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CNN Poll: Fed-Up Voters Want Change; Nuclear Power, Jobs & Politics: Obama Seeks Common Ground; Toyota Works to Fix Recalls, Cuts Back Production; Saints Win Fuels Bigger Mardi Gras Celebrations
Aired February 16, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Tony.
I'm Ali Velshi. I'm going to be with you for the next two hours today and every weekday. I'm going to take every important topic we cover and try to break it down for you. I'm try and give you a level of detail that will help you make important decisions about your voting, your spending, your safety, and your security.
Here's what I've got on the rundown today. Going nuclear. President Obama is laying the groundwork for the first new U.S. power plant -- nuclear power plant in three decades. Why now? Why nuclear? We're going to break it down for you.
Toyota is in neutral. The carmaker is idling production at two American plants, but Toyota dealers are in overdrive trying to fix what's broken. We'll pop in on one of them.
And laissez les bon temps rouler! It is cold Tuesday in the Big Easy, but Mardi Gras is still hot. We'll join the party and tell you how things are going in New Orleans.
All right. Throw the bums out. If you didn't know it before, a brand-new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that voters are fed up with their lawmakers and souring on President Obama.
Check this out: a third of registered voters say most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected. That means two-thirds think they shouldn't be. That -- that "yes" number is the lowest so far in a CNN survey which asks this question.
There have been a lot of developments, and they have contributed to the souring of public opinion on this administration and how it's getting things done in Congress.
David Gergen is with me. He's our senior political analyst here at CNN.
David, I want to ask you about this, particularly in light of Evan Bayh yesterday, saying very clearly he's kind of fed up with Congress. He said the work of the people is not getting done. There's really this movement amongst moderates, of which he is one, to say we can't get things done in this political climate.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's absolutely right, but it's interesting, with this new survey, Ali, how much the voters feel that. If you look at that, you know, 34 percent of people say, yes, they would like to see the majority stay. Let's compare that to the past. In 2006 and in 1994, we saw similar numbers, 38 percent, higher than today...
VELSHI: Right.
GERGEN: ... thought the majority of members of Congress should be re-elected. What happened in those two years, 2006 and 1994? In both cases, control of the House of Representatives switched parties.
VELSHI: Right.
GERGEN: The anti-incumbent mood brought a wave of Republicans in, led by Newt Gingrich in 1994, taking over the House of Representatives.
2006, a new wave brought Nancy Pelosi in as speaker of the House, and now we see the potential for a third wave.
VELSHI: Yes.
GERGEN: Have to wait and see. It's still early...
VELSHI: But people have started discussing it.
GERGEN: ... but these are important numbers.
VELSHI: November will be with us before we know it, and people have started to say, don't worry about a supermajority for the Democrats in the Senate. They may lose their majority.
GERGEN: That's exactly right. And the Evan Bayh departure yesterday certainly puts Indiana in play. Charlie Cook, who's sort of the guru of watching all these races, yesterday after Evan Bayh's announcement, he switched from sort of a buy to a sell, in effect. He switched Indiana from lean Democratic to lean Republican. It takes ten seats for the control to past. Nobody thought it was possible a few months ago.
VELSHI: Yes.
GERGEN: For the first time, it's within the realm of imagination.
VELSHI: The average American, at least our new polling confirms our last polling, and that is they are frustrated with both parties.
GERGEN: They are.
VELSHI: Almost in equal number.
GERGEN: And so is Evan Bayh. VELSHI: And so is Evan Bayh. Now what this -- I guess my question is, let's say the Republicans take control of the Senate. The bottom line is, with control of both houses, the Democrats have not effectively been able to pass legislation. Where does this get us? Are we not going to be yet more frustrated a year from now? Something has to change other than just the numbers.
GERGEN: Well, Ali, that's actually a matter of dispute among political scientists.
VELSHI: OK.
GERGEN: The conventional wisdom has usually been that the president needs Congress and his own party. If you get a split, you're not going to get anything done.
There's a political scientist at Yale by the name of David Mayhew who says, who's argued a divided government actually works better. And some Republicans will tell you that the last two years or so -- actually the Republicans took over in 1994, and they -- you know, and they had control of the house and in the Senate, and then the last two years of the Clinton administration were pretty productive years.
VELSHI: Yes.
GERGEN: We got, with Republicans in Congress, we got welfare reform done. And, and look, presidential leadership to be sure, but with Republicans pitching in, we also had our last surpluses.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this, though. Evan Bayh said Congress needs reform.
GERGEN: Right.
VELSHI: I'm wondering: does Congress need reform or do the people in Congress need to do things differently?
GERGEN: Well, the political culture needs to be reformed. I'm not sure that there's any single silver bullet here to reform.
We have a very -- we have a very deteriorated and almost rotting political culture of pretty much a lot of this grows. But when Evan Bayh speaks about the level of partisanship and some people sort of scoffed at him and said it's not true, well, he's actually right.
I had a chance to go back this morning and look at "Congressional Quarterly."
VELSHI: Yes.
GERGEN: They measure these things. They've been taking measurements since 1953 of votes in the Congress and the Senate. And this the past year was the highest level of partisanship in the United States Senate since "CQ" started taking these surveys in 1953.
VELSHI: Wow. GERGEN: So, Evan Bayh has got his finger on something that's really important.
VELSHI: Yes. Yes, he articulated something a lot of people are thinking. As you articulated before, the biggest issue to most Americans right now is the economy, in particular, jobs. So hang tight here. We're going to come back and discuss President Obama's nuclear power proposals as a job generator.
We'll have more with David Gergen. Plus, Stephen Moore of "The Wall Street Journal" joins us on the other side to have this conversation. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), ILLINOIS: It may be shocking, you know, that someone in public office would actually decide to voluntary step down, but I reached the conclusion that if I could help to create jobs by growing a business or help educate our children in a university or college or help a philanthropy or charity, I would be getting more done to help people in their daily lives than Congress is currently doing. And...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who yesterday announced that he won't be running again, saying the work of the people is not being done. He's disappointed in Congress, and he's leaving. This is a guy who's been in politics for a long time. His father was in politics, and he understands that the biggest concern for Americans right now are jobs.
President Obama today announced $8 billion in loan guarantees, backup loans, to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia, about 115 miles east of Atlanta. That -- they would be America's first new nuclear reactors in decades. He says it's a win-win for energy independence and job creation, about 3,500 construction jobs while they are building this thing, 850 permanent jobs.
But even when he announced it, he was talking about partisanship. He said if only we could bridge our partisan divides. Listen to the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Changing the ways we produce and use energy requires us to think anew. It requires us to act anew, and it demands of us a willingness to extend our hand across some of the old divides, to act in good faith and to move beyond the broken politics of the past. That's what we must do. That's what we will do.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: Common refrain now coming from the president. Let's bring David Gergen back in, senior political analyst at CNN, and Stephen Moore, as well, from "The Wall Street Journal." He's a senior economics writer there.
Stephen, the question that we need to ask, the president's talked a lot about jobs. He's had a lot of meetings about jobs. They're talking about a jobs bill. Ultimately, the president knows jobs are the most important thing to Americans right now. How does the government go about creating jocks?
STEPHEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, first of all, Ali, hooray that we're actually going to build a nuclear power plant in this country. You know, we haven't done that in 30 years, and meanwhile, China is building, like, 30 to 40 to 50 new nuclear power plants. So I think this is a good day for energy independence, and it's really made my day that that's going to happen.
On this jobs issue, you know, the federal government is sort of out of ammunition. We've had a huge inflow from the Federal Reserve with trillions of dollars pumped into the economy with low interest rates. As you know, last year we had the $800 billion stimulus bill. I don't think it worked all that well. The unemployment rate is still very high.
And you know, what's really kind of disappointing is if you look at the president's own projections that just came out on Friday in his economic report, they're protecting a 10 percent unemployment rate for 2010, 9 percent for 2011 and...
VELSHI: So what do they do? What should they do?
MOORE: I think they ought to maybe look at some of the things like small-business tax cuts, because, look, the jobs have to come from the small businesses, and there's not been a lot that Washington has done to help the small employers.
VELSHI: David, what do you think? I mean, if you're in Washington, you know what the problem is, and it hasn't -- the fix hasn't worked yet. Is it just too early, or should they be doing something different?
GERGEN: I think they should be doing some things different. But I think one of the things to echo Stephen, I think it was a big step forward for President Obama to come forward with the nuclear power plant. It was breaking from the orthodoxy of the Democratic Party.
This is not a problem between the parties. This is a problem within the Democrat Party, where liberals and environmentalists have had a real neuralgia about building nuclear power plants. And, as Stephen says, it does make us more energy independent. It also, frankly, it reduces carbon emissions, and it does help to create jobs on the front end. So there's a lot to be said for it.
But beyond that, I think what the government now needs to do has to be, on one hand, very targeted in the near term, whether it's infrastructure -- and this was a good infrastructure project -- or whether it's from tax cuts that are quite focused.
I think last year they just threw the kitchen sink at everything, and I think it soured the country on it. This time it has to be quite focused.
But it's equally important for the government to create an environment in which businesses and investors are going to have confidence in the future, and what that means is they cannot postpone action on the deficits this year. They shouldn't -- we shouldn't cut spending this year, but we should take action so that when the recovery is fully in place, spending goes down.
VELSHI: And there's a plan. One of the issues we've got the record deficits, record debt, but it doesn't seem clear when that number of the amount of money we owe is actually going to go down and how.
GERGEN: Just the opposite. One of the reasons Evan Bayh resigned was his sort of disgust, if you would, over the -- over this commission...
VELSHI: Yes.
GERGEN: ... that David Walker and others have been talking about. And if we're going to keep interest rates down, people have to have a sense of confidence...
VELSHI: Right.
GERGEN: ... that we've got these deficits under better control. So I think it's -- this year is the year to act, to put in place things that will happen, get triggered a year or two down the road.
VELSHI: Stephen, would people on your side of the political spectrum come around to being able to support this president if they were able to do something that -- that David just suggested? In other words, come up with a plan to say we can't cut spending this year. We're still working our way out of this, but there is a plan in the long term to bring our deficit down and ultimately to reduce America's debt?
MOORE: Well, I certainly agree with David that we need to bring that deficit down. You know, we saw what happened last week with Greece, where the debt got so out of control, their interest rates just spiked, and the whole economy fell apart. So we don't want that to happen in the United States.
By the way, we've been having problems with some of our recent auctions...
VELSHI: Yes.
MOORE: ... trying to auction off some of the bonds we're trying to issue, so I think we're getting to a bit of a crisis point.
The only thing maybe I disagree a little bit with David about is, you know, the problem I have, David, we always talk about doing these deficit reductions next year or the year after. It's almost like the date to make the cuts never come. I mean, why not do it right now? Let's start with, maybe, an across-the-board spending cut after all the big increases we've had in the last couple of years.
VELSHI: Well, why not, David?
GERGEN: I think that there is a very substantial and reasonable question about what happened back in the Great Depression when Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats in Congress pulled back government supports. And if the government pulls back too fast, if Bernanke pulls back too fast, or if the executive congressional branches pull back too fast, there is a question of whether it would worsen things. I think that's legitimate.
But what I do believe is you can put into place trigger mechanisms on Medicare reforms, on Medicaid reforms, on Social Security reforms, so that these things are in law and they're not just sort of in imagination. It's hard, as you know, for investors to have much confidence in the future of this country's finances when there's nothing and we're just talking. And we're going to continue to talk.
MOORE: You know, there's -- on that very point, you know, there was just a new report about rising life expectancy, which is a great thing, a great triumph of human medicine. But, you know, why don't we start talking now about raising that retirement age for Medicare and Social Security gradually over the next 20, 30 years?
VELSHI: Well, that's -- that's...
MOORE: It would save a lot of money.
VELSHI: That's going to be -- that's going to be a big discussion that we're going to be having on this show very regularly, and we'll call on both of you again to do that. David Gergen, CNN political analyst, and Stephen Moore, senior economics writer at the "Wall Street Journal." Thanks to both of you for joining us on this very, very important topic.
MOORE: Sure.
VELSHI: By the way, we're going to talk a little later in the show about the president's plan to back these loans to build nuclear power plants here in Georgia. We'll give you the details. For those of you who are worried about what that means, we'll tell you all about it: what it means, how it produces energy, how much it will cost and how many jobs will be created as a result.
OK. Switching gears now. Toyota is working overtime to repair all those recalled vehicles, but workers at a couple of U.S. plants will be getting some downtime. We'll have an update next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, the chickens are coming home to roost for Toyota. After a tough month with all these recalls, Toyota's loaded with unsold cars. The company just announced that two U.S. assembly plants will stop down on and off for the next two months, and like their ads always say, dealers are overloaded with the inventory.
So Toyota doesn't want to keep pumping out more cars. Meanwhile, the complaints are stacking up, too. In the wake of Toyota's recalls, NHTSA is investigating a new flood of new reports about unintended acceleration, a dozen or so involving deaths.
Now speaking of those recalls, CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has been getting a first-hand look at Toyota's big fix. Toyota -- Poppy's been on this story for a while, and she went out to this dealership when it first, when the story first developed. Now she's back out there in Bayridge, Brooklyn, sort following what's going on in terms of the fix.
Poppy, what's happening?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I just want to bring you some news that we also just got. We're here at Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, where they're fixing about 1,000 of the recalled cars by the end of today, Ali.
But some news just in from the government. NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has just confirmed that they are going to require Toyota to give them documents to try to gauge the timeliness of these three recalls, Ali. So that's very interesting. They're going to try to gauge whether Toyota came forward with this information soon enough to recall a lot of the vehicles that you see around me here at the dealership.
Let's talk about what this takes. Because I was speaking to a lot of the customers here. Most of them are satisfied with Toyota. Most of them say they'll be loyal to this to this company.
But I just sat down with a man who's really concerned. This is his third time into the dealership. He said, "I just hope the fix is right this time. I have 11 grandkids. They all drive Toyotas or ride in mine. I want to make sure they're safe."
Here's the fix he's getting. I'm reaching into my pocket to show you this. This is a shim. This is all that goes into a lot of these recalled vehicles, into the accelerator pedal. Marvin over here is doing the fix. He's going to show us exactly how he uses this.
Marvin, give us -- give us a sense of how this makes the vehicles safer. What change does this make?
MARVIN MORRIS, TOYOTA MOTOR TECHNICIAN: OK, what we do here is that Toyota's provided us with the selected fit shims, and what these shims do is they slide between the pedal here. And what it does, it reduces the amount of friction that's created internally inside of the pedal during multiple applications while driving, and prevents any type of sticking concern the customer may have had.
Also, there is a number of things that we also do here. There's another recall where what we do is we -- we replace what is known as the tibia pad, OK? And what that does is it increases the clearance between the accelerator pedal and the -- and the floor mat...
HARLOW: OK.
MORRIS: ... to prevent any type of issue of, you know, the pedal actually hitting...
HARLOW: Getting stuck. And then there's the also these shorter pedals. And Ali, I want to show you this. They're replacing some of the pedals that got stuck under the floor mat with shorter ones.
MORRIS: Yes. As, again, to reduce any type of -- or increase the distance between the pedal itself and the floor mat to prevent any type of, you know, sticking concerns.
HARLOW: Well, Marvin, we'll let you get to work. Thank you.
But Ali, as you can see, there's a bunch of different recalls that they're dealing with here. Two of those fixes are for the accelerator pedal, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. And the ones that have -- that have to do with the brake, that's a computer fix. You're on that, as well.
HARLOW: Yes.
VELSHI: Poppy, thanks so much. You've been on this story right from the beginning. We're going to go, but we're going to check in with you a little later on. Poppy Harlow.
If you want more information on this, CNNmoney.com has a lot of information on the Toyota recall and any concerns you have, you can go in and get up-to-date information on what you're supposed to do.
All right. Let's check our headlines right now.
In Washington state rescuers are raging -- they're racing to save a hiker who slid 1,500 feet into the crater of Mount St. Helens volcano. Crews have been battling low visibility, high winds, snow and avalanche danger ever since 52-year-old Joseph Bohlig fell yesterday. So now they are calling for military backup. We will have an update on that search very shortly.
In D.C., a cyber war game is taking place today to test the nation's Internet security. Scenarios could include a large scale failure of the power grid or an attack on the cell-phone grid. We'll keep our eye on it. Our Jeanne Meserve is there, observing what's going on.
And President Obama is drawing up the blueprints for a new generation of nuclear power plants in the United States. He announced over $8 billion in loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. A new nuclear plant has not been built in the U.S. in more than three decades.
All right. Take a live look at this. This is Mardi Gras. This is Fat Tuesday in the Big Easy. We're going to give you more on the celebrations in that city after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. The Mardi Gras parties and parades are rolling in New Orleans today, and they'll keep on rolling until midnight exactly. That's when it ends.
Let's give you a little history on what Mardi Gras is about. Some of it might surprise you.
Mardi Gras is a pre-Lenten festival. In other words it goes on until Lent, which starts tomorrow with Ash Wednesday in Roman Catholic countries and communities, although other faiths, other Christian faiths do follow it.
Its true origins can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, when early Christians with pagan roots feasted and partied at Lent, because during Lent you have to give something up. So you might as well have all the fun before that.
Get this. Mobile, Alabama, claims to have held the first Mardi Gras celebration in the United States in 1703, just a year after the city was founded. The first recorded Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans wasn't actually until 1837. Floats started in 1857, after getting some help from Mobile, Alabama. Sorry, New Orleans.
CNN's fact-check desk says Mobile appears to have a legitimate claim as the first U.S. city to hold an organized Mardi Gras celebration, although all over the world these pre-Lenten celebrations that culminate at midnight tonight are taking place.
Let's head right to New Orleans on this Fat Tuesday, which is what Mardi Gras means. Mike Hos and Lucy Bustamante, laissez les bon temps rouler, folks.
MIKE HOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You've got it correct there, Ali. But let me say one thing about Mardi Gras and history. You can throw it all kind of out the window this year, because I've done 22 of these, and she's done just about as many. This is the first Mardi Gras after the Saints Super Bowl.
LUCY BUSTAMANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
HOS: So, this city has been partying since the NFC championship game, through the Super Bowl, through the Saints' parade. It's just been crazy.
BUSTAMANTE: It's just a whole other energy, guys. A lot of times we would come up here on the balcony in Bourbon Street, compare to it Mardi Gras in the past. And now everyone is comparing it to the crowds after the Saints Super Bowl parade last Tuesday.
Nevertheless, let's show you all the crowds here on Bourbon Street, a lot of costumes that are dealing around the "who dat" theme, a lot of people dressed as fleur-de-lis, the Lombardi trophy, and then Mike was down a little while ago. HOS: You're looking down Bourbon Street right now, towards Canal Street. In New Orleans while this is all going on, parades are rolling at the same time all over the city. Out in Metairie, 11 miles away, another parade. Zulu (ph), Rex, parades rolling in different parts of uptown and the CBD. So it is a citywide party.
BUSTAMANTE: A lot of times what happens is whenever the people get tired of watching the parades, they'll come down on Bourbon. It's a whole other kind of freak show. You pretty much go to the parades for one reason, come to bourbon for another.
But Mike and I are wearing one of the most popular throws that people -- people go crazy over these. These are Zulu coconuts, and the coconuts have been drained. They empty out the inside, and then they paint the outside in so many beautiful different ways. Really an incredible throw.
HOS: You like our coconuts?
VELSHI: Your -- you guys have lovely coconuts. I'm still wondering, Lucy...
BUSTAMANTE: ... record.
VELSHI: ... why you're dressed like...
BUSTAMANTE: By the way, we switched costumes this year.
HOS: We probably should explain. I've been a moose for, like, 20 years in Mardi Gras, and she's always Lucy.
BUSTAMANTE: Different versions of her.
HOS: So this year...
VELSHI: OK.
BUSTAMANTE: He wanted to be a woman.
HOS: Bizarro world.
VELSHI: I was wondering what that was all about.
HOS: We kind of...
VELSHI: You just decided to mix it up a bit. So Lucy's the moose.
BUSTAMANTE: ... Bourbon Street.
VELSHI: And you're Lucy.
HOS: This is not my normal dress.
VELSHI: All right. Excellent. Excellent job, guys. Have a great time and our best wishes to New Orleans. Mike Hos and Lucy Bustamante in New Orleans.
Ed Lavandera was actually in New Orleans for that Saints parade we were talking about. He's back in Dallas now. He's been following a very, very interesting story about guns, how legal guns are getting into the hands of gun traffickers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Hey, here at CNN, we're on the gun trail following how legal guns get into illegal hands. Many gun-control advocates say it starts here, gun stores in the state of Georgia, where gun laws are weak. So, how do shop owners know if their guns are in good hands and they'll stay in those hands?
CNN's Ed Lavandera join us from Dallas. Ed, you spent a day with a gun dealer, a legal gun dealer. What stood out to you about the way they do business?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First of all, I don't know why this was the case, I was kind of struck by the quantity and the amount of business that was kind of going on in the shop. At one point during the day, one of the owners there had kind of joked to us as well that, you know, being a gun shop owner in many ways is a little like being a bartender. It's the simplest of questions you might be surprised as the answers to. I'll give you a little sense of that. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYTON SMITH, GUN SHOP EMPLOYEE: What made you decide to buy a firearm?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to know the truth?
SMITH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left New York owing someone a lot of money, and eventually they are going to find me.
SMITH: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better safe than sorry.
SMITH: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: What's interesting, Ali, it's a simple question. But, you know, there's a point to it. The gun dealers asking questions to kind of get a sense of who it is that's buying guns from them, and that's what gun dealers do. The ones that do it honestly, they say, look. It's those questions and if you sense something suspicious, you need to report that to ATF investigators.
That man you just saw, his gun sale was put on hold temporarily. A few days later he was checked out, everything was fine, and he was able to purchase a gun.
VELSHI: What's the issue with Georgia? You went to the gun dealer in Georgia. Are laws here particularly lax?
LAVANDERA: The reason we're doing the series of stories is we're kind of struck by the issues of straw purchasing, which is essentially someone who can legally buy a gun buys one and passes it off to someone who is not able to legally own a gun. It's a big problem, and I think kind of the new edge, I think, where we can make the most difference in telling stories about gun laws.
Why Georgia is because according to ATF statistics, the guns that are recovered at crime scenes in other places outside of Georgia -- Georgia is the leader in the number of guns that are recovered. The latest statistics that we have date back to 2008, and it showed that since then, so almost 5,000 guns turned up at crime scenes that the were bought, guns that were bought in Georgia, turn up at crime scenes across the country. That's why we picked that. That's not the only state with the problem obviously, but it's kind of a good metaphor for what is going on.
VELSHI: We just showed the graphic of the iron pipeline, and that's guns going from the South into the Northeast?
LAVANDERA: Exactly. And that's one of the things especially in -- in Northeastern states where you have a lot of gun control advocates who are kind of frustrated by the sense that a lot of these guns that are bought in Georgia turn up at crime scenes up in the Northeast. So, there's that battle between the various states and how you set up these gun control laws.
VELSHI: Hey, Ed, answer me this. If I am legally able to buy a gun and you're not, so let's say I'm a straw purchaser. I'm buying a gun legally, passing it on to you, maybe with some good assumption, if you're not legally able to buy a gun that something bad is going to happen. Am I not ultimately liable when the gun is traced back to me from a crime scene? I mean, is that worth whatever money you're paying me to buy a gun legally for you and give it to you illegally?
LAVANDERA: Well, for you and i, that's an easy answer. But -- and that is the first question in -- that you have to fill out when you buy a handgun, or any kind of weapon, you fill out these -- these documents, for, you know, federal documents. The first question they ask you is whether or not the gun that you're buying is, indeed, for you.
And that's, you know, gun dealers will tell you that, you know, that goes a long way. That enough should be a deterrent, because once -- if that gun does turn up somewhere else, it's easy for federal investigators to come back down and track you down, and that's -- you created big problems for yourself.
Obviously, there are other people who say that simply isn't enough, and obviously they point to just the number of illegally trafficked guns that are on the streets today.
VELSHI: Anything effectively being done to stop the straw purchases?
LAVANDERA: You know, this is where it becomes kind of a delicate slope and why I thought kind of focusing on this would be interesting. We're going to focus tomorrow on a series of laws that have kind of started gaining momentum in small towns throughout Pennsylvania, which is kind of, like, Northeastern gun country, if you will. And they've done an idea there called "lost and stolen" ordinances, it's become very controversial. The idea being that if you lose or your gun is stolen, you have 24 hours to report it stolen or you can be held liable to a certain extent based on what happens with that gun.
VELSHI: Very interesting story. We'll be sure to watch that, Ed, tomorrow, your next installment. Ed Lavandera, joining us from Dallas on the gun trail.
All right, when we come back, we'll tell you what's going on. We'll bring you the latest count on Olympic medals, and something you may not have known about the Olympics. The hottest ticket there? Mittens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Okay. The U.S. added a gold thanks to Seth Wescott who won the snowboard cross. Mark McKay -- well, let's tell you what these are, first of all.
The U.S. has two golds, two silver and four bronze, so they're in the lead with a total of eight medals. Germany has slipped into -- well, they've been in second place most of the time. They've got five. One gold, three silver, one bronze. France has two gold and two bronze. Canada is tied for third place with one gold, two silver, and one bronze, and Switzerland has three gold medals.
Let's go to Mark McKay. He's following the Olympics for us in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mark, what do you got?
MARK MCKAY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: How about somebody who should have been a snowboarder in the past life, Ali, Johnny Weir? He's a guy that moves to his own beat for sure. Men's figure skating starting tonight at the Vancouver Games on day number five. If you ask his teammates, yes, they will tell you that Johnny Weir has a flare for the dramatics. He makes his own costumes and he has taught himself how to skate. He hopes to skate away from Vancouver with an Olympic gold medal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP))
JOHNNY WEIR, FIGURE SKATER: I'm a rebellious person. I'll make a debacle out of anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnny is a production and he's funny and interesting, and there's never a dull moment when he's around. You just kind of have to sit back and see what happens with him. You never know what he's going to say. You never know what he's going to do. You never know what he's going to wear. WEIR: There's nothing that's a show in my life. I'm just me, and if it happens to mean that I'm show to certain people or a production, then I am. But I'm also a figure skater. Figure skating is the production, and we're all a part of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKAY: Something about Johnny being Johnny, Ali, is that he grew up in Pennsylvania Amish Country, of all places, and he learned to skate when the snow field -- when the snow was out there covering the cornfields, so Johnny Weir with an interesting story. He hopes to add another chapter to the story tonight or over the next couple of days in Vancouver.
VELSHI: And he makes his own costumes?
MCKAY: Sure does.
VELSHI: All right. The big souvenir item, the thing that everybody wants from the Olympics. A bit of a surprise?
MCKAY: It is. It's, you know, you're a money guy. You know that in this tough economic times that we're under way, that a family of four can't afford many Olympic souvenirs, but they can afford these!
Welcome to the hottest Olympic souvenir here on Canadian soil, simple red mittens, with the maple leaf logo on one side and, of course, the Vancouver rings and the Olympic rings and the Vancouver 2010 on the other.
Ali, these are red hot. Olympic organizers had hoped to maybe sell a million of them, they are thinking they will sell 3.5 million, but you can't get them on the streets of Vancouver or anywhere. These are the hottest items and the best places you can find them now is on eBay for twice the cost. They are ten bucks, ten Canadian dollars.
VELSHI: If you can get them. In other words, if you buy them on eBay, you will pay more for them probably.
MCKAY: Yes, probably twice the cost, that's what they're going for from what I read, Ali. They are cool.
VELSHI: They are very cool. I say, we Candians are not complicated people. Give us a nice pair of red mittens, and we're off to the races. We'll check in with Mark McKay the next hour for some other stories, including hockey, which is a big one.
Let's get a check of the top stories first.
Demand for America's debt is falling fast. China's holding of U.S. bonds has tumbled amid growing concerns over the swelling U.S. debt and the U.S.'s ability to sell it off. It allowed Japan to regain the position as the top holder of American government debt.
In Afghanistan, a big wind for NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Marjah. They've taken over police headquarters in the insurgent stronghold. This is part of Operation Mushtara, which focuses on trying to regain ahold of the region, known as the nation's heroin capital.
In Iran, a promise to continue high-grade uranium enrichment from the nation's leaders. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country will enrich nuclear fuel up to 20 percent. The U.S., French and Russian ambassadors to the international atomic watchdog group said the move violates U.N. Security Council resolution.
And speaking of nuclear power, we'll be talking to Carol Browner, the assistant to the president about energy and climate change about President Obama's announcement today that he is providing $8 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of nuclear power plants here in Georgia. The first in 30 years in America.
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VELSHI: I promise to break down major issues for you here on this show everyday, and one of them is nuclear power. This is, of course, a very big deal to many, many Americans. And today the president announced $billi8 billion in loans to back the construction of two new nuclear power plants here in Georgia. That will be the first construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States in over 30 years. The president says 3,500 jobs will be created during the construction of this, 850 ongoing jobs.
Let's talk a little bit about the pros and cons of nuclear power. A massive debate in the United States. Before anybody gets mad at me, you'll notice that environment, I've got it on both lists, pros and cons. It reduces carbon emissions, compared to fossil fuels like gas, oil, and coal. It is reliable. It's consistent and reliable. We don't have to worry about weather conditions and things like that, and it's abundant. Uranium, which is the source material, is one of the most abundant elements on the planet. Those are some of the pros of nuclear power.
Let's take a look at the cons. First of all, it's expensive. Obviously, something that will create 3,500 jobs to construct is expensive to build the plants and to mine the uranium -- so it's abundant, but it's expensive. Number two, environmental concerns. What exactly do you do with the waste that is created from the uranium that you use to create nuclear energy -- or nuclear energy? That's a major problem in America. And then fear. Fear because a lot of people associate nuclear power with meltdowns, plants that malfunction, causing cancer, Chernobyl, things like that.
So, those are some of the cons of nuclear power that have created a massive debate here in the United States. Let's bring in someone who knows a lot about this. Carol Browner is the assistant to the president on energy and climate change. She joins me from the White House.
Carol, thank you for joining us. Let's talk about the environmental concerns, because that has been behind the objections to new nuclear power plants in this country. That's why we haven't had a new nuclear power plant in 30 years, something you're intricately intimate with. What is the issue, and how do we mitigate the concerns about nuclear power generation?
CAROL BROWNER, PRESIDENTIAL ASSISTANT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: First of all, we want to be clear. We think new nuclear is important to this country. It's an important clean energy supply as you said, it's important to rebuild the nuclear industry so we cannot only rebuild plants here but we can compete in the global demand for new nuclear plants.
Obviously, the waste issue has to be addressed. Waste is currently stored on site. It is safe. It is in all this packaging and then in concrete. And the secretary of energy, Steven Chu, just named a blue-ribbon commission of people knowledgeable in this field to look at what we do with the waste over a longer period of time. Right now, we believe it's safe and we should move forward with the new generation of nuclear power plants.
VELSHI: Let's move to the other part of safety. In a moment, we'll talk about nuclear power itself, but let's just talk about the other part of safety -- the concerns people have and the concerns about meltdowns and people getting sick. What's your response to that? That's still out there. There are people that still worry about that.
BROWNER: There are people, you're right. And what we'd say to them, they shouldn't worry. First of all, we've been operating a large number of facilities, over 100 for a very long time in the United States with no problems.
And there are, in fact, new technologies, what we're talking about in Georgia is new technology. All of this, of course, will be subject to a very, very rigorous and through review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. So, today's announcement is conditional on the NRC giving the approvals, which include safety and environmental concerns.
VELSHI: That's, again, part of the issue, when it comes to nuclear power plants, this isn't something you can wave a magic wand and can get built. What actually has to happen between now and the construction and running of these two nuclear power plants in Georgia?
BROWNER: So, they will go through a rigorous process at the NRC to get all of the appropriate permits. Again, looking at all the environmental and safety issues you mentioned.
In the meantime, they have begun site preparations. They are building these two new plants on a site where two plants already exist. And they've got the bulldozers out there, moving around the dirt, getting the land ready for some of the early construction. But they will not be allowed to move forward until they have all the appropriate permits for final construction.
We anticipate it will take 12 to 18 months for the permits, and then we would see these facilities some online in six to seven years.
But the job opportunities are really quite, quite significant. You mentioned them earlier, both in terms of the construction and then in terms of the annual operation of the facilities.
VELSHI: All right. When we come back, I want to talk a little about how the U.S. compares to other countries in terms of the amount of nuclear energy we use and how much we should be using. We'll have more on nuclear as an alternative to the energy that we consume with Carol Browner in just a moment.
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VELSHI: Okay. I want to break down some more about nuclear power. Let me show you an example of other countries and the percentage of the energy they use that comes from nuclear power. You can sort of see it by the concentration here.
In France -- France is the number one user of nuclear power as a percentage. Seventy-six percent of the power, the fuel used in France comes from nuclear power. In Germany, 29 percent. Japan, 25 percent, and the U.S. is at 20 percent, so for a lot of people who think that we don't use a lot of nuclear, 20 percent of our energy comes from nuclear. And Canada is 15 percent, the U.K. 14 percent and China is growing all sources of power quickly is only two percent of their power is coming from nuclear sources.
I also want to tell you that there has been a Republican response from the announce by President Obama. U.S. senators Johnny Isakson from Georgia and Saxby Chambliss, both Republicans, praised the administration's approval of the first loan guarantees for the construction and operation of these two nuclear facilities in Georgia that we are talking about.
And also a spokesman for the GOP leader John Boehner calls it "a small step and says they are encouraged that the president is taking a small step to expand the use of clean energy nuclear, but he can and should do far more nuclear plants. Our "all of the above" energy plan," which includes far more nuclear power -- would help creates jobs and lower costs and clean up the environment. We hope this is an issue we can work with the president to make real progress."
The president said in his surprise press conference last week he wants more partisanship and more of all of the above.
Now, back to Carol Browner at the White House. She is the president's assistant on energy and climate change. First of all, no surprise to you, Carol, that the Republicans have come out and said this is a great step. This is typically something that Republicans have liked more than Democrats. Democrats have long been split on whether to support new nuclear power generation
BROWNER: Obviously, we're pleased by the Republican support for today's announcement. You know, this is, I think, important issue for both Democrats and Republicans, which is how to make our country energy independent, and how do we ensure that we have ample clean energy and certainly nuclear as well as renewables are an important part of how we move forward in that direction.
VELSHI: All right. We showed that the U.S. is about 20 percent, and somebody might dispute those numbers. But roughly, we're around there. And France is a real standout with 76 percent of its power coming from nuclear. And is there a right number to target in terms of how much more of our energy should come from the nuclear power generation?
BROWNER: Well, I think that the real way to think about it is what a comprehensive energy agenda? And what we think that is is something that will allow us to break our dependence on foreign oil, recognizes the national security implications associated with depending on foreign oil, that creates a new generation of clean energy jobs and puts a cap on the dangerous pollutants that contribute to climate change. If you look at all of those things, and if we could pass comprehensive energy legislation, we which are working hard to do, the economy will sort out how much nuclear, how much wind, how much solar. We don't need to decide that in the government. We need to be putting in place all of the signals so that the market will make the right investment and make the smart investments for our national security and our energy future.
VELSHI: Carol Browner, thanks for joining me. Carol Browner is the assistant to the president for energy and climate change, discussing the massive investment that the government is making in backing loans to provide new nuclear supported generation in the United States.
All right. When we come back, the number two man in the Taliban has been arrested, has been caught by Western forces. We will tell you what that means and whether that really hurts the Taliban when we come back.
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VELSHI: Detection and prevention. Two words to keep in mind if you or someone you know is at risk of a stroke. By the way, you may not know they are at risk of a stroke. There is a new study out. Dr. Sanjay Gupta breaks it down. Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: For a long time, Ali, people are curious how likely someone is to have a secondary stroke after a first stroke. And that's exactly what the study looked at.
First of all, we know if someone has a stroke, they have about a 25 percent chance of dying within a year of some related cause. But 1 in 12 go on to have a secondary stroke, as well -- about 8 percent of people. And the question for a long time, how do you prevent the secondary strokes? We know that most of them are preventable.
Well, a couple of things to keep in mind. A study of 10,000 people looked at people in South Carolina specifically, and what they found that the reason for the secondary stroke often is because people were not diligent about follow-up care or simply not taking their medications. And also, because a lot of people simply don't recognize the symptoms of early stroke.
Quickly, Ali, here are some of the symptoms, I will go over with you. First of all, look at someone's face and ask them to smile, for example. If there a droop on side of the face or the other. That can be an early sign.
Arms -- simply have them raise their arms and make sure they don't start to drift on one side or the other. Speech, have them say their name and make sure that the speech is not slur, and the t stands for time. This is of the essence. You want people to get care quickly as possible.
We know that a lot of strokes are preventable, but we know that lot of people strokes are happening in people younger than ever before, and people between 35-54 are having more strokes than ever before. So, what are the risk factors, and how do you prevent this? This is a list you have seen before. But these are the risk factors. Blood pressure, cholesterol, overweight, smoker, someone who does not exercise, family history, diabetics.
If you have three of the risk factors, it will greatly increase your chance of a stroke and a secondary stroke. Exercising, for example, can have a ripple effect on all of the factors.
Now, it is clear that some of these are not controllable, and no one is saying it's easy, as well. But it can make a huge difference when it comes to having a stroke and preventing it in the first place. Ali, back to you.
VELSHI: All right, Sanjay, thanks. Knowing those fast rules can save a lot of lives.
