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CNN Live At Daybreak
Scripting Democracy; On the Front Lines; Combating Cellulite
Aired August 16, 2005 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chad, well listen to this final one.
There is an ad on television that says California has very happy cows.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
WALLACE: Well we think it's an ad for cheese. Well those California cows probably aren't as happy as some herds in Russia. Get this, that is because some Russian farmers are using 88,000 pounds of confiscated marijuana to feed their cows during the winter. It is unknown what effect the pot will have on the cow's milk, but some of our colleagues here at DAYBREAK are guessing some people may want to have a few cookies standing by.
MYERS: Yes, they'll get the munchies. Hey, they are really -- they're kind of hash brown cows, aren't they?
WALLACE: I need Dr. Gupta around to find out if there's any effect from having confiscated marijuana.
MYERS: I'm sure there is some.
WALLACE: Anyway, things you didn't know.
All right, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes.
MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: In the next half-hour here on DAYBREAK, another painful subject, cellulite. If you've got it, you want to get rid of it right away. We'll tell you about a new technique that may, may make those dimples disappear.
DAYBREAK will be right back. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Good morning, everyone, I'm Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello.
Coming up in the next 30 minutes, they needed more time and they got it, a new deadline for the Iraqi constitution.
And what about those no-fly lists, is that the best way to screen passengers before they get on planes? We read your e-mails just ahead.
But first, these stories "Now in the News."
In northeast Japan, officials are assessing damage from a major offshore earthquake. More than a dozen people were hurt when a roof over a swimming pool collapsed from the 7.2 magnitude quake. Train service in some areas was halted so officials could check for damage.
Israel's defense minister says he expects half of the Jewish settlers to voluntarily leave Gaza. The 48-hour grace period to get out ends at midnight tonight local time. Those who don't evacuate will be forcibly removed on Wednesday.
Hurricane Irene is expected to get weaker today. It is now a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds at 85 miles an hour. Irene poses no threat to land as it churns in the open Atlantic.
MYERS: OK.
WALLACE: Chad, in Atlanta.
Chad, we escaped Irene. That's good news.
MYERS: So did Bermuda, although the waves there on all sides of the island have been really amazing with this storm. Came in from the south here, then around, turned to the right, and now it's turning back around, as we expected, and is heading back out to the ocean.
May affect the southern tip of Newfoundland a little bit. But other than that, there's Bermuda. There are the waves. Even the waves on the East Coast kind of high today, kind of some battering waves. Watch out for rip currents there.
The storm down to 85 miles per hour. Overnight, it was actually up to 90. Losing strength now that it's losing some of the warmer water. There is that number, 75, then we even get smaller. Down to about 60 or so by the time it does get up toward Newfoundland. And then eventually completely out to sea, 50, 40, 30 and then colder and colder water completely kill it. Turn it, what we call, extra tropical, which means not tropical at all.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: And, Chad, how long for the cooler temperatures along the East Coast?
MYERS: Well, pretty good. I mean, your temperatures do warm back up a little bit throughout the middle of the week. But one, and then another, and then another cold front will be forecast to come through. So you warm up a couple of days, then you cool back down to where you are today.
WALLACE: We can handle that.
MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: OK, Chad, talk to you in a few minutes.
MYERS: OK.
WALLACE: Thanks so much.
MYERS: You bet.
WALLACE: To our top story this half-hour, Iraq's constitutional draft deadline has been extended by one week. The new target date is now August 22.
With more on the draft extension, here's our Aneesh Raman in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With only minutes to go and with Iraq's government facing a midnight deadline before it could face possible dissolution, a unanimous vote to extend the deadline to draft a constitution, by one week.
Failure rarely gets a round of applause. But this was failure to decide whether the country will be united by a central government or become two or more semi-autonomous regions with the Kurds to the north and the Shi'a to the south. A failure, so far, to resolve the role of Islam, the rights of women and whether Iraq will become an Islamic republic, like Shi'a-dominated Iran, and not the least, how to distribute Iraq's oil money. Iraq's leaders insist they are making progress.
HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: The leaders are making compromises. The women's rights would be protected in this new constitution. There would equality. There would be participation of women in public life, in political life.
RAMAN: The postponement dealt a blow to many, including the U.S. officials, who hoped a constitution would help bring some stability to a country bloodied daily by insurgent attacks.
MOWAFFAK AL RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The more we get into the political process and the less the insurgency and the terrorism will have any justifiable reason behind the indiscriminate killing of the Iraqi people.
RAMAN: U.S. officials put a good face on a postponement that is failure for them as well after months of very public pressure. From the secretary of state, new confidence in the new deadline.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: The new constitution will be the most important document in the history of the new Iraq. We are confident that they will complete this process and continue on the path toward elections for a permanent government at the end of the year.
RAMAN (on camera): The implications are far reaching, from the question of how long U.S. troops will remain in this country, the political timeline was always a condition for withdrawal, to the confidence it erodes among the Iraqi people, desperately hoping resolution on the future can better their present.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And President Bush weighed in as well. He issued a written statement on the seven-day extension for negotiations. He said -- quoting here -- "I applaud the heroic efforts of Iraqi negotiators and appreciate their work to resolve remaining issues through continued negotiation and dialogue. Their efforts are a tribute to democracy and an example that difficult problems can be solved peacefully through debate, negotiation, and compromise."
American military personnel face all kinds of dangers on the dusty highways of Iraq. The top threat, roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices, also known as IEDs.
CNN's Alex Quade was embedded with U.S. Marines hunting for those IEDs on the front lines near Falluja. She reports on the dangers and tensions those troops face every day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It begins with breakfast at Abu Ghraib Prison and ends with a...
(EXPLOSION)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
QUADE: This is just another day for the Marines of Dragon Platoon, a weapons company from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Well, welcome to freaking Iraq!
QUADE: Their mission started before dawn. Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Von Dagenheart (ph) and his men hunt IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So everybody keep your head down.
QUADE: They've hit 22 in two weeks, but only minor injuries so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No freaking smiling today, all right? Everybody got me? Freaking bunch of weirdoes.
QUADE: On patrol, daylight breaks. Gunny Dagenheart (ph) is already suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's in there?
QUADE: This is how his Marines battle the insurgency, searching for hidden explosives, one car, one person at a time.
Next on their beat, Abu Ghraib Prison. We go inside the wire, behind blast barriers and under watchtowers. I talk with Dagenheart while his Marines go to chow.
(on camera): What is it that you're checking for? What is the danger?
GUNNERY SERGEANT JEFF VON DAGENHEART, U.S. MARINE: The vehicle- borne improvised explosive devices.
QUADE: What is that?
DAGENHEART: It's usually just like they pack the wheel wells full of C-4 or TNT, maybe a couple of 155 shells or 125 tank round shells.
QUADE: So the actual vehicle becomes the bomb?
DAGENHEART: It is a bomb. We've ran across three here in the last week.
QUADE (voice-over): He hopes his platoon's presence keeps bomb builders off guard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open the hood, trunk. Open them up. All right. Salem (ph).
QUADE: Without a translator it's volume and gestures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's your hurry? What's your hurry? Freaking slow down. Slow. Slow down.
QUADE: It may seem funny, but it's deadly serious. This crater is from an IED, improvised explosive device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That hit us yesterday. Good training, huh?
QUADE: Which is why the Marines also train Iraqi recruits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lots of booms lately. Boom, boom, 22 in two weeks, 22. Language barriers. It's all good, right?
QUADE: They race to where something has been sighted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fasten your seatbelts, gents. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Johnson (ph), keep your eyes down. A. Hunt (ph), look to the left. White bag or possible shell. Look hard left here. I'll look right. Shell, shell, shell, find me a shell.
QUADE: Between here and those cars may be an IED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find me a green bag. Keep your head down. Can't (EXPLETIVE DELETED). No hole dug, no nothing. Yet the triggerman is going to be to our right over here, and I see a car. Let's go ahead and eyeball that, and then have your gunner scan to the right. See if you see a triggerman.
QUADE: They see something between the traffic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a dude standing right where that supposed IED is. Tell if he's got anything on him? What's he holding there, Smith (ph)? Can you see it? Yes, I know. What's in his gut? He's in his pocket right now. Watch him. Watch him.
QUADE: Dagenheart zeroes in on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See how he's holding his freaking shirt?
QUADE: His finger on the trigger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's looking for something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he is.
QUADE: Turns out to be just a shepherd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A guy playing shepherd over here with some sheep, and he's standing right where the IED -- where the supposed IED is.
QUADE: This typical day is only halfway through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: What an incredible report. That was our Alex Quade reporting. We will bring you the second part of her report on the dangers those Marines are facing each and every day tomorrow morning.
Eighteen hundred fifty American troops have been killed in Iraq since the war started. Fifty-two have been killed during this month alone.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Some beautiful pictures as the sun begins to rise here in New York City.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 46 minutes after the hour, and here is what is all new this morning.
Protests heat up as the clock winds down on the Gaza deadline. This is the last day for Jewish settlers to leave the area voluntarily.
In San Francisco, a federal judge orders a Muslim cleric deported to Pakistan. Shabbir Ahmed was arrested in June on immigration charges during a federal terrorism investigation.
In money, Sprint-Nextel is getting ready to go deep. It signed a five-year deal with the National Football League to offer game highlights, scores and live game video for its wireless customers.
In culture, that is rocker Tommy Lee posing next to a new PETA ad inside a New York nightclub. The club marked the occasion by announcing a door policy banning fur coats.
In sports, Rafael Palmeiro says his day will come soon. The major leaguer says he'll be able to explain just why he tested positive for steroids. He returned to the lineup Sunday after a 10- game suspension.
And, Chad, Congress is also looking into his comments where he said he never, ever used steroids. So they're checking that out as well.
MYERS: Well he may have a very valid reason. Or if he doesn't, we'll have to see and what they have to say about that, won't we?
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: OK, Chad, talk to you in a few minutes.
MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: Still to come this morning on DAYBREAK, your health. We've got important information if you take daily pain relievers, like Tylenol. That story later.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Time now for some "Health Headlines" for you this morning.
Daily use of non-aspirin painkillers, such as Tylenol, have been linked to high blood pressure in women. A nurse's health study found women who took an average of one extra strength Tylenol a day doubled their risk of high blood pressure in three years. Popular over-the- counter painkillers have been linked before to high blood pressure. But acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol, has generally been considered relatively free of such risk.
If you are a senior citizen, you know prescription drug prices are going up. But just how bad is it? The AARP says drugmakers have boosted the wholesale price of many brand name drugs by 6.6 percent during the year that ended March 31. That tops the rate of inflation. For the typical older person taking three prescription drugs a day, that increase translates to an extra $144 a year. That is significant.
Well if you've got it, you hate it, and we're talking about those ugly fatty cellulite deposits that can make hips and thighs look like oatmeal. That is right. For years, European women have been using a secret serum to shed the unwanted pockets of fat. Well now American women are experimenting with this controversial cellulite cocktail. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Women hate it, that ugly, bumpy, dimply cottage cheese fat under the skin, usually on the hips and thighs, known as cellulite. Some women opt for plastic surgery and liposuction. But other women, who don't want to go under the knife and deal with all that downtime, are now trying to combat cellulite with another option called mesotherapy.
DR. MARCIA V. BYRD, ANTI-AGING PHYSICIAN: OK. Are you ready? If it hurts, you let me know, OK?
COHEN: This procedure, developed in Paris in the 1950s, is the injection of a cellulite cocktail into the target area.
BYRD: Mesotherapy involves the injection of medications under the skin to affect some changes, such as cellulite removal, reduction of fat, toning and tightening the skin. It requires weekly treatments. And for the cellulite, it's going to take 10 to 15 treatments. So they have to be willing to come in quite often.
COHEN: Even with thousands of dollars in potential expense and weekly injections, some women do swear by this relatively non-invasive procedure.
Dale Rossington, a backup singer for the rock group Lynrd Skynrd, is happy with her mesotherapy results.
DALE ROSSINGTON, MESOTHERAPY PATIENT: Suddenly, you do start to see that definition that you thought you weren't going to find again. And you start to see, again, that last little bit that you just really thought wasn't going to go away, that you'd kind of given up on. And you talk to yourself about growing old gracefully, but you know, you didn't really want to. And after those six or seven, then you start to see it just subtly. It's a subtle difference, so you have to be a little more patient.
COHEN: The cocktail is a blend of drugs, including some used to treat heart ailments and asthma. Each drug is approved by the FDA, using them in combination is not. And there's no standardized formula for the cocktail. Physicians mix their own. And there have been reported cases of skin irritations and infections.
Plastic Surgeon Vincent Zubowicz refuses to recommend mesotherapy to his patients.
DR. VINCENT ZUBOWICZ, PLASTIC SURGEON: So you have a technique where there has been no objective evidence of it being effective, yet a good deal of objective evidence showing that there's potential complications, and some of them quite severe. So if it were an effective alternative, I'd open a mesotherapy booth in my office and go to work. But I'm convinced that it doesn't work, and I'm not going to risk my patients' health with something that's unproven.
COHEN: And there is a bottom line to any fat reduction program.
BYRD: Well, you know, I think, whether you're doing liposuction or the mesotherapy, it's very important to eat right and exercise to make it work and to keep it off long term.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And for more news about your health, check out CNN.com/health. The main story there is Medicare's look at adult daycare.
Time now, Chad, to read some e-mail. What are you getting so far?
MYERS: The "Question of the Day" was what do you think of this no-fly list? Had an 11-month-old get caught yesterday because she was on the no-fly list, blah, blah, blah. Obviously just a name match. But the name matching, is there a better way to screen passengers? Let's see.
From Lawrence (ph) in Dayton, Ohio, when you get your passport, your passport should actually have a computer chip. When you get your plane ticket, you make it like a Visa and you get prescreened with that chip. As far as the 11-month-old getting stopped, well, that's just a waste of government spending our taxpayers' money, isn't it?
And from John Ryan (ph). He said I've been on the list for the past year. The most ineffective concept any moron could have dreamed up. Not only have I been stopped at check in, but I'm stopped at layovers, too, and I'm only changing planes. I understand it's a common name, but when was the last time an Irish-American attacked the U.S.? Maybe we should be less sensitive to the concept of profiling and concentrate our efforts more wholly on those who have a proven track record of hating us?
I don't think the ACLU thinks that.
And Anthony (ph) says, name screening, it's a ludicrous method of control. As you mentioned earlier on the air, any terrorist who knows that his name is on the list is just not going to use his real name. Furthermore, checking the name and the ID versus the ticket, guess what, you think anyone with a bad intent is going to be so stupid as to mismatch his ticket and his ID? I think not. That was from Anthony -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Chad, you know what's interesting, the second e-mail you read, I wonder what a person does if you continuously get stopped because your name matches a name on the no-fly list? I mean it must just be a complicated situation and difficult to resolve.
MYERS: It would be nice if they gave you a card, almost like a go get out of jail free card.
WALLACE: Been checked already. MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: Been through this before.
MYERS: They're not doing that yet, anyway.
WALLACE: All right, Chad, talk to you in a few minutes.
MYERS: OK.
WALLACE: Coming up in our next hour of DAYBREAK, sweet treats for American troops made the good old-fashioned way. Fresh from the oven with love, one woman's homemade recipe to thank U.S. forces one cookie at a time.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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