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Airline Mergers and Your Fees; Getting Kids to Eat Breakfast at School; A Domestic Mission; Obama to Hit Campaign Trail; Enviro-Pig Debuts; Security Versus Privacy on the Internet

Aired September 27, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A new "Rundown," a new hour. We are following two major developing stories.

Two discount airlines are announcing plans to tie the knot on the same week that Continental and Unite become one airline. With fares and fees already going up, what are these new unions in the sky mean for you? I'll tell you.

Also, backhoes and bulldozers are up and running again at Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and they're casting a dusty cloud over the peace process. Will the resumed construction derail Mideast peace talks?

Let's start with the airlines.

Once again, a familiar name disappearing, not really going away. AirTran, a discount carrier based in Orlando, Florida, is being bought by Southwest, the Dallas-based carrier known for doing things its own way and often quite successfully. Southwest is paying roughly $1.4 billion in cash and stock, but when you figure in AirTran's debt and lease obligations, the price comes to $3.4 billion.

At the moment, each carrier flies to 69 U.S. cities, but Southwest is quite a bit larger. Last year, for instance, Southwest, which you can see on the left, flew more than 100 million passengers. AirTran, on the right, flew 24 million passengers. Southwest flew 544 aircraft. AirTran has 138. The vast majority of both of those aircraft, however, are 737 s, making it easy to maintain them.

If regulators and shareholders approve, this will be the third major airline consolidation in two years. United and Continental are due to close their merger days from now, becoming the largest airline in America. Today that title belongs to Delta, which acquired Northwest back in 2008.

Well, enough with the facts and figures. What about fares and fees?

Joining me now from Dallas is Rick Seaney. He's the CEO of FareCompare.com. Rick tracks airfares, and he is seen them going up, along with fees. First of all, Rick, what's the effect of two discount airliners joining hands? Does that do what we normally think happens when airlines consolidate, taking fares up, or not necessarily in this case?

RICK SEANEY, CEO, FARECOMPARE.COM: It's not necessarily true. It's hard to tell because we haven't seen one of these in a while, or ever, to my knowledge, actually.

But the bottom line is these airlines are the ones that are setting typically the lowest price point. These airlines also have gotten much more sophisticated over the last years, and are not always the lowest price in certain routes. If they see their planes completely full, they're going to raise their prices just as high as their legacy brethren.

VELSHI: Now, let's talk about Southwest effect. This is something that Southwest sort of brags about. When they go into a new market, they can sometimes bring the prices down as the other legacy airlines try and compete with them.

Are we likely to see any of that Southwest effect? In other words, the opposite of prices going up, are we likely to see some prices going down?

SEANEY: Absolutely. I think you will see some prices going go down. They'll test the markets with the new Southwest brand, especially Atlanta. That will be a whole new branding campaign with no bag fees out of Atlanta.

So I expect them to do all sorts of weird and wonderful marketing things. I think more importantly, this is a couple of years down the road. They're going to go through antitrust, they're going to go through a bunch of stuff. Their reservations systems are completely different. This is not going to be an easy merger.

VELSHI: Let's talk a little bit about the fees. You mentioned fees. Let's talk about fares and fees.

You've been saying for some months now that you've seen steady increases in aircraft after a 2008 and a 2009 that was really a fantastic deal for passengers. Tell me a bit about some of the fees and fares.

SEANEY: Yes. I mean, right now fees are going to be there. If people think that fees are going to go away, forget about it. Fees are going to be here for the rest of our life.

So people are going to have to start getting used to getting around these fees. We're going to see the legacy airlines continue with these fees. We're talking $9 billion projected this year in these fee revenues, so it's not going away.

Now, interestingly enough, AirTran has a lot of these fees like bag fees and a change fee which probably will go away. So, consumers on AirTran are fixing to get a little break on pricing for sure out of all of the cities they fly out of. But the bottom line is fees are not going to go away.

VELSHI: All right, Rick. Good to see you, as always. Thanks very much. We'll follow these developments very closely and see how they end up affecting our viewers and the airline customers.

Rick Seaney is the CEO of FareCompare.com, joining me from Dallas.

Our "Sound Effect" comes from the side of air travel that nobody really wants to think about. Delta connection Flight 4951, en route from Atlanta to White Plains, New York, just north of the city, late Saturday night, the flight crew noticed something wrong.

Here's what the pilot told Air Traffic Control.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4951.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is 4951, New York approach. Go ahead.

Yes. We can't -- we've been running down the checklist and talking to our maintenance and approach -- our maintenance and dispatcher, and we have not been able to get the landing gear down. Our preference would be to proceed over to JFK and execute an emergency landing over there. And if it's completely obvious, I just want to confirm, we are declaring an emergency.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, that didn't sound all that urgent. That's because that was the mark of an experienced pilot.

Check out the more urgent tone of a flight attendant who had to convince those passengers that they were not yet out of danger. This is as the plane was touching down, minutes later.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brace for impact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down!

(APPLAUSE)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

VELSHI: You can see there, the right landing gear was stuck. That was the right wing tip you saw throwing off some sparks. Everybody got out safely. Nobody was hurt.

All right. Fighting hunger in the classroom could be the answer to some of the failing grades and discipline problems at our schools. We'll talk about how to fix this problem, free of charge, coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. I want to bring you some news that we're working on getting confirmation on. Reuters is reporting that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has named his son, Kim Jong-un, as a general in the country.

This is being reported, according to Reuters, by official state media in North Korea. It's the first mention of the son who is considered the heir to Kim Jong-il. It also says that he's named his sister to general, as well.

So we're trying to find out whether this is a step in the succession of Kim Jong-il. We'll get more information to you on that as soon as we get it. Our CNN team working to confirm that report.

CNN is taking a cross-country food journey this week. I kind of feel like I'm taking a cross-country food journey every week. But we've sent reporting teams to every corner of America and beyond.

Our mission is to get fresh answers about how our food is grown, how the choices we make have an impact on our health, our state of mind, our budgets, and the pure joy of eating. That's where I come in.

We're also taking our "Chalk Talk" segment into the school cafeteria today. As you know, we talk about public education every day. For many needy kids, their only meal of the day is a free or reduced lunch at school.

But what about breakfast? A lot of people say it's the most important meal of the day, yet half of students who qualify for free school meals are actually not getting breakfast.

Joining us now is Gary Davis. He's the founder of the Got Breakfast Foundation.

Gary, good to see you. What are you working on?

GARY DAVIS, FOUNDER, GOT BREAKFAST FOUNDATION: Good to see you, Ali.

Well, there's 22 million eligible children in this country, and they're eligible for breakfast and lunch. Eighteen and a half million of these children are participating in the lunch program, yet less than 10 million of these children are being served breakfast. And most of these children are in need children who come from families who are deemed poverty.

VELSHI: Right. And tell me why they're not getting it. Is that the kids who are not taking advantage of it, or the schools are not supplying it?

DAVIS: Well, it's a combination of many circumstances. First, the cafeterias are too small to accommodate the entire school population for breakfast. For lunch, they have staggered lunch periods, and they go five to six lunch periods. But for breakfast, it's not practical.

They get off the school bus, they rush into the cafeteria. And at most, maybe 20 percent can be accommodated.

But even more important, once a child gets to his adolescent stage, no matter how hungry he or she may be, his last meal might have been the lunch the day before. They don't want to show their peers that they're hungry.

VELSHI: How big a problem is that? Because we've heard this and we've talked about it on this show. For how many people is the only meal they get at school?

DAVIS: Well, right now we have food-insecure children. The amount of food-insecure children in this country is approaching 15 million food-insecure children. Fifteen million.

VELSHI: Wow. Which means they're not sure where their next meal is coming from.

DAVIS: Right. And in many cases, the only meal they get is lunch. But all of them could be receiving breakfast and lunch every day. And sadly, there's a tremendous shortfall there.

VELSHI: What about the efforts to get breakfast to kids who can pay? Why is that happening?

DAVIS: Well, it's -- again, it becomes one of -- we proposed universal mandated classroom breakfast. The key to feeding the kids breakfast every day is to mandate classroom breakfast, bring the breakfast to the children.

We can't depend upon the children going to the breakfast because it just doesn't work. So we proposed a classroom breakfast initiative.

School districts that are trying classroom breakfasts, such as San Diego, Milwaukee, Newark, New Jersey, they increased their breakfast participation from 22 percent to over 90 percent. And the difference in discipline, the difference in test scores and eventually graduation rates is gigantic.

VELSHI: So you think that this issue of feeding kids properly can really, really improve their performance?

DAVIS: We know it can. In Maryland, Maryland Meals for Achievement, every year when the state of Maryland test their students, they feed every child in their school district breakfast each day so that they will test higher. So it's proven. Wherever schools implement classroom breakfast, they do better in school, there's less discipline problems, and we're filling empty stomachs.

VELSHI: Right. Good cause.

Gary Davis, good to see you. Thanks so much.

Gary is the founder of the Got Breakfast Foundation, and the founder and CEO of E S Foods.

DAVIS: Ali, great to be with you.

VELSHI: My pleasure.

All right. For complete coverage, by the way, of "Eatocracy: Mind, Body and Wallet," head to CNN.com/eatocracy.

Straight ahead, you'll meet some missionaries who travel to far off lands. They go deep into their own communities instead. They're part of our "Black in America" special, "Almighty Debt."

Stay with us. I'll have that on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In the last hour, President Obama signed the Small Business Aid Bill after nearly a year of discussions. It gives $12 billion in tax breaks and creates a $30 billion fund that community banks can access to lend to small businesses.

If you want to understand why this matters so much to the president and to the rest of us, it boils down to jobs. Small business is often called the engine of job growth in America, and the White House is hoping to create half a million jobs with this program.

The economics are pretty simple. You lend money to a small business so it can expand, and in turn, it hires workers to fill that expansion.

In this case, the argument is that a credit crunch still exists for small businesses. This will help those businesses borrow money and help them do that.

This isn't being welcomed by everyone though. Critics argue that credit availability isn't the real issue. It's the lack of customers, the lack of consumer spending. No customers, no real need to expand your business. But taxes and jobs are two of the hottest election issues, so there's much at stake here.

And when you hear the word "missionary," you probably think of someone working in some far off, third world country, but these days we need domestic missionaries more than ever, and the black church is stepping up.

Soledad O'Brien introduces us to one man whose mission is to rally black Americans to serve their own communities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEROY BARBER, PRESIDENT, MISSION YEAR: I'm the Jackie Robinson of missions, you know.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leroy Barber is a man with a calling, and he's the president of Mission Year. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears.

O'BRIEN: It's a year-long ministry and volunteer program for Christian young adults in the United States.

BARBER: There is a goal for people coming to know Jesus. There is probably another strong goal of things are not right in the world, and I want to be part of making them right.

O'BRIEN (on camera): How many African-Americans are involved in Mission Year's missionary work?

BARBER: Generally about five percent a year or less sometimes.

O'BRIEN: So why does that matter?

BARBER: I don't think it's good for a kid growing up in an urban neighborhood, to only see white faces coming to serve.

HAROLD BOYD, MISSION YEAR: This is where I'm staying right now.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Twenty-two-year-old Harold Boyd left his Chicago home to spend the year in Atlanta. He lives on $12,000 that he has to raise himself.

BOYD: I do believe that with every relationship that I build that I'll be showing people that I'm in the same struggle as you are.

I don't have all of the answers.

O'BRIEN: He is the only minority on the team. It's not surprising when you consider the vast majority of missionaries are white.

JIM SUTHERLAND, RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES WORK INC.: In terms of the mission area percentage of African-Americans it's less, far less than 1 percent.

O'BRIEN: Jim Sutherland studies missionary work and the black church.

SUTHERLAND: Many black churches are -- do a fairly good job of taking care of their own local communities but the vocation of missionary in the African-American church is essentially off the radar. It's basically not there.

O'BRIEN (on camera): So why are there so few African-Americans who are involved in missionary work?

BARBER: I think the way missions is traditionally done is you raise support to do it and --

O'BRIEN: Money.

BARBER: Money. How you work out taking a year off which means not working, not earning an income.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): For many African-Americans it's difficult to make this enormous financial sacrifice especially during a recession.

For Harold Boyd it's worth the sacrifice.

BOYD: What really inspired me was the work of missions of being able to see what's out there and see what people need, I don't think I could stab anybody with the gospel. You know, here, here, have it. But I'm called to serve here and I'm going to serve.

O'BRIEN: Reporting for "In America," Soledad O'Brien, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: The black church has fought for civil and human rights and now is waging a war on debt. "Almighty Debt," a "BLACK IN AMERICA" special, coming Thursday, October 21st, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

All right. Floodwaters pour into a Wisconsin neighborhood, forcing people in up to 100 homes to scramble for higher ground. We're going do check in with the CNN Severe Weather center to see what is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Hey, some bad news for President Obama's Mideast peace offenses. After a 10-month freeze, Israel has resumed settlement construction in the West Bank. That was something the Palestinians say would make them walk away from the talks.

So what happens next? Stay with me. I'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Globe Trekking."

Our first stop is Pakistan. The government has strongly protested NATO air strikes that killed some 50 militants in Pakistan's eastern tribal area. It happened over the weekend after insurgents attacked an Afghan security post and fled across the border into Pakistan.

NATO defended the strike on grounds of hot pursuit, saying it has the right to cross a few miles into Pakistan air space if its forces are attacked. Pakistan says the attack violated its sovereignty. It's not clear which militant group crossed into Afghanistan, but NATO believes they were member of an al Qaeda-linked group.

Moving now to Israel and a setback today for the new U.S.- brokered Mideast peace talks. Israel resumed the construction of new settlements in the West Bank. The Obama administration had urged the Israelis not to end a 10-month moratorium during talks in Washington earlier this month. Those talks were the first between Israelis and Palestinians in nearly two years.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments. She joins us now from Jerusalem -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, driving around the West Bank this Monday, it was very clear that the settlers have started building once again. We saw it in more than one settlement across the whole of the West Bank, and this has caused disappointment to many people, not just the Palestinians, who have called for this freeze to be extended.

We've heard disappointed, as you say, from the U.S., also from the European Union, from United Nations. All sides wanted Israel to extend this 10-month settlement freeze.

Now, we heard from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, today as well. He was in France talking with President Sarkozy. And he said that he wanted just another three or four months.

He said the 10-month moratorium on settlement construction happened when there were no talks. So now there are talks, it's even more important.

Now, of course, it's left the Palestinian president in a bit of a sticky situation. Remember, he did say, "If they start building again, we'll walk away from peace talks." They have started building again, but now he's saying he wants another week to think about it.

There's an Arab League meeting next week. He's going to find out what the Arab countries think he should do, have a unified stance against this, and figure out if it's even worth having these peace talks with Israel while settlement construction keeps going on -- Ali.

VELSHI: Paula, just give me a little bit of context here. It would seem that these things had some life in them, these settlement talks, and it would seem that everybody -- all the parties to it really felt that these settlements were going to increase tensions. Why is it not a simple matter for Netanyahu to say, wait a minute, stop these things until we think we're losing traction in the peace talks?

HANCOCKS: Well, the first answer is the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always in his career supported the settlement enterprise within the West Bank. And also, bear in mind, his coalition is a fairly right-wing coalition. It is a very pro-settler coalition. So, he's under a fair bit of pressure back home. He can talk to the Palestinians but there are some within his coalition that don't even think he should be talking, and certainly don't think he should have agreed to that ten-month settlement freeze. So, really, he felt a lot of pressure from this side. But the fact is he felt an awful more pressure from the rest of the world, the whole of the international community, really trying to persuade him to extend this settlement freeze. Now, what he has done is he has said nothing. He brought out a statement that didn't even mention the word settlement. So, he's probably hoping this will blow over. Certainly, it's unlikely that it is going to blow over as the Palestinians and the Arab countries have such a problem with settlement building on the occupied West Bank, land which Palestinians want for their future state. Ali?

VELSHI: Paula, thanks very much for that. We'll of course continue to cover this closely along with you. Paula Hancocks in Jerusalem.

She lost half her sight, but she regained all her hope. And she's helping other Wounded Warriors do the same. "Mission Possible" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories we are following here at CNN. Southwest Airlines says it's buying AirTran for$1.4 billion. The move will allow Southwest to compete with Delta at Delta's home base in Atlanta, the world's busiest airport. It will also increase Southwest's stake in other big cities like New York and Boston. The deal still needs approval from shareholders and government regulators.

A 120-year-old levee along the Wisconsin River is failing, putting as many as 100 homes in danger of flooding. People downstream near the city of Portage have been urged to find higher ground. Officials say the sand levee began giving way last night under pressure from rising waters. The river is expected to stay above flood stage for several days.

And the leader of an Atlanta area megachurch vows to fight lawsuits claiming he coerced four young men into sexual acts. Bishop Eddie Long addressed the allegations during services yesterday at his packed sanctuary

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP EDDIE LONG, NEW BIRTH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: I feel like David against Goliath, but I got five rocks. And I haven't thrown one yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Long has repeatedly preached against gay marriage.

"Mission Possible" now. An explosion in Iraq took Marine reservist's Nancy Schiliro's eye, sending her into a severe and lengthy bout of depression. But after a string of surgeries, she went to Project Odyssey. It's a Wounded Warrior program that helps service members deal with combat stress. Nancy got her hope back, and she is now bringing it back to these.

Nancy Schiliro is here with me in New York. Nancy, good to see you again. You and I met another time when you were going to be here, and breaking news sort kicked our discussion out of the way. So, I feel like old friends now. Good to see you back.

NANCY SCHILIRO, WOUNDED WARRIOR PROGRAM ATTENDEE: Thank you.

VELSHI: Tell me a little bit about this project.

SCHILIRO: Well, Project Odyssey is a PTSD combat stress retreat. It's a week long, between 14 or 16 male or females. It helps them integrate back into civilian life and show them they can still do things they used to do before they were injured mentally.

VELSHI: What is the stress? What kinds of stresses are you dealing with at that point?

SCHILIRO: Well, we know a lot of men and welcome home physically injured, but we don't see the unseen scars, which is the mental illness they have. Basically, stressors could be triggers. Smells or scents or tastes. We try to help them cope with those triggers that they have on a daily basis and not let them isolate themselves by bringing them out into the open and doing outdoor activities to show them that they still can do other things.

VELSHI: OK, let's take it back to you. What happened to you? You signed up for the Marine reserves in 2003. April of 2003.

SCHILIRO: Sure did.

VELSHI: By -- I guess by about September 2004, you got a pretty last-minute call up.

SCHILIRO: Yes. Well, I was given 36 hours notice to deploy over to Iraq because my sergeant wasn't able to. So, I had to take his spot. Which a Marine is always ready. I packed my gear, and I left.

VELSHI: Sure.

SCHILIRO: And 2005, February of 205, I was at my fuel farm in Alesad (ph) Base. And a mortar had hit the base, and it was pretty close to where I was. And due to the injuries that I recieved, I ultimately losing my right eye because of that.

VELSHI: OK. And then you came back. And you had surgery. You obviously got a new eye, and -- but there was more to it than that. You were having some trouble. It sort of sent you into a depression.

SCHILIRO: Oh, sure. I was a 25-year-old female, no less. Now I had this disfigurement of not having an eyeball in my head. I mean, not to sound graphic, but that's -

VELSHI: What it is. Right.

SCHILIRO: For four months, I wasn't allowed to wear a prosthetic because I had to heal. So, in those four month, life still goes on, whether I'm injured or not. My brother got married, I had to go to a wedding like that. I mean, all these things came into play, and I completely isolated myself. Left myself in the room. Like most people, self medicate. I didn't think there was anything else out there for me as a female or as a 25-year-old anymore.

VELSHI: And now, what are the kinds of things that you are involved in that help others who have gone through similar experiences?

SCHILIRO: Sure. Well, I got into introduced to the Wounded Warrior Project through Project Odyssey. They had pulled me into an all-female one to help me out. I ended up loving it so much that I ended up going back to school with the help of the Wounded Warrior Project.

But I wasn't really quite happy with what I was doing until my boss now asked me to come work for the organization, and basically start where I started. And that's what I do today, is I have all of these men and welcome into my Project Odyssey. Basically show them, listen, this is what happened to me. It took years for me, and I'm still healing. I'm in the healing process. But that's what it took for me to get that step out into life.

VELSHI: You were a toughie to start with. You described yourself a tomboy.

SCHILIRO: Definitely a tomboy. Had four uncles, two brothers growing up, no female influence at all.

VELSHI: Now, what's this? You brought in this knapsack.

SCHILIRO: This is -- this is how Wounded Warrior Project actually started in 2003 by veterans themselves. This is how we welcome the men and women coming home. And we're at Walter Reed, Bethesda, Balboa, and now we're actually even out (INAUDIBLE) Germany, which they actually a smaller one. Basically just saying, hey, welcome home. We know you're injured and we know you don't have time right now. But when you get a chance, here are some comfort items, here's some information, give us a call.

VELSHI: Is there usually resistance to getting help?

SCHILIRO: Yes, there is.

VELSHI: Because you're all tough. You've gone over to fight a war. You're tough.

SCHILIRO: "Oh, nothing ever bothers us. We can get through this." I think what really hits you when you're back in the home in the States, you're like, what do I do now? Especially when the military says you're not fit for duty anymore and you joined at 17, wanting to do this for a career. Now, what do you do? You're 21 years old, you're and injured and you have nowhere to turn. That's where the resistance comes and they feel like they're useless comes.

VELSHI: Yes, and that really affects you. And it's tougher in a recession.

SCHILIRO: Definitely, yes.

VELSHI: All right. Nancy, great to see you. I'm glad we finally got a chance to talk.

SCHILIRO: Oh, thank you.

VELSHI: Thanks for the great work you do. Nancy Schiliro is a benefits liaison with the Wounded Warriors Project. She's former lance corporal in the Marines.

Now, one of the things that Nancy talks about is sometimes there's resistance at getting help. Maybe if you know somebody who is a wounded warrior or for that matter, if you are a wounded warrior looking for help, check out my blog, CNN.com/ali. We posted all the information about the Wounded Warrior program there. And you can get help for yourself or someone you know. Sometimes it can be as easy to make a phone call before you're in the system and someone is helping you out.

New economic poll numbers could add up to trouble for President Obama and the Democrats. Ed Henry standing by at the White House. We'll talk about that coming up and the day's other political topics, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Feels like forever since I have seen him. Hello, Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent here for "The Stakeout" at the White House. How are you, my friend?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm doing great. You still living off the high of the "Wall Street" movie? I mean, this is a big deal for you. It's cool.

VELSHI: I am waiting to get off the show so I can put my phone back on and take the casting calls that are surely coming in -- rapidly.

HENRY: Did you spend the whole weekend watching the movie, getting those tickets receipt up?

VELSHI: Right. I just kept going over and over and over to the movie. Have you seen it yet?

HENRY: I haven't seen it yet. I know you're going to be disappointed in me in saying that. But I'm determined to do this week. And I was wondering how much you paid A.J. Hammer to ask Oliver Stone about your role.

VELSHI: That was, like, a good set-up conversation, wasn't it? Yes, that was good.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: You've had a pretty exciting day. Not the same as being in a movie. You were there when the president was signing the small biz tax cut. I'm sure for you that was pretty exciting.

HENRY: That was pretty exciting for me, Ali. I can see from this moment forward pretty much any accomplishment or any news event I cover, anything I succeed at or fail out is going to be measured against your movie role. And I can deal with that --

VELSHI: Only on -- only until my next movie role.

HENRY: Only until -- I thought you were going to say until I'm in a movie. But you skipped right past that and said only until your second role. That's really good. I see how you think.

In all seriousness, I think this could be really helpful for small businesses. We've talked about the billions of dollars he's going to have in small business tax cuts, number one. And number two, and maybe more importantly, small business lending. Ten of billions of dollars to basically go into communities. You heard this story, you told the stories about how many small businesses say -- and they've come up to this president, by the way, at town hall meetings and the like and say, look, I want to hire people. I want to invest in my company, and yet I can't get the bank to loan me more money.

And so, this money is going to be targeted not to the big banks, but to community banks all around the country. And the White House believes that's going to make a difference.

Now, to get it passed, they had to overcome some opposition on the Republican side, and the president made a big deal about saying that there were two Republicans in the Senate who eventually supported Democrats on this. And that got it through.

And what I'm hearing from White House people is, you're going to hear the president saying that a lot in the coming days as he hits the campaign trail. He's really beefing it up this week, hitting four states. And he's going to really be laying out the -- you know, the fact that it's Republican opposition has been out there.

And this weekend, John Boehner was on "FOX News Sunday," and when he was asked about the "Pledge to America" the Republicans laid out, and when he was pressed for solutions on Social Security, Medicare, other big issues, Boehner was basically saying, Look, this is not about solutions. We're talking about the depth of the problem. We'll get to solutions later. Hearing from Democratic advisers you're going to hear the president jumping all over that, Ali.

VELSHI: Let's talk about polls. I'm definitely one of these guys who thinks that the public's right. I mean, when we -- before we were in a recession and the public was saying, according to polling, that we're in one, they behaved like they were in a recession. They stopped spending. That caused the recession. Now we're apparently out of a recession since June of 2009, but some new polling numbers suggest that a lot of people still think we're in a recession. Look at that, 74 percent say we're still in a recession, 25 percent say no.

Is that just negativity, or is that really affecting how the White House is making decisions?

HENRY: Well, it's affecting how they're making them because, look, there may be some negativity in there, but the bottom line is that's what matters more than any statistical analysis, as you know better than anyone that even if officially now, we've been told by economists the recession over and it was over months ago, when people are still feeling the recession in their bones, in their pocketbooks, the recession is still going on for all intents and purposes. And that's what the White House -- that's how they're operating politically.

I think the second number in the latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll that they're also going to pay attention to at the White House is this one basically asking, Do you think the president's policies have made the economy better? And when you only have 36 percent saying, Yes, it's made the situation better, 61 percent saying no, it has not made it better, this is the president's conundrum.

You know, he feels that it's going to take more time for these policies to take hold. Does he have -- is it going to take longer than 36 days, though? That's when the mid-term elections are coming. They're coming pretty fast. That's why the president's going on the road, four states this week. He's going to be in New Mexico tonight, Iowa, Wisconsin, as well as Richmond, Virginia. And so in the next few days, you're going to see him really amp this up, Ali.

VELSHI: Speak about amping it up, nice job from you, my friend! Good to see you again.

HENRY: Well, you know, I don't know if it's a Hollywood-style performance, but you know --

VELSHI: It was excellent. It was award-winning, no question about that.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Ed, good to see you, my friend. Hey, listen, are we going to try -- we're going to try out --

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: -- Emmys, by the way.

VELSHI: Oh, thank you, yes. We're up for an Emmy Award tonight. I'll tell you about that tomorrow, but if I don't tell you about that, don't bring it up.

HENRY: Well, yes. You know, I'm just a little worried that -- what did Oliver Stone call you? He said something about the bald dome?

VELSHI: The bald dome's going all the way.

HENRY: (INAUDIBLE) but he -- I'm just quoting him, the bald dome. How -- is that bald dome going to be able to get in the Time Warner Center tomorrow if you've got an Emmy under one shoulder (ph) and the Oliver Stone movie under the other? I mean, you have to admit, that's going to be pretty big. VELSHI: This will always be a part of my life, "The Stakeout" with Ed Henry.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Ed, good to see you, my friend. I'll talk to you all this week. Ed Henry at the White House.

And it is time now -- in case you didn't get enough politics out of Ed, it's time for a "CNN Equals Politics" update right now with two of my favorite guys, not as favorite as Ed Henry, but two of my second favorite guys, CNN senior political editor Mark Preston and deputy political editor Paul Steinhauser -- he knows I love him -- at the CNNpolitics.com desk in Washington.

Paul, you know, what's going on?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR: Ali, you know what -- Mark, you take it away. You start. I was just so hurt.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: You know, Ali, I don't even know how we can approach that. If I'm going to be your second favorite guy, maybe I'll give you a second-rate performance, you know, seeing that Ed Henry gives you such a great performance.

(LAUGHTER)

PRESTON: Let's talk about some news, Ali, all right? Enough is enough. President Obama -- what does he think about Rahm Emanuel running for mayor? Well, on NBC today, he said that Rahm is going to have to make a decision quickly about what he's going to do. Is he going to run? Is he not going to run? When asked by Matt Lauer of NBC would he endorse Emanuel for mayor, the president stepped back a little bit and said, Look, I've said I think he'd be an excellent mayor, but until he makes a decision, I'm not going to make decisions about how I'm going to approach it. So the president waiting for Rahm Emanuel to finally pull the trigger and say he's going to run for mayor.

And I think Paul's got a story there for you, Ali.

STEINHAUSER: Yes, Ali, coming up your way in New York, just about two hours ago, we had some big news in the gubernatorial battle in New York state. (INAUDIBLE) come on in and take a look at this. It's brand-new on "The Ticker" this afternoon. Rick Lazio, one of the Republicans up there, one of the Republican candidates for governor, he announced that's it, he's dropping his bid.

Now, he got beat pretty soundly in the GOP primary earlier this month by Carl Paladino, a Buffalo developer who was backed by the Tea Party movement. But guess what? Lazio had won the Conservative Party nomination, so he was technically still on the ballot. But today he said, That's it, no mas. But he did not endorse Paladino. Very interesting there. Of course, the Democratic nominee is the attorney general in New York state, Andrew Cuomo, the son of Mario Cuomo, the former governor. We're going to keep our eyes on this contest. Back to you, Mark.

PRESTON: You know, Ali, let's talk about a hot political contest in "God's country." And when I say "God's country," I mean Massachusetts. I know John King would back me up in that. But the governor's race up there right now is neck and neck. Governor Deval Patrick, a very close ally of President Obama, is tied, statistically tied now in a new "Boston Globe"/UNH poll. It shows that he is running neck and neck with the Republican, Charlie Baker, the independent candidate, the former Democrat, Tim Cahill, at 11 percent, very far back.

So it looks like it's a neck-and-neck race right now between the Democrat and Republican in Massachusetts. Ali, again, if we're talking about Democrats in trouble in Massachusetts, it just shows you how bad it is for Democrats potentially around the country -- Ali.

VELSHI: Yes, but it does show you that there are lots and lots of interesting races here. For anybody thinking that these mid-terms are something they don't really pay attention to, which is what happens for a lot of Americans, there really just are a lot of interesting races.

And the two of you make it remarkably compelling to follow the details of this election. I must say to you, you guys are -- you guys are contenders.

PRESTON: You've made up for the "We love Ed Henry" at the top.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: I know. You guys are good.

PRESTON: We'll give you that.

VELSHI: All right, Mark, Paul, thanks very much. And be sure to stay with CNN for completely coverage of the key races and key issues heading in to the critical mid-term elections. Your next "CNN Equals Politics" update just one hour away.

Are you hungry for some "Wordplay"? Straight ahead, we're serving up the other, other white meat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In today's edition of "Wordplay," we look at what's cooking in the DNA labs. Our word is "transgenic," as in -- trans as in crossing, genic as in genes. It's not what's for dinner yet, but it may be in the early future. Scientists in Canada have bred a pig that looks, acts and smells like the Yorkshire pigs that mean so much to pork lovers around the world. But this pig has some extra DNA from e. coli bacteria and a mouse. And that helps it digest phosphorus from corn and other feed sources. Undigested phosphorus winds up in manure, which farmers use as fertilizer and which inevitably winds up in rivers and creeks and lakes, which promotes algae growth that chokes off oxygen needed by fish. The FDA is evaluating the transgenic pig, dubbed "enviro-pig" by its breeders, but the first gene-altered to food to hit your dinner plate will probably be salmon.

You can bone up on all sorts of tasty food stories in this week's special coverage on Eatocracy. It's on the air, it's on the Web, Eatocracycnn.com. And there's a special "Five at 5:00 (ph)" video there about what I like to eat, if you want to know a little about that.

The government says wiretapping is too old school. It needs new ways to trail terrorists down the information superhighway. Oh, and maybe access your FaceBook page. Security versus privacy. My "XYZ" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ" of it. Another reminder today that the minimal standards of privacy that so many Americans crave in our increasingly wired world is simply an ideal. Today's front page of "The New York Times" says U.S. authorities are formulating new ways to wiretap criminal suspects on the Internet and other platforms. Internet and phone networks, the Verizons, AT&Ts and other carriers we Americans contract with to make phone calls or log on line, are already required to enable the government to eavesdrop on us. But now officials from the FBI, Justice Department, NSA and the White House reportedly want to extend that to communication providers.

That means the government could conceivably get a court order forcing BlackBerry or FaceBook to let it wiretap your handheld device or eavesdrop on your Web page. That is a game changer because BlackBerry and FaceBook encrypt their data between users. And in the case of BlackBerry, it routes data to servers in Canada, outside the reach of U.S. law. But these proposals would force both of them to unscramble and intercept messages for the U.S. government here in the United States.

Now, recently, countries like India and Saudi Arabia have been heavily criticized for threatening to ban BlackBerry services because they claim the devices' e-mail encryption poses a national security risk. The U.S. State Department criticized them for, quote, "threatening the free flow of information," end quote. But apparently, the U.S. government has no problem with authorities spying on BlackBerry customers.

And even bigger concern to the government, though, is peer-to- peer, instant messaging software, you know, Skype, that sort of thing. Those kinds of messages are not usually routed through a central hub, making it that much harder for the government to eavesdrop on suspects. Well, the solution? Force developers to insert a ready- made back door in their software, giving the government instant surveillance access whenever a judge orders it.

Critics say legally mandated back doors will be exploited by hackers and they'll compromise security. But of course, the big issue here is the erosion of privacy for the sake of public security. While it's unlikely that most of you are likely to become subjects of a federal wiretap warrant, some would say just opening this door shows a critical component of our on-line security could be compromised. It's definitely worth learning about and thinking about.

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