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American Morning
Tom Ridge Claims Bush Raised Terror Alert Before 2004 Election; The Truth About Health Care Covering Illegal Immigrants; Hurricane Bill Heads to Bermuda; COBRA Sign-ups Double; Stimulus Money Saves Police Force; Stress of Deployment Affects Military Divorce Rates; Manure for Electricity; Top U.S. General Frustrated Over Iraqi Violence
Aired August 21, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And a very good Friday morning to you. It's the 21st of August and you're watching the Most News in the Morning. We're glad to have you with us today. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We're following several developing stories. We'll be breaking them down for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, a new bombshell from America's first Homeland Security secretary. Tom Ridge suggesting that the Bush administration encouraged may have encouraged him to raise the scare alert level for political reasons. In a moment, we'll take you live to Washington.
ROBERTS: Bracing for Bill. Storm warnings are up in Bermuda as the Category Three hurricane approaches the island. It is also expected to cause dangerous waves and rip currents, along much of the U.S. east coast this weekend. Our Rob Marciano is tracking it all for us this morning.
CHETRY: And it's a hot-button issue at those angry town hall meetings, claims that taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab for health care for illegal immigrants. President Obama says that's simply not true. But is that really the case? We have the truth squad this morning.
ROBERTS: We begin with a story that's sure to have the nation buzzing this morning. A bombshell accusation about President Bush's White House straight from one of the most senior officials who work there. We're talking about former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
He's out with a new book. In it, he claims the White House pressured him to raise the terror alert level just days before the 2004 presidential election. The suggestion -- that President Bush's team was ready to use security scare tactics to score political points. In a minute, we'll talk live with our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
But first, the back story from our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Friday before the 2004 election, only two or three points separated Democrat John Kerry from President Bush. Suddenly, a twist. Osama bin Laden released a shocking new videotape, and it played non-stop on the Arab language network, Al Jazeera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA BIN LADEN, TERRORIST (through translator): Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: The next morning, just 72 hours before the polls open, the president's top security advisers including Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft huddled for an urgent meeting to decide whether to raise the color-coded threat level from yellow to orange. Then Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge reveals in an explosive new book, a vigorous some might say dramatic discussion ensued.
Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld. He goes on. "There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, is this about security or politics? Post-election analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president's approval ratings in the days after the raising of the threat level."
The Bush campaign was already pushing the envelope on frightening voters. Listen to then-Vice President Cheney just ten days before the bin Laden tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The ultimate threat is the possibility of them succeeding and getting, say, a biological nature or nuclear weapons smuggling into the United States into one of our cities and raising the spectrum of being able to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: In the summer of 2004, just a few days after the Democrat National Convention, the White House had raised the threat level. John charges a political manipulation were sharply denied by Bush officials like Ridge at the time.
TOM RIDGE, FORMER SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security.
HENRY: But now at that tense meeting the weekend before the election, Ridge writes that it "seemed possible to me and to others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple concern about the country's safety."
In the end, however, the threat level was not raised after Ridge claim he and others pulled Rumsfeld and Ashcroft "back from the brink." But Ridge says the episode left him disillusioned.
He writes, "I knew I had to follow through on my plans to leave the federal government. He tendered his resignation within a month of the election. He concluded, "I consider that episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington's recent history but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility and security."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: But other Bush officials in the meeting including CNN contributor Fran Townsend insists Ridge is wrong. Townsend says politics was never discussed at the meeting and the discussion was based solely on intelligence -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Ed Henry this morning. Ed, thanks so much.
CHETRY: We're also digging a little bit deeper on this this morning. We bring in our Jeanne Meserve right now who covers homeland security live in Washington for us.
And, Jeanne, the interesting thing as we just said is that this is one take, Ridge's, and then Fran Townsend who was there has a totally different take. Is there any way to verify Ridge's claim?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Fran Townsend acknowledges that Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft argued for raising the threat level. She says there was no discussion of politics in association with raising it. Bush doesn't say that there was any such discussion. He said he listened to discussion about raising the threat level, and he wondered to himself, is this about security or is this about politics?
So he drew one conclusion from this discussion. Fran Townsend apparently drew another. And the only people who really know what was motivating Rumsfeld and Ashcroft are those men themselves. And thus far, they haven't told us what they were thinking that day.
CHETRY: And you covered Secretary Ridge during the Bush years. What kind of guy was he for people that don't know him? And does this surprise you that he's coming out with this claim?
MESERVE: It really does surprise me. Michael Chernoff, who followed Tom Ridge in office, he's sort of a mix it up kind of guy. He likes to get in an argument occasionally. But Tom Ridge seems like the hail fellow well met who never wanted to make waves.
Thinking about it a little bit more, Tom Ridge, however, is widely believed to have political ambitions and perhaps he felt that this was a way to put a little distance between himself and the Bush administration.
CHETRY: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks for your perspective this morning. We appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Also following developing news this morning on the island of Bermuda which is on high alert this morning with Hurricane Bill approaching. Tropical storm warnings are up there.
The Category Three storm will also be stirring up the surf along the U.S. east coast this weekend, so you got to be careful about that. Lots of rip currents could be seen in the Carolinas and maybe up along the coast of New Jersey and Virginia and Maryland as well.
Rob Marciano watching Bill. He's in Bowling Green, Ohio this morning. And difficult to know exactly what the intensity and the -- the track seems a little more certain, but, you know, what's Bill going to do in terms of intensity I think is the big question, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, John, that's the ongoing struggle that the National Hurricane Center has, as far as forecasting. What will the intensity be 12, 24, 48 hours out? Sometimes they just give their best guesswork.
But the models are getting better and they certainly have a handle on the track right now. And that, at least for the U.S. purposes is the most important problem at hand.
Winds right now at 120 miles an hour. It has become a little bit less organized, a little bit of dry air intrusion, a little bit of southwesterly winds kind of knocking it down a little bit and that some of the same southwesterly winds are nudging it a little bit farther to the north. So you can almost see that curvature towards the north away from the U.S. coastline. And now we're pretty confident that there won't be a direct strike, at least, on U.S. soil.
Forecast track is for, once again, to shoot the gap between the Carolinas and Bermuda, coming within to maybe 300 miles of Bermuda. So they'll get the bad side of the storm. They'll get the heaviest surf, the heaviest rains, and certainly the heaviest winds.
Tropical storm warnings posted for that island and hurricane watches out as well, just in case it gets a little bit closer to Bermuda than we think. And that forecast to remain a hurricane right up as it parallels Cape Cod as we go through tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night into Sunday morning.
As you mentioned, the threat for the U.S. will be the dangerous surf that's already beginning to show up in the Bahamas. It will reach the U.S. coastline later today. And then tonight and tomorrow will be the worst day for a heavy surf. Advisories already posted.
You see some of those counties. I suspect a lot of the coastline from Florida all the way up to the Cape will be posting some of those surf advisories as well.
It will be rough. Another big weekend as summer comes to an en, John and Kiran. So those who are headed to the beach certainly want to take a heed and at the very least want to go out there and check out the waves.
We're here in Bowling Green, by the way, to check out the National Tractor Pulling (ph) Championships. And we'll be bringing you more of that action. It's a very unique event and there's a lot of sound. A lot of horsepower that's coming up in about half an hour, guys.
CHETRY: Behind you right now, Rob, is probably one of the biggest I've ever seen. That thing is going to be able - whoa...
ROBERTS: You've got a chance to drive one of these things today, Rob?
MARCIANO: I don't think they'll going to let me on one of those suckers that's got 10,000 horsepower, but I'm still working on lobbying to get on a smaller version. We'll see.
ROBERTS: Come on, Rob. You could be the Jeff Gordon of the tractor world. Let's go.
CHETRY: They're going to let you use the...
MARCIANO: Yes, maybe for five minutes.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll check back with you. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: Exactly. I'm not qualified.
ROBERTS: Thank you, Rob.
CHETRY: Eight minutes past the hour right now.
Also new this morning, we could learn today the initial results of Afghanistan's presidential elections. Right now, they are counting the millions of ballots. Yesterday's vote is being called a success even though there were some concerns that Taliban threats kept some voters away from the polls. The government says 26 people were killed in election day violence.
ROBERTS: Attention, shoppers. Just four days left to take advantage of the popular "Cash for Clunkers" rebate program. It ends at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday.
Car dealers and the government have been overwhelmed by its success. So far, nearly half a million clunkers have been traded in for new fuel-efficient models totaling $2 billion in rebates. Many dealers though say Uncle Sam has been too slow to pay them back for their clunker deals. We'll be talking with one dealer coming up a little later on this morning.
CHETRY: And there may be a day when your local newspaper no longer carries movie listings. Theater (INAUDIBLE) are cutting cost by directing consumers to Internet sites which offer listings for free. Two of the top U.S. movie chains have already stopped paying newspapers to print movie listings.
ROBERTS: All right. So we hear a lot about what's in the health care bill. And a lot of what we hear in the health care bill actually is not in the health care bill. One of the great myths is that it covers health care for illegal immigrants. We'll be debunking that one coming up and tell you some more about what is and isn't in the health care bill over the course of the morning. Nine minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Caution, that beverage you're about to enjoy could be extremely hot. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
If you just have to have that mint chocolate chip frappuccino blended cream no whip half caf at Starbucks, you're going to need a little extra coin. Starbucks raising prices by as much as 30 percent -- 30 cents, rather, on some of its more complex concoctions but the coffee chain says it's going to charge less for just a plain old cup of Joe, cutting prices by as much as 15 cents.
CHETRY: I think you ordered that before.
ROBERTS: Actually, it's the pumpkin frappuccino that I love.
CHETRY: You can't wait with just a little tiny bit of cinnamon.
ROBERTS: I'm just a plain latte kind of guy.
CHETRY: Well, a bill that would cut California's prison population by 27,000 inmates has now passed the state Senate. It's intended to trim $1.2 billion from the state's corrections budget. That plan would allow lower level inmates to serve out the last year of their sentences under house arrest. It also reduces the number of parolees returned to prison on technical violations. Governor Schwarzenegger is supporting the bill but it does face strong opposition in the state assembly.
ROBERTS: And the heated health care wars may be taking its toll on President Obama. According to the latest "Washington Post"/ABC News poll, 49 percent of Americans say they are confident the president will make the right decisions for the country. That is down from 60 percent in late April. And as President Obama struggles to regain his grip on the debate, he took his fight yesterday to conservative talk radio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm confident we're going to get it done. And as far as negotiations with Republicans, my attitude has always been, let's see if we can get this done with some consensus. I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involve in this process. I think early on a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, look, let's not give them a victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: President Obama also fired up his liberal base at the Democratic Party headquarters telling supporters not to believe reports that he is off his game. He can still get the three-pointer from the outside, he said. And one hot-button issue in the health care debate, who's going to pay for illegal immigrants' health care. President Obama says they won't be covered under his plan, but is that really the case? Here's CNN's Cheryl Jackson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASSANDRA SENIOR, UNINSURED: It's not as easy as everyone thinks it is. It's not will power. You need groups like this.
CHERYL JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cassandra Senior is a recovering drug addict. She is getting free treatment at health care alternative systems in Chicago. Most of the patients here are Hispanic and have no insurance.
SENIOR: You don't have the money when you come out of it to pay for these services.
JACKSON: Marco Jacomi (ph) runs the mental health center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This room -- this is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senora.
JACKSON: At the Eri (ph) Family Health Center, Dr. Frank Castillo sees dozens of patients every day. He doesn't know who is legal or who is not. He says he looks into their eyes and not into their background.
DR. FRANK CASTILLO: I just take care of the person in front of me who comes to me for help.
JACKSON (on camera): Eighty-four percent of the patients here are Hispanic. Forty percent are uninsured. Now no one here has asked about their immigration status. They're treated regardless of that status and regardless of their ability to pay.
(voice-over): Castillo is on one side of the debate of illegal immigrants and health care. Jesse Ruiz is on the other.
JESSE RUIZ, ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: Before we start creating any perverse incentives and worrying about undocumented immigrants, we have to worry about the citizens who are here today and the legal residents.
JACKSON: Ruiz supports Obama's health care vision, and thinks those in the country illegally should not benefit. But he says when life or death is an issue, there is a solution.
RUIZ: The great thing about our nation is that we do have laws that we don't allow people to die in our streets.
JACKSON: Activist Esther Sciammarella says everyone, regardless of status, should get treatment for contagious diseases.
ESTHER SCIAMMARELLA, HISPANIC HEALTH COALITION: It's like the H1N1. If it was an epidemic, same as pandemic, we need to consider everybody.
JACKSON: Senior, who is now drug free, says any type of medical treatment for the uninsured benefits everyone.
SENIOR: You have people out there who are stealing. You have people out there who are robbing. You have people out there who are committing all sorts of crimes to try to feed their addiction and the society is paying for it whether they realize it or not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JACKSON: Obama says he would like to include the children of illegal immigrants in health care reform because they're going to be playing on the same playgrounds going to school with other children, making the possibility of spreading disease very high. There are several hundred thousand children in this country illegally -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: Cheryl Jackson for us this morning. Cheryl, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Talking about the stimulus, where these dollars are being spent. Well, in one community, it means saving their police force. We're going to show you that.
It's 16 1/2 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
We have Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're talking about the difficulties with so many people out of work...
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.
CHETRY: ... especially as it relates to trying to pay for health insurance. And there's something that you should know if you've been recently laid off about COBRA.
ROMANS: COBRA, that's right. It's available for you if you lost your job. It means that you pay and you can stay in your company's -- your company's health insurance plan for a while. But the government under that stimulus plan is subsidizing 65 percent of your COBRA fees, what it costs you to get COBRA.
And a lot of people, they get laid off from their job and they don't sign up for COBRA because they're still expensive. Now you're not getting a paycheck and you're paying all this money for insurance. But it's subsidized under -- until the end of the year, it's subsidized under the stimulus act.
And COBRA enrollment has spiked, tripling in some categories where you've seen mass layoffs in some industries. For example, manufacturing, I mean, look at these numbers.
This tells you that cost is a problem for health insurance in this country because if the government kicks in 65 percent, look what happens. People flocking from manufacturing, construction, retail and leisure. This is COBRA enrollment by industry since March.
Now you have about 38 percent overall of all of the people who are eligible for COBRA are in the program. That's double what it was even at the beginning of the year. Fourteen million people are eligible right now.
Now, think of this -- 6.24 million people are continuing to get jobless benefits in this country. We saw that number yesterday from the Labor Department -- 6.24 million. That's like up twice, almost three times Baltimore's -- the population of Baltimore is a lot of people. So all those people who are unemployed are eligible for this.
And a couple of things to remember -- it's going to run out. You get nine months of benefits. I would suggest people take a sharp look at it if you have money that you can spend on the co-pays at this point.
And another couple of things -- if you just lost your job, a couple of things to remember -- or you think you're losing your job, or you're severing your relationship with your employer, you want to get legally is what's called a "without cause termination" because you want to be eligible for unemployment benefits and COBRA and all these other things. So "without cause termination," remember that.
And also, ask for more time if you can. I've been talking to a lot of employment experts. Some employers now are on the fence. They're on the fence about whether they need to do this last a little bit of layoffs. Ask for maybe another month. Stay on the books, stay with the company for another month. Things are starting to turn around a little bit for some people.
ROBERTS: Maybe you'll last as long enough.
ROMANS: Maybe you'll last just long enough.
ROBERTS: You've got a "Romans' Numeral" for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do. The number 12,680. It has to do with...
ROBERTS: That's the average cost of a health care plan...
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... per family over...
ROMANS: I'm not hard enough.
ROBERTS: Tell him what he win, Johnny.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: I know. I know.
CHETRY: We went through this yesterday.
ROMANS: I know.
ROBERTS: I want the new car.
ROMANS: $12,680. The annual cost of a family policy without the subsidy. Now think of it, if you just lost your job, it's costing you $12,000 a year.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: In some cases, it's costing more than your rent to pay for your health care.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: And it all feeds in to this whole debate that we're having here right now. But the most important thing for you right now is if you've lost your job, you're eligible for the subsidized COBRA.
CHETRY: So instead of paying a grand a month, you could be paying like about $350.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: For your family, it can make a huge difference.
ROMANS: It could make a huge difference.
ROBERTS: That could be a burden for a lot of people.
ROMANS: You know, and you're right. I mean, and you look, nine percent of home loans are, you know, in default now. And suddenly people are having a hard time paying the bill, like you're saying it's like triaging your bills every month. So, you know, it's tough but health care is pretty important. I mean, you know, everyone is one catastrophic injury illness away from just total financial ruin. So that's...
CHETRY: That's why most people are -- right -- declaring bankruptcy.
ROMANS: Yes. I think just one half there have to do with medical.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ROMANS: OK.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much.
CHETRY: So it's Friday, and that means it's John Avlon's "Wingnuts of the Week." He calls out people on the left and on the right who have taken the political discourse to a whole another level. So he's going to join us in a couple of minutes.
Twenty-three minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Oh, there's a beautiful shot today. The sun coming up over Long Island Sound, looking sort of east from the Time-Warner Center here over Central Park.
It's 79 degrees right now. Threat of thunderstorms later on in the day and it's going to be up in the high 80s. So just keep that in mind if you're traveling somewhere for the weekend.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We've made it a priority here at CNN to show you where the stimulus money is going. Well, we found one struggling police department which has actually seen it and used it to save half their force. And let me tell you, it was a force that really could not stand to be cut. Here's CNN's Kate Bolduan.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, $1 million in stimulus funding is going to help law enforcement across the country keep officers on the job. In this town, that means saving half of the police force.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Officer Rick Burrows making the rounds in smalltown Wardensville, West Virginia, population, 275.
OFFICER RICK BURROWS, WARDENSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: It's one mile from the west or the east end of the west end. And we have a variety of everything here from, like I said, from petty theft to drugs.
BOLDUAN: After 14 years in law enforcement, Burrows faced certain unemployment because of the economy and a budget shortfall. Scottie Miller is the town's mayor.
MAYOR SCOTTIE MILLER, WARDENSVILLE, W.VA.: If you don't have the money, you don't have the money.
BOLDUAN (on camera): You were supposed to be laid off in July.
BURROWS: Right. Right.
BOLDUAN: That must have been rough.
BURROWS: It was scary, yes, ma'am.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): The thing is, Burrows represents half the department. Jeff Driskill is the police chief.
JEFF DRISKILL, WARDENSVILLE POLICE CHIEF: Small community where you come out losing 50 percent of your department, representing your operational capacity. That's a lot.
BOLDUAN: But then they say the stimulus came to the rescue. A $156,000 rescue for this rural community. Wardensville is one of more than 1,000 agencies, a fraction of the total grant request picked for a stimulus boost through the Justice Department program community- oriented policing services, known as COPS. But that smalltown assistance has some big city police departments complaining they were passed over. Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder explained how agencies were selected.
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We received applications from more than 7,000 cities and towns and made funding decisions based on crime rate, financial need and community policing activities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want a sucker?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You pay for the price of one today. There you go.
BOLDUAN: And for a soft-spoken officer who admits he tries to fight more crime with sweets than with firepower, Burrows says he's just glad this time around Washington didn't forget towns like Wardensville.
BURROWS: I don't know how to put it in words. I just thank God that money came through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: These grants pay for both salary and benefits for the next three years and require the local agencies to cover those costs for at least one additional year. Sounds like this one across the country are counting on the economy to turn around by then -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Kate Bolduan for us this morning. Kate, thanks so much.
We're coming up on 29 minutes after the hour. Checking our top stories this Friday morning.
Hurricane Bill packing winds of nearly 120 miles an hour and turning towards Bermuda. Tropical storm warnings are posted there at present. The Category Three storm could cause significant flooding on the island because of high waves. It's also expected to produce rough surf and rip currents along much of the east coast this weekend. A lot of people will be going in the water, so be careful.
Prepare for an explosion of H1N1 swine flu cases. That's the warning from the World Health Organization. It predicts that most countries will see cases double every three to four days for several months. The organization also estimates as many as two billion people, that's nearly one-third the world's population could become infected over the next two years. And cheers for a mass killer in Libya. As the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 arrived home yesterday, he received a hero's welcome. Thousands on hand to greet him throwing petals from flowers as he stepped off the plane.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing but served only eight years of a 27-year sentence. Scotland released him on compassionate grounds because he has cancer and is expected to die within the next three months. President Obama called that decision a mistake and that was some of the milder commentary on his release -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, now to politics -- the gift that keeps on giving, I guess you could say. The "Wingnuts of the week" built on a premise that the far right and the far left can be equally insane at times. And each Friday, independent analyst John Avlon calls out someone out from each side who he says has taken political name calling to the extreme.
John is a columnist for TheDailyBeast.com. He's also the author of "Independent Nation" and he's here with this week's "Wingnuts." Let's get started.
Good to see you, John.
JOHN AVLON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: Good to see you. Good morning.
CHETRY: So who got the honor or the dishonor on the left today?
AVLON: Dishonor on the left is a blast from the past, someone you thought might never be heard from again, Cindy Sheehan, who have been a fixture on the far left protesting President Bush's summer vacations. Now announcing her intention to protest President Obama's summer vacations out in Martha's Vineyard because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq haven't ended per her instructions.
Let's take a look at her recent statement on the subject. She said, "The body bags aren't taking a vacation, and as the U.S.-led violence surges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side. If the right-wing could force the government to drop any kind of public option or government-supported health care, then we need to exert the same kind of pressure to force a speedy end to the occupations."
A couple of things about that. The U.S.-led violence in Afghanistan?
Maybe she should spend a little more time protesting the Taliban. I mean, especially after this election, get a clue and sense of perspective. Never a strong suit from someone who said that President Bush was worse than Osama bin Laden. But still, that is particularly offensive.
CHETRY: You also say it's interesting because it's the one area in foreign policy where the president has the highest level of bipartisan support for trying to root out terror in Afghanistan.
AVLON: That is exactly right. He's got a centrist foreign policy, particularly that of Afghanistan. He has deep advantage in just a couple of months to depolarize the most contentious, and one of the most contentious issues in this decade. And it has brought bipartisan support.
Now, look, you're never going to please everyone and you'd be a fool to try. But Cindy Sheehan is definitely siding herself with the far left. Once again, wingnut of the week on the left -- Cindy Sheehan.
CHETRY: All right. How about on the right?
AVLON: On the right -- again, another blast from the past.
CHETRY: Yes.
AVLON: Someone who's sort of Rocket From the Crypt -- "The Hammer" Tom DeLay, former Republican majority leader now resurfacing on a media tour for "Dancing with the Stars." He stooped to reality show using that as a platform to weigh in on politics.
Now, he once made it very clear that it's not just about dancing for him, it's also about opposing the Obama administration, telling the DailyBeast, "I only dance five hours a day. I've got another 19 hours to stop Obama."
But that wasn't all he's done this week.
CHETRY: No. He actually went on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" as well last night and he brought up something that's -- that has been talked about before. It's a very highly contentious point of view. Let's look.
AVLON: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM DELAY (R), FORMER HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I would like the president to produce his birth certificate. I can. I can. Most illegal aliens here in America can. Why can't the president of the United States produce a birth certificate? There isn't anybody in America that's been born in America that didn't get a birth certificate at Obama's age.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Is DeLay a birther?
AVLON: He seems to be a dancing birther. I mean, this is not entirely outside of the purview. He's always been a bit wingnutty, especially on issues like this.
But what's up with the illegal alien comment as well? It seems to be ripping off a lot of the ugliest and craziest stuff out there. And Tom DeLay has always been a major high bipartisan. I mean, you know, a lot of the pro-health care town hall protests we're seeing in exacerbation of this -- you know, government Hitler Nazi rhetoric. So offensive.
Well, you know, Tom DeLay was way ahead of the curve in the past, calling the EPA the Gestapo of government. He has always been somebody who's taken high partisanship to what some might call an art form, the other might call a national disgrace.
Well, he's singing the same tune now on "Dancing with the Stars."
CHETRY: All right. Do you think he can dance, though?
AVLON: You know, I...
CHETRY: You haven't been out -- going out in the first round?
AVLON: I'll take him out the first round. I'll bet against DeLay.
CHETRY: All right. We'll have to see if, you know, during the judging or anything he brings politics into the dancing.
AVLON: It just might creep up.
CHETRY: We'll see. All right, and, by the way, John Avlon, great to see you as always.
And for more on John Avlon's wingnut picks each week, you can head to our blog, cnn.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: Difficult to dance when you got that wingnut crown on your head. Don't you think?
CHETRY: Oh, yes.
ROBERTS: So all this week, we've had our series "The War at Home," talking about the stresses of deployment and the stresses when people come back home from war as well. We're going to take a look at one couple struggling with a new dynamic after one of them returns home from war. Kiran went out and met them, and it's quite a story. We'll bring that to you, coming up next.
It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
This week in our special series, "The War at Home," we've seen the difficulties of making the transition back home after months and in some cases years on the battlefield.
CHETRY: Yes. The stress of long and repeated deployment is being reflected in military divorce rates. And I had the chance to meet one couple whose marriage was pushed to the breaking point. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice over): When Shawnda and Ralph Van Houtem first met, she says it was love at first sight.
SHAWNDA VAN HOUTEM, MILITARY SPOUSE: I saw him there and that was it.
CHETRY: They married and began their life together in his native Holland. After moving back to the United States, Ralph struggled to find work. And when the Iraq war began, he decided to join the Army.
S. VAN HOUTEM: It was no argument. You know, it was like, all right, we're going to go on another adventure.
CHETRY: Now with two children, the adventure was harder than they expected.
RALPH VAN HOUTEM, ARMY RESERVIST: As a family, we hardly had any downtime. We went from school to field training to school again. You don't have time to think.
CHETRY (on camera): And then, you know, and on top of all of those changes, I mean, what you're basically dealing with is knowing that your husband is going to go to war. And so how did you deal with that?
S. VAN HOUTEM: I did not do well, emotionally.
CHETRY (voice-over): During her husband's training and deployment, Shawnda had grieved the loss of all four of her grandparents. The losses and the long separation became unbearable.
S. VAN HOUTEM: I used the word numbness. It is. I became someone I was not. I told him that I didn't want to be married anymore.
CHETRY (on camera): And how did you handle what she was going through, knowing that, you know, she's hurting so much and you can't be there to help her?
R. VAN HOUTEM: I was helpless, because I couldn't fix anything.
CHETRY (voice over): But he tried -- through letters.
R. VAN HOUTEM: Babe, I love you. You are truly beautiful in every way. Your Ralphy.
CHETRY (on camera): What was it like to receive his letters?
S. VAN HOUTEM: Heartbreaking. There's nothing like looking in the mirror and asking yourself -- begging God to bring that feeling back for you -- you know, the love that you have for your husband. It was gone.
CHETRY (voice-over): Ralph was understanding, but angry. R. VAN HOUTEM: I was like, hey, what's going on here. You know, I'm the one who's getting shot at every day, who still fear for his life and wants to make it back to his family as soon as possible.
COL. MARK SACHS, ARMY CHAPLAIN: Sometimes when the soldier comes back, it's not because the soldier is broken that the family breaks up. It's because the spouse is broken.
CHETRY: Army Chaplain Mark Sacks is a leader in the Army program "Strong Bonds," which helps military families prepare for and cope with the stress of deployment.
SACH: This program, you know, is a great program. We just need to do more of it.
CHETRY: The Van Houtems say they did not get enough support from their base in Germany. Ultimately, they decided to separate, not from each other, but from the Army.
R. VAN HOUTEM: I had to fight two battles. And when I was a soldier, I put the battle of the Army, you know, in front of my family and I already learned to turn that around. I put my family first and the Army second.
CHETRY: They spent the past two years healing and finding each other again. Shawnda now has a message for other military families --
S. VAN HOUTEM: You can do it. And as far down as we got, you know, you can.
R. VAN HOUTEM: Don't give up.
S. VAN HOUTEM: Don't give up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: So, again, it was a difficult situation. Ralph ultimately decided to leave the military so that he could spend time with his family. He took a deferment, joined the Reserves. And so now, he is eligible for deployment again, but...
ROBERTS: Well, so, can they cope with it if he goes on another deployment?
CHETRY: And that's what I asked her. I said, so the phone could ring any day. And she says, well, you know, we're not focusing on that. And if it did happen, she says she feels she's much better equipped to deal with it this time around.
ROBERTS: Because she got the tools now to withstand it. Wow.
CHETRY: But it's not easy.
ROBERTS: Great story.
CHETRY: Thanks. And by the way, the divorce rate has gone up two percent, which that doesn't seem that significant. But Sheila Casey, who's married to Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, says she thinks that it's actually going to climb as more soldiers come home. They're hoping that some of these programs can help people stay together.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, at least they're rising to the challenge, which is a good thing to see.
CHETRY: You can see all of this, by the way, the week's "War at Home" series, it's on our blog, cnn.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: Great story.
Forty-two minutes after the hour.
Coming up next, "Rob's Road Show." Guess where he is today -- Bowling Green, Ohio, there at the National Tractor Pulling Championships. They'll be firing it up, coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
And time to go on a road trip with pure, unadulterated tractor motor muscle.
Every Friday, our Rob Marciano hits the road for what we call "Rob's Road Show." He's taken them already to the world's largest yard sale in Tennessee, the world yo-yo contest in Florida, and today, it is Bowling Green, Ohio in the National Tractor Pulling Championships.
Hey, Rob.
MARCIANO: A little slice of Americana, John and Kiran. And we are in the heartland, in the Buckeye State. Able to have some fun once again on this Friday.
Thankfully, Hurricane Bill looks like it's going to miss the U.S. But if you're heading to the beaches this weekend, be careful, because big, big waves and rip currents are definitely going to be an issue.
But if you're heading inland, maybe you're heading to a tractor pull. Well, that's what we're doing here.
This is what actually what they're pulling. It's a pretty elaborate setup. They can put several thousand -- 40,000 -- 80,000? 80,000 pounds of weight on here and some of these tractors will be -- well, pulling it across the dirt. Good old-fashioned style.
And you can imagine the kind of horsepower that these puppies garner. It certainly makes some noise. Listen to this.
That is just one of five engines, five engines, each of which takes five gallons to run 300 feet. That's not a lot of good mileage to the gallon. Here's one of those in the five engine division. This sucker elaborately run by Wayne Purser out of Norman, Oklahoma. Yesterday, I asked him, what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you while pulling on a tractor?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE PURSER, TRACTOR PULLER: The scariest thing that's ever happened to me? I had a blown two-wheel drive and I had some loose fuel lines, caught on fire. I was on fire. You know, you can't see nothing, all burning. So I was rolling around on the ground. I didn't know I was on fire. Burnt my legs up. I had been to the hospital for a week. And it totaled the car out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: It's just like that -- on fire and back actually. There's Wayne right there. A couple of participants from all across the country -- Texas, from Pennsylvania, from Ohio, they got them all right here. Going to be, I believe, 300 participants -- 60 -- 300 participants and 50,000 people, John and Kiran, come to this thing.
It is -- it's quite impressive. We can't fire one of these things up right now because there's noise abatement law, as you can imagine. Well, later in the morning, we'll fire one up. I might even -- I'm still working on getting on one. I think by the next hour, we might have some success of me getting on one of these bad boys.
CHETRY: Yes, I mean, the least they can do is give you a ride, right? I mean, you could ride shotgun or something, no?
MARCIANO: There's not a whole lot of room in there. But, you know, we're working on that. I did get to sit in one yesterday and fire it up.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: What time do we -- what time do they lift the noise restriction?
MARCIANO: Like -- like 8:00 or so.
ROBERTS: Oh, our time.
MARCIANO: We'll get you -- we'll get you on going for the last hour.
ROBERTS: All right. We want to -- we want to see...
MARCIANO: In the next hour, we'll --
ROBERTS: The next hour, what, Rob?
MARCIANO: We'll get you.
ROBERTS: OK. Looking forward to that. MARCIANO: The next hour, we'll fire them up.
ROBERTS: OK. Fabulous. Thanks, Rob.
We want you to decide, by the way, where Rob goes on Fridays for the rest of the summer. Head to our website at cnn.com/amfix and send us some ideas.
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, some explosive allegations about mixing politics with terror alerts, coming from the first Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. We're going to talk more about that, still ahead.
It's 49 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A dairy farmer in Pennsylvania is learning that there is more to his cows than just the milk that they produce. And that in tough economic times like these, you just can't let anything go to waste -- including waste. Reynolds Wolf has the story in this week's "Solutions."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Milking a profit from a dairy farm is not easy. The price of milk is dropping, but the cost of running a farm isn't getting any cheaper.
WOLF (on camera): How about one of these, like 3095. What is her day going to be like?
DAVE STANTON, HERDSMAN: She's going to need to eat about 100 to 110 pounds of food.
WOLF (voice-over): Shawn Saylor owns this fourth-generation farm in Pennsylvania. And he is finding creative ways to make ends meet.
SHAWN SAYLOR, HILLCREST SAYLOR DAIRY FARM: That's one of the mechanical scrapers that scrape the barn.
WOLF (on camera): It's not scraping dirt. It's scraping something else. What's it scraping there?
SAYLOR: A large pile of manure.
WOLF: All for power?
SAYLOR: Yes.
WOLF (voice-over): That's right; Saylor's 600 milking cows help power the farm. Their waste is flushed into a big digester and stored for about 16 days to create methane gas.
SAYLOR: The digester is just another high-efficiency stomach. WOLF: And the gas created inside of it generates enough electricity to power Hillcrest Saylor Dairy Farm. And it does in neighboring home.
Converting waste to power saves Saylor almost $200,000 a year.
SAYLOR: So you're talking a system-project cost of over $1 million to build a system, but a payback of -- of five years or less.
WOLF (on camera): If your great-grandfather, who started this operation, if he were alive today, and you were to say, 'Grandpa Saylor, we are powering our farm with cow waste'...
SAYLOR: Probably disbelief. It'd be more like science fiction to him.
WOLF (voice-over): Reynolds Wolf, CNN, Rockwood, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. There you have it. There's a use for everything.
ROBERTS: That's kind of going back to the future, isn't it?
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: Because in primitive times and in some third world country, you could still -- the bird, cow manure, pete, things like that.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: It's like this great undiscovered resource that was lying there for all that time.
CHETRY: Lying there, the operative phrase.
All right. Well, it was a bad night for Berlino the Bear. I don't know if you saw this video yet. But we're going to show it to you right now.
There you go. The mascot. The world champions in Berlin. So happy that Olympic champion Melanie Walker of Jamaica won the 400 meter hurdles. So he decided to carry her in a victory lap. There it is. There it is. Only he was not as good at avoiding the hurdles or obstacles. So there you go. Walker was OK. She was a good sport about it. But, come on, guy. Face plant. Poor guy. I hope he's OK. He's probably embarrassed.
ROBERTS: Watch out for the trailer. Oh, my goodness. So what are the aspects of health care that really hasn't been talked about a whole lot is if you bring a whole bunch of new people into the system. They're currently uninsured, and you get them health insurance. They have to go and see the doctor, right?
CHETRY: Right. Especially if prevention is what's going to help us save costs. You need those primary care doctors.
ROBERTS: The problem is there aren't enough of them. We're going to be talking with Dr. Lisa Sanders. She knows about this. She's a primary care physician. She also happens to be the technical advisor for the television program, "House." So she knows what she's talking about.
CHETRY: I love that show.
ROBERTS: I love that show, too. So Lisa Sanders joining us in just a few minutes. Make sure you stay tune for that.
Fifty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
A deadly week is finally coming to an end in Iraq. The Iraqi government says bombings killed more than 100 people in Baghdad alone. On Wednesday, six blasts went off in just an hour. Now the Pentagon's man in charge of training Iraqi forces says clearly there was a lapse in security. So is the U.S. rethinking its Iraq strategy?
Our Barbara Starr is tracking that for us this morning.
Barbara, there were plenty of people who warned if the U.S. pulled our forces out of the main Iraqi cities, that it might be something of a free for all. And those warnings seem to be coming to fruition here.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a lot of concern about test that problem, John. Of course, for the U.S. to rethink its strategy, to change the game plan now, that would require under the agreement with both countries for the Iraqis to ask for help. As you say, the tough U.S. commander, the top general in charge of training Iraqi forces says he believes that Wednesday attack was a lapse in security, and he is frustrated about how much needs to be done. He spoke about it yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. FRANK HELMICK, U.S. ARMY: Clearly, there was a lapse of security or this would not have happened. You know, providing security in this country is a never-ending commitment. You are never good enough. Do we anticipate more attacks in the future? I think there are going to be some bad days ahead. I don't know if, in fact, how many bad days there will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Grim words. So what happens now, John? Well, the Iraqis say they are instituting new security measures, more check points at government buildings, more stringent vehicle searches. Shouldn't they already been doing that? That's what you have to wonder about. And have the Iraqis asked for any help? Well, they have detained 11 of their own officials for investigation, and they've asked for help with that investigation from the U.S. military. But so far, no indication that they're going to ask for U.S. combat forces to be put back on Iraqi city streets. Of course, they were withdrawn from the cities earlier this year. General Ray Odierno says if the Iraqis ask for more help, he will do everything he can to give it to them - John.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, thanks for that.
