Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

12 Arrested in U.K. Terror Raids; Death of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'; North Korea: No Retaliation for Now; Amazon Can Still Deliver, But at a Price; North Korea: No Retaliation For Now; "Kids Know Effective Teaching"; Lame Duck Session Doing OK; Start Treaty Last Hurdle For President

Aired December 20, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And it is 2:00 right now on the East. You're looking at live pictures of Capitol Hill, where the Senate is in closed session discussing the implementation of the START treaty -- or the ratification of the START treaty.

More on that story as it develops. We'll keep an eye on it.

But first, with Christmas less than a week away, a major anti- terrorist raid was carried out today in Britain. Twelve suspects are now in custody.

You'll recall Christmas Day last year, the so-called "Underwear Bomber" was prevented from blowing up a jetliner as it landed in Detroit. Now, today's raids targeted three cities in the U.K. Five of the suspects were arrested in card Cardiff and Wales, four in Stoke, which is in central England, and three in London.

A security sources says their ages range from 17 to 28. All are said to be of Pakistani descent. The suspects are now being held in police stations in London, the northwest and the West Midlands. Officials say the threat level in Britain is severe, meaning that a terrorist attack is highly likely. It has been at that level for some time.

Let's bring in Dan Rivers in our London bureau right now, who has been on top of this story for a while.

Dan, tell us what we know about how serious a threat that these men have presented.

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, they are enough of a threat that the police had to devote considerable resources -- the police and the security services had to devote considerable resources to monitoring them for a number of weeks, and then are going in and arresting them today. But we are getting a briefing that, look, these are more on the aspirational side than operationally equipped to do something tomorrow.

We're still waiting to find out the results of searches of several houses. We don't know if any weapon or explosive have been found. But this is what the number three policeman in the U.K. had to say on the issue earlier today, John Yates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN YATES, METROPOLITAN POLICE SERVICE: What I would say is this -- with the current threat level in the U.K. at severe, and with the information we had, I believe that today's arrests were absolutely necessary in order to keep the public safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: So he is saying that the level -- threat level in the U.K. is severe. That hasn't changed for quite a long time. That's the second highest under critical. It hasn't come down, interestingly, in light of these arrests either.

We're being briefed very strongly that this was not a Mumbai-style attack that was being planned using automatic weapons, hitting a particular target. Frankly, we've yet to find out a lot more detail on this.

The police can hold them for up to 28 days before they have to appear in court. So it may be some time before we get a lot more information in terms of their identities and exactly what they were planning to do when and where.

VELSHI: All right. And as we said, Dan, about that threat level, it has not been raised. It is at the second-to-highest level, but it hasn't been raised because of this.

RIVERS: Right. It's at the second highest, which is severe, which is meaning an attack is highly likely. It's not critical, which would mean an attack is imminent. So that hasn't changed.

VELSHI: All right, Dan. Thanks very much.

Dan Rivers in London.

Our other major story, the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Unlike recent days, the rhetoric is being turned down several notches today after repeatedly warning of "brutal consequences beyond imagination." That's a quote.

North Korea is now paying the improbable role of peacemaker. This, after South Korea carried out live-fire drills today from the same island that was shelled by North Korea last month. The drill lasted just under two hours. All the shells landed in disputed waters off the island.

All of this began reaching the boiling point over the weekend. The government of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, seen there in the green, warned of possible war if the South went ahead with the drills. This triggered widespread concern, if not outright fear, in South Korea.

Many of the 8,000 residents on the island -- that's just a few miles from North Korea -- headed for bomb shelters, and the South Korean military was put on high alert. Now, the residents were allowed to leave the shelters today, return to their homes. While the South Korean guns were firing, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, who you see there, was at the Pentagon monitoring the events. He had direct communications with the South Korean military in the event that the North had launched an attack. A key fact to remember, there are some 28,000 American troops based in South Korea.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is there. He's on the front lines in North Korea as all of this was playing out.

I don't know if he's left yet. He was trying to leave and he got fogged in. But he was in the North on an unofficial trip, holding talks with the government officials. He was there at the invitation of the head of the nuclear program.

Today he said that his talks might have had some impact on the North's restraint. In his words, "The North Koreans deserve credit for holding back."

As we said, North Korea showed restraint today, but it's anybody's guess what the North may do in the future. We'll talk about that with a Korean expert who has visited the North numerous times coming up in "Globe Trekking," about 2:30 Eastern Time.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Hey, we've got a pet food recall we want to flag for you. The brands, Pet Pride, Old Yeller and Kroger Value, cat and dog dry foods.

Kroger stores in 17 states are involved. So are some outlets run by the Kroger company under different names: Dillons, Baker's, Food 4 Less, among others. The problem a possible aflatoxin contamination. It's a fungus that can hit crops, corn in particular.

Here's what you do if you're worried about what you're feeding your dog. First, head to Kroger.com for details on specific stores, states and sell by dates. If you have been feeding your pet this recalled food, stop. And if your cat or dog is lethargic, doesn't want to eat, maybe looks jaundiced, call the vet ASAP, tell them you have heard about this recall and that you've been feeding your dog this food -- or cat.

Some good news that was a bit of a surprise, even to the FBI. After crunching the numbers for the first half of 2010, the bureau found overall, violent crime was down more than six percent from the same time last year. Reported homicides dropped more than seven percent.

All regions of the country seeing a big improvement there, except the Northeast, where homicides were up nearly six percent. Generally, the law enforcement community expects more violent crime when money and jobs are tight like they are now. The FBI report doesn't analyze the reasons for the drop, just tells us that it's happening.

Well, for the longest time, the fate of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was up in the air. Now it is settled, but some Pentagon brass are pretty unsettled over how exactly they're to integrate openly gay troops.

We'll have an update for you straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: And that is the George Washington Bridge in New York.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" got more than 14,000 troops booted out of the military, but 17 years later, it is dead, or will be as soon as President Obama signs the Bill that Congress just passed and the Pentagon figures out how to integrate it with military precision.

Here's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It is going to take some period of time. Defense Secretary Gates says he doesn't know how long.

They have to look at all the regulations, policies, review everything, decide what regulations might need to be changed. This could be weeks. It could be months.

But then, once they do all of that, then they certify to Congress that they're good to go, that it won't harm the readiness or the effectiveness of the U.S. military. Then, 60 days later, it all goes into effect. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" gone once and for all. But there is an implementation plan on the books. And we took a look through some of it earlier today and found there are some clues about how the Pentagon plans to proceed on some key points.

For example, they are saying one of the things that came up, should there be separate living or bathing facilities for openly gay or lesbian service members? Absolutely not. The Pentagon says it will not do that. No "separate but equal" type of phraseology these days.

What about benefits for same-sex partners of those in the military? Well, the Pentagon says there will be no married benefits for same-sex partners, because under the Defense of Marriage Act, marriage is defined between a man and a woman, not of the same sex. So they have to obey federal law on things like that.

For those who oppose this and think they want to get out of the military now, think again. No early outs for those who are in opposition. People must fulfill their enlistment contract and their military obligations.

So, some of these things now are beginning to sort out. It's going to be a while before it all happens, still, and gay and lesbian service members are still being warned at this point, don't come out publicly just yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. President Obama is scheduled to sign the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on Wednesday morning. We will, of course, bring that to you as it happens, as well as updates from Barbara and others about how the integration is going to go forward.

Well, what do Lady Gaga's meat dress, the Chilean miners and Larry King all have to do with the START treaty? Ed Henry has got that explanation.

"The Stakeout" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: We're going to take a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Happening now, there is calm on the Korean Peninsula after South Korea's military exercise today and earlier threats to retaliate. North Korean military leaders said now there's no reason to do so.

British authorities are questioning 12 terror suspects rounded up in raids across central England today. Police have not said what their possible targets might have been.

A powerful storm is bringing record rain and snow to California. There's been over a foot of rain in some areas of central California. Wind gusts there are over 100 miles an hour.

Well, it's "Globe Trekking" now. Time to take a closer look at one of today's top stories, the Korean crisis, that we were just talking to you about.

South Korea conducted a 94-minute live-fire drill today just south of Yeonpyeong Island. Take a look at where that island is. It looks much closer to North Korea than it does to South Korea. It is just miles off of North Korea. Shelling there a month ago killed four South Koreans -- two soldiers, two civilians.

Now, North Korea had earlier threatened to retaliate, but instead -- retaliate for the South Korean military exercises that took place this morning. But instead, its official news agency issued a statement declaring, "The revolutionary armed forces did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation like one taking revenge after facing a blow."

Professor Han Park is director of the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia.

Professor, good to see you again.

You've been studying this very closely. You've been to the Koreas.

PROF. HAN PARK, STUDY OF GLOBAL ISSUES, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: Many times.

VELSHI: Is this an advance that North Korea did not respond as they said they would to the South Korean shelling exercises?

PARK: I think it's very important for us not to say that North Korea's failure to respond is showing their weakness militarily.

VELSHI: Right.

PARK: I think it's very important. That would agitate North Koreans really again.

So, the world was so worried about -- so was I -- that should there be a military all-out confrontation, we're talking about millions of people. And all the global impact is indescribable.

VELSHI: But as you mentioned in the last hour, this has always an international concern.

PARK: Right. Right.

VELSHI: This isn't two countries with some domestic dispute.

PARK: Yes. From North Korea's point of view, their most recent move was actually a strategy choice. It's not because they have no resolve, no military capability, which they do have.

VELSHI: Sure.

PARK: And so here, as they were -- they're using it as a public relations stunt, so to speak.

VELSHI: Right.

PARK: So, you know, many people in South Korea are very worried about. In this way, South Koreans maybe somewhat appreciative of North Korea's decision not to retaliate.

VELSHI: Right. Well, let's just step back for our viewers for a second, back to the '50s, when there was war -- and it really was a proxy war. It was the West and democracies in the South, communist countries in the North.

The war never ended. There was a detente between them. They agreed to not keep on fighting, and they had a demilitarized zone between them, and it's been pretty calm ever since.

At this point, what is our major concern? The North is -- they call it the "Hermit Kingdom," but that is what it was called a long time ago. They are isolated and they are heavily armed.

PARK: Now, yes, they're heavily armed. What the difference now is, not only are they heavily armed, their kind of political culture is such that everything militaristic, military. In fact, military first, politics, so to speak, promotes militarism there. And given this environment, we cannot maintain business as usual. VELSHI: Right.

PARK: So we have to deal with the armistice agreement, which is a mere cease-fire.

VELSHI: It's a cease-fire, right.

PARK: Yes. We have to do something about that if we are going to --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: And is real peace an option? Because of all these decades where they have been in this military culture, is there a way that they can be brought in? Because South Korea -- I'm a business guy -- South Korea is one of the most successful business stories in the world.

PARK: Certainly.

VELSHI: It is prosperous. It is technologically advanced. It's an industrial country.

Is that not attractive to North Korea, or is just so far from reality for them?

PARK: Oh, it is attractive to North Korea, in my view. North Korea does have things to offer too. They have raw material --

VELSHI: They have a workforce.

PARK: A workforce. A very, very high quality workforce. Even the Chinese are attracted to that now. They may have some petroleum reserves.

VELSHI: Right.

PARK: So South Korean and North Korean economies can complement quite well.

VELSHI: So who makes that deal? You know that. I know that. Lots of people know that. Who makes that deal?

PARK: I think, unfortunately, the United States has the authority even -- because it controls South Korean military -- it has a moral authority, too, being the United States, and democracy and everything, to mediate the two rather than always siding with one. And that really may make some people -- maybe arms merchants -- a little happy and so forth.

But the Korean Peninsula issue has to be resolved fundamentally. That is, peace agreement has to replace the armistice agreement. And it would be very nice to have a diplomatic normalization between the --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: So, in your mind, this trip by Bill Richardson, the one several months ago by Jimmy Carter, these are useful because they get us in that direction?

PARK: Yes. I think the current trip by one of your colleagues, Wolf, I think Wolf Blitzer's presence there in my assessment has a lot to do with North Koreans changing their heart, because they wanted to have this as a PR event as opposed to military thing.

So Wolf Blitzer being there, they wanted to show they are the lovers of peace. So see if that -- what kind of traction that gets, but it's a very strategically chosen maneuver.

VELSHI: Excellent. Good to you, Doctor. Thanks for very much for being with us. Professor Han Park is a professor of International Affairs and Director of the Center for Study Of Global Issues at The University Of Georgia.

OK, teachers fill out report cards for students. One expert says it's time to turn the tables. We'll talk to him after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I was just in Southern Manhattan this weekend looking at the Statue Of Liberty. Those are not my pictures. Those are live pictures of the Statue of Liberty.

We want to talk about student questionnaires - the way to as part of "Chalk Talk," a way to identify quality teachers using the opinions of students. I want to introduce you to Ronald Ferguson now from Harvard to talk a little about this. Ronald, are you with us right now?

RONALD F. FERGUSON, SENIOR LECTURER, HARVARD: Yes, I am.

VELSHI: Ronald, what's your take on this?

FERGUSON: Well, we've been for about a decade developing questionnaires to find out what students are experiencing in the classroom. And the Gates Foundation's new project is the first time that we've had large numbers of students for whom we can look at the degree to which their responses on surveys predict their learning from one year to the next.

And we're finding that the students know. They know when they're experiencing good instruction or not and that information can be useful to us for a number of reasons and in a number of ways.

VELSHI: OK, in a number of ways. Is it the way in which -- I mean, for what? Is it for fixing instruction? Is it for developing better ways to teach kids? Because how do we expect students to give us uniform responses? We don't even get those out of teachers.

FERGUSON: Well, we -- surprisingly, students tend toward agreement in the classroom. They tend to agree if instruction is good or not. We actually have what we call the seven C's of effective instruction and for each of these we have ask multiple questions to get a handle on what's going on.

The seven C's are caring, controlling, clarifying, challenging, captivating, conferring and consolidating. So the question is do students experience that their teacher seems concerned, seems to care about them? Does the class stay busy and not waste time? Do students behave themselves? Do they treat the teacher with respect? That's what control is about, staying busy, not wasting time.

Clarify is about whether the teacher has multiple good ways to explain the things that students don't understand, whether the teacher explains difficult concepts clearly. Challenge is about whether the teacher pushes students to work hard and think hard things like my teacher accepts nothing better than best effort or our teacher wants us to understand the material, not just memorize it.

Captivate is about whether the teacher makes material interesting and relevant connected to the real world. Confer is about whether the teacher talks to students about their points of view and elicits feedback from the student that helps the teacher to understand what the students understand and also to understand what the students are thinking.

Finally, consolidate has to do with the teacher summarizing and tying the lesson to things they've already covered or things they're going to cover to help students really build mental maps for remembering.

And we get really richly textured responses from students on these dimensions so that we can classify classrooms as being high on one dimension or not and they are not the same across all these dimensions.

In fact, when we look to see what the test score gain patterns are for teachers whose students answer in particular ways, we find pretty clear relationships.

VELSHI: Is there -- I was just talking to somebody in the last few days about how they didn't like the review they got in a peer review situation at work.

And you always hear these things about how people like the concept, but they feel that the execution is poor, it doesn't allow for kids who just don't like going to school or kids who don't like their teachers.

If public schools were to implement this sort of system en masse, what's the science behind getting it right and eliciting the correct information so you can actually make changes to the system?

FERGUSON: Well, I should say that the science of the particular project we're talking about right now is one where we actually use the student responses in one of the teacher's classes to predict the achievement gap in another of the teacher's classes.

So we're doing out-of-sample predictions. We're not just taking the same students and looking at their achievement gains. Also, this year, the project is going to be experimental so that the teachers will be randomly assigned to the classes and we'll look to see how students' responses and other measures predict those gains

VELSHI: So --

FERGUSON: -- is about multiple measures. Let me be clear this project is about multiple measures of teacher effectiveness multiple times so it's not only the student responses.

VELSHI: It's not directly teacher evaluation. It's evaluating how well, how effective teaching methods or teaching modules are? So you're not saying it's a report card on teachers necessarily?

FERGUSON: Not necessarily. This is measuring teaching and it may in some places eventually be used in teacher evaluation, but if I have anything to say about it, it won't be used by itself. The issue is every measure we have is imperfect. It's a matter of combing multiple imperfect measures over time.

VELSHI: But definitely worthy of some good thought. Thank you for sharing how this works with us, Ronald. Ronald Ferguson is a senior lecturer in Education and Public Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Thanks very much, Ronald.

Look who is standing by in Honolulu. It's our man Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent there. My gosh! My gosh! He's actually got his feet in the sand! We'll be back in just a minute with the best from Ed Henry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Not only is that Waikiki Beach, but that is the ring tone that I have on my cell phone and I have suddenly really discovered how much I enjoy people calling me because I love the theme of Hawaii Five-0.

Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent on the stakeout today as he always is, but he is not at the White House. He's at Waikiki Beach. You would say because the president is there because that's where he takes his Christmas vacations. The president is in Washington.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So you're going to get me in trouble. I've been getting all these e-mails from people saying what are you doing in Hawaii when the president is D.C? I want to make sure all of our executives know I mostly did it to save the company money because, you see, this is a serious issue, which is that I had a flight for Saturday.

If you start changing it, as you know, the airfare climbs a lot especially closer to Christmas. So I think I saved the company hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

VELSHI: An excellent, excellent story. Ed, while you are out there getting your vacation started early, it always occurs to me Congress can't do that. It must be hard for them to pay -- to book cheap fares ahead of time because we get slammed at the end of the year particularly with there's a lame duck Congress and these guys have been particularly busy. HENRY: Yes, they have been. I remember covering Capitol Hill and members of Congress, their staff used to book five or six different flights literally. He might be on the 9:00 p.m. tonight and 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. That's what will happen the next couple of days.

They're waiting to try to see whether the Democrats can pass the new START Treaty for the president that's his last big priority, but let's face it. It's been a pretty good lame duck session for him so far.

He got the tax cut deal so far despite some Democratic objections. He got repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." A lot of people and his own party just a few days ago thought maybe that was dead.

He got it done over the weekend. We're hearing now there's going to a big signing ceremony probably Wednesday at the White House and then the president will probably head here late Wednesday or Thursday and you know, he's got some victories under his belt.

VELSHI: Ed, I was talking about this lunar eclipse we're going to see tonight and I had my watch wrong. I thought it was the 19th. It's actually the 20th. So I had that all wrong and I said that the winter solstice was the longest day of the year when in fact it's the shortest.

But way before the winter solstice, the summer solstice or the spring solstice or whatever the other one is where it's the longest day of the year and back when we were talking about that the START Treaty was on the table and a whole lot of other things have happened since the START Treaty was on the table and still not passed and now everybody trying to slam it through Congress. What's going on?

HENRY: Well, that's what Mitch McConnell said yesterday. He's voting against it because he believes that it's being slammed through. Harry Reid's office responded saying, look, think about of all the things that happened eight, nine months ago when the treaty was signed by President Obama.

That basically, you know, Lady Gaga unveiled her meat dress and the Chilean miners were lost and rescued. Major league baseball season began and ended over that eight, nine months. So bottom line is the Democrats feel like this thing has had a lot of debate and Republicans, though, feel maybe there's not enough verification to make sure that Russia is going to hold up their end of the bargain.

All of that will happen in Washington. I'll check out the water. It's a actually little bit cold because it's been here raining for a few days. Some of the surfers I've been talking to say that it actually gets warmer after the rain, and they like it.

I've been talking to some of the kids out here. And I said, what do you do to pass the time, because a lot of the times you can't stay out on the beach. You have to go inside. And one little girl told me "annoy my parents." I think that's probably what a lot of kids are doing right now because they're driving them crazy.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Ed, when you go in the water take the mic pack off. Don't get it wet.

HENRY: Oh, that's right.

VELSHI: I just heard from the executives at CNN who are very thankful for the money you saved them by being in Hawaii a few days early.

HENRY: Appreciate you reminding them of that. Thank you.

VELSHI: We'll be in touch with Ed through the course of the week. He's on the stake out, but he his working in Hawaii. There's Ed, Waikiki Beach.

All right, it is 46 minutes after the hour. Here's a look at the big stories we're following right now. North Korea is saying it will not retaliate for South Korea's military exercises earlier today. South Korea's military carried out live-fire exercises from an island just a few miles from North Korea. North Korea has also agreed to allow monitors from the U.N. access to its uranium enrichment facility.

Back in the United States, the White House just announced President Obama will likely sign the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on Wednesday. But even with congressional passage and the president's signature making it law, it will still be a few months before gay troops are cleared to serve openly in the armed forces.

And "The New York Times" is reporting that Toshiba, Sharp and LG won't be selling Google TV as quickly as expected. Google has asked those companies to hold off a bit while they tweak some software. Right now Sony and Logitech are the only ones selling devices. Customer reception has been mediocre. It is pretty impressive but a lot of people are saying it may have come out too early. "The Times" says the most common complaint is that it is slow and lack some features.

I think the future is in there somewhere, but it needs a little tweaking.

OK, you place a Christmas gift order with Amazon.com, will it get to someone special in time? We are going to take you inside the online retailer to finds out right after this, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: A beautiful view of Central Park, from CNN's building in New York, looking over the Upper East Side.

You just placed a Christmas gift order with Amazon.com. Now the panic sets in. Is your gift going to get to its destination before Christmas, before the 25th, by next Friday? Not to worry, at least not just yet. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow, my good friend, joins us from New York, talking about why you should put concerns aside.

Poppy, I still have time to buy stuff?

POPPY HARLOW, CORRESPONDENT, CNNMONEY.COM: You have time. You just have to pay a little more, Ali. They can ship up to the night before Christmas Eve and get it to you. That free supersaver shipping ended last night.

But what we had a chance to do, Ali, is go behind the scenes for an exclusive look at one of Amazon's 52 fulfillment centers. This is where your order goes a second after you click that order button, online. It's pretty amazing just how fast the process is; 9.5 million orders went in on their busiest day last year. That's 110 orders every second. This is how they get it done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERT WEGNER, DIRECTOR OF FULFILLMENT, AMAZON.COM: This is where our receivers are receiving product, adding to Amazon's selection. They scan all of these items into these storage bins using radio frequency technology; activates it live on our website and it is available to customers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen stuff I've never seen before in my life.

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: You have extension cords? Can I just pick these up?

WEGNER: You can't just--do me a favor.

HARLOW: Put them back in the same place.

WEGNER: I will mark this so we know exactly where that extension cord is to go back.

HARLOW: There is the extension cord, right below it you have this, crystal candle holders.

WEGNER: That's right.

HARLOW: Doesn't make sense that these would be together but this makes the most sense for Amazon.

WEGNER: It does.

HARLOW: Why?

WEGNER: We optimize our storage space.

HARLOW: Between the time I order something online at Amazon.com and it gets pulled from one of these shelves, or another distribution center, how long is that?

WEGNER: Hours.

HARLOW: Hours.

WEGNER: We've got over 500,000 square feet that we house inventory in. So our challenge is to quickly get all of those items into one spot so we can package them, and get them on the road to the customer. This is an order that's ready to be shipped. The blue light tells us it's ready to be shipped. It is going to go in a carton here. We are going to scan it to the carton. It is going to down this conveyor, gets sorted out, and then get weighed and shipped right behind us here. We're going to close that trailer door and off to the customer. We've hired over 15,000 temporary associates to help us through the holiday season in North America.

HARLOW: So what does that mean for a facility just like this?

WEGNER: Thousands of jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now is the busiest time. It's not going to stop until Santa comes down the chimney.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: He's exactly right, Ali. They really have workers there all around the clock 24 hours, obviously up through Christmas. No breaks for Christmas. That warehouse was only 580,000 square feet. I say only because the biggest is in Phoenix, 1.2 million square feet. That is where they ship things like huge plasma TVs, and that sort of thing. But interesting, Ali, all proprietary software and information, and that is how they get it done, the way they get it done.

VELSHI: I always wonder when I see the box where it comes from. But the best thing about that story is I've been to places like Google, and other places, and I was always hoping when you have click send, you see someone running around and getting something, and of course that doesn't happen, because it's algorithms. I'm so pleased to see someone was actually getting my stuff.

Poppy, great to see you. Great story. Thanks so much. And we still have time to get you a gift for Christmas. Poppy Harlow at cnnmoney.com. She has lots of stuff on that website you should check out.

They could be the most expensive World Series tickets ever. Why New York's governor is forking over more than 60,000 bucks next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time for our political update. Why Governor Patterson, of New York, has been fined over some baseball tickets. John King in the CNN Political Center for us.

Hey, John?

JOHN KING, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I sure hope he liked the game. The New York Governor David Patterson fined by an ethics board, $62,125 for soliciting, accepting and receiving five free World Series tickets back in 2009. And guess what, Ali, it was probably still 12 bucks for the beer on top of that. So, $62,000 now the governor has to pay in a fine. You know we have a new poll out today as well. The president's approval rating at 48 percent, but what about across the political spectrum? What do different groups think of the president's performance? Let's look at it. Liberals now give the president a 72 percent approval rating, that is down from the of 79 percent in November. Watch that, a problem in his own party. Moderates, 60 percent of moderates approve, up a little from November; 22 percent of conservatives, that's been flat. Conservatives don't like this president, Ali. No big secret there.

VELSHI: All right, John, thanks a million for that. John King on "JOHN KING USA" every night 7:00 o'clock Eastern. You can catch our next political update in an hour from now.

Could a simple invitation to lunch lead the way to peace in the Middle East? You never know. My "XYZ", right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ."

2010 was, for a time, a year of hope for those who crave peace between Israel and Palestine but chances of peace fast disappeared after Israel lifted a moratorium on building settlements in disputed territory. As expected, recriminations started flying and naysayers got to say that they were right, that virtually nothing can bring peace to the Middle East.

I've always been an optimist largely because I can't imagine the region and good people who live there -- Jews, Christians and Muslims -- can withstand another generation of unrest. This week, in the shadow of Hanukah, and on the Eve of Christmas, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas invited several Israeli parliamentarians for lunch. It was a personal attempt at conciliation; the kind of thing that attracts suspicions from doubters and hardliners on both sides.

Now we'd be kidding ourselves for thinking that after decades of animosity something is going to get solved over lunch, but frankly, in my world, lots of things are solved over lunch.

And even if the solution is not immediately apparent, the fact that the year ends with good will between the sides, means that a real breakthrough is a real possibility in 2011.

We can only hope - I certainly do.

CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Brooke Baldwin.