Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
'90-Second Pop'; As Elections in Iraq Draw Near, Violence Continues
Aired November 29, 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's exactly half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to take you right back to Iraq in just a few moments. Another day of violence to talk about. We'll have the very latest on a bombing near Baghdad. Also, talk about divisions between the Sunnis and the Shiites that could endanger the election on January 30th.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also Sanjay is back with us today, looking at why some people cheat on their spouses. And he's pointing a finger at genetics, at least in women. Some women, that is. Anyway, it's a tricky study. We're going to walk through those mine fields as best we can a little bit later. I know it's not going to be pretty.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I think mine fields is a good word, isn't it?
Another check of the headlines first, though. Heidi Collins with us morning.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. And good morning to you, everybody.
Now in the news this morning, more details expected to be released from Colorado this morning about the plane crash involving NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol. Federal investigators are arriving at the crash site, just about 185 miles southwest of Denver. At least two people were killed. Dick Ebersol and his older son survived. According to affiliate KUSA, his younger son is still missing.
Iran is apparently confirming its decision to suspend all uranium-enriched activities. The country's chief nuclear negotiator says Iran worked out an agreement with some European countries. At issue were 20 centrifuges Iran wanted excluded from the suspension. The deal keeps Iran from facing possible U.N. sanctions.
Here in the United States, leaving the NBA on his own terms was always important to basketball star Michael Jordan. And apparently, the same can be said of his older brother. Army Command Sergeant James Jordan is asking the Pentagon to delay his retirement so he can complete a full year-long deployment to Iraq. Jordan has been in the Army nearly 30 years, and says staying put is what a leader has to do.
And the International Space Station has a new parking spot. The U.S. and Russian crew members successfully redocked the spaceship just about five hours ago now. It's part of preparations for spacewalks early next year. We actually have spaceman with us today.
S. O'BRIEN: I know. The first journalist in space.
M. O'BRIEN: I've actually been upgraded. Everybody else goes with space boy. Thank you. Thank you so much. I come to New York, and I'm spaceman now. Thank you, Heidi.
All right, well, time is running out for Congress to pass the intelligence reform bill before year's end. This weekend, opponents once again pointed out what they see as the bill's weaknesses.
Elaine Quijano live at the White House now with more on all this.
Elaine, good morning.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
President Bush returned to the White House yesterday after spending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. But now here in Washington, people on both sides of the aisle are looking to him to intervene again to try to break the impasse over intel reform. But the lawmakers who've raised objections to the bill are not showing any signs of backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice over): Even though there are enough votes in the House to pass intelligence reform legislation now, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert won't allow the bill to come to a vote because of some strong opposition within his own party.
Duncan Hunter, head of the Armed Services Committee, whose son served in Iraq, speaks for Republicans who say the bill doesn't preserve the chain of command needed to keep intelligence flowing quickly to front-line troops.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: When the Department of Defense has to have a satellite over Falluja, for example, because they've got people being shot at on the ground -- they need to know where the enemy is -- you have to be able to control that agency.
QUIJANO: Top military leaders agree, saying the Pentagon, not a new national intelligence director, should keep control of satellite and communications programs.
But other lawmakers say U.S. troops on the battlefield will get what they need.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Every bill that we have proposed preserves that tactical intelligence.
QUIJANO: Another leading holdout, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, wants to bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: And until we are able to make sure that driver's licenses are given only to people who are lawfully present in the United States, America is still at greater risk.
QUIJANO: The 9/11 Commission's vice chair says the risk is not passing reforms now.
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: I know the attention has been on the intelligence and the immigration provisions. They're important provisions. But there are scores, if not hundreds, of provisions here, which strengthen the counterterrorism efforts of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: And Democrats complain that President Bush, who says he will sign the bill, is not putting enough pressure on the Republican holdouts. But White House officials maintain that President Bush has made it very clear he wants to see this legislation passed as quickly as possible. And officials here say that the president will continue to work closely with Congress to make that happen -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: As elections in Iraq draw near, the violence continues. This morning, two U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated in northwest Baghdad.
CNN's Karl Penhaul live for us from Baghdad with details on that this morning.
Karl, good morning.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Soledad.
Yes, a U.S. military spokesman has confirmed to us the death of those two U.S. soldiers. As you say, a roadside bomb in a northwestern neighborhood of Baghdad. Little more detail than that, in fact, at this stage. The blast did take place about 11:00 a.m. local time. We're told, unfortunately, though, this is a very common occurrence, almost daily those roadside bombs are going off underneath U.S. convoys.
Now in the afternoon, there was another suicide car bomb attack. This time about 130 miles west of Baghdad, in a city called Baghdadi. In that attack, six people were killed and eight others wounded. Among the dead, four Iraqi policemen. This is the second time that police station in that city has been attacked in about a month -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Question for you about the election, which really is the top story this morning. What's being decided at this time? Are any idea of what exactly is going to happen come January 30th?
PENHAUL: Well, basically the debate goes on. At the very heart of that debate is the whole issue of security. A group of political parties have come out and said, let's postpone this election because voters won't be able to go to the polls in safety. The government has said no, let's go ahead, let's hold the vote on January the 30th. That, in fact, is a deadline that has been set by United Nations Security Council resolution.
And then, there's another group of parties, the Shia Muslim majority, they say no, we must also have these elections on January the 30th. The Sunni Muslim minority are saying no, let's not have these elections at all until coalition armies leave Iraq altogether. So very tricky at this stage, Soledad. And no final decision taken as yet.
S. O'BRIEN: No expectations of a final decision, one would imagine, until a little bit closer to the cutoff date. Karl Penhaul for us in Baghdad, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Charges expected today for the man suspected of shooting hunters in Wisconsin. Chai Vang, accused of shooting eight hunters, killing six during a dispute over a hunting spot. Now Vang claims the hunters used racial slurs before shooting at him. One of the survivors says Vang shot first, however. Vang's daughter says the truth will eventually come out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIA VANG: My father, he is a great person, and he does take care of his family. He loves his family very much. And you know, at this time, I really don't know what my father did. You know, I haven't talked to him. I haven't had any kind of contact with him. You know, it was a shock to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Attorneys for Vang say they may look at a mental health defense -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Some wild weather in South America to talk about. The Red Cross saying more than 100,000 people in Colombia have been affected by flooding and mud slides. Rainstorms have been ravaging the country all month. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The flooding is also causing major damage in Vietnam. Nearly 50 inches of rain have fallen on the central part of that country in just the past four days. As many as 40 people died there.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: This morning's "House Call" more like a wake-up call for guys everywhere. A new British study suggesting some women genetically predisposed for infidelity.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us again from the CNN Center with more on those cheatin' genes, I guess -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, only you, Miles, could get me to talk about marijuana and cheating genes in the same day. Interesting question there, does your DNA somehow make you predestined to infidelity? That was the question researchers in England tried to answer. In other words, do you have cheating genes? The way they went about this, they actually studied 1,600 pairs of twins, all women, some of them identical, some of them fraternal, and tried to make some conclusions on how likely they were to cheat and how many sexual partners they were to have, as well, and how much of that was due to genetics.
Here's what they concluded: Infidelity was 41 percent due to genes. And the number of sexual partners that a woman had over a lifetime, 38 percent due to genes, as well.
Interesting, Miles. They took it one step further. Obviously, this is looking at behavior. They also wanted to look at attitudes. What is the morality and ethics surrounding infidelity? What they found is that most women still said yes, that's wrong. So the attitudes towards it probably wasn't genetically based. But again, an interesting study actually looking at a genetic basis, maybe one of the first times this has actually been shown -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Now they focused on women. Why is that? And can we assume that this only occurs in women?
GUPTA: Yes, I mean this first study was done in women only. And the researchers are careful to point out that the only conclusions that can be drawn from this are on women.
However, anthropologists take it one step further as well and say probably you'd find the same genetic predetermination for infidelity in men, as well. Now that hasn't been studied. But they do say that men are programmed to procreate, and therefore, more likely to spread their gene pool.
They also wanted to find out, Miles, is there a loyalty gene, if you will? Is there an infidelity gene? And they couldn't pinpoint anywhere on the human DNA that there's actually a loyalty gene. About a 50 to 100 genes are responsible.
But an interesting study, I don't usually talk about animal studies, but there's a study done on rodents called voles. Now what they found these voles tend to spread their gene pool around quite a bit. What they found was that they could actually insert a loyalty gene, making them monogamous for life. That's in rodents. Hasn't been done in humans yet. That might be next.
M. O'BRIEN: Who knew about the voles. All right. Don't be voling around, all right?
Sanjay Gupta, thanks for dropping by, as always, covering the full range of medical developments.
S. O'BRIEN: Hasn't been developed in humans yet, says Sanjay.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, all right. S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the twelve days of Christmas as a holiday shopping list. Just guess how much a partridge in a pear tree costs this days. We're "Minding Your Business," just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, Julia Roberts is a new mom times two. But she didn't consult any old baby book to name her twins. "90-Second Pop" is ahead, and you're going to hear those names, if you haven't already, if you stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The markets are open, and just how much would it cost to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas? We know you are dying to know if you're buying the turtle doves and so on, the maids of milking, and all that stuff. Gerri Willis is here to tell us about that, and the Willis rally, which is obviously under way.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Willis rally exactly. It's all about the shoppers out there. Let's talk a look at the numbers. The Dow opening higher today, let's see, up 24 points. And we're talking about how great this holiday selling season is. That's the basis for that rally right there. But we got to talk about maids a milking.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, let's get to some real news. All right, if you're going out and doing the twelve days of Christmas. I suppose there are people who have done this for their lovely over the Christmas holidays.
WILLIS: I don't know any of those people. Somewhere, somehow...
O'BRIEN: People with a lot of extra time and money on their hands.
Let's run through it.
WILLIS: OK, well, let's take a look at some of these prices -- partridge in a pear tree, $93. That compares -- it's up 20 percent from last year. We're just going to look here at some of the big price moves. Three French hens up 200 percent from last year. Two turtle doves down 31 percent. I know you're dying to know why. Fewer hatchlings for those turtle doves.
And now here's the big news out of this, gold rings down 30 percent.
S. O'BRIEN: Only $255 for five gold rings?
WILLIS: Plain rings. Plain rings.
M. O'BRIEN: Look at the swans at $3,500. The swan union is doing pretty well here.
S. O'BRIEN: What kind of cheap gold rings are you getting?
WILLIS: Well, I got to tell you, if you're looking for a Christmas present, this may be the place to go.
M. O'BRIEN: Make your finger green.
WILLIS: Exactly.
Ladies dancing, I know you were curious, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, what sort of women are we talking about is really the question, right?
WILLIS: Well, here's the deal. This is -- these are people, skilled laborers, they cost more, 20 percent more, in fact, over the period of time that they've done the study at PNC Financial Services. So you look at that versus the maids a milking, very big change, very big difference. All in all you look at these numbers, it cost $17,296 to actually buy all these gifts in the song. It's up 2.4 percent from last year. If you do it over the Internet, $27,000.
M. O'BRIEN: More?
WILLIS: More because of the shipping costs, because mailing those lords a leaping can cost a lot of money.
S. O'BRIEN: And it's even more amazing...
M. O'BRIEN: You got to cut the little holes in the box for them and everything.
S. O'BRIEN: ... that someone had sat around and done the math on all of this.
WILLIS: Thank you to PNC Financial Services for doing that work for us.
M. O'BRIEN: It's a living.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Gerri.
Medical marijuana is the Question of the Day.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments about whether the federal law about marijuana should prevail -- it's illegal, period, no exceptions -- or the state law in 11 states, which allows doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Patricia -- pardon me -- in Boston, "I don't care if the general use of marijuana is legal or not. Haven't cared since 1973." Not sure how to take that sentence.
M. O'BRIEN: I haven't cared about much of anything since '73.
"I just think it is a joke to couch the issue in a medical cloak."
Camille in Memphis, "When I hit 45, hormonal changes in my body started to affect me in an unusual way. Once a month, I feel as though I have morning sickness, complete with nausea and vomiting. The most common drug for nausea makes you extremely drowsy. The alternative costs $100 a pill. That's why there's no medicinal marijuana. Nobody owns the patent on it."
And Richard writes from Los Angeles, "Marijuana should be legal under the same circumstances that apply to a martini." Thank you for your responses.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks.
Still to come this morning, why wasn't Alexander so great at the box office? The 90-second poppers travel to ancient times, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. No chitchat. We're getting going here. It's time once again for our critically-acclaimed "90- Second Pop."
Here to play this morning, Sarah Bernard. She's a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." And Jessica Shaw for "Entertainment Weekly."
Good morning to all of you. Nice to have you.
JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm loving your haircut, by the way.
SHAW: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: It's very cute.
All right, let's get right to it. Julia Roberts had twins.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Yes!
S. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) than Julia Roberts. She's younger than me.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: She had a boy and a girl. Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia.
S. O'BRIEN: Those are the names.
SHAW: Those are the names. She's really just copying you. I mean, you have been the trendsetter for the celebrities. You are...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: Julia wanted to have twins.
S. O'BRIEN: I hate that.
SHAW: Yes, you know...
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think of these names?
SHAW: I like -- personally, I like Hazel. Phinnaeus to me is -- I hope he goes by Phen.
S. O'BRIEN: That's cute.
SHAW: I mean, that's a cute nickname.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Well, somebody downstairs was saying that there was a character named Phinnaeus in that novel, "A Separate Piece," that everyone read in junior high or were supposed to read in junior high.
BERNARD: Right, sure.
SIGESMUND: But it wasn't spelled quite the same way. This Phinnaeus is P-H-I-N-N-A-E-U,-S.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: And like restaurant reservations for the rest of your life.
BERNARD: Phinnaeus died in that book, sort of a tragic literary figure to get you...
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: It will be Finn, F-I-N-N.
SHAW: I think with this, though, is she going to become like Gwyneth Paltrow and take all of this time off and say, you know what? I really want to focus on being a mom and not go back to acting. And right now, she has nothing lined up except she's doing a voice in an animated movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: She'll stay home with the twins for a couple of days and she'll be like, oh, I've got to get right back to acting.
SHAW: Right.
SIGESMUND: I'm done.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: ... come in to CNN and have your job.
S. O'BRIEN: Sure. SIGESMUND: Does anyone think it's a little bit strange that she had these babies a month prematurely and just five days before "Closer" comes out and two weeks before her other movie, "Ocean's 12," comes out?
BERNARD: I was going to say that. Isn't it convenient?
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Honestly, twins are high risk. And I don't believe any mother would put her child at risk or her children at risk by inducing them early. Most doctors would make you wait. That is what I will say.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: You probably would want them to induce you, but not your doctor.
SHAW: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) injecting the drug.
O'BRIEN: Wait a second. Let's talk about movies. "National Treasure" again.
SIGESMUND: Yes, out of nowhere. Who would have thought this movie, which got pretty bad reviews a week and a half ago, would be No. 1 for a second weekend in a row. It's now the biggest movie of Nic Cage's career. It dropped only 6 percent from its first weekend. And, you know, I guess people just really wanted to see this "Indiana Jones" style action-adventure. And critics couldn't dissuade them.
BERNARD: I think it's a perfect Thanksgiving escape movie. Don't you think?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: I mean, I think that's partially why it did so well.
S. O'BRIEN: A little mindless.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: Right. Because that's actually what people do over Thanksgiving, right?
SIGESMUND: Yes, exactly.
BERNARD: You're strapping your family and you go see movies.
SIGESMUND: As opposed to, we have to talk about "Alexander"...
S. O'BRIEN: Right. SIGESMUND: ... which critics also nailed, but that could not convince people. This was an absolute dog. It made only $21 million over five days. That's less than half of what "Troy" made in just three days in May.
SHAW: I mean, it opened at No. 6. Even a movie like "Christmas With the Kranks" did better.
BERNARD: That's bad.
SHAW: I mean, like, that is so embarrassing.
S. O'BRIEN: Was it the blonde pageboy that had people not going to see it?
BERNARD: It was the casting. I mean, it just shows you how important it was. Colin Farrell -- I was going to say Colin Furst (ph) -- is just wrong for that movie.
SHAW: He would have -- Colin Furst (ph) would have been a good "Alexander."
BERNARD: I'm putting him in. But, you know, Nic Cage, it's not the greatest movie, but people love him. And he can open a movie much more.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And Colin Farrell is not -- he's a celebrity. He's not really thought of as an actor. And I think people really needed extra incentive -- i.e. good reviews -- to go see this three- hour epic.
S. O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thanks.
Miles, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on CNN, a three-hour tour becomes TV's latest reality series. "CNN LIVE TODAY" talks to one of the new castaways on "Gilligan's Island," Rachel Hunter. That's coming up, little buddy, in our next hour with Daryn Kagan and her little buddy Rick Sanchez. He's going to be mad at me.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Aaron Brown has a preview now of what's coming up tonight on "NEWSNIGHT."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight on the program, a question, why do you use TiVo? To skip the commercials, right? Well get ready, TiVo wants to change the very thing that makes the gadget so appealing, or one of them, by adding ads of its own. Mother of mercy, is this the end of TiVo? That, the latest from Iraq, all the day's top news, morning papers, and everything else that makes "NEWSNIGHT" "NEWSNIGHT." CNN tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Aaron, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: You guys are TiVo people, right?
S. O'BRIEN: I'm not.
COLLINS: Love it.
O'BRIEN: I got it. I was thinking I was going to get all these programs that I watch. My kids have commandeered it. It's all "Simpsons" episodes, 20 of them just stacked up. Ready?
CAFFERTY: How soon do we get to Daryn and her little buddy, Rick Sanchez?
M. O'BRIEN: I was trying to stall so I could avoid that one.
S. O'BRIEN: Why don't we go ahead and let you do that intro?
M. O'BRIEN: Hey, little buddy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 29, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's exactly half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to take you right back to Iraq in just a few moments. Another day of violence to talk about. We'll have the very latest on a bombing near Baghdad. Also, talk about divisions between the Sunnis and the Shiites that could endanger the election on January 30th.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also Sanjay is back with us today, looking at why some people cheat on their spouses. And he's pointing a finger at genetics, at least in women. Some women, that is. Anyway, it's a tricky study. We're going to walk through those mine fields as best we can a little bit later. I know it's not going to be pretty.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I think mine fields is a good word, isn't it?
Another check of the headlines first, though. Heidi Collins with us morning.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. And good morning to you, everybody.
Now in the news this morning, more details expected to be released from Colorado this morning about the plane crash involving NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol. Federal investigators are arriving at the crash site, just about 185 miles southwest of Denver. At least two people were killed. Dick Ebersol and his older son survived. According to affiliate KUSA, his younger son is still missing.
Iran is apparently confirming its decision to suspend all uranium-enriched activities. The country's chief nuclear negotiator says Iran worked out an agreement with some European countries. At issue were 20 centrifuges Iran wanted excluded from the suspension. The deal keeps Iran from facing possible U.N. sanctions.
Here in the United States, leaving the NBA on his own terms was always important to basketball star Michael Jordan. And apparently, the same can be said of his older brother. Army Command Sergeant James Jordan is asking the Pentagon to delay his retirement so he can complete a full year-long deployment to Iraq. Jordan has been in the Army nearly 30 years, and says staying put is what a leader has to do.
And the International Space Station has a new parking spot. The U.S. and Russian crew members successfully redocked the spaceship just about five hours ago now. It's part of preparations for spacewalks early next year. We actually have spaceman with us today.
S. O'BRIEN: I know. The first journalist in space.
M. O'BRIEN: I've actually been upgraded. Everybody else goes with space boy. Thank you. Thank you so much. I come to New York, and I'm spaceman now. Thank you, Heidi.
All right, well, time is running out for Congress to pass the intelligence reform bill before year's end. This weekend, opponents once again pointed out what they see as the bill's weaknesses.
Elaine Quijano live at the White House now with more on all this.
Elaine, good morning.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
President Bush returned to the White House yesterday after spending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. But now here in Washington, people on both sides of the aisle are looking to him to intervene again to try to break the impasse over intel reform. But the lawmakers who've raised objections to the bill are not showing any signs of backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice over): Even though there are enough votes in the House to pass intelligence reform legislation now, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert won't allow the bill to come to a vote because of some strong opposition within his own party.
Duncan Hunter, head of the Armed Services Committee, whose son served in Iraq, speaks for Republicans who say the bill doesn't preserve the chain of command needed to keep intelligence flowing quickly to front-line troops.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: When the Department of Defense has to have a satellite over Falluja, for example, because they've got people being shot at on the ground -- they need to know where the enemy is -- you have to be able to control that agency.
QUIJANO: Top military leaders agree, saying the Pentagon, not a new national intelligence director, should keep control of satellite and communications programs.
But other lawmakers say U.S. troops on the battlefield will get what they need.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Every bill that we have proposed preserves that tactical intelligence.
QUIJANO: Another leading holdout, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, wants to bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: And until we are able to make sure that driver's licenses are given only to people who are lawfully present in the United States, America is still at greater risk.
QUIJANO: The 9/11 Commission's vice chair says the risk is not passing reforms now.
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: I know the attention has been on the intelligence and the immigration provisions. They're important provisions. But there are scores, if not hundreds, of provisions here, which strengthen the counterterrorism efforts of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: And Democrats complain that President Bush, who says he will sign the bill, is not putting enough pressure on the Republican holdouts. But White House officials maintain that President Bush has made it very clear he wants to see this legislation passed as quickly as possible. And officials here say that the president will continue to work closely with Congress to make that happen -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: As elections in Iraq draw near, the violence continues. This morning, two U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated in northwest Baghdad.
CNN's Karl Penhaul live for us from Baghdad with details on that this morning.
Karl, good morning.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Soledad.
Yes, a U.S. military spokesman has confirmed to us the death of those two U.S. soldiers. As you say, a roadside bomb in a northwestern neighborhood of Baghdad. Little more detail than that, in fact, at this stage. The blast did take place about 11:00 a.m. local time. We're told, unfortunately, though, this is a very common occurrence, almost daily those roadside bombs are going off underneath U.S. convoys.
Now in the afternoon, there was another suicide car bomb attack. This time about 130 miles west of Baghdad, in a city called Baghdadi. In that attack, six people were killed and eight others wounded. Among the dead, four Iraqi policemen. This is the second time that police station in that city has been attacked in about a month -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Question for you about the election, which really is the top story this morning. What's being decided at this time? Are any idea of what exactly is going to happen come January 30th?
PENHAUL: Well, basically the debate goes on. At the very heart of that debate is the whole issue of security. A group of political parties have come out and said, let's postpone this election because voters won't be able to go to the polls in safety. The government has said no, let's go ahead, let's hold the vote on January the 30th. That, in fact, is a deadline that has been set by United Nations Security Council resolution.
And then, there's another group of parties, the Shia Muslim majority, they say no, we must also have these elections on January the 30th. The Sunni Muslim minority are saying no, let's not have these elections at all until coalition armies leave Iraq altogether. So very tricky at this stage, Soledad. And no final decision taken as yet.
S. O'BRIEN: No expectations of a final decision, one would imagine, until a little bit closer to the cutoff date. Karl Penhaul for us in Baghdad, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Charges expected today for the man suspected of shooting hunters in Wisconsin. Chai Vang, accused of shooting eight hunters, killing six during a dispute over a hunting spot. Now Vang claims the hunters used racial slurs before shooting at him. One of the survivors says Vang shot first, however. Vang's daughter says the truth will eventually come out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIA VANG: My father, he is a great person, and he does take care of his family. He loves his family very much. And you know, at this time, I really don't know what my father did. You know, I haven't talked to him. I haven't had any kind of contact with him. You know, it was a shock to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Attorneys for Vang say they may look at a mental health defense -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Some wild weather in South America to talk about. The Red Cross saying more than 100,000 people in Colombia have been affected by flooding and mud slides. Rainstorms have been ravaging the country all month. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The flooding is also causing major damage in Vietnam. Nearly 50 inches of rain have fallen on the central part of that country in just the past four days. As many as 40 people died there.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: This morning's "House Call" more like a wake-up call for guys everywhere. A new British study suggesting some women genetically predisposed for infidelity.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us again from the CNN Center with more on those cheatin' genes, I guess -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, only you, Miles, could get me to talk about marijuana and cheating genes in the same day. Interesting question there, does your DNA somehow make you predestined to infidelity? That was the question researchers in England tried to answer. In other words, do you have cheating genes? The way they went about this, they actually studied 1,600 pairs of twins, all women, some of them identical, some of them fraternal, and tried to make some conclusions on how likely they were to cheat and how many sexual partners they were to have, as well, and how much of that was due to genetics.
Here's what they concluded: Infidelity was 41 percent due to genes. And the number of sexual partners that a woman had over a lifetime, 38 percent due to genes, as well.
Interesting, Miles. They took it one step further. Obviously, this is looking at behavior. They also wanted to look at attitudes. What is the morality and ethics surrounding infidelity? What they found is that most women still said yes, that's wrong. So the attitudes towards it probably wasn't genetically based. But again, an interesting study actually looking at a genetic basis, maybe one of the first times this has actually been shown -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Now they focused on women. Why is that? And can we assume that this only occurs in women?
GUPTA: Yes, I mean this first study was done in women only. And the researchers are careful to point out that the only conclusions that can be drawn from this are on women.
However, anthropologists take it one step further as well and say probably you'd find the same genetic predetermination for infidelity in men, as well. Now that hasn't been studied. But they do say that men are programmed to procreate, and therefore, more likely to spread their gene pool.
They also wanted to find out, Miles, is there a loyalty gene, if you will? Is there an infidelity gene? And they couldn't pinpoint anywhere on the human DNA that there's actually a loyalty gene. About a 50 to 100 genes are responsible.
But an interesting study, I don't usually talk about animal studies, but there's a study done on rodents called voles. Now what they found these voles tend to spread their gene pool around quite a bit. What they found was that they could actually insert a loyalty gene, making them monogamous for life. That's in rodents. Hasn't been done in humans yet. That might be next.
M. O'BRIEN: Who knew about the voles. All right. Don't be voling around, all right?
Sanjay Gupta, thanks for dropping by, as always, covering the full range of medical developments.
S. O'BRIEN: Hasn't been developed in humans yet, says Sanjay.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, all right. S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the twelve days of Christmas as a holiday shopping list. Just guess how much a partridge in a pear tree costs this days. We're "Minding Your Business," just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, Julia Roberts is a new mom times two. But she didn't consult any old baby book to name her twins. "90-Second Pop" is ahead, and you're going to hear those names, if you haven't already, if you stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The markets are open, and just how much would it cost to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas? We know you are dying to know if you're buying the turtle doves and so on, the maids of milking, and all that stuff. Gerri Willis is here to tell us about that, and the Willis rally, which is obviously under way.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Willis rally exactly. It's all about the shoppers out there. Let's talk a look at the numbers. The Dow opening higher today, let's see, up 24 points. And we're talking about how great this holiday selling season is. That's the basis for that rally right there. But we got to talk about maids a milking.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, let's get to some real news. All right, if you're going out and doing the twelve days of Christmas. I suppose there are people who have done this for their lovely over the Christmas holidays.
WILLIS: I don't know any of those people. Somewhere, somehow...
O'BRIEN: People with a lot of extra time and money on their hands.
Let's run through it.
WILLIS: OK, well, let's take a look at some of these prices -- partridge in a pear tree, $93. That compares -- it's up 20 percent from last year. We're just going to look here at some of the big price moves. Three French hens up 200 percent from last year. Two turtle doves down 31 percent. I know you're dying to know why. Fewer hatchlings for those turtle doves.
And now here's the big news out of this, gold rings down 30 percent.
S. O'BRIEN: Only $255 for five gold rings?
WILLIS: Plain rings. Plain rings.
M. O'BRIEN: Look at the swans at $3,500. The swan union is doing pretty well here.
S. O'BRIEN: What kind of cheap gold rings are you getting?
WILLIS: Well, I got to tell you, if you're looking for a Christmas present, this may be the place to go.
M. O'BRIEN: Make your finger green.
WILLIS: Exactly.
Ladies dancing, I know you were curious, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, what sort of women are we talking about is really the question, right?
WILLIS: Well, here's the deal. This is -- these are people, skilled laborers, they cost more, 20 percent more, in fact, over the period of time that they've done the study at PNC Financial Services. So you look at that versus the maids a milking, very big change, very big difference. All in all you look at these numbers, it cost $17,296 to actually buy all these gifts in the song. It's up 2.4 percent from last year. If you do it over the Internet, $27,000.
M. O'BRIEN: More?
WILLIS: More because of the shipping costs, because mailing those lords a leaping can cost a lot of money.
S. O'BRIEN: And it's even more amazing...
M. O'BRIEN: You got to cut the little holes in the box for them and everything.
S. O'BRIEN: ... that someone had sat around and done the math on all of this.
WILLIS: Thank you to PNC Financial Services for doing that work for us.
M. O'BRIEN: It's a living.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Gerri.
Medical marijuana is the Question of the Day.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments about whether the federal law about marijuana should prevail -- it's illegal, period, no exceptions -- or the state law in 11 states, which allows doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Patricia -- pardon me -- in Boston, "I don't care if the general use of marijuana is legal or not. Haven't cared since 1973." Not sure how to take that sentence.
M. O'BRIEN: I haven't cared about much of anything since '73.
"I just think it is a joke to couch the issue in a medical cloak."
Camille in Memphis, "When I hit 45, hormonal changes in my body started to affect me in an unusual way. Once a month, I feel as though I have morning sickness, complete with nausea and vomiting. The most common drug for nausea makes you extremely drowsy. The alternative costs $100 a pill. That's why there's no medicinal marijuana. Nobody owns the patent on it."
And Richard writes from Los Angeles, "Marijuana should be legal under the same circumstances that apply to a martini." Thank you for your responses.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks.
Still to come this morning, why wasn't Alexander so great at the box office? The 90-second poppers travel to ancient times, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. No chitchat. We're getting going here. It's time once again for our critically-acclaimed "90- Second Pop."
Here to play this morning, Sarah Bernard. She's a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." And Jessica Shaw for "Entertainment Weekly."
Good morning to all of you. Nice to have you.
JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm loving your haircut, by the way.
SHAW: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: It's very cute.
All right, let's get right to it. Julia Roberts had twins.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Yes!
S. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) than Julia Roberts. She's younger than me.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: She had a boy and a girl. Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia.
S. O'BRIEN: Those are the names.
SHAW: Those are the names. She's really just copying you. I mean, you have been the trendsetter for the celebrities. You are...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: Julia wanted to have twins.
S. O'BRIEN: I hate that.
SHAW: Yes, you know...
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think of these names?
SHAW: I like -- personally, I like Hazel. Phinnaeus to me is -- I hope he goes by Phen.
S. O'BRIEN: That's cute.
SHAW: I mean, that's a cute nickname.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Well, somebody downstairs was saying that there was a character named Phinnaeus in that novel, "A Separate Piece," that everyone read in junior high or were supposed to read in junior high.
BERNARD: Right, sure.
SIGESMUND: But it wasn't spelled quite the same way. This Phinnaeus is P-H-I-N-N-A-E-U,-S.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: And like restaurant reservations for the rest of your life.
BERNARD: Phinnaeus died in that book, sort of a tragic literary figure to get you...
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: It will be Finn, F-I-N-N.
SHAW: I think with this, though, is she going to become like Gwyneth Paltrow and take all of this time off and say, you know what? I really want to focus on being a mom and not go back to acting. And right now, she has nothing lined up except she's doing a voice in an animated movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: She'll stay home with the twins for a couple of days and she'll be like, oh, I've got to get right back to acting.
SHAW: Right.
SIGESMUND: I'm done.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: ... come in to CNN and have your job.
S. O'BRIEN: Sure. SIGESMUND: Does anyone think it's a little bit strange that she had these babies a month prematurely and just five days before "Closer" comes out and two weeks before her other movie, "Ocean's 12," comes out?
BERNARD: I was going to say that. Isn't it convenient?
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Honestly, twins are high risk. And I don't believe any mother would put her child at risk or her children at risk by inducing them early. Most doctors would make you wait. That is what I will say.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: You probably would want them to induce you, but not your doctor.
SHAW: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) injecting the drug.
O'BRIEN: Wait a second. Let's talk about movies. "National Treasure" again.
SIGESMUND: Yes, out of nowhere. Who would have thought this movie, which got pretty bad reviews a week and a half ago, would be No. 1 for a second weekend in a row. It's now the biggest movie of Nic Cage's career. It dropped only 6 percent from its first weekend. And, you know, I guess people just really wanted to see this "Indiana Jones" style action-adventure. And critics couldn't dissuade them.
BERNARD: I think it's a perfect Thanksgiving escape movie. Don't you think?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: I mean, I think that's partially why it did so well.
S. O'BRIEN: A little mindless.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: Right. Because that's actually what people do over Thanksgiving, right?
SIGESMUND: Yes, exactly.
BERNARD: You're strapping your family and you go see movies.
SIGESMUND: As opposed to, we have to talk about "Alexander"...
S. O'BRIEN: Right. SIGESMUND: ... which critics also nailed, but that could not convince people. This was an absolute dog. It made only $21 million over five days. That's less than half of what "Troy" made in just three days in May.
SHAW: I mean, it opened at No. 6. Even a movie like "Christmas With the Kranks" did better.
BERNARD: That's bad.
SHAW: I mean, like, that is so embarrassing.
S. O'BRIEN: Was it the blonde pageboy that had people not going to see it?
BERNARD: It was the casting. I mean, it just shows you how important it was. Colin Farrell -- I was going to say Colin Furst (ph) -- is just wrong for that movie.
SHAW: He would have -- Colin Furst (ph) would have been a good "Alexander."
BERNARD: I'm putting him in. But, you know, Nic Cage, it's not the greatest movie, but people love him. And he can open a movie much more.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And Colin Farrell is not -- he's a celebrity. He's not really thought of as an actor. And I think people really needed extra incentive -- i.e. good reviews -- to go see this three- hour epic.
S. O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thanks.
Miles, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on CNN, a three-hour tour becomes TV's latest reality series. "CNN LIVE TODAY" talks to one of the new castaways on "Gilligan's Island," Rachel Hunter. That's coming up, little buddy, in our next hour with Daryn Kagan and her little buddy Rick Sanchez. He's going to be mad at me.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Aaron Brown has a preview now of what's coming up tonight on "NEWSNIGHT."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight on the program, a question, why do you use TiVo? To skip the commercials, right? Well get ready, TiVo wants to change the very thing that makes the gadget so appealing, or one of them, by adding ads of its own. Mother of mercy, is this the end of TiVo? That, the latest from Iraq, all the day's top news, morning papers, and everything else that makes "NEWSNIGHT" "NEWSNIGHT." CNN tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Aaron, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: You guys are TiVo people, right?
S. O'BRIEN: I'm not.
COLLINS: Love it.
O'BRIEN: I got it. I was thinking I was going to get all these programs that I watch. My kids have commandeered it. It's all "Simpsons" episodes, 20 of them just stacked up. Ready?
CAFFERTY: How soon do we get to Daryn and her little buddy, Rick Sanchez?
M. O'BRIEN: I was trying to stall so I could avoid that one.
S. O'BRIEN: Why don't we go ahead and let you do that intro?
M. O'BRIEN: Hey, little buddy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
