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Officials in Southeast Asia Concentrating on Trying to Contain Devastation From Deadly Tsunamis; '90-Second Pop'
Aired December 27, 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, though, it is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Soledad and Bill are off. I'm Heidi Collins.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez. Glad to be here.
COLLINS: All morning long we've been getting live updates from countries hit by tsunamis. And all morning long the death toll has just kept going up. We've also been getting pictures like these, showing people running for their lives. But the survivors are hardly safe. We're going to hear what's ahead for them in just a few minutes. And I think it's more rain.
SANCHEZ: And with just a couple of days left in 2004, we're going to be looking back at some of the top stories of the year. And there's often a huge story in the summer, like the one that Heidi was just referring to, the tsunamis, that makes you really forget some of the year's other big events. But there have been some real turning points that made people remember 2004 for a long, long time to come.
COLLINS: We'll talk about those. But first of all, we want to get a check of the headlines with Carol Costello.
Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone.
Now in the news, a suicide bombing in Iraq. At least six people killed, dozens injured when a car bomb went off in southern Baghdad. The explosion taking place near the headquarters for a major Shia political party. Five other buildings nearby also damaged.
U.S. military commanders beefing up troop presence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the scene of last week's deadly mess hall bombing.
General John Abizaid telling CNN as many as 8,000 troops will be there ahead of the January 30th election. Officials have been warning about an increase in violence as the election date approaches. Here in the United States, the National Football League's minister of defense has died. Reggie White, two-time defensive player of the year and an ordained minister, dead at the age of 43. The cause of his death still unknown, pending an autopsy. A family spokesman said white suffered from a respiratory ailment that affected his sleep. And Comair is promising stranded air travelers that its full schedule of flights will be resumed by Wednesday. Thousands of Comair ticket holders are still grounded due to a computer problem that forced the airline to cancel hundreds of weekend flights over the weekend, and USAirways admitting to an operational meltdown after a record number of employees called out sick, forced the airline to cancel many weekend flights. And it's still sorting through a mountain, a mountain of lost luggage.
COLLINS: Hey, that's my bag! No.
COSTELLO: No, you lost yours, too?
COLLINS: No, I was actually safe on that.
COSTELLO: I wasn't.
COLLINS: We'll be looking there for you. Thanks, Carol.
SANCHEZ: Well, officials in Southeast Asia concentrating today on trying to contain the devastation from those deadly tsunamis across that area. Take a look at some of the video that we've been getting in. This is from Thailand. Here's a wave as it hits and comes across the beach area. Millions have been left homeless because of this, by the way.
Concerns now that any delay in relief efforts could cause further death and disease.
CNN's Satinder Bindra has witnessed the tsunami as it hit Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, by the way, is the area hardest hit. That number keeps changing. The latest number that we're getting there is 12,000 people -- 12,000 people have died there.
Satinder is good enough to join us now, via videophone, from a relief shelter outside of Colombo.
You know, I was just mentioning that the number keeps changing just in the time that we've been on the air. It does sound like they're having a tough time handling this thing there in Sri Lanka, does it not?
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's absolutely correct, because the scale of this tragedy is so huge, new numbers keep coming in every moment, and as we've been reporting all along, with every passing hour, this death count continues to rise. It's safe to say I think at this point that the death count or the death toll is above 10,000, and it's going to continue to mount now at a steady pace.
Besides these numbers, some more sobering numbers. There's about a million people displaced. Some 250,000 who are homeless. These homeless people are coming to shelters like this one where I am, and the scene here is typical of the scene across the country. Many more shelters, in fact, thousands of shelters like this are coming up everywhere. Private citizens are making donations, and the homeless here are getting fed, they're getting clothed, and they're also getting some nice emotional care and support. Ordinary citizens are contributing food, they're also contributing money.
In the meantime, the relief effort is continuing this morning. I noticed several dozen wounded Western tourists being brought in to Colombo and they said they were the lucky ones because Sri Lanka's beaches are littered with dozens of dead bodies.
SANCHEZ: What about the infrastructure there, Satinder, you know, things like roads, just -- even if the relief supplies did get there, do the people have the way of getting to the relief supplies?
BINDRA: Well, firstly, it's not easy to get, you know, relief supplies. Even in a tiny island country like Sri Lanka, many of the roads have been washed away. Many of the bridges have been washed away. Some areas are very remote. The only way of getting there is by helicopter. And helicopters are hard to find in poor and developing countries like Sri Lanka, which is why this country has asked the United States to help. The United States has said it will provide helicopters, and neighboring India, too, has said it will be sending in six to eight helicopters. But these logistics take time, and time may be running out for thousands and thousands of people in Sri Lanka.
SANCHEZ: Satinder, we do thank you once again for joining us and keeping us up to date. You've checked in with us several times throughout the morning. We'll continue to check back with you as this story develops and our coverage of it continues here on CNN -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The Asian tsunamis are no doubt one of this year's biggest stories. And all this week we'll be looking back at the other big events in our series "The Last Word," this morning, the top news stories of 2004.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE KLEIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE COLUMNIST This has been a disastrous year in Iraq, almost from beginning to end. The insurgency has spread, our ability to secure the place and to improve life for the Iraqis, has been virtually nonexistent. There isn't anybody I speak to in the foreign policy, military or intelligence field who believes that this is going well.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No question about it, the bombers are having an effect. But we must meet the objective, which is to help the Iraqis defend themselves, and at the same time, have a political process to go forward. It's in our long- term interest that we succeed.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR: When this war began, it was different than other wars, a small war. We did not have preparation for it, or at least not enough preparation -- not enough special forces, not enough Marines who know how to handle these kind of things, fighting street to street. Satellite technology doesn't do you a lot of good when you're in an urban combat. But in a war like this, there is no front line. The war can be anywhere at all, and we are learning painfully, but I think learning nonetheless how to fight a different kind of war, the kind of war we hoped not to fight, and haven't had to fight too much in the past.
KEN POLLACK, SABAN CENTER AT BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The United States needed to reach out very quickly to key Iraqi leaders, not exclude them from the government process, help them bring them in, and at the same time to start long-term processes, long-term processes to build a new Iraqi security force, one that could take over for the United States at some point in the future.
BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, "CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?": Mr. Bush has just got to get a plan for getting a handle on Iraq.
BUSH: I'm now plea and honored to sign in to law the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
STEPHEN FLYNN, AUTHOR, "AMERICA THE VULNERABLE": Terrorism is probably going to be a bit like the flu. We're going to have different strains each season. But just like the flu, though, we manage the epidemic every year by figuring out a ways to inoculate the population and treat those who were affected by it. This is how we're going to have to think about the war on terror.
KLEIN: There is still lots of different ways that we can be hit. And most of the intelligence people I talked to say that they wake up every day fearing that today's going to be the day it happens again.
MARY FETCHIT, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: We can't afford to look the other way and pretend we're safe.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: We've captured a great number of Al Qaeda operatives. We've disrupted the communications network on which Al Qaeda rely. We've beefed up our border security. We've tightened control of our airports. But there's still so much more to do.
MARY MATALIN, SR. BUSH CAMPAIGN ADVISER: The 2004 elections were transformative.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty.
MATALIN: We looked, something beats nothing every time. Senator Kerry did not provide an alternative. And the ideas he did put on the table were, frankly, retro.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: It's a failure to realize that the swift boat controversy was going to really hurt his campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?
(END VIDEO CLIP) GREENFIELD: It raised questions about him. He was not a well known person, even though he was the nominee of the party. And the failure to respond to that in a very tough, clear way, I think was a very hurtful thing.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I think President Bush got re-elected because, first of all, a lot of people like him. Secondly, he appealed to the whole faith-based spirit in the country. And third, I really don't think that the country was ready for a first lady who could swear in five languages.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN POL. ANALYST: I think the most memorable thing about the 2004 campaign was the extraordinary skill of George W. Bush as a campaigner, becoming the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win two terms.
BUSH: With your help we will carry this great state and win tomorrow.
REV. JERRY FALWELL, LIBERTY UNIV. CHANCELLOR: And we all win. We all lose. We put up with Bill Clinton for eight years. We had ulcers, and had to use a lot of Maalox, but we made it. Get over it.
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POL. ANALYST: This is a new day for George Bush, and I wish him a happy New Year and a happy, successful four years, because this is it for George Bush, and let's hope we get it right this time.
MARNIE TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: Everything was stripped from us in a matter of a couple hours. We were lost. We had, like, no clue what to do. You know, being homeless in a matter of hours, it's, like, devastating.
MAX MAYFIELD, DIR., NATL HURRICANE CENTER: You don't have to have four to cause a lot of damage. It only takes that one hurricane for your community to make for a bad year. As far as Florida goes, we had four very strong hurricanes, three major hurricanes and one cat-2, almost a major hurricane. That has never happened to the state of Florida since we've been keeping records. You have to go all the way back to 1886 to find four hurricanes in any one state, and that was Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Tomorrow we're going to have the last word on this year's big courtroom dramas, and there were a lot of them, from Scott Peterson to Kobe Bryant, and Martha Stewart to Michael Jackson.
(WEATHER CENTER)
COLLINS: Well, maybe you got what you wanted for Christmas. But what about retailers? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
SANCHEZ: Also in "90-Second Pop." Why you can start calling prince king. Huh? Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Oh, you've got to love him. How about we lighten things up a little bit, huh? It's time now for a Monday edition of "90-Second Pop" with all of our pop players. Josh Elliott, staff writer for "Sports Illustrated." Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And B.J. Sigesmund, staff editor for "US Weekly."
Good morning, guys.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Thanks.
COLLINS: Thank you for being here. All right, let's talk about that guy, Mr. Prince. They're calling him now the king of pop. I thought that name belonged to somebody else.
JOSH ELLIOTT, STAFF WRITER, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Well, as well they should. He, of course, grossed more millions of dollars than any other...
COLLINS: Gazillion.
ELLIOTT: ... pop act out there this past year.
BERNARD: It was gazillions actually.
ELLIOTT: It was actually gazillions and gazillions. Really because of people like yourself. You know, we over-teens, I guess, we can just say, you know, we still go to concerts. And we still have relationships with artists that drive us out, even, you know, when the prices to tickets start approaching gross national product, you know, category.
COLLINS: I'm sure he's right.
ELLIOTT: And, you know, they don't anymore. I think it's just really the whole idea that the notion of a pop star has changed. They have play lists that we want to hear. We remember them growing up. There is nostalgia. I mean, there are a lot of things.
COLLINS: Yes, there is nostalgia in Prince songs.
BERNARD: And I think what was amazing about musicology and his whole musicology tour is that this was propelled by word of mouth, really. I mean, everyone who saw it, it was sold out, people went multiple times, and they told people. And it just kind of grew and grew and grew. It wasn't so much that there was a huge marketing campaign for it. It was that...
ELLIOTT: Yes, and he played, too. He played the hits.
COLLINS: Yes, it was amazing.
ELLIOTT: He gave you the songs you wanted. COLLINS: Yes.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": The other thing, though, was...
ELLIOTT: You had "Purple Rain" on dance. He really played...
COLLINS: It was almost like "Unplugged".
SIGESMUND: Right. Yes. And you could afford to go. The average person paid $60 to see Prince opposed to $140 to see Madonna.
ELLIOTT: Well, look...
BERNARD: Right.
SIGESMUND: And the flip side of that, of course, is that Prince did something like 95 shows this summer, and Madonna only did 40.
BERNARD: He did a lot more.
ELLIOTT: But also remember this: He can perform, and he can sing. That's another thing.
COLLINS: He can dance.
ELLIOTT: In the actual sense of the word. You don't have to perform anymore.
COLLINS: Right.
ELLIOTT: They just become pop stars.
BERNARD: Do you know who is really upset about this? Celine Dion. She's at Caesar's Palace every night.
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: And she didn't even get the highest-ranking sales.
SIGESMUND: Yes, poor Celine. Poor her.
BERNARD: Poor Celine.
COLLINS: I really did, too. Anyway, how about "Meet the Fockers", B.J.?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
COLLINS: And I have really been careful about how I've been saying that.
SIGESMUND: I know.
COLLINS: Well, what about that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? SIGESMUND: Yes. Well, first of all, the movie made $45 million, which was a huge record for a Christmas movie. You don't realize it, but Christmas Day was on a Saturday this year, which meant a lot fewer people went to the movies. But this thing still, though, was the biggest Christmas Day movie of all time. It made $45 million, like I said.
COLLINS: Man!
SIGESMUND: And it was basically because the movie fit the holiday weekend theme. It's about two families coming together in a culture clash. You know, you've got Terry Polo's (ph) waspy parents meeting Ben Stiller's Jewish earthy parents. And you cannot discount the Barbra Streisand factor.
COLLINS: So, was she...
ELLIOTT: What says Christmas like than Barbra Streisand?
BERNARD: Yentil (ph)!
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: Perfect.
SIGESMUND: It was her first movie in eight years. And she's been so serious and political lately people forgot that she was funny. She is the funny girl, right? She's flirty in this movie. She plays a sex therapist for seniors.
COLLINS: So she pulled it off.
SIGESMUND: She pulled it off. She is great. She wears a wig, funny enough. It's just a...
BERNARD: Was that a wig?
SIGESMUND: Yes, that's a wig.
COLLINS: I didn't know that.
BERNARD: There is something for every single age group by decade in this movie. You know, there is the Ben Stiller for the young ones. There is De Niro, Dustin Hoffman. I mean, it's like they perfectly planned it to appeal to every single person.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely.
ELLIOTT: But how -- Ben Stiller is like the Starbucks of movie actors now.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
ELLIOTT: There is a Ben Stiller movie on every corner. I mean, there is a Ben Stiller movie in Ben Stiller movies now.
COLLINS: Oh, I love him, though.
BERNARD: Me too.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: He does not like to not work.
COLLINS: No, this is true.
BERNARD: I've heard that.
COLLINS: Thanks so much, you guys, I think. Josh, Sarah and B.J., thanks again.
Rick, back over to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right, good stuff. For all the doom and the gloom, did the grinch really steal Christmas for the nation's retailers? Andy's going to be "Minding Your Business," here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: The highlight's going to be Heidi's yulakaka (ph). More on that in just a moment.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: What we talk about during commercials.
But first, the markets are open, and retailers are smiling after the holiday shopping season. Andy Serwer is here.
What you've got.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm on the edge of my seat over that -- I can't even pronounce it.
Anyway, Rick, yes, let's talk a little bit about the markets, and retailers and what happened over this holiday season. First, the markets here. You can see up 28. The Santa rally continues, and as it is wont to do until the first of the year.
Some losers and winners as far as the holiday shopping season goes. And we'll talk about the overall picture, too, in a second. First of all loser, Sharper Image, stock down 16 percent today. Just never had any big gotta-have gift this year. And some years they do, some years they don't. How about some winners? Amazon.com keeps on rolling. Had a record season and record day, record day, 2.8 million items sold. 32 per second -- half a million gift cards, 100,000 gifts in the military overseas. The stock is up 2 percent this morning.
Sirius satellite radio also up. I think some people got satellite radio for Christmas, Rick Sanchez. They hit a million subscribers, as they said they were going to do that. That stock is up 6 percent. Overall, Wal-Mart is kind of a barometer of the economy. That was up about 2 percent of holiday sales in December, a little bit below average, because of course online shopping, gift cards growing even faster than that.
Mastercard has a survey out that says sales were up about 8 percent this season. That's better than the 6.5 percent last year. There's another survey that says it's only 4.5 percent. That's from the National Retail Federation. But they don't count most online sales and gift cards until the gift cards are spent. That's not the way you should do things, because online sales are very important, and as far as the gift cards go, well, the stores get the money now. So why not count it now?
So I look at that 8 percent number, which I think is pretty darn good. I'd say mediocre to pretty good is what we're looking at overall for this holiday season, which considering all the uncertainty in the world and what the economy has been through I think is pretty darn good.
SANCHEZ: Good stuff, Andy. Thanks.
SERWER: All right, you're welcome.
COLLINS: Just so people don't think you were talking dirty, yulakaka is Swedish bread with fruit in it -- yulakaka!
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know what it really is.
SANCHEZ: You should have heard the story during commercial.
SERWER: Watered down, this version.
COLLINS: Toure now, and the experience.
TOURE: Heidi, you want to talk about a loser? here's the story filled with lots of grinch spirit. Donald Packingor (ph) is a senior master sergeant in the Air National Guard who served five long months in Iraq in 2003. He was doing air rescue in Baghdad. Back in June, nice guy, goes in to a Hyundai dealership in Queens, New York to buy a car. The salesman sees the military pin on Packingor's lapel and says, hey, there's a $750 rebate for active-duty personnel. Packingor says the rebate made all the difference and allowed him to buy a $17,000 Hyundai Sonata, gave over his military I.D., which said he's air national guard, the whole thing.
The rebate was supposed to be just for active duty personnel. And Packingor, Air National Guard, is a Reservist. In the Iraq war, there's not much difference between the two, but I digress.
Three months after driving the car home, Packingor was sued by the dealership, and two weeks ago in small claims court, he lost. Packingor has until January 15th to pay back the $750, plus interest. Are you kidding?! No! The whole company should be ashamed for chasing down this veteran who risked his life over a measly $750 and a salesman mistake. They remind me of that little paper boy in John Cusack's classic "Better Off Dead" who chased Cusack through the whole flick, yelling "two dollars, two dollars!"
By the way, Hyundai had over $20 billion in sales last year and record profits. They're supposed to be the customer-service company with all those touchy-feely commercials about how much they love their customers. But that reputation could be in jeopardy if they don't come to their senses and do the right thing here. The Packingor's haven't decided what they're going to do yet, but they're just insulted that somebody's making a distinction over active and Reservists when you get to Baghdad, it's all the same.
SERWER: Yes.
With $750 of bad publicity.
TOURE: Hello!
SERWER: And the fact that it was the salesman's mistake; it wasn't like he was lying about it.
TOURE: He didn't misrepresent himself. He gave his military I.D.
SERWER: Total joke.
TOURE: Total joke.
SANCHEZ: Insurgents and bullets don't know the difference, right?
TOURE: We called the dealership. They said no comment.
SERWER: Why doesn't everyone go to that Queens location today and maybe try and get a car.
SANCHEZ: We'll continue that in a minute, but the producers are saying we've got to go. So I'm going to do another wonderful commercial conversation, by the way.
Coming up with more on the tsunami disasters that we've been telling you about. There's technology out there that could have saved thousands of lives. So why wasn't it place in Southeast Asia? Daryn's going to be talking with a seismologist Walter Hays in the next hour on "CNN LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING will be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 27, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, though, it is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Soledad and Bill are off. I'm Heidi Collins.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez. Glad to be here.
COLLINS: All morning long we've been getting live updates from countries hit by tsunamis. And all morning long the death toll has just kept going up. We've also been getting pictures like these, showing people running for their lives. But the survivors are hardly safe. We're going to hear what's ahead for them in just a few minutes. And I think it's more rain.
SANCHEZ: And with just a couple of days left in 2004, we're going to be looking back at some of the top stories of the year. And there's often a huge story in the summer, like the one that Heidi was just referring to, the tsunamis, that makes you really forget some of the year's other big events. But there have been some real turning points that made people remember 2004 for a long, long time to come.
COLLINS: We'll talk about those. But first of all, we want to get a check of the headlines with Carol Costello.
Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone.
Now in the news, a suicide bombing in Iraq. At least six people killed, dozens injured when a car bomb went off in southern Baghdad. The explosion taking place near the headquarters for a major Shia political party. Five other buildings nearby also damaged.
U.S. military commanders beefing up troop presence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the scene of last week's deadly mess hall bombing.
General John Abizaid telling CNN as many as 8,000 troops will be there ahead of the January 30th election. Officials have been warning about an increase in violence as the election date approaches. Here in the United States, the National Football League's minister of defense has died. Reggie White, two-time defensive player of the year and an ordained minister, dead at the age of 43. The cause of his death still unknown, pending an autopsy. A family spokesman said white suffered from a respiratory ailment that affected his sleep. And Comair is promising stranded air travelers that its full schedule of flights will be resumed by Wednesday. Thousands of Comair ticket holders are still grounded due to a computer problem that forced the airline to cancel hundreds of weekend flights over the weekend, and USAirways admitting to an operational meltdown after a record number of employees called out sick, forced the airline to cancel many weekend flights. And it's still sorting through a mountain, a mountain of lost luggage.
COLLINS: Hey, that's my bag! No.
COSTELLO: No, you lost yours, too?
COLLINS: No, I was actually safe on that.
COSTELLO: I wasn't.
COLLINS: We'll be looking there for you. Thanks, Carol.
SANCHEZ: Well, officials in Southeast Asia concentrating today on trying to contain the devastation from those deadly tsunamis across that area. Take a look at some of the video that we've been getting in. This is from Thailand. Here's a wave as it hits and comes across the beach area. Millions have been left homeless because of this, by the way.
Concerns now that any delay in relief efforts could cause further death and disease.
CNN's Satinder Bindra has witnessed the tsunami as it hit Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, by the way, is the area hardest hit. That number keeps changing. The latest number that we're getting there is 12,000 people -- 12,000 people have died there.
Satinder is good enough to join us now, via videophone, from a relief shelter outside of Colombo.
You know, I was just mentioning that the number keeps changing just in the time that we've been on the air. It does sound like they're having a tough time handling this thing there in Sri Lanka, does it not?
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's absolutely correct, because the scale of this tragedy is so huge, new numbers keep coming in every moment, and as we've been reporting all along, with every passing hour, this death count continues to rise. It's safe to say I think at this point that the death count or the death toll is above 10,000, and it's going to continue to mount now at a steady pace.
Besides these numbers, some more sobering numbers. There's about a million people displaced. Some 250,000 who are homeless. These homeless people are coming to shelters like this one where I am, and the scene here is typical of the scene across the country. Many more shelters, in fact, thousands of shelters like this are coming up everywhere. Private citizens are making donations, and the homeless here are getting fed, they're getting clothed, and they're also getting some nice emotional care and support. Ordinary citizens are contributing food, they're also contributing money.
In the meantime, the relief effort is continuing this morning. I noticed several dozen wounded Western tourists being brought in to Colombo and they said they were the lucky ones because Sri Lanka's beaches are littered with dozens of dead bodies.
SANCHEZ: What about the infrastructure there, Satinder, you know, things like roads, just -- even if the relief supplies did get there, do the people have the way of getting to the relief supplies?
BINDRA: Well, firstly, it's not easy to get, you know, relief supplies. Even in a tiny island country like Sri Lanka, many of the roads have been washed away. Many of the bridges have been washed away. Some areas are very remote. The only way of getting there is by helicopter. And helicopters are hard to find in poor and developing countries like Sri Lanka, which is why this country has asked the United States to help. The United States has said it will provide helicopters, and neighboring India, too, has said it will be sending in six to eight helicopters. But these logistics take time, and time may be running out for thousands and thousands of people in Sri Lanka.
SANCHEZ: Satinder, we do thank you once again for joining us and keeping us up to date. You've checked in with us several times throughout the morning. We'll continue to check back with you as this story develops and our coverage of it continues here on CNN -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The Asian tsunamis are no doubt one of this year's biggest stories. And all this week we'll be looking back at the other big events in our series "The Last Word," this morning, the top news stories of 2004.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE KLEIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE COLUMNIST This has been a disastrous year in Iraq, almost from beginning to end. The insurgency has spread, our ability to secure the place and to improve life for the Iraqis, has been virtually nonexistent. There isn't anybody I speak to in the foreign policy, military or intelligence field who believes that this is going well.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No question about it, the bombers are having an effect. But we must meet the objective, which is to help the Iraqis defend themselves, and at the same time, have a political process to go forward. It's in our long- term interest that we succeed.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR: When this war began, it was different than other wars, a small war. We did not have preparation for it, or at least not enough preparation -- not enough special forces, not enough Marines who know how to handle these kind of things, fighting street to street. Satellite technology doesn't do you a lot of good when you're in an urban combat. But in a war like this, there is no front line. The war can be anywhere at all, and we are learning painfully, but I think learning nonetheless how to fight a different kind of war, the kind of war we hoped not to fight, and haven't had to fight too much in the past.
KEN POLLACK, SABAN CENTER AT BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The United States needed to reach out very quickly to key Iraqi leaders, not exclude them from the government process, help them bring them in, and at the same time to start long-term processes, long-term processes to build a new Iraqi security force, one that could take over for the United States at some point in the future.
BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, "CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?": Mr. Bush has just got to get a plan for getting a handle on Iraq.
BUSH: I'm now plea and honored to sign in to law the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
STEPHEN FLYNN, AUTHOR, "AMERICA THE VULNERABLE": Terrorism is probably going to be a bit like the flu. We're going to have different strains each season. But just like the flu, though, we manage the epidemic every year by figuring out a ways to inoculate the population and treat those who were affected by it. This is how we're going to have to think about the war on terror.
KLEIN: There is still lots of different ways that we can be hit. And most of the intelligence people I talked to say that they wake up every day fearing that today's going to be the day it happens again.
MARY FETCHIT, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: We can't afford to look the other way and pretend we're safe.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: We've captured a great number of Al Qaeda operatives. We've disrupted the communications network on which Al Qaeda rely. We've beefed up our border security. We've tightened control of our airports. But there's still so much more to do.
MARY MATALIN, SR. BUSH CAMPAIGN ADVISER: The 2004 elections were transformative.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty.
MATALIN: We looked, something beats nothing every time. Senator Kerry did not provide an alternative. And the ideas he did put on the table were, frankly, retro.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: It's a failure to realize that the swift boat controversy was going to really hurt his campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?
(END VIDEO CLIP) GREENFIELD: It raised questions about him. He was not a well known person, even though he was the nominee of the party. And the failure to respond to that in a very tough, clear way, I think was a very hurtful thing.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I think President Bush got re-elected because, first of all, a lot of people like him. Secondly, he appealed to the whole faith-based spirit in the country. And third, I really don't think that the country was ready for a first lady who could swear in five languages.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN POL. ANALYST: I think the most memorable thing about the 2004 campaign was the extraordinary skill of George W. Bush as a campaigner, becoming the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win two terms.
BUSH: With your help we will carry this great state and win tomorrow.
REV. JERRY FALWELL, LIBERTY UNIV. CHANCELLOR: And we all win. We all lose. We put up with Bill Clinton for eight years. We had ulcers, and had to use a lot of Maalox, but we made it. Get over it.
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POL. ANALYST: This is a new day for George Bush, and I wish him a happy New Year and a happy, successful four years, because this is it for George Bush, and let's hope we get it right this time.
MARNIE TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: Everything was stripped from us in a matter of a couple hours. We were lost. We had, like, no clue what to do. You know, being homeless in a matter of hours, it's, like, devastating.
MAX MAYFIELD, DIR., NATL HURRICANE CENTER: You don't have to have four to cause a lot of damage. It only takes that one hurricane for your community to make for a bad year. As far as Florida goes, we had four very strong hurricanes, three major hurricanes and one cat-2, almost a major hurricane. That has never happened to the state of Florida since we've been keeping records. You have to go all the way back to 1886 to find four hurricanes in any one state, and that was Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Tomorrow we're going to have the last word on this year's big courtroom dramas, and there were a lot of them, from Scott Peterson to Kobe Bryant, and Martha Stewart to Michael Jackson.
(WEATHER CENTER)
COLLINS: Well, maybe you got what you wanted for Christmas. But what about retailers? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
SANCHEZ: Also in "90-Second Pop." Why you can start calling prince king. Huh? Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Oh, you've got to love him. How about we lighten things up a little bit, huh? It's time now for a Monday edition of "90-Second Pop" with all of our pop players. Josh Elliott, staff writer for "Sports Illustrated." Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And B.J. Sigesmund, staff editor for "US Weekly."
Good morning, guys.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Thanks.
COLLINS: Thank you for being here. All right, let's talk about that guy, Mr. Prince. They're calling him now the king of pop. I thought that name belonged to somebody else.
JOSH ELLIOTT, STAFF WRITER, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Well, as well they should. He, of course, grossed more millions of dollars than any other...
COLLINS: Gazillion.
ELLIOTT: ... pop act out there this past year.
BERNARD: It was gazillions actually.
ELLIOTT: It was actually gazillions and gazillions. Really because of people like yourself. You know, we over-teens, I guess, we can just say, you know, we still go to concerts. And we still have relationships with artists that drive us out, even, you know, when the prices to tickets start approaching gross national product, you know, category.
COLLINS: I'm sure he's right.
ELLIOTT: And, you know, they don't anymore. I think it's just really the whole idea that the notion of a pop star has changed. They have play lists that we want to hear. We remember them growing up. There is nostalgia. I mean, there are a lot of things.
COLLINS: Yes, there is nostalgia in Prince songs.
BERNARD: And I think what was amazing about musicology and his whole musicology tour is that this was propelled by word of mouth, really. I mean, everyone who saw it, it was sold out, people went multiple times, and they told people. And it just kind of grew and grew and grew. It wasn't so much that there was a huge marketing campaign for it. It was that...
ELLIOTT: Yes, and he played, too. He played the hits.
COLLINS: Yes, it was amazing.
ELLIOTT: He gave you the songs you wanted. COLLINS: Yes.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": The other thing, though, was...
ELLIOTT: You had "Purple Rain" on dance. He really played...
COLLINS: It was almost like "Unplugged".
SIGESMUND: Right. Yes. And you could afford to go. The average person paid $60 to see Prince opposed to $140 to see Madonna.
ELLIOTT: Well, look...
BERNARD: Right.
SIGESMUND: And the flip side of that, of course, is that Prince did something like 95 shows this summer, and Madonna only did 40.
BERNARD: He did a lot more.
ELLIOTT: But also remember this: He can perform, and he can sing. That's another thing.
COLLINS: He can dance.
ELLIOTT: In the actual sense of the word. You don't have to perform anymore.
COLLINS: Right.
ELLIOTT: They just become pop stars.
BERNARD: Do you know who is really upset about this? Celine Dion. She's at Caesar's Palace every night.
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: And she didn't even get the highest-ranking sales.
SIGESMUND: Yes, poor Celine. Poor her.
BERNARD: Poor Celine.
COLLINS: I really did, too. Anyway, how about "Meet the Fockers", B.J.?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
COLLINS: And I have really been careful about how I've been saying that.
SIGESMUND: I know.
COLLINS: Well, what about that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? SIGESMUND: Yes. Well, first of all, the movie made $45 million, which was a huge record for a Christmas movie. You don't realize it, but Christmas Day was on a Saturday this year, which meant a lot fewer people went to the movies. But this thing still, though, was the biggest Christmas Day movie of all time. It made $45 million, like I said.
COLLINS: Man!
SIGESMUND: And it was basically because the movie fit the holiday weekend theme. It's about two families coming together in a culture clash. You know, you've got Terry Polo's (ph) waspy parents meeting Ben Stiller's Jewish earthy parents. And you cannot discount the Barbra Streisand factor.
COLLINS: So, was she...
ELLIOTT: What says Christmas like than Barbra Streisand?
BERNARD: Yentil (ph)!
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: Perfect.
SIGESMUND: It was her first movie in eight years. And she's been so serious and political lately people forgot that she was funny. She is the funny girl, right? She's flirty in this movie. She plays a sex therapist for seniors.
COLLINS: So she pulled it off.
SIGESMUND: She pulled it off. She is great. She wears a wig, funny enough. It's just a...
BERNARD: Was that a wig?
SIGESMUND: Yes, that's a wig.
COLLINS: I didn't know that.
BERNARD: There is something for every single age group by decade in this movie. You know, there is the Ben Stiller for the young ones. There is De Niro, Dustin Hoffman. I mean, it's like they perfectly planned it to appeal to every single person.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely.
ELLIOTT: But how -- Ben Stiller is like the Starbucks of movie actors now.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
ELLIOTT: There is a Ben Stiller movie on every corner. I mean, there is a Ben Stiller movie in Ben Stiller movies now.
COLLINS: Oh, I love him, though.
BERNARD: Me too.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: He does not like to not work.
COLLINS: No, this is true.
BERNARD: I've heard that.
COLLINS: Thanks so much, you guys, I think. Josh, Sarah and B.J., thanks again.
Rick, back over to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right, good stuff. For all the doom and the gloom, did the grinch really steal Christmas for the nation's retailers? Andy's going to be "Minding Your Business," here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: The highlight's going to be Heidi's yulakaka (ph). More on that in just a moment.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: What we talk about during commercials.
But first, the markets are open, and retailers are smiling after the holiday shopping season. Andy Serwer is here.
What you've got.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm on the edge of my seat over that -- I can't even pronounce it.
Anyway, Rick, yes, let's talk a little bit about the markets, and retailers and what happened over this holiday season. First, the markets here. You can see up 28. The Santa rally continues, and as it is wont to do until the first of the year.
Some losers and winners as far as the holiday shopping season goes. And we'll talk about the overall picture, too, in a second. First of all loser, Sharper Image, stock down 16 percent today. Just never had any big gotta-have gift this year. And some years they do, some years they don't. How about some winners? Amazon.com keeps on rolling. Had a record season and record day, record day, 2.8 million items sold. 32 per second -- half a million gift cards, 100,000 gifts in the military overseas. The stock is up 2 percent this morning.
Sirius satellite radio also up. I think some people got satellite radio for Christmas, Rick Sanchez. They hit a million subscribers, as they said they were going to do that. That stock is up 6 percent. Overall, Wal-Mart is kind of a barometer of the economy. That was up about 2 percent of holiday sales in December, a little bit below average, because of course online shopping, gift cards growing even faster than that.
Mastercard has a survey out that says sales were up about 8 percent this season. That's better than the 6.5 percent last year. There's another survey that says it's only 4.5 percent. That's from the National Retail Federation. But they don't count most online sales and gift cards until the gift cards are spent. That's not the way you should do things, because online sales are very important, and as far as the gift cards go, well, the stores get the money now. So why not count it now?
So I look at that 8 percent number, which I think is pretty darn good. I'd say mediocre to pretty good is what we're looking at overall for this holiday season, which considering all the uncertainty in the world and what the economy has been through I think is pretty darn good.
SANCHEZ: Good stuff, Andy. Thanks.
SERWER: All right, you're welcome.
COLLINS: Just so people don't think you were talking dirty, yulakaka is Swedish bread with fruit in it -- yulakaka!
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know what it really is.
SANCHEZ: You should have heard the story during commercial.
SERWER: Watered down, this version.
COLLINS: Toure now, and the experience.
TOURE: Heidi, you want to talk about a loser? here's the story filled with lots of grinch spirit. Donald Packingor (ph) is a senior master sergeant in the Air National Guard who served five long months in Iraq in 2003. He was doing air rescue in Baghdad. Back in June, nice guy, goes in to a Hyundai dealership in Queens, New York to buy a car. The salesman sees the military pin on Packingor's lapel and says, hey, there's a $750 rebate for active-duty personnel. Packingor says the rebate made all the difference and allowed him to buy a $17,000 Hyundai Sonata, gave over his military I.D., which said he's air national guard, the whole thing.
The rebate was supposed to be just for active duty personnel. And Packingor, Air National Guard, is a Reservist. In the Iraq war, there's not much difference between the two, but I digress.
Three months after driving the car home, Packingor was sued by the dealership, and two weeks ago in small claims court, he lost. Packingor has until January 15th to pay back the $750, plus interest. Are you kidding?! No! The whole company should be ashamed for chasing down this veteran who risked his life over a measly $750 and a salesman mistake. They remind me of that little paper boy in John Cusack's classic "Better Off Dead" who chased Cusack through the whole flick, yelling "two dollars, two dollars!"
By the way, Hyundai had over $20 billion in sales last year and record profits. They're supposed to be the customer-service company with all those touchy-feely commercials about how much they love their customers. But that reputation could be in jeopardy if they don't come to their senses and do the right thing here. The Packingor's haven't decided what they're going to do yet, but they're just insulted that somebody's making a distinction over active and Reservists when you get to Baghdad, it's all the same.
SERWER: Yes.
With $750 of bad publicity.
TOURE: Hello!
SERWER: And the fact that it was the salesman's mistake; it wasn't like he was lying about it.
TOURE: He didn't misrepresent himself. He gave his military I.D.
SERWER: Total joke.
TOURE: Total joke.
SANCHEZ: Insurgents and bullets don't know the difference, right?
TOURE: We called the dealership. They said no comment.
SERWER: Why doesn't everyone go to that Queens location today and maybe try and get a car.
SANCHEZ: We'll continue that in a minute, but the producers are saying we've got to go. So I'm going to do another wonderful commercial conversation, by the way.
Coming up with more on the tsunami disasters that we've been telling you about. There's technology out there that could have saved thousands of lives. So why wasn't it place in Southeast Asia? Daryn's going to be talking with a seismologist Walter Hays in the next hour on "CNN LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING will be back in just a moment.
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