The Commentariat -- November 23

In today's New York Times eXaminer, I discuss Tom Friedman's strategy for ensuring President Obama's re-election. The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote come to mind. Here's the lede:

It’s Wednesday, so Tom Friedman has some more advice for President Obama. Well, not more advice. The same old advice. But it has a new date stamp on it.

In today's Off Times Square, we ask the question, "What should President Obama say to address the police attacks on students and other Occupy demonstrators?" ...

... Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "During his speech in Manchester, N.H. today, President Obama found himself interrupted by members of Occupy New Hampshire. The protesters handed out fliers along with attempting to employ a 'human microphone' to deliver a message of dissatisfaction to the president. They got about halfway through before others in the crowd began to counter-chant with the President’s 2008 slogan of 'Fired up. Ready to go.'”

... Here's how Peter Wallsten & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post report the story. ...

... Here's Karen Garcia on "Obama, Occupied." ...

... See also Adam Martin & Alexander Abad-Santos of The Atlantic. Read the comments here, too.

Rule: When you get a lede like this in Politico, you run it. Josh Boak: "The economy would have been in much worse shape without the 2009 stimulus — which increased employment in the third quarter of this year by as many as 3.3 million full-time jobs, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The American Bar Association has secretly declared a significant number of President Obama’s potential judicial nominees 'not qualified,' slowing White House efforts to fill vacant judgeships — and nearly all of the prospects given poor ratings were women or members of a minority group, according to interviews."

Chris Spannos of the New York Times eXaminder interviews Julian Assange. Part 4 of the interview:

     ... You can link to the first parts of the interview here.

More on Both Sides Do It! Greg Sargent: "Today’s [actually, yesterday's] false equivalency sweepstakes: We have a winner! Today’s prize goes to National Journal’s Ron Fournier for the most perfect false equivalency of the morning.... What we’re really talking about here is the quest to establish factual reality, which is what journalists are supposed to be doing." ...

... Steve Benen on Fournier: "The high-profile political reporter, who admitted in 2007 that he entered talks to join the McCain campaign as a paid staffer, and later sent encouraging emails to Karl Rove, covered the Obama-McCain race with a series of questionable pieces." CW: And now he's making up stuff at the National Journal. He was always a lazy-assed reporter, and now he's a lazy-assed opinionator.

Right Wing World

Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates highlighted their party’s lack of a single national security vision a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, differing on Tuesday night over the pace of withdrawal from Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan and, in an exchange that could resonate dangerously for Newt Gingrich, what to do with illegal immigrants in the United States." ...

... The Times has a quick fact-check here. The Washington Post story, by Dan Balz & Amy Gardner, is here.

Dan Milbank holds Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) responsible for the failure of the supercommittee. And he doesn't pull any punches, calling Kyl "cold and ruthless" and "destructive."

The Fiction, Courtesy of Fox "News"

"It's a food product." -- Megyn Kelly, on pepper spray:

Although this picture just might be Photoshopped, the image of Fox "News" horticulture reporter Megyn Kelly is not. She posed for this photo for GQ magazine. Stay tuned. Next week, she explains why pizza is a vegetable.

... The Facts

** "Banned for Use in War." Meredith Melnick of Time: "... in the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice cited nearly 70 fatalities linked to pepper-spray use.... Getting pepper-sprayed is worse than getting maced [PDF] — mace causes burning but no respiratory effects [which pepper spray causes].... Classified as a riot-control agent and banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, pepper spray is meant to be used against violent attackers who are resisting arrest and threatening physical harm to others.... According to guidelines [PDF] for all California State schools, pepper spray is meant to be used for less than one second on any one person." Thanks to a friend for the link.

Steve Benen: "Mitt Romney’s very first television ad of the 2012 campaign pushes a blatant, shameless lie. In 2008, a month before the president was elected, then-candidate Obama told voters, 'Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’” In Romney’s new attack ad, viewers only see part of the quote: 'If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.' Here's how the Romney camp defended the ad: "He did say the words. That’s his voice." ...

...Judd Legum & Jeff Spross of Think Progress: "... the Romney campaign has defended this blatantly dishonest campaign tactic as 'not out of bounds.' Thus, ThinkProgress has created this completely in-bounds 'advertisement' quoting Romney, in his own words:

    ... "Accurate, according to the Romney standard of accuracy." 

As for Romney's ad, it's not just misleading. It's TV-station-refuse-to-air-it-misleading. -- Jake Tapper, ABC News

"The Secret Letters of Gov. Mitt." Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Mitt Romney [Sunday] briefly reiterated his campaign’s assertion that his aides did nothing wrong when they purchased their state-issued hard drives in 2006, as they left their jobs and Romney began his first run for president.... The Globe reported on Thursday that 11 of Romney’s aides ... took the unusual step of buying 17 hard drives from the Massachusetts governor’s office, paying $65 for each one. The Romney administration also wiped the server for the governor’s office and replaced the remaining computers in the office as they prepared to turn over power to Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat. 'We actually put 700 boxes of information into the archives that wasn’t even required, so we followed the law exactly as intended and as written,' he said." ...

     ... Charles Pierce of Esquire: "I would bet all the federal tax dollars we've sunk into Michele Bachmann's family farm that all that's in those e-mails is a bunch of stuff that would have complicated Willard's 426 ideological and cultural makeovers that he's undergone since he went national with his bad self. Seventeen hard drives at $65 per? You know what's cheaper? Having deeply held convictions that last longer than 11 minutes." ...

... AND on That Note. Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy: "In advance of [Tuesday] night's GOP foreign policy debate, the Obama campaign has put out a memo identifying all the ways the presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has 'flip-flopped' on the major foreign policy issues of the day. Romney's 'penchant for changing positions is of particular concern on matters of national security,' Obama for American campaign manager Jim Messina wrote in a memo released ahead of tonight's CNN-AEI-Heritage debate in Washington. "A Commander-in-Chief only gets one chance to get it right. But Mitt Romney has been on all sides of the key foreign policy issues facing our nation today."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Medicare administrator Don Berwick has stepped down from his position, effective next Friday.... The White House intends to appoint Marilyn Tavenner, currently second-in-command at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as Berwick’s replacement." CW: read the post. Republicans' treatment of Dr. Berwick was a travesty.

The Obama family participated in a service event this afternoon.

Sacramento Bee: "Four days after the pepper spraying incident at UC Davis Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, acting governor while Gov. Jerry Brown is on vacation out of state, issued a statement Tuesday night condemning the 'senseless violence' and praising UC officials for ordering an independent investigation." CW: as far as I know, Newsom is the highest-ranking official to speak out against U.C. Davis police brutality. Not a word from President O'Bambi. Thanks to reader James S. for the link.

President Obama pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey:

New York Times: "Banks clamored for emergency funds from the European Central Bank on Tuesday, borrowing the most since early 2009 in a clear sign that the euro region’s financial institutions are having trouble obtaining credit at reasonable rates on the open market."

Washington Post: Pakistan named a liberal female lawmaker as its new ambassador to the United States on Wednesday, swiftly filling a crucial diplomatic vacancy created amid a scandal that highlighted civil-military tensions. The appointment of Sherry Rehman, a prominent former journalist known for her human rights work, surprised observers who expected a choice with a more obvious stamp of approval from the powerful military."

New York Times: "After months of street protests calling for his resignation, President Ali Abdullah Saleh traveled to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to sign an agreement that would require him to immediately transfer his powers to his vice president, a move that could pave the way for an end to Mr. Saleh’s 33-year rule."

The Commentariat -- November 22

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is here. Here's the lede:

Today we have David Brooks at his bipartisan, both-sides-do-it, reasonable, fair-minded best. We are not supposed to notice that his entire column in today’s New York Times is One Big Lie. Well, okay, since Brooks sees 'Two Moons,' he gives us Two Big Lies, with a few subsidiary lies thrown in to bolster the Big Lies.

"Beat Poets, not beat poets." Robert Hass, the former Poet Laureate of the United States, gives a first-hand account of the beatings -- he was a victim -- of Occupy Berkeley protesters:

They swung hard into their chests and bellies. Particularly shocking to me — it must be a generational reaction — was that they assaulted both the young men and the young women with the same indiscriminate force. If the students turned away, they pounded their ribs. If they turned further away to escape, they hit them on their spines.NONE of the police officers invited us to disperse or gave any warning. We couldn’t have dispersed if we’d wanted to because the crowd behind us was pushing forward...

Where's Barack? Karen Garcia: "... when it comes to the United States going whole hog and actually condemning another country's undemocratic actions, I hit the jackpot: more than 9 million Google hits. We've condemned the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador, Sudan's attacks on refugee camps and the violent crackdowns in Bahrain, to name just a few. We have even condemned UNESCO's pro-Palestine vote. But so far, not one federal official has deplored, condemned, expressed chagrin, outrage, regret or shock over the epidemic outbreak of police brutality against Occupy protesters this week."

     ... CW: One reason the White House has nothing to say about police brutality against Occupy protesters is that the White House press corps isn't interested. I read the entire transcript of Jay Carney's press briefing yesterday, and 75 percent of the questions were about the supercommittee and the remainder about the Middle East. ...

... "Occupy the Majority." E. J. Dionne: "... the [Occupy] movement should remind itself of its greatest innovation, its slogan: 'We are the 99 percent.' This is an affirmation that it is trying to speak for nearly everybody. Its tactics should live up to this aspiration by building support among the vast number of Americans who will never show up at the encampments. It should also want to help political figures such as [Elizabeth] Warren, who understood far earlier than most the costs of inequality and of the abuses of financial power. The last thing this movement should want to do is create fodder for the ads and e-mails propagated by Warren’s foes. The occupations have done their work. Now it’s time to occupy the majority." ...

Lt. John Pike, U.C. Davis.... Sam Stanton of the Sacramento Bee: "Lt. John Pike, a UC Davis police officer believed to have pepper-sprayed students on campus Friday, is a former United States Marine who was given an award for valor in 2007 when he saved other officers from a scissor-wielding patient at the school's medical center." CW: I don't usually make comments about someone's personal appearance, but really, could that guy look any more like an oinker?

Charles Pierce of Esquire on the White House's repeatedly blaming "Congress" for the failure to get a deficit deal instead of blaming Republicans: "I'm sure that the Democrats on this prolonged waste of time appreciate how the White House has tossed them into the blame pie with the Republicans. You spend a few months attempting to sell out every bit of progressive government of the past 80 years, and this is the thanks you get from the leader of your party. You get hit in a drive-by swipe about 'Washington' and 'Congress.' I swear to god, sometimes, Barack Obama and the people around him can be the most incredible mixture of insufferable arrogance and obvious political incompetence ever to get elected in this country. Just shut up and at least try to get re-elected. Please."

Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine: "There is nothing in [GOP] behavior over the last twenty years that shows the slightest interest in a bipartisan agreement to reduce the deficit. Nor is there any recent evidence. Democrats have continued to offer agreements to reduce spending, including on entitlements, in return for higher tax revenue, which they’re willing to accept in the form of lower tax credits as opposed to higher rates.... The news media is working desperately not to convey this reality."

Right Wing World

Grover Norquist -- the Man Who Really Runs the GOP, a Senate Democratic ad:

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: Despite all their expressed horrors about "the government's taking away your freedoms" by imposing a mandate, "The primary reason Limbaugh and his listeners don't like universal health care is that they reject the basic concept. They simply don't believe in using government to make sure every American has access to affordable health care."

News Ledes

I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am governor. -- Gov. John Kitzhaber (D-Ore.)

New York Times: "Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon on Tuesday said he would halt the execution of a death row inmate scheduled for next month and that he would allow no more executions in the state during his time in office." The Oregonian story is here.

The 14th Republican debate tonight will be aired on CNN live at 8:00 pm ET. Here's the New York Times' liveblog of the debate.

New York Times: "In his most blatant criticism yet of Syria’s political repression, the prime minister of Turkey, [Recep Tayyip Erdogan,] said for the first time on Tuesday that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should resign, raising the pressure on Mr. Assad from a country that Syria had once counted as its friendliest neighbor and economic partner."

President Obama spoke about the American Jobs Act in Manchester, New Hampshire, early this afternoon. ABC News story here. See also Wednesday's Commentariat:

     ... Update: Washington Post: "With taxes set to rise for nearly every American worker, President Obama sought Tuesday to highlight his tax-cutting bona fides, accusing Republicans of hypocrisy if they do not agree to extend a payroll tax cut that is set to expire in January. Obama’s comments were part of an escalating White House campaign against Republicans that is painting them as defenders of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class."

AP: "Students have again put up tents near the site where University of California, Davis police used pepper spray on seated protesters in a conflict that has sparked outrage and calls for the school chancellor's resignation. The encampment was again erected Monday, hours after the campus police chief was put on administrative leave and the chancellor was shouted down at a demonstration while trying to apologize for the incident that happened at a protest held Friday in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement." Related Sacramento Bee story here.

Al Jazeera: "Activists in Egypt are calling for a mass demonstration in Cairo against the country's ruling military council after three days of clashes between protesters and government forces left at least 33 people dead and hundreds injured." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Three American college students have been arrested and accused of participating in the violent demonstrations that are sweeping this capital city. The protests, now in their fourth day, are posing the greatest threat to Egypt’s military leaders since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last February, and could jeopardize parliamentary elections scheduled for Monday." ...

     ... Al Jazeera Update 2: "Egyptians angry over the slow transition to civilian rule have remained in the streets of the capital and other cities, continuing their protests despite apparent concessions offered by the country's ruling military council. Tens of thousands of protesters packed central Cairo's Tahrir Square late on Tuesday night, shouting 'Leave! Leave!', hours after Field Marshal Muhammed Hussein Tantawi, the chief of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), finished a short speech broadcast on state media." With video.

The Commentariat -- November 21

Paul Krugman on European "romantics," who are not, as some would say, "technocrats." ...

... My New York Times eXaminer column on Krugman's tour de Times is here. The lede:

Once again, Paul Krugman has used his own New York Times column to try to save the Times op-ed page from its stable of uninformed columnists who insist on sharing their impressions of complicated things they know nothing about. Today, Krugman takes on David Brooks, Tom Friedman and Ross Douthat in his lede paragraph.

A flyer distributed in downtown Dallas in the days prior to the Kennedy assassination. Via New York Magazine.** "What Killed JFK." Frank Rich in New York Magazine: "What defines the Kennedy legacy today is less the fallen president’s short, often admirable life than the particular strain of virulent hatred that helped bring him down. After JFK was killed, that hate went into only temporary hiding. It has been a growth industry ever since and has been flourishing in the Obama years. There are plenty of comparisons to be made between the two men, but the most telling is the vitriol that engulfed both their presidencies." CW: this is the writer the New York Times let go.

     ... Rich refers to this video in his essay. Here's another, which also includes excerpts from the audio tapes of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s 1964 interview of Jaqueline Kennedy:

"Pre-Occupied. The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street." Mattathias Schwartz, in the New Yorker, on the origins of the Occupy movement.

Glenn Greenwald: "Every time the citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed ... many become increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become fearful in general of exercising their rights.... That’s ... exactly what the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to achieve: to coerce citizens to 'decide' on their own to be passive and compliant...." BUT "the most important effect of the Occupy movement: acts of defiance, courage and conscience are contagious.... For the first time in a long time, the use of force and other forms of state intimidation are not achieving their intended outcome of deterring meaningful (i.e., unsanctioned and unwanted) citizen activism, but are, instead, spurring it even more." ...

... Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post: "It looks like he’s spraying weeds in the garden or coating the oven with caustic cleanser. It’s not just the casual, dispassionate manner in which the University of California at Davis police officer pepper sprays a line of passive students sitting on the ground. It’s the way the can becomes merely a tool, an implement that diminishes the humanity of the students and widens a terrifying gulf between the police and the people whom they are entrusted to protect." CW: quite a good essay.

In his sign-off to his PBS series Bill Moyers' Journal in May 2010, Moyers called for a public uprising against plutocrats. In four minutes, Moyers explains, pre-OWS, why Occupy Wall Street would be the one means to reclaiming American democracy:

A Reminder. Matt Yglesias in Slate: "Today’s the day when Washington officially comes to terms with the fact that the 'Supercommittee' — a bipartisan, bicameral group charged with reducing America’s long-term fiscal deficit — won’t agree on anything. This is being termed a 'failure,' and by the standards of D.C.’s fetishization of bipartisanship, it is one. But in terms of deficit reduction, failure is actually better than success."

Greg Colvin in Nation of Change: "Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL) offered the strongest constitutional amendment introduced in either House of Congress so far to rectify the imbalance of power between the corporations and the people in our democracy. Colvin compares Deutch's amendment to several others proposed by Members of Congress and reform advocates. Here's Deutch's press release on the amendment. And here's a pdf of the Deutch/OCCUPIED amendment.

Stan Collender of Capital Gains & Games on the reasons for the "hardly-super committee's" failure to make a deficit-reduction deal. Here's Reason 3: "Grover Norquist was the super committee's Lex Luthor. All the reports that committee Republicans were moving away from the no tax increase pledge turned out to be completely incorrect, utterly misleading, and very likely were more wishful thinking than anything else."

Victoria McGrane of the Wall Street Journal: "In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate appears likely to easily confirm" Thomas Hoenig, President Obama's nominee to head the F.D.I.C. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell initially recommended Hoenig to the president, even though "the choice has rattled Wall Street executives.... Mr. Hoenig believes there is only one way to end this phenomenon of 'too big to fail.' 'We must break up the largest banks,' he said in a February speech, arguing that regulators could do so by restricting the activities of government-backed banks 'and significantly narrowing the scope of institutions that are now more powerful and more of a threat to our capitalistic system than prior to the crisis.'" CW: there must be a catch!

Sarah Seltzer in the New York Times eXaminer: "You’d think, [in response to the Herman Cain & Joe Paterno scandals,] our national op-ed pages would rush to publish some feminist-minded pieces ... pushing back against this pervasive culture.... What we got instead, in the New York Times, was a column by professional antifeminist Katie Roiphe, sounding a lot like Don Draper, with the essential message that sexual harassment is just ladies who can’t take a joke.... Sexual harassment is a genuine bar to equality, and the onslaught of denial in both the Herman Cain situation and even worse, the Penn State rape coverup scandal, shows that we need to talk about these dynamics in the places we work and play seriously."

NEW. Prof. Robin Wells on the student walk-out of conservative economics Prof. Greg Mankiw's Ec10 class at Harvard. In an economic environment in which students' parents are struggling, students' futures look bleak, millions are out of work & income inequality has reached Gilded-Age magnitude, "instructors who lecture on the superiority of free markets without acknowledging the dysfunction in the wider economy are at risk of appearing out of touch and exacerbating antipathy towards economics."

CW: Larry Summers posts his Not-My-Fault op-ed in the Washington Post. Summers, whose ideas-turned-into-policies during the Clinton Administration made him one of the architects of rising income inequality in the U.S., spends most of his piece arguing that factors other than government policy are "substantially" to blame for income inequality. Oh, and why it's okay for the super-rich to get super-richer. At the end, Summers, whose piece is titled "Three Ways to Combat Rising Inequality," does get around to tossing out a few bromides about tax reform and access to education which are unobjectionable. If this is the way Larry Summers really thinks, and I suspect it is, this little Not-My-Fault exercise explains a lot about why we're in the mess we're in.

Right Wing World

I Did Not Make This Up. Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Newt Gingrich tonight said at an address at Harvard that child work laws 'entrap' poor children into poverty -- and suggested that a better way to handle failing schools is to fire the janitors, hire the local students and let them get paid for upkeep." Gingrich blames liberals:

Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid. -- Newt Gingrinch

NASCAR Fans Know Their Manners. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden were on hand this afternoon at the Homestead-Miami Speedway to Grand Marshall NASCAR’s Sprint Cup finale, and to support Joining Forces, an initiative to hire and train veterans. When they were introduced to kick off the race, however, loud booing could be heard above the cheers.... However, the Associated Press reports that the First Lady and Dr. Biden did receive a standing ovation at a pre-race driver’s meeting, much more in keeping with the spirit of the occasion." With video.

Local News

Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "In a demonstration reminiscent of those that occurred in February and March, between 25,000 and 30,000 protesters took over Capitol Square [in Madison, Wisconsin] on Saturday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's policies and to promote a signature drive to recall him."

News Ledes

Politico: "President Obama granted five pardons and commuted one individual's sentence for distribution of cocaine, according to a White House press release. Those pardoned were incarcerated for charges ranging from distribution of illegal drugs to running an illegal gambling business."

President Obama speaks about the supercommittee's failure to propose a deficit-reduction plan:

Washington Post: "A special congressional supercommittee acknowledged failure Monday in efforts to cut the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion, and President Obama warned that he would veto any attempt to undo a resulting round of across-the-board spending cuts. The failure promptly triggered finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats."

Nation of Change: "...the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee and the Partnership for Civil Justice today filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) asking the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA and the National Parks Service to release 'all their information on the planning of the coordinated law enforcement crackdown on Occupy protest encampments in multiple cities over the course of recent days and weeks.'"

ABC News: "Former FBI director Louis Freeh was tapped today to head an independent investigation of Penn State University's role in allegations of child sex abuse by former football coach Jerry Sandusky. The investigation announced today by the school's board of trustees is the fifth probe of the school launched since the scandal broke earlier this month. The state attorney general's office, the federal Department of Education, the NCAA, and the university's faculty senate are all also investigating or planning investigations of the abuse and events surrounding it on Penn State's campus."

Guardian: "Bradley Manning, the US soldier who has been held in confinement for the past 18 months on suspicion of having leaked a huge trove of state secrets to WikiLeaks, is to go before a military panel on 16 December at the start of the most high-profile prosecution of a whistleblower in a generation."

AP: "Actor Hugh Grant told a London courtroom Monday about the dark side of celebrity life, describing mysterious break-ins, leaked medical details and hacked voice mails — and laying blame on the entire tabloid press, not just the now-shuttered News of the World.... Earlier, the parents of a murdered schoolgirl whose phone was targeted by the tabloid described how the hacking had given them false hope that their daughter was still alive."

The Guardian has a liveblog on the Leveson hearings.

They Said/They Said. New York Times: "As a handful of the lawmakers on the sputtering joint Congressional committee charged with drafting a deficit reduction package met for what seemed like one final time, the White House said Monday that only Congress could have produced a solution, while Republican presidential candidates moved to frame the committee’s failure to meet its deadline as a lack of leadership by President Obama."

President Obama signed legislation to provide tax credits for businesses that hire veterans. AP story here.

ABC News: "In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught [by Iran & Hezbollah] and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community. The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran."

New York Times: "The University of California, Davis, said Sunday that two police officers had been placed on administrative leave after using pepper spray on seated protesters at the campus on Friday during a demonstration aligned with Occupy Wall Street." ...

... Here's a more expansive Sacramento Bee story on reaction to the police attack on Occupy protesters at U.C. Davis. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The chancellor of the University of California, Davis, said Monday that its police chief had been placed on administrative leave, three days after two campus police officers sprayed seated protesters with pepper spray during a demonstration aligned with Occupy Wall Street."

Al Jazeera: "Protesters calling for Egypt's military to hand over power have beaten back a new raid by security forces to evict them from Cairo's Tahrir Square after more than 48 hours of violence in the heart of the Egyptian capital.... Egypt's health ministry says at least 22 people have been killed and 1,500 wounded in clashes between government forces and protesters in Cairo and other cities since Saturday, raising concerns over the conduct of parliamentary elections due to begin later this month." ...

    ... Update: "Egypt's interim cabinet has offered its resignation to the country's ruling military council as clashes raged for a third day in Cairo's Tahrir Square, pitting police and soldiers against protesters demanding democratic change. 'The government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has handed its resignation to the [ruling] Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,' Mohammed Hegazy, cabinet spokesperson, said in a statement aired on Monday night by the official MENA news agency."

New York Times: "A Manhattan man who became fascinated by the American-born Muslim militant Anwar al-Awlaki was arrested on charges of plotting to build and detonate bombs in New York, city officials announced on Sunday night." ...

     ... AP Update: "Federal authorities declined to pursue a case against an 'al-Qaida sympathizer' accused of wanting to bomb police stations and post offices in New York City because they believed he was mentally unstable and incapable of pulling off the alleged plot, two law enforcement officials said Monday. New York Police Department investigators sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as their undercover investigation of Jose Pimentel unfolded, the officials said. Both times, the FBI concluded that he wasn't a serious threat, they said."

AP: "Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston's archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has left his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica."