[gavel] good morning and welcome to a special meeting of the government audit and Oversight Committee for today thursday september 29. I am the chair of the committee. Supervisor aaron peskin. Joined to my right vice chair norman yee and to my left president london breed and were joined by david campos. Our clerk is erica major. Madam clerk are there any announcements . Yes, please silence all cell phones and electronic devices. All documents submitted to the clerk and items will be on the. Items acted upon today anybody r will be on the eakt 18 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. Thank you. Could you read the first and only item for todays meeting . Yes. Item 1 is ordinance amending the administrative code to create the neighborhood crime unit in the mrs. And activated with the controller certifies that the department is at full staffing level mandated in the charter. Thank you supervisor yee is the sponsor of this ordinance. The floor is yours supervisor. Thank you c
[inaudible conversations] hello everyone. Thanks for joining us today by an executive Vice President of external affairs here at the center for American Progress and im thrilled youre here with us today. Whitman of all races make up 18point 5 of the United States congress. Women of color makeup and abysmal 4. 5 of congress. These numbers exist in direct contradiction to the fact that women make up half of the population and are more likely to vote than the male counterparts. We will hear about the reflected Democracy Campaigns new research which shows the persistent upward under representation of women and women of color throughout the country at all levels of government. Over the summer the Reflective Democracy Campaign finished to the unprecedented new database of 42,000 elected officials throughout the country this survey showed the great disparity engender race and ethnicity between our elected lawmakers in those whom they represent i would think donna hall with the Reflective Demo
Against isis forces in iraq and syria. And how Media Coverage of president ial candidate gary hart and his alleged extramarital affair changed political reporting. Also your calls and comments on National Security issues in 2014. Washington journal is live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern everyday on cspan. Secretary of state john kerry that with british secretary Philip Hammond at the state department and spoke with reporters after the meeting. They took questions about the International Response of the ebola outbreak, the Russia Ukraine conflict, and the military response to militants in syria and iraq. [inaudible conversations] good morning, everyone. Im very privileged to be here with foreign secretary Philip Hammond. Here at the state department. I am even more privilege to work with him and perform a partnership that gives full gusto to the meaning of the special relationship that Great Britain and the United States share. So it is important to us to continue and i think as philip mentioned
One thing i want to say is there has been an inclusive form of government which is the sunnis in the north and that is one part of the problem that lets park that for a moment. Lets turn to the iraqi army. Trained by the americans fully equipped brought up to their Numerical Strength very strong and gets fled at the first sign of trouble. Are we being naive in believing that you can meld different tribes, different cultures given the 600 year culture of the region region into one force and expect them to take home an opposition for which a large part of their own army is recruiting . First i dont agree with your introduction and description. Do you think the army did while . No im saying they are not as strong as you are suggesting that they were. This was back in june before they drop their guns and ran. Im saying when they did drop the guns they were full strength, wellequipped and trained by the americans and equipped over period of years and yet when the first sign of trouble they
Regime that systematically denies political and Economic Freedom or do we preserve normal relations for postcastro transition so we can use them as a lever to induce a broad profound and irreversible reforms that will effectively liberate cuban people . Inexplicably president obama chose to matter of course i hasten to add that this is not a partisan debate. There is strong bipartisan consensus is strong for the regime but is moving toward democracy. Although president obama is moving quickly to force that part of the leverage by normalizing diplomatic ties he can respect opposition to his plan to lift the economic embargo with cuba. One misconception of the debate is the socalled helmsburton act as the consolidator of the act of 1986. There is a misconception that this codifies the embargo. That act drafted originally by the democratic senator Robert Menendez is a formula for establishing normal trade and even a two cuba in the postcastro era. It merely anticipates a friendly transiti