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The Big Apple Baking; Iraq: Changing Course?

Aired July 09, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hearts and minds, deadlines and timelines and benchmarks. Weapons all soon to be brandished again in the fight for Iraq.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Congress returns from its holiday break to a new opportunity to break the administration's will.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien, in for Don Lemon today.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Top of the news, the heat. Anyone who's been in New York City in the summertime can tell you it can get miserably hot. All those buildings generating all that heat.

Well, today is one of those dog days. The heat is on.

Jim Acosta joining us from Times Square.

And Jim, did you take the subway today? Because that's my favorite place to be. I hate to harp on, that but it's the worst.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's about 200 degrees on the ground.

O'BRIEN: Yes, about 200.

ACOSTA: It's a great feeling in the summertime, isn't it?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ACOSTA: The Big Apple is baking, Miles. It's about 90 degrees right now, and it's forecast to hit somewhere in the mid-90s today, and perhaps do the same tomorrow and the next day. And so this is, as you put it, the dog days of summer in New York City. But so far we're weathering all of this heat fairly well.

From what we understand from talking to various power company officials, very few outages at this point. Just 200 in Manhattan, up from three, as we pointed out in the last hour. The borough of Staten Island has no outages right now, so faring fairly well here in the Big Apple this afternoon.

But that is something that, you know, officials here in New York are concerned about, obviously. They want to make sure that residents conserve energy throughout this period as they expect usage, energy usage in the city to get almost to capacity.

O'BRIEN: You know, any time we talk about this, we are reminded of the great blackout and how this can affect the grid. It's good to see that Con Ed seems to have things -- the grid in order, so to speak. Let's talk about individuals, though.

What's the city doing, especially for older folks, to make sure, first of all, people are reaching out to them and that they are not too vulnerable to this heat wave?

ACOSTA: Right, Miles. And you've seen it before.

Last year, 174,000 people in Queens were without power for nine days. And New York officials are conscious of this. They remember that blackout of 2003.

I was here covering that. It was unbelievably taxing on the elderly. And so it's become sort of a drill every summer now.

New York goes into this mindset that as soon as it gets into the 90s, they open up cooling centers. They've opened up cooling centers throughout the city. And they're reminding residents here to go ahead and do what they do every year, and that is check on their elderly neighbors to make sure they're OK -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's important. You know, sometimes in New York we don't check on our neighbors so well, and that's important to do, especially this time of year, isn't it?

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Jim Acosta, who looks cool under the heat...

ACOSTA: I'm trying.

O'BRIEN: ... New York City, in Times Square. A little makeup and a towel, that's all you need.

ACOSTA: That's it.

PHILLIPS: He's sweltering in that heat.

ACOSTA: A lot of makeup.

O'BRIEN: Yes, he is.

PHILLIPS: He's sweltering.

O'BRIEN: Never let them see you sweat.

PHILLIPS: And he's not the only one, either.

Yes, we never let anyone see us sweat, right?

O'BRIEN: No.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Now to Washington, where the White House is facing a new onslaught of questions about the war in Iraq and possible talk of pulling back U.S. troops.

With the very latest for us, we are joined by White House Correspondent Ed Henry.

Hello, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles.

A very interesting development at the end of the White House briefing with Tony Snow. I was sitting there when all of a sudden word started coming across from our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, on the Hill that Republican Senator John Warner had given some indication to reporters on the Hill that maybe the president was going to be addressing the nation by the end of the week about Iraq.

There's been some indications from others that that could happen. And the goal perhaps for the White House would be to stem some of the republican defections on the war.

Tony Snow was asked about that as word was trickling in at the end of the briefing. He insisted the president is not planning any formal address to the nation, but left a lot of wiggle room for the president to make some sort of remarks on Iraq this week, perhaps in conjunction with this interim report the president has to send to Congress on whether or not the Iraqi government is meeting benchmarks.

But Tony Snow was vociferous in denying this "New York Times" report that there is a high-level debate going on at the White House about whether or not to withdraw U.S. troops. I pressed Tony Snow when he said there's no debate at all, asked him whether the president is in denial given the fact that so many Republicans are saying he needs to change course.

Take a listen to what Snow said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are substantial areas of agreement here.

HENRY: That the course you're taking is not succeeding in those endeavors. So...

SNOW: No, see -- well, again, we have just started the course. The course has just...

HENRY: Time is running out.

SNOW: I'm just.

HENRY: But he's not a Democrat. He's a Republican.

SNOW: I understand.

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: Time is running out. So...

SNOW: I understand that, Ed.

HENRY: Is the White House in denial about that then?

SNOW: No, the White House is not in denial about the fact, but I think you're in denial about the fact that in the overall contours, there's just not that much disagreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Tony Snow insisting there that Republicans like Richard Lugar who have broken with the White House are actually in agreement with the White House.

As for this interim report coming out by the end of the week on the Iraqi government, whether they're meeting benchmarks, Tony Snow said, "I'm not sure everyone will get an 'A' in their first report." A sign that this White House is not expecting for those benchmarks to be met -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, Ed, we've established it's hot in Washington. And there's another political front to watch on this.

HENRY: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Another Pennsylvania Avenue Donnybrook, and this one is over the issue of executive privilege and subpoena documents specific to the firing, that mass firing of U.S. attorneys.

HENRY: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Bring us up to speed on that.

HENRY: The new letter today from the White House counsel, Fred Fielding, to Democrats on the Hill indicating the White House will of course assert that executive privilege. They had already indicated that before. But they're also not going to turn over a log, basically an overview of what documents they're withholding.

They say there's an important principle at stake here. The president getting candid advice from his advisers, but the bottom line here is that the Democrats are now likely to press contempt of Congress charges against the White House. This is very likely to be a constitutional showdown in the courts.

The question will be whether or not this gets tied up in the courts so long that the president will be out of office by the time it's decided. A lot of Democrats charging that what the president's trying to do is run out the clock -- Miles. O'BRIEN: And I suppose given the way the courts would proceed in this case, that strategy could work.

HENRY: It could work. I mean, the other thing that's at play here as well is it's not just about the U.S. attorney matter. There are subpoenas flying over here across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Hill over to the White House practically by the day on other issues like the domestic surveillance program.

This White House realizes if they give an inch on the U.S. attorney issue, that they're going to have to start giving documents on all these other stories. So they're making this fight now, but it's about a whole host of fights, not just about the U.S. attorney matter.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Careful with all those subpoenas flying around. Don't accept an envelope from anybody. All right, Ed Henry?

HENRY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, on the north lawn of the White House -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, speaking of fights, Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats talking again about the timetable for an Iraq withdrawal, and they tried to get it done in May, but lost a showdown to President Bush. But just a short time ago, Majority Leader Harry Reid said that the current course can't be sustained any longer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: The war in Iraq is headed in a very dangerous direction. The last three months of President Bush's surge have been the deadliest of the war, the entire war.

The surge was supposed to supply (ph) Iraq's political leaders the space to make the compromise necessary to unite this nation. It hasn't happened, despite the bravery of our troops. Democrats, military experts and the American people know the president's current strategy not working. And we cannot wait until September to act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, for starters, Senator Harry Reid called on Senate Republicans to support a proposal to lengthen the time troops spend stateside between deployments. That alone would prevent the Pentagon from sustaining current troop levels.

Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon. He's been following that side of things.

Jamie, what's your take?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, first of all, if that law were to go into effect, it would be something that in principle the Pentagon would endorse, but in practical terms would make it difficult for the U.S. to sustain the number of forces they have there now.

Under the current rotation plan, the to so-called surge, the extra 28,000 to 30,000 troops would be in place through April anyway. At that point they would naturally start coming down. But as you know, some of the Army deployments now are 15 months on the battlefield, and then only 12 months at home.

There are other things the Pentagon could do, including activating more reserves and National Guard troops, but all of those options require significant sacrifice on the part of U.S. soldiers. The Pentagon is continuing to argue, as is the White House, that it's simply too soon to throw in the towel on the surge and say it's not working, that it's only been at full strength for three weeks, and that this interim report that will come out soon will simply be "a snapshot of the front end of the surge." It will not show that any of the benchmarks have been reached.

But the big debate is whether or not even if the U.S. sticks with it for another two months or six months or even another year, is the result going to be any different? And the people who want a change in course, like senators Reid and Webb, are people who believe that it's not going to make any difference. And what we've seen so far is the Pentagon insisting that if they stick with it, it will. And that's really where the nub of the argument is right now.

PHILLIPS: All right. Pentagon -- straight from the Pentagon, Jamie McIntyre.

Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Coming up, we'll give you the political back story to all this. Those skirmishes we've been talking to you about, Harry Reid's statement today, has a lot to do with the change in temperature in Washington. Growing numbers of GOP politicians defecting from the president's plan.

We're going to talk about this with our political analyst, Bill Schneider.

PHILLIPS: Plus, another round of red rover for NASA? No. Make that red lander. They're sending a third robot right over to Mars.

O'BRIEN: And an "American Idol" also ran allegedly involved in an in-flight stink. I guess that's part of being a celebrity -- in- flight stinks, rehabs, all of that. Were his "Aiken" feet to close to a fellow passenger's comfort?

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

PHILLIPS: A new mission to Mars. To unearth, so to speak, even more of the Red Planet's secrets, who else but our own space guru, Miles O'Brien, following the flight of the Phoenix.

O'BRIEN: That's such cool animation, isn't it?

PHILLIPS: You want to look at that again?

O'BRIEN: Let's do that one more time. Shall we, Scotty (ph)? Just one more time...

PHILLIPS: Do you want to give a little zoom of the rocket?

O'BRIEN: It's amazing. It's almost better than the real thing, the animation. There it is. You wouldn't want to put a camera there for the real thing.

Anyway, let's talk about Mars, shall we?

Take a picture -- a look at a picture of Mars. This one courtesy Hubble space telescope.

And Kyra, are you paying attention?

PHILLIPS: I am paying close attention.

O'BRIEN: All right. What do you find -- I want to call your attention to the North Pole regions. What do you see up there?

PHILLIPS: I don't see any polar bears.

O'BRIEN: No, you don't. No.

PHILLIPS: No.

But I see a lot of blue water.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's not water.

PHILLIPS: Do I see water?

O'BRIEN: It's ice. It's ice.

PHILLIPS: OK. I was close.

O'BRIEN: And the question is, is it possible that beneath the surface in the ice crystals there could be...

PHILLIPS: Yes?

O'BRIEN: ... at least for a brief period in the course of a year, liquid water? Because if there was liquid water there, even for a brief period of time, living creatures -- that would be redundant, wouldn't it?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Water in the liquid form, H2O in the liquid form. In any case, so if you wanted to find out more about this, and if those critters were in fact there...

PHILLIPS: What kind of critters, though?

O'BRIEN: We don't know.

PHILLIPS: Anything?

O'BRIEN: Who knows? Microscopic something or another.

PHILLIPS: Any sign of life? It could be little cells.

O'BRIEN: If you go to Antarctica and you go to these ice packs and you look at them, if they just have a brief period of liquid state in the course of a year, things live.

So, what do you want to do? Call out super backhoe. Take a look.

The Mars Phoenix slated for launch on August 3rd. It will come in with a parachute. It will drop its heat shield.

Hopefully all this is going to work, the landing gear will drop. It's got a little camera there for descent imagery. Down it goes rather precipitously.

This is the moment when they'll all be holding their breath at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Then the rockets hopefully will fire. On it goes to the surface of Mars, way up high in the northern climbs, the north pole of Mars.

Here's what happens after a short period of time. The solar arrays deploy.

Let's go to the next video, Scotty (ph). And...

PHILLIPS: Do they take samples or pictures?

O'BRIEN: I want to call your attention here. This is -- look, that is the backhoe.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: And it's going to dig a 20-inch trench. And it's going to take the material and put it into a little oven which is right on the surface there and cook it and see what's inside.

And who knows? Maybe they'll find something.

It's got a camera there, it's got a weather station, an antenna there. It is the latest in the Mars effort, which once again continues the effort of following the water, ancient water.

Now, let's -- speaking of ancient water...

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: ... as you well know, the Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit...

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: .. have proved conclusively that there was water on Mars millions of years ago. IT was (INAUDIBLE).

Take a look at Opportunity now. Now, that's the latest from Spirit, a picture of silica. Silica, by the way, that white stuff, that indicates water at one time or another.

Now, this is Victoria crater, made by a meteorite millions of years ago. And...

PHILLIPS: Why is it called Victoria crater?

O'BRIEN: I don't know.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: I'll have to get back to you on that.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: So, anyway, so down -- there we go. There's Opportunity. Been up there now for almost four years, seven miles on the odometer, 12 times its expected life, and down it will go. I'm told by Steve Squires (ph), the principal investigator on this, it's like an easy intermediate slope, OK?

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: But it could be a one-way trip for Opportunity. Down it will go to see what it can see.

PHILLIPS: Why a one-way trip?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's old.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: It's older than expected, but they're hoping it's not a "Thelma and Louise" act, that Opportunity will come back out and continue on, the Energizer Bunny of spacecraft, both Opportunity and Spirit.

PHILLIPS: And at the end of the day, what could we learn?

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, this is cosmic stuff, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: If, in fact, we find another branch of life on Mars...

PHILLIPS: Right?

O'BRIEN: Lots of questions to be asked. Is it possible life began there and then came here? Are we all Martians? Did somehow life get carried on a meteorite to Mars, the other direction? Or is it an entirely separate line of life?

PHILLIPS: You see, this would have been perfect for the 60th anniversary in Roswell last week when all the alien followers...

O'BRIEN: You had to go there, didn't you? You had to go to Roswell on me. Thanks.

Thanks. All right.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. We're going to talk more in the next hour. A little more Mars lander/rover.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: The n-word. Talk about a segue here, I don't know how we go from Mars -- the m-word to the n-word.

All right. Getting it out of the culture and into the ground. The NAACP steps out in the battle against a racial slur. We're going to debate it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, most businesses would tell you the customer is always right. Except in this case, if the customer becomes a pest.

Stephanie Elam joining us from Wall Street with more on that.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien in for Don Lemon. Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan comes up with a new strategy to end the war in Iraq and it involves House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We'll connect the dots for you there.

PHILLIPS: Our Bill Schneider has more on Sheehan's latest gambit and what it could mean for other Democrats the next time an election rolls around. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, with some key Republicans abandoning President Bush on Iraq, Democrats are again pressing hard to bring the troops home and at the same time one of the president's most vocal critics outside the Beltway, antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan.

Well, she's now turning her sights on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Joining us with his take on it all, senior political analyst Bill Schneider. Now Bill, correct me if I'm wrong, but Pelosi won't be up for re-election until November '08, right, President Bush will be heading out of office soon, so there's no point in impeaching. What's Cindy Sheehan really up to?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: ... Pelosi by really threatening her with an independent candidacy. That of course would go on the ballot in November '08, which is when we would elect a new president, but she wants to keep the pressure on Pelosi because Pelosi has said that she doesn't intend to put impeachment of President Bush on the agenda.

She's under pressure from Sheehan in her district because her district voted just 14 percent to reelect Bush in 2004. President Bush is extremely unpopular in that district. On the other hand, her fellow Democrats in the United States House probably don't want to have a vote on impeachment. They don't want to be forced to vote on it, so she's probably under pressure from them not to allow a vote. So she's kind of on the spot here.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about the Iraq War and how it's playing out in the Senate this week, big vote going on with this funding for troops. Now, what's going to happen with regard to Democratic senators running for president like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama? How could all of this affect them?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it turns the spotlight on the United States Senate as the next act of the presidential campaign. And all of them will be able to make speeches, support measures, sponsor or co-sponsor measures to end the war, which is exactly where they want to be in the presidential campaign.

This is a year when being in the Senate may actually be an advantage when you're running for president.

PHILLIPS: All right. What about Republican Senator John McCain? If you look at the latest CNN poll, it shows, I think it's about 63 percent of Americans want to pull troops out of Iraq and McCain is against that. So, what the strategy there?

SCHNEIDER: Well, McCain is running for the Republican nomination. And most Republicans, though the numbers are beginning to diminish, most Republicans still support the president in Iraq. I think what McCain wants to do, is when he comes back from Iraq, we'll see what he actually does, but he may try to strike out an independent course, not essentially breaking ranks with the president or opposing the war, not going as far as Senator Lugar or Senator Domenici did but trying to strike an independent course. Most Democrats want out of Iraq. Republicans want to win in Iraq. That's what John McCain says he wants to do. We're not winning in Iraq, so he may come out and give a speech talking about how we can win in Iraq and in that way distance himself from President Bush and cater to the Republican base.

PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider. We're following it all today. Thanks, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

O'BRIEN: The Department of Homeland Security needs to fill some top jobs ASAP. That from a new congressional report. It shows dozens and dozens of unfilled positions in the agency. Supposed to protect us from terrorism and other disasters, as you know. According to "The Washington Post," 138 of 575 top slots in DHS are vacant. The department says those figures are skewed by a manager expansion this spring. CNN's Kelli Arena joins us with more on this story next hour of NEWSROOM. Stay tuned for that.

Another developing story we're watching for you, the search for a missing Wisconsin college student. And there appears to be a body. But police aren't saying whether it is Kelly Nolan or not. They do say the person they found while searching for evidence in the Nolan case appears to be a homicide victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEL DESPAIN, PIO, MADISON POLICE: At approximately 8:45 this morning, one of the search teams discovered a body. At this hour, we have not made a positive identification. We have secured the area where the body was found, and as you might imagine, there's going to be much more extensive surveying of that area to see if we can find additional evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now Kelly Nolan went missing more than two weeks ago after a night out with friends. Her family says she was under stress but wouldn't have disappeared willingly. We expect a news conference at the top of the hour from Wisconsin. We'll bring it to you live when it happens.

PHILLIPS: Captors release a tiny girl. She's now safe in her parents' arms. But safety is a relative term in Nigeria where kidnapping is a growing industry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A frightening ordeal ends far little girl and her parents in Nigeria. But questions linger about the child's kidnapping and police know it won't be long before they have other abductions to worry about. CNN's Isha Sesay explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unharmed and reunited with her anxious parents. After four days in captivity, three-year-old Margaret Hill is back home playing happily following her release on Sunday evening. According to her parents, aside from being hungry and covered head to toe in mosquito bites, the little girl is in good health. The family made a visit to a local hospital in Port Harcourt following the child's release. Her parents are grateful their ordeal is over.

MIKE HILL, FATHER: People of Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta, cooperated very well with the security services who have actually done an excellent job. We thank them very much for getting Margaret free without too much damage and she's not really hurt.

SESAY: And back in Britain, news of Margaret's release was also greeted with joy and relief.

KATHY DUFFY, AUNT: Just absolutely delighted for the family and want them to know they are all thrilled.

SESAY: Gunmen seized Margaret last Thursday as she was being driven to school, smashing the car's window and grabbing the toddler. According to the girl's Nigerian-born mother Aluchi (ph), Margaret's captors initially her British father, Mike, swap places with his daughter. Police authorities advised against this. Then the kidnappers threatened to kill the three-year-old if a ransom was not paid. Few details have emerged about the circumstances surrounding Margaret's release. But the Nigerian authorities insist no money was handed over.

It's still unclear who abducted the girl with suspicions falling on a criminal gang. The Niger Delta is wracked by violence with militant groups frequently kidnapping foreign oil workers as they demand a greater autonomy in the region and a share in oil revenues.

At least 200 foreigners have been abducted in the last 18 months. Most have been released. The biggest such group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, disowned Margaret's kidnapping and vowed to find the perpetrators.

Margaret is the third child to be snatched in recent weeks. The other two, both Nigerian children, were released unharmed after ransoms were paid. Unlike those kidnappings, Margaret Hill's case attracted huge media attention around the world. President Umaru Mussa Yar'Adua appealed for her release.

The eyes of the world were on the Nigerian authorities watching closely how this episode unfolded. That global attention may have helped with Margaret's release. But for her parents, all that matters is that their little girl is safe and back home. Isha Sesay, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Call it a requiem for racial slur, an epithet with no epitaph. The NAACP held a funeral march for the N-word bearing the one expression that carries decades worth of racial baggage. The symbolic funeral took place during the organization's convention in Detroit. Board Chairman Julian Bond called on both whites and blacks to throw six feet of dirt over the word. The NAACP held a similar ceremony for Jim Crow back in 1944.

But hold on a sec. Should the N word be buried at all? Some say its meaning depends on the person who says it. One man's slur, another man's slang. Two different views from CNN's AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: In terms of growing up, in terms of you hearing it at the park and in the school, all over the place, it became so ingrained. But growing up, my dad didn't call me that. My mom didn't call me that. They called me Roland. And so, I reached a point where, again, it was so much a part of hearing it, it became accepted, and I reached the point where I said, wait a minute, this is not a word that I should accept. Even if somebody said, hey, you know, that's my man, that's my boy, I'd rather use those phrases than, frankly, saying that's my nigga. It is not a term of endearment.

MICHEL ERIC DYSON, CULTURAL CRITIC: Roland, for you, I'm not suggesting that's a prerogative you exercise, but to suggest that's a universal term that everybody has to subscribe to would be different. I think that if you feel that way, that's fine, but there are many other African American people, which is why it shows you that the burying of the N word will not be effective.

Martin Luther King Jr., the night he was killed, said to Andrew Young, "Little nigger, where you been?" He used it as a term of endearment.

Now there's a difference because rap music has now made it accessible to the world because of its circulation throughout the country and indeed throughout the globe, but the point is to have, I think, a reductive and narrow and simplistic understanding of that term mentions the use in history and suggests to us that white people are exercising control over our lives that we don't have.

Don Imus cannot be the leader of black America. Let's within our own ranks suggest that there are differences and complexities and nuances that we should respect and acknowledge on both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And coming up at 3:30 Eastern, we're going to get a third perspective. Comedian Paul Mooney is going to join us live. He's talked about this issue before. Let's just say for him, it's no joking matter.

I'm Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. A Hollywood celebrity and sports superstar tied the knot in lavish style this weekend. That story and much, much more next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're heading to Hollywood now. Our Brooke Anderson with all the scoop that everybody's buzzing about. And I guess we should start with the big weekend wedding.

One of the hottest brides in Hollywood.

ANDERSON: Well, let's start with that. It was quite a storybook wedding, Kyra. Eva Longoria has probably never been desperate in her life, but she is now a wife for the second time. The star of "Desperate Housewives" and basketball star Tony Parker followed up a small civil ceremony Friday with a Catholic Church ceremony in Paris on Saturday.

After the wedding service was performed in the shadow of the Louvre, the party moved to a chateau in the French countryside. The groom, who is also the reigning NBA Finals MVP for the world champion San Antonio spurs, grew up in France. Most of Longoria's co-stars were on hand as well as stars like Sheryl Crow and Terrence Howard and a lot of Tony's teammates as well. "OK" magazine has reportedly bought the rights to the official wedding photos for, get this Kyra, $2 million.

PHILLIPS: Ooh. Two million bucks?

ANDERSON: It's hard to imagine the amount of money that changes hands for these types of events.

PHILLIPS: My goodness. All right. What's the next subject matter in Hollywood news?

ANDERSON: Well, the next subject matter is, you know, you have to look at the source. You have to make sure it's really reputable when you see these stories coming out. You have to take it with a grain of salt. For example, there were reports Lionel Richie was supposed to perform at Longoria's wedding but he was actually in New Orleans at the Essence Music Festival on Saturday. Richie performed at the festival but made headlines for what he said afterward about his troubled daughter, Nicole. Lionel told reporters that Nicole is just in an unfortunate situation. She's scheduled to start trial Wednesday for allegedly driving under the influence.

Lionel said that his daughter keeps apologizing to him for everything and he tells her, quote, "You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing to your father at that age." He added that if all of the scrutiny were around when he was becoming famous with the Commodores, quote, "God only know what is my parents would have seen."

Nicole Richie could be facing up to 90 days in jail, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Oh boy. All right. What's coming up tonight?

ANDERSON: Coming up tonight on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, we're going to talk about controversial celebrities, Britney, Paris, they're all on the list. But who is the most controversial? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT is going to name it, who stands the best chance of winning, the controversial top five countdown on TV's most provocative entertainment show, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT 11:00 Eastern and Pacific, A.J. Hammer and I hope to see you then.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: What's wrong with Clay Aiken? He got in a fight on the airplane? What's the deal?

ANDERSON: Apparently he got into a little fight with a passenger. She said he had his feet on her armrest. The FBI says she gave him a minor shove and that was that. No charges were filed, nothing affected the flight, fortunately, and Clay even joked about it at his concert in Tulsa that night.

PHILLIPS: What's the deal? Had a bad pedicure? Had an issue with her toes? What the deal?

ANDERSON: Who knows? But you have to be careful with your plane etiquette on those flights. People get testy, you know.

PHILLIPS: That is true. Drives you crazy when they kick the back of the chair.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: All right, Brooke. We'll be watching tonight. Thanks.

Well, a new book, a new movie, now new hope for thousands of frenzied Harry Potter fans. This online save Harry Potter petition has gotten author J.K. Rowling's attention. The series was supposed to end with book seven, "The Deathly Hollows." Now Rowling hints that she might revisit Hogwart's School of Magic.

Still it is not be clear if that would be with or without Harry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to survive in the next book? Are you going to survive?

DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR, "HARRY POTTER": I don't know, and if I did, I couldn't possibly tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Rowling says the seventh book in the series brings Harry's story to a clear end but adds, never say never.

Well, Potter fans, set your calendars. Actor Daniel Radcliffe joins LARRY KING LIVE Wednesday night 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

O'BRIEN: And I bet Larry will ask that question as well. And he still will get a non answer.

Well, it's got flavor, it's got fizz, but does it have a chemical linked to cancer? There's a soft drink ingredient you need to know about ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Stop before you take another sip. With every sip of that soft drink, you might be gulping down a small amount of a chemical linked to cancer. Benzene turning up in several popular brands, an accidental byproduct of two more innocent additives. Here's CNN's Greg Hunter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All of these soft drinks are mentioned in a lawsuit that claims they may contain benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer. Without claiming anyone has been harmed by benzene, the suit asks for the products to be reformulated.

TIM HOWARD, ATTORNEY: The cancer creation may be 20, 30 years from now, maybe 3 35 years from now, so it's a long progressive cumulative effect and this benzene can be the tipping point to cancer when you're 70 or living till you're 90.

HUNTER: Among the products named in the suit, Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, Sunny Delight Baja Orange, Diet Rockstar, Vault Zero, Fanta Pineapple, Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange, Polar and Publix Diet Lemon Lime Soda.

(on camera): Testing by the FDA, Consumers Union and the beverage industry itself has shown benzene can form when two ingredients, ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, and sodium benzoate, a preservative, are exposed to extreme heat.

(voice-over): The FDA has no standard for how much benzene is allowed in beverages but the Environmental Protection Agency does are have a limit for benzene in drinking water, no more than 5 pars per billion. FDA tests of more than 100 drinks off store shelves found only four with levels above that five parts per billion. The rest contain much less. But the plaintiffs' tests produced different results.

(on camera): How high were the benzene levels you found when you put these drinks under a stress test?

HOWARD: Some of them were as high 19 parts per billion. We had as high as 80 parts per billion.

HUNTER (voice-over): Plaintiff's attorneys paid for independent tests. Where drinks are left unopened in 115 degree heat for three days, the same stress test they say manufacturers use.

(on camera): Neither the FDA nor any of the manufacturers named in the lawsuit would go on camera. They did issue written statements. The FDA said, "We do not believe that there's a public health concern for any population group, including children."

But Coca-Cola agreed to settle the case in May and has reformulated Vault Zero and Fanta Pineapple. The company will provide refunds to consumers.

A spokesman told us, "The Coca-Cola Company's products are and remain safe and they comply with all applicable regulations. The company is aware that extremely low levels of benzene, in parts per billion, may be found under certain conditions."

Pepsi also recently agreed to settle. A company spokesman told CNN, "When this issue first came to light, as an extra precaution, we reformulated the product, but again, we didn't think it was a safety issue, as the FDA would attest."

But to plaintiff Liseth Gordon, a mother of four, it is about safety.

(on camera): The FDA says that they don't see a problem. What do you say as a mother?

LISBETH GORDON, SUING SOFT DRINK MAKERS: I think it's a major problem. It's a major problem.

HUNTER (voice-over): Other defendants like Rockstar, Shasta, Sunny Delight and Public Supermarkets told CNN they cannot comment on current litigation.

Kraft, which makes Crystal Light, said the suit was dismissed because the company had already implemented changes that addressed their concerns. Polar did not return our calls. Consumer advocates say the FDA should have done more to protect the consumer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is really about a problem that frankly the FDA has been negligent in addressing for many, many years now. It's taken expensive lawsuits and consumers taking manufacturers to court in order to get them to settle to reformulate their beverages.

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