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CNN Live At Daybreak

Iraq Vote; Goin' Home; Driven to Extremes

Aired October 14, 2005 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, thank you for waking up with us. Welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK.

Coming up in the next 30 minutes, he found his thrill on Blueberry Hill, but what will he find when he returns to New Orleans' Ninth Ward and his home? A Blues legend heads back home to assess the damage.

And later, we continue our ride aboard the 180-mile-an-hour NASCAR bandwagon. Chad is exercising his obsession by going one-on- one with veteran driver Jeff Green.

But first, "Now in the News."

Iraq declares a national holiday this weekend as the country prepares to walk to the polls and march into history. Tomorrow, Iraqis will vote yes or no on a draft constitution. Security is bolstered at polling places across Iraq in anticipation of sustained insurgent attacks.

It will be a fourth trip to the grand jury today for presidential adviser Karl Rove. The grand jury is trying to determine if any laws were broken when CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was made public.

Some residents in northern and central New Jersey are being warned that they may need to leave quickly. That's because constant rain has pushed several rivers to the breaking point. Some roads have already been closed.

Please tell us it will end soon -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It will end in 36 hours for everyone.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right.

MYERS: Finally.

COSTELLO: Some bright news in 36 hours.

MYERS: Yes. Right.

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Let's get more now on tomorrow's crucial vote in Iraq on a constitution.

As CNN's Nic Robertson reports, the constitution does not represent to aspirations of all Iraqi people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Among the first to vote in this weekend's referendum, Iraqi prisoners in Diyala Province, just north of Baghdad, exercising their right to accept or reject the country's new constitution. Most, including this thief, were for it.

The security forces will be legitimized, he says, and so the police and the government will be able to operate with ease.

This alleged police killer complains he hasn't had time to read it.

For what I was able to see, he says, it won't protect me. It condemns torture, and that's not my experience.

(on camera): The other almost one million registered voters in this province will have to wait until Saturday to get their turn to vote. But already indications are that turnout will be better than in the January elections earlier this year.

AMER LATIF, INDEP. ELECTORAL COMMISSION (through translator): We witnessed a large increase, especially in those areas that did not register the first time. In the dangerous areas, thousands and thousands of civilians are registering.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): But the dangers are by no means gone. A few miles away, a convoy carrying ballot papers was ambushed. Men found nearby tested for contact with explosives.

(on camera): The IED attack on this convoy is an indication of just how difficult it can be to get the ballot papers out to the polling stations. The convoy, however, carried on. But these shell casings left lying around here an indication once the IED went off there was still a firefight. This area is still considered hostile.

(voice-over): As well as potentially hostile, Diyala Province is also considered an ethnic and sectarian mirror of Iraq as a whole. A yes vote here could show important cross-community support at a time when Sunni insurgents seem intent to drive Sunnis and Shias apart.

In this market, these Sunni and Shia seem united in rejecting the constitution, although many admit they have yet to read it. The constitution is a failure, he says, because it's influenced by the Iranian Shia. Under Saddam, we used to get rations. I'm a Shiite, he says, this Shia government has brought us nothing.

On another corner, as a copy of the constitution is handed forward, Kareem (ph) and Abbott (ph) argue over which way to vote.

Kareem making a case voting yes means a stronger, unified country.

Abbott disagreeing, pointing to text he says will push Sunni and Shia apart.

With copies of the constitution now becoming more available, the debate should, if nothing else, become better informed.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baquba, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A denial from al Qaeda in Iraq. The terror group denies al Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wrote a letter to Iraq's al Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in July. U.S. officials intercepted that letter. We told you about that earlier this week.

In that letter, the Pentagon says al-Zawahiri suggests brutal insurgent attacks may not win the hearts and minds of Muslim masses. Top U.S. officials now say they have the highest confidence the letter is authentic.

Coming up in the next hour, we'll have a live report from Baghdad on the preparation, anticipation and expectation of Iraq's historic vote. We're going to talk about people actually going to the polls and what they face.

Now we want to talk to -- talk about New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin is throwing open the doors and asking people to come home, but will they?

A new CNN-"USA Today"-Galllup Poll, done in cooperation with the American Red Cross, shows that many will, but not all. Fifty percent of hurricane victims from New Orleans say they will come home. Thirty-nine percent they'll find -- say they'll find other places to live. Whether they stay or go, it's agreed that financial assistance is key. Thirty-two percent of Katrina victims say money is most important. Fifteen percent say a new home is.

One of those who is going back home is music legend Fats Domino. Days after Katrina hit, the 77-year-old singer was rescued from his flooded home in the city's battered Ninth Ward. Now he's come back to see what's left.

Tagging along, Eric Paulsen of CNN affiliate WWL in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PAULSEN, WWL REPORTER (on-camera): What do you think when you see it?

FATS DOMINO, LEGENDARY SINGER: Well, what do you expect, you know? It's one of those things. I saw a part of it on television.

PAULSEN: Yes.

DOMINO: Yes.

PAULSEN: Are you going to stay in New Orleans? I mean, you are New Orleans to many people.

DOMINO: Yes, I'm going to stay here, I think. Help, the good Lord, I'll be here.

PAULSEN: Are you going to rebuild here or what are you going to do?

DOMINO: I don't know. I don't know.

PAULSEN (voice-over): Inside this annex to his house, it's a mess. As we walked through, he found some of the memorabilia from his decades in the music business. In his big entertainment room at the back of the annex, it's wrecked. Then in the main house, where Fats has lived for more than 40 years, total destruction.

DOMINO: I'm impaired. (INAUDIBLE)

PAULSEN (on camera): You still won't move?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, come on, Fats.

DOMINO: I'm going to stay (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, just be all right, just take short steps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on splotchy, just be careful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This area gets all clean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a wreck.

DOMINO: Yes, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Follow me, Eric, this is a little wet (ph).

PAULSEN: Yes.

DOMINO: You remember my piano? I had that big white piano here.

PAULSEN: I remember that piano. Where is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's flip side is over there.

DOMINO: It's over there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That report from Eric Paulsen of CNN affiliate WWL in New Orleans.

After being rescued from the Ninth Ward, Fats Domino went to stay at a crowded apartment in Baton Rouge. It happens to be the apartment of Louisiana State University's starting quarterback. Russell's (ph) granddaughter -- actually, Fats granddaughter is seeing the quarterback. LSU plays its second home game of the season tomorrow night. That's just an aside for you.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, are you a fan of Martha Stewart? Need a place for her sheets and towels? Help is on the way. We will explain.

And don't forget our e-mail "Question of the Morning," we want to know, will you get a flu shot this year? DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:42 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Relief efforts are under way in Pakistan this morning. U.S. troops helped Iranians unload relief aircraft. Pakistan also plans to set up a tent village for thousands of people left homeless by Saturday's earthquake.

The legal battle between Representative Tom DeLay and a Texas prosecutor pursuing criminal charges against him continues this morning. District Attorney Ronnie Earle has now issued a subpoena for DeLay's home phone records.

In money news, Martha Stewart has agreed to help design homes with builder KB Homes. The company says Stewart's influence will be felt in exterior design, as well as interior floor plans and fixtures.

In culture, British playwright Harold Pinter is the winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. The 75-year-old has written over 29 plays, such as "The Dumb Waiter," "The Homecoming" and "One for the Road."

In sports, NASCAR's Elliott Sadler set a track record in winning the pole Thursday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Sadler posted a lap at 193.2 miles per hour. Wow! That breaks the track record of 192.9 miles per hour. That was set by Ryan Newman.

But you knew that -- Chad.

MYERS: Well, yes. And you can see how late that he qualified, too. So, yes, all those other cars already had put down a lot of rubber, not taking anything away from that lap. That was a phenomenal lap. And those guys, those Yates engines have been making some great power lately. (WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, actually, Chad will be back, and he'll be talking with NASCAR driver Jeff Green.

So, Chad, did you pick up any driving tips?

MYERS: That it's really hot in the car and you don't use the air conditioner much.

COSTELLO: Well we'll find out more right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All this week we've been looking at the fitness of NASCAR.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: And how the drivers can get an edge on the track by staying active off the track.

So is that what you found out from Mr. Green?

MYERS: Well, you know Dr. Gupta has a whole special about this. Actually, he put the EKG stuff on the drivers to see what their heart rate was. It's going to be a great special this weekend.

But I actually talked to Jeff yesterday. Asked him what is he doing to kind of stay in shape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREEN, NASCAR DRIVER: We do a lot of things. I mean, I don't think there's a lot of them out there that could probably run marathons and things like that, but in the racecar, you have a lot of -- you have to -- you need to have a lot of upper body strength.

And the mental part of it I think is probably the most draining. I've been able to do the right things each and every lap and planning the next move and things like that.

So physically it's tough. It's 130 or 140 degrees in the cars and we're sitting in there for three to four hours each Sunday. So, yes, I mean if you put all that, you know, in one basket, I think you definitely have to be in very physical shape and mental shape, too, to be able to pull that off.

MYERS (on camera): Give me a 1 to 10 on the physicalness of the racetrack, two tracks, Richmond, Virginia and Talladega, how are they different?

GREEN: Like night and day.

MYERS: Yes.

GREEN: Talladega is definitely a head game race. You have to plan your moves way before they ever happen. And you go to Richmond and you have to have the strength to run 400 laps. And you're going around a five-eighths or a three-quarter mile racetrack just a little bit over 20 seconds. So to do that for 400 laps or four hours, the physical part comes in pretty good.

MYERS: Do you ever think that some of these races are getting too long? That the really demanding tracks maybe should be 300, you know, like the New Hampshire, or do you like the 400 at Richmond?

GREEN: It all depends how good you're running. If you're running bad, you want it to be 200.

MYERS: Right.

GREEN: But if you're running good, you want it to be a 400 race.

MYERS: Yes, you want it to be one lap if you're off, right?

GREEN: Yes. Yes, that's right.

MYERS: Yes.

GREEN: If you're setting at home, I think sometimes they get too long. Tell you the truth, they go by pretty quick for us as drivers. But I think we could do the same job in 300 laps. I think we'd put on the same race. So I think they could be cut back a little bit. But you know that's...

MYERS: But don't you -- it's endurance, too, though, right? Endurance of the engine, endurance of the transmission...

GREEN: Yes.

MYERS: ... and driver?

GREEN: Yes. The quality of our equipment is a lot better than it was two years ago or a year ago, even. So cars breaking down or things happen to the cars are very seldom during a 500 or 400-mile race. So it is endurance on your body to be able to make it that long and give 110 percent at each and every lap.

I think back, you know back in the day, when Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty and people like that raced, I think they kind of you know just settled down for a while and raced at the end.

But today, you race each and every lap. And so it's tougher, I think, on the endurance part of it and the physical part of it. Cars are faster and all that takes a toll on your body. So put all that together and I think you have to be a better -- you have to be better physical shape and better mental shape to be able to pull wins off today. MYERS: Talk to me about the heat. You said 130, 140 miles or 140 degrees. It can get hotter than that in Daytona at the Firecracker 400, can't it?

GREEN: It gets hotter than that at a lot of places, to tell you the truth.

MYERS: Yes.

GREEN: Like Indianapolis is a very humid and that's what the -- when you don't have any air flowing, you know that's the tough part about it. We have air conditioners, you might say, that blows through our helmet, so our minds are thinking that it's cooler than it really is, but our body takes a toll on it.

It actually just cools the outside temperature 20 degrees. So if it's a 100-degree day, it's still 80 degrees outside or 80 degrees you're breathing, anyway, so. But it does help a lot, and it keeps your fresh air going anyway.

MYERS: Well there are some drivers that need cooler heads than what they have now. In 10 or 15 seconds, tell me about what Talladega was like for you.

GREEN: It's just a tough race. You go in knowing if one guy makes a mistake you know it's probably going to take a lot of cars with it. So you have that in the back of your mind. But also you have to race the hardest you can to get yourself in contention to have an opportunity to win and to have an opportunity to have a good day.

And we always go down there. I think three or four years ago, we had a race that went green the whole way. And that was a pretty forgiving and pretty easy day for us. But, and that is an easy race, as far as physical part side of it. But just going in with the mental side of it knowing that it could be a wreck fest, it's not a very good day.

MYERS: Yes. Well they started wrecking at about lap two is what it seemed like -- Jeff.

GREEN: Yes.

MYERS: We are out of time. I appreciate your time today. Say hello to the King for me. We talked last year about how many millions of dollars it talks to -- it takes to make a campaign car out there, what, $10, $15, $25 million now to be competitive. And we hope you the best in the rest of the season.

GREEN: Thanks. Appreciate it -- Chad.

MYERS: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: He was lovely. MYERS: Yes, it was a nice little interview. He's a Cheerios car, obviously. The old Richard Petty, Petty Blue car, used to be the STP car. Petty Enterprises really going to try to make a push now for the end of the season and into next season. They've had some troubles. I mean you saw Jeff get pushed around a little bit there on some of that video, and that's not atypical for any racetrack, whether that was Richmond or Talladega.

COSTELLO: Actually, it makes it more exciting to watch, sad to say, but it really does.

MYERS: Well, not for a purist, but that's OK. I don't want to see guys upside down, flipping all over the place.

COSTELLO: No, no, no, I don't want to see that either.

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: But when they all run into each other, I mean...

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... you realize the skill of the sport and the skill of the driver.

MYERS: Yes. Well Dr. Gupta is going to have a great special on it. Tune in for that.

COSTELLO: Actually, I'm going to talk about that right now, because you can see much more on NASCAR and what it takes to run with the big boys. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has it all in a CNN special, "NASCAR: DRIVEN TO EXTREMES." That comes your way at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday night.

Here's a quick look at what's all new in the second hour of DAYBREAK.

A broad coalition reaches out to the poor and downtrodden. We'll talk with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, one of the many players behind tomorrow's Millions More March on a historic anniversary in modern black history.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "Entertainment Headlines" for you this morning.

The Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding scandal is now an opera. The figure skaters captivated the country 11 years ago after Kerrigan was clubbed in the knee by Harding's associate. "Nancy & Tonya," the opera, will be performed at Tusk (ph) University next spring. I'm going.

Rocker Tommy Lee is recovering from burns after a pyrotechnic stunt went wrong. It happened during a Motley Crue concert in Wyoming. The concert was cut short. The 43-year-old drummer was then taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

"Lost" co-star Josh Holloway says he and his wife are fine, despite being robbed at gunpoint. Happened in Hawaii early Wednesday. Holloway and his wife were reportedly asleep when the gunman entered their home, took their cash, credit cards and then got away in Holloway's Mercedes. The car was later recovered.

Head right to our e-mail segment of the day. We were wondering if people were going to go out and get their flu shots this year.

MYERS: Remember all the hoopla last year? It's not going to be available. We don't have enough. Then everybody was -- they were stocking up. And then at the very end it's like, well, no wait, we kind of did have enough. What happened there?

Will you get a flu shot this year? DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

Leon (ph) says, wasn't available for my wife and I last year, 58 and 60 years old. Didn't get it. But just got it just yesterday. And now we're in Memphis ready to leave the house for Lowe's Motor Speedway to go to the race.

And from Noreen (ph) in South Carolina, no, I'm allergic to shots and flu shots in general. And they are not the magic bullet. You can be better protected from an illness by proper eating, lifestyle habits and washing your hands.

No flu shots, says Kevin (ph) in Illinois. I just quit showering during flu season and people stay away from me.

Guess that works.

Jerome (ph) in Florida says, got our flu shots last week. No problems around here. All doctors have all the shots they need.

And from Linda (ph) in a frozen Minnesota, wasn't able to get one last year, lost three days of work due to the flu. I will get one this year -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Thanks for your comments this morning.

As usual, the next hour of DAYBREAK begins in one minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is Friday, October 14.

Making history, will Iraqi voters take the next step toward democracy? Security is tight in Iraq this morning. Its citizens' hopes for the future are high.

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