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American Morning
Winter Olympics in Torino; Britain's Tradition of Smoke-Filled Pubs May Near an End
Aired February 14, 2006 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's hard to keep a secret these days. Questions for the president -- vice president now on why it took so long to report that hunting accident.
Where there is smoke there is an English pub, for now. Parliament voting to snuff the butts potentially in pubs. We are live in London with that.
And back on the mountain, Miller time. Downhill race for Bode Miller. Attempts to get back on top. We'll see what's now late last night in Torino. We'll have the latest for you.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And Happy Valentine's Day.
O'BRIEN: It's good to have you with us on this still kind of snowy morning here in New York. But it's going to warm up and be a very wet one.
Let's get some news headlines in. Carol Costello with that.
Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
What would the day be without more outbursts from Saddam Hussein? He was in court today. And get this: well, we now know the former Iraqi dictator is not eating.
Hussein announcing he is on a hunger strike during today's session of his trial in Baghdad. He also told the judge to take his gavel and knock it on his own head.
Oh, yes, there was testimony. Members of Saddam's former regime are giving accounts of the Dujail massacre back in 1982.
Iran is back to what it calls small-scale uranium enrichment, but a top Iranian official says the country has stopped short of large- scale enrichment needed to produce fuel for nuclear reactors.
The U.S. and other Western nations have been trying to get Iran to abandon its nuclear program. A White House spokesman says Iran is choosing defiance over cooperation.
Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges this morning. They're accused of trying to smuggle cocaine on board a flight by using their air marshal status to bypass security. They are expected to appear in court again later this week.
I guess we're going to the weather center to check in with Chad.
Good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
VERJEE: Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
VERJEE: Bode Miller, America's best hope for a gold medal in men's skiing, returns to the mountain today for his second Olympic event. Norway leads the games with eight medals right now, one gold. Russia has seven total, three gold. And the U.S. is third with six medals, four gold and two silver.
CNN's Larry Smith is live in Torino with an Olympic update.
Larry, let's talk about Bode Miller first. What are his chances tonight? You know, he admitted to having a couple of drinks before Sunday.
LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Right, before his race on Sunday. And Zain, I can tell you right now, even before Miles jumps in and asks me, we have no confirmation of him drinking anywhere or anything last night. So, we'll see if he does any better despite that.
But yes, he did -- he finished fifth in the downhill on Sunday. Later, admitting he had a couple of beers Saturday night. Whether it affected his skiing or not, we don't know. But today it is the combined -- what happens is, the downhill goes off during the day, and then two slaloms in the evening. But again, he is a medal contender, and certainly the U.S. looking for him to medal in this and possibly even go for the gold -- Zain.
VERJEE: Let's talk about Russia last night. The Russians really continuing the dominance in figure skating in pairs. Tell us a little bit about it and whether the Russians really did win convincingly.
SMITH: Well, this time they did. There was no question. They were -- they were so good, so far ahead of the competition, Tatiana Totmianina and Max Marinin.
Now, I should go back, and also a little bit of a history lesson about 2002 for those who may have forgotten, or just really didn't know in the first place. But figure -- pairs figure skating will always be subject to controversy after the Salt Lake games, when the French judge admitted to feeling pressure to put -- give the points to the Russian duo over the Canadian team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
It turned out that Sale and Pelletier were given co-gold medals, and the point system in place at that time was scrapped for a new system. But you know what? It didn't matter what system they were using.
Tot and Max, as they are called in the figure skating world, they were simply outstanding. Nearly 15 points ahead of the competition. The 12th consecutive gold medal in pairs for a Russian or Soviet duo. That goes all the way back to the 1964 games in Innsbrook. They were simply magnificent last night.
O'BRIEN: All right, Larry. I'm not going to ask you about drinking habits of the Olympic stars, but I will ask you this: the downhill run appears to be rather treacherous. We're going to talk to Picabo Street in just a little bit about what's going on, people getting hurt out there.
What is your take on what's happening?
SMITH: Well, that is the thing that right now it's -- I read a lot about and talked to people here that is has been very treacherous. You had the incident yesterday with Lindsey Kildow, who we're looking for a report today if she's going to be out of the hospital. You know, she had her wreck.
I mean, it's downhill skiing.
I know also on one of the luge competitions as well during practice runs several weeks ago, there were several serious injuries. They actually went in and they re-did the track to make sure that it -- to try to make it a little less dangerous.
So, it's skiing. And any time you have skiing you take some risks.
O'BRIEN: Yes. All right. Well, we'll watch it, though. It seems like they're having more accidents than you might expect.
Maybe the -- maybe the athletes are just pushing it a little harder. Who knows, huh?
SMITH: Yes. Well, these are the games of, we were just saying earlier -- I was saying on CNN International, one of our other networks earlier today and talking about these are the games right now of injuries.
Even if you talk about some of the other -- great Norwegian skier, Andre Aamodt, right now has injured a knee in Sunday's downhill. He's not sure if he's going to go off in that combined event that Bode Miller is in today. I mean, that is a very big concern right now for all of the skiers.
O'BRIEN: All right. Here's your assignment for tonight: go out and get on a pub crawl and find Bode, will you? All right.
Take a DV camera. I want you to do as much drinking as you need to do to catch up with Bode. OK?
SMITH: Yes. OK. And I'll do it wearing a Miles O'Brien mask.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you.
Larry Smith. Great idea. Wonderful idea.
Coming up on the program, the FEMA follies continue. And now the focus is on the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff. He says he can fix the agency, but some say he is the problem.
We'll take a look.
VERJEE: Also, looking for a cheap alternative to gas? Bug juice may be the answer.
Andy Serwer explains in "Minding Your Business."
O'BRIEN: Bug juice? You know, Andy always has the good stuff.
All right.
And Britain's long traditions of smoke-filled pubs -- its says "British is bad teeth." But it may go -- it may go by the board, along with the three pins (ph), or whatever they call them.
That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: It's a feud that is smoldering across Great Britain, whether to partially ban smoking in pubs, clubs, and restaurants, or just stub it out all together. British lawmakers will decide on their anti-smoking law today, and everybody seems to have an opinion.
CNN's Robin Oakley is live outside a London pub with the latest. He is not smoking.
Robin, what would be the impact of this sort of ban?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN EDITOR: Well, Zain, there would be a lot of frustration among the traditionalists. Forty-six percent of those who go to British pubs are said to enjoy a smoke, a puff with their pint as well. And having been in a few curfew (ph) bars where you have to part the air in order to get to the bar, I can certainly testify to that.
The government is expecting that 700,000 people would give up smoking once it was banned in pubs and restaurants and clubs. And that would be actually some loss to the British (INAUDIBLE). You pay more for a packet of cigarettes in Britain than anywhere else in the world, and partly because $6.7 on an $8 pack of cigarettes goes to the British treasury, so they'd be losing some money from the start. But people say if you ban smoking in pubs and clubs, then people are going to be doing more smoking at home, and that could be putting children at risk -- Zain.
VERJEE: What do the majority of the British public want?
OAKLEY: Seventy-one percent of the public are saying that they would approve a ban in pubs and restaurants and clubs. So I think there's a fair measure of public opinion for this.
The government has to give a free vote on it because its own MPs are divided. Tony Blair's own cabinet is divided on this. John Reid, the defense secretary, used to be a 40-a-day man until he quit. And he says it's one of the few pleasures the working classes have got left. So he doesn't want to see a total ban. Lots of other labor MPs do want a total ban -- Zain.
VERJEE: Robin Oakley outside O'Neil's pub in London.
Thanks, Robin.
I know that pub. It's actually right across from the bureau. We just rush over to the pub.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Yes.
VERJEE: Oh, it's you.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": I'm sorry about that.
O'BRIEN: It's -- is that one that has the thick smoke?
Robin, when you go in there, is it as thick as, you know, you describe it?
OAKLEY: It's not too bad in this particular pub. It gets a lot thicker in some others that I used to go to as a student.
O'BRIEN: Yes, in the old days. Not any time recently, of course. No.
OAKLEY: But of course we've seen this happen already in Ireland, and people have gone back to the pubs since then. They said they were going to stay away, but they're all back in the pubs.
O'BRIEN: Sure enough. Sure enough.
All right. Thank you, Robin.
VERJEE: Thanks, Robin.
O'BRIEN: Andy just breezed in.
VERJEE: Finally, you made it.
SERWER: Not the most graceful of entrances.
VERJEE: Thanks for coming in to work today.
SERWER: I apologize for that, everyone.
What to do with all those digital pictures you have been accumulating.
Plus, solving our energy problems with bugs. You don't want to miss that.
Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING -- coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: When I think of love, I think of Andre 3000 in Outkast. Don't you?
How about you? Yes?
VERJEE: Naturally.
SERWER: I was about to say.
O'BRIEN: He's a love guy. He's all about the love.
All right. What is the most popular card in the Hallmark repertoire, would you guess?
SERWER: I have no idea.
O'BRIEN: There are a thousand cards. They make a thousand cards.
SERWER: I'm sure they do.
O'BRIEN: Tell me this isn't a racket, or what.
SERWER: I've seen them. Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right. Now, take a look at the most popular card.
This is -- it's named V330-5.
SERWER: Ah.
O'BRIEN: Of course you don't know that when you're buying it.
SERWER: That throws me a tip right there.
O'BRIEN: Very simple.
VERJEE: I'll have the V330-5, please. I'll take two.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: It's says, "For the one I love." And you open it up and it says -- I have to do Barry White for this -- "Each time I see you, I hold you, I think of you. Here's what I do, I fall deeply, madly, happily in love with you. Happy Valentine's Day."
The card's designer, Marcia Mulingrat (ph), says this: "I cut to the chase, what I would want to give and what I would want to receive. A guy wants to say he still loves her. A gal wants to know he still does. She wants to get goose bumps. He wants to think he'll get lucky."
That's what she says.
SERWER: Oh.
O'BRIEN: That's a quote from the designer of the card.
SERWER: OK.
VERJEE: All right.
O'BRIEN: Now, we've decided this -- speaking of Barry White -- is a high-concept card. Check this out. It says here -- oh, who care what it says -- "Thank you," blah, blah, all that stuff, right?
VERJEE: "Thank you for being the love of my life."
O'BRIEN: All right.
VERJEE: "The one I adore."
O'BRIEN: On and on and on.
VERJEE: But that's good.
O'BRIEN: But here's the punch line. Ready?
(MUSIC)
SERWER: I like those.
O'BRIEN: The great one.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. Barry.
SERWER: Are you going to use that card? I'm going to pick it up for my wife.
O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to ask you guys if I should give this to Sandy? What do you think?
SERWER: Yes, you should.
VERJEE: I think you should just say, "Dear Sandy" and sign it.
SERWER: You should.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, baby.
SERWER: That's a classy situation right there, let me tell you.
VERJEE: I prefer diamonds.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: We'll get into that a little bit later -- speaking of rackets. All right.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Enough Barry. He's done. We've got more Barry?
VERJEE: On to business and -- yes, more Barry.
SERWER: Segueing, and that's sort of my theme song for my business segments today, right?
O'BRIEN: You know, you were our first, you're our last, you're our everything.
SERWER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: And really, you are.
SERWER: Well, I appreciate that. Especially today, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're doing headlines first, though.
SERWER: Oh, we are? OK. Let's do headlines.
O'BRIEN: Are we?
SERWER: Are we?
VERJEE: Yes, let's do it.
O'BRIEN: We're getting ahead of ourselves.
VERJEE: Carol?
SERWER: Oh, there's our Valentine's Day gal.
COSTELLO: Because I'm the first, and I'm your everything right now.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: There you go.
SERWER: Excuse me, Carol.
COSTELLO: That's all right. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. And good morning.
A new day in the Saddam Hussein trial and a new drama. Hussein arrived in court today wearing his typical suit and tie. Actually, suit and shirt, no tie. Told the judge his government was appointed by Bremer, a reference to the former administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer. Then Hussein said he and several other defendants were on a hunger strike.
Israel is denying a report that the U.S. and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the newly-elected Hamas government. According to sources cited by "The New York Times," the U.S. and Israel are trying to cut off Palestinian funding and its international connections, forcing new elections. A senior Israeli police adviser tells CNN that Israel has discussed the idea of economic sanctions but the U.S. was never part of those discussions.
The frontrunner in Haiti's presidential election, Rene Preval, is back in the capital city. He's expected to meet with the sitting president today to discuss the elections.
His supporters are alleging voter fraud. Protesters storming a luxury hotel where the election headquarters are located. If Preval doesn't win at least 50 percent of the votes, there will have to be a runoff. He's just short of the number needed right now. Final results expected soon.
We're waiting to hear what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will face a Senate committee. Today's session has been postponed.
On Monday, Secretary Chertoff announced changes to FEMA after its poor handling of the Katrina disaster. New measures include a full- time response force and an improved tracking system for supplies. But Chertoff also rejected criticism that he neglected Katrina because he was too focused on terrorism.
In New York City last night, the Westminster Dog Show began with a tribute to the canine victims of Hurricane Katrina. But then it was down to business.
The top dog turned out to be Rufus, a colored Bull Terrier that beat out a terrier co-owned by Bill Cosby. Also, this Dalmation called Boomer that won the non-sporting group. And Shaka, Shaka, Shaka -- and wait -- there's Shaka, the first Rottweiler to ever win in the working group.
The top prize, best in show, will be announced tonight.
I always want to say Shaka, Shaka, Shaka Kahn.
MYERS: I stayed up and watched that.
COSTELLO: You did not. MYERS: I did. That's why -- that's why I have toothpicks in my eyes this morning.
COSTELLO: So wrong.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Back to you guys.
O'BRIEN: All right.
SERWER: Yes. I'm for Rufus.
O'BRIEN: Chad, forget the Olympics. He's watching Shaka. He's all about Shaka.
SERWER: He likes Rufus. I bet he's rooting for Rufus.
VERJEE: Do you have dogs?
O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.
VERJEE: Yes?
Do you?
SERWER: No.
O'BRIEN: Two mutts, Annie (ph) and Peanut. And they would win in the mutt category for sure, for sure. But there is no mutt category, of course.
SERWER: No.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
VERJEE: I don't have dogs, but I do have a plant.
Andy?
SERWER: Well, you can take it to the plant show then.
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: I can barely look after my poor plants.
O'BRIEN: Speaking of plants, let's go to our -- let's go to our favorite potted plant...
SERWER: Oh, thank you.
O'BRIEN: ... Andy Serwer here -- hello.
SERWER: Hello.
Let's talk about pictures this morning, you guys. The traditional problem with photographs, of course, is that most of us just threw them in the shoebox. Ambitious ones would make photo albums.
Now, of course, millions of us are taking digital pictures and we have similar kinds of problems. Where are all these pictures?
Some of them are on your camera. Some of them are on your camera phone. Some of them are on your desktop. Some of them are on those online photo finishers, like Snapfish.
Well, what to do?
Now, there's a company called Sharpcast that has designed the digital shoebox. And what this is, it's a Web site where pictures are automatically sucked into this site that you have customized wirelessly off your camera phone. It takes them from other sites as well.
And when you sync your camera to your computer, it automatically puts it into this one Web site. So it's all in one place.
O'BRIEN: So all of your JPEGs on your hard drives at home automatically end up on this Web site?
SERWER: That sucking sound you hear. Right?
O'BRIEN: So you have -- it's a backup, a great backup.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: But here's the thing that always gets me, because I send a lot of stuff to -- Shutterfly is the one I use...
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Same difference.
You know, really gigabytes worth of stuff.
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: And I can't for the life of me figure out how they make that much money on it. I mean, I order prints, but it's just a very low-margin business.
SERWER: Advertising perhaps.
O'BRIEN: Perhaps, yes.
SERWER: That's all those content businesses.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
VERJEE: Want to get to alcohol-based alternative fuels and bugs.
SERWER: Sounds compelling, doesn't it?
VERJEE: Actually, let's get back to that plant.
SERWER: Well, no, let's talk about this for just one second, because I like these microbes and corn and all this stuff. You'll remember the president in January in his State of the Union Address talking about ethanol and how it was the fuel of the future. One problem, however, is turning all this corn into fuel.
Some say it's crowds out the fuel supply. I think...
O'BRIEN: What does that mean, crowding it out?
SERWER: Well, they're saying that there's, you know, not going to be any corn left, which is really a lot of bunk. There's plenty of corn in this country.
O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh.
SERWER: But, in any event...
O'BRIEN: Just drive through Nebraska some time.
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: There's plenty of corn.
SERWER: But we can use the waste part of corn, but to do that it has to be processed. Scientists now are using microbes and little bugs and actually designing them, changing the DNA and mixing them with bacteria to create new life forms that can actually process this cellulosic ethanol which the president talked about in his speech, and these microbes are the same sort of bugs that are responsible for jungle rot.
O'BRIEN: Ooh.
SERWER: Jungle rot.
VERJEE: Termite guts?
SERWER: Yes, and all that.
VERJEE: The biotechnology firms have been doing this for many years, but what's the cost of this kind of research? Because they need to make it more effective and inexpensive.
SERWER: Well, high oil prices makes it cost-effective. So, as long as oil's over $60 a barrel, the economics work.
O'BRIEN: I want some Orville Redenbacher gasoline.
SERWER: Yes, there you go.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's got more -- got more pop.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Yes. All right. Very good.
VERJEE: Andy, thank you.
SERWER: Thank you.
VERJEE: In a moment, today's top stories, including more on the government's plans to revamp FEMA. We're going to talk to a disaster expert who says FEMA is ignoring its biggest problem
Plus, the latest on Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Why did the White House wait almost 24 hours to go public with it?
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Starting an experiment today on Pipeline. Immediately following this program, 10:15 Eastern, I'll be answering some of your e-mails. So while you're -- and I know you're not reluctant to share your opinions. We hear from you all the time via e-mail, and this is an opportunity for me to respond directly to you, 10:15 Eastern on Pipeline.
You have to go to CNN.com/pipeline and log in. And it's $2.95 a month and so forth, but nevertheless, you'll get an opportunity to see our first post-AMERICAN MORNING viewer feedback segment.
We've got to work on a name for that. AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address. I'll be taking some of those e-mails, 10:15 Eastern.
As we approach the top of the hour, we will check on the forecast. Chad Myers at the weather center.
Hello, Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Miles. We will do it quickly here.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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