Top Items:
Flemming Rose / Washington Post:
Why I Published Those Cartoons — Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words.
Discussion:
USS Neverdock, Rantingprofs, Why Are We Back In Iraq?, A Blog For All, Riehl World View and Hyscience
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Njadvara Musa / Associated Press:
At Least 15 Die in Nigeria Cartoon Protest — MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
BBC:
Nigeria cartoon protests kill 16 — Sixteen people have been killed in northern Nigeria during protests by Muslims over the cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. — Most of the deaths occurred in rioting in Maiduguri, capital of north-eastern Borno state. One person died in similar riots in north-central Katsina state.
Observer:
Nigeria cartoon riots kill 16 — Churches burned in widespread violence as Danish cartoonist defends publication — Amelia Hill and Anushka Asthana — Rioting over the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad claimed another 16 lives last night in Nigeria as churches were burned by protesting Muslims.
Discussion:
Super Fun Power Hour
Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
Crossing the Line on a Cable Show? — Dana Milbank can be controversial with readers. The Post reporter has his fans — and I can be one of them — but I think his appearance on MSNBC last week was a mistake in judgment. — Milbank wore hunting gear — an orange stocking cap and striped vest …
Telegraph:
Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK — Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today. — The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers …
Claudia Rosett / Weekly Standard:
Cash-for-Kofi — DESPITE FREQUENT DECLARATIONS OF REFORM, it seems that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has learned nothing from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food scandal, in which Saddam Hussein's billions corrupted the U.N.'s entire Iraq embargo bureaucracy.
Simon Jenkins / Times of London:
Bush and Blair have brilliantly done Bin Laden's work for him — Is Osama Bin Laden winning after all? Until recently I would have derided such a thought. How could a tinpot fanatic who is either dead or shut in some mountain hideout hold the world to ransom for five years?
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Cheering tidbits lighten otherwise grim week — In an otherwise grim week — at least on unimportant peripheral matters like Iranian nukes — three things cheered me up. The first was the decision of Iran's bakers to rename Danish pastries "Roses of the Prophet Muhammed pastries.'' Has a ring to it, don't you think?
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Washington Post:
Bush Calls For More Muscle In Darfur — ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 17 — President Bush on Friday called for doubling the number of international troops in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan and a bigger role for NATO in the peacekeeping effort. — Bush has concluded that peace talks …
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Victor Davis Hanson / victorhanson.com:
Why No Nukes for Iran? — The rules of the game. — National Review Online — How many times have we heard the following whining and yet received no specific answers from our leaders? — "Israel has nuclear weapons, so why single out Iran?" — "Pakistan got nukes and we lived with it."
Rocky Mountain News:
Temple: Readers thank News for cartoons — The images of rampaging mobs are almost unbelievable. — How can it be, we ask ourselves, that people think it's justified to burn and destroy over what they perceive as an offense to their religion? — In the face of such madness …
Kobayashi Maru:
The Saddam Tapes - Firsthand From the Intelligence Summit — Thanks to Manchester Terrier for being our typing fingers this morning in a hurried cell phone de-brief from the Intelligence Summit in Washington, DC. He hit the highlights very well. All errors are ours. We will attempt to correct them today and tomorrow.
Joan Walsh / Salon:
Abu Ghraib and Salon — By continuing to publish documentation of the abuse, we hope to shed light on a chapter in American history that this administration has tried to keep in the shadows. — Pages 1 2 — Print EmailFont: S / S+ / S++ — An "unknown man handcuffed naked to cell door," according to the CID report.
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Democrat Taylor Marsh Blogs Politics …:
Cheney's Story Gets Another Challenger … We've decided it's 15 yards, but a 10-15 assessment from this "old time quail hunter" sounds good to me. — Another doctor, among several already, believes Whittington was closer to Cheney when he was shot.
Michael Janofsky / New York Times:
Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists — WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — One of the perquisites of being president is the ability to have the author of a book you enjoyed pop into the White House for a chat. — Over the years, a number of writers have visited President Bush …
Nir Rosen / New York Times:
Iraq's Jordanian Jihadis — Jordan has long been thought of as the quiet country of the Middle East. People called it the Hashemite Kingdom of Boredom and went there for a rest. King Hussein and his son, King Abdullah II, who assumed the throne in February 1999, were friendly enough …
Discussion:
The Washington Note
Washington Post:
Dems Need A Newt Of Their Own — The Party Can't Have a Revolution Without the Revolutionaries — Back in 1992, seven upstart Republican freshmen forced real change in the House of Representatives. — Egged on by a more senior revolutionary, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) …
Robin Toner / New York Times:
Drug Plan's Start May Imperil G.O.P.'s Grip on Older Voters — WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Older voters, a critical component of Republican Congressional victories for more than a decade, could end up being a major vulnerability for the party in this year's midterm elections, according to strategists in both parties.
Discussion:
The Emerging Democratic …
