The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Cleopatra Has Her Hands Full in Egypt
“Obama Invites Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony to Watch Super Bowl With Him”–headline, GossipCop.com, Feb. 2
Bottom Stories of the Day
- “Arab League Postpones ‘Conference on Defending Jerusalem’ “–headline, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 3
- “Verizon Gets Some iPhone Customer Complaints”–headline, Reuters, Feb. 3
- “WikiLeaks Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize”–headline, Associated Press, Feb. 2
Winning Hearts and Minds
“Vodafone Group Plc was ordered to send mobile-phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront ‘traitors and criminals’ as demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak,” Bloomberg reports:
The Egyptian authorities can instruct the local mobile network operators, which also include Etisalat and France Telecom SA’s Mobinil service, to send messages under emergency powers provisions, Vodafone said today. The messages were not written by the mobile-phone operators, it said.
“The Armed Forces urge Egypt’s loyal men to confront the traitors and the criminals and to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt,” said a Feb. 1 text message sent on Vodafone’s network and obtained by Bloomberg News.
What a brilliant method of persuasion! Maybe the administration in Washington ought to use text-message spam to [build] public support for ObamaCare.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
