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Upping the Ante Over Payroll Tax Cut Extension; Explosions Kill Dozens in Iraq; Bank of America Pays for Lending Bias; Ron Paul Newsletters Spark Controversy; Miscommunication at Heart of Pakistani Airstrike; West, Southeastern U.S. Hammered by Storms; NFL Players Sue over Head Injuries
Aired December 22, 2011 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
I want to get you up to speak for this Thursday, December 22nd.
President Obama turning up the pressure on House Republicans in the tax cut standoff. The president is holding an event in the next hour to push for extending the payroll tax cut that expires at the end of the month. He's going to be joined by families who will pay on average another $40 out of every paycheck if that tax cut expires.
Now, House Republicans revolted against a temporary two-month extension that was passed by the Senate. And today, neither side shows any signs of giving in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: I told the president there's one big reason why we need to do a full year, and that's jobs. A one- year bill like the president requested and like the House produced is simply better for jobs and better for our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MINORITY WHIP: Let's enact this bipartisan compromise, however, to eliminate uncertainty for American families and then get right to work on a one-year version, not wait until February, not walk away and hold off until the last minute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And we got more encouraging news about the job market. The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since April of 2008. The Labor Department says initial claims dropped to 364,000. That is down 4,000 from the week before. Now, many economists say a level below 400,000 means enough job growth to lower the unemployment rate.
A wave of explosions rocks Baghdad. Nine car bombs, six roadside bombs, and a mortar round all used in attacks during rush hour. Now, authorities confirm at least 63 people killed, 185 wounded.
The violence is raising fears about Iraq's stability. A political crisis as well threatens to undo the government just days after U.S. troops withdrew.
And it all boils down to failure to communicate. The Pentagon says that Pakistani officials didn't give exact locations of their forces before 24 Pakistani troops were killed in a U.S. air strike last month. Each side says that the other fired first. It is the latest incident to create bad blood between the uneasy allies.
And fighting for her cause, now fighting for her life. The Egyptian woman seen in red in this video being brutally beaten by security forces is now speaking out. She suffered multiple blows to the head, along with other injuries during this attack.
It's hard to see, hard to watch. She said she was trying to help another protester who was being brutally assaulted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Even after the attack and two fractures to her skull, Azza Suleiman was unbowed, still speaking out. "They were hitting a veiled woman," she says. "They removed her veil and exposed the underwear she was wearing."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Egypt's Supreme Council has expressed regret over recent attacks on female protesters by military police. They promise those responsible will be held accountable. Many Egyptians are expressing serious doubt that that's going to happen.
Arab League monitors are set to ride in Syria today as part of a plan to help bring peace. The government's violent crackdown on protesters escalated this week. Syrian activists say 250 people were killed over two days, and the U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have died since the protests began in March.
So, quite a way to mark the first day of winter. Storm watches in the North, as well as Southwest. This is what it was like on the roads in Denver last night. It isn't getting any better right now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MALVEAUX: Now more on the high-stakes political fight affecting your paycheck. President Obama is upping the ante in the standoff over extending the payroll tax cut. He goes before the cameras, the microphones. That's going to happen in the next hour.
He's going to be making his case, and he needs to. The clock is ticking. The payroll tax cut expires December 31st.
What does this mean? It means that higher taxes for 160 million Americans if there is no extension. For a family making $50,000 a year, it means $40 less in each paycheck, a figure the administration is really trying to hammer home.
Want to bring in our White House correspondent Dan Lothian.
Dan, this is fascinating, but at the same time very frustrating. We've seen this kind of stagecraft during the campaign, but this administration has taken it to a whole other level.
You have got the tax countdown clock, you have got the Twitter campaign. And now he's going to be bringing out families who potentially will be hurt by the tax increase.
What do we expect to hear from the president?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, you point out something that's very important here, that this is a big campaign from the White House. They realize that the message from the president is important, that putting out the spokesman or other administration officials to talk about the impact at letting this expire would have on middle class Americans, that, yes, that message would get out there, but it wouldn't have quite the impact of having some of the people there in the room standing next to the president sort of symbolizing their own personal stories.
And the White House, as you pointed out, through their blog, through Twitter, have reached out to the public. And so far, they say they've gotten more than 30,000 responses of people talking about what it would mean if, in fact, they lost $40 from a paycheck.
So, some of those folks will be there with the president. And it's a chance, again, for the president to continue to put a lot of pressure on House Republicans to get a deal done.
MALVEAUX: And Dan, obviously the House Republicans, they're fighting back. We just heard from the Speaker, John Boehner, who held a news conference explaining why a one-year extension is necessary.
I want you to listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOEHNER: A one-year bill provides on average about $1,000 for American workers, as opposed to the Senate bill, which would provide a measly $166. As importantly, a one-year bill would provide certainty for American employers as they begin to plan for next year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Dan, I assume the president is going to be addressing that in his statement. How does he respond to Boehner's argument?
LOTHIAN: Well, I think he'll respond this way -- is that everyone agrees that a one-year extension here, a one-year bill, is the way to go. The problem is, the White House points out, is that there's not enough time to get a one-year deal done.
And what you have on the table now is a two-month temporary extension that has been approved or passed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate. So now it's just simply up for House Republicans to buy on to this.
So I think you'll hear that message from the president. Yes, everyone agrees, we need one year, but we can't get it done. So let's do what we can do, and that is two months.
MALVEAUX: All right, Dan. We're going to get back to you very shortly as we watch and wait for the president to deliver his own campaign regarding this issue.
And presidential candidate Rick Santorum, he's saying now that both sides are wrong in the fight over extending the payroll tax cut. Santorum says that since the payroll tax helps fund Social Security, cutting it actually hurts the program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As someone who's been on the butt end of many attacks that Republicans don't care about Social Security, that Republicans are the ones that are trying to gut Social Security, Republicans are the ones that want to make sure -- are not going to be there to stand up and make sure that it's properly funded, and then we see Democrats out there trying to cut the payroll tax -- in other words, cut the funding for Social Security and say that if you don't do that, then you're not for middle income Americans, well, I thought Social Security was for middle income Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Santorum accuses President Obama of playing games with Social Security. He also says the president is trying to divide the country to win the election.
Well, here's a rundown of some of the stories up ahead.
First, 63 people killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad. We are live with new concerns about the country's stability there.
Then, Bank of America agrees to shell out more than $300 million to settle claims of discrimination against minority homeowners -- buyers, rather -- Countrywide.
Plus, presidential candidate Ron Paul loses his cool after CNN repeatedly questions him about racist comments in his old newsletter.
Also, former NFL players go after the league in a lawsuit, claiming it didn't do enough to protect players from brain damage.
And details now about the secretive Kim Jong-il and his son from the man who spent years cooking for him. You're going to hear from the so-called "Dear Leader's" personal chef.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: U.S. troops leave Iraq, and now this. Nine car bombs, six roadside bombs, and a mortar round rocked the capital, killing more than 60 people, wounding at least 185 others.
Our Arwa Damon, she is joining us live from Baghdad.
Arwa, this is the worst violence in Baghdad in quite a long time. And it comes just days after U.S. troops pulled out.
What does that mean about the state of Iraq?
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Suzanne, this really is the worst-case scenario for so many Iraqis. It's a nightmare that's unfolding in front of their eyes.
The type of violence that we saw taking place this morning, those explosions you mentioned there, all happening within two hours during rush hour, targeting mostly civilians, and completely at random. That is exactly what so many Iraqis were worried would take place once the U.S. withdrew. And that, coupled with this political crisis the country is going through, that is almost on the brink of seeing the government effectively collapse, is fueling fears amongst so many here that perhaps there could be more violence in the future, because at the end of the day, even though the violence might not be directly linked to the political crisis, we all know very well that political instability in this country does tend to lead to more bloodshed -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Arwa, do we know if anyone is claiming responsibility for these attacks?
DAMON: No, not at this stage just yet, although they do bear all of the hallmarks of al Qaeda, especially when it comes to the sophistication and the coordination that took place.
Another thing, too, for the Iraqi population that this is underscoring, though, is that it's raising this big question of, are the Iraqi security forces ready to protect the people if you can have 16 explosions in a single day, in a city where there's a checkpoint on every single street corner?
Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Arwa Damon, thank you.
Well, it's a welcome home kiss that's making history. Two female sailors just became the U.S. Navy's first gay couple to kiss after a ship's return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETTY OFC. 2ND CLASS MARISSA GAETA, U.S. NAVY: I feel good about it. It's nice to be able to be myself. It's been a long time coming.
I've been in for almost two-and-a-half years, and this is very recent, the change that has come into effect. And it's been nothing but positive, and so it's been pretty awesome, to say the least.
PETTY OFC. 3RD CLASS CITLALIC SNELL, U.S. NAVY: I think it's great that we can actually be open about our relationship since we both are in the military.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The crew of the Oak Hill and their loved ones bought raffle tickets for the first kiss opportunity.
Well, the Justice Department says that tens of thousands of black and Hispanic homeowners were discriminated against when they were sold costly supreme mortgages. Now Bank of America says it's going to pay for it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: In the largest settlement of its kind ever, Bank of America has agreed to pay $335 million in a case of alleged discrimination against borrowers, discrimination Countrywide allegedly engaged in before Bank of America bought it.
Alison Kosik, she's live at the New York Stock Exchange to explain this.
So, Alison, what does the Justice Department say that Countrywide actually did?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, Suzanne. What this federal investigation found was that Bank of America discriminated against hundreds of thousands of people during the housing boom. And these were minority borrowers -- Latinos and blacks. And they were actually steered to take out subprime loans. This, even though most of them actually qualified for prime loans.
And prime loans are cheaper because you can get these loans at a lower interest rate. So what wound up happening was the minority applicants paid tens of thousands of dollars more than they should have. And remember, it was the subprime loans that started the housing crisis in the first place -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And Alison, those homeowners who were sold the subprime loans, are they getting compensated?
KOSIK: They will. So the $335 million that you mentioned, that money is going to go to the victims. There's no word yet on how much each person will exactly get, or when, but that $335 million is going for 200,000 people.
So it winds up being about $1,700 per person. So, clearly, it's not enough to make up for everybody who lost their homes to foreclosure.
And at this point, you see what Bank of America is doing. It's trying to distance itself from this, saying that this discrimination, it happened before Bank of America bought Countrywide. And Bank of America says that it doesn't use Countrywide's practices.
Now, the housing market is still digging out from under that mess that the Justice Department says Countrywide helped cause. And it was just one of the issues responsible for the slow economic recovery that we've had in 2011. And now many of us are more than ready to say sayonara to a very tough economic year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK (voice-over): The recovery is slow.
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: -- at a rate that is both uneven across sectors and frustratingly slow.
KOSIK: Congress, deadlocked.
BOEHNER: The House cannot pass a bill that raises taxes on job creators.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: All 53 of us have informed the Speaker that his legislation was doomed in the Senate.
KOSIK: Europe, a mess. And Wall Street, occupied.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: We are the 99 percent!
KOSIK (on camera): The U.S. economy actually grew in 2011, but barely.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: Even as economic growth continues, we continue to face very substantial economic challenges.
KOSIK (voice-over): Challenges like the housing market -- home prices dropped about four percent -- and jobs. Over 13 million Americans are still out of work.
Politicians and business leaders search for solutions.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pass this bill.
Pass this jobs bill.
Pass this jobs bill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a balanced approach ultimately is what most businesspeople, most CEOs would like to see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, too, have to do something.
KOSIK (on camera): It's been a frustrating year for the U.S. economy, but it could have been worse. It could have been Europe.
(voice-over): Debt crises threatened the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, and others, leaving leaders scrambling to hold the eurozone together and save the common currency. And U.S. investors holding their breath.
(on camera): 2011 started with big gains for stocks. The Dow soared past 12,000, holding its own, while governments toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
(voice-over): But then Japan. The devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster threatened our fragile recovery.
And over this summer, Congress's debt ceiling stalemate pulled the rug out from under the market.
BOEHNER: We have a spending problem.
OBAMA: There are a lot of crises in the world that we can't always predict or avoid. This isn't one of those crises.
KOSIK: The Dow dropped 512 points on August 4th, another 630-plus points on August 8th, as S&P downgraded its rating on the United States. That left investors dizzy --
(on camera): -- and Americans angry. Some took to the streets. A fight for financial fairness began in September, here in New York's Zuccotti Park, and spread across the country.
(voice-over): Many sought retail therapy, the biggest Black Friday and Cyber Monday on record.
(on camera): The Dow recovered the summer's losses and has a chance to end the year in positive territory. Call it a little Christmas cheer at the end of an economic year to forget.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK: OK. So what do we have to look ford to economy-wise? Economists, they're predicting another year of, yes, slow growth in 2012. And the crisis in Europe, yes, that's going to continue to be a major concern.
But there are some positive indicators that have been out in recent weeks, specifically if you look at the jobs market, the housing market. And if some of those trends continue, then 2012, believe it or not, has a chance of being at least a little better than 2011 -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Oh, we're hoping. We're hoping for better here, Alison.
Have you done any Christmas shopping, any holiday shopping yet?
KOSIK: I did. I've done most of it. I have a little more.
I celebrate Hanukkah, so I kind of leave some of the last days to the last minute. Isn't that terrible?
MALVEAUX: I'm a last-minute gal myself. Haven't done any holiday shopping. But we know President Obama --
KOSIK: Oh, good luck to you.
MALVEAUX: Yes, thanks. We saw the president. He took a break from the political wrangling over the payroll tax cut extension, doing a little last-minute Christmas shopping. Last-minute himself.
He took the first dog Bo along with him. They were in Alexandria, Virginia. And they went to PetSmart. That's where Bo is allowed to roam. And he got a rubber chew toy and a large bone. Then it was on to Best Buy to pick up some games for Sasha and Malia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: In case you guys are wondering, "Just Dance" for the Wii. The girls beat me every time on these various dance games. So I'm going to -- and you guys will never get a picture of me doing it, because I get graded F every time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: When it came time to pay, the president joked about whether or not his credit card would still work. Fortunately, it did. That's a good sign.
All right. Take care, Alison.
KOSIK: I wouldn't want a camera to follow me around.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: Just a reminder, in less than an hour President Obama's holding a news conference concerning the payroll tax cut. Coverage starts at the top of the hour. We're going to bring you his remarks live.
Well, his poll numbers are up, but skeletons in Ron Paul's closet coming out again. We're going to take a hard look at the claims of racism being made against the candidate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.
Next, presidential candidate Ron Paul answers more questions about racist comments in his old newsletter and ends an interview with CNN over it.
Then, former NFL players sue the league over concussions they got on the football field.
And later, a $40,000 tuna, caviar from Iran, just some of the luxuries from the personal chef of North Korea's Kim Jong-il.
So you'd think it would be Ron Paul's time to shine. The presidential candidate is now surging in the polls right now in Iowa. Twenty-eight percent of the vote in the latest polling, and he is now beating out both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich going into the nation's first primary.
But it is the same treatment every candidate gets. With rising poll numbers comes heightened scrutiny and tough questions.
He's being asked again about racist statements in newsletters that were written under his name in the 1980s and '90s. Here's an example of one from an article criticizing President Reagan for signing legislation making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday.
His newsletter says, "We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."
Then there's another from 1992. "We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men. It is hardly irrational."
Our Ali Velshi asked Paul about the racist comments earlier this week, and Paul pushed back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: So I guess as you get closer to being president of the United States, folks will want to know that you don't really dislike black people and people with AIDS, and things like that. And I get what you're saying, that you're going up --
(CROSSTALK)
REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Excuse me. Why don't they concentrate on every word I've ever said, every speech I have ever given, every conference I've ever gone to, and maybe that's where -- maybe my beliefs are more important than, you know, stirring this up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, yesterday, CNN's Gloria Borger pushed the candidate on these newsletters again. This time, he answered and walked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: You know what the answer is? I didn't write them. I didn't read them at the time. And I disavow them. That is the answer.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: But you made money off of it?
PAUL: If you know I made money on it, you know more about my finances than I do.
BORGER: Do you know that you didn't? I mean --
PAUL: I don't even know what you're talking about. I mean, you know, if it was published for 10 years, so if that was one percent of all the newsletter I made money off, you know, talking about gold stocks. I think you're really confused on that.
BORGER: OK. Well, it's just a question. I mean, it's legitimate. It's legitimate. These things are pretty incendiary.
PAUL: Because of people like you.
BORGER: No, no, no. Come on. Some of this stuff was very incendiary. You know, saying that in 1993, the Israelis were responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Center, that kind of stuff.
PAUL: Good-bye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, is this going to matter to voters?
Joe Johns is live at the Political Desk in Washington.
And Joe, you and I have both covered Ron Paul. This does come up.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
MALVEAUX: It came up before when he was running for president before.
Do we think it's going to be any more damning this go-around?
JOHNS: Well, look, I mean, Ron Paul's damage control on this has been going on for years. It's because he has never completely put it to rest.
He has been able, as you saw, to get his denial out there, that he did not authorize these offending words, which is about all he can do. But the problem is that -- well, one of the problems is that there were people back in the day covering Ron Paul and a handful of other members of Congress. This is dating back to the mid 1990s.
He was one of the members who was sort of derisively involved in what has been referred to as the Black Helicopter Caucus on Capitol Hill, members of Congress, of whom Ron Paul was seen as one of the most outspoken, widely seen as supporting what you might call conspiracy theories of -- sort of having support of right wing militias even. These members were not afraid to espouse slightly over-the-edge rhetoric. So the notion that an edgy newsletter bearing Ron Paul's name being out there never surprised me. In fact, it was a little more surprising, I think, that he disavowed it starting around 2001 or so. That was something that was news to me, the fact that Ron Paul said he hadn't authorized those words, Suzanne.
So this is one of those things that you can expect to come up. But in the long run, I think what you can say is that a lot of people feel as though this question has already been asked and answered, and they've already made their decisions, I think, about Ron Paul in a lot of ways.
MALVEAUX: Yes. Do we think it's going to affect his popularity at all? He's rising in the polls, at least the top in Iowa. You have the caucuses just a couple of weeks away. Is it going to hurt him?
JOHNS: You know, I mean, think about it. There are people who have known Ron Paul's name really since the last time he ran. And this information was probably put in front of many of them in places like Iowa, places like South Carolina, what have you. There may be some people for whom this information is new, and that is the question, of how it will be received and whether they believe Ron Paul.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
JOHNS: You know, the critics of Ron Paul have already made their decision and are probably already ready to say, hey, he probably was in on this.
MALVEAUX: All right.
JOHNS: At the end of the day, let's watch the caucuses and see.
MALVEAUX: OK, fair enough.
Thanks, Joe.
Just a reminder, about 45 minutes, President Obama's holding a news conference concerning the payroll tax cut. Our coverage is starting at the top of the hour. We'll bring you his remarks live.
The U.S. says miscommunication was at the heart of the airstrike that killed 24 Pakistanis troops last month. Hear what the Pentagon says went wrong.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The Pentagon says it deeply regrets the airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani troops in November, calling it a result of inadequate coordination with the Pakistani military.
Barbara Starr is live on the details of the investigation.
How significant is this, Barbara? What went wrong?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Suzanne, there are both military and political implications to this, of course. The Pakistanis remain furious about all of it. They would like to see an apology from the United States from President Obama. That may not be anything you see any time soon, of course, because the president in the middle of a political season will be very cautious about appearing on camera offering any apologies for the United States. That's something the Republicans have, of course, criticized him for doing in the past.
Militarily, what are the implications? This is a situation where a fire fight went terribly wrong because neither side really knew what was going on. U.S. forces landed on the border of Afghanistan/Pakistan on the night of November 25th, came under fire, and called in fire back, not realizing that they were firing on Pakistani military positions. There was bad information, bad coordination, bad maps that led the Pakistanis to say, oh, well, you're firing where we think you're firing, that's about 14 kilometers away, we have no situation there. It turned out, of course, that U.S. troops were firing right on Pakistani military positions and didn't know it.
So this remains a very tense situation between both countries. Even though the investigation is done, look for some frosty feelings for some time to come.
MALVEAUX: All right. Barbara Starr, thank you.
So you see players get hit hard in football, right? Now former NFL players are suing the league. We'll look at their claim about the link between concussions and brain damage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: They're the videos we couldn't get enough of on YouTube. From talking babies to talking dogs, we've clicked on them over and over again.
Here's Jeanne Moos with the YouTube 2011 top-10 countdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The thing about YouTube videos is some you get --
UNIDENTIFIED BABY: Da, da, da, da.
MOOS: And some seem like gibberish.
(on camera): For instance, in this year's top-10 most viewed videos, the number five spot went to a very annoying cat.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: The number 10 spot went to a very adorable cat.
(voice-over): A mother cat hugging its kitten while the two of them take a cat nap.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: The number nine video was Volkswagen's Super Bowl video called "The Force."
Number eight was a cute 11-year-old Canadian singing Lady Gaga's hit.
(SINGING)
MOOS: Lady Gaga was so impressed she invited Maria Aragon (ph) to sing a duet in concert.
(SINGING)
MOOS: Number seven was a dance comedy video.
(SINGING)
MOOS: YouTube is the place if you want people to --
(SINGING) MOOS: At least 56 million people looked at the twin talking babies who seemed to understand each other perfectly.
UNIDENTIFIED BABY: Da, da, da, da, da.
MOOS: Adults enjoyed adding subtitles and nominating them for best foreign language film.
Comedy music videos were popular.
(SINGING)
MOOS: And we might as well acknowledge the number-one video that got over 180 million views.
(SINGING)
MOOS: OK, that's enough acknowledgment.
(on camera): But it's the video that came in at number two that's number one in my heart. Since it's my story, that's the one we're going to concentrate on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what the meat drawer is, right?
DOG (VOICE-OVER): Yes, what was in there?
MOOS: There is just something riveting about the talking dog being teased.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know that bacon that's like maple? Got maple flavoring?
DOG (VOICE-OVER): The maple kind, yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. So I took that out and I thought --
DOG (VOICE-OVER): Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- yes, so I took that out and I thought, I know who would like that. Me! So I ate it.
DOG (VOICE-OVER): Oh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW GRANTHAM, CREATOR, TALKING ANIMALS: It looks like he's getting his hopes up and then they're dashed. Then he gets his hopes up and they're dashed again.
MOOS: Former ad agency guy, Canadian, Andrew Grantham, now makes a living creating and voicing talking animals. People submit thousands of videos and he adds the dialogue.
(SINGING)
GRANTHAM: Wow.
MOOS: Andrew wouldn't say how much his advertising partnership with YouTube pays. But Clark, the dog, now has a Facebook fan page with a joke bacon tree and a bacon T-shirt.
If you're wondering --
DOG (VOICE-OVER): You kicked me.
MOOS: -- what he really said in dog speak.
(BARKING)
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
DOG (VOICE-OVER): Uh, oh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Those are some fun videos.
Day one of winter. Some spots in the west and southeastern United States getting hammered. Storm warnings are in effect in both places. They had some snowy scenes like these being repeated in, today, parts of Kansas.
What should you expect weather-wise as the holiday approaches? Chad Myers with the answers.
Hi, Chad. Is it going to be tough?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's more wet than white, surprisingly. We'll have a wet Christmas in a lot of the northeastern states, even here in Georgia. Could pick up a couple inches of rain today. And tornado watches and warnings are in effect. Warnings, tornado warnings. Doppler indicated potential tornadoes to the south of New Orleans, near Homa (ph). That is now gone. But another one that was just issued there for parts of Mississippi. You say how can there be tornadoes, it's wintertime. The first day of winter? Well, because it's so warm down here. Birmingham, Montgomery, Columbus, Atlanta, the temperature's almost 70 degrees. The sun popping out. Big storms are back off to the west.
It's part of the next system because there are cold, cold parts of the country and warm parts of the country separated by a significant jet stream. The jet stream does this. That allows the cold air to come down from the north. As the jet stream goes up over here, that allows the warm air to infiltrate the southeastern part of the U.S. It's very warm. Very wet outside. The humidity is very high. Even airports are getting a little bit slow. We're not seeing any airport slowdowns in the southeast yet. As the storms arrive, Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta will get slow later today.
One thing I can tell you, if you're coming through or to Atlanta on an airplane, if you can get here early than about 6:00 or get here and then make your connection or get here on an earlier flight without having to pay a lot of money, that would be the thing to do. By 8:00 or 9:00 tonight, with tornadoes in the air, around especially around western parts of Georgia and also Alabama and Mississippi, the airport will be very slow. You start to miss connections. When connections start to roll, all of a sudden, your 8:00, 9:00, there's no other plane to get on today. You have to sit the night in an airport. That's one thing you can do for yourself today if you're flying. Get out a little bit early.
That's what Atlanta looks like right now. The top of the buildings in the clouds. Airports still OK. You see the ground. We're not zero visibility here. The planes are doing OK now. It's the thunder storm activity. Planes can't fly through big storms. There could be turbulence. And they don't want to do that, especially when they get close to the ground -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: All right. I've got to get my ticket, get out of here.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: Where are you going?
MALVEAUX: Going to D.C. Got to get my ticket.
MYERS: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: Sure.
MALVEAUX: Well, you see players -- they get hit hard in football all the time. Now four former NFL players are suing the league. We're going to look at their claim about the link between concussions and brain damage.
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MALVEAUX: Four former NFL players have joined a long line of ex- players suing the league over head injuries. Retired Super Bowl champion running backs, Jamal Lewis and Dorsey Levens, along with Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart, filed suit in an Atlanta court on Wednesday claiming that the NFL downplayed the link between concussions and brain damage. Now we know football players, they expect to get hit.
I spoke with former NFL player and coach, Mike Ditka, about this back in February. Here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE DITKA, FORMER NFL PLAYER & COACH: Well, football is a violent game. People hit hard. You put a helmet on somebody and the helmet becomes a security blanket. People have no fear of striking with their head or striking in the head. The helmet provides protection for them. But when you also collide helmet to helmet, a lot of things can happen to the head and the brain. Basically, that's what's happened. You can't legislate hitting out of football because it is -- it is a physical sport.
MALVEAUX: The unwritten rule in football, if you can walk, you can play. These guys, they want to play, and how do you take them off the field when they're so motivated to be out there? Even, you know -- you were a coach yourself. The coaches are highly motivated to get those guys playing again.
DITKA: Yes. It has to be done by a doctor. The coach will want the player to play. The player will want to play. I had a concussion when I played in -- I played the whole game with it, but when I looked at the film, I don't remember one thing that happened in the game. But I played. I functioned. I played OK, but I don't remember any of it. I didn't remember a thing when I saw the film. So this can happen. But it's a macho thing to a degree. Players don't want to say, oh, you got your bell rung, or you got a dinger, or whatever they want to call it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Defense attorney and former prosecutor, Paul Callan, is joining us live from New York.
Do these football players, do they have a case?
PAUL CALLAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, it's hard to say. I think the biggest problem with their case, it's, a doctor and lawyer sometimes call it, assumption of the risk. What it means basically is that if you engage in risky behavior deliberately and voluntarily, you can't then turn around and say, gee, I've got the right to collect damages for it. Obviously, football players know that head injuries are a part of the game, that knee injuries are a part of the game. And this suit would sort of change that theory and say, you know, the NFL owners and the NFL itself owes them a duty and responsibility. I think it is an uphill battle, but a dangerous, dangerous suit for the NFL.
MALVEAUX: Do you think, Paul, this could lead to a class-action lawsuit? You've got a lot of guys out there who have been complaining about this for years now?
CALLAN: Well, it's interesting, Suzanne. I've been looking at the history of this litigation and this is not the first time this theory has been brought in court. 75 NFL players started a similar case in California. A suit was filed in Philadelphia. It remind me of the early days of the tobacco litigation where plaintiffs' lawyers were sort of circling around the tobacco companies, trying to come up with a theory that the court would sustain.
Because, bear in mind, if the court lets this go, there are 15,000 retired football players, many of them with injuries, life-long injuries, you could be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars in damages if a court allowed this suit to go forward.
MALVEAUX: Do you think that this could be extended to other sports as well?
CALLAN: Well, I think the two major sports that you are likely to see it be used in, of course, football and hockey -- are the two areas where I see the most damages in this area. Boxing would be another area.
But you know something? I think when the courts look at it, that's something judges are going to be conscious of. Really, if you try to sanitize and make sports totally safe, you're going to eliminate sports like football. How can you have a version of football where there isn't a substantial danger of injury? It is sort of the nature of the beast.
And I don't know. I think it is going to be a really troublesome case for any judge who looks at it, because on the other side of the equation, you've got some very seriously injured football players. Glamorous life when you're in the game, but when these guys are in their 50s and 60s, they don't look the same.
MALVEAUX: Do you think it could trickle down to other sports on a high school level a college level, as well, that take a second look at their programs and whether or not they would be able to be sued?
CALLAN: I think it will trickle down because if we go back to that example that I was using of the tobacco litigation, one of the problems that lawyers originally had was, if you sued one company, you didn't -- you had to be able to prove that the guy smoked Winstons or Marlboros or one brand all his life. Then they just sued every body. And in a case like this, they would have to sue the colleges, maybe even the high schools because these football players -- how do we know when they were injured? Maybe they started to get the brain injury in college or high school. Maybe then it was pushed over the edge in the NFL. So I think everybody who sponsors the game has an element of danger.
MALVEAUX: Thank you very much, Paul, for your perspective.
We reached out to the NFL about the matter. The league responded with this statement saying, "The NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league's actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions."
Tune in to CNN NEWSROOM at 1:00 eastern for more on this story. Ryan Stewart, one of the players involved in the lawsuit, is going to be live. We'll also be joined by the lead attorney in the case.
Kim Jong-il's former chef reveals secrets about the dictator's lavish lifestyle. He takes us behind the regime and gives inside information about the nation's new leader.
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MALVEAUX: South Korea's president is speaking out about the death of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. He expressed sympathy to the North Korean people but says the south has no animosity towards the north.
When the North Korean governor announced Kim Jong-il was being succeeded by his youngest son, there was a mad scramble to find out more about Kim Jong-un. We found someone with rare insight. That is the family's personal chef.
CNN's Anna Coren has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As North Korea mourns the loss of its Dear Leader, the world is anxiously waiting for his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to reveal what sort of successor he would be.
One man with a personal insight is Kenji Fujimoto. For 13 years, he worked as Kim Jong-il's personal chef, one of the few outsiders allowed in to this secretive and reclusive world.
KENJI FUJIMOTO, FORMER CHEF TO KIM JONG-IL: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
COREN: He says he was a sushi chef from Japan who would be invited to Kim Jong-il's private parties and drink with him. "He would ask me, do you like me? I would tell him, I love you, and kiss his cheek."
The two men shared had a passion for fine food. And while many North Korean were starving, Kim Jong-il would send Fujimoto around the world to buy ingredients for lavish dishes. He says he traveled to Iran for caviar, Denmark for pork, and Thailand for mangos and papaya.
"On a trip to Japan, I bought a whole tuna for $40,000 U.S.," he tells us. "I would do this trip a few times a year."
But while in Pyongyang, he spent time with the young Kim Jong-un, who he described in his 2005 memoir after defecting to Japan, as a chip off the old block, believing this teenager would one day succeed his father.
"He would always take the lead over his brothers," says Fujimoto. "He was always going to succeed his father."
(on camera): Kim Jong-un has inherited a country with nuclear capabilities, a cripple economy and a humanitarian crisis. The U.N. estimates one-quarter of the population is facing starvation.
And while many are concerned Kim Jong-un will follow in his father's footsteps, Fujimoto believes this Swizz-educated leader is worldly and very aware of what his country does not have. (voice-over): "I believe he is aiming at reform and open society," explains the chef. "He will look to China as an example so that the country can move forward."
While there are fears Kim Jong-un and those around him may act to prove his leadership, Fujimoto is hopeful he may bring stability to the Korean peninsula and lead his country out of the wilderness and into the international arena.
Anna Coren, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Stories making news across the country -- a dramatic violent crash ended in a 40-minute police chase in downtown Orlando. When you see the impact, it is amazing, the fact that everyone survived. Absolutely remarkable. Six people were injured, including the two burglar suspects that police were chasing.
To Arizona, where Tempe police say they dealt a huge blow to a notorious drug cartel. They arrested more than 200 people and seized almost $8 million, along with $12 million worth of drugs. They say it all began 15 months ago when a drug user was pulled over in an ordinary traffic stop.
And police were forced into some reindeer games in northern Ohio. Drivers had to avoid this reindeer as it strolled down the middle of the road. 911 calls poured in and an officer came to guide it out to safety.
