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Honoring Veterans In South Korea; Airport Expansion Vs. Cemetery; Cracks Found In Shuttle Fuel Tank; Disable Cruise Ship Home at Last; New Battle Over Bush Tax Cuts; Carnival Cruise Passengers Set Foot on Land
Aired November 11, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: She surprised them, she spoke to the troops. The meal, let me give you the menu, TJ. A meal of steaks, mashed potatoes, and gravy, peas, corn on the cob, garlic bread and lemon meringue pie. Perfect meal for U.S. troops at Ramstein in Germany. Served by the first lady of the United States. That's a pretty cool Veterans Day, I must say.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: That's a pretty good and what a great surprise. It's always nice to see those pictures of the president or first lady visiting troops. Wolf, we appreciate you, as always. We'll see you back here in about an hour.
BLITZER: Thank you.
HOLMES: Thanks so much.
And we got another Political Ticker update coming your way in about 30 minutes. You can get all the latest political news on CNNPolitics.com and on Twitter @ PoliticalTicker.
Coming up here on the top of the hour here now, 4:00 Eastern time. I want to welcome the men and women watching us right now on the armed forces network around the world. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for being here with us as well. Let's get started here this hour with what we've been watching throughout this day, this Veterans Day.
President Obama in South Korea for the G-20 economic summit. He marked this Veterans Day with a visit to a U.S. army base near Seoul. The president addressed military personnel and their families, also praised American and South Korean troops who fought in the Korean War in the early 1950s, also talk about the debt owed to U.S. troops once their service is over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, I want all of to you to know, when you come home, your country's going to be there for you. That is the commitment I make to you as commander in chief. That is the sacred trust between the United States of America and all who defend its ideals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, here at home, thousands also paused to pay tribute to America's veterans. Vice President Joe Biden led remembrances at Arlington National Cemetery and honored the more than 23 million surviving veterans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Collectively, the generation of soldiers, sailors and airmen, and marines, who have served and sacrificed for us are the heart and soul, the very spine of this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Also, it could be the last Veterans Day ceremony at a cemetery near Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The airport is expanding, and the graves are expected to be uprooted to make way for more runway space. Some of the soldiers buried there range from the civil war up to the Korean conflict. There's concern that older caskets won't make it to a new site intact. The matter is now before the Illinois Supreme Court.
Also, it was eight months of bickering and political gridlock, but Iraqi leaders have finally reached a power sharing agreement, one that is expected to bring in a new government. The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malaki will remain in that post and a powerful new office will be headed by his old rival and former Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi. It also means the top three governmental positions will be filled by members of the country's largest ethnic groups, the Shiites, the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs.
Also, more trouble with the Middle East peace negotiations. The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States is deeply disappointed with Israel's decision to build new housing units in sensitive areas of East Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: This announcement was counterproductive to our efforts to resume negotiations between the parties. We have long urged both parties to avoid actions which could undermine trust, including in Jerusalem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Those remarks came at a news briefing where Clinton announced an additional of $150 million in aid to the Palestinian authority. Clinton is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, today in an effort to kick start negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Also, take a look at this video out of Indiana where fire crews battled a strip mall fire. They went at it for hours with this fire. This massive fire started at a doughnut shop. Nobody hurt here. Investigators are focusing on the heating and electrical systems. And more trouble, more trouble for the shuttle "Discovery." It's threatening now to delay it once again, the final lunch of the "Discovery." NASA discovered cracks in "Discovery's" fuel tank. The two cracks were each 9 inches long and NASA working on repairs hoping to have "Discovery" ready for the November 30th launch date. The final launch has already been delayed by weather and other technical problems.
NASA's also got problems with its new telescope, the one that's supposed to replace the Hubble telescope. This one's name, the James Webb space telescope, and it cost a whole lot of money. The costs have gone up. Somebody can say galactic. It's now $1.5 billion over. It didn't cost $1.5 billion, folks. It's $1.5 billion over. It's $5 billion budget.
NASA says design is not the problem. The project suffers from a badly flawed budget. The telescope also known as the JWSD is supposed to go where no telescope, not even Hubble has gone before and beam back even better pictures.
When the House Republican Leader John Boehner says he's going to take commercial flights, going to continue to take commercial flights even after he becomes House Speaker in January. Boehner won't be taking military flights to and from his Ohio home, even though, he'd be second in line to the president. You might remember Republicans criticized Democrat Nancy Pelosi for taking military flights when she became speaker following a practice by some of her predecessors.
Now, take a look at this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA ROSS, ATTORNEY: We believe it's illegal and it was unlawful for the coach to hit these students. In this particular care, the students had engaged in no misconduct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Several parents say a high school basketball coach whipped their children. You're seeing video of it there. Whipped the children. Now, they're suing. I'm going to show you this video, and you're going to hear more from the parents just ahead.
Also, the ship of spam is back. What do thousands of cruise passengers do for several days without power, without hot water, without functioning toilets? They're able to finally tell us now. We're going to hear their stories. Stay. here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Passengers are so happy. This cruise is over. They are streaming now from the Carnival "Splendor" after a 7- day pleasure trip turned into a 3-day nightmare. No air conditioning, no hot showers, no hot food, no running toilets. At some point, they had to eat spam, some pop-tarts. This disabled ship was towed into San Diego this morning. This happened just a little bit ago. The cruise to the Mexican Riviera stalled early Monday when an engine room fire knocked out power. Paul Vercammen is there greeting a lot of those folks getting off. How far through the process -- are all the passengers off just yet?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: I think that they are down just to a few remaining passengers trickling off the ship, T.J. It looks like they got the bulk of them. Imagine this, 3,300 people off the ship, walking through the vessel, which, of course is three football fields long, and you can se how tall that ship is, in the dark, without the use of an elevator and without the use of any light to allow them to navigate the halls.
So, they are, indeed, relieved. The people who we've talked to that have come off the ship to be back on shore. They now like the idea that maybe can make a couple of selections and actually pick what they want to eat. It was slim pickings for a while there. We had one man tell us that he basically was down to mayo sandwiches at one point, T.J.
HOLMES: That's little nasty there. But their experience on the actual -- on that cruise liner, a lot of people said, you know what, we hunkered down. We did what we had to do, but still it wasn't pleasant. But I was surprised. You were reporting earlier people getting off, they weren't that well informed, at least, about the engine fire itself and exactly what had happened to the ship.
VERCAMMEN: That was certainly a source of a lot of frustration, T.J. In fact, people were joking that they heard at one point there was a, I guess, it was a nonflammable fire or something of that nature, and they really didn't get the details on the fact that they've lost all engines, basically that there was a fire, and then they were hearing all the different reports, which was frustrating to them, that perhaps they would go to Ensenada. They weren't sure about that.
And I witnessed this while aboard the "USS Reagan." At one point, there is one lonely tug boat out there straining against the current to bring this ship back to shore, but other tug boats got involved. And then of course, it came back early this morning, beating their prediction of midday as some other tug boats got involved and first tug it had in and pushed it against the dock here in San Diego harbor.
But, yes, the people were -- a lot in the dark about this just sort of confused about what was going on, and they wished they had heard more.
HOLMES: All right. Paul Vercammen, we appreciate you being our guy out there greeting the folks as they get back. Thank you so much.
I want to turn now to Katie Kapelke. She is one of the passengers, those the 3,300 who were on board. She has gotten off that ship now, and Katie, ma'am, do I have it right, you've made it to a hotel?
VOICE OF KATIE KAPELKE, CARNIVAL SPLENDOR PASSENGER: Yes, we're at the hotel now.
HOLMES: Now, what is the first thing you did once you actually got to a place where you could order your own food, find you some hot food, and you actually had access to hot water? What was the first thing you did?
KAPELKE: The first thing we did was plug in our cell phones, get those charging and call all of our loved ones and then the second thing we did was to take a hot shower.
HOLMES: All right. Well, it sounds like you're well on your way now, but ma'am, what was it like to actually finally start seeing land and to see San Diego and know you were just a short time away from getting to hot food and a hot shower?
KAPELKE: It felt really great. We could see all the lights, even in the night time, we can see the lights on shore, and then it just felt great. Every would hang (ph) off the side of the boat when we knew that we were starting to enter the port of San Diego.
HOLMES: Ma'am, we got a lot of reports that a lot of people just kind of -- you know, they kind of banded together. They understood, OK, we're going to have to go through this. We just need hunker down for a few days no matter how deplorable the conditions were. Did you get the sense as well that a lot of people might have been frustrated but weren't really acting out and angry. They just understood. We got to hunker down for a little bit?
KAPELKE: Oh, absolutely. We had no elevators, so we had to take the stairs, and everybody was helping everybody. There's a lot of elderly and disabled people on board. So, we would actually help carry people up and down the stairs. A lot of the toilets still did not work, so people were handing out their cabin numbers so people can come in and use their bathrooms.
The inner cabins did not have any light at all. They were pitched black. So, we would -- on the balcony cabins, we would open the doors to let lights in so they could actually see, you know the light. I think everybody was great.
HOLMES: Did they keep you guys pretty well informed? We're getting some different reports about how much information the passengers had. How well informed were you about the situation, whether it was the fire in the engine room or how long it would take you to finally get back to shore?
KAPELKE: Um, they did keep us inform of how long it was going to take us to get us back to shore. We were surprised today when we heard that it was a fire. They kept telling us it was just flameless smoke, to keep us calm. I mean, I understand now why they were saying that just to keep everybody calm. I think they handled the situation really well, but it is a shock to kind of learn that there was a big fire.
HOLMES: It sounds like -- are you actually pleased that you didn't have so much information? KAPELKE: I can see the positive side of them not telling us everything, you know, there was -- you know, there wasn't -- everybody was pretty calm. There wasn't a lot of panic, and I think they handled that very well. Just kind of not letting us know everything.
HOLMES: And ma'am, will a refund and a free cruise suffice? Does that make up for what you just went through the past several days?
KAPELKE: Um, absolutely. This was my first cruise, and so, I think we probably won't take the free cruise for a while, but what I wish they would do, and hopefully, they will do this is for all the cabins that were the inside cabins, I hope they upgrade them to a balcony to actually give them some light then.
HOLMES: That's a good point. And ma'am, what was the occasion for you? Were you just a vacation or why did you take a cruise?
KAPELKE: My friends, my best friends were actually supposed to be married yesterday in Puerta Vallarta.
HOLMES: Oh.
KAPELKE: The wedding party was all on board, and we were heading there for the wedding. We had other people flying in there to meet us, and so, unfortunately, we weren't able to have the wedding.
HOLMES: Oh. What are they going to do now, Katie?
KAPELKE: They are -- we're still discussing it, but their family member actually were not contacted, but in time that we were canceled, and so, they actually flew down to Puerta Vallarta. So, now, we're kind of figuring out what to do next and when they can have the wedding.
HOLMES: And you know what, Katie, how's the bride? I just have to ask that?
KAPELKE: She is devastated.
HOLMES: Oh, no.
KAPELKE: Yes. Honestly, she is -- she is handling it well, but you can tell she is brokenhearted. This was her dream wedding, and we're excited we get all the refunds and everything, but this is really where they wanted to get married at.
HOLMES: Oh, Katie that is horrible to hear, but of course, as we know, this situation could have turned out a lot worse, but thank goodness everybody is OK and held together pretty well. Glad you hopped on the phone with us. Thank you for taking the time out. And please, give our best to that bride, will you?
KAPELKE: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right. Take care now. And again, for the most part, everybody, again to our viewers here, from what we hear, everybody is OK. No serious injuries or even medical emergencies, everyone, from all accounts, the 1,200 crew that were on board took care of the 3,300 passengers who were on board as best they could, and they did an outstanding job, but still, a tough experience for a lot of people to go through.
And the bride didn't realize they were there for a wedding, wedding that did not make take place in Puerta Vallarta. A lot of stories probably like that.
Coming up, yesterday, we reported Google giving 10 percent raises to employees. Apparently though, we weren't supposed to know that. Now, we're learning somebody just got a pink slip. We'll explain all this ahead.
Also, how will a high school basketball coach explain this video? Take a look at this here. Might need to kind of get a closer look to see exactly and try to make out what's happening, but what you're seeing here is that it appears this coach is whipping a player. Up next, you're going to hear from angry parents who say they are now taking action, legal action.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We've been telling you about this story and this piece of video. Let's show it to you one more time and look closely and try to make out exactly what you see happening, then I'll explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES (voice-over): All right. The video is kind of fuzzy. You can certainly hear it. This comes from a cell phone where this was taken. You can see -- to make out this is clearly a gym, but you hear that crack? Apparently, that's the crack of a belt on somebody's backside. This is at a high school gym in Mississippi. Now, again, this is a belt allegedly hitting a student. A group of parents claiming that this video now is proof their kids' basketball coach whipped them. Parents brought a lawsuit now against Murrah High's coach and the school's assistant coach. Take a listen to this parent.
JASON HUBBARD, SON PADDLED BY BASKETBALL COACH: I was actually there on the 22nd of September in the practice and that was my first time observing the hits on the whippings from the coach. And I immediately felt very bad and went home and told my wife about it and talked to her about it and she was upset and disappointed in that.
And after that, I went back to practice again Sunday evening and didn't see anything because I had stepped out of practice, but I saw it again on Monday evening, which gave me great concern for our boys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES (on-camera): So, yes, you hear the parent there saying that the coach was apparently doing this during practice, and the parent witnessed this himself. Now, the basketball coach, Marlon Dorsey, has been on leave from the school since October. He did release this statement.
I'll read to you part of it, and it says, quote, "I took it upon myself to save these young men from the destruction of self and what society has accepted and become silent to the issues our students are facing on a daily basis. I am deeply remorseful of my actions to help our students." You make that what you will in what he was trying to say. The lawyer though, Lisa Ross, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three players.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSS: We believe it's illegal, and it was unlawful for the coach to hit these students. In this particular case, the students had engaged in no misconduct. They had done absolutely nothing wrong except run a basketball play incorrectly. And we believe that it is unlawful for any teacher to hit a student merely because this -- the student ran a play wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Practice for the Murrah High School basketball team on hold right now until school officials decide whether or not they're going to keep the coach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAFF SGT. SAL GUINTA, MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT: It's very bittersweet. I mean, it's such a huge honor. It's a great thing, but it is a great thing that has come out of personal loss to myself and so many other families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: You need to hear what this man did. He did it in one of the most dangerous sections of Afghanistan. Brave enough, daring enough and selfless enough to earn him one of the country's top military honors. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: On this Veterans Day, CNNs Barbara Starr has an exclusive story for you of how Sergeant Sal Giunta became the first living American soldier to receive the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. That story began three years ago to the day in a deadly area of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border in late October of 2007. He is set to receive the Medal of Honor next Tuesday at a White House ceremony.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUINTA: The whole timeframe maybe lasted anywhere between, like, two minutes, three minutes and five or six lifetimes. I don't know.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But in those two, three minutes, Army Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta went from a self-described mediocre soldier to a hero. That October night, Giunta was walking along the ridgeline with other members of his unit assigned to protect other soldiers as they were walking back to their base.
SGT. FRANKLIN ECKRODE, AUSTIN, TEXAS: And a single shot rang out. Everybody started getting down behind cover.
GUINTA: There's not just one of them, it's not two of them, its not ten of them. It's probably more than ten and they're really not that far away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually watch the guy pulling the trigger who was aiming at you.
GUINTA: It seems like your world is exploding and bullets and RPGs and everything. We looked, and it was along our whole side. It was long, you know, our flank.
STARR: Hit eight times was the man in front, walking point, as the military says, Sergeant Josh Brennan of McFarland, Wisconsin. He talked to his dad, Mike, only a few days before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, he had volunteered for that mission that day.
STARR: On the ridge line, Josh Brennan was down, severely wounded. Sal Giunta raced ahead into the face of Taliban fire.
ECKRODE: He got to the front. He killed one of the guys that was dragging my team leader away, Sergeant Brennan, wounded another one, recovered Sergeant Brennan, brought him back to an area where we could secure him and continue to fight, started the aid on him. For all intents and purposes, the amount of fire that was still going on in the conflict at the time, he shouldn't be alive right now.
STARR: Sal Giunta keeps insisting he doesn't deserve the nation's highest military award for heroism.
GUINTA: When I first heard that they're putting me in for the Medal of Honor, I was -- I felt lost. I felt kind of angry. It came at such a price. It's very bittersweet. I mean, it's such a huge honor. It's a great thing, but it is a great thing that has come at a personal loss to myself and so many other families.
STARR: And that is what you want people to know?
GUINTA: Absolutely.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we, of course, have your latest political news right here on CNN with "The Best Political Team on Television." And one of our members, Jessica Yellin, she is out of D.C. She's had enough, she has relocated to Los Angeles, not permanently.
But hello to you once again, Jessica. What you got crossing?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, T.J., we got a little bit of news about Christine O'Donnell, you remember the former Republican Senate candidate from Delaware. So, what will she do next?
Well, she was on the Jay Leno show last night and she said, no, a FOX News show is not in the works, nor will she be a pundit for them. She says she has gotten plenty of offers but she doesn't want to do reality TV and she even might consider running for office again. She did say that if her Republican opponent, Mike Castle, her opponent from the primary, had endorsed her, she thinks that could have made a huge difference.
That's latest from Christine O'Donnell. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from her in the time to come.
Moving over to some political news in Alaska, it is day two of their count of those write-in ballots. Remember 92,000 ballots to count. They've gotten through a little more than 20 percent of them. And so far, about 90 percent of those, 9-0, are clearly for Lisa Murkowski, the former Republican turned independent who ran as a write-in candidate. About 8 1/2 of those so far are apparently possibly for Murkowski but are being challenged and very, very few, 0.01 percent, are for Joe Miller, who, of course, is the Republican who's on the ballot.
Now, T.J., big picture here, if these numbers hold up as they continue to count, Lisa Murkowski, looks like she could be the winner in the end. But Republican Joe Miller, he has vowed to challenge all of this with lawsuits. So, this one could drag on for a long time.
And then finally, here in California where I am, there are two House races that remain unresolved, only on both of those races, the Democrats have now claimed victory. They both say that they have insurmountable leads. Both of the candidates, they are saying the winners are in the Central Valley of California but CNN has not called those races. We still say they are unresolved.
In all, there are seven unresolved races, House races, across this country by CNN's count.
And that's the latest political news -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Seven unresolved, and, boy, there's a doozy going on in Alaska right now. We'll see how that one plays out.
Jessica, enjoy Los Angeles. Good to see you as always.
YELLIN: There you go.
HOLMES: Another political update next hour right here on CNN.
The FDA has been warning smokers about smoking for a long time. They got something new for you. Are you seeing this? A new type of warning.
They beefed up their campaign, the ones you are seeing here, you can consider these tame. We will show you some more of the hard- core images that could be on that pack of cigarettes. That's coming up next and that is trending.
Also, there's a tweet I just can't wait to show you. It has to do with what they served on board that crippled cruise ship that just got back. You got to see this. It's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Welcome back.
We have told you that Carnival Cruise ship Splendor has made it back to San Diego. Of course, it left on Sunday from Long Beach, supposed to be going on a seven-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera, had an engine fire on Monday. It was crippled, lost electricity, at some point, they didn't have hot water. They didn't have functioning toilets at one point as well.
Well, a lot of people have been reporting a lot about the folks were out there eating spam or had to be. They had some air drops. They got Spam and other food. They didn't have hot food.
Well, Carnival Cruise Line has felt that they need to come out and respond to those reports of people eating Spam. I'm going to share with you a tweet now. This, again, coming from Carnival Cruise Line, quote, "Despite media reports to the contrary, Carnival Splendor guests were never served Spam." Now, that was a couple of hours ago.
Then 30 minutes later, they came out, Carnival, with this one, saying, "In regards to our last post, we wanted to clarify that while some Spam was delivered, it was never served to our guests."
So, they want to make sure they clear that up. But Spam and some other things were dropped off. They did do air drops and folks were able to get some food.
But let me show you a picture now, a TwitPic that came in. Boy, people would take advantage of a situation, won't they? We don't know who this woman is. Now, I just want to clear up, but this picture came in. You can see she is wearing a shirt that says, "I survived the 2010 Carnival Cruise Spamcation."
And you can see, who knows what the shirt is about but appears she has other shirts were her hands are. They are sitting in a cart or something. So, it's possible someone decided to take advantage of this situation and start selling shirts out there. We don't know for sure. Somebody could have PhotoShopped that, we don't know, but it's funny.
Well, we want to turn to what's trending today. And topping the list once again, Goggle, not one but two stories about Google. First, firing the employee who leaked information about those Google raises we have been hearing about. Also, Google's Street View helps bust an alleged drug deal.
Also trending, the FDA's graphic anti-smoking warnings that could show up on cigarette packs.
Let bring in Poppy Harlow.
Poppy, good to see you as always. You are in New York for us. We got two Google stories. Let's start with the employee being fired.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Sure. Yes, any time we bring up the name Google, it's sort of always trending. People are always interested in this tech company. They're always making new moves.
But this is very interesting -- in what looks like an apparent move to try to keep some of their top talent or maybe not. What we do know is that Google has offered, T.J., a 10 percent raise across-the- board for next year to all of its employees. This apparently went out in a memo from CEO Eric Schmidt to all employees on Tuesday.
Well, that memo was leak and sources tell CNN Money the person that leaked that memo, they got the axe, they were terminated within hours of that leak. Now, this was first leaked to "Business Insider." They broke the news and then "Fortune," our sister company, got a copy of it.
But I want to read you a statement that we got from Google because they almost never really comment on these kinds of things. And this is what Google did say. They said, "While we don't typically comment on internal matter, we do believe the competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company."
Now, they are talking about there are a lot of top people have left Google. One of them being Cheryl Sandburg, who's the COO of Facebook. She went over to Facebook. So, they are commenting on that. So, interesting news there from Google.
And another very interesting story centered around something that happened here in New York, T.J. This is about Google's Street View. We all know this. You can go online, you can look up your home and you can see it on Street View. You see it right there on the screen.
Well, they recorded -- some of the car cameras recorded images that helped cops in Brooklyn complete a drug bust. Apparently, Google Street View showed three alleged heroin dealers, alleged heroin dealers -- I will be clear on that -- on the corner.
Cops were able then, T.J., to use those images to identify them. They have been arrest aid long with four other suspects. So, that apparently was a big help to cops.
But I got to say, the FCC has been looking into Google Street View and now they've investigated them. They've launched an investigation into Google Street View, T.J., as to whether or not it violates privacy laws for clear reason here, as you can see, right?
HOLMES: Well, we don't mind. We hear this story, OK. Somebody might think, OK, maybe they did some good here and busted someone who was doing something illegally, allegedly, we say.
HARLOW: Right.
HOLMES: But how would you feel about Google being able to pick up your image of doing whatever it may be out on the street one day?
HARLOW: That's the big concern. But, again, Google is the leader here, you know, in this technology. So, the argument is, do we want this technology or does it infringe too much on privacy rights? It's sort of similar to what we've seen in the controversy over privacy rights and Facebook. So, those are two very interesting, trending things about Google.
Yes, T.J.?
HOLMES: And, Poppy, the other thing, the last one here, is anything ever going to get people to stop smoking? Don't we know the stuff is bad for you? No matter what the FDA does, people are going to keep smoking, aren't they?
HARLOW: Right. I was thinking of that the other day. You know, when you walk by someone and you sort of like you inhale it -- you know, no, I don't know what's going to get people to stop smoking. I wish they all would.
But take a look at these pictures. I have to warn you what you are going to see in a minute is pretty graphic here. On the screen there are some of the images that the FDA has proposed. They are going to be on all cigarette labels in the United States by 2012.
Now, there's 36 proposed images. And, again, cigarettes cause strokes and heart diseases. Some pretty disturbing images. Look at that the hole in the throat saying cigarettes are addictive.
The FDA has put these out there. Apparently, T.J., they are taking comment on these. They are going to end up with nine final ones that will be on all cigarette packs in the U.S. by October 2012. They are taking comments also from smokers because they want to know what smokers think are the most effective labels.
HOLMES: Wow.
HARLOW: So, if that can't get to you stop, I don't know what can.
HOLMES: And how much is a pack of cigarettes in New York these days?
HARLOW: I don't smoke, but I think it's $9. And I have to tell you, I was walking home from the subway the other day and this guy goes, hey, dude, can I bum a cigarette? And the other guy goes, sorry, it's too expensive.
That really happened. That really happened. So, they're very expensive.
HOLMES: They are precious. They are precious.
They raised the price. You put that, those labels on them. People will keep on smoking. Poppy --
HARLOW: Yes, and my producer is telling me $12, by the way.
HOLMES: Twelve dollars for a pack of cigarettes -- that won't get people to stop. The image is not going to stop them either.
Poppy, we appreciate you. Good to see you as always.
HARLOW: You got it. You got it.
HOLMES: Well, we've got a picture here for you. You know, you see people driving down the road. Sometimes they have a dog in the back seat with their head out the window. What is a horse doing in the back seat?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, there's a car here. And in the back of this car, there's a horse.
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HOLMES: All right? Demolition is an exact science. All right? People take months of planning to put explosive in the right place, whether it's to bring down a building or maybe a smokestack, like this?
Oh, oh, oh.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here! Get out of here!
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HOLMES: Oh, yes. Streams are not supposed to follow a demolition.
The smokestack didn't go the direction it was supposed to go. It came down, yes, sure. They got that part out of the way, but it came down the wrong direction.
It took out power lines, took out a generator. And so, as a result, 3,500 people in Dayton, Ohio, don't have any power.
Months of planning. Maybe they should have taken a couple more months to plan that one.
Also, road trips. A lot of people -- this "I Spy" game. You remember this game kids would play?
Can you spy this one? Take a look.
Stay with me. Stay with me.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Smile, horsey.
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HOLMES: What do you see? A horse!
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a horse in the car.
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HOLMES: Stick his head out the window.
Now, we don't have any explanation for this. We don't know what that exactly was, where it was exactly going. But you don't see that on the road every day.
So we just wanted to share that with you. Let's see if we can hold on -- ah, we'll move on.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a horse.
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HOLMES: You can hear the voice of the iReporter there, "It's a horse."
Well, coming up next, Wolf Blitzer. He has a look at what's ahead on "THE SITUATION ROOM."
Stay with us.
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HOLMES: All right. We're getting close to the top of the hour. Wolf Blitzer coming up here in just a moment.
Want to keep you updated on what a lot of people were fascinated by. This is really a human interest story. A lot of people concerned about these 3,300 passengers who were aboard this Splendor, this Carnival cruise ship Splendor.
Again, they left on Sunday from Long Beach. They were expecting to go on a seven-day Mexican Riviera tour. Well, it got cut short, and they are glad it did, because on Monday, a fire in one of the engine rooms caused them to lose power, for the most part, on that ship.
They were without hot water, they were without hot food. A lot of people at some point or the other were without toilets that were functioning appropriately.
We have reports of people, of long lines to try to get cold, bad food in some cases. But, again, all the reports say, essentially, that everybody held together, helped each other out, and made it through this. But, again, they made it to San Diego.
For the most part, all the people have made it off that ship. They're in hotel rooms and getting warm showers and hot food right now. But, again, this is something that could have ended much differently and much worse, but people happy to be back on dry and have got a story to tell at this point.
We'll continue to keep an eye on them.
Well, there's also some pushback today from the White House over a story in "The Huffington Post." The story claims the president's top adviser, David Axelrod, is sending signals the White House might be willing to temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts.
Let's bring in Wolf Blitzer once again in Washington.
Wolf, hello once again.
The White House was quick to come out and respond to that and step back a little bit from what seemed to be reported in "The Huffington Post."
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They are suggesting that what David Axelrod actually said was very similar to what the president said on the day after the election results came in at that big one-hour news conference at the White House. The president signaled he was ready to compromise on this issue.
He didn't give any details or anything like that, so they are pushing back a little bit, saying Axelrod didn't go a whole lot further than what the president himself said. But, look, this is a really sensitive subject, and it's going to be issue number one when the lame-duck Congress comes back next week.
If they do nothing, all taxes -- tax rates for everyone, middle class and wealthy, will revert back to the tax rates that existed during the Clinton administration, which were higher than existed during the Bush administration. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 brought down the rates somewhat, but it was only for a 10-year period, and they're about to expire at the end of this year.
So, they're going to have to do something. The question is, will the tax rate remain the same for everyone, or will they come up with some sort of other compromise allowing the middle class to get the same tax rates, but have a have a higher rate of disqualification for lower taxes, for those making, let's say, $500,000, or $1 million a year, or whatever. So this is still an issue that is going to have to be resolved.
HOLMES: Well, it has to be. And it seems like both sides have stood firm in their position. This seemed like an opening, Wolf. Has there been another opening, or where do we start with this negotiation now?
BLITZER: I think in the end, if they want to see the tax rates for 98 percent of Americans, the middle class, people making under $250,000 a year for joint filers, under $200,000 a year for single filers, if they want to see those tax rates stay the same, they're going to have to do something. The Republicans are saying they are not going to budge on this, and the Democrats are going to need the Republican if they want to see that middle class tax rate remain the same.
The president, in the last several days, has repeatedly said he does not want to see any tax increases for the middle class, so they're going to have to work out a deal.
HOLMES: And the last thing, here, Wolf. It was great to have you in Atlanta. I didn't get to hang out with you, but a lot of folks did.
You want to tell the folks why you were in Atlanta? You can tell them, but they will be seeing a lot more about it over the next week or so.
BLITZER: Yes. I was over at the BET Soul Train Awards in Atlanta last night, at the Cobb Energy Center. It was really a lot of fun.
And you know who is going to be joining me in "THE SITUATION ROOM"? Our good friend Tony Harris. He was there, and the two of us are going to reminisce a little bit about what it was like. And there were some fun things that we did, including the Dougie.
You know what the Dougie is, T.J.?
HOLMES: I do know what the Dougie is. I know it well.
BLITZER: Do you know how to the Dougie?
HOLMES: I can do the Dougie.
BLITZER: I want to see you a little bit of that Dougie. Teach me how to do the Dougie.
HOLMES: Well, no. Apparently, you were teaching a crowd from BET the Dougie.
BLITZER: Doug E Fresh was teaching me now to the Dougie.
HOLMES: I heard really, Wolf, people need to see this, this event, you turned it out, by all accounts. You stole this show. I know you're not going to say that about yourself. I will say it. BLITZER: You know what? I'm going to tell our viewers if they want to see the whole thing, November 28th, it will air on BET and on CENTRIC. They're going to see -- it's about a two-and-a-half-hour extravaganza, great music, lots of fun, and they'll see me doing the Dougie.
HOLMES: Wolf, I love it, my man. Good to see you. We'll also see you here in about five minutes for "THE SITUATION ROOM."
Thanks so much.
All right, a quick break. Who knew? Wolf Blitzer teaching me how to Dougie.
Quick break. We're right back.
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HOLMES: All right. Got some video I want to go right to and show you now, this cruise ship, the first look we're getting inside really from a passenger.
Take a look at this. Look and listen to this video with me for just a second.
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HOLMES: All right. You're seeing inside one of these hallways on one of the decks, and you're hearing this tone.
Apparently -- and you see the emergency lights as well, kind of the first signals people were getting that something was going on. But this video coming to us from one of the passengers.
I want to head back out to our Paul Vercammen, who is at San Diego Harbor, where the ship came in a little bit ago.
And Paul, you have the guy who took that video. Do I have that right?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN SR. PRODUCER: That is correct, T.J.
It was Marquis Horace, who was one of the first passengers off the ship.
And that video that you took, what was going through your mind when you heard first, "You need to evacuate"? And I guess that's the way they worded it. And second, all those pings and then having to navigate through those hallways?
MARQUIS HORACE, CARNIVAL SPLENDOR PASSENGER: Well, actually, I didn't know what to think. I was a little bit in shock because they first told us it wasn't serious. And then when the announcer came on the P.A. system, it seemed like it was more serious.
So I didn't know what was going to happen. I just -- I don't know, I thought maybe my phone would survive. I just wanted to get a video of exactly what was going on. And hopefully, if somebody did see the video and I didn't make it somehow -- you know, I didn't know what was going to happen -- at least my phone possibly survived. I don't know.
I just wanted to get a record of it so people knew what I went through.
VERCAMMEN: And how did that evacuation go at that point? Was it orderly? Was it chaotic?
Again, you talked about there were a lot of seniors on this ship, people who couldn't exactly sprint. What was that like?
HORACE: I think that since Carnival didn't tell us it was so serious, I'm not sure if people really took it how they took it. So it wasn't really orderly, it was more like -- it was a little chaotic but not -- how can I say it? It was not -- nobody was really scared.
They didn't seem scared until they started -- you know, smoke started to fill the hallways and things like that. And then people started to chatter and run and scatter, and that sort of thing.
VERCAMMEN: Because at this point, all you know is you're supposed to do something, and you have not been told. And nor were you really ever clearly told that there was one serious engine room fire that had knocked out this ship's ability to continue to steam ahead.
HORACE: That's right. They didn't tell us exactly what happened. They kept saying it was a flameless fire and it was minor.
And I think about, I don't know, it could have been a half hour to an hour later, they started giving us more information. And ultimately, they said -- once the power went out, they said that they were not going to be able to recover it.
And maybe a few hours later, they said that this cruise is now terminated. And at that point, the bottom dropped out.
There was no power. That's went toilets stopped. And I guess the second engine, they said they're going to have to cut it off. They said it would probably cause more of an issue, I guess, so they turned it off.
That's what they told us.
VERCAMMEN: And quickly, when you heard "terminated," what went through your mind? It was your birthday cruise, after all.
HORACE: Well, I was completely disappointed. And then on top of that, I didn't know what terminated meant, because I had never been on a cruise before. And a lot of the other passengers were asking me -- they were saying, "Well, what does that mean?" "I don't know."
So, apparently, that meant that the cruise was going to end and we are dead in the water. They said that the normal term that they said over the P.A. is "We're dead in the water." That is what they told us. And that, I guess, just means we have no power, we have no where to go, and we need help.
VERCAMMEN: Thank you so much. I'm glad to see that you are back on dry land.
As you heard, either a cruise to remember or a cruise to forget, but Marquis survived it despite all of the harrowing things that went on there for three days adrift at sea.
Now back to you.
HOLMES: Paul Vercammen, we do appreciate you, appreciate your reporting today for us. Thank you so much.
So, again, a good ending to that story. It could have ended much differently.
Thank you for being with me, here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm T.J. Holmes, handing this thing over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" now.
