American Exceptionalism, Indeed

As of 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, it appears as though I was wrong. I had believed Democrats would on the debt supercommittee would cave sufficiently that the GOP would get, as John Boehner famously said about the debt ceiling agreement, 98% of what they want.

But not wrong about everything, unfortunately. No one has been killed, yet, in reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests. But I wrote yesterday, seemingly unfairly comparing law the approach of U.S. law enforcement to that abroad

Throughout the nation mayors are frightened by other Americans, taking their cue from the eerily-named Department of Homeland Security, and projecting a show of force which spurred violence in Tahrir Square and Tianamen Square.

They could have taken the guarantee of free speech; freedom of religion; equal protection of the law; or (sarcasm alert) the right to bear arms to protect the nation in the absence of a standing military. Or, as is normally the case, the right peacefully to assemble. But, no. According to Gawker

Two people were killed in Cairo and Alexandria this weekend as Egyptian activists took the streets to protest the military's attempts to maintain its grip on power. And guess how the state is justifying its deadly crackdown.

"We saw the firm stance the US took against OWS people & the German govt against green protesters to secure the state," an Egyptian state television anchor said yesterday (as translated by the indispensable Sultan Sooud al Qassemi).

It is said that when the United States sneezes, the world catches cold. We've been sneezing, and the repercussions aren't pretty.

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