Links and Minifeatures 01 22 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: 1st million at 33 (thinking about money other than college in a 529), Ask Uncle Bill (how to get through college debt free - but speaking from experience, it is work!)



Carnival of the Capitalists

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This must be some new definition of the word free with which I was previously unacquainted: Venezuela's Chavez tells Washington "go to hell"

A State Department spokesman on Friday described Chavez's proposal to allow presidents to rule by decree as "a bit odd" in a democracy.



"That is a sacrosanct legal authority of Venezuela. Go to hell, gringos! Go home! Go home!" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "We're free here, and every day we'll be more free."

Free to follow Chavez' decrees, no doubt, and if they don't desire to do so, free to be beaten, imprisoned, or shot.

Chavez also plans to alter the nation's constitution, rewritten in 1999 following a campaign Chavez himself led, to boost state control over the economy and remove a two-term limit for presidents.

Free to do whatever Chavez wants this week, free to do his bidding as long as he lives and the bidding of his chosen successor after that...



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Murder of outspoken journalist tests Turkey's democratic gains



Turkey's Islamists have been fighting a battle against the secular constitution since it was enacted in the 1920s. Furthermore, Kemal Ataturk was a remarkable man, but he was also a proud Turk, and those secularists fighting both the Moslem hard-liners and Turkish pride are having a rough go of it:

The journalist, Hrant Dink, was a vocal critic of Turkey's treatment of its religious minorities and had been particularly outspoken against the government's policy of rejecting claims that the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 was genocide. He was shot in broad daylight just outside the offices of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, where he served as editor.



"A bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of expression. I condemn the traitorous hands behind this disgraceful murder," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on television soon after Mr. Dink was murdered. "This was an attack on our peace and stability."

So at least the Prime Minister said the correct words after the incident, and it sounds like he intends to follow through. Turkey is the Islamic country which has most confronted the issue of separation of church and state, and also one of the countries in the region where minorities are the most free (they can't say as much about minority civil rights in some european countries).



I wish them well.



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A very serious accusation: More evidence of Taliban leader hiding in Pakistan

A captured Taliban spokesman says Mr. Omar is hiding in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan Province, under the protection of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

I am inclined to believe it, given Pakistan's political situation, as well as previous reports.



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Why some Democrats worry that Clinton can't win



The problem both parties face today is that in both sets of primaries, the odds are stacked against the candidate that has a better chance in the general election. I don't think there's anybody but Hillary that can stop Hillary from getting the Democratic nomination, but the top Republican candidates (McCain and Giulani) outpoll her among the electorate at large. Problem is, I don't think either McCain or Giulani will be the Republican nominee when the dust settles. I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I disapprove of Ms. Clinton, but there are people in the race that could cause me to vote for her if they won the Republican nomination.



What could she do to convince me she's worthy of being president? Something unpopular with her core voters but nonetheless necessary for the country. Defend the vote she made authorizing the Iraq attack. Champion social security and entitlement reform. You get the idea. In eight years, her husband failed to lead the country where it needed to go once. I'm not happy with the prospect of another four to eight years of go where the media blows, and in the case of entitlement reform, we are at a stage where further delay may move us from something that is economically survivable to something that is not.



Related: Clinton Won't Take Public Funds for Presidential Race

``No serious candidate for president in 2008 is going to accept public funds,'' Toner said.

It's just saying that she can attract more in financing without the federal limits. Seems rational to me.



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If you live where you can buy Murphy Oil products, you might want to thank them with your wallet: Co. Pledges Millions for Scholarships



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Iran Bars 38 IAEA Nuclear Inspectors

"The IAEA has about 200 inspectors it could send to Iran, so stopping 38 of them will not impede its ability to carry out inspections, at least in the short term," he said. The move "demonstrates Iran's unwillingness to accept the U.N. Security Council mandate that it suspend enrichment."

Really? Next somebody may be thinking that they might want nukes of their own or something...



(Yes, I'm being sarcastic, as it's been obvious to everyone that Iran will do anything it must to create its own nuclear weapons for at least a year)



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Dinosaur May Have Resembled the Biplane

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When the Wright Brothers first took to the sky in a biplane, they were using a design nature may have tried 125 million years earlier. A new study of one of the earliest feathered dinosaurs suggests it may have had upper and lower sets of wings, much like the biplanes of early aviation.

Fascinating. Designed properly, biplanes do increase lift, but there are issues that mean monoplanes will replace them above certain weight-cost-power-lift tradeoff points.