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Feds Hail Discovery of Cross-Border Tunnel; Mood at NYSE is Up; Program Teaches Students Business Skills

Aired November 04, 2010 - 13:59   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. I'm with you for the next two hours. For the next -- well, let's call it the next hour unless Brooke wants me to do her hour for her.

Here's what I've got on the rundown.

Bomb disposal teams and police are working overtime in Greece. What is behind the sudden rash of suspicious packages?

Also, have you ever heard of quantitative easing? You think it doesn't matter to you or your wallet? Well, you will after we explain it this hour. Trust me, you need to hear this.

There is no need for a woman to go through breast cancer treatment alone anymore. A new social networking site pairs up patients to take on the disease in tandem.

I'm about to show you something you've probably seen before, but, trust me, it is worth it. Once again, U.S. drug agents, border patrol agents, immigration and customs agent have uncovered a feat of engineering that you have to admire if only it had a better purpose. It is a tunnel some 600 yards long connecting Tijuana, Mexico, with the southern outskirts of San Diego. This is incredible.

The feds say it was used to smuggle pot, many tons of pot, into the United States. And unlike most of the tunnels they found over the past few years, this one was still in business until yesterday.

CNN's Casey Wian is on the story. He is -- when I say on the story, I mean he's right at the tunnel.

Casey, what is the story about?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, I'm standing in a warehouse just a couple of hundred yards across the border of Mexico. We're in the community of Otay Mesa, which is an industrial area where a lot of cargo comes across the border.

It looks like a typical warehouse. Here you see a closet in the warehouse. But here's what the story is about.

Down here, at the basement of this closet, they have jack hammered through the foundation of this building and built a drug tunnel. And agents discovered this tunnel earlier this week. I'm going to climb down in it and show you just what a drug smuggling tunnel looks like.

First of all, it's really, really a tight fit. They've dug this into the bedrock. And if you're a big guy, there's no way you could get through this hole here.

You see I have to really get down real, real tight and crawl underneath. You can see the tarps here because there was moisture through this tunnel until not along go. And that's why Immigration and Customs Enforcement believes this tunnel has only been in operation for about a month or so.

But they were able to smuggle 30 tons of marijuana that they know about, that they discovered into this tunnel. You see how crudely it is constructed. There is no reinforcement here.

This is the foundation of that warehouse above me here. And you can just see it's dug into the bedrock.

Some of the tunnels that have got a lot of publicity over recent years, you know, they've had elevators and really sophisticated structures. This is not like that. This is something that was built in a hurry and designed to get drugs over as quickly as possible. You can see how tight it is trying to get out of this tunnel -- Ali.

VELSHI: Casey, how does one -- I mean, is there any sense of how they end up building a tunnel like this? I mean, it takes equipment. They've just drilled underground? They just picked at it? What did they do?

WIAN: Yes. Well, it looks like they just went at it with axes and real crude equipment, possibly jackhammers. You wonder how they can do that kind of construction and not attract the attention of authorities, because obviously that's a very, very loud, loud enterprise that's going on.

But what they tell us is that because there's so many cargo trucks around here vibrating the roads and going by all the time, the noises are easily masked, especially when a tunnel is as deep and as long as this one. You mentioned 600 yards across the border.

I'm going to take you back in one more time, go back into the tunnel, if we can, and just mention one other thing.

Back behind where my photographer Tim Hart (ph) is, several hundred yards, they actually had a rail system that was used to transport the marijuana through this tunnel. And you can see it's not very big, but they were able to get a lot of illegal cargo through here for at least a month -- Ali.

VELSHI: Casey, are we to surmise that the warehouse that you were just in was at the receiving end of this stuff, and whoever owns or runs that warehouse is dealing with the police right now?

WIAN: Absolutely. They are being investigated. We'll go back into the warehouse now. The people who were -- there was nobody at the warehouse when Immigration and Drug Enforcement agents came here yesterday, but they were able to apprehend two suspects at a checkpoint on the freeway north of here. Those two suspects were a husband and wife.

The husband -- the man is a U.S. citizen. The wife is a legal permanent resident, a green card holder from Mexico.

They were apprehended with about 10 tons of marijuana in the back of a truck. The agents don't know at this point where that marijuana was destined for.

They're investigating who owns this warehouse. Mexican authorities are investigating who owns this structure that this tunnel led to on the other side. No suspects have been arrested in Mexico yet, but authorities on both sides of the border are investigating.

VELSHI: Wow. So is there a warehouse on the other side? Is that what it is?

WIAN: Yes, I believe so. There's another facility on the other side.

VELSHI: Right.

WIAN: That's typically the way these tunnels work, is you've got warehouses on both sides of the border. There were -- you know, 15 years ago, this was wasteland over here. But after NAFTA, and with a lot of the trade that's going across the border, there have been warehouses built on both sides of the border to facilitate that trade.

So, it's fairly simple to disguise something like this. And because the border security has gotten tighter -- at least that's what Immigration and Customs Enforcement says -- because border security has gotten tighter, and it's more difficult to move these drugs across, these cartels are beginning to use these tunnels more and more often.

VELSHI: That is incredible. Casey, great story. Thanks so much. Don't hit your head next time you go in there. That is a tight little fit.

Casey Wian for us on this fascinating story.

Hey, there have been five shootings in two-and-a-half weeks targeting military buildings near D.C. The FBI now confirms that the same gun has been used in each of them. No word on any suspects yet. The profilers have been hard at work though.

Today's "Sound Effect" targets one expert's opinion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGG MCCRARY, FMR. FBI PROFILER: It could be a former military guy. It could be active. It could be someone who didn't get in the military who wanted to, someone that was phased, they feel unfairly -- it could be a family member of a military person. It could be a would-be terrorist who has no association with the military. It certainly would be easy enough to shoot people if he cared to do so, but he seems to be making a concerted effort not to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And that's important, that nobody has been hurt yet.

This all started October 17th, when shots were fired at the Marine Corps Museum in northern Virginia. Then the Pentagon was hit. After that, a Marine recruiting facility, the Marine Museum was hit again. And just this week, a Coast Guard recruiting office.

All of the incidents have taken place late at night. And thankfully, nobody has been injured.

All right. Entrepreneurships, internships, learning to put together a business plan. Now, this might sound like something you learn in college, but some high school students are getting a jumpstart.

We'll tell you about it next in "Chalk Talk."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let's take a look at that. See that? That Dow up 172 points, 11,387.

Even if the Dow were up one point, if it closed up one point, it would be a record, because yesterday was the highest -- not a record. It's the highest it's been in a year.

That stock market, the New York Stock Exchange right now, the mood is downright giddy. That's according to Alison Kosik, who is there for us. She says traders are feeling pretty good about the results of the election, about this decision by the Federal Reserve to put $600 billion into the economy.

What's going on down there, Alison?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Ali, you're right.

Actually, I'm going to one-up you there. You know, we're actually at two-year highs, so even better than that in pre-Lehman times, you know.

I mean, yes, traders are ecstatic at this point. They see this rally sticking at least until spring. They say it's because of what you said, it was that Fed action. It's because the Republicans are in control of the House. Republicans, as traders see it, are better for big business, of course.

But, you know, the day of reckoning could be just around the corner, if it's not already here right now. I mean, think about it. Consumers are going to have to pay for this in the form of inflation. I mean, we're already seeing higher coffee prices, corn prices, oil prices. So the fuel that you put in your car, the clothes that you wear, the coffee that you drink, those prices are inching up right now. So all this money that the Fed is pumping into the economy is also going to turn around and make this inflation in the prices that we pay for every day -- Ali.

VELSHI: And the Fed says they're not that concerned about that, but the bottom line is the money has to come from somewhere. They're printing it, and there are a lot of people saying --

KOSIK: Exactly.

VELSHI: -- that if you just keep putting more of it in there, it becomes less valuable. You need more of it to buy stuff, and that's where the inflation comes from.

So, mixed messages all over the place, but right now it sounds like the message is pretty clear from the floor of the stock exchange. People are buying things.

Alison Kosik, good to see you. Thanks very much. You'll keep us posted on that.

KOSIK: They are. Sure.

VELSHI: All right. Time for "Chalk Talk" right now. I want to talk to you about a program that is close to my heart, Ventures Program at the Fenway High School in Boston.

What it does is it helps prepare 11th and 12th graders for the real world. And when I say the real world, the real world that could involve innovation and entrepreneurship. It actually has classes on entrepreneurship.

It teaches students in high school to write business plans, something I've always thought was an interesting idea. Not absent other things that students should be learning. You know that on "Chalk Talk," we're very, very concerned about science and mathematics and all these other things, but there's a mentoring component to this.

There are on-site job-shadowing programs for students. There are full-time internships in the senior year.

Amy Carrier is the director of the program. She joins me now from Brookline, Massachusetts.

Amy, thanks for being with us.

This is one important component. As we talk about, you know, an economy that requires students to have better skills on so many levels, we've forgotten what's happened in the last three years and how this economy was nearly torn apart, in large part because we as consumers, we as citizens, didn't have the background to understand how we fit into the economy. I've always thought that economics and business should play a bigger part and be taught in a better way at a younger age. And this is what you're doing.

AMY CARRIER, DIRECTOR, VENTURES PROGRAM, FENWAY HIGH SCHOOL: That's exactly what I'm doing. Ali, thank you for having me. And I'm touched that you said that this is near and dear to your heart. This is so close to my heart.

Yes, students are required to actually take this class prior to graduation, which is fantastic. They learn financial literacy. They understand the bigger picture, what's happening in the economy and in the bigger world.

VELSHI: Part of the problem is that -- and it's the same problem we have with science and math. A lot of people don't think of it as sexy. They think of it as dry, they think of it as complimented.

You seem to have a very practical approach to getting these students involved in entrepreneurship and innovation.

CARRIER: Absolutely. Well, the great thing is, if you ask a kid what they care about, they're going to tell you. And you can turn anything into a business.

When you empower students to take their ideas, you give them some tips about you need to find prices for how much it's going to cost you to purchase the items you're going to need to open your store, then you're going to have to figure out how much it's going to cost to operate on an ongoing basis, how much you can bring in, in the future.

These are not complex concepts for students. And they get really close to seeing that their ideas, their passion, can be real, which is a huge investment in students and a huge investment in our future.

VELSHI: What do you do? What are the components? We talked about some of them, but what do these students really react to that might make them think that they can be active participants in a growing economy from a business perspective when they graduate?

CARRIER: Well, the number one thing is just telling a student that their ideas matter, that their passions matters, and that they have a place in the world. And that's underscored by so many different things -- asking them, bringing mentors into the classroom to help contribute to their learning, to reinforce that the bigger community really does care. And then getting them out of the classroom and sending them into the workplace, into the business that they're interested in, and showing them what it's actually like there. The whole world is not just the classroom.

VELSHI: There's a student, a former student who is planning to start his own business, I understand, based on a business plan that was developed in the Ventures Program.

CARRIER: Yes. It was great. When he graduated, his freshman year he contacted me and he said, you know, "Can I really do this? Can I take my business plan?" The students write legitimate 40, 45-page business plans with budget projections, marketing plans, staffing plans, executive summaries.

And he said, "How do I do this?" And I said, "I think the first thing you need to do, because you've already figured out that you want to run a restaurant, an international food restaurant, study that in school and get permission from your teammates to actually run with this." And he did. He got written permission from his classmates, his 11th grade classmates, and this year he's a senior in college.

VELSHI: Great. What a fantastic thing.

All right. Well, listen, thanks for doing that, Amy. We appreciate that.

CARRIER: Thank you.

VELSHI: We think this is just one of these ideas that we can put out there and people can get a good, broad education that will equip them better for the downturns that we have in the economy.

Amy Carrier is the director of the Ventures Program at Fenway High School in Boston.

I want to talk to you about this hurricane, Tomas. It's been a Category 2 hurricane. It's now been reduced. It's a tropical depression.

But Tropical Storm Tomas is a mortal danger to people who can't take any more disasters. I'll show you how when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: When we come back, it's time for "Q&A" with Richard Quest. We're not talking about the planes this time. We're talking about quantitative easing.

Don't switch the channel. Don't turn the channel. This is important, it's interesting. I'm going to prove it to you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS." and so do I. We're here together in the CNN NEWSROOM around the world.

Hello, Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Hello, Ali.

Each Thursday, you and I talk about world business, travel, innovation. And nothing is off limits. VELSHI: Today we're in the business of printing money, which can only mean we are tackling quantitative easing.

Richard, shall I go first?

QUEST: Go ahead. Tell me all you can, because, let's face it, I'll have to repair the damage.

You've got 60 seconds from now.

(BELL RINGING)

VELSHI: Hours after the victorious U.S. Republicans began threatening a U.K.-style pullback on government spending, the Federal Reserve added to the $2 trillion it's already injected into the U.S. economy since the beginning of this financial crisis under the majestic-sounding banner "QE2." I'm not talking about Richard's beloved boat, the Queen Elizabeth II. QE2 in this case stands for a second round of quantitative easing.

That means the Fed is going to buy $600 billion worth of treasury bonds from the banks that it deals with in the hopes that they then turn around and lend that money to businesses, getting consumers and the economy chugging again. Interest rates already at record lows, but it's not that easy to get a loan.

The Fed figures if there's more money available, banks will feel freer to lend it out, businesses will use that money to expand and hire. Those people will spend the money they earn, creating demand. By the way the "2" in "QE2" means the Fed has tried this before and the results have been mixed so far -- Richard.

(BUZZER)

QUEST: Well, well, well. Have I got to put you right once again? Here we go. Sixty seconds on QE starting now.

The truth is this printing of money that Ali, with his feeble little props tried to show you, the object is to push down interest rates. But it does it by buying those bonds.

And if only it was that easy, because as Ali said, they've tried it before and it worked, just a little bit. So now QE2 has to take to the seas. But this will not be smooth sailing.

First of all, the dollar is going to fall. Secondly, emerging markets will be the recipient of that money. The money is going to pour into places like Brazil, not into consumer goods.

And finally, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke have warned in speeches the exit strategy is going to be difficult.

Be under no illusion -- QE2 is a multi-billion, multi-hundred- billion-dollar boat, but it is most certainly not a cruise around the Caribbean.

VELSHI: I bring real money and bonds and you bring a speech?

QUEST: Yes. And my speech, I assure you, is more powerful than your pathetic bag from lunchtime.

VELSHI: How did you know I brought my lunch in this?

All right. Time to separate the men from the boys right now. Let's introduce "The Voice" for question time.

Hello, Voice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, gentlemen.

Last week, Ali, you took home the "Q&A" trophy. This week, we've got a clean slate. This time around we're going mano-a-mano over money.

Economists call it quantitative easing. Bitter (ph) economists call it simply printing more money. And we'll have to print more money to buy Ali better props.

As you just heard, the Fed just announced a round of quantitative easing of about $600 billion U.S. dollars.

Ali, Richard, here is your first question.

This round of quantitative easing is hardly unprecedented. The Fed eased to the tune of about a billion dollars in 1932. But were investors impressed?

What was the Dow's lowest point in 1932? Was is 124 points, 215 points, 321 points, or 41 points?

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard Quest?

QUEST: I'm going to say 215.

(BUZZER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm going to say you're wrong.

Ali?

(BELL RINGING)

VELSHI: I'm going to go for 124.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm going to go for you're wrong.

(BELL RINGING)

QUEST: I'm going to go for 41.

(BELL RINGING) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard Quest gets it correct, 41 points.

Question number two. The Japanese struggled with deflation and a flat economy for more than a decade. And when zero interest rates didn't result in the land of the rising GDP, they resorted to quantitative easing in the early 2000s.

Did they spend 30 trillion yen, 50 trillion yen, 90 billion yen, or 10 trillion yen?

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ali?

VELSHI: I think it's C, 900 billion yen.

(BUZZER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think you're wrong.

Richard?

QUEST: I think it is, A, 30 trillion yen.

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct, 30 trillion yen.

One question left. Richard has --

QUEST: Why bother? I've won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ali, this is for you just to save face.

Question number three. If quantitative easing is just a fancy name for printing money, which country came up with such a wacky plan?

Was it Italy? Was it Egypt? China? Or my friend Dave's basement?

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Printed money is what you're asking, Voice?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ali?

VELSHI: C, China.

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China!

VELSHI: Oh, I'm back in the game!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ali doesn't get a goose egg.

Richard, you won our contest.

All right. Ali, Richard, good game this time around. We'll get quizzy with it again next week.

VELSHI: All right. Voice, thank you very much.

And that will do it for this week. But remember, we are here each week, Thursdays, on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" at 18:00 GMT.

QUEST: And we are with you, Ali, in the CNN NEWSROOM at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Keep the topics coming on our blogs, CNN.com/QMB and CNN.com/Ali. And we'll talk about what you want us to talk about next week.

See you then.

VELSHI: See you, Richard.

Fourteen parcel bombs in four days. An elaborate plot has got Greece and its neighbors on edge. CNN's Ivan Watson is live from Athens for some "Globe Trekking" and some remarkable video you're going to want to see.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It has been a tense four days for Greek authorities as they scramble to keep up with an elaborate bomb plot. At the heart of it all, the capital, Athens. More than a dozen parcel bombs sent from there and addressed the targets in Greece and across Europe. Most of these things have been aimed at countries' embassies - other at countries' embassies -- in Athens.

But there have been higher profile targets as well. We've reported to you one device addressed to German chancellor Angela Merkel was found in her office mail room in Berlin. A letter bomb sent to the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi discovered aboard a cargo lane on Tuesday. The pilot made an emergency landing in Bologna, Italy. And back in Athens, authorities also found a package meant for French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

CNN's Ivan Watson is in Athens. He's working on this story. He just got an up-close look at the police response to a potential explosive device.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nerves in Athens are a bit jittery right now. The country is already facing a deep financial crisis and protests on a daily basis. And now it is dealing with a wave of unprecedented letter bombs. The 14th letter bomb was found on Thursday addressed to this building right here, the French Embassy. It was intercepted at a courier agency and detonated by a bomb squad.

Now we're standing in front of a Greek bank. The road has been roped off, as you can see, by Greek police as they are preparing to investigate a suspect package down this street at the entrance to the bank, roping off this area, of course, to try to protect the people here if there is a possible explosive.

And we're hearing that the -- as you can see, we're being warned to move back away right now. We don't know if this is an explosive device. Greece right now, reeling from this problem. And they have had to shut down all postal -- air postal deliveries outside of the country for 48 hours as a result of this terrorist threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK. Do you see where Ivan is standing right there? Now look at him. He's live with the Greek parliament over what we see as his right side, but over his left shoulder. And since you filed that report, more has happened, Ivan.

WATSON: Well, that's right. Just a little while after that, up this road, we witnessed the controlled explosion. Take a look at this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: So, there you go. You had the bomb squad blow up the suspicious package. Just dozens of yards away from the Greek parliament. Fortunately, it turned out that it was not really a bomb. Unlike the other 14 that have been discovered emanating from Greece in the last four days, Ali.

VELSHI: Ivan, any sense that the authorities are getting any closer to honing in on anybody who is creating these?

WATSON: They actually arrested two suspects on Monday, Ali, here in Athens. They were two young men, Greek citizens, age 22 and 24. And they were caught carrying, Greek police say, a letter bomb as well as two Glock pistons, a bulletproof vest and even a wig, presumably to use as a disguise.

These two suspects were brought to a prosecutor to testify today. Greek police telling us they refuse to answer any questions because they refuse to recognize the authority of the Greek government right now. Some terrorism experts that I've talked to say they are part of a new generation of leftist anarchist groups that have been traditionally been operating here in Greece. One of them was already wanted, Ali. The 22-year-old, for allegedly being a member of an illegal group called the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. It sounds like a heavy metal band --

VELSHI: Right.

WATSON: -- but as you've seen, it's managed to create quite a bit of problem here in the Greek capital.

VELSHI: Ivan, we'll stay on top of this story with you. Thanks very much. Ivan Watson in Athens, Greece.

I've got breaking news for you right now. I want to go straight to New Delhi. On the phone, our Sara Sidner, about a bomb scare on a -- on a cargo plane that has now, we understand, landed in Mumbai. What is the story here, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, we spoke with the Mumbai International Airport spokesperson, Manish (INAUDIBLE), who told us that the full emergency was declared on the Delta 70 that was headed from Amsterdam to Mumbai. And that it was due to an unidentified object on a pallet in the cargo hold.

Now, apparently the Delta staff in Amsterdam informed the flight in thereby (ph) India as well. The question is why did that flight take off with an unidentified object in the cargo hold? That's what everyone is trying to figure out. At this time, we do understand that the flight has landed in Mumbai. It did not go of course. And now they are letting passengers off of that plane, according to a reporter on the scene there with our sister station, CNN IBM (ph).

VELSHI: OK. To be clear, I said it was on a cargo plane. This is a passenger plane, a commercial plane, a Delta flight, Delta 70, from Amsterdam to Delhi. So this plane has landed. So, the pilot declared an emergency, and this plane went into Mumbai, which is where it was supposed to be going?

SIDNER: That is correct. That's right. There are 244 people on board the flight. It was supposed to land around 11:20 our time here in India. It's around 12:00 now, so it landed around the same time it was supposed to land, yes.

VELSHI: OK. Do we have anything more on whether this -- may have any connection to tips being given to authorities? Or this is one of these things -- how would the pilot know -- do we know how he would know that there's a suspicious object on the plane?

SIDNER: Well, what we're hearing from the Mumbai International Airport is that they were somehow given the information from the Delta staff in Amsterdam. When that happened exactly we don't know and why there was such a lag -- because as you know, that flight is a very long flight from Amsterdam into Mumbai. It's a question of timing and when -- who knew what when.

We should also mention that, of course, President Obama is headed to Mumbai in his first stop in India on a three-day trip. He will be heading into there - actually, he should have already taken off from there in America heading into India. So, of course, there's heightened security all around and, you know, jitters all around as well, and this just adds to that.

VELSHI: All right, Sara. You'll stay on top of this for us. You'll let us know if we get any further developments on this story of Delta Flight 70. Amsterdam to Delhi being - landed in Mumbai with a full emergency being declared because of an unidentified object in the cargo hold.

We're going to take a quick break. I'll be back with more on the other side of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Just want to bring you up to speed with the story we were just doing with Sara Sidner out of Mumbai. Just got an update from Delta that upon landing, that plane in Mumbai, Delta requested a precautionary rescreening of a cargo shipment that was on Flight 70 from Amsterdam. All passengers were safely deplaned. Delta is cooperating with authorities in their assessment of whatever it was that caused the plane to -- the pilot to declare an emergency.

We'll keep you posted on that story. Sara Sidner's working it from New Delhi; we're working it from this side.

"Mission Possible" now. There is a great Web site that I'm going to show you right now. It's called pinklink.org. I think it's pink- link - yes. It's pink-link.org. It's a tool to connect women who face breast cancer with each other. A woman in Houston, for instance, can talk with a survivor in Boston about a new type of treatment they've tried. Or two women can figure out they're both going through the same thing and happen to live in the same town.

Vicki Tashman is the woman behind pink-link. She's a breast cancer survivor herself. She joins me via Skype from Lands Down, Virginia.

Vicki, thanks for doing what you're doing and thanks for joining us. This seems simple, but anybody who knows a cancer survivor knows for some strange reason, while you are part of a large community of people who get diagnosed, you suddenly feel very, very alone and very uninformed.

VICKI TASHMAN, FOUNDER, PINK-LINK: Very alone, Ali. Thanks for having me.

You know, support is so very important for somebody that's going through breast cancer treatment. Really any kind of treatment for any cancer. And I started Pink-link just for that so that women can go online and connect with each other online through our database. And be empowered and be knowledgeable and be able to go to their doctor and ask them questions about, you know, different options that they might have. So, it's been working really great.

VELSHI: How is the site organized? How do you know if you get diagnosed with cancer, you know somebody who is diagnosed with breast cancer. How do you use it in a way that connects you with somebody who can help you out?

TASHMAN: You know, you register on the site. We are a nonprofit, so it's free. You register, you fill out your complete breast cancer profile, what kind of treatments you've had, surgeries, et cetera.

And then you can go on the database and connect and basically put in whatever kind of things you're looking for. If you're getting ready to have reconstruction and you want to talk to somebody that has had reconstruction before, you can go on there and search the database and connect through the Pink-link e-mail system. It's a proprietary system. It keeps the member's name and e-mail address private.

And you can connect that way with other survives and see their profile and connect with someone just like you said who lives in Houston, if you're living in New York City and figure out what they've done differently, what you could do and be knowledgeable about your --

VELSHI: And if you're a survivor and you're passed treatment and things are going well for you, can you still take advantage of this to help other people?

TASHMAN: Oh, yes. We have a lot of survivors on there. They just want to help other people. So, they have signed on, and they go on and they're active in our forums. We have five different forums that our members can use.

We have a nutritionist. We have a physical trainer. We have a holistic health professional. We have a skin care expert. And we have a lymphodema expert. And they all volunteer their time. And our members can go on and post a question and ask for information. So, even the women that aren't going through treatment now currently, they might still have side effects and they might still have questions.

VELSHI: This is great, Vicki. It's the best of social networking, the best of people. Thank you so much. It seems obvious, but it's not obvious and I'm glad you're doing it.

Vicki Tashman is a breast cancer survivor and the founder of Pink-link. For more information on how you can help, go to my blog, CNN.com. I'll link you to what you need to see and give you a link to Pink-link.

Two days after Tuesday's historic election, some key races -- we're used to this now -- are not settled. Our political update coming your way right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We've all flocked back to home base. Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political director, is back in Washington.

Paul, before we talk about what you were going to talk about, we have to make fun of our buddy, Mark Preston, for a second. For months and months, he and you have been the face of preparing for this campaign, the heart of everything that's going on, the polling, the stories, the inside scoop. And then on game day, he was nowhere to be found.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. He was there, you just couldn't hear him. He lost his voice. He got laryngitis. He'd been working too long and too hard. So, yes, Mark Preston has been quieted.

VELSHI: He was there whispering to all of us, interesting things he knew about the race. (LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: You're back in Washington. I'm back here in Atlanta. The midterm elections are over. But there are a number of unsettled races.

STEINHAUSER: There sure are. It's been two days since the election. But as you say, it's not over yet.

Check this out. We have ten House races still unresolved. We have four governorships or gubernatorial contests still unresolved. Two Senate contests as well. One in Washington state and one in Alaska. So, we are keeping our eyes on the election, Ali. This election.

But you know what? That's so 2010. Let's talk about 2012.

(LAUGHTER)

STEINHAUSER: We're already looking ahead. You got it. To the next election. This morning, we put out a brand-new poll from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, a national survey. Among Republicans only, we asked who would you most likely support for your presidential nomination in 2012?

Look at this. Some familiar names. Right there at the top, 21 percent, Mike Huckabee, the former Alaska - or the former Arkansas governor. Right next to him, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. Of course, both those men ran in 2008. Right below them at 14 percent, Sarah Palin. Of course, she was her party's vice presidential nominee last time around. Newt Gingrich at 12 percent, the former House speaker. And Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who also ran in 2008, at seven percent.

Go right ahead a little lower down there. Some governors. Mississippi governor Haley Barbour at three percent. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty at three percent. Mike Pence, the congressman from Indiana at three percent. And Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, at two percent.

There are a bunch of other people we couldn't even put on the list. Ali, of course, none of these people - none of these people have said we are running for president. We just put these names out there. And at this early date, it's all about name recognition.

VELSHI: I'm mostly fascinated by the fact that every time I ask you a question, it sounds like this. And every time you answer, you have music all of a sudden. I don't know if you've noticed. You have theme music.

STEINHAUSER: You know, I'm an important man. I have music. What can I say?

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Listen, those numbers you were showing, two things come to mind. One, if you - if you were an alien and you just did a survey of newspapers in the last year or two years, you would think Sarah Palin would be higher on that chart than you would. We've seen this in straw polls, we've seen it at conventions. We've seen that amongst Republicans, Sarah Palin isn't topping the number of lists.

STEINHAUSER: Yes. That could be because also it's not just Republicans. We also include independents who swing Republican. Her numbers, our polls suggest, go a little lower. There are also, I think, a lot of Republicans that aren't a hundred percent convinced that she is going to run.

But if she does run and she wins the nomination, check this out. President Barack Obama versus Sarah Palin. Hypothetical general election match-up in 2012 -- there's the music again, of course. Barack Pbama at 52 percent. Sarah Palin at 44 percent. Thank you for the music.

What about Obama versus Romney? Romney at 50 percent, Obama at 45 percent. And against Huckabee, the president at 44 percent, and Mike Huckabee at 52 percent. Ali, 2012, a long way away. But I've got a feeling we'll be polling a couple of more times between now and then, don't you think?

VELSHI: I think we'll probably have a couple more polls. Paul, very nice to see you. I'm definitely liking the theme music. Good to see you. My best to Mark. Hope to have you both on TV very soon, and you and I will have lots of conversations. My good friend, deputy political editor Paul Steinhauser. OK. Your next CNN political update is an hour away.

Republicans made campaign promises to help America's small businesses. Small businesses, the growth of employment in this country. Can Republicans deliver?

We've got answers from small business owners. They agree on one thing. I'll tell you what it is after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. After the Republicans' big win on Tuesday, what are small business owners saying? They agree on basically one thing. Government needs to stay out of the way a little bit. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow joins me from New York. She's back from having a conversation with small business owners.

Tell us what they told you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's interesting. You'll see some of them playing in the monitor as we talk. We went up to a diner in upstate New York, in Westchester. We had pretty split races in New York. Some Democrats won, some Republicans won. And these folks were Democrats and Republicans, but either they were attorneys that owned their small law firms. One of them owns a staffing firm, another owns a consulting firm.

And Ali, they all said, as you pointed out, big government, get out of the way. Now, you don't generally hear that from Democrats, but one of the key points that was made in our breakfast discussion was that the government comes in, they try to aid small businesses by infusing a lot of capital in. $45 billion small business bill passed not too long ago by the president.

But one of the women, and you'll see her in a second -- what she said to me is I can't -- I can't tap that. I've been trying and trying to tap that. This is the woman. But I can't get through the paperwork, the application, to get my hands on any of that money. Ali, that seems to be the big problem here. Not the fact that the government is not trying to help, but that they're not directing the aid, Ali.

VELSHI: OK. The other issue, of course, that I heard somebody saying is the cost of doing business is high. It's onerous. There are forms to fill out, there are tax requirements. It's hard for somebody that's trying to make a living to get through all of it.

HARLOW: They say don't tax us to death. And what they also say is give us an incentive to hire in America. Because until we hire significantly, the demand won't come back. The economy won't turn around.

Right now, businesses are incentivized, if you will, to hire outside of America. Whether it's Intel, a huge corporation, or smaller companies because it's so much cheaper. What they're saying is give us tax credits for hiring in this country, and give us aid directly. This woman said lift us up, prop us up because we are the life blood of this economy. As you know, two out of every three jobs coming from small businesses by people just like this. Ali.

VELSHI: Poppy, thanks very much. Good to see you. Poppy Harlow, my colleague at CNNmoney.com. You'll see her whole interview there.

Everybody knows CNN covers politics. Nobody covers it like us. But when we come back, no one -- none other than Stephen Colbert has proof of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: How many analysts does it take to cover an election? Well, since "CNN Equals Poitics," we like to be fully staffed. Most viewers weren't counting heads on Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert isn't most viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": While Republicans made a lot of headway last night, the biggest gains of all were seen in the CNN newsroom with 33 analysts on hand.

(LAUGHTER)

COLBERT: They picked up an unprecedented number of opinions. It looked like a bunch of people trying out laptops at Best Buy. Each of the 33 analysts brought a unique and indispensable perspective. Of course, you have your liberal, your far-left liberal, your near-left liberal, your left-handed liberal, your moderate, your moderate conservative, your moderate moderate, your fiscal family conservative, your strategist, your tactician, your liberal minority, your minority minority, your Bond villain, and, of course, your eye candy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: He called me a bond villain.

Mu-ahahahaha!

I just needed an excuse to use this. I saw the premier for "Megamind" yesterday, and I can't stop using this thing. It had some problems at the airport with security.

That's kind of it for me. Your Bond villain, signing off. CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Brooke Baldwin.