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American Morning
New Details on the Five American Students Arrested in Pakistan; House Speaker Softening Her Stance on Health Care Public Option; A Look at Panjshir Province, Independent and Thriving; Jobs For the Future, One Year After Bernie Madoff's Arrest
Aired December 11, 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: Good morning and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's a Friday and not a moment too soon, December the 11th. Welcome. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. It is Friday. Pretty cold and chilly Friday along the northeast and the rest of the country.
ROBERTS: It's a bit. Yes.
CHETRY: But meanwhile, we're following some big stories for you. We're going to be breaking them down in the next 15 minutes.
First we have breaking news for you. Brand new information about those five Americans who turned up in Pakistan just in to CNN, their mug shots and details of their interrogation. How they planned to go to Afghanistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops.
ROBERTS: Nancy Pelosi and the public option. The House speaker signaling that she is now open to a health care bill without a public option. Will it fly though with Democrats who like Pelosi have insisted that a government-run program must be a part of any reform program? Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash following those developments for us this morning.
CHETRY: And a snapshot of what Afghanistan could be someday. A small province north of Kabul independent and thriving. Its people somehow able to fend Soviet and Taliban forces through the years while accepting and even embracing American troops. Barbara Starr with an "A.M. Original" from Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley.
ROBERTS: But first we have learned a lot more about the five Americans arrested in Pakistan on terror charges. Just in no CNN, their mug shots and details of their interrogation in Pakistan.
Documents show the men wanted to head to Afghanistan to martyr themselves and initially make contact with Pakistani militants through YouTube while posting comments on videos of Americans being killed in a convoy attack. Our Arwa Damon went to Ground Zero of this investigation, has exclusive details for us this morning from Islamabad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The city of Sargodha has become known as a stronghold of radical Islamist groups. And now police there say they've thwarted a major terror plot.
This is the room where Wednesday they arrested five men who had vanished from their homes in the U.S. at the end of last month. Sargodha police chief Usman Anwar says a few minutes later and they would have been gone. Anwar tells us they found maps highlighting known terror hideouts and an e-mail account the men used to contact their militant handlers.
USMAN ANWAR, POLICE CHIEF: They were giving specific -- extra specific instructions, I would say, and the telephone usage was prohibited.
DAMON: Now the five, as well as the father of one of them, are behind bars. Two are of Pakistani descent, one Egyptian, one Eritrean and Ethiopian. Pakistani officials say all are Americans.
(on camera): Behind these doors is where the six are being held, interrogated by both Pakistani officials and according to the Pakistanis by the FBI as well.
(voice-over): None has yet been charged, but police chief Anwar claims they could have posed a serious threat.
ANWAR: They were mercenaries. They were there for jihad. They could have done anything. They had U.S. passports. They could have access to many, many points, which another person could not have accessed to.
DAMON: Also in Sargodha, we meet the mother of one of the men. She doesn't want to appear on camera for religions reasons. She says she came to Pakistan two months ago to look for a wife for her son. Then he disappeared from their home.
SUBRIA FAROUK, MOTHER: And Monday he told he will come back. Monday, the whole day is gone, he did not come back. He did not pick up the phone. Next day again, the other parent told that all are missing. Then I told them, now it's a serious thing.
DAMON: Ms. Farouk doesn't believe her son could be involved in a terror plot. She thought he'd d been kidnapped and alerted the authorities. A few days ago her son and his friends turned up in Pakistan. He told her he wanted to surprise her. Now she says her family is caught in the middle of this complex Pakistani/U.S. web.
FAROUK: They are making a story because they're both continually fighting each other and then involving other family. The people family are coming over here to visit, marriage, enjoy their home country. This is not meaning that we are terrorists.
DAMON: Now a provincial town in Pakistan is suddenly the focus of an investigation spanning continents.
(END VIDEOTAPE) DAMON: According to the police interrogation report which we just have received, the group made contact with at least two militant groups in Pakistan, both of whom, interestingly, refused them. What is making this especially disturbing for Pakistani and other authorities, though, is that the arrest took place in the province of Punjab, home to the Pakistani military and political leadership. And destabilizing Punjab would destabilize the entire country -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Arwa Damon for us this morning. Arwa, thanks.
CHETRY: Four minutes past the hour. Some of the other stories this morning.
Sixteen thousand U.S. soldiers now have their orders. They are headed to Afghanistan. The deployment part of the president's plan to send 30,000 more troops into battle. The first to go, a battalion of Marines scheduled to arrive in southern Afghanistan next week.
ROBERTS: North Korea says it understands the need to resume Six- party nuclear disarmament talks and agrees to work with the United States to, quote, "narrow remaining differences. That comment coming from the North's foreign ministry after three days of meetings with America's special envoy Stephen Bosworth.
CHETRY: Federal health officials are now saying some 50 million Americans have gotten sick with the swine flu and that nearly 10,000 people have died from it. The new CDC dc numbers are a big jump from previous estimates. It means one in six Americans had the H1N1 virus. Officials say the increase reflects the peak of a second wave of the swine flu pandemic.
With health care reform on track in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is no longer drawing a hard line in the sand on including a so-called public insurance option. And as senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash tells us, it's a reality check that could be a major step toward producing a reform bill.
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, now that Senate Democrats are poised to jettison a government-run health care option from their bill and the president is praising their progress, House Democrats who had demanded a public option are beginning to bow to reality. The votes just aren't there to pass it through Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this summer.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option.
BASH: Yet now that Senate Democrats have a tentative deal to drop a public option, she's softening her stance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have said there is, quote, "No way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option." Is that still the case?
PELOSI: We in the House believe that the public option was the best way to hold insurance companies honest, to keep them honest, and also to increase competition. If you have a better way, put it on the table. As soon as we see something in writing from the Senate, we'll be able to make a judgment.
BASH: Pelosi opened the door to a health care bill with no public option as long as it meets certain standards, like affordable health coverage and competition for insurance companies. But perhaps more surprising than Pelosi's positive statements, the reaction from some of the most liberal lawmakers in her caucus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're certainly not closing the door.
BASH: You're open to it?
REP. BARBARA LEE (D), CALIFORNIA: I am. None of us care about what it's called as long as people have the type of coverage that they deserve.
BASH: These members of the powerful progressive caucus had vowed to block health care without a public option. Now?
BASH (on camera): You know the reality and the reality is that the votes are such that you're going to have to live without a public option lately?
REP. STEVE COHEN (D), TENNESSEE: That's what appears to be. While I don't like it, I'm not going to make that make me kill the program and kill the improvements that are in it.
BASH (voice-over): They especially like the Senate idea of allowing people 55 to 64 to buy into Medicare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we're going to greatly expand Medicare, that is a public option.
BASH: But to be sure, not all liberals will stomach compromise.
REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: Look, we need a public option for the purpose of choice, competition and access. That's why we need it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Many House liberals say they're in a wait and see mode. They're waiting to see the details of the Senate Democrats' tentative agreement, and that's not going to happen until the Congressional Budget Office finishes its analysis.
Still, in talking to Democrats it is clear they are more willing to put aside their policy differences to send the president a health care bill soon. In fact, the House speaker said that could even happen by year's end -- John and Kiran.
CHETRY: Dana Bash for us. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning, holiday tourists were forced to duck for cover in New York's Times Square during a deadly shooting involving police. Authorities say an officer shot and killed a 25-year-old man after he pulled a MAC 10 submachine gun and fired several shots outside of the Marriott Marquis Hotel (INAUDIBLE) yesterday. The officer had been trying to question the victim about CDs that he was peddling to tourists when the man took off running.
CHETRY: Well, a new virus targeting Facebook. Attackers are posting links on wall pages telling folks to click on a cute Christmas video. The only problem, the victim then sees a windows warning message telling them to solve a puzzle within three minutes. If you don't solve the puzzle after the three minutes, the computer freezes up. That's nice, huh?
Well, even if you reboot your computer, the puzzle just disappears. The only way to get it off your screen is if you solve it. Experts say that when you do that, you're actually creating a new Facebook account that then helps spread the virus.
You don't have time to think of it.
ROBERTS: It's a creative virus at the very least.
CHETRY: Terrible.
ROBERTS: And the end of year bonuses are making a comeback as the economy slowly improves. According to a consulting firm survey, 64 percent of employers are planning to hand out holiday bonus checks this year to help keep the best talent. That's up 54 percent from last year, a small fraction even plan to increase the amount they're giving.
Wow. So, did you get yours yet?
CHETRY: That's what I was saying. We should be rolling in it soon if they're trying to retain the best talent.
ROBERTS: Sure it's in my inbox. Take a look.
CHETRY: But back to the Google, or whatever that Facebook virus.
ROBERTS: Virus?
CHETRY: Just if you're that creative and you can do that stuff, think of a cure for the common cold, something.
ROBERTS: You know that people just have too much time on their hands.
CHETRY: I guess so. And those are smart people so it's even more disturbing.
Anyway, nine minutes past the hour. Our Barbara Starr has an "A.M. Original." She's focusing on an independent, thriving province in Afghanistan that has embraced U.S. soldiers while keeping the Soviets and the Taliban out. Could this be a model of success for the country at large? She'll show us.
Coming up, nine and a half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twelve minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
President Obama and his Nobel Peace Prize both headed back to Washington at this hour. Air Force One lifting off about Oslo about 90 minutes ago. The president is scheduled to arrive home early this afternoon and, of course, health care will be topping his agenda. He will not be in D.C. long though. Next week, he heads to Copenhagen to attend the climate summit.
ROBERTS: The man accused of making peeping tom videos of ESPN's sideline reporter Erin Andrews will plead guilty. Michael Barrett is due back in court on Tuesday. Barrett's lawyer released a statement apologizing to her. He now faces five years in prison. The seven short clips of Andrews walking around naked in hotel rooms ended up being the most searched items on Google for days before most sites took them down.
CHETRY: Well, perhaps listening a little bit to the populous outrage over the big bonuses, there won't be big cash bonuses this year for execs at Goldman Sachs. Don't feel sorry for them though just yet. Because instead, 30 top company officials will be paid in stock that can't be sold for five years. As for the bank's other employees, right now they are expected to take home an average of $700,000.
ROBERTS: Well, if you travel 90 minutes north or 90 miles, rather, north of Kabul, you'll discover what Afghanistan could be someday. It's a province called Panjshir. It features breathtaking snow-covered mountains, a river running through them, and 300,000 proud people. A place where American troops and only American troops are welcome.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is there in the Panjshir Valley and has this "A.M. Original."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stunning beauty of Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley. These mountain peaks have kept these fiercely independent and devote Panjshiris safe. Neither the invading Soviets or the Taliban were ever able to control this region.
Because the area is now relatively secure, U.S. troops stationed here are able to concentrate on encouraging the local Afghan government to take responsibility for its citizens, a major priority of the new counterinsurgency strategy. Army Major Ian Murray is part of a reconstruction team living here in the valley. MAJ. IAN MURRAY, U.S. ARMY: We get to actually get out, work with the government officials, work with the local people and make sure that the basic services are being provided to them. We've been really focused on building schools, providing some basic electrical power through micro-hydroelectric projects and providing the clinics
STARR (on camera): And you do not have Taliban or insurgent activity here.
MURRAY: No. There is no Taliban, no insurgent activity. We had no instances of any kind of Taliban activity in the valley.
STARR (voice-over): We are taken to visit a school the U.S. helped build. Boys and girls attend separately as they do across Afghanistan. It's a freezing cold day, and these boys have walked miles to get here in the early morning.
(on camera): This cold, remote valley is a place of great history to both the Afghans of the Panjshir and to the United States. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the first CIA jawbreaker team landed here with trunk fuls of cash. And within days the war against the Taliban would begin, a war that still goes on today.
All up and down the valley you still find rusted hulks of soviet armor and artillery, a testament to the will of the Panjshir's to resist outsiders which makes it all the more extraordinary that the people in this valley are willing to accept U.S. troops. Here the U.S. soldiers have their own security force, local mooseatine (ph) fighters who have sworn to protect the Americans, fighters who once fought the Taliban and the Soviets.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Panjshir Valley.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Just amazing. And hopefully that can be replicated in some of the other places there.
ROBERTS: It would be nice if it could. A lot of problems in some of those southern provinces, though.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
Well still ahead, Christine Romans is going to join us. She is minding her business today with details of hot jobs for the future. We talk about the unemployment but where are the jobs? She'll show us coming up. Sixteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: What's worse than a ten-foot gator on your doorstep? How about a moody ten-foot gator on your doorstep? This one hissing and growling as trappers dragged him away in Florida. No one was home at the time, which is probably why the gator was upset. You knock on the door. You expect someone to answer it. Nobody's there.
CHETRY: He's vicious!
ROBERTS: He's a gator. He's doing what gators doing. The neighbors, by the way, tipped off the authorities when they saw the gator on the doorstep.
CHETRY: Well I'd be mad, too, if someone was trying to wind rope around my neck and drag me around. And tied to a tree until we can duct tape your mouth shut. I'm sure they let him go someplace nice, right? Someplace gator-like.
ROBERTS: You didn't see Christine's handbag?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, John. We're going to get mail from the animal lovers.
CHETRY: I hope you're not wearing some gator boots.
ROMANS: No. All synthetic I promise.
ROBERTS: It's a fact of life. They make purses and shoes out of gators.
ROMANS: What a cool job, gator wrangler. I wonder if you go weeks without having a big deal and then suddenly, boom.
CHETRY: In Florida, you probably go hours.
ROBERTS: Where do you go to school for that?
ROMANS: I'm not sure. You learn that on the job I bet. I'm looking at jobs of the future. Gator wrangler not in there. The Department of Labor every couple of years comes out and says over the next ten years where are the areas of growth and where are the areas where we are not going to see a lot of job growth. This is important for people so you can think about what kind of skills and training and education you need to have to look forward. It's really incredibly important to if you're graduating from college or you are thinking of going into college. What are the areas that will be growing in the next ten years and what's the labor market going to look like.
So these are the jobs of the future, the fastest growing positions and fields for the next ten years, among them, biomedical engineers, guess what, this takes education, folks. There's supposed to be 72 percent growth in that job catagory. Computer analysts, these are computer systems designers, these are the official title of this is network systems and data communications analyst, it is not programmers, it is not commodity kind of computer jobs but higher end designing jobs.
Home health aides, remember, huge growth here 50 percent over the next ten years. These are lower than average paying jobs in many cases. I think you can get $9 an hour on these kinds of jobs, but in many cases they don't have benefits. Personal and home health care aides. Actually I just reversed this, personal home health care aides don't have benefits, home health aids those can be nurses and people with more skills. Financial examiners, anything that has to do with money and numbers, this is going to be growth. Managing jobs no surprise here, anything that touches the consumer, department store jobs will be shrinking. Probably 159 thousand on average jobs will be lost. Semiconductor manufacturing, car parts manufacturing, postal service jobs and printing. The Labor of Department economists say this trend has started already. Right, we're moving away from being a country that makes things to being a country that produces services. That will be the trend.
Chyrstia (ph) Freeland the managing editor of the "Financial Times" and I go back and forth on we talk to Silicone Valley CEOs and people about what they're telling their kids to go into. She said statistics, statistics, and statistics. There's so much data and information out there, if you know how to harness it and how to mathematically apply it, you are really a boon to business. Most important thing, though, here is that a 4.9 percent unemployment rate for a college education, compare that with 10 percent, I say this all the time, I'm a broken record on this, but even though it's expensive and you have to figure out how to pay for it, a college education still is the best buffer for you going forward.
ROBERTS: How does that saying go, there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.
ROMANS: That is right.
ROBERTS: What about your "Romans' Numeral" this morning?
ROMANS: The number is 5. This is a number that tells you just how tough it is right now to get a job and how it is so important to know where these fields of growth are so you can better position yourself.
CHETRY: That's how many people apply for each available job now?
ROMANS: That is how many people you have to beat out to get a job.
ROBERTS: It's not as bad as it was.
ROMANS: It is the same.
CHETRY: I think she said one in six.
ROMANS: Six people for every job.
CHETRY: Now she change and said, you have to beat out five people. That's it, statistics.
ROMANS: Exactly. You have to be better than five people to get the job. So go out and get that biomedical engineering degree.
CHETRY: Hey one other note quickly, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google also said, as you talked about getting away from manufacturing, he does see that as a mistake talking about the need to not let this green technology get away from us, that China, Japan, and these other countries are far ahead when it comes to that. And that we need to make things here and we need to understand technology is going to be a huge business.
ROBERTS: Verge Banarrow (ph) the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on the same page.
ROMANS: There's a story this morning that American patent filings are down. For the first time in 13 years, they're down because we're not spending so much on innovation because of the recession. That's something that's pretty -- we're going to talk all about these things this weekend with my good friend and partner Ali Velshi on "Your Money" Saturday at 1:00 pm Eastern and Sunday at 3:00. Talk about all of this exhaustively.
ROBERTS: Another shameless plug.
ROMANS: Hey, what can I say?
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine. Good to see you. I will see you next hour.
Oh, how quickly a year goes by. It was a year ago that we learned about Bernie Madoff and the huge Ponzi scheme as Christine once renamed it. The Madoff scheme, our Allan Chernoff who was following the story very closely updates us on where we are one year later. One year after Madoff. Stay with us, twenty five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning, 27 minutes past the hour right now. It was just a year ago now that Bernie Madoff's empire of fraud collapsed out from under him, wiping out the life savings of many people, decimating charities.
ROBERTS: Well this morning, the 71-year-old convicted con artist is living out the rest of his life in a North Carolina prison, and there's a growing conflict between some of his victims as they try to recoup their losses. Allan Chernoff joins us now; he has been following this story very closely for a year. Well you would think that all the victims would have the same interest there.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well in some ways they do, but the bottom line, it's all about the money. And some of the Madoff investors have gotten some of their investments back while many have not. And that is pitting one Madoff investor against another.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Bennett Goldworth thought he was set for life when he retired three years ago at age 50. He bought a waterfront condo in Ft. Lauderdale and said good-bye to New York and his job selling real estate.
BENNETT GOLDWORTH, MADOFF VICTIM: I felt like I had everything I wanted in life. It was great.
CHERNOFF: A decade of investing with Bernard Madoff gave Goldworth the financial security to enjoy the good life in Florida, until Madoff's arrest.
GOLDWORTH: Hi, Scott. It's Bennett.
CHERNOFF: Today Goldworth is back in Manhattan, grateful to be selling homes again. He's grateful also to be among the first to receive a full $500,000 insurance settlement from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which insured direct accounts of Madoff.
GOLDWORTH: I'm one of the fortunate ones. I was very happy. I thought -- I really was very pleased.
CHERNOFF: But other Madoff victims, like Judy and Don Rafferty, senior citizens who have had to come out of retirement, have gotten nothing.
JUDY RAFFERTY, DENIED COMPENSATION: I felt as though we were cheated. I felt violated.
CHERNOFF: The Rafferty's for years had withdrawn what they believed were earnings from their Madoff account. The trustee overseeing restitution Ervin Becard (ph) says the Rafferty's withdrew more than they invested and therefore are entitled to nothing.
J. RAFFERTY: They changed the rules in the middle of the game, which I don't think it fair at all.
GOLDWORTH: The net winners should be at the back of the line. That's all. You know, the first thing that should be addressed is that everyone gets back everything they invested.
J. RAFFERTY: He got his money back. Why wouldn't he feel comfortable? It's the people who haven't gotten their money back that are not happy.
CHERNOFF: What bonded Bernard Madoff clients, victimization, now divides some them. The Rafferty's feel once again they're victims while other Madoff investors like Bennett Goldworth have received compensation to get back on their feet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: The trustee has reviewed more than 11,000 claims, but okayed only 1600 of them. That's just about 14 percent. So the vast majority of investors are not seeing a dime just yet.
ROBERTS: Yes. People might recognize the Corcoran name, too, connected to the Bernie Madoff scandal.
CHERNOFF: Yes. Actually, I think that's another reason why Mr. Goldworth is so glad to be back at Corcoran, because Corcoran actually has sold two of the Madoff properties out in Florida and also on Long Island. And by the way also contributed the commissions to the compensation fund for the victims. So another reason for him to be happy to be at Corcoran.
ROBERTS: I guess. Allan, good to see you this morning. Thanks so much.
We're half past the hour now. And here are your top stories this morning.
A high-level al Qaeda operative has been killed by a U.S. drone attack in western Pakistan. Government officials are not releasing his identity, but they confirm it as not Osama Bin Laden or his second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heading back to the hot seat on Capitol Hill. They'll face questions from lawmakers concerned about the cost of deploying 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The Pentagon has estimated that the surge will cost between $30 and $35 billion.
And it appears the recession has been very, very good to federal employees. "USA TODAY" reports the number of government workers earning six figure salaries exploded during the economic downturn. The six-figure growth has pushed the average federal worker's pay to more than $71,000 a year compared to just over $40,000 in the private sector. The main reasons for the boom? Pay hikes and new salary rules.
Kiran?
CHETRY: John, thanks.
Thirty-one minutes past the hour now. A bizarre conspiracy theory involving President Obama and a "Charlie Brown Christmas Special" has now earned one government official special recognition, our Wingnut of the Week.
Independent analyst John Avalon is back at it this week. He was off getting married and enjoying his honeymoon. Welcome. We missed you.
JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you. It's good to be back.
CHETRY: And you're calling out people both on the political left and the right for their extreme behavior. John, by the way, also has a column for TheDailyBeast.com.
So, let's get right to it. This one is Arlington, Tennessee, mayor.
AVLON: Arlington, Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman. The oddly named mayor Wiseman.
CHETRY: Right. Mayor Wiseman, wingnut of the week there on the right. And here is the back story on this one. He said he was sitting down basically to watch "The Charlie Brown Christmas Special" with his children last week, when he found the program was pre-empted.
Why was it pre-empted?
Well, the president was giving a prime-time address announcing his troop surge strategy for Afghanistan. So what happens next?
AVLON: Well, he came to the conclusion that this had been done on purpose by the White House, a deliberate attempt to subvert Charlie Brown Christmas, and then decided the smart thing to do would be to Facebook about it, in a state of, shall we say, unhinged anger. So let's take a look at what his first post was.
He said, quote, "OK, so, this is total crap. We sit the kids down to watch "The Charlie Brown Christmas Special," and our Muslim president is there, what a load. Try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose."
And then in a following thread on Facebook he wrote, quote, "You Obama people need to move to a Muslim country. Oh, wait, that's America. Pitiful."
And, finally, not to be outdone he wrote, "You know, our forefathers had it written in the original Constitution that only property owners could vote. If it has stayed in there, things would be different."
CHETRY: All right. So he made these comments. I'm sure he didn't expect that they were going to go unnoticed. Did he take a lot of heat for it?
AVLON: Well, he sure did. They were ended up being reprinted in the Memphis commercial appeal. But people should get this by now. This is not the first time we've seen unconscious, idiotic and callous comments written on a Facebook post by an elected official and then making news.
Why? Because it pulls the curtain back to what these folks are really thinking. And in some cases, it's ugly, weird, wingnut stuff, certainly in this case.
CHETRY: And scary, because, I mean, he is a mayor of a town. I mean, you know, he is a leader and he is supposed to be telling the truth. Just even to say a Muslim president is misleading.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: President Obama is not Muslim.
AVLON: Right. That's the most basic level, right? I mean, you've got this classic fear smear that's kicking around out there and being pumped up by an elected official.
CHETRY: So did he apologize for this?
AVLON: Well, he initially said people were making mountains out of molehills. And then he did release an apology, which I believe we have a copy of. In which he said it was a tongue-in-cheek humor.
"I regret that I offended anyone with my poor attempt at tongue- in-cheek humor amongst friends. I don't really care for President Obama or his policies, but I'm afraid my sarcastic and joking nature got the best of me."
CHETRY: All right, there you go. And interestingly enough, while he did get roundly criticized for this, he actually also garnered some support. In fact a Twitter page in support of a Palin- Wiseman 2012 ticket.
How pervasive is this kind of thinking? And how consequential is it?
AVLON: It's pretty fringe, but we saw the same thing after Joe Wilson shouted "You lie" at Obama. There were tea party sign saying, "Palin-Wilson 2012." So there is a segment of the population out there that seems to be taking any statement, no matter how unhinged, against the president as being sort of truth telling, part of this Obama resistance. And in that, there's something a little bit -- there's something disturbing going on.
The idea that Obama supporters should move to a Muslim nation or getting nostalgic for a time when the constitution required that land owners be the only ones they'll vote. There are weird, all sorts of weird streams running through that that should have people real concerned.
CHETRY: All right. Let's take a look at your Wingnut on the Left. And this is a very, very, high profile Democrat.
AVLON: Yes, it is. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who we're calling out for giving a speech on the Senate floor this week, in which he compared Republican opposition to Democratic health care legislation to defenders of slavery and segregation. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with this, "Slow down. Stop everything. Let's start over." If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there are those who dug in their heels and said, "Slow down. It's too early. Let's wait. Things aren't bad enough."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Critics are saying that he's basically comparing people who are against health care reform to people who supported slavery.
AVLON: And later in the speech he went on to say that, you know, filibusters against civil rights legislation might be replayed as well. Yes, you know. And, look, I'm a fan of historic perspective in politics, but this is a degree of malpractice on a couple of levels. First of all, the fight over slavery and the fight over health care legislation. Big legislations, but not as big as questions of basic freedom. Second of all, just for the record, it was conservative Democrats who opposed emancipation and anti-segregation legislation, not Republicans. And, finally, I think people reacted and said, why this reflects with playing of the race card in an attempt to impose moral authority ends up actually diminishing credibility. And he took a lot of heat for it as a result.
CHETRY: It is a credibility issue for sure.
Well, thanks so much for joining us, John Avlon.
If you want to read more about John's picks, wingnut picks, go to our blog, CNN.com/AMFix. And don't forget John has an upcoming book, "Attack of the Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking American Politics."
Great to have you back.
AVLON: It's good to be back.
CHETRY: We'll see you next Friday.
John?
ROBERTS: John, don't you just hate it when facts get in the way of a good speech on the floor there? My goodness.
Well, how safe is our transit system from a chemical attack? The government is trying to find out. It's long been thought that terrorists, who try to attack a subway would have to really know what they were doing. Well, apparently there's some evidenced that they don't. So we'll have that for you coming right up.
Jeanne Meserve is looking into all of this for us.
It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Our nation's subways. They are known as soft targets, considered more vulnerable because typically they have less security. And if you have ever wondered what would happen if they were hit by a chemical attack, well, government researchers want to know as well and they try to find out.
Here's Jeanne Meserve with an "AM Original."
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, a chemical or biological attack on a subway system could kill thousands of people so the Department of Homeland Security, scientists from the national laboratories and other countries, as well as private industry are studying what can be done to blunt the impact.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): 1995, sarin gas. A deadly nerve agent is released in the Tokyo subway system by the cult Aum Shinrikyo. Twelve died, thousands are injured. Horrific.
But in theory, another biological or chemical attack could be much worse. This animation given to CNN by the Department of Homeland Security shows small black subway trains acting like pistons, pushing anthrax through tunnels and out ventilation shafts and entrances, exposing more than 10,000 people to lethal doses in an hour and a quarter.
Scientists believe that early detection and stopping trains would result in something more like this, about 1,500 deaths. But they want to prove their theory.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, this is basically the entire underground portion of the Boston system.
MESERVE: An international team of scientists fans out through Boston's subway to gather information on air flow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two, one.
MESERVE: They release an invisible, non-toxic gas to mimic a chemical agent. Harmless fluorescent particles play the part of a biological contaminant. Scientists then track how they move through the system. Some carry sensors on moving trains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's way up.
MESERVE: Other detection devices are at fixed points in stations.
ANN MCDONAGH, LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY: As the trains come in and out, it's pushing the air towards the end, and we're seeing increases and decreases as they go in.
MESERVE: A computer compiles data in real-time and shows the simulated biological agent moving through most of the subway within 45 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this was a real biological attack, it would be a very lethal dose.
MESERVE: The information gathered here will help determine where to put sensors, how to develop better sensors, and how to use ventilation and filtration systems to minimize an attack.
TERESA LUSTIG, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: In some cases it's better to shut the system down, shut the ventilation, and just rapidly evacuate the people.
MESERVE: The deputy chief of the transit police says the study will also help him refine emergency response and evacuation plans for all kinds of events.
DEPUTY CHIEF LEWIS BEST, MBTA POLICE: It might be the unintentional release of a chemical agent. It could be the hazmat spill or smoke from a fire.
MESERVE: But the principle goal is to prevent or minimize something like this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Boston's MBTA is the oldest subway system in the country. The same experiments have already been run on Washington's metro, one of the newest. And scientists believe data from these two sets of tests will help all transit systems better prepare for the frightening possibility of chemical or biological attack.
John, Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning.
My day just got a little darker after watching that. I don't know about you.
CHETRY: Well, at least if they're able to develop ways to make sure they can head it off or signal at least a little faster that it's happening, maybe we're making progress.
ROBERTS: I have a sneaking suspicion that there ain't nothing we can do.
CHETRY: Well, we'll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, there's nothing we can do about the weather. That's for sure. It's been quite cold in many parts of the country after getting slammed by snow, now we have frigid air as well.
Our Rob Marciano taking a look at when it's going to warm up.
Forty-four minutes past the hour.
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(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Still orange for Halloween.
CHETRY: Look at that. You know? Hey, FYI, Atlanta, we're coming closer to Christmas now. You can change it.
It's a little joke. He made fun of me because I thought, hey, the Empire State Building can change colors on demand. I thought maybe that nice little building there in Atlanta that looks sort of like the tin man's hat, maybe that could change on demand. But no, it always stays that color.
ROBERTS: Uh-huh. It was Halloween. She said, do they make it orange for Halloween?
CHETRY: It's so nice. Look, I mean, as I said, the Empire State Building, boom, you know? In honor of Columbus Day, they changed it to the colors of the Italy flag.
ROBERTS: That building, not so much.
CHETRY: Yes, I guess not.
Well, that was a live look at Atlanta, by the way, where it is 28 degrees right now.
Probably one of the warm spots, right, Rob? It's going to will be 45 a little bit later. I don't know if we're getting out of the 30s here in New York.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. Now, everybody is into the cold. And we just don't have the budget that the Empire State Building has, you know, to start changing colors like that. The Portman (ph) building there, looking good just plain all white.
All right. Listen, a lot of white Upstate New York for sure.
Take a look at some of this video coming out of Buffalo. Finally, the lake-effect snow machine is coming -- I mean, visibility down to zero yesterday, could barely see the street lights, roads covered, obviously, driving treacherous. And the snow plows out finally in full force. And there is more on the way today. People are having a hard time getting around for sure.
Here are the snow totals for yesterday, Middlebury, New York, 21 inches; 16 inches in East Aurora; Lancaster, it's 13.5; in Elma, New York, seeing 13 inches. So, finally, we're seeing Ontario and Erie go into action. Very warm waters here, very cold air there, and a long stretch (ph), those winds are coming all the way down the pipe here. So, they're getting a long stretch of warm water to tap into and that's going to continue today.
So, lake-effect snow warnings are up for parts of Buffalo, and especially north of Syracuse across the Tug Hill plateau. We will see some problems there
Cold air is driving all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico -- everybody, including central Florida, and another storm coming into California to bring more rain and wind for them. So the active weather pattern keeps coming.
Today's high: in New York, 31, not terribly shabby, but 45 in Atlanta, we're not used to that. That's definitely well below normal. So, everybody try to stay warm as we head toward Christmas.
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ROBERTS: All right. Rob, thanks so much.
Tossing your leftovers in the garbage is a crime in San Francisco. A new law requires residents to compost their organic waste. And what's being done with those scraps of food might surprise you.
Dan Simon has got that story in this week's edition of "Solutions."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Throwing out leftovers may soon be a thing of the past. In the California Bay Area, a utility district is recycling food and generating power from the methane gas created when it decomposes.
DAVID WILLIAMS, EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT: There's no shortage of food scraps. If it was all utilized to create renewable energy, you could provide enough power for around 25,000 homes.
SIMON: The plant processes about 100 tons of food a week, which is collected from local businesses like restaurants and grocery stores. And in San Francisco, residents are also doing their part to reduce what's being sent to landfills. In October, a law was passed requiring both residents and businesses to compost their own food scraps.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We keep the bin handy under the kitchen sink. When it's ready to go out, you tie it up and take it down the hall.
SIMON: Officials say this is the first step towards a long- term goal.
JARED BLUMENFELD, SAN FRANCISCO DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENT: San Francisco is currently recycling 72 percent of the 2 million tons we collect every single year.
SIMON: Blumenfeld said he wants no waste going to landfills by 2020, and there may be another benefit. The city charges for garbage that goes to the landfill but not for what's recycled.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go.
All right. Well, you know, Disney's having its first -- having one first this Christmas season -- its first African-American princess making her debut this weekend. Why some people are saying it's about time.
Fifty-two minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Disney is getting back to basics this weekend with a release of a two-dimensional, hand-drawn animated movie. Forget that computer animation stuff. But "The Princess and the Frog" is also breaking new ground, starring Disney's very first African-American princess.
Kareen Wynter sat down with a few members of the film's target audience to see what they thought about it.
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KAREEN WYNTER, ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, we're inside Disney's animation studios where the first black princess was brought to life. And some say it's about time.
CARTOON CHARACTER: One more time! It doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter what you look like.
WYNTER (voice-over): Or does it? Check out Disney's new leading lady, Tiana.
CARTOON CHARACTER: I suppose you want a kiss?
WYNTER: She's the studio's first black princess, and many are taking notice. Even students at Los Angeles' Clover Avenue Elementary.
(on camera): Did you see anything at all that was different, that stood out from perhaps other Disney movies?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Tiana was African-American?
WYNTER (voice-over): The third and fourth graders we spoke with had no problem sharing their thoughts about Disney's new film "The Princess and the Frog," which they screened inside their classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: There's a first time for everything, and I think this was a really good start.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I think it's a good diversity.
WYNTER: When it comes to diversity, Disney's come a long way since "Snow White" in the 1930s.
Since then, there have been just three ethnic princesses, the Native American Pocahontas, Chinese Mulan, and Arabic Jasmine from "Aladdin."
Question is: in the fantastic world of fairy tale...
(on camera): Does skin color really matter?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It kind of isn't fair, because they should have had one a little earlier. It took them forever to figure out, oh, maybe we should have an African-American princesses.
WYNTER (voice-over): One of the film's own animators agrees.
ERIC GOLDBERG, SUPERVISING ANIMATOR, "THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG": It's about time, I think. It's absolutely about time.
WYNTER (on camera): What took so long since introduction of "Snow White"?
GOLDBERG: I don't know what took so long. I'll be honest with you. We were there with different ethnicities before this film. Maybe we need to do those other films before we could actually do Tiana.
WYNTER (voice-over): And like some princesses before her, Eric Goldberg says Tiana is already a marketing machine.
GOLDBERG: Everybody is buying African-American Princess Tiana dolls, you know? It doesn't matter what their background is. It's like this is a great, popular character.
WYNTER: Some students note the princess' popularity shouldn't be lost on the film, that there's a deeper message here.
ROMAN, 3RD GRADE: People that wanted to be princesses but their skin color wasn't white, they say, "Well, if she can do it, then I'm sure I can do it."
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Tiana's actually inspiring them.
CARTOON CHARACTER: Only thing important is what's under the skin.
WYNTER (on camera): Disney is keeping its next princess story under wraps, but animators say, judging from Tiana's initial response, you can expect something huge -- John, Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Kareen Wynter this morning, fascinating.
CHETRY: Yes, well, they market the heck out of these princesses. You know, the girls, all the backpacks, everything. They have all of them together. So, you know, it's a big marketing thing.
Kids like it and they sort of -- you know, everybody likes their princess. My daughter's favorite is one that looks like her, "Snow White." So, there you go. Now, we have a new one to look after...
ROBERTS: Excellent.
CHETRY: ... and pay for.
Fifty-seven minutes past the hour.
The Obama administration is announcing a crackdown on executive pay. How is this going to play out in Wall Street? We're going to take a look.
It's -- top stories in just 90 seconds.
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