The Council has spoken

The Watchers Council held their weekly conclave, this time in Ireland at Ballynahinch Castle in beautiful County Galway, and after many ballots finally came to a decision.

The winning Council post is The Next Moves In An Existential Chess Match by Wolf Howling. Here is a sample:

Among the many considerations regarding use of force against Iran, one has been how such an act would reverberate in Iraq. Having made the decision to invade Iraq rather than Iran in 2003, we were victims to an extent of our own strategy. Any attack against Iran could have had significant repercussions for our mission in Iraq, further destabilizing the country. We could never be sure whether an attack on Iran would bring significant numbers of Iraqi Shia out against us. And in this regard, Sadr had explicitly promised to attack U.S. forces if we attacked Iran. That problem may now be resolved.

Iran had been, until recently, steadily increasing its malign influence in Iraq. Only a few months ago, some 300,000 Shias in the south of Iraq petitioned their government to do something about the murderous and ever growing Iranian influence. As al Qaeda attacks waned, Iranian proxies increased their violence, including attacks against the Green Zone, where Iraq’s Parliament meets. And in late February, there was a significant increase in the infiltration of Iranian Qods force personnel into Basra and Baghdad that, in light of subsequent events, may well have been related to the Basra offensive and Sadrist uprising in Baghdad and numerous other southern Iraqi cities in addition to Basra.

The Basra offensive and the defeat of Iranian backed, if not Iranian led, Mahdi militia elements in every major city where they staged an uprising has been an incredibly strong blow against Iran. (Update: For any who still might think Basra anything other than an utter defeat for Sadr and his Iranian backers, do see the articles discussing current events in Basra and Sadr City here.) And now, with PM Maliki and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani calling for the disarmament of all militias, including Sadr’s, it appears that the majority of Iraqis and their government are actively taking a stand against Iranian influence in Iraq.

Go read the rest. This is really first rate analysis.

The winning Non Council post is It's the "White" Church that Obama's Talking About (UPDATED) by Baldilocks. Here is a sample:

If you think about it, the fact that Obama lumped the perceived religion of the white, rural Pennsylvanian with “antipathy toward those not like them”--that is, racism, bigotry and anti-immigration (sic)--makes perfect sense.* The latter is bad and so is the former—if one is observing from the perspective of Black Liberation Theology.

In Obama’s mind, the religion clung to by the “average poor white Pennsylvanian” is BLT’s demonic “white” Church. The "white" Church is the tool of oppression for all—including poor whites—and should be shaken off just like other social maladies. Just like anti-immigration (sic) and racism. One will note that, in the defense of the earlier remarks, Obama still does not say anything objectively positive about the religion adhered to by the average rural white Pennsylvanian. What he actually says is that government should answer their prayers.

It does seem that hardly a day passes in which Barack Obama fails to give the nation another reason not to vote for him.

John McCain has to be the luckiest politican since James I & IV.

The rest of the results of the voting can be seen here.