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American Morning

'Gimme a Minute'; Fleet Week

Aired May 27, 2005 - 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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody to our special coverage. We're coming to you live from the USS John F. Kennedy this morning. We've been here all morning. This is the biggest ship of all the ships that's here for Fleet Week. Ahead this morning, we're going to meet the man responsible for what is the big event on top of an aircraft carrier. And that is, of course, the launching and recovery of the jets. This is Warrant Officer Mike Patrick. Ahead, he'll tell us how coordination cooperation is what the job is all about.
But first, let's go back to Bill Hemmer in the studio -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.

In a moment here, our Friday feature, "Gimme a Minute." Today the panel talking about a line from a TV Drama, "Law & Order" on NBC, that has House Majority Leader Tom DeLay quite upset. We'll explain that to you, and get to that topic with our panel in a moment here.

But first, back to the headlines and back to Carol Costello. What's happening?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. Good morning to all of you.

Now in the news, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is condemning a morning attack in Islamabad, Pakistan. At least 14 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a Muslim shrine. Investigators say the attack may have been a suicide bombing.

U.N. Sectretary-General Kofi Annan is bringing aid as he begins a three-day visit to the Sudan this morning. At a Sudan in Ethiopia Thursday, Annan collected about $200 million for peacekeepers in the troubled Darfur region. He describes the situation as race against time. In the last year, about 180,000 people have died, and two million forced from their homes.

DNA evidence is giving Idaho police hope that two missing children are still alive. Eight-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9- year-old brother, Dylan, have been missing since May 16th. Police say preliminary test results show blood found at their home is not theirs. Investigators say this is just the first wave of evidence expected back from the crime lab.

A clash of religious practice in airport security at the Cleveland Airport in Ohio. Somali cab drivers say police are ticketing them when they step out of their cars for traditional Islamic prayers. Police say they merely enforcing rules that require all drivers to stay in their vehicles when outside of a terminal.

And federal customs agents at the port of Miami say they've broken up a plot to smuggle cocaine in the United States. Inside what appear to be perfect plantains -- they're actually fakes -- agents found 750 pounds of cocaine. One official says it's wording $8 million.

Now let's head back aboard the USS John F. Kennedy and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Carol. Thanks a lot.

Well, back on the flight deck, and of course, one of the most important and critical jobs on the flight deck is making sure that the planes and the jets launch and recover accurately, appropriately and quickly. I want to introduce you to Warrant Officer Donald Mike Patrick, who's in charge of that big responsibility.

Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.

W.O. DONALD MIKE PATRICK, U.S. NAVY: Nice to see you. Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.

PATRICK: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: It's about coordination really up here, isn't it?

PATRICK: You bet you. Everything right now is a team effort, every which way but loose. You're dealing with seconds and stuff like that. The real estate of aircraft onboard. You've really got to make things happen on time.

O'BRIEN: And it really involves a lot of people. I know you've said, it's not a one-person job, obviously. But the plane's got to be in the right position, the captain is involved, the navigator, the engineers. How many folks would you say it does take to make this happen?

PATRICK: Well, average, right now, about 3,000 sailors a day, basically, alone, just to do everything, making things happen throughout the flight deck. I mean, this takes a lot of coordination everywhere. You've got the navigation with the winds, you've got the V-2 with the CATS (ph). You have your AVs, yellow shirts and stuff like that to move the aircraft back and forth.

O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about the yellow shirts. What exactly are the different colors that are onboard the flight deck? We can see people in green shirts, and in red shirts and in yellow shirts. How do those different jobs get designated?

PATRICK: The yellow shirts right now move the aircraft. They move an aircraft back and forth. Everyone on board, people are professional firefighters. That's another thing to, they're all firefighters. Grapes, purple shirts, they tool up the aircraft. Blue shirts, they chalk and tie down the aircraft. And then you've got the white shirts -- you've got red shirts, scratch and salvage and ordinance, and you've got the white shirts and stuff like that, too. They're the medical. So everybody has got their job function, and it's color coded with shirts.

O'BRIEN: And a complicated ballet. How many jets can takeoff and land?

PATRICK: It all depends. We launched basically, in the morning launches, averages 18. In the next launch, it can be 22. So you're talking about getting some aircraft off here quick if you have to.

O'BRIEN: And how about the sorties. Give me an estimate of how many sorties you guys are flying.

PATRICK: One hundred and fifty to 200 sorties a day.

O'BRIEN: Really?

PATRICK: Yes, that's some operations. Usually, operations can start from 11:00 in the afternoon and goes all the way up to, like, 1:00 in the morning, and then they start doing the maintenance, and starts a whole chain and ball again. Like I always said, every day is a Monday. Picture that, every day is a Monday, and you got to rock 'n' roll with that. So it takes a lot of grit, as I say, to make this happen on this...

O'BRIEN: Seriously long days, which makes a stop like this for Fleet Week kind of nice for you guys, because, obviously, no jets taking off and landing, or as you launching and recovering today.

PATRICK: Exactly, a little bit of R&R for the warriors and stuff like that to kick back a little bit and unwind a little bit, so basically today is like a Tuesday. Friday and Saturdays are with their families.

O'BRIEN: You loosened up with a Tuesday.

PATRICK: There you go.

O'BRIEN: Mike Patrick, thank you so much.

PATRICK: It's a pleasure. Welcome aboard.

O'BRIEN: Our pleasure. Thank you so much. We have loved it. We appreciate it.

Let's go back to Bill -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.

Back there in a moment.

First, though, 25 minutes before the hour. Time for "Gimme a Minute" on a Friday. From San Francisco, say good morning to Jeff Katz, KNEW Radio.

Welcome back, Jeff. Good morning out there.

JEFF KATZ, KNEW RADIO: Hi, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: Great. Thank you. Also in D.C., Jenny Backus, Democratic strategist. She is back as well.

Good morning.

JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hello.

HEMMER: And here in New York, Andy Borowitz of borowitzreport.com.

What's happening, Drew?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: A lot.

HEMMER: A lot? We're going to find out.

All right, Jeff, first topic. The Senate avoids a meltdown. Who came out a winner in the argument over filibusters and judges this past week?

KATZ: Who came out a winner? The Democrats are painting themselves as the winner, and as a Republican, I hate to say it, they're the winners on this. You had seven Democrat who couldn't go along with the extremist view of their leadership. They were able to corral some self-centered egomaniacal Republicans. They come out the winner. The American people come out the losers, though. We're going to lose out on some wonderful judge probabilities.

HEMMER: He's giving you some props there, Jenny.

BACKUS: Oh, I no, it's great.

I actually, of course -- surprise, surprise -- disagree. Well, I do think the Democrats came out as winners, but I think the more important point here is the American people came out as winners, because they -- we now still have the option to have their voices heard, especially in the Supreme Court vote.

HEMMER: I like what Orrin Hatch said, this is a truce and not a treaty. So stay tuned.

Andy, what's happening.

BOROWITZ: No offense to the Democrats or Republicans, but I think the big winner this week was Carrie on "American Idol."

HEMMER: You think so, huh? A swing and a miss.

Jenny, second topic, the defense rested this week in Michael Jackson's trial. At this point right now, does Michael moonwalk out of there, or does he go to jail?

BACKUS: I don't know. This topic is a pretty serious topic, and I think it's raised a lot of concerns for people. I do know that the best thing that can happen this week is the American people, as soon as this thing gets done, will get a rest from the story. It seems like it's been a music video that gone on into -- and on and on and on and on.

HEMMER: Well, Geographically, Jeff, you're closer to it. What do you think.

KATZ: Well, we're trying to get farther away from it, actually.

What happens, I think it's better for the prosecution, obviously, to have this witness back on the stand. But ultimately, when push comes to shove, I think Michael Jackson's probably guilty of a lot of things, and I think he probably gets acquitted on this stuff.

HEMMER: Wow. Interesting.

Andy, what do you think?

BOROWITZ: Well, I think we've seen Jay Leno and Larry King at this trial, but I don't think it's over until Lou Dobbs takes the stand.

HEMMER: I like that. Next topic now, the third one in our group today. NBC's "Law & Order" dropped a line about their in an episode about a judge's murder. One of the characters suggested, and quoting now, "putting out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." DeLay is not happy, clearly, about that.

Jeff, was NBC out of line?

KATZ: Absolutely, was way, way out of line. I think it's systematic -- emblematic, rather, of the Hollywood left that will do absolutely anything to attack conservatives, Republican leadership. Way, way over the line.

HEMMER: NBC saying nothing political here. Kind of doesn't pass the smell test, do you think, Jenny?

BACKUS: Oh, come on. The APB, Tom DeLay actually really does need to start worrying about APBs. Yesterday, a federal jury found three of his closest associates in Texas guilty of taking kickbacks and money and doing illegal things in redistricting. The die is cast for Tom DeLay. It's very bad. I think he needs to be looking out for all-point bulletins from his colleagues in the House and in the Republican party to start stepping down. Things don't look good.

HEMMER: Right, before the bell. Here's Andy.

BOROWITZ: I think "Law and Order" criminal intent should be canceled, and that way there would be only 19 "Law & Orders" left on the air.

HEMMER: Right-o. Under the radar, Jenny what's on your mind? What did we miss? BACKUS: One thing this week, I hope we start to see more stories, like actually CNN is on the head of the curve here with Soledad. We're heading into Memorial Day weekend. I hope the news media starts to do some more stories about the families and the trials and tribulations that the folks who are going through served over there, and I hope all take a minute this weekend to think about, you know, the people over there fighting for their family.

HEMMER: Amen to that -- Jeff.

KATZ: Well, I think the story that's been missed is right here in my backyard. It's up in Pedalooma (ph), California. A 17-year-old boy completed high school requirements early so that he could go through Marine Corps basic training. He wants to wear his dress-blue uniform to graduation. The pinhead school board up here saying no way.

HEMMER: Wow.

Andy?

BOROWITZ: Well, Bill, John Bolton's bid to be U.N. ambassador suffered a setback this week when "People" magazine named him angriest man alive.

HEMMER: Did he accept that, Andy?

BOROWITZ: He did, angrily.

HEMMER: Have a good weekend.

Andy, thanks. Jenny, Jeff, thanks all three of you. And have a good and safe Memorial weekend.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, we are "Paging Dr. Gupta." He's got the story of a marine who was declared dead not just once, but twice. And he was recently reunited with the man who saved his life. That man was Sanjay Gupta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Two years ago, while embedded with the medical unit in Iraq, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta went way beyond the call of journalistic duty and performed surgery on a marine whose life was on the line. Here's the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: On April 8, 2003, 25- year-old Jesus Vidana lay clinging to life after a sniper bullet pierced his helmet during a gunfight, spraying shrapnel into his brain.

A fellow Marine pronounced him dead on the scene. Later on the chopper, he was pronounced dead again, but he was alive, barely. Jesus's pulse was faint.

The closest qualified surgeon was in fact, me, just a few miles away, just outside of Baghdad, covering the Devil Docs medical team for CNN.

JESUS VIDANA, SOLDIER SAVED BY DR. GUPTA: They told us that a journalist from CNN who was performing surgery and I say, a journalist? You know, but, then, yes, he's a doctor.

GUPTA: We rushed into surgery with the most rudimentary tools to save him -- what we had laying around, a drill and IV bag to help clear out the blood clot in Jesus's brain.

No doubt, medical necessity, a life teetering on a fragile precipice, and perhaps fate would come together that day. And after two hours of surgery, Jesus pulled through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thank God because I mean -- I thought -- you know, I thought he was going to pass away.

GUPTA: He was airlifted to Spain for more operations and to begin his recovery, and then it was back home for even more operations and rehab to regain some of what he'd lost that day in Iraq -- his ability to walk, talk, feed and bathe himself. We would reunite nearly a year after our first encounter in Iraq.

(on camera): How you doing?

VIDANA: Pretty good.

GUPTA (voice-over): Even then, Jesus' recovery after such a severe head wound was impressive, but he had a long way to go. He still had trouble walking, especially using the left side of his body. And while he may have left the physical war behind him in Iraq, the psychological one remained with him.

VIDANA: Emotionally I think -- I still have, like, a tough time dealing with it. I still have like depression, sometimes, but I'm taking medication for that.

GUPTA: Now another year has passed. Jesus' doctors have him on a better regimen of anti-depressants and he's kept up the physical therapy, so that his attitude...

VIDANA: Whooo hooo!

GUPTA: ... and his health are both on upward slope. Each day's gains move Vidana a little further from Iraq and a little closer to happiness.

VIDANA: You have to just keep pushing forward and moving on. Life will leave you behind if you don't. And I don't want to be left behind, you know. I don't want to stay in Iraq, you know. I guess hypothetically or -- that wasn't the end of life for me.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting. (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As you've seen there, Vidana was snowboarding. He says what he'd like to do one day is to be an occupational therapist -- Bill.

HEMMER: A lot of guts, too. Thank you, Soledad.

In a moment here, Andy's back "Minding Your Business." Two reasons why it's going to be harder to find cheap gas this Memorial Day weekend. Andy's back with Jack right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All righty. Welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: A Web site that tells you where to get the cheapest gas in town is forced to shut down. Police put the brakes on a gasoline giveaway. Those stories and the Wall Street preview, Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Jack.

A couple of gas stories, relevant as we head into Memorial Day weekend. First of all, Triple A debuted a Web site the other day to help consumers find the cheapest gasoline in their hometown. It's called Fuel Price Finder. And a little bit of a problem here. Swamped with hits. Crashed it, shut it down yesterday, just as we head into the time when people are going to be buying gas, petroleum.

They promise to get it open by Friday afternoon. And you know what? They just did. I've been told just minutes ago, they got this baby up. 85,000 gas stations across the country. Put in your zip code and it will tell you where to get the cheapest gas.

CAFFERTY: The cheapest gas in Taos, New Mexico, 75 cents a gallon.

SERWER: No.

HEMMER: Really?

CAFFERTY: No.

SERWER: Thank you. I didn't believe that for a minute. I believed it for second, but not a minute. You're crazy.

CAFFERTY: Trying to see if you're paying attention.

SERWER: 75 cents a gallon. 20 years ago, that was right.

Let's talk about what's going on in New England, meanwhile. Forget about giving away free toasters. Citizens Financial Bank giving away free gasoline, and you better believe there were some major lines. They started doing this yesterday in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, at 5:30 a.m. and the police shut it down. The line of cars went out and towards out of the highway, causing all kinds of traffic disruptions. Bank was at it again this morning. Sadly, it just ended, because it went from 5:30 to 8:30 in the morning at eight gas stations. They said it cost them about $90,000. And this bank's looking for a little publicity. I guess they got it. But they had the executives out there pumping and doing the windshields and all the rest of it.

Anyway, let's talk about the markets yesterday. A good one for investors. A little bit of GDP story, because the economy grew at 3.5 percent, which looks good. Light and choppy trading expected as we head into the weekend. And if you're looking to buy or sell securities, I suggest you do it today, because the markets will be closed on Monday.

CAFFERTY: You can't do it Monday.

SERWER: No, you can't.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: It's time for "The File." 2008 is, mercifully, still a ways away. For the first time ever, a majority of Americans say they are likely to vote for Hillary Clinton if she runs for president in 2008. A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows 53 percent of Americans are likely to vote for Mrs. Clinton. 46 percent would vote against her. The poll shows while support for Mrs. Clinton has broadened during the last two years, more 40 percent of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of her. The poll also shows a big gender gap. 6 of 10 women support Mrs. Clinton, versus only 45 percent of men.

Mariah Carey scored her 16th number one single on Billboard's Hot 100 this week, with a song called "We Belong Together."

(MUSIC)

CAFFERTY: It's not a bad song to look at, either, actually. Only the Beatles and Elvis Presley have more Billboard number ones. I was kind of surprised to find this out. The Beatles have 20, Presley had 18. Michael Jackson only has 13, and he probably won't have anymore. Whitney Houston and Madonna, 11 number ones each. And unlike so many of today's so-called pop stars, Mariah Carey can actually sing.

SERWER: She can.

CAFFERTY: A Canadian -- this is my favorite story -- Canadian suicide hotline cutting back on hours. Prince Edward Island is going to shut down its 24-hour suicide prevention service and replace it with one that operates 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. Makes perfect sense. When are you most likely to be troubled by something? Noon on Tuesday, right? Or when you're all alone in the middle of the night and the suicide thing will be closed. Officials say it's too expensive to operate the hotline 24/7. However, Prince Edward Island is apparently a happy place. The hotline only gets 50 suicide-related calls a year. The officials hope now they'll all come during the day.

SERWER: Right. If you're looking to get talked out of committing suicide, right, you would want to go in the 9:00 to 5:00. Because that's...

HEMMER: 50 a year, let's keep it that way, huh? Thank you, Jack.

Back to Soledad, on board the Kennedy. Hey, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Coming up in just a moment, a peek at the future. A new generation of the supersonic stealth fighter jets. That's ahead. Stay with us, everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 27, 2005 - 08:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody to our special coverage. We're coming to you live from the USS John F. Kennedy this morning. We've been here all morning. This is the biggest ship of all the ships that's here for Fleet Week. Ahead this morning, we're going to meet the man responsible for what is the big event on top of an aircraft carrier. And that is, of course, the launching and recovery of the jets. This is Warrant Officer Mike Patrick. Ahead, he'll tell us how coordination cooperation is what the job is all about.
But first, let's go back to Bill Hemmer in the studio -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.

In a moment here, our Friday feature, "Gimme a Minute." Today the panel talking about a line from a TV Drama, "Law & Order" on NBC, that has House Majority Leader Tom DeLay quite upset. We'll explain that to you, and get to that topic with our panel in a moment here.

But first, back to the headlines and back to Carol Costello. What's happening?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. Good morning to all of you.

Now in the news, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is condemning a morning attack in Islamabad, Pakistan. At least 14 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a Muslim shrine. Investigators say the attack may have been a suicide bombing.

U.N. Sectretary-General Kofi Annan is bringing aid as he begins a three-day visit to the Sudan this morning. At a Sudan in Ethiopia Thursday, Annan collected about $200 million for peacekeepers in the troubled Darfur region. He describes the situation as race against time. In the last year, about 180,000 people have died, and two million forced from their homes.

DNA evidence is giving Idaho police hope that two missing children are still alive. Eight-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9- year-old brother, Dylan, have been missing since May 16th. Police say preliminary test results show blood found at their home is not theirs. Investigators say this is just the first wave of evidence expected back from the crime lab.

A clash of religious practice in airport security at the Cleveland Airport in Ohio. Somali cab drivers say police are ticketing them when they step out of their cars for traditional Islamic prayers. Police say they merely enforcing rules that require all drivers to stay in their vehicles when outside of a terminal.

And federal customs agents at the port of Miami say they've broken up a plot to smuggle cocaine in the United States. Inside what appear to be perfect plantains -- they're actually fakes -- agents found 750 pounds of cocaine. One official says it's wording $8 million.

Now let's head back aboard the USS John F. Kennedy and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Carol. Thanks a lot.

Well, back on the flight deck, and of course, one of the most important and critical jobs on the flight deck is making sure that the planes and the jets launch and recover accurately, appropriately and quickly. I want to introduce you to Warrant Officer Donald Mike Patrick, who's in charge of that big responsibility.

Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.

W.O. DONALD MIKE PATRICK, U.S. NAVY: Nice to see you. Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.

PATRICK: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: It's about coordination really up here, isn't it?

PATRICK: You bet you. Everything right now is a team effort, every which way but loose. You're dealing with seconds and stuff like that. The real estate of aircraft onboard. You've really got to make things happen on time.

O'BRIEN: And it really involves a lot of people. I know you've said, it's not a one-person job, obviously. But the plane's got to be in the right position, the captain is involved, the navigator, the engineers. How many folks would you say it does take to make this happen?

PATRICK: Well, average, right now, about 3,000 sailors a day, basically, alone, just to do everything, making things happen throughout the flight deck. I mean, this takes a lot of coordination everywhere. You've got the navigation with the winds, you've got the V-2 with the CATS (ph). You have your AVs, yellow shirts and stuff like that to move the aircraft back and forth.

O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about the yellow shirts. What exactly are the different colors that are onboard the flight deck? We can see people in green shirts, and in red shirts and in yellow shirts. How do those different jobs get designated?

PATRICK: The yellow shirts right now move the aircraft. They move an aircraft back and forth. Everyone on board, people are professional firefighters. That's another thing to, they're all firefighters. Grapes, purple shirts, they tool up the aircraft. Blue shirts, they chalk and tie down the aircraft. And then you've got the white shirts -- you've got red shirts, scratch and salvage and ordinance, and you've got the white shirts and stuff like that, too. They're the medical. So everybody has got their job function, and it's color coded with shirts.

O'BRIEN: And a complicated ballet. How many jets can takeoff and land?

PATRICK: It all depends. We launched basically, in the morning launches, averages 18. In the next launch, it can be 22. So you're talking about getting some aircraft off here quick if you have to.

O'BRIEN: And how about the sorties. Give me an estimate of how many sorties you guys are flying.

PATRICK: One hundred and fifty to 200 sorties a day.

O'BRIEN: Really?

PATRICK: Yes, that's some operations. Usually, operations can start from 11:00 in the afternoon and goes all the way up to, like, 1:00 in the morning, and then they start doing the maintenance, and starts a whole chain and ball again. Like I always said, every day is a Monday. Picture that, every day is a Monday, and you got to rock 'n' roll with that. So it takes a lot of grit, as I say, to make this happen on this...

O'BRIEN: Seriously long days, which makes a stop like this for Fleet Week kind of nice for you guys, because, obviously, no jets taking off and landing, or as you launching and recovering today.

PATRICK: Exactly, a little bit of R&R for the warriors and stuff like that to kick back a little bit and unwind a little bit, so basically today is like a Tuesday. Friday and Saturdays are with their families.

O'BRIEN: You loosened up with a Tuesday.

PATRICK: There you go.

O'BRIEN: Mike Patrick, thank you so much.

PATRICK: It's a pleasure. Welcome aboard.

O'BRIEN: Our pleasure. Thank you so much. We have loved it. We appreciate it.

Let's go back to Bill -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.

Back there in a moment.

First, though, 25 minutes before the hour. Time for "Gimme a Minute" on a Friday. From San Francisco, say good morning to Jeff Katz, KNEW Radio.

Welcome back, Jeff. Good morning out there.

JEFF KATZ, KNEW RADIO: Hi, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: Great. Thank you. Also in D.C., Jenny Backus, Democratic strategist. She is back as well.

Good morning.

JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hello.

HEMMER: And here in New York, Andy Borowitz of borowitzreport.com.

What's happening, Drew?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: A lot.

HEMMER: A lot? We're going to find out.

All right, Jeff, first topic. The Senate avoids a meltdown. Who came out a winner in the argument over filibusters and judges this past week?

KATZ: Who came out a winner? The Democrats are painting themselves as the winner, and as a Republican, I hate to say it, they're the winners on this. You had seven Democrat who couldn't go along with the extremist view of their leadership. They were able to corral some self-centered egomaniacal Republicans. They come out the winner. The American people come out the losers, though. We're going to lose out on some wonderful judge probabilities.

HEMMER: He's giving you some props there, Jenny.

BACKUS: Oh, I no, it's great.

I actually, of course -- surprise, surprise -- disagree. Well, I do think the Democrats came out as winners, but I think the more important point here is the American people came out as winners, because they -- we now still have the option to have their voices heard, especially in the Supreme Court vote.

HEMMER: I like what Orrin Hatch said, this is a truce and not a treaty. So stay tuned.

Andy, what's happening.

BOROWITZ: No offense to the Democrats or Republicans, but I think the big winner this week was Carrie on "American Idol."

HEMMER: You think so, huh? A swing and a miss.

Jenny, second topic, the defense rested this week in Michael Jackson's trial. At this point right now, does Michael moonwalk out of there, or does he go to jail?

BACKUS: I don't know. This topic is a pretty serious topic, and I think it's raised a lot of concerns for people. I do know that the best thing that can happen this week is the American people, as soon as this thing gets done, will get a rest from the story. It seems like it's been a music video that gone on into -- and on and on and on and on.

HEMMER: Well, Geographically, Jeff, you're closer to it. What do you think.

KATZ: Well, we're trying to get farther away from it, actually.

What happens, I think it's better for the prosecution, obviously, to have this witness back on the stand. But ultimately, when push comes to shove, I think Michael Jackson's probably guilty of a lot of things, and I think he probably gets acquitted on this stuff.

HEMMER: Wow. Interesting.

Andy, what do you think?

BOROWITZ: Well, I think we've seen Jay Leno and Larry King at this trial, but I don't think it's over until Lou Dobbs takes the stand.

HEMMER: I like that. Next topic now, the third one in our group today. NBC's "Law & Order" dropped a line about their in an episode about a judge's murder. One of the characters suggested, and quoting now, "putting out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." DeLay is not happy, clearly, about that.

Jeff, was NBC out of line?

KATZ: Absolutely, was way, way out of line. I think it's systematic -- emblematic, rather, of the Hollywood left that will do absolutely anything to attack conservatives, Republican leadership. Way, way over the line.

HEMMER: NBC saying nothing political here. Kind of doesn't pass the smell test, do you think, Jenny?

BACKUS: Oh, come on. The APB, Tom DeLay actually really does need to start worrying about APBs. Yesterday, a federal jury found three of his closest associates in Texas guilty of taking kickbacks and money and doing illegal things in redistricting. The die is cast for Tom DeLay. It's very bad. I think he needs to be looking out for all-point bulletins from his colleagues in the House and in the Republican party to start stepping down. Things don't look good.

HEMMER: Right, before the bell. Here's Andy.

BOROWITZ: I think "Law and Order" criminal intent should be canceled, and that way there would be only 19 "Law & Orders" left on the air.

HEMMER: Right-o. Under the radar, Jenny what's on your mind? What did we miss? BACKUS: One thing this week, I hope we start to see more stories, like actually CNN is on the head of the curve here with Soledad. We're heading into Memorial Day weekend. I hope the news media starts to do some more stories about the families and the trials and tribulations that the folks who are going through served over there, and I hope all take a minute this weekend to think about, you know, the people over there fighting for their family.

HEMMER: Amen to that -- Jeff.

KATZ: Well, I think the story that's been missed is right here in my backyard. It's up in Pedalooma (ph), California. A 17-year-old boy completed high school requirements early so that he could go through Marine Corps basic training. He wants to wear his dress-blue uniform to graduation. The pinhead school board up here saying no way.

HEMMER: Wow.

Andy?

BOROWITZ: Well, Bill, John Bolton's bid to be U.N. ambassador suffered a setback this week when "People" magazine named him angriest man alive.

HEMMER: Did he accept that, Andy?

BOROWITZ: He did, angrily.

HEMMER: Have a good weekend.

Andy, thanks. Jenny, Jeff, thanks all three of you. And have a good and safe Memorial weekend.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, we are "Paging Dr. Gupta." He's got the story of a marine who was declared dead not just once, but twice. And he was recently reunited with the man who saved his life. That man was Sanjay Gupta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Two years ago, while embedded with the medical unit in Iraq, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta went way beyond the call of journalistic duty and performed surgery on a marine whose life was on the line. Here's the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: On April 8, 2003, 25- year-old Jesus Vidana lay clinging to life after a sniper bullet pierced his helmet during a gunfight, spraying shrapnel into his brain.

A fellow Marine pronounced him dead on the scene. Later on the chopper, he was pronounced dead again, but he was alive, barely. Jesus's pulse was faint.

The closest qualified surgeon was in fact, me, just a few miles away, just outside of Baghdad, covering the Devil Docs medical team for CNN.

JESUS VIDANA, SOLDIER SAVED BY DR. GUPTA: They told us that a journalist from CNN who was performing surgery and I say, a journalist? You know, but, then, yes, he's a doctor.

GUPTA: We rushed into surgery with the most rudimentary tools to save him -- what we had laying around, a drill and IV bag to help clear out the blood clot in Jesus's brain.

No doubt, medical necessity, a life teetering on a fragile precipice, and perhaps fate would come together that day. And after two hours of surgery, Jesus pulled through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thank God because I mean -- I thought -- you know, I thought he was going to pass away.

GUPTA: He was airlifted to Spain for more operations and to begin his recovery, and then it was back home for even more operations and rehab to regain some of what he'd lost that day in Iraq -- his ability to walk, talk, feed and bathe himself. We would reunite nearly a year after our first encounter in Iraq.

(on camera): How you doing?

VIDANA: Pretty good.

GUPTA (voice-over): Even then, Jesus' recovery after such a severe head wound was impressive, but he had a long way to go. He still had trouble walking, especially using the left side of his body. And while he may have left the physical war behind him in Iraq, the psychological one remained with him.

VIDANA: Emotionally I think -- I still have, like, a tough time dealing with it. I still have like depression, sometimes, but I'm taking medication for that.

GUPTA: Now another year has passed. Jesus' doctors have him on a better regimen of anti-depressants and he's kept up the physical therapy, so that his attitude...

VIDANA: Whooo hooo!

GUPTA: ... and his health are both on upward slope. Each day's gains move Vidana a little further from Iraq and a little closer to happiness.

VIDANA: You have to just keep pushing forward and moving on. Life will leave you behind if you don't. And I don't want to be left behind, you know. I don't want to stay in Iraq, you know. I guess hypothetically or -- that wasn't the end of life for me.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting. (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As you've seen there, Vidana was snowboarding. He says what he'd like to do one day is to be an occupational therapist -- Bill.

HEMMER: A lot of guts, too. Thank you, Soledad.

In a moment here, Andy's back "Minding Your Business." Two reasons why it's going to be harder to find cheap gas this Memorial Day weekend. Andy's back with Jack right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All righty. Welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: A Web site that tells you where to get the cheapest gas in town is forced to shut down. Police put the brakes on a gasoline giveaway. Those stories and the Wall Street preview, Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Jack.

A couple of gas stories, relevant as we head into Memorial Day weekend. First of all, Triple A debuted a Web site the other day to help consumers find the cheapest gasoline in their hometown. It's called Fuel Price Finder. And a little bit of a problem here. Swamped with hits. Crashed it, shut it down yesterday, just as we head into the time when people are going to be buying gas, petroleum.

They promise to get it open by Friday afternoon. And you know what? They just did. I've been told just minutes ago, they got this baby up. 85,000 gas stations across the country. Put in your zip code and it will tell you where to get the cheapest gas.

CAFFERTY: The cheapest gas in Taos, New Mexico, 75 cents a gallon.

SERWER: No.

HEMMER: Really?

CAFFERTY: No.

SERWER: Thank you. I didn't believe that for a minute. I believed it for second, but not a minute. You're crazy.

CAFFERTY: Trying to see if you're paying attention.

SERWER: 75 cents a gallon. 20 years ago, that was right.

Let's talk about what's going on in New England, meanwhile. Forget about giving away free toasters. Citizens Financial Bank giving away free gasoline, and you better believe there were some major lines. They started doing this yesterday in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, at 5:30 a.m. and the police shut it down. The line of cars went out and towards out of the highway, causing all kinds of traffic disruptions. Bank was at it again this morning. Sadly, it just ended, because it went from 5:30 to 8:30 in the morning at eight gas stations. They said it cost them about $90,000. And this bank's looking for a little publicity. I guess they got it. But they had the executives out there pumping and doing the windshields and all the rest of it.

Anyway, let's talk about the markets yesterday. A good one for investors. A little bit of GDP story, because the economy grew at 3.5 percent, which looks good. Light and choppy trading expected as we head into the weekend. And if you're looking to buy or sell securities, I suggest you do it today, because the markets will be closed on Monday.

CAFFERTY: You can't do it Monday.

SERWER: No, you can't.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: It's time for "The File." 2008 is, mercifully, still a ways away. For the first time ever, a majority of Americans say they are likely to vote for Hillary Clinton if she runs for president in 2008. A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows 53 percent of Americans are likely to vote for Mrs. Clinton. 46 percent would vote against her. The poll shows while support for Mrs. Clinton has broadened during the last two years, more 40 percent of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of her. The poll also shows a big gender gap. 6 of 10 women support Mrs. Clinton, versus only 45 percent of men.

Mariah Carey scored her 16th number one single on Billboard's Hot 100 this week, with a song called "We Belong Together."

(MUSIC)

CAFFERTY: It's not a bad song to look at, either, actually. Only the Beatles and Elvis Presley have more Billboard number ones. I was kind of surprised to find this out. The Beatles have 20, Presley had 18. Michael Jackson only has 13, and he probably won't have anymore. Whitney Houston and Madonna, 11 number ones each. And unlike so many of today's so-called pop stars, Mariah Carey can actually sing.

SERWER: She can.

CAFFERTY: A Canadian -- this is my favorite story -- Canadian suicide hotline cutting back on hours. Prince Edward Island is going to shut down its 24-hour suicide prevention service and replace it with one that operates 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. Makes perfect sense. When are you most likely to be troubled by something? Noon on Tuesday, right? Or when you're all alone in the middle of the night and the suicide thing will be closed. Officials say it's too expensive to operate the hotline 24/7. However, Prince Edward Island is apparently a happy place. The hotline only gets 50 suicide-related calls a year. The officials hope now they'll all come during the day.

SERWER: Right. If you're looking to get talked out of committing suicide, right, you would want to go in the 9:00 to 5:00. Because that's...

HEMMER: 50 a year, let's keep it that way, huh? Thank you, Jack.

Back to Soledad, on board the Kennedy. Hey, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Coming up in just a moment, a peek at the future. A new generation of the supersonic stealth fighter jets. That's ahead. Stay with us, everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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