Links and Minifeatures 11 30 Friday

Politics, American Style at Scrappleface.

Cute Geography Game

Michelle Malkin on CNN using questions from democratic activist plants at the republican debate, and allowing them to misidentify their actual positions.

Hot Air has video of one.

I used to be disgusted. Now I'm just jaded. Luckily, the internet makes this easy to discover. Thanks, Michelle.

Man takes hostages in NH Clinton office

Here's hoping "the bomb" is just Hillarycare II. (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

Really, let us hope that nobody gets hurt. Despite my dislike of Ms. Clinton's politics and personal character, she's entitled to sell her message unhindered. If not enough people decide to buy, that's her problem. If enough do, well, she'd be entitled to the presidency, however much I might dislike it.

It did cross my mind that with her campaign hurting in recent weeks, this might be a put-up of some sort so she can play the victim card that won her the senate race again. But it's too easy (and far less prone to investigation) just to let Bill do what he does naturally instead. With how easily plots are researched once there's reason (see above for one of millions of examples), I don't think even John Edwards is that stupid and uneducated in the power of the internet any longer.

Islamic rage, edition seventeen trillion and forty three: Calls in Sudan for execution of Briton

Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

They called for Gibbons' execution, saying, "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

She was imprisoned for nine days, for allowing a student to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." Which was, incidentally, the boy's own name. How many children in the US and elsewhere have stuffed animals named after themselves or a family member? But because the boy's name happened to be Muhammad, they go ballistic with the clubs and knives, straight out of the mob scene.

This is about power, plain and simple. If they didn't want the name used for other things, they shouldn't be using it for other things. How many Buddhists do you know called "Buddha"? How many evangelicals named "Jesus" (Catholics do it, and that's fine by their lights - but they don't get upset when the name gets applied to dolls and stuffed animals by those same kids).

These people need to be told point blank to get their thinking out of the seventh century if they want to be considered fit for the rest of the world to trade and associate with. This sort of thinking is nothing less than a disease, and far more dangerous than most such. Nobody has any kind of a natural right not to be offended. The only people who would try to enforce such a thing are dictators and absolute monarchs, able to enforce it at the point of a gun.

Round and round she goes, where she stops, everyone knows: EU-Iranian talks break up; no compromise.

Talks between Iran and the European Union broke up Friday without compromise on Tehran's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, and the top EU foreign policy envoy said he was disappointed at Tehran's refusal to budge.

But this way, the politicians can pretend they did something about it to their constituents.

I expected more and therefore I am disappointed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after a five-hour session with the Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. The failure of the meeting was likely to increase pressure for new U.N. Security Council sanctions, with the five permanent council members set to discuss such actions Saturday.

Just minutes before Solana spoke, Jalili had sent a different message, describing his meeting as "good" and saying the two men had arranged to meet again next month.

Solana, the EU representative, isn't fooling anyone. All these talks do is buy Iran time to achieve nuclear weapons and allow the EU politicians to pretend they did something to stop it, so they don't have to rattle sabers they don't have, and they won't get lynched when Iran launches nukes. I'd say the whole thing is like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, except that 1) The EU is more like the fiddle, and 2) It's a myth that Nero fiddled while Rome burned in the first place.

Kasparov: Russian election a farce

Former chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov on Friday dismissed Russia's parliamentary elections this weekend as a farce that will push the country toward what he called a "single-party dictatorship."

A day after he was released from five days in jail for a street protest, Kasparov said massive state support for President Vladimir Putin's party and growing pressure on dissenters will cast a mantle of illegitimacy over the Kremlin and will galvanize its opponents.

Mr. Kasparov cares about his country, which has gone from mostly democratic back to autocratic in less than a decade, and if it continues on this course will once again be a police state within the term of our next president. Bush Sr, Clinton, and Bush Jr. all share the blame for this.

"A meaningful number of political forces ... are being excluded from the process," Kasparov said, leaving tens of millions of Russians without any chance of representation by politicians who share their views.

"This in itself makes the election a farce, and the volume of falsifications, violations and pressure on any political opponents and political criticism is pushing the current regime into illegitimacy," he said.

Turk army gets green light to hit rebels in N.Iraq

"Intelligence reports show about 2,000 of the rebels have passed into Iran and a further 1,000 into Turkey, leaving only about 500 or so in caves in the Qandil mountains (of northern Iraq). This is not worth a major military operation," he said.

This is, nonetheless, something that we need to shut down, and fast. How would we feel about it if seperatist rebels were hiding out just north of the border in Alberta, and the Canadian government was letting them operate?

Off to go get the new puppy.