re: #8 BigPapa

Kissing their ass does not promote fist unclenching.

This guy is lost. It’s getting very surreal: Carteresque?

The NYT had an item about the Iranian blogger who died in jail. At the end of the article it noted that Iran was holding a reporter in jail too.

Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the U.S. State Department had been working through intermediaries to win Ms. Saberi’s release, and an Iranian official said that Ms. Saberi would be released “within days.” Her father told Ms. Hilsum that if his daughter was not released by the start of the Iranian New Year’s celebrations this Friday evening, she is unlikely to leave Evin Prison before the end of the two-week holiday.

Why couldn’t the President have said something like:

As a sign of your seriousness of a new relationship between our peoples, I call on you to release Roxana Saberi from the Evin prison as a good faith measure. Such a gesture would signal that your commitment to freedom and friendship is sincere.