July 16-17

"I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up."

--Benjamin Franklin; Franklin image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

America goes from bad to worse in the Middle East’s “Soft Power War” - Flynt Leverett and  Hillary Mann Leverett, nowlebanon.com: "The latest methodologically serious poll of Arab public opinion—the 'Arab Attitudes, 2011' survey ... conducted by IBOPE Zogby International for the Arab American Institute Foundation—should (but probably won’t) be read in the White House as a wake-up call about how badly the United States, under President Obama’s leadership, is doing in the Middle East. More particularly, the poll—conducted in six Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates)—reveals at least three important things about current perspectives on the 'Arab street': –First, the poll makes clear that, after briefly improving following Barack Obama’s election to the presidency in 2008, America’s favorability ratings 'across the Arab world have plummeted'. ... –Second, whatever 'hope Arabs may have felt that Obama’s election would produce better U.S. policy in the Middle East 'has evaporated'. In current Arab perceptions, 'U.S. interference in the Arab world' runs neck and neck with 'continuing occupation of Palestinian lands' as the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East.

In most Arab countries, Obama’s own favorability ratings are now lower than George W. Bush’s at the end of his presidency. –Third, Arab publics (as opposed to elites) are still not buying the argument pushed by the United States and by many of their own governments that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a major threat to Arab interests. ... We can imagine the response to all of this in the White House: 'But President Obama has reached out to the Muslim world. He gave the Cairo speech. He held an iftar at the White House. He went to war in Libya to show that he really had been rooting for the crowds in Tahrir Square in Cairo all along. What are we supposed to do?' But the new Zogby clearly indicates what other polls and ongoing contact with people who live in the Middle East reveal: 'public diplomacy'—or however else one wants to describe U.S. efforts to persuade Middle Eastern publics to support initiatives and positions that hurt their interests and offend their values—does not work. The key to strategic success in the Middle East, for the United States or any other country, is good policy, grounded in a sober appreciation of regional realities." See also. Image from

US more unpopular in the Arab world than under Bush - Glenn Greenwald, Salon: "When the U.S. propped up dictators to suppress those populations, public opinion was irrelevant; now that that scheme is collapsing, public opinion will become far more consequential, and it does not bode well either for U.S. interests (as defined by the American government) or the U.S.'s ability to extract itself from its posture of Endless War in that region. Given that it is anti-American sentiment that, more than anything else, fuels Terrorism (as the Pentagon itself has long acknowledged), we yet again find the obvious truth: the very policies justified in the name of combating Terrorism are the same ones that do the most to sustain and perpetuate it." Via LB

If we retreat from Iraq, will Iran take over? - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post: "One of the most curious features of the Obama administration’s foreign policy is the contrast between the silky, non-confrontational public diplomacy it employs when dealing with dictatorships and adversaries, such as Russia, China and Venezuela — and the brusqueness with which it often addresses U.S. clients and allies. The latest example of this came last week in Iraq, where the United States is engaged in a complex and high-stakes competition with Iran. At immediate issue is whether Iraq’s Shiite-led government will ask Washington to leave behind 10,000 or so soldiers of the 47,000 troops now there, instead of completing a full withdrawal by the end of this year. ... The administration has made it fairly clear that it is willing to make a deal to leave behind some troops. But coaxing the fragmented and prickly Iraqi leadership into making the right choice would require subtlety, patience and high-level engagement — like that the Bush administration employed when it negotiated a strategic framework with Iraq before leaving office in 2008, or that Vice President Biden used in helping to broker an agreement on a new Iraqi government last year. So it was startling to hear Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offer, in Baghdad, the following description of his message to Iraqi leaders: 'Dammit, make a decision.'

The tone of that remark, like other administration rhetoric on the potential deal, suggests that Obama and his top aides believe they are offering Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a favor by inviting a request to leave troops behind, and don’t think a stay-on force is a vital U.S. interest." Image from

Sheer arrogance - Javed Hafiz‎, Oman Tribune: "The American government appears to be pursuing its national interest ruthlessly without any allowance to the sensitivities of its partners. Countries like Pakistan must obey the orders at any cost. The public diplomacy of the early Obama days which aimed at winning the hearts and minds abroad has been relegated to the back burner.

The top priority now appears to be the military objectives and ends justify means." Image from

Secretary Clinton Meets With the Staff and Families of Embassy Ankara and Consulate Istanbul - Remarks Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Istanbul, Turkey July 16, 2011 U.S. Department of State: "I came to thank all of you, American and Turkish alike. I want to thank you for what you do every single day to further this incredibly important relationship between the United States and Turkey. Here at this consulate, you are engaging in innovative public diplomacy programs directly with the Turkish people, you are issuing visas and running exchange programs, you are protecting U.S. citizens and providing adoption services, and you do all of this with limited resources and often under challenging circumstances. And I am very grateful to you because of the extraordinary professionalism that each and every one of you display."

Judicial Diplomacy: The International Impact of the Supreme Court - Ryan Suto, jurist.org: "To enhance American legal influence, the Supreme Court must engage in what can be termed as public diplomacy. Public diplomacy can be defined as the image of a state or its people, as maintained by a government, organization or people. As such, the Court should endeavor to facilitate the understanding of its decisions, which are used to explain and test US legal values the world over. The world currently faces challenges that are inherently global in nature. For example, the legal questions associated with WikiLeaks, the Arab Spring and Internet neutrality and censorship, are all matters that transcend borders.

While the international nature of these issues proves political and legal isolationism faulty, hard power intervention also has grave shortcomings. As such, the Court's ability to indirectly apply legal force and influence presents itself as an attractive alternative, and it should be maximized accordingly. ... [F]oreign court decisions that cite to the Supreme Court have generally declined. This likely reflects either a decreased foreign interest in the US legal system or the US's decreased interest in public legal diplomacy. Either way, it remains important that the US recover its jurisprudential influence, as this is a tool too valuable to lose. First Amendment protections in general and freedom of speech in particular, provides an illustration of how the Court may utilize public diplomacy to expand the influence of the US legal tradition. ... Snyder v. Phelps, a case decided this year, presented a perfect opportunity to engage in public diplomacy with regard to free speech. In this case, tort damages were sought against the Westboro Baptist Church for protesting at a soldier's funeral, spouting hate speech at the burial itself and on the Internet. While this case was viewed as controversial by the media and the general public, it garnered strong consensus on the Court. In an 8-1 decision, the majority held that the First Amendment protects those who stage peaceful protests near the funeral of a military service member from tort liability. ... As a nation with lasting and sustainable legal values and traditions [sic], the Supreme Court should be at the forefront of public legal diplomacy." Image from

BBG says it will soon issue "recommendations for a transformed international broadcasting agency" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "'The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) met on July 14 to further the ongoing, comprehensive strategic review of U.S. international broadcasting. 'We have an important opportunity and profound responsibility to position U.S. international broadcasting for the future. These ongoing consultations will lead shortly to recommendations for a transformed international broadcasting agency,' said Richard Lobo, Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB). 'Today, more than ever, we need to be wise stewards of every tax dollar. What we do has to have impact.' Governor S. Enders Wimbush, who chairs the Strategy and Budget Committee, echoed Lobo’s remarks. ... 'We have described for the Board a variety of ways in which the elements of US international broadcasting can be brought together to increase efficiency, sharpen our strategic impact, and make the BBG one of the largest and most important sources of news, information and audience engagement in the world.'" See also link to on-demand video of the meeting. [Elliott comment:] BBG chairman Walter Isaacson opened the meeting by saying, 'this is an open meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Government.' (Audio excerpt, mp3, 14 sec.) It was an ironic slip of the tongue because the Broadcasting Board of Governors acts as the firewall between USIB and the US government."

Former VOA director argues that US international broadcasting *is* a "strategic asset" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Helle Dale and some of her colleagues at the Heritage Foundation ... want an international broadcasting service whose content would be 'coordinated' by a new strategic communication superbureaucracy. It would broadcast more of this, less of that, in line with US policies. The audience for international broadcasting, which is collectively smarter than Washington's decision makers and distinguished think tank fellows, would immediately notice the change of tone. The credibility

of US international broadcasting would disintegrate. The United States would be left with a strategic asset that has no audience. ... My view is that international broadcasting and public diplomacy should be separate and complementary activities. Take this recent example of an Alhurra reporter asking Secretary of State Clinton a tough question about Syria. Such a question could only be asked by an independent journalist, not by a practitioner of public diplomacy. The question was international broadcasting, the answer was public diplomacy. Additionally, Reuters recently cited an Alhurra report about South Sudan establishing diplo[m]atic relations with Israel. Would Reuters do that if it thought Alhurra to be nothing more than an outlet of US public diplomacy?" Image from

The USA-World Trust: Bringing the Power of Networks to U.S. Public Diplomacy - Kristin M. Lord, Brookings: "President Obama will face enormous challenges in the area of public diplomacy. Though the success of President Obama’s foreign policy will depend on the cooperation of foreign nations, global public opinion is not on America’s side. A wide swath of the global public not only dislikes American policies, but also distrusts American intentions. ... Fortunately, as President Obama seeks to rebuild America’s relations with the world, he will find vast and still under-tapped resources at his disposal. Americans and other supporters worldwide are ready and eager to help. A key challenge is how to tap this energy and expertise to advance both American and global interests. A recent Brookings Institution report, entitled Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century, presents a vision for how to accomplish this goal. Drawing on the advice of a distinguished and bipartisan board of advisers, extensive research and analysis, and discussions with over 300 individuals in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, it presents a vision for U.S. public diplomacy and concrete recommendations for reform. As part of a comprehensive strategy to strengthen and re-imagine U.S. public diplomacy, Voices of America recommends a new non-profit organization to stimulate and harness the vast potential of the American people and foreign partners, engage partners perceived as trusted messengers among target audiences, fill critical gaps that current government agencies are not well suited to fill, and strengthen our government by providing targeted and useful research, analysis, technologies, and strategies drawn from a wide range of experts in a wide range of fields. Despite the extraordinary power of the U.S. government, its public diplomacy activities are, and increasingly will be, only a fraction of the many images and bits of information citizens around the world receive every day."

UAE women's soccer team visits Washington to conduct community outreach - WAM, Emirates News Agency: "The UAE Women's Soccer Team have concluded its three week tour to the United States where they conducted training clinics for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington, DC . ... The UAE Women's team ... met with Senior Officials at the US State Department, where they were joined by Ambassador Hafsa Al Ulama, Chairwoman of the UAE

Women's Football Committee. During a meeting with Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues and Ann Stock, Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, the Emirati players and Ambassador Al Ulama discussed the positive impact sports can play to break down cultural barriers and shatter misperceptions." Image from

‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ in US Congress: Why is Sri Lanka behind in Research, Investigation & Public Diplomacy - Daya Gamage, Asian Tribune: The principal character behind the screening of the Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Field’, a very good propaganda ploy the pro-eelamists in the United States unleashed, at the US Congress in Washington for American lawmakers and their staffers was Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern. Yet the foreign policy handlers for Sri Lanka in Colombo and Washington failed to use strategic communication and public diplomacy to remove this event from the headlines focusing on the man, McGovern, who has a record of maintaining contacts and supporting terrorist/guerilla movements whose main aim was to destabilize or overthrow democratically elected governments. ... The Asian Tribune will give more about this champion that the pro-eelamists found to create an international atmosphere similar to the ‘Kosovo’ type to impress on the international community that the minority Tamils can get justice only with the creation of a separate independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. ... This writer who was in the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic outpost in Colombo saw how the American Foreign Service Officers anticipated events, developments and their impact in advance to take appropriate measures to use strategic communication and public diplomacy to act to advance American interests in Sri Lanka or her immediate neighborhood. The foreign policy advisers of Sri Lanka’s presidential secretariat, those ‘experts’ in the foreign ministry or its overseas representatives need to attend the American Foreign Service Training Institute which Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Chris Van Hollen’s mother once headed during this writer[']s tenure in the State Department to learn some ropes."

Parliament's Research Center Views NATO's Defense Shield as Threat to Iran - english.farsnews.com: "A research center affiliated to the Iranian parliament announced in a report on Saturday that the NATO's defense shield in the neighboring country of Turkey should be viewed as a threat to the Islamic Republic. 'Deployment of a part of this missile system in Turkey and near Iran is generally a threat to Iran,' the report said. The report proposes

the Iranian government to further expand its ties with the neighboring countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, in which NATO force are deployed to decelerate the bloc's meddling in the region. It also called for using the media and public diplomacy to show the real cause and incentives of NATO's presence in the region." Image from

My Word: Consuming passions and boycotts‎ - Liat Collins, Jerusalem Post: "The BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement is obviously not aimed at removing 'settlements' but gradually getting rid of the State of Israel, slice by slice like some unkosher salami. Strangely, the existence of vibrant towns and communities is seen as a threat to peace, rather than a sign of what the Palestinians could achieve if they were to put their minds and funds to it, instead of investing their efforts in erasing Israel. Such attempts at delegitimization leading to elimination cannot be fought by local laws but by massive counter efforts on the diplomatic and public diplomacy fronts."

Glenn Beck: 'If someone has a problem with the Jews – they got a problem with me' - Boaz Bismout, thewestislamandsharia.blogspot.com: "It's hard to believe, but this week US President Barack Obama, and former Fox News star, Glenn Beck, Obama's toughest media critic, agreed about one thing: the world we live in is changing fast. But Obama believes the changes are for the good, while Beck believes the changes may be disastrous. Beck believes the changes will effect Israel, and the entire Western world.

That is why Beck returned to Israel less than two months after his last visit here. His aim is to organize a mass gathering on the 24th of August under the banner 'Restoring Courage'. 'From Israel, the capital of courage, we will send a message to the rest of the world, and we will also show you, Israelis, that you are not alone,' said Beck. ... Until a few years ago, Beck, 46, was a small-time local radio personality in the US. His rise to the top was meteoric, and he became not only a media superstar, with more than 3 million viewers watching his program, but also a one-man media industry with revenues of between 20 and 30 million dollars a year. Beck established his own independent TV network which he is placing at the service of Israel's public diplomacy efforts." Image from

'9/11 to Olympics, I've had a ringside view of history' - Indrani Bagchi, timesofindia.indiatimes.com: "  "Wrapping up a successful two-year stint as foreign secretary, [Foreign Secretary Rao] Rao, 60, is to be India's new envoy to the United States. ... She speaks to Indrani Bagchi . ...Which accomplishments are you particularly proud of? ... I created about 300 posts for the passport and visa division. That aspect concerns our dealings with the public. The public diplomacy division acquired a positive profile. We've created a database of international relations scholars in India, and we're hoping to have the first international relations conference for Indian scholars in September. ... Much has been said about you and social media... I now have 20000 followers on Twitter.

I find its very useful in correcting erroneous information and contra-factual reporting that may come up from time to time. Almost 30-40 of our overseas missions are now on facebook. The one in Cairo is bilingual. We've set up a facebook page for our ITEC fellows over the years. They're all coming in and sharing experiences. We're using it just to bring people back into the ministry's fold, communicate better. So much of work has gone into building these relationships, creating stakeholders for India." Rao Image from

Significance of the Murdoch saga for Zimbabwe - Tafataona Mahoso, bulawayo24.com: "From the point of view of strategic communication, the prevailing phenomena of information saturation and lightning speed demand the shortest response cycles in which the state must decide to respond or not to respond to critical issues of publicity and public diplomacy. Short response cycles at national level imply sustained direction, sustained monitoring, sustained evaluation, and sustained co-ordination rather than free flow."

Letter to Journal explains police action at Bersih 2.0 demo - P. Aruna, The Maylasian Bar: "The Government has defended its handling of the July 9 rally in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. This was in response to an article published by the Journal alleging that the Malaysian Government had created 'an environment of fear and repression' in the handling of the Bersih 2.0 demonstrations. ... 'Sadly the protest organisers chose to reject this offer, instead calling on supporters to assemble at a much smaller stadium come what may,' despite the fact that it was unavailable,' said Foreign Ministry undersecretary for the Department of Information and Public Diplomacy Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani in his letter."

The convergence of networked and sovereign power: what is the role of the emerging “Genetically Modified Grassroots Organizations”? - RJ, thedailyattack.com: "The concept of GMGO’s refers to organizations that both have a real mass appeal and grassroots participation but were also assisted by public diplomacy funds and organisations. Between genuine but sometimes uncritical enthusiasm for the recent civil insurrections and revolutions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,

and the conspirarcy theories about the role of U.S. funded civil organisations, there must be room for some critical reflection about their exact role in the events, and what kind of allegiance such funding and assistance would buy. Image from

RELATED ITEMS

Albright, Hagel: Language cuts endanger U.S. - Madeleine Albright and Chuck Hagel, USA Today: A grievous last-minute mistake was made when funding for International Education and Foreign Language Studies was cut for this fiscal year. In the context of billions and even trillions of cuts being discussed, a $50 million reduction sounds insignificant. But this particular $50 million cut from the Department of Education's budget amounted to a 40% reduction in the relatively small account that supports these programs at higher education institutions across the U.S. This is a dramatic cut that will have long-lasting and serious consequences — it not only threatens the nation's diplomatic, intelligence, and national security capacities, but also our ability to maximize our competitiveness in global markets. This cut was a last-minute decision made with the specter of a government shutdown hanging over it. Today, only 5% of post-secondary students in the U.S. who are studying foreign languages are enrolled in courses on non-European languages despite the fact that 85% of the world's population speaks those other languages.

When 18- to 24-year-olds were surveyed by National Geographic five years ago, the magazine documented an abysmal grasp of basic world geography. In order to work effectively with the world's fastest-growing economies, as well as the countries with the highest populations of young people and those that present the greatest security challenges to the U.S. today, we must ensure that we expand the numbers of Americans who understand these regions and speak their languages. Image from

Default would dim American power - James M. Lindsay, Washington Post: A sustained default could undercut American power, including its soft power.

Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine - ‎Adam Rawnsley, Wired News: You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program.

It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. First, the program needs to help the military better understand what’s going on in social media in real time — particularly in areas where troops are deployed. Second, Darpa wants SMISC to help the military play the social media propaganda game itself. This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. The Defense Department wants to deeply grok social media dynamics. So SMISC algorithms will be aimed at discovering and tracking the “formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes)” on social media, according to Darpa’s announcement. Image from article

Happy birthday Twitter! - Stacy Mueller, newsinabox.net: There are five years now since the first post on Twitter was wrote and the social network’s anniversary claims for a “Happy birthday” for the amazing success that it had all over the world. Five years ago it was just a hopefully good social network and now it became the main communication channel of the people, companies and stars. More, because of the rapid spreading of all the news that are put on Twitter, some countries sees the social network as a propaganda channel because of the quick development of any idea, no matter the race or the orientation.

Communist China’s Propagandists Welcomed; American Journalist Shut Out - Gary Benoit, thenewamerican.com: The National Governors Association Annual Meeting is taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah, July 15-16. In addition to the usual business of discussing budgets, education, jobs, and economic growth, this year’s NGA meeting features a first-ever U.S.-China Governors Forum that has brought together provincial governors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with their American counterparts. In addition to the many Chinese reporters stationed here in the United States who are covering the event, the Chinese governors brought along their own gaggle of “journalists,” photographers, and videographers from China to chronicle their American odyssey.

In January of this year, the international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders reported that the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China had issued a series of directives ordering all Chinese journalists to undergo a six-month course aimed at training them, among other things, to “recognize and avoid politically sensitive topics.” The real purpose of the directives, says Reporters Without Borders is, “in short, to make journalists themselves actors in censorship.” The NGA appears to be cooperating with China’s Propaganda Department in this new initiative, whether it realizes it or not. While dozens of Beijing’s trained propagandists posing as journalists were welcomed to the NGA summit, The New American’s Senior Editor William F. Jasper was singled out for exclusion. As reported here earlier, the NGA’s Senior Press Secretary Krista Zaharias informed The New American in a series of emails that it was denying credentials for Mr. Jasper and his colleague, Sam Antonio, producer of Liberty News Network, because she did not consider The New American’s articles to be written “in an objective manner.” Image from

Libya's "Freedom Fighters" Found to Engage in Pillage - Dmitri Sedov, Center for Research on Globalization: From the outset the NATO propaganda was selling Libyan rebels as knightly freedom fighters, and it transpires at the moment to what extent the picture is at odds with reality. The situation evokes similarities with Kosovo, where “freedom fighters” from the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, lauded by then-US Secretary of State M. Albright,

mercilessly butchered defenseless people and even set up a network of trafficking forcibly extracted human organs. These days, Libyan rebels are treated as heroes by N. Sarkozy and NATO top brass, and there are no signs that the hypocrisy and bias will ever wane. Image from article

NATO's Debacle in Libya‎ - Alexander Cockburn, David Graeber, CounterPunch: Cameron, like Sarkozy, Clinton and Obama presumably had intelligence assessments of the situation in Libya Did any of them say that Gaddafi might be a tougher nut to crack than the presidents of Tunisia or Egypt, might even command some popular support in Tripoli and western Libya, historically at odds with Benghazi and the eastern region? If they did, did they pay any attention? The Western press, along with al-Jazeera, was no help. The early charges of Gaddafi committing “genocide” against his own people or ordering mass rapes were based on unverified rumor or propaganda bulletins from Benghazi and have now been decisively discredited by reputable organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Any pretensions the International Criminal Court might have had to judicial impartiality has been undermined by the ICC’s role as NATO’s creature, rushing out indictments of Gaddafi and his closest associates whenever NATO’s propaganda agenda has demanded it.

Official Underlines Iran's Ability to Foil Enemies' Plots - Secretary-General of Iran's High Council of Human Rights Mohammad Javad Larijani warned of the plots hatched by the enemies to harm the younger Iranian generation, but meantime, expressed the confidence that the Iranian nation will be able to stand against and defuse all enemy plots. "The enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran want to deceit our country's youths and teenagers through cultural invasion and propaganda campaign," Larijani said on Friday evening. However, Larijani stressed that the Iranian nation has always thwarted enemies' hegemonic plots and conspiracies through insightfulness, awareness and vigilance.

Contra Costa Times Readers' Forum: Another view of the Gaza flotilla - Abraham H. Miller, contracostatimes.com: It loooks as if a modicum of sanity, for once, will prevail in the Middle East. There will be no propaganda flotilla this year. There will be no Western leftists cynically manipulating Muslims who want to become martyrs. There will be no opportunity to open a breach in the naval blockade of Gaza so that Hamas terrorists can accelerate their murder of Israelis. Greece and Turkey have said no to the flotilla. The U.N. investigation into last year's flotilla found that Israel's blockade is legal, and that there was no reason for Israeli naval soldiers to continue to shoot paint balls at erstwhile martyrs, on the Mavi Maramara, who attacked the soldiers with knives and iron bars. Turkey was duly criticized for its incomplete and inadequate investigation into the events on the Mavi Maramara that led to self-proclaimed Jihadist martyrs fulfilling their aspirations. The U.N. report concluded that Turkey should never have let the flotilla sail. It seems, this year, Turkey is listening.


WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT THE OXFORD COMMA

"Among those interviewed were Mr. Smith's two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall."

--Example cited by Carolyn Kellogg, "Goodbye, Oxford comma? Hello, Shatner comma!" Los Angeles Times; image from