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American Morning
In Columbus, Police Release 911 Tape; 'Gimme a Minute'
Aired December 10, 2004 - 08:30 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.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And welcome back. Miles and I are in for Bill and Soledad today. Halfway mark here on AMERICAN MORNING. Having fun?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, having a ball. It's Friday and going to spend the weekend in New York. It should be good, yes.
WALLACE: Do the New York City Christmas thing.
O'BRIEN: Going to see the Rockettes. Never seen them before.
WALLACE: That will be good.
O'BRIEN: That should be fun.
WALLACE: In a few minutes we're going to...
O'BRIEN: Carol's laughing -- what do you mean?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Can you imagine Miles watching the Rockettes?
O'BRIEN: Why not?
WALLACE: We need a camera there, don't we? We need to get the CNN cameras there for that.
O'BRIEN: I'll bring my DVD camera.
COSTELLO: Do you have a backstage pass?
O'BRIEN: No, I don't have a backstage pass. I paid for tickets. I'll give you a full report, all right?
WALLACE: All right, all right, switching gears everybody.
In a few minutes we're going to look at the panic and confusion inside that Ohio nightclub when a gunman opened fire on a member of the heavy metal band Damageplan. A 911 tape has been made public. We'll have a report on that.
O'BRIEN: Also on the program, does the Democratic Party need to move left or move right to win the next election or -- staying put, I guess, is not an option, right? It's a fight that could rip apart the party and a subject for "Gimme A Minute," which is coming up.
All right, let's check the headlines now with Carol Costello who is still getting over that Rockette thing. She's got serious moves for us, right? So.
(NEWSBREAK)
O'BRIEN: Just like an NBA game.
WALLACE: I know. I was just thinking; violence in sports, violence in music, violence just out on the streets.
COSTELLO: It was funny -- like earlier on DAYBREAK we interviewed the editor-in-chief of "Guitar World" magazine, and we asked about the difference between violence at a heavy metal venue and violence at a hip-hop venue, and he said the difference was hip-hop is between, you know, fans of hip-hop and heavy metal it's like the fans against the world.
So it's different. So he says you see more violence at hip-hop events than you do at a heavy metal event.
WALLACE: Interesting. Who knew? Let's get rid of all the violence, right? Unfortunately. Well, there you go.
Well, still more questions than answers surrounding another violent incident. The deadly shooting spree at a heavy metal show in Ohio.
As Keith Oppenheim reports from Columbus, police have now released the 911 tape where the gunman is heard firing off those bullets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One night after the mourners came, holding candles and holding each other, young people stood in front of the nightclub where a rock star's life came to a brutal end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's shooting the band on the stage!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone's shooting the band on the stage?
OPPENHEIM: The emergency calls reflect the chaos. A man identified as 25-year-old Nathan Gale jumped onto the stage and shot Darrell Abbot, the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band called Damageplan.
The gunman also fired at the crowd, killing three others and the shots can be heard on the 911 line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh (expletive deleted), they're still shooting.
OPPENHEIM: Two hundred fifty concertgoers scattered, fearing for their lives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mam'n, get out of the building -- get out of the building.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't, I can't.
OPPENHEIM: Investigators believe more people might have been killed if not for officer James Niggemeyer, who ended the rampage with one shot, killing Nathan Gale.
Darrell Abbot was known in the heavy metal world as "Dimebag Darrell." He and his brother formed Damageplan after their previous band, the Grammy-nominated Pantera, broke up last year.
Suspicious fans have their own theories as to what caused Nathan Gale to kill.
NATHAN HEIDERGER, "DAMAGEPLAN" FAN: It was basically a rumor, nobody was for sure if Pantera ever really broke up, and this kid, like, took it way too far and put the blame on them, and I think he, like, acted out on it.
OPPENHEIM: Police are not jumping to the same conclusions. They say they don't know what caused Nathan Gale to kill a man who to many fans was an icon of hard-core rock music.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Columbus, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And the assistant police chief in Nathan Gale's hometown admits that Gale did have several minor run-ins with police since 1997, but said Gale wasn't considered a troublemaker -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Each Friday at this time, we give the week's big stories the once over in a segment we call "Gimme A Minute."
With us this morning in New York, Mark Simone, who is a few blocks away at WABC-Radio -- a talk show host. Good to see you, Mark.
MARK SIMONE, WABC RADIO HOST: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Elaine Kamarck, former Clinton-Gore adviser, now at Harvard University. Elaine, good to see you.
ELAINE KAMARCK, FMR. CLINTON-GORE ADVISER: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: And Andy Borowitz, who is about 20 feet from me right now in the same studio, but not looking at me, he's looking at the camera with the borowitzreport.com. Good to see you, Andy.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld getting a little tongue lashing from his own troops. Mark, not a good news cycle for the Pentagon, is it?
SIMONE: Well, I think Rumsfeld -- I know people are not in the habit of giving him credit, but I've never seen a Secretary of Defense in the middle of a war go to the troops and say ask me anything you want to ask me. I think that deserves...
O'BRIEN: I say give him credit for that, right?
SIMONE: Armored vehicles should be there, but remember this is an Army that he inherited from a previous administration. Why they weren't fully equipped, I don't understand. And he does deserve the blame for not being aware there was a problem sooner and fixing it before we got into war.
O'BRIEN: Elaine?
KAMARCK: An Army from a previous administration? Excuse me; this administration has been there for four years. They're the ones that brought us into war. They've had plenty of time; this Army has had plenty of time to get up to speed in Iraq, and Rumsfeld hasn't done it.
It's unbelievable that these guys are out there, that our troops are out there with what they're calling hillbilly armor. This is a big problem.
O'BRIEN: And Andy -- of course, that shirt you're wearing is Kevlar, right?
BOROWITZ: I think the next time Rumsfeld talks to the troops he's going to have body armor.
KAMARCK: I think that's right.
O'BRIEN: Fair enough. OK, let's talk politics, shall we? Democrats gathering today in Orlando. Howard Dean yesterday in Washington gave a speech. I hear it was a scream.
Elaine, what do you think -- what should the Democrats do? He says don't try to be Republican Lite.
KAMARCK: Well, that's obviously true, but it also -- also the Democrats can't veer far to the left. The fact of the matter is the Democrats have to stake out some new territory for themselves and they've got to have some strong convictions.
The appeal of Howard Dean is that you knew what the man thought. And he was not wishy-washy, he was not a flip-flopper, and I think that one of the attractions of him in his race for party chair is the strength of character that he brings to the party and a lot of people like him for that.
O'BRIEN: Mark, of course the Democrats really, if you look at that red state/blue state thing, they really are on the margins right now.
SIMONE: Yes, well it -- there are certain things you want to avoid like an aloof Beacon Hill windsurfer with a crazy Gypsy wife...
(LAUGHTER) ... crazed lunatics like Michael Moore sitting in the seat of honor at the convention, shadowy billionaires like George Sorros paying for everything -- I mean, why that didn't pay in the heartland I'll never understand.
O'BRIEN: Hollywood could do no better, Andy Borowitz.
BOROWITZ: You know, Howard Dean kind of lost me. Isn't Republican Lite what the Bush twins drink?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: OK, we will ring the bell on that one. On Jenna.
OK, let's talk about Kofi Annan here. It's interesting to me that suddenly the Bush administration is being nice to Kofi Annan. I am curious about this, Mark; do you think they're doing this because they enjoy having perhaps a weakened U.N.?
SIMONE: Well, I think they're becoming Republicans Lite now. I mean, normally the Democrats, they're screaming for Ken Lay's head. That was just petty theft compared to what happened at the U.N. -- $21 billion stolen. If you multiplied that with the Brinks robbery you wouldn't get that figure. I guess they just figure they'll get more cooperation out of Kofi Annan...
O'BRIEN: If you're going to steal, go for big numbers. Elaine, what do you think? Why are they being nice to Kofi Annan?
KAMARCK: Oh, it's very clear why they're being nice to Kofi Annan. They really need the United Nations in there in January. These elections are coming up in Iraq. We're in a mess in Iraq. They really need help, and I think that somebody figured out that as bad as this scandal may be, and I totally agree its very bad, they can't disrupt the United Nations now because they've got too much on their hands in Iraq and ironically they need them if for nothing else than to cover.
O'BRIEN: Now that is irony, right Andy?
BOROWITZ: Well, I think President Bush sort of woke up and realized that there's a new guy at the U.N. -- that's like a whole other name he's got to learn how to pronounce.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts here. Elaine, most underreported story of the week from your view?
KAMARCK: The lawsuit being brought in the state of Ohio against the Secretary of State and the myriad examples of election fraud.
You know, the day after Election Day I sort of thought this was paranoid thinking on the part of my fellow Democrats, but boy, you start seeing these stories about the funny business going on in Ohio on Election Day and you begin to wonder what's going on there? O'BRIEN: All right, but it still wouldn't of swung the election, right? We...
KAMARCK: Well, who knows? But that's what the suit is just destined to find out.
O'BRIEN: All right, Mark your story of the week that was not reported well.
SIMONE: Wait till you get to that Pennsylvania investigation.
Now, you're going to think I'm kidding about this, but the Clinton Library has a gift shop. If you don't believe me, go to the Web site. They are selling for Christmas a Bill Clinton doll. It says right on the box there's a picture of it there -- it says action figure.
But only if the Hillary doll is not around.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz.
BOROWITZ: Here's some good news, Miles. To shrink the deficit, President Bush said he would check the back of the Declaration of Independence for a treasure map.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: You can't make this stuff up. All right, gentlemen and lady, thank you very much for your time, thank you for giving us a minute.
BOROWITZ: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Kelly.
WALLACE: Miles, always a tough act to follow, but who better than Rob Marciano at the CNN Center in Atlanta with the latest on the weather for this day.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Still to come here, a bad cough might seem like a cold or the flu, but a surprise outbreak in the Midwest proves it could be something much more dangerous. We'll take a look.
O'BRIEN: Plus, want a new car but your stuck in a lease? Andy has a solution for you. He's "Minding Your Business" and it has nothing to do with insurance fraud, don't worry. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Attention AMERICAN MORNING viewers. Want to make sure you know about next week's special programs. AMERICAN MORNING will be broadcasting live in Japanese from Tokyo. No, no, he'll do it in English, don't worry. But Bill is there getting ready right now. He's with his big entourage of one. It is prime time in Japan when we're on the program so we're glad that you're watching in Japan today and Bill's there.
WALLACE: All right, we're continuing in English here, though.
O'BRIEN: Yes, let's do that, let's do that.
WALLACE: Sanjay is on assignment today working on a CNN PRESENTS on cancer.
In our medical segment this morning, a whooping cough scare. We know children are most at risk, but a whooping cough outbreak in Kansas has raised concerns about a disease that is apparently on the rise.
Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from the CNN Center in Atlanta with details. Good to see you, Elizabeth. How serious is this?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kelly, it is serious. This year, the United States is going to see the highest rates of whooping cough since 1964. Let's take a look at an outbreak that's going on -- this is a child who has whooping cough and you can hear it's a very distinctive cough -- it's not going to be confused with something else.
It is very severe, very hard for children and for anyone who has it to breathe.
So in 2004 so far -- this is in Kansas -- 148 probable and confirmed cases. In 2003, 23 cases. In 2002, 38 cases. So you can see this is a huge increase over past years.
Now let's take a look at national numbers. In 1975 was the lowest year with the lowest rates, which was about a thousand cases. Last year 10,000 cases. This year so far 12,000 cases. Now why are we seeing this rise? Well, one reason may be that doctors are recognizing whooping cough better or diagnosing it and reporting it better.
But another reason could be some doctors think that maybe parents aren't getting their children the full schedule of vaccinations. Children are supposed to get vaccinated about five times during the course of their childhood, and there's some fear that parents just aren't showing up for all five of those -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Elizabeth, question for you, though. Most of us immunize against this as infants. So why are we seeing so many cases now?
COHEN: That's right. Most people are immunized as infants and even if you do get that full schedule, you still are -- don't have immunity into the teenage years. Let's take a look at why.
Children are supposed to be vaccinated on a specific timetable. These are recommended series of shots at two, four, six and twelve months and then again at the start of kindergarten but immunity starts wearing off at age ten so there's no protection for adults.
There is no shot that is allowed to be given to a child over the age of seven or to teens or to adults. It's not licensed yet by the FDA. They're working on it but if your last shot is when you're five years old, by the time you're a teenager, that immunity is worn off.
WALLACE: All right, Elizabeth, we have to leave it there. And we'll keep watching. Elizabeth Cohen, great to see you. Thanks -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, the holidays are tough when you're half a world away from your family. Just ask thousands of U.S. troops about that. In a moment, we'll reunite one soldier with his wife and two young children via satellite.
"Holiday Homefront" straight ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: And welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new law that may be behind the rise in the number of cars being donated to charity this year. And if you're tired of your car lease, you might consider swapping it with someone else.
Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Morning to you. Car swap. Let's talk about the markets first of all.
Yesterday a good one on Wall Street. Stocks up across the board, particularly those Dow Jones Industrials, those big stocks. Futures are mixed this morning, though.
Oil prices probably going to be under pressure. OPEC meeting in Cairo this afternoon their time cutting back on production which will boost prices, probably mean higher gasoline prices and lower stock prices perhaps today.
Yes, want to talk about car donations, of course this is a season a lot of people think about charity and you of course can donate your car to charity, the charities then auction the cars off. But there is going to be a new law starting in 2005 and charities are concerned that will mean less cars will be donated because previous to this you could deduct the amount of car -- how much you thought the car was worth.
After this, you'll have to only be able to deduct what they sold it for, and so in other words, you've got a '74 Gremlin, which they made 171,000 Gremlins in 1974. You think it's worth five grand -- of course the charity gets it. You're only going to get $300 for this thing. You previously could deduct $5,000. No more gains after this, only $300 or whatever after that. And moving on to this swapping your lease deal, Jack. This is good stuff. A lot of people end up with these leases and for some reason they don't want to stick with them, or they can't. And you're stuck with them. You have to pay a lot of money to get out of them.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: And so now there are some new Web sites, swap a lease, where you can, you know, meet people who will swap.
WALLACE: It sounds like...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: For some reason I knew you were going to get into a wife swap here. You put your keys in the bucket by the door and you swap -- yes. It's sort of like that. You pay a fee, Jack, and you get a different one on the way out.
CAFFERTY: Everybody throws their lease in the pail and...
SERWER: The lease and the wife go in the...
(CROSSTALK)
You seem awfully well versed.
CAFFERTY: I knew about it somewhere in my youth.
SERWER: Yes, all right. That's it.
CAFFERTY: That OPEC situation. They're going to cut production -- you know the dollar -- oil -- isn't oil traded in dollars?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: The dollar has fallen a lot. So that might be one of the reasons they want to tighten it down a little to get this...
SERWER: Yes, because they're losing money that way and so they hope to recoup.
CAFFERTY: Thank you sir.
SERWER: You're welcome.
CAFFERTY: In our "Holiday Homefront" segment we're reuniting military families who will spend the holiday season apart. First Lieutenant Derek Loveland is serving in Iraq. I talked to his wife Jodi the other day about how she's managing being apart at the holidays.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JODI LOVELAND, HUSBAND SERVING IN IRAQ: It's a lot of work. But we're managing, yes. I have... CAFFERTY: If Derek was home, how would you celebrate the holidays? What would you guys be doing?
J. LOVELAND: Well, we'd be putting up our Christmas tree and putting up our decorations. Probably be getting ready to go home to be with our families.
CAFFERTY: Derek Loveland is a first lieutenant. He's with us by satellite from Mosul. We started this with your wife Jodi and the boys. And the boys are just -- they're just terrific. I'm not sure if they look like you or like Jodi, but they're good looking kids, both of them.
LT. DEREK LOVELAND, U.S. ARMY: If they look good they look like Jodi.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: That sounds like my house. You do manage to speak with your wife fairly often; I guess using the Internet, right? Tell me a little bit about how that goes.
D. LOVELAND: Basically, that's another one of the great things about being here, having the technology available to us is when I do have some down time I can go and go to the Internet cafe that's run by the Morale Welfare and Recreation Center here.
You've got to wait a few minutes to get on sometimes but they've got the web cam and yahoo messenger and you just sit there and type to each other and you can...
CAFFERTY: So you kids go back and forth and stuff, you can do that kind of thing?
D. LOVELAND: Oh, yes, exactly. And we both have digital cameras so we download our pictures, send them back and forth. And it really helps to keep us in touch, make us feel a lot closer than we actually are.
CAFFERTY: What would you be doing if you were home and had say a few days off over Christmas? Kinds of things you might like to do if you had a few hours to yourself?
D. LOVELAND: Probably what I'd be doing is I would be Christmas shopping. I'd be trying to find something that my wife would like. I really enjoy actually wrapping the presents so I am kind of meticulous in doing that.
My wife she kind of teases me some times and gives me all the presents to wrap but I'd be trying to get the presents ready, make things nice for everybody.
You there, honey?
J. LOVELAND: Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?
D. LOVELAND: How's it going?
J. LOVELAND: It's good. Maybe Andrew will talk for you.
D. LOVELAND: So is...
J. LOVELAND: Yes.
D. LOVELAND: Hey, buddy, how you doing?
J. LOVELAND: Hey, hey. Can you say Da-da-da?
D. LOVELAND: It's been a long time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAFFERTY: There we are. A debt of gratitude to those folks and the young kids and stuff. That's the time you want to be home. I mean...
SERWER: Heart-wrenching.
CAFFERTY: Yes, tough stuff. Anyway, we'll be doing families like this periodically between now and Christmas.
WALLACE: It's a nice service, getting those families to talk together.
CAFFERTY: Yes. And then I take the tape down myself to the post office...
SERWER: In the brown paper and handwrite a little note.
CAFFERTY: It's the least I can do.
WALLACE: It is. All right.
In a moment here, today's top stories: whether Scott Peterson lives or dies that is now up to a jury. Did Mark Geragos do enough to save Scott Peterson's life? We'll ask legal analyst Dean Johnson.
That's all ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 10, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And welcome back. Miles and I are in for Bill and Soledad today. Halfway mark here on AMERICAN MORNING. Having fun?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, having a ball. It's Friday and going to spend the weekend in New York. It should be good, yes.
WALLACE: Do the New York City Christmas thing.
O'BRIEN: Going to see the Rockettes. Never seen them before.
WALLACE: That will be good.
O'BRIEN: That should be fun.
WALLACE: In a few minutes we're going to...
O'BRIEN: Carol's laughing -- what do you mean?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Can you imagine Miles watching the Rockettes?
O'BRIEN: Why not?
WALLACE: We need a camera there, don't we? We need to get the CNN cameras there for that.
O'BRIEN: I'll bring my DVD camera.
COSTELLO: Do you have a backstage pass?
O'BRIEN: No, I don't have a backstage pass. I paid for tickets. I'll give you a full report, all right?
WALLACE: All right, all right, switching gears everybody.
In a few minutes we're going to look at the panic and confusion inside that Ohio nightclub when a gunman opened fire on a member of the heavy metal band Damageplan. A 911 tape has been made public. We'll have a report on that.
O'BRIEN: Also on the program, does the Democratic Party need to move left or move right to win the next election or -- staying put, I guess, is not an option, right? It's a fight that could rip apart the party and a subject for "Gimme A Minute," which is coming up.
All right, let's check the headlines now with Carol Costello who is still getting over that Rockette thing. She's got serious moves for us, right? So.
(NEWSBREAK)
O'BRIEN: Just like an NBA game.
WALLACE: I know. I was just thinking; violence in sports, violence in music, violence just out on the streets.
COSTELLO: It was funny -- like earlier on DAYBREAK we interviewed the editor-in-chief of "Guitar World" magazine, and we asked about the difference between violence at a heavy metal venue and violence at a hip-hop venue, and he said the difference was hip-hop is between, you know, fans of hip-hop and heavy metal it's like the fans against the world.
So it's different. So he says you see more violence at hip-hop events than you do at a heavy metal event.
WALLACE: Interesting. Who knew? Let's get rid of all the violence, right? Unfortunately. Well, there you go.
Well, still more questions than answers surrounding another violent incident. The deadly shooting spree at a heavy metal show in Ohio.
As Keith Oppenheim reports from Columbus, police have now released the 911 tape where the gunman is heard firing off those bullets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One night after the mourners came, holding candles and holding each other, young people stood in front of the nightclub where a rock star's life came to a brutal end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's shooting the band on the stage!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone's shooting the band on the stage?
OPPENHEIM: The emergency calls reflect the chaos. A man identified as 25-year-old Nathan Gale jumped onto the stage and shot Darrell Abbot, the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band called Damageplan.
The gunman also fired at the crowd, killing three others and the shots can be heard on the 911 line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh (expletive deleted), they're still shooting.
OPPENHEIM: Two hundred fifty concertgoers scattered, fearing for their lives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mam'n, get out of the building -- get out of the building.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't, I can't.
OPPENHEIM: Investigators believe more people might have been killed if not for officer James Niggemeyer, who ended the rampage with one shot, killing Nathan Gale.
Darrell Abbot was known in the heavy metal world as "Dimebag Darrell." He and his brother formed Damageplan after their previous band, the Grammy-nominated Pantera, broke up last year.
Suspicious fans have their own theories as to what caused Nathan Gale to kill.
NATHAN HEIDERGER, "DAMAGEPLAN" FAN: It was basically a rumor, nobody was for sure if Pantera ever really broke up, and this kid, like, took it way too far and put the blame on them, and I think he, like, acted out on it.
OPPENHEIM: Police are not jumping to the same conclusions. They say they don't know what caused Nathan Gale to kill a man who to many fans was an icon of hard-core rock music.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Columbus, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And the assistant police chief in Nathan Gale's hometown admits that Gale did have several minor run-ins with police since 1997, but said Gale wasn't considered a troublemaker -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Each Friday at this time, we give the week's big stories the once over in a segment we call "Gimme A Minute."
With us this morning in New York, Mark Simone, who is a few blocks away at WABC-Radio -- a talk show host. Good to see you, Mark.
MARK SIMONE, WABC RADIO HOST: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Elaine Kamarck, former Clinton-Gore adviser, now at Harvard University. Elaine, good to see you.
ELAINE KAMARCK, FMR. CLINTON-GORE ADVISER: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: And Andy Borowitz, who is about 20 feet from me right now in the same studio, but not looking at me, he's looking at the camera with the borowitzreport.com. Good to see you, Andy.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld getting a little tongue lashing from his own troops. Mark, not a good news cycle for the Pentagon, is it?
SIMONE: Well, I think Rumsfeld -- I know people are not in the habit of giving him credit, but I've never seen a Secretary of Defense in the middle of a war go to the troops and say ask me anything you want to ask me. I think that deserves...
O'BRIEN: I say give him credit for that, right?
SIMONE: Armored vehicles should be there, but remember this is an Army that he inherited from a previous administration. Why they weren't fully equipped, I don't understand. And he does deserve the blame for not being aware there was a problem sooner and fixing it before we got into war.
O'BRIEN: Elaine?
KAMARCK: An Army from a previous administration? Excuse me; this administration has been there for four years. They're the ones that brought us into war. They've had plenty of time; this Army has had plenty of time to get up to speed in Iraq, and Rumsfeld hasn't done it.
It's unbelievable that these guys are out there, that our troops are out there with what they're calling hillbilly armor. This is a big problem.
O'BRIEN: And Andy -- of course, that shirt you're wearing is Kevlar, right?
BOROWITZ: I think the next time Rumsfeld talks to the troops he's going to have body armor.
KAMARCK: I think that's right.
O'BRIEN: Fair enough. OK, let's talk politics, shall we? Democrats gathering today in Orlando. Howard Dean yesterday in Washington gave a speech. I hear it was a scream.
Elaine, what do you think -- what should the Democrats do? He says don't try to be Republican Lite.
KAMARCK: Well, that's obviously true, but it also -- also the Democrats can't veer far to the left. The fact of the matter is the Democrats have to stake out some new territory for themselves and they've got to have some strong convictions.
The appeal of Howard Dean is that you knew what the man thought. And he was not wishy-washy, he was not a flip-flopper, and I think that one of the attractions of him in his race for party chair is the strength of character that he brings to the party and a lot of people like him for that.
O'BRIEN: Mark, of course the Democrats really, if you look at that red state/blue state thing, they really are on the margins right now.
SIMONE: Yes, well it -- there are certain things you want to avoid like an aloof Beacon Hill windsurfer with a crazy Gypsy wife...
(LAUGHTER) ... crazed lunatics like Michael Moore sitting in the seat of honor at the convention, shadowy billionaires like George Sorros paying for everything -- I mean, why that didn't pay in the heartland I'll never understand.
O'BRIEN: Hollywood could do no better, Andy Borowitz.
BOROWITZ: You know, Howard Dean kind of lost me. Isn't Republican Lite what the Bush twins drink?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: OK, we will ring the bell on that one. On Jenna.
OK, let's talk about Kofi Annan here. It's interesting to me that suddenly the Bush administration is being nice to Kofi Annan. I am curious about this, Mark; do you think they're doing this because they enjoy having perhaps a weakened U.N.?
SIMONE: Well, I think they're becoming Republicans Lite now. I mean, normally the Democrats, they're screaming for Ken Lay's head. That was just petty theft compared to what happened at the U.N. -- $21 billion stolen. If you multiplied that with the Brinks robbery you wouldn't get that figure. I guess they just figure they'll get more cooperation out of Kofi Annan...
O'BRIEN: If you're going to steal, go for big numbers. Elaine, what do you think? Why are they being nice to Kofi Annan?
KAMARCK: Oh, it's very clear why they're being nice to Kofi Annan. They really need the United Nations in there in January. These elections are coming up in Iraq. We're in a mess in Iraq. They really need help, and I think that somebody figured out that as bad as this scandal may be, and I totally agree its very bad, they can't disrupt the United Nations now because they've got too much on their hands in Iraq and ironically they need them if for nothing else than to cover.
O'BRIEN: Now that is irony, right Andy?
BOROWITZ: Well, I think President Bush sort of woke up and realized that there's a new guy at the U.N. -- that's like a whole other name he's got to learn how to pronounce.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts here. Elaine, most underreported story of the week from your view?
KAMARCK: The lawsuit being brought in the state of Ohio against the Secretary of State and the myriad examples of election fraud.
You know, the day after Election Day I sort of thought this was paranoid thinking on the part of my fellow Democrats, but boy, you start seeing these stories about the funny business going on in Ohio on Election Day and you begin to wonder what's going on there? O'BRIEN: All right, but it still wouldn't of swung the election, right? We...
KAMARCK: Well, who knows? But that's what the suit is just destined to find out.
O'BRIEN: All right, Mark your story of the week that was not reported well.
SIMONE: Wait till you get to that Pennsylvania investigation.
Now, you're going to think I'm kidding about this, but the Clinton Library has a gift shop. If you don't believe me, go to the Web site. They are selling for Christmas a Bill Clinton doll. It says right on the box there's a picture of it there -- it says action figure.
But only if the Hillary doll is not around.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz.
BOROWITZ: Here's some good news, Miles. To shrink the deficit, President Bush said he would check the back of the Declaration of Independence for a treasure map.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: You can't make this stuff up. All right, gentlemen and lady, thank you very much for your time, thank you for giving us a minute.
BOROWITZ: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Kelly.
WALLACE: Miles, always a tough act to follow, but who better than Rob Marciano at the CNN Center in Atlanta with the latest on the weather for this day.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Still to come here, a bad cough might seem like a cold or the flu, but a surprise outbreak in the Midwest proves it could be something much more dangerous. We'll take a look.
O'BRIEN: Plus, want a new car but your stuck in a lease? Andy has a solution for you. He's "Minding Your Business" and it has nothing to do with insurance fraud, don't worry. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Attention AMERICAN MORNING viewers. Want to make sure you know about next week's special programs. AMERICAN MORNING will be broadcasting live in Japanese from Tokyo. No, no, he'll do it in English, don't worry. But Bill is there getting ready right now. He's with his big entourage of one. It is prime time in Japan when we're on the program so we're glad that you're watching in Japan today and Bill's there.
WALLACE: All right, we're continuing in English here, though.
O'BRIEN: Yes, let's do that, let's do that.
WALLACE: Sanjay is on assignment today working on a CNN PRESENTS on cancer.
In our medical segment this morning, a whooping cough scare. We know children are most at risk, but a whooping cough outbreak in Kansas has raised concerns about a disease that is apparently on the rise.
Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from the CNN Center in Atlanta with details. Good to see you, Elizabeth. How serious is this?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kelly, it is serious. This year, the United States is going to see the highest rates of whooping cough since 1964. Let's take a look at an outbreak that's going on -- this is a child who has whooping cough and you can hear it's a very distinctive cough -- it's not going to be confused with something else.
It is very severe, very hard for children and for anyone who has it to breathe.
So in 2004 so far -- this is in Kansas -- 148 probable and confirmed cases. In 2003, 23 cases. In 2002, 38 cases. So you can see this is a huge increase over past years.
Now let's take a look at national numbers. In 1975 was the lowest year with the lowest rates, which was about a thousand cases. Last year 10,000 cases. This year so far 12,000 cases. Now why are we seeing this rise? Well, one reason may be that doctors are recognizing whooping cough better or diagnosing it and reporting it better.
But another reason could be some doctors think that maybe parents aren't getting their children the full schedule of vaccinations. Children are supposed to get vaccinated about five times during the course of their childhood, and there's some fear that parents just aren't showing up for all five of those -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Elizabeth, question for you, though. Most of us immunize against this as infants. So why are we seeing so many cases now?
COHEN: That's right. Most people are immunized as infants and even if you do get that full schedule, you still are -- don't have immunity into the teenage years. Let's take a look at why.
Children are supposed to be vaccinated on a specific timetable. These are recommended series of shots at two, four, six and twelve months and then again at the start of kindergarten but immunity starts wearing off at age ten so there's no protection for adults.
There is no shot that is allowed to be given to a child over the age of seven or to teens or to adults. It's not licensed yet by the FDA. They're working on it but if your last shot is when you're five years old, by the time you're a teenager, that immunity is worn off.
WALLACE: All right, Elizabeth, we have to leave it there. And we'll keep watching. Elizabeth Cohen, great to see you. Thanks -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, the holidays are tough when you're half a world away from your family. Just ask thousands of U.S. troops about that. In a moment, we'll reunite one soldier with his wife and two young children via satellite.
"Holiday Homefront" straight ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: And welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new law that may be behind the rise in the number of cars being donated to charity this year. And if you're tired of your car lease, you might consider swapping it with someone else.
Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Morning to you. Car swap. Let's talk about the markets first of all.
Yesterday a good one on Wall Street. Stocks up across the board, particularly those Dow Jones Industrials, those big stocks. Futures are mixed this morning, though.
Oil prices probably going to be under pressure. OPEC meeting in Cairo this afternoon their time cutting back on production which will boost prices, probably mean higher gasoline prices and lower stock prices perhaps today.
Yes, want to talk about car donations, of course this is a season a lot of people think about charity and you of course can donate your car to charity, the charities then auction the cars off. But there is going to be a new law starting in 2005 and charities are concerned that will mean less cars will be donated because previous to this you could deduct the amount of car -- how much you thought the car was worth.
After this, you'll have to only be able to deduct what they sold it for, and so in other words, you've got a '74 Gremlin, which they made 171,000 Gremlins in 1974. You think it's worth five grand -- of course the charity gets it. You're only going to get $300 for this thing. You previously could deduct $5,000. No more gains after this, only $300 or whatever after that. And moving on to this swapping your lease deal, Jack. This is good stuff. A lot of people end up with these leases and for some reason they don't want to stick with them, or they can't. And you're stuck with them. You have to pay a lot of money to get out of them.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: And so now there are some new Web sites, swap a lease, where you can, you know, meet people who will swap.
WALLACE: It sounds like...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: For some reason I knew you were going to get into a wife swap here. You put your keys in the bucket by the door and you swap -- yes. It's sort of like that. You pay a fee, Jack, and you get a different one on the way out.
CAFFERTY: Everybody throws their lease in the pail and...
SERWER: The lease and the wife go in the...
(CROSSTALK)
You seem awfully well versed.
CAFFERTY: I knew about it somewhere in my youth.
SERWER: Yes, all right. That's it.
CAFFERTY: That OPEC situation. They're going to cut production -- you know the dollar -- oil -- isn't oil traded in dollars?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: The dollar has fallen a lot. So that might be one of the reasons they want to tighten it down a little to get this...
SERWER: Yes, because they're losing money that way and so they hope to recoup.
CAFFERTY: Thank you sir.
SERWER: You're welcome.
CAFFERTY: In our "Holiday Homefront" segment we're reuniting military families who will spend the holiday season apart. First Lieutenant Derek Loveland is serving in Iraq. I talked to his wife Jodi the other day about how she's managing being apart at the holidays.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JODI LOVELAND, HUSBAND SERVING IN IRAQ: It's a lot of work. But we're managing, yes. I have... CAFFERTY: If Derek was home, how would you celebrate the holidays? What would you guys be doing?
J. LOVELAND: Well, we'd be putting up our Christmas tree and putting up our decorations. Probably be getting ready to go home to be with our families.
CAFFERTY: Derek Loveland is a first lieutenant. He's with us by satellite from Mosul. We started this with your wife Jodi and the boys. And the boys are just -- they're just terrific. I'm not sure if they look like you or like Jodi, but they're good looking kids, both of them.
LT. DEREK LOVELAND, U.S. ARMY: If they look good they look like Jodi.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: That sounds like my house. You do manage to speak with your wife fairly often; I guess using the Internet, right? Tell me a little bit about how that goes.
D. LOVELAND: Basically, that's another one of the great things about being here, having the technology available to us is when I do have some down time I can go and go to the Internet cafe that's run by the Morale Welfare and Recreation Center here.
You've got to wait a few minutes to get on sometimes but they've got the web cam and yahoo messenger and you just sit there and type to each other and you can...
CAFFERTY: So you kids go back and forth and stuff, you can do that kind of thing?
D. LOVELAND: Oh, yes, exactly. And we both have digital cameras so we download our pictures, send them back and forth. And it really helps to keep us in touch, make us feel a lot closer than we actually are.
CAFFERTY: What would you be doing if you were home and had say a few days off over Christmas? Kinds of things you might like to do if you had a few hours to yourself?
D. LOVELAND: Probably what I'd be doing is I would be Christmas shopping. I'd be trying to find something that my wife would like. I really enjoy actually wrapping the presents so I am kind of meticulous in doing that.
My wife she kind of teases me some times and gives me all the presents to wrap but I'd be trying to get the presents ready, make things nice for everybody.
You there, honey?
J. LOVELAND: Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?
D. LOVELAND: How's it going?
J. LOVELAND: It's good. Maybe Andrew will talk for you.
D. LOVELAND: So is...
J. LOVELAND: Yes.
D. LOVELAND: Hey, buddy, how you doing?
J. LOVELAND: Hey, hey. Can you say Da-da-da?
D. LOVELAND: It's been a long time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAFFERTY: There we are. A debt of gratitude to those folks and the young kids and stuff. That's the time you want to be home. I mean...
SERWER: Heart-wrenching.
CAFFERTY: Yes, tough stuff. Anyway, we'll be doing families like this periodically between now and Christmas.
WALLACE: It's a nice service, getting those families to talk together.
CAFFERTY: Yes. And then I take the tape down myself to the post office...
SERWER: In the brown paper and handwrite a little note.
CAFFERTY: It's the least I can do.
WALLACE: It is. All right.
In a moment here, today's top stories: whether Scott Peterson lives or dies that is now up to a jury. Did Mark Geragos do enough to save Scott Peterson's life? We'll ask legal analyst Dean Johnson.
That's all ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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