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American Morning
Senator Kerry's Success on Super Tuesday; Mission Accomplished for NASA
Aired March 03, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Senator John Kerry's campaign already evaluating vice presidential prospects now that the Massachusetts Democrat he all but sealed that nomination. Senator Kerry won every state up for grabs yesterday, except Vermont, which stayed loyal to its former governor, Howard Dean. Kerry received a congratulatory call last night from the president. Mr. Bush said he looked forward to a spirited debate.
Senator Kerry then told supporters he has no illusions about the bruising campaign that is possible to come in the next eight months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight, the message could not be clearer, all across our country, change is coming to America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Senator Kerry's success on Super Tuesday spelled bad news for his last remaining significant rival, John Edwards, canceling events for the rest of the week. Now, he's gone a step further.
To Kelly Wallace with his campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kelly, good morning to you.
And tell us why Senator Edwards is dropping out now after vowing to keep going just on Monday of this week.
Good morning there.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill. Advisers say there was just too big of a gap in some of in some of the Super Tuesday states between John Kerry and John Edwards. The decision to get out of the race made, in fact, made even before final results in from states like Georgia and Minnesota. But one adviser saying it felt like a window was closing, the decision, they just couldn't continue and make a credible run for the nomination -- Bill.
HEMMER: Also, Kelly, vice presidential discussion now. Do we know if they have about that very issue or not yet?
WALLACE: We asked one adviser, who says to her knowledge, there has not been any discussion of that just yet. Ask if this is something that Senator Edwards would accept, this adviser says I'm sure yes, but also stressing that this wasn't about John Edwards running for the vice presidency. He was in it to try and win the nomination, and saying that this is something down the road, and that now it is John Kerry's time.
HEMMER: Kelly, as you well know, early on last evening, it looked good for Senator Edwards in Georgia. But it flipped itself later in the night. Why didn't do that well or better in the South?
WALLACE: Well, there a couple of reasons. Some people think too little too late, in fact, for drawing real sharp contrast with John Kerry, for giving a reason to voters why they should not vote for John Kerry and vote for John Edwards. Also, Oklahoma is key. You'll recall he lost by only a small margin to Wesley Clark. Had John Edwards pulled off Oklahoma, he might have knocked Wesley Clark out of the race, and then set up a two-man contest earlier.
Finally, Bill, on the stump, he has talked in general terms, delivering the same stump speech everywhere he went. Some voters said he liked John Edwards, but they just didn't think he had the experience right now. Perhaps he didn't demonstrate in terms of his domestic policy and foreign policy.
HEMMER: Not to be repetitive. We talked about the VP issue. What does Senator Edwards do now, Kelly?
WALLACE: Well, he's going to give a speech here later here at the high school where his daughter and his late son, Wade, attended. He's going to thank some supporters a little bit later, too, and then, you know, he spoke with Senator Kerry last night. He has said, according to advisers, he'll do anything he can to help John Kerry, and that includes, Bill, raising lots of money.
HEMMER: Kelly, thanks. Kelly Wallace there in Raleigh. We have live coverage. Later today, that announcement, withdrawal from Raleigh 4:00 Eastern, 1:00 on the West Coast. Keep it here for you. We'll have it for you later today.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are other stories at this hour. At least 15 people have been detained in connection with the deadly attacks against Shiite Muslim targets. Iraqis took to the streets in Baghdad to condemn yesterday's attacks. The three-day period of mourning has begun, as Iraqis bury more than 100 victims from the blasts in Baghdad and Karbala.
The U.S. is discounting claims by a rebel leader in Haiti that he is the country's new military chief. Gi Philip (ph) make the announcement before cheering crowds yesterday, and threatened to arrest Haiti's prime minister. Meanwhile, U.S. Marines plan to increase their visibility throughout Haiti.
In San Diego, high-tech voting has gotten off to a bit of shaky start. There was a flood of complaints about the new touchscreens yesterday. Glitches reportedly caused delays of up to two hours forcing some voters to go to other polling places in order to cast paper ballots. Walt Disney's chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, faces a tough audience today. Disney investors are going to vote on whether to re- elect Eisner to the board of directors. Industry observers say Disney will probably keep Eisner, but might actually split his job as chairman and chief executive.
And there's trouble on tap for Coca-Cola in Britain. The company is facing a flood of questions over Dasani bottled water. The water is advertised as pure, but Coke actually admits that it's specially treated London tap water, and describes it as a highly sophisticated filtration process perfected by NASA. Coke sells Dasani water in the U.S. made in a similar manner.
HEMMER: Still tastes good.
O'BRIEN: Pure tap water, why not?
HEMMER: Eight ounces a day.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: For NASA, it is mission accomplished. Scientists say the Mars rovers have found what they were looking for, evidence that the planet was once wet enough for life to have existed there.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING we were joined by NASA program scientist Katherine White, and I asked her how NASA was able to determine so conclusively that Mars was once soaking wet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE WEITZ, MARS ROVER PROGRAM SCIENTIST: Well, we were very fortunate enough to have landed in a site where we're inside this very small crater, and just a few feet away is this amazing outcrop of rocks. And we've gone up to these rocks and studied them and found evidence for salt and minerals and looked at the rocks. And they show evidence that these are rocks that would have formed under conditions where we have water.
O'BRIEN: Does that mean that if it was soaking wet that it was wet enough to actually sustain life?
WEITZ: Well, that's a good question. Everywhere on Earth, where we have liquid water, there is life. If you go to geothermal hot springs or to the cold Antarctic valleys, we have evidence of life.
So, the question is, on Mars, we've identified these rocks, where we have evidence that water was either in a form of a lake or water was percolating through these rocks, depositing salt. And these are conditions where life would have certainly, on Earth, been flourishing.
So, the question is had there been life on Mars, it would have enjoyed living in this area as well.
O'BRIEN: But as of yet... WEITZ: We don't know at this point.
O'BRIEN: As of yet, there is no actual hard evidence that there was life on Mars, although you must be feeling much better about the possibility today.
WEITZ: Correct. This mission was not designed to search for life. It was designed to search for conditions on Mars that would have been favorable to life. So, what we're going to do now is to have missions that would go to a site like this, or others that we might identify, where conditions would have been favorable to life. And these missions will then look for evidence of past or present life on Mars.
O'BRIEN: Does that mean that the next missions will send people out looking for -- or rovers looking for fossils?
WEITZ: Or they would be looking for chemical evidence, because if these are fossils, we might not actually see evidence in the rocks of actual particular, you know, like, life forms. Instead, we might see chemical evidence of fossils. And so, we'd be sending instruments that would look for these chemical signatures of life in the past.
O'BRIEN: Do scientists have any idea of how long ago it was that water -- or that Mars was absolutely saturated in water, and if there is water on Mars right now, like underground?
WEITZ: Well, in the past, we're not sure when the water existed. We can sure get a relative idea when it happened. It was very long ago in the past, perhaps several billion years ago.
As for now, it's certainly possible that there are conditions on Mars in the subsurface where there is still liquid water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That was NASA science program -- program scientists rather, Catherine Weitz joining us a little bit earlier this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Up next for the rovers, they'll going to travel 740 meters east to a new crater that's been nicknamed Endurance, to check that out -- Bill.
HEMMER: Back here on Earth now, first San Francisco, then tiny New Paltz, New York. The mayors in both places have begun putting an official sanction on same-sex marriage. Both are opposed by their respective governors. Now the mayor of New Paltz has been charged for his actions, 19 misdemeanor counts.
Mayor Jason West back with us live in New Paltz, New York to talk about it.
Good morning to you, Mr. Mayor.
MYR. JASON WEST, NEW PALTZ, NEW YORK: Good morning. HEMMER: You will be in court later today. How will you plead?
WEST: Not guilty. I did nothing but uphold my oath of office to uphold our state institution.
HEMMER: You'll fight this on what grounds?
WEST: Well, on the grounds that our state constitution requires equal protection for all New Yorkers, and our domestic relations law is silent on issue the gender. It's clear that our constitution requires this. I took an oath of office to uphold that constitution.
And as a matter of fact, it's the department of health here who is violating the law in discriminating in terms of who they issue marriage licenses to.
HEMMER: You mentioned the word "gender" there. I'm reading article 3, section 12. It describes a husband and wife. Explain how your position is different from this in state law?
WEST: I would refer you specifically, there's a list of marriages that are voidable in New York State, including, for example, you can't marry close relatives. That is a section that explicitly lays out who can not be married. If you'll notice, same-sex couples are not on that list, and I'm going to stand by our state constitution's requirements for equal protection.
HEMMER: Let me parse some words here, husband and wife. That does not say gender to you, that doers not say man and woman to you?
WEST: I think that's irrelevant. I think the most important thing here seat is the equal protection clause of our constitution.
HEMMER: How far you willing to go on this? Would you go to jail for it, or knowing just a misdemeanor at this point would ever go that far?
WEST: That's something I'll have to discuss with my lawyers. I would like to mention that this morning, the mayor of Nyack (ph), New York, another village, has announced his intention to solemnize these marriages. So this is going to continue. I plan to continue on Saturday here in the village of New Paltz. Mayor Shields (ph) is going to begin in the village of Nyack, and I hopefully will have other mayors also step up around the state soon to help carry this burden.
HEMMER: Let me understand this, too -- about 1,000 same-sex couples ready to go this weekend, is that right, in your town?
WEST: No we're going to do a limited number a dozen or two. We're a small village, we can't handle thousands of people coming here. We have over 1,200 couples on our waiting list, and we do ask anyone who is wanting to be married to please go to our Web site and get on the waiting list there. We'll be doing absolutely no walk-in marriages. We can't handle it. Our infrastructure is just too small.
HEMMER: And it's your intention, despite what happens today in court, you will continue with these marriages this weekend?
WEST: That's my intention, yes.
HEMMER: Jason West, the mayor of New Paltz. We'll follow it later today, expected around 6:00 local time there here in your New York State.
Mayor, thank you to you.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the end of an era for McDonald's. The fast food chain is putting itself on kind of a diet I guess it's fair to call it.
HEMMER: Also more diet news. Wait until you hear the latest rap on Atkins. Sanjay is back with that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Attention carb watchers, there's new research that could dampen the spirits of many people who are following low carbohydrate, high protein diets.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details for us.
Hi, Sanjay. Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, you know, the low-carb diet, obviously a lot of people have heard about this. It spanned a whole new generation of dieters. You get all sorts of low-carbohydrate foods. There's entire stores dedicated to this now. You can get pancake syrup. You can get pancake mix, all sorts of different things with the low carbohydrate thing. And here's a question, an interesting question, that researchers are asking. Yes, we know what it does for the diet, but how does it make you feel? Is it a comfort food? How does that work?
Sort of some interesting research coming out of MIT, Judith Portman (ph) working out there on some -- trying to liken serotonin, and carbohydrates and proteins. Here's how it works. They say that carbohydrates with very little protein in it, so mainly carbohydrates, will raise the serotonin levels in the brain. Why is that important? Because it will subsequently regulate mood. She went on to say that if you're eating carbohydrates with protein, for example, if you're eating pasta with chicken or something like that, it will also tend to negate the effects, so you don't get as much of the mood-stabilizing effects as if you just eat carbohydrates alone. Very interesting, the carbohydrates alone seem to have the best impact on your overall mood.
Now no one is saying to change your diet fundamentally, but if you are someone who sort of finds yourself feeling a little blue based on your diet, this might be something to sort of pay more attention to.
Take a look here, you know, people who are low-carb diet and concerned about the mood vulnerable to mood changes, people who take antidepressants, people who use food for emotional stability, and this more serious than people think. There's really something to the comfort foods. You may want to pay attention and think about how much carbohydrate you're taking and how much protein you're taking -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: But under that original theory that if you have chicken, or along with your pasta, you are also not getting any serotonin, that's how most people eat. How would that make it worse than if you're on a high-protein diet, what the average American diet is, some kind of protein with some kind of carbs?
GUPTA: Right, so the question is, you know, should you be taking just carbohydrates every now and then, supplementing your diet with just carbohydrates, just some bread, with just some sugar, things like that every now and then. Based on the study, the answer is possibly yes. You might be feel better in terms of your overall serontonin, and subsequently, your mood, and sometimes if you just get the carbohydrate fix to try and give that you comfort food.
O'BRIEN: Interesting. If everybody's crabby when they're on Atkins, how come so many millions of people are on Atkins?
GUPTA: I don't know if everyone's crabby when they're on Atkins, but you know, if you ask the Atkins people that, they're going to give you probably two answers. One is that you'll probably lose some weight, and you know what, everyone feels probably a little bit better when they lose some weight. The other thing, and this is sort of the other side of the argument scientifically, is that the Atkins people say, that even if you're eating the carbohydrates, eventually you're going to crash from the carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are going to cause a sugar crash later on down the line. So while you may feel good right after you eat them, a few hours later, you may not feel so good. So those are the arguments the Atkins people will give you on that for sure.
O'BRIEN: So being crabby because you're not getting any carbs is offset by the 20 pounds you've lost over the last x number of weeks on the diet.
GUPTA: Are there some carbs that are better that would help improve your mood?
O'BRIEN: Yes, they make a point about this as well. You know, when you talk about carbohydrates, you talk about complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates. They say the complicated carbohydrates are going to be better. Stay away from foods like the cakes and the cookies and things like that. You should anyway. The foods for good mood, whole grains, beans, nuts, and then the brown or jasmine rice are going to be the better carbohydrates as far as your mood goes.
O'BRIEN: My mood's always better when I'm having the cakes and the cupcakes, and not the brown rice and the jasmine rice.
But thanks, Sanjay. Good advice. Appreciate it -- Hemmer. HEMMER: And the jelly beans.
In a moment here, supersize it, huh, Forget about it. McDonald's slimming down its menu. And Andy has that, right after this. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: McDonald's is downsizing, but it's not what you think. That, plus the surrender of ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
O'BRIEN: We'll start with the market before we get to the other stuff that we just talked about.
SERWER: Why don't we do that?
O'BRIEN: WE had a couple of good days.
SERWER: Yes, now we're slipping away, down about 17 points on the Dow, concerns about interests rates yesterday, Greenspan saying they got to rise sometime. Also big jobs report on Friday. We'll be watching that closely, coming up.
Now let's talk a little bit about Ernie Ebbers. He has surrendered to authorities in lower Manhattan earlier this morning. There he is. This is just a few minutes ago. Nice light blue tie. No handcuffs yet apparently, probably on the way out. That's how this game usually works.
Let's talk about McDonald's. They are getting rid of supersizing. That's right. The world's largest restaurant chain saying, you know what, it's probably not a great idea we're pushing this on Americans. Actually They're looking at it as a chance to simplify their menu, that's they're saying, it's all about simplifying. Did you ever see that movie? There was a documentary film, or hear about the supersize me, about this guy who lived off of McDonald's food for a month?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes. Well, they said it had nothing to do with that movie.
O'BRIEN: Is this a ploy to keep the prices high, but make the sizes smaller so they make more money off it?
SERWER: Well, it will be interesting to see what happens with pricing. I mean, if they just have the large at the same price as the supersize, and as Bill pointed earlier, they have made a lot of money off of supersizing, so we'll be watching the pricing closely there.
And speaking of food, Soledad, we have some stuff here for you.
O'BRIEN: We love when you bring props.
SERWER: Checking out some stuff for some midnight cravings maybe.
O'BRIEN: Sure, hand it over.
SERWER: This is a new product from Hersheys called Swoops. There it is. These are little. They are like Pringles, basically chocolate chocolate-shaped chips. That is Reese's. This is regular.
Jack, pass them over to you. You want some? Come on, Jack.
There we go. They're like Reese's flavor. These are regular ones here. Do you want to hold it like this? Is that correct?
O'BRIEN: Can I have one of those?
SERWER: There we go. I got to hold it, Soledad. I can't pass it over.
O'BRIEN: What about me?
SERWER: Yes, what about my midnight cravings.
O'BRIEN: I want to try those.
SERWER: I don't do the peppermint and chocolate thing, but others do.
HEMMER: We have a couple of people over here who can take care of this.
SERWER: Yes, well you just go.
HEMMER: Question of the day, here's Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Who should John Kerry pick for a running mate and who should he avoid is the issue we've been fiddling with here.
Bill in North Bay, Ontario, "Ted Kennedy, of course. "He's the only one who can explain to Kerry, apart from family reasons, why he supported Arnold Schwarzenegger and put California into play," as Bill Schneider says, in which case, Bush wins. Who should Kerry avoid, Ted Kennedy of course, but it's too late now. The Democrats have been duped by one of the best, not to mention one of their own."
Victor in New York, "Wesley Clark," he writes. "He is a four- star general with proven leadership. He stood up to the Serbs when few men in the Clinton administration would. He's a patriot from the South. He can carry Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico and of course Arkansas." Christopher in Santa Fe, "Kerry should pick Donald Trump as his running mate, and then if they win, Donald could tell Bush you're fired."
That's the old play on words you'll see on that "Apprentice" program.
O'BRIEN: That's funny, yes.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
And Fred in New (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Connecticut, who is another comic, "How about Michael Eisner. He'll be looking for work, and then Kerry will have an excuse for running a Mickey Mouse campaign.
See, Michael Eisner is the guy who runs Disney.
SERWER: Very good. It's remedial news, right?
You know what's funny, Wesley Clark, people haven't mentioned him lately, and that's interesting.
CAFFERTY: And he won't be mentioned again. I don't know, maybe he will be. I don't think he's not going to pick Wesley Clark.
O'BRIEN: We'll see.
I think this is an interesting discussion.
CAFFERTY: Do you?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I actually do.
CAFFERTY: As interesting as which flavor are these things?
O'BRIEN: I got to tell you, I go with the York Peppermint Patty.
All right coming up this morning on CNN, millions of Iraqis have begun three days of mourning. But who are they blaming for yesterday's deadly bomb attacks? We've got a live report from Baghdad coming up in our next hour with Carol Lin. That's ahead on "CNN LIVE TODAY."
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: We got to run. A couple of notes here, John Edwards, 4:00. We'll have that live for you from Raleigh. And we do have a winner in the Hershey's sweepstakes on the Swoops. York is the clear winner. Three out of four anchors on the AMERICAN MORNING program choose York.
We got to run. Daryn is out today. Carol Lin is in at the CNN Center.
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Accomplished for NASA>
Aired March 3, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Senator John Kerry's campaign already evaluating vice presidential prospects now that the Massachusetts Democrat he all but sealed that nomination. Senator Kerry won every state up for grabs yesterday, except Vermont, which stayed loyal to its former governor, Howard Dean. Kerry received a congratulatory call last night from the president. Mr. Bush said he looked forward to a spirited debate.
Senator Kerry then told supporters he has no illusions about the bruising campaign that is possible to come in the next eight months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight, the message could not be clearer, all across our country, change is coming to America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Senator Kerry's success on Super Tuesday spelled bad news for his last remaining significant rival, John Edwards, canceling events for the rest of the week. Now, he's gone a step further.
To Kelly Wallace with his campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kelly, good morning to you.
And tell us why Senator Edwards is dropping out now after vowing to keep going just on Monday of this week.
Good morning there.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill. Advisers say there was just too big of a gap in some of in some of the Super Tuesday states between John Kerry and John Edwards. The decision to get out of the race made, in fact, made even before final results in from states like Georgia and Minnesota. But one adviser saying it felt like a window was closing, the decision, they just couldn't continue and make a credible run for the nomination -- Bill.
HEMMER: Also, Kelly, vice presidential discussion now. Do we know if they have about that very issue or not yet?
WALLACE: We asked one adviser, who says to her knowledge, there has not been any discussion of that just yet. Ask if this is something that Senator Edwards would accept, this adviser says I'm sure yes, but also stressing that this wasn't about John Edwards running for the vice presidency. He was in it to try and win the nomination, and saying that this is something down the road, and that now it is John Kerry's time.
HEMMER: Kelly, as you well know, early on last evening, it looked good for Senator Edwards in Georgia. But it flipped itself later in the night. Why didn't do that well or better in the South?
WALLACE: Well, there a couple of reasons. Some people think too little too late, in fact, for drawing real sharp contrast with John Kerry, for giving a reason to voters why they should not vote for John Kerry and vote for John Edwards. Also, Oklahoma is key. You'll recall he lost by only a small margin to Wesley Clark. Had John Edwards pulled off Oklahoma, he might have knocked Wesley Clark out of the race, and then set up a two-man contest earlier.
Finally, Bill, on the stump, he has talked in general terms, delivering the same stump speech everywhere he went. Some voters said he liked John Edwards, but they just didn't think he had the experience right now. Perhaps he didn't demonstrate in terms of his domestic policy and foreign policy.
HEMMER: Not to be repetitive. We talked about the VP issue. What does Senator Edwards do now, Kelly?
WALLACE: Well, he's going to give a speech here later here at the high school where his daughter and his late son, Wade, attended. He's going to thank some supporters a little bit later, too, and then, you know, he spoke with Senator Kerry last night. He has said, according to advisers, he'll do anything he can to help John Kerry, and that includes, Bill, raising lots of money.
HEMMER: Kelly, thanks. Kelly Wallace there in Raleigh. We have live coverage. Later today, that announcement, withdrawal from Raleigh 4:00 Eastern, 1:00 on the West Coast. Keep it here for you. We'll have it for you later today.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are other stories at this hour. At least 15 people have been detained in connection with the deadly attacks against Shiite Muslim targets. Iraqis took to the streets in Baghdad to condemn yesterday's attacks. The three-day period of mourning has begun, as Iraqis bury more than 100 victims from the blasts in Baghdad and Karbala.
The U.S. is discounting claims by a rebel leader in Haiti that he is the country's new military chief. Gi Philip (ph) make the announcement before cheering crowds yesterday, and threatened to arrest Haiti's prime minister. Meanwhile, U.S. Marines plan to increase their visibility throughout Haiti.
In San Diego, high-tech voting has gotten off to a bit of shaky start. There was a flood of complaints about the new touchscreens yesterday. Glitches reportedly caused delays of up to two hours forcing some voters to go to other polling places in order to cast paper ballots. Walt Disney's chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, faces a tough audience today. Disney investors are going to vote on whether to re- elect Eisner to the board of directors. Industry observers say Disney will probably keep Eisner, but might actually split his job as chairman and chief executive.
And there's trouble on tap for Coca-Cola in Britain. The company is facing a flood of questions over Dasani bottled water. The water is advertised as pure, but Coke actually admits that it's specially treated London tap water, and describes it as a highly sophisticated filtration process perfected by NASA. Coke sells Dasani water in the U.S. made in a similar manner.
HEMMER: Still tastes good.
O'BRIEN: Pure tap water, why not?
HEMMER: Eight ounces a day.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: For NASA, it is mission accomplished. Scientists say the Mars rovers have found what they were looking for, evidence that the planet was once wet enough for life to have existed there.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING we were joined by NASA program scientist Katherine White, and I asked her how NASA was able to determine so conclusively that Mars was once soaking wet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE WEITZ, MARS ROVER PROGRAM SCIENTIST: Well, we were very fortunate enough to have landed in a site where we're inside this very small crater, and just a few feet away is this amazing outcrop of rocks. And we've gone up to these rocks and studied them and found evidence for salt and minerals and looked at the rocks. And they show evidence that these are rocks that would have formed under conditions where we have water.
O'BRIEN: Does that mean that if it was soaking wet that it was wet enough to actually sustain life?
WEITZ: Well, that's a good question. Everywhere on Earth, where we have liquid water, there is life. If you go to geothermal hot springs or to the cold Antarctic valleys, we have evidence of life.
So, the question is, on Mars, we've identified these rocks, where we have evidence that water was either in a form of a lake or water was percolating through these rocks, depositing salt. And these are conditions where life would have certainly, on Earth, been flourishing.
So, the question is had there been life on Mars, it would have enjoyed living in this area as well.
O'BRIEN: But as of yet... WEITZ: We don't know at this point.
O'BRIEN: As of yet, there is no actual hard evidence that there was life on Mars, although you must be feeling much better about the possibility today.
WEITZ: Correct. This mission was not designed to search for life. It was designed to search for conditions on Mars that would have been favorable to life. So, what we're going to do now is to have missions that would go to a site like this, or others that we might identify, where conditions would have been favorable to life. And these missions will then look for evidence of past or present life on Mars.
O'BRIEN: Does that mean that the next missions will send people out looking for -- or rovers looking for fossils?
WEITZ: Or they would be looking for chemical evidence, because if these are fossils, we might not actually see evidence in the rocks of actual particular, you know, like, life forms. Instead, we might see chemical evidence of fossils. And so, we'd be sending instruments that would look for these chemical signatures of life in the past.
O'BRIEN: Do scientists have any idea of how long ago it was that water -- or that Mars was absolutely saturated in water, and if there is water on Mars right now, like underground?
WEITZ: Well, in the past, we're not sure when the water existed. We can sure get a relative idea when it happened. It was very long ago in the past, perhaps several billion years ago.
As for now, it's certainly possible that there are conditions on Mars in the subsurface where there is still liquid water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That was NASA science program -- program scientists rather, Catherine Weitz joining us a little bit earlier this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Up next for the rovers, they'll going to travel 740 meters east to a new crater that's been nicknamed Endurance, to check that out -- Bill.
HEMMER: Back here on Earth now, first San Francisco, then tiny New Paltz, New York. The mayors in both places have begun putting an official sanction on same-sex marriage. Both are opposed by their respective governors. Now the mayor of New Paltz has been charged for his actions, 19 misdemeanor counts.
Mayor Jason West back with us live in New Paltz, New York to talk about it.
Good morning to you, Mr. Mayor.
MYR. JASON WEST, NEW PALTZ, NEW YORK: Good morning. HEMMER: You will be in court later today. How will you plead?
WEST: Not guilty. I did nothing but uphold my oath of office to uphold our state institution.
HEMMER: You'll fight this on what grounds?
WEST: Well, on the grounds that our state constitution requires equal protection for all New Yorkers, and our domestic relations law is silent on issue the gender. It's clear that our constitution requires this. I took an oath of office to uphold that constitution.
And as a matter of fact, it's the department of health here who is violating the law in discriminating in terms of who they issue marriage licenses to.
HEMMER: You mentioned the word "gender" there. I'm reading article 3, section 12. It describes a husband and wife. Explain how your position is different from this in state law?
WEST: I would refer you specifically, there's a list of marriages that are voidable in New York State, including, for example, you can't marry close relatives. That is a section that explicitly lays out who can not be married. If you'll notice, same-sex couples are not on that list, and I'm going to stand by our state constitution's requirements for equal protection.
HEMMER: Let me parse some words here, husband and wife. That does not say gender to you, that doers not say man and woman to you?
WEST: I think that's irrelevant. I think the most important thing here seat is the equal protection clause of our constitution.
HEMMER: How far you willing to go on this? Would you go to jail for it, or knowing just a misdemeanor at this point would ever go that far?
WEST: That's something I'll have to discuss with my lawyers. I would like to mention that this morning, the mayor of Nyack (ph), New York, another village, has announced his intention to solemnize these marriages. So this is going to continue. I plan to continue on Saturday here in the village of New Paltz. Mayor Shields (ph) is going to begin in the village of Nyack, and I hopefully will have other mayors also step up around the state soon to help carry this burden.
HEMMER: Let me understand this, too -- about 1,000 same-sex couples ready to go this weekend, is that right, in your town?
WEST: No we're going to do a limited number a dozen or two. We're a small village, we can't handle thousands of people coming here. We have over 1,200 couples on our waiting list, and we do ask anyone who is wanting to be married to please go to our Web site and get on the waiting list there. We'll be doing absolutely no walk-in marriages. We can't handle it. Our infrastructure is just too small.
HEMMER: And it's your intention, despite what happens today in court, you will continue with these marriages this weekend?
WEST: That's my intention, yes.
HEMMER: Jason West, the mayor of New Paltz. We'll follow it later today, expected around 6:00 local time there here in your New York State.
Mayor, thank you to you.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the end of an era for McDonald's. The fast food chain is putting itself on kind of a diet I guess it's fair to call it.
HEMMER: Also more diet news. Wait until you hear the latest rap on Atkins. Sanjay is back with that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Attention carb watchers, there's new research that could dampen the spirits of many people who are following low carbohydrate, high protein diets.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details for us.
Hi, Sanjay. Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, you know, the low-carb diet, obviously a lot of people have heard about this. It spanned a whole new generation of dieters. You get all sorts of low-carbohydrate foods. There's entire stores dedicated to this now. You can get pancake syrup. You can get pancake mix, all sorts of different things with the low carbohydrate thing. And here's a question, an interesting question, that researchers are asking. Yes, we know what it does for the diet, but how does it make you feel? Is it a comfort food? How does that work?
Sort of some interesting research coming out of MIT, Judith Portman (ph) working out there on some -- trying to liken serotonin, and carbohydrates and proteins. Here's how it works. They say that carbohydrates with very little protein in it, so mainly carbohydrates, will raise the serotonin levels in the brain. Why is that important? Because it will subsequently regulate mood. She went on to say that if you're eating carbohydrates with protein, for example, if you're eating pasta with chicken or something like that, it will also tend to negate the effects, so you don't get as much of the mood-stabilizing effects as if you just eat carbohydrates alone. Very interesting, the carbohydrates alone seem to have the best impact on your overall mood.
Now no one is saying to change your diet fundamentally, but if you are someone who sort of finds yourself feeling a little blue based on your diet, this might be something to sort of pay more attention to.
Take a look here, you know, people who are low-carb diet and concerned about the mood vulnerable to mood changes, people who take antidepressants, people who use food for emotional stability, and this more serious than people think. There's really something to the comfort foods. You may want to pay attention and think about how much carbohydrate you're taking and how much protein you're taking -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: But under that original theory that if you have chicken, or along with your pasta, you are also not getting any serotonin, that's how most people eat. How would that make it worse than if you're on a high-protein diet, what the average American diet is, some kind of protein with some kind of carbs?
GUPTA: Right, so the question is, you know, should you be taking just carbohydrates every now and then, supplementing your diet with just carbohydrates, just some bread, with just some sugar, things like that every now and then. Based on the study, the answer is possibly yes. You might be feel better in terms of your overall serontonin, and subsequently, your mood, and sometimes if you just get the carbohydrate fix to try and give that you comfort food.
O'BRIEN: Interesting. If everybody's crabby when they're on Atkins, how come so many millions of people are on Atkins?
GUPTA: I don't know if everyone's crabby when they're on Atkins, but you know, if you ask the Atkins people that, they're going to give you probably two answers. One is that you'll probably lose some weight, and you know what, everyone feels probably a little bit better when they lose some weight. The other thing, and this is sort of the other side of the argument scientifically, is that the Atkins people say, that even if you're eating the carbohydrates, eventually you're going to crash from the carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are going to cause a sugar crash later on down the line. So while you may feel good right after you eat them, a few hours later, you may not feel so good. So those are the arguments the Atkins people will give you on that for sure.
O'BRIEN: So being crabby because you're not getting any carbs is offset by the 20 pounds you've lost over the last x number of weeks on the diet.
GUPTA: Are there some carbs that are better that would help improve your mood?
O'BRIEN: Yes, they make a point about this as well. You know, when you talk about carbohydrates, you talk about complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates. They say the complicated carbohydrates are going to be better. Stay away from foods like the cakes and the cookies and things like that. You should anyway. The foods for good mood, whole grains, beans, nuts, and then the brown or jasmine rice are going to be the better carbohydrates as far as your mood goes.
O'BRIEN: My mood's always better when I'm having the cakes and the cupcakes, and not the brown rice and the jasmine rice.
But thanks, Sanjay. Good advice. Appreciate it -- Hemmer. HEMMER: And the jelly beans.
In a moment here, supersize it, huh, Forget about it. McDonald's slimming down its menu. And Andy has that, right after this. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: McDonald's is downsizing, but it's not what you think. That, plus the surrender of ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
O'BRIEN: We'll start with the market before we get to the other stuff that we just talked about.
SERWER: Why don't we do that?
O'BRIEN: WE had a couple of good days.
SERWER: Yes, now we're slipping away, down about 17 points on the Dow, concerns about interests rates yesterday, Greenspan saying they got to rise sometime. Also big jobs report on Friday. We'll be watching that closely, coming up.
Now let's talk a little bit about Ernie Ebbers. He has surrendered to authorities in lower Manhattan earlier this morning. There he is. This is just a few minutes ago. Nice light blue tie. No handcuffs yet apparently, probably on the way out. That's how this game usually works.
Let's talk about McDonald's. They are getting rid of supersizing. That's right. The world's largest restaurant chain saying, you know what, it's probably not a great idea we're pushing this on Americans. Actually They're looking at it as a chance to simplify their menu, that's they're saying, it's all about simplifying. Did you ever see that movie? There was a documentary film, or hear about the supersize me, about this guy who lived off of McDonald's food for a month?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes. Well, they said it had nothing to do with that movie.
O'BRIEN: Is this a ploy to keep the prices high, but make the sizes smaller so they make more money off it?
SERWER: Well, it will be interesting to see what happens with pricing. I mean, if they just have the large at the same price as the supersize, and as Bill pointed earlier, they have made a lot of money off of supersizing, so we'll be watching the pricing closely there.
And speaking of food, Soledad, we have some stuff here for you.
O'BRIEN: We love when you bring props.
SERWER: Checking out some stuff for some midnight cravings maybe.
O'BRIEN: Sure, hand it over.
SERWER: This is a new product from Hersheys called Swoops. There it is. These are little. They are like Pringles, basically chocolate chocolate-shaped chips. That is Reese's. This is regular.
Jack, pass them over to you. You want some? Come on, Jack.
There we go. They're like Reese's flavor. These are regular ones here. Do you want to hold it like this? Is that correct?
O'BRIEN: Can I have one of those?
SERWER: There we go. I got to hold it, Soledad. I can't pass it over.
O'BRIEN: What about me?
SERWER: Yes, what about my midnight cravings.
O'BRIEN: I want to try those.
SERWER: I don't do the peppermint and chocolate thing, but others do.
HEMMER: We have a couple of people over here who can take care of this.
SERWER: Yes, well you just go.
HEMMER: Question of the day, here's Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Who should John Kerry pick for a running mate and who should he avoid is the issue we've been fiddling with here.
Bill in North Bay, Ontario, "Ted Kennedy, of course. "He's the only one who can explain to Kerry, apart from family reasons, why he supported Arnold Schwarzenegger and put California into play," as Bill Schneider says, in which case, Bush wins. Who should Kerry avoid, Ted Kennedy of course, but it's too late now. The Democrats have been duped by one of the best, not to mention one of their own."
Victor in New York, "Wesley Clark," he writes. "He is a four- star general with proven leadership. He stood up to the Serbs when few men in the Clinton administration would. He's a patriot from the South. He can carry Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico and of course Arkansas." Christopher in Santa Fe, "Kerry should pick Donald Trump as his running mate, and then if they win, Donald could tell Bush you're fired."
That's the old play on words you'll see on that "Apprentice" program.
O'BRIEN: That's funny, yes.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
And Fred in New (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Connecticut, who is another comic, "How about Michael Eisner. He'll be looking for work, and then Kerry will have an excuse for running a Mickey Mouse campaign.
See, Michael Eisner is the guy who runs Disney.
SERWER: Very good. It's remedial news, right?
You know what's funny, Wesley Clark, people haven't mentioned him lately, and that's interesting.
CAFFERTY: And he won't be mentioned again. I don't know, maybe he will be. I don't think he's not going to pick Wesley Clark.
O'BRIEN: We'll see.
I think this is an interesting discussion.
CAFFERTY: Do you?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I actually do.
CAFFERTY: As interesting as which flavor are these things?
O'BRIEN: I got to tell you, I go with the York Peppermint Patty.
All right coming up this morning on CNN, millions of Iraqis have begun three days of mourning. But who are they blaming for yesterday's deadly bomb attacks? We've got a live report from Baghdad coming up in our next hour with Carol Lin. That's ahead on "CNN LIVE TODAY."
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: We got to run. A couple of notes here, John Edwards, 4:00. We'll have that live for you from Raleigh. And we do have a winner in the Hershey's sweepstakes on the Swoops. York is the clear winner. Three out of four anchors on the AMERICAN MORNING program choose York.
We got to run. Daryn is out today. Carol Lin is in at the CNN Center.
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