The Nominations Are Up

Each week, the members of the Watcher's Council nominate one of their own posts and a second from outside the Council for consideration by other council members in a contest for best post. The Watcher publishes the results each Friday morning. The Watcher also has a process for anyone who would like to submit one of their posts for consideration as part of the weekly contest. You can find out more about that here. This week's nominations are:
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Council Nominations:

1. The Razor - Choice and Honor
The Razor ponders the difference between men who live by their principles and others, such as McClellan and Obama, whose every move is a simple weighing of the expediencies. It is a very good post.

2. Done With Mirrors - Memorial Day
This is a truly superb post that I linked to earlier in the week. DWM honors the military and non-military who have given their lives in our current wars, telling several of their unique stories.

3. The Glittering Eye - The Costs of Withdrawing from Iraq
GE ponders the reasons given for leaving Iraq, providing an economic analysis of the potential costs and whether any costs might actually be saved by such a withdraw. It is a good post, but at this point, I think that any consideration of withdraw from Iraq or any consideration of staying for a long term with garrison forces must of necessity include a discussion of how such would impact on our existential conflict with Iran.

4. Hillbilly White Trash - You Have To Ask?
Bill Clinton is acting like Bill Clinton. HWT is utterly amazed that anyone, and particularly journalists who have covered Clinton in his White House days, could possibly be surprised by any of this.

5. Rhymes With Right - More Outrageousness At Trinity UCC -- UPDATED
RWR posts on the latest hatred and racism spewing out of Obama's church of 20 years, this time from Fr. Pfleger, who RWR has met on occasion. RWR also blogs on the earmark Obama sent Pfleger's way. Obama has much, much to answer for.

6. Bookworm Room - Brave? Yes. Unique? No.
BWR puts into perspective Ted Kennedy's surgery and the ramifications of his decision to remain awake throughout the procedure. Indeed, I would venture to say that the vast majority of people alive today cannot even imagine the hardships of life that our forebearers lived and endured in the whole of centuries past.

7. Soccer Dad - Leveraging -- Reloaded
In an excellent post, Soccer Dad takes Tom Friedman to task for his hypocrisy and mistakes.

8. Cheat Seeking Missiles - Slouching Towards Statism
CSM ponders how statism effects the lives of its people in comparison to states that practice an individualist approach. I fear that while the latter is always the best for the populace, it is the former that seems to be ever gaining ascendence.

9. The Colossus of Rhodey - The Media Furor Over McClellan's Book Leads to Whoppers
In the wake of McClellan's book, a media in a frenzied high is playing fast and loose with the facts.

10. Wolf Howling - Much Lizardly Ado About... A Little Something
This was an argument between Big Lizards and Thomas Jocelyn at the Weekly Standard that highlights the incredible failure of our administration to yet develop a strategy to engage in the most important battlefield against radical Islam - the war of ideas.

11. Joshuapundit - Worst. President. Ever?
JP follows the same criteria I do for rating Presidents. Having said that, I would have to put Jimmy Carter in the top slot. Beyond that, putting Clinton and Bush on the list is temporally wrong, I think. Perhaps in 20 years the smoke will clear on their presidencies and how they effected history.

12. The Education Wonks - Life Expectancy Down For Some American Women
EW ponders the larger social costs of individual choice and risky behaviors.

Non-Council Nominations:

1. Right Wing Nut House - Where Is John McCain?

2. The Atlantic - Conservatives and "Liberal Guilt"

3. The Long War Journal - Iraqi Army Interdicting Iranian Operations in the South

4. The Brussels Journal - Why Spain Lectures Other Countries on Immigration

5. Stop the ACLU - Shut Up and Do What Andy Says

6. US News and World Report - John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account

7. History News Network - The Jewish Vote In 1968 and 2008

8. Villainous Company - Obama, Manliness, and the Notion of Black Privilege

9. World Affairs Journal - Neocon Nation: Neoconservatism, c. 1776

10. Power and Control - Reagan Democrats

11. Israel Matzav - The Gaza 'Siege' Is Not an Answer To Terror

12. Classical Values - Bigotry Is Destiny? (Why We Cling To Our Guns...)

13. Big Lizards - Obamanomics 101

14. Neo-Neocon - Hillary, the VP Ppot, and That Bucket of Warm Whatever