Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

From the Gulf to the Hill; After the Flood; Uphill Battle in the Bayou; Worldwide Day of Giving; Previewing Obama's Oval Office Speech; XYZ: Who's Really to Blame for the Spill?

Aired June 15, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI CNN ANCHOR: All right. It's a new hour new rundown. Let me show you where we are headed. The Gulf coast, that's where I am right now, I'm in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

It's commanding the nation's attention. Day 57 of the oil disaster. I'm live in Mississippi ,President Obama was here yesterday but he's back now in D.C. He's going to be giving the nation an address from the Oval Office at 8:00 pm Eastern tonight.

Back here in the Gulf, Alabama shrimpers and oysterman on the verge of a comeback after hurricane Katrina are now losing hope as the oil washes in.

And Betty White back in a big way. She talks to CNN about her return to the spotlight. Let me bring you up to speed, first, though, on what's going on in this effort to stop the oil.

Let's take a look at the leak camera. About 149,000 -- 150,000 barrels of oil have been captured since the top hat went into place on June 3rd. A lot of oil continues to leak out.

But that's what's been captured so far. President Obama is due home in D.C. within the hour or so. Last night, he was here. He spoke in Florida about the disaster. Let me give you a little of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But let me say to the people of Pensacola and the Gulf Coast, I am with you, my administration is with you for the long haul, to make sure BP pays for the damage that it has done and to make sure that you are getting the help you need to protect this beautiful coast and to rehabilitate the damaged areas, to revitalize this region, and to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. That is a commitment I am making to the people of Florida and people all across this Gulf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Sorry. I said that was last night. That was actually this morning in Florida. He's headed back to D.C.

In D.C., however, lots going on. There's a hearing. The House Energy Committee is hearing from the CEOs of the big oil companies, not just BP. Some of them trying to distance themselves from BP.

I want to let you listen to two gentlemen. One is a Democrat. He is the chairman of the committee. One is a Republican.

Let's listen to Ed Markey first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: In preparation for this hearing, the committee reviewed the oil spill safety response plans for all of the companies here today. What we found was that these five companies have response plans that are virtually identical.

The plans cite identical response capabilities and tout identical ineffective equipment. In some cases, they use the exact same words.

LAMAR MCKAY, PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN, BP AMERICA: BP will not rest until the well is under control, when we discover what happened and why, in order to ensure that it never happens again. As a responsible party under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, we will carry out our responsibilities to mitigate the environmental and economic impact of this accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. Just so you know, I'm here in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. I'm here with the CNN Express.

This is my ride. I've been riding around on it for a few years, and wherever I can get an opportunity to do so, because what it does is allows us to go into cities which don't have big media setups, or maybe there isn't a politician visiting them, or an official.

We're just talking to people about the trickle-down effect of the economy here in the Gulf Coast, the issues that are going on and how it affects others. So, we sort of know how it's affecting people on the beaches. We know how it's affecting oil workers. We know shrimpers and oystermen can't go out there and apply their trade on the waters.

But how does that affect the shops in small towns like this, the restaurants, the places that depend on the tourist trade on beaches the tourists aren't coming to, or the places that depend on these fishermen and these oystermen and these shrimpers being prosperous and shopping in their neighborhoods? Remember, much of this area was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, and in some cases, some of the rebuilding has only just been completed.

In the case of a story I'm going to tell you in a few moments about the oystermen of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, they had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina because it blew out a couple of their reefs, it mixed the salt water and the fresh water in a way that wasn't sustainable. And they thought this year was going to be a bumper crop until the oil hit.

So, that's part of what we're doing here all week. We are traveling around the Gulf, going to places sometimes a little out of the way, to find out what the longer-term effects of the oil spill are.

Now, this time yesterday, we were watching something entirely different. We couldn't turn away from live pictures of those raging floods in Oklahoma City.

We were captivated, I was captivated by this painstaking rescue of a young woman clinging to a tree after swimming for her life while helicopters had found her, and then they dispatched emergency workers. First one boat. The boat got stuck. Then they sent another boat and another boat.

Finally, 17-year-old Raquel Dawson made it back to dry land. This morning, she told her story on CNN.

Raquel is a woman of few words, as you'll learn, but you should hear them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: At some point, I mean, all you can see is your head as - as you're swimming. And it's amazing that you're even able to keep yourself - with that current, keep yourself swimming like that and above the water. I mean it really is amazing.

How -- what was going through your mind when - when all of this was happening?

RAQUEL DAWSON, RESCUED FROM FLOODWATERS: I was concentrating on making it to land and people.

CHETRY: And, all told, it was about two hours that you were trapped?

DAWSON: Yes.

CHETRY: And we're seeing --

DAWSON: Right. My mom said about three.

CHETRY: Oh, about three hours.

How did you get in that situation in the first place, Raquel? What was going on?

DAWSON: I was going to walk to work.

CHETRY: You're going to walk to work? And you said at the time you thought, OK, it looks like there's some flooding out there, but it looks like it's about knee-deep, I think I can make it?

DAWSON: Yes. And then I was going to turn around once it got, like, halfway up my thighs. I was just ready to turn around. But then I saw the lady off in the distance, so I went deeper.

CHETRY: And this was another woman who was stranded in her car and you thought I'd better get over there, see if I can help her out.

So what happened after that?

DAWSON: I helped her to the tree line and I gave her my kind of dark blue bag, but it sticks out a lot. And then I left her to go find help. And then I made it to this area of concrete, but there was water on the other side, too, so I started swimming again. And I didn't make it that far away from there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: What a story. We watched that unfold live here on CNN. It was one of more than 60 swift-water rescues across Oklahoma City yesterday.

However, in the town of Lawton, Oklahoma, one person did lose their lives. He drowned in his car.

Now, the woman who Raquel was trying to help when she waded into the floodwaters, that woman was rescued safely.

OK. A moment ago I told you a story of the plight of oystermen in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. In a moment, I'll bring you the conversation I had the one of the oystermen there and how the spill is affecting him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi. I am in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, right now.

We're touring the Gulf of Mexico, the coastal areas, with the CNN Express, which you see here. This is our big bus.

Yesterday, I was in Alabama. Shrimpers working from Bayou La Batre -- oystermen, actually, and some shrimpers working from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, suffered a huge setback five years ago when Hurricane Katrina took a big piece of their reef out. Now, oysters survive in a combination of salt water and fresh water, and this messed things up. So they haven't been able to harvest oysters or shrimp in that area since then.

So, oystermen and shrimpers have had to go out much further to do their work. That cost them time, it cost them fuel, it cost them money.

This year, they started rebuilding their reefs, hoping that the result would be their first real harvest in years. That was before the oil spill.

I went to Bayou La Batre for the story of some increasingly desperate men who make their lives from the Gulf of Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GORDY WHITE, ALABAMA OYSTER FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATION: This was going to be the comeback. We were looking for a good year. We had a plan. And things were looking good. And we had it going on.

VELSHI: For the moment, the oystermen are making more money than they would have been fishing.

WHITE: I think that the majority at this time are probably doing is as well or little better than what they normally would. But once this is over, it is going to be devastating.

This is a great community. This community is founded on the fishing industry. Although we have a lot of boat building that goes on and puts a lot of people to work. And people down here work hard. They work with when they get. They don't want handouts.

VELSHI: How do people feel about the administration and president responded to this?

WHITE: Well, you know, the president, he's human also, just like us. He's not going to get out and clean the oil up. And -- he's -- I guess he's in a learning mode, you know, learning what to do. I think mainly waiting on BP to do it p.

But as time goes on, they see where they are not doing what they are supposed to do. Then I feel that he will step in with our workforce and the government and maybe go to work and get this cleaned up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: A lot of these guys are working as contractors to BP. Some of them are doing better than they were doing as contractors, but they are thinking that that's a few months' work. And between the oil and the water that might be killing more of their breeding ground, ,and the dispersants that are dispersing the oil, which we know are toxic to shrimp and oysters, there's a real concern that as oystermen, as shrimpers, their future may be decimated.

OK. The question is, where would you put a farm if you needed a farm in Brooklyn?

The answer is pretty obvious, actually. We'll show you when I come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: You know, ,one of the things that I've learned a lot about on this show because I've talked to so many people about it -- it's definitely a popular topic for us -- urban farms. They're getting more popular. Many of them are in vacant lots, but there's one far in Brooklyn that's located on the roof.

Our Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff reports on it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 7:00 a.m. Farmer Annie Novak is tending to her crop on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Novak is a founding farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farms, a 6,000 square foot organic vegetable farm unlike any farm you've seen.

ANNIE NOVAK, EAGLE STREET ROOFTOP FARMS: First and foremost, it's a green roof. And that, in a city like New York, is really important because of our issues with storm water runoff.

The fact that this green roof can capture up to two inches of rain every time that there's a storm is really crucial. And I think the city could use more green roofs like that.

CHERNOFF: In its first growing season, the farm yielded over 30 different varieties of crops. The produce feeds members of its community-supported agriculture program, farmers markets, as well as local restaurants.

NOVAK: Yes. No eggs, huh? These guys are total freeloaders.

CHERNOFF: This year, Novak introduced a chicken coop to combat a common problem with rooftop farming -- the lack of rich nutrients.

NOVAK: This coop is a chicken tractor, so it rolls up and down the rows. And it has a mesh bottom so that as the birds do their thing, it is fertilizing the crops.

They better start laying more eggs soon. That's all I know. Or they're out.

(LAUGHTER)

CHERNOFF: Novak is not only a farmer, but also an educator.

NOVAK: Compost is not just soil, it's also full of microorganisms.

CHERNOFF: Last year alone, the farm hosted over 30 different schools and groups to learn the benefits of rooftop farming for both the environment and community.

NOVAK: So, I can tell what time of year it is and where the bees have been.

CHERNOFF: Novak is also a certified beekeeper. Her hives of domesticated Italian bees produce rooftop honey.

NOVAK: Just getting kids, organizations involved in growing their own food is as simple as having soil and a seed.

CHERNOFF: From farmer, to teacher, to beekeeper, to businesswoman, Novak likes to keep a carbon-neutral footprint when selling her produce to local area restaurants.

NOVAK: Morning pick of the day, chard, kale, tarragon and radishes.

SEAN REMBOLD, CHEF, MARLOW & SONS: It comes down to being friends and knowing the people that are growing our vegetables, and our customers in these restaurants being friends with us and knowing who's cooking their food.

You can still often feel the sun's warmth in the leaves. Pretty exciting.

CHERNOFF: For Novak, it's about planting a seed of knowledge.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. She's 88 years young. Betty White rocks. From her Super Bowl Snickers ad, to hosting "Saturday Night Live," to her new sit-com which is called "Hot in Cleveland" -- it premieres tomorrow night on TV Land.

Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HOT IN CLEVELAND")

VALERIE BERTINELLI, ACTRESS: Hi, I'm Melanie. I'll be leasing the place.

BETTY WHITE, ACTRESS: I've been the caretaker of this house for 50 years, but you can kick me out.

(LAUGHTER)

BERTINELLI: I wouldn't --

WHITE: No, no worries. If you can escape from the Nazis, you can handle anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "HOT IN CLEVELAND")

VELSHI: Well, after six decades in show business, Betty White sat down with John Roberts to talk about her personal renaissance of this year of living famously.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: America has always been a country that treasures the young and, to some degree, has disregarded the elderly.

Do you think as baby boomers mature toward retirement, that that attitude will change? And could you be the leading edge of a whole new change in attitude here in the United States?

WHITE: Oh, I hardly think I'd be the leading edge. But I don't know where the break comes in.

At first, when you're starting out in a career, you just assume people don't know how old you are. And then somewhere in the transition, you begin to brag about it. Yes, well, I'm 88 and a half.

Now I don't hide it. "Hello, I'm Betty White. I'm 88. How are you?"

It's silly, but it's very comfortable, I must admit.

ROBERTS: You know, earlier this year in the Super Bowl, Betty White, I mean, you've never left people's psyche. You've always been there. I know you've always been there in my mind when I think among the great comediennes of our time.

WHITE: Oh.

ROBERTS: But the Snickers commercial gave you a new lease on life. How did that whole thing come about?

WHITE: I have no idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're playing like Betty White out there.

WHITE: That's not what your girlfriend said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITE: They asked -- gave me the offer to do the Snickers commercial, and they said it would be somewhere near the Super Bowl. And -- which was wonderful. We thought that was great. It turned out to be not only on the Super Bowl, it was the first commercial on the Super Bowl before people go wandering away.

ROBERTS: Did you look at the script for that and just say, wow, I really like this?

WHITE: No. They said Snickers, and I've been eating Snickers all my life. Snickers and a bunch of young guys on a football field, it didn't sound too shabby.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: That would be something that could be enjoyable for you.

So, this, of course, led to the "Saturday Night Live" gig.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

WHITE: I'm 90 years old. I like to stand. I like to bend. And I like to sit.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

ROBERTS: This is something that you had said no to in the past.

WHITE: Yes. I had said no because it's so New York. And I am so California, that I thought I'd be like a fish out of water.

So I turned it down about three times years ago. And I was saying a polite "Thank you very much but no thank you" this time, and my agent said, "You've got to do it."

I almost killed my agent, but I didn't quite. But I was panicky. Just panicky. But everybody was so supportive and so nice, and it's such a science. They have that show nailed.

ROBERTS: How does a person of your experience get panicky about doing "Saturday Night Live"?

WHITE: I get panicky walking on the Jay Leno set, and I've known Jay forever. I got a little nervous walking in here, John.

ROBERTS: Well, there's nothing to be nervous about, believe me.

WHITE: On the other hand, I enjoy it. And I enjoy meeting people that I'll be meeting later --

ROBERTS: Yes, we are. I get off at 9:00 tonight.

WHITE: Yes. That's fine.

ROBERTS: All right. And this show, "Hot in Cleveland" --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HOT IN CLEVELAND")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anyone else smell pot?

WHITE: What are you, a cop?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

WHITE: Then what's it to you?

(END VIDEO CLIP, "HOT IN CLEVELAND")

ROBERTS: -- I mean, this is something else that came along. And they said, Betty, we'd like you to do a pilot. And you said, oh, OK, as long as it's a pilot. And then they said, well, how about three shows? And then it's turned into 10, and who knows where it goes from here?

WHITE: It got picked up in three weeks, John. I mean, sometimes you'll do a pilot in February, and it's May before you know whether it's going to go.

Well, they got picked up in three weeks. And they came back and asked if I'd do more. And I said, "Well, that wasn't the original arrangement." And I'm so firm in my opinion, the next thing, I'm doing all 10 of them.

ROBERTS: You are.

(LAUGHTER) ROBERTS: I've got to ask you about "The Golden Girls."

(MUSIC)

ROBERTS: Estelle Getty, 2008, passed away. Bea Arthur last year. Rue McClanahan this year.

You're a loner now.

WHITE: This one really -- well, they all, each and every one of them, hurt so much. And I never knew how old the other girls were, because they would never discuss age.

And it was so ironic. I was older than anybody. And to be the only one left when you're the oldest doesn't seem fair, does it?

ROBERTS: Well, we're certainly glad that you are still here.

WHITE: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Because you're giving us so much pleasure.

Betty, it's been an absolute --

WHITE: It's a joy meeting you, John.

ROBERTS: It's an honor to meet you. Thank you so much.

WHITE: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: John Roberts never tells anybody it's an honor to meet them. That must have been a pretty impressive conversation. She's a pretty impressive woman.

She took over Wall Street today. Betty White rang the opening bell.

By the way, if you watch this sort of thing regularly, it seems like it rang longer than it normally does. But what the hell? It's Betty White.

I actually -- it did go a little longer than it should have. She can get away with just about anything she wants.

OK. When we come back, from Capitol Hill to the battlefields of Afghanistan, concern is growing over whether progress is actually being made.

We'll run down the key issues and questions when we go "Globe Trekking" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: That is a picture of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where we are right now. I'm traveling around the Gulf Coast with the CNN Express. It's our Gulf trek, if you will.

Every day we take you "Globe Trekking," too, outside of the United States.

First up in "Globe Trekking" today, the war in Afghanistan. And growing concern over some recent setbacks in that war.

General David Petraeus, the man directing the war, responded to questions about the direction of the war on Capitol Hill this morning. Here you'll see him in Washington. This isn't from this morning. It was back in March. His bottom line, despite calls for a review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, he insists on staying the course.

President Obama spelled out his war strategy last December. You'll remember that. It was focused on the counterinsurgency. It included deploying on additional 30,000 troops to the warzone. By the end of August of this year, some 100,000 troops will be in Afghanistan. But the withdrawal of U.S. troops is still scheduled to begin in July 2011, a year from now.

Here's some file pictures of Taliban fighters. They're very good at pulling out of a fight when they're outnumbered and filtering back into the area later. Now critics say that's because either there's an unwillingness or lack of training by Afghan military and police to fight them.

Other problems triggering grumbling on Capitol Hill include the continued Taliban violence in southern Afghanistan. There have been setbacks in the U.S. operation in Marja, which is in Helmand Province, that started earlier this year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai fired two key security officials who were widely trusted by the United States. And Karzai recently expressed doubt the U.S. can defeat the Taliban.

In the delay, there's been a delay of a major U.S. operation in the Taliban stronghold of southern Kandahar. Those are all issues giving people concern and pause about Afghanistan.

Let's go "Globe Trekking" to Spain now. Police in Madrid announced the arrest of nearly 180 people suspected of cloning credit cards in an international scam worth more than $24 million. Arrests took place in Europe and in the United Sates. Police in 14 countries took part in the two-year investigation. The probe was started by Spain where police discovered 120,000 credit cards numbers that were stolen and 5,000 cloned credit cards. Those arrested are also suspected of armed robbery, blackmail, sexual exploitation and money laundering.

And now let's take you to Mexico. Got a bit of a lighter topic for you here. You remember that children's story about Ferdinand the bull who would rather smell flowers than fight? Well, here's a bullfighter. Christian Hernandez, a bullfighter who would rather run than fight. As you can see, he started off the right way, but then he bolted and he jumps over a wall. Gone, out of the ring. Get this. He was arrested and then he was released after paying a fine for breach of contract. Apparently, if you're a bullfighter, you actually have to fight the bulls.

Several months ago, a bull severely gored Hernandez in the leg. So now I get this, because if a bull gored me in the leg, that might be what I do next time I saw a bull. After this debacle, Hernandez admitted that he no longer had the courage to fight bulls.

OK, coming up in today's "Mission Possible," meet a guy who lost his job and then decided to give away his money every day for a year. I'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I want to bring you some breaking news from right where I am in the Gulf of Mexico. We've got this from BP.

At 9:30 Central time, which is 10:30 Eastern, this morning, a fire was detected on the derrick on top of the Discover Enterprise. The Discover Enterprise is the rig that is sitting atop that oil well right now coordinating the efforts, getting that oil out of there. It's the rig to which the riser platform, the top hat, is attached.

So fire was detected there. The fire was quickly extinguished. The preliminary view is that the fire was caused by a lightning strike. In fact, we've seen since last night a whole lot of active weather in this area.

There were no injuries, all procedures were followed -- this is according to BP, I'm reading this from BP -- and as a precaution, the lower marine riser package, the LMRP, containment operation was shut down. All safety shutdown systems operated as designed.

Now, from what we understand, this has not started up yet again. They're still conducting final safety and operational assurance inspections and BP is telling us that they expect the collection of oil to resume this afternoon. But for the moment, the derrick which is the pump on top of the rig that is on top of this oil collection operation, caught fire or something there had a fire on it. They've extinguished it, but haven't started it back again. So right now, oil is not being siphoned to the top.

Today's "Mission Possible." Reed Sandridge is the man behind the "Year of Giving" project. You may have heard about this, he was unemployed and yet he hands out $10 a day, every day to strangers. Reed joins me now.

Thank you for being with us. Reed, first of all, tell us your story. What were you doing and when did you lose your job?

REED SANDRIDGE, "YEAR OF GIVING": I was working for a nonprofit that was fighting childhood obesity and lost my job. And about two months later I came up with this idea to somehow engage my community and try to inspire others. VELSHI: And how do you do this? You give away $10 a day to somebody, but the idea is that you've thought about this, you've figured out who could use that better than you can and you've got the discipline of doing it. Give me your thought process and how you actually do this.

SANDRIDGE: I do it every day. So I go out and I'm just doing my normal routine, interviewing for jobs or doing whatever. And we come across people all the time and many times we don't take the time to stop and talk with them. So this kind of forces me to stop to talk with someone. I find someone I think I can help out, I gave them $10, I find out what they're going to do with it and learn a little bit about their story as well.

VELSHI: Do you always find somebody who can use your $10?

SANDRIDGE: Yes. Sometimes not in the first try, sometimes you know, people will say, no, and I have to go find somebody else. But today is day 183 and to date, I've done it every single day.

VELSHI: How do you decide who that person is going to be on a given day?

SANDRIDGE: That's a popular question, Ali. It's more of a feeling that I get. I see someone and for whatever reason I think they should be the person that I give my money to that day. I don't take anything in return, so it's a completely altruistic gift.

VELSHI: Is there always a conversation involved? Do they know this is part of a mission you're involved in?

SANDRIDGE: I tell them. Some people are busy, of course, are busy and they don't have much time. You'd be surprised, most people will take time if -- you know, I think people are genuinely good and I start to talk with them and they're happy to share their stories.

VELSHI: Tell me about the "Worldwide Day of Giving."

SANDRIDGE: Today, June 15th, is a day that I set aside as the "Worldwide Day of Giving." And it's a day that I'm encouraging others to do what I do for one day and that is find someone they don't know, give them $10 and then ideally go to my website, www.yearofgiving.org and share those stories, because I think that the stories that people have would differ from around the world. So whether it be from, you know, Helsinki, Finland to Nairobi, Kenya to Washington D.C., those stories are all unique I think.

VELSHI: Is there something other than the obvious that you're giving somebody who might $10 more than you do, the money, every day. Is there something bigger in the thought that you have to put into it, or the fact that you write about it afterwards? Does it develop some greater consciousness in you or is that what you're hoping will come of this?

SANDRIDGE: Well, certainly, I've found that giving is contagious. Even in myself, I find myself giving more. So I think that inspiring factor certainly is the bigger idea.

In fact, I'm having an event tonight in D.C. for those people that are here in the D.C. area. One thing we just decided to do and its related to what you're doing in the Gulf is raise some money for some out-of-work fishing people that have been unfortunately laid off due to the oil crisis there.

VELSHI: What are some of the best stories you've had when you talk to people?

SANDRIDGE: Wow, there's been so many. But for me, the ones that really touch me are ones where people are creative, they follow their hearts and they do something really fantastic with it. They use that money to help someone else.

I remember a young student at Georgetown took the money, bought a bunch of supplies to make some cookies and handed them out to the custodial staff in his building and the people that hand out the free newspaper here in Washington by the Metro stations. So those are the people who we call the invisible people that we just see every day but we don't really see them.

VELSHI: Reed, great stuff. We appreciate you inspiring us with that. Go to Reed's website, yearofgiving.org. We wish you continued luck in this, Reed.

SANDRIDGE: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: Happening now, it's day 57, the oil catastrophe. We have just heard that crews have had to stop down on their work siphoning oil from BP's broken well. There was a fire aboard one of the ships on the sea and apparently from a lightning strike, or at least that's what BP thinks it was. More details from the Gulf as we get them, but the oil collection has stopped for now.

Meanwhile, executives of oil companies have been testifying on Capitol Hill today. Congressman Ed Markey says they put zero time and money toward thinking about solutions.

President Obama wrapped up a two-day tour of the Gulf Coast today. And tonight, he'll be talking to the nation from the Oval Office. You can hear his remarks live on CNN from your TV, your computer or your iPhone at 8:00 Eastern.

All right, in Kyrgyzstan, deadly ethnic clashes have caused thousands of ethnic Uzbeks to flee across the border into Uzbekistan. Refugees have been crying out for food and for help. The news agency there says the death toll has risen to 170. The U.S. and Germany have evacuated 89 people, including 31 Americans and 40 Europeans.

And General Petraeus, we mentioned him a few minutes ago, he's the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had to be escorted from a Senate hearing today after slumping over in his chair. You can see it happening there. Everybody gathers around him. The Senate -- the chair of the committee, Senator Carl Levin, says the general appears to be doing very well after fainting due to hydration. Our reporters talked to him afterward and said the same thing.

All right, Ed Henry, "The Stakeout," where is he today? Yesterday, he was in Florida ahead of the president's visit there. Looks like he's still in Florida. We'll check in with him.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Still in Pensacola.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We'll be all over the president's speech from the Oval Office tonight. Starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, we've got pregame and postgame coverage here on CNN, including our senior White House correspondent. But we don't need presidential speeches to have Ed Henry on this show cause we've got him on "The Stakeout" every single day.

I'm a little further from Ed than I was yesterday. I was in Alabama, Ed's in Pensacola. I'm now in Mississippi, Ed's still in Pensacola. Apparently, he missed his flight back to D.C. cause I think the president's already there.

What are you doing in Pensacola, Ed?

HENRY: The president's already back but I want to know about you. Why are you moving further and further away from me? We could have done this show together today in Pensacola.

VELSHI: I know, I know. The plan was to go the other direction and unfortunately, I didn't. But we're still on the Gulf Coast together.

HENRY: That's good. I mean, look, the water behind me, you can still see just like yesterday, still green/blue, white sand beach. President was walking out here on the beach today, and then he gave his speech at a nearby naval base and was basically saying, look, still come out here, folks. The beaches are nice, seafood is still good. He's trying to be cheerleader and chief, and he's got to do a little bit of that tonight.

But I think obviously in the speech, the major themes are going to be more about how this is an unprecedented crisis and he believes the government is mobilizing to make sure that they can contain it. That's something the American people by and large haven't had a lot of confidence in so far. This is his chance to sort of turn the tide on that. He called it an unprecedented assault on our coasts, our shorelines and said we're going to -- in terms of the government, the administration -- he said, we're going to go at it with everything we've got.

So he's trying to show he's committed to this region, not just with these visits but with his speech tonight. But I have to tell you, there were some signs out here that his motorcade passed today saying, "we need less words, more action." "Lead now," things like that. Some people in this region are tough on the president because they believe he should have done more. VELSHI: Are you going to be working in Pensacola on the beach tonight, or are you going to be joining us for the coverage of the president's speech?

HENRY: I'm going to be here doing the Anderson Cooper show and the John King show here from the beach, and we're going to actually stay overnight and get some reaction overnight from people here in Pensacola Beach and be live from Pensacola Beach tomorrow for "AMERICAN MORNING" as well, Ali.

VELSHI: What can the president say? So this is a real battle, you and I have talked about it this for the whole time that this thing has been going on. It's a real battle between people saying, he's not being tough enough. And then he comes out and says tough things and people say, that seemed injudicious.

What could he possibly say tonight that will satisfy a broad range of people about what the administration is doing or is going to do about the oil spill?

HENRY: When you talk to his senior advisers, one big theme he's going to hit to try to show the American people he gets it basically is that he's going to talk a lot about holding BP's feet to the fire, setting up this escrow account to make sure that if they were to go bankrupt or something like that or if they continue to lose shareholder value, money is set aside in advance of that so these claims will be processed for the small business owners, these personal homeowners facing all kinds of duress right now.

But I have to tell you, I went out on a tour of Pensacola Beach with the man who sort of oversees things out here, his name is Buck Lee (ph). And he's pretty tough on the president. He was saying he went to a rotary club meeting where he basically told the local folks here, when asked who do you blame, he said both BP and the government. He doesn't let the federal government and the Obama administration off the hook. He saying, look, BP's made a lot of mistakes, but he's frustrated.

And one quick example is that he says that over a month ago he asked the federal government to send him four tractors to help him keel the sand, turn over the sand when the oil reaches the shore. Just yesterday he finally got one of those tractors, still waiting for three more. And he thought it was curious that the one tractor arrived just a few hours before the president arrived here in Pensacola as if the administration was trying to make sure they got it here.

We don't know about the timing, whether that was a coincidence, but he's frustrated there are still three tractors he's waiting for. And he said, where is his command and control we've heard so much about, Ali.

VELSHI: Ed, the other thing, we talked about it yesterday, certainly I'm talking about it here in Alabama, Mississippi and as I head into Louisiana where the economies have more to do with oil certainly than Florida does. And as a result of that, there are a lot of people who are a little concerned about the move to put a moratorium on some of the drilling and certainly exploration. That's not -- that meets with more support in Florida than it does over where I am.

HENRY: Absolutely. They want the moratorium to continue here in Florida because they don't really get an economic benefit out of more offshore drilling. They get their economic benefit out of tourism and so they're frustrated when you talk to the small business owners along the beach that I've talked to that basically they're not reaping any benefits from profits on offshore drilling, but when something goes wrong like a horrible accident, it ends up affecting the tourism here in Florida. That's why the president is going to have to walk a fine line, have to find that delicate balancing act tonight in terms of the different economic interests in this region, number one.

And number two, the other big thing he's going to hit is long- term that this points out the need for dramatic energy reform, that we can't continue to have such a dependence on oil. You can hear a lot of republicans on Capitol Hill saying, look, keep that out of this right now. Let's focus on plugging this leak, making sure the shores are OK. Don't turn this into trying to pass his broader energy reform bill right now.

But look, the White House is not being shy about saying they see that this is a terrible tragedy, but at the same time, it's an opportunity to get the country's attention and say, look, we need some dramatic change, Ali.

VELSHI: Ed, I'm going to talk a little bit about that -- about these alternatives in my "XYZ." Good to see you, my friend. Stay cool on Pensacola Beach, we'll see you tonight on TV.

Ed Henry, senior White House correspondent in "The Stakeout." You find it here every single day on our show.

"Wordplay" is coming up next. We're minding your As and Bs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Coverage tonight of the presidential address right here on CNN.

Time for "Wordplay." It's all about the letters. Most words are, of course, about letters, but I'm talking mainly about As and B s. Today's word is actually a phrase, a "Fitch Downgrade."

Fitch is one of those companies that evaluates a credit of other companies. It assigns a letter grade to those company's bonds, basically giving it it's credit rating. It's valuable information for buyers of bonds because remember, bonds are IOUs. So if you're a buyer, you want to be compensated for the risk you're taking in lending someone else your cash.

Now the reason "Fitch Downgrade" is in the news today is that it happened again to BP. For the second time this month, Fitch has lowered its credit rating on BP's debt. This time from a AA to BBB. Doesn't sound terrible, but BBB is just one step above junk. You know, junk bonds? The kinds that pay so much interest because there's more risk. Fitch believes that the ever-growing estimates of oil gushing from the ruins of the Deepwater Horizon and the ever-growing estimates of BP's financial liability create a risk for that company, a risk that means it may have more difficulty than it was facing earlier in paying. Fitch, however, does not expect BP to default on its debt nor run out of money to pay its claims, that's why it's a BBB and it's not junk.

OK, who's really responsible for this oil disaster? In a way, it's all of us. I'm going to talk to you about it in my "XYZ" when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: As we've been reporting for 57 days and will continue to report, crude oil is filling up in the Gulf of Mexico. It's hard to know just how much oil is in the Gulf right now and how much is going to end up being there when all is said and done.

We know this -- we know fish and birds and sea mammals and wetlands are dead. They're dying, they're still in danger. This is an environmental disaster that has surpassed the Exxon Valdez. Don't forget the people -- the fisherman, the women, the tourism industry, the oil industry, the list goes on.

The conversation on my Facebook page has been passionate. Most of you concerned about pollution, about the environment, about the safety of offshore drilling. Many of you calling for a greater, faster push to alternatives to oil. Many of you are downright furious at the oil companies. Some of you continue to call for a boycott of BP.

Now I expressed some of these views right after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. I took some heat from some of you for doing anything but blaming BP. I'm not defending BP. Clearly, they've made mistakes as reports have shown.

But consider that oil companies don't drill for oil for fun. The Department of the Interior doesn't lease out offshore drilling space because it likes the sight of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico down the block from where I am. All of this happens because we have an unquenchable thirst for oil.

If this disaster makes you take a stand on drilling, if the sight of birds covered in oil, empty stores and docked boats make you crave a greener way to consume energy, then maybe some good comes from this.

And let's not forget those 11 men who died in the explosion that precipitate all of this. If that makes you want to find a safer way to run our cars and our factories, then maybe some good will come from this.

But don't kid yourself into thinking that the world will somehow become a better, safer place before we start using and finding real alternatives to crude oil. Not lecturing here. While I take a look at my own behavior, I ask you to do the same. How much oil do we use? What kind of cars do we drive? I need the comments from you, so keep them coming.

That's "The XYZ of It." Here's Drew Griffin in for Rick Sanchez.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Ali.