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American Morning
President Bush to Raise Money for McCain; Mass Evacuation Ordered in China; Gas Hits New Record High; Older Gas Pumps Give Discount
Aired May 27, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There will be some airport pictures of the president and Senator McCain together, but as you noted when he endorsed the senator in March, President Bush understands with his low approval ratings, he'll sometimes need to keep his distance.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If my showing up and endorsing him helps him, or if I'm against him and it helps him, either way I want him to win.
QUIJANO: The two men have a long history stretching back to their bitter rivalry during the 2000 Republican primary fight.
BUSH: I'm also disappointed in John McCain. This is a man who paid for telephone calls in the state of Michigan implying strongly that I'm an anti-Catholic bigot. And I don't appreciate that kind of campaigning.
QUIJANO: And over the next eight years, they worked to bury the hatchet, from campaigning together in 2004 to celebrating the senator's birthday. And now, they have formed a marriage of political convenience. President Bush is still popular among core Republicans, whose support and money the senator needs, while a Republican presidency could ultimately boost President Bush's legacy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, while the president's fund-raising abilities are well known, the McCain campaign is not disclosing how much is expected from the three fund-raisers that President Bush is attending for senator McCain, with one McCain aide simply calling the amount sizable, Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what do you think about the pictures that we may expect to see of the president and Senator John McCain together?
QUIJANO: Well, you know, they're not going to be much. First of all, tonight, for instance, the only time we're really expecting to see the two together will be after the fund-raiser tonight. That's supposed to actually get under way, the fund-raiser that is in Phoenix, after 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. So, of course, the pictures of the two at the airport aren't expected until beyond 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, and that's, of course, well past the network newscast, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Elaine Quijano live from the White House. Thanks, Elaine.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Barack Obama laying out key differences between his likely Republican opponent John McCain when it comes to veterans rights. Same in New Mexico, Obama stressed the need for a bill that expands educational benefits to people with three years of service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should make sure that today's veterans get the same benefit that my grandfather got when he came back from World War II. It was a good investment not only for him, but it was a good investment for the country. It builds our middle class.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And something that we've been talking about in recent weeks. You can see it right there on his lapel. Barack Obama again sporting a flag pin. A little more than a week ago, Obama said sometimes he wears it, sometimes he doesn't. Yesterday he was wearing it.
Hillary Clinton heads to Montana today, but she spent Memorial Day campaigning in Puerto Rico where she is hoping for a big primary victory this coming Sunday, the 1st of June. She received a raucous welcome, and the crowd booed when Barack Obama's short trip to the island was mentioned. Clinton's message focused on the need to give Puerto Ricans the right to vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe all people are entitled to a representative government at all levels of government, and I believe the people of Puerto Rico should have the right to determine your status and as president I will back you up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Clinton also said it was "an injustice and an insult" to have Puerto Ricans risk their lives in the U.S. military and not have an equal voice in the vote.
PHILLIPS: Growing international concern this morning that Iran could be building nuclear weapons. CNN has obtained a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency accusing Iran of not providing the information that would show if its nuclear program is for peaceful or military purposes.
Inspectors say that they want explanations about the testing of high explosives, possible missile designs, and uranium enrichment. Iran insists the agency's information is fabricated and its program is peaceful.
Investigators this morning say that there are security gaps at America's ports and that terrorists could smuggle weapons into the country using shipping containers. A government report out today says that importers and port authorities are not complying with the Homeland Security program.
Its rules allow reduced cargo inspections for companies if they submit a security plan that meet government standards, but many of the plans are incomplete and federal inspectors are not checking up on the import companies.
ROBERTS: A growing threat for people in southwest China this morning. Right now, emergency crews are trying to evacuate more than 150,000 people living downstream from so-called quake lakes. They formed after that earthquake triggered landslides that wound up blocking rivers.
CNN's Hugh Riminton is live for us in China with more on this. This would seem, Hugh, to be a very delicate operation. You want to let the water out, but you don't want to let too much water out.
HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely delicate, but they're even talking about using some pretty crude, blunt instruments. There's talk about using aerial bombing to blast the landslide away in order to release some of the water. A blunt instrument, they've got other possibilities too that put in 10 tons of explosives. They're also using bulldozers.
The reason behind this landslide, the water has risen to the point where it is now half a mile deep. Half a mile deep. Their fear is that if this somehow breaks through in an unorganized way, it will flood down into communities downstream.
They've got plans to evacuate up to 1.3 million people from this area of Sichuan province and right now, they've sent out orders to evacuate immediately 158,000 people. They want them all out of the way. Some are on safe ground. By midnight local time, that is in just under five hours from now, John.
ROBERTS: Obviously here, they're taking precautions here because of the potential for massive flooding. Do they have any kind of a probability of what the propensity for flooding might be? I guess it all depends on how much they open up there on those rivers.
RIMINTON: Very hard to calculate. They've got three contingencies. That is the loss of a third of this dam, the loss of a half, or the total loss of the dam. Total loss of the dam, 1.3 million people again have to be evacuated very quickly. Even half the dam goes. They're going to need to evacuate more than a million people.
And to give an extra add of urgency to all of this, there were two very strong aftershocks in the last few hours, both 5.4 and 5.7 magnitude. And that has reminded everyone how unstable this entire area is, how great the risk and the dangers are, John.
ROBERTS: Our Hugh Riminton reporting for us this morning from Mianyang there in Sichuan province. Hugh, thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: French skydiver Michel Fournier taking a really big plunge today. He's trying again for that record-setting free fall in western Canada. High winds forced that daredevil to scrub his jump yesterday. He's now expected to reach his jump point more than 131,000 feet, by the way, above the earth.
It's going to happen sometime next hour. He's actually trying to break four free fall records. Here they are: fastest free fall, longest free fall, highest jump, and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon.
ROBERTS: John McCain building up his campaign account. We're going to ask -- we're going to ask his campaign adviser exactly what role the president is going to play in the campaign.
PHILLIPS: And new way to save on gas. Thanks to some old gas pumps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were designed to go about 25 cents, 35 cents. Now, when it got to $3.99, the machines just don't know what to do anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Drivers are lining up to take advantage of the discount. We'll have that story coming up.
ROBERTS: And a lack of shut eye could cause your brain to shut down. We're paging our resident brain surgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta about an extraordinary new study that reveals just how critical sleep is to the brain, ahead.
PHILLIPS: Not that we'd know anything about that.
ROBERTS: Not that we'd know anything about that. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning.
PHILLIPS: Hello.
ROBERTS: Good morning.
VELSHI: Normally I let you guys do that, but I'm feeling pumped this morning because I haven't been here for a few days. I'll handle the show from here on. I'm Ali Velshi, and this is AMERICAN MORNING. Gas prices once again, look at that. $3.94 a gallon. Just a smidge under that. That's a new record again. Why?
Because the price of oil is really high. Over $133 a barrel right now. It hit $135 last week, and one day it had its biggest gain since the first Gulf War.
Oil has doubled in more than a year, and at around $133 we're paying $1 trillion a year in oil for the price of oil. That's how much we use.
Now, there has been a bit of a cutback in how much gasoline we use. AAA said for the first time in years Americans drove less this Memorial Day than they were expected to, and the U.S. government actually says that on average, Americans are going to drive 4.5 miles less on public roads. That's the way they measure it than they have last year.
That is the first time in many, many years since 1979 that we've actually driven less than we've driven the previous year. There are now 11 states and the District of Columbia with average gas prices above $4 a gallon. You can see them there. Alaska, California, Connecticut. You can see New York is one of them.
There are a number of major metropolitan areas where the average isn't above $4 in the state, but it is in the city. So we are well on our way to $4 a gallon gas. Last week remember, we saw when gas hit $3.50, truck sales fell off at Ford. They announced, and it was a direct correlation to $3.50 as a national average.
So at $4, even our own polling shows people's behavior will definitely change. So that should happen this week. I'm not predicting, I'm not hoping, I'm just saying --
ROBERTS: Saw a guy flying down the street in New yesterday on a skateboard.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I thought to myself --
ROBERTS: Pretty good way to get around.
VELSHI: We have seen a lot more skateboards, a lot more bicycles, and I'm seeing a lot of motorcycles, mopeds, scooters. People are kind of saying --
PHILLIPS: If we stop buying cars, that's not good for the economy either.
VELSHI: No. What's good for the economy, what's good for the environment aren't necessarily the same thing what's good for gas prices. I mean, it wasn't good that a lot of people took their rebate checks and didn't spend them at stores. But, you know --
ROBERTS: Pay down some debt.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: All right.
ROBERTS: Free fall for more than 130,000 feet high. Will it work? We're watching it, coming up live.
PHILLIPS: Plus, Rob is watching storms in the Midwest this morning. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. We've got another threat for storms in the Midwest. Tornadoes are possible. And we'll have a story about a veteran that lost something very, very dear to him that was returned to him after the storm went through. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, there seems to be a little bit of a glitch this morning in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. It appears that's Michel Fournier in the ground there in the suit. He was supposed to be going inside a capsule attached to a balloon to 130,000 feet. It appears there's been a malfunction, and the balloon may have floated away without the capsule and him in it.
Let's listen to our affiliate there in Saskatchewan describing this.
They were talking about it just a second ago. But --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AFFILIATE REPORTER: Well, it's hard to say. Clearly, this project, this team has a lot of money. There are -- there was a helicopter hovering overhead just a few moments before the balloon released. This was the chase helicopter for the team.
They have a lot of resources, a lot of staff here. And so, I also understand they do have some additional balloons that they can use, whether or not the team feels that they can continue this way every morning, getting up and going through all the procedures of putting on the suit and the oxygen, keeping 50 people in a hotel ready to go at a moment's notice.
Basically every morning preparing for a space launch because that's how they're treating it. They're treating it as if they're launching Mr. Fournier into outer space, and basically that's what it is.
ROBERTS: All right. So there you go. You hear CTV who we're getting these pictures from, describing that. What appears to have happened is as they were filling the balloon full of helium, it was quite breezy there in North Battleford. It appears that it disconnected, and there's a picture of it, disconnected and blew away.
I mean, it's like a kid on a parade. You buy a balloon and the kid accidentally lets the balloon go and away it goes.
PHILLIPS: After all this work. That's a perfect analogy. This little battle and losing her lollipop.
ROBERTS: It's deflating there, coming back down to earth. And as the reporter was saying, they do have some more balloons so they may try this again. But obviously, an abort for today.
PHILLIPS: I would like to know how he's feeling. Is he angry or is he OK? Looks like his wife was there giving him a really long hug. I'd loved to know what that conversation was between the two of them.
ROBERTS: They're not going up in the air this morning. We thought that it was going to happen, you know, very soon.
PHILLIPS: I believe in karma. Obviously it's not supposed to happen today.
ROBERTS: Yes, obviously.
All right. Well, let's check in with Rob who's back down to earth here.
MARCIANO: Yes.
ROBERTS: And he's got the forecast for us this morning. Good morning, Rob.
MARCIANO: Well, I think he feels like the kid who lost his balloon at the carnival. You know, he's probably crying or at least wants to. That's awful. I hope to see that launch happen soon.
All right, guys, I want to talk weather. Let's check it out. We do have some action across the plains again today, but I think it's going to stretch to the northeast as well. First off, 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts around Oklahoma City overnight tonight. That now, that convective system is moving towards Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Any time you see that kind of bow right there, that typically gives you straight line winds that can be pretty gusty, so we're not surprised by that. This system also had some pretty big hail overnight as it rolls towards Arkansas.
Threat for flooding exists today. We had a ton of rain in some of the spots yesterday. And from Springfield back through Tulsa, flash flood watches and warnings are posted for today. There is some cooler air north of this system. We had frost advisories. We've got freeze watches and warnings across parts of the northern tier, the arrowhead of Minnesota and through the U.P. of Michigan and some of the stretches towards Lower Michigan as well with temperatures that are at or below freezing, not only this morning but for tomorrow morning as well.
All right. The northeast has been absolutely lovely the last couple of days. You're going to see a threat for severe weather. It will go from the Red River Valley of Texas back through Arkansas, across the northeast. I think the biggest threat across the northeast will be probably damaging winds, maybe some small hail. Unlikely any tornadoes bust out, but anyway, damaging winds can do just that, some damage. So we'll watch threatening skies later on this afternoon. John, Kyra, back over to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob. Thanks very much.
John McCain in a rare appearance with President Bush. The commander in chief is raising money for him, but don't expect to see them on camera much together.
PHILLIPS: They're not a voting bloc, but a group of dissidents in Cuba want Barack Obama to be the next U.S. president. So who are the ladies in white and why are they pinning their hopes on Obama?
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, time warp.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't make them like these.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Gas stations stuck in the past. Prices so high the pumps can't keep up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The machines just don't know what to do anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And there's nothing they can do to stop you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I probably saved about $5, $6 today at least.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: A road map to picking the perfect pump, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Have you thought about taking public transportation to work because of high gas prices? Well, people in the D.C. area are, and they're doing it in a big way.
According to this morning's "Washington Post," ridership is up 15 to 25 percent on the buses and subways that go to the nation's capital. Some of the areas biggest employers including the federal government are looking for ways to buy or lease more buses, expand parking, and persuade riders to avoid trains during rush hour. An AM extra now. Look at the drop-off in driving nationwide. New numbers from the Department of Transportation show Americans cut back at a record rate in March driving 11 billion fewer miles. That's down about four percent from last year. It is the biggest year-to- year decline since the government started keeping records back in 1942. Overall, the estimated number of miles traveled has dropped 17 billion since the end of 2006 -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's not only those record prices, drivers are trying to find ways to save on gas. And, well, some of the older mom and pop style gas station owners are selling at a big discount, not because they want to actually buy this, because they have to.
CNN's Jim Acosta has that deal on these gas price steals.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kyra, this station out on Long Island in New York is selling their gas at a steep discount not because they want to, but because they have to. But you better act fast. Word is spreading about these old pump bargains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): On car crazy Long Island, where living near the water means paying through the hood for fuel, a gas price oasis lies on the horizon, which is why they're lining up to fill up at this mom and pop gas station in the town of Northport (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't make them like this.
ACOSTA: The owner Vic Deman (ph) showed us the secret is under the hood. The gears that manually adjust the price inside these old pumps can't be set to higher than $4 a gallon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were designed to go about 25 cents, 35 cents. Now, when it got to $3.99, the machines just don't know what to do anymore.
ACOSTA: So the price is locked in at 24 cents lower than the competitor a half block away. This owner topped off the tank in one vehicle, then went home and brought back the other car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I probably saved about $5, $6 today at least.
ACOSTA: Filling up both cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Filling up both cars today.
ACOSTA: And the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the savings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could be the last time we'll ever pay this.
ACOSTA: Do you think so? You think it's not going to go back down?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no. It's only going to go up. ACOSTA: Even with the discount, some drivers still feel taken for a ride. The Altano (ph) family says the savings here are just going elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It goes to food because food has gotten out of control.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is old school technology.
ACOSTA: Even though the station plans to install those newfangled computerized pumps, some quaint traditions will endure.
ACOSTA (on camera): What's with the 0.9 of the price here? When are we going to get rid of that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means absolutely nothing.
ACOSTA: It means absolutely nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means nothing. It just looks pretty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: The Industry Trade Association says about five percent of the gas pumps out there still use this old technology and don't worry about the station owners. They're still making their commission off of every gallon they sell.
And the suppliers, there just aren't that many pumps out like these out there to affect the bottom line. So enjoy this antique road show while it lasts -- John and Kyra.
ROBERTS: Antique road show indeed. Jim Acosta for us this morning.
And checking on this morning's "Quick Vote" question. We've been asking do you think that there is life on Mars?
PHILLIPS: Thirty-six percent of you say yes, 64 percent say no. You can cast your vote at CNN.com/am. We're going to continue to tally your votes throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: John McCain has got to raise a lot of cash to make it to the White House, but there are concerns that he may not be able to compete with the Democrats.
Up next, we'll talk with one of his campaign advisers about it all.
PHILLIPS: And a new study says that losing even one night's sleep can dramatically impair your brain's function. See, there it is right there. Do I need to say anymore?
We're paging our own brain surgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and I'm going to work on enunciating my scripts much better this morning and get more sleep. Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, crazy eights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is this a lucky number?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Tragedy and dark theories tarnish China's lucky number.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was waiting to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Alina Cho peels back the superstition and tries to crack the code, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour.
John McCain's best fund-raising month so far was in April bringing in nearly $18 million. In that same period though, Barack Obama raised nearly $31 million and Hillary Clinton $21 million.
Joining me now is McCain campaign adviser and victory chair of the Republican National Committee, Carly Fiorina. She's live in Washington this morning.
Carly, it's good to see you. Thanks very much for coming in this morning.
CARLY FIORINA, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Good morning, John. It's great to be with you.
ROBERTS: Senator McCain was supposed to appear at a fund-raiser at the Phoenix Convention Center along with President Bush. They have now decided to move that and subsequent fund-raisers, one in Salt Lake City, to private residences. What's going on here? Does Senator McCain have to walk a very fine line here between using President Bush's fund-raising prowess and yet keeping him under wraps?
FIORINA: Well, first let me just add some facts to your previous intro. The RNC raised over $40 million in April, which is 10 times the rate of the Democratic National Committee, and that's important because Senator McCain has access to those total funds.
So, in fact, at the end of April, John McCain had cash on hand of over $60 million, and Senator Obama had cash on hand of over 50. So we think we have plenty of money to run the campaign we want.
In terms of President Bush and John McCain, there will be occasions where they appear together, but there will probably frankly be many more occasions where they appear apart because John McCain is running for the future presidency and most people vote on the future actually.
ROBERTS: So is that a suggestion that if he were to appear with President Bush, that it would look like he were running in the past?
FIORINA: No, I think it's a reality that President Bush is, of course, very appealing to many Republican voters, but Senator McCain is his own man. He has to run his own campaign, and part of his winning campaign is to not only talk to Republicans, but also to talk with independents and independent-minded Democrats.
ROBERTS: Let me -- let me come back to what you first said, Carly, about the fact that the RNC has got a whole lot of cash on hand, and it certainly does. We were only talking about the campaigns there though in that intro.
It used to be that Republican candidates, the individual campaigns used to kill the Democrats in individual donations. This year we don't see that. Why?
FIORINA: Well, I hate to keep correcting you, but in truth the RNC is raising money very specifically for the presidential campaign, and by the rules the money that the RNC raises can be used for the presidential campaign. So it actually is very relevant to talk about what the RNC raises as compared to what the DNC raises.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: No, I'm just saying that we didn't -- I'm just saying that we didn't say what the DNC raised. We were just looking at the individual campaigns.
FIORINA: That's right, and the DNC raised about one-tenth of what the RNC raised.
ROBERTS: Right.
FIORINA: But I think the reality is that the Democratic contest is creating a lot of excitement. Let's give Senator Obama his due. He has done a wonderful job of fund-raising. He's done a wonderful job of reaching out to new voters, but it's also fair to say that Hillary Clinton and Senator Obama are spending money at a rate that is far above what the McCain campaign is spending money at.
When you're putting together these huge rallies, these very well orchestrated events, the amount of ad time that the Obama campaign is buying...
ROBERTS: Right.
FIORINA: ... that takes a lot of money.
ROBERTS: Well, they're still -- they're still fighting a primary whereas Senator McCain is not. FIORINA: That's right, absolutely. That's absolutely true.
ROBERTS: Let me move on to a different issue if I could. Senator McCain really took a swing at Barack Obama yesterday, Memorial Day, over the issue of Iraq. He said, "He has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq. He has wanted to surrender for a long time."
He even invited Senator Obama to come on a trip to Iraq with him. Was Memorial Day the appropriate forum to be taking such shots at an opponent?
FIORINA: Well, I think Memorial Day is a time when people's thoughts turn to the American women who serve us, who are serving us today in Iraq, and who have served us in wars past. And so, I think it is absolutely fair game to say that one of the things that distinguishes Senator McCain from Senator Obama is experience. Experience in terms of traveling to Iraq. Experience in terms of dealing with national security issues. Experience in terms of having an understanding of what veterans need and deserve. Yes, I think it's absolutely fair.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And on the point of what American veterans need and deserve, Senator Obama took a shot at Senator McCain for not supporting the G.I. bill which would give people who served four years in the military a full ride at college. Here is what Senator Obama said about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should make sure that today's veterans get the same benefit that my grandfather got when he came back from World War II.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Is Senator McCain on the wrong side of this issue?
FIORINA: No. Senator McCain has proposed his own G.I. bill. As your viewers perhaps know, it is the G.I. bill that is supported by the Pentagon, and the difference is fundamentally that Senator McCain wants to have a sliding scale. So that someone who re-enlists gets greater benefits than someone who only serves one tour of duty and also to make sure that a veteran can transfer their benefits to their families, which a great number of veterans say is very important to them. So it's not a question of supporting veterans or G.I.s it's a question of which bill is better.
ROBERTS: Senator McCain suggested that the CBO has done a study that found that 16 percent of current members of the military would not re-enlist, that they would opt out and take this G.I. bill. But at the same time, he does not say that the CBO also found that it would increase recruitment by some 16 percent. And certainly there's an experiential quotient in there, but many people believe that it's pretty much a wash. FIORINA: Well, I think in this regard frankly I would bow to Senator McCain's experience. He has over 20 years of dealing with these issues. He is a veteran himself obviously. But I think it's very important, Senator McCain has said that it's very important that we increase the size of our military. That is overdue, and so obviously recruitment rates are very important, but so are retention rates. As you point out, experience does matter. It matters on the field of battle and it matters in the Oval Office as well, and so what Senator McCain is focused on is how do we increase recruitment, yes, but how do we increase retention as well.
ROBERTS: Carly Fiorina, it's good to talk to you this morning.
FIORINA: Nice to talk to you, John.
ROBERTS: All right. See you again soon. Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Alina Cho here with other stories making news this morning. Good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you Kyra. Good morning, everybody. New this morning, a massive evacuation is underway right now in southwest China. Soldiers and relief workers are trying to move 158,000 people amid concerns that so-called quake lakes are in danger of bursting. That could cause a devastating flood. At least 35 of those lakes were formed by this month's earthquake. The death toll from that quake on May 12th, which continues to climb, now stands at more than 67,000. Nearly 21,000 still missing. Five million are homeless.
More criticism aimed at Myanmar's government, but this time it has nothing to do with the cyclone and aid. The strict military junta has extended the detention of pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner, was placed under house arrest in 2003. The ruling junta has renewed the sentence every year for the past five years, including this year. Suu Kyi is 62 years old. She spent 12 of the past 18 years in detention.
A tip of the hat to a class act. That's how George Clooney is paying tribute to Academy Award winning director Sydney Pollack. Pollack died at his home in Los Angeles Monday after a long battle with cancer. He most recently worked with Clooney on the movie "Michael Clayton" but the filmmaker is best known for films like "Tootsie," "The Way We Were," and "Out of Africa." Pollack also occasionally appear on screen himself. Sydney Pollack was 73 years old.
And as NASA gets ready to search for life on Mars, Great Britain is releasing information about visits by little green men. Britain's Ministry of Defense has declassified 24 years of reports on unidentified flying objects, otherwise known as UFOs, but don't hold your breath. It turns out there is no evidence of aliens. As to why the reports exist in the first place, well U.K. officials say they have to check sightings to make sure there's no breeches of air space.
And in a related story, all the reports of UFOs were found to be from pubs after soccer matches.
PHILLIPS: Imagine that. They take the top of the trash cans and toss them over --
CHO: Flying saucers.
ROBERTS: No evidence of extraterrestrial life yet, but that Phoenix Lander is hard at work on Mars. It's looking at that. Yes.
PHILLIPS: It's all over China right now and it's all over the Beijing games. The number eight, the nation's lucky number for, but are fortunes changing at the wrong time. We're going to do the math.
ROBERTS: And Ali Velshi joins us to talk about the Air Force. They use more than two billion gallons of fuel every year. They're shopping for a new source. What is the new source?
ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the new source is trying to make coal into gasoline. Partially, it's not just cost but it's about making sure that there are other sources for fuel for those jets. I'll tell you more about that story when we come back. We're coming back with AMERICAN MORNING in just a minute.
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VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Ali Velshi. Think your SUV uses a lot of gas? The U.S. Air Force uses 2.6 billion gallons of jet fuel a year. The gas bill is roughly $10 million per day. Now, according to the Air Force a 10 percent increase in the barrel of oil costs them and ultimately you the taxpayer more than $500 billion more each year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI (voice-over): The air force is on a mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are testing multiple aircraft within the Air Force aviation inventory on a blended fuel that includes a 50 percent portion of normal jet aviation fuel made from petroleum and a 50 percent blend of synthetic fuel.
VELSHI: So far the U.S. Air Force has certified the B-52 to fly on a synthetic fuel blend made from natural gas, but they say they hope to use coal in the future. Performance wise, they say there's been no downside. In fact, the synthetic fuel burns cleaner. The United States has the world's largest known coal reserves, more than a quarter of a trillion short ton. That's about 545 trillion pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look at available in the ground resources that this country has, we are considered, based on the amount of coal that's in the ground, to be the Saudi Arabia of coal.
VELSHI: And Montana has the country's largest reserves of coal. The Air Force is prepared to lease out 700 acres of Maelstrom Air Force base to anyone qualified and willing to build and operate a plant to make jet fuel out of coal. The price tag though could be $1 billion. Ultimately, the Air Force hopes the coal to fuel model crosses over into the commercial aviation industry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Well, there are a couple of concerns about using coal for gasoline. One is environmental. Coal is a little bit dirty. The other is a lesson that we've learned from ethanol. Increasing the demand for coal could push the price of energy up across the board. Because coal right now is used to generate roughly half of all of the electricity that we use in the United States. So, like we use coal for - corn for fuel and it drove up the price of food, if we use coal for gasoline, could it drive up the price of electricity? We don't know the answer to that. It's worth studying to see whether it's potentially an option.
PHILLIPS: Bottom line of that is check out the alternatives.
VELSHI: We have to check everything else -
PHILLIPS: At that point...
ROBERTS: And if the price of coal goes really high, how are we going to be able to afford the lump that we're going to put in your Christmas stocking?
VELSHI: That's exactly right. I need one of those. I need them to get bigger every year.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Ali.
A record free fall goes bust. A skydiver trying to break the sound barrier doesn't quite get off the ground, but the balloon did. We'll straighten it all out for you coming up.
PHILLIPS: Plus, sleep surprise. Oh yes, while we were reading this study, we were actually the guinea pigs for the study. Lack of sleep and what it can do to your brain. We're "Paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta" straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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PHILLIPS: Eight is the luckiest number in China, and that's why the 2008 Beijing games start on 8-8-08. But if you do the math eight may add up to trouble. How is your mind working at 7:42 in the morning? Are we mathematically challenged?
CHO: August 8, 2008.
PHILLIPS: That's my birthday, by the way.
CHO: Oh it is.
PHILLIPS: And I don't like this whole no good luck thing.
CHO: Well, and also 8:00 p.m., eight minutes after 8:00, eight seconds. It's funny. Anyway, you know, the blogs has gone crazy about this story, which is how we got wind of it. But you know, a couple of bad things have happened over the past few months in China, including that devastating earthquake that had been linked to the number eight. So now the Chinese are wondering is eight really a lucky number or is it a curse?
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CHO (voice-over): It may be the worst kept ancient Chinese secret. Eight is a lucky number. That's why the Beijing Olympics will begin on August 8th, 2008. Or 8-8-08. In Chinese, the world for eight is similar to the word for wealth. So the Chinese people believe eight and prosperity are connected. The number eight is everywhere. People try to get married on the 8th. And a Chinese airline paid more than a quarter million dollars to get this phone number, 88. So if that's the case, why are the blogs on fire with this? Eight is a curse for China. Three recent events, all negative, all linked to the number eight.
First, a massive snowstorm blankets China on January 25th, one plus two plus five equals eight. Second, widespread protests against Chinese rule in Tibet. Date? March 14th, three plus one plus four equals eight. Third, a devastating earthquake hits Sichuan province killing tens of thousands on May 12th. Five plus one plus two equals eight. And the quake hits 88 days before the start of the Olympics. Is this a lucky number? Is it an unlucky number? So which is it?
ROSE WELSH, NUMEROLOGIST: Well, it's both.
CHO: Rose Welsh is a numerologist. She said eight on its side is a chain, like a chain of events.
WELSH: It was waiting to happen because eight --
CHO: Something they should have known?
WELSH: They did know.
CHO: But on the streets of Beijing many believe it's just a bad coincidence. Says this man, it's nonsense, it's just superstition. And in New York's Chinatown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My old house was 404. Four is a bad number in Chinese, but nothing happened to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: At least we don't think so. And maybe that's because four plus four equals eight. Now, we should be clear that a lot of people we talked to in and around China believe all of this eight business is just a coincidence. Many still believe eight is a lucky number, and there is no talk about changing the start date for the Olympic games. But it certainly gives us something to talk. It is interesting.
ROBERTS: Kyra is moving the date of her birthday.
PHILLIPS: Exactly. I'm moving my birthday. But here I'm looking, OK, eight in Chinese also means prosper well.
CHO: That's right.
PHILLIPS: So let's change it around here. This is going to mean good fortune, good things --
CHO: Well, and the numerologist said listen, eight also represents competition and games. She thinks this is going to be a very good thing for China. It's how you look at it.
PHILLIPS: You're competing to turn back the clock on 9-8-08.
ROBERTS: It gives people lots to talk about.
CHO: It does.
ROBERTS: Alina, thanks.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: With gasoline prices soaring, many people are trying to trade in their SUV for something a little bit smaller, but what can you do if you're trapped in a lease with an SUV? We'll tell you coming up in our next hour.
And take the money and run. In the race for campaign cash, John McCain may need President Bush, but he may not want him around all that much. The balancing act he has to pull off to win, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Coming up on 11 minutes to the top of the hour. A new study suggests that losing just one night of sleep can have a dramatic affect on your brain leaving it unstable, prone to sudden shut downs. We're "Paging our Dr. Gupta" for the details. Sanjay joins us now live from Atlanta. Sanjay, most of us feel it when we're sleep deprived, you know, we're just not functioning at 100 percent but what's actually happening in the brain, according to this new study?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Most of us do feel it from time to time. And the theory for a long time has been that several different parts of the brain are involved, but they sort of gradually shut down over time. What they found here, a couple of things. One is that far more the brain is involved when we're sleep deprived than we thought and it seems to happen sort of suddenly, sort of this flickering in and out. Things working, things not working.
Let me show you some images here, John. This is fascinating. This is the way it should normally look. You see when someone is looking at something, several different parts of the brain sort of light up here. You can see this is part of the brain back here. John, you may know that it's sort of responsible for your ability actually to look at something and recognize what it is. Take a look now when someone is sleep deprived. When you look at this next image here, you will see different parts of the brain no longer lighting up. So, for example, back here your eyes may be open, you may be looking at something but it never transmits that signal to where it needs to be further forward. So, you're not actually processing it. You're not actually doing anything with that information. And what they found is people sort of flicker back and forth between being able to see something, process it and not doing it. So you can be driving down the road thinking that you're perfectly awake, feeling competent, but then all of a sudden you sort of flicker back and forth and that can be a real problem.
Again, more parts of the brain involved than previously thought, and the study authors also went on to say that, you know, typically it takes about 10 minutes for someone to fall asleep at night. When your head hits the pillow. If you're falling asleep in five minutes or less, you have sort of borderline narcolepsy and you're more prone to having problems like this, John.
ROBERTS: So, Sanjay, everybody knows that if you use a muscle a lot, it eventually fatigues and gives out on you. The brain is not a muscle but is it a similar process that it's just getting tired?
GUPTA: Yes, exactly. That's exactly what's happening. It gets tired, and it happens much more frequently than we thought, even after just one night of no sleep or very little sleep, you can start to have these shut downs. Think of it sort of like when you're listening to a cardiac monitor, a heart monitor. You have beep, beep, beep, it's very steady. It's very predictable. Hopefully, with the brain you of sort of having those electrical signals fire as well. As you start to lose sleep, as someone who has lost a night of sleep, for example, you start to have sort of this erratic beating, much harder to predict, John.
ROBERTS: Oh, erratic brain function. That's something we live with every day. Sanjay, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Tailor made for you guys.
ROBERTS: We need to talk more about this offline, my friend. Thanks.
GUPTA: All right.
ROBERTS: And if you have a question for Sanjay, e-mail it to us. Go to cnn.com/am. He's opening up the mail bag in our next hour as he does -- the person who wrote that is sleep deprived. He will get to those on Thursday right here on AMERICAN MORNING. There's proof.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Where's "w"?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If John McCain is to win in November, it's not going to be on a Bush coat tail.
PHILLIPS: Taking the check and leaving the photo-ops. Why John McCain may be the one dancing around President Bush at a fund-raiser today.
Plus down sizing. Gas prices leave people stuck with a truck they can't afford.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now I'm paying almost double.
PHILLIPS: How SUV owners with hefty payments are finding a way out, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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PHILLIPS: New accusations this morning about Iran's nuclear program. A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency accuses Iran of not providing the information it needs to show if its nuclear program is for peaceful or military purposes. Iran insists the agency's information is fabricated and its program is peaceful. CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour has seen this report. She joins us now.
You have read the report. You've already seen it. And I want to just point out that it indicates that the Iranians have, and I emphasize have, ventured into explosives, uranium processing, and a missile warhead design which could be associated with making nuclear weapons. Now, you visited a nuclear site in Iran. I remember when you did that. How strong is this evidence?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, it's very important what the IAEA says. It has probably the most objective information gathered from a lot of member states, places like Europe, United States, and elsewhere, intelligence, and its own information in terms of going to Iran and looking at things. Well, I've called the IAEA. I've been talking to them today. What it appears to be is that information that has been found on a so-called laptop, which again is not officially confirmed this laptop and Iran denies it, but this is several years ago. This is what brought up the questions about whether Iran was headed towards military use of its nuclear program, and this is something that also the NIE took into account when it announced last year that Iran was no longer in the developing of a nuclear weapons mode.
But the IAEA is saying that we still need these questions answered. So what they're saying is that this is not information that they've just discovered last week or last month. This is still information that they've been trying to get Iran to answer for several years.
PHILLIPS: So bottom line, Christiane, when you talk about - OK, is it generating energy or is this being used specifically more military --
AMANPOUR: Well, the bottom line is the IAEA cannot sign off on whether it is truly peaceful.
PHILLIPS: Still a question mark.
AMANPOUR: Still a question mark. On the other hand, it says that Iran is meeting it in other areas of information that it needs. There's the famous so-called uranium spheres, the sort of transaction from Pakistan which has now apparently been verified and laid to rest, but in some of these key areas where they need to have all the information in order to finally sign off on what Iran's program exactly is, they still haven't got that information.
PHILLIPS: I want your response from Jimmy Carter, our former president, came out and said that the U.S. should talk with Iran in light of this new information. I'm curious to what you think. I mean, the policy has been no direct talks with Iran. Should that change?
AMANPOUR: Well, you know there's a huge and growing demand here in the United States by long-time foreign policy experts and in fact current administration officials that engagement is possibly a smart thing to do because isolation seems not to have worked as well as everybody has hoped it would. Certainly the United States which has had no relations with Iran for the last 30 years. In addition, the Europeans and the countries that the U.S. is working with on Iran at the moment on its nuclear program, are coming up with as yet unpublicly divulged new apparently package of incentives, and carrots and sticks for what they're trying to do. The EU policy adviser Javier Solana still says he's going to Iran to try to move this process forward.
PHILLIPS: I want to get what you make of this stepping aside from Iran. Israel. Jimmy Carter also coming forward and saying Israel has 150 atomic bombs. Did we know that before?
AMANPOUR: I think everybody has known. It's the ultimate unsecret secret that Israel has nuclear weapons. I mean, everybody has known that. The only thing is nobody said it publicly, certainly not the United States, certainly not Israel. Former President Carter apparently was speaking at a literary festival in Wales and was asked a question about disarmament generally in the area, and he listed a number of countries that have nuclear weapons and he included Israel. Was he trying to be the first American to actually publicly state that Israel has nuclear weapons? It's unclear. But certainly every time this issue comes up in Iran or in the Middle East or in Pakistan or India, all these countries which, you know, the U.S and the IAEA are trying to control, everybody says well how come nobody talked about Israel? How come that is never part of the equation. So, it's always been this unspoken secret that everybody knows and now you have a former president saying it publicly.
PHILLIPS: It's out there again. We'll be talking --
AMANPOUR: Again, the reports we have are really from British newspaper reports. We haven't heard him say it. It's a report that he said apparently, according to the "Times of London."
PHILLIPS: All right. We need to find that report. Christiane Amanpour, great talking to you. Thanks. John.
ROBERTS: It's one minute to the top of the hour now. John McCain challenging Barack Obama to take a trip to Iraq together. McCain says Obama needs a lesson on the situation there because he has not visited the war zone since before the troop build-up in 2006. McCain also criticized Obama's lack of experience during a Memorial Day stop in New Mexico.
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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There will be a stark contrast between myself and Senator Obama. A state like New Mexico he has no background or experience on any of the vital issues to the people of New Mexico, whether it be water or land, federal issues or Native Americans. And so I look forward to debating here and campaigning here as I have many times in the past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Obama said he is confident that he can win in New Mexico after people look back at the past eight years of Republican rule. President Bush makes a rare campaign appearance with John McCain.
