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American Morning

Should FEMA Be Disbanded?; Prince Harry Launches AIDS Charity

Aired April 28, 2006 - 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: Reaction to yesterday's call to fold FEMA. The agency's acting chief talks about his role with another hurricane season fast approaching.
A major offensive against sex offenders. Ahead, the results of the government's Operation Falcon.

And Britain's Prince Harry following in his mother's footsteps, turning his back on his wild ways with a pretty laudable new adventure.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. You know, if it works, it could be up there with the paper clip, sliced bread and the ATM. We're talking about the wash and wear wrinkle free suit.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, the ones you and Andy tried yesterday?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we tried them, and...

S. O'BRIEN: Three hundred bucks.

M. O'BRIEN: ... you can be the judge. You can be the judge. I wore it, I washed it, I dried it. It's there hanging on a hanger. I'm not wearing it now, but we'll have an unveiling very shortly.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Look forward to that.

M. O'BRIEN: A Senate committee is out with a stinging report which says that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, so roundly criticized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other storms this past season, needs to be disbanded, that that is the only way to fix the problems as it relates to government response to big disasters.

Let's listen to the committee chairman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: FEMA is discredited, demoralized and dysfunctional. It is beyond repair. Just tweaking the organizational chart will not solve the problem. FEMA has become a symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy in which the American people have completely lost faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Strong words.

Let's bring in the FEMA director David Paulison to see how he responds. Mr. Paulison, when Senator Susan Collins of Maine says that people have lost faith in FEMA, it's difficult to respond and say, no, they haven't.

DAVID PAULISON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: I agree. There has been a loss of confidence in FEMA because of response to Hurricane Katrina. However, FEMA is a good, solid agency. We just need to bring in some 21st century tools. I don't agree to dismantle it. I think we need to beef it up like we're doing now. I'm working with Secretary Chertoff to bring in the tools that these employees need to do the job that they're trained to do.

M. O'BRIEN: But is there an issue that is just so fundamentally wrong, including just perhaps the idea that pejorative that FEMA has become, that name, that acronym, being associated with the ineptitude, that makes it necessary now to have a clean break?

PAULISON: Well, I'm not sure I agree with that. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been around for a long time. The name has, at times, been -- has been -- not been good in American eye and times has been good. And right now it's not. And all I'm asking is give me the chance, if the Senate chooses to confirm me, to give me a chance to fix this organization and get it back on track. And I think we can do that. We have good people here. We have good organization.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, you know, giving FEMA another chance literally, potentially, could mean lives lost if there are mistakes made. This is serious business.

PAULISON: It is. Very serious business. But, however, we're 30 days out from hurricane season, so there's no way you can dismantle an organization and rebuild it in 30 days, anyway. You know, we're on track. We had one instance with a catastrophic incident that was beyond anything that FEMA was designed to deal with.

We house normally 3,000 to 5,000 families a year. During Hurricane Katrina, we either provided direct assistance or direct -- or housing -- financial assistance to over 900,000 people. That's far beyond what anything was designed to do. However, we should be ready to do that, and that's where we're about doing.

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Paulison, you made reference to the last time FEMA was in the dog house, so to speak. About a decade ago, early '90s, immediately after the Loma Prieta earthquake and Hurricane Andrew. Lots of criticism about FEMA. In the midst of that, the Clinton administration revamped some things, and supposedly, the FEMA that came out of it seemed to work pretty well, or at least that was the interpretation.

The man who headed FEMA at the time, James Lee Witt, had a few things to say about what was offered up yesterday. I just want to quote a couple of things to you. Mr. Witt said, "The most important step in fixing FEMA is to return it to its independent status. The FEMA director cannot report through the Homeland Security anytime, anywhere. FEMA, as an agency, only responded strongly and effectively to disasters in the past when the director reported directly to the president."

Now, one of the proposals that is out there would be to have that direct report. Is the Department of Homeland Security and that structure getting in the way?

PAULISON: Well, let me say that during Hurricane Andrew, I was on the other end of the receiving end of FEMA. I was the fire chief in Miami-Dade County when Hurricane Andrew came through, so I know what he's talking about. However, I feel like that being inside of Homeland Security gives us so many more tools than we had before. We have the border patrol, we have ICE, we have the Coast Guard right at our fingertips. All those resources would not be right there were we not inside Homeland Security.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, but those resources would still be available to you, wouldn't they, in times of emergency? It's not like ICE is not going to return your phone call.

PAULISON: Well, it's a little bit different, though, because you have to mission sign an agency. And right now, I have a weekly meeting with these people, with all the operational components inside of Homeland Security. We've got a good relationship with them. It's simply just picking up the phone and asking them to respond and also to pre-deploy with us. It's just much easier to use the way it's set up now than it would be if we were an independent agency again.

M. O'BRIEN: But shouldn't FEMA -- given the nature of what FEMA does and how critical it is and how presidential intervention is so important in times of need -- shouldn't it be at the cabinet level?

PAULISON: Well, all I can tell you is I've gotten a tremendous amount of support out of Secretary Chertoff. I couldn't ask for more support than I'm getting. I don't know what else it would help to be a direct report to the president. The secretary talks directly to the president. We brief the president on a regular basis. So all I can tell you, from my perspective and what I have seen so far, I have all the support I need to run this agency.

M. O'BRIEN: David Paulson is the acting FEMA director. Thank you very much for your time, sir.

PAULISON: Thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, Andy and I, we'll see if there are any wrinkles in our wash and wear suits. Andy, how's it going in there?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: It's fine. I'm back here with green room with Carson and he's giving me some tips on ironing. You don't want to miss this.

CARSON KRESSLEY, "QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY": It's good stuff, people! SERWER: It really is. Don't touch that dial or clicker or whatever. We'll be right back. More coming up on AMERICAN MORNING. Looking good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: It is an admiral endeavor for Britain's Prince Harry, He's put his name on his own charity to help children devastated by the AIDS epidemic in Africa. No doubt that his later mother, Princess Diana, would have been very proud.

CNN's Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange has our story this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prince Harry has traveled the world and met tens of thousands of people. Some very important, but he's not forgotten the children he met at this tiny mountain kingdom nearly two years ago, children like 6-year-old Musta Pusani, who live in the AIDS orphanage in the country's capital, Maseru.

PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: It is really good to see him. I think he remembers me. His English is still as good or as bad as it used to be, but to see so many new kids here is nice to know they're being looked after. And at the same time, more are kids coming in, which is a problem.

KOINANGE: Lesotho has one of the highest HIV rates in the world, 29 percent of the adults in a country with just over two million people. The young prince has teamed up with Lesuto's prince, Sayso Sayso Bering Sayso. Their message, AIDS is real and does not discriminate. Together, they hope to prevent the spread of a disease that's decimated entire households in Lesotho.

PRINCE LESOTHO BERENG SEEISO, LESOTHO: Parents are dying. Both spouses are dying. We have so many double orphans in this country, and a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old wouldn't not surprised to be heading a household.

KOINANGE: In 2004, the two princes worked with the British Red Cross to set up a fund that has since raised nearly $2 million. Now, in an effort to call more attention to the pandemic in Lesotho, they formed a new charity this week, Sentabali (ph), a local Basuto (ph), meaning "forget me not."

It's going to take a concerted effort to step stamp out the scourge in a nation where one in three are said to be HIV positive.

PRINCE HARRY: As far as I'm concerned I'll be here coming to visit. This is my second, to come and see my good friend Seeiso, to come see the kids.

KOINANGE (on camera): AIDS in Africa was an important issue for the late Princess Diana. Looking every bit like an officer and a gentleman, the recent military school graduate seems to be picking up where his mother left off.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: You want to be sure to tune in to CNN this weekend. Former President Clinton and our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta team up for the end of AIDS, a CNN global summit. That's going to come your way on Saturday and on Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Before we head to a break, we want to send it back to Andy Serwer. Oh, he's still ironing.

SERWER: You know, it's a busy job back here, Soledad. Carson and I are doing ironing, and he's giving some tips.

KRESSLEY: Actually I'm doing all the ironing, OK.

SERWER: I'm doing is supervising.

KRESSLEY: And he's doing the bossing around, which is totally not appropriate.

SERWER: Back to it.

KRESSLEY: But he's telling how to get it done, and we're going to get the down on these suits once and for all, Soledad, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back do AMERICAN MORNING from the makeup room. And you're over there. Just three guys around the ironing board, shooting the you know what.

KRESSLEY: Good times, talking about sports.

M. O'BRIEN: Carson Kressley, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" Bravo Channel. Andy Serwer, business guy.

And we are wearing our wash-and-wear suits.

KRESSLEY: We are.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, before you understand how important it is that this actually looks good, let's dial the way-back machine just 24 hours and see what we've been through on this wash-and-wear odyssey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN (on camera): Wash and wear. Think it's going to work?

SERWER: Do this in the washing machine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turn it to the six. Stick it in six.

M. O'BRIEN: Six?

Let's see if it's clean now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: We now know the secret weapons are our daughters.

KRESSLEY: Child labor. Child labor.

SERWER: Don't report us! Please, Carson.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Carson Kressley, these are manufactured by J.C. Penney.

KRESSLEY: Right, right.

M. O'BRIEN: Actually, there's manufactured in Jordan. But J.C. Penney is marketing them.

KRESSLEY: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: And you know, somebody after the program yesterday said they tried this back in the '80s. But I think they have improved...

KRESSLEY: They've improved the technology. The people that actually developed this -- I did some research myself -- spent $10 million...

SERWER: No kidding.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

KRESSLEY: ... on testing this new fabric and new construction. What's amazing to me -- you actually didn't touch yours up. We touched Andy's up a little bit with a little bit of light ironing. The thing that we noticed with Andy's was that the sheen of the suit was a little diminished and maybe the feel was a little different. It got a little more -- more texturized, if that's a word.

SERWER: Bad mouth feel.

KRESSLEY: And then it puckered a little bit right along the lapel. Stop getting turned on. OK?

SERWER: I can't help!

KRESSLEY: So all we did, we followed the manufacturer's instructions, we took a hot iron, and we just kind of touched these up. Actually, yours had no ironing, no touching up. They both -- I'm shocked and amazed, but they really do...

SERWER: It sort of works.

KRESSLEY: You look great!

M. O'BRIEN: As you might suspect, not a real sharp crease there like you have...

KRESSLEY: Not super sharp, but...

M. O'BRIEN: But...

KRESSLEY: ... for throwing it in the washing machine and putting it in the drier and just hanging it up on a hanger, pretty amazing.

SERWER: I'd say it works. I mean, overall, if you had to say yes or no, I'd say it works. Don't you?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, I'm thinking -- here's the thing. If you're traveling...

KRESSLEY: Right.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, you know, when you're traveling these days, you're not wearing suits a lot. But if for some -- if you had some occasion where you were traveling and you were going to be wearing a suit, what a great thing to have if you're somewhere far afield and you needed something that looked decent, and you had it in a suitcase.

KRESSLEY: Yes, no, it's unbelievable.

M. O'BRIEN: But, you know, also start adding up the cleaning bills that you're saving on.

SERWER: Well, what do you think? So is this going to...

KRESSLEY: It's like fabric voodoo. I don't know how they do it. It's probably a by-product of the space program. But it's -- I would say -- you know, like I said yesterday, a beautiful suit is -- you know, a suit is a -- you know, has a different consumer. Some guys need a really beautiful tailored suit, some guys need a suit to wear once or twice a year. For the price point and for the way it performs, it's a great quality suit.

SERWER: Well, what do you think, Carson? Is this going to revolutionize the suit industry or the way men dress?

KRESSLEY: You know, I think it's going to affect a certain segment of the market. I think a lot of guys like the complicatedness of the suit and like it to be dry-cleaned and pressed and maybe even like going through that process.

M. O'BRIEN: There's kind of a ritual to it.

KRESSLEY: It's a ritual, yes.

SERWER: Well, I tell you, I'm not going to do this ironing thing. That's out. I mean, I just don't want to do that.

M. O'BRIEN: No? But Carson will do it for you.

SERWER: You're good, you taught me how to do it.

KRESSLEY: Don't you find it very healing?

SERWER: Well -- no.

KRESSLEY: No.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, your daughter could do it, though.

SERWER: The child labor thing?

KRESSLEY: Get the kids involved again. Get all Kathie Lee all over again.

SERWER: Yes, exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, guys, quick question for you. So $300 for Miles' suit and Andy's suit.

M. O'BRIEN: That's what I'm told.

S. O'BRIEN: Carson, what's your suit cost? The beautiful suit you are wearing.

SERWER: Fess up, dude.

KRESSLEY: Did I -- what? Is this the wash and wear?

SERWER: She wants to know how much does it cost?

KRESSLEY: Oh, this suit. Oh, god.

SERWER: More or less?

KRESSLEY: This was add a couple zeroes. Yes. Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Ouch.

S. O'BRIEN: I knew it! I knew it!

M. O'BRIEN: And you still have to get it dry-cleaned. You wouldn't want to iron it, right?

SERWER: No!

KRESSLEY: No, it would fuse to my body if you actually ironed it.

SERWER: Good.

KRESSLEY: Whoa. Step away with the iron.

SERWER: Please step away from the suit.

M. O'BRIEN: You got a license for that iron?

SERWER: No.

S. O'BRIEN: I'd like to see maybe your sons helping out with the whole laundry thing. Just throwing out a little...

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Is this some sort of sexist thing.

SERWER: I don't have a son, so...

M. O'BRIEN: He's off the hook on that.

SERWER: I'm off the hook.

M. O'BRIEN: Murrow (ph) was busy last night. So Connery (ph) was involved. She was more involved in shooting video, anyway, you know? All right. Well, excellent, excellent. Thank you for the assessment.

KRESSLEY: You are so welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Got us an appraisal. This was kind of fun, to get a sense of...

KRESSLEY: It was fun!

M. O'BRIEN: ... what is possible.

Carson Kressley, Bravo Channel's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." And maybe we'll have him come give us a complete working over sometime.

SERWER: We could do hats or something.

KRESSLEY: More tough investigative reporting, coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we got a full plate here, you know?

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: From baked goods to balls and strikes, when Harold Rosenthal called it a career in business, he made a smooth transition from behind a desk to behind the plate.

CNN's Jennifer Westhoven has more, in this addition of "Life After Work."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Imagine waking up one day and finding out you're not the vice president of a wholesale baking company anymore. Instead, you're out calling balls and strikes on a baseball diamond and thinking this is exactly where I want to be.

HAROLD ROSENTHAL, BASEBALL UMPIRE: After I retired, I think within four weeks, I was attending my first class.

WESTHOVEN: That was back in 1998. And now every spring, Harold Rosenthal stands behind home plate, calling high school baseball games.

ROSENTHAL: Well now I umpire pretty much six days a week from the middle of March until the end of July.

WESTHOVEN: His love for America's favorite past time runs deep.

ROSENTHAL: I always loved baseball. As a kid I was a big fan. When I came out here 35 years ago, I got involved in the local baseball programs, coaching recreational baseball: Little League, Babe Ruth and I just loved being on a baseball field.

WESTHOVEN: And at 63, he says he's got plenty of years and enthusiasm for the game.

ROSENTHAL: I did a game the first or second year I was umpiring, the other umpire was 82-years-old. I said to him after walking off the field, "If you can tell me that I'd still be umpiring baseball when I'm 82, on my 83rd birthday, you can take me and I have no complaints."

WESTHOVEN: Jennifer Westhoven, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: A look at our top stories straight ahead this morning. The accuser in the Duke rape case reported another alleged rape ten years ago.

A 16-year-old Hispanic boy is near death in Texas after a brutal beating during a party. Authorities are considering hate crime charges.

The sole survivor of the Sago Mine tragedy writes an emotional letter about what happened to his fellow miners during their final moments.

We're going to talk to one of the people behind the huge immigration protests that are planned for May Day.

Plus, we'll meet a guy who was attacked by an alligator, fought back and won. Those stories are all ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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