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Lou Dobbs Tonight
President Obama's 2010 Federal Budget; Stress Test Results; Specter's New Job
Aired May 07, 2009 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Wolf, thank you. Good evening everybody.
President Obama trumpeting a proposal that would cut his 2010 federal budget by $17 billion -- Republicans are among those who say the cuts would be a pittance and would have no impact on the president's $3.5 trillion spending plan.
Also tonight, more than 1,000 firefighters battling a dangerous raging wildfire in Santa Barbara, California -- thousands of people have been forced from their homes. Fire officials say high winds could make it even more difficult to control that fire.
And Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for taking a banned drug. Ramirez faces a pay cut of more than $7 million. But he'll still take home more than 17 million this year.
New concerns that hackers could gain access to our air traffic control system and force airliners to collide or crash. We'll have that special report.
We begin tonight with a political showdown over the president's $3.5 trillion federal budget. President Obama today delivered the results of a careful line-by-line search for savings in that budget -- the results of all of that scrutiny, that line-by-line examination, a reduction of $17 billion.
To put that in some perspective, it's about one half of one percent of the entire budget. President Obama declared the savings are quote "a lot of money" outside of Washington. Jill Dougherty reports from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The cuts President Obama wants are sure to annoy both parties. Conservatives, by eliminating the Pentagon's F-22 Raptor fighter jet saving 2.9 billion. Liberals, by ending the educational program even start saving $66 million. Ending or reducing 121 programs would total $17 billion in savings.
BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For every dollar we seek to save, there will be those who have an interest in seeing it spent. That's how unnecessary programs survive year after year, that's how budgets swell. DOUGHERTY: House Republicans say they've heard this song before.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), MINORITY LEADER: They're the same cuts that were proposed by President Bush that Congress, the Democratic Congress chose to ignore.
DOUGHERTY: Senator John McCain calls the cuts important, but he wants more.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: What I'd really like to see from the president is just an open statement saying I will veto any bill that comes -- appropriations bill that comes across my desk with a single earmark on it.
DOUGHERTY: The president's proposed cuts are just one half of one percent of a total budget of $3.6 trillion.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Seventeen billion dollars is a lot of money to people in America. I understand that -- I understand it might not be to some people in this town, but that's probably why we're sitting on a $12 trillion American Express bill.
DOUGHERTY (on camera): Percentage wise these cuts may be small, but President Obama says none of this will be easy. His aides say you've got to start somewhere, but they've got a pretty big hole to dig out of.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: The president says $17 billion is a lot of money. The savings, however, are less than half the size of the budget cuts proposed by President George Bush last year. President Bush wanted Congress to agree to cuts of 34 billion, but lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans supported by lobbyists and special interest blocked nearly all of those cuts.
The Obama administration tonight releasing a so-called stress test on this country's 19 largest banks -- federal officials say the test found that the nation's financial system is recovering. But 10 of those leading banks still require additional money, another $75 billion in new capital, also a lot of money. Ed Henry reports from the White House. Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, senior officials here acknowledge there's a lot of anger out there about the various bailouts, skepticism about the stress tests, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner believes that transparency is the key, and the fact that government regulators were able to go in and take a close look at the health of these 19 banks he thinks in the long run will be good.
The results are in, as you noted, nine of these 19 have enough capital according to the government to survive over the course of the next two years weather anymore storms, but 10 of these 19 banks need a collective $75 billion to stay afloat. Here's the Treasury secretary explaining why he thinks in the long run this will work out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: Our hope is that with these actions today, banks are going to be able to get back to the business of banking. The leaders of our nation's banks -- the leaders of our nation's banks have a lot to do to earn back the public's trust. And to do that, we want to see them working hard in their communities, making the loans to businesses and consumers that are going to be so important to economic recovery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: That's a big numbers for some of these banks. Bank of America, for example, according to the government needing $33.9 billion over the course of the next couple of years to make sure their balance sheets add up; Wells Fargo, $13.7 billion; GMAC, the auto finance giant, $11.5 billion; and Citigroup, $5.5 billion. Now Treasury Secretary Geithner insists that he's confident that this money could be raised through private capital.
But obviously taxpayers have heard that before. There's still a lot of skepticism out there. And in fact the Treasury secretary said if this private capital can't be raised, the government will step in, meaning another bailout, Lou.
DOBBS: Absolutely. Ed, let me ask you, laughter as the Treasury secretary was talking, that's rather a peculiar form.
HENRY: I think it was a very quick photo op. I was not in the room for that, but my experience with these is that it seemed to be just more sort of noise and chatter, some confusion because the press was being led in very quickly, and then being pulled out very quickly. He just gave a very short statement, so it might have just been some of the hullabaloo on the way in and the way out, not necessarily Lou -- not necessarily laughter.
DOBBS: All right, thank you very much. Ed Henry, we appreciate it from the White House.
Former colleague of the Treasury secretary at the New York Federal Reserve Steven Friedman has abruptly resigned tonight. Friedman was chairman of the New York Fed's Board of Directors. Geithner was president before he joined the Obama administration. Friedman's departure follows criticism of possible conflicts of interest with his links between Goldman Sachs and his role at the New York Fed.
Last year, the New York Fed chaired by Friedman gave Goldman Sachs, his former firm, approval to become a bank holding company. When that decision was made, Friedman was also sitting on Goldman's board and had a large holding in Goldman.
The economy tonight showing more signs of improvement -- retailers reporting better than expected sales in April. Overall, sales at Wal-Mart and other retails up -- other retailers up just a little over one percent. Industry analysts had predicted a decline in sales. And the number of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits declined sharply this week; those claims at the lowest level in more than three months.
Just over 600,000 people filing initial jobless claims last week. That's down 34,000 from the previous week.
New developments tonight in the political drama over Republican turn Democrat Senator Arlen Specter. Yesterday the Democratic leadership decided not to recognize his almost three decades of seniority in the Senate. Today, those very same Democratic leaders reversed course and then gave Senator Specter the chairmanship of at least a subcommittee. Dana Bash has our report from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What a difference a day makes. Just yesterday, Democrats had stripped Arlen Specter of his seniority, made him the most junior senator on all committees. Now, the Republican turned Democrat has the gavel back.
Democrat Dick Durbin offered Specter his post as chairman of a key subcommittee that wills power over the Justice Department. In a Capitol hallway where cameras aren't allowed, Specter told reporters he's relieved.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Let me just say I'm glad to be chairman of the subcommittee.
BASH: So why the surprising turnaround? Privately senior Democratic sources tell CNN, it's an attempt to clean up a political mess. The public's spat between Specter and Democratic leader Harry Reid -- Specter accusing Reid of breaking a promise.
SPECTER: The seniority issue was committed to me by Senator Reid.
BASH: One senior Democratic source told CNN that Democratic leaders decided it's best to make amends with Specter, especially with upcoming hearings on a Supreme Court nominee. The last thing we want is a disgruntled Democrat at the end of the dais, said the source.
And Specter got another political boost. Popular former Republican Governor Tom Ridge who has been flirting with the idea of running for Specter's seat announced he would not.
(on camera): It has been a rocky first week of marriage for Arlen Specter and the Democrats, but when it comes to the raw politics, Specter is now a Democratic senator from the swing state of Pennsylvania. And Democratic leaders want to keep that seat. Specter insists getting some of his power back here in Congress will help. Lou?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Quite a drama. Thank you very much, Dana Bash from Capitol Hill.
One day after the president met with the Pakistani president, the Pakistani military is promising to escalate its offensive against radical Islamist terrorists the Taliban. As many as 15,000 Pakistani troops are already fighting Taliban in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan.
Military commanders say they will deploy even more troops. However, some critics say those reinforcements will do very little to stop the spread of Taliban influence in Pakistan. Professor Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University will be among those giving us his assessment here in the broadcast.
Also a warning that computer hackers are gaining access to our air traffic control systems and could crash aircraft and thousands of people fleeing a dangerous wildfire that has already burned dozens of homes in California.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: There's a scathing new report tonight, warning of the vulnerability of our nation's air traffic control system. The report by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General found that the FAA's computers have been breached by hackers in recent months. And the report also warns there could be more cyber attacks ahead. Lisa Sylvester has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2006, a cyber viral attack spread from the Internet to the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control system forcing the FAA to shut down part of its operations in Alaska. In 2008, hackers took control of the FAA's critical network servers and had the power to shut them down.
They also obtained tens of thousands of FAA employee user ID's and passwords. And three months ago cyber attackers gained unauthorized access to personal information of 48,000 current and former FAA employees. These are among the findings of a troubling new report by the Inspector General of the Transportation Department. One IT security expert says the hackers are getting smarter.
TOM KELLERMAN, CORE SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES: There is a very robust and highly sophisticated hacker community out there in the world that is targeting these types of critical infrastructures for various nefarious gains.
SYLVESTER: The Inspector General's office and its auditor, KPMG, identified 763 high-risk vulnerabilities. The report states quote "in our opinion unless effective action is taken quickly, it is likely to be a matter of when, not if air traffic control systems encounter attacks that do serious harm to ATC operations."
The FAA in response says quote "there were some vulnerabilities in the administrative network that were pointed out, we put patches in, and we're continuing to work on them." While the FAA's operations system has been affected, an FAA spokeswoman insists it is separate from the administrative system and has never been directly hacked. But congressional members are worried because a modernized FAA system is coming online in a few years, and the two systems would be linked.
REP. TOM PETRI (R), WISCONSIN: We have all kinds of guards just to try to guard against passengers and goods as they're moved through the system. But we need to do a better job of guarding the system itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: And here's another problem, the Inspector General report found that the FAA is not well-positioned to even detect breaches. There are only 11 out of 734 air traffic facilities that have sensors to monitor intrusions. Lou?
DOBBS: And Lisa, making this even more troubling than that is the fact that we have seen cyber attacks against the Pentagon, Congress, and all over the federal government. There doesn't seem to be a response on the part of this administration or certainly the previous.
SYLVESTER: Yeah, you are absolutely right. I mean this is a critical problem that many experts who -- and the information technology field and there are some folks on Capitol Hill who have also raised essentially the alarm that this is a huge problem. And that if ever we are in a situation of warfare that it really could be used by our enemies against the United States to bring down critical infrastructure, Lou.
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester from Washington.
The facts described in Lisa Sylvester's report on the attack against the FAA's computers is featured in a scenario in this season of the fictional television series "24". Tonight the actor who plays Agent Jack Bauer has turned himself into police in lower Manhattan. Kiefer Sutherland is charged with third-degree misdemeanor assault for head-butting a well-known fashion designer at a party earlier this week.
Sutherland reportedly injured Jack McCollough after the head butt that -- when the designer bumped into actress Brooke Shields and Sutherland stepped in. Sutherland is, by the way, already serving a five-year probation for two drunk-driving convictions.
Another huge embarrassment for Major League Baseball -- Manny Ramirez of the record-setting Los Angeles Dodgers has been suspended for 50 games. He tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and Casey Wian has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a baseball saying, Manny being Manny, way to explain the often odd behavior of one of the greatest hitters in history, but the news that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug seems to defy explanation. In a statement released by the Players' Association, Ramirez said "recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately the medication was banned under our drug policy. I'm sorry about this whole situation."
Ramirez helped revitalize a struggling baseball franchise, leading the Dodgers to a division championship last year and to a major league record 13 straight home wins to start this season. Ramirez was one of the few sluggers in recent baseball history not tainted by steroids or other banned substances. Now he joins a long list of players with Hall of Fame statistics who have scarred the national pastime and used ignorance as an excuse.
ALEX RODRIGUEZ, NEW YORK YANKEES: I didn't think they were steroids. I mean that's again part of being young and stupid.
DAVID CARTER, SPORTS BUSINESS GROUP: I think the fans are rather complicit in the entire situation. They talk a big game about how they don't like to see performance-enhancing drugs, but they still buy a ticket. They still tune in.
WIAN: Even the White House weighed in.
GIBBS: It's a shame. My sense is it's a great embarrassment on Major League Baseball.
WIAN: Major League Baseball lists 88 substances as banned performance-enhancing drugs. Neither the union nor Major League Baseball disclosed which banned substance Ramirez took. ESPN citing two sources reports Ramirez tested positive for a female fertility drug commonly taken as part of a steroid-using cycle.
The Dodgers' left fielder says he's been advised not to say anything more for now. During his suspension Ramirez will lose $7.7 million of his $25 million salary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: For the team paying that salary, it's a huge loss. The Dodgers have been marketing Ramirez heavily on billboards all over town, and just last week they named a portion of Dodger stadium Manny Wood (ph). The team says they'll welcome Manny back after his suspension, Lou.
DOBBS: Of course, all right, Casey. Thank you very much, Casey Wian.
A nationwide manhunt for a killer -- tonight his family is pleading that he turn himself in to authorities and wildfires in California, thousands of people are being evacuated, their homes burning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: The family of a suspected killer in Middletown, Connecticut is pleading for the man to turn himself in. A nationwide manhunt is underway for 29-year-old Stephen Morgan. Police say Morgan walked into a bookstore cafe, two blocks from the Wesleyan University campus yesterday. He was wearing a disguise, a wig. He shot 20-year- old student Johanna Justin-Jinich eight times killing her.
Police say the suspect and the victim knew each other. The victim had filed a harassment suit against Morgan in 2007 when they were both in a summer program at New York University. Justin-Jinich later dropped that suit. Investigators tonight say they have evidence that Morgan may be targeting Wesleyan University and the Jewish community. There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Police in California tonight say they're following a new lead in the kidnapping of 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez. Police will not say specifically what they know about this new lead, but they say they have received a number of tips. Briant's mother says armed men burst into her home in San Bernardino, California Sunday, tying up her family and herself.
She says the men stole money and left with 3-year-old Briant. And they warned the family not to call the police. One theory that authorities are investigating is that the Spanish-speaking kidnappers were from Mexico and have ties to Mexican drug cartels.
Other stories we're following here tonight -- a raging wildfire spreading across Santa Barbara. The fire has destroyed dozens of homes and forced more than 13,000 people to evacuate. A fire captain says the fire is uncontrolled. Firefighters are using everything in their arsenal, including helicopters, planes, almost 200 fire engines to battle that fire, 10 firefighters have already been injured.
In Maryland, a natural gas explosion caught on fire truck cameras -- the Fire Department receiving a report of a gas leak and evacuated the building. Shortly after that, as you see here, the building simply exploded. Eight firefighters and a gas company employee injured in the explosion. Those injures include second-degree burns and injures from falling cinder blocks. No one fortunately was killed.
In Florida, a grandmother stopped road rage by pulling out her gun. This reenactment shows how it all happened. A car tailgated the 67-year-old woman, Patricia Cowan (ph) and her husband. They pulled over to let the car pass.
The occupants cursed at them and made obscene gestures as they went by. The car then went in front of the Cowan's (ph) car and repeatedly slammed on the brakes. When the two cars were side by side, the occupants of the other car once again cursed at them and made obscene gestures. That time, Patricia pulled out her gun, a nine-millimeter Glock.
The other car decided it would back off. Police say she never pointed the gun at the other car. That she has a concealed weapons license. The other driver tonight says he won't press charges. We don't know what she's going to do.
In West Virginia, a woman won more than $100,000 in the lottery. It's her fifth lottery win just since last September. That is why you see her smiling so broadly. Brenda Bailey (ph) said she never bought lottery tickets before, but after storms caused flooding at her home and business, she decided to try one. She won $10,000.
In January she tried again, she won $1,000. A couple of months later she won another $1,000, and then won $50,000. Her five winning tickets -- she's made more than $167,000 doing something she had never done before.
President Obama's proposed budget cuts, the results of the so- called stress test on banks and good news on our economy, what that means for middle class America. And rising controversy tonight over whether GED exams in Spanish, well, do they actually help students demonstrate proficiency in English by testing in Spanish?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Here again Mr. Independent, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Joining me now Amity Shlaes. She's senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations -- Amity, good to have you with us. She's also the author of the best-selling book, "The Forgotten Man: A new History of the Great Depression". And David Malpass -- he's president of Encima Global, an economic research and consulting firm -- David, good to have you with us.
Well Amity, we've got a stress test, we've got results, and all that is required is another 75 billion for 10 banks. Should investors, depositors, everyone in this country sort of breathe a sigh of relief that it's over?
AMITY SHLAES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Yes, we should breathe a sigh of relief that it's over. But it's a disquieting idea that nobody is allowed to fail, Lou. We're not all cardiology patients. We're not middle aged males who need to survive (INAUDIBLE). Some of those banks should fail.
DOBBS: Watch it with the metaphors here now, come on...
SHLAES: Some of those banks should fail, otherwise we'll be like Japan, Lou, and they didn't have growth for a long, long time because they kept their zombie banks alive.
DOBBS: Are these zombie banks, David?
DAVID MALPASS, PRES., ENCIMA GLOBAL: There are a lot of bad loans still in some of the banks. The FDIC will be taking quite a few over, meaning hundreds before we're done with it. But I do think that -- well, I think the stress test was a mistake to begin with. But it's good that it's done and we can move on to other things.
Remember the regulators, the federal government has loaned hundreds -- thousands of people who do regulation to banks. So they always had it in their power to do what's come out of the stress test. So to me it was a bit of a waste of time and money.
DOBBS: And time critical as was the money, of course. Because the FDIC, for example, the Federal Reserve itself all have as you suggest within their power the ability to deal with this crisis. We've heard nothing for a period from September of 2008 until the transition was completed with the inauguration of the president. This year, we heard so much negative talk about our markets, about the economy.
Is it surprising that we have such a downturn?
SHLAES: It wasn't just the talk, there was the content. But now it's time to move past it. You almost wish President Obama would just blame President Bush a little bit more and then say we're really in a hard time now, deficits very high, over 10 percent of GDP, but we can move forward. Time to move past it.
DOBBS: Well, are we moving past it when we put together, as the Obama administration has done, a $3.6 trillion budget for 2010, and then actually goes before the American people with a straight face? Every member of his administration on camera today with straight faces talking with great pride that they'd cut $17 billion from it.
MALPASS: Yes, that was a little odd and not real straightforward. I would have rather had more what Amity is saying about blame the past and find -- and admit that the budget is a disaster. And then try to find ways to move forward.
I do think it's going to be hard. It's going to be a grind. Because the unemployment rate is already 8.5 percent. We'll see a new number tomorrow morning. And there's -- it's still 600,000 people every week having to file for jobless claims. So I don't think we can say, oh, that was just a bad nightmare in the past and then jump on beyond it.
It's going to take quite a few months, maybe a year to really get past this.
DOBBS: We have seen, as these things go, two or three weeks does not make a trend. But the fact is, each week as initial jobless claims have declined successively, unemployment in this country right now if one looks at those who are working part-time who want full-time jobs, discouraged workers.
We're talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of over 20 million Americans without work. This is not approaching, obviously, depression standards by any means. Is it -- do you think now appropriate to say that the prospects of depression, which was used in rhetoric by both this administration and the previous, is now at an end appropriately?
SHLAES: It's now diminished. And one reason it is, you know, as Jamie Dimon said, it's a scarlet letter to take government money from the TARP for his bank. It's time for banks to begin to recover themselves. And I view that as an indicator of the very beginning of the beginning of recovery. When the private sector says we're going to talk back now, Lou, and we're going to lead this recovery. It's not just the government. So when you hear -- start to hear that from banks and companies, it's springtime.
DOBBS: We'll take springtime, economically. Your thoughts, sir.
MALPASS: I think the depression talk was part of the capitulation phase which took the markets to a very low bottom. And it should have been corrected by both administrations saying, look, things are bad, but it's not like that. And they didn't do enough correcting, the real pessimists, and saying we're going to move through it.
DOBBS: Very quickly for all of our viewers, recovery likely the second half of this year?
MALPASS: I think we'll be in positive growth, but it won't feel, it won't feel nearly enough. Remember, in 2003, they called it a jobless recovery. I'm afraid we're going to be in for a grind here.
SHLAES: The more the private sector is involved, the better the quality of the recovery.
DOBBS: Amity Shlaes, thank you very much. David Malpass, thank you.
MALPASS: Thank you.
DOBBS: And we'd like to know what you think. Here's our poll question tonight. On an entirely different subject. Well, not entirely. "Are you outraged that you are expected to tighten your belt in this difficult economy and make tough choices, while Washington goes on a spending binge unprecedented in American history?"
Yes or no? Cast your vote at Loudobbs.com. We'll have the results here later.
General Motors, which has received $15 billion in taxpayer bailout money, hosting a sales event at a luxury resort in Phoenix, Arizona. The two-day event ended today. General Motors picked up the tab for about 500 specially invited client guests.
The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort. There you see it, it boasts two golf courses, four pools, a 17,000 square foot spa. One wouldn't want a spa to be less than that. A GM spokesman said the event was scaled back. No free golf time, no free spa services.
GM declining to (INAUDIBLE) the cost of the event. And GM has until June 1st to cut debt and gain union concessions or face bankruptcy. And in Washington, D.C., lots of people criticizing General Motors.
I have some counsel for those criticizing General Motors. Remember the pizza that President Obama sent the aide all the way to the Midwest to get the chef back and the ingredients so that they could cook? You know things are not exactly as steer in Washington when we're talking about a $3.6 trillion budget for our government either.
Maybe it's time to get a little positive. Relax a little bit. Let General Motors recover, let Ford do its thing. Oh, that's right, Ford doesn't have to account to the president.
Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick under fire tonight for a program that gives free cars to offer recipients at taxpayer expense. The state of Massachusetts is handing out 65 cars despite its budget deficit of more than $900 million.
Massachusetts also picking up the cost of the insurance, the repairs, even AAA memberships. The total cost, about $6,000 a year.
Massachusetts state officials say the program was designed to help get people get back to work. They admit about 20 percent of those who received the cars end up back on welfare. They don't, by the way, have to return the cars, that would be unseemly.
A testing center in New Jersey's largest city wants to be first in the state to exclusively offer GED exams all in Spanish. Teachers at the Newark center say taking the test in Spanish helps students learn English. Opponents of the plan aren't so sure.
Ines Ferre has our report from Newark, New Jersey.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this development center in Newark, New Jersey, adults take English as a second language classes to help them assimilate to the U.S. way of life. But next month, the center will be the first to administer high school equivalency exams or GEDs in Spanish only.
RAYMOND OCASIO, LA CASA DE DON PEDRO: The ability to take the test in Spanish allows them to not repeat subject matter that they've had before, and concentrate on their English.
FERRE: The center says it was approached by New Jersey's Department of Education to give the test in Spanish. Since 1990, the Latino population in Newark's Essex County has grown by 46 percent. For $50, students take a direct translation of the test in math, social studies, science, reading and writing.
Then an additional multiple choice portion in English fluency. New Jersey is one of only three states that requires a section on English fluency.
(On camera): Critics say that one of the chief problems of administering the GED in Spanish only at centers like this is that it just doesn't encourage assimilation.
(Voice-over): Those who pass receive a New Jersey state high school diploma which advocates of English as the official U.S. language oppose.
ROB TOONKEL, U.S. ENGLISH: What this is, it is a substitute. It says, well, you passed everything, you passed it in Spanish, but we're going to kind of hide that fact. So I don't believe it's equivalent at all.
FERRE: The American Council on Education which creates the GED tests began offering a Spanish version in 1969. It's also available in French, a version used primarily by Canadians.
Last year, nearly 568 million federal tax dollars were spent on adult education in the U.S., including GED preparation. Of the more than 700,000 candidate who took the test in 2007, over 28,000, about 4 percent, took it in Spanish, with California administering the highest number followed by Texas, Puerto Rico, and New York.
Ines Ferre, CNN, Newark, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: The New Jersey center begins registering students to take the GED in Spanish later this month. Officials expect to administer the test to at least ten students a month.
The Obama administration says it will hold a Spanish language town hall meeting to discuss the swine flu outbreak. A labor secretary, Hilda Solis, and other officials will take questions about efforts to control the outbreak.
The town hall meeting will take place in Washington tomorrow afternoon. And it'll be Web cast on the White House Web site. The Spanish language network Univision is cohosting the event.
There are new charges tonight against the left-wing activist group ACORN. We've reported here extensively on the investigations into ACORN's efforts to fraudulently register voters.
Seven ACORN employees in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania today were charged with forgery and election law violations. Earlier this week the state of Nevada charged ACORN and two of its former employees on felony voter registration charges.
ACORN's CEO, Bertha Lewis, on this broadcast denied ACORN is being investigated anywhere in the country. But as we reported, ten states are now investigating voter registration tactics of ACORN. ACORN did not respond to our request for comment on these latest charges.
Gun control advocates trying to restrict sales at gun shows. The latest effort by Congress to curtail Second Amendment rights.
And Pakistan preparing to escalate its military offensive against the Taliban. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: Pakistan is preparing to escalate its military offensive against the Taliban. The Taliban controlled areas of the country expanding. The critics say the Pakistani offensive is too late. And the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons are in doubt.
Joining me now is Professor Fouad Ajami. Professor Ajami is professor of Middle East studies at John Hopkins University. Author of the very important book "The Foreigner's Gift." And it's great to have you with us.
PROF. FOUAD AJAMI, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Thank you very much, Lou.
DOBBS: The situation -- and I think to some degree it's mitigated a bit in this country by the presence of -- the presidents of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and meeting with the president. The situation's deteriorating rather rapidly in Pakistan.
AJAMI: Yes, but we should not underestimate the strength of the Pakistani army or the state, or the Pakistani state. You know it's said that all countries have armies in Pakistan, the army has a country. This is a very formidable army.
And I think in the end, when the fight is on between the army and the fundamentalists, the army shall prevail. And the middle class in Pakistan will be behind this army. I think we shouldn't exaggerate the panic.
What has happened in Pakistan -- the army has been reluctant to take the fight to the militants. Once the army...
DOBBS: Why?
AJAMI: Well, because it's -- in many way ways, this has to do with the fact that Pakistani political culture has changed. The country has become much more religious, much more fundamentalists. The army is implicated in a lot of this. And the struggle in Afghanistan has filled into Pakistan.
I mean these two have become one theater, hence the remark about Afpakia, they have become one country. But I think the army will fight for its existence. It will fight for its primacy. And I think once it does...
DOBBS: There are those -- there are those, as you know, who suggest that the other part of this binary relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, that President Karzai has lost his ability to lead effectively. Do you agree with that assessment?
AJAMI: Well, look, we run the horses that are there. I mean there is Karzai in Afghanistan and there is Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan. Maybe they are not the strongest leaders possible, but they are democratically elected. And we play them.
For example, now, to go back to the Pakistani theater. For a while we were toying with the idea that perhaps we should play king maker and we should try to privilege Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister.
DOBBS: Right.
AJAMI: A rival of President Zardari. We can't play that game. We can't become king makers in Pakistan, and we can't become king makers in Afghanistan.
DOBBS: So we're doing at least that, no matter what else anyone says?
AJAMI: Look...
DOBBS: We're doing at least that right.
AJAMI: I think we've now -- we have come to the conclusion that we play with the leaders who are on the team.
DOBBS: You talked about the Pakistani military's strength. It is one of the largest in the world. But most of those forces are irate against India.
AJAMI: Right.
DOBBS: Their historic rival enemy. That would require much to reallocate those resources in the direction of the Taliban, would it not?
AJAMI: It would. And I don't see the Pakistani army happily doing so. I mean this is -- these are the twins, India and Pakistan. And for many people in Pakistan, the partition of India, the partition of the subcontinent and still there is unfinished business.
There is Kashmir contested between the two countries. 80 percent of the Pakistani army is on the border with India. And that's, again, what they've trained for that war and they've trained for that standoff with India.
DOBBS: We're hearing little discussion of the Chinese interest in all of this. And we know very well that there are new and some would say completely outrageous claims by the Chinese government on Indian territory.
What is the Chinese interest here? What is its likely role?
AJAMI: I think everyone would be very reluctant to get tangled up and to be drawn into Pakistan. I mean I don't see -- I see the Chinese essentially as a status co-power. Yes, they will, in many ways, try to intimidate the Indians here or there on the margins, but the Chinese have nothing to gain in this.
And we ourselves are even reluctant to be drawn into Pakistan. We understand that to be drawn into that theater, 170 million people, a complicated country with complicated ethnicities, it's a no-win proposition, but we can't disengage. That's our dilemma.
DOBBS: Professor Ajami, as always, instructive, illuminating. Thank you, sir.
AJAMI: Thank you.
DOBBS: Coming up at the top of the hour, "NO BIAS, NO BULL." Roland Martin in for Campbell Brown. Roland?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Lou, tonight, two big breaking news stories right now. Former cop Drew Peterson has been arrested in Illinois tonight in connection with the death of his third wife. We'll have the latest.
Also, a nationwide manhunt's going on right now for the suspect in the murder of a Wesleyan University student in Connecticut. We'll have a live report from there.
Plus we're on the ground in Pakistan as that government's military steps up its offensive against the Taliban. We'll tell you what that could mean for the United States.
Also, Lou, a provocative story out of Miami. A Catholic priest with a huge following now at the center of a scandal involving his relationship with a young woman. The story has a lot of folks asking, is it time for priests to be allowed to marry?
We'll get into all of that at the top of the hour.
DOBBS: Roland, look forward to it, thank you.
A new effort tonight to pass legislation that would, some say, curtail our Second Amendment right. A House bill would further regulate sales at some gun shows. The Senate considering a similar measure. Both bills could have a chilling impact. And it would do, some say, almost nothing to prevent criminals from obtaining guns.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gun shows are in the cross hairs of Congress. Representatives McCarthy from New York and Castle of Delaware have introduced legislation in the House narrowing a bill introduced in the Senate last month by New Jersey senator Lautenberg.
The goal, closing what is called the gun show loophole.
REP. MIKE CASTLE (R), DELAWARE: We need to make sure that only people who should have firearms actually have them in the United States of America.
TUCKER: Currently, anyone buying a gun from a licensed gun dealer must undergo a background check. A person buying a gun from an individual, an unlicensed dealer, doesn't.
Gun owners say these are small transactions, which often involve a name of selling his or her gun to another neighbor, which is a legal transaction. And there, the gun control groups say, is the loophole.
PETE HELMKE, BRADY CAMPAIGN: Because they aren't required to do a background check, felons and other dangerous people get guns.
TUCKER: But that's not true, counter people who support gun on the right. They argue that dangerous people don't buy guns at gun shows, they buy them illegally. And what evidence they do have supports their argument.
A report from the Department of Justice back in 2001 said less than 1 percent of criminals they've interviewed had obtained their guns at a gun show. One noted FBI researcher and law enforcement consultant says his own experience over 20 years backs up that finding.
EDWARD DAVIS, FMR. FBI INVESTIGATOR: The people that I actually interviewed, the killers and the assaulters, specifically stated that they would never go to a gun show to purchase a gun.
TUCKER: Across the country in California, gun owners are fighting what they see as some of the more restrictive gun laws on the books. The Second Amendment Foundation, along with other groups, is suing to change those laws.
ALAN GOTTLIEB, SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION: The current makeup in the California legislature is not friendly to gun owners. And as a result, getting anything through that might rectify any of the bad laws we've got in California is not going to happen. It's going to take court action.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And speaking of the courts, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT has learned that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which said the Second Amendment does apply to California will be appealed at the Supreme Court by the gun show owners who brought the suit.
While they are pleased with the Second Amendment part of the ruling, they were not happy that the court ruled that the state of California does have the right to restrict gun shows on public property. So they want to take this up to court and see if they'll clarify it, Lou.
DOBBS: All right. Thank you very much, Bill Tucker.
Well, the race for a vaccine against the swine flu under way. The World Health Organization says two billion people could eventually be infected.
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DOBBS: The World Health Organization tonight says the number of swine flu infections worldwide stands at 2,000. But the WHO adds a stark warning. The number of infections could reach two billion should swine flu strengthen later this year.
Joining me now from Washington is Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Doctor, good to have you with us.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Good to be here, Lou.
DOBBS: The -- these numbers seem extraordinarily small, if I may, given the fact we know in Mexico that, at least anecdotally, the health authorities there believe that the swine flu was far more wide spread than that.
FAUCI: Yes. And what is going on right now is they're trying to get our arms around the total number of people that were -- that are infected, are being infected, in Mexico, because we may be seeing the tip of the iceberg because what comes to the attention of health authorities, generally, particularly in a place like Mexico, would be the serious cases and the people who get hospitalized and die.
But it is likely that we're not sure at this point that the denominator as we call it is a much, much larger group.
DOBBS: The denominator being the number of people infected...
FAUCI: The number of people that are infected, right.
DOBBS: We know that the number -- the number of deaths in Mexico, I believe, approximately 150...
FAUCI: Right.
DOBBS: ... which would be an extraordinarily high fatality rate, mortality rate. If we don't have a solid understanding, as you say, of the denominator.
FAUCI: Right.
DOBBS: That is, the total number of people who have been infected.
FAUCI: Correct.
DOBBS: Will we soon have that?
FAUCI: Well, I'm not so sure we're going to get that. The Mexican health authorities are trying to get a better feel for what's going on. But if you look in our own country which is still in a dynamic state in the sense that we can't make any definitive projections about where this is going, it appears to be acting like a typical seasonal flu. Only it is out of season.
We shouldn't be seeing this much influenza. And it's with a new virus. And that's the cause of the concern, Lou, is that we're dealing with something -- influenzas are generally unpredictable. You can compound that unpredictability when you're dealing with a virus which we've not had any experience with before in human infections.
DOBBS: Now what's interesting, it's being called the H1N1 virus but that is also the designation of the seasonal flu, is it not?
FAUCI: It is, but it's a very different one because the genes from this are genes of what we call a re-assortment from a number of species, particularly swine, and some are caviler (ph), ancestral bird and human genes. It's quite, quite different from the H1N1 that circulates in a regular seasonal way.
DOBBS: So I would not be altogether incorrect to call it the swine flu?
FAUCI: Well, you know, when you call it swine flu, people get sensitivities about that because of the swine industry and people incorrectly thinking that you might get it from eating pork, which is absolutely not the case.
DOBBS: Right. Well, in this broadcast, Doctor, we give our audience credit for high intelligence.
Doctor, if I may, you're leading the efforts to create a vaccine. How are you doing? How soon do you think you could have it? Would it be in time for the next likely flu period?
FAUCI: Well, first of all, Lou, it's really a team effort of a number of groups. The NIH is one of the components of it. The FDA and the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services. But let me just tell you where we are right now because the development...
DOBBS: Doctor...
FAUCI: ... of the vaccine for a pandemic flu like this, the H1N1...
DOBBS: We're about out of time, Doctor, if I may.
FAUCI: OK, well, it's going along well. We're at the first steps and we have a decision making process. At each step, we'll make a decision about where to go from there.
DOBBS: By fall? By fall?
FAUCI: We hope to get doses by mid to late fall, yes.
DOBBS: Dr. Anthony Fauci, as always, great to have you with us. We appreciate it.
FAUCI: Good to be here.
DOBBS: And we want to tell you tonight, our poll results are coming up next. We'll have them. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Our poll results tonight somewhat more modest than usual. Only 94 percent of you say you are outraged that you are expected to tighten your belt and make tough choices while Washington goes on a spending binge of historic proportions. And a reminder to join me on the radio, Mondays through Fridays, for the LOU DOBBS SHOW. Go to Loudobbsradio.com to get the local listings in your area.
We thank you for being with us tonight. "NO BIAS, NO BULL" starts right now. In for Campbell Brown, Roland Martin.
