As the situation continues to unfold, our first concern is preventing injury or loss of life. So I want to be very clear in calling upon the... authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters.

The people... have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny.

These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.

Violence will not address the grievances of the... people. And suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.

more...

Obama apparently will also issue a statement Saturday announcing that he has decided after much fruitless soul searching to not seek re-election for a second term as president, but rather will be joining The Onion as author of a new syndicated column tentatively to be titled "Reality Stinks".

Moreover, it also seemed glaringly apparent that any deal would not be "balanced" but, rather,  "unbalanced" between cuts and revenues, and unbalanced  between cuts to domestic programs and military and security.  The Supers were in many ways designed as a second chance for President Obama's failed Cat Food I, although its work product would likely make us pine for Bowles and Simpson, or at least for Bowles. The debt ceiling artifice and the deficit panic provided a potential shroud for the social safety net.

Professor Krugman, at this point, also concludes that any deal reached now would, in practice, be nothing more than a deal to slash Medicare and Social Security.

While it is my earnest hope that the Super Committee (aka Cat Food II) fails, I fear that most of the leveraging Democratic lawmakers are playing with us, setting up low expectations and high bars, only for a subsequent cave masquerading as a bold bipartisan achievement.  Emanuel (Satan Sandwich) Cleaver is reported to have tempered his critique and others are putting the Bush tax cuts in their favorite place--on the table.  

As for the GOP's frustration that President Obama wants the supers to fail to bolster his re-election, it is just another indication of their clinical delusion.  Although a failure will help the president's re-election, I do not believe he thinks that is the case.  He is going for the gold: that "bipartisan" agreement to capture those Republican-leaning Independents. And, to quell those "investor's" fears for "uncertainty".  

"The report, which included documents obtained from Patrick's office, described how former Romney officials took their computers with them when they left their jobs and how Romney aides replaced email servers and computers before leaving office. The report said that 11 of Romney's top aides purchased 17 state-issued computers for $65 each when they left their jobs. Several of Romney's top aides in the governor's office later worked for his 2008 presidential bid.

The Massachusetts public records law doesn't apply to the governor's office, so there appears to be nothing illegal with the Romney-era move."

Anyway now Mitt Romney has come out attacking Deval Patrick for "become(ing) an opposition research arm of the Obama reelection campaign" and is demanding they release any correspondance between the governor and the Obama campaign.

I kid you not.

The followup is that yesterday they arrested 5 kids that were involved in some way with the death. My neighbor's 19 y/o son, David, was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Apparently David and Griffen (and some others?) were partying at a local park and Griffen became unconcious.

Allegedly, David dragged Griffen's body to his car and drove him around for a while calling friends asking them what he should do.

Then David drove home, dragged Griffen's body into David's (parent's) house and left him there while he went out with friends for the rest of the night.

"Even with low approval ratings and an uncertain path to reelection, President Obama is exceeding expectations in one area: His campaign is doing far better at attracting grass-roots financial support this year than his GOP rivals or his own historic effort in 2008, according to new contribution data.

The sheer scale of small donations, totaling $56 million for Obama and his party, has surprised many Democratic strategists and fundraisers, who feared that a sour economy would make it difficult for Obama to raise money from disenchanted and cash-strapped voters.

 President Obama's reelection campaign and DNC together raised $70 million in the third quarter of 2011. Outside of fundraising, the president is ramping up support for his reelection with his visits and talk about focusing on the economy.

A Washington Post analysis shows that nearly half of his campaign contributions, and a quarter of the money he has raised for the Democratic Party, has come from donors giving less than $200. That's much higher than it was four years ago, and far beyond what the best-funded Republicans have managed."

Link

I don't think some have a very good grasp of who Obama's base is, whether that base believes Obama is listening to them and what their level of intensity is.

"The bipartisan debt-limit deal, famously called a "Satan sandwich" by a prominent Democrat this summer, is looking more heavenly to the left.

Republicans crowed after striking the agreement with President Obama, while congressional Democrats cried foul. . .

With the supercommittee deadlocked, the sequestration cuts of $1.2 trillion are now likely to be triggered. Those reductions would hit national security programs, but not call for structural reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and/or Social Security.

Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services committees were wary of putting defense cuts in the trigger, but Democrats essentially said the GOP would have to choose between tax increases or cuts to the military. Republicans opted for the latter, despite major concerns expressed by House Armed Service Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.). . .

Now, in sharp contrast to this summer, Democrats say they are in the driver's seat. They note that Republicans are already vowing to torpedo the sequestration cuts to the Defense Department, something Democrats say they will not go along with. Some frustrated GOP lawmakers told The Hill that Obama wants the supercommittee to fail, claiming that would bolster his reelection effort.

Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) believes that his party conceded too much in the debt-limit deal with the White House.

"I didn't vote for it ... had I thought that we didn't [give up too much], I would have voted for it," the freshman lawmaker said.

As a result, Democrats are using the situation as leverage in their attempts to prod Republicans to raise taxes, he added. "

Link

NOW if you asked me, Alabama returns to the presumptive #2 and a rematch with LSU for the BCS national championship game.