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Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is testing the waters for a potential 2012 presidential bid, declined to denounce a proposal by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to honor a Civil War general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan on state license plates. The AP reports:

Questioned by reporters Tuesday in Jackson, Barbour said he doesn't think Mississippi legislators will approve the [Nathan Bedford] Forrest license plate proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group wants the car tag in 2014 as part of a series of Civil War license plates. Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson has called on Barbour to denounce the license plate idea. Asked about that Tuesday, Barbour replied: "I don't go around denouncing people."

Barbour has previously come under fire for remarks making light of the civil rights struggle in Mississippi when he was a young man -- remarks he later recanted. For more on the present controversy, see earlier: "Will Haley Barbour Condemn Effort to Honor KKK Founder?"

CBS News issued a chilling statement Tuesday about a horrific attack on one of its correspondents while she was reporting from Egypt last week:

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering. There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.

Most mainstream American news outlets have a policy of not naming the survivors of sexual assault and it is hard to imagine that CBS would have issued this statement, which landed like a thunderbolt in the close-knit media world, without Logan's permission. That makes her one very brave woman, as news of the attack ricocheted across Twitter and newspapers with lightning speed. The Columbia Journalism Review in 2007 published a lengthy look at the risk of sexual assault and harassment female foreign correspondents face while on assignment overseas. Its lede describes a situation that sounds similar to that faced by Logan, though with a quicker intervention from Good Samaritans:

The photographer was a seasoned operator in South Asia. So when she set forth on an assignment in India, she knew how to guard against gropers: dress modestly in jeans secured with a thick belt and take along a male companion. All those preparations failed, however, when an unruly crowd surged and swept away her colleague. She was pushed into a ditch, where several men set upon her, tearing at her clothes and baying for sex. They ripped the buttons off her shirt and set to work on her trousers. "My first thought was my cameras," recalls the photographer, who asked to remain anonymous. "Then it was, 'Oh my God, I'm going to be raped.' " With her faced pressed into the soil, she couldn't shout for help, and no one would have heard her anyway above the mob's taunts. Suddenly a Good Samaritan in the crowd pulled the photographer by the camera straps several yards to the feet of some policemen who had been watching the scene without intervening. They sneered at her exposed chest, but escorted her to safety.

CJR doesn't have the whole thing online but a full version of the story can be read via this PDF (via @lizzieohreally). Politico notes that Logan, who was detained with her crew in Egypt earlier in the month and forced to leave the country, went back out of a sense of personal obligation to tell the story of the uprising:

TIME magazine reported on February 3 that Logan was detained and, on February 7, she told Charlie Rose that she was accused of being a spy. "There was no question after what we were subjected to that we were not safe and were, were now targeted," said Logan, adding that that "can very easily get you killed and you better take it seriously." Still, she told that she was disappointed in herself as a journalist over the episode and upset that she was unable to keep reporting. "It's very hard for me to be away from this story," said Logan. "I feel in one sense like a failure professionally. I feel like I failed because I didn't deliver and I take that responsibility very seriously. ... Fundamentally it is in my blood to be there and to be on the streets and to be listening to people and to do the best reporting that I can." "You try to be smart about these things and, yes, I would go back. It would depend entirely on the circumstances."

We expect a lot from our political leaders, but the one thing we tend not to expect them to be is musically hip. What with two wars, multiple international crises and the economic downturn to manage, the last thing anyone can reasonably expect from President Obama is that he be downloading the latest from Yeasayer. But as perplexed Americans from Rosie O'Donnell on down erupted on Twitter in response to Canadian indie group Arcade Fire's Grammy win for Album of the Year last night, asking, "Who is Arcade Fire?", it's worth noting that our president is one person who would know. To be in politics is to be in constant need of money, and fundraisers need entertainment. As well, Barack Obama was uniquely appealing as a political figure to a range of American -- and international -- cultural figures from the earliest days of his presidential campaign. Arcade Fire was an early support of Obama's presidential bid, playing two concerts for his campaign in March 2008 in Ohio. There are some pretty low-res clips of the shows on YouTube. From the Cleveland show: And from the Nelsonville, Ohio, one: Obama's White House also has proved itself a sophisticated patron of the arts, and during one of its first events, in February 2009, featured Esperanza Spalding -- winner of the Grammy last night for Best New Artist -- performing for the president and first lady: The performance was broadcast on PBS, on which she was described as "the brightest young star on the jazz horizon." She returned to the White House in May of that year for its poetry jam:

If Exhibit A for why it's hard to imagine the present governor of Mississippi as the next president of the United States was his (retracted) comment making light of civil rights struggles in his state, Exhibit B is today's story that Haley Barbour had no immediate response to an effort by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to recognize Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a 19th century Ku Klux Klan founder, on a Mississippi specialty license plate. There are some bright shiny lines in American political life at the national level. One of them is that it's an easy call to say negative things about the KKK when asked to do so, and that this does not require any particularly complex level of thought or strategy. If you're not ready to cross that line, you're not ready to be president. Period. CNN reports:

The Mississippi NAACP has called on Gov. Haley Barbour to publicly denounce an attempt by a Confederacy group to honor a Ku Klux Klan leader, the organization said Monday. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has launched the campaign to recognize Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on a specialty license plate. Forrest, a popular and controversial figure, is best known as a leader of the KKK, the white supremacist group known for terrorizing blacks in the South after the Civil War. He is also praised and criticized for an 1864 raid at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where hundreds of black Union Army members were killed during the war. The controversy over whether Forrest conducted or condoned the massacre is still a matter for heated debate. Mississippi NAACP leaders feel a state-sanctioned license plate honoring a man with ties to the KKK sends the wrong message to people in the state and across the country. "Any individual who was a traitor to our country and our constitution should be treated as such," said Derrick Johnson, president of the state NAACP chapter.... Barbour has not responded to the controversy since it began making headlines last week.... A call to the governor's office from CNN on Monday has not been returned.

Yes, the NAACP goes out of its way to make life difficult for some Republican leaders, and the tensions have also gone the other way -- who can forget the fraught relationship between the national group's leaders and George W. Bush? -- but this is the kind of thing that would be an easy call for the leader of a state with a less toxic racial history. And it's the kind of thing anyone with national political ambitions should have an easy answer to. Barbour, uniquely among the potential 2012 presidential candidates, is poorly situated on questions of race in America thanks to not just the history of his state, but its present political realities.

Human Events scooped the outcome:

The results of the CPAC straw poll of presidential candidates are in, and the winner is Ron Paul, with 30% of the vote. Mitt Romney was the runner-up with 23%, and all other candidates tied with about 6% each. 84% of the voters identified themselves as fiscal conservatives, placing their highest priority on economic growth and restraining the growth of government.

Kasie Hunt explained in Politico this morning why Paul -- who also won last year -- was likely to win again, and how Paul's supporters have pursued a strategy of swamping straw polls at conservative and Republican events around the country. She writes:

While his ardent supporters aren't numerous enough to win him actual primaries or caucuses, they've mastered the unofficial straw poll format and they've decided those informal polls send an important message. Case in point: The Paul forces are already organizing for June's Republican Leadership Conference and Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration straw poll and Iowa's traditional Ames straw poll in August.... The Paul supporters are almost obsessive about the polls, and they have one goal: to get the media's attention in an attempt to prove Paul is a viable candidate for president.... The results of the grass-roots straw poll efforts speak for themselves: Paul won the 2010 CPAC poll and finished second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference poll -- by just one vote. He also placed second in New Hampshire's WMUR/ABC News straw poll of state Republican Party activists in January. During the 2008 presidential election, Paul won small straw polls in at least 10 states. He rarely broke into double-digits in the real caucuses or primaries that year, but he would often win by a landslide in the straw polls -- he took 4 percent in the Arizona primary, for example, but swept a Phoenix straw poll with 80 percent of the vote.

National Review assessed the meaning of the win:

CPAC brass played down the results. "The straw poll is not a poll; the straw poll is entertainment for the people that are here," says David Keene, the former president of the American Conservative Union, in an interview with National Review Online. "He won it last time because he was the only one running. Even I could win it if I was the only one running. He is the only one who seems to focus on it exclusively." Grover Norquist, the influential taxpayer advocate, tells NRO that Paul's win is far from meaningless. "If you are running for president, you need to be able to connect with the activists," he says. "This is a measure of how connected you are to activists, especially the young activists. Some people talk about the money primary -- this is the activist primary." Paul's growing following on the right, Norquist predicts, could shake up the 2012 race, especially on issues close to the Texas congressman, like monetary policy. "It's like 1988, when Pat Robertson ran for president," he observes. "Robertson brought a whole collection of people into the Republican party." While acknowledging that some Republicans find Paul supporters "strange" for their dogged focus on the Federal Reserve, the fresh faces, Norquist says, are "very healthy" for the future of the GOP.

Thumbnail image credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

OK, so it's not really The New York Times, it's a Web ad that was served to me when I was reading Gail Collins' column on Chris Lee online, but still. The ad appears to be designed to entice click-through to online gaming site Mighty Magoo and the Cartoon Doll Emporium. I was not actually able to find a working "Dress Up Sarah Palin" online game through the sites, which is not surprising as many ads of this sort pull a bait and switch using edgy political content to win clicks. Still, hard to imagine a similar game for Mike Huckabee.

National Security Adviser Tom Donilon called on Iran to allow Iranians the same freedom to protest that Egyptians have had. "By announcing that they will not allow opposition protests, the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed was noble for Egyptians," Donilon said in a statement issued by the White House Saturday. "We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that's being exercised in Cairo."

There are candidates who are seeking to become the GOP's 2012 heartthrob. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is the guy they never thought about dating who nonetheless may be able to talk them into it. One thing was clear at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Ronald Reagan Centennial Dinner Friday night, where the short, balding former George W. Bush budget director and possible 2012 presidential contender gave the keynote address: Daniels is a natural. He spoke like a smart man talking self-confidently to an audience he respected, with none of the stagey hand gestures and theatrical tics of most politicians. He argued with what he knew to be his audience's expectations, seeking to prod and move their thinking. And, most critically, Daniels clearly got that we remain in a cultural moment where the viciousness of our public discourse is exceeded only by our longing to rise above it. "Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers," he told the assembled at CPAC. "We must be the vanguard of recovery, but we cannot do it alone," he said. "We have learned in Indiana, big change requires big majorities. We will need people who never tune in to Rush or Glenn or Laura or Sean. Who surf past C-SPAN to get to SportsCenter. Who, if they'd ever heard of CPAC, would assume it was a cruise ship accessory." He took on those in Congress who have made a religion of their crusade against earmarks for tilting at budgetary windmills. "Lost to history is the fact that, in my OMB assignment, I was the first loud critic of Congressional earmarks. I was also the first to get absolutely nowhere in reducing them: first to rail and first to fail," he said. "They are a pernicious practice and should be stopped. But, in the cause of national solvency, they are a trifle. Talking much more about them, or 'waste, fraud, and abuse,' trivializes what needs to be done, and misleads our fellow citizens to believe that easy answers are available to us." He warned that our national debt is a threat to our security, and that even the defense budget ought to come in for scrutiny. "Nothing, not even the first and most important mission of government, our national defense, can get a free pass," he said. "I served in two administrations that practiced and validated the policy of peace through strength. It has served America and the world with irrefutable success. But if our nation goes over a financial Niagara, we won't have much strength and, eventually, we won't have peace. We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors. Within a few years, we will be spending more on interest payments than on national security. That is not, as our military friends say, a 'robust strategy.'" He called not for tax cuts alone -- no tired talk of the "death tax" for him -- but for growth that lifts the middle class. "We must display a heart for every American, and a special passion for those still on the first rung of life's ladder. Upward mobility from the bottom is the crux of the American promise, and the stagnation of the middle class is in fact becoming a problem, on any fair reading of the facts," he said. "Our main task is not to see that people of great wealth add to it, but that those without much money have a greater chance to earn some." And he warned against making opposition to government an end in itself, while nonetheless seeking to diminish its centrality. "We should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from contempt for all government. After all, it is a new government we hope to form, a government we will ask our fellow citizens to trust to make huge changes." In short, while he delivered some red meat and zingers -- calling debt the new "Red Menace" -- he cast himself as a politician attuned to our post-Tucson shooting times. "I urge a ... thoughtfulness about the rhetoric we deploy in the great debate ahead," he said. "I suspect everyone here regrets and laments the sad, crude coarsening of our popular culture. It has a counterpart in the venomous, petty, often ad hominem political discourse of the day. "When one of us -- I confess sometimes it was yours truly -- got a little hotheaded, President Reagan would admonish us, 'Remember, we have no enemies, only opponents.' Good advice, then and now." Whether he decides to run or not, he's got the most interesting and freshest message of the potential GOP contenders. If he doesn't run, it's one the other contenders would do well to steal.

If there has been a single event that has laid bare the bizarre quality of contemporary journalism more than the Conservative Political Action Conference, I've yet to attend it. More even than the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting, where Chairman Michael Steele lost his reelection bid and several rows of reporters dressed in near identical garb dutifully tweeted out seven rounds of vote totals, CPAC has made plain the dynamics what I've come to think of "replicant journalism," where the crush of reporters competing to rapidly and electronically disseminate even the smallest thimbleful of information outstrips any general interest in the information at hand, and also makes each reporter the starting point in a great chain of replication, as their words are variously retweeted, shared, blockquoted, linked or uploaded along down the long tail of the nicheified online media world. Sit too close to the starting point of the great chain of replication, though, and it can be dizzying. "Thanks to Twitter, I'm thoroughly confused abt #Egypt - but I have 17-source confirmation of Newt's CPAC theme song," tweeted National Journal reporter Jim Tankersley Thursday. 2012, in short, is going to be a total zoo. The presidential primary contest may be starting later than usual -- the same day CPAC started, Obama supporters celebrated the four-year anniversary of his Springfield, Ill., presidential announcement -- but the sort of one-car caravan that Walter Shapiro wrote about in his 2003 book on the once actually invisible invisible primary no longer seems remotely imaginable. I guess it was a vanishing world even then. Into the maw of this new media machine came the possible GOP contenders, holding themselves back from its fierce scrutiny by refusing to formally declare their intentions while nonetheless parading before an audience of thousands at CPAC. If Thursday's sessions gave voice to the big personalities -- Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, New Gingrich and Donald Trump -- Friday was all about the more traditional political men, with their more traditional meins. Sen. John Thune, a tall trim man whose face seems to have started falling in on itself since winning a senate seat from South Dakota just six years ago, gave a series of unremarkable remarks that caused many to wonder if he's really got it in his heart to run for the presidency. He was "coming to the final stages" of a decision on a bid, he told reporters before his appearance, which he opened with a joke about his low public profile. "It's fair to say I don't have the same national name recognition as some of my Republican colleagues," said Thune. "I've never had a book signing. I've been to Iowa many times, but only on my way to South Dakota. The closest I've ever been on a reality show is C-SPAN's coverage of the Senate Floor. " His speech seemed calculated to do little to raise that profile. Ron Paul, the long-time Texas congressman, gave a fiery speech again laying out his by now well-known isolationist, anti-government political philosophy. He was treated as a rock star by the hordes of young libertarians at the conference, some pierced about the nose and lip, their presence amplified by the absence of the traditional values groups who chose to boycott the conference over its inclusion of small gay conservative group GOProud. But even the fervor Paul generated in 2008 was not enough to help him win the Iowa caucuses, at once the easiest organizing win for an outsider candidate (see: Huckabee, Mike), and one of the hardest for all comers. His troops are loud, they are good at being an overwhelming presence at conferences, they are colorful and mediagenic, they cheer and boo, they push stories about Paul far higher in the daily online traffic reports than one might expect. But as Trump noted Thursday, they will not be enough to win him a presidency -- or a presidential nomination. So that left, for the afternoon session, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty to trot out what sounded like test-runs of likely arguments for likely 2012 bids. Romney used the opportunity to blast Obama, though of course he also has been doing that for a while. Obama's message to America was "it could be worse," Romney charged, quipping, to applause and laughter, "What's next, let them eat cake? Excuse me, let them eat organic cake?" "How difficult is it to take office in the middle of a raging economic crisis and realize the economy should be your number one priority?" asked Romney. Laced in with his criticisms of Obama for failing to focus on the economy -- an argument Romney also made in his National Press Club appearance last March -- was a newer message of optimism that's also Romney's latest sticker (really, you can tell what the theme of any campaign is by the stickers, and this is the one his Free and Strong America PAC was handing out in the conference exhibitors hall): "Believe in America." "I refuse to believe America is just another place on the map with a flag. We are an exceptional land," he said at one point. "Believe in America. Our freedom depends on it," he concluded his remarks. His biggest applause line also seemed plug for the paperback version of his most recent book. "I will not and I will never apologize for America!'' said the author of 2010's "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness." To sync with the new message, it's been retitled "No Apology: Believe in America." "Let me be clear, if I decide to run for president, it wouldn't take me two years to wake up to the economic crisis," said Romney. Just so there was no question about his ambitions, "I, for one, would like to see him lead the country as president," noted wife Ann Romney introducing him. A grandmother of 16, she looked smashing in a short-sleeved dress and beads that seemed to echo Michelle Obama's fashion choices -- a change from the rich older lady suits she was partial to in the last cycle. Pawlenty, for his part, seemed to betting that we have not seen the last of the trouble in Egypt, and that the internal dynamics of Egyptian society are such that should it have free and fair elections before America next does, America -- or rather, GOP caucus and early primary state voting Americans -- will not much like the outcome. His reddest meat was reserved for the foreign policy arena. "Mr. President, bullies respect strength," he said, "they don't respect weakness. So when the United States of America projects its national security interests here and around the world, we need to do it with strength. We need to make sure that there is no equivocation, no uncertainty, no daylight between us and our allies around the world." Obama, whom Pawlenty compared to former president Jimmy Carter, was appeasing those who would do America harm, he said. "We undermine Israel, the U.K., Poland, Czech Republic, Colombia, amongst other of our friends. Meanwhile, we appease Iran, Russia, and adversaries in the Middle East, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood," he charged. "Mr. President, with bullies, might makes right. Strength makes them submit. We need to get tough on our enemies -- not on our friends. And, Mr. President, stop apologizing for our country," he said. As with Romney, that was a major applause line, though Pawlenty's book is titled "Courage to Stand: An American Story." "The bullies, terrorists and tyrants of the world have lots to apologize for. America does not," he said.

President Obama addressed Americans and Egyptian alike Friday afternoon, praising the dedicated protesters of Tahrir Square whose 18-day uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak and pledging that America would continue to be a friend to Egypt as it transitions to a new form of government. "There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place," the president said. "This is one of those moments." His full remarks follow:

Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same. By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people's hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt's transition. It's a beginning. I'm sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day. The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the rights of Egypt's citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt's voices to the table. For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change. The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary -- and asked for -- to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I'm also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity -- jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world. Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights. We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like. We saw a young Egyptian say, "For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I'm only one person, this is the way real democracy works." We saw protesters chant "Selmiyya, selmiyya" -- "We are peaceful" -- again and again. We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect. And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed. We saw people of faith praying together and chanting - "Muslims, Christians, We are one." And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share. And above all, we saw a new generation emerge -- a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days...that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever. This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence -- not terrorism, not mindless killing -- but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more. And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can't help but hear the echoes of history -- echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice. As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, "There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom." Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note. Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in. The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people -- of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world. Thank you.

Thumbnail image credit: White House

President Obama issued his firmest statement yet last night about the crisis in Egypt, calling on President Mubarak to move toward "irreversible" and "immediate, meaningful" reforms. "The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity," he said. Obama also called for the lifting of the Emergency Law that has governed Egyptian society since 1981. "The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were," he said. His full statement is below.

The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient. Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world. The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity. As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles. We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy. To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt's future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair. We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek. Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties. Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard. The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.

Thumbnail image credit: White House

CPAC's new openness to gays and lesbians this year drew one unexpected attendee to the annual conservative confab: Lt. Dan Choi, the anti-"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" activist who was famously arrested protesting the ban on gays serving openly in the military. Now, having spent the past year tangling with the Obama administration -- and won -- he's exploring his political leanings and finding that while his homosexuality may have made him an outsider, his military service gives him a lot in common with more conservative folk. "All I know is I was born gay and I can choose what political party I'm party of," he told me when I bumped into him in the CPAC exhibitor's hall. "Gay people are angry with Obama," he observed. "I didn't come to this last year because I thought it would be too controversial," he said. "So I decided to come this year-- when it's even more controversial." Realistically, though, it was that very GOProud controversy over the role of gays at the conference that drew him to it. If conservatives were going to be open to gays coming to the gathering, he figured he should give them a shot, too. And some of the booths were started to rub off on him, he said. "I am leaning libertarian," he observed. "I think gun control is using both hands and opening your eyes." Attending the conference has been "surprising," he said. "It's fun."

Donald Trump made the usual egotists of political sphere look like pikers Thursday in an electrifying speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference that drew cheers, boos, hoots and applause -- and saw the man know on TV as "The Donald" proclaim himself a holder of conservative values and a potential 2012 presidential contender. "While I am not at this time a candidate for the presidency, I will decide by June," the wealthy New York businessman said, declaring himself fed up with the way America has become "a whipping post for the world." "They are not treating us properly," he said. "The United States is becoming a laughing stock of the world... I deal with people from China. I deal with people from Mexico. They cannot believe what they are getting away with," he said. Trump said he'd have some hesitation about running, as a successful businessman who has made many enemies along the way. But he also said that such hesitations on the part of other was what had led the U.S. to have the weak leadership it has today. "People who have been in wars leave themselves open to criticism by the many they have beaten," he said, adding later: "Most very successful people don't want to be scrutinized or abused." And Trump laid claim to the mantle of conservatism. "I am pro-life. Against gun control... I will fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that makes sense to people in business and not bankrupt the country. If I decide to run, I will not be raising taxes. We will be taking in hundreds of billions of dollars from other countries that are screwing us ... and we'll rebuild our country so that we can be proud. Our country will be great again," he said. Trump also couldn't resist the opportunity to tweak some of the people in the audience. "By the way, Ron Paul cannot get elected. I'm sorry," he said,to a mix of cheers and boos. "Honestly, he has just zero chance of getting elected." Thumbnail image credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Having first brought controversy to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the gay conservative group GOProud has tried to smooth things over by falling back on two things gay groups of all sorts are known for: connections to celebrities and the ability to throw one hell of a party. "You're probably familiar with some of the controversy and we really wanted to bring value to CPAC and to make this CPAC the best CPAC ever," said Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud. Instead of just being known as a cause of conflict, the group wanted its presence to add something everyone at the conference could agree was a good thing. So they reached out to Donald Trump with an invitation to speak at the conference -- an invitation the New York real estate magnate and television personality accepted Wednesday. "As soon as people heard he was coming, that became the buzz," LaSalvia said, "and that was great." "He's certainly a powerful voice on economic issues and his voice should be heard here," he added. "It's exciting." Trump is reportedly considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination. Also exciting to many attendees was the prospect of Thursday night's GOProud party at 18th Street Lounge with Big Government publisher Andrew Breitbart, featuring '90s alt rock performer Sophie B. Hawkins. More than 500 guests are expected at the event, according to organizers. Breitbart, a Los Angeles conservative, reached out to GOProud about throwing the party for them as a way of welcoming gays and lesbians to the conservative conference. "This party will highlight the story the main stream media has missed in the weeks leading up to CPAC, namely that the vast majority of the conservative movement is united and welcomes GOProud and any other conservative into the fold," said Breitbart, who also recently joined GOProud's Advisory Council, annoucing the event in early February. Other co-sponsors include Paul E. Singer, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Poker Players Alliance, the Institute for Liberty, and Bank of Kev Productions.

Updated 1:10 p.m. After entering the auditorium at the Marriott Wardman Park like a returning hero -- thanks, in no small part, to the blasting beat of the 1982 Rocky III comeback song, "Eye of the Tiger" -- former House speaker New Gingrich delivered a well-received red-meat lecture to the assembled at CPAC. His major applause line involved rebuking Time magazine's recent cover story comparing Obama and Reagan. "Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan," Gingrich declared. One thing to note: it may be his theme song, but "Eye of the Tiger" is music from the deep past for many of those attending the conference, which draws thousands of college students. Those born the year the song was released turn 29 this year. Thumbnail image credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon