Finding God in a Dog

John Kerry issued a statement today:

The United States expresses its disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest in Kyiv’s Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity. This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy.

Indeed. A democratic, human-rights-respecting nation should never see this:








EDIT Whoops.......I'm sorry. I meant to include images of the Ukranian state's police brutality, and instead included images of American police crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street protesters. I apologize to John Kerry and to our Corporate Overlords for the oversight.

This is not zesty.

The Standard and Poor’s ratings agency today announced a much anticipated rating downgrade for nine European countries.

The agency lowered the long-term ratings on Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain by two notches, and lowered the long-term ratings on Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch.

France's rating is AA+, the same rating that S&P assigned the United States after the Tea Party Caucus nearly drove it to default.

Also:

Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands’ ratings remain unchanged.

You can see all of S&P's credit ratings for sovereign nations here. Basically, Northern Europe, led by Germany, is doing fine. It's Southern and Eastern Europe that's getting reamed.