Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
2000 Florida Recount Movie; Tracking Severe Weather; Major Immigration Bust; Mars Probe Nears Landing
Aired May 25, 2008 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD LUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After 10 months and million of miles, the Phoenix Mars Lander is finally reaching the end of its journey, the red planet. The landing is almost two hours away and our own Miles O'Brien is counting down with us. We'll take you there live.
Plus, seeking refuge in a church after a record setting immigration bust. Tonight, where are those families? And a school superintendent who says the bust had emptied his schools.
Deja vu. The Florida recount all over again, this time in a docudrama. And Kevin Spacey takes his role seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: Our electoral process in the United States is simply not equipped to handle margins of victories so small, or margins of error so big.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: Spacey tells our Wolf Blitzer what he really thinks about our Democratic process and what really happened when he hung out with Hugo Chavez.
Plus, a car dealer offers you a choice of rewards for buying that new vehicle. Free gas or free gun?
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, a very good Sunday to you.
Hi, I'm Richard Lui. We'll go right over to Jacqui Jeras right now who has been watching what has been a very troublesome weekend. We talk about weather, tornadoes and a lot more. Hey, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, yes, Richard. We're tracking a tornado which is in the Twin Cities metro area right now. We've had confirmation of a touchdown near the town of Anoka and storm spotters continue to indicate that there's the tornado now near the Lino Lakes area. We'll zoom in a little bit closer and show you this impressive cell on our radar.
On our radar, we're getting a few reports of some damage, mostly just some large trees down along highway 47 and highway 118. That's just southwest of Blaine.
The area of concern, Lino Lakes, as well as Centerville, Forest Lake, Hugo, Scandia and Lionel Lakes. And this is all just north of St. Paul, Minnesota. This storm system is moving east northeast. It has got a number seven on it on the tightened impact on a scale of 1-10. So showing some very strong rotation in the number of people being impacted right now, 25,000.
But just about every one of those little town names that you see on that map there has about 20,000 to 30,000 people that live in it. Check out that bright purple, too, by the way north of Forest Lake. We've had reports of this storm, up to three inches in diameter with the hail. That's almost as big as a softball. That's kind of in between a baseball and a softball. So that will cause an extensive amount of damage. This is very near and along the I-35 corridor. There you can see it right there. That's I-35.
So a lot of travelers this holiday weekend being threatened at this time. We've had a lot of action going on across much of the upper Midwest, extending all the way down through the southern plain states. Look at this lit up. Look at all the states being impacted by the severe weather system.
The watches that you see there for Minnesota and also for Iowa are what we call the PDS watches, which means it's a particularly dangerous situation. That's where we're expecting to see the greatest potential for large strong tornadoes on the ground. We've also had reports of tornadoes down here in Texas and Moore County near the town of Dumas.
Law enforcement there has reported three different tornado touchdowns but no reports of damage. Hopefully it will stay that way. Richard, we'll keep on top of what's going on in the Twin Cities up there in Minnesota and keep you up to date.
LUI: Hey Jacqui, one thing, you're telling me earlier the number of lightning strikes. It was astronomical. Give the people a sense of how much is going on there.
JERAS: Yes, well if you take that whole area, our system right now is estimated that there are about 32,000 lightning strikes in the last hour. But that encompasses the whole area from Minnesota down to Texas. You know, a tornado isn't the only threat that you have to deal with. It is that hail, it's the strong winds that can cause extensive damage and lightning is also a killer. So make sure you stay inside and give yourself a good 30 minutes until the last time that you've seen a lightning strike or you've heard the thunder rumble.
LUI: All right, great, Jacqui Jeras working hard for us this Sunday. We'll be back with you a little bit later.
The countdown is on and in less than two hours, American will find out if NASA's attempt to land a $420 million spacecraft on Mars is successful. Our Miles O'Brien is hard at work at mission control in Pasadena, California, with a front row seat as this whole operation unfolds in our next hour. Scientists have a seven-minute window to land this thing and it is high drama that we're going to be bringing you live. We'll also touch base with Miles before the end this hour to get a sneak peak and some understanding about what's going to be happening. This is no trip to grandma's, folks, certainly not. Stay tuned for that.
Our special coverage of the Phoenix landing, speaking of which, that starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and again, that includes live coverage of the landing itself.
She's staying in it, long odds and all. Senator Hillary Clinton in Puerto Rico today sporting beach casual and insisting the delegate count is not an insurmountable obstacle. She is on the island one day longer than her rival Barack Obama and one week before Puerto Rico's primary vote. Speaking at a packed church today, she hit the territory's hottest button issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And of course, it is also a goal and promise of mine that I will put the question of status on the national agenda from the very first day I become president. I believe all people are entitled to a representative form of government at all levels of government and that the people of Puerto Rico should have the right to determine by majority vote the status you choose from among all the options. I have no preference. My only commitment is to work with those from all factions and with the Congress to give you the right to make that decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: OK, live now to the campaign trail in San Juan. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux with more on that. Hey, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Richard. Really a very busy day for Hillary Clinton. Five stops altogether here in Puerto Rico. We saw various settings, one very relaxed Hillary Clinton on the beach. About several hundred people really following her in tow, really creating quite a stir and attracting a crowd.
She was also in a church making pledges, talking about as you had just heard, that important issue about the status of Puerto Rico, whether or not they should go for independence or statehood or remain a commonwealth. That's issue No. 1 for the people who live here. So she addressed it saying that she leaves it up to them to make that decision, what is best for them.
But she says she is committed if she becomes president in the first term to at least address that issue. She also says that she believes the constitutional amendment should allow people here to vote in the general election for president. Because of U.S. law, because it's not a state, that doesn't happen.
But they certainly are going to vote in next week's primary, that being next Sunday. We also heard her talk a little about the need and the importance for staying in this race. It is 55 delegates that are at stake. She is favored to win here, Richard. This is an island of four million Puerto Ricans about the same number that are on the mainland. She represents as a New York senator, about one million Puerto Rican residents. So it is clear that she has a real connection to the island, a real connection to the people and has been favored with the Latino population in term of the previous contest. So she is campaigning very, very hard. And the bottom line, the goal here for her is to get enough of those delegates, to win enough of those delegates as well as the popular vote to convince the super delegates, those party officials to go her way when it is all said and done. Richard?
LUI: Ah, the oh-so-important vote, certainly the superdelegate. Thank you so much, Suzanne Malveaux there in Puerto Rico for us, appreciate it.
Senator Clinton is being unfairly represented in the American media. So says former President Clinton speaking on behalf of his wife today in South Dakota.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they're trying to push and pressure and bully all these super delegates to come out, oh, this is so terrible. The people may want her. Oh, this is terrible. She's winning the general election and he's not. Oh, my goodness. We have to cover this up. Somebody might actually feel like - if you notice, there hasn't been a lot of publicity on these polls I just told you, has there?
First time you've heard this. Why do you think that is? Why do you think? Don't you think if the poll were reversed and he were winning the electoral college against Senator McCain and Hillary was losing it, it would be blasted on every television station in America? You know it would. It wouldn't be a little secret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: The former president has long asserted that his wife has the better chance here against Republican Senator John McCain in November.
Let's talk about Senator Barack Obama right now who dropped the stump speech today mostly. Instead, he urged the class of '08 to embrace public service. Obama was the hurry-up fill in commencement speaker at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. The originally slated speaker, ailing Senator Ted Kennedy. Obama invoked the Kennedy name, the Kennedy legacy and challenged a generation to create their own.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say chance because as President Roth indicated, you won't have to take it. There's no community service requirement in the outside world. No one's forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and the other things that our money culture says you should buy.
You can choose to narrow your concerns and live life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America's. But I hope you don't. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although I believe do you have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get to where you are today, although I do believe you have that debt to pay. It's because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it's only when you hit your wagon at something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role that you'll play in writing the next great chapter in the America's story.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Good to see you, take care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: He took advantage of favorable sailing conditions today aboard the family's 50-foot schooner called Maya. The senator is home following his brain tumor diagnosis. He told reporters this weekend he is grateful and uplifted by the letters and well wishers from his Senate colleagues to date, his friends and the people of Massachusetts as well.
So no stump time today for the presumptive Republican nominee. Senator John McCain stayed out of sight this Memorial Day weekend reportedly hosting potential running mates at his ranch in Arizona. Now among them there, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his former presidential rival Mitt Romney. McCain's people say it was just a social weekend.
Did you even know that one American political party held its convention this weekend? The libertarians. Well, they picked their man to challenge the big ticket for the White House, Bob Barr. The former Republican four-term congressman from Georgia. He's been a libertarian just two years now. Barr accepted the party's nomination for president less than 30 minutes ago.
OK, lots of severe weather. Jacqui Jeras is on top of that for us right now. Jacqui, what do you have?
JERAS: Well we're still watching that tornado in the Twin Cities area, Minnesota right now. Still very strong rotation being indicated on Doppler radar. This is in a majorly populated area. This is for Anoka and Washington and northeastern Ramsey counties.
And you're actually -- can we switch sources there? That's the Texas storm. Let me see if I can get that up for you. There we go. That's the Minnesota storm that we're talking about right there. There is the warning you can see in the purple area. There is so much lightning going on right now, it is almost difficult to see the storm.
You can see our rotator, a sheer indication right there. Here's the town of Hugo. Here you can see Forest Lake. And this line right there, that's Interstate 35 right after it splits from 35-E and heads up to the north where a lot of people go on in their cabins.
This storm is heading in an easterly direction. Storm trackers have been watching it. They did confirm a tornado touched down to the north and west of Coon Rapids and in Anoka County and they also confirmed that there was some hail bigger than baseballs.
Some damage being reported across town in terms of trees down. We haven't heard of any significant structural damage or any injuries. We'll continue to track this storm. A very volatile situation shaping up tonight in the Twin Cities and really everywhere from Minnesota all the way down to Texas. We're also tracking a tornado in Barton and Russell Counties which is in Kansas. So Kansas getting hit again tonight as well as Oklahoma.
Richard, if we get any more information on that, of course we'll bring that to you. It's going to be a mighty busy night.
LUI: You're the person to go to for that. Great stuff there, thank you Jacqui.
Straight to the China quake zone now and a dramatic rescue. Crews have pulled an 80-year-old paraplegic out from the rubble of his house 11 days after the earthquake struck. His wife had brought him food until rescuers could reach him.
Meanwhile, the quake zone is still shaking. A 5.8 magnitude aftershock has killed at least two people, injured more than 400 and damaged 70,000 more homes in that region.
Here is what that aftershock looked like. The number of overall quake deaths is approaching 63,000. More than 23,000 people are still missing and many of the survivors have nothing left.
Here's CNN's Hugh Riminton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUGH RIMINTON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): China's premier says in three months earthquake survivors will be living at normal, but that doesn't cut much ice in this village of Yang Jia Yuan. In his life, Wei Ran Kui has seen war and revolution, but nothing like this.
"What worries us is our life," he says. "We don't have enough food. This is a disaster." They are living, he says, just on what they've picked from the ruins.
DON SHUN RONG, VILLAGER (through translator): My daughter is hungry, she cries for food, but we have nothing to eat. The adults are eating less to give more to the children.
RIMINGTON: Her 4-year-old has become sick and there is no medicine to be had.
RONG (through translator): We are all really worried. RIMINTON: Not one house here is safe to live in. Anything not already destroyed looks ready to fall. Yet, the aid trucks that find their way along this mountain road drive straight on through. This doesn't count as a priority town.
"Our village death toll is not as high as other places," says Lee Dong (ph), "but the other damage is just the same." There are no neat rows of donated tents, here. All the villages now crowd into makeshift shelters of bamboo matting and cardboard.
JIN XIN EN, VILLAGER: We need waterproof cloth. Right now even light drizzle gets through. The lack of food and tents really has us worried.
RIMINTON: Wei Ran Kui was sleeping when the quake hit.
"I was so scared I didn't know what was going on," he said. "I heard this sound." The roof caved in beside him. The front of the house is gone.
(on camera): It says much about the scale of this disaster that destruction like this simply doesn't merit any priority with the authorities at this time. The 500-odd people in this village, though, are indicative of the enormity of the problem that faces Chinese authorities across a huge swath of the country. They must deal not only with those in acute need, but those who will need help for years to come.
(voice over): Wei Ran Kui claims his family history in this town dates back more than 700 years. At 70 years old, he's starting again now, from scratch.
Hugh Riminton, Yang Jia Yuan, China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LUI: All right, coming up for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a semiautomatic handgun and it is yours with the purchase of a new car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: We've all heard of incentive deals, but does this go just too far?
Plus, men carted away, wives and kids left behind. Did this record- setting immigration raid go way too far as well?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Jeff Lucas. He decided to be in the Navy seals at age nine. He went on to become the top Navy seal on the East Coast in 2004. Just loved his Lord, his family and his country more than anything. He was very special. The family grieves to this day but we are so proud of him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: Any many more moving stories like that. You can go to CNN.com/iReport. Over 35 pages of again, remembrances on this Memorial Day.
Remember that prediction we heard awhile back about a gallon of gas costing over $4 by Memorial Day weekend? Well in 11 states and D.C., it has come true. Take a look at this map and you'll see exactly what I mean. As for the average in the rest of the country, we're looking at a record high price of $3.93 a gallon. And as long as I'm crunching the numbers for you, this is 19th straight increase and 18th straight record high. Sorry to tell you about that.
All right, so a lot happening today. Now here's a deal for you. $250 in gas with the purchase of a new car. But if that doesn't in this case, if that doesn't wet your whistle, how about a brand new handgun? Chris Nagus from our Missouri affiliate KMBC has this story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS NAGUS, KMBC REPORTER (voice-over): This is a semi- automatic handgun and it's yours with the purchase of a new car.
WALTER MOORE, MAX MOTORS: I say it's just a choice. Protection or gas?
NAGUS: Walter Moore works for Max Motors in Butler. He came up with the guns or gas promotion.
MOORE: We got a lot of things. We got high gas prices. We got theft. We got carjackings. We got innocent people getting hurt.
NAGUS: Moore says owning a gun is an American right. Jerry Hertzog agrees.
JERRY HERTZOG, CUSTOMER: We'll have guns. We all need to have guns.
NAGUS: But the idea isn't popular with everyone. One viewer told us he's concerned and believes the promotion is dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I kind of say it was a bad idea telling people have a right to protect themselves.
NAGUS: Moore says most of his customers already own weapons.
MOORE: I get in the vehicle to bid or trade. There's guns in the seats, there's guns in the back windows. Everybody's got a gun down here. So, no backlash.
NAGUS: Given the option, gas or one of these. Most new car owners in Butler take the gun.
MOORE: Right now, we're probably running 80 percent towards the gun.
NAGUS: Count Jerry Hertzog among the majority. He's leaving with a new truck and never thought twice about the choice he was given. He's ready for target practice.
HERTZOG: Guns or gas for fuel? And I'll take the gun anytime.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LUI: Well, if you're ever in Butler, Missouri, think twice about honking at another driver. That was Chris Nagus reporting again, from our Kansas affiliate KMBC on that one. Coming up for you, it's being called the largest immigration bust in U.S. history. And some people say it went way too far.
And it's political deja vu. The Florida recount all over again, this time in a docu-drama. We'll hear from star Kevin Spacey.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a very warmhearted person and you could see the caring in his eyes when he would talk about his family. He would talk about his children and his wife and how he was worried about them but that he was very upbeat about preparing to go to Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: Again, remembering loved ones on this Memorial Day weekend. It is being call the largest immigration raid on a workplace in U.S. history with some of the harshest punishments -- 389 mostly Guatemalan and Mexican workers arrested at a Kosher meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, reportedly the world's largest Kosher meat packing plant. Now left behind, their spouses, their children and people in the town now saying the federal raid has torn Postville apart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The only sign of this raid on an Iowa meatpacking plant, load after load of buses from the Department of Homeland Security filled with nearly 400 workers, their faces hidden behind tinted windows. Some of this town's residents struggled to hold back their emotions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My heart is really breaking. I mean, they're good people. I mean, I've never had any of them do anything bad to me, never. And I mean, they're just trying to earn an honest living. That's it. You know ,they're not taking jobs from anybody. They're just here to earn a living.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Helicopters circling overhead tipped off families that immigration agents were approaching. The "Washington Post" reports a man and his wife, both workers at the plant, hid for hours before escaping and finding refuge in the town's only Catholic Church. Hundreds of Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered here hoping to avoid arrests but most were caught.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The community is being broken up. Families are being broken up. Little children are left alone or a mother is left with two or three little children and the bread winner, who they expected to come home on Monday. They left Monday morning in the same fashion they've left every single day. They're not coming home and they're just panic stricken.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: According to the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Office, most of those arrested were convicted this week of felonies ranging from identity theft to using false documents. Many got five months in prison, with orders to deport them back to their home country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LUI: Well so far no officials at the meat plant have been charges. Joining me now by phone, the school superintendent in Postville, Iowa, David Strudthoff. Good morning - good evening to you, David and thanks for being here with us. You said that half the kids in your elementary school, 200 children, were absent the day after the raid. How has this affected your community?
DAVID STRUDTHOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the situation we're running into here is we're breaking some new ground because quite frankly, we haven't had, we had over 10 percent of our population of our community imprisoned.
And so that hasn't happened since the civil war. So we're entering into areas of economic, social situations that quite frankly no other community has really had to struggle with or experienced for quite a long time.
As for the children, our number one issue was to get their life back to as normal as possible. They needed refuge for at least eight hours a day where they could count on everything being the way it had been before the raid. And so we really made efforts in school to make sure their days are as normal as possible, that the experiences they had there was something that they could look forward to, count on and be relied - that they knew they would be safe. That's basically what we had worked on following the raid or immediately after that.
LUI: David, you sent some picture to us. Describe to us how these children -- these groups are really a strong part of your community.
STRUDTHOFF: Well, more than a strong part. They're -- you know, they're interwoven and part of our community. The bottom line is our immigrant population actually started back when the eastern Europeans came in the early '90s. So we have a number of Russian-Ukrainians parents that still live in this community.
The Latino population is a little bit more recent and they came in the '80s to the late '80s -- I'm sorry, the late '90s. And -- but many of them now are married, have children, and they're an intricate part of our fabric of, not only our community and the business, but also our school community. Children, of course, in our lower elementaries make up almost 50 percent of the total population. And so that's kind of the issue that we face there.
LUI: With that said, David, there have been some comments that what the feds had done was perhaps overly aggressive. Perhaps more than they should have done. Do you share that opinion?
STRUDTHOFF: Well, here's the thing. I'm in the kid business and my issue is dealing with the children. And the biggest issue I have, instead of pointing fingers at who did what when, the reality -- the blame really needs to be placed on our government officials for not having the courage to stand up to, at the very least, suspend the children that we -- that are being hurt with this.
They had an opportunity to pass legislation called the Dream Act just less than a year and a half ago. And for no other reason than a lack of courage, they couldn't get it done. We mentioned our own team that we're experiencing here. A lot of it has to do this week with the lack of courage from our governmental officials in standing up and trying to protect the weakest and most vulnerable of our society and that's our children.
LUI: David, we spoke with officials at the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and they say they can't comment on the investigation into the company so far, Agriprocessors, but that, quote -- and this is what they said, "ICE targets egregious employers who ignore the laws of this country and knowingly pursue a business strategy based on hiring illegal aliens."
"ICE must build worksite investigations in stages. Developing sufficient evidence against employers requires complex, white-collar crime investigations that can take years to bear fruit."
Now, last year, they arrested more than 90 company supervisors. Agriprocessors -- what has been the response to the fact that, at this moment, none of them have been charged, managers or supervisors?
STRUDTHOFF: Well, I think kind of the concerns we're having a little bit -- I think we'd basically -- I guess I can't speak to what's going to happen here, because, honestly, none of us know. But what I've seen in experiences with other plants that's been raided is usually, the executive director CEO basically goes away scot-free. And middle management will be the sacrificial lambs.
I'm guessing it will be a similar thing that happens here.
LUI: All right. David Strudthoff, thank you so much for stopping by this evening and speaking with us here on CNN NEWSROOM. We appreciate it. You have a good evening, we hope.
STRUDTHOFF: Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Coming up, the issue with immigration -- we put it to the people. It is our "League of First-Time Voters." That is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Retired Staff Sergeant Roger Staats. He was (INAUDIBLE). Serves in Vietnam but he had (INAUDIBLE) sendoff. And we said goodbye. And we know that you're our hero. You have an angel on each shoulder. He was my best friend. I love you, Gerry(ph). I love you, sweetheart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: One of many special remembrances that you can find on CNN.com/ireport if you like to see more of that.
All right, a lot happening on this Sunday across the country especially when we start talking about the Midwest.
Jacqui Jeras is now on her fourth 32-ounce Diet Coke when we talk about tornadoes, right, Jacqui?
(WEATHER REPORT)
LUI: We don't want to hear more PDSS then, is what you're telling us.
JERAS: No, we don't.
LUI: Thank you so much.
All right, Jacqui Jeras is going to be stopping a little bit later with more on that for us. Thank you.
Coming up for you, actor Kevin Spacey discusses his new docudrama, recounting the Florida recount, and tells us why he was hanging out with Hugo Chavez.
But first, our Miles O'Brien is bracing for landing. We're going to check in with mission control as NASA tries to land on Mars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE, SALUTING BROTHER: My name is Dave and on behalf of my four brothers and sister, I want to salute our brother, Corporal Richard J. Nelson, who died in a roadside bombing on April 14th, 2008.
I salute Rick for his courage to join the military and become a Marine in time of war. I salute him for his honorable life that he lived, the respect he showed people.
We love you, Rick. We think about you every day, and we'll see you again someday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: So in one short hour, NASA says its spacecraft will be entering a critical phase of its mission to Mars called the "Seven Minutes of Terror." It's basically the make-or-break point of a long and laborious operation, a mission that could land a spacecraft on Mars. If you could have been there, he would have but he couldn't. So CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien is here with us. He's at mission control in Pasadena, California following that.
I know, for you, Miles, here this is a ton of fun.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: It's a lot of fun but we're all kind of biting our nail.
LUI: Yes.
O'BRIEN: This is serious business here. These are the best and the brightest in the world. They spent years getting to this point and really all they can do at this point is just sit back and watch, and hope for the best. Take a look at the -- well, first of all, let's go in live now to the crew's mission support area -- mission control there. The guys in the blue shirts.
They look calm. They look cool. They look collected, all that stuff. You know it's a facade, Richard, because they're just a bundle of nerves right now as they hope for the best on this attempt to land, a soft landing on Mars.
The U.S. has not done that since 1976. It happened with the Viking spacecraft back then. You may recall back in 1999, the Mars Polar Lander, very similar to the spacecraft in some ways, crashed. Now since that time, they've tested, retested, picked this thing apart like a Thanksgiving turkey. And they're hoping that this time, it will be a charm.
Take a look at what has to happen, though. It will speed up to about 12,700 miles an hour. Enter the atmosphere of Mars, become blazing red hot, 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, lose most of its energy, most of its speed, and then when it's only going about 1,100 miles an hour, which is the speed of sound on Mars -- of course, how would you know? Who would be there to hear it? But that's another story.
A parachute will open up -- we hope -- bring it down to lower level at which time radar altimeters has to work, legs have to deploy, pyrotechnics have to explode, 26 pyrotechnics and all, 12 rocket motors have to fire.
And then hopefully, after all that, it lands softly near the Martian North Pole on the tundra there, and with any luck, starts digging, looking at the ice and the dirt there and maybe coming up with yet another clue in the story of was there life on Mars. Maybe, is there life on mars potentially?
It's a lot of things that have to happen. And just a little while ago, I asked one of the key players on the team, Barry Goldstein, if he actually has taken the time to count up how many things have to go right in that seven minutes of terror from Mars Phoenix to be a success.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARRY GOLDSTEIN, PHOENIX MARS PROJECT MANAGER: I ran out of fingers and toes. I've mentioned 26 what I would call pyro events that have to happen. Now clearly, that's not the total number of things that have to happen. I would add 12 to those for a single actuation of each of the thrusters, the descend thrusters.
Our feeling is quite confident that the thrusters are able to pulse once. It will pulse as many times as we need to get to the ground. We've done extensive testing on that. So you might want to add those into my 26. All the other things that have to go right are in the millions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: In the millions. Barry Goldstein.
Joining me now Steve Squyres, the principals investigated, the chief scientist for those Mars rovers. Spirited opportunity, which amazingly, against all odds, are still running four years later.
That's another story.
Let's talk about what it's like to be in that room right now. You were there four years ago. Can you put it into words?
STEVE SQUYRES, MARS ROVER SCIENTIST: It's a weird feeling. You know, on the one hand, everything you have worked on for years is on the line. And it's going to work or it's not going to work. But on the other hand, you said it, you can't do a thing.
These guys in the control room are spectators just like you and me. They just have better seats than we do. Everything is preprogrammed into the vehicle. It's going to work or it's not going to work. It takes seven minutes to go down through the Martian atmosphere and in contrast, it takes 16 minutes for a radio signal traveling at the speed of light to get from Mars to Earth.
There's nothing you can do at this point.
O'BRIEN: All right. It's kind of like watching it all on TiVo. In any case, we're going to be watching it all night. You know, they call this place, Richard, Disneyland for space nerds.
Well, we -- it's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be a wild ride. And if you stay with CNN, you have an E ticket to see what happens and whether the Phoenix makes it, in fact, safe and sound on the surface of Mars. And we'll get some pictures like we've never seen Mars before.
That's coming up in a little bit later, Richard.
LUI: All right. Miles O'Brien in Disneyland himself. He will be goofy throughout the rest of the evening, no doubt, as we look at what happens for us.
Miles O'Brien has a special coming up, oh, in about 12 minutes. Is that right, Miles(ph)?
O'BRIEN: We'll be here.
LUI: All right.
O'BRIEN: I hope you will, too.
LUI: Good stuff. Miles O'Brien, straight ahead.
The Florida recount gets the TV treatment. Actor Kevin Spacey tells us what the movie reveal about history.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE LEMON, SALUTING THE TROOPS: My name is Dave Lemon. I'm here for a reunion of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. And I like to pay a tribute to Larry Haines who was the brother of my best friend. He served in -- as a Marine (INAUDIBLE) and was killed there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: Dave Lemon, thank you for sharing your thoughts there.
You can send us your memories, as well, by going to CNN.com/ireport.
While the 2008 race for the White House keeps more political junkies on the edge of their seats, HBO's idea of high drama is hanging chads, vote recounts and the bitter 2000 presidential race.
Kareen Wynter has a preview of "Recount."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A bare knuckle battle for ballots. The 2000 presidential race between former vice president Al Gore and then Texas governor George W. Bush tested Americans and America's democracy to the controversial Florida recount.
We all know how this election ended. But now eight years later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENIS LEARY, ACTOR, "RECOUNT": I think the networks have the wrong number.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: Filmmakers behind the new HBO movie "Recount" are taking viewers beyond the headlines and inside the human drama that became history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR, "RECOUNT": So what are the real numbers? (END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: The film documents the 36-day fight over votes in Florida -- the legal slugfest between Democrats and Republican that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin who wrote the book, "Too Close to Call," about the 2000 election was consulted on the film.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The Republicans wanted this so badly. And they were willing to fight harder. And the Democrats had all this ambivalence -- should they file lawsuits, should they seem too aggressive.
That difference in temperament between the Democrats and the Republicans, I thought, was true in Florida and accurately reflected in the movie.
WYNTER: Actor Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, a Gore aide who was demoted and rehired to lead the recount charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM WILKINSON, ACTOR, "RECOUNT": Hell, no. Why do we need a recount? We already won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: James Baker, Bush's then chief legal adviser, and Katherine Harris, who, as secretary of state, was Florida's chief election official, are profiled in the film.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA DERN, ACTRESS, "RECOUNT": It's going to take a lot more than David Letterman making fun of my hair and make-up to knock me down of the.
WILKINSON: George Bush is the winner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TOOBIN: James Baker recognized from day one that this wasn't just a legal fight. This was a political fight. And he had a complete strategy. The Democrats saw this as a narrow legal battle. And Baker -- history proves he's right.
WYNTER: History isn't exactly repeating itself, but Florida is in the political spotlight again this year, along with Michigan. Both states violated party rules by moving up their primaries.
TOOBIN: Here we are, eight years later, Florida Democratic primary, they're not counting the votes. Different fact but still, same crazy thing.
WYNTER: Kareen Wynter, CNN, Hollywood. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LUI: Well, "Recount" airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern on HBO. Actor Kevin Spacey did have a chance to sit down with our own superstar, Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SPACEY: Even someone like myself -- I consider myself to be sort of clued into politics and I've been involved in politics for most of my life, I was really amazed at how little I knew about what had gone down in Florida. And I think when people see the film, they'll realize it wasn't just one event and it certainly wasn't just the Supreme Court and their ultimate decision.
It was a confluence of events and personalities, and some who were -- you know people who are qualified for the job, some people who perhaps weren't. Agendas. I think that what the movie we hope illuminates is that our electoral process in the United States is simply not equipped to handle margins of victory so small or margins of error so big.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I think that's a fair point.
Let's talk a little bit about some of the controversy. So you got involved in politics. You met with Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela. That caused quite a stir. What were you thinking?
SPACEY: Well, you know, I wasn't there on a political trip, you know? I'm an artistic director of a theater in London called the Old Vic. And I was there with a number of business leaders and they were -- they had an appointment with Hugo Chavez and invited me to go along. And it was a very fascinating evening.
BLITZER: Did you talk to him? You spend some time with him?
SPACEY: Yes. We had a dinner with about 15 other people.
BLITZER: He doesn't speak English, though.
SPACEY: No. He doesn't speak English. There's an interpreter. But it was fascinating, you know, opportunity to meet a world leader.
BLITZER: Did you get the sense this guy hates the United States?
SPACEY: He didn't really, you know, -- I mean I certainly have heard a lot of more outrageous comments that he's made. But he was quite passionate about his own people. I actually spent the afternoon at a film studio that they have supported through the government to give young people there an opportunity to make movies and documentaries about their own culture.
So I was really there looking at that. But, yes, I did take some heat on it in the United States.
It's interesting that, you know, some people accuse you of being anti- American if you just sit down and meet somebody or shake their hand. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LUI: You can hear all the top political stories of the day on "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. That's Monday through Friday beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
Now we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: All right. Richard Lui. Thanks for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Now get ready to go out of this world. "MISSION TO MARS" with Miles O'Brien. That starts right now.
