Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Helicopter Down in Iraq; Busting the Filibuster?; Fatal Fire

Aired April 21, 2005 - 10:59   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There's big news in the Michael Jackson. The next star witness could be a movie star. And we'll tell you who.
Plus, living forever mind sound impossible. But one man is up for the challenge.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

The Fed chairman is again sounding a note of caution on Capitol Hill. Alan Greenspan says the economy right now is expanding at a reasonably good pace. But his remark is tempered by a renewed warning about huge deficits which can have long-term negative consequences by pushing up interest rates.

Federal weapons charges have been lodged against a British man who aroused suspicion while training at a flight school in suburban Atlanta. Federal officials now regard the man as a fugitive. The flight school is the same one where two of the September 11 hijackers had trained.

In Connecticut, a legal milestone for gay couples. The governor has signed a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions in the state. The new law takes effect in October.

And in Rhode Island, a funeral mass is to begin right now for police detective James Allen. He was shot to death with his own gun last Sunday allegedly by a suspect he was questioning. After the service, a police honor guard will escort the casket on a horse-drawn Hearse to the ceremony.

A vote is expected today confirming John Negroponte as the new director of national intelligence. The Senate has allotted four hours of debate prior to the vote. The career diplomat is expected to win easy approval to the post, which was created after the attacks of 9/11.

We're looking at just a minute past 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, just past 8:00 for those of you waking up in the West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

We're going to go first this hour to Iraq. That is where insurgents charted new territory today. They have apparently shot down a commercial helicopter. And all nine people onboard have died.

To the Pentagon now and correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

It happened several hours ago just north of Baghdad. U.S. military sources saying, yes, they have every reason to believe this commercial helicopter was shot down, brought down by hostile fire.

This was a commercial version of the Soviet design of the MIA helicopter. It was being operated by a commercial air charter company called SkyLink. You're looking at the aftermath of the shoot-down now.

There were nine people onboard, three Bulgarian crew members and six American passengers, Daryn. All six said now to be employees of Blackwater Security, a firm that works in Iraq providing security services to government and private sector individuals working in that country.

If it is proven, indeed, that this was a shoot-down, it would be the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter and would be very troubling to the security situation in Iraq, because there had been great hopes that they could begin to shift some of these transport services to commercial aircraft. That it would be seen to be safe enough in Iraq for commercial aircraft to fly. An investigation, of course, is under way -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, I think this is even news to a lot of people watching today that there are private aircraft flying around Iraq.

STARR: Well, there are to some extent. There are private charters, there are private commercial aircraft, if you will, flying in and out of Baghdad International Airport. But, of course, the problem is immediately self-evident.

These commercial aircraft do not fly with the type of air defense measures that military aircraft fly with. So, of course, they are very vulnerable to small arms fire, missile fire, any type of hostile fire from the ground.

They don't have any protective measures, so all of this now, of course, of great concern as the investigation continues. But officials saying they have ever reason to believe at this point it was shot down -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. Thank you for the latest.

Other news from Iraq now. Al Qaeda in Iraq says that it's behind an assassination attempt on outgoing interim Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi. That's the group fronted by terror leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.

A car bomb exploded as Allawi's convoy passed a checkpoint. Several guards and police officers were killed.

Iraqi officials say 57 bodies have been found in the Tigris River. They're suggesting the victims were Shiites held hostage south of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces have investigated. They said they found no evidence of a mass kidnapping.

And an official tells CNN that insurgents lined up Iraqi soldiers against a wall at a soccer stadium and executed them. It happened in the western town of Haditha.

And three civilian security workers have been killed an attack on Baghdad's dangerous Airport Road. The men were from U.S., Australia and Canada.

The president wants and Congress is giving some $81 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Senate vote is set for today, but getting the House and Senate to agree on the final bill looks a little bit tricky.

For instance, the Senate version would pay for a sprawling new U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The House doesn't. The Senate would also increase death benefits for soldiers. The House doesn't do that.

The House, on the other hand, includes a provision unrelated to war spending. It would deny drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants. The Senate didn't put that in their bill.

Stay tuned as the showdown plays out.

Also on Capitol Hill today, lawmakers in the House are poised to approve an $8 billion energy bill. Among other things, the bill allows drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. The House has given the go-ahead for drilling there twice in the past four years, only to see the issue die in the Senate. Another showdown with the Senate is expected this time around as well.

Also in the House, growing intrigue over majority leader Tom DeLay's political problems. The GOP has proposed a formal Ethics investigation into DeLay's activities if -- if Democrats agree to end a partisan impasse over changes to the committee's rules. Democrats have rejected that offer.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is a vocal supporter of DeLay's, yesterday expressed his frustration over the stalemate. He strongly hinted that some Democrats should begin worrying about their own dirt laundry.

The energy bill, the Tom DeLay controversy, President Bush's judicial nominations, all threaten to form a perfect political storm on Capitol Hill. At the center of the debate, over the fate of the Senate filibuster.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider joins us now to explain how it got to this point and where it goes from here.

Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Daryn. KAGAN: First, let's talk filibuster. What is it and why is it important to both sides?

SCHNEIDER: It's a Senate rule that's been longstanding that allows unlimited debate unless you can get 60 votes. The current requirement is 60 votes to close off debate and put the matter before a vote. When this president nominates someone to be a federal judge, the judge, in order to cut off debate and have a majority vote, you need 60 votes to shut down the debate.

It's an ancient -- not ancient, but it's a longstanding tradition in the Senate. It's not in the Constitution. And the idea is that it protects the rights of minorities.

You need a super majority of 60 to pass something in the Senate. It's one of the ways in which the Senate is different from the House and is supposed to operate by a broader consensus than the House of Representatives does.

KAGAN: OK. Now, the Republicans are talking about having this go away?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. The Republicans are saying that they want to end the right to filibuster. That is, allow unlimited debate on judicial nominations, which would be a real change in Senate procedure.

Democrats are outraged. They call that the nuclear option. And on their part, they're saying, if the Republicans pass that change, which should only take a simple majority vote -- and the Republicans do have a 55 majority in the Senate -- if the Republicans do that, the Democrats are threatening to shut down the Senate and allow no further business, because they regard it as such a break with the tradition and also a violation of their rights as a minority.

KAGAN: Now, this sounds like something similar that happened in the past, but the sides are reversed.

SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well, Republicans have used the filibuster because they were the minority for decades in the Senate. And the minority has always used the filibuster to defend its rights where they believe the majority is abusive, and also, of course, to demand that there be a broader consensus than a simple majority.

If the rule were to be changed, that would escalate partisan warfare, and it would make the Senate look very much like the House, which a lot of people would not want. The House does not operate by a broad consensus. In the House, you gave brutal majority rule, and a virtually powerless minority.

KAGAN: Well, speaking of power, isn't this -- even the filibuster, that the nominee argument is part of a much bigger debate that is brewing here, and that's about judicial power and Congress versus the courts?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. Yes, it's partly a war between the branches of government, because what's happening is, a lot of conservatives and Republicans, particularly Republican leaders, have become highly critical of the courts, especially since the courts refused to act by what the leadership of Congress regards as the will of Congress in the Terri Schiavo case.

Now, before that case, I think Democrats were in a tough position, because they were trying to change a very arcane and not a particularly popular rule, the filibuster. And because they were threatening to shut down the Senate.

Remember when Republicans shut down Congress about 10 years ago, they got into a lot of trouble. But with the Terri Schiavo case, I think things changed. Because people saw the Republican leadership of Congress as overreaching, injecting Congress and politics into a private family matter. And then when some Republican leaders attacked the judges and said they wanted to essentially make war on the judicial branch, then the Democrats were in the welcomed position of defending the integrity of the courts against what looks to a lot of people like a congressional assault.

KAGAN: Right. But just to be fair, on the other side, in terms of overreaching, there are some who feel that it's the courts who have been overreaching. And Republicans saying that Democrats trying to make law by the courts and not by the will of the people.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. There is decades-old -- ever since Roe v. Wade, back in 1973 -- criticism from conservatives that the courts have overreached. And now that the Republicans control Congress, they say Congress has a certain amount of power over the judiciary -- if nothing else, budgetary power -- and they want to use that power to try to bring the courts into line because they think the courts have simply gone too far. Unfortunately, this is timed with the recent Terri Schiavo case, which did not look that way to most Americans.

KAGAN: Bill Schneider. You get the feeling kind of like we're at the beginning of this, what's going to be a really, really big story. And I'm sure we'll be talking to you many times about the topic.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

KAGAN: Thanks, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

KAGAN: National anxiety over child molesters seems extremely high right now, with good reason. It has been fueled by a recent string of killings of young girls, like Jessica Lunsford, allegedly by known sex offenders.

Several lawmakers in Washington today will introduce legislation named after the little girl. It would require keeping closer tabs on convicted sex offenders once they're released. Jessica Lunsford's father is expected to be present at today's announcement.

Earlier this week, the Florida state House unanimously passed a bill also named for Jessica Lunsford. If enacted, it would mandate a minimum 25-year sentence for child molestation.

In rural Arkansas, a tragic blaze at a mobile home claimed the lives of six people. Five of them were small children. Melissa Dunbar of our affiliate KTHV has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA DUNBAR, REPORTER, KTHV: State police investigators have just arrived back here on the scene. They will now being picking through what is left of this mobile home.

As you can see behind me, it can only be described as a skeleton. The fire killed five young boys all under the age of five, and a 23- year-old woman who was babysitting them. She was also the mother of two of the boys.

The sheriff here in Arkansas County says five of the bodies were found in this front bedroom, the room closest to us here. The sixth body, that of an infant, was found further into the mobile home in what is being described as a living room.

No one knows yet why or how this fire started. Investigators say they plan on determining that this afternoon.

Schools here in Humphrey are canceled today to allow families to deal with this loss.

Reporting for CNN, in Humphrey, Arkansas, I'm Melissa Dunbar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We're going to turn to world news just ahead. Iran's president remains a problem for the Bush administration. But who exactly is Mohammed Khatami? A look into the life of Iran's mysterious leader.

While still on her book tour, Jane Fonda runs into some very bad manners. One Vietnam veteran's revenge.

And why one Israeli zoo can say it's going kosher. Why is this gorilla meal different than any other gorilla meal? We'll tell you why coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Today's "Daily Dose" focuses on teens and drugs. More and more young people are raiding their parents' medicine cabinets to get high. The study was done by the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

It finds prescription painkillers such as vicodin and oxycontin are more popular with teens than street drugs. Retalin and cough syrup are also high on the abuse list. Less than half the teens surveyed sought (ph) any great risk in experimenting with the medicine cabinet drugs.

Relish the thought. A new study finding that people who eat just one, we're talking one jumbo hotdog a day, are at a greater risk for cancer of the pancreas. And we're not just talking the hotdogs. It's any processed meats such as sausages, bologna and sandwich slices. There's a separate study, however, that found that red hot chilis slow the growth of pancreatic cancer. So pile those on your hotdog.

You can't live forever, apparently not if you're eating a hotdog every day. Or can you? Well, one man thinks he can. He is out to prove it. Here now is CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty-seven-year-old Ray Kurzweil's daily routine: 250 supplements, 10 cups of green tea, four miles of brisk walking, all part of his quest for immortality.

RAY KURZWEIL, AUTHOR, SCIENTIST: The diseases that kill 95 percent of us are not things that just hit us one day walking down the street. You can find out where you are on that process and stop that process and reverse it fairly readily with the right lifestyle, the right supplements.

GUPTA: That right lifestyle is outlined in "Fantastic Voyage," live long enough to live forever. Ray is not a doctor but an award- winning scientist. He and co-author, Dr. Terry Grossman, recommend intravenous supplements for better digestion, acupuncture and regular biological testing to determine body age. All geared towards taking advantage of biotechnological advances they say are just over the horizon.

KURZWEIL: I expect and hope to be in good shape when we have these powerful new techniques from biotechnology 10, 15 years from now. For example, have devices called the nanobots that can actually perform functions inside our bloodstream, augment our immune system, destroy pathogens in cancer cells, enhance our red blood cells, for example, so that we can breathe better.

GUPTA: Sound like science fiction? While oddly reminiscent of the 1966 film "Fantastic Voyage" in which scientists travel in vehicles through the blood system. In fact, humans have made giant leaps in life expectancy. Consider this, in 1900 the average American life span was 47 years. By 1960, it had risen to the early '60s. Now life expectancy is 77.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's for headache, earache, toothache.

DR. THOMAS PERLS, BOSTON UNIV. MEDICAL CENTER: We're always going to hear some special potion or nostrum for immortality, and that's not new.

GUPTA: Dr. Thomas Perls, a leading researcher on centenarians, says that living healthier longer is a good message. But relying on Ray's plan to do it is another.

PERLS: Much of the book is based upon Ray and Terry's own anecdotal personal experience of what works for them. What the book is asking people to do, is everybody to be a guinea pig. And I think that's very dangerous.

GUPTA: Anti-aging is a multimillion industry. And as Baby Boomers grow older, they want greater control over their own longevity.

KURZWEIL: I would like to keep on living indefinitely. I would like that decision to be in my own hands, and not in the figurative hands of fate.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Your "Daily Dose" of health news is always just a click way. Log on to cnn.com/health for the latest medical news. You'll also find a health library and information on diet and fitness.

California's governor said he misspoke after some tough comments about the border. We'll tell you now what he says he really meant to say.

And the Vietnam vet comes face to face with Jane Fonda and delivers his message rudely, to say the least.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Oh, take a look at these pictures for springtime. Stormy weather in the Midwest, hail in Kansas, damaging cars, breaking windows. Hail also had an impact at the Denver Airport. Sixteen flights headed for Denver were diverted after a strong storm system moved through the area.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: A man in Kansas City, Missouri, he is facing charges after spitting on actress and author Jane Fonda. Authorities say Fonda was signing copies of her memoir when the man spit tobacco juice on her after waiting in line with other customers. He told reporters he was angry with Fonda for opposing the Vietnam War.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SMITH, VIETNAM VETERAN: I had an opportunity to do something that a lot of Vietnam vets want to do. I did it for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Fonda says she doesn't want to press charges. But police arrested him on account of disorderly conduct. She continued to sign books. He was one of America's biggest child stars. Now Macaulay Culkin is all grown up. He could play a major role in the Michael Jackson trial. Details in a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're coming up on the half-hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

President Bush presses the Senate to confirm John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Questions about Bolton's temperament have stalled the nomination. A new vote could be week ways.

Republican Senator John McCain says he supports Bolton, but he tells CNN the nomination could die a death of a thousand cuts. Senator McCain there.

There are reports that Marine General Peter Pace is slated to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace has served nearly four years as the vice chairman. If selected, Pace would be the first Marine to ever hold the post.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired April 21, 2005 - 10:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There's big news in the Michael Jackson. The next star witness could be a movie star. And we'll tell you who.
Plus, living forever mind sound impossible. But one man is up for the challenge.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

The Fed chairman is again sounding a note of caution on Capitol Hill. Alan Greenspan says the economy right now is expanding at a reasonably good pace. But his remark is tempered by a renewed warning about huge deficits which can have long-term negative consequences by pushing up interest rates.

Federal weapons charges have been lodged against a British man who aroused suspicion while training at a flight school in suburban Atlanta. Federal officials now regard the man as a fugitive. The flight school is the same one where two of the September 11 hijackers had trained.

In Connecticut, a legal milestone for gay couples. The governor has signed a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions in the state. The new law takes effect in October.

And in Rhode Island, a funeral mass is to begin right now for police detective James Allen. He was shot to death with his own gun last Sunday allegedly by a suspect he was questioning. After the service, a police honor guard will escort the casket on a horse-drawn Hearse to the ceremony.

A vote is expected today confirming John Negroponte as the new director of national intelligence. The Senate has allotted four hours of debate prior to the vote. The career diplomat is expected to win easy approval to the post, which was created after the attacks of 9/11.

We're looking at just a minute past 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, just past 8:00 for those of you waking up in the West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

We're going to go first this hour to Iraq. That is where insurgents charted new territory today. They have apparently shot down a commercial helicopter. And all nine people onboard have died.

To the Pentagon now and correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

It happened several hours ago just north of Baghdad. U.S. military sources saying, yes, they have every reason to believe this commercial helicopter was shot down, brought down by hostile fire.

This was a commercial version of the Soviet design of the MIA helicopter. It was being operated by a commercial air charter company called SkyLink. You're looking at the aftermath of the shoot-down now.

There were nine people onboard, three Bulgarian crew members and six American passengers, Daryn. All six said now to be employees of Blackwater Security, a firm that works in Iraq providing security services to government and private sector individuals working in that country.

If it is proven, indeed, that this was a shoot-down, it would be the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter and would be very troubling to the security situation in Iraq, because there had been great hopes that they could begin to shift some of these transport services to commercial aircraft. That it would be seen to be safe enough in Iraq for commercial aircraft to fly. An investigation, of course, is under way -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, I think this is even news to a lot of people watching today that there are private aircraft flying around Iraq.

STARR: Well, there are to some extent. There are private charters, there are private commercial aircraft, if you will, flying in and out of Baghdad International Airport. But, of course, the problem is immediately self-evident.

These commercial aircraft do not fly with the type of air defense measures that military aircraft fly with. So, of course, they are very vulnerable to small arms fire, missile fire, any type of hostile fire from the ground.

They don't have any protective measures, so all of this now, of course, of great concern as the investigation continues. But officials saying they have ever reason to believe at this point it was shot down -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. Thank you for the latest.

Other news from Iraq now. Al Qaeda in Iraq says that it's behind an assassination attempt on outgoing interim Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi. That's the group fronted by terror leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.

A car bomb exploded as Allawi's convoy passed a checkpoint. Several guards and police officers were killed.

Iraqi officials say 57 bodies have been found in the Tigris River. They're suggesting the victims were Shiites held hostage south of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces have investigated. They said they found no evidence of a mass kidnapping.

And an official tells CNN that insurgents lined up Iraqi soldiers against a wall at a soccer stadium and executed them. It happened in the western town of Haditha.

And three civilian security workers have been killed an attack on Baghdad's dangerous Airport Road. The men were from U.S., Australia and Canada.

The president wants and Congress is giving some $81 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Senate vote is set for today, but getting the House and Senate to agree on the final bill looks a little bit tricky.

For instance, the Senate version would pay for a sprawling new U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The House doesn't. The Senate would also increase death benefits for soldiers. The House doesn't do that.

The House, on the other hand, includes a provision unrelated to war spending. It would deny drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants. The Senate didn't put that in their bill.

Stay tuned as the showdown plays out.

Also on Capitol Hill today, lawmakers in the House are poised to approve an $8 billion energy bill. Among other things, the bill allows drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. The House has given the go-ahead for drilling there twice in the past four years, only to see the issue die in the Senate. Another showdown with the Senate is expected this time around as well.

Also in the House, growing intrigue over majority leader Tom DeLay's political problems. The GOP has proposed a formal Ethics investigation into DeLay's activities if -- if Democrats agree to end a partisan impasse over changes to the committee's rules. Democrats have rejected that offer.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is a vocal supporter of DeLay's, yesterday expressed his frustration over the stalemate. He strongly hinted that some Democrats should begin worrying about their own dirt laundry.

The energy bill, the Tom DeLay controversy, President Bush's judicial nominations, all threaten to form a perfect political storm on Capitol Hill. At the center of the debate, over the fate of the Senate filibuster.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider joins us now to explain how it got to this point and where it goes from here.

Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Daryn. KAGAN: First, let's talk filibuster. What is it and why is it important to both sides?

SCHNEIDER: It's a Senate rule that's been longstanding that allows unlimited debate unless you can get 60 votes. The current requirement is 60 votes to close off debate and put the matter before a vote. When this president nominates someone to be a federal judge, the judge, in order to cut off debate and have a majority vote, you need 60 votes to shut down the debate.

It's an ancient -- not ancient, but it's a longstanding tradition in the Senate. It's not in the Constitution. And the idea is that it protects the rights of minorities.

You need a super majority of 60 to pass something in the Senate. It's one of the ways in which the Senate is different from the House and is supposed to operate by a broader consensus than the House of Representatives does.

KAGAN: OK. Now, the Republicans are talking about having this go away?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. The Republicans are saying that they want to end the right to filibuster. That is, allow unlimited debate on judicial nominations, which would be a real change in Senate procedure.

Democrats are outraged. They call that the nuclear option. And on their part, they're saying, if the Republicans pass that change, which should only take a simple majority vote -- and the Republicans do have a 55 majority in the Senate -- if the Republicans do that, the Democrats are threatening to shut down the Senate and allow no further business, because they regard it as such a break with the tradition and also a violation of their rights as a minority.

KAGAN: Now, this sounds like something similar that happened in the past, but the sides are reversed.

SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well, Republicans have used the filibuster because they were the minority for decades in the Senate. And the minority has always used the filibuster to defend its rights where they believe the majority is abusive, and also, of course, to demand that there be a broader consensus than a simple majority.

If the rule were to be changed, that would escalate partisan warfare, and it would make the Senate look very much like the House, which a lot of people would not want. The House does not operate by a broad consensus. In the House, you gave brutal majority rule, and a virtually powerless minority.

KAGAN: Well, speaking of power, isn't this -- even the filibuster, that the nominee argument is part of a much bigger debate that is brewing here, and that's about judicial power and Congress versus the courts?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. Yes, it's partly a war between the branches of government, because what's happening is, a lot of conservatives and Republicans, particularly Republican leaders, have become highly critical of the courts, especially since the courts refused to act by what the leadership of Congress regards as the will of Congress in the Terri Schiavo case.

Now, before that case, I think Democrats were in a tough position, because they were trying to change a very arcane and not a particularly popular rule, the filibuster. And because they were threatening to shut down the Senate.

Remember when Republicans shut down Congress about 10 years ago, they got into a lot of trouble. But with the Terri Schiavo case, I think things changed. Because people saw the Republican leadership of Congress as overreaching, injecting Congress and politics into a private family matter. And then when some Republican leaders attacked the judges and said they wanted to essentially make war on the judicial branch, then the Democrats were in the welcomed position of defending the integrity of the courts against what looks to a lot of people like a congressional assault.

KAGAN: Right. But just to be fair, on the other side, in terms of overreaching, there are some who feel that it's the courts who have been overreaching. And Republicans saying that Democrats trying to make law by the courts and not by the will of the people.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. There is decades-old -- ever since Roe v. Wade, back in 1973 -- criticism from conservatives that the courts have overreached. And now that the Republicans control Congress, they say Congress has a certain amount of power over the judiciary -- if nothing else, budgetary power -- and they want to use that power to try to bring the courts into line because they think the courts have simply gone too far. Unfortunately, this is timed with the recent Terri Schiavo case, which did not look that way to most Americans.

KAGAN: Bill Schneider. You get the feeling kind of like we're at the beginning of this, what's going to be a really, really big story. And I'm sure we'll be talking to you many times about the topic.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

KAGAN: Thanks, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

KAGAN: National anxiety over child molesters seems extremely high right now, with good reason. It has been fueled by a recent string of killings of young girls, like Jessica Lunsford, allegedly by known sex offenders.

Several lawmakers in Washington today will introduce legislation named after the little girl. It would require keeping closer tabs on convicted sex offenders once they're released. Jessica Lunsford's father is expected to be present at today's announcement.

Earlier this week, the Florida state House unanimously passed a bill also named for Jessica Lunsford. If enacted, it would mandate a minimum 25-year sentence for child molestation.

In rural Arkansas, a tragic blaze at a mobile home claimed the lives of six people. Five of them were small children. Melissa Dunbar of our affiliate KTHV has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA DUNBAR, REPORTER, KTHV: State police investigators have just arrived back here on the scene. They will now being picking through what is left of this mobile home.

As you can see behind me, it can only be described as a skeleton. The fire killed five young boys all under the age of five, and a 23- year-old woman who was babysitting them. She was also the mother of two of the boys.

The sheriff here in Arkansas County says five of the bodies were found in this front bedroom, the room closest to us here. The sixth body, that of an infant, was found further into the mobile home in what is being described as a living room.

No one knows yet why or how this fire started. Investigators say they plan on determining that this afternoon.

Schools here in Humphrey are canceled today to allow families to deal with this loss.

Reporting for CNN, in Humphrey, Arkansas, I'm Melissa Dunbar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We're going to turn to world news just ahead. Iran's president remains a problem for the Bush administration. But who exactly is Mohammed Khatami? A look into the life of Iran's mysterious leader.

While still on her book tour, Jane Fonda runs into some very bad manners. One Vietnam veteran's revenge.

And why one Israeli zoo can say it's going kosher. Why is this gorilla meal different than any other gorilla meal? We'll tell you why coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Today's "Daily Dose" focuses on teens and drugs. More and more young people are raiding their parents' medicine cabinets to get high. The study was done by the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

It finds prescription painkillers such as vicodin and oxycontin are more popular with teens than street drugs. Retalin and cough syrup are also high on the abuse list. Less than half the teens surveyed sought (ph) any great risk in experimenting with the medicine cabinet drugs.

Relish the thought. A new study finding that people who eat just one, we're talking one jumbo hotdog a day, are at a greater risk for cancer of the pancreas. And we're not just talking the hotdogs. It's any processed meats such as sausages, bologna and sandwich slices. There's a separate study, however, that found that red hot chilis slow the growth of pancreatic cancer. So pile those on your hotdog.

You can't live forever, apparently not if you're eating a hotdog every day. Or can you? Well, one man thinks he can. He is out to prove it. Here now is CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty-seven-year-old Ray Kurzweil's daily routine: 250 supplements, 10 cups of green tea, four miles of brisk walking, all part of his quest for immortality.

RAY KURZWEIL, AUTHOR, SCIENTIST: The diseases that kill 95 percent of us are not things that just hit us one day walking down the street. You can find out where you are on that process and stop that process and reverse it fairly readily with the right lifestyle, the right supplements.

GUPTA: That right lifestyle is outlined in "Fantastic Voyage," live long enough to live forever. Ray is not a doctor but an award- winning scientist. He and co-author, Dr. Terry Grossman, recommend intravenous supplements for better digestion, acupuncture and regular biological testing to determine body age. All geared towards taking advantage of biotechnological advances they say are just over the horizon.

KURZWEIL: I expect and hope to be in good shape when we have these powerful new techniques from biotechnology 10, 15 years from now. For example, have devices called the nanobots that can actually perform functions inside our bloodstream, augment our immune system, destroy pathogens in cancer cells, enhance our red blood cells, for example, so that we can breathe better.

GUPTA: Sound like science fiction? While oddly reminiscent of the 1966 film "Fantastic Voyage" in which scientists travel in vehicles through the blood system. In fact, humans have made giant leaps in life expectancy. Consider this, in 1900 the average American life span was 47 years. By 1960, it had risen to the early '60s. Now life expectancy is 77.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's for headache, earache, toothache.

DR. THOMAS PERLS, BOSTON UNIV. MEDICAL CENTER: We're always going to hear some special potion or nostrum for immortality, and that's not new.

GUPTA: Dr. Thomas Perls, a leading researcher on centenarians, says that living healthier longer is a good message. But relying on Ray's plan to do it is another.

PERLS: Much of the book is based upon Ray and Terry's own anecdotal personal experience of what works for them. What the book is asking people to do, is everybody to be a guinea pig. And I think that's very dangerous.

GUPTA: Anti-aging is a multimillion industry. And as Baby Boomers grow older, they want greater control over their own longevity.

KURZWEIL: I would like to keep on living indefinitely. I would like that decision to be in my own hands, and not in the figurative hands of fate.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Your "Daily Dose" of health news is always just a click way. Log on to cnn.com/health for the latest medical news. You'll also find a health library and information on diet and fitness.

California's governor said he misspoke after some tough comments about the border. We'll tell you now what he says he really meant to say.

And the Vietnam vet comes face to face with Jane Fonda and delivers his message rudely, to say the least.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Oh, take a look at these pictures for springtime. Stormy weather in the Midwest, hail in Kansas, damaging cars, breaking windows. Hail also had an impact at the Denver Airport. Sixteen flights headed for Denver were diverted after a strong storm system moved through the area.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: A man in Kansas City, Missouri, he is facing charges after spitting on actress and author Jane Fonda. Authorities say Fonda was signing copies of her memoir when the man spit tobacco juice on her after waiting in line with other customers. He told reporters he was angry with Fonda for opposing the Vietnam War.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SMITH, VIETNAM VETERAN: I had an opportunity to do something that a lot of Vietnam vets want to do. I did it for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Fonda says she doesn't want to press charges. But police arrested him on account of disorderly conduct. She continued to sign books. He was one of America's biggest child stars. Now Macaulay Culkin is all grown up. He could play a major role in the Michael Jackson trial. Details in a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're coming up on the half-hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

President Bush presses the Senate to confirm John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Questions about Bolton's temperament have stalled the nomination. A new vote could be week ways.

Republican Senator John McCain says he supports Bolton, but he tells CNN the nomination could die a death of a thousand cuts. Senator McCain there.

There are reports that Marine General Peter Pace is slated to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace has served nearly four years as the vice chairman. If selected, Pace would be the first Marine to ever hold the post.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com