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Back-to-School Address Sparks Controversy; Tea Party Express Stops in Texas

Aired September 04, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it hasn't been the easiest summer for President Obama, and fall's getting off to a pretty rocky start. He wants to welcome the nation's schoolkids back from summer vacation with a televised speech on the timeless virtues of hard work, education and achievement.

Now, the White House says it's an entirely nonpartisan message. However, critics of the messenger, they're not buying it. Want an example? Here you go. Steve Russell is a Republican state senator from Oklahoma, and he says, and I quote, "As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education -- it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

The speech is set for Tuesday, noon Eastern. And it certainly won't be the first time a president has spoken to students.

CNN's Ed Henry joins me now from Washington to push this story forward while looking back a decade or two. First, Ed, you know, what's the White House saying about this controversy? Do they feel that maybe they were a little too transparent with something?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Robert Gibbs, his spokesman, today told reporters basically he's pretty frustrated with this. He called it the silly season, the fact that the president of the United States can't speak out and say "stay in school." I mean, what's less controversial than that, you would think, on its face.

I do think, though, the White House is acknowledging that they probably slipped up a little bit by having the Education Department put out this sort of a lesson plan to go along with the president's speech next Tuesday that would encourage students, have the teachers talk to students about writing essays and things about how they could help the president, what they admire about the president.

That's what led to some of those comments about cult of personality and is this some way to sort of whip up support for the president. But I think on the face of it, they've now pulled that back and said, look, we're not going to have that lesson plan. So, they've acknowledged that was a mistake and they've said, look, we're going to put the speech online on Monday for everyone to look at. If parents thing it's controversial in some way, they don't have to send their kids to school. But they're very confident, the White House right now, that when cooler heads prevail, they'll see that the speech is pretty non-controversial. KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: But why all this controversy? I mean, you were there for Bush 41. He gave the same type of speech. Reagan did as well. It didn't get heated like this, right?

HENRY: It certainly didn't. And I think part of it is, you're right, George H. W. Bush, in 1991, spoke to a school here in D.C. It was beamed out across the country as well, and he was basically saying, you know, don't do drugs, stay in school.

Again, pretty non-controversial stuff, you would think. I think it was just a much different atmosphere 18 years ago.

Let's face it, you didn't really have blogs, you didn't have as many cable networks out there as you do now. And I think people just sort of take something and tend to blow it out of proportion in this environment right now.

And I think the White House is getting frustrated that this is playing out a little bit like the health care debate in a way. If you think about it, it starts out as a simple proposition. Maybe they have slipped up in the message in some ways, but in their estimation, there's been a lot of disinformation out there about health care.

And if you look at this debate, some disinformation as well out there about the president wanting to just talk to students. I mean, what is he going to do? Even if he were to get fourth graders to come on board for his health care reform effort, what is that really going to do? What kind of impact is that going to have?

PHILLIPS: Yes, they can't vote.

HENRY: They can't vote, they're not going to be lobbying their congressmen. I mean, on the face of it, it seems like it got a little exaggerated.

PHILLIPS: Ed, thanks.

HENRY: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, nobody's forcing schools to tune in, and quite a few won't be, actually. Districts in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the president's address. Others will show it, but make viewing optional.

That's the plan in the Fort Zumwalt school district in suburban St. Louis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BERNARD DUBRAY, SUPT., FORT ZUMWALT SCHOOL DISTRICT: It's a unique opportunity to hear from the president of the United States speaking directly to students. But I also think that not everyone elected him to be president, and a lot of people were not happy with that, that decision made by the country. And consequently, there's two sides to every story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, as we heard from Ed Henry, the pushback centers on classroom activity. The White House suggested to go along with the president's speech and promptly revised. And last night, the head of the Florida Republican Party went head to head with CNN political analyst Roland Martin. And I want you to hear just a bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM GREER, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA: When the White House put these lesson plans out and they asked students to write a letter and say how they can help President Obama, well, President Obama has, for the last nine months, been very vocal and aggressive on his vision for the future of America.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: OK. John...

GREER: And his vision may not be the vision that I want my children to hear, and that's why parents have raised their voices nationwide.

And John, that's why the White House has scrambled and changed the lesson plans, and now are telling parents what he's going to say on Tuesday.

MARTIN: And John, here's why Jim's argument is an absolute fraud. Most school board members across this country are elected. So, here's what I want to know. I want to know, does Jim plan to protest every time a school board member, a state rep, a city councilman, a governor, a congressman goes to visit any school in the state of Florida? Because if you want to suggest that parents should opt out of pulling their kids out when any politicians speaks, all those people are elected.

So, are you going to say right now that you are going to protest any elected official that goes to your school in your state or anywhere in the country?

GREER: Well, I can tell you, Roland, if there's a lesson plan attached...

MARTIN: Oh, no, no, no, no. See, now you're switching. Now you're dancing.

GREER: Now, that's where the problem lies, is the lesson plans that were attached to his speech is what started this controversy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: OK. Now an update.

Jim Greer, the Florida GOP chair you just saw right there, was a guest today on Ed Henry's radio show. He said if he sees the text of the president's remarks and they really are nonpartisan, not political, he won't object to the speech being shown in schools, not even to his own kids. Now, let's bring that quote back once again from Steve Russell, the Republican state senator from Oklahoma.

What he said about this, "As far as I'm concerned, this is not civics education -- it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Strong words coming from him. He's going to be a guest, actually, with Rick Sanchez, coming up at 3:30 Eastern Time. So, you can tune in to that. You can bet that will be interesting.

As you can imagine, the tweets keep pouring in. Here's another one from Juanhijo.

He says, "It is appropriate. It's the president of the United States. This coarse partisanship is a very bad example for our kids."

And this one coming from Purthel, writing, "Where are we when the president can't talk to schoolchildren? Who is fool enough to think that he would be indoctrinating?"

Then Wolf2001 says, "Where was the outrage when Reagan gave a speech to kids that included talking to them about lowering taxes? Yeah, what BS."

And then Trobin2723 says, "Stop the drama and let the kids hear their president. This should be an exciting learning events for kids -- a civics lesson."

Sherrily on Facebook says that "The problem is that the suggested lesson plan. Perhaps that went a bit overboard. Sure, President Obama should speak, just like Presidents George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, but did previous presidents dictate a lesson plan?"

Thanks for your comments and keep them coming. We're going to read more later this hour.

Unemployment is now at the highest rate since President Reagan's first term back in June of 1983. The Labor Department says that the jobless rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent last month. The government says that the number of unemployed Americans grew to 14.9 million, the combined population of the three biggest U.S. cities. Job losses apply to all ethnic groups, though Hispanic and African-American workers, they fared slightly worse.

And as the jobless rate climbs, a growing number of Americans turn to the government for help, but millions of Americans will soon be left without a safety net because their unemployment check will stop coming.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

PHILLIPS: America's worsening unemployment isn't a loss on the Obama administration, but it says that the new jobless figures could have been far worse. Today, Vice President Biden credited the economic stimulus plan for sparing more Americans from the unemployment rules

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because the Recovery Act is working. And you're going to see it work right on that site.

We're making progress with substantially less job loss than we saw a few months ago. The numbers reported today show 216,000 people lost their jobs last month. Much too high, but roughly two-thirds of the job loss we saw on a monthly basis when we took office, and the lowest that it's been in a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the vice president's critique comes on the 201st day of the Obama administration.

A deadly day for civilians in Afghanistan. Dozens of people die as NATO attacks what it thought was a group of Taliban militants. We're going to tell you what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The so-called Tea Party Express has rolled into Texas. The group is trying to rally Americans against higher taxes, government bailouts, and what they see as out-of-control spending.

CNN all platform journalist Jim Spellman joins us now on the road from Dallas to Little Rock -- Jim.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALIST: Hey, Kyra. How you doing?

Some spirited crowds turning out for a lot of these events. Today, in Dallas, was probably about the biggest one since they kicked off in Sacramento.

And each stop, you know, they pick up new issues. They're concerned about the Van Jones comments, their big issue right now, and President Obama's plan with the schools next week is a hot topic. And each stop, they get a little more robust and a little bit edgier, also. A little more anger creeping in at each stop -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. Now, Jim, did you have a chance, by chance, or an opportunity to talk to anybody about this speech the president's going to be giving to schools? Because apparently, in areas where you have been traveling through, and in Texas, there are districts that are not going to want to take this speech.

SPELLMAN: Oh, yes. And I spoke to several mothers that are here today who turned out just because of that issue. They said they wouldn't have come, that was their sort of tipping point to come out to a Tea Party event.

And they're telling me that they're just raising heck with the principals at these schools and they're trying to get the principals to take it and review it, then send it home with parents and give them the option of watching it at home or not. But it's really a huge issue out here with people that are coming to the Tea Parties.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it with you.

Thanks, Jim.

Dueling bus tours, if you will. Over the last two weeks, Organizing for America has also been on the road to promote President Obama's health care reform plans. The group is an arm of the Democratic National Committee.

And Afghanistan. NATO is investigating dozens of civilian deaths after an airstrike aimed at the Taliban. NATO and provincial leaders say that at least 90 people were killed when NATO forces fired on a pair of hijacked fuel trucks. It happened in the Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan.

They say that civilians and militants were among those killed. The trucks carrying fuel for NATO forces were hijacked late yesterday, then spotted hours later along a river bank. NATO believed that that there was no civilians near the trucks at the time of the airstrike, but the information turned out to be wrong.

Ten security contractors gone wild in Afghanistan are now out of a job. Eight were fired, two resigned after these racy pictures had surfaced.

Remember the photos -- barely clothed, naked security guards, the ones who protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, by the way? Well, now the inspector general is looking into it. And the embassy says the senior management at the security company is being replaced immediately.

Now for our "Hero of the Week." It's been 10 years since the small southeast Asian island Timor erupted in a violent fight for independence. In its wake, more than a quarter of a million people were displaced, and many of them children. One commercial pilot was so moved by the disturbing images that he saw on CNN, he changed his entire life to help them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Heroes."

BUDI SOEHARDI, CNN HERO: There was riots, buildings being burned. People just trying to save their lives.

The children were supposed to have proper upbringing, and what they were having there was far from being normal. This is devastating to me and my family. That's why we committed to go and to help.

My name is Budi Soehardi. I'm a pilot for Singapore Airlines. I founded an orphanage to help the children in West Timor.

When we started, we only had four children. And we found out that even more needed help badly. So, we decided to build our own orphanage building.

Right from the beginning, we give them vaccination, clothing, food. But we cannot give them anything more valuable than a proper education.

(singing): A, B, C, D, E, F, G...

CHILDREN (singing): A, B, C, D, E, F, G...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) when my parents died, I couldn't go to school. For me, Budi is an angel. And I'm now in medical school.

SOEHARDI: Very, very good, right?

We are able to provide and to teach them, just be who you are, help others, and do it from your heart.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, to find out more about Budi's work and learn about other 2009 heroes, you can go to CNN.com/Heroes right now. And be sure to keep an eye out. In just a few weeks, we're going to be announcing the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2009.

Well, firefighters in southern California are making a lot of progress in their battle against a big blaze near Los Angeles. Now a new development. The hunt is on for the arsonist who started that fire, and we'll have the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Police in northern Nevada are looking through old unsolved cases to see if there might be a link to Phillip Garrido's method of operation. He's the suspect accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard, who surfaced last week after 18 years in captivity. Dugard is now reconnecting with her family.

And just minutes ago, a former American soldier was sentenced to life in prison in Kentucky for raping and killing an Iraqi teenager. Steven Green was also convicted of shooting three of the girl's family members to death.

Investigators in Oklahoma plan to examine a knife found near a church where a pastor was killed. That knife was found near a car wash across from the church. The Reverend Carol Daniels' nude body was found behind the altar, and a preliminary autopsy report shows that she died of "multiple sharp force injuries."

Well, we all get a little steamed when the weather guy gets it wrong, but one college professor could go to jail for six months because of her crusade against a Los Angeles weatherman. Melanie Patton Renfrew violated a restraining order by sending letters and e- mails to KNBC's Fritz Coleman. Well, the judge is letting it slide for now, but the Harbor College professor says Coleman frustrates people by using confusing terminology. So, what exactly is she so upset about? Well, she hates the terms "onshore and offshore winds," claiming that most people have no clue what that means.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the big wildfire near Los Angeles is now a criminal case, and investigators are looking for the arsonist who started it. So, how do they prove their case?

CNN's Rob Marciano gives us a closer look at how arson investigations work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RON HALL, FIRE ANALYST: I think every fire is different.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after a fire swept across Auburn, California, wiping out 63 homes, investigators still don't know how it started.

HALL: You start from the area where the fire is furthest away and work your way back, following the various burn patterns, to the area where we determine to be the area of origin.

MARCIANO: Fire analyst Ron Hall and his team of investigators are trying to figure it out.

HALL: It's a fire, and it has its own earmarks and it has its own character, and you work with it.

MARCIANO: They comb the torched landscape for clues, measuring...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far you got?

MARCIANO: ... mapping. They are looking for the source.

HALL: We identify each and every potential ignition source.

MARCIANO: Nothing goes unnoticed.

HALL: You'll see the burn on this side. And we also look at ground litter. What I mean by that is debris that's laying on the ground.

Now, this looks like what remains of a plastic gas cap. Now, we just created the ultimate crime.

MARCIANO: Oops.

HALL: Fires can burn fingerprints off, yes. As you look at needles or leaves in this case, on this vegetation, you can see how they are all curled in this direction?

MARCIANO (on camera): So, now, what goes through your mind as you begin to zero in on what you presume to be ground zero?

HALL: Well, as you start to move into the area of origin, you've been all along the way looking at something inconsistent, fire moving in different direction or maybe multiple points of origin. In this area, we only have one area of origin, and that's in this corner.

MARCIANO (voice-over): It may have started in this corner, but they still don't know why.

HALL: It's all a challenge. It's trying to figure out the truth, what really did happen.

MARCIANO: Rob Marciano, CNN, Auburn, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Want to take some live pictures now from our affiliate out of Los Angeles, KABC.

What you're watching now is a number of firefighters honoring their fallen comrades in California. It's a memorial procession that's being held right now in Los Angeles for the two firefighters who died while fighting that massive wildfire just north of the city.

Los Angeles County fire captain Ted Hall and Arnoldo Quinones died on Sunday when their truck plunged down a hillside. There is a formal memorial planned for Saturday at Dodger Stadium. But just imagine all these firefighters grieving the loss of two of their men and still having to do a job and focus on extinguishing that blaze that, as you know, continues to rage throughout the Los Angeles area.

Ted Hall and also Arnoldo Quinones, they were actually trying to protect about 60 people, I was reading, as those flames advanced near Mount Gleason, and that's when their truck took that bad dive and they lost their lives.

We're paying tribute to them this hour.

A possible breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. Southern California scientists may be taking great strides toward a vaccine, and that could mean hope for millions of people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, there is new hope in one of modern medicine's biggest challenges. A pair of powerful new antibodies could help pave the way to an AIDS vaccine. Scientists at the Scripps (ph) Research Institute say the special proteins can keep HIV from multiplying in the body.

Helene Gayle is a longtime AIDS advocate, the president and CEO of Care USA. And the White House just said it intends to name her chair of the presidential council on HIV/AIDS. You have been on the forefront of this research. I have been following your work for years, even before you came to CARE. A big reason why you came to CARE -- are you -- you're probably not surprised that this was discovered in an African patient.

HELENE GAYLE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CARE USA: Well, I think it's wonderful that in fact it was, because the last time we discovered antibodies that was promising, they were done on specimens that came from people from America and Europe. But we know that most of the epidemic is now occurring in developing countries. In Africa, in Asia. So, being able to define this from donors who reflect the epidemic more broadly gives us broader hope for what we can do with the global economic.

PHILLIPS: Let's try and put in this layman terms now for folks who may be struggling with this and what this means to them. What did the researchers find? What did they do, what did they find, and what's so remarkable about what they did?

GAYLE: Well, what they found were what we all neutralizing antibodies. It's the response that our body makes to a virus like HIV. But with HIV, because it mutates so much and develops so many different versions of HIV, you need an antibody response that's pretty broad, that can actually protect against the broad range of HIV virus strains and versions.

So, this actually showed a response that's promising because it could actually protect broadly against the different virus strains or versions. By detecting this antibody, you can do backwards engineering to develop the right targets that will elicit the same sort of response in other people who are -- who get exposed to HIV.

PHILLIPS: So these antibodies could stop the multiplying of these...

GAYLE: Exactly. Right.

PHILLIPS: That's what's been so hard to...

GAYLE: It defines something that shows protection and helps to show how you can keep that infection from taking hold once you're exposed to it.

PHILLIPS: Okay, now, obviously the scientists are saying this could be so remarkable, because it could lead to a vaccine. However, I was reading that there was two large trials of experimental vaccines that failed. Why did they fail, and what's the difference between this new discovery?

GAYLE: What's so exciting about this is it presents new targets. It shows a different part of the virus, of HIV that is more easy to -- much easier to reach.

So, it's a new target, an easier to reach target, that will make it potentially much easier to find a way to develop the kinds of materials that react to the HIV vaccine -- to the HIV virus and give you the same kind of antibodies. So, what a vaccine does it to mimic what happens naturally. It mimics -- it illicits the same sort of antibody response. And this new target is one that will be easier to reach and is much more durable, more stable, and looks like it will have a more protective effect.

So, there's a lot of encouraging news about this new antibody response. Broadly reacting, comes from a population where it reflects the global economic more broadly, and also looks like it will show what's an easier target to develop a vaccine for.

PHILLIPS: OK. So, of course, the obvious question. How soon could we develop a vaccine? Is that a long way off?

GAYLE: Still a lot of work to go. I mean, this is -- but what's so exciting about this is it gives us a new science, a new target to look for, and so it's very, very promising. Because we have been looking for years for this kind of target that really can produce broad reactions, broad antibody, this broad neutralizing effect. So, while -- this still means many, many more years of work, it's a wonderful breakthrough...

PHILLIPS: It's a home run?

GAYLE: It's a wonderful breakthrough, yes.

PHILLIPS: And bottom line, when you go to advise the president on HIV/AIDS, you're going to say, Mr. President, this is good news.

GAYLE: This is good news. We've got to keep on focusing on research all the while while we continue to focus on our prevention and our treatment. Can't leave those behind either, but this research is really exciting and once we provide a vaccine, that's going to provide a lot more hope for really beginning to end this epidemic.

PHILLIPS: And just to drive the point home as we wrap up, Dr. Gayle was on vacation and came in to talk about this because it's such an amazing thing.

GAYLE: Well, it's so exciting. It's a great breakthrough. We still have a ways to go, but every time we find something that gives us new hope, it's very encouraging.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Dr. Gayle. Appreciate it a lot.

GAYLE: OK.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, the first line of defense against swine flu in daycares could be a thermometer. Listen to this. The government is actually urging 360,000 child care providers now to keep a watch out for kids who have the flu. The main symptom to check, of course, we told you about this, is a fever.

So, health officials say that kids should get vaccinated against the regular flu and the swine flu, and the same goes for anyone who works around kids. The guidelines also call for parents to keep sick kids home.

Keeping tabs on swine flu? Well, there's an app for that now. It's called Outbreaks Near Me. And you can download it on iTunes for free. That application was developed by MIT and Boston's Children's Hospital. It builds on earlier swine flu mapping technology, allows users to track and report outbreaks in real time from pretty much anywhere.

It's proactive, preventative and it's personal. A national network of doctors approaching treatment in a new way. Photojournalist John Boddner (ph) follows a patient into the MDVIP Program. Time to put "Health Care in Focus."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before Dr. Shepp (ph), I went to a large practice. the waiting was usually half an hour plus.

Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I have an appointment with Dr. Shepp.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Mr. Jones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, we'll get you all checked in. If you want to have a seat, someone will be right with you.

DR. SHEPP (ph), MDVIP PROGRAM: My practice had really just gotten out of control. I didn't have time to sit still with one patient and give him my full, undivided attention. There were too many distractions, phone calls, paperwork that needed to be taken care of. The day was very busy, at the end of the day on the way home, I would be constantly be worried that there was something maybe I didn't do or that I forgot to care of that would come back to haunt me or hurt a patient.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Tom. Good morning.

SHEPP: Good to see you again, too. Come on have a seat down here so we can talk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like he's more of a coach than doctor as such. He's very much preventative medicine, and wants me to stay in shape and not see him.

SHEPP: When I heard about the MDVIP practice style, it addressed those concerns. It's pretty straightforward concept. Primary care physician like myself, by cutting down drastically on the number of patients and with the added time that's available, we do an old- fashioned prevention-oriented physical on every person, every year. I'm addressing risk factors, lifestyle issues, as well as any health conditions or diseases that may be present.

If they can afford to do it, good. It's very helpful and very (INAUDBILE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go, Mr. Jones. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome, have a good day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take care.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: If you wants to know more about how health care reform impacts you and your family, check out the special Health Care in America section on CNN.com. You can get the latest from the town hall debates, fact checks, iReports, and other health care news. Just go to CNN.com/healthcare.

High school football players are often the big guys on campus, but Kaleb Eulls is more than that. We're going to tell you how he stopped a potential slaughter on his school bus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hijacked fuel trucks in Afghanistan and NATO air strikes. Huge explosions, more than 90 people dead. NATO says it was aiming at Tabliban hijackers and is investigating reports that civilians were killed as well. A spokeswoman says if something happened, we want to apologize.

The White House has a new open-book policy as it relates to visitor logs. The president says it's to make his administration more transparent. The move reverses a Bush administration order withholding such information from the public.

Close, and yet so far away. Astronauts aboard the international space station this morning had a close call with a flying piece of space debris. But everything in space is relative, right? NASA says the closest the junk got to the astronauts was 4,200 feet, roughly the length of 14 football fields.

A football star makes the biggest tackle of his life. Not on the gridiron but on a school bus. I want you to take a look at this surveillance video from three days ago out of Mississippi. That's a girl allegedly loading up a semiautomatic gun that she was threatening to use. Yazoo County High's senior quarterback, Kaleb Eulls was also on that bus, waking from a nap and springing into action, wrestling the weapon away from the gun-toting teen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KALEB EULLS, DISARMED GIRL ON SCHOOL BUS: As I tried to catch her attention, you know, just get everybody safely off the bus. And I just tried to get her to focus directly on me, just point the gun at me, so I would know that she's not pointing it at anyone else besides me. And in a split second, I guess she looked off the bus or flinched or blinked, and I just knew that was my only chance and I just went at her.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: An even bigger man on campus today. The suspect not identified because of her age faces numerous charges, including kidnapping and aggravated assault.

Cash for Clunkers may be history as far as buyers are concerned, but for dealer who sold cars on the promise of government rebates, it won't be over until the checks come in. The government says it's sent out more than 120,000 checks so far, worth about $500 million. And the rest should be in dealers hands by the end of the month. In all, Washington received 690,114 rebate submissions worth $2.9 billion.

Those Cash for Clunkers cars got scratched, they're going to be everything from handbags to high-rises. Stephanie Elam has our "Energy Fix" now from New York. Hey, Stephanie. They're getting pretty creative with what they're going to do with all the scrap.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're taking the scrap, Kyra, and turning it into something snazzy, in many cases. In fact, you may soon be able to drink a glass of wine out of a glass made from a clunker. That's how cool they're getting.

When a car gets junked, about 85 percent of its parts get recycled. Glass, metal, plastic and even fluids like motor oil. In fact, take a look at these these wine glasses from uncommongoods.com. The online retailer sells these along with beer glasses and punch bowls. They are made in Columbia from recycled windshield glass and yes, you're seeing correctly. They do have a slight green tint.

The company tells us that these glasses are a top seller. The Web site also features purses and belts made from recycled tires created by a Boulder, Colorado artist. You can see those here. They are all black. But, Kyra, here's the thing. You know, I know you're fashionable, sometimes you've got your white pants. You don't want to worry about them leaving skid marks. You wouldn't have to worry about that in this case.

PHILLIPS: Oh, that's good to know. Thank you so much. I kind of like the windshields turned into wine glasses. I'm kind of digging that idea.

ELAM: I think that's nifty, too. Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, what happens to the car parts that might still work?

ELAM: Well, those get stripped from the vehicle for reuse in other cars. That definitely happens. That usually the engine, but not in the case for the clunkers. As part of the program, the engine had to be destroyed by pouring in a solution of so-called "liquid glass," but it still gets recycled. The Automotive Recyclers Association tells us that the destroyed engine gets shredded into bits and is melted down for new steel, so those engines could find new life as cans, refrigerators, even structural beams in buildings.

Pretty much the only thing that can't be recycled is the stuff used in car seats. The material's just too complex to break down easily and in countries like Japan, they don't even allow it in landfills anymore. So, for more on what happens to clunkers after they're junked, well, you know, you can check out CNNmoney.com, Kyra, to get more on it. But overall, it's a pretty nifty thing that happens here with the clunkers.

PHILLIPS: Yes, sure is. Very resourceful. Thanks, Steph.

ELAM: Yes. Sure.

PHILLIPS: You know that milk mustache campaign from the dairy industry? Well, we're going to show you one dude they don't want to see down on the farm. You ain't going to believe this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Reality TV takes an unreal twist with a role reversal. Take a look at this and brace yourself. Draw your own conclusion.

Yes, that's a man who hopes to soon be able to lactate. Why? Well, he says if men could breast feed, they would be closer to their children. The 26-year-old began stimulating his breast with the hopes of one day producing milk. The Swedish TV outfit is taping Mr. Milk Mustache and his exploits for a documentary. And boy, we can't wait to see that.

Rick Sanchez gives a whole new meaning to your man boobs.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: I did that.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh, you did?

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes, let me show how you do it. This is how we do it in the south around Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: OK. Show me.

SANCHEZ: You get duct tape and then two cans of Carnation Instant, the evaporated milk, and then you tie it to yourself, and you put a little nozzle on it. It works great.

PHILLIPS: I don't know why, but I'm really uncomfortable right now. Just the thought of you, let alone...

SANCHEZ: That's like the joke about the guy who says, "Hey, did you hear that men can now breast feed?" And the guy says, "I read it." And he says, "Yes, I wrote it down and then I read it." In other words -- what are we talking about?

PHILLIPS: Why don't you go ahead and talk about the president's education speech?

SANCHEZ: This is a serious story, and I think a lot of people in this country are kind of, you know, torn about this one. The president of the United States has chosen -- and he wants to talk to the nation's children. And he wants to do it in the public schools. It's not too dissimilar from things that other presidents have done in the past. It's not too dissimilar from the president's council on physical fitness and those presidential awards, Kyra, that you always strove to get by doing those 10 pull-ups, etc.

But some people are saying that this is not that. That what this president is doing is trying to indoctrinate, that he's trying to do something more akin to socialism, to Saddam Hussein, to Fidel Castro. And the man who actually makes that comparison is going to be on my show. And he and I are going to have a conversation about this. He's going to defend his point of view, if he can. It will be fun, it will be at 3:00. Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I look forward to it. Thank you so much. Stay away from Carnation Milk, please.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: All right, we promised you earlier more of your comments on the president's plans to speak to school children next Tuesday. Here's another Twitter coming to us. "The GOP making mountains out of mole hills. They're crazy. The president is talking responsibility, which isn't socialism, now is it?" And this one says, "President Obama to give speech to nation's schools about education, people who shout socialist doctrine need an education themselves."

And this one says "Presidents have always done this. It's unbelievable the extent GOP go to get an advantage. Parents who are up in arms are clueless."

And this one writes, "I remember in the Reagan era an outreach to nonvoting age youth. It's a positive thing that is being spun by partisan nitpickers."

And this tweet says, "I'm a Dem, so I can't have a teacher who is a Republican teaching my child? God knows what they will brainwash my kid with."

And this tweet says, "Not my kid he won't be speaking to. Skip day."

And finally, this from Facebook: "No doubt Obama is going to brainwash kids into thinking that staying in school, getting an education, and to work hard to achieve their dreams is the only way to go."

Blueprint for Afghanistan. The war steps up, the troops step up, we step in to the new strategy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Fifty extra days in Afghanistan away from home. The Army is extending the tours of duty for hundreds of soldiers in the eighty-second Airborne and the Third Combat Aviation Brigade. The extended deployments could range from two weeks to two months. The longer stays are meant to give troops at home a full year away from the war zone.

It was supposed to be a big step forward in prying power back from the Taliban in Afghanistan. But how much progress has been made since the presidential election there? Foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty has a look at the bumpy road toward democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be a milestone in winning Afghanistan back from the Taliban. Presidential elections, free and fair.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an important step forward in the Afghan people's efforts to take control of their future, even as violent extremists are trying to stand in their way.

DOUGHERTY: But could President Barack Obama's words come back to haunt him? Allegations of massive vote fraud on behalf of the current president, Hamid Karzai, are tarnishing that image of democracy and the candidate himself.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.S. ENVOY TO PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN: We have no candidates and no preference as to whether there is a first- round victory or a runoff.

DOUGHERTY: Sources tell CNN that ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Obama's top envoy on Afghanistan, had a very difficult discussion with Karzai over the elections. The Obama administration is encouraging Karzai to legitimize the elections by allowing a runoff. Without it, they fear he could be politically damaged in the eyes of his fellow Afghans. Weakened public trust in the Afghan government could increase violence and undermine the military mission to defeat the Taliban.

Meanwhile, causualities are mounting. And Americans, especially Democrats and the independents, are losing faith in the Afghan war. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows 57 percent of all Americans now oppose it. Significantly higher than in April when 46 percent did. Can the president convince them it's worth it?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, FORMER NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: The point is that you can't win it just inside Afghanistan. You've got to deal with Pakistan and you've got to deal with the enemy based there and with al Qaeda. And I think it's up to the administration to define the task in such a way that the American people can understand it.

DOUGHERTY: One expert who helped monitor the Afghan election says time is running out.

KARIN VON HIPPEL, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think the U.S. is interested in the next 18 months in turning this thing around. If it doesn't happen, I think Congress may pull the plug and I think that Karzai is very aware of that. So, that sense of urgency is being translated on the ground. DOUGHERTY (on camera): A key issue in Afghanistan and in the United States is confidence, and right now those elections are undermining that confidence in both countries.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll see you back here on Monday. Rick Sanchez is in New York.