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American Morning: Wake Up Call
Vote Today on GOP Debt Plan; Sony's $191 Million Q1 Loss; 911 Victims' Frustration; DSK Accuser To Appear In Public
Aired July 28, 2011 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Thursday, July 28th. This is your A.M.WAKE-UP CALL.
I'm Ali Velshi, joining you live this morning from New York
All right. Admit it. You're going to miss al debt ceiling stories when they're gone. There's a big one today. The House votes on the new and improved Boehner plan. Boehner says it's no perfect but doable.
Democrats and conservative Republicans think it's perfectly undoable and should be put on the curb with the rest of the recyclables.
Now, even if the bill passes the House, it has a snow ball's chance in the Senate. The president says he won't sign it either.
CNN's congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan looks ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If it does pass in the House, it has the potential of hitting a huge roadblock as soon as it gets to the Senate. At the same time that House Speaker John Boehner's office was putting out this release, this good news about the revised plan and the cost estimate, Senate Democrats released a letter at almost the same time, with 53 signatures on it, saying they don't support the plan in the Senate and really essentially making clear that it cannot pass.
So, while, you know, all eyes are still on the House to see what happens with John Boehner's plan in the House, it has some serious problems in the Senate if it gets there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Well, you figure the Democrats wouldn't be friends -- that's just politics. But this bill is making some Republicans cannibalize each other. We're seeing the difference between Republicans who play the game and the new Tea Party favorites who say the stinking game helped us get into this mess.
Listen to these two Republicans, old school and new school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That is not fair. That is not fair to the American people. To hold out and say we won't agree to raising the debt limit until we pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. It's unfair. It's bizarro.
And maybe some people who have only been in this body for six or seven months or so really believe that. Others know better.
REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: I'm a freshman. Maybe I'm naive but I don't think unless we force -- unless we force Republicans and Democrats to balance their books every year, they won't. The only way we can do that is to force 'em. The only way we want force 'em is to put a balanced budget amendment in the Constitution. We have to do that. We can't yield.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
VELSHI: All right. That was Congressman Walsh. He was one of those who is not going to be supporting Speaker Boehner's decision.
All right. One more story about Congress. Representative David Wu of Oregon says he's resigning after the debt ceiling issue is resolved. He's a seven-term Democrat accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward the daughter of a campaign donor.
According to the National Taxpayers Union, Wu could be eligible for more than a million dollars in benefits over the rest of his life. That's not too shabby for a little more than 12 years of work. It should be enough to keep him in tiger costumes for a while.
Thank goodness Alex Trebek is OK. Otherwise, "The Jeopardy" jokes will be in poor taste. Jokes like this 71-year-old Canadian didn't stay at a holiday inn express last night. Trebek explained why he showed up to an event in San Francisco on crutches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": Yesterday morning chasing a burglar down the hall at my San Francisco hotel until my Achilles tendon ruptured and I fell in an ignominious heap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: I'll take ignominious heap for $200, Alex.
Trebek says he'll have surgery tomorrow. Police arrested and charged a 56-year-old woman with stealing his stuff.
If you're flying Continental today out of Newark or another hub, you want to make sure the flight is still on. Continental had to cancel about 24 flights yesterday because a bunch of pilots called in sick. The airline and pilots union are in labor negotiations.
And if you bought a plane ticket before the airlines had to stop charging tax, you might be able to get that tax money back. The FAA's authority to raise revenue expired last Friday at midnight after Congress didn't extend its funding.
Now, the IRS has asked airlines to refund the taxes to eligible customers.
Time now for a check on the world markets. The Hang Seng closed slightly higher. The Nikkei closed higher. Right now, the FTSE and the DAX are both down.
But the big headline this morning is coming out of Asia. Electronics giant Sony is reporting big losses.
Let's go to Kyung Lah, who's live in Tokyo.
Good morning, Kyung.
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Ali. It's not just Sony but it is a bad day in a lot of boardrooms and many of the electronics companies here in Japan. We saw a lot of reporting of the quarter from April to June.
So, Sony posted a loss of $191 million U.S. dollars. Panasonic, down $390 million. Sharp down $630 million. And Nintendo says they lost in that quarter 4327 million U.S. dollars.
Why? Well, partially because of the March 11th earthquake. They are still trying to recover from the poor sales and the supply problems.
But the other theme we keep seeing over and over again from these electronics companies is the currency problem. The U.S. dollar is sinking -- sinking very rapidly in these last six weeks. U.S. manufacturers, just like Japanese manufacturers, all operate on the U.S. dollar. And so when Japanese manufacturers then have to repatriate these funds here, they lose if the dollar is sinking and the yen is rising.
What is pushing the dollar down is all of that U.S. debt ceiling talk, the uncertainty, the world markets are in havoc. What that's translating to here, Ali, is a lot of concern, a lot of corporate loss and concern that this is now really going to affect Japan's economy -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Kyung, thanks very much for that. Kyung Lah, joining us live from Tokyo.
Now, the economy is the talk of the nation. And Jay Leno wants you to know how bad he thinks it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": The economy is bad, it's bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jay, come on, how bad is it? How bad is it?
LENO: The economy is so bad today my stockbroker told me I have to go screw myself. OK?
The economy is so bad I saw Larry King having himself appraised on "Antiques Road Show." That's how bad.
The economy is so bad people can no longer afford crystal meth, they have to use cubic zirconium meth. That's how bad.
The economy is so bad straight guys in New York are marrying each other just to get the wedding gifts. That's how bad.
The economy is so bad, you have to --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Let's go to Rob Marciano, live in Atlanta.
Tropical storm Rob, you were telling us about this yesterday. It's now expected to make landfall soon. When and where and what kind of storm is this, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now, it's a minimal tropical storm. It hasn't really gotten terribly organized. It's been hugging the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. It is of the reasons.
But it is heading into the Gulf of Mexico where there are some toasty waters there. I check some buoys and some of them are approaching 80 degrees in water temperature. So, that's definitely fuel for the fire. And we expect this thing to intensify as we go throughout the day today.
All right. Here's the forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. And you can see that the landfall is expected across the Texas coastline, anywhere from Brownsville to just south of Galveston and Corpus Christi is certainly in the middle there. And the timing is such that it would come in Friday night into early Saturday morning. The intensity forecast is for it to be a strong tropical storm, potentially becoming a hurricane. And that's certainly something we'll watch out for.
Beneficial is going to be the rainfall. We'd like to have it a little further to the north and through San Antonio and Dallas. But anybody in Texas will take any sort of rain that they can get.
A ton of rain yesterday again in Chicago. They've set records as far as July rainfall, more thunderstorms expected today. So, that's where we're going to see some flight delays, Chicago, could see delays up and over an hour. Detroit, Tampa, Orlando, Miami and San Francisco as well.
On the space front news here, I want to tell you about a new discovery from NASA, orbiting potentially the earth's orbit are these asteroids called Trojan asteroids. They've seen these kind of whirling around Jupiter and Saturn. And usually asteroids don't orbit around planets, but we haven't seen many orbit around earth. So, this could be interest, Ali, in that, you know, we keep talking about man visiting asteroids.
VELSHI: Right.
MARCIANO: So, this may be an easy way to do it, some that are close to home.
VELSHI: We got one. Good, excellent, we got an asteroid we can name for. I love it.
Rob, any flight cancellations you're looking at?
MARCIANO: I'm not sure cancellations but I think Chicago, Ali, is going to be the problem spot. And as you know, O'Hare --
VELSHI: Right.
MARCIANO: -- has some huge hubs there. So
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Right. The cancellations -- I'm confusing stories. The cancellations are those Delta -- those Continental flights that were canceled out of Newark yesterday because of a bunch of pilots calling in sick. I guess we don't know if that's going to happen again today. But you've got your handle on delays.
I'll check in with you a little bit later, Rob. Thank you.
MARCIANO: All right, pal.
VELSHI: All right. Could Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign T-shirts actually be politically incorrect? We'll show you how the former speaker explains what's inside this T-shirt.
But, first, here's our quote of the day. "Aren't we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats? This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship."
Mull it over. I'll tell you what newsmaker said it right after the break.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Thirteen minutes after the hour.
The quote of the day, quote, "Aren't we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern that there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats? This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship."
Who said it? The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, talking about Republicans debating the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill.
And as we've been telling you, Speaker John Boehner's revised debt plan is up for a House vote today. But comedians have done some brainstorming and they've come up with their own ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JIMMY FALLON, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": The White House said it's working on a plan "B." Unfortunately, the "B" stands for bake sale. So, plan "C" is car wash.
CONAN O'BRIEN, "CONAN": Things are so bad, folks, America may have to move in with Canada for a while. Want to do that? Just bring our stuff.
Let's go over there at 4:00 in the morning. We got kicked out.
We didn't pay our bills.
LENO: The Kardashian sisters, Kim and Khloe, they made $65 billion last year. Maybe they should be running the country. They're making money. OK?
DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Ladies and gentlemen, when you hear your name called, do me a favor, come up here on stage and tell us about your debt reduction plan.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
VELSHI: All right. Time now for your Political Ticker with Tim Farley, host of "Morning Briefing" on Sirius XM POTUS, live from Washington.
Tim, you're not so old, but you've been around Washington long enough to have seen a lot of stuff. Have you ever seen what's going on here with the Republicans going at each other the way they are? I mean, you almost forget the Democrats were in this debate.
TIM FARLEY, "MORNING BRIEFING," SIRIUS XM POTUS: Yes. Well, the other thing is we see a lot more than we used to see, Ali. And it is true, we're at a level of contention that's probably unprecedented in our history or at least since before we had television.
But it is pretty rough right now. One of the things that was interesting, John Boehner was saying to a political caucus, the Republican caucus, he had a conversation with them, and he told them to get your ass in line. And I use that word because he used it. He acknowledged that he used that word when he was talking to Laura Ingraham yesterday.
He also said, and Karl Holtz (ph) has this quote on "New York Times." "I didn't put my neck on the line and go toe to toe with Obama to not have an army behind me."
This is about rallying the troops right now. And you mentioned this early that 217 he needs to get to in the vote in the House today is something that will not make or break the leadership of Speaker Boehner but it will certainly go a long way to cementing his position of leadership right now with Republicans in the House.
VELSHI: All right. By the way, David Wu, is he going to be voting?
FARLEY: I don't know. He is -- he was con fronted by a "Washington Times" reporter yesterday. And he just didn't really say he wanted to acknowledge -- he said he was staying, he was going to be resigning to help his family. That was his priority.
Unfortunately, the priority in this particular case seemed to be staying around for that debt ceiling vote. So, at this point, it looks like he will be voting. It remains to be seen whether or not he'll be staying in Congress for some time.
VELSHI: Hey, Tim. This whole August 2nd deadline, the place we got that from was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, back before the debt ceiling is reached. On May 16th, he said, I could probably move things around until August 2nd.
What's he up to? What's he saying?
FARLEY: Well, the Bipartisan Policy Center also said that that was the date. And those things, as you know, Ali, are always a little bit movable.
VELSHI: Right.
FARLEY: And the secretary will be testifying in front of a House committee. And he's giving a sort of sense of the world global economy and talking about the oversight of the financial situation. I think you'll hear the word Greece and debt in there with questions. I'm not sure if it's going to go exactly where he wants it to go.
But he is still saying this is a very real deadline and things need to be taken care of. Even though there are some economists who say maybe it's the 7th, the 8th, or 9th. But, really, when you're talking a few days and trillions of dollars, is it that big of a deal or that big of a difference? We'll find out.
VELSHI: All right, Tim. We will find out. Talk to you later.
Tim Farley is the host of "Morning Briefing" on Sirius XM POTUS, live from Washington.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had some explaining to do about his campaign t-shirt, that's because the label reads made in El Salvador, not made in America.
Listen to this exchange between Gingrich and an ABC producer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABC PRODUCER: We asked for T-shirts to be sent to us. They were made in America. I just picked up that one and it's made in El Salvador. It was printed in Atlanta. It was a big thing when we talked to your campaign about how you wanted things to be made in America. Do we have plans to change thing?
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no -- I have to ask the folks who ordered this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Gingrich campaign spokesperson says the shirts were a rush order and that some of the print works were done in Atlanta.
All right. I'm very familiar with Toronto traffic. I grew up there. But this is not what you usually see on a Wednesday afternoon in Toronto. For some reason, they're actual filming the new "Total Recall" movie there. And it did cause a few present-day traffic headaches.
Those are supposed to be -- and I think once you see the effect of it, those will be flying cars. These are the regular cars you usually see in Toronto. There's an actor.
The International Space Station, by the way, while we're looking at space age suit, only has a few more years in existence. After 2020, it will be plugged into the ocean. That's the word from the Russian space agency. Russia and its partner say they think they'll be forced to sink the ISS after its life cycle or it will become dangerous space junk.
OK. Visit the Caribbean? Come back fatter. It's no secret that vacations and great food go hand in hand. But we're stacking up the most fattening destinations, something to think about the next time you pack your bags, you might want to pack some stretchy pants with you. But, first, speaking of that, it's a special special day today.
Today is National Milk Chocolate Day. So, go ahead and indulge, not too much. Don't go, get it confused with Chocolate Milk Day, by the way. It's Milk Chocolate Day. Chocolate Milk Day is later in the year.
Oh, that's good.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-one minutes after the hour.
Here are three things you have to have on your radar today:
A big showdown expected in the House as House Speaker John Boehner revisits his revised debt plan gets put to a vote.
We're also tracking a tropical storm Don churning in the Gulf of Mexico. This morning, it is in place -- tropical storm watch is in place for much of the Texas coast. If it just gets a lot of rain, that will be good news. If it's anything more, it could be a problem.
And in San Francisco, another hearing today involving a proposed ban on male circumcisions. Yesterday, a judge tentatively ruled as a violation of California state law. But, today, she will hear more arguments before making a final ruling.
Let's go around the world right now. Zain Verjee is live in London.
Zain, I know you've been following these violent, violent downpours -- rain in South Korea that's triggering mudslides. It's killed dozens of people and this has been going on for a few days.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thirty-five people have been killed because of those landslides and downpours, Ali. It is considered the worst downpour in about a century in South Korea.
Just take a look at some of these pictures here. You have something like two inches, that's about 50 millimeters of rain in some places an hour. There are different neighborhoods in and around Seoul that have also been evacuated. About 100,000 people lost power. Now, power to their homes has been restored. Traffic was absolutely terrible.
But as you can see from these images, it is really an awful tragedy for people who have to live through this kind of rain -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. So, now, we have a total of 44 people dead in the South Korea flooding. You're watching it closely.
I'm still eating chocolate, by the way, because it's National Day of Milk Chocolate here. But I heard the story --
VERJEE: It's not even breakfast time.
VELSHI: I know. It's kind of crazy.
VERJEE: What's going on?
VELSHI: And it's certainly not as good as the British chocolate you have over there. But where am I going to gain the most pounds when I travel?
VERJEE: Well, watch out, holidaymakers. If you are traveling to the United States, you may be packing in a few pounds there as we watch Ali munching his milk chocolate there at 5:00 in the morning. This one survey is saying that because in the U.S., you have huge portions, all you can eat and people are constantly snacking, you're just going to pack in more pounds, about 8 pounds for a two-week holiday.
You can see, this is what they're calling the holiday fat map, Ali, the holiday fat map. The U.S. at the top. You've got the Caribbean, France, Italy, Greece, Britain -- where I am here -- also on that map.
So, I mean, you know, you're packing in the pounds there. Holidaymakers, Ali, are saying, you know, they blame alcohol a lot. They blame the fact in the U.S., you can get a lot of free refills as well.
But I know you work out in between eating chocolate and snacking.
VELSHI: How do you think I get this body? You think I just wake up like this? You can't get a round, soft
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: You can't get a round, soft, doughy body with no effort.
VERJEE: Take another bite of that chocolate, Ali, all right?
VELSHI: Absolutely I will.
VERJEE: Just go to the gym later.
VELSHI: Zain, we'll catch up with you later.
VERJEE: OK.
VELSHI: Zain Verjee in London.
What an excellent excuse to eat chocolate in the 5:00 hour.
A big arrest, by the way, in the hacking world. Police in Scotland say one of the spokesman for the notorious computer hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec is in custody. The groups are suspected of launching hacking attacks against high profile targets like the Bank of America and the U.S. Senate.
And we're also learning Anonymous is urging people to close their PayPal accounts. The group has targeted PayPal since it stopped handling donations for the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
And now, the top consumer complaints of 2010. You complained, Consumer Federation of America compiled.
Home improvement and construction tied with retail sales for the number three on the list. Complaints were about lousy or unfinished work, false advertising, defective products and so on. Number two, credit and debt. Things like credit card billing fees, mortgage frau, debt relief services, predatory lending, aggressive debt collectors.
Number one -- this actually surprised me -- autos, false advertising, lemons and shoddy repairs.
Before we go, today's "Businessman Special," another round of applause, the sports car is scoring number one for the seventh year in a row with drivers. I'll tell you which one it is. More details after the break.
It's 25 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Good morning. It's Thursday, July 28th. This is your A.M: WAKE-UP CALL.
I'm Ali Velshi, joining you live this morning from New York. It's 29 minutes after the hour.
Big day today in the debt ceiling fight. The House votes on Speaker Boehner's revised plan. Democrats don't like it. Some Republicans despise it for different reasons. And if it survives the House, it could die an ugly death in the Senate. It certainly isn't getting signed by President Obama.
But it is crunch time, folks. The deadline is Tuesday.
Listen to what David Gergen said about Wall Street sending Washington a message. This is from a discussion with Anderson Cooper and Gloria Borger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's complicated. I don't know whether they can meld it or not. I'm still optimistic -- I'm still hopeful that we'll get something.
I think the stock market going down 200 points today, while bad news for 401(k) owners, I think it really did send a powerful message to the Congress. You're really playing with fire here now.
The markets are -- you know, you thought Monday the markets were complacent. They're no longer complacent.
They're sending you a strong signal, buddy. Get your act together or you're going to have real trouble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. He's now even declared his candidacy, but a new Gallup poll shows Texas Governor Rick Perry close to the top of the list in the battle for the GOP nomination. Here's how it breaks down when you add Perry into the mix. Romney has 23 percent, Perry has 18 percent, Bachmann has 13, and Ron Paul has 10. It's the second straight national poll placing Rick Perry, as I say, undeclared candidate, near the top of the list.
A bitter of anger and frustration at a town hall meeting for those who got sick after 9/11. The justice department is holding a series of town hall meetings including one scheduled today in New Jersey to help explain how the new victims' compensation fund will work. Some victims are upset because the fund doesn't cover cancer.
That controversial decision was announced Tuesday when the World Trade Center health program concluded that, at this time, there's not enough scientific evidence to establish a link. More studies are planned for the future.
The woman who says the former head of the International Monetary Fund sexually assaulted her will make her first public appearance today when she plans to thank supporters at a church in Brooklyn. Nafi Diallo met with prosecutors for seven hours yesterday. She claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn attacked her in May. He's pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have questioned Diall's credibility, but the hotel maid insists she is telling the truth.
All right. For money news this morning, let's go to Carter Evans, live at the NASDAQ market site here in New York. Good morning, Carter. How are markets shaping up for today?
CARTER EVANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, futures are actually slightly higher, Ali, but as you know, anything can change. We've got a lot of things going on today. Yesterday, the S&P, Standard & Poor's cut the long-term debt rating for Greece again. That points to a potential default. We've got a lot of reports coming out today. We've got the weekly unemployment claims.
Now, last week we saw 418,000. Analysts are expecting it to fall slightly this week. We've got a report on pending home sales. That's coming up this morning. Analysts are expecting a three percent drop in June after an eight percent rise in May. And tomorrow is a big day because we get a first look at our second quarter GDP. First quarter, 2.8 percent growth. We need to be above three percent, Ali, as you know. I think economists would be happy to see 2.5 percent growth in --
VELSHI: I don't know who that helps in the political argument, Carter, because if job growth is slow or economic growth is slow, you got to have conservatives say cut taxes. You're going to have liberals saying more stimulus. So, I don't know where it gets us, but there's a lot of economic reports coming out --
EVANS: And think about this, if you're a company, are you going to hire anyone right now with all this uncertainty? Probably not. You're going to hold off for a couple of months until things settle down.
VELSHI: Right. Right. And what kind of reports are we going to be leaning on today?
EVANS: OK. So, we're also getting a lot of earnings today. We're going to hear from ExxonMobil. That's the big one. We're going to hear from Starbucks, Sprint, Nextel after the close, Metlife and Volkswagen. We'll also hear from Time Warner Cable today. And also, you know, I wanted to detail out some information that we're getting about foreclosures, Ali, because some of these numbers, it looks like the foreclosure situation is getting a lot better.
There's a new information coming in from realty track that shows that foreclosures in the U.S. in metro areas declined in more than 84 percent of U.S. metro areas during the first half of the year. Realty track basically says the national foreclosure rate fell 29 percent over the past 12 months. But, this, as you know, Ali, is not a big turnaround.
VELSHI: Right.
EVANS: What it is is a huge backlog of foreclosures, following that robo signing scandal of last year. There is a glut of already foreclosed properties on the market. And the biggest decline in the number of foreclosures --
(CROSSTALK)
EVANS: Yes. The biggest decline in the number of foreclosures actually comes in states where a judge has to review all the paperwork before it's signed off on.
VELSHI: All right. We will look into that through the course of the day and see how that influences markets. Hey, Carter, how do you get to work? You take car? You drive a sports car? You take the bus? What do you do?
EVANS: Yes, I take a car into work.
VELSHI: Right.
EVANS: You know, I considered in the summer riding my bike, but after my little accident a couple of months ago, that's not going to be happening.
VELSHI: All right, Carter, you stick around. You might want to listen to this. It's back to today's businessman's special. It's the Porsche. According to J.D. Power & Associates, for the seventh year in a row, Porsche remains the brand drivers find most appealing. The average cost in Porsche these days between $60,000 and $135,000. Very interesting.
All right. Now, for a morning punchline. Stephen Colbert hijacked CNN, sort of.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's been some resolution to this case, hasn't there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been some resolution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait, did he have fangs? Jimmy, stop the footage. Blow that up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. He's not a difference maker. He's a vampire.
Don, ask him about being a vampire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taxi! Go!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is happening now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Sanjay, thank you very much. Make sure you stay safe out there. We're going to have much more on the flooding coming up on
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE COLBERT REPORT: Excuse me, excuse me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephen Colbert, what are you doing here? COLBERT: Don, I have a question to ask you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephen, I am in middle of a broadcast.
COLBERT: Yes. Who isn't? Hold on, Sanjay. Don, did you or did you not interview a man who had foreclosed on a bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I did.
COLBERT: OK. Did you not notice that he was a vampire?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: All right. Remember that questionable call a couple of nights ago that ended in the 19-inning Braves/Pirates game. Well, the call wasn't the end of the story. We'll fill you in on the other side.
Before we take a break, let's take a look at the word of the day. It's a phrase, really. It's called the 14th Amendment. We'll be even more specific. We're talking about Section 4 of the 14th Amendment. Find out why you need to know what it is right after this short break. It is 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back and happy Thursday. The word of the day, kind of three words, the 14th Amendment, Section 4 says, quote, "The validity of the public debt of the United States authorizes by law including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned," end quote.
Why do you care? There are some scholars who say those 33 words give the president of the United States power to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional, clearing the way for the White House to pay the bills without a deal. President Obama's team has rejected resorting to that option.
All right. Now, for our "Political Ticker," let's bring in our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser, on the phone from D.C. Hey, Paul. Good morning. Listen to this. Debt ceiling crisis, there's a big showdown in the House today. I want to play a clip from Senator John McCain reading from a "Wall Street Journal" editorial. Listen to this with me, Paul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R) ARIZONA: The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn in masse against Barack Obama. Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all the blame, then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea party hobbits could return to middle Earth, having defeated Mordor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Paul, what do you think of that?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR (on the phone): Hey, Ali. The John McCain bold (ph), I guess. The old maverick. Listen, you don't hear a lot of Republicans taking on the tea party, but that's what John McCain was doing. He was also railing against these Republicans are saying basically if there's no balanced budget amendment, forget it, we're not doing anything on the debt ceiling. Listen, John McCain is not up for re-election for five years. So, I guess, it's fair game to take on the tea party, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. We'll see where that goes today. A lot of sniping between Republicans as opposed to between Republicans and Democrats. There's a rally for progressives on the hill today. What's that about?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. Yesterday, we saw the tea party types out there rallying for cut, cap, and balance. Today, it's the progressives out there with some progressive senators and members of Congress rallying to make sure there's no cuts what so ever to Social Security, to Medicare, Medicaid, the entitlements, and that's what the far left wants. We saw the far right yesterday.
And Ali, you were talking about that crucial vote today in the House for John Boehner's plan. The big question is, does he have the votes? So, I tell you, I've learned this, some tea party groups are calling congressmen Republicans to make sure they vote against Boehner's plan. This is going to be a crucial vote today. Keep your eyes on this one in the House. If the Boehner plan doesn't pass, the tea party is going to be the reason why, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Paul, good to talk to you this. We'll talk to you later on. Paul Steinhauser in Washington.
Here are three things to have on your radar today.
New jobless claims will be released at 8:30 eastern this morning. Experts predict the jobless numbers will be up by at least another 6,000. That's a number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time.
In the Gulf of Mexico, we're tracking tropical storm, Don. If it continues on its projected path, the storm could approach the northwestern part of Texas by tomorrow.
In San Francisco, another hearing today involving a proposed ban on male circumcisions. Yesterday, a judge preliminarily ruled that the proposal is a violation of California State law, but today, she'll hear more arguments, and then, she'll make a final ruling. Around this time yesterday, we showed you the finale of the 19- inning game between the Braves and the Pirates and that controversial call that ended the game. Let's watch it again. Watch the guy coming into first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alvarez coming home and it --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground ball to third, runner takes off.
VELSHI (voice-over): The tag, a very obvious tag to most of us. Well, he's safe apparently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground ball.
VELSHI: Something almost unheard of happened on Wednesday. The umpire said he made a mistake. Not only that, major league baseball released a statement saying in part, quote, "Unfortunately, it appears that the call was missed as Jerry Meals acknowledged after the game. I have spoken with Jerry who's a hard-working respected umpire, and no one feels worse than him."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI (on-camera): That's Joe Torre at MLB.
All right. Before we go on, this day in history, in 1914, Austria, Hungary declared war on Serbia, marking the beginning of the First World War. It's 43 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Good morning. It's Thursday, July 28th. This is your A.M. WAKEUP CALL. I'm Ali Velshi joining you live from New York this morning. From morning that only me (ph) gets my name right. It's 45 minutes after the hour.
Let's go around the world with Zain Vergee. She's live in London. Zain, I want you to talk about something that's going on here in the United States. Representative Peter King of New York says al Shabaab, which is an al Qaeda affiliate has recruited dozens of Americans and Canadians in the United States. Tell us about this.
VERJEE: Yes, Ali. He's calling it alarming. There's basically a committee on Homeland Security that's looking at threats that al Shabaab, the militant group linked to al Qaeda, may pose against the U.S. Listen to how he puts it when he talks about the number of recruits, both Muslim-Americans and Canadians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETER KING, (R) NEW YORK: We must face the reality that al Shabaab is a growing threat to our homeland. Our investigation into this threat has led to some alarming findings, notably that al Shabaab has successfully recruited and radicalized more than 40 Muslim- Americans and 20 Canadians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: They're going to be spending time looking into the details of that, exactly how it happens, how often it happens, and how exactly they're transported from the U.S. and Canada to Somalia to go and fight what they call jihad there, Ali. Al Shabaab, basically, is looking to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and impose strict Sharia law -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Zain, you're looking at me. This is how I look. I got a little bit of powder on me. There's no air brushing. This is the real me. I kind of expect that, you know, ads of people better looking than me might be air brushed, but Britain is pulling a make-up ad with Julia Roberts because of excessive air brushing. What is this about?
VERJEE: Well, Ali, you don't need any anti-aging cream. You don't have a wrinkle problem here, but, you know, the issue at stake here is that there are pictures of Julia Roberts in a L'Oreal magazine ad as well as the supermodel, Christy Turlington, and the officials here are saying it's too air brushed. The way they put it is that it is not representative of the results the product could achieve.
One is the miracle foundation product and one is an anti-aging cream. Now, L'Oreal is saying that these pictures are fine and that they do achieve the kind of results that they say, but, you know, this is something you can go either way, because these ad campaigns want to sell their products. They put these beautiful women up and hope to sell it, but here in the UK, they've cracked down on photo shop basically and says that it's misleading to the client. Ali, you always look great.
VELSHI: Well, thank you, Zain, as do you. And you know what, I think Julia Roberts looks great just the way she is. Zain Verjee in London.
All right. Admit it, you're going to miss all these debt stories when they're done. There's a big one today, by the way. The House votes on the new and improved Boehner plan. Boehner says it's not perfect, but it's doable. Democrats and conservative Republicans think it's perfect for the shredder or the trash can. Even if the bill passes the house, it has a snow ball's chance in the senate, and the president says he won't sign it. CNNs congressional correspondent, Kate Bolduan, looks ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If it does pass in the House, it has the potential of hitting a huge road block as soon as it gets to the Senate. At the same time that House Speaker John Boehner's office was putting out this release, there's good news about this revised plan and the cost estimate.
Senate Democrats released a letter at almost the same time with 53 signatures on it saying they don't support the plan in the Senate, and, really, essentially making clear that it cannot pass. So, well, all eyes are still on the House to see what happens with John Boehner's plan in the House. It has some serious problems in the Senate if it gets there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: That's an understatement. Representative David Wu, by the way, of Oregon says he's resigning after the whole debt ceiling issue is resolved. He's a seven-term Democrat accuse of making unwanted sexual advances toward the daughter of a campaign donor. According to the National Taxpayers Union, Wu could be eligible for more than a million dollars in benefits over the rest of his life. Not too shabby for a little more than 12 years of works. This is him in a tiger suit, and that million bucks should keep him in tiger costumes for a while.
Thank goodness, Alex Trebek is OK, otherwise, all the jeopardy jokes would be in poor taste. The jokes like, this 71-year-old Canadian did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Trebek explained why he showed up to an event in San Francisco on crutches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": Yesterday morning, chasing a burglar down the hall at my San Francisco hotel until my Achilles tendon ruptured, and I fell in an ignominious heap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: I'll take ignominious heaps for 200, Alex. Trebek says he'll have surgery tomorrow.
Police arrested and charged a 56-year-old woman with stealing a stuff.
And it's been a rough night in Northwest Illinois. Heavy rains have been pounding the area. Some places got up to 10 inches of rain. There's more rain in the forecast. Flash flood warnings are in effect. The weather in Chicago could get nasty again, too. It's been a rough week there. They got some very heavy rains the other day. Let's go to Rob Marciano. He's live in Atlanta, and he's tracking, in addition to that, the storm right behind you, Rob, tropical storm, Don. What's the latest?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're hoping to get some of the rain from Don into Texas if we can get as much as Chicago had. Folks in the Lone Star State will certainly be happy. We'll see about that. Right now, slow to organize is tropical storm, Don. It's about -- it' got 40 mile-an-hour winds, and it's about 600 miles from the Texas coastline, heading in that direction. Once it gets into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it should strengthen some.
There are a lot of uncertainty as to how strong it gets and as we go through the next couple of days. So, that's going to be the issue here. Here's the forecast track. Some confidence with this, though. It's going to hit the Texas coastline likely tomorrow night some time as either a tropical storm or a minimal hurricane. And, this will be actually good news if it stays in shape and brings a decent amount of rainfall to at least southern parts of Texas.
The entire Lone Star State is under extreme if not exceptional drought. Severe storms expected across the northern tier again, including Chicago, and that's where we're going to find not only flooding problems across Illinois but travel problems as well if you are traveling through midway O'Hare, I think you'll see major delays throughout the day today. Detroit, Tampa, and Orlando, Miami as well and San Francisco, you might run into some problems.
Some new research today, talking about folks who live in the northern latitudes, and that the facts that their brains are found to be a little bit larger, Ali, by about 20 percent, eye balls bigger as well which helps you see better in more limited light. Now, they won't say -- they can't tell if people are smarter at northern latitudes, but the brains are physically bigger. The eye balls are physically larger as well. And, that research -- those skulls are on display somewhere in Oxford.
VELSHI: I'm Canadian. Does that count for me, too?
MARCIANO: Well, I don't think your ancestors are from Canada as are mine are from America. So, mine are from -- my ancestors are from Southern Europe and Italy.
VELSHI: Right. Right.
MARCIANO: And that would mean I've got this squinty eye balls and a smaller brain.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: But you got a great head of hair on top of that brain.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: Thanks.
VELSHI: I'll catch you alter. Rob Marciano.
All right. As we've been tell you, Speaker John Boehner's revised debt plan is up for a House vote today, but comedians have done some brainstorming, and they've come up with their own ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON: The White House said it's working on a plan "B." Unfortunately, the "B" stands for bake sale.
(LAUGHTER)
FALLON: Plan "C" is car wash.
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, CONAN: Things are so bad, folks, America may have to move in with Canada for a while.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Can we do that? Just bring our stuff. Let's go over there at 4:00 in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: We got kicked out.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: We didn't pay our bills.
JAY LENO, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO: The Kardashian sisters, you know, Kim and Khloe, they made $65 million last year. You know, I never thought I'd say this, but maybe they should be running the country. They're making money.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, when you hear your name called, do me a favor, come up here on stage, and tell bus your debt reduction plan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. Before we go, it's time to "Get Smart." How many times has the debt ceiling been raised in the lasts 50 years? A. 65, B. 74, and C. 90? We'll have the answer right after the break. It is 54 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Hey, it's 57 minutes after the hour. How many times has the debt ceiling been raised in the United States in the last 50 years? The answer is 74 times. Three times under this president, too. George Lopez talks about debt. Here's your punchline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE LOPEZ, HOST, LOPEZ TONIGHT: Fourteen trillion. It's almost like if you went to a restaurant, and they brought you the bill, hey, man, what the hell?
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: How did this get to much? Well, there was a war.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: And yes, you were looking for weapons of mass destruction and then someone else ordered another war.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: Oh, that's right. Yes, you're right. All right.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: And then, there's an 18 percent gratuity. That's where they get you. Barack Obama, I mean, they talk all this smack about him, and he has to say, well, I disagree.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: Well, you know what he really wants to say, mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) what?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: For money morning news this morning, let's go to Carter Evans live here in New York at the NASDAQ market site. Good morning. Carter, what are you looking at? How are markets looking?
EVANS: You know, Ali, first, it's almost comical this whole situation. I mean, it really is. Everybody seems to get it, but the lawmakers in Washington right now.
VELSHI: Yes.
EVANS: Investors definitely sent a message yesterday with the Dow dropping 200 points. You know, that's more like what a lot of people thought we'd be seeing. And, our futures today are actually pointing slightly higher. So, we'll see where today leads. But, what do you do if there is a credit downgrade to the U.S., though? That's the big question today.
And, a lot of analysts are saying, hey, look at some of the big companies in this country. ExxonMobil and Microsoft have AAA bond ratings, and they can preserve a better credit rating than their home country, and that's kind of sad, Ali.
VELSHI: Yes. And there are some questions as to how that sort of holds up. Hey, listen, in honor of you and Dunkin' Donuts, yesterday, after work, I walked around the corner, went to Dunkin', got an egg white and turkey flat bread, and apparently, I helped the company.
EVANS: I bet shareholders are going to be really happy that you're buying and other people are buying. I mean, shares of DNKN just exploded out of the gate. They opened at 19 bucks apiece yesterday. They closed at 27.85, almost 47 percent higher. But here's the thing, Ali, a lot of analysts were looking at this company's books ahead of time, and saying, is it really worth the 19 bucks a share. So, it could be overvalue there, and that's what a lot of people are thinking this morning.
VELSHI: It went up 40 percent, went up to 27 --
EVANS: Eighty-five. VELSHI: $85?
EVANS: No, $27.85.
VELSHI: Oh, 27.85. OK. I was going to say wow. That would have been -- if somebody asked me, should I buy Dunkin' Donuts shares? What do I know (ph) about these things? All right. Carter, good to see you as always. Never really know what to make of these IPO, but good talking to you. We'll see you again tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m.
That's it for us. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.
