the support for undemocratic regimes in the middle east is an unsustainable. it might in -- end in disaster for american foreign policy. >> they are the key to a future without mubarak. >> you are watching bbc news. looking into outer space. there are thousands of new planets undiscovered in distant solar systems. poland's foreign minister has warned the president of belarus that he could be ousted by his own people if the decide to follow the example of protesters in tunisia and egypt. >> the smiling face of belarus' hard-line president, casting a ballot in an election that he won with almost 80% of the vote. the outside world said that it was seriously flawed. in minsk, days after the results, his opponents became involved in clashes with police. 700 were arrested. some of which are in detention now. that did not stop him from another inauguration. this time, the pomp and ceremony was boycotted by many e.u. countries, angry at the flawed elections. he risks being overthrown by his own people if they follow the example of tunisian and egyptian protestors. >>

feel it and it's contradicting all our -- well, perceptions we have of the arab world, of being undemocratic or people not ready or being plagued by poverty and i think what we can see here is that even though all these things might be very, very true, people are always ready for the experience of freedom, self-respect and this new pride of the democratic egyptians. i think that's very, very touching and i think it is rooted in these social movements that have been growing in the last three, four, five years. >> we just heard from president obama talking about there's something in the human soul that yearns for freedom, definitely a message that crosses party lines. what do you think of the president's speech and how will it be received in egypt and the wider arab and islamic world? >> i think he made a very good point stressing this and indirectly commented on what mubarak was saying yesterday night when he said, well, we do not accept external interference. this is taking a part of the state propaganda of the last week that this whole rev lulings is made up by foreign powers and i think he

the support for undemocratic regimes in the middle east is unsustainable and might end up in zazi for american foreign policy. >> the immediate concern is for an end to the violence. president obama's team will be talking to the egyptian army. they are a key to the future without mubarak. >> i'll have more from egypt a little later in the program. one of the biggest storms ever to hit australia has struck the coast of queensland. they have suffered months of flooding and now expected to be battered by winds of nearly 200 miles an hour. the cyclone yasi roars across the east coast of australia. the premiere has told people to prepare for devastation unprecedented in history. >> the kentucky clone hit the coast with 199-mile-an-hour winds of fatal force. cities and towns were in complete lockdown. the emergency services were unable to respond to calls from frightened residents asking to be evacuated because it was simply too dangerous to venture out on to the streets. >> we are now seeing winds across these areas of more than 120 kilometers per hour. we are seeing torrential rain and so

he didn't talk about how slavery has created an un-american, undemocratic social order. he doesn't talk about how slavery has led to the suppression of free speech. instead, he emphasizes one thing over and over and over again in his antislavery speeches: that it is an outrage that somebody goes out and works in the hot sun all day and somebody else derives all the profits, that it's organized, systemized robbery. >> i don't think that you can separate the man from the politician or the personal views from what he's doing as a politician. certainly, lincoln hated slavery, and he hated slavery because it flew in the face of the principles of the declaration of independence, and he was a man who thought very highly of that document. >> and if you look at where lincoln was and everyone else was, i think it's not fair to paint him as a racist compared to others. remember, the major politician, the person who was supposedly the next great politician and probably seen as the greatest of his age, was stephen douglas. >> narrator: douglas was an easterner who came to illinois in

the campaign against arms trade says it's just a cover and whose real purpose is selling arms to undemocratic regimes. you've got to remember that david cameron rigidly set the store in order to seal arms deals with various middle eastern countries he took a quick trip quick to talk to egypt where he talked a lot about democracy and freedom praised the people in tahrir square but that really was a sideshow what he's hoping to do is so and lots of them to the middle east and i have to say so far british farm sales do seem to have been very successful there but of course the main reason for these arms sales is seems to be for internal repression obviously it would have been great if we hadn't sold those arms to libya or to bahrain because then we could talk with a little bit more credibility about the importance of freedom and democracy unfortunately the way the british government works and it's not just mr cameron's government it was the former labor government as well is that the british state is set up to support and arms a part of u.k. trade and investment their defense and security organiz

percent of the parliament the mubarak regime considered that to be too much and held even more undemocratic parliamentary elections in december two thousand and ten then had been held before so first of all the muslim brothers are saying at least and based on their practice in the two thousand and five parliamentary session actually acting according to democratic procedural rules they have lots of criticisms of israel but that can't be a reason why they can't participate in political life in egypt moreover the muslim brothers have agreed that mohamed el dorado eighty who is a liberal secularist nobel peace laureate and former head of the international atomic energy commission should lead the transition to a new democratic regime in egypt and is very clever on their part because he has already announced that should he do that he would arrange elections that would allow everyone from the muslim brothers to the communists to participate i can't see why anyone would have a problem with that use if you know a lot a lot about the power of the plight of the palestinians in light of what's happenin

i think in terms of foreign policy a lot of these sales particularly undemocratic regimes don't serve the long term interest of the united states and i think there was a good piece in aol dot com about what would have happened if those billions and billions spent on weapons had been spent on supporting schools supporting food program supporting the civilian economy in egypt might there have been a more seamless or even a soon a transition to a genuine democratic system. so i think certainly there's overspending now compared to what would be need for strict defensive purposes and in that sense those extra dollars beyond what's needed to defend the country i think are not only a way spend some cases they they're counterproductive in terms of the defense of the country so you know i think certainly some pentagon spending is needed but we're probably you know one hundred billion or more above what would be needed for strict defensive purposes and a lot of that goes to feed the military complex well of the dollars. a dollar if i put a dollar and taxes last year to the u.s. government what

and around the world i mean you have unions in democratic countries you don't have unions and undemocratic countries have been tremendously important force everywhere they've been important force in building the middle class in the united states with a forty hour work week because of the unions if you got rid of the unions you already destroyed them virtually destroyed the private sector they'd been twenty percent of the private sector labor for. which just as recently as nine hundred eighty seven percent today public sector and public sector hasn't been as harsh in trying to break unions as the private sector there's still about thirty six percent of the public sector workforce i think clearly this is an effort to break public sector unions a sort of last bastion of progressive politics what happens if that works i really think that we need to think about public sector and private sector unions differently because we're talking about i mean in wisconsin new york times reported that the public sector unions gave two hundred million dollars to the democratic party in that state that to me s

faces and you can feel contradicting all our -- well, perceptions we have of the arab world, being undemocratic or people not ready or beinggu poverty and i think what we can see here is that even though all these things might be very, very op aayrey r the experience of freedom, self-resct and this new pride of theocti egyptians. i think that's very, very ot ithe sia movementsit is that have been growing in the last three, four, five years. >> we just heard from president obama talking about there's meininheumou that yearns for freedom, definitely a message that crosses party lines. what do you think of the president's speech and how will it be received in egypt and the wider arab and islamic world? >> tnke de a very good point stressing this and indirectly commented on what mubarak was saying yesterday night when he said, wl,e do not accept external interference. this is taking a part of the e propaganda of the last week that this whole rev lulings is made up by foreign powers and i think he wascoenngn that saying this is an egyptian revolution and i think this is something people want to hear

the first obvious objection it looks undemocratic. the second is that it's associated with violence. i've argued that it can be turned against violence. but the third is look what it's doing in the world today. the third of his arguments from cases. what it's doing all today it's killing a thousand women in pakistan in honor killing. it's killing at least 5,000 women in the world that way and that's terrible but much worse than that, i think, is the fact that millions of women are terrorized. 'cause the dead woman are a small proportion of the victims. and because of our times and because of the world's situation today, i should say i talk about honor killing in pakistan which is a muslim country and i talk about muslim honor killings. if it's not a muslim practice. it is condemned by islam. it's condemned by grand ayatollahs and in cairo and condemned by a fatwa and muslim leaders and it's not a muslim practice and indeed in other parts of south asia and it's carried out by others. and in the mediterranean world in the 19th century i

by autocrats who use violence, deception, and rigged elections to stay in power or advance and undemocratic agenda. but like colonel gaddafi, leaders to deny freedom and opportunity will face the very instability they fear. the process of transition must be protected from anti- democratic influences. political participation must be open to all people come up across the spectrum, to reject violence and agreed to play by the rules of democracy. yet those who refuse should not be allowed to subvert the aspirations of the people. and leaders cannots claim -- cannot claim democratic legitimacy if they abandon these principles once in power. free and fair elections are essential to building and maintaining democracy, but elections alone are not sufficient. sustainable democracy is built on strong institutions, including an independent judiciary that promotes the rule of law and helps ensure accountability and transparency that stands against corruption recent days have underscored the importance of the freedom of expression -- whether it is in the public square or on the internet. journalists and

it is not just china or autocratic governments that can do it with more ease, it is undemocratic governments in europe that seem to be able to make these investments and understand the importance of the much more easily than we do come here in the u.s., and that is going to pay off for them and will be a disadvantage for us if we do not catch up. host: another e-mail from gene winkler -- is that correct? guest: that is roughly right. for all of the complaining by the u.s. chamber of commerce, as a matter of fact, business had a nice rebound. you see that reflected in what street, in corporate profits, and that is a good thing for the company. but how about now investing in that country that has been good to you to help us expand the economy, create jobs, and reposition america so we are competitive in the global economy? host: jim from fairfax, virginia. caller: good morning. i am behind somebody with your bumper sticker right now. we have been talking a lot about infrastructure, infrastructure investment, the stimulus bill. i remember people talking about bridges, roads, and investment with

and some institutions that would be deemed undemocratic in one country may be the key to successful liberal self-government in another. for example, to create and secure democracy, germany after world war ii banned the nazi and communist parties. now, that kind of sweeping ban of political parties would not fly in the united states, but it was deemed important and beneficial and democratic in germany. and so i think for people who do see the practical benefit of democracy promotion for the united states, it's important that they develop a sophisticated understanding of the complexities here and the fact that, as i said, democracy is not going to look the same and it's not going to have all the same institutions in every country. but that's not an argument for dismissing either the moral or the practical benefits to the united states of trying to encourage the development of liberal democratic institutions. now, u.s. policymakers are now being forced to consider what are key interests are -- what our key interests are in egypt. and i think the list is fairly obvious to most everybody. i won'

literally, hundreds of thousands of people have mobilized across the state to try to stop this undemocratic bill. now it is up to the senators to either come up with a solution to this, or it is up to the governor for once and -- to once and for all sit down and hammer out a deal. that is all people have been asking for. host: robert ostrow is a professor at the university of arkansas and has this in the "washington journal" this morning. guest: let me say a couple of things about that. the economic policy institute did it very comprehensive analysis that showed public employees in the state of wisconsin earned 8.2% less in pay and benefits than their equally educated private-sector counterparts. the study that you are talking about when it comes to pay and benefits of milwaukee teachers is built on suspect data, to say the least. the teachers of milwaukee and the teachers of wisconsin are at the national average in terms of their pay and benefits. one of the reasons that wisconsin has some of the best public schools in america is because we have good teachers. the last thing we need to do

some institutions that would be deemed undemocratic in one country may be the key to successful liberal self- government in another. for example, to create and secure democracy germany, after world war ii banned the nazi and communist parties. that kind of sweeping ban of political parties would not fly in the united states, but it was deemed important and beneficial and democratic in germany. for people who do see the practical benefit of democracy promotion from the united states, it is important that they developed a sophisticated understanding of the complexities here and the fac that democracy is not going to look the same and is notoing to have all the same institutions in every country. that is not an argument for dismissing the moral or the practical benefits to the united states of trying to encourage the development of liberal democratic institutions. u.s. policymakers are now being forced to consider what our key interests are in egypt. the list is fairly obvious to st everybody. i will not spend a whole lot of time on it. we have an ierest in regional peace. we have an inter

it is deeply and democratic and partisan critique is deeply undemocratic. it is one of the most exciting things happening in america today. [applause] >> can you hear me? i have a long list to add to the rig the system in terms of complaints. not just the clothes primaries and not just redistricting, although those are major problems, but we also face a ballot access. and itsrenchment protection plan, they write the rules for everybody else. it is hard to have a growing movement of independents if you cannot have independent candidates to vote for. we have to open up the system in order to be able to say, this is our candidate, not that we will be stuck with one of your two major party candidacies. [applause] it is not tolerable but 30% of the american people say, you can only vote for one of the two major parties. or you have to wait 18 months like you heard earlier today in order to be able to go out to run and get the votes of independent voters. we cannot stand for that anymore in the united states and that is not how we should define democracy here. [a

some institutions that would be deemed undemocratic in one couny may be the key to successful liberal self- government in another. for example, to create and secure democracy germany, afr world war ii banned the nazi and communist parties. that kind of sweeping ban of political parties would not fly in the united state but it was deemed important and beneficial and democratic in germany. for people who do see the practical benefit of decracy promotion from the united states, it is important that they developed a sophisticated understanding of the complexities here and the fact that democracy is not going to look the same and is not going to have all the same institutions in every country. that is not an argument for dismissing the moral or the practical benefits to the united states of trying to encourage the development of liberal democratic institutions. u.s. policymakers are now being forcedo consider what our key interests are in egypt. the list is fairly obvious to most everybody. i will not spend a whole lot of time on it. we have an interest in regional peace. we have an intere

certain amount of soul cherging and re-evaluation in the administration about how to deal with undemocratic governments that are nonetheless helpful to the united states? >> well, look. we have -- we have important, as i said earlier, important bilateral relationships throughout the world. we cannot -- we cannot institute or force change on any of those governments. we can speak out directly, privately and in public, on the universal values that we support. i think what you've heard the president say and i think what my guess is governments throughout the world are seeing is that what happens in a country when a government appears not to be responsive to the needs of, the concerns of its citizens. i think as the president said, each and every one in government has the responsibility to do that. >> we had a wire cross us that said the first hay disays the president quit smoking and hasn't smoked in almost a year. >> i think that goes along with what i said, i don't remember when we last discussed this. i said he hadn't smoked in nine months. >> do you know what helped him finally kicked the