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27 New Zealand Miners Missing After Blast; President In NATO Summit; Federal Judge Pleads Guilty; Millionaires Urge To Raise Their Taxes; 4 Million Americans To Lose Unemployment Benefits; Innovative Jobs Needed; Aung San Suu Kyi Speaks Out; Pew Poll Shows Many Americans Don't Know Results of Elections

Aired November 19, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm Ali Velshi, here's what I've got on the "Rundown."

Some millionaires actually want President Obama to raise taxes. Find out why. Plus the TSA, are they really going to frisk you and show off your scanner image? Today we are separating fact from fiction.

And a "Big I" solution for long-term space travel, a super- stretchy suit that actually mimics the pull of gravity.

But first, a developing story in New Zealand, at least 27 miners are missing after an explosion ripped through a remote coal mine on New Zealand's South island. Rescuers are at the site of the Park River mine right now. Two miners walked out of the mine with only minor injuries. The explosion cut all communication and power in the mine. The major concern now is the status of ventilation in the mine.

Officials say rescuers won't be able to enter the mine until they're certain it's clear of methane gas. Because of the mountainous terrain, the mine is very different from the one in Chile where 33 miners were rescued after spending more than two months trapped underground. As you see in this diagram I'm going to show you, the shaft in the Chile mine were vertical, they were dug to great depth. The trapped miners survived a half a mile underground.

By contrast, the shafts in the new Zealand mine are horizontal, as you see here. Officials say the trapped miners are probably a mile and a half or so inside the mine. But because they drill into the side of a mountain, the miners are probably only a few hundred feet below the surface. Here's what the CEO of the Pike River mine said about the accident today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER WHITTAL, CEO, PIKE RIVER COAL MINE: We do have the advantage that because we can walk into the mine, they're not a big- shafted mine, but the men and the rescue teams can get in and out of the mine quite effectively, and they'll be able to explore the mine quite quickly. Yes, they will work through the night and they'll work until they have been able to go throughout the mine and determine the extent of the incident and the safety of all of our employees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Pike River Mine employees insist the rescue will not be as complicated as the one in Chile. As we mentioned, the reason is that the New Zealand mine is not a deep shafted mine. One official says because of that, rescue teams can get in and out quite effectively. You just heard the CEO saying that.

Joining us by phone now to talk more about is Mark Radomsky; he is the Director of the Miner Training Program at Penn State University and College Station, Pennsylvania.

Mark, thanks for being with us - your initial assessment of this situation in new Zealand?

MARK RADOMSKY, DIRECTOR OF MINER TRAINING PROGRAM, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY (via telephone): Well, as the CEO said, it is a serious situation, any time you have a methane explosion, you just have to, you know, cross your fingers and see how this develops.

VELSHI: I would say, though, mark, that prior to this Chilean situation, most people, most of our viewers looking at a mine collapse or a mine explosion would have very little hope, more often than not things don't go well. But I think we've all changed our perspective on this. We don't know the condition of those 27 men in the mine, we don't know if they're alive or not. At this point, though, what is your evaluation of where they could be and how fast rescuers can get to them?

RADOMSKY: That's right, we don't know because communication was cut, so they're isolated. We just hope that those individuals did not receive, you know, the brunt of this concussion and explosion. So we hope that they're able to get into a safe haven there in the mine. And hopefully then the rescuers will be able to get to them.

VELSHI: Under what conditions can they survive? What has to happen in an explosion like this if you're trapped in a coal mine?

RADOMSKY: Well, number one, survive the initial blast, there's going to be heat, there's going to be toxic gases, there's going to be a shockwave, debris is going to be flying around. So it's just like any explosion, which is fire ignition in a confined space, you know, it's very, very serious.

So if you survive that, you're able then to put on your self- contained self-rescuer and isolate your lungs from the toxic atmosphere. And then, of course you want to get out of the mine, that hasn't happened here, except for a couple of the miners. So now the next best thing is to get into one of these refuge shelters, refuge chambers where they have food, air, and so forth. So that's the best scenario.

VELSHI: Mark thanks very much for this. We'll of course stay in touch with you and We'll stay on top of this story.

RADOMSKY: You're welcome.

Mark Radomsky is the Director of Miner Training at Penn State University, College Station, Pennsylvania. We'll stay on top of that story for you. President Obama is in Lisbon, Portugal today meeting with NATO allies. The two day summit has Afghanistan right at the top of the agenda. And in particular, strategies to end combat operations in four years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I expressed my gratitude to the Portuguese armed forces who are serving alongside us in Afghanistan. And here in Lisbon I look forward to working with our NATO and our ISAF partners as we move towards a new face, a transition to Afghan responsibility that begins in 2011 with afghan forces taking the lead for security across Afghanistan 2014.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: We expect to hear from President Obama shortly on how things went today. we will bring you his comments live from Lisbon in about an hour. We want to update you on a sordid tale we first told you about last month. You may remember some of the details, if not the names. It involves a married Atlanta-based federal judge, a stripper, drugs, and guns in a parking lot.

Just moments ago, Judge Jack Kemp pled guilty to three federal drug charges. Kemp was caught in a FBI sting buying cocaine, marijuana and prescription painkillers for a stripper he was seeing. One of our Atlanta associates also reports that he officially retired from the bench right before entering court today.

Nobody likes to pay taxes, but let's face it; we have got it pretty good. Just ask your parents or grandparents. Right now the top personal income tax rate is 35 percent. In the early '60s was it 61 percent, 71 percent, 81 percent or 91 percent? I'll tell you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Before the break, I asked you how much of the incomes of richest Americans that they had to give to the government back in the early 1960s. Back then the top personal income tax rate was a staggering 91 percent. So much for the good old days. Right now of course we're quibbling over 35 percent, the current top, rate versus 39.6 percent, the top rate, if the Bush era cuts aren't renewed.

The White House wants to keep the cuts for households earning a quarter of a million dollars or less. But Republicans and some Democrats want to keep the lower rates for everyone. By the way, at a cost to the economy of about $700 billion. Although some argue that is offset by the job creation that will happen as a result of tax cuts.

Coming down on the White House side is a group called Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength - quite a name. Though it's money out of their own pockets, 47 well-off American's have signed an online letter that says in part, quote; we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit and the debt burden carried by other taxpayers. The country needs to meet its financial obligations in a just and responsible way, unquote.

Now, 47 people are a minuscule faction of millionaires and millionaires are a minuscule fraction of the U.S. population - but not of our elected representatives. This raise my taxes campaign came out the same day that the Center for Responsive Politics reported on the wealth of members of Congress based on their own financial disclosure statement. In 2009, 261 lawmakers, almost half, were millionaires.

Lawmakers' median wealth? $911,000, up 16 percent from the year before. Senators as a whole had a better year than House members, almost $2.4 million in median net worth compared to $765,000 for the House. In just two weeks, four million Americans could use their unemployment benefits. Why? And why the number of people affected is actually a whole lot bigger than you might think.

Next in "YOUR $$$$$."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "YOUR $$$$$."

At the end of the month, unemployment benefits will expire for 4 million Americans. Legislation to end those benefits failed in Congress yesterday. The battle is between saving those people's livelihoods versus the $12.5 billion price tag.

Now for my weekend show, "YOUR $$$$$," I talked about this with my co-host Christine Romans, the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore, and CNN's Roland Martin.

The first point of discussion, the $10 billion each year it would cost the government to support people who have been shoved out of the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, "YOUR $$$$$": How are we going to pay for that and is that the new normal? Not just extending jobless benefits but that we have a new, bigger infrastructure for helping people live who can't find a place in our economy?

STEPHEN MOORE, EDITORIAL WRITER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, Christine, you know I love you, right? We've been doing this for a long time. But I disagree with one thing you said earlier. Here's the but. Think about this, you said well there are no jobs out there in the economy. This is a tough economy, no question. But answer me this question, how is it that immigrants can come in to this country from Mexico or central America and within weeks of being here they have two or three jobs. There are jobs for people who want to work.

VELSHI: Picking lettuce and citrus and things like that. MOORE: But here's the point. for people who are really working hard to make ends meet, working two or three jobs, why should they have to pay more taxes when people of two years aren't going out to McDonald's or something and just getting a job?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Actually, a couple of things there, Stephen.

First of all, you just contradicted yourself because earlier you talked about the people, all the rich folks who have far more money. So they're not the ones who are working two or three jobs. They're forcing the people below them to work two or three jobs. That's first.

MOORE: A lot of --

MARTIN: Secondly -- hold on. Secondly, CNN has even showed, based upon previous data, where you had immigrants from Mexico who are actually, some 4 million who went back because of the economy last year. So don't simply assume they're simply (ph) coming and taking jobs.

MOORE: (INAUDIBLE) and it's a tough economy.

MARTIN: But here's the other piece when you talk about those very people. Christine mentioned 4 million. The 4 million also have children. The 4 million have children who are in school.

MOORE: Sure.

MARTIN: And so it goes beyond just the 4 million. The question you talk about housing, homeless shelters, philanthropy is down. So, as a result, the normal safety net, they -- that's now fallen because of a tough economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK, it's an important discussion. A lot of people unemployed. You can see the rest of that discussion on "YOUR $$$$$" Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 Eastern.

Christine, also, the author of a new book, "Smart Is The New Rich." It's on bookshelves now.

Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we are following here at CNN.

Concerns over ventilation have delayed efforts to locate at least 27 miners in New Zealand. They're missing after an underground explosion. Rescuers are on standby trying to figure out the best way to get to them. No word yet on what caused today's explosion. Two miners did manage to escape.

A Seattle officer, caught on surveillance video kicking a 17 year old boy, has been reassigned. You can see this teen with his hands up as the plain clothes officer approached him. The officer kicked him three times, including once in the groin, during last month's arrest. The teen is one of four people charged with the attempted robbery of an undercover officer.

And there's big excitement at Zoo Atlanta over the birth of this giant panda cub. Lun Lun's baby was born early this month weighing a mere 11 ounces. But we're just -- we just learned the sex this week.

All right, you got a job, looking for a job? Up next, we'll tell you how American people are feeling about their job prospects.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase of 151,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate unchanged at 9.6 percent. You can see the job creation on the right hand side. That little green screen. We're going back into 2008 here, but those job numbers don't tell us about how the American public feels about their prospects post election.

Here to give us some insight into how the American public is feeling about their job prospects is Gary Shapiro. He's the CEO and president of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Gary, I would imagine, as the CEO of that organization, you care about how people feel about their jobs because, ultimately, people don't buy the things that your members create and innovate and make if they're not feeling good about their future.

GARY SHAPIRO, PRESIDENT & CEO, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION: Absolutely, we do care. We represent 2,000 of America's greatest technology companies and people have to want to buy our products.

VELSHI: Yes.

SHAPIRO: And these are -- although they're not luxuries, they're increasingly necessities. And they want to be employed to do that.

VELSHI: All right, you guys have a big show in January. It's kind of like the auto show of electronics. And it was the same conversation I've had with a lot of my auto friends, that over the last few years we've seen pullbacks in this sort of innovation because there's some sense that people have had to take every day innovations and things that are advances as luxuries because they're worried about their jobs. Tell me what you've found in your studies.

SHAPIRO: Well, first of all, the international CES is the Super Bowl of innovation. We're expecting the best ever in January in terms of great new things. Because, you know, when there's a pullback in the economy, companies are really forced to innovate and work hard.

What we fellow Americans are saying, especially with this recent election is, they want a Congress that's going to focus on the economy. This was certainly a message that employers are not bad. They create jobs. And that's why we're pretty optimistic. But Americans are saying they like the Tea Party, they even like Democrats, they're a little concerned about Republicans, but they want to cut this deficit. And they understand that we just can't keep this spending when we have to do certain things.

We have to attract the best and the brightest and, of course, we have to focus on trade and creating jobs makes sense. We are the most innovative country in the world. And, in fact, we have an innovation movement that we've created. Over 100,000 Americans have signed up because they believe in the future of innovation.

VELSHI: Yes. Well, let's talk about this innovation movement because what we're always curious about -- we've heard a lot of complaining about what's not working in terms of job creation. You've got about four -- this innovation moment you're talking about, you've got about four basic principles that you think would make America better for innovation and better for business -- free trade, ubiquitous broad band deployment, giving everybody access to broadband, visa reform, allowing more people to come into the United States and work, and deficit reduction. We get the deficit reduction part. Tell me about this broad band deployment. It's always hard for people to understand how this is an issue that might be holding us back. People think America is way out in front on this.

SHAPIRO: Well, we are in some ways for people working in their offices. But people in their homes, we're a little behind many other countries. We need broad band in our future. That will help us in so many ways, productivity, medicine, telework. And the administration is doing some really good things in that area. They're opening up new spectrum for wireless broad band. People are frustrated with their new products -- their smart phones they're buying, that they're working slowly and not getting Internet access. So we need the broad band out there.

Certainly we have to recognize something as a country. Our country has now become the slow growth country like Europe. The rest of the world is fast. That means investment is flowing elsewhere. That means we have to focus on what we're good at. And what we're good at in this country is innovative. We have all the Internet companies. We have the technology companies. We're always the world's best and the brightest in terms of creating great new things. And we have to preserve that for our future. It's our only hope.

VELSHI: There are a whole bunch of Americans -- not a whole bunch, but certainly some Americans who, in this midterm election, rated immigration reform as their highest issue. It is small, I mean let's be honest, 8 percent of voters in exit polls said that that was their biggest issue. You're on the other side of that. You want more people, more immigrants to be able to come into the United States and work.

SHAPIRO: We want the right immigrants to come here. We want the best and the brightest. The smartest who always traditionally have gone to our universities until September 11, 2001. We want them not only to come here, we want them to stay here. We want the entrepreneurs to come here. If they're willing to invest a lot of money and hire a lot of Americans, that's a good thing. Then they should be able to stay. That's what's changed in our country.

Look, we're all related to people who came here from before us for a better life. We are a nation of immigrants. That's the mosaic and the beauty of America. That's why allows our innovation. That's why we're the creators. We are genetically people who can do it better and we should focus on our strengths and, you know, focus on getting rid of that deficit so we can invest in the future and we'll be the high growth country again in the future.

VELSHI: Gary, good to talk to you. Thanks very much. One of these days I'm going to get out and make it out to the big show. It is the Super Bowl of innovation and we look forward to seeing what's all coming out.

SHAPIRO: We'd love to have you.

VELSHI: Thank you so much. Gary, good to see you. Gary Shapiro.

SHAPIRO: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right, we've heard a lot of gripes about the real and alleged gropes at the hands of those TSA screeners. What if someone else's hands were doing the groping? And what if those enhanced pat-downs were suddenly against the law? I'll have the latest on the backlash coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Checking top stories right now.

President Obama is in Portugal attending a keen NATO summit. He's there to talk to NATO allies about the strategy and timetable for operations in Afghanistan. The president is also expected to discuss a European missile shield program and we are expecting to hear from him live probably in about a half an hour or so. We'll bring it to you.

Minority farmers may finally get their money more than a decade after reaching a settlement with the Agriculture Department on claims of discrimination. The Senate is expected to approve the more than $1 billion settlement first agreed on in 1999. Qualified farmers could each get $50,000 apiece to settle their claims.

The 33 rescued Chilean miners are living it up in Los Angeles right now. They're seeing the sights, meeting important people and taking pictures with tourists. The miners, and a handful of their rescuers, were brought to L.A. by CNN to attend our all-star tribute to the 2010 CNN heroes. It airs Thanksgiving night at 8:00 Eastern. Watch that.

Join Anderson Cooper, along with stars like John Legend, Halle Berry and Kid Rock as they pay tribute to the people you chose, you chose, as heroes. Again, next Thursday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Also, meet all 10 of the finalists right now. Just go to CNN.com/heroes.

All right, a few people have made a lot of noise about security screening at airports. Advanced imaging scans that see through clothing, enhanced pat-downs that don't spare the groin and now a member of Congress says there ought to be a law. I thought there was a law.

Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, champion of very small government, has introduced the American Travel Dignity Act, indeed. And I quote, "to protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal TSA employees." Never mind that most Americans think keeping explosives off airplanes is a good thing.

At the same time, a fellow Republican lawmaker is urging airports to ditch those, quote, "federal TSA employees" in favor of private contractors. Now, existing law allows that to happen. Several airports have actually done it. Take a look at that. Those are airports that use private screeners. They're not TSA employees. The biggest is San Francisco International.

But here's the thing. The rules and procedures do not change. The TSA has to approve the firm that gets the contract and they have to do the same stuff. The latest airport to contemplate a switch is Orlando-Sanford International.

The lawmaker who's pushing many others to follow suit is John Mica, who's district is right next door to Sanford. He spoke this morning to with my colleague, Kyra Phillips.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN MICA (R), FLORIDA: Every time I think I've seen tests of the system, the private screeners under federal supervision performed statistically significantly better. Those aren't my words, those are the words of that independent evaluator.

So we can do better. We don't have to have 67,000 TSA employees, 3,590 in Washington, D.C., administrative personnel making $105,000 on average a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: I'm sorry, that was Congressman John Mica.

Through it all most of us seem just fine with the so-called intrusive screening. Look at this recent CBS poll, it shows 81 percent of Americans believe airports should use state of the art scanners, only 15 percent disagree. Although, some people who are objecting are not objecting to the scanners, they're objecting to the pat-downs.

OK, Myanmar's prodemocracy leader freed from 15 years in detention is speaking out to CNN. Our exclusive interview next in "Globe Trekking."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: And it's time now for "Globe Tracking."

First up, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Prodemocracy leader Aung san Suu Kyi is wasting no time in taking advantage of freedom after 15 years in detention. Myanmar's military leaders released her from house arrest on Saturday.

While in detention for 15 of the past 21 years, her husband died in England. She hasn't seen her two sons in years.

Her party won the country's first election in 1990, but the results were annulled by the military.

Suu Kyi spoke to CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He asked her if she'd prefer that Myanmar have a system of freedoms, like in the United States, or would she settle for something more like China. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, I think we would like to have more respect for human rights in Burma than at present that you can see going on in China.

Of course, we would like the economic progress, but I think that has to be balanced by what I would think of as accountability. And I think China is going in that direction. I think some of their local governments and so on have been made to be more accountable, and I think accountability is very important. Progress has to go hand in hand with accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Bangkok.

Fred, she's a remarkable character, I mean she had almost, to the rest of the world, fallen off the radar. Now was a symbol of freedom in the face of oppression for so long, now she's been freed.

When we last talked about this, it was unclear what her role was going to be in Myanmar and what the military government was going to allow her to do.

FREDRIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's very interesting, you know, and she already has a lot of interesting plans that she told me about. She says that one of the things she wants to do is start a grassroots political movement there in Myanmar and she wants to do it by using modern technology.

I mean, we were saying she's been locked up for 15 of the past 21 years. She's missed the Internet, she's missed mobile media and she's missed social media. But she's now saying wants to use all of that to build up a grassroots movement to challenge the military outside of the political process -- Ali.

VELSHI: And what's your sense from understanding Myanmar, what's the sense of how far they'll let her go? What's changed that they have decided that this person who's been the greatest threat to their authority for the last few decades should now be free? PLEITGEN: It's very difficult to ascertain that, you know, because one of the things we have been seeing over the past couple of days is that since she's been released, she's quite vocal on a lot of issues and they've been letting that happen.

And also, from being there on the ground, I can tell you, she's being watched all the time. People are taking pictures, they're taking pictures of people who are visiting her. There are spies all around her, but they're letting it happen right now.

The big question is what's going to happen once she really challenges them, once she really starts mobilizing people, once they see that people are really behind her, and there are a lot of people who are looking for change in that country.

She tells me she realizes at some point they might find some reason to lock her up again, but she says she's going to keep going the way that she has been going despite that.

VELSHI: What a brave woman. Thanks very much, Fred, appreciate it. Good talking to you.

Our next stop, Bangkok, Thailand, an update on a story we brought you earlier this week. Gruesome story, police now say they have uncovered more than 2,000 illegally aborted human fetuses, all recovered at a Buddhist temple in the Thai capital. Three people have been charged in the case. Officials say the fetuses may have been hidden at the temple for the past year.

And new skintight spacesuits turning astronauts into superheroes. It's all about bone density. That's today's "Big I." This one's worth waiting for, I'll be back with it after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we're following right now.

Researchers are intrigued by an experimental cholesterol drug that has sailed through early trials. In the tests, anacetrapib caused a huge spike in HDL, or good cholesterol, and it cut LDL, or bad cholesterol, in half. The next step a four or five-year study to make sir it's safe and does work.

According to a new Pew poll, many Americans are a little foggy about those elections earlier this month. Only 40 percent of people surveyed knew that Republicans won control of the House. Turn out nationwide, by the way, also in the low to mid-40s.

And a big turnout meant early sellouts for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One," which is confusing to me because it's the seventh film in the Potter series. It opened early today, it is projected to earn more than $100 million just on opening weekend. The eighth and final Harry Potter movie is due out next year.

John Boehner, his information gap tops our CNN political update. CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley joins me now from Washington.

Hello, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. How are you, Ali?

Remember the big elections, big night, we went into the morning to see what was going on. I have a little bit -- a couple of discouraging numbers for you.

John Boehner, you just said, the speaker to be, the new Republican who will head up the House, a new Pew poll shows that just 38 percent of Americans correctly identified that he would soon become speaker of the House.

And maybe probably even a little more disconcertingly, only 46 percent of people told this Pew poll that the House -- correctly said that the House had been taken over by Republicans. Perhaps we can explain this by saying that just 40 percent of eligible Americans actually voted.

So there seems to be a disconnect between the amount of enthusiasm that a lot of people looked at this election and those that actually knew what was going on. Sort of discouraging, I think.

Next, diversity, not often that Republicans are seen as a party of diversity, but governors would really like to change that. As you know, they're out meeting in California and having panels with a couple of new governors who they say are the face of the Republican Party.

As you know, the GOP now has the first Hispanic woman governor in New Mexico, an Indian-American female governor in South Carolina and a Hispanic man in Nevada all on a panel saying, listen, small government, lower taxes, that not about race, it's not about male or female. And, of course, they're looking to put sort of a softer face on the Republican Party.

And finally, Vice President Biden is out and about talking about any number of things, including speaker Nancy Pelosi, the high disapproval ratings that she has. He said Republicans spent a lot of money to drive up that disapproval.

And he said that a lot of great leaders sort of enjoy or disenjoy having popularity and approval ratings that are very split. He talked about Ronald Reagan, he talked about Bill Clinton, he said all of them tend to be, especially in an atmosphere as the one we have right now, divisive kind of characters. But he said he is quite behind her, that she has been very efficient, as you know, the new minority leader in the House. I don't know how many people out there know that, Ali.

VELSHI: I'm truly fascinated by that Pew poll, Candy. I have to tell you. What rock did you have to be hiding under to not know that the Republicans won the House? But hey, listen, you know what? As long as people don't know stuff, I guess you and I stay in business, right? CROWLEY: I guess so. But they should listen a little more. But you know, I mean, we say all the time that a lot of people just tune in in those final days to try to figure out, they do have lives out there.

VELSHI: Even if you tuned in in the last hour, you would have known that one. If you knew nothing else. Oh, well. Candy good to see you as always.

CROWLEY: I can't explain them, I just report them. What can I can tell you?

VELSHI: Very good. Thanks, Candy.

All right, new skintight spacesuits are turning astronauts into superheroes and it's all about bone density. That is today's "Big I" coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We are focusing on space for today's "Big I," and that's why we have some major developments in space technology that could lead to major advances in technology here on earth. That is often an important relationship.

Over the years, we have seen space suits change quite dramatically. Take a look over on your left. That's a space suit from 1959. It's a modified version of a high altitude U.S. Navy high- altitude jet aircraft pressure suit. OK, next one over is a suit being worn by Neil Armstrong. The space suit was flexible when it was pressurized. Now, we have also got the space suit from 1968 when astronauts needed protection against the terrain on the moon. They also had to be flexible enough to stoop and pick up moon rocks. The next one over is a space suit from 1984. That is Bruce McCandliss floating for the first time untethered thanks to a jet-pack like device on his back.

The next one over is a space suit, one of the future space suits that NASA is working on. But there's a problem with these. When you're in space for a long period of time, astronauts experience bone loss and painful elongation of the spine. In today's "Big I," the folks at MIT, who we love talking to, have developed a new low-gravity outfit to fix this.

Dava Newman joins us live from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She's a professor at MIT who helped develop this space suit. And Ally is next to her showing this space suit, which looks a little more spare than I would expect a space suit to look. Is there another part to this or something? It's going to cover Ally's arms?

DAVA NEWMAN, PROFESSOR, MIT: Hi, Ali. It's great to be with you all today. So, what we're showing you today is what we call the gravity loading counter measure suit. So, this is an exercise suit for inside the vehicle. We call that IVA, or intravehicular activity. This is specifically to help with astronaut physiological deconditioning. We lose muscle, we lose bone. So, this is essentially an exercise suit or a biosuit. That's a different suit. Our biosuti is the one you would go wear outside or EVA.

VELSHI: OK. Tell me about this bone thing. I didn't really know a lot about this. I'd heard about it. I'd heard about it. Things happen to bones of astronauts, and you talk about elongations of spines. Normally our spines get a little compressed by our daily lives. So, the idea of elongating my spine feels good to me, but I guess that's not good for astronauts?

NEWMAN: So, we do go through a lot of muscular skeletal deconditioning during a long duration of a space flight. So, if you're up on international space station, you might lose 20 percent, 30 percent muscle mass. Even 40 percent muscle strength loss. And that's the good news.

The bad news is you're going to lose one to two percent of bone mineral density per month. So, that's really phenomenal. That's why is such a great laboratory in space for us to look at the astronaut.

Now, the elongation of the spine is because when you sleep every night, just here at home, you actually grow a little bit as well. You're exactly right, you get compressed during our daily lives here and then you sleep. So, now when an astronaut goes into microgravity, they're floating around. They'll get elongated. But that might be over two centimeters. That might cause you back pain.

So, this is the gravity countermeasure, we call that. We want to counter all those physiological effects. So, that's what Ally is demonstrating in the blue suit.

VELSHI: Okay. So, what's happening -- what does that suit actually do? We've seen -- we saw that there's stuff on it. Tell me how it works.

NEWMAN: Sure. What the suit's doing is loading her from the shoulders on down. The design is basically -- the material specification along the -- going on vertically here. We kind of specify in how much pressure she's getting. And we're trying to reload her. Imagine she's floating in a space station now, and she might be exercising. We're reloading her for one body weight, trying to get one body weight on the bottom of her feet. So, through the stirrups of our suit here.

So you need an elastic material, the blue material. And then you can see the white restraints here. Those are actually kind of -- doesn't stretch too much. We specify how much we want it to stretch. So, then incrementally, see, you create this vertical column of loading from her shoulders down to her soles.

VELSHI: So, she's going to feel in space more like she feels on earth, the normal weight we carry. Explain this to me. What -- could there be implications on earth with this kind of technology?

NEWMAN: So we definitely hope that she'll feel in space like she would on earth. That's the thing. Just nice and comfortable. Very mobile, but still getting that loading back down to her -- to the bottom of her feet. That's a really important design feature. Implications for here on earth, we'd -- again, in terms of exercise, muscular skeletal loss, there could be a little bit atrophy. Just think of it as an exercise suit, but a pretty comfortable exercise suit. Might help astronauts, might help someone here for some training on earth, say, if they had some muscle atrophy, they put it on.

Now, you mentioned it doesn't cover her arms because it's not a pressure production suit. It's not keeping her life outside the craft. It's for inside the craft. So, the earth applications are great, especially for pathology, people who have trouble with muscles, bones or some locomotion diseases we're looking at.

VELSHI: And she looks like a superhero. So, that helps, too --

NEWMAN: It helps it's a superhero design. I wanted to thank James Walde, my colleague as well as the European Space Agency. We're all kind of a big team investigating this research.

VELSHI: Very good. Good to talk to you. Dava Newman is director of MIT technology and policy program, telling us --she's a professor of aeronautics, astronautics, and engineering systems talking to us about this new suit. I love it. Thanks very much, Dava.

Well, she described her kidnapping of nine months of hell. Next we're taking a closer look behind Elizabeth Smart's abduction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Breaking news. Politico.com is reporting MSNBC is suspending "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough for two days after he acknowledged giving eight previously unknown $500 contributions to friends and family members running for state and local offices during his tenure at the network. That is a violation of the parent company NBC's ban on political contributions without specific permission by the network president.

As you know, this is an issue that MSNBC has dealt with recently with Keith Olbermann. "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough, according to Politico.com, is being suspended for two days. We're going to work on that and get you more information on it shortly. But the accusation, the allegation, is for eight previously unknown $500 donations to family and friends who were running for office.

OK, another story we're following. Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping captured the nation's attention eight years ago. Now, we're watching as the trial runs down for the man accused of snatching her from her bed.

This weekend, CNN is examining the story behind her abduction. Our Martin Savidge has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It had been nine months since Elizabeth Smart disappeared from her home when police finally got a break.

(on camera): Just days after Brian Mitchell's photos appeared on America's Most Wanted, police received two 911 calls. The callers said they had seen Mitchell on this street just outside Salt Lake City and he had been walking with a woman and a girl.

Police found Mitchell and his wife and a girl wearing a gray wig and sunglasses. At first, she denied her identity. But police knew it was Elizabeth.

TOM SMART, UNCLE: And then Amber calls me right after that and says, "Tom, they called me and asked me to come out to Sandy, to the police station." And he's in the car driving out there as fast as he can. And I told him, I said, "Ed, I think you're going to go see your daughter." And then Edward calls me and says, and he's just in tears and says, "It's her, Tom. You know, I thank you."

SAVIDGE (voice-over): It was the moment they had hoped for all those months but never knew would come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so grateful for the prayers and the help and the eyes out there. It is just absolutely wonderful.

SAVIDGE: Ed called John Walsh and asked him to come to Utah.

JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": All the brothers were there and all the kids, and when she walked down those stairs, that was incredible. That was probably the best day I've spent on this show.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Martin joins us now from Atlanta. Martin, have you learned anything more about Elizabeth Smart's story?

SAVIDGE: Well, we have. That's part of the reason we wanted to put this documentary together. It was one to show you the remarkable story, remind you of what a miraculous story it was from the depths of when she was lost to the fear of her parents and to the fact she was found alive and well. The question was, what happened to her during those nine months?

Only until now, especially with the trial, have we been able to piece together and hear from her, herself, Elizabeth Smart, as to the real hell she went through. We talk about this in the documentary. For nine months, she was held by Brian Mitchell and almost every day, she testified she was sexually assaulted.

Remember, she was 14 years old when she was taken. In the middle of the night at knifepoint. She was, as she screamed to her attacker, "I am just a little girl." She goes on from there to describe to us what happened. We also hear from the testimony and we hear from her family.

What is remarkable is to see, I guess, this transition from a young victim then to this very strong, powerful woman now testifying on the stand against the man who abducted her.

VELSHI: How is she doing now? That definitely is the curiosity. You would almost expect how could somebody have endured what she did and come out and seem normal? And she certainly does.

SAVIDGE: Exactly. I mean, that's what everybody says. Whether you see her in the courtroom, whether you see her on television, it's like, how can she seem to be so normal? Well, the truth is, you know, the family has protected her.

They do admit that there is a lot they do not talk about. She does go through therapy, but she has another therapy of her own. Her uncle, Tom Smart, told me about it. He owns a ranch 40 miles outside Salt Lake City, and she loves to come out there. There will be days he says where she just calls and says, look, I need to ride. She'll show up, she's got her favorite horse. The horse is a little black horse there. You see. Lucy. She gets on there and she often goes with her younger sister, Mary Katherine and they just ride off. Sometimes her uncle goes with them, sometimes not.

The number one, they don't talk about what happened. But everytime she comes back, her uncle says she seems so much better for just being out there. Somehow that's therapy unto itself.

VELSHI: And I suppose looking normal on TV or in a courtroom doesn't tell what the story is, what you're life is like. I mean, she's going to suffer with that for a long time.

Martin, thanks very much. We'll pay attention to the special. Good to see you.

Martin Savidge in Atlanta.