Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
FBI Warns of Possible al Qaeda Plot; Obama's Economic Team; Dismal Economic Reports
Aired November 26, 2008 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And hello again, everyone. And welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris. And here are the headlines from CNN for this Wednesday November 26th.
President-elect Barack Obama names a former Federal Reserve chairman to a new economic recovery board. Paul Volcker will give advice on the deepening financial crisis.
Iraqi lawmakers delay a critical vote. A deal to withdraw American troops by the end of 2011 will wait for another day.
And this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack, what are you doing? When you said hope and change, we thought were you talking about the country, not about your wardrobe!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Comedians and the new president. Are they ready to let loose? You'll find out in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Holiday terror? The FBI warning of a possible al Qaeda plot to attack New York's subways and rails over the busy holiday season.
Live now to CNN's justice correspondent, Kelli Arena. She is in Washington.
And Kelli, if you would, fill us in on what you're learning.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Sure thing, Tony.
Well, the New York City Police Department says it is aware of the threat, and it has deployed additional resources to deal with it. Here is what we know.
An internal law enforcement bulletin from the FBI says they received what it calls a plausible but unsubstantiated report indicating that al Qaeda terrorists, back in September, may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. The bulletin goes on to say that the discussions reportedly involve the use of suicide bombers or explosives that would be placed on subway or passenger rail systems.
Now, it's important to underscore that the FBI says in the bulletin it has no specific details to confirm that the plot developed beyond what it calls aspirational planning, but here's a bit more, Tony.
HARRIS: OK.
ARENA: Sources tell me that the FBI got the information from an intelligence channel that it has used before, from which it has gotten reliable information from in the past. So it is taking this threat pretty seriously, just making sure that its law enforcement partners are on the ball, know everything that they know, and can do what they have to do to make sure that nothing bad happens.
HARRIS: And Kelli, keep us posted.
ARENA: Sure will.
HARRIS: Our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena for us in Washington.
President-elect Barack Obama says help is on the way for the troubled economy, and Obama himself is getting help from some experts. Today he announced the formation of a new advisory board.
Live now to Chicago and Ed Henry.
Ed, how about this? Some tough questions from you to the president-elect. You asked for specifics on spending and cuts. As for the answers, well, you tried.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's our job, Tony, as you know, and he didn't want to get into specifics, he ducked some of those questions. But he did engage a bit, I think, on the question of the people who are surrounding him in this nascent administration and whether many of them are old, experienced Washington hands, or whether they really are change agents, which he ran on.
You mentioned this new economic recovery board. It's going to be chaired, as you saw, by Paul Volcker. He's somebody who was Fed chairman back in the Carter and Reagan days. Obviously a very long time ago.
Also assisted by Austan Goolsbee, a longtime economic adviser to the president-elect. He pointed out to me, the president-elect did, that Austan Goolsbee has never been an Washington insider, which is correct. He's been an outsider.
When you look around this, you know, incoming administration, not just Paul Volcker, but Larry Summers, who we saw rolled out as a chief White House economic adviser, you see Tom Daschle is going to be the health secretary, now we hear Robert Gates is going to stay on as defense secretary. I pressed the president-elect on whether or not these are really change agents, and he gave an interesting answer. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I suspect that you would be troubled and the American people would be troubled if I selected a treasury secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of the most critical economic times in our history who had no experience in government whatsoever. What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking, but understand where the vision for change comes from first and foremost. It comes from me. That's my job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Very interesting words there. "The vision of change comes from me." I suspect you can see he's wrestling with this very issue, he's hearing the criticism that's out there from some people on the left in his own party who say they voted for change and are now seeing a lot of Washington insiders come into this new administration.
It's a balancing act, frankly, for the president-elect. During that campaign he talked a lot about John McCain's experience may be one thing, but it's more about judgment. Now, all of a sudden, you heard in that answer, the president-elect realizing as he comes to office facing all these monumental problem, that maybe some experience can help him. So it's a balancing act for him as he grapples with this financial crisis, which we see deepening right now -- Tony.
HARRIS: Good Q&A with the president-elect there.
Ed Henry for us in Chicago.
Ed, appreciate it. Thank you.
HENRY: Thanks, Tony.
HARRIS: Let's take a look at the New York Stock Exchange now and the Big Board.
Boy, as you can see, we're in positive territory. I believe, as I look at this number, we are up 33 points now. That we are off session highs for the day.
We will get a market check in just a couple of moments right here for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And a parade. A parade of dismal economic reports made for a bit of a rocky start to the day on Wall Street.
Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff joining me now in New York.
And Allan, I hear you've actually found a little good news out there.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Tony, I don't think you can take any more bad news from me. I don't want to depress you, I don't want to depress our viewers. So let's start with some of the positive.
And the positive is that mortgage rates are falling rapidly as a result of the federal government saying yesterday that the Federal Reserve will inject $600 billion into the mortgage market, buying mortgages and mortgage securities in order to free up cash for banks to make new loans. As a result, we're seeing mortgage rates, 30-year mortgage rates, down 5.75 percent. That is a full percentage lower than they were just a month ago. That according to HSH Associates.
As you can see, the housing market can use the help. October new homes sales, down 40 percent from a year ago. This is the lowest of sales in 17 years.
We all know why people aren't buying new homes, of course.
HARRIS: Yes.
CHERNOFF: The jobs picture, very dim right now. We have the latest number of jobless claims for the most recent week, 529,000. Yes, it's a little better than the prior week, but nonetheless, anything over 500,000, even over 400,000, that is not good news.
With the job picture so tight, people are not spending as much. Personal consumption took a hit during October, and we also saw big hit to durable goods orders. Those include autos, aircraft, computers as well. People and companies not looking to make major purchases right now -- Tony.
HARRIS: And, you know, Allan, but we have to take the bitter with the sweet here. Some reports out this morning on new home sales, you mentioned the jobless claims. I think you maybe just covered everything there, didn't you? Did you just cover everything?
CHERNOFF: Yes, Tony. That's the agenda today.
HARRIS: OK.
CHERNOFF: So the picture is that, clearly, the economy is in very bad shape. It is going to be getting worse, as the president- elect has said, but hopefully we're putting in place here some measures such as yesterday's move with regard to mortgages that could set the stage for recovering next year. Let's hope it happens.
HARRIS: Yes. Fingers crossed on that one.
Allan Chernoff for us in New York.
Allan, appreciate it. Thank you.
And in Baghdad today, Iraqi lawmakers delayed a vote on a plan for American troops to leave the country. That vote was expected today, but political bargaining over reforms drags on there. The agreement calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities in June and the entire country by 2011. If parliament approves the measure, it may still be put to the Iraqi people for a vote. Tension and frustration escalating at an airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Thousands of protesters vow to continue their siege until the country's prime minister resigns. The protesters have shut down Bangkok's main airport, leaving tourists stranded. Thailand's army chief is pleading with the protesters to leave and urging the government to hold new elections.
Protesters say elections aren't good enough. They accuse the current government of being puppets of a former prime minister who was convicted of corruption.
Millions of you taking to the roads, rails and airways today. Find out whether the weather will cooperate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The president's mother, Barbara Bush, is resting at a Texas hospital today after what's described as minor surgery.
CNN's Sean Callebs joins me live from Houston.
Sean, I want to qualify that minor surgery bit there just a moment. We heard from our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta a short time ago that the former first lady underwent what might be considered by many a pretty significant procedure Tuesday night.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly I think it's safe to say that the situation is more serious than the family spokeswoman led us to believe earlier today. First let me explain exactly what happened.
Barbara Bush was suffering from abdominal pain. She apparently had been suffering from it for several days. She called her husband, the former president, around 6:30 Eastern Time last night. A Secret Service detail then brought her here to the hospital.
Some tests were done. At that point, physicians decided that she needed to have laparoscopic surgery done.
I had a chance to speak with the physician, and the way that it was explained to me, typically the patient lays on his or her stomach. Then air is pumped into the abdominal area.
Doctors then go in, much like arthroscopic surgery to a knee or a joint or something, through the belly button and begin looking to see if there's any kind of a problem. And since the air's there in the abdominal area, they can look at the organs much more clearly.
At that point, if a problem was found, like was found on Barbara Bush, a perforated ulcer about a centimeter in size, then typically another incision is made and they go in and try and close that area, which is what they did to the former first lady, who is 83 years old, I should also point out. The big concern, obviously, if you have a hole in your stomach, any kind of acid from your stomach could basically leak out into other areas in that abdominal area and cause a very serious problem. And that's what you're talking about, when Dr. Gupta talking about this could be considered a somewhat serious measure.
We do know that she is now said to be resting safely. She is resting well. She is with members of her family right now. The hospital came out and said they're not going to make anymore statements today, and they don't expect the Bush family to say anything either.
It does differ from what we heard earlier, that she had some tests that were negative and she could be released as early as today. We now know that she's going to be here in Methodist Hospital until sometime next week. So she's not going to be home with her family for Thanksgiving.
HARRIS: Wow.
CALLEBS: So certainly the entire nation hoping that she's resting well and heals quickly and gets back on her feet as soon as possible.
HARRIS: Sean, appreciate it. Thanks for the clarification on all of that information. Thank you.
Sean Callebs for us from Houston.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: All right. Let's get an update on holiday travel at one of the nation's busiest airports.
Reporter Regina Waldroup of CLTV joins us live from Chicago's O'Hare International.
Regina, good to see you again.
Hey, Regina, you know, I'm told the O'Hare Story this holiday is as much an economic story as it is a travel story. Explain that to us -- for us.
REGINA WALDROUP, REPORTER, CLTV: Well, Tony, because of the slumping economy, you know, a lot of folks are not able to fly home to see grandma for Thanksgiving. But I'll tell you what, the folks who are able to fly, well, they're taking advantage of an early Christmas gift, especially if they procrastinated in getting their tickets. They are getting nice, cheap holiday fares.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALDROUP (voice-over): Thanksgiving eve at the nation's second busiest airport. And scores of travelers are on their way out of town for the holiday.
CARLEY MANNING, TRAVELER: I live in Chicago and I'm headed to Phoenix for a big Thanksgiving vacation.
COLLEEN IVEY, TRAVELER: We thought we were going to have to drive like 9.5 hours. WALDROUP: Colleen Ivey and her girls are headed to Kansas City, a trip they didn't think they could afford months ago.
IVEY: We winded up getting deals under $200 a ticket at the last minute.
WALDROUP: But with the economy struggling and airline seats going empty, carriers are cutting fares. Prices for flights from Chicago to other U.S. cities have come down 25 percent in the past six weeks.
FRANK ANDONAPLAS, TRAVELER: I'm definitely noticing a huge drop in prices now.
WALDROUP: Frank Andonaplas is headed to Vegas for an annual Thanksgiving getaway. He bought his ticket early but now wishes he had waited for a bargain.
ANDONAPLAS: The prices two, three months ago were just ridiculous.
WALDROUP: For the first time in six years, AAA says there will be a decline in Americans taking to the roads, rails and air to celebrate Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, officials at O'Hare say they are ramped up and ready for the holiday rush.
KAREN PRIDE, DEPARTMENT OF AVIATION: The weather's cooperating so far. We don't have any precipitation in the forecast. And so I think passengers are going to find that their flights are going to be pretty much on time and have a smooth sailing getting through security checkpoints.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALDROUP: And Tony, let's hope it stays that way.
Another bright spot for travelers who are passing through O'Hare airport, well, last week a new runway opened, the first in 40 years. Also a new control tower. That means smooth sailing for the passengers who come through this airport -- Tony.
HARRIS: All right, Regina. Appreciate it. Thank you. Smooth sailing, we like the sound of that.
And still to come in the NEWSROOM for you, an Arab-American detained for three months with no charges. Is the U.S. breaking the law? We talk to his brother next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Stuck behind bars with no charges. Sound unconstitutional to you? Well, it does to an Arab-American who has spent three months imprisoned inside the United Arab Emirates.
His name is Naji Hamdan (ph). What's he doing in jail? He says he has no idea, but the ACLU thinks the U.S. government knows, and it has filed a lawsuit to find out.
Joining me, the brother of the detainee, Salim Hamdan, and the attorney who filed suit on his behalf with the ACLU, Ahilan Arulanantham.
Thank you both for being here.
And Sam, let me start with you. Have you spoken with your brother at all? And if so, when was the last time had you an opportunity to speak with him?
HOSSAM HAMDAN, BROTHER OF DETAINEE: Not at all. I never spoke to him after they detained him.
Naji (ph) has been detained more than 83 days with no charges at all. And the U.S. Embassy claimed that they visited him, and they say that they don't know what he's being detained for. He's been more than 83 days, and we don't hear anything about him.
And the official from the U.S. Embassy said that that's strange, that we don't know anything about him. And that's very strange to me that the United States, very allied with the United Arab Emirates, the UAE, and they can't get information about him.
HARRIS: OK. Sam, let me jump in and see if I can sort of drill down on this a little bit.
Obviously, the government believes your brother has some ties to some terrorist group, and the government, I'm presuming, hasn't been satisfied with the answers it has received. Can you tell me why not? And what level of cooperation has your brother provided with the authorities?
HAMDAN: He's always been cooperating with the authorities. The very last time when he came to Los Angeles to visit, to check on his business, the FBI were after him on the cars wherever he goes. And he came to my shop and told me, "Do you see why they are following me?"
I told him, "What's going on?" And he just, "Go to federal building and talk to them, and see what's going on." And he called them and they never returned the call.
So he left back home, and a few months later he got arrested in Lebanon, and they tortured him and they detained him four days, interrogating him, and they released him. And the FBI came and visited me in Los Angeles here and asking me, "What do you think about your brother's opinion? Is he like -- what does he think about politics and stuff?"
HARRIS: OK.
HAMDAN: I told them he's just a normal person. You know? If you know Naji, you would want everyone to be like my brother Naji.
HARRIS: OK. Let me jump in again.
And Ahilan, we will get to you in just a moment.
But Sam, one more question quickly for you. Your brother, it is my understanding, runs an auto parts store where he is shipping containers all over the world. He is a devout Muslim who travels overseas a lot. Now I am not drawing any conclusions from that but I am wondering if in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks do you understand why the federal government would be interested in learning everything it can about your brother's trips and business dealings?
HAMDAN: I am not knowing about that. You have to ask the FBI. But I'm telling you that the FBI, they came to my shop, and keep interrogating me and asking me about my brother, and few days later, they told me they want to meet with him in Abu Dhabi and they flew all the way from Los Angeles to meet with him and few week later he got detained again from the UAE government.
HARRIS: Let me -- let me stop there and let me bring in the ACLU attorney and let me offer up the same question.
Ahilan, can you understand why the FBI, why the federal authorities, might be interested in the comings and goings and the business relationships, particularly overseas here?
AHILAN ARULANANTHAM, ATTORNEY, FILED LAWSUIT AGAINST U.S. GOVT.: Sure. But I think the critical point here to understand is Naji Hamdan has repeatedly talked to the FBI. FBI agents flew from Los Angeles to the Emirates, and interviewed him for a whole day there. In addition when he was leaving near 2006, when he was first moving to the UAW, they stopped him at the airport and questioned him for hours then. So there is question he's been completely forthright in talking to the FBI. The question in this case whether they can ask another government to still detain him and interrogate him and keeping him there for months.
HARRIS: Is that the suggestion that the federal government has asked a foreign government, in this case the UAE, to detain an American citizen, to skirt his rights?
ARULANANTHAM: Yes. Sadly, our government has a program of doing this. It hasn't been, not a hugely widespread program, but Amnesty International, the NYU Center for Human Rights have documented we have a program of proxy detention that's only affected U.S. citizens a few times and this is unfortunately one of those. But we have a program where we ask foreign governments to detain people and interrogate them and often they are countries that have records of torture, as the UAE does.
HARRIS: How much time does the government have to respond?
ARULANANTHAM: We're hopeful the court will order the government to respond in about three days, which is what the statute requires, and, of course, there's no reason why they have to wait for the court. We still are waiting to hear from the government as to why it is that they are holding him, if there's something wrong, then he should be charged with it. We're still waiting to see if there are any charges. Still waiting for access to a lawyer so someone were go talk to him and we're hopeful the government will do the right thing.
HARRIS: Thank you both. Sam, Ahilan, thank you both very much. We'll continue to follow the developments in this case.
HAMDAN: Thank you.
HARRIS: The FBI denied our request for an interview but provided this statement. "Being interviewed by the FBI does not mean the person is in U.S. custody. When the FBI conducts these interviews we adhere to the constitution, U.S. law, the attorney general guidelines and FBI policies. The FBI did not ask foreign nations to detain U.S. citizens on our behalf in order to circumvent their rights."
And still to come, impressive statistics about cancer, and how we may be starting to actually win the fight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Cancer rates dropping in the United States for the first time. New findings from the American Cancer Society. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now, and, boy, Elizabeth, some encouraging news here.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Isn't it nice to hear that?
HARRIS: It is great to hear that.
COHEN: The war on cancer has been going on about three decades now and it seems to have actually had an impact. This is the first time we've seen a drop. Let's take a look at some of the cancers where we saw particularly dramatic drops.
We saw a drop in new cases of colon cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer. The drop is overall cancer prevalence went down about one percent per year from 1999 to 2005. Experts say it's pretty simple. Better prevention and better screening. People are finally hearing all the advice.
HARRIS: Yes. Hearing the advice and following up on it, but off the news in this report wasn't good. Talk to us about lung cancer.
COHEN: Yes. There was a cloud when it came to lung cancer. What's happening, Tony, is we're kind of turning into two countries when it comes to lung cancer. In most of the country people have gotten the message to quit smoking, but look at those red states. In those red states, deaths from lung cancer have gone up. In the gray states, stayed pretty much the same.
So those red states, lung cancer is much more of a problem. As you can see most of those are in the Southeast and Midwest.
HARRIS: Trying to count. Looks like 13 states?
COHEN: Thirteen states.
HARRIS: What's going on there?
COHEN: What's going on there is that they haven't put on taxes on tobacco, in the way other states have done and also haven't done bans on public smoking. And in states where they banned public smokes and they have heavily taxed tobacco, guess what? You get lower lung cancer rates. California was the first to do that and they really have the best cancer lung rates in the country, because they did it a long time ago and now they are enjoying the fruits of that.
HARRIS: Well, but we love the good news in this report. It's terrific. All right. Elizabeth, good to see you. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving if I don't see you tomorrow.
COHEN: And you.
HARRIS: Is everybody coming to your house this year for Thanksgiving? Well, cut your costs by having an energy-efficient Turkey Day. What are we talking about here? CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our fix from New York.
I'm curious now. How do you do this?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Are you cooking Tony? Is that why you want to know?
HARRIS: No. I'm traveling.
HARLOW: You're traveling.
HARRIS: I'm traveling and buying. I'm not cooking.
HARLOW: Same story for me, but for everyone cooking here's a possible energy fix. You can have a good Thanksgiving feast and not run up your power bill. Some advice coming from Butterball, the company says keep your oven door shut. The expert we talked to says you don't need to baste your bird. They say that's just like putting water on a raincoat. That will slide right off and since your oven's open anyway, you may as well put all the dishes in at once and turn the oven off sooner.
Also, this was surprising. Fire up your microwave. According to Con Edison, microwaves use about half the power of an oven and you can actually, believe it or not, Tony, cook your turkey, if it's under 12 pounds, right in the microwave. You can't stomach this out of nuking your turkey, at least use that for the side dishes. Tony?
HARRIS: Real, real chefs would never be caught dead nuking their -- are you kidding me here?
HARLOW: I know.
HARRIS: What about keeping our guests warm? After all, it's starting to get chilly in lots of places across the country now.
HARLOW: Exactly right. When what you can do if you're having a bunch of people over, ton down your thermostat. Having them in the house, that is going to heat the room and so will the cooking you'll be doing, that will all be keeping it warmer. This twice before you light a fire even if it's frigid outside. Burning a fire sucks the heat out of your house, because it needs that constant oxygen to burn.
It pulls warm air into the fire, goes right out the chimney. Make your fireplace more energy efficient. Clean the flue and also keep it closed when not in use. Those glass doors, if you have them. Long-term, add an external vent. That way the fire sucks the air in from outside and not from inside your house. Just some tips, some energy fix tips for your thanksgiving.
HARRIS: Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks, Poppy!
All right. Fill up your Thanksgiving plate but don't forget to talk to grandma. StoryCorps National Day of Listening project. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The turkey, the yams, the pecan pie. Thanksgiving is a great time of year to not only fill our bellies but to reconnect with our loved ones. That's the idea behind StoryCorps' National Day of Listening. Ask your aunt, siblings questions, because we all have fascinating stories to tell about our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose story do you want to hear one more time and save for the future? Is there someone you want to learn more about? It could be your grandmother, a son-in-law a mentor. It could be the guy you buy your coffee from in the morning. Just somebody that you're curious about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Joining me, David Isay, founder of StoryCorps with a Thanksgiving challenge for you.
David, great to see you. I told you a moment ago and will say it again, I am an unabashed fan of this program. I love it. I love these stories.
DAVID ISAY, STORYCORPS: Thank you, Tony.
HARRIS: If you would, talk to us about the National Day of Listening. It is this Friday, and what was the impulse for the idea? Something, what, something that you saw, something you heard? Something you read?
ISAY: Well, StoryCorps is an oral history project running the past five years. And the idea for the National Day of Listening is only a couple weeks old, in response to the economic crisis and the really tough times we're in. We're asking you to do, as you said, asking the whole country to take an hour on the day after thanksgiving and honor a loved one by listening to them. The least expensive and most meaningful gift we can give this season. HARRIS: David, how about this. I'd like to participate but I don't have one of these fancy tape recorders. I can't do this. Here's the thing. People don't realize, do they, that they probably have some kind of recording device in their home somewhere.
ISAY: Absolutely. No excuse. All you need an old cassette recorder. You can record off your computer. I hear that iPhones even you can make recordings on. If you don't have a tape recorder get together with friends, go to a local electronics store, get a cheap digital recorder and pass it around. It can be three or four bucks to do the whole thing.
HARRIS: David, how is it we go for years living and loving someone, sharing good times, bad times, with the people, the important people in our lives, and we don't ask the essential questions? So many huge sections of their lives are unknown to us.
ISAY: Well, we live in an environment that's so fast-pace. It's e-mail and Twitter, and you know, once in a while it's important to stop and take some time and look someone in the eyes and ask them those questions. It is an absolutely incredible experience. We've done more than -- we've done about 25,000 StoryCorps interviews so far and have seen with off the pairs of people, that's 50,000 people, that it can be almost a sacred experience in people's lives. You will not regret it if you stop and do this.
HARRIS: How do you ask the question that you really want answers to, and is there something about this program that has freed people to ask, even the most sensitive questions?
ISAY: People want to be listened to, and loved to be asked these questions. We have a Web site on nationaldayoflistening.org where we have the ten questions that have proven to be the best questions to ask and then scores more. But I think people ask very serious questions. Kind of big life, knowledge questions very often. Wisdom question, like what are the most important lessons you've learned in life? How do you want to be remembered? The microphone gives you the license to ask those kind of questions. And the answers you get are absolutely amazing.
HARRIS: David, I love the program.
ISAY: Thank you.
HARRIS: The best with the National Day of Listening, and everyone, I would love to have everyone participate in this. There's a great story from Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay's dad when he arrived, make sure he get to you. It is absolutely unbelievable.
ISAY: I hope you can interview someone over the holiday as well.
HARRIS: Yes. My aunt in South Boston, Virginia.
ISAY: OK. Great, take care. Bye.
HARRIS: And just because it's the busiest travel day of the year doesn't mean it has to be a bad thing, tips for traveling, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Holiday travel made easy. Is it possible? Veronica De La Cruz has been watching the Web this morning and joins us now with a little insight.
Veronica, happy Thanksgiving. Good to see you.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Happy Thanksgiving. Nice to see you. This is kind of sort of possible. Kind of sort of.
HARRIS: You think so? I need it to be really possible.
DE LA CRUZ: I know. OK. I've been watching a couple Web sites today, Tony, tsa.gov. Do you remember, Tony, about year ago TSA launched a pilot program to test out paperless boarding? Do you remember that?
HARRIS: No, I don't.
DE LA CRUZ: You don't? Let me explain. Passengers would be able to check in using nothing but their cell phones and their PDAs. The TSA will swipe your boarding pass right off your device.
HARRIS: I like that.
DE LA CRUZ: The good news, Tony, is the program is finally in effect but only being offered by five different airlines. The good news, is there are some big ones. American, Continental and Delta. But only available at 11 different airports. Some of the busiest, Chicago O'Hare, LAX, New York's La Guardia.
Check out tsa.gov, that's going to give you more information and also check your airline carriers to see whether or not this applies to you. So some people luck out. Others are going to have to wait longer.
HARRIS: There's the rub.
DE LA CRUZ: One more Web site that is going to make your life a little easier, called airporthaven.com. Travelers can post tips on places to go to find peace and quiet. To get a little respite. For example, take a listen to this, Tony. Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, for example. Busy airport, right?
HARRIS: Absolutely.
DE LA CRUZ: You want to find peace and quiet, you want to find an escape. People can post these places on where to go. Jeannette, North Carolina. "Between concourses, at the airport in Atlanta there are rows of rocking chairs in front of huge windows. There's Web access. You can watch the planes take off. It's comfy, clean, quiet, as peaceful a spot you can find in an international airport." So there you go. We've also been checking in on Facebook this morning asking people for their tips. John Gordon Hudson shares, "When I can't get to the President's Club I find an unoccupied gate and I camp out there."
Of course, you can go ahead check out the Facebook group, click on Veronica De la Cruz in the CNN Newsroom, follow me on twitter at veronicadlcruz. And I know you're traveling, right?
HARRIS: No, no, I'm here. I'm hanging out with T.J. Holmes.
DE LA CRUZ: All right.
HARRIS: I'm a little homeless so he's taking me in.
All right, Veronica. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
All right. For years black comedians joked about a black president in the White House. Now, is it OK for them to poke fun at Barack Obama?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID ALAN GRIER, "CHOCOLATE NEWS": Barack, what are you doing? When you said hope and change, we thought were you talking about the country, not about your wardrobe!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Black comedians and presidential punch lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People, get in the back where you belong!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK, presidential punch lines. Comedians are notorious for making fun of the president and crossing racial lines. When it comes to Barack Obama, how far is too far? How about this special appearance here? CNN's Lola Ogunnaike in Washington.
Lola, hey it's great to see you. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
I've got to tell you. It has been a little tough to find a funny so far with Barack Obama, but the comics you sat down with, something tells me they will find it.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They found it all right. Let's check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL MOONEY, COMEDIAN: Obama is a politician. We make fun of politicians. He looks like Malcolm X. He talks like Martin Luther King. Oprah loves him. What more do you want, America?
GRIER: Barack, what are you doing? When you said hope and change, we thought you were talking about the country, not about your wardrobe!
D.L. HUGHLEY, HOST, "D.L. HUGHLEY BREAKS THE NEWS": I think he's funny. It's got to be funny that there are going to be products in the White House they never seen before.
OGUNNAIKE: Like what for example?
HUGHLEY: There has got to be a pressing comb in there. It's got to be that. There's got to be a wave cap. There has got to be at least a tube of Sulfur 8. Got to be something.
OGUNNAIKE: If you had to take a guess, do you think black comedians will be devoting a majority of their sketches or Barack Obama being president? Or, do you think it is something that they will shy away from because it's too tricky?
SALAMISHAH TILLET, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: American political comedy has been very racially segregated. And now comedians, black, white, of color, are going to have to sort of step up their game and now reflect and match the views of the American voting public.
Now you have what we would consider, sort of a buppie president. Black urban professional president. The jokes about barbecues on the lawns are only going to go so far.
OGUNNAIKE: You don't necessarily want to traffic in the stereotypes, though, do you? Do you want to talk about chicken and watermelon in the White House?
MOONEY: It's not about chicken and watermelon. Black people like chicken. If chickens could talk they would say, I hate black people.
You can make jokes about everything. Nobody is safe. If it's funny it's funny.
White people, get in the back where you belong! Obama is president!
OGUNNAIKE: So where do you draw the line when it comes to the Obama jokes? Because some people ...
MOONEY: There is no line. He's the president.
This is America. We can talk about our president. I'm not in some other country where they will put me in a dungeon.
HUGHLEY: Barack and Michelle went on their first date since the election. I've got to say, they must be really in love. Because when I take my wife out to dinner, it ain't a date, it's an apology.
OGUNNAIKE: Can a comedian go too far?
HUGHLEY: Sure a comedian can go too far. You've got to be willing to take the risk. But it's not up to you to define what that line is.
OGUNNAIKE: Do you feel a responsibility as a black comedian to either skewer him or not skewer him, because you all share the ...
MOONEY: I'm a comedian. I'm going to make fun of everybody. I'll be making fun of you when you I here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Wait a minute. Lola -- Paul Mooney, did he make fun of you after the interview?
OGUNNAIKE: He sure did. He let me have it. It's Paul Mooney. I was honored.
HARRIS: And you better put him on tape delay of some kind.
OGUNNAIKE: Exactly.
HARRIS: Lola, good to see you. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
OGUNNAIKE: Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
HARRIS: Great to see you. We don't see you enough in the NEWSROOM. We need to see you more.
OGUNNAIKE: Yes. I'll be there.
HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with this lady.
You're buds with Paul Mooney, aren't you?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: With Paul Mooney? Oh, he's hysterical. Let's say we've bonded, over the years.
HARRIS: You're smart enough to put him on tape delay.
PHILLIPS: Actually he's -- remember, he said, no more, I'm not saying the N-word anymore in my routines. He's gone clean.
HARRIS: Still does anything else.
PHILLIPS: Yes, that's true. He loves to go after the white women. Let me tell you what.
HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues with Kyra Phillips. That is next.
