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CNN Live Today
Assisted Suicide; Miers Nomination; Road to Recovery
Aired October 05, 2005 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Tammy is now hugging the east coast of Florida. We are expecting Florida Governor Jeb Bush to come out in a few minutes, some time within the next few minutes, and give a news conference. We'll go to that live with more information as Florida gets ready for Tammy.
Right now, let's take a look at other stories happening "Now in the News."
At least 10 people have been killed and 30 others wounded in a bomb blast in a mosque in the Iraqi town of Hilla. That's just south of Baghdad. The bombing took place during funeral services for a Shia killed in a separate suicide attack. Officials say Iraqi police were present at the service and may have been the target.
Three alleged illegal workers, two Indonesians and one person from Senegal, have been arrested at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. They are accused of using false documents to gain employment at the JHK Special Warfare Center. Th three had been teaching foreign languages to army Special Operations personnel.
A new U.N. report says that today's young people are more educated than any other generation. But it also points out that about 130 million people from 15 to 24 are illiterate, and a record 88 million are unemployed. The report calls for a greater investment in today's youth to ensure universal primary schooling.
As we said, we are standing by for this news conference with Florida Governor Jeb Bush. We will go there when it begins.
But meanwhile, we'll start the hour with the contentious issue of assisted suicide. Oregon is the only state that permits doctors to prescribe lethal levels of drugs for terminally ill patients. Today, the Bush administration has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court trying to stop that.
And that's where we find Kathleen Koch.
Kathleen, hello.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
And what happened in the Supreme Court today was very much -- in these arguments, was everyone really trying to get inside the heads of Congress, what Congress intended back in 1971 when it passed the Controlled Substances Act that was to regulate to try to crack down on drug abuse, addictive substances. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, for instance, asked a question, well, could, say, an attorney general of the United States take this law and use it if he or she was opposed to capital punishment to outlaw lethal injection, to say that a doctor who participated in that was violating the Controlled Substance Act?
Now, the state of Oregon says that you can regulate addictive drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. But what the attorney general of the United States cannot do is regulate -- prescribe medical procedures, how those drugs are prescribed. That that's not a power that Congress gave him.
Now, Chief Justice John Roberts, though, said, well, if one state says it could then prescribe morphine to make people feel good, or steroids for bodybuilders, doesn't that undermine the uniformity of federal law and make it harder to enforce elsewhere?
Now, outside the court here afterwards, after the arguments, there were some who also came out and said that this is a law that can be very destructive to the disabled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM BOPP, NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE: This is a Hobson's choice that is being presented to people with people with disabilities and terminally ill patients, that they would be -- that it's cheaper to kill, it's more expensive to treat. And so that's not a real choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The argument by that gentleman there implying that a law like this implies that disabled people, their lives are so difficult that they ought to be let to die.
Now, Charlene Andrews is from Oregon. She's a patient with terminal cancer. She is here in support of Oregon's law.
Charlene, what do you say to arguments like that? That these can be destructive to those who are disabled?
CHARLENE ANDREWS, TERMINALLY ILL PATIENT: I think there are enough rules in the laws that it cannot be misused. I am stage four breast cancer, with max (ph) to my bones and my liver. I know when my treatment options are going to end. With cancer, you know when your end of life is coming about.
This law gives me personally a lot of satisfaction knowing it's there, knowing that I can use that. It's all part of the spiritual journey of being able to die with compassion and with dignity.
KAGAN: Charlene, what, though, do you say to the arguments inside the court today that the federal government has the ability to regulate how drugs are used? In particular, to bring about death?
ANDREWS: I'm not a lawyer, but I also -- I think I didn't hear really address the human needs for this. And so I can't really react.
I would be appalled if the Supreme Court did not uphold our law because of the steps that it has already gone through -- the vote of the people. It's gone through the lower courts. It's gone through ninth circuit court.
KOCH: And you don't feel the law in Oregon devalues the disabled in your state or anywhere else?
ANDREWS: No way. No, there's no way that that can happen with the law the way it is written. It's for terminally ill. We know as cancer patients when we are terminal.
KOCH: Thank you, Charlene.
ANDREWS: I am terminal now. But I will know when the end is.
KOCH: Thank you, Charlene, for sharing your thoughts with us.
ANDREWS: Thank you.
KOCH: And again -- again, very, very passionate arguments in the court and very passionate protests outside here in the court. Obviously, they'll be taking a great deal of time in dealing with its final decision on this very divisive issue -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Kathleen Koch, live at the Supreme Court. Thank you.
And we are not done with this issue. Two constitutional law experts will join us to argue the merits of the case. And we'll get around to that at the bottom of the hour.
Meanwhile, Harriet Miers, the presidential confidante named to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, she is back on Capitol Hill for a third day of meet-and-greet sessions with senators. Here she met with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who says Miers is well qualified for the job.
He says it's not unusual for Supreme Court nominees to have no judicial experience, that can even be an advantage. Cornyn also expressed confidence that Miers would be confirmed.
Harriet Miers is no longer the anonymous White House insider she has been for many years, but her political credentials are still kind of hazy.
Our Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The president's Supreme Court nominee has gone from an unknown quantity to an unknown quantity in the bright lights.
HARRIET MIERS, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE: So far, people here, you know, people have been wonderful. People have been really great just with their time and ... CROWLEY: As Harriet Miers exchanged pleasantries on Capitol Hill, the president was fending off the unpleasant little reaction got from conservatives who wanted a known.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There should be no doubt in anybody's mind what I believe a judge -- the philosophy of a judge. And Harriet Miers shares that philosophy.
CROWLEY: In a news conference coded with messages, the president sought to soothe the anxiety inside his bedrock constituency.
BUSH: I know her heart. I know what she believes.
CROWLEY: Translation, she is one of us.
BUSH: I'm interested in people that will be strict constructionists.
CROWLEY: Translation, she thinks judges should interpret not make law.
Some conservatives think the Supreme Court made law in the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion.
BUSH: She is plenty bright. She -- as I mentioned earlier, she was a pioneer in Texas. She just didn't kind of opine about things, she actually lead.
CROWLEY: Translation, she can hold her own, will be a forceful conservative voice among intellectual powerhouses on the Supreme Court.
But what conservatives wanted was all of this in writing. Well- documented proof of judicial conservatism, somebody to count on for the ages.
BUSH: I don't want to put somebody on the bench who is this way today, and changes. That's not what I'm interested in. I interested in finding somebody who shares my philosophy today, and will have that same philosophy 20 years from now.
CROWLEY: Translation, she's no David Souter; a former unknown, with no paper trail, thought at the time to be a judicial conservative, Justice Souter is counted on now as a reliably liberal court vote.
On the Miers watch, the bright lights are beginning to shine on the tidbits of her paper trail. Including this 1989 questionnaire circulated by a pro-gay and lesbian rights group. Running for Dallas City council at the time, Miers indicated her support for gay civil rights and AIDS education. Positions similar to the president's if not all of his supporters.
BUSH: Am I what? Am I still a conservative? Proudly so, proudly so. CROWLEY: At this point the president's concern is not that Miers will be rejected. He is concerned the Right is so upset it won't show up to help with the rest of his agenda.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And turning now to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore is wrapping up his tour of duty in the hurricane zone this week. CNN was with the general as he took one last aerial tour. Honore will return to Atlanta, where he is the first Army's commanding general at nearby Fort Gillem.
About half of New Orleans city workers are officially without jobs today. Mayor Ray Nagin says the city doesn't have the money to pay about 3,000 employees. The layoffs do not affect police, firefighters or sanitation workers.
And in Houston, hip-hop artist and producer Dr. Dre will make a $1 million donation to Hurricane Relief. Fifty families will receive $20,000 each for the Julia C. Hester House.
To Long Beach, Mississippi, now. Public schools reopened there this week. It's a bittersweet homecoming for some high school seniors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIZZI MALOY, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: It really is the most important year of a high schooler's life. And, you know, you're so excited about all the different organizations you're in, and all the different activities. And we literally feel like we've been kicked in the stomach.
You know, we worked so hard on so many different things, like the annual staff and student council, and we're worried about being able to print this $100,000 yearbook. We don't know if we're going to be able to. We're -- we should have been worried about picking out our homecoming dress, not whether or not we could afford the dance.
Scholarships and college applications and just everything -- everything is a mess. And we're really going to do the best we can. And we're not -- we're not complaining, and we're not whining. But, you know, I just -- I just wish people could remember how it felt to be 17 and to have all the dreams and hopes and aspirations in the world, and just for it all to be demolished, literally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Some teachers in Long Beach lost years worth of teaching materials and how to rely on donations from other teachers around the country to get ready for the new school year.
Former President Clinton is touring the Gulf Coast this week to decide how best to spend the $100 million he and former President Bush have raised for hurricane relief.
And our Kelly Wallace is traveling with the former president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A former consoler-in-chief consoling once again.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm really sorry for what you've been through, and I'm honored to be here.
WALLACE: In his first visit to Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina, former President Clinton huddled first with some of its victims.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was the difference? Why we couldn't get the attention and the help that Texas got, when a whole -- I mean, from the east bank to the west bank was destroyed?
WALLACE: For two hours in Baton Rouge, Mr. Clinton listened to their stories and complaints about a lack of housing and still no money from FEMA.
CLINTON: I try not to forget that what someone like me or former President Bush can do is not just raise money and spend it, but also just to be available to listen. A lot of these people have lost everything.
WALLACE: He said he came to figure out how best to spend the nearly $100 million he raised for Katrina relief with former President Bush, who visits the region next week.
CLINTON: I wish we could of come together, but as I said, I had to come this week, and President Bush couldn't come until next week, and that is on my 30th wedding anniversary, and I want to spend that day with Hillary.
WALLACE (on camera): That would be problematic at home?
CLINTON: Yes, as much as I'm devoted to this task, I think I need to be home.
WALLACE (voice-over): We traveled along with the former president as he choppered from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and as he toured one of the hardest-hit areas, the lower ninth ward.
(on camera): On a personal note, what was it like for you? We drove with you through the Lower Ninth Ward. As someone who loves this city, what was that like?
CLINTON: Well, it was very emotional because I mean, you know, this is the first city I ever visited. My family's I guess only out- of-state vacation my family ever took when I was a boy was here and the Gulfport and Biloxi. Ironically, we went to New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi when I was 15. So I've loved this place all my life. WALLACE (voice-over): And the place he loved gave him a New Orleans welcome. Along the way, he steered clear of criticizing the Bush administration's response to Katrina and how he thinks the president should roll back tax cuts for the wealthy to help pay for rebuilding the Gulf Coast.
(on camera): You have a relationship with former President Bush. Do you ever say to him, here is what I think the president should do? And why not?
CLINTON: No way. He knows what I think. But I've talked to the president about this. I have a good relationship with him, but I don't -- you know, I'm past the point in my life when I'm just always mad at people I disagree with. That's just not -- I just disagree.
WALLACE (voice-over): He says his focus is mainly on what he and former President Bush can do to help New Orleans rebuild.
CLINTON: It's been a great city for a very long time, and I expect it to be a great city for a very long time after I leave this Earth, and I hope I can do a little help.
WALLACE: Kelly Wallace, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: The Atlantic hurricane season's not over yet. And there is a new tropical storm in the pipeline. It's called Tammy.
Jacqui Jeras is here with that -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Daryn.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: All right, Jacqui. Thank you.
We're going to talk about hammering out the details with the new government. Up next, we're live in Iraq, where the National Assembly considers a few rule changes.
Also, more from Fort Bragg. Three foreign nationals are arrested at a military school. The latest from the Pentagon and Barbara Starr.
And could the fight against famine garner U2's front man a Nobel prize? We'll find out a bit later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: President Bush is presenting an upbeat picture of Iraqi troop strength. He was briefed on progress in Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top Pentagon officials this morning. The president said Iraqi troops are proving to be very capable of taking the fight to the enemy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BUSH: Thirty percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. They've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission. But nevertheless, the Iraqis are showing more and more capability to take the fight to the enemy. And that's how we are going to succeed in helping democracy become established in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Among the Pentagon officials briefing the president today was Major General David Petraeus. He's been in charge of training the Iraqi army.
Meanwhile there is news out of Iraq today. Just south of Baghdad, in Hilla, a big explosion at a Shiite mosque.
And for more on that, let's go to our Aneesh Raman live in Baghdad.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good afternoon.
It happened in the past hour. A bomb detonating in the town of Hilla, as you mentioned, south of the Iraqi capital. At least 10 people are killed, 40 others wounded. These initial casualty numbers.
The explosion taking place inside a Shiite mosque in Hilla amidst a funeral, Daryn, that was ongoing for someone killed just days ago in an explosion in a restaurant in that city. The insurgency clearly continues in these volatile cities.
And also, Daryn, we've seen a disturbing new trend when it comes to teachers in Iraq. They are now being targeted.
Just yesterday, a principal at a school here in Baghdad was shot dead outside the high school that he worked at. He is just the latest victim in this disturbing new possibility in the insurgent threat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAMAN (voice over): 8:00 a.m. in New Saba Elementary (ph). Children line up, classes get under way. And sixth grade history teacher Hin Dali (ph) breathes a sigh of relief that she made it here alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I leave my home, I assume that I'll die. My way from home to school is very dangerous. When I hear a bomb or an explosion I think of my daughter and husband.
RAMAN: But Hin (ph) comes every day. All the teachers do, despite the risk, to teach, to parent, to befriend a generation of Iraqi children growing up in turmoil. A cause so basic they thought it had to be beyond the insurgents' scope. Not anymore.
Last week, seven teachers were murdered in Iraq. Six in the southern village of Muelha (ph). Insurgents dressed as police took them aside at an elementary school as the kids were leaving and opened fire. Grief among relatives and colleagues alike.
For Basava Hussein (ph), a teacher of 22 years, anger breeds inspiration. Purpose bound in tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's something horrible to kill teachers. And what happened made me more Iraqi, more proud to come and teach. I'm not afraid to die. This is our next generation. And the future depends on them.
RAMAN (on camera): Concerns here are high after the recent attacks, but also because of the October 15 vote. Schools like this are set to become polling stations. And teachers fear it will make them more of a target.
(voice over): On the street outside, barricades have just gone up. A school is now a checkpoint. And a principal is in an impossible position.
SUAD MEHDI, PRINCIPAL (through translator): Parents don't want this as a polling station. They ask me to refuse. We are worried. Many parents will stop sending their children to school.
RAMAN: There are no armed guards, no police patrols at New Saba Elementary (ph). They know here that the government can barely protect its own.
Instead, each day for Hin (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: We love Iraq.
RAMAN: ... for Basava (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love Iraq.
RAMAN: Putting their fear aside is the only way the country's hope can survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAMAN: And Daryn, that is the reality on the ground. The insurgency here really without limits. And it is why the political process is so essential.
On that front today, big news, a political crisis really averted. Iraq's National Assembly earlier today voting to reverse a decision they had made on Sunday, highly political, that would have essentially made it impossible for the referendum to get voted down. It would have also completely alienated the Sunni population, who everyone sees as essential to bringing stability to Iraq.
They bowed clearly to U.N. pressure, as well as pressure from U.S. officials here in Iraq. And so now we look, Daryn, at that October 15 vote. And we'll wait to see what the turnout is and whether there is any lingering effect from what took place over the weekend -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Aneesh Raman, live in Baghdad.
Aneesh, thank you.
We focus back here on the U.S. Straight ahead, investigating what went wrong on Lake George. Up next, the latest on the boat tragedy. One man says it could have been avoided.
And he's made a living prosecutors politicians, now he's accusing -- the man accusing former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of money laundering. A look at district attorney Ronnie Earle.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Investigators in upstate New York are conducting a battery of tests today. They are hoping to determine the cause of the fatal capsizing of a tour boat.
New pictures for you of the Ethan Allen. The boat is getting a thorough lookover as authorities perform tests on its sister ship to see if excess human weight played a role in the tragedy.
CNN's Alina Cho has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Like so many others, Al Dardis heard about the accident on television.
AL DARDIS, FORMER CAPTAIN, ETHAN ALLEN: I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it.
CHO: Dardis had a reason to care. He was one of the first captains on the Ethan Allen, piloted the tour boat for 15 years.
You're still sick about it?
DARDIS: If that ever happened to me, I'd die. I couldn't take it.
CHO: Dardis said, when he was at the helm back in the '70s and '80s, he always made sure people were seated. He said the boat was harder to handle when it was filled to capacity.
DARDIS: If you have a lot of people on one side, it's just not good. It don't run good.
CHO: He has seen what happens when a boat tries to maneuver around the wake of a larger vessel.
You've seen things flip over?
DARDIS: If they come close to anything and they're anywhere near half throttle, something bad happens.
CHO: Investigators are looking into whether the wake of another boat caused the Ethan Allen to cap-size. MAJ. GERALD MEYER, N.Y. STATE POLICE: Well, you can understand how a vessel of that size, things could go wrong.
CHO: New York State Police Major Gerald Meyer said two crew members should have been aboard the Ethan Allen on the day of the accident. But Captain Richard Paris was alone.
MEYER: The crew member would be important in an accident situation because, you know, you might need two people to hand out life preservers.
CHO: The company that owns the Ethan Allen is Shoreline Cruises. The state has sidelined its five other boats.
JAMES QUIRK, PRESIDENT, SHORELINE CRUISES: Our company, Shoreline Cruises, has been in the passenger boat business on Lake George for more than 27 years. And until Sunday, we have had a perfect safety record.
CHO: But as this 911 call makes clear, something did go terribly wrong.
911 OPERATOR: 911 emergency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. A boat, a boat, a boat went over just the Ethan Allen, just outside of Green Harbor.
911 OPERATOR: Green Harbor?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It tipped right over.
911 OPERATOR: How many people were in the boat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, please oh, a lot of people. They're hanging on to the bottom because it went right over. Oh, please hurry.
CHO: Seventy-five-year-old Anna McGunagle said it all happened so fast. She survived the accident. Her husband did too.
ANNA MCGUNAGLE, SURVIVOR: I was content that I wasn't going to make it and he was too. But God had other plans for us.
CHO: Despite the tragedy, Al Dardis says Lake George is still the queen of American lakes and the perfect place to take a vacation.
DARDIS: It was a beautiful day, a gorgeous day. Something like that should have never happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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