of on a back burner now. you have the war in yemen, the kurds, corrupt states, egypt s political unrest. do you see opportunities still remaining for the u.s. and other global powers to step in? well, obviously interventions pose risks, and have their own blowbacks. but more attention does need to be paid to some of the real political crises in the region. from failing states in governments, and corrupt governance in countries like iraq and lebanon, to, you know, the real crisis of democracy in parts of the region. egypt was once hailed as a great arab swing hope, has completely backslid. and countries like libya who are totally falling apart. when it comes to really worrying about peace and security in this part of the world, the iran the punitive nuclear threat of iran is not the only problem. the washington post, a great article. thank you so much.
it s unlikely. these attacks are blowbacks for the military campaign against the militants but to root out the military presence within pakistan, the military needs to take this tough stance, so it looks like the battle is going to continue. michelle, thank you so much- more terror news, the gunman who sieged the sidney cafe had a gun license and had fallen off the government s security watch list. australia s prime minister is vowing to find out why they put any lessons learned in had the investigation into practice. i will not rest until i amle confident that you are as safe as any government can possibly make you. all right. live for us now from sydney, cnn s andrew stevens. good morning, andrew, what s the latest? reporter: good morning, john. yes, australian prime minister
promise to reform government surveillance programs. we may have to refine this further to give people confidence. i m going to work hard on doing that. we have to provide more confidence to the international community. we can find better balance and mass surveillance. the president suffered months of blowbacks edward snowden s revelations last summer the nsa collecting personal phone records on every american and spying on world leaders including allies like angela m. he s called in tech experts. many from house and senate that cover ideological spectrum who urged him to throttle back the collection of metadata on a bulk level. i hope he listens. reporter: he s deciding whether to accept recommendations from independent review that include storing personal data with a third
lowbacks to jim crowe, saying the civil rights voting rights act of 1965, every as peck of it, is still relevant today. if you don t think so you are a racist. of continuing to racial preferences and high education. this president and house attorney general and this administration has not hesitated to drag race in the issues and divide the country along racial lines when it serves their political agenda. thanks very much. glad to have you here for this. when we come back, cincinnati strikes back. one of those rogue agents in the irs scandal testifies before congress. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mmmhmmm.everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is.cow. cow. cow. c.o.w.
for chain cpi came specifically from republican leaders as a necessary way to lower spending. one estimate found chaining cpi would save $121 billion over ten years. but the proposal has also drawn blowbacks from the president s own party leadership. i, myself, believe that whatever we talk about in terms of prolonging life of social security should be considered in its own place. whatever we re doing, it s about extending the life and the strength of social security. it s not about balancing the budget. and so that s some of the concerns that some of our members have. why is this in this bill? the growing shift in attitudes toward the legal ite of gay marriage according to the new nbc news/ wall street journal poll. 53% of americans believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. up two points from december. but more americans also oppose gay marriage, too. up two percentage points as well. when broken down by party, 73% of democrats and 54% of