This is nice, but unfortunately doesn't degrade gracefully at all. This is understandable with full-page javascript apps, but getting something as small as this right is easy.
There are other problems with the 2nd plugin you noted (fyneworks.com jquery-star-rating-plugin). It has a lot of unresolved bugs. Check the Google Code Issues page: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-star-rating-plugin/issues/li... (particularly disappointed with Issue #25).
Other plugins that do it well: http://www.radioactivethinking.com/rateit/example/example.ht... http://www.fyneworks.com/jquery/star-rating