virgin atlantic? for their very survival, they have to say i would recommend you fly british airways/american airlines because they've got to get up to that 80% of the market share next year. so it goes on. so american and british are driving out the remnants of the competition. i mean, it is preposterous that competition authorities can even consider allowing these two airlines to merge. i mentioned coke and pepsi. who would imagine coke and pepsi being allowed to merge? it's the exact equivalent if you look at their market share. it is preposterous that it can be allowed but the frightening thing in america is that it can be done on political reasons. it doesn't necessarily have to be done on pure analytical competition reasons. this is going to go to the department of transportation, not necessarily the department of justice, which would look at something like this on strict competition reasons and policy can play a part and that worries us. that's why i've come here today to really appeal to the d

in comparison, virgin atlantic is capped in just over 3%. a striking distance which shows that no one can replicate their scale. last time, we said ba and aa would hold the dominant share of heathrow. nothing has changed. these peak hour slots are essential for the competitiveness of transatlantic services. ba was gifted, many of them, but it was privatized. no other carrier could get anywhere close to competing. last time, we said that ba and aa would have an insurmountable lock on key heathrow u.s. airport pairs. nothing has changed. in fact, their market share has increased further since 2001. at the moment, they compete against each other on six key was from heathrow. getting it in unity will change all this for consumers. according to the official airline guide at the end of march 2009, ba, aa controlled 100% of dallas-fort worth capacity, 80% of heathrow boston college 73% of heathrow, miami. 64% of heathrow chicago. 64% of the heathrow to new york and 47% of heathrow the los angeles capacity. given the constraints to heathrow there wi

in comparison, virgin atlantic is capped at just over 3%. yes, a striking difference which shows no one can replicate their scale. loose time we said b.a. and a.a. would hold the dominant share of peak hour slots at heath row. nothing has changed. these slots are essential to the competitiveness of transatlantic services. b.a. was gifted many of those when it was privatized. no other carrier can get anywhere close to competing. last time we said that b.a. and a.a. would have an insurmountable lock on key airport pairs, nothing has changed. in fact, their market share has increased further since 2001. at the moment, they compete against each other on six key routes from heathrow, giving them im community would change all this. according to the official air lied guide up to the end of march, 2009, b.a./a.a. controlled 100% of all heath row dallas ft. worth capacity, 80% of heathrow boston, 70% of hooet row/miami, 64 of hooeingt row chicago, 64% of heathrow new york and 47% of heathrow los angeles capacity. given severe constraints at heathrow,

virgin islands. madam speaker, i rise today to honor the caribbean american heritage month. i thank my friend, the gentlelady from california, ms. barbara lee, for her very hard work and her enduring commitment to the people of the caricom region and for ensuring that every june we i bring recognition to the many contributions made by caribbean americans and caribbean people -- people of caribbean descent and the issues facing the nations of caricom and the caribbean american diaspora. . i have the honor of representing new york's 11th congressional district. previously represented in part by cheryly chisholm, the first african-american member of congress and the child of caribbean american immigrants from bar badeows and guyana. of the prominent caribbean americans that we may be aware of or have known throughout our history include such lumenaries as jean bap tease, the founder of chicago. founding father alexander hamilton, who was born in nives, actor and social activist, harry belafonte, revolut

virgin islanders today and in the past and from the then danish west indies who have and continue to contribute much to our nation and have spoken of many of them on several occasions. people like casper holstein, congressman payne mentioned raymond jones, emil griffin, tim duncan, many, many others. one, denmark vecsey, was born in st. thomas and settled in charleston, south carolina, one of my favorite cities. settled interest in 1783. 17 years later he brought his freedom and inspired, i'm sure by the 1733 african rebellion of st. john and the 1791 successful african rebellion in now haiti, he also planned a well-known slave uprising that was to have taken place in 1822, but was thwarted. i would be truly remiss if i didn't speak briefly about alex ander hamilton who was born in what is now the independent nature of st. kitts and who spent his formative years in st. croix before coming to new york and eventually becoming, quote, arguably the most important figure in american history who never attained the presidency but had a far more lasting impact than many who did. alexander ha

jefferson did believe -- she was not a materialist, he was equally -- it was observed, the virgin birthve me a break already. he denied any possible rationale. religion is a complicated process in the united states. above all, religion has been instrumental in the african-american community. both from the noble period of the antebellum slave churches through the right movement. you can't possibly think of the civil-rights movement having been affected without preaching and teaching around the corner. barack obama's involvement with the church, more generally, it wasn't surprising to me although it may have been unpalatable to my little friends to find that barack obama wants to continue george bush's policy of faith based initiatives, is in keeping with his sense, that is not necessarily a reactionary move. to cut a long story short, the desperation parts, trying to write a book that would explore stories with you, with the american public, but also try to educate out of these simplicity's. the biggest interest is they are in europe, a dispassionate way, as one of my friends said, the l

know, it is so reduced to very few words, the suicide bomber, the chehab and hate and heaven and 72 virgins, i don't know what one would do with 72 versions to be honest. but these i heard over and over and over in the chat room but also saw other people who did attach biblical rhetoric, and i think we had one participant who becomes so upset -- obsessed with it and less verses from the bible but then i discovered he was a priest, his house kicked him out and now he start drinking and wants to redeem by writing bible verses on this ethos website. so, it was a lot of fun. >> okay if there are no more questions, okay, we have a couple more questions. >> could you describe when someone went to the site what did they see, what were their traces and typically what did people do? >> that is a great question. i think from the very beginning when i got the idea of watching the news i went right away and started researching. how could i put technology and website together? one thing i would come across it was a cyber website, has anybody heard of cyber hunting? okay, it's a business in texas where y

host: the senate looks like they started marking up the health committee virgin last week.it is likely that the house will wrap up their work on the bill before the senate does? guest: it is hard to say who will get done first. both are struggling. in the senate, there has been a lot of disagreement. republicans say this costs too much, full of vagueness and blank spaces. senator john mccain called the bill a joke and democrats say you may not like this, but we are going to do health care. there are some competing issues in the senate. in the house, the bills have three different jurisdiction -- committee jurisdictions who will examine the bill this week and try to mark it up a lot of republicans in the house saying, we will not support this. the democrats will have to work out the differences themselves in the house on that bill. by the end of this week, i don't think there'll be any resolution to health care. host: the president today will sign the tobacco bill passed last week by the senate. how significant is it? what will it do? guest: it regulates tobacco, let's the f

host: the front page cover of both papers here paperssue joins us from the british virgin islands. caller: good morning. i like the way that people can call and give their opinions. on the outside looking in a think that what president obama is doing makes sense because sometimes american metals too much. they need to take time out for themselves. -- america meddles too much. and let everyone has their own opinion. sometimes you do have to intervene, but this time it is not the time. america needs to strengthen themselves, get on top and where there were. sometimes you just need to leave things to god and i think that is where america is going. the people who are suggesting that obama does something -- do they want to send their daughters or their child? they want to sending their spouse to fight? take that under consideration. when they are eager to fight the fight or intervene they must remember that america needs strengthening. that is the key thing. and they need god. guest: there is a lovely island there. what is the alternative? the former administration called iran part of t

universe created itself, he wasn't materialist or atheist but he thought it was equally absurd the virgingive me a break already. so delight any possible rational jesus the moral teacher. religion is a process in the united states and above all the milledge of course has been instrumental in the african-american community with self-determination both from the noble period of antebellum slave charities of way through to the civil rights movement. you can't possibly think of the civil rights movement having been affected with a preaching the teaching of riverside churches around the corner from where i teach at columbia right through the involvement with the church both for jeremiah rights but the church more generally. so it wasn't a surprise to me it may have been on palatable to some of my friends to find obama actually wanting to continue george bush's policy of the faith based initiatives keeping with the sense that is not necessarily reactionary move. so to put this restored the desperation part was trillion to write a book not, you know, that would explore stories with you, with the

he is the head of virgin airlines, they are all in this field and they say it is tourism. come on. you know, what you are doing it for drop space lift costs and you can be saudi arabia and that is what they are looking at. my expectation is one, the pressure on an ecology will decline as there are fewer humans, not quickly but that is one of the things but secondly the technological fix will come in the context of u.s. control of space which the u.s. will happily jump into because it will also put this in a position of making germany dependent on us instead of the russians which will be very nice and also dropped the price of fuel here. there is a lot of advantage to that technology and for those of us who did not imagine the pc, this is not as radical that is where i think we will go. >> none of the three countries that you highlight is a member of the security council and i was just wondering how or where the united nations might bring it into the version of the next hundred years or does it fit price of a united nations will remain what it is. the largest invested ngo and the ro

. >> richard branson who started virgin atlantic airways speaks about aviation. mr. branson a vehement opponent of the proposed merger of british airways and american airlines was at the national press club where he spoke for an hour. goip. >> good morning, welcome to the national press club for our speaker breakfast. i'm donna -- a reporter with "usa today" and president of the national press club. we're the world's leading professional organization for journalists and are committed to a future of journalism by providing informative programming and journalism education and fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club, please visit our web site at www.press.org. on behalf of our 3,500 members worldwide i'd like to welcome our speaker and guest in the audience today. i would also like to welcome those of you who are watching us on c-span. we're looking forward to today's speech and afterwards i'll ask as many questions from the audience as time permits. please hold your applause during the speech so we have time for as many ques

she is our physician, medical doctor, from the virgin islands who has championed this with our tri-caucus for many, many years and will be the leadoff. congresswoman richardson. thank you. >> thank you so much. thank you and all of our other great chairs for your outstanding leadership and my tri-caucus help colleagues for your untiring effort on the behalf of health equity. thank you all for joining us today. clearly we are at a very pivotal and a very exciting time. one of the tri-caucus tends to take full of vantage of. for those of us who have been calling for health disparity elimination legislation, that will diversify the health workforce, focus on prevention, apply a community centric approach to address health disparities, and the tens of thousands of premature preventable deaths every year, and improve the health and wellness of all americans, for us it's a more, even more exciting time. because the reform that's about to take place in our health care system, we are about to take it to another level of transformation with the legislation that we are about to introduce. and this

weddings was in the 12th century in belgium when the bride, the blessed oda protested hurt loss of virginity by cutting off her nose in the middle of the ceremony. so a lot worse than being at the leftover table. [laughter] anyhow, i had not thought about women. i thought about blessed oda but not the trajectory of women. as i wrote this as a for this big humongous takeout we were doing, i really focused for the first time on the fact that the historic attitude toward women, towards the difference between the gender, that women were less intelligent, women were weaker, women belonged in the home and men had control of the public sphere, the business and religion and politics and everything else. but all of that stuff had been with us since the beginning of western civilization just ingrained in the core of our societies and that that enormous claw long progression of century after century after century and did in my lifetime that all this stuff was shattered while i was a life of all those billions of women who traveled through the world and it's just not me. today when i think about it it c

virgin islands has the second highest aids case rate in the nation. and on guam, our health care provider shortages are so severe that often residents of moscow off island to get the care they need to manage their conditions. and so the health equity and accountability act of 2009 will accomplish what so many previous health bills failed to do. to remember the u.s. territory and to include the thoughtful provisions that will improve the health, the health care and thus wellness and lives of all americans, including those who do not live on the mainland. that truly is what health equity is all about and it is precisely why i am so honored to be here with my colleagues from the tri-caucus standing in unison and in support of this legislation that we feel strongly should be included in the health reform bill. this bill also includes comprehensive measures to ensure cultural and linguistic competence in health care. and this is what my colleague congressman will address. so i introduced her. >> good morning, everyone. i'm congresswoman, chair of the congr

speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, mrs. christensen, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mrs. christensen: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this many congressional black caucus' special order this evening. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. christensen: thank you. madam speaker, i'm honored to rise today along with my other colleagues in honor of caribbean american heritage month. this month marks the fourth anniversary of officially recognizing caribbean american heritage month and i want to thank and applaud you, madam speaker, the chair of the congressional black caucus, for introducing the legislation and getting it passed in february of 2006. president bush officially proclaimed it for the very first time in june of that year. the efforts to get us to that point began long before, though, at the i

in the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, ms. christensen. >> thank you mr. chairman. i think your time is almost up. thank you for your patience with all the questions and listening to all of our opening statements. in your testimony your reference section 106 that provides the more explicit authority for a fda to access to records during inspections. did you think that is enough or should we go further in the legislation to mandate those records be forwarded to fda? >> you know, i think what is outlined is certainly a very good starting point. we don't want to be inundated with information and we don't want to put too much of a bird and -- a burden on industry, but we do need that access to records. we need companies to keep appropriate records and we need to be able to have it to be able to inform our routine inspection activity is to be able to work with the companies to make sure they have adequate preventive controls in place and we needed it certainly in the advent of a serious outbreak of public health concerns to enable us to swiftly get the information we nee

. >> thank-you, the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, ms. christensen. >> thank you mr. chairman and welcome back dr. hamburg. i know at new yorkers suffered a great loss but the nation needs a more accurate and i also think it is refitting as we come back to congress and begin to put the nuts and bolts on our health care reform legislation the first hearing is with fda because i believe we'll began not with an overhaul and better resource in a separate and drug administration, from the food safety enhancement act that we're looking at and drafted and and the family smoking and control act of 2009 looking at a new fda and have the talent and the opportunity to make this important institution in ways better serve the health of the american public also fostering, guiding and supporting the bringing a new and better treatment to us as well. i have confidence in a better race doris fda with more authority and one that is not overly prescriptive. i don't want to be overly prescriptive on what we tell the agency to do but hope we can allow to do is john based on a clear author

i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, mrs. christensen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. mrs. christensen: thank you. mr. speaker, i rise in support of the rule and in strong support of h.r. 1256. i want to take this opportunity to thank chairman waxman for his many years of hard work on this legislation. we would not be here today passing this landmark bill without his and senator kennedy's unwavering commitment to have tobacco regulated and their leadership. as a physician, chair of the -- and chair of the congressional black caucus health brain trust as well as a parent and grandparent, i give my full support to the family smoking prevention and tobacco control act. today, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in this country. it accounts for near one in five deaths each year and kills more people than aids, fires, cocaine, heroine, homicides, sue sides and car accidents combined. it's a major public health issue and a key driver of the country's high health care costs. this bill empow

[laughter] no, i think, i think the key to, say, if we're taking on managers at virgin, what we look for is people who are great motivators of people, people who look for the best in people, people who praise and don't criticize, and, and if you can find those kinds of people, you have a happy, a happy company. and do we look for entrepreneurs? i don't believe in competition, and so we don't look for entrepreneurs. [laughter] thanks very much. >> thank you very much for coming today. [applause] i'd like to thank you all for coming today, i'd also like to thank melinda cook, pat nelson, joann booze and howard rothman. also thanks to the npc library for its research. the video archive is provided by the national press club's broadcast operations center. our events are available for free download on itunes as well as on our web site. nonmembers may purchase transcripts, audios and videotapes by calling 202-662-7598 or e-mailing us at archives at press.org. for more information about the national press club, please go to our web site at www.press.org. thank you very much, and we are adjo

regarding air force f-22's, senator daniel inouye sent a letter to the secretary gates about export virgin f-22. so how will the pentagon response to that idea? >> i don't know what the precise response will be in a letter form from secretary to senator inouye or if there will be a call. allah can tell you is, when this question has come up in the past and frankly, it came up in the secretaries polis side with the japanese defense minister when we were in singapore. the answer has always been the same. right now there is legislation, there is a lot, the ob of amendment which prevents us from exporting that technology to any one. so, as good an ally is japan is and as much as we may like to provide that capability to allies such as japan, the fact is it is prevented, were prevented from doing so according to the ob amendment so unless there's some sort of legislative remedy to this, unless it will repeal, our hands are tied on this issue. that is why the secretary made the further point to his japanese counterpart that, that the of 35 is the plane which we are pursuing and it plain that we

. >> up next bridget branson who started virgin atlantic airways 25 years ago speaking on the airline industry. he opposes the possible merger of british airways.

virgin islands the same as all other federal employees. i look forward to working with the respective delegates on this issue. i yield back the balance of my time. thank you, mr. chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from south carolina. mr. wilson: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: at this time i yield one minute to my friend my colleague, the gentleman from georgia, who is the vice chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on terrorism and nonproliferation and international trade, the gentleman, mr. scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. scott: thank you very much. i want to thank chairman skeleton for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of this important and timely bill. i want to commend president obama and speaker pelosi for the leadership we have provided. madam speaker, i've been in congress, this is my eighth year. for each of these eight years, i've worked hard on this bill