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American Morning
A Big Win for Anna Nicole Smith at Supreme Court; Iran Still Defiant Over Nuclear Ambitions
Aired May 02, 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: A big win for Anna Nicole Smith at the Supreme Court. But is she ever going to see that $400 million she's hoping for? Legal analyst Jeff Toobin's got an explainer ahead.
Plus, preparing for a worst-case scenario. The White House is ready to release its plan for fighting a flu pandemic.
And Iran still defiant over that nation's nuclear ambitions. We'll take you live inside Tehran just ahead this morning.
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us.
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: In Paris, behind closed doors, some high-level high- stakes talks are under way to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia split over the whole issue of whether to impose sanctions on that country.
CNN's Aneesh Raman tells us why those sanctions might backfire.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High above the capital, amid the mountains of northern Iran, a defiant few are clinging to the last days of winner. And here among Iran's young elite, who more than most lean towards the West, we find support for the country's nuclear program.
"When it first came up, I was not in favor of this it," says 22- year-old Farid (ph). But our fuel will one day finish and nuclear energy is very easy.
Farid, an English literature major, and his college friends Ashkan (ph) and Proshad (ph) are perhaps who the West would want fostering dissent in Iran. But on this issue...
"The U.S. cannot use this to create division between the nation and the government. Because the people are backing the government."
Twenty-one-year-old Proshad and the other two say it is their absolute right. "If it is only for energy," says 19-year-old, Ashkan, "which is what the media says, then we all support it. But if it's different than that, then it's up to god."
(on camera): It does seem in Tehran at least that across economic and generational lines, there is near uniform support for the country's nuclear program.
And at one of Teheran's major malls a warning from a 20-year-old Amir (ph) that if sanctions are imposed, "It will increase support 100 percent," he says. "After all this is our country. We must somehow defend it. If we don't stand behind our country, who do you expect to stand behind it?"
And as for war, back on the slopes, there's hope it will not come. Fear that it will might. "Nothing good can come of military war in Iran," says Ashkan. "What the U.S. did in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be done here. Here it would be worse."
The nuclear issue, it seems, is for now a unifying one, but Iranians may soon have to decide soon if that unity can weather whatever comes next.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: We are watching several big court cases this morning. Anna Nicole Smith wins in the Supreme Court. Rush Limbaugh agrees to a settlement. And Zacarias Moussaoui, jurors are still deliberating his fate.
Let's get right to all of it with CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin.
Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: And even more. We've got the Duke case as well to talk about. We'll get right through it.
First, let's start with Anna Nicole Smith, because why not? The video is always so compelling, as people like to say. The Supreme Court ruled a win for her essentially.
TOOBIN: You know, this wasn't just a victory for Anna Nicole Smith; this was a victory for all 26-year-old strippers who marry billionaires 63 years older than them.
S. O'BRIEN: Wide-ranging implications.
TOOBIN: So I think it's important to really just talk about the principles. This was maybe the most boring Supreme Court opinion I have ever read. It deals with an incredible obscure corner...
S. O'BRIEN: Probate court.
TOOBIN: ... of civil procedure, and federal versus state courts. But the bottom line is Anna Nicole won big. The case gets sent back for more proceedings. The obvious resolution in this case...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
TOOBIN: Just settle the case. There's a billion dollars. Split the money. Come on. Only the lawyers...
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, but it's become a big moral issue, really.
TOOBIN: You know when they say it's the principle at stake.
S. O'BRIEN: Forget it. The lawyers are counting their money.
TOOBIN: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: But so she's won, and how come she won't get at least immediately a chunk of money?
TOOBIN: Because the issue was simply which court had jurisdiction. It was the state versus federal. She said federal. It goes back to federal court. But certainly this gives her a big upper hand in negotiations. The case has been kicking around for 10 years. It could clearly go on for another 10 years, but I mean, if anybody had any sense, they should settle.
S. O'BRIEN: She is young and healthy.
TOOBIN: She's younger than the (INAUDIBLE) son, who wants the money. There's a billion dollars at stake here, seems like there's plenty for everybody.
S. O'BRIEN: Right, right, right.
All right, Rush Limbaugh, he was settled now. And there was really at the end of the day, one charge alleged against him. And originally the prosecutor said 2,000, you know, pills.
TOOBIN: This was a huge victory for Rush Limbaugh. This wasn't a plea bargain.
S. O'BRIEN: No guilt admitted.
TOOBIN: No misdemeanor. No violation. All -- the only thing he had to concede was he admits -- he doesn't admit to anything. He pleads not guilty today. If he stays out of trouble for 18 months, the whole charge goes away. So even though the prosecutor won the right to use the evidence that was seized from the doctors, he couldn't make a case. So I think Rush Limbaugh can count this as a total victory. He will away from this with no criminal record. It's just all win for him.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the Duke case. And I guess it's sort of tangential to the Duke case, because what's happening now is there is an election. The Democratic primary being held today. And the D.A., the prosecutor, Mike Nifong, is up for -- you know, if he loses, what does it mean for the case?
TOOBIN: Well, the case continues. Someone's going to -- someone will be D.A. If a charge is brought, it will continue to be brought.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. But don't prosecutors bring their own passion and interest in a case?
TOOBIN: They do, but I don't think a new D.A. would suddenly throw the case out. But this is what -- D.A.s in most of the country elected, and in cases with, you know, high, public and here racial and class issues, it's a difficult line for prosecutors to walk between sort of appealing to the public, whose votes they need, and seeming like they are above public impression. Yesterday, the defense said he should recuse himself...
S. O'BRIEN: Because of the election.
TOOBIN: ... because of, you know, what he said in the campaign. I don't think that works, but it shows the intersection of law and politics.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's ask you about Zacarias Moussaoui. Now the jurors are going into day six of the deliberations. It's -- I'm not a lawyer but it seems like a long time, way longer than to find him guilty in the first phase.
TOOBIN: It does. But what's unusual about the circumstance is that though the issue before the jury now is very simple, life in prison or the death penalty, they have a 42-page jury form that they need to fill out. They have to go through over 30 aggravating factors and mitigating factors, vote on each one. It's a very complicated form. It's the most complicated I've ever seen.
S. O'BRIEN: So it doesn't feel long to you?
TOOBIN: I would say if there's no verdict today, it would indicates that there's substantial disagreement on the jury. But to this point, just to get through this form -- and remember, one day last week, they had a juror sick; they Didn't deliberate. So it's not -- I wouldn't say they're on the verge of hanging. And in this case, if there is a hung jury on this, it means -- it doesn't mean a retrial. It means he gets life in prison.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. We covered a lot of grown. I'm exhausted.
TOOBIN: Yes, but we all can feel good about it now.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. Senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin. Thanks, Jeff.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, take a deep breath for this next one. Illusionist David Blaine is inside a eight-foot spherical thing.
S. O'BRIEN: It's an aquarium.
M. O'BRIEN: It's a bubble. It's an aquarium. It's a human aquarium.
S. O'BRIEN: It is.
M. O'BRIEN: It is a human-arium. He got into the water-filled ball, Lincoln Center, New York is our location. He'll have tubes feeding him and providing him sustenance, and there will be tubes to take care of other things.
And then he'll -- at the end of the week, the plan is he'll remove the breathing device. He'll be wrapped up in a bunch of chains. He'll hold his breath for in excess of 8:56, the current world record, and then supposedly free himself, and on and on it goes.
So we're going to check in with David Blaine live on AMERICAN MORNING starting tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
S. O'BRIEN: He did the glass coffin. He did the whole frozen in ice thing, where was that, in Times Square.
M. O'BRIEN: Sixty-one hours in ice. And now he wanted to do the liquid version.
S. O'BRIEN: He did The crane and the pillar in Bryant Park in New York after that. He did the thing in London, which people were throwing eggs at him, remember that?
SERWER: Oh, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... city hall, where and was suspended above.
(CROSSTALK)
S. O'BRIEN: And now he's going this.
SERWER: He does it all basically.
M. O'BRIEN: He's multitalented.
I still think it's kind of some illusion, that he's in a suite at the Ritz.
S. O'BRIEN: I think it is P.R., actually.
M. O'BRIEN: You think?
S. O'BRIEN: That's me. It's not an illusion at all. It's all very clear.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MARKET REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, can't understand a thing your teenager is saying half the time? We're going to talk to you can to somebody who's cracked the code of teen slang. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I got news for you. I'm down. I've got the 411. And you are not going out and getting jiggy with some boy. I don't care how dope his ride is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Dorky dad. That's me. That's me, I got to tell you. We are just chillaxing here on the couch.
S. O'BRIEN: You said it, not me.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
If you want to know what your teens are up to, you have to understand what they're saying. teens are saying. Hopefully you do it better than that dad there, and me, too. That's in "10 Things I Hate About You."
S. O'BRIEN: Teen expert Rachel Simmons is the author of the bestselling book "Odd Girl Out." She joins us to be our official translator into this secret language.
Nice to see you.
RACHEL SIMMONS, AUTHOR, "ODD GIRL OUT": Good morning. What up?
S. O'BRIEN: Yo yo yo, what up?
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Your kids are, like, rolling their eyes right now.
M. O'BRIEN: They're doing the skillet, yes.
Let's talk about the thing that I think gets parents the most these days, the IM expressions, the acronyms. Let's throw a screen up there and we'll go through some of these things. You really don't know what they're talking about 90 percent of the time.
SIMMONS: It's true. You have no idea. It's because they're talking on the -- having these conversations constantly with 10 people at time. They have to abbreviate.
M. O'BRIEN: Ten screens, and they're doing their homework simultaneous. So 143, I love you. Where does that come from?
SIMMONS: Well, one letter for "I," four letters for "love," three letters for "you" -- 143, very clever.
M. O'BRIEN: We've got to go through it more. Let's put the screen back up there, ROFL is...
SIMMONS: Rolling on the floor laughing. GTS, Good times. OBV, obviously. Totes, totally. g2g, got to go. And it goes on.
M. O'BRIEN: And it goes. And they're destroying their ability to communicate in the English language.
SIMMONS: Well, maybe that might be overstating it a little bit. But I worry that a lot of these kids use the Internet to have conversations that we, as people who grew up without the Internet, already had to have. You know, you had to have those awkward conversations where you blush while you're talking to someone. Now kids use the Internet to have to avoid those things.
M. O'BRIEN: That's true. That's true.
SIMMONS: And that worries me.
S. O'BRIEN: And there's also an opportunity for real meanness, I think, if you can just use code. You really can absolutely, you know, harsh on somebody.
M. O'BRIEN: and things get misunderstood that aren't necessarily meant to be mean, which are interpreted as such. And I...
SIMMONS: Right. If we're online talking, and I say, Miles, are you mad at me? And you say, not really. Well, what does that mean, you know what I mean? And then you say, well, don't be so sensitive. And I'm going to say, well, are you insulting me? And a lot of kids will jump to absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: And it spirals from there, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Also, there are a lot of red flags, I think, for parents. And if you don't know the code, because these are moments where your kid is basically signaling, I'm going to now talk behind my parents' back even though they're watching me type.
Let's run through some of those. POS, which is literally parents over shoulder.
SIMMONS: And that also has SOS for sibling over shoulder, lest we leave their siblings out.
S. O'BRIEN: JK, just kidding.
And then JKJK, which I hadn't heard of.
SIMMONS: You know, I visited one community who told me that the kids use JK an even number of times to say that they weren't just kidding an odd number of times as in JK, JK, JK. It boggles the mind.
S. O'BRIEN: And then 420, marijuana.
SIMMONS: Yes, that's a definite code.
S. O'BRIEN: What kind of context is that used in? Give me a sentence.
SIMMONS: Let's get some 420. What time is it? 420. Where do they get that? I'm not -- it's kind of a long-running myth about April 20th, 4:20, the time of day when people should smoke pot.
M. O'BRIEN: I thought that had something to do with the California penal code, the section that had to do with marijuana.
SIMMONS: You know, that's why you're here and I'm not.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: Let's move on. I've just caused yet another urban myth. It's my mission in life.
All right,this is a really "sick" segment.
SIMMONS: Oh, right. OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, Cool.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: OMG, she didn't get it. Just chillax, girl.
SIMMONS: Chillax. Yes, guys have a tendency to beat each other up, and then when they get caught, they'll be like chillax, right, and then there's a kid on the floor going help me.
We've got detes -- details, fo sho, for sure. I mean, these are things that I think parents need to be aware of, because I think parents -- it's very easy for us to check out when we're driving carpool. You don't want to listen to what kids are saying in the back, because you think you don't understand it.
S. O'BRIEN: You definitely want to listen; you just try not to show you're listening.
SIMMONS: Well, you'd be surprised at the number of parents who turn on the radio, who get on their cell phones, and they're not paying attention.
M. O'BRIEN: That's your NSA opportunity. That is legal eavesdropping for sure.
SIMMONS: Kids do forget. It's true. They forget parents are operating the vehicle, for sure.
S. O'BRIEN: I've been assigned the red flag duty. So we'll go back to red flag, same thing. You know, we tapped is we "hooked up."
SIMMONS: We hooked up, we fooled around; we did something that we didn't want our parents to know about.
S. O'BRIEN: So you read that as a parent, you need to have a sit-down conversation with your teenager. SIMMONS: Yep.
S. O'BRIEN: Crunk is drunk.
SIMMONS: Right. Or it could just refer to alcohol in any way. It doesn't necessarily mean being drunk.
S. O'BRIEN: Blaze?
SIMMONS: Blaze refers to getting stoned, using marijuana.
And all caps, all caps means you are angry at someone.
(CROSSTALK)
S. O'BRIEN: ... I mean, don't they, from e-mail? When you're pissed at somebody, you type in all caps.
SIMMONS: I always tell parents, when you walk by your kids room and you see her sitting in front of the computer typing in all caps, that's a sign for you to take your daughter aside and tell her she's not using the computer in an appropriate way. Use the phone, which is something you would be amazed kids do not know how to talk on the phone.
M. O'BRIEN: My daughter was in a little scrape on IM. I said, why don't you just call the person. I had four heads. You mean, use the phone?
SIMMONS: I know. I always tell kids, it's the machine with the buttons on it, and it makes noises.
S. O'BRIEN: A bigger version of the little one in your pocket.
SIMMONS: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Rachel Simmons, thank you.
SIMMONS: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Bestselling book of course if "Odd Girl Out." Terrific book as well.
Thank you for helping us out this morning.
SIMMONS: You're welcome.
M. O'BRIEN: Good detes.
SIMMONS: Later.
(CROSSTALK)
S. O'BRIEN: Enough. Top stories right after this break. Back in a moment.
M. O'BRIEN: I am the dorky dad, aren't I?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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