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Primary Day in Seven States; President Obama Talks Education in Philadelphia; Safety of Gas Pipelines; Boehner Blinks on Tax Cuts

Aired September 14, 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: A new hour, a new "Rundown."

We heard President Obama's second major back-to-school speech live just last hour. So was it a pass, a fail, or an incomplete? We're going to let you be the judge of it.

Plus, the pipeline behind the deadly explosion and fire in San Bruno, California, was 62 years old. That made us wonder how many old pipelines are out there and how many are safe. We'll take a startling look below the surface.

Also, we'll introduce you to a provocative young filmmaker. His new movie, "Mooz-lum," aims to break down stereotypes and build up tolerance. You don't want to miss this discussion.

A liberal Democrat in Harlem, a moderate Republican in Delaware, and a reform-minded mayor in Washington are all in the same political boat today as voters in seven states and the District of Columbia hold the last big batch of primaries before the November midterms. Here is the map. Trust me, what some of these states lack in size they certainly more than make up for in drama.

Charlie Rangel, a guy whose middle name is drama, finds out today whether Harlem still loves him after 40 years in Congress and one very badly-timed ethics scandal. His strongest challenger in a six-person field is the son of the man whom Rangel defeated 40 years ago.

In Delaware, GOP congressman Mike Castle tries to do at least what five other establishment Republicans have failed to do this year, beat a Tea Party-backed opponent in a Senate primary. Christine O'Donnell would very much like to join the ranks of Joe Miller in Alaska; Rand Paul in Kentucky; Sharron Angle in Nevada; Mike Lee in Utah; and Ken Buck in Colorado; all of whom rode the Tea Party Express to the general elections in November.

In Washington, meanwhile, Mayor Adrian Fenty faces voters who are still in shock over his shakeup of D.C. schools. Fenty is running neck and neck with City Council Chairman Vincent Gray in his race for a second term.

All right. How do we make sense of this? If anybody can give us the big picture and the juicy details in two minutes, it is our CNN senior political editor, Mark Preston, who joins me now from our D.C. bureau for two at the top.

Mark, take it away.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Ali, of course as you said, seven states and the District of Columbia all holding primaries today. This is very much the end of the primary season, and we're going to focus in on the general election.

You know, this has been very divisive. You had a great list of insurgent candidates that came out of nowhere and beat the establishment candidates.

Just ticking off just a couple of recent ones, Bennett in Utah -- he had been around for a long time here -- Murkowski in Alaska, out the door; Christine O'Donnell, as you said, is hoping to do the same with Mike Castle in Delaware. So a lot on the line.

And is this going to be an anti-incumbent year? So far it has been -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Let's talk about some of these other races. What are we looking out for tonight that will make a difference as we head into the midterms?

PRESTON: Sure. Let me just go down the list, go down the Eastern Seaboard.

In New Hampshire, will Kelly Ayotte, the establishment candidate, hold on? There's obviously been a lot of focus on this race. In fact, the publisher of "The New Hampshire Union Leader" has been running front-page editorials telling special interest groups that are backing Ayotte to get out of his state.

Moving down to Harlem, as you said, will Charlie Rangel survive this ethics investigation? And will voters put him back into office? If he wins the primary, Ali, he wins re-election.

Moving on down the East Coast, will the Tea Party score another win in Delaware? Will Christine O'Donnell come out of nowhere and defeat Mike Castle, who is not only a congressman, Ali, he is former governor as well, backed by the establishment. And then, of course, here, where I sit in D.C., will Adrian Fenty hold off a challenge under a lot of scrutiny of what he's done to try to reform D.C. schools?

VELSHI: All right. So what are you most interested in tonight in terms of impact on the larger political scheme? Is it the idea -- is it the race in Delaware and whether the Tea Party again makes inroads.

PRESTON: Well, you know something? Let's just look at the whole macro level.

The question is, will these Tea Party voters that knocked out these incumbent Republicans, will there still be that enthusiasm in November? Because if there is enthusiasm, Ali, then what's going to be a good night, or expected to be a good night for Republicans, Ali, in November, could be a great night. VELSHI: All right. We will follow it very closely with you guys. Mark, thanks very much.

Message last hour to students from President Obama. He's hoping to motivate young people to make a difference by hitting the books and making good grades as they head back to school this year. President Obama is acknowledging times are hard for lots of people right now and kids might be feeling the pinch.

Here is today's "Sound Effect."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of you, as a consequence, because we're going through a tough time as a country, are having to act a lot older than you are. You've got to be strong for your family while your brother or sister is serving overseas, or you've got to look after younger siblings while your mom is working that second shift, or maybe some of you who are a little bit older, you're taking on a part-time job while your dad is out of work.

And that's a lot to handle. It's more than you should have to handle. And it may make you wonder at times what your own future will look like, whether you're going to be able to succeed in school, whether you should maybe set your sights a little lower, scale back your dreams.

But I came to Masterman to tell all of you what I think you're hearing from your principal and your superintendent and from your parents and from your teachers. Nobody gets to write your destiny but you.

Your future is in your hands. Your life is what you make of it. And nothing, absolutely nothing, is beyond your reach, so long as you're willing to dream big, so long as you're willing to work hard, so long as you're willing to stay focused on your education.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And what a difference a year makes. Remember all the fuss last year that some conservatives made over President Obama's first back-to-school speech? They accused him of trying to force his political agenda down the throats of the schoolchildren of America.

Look at that sign: "Mr. President, stay away from our kids." Not this year. We're not hearing that kind of backlash.

In fact, Jim Greer, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, now apologizing to President Obama for leading the opposition to last year's speech.

Good on you for doing that.

All right. We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we're going to bring you lots of other information. We'll talk about the speech. We're going to talk about those pipelines, how old the pipelines are in this country.

Stay with us. We're coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The pipeline blast in San Bruno, California, last Thursday is under investigation. One of the facts that came out, the pipeline that blew up that neighborhood was laid 62 years ago. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Josh Levs has been looking into the issue of pipeline age and safety. That wasn't Josh Levs there. That was Barack Obama. I don't know if they get confused often.

Let's show a picture of Josh Levs and see what he's got to say.

Josh, what were you doing? You were studying these pipelines. Give me some sense of the age of pipelines in this country.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, a lot of them are really decades old, and this is a serious problem for this country.

This is one thing that we saw here, and it's not the only place that we've seen this problem. Let me give you just a handful of stats about this.

Take a look at this.

The first thing you should understand is that we're talking about a massive web of pipelines in this country -- 2.5 million miles of these things lie underneath our country right now. It's enough to circle the Earth 100 times. And yes, many of them are very old.

Let me give you a couple more key stats here.

They're counting, as you know -- and Ali, I know you and I have talked about this -- they're carrying various things. They're counting hazardous liquids, gas transmission, and by far the huge bulk of them, the majority of them, are these natural gas distribution pipelines. And that's a lot of what we're hearing about now.

Now, given what happened out in California, I wanted to know how often do accidents happen, how often are there problems? So take a look at what we're learning here.

As we're looking at these numbers here, this is from the Department of Transportation. They're saying that since 1990, 5,626 instances that they're calling significant. And look at this over here -- 365 fatalities, 1,553 injuries in that time since 1990. So, clearly, we are talking about something that can be a serious problem.

All right. Let's go to these nice pictures here of pipelines around the country, because while I have told you that, I also want you to understand that you have the Department of Transportation and you have other officials out there saying, you know what? As these things go, these are actually really safe. They've done some studies, the same thing from the Congressional Research Service. They took a look at this, and they're saying that when it comes to moving this massive volume of natural gas all over the country, what you need is the current system in place. They're standing by it and they're saying that this is the safest, most convenient way to get all of this around the country. So despite the fact that, yes, there are accidents, there are problems, this is what they're saying.

Now, on the other side you have these critics who say a lot more needs to be done. One of these critics joined us earlier today in the NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK KESSLER, PIPELINE SAFETY TRUST: Only seven percent of these pipelines -- the pipeline mileage -- is actually required to be inspected under the 2002 law. We need not only to expand the areas, but a process for continuing to expand the pipe -- the areas of pipeline that have to be inspected, and they've got to be inspected with more rigor than they are today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: And that's what we're hearing from a lot of people, Ali. A lot of people saying, look, a lot more needs to be done.

The final thing I'm going to show you on this screen. See this huge map behind me? Everywhere that there's blue, everywhere in this huge mess of blue, is a natural gas pipeline that's going across states, and the red are inside states.

So you have all of this all over the country. And this is why when we're talking about millions of miles, clearly something has got to be done to follow especially these old ones that could potentially have these kinds of disasters.

VELSHI: All right. And again, we don't know yet -- because we haven't got any information on the investigation -- whether the age of the pipeline was the issue here or whether somebody put something -- somebody hit it or something, or penetrated it in some fashion.

LEVS: Right.

VELSHI: But useful to know, because before you told me this, I really didn't know that that was the age of the pipeline. As I say, before anyone gets too carried away with it, we don't know whether that's good or bad, but I think you've put it in great perspective, as only you can do, Josh.

LEVS: But I will tell you, look, I mean, the government even says the fact that it's been around so long means a lot and needs to be done. You're right, we don't know in this case, but when you have something that's been underground for decades and decades and decades, and stuff can happen, we do know -- but it's a concern whether or not it's responsible for San Bruno. VELSHI: Yes. And the great thing about having things underground is it's not out there for you to see, trip over, and come into contact with. But you also don't know, as we found in New York with the blackouts a few years ago, that stuff underground was rotting away. And we don't see it all the time, so you don't know what shape it's in.

Josh, good to talk to you, as always. Thank you, my friend.

LEVS: Thanks, Ali. You got it.

VELSHI: Let's talk about teachers. Did President Obama inspire teachers to get the school year off to a great start? I've asked that question, by the way, on my Facebook page. If you've got something to say about it, go to Facebook.com/AliVelshiCNN. We're going to ask some students when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In "Chalk Talk," President Obama is talking about fixing our schools by motivating students. Last hour he gave his second back-to-school speech urging students to study hard and reach for their dreams. He also said it would take a collective effort to make sure kids succeed.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It takes all of us in government, from the governor, to the mayor, to the superintendent, to the president, all of us doing our part to prepare our students, all of them for success in the classroom and in college and in a career. It's going to take an outstanding principal like Principal Neff and outstanding teachers like the ones you have here at Masterman, teachers who are going above and beyond the call of duty for their students. And it's going to take parents who are committed to your education.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Joining me now is Randi Weingarten. She's the president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Randi, good to see you again. Thank you for being with us.

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: It's always great.

VELSHI: Let's talk a little bit about this. Earlier, some people were saying, whatever, it's the president saying things that people's mothers should say to them. It was a bit surprising last year when he decided to make the speech and there were so many people up in arms about the fact that the president would dare to speak to our nation's students.

I can't even imagine what that was all about. I'm kind of glad that we didn't have protests about the president speaking.

Was there anything that was useful in what he said to you, though?

WEINGARTEN: Look, I think it's great every time the president goes out and makes a speech about education, because it says that education and public education is important. I love that the president went out last year to a school to make a speech to kids, and I loved it again this year, that he did, because kids have a responsibility to their own education, as well as their teachers and their parents.

And when he said that your drive and your discipline is absolutely essential to success, he's a role model to kids and he's talking directly to them. So that's fantastic.

So I thought it was a great day that he did that. What it says -- the other thing he said which is really important is that this is a collective responsibility on all of our parts.

Teachers can't do it alone. Parents can't do it alone. And so we all have to step up to the plate and do more.

And you and I have had that conversation a number of times on your show. But the fact that he went right to kids and said, look, this is your destiny and you have to step up to the plate, is great.

VELSHI: Right. Important point you make.

Tony Mullen is back with me. I think you know Tony. He was the Teacher of the Year in 2009, currently teaches at-risk students in New York City.

Fantastic story, Tony, yours is. You were a police officer here in New York for 20 years. You had a complete career as a police officer and then you turned to teaching.

And you and I discussed earlier there was some criticism about why the president is talking to these students. But you were mentioning -- I mean, students are a very large part of this process.

TONY MULLEN, 2009 NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR: Oh, absolutely, yes. Absolutely. You know, when you look at the big picture of education and you think about the three factors, you think about what's important in the success of a child's education, well, you have the parent and you have the schools and the teachers, and then you have the student.

VELSHI: Right.

MULLEN: And we have taxpayers doing their part right now funding the schools, funding these government initiatives, and we have parents working two jobs. We have schools and teachers working very hard, being held accountable. And then we have our students.

And we need our students to be motivated. The best teacher in the world can't do anything unless a student does their homework and comes to school and learns.

VELSHI: And the parents provide the environment in which to do that.

Let me ask you, Randi -- there was nothing inflammatory in this conversation with the president. There was nothing there that sort of targeted any constituent group. This was really a bit of a pep talk to students and parents, and sort of a sense of creating your own destiny.

That said, as I discussed with Tony an hour ago, we are in a tumultuous time for public education right now. What is your evaluation right now about this president and this Department of Education, and what they have done in their efforts to remedy some of the problems with public education in this country?

WEINGARTEN: Look, even when I may disagree with some of the strategies, I am very grateful that this president has said to our country that we must invest and change public education if we're going to prepare all of our kids for life, college and career. And ultimately, part of the -- the real key here is to give us the space to actually do our work.

What Tony is saying is absolutely right. You know, teachers, we have to engage kids in curriculum. We have to have good teachers. We have to have good teachers supported by good leaders.

We have to have robust curriculum and the kind of conditions that help meet kids on those needs. That's a prescription for success.

But if we're not all working together, if the first impulse is to scream at one another, as opposed to engage and roll up our sleeves, then we're not going to help all kids. And I think when he makes a speech like this as he did today that says, look -- reminds us of our collective responsibility and reminds everyone of their individual responsibility, that's a good day for education.

VELSHI: Right. This is a case of collective and individual responsibility. And Randi, of course, as you know, all good topics in this country cause us to want to scream at each other.

Tony, do you feel as a teacher that that is the case? A lot of teachers in this country and their unions have complained that the first impulse is to scream, and sometimes it's to scream at the teachers.

MULLEN: Yes, well, but that's OK. That's part of the job. You know, part of the job is we need to be thick-skinned.

But I also think the president made a very good, important point when he talked about how the students get to write their own destiny. And that's what quality teachers do.

Quality teachers remind students that their origin is not their destiny. And what we also do, quality teachers, good teachers, the bulk of America's teachers, is we teach our students one simple math lesson, and we tell them, you need to know this math lesson not only throughout school, but throughout life. And that math lesson is that the sum of all their yesterdays doesn't equal the value of just one tomorrow.

VELSHI: Very interesting.

MULLEN: And I think that's what the president was trying to get across today.

Randi, it's good when you have got a school teacher who was 20 years on the street as an NYPD police officer talking about tough skin

WEINGARTEN: I loved that.

VELSHI: He doesn't seem to care if anybody's yelling at him.

WEINGARTEN: When he was walking the beat as we were in the schools, right.

VELSHI: That's right.

WEINGARTEN: But look, Tony --

VELSHI: Go ahead.

WEINGARTEN: Tony is a great teacher. I met Tony. I love Tony.

And what we also need to do is we need to support our teachers. And what teachers are basically saying through the country is, support us, don't scapegoat us.

We know we want to be good. We want to make a difference in the lives of kids. We need the conditions and the tools to help us.

VELSHI: Well, if the conversation doesn't happen everywhere else, it will happen on this show. We will always keep all sides talking on this.

Randi, great to see you, as always.

WEINGARTEN: Thank you.

VELSHI: Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Tony Mullen is a teacher of at-risk students here in New York City and was the National Teacher of the Year last year.

Thank you to both of you.

MULLEN: OK. Thank you.

WEINGARTEN: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right. We've got hurricane pictures from outer space. You're not going to believe your eyes. We're going to take you "Off the Radar" and on a wild ride when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. At last, freedom for American Sarah Shourd. She's on her way home after 14 months in an Iranian prison. But here's the bittersweet part: her fiance and another friend remain behind bars.

It's a sad story, and we're going "Globe Trekking" straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Globe Trekking." To Iran. For the first time in 14 months, American Sarah Shourd is enjoying her freedom. She was released from a Tehran prison and is now on her way home. These pictures just in show - just in to CNN show Shourd. She was walking toward the plane. There she is on the plane, taking her first to Oman, which is the first leg of her much-awaited trip home. As for her fiance and another American friend - they were arrested together -- those two remain behind bars. They're all accused of spying after all three allegedly strayed into Iran while hiking across the border in Iraq.

CNN's Mary Snow following developments here with me in New York. But first, joining us on the phone, senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, who is in Oman. Nic, bring us up to speed.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Ali, she arrived -- Sarah arrived just about half an hour ago, just a little over half an hour ago. She was met here at the airport by her mother and by her uncle. The reason she came to Oman -- apparently, the Omanni government helped facilitate that half a million dollar bail for her. That has been paid.

And as she was leaving to go to that flight, a chartered flight that was to fly her here to Oman, she said, "I want to really offer my thanks to everyone in the world, all the governments, all the people involved." She also said "I especially want to address President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, and all the Iranian officials, the religious leaders and thank them for this humanitarian gesture," she said.

Now, it's not clear exactly where she's going to move on from the capital here in Muscat here in Oman, whether she'll wait here for a few hours or try to catch a flight tomorrow. It's late in the evening here right now, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Nic Robertson, thanks very much. You'll bring us up to speed if you hear anything else about it.

Mary Snow also following the story from the United States. Mary, what do you know? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just want to pick up. We're learning more about what Nic had mentioned in terms of these funds. And our Lisa Labbett (ph) at the State Department confirmed through a senior administration official that these funds came from Oman. Clearly, the White House and State Department thanking Oman for its involvement, a country with relations with Iran. They also thank the Swiss, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran.

As Nic mentioned, Sarah Shourd before she left made those comments. Her mother also issuing a statement earlier, obviously before they were reunited saying, "I hoped and prayed for this moment for 410 days and cannot wait to wrap Sarah in my arms and hold her close when we are finally together again. I urgently appeal to Iran not to delay granting Shane and Josh's families the same joy and relief that I have in knowing Sarah is finally free."

And of course, Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, still being detained. Unclear at this point now what happens with them.

VELSHI: She's out on bail which means she may have to go back for a trial?

SNOW: That is really the big question. When the State Department spokesman was asked about that today, he is saying that this is an Iranian matter. So, was not very clear about what happens now, because as you said --

VELSHI: Nothing about this has been entirely clear, although her mother was clear about the fact that Sarah had some health issues, which is why it was really important she get health care.

SNOW: Yes. And she's made this appear before to officials in Iran to let her go to be treated for this medical condition. She had a preexisting gynecological condition, but also what has -- we now know is that Sarah Shourd had apparently told her mother that she'd found a lump in her breast. Remember the mothers were allowed to visit their children for two days back in May, and she had apparently conveyed that information to her.

VELSHI: OK. Mary, we'll stay on top of this. Thanks very much with you and with Nic Robertson.

Coming up next, "Mission Possible.' We're going to talk about a filmmaker's faith in his latest, very personal project. The film's name is "Mooz-lum." You can guess the rest. And I'll tell you about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: A trio of guests with us for today's "Mission Possible." They are all part of a new movie called "Mooz-Lum." The film is about a young Muslim-American facing some serious issues of faith and identity. It's coming out in a very opportune -- or inopportune time, depending how you look at it.

Kassim Bassir is the writer and director. He's here with me in New York. Dana Offenbach is a producer, also in New York. And Roger Gun - I'm sorry, I didn't know how to pronounce your name, Roger. He is an actor in the show, joining me from L.A.

Thank you to all of us (sic) for joining us. I want to start with you, Kassim. This is -- it's kind of auto biographical. It's inspired by your upbringing. You're Muslim?

KASSIM BASSIR, WRITER/DIRECTOR, "MOOZ-LUM": Yes.

VELSHI: And you grew up in Michigan?

BASSIR: Yes.

VELSHI: You had sort of a typical American upbringing in many ways?

BASSIR: Absolutely.

VELSHI: And then at some point, it became clear to you that you were not the same as everybody else. You were being treated as an other.

BASSIR: Right. Right.

VELSHI: Pick it up from there.

BASSIR: Well, the reason I made this film, I was raised a certain way. I was raised learning a lot of different things about love and acceptance and forgiveness, that kind of stuff. None of which is what's being portrayed nowadays of the whole extremism, terrorism -- that angle. So, I felt like I need to do something about it, and my voice is pretty much writing this film.

VELSHI: You - there's something very interesting that you wrote and I picked up on. You said you as an American not only live in fear of terrorism, you live in fear of being associated with terrorism.

BASSIR: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's like, the issue here at the root of this whole thing is the fact that there's this other approach, and people not realizing we are Americans as well. Like we're here as well. If something happens here, we're going to be victims as well --

VELSHI: And there were.

BASSIR: -- they were victims in 9/11 as well. So, I mean, it's just like, we have to come at an approach of togetherness thing and fight this thing together, you know, because we're fighting against it as well.

VELSHI: Let's -- Dana, let me bring you in. You're Jewish- American. And you guys didn't really think when you were coming out with this movie that it would be, as I say opportune or inopportune a time depending how you look at it, but that we'd be completely immersed in this dialogue about the role of Muslims in America. Tell me your view on the timing and perspective that you bring to this. DANA OFFENBACH, MOVIE PRODUCER: Well, I think the timing post- 9/11, I think the timing was always right to raise these subjects in a film. And I think, obviously, we're hoping that we can add something to the national conversation. We all had our own conversations while making this movie.

You know, I'm Jewish. Kassim is Muslim. We've had an amazing relationship and continue to do so. Roger, I'm not exactly sure of his faith, but we've all really worked together. And we as a group of people made this film in a spirit that we would like our country to move forward. The messages that we want to project are all in the film. If you just watch the film, you'll know how we all feel about everything.

VELSHI: Hey, Roger -- she doesn't know what your faith is. I'm still trying to struggle to pronounce your name. Can you tell me how to pronounce your name?

ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH, ACTOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: My name is Roger Geunveur Smith -

VELSHI: OK, that's easy. That was easy.

SMITH: Smith is S-M-I-T-H.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Roger, you're in the movie. You're actually playing a part in this movie. Tell me about it again. I can't get past the idea of perspective, because this looks like a movie somewhere on the fringe but that it is possibly the most talked about issue in America right now.

SMITH: I don't think that it's on the fringe. I think it's really in the tradition of great first films. And (AUDIO GAP) great young filmmaker who has made a brave, courageous film which is semi- autobiographical in nature. And really minds the dilemma of faith and also of youth and also of family. And it's something that I think speaks to a very wide audience. And it speaks in a peculiar way because of this peculiar time in which we're living right now.

VELSHI: But Kassim, you didn't do it for this particular time, ironically.

BASSIR: No, no, no.

VELSHI: This was -- you were going to tell the story anyway.

BASSIR: Anyway. Yes. It just -- the stars aligned. And like Dana says this conversation is happening out, and we'd just like to be added to the conversation. Hopefully, we can turn the view of the conversation in a different direction by the placement of this film, by opening people's eyes to a different side of what Islam or Muslims in America are, because it's a whole vast group of people.

VELSHI: I think that's the key. Everybody wants to know what they are, and maybe the story is that they aren't one. They aren't one thing.

Tell me where people can see this movie.

BASSIR: You can go to moozlumthemovie.com. You can converse with us on Facebook. We do not know exactly when it's coming out. But we will be premiering this Friday in New York. We'll be in Chicago at the Chicago International Film Festival next month. We're in Urban World Film Festival here.

VELSHI: Great. I hope people get to see it.

BASSIR: Yes. Absolutely. Me too.

VELSHI: Thank you to - ha, yeah -- you.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Thank you to Dana, and thank you to Roger Guenvuer Smith. Got that right, finally, on my third try. Thank you to all of you.

Good luck with this great work. Good to have you out here. God knows we all need more information on this topic. Everybody is talking about it.

If you'd like more information on "Mooz-Lum" the movie, we have a link to the official site over at my Web site, CNN.com/ali.

All right. Where is he? Where is he? Is he there? It's that time. There he is. Ed Henry standing by at the White House. Our man, our senior White House correspondent deciding to go back to school after the president's pep talk to students. Let's talk to him about that on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It is time for our "CNN Equals Politics" update. It is primary day and senior political analyst Gloria Borger is in Washington with the hour's latest headlines from CNN.com political ticker.

I'm just getting spoiled, Gloria. You, Jessica, Paul, Mark.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So much fun.

VELSHI: Good fun for me. Tell me what's crossing the wires right now.

BORGER: Well, I thought I'd start with an economic issue for you, Ali, because as you know, there's been lots of talk at the White House about naming Elizabeth Warren, who is a fierce consumer advocate as head of that new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. We have a new story on the wire here from Ted Barrett, our congressional producer, and Ed Henry, whom you know, that, in fact, there's been talk that the White House might name her to the job as an interim head, which would mean that she wouldn't have to get confirmed by the Senate.

But today, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd, said, no way, don't do it that way. You need the institutional support for her and if you do it that way you, quote, "could gut this before it even gets of the ground."

And back out on the campaign trail, you know, we've got this hot race in Delaware between an insurgent candidate and an incumbent congressman, Mike Castle. Today, our Dana Bash caught up with the man who heads the Senate campaign committee and he made it very clear: this race is the linchpin for them to take control of the Senate. And Senator John Cornyn also said that if she won, if Christine O'Donnell wins, then he would, quote, "have to have a powwow about whether the campaign committee would actually fund her candidacy against the Democrat."

So that's -- that's a big deal, Ali.

VELSHI: Gloria, thank you so much for that.

BORGER: Sure.

VELSHI: Glad you guys are all on top of it. And thank you for starting off with an economic issue for me. Gloria Borger in Washington.

Ed Henry is -- is he there or is he coming? Oh, OK. You're not standing next to Gloria. This is all very confusing keeping track of what you were all --

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. Yes, we were going to handoff.

VELSHI: Didn't you feel like going back to school? Sorry.

HENRY: I think it was nice of Gloria -- it is like going back to school and that's why I thought it was nice for Gloria to kind of break it down in an easy way for you to understand, Ali.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: I like the bullet points. And yes, I like it. What do you think of the speech?

HENRY: You know, it was interesting because mostly at how noncontroversial it was. I mean, you've been talking about how last year there were conservatives suggesting that, you know, everything was going to come apart and that our children were just going to be indo indoctrinated into what some called a socialist agenda by the president. It's interesting that Jim Greer, the Republican Party chairman of Florida -- it's on the political ticker right now, in fact, at CNN.com -- is recanting and saying, you know, he's in a lot of trouble now and he's facing all kinds of ethics allegations. And so, he's going through a lot of difficulties.

Nevertheless, he's saying a year ago, he made a huge mistake by suggesting that kids were going to be indoctrinated. He's apologizing to the president and saying there were just intolerant people in the Republican Party, in his view, who just wanted to beat up on the president last year.

And so, this was a very simple message from the president.

And what's amusing to White House aides is that there's all these storms kicked up about things that turned out to be noncontroversial and I think it ties back to the whole John Boehner thing in a way, because when you ask White House aides why have you, all of a sudden, taken on Boehner in such a direct way, and in part, they say, because for the last 20 months, they've watched as conservatives have beaten up on this White House on one issue after another. It's basically been the president's stimulus, the president's health care plan, the president's tax cuts or increases. And it's all him and they can attack.

So, the White House decided to finally put a Republican alternative out there in John Boehner to maybe even things out and they seem to be scoring some points that way.

VELSHI: John Boehner -- we're still parsing his words from the weekend. Has he done any more on taxes? He sort of said if he's left with no other choice but to vote for what the Democrats want and that is to extend tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts for the middle class but not for the wealthy, if that's all he's got to vote on, he'll do it.

HENRY: I haven't heard him saying anything new today. What's interesting, tonight, there's a big book party here in Washington for young guns Eric Cantor and some of the other younger Republican leaders who are not always on the same page as John Boehner. There's been talk in Washington that John Boehner is going to this book party with some of these upstart conservatives tonight because they have sort of their own agenda, their own book that's coming out, little manifesto about what they think should happen if Republicans take control of Congress.

And it was interesting, yesterday, one of those young guns, Eric Cantor, had the opportunity to bail John Boehner out and instead kind of ignored what Boehner said and said, you know what, we want to make sure all the Bush tax cuts are extended -- not just the middle class ones that John Boehner was talking about but the ones for the rich, et cetera.

Now, John Boehner's office keeps pointing out that later in that CBS interview, Boehner still stressed that he wants to extend all the -- all the Bush tax cuts. But the fact that he zeroed in on the middle class tax cuts there for a second and that's in line with where the president is, there are Republicans who feel that he gave up a negotiating tactic, gave up too much to the president before these negotiations have even started.

VELSHI: We like to be nonpartisan here, so I'm afraid that if I say these people are going to say either that we're big Republicans or we're somehow in John Boehner's pocket. But something you haven't brought up about John Boehner that I would think -- something he has in common with us. Have you seen his ties? He wears -- he always wears a colorful tie. He likes ties.

HENRY: Yes. You know what? He likes the color green. I don't wear a lot of -- a lot of green ties. I don't know if you do. But John Boehner likes that color.

VELSHI: See if he wants to come on the -- see if he wants to come on the segment. By the way -- see, look, he's got an orange tie on in this video that we're looking at. Do you know that Roland is coming out with a line of ties and ascots, by the way, our friend Roland Martin?

HENRY: Come on. Are you serious? I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. He's such a snappy dresser.

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: But maybe we should -- we should look at doing a Henry/Velshi line, I think.

VELSHI: We should do a competing line. Or maybe we can be a sub-brand of Roland Martin's. But he said he'd like us to wear some. So, we may --

HENRY: Why should we -- why should we cede this to Roland Martin?

VELSHI: That's a good point.

HENRY: Why cede this to Roland Martin?

VELSHI: This is not a fantastic day for you to be making this case. I don't even see that your tie has a color or pattern on it. But, you know what I'm saying, generally speaking, I get what you're saying.

HENRY: It's a solid tie.

VELSHI: That's crazy.

All right. Ed, good to see you, my friend. Ed Henry at the stakeout at the White House. Normally, he's got fantastic ties on.

Elections, colors, schools -- one word says it all in "Wordplay" when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Wordplay." And today, we're all about the basics, the fundamentals, the utmost in rank or importance. That's why our word today is "primary." It comes up in both of our big stories.

There are primary schools, which prepare our kids for high school and college, we hope.

And primary elections, which choose the party candidates for the general elections to follow. If you don't think these elections matter, ask Arlen Specter, Lisa Murkowski or Bob Bennett. They're all United States senators who lost the right to run for reelection in November. Sometimes, primary elections are tantamount to general elections as in Washington, D.C., where Democrat voters so outnumber Republicans that the winner of tonight's Democratic mayoral primary can pretty much plan his inauguration.

One final note of primary importance: you'll find the best political team on television only on CNN.

Lowering taxes -- always a good idea, right? Not so much. What I might say in "XYZ" might get some of you riled up. But I think every American needs to hear it.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ" of it.

As things stand, President Obama wants to extend the Bush era tax cuts that apply to the middle class or households earning less than $250,000 a year. That means about 97 percent of Americans would continue to get the breaks. And that sounds like a great thing.

But let me put this into perspective. First, it's not free. Extending the tax breaks to the top 3 percent of earners would cost between $650 billion and $700 billion. Extending it to the rest of us will cost a lot more, possibly $3 trillion.

Everyone wants to pay less in taxes but with an economy with a debt like America's -- that may not be a brilliant idea. Arguments that it will grind economy to the halt may not hold much water either. Our tax rates are relatively low and we have not seen a huge surge in spending.

I say this because American voters need to come to terms with this issue. It seems obvious that if you're concerned about the economy, you'll vote for someone who wants to cut taxes, the deficit and the debt. But those things don't go hand in hand.

Wanting to bring down the debt and deficit, well, higher taxes may be the most immediate way to do that because those dollars go directly into government coffers.

Cutting taxes is a roundabout way of doing it. You cut taxes, people in business have more money to spend and theoretically, they spend that money in ways that either create jobs or increase domestic demand, which creates jobs. But that assumes that those people have enough faith in the economy that they won't just pocket their tax savings.

I say this so you can make an informed decision at the voting booth. Who can you fault for wanting to pay lower taxes but just don't be fooled into thinking that you, if you are the average American, are going to be paying less of anything. The victory for you have might be the existing Bush tax cuts being extended. Lower taxes are not feasibly in our future -- at least not until this economy really picks up.

That's it for me. Time now for Rick and "RICK'S LIST."