Mahmoud for US President in 2008?

Imping for the Mahdi

Kosnik SallyKohn isn't the only gal with a crush on Iranian madman *Mamood Amadinejad. Ann Coulter thinks he should run for President of the US.

Democrats should run Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president. He's more coherent than Dennis Kucinich, he dresses like their base, he's more macho than John Edwards, and he's willing to show up at a forum where he might get one hostile question -- unlike the current Democratic candidates for president who won't debate on Fox News Channel. He's not married to an impeached president, and the name "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" is surely no more frightening than "B. Hussein Obama."

Whats wrong with Barry Obama's name? Obama is a Hawaiian or some other Pacific island name, no? Its not connected to Osama at all. We all know someone named Hoosayn or Hussein. Ann Coulter gives me the willies. Same-same Laura Ingraham, who hands out souvenir pens made in China. The Conservative Cat blogs a report from Bruce and Nate who went to the Stonegate Center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois tonight to hear Laura speak. They got free pens. Don't chew on those pens, kids. You don't know where they have been.
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* Scott Vorhees had a little spelling bee on his radio show. He and some guest were discussing the play "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". One word the guest couldn't spell was "Mahmoud Amadinejad". In fact, there is no correct way to spell the little ferret-faced fanatic's name using the English alphabet. Mamood is as good as Mahmoud. Arabic names are only spelled correctly using Arabic characters.

In modern usage, we don't translate Arabic or Farsi proper names. We transliterate them so that an English speaking reader saying the name aloud will sound as nearly as possible like an Arabic speaker pronouncing the name. There are no rules, only conventions. We use transliteration for most languages that don't share our alphabet, like Russian and Hindi. In contrast, American Red Indian names are generally translated from the native language, hence Mr. Crazy Horse instead of Mr. Ta' Shunke Witko. But see: Geronimo.