Links and Minifeatures 12 16 Friday

Camp Katrina wrote to tell us to compare and contrast the treatment the media gives conservatives with a given problem, with the treatment they give liberals with the exact same problem. In other words: Oh. That liberal media bias.

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If you don't know who he is, don't release him until you do. This is not a difficult concept, but at least one Iraqi evidently needs some remedial on it: Iraq Freed al-Zarqawi Last Year



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Let me get this straight. Instead of being heartless corporate drones, some Ralphs managers had a heart and snuck around the company to rehire some people who couldn't afford to miss work due to a lockout, and Now they're being criminally indicted?



Folks, that particular strike was felony level stupidity on behalf of the union leadership. They led their workers right off a cliff over the "principle" of 100% covered health benefits - something the supermarkets who deal with the union could no longer afford and stay competitive. If it had been the supermarkets intent to break the union over it, they easily could have. Instead they gave the union a pretty decent contract at a point when otherwise the union would have been as dead as PATCO. If the individual workers don't want to go out, if they want to keep working, if they're willing to stand up and tell the union that it's being unreasonable in the first place, shouldn't that be their option?



Given the competitiveness and thin net margins in the local grocery market, it would have been to the stores' advantage to crush the union while it had the chance, especially since they had made the investment of the three month strike. That they did not indicates they're trying to be good citizens - better citizens than their nonunion competition. For the government to then come down on them for their acts of compassion is real incentive not to be so nice next time. And people say that corporations have undue influence over the political process.



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I'm not certain a Fatah victory would have made that much difference, but Hamas rolls to victory in local West Bank voting is not good news.



Captain's Quarters analyses Hamas strategy, and what could be done to counter it.



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Wizbang has a post up debunking the worst media myths about the flooding in New Orleans. I don't agree 100 percent (how many cities are not only below sea level but below a large adjacent lake that hurricanes regularly funnel water into as well?). Nonetheless, a lot of valid points.



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HT to Mudville Gazette for a pointer to the stirring story of a Wall Street Journal writer who has become one of our newest Marine lieutenants today. Go read the whole thing.



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Iraq the Model has extensive election coverage, much of it personally observed. Estimates are that the turnout was around an incredible 70%! I don't think any american state has hit that in thirty years. Congratulations to the Iraqi people. Like Ben Franklin told us two hundred eighteen years ago: You've got a democracy if you can keep it.



Mudville Gazette has a wonderful roundup of the Iraqi elections.



Indepundit has a concise synopsis, and compares it to what various large media outlets are saying.



Victor Davis Hanson has the strategic level review.



On the Unhinged front, Decision '08 has found the top ten Kos reactions so we don't have to.



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A dose of much needed budget rationality from Asymmetrical Information. That A may be a worse problem than B is in no wise an excuse for not dealing with B. Quite frankly, I doubt that the political will to stop the social security/medicare trainwreck exists. Nonetheless, it is in everyone's best interest to start dealing with it now. The longer we wait, the worse the coming torture going to be. Right now we're at "Rogue Police Interrogation." I'd really prefer to deal with it before we get to "Inquisition," let alone "People shredder."



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Looks like the Yemeni regime is really unhappy with Armies of Liberation, They're speaking in Tongues!

There are many who interested on writing about the Yemeni affairs. But only few of them who put the hand on the defectiveness places to diagnosing the situation in the country. May be the American journalist and political analyst Jane Novak taking advanced position on the experts list of the Yemeni cases. However, she is new epoch in interesting the Yemeni Affaires.



There is no dubiety that the media campaign against Novak powered by the governmental and rule party media and others which orb in it's falk supported it's thesis. It was busy with attacking Novak and harassing her instead of explaining the wrong thing in which she was talking about. It was thinking that in this way they will kill her theses against the corruption in the state.

Gate. Hinge. Ne'er the twain shall meet.



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Here's some rationality from a Hollywood personality: Freeman Criticizes Black History Month



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Michelle Malkin lays the smackdown on the NY Times on the whole "domestic spying" thing.



The reaction I had when I heard about it was basically "Hooray!!", and now I say "Hooray!!" wholeheartedly for someone willing to stand up and call BS BS. The whole privacy issue is over-rated and wrong headed, a product of wrong assumptions, as I go over in the articles here. Get over it.



Scrappleface hits the nail dead on the head.



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HT to Instapundit for a link to a Club for Growth article about Sugar protectionism killing the domestic candy industry.



I get to go to my daughter's play! Bye for now!