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What the Week: Alcohol More Dangerous than Drugs?; Happy Meal Ban in San Francisco; Prop 19 Shot Down
Aired November 06, 2010 - 22:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey! Are you okay, man?
PETE DOMINICK, CNN HOST: CNN contributor John Avlon?
AVLON: Yes. What's up, man? Are you OK?
DOMINICK: It's just the campaign is over, and I just, I miss it, man. No more attack ads, robo calls. No more lawn signs. I didn't want it to end.
AVLON: I understand, man, but listen, it's OK. Didn't you hear? 2012 election started Wednesday morning.
DOMINICK: Really?
AVLON: It's OK. There's going to be plenty of ugly stuff coming down the pack.
DOMINICK: Promise?
AVLON: Absolutely, man. Don't worry. This will get uglier than ever.
DOMINICK: Thanks, John.
It's been four days since election palooza 2010 ended with the Republicans taking over the House. Three days since the pundits started speculating about 2012, and two days since the president proposed working out what could be the worst congressional gridlock in decades. He wants to do it over a Slurpee.
Buckle up, kids, we're about to tear through all of it. Welcome to "WHAT THE WEEK."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just days after those two mail bombs were intercepted from Yemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Startling statement by the French interior minister. One of the bombs found last Friday was just minutes away from exploding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are chasing a separate spate of package bombs. Mostly in Greece where they've made two arrests.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And after 56 years of waiting, they are finally the World Series champs. The San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Latin America's biggest nation has elected its first female president.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A federal appeals court has extended the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy indefinitely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After a long, bruising campaign, voters finally have their say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republicans are on the brink of major gains.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN is ready to make a projection. The Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives. The Democrats will in fact retain control of the United States Senate.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be very difficult to do serious business in the Senate.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People are frustrated. They're deeply frustrated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The newly elected insist they know what voters want.
RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: We need to restore fiscal sanity to this nation.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe TARP saved the economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former President George W. Bush who was just published as you may know a new book.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama is heading to India.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Tomas is sweeping by Haiti today dumping up to 15 inches of rain, flooding and mudslides could heavily damage post-earthquakes tent cities.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOMINICK: Now those are the big stories of the week. As for the undercover stories that didn't get a lot of attention, well, if a story this past week wasn't about the midterm elections, you probably saw it only flash across your screen like my 5-year-old daughter sneaking Halloween candy from the top of the fridge. I see you, sweetheart. So you may not have seen the report this past week that claimed of all the drugs out there, alcohol was the most harmful. It beat out crack, it beat out heroin and the study said it is almost three times as harmful as cocaine. We here at WHAT THE WEEK, we're truth seekers so I went out to ask some experts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOMINICK: There is a new study that says alcohol is more dangerous than drugs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it.
DOMINICK: Really? To society.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say drugs are more dangerous than alcohol, yes.
DOMINICK: You have an injury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.
DOMINICK: Is that because you were on drugs and alcohol? What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have an abusive significant other.
DOMINICK: She beat you while on heroin?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DOMINICK: What is the craziest thing you've done? Well, after abusing a few too many drinks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get naked.
DOMINICK: You get naked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely not abusive, you know.
DOMINICK: A lot of nudity, though. Just crazy naked things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Embarrassed the hell out of myself, you know.
DOMINICK: Right, of course.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to know the most dangerous thing I ever did drunk?
DOMINICK: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Voted Democrat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pain killers are the most dangerous drug. DOMINICK: Yes, yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that.
DOMINICK: The prescription painkillers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I woke up last night in a dumpster. I had no idea what was going. Unbelievable. I was cold. It was wet.
DOMINICK: And that's how he and I met.
Hello, microphone. You're my only friend. Alcohol cannot be that bad, can it? I mean, this study is just, it can't be that accurate. We should probably try to ask an expert.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. I would say whatever your problem is, if you like booze the most, I mean, booze is your problem. If you like crack too much, then crack is your problem.
DOMINICK: I know a guy who sells crack and heroin. OK. Understandable. Understandable. Right.
OK, bye. I was joking. I'm a comedian. It was good to meet you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOMINICK: OK, so the real danger is just reading a headline of a study like this and not looking at the facts. I spoke to the real Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and he says that if you total up all the damage caused by alcohol, it is true that it causes more problems than other drugs. But that's because more people use alcohol and they don't often recognize the damage drinking too much can do.
So to be clear, the study isn't saying an appletini is worse for you than a syringe of heroin, but I think that drinking an appletini actually does sort of make you kind of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED), but you can't say that on TV? Am I going to get fired? No? OK, sorry, sorry about that.
The obesity problem in our country has gotten so bad that one city actually wants to ban things right off your menu.
And later, the effort to legalize marijuana in California gets shot down. We'll check in with another expert. Tommy Chong. As you can see, he is not too happy about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOMINICK: Welcome back.
This week San Francisco became the first major city in the U.S. to pass a law essentially banning Happy Meals. OK. Well, it's a bit more nuances than that. In a nut shell, the law says a restaurant can't give away toys or what they call this incentive items with a meal if that meal doesn't meet certain nutritional requirements. Like it can't be more than 600 calories or more than 640 milligram of sodium, which brings us to our segment, "You Are Here." How do we get here?
A time when obesity is such a huge problem that U.S. cities feel the need to take matters into their own hands and actually regulate what we can buy to eat?
Well, let's go back to 1979. McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal. At first the toys were simple spinning tops and puzzles. But then they started getting more sophisticated and linked to movies like E.T., Aladdin and The Lion King. But as the toys got better, our nation got fatter and fatter and fatter. All right?
Check out this graph from the CDC showing the number of obese children. And I'm not saying they're linked but this is when the Happy Meal was introduced right here. All right? And this is now. The latest numbers from the CDC show 17 percent of children ages two to 19 are obese, which means they're at greater risk of developing heart disease, asthma, diabetes and other ailments. Of course, it is awful for them and it is contributing to our nation's rising health care costs. The question is, is getting rid of a toy the answer?
I mean, if we're going to do that, and we'll just ban the double down sandwich, this horrific thing. I mean, you know, it's got the two pieces of fried chicken instead of buns. And why stop there? Why not just ban all video games because they keep kids from playing outside?
I'm with the First Lady Michelle Obama on this one. OK? If you can grow a garden, try. If you can eat healthier, try. Educate yourself about eating healthy. And you know what, leave my toys, leave my toys alone.
What the hell is this thing, anyway?
Anyway, up next, Tommy Chong. And oh, it's making noises. And wait? What is that? My producer, Ed, is telling me that, in my ear, Ali Velshi is in the building. He'd better be getting ready to apologize for that attack ad he made against me last week. While I go find him, here's some of it for you to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is Pete Dominick. CNN's newest bald guy. Sure, he is kind of funny, but can you really trust this man to represent CNN every Saturday night?
Pete tells his wife he is eating vegetarian. Then why is he stuffing his face with an entire rotisserie chicken? He says he likes dogs. But he is really more of a cat person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Listen, I wanted to talk to you. I'm sorry about that attack ad. That negative ad I did last week. DOMINICK: No problem, man. That was fine.
VELSHI: I'm sorry. You know what, I'm sensitive. It was tough ad. It was before the elections. I've been the only bald guy here for a long time.
DOMINICK: Right.
VELSHI: And then you come along. Repeat this, repeat that. What the what. You know what I mean? I'm sorry about that.
DOMINICK: It's not a big deal. I totally understand. I look up to you.
VELSHI: I'm not against you or your show.
DOMINICK: I know. I know.
VELSHI: I'm the past, man. You're the future.
DOMINICK: Come on, man. I look up to you. It's just cool that we're friends now.
VELSHI: I'm sorry about that.
DOMINICK: No problem.
Hey! What the -- hey, Ali, I'm on in two minutes. Velshi, I'm on in two minutes. Velshi!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOMINICK: Welcome back to "What the Week."
The votes are in. The Republicans now control the House and the Democrats are holding on to power in the Senate by the skin of their teeth. Is Washington doomed to gridlock, and how can anybody hope to find a compromise in a country so divided?
I went lunch crashing to hear what you guys thought.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOMINICK: Hey, can I crash your lunch?
My question to you is, do you think anything will get accomplish legislation-wise? At all?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sure hope so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll have to wait and see.
DOMINICK: You know, everybody is concerned, it's going to be gridlock. Nothing is going to get done. Do you think that's the case?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DOMINICK: Will they? Compromise, like, your two daughters have a bite of the hotdog before you have that last French Fries.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: OK.
DOMINICK: What a compromise we just made.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the opportunity is there.
DOMINICK: But listen, no one campaign on, I'm going to reach across the aisle in either party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe in people. Everybody has a little maturity to know that to get something done, that's why we're all here at this table, we have to sit down together.
DOMINICK: Black and whites in America need to come in agreement on the brim of a baseball cap, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, blacks, they would like to keep it very, very straight and solid like you do.
DOMINICK: And white guys, we like to bend the brim a little bit. If I can straighten my brim out a little bit more, because mine is pretty mangled up, and you can put just a slightest bend in yours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My gun will put a slight --
DOMINICK: I'm telling you I will straighten mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, I'm not going to do it. You're going to make me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOMINICK: Well, in the post coital cigarette haze of the election, we heard a lot of sighing and even crying from the winners. But how about the losers? Well, here at WHAT THE WEEK, we've assembled our first ever post election losers panel. They're not losers themselves. They just happen to have lost.
First up is my friend Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, who has run up to Republican Dan Webster in Florida's eighth district.
Congressman, thank you so much for being here tonight.
ALAN GRAYSON (D), FLORIDA: Sure. I didn't realize I would be on a loser's panel but so be it. DOMINICK: Well, technically you lost the election. You're still a congressman for a couple more months, but you came into office with the Obama wave of 2008, of course, and you went out with the Republican wave of 2010.
I want to ask you, is there anything that you would have done differently in your campaign like maybe not have called your opponent Taliban Dan, which of course took a lot of heat for you, sir.
GRAYSON: Well, in the end, nothing mattered. I mean, if you look, I won by four points in 2008.
DOMINICK: Right.
GRAYSON: And if you look at the 24 Democrats, who won by ten points or less, 23 of them lost this year. In addition to another 43 who lost even after winning by ten points or more. In the neighboring district to the east, the congresswoman who won in 2008 by 15 points lost by 20 points this year. 35 points swing in two years. So this was a year when nothing worked.
DOMINICK: Right.
GRAYSON: And that's just the way it goes. But I will tell you this if you're wondering about my mood, Dan Rather told me last year, that if you do the job right, then you feel good whether you win or lose and that turns out to be exactly correct.
DOMINICK: No regrets on the way that you legislated.
GRAYSON: I don't regret the fact that we were going to have health care for all Americans.
DOMINICK: Almost all Americans. But yes, you guys got that passed in the House.
Now, you're not going to be in this next 112th Congress, obviously. But if you were and even if you're not, what is the issue that obviously you'll continue to advocate for? I mean, there is going to be a lot of gridlock. Can you do more now? I mean, you're a wealthy guy, you're a successful guy. What do you plan to do? You're not going to sit back and grow a beard and make a documentary.
GRAYSON: Well, for starters, I'm going to try to be a good husband and a good father. I was the only member of the 111th Congress with five children in school. And it was difficult just to get the homework done each night. I don't have to worry about that anymore. My 5-year-old twins were 2 years old when I started campaigning for this job in 2007. And now I can spend some time with them. And, you know, bear in mind, I am the congressman from Disney World. So win or lose, I knew I was going to Disney World.
DOMINICK: Do you plan to run again for any public office?
GRAYSON: If that's what the people want. DOMINICK: What issue, though, you're going to be -- you're planning on focusing on being a great father. That's great. I try to do that, too, of course, but what other issue outside of this? You're not giving up on fighting for the things that you believe in, are you, congressman?
GRAYSON: No. I mean, I'm part of a 3,000-year-old tradition called having a conscience. For 3,000 years, we've known that a just society is one that feeds the hungry, that shelters the homeless, and that heals the sick. And here we are after 3,000 years still fighting those same fights. I'm part of it. I'm not going to quit any time soon.
DOMINICK: Maybe you can do me a favor. Something that affected me as a child when I went to Disney World, maybe you could get those height requirements brought down just a little bit?
GRAYSON: Only if you're a congressman's child.
DOMINICK: Fair enough. Congressman Allan Grayson, best of luck to you. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.
And the WHAT THE WEEK inaugural loser panel rolls on. It's Prop 19 in California. It got shot down. So who better to speak about the drive to legalize marijuana than my friend Tommy Chong. One half of "Cheech and Chong" and a marijuana advocate. Great to have you here on the TV. I've had him on the radio.
Tommy, what's the mood right now in California? Shocked? Relieved? Casually indifferent? What do you think?
TOMMY CHONG, COMEDIAN: Well, we're getting ready to vote yes on Prop 19 any time now.
DOMINICK: Tommy --
CHONG: All the stoners.
DOMINICK: -- it was a couple of days ago.
CHONG: Yes, I know but we're still -- we're still -- there's still hope.
DOMINICK: Let me ask you a question.
CHONG: Hey -- I'll tell you something. Prop 19 had a residual effect that I think the Democrats should look into. It brought out the youth vote. And I think it helped get Jerry Brown elected and I think it helped get Barbara Boxer elected.
DOMINICK: One could argue that should you have waited and brought it back in 2010 when would you bring out even more young people. What do you think of that?
CHONG: You know, we can do it again in 2000 -- yes.
DOMINICK: 2012.
CHONG: I'm sorry -- yes, 2012.
DOMINICK: I was wrong. 2012.
CHONG: There you go.
DOMINICK: Tommy, the polls said Californians wanted to legalize pot. Then a quick reversal. What do you think happened? Is there -- is there something amiss with the polling process in California? Did people not show up?
CHONG: No. Everybody got reminded that the federal government still holds the trump card with legalization. And so actually, it was good that it went down because it would have caused too much -- you know, a lot of court battles and a lot of unnecessary problems that we really don't need, you know.
And not only that but actually in a lot of ways it saved money by going down in defeat because it kept a lot of small growers and there's a lot of dealers in business.
DOMINICK: Now, you actually had a run-in with the police. You've served time over this issue, because...
CHONG: Oh, yes, for the horrendous crime of shipping a bong across a state line.
DOMINICK: Yes. You're a terrible, terrible person, Tommy.
CHONG: You know what happened.
DOMINICK: Yes, I know.
CHONG: It was the only weapon of mass destruction that the Bush people found.
DOMINICK: Well, Tommy, times probably changing. Maybe this will -- this will change. You'll be out there advocating. You're on tour right now. Where are you going? Where can people see you?
CHONG: Well, we're at Santa Cruz tonight and we're going to be in Los Angeles Saturday, and then we're going to be in Houston, Texas. And actually, go on Cheech and Chong.com and --
DOMINICK: OK. Well, you're a legend in comedy. It's an honor to have you on my new show and I really appreciate your coming out.
CHONG: It's great to be on your show.
DOMINICK: Tell your wife I said I'll send her that autographed picture. Just be patient. She's beautiful and a great woman. Thanks, buddy.
CHONG: Thank you, Pete DOMINICK: All right. The "Get it Legal" tour with his partner Cheech Marin. Check out their website where you can catch that. Thanks so much again, Tommy, and to the Congressman Alan Grayson, both part of our first ever wHAT THE WEEK loser's panel. I appreciate their sense of humor on that.
All right. What do a 4-year-old, a French doctor and a weeping willow have in common? I'm going to tell you right away. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOMINICK: Each week people do great things. Sometimes it makes the news, sometime it doesn't. So I would like to give a shout out to people this week that are doing things that make them better than me.
This -- this is Jan Jurchen. She spent a year crocheting more than 300 hats for the homeless. She said she doesn't have a lot of money but she does have a lot of yarn and time, and I'm guessing at lot of cats, too.
Jan Jurchen, you are way better than me.
All right. This young man, his name is Jack Sublowski (ph). After his grandfather died of cancer, this 4-year-old kid started growing out his hair to donate to children going through chemotherapy. My wife would love it if I could donate my back hair. No? Too much? Sorry.
Check out one of Jack's favorite websites, other than, of course, WHAT THE WEEK's Twitter page -- get suaved.org. Get suaved.org, to learn how to fight. You can help fight leukemia.
Jack, you are way go better than me.
And who took this picture? Who took this picture? This is not supposed to be in here. I should have waited a week before I get my Ali Velshi tattoo. Out here, someone is getting fired.
All right. Guess what else is better than me? That's right -- what else. It's trees. Trees do make a lot. Like oxygen and leaves and they also shield my skull from the sun. But now, they actually also fight crime. Stay with me. Researchers at the U.S. Forest Service found that large trees -- they keep criminals off of residential properties. Smaller trees didn't. And I always thought size didn't matter. Too easy? Sorry.
Trees, you are still way better than me.
And this handsome, handsome man, his name is Philippe Bensignor. He's a French doctor. And this week, this week he caught a baby. Now, we could not find a picture of him so we just made a mock up of me as like an 18th century stereotypical French doctor. This week, he caught a baby from 18 stories. We have video. Watch.
Catch the baby. Get the baby. Doctor, get in there. Get in there. Catch the baby. Oh, yes. He's a hero. And guess what? He is way better than me. And so is the baby.
All right. Well, using my beautiful bald head as a magic eight ball, here's what I see coming this week as the next big thing.
First of all, President Obama's 10-day world tour on the heels of what he called a shellacking in the mid-term elections. The president visits India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. He is meeting leaders and attending the G-20 and APEC summits.
Also, coming down the pipe, the Elizabeth Smart trial. It resumes on Monday. Lawyers for the guy accused of kidnapping the young girl from her bedroom had asked for a mistrial and guess what, it's not going to happen.
And of course, the 2012 election. Totally underway. That's right.
Well, that will do it for me. I'm Pete Dominick. Keep thinking for yourself. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week.
