After This Election, Will Turkey "Islamify?" With most of the vote counted, the direction of the Turkish election is already clear - the ruling Islamist AKP party has scored an important victory. Barry Rubin, reporting for PJM from Istanbul, discusses the consequences of election results that would cause Ataturk - the father of the modern secular Turkish state - to spin in his grave.

A Good Meal Gone Bad What’s a foodie to do when a group of people she introduces to a new restaurant fail to appreciate the joys of oxtail croquettes and salt cod fritters? PJM’s culinary writer Nancy Rommelmann shares her tapas tragedy.

Assad Rides the Iranian Gravy Train Why are these men smiling? PJM Iran analyst Meir Javedanfar says it’s because Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has just made a worthwhile investment and Syrian president Bashar Assad is enjoying a windfall – a billion dollars from Iran to Syria — payment for refusing to talk peace.

Paris Lights: Tel Aviv A La Carte In the final installment of her adventures in Israel, PJM’s Paris editor Nidra Poller immerses herself in Tel Aviv life and discovers “a very special vitality, an immensely endearing sociability, awe-inspiring courage, tremendous human resources, intensity, creativity, industriousness, joie de vivre, sense of humor, a hotbed of humanity, a miracle.”

Week 27 in progress... Fred Thompson and Bill Richardson win week 26 Over 130,000 votes have been cast in the weekly PAJAMAS MEDIA PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL. The twenty-seventh week has officially begun.

DON’T FORGET: You can put the poll on your website or blog with our free voting widget and become a precinct in the Pajamas Media Straw Poll. Learn how the readers of your site are voting and compare it the the total.

Looking Down on the Empire State Building: A 1,680-foot skyscraper under construction in Dubai has been declared the world’s tallest building by its developers - its final height when completed is being kept secret. (AP)

Extreme (ist) Makeover: Omar Bakri Mohammed, anointed by the New York Times as a changed man, a newly moderate peacemaker? Rusty Shackleford doesn’t buy it, and he has the audio evidence to back up his position. (Jawa Report)

Peeping at Potter: Does reading Harry Potter spoilers make you a bad person? (Slate)

Glenn Reynolds and Ana Marie Cox on CNN YouTube Debate: Hot Air has the video from Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources.

As the Bin Laden Turns: Osama Bin Laden’s son faces being disowned by his family unless he ends his relationship with his second wife - a 51-year-old British grandmother who has been married five times. (Daily Mail)

Stephen Glass Redux? The blogosphere has been finding some troubling holes in a recent story in The New Republic. Gateway Pundit is counting down to a TNR apology.

See Something? Shut Up! Angry over the defeat of the John Doe amendment, Michelle Malkin is hosting a Fotoshop Festival (Photoshop Phestival?).

Rights and Privileges: John Edwards told an interviewer that a living wage, health care, a college education and Internet access are rights. Gun ownership is a privilege.

Rob at Say Anything is busy combing the Constitution to find out where it says anything about Internet access.

A Bad Sign for Mitt Romney:

Literally. It was a BAD SIGN. Dan Riehl suggests a closer look indicates that Romney was autographing the back of the sign and had no idea what was written on the front.

RIP, Tammy Faye Tammy Faye Messner, once Tammy Faye Bakker has succumbed to her third bout of cancer. Melissa McEwan of Shakesville seems like an unlikely admirer for a woman best known as televangelist, but she was a Tammy Faye fan — and explains why here.

Attempted Rescue in Afghanistan of South Korean Christian Aid Workers Underway - Slain German Aid Worker Found: Afghan security forces and international troops have launched an operation to rescue 23 South Korean Christian aid workers held hostage by Taliban militants. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Meanwhile, the body of a German aid worker kidnapped Wednesday in southern Afghanistan has been recovered. Two Germans and five Afghan colleagues had been held — the Taliban claims militants shot and killed the two Germans, but Afghan and German officials said intelligence indicated that one died of a heart attack and the other was still alive. (AP)