Way to go again, Joe

"I would not refer to him as a dictator."

Good ol' Vice President Joe Biden, doing what he does best by running off at the mouth once again, this time about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has autocratically ruled that country since 1981 by keeping the country in a permanent "State of Emergency" and not allowing a multiparty election until 2005, after being heavily pressured by the rest of the world to have one.

Mubarak is generally acknowledged to have fixed that election, and he definitely had the runner-up jailed for forgery after he dared to protest about the rampant vote-rigging (America complained about that, at least).  The press there is regularly muzzled, corruption is widespread and it's rumored that Mubarak's son Gamal is being groomed to take over the presidency once Hosni kicks off.  If that's not a dictatorship we'd shudder to see what a real one looks like.

Let's let Parade magazine, which regularly features Mubarak as one of the "World's Worst Dictators" (he's currently Number 20) , inform us about this man's regime from his previous mentions on that list:

"According to the U.S. State Department, Mubarak has the ability to transfer any criminal case from the civilian judicial system to a military court, and the use of torture by his officials is common.  In recent months journalists have been jailed for 'insulting the president.'" (2007 ranking)

...

"The use of torture in Egypt has been widely documented. In response to international pressure, Mubarak allowed local elections in 2008, but in 80% of the contests, his party’s candidates ran unopposed. He made it so difficult to register or campaign that turnout was estimated at only 3%." (2010 ranking)

The Egyptian people have some very real reasons to be rioting in the streets.  They want to be free.  Biden, alas, can only offer up the following mush-mouthed pap in reaction:

"Biden urged non-violence from both protesters and the government and said: 'We’re encouraging the protesters to – as they assemble, do it peacefully. And we’re encouraging the government to act responsibly and – and to try to engage in a discussion as to what the legitimate claims being made are, if they are, and try to work them out.'"

Got that?  If any of the peasants' grievances are legitimate.  As Dan Murphy of the Monitor article opines,

"Egypt's protesters, if they're paying attention to Biden at all, will certainly be wondering which of their demands thus far have been illegitimate."

Word.

We don't care how much of a "good neighbor" in the Middle East Egypt has been for us.  The U.S. should not prop up dictators as part of its foreign policy.  Period.