Some of Nothing

In Germany, Obama Tosses Bloggers Some Love
Friday, July 25, 2008

When we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe...

From what I can tell, Obama's talking about this guy:

Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, Iranian journalist and blogger living in Germany, was detained in Turkey for the last two days.

Ebrahimi was arrested at the request of Iranian authorities yesterday when he got off a flight from Germany at an Istanbul airport.

According to Ebrahimi, an Iranian intelligence officer who identified himself as Mohammad Taghi Esfahani presented an official document to the Turkish police, demanding that Ebrahimi be immediately deported to Iran.

Because of the intervention of an US diplomat and international NGOs, Ebrahimi was released at noon on Friday. He took a plane back to Berlin, Germany, and arrived there in the afternoon.

I found this reference by Obama particularly interesting because, of all the things he could have talked about, he chose to mention a "blogger". Based on what I've read, Mr. Ebrahimi could easily be described as a "journalist" or a "writer" for those interested in masking their associations with the great unwashed. But nope. Obama goes ahead and uses the dreaded b-word. My guess is there are two reasons for this mention:

1. He knows we're pissed at him and he wants to soften our ire.
2. He wants to remind people that he's a person of the 21st century unlike his opponent.

Sounds like Joe Scarborough needs to send Obama a bag of Cheetos*.

*Does anyone actually eat these bags of chemical-laden neon cardboard anymore? If so, I strongly recommend a switch to Barbara's Cheese Puffs. They're highly addictive.

Nothing New byslag at 3:01 PM