The Obama Administration has opened the door a crack to the possibility of arming the Syrian rebels. The biggest problem with arming Syrian rebels is that there is no unified opposition to arm. If little was known about the Libyan rebels, we seem to know even less for Syria. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey said on CNN this weekend, “Until we’re a lot clearer about who they are and what they are, I think it would be premature to talk about arming them.”

Debt write-downs work. They generate a wealth effect among the population, and they help to end balance-sheet recessions and bring about economic growth. What’s more, Icelandic home values came back, just 3% off their September 2008 pre-crisis level.

While the UN General Assembly issued a formal condemnation and European leaders prepare more sanctions, in the US, the neocon government-in-exile wants to use this opportunity to start another war, at least by arming the Syrian rebels (though they probably couldn’t explain to you who the Syrian rebels are). In order to gin this up to a sufficient level, John McCain has taken to claiming the Syrian regime is being armed by Iran, to justify the US arming the regime’s opponents.

As I mentioned on Sunday, the Greek Parliament agreed to a bailout deal that exchanges funds from Europe for new austerity measures that will sink the economy even further. The measures effectively destroy labor law and decimate wages.

Amid general strikes and riots in Athens, the Greek Parliament passes a late-night vote on new austerity measures that are seen in European capitals as a prerequisite to the release of bailout funds for Greece.

Greece has agreed to new bailout terms, with brutal austerity measures attached, but Eurozone finance ministers don’t believe the Greeks will follow through, so they’ve held up the provision of the funding.

Russia had one simple demand on the UN draft resolution on Syria: the resolution must not allow for military intervention. In fact, it must ban intervention specifically in the text.

Well, the UN negotiators haven’t gone that far, to my knowledge. But they did drop the demand that Bashar al-Assad step down and hand over control of the country to his deputy.

Wired is censored today. So is TBogg’s mini-site. The Google doodle is blacked out. And part of Daily Kos. And a lead story at The Huffington Post. And even right here. Sites like Wikipedia and Reddit and I Can Haz Cheezburger and Raw Story and Informed Comment and thousands more are completely dark today, not providing any content. It’s part of the largest online strike in history.

Despite the fact that SOPA looks dead in the House, PIPA, the Senate’s version of anti-piracy legislation, hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s true that six Republicans wrote to Harry Reid asking for a postponement of the bill. Now Wikipedia will join others in shutting down on Wednesday to protest the bills.

The Syrian regime, trying to walk a fine line between staying in power and avoiding the ire of the international community, abruptly announced a general amnesty for “crimes” committed during the uprising, which began last March. The fact that this is the fourth such amnesty issued by Bashar al-Assad during the uprising probably blunts the impact, and opposition spokesmen dismissed it.