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Hungary's Toxic Sludge Clean-Up; Comics Go Pink for Cancer Awareness; Bush Versus Obama in New Poll; Trapped Miners Close to Rescue; Interview With Christine O'Donnell; Speaking Out for Tyler; Wordplay: Burqa; XYZ: Your Words Carry Weight

Aired October 08, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. It is top of the hour. I'm Don Lemon.

A new hour, a new "Rundown" right now.

Christine O'Donnell breaks her CNN silence, and boy does she have a whole lot to say about Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and the president. It's a bewitching interview only here on CNN.

Plus, the enemy in Afghanistan hired to guard our troops? That's what a new congressional probe finds. How could this happen? And are our troops even more in harm's way?

Also, what's with all the name-calling out there? I'm talking about kids. I'm talking about you too, adults. And I'll share some personal thoughts in my "XYZ" today.

But first, we want to get started right now. We're going to talk about being -- can you imagine being underground for 64 days? We have been awaiting a breakthrough in the Chilean miners' ordeal, and it may be just hours away.

That's when a giant drill normally used to bore waterholes is expected to tap the underground chamber where 33 gold and copper miners have been huddled together since their mineshaft collapsed on August 5th. And we have been seeing that video. There you see that drill going down, trying to get to them so that they can rescue them very soon, those men.

Can you imagine being there for 64 days?

The men won't be pulled instantly to safety. The rescue shaft may need to be reinforced with a steel sleeve.

The last thing anybody wants is the shaft to collapse with somebody in it. That would be horrible, a tragedy on top of a tragedy. But then, maybe as early as Tuesday, a man-sized capsule called the Phoenix will lower down a doctor and an engineer and start trying to pull people out.

Crews have been practicing for days, and I want to give you some idea of the dimensions that we're talking about here.

Ali (ph), bring this in.

Hey, Joey, come over here.

Average-size man. And what they're doing -- this is a 21-inch pipe. Can you imagine? You think you would be OK in that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably not.

LEMON: For an hour, hour and a half?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely not.

LEMON: Average-size man. And they've been losing some weight here. So imagine -- and this is a little bit flexible. Imagine trying to fit through that, and they're going to be for an hour, hour and a half, maybe longer, two hours.

And you can barely get your shoulders in there.

So it's amazing what they're going to have to go through.

Joey (ph), thank you very much. You can take this away.

Look at that. Can you imagine being inside of that for hours?

It may be nothing for these guys, especially since they've been underground for 64 days. They maybe wouldn't minds being there for a week. For weeks, though, no fewer than three drills have been racing to reach the miners.

First, last night we spoke with the man behind Plan B, Pennsylvania-based driller Brandon Fisher. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you always think that you guys would be the ones to pull this off?

BRANDON FISHER, DRILLER: I felt since we've been here we've had a good chance of it. I mean, it was just -- you can't predict the downtimes, the breakages, the formation issues. I've felt since we got here that as long as we had some luck on our side, that we would have a real good chance of poking through first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, CNN's Karl Penhaul has been on the story from the start, and he joins me now on the phone with what could be the beginning of the end here, Karl, we hope.

So how close are they now?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a short while ago, a press conference had just ended with the (INAUDIBLE) 120 feet. That is the distance between the drill and the tunnel where the miners have been holed up for all this time, T.J. (sic). And what the mines minister says is that breakthrough could come as early as today and he hopes certainly by tomorrow.

LEMON: OK. Hey, sorry. We may have lost a little bit there.

So, listen, what we understand though is that the hole that they're drilling is 28 inches wide. The capsule that they're going to put them in, 21 inches wide. And as we understand there, they have been trying -- they've gotten a trainer in, they've gotten a doctor in. Many of these men have had to lose weight, some of them 20 pounds.

Are they really sure that everyone is going to be able to fit in something the size of a 21 inch pipe really?

PENHAUL: Right now the medics on the surface are pretty confident that all the miners will fit. Why? Because very early on in this rescue operation, as they were sending down tape measures so the miners could measure their own bellies, the other key measurement of course around their shoulders, they've also been weighing the miners periodically to check that they are keeping up with this weight loss program.

Of course as well, there has also been a process of natural weight loss, because remember the first 17 days of this, the miners were enclosed. And nobody even knew if this he were still alive. They only had per man four cans of tuna to survive 17 days. And so in that period, some of them lost up to 30 pounds, and since then the paramedics have been keeping a close eye on their health -- T.J. (sic).

LEMON: Really? It's Don. No worries about it, Karl Penhaul.

But listen, it's going to be very interesting all weekend to watch this. This is going to be the first time that they get that close to these men. We're going to be following it here all weekend long on CNN to see if they actually make it and what happens next.

Imagine, 64 days trapped under the ground there, all of these men. And they're trying to get them in a very tiny capsule that they're going to put down to get these men. So make sure you stay tuned to CNN.

In the meantime, let's move on and talk about some politics here, because there are 25 days until the critical midterm elections. One of the more intriguing races is the Delaware Senate battle. There, voters are choosing between Tea Party-backed Republican Christine O'Donnell and Democrat Chris Coons.

Our Jim Acosta caught up with Christine O'Donnell on the campaign trail to talk about her controversial comments in the past and her current campaign strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Your latest ad says, "I'm you."

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Right. ACOSTA: It's as if you're trying to reintroduce yourself to voters.

O'DONNELL: Yes. Yes.

ACOSTA: Why is that? Is that what you're trying to do?

O'DONNELL: Absolutely.

My goal has been, since the primary, to go out and meet as many voters as possible, so that they can get to know me and I can get to know them.

I have got to hear what's on their minds, so that I can know how I can help in Washington, D.C. My goal, my whole candidacy is about putting the political process back into the hands of the people. I'm not a career politician. I'm not someone who's been groomed by -- groomed for office. I'm not someone who's been handpicked by her party elite, by the party bosses, obviously.

ACOSTA: Right.

O'DONNELL: I'm an average American citizen. I'm an average Delawarean. I want to go to Washington, D.C., and do what most Delawareans would do.

I would not have voted for Obamacare. I would not have voted for the bailouts. I would not have voted for more of the spending bills that are putting us into bankruptcy. And neither would you.

ACOSTA: Right.

O'DONNELL: That's what my message "I'm you" means. I want to do what you would do in Washington, D.C.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you one more thing about these video clips that have surfaced. Have you been embarrassed by those clips?

O'DONNELL: No, I haven't been embarrassed. And I'm not saying that I'm proud.

It's -- you know, obviously, what they're trying to do is paint a picture of who I was 20 years ago. You know, I have matured in my faith. I have matured in my policies.

Today, you have a forty-something woman running for office, not a 20-year-old. So, that's a big difference. And I think most people --

ACOSTA: Were you just having fun back then? Is that basically your message?

O'DONNELL: Well, I think back then, as I said on Hannity's show, a lot of what I said, I had a newfound faith, and I saw this, an opportunity, to talk about the faith on national TV more as a ministry opportunity. But voters need to rest assured that when I go to Washington, D.C., it's the Constitution by which I will make all of my decisions, and I will defend their right to disagree with me. That's the most important thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. That was just part of what Christine O'Donnell had to say in that interview to our very own Jim Acosta. And Jim Acosta joins us now from Washington.

OK, Jim. I understand she said that she has a very strong faith now, but that doesn't preclude embarrassment. I mean, some things, you can just be embarrassed and you can still have faith.

She's not embarrassed by those comments?

ACOSTA: Well, I think she's a little embarrassed, Don. I mean, let's be frank here.

I mean, this really forced her campaign to underground for about three weeks. After those clips started surfacing on the Bill Maher show on HBO about three weeks ago, just a couple of days after she won that primary, she stopped doing national media interviews, she started avoiding the press.

We had to chase her around just the other night to try to catch up with her and remind her of the fact that she told CNN that she would continue to come on this network and talk to us about the issues up in Delaware and all over the country, and that was during an event that was being held at a GOP candidates forum. And she finally said, OK, we'll talk to you. We'll set it up.

And to our credit, she kept her word. But, you know, she has to understand that between now and Election Day, she's probably going to have to come out and do more of these interviews to reintroduce herself to Delaware voters. They're not just going to take these ads and say, OK, we're going to vote for Christine O'Donnell now. They're going to want to know where she stands on the issues.

LEMON: Well, I want to ask you this, because every week there seems to be something, especially on "Real Time With Bill Maher," or, you know, some new revelation about something she said, some clip that comes out.

Did you ask her about that, if there's something else that we should be looking for?

ACOSTA: You know, what I asked her was, is there any chance that she'll go on "Bill Maher" between now and Election Day, because as you know, Maher said on his program, "If she doesn't come on, I'm going to throw out another tape every week."

And she told me that she felt that was a threat. And so because of that, she's not going to go on his show until after the election.

And her campaign guy said -- he was sort of standing behind us during the interview and said maybe after the election. So I have a pretty good feeling you're going to see her on the show after the election. I also said, "Well, what about this debate next week?" Because CNN is holding a debate next Wednesday in Delaware between her and Chris Coons.

And I said, you know, "Is there any chance you're going to ditch us on this debate? You're going to be there at the debate, right?" And she guaranteed us she will be at that debate, she will take all of those questions, and she says she looking forward to it.

LEMON: Jim Acosta, more on that debate in just a second, but I have to tell you, in this day and age, this may just make her more popular, and it may gain her more votes no matter how many times Bill Maher puts out clips on her. It just may make her more popular. So we'll see.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it.

ACOSTA: We shall see, you bet.

LEMON: All right.

And be sure to join Wolf Blitzer and "The Best Political Team" on television next Wednesday. As Jim Acosta said, next Wednesday night for the Delaware Senate debate. Our special coverage starts 7:30 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Voter enthusiasm is going to be a big issue when the polls open in just 25 days. So who shows up could tip the balance of power in Washington.

I want you to check out this new CNN/Opinion Research poll released last hour, just last hour. Registered voters were asked if they were enthusiastic about voting. Fifty-four percent of Republicans said yes. That is compared to only 34 percent of Democrats.

Here's another one for you. Independents are leaning heavily toward Republican candidates this time around. Sixty-percent percent say they will vote Republican, 31 percent Democrat.

Again, that poll out just last hour.

They came out of anger, sadness and pride. A memorial forum for Rutgers student Tyler Clementi spurs other gay students to open up about bullying.

We'll hear from some of them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You know, it has been just over two weeks since Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge to his death. The 18-year-old Rutgers student was apparently angry and embarrassed that a hookup with a male friend was secretly screamed online. By his roommate, no less. And he was at least the fourth teen to commit suicide last month after anti-gay harassment or bullying. A memorial forum in Tyler's hometown last night was marked by high emotion and really bracing honesty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL JACOBSON (ph): My name is Daniel Jacobson. I'm 22 years old now. I graduated from college.

I attended Jacksonville (ph) High School from 2002 to 2006. And I was bullied because I was gay and because I was Latino.

It first began with a few students during my freshman year who decided I was gay before I even decided my own sexual orientation. So people then decided for me.

And the message was that it was bad to be gay, that it was wrong, that it was OK to be degraded and be made subhuman because I was gay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These bullies are wrong. But most of these bullies, they're only 30 percent wrong because they're just stupid.

Most of them don't know -- most of them are not criminals. Most of them will not become criminals. Most of them are not sociopaths. They just haven't been taught.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The utter falsehood of the statement, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," words can be just as powerful, if not more powerful, than any weapon.

Just a month into seventh grade I refused to take it anymore. I faked illness to avoid the living hell. But it didn't work for long, and my depression worsened and I began cutting myself to the point I became suicidal, and was admitted to a hospital for about two weeks.

But I'm proud to stand here now, three years later, after countless hours of therapy and a lot of hard work, to say that I am openly gay, a sophomore at a very accepting high school where I lead the Gay/Straight Alliance and Anti-Bullying program (INAUDIBLE).

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Sticks and stones and name-calling, it's exactly what my "XYZ" is about. I'm glad that young man mentioned that.

And a programming note for you. All this week on "AC 360," they've had some special coverage called "Bullying: No Escape." Anderson wraps things up tonight with a town hall tackling bullying, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

And make sure you stay tuned for my "XYZ" just before 3:00 here on CNN.

He spoke out against the Taliban, and now an Afghan provincial governor is dead. Plus, reports that Afghan guards at U.S. bases are linked to the Taliban.

We're live from Kabul next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Just one day after the start of the 10th year of war in Afghanistan, an outspoken critic of the Taliban is killed in a bomb attack during prayer services at a mosque north of Kabul. The victim was a provincial governor who was the target of a previous assassination attempt.

CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now from Kabul.

Ivan, what do you know about this bombing?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, this was a shocking attack even by the standards of a country that's been at war for more than 30 years. A bomb ripping through a packed mosque during peak Friday prayers, killing, according to Afghan government officials, at least 20 people and wounding 35.

It killed the Muslim cleric who was leading the prayers. It also killed, as you mentioned, this governor from the neighboring province of Kunduz.

Now, his aides say that he survived previously at least five assassination attempts by the Taliban. We spoke to him just last Sunday by telephone, and during that phone interview, Mohammed Omar (ph) told us that he was desperate for help. He claimed that the Taliban controlled 40 percent of the territory in his province. He said he did not have enough Afghan police to protect, to combat the insurgents.

And what this does is it just really shows us how much the Taliban influence has spread to the north of the country, an area that you or I could have traveled openly in just three or four years ago. It was considered one of the safest parts of Afghanistan -- Don.

LEMON: Ivan, stand by for just a moment, because I want to update our viewers on this, and then I want to ask you a question about it.

We want to tell our viewers about a stunning report. It is from Capitol Hill.

It says the Senate Armed Services Committee says Afghan security forces guarding U.S. bases are tied to the Taliban, criminal networks, and Iranian intelligence. The report goes on to say that there is virtually no Pentagon oversight of these Afghan guards. The guards are said to be employees of Afghan groups hired as subcontractors by Western security firms.

So, Ivan, what can you tell us from your end about this report? It's certainly alarming.

WATSON: It is alarming, but I think it alludes to -- or it talks about an issue that already, the embassies here and NATO and U.S. military forces here are trying to address. They're very much aware of this.

For instance, I spoke with a spokesman for the coalition forces here. He said that there were no fewer than three separate task forces trying to address the issue of contracting in this country.

It's a massive industry. And we're not just talking about the security contractors, but the huge amounts of money that are being spent on reconstruction projects and just to maintain the 150,000 foreign troops that are operating in this country.

According to this spokesman, the U.S. currently employs no fewer than 26,000 security contractors, many of them Afghans, across the country. And according to one of the reports here, they are very well aware that, "Our contracting efforts in Afghanistan represent both an opportunity and a danger."

Where the danger? Because large amounts of money are going into this country and not very well accounted for.

Now, we've talked to some security contractors. They say that part of the reason for hiring this many people to guard, for instance, small American bases around the country is to try to basically start a public works program, to try to get locals pump money into the economy, to protect the bases, include relations. But along the way it is not unimaginable that people with Taliban relatives could get hired to protect American bases -- Don.

LEMON: Ivan Watson, Kabul.

Thank you, Ivan.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, here we go. We're back on. We're just, like, hanging here talking.

Chad Myers is going to take us "Off the Radar" today. And we're talking about Soyuz rockets.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Going to the ISS, International Space Station. Only two more launches of the shuttle.

LEMON: OK.

MYERS: So they are now upgrading the Soyuz rockets. The first one, that's all digital. No manual things in there anymore, no analog stuff in there.

And you said, how old is this thing? Well, they keep upgrading them, obviously, so they're doing much better. They're going to be able to launch twice as many.

This thing went off. We have video of this going on off.

LEMON: Kazakhstan? Friday. OK.

MYERS: It was Friday. It was technically today, but about 7:00 last night our time, because they're ahead of us.

LEMON: OK. Got you.

MYERS: There it goes.

And do you know the word or the name Anna Chapman?

LEMON: Yes.

MYERS: Do you know that word? Now, she's not a cosmonaut.

LEMON: No, no, no. How do I know that name? Oh.

MYERS: She was there watching it. Remember that she's the Russian spy.

LEMON: Yes, the red head.

MYERS: The first time she's been in public. Right, they call it the fire hair. Fiery hair or something like that. The first time she's been in the public, and she wanted to see the launch of the Soyuz --

LEMON: Oh, she was there?

MYERS: She was there.

LEMON: For the launch?

MYERS: Yes, but was quickly escorted by her security detail to a small room.

LEMON: She had security detail.

MYERS: I guess she needs it. I'm not sure why.

They're going up there. There are two cosmonauts in the Soyuz, one astronaut, Scott Kelly. Scott is going to be joined by his twin brother on the next shuttle mission, Mark.

LEMON: Oh, that's cool.

MYERS: They're going to be up there together.

And this thing actually almost acts like -- one leaves, one comes back down. It takes two and a half days to get there, only three and a half hours to get back because it kind of goes down kind of fast.

LEMON: Kind of fast, gravity.

MYERS: Of course. And it acts as kind of their emergency eject button. If everything goes bad, they can all get in the Soyuz because it stays up there. They can get in it and --

LEMON: Boom, down fast.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: So it says two more U.S. shuttle missions February, November left. International Space Station, when complete, will be the size of a football field.

MYERS: I know.

LEMON: That's pretty big.

MYERS: I know. And it's just kind of all tubes going out there. Just go on ISS on Google. You can take a look at it. It's pretty cool.

LEMON: Yes. She wanted to --

MYERS: Hey, easy.

LEMON: Sorry. Thank you, Chad Myers.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: Sure.

LEMON: All right.

We have to actually talk about a very serious story. I know you have been covering this and we've been talking about it all week long. We're talking about what's happening in Hungary.

MYERS: Mud.

LEMON: Unbelievable. The death toll rises from the toxic sludge in Hungary. It's almost the size of the Gulf oil spill, Chad Myers.

MYERS: Wow.

LEMON: Vivid pictures of this red tide next, in "Globe Trekking."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Time now to go "Globe Trekking," and our destination today is that vast and dangerous toxic sludge threatening Hungary's mighty Danube River and all who live along its banks. This map shows in red where the sludge just really gushed from a breach in an aluminum plant reservoir. That happened on Monday. The villages were covered in red deadly muck. Today the death toll rose to seven.

There's a bit of good news, though, to report to you. The Danube may not be as damaged by the sludge as originally feared. And CNN's Nic Robertson is at one of the clean-up areas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is where the water is being tested. It's got a high alkali content. That's what's made it so caustic. Those men are testing it to see what level it's at now. And this is some of the mixture of plaster and chemicals that's quite literally been taken up by a digger, dumped into the river down here to try and improve the quality of the water, to try and make it less caustic.

But if we go over here, you can see some of the clean-up that's going on just over the road. One of the things that's changed in the past few days here is the police have a checkpoint further up the road, stopping too many vehicles coming through the town.

But here, you look over here, more people in white coats. That's another thing we're seeing a lot more of. But here's the clean-up going on, quite literally scooping up the red sludge, putting it in this big dump truck here to try and take it away. And in the background over there, you can see the house. They're having the logs removed, the contaminated logs stained red, as everything is around here.

This is about five miles, eight kilometers, downriver from the spill, and you can see how wide the swath of land and vegetation that was cut by this toxic spill when it happened. I mean, you look at the vegetation now, you can see it's all dying off.

But if you want to see just how contaminated the river water still is, look down here at this spring, a freshwater spring right here, clean water coming out, flowing into the river. And it stays clean for just a few seconds after it hits the river. And you can see that murkiness in the water there. And that gives you an idea just how contaminated the rivers still are.

Greenpeace, the activist environmentalist group, say the government here has been underreporting how bad the situation is.

Nic Robertson, CNN, several miles, several kilometers, downriver from the toxic spill, Hungary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. Depending on your age, you'll know what I'm talking about here when I say Beetle Bailey -- remember that -- Blondie, Blondie and Dagwood, Dennis the Menace -- just some of the comic strips that are getting a new look this Sunday, and it's all about breast cancer awareness. And it's our "Mission Possible" and it's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, it's time now for "Mission Possible." When you read your newspaper this Sunday, don't think there was an ink mishap when you see nothing but pink in the comics section. It's all to raise awareness about breast cancer. And Brendan Burford is the comics editor with King Features Syndicate, the company behind the first of its kind Cartoonists Care Initiative, and he joins me now from New York.

Hey, thank you. Good idea to raise awareness and eventually to raise money. How did you decide on all this?

BRENDAN BURFORD, COMICS EDITOR, KING FEATURES SYNDICATE: Well, you know, we're well aware of the impact that our comics have on the everyday lives of the readers. People, you know, pledge their allegiance to them on a regular basis. And we thought this is a very important, you know, issue, something that we felt we could use our soapbox and raise awareness and maybe even raise some money to go toward research and a cure.

LEMON: OK. All right, so Brendan, I get that. But when you approach a newspaper or a cartoonist and you say, Hey, we want to make everything, you know, pink or whatever, a different color -- I mean, come on, they can't just go, Oh, yes, sure.

BURFORD: Well, no. I mean, it took some advance planning, of course. We don't want to catch anybody by surprise, but we do a lot of what we do in advance. In fact...

LEMON: Well, that's what I want to ask you. What was the process? What was their response? Did they go -- were they open to the idea right away? Did you have some convincing to do?

BURFORD: Everyone involved, from the cartoonists to the newspapers to the people who take care of running all the Sunday sections, everyone was on board. Everybody thought it was a wonderful thing to do. And we're pleased about this, obviously. And I think it's going to be a great campaign.

LEMON: Yes. So listen, what do you hope to accomplish? You said you want to raise money and you want to raise awareness. But do you think that this will go on and other people will do the same thing, as far as -- if it's successful?

BURFORD: I hope so. I mean, you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there's a lot of things going on. I was watching football game the other day and I saw some athletes wearing pink. You know, we have the comics being colored pink. You can go to Comicsgopink.com, which is a Web site we've set up where you can donate money to a couple of different charities. And we're also auctioning a special set piece that we commissioned specifically for the event. So we're hoping that -- not just raise awareness but also raise some money, as well.

LEMON: Yes, this is it. This is it right here. It's a signature art piece for this campaign.

BURFORD: That's the one.

LEMON: And who was the artist that did this? BURFORD: Dan Parero (ph), who draws the daily comic panel "Bizarro." And he's an extremely talented guy. We thought he would be a great candidate to illustrate all the different characters that we represent, and I think he did a wonderful job.

LEMON: Yes, it's really -- I mean, to look at it, it's mostly pink but still different shades of pink, as we look at it here. So one has to wonder, then, because I'm sure this is about awareness, but you want to raise money -- how can you -- how do you raise money exactly with this, just by turning the page pink?

BURFORD: Well, you know, again, you know, we have the Web site where there's plenty of ways to donate money to different charities that are already in operation. Plus, we are auctioning off the piece that you just had on the screen, and we expect, you know, a decent price to go for that. It's a wonderful piece of original art.

LEMON: What do you think that piece is going to go for? Because that's actually a really cool piece. What do you think that might go for?

BURFORD: I have no idea.

LEMON: A lot, you hope.

BURFORD: The declared value -- I hope it goes for a bunch. You know, it could be a few hundred dollars to maybe a couple of thousand dollars. And I think that, you know, any amount would be a wonderful story.

LEMON: Yes. That's really cool. Brendan Burford, thank you so much. We're going to tell people how they can give, as well. We appreciate it. Best of luck to you. And I notice you're wearing a pink shirt. People may not be able to tell on television and think it's white. So you're in the spirit.

BURFORD: Yes, it's true.

LEMON: So thanks again. And to find out more on the Cartoonists Care Initiative, make sure you check out CNN.com/Ali -- CNN.com/Ali. There you can get information where you can donate.

OK, there he is, another White House defection. This time, it's the president's national security adviser, Ed Henry standing by at the White House to tell us all about it. Ed, don't go anywhere. We'll see you in a couple seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, it is just 25 days until the midterm elections, and our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser all over it.

Paul, what's on the rundown right now?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, Don. Some brand new stuff for you guys. Listen, earlier this hour I saw you talking about our new poll, CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national survey. I want to share some of the really fascinating numbers on this poll with you.

Check this out, we asked who has been a better president, Barack Obama or George W. Bush, his predecessor in the White House. And this is interesting, because right now Obama on that question only has a with two-point margin over Bush and that is a big difference from a year ago when, according to those numbers, Obama had a 23-point margin over Bush on those numbers. So fascinating numbers.

Also, how is the president doing, how do Americans feel about him right now? Do they approve or disapprove of the job he's doing? Well 45 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove.

Why are these numbers important because, Don, you know Republicans are trying to make this November's congressional elections a referendum basically on Barack Obama and what he's done in the White House. So these numbers definitely contributing to that.

Something else I want to show you. Check this out, Floyd Yarmuth (ph), our cameraman, please zoom right in here on the CNN Political Ticker, something I wrote about just in the last hour. Former President bill Clinton, talking about presidents, he's heading to West Virginia on Monday to help the Democrats' Senate nominee, the governor Joe Manchin. And earlier in the day, former President Clinton will be in Kentucky.

Two states, West Virginia and Kentucky where Democrats are trying to hold on to a Senate seat in one state and trying to win one back in another, but they're states with conservative to moderate electorates. Bill Clinton plays quite well in those states and that's why Democrats want to see him there, maybe see him sometimes there more than the current president, Barack Obama.

And finally, one other thing, and this is also very important, campaign cash. Such a big deal in these elections, of course. The Republican National Committee telling us today and a few others that they raised $10.3 million last month. That sounds like a lot of money and it's a lot more than August, but compared to the Democrats about $5 million less.

But one thing to remember here, while the Democrats are raising more money than the Republicans party-wise, it's these outside independent groups much more on the Republican side than the Democratic side that are raising big bucks and spending big bucks.

Don, just some of the things we have for you on the CNN Political Ticker.

LEMON: Thank you, sir. I love that Steve Brusqua (ph) is sitting there every day like "Where's Waldo?" in the background.

STEINHAUSER: This guy, this guy makes it all happen. He right now, Don, I got to tell you, he's planning ten things just for tomorrow and the weekend and next week. He's tireless, tireless. LEMON: All right. Thanks to both of you, Waldo and to Paul Steinhauser. We appreciate it.

Hey, let's get to the White House right now where Ed Henry is standing by. Ed, so listen, today Jim Jones not a surprise. The president even said it in the press conference two years all he wanted.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, totally. And I think, look, there's going to be -- continue to be staff turnover around here. It's pretty normal for any administration.

And this was someone who in particular kind of didn't fit in with sort of the campaign crowd of 2008. Jim Jones was on the sidelines for that campaign and relatively apolitical person. As the president said, he was talked out of retirement to come serve his country for two more years. He had served 40 years in uniform. He never quite clicked with sort of Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, some of those guys.

And frankly, what I'm hearing is this book by Bob Woodward that really spilled out details of the behind the scenes deliberations on Afghanistan while largely embraced by this administration, there were whole sections in there where things are attributed to Jim Jones, some negative comments back and forth that he felt about others in the administration it kind of was the last straw basically, Don.

LEMON: So listen, the jobs report out today, 9.6 unemployment. What's the administration's response? Stays the same.

HENRY: Well, you know, yes, the president went to a local company in Maryland here in the Washington, D.C. area and he was saying, look, he's trying to find glimmers of hope because of the fact that for what's now something like seven or eight months in a row there was private sector job growth, and that's something that even Republicans have been saying for a long time we have to start seeing it.

Well we are seeing it, but as the president acknowledged while there was some modest private sector job growth, there was even more private sector job loss. And so net, we actually lost jobs.

Now, the unemployment rate stayed at 9.6, but as the president himself noted, his approach is look, the American people are tired about hearing 9.6 or 9.5, 40,000 lost or 40,000 gained. The statistics don't matter too much when you're going through this recession. People are still not feeling like we're out of the recession and that's obviously very tough for Democrats heading into the election with less than 30 days to go.

LEMON: Yes, all you know is that I have applied for 18 jobs in the last couple of months, I haven't gotten any. It's all about you when it comes to that.

Let's talk about the midterms, it's obviously a big topic. It's just -- what -- 26 days, I believe, until the midterms. So the first lady, they're pulling out, as they say, the big guns here because she is popular.

Where is she going? She's hitting the campaign trail, what is she doing?

HENRY: She is going to be in Wisconsin and Illinois, your former home. She's going to be in Chicago going home for herself as well. There's some big Senate races. Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, a Democratic incumbent in some real trouble right now facing a strong Republican challenge.

And then, Alexi Giannoulias. We talked about him yesterday, that open seat. It's in fact President Obama's old Senate seat. Democrats had hoped that that would have been a slam-dunk, that would have been done long ago. Instead, that's a neck-and-neck race with Mark Kirk, the Republican there.

So what's significant is that the first lady really doesn't do campaigning. That's not her thing, generally, and this is really her first major foray. So we're going to keep a close eye on that to see how it plays.

We're told by senior officials here she's not going to go out there, of course, and do any slash and burn negative politics. That's not going fit, obviously, for a first lady. But she's going to talk positively about the president's agenda and try speak out in favor of these Democratic candidates.

Bottom line she's the most popular Obama right now.

LEMON: Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely right.

Ed Henry, thank you, sir. If I don't see you, have a great weekend, OK?

HENRY: Thanks. You, too.

LEMON: Voter anger seems to be the driving force in the midterm elections, you heard our Ed Henry talking about it there. And it's anger over the economy that really seems to be dominating the discussion.

It was also the topic of discussion on CNN's "PARKER/SPITZER" last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES TRAUB, "NEW YORK TIMES": Voters have every reason to be frightened and in some cases angry. I don't think it's good to have political leaders see themselves as channeling and amplifying that anger.

ELIOT SPITZER, CO-HOST, "PARKER/SPITZER": And the great piece on the democratic side that's missing is that optimism. Nobody has stepped up as a Democrat to fill that void and say, here is the answer and we have a solution and we're going to solve the problem. And we have left the field empty for the Sarah Palins, and that is the political brilliance that she's brought to it. And I'm troubled by the substance, but the Democratic Party has failed to step up and say anything meaningful.

RALPH REED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: When leave town without even addressing tax rates in the middle of the great economic crises of the modern era, it's just total abject abdication of government responsibility and they're going to be punished in November because of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Much, much more of that in a new edition of "PARKER/SPITZER" tonight 8:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

OK, so if you're not up on some of the garments that Muslims wear, right? Well we've got you covered. "Wordplay" is straight ahead.

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LEMON: It is time right now for today's "Wordplay" and the term we're looking at first popped up on most people's radar back in 2001, and we're talking about burqa. Burqa -- the word is in the headlines again because of France's so-called ban has been ruled constitutional.

Here's the thing, Burqa is often misused as a catch-all term for Muslim women's garments, but it's actually just the most severe covering, the entire face and body and leaving just a mesh screen to see through.

And then there is Niqab, less cumbersome but still conservative. It is a scarf and veil combination and it covers all of the head and face except for just the eyes.

And compared to the Hijab, the Arabic word for veil or literally curtain. They come in different styles and in different colors, but the most common a square scarf covering just the head and neck.

OK, name calling, hateful words. It's time to put an end to all of it. I'll share some personal thoughts in my "XYZ."

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LEMON: All right, now it's time for "The XYZ of It."

What's up with all the name calling lately? And I'm not talking about schoolyard bullying, though we have been dealing a lot with that lately. But the latest controversy involves a Jerry Brown aide using the term "whore" to describe his California governor's race opponent Meg Whitman. That got me thinking, it's time to take stock in our words.

So here's the problem. Sometimes in private, in our own so- called circles, we develop a sense of comfort, mostly a false sense of comfort. If we hear a derogatory remark being made by quote/unquote "one of our own: we tend to ignore it or we even laugh at it sometimes until, until we slip and it happens at work or in public and you find yourself or someone else desperately struggling to try to pull the words back as they're coming out of your mouth, right?

Come on, you've been there. I have, too. Once I went home to visit one of my friends from Louisiana, it was one of my college buddies who happens to be white and we were leaving his restaurant, heading out for a night on the town, and he told me about firing an employee. So I asked him it was and he replies, oh just one of the N- words that works for us. He then turned bright red and was apologizing to me over and over and over again.

Let's just say it was a very long night and we haven't spoken much lately, not because I think he's racist, that's beside the point, but I think by the time you get to be of a certain age, you should know better. It's about common sense and decency. The opposite is a kind of lax attitude and comfort that exacerbates problems like bullying and it stifles human understanding and shuts us off from true diversity, diversity of thought and diversity of people and that subconsciously makes us close-minded.

When we allow words like this to slip out, it says really more about us than we realize. Words carry weight, sometimes more weight than sticks and stones.

And that's my "XYZ." The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.