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Bush Greeted by Protests in Argentina; Death Row Inmate Walks Out of Texas Jail; Congressman Proposes Fence on Southern Border; Poor Immigrants Rioting Near Paris

Aired November 04, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: Convicted killer on the loose. How did a Death Row inmate just walk out of jail?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you left your mother in their, quote unquote, care, you're for certain that she'd be dead by now?

LIONEL HALL, SICK MOTHER SURVIVED HURRICANE KATRINA: A hundred percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: And a death at a New Orleans Mercy Hospital is a CNN exclusive investigation.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Also this hour, I'll be talking with best-selling author Anne Rice about her new book about Jesus.

CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

KAGAN: Trading political turbulence at home for political protests abroad. Beset by falling approval ratings here in the U.S., President Bush is in Argentina for the Summit of the Americas. Thousands of anti-Bush protesters are there to greet him, and so is one of his staunchest critics, Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez.

CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now from Mar del Plata as the president tries to rise above the fray.

Elaine, hello.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, good afternoon to you, Daryn.

And on top of all that, despite traveling some 5,500 miles from Washington, D.C., here to Argentina, President Bush has been unable to escape those lingering domestic questions about the ongoing CIA leak investigation.

In a short question and answer session with reporters, President Bush was asked three times about some aspect of it, including the future of his top political strategist, Karl Rove. And each time President Bush declined to answer directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Elizabeth, the investigation on Karl, as you know, is not complete. And therefore, I will not comment upon -- about him and/or the investigation. Again, I understand the anxiety and angst by the press corps to talk about this. On the other hand, it is a serious investigation. And we take it seriously. And we're cooperating to the extent that the special prosecutor wants us to cooperate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, as domestic polls are showing a drop in President Bush's overall approval rating, here in Latin America, polls continue to show that the president is unpopular in this region, as well.

Specifically, in the town where the Summit of the Americas is taking place, Mar del Plata, tens of thousands have gathered in a sports stadium nearby to protest U.S. trade policies and to protest President Bush's visit.

Now among those attending, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. He has denounced the United States as imperialist and he, of course, opposes the U.S.'s push for a free trade agreement, because he's concerned the U.S. would take advantage of smaller countries.

Chavez and President Bush could, in fact, cross paths later this afternoon, but Mr. Bush, when asked about it, saying that he plans to be polite, if that does take place.

In the meantime, as those protests continue, President Bush continuing on with his schedule. The day started with images of President Bush trying to emphasize the positive, sitting down with leaders who do, in fact, agree with him on the issue of free trade, leaders who have signed off on CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Later we saw the president in a meeting with Andean leaders, also sitting down and appearing before the cameras with the leader of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner.

But the Bush administration insisting, despite all of these other issues that have come up, United States' President Bush remains focused on the foreign trade policy and pushing for those policies -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano from Mar del Plato, Argentina, thank you.

HARRIS: Well, Venezuela president, Hugo Chavez, opposes the free trade agreement. His outspoken criticism of the agreement and the United States may be rooted in both economics and politics, but there's a history there, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS (voice-over): Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He promised to improve living conditions for the nation's lower classes.

At that time, Venezuela was the United States' second largest supplier of oil. American companies such as Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil had large investments there. But Chavez took a big chunk of their profits away in 2001 when he increased taxes on private oil exports.

Chavez also didn't improve relations with the United States by criticizing American imperialism and praising world leaders such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

In April 2002, Chavez was briefly overthrown in a coup. Leaders of the coalition that ousted Chavez, including business and military officials, had met with senior members of the Bush administration. But the White House insisted they had not given the group any support.

Today, political relations between the United States and Venezuela remain strained, but commercial ties are strong. Venezuela is now the United States' fourth largest oil supplier, roughly 500 companies have investments there, and the State Department says about 23,000 American citizens currently live in Venezuela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And now to a setup you'd never buy on a TV cop drama: A convicted Death Row murderer calmly walks out of Harris County jail in Houston, Texas, and vanishes as police scour the area for 35-year-old Charles Victor Thompson. Investigators are trying to figure out how Thompson pulled off this brazen escape, and who might have helped him do it.

Ned Hibberd from our Houston affiliate, KRIV, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NED HIBBERD, KRIV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Charles Victor Thompson is a convicted double murderer who has twice been sentenced to die for his crimes, most recently just last Friday. Thompson was being held on the second floor of the Baker Street Jail when he somehow shed his orange jumpsuit and donned khaki pants, a dark blue shirt and white tennis shoes.

LT. JOHN MARTIN, HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: He also had some kind of tag or an I.D. that indicated he was with the attorney general's office, and he used that to convince our deputy to let him out of the building.

HIBBERD: Around 3:30 in the afternoon as jail officials were questioning him to discover how an attorney general investigator ended up in the bowels of the jail without a investigator's pass, Thompson allegedly told them he needed to go let his partner know about the holdup and walked out the door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you serious?

HIBBERD: Visitors to the jail, whose visiting hours were canceled in the ensuing lockdown, cannot believe deputies let Thompson walk away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they're not able to find him right now?

HIBBERD (on camera): They're looking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you guys have a picture so we'll know what he looks like? That's him? Oh, my gosh.

HIBBERD (voice-over): In 1998, Thompson murdered his ex- girlfriend and her new boyfriend. He was convicted, sentenced to death, but the punishment was overturned and he was re-sentenced to the same fate last week.

With nothing to lose, he must have hatched an escape plan. And cops conclude he did not carry it out alone.

MARTIN: It's clear that he had to have had some help in getting the clothing and the I.D.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's really crazy. I want to go home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: and some new reaction just in to CNN from the brother of one of Thompson's victims. Mike Donaghy says after Thompson escaped, Texas law enforcement officials got in touch with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DONAGHY, BROTHER OF THOMPSON VICTIM: They said that, you know, they're just coming out to watch the house and, you know, be here for us if we needed them. But I think we're going to vacate the premises, to tell you the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well, this next story is an official suggestion that some are calling outrageous: a massive fence to run along the tenuous southern border between the U.S. and Mexico. Is that the answer to an immigration problem or just misdirected frustration?

Here now, CNN's Chris Lawrence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It conjures up all sorts of images, from the Great Wall of China to the security fence put up by Israel. Congressman Duncan Hunter wants to see a giant fence built along America's border with Mexico, 2,000 miles long. The California Republican says illegal immigrants are hurting the American way of life and endangering national security.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Now, today we have hundreds of thousands of people coming across the land border between the U.S. and Mexico. It's not an immigration problem anymore. It's a security problem.

LAWRENCE: Critics, including a leading Latino advocacy group, say a massive border fence would cost billions of dollars, and not do much to keep illegal immigrants out. A small portion of the border already has some fencing, and the results are debatable.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You see that man climbing over the wall? I stood right at that spot one day doing a story on illegal crossings. All of a sudden I heard the wall rattle. A man appeared at the top of it. I said, "Hola."

He said, "Hola," jumped down and walked into America. Congressman, how will you stop that? They've got a wall that doesn't work.

HUNTER: If you have the impediment, that is the fence, you stop what we call the old bonsai attacks where thousands of people would come across at the same time.

LAWRENCE: Hunter's fence plan is new fuel for the already combustible debate over immigration. Some Americans are taking matters into their own hands, patrolling the Mexican border themselves, armed with paper badges, walkie-talkies and video cameras.

Politicians are taking new initiative, too. The Democratic governors of New Mexico and Arizona declared states of emergency along their borders this summer.

This is not necessarily a Democratic versus Republican debate. But it is likely to be a flash point in the coming campaign for Congress and for president.

(on camera) It's no secret there are parts of the border where you can have one foot in Mexico and the other in the U.S. Anyone who can walk or crawl can get across here. But some say unless the government attacks the underlying causes of illegal immigration, you can't build a fence big enough that someone, somewhere can't climb.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, on the U.S./Mexican border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And now to Glendale, California, and Grandview Memorial Park. The cemetery bills itself as a memorial to life eternal. But state officials have now stepped in to investigate allegations of repeated mishandling of human remains. Sources say thousands of cremated human remains, some dating back to the 1930s, have simply been shelved or discarded in storage rooms. They say other cremated remains have been found spilled on the floor or found in a dumpster on the property.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, the suburbs of Paris are burning. What's behind the eight days of rioting? And can it be stopped?

The Red Cross strapped for cash. For the first time ever, the relief agency takes out a loan. What's wrong?

And best-selling author Anne Rice. She sold millions of books about vampires, but now she's converting to Jesus. She talks about her new book on LIVE FROM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A week and a day of escalating tension and street violence near Paris, most of the rioting happening at night in city suburbs in mostly immigrant communities. Last night more than 2,000 police officers faced angry groups of people frustrated with high unemployment and alleged discrimination.

Now this isn't happening in the center of Paris. It's so far confined to the northeast suburbs, with some violence reported as far away as Dijon.

CNN's Chris Burns live now from Paris.

And Chris, we can see it's evening in Paris. Authorities have their fingers crossed?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony. You could say that.

A very beautiful evening here in downtown Paris where you wouldn't even think or even guess that anything like this is going on. But if you drive about 45 minutes out of the center and toward the suburbs of northern and to the east of Paris, that is what we saw today. We saw tension.

We didn't see any rioting yet. That usually does begin in the evening, say around 9, 10 p.m. So we're still waiting to see if that happens.

But last it was very violent. Hundreds of cars were torched. A police car was shot at once again. The rioters have been attacking police and firefighters, even journalists, as well.

So it is a very dangerous situation out there in many cases, and that is why we are very cautious. We went to a mosque and talked to an imam there today who said he didn't want to be interviewed on the street, because he was afraid of being harassed by some of these renegade youths.

So we talked inside about how they're making efforts to try to reach out, to try to calm these youths down. But it does appear that many of them seem to be away from the control of even local leaders. It seems to be something that's very hard for the locals as well as authorities, police, to try to bring under control.

And as you said, it has spread beyond the Paris area down to Dijon, down to the Marseilles area, down to Normandy (ph) and Rouen, out there (ph). So it has toned down in terms of intensity, but it seems to have spread out to other parts of the country -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, Chris, let me ask you, if the imams are having difficulty in getting through to these young people, are they then cooperating with the authorities and getting these folks who are causing the real destruction and damage, or are they helping to get them off the street?

BURNS: Well, they are trying to do outreach. And we're -- we'll be talking to somebody tomorrow, as well, who does an outreach program. They are trying to do this in a way that is perhaps not turning them in to police, but trying to persuade them to stop what they're doing. It's a very, very difficult situation. And this is what the imams are trying to do, as well as other community leaders, Tony.

HARRIS: Is it fair to say that France has been sort of rocked by all of this rioting?

BURNS: Well, you could say that. This is really some of the worst rioting we've seen in a long time. There have been outbreaks of this in previous years. There have been incidents that have sparked that. But it has sort of been a thing that's rumbling and simmering for years, really, where there are these underprivileged youths living in these very depressed areas, very depressing areas, I might add.

What we saw today, these high-rise, shabby high-rise projects where these immigrant families live in with very, very little hope to make it at all, to get any jobs. The unemployment is, like, over 50 percent among a lot of these youth in those areas, so you can imagine how they feel when they're provoked by some tough talk from authorities, saying, "We're going to clean up the scum in those areas." It does seem to be a bit provocative. That's how people have some taken it in those areas.

HARRIS: Any idea whether or not the rioting, Chris, might be used as an opportunity to discuss some of these conditions and try to improve some of these conditions?

BURNS: Well, very much. I think the politicians and the media here are talking about the problems that exist, the problems that for a long time, about this neglect, about the problem of integrating.

The immigrant population is a very, very difficult situation not only in France but in other parts of Europe. These former guest workers who had children, who now have the same expectations as typical French children. They're French citizens now. And they would like to have the same jobs and the same success that they -- the other French have. And they're not getting it.

And that's what the officials have to address. And they see that. But it is a long-term question, Tony. HARRIS: Yes. CNN's Chris Burns live from Paris for us. Chris, thank you.

KAGAN: It is a milestone date in the Middle East peace process. Ten years ago today, then Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin was shot dead in Tel Aviv. Mourners gathered today at Rabin's grave site and reflected on what has and hasn't changed since his death: the Palestinian uprising, Israel's pullout from Gaza and the absence of peace. An official state mourning ceremony is set for November 14, the date of Rabin's death on the Jewish calendar.

HARRIS: A couple of dramatic rescues. A man's SUV plows into a river and firefighters rush to help. We'll show what you happened a little later on LIVE FROM.

Plus, a rescue dog returns the favor to its new owner. Find out why this cooker spaniel truly is man's best friend.

And best-selling author Anne Rice switches from vampires to Jesus. She joins us live later this hour on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The LIVE FROM bonus story. Who's got room for pie? We think there's enough to go around here. Just out of the oven, a super sweet stab at the world record. Six feet across, it is 678 pounds of homemade pumpkin pie. A crew of bakers near Grand Rapids, Michigan, hopes to enter the Guinness book with the super-sized dessert.

HARRIS: And something to wash it down with; better get it fast, though, for you lovers of Vanilla Coke. Stock up. The Coca-Cola Company today announced it is phasing out the not so popular line of soda. That goes for Vanilla Diet Coke, too. They were introduced in 2002, and sales have steadily fizzled since then.

LIVE FROM is back with your market check right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As New Orleans rebuilds, CNN.com is asking what lessons should other hurricane-prone areas take from disasters like Katrina? Here's what some of you had to say.

Jacob in Baton Rouge stresses civil duty: "It starts before the storm: get prepared, get protected and get out."

Robert in New York says, "It's the importance of voting and, more to the point, voting for people who understand government and its duties."

However, Cindy of Nashville thinks that "It is not up to others to hold our hand and do what is simple common sense. It is also not the government's responsibility to rush in and rescue us afterward." Next we'd like to know how can New Orleans take advantage of reconstruction efforts to resolve some of the problems the city had before Katrina? You can send us your thoughts by logging on to CNN.com/Stories.

I'm Veronica De La Cruz for the dot-com desk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And the headlines this hour, another run for the White House. John McCain hasn't decided yet, but we now have a clue when he might. Last night on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," the Arizona Republican said he'll wait and watch next year's midterm elections and make up his mind then.

KAGAN: Scary stuff here. A driver waited two hours for rescuers after crashing into the Pilchuck River north of Seattle this morning. The SUV slipped a half mile downstream in the fast moving river. A police crew in a boat managed to bring the stranded driver to shore. We are told he is fine.

HARRIS: Terror charges filed in Britain. Three men arrested last month now face a range of charges, including conspiracy to commit murder. Police say a video stored on one of the suspects' computers shows how to make a car bomb. Another shows sites around Washington.

KAGAN: Britain's Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall honor American soldiers killed in World War II. The prince laid a wreath today at the World War II memorial in Washington. The royal couple is expected in New Orleans in about an hour. They plan to meet with recovery workers in New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward. We'll bring you the royal arrival live.

KAGAN: One of the most grim and desperate scenes following Hurricane Katrina played out inside New Orleans' Memorial Hospital. The facility is being investigated for possible mercy killings involving the 45 patients who were found dead after floodwaters receded.

Our investigative reporter Drew Griffin has been following the story. He filed this exclusive update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the first time he has been back and the first time he has ever spoken about what happened at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital. Lionel Hall's mother was a stroke patient here during the hurricane. And, in the chaos that followed, he believes, if his mother had been left alone, she would have died.

(on camera): if you did not do what you did, if you left your mother in their -- quote, unquote -- "care," you are for certain she would be dead by now?

HALL: One hundred percent, just like any of the other people that they found here dead.

GRIFFIN: And she is, today, 100 percent alive.

HALL: One hundred percent alive.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Artie Hall had a stroke weeks before Katrina and was being cared for in room 5128. As the hurricane approached, Lionel Hall says he came to the hospital determined to be with his mom. They survived the storm, but the aftermath, he says, nearly killed them both.

HALL: I believe the truth should be told, because it was a sad thing that happened here.

GRIFFIN: News spread quickly through the hospital, he said, that patients on life support were dying because there was no power. Panic crept in. Those who could get out did. But invalids, like his mother, had to stay behind. He says that, after a few days, hospital administrators said it was time for him to go.

HALL: So...

GRIFFIN (on camera): And they said specifically to you what?

HALL: We want you to leave your mother with us. And, you guys, leave.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): A spokesman for Tenet Healthcare, which owns the hospital, said the staff performed heroically. While not addressing Lionel Hall specifically, the spokesman said people were encouraged to evacuate as transport became available.

Lionel Hall met Dr. Bryant King, a contracted doctor working inside Memorial. It was Dr. Bryant King, he says, who convinced him, if his mother stayed, she would die.

HALL: What he said to me was, "They are all going to burn in hell" -- his words to me. And he said, man, let's get your mother. Let's get her through a wall and let's get her out of here. And we proceeded to do so.

GRIFFIN: In exclusive interviews with CNN, it was Dr. Bryant King who first went public with allegations that some doctors and an administrator discussed putting patients out of their misery, performing mercy killings at Memorial in the aftermath of the storm. King says, an administrator suggested praying. And then there was this.

DR. BRYANT KING, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: I looked around, and one of the other physicians -- not the one who had the conversation with me, but another, had a handful of syringes. I don't know what's in the syringes. I don't know what -- and the only thing I heard her say is: I'm going to give you something to make you feel better. I don't know what she was going -- what she was going to give them. But we hadn't been giving -- we hadn't been giving medications like that to -- to make people feel better or any sort of palliative care or anything like that. We hadn't been doing that up to this point.

GRIFFIN: Lionel Hall left New Orleans' Memorial Hospital on Thursday, September 2. He and his mother were two of the last people to leave this hospital alive, he said. He's convinced, if he hadn't been here that day, his mother would be dead.

HALL: She would not be here, as well as some of the other people that were here alive when we left, and they were not when -- let's just say when America found out there were people here dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: As part of its investigation, the Louisiana attorney general's office has issued subpoenas to hospital workers, asking them to appear before state investigators.

We're at 32 minutes past the hour. For years, a fixture in New Orleans and on the bestseller list. Novelist Anne Rice, she is in our house today talking about her new book, which explores the life of Jesus as a young boy.

There's Ms. Rice. Hello. It's a far cry from Lestat and his vampire buddies. We'll mix it up with this fascinating lady in just a few minutes.

HARRIS: But first, reunited and it feels so good. A Lassie story we just can't seem to get enough of.

KAGAN: Love this story.

HARRIS: You love it?

KAGAN: Yes.

HARRIS: Yes, we'll tell it again and again when LIVE FROM continues.

KAGAN: You can't tell it too much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: It could be a ticket to a career, but critics call them an affront to women everywhere. Hip-hop videos is what we're talking about. They're sometimes graphic depictions of women, usually women of color. The debate over their content has risen as quickly as the music's popularity.

With more on that now, here is Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In many way, Celestina Henry is a typical college student. She is an English major at Temple University, and when she's not studying or dancing, she's teaching ballet at a children's center in her community. She herself has been a dancer since she was 5. But there's another side to Celestina, one that, well, you be the judge.

(MUSIC VIDEO)

CELESTINA HENRY, PERFORMER: I never had any aspirations to be in a video. I had aspirations to be a dancer, aspirations to be an actress. And I thought about different ways of getting exposure.

CARROLL: Exposure she got. Her father was concerned at first but also supportive.

JAY HENRY, CELESTINA'S FATHER: There's one scene in it that, you know, as a father I don't necessarily need to see her in her lingerie or underclothing, but, you know, it's a video. I've seen the videos, and compared to what I've seen, that was mild.

CARROLL: If that was mild, here's a look at the wilder side of hip-hop videos.

(MUSIC VIDEOS)

CARROLL: Critics say the videos promote a negative image of black women, going as far as to say they foster misogynistic ideas and calling some of them "porn for beginners." Celestina, one of the girls behind the music, says that's not what video girls are all about. She said she won't do anything too suggestive, that hip-hop videos can actually open doors for all types of women.

C. HENRY: There's this idea that black women are not attractive unless they're 100 pounds or they have to be a certain build, a certain size, a certain color, you know. And I feel that music videos embrace many different women of color.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You understand that this is not just a beauty role.

CARROLL: Her casting director sees hip-hop as an opportunity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do wish that black women could be seen in a different light, maybe not as sexual. To be seen for, you know, their intellectual side, for their fashion sense, for their sense of personality. But I guess right now, it's better to have something than nothing. You have to start somewhere.

CARROLL (on camera): But the sexual images are so powerful, so pervasive, one former video performer says they can even corrupt the women in the videos.

KARRINE STEFFANS, AUTHOR, "CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN": It's your fault when you're treated poorly because you project a poor image of yourself. CARROLL: Karrine Steffans says she should know. She is a former video performer who says she started behaving like the promiscuous women she portrayed in the videos. Steffans even wrote a book about her sexual exploits. And while on a racy magazine shoot, she warned about the down side of doing what she did and what she does, selling her sexuality.

STEFFANS: They've been video girls. And so you're not going to be taken seriously. If you want to be taken seriously, get an education and get a job that utilizes your brain and not your body.

MELYSSA FORD, PERFORMER: She's one individual who made her own choices.

CARROLL: Unlike Karrine, Melyssa Ford got herself into the kind of hip-hop videos that make careers. She used it to launch another career, in her case, broadcasting.

FORD: The majority of girls that you see are not portraying the image of who they really are. They're being sexy for the camera. But they go home and they're regular people.

CARROLL: And while she believes the public is savvy enough to separate images in videos from the real thing, she wouldn't feel comfortable doing them these days.

FORD: My plan A has always been this.

(POINTS TO HEAD)

FORD: It has never been this.

(INDICATES FACE)

CARROLL: But for Celestina, still waiting for her big break, her advice to women hoping to break into hip-hop videos...

C. HENRY: Women need to make sure that they stay true to themselves. And that's the biggest thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're walking toward the camera, you know, real sexy, provocative.

CARROLL: It's also one of the most difficult things to come to terms with, using videos as steppingstone but at the cost of creating an image that may be tough to erase.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: More on this topic -- exploitation, exposure this weekend. We're going to tackle it a little bit this weekend.

KAGAN: Really? We're going to run this again?

HARRIS: No, no, no. I differ ...

KAGAN: I am shocked.

HARRIS: M.C. Lyte will be here.

KAGAN: Because of the journalism involved, I'm sure.

HARRIS: And we're going to tackle -- there's no way -- yes, there's no way to get around this. All right.

KAGAN: Anyhow, we move on.

HARRIS: Yes. We are still not exactly sure what to make of this, but we'll put it out there anyway, and you decide. The mayor of Las Vegas is pretty ticked off at vandals who make a spray-paint mess of his city. How ticked off is he? It's best that you hear it straight from Oscar Goodman himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: There are these punks that come along, and they deface it. And I'm saying that maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb. That may be the right thing to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was going to ask your specifics on corporal punishment. I was thinking maybe a whipping or a caning, but you're ...

GOODMAN: Maybe a whipping or a caning. That would be ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you serious?

GOODMAN: I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious. I mean, parents are supposed to take care of their children, and government is in loco parentis. We take the place of a parent on occasion. And some of these people don't learn. You've got to teach them a lesson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Teach him a lesson. Just chop -- cut off the thumbs. And now, wait a minute. You have to keep in mind that Mayor Oscar Goodman is well known in Las Vegas for making, shall we say, some eyebrow-raising comments. And yesterday at a news conference, well, he repeated his desire for vandals to be de-thumbed -- those are his words, this is his word, de-thumbed. But again, it's Oscar Goodman.

KAGAN: Here's something we can all agree on, a great story. Admit it, we cannot resist a dog saves man story. This one is near San Francisco. It's about Honey the clever cocker spaniel that channeled Lassie and fetched a neighbor when her owner flipped his SUV. CNN's Ted Rowlands has the happy ending.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a Northern California hospital, Michael Bosch had a very special visitor this morning, who he says saved his life.

MICHAEL BOSCH, DOG'S OWNER: Hi, Honey. Hello, Honey. Come here, baby. Come here. Come here to me. Yes, come here to me.

ROWLANDS: Honey, a 5-month-old cocker spaniel was with Michael Monday morning when he plunged 50 feet down his hillside driveway in an SUV.

BOSCH: When we got into the soft soil, it just started to tip. And I knew I was in trouble.

ROWLANDS: The SUV hit a tree. Michael and Honey were trapped, pinned inside, hanging upside down in a remote area on private land.

BOSCH: I sort of went through my mind, who is going to find me on 70 acres?

ROWLANDS: Michael, who suffered a heart attack in August, said his heart was racing. He says he took a nitroglycerin pill to calm himself down. Then, he saw a hole in a smashed window big enough for Honey to get through.

BOSCH: I saw the opening. And I said, Honey, you've got to go home. And I pushed her out there and scurried her up the hill.

ROWLANDS: Michael then waited, hoping he could stay alive until someone could find him.

BOSCH: My only hope was that dog.

ROWLANDS: Six hours later, now evening, a quarter mile, away Robin Allen came home from work and found Honey in her driveway.

ROBIN ALLEN, NEIGHBOR: She wanted to get my attention. There's no question about that.

ROWLANDS: Robin had never seen Honey, but the phone number on Honey's tag was Michael's, so she drove the puppy home. When she opened her car door, she could hear Michael yelling.

ALLEN: And then I realized he was yelling help.

ROWLANDS: It took rescue crews 45 minutes to get Michael out of the SUV and pull him up the hillside. With major injuries to his chest and legs, Michael was rushed to a waiting medical helicopter.

Michael only adopted Honey two weeks ago from this Northern California pet shelter. He had been coming here looking for the right dog for more than a year and immediately spotted Honey two days after she arrived.

CAROL WILLIAMS-SKAGGS, MARIN CO. HUMANE SOCIETY: I think she was just meant to be his. I think that she worked her way here for that reason.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a match made in heaven. BOSCH: Yes. You're my baby, aren't you?

ROWLANDS: Despite five broken ribs and limited feeling in one of his legs, Michael says being reunited with Honey is already making him feel better.

BOSCH: She's never leaving my side again. I'll tell you that. That dog saved my life.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Rafael, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And you see, this is why when you go get your kids a dog ...

HARRIS: Which I have to.

KAGAN: ... go down to the animal shelter. The ones you save, they know.

HARRIS: They know.

KAGAN: They know. I'm biased. I have two rescue animals.

HARRIS: Two weeks, though? Daryn, two weeks?

KAGAN: That story tells the story.

HARRIS: It does.

KAGAN: Speaking of great stories, one of the greatest story tellers here in America. She has zillions of fans of her "Vampire Chronicles," but will they fall in love with her new work?

HARRIS: Anne Rice puts the bloodsuckers to rest, and now has a controversial -- some would say a controversial new book. Here she is. We'll talk to her in the LIVE FROM interview right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Witches and vampires, you've seen the scary movies and read the books that sprang from the imagination of prolific author Anne Rice. But she says her newest project scared her to death. Rice has switched from Lestat to the Lord. Her new novel "Christ the Lord" is written from the point of view of Jesus Christ as a boy. She joins us now to talk about this leap of faith. Anne Rice, good to see you.

ANNE RICE, AUTHOR, "CHRIST THE LORD": It's good to be here.

HARRIS: Daryn's going to join us. We're both happy to have you here.

RICE: OK, great.

KAGAN: We're all big fans here at CNN.

HARRIS: "Christ the Lord" -- I am so interesting in transformations in one's life, and you obviously have gone through a transformation in your own life from what you've written to what you're writing. Talk about this book and talk about the personal transformation that brings us to this point.

RICE: Well, what happened to me really was that I went back to my -- the church of my childhood, the Catholic Church. In 1998, I realized I wanted to go back. I believed in God. And I was going through the motions as an atheist. And I thought, this has to come to a stop. I want to go home. I want to go back. I believe that the lord is there. I want to talk to him. I want to be back in my church, I want to go back to the banquet table.

And I stopped trying to resolve all kinds of doubts and questions and theological fine points and historical questions, and I just went back. I went to the priest and said I want to go to confession. I want to come back. And he said fine, you know, come on back. And I think confession was two hours. It had been 30 years, you know, so we had a lot to go over. But I returned.

And then it took a while before I committed to writing this book. I wanted to write this book, but I was in no way prepared. I had to catch up. I had to go back to the mass in English, and I had to pray, and I had to think. But around sometime in 2002, I was in church and I was talking to the Lord about my work and about the long journey through all my books. And I realized what I really want to do is write your life, Lord. I want to do that. And I want to do nothing else but that.

KAGAN: So is that -- with returning to your faith, you couldn't write about vampires anymore, or you're talking about a journey, it was just time to move forward and you wanted to spend your time doing something else?

RICE: I kept writing about them, but they didn't function any more for me the way they had. They'd been a metaphor of the lost person in all of us, the outcast, the outsider. And I had gotten energy from that. And the books, as dark as they are, they all have a moral compass. I mean, they're all about the struggles of the individual heroes and heroines with finding meaning in life and not wanting to be cast out. But that was gone for me. I was now living in a world where redemption shaped everything.

KAGAN: To go back inside.

RICE: Exactly. And so I didn't -- the last few I wrote after the conversion, after I went back, they show the transition. The characters show the struggle. And the last one I wrote, really, the hero, in a sense, resigns as the dark hero. He says I can't do this anymore.

HARRIS: But Anne, you mentioned just a moment ago that you wanted to write this book. Let's talk about this book. This is a book, you're talking about the life of Christ as a child. Seven years old?

RICE: Seven years old.

HARRIS: Seven years old. And you have to find a voice for Christ. Now, I know this is fiction, but we all know the way you love to research your work.

RICE: Right.

HARRIS: Where do you go to begin to create what feels like an authentic voice of Christ for you?

RICE: First of all, reading the Scriptures over and over again, reading the Bible in all the different translations.

HARRIS: Did they read differently to you this time?

RICE: Oh, yes, everything read differently, because I could see all the connections that were being made. I could see the narrative. I mean, you know, I had heard the Bible read from the pulpit over and over again, but I had to really get into it as stories and I had to see the idioms and the expressions that the people used. And I had to come up with an approximate vocabulary for a child who's really speaking Aramaic (ph) and Greek.

HARRIS: I see, yes.

RICE: You know, I had to come up with words that wouldn't be anachronistic for him. And it was wonderful, really. I mean, I love nothing more than research. I love nothing more than reading. And the Bible was such a revelation to me. I had no idea that it was so interesting.

KAGAN: Who knew?

RICE: I really didn't.

KAGAN: So you go on this personal journey, and you're this super successful author, and you have this thing that you want to do personally. It's coming from inside, coming from your heart, telling you know you're meant to do this. What happens when you go to the people who have known you and supported you all along, whether it's your publisher or your agent? People who have benefited from your success and your talent? Did you get any -- you want to do what?

RICE: Well, I didn't tell them.

KAGAN: Good idea.

RICE: I kept it a secret. I kept it a secret. I wouldn't talk about it, and I wouldn't talk about it because I wanted to make sure, well, number one, I wanted to make sure I could do something. I mean, I was scared. I was really terrified. I thought, what if I can't pull this off? And this is all I want to do. Nothing else matters now but this, and I have to do this. So finally when I told my editor -- I said, OK, the title is "Christ the Lord." KAGAN: Are you ready for this?

RICE: It's the autobiography of Jesus, you know. And she took it very well.

KAGAN: Oh, good.

RICE: She said I want to see what you're going to do with this. But she didn't tell the president of the publishing house. She said I'm not going to tell him yet.

KAGAN: She wanted to see also what you had done.

RICE: She didn't want to scare him. She didn't want to say, you know, we may have something that's difficult to deal with here. And when I handed it in, I thought they might say, good-bye, Anne.

HARRIS: Right? No, they were never going to say that.

KAGAN: And would you have been OK with that?

RICE: Yes, I would have gone somewhere else. It would have killed me, because I've been with my publisher since 1974. I've been with Knopf all these years, and they're like my university, my family, you know. But I would have gone.

HARRIS: Anne, I can't let you go without giving you an opportunity to talk about your beloved home.

RICE: Oh, New Orleans.

HARRIS: New Orleans.

RICE: Yes.

HARRIS: This is an editorial, a bit of it, that you wrote for "The New York Times," September 5th. You're writing during the crisis. "You failed us. You looked down on us. You dismissed our victims. You dismissed us. You want our jazz fest, you want our Mardi Gras. You want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you turned your backs."

What are your thoughts on that? Now here we are eight, nine weeks.

KAGAN: Two months, yes.

HARRIS: What are your thoughts now?

RICE: I think some people did turn their backs on us. And I think the federal government was very,, very slow to respond, and is still being slow to respond. I'm in constant contact with people down there, and they don't have insurance checks yet. They're digging into their own pockets to pay for repairs. They can't get FEMA to reimburse them yet. And these are people who paid premiums. They thought they had insurance. They thought they were covered. They had business interruption insurance, and they've not been paid.

It's very difficult what's happening. And I do think we have to solve the problem and try to help these people rebuild. All over the South, not just New Orleans, everywhere.

HARRIS: We love having you here and we want folks to pay attention to the book, "Christ the Lord," out of Egypt. Anne Rice, good to see you, good to meet you.

RICE: Thank you.

HARRIS: Thanks for joining us on LIVE FROM.

RICE: Thank you very much for having me.

KAGAN: Thank you for your time.

RICE: It's really been a pleasure.

HARRIS: Our pleasure.

Take a break, and come back with more of LIVE FROM, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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