authorities to stop and do take up a national dialogue that the respond to the legitimate bands -- demands of the libyan people to respect the right to freedom of demonstration, freedom of expression, and to stop the bloodshed and protect the territorial integrity of libya and the physical integrity of libya. the arab group calls upon the liberty -- the libyan authorities to lift all restrictions on the media and to guarantee access to the means of communication, to telephone networks, and to ensure that the emergency medical assistance is provided to victims. we reject the serious allegation of participation of foreign

nationals from other arab countries taking part in violence against the libyans. these allegations must be verified. call upon the libyan authorities to ensure protection to all nationals of arab countries and other foreigner living in libya and to ensure that all those who wish to leave the country can do so safely. tharab group emphasizes the need to meet the aspirations of peoples to reform, democratic change, and social justice. this is a legitimate demand which must be respected. mr. president, the arab group invites the member states other

international organizations and arab and international civil society to provide humanitarian assistance in an urgent way to thlibyan people at this crucial stage of their history. and finally, we balance our heads in memory of the mortars, the peaceful demonstrators, the innocent victims, the women

it is incumbent on the the libyan authorities to impose this. mr. president, though far- reaching developments and the number of countries at present. it is a time of awakening. it is time for reckoning. muslims will no longer be denied their rights, justice, equality, and the rule of law must prevail. not only with the muslim society, but across the world. mr. president, recent developments in the muslim world have alleged that islam is incompatible with democracy. our holy book in chapter 42 verses 38 and 43, the moslems conduct their affairs by doing so to keep open for the welfare of others all we have bestowed on them. and whenever those who stand up

for their rights and defend themselves are without blame. the blame is on those who oppress people and cause toil on earth. democracy, justice, freedom, and morality does constitute the core values of islam. it emphasizes the rights of human beings. the profit mohammed, peace be upon him, and open the door to social forms that it created an environment of security and safety. the current muslim awakening has emphatically stated that the islamic world will no longer accept double standards and hypocrisy in the in--- international sphere or order. democracy, freedom, and justice are mutual human rights they cannot be promoted selectively to serve the interest of some and not all. the international community will have to pay attention to the

workers of the muslim people and not just their leaders. moslems will no longer tolerate inequalities and injustice. not only in their own societies, but in those societies where they are discriminated on the basis of their religion. most importantly, muslims will no longer tolerate denial of their rights in any part of the world. in conclusion, mr. president, we expect that the libyan authorities will heed the voice of the international community and resort to peaceful means to respond to the ongoing crisis. the international community must come to the aid and relief of the libyan people. and resist from playing politics with this issue. a new dawn has come. the rules of the game have changed. those who do not embrace it will be swept away. i thank you, mr. president. >> thank you very much. i give the floor to nigeria on

behalf of the african group. >> mr. president, i have the honor to make this statement on behalf of the african group. the african group is convinced that the council and the meetings of the united nations has the direct responsibility of the protection of human rights in mr. pronounced on the subject of libya. however, we must address the issue at stake [unintelligible] at this juncture we wish to make it clear that the african group is no less concerned about this situation in libya than any other country. in fact, a number of african leaders individually and collectively for the first to

cut the initiative to reach out to the libyan leader -- before anyone outside the continent. also the security council came out with a communicate clearly contain the position and seek for action to fill it. it is urgent to mr. president, that the indiscriminate and excessive use of force should be condemned, but also action taken by the security council to discuss the mission -- to dispatch a mission to libya. mr. president, consistent with this, the african group sees the need for a libyan authorities and the good people of libya

never to relent in avoiding any dialogue or escalation of the situation. on this occasion, the african group like to express condolences to the families of the victims, and as a sustained energy -- injuries. we asked the authorities, to guarantee not only the safety and security of the citizens, but also to insure that humanitarian assistance is provided to the population in need. it is important to state clearly by the african group that we condemn the situation created by different medium and those as missionaries. difficultt into it and virginia difficult situation. the african group is convinced

that at a difficult time like this, open dialogue will remain the only way to find a better solution to the challenges that we face. we can ultimately strive for the help of the libyan people, for democracy, justice, and to share. in conclusion, mr. president, the african group eagerly anticipates that they will create -- to deploy a peaceful and non-violent means of dealing with the current crisis. just as the international community remains united in their condemnation of human rights abuses in libya, so also, -- member states of the united nations this binds us

together and should inform our authorities in this. i thank you. >> the british house of commons is back in session this week. live coverage of the prime minister's questions this wednesday at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span2. next, c-span's conversation with former arkansas governor mike huckabee. then, from the national governors' association winter meeting, all forum on what state should be doing about cybersecurity, and then a panel on education with education secretary arne duncan. >> secretary of state hillary clinton addresses the united nations human rights council on the u.s. response to the situation in libya. our live coverage from to navy begins at 6:00 a.m. eastern on c-span2.

and there is a new way to get a concise review of the day's events. it is washington today on c-span radio. we will take you to capitol hill, the white house, anywhere news is happening and talk with the experts, politicians, and the journalist as we put the day's events into perspective. the stories that matter to you the most every weekday by a clot-7:00 p.m. on c-span rated. you can listen and 90.1 fm, and nationwide on xm satellite radio. our goal online at c-span.org. there is an iphone at, and you can download the program every evening as the c-span pot cast. >> former arkansas the governor mike huckabee is the author of a new book entitled "is simple government." c-span had a chance to talk with him about possible presidential bid in 2012, the role of the

media in american politics, social and fiscal issues, and about growing up in hope, arkansas. this is 40 minutes. >> former arkansas governor mike huckabee. the book is called "a simple government." in researching the book, what did you learn? >> the complex problems we face as a country, and to back up with a macro lens and say what common-sense principle could apply here that would make sense? i wanted this book to be the kind of bookhat when a person read it, they did not have to have a phd in politil science or be an economist. the book was written so that a person could come home from work, read the book, and say i understand that. they may not agree with that, but i wanted them to understand it. to be written in a conversational way, thiss where i stand and what i

believe. i am hoping it makes sense to people. >> y write that candidate obama said he would discover common ground. president obama is showing himself to be theost partisan president in my lifetime, hands down. >> he surprised me. i was anticipating that he would govern a lot like he campaigned, all about a new day in washington, a new kind of dynamic. essentially he said republicans, i won, we are in charge, and you are not invited. it was interesting to see that he did not have any meetings with the house leadership for months and months into his presidency. when he had a meeting on health care, and i remember very vividly when paul ryan, congressman from wisconsin, said mr. president, we have some ideas. he kin of basically dismissed him with "we want, you did that

." -- "we won, you didn't." i saw in him a very different kind of person as preside than i had seen, democrat or republican, who when they took the oath of office, understood that there are elevated to a different position than they had been when they were just a candidate. >> so what change? >> i think a lot of it was that he reay believed he was on a mission to get his agenda de. i think he misunderstood the voters of 2008. it was like an unchecked mandate that he could go with a blank slate full throttle ahead. but that is not what the people were saying. they were angry at republicans for the way republicans had messed things up, but i don't believe that a 55% vote meant that he had 100% of an

opportunity to do whatever he wanted to do. >> your book has as much social policy as public policy. you write about one in three american kids lives with -- in a home without a dad on the premises. allowing for exceptions as in all things, the typical portrait of these children is grim indeed. where did you gethe figure, and what does that say about american society? american society? >> 75% of american verse are out of wedlock. the reason that is important, what i am trying to do in the first chapter of this book is to quantify the economic cost of social breakdown. a lot of times, particularly,

people will say this social stuff does not matter. we need to focus on the economy. i could not agree more. if you are serious about focusing on the economy and dealing with issues like poverty that calls a lot of government money to be spent, you cannot divorce that from the root cause of why we have so many government programs. 14% of our overall federal budget is safety net spending for things like wic, medicaid, a lot of which would not be spending if you had stable, solid, and financially capable families. >> you say that red states have more out-of-wedlock babies and blue states have perhaps you have already guessed it, more abortions. why did you identify that in terms of red and blue? >> i think sometimes people will look at the birth rates of states that are lower portion

states and see that the out of wedlock states like arkansas and mississippi and even utah might be high. they say you do not have those kinds of numbers in states like new york and connecticut. what you have in new york is 33% of pregnancies end in abortion. that figure is more like 9% in arkansas. excuse the figures if you don't interpret them to uerstand the reason that you don't see as many out of wedlock birthis not because the rate has gone down, it is because those babies are aborted rather than born into a single parent homes. >> should roe vs. wade overturned? >> that is not enough. all that would do, and maybe would be an improvement, but maybe not, because of this. it would then refer all abortion law to the states. if you live in arkansas and are

pro-life, that would be very pro-life, that would be very good, because arkansas has an amendment that says that life begins at conception and it is the government's purpose to do everything possible to recoize the sanctity and worth of every human life and tillis natural conclusion. in other states you might have even more liberal abortion. we need to start recognizing this is not so much about abortion, just that one aspect. the bigger issue is, do we believe that life has value and that every life has intrinsic worth? if we believe that, then we have to believe that it is our purpose as a culture and society to do all that we can to protect and enhance life. the next question is be irrefutable scientific question, when does life begin? we need to be more scientific, whether it is global warming our evolution.

human life begins at conception. we can argue philosophically, but biologically, that is when human life begins. 23 chromosomes from a man and 23 from a woman come together and crted the in a schedule that is unique to at individual. it is neither the father nor the mothers dna schedule. as of the elements in its genome at that very moment that it will ever have. and it is life at that point, and it is human. it is not a puppy, it is n a stock of broccoli. it can only be human. if that is in fact him live, is it our responsibility to protect it and to treat it with dignity and worth? i say we should. that may require a constitutional protection for the lives of unborn children. >> so you are sayg the government has a responsibility. >> in the same way the government has responsibility to protect people athe other end

of life. if we come to the conclusion thatt is ok to take human life because it represents a financial hardship. typically the argument is i cannot afford this baby, i don't want this baby, it is going to interrupt my college, or my boyfriend will not accept it. if we apply that logic at the beginning of life, then why can we not applied at the end of life? by the same logic, when a person gets older and they become very expensive, because those nursing home bills are not cheap, and the family has to go out and visit grandma and take care of her and look out for her and lose their weekends because they have to go and visit her, they might decide that by the same logic that we can terminate the life at the beginning, we can terminate it at the end. that is where we end up at the logical conclusion of devaluing and human life. >> did you ever councilwoman who had an abortion? >> dozens of times.

-- did you ever council a woman who had anbortion? >> the are lots of women who had an abortion, often because they were pressured by their mother, may be pressured by a boyfriend, had the abortion, and then later they married and had a child. they would no longer just a student who had made a crazy mistake, but as they had their children, it started hitting them and hitting them hard. i saw a level of guilt and pain in the lives of women in their late 20's and early 30's, and i have never seen anything like it before or since. i realize that the people or counseling those young women to get abortions were not telling them the whole story. they were not being honest with them. they were just telling them this is just a block of tissue, don't worry about it. now we have sonograms, which we

did not have a generation ago. i am going to be a grandfather this summer. my daughter-in-law showed me the dvd of a little bitty baby inside of her. it is stunning, and it is a 3 d version of this or you can see facial features. this is a chore of where in any state where abortion is legal -- a child that could be terminated for any reason. you can see the heart beat, you know it is a boy. tests have already been done. these are technologies that did not exist before. the viability of a baby is much different than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. i think that why we are seeing for the first time in polls this last year that for the first time since 1973, more people identify as pro-life than

not, and interesting thing is because younger women are actually more pro-life than their mothers and grandmothers were. it is an encouraging sign that we as a culture and society are beginning to more greatly value each human life as having intrinsic worth and value. >> you understand the politics on bh sides of abortion. if you are the president, realistically what do you think you as president could do on the issue of abortion. >> one thing you could do is reverse the obama decision on the mexico city policy. you could make sure that federal funds never get used to take the life of a child. the president has responsibility to try to explain to the to try to explain to the american people that this is not some extraneous issue that is peripheral, and not an issue that should solely rest just in the caretaker. it should rest with all of us with a deep sense of elevation of every human life. what a president get everything he wants in a pro-life way his

first few months in office? probably not, but i think he ought to try. he ought to set the standard high for the value of human life. >> the book is called "a simple government." >> one of the things i wanted to get across in the book is that the greatest gift a leader gives to his or her constituency is the power to be independent. if a mother and father raise children who never are able to go off on their own, and when they are in their 30's and 40's, they live at home, mom has to cook and clean for them and take care of their clothes, we don't look at that and say what a deal. we look at that and said what a tragedy that that child never grew out of being a child.

the whole point of being a parent is to train ourhildren to become a replacement, to take on responsibility. the same thing is true of a pastor. the same thing should be true of a political leader. it is to empower people so they can live independently with the full expression of their own personal liberty. >> you say sometimes i hear president obama speak and i want to chant the mighty mouse theme. here i come to save the day, that means barack obama is on the way. >> i have been somewhat taken aback by so my references in his speeches to himself. i say that sometimes i think he is more interested in his story than history. i find that the speeches are often about what he thinks, what he believes. this is about the american narrative.

in a specific reference to that phrase, here i come to save the day, i think political leaders are first and foremost servants of the people. it does not mean they don't have strong leadership capacities, but it is not to call attention to themselves nor is it to somehow make the american story all about their own commemorative story. i just have been sometimes amazed listening to the president speak, it was as if it were more about him than it was about us. >> you are right about president reagan, this year marking the centennial of his birth. looking back at the media in particular, social networking, and the plethora of inrmation out there. is that one of the inherent issues that any president today is now facing, that reagan and his predecessors did not face?

there are so many different opinions. >> it has changed the internment completely. i am not sure ron reagan could get the nomination today. here was a guy who changed his position on abortion, he raised taxes, he granted blanket amnesty to illegals by the millions. he pulled outf a conflict in lebanon almost overnight because of attack. leave me, i am speaking as a person who loves rating, voted in campaign for him, a strong supporter of him, then an now, and believe he was one of the greatest american president ever. ever. basically he was living in a world where there were three new sources and broadcast, plus radio and television. even radio was different because the fairness doctrine is still

fer to. now, the end user of information has to become his or her own editor. in the old days, there was someone between reporter and the consumer who asked the consumer who asked the questions, were due to get this information? what is the veracity of this inrmation? how do we know is true? we don't have an editor now. somebody can block anything. the next thing you know, people are saying is true because i read it on the internet. that does not make it true at all. we have to be far more discriminating that what we read may not at all have any semblance of truth. unfortunately, not everybody is being the editor that he or she needs to be. a lot of people have been critical of fox without realizing that the fox news realizing that the fox news channel, when it does the news,

i would put the people on the journalism side of fox news at next to anyone. function on the journalism side on fox news, i am on the program side. it is unapologetically -- i guess you can use the word partisan. i don't pretend to be a journalist, but inow a lot of people who are in mainstream journalism whose roots are in partisan politics. at lst i think fox was honest about that. when you have people in the news division, chris wallace, people who report receive any of our news folks, i think you find a level of professionalism that is second to none. they are not commentators.

there is not this colsion or one division tells the other what is going to do our thing. there is a law there and i respect and appreciate that. >> with their is opinion journalism on fox and msnbc. i think fox is honest about saying if you watch bill reilly r mike huckabee are sean hannity, you are going to get an opinion. we tell you this is an opinion show. if you watch shepard smith, you are going to see journalism. you are not going to know if they or liberal or conservative. shepard smith, i have no idea how he voted in the last election, and i watch his show. i cannot detect that he has a bias. sometimes i think he may lean a litt more left than other people, but i don't know. i feel like the news guys do

their job professionally and very well. we do not pretend to be journalists. we do commentary and we do opinionated programs. >> you share one thing in common with bill clinton. euro from hope, aansas. describe the town. >> when i grew up there it was a town of about 8000 people. i grew up in the old deep south culture, seeing jim crow laws and segregation. i remember -- it was a great time to grow up there. people knew each other and look after each other. i used to say that if i got in

trouble eight blocks from home, before i could get my bicycle home, six people would call my parents and tell them what i had done. there was a sense in which the village was involved. it was a good community, good schools, teachers that inspired us. there was a sense of civic life there that was very admirable. i also saw that community grow and change. one of the things i am proud of is seeing that in my lifetime, i have seen an african-american elected president. i said that right after the election. i write about it and make it very clear that my home town was a very good place to grow up. >> you refer to -- barack obama refer to the unprecedented economic crisis. you said that the word you are looking for is debt.

>> i don't think he is listening. at some point you have to say, i got elected to the job and have taken command of the ship. it is my baby and i have to nurse it. the fact is, president obama has increased the debt of the united states several times over. the greatest challenge facing our country is debt. i write about it extensively because it is important for americans to understand what 1 billion looks like and what one trillion looks like. frankly i think it is one of the most important parts of the book. if there was one thing i could say as why you should read this book, look at the pictures. a picture is worth a thousand words.

my bk has several telson words in it. it is staggering when people start grasping the sheer magnitude of one trillion dollars, and to think that this country is in debt between $14 trillion and $15 trillion, it is a stunning revelation. >> both parties are responsible. >> of course they are. democrats have taken into an era -- inouye level in the past couple of years. believing that we can just continue to at entitlements. the obamacare bill will add another trillion dollars. that is not going to save us money. that never made sense to anybody. >> he pointed out the multiple tax increases.

can you reduce the debt without raising taxes? >> first of all, you have to get spending under controlnd start cutting the spending before you even put any talk of taxes on the table. i don't think the problem in i don't think the problem in america is that we don't have enough taxes. our problem is that we have become addicted to spending and we use it as a political tool. i also thi our tax system is completely skewed, and the way we assessed taxes is fundamentally wrong. we penalize the productivity of our citizens. i write about the tax system in the book. my position has been that we need a consumption tax. we should be taxed on our consumption at the point of retail sales, not taxing people becausehey worked, earned, and saved. those are good things. those are the things that do stimulate the economy and create jobs and cause people to manufacture. we penalize productivity and then you subsidize

irresponsibility, like we do is bail out, you do harm to the economy, you don't improve it. >> did you support the tarp bailout? >> i did not. >> and yet most of the money has been paid back. >> the government should never have been in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace. why did the government decide that goldman sachs should live and lehman brothers should not? i look around atll these so- called conservatives who were supporting tarp. there is nothing conservative about the government bailing out poorly, recklessly mane companies to got in trouble because of their own mismanagement. the fact is, the role of the government is to be that of the referee. they are there to where the striped shirts and referee the game to make sure everyone is playing fairly. their game is not -- their job is not to put on a team jersey

and determine theutcome by picking the team that is going to win to the exclusion of the others. when the government says we are going to let lehman brothers fail, but not goldman sachs, aig, we are going to bail them out. why? if the companies are in a position to fail because they were not run properly, i hate to say this, but maybe they need to fail. maybe good companies and better run company should rise to the occasion in come to the top. i have heard all the arguments from republicans, the hand- wringing, the sweating about the economy collapsing. i think the economy will collapse in the future because we set a precedent that is impossible to keep, that if you fail, the government will bail you out. that is the equivalent of enabling a drug addict who continually messes up, but his family always rushes in and

saves him and rescues him. there are some tough consequences of getting on drugs. you are going to hit bottom before you ever start climbing back to the top. what we have done as the government is decided we are going to bail these folks out without ever letting them experience the consequences of their own reckless actions. >> it was president bush and the secretary of the treasury who pushed for part. how will historians view george w. bush? >> given the way that the prevailing view is, they may say it was a necessary thing to do. i will go to my grave saying it was an unconstitutional intrusion in the marketplace, and it was fundamentally wrong and it set a terrible precedent. i am a big fan of george the bush. i like him personally and i thought he managed the duties far better than people will ever

give him credit for, until some were out in history. on that issue, i disagree with that then and i disagree with it now. >> how does a baptist minister become governor of arkansas? >> a lot of peoplwould like to know how that happened. i first career was broadcasting and advertising, and by a circuitous route i ended up pasturing a church, which was a magnificent experience. it gave me an opportunity to deal with people on every level. it was 25 or 30 years ago now, but part of my experience was, i saw every social pathology that can be described. it was not just that i sought in an abstract way. i could put a name and face to every issue we were facing, if it was homelessness, drug addiction, alcoholismand make tr

eat or have madison, young couples, struggling with too couples, struggling with too much debt, it is nothing that a person could made that i cannot put a face to. over the course of that time, i becamencreasingly convinced that the people studying public policy did not have a clue about what the root causes of a lot of our social problems tunnel breakdowns of our culture were, and i am not just talking about social. poverty, disease. i became convinced that in a representative form of government, we needed people who represented all kinds of people who lived in our culture and society. it did not see people like me involved, so three long process of conversations with my wife, i decided to step out of the stands and get down on the arena and i guess the rest is,

as they say calm history. >> why did you ultimately decide to run? to run? >> i thought that i had the internal compass that pointed north, and i understood why i believe what i did and could defend it and i believe in the greatness of america. having been a governor for years, had more executive experience. when a person is a governor, they have actlly run a microcosm of the federal government. every agency that you have of the federal level, you really have at the state level. millions and billions, more like millions and billions, more like trillions, ebut the premise of what you're governing is really what you have as a governor, and

i understood that the job in that role, the executive branch, very different from the legislative branch, where you can specialize in two or three different things. it needed a person who had clarity of vision, and many people encouraged me to run, and i decided that was exactly what i would do. >> during the campaign, did you learn anything new about yourself that yodid not know? >> i learned that i was more resilient and i had anticipated. it was not as savidge running for president than it was running for anything i ran for at the arkansas state level, because arkansas is a tough political environment. political environment. it is sort of an old school kind of place, where it is down there at the retail level, and i think it is one of the reasons looking back, when i saw bill clinton go through so many different challenges, some of which were his own making, but he kept

coming back after them, people were amazed, and i felt late on, after my own campaign, i kind of get it now, because once you have gone through the political sausage making an arkansas, you are going to take some real hits to the head. there are going to be some political concussions going on, but you learn t get up, dust yourself off, and fighanother day. >> let's talk about 2012. if you were to run, what questions would you ask yourself this time around? >> am i the best person prepared not just to run but to eat? and do my ideas really make sense to the american people, because ultimately, you have to have the consented to be able to govern effectively. i wrote this book largely because i wanted to lay it out there. here is what i believe. do not listen to what somebody says i am about, because political opponents will

distort, contort your message and all different ways to make it look different than it is. i wanted to say," here is to i am if you read that book, and you say, "you know, that guy's got to make sense to me," then that is good. if you read it and say, "none of that makes sense to me," then it is something that is true and not something you read on the internet. >> i thoughtful, mature, and tempered leader, but that could be lost in a sea of gotcha games, while political hacks and media hit men look for the slightest change in a candid its history. >> we are less interested in where a candidate stands and what he stands there than we are interested in what i call the gotcha questions.

some almost very rare, nuanced position that may have taken 30 years ago, and the show that in your face of a sudden, unexpectedly, almost as if to say, "ah-ha." it loo like a great "60 minutes" moment, but it does not give people of the country an idea of who you are, and what i think we should be talki about is how you would deal with border security or terrorism, how would you deal with these? the deficit? social security? frankly, i think i take some risks in this book. i take on some of the sacred cows a politics that people do not talk about, social security, medica. interestingly enough, a hot item over the past few weeks has been unions. unpaged 35 of the book, this was written back in last june, i talk about it, but this was a train wreck that i think any

governor could see coming, and i talk about the relationship that unions have with states and the symbiotic relationship they have with the federal government. it made me feel good that the very week that the book came out, the front page everywhere was all of this issue about can we afford to continue to pay public employees disproportionately better than people in the private sector make? >> so where is mi huckabee right now in termsf a presidential bid? >> right now, i am very seriously contemplating it, but i and taking my time in a methodical way. i am not going to rush into it because of a 24-hour ns cycle. first of all, this is different than four years ago. the calendar itself as far as the primary is going to be elongated, so there is no sense for starting it up as early as last time, because very few people can sustain a campaign. one of the things i am gauging

is how do people respond to the message, and the best way i know to present a message, other than being on radio every day and television every week, is to really codify it into a book form and say, "here is where i stand. this is it. it is in print. you can read it. you can underline it. you can read it twice." you can go back and read the same page again. if people say, "i think this guy has the ideas that can help this country get back on its feet," that is going to go on long way. i said i sure hope i had something. in terms of what i be a different person, i hope not, because i tried to be as authentic as i can possibly be and not be duplicitous about what i believe or where i stood. i tried to answer the questions asked of me, and i would hope to be able to do that again.

>> if elected, what kind of president would you like to be? >> i would like to be the kind of president that whether they liked at the time, in retrospect, they would say, "they really gave his wholehearted to raise this country to the best it could be ." "he was a great american president pierre " -- president." there is still 40% of the people who did not vote for him, it is his job to serve them as much as the 60% that on the front and put him there in the first place. one benefit i have been a governor -- on the front anend. it reminded me every day pair that i cannot go in saying, "this is how we are going to get it done, fellows, and we are going to do it my way.

i am proud of the job creation, educatiol excellence, et changing the tax structures so that we actuallyower taxes on working families and couples who are married. there are many things i could point to, but i also believe that is how you govern. it is not from some sense of ideological idea. i am an ideological person. my convictions are pretty doggone clear. i have been about as plainspoken as i think a person can be, but as i think a person can be, but i also recognize that when you govern, and you have to govern within the context of the consent of the governed, and i always remin myself that if the vors had sent other people to the legislative body, i may not have voted for those guys, but their constituents back home

did. they may not have voted for me, some of their constituents did. somehow, theonstituents, the people we all work for, our employers, expect us to be able to work together to solve their problems, not create our own. >> two final points. what do you like about campaigning, and what do you not like? >> what i love about campaigning is getting out to talk to people, looking them in the eye, learning from them, and get a the energy that comes from the with some of the campaign. you know, i love the campaign. some people have said that i do not like this. , i loved it. i wake up every morning, and i cannot wait to get out there. what i do not like about it is you get distracted from the actual campaign of substance of louis saying, "this is what we need to do," -- substantively

saying. that is frustrating, because it takethe meeting away from the reason iran. it was not to play defense all day long. -- the reason you ran. "i think you are right. those are the important issues, and i will give you the opportunity to lead us. >> and finally, whether you run or not, what ll the republican field look like in 2012 >> i hope there will be more governors. i think governors made better presidents because they have actually run something. i like the fact that there are a number of governors who are talking about running or are taking steps about running. i will be a lot more cfortable when somebody is sitting there making decisions who has a history and a track record of governing from the executive branch. >> a former governor, 2008

>> next, from the governor's association winter meeting, a forum on what states should be doing about cyber security. then, a panel on education. after that, a discussion on the future of afghanistan's security. two house committees hold a hearing monday on the mission and future of u.s. presidential libraries. they will hear from the archivists of the u.s., the directors of the ronald reagan and john f. kennedy library, and other presidential historians. we will have live coverage beginning at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span3. now, from the national governors' association winter meeting in washington, d.c., a forum on how states should handle cyber security threats.

this is about 90 minutes. >> welcome to this meeting. i am the governor of maryland, the birthplace of the star spangled banner, where we have been doing security since 1814. to my left is the governor from arizona. we have briefing books for this meeting that precentor governors in a in vance, occlude -- including the agenda, speakers biographies, and other information. to my immediate right is a member of the national governors' association's senior management's.

i encourage you to please see them if you are in need of materials or additional copies or any other assistance. our agenda does provide a legislative update today on where we stand on important things an important issues. joining us today is a former colorado congresswoman and newly appointed secretary for department of homeland security. betsy, thank you very much for being here. [applause] will forward to working with you. this committee was a recent creation that came into being

about two years ago, the special committee on homeland security. we hope it is a help to the administration and the secretary in working together with the nation's governors. the proceedings of this committee are open to the press and all meetings attendees. please take a moment of gtec a moment to ensure that your cellphone and other electronic devices are silenced. we live digital lives on facebook and twitter. i am sure many of us rely heavily on blackberries and ipad scum some of us on both. that connectedness -- blackberries and i pads. from the hacking of googles corporate infrastructure to the emergence of highly sophisticated computer viruses like conficker, we are facing

threats like we've never seen before and some of which we would never have imagined before. stuxnet was first detected in june 2010 and is believed to be the first known malicious computer virus to specifically target controls of industrial facilities. like nuclear power plants. even just this past weekend, the website of the governor of guam was attacked by computer hackers. it is clear that cyber attacks have become a great emergence threat. our enemies might one day have the ability to shut down the city's power grid or intercept confidential communications from half a world away. this data requires all levels of our government to cooperate. governors have received the front line of defense of some

major networks containing sensitive information. an attack on the systems would have national security implications. at the core, cyber attacks fall into least one of three categories, information that, damage to systems, and/or in the destruction of the regular flow of information. an attacking anyone these categories could be costly from a loss for compromise of bible information or financial losses, or in extreme cases reject for compromise of valuable information. cybersecurity has the unique opportunity to create a whole new realm and sector of jobs, security jobs, i t jobs, jobs that are needed to defend our nation and cyberspace. maryland has more than a quarter million people working in the technology sector, over 60,000 working in computer design

systems, the linchpin of cybersecurity. last year we announced an initiative called cyber maryland where we are aligning our efforts so that we can fuel the needs that our nation has for cyber defense. it is our goal to create secure jobs while at the same time advancing the cause of cybersecurity. governors are eager to your former speakers today, and in that mode, let me ask our co- chair from the state of arizona, governor brewer, if you like to give some opening thoughts and comments. >> i would like to start by forking governor o'malley his leadership and cooperation with the special committee on homeland security and public safety. we'll focus on issues facing our nation's critical cyber

infrastructure and strengthening protection of that infrastructure from outside attack or even system failure. today, state information systems store and manage sensitive information of our citizens, such as medical records, tax information, and even voter registration. as governors, it is our responsibility to ensure that states are doing everything they can to prevent this information from being compromised and falling into the hands of those that would do us harm. the subject of today's discussion is one of great importance that affects everyone of us. cybersecurity is a major national concern. from the state's perspective, this protection is essential to effectively service citizens by protecting their privacy and other sensitive information in addition to securing federal programs administered at the state level. especially mission critical

homeland security activities. this past january, the center for strategic and international studies released a report which stated that two years ago, cybersecurity was not a major issue for public policy. two years later, the reports suggest that we are still not prepared. while we have progressed very little in protecting our cyber infrastructure, the technology of the threats we face have advanced far beyond what we had ever imagined possible. our state networks and critical cyber infrastructure are attacked on almost a daily basis. some attacks are benign, like replacing the web page, but others pose serious breaches of security. cyber attacks have been known to disrupt whole state governments and their networks and could potentially impact our response to an attack on our homeland. our success in defending our

state and our country depends upon our ability to work with local governments and federal agencies represented here today. and with each other to find best practices to safeguard our information systems and to do our best to eliminate our vulnerabilities. as budget crises will continue to challenge available security resources for several years, greater information sharing and cooperation and coordination and contingency planning will be imperative. i look forward to discussing how we can continue to build these relationships and to focus our energies toward these common goals. again, i would like to welcome our speakers and look forward to hearing from you. governor o'malley. >> governor, thank you very much. we have three tremendous leader setter here for the committee today and i really want to thank each of you for making time to be with us. we are pleased to have general keith alexander, the commander

of u.s. soccer command, director of the national security agency and chief of the central security service in fort meade, maryland. he previously held assignments as deputy chief of staff at the headquarters for the department of the army in washington d.c. and as commanding general of intelligence security command in virginia. he has also served in command posts in germany and saudi arabia during operation desert shield and operation desert storm. general alexander holds a number of degrees including degrees in electronic warfare, natural -- national security strategy. see to his left is undersecretary rand beers from that part of homeland security, who was appointed by president obama to the department's national protection and program directorate to oversee its integrated efforts to reduce risks through physical, cyber, and communication infrastructure. he entered foreign service in

1979 and civil service in 1983, serving mostly in the department of state. he went on to serve on the national security council under four different administrations until his resignation in 2003. previously, he was the president of the national security network, seeking to foster discussion of progress of national security ideas around the country an adjunct lecturer in 2004. to his left we are pleased to have with us the founder and chair of the multistate information sharing and analysis center. it serves as the focal point for cyber threat prevention. protection, response, and recovery for the nation's state, local, and territorial tribal governments.

it is a 24-your watch and morning center that provides real-time network monitoring, dissemination of early cyber threat warnings, along with education and outreach aimed at reducing the risk to the nation's multiple governments. he was appointed to serve on the commission on cybersecurity and participate in president obama's 60 days of our policy review. we are honored and very grateful and thankful for being here. i will turn it over now to general alexander. >> thank you very much. many of the words that you said are some of the things i would like to talk about. that is the role of the states in cybersecurity. in getting to that, some key

points on that. i thought it would be of interest to talk about what is going on in cyber, in the whole field. you have given some indication of some of the things going on in our country today. when you look out in 2010 globally, they are 170 trillion e-mail's that went on in cyberspace. 89% of those are spam. when you look at the volume of how this is growing, facebook last month just went over 600 million people. if it was a country, it would be the third largest in the world. the ipad and the smart phone, the technology -- we have an innovation nation and the technology we are creating is absolutely superb. what we can do in the terms of

the fields of technology and medicine, look at some of the classic events that have taken place. snowball fights on the mall. that probably was not the best use of collaboration, but it shows what you can get with some of this technology. and what happened in egypt with social network sites, it changed that country's governance. it is huge. tremendous opportunities, and is growing every day. as we look at it as a team, we see tremendous vulnerabilities. huge problems that are coming up with the capabilities. we want to collaborate, but we need to do it securely. what are some of the threats we are facing? in many ways, the department of defense and the intel community are partners with dhs, and dhs has the lead for our government

within the united states, working with both the rest of government and with industry. when we look at the threat, there is a number of things i would lay out. why should we be concerned about cyber? governor o'malley hit some of the key types of threats that are out there. look of what has happened in the past. in 2003, a power outage in the northeast was cost because of a glitch in software. caused because of a glitch in software. folks who were operating the system in ohio could not see the problems that were going on on the grid and could not react to them. 45 million people in the united states and 10 million in canada lost power.

perhaps a more devastating what happened in russia. this dam is perhaps the biggest generating power for russia, and what happened there, they had 10 hydroelectric turbine engines there, 640 megawatts each. that way 1,890 tons, and they spin to generate power. what happened was a fire caused the power to go out, so they brought one of the turbines online remotely. the software that looks at the vibration in those turbines was not operating properly, and as a consequence, that turbine broke free. 1,890 tons were being pushed by a lot of water, about 95,000

gallons per second. it rose 50 feet in the air and slammed into the top of the dam and destroy the whole damn, killing 75 people and shutting down power in that portion of russia. most recently, one that is very public was the mistake on the stock exchange that stopped the -- cost the stock market 1000 points. it shows you the problems that our systems have. for the government, many of you have heard the talk about finding malicious software on our networks. that happened in october 2008 and was the catalyst for putting together the united states server community in taking two separate entities and bringing them together as one team.

that is how we form cyber command. it was a smart move, and something that got us the right structure. when you think about all those changes and what is going on, and number of things come out as you start to talk about it. what is the way for? president obama in 2009 said that are digital infrastructure is a national security priority. he also said in that statement, the importance of digital literacy -- i support the program of educating more people in this area, absolutely. i think it is exactly the right way to go. when you look at the capability of technologies, and you look at where we are, we have to take

some jumps forward. the defense department is doing its job. last september, secretary gates and secretary napolitano signed an agreement that will leverage the foundational capabilities of the national security agency for the department of homeland security. i think that is a great step forward. in these difficult times, we cannot replicate nsa. the national security agency has those technical capabilities that our nation needs to defend and operate in cyberspace and we need to make that technical capability available to the department of homeland security. of course that raises some issues. what about a civil liberties and privacy? here is my perspective, from having been the director for almost six years. no one protect civil liberties and privacy better than the folks at the national security agency. we get tremendous oversight from

the courts, congress, and the administration. we cannot publicly say everything that we do in this area, but from my perspective it has been a huge step forward. more importantly, we can and must do both together, protect civil liberties and privacy and cybersecurity. how does that impact the states? as both governor stated, the states have a tremendous amount of citizen data available. securing that data is a state responsibility. it will be dhs and the team that can provide that help, but there are couple of areas that we need to put on the table. add to the educational program a program that takes the bench of some of the modern capabilities that we have.

working with your cio's and your communications information officers and a technical folks that run your networks, knowing those is the first key step. who are the key people that run the state architectures? many states information, architectures are vastly separate and we need to bring those together. let me talk about from the federal government perspective on that one point, we are finding that we can create a lot of savings in that area by bringing these together. why do our bring this up here? it does not only take money. from a cybersecurity perspective, it is a much more defensible approach. that is one of the things we need. more importantly, that is where industries -- we will want to

leverage the smart phones, these ipad. now we have to have a secure way for dealing with those. we all have driver's licenses. most all of us have driver's licenses. that is a joke. we want that security. i think we all want security. how about banking data? what about all the information we have out there? we absolutely want to know that is secure. there is a the partnership with dhs and dod that states will benefit from. the second key area is the national guard. maryland, governor o'malley has really taken this to a new level.

i get extra credit if i named the unit'. the 175th has done great work in cybersecurity. there are some great things we can do with the states in this area by train the national guard to do things that would help look at stake infrastructure. we can train them nationally. they will all be trained to the same standard, and use them locally. i think there is huge benefit in a great program that maryland and seven other states are already doing. i think that is a huge step forward and good for the nation. what we need are the best standards. we need to lay those out and we can only be that if we act as a teen. we cannot do that unilaterally. i believe that form that team and training our people together is in the best interests of the states and of our federal government. so governor o'malley, governor bruce, thank you very much for this opportunity. i will pass it back to view --

governor brewer. >> thank you for having this session. secretary napolitano and i and the cyber team at the department homeland security appreciate having opportunity to talk at a meeting such as this with the .eadership of the state's i would like to talk briefly today following on the presentation about things we are doing at dhs that our efforts to reach out to the state and to the localities as well in order to help them with cybersecurity and how we need to think about the future. the department is the principal

federal agency to lead and coordinate implementation of the efforts in civilian federal park -- civilian departments and the private sector. we are as deeply committed to dealing with the cyber threats to this country as we are to the physical. in the last year and a half we have added cybersecurity as a fifth essential mission of the department of homeland security in recognition of the increasing importance of this to the federal government into the country as well. candid here. general alexander indicated this, too. no one agency alone is capable of dealing with this issue

unilaterally. it requires partnership between federal departments and agencies and with the state, local, trouble, and territorial governments and with the private sectors. partnership becomes the essence of what we are thinking about. secondly, from a purely fiscal perspective, there is no one part of this equation that could take on the funding responsibilities for dealing with this. so we are absolutely, critically ballot in working together on this set of problems. in recognition of that, ending. we have put a dhs team at fort meade to work closely with general alexander staff. he has seen his representatives to work closely with us at the the part of homeland security,

in making sure that we are bound both intellectually as well as operationally. we in the department are very much dependent upon the capabilities and that of -- thought processes that the national security agency can bring to support us. in many ways, a lot of this is bound up in a new organization that we have at the department of homeland security, the national cybersecurity and communications integration center. it is the point to bring together the cyber expertise and collaborative capabilities of the government to reach out to the private sector and to the states in order to coordinate responses to cyber threats, in order to build relationships and in order to solidify procedures. the multistate information

sharing and analysis center will have an analyst there in mid march for that to take place. what we have here is that during a significant incident, we are responsible for coordinating efforts and working directly with state and local and territorial governments in leveraging the operational capabilities of all the organizations in order to be in a better position to respond to these issues. in association with that, we and the federal government as a whole have worked on a novel -- on a national cyber incident response effort to set up a common way in terms of dealing with different incidents that might occur in cyberspace and to come up with responses for that. this is a structure that in

conjunction with our federal partners we are taking very seriously. it is not just our federal responsibility. also involves the state and local and tribal and territorial governments. as we are working on this plan, and we expect to have a final review version done in the next several weeks, we will be reaching out to the state and local governments for your comments and your participation, because if we don't build this as a common effort and we don't have similar procedures, then our ability to respond to these kinds of events is going to be piecemeal, haphazard, inefficient, and perhaps unsuccessful. so is very, very important that we all work together on this. as we look forward to the

future, we have a number of programs that we have been working on with folks from the states. i want to just briefly enumerate them so that people are aware of them. these are programs and tools and resources, and i want to say that we are not asking for funding for this. these are things that we want to be able to provide to you all and work together with you on. the first of these is our basic engagement program in which representatives of the department of homeland security work with and build partners with the state and local governments. with a homeland security advisers and the chief information security officers. it is basically an outreach

program. supporting that we have a homeland open security technology program. this is because we recognize that most of you are looking at open source software to reduce your costs. our science and technology office has initiated this program to develop governance, acquisition, and deployment policies so we are all working from a secure information base and that our information assurances is as high as it can possibly be. the third point i want to make is the federal emergency management administration homeland security grant program which is responsible for providing grants across the entire homeland security spectrum. included within that's is cybersecurity. over the last four years, from 2006 to 2009, we have distributed about $27.5 million

devoted exclusively to homeland security and cybersecurity, and 9 million in fiscal year 2009. we do not have the 2010 figures in yet. that has led to some innovative programs. south carolina they set up a security operation center and delaware they have an information security program. what we are trying to do here, because the way that we give grants, for those of you who do not know about grant giving, is we have some broad categories and one category within that is cybersecurity. what we are looking at in terms of working at dhs is to create a specific cybersecurity grant program so that the money that is available will only go for cybersecurity, in order to

ensure that this critical area is in fact funded to the extent that the federal government can provide that kind of assistance. the fourth point i want to make, and this is also absolutely important. if we are born to do with these problems together, we have to be a will to deal with these problems at a classified level. general alexander indicated that obviously in an open situation like this, there are a lot of things we cannot talk about, but we have to be able to talk about these issues to the right officials in the right state and local governments, in order that we can in fact do a better job of preventing the kinds of problems and incidents that are causing us problems, whether it is a hacker or all the way up the scale to some kind of nation states problem. we are working diligently now to increase the number of security clearances that are available to

appropriate state and local officials so that we can pass bottle and classified information. the fifth item -- a vital and classified information. we have already worked on this evaluation program with seven states as well as 34 local, tribal, and territorial entities in order to evaluate the security of your own networks, and we would be very interested for other states who are interested in this kind of evaluation to help strengthen your own cybersecurity programs. the sixth item is our exercise program. we had one this past fall, for storm 3 in which a number of states participated, which i think has been a valuable lesson learning opportunity for those

who have participated. we hope as we move forward that we will do more. that is a very broad exercise. we have also sponsored a defend the flag exercise, and my colleague is absolutely essential to that. it is focused exclusively on state officials. that is why i think that can be a really valuable opportunity for everybody. i will let will speak for himself, but let me just say that we could not survive without the multistate information sharing and analysis center. what they give you and us are absolutely critical to defending the cyber domain and they are working with the number of programs that we hope will be in a position to expand, and we

are looking at ways in which we can help and support the expansion of those programs. i think we have a fairly robust agenda here, but we are not there yet. there is a lot more work to be done. there is a lot more that we need to do and think about. congress is in the process of considering cybersecurity legislation, hopefully in this session. general alexander's team and mine have been working mine have been working diligently on how the