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Independent Lean Toward GOP; NPR's Apology over Williams' Firing
Aired October 25, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A terrifying view of a tornado sweeping through the northeast Texas neighborhood. 125-mile-an-hour winds destroyed at least five homes and left four people with minor injuries.
Well, now that storm is sweeping east ward and large parts of the southeast bracing for some severe weather, right, Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Every place you happen to see in the map that happens to be shaded in an orange, red color or even yellow, that's an area of concern. Can you see how many spots we have here folks that are shaded out like that? That's the situation across parts of the Carolinas, back into Georgia, into Alabama, even parts of i-10 in the panhandle, we can expect the possibility of some strong storms.
We've already seen some rough ones blow through portions of Alabama and now back into Georgia. Some of these very intense. If you happen to be seen as place s where you have to have a bit of orange even red, that's some of the roughest weather we have at the time. We are not just talking about hail and some driving rain, but some strong winds right behind that. Tree damage is going to be a possibility, power outages also a possibility.
Now if you happen to be in Atlanta, the worst appears to be over for you. But if you are turning in say back towards Aiken, South Carolina, maybe even Charleston or Columbia, look out west, all of this is coming in your direction. And you know, this is only one of two areas that we're watching for the potential severe weather today.
Surely, you got the southeast but back across parts of the western great lakes and the corn belt, from Missouri, northward into Iowa, and even into portions of Wisconsin and Illinois, it could get especially rough. And it's not just rain or the potential thunderstorms but wind gusts that could top 50, perhaps even 60 miles per hour, especially into the late afternoon hours. So what does that going to mean for you? Not only rough weather but the side effect of some pretty massive delays, both at your major airports in Chicago, Milwaukee, back possibly into St. Louis later on today and of course, maybe even some over towards Denver as we round out the rest of the day.
In terms of your forecast nationwide, again, this is going to be the hot spot but we got a lot to talk about, plus possibly some heavy snowfall in the Rockies. Your complete forecast coming up in a few moments. That video, Kyra, I mean, just breath taking to watch, that damage. I mean, like a giant saw blade moving across the Texas landscape. A big cleaning begins today.
PHILLIPS: Scary and we're feeling the effects of all these here in Atlanta.
WOLF: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Thunderstorms shaking the building this morning.
WOLF: Amazing to see the stuff. You know, not only do we have the video that we have from this particular spot. The damage that we have from that one tornado that is ripping through the area, just amazing. One storm chaser happened to be, well, you make the call, is it the right place or the wrong place? If you're trying to get video, a great place. But again, that is something you have to be careful. The safest place to be during one of these storm, obviously, under ground.
Some of that damage, Kyra, took place near a school, destroying parts of a school. Thank heavens it happened on a Sunday, not on a Monday morning with a building full of kids.
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, Reynolds, we'll keep watching it. Thanks.
WOLF: You bet.
PHILLIPS: We're just eight days away from an election that could change the balance of power in Congress. All 435 House seats and 37 Senate seats on the ballot. Crunch time for the candidates, and some of them using pop culture to help connect with voters now.
Check out how a group of gay conservatives is going all "Real Housewives" on Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: If you thought the housewives were dysfunctional. Wait until you meet the real Democrats of Washington, D.C.. They're Catty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to have a conversation with you is like trying to argue with a dining room table.
ANNOUNCER: They're arrogant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma'am -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do me a favor, could you say senator instead of ma'am? It's just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title.
ANNOUNCER: And they're in charge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The American people voted for change. ANNOUNCER: Under Democrats, reality bites.
Go Proud is responsible for the contents of this advertising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: "Reality Bites." That's a bonus reference to a popular Generation X movie. Here's one for "Glee" fans in Illinois.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Too busy watching "Glee" to keep up for the governor's race. Here's what you missed. February, the Republican Party is split. Bill Brady wins by just 193 votes, close. First thing he did was proposed a bill to kill dogs and cats in gas chambers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did do you that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I owned a pet all my life. I - excuse me.
ANNOUNCER: And then tried to repeal civil rights for gays.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And then there's an ad from the Senate race in Alaska, Joe Miller channeling an Old Spice commercial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, voters, look at your ballot. Now look at him. This is Joe Miller. Now back to your ballot. You see his name. Now, look at her, now back to your ballot. Sadly she is not on your ballot. Why? Because she lost. She lost to Joe Miller. Look up. It's Joe Miller, an officer in the U.S. Army who served in the first Gulf War. Now look there, Joe Miller is the father of eight and a respected judge in Alaska.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And of course, these elections will be more like "Survivor" and "The Biggest Loser" than "Real Housewives" or "Glee." Right now, a poll from "Politico" suggests that Democrats could get voted off the island next week. Among independent voters, 51 percent leaning toward casting ballots for the GOP, 39 percent saying they'll vote Democrat.
And Democrats are scrambling to hold on to their control in Congress. So candidate are going to the top for help, the president, Mrs. Obama, and vice president Biden hitting a dozen states in the final week. The president is in Rhode Island today and the Democrat seat races in Pennsylvania and Ohio is critical. Both the president and vice president will campaign there.
We've got three big debates also. Tonight, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Florida. It's the last debate in the bear knuckle brawl for Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker challenging governor Duvall Patrick there in the fight for Florida governor. We've got on of the tightest races in the country. Democrat Alex Singh (ph) versus Republican Rick Scott. They got their debate tonight, 7:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. And in Kentucky, the debate between Republican Rand Paul and Democratic Jack Conway going on. Things got pretty ugly when they faced off last week. Remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: You know, Jack, you know how we tell when you are lying? It's when your lips are moving.
JACK CONWAY (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: When is it ever a good idea to tie up a woman and ask her to kneel before a false idol, your god, that you call Buddha.
PAUL: When this debate ends you'll notice that I will not be shaking his hands tonight. I will not shake hands with someone who attacks my religion and attacks my Christian beliefs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The chief executive of National Public Radio is issuing an apology this morning, not to analyst Juan Williams, who she fired last week but rather the way she handled his dismissal.
Howie Kurtz, Washington Bureau chief, "The Daily Beast, " as well as host of "Reliable Sources," joining us here live in the CNN NEWSROOM. He's joining us from Washington.
So Howie, what do you make of this, why apologize, and do you really think this is an apology?
HOWIE KURTZ, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE DAILY BEAST" : It's a pretty tepid apology, if you want to use that word, Kyra. Vivian Schiller is in full damage control mode. She is not backing off the decision in any way of why she fired Juan Williams. She's just saying it was poorly handled. After all, the guy was fired over a cell phone after 10 years of service.
And the reason, Kyra, is that NPR is getting hammered not just from the right, even the liberals are not defending the fact that Williams was kicked out of his job for the comments he made about Muslims on Fox News.
PHILLIPS: I thought we were going to listen to that. Sorry about that, Howie. OK. So she apologizes but then goes on and says in the statement "he was explicitly and repeatedly asked to respect NPR's standards and to avoid expressing strong personal opinions on controversial subjects in public settings as that is inconsistent with his role as an NPR news analyst.
This is where I get more confused, too. Was that actually stated in his contract? Do we know? And last week they say he's a commentator, not an analyst, and now we're hearing that he's an analyst. It seems like there's a lot of back and forth. It's not really clear.
KURTZ: It's just (INAUDIBLE) that's being played. You're an analyst but you're not supposed to have any opinions. I don't know how one analyzes that way. And by the way, you know, this whole flap over the Juan Williams saying he gets a little nervous if he's on a plane and he sees people in Muslim garb. Well, it's certainly not the way I would have put it.
He wasn't calling for any profiling or discrimination. In fact he went on to make the opposite point, talking about his feelings. Look, a lot of this has to do, Kyra, with the fact that he said this on Fox News. A lot of people at NPR don't like Fox News. And the way this is playing out, the reason Vivian Schiller put out this (INAUDIBLE) to her staff is that it looks like NPR, National Public Radio, is not tolerant of other viewpoints, and particularly if they're expressed on Fox News while Fox News obviously leans right in its opinion shows looks very open minded because it has got a liberal in Juan Williams who is now going to have a much bigger role and make a lot more money as a result of this whole flap.
PHILLIPS: Yes. He is coming out with a pretty fat contract. You know, finally did anybody really defending NPR at this point?
KURTZ: You know, with a couple of exceptions, I haven't really found even full-throated liberals defending National Public Radio on this. It just looks like in both the way it was done and the fact that Juan Williams lost his job over these remarks which I don't consider to be a firing offense, it really is sort of hard to under what point NPR was trying to make despite Schiller going on about well, an analyst can't really have opinions. You got to respect the boundaries and so forth.
Other NPR people have done on Fox and elsewhere and said far more controversial things. So Vivian Schiller, I think probably trying to repair damage with her staff which knows the obvious which is she did not handle this well. And so I give her points for that but she is still not backing off her position, and some of the Republicans who don't like NPR anyway using this whole Juan Williams flap to talk about cutting off federal subsidies to national public radio. I don't think it will happen but she is having to play defense because of that.
PHILLIPS: Got it. Howie, thanks.
KURTZ: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Following a story internationally, a surprising revelation coming from Afghan President Hamid Karzai who admit that Iran has been funneling cash into his country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: This is transparent, and this is something that I have also discussed with - even when we were at Camp David with President Bush. This is nothing hidden. We are grateful for the Iranian help in this regard. The United States is doing the same thing. They are providing cash to some of our offices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: CNN's Barbara Starr is live in Kabul. So any reaction from the United States, because, Barbara, our reporters for a number of years now have talked about the fact that Iran is funneling cash and weapons to the insurgency? Now you go the president saying, well, "yes, Ron's been giving government cash but not talking anything about the insurgency?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kyra, no reaction yet. We've asked the U.S. embassy since earlier today when that press conference occurred here in Kabul, if they could explain what President Karzai meant, that the U.S. also is giving bags of money to the Karzai government here. No response from them yet. No response from the U.S. military. It's a concern. Then, we don't have a lot of facts here just yet.
If this is a foreign aid program, the U.S. government normally doesn't hand out money in bags of cash. Karzai talked about the fact that it was being distributed to government employees for expenses and even to outsiders. We don't know what that means. There's a real possibility here that some of this money is being diverted for purposes that it is not intended for by the United States, and as far as the Iranians go, the two countries, Afghanistan and Iran have very close ties, but this furthering of ties, what do the Iranians want in return for the money they're giving Karzai? That's a big concern to the United States. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I'm sure the story will continue developing, we'll talk about it more. I'm sure. Barbara, thanks.
We got a real talker for you. New Hampshire's major newspaper refuses to run a gay couple's wedding announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The union leader is a big voice in the state of New Hampshire and they seem to be so out of touch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And there's a huge reason why he thinks the paper is out of touch. Same-sex marriage is legal in New Hampshire. We're going to have you weigh in on this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: If you want extreme politics, then (INAUDIBLE) here's another civic minded rally slated for the National Mall in Washington on Saturday created by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The former talking it out with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JON STEWART, HOST "THE DAILY SHOW": We are presuming that 75 to 85 percent of the country, reasonable people that get along, that may not agree on things but they can do things, and the other 15 percent control it, the dialogue, the legislation. This is for the people that are too busy, that have jobs and lives and are tired of their reflection in the media of being a divided country, and the reflection that they are ideological and conflicted. It's for those people. It's going to shock, maybe not even this world but other worlds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now CNN's Kareen Wynter with the real lowdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've seen the million man march. The million mom march.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS: I testify to you here and now. One man can change the world.
WYNTER: Glenn Beck's rally to restore honor, and now -
STEWART: Tonight, I announce the rally to restore sanity.
WYNTER: Jon Stewart announced plans for a political rally on the Washington Mall on Oct 30th and while there were laughs, Stewart wasn't exactly kidding.
STEWART: It is happening! A real gathering! We will gather! We will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.! A million moderate march where we take to the streets to send a message to our leaders and our national media that says we are here, we're only here, though, until 6:00 p.m. because we have a sitter!
WYNTER: Stewart called on American moderates to gather and take it down a notch. This Comedy Central cohorts Stephen Colbert quickly announced plans for a mock counter rally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My fellow Americans, two score and four days from now on October 30th, 2010, I am calling for the nation to join me on the Washington Mall for the march to keep fear alive.
WYNTER: The Stewart-Colbert rallies are a satirical response to rally to restore honor in August. Colbert who portrays a conservative talk show host modeled after Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly poked fun at Stewart's moderate motto.
COLBERT: Ladies and gentlemen, it is on October 30th, on the Mall because now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom.
WYNTER: Stewart and Colbert have said for years they don't have real political ambitions, but they certainly have political influence. So while the rallies might be based in humor. STEWART: We're going to have signs for you down there if you don't have time. And of course, you can bring your own but here's a quick one, I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: A teen girl might not act up in school anymore after a few trips to the corner with a sign in her hands. Let's see what you think about this alternative form of punishment.
And flashback, this date, 30 years ago, Australia's power rockers AC/DC hit pay dirt with their first top 40 hit "You Shook me All Night Long." The recently recruited crooner Brian Johnson first recording with the band after the accidental death of original vocalist, Bon Scott, that track helped make the album, "Back in Black" their biggest ever and it was also the group's final respect to their fallen first singer.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: A junked house, the house of junk, and some tough love are part of our trip across the country.
First take a look at the little house that took on the Pacific Ocean and lost. The storm pounded parts of the Pacific northwest with such heavy winds and waves that this beach cabin just couldn't take it anymore and it washed away in yes, Washaway Beach, Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN GRANT, HOME WASHED AWAY: Well, we bought the property back in '84. We had to sign a piece of paper saying we knew it was going to erode. We were about a mile from the water. So, you know, we had know idea how long it was going to take but would eventually, you know, one day it would come away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So the family knew that this would happen as you just heard and they moved everything out beforehand. Thank goodness.
Well, it seems absurd to say, "hey, that pile of trash is up to code." That's what the owner of the cathedral of junk is saying. This is one of those land marks that keeps Austin, Texas weird. That's a compliment, by the way. They're proud of that mantra.
This place is so crammed with odds and ends, mostly odds, that the city was afraid visitors could get hurt by falling debris. The owner has removed 30 tons of stuff to get back in the city's good graces.
And take a look at how a mom is punishing her daughter. The middle schooler is holding up a sign that says "I got in trouble in school and this is my punishment." Mom is making her stand on a corner in Miami Lakes, Florida for 10 days even on the weekend where she says fighting in school or what she did was fight in school in a gang fight. That teen can't make calls, listen to music. Mom took her cell phone away and her iPod.
All right. Here's a talker of a story and I'm going to want your input on this. It's about New Hampshire's big newspaper refusing to run a gay couple's marriage announcement. Now keep in mind this is in a state where same-sex marriage is legal. The paper's editor says we're not anti-gay. However, they also made it clear that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. Double standard or just being direct? Watch the story now from Josh McElveen from WMUR and then we got you to weigh in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH MCELVEEN, REPORTER, WMUR: Today, same sex marriage became legal in New Hampshire, it was a proud one for Manchester native Greg Gould.
GREG GOULD, WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT REFUSED: It highlighted the values we had when we grew up, individual thinking, independence.
MCELVEEN: So despite now living in New York, Greg and his soon to be husband, Aurelio (ph), set a wedding date even hiring a wedding planner to help our.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's sort of nerve wracking challenges that any couple faces when they get married.
MCELVEEN: But one challenge they didn't expect came from the state's largest newspaper, told by the union leader that since it was a same-sex marriage, the paper would not print the announcement.
GOULD: I was really disappointed because the union leader is a big voice in the state of New Hampshire and they seem to be so out of touch.
MCELVEEN: Greg even took his complaint to the publisher of the paper but to no avail. And on Friday, the union leader released a statement saying "This newspaper has never published wedding or engagement announcements for homosexual couples. It would be hypocritical of us to do so given our belief that marriage is and needs to remain a social and civil structure between men and women."
In its statement, "Union Leader" says it is not anti-gay and since it is a privately-owned paper it is important to note it has the right to print or not print whatever it wants, not that Greg or Aurelio (ph) see that as an adequate response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To specifically exclude same sex couples from wedding announcements is particularly vindictive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right. Here's what you said on my blog. Kelley wrote in, "I'm not gay nor do I condone or approve homosexuality, although I do feel that humans do not need to be or should be discriminated against nor do they deserve to be for any reason, which is exactly what the "Union Leader" is guilty of here. This couple is not violating the law of the state they reside in, in any way that I can see. The "Union Leader" needs to move into the present and jettison the past."
Mark said, "I am writing this as a fully out gay man. The paper has the right as does any business to decide what it does and does not do. We're quick to claim discrimination when someone does not do what we think they should. The constitution is our most cherished document and it protects our freedom of press and freedom of speech."
And Jim says, "As a newspaper editor and publisher, I have to say there is no doubt that the newspaper can choose to run or not run anything they wish. It's a private business, and the content of the paper must be edited and controlled by the staff. I doubt we would run the same announcement but I have not yet had to tackle the situation."
Remember we always love to here from you. Just log on to CNN.com/kyra to share your comments. I sure appreciate you weighing in.
An American swimmer at the top of his sport within reach of the Olympics, dies during a long distance race. We're going to look at Fran Crippen's death and the life that his friends are honoring today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Checking the Big Board real quickly, Dow Industrials up 99 points. We're tracking it for you. Oh, that was quick, now it's 96. OK. I'm not going to keep talking. I will keep moving.
Young and in debt, That's the reality of a lot of college students facing today. It's a reality they're facing today, definitely. A report finds that the average grad owes thousands of dollars.
CNN business correspondent Stephanie Elam joining us from New York. So, Steph, that's a lot of money, but not surprising.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not surprising. I think what's difficult for these poor college students, Kyra, is the fact that they're having a hard time finding a job. That's what we're really looking at here.
But let me tell you the numbers here. They're saying that on average, someone who graduated from college last year is paying or has debt of about $24,000. That's up 6 percent from the year before. But if you take a look at their unemployment rate, the unemployment rate for people who are just coming out of college is actually up. It's at about 8.7 percent in 2009, and that is the highest annual rate on record.
So, it's one thing to have the debt. But everyone says that's the debt you want to have, right? Because you want to go out and get a good job, and pay it forward afterward. But they're having a hard time on that one, Kyra. That's the difficult thing thre. Now, one other thing worth talking about is about Google. Have you heard the story, Kyra, about Google street view, and how they are taking in a little too much of the view as they were cruising around the streets of dozens of countries? Google actually saying they took too much. While they were going in their cars that actually they take the views. You know, when you click on the maps of Google. The Google maps, and you can see the street views? Well, they have little cars that drive around to get the images.
When they were doing that, they were picking up e-mail addresses, passwords. They were getting web page URLs, all culling that from residential wi-fis. So, that's one of the issues that they're saying they're going to fix. They're going to delete the information as quickly as possible and beef up their privacy training as well. So, they want to fix that.
And last thing, because I wanted these new graduates to feel a little better about trying to find a job. Hey, look. It's starting to look better on the job front. Take a look at this. Hiring outlook has improved in the third quarter. It's the highest level that we've seen since the start of the recession. This is based on a survey of economists, and they say the hiring outlook over the next six months is also looking better. It rose to the highest levels since 2006.
And there's a couple of good things in here, too. They're saying that companies are actually starting to spend more and they are making more.
While we would like to throw confetti and say, yay, everybody's getting a job, the recovery is still going to be a little bit slow here, Kyra. But at least things are moving in the right direction. I had to end on a positive note. Always got to find the positive in there somewhere.
PHILLIPS: There we go. Definitely. All right. See you tomorrow. Thanks, Steph.
Well, it's 9:30 right now on the East Coast. 6:30 in the West. Here are some of the stories that got us talking in the CNN NEWSROOM today.
Murder trial set to get under way for the man accused of killing former Washington intern Chandra Levy. Investigators believe the illegal immigrant Malsalvador attacked Levy as she was jogging in the park and then murdered her.
Also in court today, former New York Yankee slugger Jim Fritz. He as charged with DUI manslaughter in a 2007 car crash opinion. A 30-year-old woman died in that crash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a tornado! We are in a tornado!
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: A Texas tornado up close and personal. These are 125 mile-an-hour winds, by the way, ripping apart that building. Five homes destroyed. Four people suffered minor injuries.
All right. You may never have heard his name, but Fran Crippen was on a mission to change that. The 26-year-old American was considered a star in open water swimming and appeared on track to make the Olympics. But that dream died on Saturday. His body was found during the last leg of the marathon Swimming Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SHOULBERG, COACH OF FRAN CRIPPEN (via telephone): Not only was he a world-class athlete, national champion numerous times, he got in the pool with GA and helped the little kids as a volunteer coach. They loved him. I love him. I'm just - going to remember that. I love him.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: He died of severe fatigue, but there are also questions that the warm water and hot air temps may have played a role. Elizabeth Cohen joining us to talk more about what we know about that.
What do we know? Not that much yet, right?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't know a lot, but here's what we do know. It was 100 degrees outside and 87 degrees in the water. And on CNN, we had another swimmer on who was also in that race, and he said that people were really struggling, that it was really a tough race, and his former coach said he was fit as a fiddle to start with. He said he didn't have any conditioning that would have made this particularly dangerous for him in particular.
PHILLIPS: It's interesting when you listen to the coach's interview saying he was concerned about the salt water. We haven't heard that come up now. Is it possible the conditions were too hot? Could that have killed him?
COHEN: We spoke to an extreme sports expert who said that it is possible, in the same way that we hear reports of people running marathons and dying. The same thing can happen in the water. No matter what sport you're doing, you're expending a lot of energy. You need to get rid of the heat. And if the water is too hot, that becomes difficult and your organs will shut down.
So, it is possible. The club that runs that event in the UAE says that temperature - they deny reports that the temperature played a role.
PHILLIPS: There are number of investigations going on, right, into precise cause of death now? COHEN: That's right. They have to figure it out. Some people will say it was fatigue. Some people might say it was heat. And they need to find out what role did the heat play, and should swimmers should be swimming in water that temperature?
PHILLIPS: Got it. Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Well, nothing but net and amazement. Four guys from down under sinking basketballs for fun and charity. You have to see it to believe it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: In the U.S., we have the Harlem Globe Trotters. But down under, there's a fearsome foursome that are far from being comedic court jesters. These guys nail down unbelievable long balls for fun, charity and amazement. From Australia's Channel 7 news, here's Jeff Perry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF PERRY, AUTRALIA'S CHANNEL 7 CORRESPONDENT: They call themselves How Ridiculous. Dara Karen, Bret Stanford, Scott Gonesen, and Kyle Neibel (ph). They meet at their local church. We found them on YouTube throwing a basketball off Perth's Narrow's Bridge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERRY: The sort of stunt where you think is that for real? So, 7 news put them to the test with our cameras. Pattison Stadium, the three-tier stand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get in!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
PERRY: It was just the fourth throw of the morning.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
PERRY: And just to prove it was no fluke, this from the second tier.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
PERRY: That came on the second attempt.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
PERRY: Then there was this. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Laser it?
PERRY:
PERRY: Fourth attempt. Even from underneath the stadium. Good mates, wholesome fun and on their YouTube postings, they urge people to support a charity.
BRETT STANFORD, HOW RIDICULOUS: Aid compassion is one we chose, and a couple of us have sponsor children in other countries. So, if people do that in response to our video, then we're thrilled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a dream come true, really.
PERRY: There's more to come.
KYLE NEBEL, HOW RIDICULOUS: I think we have a couple things lined up over summer, do a road trip. I don't know --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go all over the country (INAUIDIBLE) to benefit charity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a few locations scouted.
PERRY: Jeff Perry, 7 news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, tough guy sheriff Joe Arpaio is going soft with Sarah Palin. He gave her some underwear. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Even if it wasn't intended to be funny, Jimmy McMillan's mantra from last week's New York governor's debate was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY MCMILLIAN, NEW YORK GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: It's a simple message which I say all of the time. Some say I'm a one-issue candidate. It all boils down to one thing -- rent. It's too damn high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So, leave it to Saturday night live to just continue the entertainment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SETH MYERS, SNL CAST MEMBER: Now, Mr. McMillan, what about these reports that you, yourself haven't paid rent since the '80s?
KENAN THOMPSON, SNL CAST MEMBER (acting as Jimmy McMillian): You know why I don't pay my rent? MYERS: If I had to guess, I'd say it's because the rent is --
THOMPSON: The rent is to damn high! So, this Halloween, vote for Jimmy McMillan. With your help, I hope to become the first black governor to be elected from The Rent Is Too Damn High Party. Come aboard the Jimmy McMillan Express. You can grab on here or here. It's going to be a wild ride, a very short, very wild ride.
MYERS: Jimmy McMillan, everybody!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Back to the real campaign now. Just eight days until the midterm elections. The debates are definitely heating up. Senior political editor Mark Preston at the University of South Florida in Tampa. What are you watching, Mark?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Kyra, I'm here on the campus, as you said, the University of South Florida in Tampa. In just a few hours, John King will moderate the Florida governor's debate. I'll get to that in a moment.
But quickly, just yesterday, Candy Crowley on the stage in the theater right to my left moderated the Senate debate between Marco Rubio the Republican, the independent Charlie Crist, and the Democrat Kendrick Meek. I have to tell you, it was very heated at times with Kendrick Meek charging that Charlie Crist quit the GOP primary because he was going to lose to Marco Rubio, and Marco Rubio in turn turning to Charlie Crist that he was a heckler because he kept on interrupting him. So, an explosive debate happened on Sunday. It appeared on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley.
Again, in a couple of hours, as I said, John King will have the two governor hopefuls here. Alex Sink the Democrat facing off against Rick Scott the Republican in a race that is tied up. It is a statistical heat in a very contentious race. You can see that tonight on "JOHN KING USA" at 7:00 p.m., Kyra.
So, lot of fireworks right around here. Kind of nice and quiet right now, but I'm kind of caught in between these two political battles.
PHILLIPS: Well, talk about being caught in between. What's the deal with Sheriff Joe Arpaio giving Sarah Palin a pair of underwear?
PRESTON: Is my face turning red right now, Kyra, because this is one of those political stories -
PHILLIPS: Comfortably uncomfortable.
PRESTON: -- where you bring it all together.
Well, it's a little uncomfortable. So, Sarah Palin is our in Arizona for a political event. A couple of days ago, Joe Arpaio - of course, that's tough-talking sheriff who is very tough on illegal immigration. He's known for pink underwear because he makes his inmates wear it. Well, he tweeted out that he and Sarah Palin had a nice conversation during this political event, and he presented her with a pair of pink underwear, Kyra. You can't make this stuff up.
PHILLIPS: Isn't that kind of sexist? Pink? Why does it have to be pink?
PRESTON: Well, you know what he says about pink is that out in Arizona - he did it because the inmates were stealing the underwear, the white underwear. So, he turned it pink and said pink is actually a calming factor. So, if you ever want to calm anyone down, you may want to buy them a pink shirt. Maybe some pink underwear.
PHILLIPS: OK, that's good advice! Thanks, Mark.
We're going to have your next political update in an hour. And a reminder: for all of the latest political news, just go to our Web site, CNNpolitics.com.
There's two billion searches on Google every single day. What do you think Google keeps on you? Google chair and CEO Eric Schmidt talked about in a an exclusive interview on CNN's "PARKER/SPITZER."
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ERIC SCHMIDT, CEO, GOOGLE: We don't read your G-mail, and we don't know what prescription you had. What we do know is we keep the searches that you do for roughly a year, year and a half and then we forget them.
KATHLEEN PARKER, CO-HOST, "PARKER/SPITER": Well, you say that, but can somebody come to you and say we need some information on Kathleen Parker?
SCHMIDT: Under a federal court order, properly delivered to us, we might be forced to do that. But otherwise, no.
PARKER: Does that happen very often?
SCHMIDT: Very rarely. If it's not formally delivered, then we'll fight it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Check out CNN's newest primetime program "PARKER/SPITER" every night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
So, what would we do without viral videos? We'd probably be pretty bored. Josh Levs has the latest and greatest.
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PHILLIPS: Well, every day at this time, we honor the men and women in uniform who have given their lives for all of us while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. We call it "Home and Away," and today we're living up Staff Sergeant James Ide from Missouri. He was killed in an attack in Afghanistan on August 29th this past year.
His pastor, John Newberry, wrote into us. "Jimmy was a devoted husband, father and soldier. He was a soldier. He was a soldier for the U.S. Army but first a soldier for Jesus Christ. He continued to share his faith in Jesus Christ throughout his time in the Army. James' funeral was attended by almost 1,000 people, including the governor of Missouri and two generals. I have been to many funerals as a pastor, but this one was the most amazing and moving."
If you've got a loved one and you would like us to honor them, here's all you have to do. Go to CNN.com/homeandaway. Type in your service member's name in the upper right-hand search field, pull up the profile, send us your thoughts, your pictures. We promise to keep the memory of your hero alive.
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PHILLIPS: Giants fans having a little fun there.
What would we do without viral videos? What would we send to our friends? What would we laugh out loud about in the middle of our workplace? What would we get in trouble for?
Josh Levs has the latest and greatest.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that was one of them. That's a really good one.
And we've got another one for you. To follow that up here, this one comes from Comedy Central. They have this thing called The Night of Too Many Stars when they are raising money for autism education. So, what happened was, Steve Colbert and Steve Carell came out to do a song. And the setup was that they said they have their finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. They're going to sing what everybody's talking about, but they make it up there, and all of their references are from, like, a year and a half ago. And this is their ode to Captain Sullenberger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT AND STEVE CARRELL (SINGING)
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LEVS: All right. So, you can hear all the references. Then they say they're bringing up the hottest YouTube sensation. And the hottest YouTube sensation - Kyra, you're going to remember this -- it's Ty Zondae, the guy who was singing "Chocolate Rain." As I bring up the sound again for a second. Let's listen.
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LEVS: Now we skip ahead to where Jon Stewart jumps in. Watch this.
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JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Wait, wait!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jon?
STEWART: Just hold on a second! Just let me get this straight. (INAUDIBLE)
Bring it up everybody's talking about Sully, Sully -
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LEVS: The thing about a viral video like this is you have people watching on Comedy Central. It does raise money for autism researchers, autism education. More people watch it online, contribute to the cause. Good for them. They're taking advantage of the actual zeitgeist. What people want to watch out there online. So, pretty cool stuff there, Kyra, huh?
PHILLIPS: Very fun.
LEVS: All right. Now, not everyone can be a superstar, but you might be able to get up, dance and sing a little bit and do something good to save lives and raise some money. Take a look it the this flash mom in an airport that was also designed to raise money to save lives. Take a look at this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES (singing): I met him out for dinner on this Friday night. He really got me working up an appetite. (INAUDIBLE) There's nothing more dangerous than a boy with -
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LEVS: What you're watching here is at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. They raised - modest compared to Comedy Central - but they raised $7,700 by doing this flash mob in the middle of the airport. Skip to the next section, you can see more people joined in. Even some of the guards joined in. Everybody got up and started dancing. Good for them. Raising money to fight breast cancer.
All right. Now, we have about a minute left here, so we will tell you about one more thing. You got to talk a little bit about this with Tony. This is a kid playing a hockey game on a video game; gets upset because one of the players out of Dallas, Adam Burish, comes along and blocks him.
So what happens? He writes a letter saying this is totally unfair. Please help me through this crisis. Please apologize to me. Saying this is an actual. The player, instead of ignoring it, puts together a video. Take a look.
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ADAM BURISH, DALLAS STARS FORWARD: Alex, hey, what's up? Sorry I ruined your game. You know what, when your guys are that slow, they get in my way. So who ever is controlling them, I don't know if it's you or the computer, maybe you should have a talk with them because they're just in my way. Passes are in my skates. It was a mess out there.
Get your guys going. Get your guys skating a little bit so they get out of my way, all right? Sorry I ruined the game, but talk to your guys next time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS; You know, that's classy and pretty funny, and hopefully the kid playing the video game will no longer consider it an actual crisis.
As always, all the videos I just showed you, posted on Facebook and Twitter. I'll run to my computer as soon as we're off the air. You find me, joshlevsCNN. Kyra, I don't know what it is, but that Comedy Central song about Sully -- I can't get out of my head now. I think I know every word.
PHILLIPS: It kind of sticks.
(LAUGHTER)
LEVS: Its not going away. I'm going to be hearing that for awhile.
PHILLIPS: They look pretty good. I can see them doing the whole Christmas Rockette number, you know, this holiday. Can you imagine - Colbert, Stewart -
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You crazy lady, you.
LEVS: Radio City Music Hall is next!
PHILLIPS: Yes, I think it'd be a great show!
LEVS: You know what? That's awesome, the comedians and the Rockettes. You know what? Hey, let's keep an eye out. Maybe next Christmas.
PHILLIPS: Yes. You never know.
LEVS: I hear you. I hear you.
PHILLIPS: Tony's going to rock us through right now.
LEVS: See you.
HARRIS: Let's do it. Let's do it. Have a great day.
Josh, see you in just a couple of minutes.
