Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Americans Evacuated from Libya; Uprising in Libya; Psychological Manipulation

Aired February 25, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. I'm Kyra Phillips with three big stories this hour for you. Americans escaping the violence of Libya. This ferry now carrying about 300 people to Malta. Back in Tripoli, government forces firing on protesters, and a heart-breaking story out of Kentucky. An Amish family mourns the death of three children. They were swept away by flood waters after their horse drawn carriage flips over.

And fans of "Two and a Half Men" will have to enjoy the reruns. CBS pulls the plug on the rest of the season after Charlie Sheen goes off on another rant.

Let's start with all of the developments out of Libya this morning. Let's get right through it. Around 300 people are on board that ferry that's headed to Malta right now. About half of those are Americans, and we're getting reports of clashes between protesters and police in the capital city now. Listen to what one eyewitness says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are in the square in the middle, in the center of Tripoli, but as soon as we get up to the main street, there (INAUDIBLE) are wearing civilian clothes, and they are clashes and they have machine guns and start shooting at us. We go into the streets and start throwing rocks at them. They went far away and started shooting from far away, and they came back again. They started shooting more and more. So the police came and used tear gas. We are being dispersed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Sorry. It's really hard to understand what he is saying. We are working on subtitles there. So we will get those up as soon as we can so you can actually hear what he's saying. Now, as we learn more about this violence in Tripoli, we are going to bring that information to you.

It's clear that Moammar Gadhafi is trying to suppress protesters with force. Now, this video that was put up on Youtube is from Zawiyah, not far from the capital of Tripoli. Doctors there say government attacked and killed 17 people and wounded 150 others.

The international community is stepping up, too. Here's what U.K. prime minister David Cameron has to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The world is watching you, and the world will hold you to account, and Britain, through the United Nations, is pressing for asset seizures, for travel bans, for sanctions, for all of the things that we can do to hold those people to account, including investigating for potential crimes against humanity or war crimes or crimes against the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The Gadhafi family says they're not going anywhere. Here's what one son told CNN's Turk TV when he asked if the family had a plan to leave Libya.

He said "We have plan A, plan B, plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C," you guessed it, "to live and die in Libya."

Right now, that boat carrying more than 100 American evacuees is on its way to Malta. The State Department says the trip takes about eight hours. And the Male Voice: Maria Dolores left at 6:37 a.m. Eastern time, just about three and a half hours ago. So those passengers, rather, should be about halfway there.

There are more than 300 people on board, more than half of them U.S. citizens. Our Jill Dougherty is standing by at the State Department. Jill, why did the evacuation take so long?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was weather, at least as far as we know, and that seems to be confirmed by reports coming from that region. It's actually a large catamaran. It's not a ship per se. It's a catamaran. And it's been pretty touch and go. You know, the people boarded more than two days ago and they'd been sitting there, have been sitting there and conditions were OK. They got, you know, food and water but it was a very nerve- wracking situation, and now they are finally on their way, and the State Department says if the weather cooperates, they should be in Malta in about eight hours as you said, eight hour trip.

The State Department also has been considering bringing in planes. You know, they tried yesterday to schedule a plane to bring anybody out from Tripoli who might want to come. That was cancelled because of weather. They were talking about another charter plane coming in, and we are tracking down information on the status of that but it's really been a high moment of concern to get all of those people who want to out.

PHILLIPS: Now, Jill, the international community is reacting as well. The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet later today to talk about the situation in Libya. What are you actually hearing from your sources at the State Department?

DOUGHERTY: Well, number one, you have Hillary Clinton who will be on Sunday traveling to Geneva, Switzerland, and that's where the U.N. Human Rights Council will be meeting. That's an immediate thing that they can do, which is the U.S. would support kicking Libya off the Human Rights Council.

Also, this gives Secretary Clinton a way of directly conferring with all sorts of foreign ministers from a lot of different countries, and that's what they are do right now. President Obama has been on the phone with leaders, European leaders. Secretary Clinton has been on the phone, and what they want to do is have this united, concerted face, but now you can say that the Americans are out, you might anticipate that the United States will get tougher. And joins some of the more overt cause, you saw, Mr. Cameron, just a couple of minutes ago talking about that, economic sanctions, and other things. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jill Dougherty from the State Department. Jill, thanks.

Well, the price we pay. We're looking at what we pay now for gas and a number of other things as we're in a bad economy and as we se the political upheaval which is affecting the oil production in Libya, and maybe even more importantly with the fear that it could get worse. Oil actually hit $97.28 a barrel yesterday's close. Prices went as high as $103 earlier in the day and Wednesday was the first time in more than two years it went above $100 a barrel.

Christine Romans in New York trying to break it all down for us. So, of course, it all mean gas prices. We started to see gas prices climb, and now we're seeing it even more, and we've got the world watching. OK. What's going to happen with these protests in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain? That's tremendous concern regarding those countries as well.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly brings the headlines home to you every time you fill up your gas tank quite frankly, and last night, Kyra, gas prices, the average gas price in this country jumped six cents overnight, so that tells you just what the situation is like. I want to be clear here, we produce about just shy of 88 million barrels of oil in world a day. We consume just over 88 million barrels of oil in the world a day. So a disruption in Libya, even if it's a small disruption, even the threat of further disruptions or concerns about threats in oil producing states. That's what drives prices higher and that's what we're seeing here.

Last year at this time, we had a gallon of gas, $2.67. Last night, $3.28 ands economists and analysts are saying, Kyra, it will continue to go higher. Your gas prices will continue to move higher. Every penny increase at the pump, according to Peter Beutel from Cameron Hanover, every time it goes up one penny, it takes $4 million out of our pockets every single day. So it's a hit to our economy, a hit to our spending. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BEUTEL, ENERGY ANALYST: The 30-cent increase that I expect we will see between next week and this week, there you are talking about $120 million each and every day that it remains in place, out of American consumers' pockets.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Kyra, you heard him right. He's forecasting 30 cents more increase in gasoline prices in the next week or two as we adjust to some of these geopolitical headlines. Quick note I want to add here, too. You're getting a lot of people talking about speculation again in oil prices and in commodity prices in general.

With interest rates so low in this country, the people with money, investors with money have been putting their money into assets like wheat, corn, big commodities, copper, gold and oil. You've been seeing that big trend. Some of these things have been cooling off a little bit lately. Grains over the past couple of days have cooled off but you certainly have had a big rush of money into these commodities, oil included and that's something that all of us feel when we go to the grocery store or fill up our gas tanks. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, we're feeling it. That's for sure. Christine, thanks.

Well, there's a desperate search right now going on in Mayfield, Kentucky, for an Amish child who disappeared when the family horse and buggy flipped over into a flooded creek. The bodies of three other children were pulled from the creek last night. Police say nine people from two Amish families were riding in that buggy when the accident happened. It had been raining in the area for several hours. And the Kentucky floods were spawned by a line of severe storms wreaking havoc in the southeast.

Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is tracking development in the CNN Weather Center.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Horrible situation. Just terrible situation. What happened yesterday was we had this very interesting setup where we had the line of storms that came through but also embedded with that frontal boundary, you had just several cells that piled up over the same area. The area, of course, we're referring to is in Mayfield, Kentucky, which is right in the heart of Graves County.

As we zoom in here, just to give bearings here, you got Paducah, and let's see Graves would be right about here. This is Graves County and this would be the location where we had the flooding. The situation also spelled that we had over three inches of rainfall in Paducah, and similar amounts to the south. So when you have that, just even your smallest creek can become this raging torrent and that was the issue that you had in yesterday's tragedy.

Now what we're seeing is this storm system is now long gone, moving away from Kentucky. The cleanup though is going to remain in many places. A lot of wind damage in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and into Arkansas. They had (INAUDIBLE) believe it or not, 10 tornado reports. Thankfully, with those tornadoes though. No fatalities. What we're seeing with the storm system is something interesting. We got an area of low pressure that is pulling up towards the northeast and with that low that is moving up, we got some strong winds that are generating - obviously we have the snow, we also have a little bit of rainfall. But there is the potential that around that area of low pressure, we could have some wind gusts topping 55 miles per hour in places like New York, in Washington and as far south as Virginia Beach. You could have these windy conditions, and with that, guess what? We're going to see some delays.

Already, we got them over on the West Coast with a different storm system. Ground stoppage until 7:15 Pacific time in New York, in Newark, Philadelphia. We got ground delays anywhere from say two even three hours, three hours and 20 minutes in Newark at Liberty. Be patient. This storm system will be moving out as we get into the weekend, a little bit of a welcome break but more snow expected in the Sierra Nevada and into the Rockies, great for skiers, ski season, Kyra. It seems like it's never going to end. It's good.

PHILLIPS: With them. The skiers are loving it.

WOLF: Got to love that.

PHILLIPS: I know. All right. By the way, did you see the 90- year-old skier on the slopes? Yes.

WOLF: Very impressive.

PHILLIPS: We're going to have a little bit more of that coming up later in the hour.

WOLF: OK.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Reynolds.

WOLF: All right. We want to head to Wisconsin now where lawmakers are embroiled in a budget battle. The state house has now passed a Republican bill stripping the collective bargaining rights to most public employees. However, this may be far from over. Ted Rowlands is in Madison, Wisconsin this morning. So Ted, what do you think we can expect next? You are saying last hour, it looks like this could take a while.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this political game of chicken continues. The Senate democrats continue to hide out in the state of Illinois, and this morning they indicated they have no plans of coming back to Wisconsin. As you mentioned, last night this bill did get through the assembly, and boy did it go through in dramatic fashion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nay, the ayes have it, the bill is in the Senate, the assembly is adjourned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame, shame, shame! Shame, shame, shame!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And that was at about 1:00 in the morning here in Madison. What happened was is the Democrats in the assembly, their strategy throughout this whole process has been to extend the arguments over this, and there was a little break in the action, and the Republicans basically did the old quick vote and caught the Democrats off guard. 27 members, actually, didn't vote because they weren't in the chambers, and then you see those folks in the t-shirts, Kyra, those are the democrats, barking at and yelling at their Republican counterparts as they filed out of the state house. Obviously, this is getting very, very ugly. And there is no end in sight.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ted Rowlands. We will continue to follow that story. And of course, we're continuing to follow all the latest developments out of Libya. We have been able to connect once again with our Ben Wedeman who has been able to get up live there in Benghazi. Still just a flood of protesters as you can see behind him. Ben, bring us up to date of what's happening there in Benghazi, and what you know about Tripoli.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In Benghazi, it's self-explanatory. I mean, you have this massive crowd of thousands of people who, despite the wind and the cold and the rain are coming out now expressing solidarity with the people of Tripoli, who obviously, are in a far more difficult position.

What we're hearing from Tripoli - I spoke with a woman about an hour and a half ago, who told me that people came out of the mosques after Friday prayers to protest against Moammar Gadhafi and his government, but they were quickly met by what she called intense gunfire from government forces. People went back to her homes, and now we're hearing that others have come out, that thousands of people are in green square, which is the main square in Tripoli.

We are also hearing that there are casualties, (INAUDIBLE) the air base from which the aircraft that were used to attack various other parts of Libya, a former U.S. air base, may have fallen to the anti-Gadhafi forces. What's interesting, Kyra, is yesterday I was speaking to somebody here in Benghazi, and he pointed out that it was on a Friday that Zine El Abidin Ben Ali, the president of Tunisia left the country, left Tunisia. It was on a Friday that Hosni Mubarak resigned as president of that country, of Egypt, and people here are very much hoping that this Friday will be the day that Moammar Gadhafi steps down as the leader of Libya. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I don't know, Ben, knowing what you know about Moammar Gadhafi and these rambling rants that he's gone on in the past week, including his son as well, saying everything is calm and fine, do we - did we lose Ben? OK, is he back? It's been hard to keep that live signal up because of the wind. Do you still hear me OK, Ben? There you go. We got you. You know, what do you think, I mean, what are the chances of Moammar Gadhafi actually stepping down?

WEDEMAN: I think the chances that he will soon no longer be the leader of Libya are very (INAUDIBLE) the way he is ejected from power is very much up to question. Many people here are quite frank. They would like to see him killed, executed. Others would like to see him put on trial at the International Court of the Hague.

In fact, I was listening to an interview with the former justice minister of Libya who resigned just last week. His prediction was that Moammar Gadhafi and his sons would simply commit suicide when they came to the realization that of people of Libya had utterly and (INAUDIBLE). So at this point, we don't have any idea how it will end. But if you look around here, you look at all the (INAUDIBLE), all the military officers and soldiers who have changed sides, the gathering crowd of international condemnation against him, talk of sanctions of a no-fly zone over Libya, I would say his chances of continuing in power are slim to none. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Ben Wedeman, live from Benghazi, thanks.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

PHILLIPS: Well, "Two and A Half Men," it's a huge hit, makes huge money and it might be done. Not because the writers ran out of good ideas but because the star has been shooting his mouth off again.

Charlie Sheen unloaded a rant so ugly, so bizarre that CBS actually pulled the plug on new episodes for this season. Sheen on a radio show slamming the show's creator, Chuck Lorre. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: I embarrassed him in front of his children and the world by healing at a pace that this un-evolved mind can't process. I spent, I think, close to the last decade, I don't know, effortlessly and magically converting your tin can into pure gold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But hold on, there's more. Sheen, who is phoning in from the Bahamas, where he is chilling with a couple of girlfriends, including a porn star also went off on Alcoholics Anonymous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEEN: This bootleg cult, you know, (INAUDIBLE) Alcoholics Anonymous supports like a five percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent. Do the math. (INAUDIBLE) Alex says don't be special. Be one of us. News flash, I am special. I will never be one of you. I have a disease, and I cured it with my brain, with my mind. I'm cured. I'm done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: He's cured. He's done. He also goes on another rant. This time in a letter, puts it out there for all to see, calling Lore a maggot and a worm. Well, let's talk more about this to Michael Musto, shall we? He's the entertainment columnist for the "Village Voice." He loves writing about stuff like this. Michael, I think - well, I'm thinking we're not going to actually see a fuzzy finale for this show like we did for "Cheers" or "M.A.S.H.".

MICHAEL MUSTO, ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST "THE VILLAGE VOICE": Well, maybe it will all be a dream, Kyra, like the end of I don't know, one of those late night shows, was it "Newheart?"

PHILLIPS: Exactly.

MUSTO: Kyra, this is the biggest mid-life crisis since Lindsay Lohan.

PHILLIPS: Now, can you imagine if they were a couple, Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. There you would have something to write about, Musto.

MUSTO: I'm sure they will be a couple on a reality show some day, very soon. But he's claiming that he's sober, but the reality is he is sounding really angry, self-aggrandizing, and self-destructive. He might have been better off when he wasn't sober. So I'm not believing anything he's saying anyway.

PHILLIPS: So he says he's heading to HBO to do a show and get a $5 million paycheck per episode. What do you think? I mean, it's probably hard to believe anything that he says at this point?

MUSTO: Yes. I would take it all with a grain of whatever he was on in that hotel suite but HBO, obviously, is not that crazy. If they were going to go with him, they would put Lindsay Lohan in the package, too. Besides, it's not up to Charlie right now to leave the sit-com even though Chuck Lore, the producer that he is trashing has, you know, suspended the rest of the season of "Two and A Half Men," which is obviously going to be one and a half men pretty soon. Charlie is still under contract and we have to see what the future of his situation is going to be. I suspect he won't be on any TV show very soon.

PHILLIPS: And you know, this isn't just about Sheen but there are hard-working people that are losing their jobs because of this nut job, including his co-star, Jon Cryer, who blessed his heart still tried to keep a sense of humor about all of this. Take a listen to what he said to Conan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON CRYER, ACTOR, "TWO AND A HALF MEN": I'm checking TMZ as I do every day to know if I have to go to work at all. He said - well, I said, how are you doing, man? He said, I'm doing OK except that somebody stole my car and ran it off a cliff last night. And normally, you would not believe that from somebody.

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": Yes.

CRYER: But from Charlie Sheen, you believe that. Because that happened to him - twice!

O'BRIEN: It did happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You want to see good things happen to people like Cryer?

MUSTO: Well, my readership has gone up because the cast of the show looks to see if they should go to work. But as for people taking over Charlie's car, yes, they must have taken over that hotel suite, too, and scared that poor hooker into the bathroom.

Charlie needs to really take a little bit more responsibility. Don't you think? He seems to be pinning the blame on other people and using that kind of mumbo jumbo language in these interviews, which are borderline brilliant with the emphasis on borderline but really, just not productive.

PHILLIPS: Well, this is addiction, you know, at its best, unfortunately. You know, it just takes comedy and tragedy to an entirely different level, doesn't it?

MUSTO: Well, yes, addiction is not a funny thing and Charlie needs to really cope with it and realize that he is also a father, even if he doesn't have custody. His poor kids want to be told Mother Goose stories, not, you know, daddy's down the hall with three girlfriends. It's really embarrassing and I feel very bad for everyone involved with a hit show, which I've never watched but obviously, people used to watch it. And it's a multi million franchise.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no kidding. It will be interesting to see where this goes. My guess is it's not going to be very much of a happy ending. Michael, we'll keep talking about it. Of course, everything entertainment, enjoy your column.

MUSTO: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Michael.

MUSTO: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: The military reportedly playing mind games with U.S. lawmakers all designed to get more troops. It's a serious accusation. Now a top general has ordered an investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Psyche ops, military psychologists trained to play with the enemy troops' mind and manipulate their actions. Now, General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has ordered an investigation into allegations that a military team of psyche ops was told to use their skills on visiting U.S. lawmakers. CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is following the story for us. What did you learn, Chris?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, just yesterday, a military official admitted there is a gray area when it comes to preparing information for congressmen and preparing information on the congressmen. So General Petraeus has launched this investigation to get to the bottom of it. And the secretary of Defense is on board with that investigation. Bottom line, some of the psyche ops officers, the U.S. Army Psyche Ops officers there in Afghanistan have accused a superior officer of giving them illegal orders to use their skills on some of these U.S. congressmen, and they go on to allege that after they basically defied this order that they were reprimanded and written up in retaliation.

Now, psyche ops is not public affairs. These are people who are trained basically to sort of play with people's heads, to manipulate the enemy into behaving a certain way. Millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on these teams in Afghanistan, and they're supposed to be used to go after and target, say, hostile foreign forces over there. One of the psyche ops officers making the allegations described to CNN exactly what he says he was ordered to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. MICHAEL HOLMES, NATIONAL GUARD (RET.): With the senators and the congressmen, it was simply how had this people voted in the past, what were their positions coming in, and what could the generals actually say to them that would get them to do what we wanted them to do - provide more money, provide more troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Another of the psyche ops officer said that the first thing that they are taught is never target any Americans period. Senator John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken, Carl Levin, these are just some of the names on these alleged profile list. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, some of the senators on the so-called target list were already big supporters of the war, so what are they saying?

LAWRENCE: Kyra, this is what raises some question about these allegations about it. When you look at it, you know, Senator Carl Levin had to put out a statement saying, look, nobody had to convince me of anything. I was out there trying to convince other -- of my colleagues to send more trainers to Afghanistan, to spend more money on reinforcing the Afghan troops. And Senator Jack Reed says when he makes the trips, he expects a certain amount of spin from the military folks when he gets there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JACK REED (D), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE : My first reaction was, trying to think back over the course of the multiple trips that I've made to Afghanistan. And nothing stuck out unusually. I mean, most of these are very straightforward briefings. You'll understand that the briefer or the officer in charge has a point of view. He or she or he is an advocate for a possession. You go in with the notion that you've got to be somewhat skeptical.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE: The officer in question, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, through a spokesman denied these allegations. A U.S. official also told us that he does not believe Caldwell believes the allegations and he's not going to step down.

It was just a week ago, the Defense Secretary Robert Gates was praising Caldwell's work and describing a year ago, only about a third of the Afghan recruits could shoot straight. And within a year, Caldwell's team had turned it around, and now about 90 percent of them were passing the marksman course. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence from the Pentagon. Chris, thanks.

A question for all of the single ladies -- why aren't you married yet? One columnist has six possible answers, and let me tell you, they are harsh.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stories we're talking about this morning. We're getting reports this hour of new clashes between security forces in the Libyan capital of Tripoli from the eastern city of Zawayi. You are looking at video of alleged celebrations by residents having they took control of the city. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the video, but it is consistent with news reports.

Cleanup this morning in parts of the Southeast. The line of severe storms moving through Tennessee overnight. In Kentucky, three Amish children died and a fourth is missing after their horse and buggy flipped over in a flooded creek.

And Providence, Rhode Island, has chosen a radical way to deal with the budget problems. Every teacher in the city's school system getting fired. That's about 200,000 teachers and a staff total. We'll keep an eye on the developments there.

All right. A lot of girls grow up dreams of their wedding day. The dress, the ring, the man. It's you, you know, like a fairy tale.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW WHITE (singing): Someday my prince will come someday we'll meet as one -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Err! OK. If you are five, Snow White makes perfect sense. But once the birthdays actually start flying by, you may start to see a little gray up in here, a little crow's feet here, a little saggy something here and there. And then comes that moment -- the moment of panic and frustration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAMES MARSDEN, ACTOR (acting in "27 Dresses"): Don't you think it's a whole lot of ritual for something that has about a 50/50 shot of making it out the gate?

KATHERINE HEIGL, ACTRESS (acting in "27 Dresses"): Oh, how very refreshing! A man who doesn't believe in marriage!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Ha! "27 Dresses" sums up the way legions of single women feel. Sure, plenty don't want to walk down the aisle. But for the ones who do, the nagging questions are -- why can't I get married? What the heck is wrong with me?

Well, "Huffington Post" columnist Tracy McCallum has six possible answers, and they're harsh! You ready for this? You're the B word, you're shallow, you're a slut, you're a liar, you're selfish, and you're not good enough.

So, of course, I had to call two of my favorite ladies. They are not selfish, though. They're not slutty. They're not shallow. No way! But they're sassy. Molly Dedham and Christine Eads, the broads from "Broadminded" on XM Radio. Can't wait to weigh in on this article that's totally spread across the Internet.

All right, broads! Any truth here to this article?

CHRISTINE EADS, "BROADMINDED" CO-HOST ON XM RADIO: Yes.

MOLLY DEDHAM, "BROADMINDED" CO-HOST ON XM RADIO: Yes. All of the above.

EADS: I think a lot of women are going to be upset ant this because it's always us and not the men, but I think if you take a minute to really look at yourself, you're going to find there's a whole lot of truth here.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, Christine, what are you?

DEDHAM: Yes. Okay, I'm a blend. I'm going to be honest here. I'm a blend between three, which is "you're a slut," and "selfish," because I like to -- well, OK. All right. Can we be serious for a minute? I know that's rare.

PHILLIPS: Let's be serious.

EADS: We'll be serious for a minute, and then we'll go back to craziness. I do have an eight-year-old, and I chose not to marry his father because, well, we just didn't get along. We decided to -- we're great friends but in a relationship, it just did not work. So we decided not to be married, and that works for us. And I think different people can do different things.

So, now that I have the child, I went, well, am I ever really going to walk down the aisle? So I do a blend of the slutty/selfish thing. Just to be honest. PHILLIPS: And s it working for you, Dedham?

EADS: No, not at all.

PHILLIPS: Dedham? Now to you.

DEDHAM: This is what stood out for me in the article. She talks, just the title alone, she says you're a liar. And this is so true.

What we do is we get into a relationship and we don't want to tell the guy how we really feel because if we tell him how we really feel, he's going to leave. So, we negotiate and think, one day, he will figure out he wants us. But in the end, he really doesn't.

And so, you stay in the relationship because you're not being true to yourself. And it's a cliche, but it happens time and time again. And I think you have to get away from lying, not only to the guy but to yourself because it's just trouble. It's not going to work out.

And she points that out. When I read that, I actually was blushing a little bit, because I completely lied in my last relationship.

EADS: Also, another thing --

DEDHAM: I lied to myself. It was terrible. And look, I'm still single and not married.

EADS: And you knew, you brought us on for a reason because we so desperately want to get married.

PHILLIPS: I know, I know both of you want to find that Prince Charming.

EADS: You knew this!

PHILLIPS: All right, so, Molly, what are your words of advice for women out there who want to tie the knot?

DEDHAM: I think you need to be yourself. Don't lie, but in the end, if you have to negotiate a little bit, I think a loft in New York is okay. And an Eames chair. I love Eames chairs.

But at 41, at some point, you're going to have to play a little bit of the game. So, I think there can be a little bit of - I don't know. She speaks of character. Character's okay, but some guys with character still want strange and they're going to cheat. So, you have to get a little bit out of it, even if it's shallow.

PHILLIPS: All right, Christine. Bring it home.

EADS: Well, I also think she talks about in the article that, we find even if the guy is sitting there and telling us, "I don't want to be married, it's not going to happen," we'll find a way to stay in it because we think we can change them. That is never, ever, ever going to happen. I tried that a million times -

DEDHAM: Oh, gosh, the last ones -

EADS: The both of us - oh my gosh. The last ones, it was ridiculous how we stayed in these relationships with these guys for the most absurd reasons.

DEDHAM: And Kyra, they were twice our age. So, what does that tell you? That wasn't good, either.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Go to their Web site. You can find the Broads. You can listen to them, of course, on Sirius XM. "Broadminded" is the show. They're the hosts. They're also single, beautiful, smart, sassy, they don't beat around the bush, they're far from shallow. Blog them! Tell them you're interested. C'mon, men.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Next time I talk to you ladies, I want to see the bling on the left hand.

EADS: You got it.

DEDHAM: I don't know. I don't know, Krya. I don't think it's ever going to happen. We're still working together 20 years, and we're still single.

EADS: No, no, no, no. This slut's ready. Number 3, number 3 is ready.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: To our viewers, this conversation is by no means over! You can check out the response to the article by our own Jessica Ravitz. She has her some of her own choice words for the author, Tracy McMillian, on why she's not married. And then you can e-mail us and tweet us on your thoughts. We'd love for you to weigh in.

The countdown is on to Hollywood's biggest night. We're going live where Oscar preps are in full gear.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The parents of a 13-month old Canadian boy are in the middle of a fight with the hospital treating their son. The hospital says that the little boy has a degenerative brain condition, and they want to remove his breathing tube. But the family says, no way and are fighting to keep their son alive. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been following the story. So, tell us exactly what's been going on.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, I want to say this is just such a horrible story. This is a sad story on all accounts, no matter who's right here.

The fight is between the parents and the hospital. The parents say that the hospital has told them that their son is in a persistent vegetative state. And when that happens, both in Canada and the U.S., doctors remove a breathing tube. You don't keep someone alive on a machine that's basically making them breath if they're in a vegetative state that's not going to change.

But the parents say they're not convinced that their son, Joseph, is in a persistent vegetative state. And Kyra, I want to show you some video that the parents have released. You can see here someone is tickling the baby, and the baby moves.

Now, we showed this video to my colleague, Sanjay Gupta, who, of course, is a neurosurgeon. And he says it's possible that what we are seeing movements that are reflexes and not deliberate movements by the baby. And that babies have more of these preserved reflexes than adults do.

You know, who knows? But the parents really feel like there is a possibility that their son is not in a vegetative state forever, and they want doctors outside this hospital to come in and examine him. And the hospital has said no.

PHILLIPS: Well, and didn't they send all of the paperwork and all the medical reports to a hospital in Michigan? What did doctors there say?

COHEN: They did. This family lives right over the boarder from Michigan, and they sent those records to the Michigan Children's Hospital said no. The hospital said we won't take him. They said we feel like the care he is getting in Canada is good care, and we would be saying the same thing. They say there is nothing we can do for you here that you're not getting in Canada.

So, they have been rejected by one hospital. We don't know if other hospitals have also --

PHILLIPS: It's so hard, because you want to believe in a miracle. You're looking at your child who is alive and making sounds and moving, and you just don't want to give up.

COHEN: Absolutely. Oh, it's horrible. Any parent can completely put themselves in the place that these parents are in, and say you would fight, you would do everything. But on the other hand, there are also parents who feel that way but then also come to realize that in their child's situation, they really can't do anything. I mean, it's a very difficult situation

PHILLIPS: So, what happens now? Because obviously, the medical system and laws and et cetera are different in Canada versus the United States. And they're saying -- there's a court order, right?

COHEN: Right. There's a court order that says pull the plug, but the parents have continued to fight it, and they will continue to fight it. And there are legal avenues that they can go down to keep doing that.

Now, it's interesting that they have gotten the folks who were trying to keep Terri Schiavo alive. Those folks have not gotten involved. So, as you can see, this may be getting sort of more and more emotional as time goes on.

PHILLIPS: Boy and Terri Schiavo, that took years and years.

COHEN: And that's what happens when you have family members fighting, or in this case, when you have family members fighting a hospital. In Schiavo's case, it was family members fighting each other. In this case, it is family versus hospital.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow the story with you. Thanks so much, Elizabeth.

Well, a new poll puts Mississippi at the top of the list as the most conservative state. Our political update is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The White House was a rockin' last night. President Obama and the first lady led a celebration of Black History Month. It was also a night to honor to Motown. The president calling Motown songs, " the soundtrack of the Civil Rights area." (sic) And check out the guest list.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAL, SINGER (singing)

JAMIE FOXX, ACTOR/SINGER (singing)

NICK JOANS, SINGER (singing)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right. Nick Jonas, not bad! seal, Jamie Foxx on hand as well serenading the president and the first lady. Also, you saw Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, John Legend. You can see the full concert on PBS. That's Tuesday, March 1.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

PHILLIPS: How long would you think that the Tea Party has been around? They're actually marking their second anniversary. Deputy political director Paul Steinhauser here with their journey, their story. Boy, they gained power, fast, didn't they?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: They sure did, Kyra. I'm still waiting for my invitation to the White House soiree. It must have got lost in the mail.

(LAUGHTER)

STEINHAUSER: Yes, it was February 2009. That was when we saw the first nationwide protest from Tea Party activists. They were upset with the federal stimulus package, which was just being put into place and with the bailouts.

Now, two years later, out in Phoenix, the Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest national Tea Party organizations, is holding what they call an inaugural policy summit. We have our Shannon Travis out there.

And Kyra, who is going to be keynoting that event? Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, someone who is thinking of runs for the White House. He will headline out there tomorrow in Phoenix. Also speaking out there, Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas. Herman Cane, a regular talk show host and businessman, also thinking of runs for the White House.

Kyra, one more thing, you teased it before the break. What's the most conservative state in the nation? Well, according to a brand-new survey by Gallup, the honors go to Mississippi, where about 50 percent of the people identify themselves as conservatives in their poll. What's the most liberal state, according to the Gallup poll? Well, it's not even a state. It's the District of Columbia. And the second place is a state, Vermont. Kyra back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Paul, thanks. We'll have your next political update is in just about an hour. A reminder, for all of the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNpolitics.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

PHILLIPS: A countdown is on to Hollywood's biggest night. And who is going to win? Who's not going to win? More importantly to some, what are they going to wear?

"Showbiz Tonight" host Brooke Anderson, I know she'll look hot. She is casual today, but she has her digs ready to roll out along with that red carpet that will be right there under her feet very soon.

BROOKE ANDERSON, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" CO-HOST: Hi there, Kyra! Yes, I'm ready. I got the stilettos ready in the closet. I'm excited about the fashion and everything that the Oscars, of course, have to offer.

Today is prep day, as you see. A lot of rental equipment in the back. The whole red carpet is tented because we expect rain this weekend.

A different look this year for the Oscars. The producers want the telecast to be radically different. They want it to be more modern while still really respecting the history of the Oscars and what it means.

And really, the first and biggest change, I think, are the hosts. You've got very youthful hosts. Anne Hathaway and James Franco. 28 and 32 years old. We caught up with them here yesterday at the Kodak Theater. They were rehearsing inside, having themselves a good time. Anne told us that she was asked to do this first, but she didn't sign on. She didn't want to agree to it until she knew James would be her co-host. So, hopefully they'll make a good team.

And listen to what James told us about what he's planning to bring to the table. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES FRANCO, ACTOR: No, I'm not, because, you know, nobody thinks that I'm Chris Rock or Billy Crystal or Hugh Jackman, you know, who either come from comedy worlds or the dance and musical theater world like -- so I can try anything, and nobody has high expectations. So, like, it's fine if I'm not great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Nothing really gets to that guy. On the other hand, Anne told us that her stress level right now is about at an 11. James Franco also nominated for Best Actor for his role in "127 Hours."

His grandmother is actually going to be tweeting during the telecast. Oscar producers are using her and mothers of nine other nominees to tweet during the telecast. Another effort to kind of modernize things this year, attract a younger audience.

And Kyra, there will be no more long movie montages. Film clips, short film clips, yes. But no more long montages. So, hopefully it will be at a brisker pace.

PHILLIPS: We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a fun night. We can't wait to see you. Brooke, thanks so much for the preview.

ANDERSON: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. For a front row seat at the Oscars, you can join, of course, Brooke and A.J., our "Showbiz Tonight" hosts. They're going to be live on the red carpet on road to the gold, right here on CNN, Sunday 7:00 p.m. Eastern and again 11:00 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)