Indeed it has…the votes have been cast, the sacred runes read and this week’s Watcher’s Council results are history.
Many of the entries this week focused on the ongoing controversy between the public employee unions and financially strapped state governments, but as I think most of us know, this is really a part of the political war between the Right and the Left.
For years, in many of these states the dynamic was simple. Public employee unions essentially ‘negotiated’ with Democrat politicians over how much more money was going to flow into union treasuries at the public’s expense..after which a nice portion of it become campaign contributions for those same politicians to the point where keeping the unions fat and happy has become a matter of survival for a number of them.
It’s all essentially about political power, and that’s what’s really behind the massive protests. And why many of them have become decidedly uncivil, which is quite ironic considering how the Left was talking about ‘incivility in politics’ and pointing fingers only a short time ago.
This week’s winner is very much about those glass houses, as my fellow Council members honored me by making this week’s Council winner Schooling Dave Weigel On ‘Incivility’ at Joshuapundit by a nose over some pretty stiff competition. It was a response to a particularly whiny, insipid column by ex-Journolista Dave Weigel comparing the ‘incivility’ Tea Party protests to the activities of a few bad apples amidst his friends in Madison. Here’s a slice:
Here’s the difference, Journolista.
When some member of the Congressional Black Caucus outright lies and claims someone spat at him and he was called racist names at a Tea Party rally in DC, the Left’s media whores make it into headlines and the story is repeated over and over again as gospel…even though not a single video of anything like that occurring ever surfaced,not even with $100K of Andrew Breitbart’s money as an incentive.
When a congresswoman got shot by some whack job in Arizona, the Left’s media jackals turned it into a front page Sarah Palin/Tea Party story and kept it at the top o’ the stack for days.
OTOH, when SEIU thugs beat up a black Tea Partier ( and a handicapped one at that) in St. Louis, or when your friend President Barack Obama told his fanboys to ‘get in people’s faces’ and started talking about playing by Chicago rules ‘they bring a knife, we bring a gun’ …crickets. Except in Conservative media.
Take a look at the difference in how the story back in November of a MoveOn professional agent provocateur who broke through security, approached Senator-elect Rand Paul and was restrained by members of the crowd was treated by the Left’s Amen Corner in the dinosaur media compared to the way the story of a union thug actually belting a girl holding a camera and knocking her to the ground yesterday is being handled. Or the lack of media hand wringing and coverage when Former Massachusetts Republican Congressional candidate Marty Lamb was knocked down by union thugs today at a Tea Party rally.
The Left by and large approaches this stuff as a war where anything’s fair game and makes massive use of its media megaphone to demonize its political opponents,just like Sol Alinsky trained them.You know about that stuff first hand, Mr. Weigel. So where do you get the nerve to complain when you get a taste of the same tactics? Game, set, match.Right back at you. Where do you think we learned from?
In the Non-Council category, we had a tie between two strong entries, a first person account over at Redstate by Tabitha Hale, the young woman who was slugged and knocked to the ground by one of thos peaceful union thugs entitled Union Thuggery Descends On FreedomWorks and an interesting and very well documented post over at Maggie’s Farm entitled Jawohl, Mein Professor about the sort of anti-israel academic bias and one sided narrative being presented at Brooklyn College, aided and abetted by the American Association of University Professors.
As is usual in these matters, I break the tie, and while both pieces were worthy, Bruce Kesler’s take down of the assault on academic freedom (not to mention basic truth) at what used to be a worthy institution of higher learning ultimately won me over.
Here are this week’s full results:
Council Winners
*First place with 3 votes! – Joshuapundit – Schooling Dave Weigel On ‘Incivility’
Second place with 2 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room – Conservative candidates are better looking
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator – Can a president be sued for malpractice? More specifically this President!
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -The Razor – Reward Some Teachers, Fire Others and Allow All to Teach
Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -The Glittering Eye -Two Bits of Economic Jargon
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -New Zeal -Egypt lite! Socialists Organize Students in Solidarity With Wisconsin Protests
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Rhymes With Right – The OTHER Problems With Public Sector Unions
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Amazonian Guard
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Moammar Gadhafi and his potential heirs
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Snapped Shot – Welcome To Snapped Shot 8!
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Reality bites
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Noisy Room – So, What is the Going Price for a Soul Nowadays?
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right - Why ‘Across the Board Spending Cuts’ Are Not the Answer
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Right Truth – Abuse in the Emergency Room
Non-Council Winners
First place with 4 votes! – Bruce Kesler/Maggie’s Farm-Jawohl, Mein Professor submitted by Bookworm Room
Second place with 3 votes – RedState/Tabitha Hale – Union Thuggery Descends On FreedomWorkssubmitted by Rhymes with Right
Third Place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Israel News – Viva Mubarak! Say what??? submitted by Simply Jews
Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Via Meadia – Race To The Bottom? submitted by The Glittering Eye
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -The Foundry – Treatment of Libya Illustrates the Fatuousness of the Human Rights Council submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Foreign Policy Initiative – Foreign Policy Experts Urge President to Take Action to Halt Violence in Libya submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Planck’s Constant -Avoiding Jewish Products May Kill You submitted by Right Truth
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes Gulag Bound–Updated: Truthing Up, in the Face of Marxist Spawned Power in Wisconsin submitted by The Noisy Room
Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes Publius Forum – Government Employee Unions Undemocratic, Unfair, Unsustainablesubmitted by VA Right
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -LATMA – The Arab Democracy Anthem: Love, Freedom and Kill The Jews! submitted by Joshuapundit
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The American Interest/Via Meadia –Blue State Dems Turn on State, Local Workers submitted by The Razor
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Weasel Zippers – Pakistani School Children Play Make-Believe Suicide Bombing Game… submitted by New Zeal
Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -J.E. Dyer – Team Obama: Game Theorists submitted by The Watcher
See you next week!
Article written by: Tom White
