “this reality,” and even to the eye-roll inducing spectacle of Obama being gushingly proud of his idiotic Nobel Peace Prize. All of that comes via non-Council runner ups The Weekly Standard, Rick Moran, and Toby Harnden, writing about lefties who also must have missed the post-partisan memo.
References and related after the jump…
References:
* I’m MAD, Mad I Tell Ya!! [Watcher of Weasels]
* Watchers Council Nominations – The Left Is Coping With The Burdens Of Governing Really Well [MR]
* When Anti-Semitism Isn’t …And When It Is [Joshuapundit]
* Is Barack Obama anti-American? *UPDATED* [Bookworm Room]
* Media Wars: White House Crosses the Line [Real Clear Politics]
* Obama Supporters Still Can’t Decide Between Legal Thuggery And Physical Violence, Indulging In Both [MR]
* Watchers Council Nominations – Power Grabs Defended By Rank Populism Defended By Incoherent Nonsense
* Old Political Terrorists: “Financial Companies.” New Political Terrorists: “ObamaCare Skeptics.” [MR]
* Obama promises to ‘remake the world’ [Politico]
* THE DIFFERENT REALITY INHABITED BY THE CONSERVATIVE BASE [Rightwing Nuthouse]
* Scozzafava Calls the Cops [Weekly Standard]
* Barack Obama: ‘Oh, did I mention I won the Nobel prize?’ [Telegraph]
Related Mere Rhetoric Coverage:
* Global Antisemitism
* Democratic Politics
* Academia
