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American Morning
Oprah Winfrey Speaking Up; Hillary Clinton Fighting Back
Aired November 05, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
EMILY CHANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Musharraf has recently been threatened by the return of exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. We've just spoke within Bhutto's spokesman who said 67 of her own political party, 67 members of her own political party have been detained and that's in addition to hundreds of other political opponents who have been detained across Pakistan.
The U.S. has called all of the events, these events very disturbing. The U.S. and Britain consider Pakistan to be a very important political ally, especially in the war on terror. They've given billions and billions of dollars to Pakistan to fight the war on terror. Now both countries are saying that that aid will be reviewed.
Now, early this morning, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was traveling in China. Let's hear what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We urge President Musharraf to return his country to a law-based constitutional and democratic rule as soon as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANG: Now the Pakistan prime minister has said this state of emergency will remain in place, quote, "as long as it is necessary". And it's believed that General Musharraf, this might be a last ditch attempt on his part to cling to power. He may have been pre-empting a decision by the supreme court that could have jeopardized his re- election as president. The government, however, insisted they remain committed to democracy -- Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Emily Chang for us in London, thank you.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Hollywood writers are on strike this morning and could be walking the picket line within hours. The Writer's Guild could not reach a deal with the studios over revenues from DVDs and downloads. The late night talk shows will be the first to feel the effects. Prime time shows are taped ahead at quite a substantial distance and could go a few months before having to return to return reruns.
Oprah Winfrey will make her first public comments about the scandal at her school for girls in South Africa. A dorm matron is accused of sexually assaulting students. Oprah will be part of a live news conference scheduled for an hour from now. And we'll bring you that live here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Coastal New England, meanwhile, is cleaning this morning from the remnants of Hurricane Noel; 80,000 homes lost power, more than five inches of rain fell this weekend in Maine and another six inches in parts of Massachusetts. Noel was blamed for more than 140 deaths in the Caribbean. It was a slow-moving storm when it passed over the island of Espanola and all of that rain coming down those steep slopes made for massive flooding. That's what took people's lives -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, also new this morning, he appears to have the votes but there are still some doubts about the president's nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey. A Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote tomorrow. Republican Senator Arlen Specter now says he will back the nominee, but he's still bothered, he says, by Mukasey's refusal to say whether water boarding is torture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTOR (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The Department of Justice is dysfunctional, it is not performing. And every day that passes we do not have someone in charge of the investigation against terrorism, the fight against violent crime, and it's very important in the national interest that we have a strong attorney general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Water boarding is an interrogation tactic that simulates drowning. Mukasey has said that if Congress passes a law banning it, the president can't ignore it.
The Space Shuttle Discovery is headed home. Discovery undocked from the International Space Station a short while ago. Its mission highlighted by a first of its kind repair job. They went out and fixed a ripped solar wing. Discovery is scheduled to touch down Wednesday, after a 15-day trip.
In southern Mexico, flood waters are receding but thousands are still homeless this morning. At least eight people have died in the floods which destroyed or damaged 500,000 homes.
Mexico's president says the flooding is one of the worst -- country's natural disasters in recent history.
ROBERTS: Police in the Chicago area still have no clues in the mysterious disappearance of a police officer's wife. Twenty-three- year-old Stacy Peterson was last seen on October the 28th. Dozens of volunteers search for evidence over the weekend. Stacy's husband, Drew Peterson, says his wife called him the day she disappeared to say that she was leaving him for another man. Some of her friends and family say Sergeant Peterson may have something to do with Stacy's disappearance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that he's running scared. I think, obviously, he has something to hide, if he took off, you know, and he's not helping. If he didn't do anything wrong, why isn't he helping find his wife?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: At the moment authorities consider her disappearance a missing person's case and do not suspect foul play, but they did reopen the investigation into the death of Peterson's third wife, who was found dead in a bathtub back in 2004.
A teacher from Nebraska faces a judge today on charges that she had an affair with a 13-year-old student, and then ran away with him to Mexico. The 25-year-old Kelsey Peterson and 13-year-old Fernando Rodriguez were captured in Mexicali, Mexico, over the weekend. Rodriguez was in the U.S. illegally and may not be allowed to return -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning. Oil surges to a new record high. So, how badly will that affect your morning commute? Ali Velshi at our Business Update Desk.
Hi, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
I'm leaving the barrel because it's getting to hard. I'm straining muscles every day having to pick this barrel up and pull it over here. Maybe I'll wait for $100. Oil closed at $95.93 on Friday, that was the settled price in New York again. The highest price it's ever settled at. We've seen it go above $96 in sort of overnight electronic trading, which is real but we usually look at the settled price.
It's still trending upward. Most people think toward $100. The question now sort of is once it gets to that point, does it pull back, or does it continue to go higher? Obviously, this is going to affect the price of gasoline. I say obviously -- and underscore that -- because every time I talk about that we get e-mails, from people, who way well, that's not necessarily true. Guess what? It is necessarily true.
Gas is now $3 a gallon average price per gallon of self-serve unleaded up 23 cents in a month. For those of you who would like to e- mail and tell me there's no connection between gas and oil prices, knock yourselves out -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, maybe your computer will be lighting up in a couple of minutes. Thanks. Ali.
Well, Rob Marciano at the Weather Update Desk. He's tracking extreme weather and it's November and getting cold.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Coming up to eight minutes after the hour. We all picked up an extra hour of sleep this weekend, and wasn't that great? But it's your kids who may benefit the most. A dramatic new study links the lack of sleep with obesity and poor test scores. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is at the Medical Update Desk for us this morning and joins us now.
Elizabeth, let's take a look at this sleep deprivation obesity link first.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Isn't it amazing, John? I think all parents know if your kid doesn't get enough sleep they'll be grouchy but did you know they also might get fat? And that is the conclusion of this new study that a lack of sleep can make your child gain weight. Or to put it a different way, for every hour that your child gets some sleep, it gives them a 20 percent less -- it makes them 20 percent less likely that they're going to become overweight.
Now they're not quite sure exactly why this is true. One of the reasons might possibly be that sleepy kids just don't exercise, so they're too exhausted to exercise. There might also be some hormonal issues involved -- John.
ROBERTS: What about the test scores issue? I know sleep deprivation definitely dulls the brain. We've all had experience with that. How does it affect children?
COHEN: Right. Absolutely, well, now we're looking at teenagers. And I'll make a -- in the first study we were looking at sixth graders, the obesity study. Now we looking at teenagers. Teenagers need a lot of sleep, in fact, they need more sleep than kids who are younger than them, school-aged children, a seven and eight year old, somewhere around that age, they need let's say about eight to 10 hours of sleep.
But teenagers they need even more. And so what studies have found is that when school districts changed their start times and let those teens have an extra hour of sleep, test scores improved.
ROBERTS: Interesting. You said that teens need a lot more sleep. Some studies have found that they need 10 hours of sleep a day. That's pretty impossible when you look at the homework load. Is it possible for these kids to catch up on the weekend, or is sleep lost, is sleep lost?
COHEN: In some ways it is possible. You have to sort of see what kind of kid your kid is. Some kids can catch up on the weekend and be fine. Others kids, they are going to crash on a Monday. They're going to get all that sleep on the weekend and then Monday or Tuesday, they're going to say well, I was enjoying all of that sleep I got on the weekend. What happened? So, you really have to see.
But what you can do and this sounds crazy, but ask your kid to take a nap after school. I know that sounds crazy but they're kind of like toddlers. Sometimes they need to nap and a half-hour nap after school can really do a lot of good.
ROBERTS: Thomas Edison lived his life not sleeping much at night and taking frequent naps. COHEN: There you go, your kid can grow up to be a Thomas Edison.
ROBERTS: Maybe words to live by. Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning.
Elizabeth, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: And one pregnant lady could run a marathon, but I don't know if we could all do it. There are special people out there.
Well, Citigroup has a new chairman this morning, but the same crippling credit problems. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin named at an emergency board meeting yesterday. The nation's highest bank has been hit hard by bad loans, having to write off billions of dollars.
And Google to go? Today Google announces its new G-Phone. It's been one of the hottest tech topics on the blogs. Google will reportedly offer free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and web browser.
And the Pakistan dilemma: Democracy is on hold. There's chaos and protest in the streets. How tough will the United States be on one of its key allies in the war on terror? We're going to get some insight from a former player inside of the Bush State Department ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Some dramatic video in your "Quick Hits" now. A 100-car pile-up near Fresno, California, witnesses say thick fog made it hard to see anything. One California highway patrol officer called it something out of a movie, walking up and seeing all the cars mangled and crushed. At least two people were killed, including a five-year- old boy. Rescuers had to pull several people trapped in the wreckage. More than three dozen were taken to hospitals.
In China, The Olympics will be around long after the closing ceremonies. A Chinese paper says close to 3,500 children have been named Olympics in honor of 2008 Beijing games. It is just one way parents are trying to separate their kids from the pack in China, where an estimated 1 billion people share just 129 family names -- John.
ROBERTS: Coming up on 15 minutes after the hour. Our top story, Pakistan in crises: The government is cracking down on protesters. Hundreds of lawyers have been rounded up and thrown in jail. This morning questions about what the future holds and how the U.S. should respond. Richard Haas is the former head of State Department policy planning and current president on the Council on Foreign Relations. He joins us now.
Richard, always great to see you. Enjoy you sharing your expertise with us.
The U.S. is in a real pickle now. It's got its major ally in the war on terror in that region but it's also got this idea that it's been promoting democracy. What can it do? I mean, could it really put the screws to Musharraf, knowing what the potential consequences might be?
RICHARD HAAS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: The shorthand is the United States can't do an awful lot. You described the situation all too well. It gives Pakistan an awful lot of leverage against the United States. So what it means is the United States can denounce what's going on, and we should loudly, frequently, so no one is under any misunderstanding.
But we can't, for example, cut off all aid. That would hurt us even more than it would hurt them because quite honestly the United States is dependent on Pakistan, as imperfect as it is, as a principle partner in the war against terrorism.
ROBERTS: But does the White House risk looking hypocritical in the eyes of the world? As we said President Bush has been out there promoting democracy. Now it appears he's back to the old U.S. days of propping up dictators, that just seem to serve a purpose for the United States.
HAAS: It's one of the reasons that this administration was unwise to place such an emphasis on democracy, whether the country is Russia, China or Pakistan. The hard truth is the United States simply does not have the luxury of making the promotion of democracy its foreign policy priority. We may need Russia's help Iran or China's help against North Korea, or now Pakistan's help against terrorism. And in all of these situations we sometimes have to put democracy promotion on the back burner.
ROBERTS: Was it a surprise to you that Musharraf did not take off his uniform. You said in a recent interview you thought he would.
HAAS: It was. I saw him maybe two or three weeks ago but at that point he did not think the supreme court was going to rule his recent election invalid. At that point he was confident that things were going his way and that he would take off his uniform. And he could enter in a political transition, or relationship with Benazir Bhutto. Now, all of that is off. He clearly wasn't counting on this. And what he's done is obviously cracked down hard.
ROBERTS: There's the fact that he's cracked down, the military is now in control. Might that actually aid Pakistan in its attempts to go after militants and the Taliban, particularly in those wild tribal regions along the border, or is he going to have his hands full with keeping the lid on dissent?
HAAS: It won't help him at all. He will have his hands full dealing with public order in most of the country. The real problem is not the people protesting. The real problem is not an independent supreme court, or parliament. The real problem is that Pakistan's army has been just this side of feckless in taking on the radicals and extremists and so forth. They don't have the police forces they really need.
So, quite honestly, Mr. Musharraf, while citing the threat that Pakistan faces, none of this will help him, plus it will give them an extra security challenge to take on.
ROBERTS: How long do you think the U.S. is going to have to bite the bullet on this? Musharraf has said delay elections for a year. But one of his aids said, hey, if you want progress in the war on terror, we're talking about two to three years before we can have elections.
HAAS: Again, that's ridiculous that somehow there's a trade off, if they suspend democracy, it make them more capable. As we just said, it will make them less capable.
What the United States may have to do besides denouncing this is look for ways to perhaps slightly, manipulate, or condition the flow of aid. For example, we've been giving Pakistan a blank check, getting $100s of millions virtually every month to spend as they see fit. What I would like to see is the United States starting to direct that aid much more specifically and try to win over the army. Mr. Musharraf can only get away with this if the army supports him. What we need to do is try to build a wedge between Musharraf and the army, which is his base.
ROBERTS: It's some difficult decisions being made by the State Department and White House in the next few days.
HAAS: For sure.
ROBERTS: Richard Haas, good to see you, thanks for coming in.
CHETRY: Smoke signals from a volcano topping your "Quick Hits". It could mean a volcano in Indonesia is ready to blow. So far 25,000 residents have ignored evacuation warnings. They are actually staying in the danger zone.
North Korea expected to start disabling its nuclear facilities today. It shut down its only known working reactor in July and promised to decommission it in exchange for aid. A U.S. team will oversee that dismantling.
Tough leader or victim? Hillary Clinton taking heat for apparently trying to play it both ways. Our Candy Crowley and the rest of the Election Express will make a stop in Iowa with more on that.
Also, rumbling and stumbling, a 340-pound lineman lumbering with the ball. Can he go all the way? We'll take a look coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 22 minutes after the hour. Another case of the drug-resistant staph infection, MRSA, to report to you this morning. A college freshman at New York University has tested positive for MRSA. The student lived in a dorm but the university says there is no danger to the rest of the student body. Cargill is recalling more than a million pounds of ground beef because of possible e. Coli contamination. It was produced between October 8th and 11th at a plant in Pennsylvania, and shipped to retailers nationwide, including Giant, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop, Wegmans and Weis. No illnesses have been reported, though. It's the second voluntary recall by Cargill in the past month.
CHETRY: All right, talk about slow motion. Linemen can wait their entire careers for a moment like this. Let's check out the play, Detroit's Sean Rogers grabs an interception in a game against Denver. And there he goes, all 340 pounds, pretty light on his feet, though, throws a stiff arm there, and boom. Finishes off with the big man's version of a dive. He by the way is 6'4", 340 pounds. The Broncos quarterback, quote, "He's large. He's very large." By the way the game was a blowout, the Lions beating up on the Broncos 44-7.
ROBERTS: I wonder who the run measured on the Richter scale.
CHETRY: How about that one? You see him coming towards you, you just sort of just get out of the way.
ROBERTS: You can almost feel the field rumble there.
CHETRY: Well, it's portable peace and quiet, also happens to be illegal. This is something that is the size of a pack of cigarettes. There it is. It is known as a cell phone jammer. You push a button and you can actually disable and silence every cell phone within earshot. Sounds like something a lot of people who ride the bus or train to work would like to have in their pockets. But it is illegal. The argument over cell phone jammers coming up in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING.
Also that leads us to our "Quick Vote". We want to know what you think. Would you use a cell phone jammer, even though it's not legal, here in the U.S.? Cast your vote at CNN.com/am. Right now, 68 percent of you say yes, would you use it. But 32 percent say no. We'll update the votes throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: It's a favorite pet peeve of a lot of people. You know, traveling on public transportation, and somebody's yammering away on the cell phone.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: And at a very loud volume. People always think they have to talk more loudly when they're talking on a cell phone.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly. It's weird because you can buy them online. They're not illegal in places like Europe and Asia. So you can get them shipped here and some of those retailers say they've seen a jump this year.
ROBERTS: We'll see if it's a trend that catches on here and whether or not it's prosecuted.
A look at a story coming up in our next half hour that you can't miss. Got a headache? The dog ate my homework. In today's high-tech world the hack excuses don't cut it anymore.
CHETRY: That's right, you need proof. You need to show you really were sick. But for one easy payment of $19.95 there is a company that will do that for you. These fake excuses that look and sound very real. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE WEINSTEIN, PH. D., THEETHICSGUY.COM: Every time I think our culture has sunk to a new low, something comes along to suggest that we have sunk even lower, and this is that story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Myexcusedabsence.com, they'll even send you a doctor's note. And they'll even print out a very realistic looking funeral program.
ROBERTS: While you go out on the golf course and hit a few.
CHETRY: That's right. So have we hit rock bottom?
ROBERTS: Our Ed Lavandera is going to report on that, that was him out on the golf course. We'll have that story and today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Beautiful shot this morning from South Carolina, Charleston, that is. Coming to us courtesy of WCSC; 60 degrees out there right now. Sunny today, and shaping up to be a high of 74 degrees with zero chance of precipitation. Pretty day there in Charleston.
ROBERTS: Just lovely. Look at that.
CHETRY: Welcome back. It's Monday, November 5th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
A chaotic situation in Pakistan this morning, where democracy it literally on hold. President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution. Police had to use tear gas and batons to control a crowd of attorneys and journalists outside a courthouse. And 1,500 people were arrested. One person who has not been arrested is President Musharraf, himself, despite rumors that he was under house arrest. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the Pakistan situation could have a major impact throughout the world.
Pakistan had parliamentary elections scheduled for January but have been postponed until things return to normal.
President Bush and the prime minister of Turkey are scheduled to meet today to discuss the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish officials want Washington to redouble efforts against the rebels. Members of the PKK have stepped up their cross- border attacks. The White House is trying to persuade Turkey not to launch a full-scale military attack across the border into Iraq.
And an autopsy on the marathon runner who died during the Olympic trials in New York this weekend was inconclusive. Ryan Shay was running in Saturday's Olympic marathon qualifier, different than the New York City marathon, when he collapsed just five and a half miles in. Shay was diagnosed with an enlarged heart years ago but had been cleared by doctors to run. He was 28 years old. Coming up: We'll be joined by medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen with more on the story.
We're back to $3 a gallon for gasoline. According to the latest numbers from AAA, the average price for a gallon of self (ph) serve regular is now an even three bucks, that's up 23 cents over the past month. By with oil prices nearing $100 a barrel, the rise in gas prices was pretty much expected.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Oprah Winfrey is speaking up this morning as a former worker at her all-girls school in South Africa has appeared in court. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho was following the developments for us and we expect to actually hear from Oprah herself in about 30 minutes.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, at 8:00 Eastern Time we're going to carry that live here on AMERICAN MORNING. And another woman is out on bail now. The court appearance happened in South Africa just a couple of hours ago. The suspect is 27-year-old tiny Virginia Macoba. This is photo we just got in to our newsroom, Macoba leaving the courthouse. She was a dorm matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, she charged this morning with 13 counts of abuse, assault, and soliciting girls for indecent acts.
Now, there were seven victims in all, most between the ages of 13 and 14. One was actually 23 years old. Police told CNN at least one of the allegations is that the woman grabbed one of the girls by the throat and threw her against the wall. Other allegations include those of a more sexual nature, and it's hard to imagine this, especially when you look at those picture there, just a short ten months ago there was a lavish ribbon cutting ceremony, Mariah Carey was there, Spike Lee was there. Oprah unveiled her $40 million namesake academy, she paid for it with her own money and she even handpicked each and every one of the 152 students, all are poor. Everyone is straight "A" student. The school provides free tuition, uniforms, room and board. It's the big deal for these girls.
Oprah has actually made two trips to the school since the allegations became public. She's also hired her own investigators. On Friday, she issued a statement saying, quote, "It is my deepest hope that the accused is brought to justice and that this serves as a reminder that any time a child has the courage to step forward, it is our duty as adults to listen and take immediate action." Now as Kiran talked about a moment ago, Oprah will be going before the cameras again this morning that, will be coming up in about 30 minutes at 8:00 o'clock eastern time, she's going to be talking via satellite from Chicago. Kiran, we'll take it live. CHETRY: All right. Sounds good, thanks a lot, Alina.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: Coming up on 33 minutes after the hour, now, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is fighting back. She is denying allegations that she is using her status as the race's only major woman candidate to get sympathy votes. Outspoken John Edwards supporter Kate Michaelman wrote this week that Mrs. Clinton portrays herself quote, "At one minute the strong woman ready to lead, the next she's the woman under attack, disingenuously playing the victim card as a means of trying to avoid giving honest, direct answers to legitimate questions." CNN's senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley is live from the election express in Des Moines, Iowa, with more on this and all these presidential politics. Good morning to you, candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: good morning, John. You know, Kate Michaelman is not the only one that has taken Clinton to task, by ever since the debate last week. A columnnist of both "Washington Post" and the "New York Times" female columnist took Clinton to task for what she did in the aftermath of that debate. As you know, during that debate, considered Clinton's worse so far, her opponents really went after her. The Clinton campaign then put out a web video called "Pile on," showing all of her male opponents saying Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton. She then went up to Wellesley, her alma mater and said it was here that I was prepared to take on the all-male environment of the presidential race.
So that's when they all began to talk about Hillary Clinton playing the female card. She has, over the weekend, really begun to try to push back on this. She says, "I don't think they piled on me because I'm a woman. I think they piled on me because I'm the front- runner." She had former presidential contestants, Walter Mondale with her yesterday, endorsing her and Mondale said you know, I told Hillary Clinton that I went through the same thing as a front-runner, and that of course is what happens, John, when you're ahead in the polls.
ROBERTS: Candy, you also had a chance to talk with Joe Biden over the weekend, and there seems to be a trend toward on the Democratic side this idea that if Hillary becomes the nominee, the race is going to be all about Hillary.
CROWLEY: Sure, absolutely. The whole, and that fits in to the electability theme that a lot of her opponents are putting out there, that in some of those red states in the South, in the interior West, that she won't play well there, and can't pick up states. So, when I talked to Biden, he has said previously that he thought Mrs. Clinton has baggage. Now, he says what that means is really that her biggest asset and her biggest liability is Bill Clinton. He says, in fact, that if Hillary Clinton becomes the nominee for the Democrats, it will change the conversation in the general campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not Senator Clinton's fault, but right now, if anyone else is the nominee, it's going to be about Bush, and his legacy. Senator Clinton, because of the power of the name and the power of the family and the popularity of the family, as well as the detractors, I think will be an awful lot about Clinton as opposed to about Bush.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: One last thing about the Clintons, John. I asked Biden if he would be the vice presidential nominee and he said, no way because with Bill Clinton in the White House, that vice presidential slot is likely to be ceremonial.
ROBERTS: Much more power is the senator from Delaware. We should point out the to candidate that interview was shot aboard the election express while you were traveling so that's why it was a little bit bumpy and we could also see they were getting closer to caucus time there in Iowa because the weather is definitely beginning to go downhill.
CROWLEY: It's what they call wind gusts here, yes; it's gotten a cold front coming in according to TV this morning.
ROBERTS: All right, get those mittens out. Candy Crowley for us this morning from Des Moines. Candy, thanks very much. Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, have you ever been stuck somewhere next to a person talking loudly on a cellphone? There is a new device to make that person go away or at least shut up, but is it legal? And would that stop you? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Just about 20 minutes to the top of the hour. Rob Marciano in our severe weather center in Atlanta, checking in on all things weather today, and it was a windy weekend up there in New England, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHER CENTER: It was. They had well over hurricane-force winds along the cape for sure and there's still folks without power across parts of Eastern Massachusetts. So, Noel long gone but some of the wind gusts certainly impressive, Barnstable MA's 89 mile an hour wind gust in Nantucket, 72 mile an hour wind gust, Plymouth (INAUDIBLE) 66 mile-an-hour wind gust, even in Boston up 44 mile an hour.
So, that's certainly enough to take down trees and power lines and we saw a fair amount of damage there. Next item up for bit as far as weather goes, we have rainfall heading across parts of Michigan, this is the warm sector of what's turning out to be the coldest air of the season, behind not one but two fronts about to die down across parts of the East and all the way down to the South as well.
Temperature across the upper Great Lakes and the northern tier will be in the low teens at least to start the day and we do have warm water across the great lakes so there will be lake effect snow tonight in through Tuesday. There are winter storm warnings up for the U.P. of Michigan. The only weird thing about this, it was so warm in October that the lakes are above normal temperature-wise so almost too warm for lake effect snow, even though this air is so cold, along the immediate side of the great lakes we might see rain mixed with snow, but you could see six to ten to 12 inches of snowfall across parts of Michigan. Seasons are a-changing. Kiran?
CHETRY: They really are. All right, Rob thanks so much. Well, people on cellphones can be incredibly annoying and really there's nothing much you can do about it, though, right? Well, now, some are taking this into their own hands with cell phone jammers. Growing in popularity what these are? There's a look at the portable device, sends out a radio signal that essentially kills cellphone signals around you. It may be tempting to use, maybe at the movie theater, when you are on a bus or a train, it's not legal though. We're going to talk to AMERICAN MORNING legal analyst, Sunny Hostin about how people are trying to get around this anyway because it's always strange when they do these things with radar detectors as well. You can't sell one, so what's the deal with the them here in the U.S.?
SUNNY HOSTIN, AMERICAN MORNING LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I've got to tell, I've probably been jammed. I'm one of the worst offenders because I'm so busy, always on the phone if I'm on public transportation but they are illegal if you're on a bus or on a train - it's a public space. So, you are not allowed to do this. The jammers basically interfere with the cell phone carrier's signal. People pay, the SEC gives the cell phone carriers the signals and it's akin to property theft if you are jamming those signals.
CHETRY: They also cite the fact it can disrupt potentially emergency services, first responders like police and fire.
HOSTIN: No question. I did some research and interestingly enough 100,000 emergency calls are placed from cell phones every day. I've given my son a cell phone. What was really, really scary to me was the bus driver jamming the kid's cell phones. What if there is an emergency, what if mom needs to reach the child, what if there's a criminal that gets a hold of this and the criminal knocks out all of the phones in someone's home so that person can't make a 911 call? This is very, very dangerous and it should be punished. The problem with it is it's difficult to know whether or not you've been jammed or you just don't have signal.
CHETRY: That's right. And the other thing, we'll talk about that for a second, but even if they're illegal, people can get them because they're not illegal overseas. Of course with the Internet, you can get anything from anywhere. So how do they even regulate or enforce it?
HOSTIN: Well, it's very difficult, I mean the SEC -- there's a fine of $11,000 or up to one year in prison if you have one of these jammers and that's for someone that has it, manufactures it, sells it, but how do you enforce it and right now, no one is enforcing it. I guess you have to monitor the Internet, I guess you have to have some sting operations but the bottom line is if you're on the train and you know, your cell phone drops, you need to think twice because you may have been jammed. CHETRY: It's interesting because you can keep it in your pocket and they can push a button. You can't tell who did it.
HOSTIN: You can't. I'm going to start looking around because I think I'm getting jammed every day.
CHETRY: Well, you know, I didn't take you for talking on the cell phone, I'm so disappointed. The interesting thing though is that this is actually growing in popularity. A couple of the Internet retailers where this is legal in places like Europe and Asia are reporting seeing the traffic doubling of orders into the United States.
HOSTIN: Absolutely and look at our online poll. The last I saw, 68 percent would use it. Stop jamming people!
CHETRY: Exactly, and that we're going to actually talk about that right now. Sunny, thanks so much for being with us. See, Sunny doesn't want to get jammed so she's against this. We want to know what you think -- would you use a cell phone jammer even though it is illegal? Cast your vote at CNN.com/am and as she said right now, let's take a look. There is the majority of people that we looked at last time we had this poll up say they would use it. I believe it was 68 percent saying yes, and 32 percent saying no. That hasn't changed much.
All right. By the way, we want to let you know about something and you love this one too Sunny by the way, this is the best inventions of 2007 from "Time" magazine. Well, I'm wearing one of them. They look like a normal pair of high heels like this, right? However for the woman who has to commute and run around, the heels actually retract.
HOSTIN: Love it!
CHETRY: And suddenly you have a pair of flats on to get back to the desk to John Roberts. How about that? And when I come somewhere else you can just flip them back out again and they're heels. Now, you what to get for Christmas for all the way (INAUDIBLE). We'll talk more about some of these cool inventions, also a wireless cell phone charger and many, many more. But he ladies this morning, Sunny, Alina, everyone loves these shoes.
ROBERTS: Make sure you have them locked in before you take off, I can see the results of not like that.
"Transformers" star Shia LaBeouf was arrested early Sunday for trespassing. Security guards at a Walgreens in Chicago called the police after the 21-year-old refused to leave the store. The actor was released on bail and is due back in court later on this month.
Anti-pornography groups are going after the Pentagon. They say the Pentagon is allowing porn to be sold in military stores despite a 10-year-old congressional ban. The Pentagon says it's resell activity's board took a looked at "Penthouse" and several "Playboy" magazines and found quote, "Based solely on the totality of each magazine's content, they were not sexually explicit." I guess they were reading the articles. It's Monday morning. Are you looking to extend to weekend? There's a new way to buy an excuse. But will the boss buy it, too, that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Forty-nine minutes now after the hour. If you're just joining us, here's a look at what's making headline this is morning. Breaking news today in Pakistan -- hundreds of arrests of lawyers protesting Pakistani President Rervez Musharraf after he suspended the Constitution and declared a state of emergency. Musharraf says it's necessary to head off the growing threat of terrorism in what he calls out of control judicial activism. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. will review its financial aid package to Pakistan, including billions used in the fight against terror.
TV and movie writers are on strike and could soon be on the picket line this morning after contract talks broke off overnight, writers are fighting for a bigger cut of DVD, podcast and video downloads.
The space shuttle, "Discovery" on dock from the international space station this morning and is headed back to earth, its mission was highlighted by a first of its kind repair job that fixed a ripped solar wing. "Discovery" is scheduled to touch down on Wednesday after a 15-day trip.
Republican Senator Arlen Specter now says he will back Michael Mukasey for attorney general. The president's nominee appears to have the votes needed when the Senate Judiciary Committee tallies them up tomorrow. Specter says he's bothered by Mukasey's refusal to say whether an interrogation tactic known as waterboarding is torture.
The Denzel Washington crime drama "American Gangster" was top at the box office this weekend, taking in more than $46 million, not far behind, Jerry Seinfeld's highly-anticipated film "Bee Movie." the animated feature brought in just over $39 million.
CHETRY: Well, there's a Web site offering you a get out of work free card, so does it work? Well, we sent our Ed Lavandera to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dear CNN management, Dr. Al A. Bye regrets to inform you that your intrepid reporter, Ed Lavandera, won't be able to fulfill his correspondent duty this week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, nice to meet you, sorry our reporter can't make it today.
LAVANDERA: Ed has recently suffered a severe back injury.
JOHN LIDELL, EXCUSED ABSENCE NETWORK: My name is John Lidell and our company's myexcusedabsence.com. We have three similar doctors note templates and one jury duty template and one funeral note template. It's not too many file one time, let's see it.
LAVANDERA: Ed has been evaluated today and Dr. Bye has instructed this employee to stay off his feet and remain indoors for at least a week.
LIDELL: Ed can call in sick if he desires, if he thinks he can get one over on his boss and he can just easily go through and just type in whatever customizes his excuse.
LAVANDERA: Please allow Ed time to heal. He needs several stress-free days to help alleviate the wicked back pain that has left him unable to move or do heavy lifting. In a week, he can return to light duty, sitting work only, no walking or prolonged standing, no lifting whatsoever.
LIDELL: Well, I would consider it acceptable. I think it's a great service.
LAVANDERA: Oh, man, what a great lie.
BRUCE WEINSTEIN, THEETHICSGUY.COM: Every time I think our culture has sunk to a new low, something comes along to suggest that we have sunk even lower and this is that story. It is unbelievable to me that a bald-faced lie could be considered acceptable.
LAVANDERA: The patient will be re-evaluated in a few days and will return to full time work duty in the very near future. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas, I mean dr. Al A.Bye.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Do you think they'd buy that, the Al A. Bye - should be Dr. Al A. Bye?
CHETRY: That's right. Al - oh, I get it. How about that. You noticed it was Ed Lavandera golfing in the background, the back pain, the swing. Boy.
ROBERTS: He has pretty good swing, too. Got to tell you.
CHETRY: He gets a lot of practice because he's not at work. He still practicing at the links.
ROBERTS: The great thing about Ed, that was he work even when he's not at work.
CHETRY: Exactly. Well, new moms take hard (ph) , this new mother storm to victory in the New York marathon, just months after having her baby girl, how did she do it? We'll meet the winner of the New York City marathon, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're also waiting to hear from Oprah Winfrey, a news conference scheduled to begin in about five minutes. She's going to address the growing scandal at her girl's school in South Africa, after a dorm matron, now accused of sexually assaulting students. the news conference is scheduled for the top of the hour and we'll bring it to you live when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on three minutes to the top of the hour, Ali Velshi here minding your business with the new giant in the petrochemical industry.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The company's been around for a long time that many people probably have been heard of. It's debuting on the Shanghai's stock exchange. It's called Petrochina. The story here is that it's now the biggest company in the world or certainly the biggest publicly traded company in the world and as of it's debut overnight United States time, it is now worth more than $1 trillion. It's the world's most valuable public company which means you take the price of all the shares added up and you got yourself more than a trillion dollars. It is bigger than Exxon Mobil and General Electric, the number one and number two combined.
In fact, if you look at the least of the top ten companies in the world in terms of their size, five of them are from China. You probably got to hear more of this. Now, there's some technical reasons for this and that is that Chinese investors can't buy stocks that don't come from China. So, there's much more demand for them than you would typically expect which means as you would know, John, you walk and talk about the price to earnings ratio, the price to where the stock, should be these are much higher. These company price is much more like a technology company than an oil company. If they were price the same way major oil companies were priced, you wouldn't see a trillion dollars. That's said, it's worth a trillion dollars, it is a mostly state owned company.
ROBERTS: So, why it's price so differently?
VELSHI: Because Chinese investors can't buy stock of other companies so there's fewer stocks for them to choose from much more demand for stocks, so when there is an IPO in China, people who want to invest, run for all of those shares. If these were, if these traded the way normal shares trade, it would be valuable, it certainly a very big company. It just wouldn't be this valuable. And that's something for investors to keep in mind but you and I like to discuss the price of oil shouldn't be at $59 a barrel, but it is. You know. So -
CHETRY: Did you get an e-mail (INAUDIBLE)?
VELSHI: I've definitely not checked, I'll check my email after the show.
CHETRY: Blame it on oil.
VELSHI: We'll be back in a few minutes with problems on the markets this morning - the interest rates lower. I'll tell you about that.
CHETRY: Sounds good. Meanwhile, I bet you Ali would like this for Christmas. We're talking about the best inventions of 2007, this guy, by the way s a wireless cell phone charger so pretend you have your phone, Ali, your Motorola Razr here, you slap it on the thing. You don't have to plug it in.
ROBERTS: It has an attachment on the back of there. That actually -
VELSHI: That lets your phone stick to it.
ROBERTS: That's the kind I need. I'm not entirely sure what it does to the rest of you, things like that I'll probably maybe lose my hair. But you know -
CHETRY: You don't have to -
ROBERTS: Now, it's gone. And here is Kiran's favorite invention of the day, it's a high heel but oh, no, it's a flat. Look at that.
CHETRY: Yes, if you run around, how it can be around for while? It's the best invention of 2007.
ROBERTS: It's been around for a year.
CHETRY: You threw this on, when you're running around, catch the train, doing whatever, but then you look professional for your meeting so, boom, out comes the heel.
ROBERTS: Very cool.
CHETRY: How neat is that?
VELSHI: That is cool.
CHETRY: I realized the hard way by tripping one so you have to make sure actually tuck it in.
VELSHI: That's excellent. That has leg.
CHETRY: All right, you take these, you've seen the legs.
ROBERTS: Bingo. While reviewing this, coming up the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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