by Matt Barr

Watcher's Council results, May 26, June 2

Another catch-up results post. Holiday weekend, Carnival of Liberty and etc.

May 24's nominees produced these results May 26. In the Council category, Gates of Vienna discussed the flight of critics of radical Islam from Europe. Let Us Make Them All Welcome, dymphna writes:

Remember the 1930’s when so many of Europe’s intelligentsia came to America to escape Fascism? Albert Einstein was one; Karen Horney was another. Our intellectual ranks and our universities were enriched as Europe’s totalitarian rumblings caused the educated ranks to flee to safer shores.

It seems to be happening again. In addition to Hirsi Ali’s imminent departure from the Netherlands, there is a growing feeling that Europe is not safe for those who dissent even a little from the received wisdom of the bureaucratic state, or dare to confront the Muslim taqiyya so prevalent there[.]

Assessing the Threat At Our Southern Border at The Glittering Eye placed.

The Anchoress won the Non-Council vote with The Essential President Bush:

[H]as President Bush lost his bearings, or have we? Is it President Bush who has broken faith with “his base” or have they?...

Perhaps I am a dim bulb, but President Bush has never surprised me, and that is probably why I have never felt let down or “betrayed” by him. He is, in essentials, precisely who he has ever been. He did not surprise me when he managed, in August of 2001, to find a morally workable solution in the matter of Embryonic Stem Cells. He did not surprise me when, a month later, he stood on a pile of rubble and lifted a broken city from its knees.

Second place went to SC&A Vent at Sigmund, Carl & Alfred.

June 2's results from May 31's nominees saw your host win after a tiebreaking vote for Who Do You Trust With Your Constitution? Joshuapundit's account of Benedict XVI's visit to Auschwitz was runner-up:

Some people have criticized the Pope for glossing over the role of the Church in creating the institutionalized anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust. It's not just a coincidence that every one of the Nazi death camps was situated in Catholic Europe.

I think they miss the point....

By linking the fate of the Jewish people to Christianity, Pope Benedict was making an important point in view of the threat of radical Islam in Europe, the embrace of `anti-Zionism' by some Europeans as a way of dealing with the continent's guilt over the Holocaust and the threats of a new Holocaust by people like Iran's Ahmadinejad.

He was acknowledging a common threat, and a common destiny for Christianity and the Jewish people.

The Non-Council winner was MaxedOutMomma's explanation why "Guest Workers" Are Destroying the US. Placing was a fine essay about tactics in President Bush's immigration strategy.

At this point in his tenure it appears that perhaps four things will define his time in office- September 11th, the war in Iraq, the deficit and immigration. Of the four it seems that the administration has decided that immigration (at least for now) has the most appeal for securing the Presidents place in the history books. How else do you explain the proposal to send unarmed Guardsmen to the border while the Congress debates the best plan to increase overall immigration?

If the President and his advisors are adamant about fixing the immigration issue here are my suggestions for several concrete steps they can take immediately[.]

Read The "L" Word at American Future whichever side of the immigration debate you're on.

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