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Pastor Plans Quran-Burning; A Test of Teacher Tenure; Interview With Oliver Stone

Aired September 07, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: It is time now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update. Right now, Gloria Borger and the CNN Election Express are in Columbus Ohio, chasing down the hour's political headlines.

Gloria, what is crossing the ticker right now?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Ali, how you doing?

Well first of all, topic A, as you know, we're all talking about the 2010 elections, but Republicans are really starting to focus on 2012, Ali. And guess where they're all going? To Iowa. You have Newt Gingrich headed there on Thursday, Sarah Palin is there next week, and Mitt Romney is going to be there in the fall and he's going to be talking about 25 congressional candidates that he's going to be stomping for throughout the midterm elections.

Topic B, as you know, this has not been a great summer for congressional Democrats. So what are Republicans going to do? They are trying to remind you of it. And now the Republican Senatorial Committee has a campaign video out on just that topic talking about, what else? Unemployment numbers, the stimulus program, the possibility of a double-dip recession.

Just for some added footage, they've added in the president's trip to Martha's Vineyard, the first lady's trip to Spain. And the question they ask is, "How was your summer?"

Third topic, Ali, we are, of course, here in Ohio. I've got a question for you. The president here tomorrow.

Guess how many times, Ali, he's been to Ohio, a very important swing state, since he's been president? Any idea?

VELSHI: I only know because I heard it earlier, that this is his 10th trip, or he's making his 10th trip now?

BORGER: Yes.

VELSHI: Fascinating though.

BORGER: It is his 10th trip, which is -- yes, OK. So you knew already. All right. But it's his second in a month. In fact, he and Joe Biden have been here four times in the last three weeks.

So you think it's important? You bet it is.

VELSHI: Well, it's important. And like we talked about in Pennsylvania yesterday, Pennsylvania and Ohio face the nation's problems in a microcosm. They have every problem that we've got. So it's important -- if the president can connect to that, if candidates can connect to that, that will be good for voters.

Good to see you again, Gloria. Thanks very much.

BORGER: And Ali, good to see you.

VELSHI: All right. Gloria Borger in Columbus, Ohio.

Listen, it's a new hour, we've got a new "Rundown."

He is one of the most controversial and outspoken directors out there. Now he is bringing back a controversial character, and the timing couldn't be better. Oliver Stone joins me live to talk about his "Wall Street" sequel and much more.

Also, we're talking tenure. It's the type job safety net that most teachers strive for. And the idea of loosening it would be unthinkable -- until now. And I'll show you why.

Plus, the CNN Election Express. You just saw Gloria on it. It's on the road counting down to Election Day. We've been getting an earful from angry voters. We're taking you to the battleground state of Ohio again this hour.

But first, the issue of defending religious freedom has come to the floor once again. Boy, it's something we've been talking about for weeks because of the proposed Islamic center with a mosque in downtown Manhattan.

Let me just remind you what this is all about.

There is an Islamic center that has been proposed on a site that is otherwise a commercial site. It's two blocks from Ground Zero. Here's a map that I can show you a little bit more on.

You can see Ground Zero is the square sort of in the middle of the map. You can see the cultural center with the mosque in it is about two blocks away.

You can't see one from the other. They're not in proximity in that fashion. There are a lot of stores in between.

But boy, this has created such turmoil. You know all about that. But what it's done is it's sort of kicked up emotions that have led to attacks and violence.

We talked the cabby in New York City allegedly stabbed after identifying himself to a fare who asked him whether he was a Muslim, who asked him his religion. But that's not all.

That same day, there were hate signs and vandalism at a mosque near Madera, California. That's near Fresno, apparently perpetrated by the American Nationalist Brotherhood.

On August 28th, there was an arson attack at a mosque under construction in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, near Nashville. And in May, back in May, a small fire bomb went off at a mosque in Jacksonville, Florida.

Now, an hour ago we listened to a news conference in D.C. Religious leaders from many faiths were briefing the media on an emergency meeting that they held aimed at fostering solidarity and compassion and interfaith collaboration.

Listen to Rabbi David Saperstein.

RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN, RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER OF REFORM JUDAISM: We have been the quintessential victims of religious persecution and discrimination throughout history. We know what it is like when people have attacked us verbally, have attacked us physically, and others have remained silent. It cannot happen here in America in 2010 without the response of the religious community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Jewish leaders, Christian leaders all came together, civil rights leaders all came together to protest and to express their outrage at recent developments, including, very specifically, the most recent outrage. A Florida pastor of a very small church ironically called the Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville, Florida, has a plan to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11.

Pastor Terry Jones gave this explanation of his rationale to Kiran Chetry on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASTOR TERRY JONES, DOVE WORLD OUTREACH CENTER: We first declared September the 11th "International Burn a Quran Day" actually for two reasons. Number one, we wanted to remember those who were brutally murdered on September the 11th, and actually wanted to send a very clear message to the radical element of Islam. We wanted to send a very clear message to them that we are not interested in their Sharia law, we do not tolerate their threats, their fear, their radicalness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, listen. Religious, cultural, ethnic bigotry or phobia in the United States is not new by any stretch. Let me just take you back in time, actually all the way back to 1654, before it even was the United States.

Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of the New Netherland province, tried to have refugees expelled, claiming that they would infect the colony. By the way, "infect" was his word.

1732, the founders of the Georgia colony which was seen, by the way, as a religious haven back then, drew up a charter that expressly banned Catholicism.

1854 to 1856, just before the Civil War, nativists from the Know- Nothing Party called for strict limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries coming into the United States.

1915, the Ku Klux Klan, which already existed, reemerged. We knew that they didn't like blacks, but they actually preached a gospel of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. Didn't really like anybody.

In 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing exclusion zones which led to the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

The good news is we get past all of this. We actually realize that these things were wrong -- or at least we hope society does.

Let's talk again to Mark Potok. He is of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He's joining me on the phone about this.

Mark, you and I talked last hour. I want to ask you again, when we come to times like this where someone is going to burn a Quran or someone is going to protest, that's a difference from perpetrating violent acts against people. We get into this whole First Amendment, freedom of speech issue.

As hateful as burning someone's religious book is, where do we come down on how we defend their right to do it just as we defend the right of these Muslims to build their Islamic center and mosque next to Ground Zero?

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Well, it's certainly true that the First Amendment protects that kind of expression. It protects the burning of the American flag, among other things. So that is certainly the case.

I think really what we're talking about here is not the constitutional right of free expression to criticize a particular religion on other, but really political responsibility. I mean, that's the bottom line. It seems to me that opportunistic politicians have used what was essentially a relatively local controversy over the Islamic center near Ground Zero, and with an eye to the midterms have been willing to say the most remarkable and untrue things about Muslims to really target them for attacks.

VELSHI: One politician who I think has been remarkably steadfast in his views, in his opposition to the criticisms of the building of this mosque has been New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And he has done so politically. He's done so by invoking history.

He is staying steadfast. He hasn't budged. Is he an example to politicians around the country?

POTOK: He is absolutely an example of political courage. I completely agree.

And there are some even on the Republican side, where much of this vitriol has come from -- some. There's one. I mean, Orrin Hatch has come out and made a similar kind of statement. And of course, he is coming from the Mormon faith and understands what it is to be a member of a minority religion that is despised by some. But outside of that, at least in my own view, what we've really seen is an enormous amount of opportunism and very little real leadership, which is quite awful.

VELSHI: I would have thought a few weeks ago, when the president made his comments at the Ramadan gathering at the White House -- and they were strong comments -- I would have thought that would have set the tone, except within 24 hours he had done what some people say was some backpedaling.

POTOK: Yes, it didn't look terribly brave. I mean, I heard the comments, and he specifically referenced the Islamic center near Ground Zero. But then the next day, the White House seemed to be saying, well, these were just kind of general comments and didn't amount to a hill of beans, in effect.

So, you know, I think it's the same thing. We're seeing a form of political cowardice mixed with political opportunism.

I mean, I guess the White House looks at the polls that show three out of four Americans think the mosque or the Islamic center ought to be moved, and back away from that statement. But I think Bloomberg has been absolutely correct on this. This is a matter of a fundamental credo of this country, the freedom of religion, and that really does seem to be at the heart of our nation. I mean, one thinks back all the way to the times you were talking about, and this nation was set up --

VELSHI: Yes. And by the way, back then, Mark, three out of four or more people would have supported many of the bad things that were done then.

Mark, good to talk to you. Thank you very much for your insights on this.

Mark Potok is with the Southern Poverty Law Center, joining us from Montgomery, Alabama.

As school budgets get tighter and education reform takes center stage, one of the perks of being a teacher could soon be a thing of the past. Tenure is getting tested. I'm going to show you why straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In "Chalk Talk," it used to be a virtually untouchable perk of the teaching profession. Not so much anymore.

The sputtering economy and new efforts to fix our schools have been teacher tenure under the microscope. Tenure is usually earned after three or four years of service in a public school district. But amid one of the tightest and most competitive job markets in decades, this perk could soon become a thing of the past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

I'm still pretty amazed that I got the job considering the market. But people have faith in me, so --

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI (voice-over): It's all smiles at new teacher orientation in Valley Stream, New York. For these new teachers, school starts on Tuesday. So does the clock on a three-year probationary period they hope ends in tenure, the union-backed safety net that protects teachers from unfair dismissal.

LUISA BATISTA-ESCANDON, TEACHER, VALLEY STREAM CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL: It's kind of overwhelming. Think about it -- imagine a classroom making lesson plans every week, meeting deadlines. All of this is brand new to a first-year teacher. And then on top of it, you know, trying to pass each year to get to tenure. It's a lot.

VELSHI: Just about every state has a tenure law on the books for public school teachers. In states that don't, it's typically granted through local union contracts. It's job security in a tight labor market, but critics say it prevents districts from removing bad teachers from the classroom.

PATRICK MCGUINN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DREW UNIVERSITY: These due process intentions were not intended to guarantee lifetime employment for teachers, but over time that became prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, for districts to attempt to fire a teacher. And today, really most districts don't even attempt to do so on grounds of performance even if it's quite clear that a teacher is ineffective.

VELSHI: Teachers can be dismissed after receiving multiple poor evaluations in just 11 states. In other states like New York, those teachers can be fired, but usually they're put on an improvement plan.

The Obama administration's Race to the Top is pressing states to rethink the evaluation process. Unions say they're on board.

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: At the end of the day, what teachers want more than anything else is to make a difference in the lives of kids. And we need the tools and conditions to do so. And part of that is a teacher development and evaluation system that will help us improve teaching.

VELSHI: But for right now, these new teachers are more nervous about meeting their students than meeting administrators' expectations at the end of the year.

Superintendent Marc Bernstein isn't concerned. He says in a tight job market, he hired top-notch candidates.

MARC BERNSTEIN, SUPT., VALLEY STREAM CENTRAL: It's definitely a buyer's market. I'm really proud of what I see. I'm excited about what they're going to bring to the classroom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: The president's Race to the Top competition which we've talked about many times on this show has sparked tenure reform in a number of states in the past six months.

In Florida, a measure to do away with tenure altogether passed the state legislature, but it was vetoed by Governor Charlie Crist. In Colorado, student performance will now determine who is tenured in this tight labor market. And in Washington, D.C., public schools, chancellor Michelle Rhee has adopted an evaluation system in which tenure or not, a teacher can be fired after a single poor rating.

All right. Changing gears now, he is an award-winning director and writer. He often puts a controversial spin on his topics. Oliver Stone's latest movie is no exception, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

Oliver Stone joins me live after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. He's back, Gordon Gekko, the protagonist in Oliver Stone's blockbuster 1987 film "Wall Street." It was a memorable quote from Gekko, a.k.a. Michael Douglas, that both defined the movie and the Wall Street traders it portrayed.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And that was the 1980s. Jump ahead today, and Gekko gets out of prison in Stone's sequel, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

He's got another speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One silk handkerchief, one watch, one ring, one gold money clip with no money in it, and one mobile phone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: The four-time Academy Award-winning director and writer Oliver Stone joins us now from our studios in New York.

Oliver, good to see you. Welcome to the show.

OLIVER STONE, DIRECTOR: Hello, Ali. How are you? VELSHI: I'm well, thank you.

Oliver, you've made that first movie, "Wall Street." And you often say you were sort of surprised at how it became -- it didn't -- that negative portrayal of Wall Street isn't necessarily what you intended to become something that people aspired to.

You don't have -- you don't leave "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" with that impression. You are very clear on what you think Wall Street did to our economy in this second movie.

STONE: Well, I can't say it's a documentary or anything like that, no. You know, we always told a story.

Back in 1987, it was about -- set against that world of greed. And the 1980s was a new look on Wall Street.

And now, in 2008, we went back into that world and we use that as a backdrop. But we're telling stories of people, complex relationships, father/daughter, mother/son, two psychopathic traders who are after Shia LaBeouf. I mean, I think it's really about the trust and the betrayal that exists between people.

Now, the 2008 backdrop which you guys covered so dramatically in the news media is certainly interesting and was a big marker. But it's not what the story is about. We're going on into the future. The movie ends in 2009.

VELSHI: This is two years now -- this movie is going to be released almost two years from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and that horrible summer that we were just coming off of at this time in the year. You say it's not a documentary, but it definitely captures the very specific feel of that time.

STONE: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

I think it was a great -- and that was -- we have Federal Reverse board meetings, we have the fall of Bear Stearns, the idea of rumors being floated that can hurt a firm. I mean, there's three rumor montages in the movie that sort of show you the power of the Internet and the power of rumor, and frankly malicious gossip to hurt a company. And by the way, I think you know well that Jimmy Cayne (ph) at Bear Stearns went to Washington and he said he thought rumors might have had a very big role in the fall of Bear Stearns. He thinks somebody was betting against him going short.

VELSHI: Right.

So now you've taken something of the reality that happened in 2007, 2008, and then you fictionalized it. How would you characterize this to someone?

STONE: With you in it.

VELSHI: With me in it. How would you characterize how you've put it together? STONE: Well, it's the same story. You know, greed goes on.

Greed is an old story since the beginning of time. And I think it's a balance between greed and love and good and evil.

I mean, greed sometimes works out for people in the movies. Sometimes it doesn't. Love does sometimes work and sometimes it doesn't.

So I think what you have to find out is how it works for you. You have got to find your balance here, equilibrium.

VELSHI: Right.

This was -- one of the things that I struggled with when I was reporting in those days was the complexity of everything that was going on and somehow making that understandable to our audience on a daily basis where there was panic setting in. You definitely chewed -- you bit off a big, big, complicated issue.

Where did you decide you were going to get into the nitty-gritty? How did you get into the nitty-gritty of it? Because it almost feels like you've taken viewers into meetings that you weren't in, but you're expressing what happened in those meetings.

STONE: Well, for example, I was fascinated by it personally with the Federal Reverse Board. My father was a Wall Street broker. So I wanted to know how that mystery organization works.

And we hired consultants who had been in some of those meetings like Brian Cartwright (ph) and Alex Kohn (ph). We talked to insiders, from Peter Solomon (ph) -- we talked to short sellers like James Chanos (ph).

We talked to Eliot Spitzer, who was no longer the governor. And had done a serious investigation of AIG back in those says and told us quite a bit about Goldman Sachs and AIG. In fact, pointed the finger at them and said go in that direction.

What I found out, what shocked me back in 2009, was that Goldman Sachs and those type of banks were really going long and short at the same time and were actually selling out on their clients. I thought that was shocking information to me, as well as the power of rumor, which, amazing. We show the power of that and how it can destroy a company.

VELSHI: Yes. Some remarkable casting in the movie.

STONE: Including you.

VELSHI: And I happen to have been in it.

When we come back on the other side, I want to talk about how you blend the reality of what was really going on with the creative filmmaking.

And I'll give you all a tease of my role in the movie when we come back.

My discussion with Oliver Stone continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," the sequel to the 1987 blockbuster "Wall Street" by Oliver Stone. It comes out on September the 24th.

Oliver Stone joins me now. We're continuing our discussion.

Oliver, back when we were doing this, when we were reporting on all of the financial crisis in 2008, it sometimes felt like we were in a movie. And you've captured a lot of that using actual track and actual things that happened on TV, and many of the players who were involved at the time.

And, in fact, I'm hoping my life changes on September 24th, because you've made me into a star. I just want to show our viewers a little clip that had me in it from the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: So anyone who doesn't admit that is just kidding themselves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ali, I disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: You've got to look a little bit hard to find it, but it's there.

Oliver, you really reached out to a lot of people who had some involvement in this either from the financial world or from the world of financial journalism. Give me your thoughts about this melding of reality and fiction.

STONE: Well, I like to do that in my movies. But I thought you were really a star, Ali. I mean that.

I used mostly CNBC people because they cover this round the clock, they're very good at it. And I have many of them in the movie. But you, when I saw you, I knew that bald dome was going to go all the way.

And I'm glad I put you with a guy named Anthony Scaramucci (ph), who runs a hedge fund, because Scaramucci (ph) has got a real point. You know, he takes the hard line. He says let it go, let the banks go. And then you take the consensus point of view, which is what Washington did, and say, no, we have got to save the system. So I'm still wondering what the upshot of that is going to be, because the bubble is out there and you never know.

The volatility -- what shocked me since my father's day -- I used to hang out on Wall Street -- was the volatility that exists now. You don't know when you wake up in the morning what's going to happen that day. I always felt there was more of a sense of security even back in the 1980s.

VELSHI: This movie doesn't actually -- I mean, you often in your movies have a particular view that is outside of the consensus view. But in this particular case, history has seemed to have verified the fiction that you put together, that there really were rumors that affected Wall Street, there really were bad actors on Wall Street in many ways.

STONE: Oh, yes. I think that's what the Internet and the television coverage -- I mean, when we did the original "Wall Street," we didn't have back-to-back business coverage that you have now. So, everybody's talking, and I think sometimes too much, and they get overheated.

And the business news has grown into like sports or movie news. It's just nonstop.

I'm not so sure that's good for the system, although it's more transparent. But it does lead to circles of viciousness and rumor and hype.

And a stock, as you know, drops. I mean, look at what happened a few months ago, right? The market just crashed. So what's going to happen?

It does scare me, and I think it's the nature of the modern world, I suppose.

VELSHI: Oliver, let me ask you this -- do you think -- you know, I wondered about this when you were shooting this a year ago, thinking by the time it comes out, the speed with which things have developed in the world of business, I wonder that it makes it outdated. It's kind of interesting how it's dovetailing with exactly how things are falling out.

STONE: Well, so did the original. When we did the original, we didn't know -- it was a business movie. And there's been very few business movies. It was not a genre that was popular like the western. We came out and, boom, the market crashed right before the movie came out. I hope that doesn't happen in the next couple of weeks. I don't think it will.

But we didn't make the movie to be timely. We really made the movie to be classical. We concentrated on storylines. Those five people in the movie that are most covered are really like five sharks in a tank. And I include Carey Mulligan, the daughter of Gekko --

VELSHI: She was excellent.

STONE: They all have a game to play, and they're all interacting. That was the idea, stick to the varieties. The storyline, and that storyline will get us through the movie.

I never wanted to make it about 2008. It would have killed us. Because frankly, it's been overcovered. But I love that it's in the background.

VELSHI: Excellent. I look forward to seeing it in the theaters. I really enjoyed it. Oliver, thanks for joining us --

STONE: I'm sure you'll be there.

VELSHI: I will see you there. Good to see you. Oliver Stone, director -

STONE: Thank you.

VELSHI: -- of "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

All right. We're going to go to the other side of the world now. No letting up for Pakistan. The flooding death toll rises again. There's no end in sight. We're going "Globe Trekking" to the flood zone right at the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now to go "Globe Trekking." First stop is Pakistan. The death toll from the weeks of monsoon flooding has now topped 1,700. That figure is expected to rise substantially has more and more people fall victim to waterborne diseases. The U.N. has set up nearly 1,200 mobile health clinics across the country.

But our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has just returned from Pakistan. He says it's not enough. He talked about the disaster today on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, Kiran, because every time there's a natural disaster, there's always discussion afterwards, as you may remember. After Haiti, for example, about a second wave of disease coming. And the good news is that oftentimes that doesn't materialize. We didn't really see it in Port-au-Prince. We didn't see it after the tsunami. There were clusters of outbreaks but not that second wave of disease. In part because you can get clean water which is so important to people to prevent those diseases.

Here we have already started to see the second wave start to develop. In large part because there is so much bad water in the country and not enough good water. So you know, imagine, millions of people outside. They've got no clean water. All they have is what you're looking at on your screen, that contaminated water. What are you going to do after a while? You're going to drink that. Yes, that stuff in that bucket, people drink that and they're going to drink that. People were getting sick by the millions.

So there's a real second wave here of significant disease and without basic resources it's going to lead to staggering mortality as well in Pakistan. Is it enough? Your question about the U.N.. It's hard to say. Again, if you look at a map and really look at how many areas have been affected. And keeping in mind that Pakistan, even under the best of conditions, I was there after the earthquake, for example, even under good conditions it's tough to navigate, with flooding it's just impossible to get to people without some sort of aerial support who needs your resources the most.

Forget medical care. Just simply getting them food and water becomes very daunting. So, you know, I don't know if it's enough. It's going to be tough to say that for sure. I think we're going to see some terrible numbers coming out of Pakistan in the weeks and months to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And U.N. officials now say another flood crisis is building in the eastern province of Baluchistan, where some 2 million people are affected.

OK, now we're turning to South America and those trapped 33 Chilean miners who are underground for more than a month now. A team from NASA just returned from the mine site where they spoke with and gave tips to Chilean rescue officials. And they spoke to the miners themselves and their families. The team included two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer.

At a news conference in Houston a short while ago, the NASA team praised the Chilean rescue effort. One of several points they stressed, once the miners are out of the mine, a new ordeal begins. Rehabilitation and adjusting to their celebrity status.

You'll recall the miners became trapped during a cave-in back on August 5th. They fled for the safety -- for their safety back deeper into the mine. They're now at a depth of about 2,300 feet, surviving in an area about the size of a small living room. A supply shaft is being used to send the miners clothes, food and water. The NASA official says it's important for the miners to organize themselves along daily routines and to get food that tastes good.

Drilling of a rescue shaft is now underway. Officials say it could take up to four months to get the miners out.

After the TEA Party's big win in the Alaska Senate primary, the group has set its sights on another big Senate race in the northeast. The latest headline hot off the CNN Political Ticker next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It is time now for this hour's "CNN Equals Politics" update. Jessica Yellin and the CNN Express are in Columbus, Ohio, chasing down the latest political headlines. Jessica, what is crossing the ticker right now?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ali. The ninth time is a charm. That's what Florida's Democratic Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek is hoping. He's making his ninth appearance with former president Bill Clinton today. Meek is flying from Florida to New York City for a big fundraiser where he's hoping the former president will help him bring some in big dollars. President Clinton and Kendrick Meek have a long history going back some two decades when Meek was a state trooper. He first met then-Governor Clinton, and the former president helped him clinch the nomination for the Democratic party's Senate seat in Florida. But Meek is trailing badly in that campaign against independent -- Republican-turned-independent Charlie Crist and Republican hopeful Marco Rubio. That is a hot contest we're all watching closely.

Moving a little bit further on the East Coast into Delaware, we can look there at an intraparty fight within the Republican party, Ali. The TEA Party express -- today it rolled into Wilmington, Delaware, to throw more of its support behind its favorite candidate in the Senate race, Christine O'Donnell. The TEA Party says national Republicans are trying to undermine her candidacy and get a more moderate Republican, Mike Castle, to win the primary. So now they say they'll be holding Tea Party rallies across the state and spending at least $250,000 on radio and TV ads to support Christine O'Donnell's candidacy.

And finally, I've got bad news for the Democrats, at least if you want to listen to the prognosticators. A top political election prognosticator says it's going to be a Republican wave in November. Charlie Cook of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report says, based on his analysis, House Republicans are poised to pick up 40 -- four, zero -- seats in November. That is enough to give Republicans the majority and make John Boehner speaker of the House.

Charlie Cook found that even in districts where Barack Obama won 50 percent to 60 percent of the vote in 2008, Democrats are not safe.

VELSHI: What do they need --

YELLIN: A lot of political news, Ali.

VELSHI: They need 39? The Republicans need to take 39 in the House? Is that what will get them there?

YELLIN: They need 39, so 40 will do it for them. And Charlie Cook is saying it's 40.

VELSHI: All right. You don't have a monitor there, right? You can't see me, can you?

YELLIN: No. Can you describe?

VELSHI: Well, I would. But Ed's been doing it on Twitter. Apparently he's been carrying on about how I'm wearing -- there's too many patterns going on in what I'm wearing. I've got a paisley tie and --

YELLIN: I love the patterns!

VELSHI: You're OK with that?

YELLIN: Yes, but that's your shtick. That's your thing. You're good with patterns. You can do it. Ed cannot. Let's tell him that.

VELSHI: Jessica, thank you so much. It's always a pleasure. Anytime you want to come on the show, open-door policy. Jessica Yellin with the CNN Express and our "CNN Equals Politics" update.

The president, by the way, announcing billions in tax cuts this week, literally billions. It could change your business and the November elections. My man, Ed Henry, on "The Stakeout," complaining about my checks and patterns and paisleys. He's got some news as well on the other side.

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VELSHI: President Obama has made some big announcements this week. He's going to have another one tomorrow. Adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars. He's set to announce a $200 billion tax cut for businesses to invest in plant and equipment. If it goes through congress, it will last through the end of next year.

He's also proposing $50 billion for infrastructure, things like roads, railways, high-speed railways, airport runways. Add to that another $100 billion tax credit for businesses to put toward research and development. That's a tax credit that's already in existence. He wants to extend that. Add it all together, 200, 100, 50-- $350 Billion.

Put it into perspective, about half of what the huge stimulus package cost, added together, the stimulus plus this would be over a trillion dollars. However, some people think you shouldn't be adding them together, including the White House.

Let's go to our man, Ed Henry.

We're going to forget about the fact that people in glass houses-- about people with lots of patterns on their tie shouldn't throw stones --

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You have the pattern on the tie, the pattern on the suit, the pattern on the shirt, it's just a lot of patterns going on, that's all I was trying to say --

VELSHI: You told me once you like this combination, you like the vest that is not the same as the suit. You told me you liked this; I wore it.

HENRY: I do. You are right. I do. I wasn't lying to you. But I was referring to one time you were wearing a solid blue jacket with a gray vest. And I thought it was interesting. When you throw in the pinstripe jacket with a different color vest, I think you change the dynamic. There's a lot of feedback on Twitter right now about your outfit.

VELSHI: Yes, in fact, I just saw somebody say, "tell Ed to turn off his tie because I'm going to start disco dancing again.

HENRY: Oh, is that right? I wasn't going to quote that one. It's funny you would quote that one. Someone else wanted me to ask you a question: "does he dress himself?" I assume it's yes.

VELSHI: That's a compliment, I think. I used to, Ed, but now that I'm in the movies --

HENRY: Look, if you're angry at me, how can Oliver Stone get away with calling you the bald dome live on CNN from what I'm told from my sources?

VELSHI: He said the bald dome is going to go all the way.

HENRY: I guess he's not invited back.

VELSHI: Yes.

What's the White House saying about this $350 billion?

HENRY: They have not commented on your outfit yet. But you're right that Robert Gibbs at the briefing today was basically saying: "look, it's really not $350 billion." For example, they've got some offsets they say they'll get; close some corporate tax loopholes to pay for the research and development tax credit you mentioned.

However, this is still a work in progress. We don't know if congress is going to go along with the tax credit extension, let alone the offsets to pay for it.

VELSHI: In fact, they're not likely to. Wouldn't you bet that they're not likely to? That the president is not likely to get it through this session of congress?

HENRY: Robert Gibbs all but acknowledged that today. He said at the top of the briefing today, which was interesting-- look, we've entered the political season, sort of the silly season where it's very unlikely -- there's such a narrow window for congress to work before they all go and campaign-that it's unlikely they're going to take it up.

So one of my colleagues, Chip Reid, at CBS said: Well then, if the president knows they're unlikely to take it up isn't this just politics? He's just bringing this up knowing the Republicans and the Democrats on the hill aren't going to deal with it? Gibbs kind of push that away.

Then, I was pressing him on the point of, they just said last week, Robert Gibbs at the podium said on the record, this is not going to be a second stimulus. But as you know, when you add all this up, it's certainly starting to sound like a stimulus. I pressed Robert on that, and he said, no, it's not a stimulus.

VELSHI: Yes, although I'll give them this. Obviously there's always spin that comes out, I will give them this, though. These are tax breaks for research and development, tax breaks for investing in plants and equipment. That's a good stimulus and even Republicans - I was having a conversation with Doug Heye last night, as you recall --

HENRY: I heard about that.

VELSHI: -- who like many Republicans refer to this administration as a remarkably anti-business administration. Out of that $350 billion, 300 are tax breaks to businesses, not to individuals.

HENRY: Right, absolutely. That is a good point to make. What Robert was going back and forth on the briefing -- in the briefing, however, is if the President really wants to reach out to business and do that, why didn't he introduce these tax cuts, say, six months ago when he had a better shot of maybe getting Senator Harry Reid and the Senate to actually bring this up. Now, when you've got essentially a three or four-week window in late September, early October, it's going to be really hard to get it done.

Interesting follow-up from my colleague, Savannah Guthrie, at NBC: when Robert Gibbs told me this is not a stimulus package, it's not the second stimulus, she said if you answer Ed that way, are you saying the President's proposals aren't going to stimulate the economy?

Maybe everyone's playing around with words a little bit, maybe it's a semantical debate, but at the end of the day, if it is not a stimulus package, is it not going to stimulate the economy? Robert Gibbs' answer, in fairness, is: look, this is an economic recovery plan, which is the way they tried to brand, at least the first big stimulus as well: a recovery. And they're still working on recovery. Bottom line --

VELSHI: They never called it the stimulus plan, anyway. We should do that as a "wordplay".

HENRY: At the beginning, but then it became the Recovery Act, you're absolutely right. They sold it as, it was going to jolt the economy, it was going to jump-start things. It was going to get going. In fairness to them, there have been government reports and there have been private economists, people like Mark Zandi - who used to advise McCain, now advising some Democrats like Nancy Pelosi - who have said this probably saved or created about 3.3 million jobs. So, it's had an impact. There are Republicans saying the stimulus hasn't worked at all. That's not true. However, has it worked as well as the president thought? Maybe not. And has it made up for the hole? -- as the president acknowledges, by the way as he did yesterday in Milwaukee, the wide gap in unemployment is a lot bigger than anyone anticipated.

VELSHI: That's the issue. The issue is not that it created jobs -- and I know someone's going to tweet me and tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. I do. It did create jobs. There's no question about that. We know money that went directly to hiring teachers and policemen and firemen. We know that that money created jobs. But the hole was deeper than they expected so we lost much more than we were expecting to lose.

But you're right, we're at this point getting into semantics and that's the silly season. We are going to debate every last word said about the economy.

HENRY: That's right. And last Friday, you were picking up on in the latest unemployment report that there finally was some real growth there and we've seen some before, but you're seeing it continue in the private sector jobs.

That's really where it's ultimately got to come back. They need a lot more of that. And that's why they're trying to introduce some of this stuff, but bottom line, what the president is proposing tomorrow in Cleveland -- unlikely to pass before the election.

VELSHI: Ed, this was such a good conversation, that for a moment I stopped being self-conscious about my patterns and my tie, but now --

HENRY: I don't want to take Jessica Yellin out of context, but was she saying your shtick is to have weird patterns? Because you sort of follow it out. It sort of sounded like she was saying --

VELSHI: That might have been a dig, right?

HENRY: Maybe. You'd better talk to her.

VELSHI: Ed, good to see you. Ed Henry, on The Stakeout every day on our show.

I'm going to try to hide my tie, too many patterns going on.

I've got the "Wordplay" straight ahead. This time, it's a word you all -- oh, I guess I can't do that because my mike's been covered. It's a word you all know. I guarantee you will know a lot more about it before I'm through. Stay with me.

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VELSHI: It is time now for "Wordplay". And today, actions speak louder than words.

Case in point: demonstration, It's what the vacuum cleaner salesman does on your living room carpet. It's also how Americans like to make a point. I know, people demonstrate all over the world showing group feelings toward a person or a cause. But here in America, venting grievances is a birthright and there's a lot of different ways to go about it. In the controversy over plans to build an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan and more broadly over Islam's place in America.

Both sides have marched and rallied. As we've reported, opponents have sometimes done worse. Now come plans by an evangelical pastor in Florida to burn copies of the Koran on September 11th on the premise that, I'm quoting: "Islam is of the devil." That happens to be the title of the pastor's book. In response, an awesome array of religious leaders from around the world and across the spectrum are demonstrating values from other books.

I'll say more about this in my "XYZ." I also want to deliver a message of hope for you.

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VELSHI: Time now for "The XYZ of It."

A proud moment took place today in Washington, what amounted to an interfaith denunciation of the growing bigotry and violence against Muslims in America. Leading Christian and Jewish leaders stood side by side with Muslim leaders, not just in defense of religious liberty in general, but specifically in solidarity against what is fast developing into an ugly chapter in America's struggle to be a more perfect society.

In the last few weeks, we've seen a vicious attack on a Muslim taxi driver in Manhattan, hate signs at a mosque in California, an arson attack on a Mosque under construction in Tennessee, the firebombing of a Mosque in Florida and a warning by Muslims to other Muslims to keep a low profile on September 11th, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, for fear of being attacked.

America's history with regard to religious, ethnic, and cultural liberty is more checkered than some of us would like it to be --

1654: Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland Province, tried to have Jewish refugees expelled, claiming they would infect the colony.

1732: Founders of the Georgia Colony, which was seen as a religious haven, drew up a charter that explicitly banned Catholicism.

1854-56: Nativists from the Know Nothing party, which calls for strict limits on immigration-those calls start to grow.

1915: The Ku Klux Klan reemerges preaching anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism.

1942: Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing exclusion zones, which lead to the forced internment of some 120 thousand Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

Let me tell you this -- here and now, this kind of prejudice and paranoia never succeeds. Rather, the will of Americans to put liberty ahead of fear and to put pluralism ahead of division always wins.

Regarding the current spate of anti-Muslim violence, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said today: "I have a fear that this will be taken by some to be the real America. It is not the real America."

Cardinal, you are right. This ugliness, this bigotry is not the real America. And the majority of Americans will prove you right. That's my "XYZ".

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