so i woul would in the past ther to mr. gates. mr. gates, you have the floor. >> thank you very much. fantastic. thank you very much. good afternoon. it's great to be here. i thought i would just make some of the remarks, and then will have most of our time together for whatever questions people have. was said, i'm on a tour called living proof, and that's really to spread the good news about how a particular part of aid budgets have made a very dramatic difference, and so it's really about success stories. and it's to thank the voters in the places i am in for their generosity. and, of course, to encourage them to continue, and even grow that generosity. the majority of all aid that goes to poor countries comes from europe, and the european union has both encouraged that at the national level and itself devoted substantial part of its budget to these development activities. likewise, my wife and i have committed all the resources we have to our foundation to work in the same areas. and i think our goals are the same. we want to live i

mr. gates said the u.s. will need to act quickly if troops are required to stay. authorities in northern mexico said they found 59 bodies in a total of eight mass graves. investigators are trying to establish whether the remains of bus passengers abducted two weeks ago by suspected drug gangs. a rivalry is developing over italy and france over what to do with migrants. hitly is granting temporary visas. these allow them to travel in most of the european union but the french government says they won't be allowed to stay in france and could be sent back to italy. the european central bank raised their interest rates for the first time since 2008. the bank said it was necessary because of troisk price staket. after portugal asked for emergency aid to cope with large debts spain said they won't need a similar international bail dellt out. they said their economy was larger and more productive than that of their neighbor. >> portugal, so often sunny, laid back. now it needs to be bailed out. the prime minister here says he didn't want to resort to the begging bowl but

mr. gates one day before speech on wednesday. i'll read more later. let's get to your telephone calls. we begin with a call from baltimore. valerie, you're on the air, democrat. caller: yes, hello. good morning. host: good morning. caller: yes. i think the democrats and the republicans and congress need to get together and compromise to find the best way to deal with the defense and any of the other that come before them for a vote. because the vote yesterday in the house proved one thing, and that's that the tea party republicans are irrelevant. not only were they not able to muster enough votes to keep the legislation from passing, they were not even -- their votes were not even needed to pass the -- host: let me move you from what happened to this morning we're asking people to focus in on how much the country spends for defense and whether or not our priorities are correct. what are your thoughts on that? caller: i think they should come together to decide what is best for this country. hos

mr. gatesone day before mr. obama's speech on wednesday. let's get to your calls. a call from baltimore. you're on the air, democrats. >> caller: yes, hello, good morning. >> host: good morning. >> caller: yes. i think the democrats and republicans in congress need to get together and compromise, find the best way to deal with the defense and any of the other bills that come before them for a vote because the vote yesterday in the house proved one thing, and that's that the tea party republicans are irrelevant. not only were they not able to muster enough votes to keep the legislation from passing, they were not even -- their votes were not even needed to pass the legislation. >> host: let me move you from the general debate, but to focus on how much this country spends on defense and whether or not our priorities are correct. what are your own thoughts on that? >> caller: they should come together and decide what is best for the country. >> host: a democrat from baltimore, thank you. next is a

totally and completely hollow and with regard to your statement about war the secretary of defense mr gates said in congressional testimony well of course if someone threw a tomahawk missile at new york city we're at war and it was as well that are we at war if we do the same at libya and he said yes of course we are in war that's why i can't believe anyone would still try to deny it let's go back to your thinking about the carnage the founding farmers here writes of our first president let's go back into more recent history you also said that perhaps obama has been more bold than any other thing i think the way that score so let's look at perhaps clinton what about clinton and what we did in bosnia and kosovo to it in those cases there's no doubt that in my view they were flagrantly unconstitutional wars in fact with regard to bosnia clinton asked congress for declaration he couldn't get it then bombed anyway and i would agree it wasn't quite as flagrant as obama for this reason just minutes he didn't even ask period i mean i don't know if you ask and then they say no one could hear obama

it's extraordinary charlie that i know, say read obviously what mr. gates said about the merits of getting involved in the libyan conflict. i can tell you that the conversations i had with security, military people, they were all against. >> charlie: all the u.s. officials were against it. >> not just the u.s., the u.k. they did not want to get involved. this was a pure decision by the prime minister who at times have sounding i want to go down and talk to cameron or -- this is very similar -- he felt very strongly, morally that they needed to get, we needed to get involved to save the people and he felt scarred by the time he was in downing street and john major was prime minister when the europeans watched the slaughter in the bosnia conflict. he was right there with the president. the problem is of course the europeans don't really have quite the effort to keep this going indefinitely. >> charlie: what do you think the world expects from the united states in 2011, 12? >> still leadership. we must not forget that what america says both by its examples and

the rich, mr. gates, and mr.uffett, will not be able to jump the loopholes that everybody talks about. it is the tax code. they have all of these write- offs from different things of the people that -- different things. all of the people that collagen to seize them that -- that called in to seize them, that live on the government, not the seniors, but the parasites that live off the government, we are in a mess. you have to wake up. if mr. tom coburn, and mr. dick durbin could sit down and work something out for america, but we will need to get behind them. host: we will leave it there. let me turn to tim reid and talk about the bush tax cuts. why has the gang of six done about that. what could happen to those? guest: they have not been specific about them, but they have been looking at letting the tax cuts expire, as they are due to do next year. politically, it is a difficult issue because we are fast- heading into an election season, and try to get anything in washington done is difficult, especially tax cuts.

mr. chairman. i would like to welcome secretary gates and admiral mullen. at this time, mr. chairman, i wish to yield my time to the gentle lady from hawaii, ms. hannah busan. >> the gentle lady is recognized for four minutes, 47 seconds. >> thank you. secretary gates, are you at liberty or do you know what it's going to cost us or what it has cost us to date, our actions in libya? >> yes. through last monday, it was about $550 million and going forward, in the reduced role that we will be playing we estimate the cost will be around $40 million a month. >> you also mentioned the cost of japan and the -- i think it was 19 ships we have deployed and 18,000 of our service personnel in the relief efforts and that it also had to come out of a budget. do you know how much that's costing us? >> no. >> do you know if it's around the 500 some odd billion llars? >> it's significantly less than that. >> you also mentioned that you belie that the amounts would be covered out of the oko budget. is that correct? >> no. i said that was my opinion, that this is a matter still under considera

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator mccain. secretary gates. >> mr. chairman, senator mccain and members of the committee, it is my pleasure to speak about the ongoing operations in libya. i want to start by providing context of the way we got into this from my perspective. in the space of two months the world has watched an extraordinary story unfold in the middle east. the turbulence experienced by every country in the region presents perils and problems for the united states as stability and progress in this part of the world are a vital national interest. this administration's goals are articulated by president obama in february, opposing violence and standing up for the change of political reform. we recognize that each country in the region faces a set of circumstances and that each country are critical partners in the face of common challenges like al qaeda and iran. in the case of libya, our government, our allies and our partners in the region watched with alarm as the regime of moammar gadhafi responded to legitimate protests with brutal sup

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator mccain. secretary gates. >> mr. chairman, senator mccain and members of the committee, it is my pleasure to speak about the ongoing operations in libya. i want to start by providing context of the way we got into this from my perspective. in the space of two months the world has watched an extraordinary story unfold in the middle east. the turbulence experienced by every country in the region presents perils and problems for the united states as stability and progress in this part of the world are a vital national interest. this administration's goals are articulated by president obama in february, opposing violence and standing up for the change of political reform. we recognize that each country in the region faces a set of circumstances and that each country are critical partners in the face of common challenges like al qaeda and iran. in the case of libya, our government, our allies and our partners in the region watched with alarm as the regime of moammar gadhafi responded to legitimate protests with brutal sup

gates. >> thank you, mr. president, for your kind words. i want to thank mr. bush for first asking me to take this position and you, mr. president, for first inviting me to stay on and on and on. i also thank my wife becky for 44 years of extraordinary patience, but essentially the last 4 1/2 years of patience. every single day i have been secretary, our military has been engaged in two major wars and multiple other missions. it has been the greatest honor of my life to serve and to lead our men and women in uniform and our defense civilians. they are the best america has to offer. i will continue to give my all to them and to the president right through june 30, because obviously there is much less to do. my highest priority from my first day in office has been to do everything i could for our uniformed men and women in harm's way to help them accomplish their mission, to come home safely, and if wounded, to get them the best possible care from battlefield to home front. i've done my best to care for them as though they were my own sons and daughters. i will

mr. chairman. secretary gates, admiral mullen, thank you for being here today. the most important lessons are where we go from here, with the situation on the ground in libya is and what you see the u.s. involvement from this point forward. it is obviously an uncertain situation, and there will be no guarantees or set timetables, but as members in congress, the more information we get on your best estimate of what our commitment will be, for how long, and what will be involved and what our goals are, the better off we will be able to explain it to our constituents. i also think it is important to flush out a little bit the criteria -- flesh out a little bit the criteria of our intervention. many people are asking why libya and other places that have civil wars going on. i think i have some of the answers, but i think it is important to explain to the american people that this is not an open-ended commitment from the united states, that we will die in and get involved in civil war at any time. i believe there were

mr. chairman. i would like to welcome secretary gates and admiral mullen. at this time, mr. chairman, i wish to yield my time to the gentle lady from hawaii, ms. hannah busan. >> the gentle lady is recognized for four minutes, 47 seconds. >> thank you. secretary gates, are you at liberty or do you know what it's going to cost us or what it has cost us to date, our actions in libya? >> yes. through last monday, it was about $550 million and going forward, in the reduced role that we will be playing we estimate the cost will be around $40 million a month. >> you also mentioned the cost of japan and the -- i think it was 19 ships we have deployed and 18,000 of our service personnel in the relief efforts and that it also had to come out of a budget. do you know how much that's costing us? >> no. >> do you know if it's around the 500 some odd billion dollars? >> it's significantly less than that. >> you also mentioned that you believe that the amounts would be covered out of the oko budget. is that correct? >> no. i said that was my opinion, that this is a matter still under consi

mr. chairman. >> testifying on the hill, robert gates says there will be no u.s. forces on the ground in libya. many worry about a stalemate in the embattled country. >> at a time when the gaddafi forces have routed the anti- khaddafi forces, that is when we announced that the united states is announcing its leadership role and removing some of the most valuable assets. >> the opposition group will accept a ceasefire only if muammar gaddafi allows libyans to protest peacefully. so far, he is not making any concessions. >> >>> word that u.s. highways are getting safer. the transportation department says highway deaths have fallen to the lowest level in 60 years. that is a 3% drop from 2009. the reason for the drop inclusive for vehicles and more people wearing their seat belts. >>> on capitol hill, there are just eight days before a possible government shutdown. the gop is putting on the pressure to get the budget passed. >> we are going to continue to fight for the largest spending cuts that we can get. >> the house passed its version of the budget in february with a $61 million in cuts. the se

i'll actually start with bob gates. >> thank you, mr. president, for your kind words.want to thank president bush for first asking me to take this position, and you, mr. president, for inviting me to stay on and on and on. [laughter] i also thank my wife, becky, for 44 years of extraordinary patience, but especially the last four and a half years of patience. every single day i've been secretary, our military has been engaged in two major wars and multiple other missions. it's been the greatest honor of my life to serve and to lead our men and women in uniform and our defense civilians. they are the best america has to offer. i will continue to give my all to them and to the president right through june 30th because obviously there is much left to do. my highest priority from my first day in office has been to do everything i could for our uniformed men and women in harm's way, to help them accomplish their mission, to come home safely, and if wounded, to get them the best possible care from battlefield to home front. i've done my best to care for them as though they w

mr. kevin westly from the golden gate restaurant association is here. >> we started this project a year ago with spur and the mayor's office getting expediters and restaurant tours and getting myself and city employees involved and trying to define the problem and we have want todd create disappointments that would be general guide lines but we answered every detail problem is not public. it's meant to be a generic guideline to follow knowing the circumstances will constantly be changing. this is something we vetted over a week ago and these are edits. i don't know if this has the final edits. >> probably. is will be a fluid document so if you were to use itto a project and on page 2 you think this would be helpful, we would love the feedback. we found out people did not understand the process for a change in use permit as one example that oftentimes they dependent investigate properly with a contractor in the space to know the electric standpoint would be. we tried to give them things they can look at before they sign their lease and move forward. my interest today is to continue that educ

mr. roker across the way at the australia gate. al?ton-martin, prince charles had it converted to run on bioe bioethanol which is crecycled wine. so drink up and drive. we are looking at the east coast on saturday, west coast, risk of strong storms in the mid section. on sunday, sunshine again. heavy rain from texas into the upper ohio river valley. sunny skies out west with warm weather through the southwest. >>> good morning to you. we are in store for a gradual warmup. by noon today temperatures in the low 60s. later on by 4:00 p.m. we'll be approaching the 70-degree mark in santa cruz, san jose, even santa rosa. and the warmup continues, really kicks into high gear tomorrow and remainder of the weekend. up to 82 tuesday, 85 for your wednesday. high pressure not going anywhere. we have no rain chances in sight. >>> ann and natalie? >> thanks, al. a look at beautiful still photographs of the day and be back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc. ♪ >>> welcome back to london where princess catherine looks absolutely ravishinging this mo

mr. chairman, secretary gates, chairman mullen, thank you for being here today. the most important thing is to answer questions where we go from here with the situation on the ground in libya is and what you see the level of u.s. involvement from this point forward. it's obviously a very uncertainly situation and there will be no guarantees, no set timetables. but as members in congress, the more information we get on your best estimate of what our commitment is going to be, for how long and what's going to be involved and what our goals are the better off we're going to be able to explain it to our constituents. i also think it's important in the hearing today to flesh out the criteria for our intervention. many have asked why libya and not so in the other places that have civil war. i think i have some of the answers for that, but i hi it's important to explain to the american people this is not an open-ended commitment from the united states that we will dive in and get involved in any civil war anytime. i do believe there were a unique set of circumstances in

mr. tineoff and an engineer from b.k.f. engineers, todd adair, here's the conversation -- one of the commissioners, torres, is this area vulnerable to potential tsunami? todd adair, no, it is protected by the golden golden gate. we can get into a lot of details about tsunamis. commissioner torres, so you're taking care of that? yes. so somebody's lying and staff needs to -- mr. tanoff needs to explain to you why he didn't interfere with that comment. president cheng: anything you would like to submit in email is welcome. >> sherry williams, treasure island homeless development initiative, i've indicated support for the project but neglected to hand in all the letters from the member organizations supporting the project in full. so if i could, i would like to submit them to you now. thank you. president cheng: thank you. >> very hard to address eight items in two minutes to permit a city the size of santa cruz that started out as a village and is now almost 20,000-person city relative to overriding considerations, commissioners, from both commissions, i direct you to your s document volume 1. you will need to find that significant impacts, the 10,000 to the 30x to the 47, to aesthetic impacts, to air quality

gates. >>hank you, mr. president, for your kind words. want to thank president bush for first asking me to take this position, and you, mr. president, for inviting me to stay on and on and on. [laughter] i also thk my wife, becky, for 44 years of extraordinary patience, but especially the last four and a half years o patience. every single day i've been secretary, our military has been engaged in two major wars and multiple other missions. it's been the greatest honor of my life to serve and to lead our men and women in uniform and our defense civilians. they are the best america has to offer. i will continue to give my all to them and to the psident right through june 30th because obviously there is much left to do. my highest priority from my first day in office has been to do everything i could for our uniformed men and women in harm's way, to help them accomplish their mission, to come homeafely, and if wounded, to get them the best possible care from battlefield to ho front. i've done my best to care for them as though they were my o

mr. dean. >> think you, supervisors, for the opportunity to come before you. i and the superintendent of the golden gate national recreation area. i hope to speak to you today and bring clarity for something that is controversial. i should say at the outset that i am also a dog owner. my dog's name is ranger, of course. i understand and appreciate this issue. just a little bit of context, i am not sure if you're seeing the slides, golden gate national recreation area is a national area established in 1972 to protect the natural, seen it, and cultural values of the park. the second paragraph shows that it was set up to preserve public use and enjoyment. we have the recreational aspect and it talks about protecting the park in its natural setting. our challenge is really a balance. it is protecting resources and balancing the use. we have a variety of uses here. we provide to the public, is quite varied. all types of activity, is not just a dog walking or biking, it is all kinds of users. just a bit of context to how we got here and where we are going, back then, the default rule, that is that pets need t

gates. >> thank you, mr. president, for your kind words. i want to thank president bush for first asking me to take this position, and you, mr. president, for inviting me to stay on and on and on. [laughter] i also thank my wife, becky, for 44 years of extraordinary patience, but especially the last four and a half years of patience. every single day i've been secretary, our military has been engaged in two major wars and multiple other missions. it's been the greatest honor of my life to serve and to lead our men and women in uniform and our defense civilians. they are the best america has to offer. i will continue to give my all to them and to the president right through june 30th because obviously there is much left to do. my highest priority from my first day in office has been to do everything i could for our uniformed men and women in harm's way, to help them accomplish their mission, to come home safely, and if wounded, to get them the best possible care from battlefield to home front. i've done my best to care for them as though the

mr. john johnson, who for nearly three years dedicated his time and energy for improving and beautifying parts of golden gate park, including the rhododendron dell and the botanical garden. he helps staff keep the garden clean. it's in became obvious that he possessed an attention to detail and the creative spirit to move on to some of the finer tasks of maintaining a japanese- style garden. he eventually became a skilled kronor. he is very dedicated to the work, and the japanese tea garden is better for him. he is also a pleasure to be around. each year, the parts department depends on more than 129 hours from volunteers. we think mr. johnson for his continued effort to improve our park spaces. we thank you both. i think we would like to present these to you and person. -- in person. [applause] president buell: i understand if mr. cutts could not make it. i have one more that is a special one i want to give and we have a special guest i want to say a few words. with that, this is a resolution to of former commissioner, michael sullivan. [applause] whereas michael sullivan is a practicing attorney and wherea

mr. cooper stated, ceqa requires a reasonable range of alternatives and those alternatives need to address a substantial number of the front's objectives and also met gate adverse effects. with respect to the infill preservation alternative, one of the reasons which was rejected is that when you intersprers a bunch of building into a especially historic resource, which is important -- important because of its curl churl aspect and resource as a whole it would be an adverse effect. and you need to mitigate adverse effects to be a ceqa alternative. so i would say in closing that this e.i.r. is thorough and complete. there are issues that i think have been raced that are genuine issues, that deserve your full consideration. some of those might be what supervisor mar raised about how you feel about this place and whether or not you feel comfortable with this. whether you want to join this issue of whether or not this project is a good idea for the city, the region, for our society and the future, if you think infill development in a sustainable fashion in a city that's close to jobs is the right thing to do, i would urge you to do the right thing under ceqa

mr. ohen just put out, that we all know is not true. he responded know. he just said no. he said it is protected by the golden gate. of you that know about tsunami is no that is absolutely false. a recently discovered that the cascaida subduction zone could create a tsunami that is tens of meters in height. chairperson mar: the last part i have is --card i have is chris meany. >> i am with treasure island community development. we are obviously coming to the end of a long process here. there have been 18 years of work, as others have said here, at the federal, state, and local level. truth be told, the work before you today has only been going on in this intensity for about seven years. during that time, there has been an incredible amount of engineering and work on the project, because not just the city wants it, but going through that process requires a deep love all of vetting -- a deepr er level of vetting and would normally be required of a project. a whole lot of engineering has been done. a series of. views have been conducted. over the course of the seven years, many of those engineering reports and peer re

from our old according to defense secretary robert gates president obama has now authorized the use of armed drones in libya so we call it a war yet mr president as well that will have anthony rand on the show for a brand new installment of happy hour and the meantime don't forget to become a fan of the a lot of show on facebook and follow us on twitter and if you missed any of the night's show or any other nights you can always catch all the you tube dot com slash repos the interviews as well as the show its entirety next is adam vs the man . we're a russian republic glynnis historic diversity with the economic diversification oil drilling industry clutches for tomorrow's petrochemical products traditionally the tsunami focuses on one pilot rooms and the government security credit crisis by going online to understand at the heart of russian innovation on technology update we've dumped the future coverage. wealthy british style. but on the title of. the. market why not come to find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report

back tomorrow according to defense secretary robert gates president obama has now authorized the use of armed drones in libya so we call it a war yet mr president as well as that will have anthony randolph though on the show for a brand new installment of happy hour and the meantime don't forget to become a fan of me a lot of show on facebook and follow us on twitter and if you missed any of tonight's show or any other nights you can always catch it all the you tube dot com slash show or replace the interviews as well as the show in its entirety coming up next is adam is the name. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've got the future of coverage wealthy british style. market finance scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our key. more news today in harlem says once again flared up.

gate park. you should pay to see something like that you are forced to find revenue generating things. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, i support supervisor avalos and eliminating the fee. mr. ginsberg has framed the issue are around need revenue for running the department. i believe that the board of supervisors should take him up on his -- about trade-offs. he has hired a new director on deputy affairs. probably needed to appease the people who are outraged by this fee. in addition to this brand new portion, there is another half time, $300,000 police commander. between these positions, there is now $250,000 that can be eliminated by the budget thereby supporting the gardners. i am not suggesting that we don't take on the idea of having additional funding streams coming in through the property tax. i can put on this table $250,000 without this fee. this is very very disquieting to have to deal with this problem. also, supervisor kim asked what it does for rec and park. it pays for a police officer and a representative. it limits where we can go to experience the diversity of nature and golden gate park by requiring an identification and money. please and this fee and sup