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Split Verdict for Bin Laden's Driver; McCain Addresses Energy, Economy Issues; Madeleine McCann Investigation Questioned; China Struggles to Lessen Pollution for Olympics; Major Identity Theft Ring Busted
Aired August 06, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You know, a lot of people are saying it is flip-flop season and they're not talking about the things you wear on your feet around the pool. It is a presidential candidate's prerogative to change his mind. And we'll see who's changing more about what.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hot leads, dead ends, missed opportunities. Portuguese police make public their long and fruitless search for Madeleine McCann. And the young girls' parents call it a scandal. We're on the case in London.
Hello, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Right off the top, we'll start with this. Supporting? Yes. Conspiring? No. The military jury, in a ground-breaking war crimes trial, has convicted Osama bin Laden's one-time driver of supporting al Qaeda but cleared him of conspiracy.
And our Jamie McIntyre has been following this historic proceedings. He's at Guantanamo Bay. He's going to join us here in the NEWSROOM in just a little bit -- Randi.
KAYE: The suspect is dead; the case is said to be solved. It's not quite closed. But questions remain as to how the FBI zeroed in on this man, government scientist Bruce Ivins, in the anthrax attacks of 2001. We could learn a whole lot more now that a federal judge has unsealed hundreds of documents, while investigators met in private today with victims' families.
It all comes just one week after Ivins committed suicide, and a case no one had heard about in years exploded back into the headlines.
The search warrants, affidavits, and other papers could be released any time now after the family briefings. And you'll see them first right here on CNN.
LEMON: All right. It's time now to talk politics and energy and the economy. They're still the buzz words today in the race for the White House. John McCain is touring a factory in Jackson, Ohio, and Barack Obama is in Indiana, where he held another energy town-hall meeting this morning. Joining him there, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, who's considered one of the top contenders to be Obama's running mate. We'll check into that.
A little bit later on this hour, we'll hear from McCain and Obama in their own words.
KAYE: Leading our Political Ticker, the resignation of Barack Obama's Muslim outreach adviser. The Chicago lawyer had been on the job barely a week when he announced that he is stepping down.
This comes after his connection to a fundamentalist Muslim imam surfaced. He says he's quitting because he doesn't want to distract from Obama's message of change. The resignation was first reported by the "Wall Street Journal."
Political one-upmanship during the Olympic Games. First Barack Obama bought $5 million worth of TV ads that will air here in the U.S. during the Beijing games that get underway on Friday. Now "The Washington Post" is reporting that John McCain has topped that with a $6 million Olympic ad of his own. An Olympic buy.
Check out our political ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.
LEMON: Now back to our top story here. The military jury in a ground-breaking war crimes trial has convicted Osama bin Laden's one- time driver of supporting al Qaeda but cleared him on conspiracy.
Our Jamie McIntyre has been following the proceedings. He joins us now from Guantanamo Bay.
Jamie, tell us about these verdicts.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. It's kind of a split verdict, although, clearly, Salim Hamdan has been cleared on terror-related charges, and he will now go to a sentencing phase of this trial. And he does face a potential life in prison.
But it's interesting to hear the human rights advocates and civil libertarians who have been monitoring the trial also point out that they think the fact that he was found not guilty on another count of conspiracy to be a rebuke to the administration and to the military commission process.
That said, on that conspiracy count was also a count that the judge admitted yesterday may have mis-instructed the jury on the fine points of the law regarding that.
But, again, the bottom line is there were two counts. Not guilty on one; guilty on the second count, support to terrorism. That involved driving bin Laden around. And also ferrying weapons and ammunition to the battlefield, including two SA-2 missiles.
But Salim Hamdan's time in the American judicial system has been long. He's been held here for...
LEMON: That was our Jamie McIntyre. Apparently having problems with that. Joining us from Guantanamo Bay on the verdict of Osama bin Laden's one-time driver.
Meantime, we want to get you now to John McCain. He is in Jackson, Ohio, making remarks there in the Merillat Kitchen Cabinet plant, and he's talking about energy and the economy, as well. We'll listen in here.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's time to get America's economy moving again. Companies like Merillat and families across Ohio face challenges in their businesses and around the kitchen table. And obviously, energy prices are too high. We're losing jobs. Our housing market is on the decline. And the cost of everything is going up. And in the face of this, Washington is on vacation.
In the face of a severe energy crisis, the Congress decides to go on a five-week vacation. When I'm president of the United States, I will call the Congress back into session and tell them to act and not to leave town, to take their vacation or their pay raise until they address this energy crisis. And now is the time for action.
We need an all-of-the-above plan to address our energy crisis, with alternative energy, drilling, and nuclear power. That means drilling here, drilling now, in the United States of America and off the United States of American's coast.
Everybody knows that drilling is a very vital part of bridging our gap between our dependence on foreign oil, which is transferring $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much. And we have the -- we have the resources to be explored and exploited, and we could obtain some of the benefit of that within months.
My opponent, Senator Obama, opposes both storage and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. He opposes offshore drilling immediately, and he's out of touch.
And we need to crack down on those who have abused our credit market and caused this housing decline. We need to take action to support American businesses so that we can stop jobs from going overseas and create more jobs here at home.
America has the second highest business rate in the entire world. It's any wonder that jobs are moving overseas. We're taxing them out of the country. Unfortunately, Senator Obama's plans would raise taxes on businesses even more. He's promised tax increases on income, tax increases on investment, tax increases on small businesses. That's exactly, exactly the wrong strategy. Raising taxes in a bad economy is about the worst thing you can do, because it'll kill even more jobs when what we need are policies that create jobs.
What we need today is an economic surge. Our surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily. Now we need an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones. We need to reduce the tax burden on businesses that choose to make their home in the United States of America. We need to open new markets to U.S. products. And we need to reduce the cost of healthcare. And we need to end the out of control spending in Washington that's putting our debt on the backs of our children.
Now's the time for action, and when I'm president, we are going to get it done.
I want to say again to the people here at Merillat, thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your obvious dedication to safety. I'm very impressed by your industrial safety record and your teams that have made such an outstanding record possible. And obviously, Karen Strauss (ph) and John Lewis (ph) and the entire team here, thank you very much.
LEMON: All right, John McCain in Jackson, Ohio there, talking energy, economy, and taxes. It's very interesting. I hadn't heard energy crisis, Randi, since, you know, the 1970s. And now you're hearing the candidates talk about it.
He also talked about creating jobs here at home and also really hit Barack Obama hard on raising taxes. He said Barack Obama is going to raise taxes, and you don't need that in this type of economy. He said what we need today is an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and to create new ones.
Both candidates have been talking energy lately and the economy. Obviously, we're in a bad economic -- in bad economic times. So they're been talking about that. As soon as we get Barack Obama, if he makes comments live today, we'll bring that to you, as well, in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Randi.
KAYE: Checking issue No. 1, the nation's economy and your money.
And the tough times continue for mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Second-quarter results are out today, and the company's losses were way more than analysts expected. A big factor: spiking delinquencies and foreclosures in mortgages Freddie Mac owns and guarantees. Freddie's stock took a big hit in morning trading.
Let's check how markets are doing overall today. You're taking a look there at the big board, and Dow Industrials down just about 10 points there. That's the big board. We'll get a full business update from our Susan Lisovicz in just about 20 minutes.
"Do you know where my mummy is?" Those are said to be the words of a little girl sighted at a store in the Netherlands. Was she Madeleine McCann, the British girl who vanished during a family vacation in Portugal last year? New police files have been released, and they're raising some questions about the investigation.
CNN's Phil Black reports from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are among the images the parents of Madeleine McCann say they did not see while Portuguese police were still searching for their daughter. CCTV pictures of girls said to resemble Madeleine, taken in Portugal in the days after her disappearance last year. They make up some of the almost 30,000 pages of the police case file that has now been made public.
The file also contains these images, compiled from witness descriptions of men said to be acting suspiciously around the place and time of Madeleine's disappearance. They were never released publicly. Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, never saw them.
CLARENCE MITCHELL, MCCANN FAMILY SPOKESMAN: One of the great frustrations throughout all of this was the Portuguese police hardly told them anything.
ANA STAM, WITNESS: She said, "They are not -- she is not my mommy."
BLACK: The McCanns had also never heard of this one woman before the file was released. Ana Stam last year told Dutch police she had a conversation in an Amsterdam shop with a girl who she says looked like Madeleine and who told her her name was Maddy.
STAM: I start to ask where her mommy was, and she couldn't tell me that. And I wanted to give her a balloon, but she didn't want that. She only wanted her mommy, she said. And she said that these people took her from her mommy.
BLACK: The girl had dark hair, and Madeleine's parents say their daughter never referred to herself as Maddie. The McCanns don't know that Portuguese police eliminated this possible sighting. It's one more lead their private investigators must now follow up.
MITCHELL: Well, here we are, what, 15, 16 months out. It's, frankly, a disgrace that we should have to be doing this the investigators should have to be doing this, this far down the line.
BLACK: Madeleine McCann was 3-years-old when she went missing in May last year while on holiday with her family in the Portuguese town of Praia da Luz. From the beginning, the police have received strong criticism for their handling of the investigation, which at one time named Kate and Gerry as suspects. They've since been cleared.
Last month, the case was closed without ever forming a strong theory on what happened to Madeleine.
(on camera) The police file includes a report from Portugal's prosecutors, giving their assessment of the police investigation. It says the police worked with an enormous margin of error and achieved very little in terms of conclusive results. The McCann spokesman says it's refreshing to finally hear common sense from the Portuguese authorities.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, after a long and sometimes troubled trip from Greece, the Olympic torch has finally arrived in Beijing. It was greeted with drummers and dancers at the Temple of Heaven and by cheering crowds lining the relay route. Runners will carry the torch through the Chinese capital until Friday when it arrives at the opening ceremony for the summer games.
And the torch relay has sparked some protests around the world, and Beijing was no exception to that. Activists climbed two utility poles -- you can see it there -- and put up banners calling the independence -- calling for the independence of Tibet.
China's trying to put its very best foot forward for the Olympics. That includes steps to deal with Beijing's notorious pollution. Look at this time lapse. These are time -lapse pictures, and they suggest the measures have been partially successful, partially.
Factories have been closed, construction projects have been halted, and many cars have been taken off the streets.
Our Chad Myers joins us now from the CNN severe weather center.
Chad, and you're the weather expert here, but we've been seeing some of, you know, the Olympic athletes from around the world going over with masks on. This doesn't bode well for them.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's not a good public relations thing. I mean, it's kind of a little bit of a nightmare for them. But this is all weather dependent, Don. I can't tell you how weather dependent all of this is. I mean, we're going to go through some pictures, some images off the satellite that will show what the pollution looks like.
These are from our friends at Sonoma Technologies and, obviously, NASA. This was yesterday. You can look for the white haze, not the white clouds. Those are clouds up there. But this little haze down here. Really can't see Beijing very well, but it's there.
I'm going to back you up a couple of days. I'm going to back you up to August the 3rd. This is absolutely spectacular day. Cold front went by, took all of the pollution away. There's Beijing. You can literally see it from the satellite.
Now I'm going to take you to some days that really aren't so good. We're going to go back to July 24. That is a choking day of pollution prior to some weather coming through to push that cold front away. All of this is just stuck in these valleys here.
I'm going to back you up here to July 12. What happens when a cold front comes by? It pushes all that pollution right out into the ocean, and you get another clear day behind it.
But prior to them actually doing all of this, with shutting down factories and shutting down cars, this was -- this was June 19. You can't see the city. It's completely engulfed in haze and choking, just absolutely choking in ozone and in particulates. And so at least Beijing doesn't look like that. They have done so much to make it look better than that, but still today a moderate pollution day on a day that actually should be pretty good.
So they still have their work cut out for them. And you will probably see quite a few of the athletes wear those masks.
LEMON: Wearing those masks. But yet to be determined whether or not it affects them. We'll have you -- we'll have to see that, whether it has any long-term effects. We don't know. We hope not.
MYERS: I went to a bar this week, a smoking bar
LEMON: There you go.
MYERS: And I haven't smoked in so long. And I wanted to go see a band, and I just wanted to go see the band. The next day, I felt terrible with all this stuff in my lungs.
LEMON: Yes.
MYERS: So I can imagine maybe this is what the athletes are going to feel.
LEMON: We'll see. We're certainly hoping -- wishing the best for them. All right, Chad. Might as well check back. Lots of other weather happening here in the United States, and we'll get back to that, as well.
Meantime, I want to take you -- look at these pictures, these beautiful -- this is called a Bird's Nest. And this is where the track and field competition will be held. Beautiful. I think, like, 91,000 people -- live pictures of the Bird's Nest -- 91,000 people will be able to watch the Olympics there.
And then after the Olympics -- a little fact here -- it will be reduced to about 88,000 after the games. And very interesting. Beautiful, beautiful place. The Bird's Nest in Beijing -- Randi.
KAYE: That looks nice, Don. Even about 1 in the morning their time.
LEMON: Yes.
KAYE: A desperate search in Florida. Two-year-old Caylee Anthony hasn't been seen in two months. Her mother's in jail on charges related to the case, but she's not talking. We'll get an update.
LEMON: ... credit-card identity theft network, and we'll tell you how the hackers did it and how they got caught.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: A Mexican-born condemned killer apologized moments before the state of Texas executed him, in defiance of an international court.
Jose Medellin was convicted in a brutal attack on two teenagers back in 1993. The girls were gang-raped, beaten and strangled. His case grabbed world headlines because of allegations he wasn't able to meet with anyone from the Mexican consulate until after his conviction. The International Court of Justice ordered Texas not to execute Medellin until a new hearing on the matter.
Today the Mexican government sent a note of protest to the U.S. State Department.
LEMON: The fight goes on for children from a polygamous sect in Texas. State child welfare authorities want eight of the children -- six girls and two boys -- back in foster care. Now they argue their mothers are violating an agreement to keep the children away from men accused of being involved in underage marriages.
Now, the men are identified in court papers as the children's fathers or stepfathers. A hearing is set for the end of next month.
KAYE: Another child is the focus of a desperate search by Florida police. Two-year-old Caylee Anthony hasn't been seen in just about two months. Her mother waited five weeks to report her missing. Now the mom's in jail and keeping mom while others look for her daughter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAYLEE ANTHONY, MISSING GIRL: I'm hungry.
KAYE (voice-over): Where is Caylee Anthony? Is the 2-year-old Florida girl alive or dead? And is her mother hiding anything about her disappearance?
Authorities are convinced Casey Anthony knows much more than she is telling them. Prosecutors in Florida formally charged the 22-year- old single mother with child neglect and making a false statement.
This is what Casey says happened. On June 9, she dropped Caylee off at a babysitter. When she returned, Casey and the sitter were gone.
(on camera) Instead of contacting police or her family, Casey says she went searching for Caylee herself, vanishing for five weeks before returning home without Caylee, but with a story Caylee's grandmother had a hard time believing.
(voice-over) Here's Cindy Anthony's call to 911.
CINDY ANTHONY, CAYLEE'S GRANDMOTHER: I told you my daughter was missing for a month. I just found her today, but I can't find my granddaughter. She just admitted to me that she's been trying to find her herself. There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car.
KAYE: Investigators also reported a strong odor of human decomposition in the trunk of the car. They describe Casey's claims as a web of deceit and say the apartment where she claimed the sitter lived had been vacant for months. Casey was arrested for child neglect and held on $500,000 bail. Authorities say she has not been cooperative.
SERGEANT JOHN ALLEN, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: She has the right to not talk about it. But certainly as a mother, I would hope that she would be willing to give us whatever information that she had to help us find her child.
KAYE: But in a taped jailhouse conversation with a friend called Christina on July 16, Casey denied she was lying.
CHRISTINA, FRIEND OF CASEY: If anything happens to Caylee, Casey, I'll die. Do you understand? I'll die if anything happens to that baby.
CASEY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CAYLEE: Oh, my God, calling you guys, a waste. Huge waste. Honey, I love you. You know I would not let anything happen to my daughter. If I knew where she was, this wouldn't be going on.
KAYE: Now Caylee's grandparents are defending their daughter, saying Casey has told them Caylee is alive, even that she can help find her if she's released.
CINDY ANTHONY: There are certain things that the family can't say. There's certain things that we do know. There's certain things that Casey knows that she can't tell. But you know, frankly, there's not a whole lot of people that we trust.
GEORGE ANTHONY, GRANDFATHER OF CAYLEE: She knows who has her daughter. She knows her daughter's safe. You know, I've got to believe her that she knows where -- everything is OK.
KAYE: Meanwhile, new photographs of Casey have emerged. They show her at a local club, partying and smiling to the camera. The photographer says they were taken after Caylee went missing. Her attorney disputes that.
And for the little girl at the center of this mystery, all everyone can do is wait, hope, and pray.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Now a close family friend, Holly Gagne, says she's just as confused as everyone else. She told CNN's Anderson Cooper she believes the young woman is lying, but only to protect her daughter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLLY GAGNE, FAMILY FRIEND: There's all kinds of possibilities, some things that they shared with me in confidence. The police are not releasing everything. They do not believe that she would be putting them through this kind of torture and this kind of pain just because she's lying to make it up or to cover up. That's just -- they don't believe that. Listen to me. This is what you would consider a normal, everyday family. These people, if anything, Anderson, were quiet and kept to themselves. They were not, you know, big out, you know, to bother you. They just really had dinner and were an everyday, modern family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Much more on the search for Caylee Anthony tonight on "AC 360." That's at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
And one more footnote: Caylee's third birthday is Saturday.
LEMON: Forty million credit and debit card numbers stolen. Was one of them yours? There's a good possibility it might be. Feds throw the book at 11 suspects in their biggest hacking and I.D. theft case ever.
KAYE: She's like totally not happy that she starred in a John McCain ad without her permission. That was written for me. I don't really talk like that. You know that.
LEMON: You're supposed to say...
KAYE: But Paris Hilton does, and she is firing totally back.
LEMON: And that's hot.
KAYE: Oh, yes. She's hot.
LEMON: That's hot.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: The feds have busted an alleged hacking and identity theft ring, but not before big damage was done. CNN's Alina Cho has more on how authorities sniffed out their suspects.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL MUKASEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL: They caused widespread losses by banks, retailers, and customers.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How much? The feds say it may be too hard to add it all up. Maybe tens of millions of dollars from people who shopped at places like Office Max, DSW, Barnes and Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21, even Boston Market.
All they do is sit outside with a laptop, wait for customers to make a purchase, then use a so-called sniffer program to get into a store's wireless network.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, U.S. ATTORNEY: This allowed the defendants to remotely capture sensitive information, such as the card numbers, passwords and account information.
CHO: The hackers allegedly sold that personal information, or used it themselves. Some numbers were stored on magnetic strips of blank cards and used to draw tens of thousands of dollars from ATMs.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: This is, from the standpoint of what, I guess, you could describe as a white collar crime, probably one of the biggest challenges we face in the 21st century. Huge amounts of money move over the Internet.
CHO: Many people whose numbers were stolen may not realize they're victims yet, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chernoff says they're working with stores to close this cyber hole.
CHERTOFF: The international system is safe. But I also have to tell you the bad guys are smart, too.
CHO (on camera): This is believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. The investigation took three years and the scheme, allegedly stretched over five years in several states, with the ripped-off money spent all over the world.
And authorities say the key suspect was actually double-dealing, giving the Secret Service tips and ripping off the public at the same time.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Alina.
Another blow to the economy: a mortgage giant posts a giant loss. And our Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with Freddie Mac's -- that's what we're talking about -- latest problems.
Hi, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.
And these are big numbers. Remember, it's just a three-month period. Freddie Mac losing more than $800 million. Wall Street expected a loss. It was three times worse than expected. And the problems don't stop there.
Freddie doubled its provisions for credit losses to $2.5 billion. Why is that? Well, we've heard these reasons before -- rising delinquencies, rising foreclosures, while home prices continued to decline. And by the way, the value of Freddie's mortgage securities fell by $1 billion. Freddie is slashing its dividends to save money. It is slashing the dividends, Don, by 80 percent.
LEMON: Wow. I've got to ask you because we've heard a lot about these mortgage companies and these banks going -- with big losses. Some of them going belly up, right? But Freddie, that's a completely different category.
LISOVICZ: No question about it. Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae for that matter, are critical to the housing recovery. Because why? Well, they own or back nearly half of all outstanding mortgage debts in the U.S. That's why Congress passed that rescue plan last month, which would enable both of them to borrow an unlimited amount of capital for a limited period. And obviously when you hear numbers like this, it doesn't exactly instill confidence. Freddie Mac shares are down 14 percent, Fannie down 11 percent. Obviously, everyone hopes that it will never come to that, that taxpayers will be on the hook.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
LEMON: I'm smiling here, this is completely off topic, but can we get a shot of Randi, as well? You two have a very nice haircut. Let's see here.
KAYE: We coordinated.
LEMON: You did?
LISOVICZ: We did.
LEMON: There was a whole lot of e-mailing going on.
Do you like the do? Susan likes the do. Everybody likes it -- Randi's new do.
LISOVICZ: I love it, and I told you so earlier this week. I love it.
KAYE: Yes you did. You inspired me.
LISOVICZ: Simple and sleek is easier.
KAYE: This is such girl stuff -- such girl stuff.
LEMON: You should hear my ear -- wrap, wrap.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Now you can have your girl time on TV.
All right. We'll see you in a little bit, Susan. Thank you very much.
All right. Let's talk about flip-flopping. Who is the biggest flip-flopper? Is it Barack Obama, is it John McCain? We'll check in with Politico's Ken Vogel for the answer.
KAYE: And taking to the air with a teen at the controls. And wait until you see who his co-pilot is, speaking of trembling. We'll look at an ambitious plan to increase diversity at the nation's airlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK, for the third straight day, Barack Obama is pushing his so-called new energy for America plan. The Democratic candidate is campaigning today in the Midwest and he's vowing to stop America's dependence on foreign oil.
Here's what Obama had to say at a town hall this morning in Elkart, Indiana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are we going to do this?
No. 1, we're going to create cars that get 150 miles per gallon. We're going to create plug-in hybrid cars that are made not in Japan, not in China, but right here in the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
We will help the automakers retool. And we are going to put money into research and development to ensure that this happens and we're going to create an electricity grid that allows us to fully utilize plug-in hybrid technology that's already on the shelf right now, but we're not using it because we haven't been serious about this issue.
No. 2, we're going to double the amount of energy that comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term. And that means investing in solar and wind and biodiesel.
(APPLAUSE)
No. 3, we're going to call on businesses, government, and consumers to meet the goal of reducing demand for electricity by 15 percent over the next decade. And this is by far the fastest, the easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy consumption. We can save $130 billion on our energy bills just by taking some basic energy efficiency steps.
You know California, over the last three decades, has seen no increase in the electricity usage, although the rest of the country has seen a 60 percent increase. And California's grown just as fast, if not faster than any part of the country. Because when you put your mind to it and we apply some basic strategies, we can save a whole lot of money and a whole lot of energy.
And in just three years, these steps will produce enough renewable energy to replace all the oil that we import from the Middle East and Venezuela. I won't pretend those goals aren't ambitious. It won't be easy to accomplish these tasks, but we can do it because we've done it before. I want to say that achieving them is absolutely necessary for our safety and our prosperity. And in the same way that John F. Kennedy said that we can go to the moon in a decade -- even though at the time the technology didn't exist, nobody knew how we were going to do it -- we can set those same kinds of goals today. And American ingenuity and determination will help us get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So after his visit to Indiana, Obama heads to Minneapolis for a fundraiser.
KAYE: Barack Obama and John McCain are both accused of doing it, shifting positions to win over voters. So what are their biggest flip-flops? Joining us now from Washington, Ken Vogel, senior reporter for Politico.
Good to see you, Ken.
KEN VOGEL, SENIOR REPORTER, POLITICO.COM: Hey, great to be with you, Randi.
KAYE: First off, tell me who is the bigger flip-flopper of the two?
VOGEL: Well both of these candidates have clearly changed their positions on important issues. The interesting thing is that they do it almost for opposite reasons.
John McCain, over the years, has taken many, really specific stances on controversial issues -- sort of part of his straight talk persona. And over the years, whether it's because of politics or because of the changing circumstances, he's had to shift, change, even flip-flop on some of those.
Obama, on the other hand, has really taken a lot of nuanced positions and avoided taking really strict, specific positions on issues. And as he's gotten pinned down on some of these over the course of this long campaign, he's then tried to go back and apply nuance after the fact and that has gotten him accused of flip-flopping in certain situations.
KAYE: Let's look at a few examples.
Let's start with Obama when he's talking about tapping the crude oil reserves. Let's play a piece of tape and then I want you to rate whether or not this is a flip-flop or not. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I do not believe that we should use the Strategic Oil Reserves at this point. The Strategic Oil Reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We should sell 70 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So what do you think? Flip-flop? VOGEL: I think that's a pretty clear flip-flop, yes.
He went on to say, his campaign did at least, that we've reached a tipping point on energy -- on gas prices and on energy and that's why he believes it's justified to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. But a tipping point versus a terrorist attack on a major Saudi oil facility, I think those are two different things and equate to a flip-flop.
KAYE: OK. Let's talk about offshore oil drilling. Has Obama flip-flopped on that? He wants limited drilling as part of a comprehensive gas price reduction plan.
VOGEL: That's right. And he has said in the past that he objected to offshore drilling off the coast of Florida, and he didn't really put any conditions on it. Now he's saying that he would support it as part of a comprehensive plan. He's still not enthusiastic about it, though. So we'll give that half a flip.
KAYE: OK. Let's go quickly here, let's get to McCain on offshore drilling. In February of 2000, he said, "I understand Texans want offshore drilling. That's fine with me. Off Florida, they don't. I think we should allow these decisions to be made by the people who are directly affected by them."
Now here's what he said just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: The fact is we have to drill here and we have to drill now, and we have to drill immediately. And it has to be done as quickly as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So flip-flop?
VOGEL: Well, if you look back at what he said over the course of his career, mostly during the 2000 campaign, but also between then and now, he's taken more of a states' rights position where he has said it would be OK with him if states decided to drill off their own shores. Now he's become more of a cheerleader for it and is actually advocating for it. So we'll give that half a flip, as well.
KAYE: And just to be balanced before we let you go, real quickly on tax cuts for McCain. He had supported Bush's tax cuts, now says -- he had opposed Bush's tax cuts -- I'm sorry -- and now he says that he has voted in favor of them back in 2006. Flip-flop?
VOGEL: This is a clear flip-flop. And the reason seems to be political expediency. When he first opposed the cuts, he was kind of pushing this maverick persona where he had just come off a stinging loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican presidential primary. Then in 2006, when he was recontemplating running again for president and needed to reach out to the Republican base, he started supporting the cuts again. Flip-flop. KAYE: All right. There you have it.
Ken Vogel from Politico. Thanks so much for your time this afternoon.
VOGEL: Thank you, Randi.
LEMON: When you say politics, who do you immediately think of? Paris Hilton, right?
KAYE: No.
LEMON: Well, Paris Hilton isn't happy that she was a John McCain ad that pokes fun at Barack Obama's celebrity status. She's not happy about that, so she is firing back. The actress and socialite -- maybe we should say socialite and actress -- is out with an ad of her own mocking the McCain ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARIS HILTON, SOCIALITE: Hey, America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too. Only, I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot. But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white- haired dude.
And I want America to know that I'm like totally ready to lead. OK, so here's my energy policy. Barack wants to focus on new technologies to cut foreign oil dependency, and McCain wants offshore drilling. Well why don't we do a hybrid of both candidates' ideas? We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversights while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go pick out a vice president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I think she said she wanted her vice president to be Rihanna or something like that.
A McCain campaign spokesman says, by the way, Randi, Hilton obviously has a better energy plan than Barack Obama.
KAYE: A better bathing suit too I think.
LEMON: You didn't like that bathing suit.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: I don't know about that. No, it's not my style.
LEMON: It's hot.
KAYE: You know, whatever. LEMON: It's hot. Maybe that was part of her energy plan. It's hot.
KAYE: It's like hot, as she would say.
LEMON: All right. We want to hear what you have to say about solving the energy crisis. Make sure you shoot us an e-mail at cnnnewsroom@cnn.com.
KAYE: I bet those are going to be pouring in.
LEMON: Oh yes.
KAYE: Is it a sign of the economic times? More and more women making an unusual withdrawal, selling their eggs.
LEMON: And we'll show you a pickpocket caught on camera in Florida.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You can call it fertile financial ground. There can be decent money in egg donation as more and more women are discovering these days. But not everyone's eligible and not everyone understands the process.
Here's our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, these women can make up to $10,000 for donating their eggs. This is a lot of money that we're talking about here. But when we talk to the folks that actually run these clinics they say the downturn in the economy probably plays a relatively small role. It's probably more marketing about egg donation, more awareness than ever before, and also the time of year. A lot of college students donate their eggs and they've got college tuition and books coming up. This is a way to defray some of these costs.
Now let me point out something that I think is important. Donating eggs is not easy. This is quite a process, sometimes it can take up to 40 days just to get screened, blood tests, hormone tests, genetic tests. After that, medications are given to stimulate egg production, then minor surgery. About 90 percent of people who want to donate eggs don't end up being able to do it for various reasons. So there is something -- it's quite a process involved here.
There are also risks in this sort of thing. Simply taking the medication, simply going through all these types of procedures, there is a thing known as Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, probably the biggest risk, where your ovaries make too many eggs. You can get swelling in the abdomen, you can get weight gain, you can get bloating. All of that can be very problematic.
There are also people who probably should never donate eggs, usually because of infectious disease reasons, people who have body piercings, people who have had tattoos, also a woman with a BMI, Body Mass Index, over 30 or who is a smoker. This is something that's become more popular, obviously this time of year, in particular.
Back to you for now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Thanks, Sanjay.
The word emergency suggests an urgent situation where time is of the essence. But if you've ever gone to the emergency room, you know it is not often a quick trip. And wait times are actually getting longer. According to the CDC, patients spend almost an hour on average waiting for an E.R. doctor. A decade ago, the average was about 38 minutes. Researchers point mostly to supply and demand, more E.R. visits and fewer hospitals with emergency departments.
LEMON: Up in the wild blue yonder, we'll look at a camp that allows African-American teens to soar.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Let me ask you a question. Do you ever look into the cockpit as you board the plane? How many women, or African-Americans or Hispanic pilots have you seen? Probably not many. And that's because they make up less than 5 percent of all commercial pilots. Now, there is a flight camp dedicated to diversity at the controls. Starting young is their policy. And I spent the day at a camp and took to the skies with a teenager pilot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Runway in sight. Runway 2-2.
LEMON (voice-over): What's a 17-year-old doing behind the controls of an MD-90 jet?
(on camera): (INAUDIBLE), did you just do that by yourself?
(voice-over): OK, it's just a simulator. But soon, Brandon Henry hopes to navigate the real deal.
BRANDON HENRY, STUDENT PILOT: Just gave me a taste of what I would be doing as a career.
LEMON: Brandon is taking part in this free aviation camp for teens. 2,000 applied but only 75 got in. Mostly on their academic achievements.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is the real thing, guys. The real things don't take it lightly.
LEMON: A thrill for budding pilots and a way to promote diversity in the airline industry. This camp and others like it, were started by the organization of Black Airline Pilots, which says, fewer than five percent of all commercial pilots are African-American or women.
Jerome Wellons is one of them.
(on camera): I don't get on the plane a lot and see a lot of black pilots and I don't see a lot of women.
JEROME WELLONS, ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST AIRLINES: Right. We are few and far apart. And that's another reason why we're doing this program. To try to get more of black men and women into the aviation, into the cockpit, into air traffic control towers, into the maintenance hangar.
LEMON (voice-over): Wellons flies for Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Seven years ago, he graduated from this camp.
WELLONS: A lot of kids don't get this kind of exposure and see the things that they're seeing. It's been great. And I'm where I'm at today because of this program.
LEMON: Retired Delta captain John Bailey, started the flight camp with diversity in mind and got the Atlanta-based airline to sponsor it. He soon found out it was not only a way to train future pilots, but that the experience was a great confidence builder for young people.
CAPT. JOHN BAILEY (RET.), FOUNDER, ATLANTIC FLIGHT LINE CAMP: A kid who's been told all his life, you're stupid, you can't do that and you can't do this. And now he flies in the airplane all by himself. Think about that. All by himself. He's a different kid after he solos. It's amazing to watch. Even the way you walk, the way you talk. It's amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Induction, inlet and filter.
LEMON (on camera): That's our air filter?
(voice-over): Time now for the real thing as Brandon and his classmates learn preflight inspections, my photographer and I prepare to be inaugural passengers.
HENRY: (INAUDIBLE) one, Active runway right now. Getting ready to take off. Feet on the bottom of the runners, no brakes on top.
LEMON: The takeoff was a little bumpy. I was more nervous than Brandon.
HENRY: All right. Coming up at 200 feet. 200 feet, stabilized.
LEMON: The longest 20 minutes of my life.
HENRY: (INAUDIBLE) holding the nose off. Holding it.
LEMON: Landing was kind of scary too. But overall, he was a natural.
(on camera): How's it feel? HENRY: Felt like I was on top of the world, you know. And that was actually my first time being the pilot in command, so to say.
LEMON (voice-over): Future pilots, flying high.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: You know, I congratulate the kid. But I was so scared.
KAYE: I congratulate you. That's pretty brave.
Did he tell you this was his first time before you actually went in the air?
LEMON: That was his first time in the air, behind the controls.
KAYE: And you knew that and still went?
LEMON: Yes. He had an instructor with him and I went. You know, I trusted in a person higher than where we were. But yes, it was pretty scary.
But, you know what, it's an amazing camp. Because the camp was started back in 1989 and two of his graduates are now commercial pilots. 30 others are working in the airline industry, including being corporate instructors and in the military and what have you. So, they're doing pretty well and they're promoting diversity among the ranks.
If you want more information about this, you can go to -- it's called acecamps.org. Acecamps.org. So, there you go.
KAYE: Well done. Brave man.
We are going to show you a pick pocket caught on camera in Florida.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Caught on camera in a Miami area convenience store. A pick pocket who apparently lacks the necessary light touch, gets caught red-handed trying to help himself to another man's wallet. There you see it, there. The intended target begins to realize what's happening. The two men -- well, they get into it. They tumble to the ground, the thief gets the best of the battle and escapes. Miami area police are using this surveillance tape in hopes of catching the guy.
The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
