The Obama administration also deserves a great deal of credit, which it probably won't receive.  It understood immediately and intuitively that it should not attempt to lead a protest movement which had mobilized itself without American guidance, and consistently deferred to the Egyptian people.   Despite the avalanche of criticism from protestors and pundits, in fact Obama and his key aides -- including Ben Rhodes and Samantha Power and many others -- backed the Egyptian protest movement far more quickly than anyone should have expected.     Their steadily mounting pressure on the Mubarak regime took time to succeed, causing enormous heartburn along the way, but now can claim vindication.  By working carefully and closely with the Egyptian military, it helped restrain the worst violence and prevent Tiananmen on the Tahrir -- which, it is easy to forget today, could very easily have happened.   No bombs, no shock and awe, no soaring declarations of American exceptionalism, and no taking credit for a tidal wave which was entirely of the making of the Egyptian people -- just the steadily mounting public and private pressure on the top of the regime  which was necessary for the protestors to succeed.

History is written by the victors of course.  It was disappointing to see us not be more supportive but...I really don't know if our support would've affected greater or faster change.  Listening to Al Jazeera today, aside from just covering the celebrations, the story was - what really did happen?  Yesterday was truly bizarre, with Panetta claiming Mubarak was going to most likely step down.

were you more surprised today or yesterday?

Iowans -- even children -- arrested on felony charges would be required to submit DNA samples under a fast-moving legislative proposal that has bipartisan support.

Advocates say the process would better protect the public by allowing authorities to quickly link suspects with other cases nationwide.

But opposition is mounting.

Some civil rights groups said the bill would violate privacy and unofficially presume guilt, allowing investigators to conduct nation-wide DNA searches long before an accused person goes to trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union is already challenging a similar California law, arguing that the government shouldn't be able to take the genetic blueprint of someone who hasn't been convicted.

"We are in America, where you are innocent until proven guilty," said Stephanie Fawkes-Lee, a lobbyist for the Iowa Reform Consortium, which represents more than a dozen groups interested in social justice. "Unless someone is convicted of a crime, their DNA should not be put into a database."

Iowa already enters the DNA of convicted felons into a nationwide database. The bill would upload the samples upon arrest, potentially screening thousands more suspects each year for their potential involvement in other crimes.

as opposed to the way they would prefer to see them which is cowed bowed and beaten.

OMG Obama is freeing "his people".  stock up on guns, bibles and canned food.

I hope I am wrong but this will probably be a case of not liking what you get.

We're getting a lot of information on this from friends who work there (near us on the other side of the line) and are so outraged.  One works for the state, and others do not, but they also see that this will hurt all unions and workers plus probably will cost taxpayers a fortune because it will end up in the courts.  (It turns out that's part of the reason for the budget mess there.  Every governor in recent memory there, in either party, has somehow broken the law in constant borrowing from other funds to fix the budget and lost in courts, so those bills are coming due.)

But there is no nation beyond us; nothing but waves and rocks, and the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance we cannot escape by obsequiousness and submission. These plunderers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean: stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor; unsatiated by the East and by the West: the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal avidity. To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.