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Justice Dept. Won't Defend the Defense of Marriage Act; Rising Gas Prices & Your Wallet; White House Strategy on Libya; Space Shuttle Discovery Set to Launch this Afternoon; Gadhafi Loses More Of Libya; Americans Wait To Ship Out Of Tripoli; Bad Weather Stops Them; Wisconsin Lawmakers To Vote; Prank Call To Governor Walker

Aired February 24, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Suzanne. Have a great day. Always a pleasure to see you.

Here's a live look, right now, at the White House briefing room. It's set to start any moment now, and we will monitor it to see if there are any comments made about the hundreds of Americans waiting and waiting and waiting to evacuate Libya, while other countries have gotten their people out already. Right now, they are stuck on a ferry unable to leave Tripoli because of bad weather. We'll watch for an update on that.

In the meantime, it is 1:00 p.m. Eastern, here, in the U.S., and it is 8:00 p.m. in Libya, where the (INAUDIBLE) of Moammar Gadhafi appears to be closing in around him.

After ten days of protests, and until this month, would have been unthinkable. Much of the country is in the hands of Gadhafi's opponents including, now, Libya's third largest city of Mesrata. Benghazi, the second largest city, fell earlier, along with Tobruk. And you can see the aftermath for yourself. Take a look.

But the closer to Tripoli, the farther you get from scenes like these, and the closer to scenes like these. This is Az Zintan, where witnesses and other reports, say anti-regime forces have triumphed over Gadhafi loyalists but not without a fight.

You know, and the same is believed true in Zawiya, which is notable because both those towns are west of the capitol, and the ever-shrinking core of Gadhafi's power. Tripoli itself, where independent reporting is almost impossible, security forces are said to be the only people who dare to even venture out.

Gadhafi, himself, is lying low, but he did call in to state TV to blame the unrest on young people added by -- addled by drugs and brainwashed by Osama bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): It's not their demand, the demand is Bin Laden's demand. The demand is Bin Laden's demand. The masses (ph) system has nothing to do -- why do you try to drag Bin Laden into our country? Why do you listen? You're taught and you're brainwashed by Bin Laden telling you what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, in fact, the North African wing of Al Qaeda has publicly endorsed the Libyan revolutionaries. And as we mentioned, just for a short moment here, getting out of Libya is every bit as hard as you would imagine. Hundreds of Americans are waiting and waiting and waiting to leave Tripoli on a chartered ferry for a Mediterranean island of Malta. Bad weather is the latest complication, and this is a file photo of that ship that they're waiting to leave on. Other countries have gotten their nationals out by plane. The State Department says it's chartered a flight into Tripoli, but that was held up by bad weather.

CNN's Diana Magnay is watching the comings and goings in a place unaccustomed to all of this attention. Diana, hello to you. What's happening right now in Malta?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Well, as you said, there has been a potential amount of air traffic coming in but not much ferry traffic. It's, really, quite a short distance from here in Malta to Tripoli, and it takes about an hour on the plane, six hours on the ferry, in good weather.

And as you said, that U.S. catamaran -- the catamaran that's been chartered by the U.S. embassy is still sitting in Tripoli Harbor (INAUDIBLE) with 300 on board -- 300 U.S. citizens. And that's a number that we've been hearing from the charter company. When, actually, having packed (ph) in about 600. Anyway, however many there are on board, they've been there for about 24 hours and they're not expected to leave for another -- until tomorrow morning. So, another 12 hours, at least, and it will probably take about eight hours, so an extremely long journey for them.

There have been flights coming in. An air Malta flight has just landed. And we've been speaking to quite a lot of people about their experiences getting out of Tripoli, especially about the chaos at the airport. Here's what one of them had to tell us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAADUN SUAYEH, LIBYAN AMBASSADOR TO MALTA: The airport? Organized anarchy is one term I could come up with. Basically, it was just a complete mess. The whole place is just a rubbish dump, it doesn't matter. People are abandoning every last piece of luggage they've got. I'm one of the lucky few who actually managed to get through, because there's so many stampedes. The police get fed up with the people, with the overcrowding. They charge with batons and cattle prods and, occasionally, small arms fire just to, basically, frighten people off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: (INAUDIBLE) LEMON: We appear to be -- there we go. There's Diana Magnay. We appear to be having a little bit of a problem with the satellite, there. A little technical difficulties. Diana, I'm going to go back to you if you can hear me and I'm taking a risk, here. OK. She's having an issue. We're going to keep going. Make sure you tune in, tonight. You'll want to see that tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, "AC 360," they're going to cover the unrest in Egypt and they're going to tell you what's next for that region.

We're going to go on, now, to developing news in this country in Wisconsin where a standoff over budgets, politics, and labor rights may stress, and I say stress, be showing signs of movement. I want to say, may, there.

CNN's Kate Bolduan is in Madison. So, Kate, what's going on? Anytime we hear about movement, we're very interested, here.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some movement. You can say that they're moving towards a -- towards a step closer to some finality, but, again, it's a small incremental step closer. The assembly -- the state assembly is working on -- towards debating and towards, finally, voting on this budget repair measure. This could come -- this vote, in the assembly could come as early as today. But we're getting guidance that it could slip into, maybe, even the middle of next week, depending on how long the debate goes.

When that occurs, the state senate still needs to take up the measure that we've been talking so much about, and that is why the state senate is at a standstill, at this moment, still, Don, because the 14 state Democrats, the senators, are out of the state and have remained out of the state in order to boycott the vote and hold up the senate from having that vote.

So, at the moment, the assembly could be taking this up sometime today or into, maybe, the next couple days, but all eyes remain on the senate, because that's where we see this final passage, a final vote on this, would have to happen. And that chamber of the statehouse remains at a standstill, yet, again, today.

But you're hearing some of the protestors getting fired up, again, behind me, Don. Well, today, Don, the state workers and the unions, they say that this is going to be the largest day of rallies, of protests, throughout the state, outside of Madison. More than a dozen cities have rallies planned, today, to speak out against this budget repair measure that the governor has put forward, speaking out against it, and saying that they're going to stand firm in what they believe that they are giving enough.

They think they are giving concessions but they are sticking strong, Don, on the issue of the collective bargaining limits that the governor is pushing. So, again, we're hearing the governor's standing firm, the union's and state workers standing firm, the state Democrats out of the state, still. So, at the moment we're seeing some movement, here. Rallies still. Still a standstill, though -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Kate Bolduan in Madison, watching the developments, there. Thank you, Kate.

And speaking of the governor, our "Sound Effect", today, is a timely reminder to be careful of what you say on the telephone. Because Wisconsin's governor thought he was talking to one of the richest, most powerful supporters, yesterday, the billionaire industrialist David Koch. He is on the left next to his equally rich, equally conservative brother Charles.

Now, the Koch brothers gave big to Scott Walker's campaign and even more to the Republicans Governors Association and the pro- business group, Americans For Prosperity. The governor spent 20 minutes on the phone, yesterday, with Ian Murphy, editor of the liberal online new site "Buffalo Beast."

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN MURPHY, EDITOR, "BUFFALO BEAST": Well, I'll tell you what, Scott. Once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and, really, show you a good time.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: All right. That would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support and helping us move the cause forward, and we appreciate it. This is about public sector unions, I mean, you, essentially, are having taxpayers' money be used to pay to lobby for spending more of taxpayers' money. It's absolutely ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So, Walker admits he was pranked, but says he didn't say anything in private he hasn't said in public.

More developing news, now. The situation happening in Libya. We want to go, now, to Ben Wedeman, joining us by phone in Eastern Libya. Ben, you were able to get in the country? Because people aren't even checking, they're letting folks through. Just one sign that Gadhafi is losing power in that country.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): He certainly doesn't have much power in the Eastern part of the country where we are. We're in Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, where we've seen that there's, essentially, an ad hoc opposition government running the show in this part of the country. They've set up committees that run everything from public health to maintaining food and medicine supplies, to even collecting the garbage. They don't have much of a military force, however, and that seems to be one of the main worries, Don, because they don't have much in the way of defense if Moammar Gadhafi, and his forces, decide to strike back against the part of the country that is, essentially, declared its independence -- Don.

LEMON: Well, Ben, they're saying that it's chaos. The hospitals are in chaos. There are also other parts of the country, other big cities in the country, that are under opposition rule. Exactly what does that mean? Does it mean that the protestors are the people who are against Gadhafi are in control, and are people's needs being met, that said?

WEDEMAN: Well, I wouldn't describe the situation in the areas where they've expelled those who are loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, it's chaotic. Quite to the contrary, it is surprisingly ordinary, I mean, normal. They have managed to maintain supplies. You can go to stores and buy basic goods. You can go to the gas station and fill up your car. One interesting thing is that people are so delighted to see the press, here. They have gone (INAUDIBLE) the profusion of goods, which is quite -- which is, simply, not the case in the areas where Moammar Gadhafi continues to keep control -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Our Ben Wedeman in Eastern Libya following the developments there. Stand by, Ben, we'll get back to you.

We're following breaking news out of Texas. Federal officials say a Saudi national may have been planning to attack the Dallas home of former president George W. Bush. The 20-year-old suspect is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, after Officials say he researched and bought bomb-making equipment. Investigators say his other possible targets included nuclear power plants. He'll make his first federal court appearance, tomorrow, in Lubbock.

We're, also, paying close attention to this space shuttle launch getting ready to happen in just under four hours. There you go. Look at live pictures, there. The Space Shuttle Discovery going to blast off at 4:50 Eastern, 1:50 Pacific time. The weather at the Kennedy Space Center is perfect, right now, for that launch. And those astronauts you see in that SUV or in that motor home, they're hoping this weather holds out as well. They're hoping it's going to stay that way. Five men, one woman, and NASA's first robot astronaut will meet up with the international space station. This is the final mission for Discovery , but NASA has two more launches planned for this year, including the space shuttle Endeavor. It's set to take Mark Kelly, you know the husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, it's going to take him to space in April. And there's word that she is hoping to attend the launch. Gabrielle was among 19 people shot in Arizona during a political event. We're keeping close watch on that.

And we want to know if you had the opportunity -- if you had the opportunity to fly into space, would you? Make sure you join the discussion. Go to Ali's blog at CNN.com/ali, and we'll use your comments throughout the show today. Also, we want to see your pictures of the launch. Upload your pictures and videos to the iReport section of CNN.com.

The White House and justice department do a 180. No more defending the defensive marriage act. Lots of conservatives are ticked off about that, lots of gays are thrilled, and lots of legal questions are floating around. No one better to answer them than our very own Jeffrey Toobin, and he's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

An announcement by the attorney general took a whole lot of people by surprise. Eric Holder informed Congress and the country yesterday the Justice Department would no longer defend a key part of the Defensive of Marriage Act on direct orders from President Obama. It's known as DOMA. You've heard of that. In 1996, the 1996 law says no state needs to recognize same-sex marriages permitted or recognized elsewhere. And in the case of the federal government, it defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.

Now, Justice traditionally defending federal laws against court challenges, even if the current administration doesn't support the legislation. So this is pretty significant. It really is. And we've got our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, on the line to give us a little insight here.

So, Jeffrey, as I understand it, this -- what the attorney general said and what the president commented on were just these two cases that they had a time line about. Not the entire DOMA Act.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST (voice-over): That's right. But the legal position that the Obama administration is now taking is that any sort of legal discrimination against gay people is now -- should now be treated the same way the discrimination against racial minorities, against women should be treated. And that's a very big change in the law. The Supreme Court has never said that. There's no guarantee that the Supreme Court will agree with the Obama administration. But for the Obama administration to take the position that discrimination against gays is like discrimination against women is a very big step with major implications.

LEMON: And people who are wanting to overturn DOMA are going to be looking at this to set some sort of precedent that they can use in order to have the whole thing struck down. Is that -- am I correct in that?

TOOBIN: That's right. And I think even broader than that, there is the question of same-sex marriage. And, to me, anyway, the attorney general didn't say this, but if you follow the logical conclusion of what Attorney General Holder said in his letter to Speaker Boehner yesterday, it certainly seems to me that the Obama administration is moving in the direction of saying that gay people have the right to get married. And that would be a major change, another major change. But President Obama said just a few months ago his position on gay marriage was evolving and it seems pretty clear which direction it's evolving in.

LEMON: And let's not forget what happened in December with "don't ask, don't tell." So, you know, conservatives see where this is going.

Jeffrey, I want to read this real quick. It says "classifications based on sexual orientation warrant heightened scrutiny." That position seems like a bigger deal than it might initially sound coming from the attorney general. TOOBIN: Right. You know, that, too many people, I'm sure sounds like legal mumbo jumbo. But translated into English, what the attorney general is saying is that discrimination against gay people now has to be treated just like discrimination against women. Because heightened scrutiny, that term, is a term that has -- the courts have used for how they treat discrimination against women.

LEMON: And that's where the precedent -- that's where the precedent has already been set, the women part.

TOOBIN: Correct.

LEMON: So that's the domino effect in all of this.

TOOBIN: And any time -- I mean basically the way the law stands now is that anytime a law makes a distinction between men and women, the courts strike it down.

LEMON: All right.

TOOBIN: That's what heightened scrutiny means. And what the law -- what the Obama administration seems to be saying is, we think the same rules should apply on sexual orientation. That any law that discriminates in any way against gay people should be struck down. And, to me, the logical implication of that is that they are going to say that ultimately about same-sex marriage as well.

LEMON: Jeffrey Toobin, thank you very much.

And I should tell our viewers, on the other side, Republicans are really criticizing the president saying -- some are saying he should be focused on the economy more than focusing on this and that the president himself is trying to circumvent a law that's already on the books. That's coming from the Republican side.

And, again, our thanks to Jeffrey Toobin.

You know, the mere threat of supply interruptions in the Middle East and North Africa are causing oil and gas prices to spike. What does this mean for your wallet and travel plans for this summer? We break it all down for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The uprising in Libya is directly affecting us right here at home. And if you've been to the gas station this week, you know what I'm talking about. I've been to the gas station. I said, wow, that's really a lot of cash. Christine Romans joins us from New York.

You know, Christine, I didn't really make the connection. Now I'm getting it. We're seeing oil hit $100 a barrel. So why is this happening?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE": Yes. $103 a barrel now. I mean, look, the tensions in Libya are a real problem here. And you're seeing some of the energy output from Libya has been sidelined. Why Libya? Well, look, it's the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. The third largest African exporter, producer of oil, rather. Libya produces a high quality grade of crude oil. Light sweet crude for us commodities wonks. And why is that important? Because that's the easiest to refine, frankly, it's kerosene, high quality diesel and gasoline, Don. Gas is what goes in your car.

Libya ships a lot of its stuff to Europe. So if the Europeans aren't getting Libyan oil, they're going to be looking for Algeria and Nigerian oil, which is also light and sweet. And Algerian oil, it's 4 percent of American imports. And Nigerian oil is about 8 percent, Don.

LEMON: So we're always concerned about this, as well we should, because people travel a lot by car, especially in the summer months. They use their cars more to go on vacation. So what does this mean for people at the pumps from now and then on into the summer months and beyond?

ROMANS: It means higher gas prices. And I'm hearing calls today from people who have been watching this who say, $4 a gallon, a couple of people who have said $5 a gallon. Now you always hear people talking about $5 a gallon gas. I know, that really hurts. It's already up 20 percent year over year. $3.22 a gallon.

I'll tell you something. The last time it was at $100 a barrel of oil, you had gas prices at $3.64. Forty cents higher than it is today. So, in a way, you know, it's not quite as bad as it was last time you had $100 oil. But when you had the record high in gas prices of $4.11, remember that, in 2008. Oh my gosh, to fill up a minivan, it broke the bank. But then you had crude oil at $129 per barrel.

Don, you have a lot of analysts who are saying now, they're talking about $100 to maybe even $150 a barrel oil as the new normal. You know, we -- we don't know. If you have unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, that's something that is a real problem for the oil market.

LEMON: You want to know why you should be paying attention to this story? Really these stories and they're all connected to one, to Egypt, to Lebanon --

ROMANS: They are.

LEMON: All of it. It's because of that. It's going to hit you in your wallet.

ROMANS: They are.

LEMON: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

LEMON: And be sure to tune in to "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m. Eastern. "Your Money" airs Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00. Is the Obama administration considering military options in Libya? Our Ed Henry is at the White House. He's going to join me next live to explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

So President Obama says that his administration is looking at a full range of options to respond to the crisis in Libya. And CNN's Ed Henry joins me now from the White House, where a big meeting on Libyan strategy will take place a little bit later today.

So, Ed, I want to know what we expect to come out of this meeting, because I'm sure they're looking at it very closely. They got a lot of criticism about Egypt. There's unrest there. I just talked to Christine about gas prices and food prices and on and on.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

LEMON: What are we expecting to hear?

HENRY: Absolutely. It could have major ramifications across the board. Not just on national security, foreign policy, but economic as well where American can hit in the wallet, especially with those rising gas prices.

Bottom line is, we're picking up new information that there's going to be a meeting around 3:00 this afternoon here at the White House with outside thinkers. Various folks at think tanks, Mideast experts, people like Jon Alterman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Steve Clemons at the New America Foundation. These are folks sort of outside the bubble. It shows the White House is trying to reach out beyond just their tight circle of advisers and get some ideas.

I'm told it's not just about Libya. It's about the aftermath in Egypt. That's not forget, that's still unfolding. That's nowhere near being completed. It's still unfolding, if you will. And just more broadly speaking, all of this unrest throughout the Mideast and North Africa, the White House trying to solicit some ideas. They've got a whole host of problems here to deal with. And I think this meeting this afternoon shows that in addition to having Secretary Clinton over here and, you know, Secretary Gates has been here this week, and a lot of the usual members of the war cabinet, if you will, there's also some outside folks they want to consult with and get some more ideas.

LEMON: OK, listen, before we get to the military options, if any in all of this, here's what I want to know and everyone I talk to. This is not a good look for the U.S. We still can't -- we still can't get our own people out of there. France has gotten their people out.

HENRY: Yes.

LEMON: Britain, South Korea and on and on but we can't get -- and Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia. They've gotten their people out. Why can't the U.S. get their people out of there?

HENRY: It's a big frustration right now. You mentioned, the Chinese, the Turks, various countries have been able to get people out so far. The latest information we just got from P.J. Crowley over at the State Department is that there's over, I think he said about 285 people still docked at that port outside Tripoli. And he says it's security and there's U.S. security on board and in the area. So they believe these 285 people are safe. There's some people from the U.S. embassy, some from other countries as well, not just U.S. citizens, but the U.S. trying to help others who are there.

To answer your direct question, I mean, I've talked to senior officials here who say they've had bad breaks with the weather, for example, and just the timing of when the U.S. was able to get a ferry there. Others maybe got their ferries in sooner, others got planes in sooner. And now the weather has been particularly bad to get out. They're making it sound like it's been a run of bad luck.

But, I think you're right, that people are going to be raising more and more questions about how these other countries have been able to get some of their people out. And so far the U.S. has struggled to do that.

LEMON: Ed, I have to -- this just came over urgent and it says and I want to ask you about it. President Barack Obama will speak to British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday afternoon in order to coordinate actions in Libya. That's according to White House press secretary P.J. Crowley (sic).

So again, this is ramping up. I don't know if you knew that bit of information.

HENRY: It is. Well, I think it's actually coming from Jay Carney in the White House briefing room behind me. He's got his briefing. Dan Lothian's in there. He's undoubtedly reporting that to us. And Jay Carney is probably making some announcements about what the president is going to be doing.

LEMON: And you're right. It is Jay Carney. It is Jay Carney. You're correct.

HENRY: Yes. Absolutely. President Sarkozy, Prime Minister Cameron, I mean, these are obviously natural U.S. allies that we would turn to. Let's remember last night when the president addressed this issue, he talked about sending Secretary Clinton to Europe to deal with this. And you mentioned the potential Military option.

Look, our own Barbara Starr reporting from a senior U.S. official that the Pentagon is going through the steps of getting some potential Military plans to the president. We underline and underscore potential, because this does not mean the U.S. is going to war with Libya or launching military strikes. But, look, the military makes plan all the time. They need to be prepared and --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: They have to discuss their options in this situation.

Ed Henry, great reporting. Thank you sir.

HENRY: Absolutely.

LEMON: We'll get back to you.

We're now about three and a half hours from the next launch of the space shuttle Discovery. It is poised, on the launch pad, ready to take six astronauts and one robot astronaut into space.

These are live pictures, right, live pictures there. These are live pictures you're looking at the shuttle itself. And you're seeing some of the astronauts there until the orange suits, it's not some technician. And you saw them on their way to the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Shuttle a short time ago. Former Astronaut Bill Nye (sic), the science guy.

We're going to have a former astronaut and Bill Nye live at Kennedy Space Center, coming up right after this quick break. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Take a look at those pictures inside the space shuttle Discovery. Live pictures from NASA TV. Of course, one of our other big stories today, the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

It's expected to blast off at 4:50 p.m. Eastern from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. On board five men, one woman, and NASA's first human-like robotic astronaut. Weather is looking great for the launch and the crew will deliver a storage module, a science rig and spare parts to the International Space Station during its 11-day mission. This will be Discovery's 39th voyage.

You know, it was first launched back in 1984 . Discovery has completed more than 30 missions making it the most experienced space shuttle. The Hubble Space Telescope was transported by Discovery in space in 1990. Discovery also took John Glenn back in space in 1998, and Glenn was the first U.S. citizen to orbit earth. He was also the oldest to fly in space at the age of 77.

Discovery also took the Colbert Treadmill to space in 2009. Would that be Colbert? Sorry, that's Stephen Colbert. Sorry, Stephen. You may remember it was named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

And joining me now live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida is former astronaut Leroy Chow and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

So, hello to both of you.

Leroy, I want to start with you. We're about three and a half hours way from the launch. What are the astronauts going through right now? We saw them in that -- going to -- in the silver RV going to the space shuttle. What are they going through right now?

LEROY CHOW, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Well, they're at the launch pad right now. And you're right, the silver Astro van is a converted vehicle that was taking them from the crew quarters here at the Kennedy Space Center over to the launch pad. So they're all up on the 195 foot level of launch pad now, 39A. And they are getting strapped in one by one in the vehicle.

In the pictures you just saw, that was commander Steve Lindsey being put into the commander's seat on the left side. He'll be followed by the PLT, the pilot. And then the mission specialist. And so, they're one by one getting their harnesses on. You'll see scenes from the white room getting their parachute harnesses on and getting inside, being assisted, getting their parachutes, communications and all that connected.

So this is an exciting moment for the crew.

LEMON: Yes, it is very exciting. It's like Kleenex. You always want to call them Winnebago, but, you know, it's an RV, not a Winnebago.

So Bill Nye, now to you. You and the Planetary Society have an experiment going up on the next shuttle launch in April. So tell us about this experiment.

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY": That's great. So it's called L.I.F.E., Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment. Now, when you walk around on the ice in Antarctica and you find a rock, you have to reason that that rock got there from outer space. That's the only way that it could be on top of the ice. And they found several of these rocks and they turn out to be from Mars. You look at the shock patterns and the bubbles of gas that come out of them in a vacuum chamber.

So people have speculated for a quite a while, could a living thing make the trip from Mars, after it got hit with a big impactor, all the way to the earth and are we -- could we possibly be no kidding all Martians? It's not crazy.

So no one's ever really tested this hypothesis, but the Planetary Society, through the support of people all throughout the world, has a little module that's going to go to the Martian moon Phobos and back. By the way, it's going to Phobos in case it misses, it won't ever hit the planet Mars. But all that aside, we're testing it, getting it flight heritage, as we say on the next shuttle mission.

And it's just exciting when there are humans are involved, right? Whenever you've got people, everybody's just much more excited about it and so this is -- it's very much a part of our culture in the United States, and it's very much a part of the world. We are a space-faring species.

LEMON: We could all be Martians or Mercurians or Venetians or however you want to call it? NYE: No, no, Mercurians are much less likely.

LEMON: OK. So I want to get to Leroy. Just a little joke there, Bill. I know, you're an expert.

So, Leroy, this is the launch for Discovery. The people there at the Cape describe these shuttles as part of their family. And I'm guessing that it's a pretty emotion day today, right?

CHOW: Absolutely. Discovery is very close to my heart. On my third mission I flew aboard Discovery on what was the 100th shuttle mission at the time in the year 2000 on STS 92. We went up and we installed two pieces to the International Space Station. I led the team that went out and did the spacewalk to tighten the bolts and make the electrical connectors to bring those pieces to life.

And so it's an emotional moment for all of us who've worked with Discovery. She's a beautiful bird and it's going to be neat to watch her soar again today.

LEMON: I'll bet.

Hey, Bill, last question for you, and we're going to get to the --obviously carry the launch here. But just in the short amount of time that I have, tell us about this robonaut.

NYE: I don't know much about it except it walks around and does everything real well.

(LAUGHTER)

NYE: Is it able to pick up a grape? That's the ultimate. If the robot can tell it's got a grape and know that it's a grape and not crush the grape, that's pretty good.

But the idea is the space shuttle, all these systems are designed by people for people. But a lot of the tasks that are involved are routine maintenance. So you can design a system, a thing, a robot, to do these routine tasks, but in order to do them then, the robot ends up looking like one of us.

LEMON: Yes. Well, the question is --

NYE: It's kind of cool. It's an old idea in science-fiction.

LEMON: It can recognize a grape, but can it peel a grape? And then if so, then everyone will want one of those.

Bill Nye, the science guy --

NYE: Then you'd really have something. But it's not far off.

CHOW: Can it make a cabernet?

LEMON: Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Leroy Chow.

NYE: Good to see you, Don. Carry on, it's an exciting day.

LEMON: Appreciate it. Yes, it is. You guys have the best assignment today. Have a great time and enjoy.

We want your input on this story. If you have the opportunity to fly to space, would you? Make sure you join the discussion on Ali's blog, www.CNN.com/ali. Or just CNN.com/ali. We'll use your comments throughout the show today here on CNN.

Also, we want to see pictures of the launch -- your pictures. Upload your pictures and videos to the iReport section of CNN.com.

OK, here's a question for you. What do the U.S. census, the floppy disk, Lasik eye surgery, the United Negro College Fund, the computer punch cards all have in common? We'll explain it today's "Big I" coming up right after this quick break.

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LEMON: The comments from embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are becoming more bizarre by the day as his hold the on the country grows more tenuous. Gadhafi today blamed the revolt against his dictatorial rule on young people he said were popping pills and being encouraged by Osama bin Laden.

He spoke by phone on state television just two days after appearing live vowing to die rather than step down, as demanded by the growing ranks of pro-democracy protestors.

Gadhafi's militias now apparently only control the capital, Tripoli. Eastern Libya in the hands of the opposition, including the five key cities you see on our map.

Reports from the town of Zawiya say Gadhafi forces killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens of others. One woman there told CNN that blood is all over the streets.

And we've just heard from the Swiss Foreign Ministry that Switzerland has ordered the freeze on Gadhafi's assets. We're going to continue to report on that and check more into it.

We're going retro now, because it's time for the "Big I." This year, IBM turns 100 years young. So let's take a quick look back at the iconic company in American history.

In 1911, the precursor to IBM is created called and it's called Computing Tabulation Recording Company or CTR. And then, in 1924, the company's name changed to International Business Machines Corporation or IBM.

One of IBM's claims to fame is early on -- early on was the punch card technology used by the U.S. Census.

IBM made it through the Great Depression and both World War IIs -- World Wars, I should say. It was also the first corporation to give grants to the United Negro College Fund. And in the 1950s and '60s, IBM focused on development and commercialization of electronic computer technology. IBM has been part of the every U.S.-manned space effort since the beginning of the nation's space program, and we also saw the first network computers with IBM's 360 system and the technology behind magnetic strips on your credit cards.

The '70s and '80s were all about personal computers floppy disks and the rise of the Internet for IBM. In 1981, three IBM scientists developed the process that would became the foundation for Lasik eye surgery.

And in the 1990s, we saw the birth of e-business and its push to dominate business computing. And that brings us to this century .

Man, that was a mouthful. IBM, what a storied history.

IBM's most recent claim to fame is the Watson super computer that beat two humans on "Jeopardy! " and here to tell us all about what's cooking for the next 100 years at IBM is Dr. Bernie Meyerson, he is the vice president of innovation for IBM Research.

Bernie, thank you so much.

As I said, a very storied history. I mean, IBM has its hands in almost every innovation as far as technology that we have seen in the U.S. and beyond. So let's start with the Watson super computer.

You guys are making huge amounts of data accessible to the masses, but there's been a lot of talk about computer replacing humans. Is that really going to happen? What's going on here?

DR. BERNIE MEYERSON, VP OF INNOVATION, IBM RESEARCH: Computers help humans, they don't replace them.

When you step on the brakes in your car, if you're on ice, the fact that the anti-lock brake system cuts in, that's a computer saving you.

It's the same thing with Watson. Watson has the ability, for instance, if you show up with your -- at your doctor's office and your child as a disease that has bizarre symptoms, the doctor can spend the next 30 days looking for what they correspond to or ask something like Watson for an assist because it can digest massive quantities of data and sort out the golden nugget in the dirt, and it's that golden nugget that saves your child's life. That's what Watson is about.

LEMON: You know, it seems like when you say computers are taking over, I think what we need to realize is that you need humans to program the computers and it's not necessarily going to be like the computer -- I forget the name, it slips me now -- in "A Clockwork Orange" where it takes over everything. You need humans in order to do it. That's science fiction, this is reality.

MEYERSON: Precisely. What happens at this point is we're living in a new age of data and the problems is there are sensors that are not smart, which means, if there's sensors in a road it says to you 70, 70, 70, 70, 70, 70 because that's how fast the cars passing go by.

You don't want to see all that data. You want to see the one that says negative 35, which means there's somebody driving backwards up the road at you at 35 miles an hour. But that may only happen one time out of million.

The computer has patience to watch all of that data and sort out the golden nugget of that person going backwards at 35 and flag it so you can look out for it.

LEMON: So, Bernie, we see this trend toward natural interaction with technology. What does computing look like, seriously, 100 years from now?

Because I ask you that because this phone, just the cell phones that we have, that would have taken warehouses full of big machines, you know, a few years ago in order just to get the same little information. So where next with that?

MEYERSON: To some extent, it becomes a completely natural and more importantly, an invisible asset that you rely upon to help you.

In other words, your natural interaction -- what you said is absolutely correct. You basically can walk up to the machine, and now given the language skills we uniquely demonstrated with the Watson, for or the first time, you can even make a joke and the computer will actually understand because a bunch of brilliant humans led by Dave Ferrucci actually figured out how do you parse the human language to allow for all the ambiguities of it.

That's the really amazing thing. You can basically talk to it like you would speak it much like you would to any other person and it will know what you want and give you only what you want to make your life easier and better.

LEMON: Can you -- can you tell our viewers a little bit really just how far we've come? When you look at an iPhone or a BlackBerry, any sort of PDA, how much -- I don't know -- just a decade or two decades ago, even, I don't know -- how much, how big would it have to be to get just the information inside of this one PDA? How much space would that have taken?

MEYERSON: It's astonishing. I'll give you two simple examples.

You have a laptop computer, there's one sitting immediately to my right. That the computer, let's say we had stopped when we had the a- ha moment and invented hard drives back in 1950s, mid-'50s. We had the a-ha moment, we have a hard drive, it stores your data and we just left it like that.

If we had done that, the laptop computer sitting next to me would weigh about 250,000 tons, which gives a whole new meaning to permanent press in a laptop.

Similarly, if I was, let's say, growing at the same rate computer capability grew like you just described from 1950s until today. If I grew in height at the same rate computers grew in their capability, I would basically nowadays stare downward and watch the moon pass well below my knees.

The level of achievement is just impossible to understand from raw numbers like exabytes and gigaflops. But literally, I would be tall enough to look down and see the moon pass by around my ankles. And that's an astonishing level of progress and it won't slow down.

LEMON: Bernie Meyerson from IBM, thank you and appreciate that lesson there. Good stuff.

MEYERSON: Happy to be here, thank you.

LEMON: Who's the most conservative Republican senator? The answer -- senator -- the answer may surprise you. Wolf Blitzer will tell us next.

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LEMON: (INAUDIBLE) political now. "The National Journal" has released its 2010 vote ratings and CNN's Wolf Blitzer of course, part of "The Best Political Team on Television" joins us now from Washington.

Hello, Wolf. So who among -- who is among the most conservative voting senators? Who are they?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": No surprise, Jim DeMint, for example, of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas. But the big surprise in this rating -- and you'll be surprised, I'm sure a lot of our viewers will be surprised -- that the most conservative senator is John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

In this survey, he's right up there with DeMint and Cornyn, a few others, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. But John McCain, at least as his voting record of last year is concerned, he's among the most conservative senators. He's right up there at the top, most conservative Senate voting record according to this "National Journal" survey.

Another conservative senator, Orrin Hatch, though, a new poll in Utah shows he could have trouble getting himself reelected. Right now, this new survey, Utah policy.com, indicates that only 31 percent of likely voters say they want the senior senator from Utah to win reelection next year. Fifty-four percent say they would like somebody else, they're ready for a new face. Fifteen percent unsure.

Not necessarily good news for Orrin Hatch. He's really working hard right now to reestablish his conservative credentials. He doesn't necessarily want to see a Tea Party candidate emerge and do to him what Robert Bennett, his colleague from Utah, did when he lost to Mike Lee, the Tea Party favorite in Utah.

So there's always a lot of political news unfolding right now.

LEMON: I know you're part of "The Best Political Team on Television." Do you remember when I tried to get you to, Wolf, you got to tweet. You know why I like following your tweets now? Because I was watching your tweets from the NBA All-Star game. They were awesome. I look forward to the Oscar tweets this weekend.

BLITZER: You know what? I was reluctant to do the tweeting on Twitter, but once I started, it's a lot of fun. You send out a little message and all of a sudden, a lot of people are responding.

LEMON: People who were following your tweets were having a great time with you. You're very diverse and wonderful guy.

So thanks, Wolf. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: I can go from North Korea one day to the NBA All-Star game the next. Is that what you're saying, Don?

LEMON: Yes, yes, absolutely, to the Oscars.

And speaking of that, Wolf, Hollywood's gearing up for its hottest night this weekend. Wolf will be tweeting and producers are gearing up for the hottest show. Find out what Oscar producers are doing to shake things up. That's next.

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