And now, this report from the Watcher’s Council

As far as I’m concerned, this was a very good week at the Watcher’s Council. It’s not just that I placed second, which was nice. More importantly, the non-council post I nominated placed first (and that in itself is a first for me). So, without further ado, let me introduce you to the first and second place winners in both categories.

On the Council member’s side, first place went to Right Wing Nut House for Is War With Iran Now Just a Matter of Time?, a grim, but clear and important analysis of the speed with which we’re moving to a military confrontation with Iran. Second place, as I said, was mine for Freedom, But From What?, in which I examined the different expectations the Left and the Right have when it comes to freedom from government interference, and the areas in which they’re willing to have the government start nosing around in their lives.

On the non-Council side, a big first place went to Acute Politics for Dead Eyes, a really beautiful look at the changing of the guard in Iraq, as the new guys role in and the old guys, with their “dead eyes,” head out.

Second place went to a Dean Barnett piece called Iraq the Model posted at Hugh Hewitt’s website.  It’s a great piece that talks about the meaning behind the casualty numbers in Iraq, and about the importance a victory in Iraq has (beyond proving the Moonbats wrong).

As is usually the case, the competition was incredibly stiff for all of the nominations.  It took me a long, long time to figure out which posts I wanted to vote for, since I was trying to pick from so many incredibly good offerings on both the Council and non-Council side.  You can see the rest of the results here and I bet you, too, will think that a lot of the ones that ranked lower in the voting could just as easily have placed.