A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) advertising campaign, coinciding with Laura Bush's Middle East visit last week and designed to improve America's image among Palestinians, lacked a Palestinian spokesperson. "None of the Palestinian entertainers or athletes approached by the agency would serve as 'goodwill ambassador'," so an "Israeli Arab soccer player" was recruited.

Joan Lowy notes that environmental groups like Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and the Texas Campaign for the Environment are having success with campaigns that bypass government and directly lobby corporations instead.

The Iranian presidential campaign of Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, "a conservative former revolutionary guard air force commander whose candidacy has the blessing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," is patterned after that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reports the Guardian.