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02 Jul 2009 14:06
- JULY 2, 2009
Desperately Seeking Silver Linings
The press corps and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad economy.
Best of the Tube This Weekend Tomorrow is Independence Day in Belarus, and we won't be doing a column in observance of the Fourth of July. You can catch us this weekend, however, discussing the Supreme Court on "The Journal Editorial Report," Saturday at 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Fox News Channel.
Desperately Seeking Silver Linings Have you noticed a change in the economic news over the past year or so? It's a deliberately ambiguous question: The actual news has gotten worse, but the coverage of it has changed in tone. Today, reporters are eagerly looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. A year ago, and for a long time before that, they couldn't wait to get into the tunnel.
What changed? Yeah, like you need to ask. It has been fascinating, though, to observe the way reporters have tried to make bad news look like good. We noted a prime example last month: a dispatch by Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press titled "US Loses Just 345,000 Jobs in May, Raising Hopes":
Employers throttled back on layoffs in May and cut the fewest jobs in any month since the financial crisis erupted last fall--raising the brightest hope yet that an economic recovery will take hold later this year.
Aversa added that they know they're going to change that tune when they're back on top, back on top in June: "Economists expect the pace of layoffs to keep tapering off." It did not, and her dispatch on today's employment figures, Aversa is hard-pressed to find any cause for optimism:
Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy. . . .
June's payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.
However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn't as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.
Not until the 15th paragraph does she make a wan attempt at optimism: "Even with higher pace of job cuts in June, the report indicates that the worst of the layoffs have passed."
The New York Times, meanwhile, reports that "the figures also raised questions about whether the Obama administration, which has already passed a $787 billion stimulus plan, needed to step in again to shore up the American worker." They raise questions, as well, about whether it was worth "stepping in" in the first place--but apparently these questions do not interest anyone in the Times newsroom.
On another economic front, however, there was bad news that could still be packaged as good news. reports:
Automakers welcomed a 28 percent drop in US auto sales in June as a sign that the badly hit industry was stabilizing and expressed hope that a government-funded "cash for clunkers" program would drive vehicle sales in July.
This is the first time sales have fallen by less than 30 percent since the market crashed in September of 2008, according to Autodata.
If these welcome trends continue, the auto industry will be as stable as Yasser Arafat's condition.
To Whom It May Concern "Obama Tells the AP He Is Deeply Concerned About Rising Unemployment"--headline, Associated Press, July 2
Two Papers in One! On Monday, by a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court turned back the most recent effort to subvert justice with a stirring defense of equal employment opportunity, the right of anyone employed by the government to be judged without regard to race. The court ruled that firemen in New Haven, Conn., have that cherished right. It was a very good day for people who value equality and abhor New Haven's attempts to turn its fire department into a constitutional-rights-free zone. It was disturbing that four justices dissented from this eminently reasonable decision.
By contrast, last year when the court ruled that terrorists at Guantanamo Bay have constitutional rights, four of the nine justices agreed with the Bush administration. That underscored the reasonableness of the administration's views.
We know, we're being ridiculous. Naturally, it is in order to make a point. The foregoing two paragraphs borrowed language from the New York Times's editorials on Ricci v. DeStefano and Boumediene v. Bush, the cases involving firemen and terrorists, respectively, and just switched the cases. Here's the Times on Ricci:
The case is already being used as ammunition against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, who sided with New Haven at the appeals court level. If the Monday ruling says anything about Judge Sotomayor, however, it underscores the reasonableness of her views. . . . Four of the nine justices--including David Souter, whose seat Judge Sotomayor would take--agreed with the result she reached.
And the Times on Boumediene:
On Thursday, the court turned back the most recent effort to subvert justice with a stirring defense of habeas corpus, the right of anyone being held by the government to challenge his confinement before a judge.
The court ruled that the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have that cherished right, and that the process for them to challenge their confinement is inadequate. It was a very good day for people who value freedom and abhor Mr. Bush's attempts to turn Guantánamo Bay into a constitutional-rights-free zone. . . .
It was disturbing that four justices dissented from this eminently reasonable decision.
Now of course there's nothing wrong with agreeing with some Supreme Court decisions while disagreeing with others. But the Times editorialists must really have a dearth of good arguments--or of skills at argumentation--when they resort to an appeal to the authority of the dissenting justices in one case, while finding the mere fact of a dissent "disturbing" in the other.
Saddam Lied, Saddam Died! Like Francisco Franco, Saddam Hussein is still dead, but the Washington Post reports on a new (all right, newly released) series of interviews with the Iraqi dictator, who was hanged in 2006 for crimes against humanity. The Post reports that Saddam acknowledged to an FBI interviewer "that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran":
Hussein, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the perceived threat from "fanatic" leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a "security agreement with the United States to protect [Iraq] from threats in the region." . . .
Hussein noted that Iran's weapons capabilities had increased dramatically while Iraq's weapons "had been eliminated by the UN sanctions," and that eventually Iraq would have to reconstitute its weapons to deal with that threat if it could not reach a security agreement with the United States.
The bad news is that Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons. The good news is that Iraq has reached a security agreement with the U.S.
This ought to (but will not) silence those who've been determined to rewrite history with the claim that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were an invention of President Bush. Bush did not lie; he made a mistake--the same mistake everyone else in the world made, and a mistake Saddam, now by his own admission, encouraged them to make.
If Saddam was a victim, it was not of American lies and aggression but of his own too-successful efforts at misdirection.
Dave Barry Turns 62 The Jerusalem Post reports on the latest efforts to crush dissent in Iran:
On Monday, witnesses said thousands of policemen and Basij militiamen carrying batons were deployed in Teheran's main squares to prevent any recurrence of the opposition protests. Drivers who so much as shouted "Allahu Akbar" or beeped their horns had their windows smashed by the Basiji and riot police.
Women police, better known as the Sisters of Zeynab, are also now out in force, the witnesses said.
"Some people are still going out into the streets, but there is despair and sadness," said one source. "Now we are told that [pro-Mousavi] green bands are illegal, which is ironic because it symbolizes the color of Islam."
Sisters of Zeynab would be a good name for a band. But on a serious note, how desperate must the supposedly Islamic regime be when it is banning green and turning on people who shout "God is great"?
Life Imitates the Onion
- "Denver Optometrist Not Sure Why He Has Gay Cult Following"--headline, Onion, March 6, 2002
- "Bob Schieffer Not Sure Why His Ratings Are Going Up"--headline, U.S. News & World Report Web site, July 1, 2009
Enron Might Still Be in Business "If Paul Krugman Were a Woman"--headline, Slate.com, July 1
'Well, but G--, What of the Purloined Letter?' "Dems Accuse Otten of Stealing Obama's 'O' "--headline, Portland (Maine) Press Herald, July 1
Rule No. 1: Follow Commandment VI "What Is He Thinking? Sanford Violates All Rules of Sex Scandal Management"--headline, FoxNews.com, July 1
Only if They're Mark Sanford "Do Men See Mark Sanford in the Mirror?"--headline, Los Angeles Times, July 2
Really, Ghee Is Not My Butter "State Fair Clarifies Butter Jackson Issue"--headline, Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), July 1
For the Love of God, Leave the Palin Girls Alone "New Milford Legion Team Nips Bristol"--headline, News-Times (Danbury, Conn.), July 1
Oh, That's What They Mean by 'Roommates'! "Wisconsin to Recognize Domestic Partnerships"--headline, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 1
The Patient Lapsed Into a Comma "Swedish Docs Cleared Over Misplaced Colon"--headline, Local (Sweden), July 1
Even So, May We Borrow Your Gun?
"Expert Warns of Danger to Consumer Lending Arms"--headline, Financial Times, July 1It's Always in the Last Place You Look
"Missing Cat Appears on BBC1's Question Time"--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), July 1- "Bear Whacks NJ Guy, Gloms His Sandwich"--headline, Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.), July 2
- "Flight Diverted After Passenger Undresses in Seat"--headline,
- "When Budget Crisis Looms, This Mayor Dons a Speedo"--headline, Christian Science Monitor
- "Ant Mega-Colony Takes Over World"--headline, BBC
"Doctor's Healing Hands Work on Body's Woes"--headline, Indianapolis Star, July 2- "Clinton Not Going to Moscow"--headline,
- "Ukraine's National Football Team Is 19th in FIFA Rating"--headline, For-UA.com, July 2
- "Gwyneth Paltrow Says Spain Changed Her Life"--headline, , July 1
- "Emotion, Few Details, in Obama's Health Care Pitch"--headline, Associated Press, July 1
He Should Stick to Boehling
We don't know how much Eric Boehlert gets paid for working at MediaMutters.org, but even if he does it gratis, George Soros is not getting his money's worth. Boehlert criticized this column yesterday in a real head-scratcher of a post:[James] Taranto writes the Journal's Best of the Web column, and boy the [Mark] Sanford story couldn't be of less interest to the very serious conservative writer. . . . For Taranto, who covers the waterfront each day for the Journal highlighting the day's most important political developments, the Sanford saga is a total non-starter. . . .
Less than three percent of the stories that Taranto has been flagging since the middle of last week are about Sanford, because his very public fall from grace is of no interest to Journal writers; the same Journal writers who literally could not sleep at night during the 1990's knowing that Bill Clinton had not yet been impeached or put in jail for his allegedly abusive and selfish ways.
It's an odd but common criticism that so-and-so writer or blogger has not written about such-and-such topic. It seldom seems to occur to the critics that so-and-so may simply be uninterested in such-and-such, or have nothing of interest to say about it.
But Boehlert's criticism is even more weird, because it has no basis in reality. We have written extensively on the Sanford story--last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and this Tuesday. Further, we are almost certain Boehlert's claim that our colleagues "literally could not sleep at night during the 1990s" is sheer fantasy. We don't recall any discussion of insomnia around the office, and we very much doubt our colleagues would have confided in Boehlert about any sleep difficulties they were having.
Boehlert seems to suspect some sort of political bias (in an opinion column, heaven forbid!) because our imaginary lack of coverage of the Sanford story contrasts with our treatment of President Clinton's impeachment. This column did not even exist at the time Clinton was impeached, but we will concede that if it did, we probably would have written more about Clinton then than we are writing about Sanford now.
This hypothetical discrepancy is quite easy to explain. Clinton was president of the United States; Sanford is merely governor of a medium-size state. Anything the president does is much bigger news than if the South Carolina governor does the same thing. A few weeks ago President Obama made headlines just by taking his wife out on a date. Can you imagine anyone paying attention if Sanford took his wife out? Well, before last week, we mean.
MediaMutters styles itself a media watchdog or critic or something along those lines. Wouldn't you think the people it employs would at least have some rudimentary understanding of news judgment?
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Mark Van Der Molen, Amanda Brickell, Evan Slatis, Karl Maki, Arlene Ross, Thomas Linehan, Abe Beyda, Judah Spetner, John Williamson, Michael Segal, Ethel Fenig, Clark Whelton, Hugh Phelps, Ed Desautels, Doug Jeffreys, Shimon Bollinger, Steve Prestegard, Roger Drake, Eric Nilsson, Michael Ellard, William White, Timothy Wilder, Bruce Goldman, Scott Romesburg, Dennis Powell, Yehuda Hilewitz, Cameron Graber, Tom George, Donald Walker, Gad Meir, Brendan Schulman, Doug Black, Daniel Foty and John Sanders. If you have a tip, write us at
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01 Jul 2009 17:51
- JULY 1, 2009
Haughty Hamas Honcho Plays Pundit
Someone should tell this guy there's no "O" in "jihad."
Israel's Arutz Sheva reports that a notorious Arab terrorist is taking credit for Barack Obama's election as president:
In a public address delivered on Al-Aqsa TV by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, the Damascus-based terror boss informed Arab viewers that U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama came to power in the United States due to Islamic jihad in the Middle East.
During the June 25 discourse, Mashaal said Obama's administration, and its interest in achieving détente with the Arab world, did not come about through American altruism. Rather, witnessing the combative efforts of Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Afghanis led Americans to vote for Obama in order to "protect their own interests."
Mashaal's error is obvious to anyone who knows U.S. politics from the inside. It's the economy, stupid terrorist--that's the chief reason Obama was elected. But Mashaal has a parochial view of the world: When the only tool you have is a suicide bomb, every problem looks like a jihad.
If he were honest about his own limitations, he would acknowledge that he doesn't understand America well enough to explain why Obama was elected. But he may be so ignorant that he doesn't even know what he doesn't know--and the self-serving nature of his taking credit for Obama's victory reinforces his bias in favor of such an explanation.
One needn't be a despicable terrorist to make this cognitive error. Americans are often prone to it. Think of how many of the president's supporters credited the "Obama effect" for the favorable outcome in the recent Lebanese elections. Left-wing foreign-policy orthodoxy revolves around the assumption that the ultimate cause of any problem in the world is some evil or stupid American act--e.g., Iran is ruled by a tyranny because America supported a coup there sometime around the middle of last century. Obama himself hesitated to criticize the Iranian regime's postelection brutality because, he suggested, any U.S. "meddling" would hurt the good guys.
No doubt this column has made the same error at times, overestimating the beneficial effects of U.S. policies we liked or the ill effects of ones we disliked. Can we just stipulate we were being tongue-in-cheek?
Heads Obama Wins, Tails You Lose The New York Times "news analysis" claims President Obama has managed to outsmart Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez--by supporting another aspiring dictator who is aligned with Chavez. Here is the curious logic:
From the moment the coup in Honduras unfolded over the weekend, President Hugo Chávez had his playbook ready. He said Washington's hands may have been all over the ouster, claiming that it financed President Manuel Zelaya's opponents and insinuating that the C.I.A. may have led a campaign to bolster the putschists.
But President Obama firmly condemned the coup, defusing Mr. Chávez's charges. Instead of engaging in tit-for-tat accusations, Mr. Obama calmly described the coup as "illegal" and called for Mr. Zelaya's return to office. While Mr. Chávez continued to portray Washington as the coup's possible orchestrator, others in Latin America failed to see it that way.
"Obama Leads the Reaction to the Coup in Honduras," read the front-page headline on Tuesday in Estado de São Paulo, one of the most influential newspapers in Brazil, whose ties to Washington are warm.
In recent years, Mr. Chávez has often seemed to outmaneuver Washington on such issues. He exploited the Bush administration's low standing after the Iraq war and its tacit approval for the brief coup that toppled him in 2002, and blamed the United States for ills in Venezuela and across the region.
Now such tactics may get less traction, as the Obama administration presses for a multilateral solution to the crisis in Honduras by turning to the Organization of American States.
Zelaya's ouster is no "coup" but a lawful transition of power made necessary by his own defiance. As our colleague Mary O'Grady points out, the Honduran Supreme Court had ordered a halt to his unconstitutional efforts to extend his term, and the military arrested him for defying the court's order. It's as if the Angry Left's paranoid fantasy had come true and George W. Bush refused to leave office this January.
A Times news story reports that the OAS--the group to which Obama is turning "for a multilateral solution"--has issued an "ultimatum to Honduras that it would be suspended from the organization if Mr. Zelaya was not returned to power." Obama and the OAS, thus are all on the wrong side--Chavez's side. It seems awfully credulous to say Obama outmaneuvered Chavez. It's more like the other way around.
How Dare You Hassle a Journalist? The other day we had to mail something, so we went to the post office. Imagine our shock when we had to wait in line behind a bunch of other people! Don't they know we're a journalist? Inconveniencing us is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
We don't really believe that, of course, but sometimes our fellow journalists act as if they do. CQPolitics.com reports that "a veteran American journalist returning from Latin America on Saturday was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to":
John Dinges, a former NPR managing editor for news and currently professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, landed at Miami International Airport June 27 after visiting Venezuela and Chile.
After examining his passport, he said, the CBP agent asked him, "What were you doing on this trip?"
Don't the border agents ask questions like that all the time? Why yes, CQPolitics informs us: "Returning Americans are routinely asked such general questions."
So why is this a story? Well, Dinges didn't feel like answering detailed questions:
He said the agent demanded to know "exactly" where he went and whom he met with.
"I told him I was not comfortable answering those kinds of questions," said Dinges, who has written three books on Latin America.
The agent told him he had to answer, and Dinges replied, "I feel protected by the Constitution." Whereupon "the officer told him, 'If you don't want to talk, we can go to the back room, and you can discuss this with my supervisor.' "
Dinges cracked under the pressure:
Feeling threatened, and having to catch a connecting flight within the hour, Dinges relented, and "started to talk about meetings and where and who I'd talked to."
"I felt I had to keep talking and give him details until he was satisfied," said Dinges. . . .
Dinges thought "Adams" [the agent] had "crossed a line" against First Amendment protections of the press, and told him so.
The agent responded, "I didn't cross the line," Dinges said.
"I wanted to say it didn't matter what you think but what the law is, because we're a nation of laws, not individuals," Dinges said. But he bit his tongue.
As it turns out, the agent did not cross any line: "Customs and Border Protection officers can indeed ask anyone, including journalists, anything, according to spokesman Michael Friel." Friel tells CQPolitics, "There are no specific guidelines about reporters."
Dinges would have been ethically obliged not to answer the border officer's questions if doing so would involve betraying a confidential source. There is no indication that this was at issue, but we suppose it could have been. The bottom line, however, is that whatever principle Dinges claims to be defending was not important enough to him to risk missing his connecting flight.
Anyone can sympathize with Dinges to the extent that we all hate being hassled by bureaucrats. But the idea that it is outrageous for a journalist to endure an ordinary inconvenience is offensive to nonjournalists and embarrassing to any sensible journalist.
Where the Bodies Are Buried What do the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's first "supreme leader," and Neda Agha-Soltan, the Khomeinist regime's most famous victim, have in common? According to FindAGrave.com, they are both buried in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery.
Apparently BeZ is the biggest cemetery in Iran, so perhaps this isn't all that surprising. Less surprising still is the contrast between the two memorials: Neda is buried in a simple plot with a small marker, whereas Khomeini lies in a mausoleum alongside his son, who died in 1995, and beneath a garish green chandelier.
We look forward to the day when Neda has a memorial worthy of her and Khomeini is in the dirt.
The Heat Is Off Yesterday we noted that President Obama was touting California, with its decades-old "energy-efficiency policies," as an example to the nation. After all, the president noted, "Californians consume 40 percent less energy per person than the national average."
As Harvard's Edward Glaeser pointed out in an April New York Times blog post, the "primary reason" California's energy consumption is low is the weather:
January temperature does a terrific job of explaining carbon emissions from home heating and July temperature does almost as well at explaining electricity usage. California has the most temperate climate in the country and as a result, homes use less heat in the winter and less electricity in the summer. In hot, humid Houston or frigid Minneapolis, people use plenty of energy to artificially recreate what California has naturally.
Obama also claimed that California's paucity of power plants is evidence of its success. But California uses more electricity than it generates--some 53 terawatt-hours more in 2007, or just over 20% of total consumption, according to the federal Energy Information Administration--which means it has to import power from other states not subject to California's environmental restrictions.
Moreover, also according to the EIA, Californians pay an average of 14.42 cents a kilowatt-hour of electricity, the sixth-highest rate in the contiguous U.S. and more than the average of any region except New England. Obama, it seems, would like to make the rest of the country pay California prices for energy. It might be worth it if he could guarantee us California weather.
Life Imitates Monty Python
- New Mother: "Is it a boy or a girl?" Obstretrician: "I think it's a bit early to start imposing roles on it, don't you?"--dialogue from "The Meaning of Life," 1983
- "A couple of Swedish parents have stirred up debate in the country by refusing to reveal whether their two-and-a-half-year-old child is a boy or a girl. . . . In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction. 'We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,' Pop's mother said. 'It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.' "--Local (Sweden), June 23, 2009
You Call This Fair and Balanced? "Fox Snatches Lunch From Boy Before Attacking Woman, 76"--headline, FoxNews.com, July 1
Not Another Wardrobe Malfunction! "Michael Jackson's Body to Be Publicly Displayed"--headline, NetNewsDaily.com, June 30
They Used to Play Golf on Sunday "Five Cardiologists Switch to Presbyterian"--headline, Charlotte Observer, June 30
I'm So Sorry, It's the Moops "Moors Victim Mother's Brady Plea"--headline, BBC Web site, July 1
Hey Lady, I'm Trying to File This Thing! Get Off! "El Paso Woman Accused of Lying on Tax Returns"--headline, El Paso Times, July 1
Someone Better Alert Women "Men Told Have Sex Daily to Boost Sperm Quality, Fertility"--headline, FoxNews.com, June 30
An Incentive to Leave, Not to Weave "Tax Hike Looms in Lindon"--headline, Daily Herald (Provo, Utah), July 1
Help Wanted "Ex-Pastor Sought in Ind. Multimillion-Dollar Fraud"--headline, Associated Press, June 30
- "Woman's Silicon Breasts Burst as She Lands in California"--headline, Pravda, July 1
- "Cross-Dressing Clown Robs Boulder Liquor Store"--headline, Denver Post
- "Family Told to Remove Trampoline 'Because It Could Be Used by Burglars' "--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), June 30
- "Is Facebook an Israeli Plot to Control the World?"--headline, Jerusalem Post
- "Michael Jackson Returning to Iowa State Fair--in Butter"--headline, Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), June 30
- "Biden to Take New Role Overseeing Iraq Policy"--headline, Agence France-Presse
News of the Tautological "Mobile-Home Park Residents to Move"--headline, Seattle Times, June 30
- "Doctors Warn Against 'Swine Flu Parties' "--headline, CNN.com
- "A Body Like Carla Bruni? Easy! Book a Session With 'Speedy' Sarkozy's Personal Trainer"--headline, Daily Mail (London), July 1
- "Utah Officials Warn TV Viewers Not to Shoot Their Old TV Sets"--headline, Associated Press
- "Beware the Obama 'Evil Eye' "--headline, Drudge Report, June 30
- "Texas Museum to Open Display of 500 Cowboy Hats"--headline, Associated Press
- "Watsonville Preschool Cited for Ear and Nose Pulling"--headline, Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel, June 30
- "Biden Fails to Draw Crowd in Erie"--headline, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Web site, July 1
- "Mark Sanford: I Had Tryst on Long Island"--headline, Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), June 30
- "California Fails to Meet Budget Deadline"--headline, , July 1
Return to Sender? Remember Cynthia McKinney? She's the nutjob former Atlanta congresswoman who lost her re-election primary in 2002, came back to reclaim her seat when it opened again in 2004, had an altercation with a Capitol Police officer who didn't recognize her, lost another primary in 2006, and was the Green Party nominee for president in 2008. Her father, who lost his state legislative seat in the same 2002 primary, famously blamed their losses on the "J-E-W-S."
Now, she has turned up in, of all places, I-S-R-A-E-L, as the Associated Press reports:
The Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying foreign peace activists trying to break a blockade of Gaza on Tuesday and forced it to sail to an Israeli port, the military said. . . .
The 20 passengers include former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and other activists from Britain, Ireland, Bahrain and Jamaica.
The ship was flying a Greek flag, but no Greek citizens were aboard. The Greek government issued a statement saying it sent a message to Israel demanding that it release the ship, crew and passengers.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel was planning to free the crew and passengers. "Nobody wants to keep them here," he said.
Mr. Palmor, we can understand your position, but couldn't you at least hang on to McKinney? Nobody wants her here, either.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Yehuda Spetner, Fred Korr, Mark Van Der Molen, Marc Kliewer, Nikolaj Gammeltoft, Fred Worth, Dennis Smith, Greg Askins, Jeff Oxman, Aaron Reynolds, Jim Levanger, Heidi Huettner, Richard Belzer, Danny Tesvich, Jim Vondran, John Sanders, Steven Davies, Jim Miller, Michele Schiesser, Joseph Abdy, Wayne Bowman, Curtis Sherwood, Doug Jeffreys, Mark Finkelstein, Daniel Foty, David Carrad, Bruce Goldman, Albert Gibson, Michael Throop, Robert Godwin, Bob Walsh, Ross Firestone, Michael Ellard, Rob Slocum, Joe Bacon, Doug Miller, Jerry Skurnik and Joe Perez. If you have a tip, write us at
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